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Columnists

Let's make September 11 a day without war

The ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States should serve as a moment to reflect on tolerance. It should be a day of peace. Yet the rising anti-Muslim fervour here, together with the continuing U.S. military occupation of Iraq and the escalating war in Afghanistan (and Pakistan), all fuel the belief that the U.S. really is at war with Islam.

September 11, 2001, united the world against terrorism. Everyone, it seemed, was with the United States, standing in solidarity with the victims, with the families who lost loved ones. The day will be remembered for generations to come, for the notorious act of coordinated mass murder. But that was not the first Sept. 11 to be associated with terror:

Columnists

No justice for Maher Arar in U.S. court

"Extraordinary rendition" is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He's a Canadian citizen who was "rendered" by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year.

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Canada's Extradition Act and the case of Hassan Diab

Hassan Diab, a Canadian citizen and former University of Ottawa professor, faces the possibility of life imprisonment in France for his alleged role in a 1980 Paris bombing that killed four people. Diab's finger and palm prints do not match those of the suspect, nor does his handwriting. The suspect's physical description is unlike what Diab looked like in 1980, and Diab denies being in France and emphatically condemns the bombing. He's being sought based on secret intelligence, the source of which even French officials are unaware, that may have been extracted under torture. Nevertheless, Canada's draconian Extradition Act may provide legal grounds for Canada to send Diab to France to stand trial.

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in her own words

The sad anniversary and shameful legacy of Guantánamo

Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the creation of the infamous Guantánamo Bay. This place created by G. W. Bush but still in existence today under the presidency of Barack Obama is a symbol of of blatant human rights injustice and human rights violations.

The first flashbacks that come to our minds when we speak of Guantánamo Bay are of chained and shackled detainees, wearing orange jumpsuits, their heads bent down, transported in cages like ferocious animals.

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Privacy, civil liberties advocates issue statement of principles on Canada-U.S. perimeter agreement

| December 7, 2011

Ghetto Palestine: A talk with Jon Elmer

Dec 2 2011 - 6:30pm
Dec 2 2011 - 8:30pm

Location

University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver, BC
Canada
49° 15' 40.4136" N, 123° 6' 50.1372" W

Jon Elmer's talk, "Ghetto Palestine," is based on 10 years of reporting from the West Bank and Gaza. Jon has covered the ghettoization of the West Bank as growing settlements and the construction of the separation wall continually isolate and segregate Palestinian communities.

Redeye

Investigating the U.S. militia movement

October 28, 2011
| Two Swedish journalists recently travelled to the United States to find out more about the rapidly expanding militia movement there.

14:32 minutes (13.3 MB)
I Read The News Today, Oh Boy!

Fear and loathing, eh? Canadian PM brings the hate, where's the security?

September 27, 2011
| The PM goes all in with the hate, but where is the love for building communities and actually protecting people? Plus, the Koch brothers rear their ugly plans, and civil disobedience goes old school.

30:55 minutes (28.3 MB)
Columnists

The mythology of 9/11

The 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 has come and gone. One could not help but notice the media was full of articles on the event, and of public officials and others holding forth on what it all meant, yadda, yadda, yadda. There was no opportunity passed up to pander to the fears and gullibility of the citizenry and feed them fantasies and half-truths. A propaganda event, in other words.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in his statement on the occasion, classified the event as a horrific act of terrorism. Fair enough, they all got that right, it was. But he also characterizes the acts on that day as senseless and cowardly. Really. I do not think that he is ignorant enough to believe that, but it is part of the official story that he hopes the public swallows.

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