Last week Ottawa commentator Pam Foster learned she had been approved to cover the G8 Summit. (Security forces at first denied her media accreditation.) Of course, by last week, the Summit had ended.

Edmonton editor Dan Rubenstein also fought accreditation denial and won. Elaine Briére, Vancouver photojournalist, has filed an Access to Information request demanding to know why she was denied.

Unimportant oversights not worth fighting? If only. When the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAIT) denied media accreditation for the G8 Summit to seven reporters for alternative media, among the two thousand applications it approved, they moved Canada one step farther down the path forged by the US since September 11. There, attacks on those thinking outside the box have cascaded as corporate and government officials attempt to restrict public debate to the narrow slice they deem appropriate.

US President George W. Bush said it: “If you are not with us, you are with the terrorists.” And when he did, dissenters became fair game in the US. Under the PATRIOT Act in the US and under Bill C-36 here in Canada, security agencies have wide powers of surveillance — wiretaps, e-mail interception, even monitoring the books we buy or borrow. Authorities also have the power to detain people without charging them if their activities are deemed suspicious.

Dissident-hunts range from the macro to the micro, from the FBI installing its Carnivore Internet watchdog and e-mail reader on various network servers (including AOL) right after the September 11 attacks, to security forces in Calgary refusing Amnesty International and Alberta Civil Liberties Association personnel official observer status to go behind police lines during demonstrations.

In the US, attacks against non-conforming academics, politicians, news media and writers have been overt. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) charged that, where there have been university rallies against US military actions, it’s because the universities must have failed to teach US history properly. Last March, a group calling themselves “Americans for Victory Over Terrorism” ran a full-page ad in The New York Times attacking people who “are attempting to use this opportunity to promulgate their agenda of ‘blame America first’” — including two Congress members and former US President Jimmy Carter.

Some media became so hawkish as to inspire a new word: “belligerati.”

The New Republic instituted an “Idiocy Watch” on its Website and pilloried essayists like ArundhatiRoy for suggesting that US foreign policy had anything to do with foreign attitudes towards the US.

For the most part, mainstream media have toed the government line. Even CBS news anchor Dan Rather said on British television in mid-May that “patriotism run amok” had prevented him and other US news media from asking tough questions ofthe White House after September 11.

The book world is also self-censoring. A good book tour with a well-documented book used to have the power to turn around national opinion. Not any more. Authors Michael Moore, Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller can draw standing-room-only crowds, but they can’t persuade their publishers to give them book tours orlocal newspapers to review their books.

Instead of thoughtful and incisive analysis, news media have promulgated government-created confusion between “activists” and “terrorists.” “Security” is looking less like protection and more like the loss of civil liberties. By denying Summit accreditation to alternative media,government denied ordinary citizens an opportunity to choose which news reports to trust.

Take the case of Jo Dufay, a Greenpeace correspondent. She covered three of the preparatory meetings for the G8 Summit — meetings of the Environment, Energy and Foreign Ministers. But for the Kananaskis meeting, she was stonewalled, despite having been assigned by both Greenpeace and this publication to cover the event. Sheflew to Calgary anyway but was denied media access without a clear explanation why.

But while at the media centre, Dufay did learn that not all analysts were unwelcome. Representatives from the University of Toronto’s G8 Research Group (which is partlyfunded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and the US State Department) were entering the media centre as she left.

“They were told not to apply for media credentials but for ‘Guests of the G8’ status,” said Dufay. But, she noted, “They had badges that were identical to media and were entitled to attend all media briefings. They were ‘analysts’ to whom media could turn for consultations.” Sure enough, the G8 Centre’s Website carries reports from inside the media briefings.

“The G8 Research Group has had analysts on-site since the first G7 Summit in Toronto,” said spokesperson Madeline Koch. “Usually we were accredited as media, but this year we were part of the Canadian delegation and accredited as ‘official guests.’ That means we had access to the media centre and could talk with anyone there. We were there to conduct our research and also to assist the media any way we could.”

Security concerns may have been the reason that Dufay and others were denied access, but these concerns were vastly overstated. Despite reporters’ clever stand-ups at Kananaskis, the media centre was in Calgary, far from any of the world leaders.

Another explanation: Dufay noted that Greenpeace has never been given much attention at news conferences but that, sometimes, ifshe shouted a question, another reporter would pick it up. Perhaps DFAIT feared that reporters from alternative media would somehow contaminate mainstreamcoverage.

“The basic paradigm here is that of repression inwartime,” said George Melnyk, co-editor of an upcomingbook on the impact of September 11. “If you can builda war mentality through propaganda, then people say, ‘wecannot tolerate criticism or free speech or dissent,’because fascist thinking is built around strength, andanything that weakens that in any way isconsidered an attack.”

Melnyk noted that jingoism has “spilled over” from theUS into Canada via right-wing media. As an example, hecited a front page that The Calgary Sun, ran during theG8 Summit. “There was a photo of some kind ofanti-aircraft gun stationed outside Kananaskis,” says Melnyk. “Thecaption underneath said, ‘On Guard for Thee,’ using thewords from the national anthem, which implied that themilitary was on guard for Canada — which wasridiculous! The gun had nothing to do with protectingCanada.”

Similarly the City of Calgary refused protesterspermission to gather in a public park, saying thatpublic space was not an appropriate place to protest.On the contrary, said law professor and human rightsexpert Kathleen Mahoney. She saw the City’s decision aspart of an overall effort to “marginalize andcriminalize protest, until the public thinks it is okayto harass protesters.”

When the public allows government or wealth to dictatewhose voices can be heard, then society as a whole ispoorer. Mahoney pointed out that major social advances,from universal health care to votes for women, havecome from dissenters who convinced the majority thatthey were right. Whether governments like it or not,she said, “Society needs dissidents.”

Penney Kome

Penney Kome

Award-winning journalist and author Penney Kome has published six non-fiction books and hundreds of periodical articles, as well as writing a national column for 12 years and a local (Calgary) column...