Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Jews Mostly Supported Slavery — Or Kept Silent — During Civil War
By Ken Yellis
Whenever I told someone that I was working on an exhibition called “Passages Through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” I typically got two responses. Both reflect the need for the exhibit (now on display at Yeshiva University Museum in New York), which presents the widely forgotten story of the full participation of Jews in the nation’s great existential crisis.
My sister’s reaction was typical: There were Jews in the Civil War? Who knew?
The second most common response was in some ways more interesting: The Jews who fought in the Civil War were against slavery, right? The discomfiting answer: not so much.
As Jewish historian Dale Rosengarten expresses it, quoting a Talmudic precept: “The law of the land is the law of the Jews.” From a modern perspective, it seems anomalous that a people whose history hinged on an epic escape from servitude would not have been deeply troubled by America’s “peculiar institution” — but few were.
Some Jews owned slaves, a few traded them, and the livelihoods of many, North and South, were inextricably bound to the slave system. Most southern Jews defended slavery, and some went further, advocating its expansion.
Notable among these was Judah P. Benjamin, labeled by the abolitionist Ben Wade, who served with Benjamin in the U.S. Senate, as “an Israelite with Egyptian principles.” Even in the North, many sympathized with the South and only a very few were abolitionists. Almost all Jews sought peace above all else. Until the war was at hand, they remained silent on the subject.
For me, that silence is problematic.
As Arnie, in Nathan Englander’s short story “Camp Sundown,” puts it: “The turning away of the head is the same as turning the knife.” Yet the majority of American Jews were mute on the subject, perhaps because they dreaded its tremendous corrosive power. Prior to 1861, there are virtually no instances of rabbinical sermons on slavery, probably due to fear that the controversy would trigger a sectional conflict in which Jewish families would be arrayed on opposite sides. And that is exactly what happened.
Ironically, the silence was breached by an attempt to forestall the conflict. With Lincoln’s election and the gathering momentum of the secession movement, the celebrated New York Rabbi Morris Raphall attempted to make a case for reconciliation by defending slavery on biblical grounds. The speech had the opposite effect, triggering furious rebuttals from Rabbi David Einhorn and biblical scholar Michael Heilprin, among others, and widening the growing divide. Jews had at last engaged in numbers with the great issue of the age.
When the war broke out, Jews did by and large attach themselves to their sections and to the causes of their sections, even at the risk of great suffering, painful separation from loved ones, grievous injury, horrific death, and as foretold, dividing families and pitting brothers against each other.
“Passages Through the Fire” is filled with such stories. What emerges from them is the heartfelt, touching, personal language in which they are told, often by people whose English is newly learned.
Their words reveal the pride, pain, and ardor of these remarkable people, who were willing to put so much on the line. Whether in combat, in other forms of service to the war effort, on the home front or in a host of other roles, their passion is unmistakable. And, of course, the war transformed them, their place in America, and, in ways we are still struggling to understand, America itself.
Although few Jews, like other Americans, opposed slavery at the war’s outset, many came to feel that the suffering of the war needed to be about something important: the end of slavery and the creation of a different America. The experience of Jews in New York City is indicative of this process in some ways. By far America’s largest Jewish community, New York’s Jews were overwhelmingly pro-southern, pro-slavery, and anti-Lincoln in the early years of the war. Increasingly, however, as both the toll of the war and the North’s military victories mounted, feelings began to shift toward “Father Abraham,” his party, the Union and eventually, emancipation. Close to 2,000 Jews from New York State joined the Union forces.
As historian Howard Rock sums up, “The war was a transformative moment for Jews’ understanding of American democracy.” The decision by Jews’ Hospital — later Mt. Sinai — to care for all sick and wounded soldiers and sailors was emblematic of the Jewish community’s expanded civic commitment. By war’s end, a number of Jews became leaders in advancing the cause of civil liberties. “Father Abraham” became a hero to most Jews. The Jewish Cult of Lincoln, which had many Old Testament overtones — Lincoln died on the first night of Passover, for instance, and the first eulogies were delivered from synagogue pulpits — would persist for decades.
The outcome of the nation’s great existential crisis made possible the open and most welcoming society Jews had ever encountered, what one of my cousins (in a not-uncommon Yiddish phrase) called “Golden America.”
The Jews caught up in that crisis were transformed by it and, in turn, helped transform the America that emerged from it. Yet relatively few Jews are aware of this, an amnesia that constitutes a deep loss. The history of the Civil War has long been bitterly contested. Perhaps as with the contest over slavery itself, it would be helpful if more Jews were engaged in it. American Jews have a stake in this history, and their experience over the last 150 years makes a lot more sense if viewed through its lens.
Ken Yellis, principal of Project Development Services, served as guest curator for “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War.” A historian with four decades in the museum field, Yellis has been involved in over 100 history, science and art exhibitions.
Whenever I told someone that I was working on an exhibition called “Passages Through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” I typically got two responses. Both reflect the need for the exhibit (now on display at Yeshiva University Museum in New York), which presents the widely forgotten story of the full participation of Jews in the nation’s great existential crisis.
My sister’s reaction was typical: There were Jews in the Civil War? Who knew?
The second most common response was in some ways more interesting: The Jews who fought in the Civil War were against slavery, right? The discomfiting answer: not so much.
As Jewish historian Dale Rosengarten expresses it, quoting a Talmudic precept: “The law of the land is the law of the Jews.” From a modern perspective, it seems anomalous that a people whose history hinged on an epic escape from servitude would not have been deeply troubled by America’s “peculiar institution” — but few were.
Some Jews owned slaves, a few traded them, and the livelihoods of many, North and South, were inextricably bound to the slave system. Most southern Jews defended slavery, and some went further, advocating its expansion.
Notable among these was Judah P. Benjamin, labeled by the abolitionist Ben Wade, who served with Benjamin in the U.S. Senate, as “an Israelite with Egyptian principles.” Even in the North, many sympathized with the South and only a very few were abolitionists. Almost all Jews sought peace above all else. Until the war was at hand, they remained silent on the subject.
For me, that silence is problematic.
As Arnie, in Nathan Englander’s short story “Camp Sundown,” puts it: “The turning away of the head is the same as turning the knife.” Yet the majority of American Jews were mute on the subject, perhaps because they dreaded its tremendous corrosive power. Prior to 1861, there are virtually no instances of rabbinical sermons on slavery, probably due to fear that the controversy would trigger a sectional conflict in which Jewish families would be arrayed on opposite sides. And that is exactly what happened.
Ironically, the silence was breached by an attempt to forestall the conflict. With Lincoln’s election and the gathering momentum of the secession movement, the celebrated New York Rabbi Morris Raphall attempted to make a case for reconciliation by defending slavery on biblical grounds. The speech had the opposite effect, triggering furious rebuttals from Rabbi David Einhorn and biblical scholar Michael Heilprin, among others, and widening the growing divide. Jews had at last engaged in numbers with the great issue of the age.
When the war broke out, Jews did by and large attach themselves to their sections and to the causes of their sections, even at the risk of great suffering, painful separation from loved ones, grievous injury, horrific death, and as foretold, dividing families and pitting brothers against each other.
“Passages Through the Fire” is filled with such stories. What emerges from them is the heartfelt, touching, personal language in which they are told, often by people whose English is newly learned.
Their words reveal the pride, pain, and ardor of these remarkable people, who were willing to put so much on the line. Whether in combat, in other forms of service to the war effort, on the home front or in a host of other roles, their passion is unmistakable. And, of course, the war transformed them, their place in America, and, in ways we are still struggling to understand, America itself.
Although few Jews, like other Americans, opposed slavery at the war’s outset, many came to feel that the suffering of the war needed to be about something important: the end of slavery and the creation of a different America. The experience of Jews in New York City is indicative of this process in some ways. By far America’s largest Jewish community, New York’s Jews were overwhelmingly pro-southern, pro-slavery, and anti-Lincoln in the early years of the war. Increasingly, however, as both the toll of the war and the North’s military victories mounted, feelings began to shift toward “Father Abraham,” his party, the Union and eventually, emancipation. Close to 2,000 Jews from New York State joined the Union forces.
As historian Howard Rock sums up, “The war was a transformative moment for Jews’ understanding of American democracy.” The decision by Jews’ Hospital — later Mt. Sinai — to care for all sick and wounded soldiers and sailors was emblematic of the Jewish community’s expanded civic commitment. By war’s end, a number of Jews became leaders in advancing the cause of civil liberties. “Father Abraham” became a hero to most Jews. The Jewish Cult of Lincoln, which had many Old Testament overtones — Lincoln died on the first night of Passover, for instance, and the first eulogies were delivered from synagogue pulpits — would persist for decades.
The outcome of the nation’s great existential crisis made possible the open and most welcoming society Jews had ever encountered, what one of my cousins (in a not-uncommon Yiddish phrase) called “Golden America.”
The Jews caught up in that crisis were transformed by it and, in turn, helped transform the America that emerged from it. Yet relatively few Jews are aware of this, an amnesia that constitutes a deep loss. The history of the Civil War has long been bitterly contested. Perhaps as with the contest over slavery itself, it would be helpful if more Jews were engaged in it. American Jews have a stake in this history, and their experience over the last 150 years makes a lot more sense if viewed through its lens.
Ken Yellis, principal of Project Development Services, served as guest curator for “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War.” A historian with four decades in the museum field, Yellis has been involved in over 100 history, science and art exhibitions.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Mining, Barrick Gold, Peter Munk and Their Influence on Canadian Politics
See here and here for more on this topic.
By Anthony J. Hall
Canadian Council of Chief Executives head John Manley, former prime minister and current Barrick international advisory board chair Brian Mulroney, Barrick chairman Peter Munk, and former foreign minister and current Barrick international advisory board member John Baird, pictured in 2012 at an exclusive dinner at The Museum of Nature where Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of Defense William Cohen was keynote speaker. Now, who is shaking hands, and what is the deal? photo by Jake Wright
• Nigel Wright has been much in the news for the $90,172 cheque he signed over to Mike Duffy. Much less attention has been devoted to the scandalous implications of the $9 million payment from former Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird to Peter Munk’s School at the University of Toronto. The anatomy of both deals sheds light on the abundant conflicts of interest linking the Barrick Gold Company with Conservative Party governments led by Brian Mulroney and now Stephen Harper.
The origins of Barrick Gold
After terminating his tenure as the most undiplomatic Minister of Foreign Affairs in Canada’s history, John Baird has been extended a place on Barrick Gold Corporation’s International Advisory Board. Its founding Chair was former US President George H.W. Bush. The international panel’s current Chair is former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. A close student of the relationship between Bush Sr. and Mulroney, in 1997 Anton Chaitkin came up with the phrase “Barrick’s Barracudas.” Baird is a recent recruit among this school of fishy predators inhabiting those murky zones of lucrative interaction between business and politics. This pattern goes back at least to 1984 when Adnan Khashoggi visited Ontario’s capital to establish a Toronto headquarters for the Barrick complex of companies.
In the period when he was laying out the political, legal and economic groundwork for what would become Barrick Gold, the flamboyant playboy Khashoggi was reputed to be one of the world’s richest men. This CIA asset and arms merchant also served as a front man for a group of Saudi Arabian investors that included Kamal Adham, the oil-rich country’s head of intelligence operations. This strategic link to Saudi wealth was crucial in the financial life of western capitals during an era when much depended on Saudi Arabia’s backing for the shift of the US dollar from a gold-backed to an oil-based currency.
Barrick Gold’s connection through Peter Munk to Canada’s Bronfman family dynasty formed a vital dimension of the Israeli-Saudi axis, an important factor in maintaining the Anglo-American empire. Edgar Bronfman’s activities, as the influential head of the World Jewish Congress between 1979 and 2007, provide us with a glimpse into the politico-economic juggernaut that included the Barrick complex of companies.
Khashoggi met with Ontario Premier Bill Davis in 1984 during a heavily hyped media event meant to promote the listing of what was then known as American Barrick or Barrick Resources in the Toronto Stock Exchange. Flash forward to 2015 when Newt Gingrich became John Baird’s co-appointee on Barrick’s international advisory panel.
In 2008, Gingrich became a candidate for the US Republican Party’s nomination in the presidential election. Multi-billionaire gambling czar Sheldon Adelson famously funded Gingrich’s neoconservative candidacy. Adelson’s political priorities include putting in place a US president that will agree to nuke Iran, the number one national nemesis of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Munk School’s role in promoting the hawkish policies of the Harper Government towards Iran
Several weeks before joining Barrick’s well-rewarded international advisory panel, Foreign Affairs Minister Baird conducted a press conference in Toronto along with Professor Janice Stein, then Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs. The Munk School originated in its present form in 2011. It began with a large donation to the University of Toronto from Peter Munk.
Munk became the most public face of Barrick Gold Corporation after Adnan Khashoggi was exposed in the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s. Khashoggi and some of his fellow Saudi investors in Barrick businesses were exposed as key operatives in a complex web of illegal financial transactions on behalf of the National Security apparatus of the Reagan-Bush White House.
During and after his term as US President from 1989 to 1993, Bush Sr. took firm charge of Barrick’s most rapid phase of international expansion. To help him with this enterprise he recruited his peer, Brian Mulroney, with whom Bush had worked particularly closely in putting together the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. NAFTA was instituted in 1992 shortly before both men left elected public office under clouds of infamy.
On January 6 of this year, Stein and Baird announced that the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was directing a grant of $9 million to the Digital Public Square Project. In this scheme of internet manipulation, the U of T’s Munk School was enlisted in a federal operation reminiscent of old Cold War initiatives to encourage dissidents within communist countries to join forces and rise up in order to topple their Soviet-backed oppressors.
This Harper U of T initiative is being pressed forward in a context defined by Ottawa’s severance in 2012 of diplomatic ties with Tehran. The federal government’s unilateral decision to terminate formal relations was introduced with Baird’s inflammatory allegation that “Canada views the Government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today.”
Baird added to this saga of vituperation in 2013 by asserting, “The [Iranian] regime is hollow. It does not have the depth, the intellect, the humanity or the humility to bring about a better future for its people.” This most undiplomatic of characterizations was delivered notwithstanding the diplomatic transformations brought by the election in 2013 of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
The Digital Public Square initiative is a thinly disguised instigation of hostile regime change directed at Iran and also several other countries on the Harper government’s Enemies List. Professor Stein attempted to soft-peddle U of T’s role in this scheme. “It’s about making space for different narratives. It’s about making space for different voices,” she declared.
I was struck with a sense of irony when I first saw these words attributed to Professor Stein, who apparently coached John Baird regularly in how he should articulate Canada’s international positions. When it comes to issues like Canada’s relationships with the Islamic Republic of Iran, or, for that matter, the Jewish state of Israel, I do not hear a multiplicity voices in Parliament or in mainstream media coming from a wide variety of perspectives. What I have heard instead – especially on the airwaves of Canada’s public broadcaster – is a very narrow spectrum of blinkered, one-sided international commentary.
Indeed, I can report from my experience as a delegate in October 2014 at an international conference in Tehran that I participated in a much more free-ranging and broad discussion of global affairs than would be possible these days in the heavily censored CBC. The same comparison might be applied to the gate-kept academic environment at the U of T and certainly to the cloistered confines of its Munk School.
In 2013, the Munk School Director, Janice Stein, and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird were accused of stifling such free-ranging academic debate by a coalition of Canadian-Iranian community groups. They accused the organizers of an allegedly closed and secretive academic gathering at the U of T of making “a calculated attempt to sideline critics and censor opponents of the Conservative government’s policy on Iran.” Those invited to make presentations were said to display uniformly “hawkish views” unreflective of “the Iranian diaspora’s outlook.”
Barrick Gold, the political agenda and constraints on academic freedom
Peter Munk’s donation to the University of Toronto was negotiated in secret with the U of T’s former President, David Naylor. Dr. Naylor was recently appointed to Barrick’s Board. The Naylor-Munk deal of 2011 breaks new ground in terms of tying strings to the future flow of funding to an important academic unit at a Canadian university.
The Munk School Director must satisfy Peter Munk – and, after his death, the trustees of Munk’s estate – that he or she is meeting predetermined academic and “branding” guidelines. The U of T’s adoption of these conditions sets very unfortunate precedents for the corporate sponsoring of other academic institutions.
This constraint on academic freedom only begins the litany of negative implications permeating the Munk School’s positioning in the academy. As emphasized on the website of a campus-wide coalition entitled Peter Munk Out of U of T, “students have cause for concern that their school is so closely associated with this company… that is accused of human rights violations, labour violations, environmental devastation and/or corruption where they operate.”
This corruption begins in Canada and extends to many countries where Barrick operates including Peru, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Barrick’s horrendous record has been highlighted by many organizations and NGOs including Mining Watch and Protest Barrick as well as by many authors including Alan Denault, Sakura Saunders, Greg Palast, Alex Constantine and E. P. Heidner.
Especially serious from the perspective of the growing assaults on academic freedom at the University of Toronto and other centers of higher learning is Barrick Gold’s history of trying to intimidate, shut up and destroy altogether its critics through a variety of coercive techniques. These include financially debilitating SLAPP suits, strategic lawsuits against public participation.
Barrick’s precedent-setting litigious assault in Ontario on the Internet postings of Chilean-Canadian miner, Jorge Lopehandia, became especially aggressive in the early 2000s. With his Vancouver-based associates Lopehandia has achieved considerable traction with the Chilean judiciary in demonstrating that he, not Barrick Gold, is the primary holder of title to the massive deposits of gold, silver and copper at the Pascau Lama Mine.
Barrick Gold’s main man on the ground in Latin America is heir to the financial empire of Andronico Luksic Sr.. Luksic Sr. was one of the primary beneficiaries of the radical privatization of public property imposed on Chile after the US-backed coup in 1973. Banker Andronico Luksic Jr. has taken over his father’s hostility to Lopehandia’s unrelenting assertion of title to one of the world’s richest mineral deposits. Through the public exposure attending his politically-motivated efforts to extend improper loans to the family of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Luksic has botched his overzealous power play. His attempt to cozy up to Chile’s first family is generating much negative domestic publicity in ways that are engulfing Barrick’s Chilean outpost in the hot glare of scandal.
Lopehandia’s tenacious defense of his rights and interests is part of a tsunami of problems overwhelming Barrick in what was once advertised as its prime Latin American bastion. In 2013 in Canada’s Financial Post, Peter Koven accused Barrick of “screwing up the Pascua Lama project about as badly as any mining company has ever screwed up a major project.”
Mining the public interest for corporate and private gain
As Canada’s recent Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird has played a key role in Barrick Gold’s litigious interactions with, for instance, Jorge Lopehandia. Lopehandia has had much company in bringing forward serious indigenous grievances in those many countries where Barrick’s Barracudas are active.
Barrick has emerged as a core polity in a structure of international affairs wherein fully 75 percent of the world’s mining companies are headquartered in Canada. It seems that very lax oversight of the Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges, as well as the lack of any serious regulation by our federal government, has made Canada a laissez-faire magnet for extractive enterprises of many sorts.
There is an unmistakable stench of conflict of interest surrounding John Baird in his work inside and now outside Stephen Harper’s cabinet. The most obvious indicator of this malfeasance began the moment he handed over a federal cheque for $9 million dollars to the Munk School of Global Affairs. The purpose of the grant was to advance the U of T’s transformation into a partisan partner in the Canadian government’s decidedly “hawkish” interactions with Iran.
Only weeks after this delivery of public funds to the Munk School, the Barrick Gold Corporation reciprocated. In his very first days as a private citizen, Baird joined the International Advisory Board of Peter Munk’s main medium of golden endowment to the University of Toronto.
John Baird thus followed a path laid out by former US President George H.W. Bush and by Brian Mulroney. Mulroney joined Barrick’s Barracudas after receiving cash from Karlheinz Schreiber for services rendered when he was the Canadian Prime Minister that cleared the way for neocon Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
As Foreign Affairs Minister, Baird had intervened in 2012 to fend off allegations that Harper’s former Chief of Staff, Nigel Wright, was guilty of conflict of interest in advancing Barrick Gold’s interests with his boss. Wright was then being investigated by Mary Dawson, Parliament’s Ethics Watchdog, on the suspicion that he had played a role on three separate occasions as an advocate of Barrick’s preferred positioning of Canada vis-Ã -vis mining in Latin America.
The National Post paraphrased the former Minister’s characterizations of Wright’s interactions with the Gold Company as follows, “Wright did nothing wrong; he merely listened to Barrick’s concerns, said nothing, passed the matter over to others responsible for the file and was not involved in any decision relating to the company.”
What credibility do these words now possess given Baird’s own subsequent induction along with David Naylor into Barrick Gold’s inner sanctum through the medium of the company’s deep infiltration of the U of T’s academic life? Here is yet another indication that the Harper government’s ethics initiative is a scam as epitomized by Baird’s bringing his very recent access to state secrets to the service of Barrick Gold.
With an accompanying email assurance as Stephen Harper’s Chief of Staff that the deal was “good to go,” Nigel Wright delivered the now-notorious $90,172 cheque to suspended Senator Mike Duffy. This payment is seen by many as a smoking gun in the high-profile criminal trial now underway in Ottawa.
Wright’s close friend is Anthony Munk, his former colleague in the giant private equity firm, Onex Corporation. Wright’s intimacy with the Munk family is marked in his role as godfather to the grandson of Peter Munk. “I have complete trust” in Nigel Wright, declared Munk Sr. in 2011. Munk’s trust in his grandson’s godfather was reflected in Wright’s appointment along with Andrew Coyne and Ken Whyte to the Board of the Aurea Foundation.
With its annual debates at the Munk School of Global Affairs, the Aurea Foundation constitutes another example of how neoconservatives operate to engineer the boundaries of acceptable discourse in the mainstream media and in the academy. This discourse most valorizes the deregulation of business and maximum latitude for the expansionary policies of Likudnik Israel, both political priorities for the newest of Barrick’s Barracudas, John Baird and Newt Gingrich.
An academic alternative to the Munk School of Global Affairs?
After two decades of intense engagement in the courts of both Chile and Canada with representatives of our country’s chief mining leviathan, Jorge Lopehandia’s survival speaks volumes. Not only has he retained his legal ground, but he is gaining strategic turf. From this adversarial experience, Lopehandia has developed his own personal perspective on what he sees as Barrick Gold’s ruthless and unethical way of conducting business.
Lopehandia is especially critical of the effects of Barrick’s accounting machinations on the declining value of the many pension funds invested heavily in what was once widely viewed as a blue chip company. The revolt of pensioners is being felt once again in 2015 as many managers of retirement funds repeat the main themes of their protest in 2013.
A common thread of grievance in their votes of non-confidence is Barrick’s very high rate of executive compensation. This penchant for huge payoffs to those at the top goes back to the days when George H. W. Bush was handsomely rewarded for engineering the transactions that catapulted Barrick Gold from obscurity to the world’s number one marketer of gold and gold derivatives.
As Lopehandia sees it, the high rates of reward to executives and their political advisors reflect the reality that Barrick’s most important asset is privileged access to the inner citadels of political, juridical and media influence. A common theme running throughout this process of infiltration involves the corruption of the state in order to harness its coercive force for the displacement of indigenous peoples from valuable natural resources.
The consistency of this expansionary pattern in the growth of Barrick Gold Corporation flows naturally from the history of the heavy trade in mining shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Toronto’s rise to commercial prominence has depended on dispossessing and displacing First Nations in the development of one mining frontier after the next in northern Ontario.
This same general trajectory of expansion through Aboriginal dispossession is continuing through venues such as Barrick Gold into the wider international realm. It is a process that is making Canada synonymous with the most dirty and exploitative networks of extractive industry.
A father of college-aged young men, Lopenhandia speaks eloquently of the tragic subordination of one of Canada’s oldest and most prestigious universities to the imperatives of corporatist subversion. He asks rhetorically, “Why pay homage to those who have benefited most from the kind of outrageous incursions that are giving the Canadian mining industry a bad name among many decent folks throughout Latin America and Africa? What messages are we sending to our young people by treating the likes of Peter Munk, Brian Mulroney, John Baird and Newt Gingrich as role models for the country’s future leaders?”
As Lopenhandia sees it, some of the funds poured into the Munk School of Global Affairs are in fact stolen from him and individuals like him in Barrick Gold’s global rush for spoils. He speaks eloquently of the kind of alternative to the Munk School that he would like to endow if he succeeds in his quest to put in place a more just model for mining sustainably the riches of the vast Pascua-Lama repository of precious metals.
Lopehandia underlines that any alternative to the Munk School in which he might become involved would have to promote rather than constrain academic freedom. The kind of institute Lopehandia has in mind would be an arena of academic meritocracy affording respect, recognition and security especially to those voices of dissent emanating from outside the charmed inner circle of privilege and power.
Such a centre of excellence would eschew rather than cultivate conditions of exclusion such as those that provoked the Iranian Canadian community groups in 2013 to accuse the Munk School of organizing a closed event to promote the hawkish policies of the ruling party. Rather than responding appropriately to this significant criticism, the anti-Iranian partnership of the University of Toronto and the Harper government was solidified in 2015 with John Baird’s and professor Stein’s announcement of substantial federal largesse for the Munk School.
A Lopehandia School of Globalization Studies would embrace, rather than spurn, those academics willing to speak truth to power, even when that power takes the form of a corporate leviathan like Barrick Gold with its still largely hidden history of serial dealings with the most dubious variety of former public official.
Anthony Hall is professor of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge. He has written for the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Canadian Dimension and many other periodicals. His most recent books are Earth into Property: Colonization, Decolonization and Capitalism and The American Empire and the Fourth World. Both volumes are published by McGill-University Press.
A Collection of Videos About Artificial Intelligence And Big Data And How It's Being Used By Intelligence Agency Supercomputers To Enslave You
Most people have no idea about the power of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence and Big Data are part of the Total Information Awareness surveillance state, another name for this is Full Spectrum Dominance.
This ties into what I was talking about here, here, here, here, here, here and here, They can collect data from anywhere, the internet, telecommunications, technology, this includes our homes, our cars, our purchases, the "outside world" and believe it or not, your body and your brain. See here for one of the leading companies behind this. They were also behind the beginning of the internet and work closely with DARPA. As I have said before, the internet is a part of a larger project that most people don't know about. This is a eugenics project that is being used to find people, see here, here and here for more about this. In turn, this ties into what Zbigniew Brzezinski is saying here.
Very soon, every object on earth will be collecting data. So, it would be wise to learn more about big data and artificial intelligence. View the compiled video list below to get started.
The Potential of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: This Potential Is Being Used To Monitor You With NSA, GCHQ, CSE, ASD and GCSB Supercomputers:
1. Making Friends With Artificial Intelligence
2. Big Data and the Rise of Augmented Intelligence
3. The wonderful and terrifying implications of computers that can learn
4. Understanding Artificial Intelligence and Its Future
5. Deepmind artificial intelligence
6. Rock-Paper-Scissors: You vs. the Computer
7. Watch: A Welding Robot That’s Learning to Create Art Forgeries
8. How a Painting Robot Was Given an Artist's Soul
9. Humans Need Not Apply
10. Google's Deep Mind Explained! - Self Learning A.I.
11. Deep Learning Demystified
12. Deep Learning: Intelligence from Big Data
13. Living In a Computer Surveillance State
14. What is Big Data? Big Data Explained
15. Science Documentary 2016 | Big Data
16. Analyzing and modeling complex and big data
This ties into what I was talking about here, here, here, here, here, here and here, They can collect data from anywhere, the internet, telecommunications, technology, this includes our homes, our cars, our purchases, the "outside world" and believe it or not, your body and your brain. See here for one of the leading companies behind this. They were also behind the beginning of the internet and work closely with DARPA. As I have said before, the internet is a part of a larger project that most people don't know about. This is a eugenics project that is being used to find people, see here, here and here for more about this. In turn, this ties into what Zbigniew Brzezinski is saying here.
Very soon, every object on earth will be collecting data. So, it would be wise to learn more about big data and artificial intelligence. View the compiled video list below to get started.
The Potential of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: This Potential Is Being Used To Monitor You With NSA, GCHQ, CSE, ASD and GCSB Supercomputers:
1. Making Friends With Artificial Intelligence
2. Big Data and the Rise of Augmented Intelligence
3. The wonderful and terrifying implications of computers that can learn
4. Understanding Artificial Intelligence and Its Future
5. Deepmind artificial intelligence
6. Rock-Paper-Scissors: You vs. the Computer
7. Watch: A Welding Robot That’s Learning to Create Art Forgeries
8. How a Painting Robot Was Given an Artist's Soul
9. Humans Need Not Apply
10. Google's Deep Mind Explained! - Self Learning A.I.
11. Deep Learning Demystified
12. Deep Learning: Intelligence from Big Data
13. Living In a Computer Surveillance State
14. What is Big Data? Big Data Explained
15. Science Documentary 2016 | Big Data
16. Analyzing and modeling complex and big data
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Motorola Is Working On a Password Pill for Once-Daily Authentication — Oh, and a Tattoo, Too
See here for more about Orwellian technology that could be inside of you right now. See here for more about classified technology.
Let's get real: We have a password problem. So why not turn
your entire body into an authentication device?
your entire body into an authentication device?
May 31, 2013
Let’s get real: We have a password problem.
People generally don’t use unique passwords for each site they visit. Some people just use plain awful passwords. Even if you use strong passwords, as recommended, sites still get hacked (over and over and over again).
Getting rid of passwords altogether has been heralded as a possible solution, whether by fingerprint authentication, eyeball scanning, facial recognition or any number of tactics that use your body as a unique identifier.
Former DARPA head Regina Dugan is now in charge of advanced research at Motorola. In an interview at the D11 conference this week, Dugan showed off two things her team has been working on: a digital tattoo and a once-daily pill, both of which would be used to authenticate you in some manner or another.
All Things D
She first showed off the tattoo, saying, “This is a developmental system made by MC10. It has an antenna and some sensors embedded in it, and what we plan to do is work with them to advance a tattoo that could be used for authentication.”
It doesn’t appear to be a permanent tattoo — there’s a better look at the tattoos up close on MC10’s website — though Dugan joked that although kids don’t like wearing watches, they’d get electronic tattoos “if only to piss off their parents.”
The basic concept behind this type of tattoo isn’t all that different from the keyfob you might use for work or the tap-to-pay credit card you might have. The main difference is that you’d be less likely to lose your tattoo.
But why not turn your entire body into an authentication device? After demonstrating the authentication tattoo, Dugan continued, “And that’s something that you wear, but you could also imagine including authentication in just your daily habits. So, I take a vitamin every morning. What if I could take vitamin authentication?”
All Things D
“This pill has a small chip inside of it with a switch. It also has what amounts to an inside-out potato battery. When you swallow it, the acids in your stomach serve as the electrolyte and power it up. And the switch goes on and off, and it creates an 18-bit ECG-like signal in your body and essentially your entire body becomes your authentication token.”
“That becomes my first superpower,” Dugan continued. “I really want this superpower. It means that my arms are like wires, my hands are like alligator clips. When I touch my phone, my computer, my door, my car, I’m authenticated in.”
This magical-sounding pill won’t be available in the near future – “This isn’t stuff that’s going to ship anytime soon,” said Motorola’s Dennis Woodside — but it’s already received FDA clearance, which is normally a big hurdle. “You could take 30 of those a day for the rest of your life,” said Dugan. The pill has already been tested to work for authenticating a user with his or her cellphone, too.
It should be noted that Motorola is now part of Google, and Google owns several services that require authentication. Imagine a future where Google is even more a part of your everyday life, to the point that you’re taking a pill each morning so you can open up Gmail without having to type in your password.
“Does Google now know everything I do and everywhere I go?” quipped All Things D’s Walt Mossberg during the interview. “Let’s face it. We like you guys, but you’re from Google!”
“Just give him some water and let him take that pill,” joked Dugan.
Here’s a video of the entire interview – skip ahead to the 19-minute mark for the tattoo and pill talk:
Vigilante Justice "Zionist Style" With the "Guardian Angels"
It is important to point out the tweets below that I previously posted on Twitter because these Zionist thugs are involved in vigilante justice and this is exactly what is happening in Canada.
You can even see the Wikipedia write-up lists the terrorist activities of these groups! Do some research on the Jewish Task Force, the Jewish Defense Organization, and the Jewish Defense League, (See the Wikipedia here, here and here. ) Now, believe it or not, they aren't seen as terrorists in Canada. In fact, some were asked to be a part of Stephen Harper's entourage! Just amazing.
That shows you what Canada really is and how ineffective the RCMP, CSIS, and the CSE are when it comes to dealing with Zionist terrorism. See here for more about the powerful influence of Zionism in Canada. Remember, the Canadian government has taken away your rights in this country! Don't let anyone talk to you anymore about human rights in Canada without addressing Bill C-51 and what these people are doing, don't ever forget this. THEY CAN NOW DO THIS TO ABSOLUTELY ANYONE. See here for an important collection of links about Homeland Security in the United States. The Homeland Security of Canada is called Public Safety Canada.
There are groups of people involved in organized stalking that have connections with intelligence, law enforcement, and organized crime. This is similar to the Stasi in East Germany, the Cheka in Russia and the Red Guards in China. These are Communist and Bolshevik ideas that have begun to be practiced in Canada and the United States. It is very important to see these documentaries and this video about the connections between the origins of Homeland Security, Bolshevism, the Cheka, and the Stasi. Also, see here for the links between Jews, Freemasonry, Israel, the East German Stasi and organized stalking. Then watch these documentaries about the connections between Neo-Conservatives and organized crime and here for how the movement is very similar to Trotskyism.
In fact, former neoconservative luminary Francis Fukuyama of Stanford (formerly of Johns Hopkins,) compares the Neoconservative movement to Leninism. Neoconservatism, according to Fukuyama, is a reincarnation to some extent of both Leninism and Bolshevism. According to Jewish writer Sidney Blumenthal, some of the Neoconservative movement has found its political and intellectual ideology “in the disputatious heritage of the Talmud.” Which makes the connections here even more interesting.
1. Look at these videos: perfect examples of absolute ignorance and crazed supremacism: https://exposeintelligence.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/great-examples-of-absolute-ignorance.html
2. The bottom video has this guy in it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Sliwa --- he is so far from being a "Guardian Angel." But, he is the CEO of the Guardian Angels.
3. James Altucher who is with intelligence and works with Israel and the United States used to have a pic of Curtis and him on his Twitter account.
4. Believe it or not, in the picture James was in his full "Guardian Angel" coat and hat. Vigilante Zionist justice that can't seem to go after all of the problems I talk about on my blog and twitter.
5. Here is a video from a former member of the Guardian Angels who left the group and he talks about the corruption: https://exposeintelligence.blogspot.ca/2017/01/guardian-angels-exposed-by-30-year.html
6. This is not just the "Guardian Angels," it's the US and Canadian governments, the intelligence agencies, military intelligence, and mostly federal law enforcement. But the largest element is organized crime because they have become so embedded in the intelligence agencies.
7. It would be helpful to read the articles here, here, here and here to learn more about organized crime. To see how organized crime works with law enforcement, see here.
8. Everything I am pointing out to people is true. Silicon Valley and Wall Street are also greatly responsible, and unfortunately, they are full of awful people.
9. Look no further- if James Altucher was once a part of the "Guardian Angels" you have some serious problems over there.
You can even see the Wikipedia write-up lists the terrorist activities of these groups! Do some research on the Jewish Task Force, the Jewish Defense Organization, and the Jewish Defense League, (See the Wikipedia here, here and here. ) Now, believe it or not, they aren't seen as terrorists in Canada. In fact, some were asked to be a part of Stephen Harper's entourage! Just amazing.
That shows you what Canada really is and how ineffective the RCMP, CSIS, and the CSE are when it comes to dealing with Zionist terrorism. See here for more about the powerful influence of Zionism in Canada. Remember, the Canadian government has taken away your rights in this country! Don't let anyone talk to you anymore about human rights in Canada without addressing Bill C-51 and what these people are doing, don't ever forget this. THEY CAN NOW DO THIS TO ABSOLUTELY ANYONE. See here for an important collection of links about Homeland Security in the United States. The Homeland Security of Canada is called Public Safety Canada.
There are groups of people involved in organized stalking that have connections with intelligence, law enforcement, and organized crime. This is similar to the Stasi in East Germany, the Cheka in Russia and the Red Guards in China. These are Communist and Bolshevik ideas that have begun to be practiced in Canada and the United States. It is very important to see these documentaries and this video about the connections between the origins of Homeland Security, Bolshevism, the Cheka, and the Stasi. Also, see here for the links between Jews, Freemasonry, Israel, the East German Stasi and organized stalking. Then watch these documentaries about the connections between Neo-Conservatives and organized crime and here for how the movement is very similar to Trotskyism.
In fact, former neoconservative luminary Francis Fukuyama of Stanford (formerly of Johns Hopkins,) compares the Neoconservative movement to Leninism. Neoconservatism, according to Fukuyama, is a reincarnation to some extent of both Leninism and Bolshevism. According to Jewish writer Sidney Blumenthal, some of the Neoconservative movement has found its political and intellectual ideology “in the disputatious heritage of the Talmud.” Which makes the connections here even more interesting.
1. Look at these videos: perfect examples of absolute ignorance and crazed supremacism: https://exposeintelligence.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/great-examples-of-absolute-ignorance.html
2. The bottom video has this guy in it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Sliwa --- he is so far from being a "Guardian Angel." But, he is the CEO of the Guardian Angels.
3. James Altucher who is with intelligence and works with Israel and the United States used to have a pic of Curtis and him on his Twitter account.
4. Believe it or not, in the picture James was in his full "Guardian Angel" coat and hat. Vigilante Zionist justice that can't seem to go after all of the problems I talk about on my blog and twitter.
5. Here is a video from a former member of the Guardian Angels who left the group and he talks about the corruption: https://exposeintelligence.blogspot.ca/2017/01/guardian-angels-exposed-by-30-year.html
6. This is not just the "Guardian Angels," it's the US and Canadian governments, the intelligence agencies, military intelligence, and mostly federal law enforcement. But the largest element is organized crime because they have become so embedded in the intelligence agencies.
7. It would be helpful to read the articles here, here, here and here to learn more about organized crime. To see how organized crime works with law enforcement, see here.
8. Everything I am pointing out to people is true. Silicon Valley and Wall Street are also greatly responsible, and unfortunately, they are full of awful people.
9. Look no further- if James Altucher was once a part of the "Guardian Angels" you have some serious problems over there.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
The Canada-Israel “Public Security” Agreement ---- Ottawa & Tel Aviv Collaborate in Counter-Terrorism & Homeland security
In addition to the article below, please see here for an activist who reveals hidden military ties between Canada and Israel. See here for how the Canadian government is cracking down on criticism of Israel. See here for how Canada's RCMP in BC has a Hate Crime Division. See here for more about organized Stasi stalking and militant Zionism. See here for how the RCMP targets Muslim extremists but gives Zionist terrorists a free pass.
Canada and Israel have signed a far-reaching public security cooperation agreement.
The agreement, described as a “Partnership”, involves a “Declaration of Intent” by the two governments. The Declaration was signed in Tel Aviv on March 23, 2008:
“Today, the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety Canada and Avi Dicter, Minister of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel, signed a Declaration of Intent to enhance cooperation in the area of public safety.“The Government of Canada is committed to enhancing the security of Canadians – both through our actions at home and with our international partners.” said Minister Day. “Today’s declaration demonstrates the longstanding cooperation between Canada and Israel on public safety issues, and we welcome this increased cooperation in order to improve our countries’ capacity to protect our citizens.”This declaration will allow Canada and Israel to better enhance cooperation in the areas of organized crime, emergency management, crime prevention, and other related public safety concerns. The declaration seeks to establish a more structured framework for the continued cooperation on public safety issues between Canada and Israel.“The Declaration of Intent is an opportunity for Canada and Israel to strengthen their commitment to safeguarding their citizens and respective national interests from common-threats,”-said-Minister-Dicter.”
Stockwell Day and Avi Dichter shake hands upon signing the Declaration
Cheney Mission to the Middle East Shrouded in Secrecy
Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day was in Israel on the same day as Vice Cheney Dick Cheney.
Coincidentally, a US mission led by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff was also in Israel on official business, as a guest of Israel’s Minister of Public Security, Avi Dichter. There are no reports on Canada-US-Israeli consultations during these official visits. In all likelihood, officials from the respective departments/ministries of US Homeland Security, Israel’s Public Security and Canada’s Public Safety had meetings behind closed doors.
Dick Cheney in Tel Aviv, March 23
Michael Chertoff and Avi Dichter
Terms of Reference of the Partnership
Israel’s Ministry of Public Security carries out public security, law enforcement activities. It is also in charge of the operation of Israel’s prisons, which are in large part used to detain Palestinians.
Canada’s Ministry of Public Safety, established in 2003, is a copy and paste version of US Homeland Security. Public Safety Canada has a close bilateral relationship with US Homeland Security.
Public Safety Canada works closely with several government agencies including the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Correctional Service Canada (CSC) and The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Officials from these agencies have no doubt been consulted regarding the terms of reference of the Israel-Canada declaration.
The terms reference of the Canada-Israel Declaration is extremely broad. They include issues of immigration and ethnic profiling, the management of borders, intelligence and the exchange of information, emergency preparedness, correctional services, prisons, law enforcement and counter-terrorism.
The Declaration of Intent involves the setting up of a close bilateral cooperation arrangement at the ministerial level. A management committee has been set up under the helm of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada, and the Director General of Public Security of the State of Israel.
Senior Israeli and Canadian officials respectively from Israel’s Ministry of Public Security and from various Canadian federal departments and agencies (including the RCMP, CSIS, and CBSA), which are under the jurisdiction of Stockwell Day’s ministry would carry out “an approved program of work”.
The program would be implemented by a Senior Coordinator from each country, namely, the Assistant Deputy Minister (Strategic Policy) for Canada’s Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and the Deputy Director-General of Israel’s Ministry of Public Security of the State of Israel;
Nature of the Agreement
The agreement requires the two countries to “[b]uild on their shared commitment to facilitate and enhance cooperation to protect their respective countries’ population, assets, and interests from common threats”.
What type of border security and control of immigrants is involved?
How does this impinge upon Canada’s immigration procedures?
The agreement appears to be built upon a much broader agreement between Canada and the US in the area of Homeland Security. However, it also replicates the pattern of a February 2006 agreement reached between US Homeland Security and Israel’s Ministry of Public Security
The Israel-Canada agreement has been in the pipeline since Israel’s Public Security Minister Avi Dichter's October 2007 visit to the US and Canada. Avi Dichter met Stockwell Day last October in Toronto “with the intention of establishing cooperation on homeland security” and counter-terrorism.
Israel is not part of North America. Canada and Israel do not share a common border. So what is the underlying agenda?
Will Canada assist Israel in policing its border with Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories?
Conversely, will Israeli officials assist Canada in ethnic profiling of people (including biometric applications, which is mentioned in the agreement) who visit Canada from the Middle East?
Will Israeli officials have access to confidential files of Canadians?
What type of cooperation is envisaged in the areas of prisons and law enforcement? Interrogation techniques? Are Israeli consultants going to help us reorganize our correctional services?
The agreement would allow officials from the State of Israel, a country on record for its numerous human rights violations acts directed against the people of Palestine and Lebanon, to play a role in Canadian public security. In this regard, will Israeli officials assist the RCMP and CSIS in the profiling of Canadians citizens who are Muslims? This ethnic profiling is already applied at Canadian airports.
Will Israeli officials assist their Canadian counterparts in dealing with individuals and/or organizations in Canada involved in supporting the rights of Palestinians? Will Israeli officials assist their Canadian counterparts in the domestic “war on terrorism”, which in the post 9/11 period has led to numerous arbitrary detentions on trumped-up charges?
At the same time, the Declaration establishes a de facto complicit relationship whereby Canadian officials (RCMP, etc) would contribute to assisting Israel in its domestic police and border activities (e.g. Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank), not under the auspices of the United Nations, but directly in cooperation with Israeli police and security officials.
In fact, Canada’s ”contribution” to the policing of Israel’s borders with Gaza and the West Bank is already part of a 300 million dollar aid package in support of the “peace process”. According to Public Safety Canada, ”a significant component [of the 300 million will be] devoted to security, including policing and public order capacity-building. This five-year commitment will go towards the creation of a democratic, accountable, and a viable Palestinian state that lives in peace and security alongside Israel.” (Marketwire, Ottawa, March 24, 2008)
Following his meeting with his counterpart Avi Dichter, Stockwell Day had meetings on the 24th of March in the West Bank with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, where issues pertaining to Canada’s peace package, including police training and capacity building were discussed. ”I was pleased to meet with Palestinian Authority President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad to discuss public safety issues of mutual interest,” said Minister Day. Stockwell Day also visited a West Bank prison as well as a police training center in Jericho. (Ibid)
Under the Declaration of Intent, Canada cannot exercise “neutrality” with regard to the Palestinian process. Canada would act as a partner of Israel in all issues of public security in the occupied territories. Moreover, Canadian support channeled to the US-Israeli sponsored Palestinian regime of Mahmoud Abbas will be used to repress Hamas, which is the duly elected government. It will contribute to worsening the situation in the occupied territories.
Counter-terrorism and Homeland Security
The issue of “counter-terrorism” is not mentioned explicitly in the Declaration of Intent. The terms of reference, however, suggest that the “war on terrorism” is an integral part of the agreement.
The issue of “counter-terrorism” is not mentioned explicitly in the Declaration of Intent. The terms of reference, however, suggest that the “war on terrorism” is an integral part of the agreement.
In early February 2007, Minister Avi Dichter addressed the public security committee of the Canadian House of Commons: ”Iran is the largest terrorist state in the world” Dichter said. In his discussion with Canadian MPs, Dichter “laid out what he believes to be the guidelines for Canadian-Israeli security cooperation in the future, possibly similar to the agreement that the minister signed a day later in Washington DC.” (Jerusalem Post, 7 February 2007)
“The Canadian MPs echoed their American compatriots in addressing the former Shin Bet head as a world expert in the field of terror rather than as a visiting minister of a foreign government, asking him at one point what specific steps the parliament could take to prevent terror attacks on Canadian soil. In his answer, Dichter reiterated the importance of strengthening border security and use of proper investigative methods with suspects.” (ibid)
During a follow-up official visit of Israel’s Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter to Canada in late October 2007, meetings of Israeli and Canadian officials were held behind closed doors to discuss a blueprint for cooperation in the areas of homeland security and counter-terrorism. The meetings chaired by Stockwell Day were held in Toronto on October 29, 2007. A so-called “Arrangement Paper” was to be drafted with a view to defining “the actions of the competent structures at ministerial, central and subordinate/local levels for preventing and fighting homeland securities issues”:
“The parties have agreed to intensify future cooperation by identifying ways of direct communication in order to maximize the exchange of information, technology and operational activity. For the same reason it has been agreed to accelerate negotiations for the signing of an Arrangement Paper between the two Ministries on cooperation in home land security and counter terrorism issues which falls within the responsibility of the respective Ministries.
…
Negotiations on the arrangement paper mentioned above will take place as necessary. The signing of the arrangement paper will be held on an occasion and place coordinated in advance between the Ministries.The two Ministers agreed that by early November three work teams will be established in order to promote the cooperation between the two ministries on the following subjects: • Counterterrorism and Crime • Emergency preparedness • Border crossing security, focusing on biometric identification”(Official communique of Israel’s Ministry of Public Security,
http://www.mops.gov.il/BPEng/MOPS+News/DicterWithCanadianMinister_30_10_07.htm )
The “Arrangement paper” refers to the draft text of The Declaration of Intent, which was signed in Tel Aviv on March 23, 2008. The two governments chose to sign the agreement during a week of intense diplomatic activity in Tel Aviv, involving the concurrent visits of the Vice President of the US, the US Secretary of the Department Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and other senior officials.
The final text of the Declaration of Intent remains vague. “Counter-terrorism” and the “Homeland” are not explicitly mentioned in the final text of the Declaration signed on March 23.
Legal Implications
The text of the Declaration of Intent states that “:{it] is not intended to create legally binding obligations, under either domestic or international law. Yet, at the outset, it violates several fundamental principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
The Canada-Israel Public Security agreement has barely been mentioned by the Canadian media.
It has not been the object of a debate in parliament. Why has this issue not been brought to the forefront of public debate? Why has the parliamentary opposition remained mum on the subject?
It should be forcefully challenged in Canada’s courts.
ANNEX
FULL TEXT of AGREEMENT
Public Safety Canada March 23, 2008
Declaration of Intent Between the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada and the Ministry of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel
The Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada and the Ministry of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel, declare their intent:
1. To prioritize and manage cooperation in the following areas within the responsibility of the Ministries:
1. Border management and security, including biometric applications;
2. Correctional services and prisons;
3. Crime prevention;
4. Critical infrastructure protection;
5. Emergency management;
6. Illegal immigration;
7. Law enforcement cooperation;
8. Money laundering;
9. Organized crime;
10. Terrorist financing; and
11. Trafficking in persons.
2. To achieve the following objectives:
1. Build on their shared commitment to facilitate and enhance cooperation to protect their respective countries’ population, assets, and interests from common threats;
2. Integrate and coordinate the identification, prioritization, and implementation of cooperative efforts between themselves in the area of public safety;
3. Manage the delivery of approved cooperative activities within the scope of this Declaration;
4. Establish of clear lines of communication and points of contact between themselves as part of an ongoing process of dialogue and partnership in pursuing common goals;
5. Share knowledge, experience, expertise, information, research, and best practices;
6. Identify and share public safety concerns on the basis of threats, risk assessments, priorities, vulnerabilities, and consequences; and
7. Facilitate technical exchange cooperation, including education, training, and exercises.
3. To establish a Management Committee that would:
1. Be comprised of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada, and the Director General of Public Security for the Government of the State of Israel;
2. Meet annually and as needed to develop and approve a program of work, consistent with the scope and objectives of this Declaration, for that upcoming year;
3. Evaluate and approve progress and results of activities carried out under this Declaration from the previous year;
4. Identify officials from the Ministry of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel and from the department and agencies for which the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada is responsible, to carry out, within specific timeframes, each of the items in the approved program of work;
5. Be supported by a Senior Coordinator, namely, the Assistant Deputy Minister (Strategic Policy) for the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada, and the Deputy Director General for the Ministry of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel; and
6. Have the Senior Coordinators ensure the delivery of the approved program of work and recommend new activities for the Committee’s approval.
4. To bear respectively the costs that they each incur for performing, managing, and administering its activities under this Declaration;
5. To ensure the appropriate protection of all information, knowledge, expertise, etc. that is exchanged between them against any unauthorized access, alteration, publication, or dissemination; and
6. To protect any information, knowledge, expertise, etc. that is exchanged between them against disclosure to any third party with the same degree of care as they each exercise with their own information, knowledge, expertise, etc. of a similar nature;
It is understood that:
This Declaration is not intended to duplicate or supersede any existing arrangements between any departments and/or agencies of the Government of Canada and the Government of Israel; and
This Declaration is not intended to create legally binding obligations, under either domestic or international law.
Signed in duplicate at Tel Aviv, this 23rd day of March, 2008, which corresponds to the 16th day of Adar b’5768, in the English, French, and Hebrew languages with all texts being equally valid.FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS OF CANADAFOR THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SECURITY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
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