The Canadian Political Scene

- By Ron Gostick -
March/April, 2004

Ont.: Empowering local govt.?
The Toronto Sun, Dec. 16/04, carried a report by Alan Findlay of its Queen's Park Bureau. Here are excerpts:
"Municipal Affairs Minister John Gerretsen announced that municipalities are regaining the final say over how land is used as the government limits the powers of the Ontario Municipal Board to overrule council decisions.
"The move is a response to widespread complaints that the board was overturning local political decisions in favour of developers and resulting in such conflicts as the Oak Ridges Moraine.
" 'It took decisions that should have been in the hands of local councils and put them in the hands of an unelected, unaccountable board,' Gerretsen said of the current Planning Act. 'No more. Local people, local governments should decide what happens to their communities.'
"The proposed amendments to the existing Planning Act would also extend public consultation and application time frames to enable more input before planning decisions are made. ..."
Sounds like a step in the right direction by our new Liberal administration.

MPs, Senators gain power
The National Post, last June 23rd, published a report captioned "MPs, Senators gain power to veto regulations." Following are excerpts:
"OTTAWA - Backbench MPs from all parties are boasting of a major victory after the Senate approved legislation granting them a check on Cabinet power that had been requested for more than 20 years.
"Thanks to Bill C-205, a committee of MPs and Senators now has the legal authority to strike down government regulations, which have, over the years, often come to contain more information about the true intentions of government than actual legislation debated in Parliament.
"The new law also gives the joint Commons-Senate scrutiny of regulations committee new powers to review regulations made by the growing number of government agencies ...
"Until now, these bodies could make their own laws without any form of parliamentary review.
"While Bill C-205 was introduced by Gurmant Grewal, a Canadian Alliance MP, it has been put forward several times before by other MPs, including Liberals, but has always died on the order paper due to a lack of government support.
"Mr. Grewal said yesterday the bill's passage has restored some of his faith in Parliament.
" 'About 80% of law in Canada is made by regulations and about 20% by legislation. Members of Parliament and Senators passionately debate this 20% component, but for regulations, no one cares that much. There's not much scrutiny and review of regulations.' ..."
This, too, sounds like a step in the right direction. Perhaps we didn't hear too much about it last summer because our media was so focussed on when the PM would leave office, or Mr. Bush's Weapons of Mass Destruction would be located.

"Jack's jump"
The Toronto Sun, Jan. 7, 2004, published a column by the dean of the Parliamentary Press Gallery Douglas Fisher, under the above caption, with the subcaption "Under Layton, the NDP is rising -- maybe even to 1980 levels." Here are excerpts:
OTTAWA -- About once every dozen years the hopes of the federal New Democratic Party surge, not so much through electoral results as by public opinion polling.
For a while, their electoral prospects become talking points among the political buffs, and speculation blossoms that a rising NDP may signify a minority government ahead or the need for some real levering towards the left by the Liberals, our natural governing party.
Surely you've begun to notice signs of reactions to this particular NDP blip. For example: the Liberals have come up with a particular Web page that will follow and expose the misinformation and "lies" about them and their new leader which they say are being bandied about by the newish, fiery, little leader of the NDP, Jack Layton.
Another example is Layton's recruitment of good old Ed Broadbent to be his candidate in the very home riding of Parliament Hill itself.
Some readers may have appraised the astounding figures in a Globe and Mail poll last week. It still has my head swirling over both its big response and the shocking percentages that had phoned in an answer to the question: What federal party will you vote for in an election in 2004?
At my last look at the numbers, just over 30,000 readers had responded. The results -- get this -- were: Bloc Quebecois 2%; Conservative 32%; Liberal 27%; NDP 28%; Other 11%.
Yes, yes, such a poll is laughably unscientific, but the choices were made by citizens serious enough to respond in numbers more strongly than normal to a daily feature which was developed for the Internet replica of the paper.
Unless there was a monster "stuffing" of the choices through either anti-Liberal or pro-Conservative and pro-NDP design, this poll indicates, particularly regarding Ontario (from where so many of the votes had to come) that both the Conservatives and New Democrats have at least fair hopes for a showing beyond the expectations those of us who write or comment about politics have been giving them. …
(End of excerpts from the Fisher column)

New Toronto NDP mayor speaks up
The Jan. 25 Toronto Sun published a report by its Brett Clarkson captioned "Let T.O. off GST: Miller." Here are excerpts:
"Illegal and unconstitutional - that's how mayor David Miller describes the annual $50-million GST squeeze the feds put on Toronto.
"The mayor, who yesterday maintained he's encouraged by Ottawa's response to last week's mayors' conference, offered two reasons why the City of Toronto deserves a '100% exemption' from the goods and services tax.
"Under the Canadian constitution, the federal government is not allowed to tax municipalities, Miller said.
" 'The first reason is that it's unconstitutional. The second reason is if they want to help cities, they have to stop digging the hole.'
"The GST exemption was on a list of demands hammered out in last week's meeting of mayors of Canada's largest cities, who want a new financial deal from the feds.
"Miller said Queen's Park should also straighten up its taxation act.
" 'It's the same thing with the province,' he said. 'Toronto is Canada's sixth largest government. If they want us to be a partner, the first thing they should do is stop taxing their partner. The province shouldn't be forcing municipalities to pay the fuel tax and the PST.' ..."
COMMENT: Respecting Mayor Miller's stand:
ç He's correct; constitutionally, our orders of government do not tax one another.
ç Also, constitutionally, direct taxation (income tax, sales tax, etc.) is the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces.
ç Mayor Miller's stand is an encouraging first step in the right direction, for which he is to be commended.
May we now, with humility and respect, suggest that Mayor Miller consider further action along constructive, constitutional lines.
Because in our country there is widespread ignorance respecting our Constitution and its division of powers and jurisdictions as outlined in the BNA Act, there is much confusion at all levels of government as to who is responsible, both jurisdictionally and financially, for providing essential social services.
Therefore, it seems that the problem, indeed the challenge, facing all our political leaders today and those administering public policy, is an educational one -- making sure that they are well informed on our constitutional powers and jurisdictions. And this is where Toronto Mayor Miller and the mayors of all our Canadian cities (as well as the reeves of municipalities) could play a most valuable and constructive role in giving leadership in understanding and resolving this mounting social problem.
NOTE: We make available two documents essential in any study of this Constitutional issue:
r The Constitution Acts 1867 to 1982. Includes the BNA Act (now called The Constitution Acts 1867 to 1982 and the Charter of Rights), which together now constitute our Constitution - $10.
r The Canadian Constitution 2000 A.D. Proposal, which is a Draft Proposal published by The Canadian Constitution Committee. This document updates and proposes essential amendments to the present Constitution - $10.
Paul Hellyer: an NDP candidate?
"Pearson-era minister eyes comeback with NDP" is the caption of a report in the Jan. 22 National Post. Here are excerpts:
"OTTAWA - Pearson-era Liberal Cabinet minister Paul Hellyer is the latest name to enter into discussions with NDP leader Jack Layton about working together in the next election.
"The two have met on several occasions in recent months to discuss Mr. Hellyer's proposal of merging the Canadian Action Party -- currently led by Mr. Hellyer -- with the NDP.
" 'I think (Mr. Layton's) got a lot on the ball and is very aggressive and imaginative and charismatic and he's going to stir things up,' said Mr. Hellyer, 80, who was first elected to the House of Commons in 1949.
"Mr. Hellyer served in Cabinet under former Liberal prime ministers Louis St. Laurent, Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. He joined the Progressive Conservative party in 1972 ... He was a candidate for the leadership of the Conservatives in 1976.
"Mr. Hellyer rejoined the Liberal party in 1982 but resigned in 1996 and the next year formed the Canadian Action Party to protest cuts implemented by the federal Liberals.
"He is opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement and says Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals and the new Conservative Party of Canada are leading Canada toward annexation by the United States. ...
"In an interview, Mr. Layton confirmed he is trying to convince Mr. Hellyer and his supporters to join the NDP ...
"Mr. Layton said he hopes to offer Mr. Hellyer some assurances on policy matters that could convince him to support the NDP. 'I think he and I are very much in sync in our ideas,' he said..."
COMMENT: I question the wisdom of Mr. Hellyer's experimenting with any more parties. But this does tell me that the NDP seems the only national party at all concerned about preserving our national sovereignty and questioning the dangers of unlimited 'globalization' promoted by Big Finance and Corporations.

Sun Man earns award
The Toronto Sun, Dec. 1, 2003, under the above caption published the following item by its Jason Tchir:
The Toronto Sun's Eric Margolis was lauded last night for being one of the few journalists to shine light on the genocide of seven million Ukrainians.
"He was one of the first to write about the famine in the 1930s," said Jurij Darewyc, president of the Canadian Friends of the Ukraine at a reception last night. "Many people still don't know it happened."
Margolis, The Sun's contributing foreign editor, said in an interview the current state of journalism reminds him how the Soviet Union muzzled the media there in the 1980s.
"Now the mainstream media say exactly what people like George Bush want them to say," said Margolis. "While they're not sending journalists to prison, at least not yet, if you're blacklisted, like I am, you don't get jobs, you don't get press accreditation, you don't go on CNN."
This year is the 70th anniversary of Josef Stalin's forced famine in the Ukraine in 1932-1933, but Margolis said many people still know little about it.
"There are young Ukrainians who don't even know it happened," he said.
Last week officials for the Pulitzer Prizes said they would not revoke the 1932 award given to New York Times reporter Walter Duranty, accused of deliberately ignoring the famine.
(End of the Sun's item)

New magazine being launched
We learn from a report in the National Post by Ezra Levant, that he is launching a new Canadian magazine titled Western Standard. Mr. Levant is a young Alberta lawyer; as I recall, with a propensity for causing considerable concern in politically correct circles, and who from time to time had columns in some of the Sun chain's dailies and the Alberta Report magazine.
Mr. Levant, in his NP piece includes in his "top 10 reasons" why he thinks "the Western Standard is going to be the must-read magazine of 2004," the following:
"There is simply nothing else like it today -- no conservative Canadian news magazine exists.
"We will cover important news stories that the liberal media ignores -- or even censors.
"We will report news about conservatives, Christians and other politically incorrect people without disparaging them.
"We will be the antidote to the CBC's pro-liberal bias in the 2004 federal election.
"We will be a true Western voice, with a Western publisher, editor and writers.
"We will have the best conservative and libertarian columnists in the country -- and from around the world (including Ted Byfield). ...
"And, in all seriousness, we will rebuild the public vocabulary of freedom and personal responsibility in Canada."
For further information, Mr. Levant can be reached at ezra@westernstandard.ca
We'll have a further comment when we see its first copy.

Mrs. Elma Butler passed away
Mrs Elma Butler, wife of Eric D. Butler who was a founding member of the Australian League of Rights, passed away the last week of December. E1ma was in her early 80s and had been in poor health for some time.
Shortly after World War II, upon his discharge from Australian military service, Eric Butler was instrumental in founding the Australian League of Rights. And since those early years more than half a century ago, Elma has been his great supporter, even running the League's national office for a number of years.
Elma was indeed one of Australia's greatest women -- a true patriot. She accompanied Eric on several of his Commonwealth speaking tours and will be missed by many Canadian friends.
Elma's funeral on January 8 was conducted by Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth, and she was laid to rest in her own community just out of Melbourne.
My wife Wanda and I, on January 2, e-mailed the following message to Eric Butler and Family:
"A few words of love and condolence from Wanda and myself, Eric, upon hearing of the passing of your dear wife Elma, your very soul and partner in your life of service to God and country.
"I could write a tome on the commitment, dedication and sacrifice you and Elma and family have made to not only Australia and our Commonwealth, but indeed to the free world. But that is not my intention in these few lines; nor is it, under the circumstances, to dwell on the 'going home' of a great and dear friend.
"Rather, it is to celebrate the life of one of the real heroes and greatest women in the history of our Commonwealth and historical stream -- Elma Butler ... and to pay tribute and respect, and express admiration and deep-felt love for Elma, Eric and family at this most difficult time.
"On behalf of Wanda and myself and family, and of your many Canadian friends, we celebrate E1ma's life of service, and the example and high standard she set for those of us who yet soldier on.
"May her soul rest in peace."

And Three Great Canadians
And, too, Wanda and I would like to express our condolence, our respect and admiration for three great Canadian patriots and comrades who we've learned passed away this past year:
r John Belows of Florida, this last summer in his late 80s. John was a great supporter for over 50 years and during the late '60s and the '70s was director of the Manitoba League of Rights.
r Jim Green of Celista, B.C. (formerly of Brooks, Alberta). Jim was a tremendous supporter of our work for half a century.
r Murray Ross of Swan River, Manitoba. A great supporter and activist these many years.
Three great Canadians. We miss them. May they rest in peace.

Martin's Throne Speech Short on details
FLESHERTON, Ont., Feb. 3 -- Yesterday Parliament convened and our Governor-General observed tradition by reading the Speech From The Throne, prepared by Prime Minister Martin, outlining his administration's agenda and plans for the coming month's. This Speech merits our attention.
This morning's National Post (Feb. 3) comments editorially on this speech, under the above caption. Here are excerpts:
"At least Paul Martin is consistent. His government's first Speech from the Throne followed the same long-on-platitudes, short-on-specifics formula of his many leadership campaign addresses: Promise something to everyone, postpone detailed policies as far into the future as possible (preferably until after a leadership vote or general election) and never, ever put a price tag on anything, lest you scare away taxpaying voters.
"Thus did Monday's address, delivered by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, promise to give Canadians a score of new or expanded social initiatives, to maintain the atrociously wasteful and largely ineffective regional economic development agencies, to expand the federal role in health care and education (especially student loans), to reduce wait times for 'the most important diagnoses and treatments,' and to extend the list of provincial jurisdictions into which the federal government wedges itself using its spending powers -- all the while somehow remaining 'unalterably committed to fiscal prudence.' ...
"To the extent Mr. Martin was specific, he often missed the mark. Instead of a new federal law that mandates accountability among aboriginal politicians, for instance, he has pledged to 'work with First Nations to improve governance in their communities' -- in other words, to work with the foxes on a new henhouse management strategy. Meanwhile, he devoted almost as much ink to the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Winter Olympics as he did to reviving our waning military. There will be a review of foreign Policy, 'the first in more than a decade,' but no word on a defence review, which is just as long overdue.
"A 'new deal' for cities and towns was mentioned no fewer than six times. ... But the Martin government still has not worked out how to transfer a portion of the federal gasoline tax to municipalities, in part because doing so tramples -- big time -- on the provinces' constitutional authority to create and oversee municipalities. To the government's credit, on the other hand, it does seem set to stop charging municipalities GST, which would be a big boost to local budgets.
"The Throne Speech also promised to help municipal governments provide 'affordable housing, good transit, quality health care, excellent schools, safe neighbourhoods and abundant green spaces,' without offering a hint at where the money might come from. And plans by Ottawa to engage the cities directly on enhancing bilingual local services, settling immigrants, expanding multiculturalism, increasing arts funding and volunteerism, sound mostly like sidestepping the provinces to increase the federal presence in every community in the country.
"Kyoto is to be honoured, child welfare enhanced, but there was almost no mention of lower taxes, and none at all of debt reduction. ... All of these grandiose schemes are apparently going to suck up every available tax dollar, 'expenditure reviews' or not.
"Perhaps in Ottawa, where symbolism trumps substance, the Throne Speech's string of Hallmark-worthy platitudes will pass for meaningful policy prescriptions. But in the real world, we expect most Canadians will ignore this bottle of syrup and wait for details."
(Note: Italic is used to signify and emphasize federal plans to further invade and occupy areas of constitutionally provincial jurisdiction.)
COMMENT: The National Post, Feb. 4, under the caption "Martin should stick to his knitting," published a column by Barry Cooper, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, assessing the Martin Throne Speech. Here are excerpts:
"In Monday's Speech from the Throne, Paul Martin indicated how his government would differ from the recent Chretien administration. He promised to change 'the way things work in Ottawa' and restore 'trust and accountability in Parliament.' One way of so doing would be to reverse a long-standing trend and begin to respect federal and provincial jurisdictions. An even better one would be to have the government do much, much less.
"On both counts, Martin missed a major opportunity. Instead, the speech spent far more time promising initiatives where provincial responsibility is greatest -- health care, education and municipalities -- and very little where Parliament has unquestioned jurisdiction and a new direction is badly needed, such as the military and foreign affairs.
"In one area where Martin promised a genuine innovation, he proposed to involve the Ottawa bureaucracy in the voluntary sector, which is precisely where no government ever should trespass. To be a volunteer is the most important way for individuals in any democratic and civil society to act on their own. The volunteer is precisely the citizen who steps up and improves a situation she did not choose. It is a free choice, not a duty -- an expression of individuality, responsibility, and independence. People volunteer not for money or anything else, but simply to do what they can. The surest way to kill voluntarism and turn volunteers into dependents or worse is to involve remote and incompetent Ottawa civil servants.
"Much has been made of Martin's promise to make more federal money available to cities. The provincial governments, and indeed the municipal politicians as well, should remain deeply skeptical: Cities are none of Ottawa's constitutional business. …"
COMMENT (by Ron Gostick): I am delighted that a national newsmedia voice such as the National Post has come out editorially on Prime Minister Martin's Throne Speech, not only with very valid criticisms of its shortcomings, but with great emphasis on the reality that most of Martin's promised actions are in constitutional jurisdictions belonging to provincial governments which implies a further federal invasion and usurpation of provincial jurisdictions.
It is most significant and encouraging, too, that Barry Cooper, professor of political science at the University of Calgary, likewise notes that Mr. Martin's promised actions lie not even within federal jurisdictions!
Just minutes ago (Feb. 4), skimming the Comment section of this morning's Globe and Mail, I note Jeffrey Simpson's column, captioned "Leave the health of cities to the provinces." Here are two brief excerpts:
"Provinces got a raw taxation deal at Confederation. They yielded up taxing powers in exchange for grants from Ottawa. The system shortchanged them ...
"Municipalities are constitutional creatures of the provinces. City charters are provincial. Provinces know much more about what's happening in cities than far-away Ottawa. Provinces regulate municipalities through such institutions as the Ontario Municipal Board. ..."
With respect, I would question Mr. Simpson's statement that it was at Confederation that the provinces got a bad deal and were shortchanged. If he would check the Sept. 17, 1997 issue of his own G&M paper, under the caption, "A constitutional mess on the Rideau," he would find a letter by Eric Kierans -- a cabinet minister in both the Quebec and federal governments. And his letter explains clearly where and when the provinces got shortchanged by Ottawa by a massive invasion of provincial jurisdictions. This unilateral usurpation of provincial jurisdictions was conveyed to the provinces at the 1945 Dominion-Provincial Conference.
This little-known cynical episode of our history is covered in some detail in a little minibooklet captioned "A Constitutional Proposal to Return to Our Roots and Regenerate Our Federation." We stock this minibooklet: five copies - $5.
Jeffrey Simpson is to be commended for his column.

A letter I want to share
My wife Wanda and I, a few days ago, received a handwritten letter from Prisoner Ernst Zundel, still incarcerated in the Toronto West Detention Centre. We want to share it with our readers:
"Dear friends Gostick:
"I was very touched about your efforts to help me with the lawyers' costs. I am grateful for your help, and the generosity of your friends, who dug deep into their pockets. Undoubtedly many are of the older generation, and have fixed incomes -money worries, health concerns, family to think of.
"I am always humbled how those with the least often give the most in relation to their means! Time and again during my trials I found that to be true, amazingly so!
"One time a man, very poorly dressed, cheap goodwill store type windbreaker on, cheap slacks, came to my door in the middle of my trial in 1985. He did not have a tooth in his mouth!
"At first I thought he might be one of the local alcoholics, who sometimes came panhandling to my door, in that neighbourhood.
"I had a 150-year-old church pew in my reception room and was busy with my graphic art work some client needed in a rush.
"While I worked with my airbrush, I asked him a bit about his life.
"He was a Welsh miner, who had come to Canada and worked for the CN Railways, and was retired.
"He had avidly followed my trial in the media, and lived in a poor tenement house in Cabbage Town, 10 minutes away from me!
"We chatted for a while and it turned out he was a very astute student of history -- amazing his grasp of what had been going on in the world!
"He asked me for a rare book that 99.99% of the population would not even know it ever existed. As it turned out, I had reprinted that very book in the middle 1970s and had some copies left someplace. I told him to come back in a few days and I would dig up a copy for him.
"He said he would, -- we said our good-byes; and true to his word he came by on a weekend. I handed him a slightly worse-for-the-wear copy of the book. He wanted to know how much it was, and I told him it was a gift, that I was glad to have met him, and how astounded I was by his knowledge.
"It turned out he was a Social Crediter from way, way back, pre-war! In short, he had learned with the best!
"He pulled out an envelope, white No. 10, quite thick, and told me shyly, 'Well, I must be going now. I admire your courage and staying power.' And he left quickly!
"When I tore open the envelope, stacks of $100 bills were enclosed. $3,000 from a man who could have used new dentures! But instead gave it to me so I could pay Doug Christie's fees!
"The trial dragged on for more months, and when it was finally over I went to the address he had given me, but his landlady told me he had died, obviously shortly after seeing me. He had no one!
"I often thought about the old man!
"Strange how God works through people -- often unlikely people. It has made me very humble. And grateful.
"Things do not look good in court, I must be honest. The new lawyers say only the Supreme Court can put an end to this, which means I could be in jail for some time!
"All the best, Ernst Zundel."
OUR REACTION: Well, with a tear or two lubricating our vision, we both were astonished and deeply moved by the obvious truth, patience, humility and strength radiating from this 64-year-old German pacifist, smeared and criminalized by our media, persecuted by our 'Justice' system, and, without any concrete charge or trial branded as a 'terrorist' and threat to the security of our country and incarcerated indefinitely. Indeed, the dark side of totalitarianism is infecting our country -- and from the top down!
But the battle for freedom and justice in our great land goes on. Truth and Justice, though denied and buried, must rise again. And I wonder if Prisoner Zundel isn't the very symbol of this battle for and ultimate triumph of Truth. I have a feeling that he's waging, in a strange way, his battle for Truth and Justice more effectively in his prison cell than he could as a free man. The answer to this question, of course, rests with his friends and neighbours and all of us who are blessed with soul and concience -- and the health and freedom to act, speak out and stand up!

Deceptions and Shenanigans
Not only does our federal Justice Department's treatment of Mr. Zundel amount to deceptions and shenanigans. It also constitutes a farce and a hoax at the expense of this man's liberty and the Canadians taxpayers dollars. For instance:
ä Mr. Zundel was kidnapped 14 months ago in Tennessee, where he had been living the past two years with his American wife, Ingrid. He was immediately incarcerated and held several days under horrible conditions, in leg chains -- no arrest warrant, no specific charge! -- and then suddenly put on a plane and escorted to Canada and imprisoned in Thorold, Ontario.
ä Before his two years in Tennessee, Zundel had lived all his adult life (over 40 years) in Canada. But because he now suspected that his tormentors planned to summarily deport him to his country of birth, Germany, where he would be met with arrest and incarceration for allegedly some years ago 'insulting the dead,' he immediately applied to Immigration for refugee status. And about this time Doug Christie became his legal counsel. Thus began his long incarceration and torment in Canada some 13 months ago.
äAfter a few weeks in detention in Thorold, and hearings on his refugee claim, he was transferred to the Toronto West Detention Centre, where he has remained in solitary confinement for more than a year, in some respects under inhumane conditions.
äThere is still no specific charge against him! Indeed, his long residence in Canada was exemplary with no instance of any criminal or violent activity. He is now being held on a Ministerial Certificate signed by a Federal Minister, claiming that he may be a security risk to our country.
ä This past year of imprisonment he has undergone several 'court hearings,' with the federal prosecutor attempting to establish the 'reasonableness' of suspecting that he may be a security threat, but refusing to reveal who was supplying the smears and misinformation that triggered this 'Certificate' witch-hunt. As a matter of fact, neither Zundel nor his legal counsel is permitted to know the identity of his accusers, let alone cross examine them in a properly constituted court of law. And all the prosecutors shenanigans with his accusers are held in secret as far as Zundel and his lawyers are concerned! What a travesty of legitimate Canadian Justice!
ä During this long ordeal, bale has been denied to Mr. Zundel. Judge Blais, at one of the hearings, inferred that bale might be facilitated if Zundel would close down 'his' website in the USA -- which turns out to be his wife's website. The judge would not believe this. Yet it was operated by his wife years before she married Ernst, and she is still operating this today even though her husband's' incarcerated in Toronto and she's still in Tennessee.
ä Last year Judge Blais promised Zundel that he would bring in his verdict on the bale application before Christmas. Unfortunately he didn't specify which Christmas. Instead he's now threatened another six month's detention. Is this because they have not yet been able to brake Mr. Zundel's health and spirit and resolve?
Mr. Zundel is no security risk or terrorist threat. Ottawa knows this and so does Judge Blais. This is not why he's been kidnapped in Stalinist fashion and thrown into prison. He is a political prisoner -- a prisoner of conscience. And this is his real 'crime': For years he has been attempting, by writing, speaking and broadcasting, to re-establish the honour and dignity of his German fatherland. And in his attempt, he has exposed and revealed the dark side of Zionist deceptions and shenanigans to use and exploit his fatherland for their own political purposes and middle east designs. This financially/politically powerful special interest lobby demands that Ernst Zundel must be once and for all silenced or eliminated.
That is the cold reality of this incredible case, and its shameful blot on Canadian Justice.

How the Americans toppled Diefenbaker
Think Canada never had a U.S.-engineered regime change? Think again
The following article, by Lesley Hughes is reprinted from the May 2003 issue of The CCPA Monitor, the newsletter of The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It should be of interest to all Canadians interested in our political history.
Countries that dare to defy or antagonize the United States risk having their governments toppled, either by force or subversion. That fate has befallen many countries, including -- believe it or not -- Canada.
Forty years ago, the Conservative administration of John Diefenbaker fell -- or, as a high-ranking American official put it, was "knocked over" -- in what looked like a perfectly normal democratic event. Crowds at more than one hockey game cheered listening to the election results. They might have cheered less heartily had they suspected they were experiencing an American-driven "regime change."
It wasn't the sort of regime change orchestrated by the U.S. in Iran in 1953, the Congo in 1960, or Chile in 1976. Those regime changes, as described in Mark Zapezauer's The CIA's Greatest Hits, featured secret police, kidnapping, torture, and blood in the streets. Nor was it the sort of rigged election seen in France, Italy, or Greece after World War II, when the CIA co-opted the Nazi war on communism and took it to new levels of mayhem and deception.
The ending of John Diefenbaker's regime was definitely kinder and gentler. Even an unchallenged superpower needs to be careful when it changes a regime so close to home.
As the 1950s gave way to the '6Os, recently-declassified White House correspondence shows John Diefenbaker becoming an irksome problem for President John F. Kennedy. He had refused to end trade with Cuba, refused to join the U.S.-centred Organization of American States, and further alienated J.F.K. by supporting a nuclear test ban treaty in Europe and by selling wheat to China.
According to Diefenbaker, Kennedy told him bluntly that, "When I tell Canada to do something, I expect her to do it!" -- a message which sat badly with the ultra-nationalist Tory Prime Minister.
But it was the Cuban missile crisis in October of 1962 that brought Canadian-American tensions to their boiling-point. Kennedy failed to consult with Canada about his naval blockade of Soviet warships, and instead requested and assumed Canada's full support just hours before he announced it to the world.
Diefenbaker then shocked some members of his cabinet and the armed forces by refusing to put Canadian forces on advanced readiness, calling instead for an independent investigation of the alleged missiles installed in Cuba.
That the Canadian Prime Minister did so without the full support of his cabinet (and the then Liberal Opposition) did not mitigate Kennedy's fury. Nor did the fact that, in defiance of Dief's instructions, Canada's armed forces put themselves on advanced readiness on their own, establishing for the first time that Canada's armies could and would follow an American president instead of their own Prime Minister.
There was also the infuriating fact that, even when Canada's U.S.-purchased Bomarc anti-aircraft missiles finally went on alert, they were useless, because Diefenbaker had never followed through on an alleged promise to arm them with the requisite nuclear warheads.
The Americans had been lobbying for Canada's nuclear compliance since at least 1959 and Dief's cancellation of the Avro Arrow fighter plane. The campaign intensified in 1961 during the U.S. ambassadorship of Livingston Merchant, a man whose connections to the world of covert action went unnoticed by the Canadian public. He was former State Department liaison to the CIA, an activist in the efforts to destabilize Cuba, and a documented supporter of political assassination, a remedy he'd suggested for both Fidel Castro and Che Guevera.
Merchant quietly launched a pro-nuclear, anti-Diefenbaker campaign aimed at Canada's mainstream media, top-ranking members of Canada's armed forces, and Diefenbaker's enemies inside and outside of his own party.
Richard Sanders, in A People's History of the CIA, quotes then RCAF Public Relations Director Commander Bill Lee as saying, ""It was a flat-out campaign. We identified key journalists, big labour, key Tory hitters and ... Liberals. We wanted people with influence on members of cabinet. In the end, the pressure paid off."
The nuclear push begun by Merchant was continued through 1962 by his successor, Bill Butterworth. The new ambassador was a close colleague of CIA founder-director Allen Dulles, and now known to have placed six espionage officers in his Ottawa office.
During the election campaign of 1962, Liberal opposition leader Lester Pearson was provided with state-of-the-art polling expertise from John Kennedy's own election team. Diefenbaker survived that election with a minority government, fully expecting to govern for another term. But the White House had a different agenda. With help from the State Department and the Pentagon, the second-stage strategy was to humiliate Diefenbaker in front of Canadian voters. On January 23, 1963, newly-retired U.S. Air Force General Lauris Norstad held an unprecedented press conference in Ottawa in which he publicly condemned Diefenbaker's anti-nuclear policies. (This, commented one U.S. authority at the time, was simply not done, not even to the Russians.)
Nine days later, Lester Pearson held a similar press conference. He announced (in spite of his Nobel Peace Prize and his marriage to a high-profile dove and member of the anti-nuclear Voice of Women) that he was abandoning his anti-nuclear position, and would, if Prime Minister, accept nuclear warheads for the Bomarc missiles. It was a shocking turnabout -- one that caused Pierre Trudeau to call Pearson "Canada's defrocked Priest of Peace," and refuse to stand as a Liberal candidate in the next federal election.
Historians agree that Diefenbaker, in spite of his anti-nuclear policies and waning popularity, might still have achieved a political recovery. But, within two weeks, the second U.S. shoe would drop.
On January 23, in Washington, the U.S. State Department issued a press release supporting Pearson's pro-nuclear stance and suggesting that Diefenbaker had misled Canadians on nuclear issues. It was another unprecedented move, approved of by the Pentagon and probably by the White House.
The effects were predictable. Fights broke out between the pro- and the anti-nuclear ministers in cabinet. Several resigned. Diefenbaker recalled the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., and in the House of Commons Pearson called for a non-confidence motion based on Diefenbaker's alleged inability to manage relations between Canada and the U.S. Diefenbaker lost the vote, and his government fell on February 5.
The final toppling of John Diefenbaker had taken 33 days. Commenting on that period, Trudeau later asked: "Do you believe it was coincidence? Why should the United States treat Canada any differently than Guatemala (a country then openly targeted by the U.S.) if reasons of state require it and circumstances permit?"
If American agents did not orchestrate the end of their problematic Canadian enemy, they certainly believed they did. "George Ball and I knocked over the Diefenbaker government with one press release," boasted McGeorge Bundy, J.F.K.'s national security advisor, and one of those who approved the notorious press release. Rufus Smith, senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador Butterworth, added, "It was like tossing a match into dried hay!"
The Americans' self-styled image as defenders of the continent slipped a little during the subsequent 1963 federal election when U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara inadvertently let slip that putting the Bomarc bases in Canada was intended to attract the fire of Soviet missiles that would otherwise be aimed at U.S. targets. But even that slip failed to rescue Diefenbaker's campaign or tarnish John Kennedy's popularity in Canada. Diefenbaker had been effectively portrayed by the U.S. as a fool on defence and nuclear weaponry, and he paid the price when the Liberals under Pearson swept to power in the May 1963 election.
* * *
As a footnote, it should perhaps be noted that regime changes, however smooth and successful, may not last long or achieve their intended purpose. When Trudeau succeeded Pearson as Prime Minister, he adopted Diefenbaker's anti-nuke stance against the Bomarc missiles and had them all dismantled.
(End of the Lesley Hughes article)
COMMENT (by Ron Gostick): Yes, the early '60s were a turbulent period for the Defenbaker regime, but its roots were discernible from almost the beginning.
Mr. Diefenbaker, in his first administration in the late '50s, appointed as Foreign Affairs minister the Hon. Sidney Smith, a distinguished university president, who on October 29, 1958, delivered at the University of Alberta the Second Henry Marshall Tory Lecture. His address was so divorced from reality, and misleading respecting the Communist threat of that time, that we devoted a complete section of our Feb. 1959 issue to an analysis of it.
Within days, a prominent instructor at the University of Toronto ordered 7,000 copies of our report to pass on to staff members of this huge university and other educational leaders. Likewise, we sent copies to all our MPs. Space precludes discussion of the turmoil this triggered at the Cabinet level in Ottawa; but within days Dr. Smith committed suicide! ... Yet, lo and behold! Dief appointed in his place the Hon. Howard Green, a leading 'peacenik' even less suited for this important position than his predecessor! We discussed this incredible bungling at the height of the 'Cold War' in a section of our Aug. 1959 issue.
Little wonder Washington was viewing Ottawa with increasing dismay by 1963!
(Note: We can send you photocopies of the two CIS reports mentioned above for $5.)

Washington's long oily arm reaches into the Caucasus
A few months ago, for just two or three days, our newsmedia focussed on a political coup and a likely 'change of regimes' in the republic of Georgia, a former part of the USSR adjoining the northeastern part of the Black Sea. End of story? Well, not quite.
The Nov. 11th issue of the National Post, under the caption "Shevy's big mistake: Crossing Uncle Sam," published the following column by its Foreign Affairs editor Eric Margolis.
The latest recipient of Washington's "regime change" was not some miscreant Muslim state but the mainly Christian mountain nation of Georgia.
Eduard Shevardnadze, the 75-year-old strongman who has ruled post-Soviet Georgia's 5.1 million citizens since 1991, was overthrown by a bloodless coup that appears to have been organized and financed by the Bush administration.
Shevardnadze's sin, in Washington's eyes, was being too chummy with Moscow and obstructing a major U.S. oil pipeline, due to open in 2005, from Central Asia, via Georgia, to Turkey. Georgia occupies the heart of the wild, unruly, and strategic Caucasus region, which I call the Mideast North.
In recent months, Shevardnadze had given new drilling and pipeline concessions to Russian firms.
He should have recalled the fate of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, which, like Georgia, was a U.S. client and recipient of American aid until it turned down a major pipeline deal with an American oil firm and awarded it to a Latin American consortium.
Shevardnadze was no democrat.
He rigged elections, used goon squads to silence opponents, survived two assassination attempts and ran Georgia like a medieval fief.
But he was also a fascinating man, as I found when extensively interviewing him in Moscow in 1989 when he was foreign minister of the Soviet Union.
"Shevy-Chevy," as we used to call him, looked like an amiable grandfather, with his wispy white hair and bulging eyes. In fact, he had been the tough, ruthless party and KGB boss of Georgia. Yet this dedicated communist became Mikhail Gorbachev's right-hand man in implementing glasnost and perestroika reforms. He played a decisive role in ending the Cold War and breaking up that criminal empire, the USSR.
Like Gorbachev, Shevardnadze became a hero in the West, but was reviled at home as a traitor and wrecker. Many Russians believed Gorby was a British agent and Shevardnadze a CIA "asset."
After the USSR's collapse, Shevardnadze returned to Georgia and, backed by U.S. funding, seized power from the fiery post-independence leader, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who may have committed suicide or been murdered.
Poor and beautiful
Georgia is wild, turbulent, dirt poor and very beautiful. I still savour the memory of the majestic, mist-shrouded mountains of Abkhazia, the lovely Black Sea coast that recalls the French Riviera, and Georgia's famed, highly potent yellow wines.
Georgia has been a battleground for much of its 2,500-year history. Its knights and warriors, who fought under the banner of St. George, waged an heroic struggle against the Persian, Ottoman and Russian empires. Georgia and neighbouring Armenia are the two oldest existing Christian nations. Georgian, Albanian and Basque are Europe's oldest living languages.
Like all mountain states, Georgia is deeply divided by topography and fierce clan rivalries.
Minorities of Armenians, Azeris, Ossetians (a Christian Turkic tribe), Mingrelians and Muslim Abkhaz add further volatility. The Caucasus has over 100 feuding ethnic groups, a time bomb waiting to explode.
Abkhazia and Ossetia seceded from Georgia after bloody fighting and ethnic cleansing that killed 10,000 and left 250,000 refugees. Today, Russian "peacekeeping" troops keep the two rebellious regions, and a third Muslim enclave, Azharia, independent of Georgian control. Just to the north, Chechnya's ferocious struggle for freedom from Russian rule grinds on, with the bloody struggle spilling into Georgia.
Moscow repeatedly accused Georgia of aiding Chechen independence fighters, which is likely true.
Neighbouring Armenia and Azerbaijan have waged a sporadic war for over a decade.
Shevardnadze kept Georgia independent by deftly playing off the Americans against the Russians, both of whom had designs on the little nation.
But his luck finally ran out.
Washington sent high-level emissaries to warn Shevardnadze not to do anything that threatened the proposed oil corridor.
When he went ahead with Russian oil deals, Washington denounced the Nov. 2 Georgian elections as rigged, which they were, although it turns a blind eye to rigged elections in useful allies like oil-rich Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, Egypt, Pakistan, etc.
Cash and anti-Shevardnadze political operatives from the U.S. poured into Tbilisi to back up the president's American-educated principal rival, Mikhail Saakashvili. The rigged election ignited mass protests by Georgians fed up with corruption and crushing poverty. Saakashvili forces stormed parliament and drove out Shevardnadze, who resigned after the army and police refused to defend him.
What next? Saakashvili appears almost certain to become president. But the three political clans who united to overthrow the ancient regime, and now support him, may, true to local tradition, soon be at one another's throats. In hot-blooded Georgia, civil war is never far away.
Russia will try to limit U.S. influence in Georgia and extend its own by stirring the pot and finding new Georgian allies. Washington will shore up its man in Tbilisi, Saakashvili, and may send Special Forces troops under the pretext of the faux war on terrorism.
The entire Caucasus is near a boil. The sharply increasing rivalry between the U.S. and Russia for political and economic influence over this vital land bridge between Europe and the oil-rich Caspian Basin promises a lot more intrigue, skullduggery and drama.
(End of Mr. Margolis' column)
COMMENT: Many students of international affairs are convinced that those in control of Washington today plan to both police and control the world. If this is a valid assessment, then it follows that Washington will insist an exercising a decisive influence or control in this oil- and resource-rich area of the world. And this policy probably requires many 'regime changes'!

Jews, Zionists and Palestinians speak up
The Christian News, a Lutheran weekly journal published in New Haven, Missouri, in its June 6, 2003 issue, published the following item under the caption, "Jews: Zionism is cause of instability in the world." Following, are excerpts:
"The Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews proclaim their loyalty to pure judaism and their opposition to Zionist heresy, which violates every principle of the Jewish religion. These people believe that the idolatrous Zionist ideology has nothing to do with Orthodox Jews, and that Jews are obligated by Judaism to live in peace and harmony with all other nations throughout the world, including Palestinian natives of course.
"Pure Judaism proclaims that we are to accept the decree of Exile of God and live among the nations in every corner of the Earth, and we must not establish a State thus attempting to end the divinely ordained Exile.
"Pure Judaism forbids uprooting the natives of the Holy Land, it proclaims its principles of humanity and justice and demands total restoration of all human, civil, economic and political rights of the Palestinians, including the right of return of all Palestinians to their homes in historic Palestine, thereby enabling Palestine to be governed by its original native inhabitants -- their group's statement says, which was published on Khilafah.com internet edition. ...
"The statement also says: 'Zionism is the cause of bloodshed in the Middle East and hatred of Jews throughout the world.' "
-- Department of Co-operation
and Mass Media, Kavkaz-Center

* * *
Christian News, Dec. l, 2003, published an article by Uriel Heilman captioned "In rare Jewish appearance, George Soros says Jews and Israel cause anti-Semitism." Here are excerpts:
"NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (JTA) - It's not often that George Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist, makes an appearance before a Jewish audience.
"It's even rarer for him to use such an occasion to talk about Israel, Jews and his own role in effecting political change.
"So when Soros stepped to the podium Wednesday to address those issues at a conference of the Jewish Funders Network, audience members were listening carefully.
"Many were surprised by what they heard.
"When asked about anti-Semitism in Europe, Soros, who is Jewish, said European anti-Semitism is the result of the policies of Israel and the United States.
" 'There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that,' Soros said. 'It's not specifically anti-Semitism, but it does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well. I'm critical of those policies.'
" 'If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish,' he said. 'I can't see how one could confront it directly.'
"That is a point made by Israel's most vociferous critics, whom some Jewish activists charge with using anti-Zionism as a guise for anti-Semitism.
"The billionaire financier said he, too, bears some responsibility for the new anti-Semitism, citing last month's speech by Malaysia's outgoing prime minister, Mahathir Mohammad, who said, 'Jews rule the world by proxy.'
" 'I'm also concerned about my own role because the new anti-Semitism holds that the Jews rule the world,' said Soros, whose projects and funding have influenced governments and promoted various political causes around the world.
" 'As an unintended consequence of my actions,' he said, 'I also contribute to that image.' …"
COMMENT: The JTA report notes that at the end of the conference, a number of leading Zionist Jewish leaders "reacted angrily to Toros' remarks."
* * *
The December 1 Christian News also published a piece by American columnist Charley Reese captioned "Four Former Heads of Israeli Security Speak Out." Here are excerpts:
"Four former heads of Israeli security, speaking in Israel, have warned the government that failure to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians will lead to catastrophe.
"These men are not some starry-eyed peaceniks. They are all former heads of Shin Bet, Israel's secret police, which makes the FBI look like Boy Scouts. You can be sure these men are not motivated by any compassion for the Palestinians.
"Yaakov Perry, Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom and Carmi Gilon warned that without a peace deal, Israel is endangering its existence.
" 'We are taking sure, steady steps to a place where the state of Israel will no longer be a democracy and a home for the Jewish people,' Ayalon said in a newspaper interview.
"Shalom added, 'We must once and for all admit there is another side, that it has feelings, that it is suffering and that we are behaving disgracefully -- this entire behavior is the result of the occupation.'
"Another hard-nosed Israeli, a former head of military Intelligence, warned more than 13 years ago that the alternative to a Palestinian state side by side with Israel was national suicide. …"

* * *
The December 15 Christian News reproduced a column by Laura King, Los Angeles Times staff writer, captioned "Ex-General Says Israel Inflated Iraqi Threat." Here are excerpts:
"JERUSALEM -- A former senior Israeli military intelligence official asserted Thursday that the nation's spy agencies were a 'full partner' to the United States and Britain in producing flawed pre-war assessments of Iraq's ability to mount attacks with weapons of mass destruction.
"The sharply worded report by Shlomo Brom, a brigadier-general in the army reserves, prompted one lawmaker to call for an independent inquiry into the performance of Israeli intelligence before the start of hostilities in Iraq. ...
"Brom, a senior researcher at one of Israel's leading think tanks, the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, said intelligence produced by Israel played a significant role in augmenting the case for toppling Hussein. ...
"Brom held senior positions in Israeli military intelligence for 25 years before retiring from the army in 1998. ..."
* * *

We received a January 10, 2004 e-mail which included the following item:
"Israeli Professor - 'We Could
Destroy All European Capitals' "
By Nadim Ladki
(Islamic Association for Palestine News) -- An Israeli professor and military historian hinted that Israel could avenge the holocaust by annihilating millions of Germans and other Europeans.
Speaking during an interview which was published in Jerusalem Friday, Professor Martin Van Creveld said Israel had the capability of hitting most European capitals with nuclear weapons.
"We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets of our air force."
Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, pointed out that "collective deportation" was Israel's only meaningful strategy towards the Palestinian people.
"The Palestinians should all be deported. The people who strive for this (the Israeli government) are waiting only for the right man and the right time. Two years ago, only 7 or 8 per cent of Israelis were of the opinion that this would be the best solution, two months ago it was 33 per cent, and now, according to a Gallup poll, the figure is 44 per cent."
Creveld said he was sure that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to deport the Palestinians.
"I think it's quite possible that he wants to do that. He wants to escalate the conflict. He knows that nothing else we do will succeed."
Asked if he was worried about Israel becoming a rogue state if it carried out a genocidal deportation against Palestinians, Creveld quoted former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who said "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Creveld argued that Israel wouldn't care much about becoming a rogue state.
"Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under."
(End of the Nadim Ladki statement)
* * *
The following items are reprinted from the Oct.-10, 2003 issue of the Australian On Target Bulletin:
EDWARD SAID -- Palestinian-American Christian: The news services were alive this last week with news of the death of Prof. Edward Said. The following comments coming from an article by Laurie King-Irani of The Electronic Intifada, 29th Sept. 2003, will outline why the man was respected by both Israelis and Palestinians.
EDWARD SAID -- A lesson that will not die, a vision that cannot fail: Humanity. Genius. Passion. Curiosity. Eloquence. Talent.
All of these words, and so many more, aptly described Dr. Edward W. Said, the brilliant scholar and tireless advocate for justice who left us on September 25th. The special quality and unique amalgamation of traits that made this man both an indomitable debater and a compassionate friend were rooted not only in his considerable talents or his remarkable intelligence, but even more so in his deep and abiding courage.
Dr. Said possessed a rare kind of courage, a moral and indeed even a spiritual fearlessness, that enabled him to see beyond false dichotomies, that spurred him to say things that others found impolitic, that caused him to sputter in eloquent anger words of truth that cut through obscure rhetoric, striking notes of clarity as refreshing as water and as clean as the perfect chords of the symphonies he loved.
Dr. Said's special kind of courage was visible to anyone who saw him during the last five years of his life. Looking painfully frail -- until he began speaking and gesturing -- he time and again overcame the pain, weakness and fear of living with leukemia to expound, without notes, on US hypocrisy, the Palestine Authority's corruption, the depredations of a brutal Israeli occupation, and media's malfeasance in obscuring the full extent and context of daily suffering in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
The potential costs and consequences of Dr. Said's courage and honesty were especially clear to anyone who read his remarkably candid memoir, Out of Place. Here, he turned a searching and fearless eye on himself, his parents, the dynamics of Middle Eastern family relationships, the complexities of gender, Oedipal triangles, and manipulations of authority to trace the links between the personal and the political in a way that spared no one, not even himself. He looked back curiously at the shy and bookish young man he was at the dawn of adolescence, a period that is excruciating for all of us, but which, in his case, was magnified by the searching events of 1947 and 1948. His critiques though, whether of self or other, were always tempered by a compassion and humility that transformed analyses into lessons.
Throughout his memoir, Said displayed a disarming and admirable ability to undertake searching analyses of his own society, its assumptions, illusions, and reflexes in response to the tragic loss of Palestine and the burdens of a diasporic existence. Like the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who in a verse attempting to come to grips with the cataclysmic events of World War I stated that "if a way to the better there be/it exacts a full look at the worst." Dr. Said understood, and wanted all of us to understand, that difficult truths will not go away. To get through them, we have to go through them -- honestly, bravely, and humanely.
The courage Dr. Said displayed in facing with grace the difficult truths of his life -- as an intellectual, a Palestinian, an exile, an advocate for justice, a person living with cancer -- offers precious lessons for us all. As long as we try to live out these lessons in our own lives, Dr. Said cannot die. Courage of the calibre he displayed has something of the transcendent in it. Courage of this kind cannot but inspire, sustain, and guide those who respond to its power and beauty and open themselves up to its challenges...
Yes, Dr. Said's voice was unique and special, but no, it was not just for Palestinians, or even for Arabs. His was a voice for and from humanity, a voice for the telling of truths, no matter how discomforting they could be.
Six years ago, Dr. Said was invited to give a lecture on the history and repercussions of the Balfour Declaration in Washington, D.C. It is a tribute to his bravery, genius and eloquence that he only focused on the events of World War I and the roots of the Palestinian tragedy as a starting point for his real message that day, a message that transcended the usual dualistic discourses that beset the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His aim was to force his audience to think new thoughts, question old categories, re-examine ethnic boundaries, and challenge received opinions in order to envision a new era of peace based on reconciliation between Arabs and Jews.
One could have heard a pin drop as his audience, expecting a familiar recounting of all the harm done to the Palestinians over the last 80-plus years, instead heard Dr. Said make an impassioned plea for Arabs and Palestinians to study and come to terms with the Holocaust and its searing impact on the Jewish people. For him, this was not about being politically correct or intellectually balanced, but rather, a matter of utmost moral necessity. In his view, this was a crucial issue that none of us could sidestep or postpone, because of the inextricable interconnections between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews.
"It is simply remarkable," he exclaimed, "that, in the entire Arab world, you cannot find a single institute devoted to the study of Israel, Judaism, the Holocaust, or even American Studies. This lack of knowledge and interest partly explains the lack of Arab success in dealing with US and Israeli strategies in the region."
"Like it or not, this is the historical reality," he explained. "We must better understand Israelis, and they must better understand us. We must make clear the link between the Shoah (the European Jewish Holocaust) and the Nakba (the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948). Neither experience is equal to the other, and neither should be minimized. We must emphasize this link not for short-term political gains, but because we cannot continue to work apart as two wounded yet incommunicado communities. We have to begin to admit the universality and integrity of each other's experience of suffering. As Arabs, we demand acknowledgement and reparations. We cannot accept that the 'redemption of the Jews'required the dispossession of millions of Palestinian people. We must rethink our common past if we want to have a future, and it is time to honestly state that we are fated to have a common, not a separate, future."
If this were not enough to galvanize his audience, Dr. Said went.on to say, with characteristic honesty and courage, that Israel is only part of the problem facing the Arab world:
"The current Arab situation is truly depressing. So many resources, human and otherwise, are just not being tapped. In spite of the size and potential of the Arab world, the average Arab individual feels a sense of impotence. Economically, the Arab world is a disaster area. The combined GNP of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt is still lower than Israel's GNP. Exports are going down throughout the Arab world, and the per capita income has been declining at a rate of 2 percent each year.
"For the rich in these countries, it is a tax-free zone: the poor are the only ones paying taxes. Meanwhile, illiteracy and health problems are on the rise among children and youth. There is no excuse for this state of affairs, and it all stems from a lack of vision, leadership,and democracy in the region." ...
There is no excuse for us not to aspire to the courage and clarity that Dr. Edward Said embodied. There is no excuse for us not to envision a better future and to work with diverse others for its realization. There is no excuse for any of us to let despair, anger, jealousy or fear poison us or slow us down. And there is no time to waste in honouring and sustaining the efforts of Dr. Said.
As an American poet, May Swenson, said about deep sorrow fo1lowing a great loss: "Don't mourn the beloved. Try to be like him."
(End of quotes from the Australian OTB)

COMMENT: Every one of the foregoing views and statements, whether by prominent Jewish spokesmen or the scholarly Palestinian, Professor Said, deserves our close scrutiny and consideration. They all exhibit a forthright quality which, under today's circumstances, requires courage to express. And Prof. Said's analysis and approach to resolving the Middle East problems is, indeed, a classic example of respect and charity. His recent death is humanity's loss. May his example spark and activate others of his calibre.