By John Soos - March 3, 2013

John Baird, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs is confirmed to deliver a keynote address at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy meeting taking place March 3 – 5, 2013 in Washington, D.C....His presence there further cements the Harper government's uncritical support of Israel in face of its deteriorating record of massive human rights violations in Occupied Palestine...His invitation to address AIPAC reflects that this government's position has not altered in face of Israel's widening breaches of international and humanitarian law against the people and land of Palestine.

By Eric Walberg - March 2nd, 2013

Canada has graduated as the consummate colonial success story, and has now moved smoothly into its postmodern role as ‘supporter of human rights’ — not by promoting disinterested NGOs and providing lots of funding, but via invasion, exploitation and/or subterfuge at home and abroad. This should come as no surprise, where the indicator for success in economics and politics is not fairness and consensus, but profit and engineered majority-rule.

By Karl Nerenberg - February 28, 2013

Tom Flanagan was one of Stephen Harper's key mentors, and remains perhaps the most influential ideologue of the current "Conservative movement"...Flanagan's rather overly frank comments on child pornography may have pushed him off that "unique perch"...But Flanagan's ideology is very much alive and well, and living in the halls of power, in Ottawa.

In June 2008, Allan Rock became university president. He's a former Canadian politician and UN ambassador. He's a pro-Israeli flack. He supports its worst crimes. His administration is unprincipled. It's marked by secrecy, political censorship, abuse of power, and repudiation of fundamental university values.

By Eric Walberg - February 26th, 2013

Internationally...[Canada] takes orders directly from its US-Euro masters, helping them invade countries if necessary to set up the mechanisms for elections, and ignoring for the most part the real problems that the poor of the world face. It uses its foreign diplomatic service not to promote peace and social justice, but to support the needs of Canadian corporations abroad and facilitate their quest for profits.

By Matthew Behrens - February 21, 2013

...[T]he utter failure to implement a fully-funded action plan to end violence against women in all of its broad contexts...stands in stark contrast to the open coffers for Canada's weapons manufacturers and torture-complicit spy agencies. Their narrative of alleged and unproven threats lurking in the shadows takes priority over factual findings on violence against women...

By Michael Laxer - February 21, 2013

There can be little doubt anymore, other than to the willfully blind, that neither the federal [New Democratic Party] nor any of its provincial wings are socialist parties...The NDP clearly no longer sees itself as a movement to change society, but rather as a "government in waiting." This is entirely within the framework of capitalism. The party has turned a corner.

Canadian war industries are flogging their wares at IDEX, the largest weapons bazaar in the Middle East and North Africa. Over 1,000 exhibitors from 52 countries and over 60,000 attendees have converged on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for IDEX 2013. This huge arms show is a golden opportunity for Canadian military exporters to schmooze with procurement officials from the US client states that dominate this oil-rich region.

By Ken Stone - Sat Feb 16 2013

[The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service] was...found complicit by a royal commission in the illegal rendition by the U.S. government of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, to Syria. Investigations of CSIS complicity in the illegal rendition of other Canadians are pending. Child soldier Omar Khadr was tortured in Guantanamo Bay partly on CSIS’ instigation. CSIS even spied on postal union leaders during a 1991 strike.

By Laura Gottesdiener - AlterNet

The case of a young man with Down's Syndrome who was asphyxiated while in police custody last week has spiraled into a shocking national news story...The tragedy began when 26-year-old Minnesota resident Robert Saylor was reluctant to leave a movie theater, prompting employees to call the police. Without stopping to learn from Saylor’s aide that he had Down's Syndrome, the police handcuffed him and restrained him on the ground until he died of asphyxiation...“A few times each week, across the United States, police shoot and kill mentally ill people in complicated, often incredible circumstances.”

By Steven Staples - rabble.ca

The generals have a big problem. The fighting in Afghanistan is over for Canada, and the thousands of recruits they armed, and the fleets of planes, helicopters and tanks they bought, have nowhere to go but home...Since 9/11 the military budget has ballooned to its highest level since the Second World War, surpassing the height of the Cold War in adjusted dollars.

By Yves Engler - February 15th, 2013

Alongside one of this country’s biggest corporations, Stephen Harper’s government has entangled Canada in one of the most controversial decisions of Obama’s presidency. The Conservatives have lobbied vigorously in support of Calgary-based TransCanada’s plan to build a $7 billion pipeline to take up to 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

By Karl Nerenberg - February 14, 2013

To all appearances, RCMP officers in northern British Columbia act more like colonial occupiers -- or even feudal enforcers and thugs -- than servants of the public good...Prime Minister Harper could barely conceal his contempt for non-partisan, evidence-based organizations such as Human Rights Watch in Parliament on Wednesday.

CBC News - Feb 13, 2013

...[A] report [released on Wednesday] by New York-based Human Rights Watch [details]...claims [against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police] — which include police threats, torture and sexual assault [against Aboriginal women]. The report calls on the federal government to launch a national inquiry...The researchers interviewed 50 aboriginal women and girls...They heard stories of police pepper-spraying and using Tasers on young aboriginal girls, and of women being strip-searched by male officers.

By YVES ENGLER - February 13, 2013

In response to hotly contested claims that Hezbollah was responsible for bombing Israeli citizens in Bulgaria last July, immigration minister Jason Kenney called the Lebanese group a “vile anti-Semitic terrorist organization” and urged the European Union to “follow Canada’s lead in listing Hezbollah as a proscribed and illegal terrorist organization.”