ASHLEY SMITH reports on Washington's crimes during the first year of its occupation of Haiti.

GEORGE W. BUSH promised that the U.S. would bring democracy, stability and respect for human rights. Instead, one year of a U.S. and United Nations (UN) occupation of Haiti has brought a new reign of terror.

"Nearly two dozen healing programs for native residential school victims  in B.C. are on the federal government chopping block.

Forty-four of the 70 programs shut down last year and funding for the rest is running out."

Is there anyone working at Nortel anymore?

At one time Canadian Telecom giant Nortel had over 100,000 employees, by last year it had cut its workerforce again leaving the company with 30,000 workers.

On September 22, 2004, the RCMP raided a First Nation camp on the golf course of the Sun Peaks Resort, near Kamloops, British Columbia, arresting three people and destroying the camp. Members of local Secwepemc (also known in English as Shuswap) communities had established the camp, called the Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre in late August to oppose the continued development of Sun Peaks on the traditional territory of the Secwepemc, Neskonlith and Adams Lake bands.

FINNING'S ACTIONS TANTAMOUNT TO UNION BUSTING - NDP

Edmonton - NDP Opposition critic Ray Martin sharply criticized Finning Canada today, as the company laid off some 260 people in the pat year, including 70 people just two weeks ago. "Alberta's weak labour laws are once again putting profits over people. Big corporations like Finning are profiting off layoffs and union busting, and the Tory government is letting them get away with it," says Ray Martin.

The argument escalated until Gale was shoved into the lap of Mayo's sister, who was sitting two booths away, holding a 10-month-old baby. That's when police pulled out a Taser stun gun to subdue him.

"They beat this man in front of all these kids then Tased him in my sister's lap," Mayo told the newspaper. "They had no regard for the effect this would have on the kids. This is Chuck E. Cheese, you know."

"Rio de Janeiro. The murder of Dorothy Stang, a 73 year-old American nun who helped peasants engage in sustainable agriculture in the Amazonian rain forest, comes as oligarchic interests and the parliamentary right are on a political offensive against the government of Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva. This takes place as fissures are opening up within Lula's governing Workers Party while social organizations are mobilizing to demand the implementation of reforms Lula aligned himself with before he became president."

Community members were among the 200 protesters who marched on Premier Jean Charest's office on Valentine's Day and their message was clear: Kahnawake will not stand idly by and allow industrial hog farms to pollute our water.

"The 19-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska brings to mind images of polar bears and other wildlife living in wilderness undisturbed by man. West of the refuge is Prudhoe Bay, whose image brings to mind all of the ugliness, however necessary, associated with pumping oil -- pipelines, wells, roads, airports, air and noise pollution, housing, gravel mines, production plants, power plants and frequent spills."

VANCOUVER - "The Parliamentary Subcommittee that is set to review the criminal laws on prostitution is coming to Vancouver to speak with local sex workers from March 28 to 30, 2005. The Subcommittee, which reconvened in November, has asked Pivot to appear before it, and has also requested Pivot's assistance in reaching out to sex workers to get their firsthand opinions on law reform."

Feb 28, 2005 -- PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Three people were killed on Monday when Haitian police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators protesting the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide a year ago, witnesses and officials said.

Also see A first hand account by Bill Quigley.

SKULL VALLEY, Utah - "The Goshute Indians are not mighty in number, financial capital or political clout....But over the last eight years the Goshutes (formally the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes) have outlasted, outwitted and outplayed powerful forces arrayed against them, as they have sought to build what would be the nation's biggest bunker for the storage of highly radioactive waste...."

"The Bush administration plans to begin Arab-language satellite-television broadcasts to Europe later this year in a new escalation of its information war against Islamic extremism, officials say."

"Start-up funding for the $3.5 million venture would come from President Bush's $81 billion supplemental budget request for military operations in Iraq."

On February 18, 2005 - in response to a rally called by the Montreal-based Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity Movement (IPSM) - a group of about ten individuals convened in front of the OMNI hotel, the location of a conference organized by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, entitled "Canada in the World". [...] In preparation for the rally, IPSM produced leaflets which contained information about the policies supported by some of the more odious invited speakers (Paul Cellucci, Pierre Pettigrew, Aileen Carroll, Benoit Pelletier, William Graham and Raymond Chretien) and our reasons for protesting them. [...] Initially, the group was able to get up to the second floor of the hotel and leaflet registrants just as they prepared to enter the conference room. Soon after, as conference organizers realized that our presence was aimed at expressing dissent, we were kicked out of the hotel by security personnel. The following is a more detailed account of the day's events.

"Having been thwarted repeatedly in its effort to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling for oil, the Bush Administration and its Congressional leadership have come up with a plan for a sneak attack on the issue.

Rather than holding a straightforward vote on the Senate floor, where strong public opposition halted drilling in the past few years, House and Senate members are quietly planning instead to attach the drilling measure to upcoming budget legislation, where it would be all but impossible to stop (budget bills are exempt from filibuster or extended debate)."