Michael Riordon

the view from where I live


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Canadian government spies on tar sands opponents

Shocking, but not surprising:

tar sandsPhoto: vtdigger.org

Through Access to Information searches, investigative journalist Matthew Millar reveals in the Vancouver Observer that the National Energy Board, a federal agency, coordinates a secret ongoing surveillance campaign against Alberta tar-sands opponents.  The NEB collaborates with CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service), the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which has its own national security apparatus), as well as private corporations implicated in the Alberta tar-sands and proposed  pipelines.

This makes sense only as an (ideo)logical extension of the Harper regime’s faithful service to the oil and gas industry, combined with the paranoia of a repressive regime, as in:

Anger erupts over Harper’s ‘enemy’ list.  The National Post, July 17, 2013.

Government labels environmentalists “terrorist threat” in new report.  The Vancouver Observer, Feb 10, 2012.

Stay tuned…

What’s Next? when science, nature and power collide.  Coming in 2014 from Between the Lines, Canada.


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PS on the TPP

Following up this morning’s post on internet freedom vs the “Trans-Pacific Partnership”, some sharp insights today from Dan Gillmor and others in The Guardian UK:  Thanks to Wikileaks, We See Just How Bad TPP Trade Deal Is for Regular People.

HarperObamaThese people are pushing it, hard.  Enough said?

To put it simply:  The thing stinks.  We ‘regular people’ have to stop it.

The Openmedia.ca petition (see previous post) is growing fast.  Please pass it on.


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Leaked documents: Internet freedom in jeopardy

If the Trans Pacific Partnership goes through in its current form, you may no longer be able to receive this message.

Internet censorshipWikiLeaks has released documents detailing the TPP’s Internet censorship plan, currently being negotiated in secret by governments in service to their corporate backers.  It’s even more dangerous to internet freedom than critics anticipated. 

The leaked documents confirm that the TPP will ensure the Internet more censored, more policed, and a lot more expensive.  Experts say, “kids could be sent to jail for downloading,” whole families could be kicked off the Internet, and your internet service provider will be required to police your online activities, at great expense which will, of course, be passed along. 

It’s crunch time in the negotiations, as they try to ram through this extreme plan during their meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Open Media.ca is building a petition to urge heads of state to defend access to the Internet.

Wherever you are, please add your voice, here.


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Good news: Suicide Seeds Are Dead… in Brazil… for the moment…

In a great bit of news for World Food Day, a key Brazilian congressional committee today withdrew the consideration of legislation that would have allowed the sale and use of Terminator Technology, also known as suicide seeds.

Terminator seedsThe Constitutional Commission of the Brazilian House of Representatives was slated to consider Bill PL 268/2007 this morning, but decided instead to withdraw it from the agenda – taking into account the social concerns raised by the national and international mobilization in opposition to the bill.  Further, the President of the Commission pledged that as long as he is at the helm, he will not allow the bill back on the agenda.

“This should be taken as a victory for Food Sovereignty and Farmers’ Rights around the world. Social movements, farmers’ organizations and CSOs both in Brazil and internationally have made it crystal clear that Terminator has no place in our food, fields or future,” said Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American Director for ETC Group. “This is great news for World Food Day.”

The ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration) does essential work with international grassroots allies like Via Campesina, to resist mad science and corporate control of food production around the world.

The full story is here.

This story and others  will be pursued in Bacon’s Garden: travels in nature, science and power, forthcoming from Between the Lines in spring 2014.


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The Desert of Israeli Democracy

Here is American journalist Max Blumenthal’s deeply perceptive, moving account of his recent travels through the Negev Desert, where the Israeli government is poised to implement a plan for the expulsion of 40,000 indigenous Bedouin citizens of Israel from their ancestral Negev Desert communities and “concentrate” them in state-run, reservation-style townships.

Palestinian Bedouins shift through their

Former Bedouin homes, Negev Desert.  Image: Occupied Palestine.

The Prawer Plan will extend to Bedouin Israeli citizens the same treatment that Palestinians have endured for decades.  It is grimly reminiscent of South Africa in the depths of apartheid, and North America through several centuries of ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples.

Max Blumenthal: “The Prawer Plan is only one element of the government’s emerging program to dominate all space and the lives of all people between the river (the Jordan) and the sea (the Mediterranean).”  This from the state that claims to be ‘the only democracy in the Middle East.’  Hence Blumenthal’s choice of title: The desert of Israeli democracy.

Please read his account here.