http://canadawatch.org
http://www.freewebs.com/habeascorpuscanada/grounds.html
http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0056
Deep integration — TILMA and SPP to bring in rules to let corporations challenge our laws
Conservatives quietly advance plans that could deregulate Canada and bring our energy under US control.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02012008/watch2.html
BILL MOYERS: We turn now from the rhetoric of the race to the reality of governance. Congress has begun a new round of hearings to get answers to questions the Bush administration refused to answer last year — questions about accountability.
"Stephen Harper lives in a legal Disney World. In that Disney World, there's no constitution, no Charter of Rights. No rule of law."
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02012008/watch2.html
— Irwin Cotler, the Liberal justice minister, reacts to the Conservative leader's comments about some Canadian judges being "social activists."
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=414820f7-998a-496f-b41d-c033e5...
OTTAWA -- The Canadian Forces are using a controversial private security firm to train some of its troops sent to Afghanistan.
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/content/view/1965/1/
Select Canadian soldiers have been sent to Blackwater U.S.A. in North Carolina for specialized training in bodyguard and shooting skills. Other soldiers have taken counterterrorism evasive-driving courses with the private military company now at the centre of an investigation into the killings of Iraqi civilians and mounting concerns about the aggressive tactics of its workers in the field.
Critics of Blackwater label the firm as a mercenary organization and question why a professional military such as the Canadian Forces can't do its own training in specialized areas.
But Canadian military officials say the company was selected because it is a leader in its specialty areas, which range from weapons training to executive protection. The company boasts on its website that its instructors are "ranked the best in the world."
But Blackwater has found itself under intense scrutiny since a Sept. 16 incident in Baghdad in which 11 people, including a couple and their infant, were killed during a firefight. Iraqi officials put the blame for the killings on the private soldiers, but the company has denied its men fired on innocent civilians, saying instead that its convoy had been attacked by insurgents.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday he has sent a team to Iraq to investigate whether there is enough oversight of the private soldiers employed by firms such as Blackwater.
On Thursday, a congressional report into the deaths of four Blackwater security contractors in Iraq in 2004 found that the company appeared more interested in cutting costs than in the safety of its personnel.
Canadian military police trained by Blackwater operated in Kandahar last year in support of coalition special forces. Members of the Strategic Advisory Team, which operates in Kabul, also underwent counterterrorism driving training, according to a military official.
The Ottawa-based counterterrorism unit, Joint Task Force 2, has also maintained ongoing training links to the company.
Military officials did not have further details on why Blackwater would be hired, but promised to provide those. Later, however, they did not comment on the matter.
Canadian Forces spokesman Lt.-Col. Jamie Robertson said the military does not discuss its special forces training. But he noted that Blackwater and other firms have been contracted to provide services for other units.
"The Canadian Forces has occasionally contracted companies to provide specialized training to our personnel in those cases when specialized training is not available within the Canadian Forces due to a range of factors, including the unavailability of training resources, expertise or specialized facilities and equipment," said Robertson.
He said the training is adapted to Canadian Forces requirements and procedures.
Still, Dawn Black, the NDP's defence critic, questioned the need for Blackwater to be involved in training Canadian troops.
"My understanding is we have some of the best-trained forces in the world, and great trainers, so why do we need our armed forces personnel to be trained by a mercenary organization?"
A total dollar figure on what has been spent on Blackwater training was not available by press time, since training is contracted out individually on a unit-by-unit basis, said Robertson.
But he provided an example of one such contract: 18 members of the Strategic Advisory Team sent to Kabul went to Blackwater in June for a two-day course called hostile-environment defensive driver training.
Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day, when asked whether the training in Blackwater is appropriate, defended the Forces.
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BlackWater-Lobby Canada Torie Government for Secret Funding?by CanadaPetitions3,669 views
the editing is grrreat, gonna keep watching
pauliewaulieflimflam 2 years ago
Paul Martin and John Manley were right in there too..
TheB3e 2 years ago 2
Stephen Harper sold Canada out. Moving one step closer to Chinese model Socialism.
dangolingo 2 years ago
those traitors deserve to die!
jonathangregoire 4 years ago
Those Traitors deserve prison for life and why not Death penality for Bush
jonathangregoire 4 years ago