MATTHEWGOODONLINE

I first want to make a statement regarding tonight’s debate that has nothing to do with the issues discussed. All Canadians should take a moment and digest the fact that we live in one of the only countries in the world in which political engagements are conducted bilingually. No matter where you happen to come from in this country, that is a point of pride that all Canadians should identify with.

That said; if it were possible to take everyone at that table tonight and somehow combine them into a single person, this county would be in good hands. Unfortunately, being that that’s an impossibility, my opinion of the five party leaders wasn’t altered this evening.

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised that the debate wasn’t entirely focused on the current economic crisis and the participants didn’t employ it as a political fear tactic. It was wide ranging and covered numerous issues, though I found it unfortunate that the war in Afghanistan did not receive more attention given that we are, after all, a nation at war – one that, when the size of our force is put into context with regards to the sizes of other NATO forces involved in combat operations, we have the highest casualty rate.

One definite positive about tonight’s debate was its moderation. Hopefully Jim Lehrer was taking notes.

Oh sweet lord fellow Canucks! CBC has passed on a new deal for the rights to the Hockey Night In Canada theme song that was used on the broadcaster’s hockey programming for the past 4 decades.

That’s right: duh da duh da duh…. gone!
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The spring offensive is on.

Thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of Capt. Jonathan Snyder of Penticton, B.C. The 2nd Canadian to die this week in Afghanistan. He was an infantry officer as was Capt. Rich Leary who died earlier this week.

Watching Hockey Night In Canada during the playoffs means viewing the same commercials over and over again. While those by advertisers are obviously annoying, I have noticed something very disturbing about the images used in adverts promoting CBC news.

If you’ve been watching, and have seen the ads, you’ll notice that the majority of the images used center on a singular theme – the War On Terror. Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, scenes of individuals of Middle Eastern ethnicity being detained, images of a child being consoled by a Canadian soldier at a military funeral, and so forth.

Subliminally, the use of such images by the CBC is rather disturbing. As most of you are aware, the CBC is Canada’s national public radio and television broadcaster, the oldest of its kind in the country, and a Crown Corporation – which means that it is a state controlled entity. Its board of directors is directly accountable to Parliament via the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Prime Minister appoints its President. Financially, taxpayers, ad revenues, subscription fees, and real estate revenues support the CBC.

That said; one has to seriously look at the images that are employed during CBC News adverts, why they are specifically chosen, and who plays a role in their choice.

There is no denying the fact that the subliminal impact of images is significant in media, even if just flashes in promotions for news broadcasts. It is something that, I believe, Canadians should be aware of, especially given the fact that the understanding of our involvement in Afghanistan is very limited among many Canadians. In casual conversation about our role in that country, its historical complexities, never mind its cultural complexities, are commonly little discussed. For many, we are simply in Afghanistan fighting an immense evil and must therefore remain and persevere for the sake of those that would be endangered were we not present. Unfortunately, lost in the haze of that simplistic vision are a multitude of factors that are of dire importance and consequence which I have addressed at length in previous entries on this website (please use the Archives or search engine to locate them, as they are numerous).

With regards to the images employed during CBC News adverts, we must remain vigilant concerning the subliminal and its impact on us, even if it’s just a single image thrust onto a screen for no more than a second.

The interview Matthew did with George Stroumboulopoulos on The Hour will be airing tonight in Canada on CBC. Please check your local listings for the airtime, or visit this link after the show has aired and it will be available, and/or check back with this post and we might have a copy available for viewing.

Below is the interview, in entirety.
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Tonight I’ll be appearing on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. I’ve been interviewed by George numerous times over the years, dating back to when he used to be on The Edge in Toronto, not to mention just shooting the shit over drinks now and then when I’m back East, so it should be fun.

Oh – and by drugs they mean the prescription kind, not the illegal do-them-in-the-bathroom-at-a-club kind - just so we’re clear. I realize that it would be far more rock and roll of me if illicit drugs were involved, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Sorry to disappoint.

Then again, addiction’s addiction, and Ativan certainly counts.

Right now, as I type this, international trans-corporations are being taxed next to nothing by the government of Alberta to rape the Canadian wilderness in the pursuit of oil. The province of Alberta is the richest in the country, but the rest of Canada does not share in its wealth, nor is it used to help bolster those federal social programs that are in dire straights.

In the near future, Newfoundlanders may very well begin to reap the benefits of off shore resources. One wonders, given the economic disparity that they have been forced to endure since the collapse of the cod fishery, if they will follow suit.

I mention these things because, since 1989, the child poverty rate in this country has remained the same despite a 50% increase in the size of the economy. And that is simply disgusting.

In Canada, 11.7% of children live in poverty, and that figure is only based on after-tax income. Measured before income tax, the rate climbs to 16.8%. That, my friends, is one-in-six-children in this country.

British Columbia boasts the worst record. In 2005, some 15.2% children, before income tax, lived in poverty.

So what can be done? Well, the group Campaign 2000 has some ideas, though a lot of people are bound not to like them…

No matter how you look at this issue, it’s a national disgrace. And as a nation we are responsible for addressing it.

I have yet to post anything about the massive cyclone that has taken the lives of over 1,700 people in Bangladesh. Authorities in the country believe that, as rescue efforts continue, the death toll could climb. If you’re interested in helping, check out Oxfam Canada.

More On The Dziekanski Death

After last month’s fatal Tasering of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, the RCMP has said that it plans to review its Taser policy, though RCMP Commissioner William Elliott has already defended the use of the device and said that it is a vital tool in the RCMP’s arsenal. That comes as no surprise, nor is it why I’ve broached the subject again.

While there are currently four separate investigations underway into what happened that day - the B.C. coroner, the RCMP, the public complaints commissioner for the RCMP, and the Vancouver Airport Authority – a public inquiry into the matter is not expected to begin until at least the spring or next summer.

One thing about Dziekanski should be cleared up. He did not suffer from a mental illness, as has been speculated. He had simply been stuck inside the airport’s international arrivals area for some 10 hours and, unable to communicate, had most likely simply become “confused and agitated while waiting for his mother”.

The Serbian State Mental Institution Holocaust

The International Herald Tribune recently ran a piece about a report issued by Mental Disability Rights International on the state of Serbia’s mental institutions. The details are so horrific that it’s almost impossible to fathom…

“A 21-year-old man with Down syndrome tied to a metal crib for 11 years. Children, naked from the waist down, left to eat and defecate in their beds. A 7-year-old girl with fluid in her brain left untreated “because she will die anyway.”

These are some of alleged abuses in Serbian state mental institutions and orphanages described in a report to be released Wednesday by Mental Disability Rights International, a Washington-based group that spent four years investigating the conditions and the treatment of some of the nearly 17,200 children and adults with disabilities in institutions in Serbia.

In the report, which is expected to be read closely by European Union officials who are assessing Serbia’s readiness to join the 27-member bloc, researchers concluded that “filthy conditions, contagious diseases, lack of medical care and rehabilitation and a failure to provide oversight renders placement in a Serbian institution life-threatening.”

The institutions investigated include the Institution for Children and Youth Kolevka in Subotica; the Institute for Mentally Ill People in Curug; the Kulina Institution for Children and Youth; the Special Institute for Children and Youth in Stamnica; and psychiatric hospitals in Vrsac and Kovin, east of Belgrade.

Eric Rosenthal, executive director of the rights group, said the use of physical restraints on children for years at a time was the most extreme he had seen in 14 years as a disability rights advocate. He said there were no enforceable laws in Serbia regulating the use of such restraints. “This is the most horrifying abuse I have seen on powerless children, who are tied to beds and unable to move,” he said. “This constitutes a clear case of torture.”

Words escape me.

As some of you might already be aware, RCMP officers killed a Polish man, Robert Dziekanski, during a recent altercation at Vancouver International Airport. The RCMP are currently stating that they Tasered Dziekanski twice, though an eyewitness has claimed that she heard up to four Taser shots fired. Having watched the video of the incident captured by bystander Paul Pritchard, I have to admit that I only heard two discernable shots, though there could have been a third that was muted. There is also a moment when one of the officers seems to thrust something down at Dziekanski, though it’s imposible to tell if it struck him or simply the floor.

After the incident, the RCMP confiscated the video footage shot by Pritchard, promising to return it to him within 48 hours. They then told Pritchard that they would not be returning it to him, prompting him to retain a lawyer to seek the return of the footage to ensure that there was no cover-up on the part of the police.

The thing about this incident that is unbelievable to me is – why did four RCMP officers Taser a single man? True, Dziekanski seems disturbed in the video, he may have even suffered from a mental illness given his behaviour, but does that warrant the use of force within seconds of arriving on the scene? He had come off of a flight, so there was no chance that he had a weapon – he was in a security-controlled section of the airport. During the incident he also did not threaten anyone physically, even responding in a detracted manner to a woman that stepped forward to talk to him. Yes, his behaviour was erratic, there’s no question, but again, did it warrant being Tasered twice by police before they even tried to attempt to calm the situation in some way, let alone subdue him physically?

The RCMP claim that they could not have employed pepper spray because there were too many people in the area – but all of the bystanders watching the incident were on the other side of a pane of glass and would not have been affected by it.

Subsequently, a man is dead for absolutely no reason.

Watching the video it’s clear that Dziekanski did not place the four RCMP officers in an immediate life-threatening situation or one that required the use of such overt force. In truth, the incident may very well constitute manslaughter.

One has to wonder, given the state of heightened fear that we currently find ourselves living in, if this situation would have played out some other way were it to have occurred pre-9/11.

The CBC has a rather interesting look today at the growth of Canada’s military exports. If you’re under the impression that we’ve remained a small player in this sector, think again…

“Canada’s military exports have soared in the past decade, a CBC News investigation has found, yet the federal government has not released an annual report on exports of arms and high tech military goods for four years.

Faced with a lack of information from Ottawa, CBC News did its own analysis, by constructing a database from figures kept by the Canada Border Services Agency.

CBC News found that military exports rose 3.5 times between 2000 and 2006. And according to the most recent report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, Canada was the sixth biggest supplier of arms to the world in 2006.”

To read more on their methodology and conclusions, I encourage you to read the rest of the article.

Obviously, transparency is a very important, and something that we as Canadians should be demanding with regards to this issue.