old_bold&cold

The Canadians in Kosovo did nothing other then peace keeping, but you can look at it any way you like. Bush has openly misused his administration to perorm illegal acts, not to mention a war that is also totally illegal and without any just reason other then misinformation pushed by Bush himself. Therefore he has murdered directly and indirectly 100,000 Iraqi people. Had countless others tortured and did so in the name of USA supremacy. He deserves to die in the hangmans noose just like Saddam. There were many others sentenced to death at Nuremburg after WWII, for much lesser things. I do not think Arar will ever show up in your town or any other in the USA, because there are peope like you who do not even give a dam that he is innocent and has been proven so by any and every way possible, to you he will always be guilty because he showed the world just what assholes some Americans can be. I also would like Tony Blair to have to stand trial for the errors and things that he did, in the name of security. But Bair never was not as forceful in pushing things the way Bush has been. Believe me if I had my way Bush would not even be allowed here in Canada next week, as I do not see any good making trade deals with such a dishonourable man as he is, as being the right thing to do. But as with all in my country of Canada, I can only use my vote to make the changes that I feel need to be done. Just as was done when Bush was voted in the second time, not the first time where lies and corruption were what won the day, not democracy. It is funny though that now Bush has 70% of the people wishing he was not in office. Its a good thing he can never again take that office. Lets hope next time the people of America have wisened up, and choose someone who is honourable instead of dispicable.

I may be wrong but I have googled several times for the number of people Canada had used security certificates on and I can only seem to find five in total and of those 3 have been released under strict provisions. Most are fighting deportation to the countries of their birth, and Canada is finding it hard to find any country willing to take them. While the numbers were surprisingly low to me, I still have to point out that the courts that these man were reviewed by every 6 month of their incarceration have seen fit to release these man on strict monitoring. That some how just does not even come close to what is happening at Guatonamo, by USA. Our courts rules that the cerificates were not legal under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is exactly as it should be. It shows that our justice system while being slow, it does eventually gets the job done. So the arguements about comparing the two, are some what misleading, as it has already been thru the courts here, and the certificate, can not do what many thought they could before. The courts have caught the errors, and now detention under those certificates, can not be unending reason to hold these people, and we do not detain incustody, for never ending amounts of time. It is the deportation that is giving Canada a problem, as we will not be like the USA and just send them to places where torture and even death would be expected. So right there is one of the biggest differences between the USA and Canada. The USA will with out even a moments forethought sent people to places where they are tortured or even killed. In fact they openly admit to doing just that. And people wonder why Americans are seen as hateful war mongerers. While myself and most Canadians know it is not all Americans that are this way, we have definitely been shown that for a small time and due to the fact, that a president used fear as a tool, to get his agenda done. It is not without seeing now that the vast majority of the American voters, have now realised that Bush has duped the people of the USA, and he has never had their best interests first and foremost. GW Bush will go down in history as the worst excuse for a president, and hopefully the first expresident to be arrested for crimes against humanity, if things seem to go the way there are now. He may have got his wish and had Saddam executed, but it would also go a long way in righting the wrongs done by Bush to see him executed just like Saddam.

I do not see that any arguement from a Canadian will ever be accepted by the supporters of the Bush administration. But fortunately that is an ever decreasing number of people. The USA "Patriot Act" it very onerous towards the detainees and it was never very well thought out. It is obviously something that was created because Bush allowed fear to be used as a tool to get the authority to do things that in hindsight were never really near the importance that his administrtion said it was. For the Sept 11 attack, I whole heartedly agree that the Taliban in Afghanistan needed to be removed from power and giving the Afghan people a chance to build and form a new government, elected by the people. That war and Canada's support in it, I have no problem with. The causes and effects were directly known and it still is a just reason for doing what we are doing there. But now that things are turning slowly the training of the Afghan should be a top priority, with a purpose of the troops being able to be withdrawn in the fore seeable future. The fact that there have not been any more attacks against the USA public within the USA itself, says that there really was a lot more hype to getting this Patriot Act past then actual facts. TV shows like 24 are on everyday showing the USA being attacked each and every day. Hell they have even had nuclear explosions, and the like. There is no basis for any of this in real fact, but once again I say it is what the Bush administration wants to see as it is the only way to get the people to be afraid enough to pass things like the "Patriot Act". When cooler heads prevail, it will be seen that all this whole time, was based on lies and half truths. History will not be kind to this time and its events. The great powers that the act gives the government, would never be done without great fear of the people of the USA, and Canada. Even Bush when it is shown that he was 100% wrong in things, he will not say he was or ever apologise for anything. The courts have told him many times now that even with the Patriot Act, his administration has stepped beyond that. The very fact that gitmo is still where it is is just anpther act of half witted bullying. The agreed lease on the land of this base are long past, and Cuba has not agreed to renew them. Therefore they are once again in a foreign land by use of force. Not by agreement. Its seems that USA is the worst house guest of them all. They just do not know when to leave. But that is a topic for another thread I guess. We can debate back and forth the different uses of the Patriot Act and Canada's Security certificates for months on end. The difference is Canada has made very little use of its certificates and rightfully so, where the USA has made so much use of the Patriot Act, that it now feels it needs to go even beyond that and use rendition as a new tool, even though it is illegal not only by USA law by any laws of the rest of the world as well. The death toll of the World Trade Center has now been eclipsed by the death tolls of the Iraq war in USA lives, and 100 and even perhaps 1000 to 1 in the lives of Iraqi and others. One act that took 3 hours to play out on 9/11, has now turned into 4 years of out and out war in foreign lands at costs in lives and money millions of times more then the initial act. Does any thinking person have any evidence to support this as being right or even a smart thing to do?

See this link for the latest known oil reserves http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/w...ntries-map.html Also look at the statistics Canada on the amount of refined oil verses crude oil that Canada exports. You will see we sell very little refined fuels to the USA. We mostly export crude. The Tar Sands extracts, are semi refined so they can be pipelined but very little is refined to end products at that point. The previous stats that had Russia were for natural gas, and that is only because europe needs most of what Russia can give. Russia as you can see by the known oil reserves is not even close to Canada. I will try to see if I can get the whole paper on Canada's oil exports and agreements, and post it. It makes for some very upsetting reading and you will see that Canada has for a very long time given way too much in the trading of our natural resources. I said it before and I will repeat it again. We need someone who will finally stand up to the USA and make sure we get fair and equal treatment. Now would be a good time where it seems that Canada's economy is going to out shine the USA's in growth. Not that I will be happy about it but the inside word of the banking community is that by nov- dec of this year our dollar will be on par, and if things keep going as they have been we may even see the Lonnie once again be higher then the US greenback. I just hope we can wather that and keep growing, but the time for taking stands on these issues would be better now then there ever have been in the past.

Canada is the second largest oil exporting nation in the world. The only reason the USA produces more oil distillates is because Canada sells them crude oil. We could just as easily sell only refined products and that would make Canada, much richer for the efforts. Arar was not deported to Jordan legally as his passport on which he travelled was Canadian, and he was and still is a Canadian. The USA choose not to honour that pastport and send him to Jordan. It was wrong and it has been shown that Canada never told the USA, that we would not accept him back. That is why it was so illegal not only by USA law but by international law. Which also is why I have said that once Bush is out of office and sets foot out of the USA, he should be arrested for Crimes Against Humanity, as he deserves to pay for this as well as the illegal war in Iraq and he should just like Saddam pay with his life. But again I digress. Just as Saddam was guilty of torturing many people, so is Bush and all his administration. So because the people of the USA will not use their justice system to punish these people, then it will be left up to the world courts to do so. The texas midgit had better get use to staying in the USA.

Just to reply about the fact that Canada does import oil for the eastern most parts of Canada. This is true because the pipeline for western oil stops in Ontario. It is easier or at least was easier way back to import oil then extend the pipline. That is now changing, and yes it is only in the planning stages but in the near future Canada will not need to import any oil. We sell more oil then we import, so that does show self efficiency. I did get off track in my rant, and must say that I apologise for getting off topic. But the gist of it still applies. Canada also must import foods from foreign sources especially in the off seasons, but we have little problems finding sources for that. I do see the day when Canada will be taking China to task on the safety of the produces imported from there, but that will be quite some time. Back to Arar. It seems to me a shame that even though the USA Justice system is aware of the illegal rendition practices, but are not following thru with any action against them. This makes many in the USA think then that these renditions are legal, when they are a crime in fact. That is why I feel so strongly about making the USA have to pay the costs for the things they were the actual perpetraders of. Yes Canada's part in this has cost the people millions and several people have lost their jobs over this. The Commissioner of the RCMP was one and rightfully so. There should be many more, but we are atleast starting things in the right direction. There still are many areas that were blacked out and the judges were very leary of the reason of national security, and as we have seen by this first batch, it was to cover up those who were negligent more then security issues. More will come in time and it would be nice to see the people of the uSA demand to see the true reasons for all the things it has been doing even though it is illegal. That would be a good day and I would like to see it happen. After all, is not the government supposed to be responsible to the people? There are several more cases where the USA have used these same tactics and sent people to lands where they know they will be tortured. I only hope that when it all comes out again in the news, that it will start to be taken seriously by the USA. I think for the most part the people of the USA are thinking more along my lines of thought, as it can be seen by how very small the percentage of support for Bush has been for quite some time now.

First off I did say it would take some guts. I can see that many will not have such things. I believe Canada will have to show the USA exactly where we stand and that we are not always going to be their patsy, in things they do. Yes Canada settled with Arar, but the USA is 100% guilty of doing the actions. and no, what they did is not legal even in the USA. That is why they made it so Arar could not proceed with his case there. Even the US courts would have found any of the many acts of rendition to be not only illegal, but totally against the very idea of justice. Since the USA has a very dishonorable president who is nothing more then a war monger, that does not mean all the people of the USA support him. If you look lately he is not supported by even 30 % of the people. But that is the man who is in charge, and yes it will take countries like Canada to take a stand to make sure he is held in check. The USA could not ever take Canada by force, even though we have not the army or the will to stop an attack. But we do have Russia who would come here faster then anyone to stop such an attack. Also many other NATO countries who also would.So no, the USA is totally toothless with that arguement. If Canada wanted to make a special surcharge on the price of oil for the USA only, it can do so and there is nothing the USA can do about that, other then find another supplier. Good luck with that as most oil exporting countries, could not come close to suppling the USA it needs, and many wouldn't do so even if they could. The USA is hated by most of the world's people. Just travel around and see how shop keepers shaft the USA tourist for everything, and will lower the price if they find you are Canadian. That I have seen personally travelling thru Europe, and these were countries that the USA thinks they are liked in. The very fact that Bush is president makes many hate the USA even more, and it will take a long time after Bush is gone before the USA, can change the minds of those people. I feel that once Bush is out and he travels outside the USA, he should be arrested and put on trial for crimes against humanity. It would not be difficult to show he was guilty of them, and he should be punished just the same as those who were found guilty in the trials at Nuremburg after the WWII. But I have gone far off course. If you have not guess it yet, I am not a fan oof Bush and the whole administration he has in place. But to get to adding a sucharge to the price Canada would charge the USA for oil, it only takes some guts to do this and it would be lifted once Canada has been paid back all the money that the USA over that last few decades has forced Canada into accepting, when we all know the USA was wrong in the first place. As I said the USA would never ever consider taking by force anything of Canada, as the rest of the world would decimate them for any attempt. Canada can do this without being a super power, because we are probably one of the more fair trading nations in the world. We are liked by much of the world. I give praise to Harper for his plans for the North, and he is dead on when he says that Canada just has to show its use of the North, to prove its right to the lands. You will notice that much of what Russia did in its claim only strengthened Canada claim, and we will see exactly what Norway is up to shortly. The USA has tried for years to say they have claims because of the waters off north eastern Alaska, to a huge area of oil reserves. But Canada has proven that wrong and it will be a case for the international courts, which everyone expects would go in Canada's favour. That is why I think harper is on the right track with northern development. He also is now seeing that Canada is going to have to mark its line in the snow and go against the USA, and any others that will try to impinge on our lands and resources. The USA is a house of cards that the present leader has allowed to be built. Where China could cripple the economy of the USA simply by divesting the US dollars it has in reserve, let alone many other countries that have vast US dollar reserves. The USA can not support itself on its own resources and materials, and must rely on many nations trading to get what the people of the USA want. It is not just oil and gas, but many other raw materials as well. The Steel mill of the USA rely on the ore from Canada to be able to make the products it does. There are many other things. Should the USA push too far, where trading was put in jeaprody, it would be their economy that would suffer greatly, and not that of the rest of the world. Canada is starting to see that, and with the right leaders it will be able to force the issues to be fair, or switch its trade to the rest of the world. It is not that we will have trouble finding customers for any of our products. So yes I am biased towards hating Bush and his administration, but I do not vote in USA elections, so I can not throw them out of office. But I am patient and I also can see the day when the elephant in the room will soon be easy to control, because the USA has not been self sufficient in anuything for many decades now. That history will tell you is something that bhappens right before great empires fall.

You are quite wrong that Canada can not raise the price of crude to the USA, because the world price is set for it in the countries where it is produced. If Canada raised the price the USA would have little choice but to buy from us as the costs to bring it from elsewhere would be even more. The very fact that they would have to find very large supplies in other places would mean the USA would probably have to import from the middle east, and we all know just how well received they would be there. That is why I say we can do this. Maybe then the USA will start to look at Canada with more respect after that.

Churchill is in the wrong geographical place and will not be suitable for what the reasons for this will be about. We need to be able to express our soviegnty over the northern most lands in Canada. The Northwest passage will be a open water route year round within a decade, and the natural resources of the north will come into play very much so in the near future. I think in my lifetime I will see the NWT to have huge mineral and resource ventures, that will make it a very rich area, and may even rival Alberta in many things. This is why we need bases and deep water ports to be more north then Churchill. The north needs infastructure to be planned and built now for the times that we should all see coming.

This just shows us that yes the CSIS and the RCMP are quite inept in what there do and are nothing more then yes men, to the wishes of the USA. I am no fan of the RCMP and I do not consider them any more efficient then any local police. They do not deserve to be considered anything more then capable of dealling with domestic crime at best. CSIS on the other hand is pathetic when it comes to knowing and being able to do anything. They keep records on all Canadian citizens and for those who are wondering, you should make an application to see the file they will have on you. Do not be surprised that they will have much of it wrong. Errors do not stop them from keeping a file on you. As for what was done to Arar and his settlement are only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many errors in things these gooks have gathered, that you may well be thought to be a disident and malcontent, simply for asking and questioning your own file. I can see these agencies as being not worth the money we spend on them, and I am sure that any work done outside Canada, will be equally as wrong as the work they do here. It should now be painfully aware to any Canadian, that once you leave Canada on holidays, that you are on your own, and our government will not do anything to help you, and that especially goes for the USA. People only now are seeing that Mexico, hates and targets Canadians for violent crime, and it was TV shows that had to find that out from the criminals in Mexico, because our so called agencies were again too incompetent to figure that out. Canada needs to flex its own muscles in these things and start making it clear that the status quo, is not good enough, and when these things happen we need to start sending strong messages to the offending countries. Take the USA for example. They refuse to do anything about Arar and they have blocked all attempts for him to take the USA to court. The also need to reimburse our government for the costs. So eithere raise the price of crude to the USA by $2.00 a barrel for a year, or until they see the error of their ways. But it seems that Canadians are to gutless to do such things.

It would be illegal under the laws that we now have in place. All organ transplants are done in order of the list of those in the most need. It is different if you wanted to donate a kidney to a family memeber where both you and the member are still alive, but once you have died and your organs harvested, they go to those on the list and there is no way to get around that. As for how to make sure organ donators can be recognised by the hospitals as they come in, it would be very difficult unless there were a tattoo or something the like that would be easily identified. I do know once I am dead, any and all of my remeains can be used for transplant or for science and education. All my family members know this and I am sure they will make it known at the time. If there were a registry where I could put my wishes I would gladly make that known there as well. I would suggest that everyone do something along the same lines.

I am not an O'Conner fan, but I do see where he has been given misleading information, that has immediately flew in the face of things he was trying to say. I also do not believe that ministers have to be on top of the most recent info even before it has been verified. That is to me the reason O'Connor has had more then a few helpings of egg on his face. He just needs to speak in terms of possibilities until he can say things with finality. As for the General Hillier goes, he needs to learn that he can only step on the toes of the min ister so many times before he is put in charge of the meaningless duties that can be found for such men. I will say that it is good that the leaders of the military do think for themselves at times, but when things are not life threatening, the party line is where he must adhere to or you will not be in a position of power for very long. Does it really matter if the Afghan army is 100% ready to take over by 2009, or is 60% and still working on the other 40% good enough. It does mean fewer Canadian soldiers will be needed to do combat, and more will be in supportive roles, no matter what the real numbers are, as for now it is only a guess anyways. Hillier wants to talk in absolutes when there can not be absolutes, and he knows this. So instead of just smearing by driveby, maybe he should give us what he says are the numbers. I think we will find that they are not really that far apart, and it never has been said that the afghan army needs to be 100% capable to do the job, but rather some number closer to say 60-80% would be what would more in line with what they can accomplish. Hillier had better realise this as well, because it will be egg on his face that will stick to him for what short time will be left of his carreer. The facts are that even Canada is not 100% capable of all things its military is asked to do and we learn to adapt to the levels we have or to train to levels we need. So in my own view, any time the Afghan Army is leading the operations and doing more then 50% of the actions, that is very good and a worth while thing. Those who think that they need 100% are not living in the same world as the rest of us.