World – Page 38 – The Speaker News Journal

Liberal Party Promises On Environment Highlighted

November 4, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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Canada’s new prime minister Justin Trudeau was sworn into office Wednesday along with his new federal cabinet, including new Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna.

Canadian climate and energy think tank Clean Energy Canada, which is based at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University, welcomed the new environment minister and highlighted the key points the Liberal Party had committed to so far in their promised “real change” environment policy, including:

Invest $100 million more per year in the growth and development of cleantech companies.
Work with the private sector to unlock venture capital.
Shift subsidies from fossil fuels to ‘new and clean technology’.
Support energy efficiency and electric vehicles.
Create a $2 billion fund to support projects that would cut carbon emissions.
Work with the provinces to put a price on carbon pollution and ensure more renewable, clean electricity is being produced.

Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, made the following statement on the swearing-in of McKenna and the other new cabinet ministers:

“We congratulate Canada’s new prime minister and federal cabinet ministers, and we applaud the federal government’s commitment to take a new approach on climate change and clean energy.”

Smith mentioned the upcoming climate change negotiations in Paris and said, “We welcome this government’s efforts to restore Canada’s stature as a constructive voice in the upcoming global climate talks, and to collaborate with the provinces and territories to reduce carbon pollution here at home. Including climate change in Minister McKenna’s title signals how high a priority climate action is to our new federal government.

“Canada has vast, untapped clean energy potential and developing these resources is both a key climate solution and important economic opportunity. As the economic opportunities and environmental benefits related to clean energy span regions and sectors, realizing this potential requires an integrated, whole-government approach.”

By Sid Douglas

US Warships On Way To Spratly Islands

July 30, 2016October 26, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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The Pentagon has confirmed that it will go forward with plans made public last month to sail US Navy ships to the contested Spratly Islands, where China is undertaking large construction projects.

The Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer U.S.S. LASSEN (DDG-82) has been deployed to the South China Sea, sending a message to Beijing that China’s recent claims to the territory are not recognized, according to analysts.

China’s claims to both disputed islands as well as islands belonging to other nations, such as Japan’s Senkaku Islands, have become increasingly aggressive.

The Spratlys, claimed variously by Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, in addition to China, have become the site of Chinese man-made island construction projects in what has become known as an “artificial land reclamation” enterprise. The locations of the projects are the subject of longstanding and ongoing claims by the other countries.

“Make no mistake: the United States will fly, sail and be deployed wherever it allowed the international law,” stated US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter two weeks ago.

The US has consistently warned China to restrain itself in the region. Among concerns are those regarding the way in which China enforces its territorial claims.

By James Haleavy

Brits Polled On China And Tibet

January 26, 2021October 26, 2015 by Allistair Currie

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A YouGov poll commissioned by campaign group Free Tibet on the eve of the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping has found that 69% of respondents agree with the Dalai Lama’s comment that UK policy towards China is about “money, money, money.” Just 8% disagreed with the Tibetan spiritual leader’s full statement, made in an interview in September: “Money, money, money. That’s what this is about. Where is morality?”

The poll also shows that seven in ten (69%) believe that protecting human rights in Tibet is more important than or as important as maintaining good trade relations with China. Only 14% considered human rights in Tibet to be less important than trade relations.

The poll arrives amidst widespread concern that the UK is unwilling to risk provoking Beijing’s ire with public support for Tibet or human rights. No members of the government met the Dalai Lama on his trip to the UK this September and on his recent trip to China, Chancellor George Osborne refused to be drawn on human rights in public statements, winning praise from Chinese state media for “not finding fault over the human rights issue.” Instead, Mr Osborne declared that it was Britain’s goal to be China’s “best partner in the West.”

Free Tibet director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren said:

“Just last week in a meeting at the Foreign Office, Free Tibet was told that commercial interests do not drive UK policy on China. Our poll confirms just how few people outside Whitehall find that claim credible. The UK has sunk so low in its desperation to curry favour with Beijing that David Cameron isn’t so much rolling out the red carpet as lying under it.

“British policy on Tibet and human rights in China is shameful. Human rights defenders in Tibet and China are paying with their lives and freedom for standing up to China’s government while this government is unwilling to stand up to Beijing at all. The Dalai Lama asked ‘where is morality?’. Right now, it isn’t found in Downing St and the British people know it.”

Tibet campaigners will be staging demonstrations throughout Xi Jinping’s visit, including at Downing St on 21 October as Xi meets Mr Cameron. The will carry a large banner saying Cameron: has China bought your silence? Speak out on Tibet. A digital “advan” will also follow the president in London, carrying a Tibetan flag and a separate image of David Cameron gagged by a Chinese flag, saying Warning: Chinese president in town. Don’t mention Tibet or human rights.

By Alistair Currie

Breivik Will Make First Public Appearance

January 26, 2021October 24, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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Norwegian political mass killer Anders Breivik cannot be refused in his hope to meet the national court, according to the judge in the matter. Breivik is suing his country for alleged human rights violations regarding his imprisonment.

Judge Helen Anenaes Sekulic told government lawyer Marius Kjelstrup Emberland that she could not see the court had any authority to refuse to meet the prisoner if that was his desire.

Breivik has not appeared in public since 2012 when his sentence was handed down for the killing of 77 political targets — family members of the ruling Norwegian Labour Party — during a group retreat on Utoya Island in 2011.

The government lawyer had requested that Breivik appear via video link, but Breivik’s laywer Oystein Storrvik argued that the court would have to see Breivik in person in order to properly understand the effect of his prison conditions.

Breivik is alleging that the conditions of his imprisonment violate articles 3, 8, and 12 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Breivik alleges that he is enduring torture and infringements on his right to private and family life, home and correspondence, as well as, effectively, being barred from finding a marriage partner.

Tony Blair Warns US To Take Muslim Extremism More Seriously

October 25, 2015October 6, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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In a speech delivered at New York’s 9/11 Memorial Museum Tuesday, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Americans that there is significant support for Islamic extremists and their beliefs among Muslims around the world.

Blair said that while the majority of Muslims “detest extremism,” the percentage that harbor “dangerous” religious prejudice is still large and would have to be rooted out if the threat of Islamic violence were to be quelled.

“The conspiracy theories which illuminate much of the jihadi writings have significant support even amongst parts of the mainstream population of some Muslim countries,” said Blair.

“There are millions of schoolchildren every day in countries round the world – not just in the Middle East – who are taught a view of the world and of their religion which is narrow-minded, prejudicial and therefore, in the context of a globalized world, dangerous.”

Blair also said that attempts to attack Islam’s prejudicial ideas may be considered to be attacks on all Muslims — not just attacks on extremists — but that those concerns have to be overcome in order to address the issue.

“If large numbers of people really do believe that the desire of the USA or the west is to disrespect or oppress Islam, then it is not surprising that some find recourse to violence acceptable in order to reassert the ‘dignity’ of the oppressed,” he said.

“If young people are educated that Jews are evil or that anyone who holds a different view of religion is an enemy, it is obvious that this prejudice will give rise, in certain circumstances, to action in accordance with it.

“The reality is that in parts of the Muslim community a discourse has grown up which is profoundly hostile to peaceful coexistence. Countering this is an essential part of fighting extremism.”

By James Haleavy

England Bans Bags

August 9, 2016October 5, 2015 by Annalisa Dorigo

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Legislation that bans supermarkets from giving out free plastic bags to their customers has finally kicked in in England. Gone are the days of plastic bags bonanza: from today, shoppers will have to pay 5p for each thin-gauge supermarket plastic bag they require.

Some 8.5 billion single-use bags plus some 500,000 reusable were used in 2014 by customers in UK supermarkets, weighing a total of 68,600 tonnes.

In England alone, 19 million single-use plastic bags are given out daily.

Similar legislation already in place in Ireland and Denmark, with France also following suit, has shown to have greatly reduced plastic bags use almost overnight.

The new measure, a welcome step according to environmentalists, applies however only to supermarkets with over 250 employees and does not include other types of bags, such as paper bags. It is therefore deemed to not be going far enough, and to be sending the public mixed messages.

Critics argue that the behaviour change such ban is designed to encourage will be hindered by smaller shops being exempt, with people being able to carry out as normal whenever shopping at these smaller establishments.

While legislation in England may not yet go far enough, it is nonetheless a good step in helping to reduce the amount of plastic blighting our landscapes, choking our wildlife, and finding its way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a floating garbage dump twice the size of Texas.

By Annalisa Dorigo

Video used to drum up support for a similar ban in California:

Nigerian President Vows To End Terrorism In 2 Months

October 4, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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By December, terrorist group Boko Haram will be over, according to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. One of his top generals reiterated the pledge Sunday.

The statement came two days after multiple bomb blasts by Sunni Islamist group Boko Haram injured 40 people and killed 18 in two townships near the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

Both President Buhari and former President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to end Boko Haram’s continued attacks by December. Buhari came to power earlier this year.

Boko Haram have been violently active in Nigeria since 2009. The group has killed thousands of nationals in addition to other crimes.

A new military force composed of fighters from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon will soon enter the struggle. The first actions by the 8,700-strong force will begin before the year is out, it is expected.

By James Haleavy

Chinese Journalist Blows Whistle On China’s TV Confessions

October 21, 2015October 4, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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A Chinese journalist has gone public with his experiences with the country’s police, claiming that they used torture methods, involved fellow inmates, and threatened longer jail terms and that his wife would leave him if he did not confess.

Journalist Liu Hu told The Japan Times that he was cajoled, deprived of sleep, kept from family and lawyers, threatened with a longer jail term and that Liu’s wife would abandon him, and recruited other inmates to persuade the man to confess. The desired confession was to spreading falsehoods and instigating trouble online.

Liu said that the police work with the Chinese government’s propaganda workers to create and televise confessions in order to sway public perceptions and shame suspects.

Several journalists, social activists and lawyers have been involved in televised confessions, where they have confessed to shameful acts such as hiring prostitutes.

After these confessions are aired, Liu asserted, public support for the accused decreases and less people question the legitimacy of the confessions or the guilt of the accused.

Other accused, such as journalist Gau Yu, have claimed the government has gone so far as to hold their children hostage, blocking access to needed medical attention.

The energies invested by Chinese police in the confessions are significant, according to Liu. He underwent more than 70 interrogations during the first months of his detainment, including two overnight interrogations and one 12 hour interrogation.

Liu suspects there may have been up to 300 staff working on digging up dirt on the man, and they reviewed his work records for the past 10 years and traveled to distant provinces to meet with Liu’s contacts.

In Liu’s case, he was released after almost a year of detainment. He had been assured by his lawyers that his online remarks questioning corrupt officials did not violate Chinese law, and he held out from confessing.

By James Haleavy

Islamic Violence Numbers For September: Attacks, Deaths and Critically Injured

January 26, 2021October 2, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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“Large-scale massacres in the name of Allah were down that month, as were the overall numbers,” The Religion of Peace editor Glen Roberts told The Speaker.

Over the course of September, Islamic violence globally left 1,580 dead and 2,436 critically injured in 187 attacks, according to TROP, which keeps a record of attacks that have taken place since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

The month’s totals were much lower than the spike in Islamic violence that occurs around the time of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month. This year, almost 3,000 deaths from religiously-motivated attacks took place during that period.

September’s 187 recorded attacks took place in 27 countries around the world, and included 31 suicide attacks.

Immigration Watch Group Criticizes Canada’s Mass Immigration

January 26, 2021September 29, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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Canada, the nation with the highest per capita immigration intake per year — adding 1 million immigrants every four years to her now-35 million population, is suffering because of an abnormal and unnecessary mass immigration policy, according to the immigration-focused group Immigration Watch Canada.

“Since 1991, Canada has had a mass immigration policy,” Dan Murray of Immigration Watch Canada told The Speaker.

“The term ‘mass immigration’ means that Canada has had a continued high immigration intake since 1991. This is an abnormality in Canada’s immigration history. It means that Canada has taken over 6 million people since 1991 and that Canada did not need most of those people.”

Murray said the rates were unnecessary and even detrimental to Canadians. The source of the policy of prolonged high rates of immigration originated, according to Murray, in a Conservative Party move to gain a new voting segment — the immigrant vote — in 1990.

He cited several government studies as evidence that the immigration numbers would not reduce Canada’s average age, would not produce any significant economic benefit, and would be beyond the optimal population based on Canada’s cold, mostly rock and desert land – some of the major benefits of immigration claimed by high immigration proponents.

Murray also cited the costs of bringing in an average 250,000 immigrants per year for 25 years, most of whom settle in the major cities. The cost of immigration for taxpayers — in the hundreds of million of dollars per year – is only part of the burden placed on the Canadian-born population, Murray stated. Two of the most easily quantifiable effects of mass immigration, he said, were in increased labor competition and housing affordability.

“The best friend of any worker is a tight labor market. When high immigration intake floods the labor market, wages stagnate or even decline and unnecessary competition occurs.”

The extra workers, Murray said, are not needed, and are sometimes given place in front of Canadian-born workers though programs like the Employment Equity Act, which enforces proactive employment practices when it comes to minority groups.

Murray noted the increase in ethnic enclaves in Canadian cities over the past decades as well. A handful 30 years ago has become about 300 today and is increasing, he said.

He cited cities like Richmond, British Columbia, where white Canadians made up 80 percent of the population in 1981. The remainder was a mix including less than 10 percent Chinese. Today, Chinese are the majority in the city, and white residents have left Richmond in the thousands. The same trend exists over all of Vancouver, where nine out of 10 of the population’s additional 30,000 new residents every year are immigrants.

He referred to Canada’s current majority population as “the new First Nations” whose interests are being betrayed by their political parties.

“Even a quick look at a graph that shows Canada’s immigration history will demonstrate that,” stated Murray. “No sane country allows its majority population to be overwhelmed. No sane country forces its majority population to compete unnecessarily for a limited number of jobs or grants new immigrants preference to those jobs. No sane country allows its population to grow indefinitely, particularly when the population growth occurs on its best agricultural land — yet Canada has done this.”

Breivik May Hunger Strike To Death

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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According to Dagoladet, Norwegian political mass killer Anders Breivik has threatened to hunger strike to death.

Breivik, who killed 69 people in 2011 — mostly the children of a Norwegian political party Breivik was aggrieved of for their policy on immigration in the Scandinavian nation — has complained of the conditions of his imprisonment, according to his lawyer, Oystein Storrvik.

Breivik cannot bear anymore and shall hunger strike to death, according to Storrvik.

Among the complaints are claims Breivik has been mistreated for 4 years and exposed to 884 forced naked searches and 2300 grab maneuvers. During the two and a half years of solitary confinement so far served, he has spent less than 5 minutes per day in contact with other humans, Breivik has reported.

Storrvik may sue Norway for violations of Breivik’s human rights because of the prison conditions.

By James Haleavy

North Korean Human Rights Act Gets New Push

January 26, 2021September 29, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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SEOUL — Wednesday at the Seoul Press Center, Human Rights Foundation (HRF) will launch a global effort to raise awareness about the North Korea Human Rights Act—a bill stalled in South Korea’s National Assembly since 2005.

The International Coalition is led by Garry Kasparov and includes democracy activist Srdja Popovic, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Malaysian opposition leader Nurul Izzah Anwar, former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, Stanford professor Larry Diamond, former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo, Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker and several others.

If signed into law, the North Korean Human Rights Act would establish a human rights monitoring and documentation program inspired by the East German transition; launch a campaign to educate the South Korean people about the human rights situation in North Korea; send humanitarian aid to the North Korean people; dramatically increase the flow of information into the isolated North by mandating financial support for the civil society groups that carry out this work from South Korea; and create high-level positions in the South Korean government—at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Unification—dedicated to promoting human rights in North Korea.

“The North Korean government’s crimes against humanity are known throughout the free world. The Kim family’s theocratic dynasty has purged millions of its own citizens through concentrations camps, enforced starvation, and mass executions. The horror is so great that Japan and the United States have passed laws to formalize the promotion of human rights in North Korea, while the European Union has held hearings on the subject. Canada has established a North Korea human rights day, and the United Nations has created a Special Rapporteur with the aim of investigating the North’s tyranny, and a Commission of Inquiry which in 2014 found that the Kim regime continues to commit crimes against humanity. Absent in this global effort is South Korea’s government—which has done nothing of the sort,” said HRF’s Kasparov.

For the past decade, a bill for the Act has remained stalled in South Korea’s National Assembly, trapped in political gridlock. South Korea’s opposition party opposes the bill, arguing that South Korea should not criticize the North’s human rights record, in an effort to avoid “offending” the dictator. They instead propose a different bill, which focuses on sending only humanitarian aid to the regime.

However, strong support for the bill does exist in South Korea. National figures in favor include the country’s National Human Rights Commission, the Ministry of Unification, the North Korean defector community, and President Park Geun-hye, who has personally expressed support for the act.

“A larger global voice is needed to express solidarity with the North Korean people and help the South Korean government and people pass the North Korean Human Rights Act,” said Kasparov.

“Non-violent action—in the form of information, education, and global attention—is a key component to bringing an end to the living nightmare of the North Korean people,” said CANVAS co-founder Srdja Popovic. “We only need look at the history of Apartheid South Africa and the Soviet Union to see how international pressure can assist in bringing down dictatorship. In both conflicts it was ideas, not military hardware, that brought about change. This rings true in the struggle against modern dictators, everywhere from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe. With support from world figures, our coalition hopes to provide encouragement for South Korean lawmakers to overcome differences and unite to create a lifeline for humanity’s most oppressed people.”

Jimmy Wales Foundation CEO Orit Kopel will join Popovic, Kasparov, South Korean lawmakers and North Korean defectors at a press conference to announce the International Coalition tomorrow September 30 in Seoul at 11:00am local time at the Seoul Press Center.

Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. HRF’s International Council includes human rights advocates George Ayittey, Vladimir Bukovsky, Palden Gyatso, Mutabar Tadjibaeva, Elie Wiesel, and Harry Wu.

By Henry Song