By Mark Taliano
Source: Global Research
Canada and Canadians should be celebrating. Against all odds, Syria has all but defeated Daesh. Reverend Andrew Ashton summarized recent developments in these words:

Excellent news that the Syrian Army has liberated the last ISIS held town in Syria, Abu Kamal, on the Iraqi border. And been able to meet up with Iraqi forces. Impressive advances. Meanwhile, western-backed Al Qaeda groups in the Damascus suburbs continue to shell central areas of the city on a daily basis causing death, destruction and fear. Difficult to counter because of the extensive network of tunnels being used by terrorist groups under the city, and the civilians they are holding as human shields. Enormous respect for the resilience of the city’s population, and the Syrian Army that is trying to protect them.[1]

But Canada and Canadians are not celebrating these victories of Peace and Justice over War and Terrorism.

The forbidden truth, concealed by totalitarian propaganda messaging, is that Canada continues to support the very terrorists that it publicly condemns. The Truth is “forbidden” because whereas Canada projects an image of peace and humanitarianism, its foreign policy is barbaric.Canada’s foreign policy is anti-humanitarian, anti-democratic, anti-human rights, anti-everything, even as it is pro- war and terrorism.

The truth would set us on a course compatible with international law, not contemptuous of it. It would reinforce our sovereignty, and it would give meaning to the words “Never Again”, whereas criminal war lies will continue to give us “Again and Again”: more vacuous vilifications, more fear-mongering, more war, more poverty, more death, more disease, more refugees, more of everything that War imposes on us and others every time.

All of the imperial lies against Syria and Syrians have been exposed. All of the evidence-free allegations have been discarded. Since the beginning of the war on Syria, imperialists have committed all of the crimes that they continue to falsely project onto Syria and Syrians. To what end? To further an agenda of international lawlessness, high crimes, war, and terrorism.

Baseless vilification campaigns against Syria continue to override common sense. Whereas it is commendable that the Syrian government signed the Paris climate accord, it is a sign of our government’s absolute moral bankruptcy that Environment Minister Catherine McKenna should feel compelled to apologize for “praising Syria”.

Syria and its allies have been fighting, and winning, a just war against terrorism. Canada and its allies are still scampering about looking for and creating fake pretexts to inflict further misery on Syria and the world.

Syria and its martyrs have earned the respect of the world. The Canadian government and its propaganda apparatus have not.

Note
[1] Reverend Andrew Ashton, Facebook commentary, 8 November, 2017.

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Mark Taliano, Global Research, 2017

From the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War

The tragic Jan. 30th attack on worshipers at a Quebec City mosque has gripped all of Canada.

Thousands of decent Canadians, from all walks of life, have taken it upon themselves to demonstrate their outrage at this heinous crime, and to show solidarity with Muslim Canadians.

We congratulate the organizers of the well-attended and quickly-organized Hamilton demonstration, and hope that we can work together as a community to end the islamophobia that led to the criminal attack in Quebec.

We wish that we could say we are surprised at the Jan. 30 incident. However, like many other organizations, the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War has been warning, for the past fifteen years, about the dangers posed to our society by the permanent condition of the “War on Terror.”

The military interventions, waged by George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, Bush Jr. and Obama in predominantly Muslim countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and Syria have all required the demonization of entire governments, and by extension, the peoples of those countries. Some U.S. and Canadian political figures and commentators who helped to destabilize entire regions (the Middle East and North Africa), have at the same time cynically capitalized on the resulting violence and refugee crises by raising fears about an entire religion, namely, Islam.

It’s time to recognize that successive Canadian governments and the corporate media apparatus have consistently promoted war and violence as an acceptable tool for remaking whole regions. It is in these conditions that ‘lone-wolf’ attacks occur. The powerful state and corporate media, through their blanket slander of whole countries and religions, help to put hostile islamophobic ideas inside vulnerable minds.

In a time where social stability and institutions are fraying apart, when the march of progress has seemingly ended, when people have nothing to look forward to other than war, cutbacks, and joblessness, misguided individuals will use the ideas that the powerful have handed them – that muslims are dangerous, that killing is acceptable, that violence will be rewarded – and try to turn them into practice. In doing so, they are following a template that has been created for them from above.

It is possible to build a better world. First, we need to throw off the idea that the U.S., through NATO and various other bodies, should be managing the affairs of Europe, Africa or the Middle East. Those governments have to give up their ambition of empire. They need to respect international law and sovereignty. They have to recognize the principle of national self-determination and respect people’s democratic rights to determine their own country’s destinies.

The abandonment of these concepts has led to a culture of lawlessness, violence, and impunity that we now see reflected in this tragic vigilante action in Quebec. If our governments act like gangsters, than our citizens will too. Canada can tag alongside the U.S. like the goons in a Mad Max movie, or it can follow an independent, peaceful, and humane foreign policy.

In order to build a foreign policy that reflects the vision among many Canadians for a more just and peaceful world, many of our elected representatives will have to reawaken the concept of a “political opposition” to this war agenda. When will the opposition political parties in Canada take a stand against the war agenda?

We call for the Canadian government to:

– re-establish diplomatic relations with Syria and Iran;

– end its punishing economic sanctions against Syria, Iran, and Russia;

– bring home all Canadian troops and military equipment from Syria and Iraq, Ukraine and all other frontier states bordering Russia;

– terminate the arms deal with Saudi Arabia;

– withdraw from the “Friends of Syria” Group of Countries (which organized the proxy war against Syria);

– quit NATO and join the Non-Aligned Movement instead;

– develop an independent, peaceful, and humane Canadian foreign policy.

Hamilton, Ontario
For more info: Ken Stone at kenstone@cogeco.ca