Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Sculpture George Norris': 'The Crab' caught in Trap of digital camera imagery

 The basic 'professional' camera in 1968 was a medium format camera, the 120mm variety, which produced 12  (2 1/4" by 2 1/4") square images per roll with a quality four times greater than the up and coming 35mm film with its rectangular images of 24 and 36 images per roll like my Canon F1.

Photo paper is rectangular therefore the 35mm was a close match to it whereas the 120mm required that the images be 'cropped' in the mind of the photographer during shooting.

This vertical image of welder Gus Lidberg, 'The Crab', and Sculpturer George Norris.  Cropped on either side of a medium format camera?


Post Media - Regina Leader

This photo?  Cropped top and bottom.

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In 1971 I was using a Koni Rapid Omega for weddings after falling afoul of the square formatted Yashica camera.  The Koni Rapid Omega Rangefinder:  120mm film, 10 images @ 2 1/4" X 2 3/4" (6 X 7), the same proportion as print papers: 16 X 20 and 8 X 10.  Heavy camera, but simple to use.)

It was with the ease of the Leaf shutter in the lens that garnered me a once in a lifetime photo of 'The Crab'. 

  • Big and bright viewfinder
    Grabbing focus with that big bright rangefinder is easy
  • Large negative size
  • Large comfortable handle
  • Leaf shutter in the lens
  • Easy to find 120 film
    there are 220 film backs available for some models and 220 film isn’t so readily available
  • Built like a tank
  • Three accessory shoes on top of the camera

Result? 

Works for me


 
 
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Today's images are typical, and aplenty.  A variety of a large building, small Crab vs large Crab, small building with most photos taken during daylight.  Must have something to do with the hours of opening of the Planetarium.



Google Search Criteria: Planetarium Crab
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https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3516/3809785174_040b6ce89f.jpg
 
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http://ounodesign.com/2009/08/10/planetarium/

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Page 6 of 41

"The Crab" sculpture and Museum of Vancouver Planetarium
1100 Chestnut Street

According to the City of Vancouver's Public Art Registry, "the crab represents the Indian legend of the crab as the guardian of the harbour and was also the zodiac sign at the time of the Canadian Centennial."  the stainless steel sculpture  was actually constructed in the south False Creek area, and then transported by barge to its present location.  Interestingly, the funds were raised by the women's sub-committee of the Vancouver Centennial Committee by hosting fashion shows and various luncheons.

It's a striking piece of public art that definitely holds its own presence against the retro-futuristic lines of the Museum of Vancouver/Planetarium.  The museum/planetarium's distinctive roof is an illusion to the woven basket designs created by the First Nations citizens who were able to leave a legacy -- what will be ours?
Sculpture George A. Norris'

Monday, November 18, 2019

CANADA AND CHINA. PART TWO: THE MENG WANZHOU EXTRADITION PROCEDURE HUAWEI INCIDENT: Contradictions Unlimited.

CANADA AND CHINA. PART TWO: THE MENG WANZHOU EXTRADITION PROCEDURE HUAWEI INCIDENT: Contradictions Unlimited.

By Robin Mathews, November, 2019.


The Vancouver Extradition procedure requested by the U.S. government (of the Canadian government) intends to remove Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the huge Huawei international technology Corporation, to the U.S.A. for trial... for various alleged wrong-doings. The request is freighted with contradictions.  On the face of it a perfectly reasonable request under the Canada/U.S. Extradition Treaty was made which requires (and is proceeding) that the subject of the request, Meng Wanzhou, undergo a process in Canadian court to determine that the U.S. request is legitimate and, if so, to then be handed to U.S. authorities for trial in the U.S.A.


A Canadian can argue that the request has been made in proper form and the treaty is a common structure among countries (China apparently has a number of extradition treaties) and Canada is simply fulfilling its obligation and must do so.


The request, however, exists in a global condition in which the U.S.A. sees itself in contest with China over trade matters, spheres of influence, military power, and control of geographical areas (like the South China sea, etc.).  In addition, the Chinese may see Canada as nothing more than a U.S. lackey.


In South and Central America where the U.S.A. promotes and supports  thug leadership which aligns with U.S. policy, it has trained some of those leaders in the U.S. School of the Americas. Both Russia and China have been known to support legitimate forces struggling to represent the people of those countries against U.S. thug policies and allies.  In almost every case, Canada has supported the most egregious violators of Human Rights put in place or openly supported by the U.S.A. in Central and South America.


China, therefore, has no reason to believe that Canada is acting purely out of the requirements of the Extradition Treaty with the U.S.A (but, perhaps, as a known and proved lackey of whatever U.S. policy is hatched.)


As in all well-run Communist Societies, merit and need decide the lives of the Chinese people: from each according to his (her) ability, and to each according to his (her) need.  Meng Wanzhou's father is an especially talented man creating, according to his ability Huawei, over which he still retains a measure of power.  His needs being especially great (as a man of genius), he is now listed as a billionaire. And Huawei, in keeping with the operative policy in China, exists in the structure of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. As an independent Free Market corporation, Huawei may or may not, ultimately, take direction from the Chinese government.


The founder's daughter, Meng joined Huawei, we are told, as an answerer of telephones.  But having great ability, she now contributes as Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Huawei her relation to the founder, her father, the powerful billionaire, has had no bearing upon her rise (from sheer ability) in the Corporation.  Her needs, too, are significant and upon her arrest in Vancouver, she was able to choose which of her Real Estate holdings "valued overall at something more than twenty million dollars"  she would choose as a place to reside during the legal process.


A further complication "if not a major contradiction in the matter" involves the violations with which Meng Wanzhou is charged. She was arrested on suspicion of violating U.S. Trade Sanctions against Iran.  Those are unilateral U.S. Sanctions which have been questioned by many and rejected by the United Nations.  Upon the discovery of Iran's nuclear undertaking (earlier), a Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action was initiated by a number of countries, the U.S. among them.  The U.S. withdrew (May, 2018) claiming a horrible agreement criticism which the UN didn't recognize.


U.S.-Iran Relations might fill an encyclopaedia.  Suffice it to say that since the forcible removal of the Shah of Iran, 1979, (a U.S. puppet), the U.S. (deeply interested in the oil-rich nation) has wanted to exert a proprietary hold on the country.  And so the withdrawal of the U.S. in May, 2018, from the Joint (many nation) Comprehensive Plan Of Action (approved by the UN) to oversee Iran's development of nuclear power for peaceful purposes led to the re-institution of heavy U.S. sanctions against Iran … not approved of by many other countries.


In that light alone, the U.S. allegations against Huawei and Meng Wanzhou are open to serious question.  Nevertheless, she is charged by the U.S.A. with conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions; to defraud certain banks by pretending to clear money for a corporation in order to disguise its dealing with Iran; with wire fraud to mask sales to Iran; with obstruction of justice and with misappropriating trade secrets.


A reasonable Canadian might observe that the U.S. sanctions against Iran are highly questionable and so being able to violate them (questionable sanctions) may be equally questionable.  And in that light, some argued at the time of the arrest of Meng Wanzhou that she should have been released because the U.S. sanctions against Iran are illegitimate.  As true as that may be or have been, Canada felt bound by its Extradition Treaty with the U.S.A. to arrest and to hear the arguments in Court for and against there being a legal basis for the arrest.


A more serious contradiction in the whole matter has been engaged in by China, which has chosen to arrest, hold in torture conditions, and not bring to trial two (actually more) unrelated and innocent Canadians! But Canada didn't request the Extradition of Meng Wanzhou: the U.S.A. did. And so China should have seized U.S. citizens in China, demanding that the request for extradition of Meng Wanzhou be withdrawn by the U.S.A.  HERE, the contradictions of Big Power Politics seem clearly to be in play.  China appears to have been afraid to offend the U.S.A. in a matter wholly created by the U.S.A.  Instead, China decided to beat up Canada for something Canada is not responsible for.  And, to rub salt into the wound, China bought products from the U.S.A. to make up for products it refused to buy from Canada!


The real possibility that the whole scenario is a sham points to another  serious contradiction.  And that is the failure to use the Canadian courts expeditiously to manage Canadian needs. No one claims that wait times and procedure times and accessibility to Canadian courts are reasonable for Canadians.  But the courts can be used endlessly on call to please a country (the USA) seeking, perhaps, false charges against a trade competitor.


The Canadian State, moreover, which leapt to serve the dubious request of the U.S. has still not moved on the gigantic False Flag, fake Islamic Terrorist Event at the B.C. Legislature grounds on July 1, 2013, an event alleged (by TWO higher courts) to have been intricately and criminally created by the RCMP, involving the entrapment, improper incarceration, fake charges, and enormous mental stress to two wholly innocent Canadians who have not received a single gesture of compensation from the RCMP or the Government of Canada ! !


Contradictions in the Meng Wanzhou Extradition case in the Vancouver Courts pile up as I write, not only in Canada, but in the lands of the two principals in the case, both apparently too powerful to be challenged or to be bothered much with Truth and Justice.



 Contact: Robin Mathews

Friday, November 15, 2019

CANADA AND CHINA. From Slavery to Managed Citizenship on the Globe. PART ONE.

CANADA AND CHINA.  From Slavery to Managed Citizenship on the Globe. PART ONE.

By Robin Mathews, November, 2019


The great civilizations of Greece and Rome were founded upon slavery at a time when physical labour was basic to managing individual life.  But life could have proceeded there, happily without slavery.


China used slavery through some of its history, but does not seem to have founded its community on slavery as did Greece and Rome.  There were, indeed, times when slavery was outlawed in China. (The history of China is very long over three thousand years, and so almost any generalization about China can be challenged.)  Wars killing millions have been fought there by the ambitious.  Competitions for suzerainty have been common. Some scholars suggest Mao's (modern) policies and actions resulted in the brutal death of untold millions.


In what we choose to speak of as modern times (post the Christopher Columbus discovery of the Americas, 1492), one of the most brutal, oppressive, and warlike (democratic) Imperial Powers “the USA“ was also founded upon slavery. Even while composing its great Declaration of Independence (declaring that all men are created equal) and for many decades after it the U.S. welcomed ships full of Black Slaves and put them to (mis)use.


Indeed slavery has much to do with the difference in development between Canada and the United States.  The U.S. has a more productive climate, about seven times as much arable land, and it produced an independent central government nearly a hundred years before Canada did. But perhaps the most important element of its growth to wealth and power was SLAVERY which flourished in the USA for 250 years before its erasure. One of the major expenses in the Capitalist System (we all know) is The Cost of Labour.  In the U.S.A. for nearly 250 years the Capitalist system could develop with a huge slave population almost erasing “the cost of labour” from the account books of huge portions of the U.S. economy.


China's (recorded) history is very old and fascinating.  The communities, clans, ethnic groupings, movements of population resulting in the Han people and its equation with the Chinese may play a small part in the present sinofication of the Uyghur (Islamic) population allegedly being re-educated (inside kinds of settlement areas) into conformity with present Chinese values. Put very simply, the imposition of present values under the for life head of the Chinese government, Xi Jinping, will want to erase (or at least defuse) the Muslim faith, assure use of the Chinese language (Mandarin), and teach acceptance of whatever iteration of Communist belief is dominant in China. (Managed citizenship?) That is not at all to say the Chinese Mainland population is servile.


Indeed, public protests and disagreement have not been uncommon, and the Central Government takes pains to work on the living conditions of average Chinese people ... raising the standard of living of a gigantic population as a major program.


We cannot say with the wildest stretch of the imagination - that a good (U.S.) democratic country is in contest with an evil (China) undemocratic country for global dominance or that a freely choosing, enlightened population faces a managed population under the heel of communism.  The U.S. population is as managed as any population on the globe.


For the 35 or so millions of (mostly) Euro-Canadians in a Canada that crystallized in 1867 (upon a sub-group of indigenous peoples roughly brushed aside), the one billion and a quarter population/Chinese phenomenon (in a country smaller than Canada) shaping itself over 3000 years until the 1912 Declaration of the Republic of China (ending 2000 years of dynastic rule) presents a reality and a modern State of a stunning and complex kind.


In 1949 the Chinese State was won to Communism by a romantic, adventurous, daring, imaginative, and (more recently) much maligned wartime leader called Mao Tse-Tung.  He was, among other things, a political philosopher, military leader, and a poet and even a theorist on the need for democracy within a centralized system.


Today China still presents itself as a Communist society (a semi-Command Economy).  It is, in fact, a One Party State and the One Party has opened itself to something like Capitalism within a Communist State.  Within that One Party State ties to increasingly large and successful Capitalist corporations are made with the governing class, a class that cannot be called dynastic certainly, but which has visible ties to the Mao generation as if succession in power is based upon Party affiliation and merit married to some kind of affiliation with the Mao generation.


After two thousand years of dynastic rule, could it be possible that a natural tendency of spirit, historical experience, and a special understanding of rulership is moving China close to old ideas?  Time will tell.  When democratic government is not in use in a country, the search for top governors tends to move into and among people with familiar backgrounds, historical relations, and genetic connections.  And those people tend to forge relations with especially helpful associates found among those with (apparently) civic, non-political, kinds of Corporate power.


Does that mean serious exchange and relation cannot exist between such a government and democratic governments of the West?  Not at all.  It means simply that special care must be taken to fashion meaningful ties.  Special care on all sides.


In the meantime, in Vancouver, a drama is playing out with the arrest and extradition proceeding (requested by the U.S.A.) related to Meng Wanshou, who is a top officer of Huawei, said to be the world's largest telecommunications technology corporation. Wanshou is accused by the U.S. of violating (U.S.) Iran sanctions (questioned and/or rejected by many countries).


THAT situation has played upon and plays upon Canada's relation to China.  And since China is vying for predominance as a trading and military power in the East (at least) of the world Canadians would do well to think about it and about Canada/China relations. It is not, however, a one-way street by any means.  To achieve its aspirations, China, too, must think of its one-on-one relations with other countries on the Globe.  Moving into a relatively new relation in the world, China is flexing its muscles and seeking super-power relevance and influence.


 Contact: Robin Mathews

Monday, September 23, 2019

THE COUNCIL OF CANADIANS BACK IN THE NEWS! WHAT IS IT? WHERE DID IT COME FROM? Robin Mathews

THE COUNCIL OF CANADIANS BACK IN THE NEWS!

 By Robin Mathews/September 2019.


Like a Phoenix Infrequent The Council of Canadians is, sort of in the news again, with a new Executive Director and new Chairperson. Named by whom? (People think of Maude Barlow when they think of the COCO.  More about that later.) From my recollection, the list of founding members of the COC as named in Wikipedia is as fine a romantic, fantasy list as might be available!! The Council seems to attract fabulation. As one of those who was on the ground floor back in 1985 at the founding and was on the first National Board I will tell all.



Just where the new officers come from I cannot tell you.  From being envisaged as a wonderfully democratic organization back in those heady days of the 1980s, the two new officers may have appeared from under a large mushroom. Although I live in a tiny village in B.C. called Vancouver, COC managed to find me, it seems, so it could announce the changes, and ask for money: over and over and over.



Reviewing the past, the recent message from The Centre does NOT SAY the Council of Canadians (begun, in fact, by Mel Hurtig and Walter Gordon: Wikipedia gets much wrong) was created as an actively anti-imperialist organization (nor, or course, does Wikipedia).  The Big Fact at the time was U.S.-loving-Brian Mulroney, full of Blarney and uncertain truth taking Canada into a questionable Free Trade Agreement with the USA. (That was a present symptom: more integration was at stake.) The writers of the recent message skirt the foundational fact about the COC its anti-imperialist roots. Who, in public life in Canada today, would be so crude, so bad-mannered, so boldly forthright as to tell the truth about the formation of the Council of Canadians!



The truth is borne out by the fact that Walter Gordon (important Liberal Party organizer, brief Liberal Finance Minister, and on-going fighter for Canadian independence) began in the early 1960s writing books about foreign (read U.S.) takeover of the Canadian Economy.  He was a key builder of the revived Liberal Party and was made Finance Minister in the government of Lester B. Pearson. As minister he introduced (in 1963) a takeover tax to slow, especially, takeover of the Canadian economy by the imperializing U.S.A.



Lester B. Pearson was attacked by all the powers of Finance in Canada, roiling in fury at Gordon's initiative. Courageous Lester Pearson did not defend his minister. He asked for Gordon's resignation. Gordon agreed to go on condition Pearson would permit the creation of a Task Force to investigate Foreign Ownership in Canada.  Pearson agreed.



To be brief the Task Force (made up of a number of economists, not all progressive ones) reported in 1968 and advocated measures to control investment from outside Canada. 



That takes us one more step towards the formation of the Council of Canadians.



The Watkins Report, issued in 1968 (a year after the widely celebrated Centennial of Canada celebrations) was a major National Event. And it is connected, of course to Walter Gordon, and both are connected to the creation of the 1969 Movement (Mel Watkins, Jim Laxer, Bob Laxer) in the NDP for a swing to the Left and to increased national ownership of the economy. The movement called The Waffle Movement, attracted many, and it fought to take the NDP in a Left-wards direction. Indeed, Liberals Walter Gordon, Peter Newman, and Abraham Rotstein fell together, as a result, to form in the next year The (Liberalish) Committee for an Independent Canada which - on its slightly less militant part - advocated action on the ownership of the Canadian economy and much more.



Just as Walter Gordon and the Watkins Report had much to do with the creation of the Waffle Movement in the NDP [Go Left], they also contributed greatly to foundation of The Committee for an Independent Canada. The Far Right operators of the New Democratic Party at the time were, really, David Lewis and his son Stephen with U.S. Unions-in-Canada providing some of the financial basis of the Party.  And so in 1974, in the Orange Hall in Orillia, Ontario the NDP had a Night Of The Long Knives and drove OUT OF THE PARTY its first progressive, reform movement since its founding in 1960.  The bosses of the New Democratic Party wanted no movement to the Left that the Waffle Movement represented as has been clear ever since which is why the NDP is not characterized as the Canadian Parliamentary Left but as Liberals In A Hurry (and not much of a hurry).



Time passed  The Waffle Movement in the NDP was crushed. The Committee for an Independent Canada folded its tents. Brian Mulroney took power the Trudeau Era was over and Big Negotiations were on for a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.A. Many saw that (with Brian Mulroney fronting the action) as, very probably, a danger to Canadian independence.



Walter Gordon was aging and, in addition, ill. So Mel Hurtig was front and centre in the call to a meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel on Bloor Street in Toronto in 1985.  When I walked into the meeting, I found myself in the company of the people I knew in all the fights for Canadian Independence over the previous twenty years.  And from his sick-bed Walter Gordon came for a brief few minutes to the meeting to give the new departure his blessing.



(A side piece of information of a disturbing nature: talking not long after the meeting to Mel Hurtig, he informed me that while the meeting was going on downstairs, his room in the hotel was entered, ransacked, and all his belongings and papers were messed with and scattered around the room ... in evident disarray. I was alarmed and puzzled. Who?  Mel smiled: the RCMP leaving its calling card he opined.)



Out of the meeting came The Council of Canadians. It was to be a democratic organization meeting every two years in a major Canadian centre where policy would be shaped and officers democratically selected.  As I remember it, Mel Hurtig was the first (naturally) head of the Council, and was re-voted in at the next meeting (was it Winnipeg?). Remember? Mel Hurtig flew over the U.S. ship travelling through the Canadian Northwest Passage (without permission) and dropped a Canadian flag on its deck to remind it, (Canadian government being too reticent to do so!!)



A little later, Maude Barlow became the energetic and effective leader of the Council. From then on there were no more bi-annual meetings to shape policy and to elect the leader. Because two-year periods repeatedly passed without meetings, Ms. Barlow was not, obviously, the elected Chair and so for some years she signed communications as Voluntary Chair of the COC.  Members of the Council of Canadians have not met … have not jointly made policy and have not voted for top officers for at least 25 years.



The fight for Canadian independence has been erased until the Council is now well What is it now??



There may not, in fact even be members anymore maybe just contributors.  Who elected the two named as Chair and Executive Director in the recent communication?  And so who is the Council in the phrase The Council of Canadians and who made Maude Barlow Honorary Chair of the Council of Canadians? (Not you.  Not me.)



Behind all the history considered here a larger question seems to loom. Canadians (beneath the surface) seem to want a Canadian independence party one that rejects, for instance, the me-too / U.S.-ordered hatred of Russia, of Venezuela, of Iran, of Middle East countries, of now Cuba ALL OF WHICH Chrystia Freeland, Canada's Me-too! Us-too! Foreign Affairs minister embraces as if she were, herself, a born-again citizen of the U.S.A.



No wonder the urge for something different, for an independent Canadian path surfaces over and over until maybe one day Canada will create a winning and triumphant Party of Canadian Independence and Decency.  Obviously The Council of Canadians created to urge forward that purpose, has chickened out ....  And so ... the field (ladies and gentlemen) is open again.



Contact: Robin Mathews

Saturday, September 7, 2019

The Birthday Of A Gigantic Colony (July 1, 2019). The Indigenous Peoples Of Canada. Part Three. What's To Celebrate? by Robin Mathews


 The Indigenous Peoples Of Canada.

The amount of money spent is huge.  It is accompanied by unending faux comment by the Mainstream Press and Media [half truth, no truth, and sleight-of-hand].  The Fourth Estate bathes itself in the flood of expertise by Social Scientists: Sociologists, Anthropologists, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Suicidologists and more who operate and/or provide the structure of the passionately concerned, humane, sensitive, deeply caring reconciliation, truth and other keenly motivated "Commissions of Inquiry" into the deeply destructive, on-going, un-health and deracination of Canada's Indigenous Peoples from sea to sea to sea.


How has the legislation since John A. Macdonald continued to be destructive of Indigenous life and community?  Why are top Social Scientists unable (?) to fathom the reasons for the unending degradation of Canada's First Peoples?


The hard, hurting short answer to the last question may be because the Social Scientists are, in fact, (even when unaware) unable to find any meaningful solution living as they do in the side-pocket of Power (quite close to its wallet).


What is to celebrate about a sickness in Canadian Society that is more than 150 years old?


The vastness of the subject, its intricacies, its on-going (apparent) insolubility, and the endless publication attempting to deal with it must surely cause many, many concerned non-indigenous Canadians to turn off, to turn away from the subject from sheer confusion. Are they racists?  Perhaps. One cannot say categorically: No, not racists.  But let us say 'Not Racists' merely confused people unable to find a thread they can take hold of to lead them (a) to the core of the problem, and (b) able to see Real Solutions that may be given life.


With the enormous literature on the subject one is lucky to find the core, the key, the heart and soul of the matter in terms that any Canadian may understand.  It is there.  And when it is presented any Canadian (except those who are on the distraction payroll) will say:  Yes, of course.  Now let's begin real change.


Reading the book by Roland D. Chrisjohn and Shaughnessy McKay (with Andrea O. Smith): Dying To Please You: Indigenous Suicide in Contemporary Canada makes everything plain.  [Read also The Circle Game by Roland Chrisjohn and Sherri L. Young , with Michael Maraun].

[Notice the two books are not published either by major University Presses or by major Mainstream publishers in Canada those last being, in fact, U.S. Branch Plant operations in Canada: Gigantic Imperial  Publishers for a Gigantic Colony.]    The publisher is Theytus Books, Penticton, B.C.


The condition we face arises, they reasonably say, out of the nature of our society.  Dying to Please You¦. refers to global developments since Columbus discovered the geography of the Western Hemisphere in 1492 and the rape of South and Central and North America was launched, and (in relation to the lives of the Indigenous Peoples) has never ended.


That is the basis of the argument.  It is that Pizarro, the famous looter/murderer of Indigenous people in the first half of the sixteenth century was simply father and uncle to all that has followed and which continues to this day: the rape and looting of all 'The New Worlds' by Pizarro's Capitalist descendants. The primary cause of the disease attacking the Indigenous in the world and in Canada is called Capitalism.  Genocide follows.


Genocide, write the authors of The Circle Game, is key to the whole story.  Genocide to cover up the wholesale theft of North America from the Aboriginal Peoples, to avoid having to compensate those whose property was stolen, and to obliterate the chain linking specific genocidal actions taken against Aboriginal Peoples, to the legal, political, economic, and social elite that conceived and implemented genocide. (p. 74)


(On that central matter read all the volumes by Anthony Hall and Bruce Clark as very useful further instruction.)


The authors of Dying To Please You. assert that the program has been a shared activity of all The Western Imperial Malevolent Powers. (p. 104)  That is true from at least Pizarro onwards. The authors of the two books before us deal head on with the subject and so we may be usefully brief. The nature of our society is (as the authors record) that it is a Capitalist Society … one in which (a) Capitalists, in fact, rule, and (b) in which the goal is to gain possession of and exploit anything and everything that will increase Capitalist wealth.  The problem for Canadian government, now, the authors aver, is how to appropriate indigenous land and property without paying for it.  Moreover, the possibility that indigenous nations maintain their ownership while being compensated for previous outright robberies is not allowed to be raised as an issue.  (p. 106, Dying to Please You.)


And so, for the Indigenous Peoples, Dying to Please You. recommends they come to grips with the domination of our lives by capitalism (p. 138).  But, surely, a real solution will only come about when all Canadians come to grips with Capitalism and reconstruct 'the present system', excluding the power and the tools of Capitalism.


Education in our time as The Circle Game points out, is, in fact, training to accept the Capitalist Status Quo.  We have probably gone backwards.  In the 1950s and 1960s debates about Capitalism were fairly common on university campuses.  And the Communist Party of Canada was visible and was dumping on (and educating about) Capitalism.  Marxist Study Groups were fairly common.  Now Canadian university campuses are firmly and richly in the hands of the Capitalist State, as is every legislative body and almost every visible Political Party in the country.


One of the very best ways to protect Capitalism is to establish as Absolute Truth that any examination of, and/or any reference to Marxist Thought can only come from filthy, vile, near-mad, immoral, humanity-hating, gross, vile, anti-community, self-seekers (when, in fact, the description may, rather, describe perfectly almost any serious Capitalist.)


None of that bodes well for the real condition of Canada's indigenous peoples OR for the indoctrinated population standing, apparently helpless, in the face of on-going extermination on-going genocide.


What a strange and sorry tale to tell about Canada on the occasion of its 152nd Birthday Party.  The greed of its Capitalist Class, the existence of  barely disguised Capitalist government, added to the ignorance of non-Indigenous Canadians (and even many of the Indigenous) delivers a continuing condition of oppression, gross misunderstanding, and genocide.


Come the Revolution as people used to say, things will change!  But the Revolution seems farther and farther away.  Except one of the characteristics of Revolution, we are told, is that often, unexpectedly, the chain of consent snaps and the community is in revolutionary change almost as a result of what seemed to be the unnoticed nature of the society.  Hope, as Alexander Pope wrote, "hope springs eternal in the human breast."


  Contact: Robin Mathews



Saturday, August 17, 2019

BC Legislative Library 2021-06-02

I stumbled upon this BC Legislative Library URL nine years ago and wondered aloud what would happen if I backspaced backspaced backspaced all the way back to public/


If you click on this link today you'll get a 403 retort

http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project



The 403 happened right after the BC Liberals went and sat on the Opposition benches, which means to me, that I was not the only one going backspace backspace backspace.



WaybackMachine: https://web.archive.org/web/20110308181027/http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/





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319247 Coastal fuel tank farms siting regulation study 1980.pdf

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122728 External trade through British Columbia customs ports_1979.pdf

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590119 Self Help Community Groups 1946.pdf

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325564  Impact of potential new applications on electric service needs 1980-2005

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265628    Fraser River Estuary Study 1982.pdf 

https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2020/eccc/en40/En40-905-1984-eng.pdf

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 545966 LIST OF REGISTERED MOTORIZED VEHICLES 1912.pdf


BBC Post  2015
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345135  Manual of  THE SCHOOL LAW and Regulations Index Yearly_1919.pdf


1893

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119525   Cost of new electricity supply in British Columbia 1990 - 1994.pdf
 

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Archives Index
Old BC Leg Library Index

186548 Annual Report / Provincial Library and Archives Index Yearly 1893 - 1957

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New and Improved BC Leg Library Index

186548   Annual Report / Provincial Library and Archives Index Yearly 1893 - 1957
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Specifically 1913
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2015/186548/1913/index.htm

Theoretically this is available today, unless its been siphoned off by unscrupulous individuals in the BC Legislature, current or past tense... 

Page 4 of 134

 Typus Orbis Terrarum circa 1579 by the famous Ortelius


Authour Ortelius? Eight books at the Royal British Columbia Museum

But not Typus Orbis Terrarum circa 1579
 
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 Page 28 of 134

List of Vessels included ....

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Page 134 of 134
Request for Pension and Death Benefits for Spouse
Astronomer  1843




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318304 Proceedings of the CENTENNIAL WORKSHOP ON ETHNMUSICOLOGY.pdf


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589258 Colonial land, Indian labour and company capital aka HUDSON BAY COMPANY/mackie.pdf



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326437 Thorsen Creek small hydro project, Bella Coola 1982.pdf

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Outline of steps taken to transfer control of the public domain in BC from Crown authorities to that of the local legislature 1849 HBC.pdf

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376655 Provincial General Election Statement of votes taken 1953.pdf

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585280 Provincial Apprenticeship Board.pdf

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535696   1928 .... within British Columbia by any race or races whose customs or practices or economic standards of living may threaten eventually to lower the recognized Canadian standard of living .....pdf

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354584 Premier John Hart Policy for 1945.pdf
Premier John Hart, NOT WAC Bennett's idea
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407908    Histories, territories, and laws of the Kitwancool .pdf


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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/529426 1915 Apple Industry.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/528964 1942  Spinach Seed.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/529423 Women's Institutes of British Columbia.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/529422 List of books for the Women's Institutes.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/530592.pdf


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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/529427.pdf
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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/529409.pdf
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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/529408.pdf
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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/529072.pdf
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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/526208.pdf  Making lime sulphur at home

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526206 ... Strawberry Culture not to be confused with the Blackberry Culture.pdf

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535225 Couch Quack or Scutch Grass.pdf

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535202 Canada Thistle.pdf

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350444.pdf
History_of_Saanich_peninsula_railways.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2014/349123/provincial_parks_survey_technical_report.pdf

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323198 Mackenzie Market Study 1975.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/254567/planning_act_discussion_paper.pdf


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535652    Chinese, Japanese, & Indian Populations of British Columbia   1901
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535650    Nakusp Slocan Railway

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535642  Census Telegrams  1893

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530904 POWER IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 1968 TO 1975_1975.pdf

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535656 Legislature Grounds: Gathering of war veterans, patriotic and other associations 1918.pdf

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535655 Teslin Railway  Google

Teslin Railway BC Leg Library 

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535491 Silo Benefits for the backyard
Creosote Poles
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457529 'South Fork of the Fraser River' Grand Trunk Pacific Railway McBride.pdf


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364487 Helicopter use for Forest Survey ... replaced with Drones.pdf


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344702 Creation of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway land grants.pdf

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318304_2.   Proceedings of the Centennial Workshop on Ethnomusicology held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 19-23, 1967.

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314263   Statement of the case of the municipalities of British Columbia.  BNA Act 70 years old

1937 In Presenting the viewpoint of the Municipalities of BC
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265552 Clinton crown land plan 1983_summary.pdf

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 Calvert Island Google
 1981
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/265541/calvert_island_crown_land_plan.pdf

Ecological Reserves of British Columbia
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A summary of legislation and licencing procedures in the petroleum industry of British Columbia / prepared by Barbara MacDonald.  1977

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An earlier population of Hesquiat Harbour, British Columbia : a contribution to Nootkan osteology and physical anthropology / by Jerome S. Cybulski.

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254502     BIRDS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.pdf
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203106   Tuberculosis Control Index_1935.pdf

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323532 Lillooet-Fraser Heritage Resource Study_vol2a.pdf

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184902 CAVE RESOURCES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.pdf

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75771 Budgets of British Columbia 1908 to ......_1963.pdf

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Budgets of British Columbia   from 1908 to 2018

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326199 Stikine Hydroelectric maps of British Columbia_maps.pdf

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The cost of new electricity supply in British Columbia / Resource Planning, Corporate and Environmental Affairs. --  1990   to 1994

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/406103/chilcotin_plateau.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/527879/pollination_and_fruit_set_in_tree_fruits.pdf
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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/528086/agriculture_vancouver_island_gulf_islands.pdf
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528143 Wood Preservative on the farm

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British Columbia Power Commission   Ten Years of Progress (1947)
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/530798/ten_years_of_progress.pdf
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Science Council of BC
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/418448/twenty_to_one_payback_by_bc.pdf
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1982   Multicultural Society
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/256818/report_of_the_advisory_committee.pdf

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Water Powers of British Columbia  1962  to 1967
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/530905/index.htm

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2013_2/264737/present_geological_hazards_soil_sensitivity_to_earthquake_movement.pdf
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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/recentlyscanned/holmes_project/530103 Approximate statement of amounts required on account of unfinished contracts 1876.pdf

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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs_holmes/526205/blackberry_culture_1946.pdf


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498700 Handbook of British Columbia Canada: History Topography Climate Resources Development.pdf


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http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2012_2/162752/crown_land_marketing_catalogue.pdf   1979


  In 1986, the younger Bennett retired from politics and his successor was Bill Vander Zalm. Under his leadership, he and his party became increasingly unpopular.  Wikipedia








Monday, July 22, 2019

Downtown Vancouver Japanese Home addresses prior to repatriation: Database available online


 Check out your address to see if the property was originally owned by .....


Naturalized Canadians Repatriated to Japan 1946     005-1142.27.003.pdf

home addresses prior to repatriation

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/005/f2/005-1142.27.003.pdf




Property prior to
Page 1 of 71     78 W. 7th Ave., Vancouver
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Atagi, Ishimatsu;    Internment Camp:   Kelowna, B.C.

Property prior to
Page 3 of 71      1130 Stewart Ave., Nanaimo
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Kashimoto, Morinosuko   997 Howe Street, Vancouver

Tashme Internment Camp 

Tashme, a mountain valley 22 kilometres southeast of Hope






1)      Prince Rupert
2)      997 Howe Street
3)     Nanaimo            
4)     Steveston
5)     342 Powell Street
6)     763 East Cordova Street
7)     Steveston
8)     504 East Hastings
9)     753 East Cordova


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Yoho National Park road and campsites, built by Japanese residents of BC,  or German prisoners of war.  The Cooking spaces at Yoho are falling into disrepair, is it because of Shame or






“While women and children were sent to internment camps, what is little known is that about 1,700 able-bodied Japanese-Canadian men aged 18 to 45 years old, were sent to road camps to build Highway 3, the Hope-Princeton Highway, Highway 1, Revelstoke-Sicamous Highway, and…Highway 5, as forced labour,” said Laura Saimoto, who worked on the legacy sign project as part of the Japanese Canadian Legacy Committee. 

“These highways were deemed a priority for national security by the Canadian government. And in the case of Hope-Princeton Highway, the government saw it as an alternative route to Highway 1 in case of enemy sabotage.”

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Vancouver Sun: 
Dan Fumano: Reclaiming and redress highlight new conversation about historic wrongs
Opinion: The idea of the Japanese Canadian community reclaiming a stolen property in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has been given more weight by recently launched official consultations on redress.   July 21, 2019

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Globe and Mail 
     Trio of cabins marks Japanese internment camp
 
 When the time came to disperse the thousands of ethnic Japanese from their enforced stay amid the Pacific National Exhibition's odorous cattle barns, wartime authorities wanted them out of sight, out of mind.





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In September, 1939, the site was reclaimed by the Department of Defence and adapted for use as Kananaskis Internment Camp #130, a prison camp for civilian internees and enemy merchant seamen.  Two years later, the majority of these detainees were sent to facilities in eastern Canada and the site was enlarged and fortified for use as a prisoners of war camp.  The camp detained combat officer personnel from late 1942 until 1946, when the camp closed.  During their time in detention, the internees engaged in numerous activities, including clearing the valley that now forms the bed of Barrier Lake.  There were 26,000 prisoners of  war interned in Alberta during the Second World War - more than were interned in any other province.  The Colonel's Cabin is one of the few structural reminders of this chapter in provincial history.