By Matthew Behrens 25/09/2014 - The growing use of overly broad Canadian immigration inadmissibility provisions to deny status to refugees who have been associated with national liberation struggles finally saw some pushback with a Federal Court decision issued July 10. The case involves José Figueroa, a survivor of the Salvadoran civil war (in which government forces murdered 75,000 people) who is faced with deportation for his prior association with the FMLN, the former resistance organization that is now the governing party in that country. Despite never having picked up a gun or engaging in any form of violence, he is falsely tarred with the terrorist brush by an immigration officer because of the FMLN association, even though the organization is listed nowhere on the planet as a terrorist entity and past and current members of the FMLN, including consular officials, attended the court hearing of his case.

rabble.ca 24/09/2014 - The incessant drumbeat of war, accompanied by the harsh propaganda of "barbarism" and "brutality" directed at individuals in Syria and Iraq, is as wearily familiar as that used to demonize the German "Hun" a century ago and dozens of other "enemies" in the interim. The PR industry, which is the landing pad for many politicos from the Conservatives to the NDP, is having a field day, from allegations that "Islamic militants" are murdering seniors in hospital rooms (perhaps an update of the Hill & Knowlton-created falsehood that Iraqis ripped babies from incubators after the 1991 invasion of Kuwait) to claims that a group with no air force, weapons of mass destruction, overseas military bases, aircraft carriers, and hundreds of billions in other war infrastructure presents the greatest threat known to our generation. Needless to say, many of the actions of the group known as ISIS, ISIL, and IS (not to be confused with the folks hawking newspapers at lefty events) are reprehensible, from the targeting of specific groups based on their identity (i.e., Shia Muslims) to gross violations against women. And while members of this group should be condemned for their actions -- which, combined with the major gains they have made over the summer, do raise significant questions about the future of the region -- it is important to note that they are no different from the actions of NATO and its members whenever they go to war, with perhaps the difference that much of the "West's" brutality is conducted from afar, whether 30,000 feet in the air or 10,000 miles away.