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Click above to learn why these 45 activists, scholars and writers signed
our petition and why you should too!

Please click below to SIGN our PETITION to:
Stop Canadian government funding of groups
that glorify Nazi collaborators

This petition has been endorsed by these organizations: Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians Anti-Imperialist Alliance Anti-Imperialist Alliance Ottawa Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (AUUC), AUUC Edmonton, Boundary Peace Initiative, Canada Palestine Association,  Canadian BDS Coalition Canadian Council of Muslim Women - Montreal Canadian Foreign Policy Institute Canadian Serbian Alliance Community Coalition Against Racism (Hamilton) Early Childhood Intercultural Partnerships Program,  Esprit de Corps magazine (Read endorsement),  Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice Geopolitical Economy Research Group,  Gerald and Maas Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space,  Greater Toronto for BDS GreenLeft/GaucheVerte,  Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Canada,  IJV Calgary,  IJV Edmonton,  IJV Vancouver,  IJV - Voix Juives Indépendantes Montréal,  Just Peace Advocates Kingston Peace CouncilManitoba Peace Council Mobilization Against War and Occupation - Vancouver Oakville Palestinian Rights Association Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the PhilippinesOttawa Peace Council,  Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society (Read endorsement),  Palestinian and Jewish Unity Peace Alliance Winnipeg,  Project Ploughshares Saskatoon,  Regina Peace Council,  Rights Action Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Saskatoon Peace Coalition Socialist Action / Ligue pour l'Action socialiste The Canada Files,  Veterans Against Nuclear Arms - Saskatoon, Victoria Peace Coalition West Coast Coalition Against Racism and World BEYOND War.


This petition campaign is based on research in the current issue of
Press for Conversion! magazine.  Access it below.

Press for Conversion! (P4C!)

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Press for Conversion!
began in 1990 as the quarterly publication of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT).
For its first decade this publication pushed for the conversion of military industries to socially-useful, environmentally-sound, civilian producton. Since 1999, its issues have focused on a variety of other antiwar themes. Scroll down to access these issues.  Read more about P4C's history!

To BUY an issue, or to SUBSCRIBE, RENEW, DONATE or ORDER EXTRA COPIES, please:
(1) Send an e-transfer to COAT through this email......     overcoat@rogers.com

(2) press PayPal's Transfer Funds button below... 

 

 

 



 



Thank you very much
for supporting this work!!
 

or   (3) click on the coupon below,
and mail it with an old-fashioned cheque


Note: The current mailing address is: 
Press for Conversion!, c/o 191 James St., Ottawa ON  K1R 5M6   Canada

Defunding the Myths and Cults of
Cold War Canada:

Ongoing state support for East European
émigré groups with deep fascist roots


Collaborators, Cults, Crusades and Coverups
in an era of “truth and reconciliation”

 

Canada’s anti-Red, Cold War propaganda in context
L.B.Pearson: Godfather of Cda’s Cold War on the new "Red" enemy
Pearson College and NATO’s United World Colleges
The CBC’s “Voice of Canada” --  Weapon of Cold War propaganda
‘Voice of America’ & the CIA’s ‘Radio Free Europe’ & “Radio Liberty’
L.B.Pearson: Groomed by King, St. Laurent & the ‘Big antiRed Machine'
King gave shocking praise for Hitler until the eve of war in 1939
Liberal immigration: "None is too many" but Too many is not enough
King supported Adolph Hitler throughout the 1930s
King loved Hitler’s hate speech against “Jewish international Bolshevism”

“Captive Nations” and their "Black-Ribbon-Day" crusade
The ignored historical context of “Black Ribbon Day” (Aug. 23, 1939)
“Captive Nations”: Nazi trope to CIA meme to Cold-War trump card
The “Captive Nations” conceit in Nazi propaganda
John Diefenbaker: Strong voice at the UN for “Captive Nations” bloc
The BRD campaign: Canada’s top Cold War propaganda export
The late Cold War context of the BRD crusade
Ongoing propaganda of the former "Captive Nations":
    (1) Canada’s anti-communism monument and (2) the Magnitsky laws

Far-right roots:
East European émigré groups in Canada & abroad

Estonian Central Council in Canada
   Estonia glorifies Nazi veterans as ‘freedom fighters’
Estonian World Council
Lithuanian Canadian Community and the Lithuanian World Community
   Lithuanian nationalists now have 'freedom' to glorify Nazi heritage
Latvian National Federation in Canada
World Federation of Free Latvians
Slovak World Congress and the Canadian Slovak League
Council of Free Czechoslovakia & Czechoslovak Nat'l Assoc. of Cda.

Ukrainian linchpin of Cda’s postwar, far-right diaspora
Krakow and Ottawa, 1940: "A Tale of Two Cities," and two UCCs:
(1) Germany’s Ukrainian Central Cttee. and (2) Canada's Ukrainian Canadian Cttee.

The Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations & World AntiCommunist League
Yaroslav Stetsko: Leader of proNazi Ukraine, 1941

State-funded centres of Canada’s Bandera cult and its Bandera youth
Roman Shukhevych: Assassin, terrorist, war criminal and cult hero

Getting them young: Instilling Ukrainian patriotism in children and youth
Plast recruited for Nazi’s Waffen SS Galicia; now recruits for Ukraine
From Chomiak to Freeland: “keep that flame alive”
Chrystia Freeland: “Accidental journalist” or groomed for the job?
Myron Kuropas: Downplaying Holocaust; Exaggerating Holodomor
Turning from same page: Freeland wrote for pro-fascist publications
Yuri Shymko: From Bandera youth leader, MPP & MP, to elder statesman
Lisa Shymko: In the footsteps of family, community & far-right, war heroes
Rubbing political shoulders with the ABN in Toronto

The struggle continues...                                            Abridged Index

Spring 2021 (Issue#70) Please order a hard copy!

Read the articles detailing Canadian Government Funding

This issue exposes the government’s collaboration with and generous support for proNATO, East European émigré groups in Canada whose ethnonationalist founders and heroes include veterans of Waffen SS divisions or other fascist military formations, perpetrators of political- and ethnic-cleansing campaigns, officials from and apologists for Nazi puppet regimes, postwar CIA propaganda assets, proponents of Cold War terrorist groups like the US-armed Nicaraguan contras and Afghan mujahideen, and other virulently anticommunist "freedom fighters" and their ideologues.

A section on Canada's state-funded Ukrainian diaspora includes several articles on Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland's 30-year involvement in organizations that, being deeply rooted in fascist ideologies, still glorify Nazi collaborators as their war heroes.

Access articles detailing
Canadian Government Funding

Read an introductory article summarizing this issue

Click below to read their reviews of "Defunding the Myths and Cults of Cold War Canada"

                           
Scott Taylor             Karen Rodman         Jeremy Kuzmarov      Bianca Mugyenyi          John McMurtry          Pierre LeBlanc              Amy Miller            Radhika Desai

 

Click the magazine titles or covers below to read their contents online

Fictive Canada:
Indigenous Slaves and the
Captivating Narratives of a Mythic Nation


#69, Fall 2017

Fictive Canada exposes a 500-year history of the kidnapping, captivity and slavery of Indigenous people in Canada. This issue explores four distinct phases in Canada's ongoing history of indigenous slavery. When the Kings of England and France issued licenses to conquer and enslave the inhabitants of the New Found Lands, the kidnapping of Indigenous people began.  Then followed two centuries of chattel slavery when First Nations people were captured, bought and sold during the fur trade. Immediately after Britain abolished slavery the Residential School system was created. This institutionalised the forced labour of Indigenous children and youth. Now, Canada's prison system -- in which First Nations are disproportionately held captive -- features programs of virtually unpaid work.

Fictive Canada exposes many little-known details about the tortured history of Indigenous slavery. This challenges some of the most cherished, naive narratives of Canadian history and inverts official views about "Canadian values." This imagined country's national myths about peace, freedom, democracy and human rights have long been captivated citizens with enslaving ideological straight jackets about Canadian exceptionalism.  But, the grandest myth of all is the myth of Canada itself. Canada is built on such a vast foundation of legal fictions, cultural constructs, religious fantasies, political fabrications and literary escapism, that we have every reason to question its very existence as a "real" country.

The purpose of this issue of Press for Conversion! is to awaken Canadians to the realization that that we are like literary characters who have been written against our will into a piece of "true crime" fiction.  Whether we can escape the bounds of this fiction may depend on our ability to become  detectives in a novel country who investigate the history of Indigenous genocide and slavery. Breaking free from the myth of Canada means exposing the powerful Canadian institutions that continue to cover up their historic crimes by writing enslaving propagandistic myths that continue to hold us like prisoners enchanted by a mass social psychosis akin to the "Stockholm Syndrome."

Captive Canada:
Renditions of the Peaceable Kingdom at War,
from Narratives of WWI and the Red Scare
to the Mass Internment of Civilians

Or, how we learned to stop worrying, keep calm
and carry on loving the myths that define and confine us.

# 68, March 2016

This issue of Press for Conversion! examines Canadian slave labour camps during the WWI/Red Scare era, as well as other Canadian examples of mass civilian captivity from the genocidal reservation system and Indian residential schools, to WWII internment, the Depression-era "Relief Camps" that imprisoned radicals between the wars, and the Cold War program called "Profunc" which had the RCMP create annual lists of thousands of "Reds" to be rounded up in case of war, or some vaguely defined social disorder.

 

 

This issue also examines how progressive activists can be induced into not only turn a blind eye to state crimes, but to even take active roles in justifying, committing, and covering up these crimes.  There is in fact no way that huge, systemic, institutionalised injustices can be achieved otherwise.  For such state crimes to succeed, well-intentioned individuals, NGOs and movements must be co-opted.  This is achieved thanks to myths and narratives that are constantly evolving to disguise wars and repression as if they were humanitarian initiatives.  (This is the case with a growing UN doctrine, the cleverly branded "The Responsibility to Protect," which cloaks US/NATO military interventions as if they were designed to defend the victims of repression.)

Profiting from
Israeli Apartheid:

Canada Pension Plan Investments in Corporations Supporting Israel's
Military-, Police-, Surveillance-,
Prison-Industrial Complex


(Part 1)
#66 (Spring 2012)  (54 pages)
(Part 2)
#67 (Fall 2012) (52 pages)

In an effort to support the international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, and the call for an arms embargo on Israel, COAT's two-part report exposes $1.5 billion-worth of CPP investments in 68 companies selling products and services for Israel's wars and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. 

Part 1 exposes these companies' links to Israeli Apartheid:
3M, Amdocs, Analog Devices, AT&T, BAE Systems, Bank Hapoalim, Bezeq, Bharat Electronics, CAE, Carlyle Group, Caterpillar, Cellcom Israel, Cemex, Cisco, CRH, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Daimler, Delek, Dell, Discount Investment Corp, Doosan, Eaton, Elbit Systems, EMC, Evraz Group, Fiat Industrial, Fiat, Finmeccanica, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Honeywell Int'l, Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Heavy Industries.  Other articles focus on:
Israeli Spy Companies (Verint & Narus); top state-owned Israeli war industries (IAI, IMI & Rafael), Vertex Venture Capital

Part 2
reveals the complicity of these corporations:  
Intel, Israel Corp, Israel Discount Bank, ITT, Koninklijke, Kubota, Leumi Le’Israel, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Motors, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Motorola Solutions, Navistar, NetApp, NICE, Oracle, Parker Hannifin, Partner Communications, Paz Oil, Renault, Rockwell Collins, Rolls Royce, Siemens, Sony, Tata Motors, Texas Instruments, Toyota Motors, TE Connectivity, Tyco Int’l, Valero Energy, Verisign, Verizon, VMWare and Volvo.

Canada's other top pension schemes* have invested an additional $3.2 billion in the 68 firms detailed in COAT's research.   See this table summarising all these investments.  Sources.

* Quebec Pension Plan, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan,  Public Sector Pension Investments and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

       "COAT’s research on CPP investments in Israeli apartheid is a window into the accelerating militarization of a hugely destructive, global system intricately connected with, and complicit in, Israel's wars and its occupation of Palestine

       "The thorough findings carefully document the corporate profits and impunity, the transnational connections, the weapons and security systems, the militarized prisons and police forces, the destruction of peoples’ lives and environments.  It’s a picture of a thoroughly pathological and globalized sub-society that must be stopped." 

Judith Deutsch, MSW, University of California at Berkeley, is a practicing psychoanalyst and a faculty member of the Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute, University of Toronto. She is
the vice president of Science for Peace, and was its president between 2008 and 2012. Judy is an active member of Independent Jewish Voices Toronto, and is also involved with climate justice research and action.
#65 (December 2010):
"Operation

SILENT PARTNER: 
Canada's Quiet Complicity
in the Iraq War"


Did you know that about 2,000 Canadian sailors--aboard eight, multi-billion dollar Canadian warships--participated in the Iraq War?
Or that Canadian pilots flew warplanes in Iraq-war missions, including U.S. C-17s, a British MR2 and Canadian C-130s and CP-140s?
Or that several Canadian Army generals received U.S. and Canadian medals for their top leadership roles in the Iraq War?
These are just a few of the many facts detailed in this new 54-page report from COAT.
When the Liberal government proclaimed that Canada refused to join the U.S. war against Iraq, many Canadians were understandably proud.  Unfortunately, it was all a smoke-and-mirrors game. In reality, Canada did join the war in 2003 and has contributed in many significant ways ever since. 

 
"At last the surprising truth of the Canada's military complicity in the Iraq War.

A cry for peace. Brilliantly orchestrated."



Victor Levant,


author,

Quiet Complicity:
Canadian Involvement
in the Vietnam War





See also:

Canada's Covert War in Iraq George Orwell meets Canada's General Natynczyk in Iraq  
(CCPA Monitor, Sept. 2008)

In the Wake of Wikileaks: A Media Critique of Revelations about Canadian Duplicity in Iraq

(CCPA Monitor, July 2011)
#64 (November 2009):
"CANSEC: 
War is Business"


This 50-page issue on Canadian government and corporate complicity in the lucrative business of war, includes articles, tables and charts on:
* CANSEC, Canada's top arms bazaar (returning to Ottawa, June 2-3, 2010)
* Recent Canadian military exports fueled 62 countries at war
*
Canadian war industries aid and abet Israel's bombing of Gaza
* Canada Pension Plan investments in top global war industries
* Canadian parts/services for major weapons used in Iraq.
* War-related exports of Ottawa Mayor's Calian Technologies
* Canada's top-40 war exporters and what they manufacture
"Canada is also heavily into the weapons trade, an industry we hardly ever see covered in the business pages.  According to the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, between 2003 and 2006, Canadian military exports totaled at least $7.4 billion, mostly to the U.S, where it went into the weapons used everywhere from Iraq to Gaza.... But there’s no business like the war business, as the U.S. has demonstrated time after bloody time."

Antonia Zerbisias,
"My Canada includes war, environmental degradation and lost causes,"
Toronto Star,
March 31, 2010.
"One of the best sources for information and background on Haiti is the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade.  I urge you to visit the site. We all, me included, need to know the terrible details of our destruction of democracy in Haiti and our continued complicity in the repression of the population.... [W]e need to be holding the Harper government to account for the current militarization of the disaster response."  
            

Murray Dobbin
, "Mea culpa on Haiti," January 25, 2010.

Canada's role in the
2004 coup in

HAITI

Press for Conversion!
(Issues #60, #61, #62, #63)

#63 (November 2008)
"
Lies without Borders: 
How CIDA-funded 'NGOs' waged a propaganda war
to justify Haiti’s 2004 coup"


CIDA-funded "NGOs" in Canada rationalized the destabilization and overthrow of Haitian democracy and then covered up the atrocities of the Canadian-backed dictatorship after the coup. This issue examines major themes in the propaganda war against Aristide's popularly-elected Lavalas government:

(1) the supposedly fraudulent elections of 2000,
(2) "Black Friday" pretext incident blamed on Lavalas,
(3) "Operation Baghdad," terrorism blamed on Lavalas,
(4) The so-called "voluntary departure" of Aristide, and
(5) The big lie: "no political prisoners" during coup regime.
This issue also contains articles on: (a) the demonization of Vodoun and the politics of religion, (b) a CIDA-funded group in Haiti (NCHR) that concocted lies that were spread by CIDA partners in Canada, (c) how CIDA groups adopted the Haitian elite's racist epithet, "chimère," to tar all prodemocracy supporters as if they were violent thugs.

Tim Schwartz, PhD
(Anthropologist and author of Travesty In Haiti, A true account of Christian missions, orphanages, food aid, fraud and drug trafficking.)

"I have spent the better part of two decades living in Haiti, trying to sort through fact and fiction to explain what has happened here. The lead article in this issue ("Demonizing Democracy: Christianity vs. Vodoun and the Politics of Religion in Haiti) , is a well-balanced resource about how bigotry against voudou was used to create accusations against Aristide and his associates. What makes this research most special is that to my knowledge no one else has documented the extreme slander of these accusations and the political orientations of those who orchestrated and publicized such lies. It's incredible that people get away with fabrications that destroy lives and help undermine an entire nation, but are never held accountable. It's a great service that a person does when he or she honestly documents, and commits to the historic record, the very real crime of character assassination."
#62 (May 2008)
"Putting the Aid in Aiding and Abetting:
CIDA's Agents of Regime Change in Haiti's 2004 Coup"


The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) contracted a variety of "NGOs" in Canada to aid and abet its policy of regime change in Haiti. Although these largely Quebec-based groups are part of movements dedicated to peace, development, human rights and "Third World" development, they played essential roles in the successful effort to destabilize President Aristide's elected government. Some of these Canadian "NGOs" funneled CIDA grants to their "partner" groups in Haiti to conduct virulently partisan, anti-Aristide campaigns. Other CIDA-funded groups in Canada contributed to the cause by lending legitimacy to the dictatorship that was illegally installed in 2004. As cheerleaders for Canada's role in the 2004 coup, these agents of regime change also helped with propaganda efforts to cover up the worst of the human rights abuses of the illegal, Canadian-backed regime. The following CIDA-funded "NGOs" and their shameful roles are discussed:
Alternatives, Canadian Foundation for the Americas, Centre for International Studies and Cooperation, Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs, Development and Peace, Freedom Network, International Legal Resources Centre, Québec Association of International Cooperation Organizations, Rights and Democracy, and Roundtable on Haiti.
#61 (September 2007)
"CIDA's Key Role in Haiti's 2004 Coup d’état:
Funding Regime Change, Dictatorship and

Human Rights Atrocities, one Haitian 'NGO' at a Time"

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) helped overthrow the democratically-elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004. In the years prior to this US-led regime change, although Aristide and his Lavalas government were extremely popular among the country's poor citizens, CIDA drastically cut bilateral aid. CIDA then poured millions into extremely partisan Haitian groups that represented the interests of Haiti's corporate elite. These groups helped destabilize Haiti's legitimate government and called for its overthrow. After the Canada-backed coup, CIDA and its proxy groups backed the brutal dictatorship that oversaw the illegal imprisonment and mass murder of thousands whose crime was supporting the constitutional government they had duly elected. CIDA also funded the regime's "Justice" ministry—responsible for the police, prisons and courts—which led to the persecution of pro-democracy advocates. CIDA's phony "human groups" not only covered up the coup-installed regime's brutal atrocities, they fabricated evidence to frame Lavalas leaders—including the President, Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, MPs and key activists. This made it impossible for Aristide's party to compete in the rigged, CIDA-funded elections of 2007.
(Update: Since this issue was published, Lavalas was banned from participating in several  elections!)

#60 (March 2007)
"A Very Canadian Coup d’état in Haiti:
The Top 10 Ways that Canada’s Government

helped the 2004 Coup and its Reign of Terror"


This issue of the magazine exposes ten ways in which Canada's Liberal government was complicit in (1) aiding and abetting the 2004 coup d'état that ousted President Aristide's democratically-elected government and (2) supporting the illegal, coup-installed regime that was responsible for two-year human rights catastrophe that followed.
In early 2004, a U.S.-funded, trained and armed paramilitary force of former CIA-backed death squads and disbanded military men attacked Haitian police stations, massacred government supporters and released human rights abusers from prisons. The U.S., Canada and France did nothing to assist Haiti's beleaguered government but actually demanded that it share power with representatives of Haiti's wealthy corporate elite that had lost the 2000 elections and supported the rebels. On February 28, President Aristide was kidnapped and forced into exile by U.S. Marines, with help from a foreign occupation force of Canadian and French troops. That day, Haiti's popular government—which had a clear mandate to govern until 2006—was illegally replaced by a puppet regime approved by Aristide's opposition, the occupation governments and the UN Security Council. This brutal, coup-installed regime was responsible for a two-year reign of terror in which thousands of prodemocracy supporters were executed and many more jailed without charge.

#59 (September 2006)
"The New Face of Terror
in Afghanistan:

How so-called 'Democracy'
Empowered our Allies -
the Fundamentalists, Warlords
and Drug Barons"


Click above for separate links to articles in this issue.
Click here, or on cover, for one  PDF file. (10 mgs)

A phony democracy – dominated by warlords, drug barons, oil industry representatives and World Bank administrators – has now been successfully imposed upon Afghanistan by the world's major military and economic powers, including Canada. The current issue of Press for Conversion! outlines the key steps in the supposedly “democratic process" that brought this government to power. The process began very soon after 9/11, which offered a convenient pretext needed for U.S. air strikes that began on October 6, 2001. Some 3,000-3,400 innocent civilians were killed during the first six months of that U.S. bombardment alone.  Thanks to the subsequent military, financial and diplomatic efforts of American, Canadian and other NATO-member states, many of Afghanistan’s most violent and dreaded terrorists are now back in power, running the country's government. There has been an appalling litany of scandals surrounding this supposedly "democratic process" that aided and abetted the return to power of our closest allies in Afghanistan, the notoriously-brutal, fundamentalist "Northern Alliance" warlords.

Related Event:
Fearless Afghan Women MP, Malalai Joya, spoke to a crowd of 450 in Ottawa on September 13, 2006, and COAT's coordinator, Richard Sanders, had the honour of introducing her. (Click here for more information.)




"In conducting my preparatory research for my field trips into Afghanistan, one of the most useful references has been Issue #59 of Press for Conversion! This catalogue of Afghan Warlords turned politicians has proven to be a handy guide prior to my numerous interviews with many of these same nefarious characters. In fact, that dog-eared copy of Issue #59 has accompanied me on all five visits to Afghanistan."


Scott Taylor,
War Correspondent, Author, publisher, Esprit de Corps

#58 (March 2006)
"Canada’s Role in the Militarisation of Space:   RADARSAT - The Warfighters’
Eye in the Sky and its links to
'Missile Defense'”

RADARSAT, is probably Canada’s single-most important technological contribution to the militarisation of space and U.S. warfighting. It cost Canadian taxpayers about $1 billion to produce the world's most advanced commercial satellite system. U.S. military and intelligence agencies are among its top users. In exchange for launching RADARSAT-1 in 1995, the U.S. government directly controls 15% of its observation time and has used it in  Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance during the wars against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. When the Liberal government privatised RADARSAT--giving it to Vancouver's MacDonald Dettwiler and Assoc.--this firm was wholly owned by a U.S. war industry that builds "missile defense" rockets. (MP David Emerson was on MDA's Board of Directors.) U.S. and NATO warfighters used war games to practise using RADARSAT-2, particularly in its most coveted role: the tracking and targeting of moving, ground vehicles. The exploitation of this data was developed by Canada's Department of National Defence in collaboration with the Ballistic Missile Defence Organization. Together they developed plans to use RADARSAT-2 data in the first-strike attacks of "Theatre Missile Defense" operations. The idea of this “missile defense” is not to protect the homeland but to defend missiles, troops and warships deployed to distant war zones.

Article by Press for Conversion! editor Richard Sanders summarising Radarsat's role in the militarisation of space.

"Richard Sanders' work on Radarsat has been of great value in understanding this 'commercial' satellite system and other satellite systems' importance for warfare around the globe, like in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a national-level agreement between Canada and Norway on the use of Radarsat.  There are lots of parallels between Norway and Canada in this field because both are polar nations with strong relations to the US.  I have tried to widen this perspective, so hopefully my book is of interest to everyone who wants to understand how war is changing because of this new technology."

Bård Wormdal
Bard has been a journalist for 25 years and
now works for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp.  He is the author of an excellent book called The Satellite War, which can be ordered as a paperback.
#57 (October 2005)
"Canada’s Role in so called 'Missile Defense'
Part II: Sea-based, Theatre Ballistic Missile Defense"


This issue contains more, original COAT research on Canadian contributions to the creation, development and deployment of "missile defense" weaponry, with a particular focus on sea-based systems within the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) program. TMD is at the cutting edge of what is popularly known as “missile defense.” Although the purpose of "missile defense" has been sold to the public as a system to protect them from rogue states and terrorists, its real purpose is altogether different. The reality is that before long, the advanced weapons systems–that are now being developed under the protective guise of "missile defense"–will be used for “offensive” purposes. Their role will be to protect troops, warships and their offensive weapons systems during wars of aggression. As usual, Canadian government, corporate, military and scientific communities have been, and still are, very deeply involved in this U.S.-led effort to build the most advanced tools of war ever seen. The contributions to “missile defense” made by these Canadian companies is examined: DRS Technologies Canada, ITS Electronics, Lockheed Martin Canada, Meggitt Defense Systems and Telemus.
#56 (June 2005)
"Canada’s Role in so called 'Missile Defense'
Part I: NORAD, Government Largesse and the
ABC’s of Corporate Complicity"


Canada's supposed “no” to "missile defense" was a completely meaningless, PR gesture with no real or practical significance. The fact is that Canada's government did not do anything at all to stop the many already existing forms of Canadian complicity in “missile defense.” Neither did if prevent further participation in this U.S.-led weapons development program. The Liberal's "no" was cleverly designed to deceive the public, cover up existing involvement in these advanced weapons programs and to buy support for their failing minority government. The lie that Canada was not involved, was swallowed hook, line and sinker by the mainstream corporate media. Many peace activists, including some of the most high-profile opponents of "missile defense" in Canada erred when they accepted the government's ploy and claimed victory. By spreading such statements as "We win on missile defense!" and by naively congratulating the government for "not joining," many peace activists fell into the government's trap. This error has gravely undermined real efforts to stop Canada's ongoing role in the most comprehensive weapons development program in world history. This issue looks at the collaboration in "missile defense" by various government departments, agencies and crown corporations as well as Canadian companies such as: ATCO Frontec, AUG Signals, Bristol Aerospace, CAE, CMC Electronics Cincinnati, Cognos and COM DEV International.
#55 (December 2004)
"Missile Defense:
Trojan Horse for the Weaponization of Space"


"Missile defense" is a deceptive term -- it is a linguistic shield to protect the military-industrial complex (and political allies) from public attack. The term disguises their plan to put weapons into space. While politicians pretend that “missile defense” has nothing to do with space weapons, the corporate media perpetuates the myth that this military program is purely defensive. This incredibly expensive weapons system will supposedly protects the public from terrorists and rogue states. However, it continually fails even during rigged tests. “Missile defense” will never actually work because to protect the homleand because there are so many cheap and easy ways to foil it. So, if it is not a "defensive shield," what is it? This Press for Conversion! examines the nefarious, military origins of America’s space program and reveals that “missile defense” actually does work incredibly well at fulfilling these major goals:
(1) Subsidizing “corporate welfare bums”: Multibillion-dollar arms industries are making a killing; Taxpayers are footing the bill.
(2) Global military/economic control: With American space weapons able to attack targets anywhere on earth, the U.S. will control the ultimate, military "high ground." Using many quotes from military documents, this issue shows that the U.S. plans to wage wars from space to expand American control global resources and other commercial interests.

#54 (August 2004)
"All in the Family:
The Apple does not Fall Far from the BUSH


The Bush family's links to fascism:
President George W.Bush's grandfather (Senator Prescott Bush) and his great-grandfather (George Herbert Walker) built vast fortunes that were later used to launch the careers of George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush. This is how the two George Bushes could afford to get their start in the oil business as well as the slick business of politics. This issue of COAT's magazine provides shocking evidence showing that Prescott Bush and George H.Walker were the financial managers of well-organised American effort to funnel the investments of right-wing U.S. bankers and industrialists into Germany which funded the rise to power of the Nazi Party and Adolph Hitler. During WWII, the banking house of Prescott Bush and George H. Walker profited from companies that used slave labour at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Then, after the war, these forefathers of President George Bush helped launder Nazi loot in the U.S. U.S. intelligence agencies were then complicit in covering their tracks. The ill-gotten financial empire was used to launch the careers that eventually put two George Bushs in the White House. This issue of COAT's magazine also looks at the political actions of President George W.Bush, and his father President George H.W.Bush and shows that they continued the political and economic legacy of fascism that was begun by their forefathers.

#53 (March 2004)
"Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism"

Few realize that during the early 1930s, there was a homegrown fascist plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a dictatorship. This plan was however thwarted by Marine Corps General Smedley Butler, who was then the most popular military leader. Butler pretended to go along with the conspirators in order to learn who was behind it. He then blew the whistle by testifying to a government committee on "unamerican activities." Butler named the corporate leaders who he had discovered were planning to oust President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The committee however did not pursue the main culprits behind the fascist plot and did not include many of their names in their report. This incensed Butler who then held press conferences and went on the radio to name the top corporate leaders behind the plot. This issue contains original research examining who these American fascists were. They were associated with a powerful organization called the American Liberty League. Many of the companies that the plotters owned and controlled are now among the world's wealthiest corporations. As it turned out, they did not need to go ahead with this plot in order to regain control of the White House. Find out who the plotters were, who financed them and how they schemed to overthrow the White House and empower a fascist government in America.
View this whole issue as a pdf here.

#52 (October 2003):
Operation
Embedded Complicity:

Canada, Playing our Part
in the Business of War


This issue is filled with detailed analysis of the many ways in which the Canadian government and corporations are deeply embedded in the U.S. “war machine.” For example, the Canada Pension Plan invests in America’s biggest war industries, including those producing dozens of major weapons systems used in the Iraq war that began in 2003. This issue has original COAT research listing 100 Canadian military companies that have provided parts and services for the major weapons systems used in Iraq. This issue also exposes statistics on the how the Canadian government has over the past few decades given billions of dollars to Canadian arms industries that have aided and abetted US wars and invasions. Also revealed is a the flow of financial support from Canada's military industrial complex into both the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. This issue provides detailed evidence showing that over the past decade, war-related corporations in Canada have given millions of dollars in political donations to these parties, and that the primary recipient of this corporate largesse has been the Liberal Party.

View an archived copy of COAT's ONLINE PETITION:
Stop Canada Pension Plan Investments in War

View several thousand signatories and their comments

"The motion introduced [in Parliament] by Mr. [Pat] Martin last week calls for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Review Board to be 'prohibited from investing in companies
and enterprises that manufacture and trade in military arms and weapons, have records of poor environmental and labour practices or whose conduct and practices are contrary to Canadian values.'....

Mr. Martin said his motion was inspired by a recent study by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, which linked CPP investments to top U.S. military contractors."

Bill Curry,
"Invest pension fund ethically: NDP motion,"
Ottawa Citizen
, February 8, 2004.
#51  (May  2003):
The U.S. Role in Wars and Regime Changes
in the Middle East and North Africa since World War II


Why is the U.S. government reviled by so many people in the Middle East and North Africa? Is it, as President George W. Bush has claimed, simply because these people are jealous of American democracy and human rights? This issue of the magazine looks at the past 50 years of wars and regime changes in the region and unveils a consistent pattern of U.S. involvement. A more plausibly explanation for why U.S. foreign policies are vehemently opposed by many people in this region, is that the U.S. government has frequently backed repressive wars, invasions, coups, covert operations and dirty tricks in the Middle East and North Africa. This issue looks at two dozen specific examples of the meddlesome role played by U.S. military forces and intelligence agencies in the major wars and unpopular regime changes that have harmed the people of this region over the past five decades. These U.S. interventions have served to undermine democracy and basic human rights in the region since WWII. Case studies include U.S. involvement in the following countries:
Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
#50  (January  2003):
Going to War:
The American use of War Pretext Incidents


This issue contains original research revealing that U.S. war planners have repeatedly used elaborate webs of deceit to con the public into rallying behind major wars whose real purposes involved building vast profits for small corporate elites. There has long been a specific pattern of trickery and propaganda that has been used to generate the much-needed domestic support for aggressive U.S. wars. This issue looks at seventeen case studies that occurred between 1846 and 2003. In each case, there were dramatic pretext incidents that aroused widespread sympathy and thus garnered much-needed public support for wars that would have otherwise have been unpopular. These incidents were either deliberately provoked, allowed to occur, completely fabricated or exploited after the fact. The real, largely economic, functions of these wars would not be accepted. Case studies include:
1846: The Mexican-American War; 1898: The Spanish-American War; 1915: World War I; 1941: World War II; 1950: The Korean War; 1954: The Covert War Against Guatemala; 1962: Plans to Create Pretexts for War with Cuba; 1964: The Vietnam War; 1979: The Covert War in Afghanistan; 1983: The Invasion of Grenada; 1986: The Bombing the Libya; 1989: The Invasion of Panama; 1991: The Gulf War; 1999: NATO's War Against Yugoslavia; 2001: The Afghan War and the "War Against Terror;" 2003: The New Iraq War.

Proposed COAT Video Project on War Pretext Incidents
(Project is on hold due to lack of resources.)
"One of the main barriers to opening people's eyes all over the world about the reality of US foreign policy is the deeply ingrained belief that America Means Well. So, no matter how horrible a particular intervention turns out (see, currently, Iraq), the public remains convinced that the intentions are noble (bringing democracy and freedom). When you show that a war or other intervention is based on a contrived pretext, it becomes much more difficult for the public to accept the idea of noble intentions. It makes people more skeptical and cynical, which they should be. This is what [COAT coordinator] Richard Sanders...hopes to achieve."


William Blum,
a former US State Department employee, is the author of
Killing Hope:
US Interventions in the
Third World since World War II.
#49  (October  2002):
Real Reasons for Invasion of Iraq

Obviously the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with either finding "weapons of mass destruction" or fighting terrorism. These were just the phoney pretexts that U.S. and British warplanners used to generate public support for the war. Neither can it be claimed that the U.S. wanted to promote democracy by ridding the Middle East of Saddam Hussein. If this was truly the case, why did the CIA back the Ba'athist coup in 1963 and then arm and finance Saddam's brutal regime throughout the following decades? This issue of COAT's magazine examines the "real reasons" for the U.S./UK-led invasion of Iraq, that began in 2003. These reasons include the following:
(1) controlling U.S. and allied access to Iraqi oil,
(2) feeding the military-industrial complex,
(3) distracting attention away from domestic economic woes and
(4) establishing military bases in Iraq in order to pursue the more ambitious imperial quest to control valuable strategic resources in the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere around the world.

#48  (July  2002):
Canada's Military Air Shows:
Reaching New Heights in the Glorification of War


This issue contains a wealth of original COAT research about militarised war shows. So called "air shows” are in fact the world's biggest military propaganda exercises. These events are elaborate "psychological operations" designed to build public support for warfighters and their use of "air power" in state-sponsored violence. War shows also serve other major functions, such as the indoctrination of children and the recruitment of youth into military career paths. This issue examines 27 of Canada's largest war shows in great detail and reveals that 82% of the almost 400 aircraft that were used to “entertain” huge crowds at these spectacles were military. And, sixty percent of the military planes that "performed" in Canada at these events were fighters, bombers and military transport planes of the US Air Force. This issue lists all of the wars in which these warplanes have been used. It also looks at the weapons of mass destruction that they have been used to "deliver" to targets around the world.

Read  more about COAT's 30-minute documentary: "Mothers' Day at the War Show."

#47  (March  2002):
Divide and Rule:
Understanding the India-Pakistan Conflict


This issue begins with a series of articles examining the historical context of the conflict between India and Pakistan. Much of the blame is laid on (1) British colonialism, and its "divide-and-conquer" policies that culminated in partition, and (2) the U.S. use of Pakistan as a military client state during the Cold War. When the CIA fought its biggest covert, proxy war in Afghanistan, it used Pakistan as a conduit for arming, financing, training and equipping the fundamentalist, Islamist mujahadeen. This was a deliberate effort to provoke the Soviet Union to become embroiled in the war. This US support for terrorism had its repercusions on Indo-Pakistani politics. The particularly thorny issue of Kashmir as a potential flashpoint for nuclear conflict, between India and Pakistan is also explored in a number of articles. Also examined is the issue of the arms trade and Canada's role helping to arm these two countries.

#46  (December 2001): 
Power Politics:
Oil, Terror and the War Against Afghanistan


Published not long after 9/11 and the illegal U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, this issue takes a radical look at the underlying purpose of this war and the military occupation that followed. To understand the real economic and geopolitical reasons for this war, it is necessary to realise that the vast oil and natural gas reserves of Central Asia, particularly around the Caspian Sea, are highly-coveted by the US and others. Afghanistan is needed as a ruote for a pipeline to get these resources to the Persian Gulf so that they can be shipped to market.

#45  (July 2001): 
Taking Over the World:
Militarism and Corporate Globalization


This issue looks at the origins of corporate globalization and contains many informative articles that explore the important links between war, militarism, big business and the increasing power that corporations wield over governments around the world. Among other things, this edition examines the important contribution played by military industries in making the world safe for global capitalism.

 

#44  (April 2001): 
Canada's
Military Exports:

Fuelling wars and abusing international human/labor rights

This annual research report by COAT juxtaposes evidence from a variety of sources to demonstrate Canada's complicity in international war crimes and crimes against humanity. Information presented includes:

(1) military export data from the Department of Foreign Affairs &  International Trade,

(2) data on wars and armed conflicts that have been fuelled by Canadian military exports,

(3) summaries of human rights abuses (including labour rights violations) committed by governments receiving Canadian military hardware, and

(4) Canadian government promotion of arms bazaars and other foreign "business opportunities."

Case studies examining Canadian military exports and human rights abuses, include:
Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Korea (South), Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and Venezuela.

"Very clearly the concern is about the sale of military supplies to countries that are engaged in human rights abuses.  Press for Conversion has published a number of very powerful indictments of Canadian policy in this area, such as selling weapons to countries like Saudi Arabia which we know has a terrible human rights record or Turkey which is engaged in a brutal repression of the Kurdish minority. Surely there should be far greater scrutiny of these operations. To the extent that this corporation [the Canadian Commercial Corp.] is facilitating and supporting these kinds of sales we would want to ask some pretty tough questions."

Svend Robinson
, then-NDP MP,
in the House of Commons,
recorded in Hansard,
November 19, 2001.

#43  (January 2001): 
A People's History of the CIA:
The Subversion of Democracy from Australia to Zaire
This issue summarises three dozen examples of the Central Intelligence Agency's covert efforts to overthrow and undermine democratic governments around the world since WWII. The case studies examine the CIA's early support for German fascists and describe many "dirty tricks" that they used to subvert governments in countries such as:
Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Angola, Chile, Colombia, Congo, El Salvador, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Indonesia, Italy, Iraq, Iran, Nicaragua, Panama and Vietnam.

Also included is a well-documented example from Canada. In 1963, the CIA played a role in "knocking over" the Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker. Dief was successfully ousted thanks largely to a joint effort by officials of the US State Department, the CIA, the US Ambassador, top brass within the Canadian and US militaries, and our corporate media. The US pushed this "regime change" because Dief refused to allow US nuclear weapons to be based in Canada. Within months of Pearson's Liberals coming to power, they allowed the deployment of US Bomark nuclear missiles in BC and Quebec.

#42  (October 2000):
Nonviolent Resistance to War and Injustice

This issue is a primer on the history and use of nonviolent direct action as a powerful tool in the struggle to oppose war and injustice. The articles are divided into three main sections focusing on:

(1) the principles of nonviolence,
(2) various ongoing campaigns around the world, and
(3) useful resources, including organizations and publications.

#41  (July 2000):
Building a Culture of Peace

The articles in this issue, gathered from a variety of sources, are organized into four sections:
* UN Year for a Culture of Peace
* Myth Making and Myth Breaking
* Converting the Symbols and Tools of War
* Challenging War Shows

 

 

#39  (December 1999):
Ridding the World of Nuclear Weapons

This issue provides an overview of the global threat of nuclear weapons as well as providing dozens of articles highlighting various organisations, campaigns and resources focused on abolishing them. 

Although most of the articles deal with Canadian complicity in nuclear weapons, there are also articles on the US and elsewhere.

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