Stevie and Brazil . . .

 — A protest in Vancouver over our mining operations in Tibet —

WHY WOULD STEVIE TARGET BRAZIL? According to Dave Dean at Vice, “75% of the World's Mining Companies Are Based in Canada”. Maybe that's why Stevie wants to know what the Brazilian Ministry of Mines is planning?

All over the world, companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and run out of lawyer’s offices on Bay Street or skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver (whose real financiers may live in Australia or Nevada) are handling the mining game at home, throughout parts of Asia, South America and surprisingly, even with all the talk of China’s investment in Africa, it turns out that it’s Canada, not China, who is quietly dominating and exploiting African mining. All told, almost 1,300 mining companies based out of Canada are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in over 100 countries around the world.

Well, well, time to do some rat removal. These are not nice people, and they do nasty things to people in their way.

In Central and South America, Canada’s reputation is being dragged through the dirt to the point where in some countries, it’s apparently better for travellers to say they’re American than Canadian, and it’s not hard to see why. Vancouver-based Pacific Rim is suing the government of El Salvador, a country with a GDP of $23 Billion (Canada’s is $1.7 trillion) for $315 million dollars because they didn’t let them follow through with a mine that threatened to pollute the Lempa River—a watershed that accounts for 60% of the country’s clean water.

As if that’s not enough, a region of Guatemala was militarized last month—and the right to protest or form meetings has been suspended by the president—following clashes between local protesters who are concerned for their drinking water and employees of Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources inc.

While most companies probably do operate ethically and to the best of their ability—while maintaining healthy and sustainable relationships with local cultures and their environments—unfortunately these few stories really are the tip of the iceberg as far as Canada’s mining reputation that is beginning to be noticed as the worst in the world.

A cavalcade of Kafka . . .

LAVABIT IS OFF-LINE FOR NOW. They are-were a pro-privacy email service long used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The owner of Lavabit published a letter you should read, in a WIRED article by Kevin Poulson, “Edward Snowden’s Email Provider Shuts Down Amid Secret Court Battle”. From the standpoint of civil rights, this well and truly sucks. America, I mourn for your Republic. Justice for the people by the people has been replaced with a solid-state Star Chamber.

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on–the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

Spying, commerce and law . . .

ED SNOWDEN'S REVELATIONS have serious implications for American business and law — and for us. At iPOLITICS, Steve Nixon has an article you should ponder, "What the Snowden revelations mean for business". There are issues, and they are still growing as consequences appear:

When the U.S. government decided to access e-mail traffic, phone calls and smart phone communications without conventional due process it did more damage to U.S. business than can be imagined.

Banks in the U.S. can no longer claim to offer secure financial transactions with their customers. With possible access to personal emails these government agencies have access to personal banking statements, online banking passwords, password reset links and online accounts.

•  • •

Another area that this security breakdown affects is the practice of law in general. With government tracking of private communications it can be legally argued that any communications could have been intercepted and communicated to third party sources. This strikes at the heart of the need for security in legal matters in countless ways. Confidential communications between lawyers, judges and legal clients are fully visible by government agencies through these various types of communication.

Canada was a heartbeat away from falling victim to the same fathomless problems that now plague the U.S. with Bill C-30. 

Eddie checks in . . .

THANKS TO WIKILEAKS, this latest from Edward Snowden. The man is pissed. To him, the Oval Office and a toilet have the same shape and function, but judge for yourself:

Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow
Monday July 1, 21:40 UTC

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

Monday 1st July 2013