Democracy gone Astray: Thursday, November 03, 2011

Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Stephen Maher: More questions than answers as Clement faces G8 hearing

OTTAWA — Tony Clement failed to publicly account for himself at the public accounts committee on Wednesday, repeatedly telling MPs he didn’t do something that, in fact, he did do: choose the communities in his riding that would receive gazebos under the G8 legacy fund.

Up in beautiful Parry Sound-Muskoka, most people think Clement did a good job bringing federal funding to his riding, and it’s hard to argue with them, in a way.

He did get a bunch of things built, and most of them are likely more useful than a lot of things Ottawa blows money on.

There are rinks where young people can play hockey, gazebos where tourists can shelter from the sun and, just down the road from Clement’s house, a new parking lot at the beautiful beach on Merry Lake.

The arbitrator appointed by the government to negotiate a new contract between Canada Post and its union has stepped down.

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt appointed Judge Coulter Arthur Anthony Osborne as the arbitrator in the case following controversial back-to-work legislation.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers challenged Osborne because he is unilingual and doesn’t have a labour relations background.

Last month, the union won a stay of proceedings in the arbitration. The Federal Court ruling meant they couldn’t start the arbitration until after the court heard the union’s case against Osborne in January 2012.

In a major banking scandal, the commodities and derivatives brokerage house MF Global filed one of the largest bankruptcies in American corporate history — with almost $40 billion in liabilities. It was the largest failure on Wall Street since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global is Jon Corzine, a former New Jersey governor and U.S. senator. Corzine is also the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. The firm is the biggest U.S. casualty so far of the European debt crisis. “We’ve just continued to have one financial crisis after another. It’s because of the incentive system on Wall Street that badly needs to change, and has not changed one iota,” says William Cohan, author of “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World." “As we just saw with this bankruptcy of MF Global, there’s nothing in the Dodd-Frank law, nothing in the regulations that are being written, that is going to change the incentives."

Video
Source: Democracy Now!

Wall Street vs. Greece: G20 Opens as Greek PM Pushes for Referendum on Bailout and Austerity Measures

World leaders are gathering in Cannes for the opening of the Group of 20 summit today. On the top of the agenda is the Greece bailout and the European debt crisis. On Monday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou angered many European leaders by announcing his support for a popular referendum—allowing the Greek people to decide if they want to accept the conditions of the $179 billion European Union bailout. After days of increasing criticism from European leaders, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is now facing calls from within his party to resign. The Greek debt scandal has also pitted U.S. banking interests against France, Germany and other European powers. "The Americans are putting immense pressure on Europe, saying, 'We will wreck your economy, if you don't wreck Greece’s economy,’" says economic analyst Michael Hudson. President Obama is "basically telling Europe, ’Don’t go the democratic route. Support Wall Street.’"

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Source:

Increase In Extreme Poverty Leaves Millions Stranded

The number of Americans living in communities of extreme poverty -- neighborhoods in which at least 40 percent of the population is poor -- soared by one-third between 2000 and the latter half of the decade, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution.

The marked increase in so-called concentrated poverty underscores the distress tearing at communities across the nation amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It highlights a stunning reversal of economic fortune since the 1990s, when powerful job growth combined with the expansion of tax credits for lower-income households lifted millions of Americans above the poverty line.

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of poor people living in concentrated areas of poverty plunged from 4.4 million to three million, according to the study. By 2009, the number again exceeded four million, and the Brookings researchers assume the figure will be larger still when the Census releases detailed data for 2010. Preliminary figures for 2010 showed more than 46 million Americans -- some 15 percent of the population -- living below the federal poverty line, defined as annual income of $22,314 for a family of four.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Several thousand Occupy Wall Street demonstrators gathering in Oakland forced a halt to operations at the nation's fifth busiest port Wednesday evening, escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and tent encampments since it began in September.

Police estimated that a crowd of about 3,000 had gathered at the Port of Oakland by about 5 p.m. PDT. Some had marched from the city's downtown, while others had been bused to the port.

Port spokesman Isaac Kos-Read said maritime operations had effectively been shut down, and interim Oakland police chief Howard Jordan warned that protesters who went inside the port's gates would be committing a federal offense.

In Philadelphia, protesters were arrested earlier Wednesday as they held a sit-in at the headquarters of cable giant Comcast. Military veterans marched in uniform in New York, angry at their dim job prospects. And parents and their kids, some in strollers, formed a "children's brigade" to join the Oakland, Calif. rallies.

[Series] It's little wonder why citizens have become so disengaged from our dysfuntional politics.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series focusing on citizen disengagement from the political process in Canada, and how we can best go about fixing it. Part 1 describes how Canadians have become disillusioned with dysfunctional and unaccountable political institutions.

Although it is too early to determine what impact, if any, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and its various offshoots will have on politics as usual in Canada or elsewhere, one thing is now clear: We are reaching a crisis point in governance and representative democracy in Canada. Predictably, abysmal voter participation in recent elections has been met by the usual angst over public apathy. However, OWS and other vigorous civil-society groups would seem to demonstrate that citizen disengagement from our formal political processes is not the result of a lack of interest in constructive public action on critical issues, but is, rather, a reflection of our alienation from an increasingly dysfunctional ingrown political system. Citizens are disengaged not from society, but from political institutions that produce neither inspiring leadership nor effective governance suitable for our time.

The Commons: Tony Clement comes clean

The Scene. Tony Clement, his suit tightly buttoned up, arrived at precisely 3:30pm in the appointed room where the public accounts committee was scheduled to demand some kind of public accountability of him. The next hour and 45 minutes would mostly be spent trying to explain why there was little reason to be there.

He did not sit at the far end of the table alone. Beside him sat John Baird, the Foreign Affairs Minister who now officially splits his time between representing this country on the world stage and speaking on Mr. Clement’s behalf in the House of Commons. Around the two cabinet ministers sat a total of four previously anonymous bureaucrats. To the left of this group sat no less than eight Conservative MPs, here as members of the committee (or rather, as would soon become clear, loyal representatives of the Conservative Party of Canada). Behind these Conservative MPs sat their dutiful aides. And in the area reserved for the spectators appeared to be still more professional supporters, including at least one young man from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Opposite the Conservative brigade sat four New Democrats, one Liberal, their own dutiful aides and, for whatever reason, Pat Martin. Later, Elizabeth May stopped by, though her attempt to ask a question was foiled after the debate about whether she was allowed to ran so long that there was no time left for her to actually do so.

There are good business deals and bad ones, but City Hall today seems ready to sacrifice financial sense for ideology with its plan to sell what we hold in common.

This week the Executive Committee voted to sell the city’s share in Enwave but delayed its decision on monetizing 10 per cent of its Toronto Hydro shares as well as some real estate assets, seeking more information. This was a pleasant change from the new normal at City Hall, where big decisions are rushed into with little consultation.

Let’s examine the arguments for sell-offs.

Staff, likely at the urging of the mayor’s office, have noted that the sale of assets would allow the city to invest in other needed capital projects such as transit.

You could say that if the estimated $600 million from selling assets (including Enwave, Toronto Hydro and real estate) were invested in the city’s future, it’d be a good thing. Perhaps the money could go to repairing and building rec centres, libraries and daycares, since studies show that investments in early childhood result in better outcomes and cost savings in the future.

The provinces are right: It is unfair for the federal government to follow its own unsupported whims on crime and then make the provincial governments pay the bill

Generally speaking, the level of government that enacts legislation should bear the political burden of raising the taxes necessary to pay for it. That isn't always practical in a federal system, which is one reason we have transfer payments. While the federal government amends the Criminal Code and similar laws, the provinces run some of the courts and correctional facilities. Any offenders sentenced to less than two years serve their time in provincial prisons.

Provincial facilities also house people on remand - those who have not yet been acquitted or convicted. In fact, of all the people in custody in Canada, 58 per cent are now awaiting trial or sentencing; those serving sentences are in the minority. This is a recent development, and it could get worse if the court system gets further clogged.

The provinces are right: It is unfair for the federal government to follow its own unsupported whims on crime and then make the provincial governments pay the bill

Thirty years ago this month, nine premiers and the prime minister of the day let a genie out of the bottle.

Gathered in Ottawa, the country’s first ministers — minus the premier of Quebec — agreed to repatriate the Constitution and to introduce a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The decision was a seminal moment in modern Canadian politics. It was also a headlong plunge into the relative unknown.

In hindsight, neither Pierre Trudeau nor the premiers were fully cognizant of the genie they were letting out. It quickly took on a life of its own.

At the time the deal was struck, some premiers were concerned about the impact the Charter would have on the balance of power between Parliament, the government and the judiciary.

They also worried about the fallout from the decision to go ahead without Quebec.

It’s John Baird who is on the hook for G-8 money games

John Baird says he “topped it up.” Does topping it up really mean Canada’s foreign affairs minister covered it up?

One of the big mysteries in the G-8 legacy fund controversy was how $50-million that was sold to Parliament as part of a border infrastructure fund came to be used for an entirely different purpose. That purpose was 33 projects to spruce up Tony Clement’s Muskoka riding in preparation for hosting last year’s G-8 summit.

Baird, who was infrastructure minister at the time, explained to the Commons’ public accounts committee Wednesday that he was the one responsible, that he used the border fund as a “delivery mechanism” for the Clement projects. He conceded that it wasn’t the way it should have been done.

It was quite an admission. The question is why, in the estimates he tabled, Baird didn’t tell the plain truth – that $50-million was planned for the riding projects. Why misslead parliamentarians into believing the money was for border renovations?

It should be noted that the $50-million was more than just a top-up. It was the bulk. The border fund was only $33-million. Baird’s add-on made it $83-million.

Treasury Board president Tony Clement says the way the G8 legacy fund was handled "was not perfect" and he's learned his lessons, but that he's qualified to be in charge of the public purse.

Clement was forced to defend his reputation and current role in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet while he testified at the House of Commons public accounts committee Wednesday about the controversial $50-million fund that was used for infrastructure projects in his Parry Sound-Muskoka riding north of Toronto.

"The paperwork for this was not perfect. It should have been better and I take my share of the responsibility for that and certainly I have learned that there are different ways and better ways to provide for these kinds of intake processes and I will commit myself to using those," Clement said.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, the former infrastructure minister whose department was responsible for the G8 Legacy Infrastructure Fund, also appeared at the committee with Clement and they each explained their roles in the fund, and how it unfolded.

OTTAWA - Peace activists from nine countries have set sail for the Gaza Strip aboard two ships, one of them a Canadian vessel, in another attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade.

Canadian activists say the ships, which made a failed attempt to challenge the blockade last summer, left Turkey on Wednesday and could reach Gaza in a couple of days.

Dylan Penner, a spokesman for the Canadian boat, the Tahrir, said there are about a dozen peace activists and journalists on board, including three Canadians.

Penner said Ottawa and other governments around the world should demand that Israel does not attack the unarmed civilians on the boats.

Ottawa issued an advisory warning Canadians against all travel to Gaza, saying the security situation along the coast remains volatile.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is expected to meet with city officials this week to look for a peaceful way to end the Occupy Toronto protest at St. James Park.

Hundreds of tents - including three $20,000 yurts paid for by a local union - dot the park at the corner of Church Street and King Street East.

Occupy Toronto, now in its 19th day, has morphed into a makeshift community complete with a library, food supplies and about two dozen portable toilets.

Bryan Sutherland, 27, has been living in the park for the past two weeks. He says he plans to stay through the winter.

"My plan is to stay as long as it's possible," said Sutherland. "Most of us are trying to work with the community so we're a non-invasive occupation." But area business owners are not pleased and have complained to city hall.

"They're still residing in that park against the law," said Patrick McMurray who owns a restaurant across the street from the park.

He says he's losing business because customers are afraid to come downtown.

In response to his concerns, McMurray received an email this week from Ford saying, "When it is determined that we no longer have a peaceful protest, but rather an occupation of the park, we will consider options to remove the individuals who are camping in the park."

Ford said Tuesday that he's working to resolve the issue.

“We're working on a plan with staff. We're gonna have a concrete answer in a few days,” he said.

Origin
Source: Huff

G20 jail photos raise ‘alarm bells’ for police chair

Photos depicting the cramped conditions inside the G20 temporary jail raise “alarm bells,” police services board chair Alok Mukherjee said Wednesday.

The Toronto Star has published the first images to emerge from inside the now-notorious prisoner processing centre during the June 2010 summit. The makeshift jail, housed in an unused film studio on Eastern Ave., held 885 of the 1,118 people arrested over the course of the G20 weekend.

The photograph was taken from video footage capturing the detention of Michael Puddy, then 31, who was cleared of his G20 charges in August. He and 27 other inmates can be seen inside a 3-by-6-metre cell with their hands bound by zip-ties.

“I think there are a number of issues that the images raise, particularly around the treatment of Mr. Puddy and the others,” Mukherjee said. “It rings alarm bells.”

Did You Hear the One About the Bankers?

CITIGROUP is lucky that Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed when he was. The Libyan leader’s death diverted attention from a lethal article involving Citigroup that deserved more attention because it helps to explain why many average Americans have expressed support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. The news was that Citigroup had to pay a $285 million fine to settle a case in which, with one hand, Citibank sold a package of toxic mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting customers — securities that it knew were likely to go bust — and, with the other hand, shorted the same securities — that is, bet millions of dollars that they would go bust.

It doesn’t get any more immoral than this. As the Securities and Exchange Commission civil complaint noted, in 2007, Citigroup exercised “significant influence” over choosing $500 million of the $1 billion worth of assets in the deal, and the global bank deliberately chose collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s, built from mortgage loans almost sure to fail. According to The Wall Street Journal, the S.E.C. complaint quoted one unnamed C.D.O. trader outside Citigroup as describing the portfolio as resembling something your dog leaves on your neighbor’s lawn. “The deal became largely worthless within months of its creation,” The Journal added. “As a result, about 15 hedge funds, investment managers and other firms that invested in the deal lost hundreds of millions of dollars, while Citigroup made $160 million in fees and trading profits.”

A divide is emerging between Eastern and Western Canada over the federal government’s law-and-order agenda, as a debate heats up over the costs of the anti-crime measures and the substance of the bill itself.

Quebec has moved to form a united front among all the provinces to fight the bill. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has joined forces with Quebec Premier Jean Charest, allowing Canada’s two largest provinces to speak with one voice in pressuring Ottawa to pick up the tab for higher costs the proposed laws would impose on the provinces.

But with at least three provinces throwing their support behind Ottawa’s move to impose mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offences and toughen the youth justice system, among other things, the Quebec-led effort faces an uphill battle. Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia are all in favour of the bill.

OTTAWA—An uproar over the federal Conservatives’ plan to kill the long-gun registry gained steam Tuesday as the federal privacy commissioner shot down the government’s supposed rationale for destroying data.

In response to a query from the NDP, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said nothing in the Privacy Act prevents the federal government from sharing personal information collected under the Canada Firearms Registry with provincial governments.

On the contrary, the act permits disclosure of personal information, as long as it is through a federal-provincial agreement “for the purpose of administering or enforcing any law or carrying out a lawful investigation,” Stoddart says.

Quebec wants to use the federal data to set up its own registry. But Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty is warning against a “hodge-podge” of provincial registries.

Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.

The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.

In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air and sea campaign.

They also believe the US would ask permission to launch attacks from Diego Garcia, the British Indian ocean territory, which the Americans have used previously for conflicts in the Middle East.

The Guardian has spoken to a number of Whitehall and defence officials over recent weeks who said Iran was once again becoming the focus of diplomatic concern after the revolution in Libya.

Palestinians must say no to negotiations with Israel

Now that Palestine has been recognized by the United Nations' cultural organization, UNESCO, it will be no more of a non-state and no less occupied than it was before. Its citizens will be no less unfree than they are today, no less under the yoke of Israeli foreign rule. But their civil disobedience versus Israel, the United States and the Quartet raises the hope that the Palestinians will not return to the negotiating table - because negotiations have become an obstacle to the decolonization process, the essential condition for peace.

The Palestinians' application for membership in the United Nations was welcomed, even by critics of the Palestinian Authority, because it was understood as the close, albeit belated, of an overly long chapter. This was the chapter in which the Palestinian leadership, in exchange for dubious guarantees and slivers of privilege for a small group, took part in a charade of negotiations, while in reality, the area intended for the realization of the Palestinians' right to self-determination kept being reduced and fragmented. This chapter exposed the fact that the parties in Israel's various coalition governments disagree on only one thing: the number and size of the Palestinian Bantustans in Israel's master plan.

Ordinary Palestinians understood the application to the United Nations as an act that creates new rules of the game. Therefore, many supporters of the move wake up in the morning with trepidation: Have the steamroller tactics of the European Union and the United States worked? Have PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his eternal negotiators returned to the same sterile table, when it is clear that Israel has no intention of changing its master plan?

Daniel Martin, Mickey Joe Smith, And James 'Tray' Mitchell Laster III Charged With Stabbing, Burning Gay Man Burke Burnett In Texas

Update and correction at 4:06PM EST: The Dallas Voice is now reporting that a third man, Mickey Joe Smith, 25, is expected to face the same charges as the other two suspects -- aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault causing bodily injury. The charges are second-degree felonies, punishable by up 20 years in prison, and not first-degree felonies as previously reported.

Since these are not first-degree felonies, having the crime be classified as a hate crime would upgrade the charges to first-degree felonies, which as noted below, are punishable by five to 99 years in prison.

The Dallas Voice spoke to Lamar County District Attorney Gary Young, whose office is handling the cases, who said:

“We’re in the process of receiving all the information as a result of the investigation... We will present all that information to the grand jury, including all the information as to whether it’s a hate crime or not. The grand jury will make a determination whether it [a hate crime] is or isn’t as part of the charge. If their actions of committing the aggravated assault are based on race or sexual orientation or whatever it may be, the grand jury can choose to enhance the offense up a level.”

Two men have been arrested for a shocking attack on a Reno, Texas gay man.

26-year-old Burke Burnett received 30 stitches to close stab wounds on his back and forearms inflicted by a broken beer bottle, reports the Dallas Voice, as well as second-degree burns and severe bruises after being assaulted at a private party on Sunday.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court may treat corporations like people who can spend whatever they want on elections, but the American people don't have to accept it, said Democratic senators who proposed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to retake control of campaign spending.

The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), doesn't directly address the justices' legal finding that corporations have a right to free speech that was curtailed by election law. Instead, it would add to the Constitution language that says Congress and the states can regulate campaign contributions and expenditures.

The amendment would effectively reverse two landmark Supreme Court decisions -- the 1976 ruling in Buckley v. Valeo, which said spending money in elections is a form of speech, and the 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which ruled it unconstitutional to regulate the money spent to influence elections by corporations and unions.

Michael Bloomberg: 'It Was Not The Banks That Created The Mortgage Crisis'

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he disagrees with the Occupy Wall Street protesters on who deserves the blame for ordinary Americans' economic woes.

Banks have been at the forefront of Occupy Wall Street's loudest criticisms.The movement labels itself as a group "fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process." But, when it comes to who's responsible for that "corrosive power", Capital New York reports Bloomberg said he believes the blame rests in Washington.

"I hear your complaints," Bloomberg said at a Tuesday business breakfast. "Some of them are totally unfounded. It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp."

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch, who was also at the breakfast, took issue with Bloomberg's claim, saying that he wants a major corporate executive to receive a criminal punishment for their actions during the financial crisis, according to The Associated Press.

Capitol Hill conservatives and Pentagon brass fighting cuts to defense spending have argued that the military is limping off the battlefield with decrepit hardware. It's quite the sob story: At a hearing last week, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), the chair of the House armed services committee, cut his remarks short to literally cry for "these young men that are going outside the wire over in Afghanistan, every day on patrol."

But a new report shows the US defense establishment is in much better shape than it claims: The DOD has blown roughly $1 trillion on shiny new tanks, ships, and jets since the 9/11 attacks—and it's often done so with dollars that were supposed to be spent on those troops on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Stimson Center study, "What We Bought: Defense Procurement From FY01 to FY10" (PDF), says the military is hardly in dire straits when it comes to funding its big-ticket items. "The services capitalized on funding to modernize their forces, especially the major weapons programs that constitute the heart of the services' capabilities," writes the report's author, Russell Rumbaugh—a retired Army officer and ex-CIA military analyst.

Remember the farm bill, that monstrously complex, twice-a-decade omnibus legislation that shapes US agriculture and hunger policy? You know, the one that Michael Pollan and other sustainable foodies wrote so much about four years ago? Well, it's back, earlier than expected (the last one doesn't expire until 2012). And it has found itself caught in the crosshairs of DC budget hysteria—in a way that will likely reinforce the worst, most agribiz-friendly elements of US ag policy and defund the best parts, including programs that help farmers transition to organic and help communities start new farmers markets.

What gives?

In a story two weeks ago, Politico's David Rogers laid out what's going on. The House and Senate ag committees have created a joint panel of four who are working furiously to do in a matter of days what usually takes more than a year: craft national food and farm policy for the next half-decade. They want to get it done in time to submit it to the budget-slashing "supercommittee," whose work is scheduled to be done by Nov. 23.

The Men Behind The War On Women

A group of men with no real background in law or medicine, but blessed with a strong personal interest in women’s bodies, have quietly influenced all of the major anti-abortion legislation over the past several years. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops may be one of the quietest, yet most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill, with political allies that have enabled them to roll back decades of law and precedent.

Over the past two years the GOP-controlled House of Representatives has launched one of the most extreme assaults on women's choice the U.S. has seen in decades. Republicans voted twice to slash federal family planning funds for low-income women, moved to prevent women from using their own money to buy insurance plans that cover abortion, introduced legislation that would force women to have ultrasounds before receiving an abortion and, most recently, passed a bill that will allow hospitals to refuse to perform emergency abortions for women with life-threatening pregnancy complications.

But the erosion of women's rights didn't begin with the GOP takeover. President Barack Obama's health care reform law contained some of the most restrictive abortion language seen in decades.

Lift the curtain, and behind the assault was the conference of bishops.

OTTAWA - Canada will not help fill UNESCO's funding gap in a signal to the United Nations cultural agency that its decision to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a full member will be costly.

UNESCO is funded by both legally-binding and voluntary contributions from its member states. Canada's decision will affect future voluntary contributions, which are now about $10 million a year.

But all UNESCO members must make annual contributions. A spending plan for the Foreign Affairs Department tabled in Parliament shows Canada plans to give UNESCO about $12 million a year until 2014 as part of its legally-binding obligation to the agency. Those payments will continue following the UN agency's move.

VANCOUVER - Vancouver's police chief says he isn't interested in dispersing Occupy Vancouver protesters by force because the tactic simply hasn't worked in U.S. cities.

Chief Jim Chu appeared in front of city council Tuesday and was asked by the mayor his opinion of the city's "wait-and-watch" approach to resolving the demonstration, part of a global movement.

"In other jurisdictions where they tried to end it with police interventions, it hasn't ended it," Chu told the public meeting, as councillors asked questions of senior city staff and mulled over how best to bring about a peaceful resolution.

Chu noted that when officers descended on the demonstration in Oakland, Calif., protesters reconverged in equal numbers. Riot-clad police raided the camp last week and used tear gas to drive out crowds, yet the camp returned the next day.

U.S. war veterans join Occupy movement

11-11-11 is not a variant of Herman Cain's much-touted 9-9-9 tax plan, but rather the date of this year's Veterans Day. This is especially relevant, as the U.S. has now entered its second decade of war in Afghanistan, the longest war in the nation's history. U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are appearing more and more on the frontlines -- the frontlines of the Occupy Wall Street protests, that is.

Video from the Occupy Oakland march on Tuesday, Oct. 25, looks and sounds like a war zone. The sound of gunfire is nearly constant in the video. Tear-gas projectiles were being fired into the crowd when the cry of "Medic!" rang out. Civilians raced toward a fallen protester lying on his back on the pavement, mere steps from a throng of black-clad police in full riot gear, pointing guns as the civilians attempted to administer first aid.

The fallen protester was Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former U.S. Marine who had served two tours of duty in Iraq. The publicly available video shows Olsen standing calmly alongside a Navy veteran holding an upraised Veterans for Peace flag. Olsen was wearing a desert camouflage jacket and sun hat, and his Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) T-shirt. He was hit in the head by a police projectile, most likely a tear-gas canister, suffering a fractured skull. As the small group of people gathered around him to help, a police officer lobbed a flashbang grenade directly into the huddle, and it exploded.

Democracy gone Astray