Canadian Terror: A Review of a New Radio Documentary on the Canadian Mining Industry

by Bryan Doherty
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

You want to know the names of those “waging global terror”? The new audio documentary, Path of Destruction: Canadian Mining Companies Around the World, from Asad Ismi and Kristen Schwartz, shows us we can start a list with the names of mining companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Canadian mining’s path of destruction isn’t limited to Canada. As these companies spread throughout the world, they apply the tried-and-true practices they developed in this country to be the top players in a global money game that thieves, pollutes, terrorizes and kills.

With perfect clarity, Ismi and Schwartz demonstrate how Canadian mining capital brings misery and devastation with it wherever it goes. In Sudbury, Ontario, the Canadian mining industry has worked hand-in-hand with the government and courts to steal the land from its indigenous people. In the documentary we hear from Chief Petahtegoose of the Whitefish Lake First Nation, not only about the theft of their land, but how those mines have poisoned the water in the area, polluted the air and contaminated the soil. The Chief’s own words link this devastation to the earlier devastation inflicted on his people by diseases such as smallpox spread by early European settlers. The genocide of indigenous people, started by the settling of this country, continues with the theft and destruction of their land.

Sudbury’s not the only place with minerals though. And when Canadian mining went looking for more earth to tear up and lives to ruin, they brought with them the support of their government and years of brutal know-how. Following the destructive path of Canadian mining in the Ismi and Schwartz documentary is to bear witness to a rampage where nothing stands in the way of profit.

When Canadian mining expanded internationally and met with resistance, it proved itself capable of sinking to almost unbelievable depths. These businessmen went about the business of instigating and fuelling brutal conflict and warfare in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guatemala, among others. Massacre, forced displacement, torture, assassination, and intimidation became the ‘business model’ of Canadian mining companies’ (such as Inco and Barrick Gold) expansion to the global south.

When European and American-backed paramilitaries or armies weren’t available to do their dirty work, mining relied on the support of courts and politicians to clear the way for them. The Canadian government has worked diligently on their mining friends’ behalf. Through the Canadian courts at home and its embassies abroad, the mining industry’s interests have been well protected, to the detriment of those who work the mines or live anywhere near them. Environmental and labour protections are scrapped or ignored, leaving the companies free to pillage the land and destroy the health of their workers. Corporate taxes are erased to the degree that a Manitoba-based mining company recently paid taxes to the Canadian government for the first time in 75 years.

Path of Destruction illustrates that savage crimes against humanity and environmental devastation are not the exception, but the rule, when the Canadian mining industry is concerned. Ismi and Schwartz’s spectacular documentary not only demonstrate the abhorrent crimes of the mining industry but also the ways in which their imperialist and genocidal crimes can be successfully challenged. In Canada, Native communities are at the forefront of resistance to murder and theft perpetrated by Canadian mining capital. Likewise, successful popular movements have led resistance to mining’s incursions all over the south, resulting in progressive defeats of capital’s aims in favour of the well-being and wealth of workers and indigenous peoples. The closing words of Edward Gudoy are a healthy prescription for the cancer spread by Canadian mining: “At the end of the day, it’s about workers taking control of the resources – including the natural resources – including the economy of the country – this is the bottom line. In the north and south.”

Right-Wing Board Purges Community Voices at CKLN 88.1FM

by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan
Basics Issue #12 (Jan/Feb 2009)

For decades CKLN (Ryerson University’s campus-community radio station) has represented the people on Toronto’s airwaves. It had dozens of programmes that showcased community mobilizations alongside international resistance to war and occupation. It was the only station in the city to celebrate Afrikan liberation week and PRIDE, while featuring the best jazz, reggae and hip hop in the country. Its flagship program, Saturday Morning Live, brought all of these elements together, with great music, a community voice, and current events from a working-class and internationalist perspective. Hosted by Norman Otis Richmond – a Vietnam War resistor and well-known revolutionary and pan-Africanist – the show has been the voice for the city’s Black and working-class community for over 25 years. But not anymore because since last winter CKLN’s board of directors has run the station into the ground!

Back in February of 2008, CKLN’s membership (150 community reps including Ryerson students and volunteers who financially support the station) held a meeting about the troubling move by the board of directors away from the community vision of the station and towards a corporate and commercialist model. The membership voted with an overwhelming 90% to impeach the current board, and demanded that the clique of corporate hacks step down. But the board refused to heed democratic will, and instead they began a ruthless campaign of firing any and all hosts who supported the membership’s demands.

Dozens of CKLN’s most popular programmes have been cancelled, and over 55 hard-working long time volunteers and paid programmers have been banned. These purges especially targeted shows that represented left-wing and marginalized voices. The station’s only feminist programs, Radio Cliteracy and Frequency Feminisms, were terminated, while Audrey Redman (residential school survivor and one of the only indigenous voices on Toronto radio) was yanked from her mic as she interviewed other locked-out hosts. Campus and Toronto Police have been frequently called to take away fired hosts as well as concerned listeners attempting to voice their concerns. And then, on December 13th Norman hosted his last show before being “temporarily” suspended. No legitimate reason was given for this termination of one of Toronto’s most popular programs and programmers, except that it was “financial”. Meanwhile the rogue Board has dodged the public release of financial documents as mandated by the CKLN constitution.

Furious listeners, CKLN members and locked out hosts are organizing to take back their radio station. Voice your anger at the CKLN takeover and join us on the picket lines as we fight for the termination of these fraudulent right-wingers masquerading as the board of directors. We will take back our CKLN!

Radio Basics Takes to the Air on CHRY 105.5, Toronto

by Makaya
Basics #11 (November 2008)

Basics Community Newsletter has expanded its work by venturing into the world of radio broadcasting. Basics is pleased to be hosting our very own show on CHRY 105.5FM in the Jane and Finch area, every second Wednesday from 8-9pm. Live-to-air broadcasting is just another way we are getting our vital information to the masses. The show combines live interviews, music, current news issues, reports from recent events, as well as listings for upcoming events and much more.

For our debut show we interviewed Odion Osegyefo from the African Internationalist Students Organization and the African People’s Socialist Party; Chris Bolton, a Toronto District School Board Trustee who has come out against armed cops in Toronto schools; and investigative journalist Kevin Pina, who discussed the current situation in Haiti after Hurricane Ike in the context of ongoing political repression by the foreign occupation forces. Since then we have held many interviews, including a phone interview with Jennifene Debassige, the mother of the young Native man slain by Toronto Police, Byron Debassige. We also interviewed local musicians and community activists, such as the Soca Emperor and Wasun from Black Action Defense Committee.

On our October 15 show, we featured Venezuelan rap group Familia Negra, who were in our studio to discuss the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, and to perform some freestyle; and we also interviewed Will Prosper of Montréal-Nord Republik to discuss the popular resistance to police terror in the community. We have also been providing important updates on the current crisis in the global economy, and how capitalism’s richest billionaires are attacking people around the world and in Canada in order to keep themselves rich.

Radio Basics reflects many of the topics featured in our paper and issues unfolding in our communities. Radio Basics is from the people, and to the people, and this show is truly is revolutionizing radio! If you have not yet had the chance to hear the new audio component of the Basics Free Community Newsletter, tune in every other Wednesday from 8-9pm on 105.5 CHRY or online at www.chry.fm, or visit basicsnewsletter.blogspot.com to check out our audio library of past shows. Radio Basics will be airing its next shows on Nov. 12, Nov. 26, Dec. 10, and Dec. 24.

Venezuelan rap group Familia Negra on Oct. 15 show of Radio Basics freestyles and informs Torontonians about the social revolution in Venezuela.

Radio Basics Archive: Click Here

To listen to or download previous Radio Basics shows, click the above title

Radio Basics Takes to the Air on CHRY 105.5 FM

RADIO BASICS takes to the air September 2008 on CHRY 105.5, York University community-campus radio. RADIO BASICS is a production of Basics Community Newsletter and will be featuring local, international and cultural news relevant to the people and their struggles.

2008 Show List: Sep 17, Oct 1, Oct 15, Oct 29, Nov 12, Nov 26, Dec 10, Dec 24.

Tune in online at http://www.chry.fm/.

An archive for our shows is forthcoming. So stay tuned for podcasts and downloads of our shows.