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A quick no loopholes letter

Slightly adapted from CJPME: I truly believe that leadership requires the courage to close policy gaps that facilitate reckless violence. The Arms Trade Treaty was meant to prevent the very violations we are seeing today. Whether it is the US-armed genocide in Gaza, the kidnapping of a head of state in Venezuela, or the attempted coup in Iran, the US and Israel are destabilizing the world. What will be harmed by slowing down? Obscene profits do not need protection. Just slow down. In fact, why should we even be selling weapons to anyone else? so they can toss them back at us? Caution and rule following is the least we can do! Preferably not make any weapons at all.  Please at very least support Jenny Kwan’s Bill C-233 to end the special treatment given to the completely out of control and lawless United States of Avarice, and ensure that human rights are the primary factor in every arms export decision. Sign your own letter There's a whole campaign because the second half of s...
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Congregational prayer

 A slight departure from my usual letters... Here's a prayer I wrote for worship leading at church this past Sunday (Jan 25). The Scripture passage for the sermon was John 3:1-21, so I drew on some of the images from there.  The final paragraph is adapted from an assurance written by Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel, in So Loved: Service Prayers for the Fourth Sunday of Lent  (posted on the Worship Ways page of the United Church of Christ website ).  “Light has come into the world” Light has made its home among us as self-giving love.  “But people loved darkness instead of light... for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” There are so many places we long to see the light of truth expose evil deeds:  the genocide in Gaza;  the war in Ukraine;  the conflicts in Sudan, Yemen, DR Congo, Myanmar and the Tigray region of Ethiopia;  political and economic instability in many countries across Latin America;  the lawlessness of law enforcement in...
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LtE on X

Re “ Government must get off X” So must the Free Press. I know it’s a difficult time for journalism and local news and one wants to be in as many places as possible to reach readers, but at some point, ethics must outweigh reach. After all, isn’t having an ethics code one of the things that makes journalism different from the many influencers and bloggers slowly draining the readership from legacy news sources? If there are no principles, why should readers prioritize a newspaper over an online source with dubious sources. Note the stand that PressProgress has taken (emphasis mine): PressProgress  aims to be widely accessible and available to the public in the online spaces where they consume information and engage in public debate, however, this must also be balanced by considerations about the governance and conduct of digital platforms themselves . PressProgress  maintains a presence on digital platforms where Canadians consume and debate news or current affairs...
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Profits for me; disaster for thee

Oddly, CEO banker Mark Carney was actually aware of the dangers of fossil fuels and was tentatively in favour of the green energy transition and industry paying damage fees on their extraction. But as CEO of Canada (he is NOT acting like a Prime Minister but as a business leader), he's forgotten all of it and is full speed ahead on raking in corporate profits while Canadians suffer in every way.   See Narwhal article How Mark Carney is complicating Canada’s climate progress Here's my latest adapted form letter to ask for better. Sign your own here. 350 [dot] org: No Pipelines Dear Prime Minister Carney, The science is clear. Burning fossil fuels is cooking our planet. You said yourself that the “vast majority of reserves are unburnable” over a decade ago. It's not just words on a page: we are seeing this with our own eyes, experiencing it with our own bodies.  Since you opined that we oughtn't be burning the reserves, it has nevertheless continued, and the dire...
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Renewable Energy, Not More Fossil Gas Power

This just makes no sense, folks. That's one thing I added to the Climate Action Team's letter to the Manitoba government.  According to a friend's back of the envelop math -- so of course it's possible something is missing/miscalculated/misunderstood -- for only about $1 billion, the government could subsidize insulating homes to a degree that would reduce energy demand to the degree this plans to scale it up. Add to that the fact that clean energy's star is rising as fast as fossil fuel's is tanking ( Check out Max Fawcett's piece in Canada's National Observer ), and it's impossible not to conclude the decision makers are either intentionally idiotic and ill-informed or maliciously pursuing interests that have to do with enormous short term financial gain and zero benefit to the general population.  So, take a look at this letter and please send a version of it yourself.  Send your own letter Thanks, Climate Action Team Manitoba !  I am writing toda...
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What is the red line on the racist, misogynist, disinformation platform?

The fact that governments and respectable news organizations continue to use the social media app formerly known as Twitter has rankled for a while. When news of the AI bot's new feature of sexualizing images nonconsensually came to my attention, I couldn't just rant to friends anymore.  It was time for a letter: Dear Mayor and city councillors This message is addressed to the members who have a listing for Twitter on either their CoW page or their websites.  Please stop. For more than a year, many major organizations have been officially deciding that the reach offered by the social media platform formerly known as Twitter is not worth supporting an almost-trillionaire who is completely comfortable with white supremacist rhetoric, spreading disinformation, displacing human labour with low-quality AI products, and, in only his most recent egregious act, allowing the platform to do non-consensual sexual violence through image manipulation.  https://www.wired.com/story/...
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Investment in Elbit Systems

The repression of pro-Palestinian protestors is shocking. The British government is allowing prisoners on hunger strikes to die, simply for asking for their rights as prisoners (e.g., a fair trial). Their crime: protesting an arms manufacturer.  This arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, get plenty of money from Canada as well.  Learn more here So, it's time for a letter! Here's my edits to Just Peace Advocates' letter for Canadian banks and pension plans. Click here to send your own letter. I am writing today in horror over your institution’s investment in Elbit Systems.  Elbit Systems is an Israeli weapons manufacturer.  Israel is verifiably committing genocide.  According to international law, any state or financial entities aiding and abetting a state committing genocide is complicit.  Stop it.  Elbit provides ground equipment and unmanned aerial vehicles for the Israeli military. It also produces tank shells, rockets, drones, electronic warfare...
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