Contrarian » U.S. Politics

Sydney overkill and Beijing underkill

Parker — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:22:13 +0000

Earlier this week, various blogs and media outlets reported that Beijing was experiencing frightful levels of air pollution. To document the crisis, China hand James Fallows cited what he called “the indispensable (and highly controversial)” Twitter feed @Beijingair, which produces hourly readings of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Beijing. On Monday, @Beijingair showed readings in excess of 300 µg/m3, contributing to conditions the US EPA characterizes as “hazardous,” and warranting “health warnings of emergency conditions.”

What caught my attention was Fallows’s assertion that the @BeijingAir feed is “the only known source of PM 2.5 readings in China.” That is astounding: one PM2.5 meter for a nation of 1.3 billion people. By contrast, Sydney, Nova Scotia, population ~27,000,* has seven instruments that monitor PM2.5.

Bear with me for a brief technical digression. PM2.5 is a measure of the concentration of airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns (millionths of a metre)—tiny particles that can find their way deep inside people’s lungs. It’s the air quality scientist’s indicator of choice for air pollution most likely to damage health.

To confound matters further, Sydney’s closely monitored air quality appears to be quite good. Here is the most recent publicly available data, from a 24-hour sample collected on October 12.

Each column represents a different monitoring station, each of which has two types of monitors. The highest reading among them was less than 1/1ooth of that registered this week in Beijing. These monitors run for 24 hours once every six days, a schedule that coincides with Canada’s National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) network. A seventh Sydney-based unit operates continuously and contributes data used to calculate Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), but the PM2.5 results are not reported separately.

This appears to be a clear case of underkill in Beijing, where much better data is warranted, and I would argue, overkill in Sydney, where air quality has been unremarkable by North American standards for the last two decades. Over-measurement in Sydney reflects the public panic over the Tar Ponds cleanup in the late ’90s and early ‘oughts. A few environmental activists persuaded residents that air-quality impacts from the Tar Ponds were putting their health at risk, a falsehood Environment Canada has been loathe to correct. Ironically, back before Sydney’s coke ovens closed in 1988, the city’s air likely did pose a health hazard, but went largely unmonitored.

The relative hazards of air quality in China vs. Nova Scotia show up clearly in this NASA map compiled from satellite readings of average PM2.5 levels around the world between 2001 and 2006:

I would ascribe both conditions — Sydney overkill and Beijing underkill — to the politicization of environmental monitoring. Back when Sydney’s polluting steel mill and coke ovens were the largest employer in a region short of jobs, few people wanted to hear about associated environmental concerns, and government was content to turn a blind eye. Similarly, the Chinese government is reluctant to highlight the environmental costs of its spectacular economic growth (although, as Fallows often points out, its environmental record is not so indifferent as some in the west assume).

In subsequent posts on Beijing air monitoring, Fallows has subtly adjusted his claim about @Beijingair’s putative uniqueness in China. He now describes it as “the only public readings of PM 2.5.” The controversial feed is based on an air monitoring unit on the roof of the US Embassy in Beijing. Official chinese annoyance over it was the subject of a Wikileaks cable, and may have contributed to the Chinese government decision to block access to Twitter in 2009. There are welcome early signs, here and here, that China may soon begin more appropriate monitoring. I would be surprised if they are not secretly monitoring PM2.5.

My point here is that citizens should take care to view environmental hazards in context, and always remain mindful that any chemical hazard is proportional to dose.

—

*Sydney no longer exists as a municipal unit, having been amalgamated into the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in 1995. Wikipedia puts the “Sydney area” population in the 2006 census at 33,012, but this is suspiciously high. I was unable to ferret out local population numbers from StatsCan’s online census information, but will be delighted if readers can steer me to them.

What real security feels like

Parker — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:00:35 +0000

During a brief stopover in Ottawa yesterday, a gracious member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery took me for a sail on the Ottawa River, where I snapped this photo:

In case you don’t recognize the building, it’s the posterior of 24 Sussex Drive, home of Canada’s Prime Minister. Even without Bruce Cockburn on board, I was struck by the wondrous want of any obvious standing on guard for Stephen Harper.

Our small party boarded my friend’s sailboat at the Hull marina, just across the street from the Museum of Civilization. No one checked our ID, demanded we sign a register, or x-rayed the modest-sized parcels we carried aboard (contents: six bottles Boréale Blonde, six bottles Pilsner Urquell, and 12 Montreal bagels, fresh from the oven at St-Viateur Bakery four hours earlier).

For two hours we gunk-holed along the shoreline beneath the Parliament of Canada, the Bank of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Embassy of France, and the residence of Canada’s Prime Minister. Light wind filled our sails; fall sunlight dappled the river; all seemed peaceful, orderly, and secure in Canada’s capital.

It struck me that this is the antithesis of security theatre: it is what real security feels like. I couldn’t help but contrast it with the recent experiences of Shoshana Hebshi and Vance Gilbert.

Take note, dear American cousins.

River Explainer

Parker — Sun, 22 May 2011 22:42:33 +0000

As the 2011 flood season ramped up across the US and Canada, TheAtlantic.com’s tech blogger, Alexis Madrigal. found himself wondering how the Mississippi River system works. So he produced an explainer that lays out the complex combination of natural and human forces that create, and attempt to control, the inevitable natural process of river flooding.

What is the Mississippi River? It’s not actually a silly question. The Mississippi no longer fits the definition a river as “a natural watercourse flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river.” Rather, the waterway has been shaped in many ways, big and small, to suit human needs. While it maybe not be tamed, it’s far from wild — and understanding the floods that are expected to crest in Louisiana soon means understanding dams, levees, and control structures as much as rain, climate, and geography. From almost the moment in the early 18th century when the French started to build New Orleans, settlers built levees, and in so doing, entered into a complex geoclimactic relationship with about 41 percent of the United States.

Find the rest of Madrigal’s explainer here. Those wanting a longer, more literary account can turn to John McPhee’s classic New Yorker piece Atchafalaya, about controlling the Mississippi.

Friggin’ funny Obama roast

Parker — Sun, 01 May 2011 12:29:25 +0000

President Barack Obama at the White House correspondent’s annual dinner and roast:

It’s fair to say that when it comes to my presidency, the honeymoon is over…. I’ve even let down my key core constituency: movie stars. Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance. Well, Matt, I just saw the ‘Adjustment Bureau.’ Right back atcha buddy.

Donald Trump is here. I know he’s taken some flack recently, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put the birth certificate issue to rest than the Donald. That’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like ‘Did we really land on the moon?’ ‘What really happened in Roswell?’ And, ‘Where are Biggie and Tupac?’ All kidding aside, we all know about your credentials and wealth of experience. For example, the other night on “Celebrity Apprentice” … you fired Gary Busey. These are the kinds of situations that would keep me up at night.

Michele Bachmann is here, and she’s thinking of running for President. Which is weird, because I heard she was born in Canada. Yes Michele, this is how it starts.

Can you imagine any of the leaders in Monday’s Canadian election being half this funny?

Halifax Wikileaks – the canonical list

Parker — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:51:34 +0000

Today’s massive Wikileak dump of US diplomatic cables from Canada includes 131 from the US Consulate in Halifax. For anyone interesting in foraging, here are the subject headings with links to the cables. Please let me know what you find.

2010:

2009:

2008:

2007:

2006:

2005:

2004:

2003:

How the US views Darrell Dexter

Parker — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:04:38 +0000

Nice guy, as socialists go

When Darrell Dexter’s New Democrats swept to power in 2009, it fell to Harold D. Foster, the US Consul General in Halifax, to profile the new premier for his State Department colleagues. His assessment, in a cable sent one week after Dexter’s government took office, was among the diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks Thursday. Moneyquote:

Dexter is highly regarded by friends and political foes alike as a nice, down-to-earth kind of guy who has the interests of his constituents at heart. However, his victory came about primarily through his skill as a natural consensus builder, evidenced early on by his ability to bring together several differing factions within own his party. When he became NDP leader in 2001, Dexter inherited a party that still had a heavy influence of what pundits like to call the “fiery, socialist old guard”–members who were bitterly opposed to people like Dexter who wanted to move the party to a more centrist position on the political spectrum.

Post has had a longstanding cordial relationship with Dexter and his inner circle of advisors who come from both the old and young guards of the party. All, like their predecessors the Tories, attach great importance to issues of interest to the United States: fostering bilateral trade, increasing energy exports to the United States, and working cooperatively with the Canadian federal government on secure border issues. Dexter is also a frequent visitor to the United States, primarily to play golf even if (as he has confided) it means going by himself when none of his golfing partners is available to travel with him. Overall, post anticipates seeing this cordial relationship continue and expand as this well-liked and respected Premier settles down to implementing an agenda overwhelmingly embraced by the voters of Nova Scotia.

NS Wikileak: US Consul assesses anti-Iraq war sentiment in NS

Parker — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:53:36 +0000

On the evening of March 26, 2003, the US Consulate in Halifax sent two “sensitive but unclassified” cables to the State Department in Washington assessing “the view from Atlantic Canada” on the Iraq War begun by George W. Bush three days earlier. Then-Consul General Steve Kashkett also reported on a series of anti-war demonstrations in Halifax.

Following a week of discussions with then Lieutenant Governor Myra Freeman, various ministers in the John Hamm cabinet, local newspaper editors, a political pollster, businesspeople, and “some of our key military contacts here,” Kashkett came away with “the impression of a profoundly conflicted public.”

Steve Kashett, now vice president of the American Foreign Services Association, welcomes Hillary Clinton to the State Department Headquarters in Washington on her first day as Secretary of State

“Canadians in the atlantic provinces, most of whom consider themselves to have a staunchly pro-U.S. world view on most issues, are deeply divided over the war in iraq,” he wrote.

One of two cables points out that although university groups had vocally opposed the war, demonstrations had drawn hundreds, not thousands or tens of thousands, of participants.

“Of course, Halifax is a medium-sized provincial town with a smaller population than Toronto or Montreal, but the lukewarm response to the anti-war movement reflects deeper emotions here,” Kashkett concluded.

The other cable, sent an hour earlier, reported on three demonstations at the consulate’s Purdy’s Wharf II offices, and on a reception the consulate was forced to cancel at his residence after police warned that student groups planned to disrupt it.

“As is usually the case in the Maritimes, the protestors are conducting themselves in a restrained, mostly non-violent manner,” wrote Kashkett, who appeared to have detailed information from various local police.

“We are coordinating closely with the RCMP, the Halifax Regional Police, and our own building security people to minimize any risk,” he reported. “No protesters have targeted the CG residence as of yet, but RCMP contacts have confirmed that the location of the residence is known to local anti-war activists.”

Most of the sources referred to in the cables are unnamed, but the first cable reported that Rear Admiral Glenn Davidson, Commander of Canadian Forces Atlantic, “confided to Consul General today that there is fairly strong support for the war within the military services,” and “many of his navy officers and enlisted personnel feel that they should be part of the war effort.” The cable says Davidson believed the Chretien Government’s refusal may harm Canadian-US military ”interoperability,” a matter of “highest importance” to the Canadian military.

The text of the first cable follows:



UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HALIFAX 0091 

SIPDIS 

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 

DEPT FOR WHA/CAN 

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC KPAO CA US
SUBJECT:  CANADIAN PUBLIC OPINION ON THE IRAQ WAR:
THE VIEW FROM ATLANTIC CANADA 

REF:  HALIFAX 0086 

¶1.  SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - ENTIRE TEXT. 

¶2.  (SBU) CANADIANS IN THE ATLANTIC PROVINCES, MOST OF WHOM
CONSIDER THEMSELVES TO HAVE A STAUNCHLY PRO-U.S. WORLD VIEW ON
MOST ISSUES, ARE DEEPLY DIVIDED OVER THE WAR IN IRAQ.   IN
DISCUSSIONS DURING THE PAST WEEK WITH A WIDE RANGE OF PEOPLE
INCLUDING THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
MINISTERS, LOCAL NEWSPAPER EDITORS, A POLITICAL POLLSTER,
BUSINESSPEOPLE, AND SOME OF OUR KEY MILITARY CONTACTS HERE, CG
HAS GOTTEN THE IMPRESSION OF A PROFOUNDLY CONFLICTED PUBLIC.
HALIFAX AND OTHER KEY ATLANTIC CITIES HAVE FAIRLY VOCAL STUDENT
GROUPS AT THE MAJOR UNIVERSITIES WHICH HAVE BEEN OUTSPOKEN IN
CRITICIZING THE WAR, AND WHICH HAVE ORGANIZED A NUMBER OF ANTI-
WAR DEMONSTRATIONS (REFTEL) SINCE THE MILITARY CAMPAIGN STARTED.
BUT THESE DEMONSTRATIONS HAVE ONLY DRAWN PROTESTERS IN THE
HUNDREDS, NOT THE THOUSANDS OR EVEN TENS OF THOUSANDS THAT HAVE
MARCHED ACROSS OTHER, LARGER CANADIAN CITIES.   OF COURSE,
HALIFAX IS A MEDIUM-SIZED PROVINCIAL TOWN WITH A SMALLER
POPULATION THAN TORONTO OR MONTREAL, BUT THE LUKEWARM RESPONSE
TO THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT REFLECTS DEEPER EMOTIONS HERE. 

¶3. (SBU) OUR CONTACTS SAY THAT MOST ATLANTIC CANADIANS HAVE
SERIOUS RESERVATIONS ABOUT ANY POLICY POSITION DICTATED FROM
OTTAWA THAT PUTS CANADA AT ODDS WITH THE UNITED STATES.  THIS
PART OF CANADA IS PROUD OF THE FACT THAT IT HAS CLOSE TIES OF
HISTORY, FAMILY, TRADE, AND CULTURE TO THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED
STATES.  ALTHOUGH MANY PEOPLE SHARE THE ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTQSQ
CONCERNS OVER THE UTILITY AND TIMING OF THIS MILITARY CAMPAIGN
AND OVER THE PERCEPTION THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS ACTING
UNILATERALLY WITHOUT U.N. SANCTION, A STRONG CURRENT WITHIN
LOCAL OPINION MAINTAINS THAT, NOW THAT THE WAR HAS BEGUN, FOR
BETTER OR WORSE, IT IS IMPORTANT FOR CANADA TO STAND BESIDE ITS
U.S. ALLY.  MANY ATLANTIC CANADIANS BELIEVE THAT THE
DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN OUR TWO COUNTRIES OVER WHETHER TO INITIATE
MILITARY ACTION WAS ESSENTIALLY A DISPUTE OVER TACTICS, NOT OVER
THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF ENDING THE INTERNATIONAL THREAT POSED BY AN
OUTLAW REGIME IN BAGHDAD.    TACTICAL DIFFERENCES, THEY ARGUE,
SHOULD NOT BE THE CAUSE A SERIOUS RIFT BETWEEN TWO LONGSTANDING
PARTNERS. 

¶4. (SBU) AMBASSADOR CELLUCCIQS PUBLIC REMARKS YESTERDAY TO THE
EFFECT THAT AMERICANS ARE DISAPPOINTED WITH CANADAQS FAILURE TO
SUPPORT THE WAR HAVE GIVEN MANY ATLANTIC CANADIANS A JOLT.
ALTHOUGH SOME DO APPEAR TO FEEL INSULTED AT SUCH CRITICISM, MANY
OF OUR CONTACTS HAVE QUIETLY TOLD US THAT THEY BELIEVE THE
AMBASSADOR WAS RIGHT TO EXPRESS HIS CONCERNS AND TO WARN OF THE
POSSIBILITY THAT THERE MIGHT BE LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES IN THE
BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP.   WHILE PEOPLE HERE ARE WORRIED ABOUT
THE RAMIFICATIONS OF U.S. ACTIONS, THERE IS ALSO A PALPABLE
DISCONTENTMENT WITH THE ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF PM CHRETIEN
AND HIS GOVERNMENT.    ATLANTIC CANADIANS BELIEVE THAT CROSS-
BORDER COMMERCE AND TOURISM ARE VITAL TO THIS REGION, AND MANY
FEAR THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS ADOPTING POSITIONS THAT
COULD JEOPARDIZE THESE ESSENTIAL BILATERAL RELATIONS. 

 ¶5. (SBU) PUBLIC OPINION IN THE ATLANTIC PROVINCES TENDS TO BE
MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN ELSEWHERE IN CANADA, PARTLY BECAUSE
HALIFAX IS HOME TO THE CANADIAN NAVYQS ATLANTIC FLEET AND TO
MANY MILITARY FAMILIES WHICH HOLD THE U.S. MILITARY FORCES IN
HIGH REGARD.  REAR ADMIRAL GLENN DAVIDSON, COMMANDER OF CANADIAN
NAVAL FORCES HERE, CONFIDED TO CG TODAY THAT THERE IS FAIRLY
STRONG SUPPORT FOR THE WAR WITHIN THE MILITARY SERVICES.  MANY
OF HIS NAVY OFFICERS AND ENLISTED PERSONNEL FEEL THAT THEY
SHOULD BE PART OF THE WAR EFFORT.  ACCORDING TO RADM DAVIDSON,
THE CANADIAN MILITARY ATTACHES THE HIGHEST IMPORTANCE TO
DEVELOPING ITS "INTEROPERABILITY" AND COOPERATION WITH THE U.S.
MILITARY SERVICES, AND MANY MILITARY PEOPLE HERE FEAR THAT
CANADAQS REFUSAL TO PARTICIPATE IN IRAQ WILL DAMAGE THAT CLOSE
BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE FUTURE. 

¶6. (SBU) THE HEAD OF A WELL-ESTABLISHED PUBLIC OPINION POLLING
ORGANIZATION IN NOVA SCOTIA TOLD CG THAT A MAJORITY OF CANADIANS
IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY ARE PREPARED TO SET ASIDE THEIR
QUALMS ABOUT THE U.S. DECISION AND ARE LEANING TOWARDS SUPPORT
FOR THE U.S. WAR EFFORT, NOW THAT HOSTILITIES HAVE BEGUN.  IN
HIS VIEW, OTTAWA COULD EASILY MOVE PUBLIC OPINION IN THIS
DIRECTION IF IT CHOSE TO DO SO.  HE COMMENTED THAT THERE MAY BE
MORE PRO-U.S. SENTIMENT IN OTHER PARTS OF CANADA THAN CURRENTLY
APPEARS TO BE CASE, BUT IT IS DIFFICULT TO TELL BECAUSE THOSE
OPPOSED TO THE WAR TEND TO SPEAK THE LOUDEST AND GET THE MOST
MEDIA ATTENTION.
KASHKET

The text of the second cable follows after the jump:



UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HALIFAX 0086 

SIPDIS 

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 

DEPT FOR DS/IP/WHA, DS/DSS/ITA, DS/ICI/PII, DSERCC, WHA/EX 

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PREL CA US
SUBJECT:  ANTI-WAR PROTESTS IN HALIFAX 

¶1. SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - ENTIRE TEXT. 

¶2.  (SBU) AS REPORTED VIA E-MAILS OVER THE PAST WEEK, CONGEN
HALIFAX HAS BEEN THE SITE OF THREE MAJOR (BY ATLANTIC CANADA
STANDARDS) ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATIONS SINCE THE COMMENCEMENT OF
HOSTILITIES IN IRAQ.  ALL THREE PROTESTS---ORGANIZED BY A
COMBINATION OF MILITANT STUDENT GROUPS, CHURCH GROUPS, AND THE
SELF-STYLED "HALIFAX PEACE COALITION"---TOOK THE FORM OF MARCHES
ACROSS TOWN, ENDING UP IN FRONT OF THE OFFICE BUILDING HOUSING
THE CONGEN.  ALL THREE TOOK PLACE WITHOUT VIOLENCE, ALTHOUGH
DEMONSTRATORS ENGAGED IN STRONG ANTI-U.S. RHETORIC AND BURNED
U.S. FLAGS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. 

¶3. (SBU) BOTH HALIFAX REGIONAL POLICE AND THE ROYAL CANADIAN
MOUNTED POLICE (RCMP) TRACKED THE DEMONSTRATIONS CAREFULLY AND
PROVIDED PROTECTION TO CONGEN OFFICES, PROVIDING 20-30 UNIFORMED
POLICE OFFERS AT EACH EVENT.  RCMP CONTACTS HAVE KEPT CG AND PSO
INFORMED IN DETAIL OF THESE AND OTHER PLANNED PROTEST
ACTIVITIES. 

¶4. (SBU) THE FIRST DEMONSTRATION OCCURRED AT 1400 HOURS (LOCAL)
ON THURSDAY, MARCH 20.  APPROXIMATELY 100 PROTESTERS ARRIVED AT
THE FRONT ENTRANCE TO THE OFFICE BUILDING (PURDYQS TOWER II) IN
WHICH CONGEN HAS ITS NINTH-FLOOR OFFICES.  THE DEMONSTRATORS
CHANTED, PLAYED DRUMS, AND SOUNDED AIR HORNS FOR ABOUT 25
MINUTES BEFORE DEPARTING.  THE PROTESTERS ALSO THREW BAGS OF
WATER-SOLUBLE PAINT AT THE FRONT ENTRANCE AREA AND DREW FIGURES
AND GRAFFITI ON THE STREET WITH CHALK.  BUILDING MAINTENANCE
QUICKLY CLEANED THE AREA. 

¶5. (SBU) THE SECOND DEMONSTRATION OCCURRED LATER THE SAME DAY AT
1755 HOURS.  MORE THAN 600 PROTESTERS ARRIVED AS A GROUP AT THE
FRONT ENTRANCE TO PURDYQS TOWER II.  THE DEMONSTRATION LASTED
ABOUT ONE HOUR AND FEATURED SEVERAL SPEAKERS.  THE CROWD WAS
WELL BEHAVED AND DEPARTED AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE SPEECHES. 

¶6. (SBU) THE THIRD DEMONSTRATION TOOK PLACE ON SATURDAY, MARCH
¶22.  PROTESTERS ARRIVED WITH POLICE ESCORT AT THE FRONT OF
PURDYQS TOWER II AT ABOUT 1400 HOURS.  PROTESTERS ORGANIZED BY
THE "HALIFAX PEACE COALITION" MARCHED ACROSS TOWN CARRYING IRAQI
FLAGS, ANTIWAR BANNERS, AND ANTI-U.S. PLACARDS.  SEVERAL
DEMONSTRATORS BURNED A LARGE U.S. FLAG WHEN THEY ARRIVED IN
FRONT OF THE CONSULATE.  STUDENT LEADERS, CHURCH LEADERS, AND
MEMBERS OF THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY DELIVERED SPEECHES AND CHANTING
SLOGANS EXCORIATING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, IN SOME CASES USING
FAIRLY VIRULENT LANGUAGE.  SEVERAL TV NEWS CREWS COVERED THE
EVENT.   MEDIA REPORTS DESCRIBED THE CROWD AS NUMBERING BETWEEN
1,000-2,000, BUT WE CONSERVATIVELY ESTIMATE THE TOTAL NUMBER AT
CLOSER TO 600-800. 

¶7. (SBU) INDICATIONS OF A MAJOR ANTI-U.S. PROTEST AT THE CG
RESIDENCE FORCED CONGEN HALIFAX TO CANCEL A LARGE RECEPTION WE
WERE SCHEDULED TO HOLD THERE ON MARCH 25.  POLICE AND UNIVERSITY
OFFICIALS WARNED US THAT THEY HAD RECEIVED CLEAR INDICATIONS
THAT STUDENT GROUPS WERE ORGANIZING THEMSELVES TO CONDUCT A
MAJOR PROTEST AT THE CG RESIDENCE TO DISRUPT OUR RECEPTION.
SOME OF THE 30 LOCAL ART STUDENTS WHO WERE TO ATTEND THE
RECEPTION AS GUESTS OF HONOR HAD BEEN THREATENED AND PRESSURED
TO BOYCOTT THE RESIDENCE.  ON THE ADVICE OF THE RCMP, WE
POSTPONED THE EVENT. 

COMMENT
------- 

¶8. (SBU) THESE DEMONSTRATIONS ARE SMALL COMPARED TO THOSE THAT
HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN LARGER CANADIAN CITIES SUCH AS TORONTO OR
MONTREAL, BUT SIGNIFICANT BY HALIFAX STANDARDS.  AS IS USUALLY
THE CASE IN THE MARITIMES, THE PROTESTORS ARE CONDUCTING
THEMSELVES IN A RESTRAINED, MOSTLY NON-VIOLENT MANNER.  THE FACT
THAT CONGEN HALIFAX IS LOCATED IN A LARGE OFFICE BUILDING
(CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC ON WEEKENDS) WHICH ALSO HOUSES DOZENS OF
OTHER COMPANIES TENDS TO UNDERCUT ANY DANGER OF DIRECT ACTION
AGAINST OUR OFFICES. WE UNDERSTAND THAT MILITANT STUDENT GROUPS
AND THE "HALIFAX PEACE COALITION" INTEND TO ORGANIZE PROTESTS
EVERY SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN FRONT OF THE OFFICE BUILDING HOUSING
THE CONGEN. 

¶9. (SBU) WE ARE COORDINATING CLOSELY WITH THE RCMP, THE HALIFAX
REGIONAL POLICE, AND OUR OWN BUILDING SECURITY PEOPLE TO
MINIMIZE ANY RISK.  PSO HAS REVIEWED PROCEDURES WITH THE LOCAL
CONTRACT GUARD TO CONTROL ACCESS TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE
CONSULATEQS OFFICE SPACE.  NO PROTESTERS HAVE TARGETED THE CG
RESIDENCE AS OF YET, BUT RCMP CONTACTS HAVE CONFIRMED THAT THE
LOCATION OF THE RESIDENCE IS KNOWN TO LOCAL ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS.
KASHKETT

The triumph of taxophobia

Parker — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:16:53 +0000

Writing in Democracy, Jonathan Chait plumbs American right’s aversion to taxes:

The conservative movement’s embrace of taxophobia is probably the most important development in American political life over the last three decades. It is the one quality that most distinguishes American conservative elites from conservative elites in other countries. They’re more likely to question climate science, more sanguine about people dying for lack of health insurance, and less xenophobic (which is rather nice). But above all—far above all—they hate taxes.

Understanding the American Right is critical for Canadians, because if voters make the mistake of giving Stephen Harper a majority on May 2, we will see the same bizarre ideology shape our country in ways many Canadians have not stopped to think about.

H/T: Richard Stephenson

Presidential home movies

Parker — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:10:46 +0000

The Watergate scandal really began to unravel with the discovery that President Nixon had secretly tape recorded most of what happened in the Oval Office. Forgotten, until now, was that the FBI also confiscated 204 reels of Super-8 film—home movies, shot inside the White, by the likes of H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and other officials.

Filmmakers Brian L. Frye and Penny Lane are turning this amateur footage into a feature-length documentary. They have prepared a trailer as part of a Kickstarter promotion to raise production money for the project:

Click here is the video is not visible. Andrew Rosinski elaborates on the footage:

They filmed the pivotal and the prosaic, from Nixon’s historic meeting with Mao to the bathroom fixtures in the Forbidden City. They filmed White House performances by Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Dionne Warwick, Johnny Cash and Raquel Welch, the historic 1971 May Day Protests against the Vietnam War on the National Mall, and Tricia Nixon’s Rose Garden wedding. But mostly, they filmed each other: Higby standing in front of the Eiffel Tower and waving at the camera, Chapin and Kissinger clowning around at the beach, and a hummingbird sipping nectar from a feeder. Ehrlichman was quite fond of hummingbirds.

Graham Bell to Teddy Roosevelt: Protect blacks in Cape Breton

Parker — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 04:24:34 +0000

TheAtlantic.com’s tech columnist Alexis Madrigal marked the 135th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s US patent for the telephone by reproducing a doodle-like drawing of the device Bell submitted with his patent application:

That’s a fragment; see the whole diagram here.

Madrigal found the image among Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, which are stored at the Library of Congress and available online in a searchable database. Naturally, that set Contrarian searching for terms like “Telegraph House” (9 hits), “Beinn Bhreagh” (100), “Ross Ferry” and “Kempt Head” (zip and zip). A search for “Sydney” produced 47 hits, including this remarkable letter to then-US President Theodore Roosevelt:

Charles Thompson was a longtime employee of Bell’s, described by biographer Robert Bruce as the absent-minded Bell’s “chief proxy in coping with the gritty details of domestic life.” According to Baddeck historian Jocelyn Bethune, he had come into the Bells’ employ in January, 1887, when a fire damaged the third storey of the family’s Washington home. Bell’s papers suffered water damage, and the 18-year-old Thompson was one of several residents of a nearby boarding house hired by a housekeeper to help clean up the mess. He was smart, and he proved adept at deciphering Bell’s scrawled handwriting, and this led to a permanent position.

Thompson became a frequent seasonal visitor to Baddeck, and owned property in Sydney. On a visit there in late November, 1904, he and his wife tried to check into the Grand Hotel, but were turned away. In a severe downpour, they tried the The Queen, The Windsor, The Sydney, and possibly one other, but were turned away every time. Finally—and by now soaking wet—they were accommodated at The Royal, ironically, the only one of the group that survives 106 years later.

Returning to Baddeck with a bad cold, Thompson wrote the Sydney Post a letter describing his treatment. The paper published it November 28, under the headline, “Color Line Under the British Flag.”

Bell’s entourage, and his Baddeck social circle, were outraged. The inventor wrote a letter of protest to Sydney’s US Consul, a Mr. M.E. West, as well as President Roosevelt.

I know Mr. Thompson very well as he has been in my employment for about twenty years, if not more. He is an upright, conscientious man in whom I have the highest confidence. He has traveled with me in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France, Italy and Great Britain, as well as in Japan and the Hawaiian Islands, and never outside of his own country has he been discriminated against on account of his color except in Sydney, Cape Breton Island &mdash at least so far as I know.

However one may deplore the existence of the color line in certain parts of the United States, we have hotels there specially for colored people, so that the exclusion of a respectable colored man from a public hotel in our country does not work the hardship it does in Sydney. Exclusion from six of the hotels of Sydney resulted in turning these people out into the cold and wet, during one of the most severe storms of the season without

a place where they could lay their heads. After several hours exposure to the storm they fortunately found at last one hotel — the Royal — where the Proprietor had humanity enough to receive them and give them shelter. Mr. Thompson is now lying ill in my house here as the result of the exposure, and his wife also is far from well.

I propose to call the attention of the State Department in Washington to the necessity of providing protection for colored citizens of the United States in Canada — so as to prevent the possibility of the repetition of another such outrage as this.

There is nothing in the appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, or in their manners or characters to justify exclusion from any hotel. There is so little of the negro in Mr. Thompson’s appearance that he has often — in foreign countries — been taken for a Japanese, while his wife might well pass for Spanish.

Mr. Thompson… is an upright, conscientious man in whom I have the highest confidence. He has traveled with me in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France, Italy and Great Britain, as well as in Japan and the Hawaiian Islands, and never outside of his own country has he been discriminated against on account of his color except in Sydney, Cape Breton Island — at least so far as I know.

However one may deplore the existence of the color line in certain parts of the United States, we have hotels there specially for colored people, so that the exclusion of a respectable colored man from a public hotel in our country does not work the hardship it does in Sydney. Exclusion from six of the hotels of Sydney resulted in turning these people out into the cold and wet, during one of the most severe storms of the season without a place where they could lay their heads. After several hours exposure to the storm they fortunately found at last one hotel — the Royal — where the Proprietor had humanity enough to receive them and give them shelter. Mr. Thompson is now lying ill in my house here as the result of the exposure, and his wife also is far from well.

I propose to call the attention of the State Department in Washington to the necessity of providing protection for colored citizens of the United States in Canada — so as to prevent the possibility of the repetition of another such outrage as this.

There is nothing in the appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, or in their manners or characters to justify exclusion from any hotel. There is so little of the negro in Mr. Thompson’s appearance that he has often — in foreign countries — been taken for a Japanese, while his wife might well pass for Spanish.

A committee of Baddeck burghers delivered a letter of profuse apology to Thompson, to which many Baddeck residents added their signatures.

We do not understand why a respectable couple (as we all know you to be) although colored, should be turned away from any Hotel, and we sincerely hope that you and Mrs. Thompson may long be spared to spend many summers on Canadian soil and receive treatment from the hands of the public that a gentleman of your esteem so well deserves.

You can find copies of the original documents, and transcriptions, in the Library of Congress’s Bell collection: Do a search for “Roosevelt” and “Thompson.”

Thanks to Jocelyn Bethune for help sorting out this story. She wrote about the incident in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, during Black History Month of either 1998 or 1999.