Dru Oja Jay on Canadian media ownership ¶ ErinErin SteuterSteuter on the Irving media monopoly in New BrunswickBrunswick ¶ Canada’sCanada’s frontierfrontier censorshipcensorship ¶ Hillary Lindsay onon Fatal Harvest ¶ Heather Meek returns! dominion, n. 1. Control or the exercise of control. 2. A territory or sphere of infl uence; a realm. 3. One of the self-governing nations TheThe DominionDominion within the British Commonwealth. CANADA’SCANADA’S GRASSROOTSGRASSROOTS NATIONALNATIONAL NEWSPAPERNEWSPAPER • NOVEMBERNOVEMBER 20032003 • DDOMINIONPAPER.CAOMINIONPAPER.CA • VVol.ol. I,I, #10#10 Observers say that it is highly unlikely that a draft will be called before the election, but many others point to the lack of another viable source of soldiers to maintain the costly military occupations. (Salon) Iraqi Money Missing British humanitarian group Christian Aid released a report charging that the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Author- Argentinian lawmakers vote to turn over the Buenos Aires Brukman factory to its workers. Indymedia Argentina ity (CPA) had only accounted Brukman Factory the turnover is seen as a major “battlefi eld nukes”, maintaining for $1 billion out of $5 billion of Iraqi oil revenues and funds turned over to symbolic victory for widespread that Russian nuclear weapons radical workers’ movements in would only be used as “a means seized from Saddam Hussein’s workers Argentina. (Indymedia) of political deterrence.” “All government. The report quoted nuclear powers are improv- one “senior diplomat” as After a two year battle with If the US does it, so ing their nuclear potential and saying: “We have absolutely no police, owners, and the govern- idea how the money [from Iraqi can we: Putin Russia will do the same,” he ment, workers at the Brukman said. (Agence France-Presse) oil revenues] has been spent. factory in Buenos Aires cel- We know that more than US$1 ebrated a government decision Russian President Vladi- US reinstating the billion has already been trans- to turn over the factory to the mir Putin reaffi rmed his posi- ferred from the UN escrow Oil- workers. The Argentinian leg- tion that it is entitled to launch draft? for-Food account and we don’t islature voted to recognize the preventive strikes to maintain know how this money has been workers’ control of the factory national security, after the prec- A recent push by the Pen- spent, and this is Iraqi money.” following the bankruptcy of the edent set by the United States tagon to fi ll vacant draft board The report says that $5 billion Jakob Brukman, the factory’s in Iraq. “If the principle of seats across the United States have been reported as spent, owner. preventive use of force contin- has provoked speculation that but “at least $4 billion are unac- Following Argentina’s eco- ues to develop in international the draft will be reinstated counted for.” nomic collapse of 2001, Bruk- practice, then Russia reserves for the fi rst time since the L. Paul Bremer III, head of man shut down production. The the right to act in an analogous Vietnam war. The Pentagon the CPA, brushed off the accusa- workers subsequently occupied manner to defend its national insists that there are no plans tions, and insisted that “we are the factory and restarted pro- interests.” to draft young men into mili- going to be fully transparent.” duction, this time operating as Preventive strikes differ tary service, but many experts Christian Aid and other NGOs owners of a cooperative. Along from preemptive in that they have speculated that the US is have called on governments with hundreds of similar factory refer to a perceived rather than already running low on troops to withhold aid until the Iraqi occupations across Argentina, imminent threat. Preemptive for its continued occupations of money has been accounted for. the new collective was able to strikes are conducted against an Afghanistan and Iraq. A recent Newsweek report fi nd enough business to keep enemy that is about to attack. “We’ve failed to convince raised numerous issues of the mostly-female workforce The “principle of preventive our allies to send troops, accountability concerning the employed. use of force,” as adopted by the we’ve extended deployments Iraq reconstruction effort itself. Since then, the Brukman US government in its invasion so morale is sinking, and the A USAID offi cial was quoted factory was subject to two police of Iraq, involve attacking an president is saying we can’t as saying, “Saddam had better blockades and street battles. enemy that may attack in the cut and run. So what’s left?” accountability [in his economic After a massive solidarity cam- future. US Democratic representative affairs] than the CPA does.” paign from other factory occu- Putin did not follow the Charles Rangel was quoted as (Christian Aid, Oneworld) ••• pations, workers, and unions, US precedent of developing saying. International News For full stories and additional reading, visit www.dominionpaper.ca International News compiled by Dru Oja Jay, [email protected] The Dominion, November 11 2003 • Vol. I, #10 Canadian News 2 Video Solidarité: Resist, Reuse, Recycle by Daron Letts scious and creative about where and how we get that stuff seen,” Two Canadian independent he said. “Rather than working fi lmmakers embarked on in our little world until we get separate cross country tours some sort of recognition from this fall. Sheryle Carlson is an the broader fi lm industry and independent fi lmmaker from somehow get our foot in the Edmonton and Jonathan Culp door and work within the rules, is cofounder of Satan Macnug- it would be much nicer if we git Popular Arts in Toronto could create a space for people and a cofounder of the Toronto to do this sort of work autono- Video Activist Collective. Their mously with more support and road shows overlapped in Fred- on a more permanent basis. It’s ericton. just applying the usual activist values to this particular realm The War for Oil and Drug of work.” Money Audience response indi- Reaching audiences in cates to Culp that there is a eight cities across fi ve prov- Bush gets the boot in Plasticman and the Justice League, solid interest in do-it-yourself inces, Carlson’s tour featured by Jonathan Culp. Jonathan Culp video production across the screenings of her fi rst major country. production, The War For Oil real news providers.” that reached from the Yukon “There is a real desire for and Drug Money–a sixty minute Footage used in the War to Newfoundland (4 screenings this sort of programming, espe- documentary shot on Digital Hi for Oil and Drug Money was remain on the schedule). cially in smaller communities 8 and peppered with bursts of recorded during a press con- Assisted by a dissemina- with smaller or non-existent recycled-video collage. The doc- ference at the G6B People’s tion grant from the Canada arts scenes locally,” he said. umentary showcases lectures by Summit in Calgary (the coun- Council, Recycled Cinema fea- “The smaller towns have been Michael Rupert (former LA cop ter conference to the 2002 G8 tures shorts by 18 fi lmmakers, the places where people have turned investigative journal- Summit). including Allyson Mitchell and really picked up on it.” ist) and Michel Chossudovsky “We had all this footage Lex Vaughn, Will Munro, Marc The content is accessible (editor of Global Outlook and that we really didn’t know what Adornato and Meesoo Lee. to a broad audience with most economics professor at the Uni- to do with–so we focused on one Culp and his partner at Satan shorts being narrative based versity of Ottawa). particular press conference and Macnuggit Popular Arts, Siue and with no experimental Diverse audiences in com- worked with it,” she said, refer- Moffat, also contributed works abstract content. Many of the munity centres, campus the- ring to her collaborators, Barb to the program. selections are recorded on atres and in a Saint John park Allard and Rick Gustavsen. The tour is a means to Super 8 fi lm with old and found responded positively to the In addition to raising circumvent the limits of con- equipment. A majority address medium and the message. awareness about deeper analy- ventional distribution, such activist themes. The average At the end of the month- ses of September 11 and its pre- as fi lm festival screenings and budget for the 18 shorts was long tour, The Dominion spoke amble and aftermath, Carlson the occasional windows into $100. with Carlson by cell phone, used the self-funded tour to the corporate media system. Like Carlson, Culp is gath- somewhere on the Trans develop a network of indepen- Although the current tour ering contacts throughout the Canada Highway between dent media contacts across the received grant funding, Culp country, in hopes that increased Thunder Bay and Edmonton. country. and his colleagues funded the communication among com- A self-labeled media activ- Her next documentary will fi rst two tours through admis- munities of independent fi lm ist, Carlson developed her research alternative economic sion fees. makers will help to develop a “extroverted” blend of activism models in Canada. Currently, The Dominion reached decentralized infrastructure and independent video journal- she is working on a short on Culp by phone in St. John’s. through which to produce, ism in earnest following Sep- urban sprawl and a TV series He said that challenging distribute and expand indepen- tember 11, 2001. on envirofi tting the home. She media conventions requires an dent fi lm. In recent years, she cov- plans to fi ne tune her fi rst docu- interpretation and understand- Following the tour, which ered scrums at the Alberta mentary before distributing ing of the social context that wraps on November 22, legislature, documented local public copies in November.