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Eugenics anyone? Human rights groups call on Canadian government to end coerced sterilization of indigenous women

forced sterilization
© Jemal Countess/Getty Images
The issue of forced sterilization of vulnerable people, including indigenous women, is a very serious violation of human rights,’ said Jane Philpott, minister of indigenous services
Human rights groups are calling on Canada to end the coerced sterilization of indigenous women, as a growing number of victims seek to join a class action lawsuit against government and medical professionals.

At least 60 women have joined a pending class action lawsuit against doctors and health officials in the province of Saskatchewan, seeking compensation for the violation of their rights.

The lawsuit has yet to be certified by a judge, but this week Amnesty International announced it will lobby the UN committee against torture to increase pressure on the Canadian government to act.

"Ultimately, this is about women who are supposed to have the right to make decisions about their bodies, having that right taken away from them," said Amnesty's Jacqueline Hansen.

Comment: From Wikipedia:
Eugenics (/juːˈdʒɛnɪks/; from Greek εὐγενής eugenes 'well-born' from εὖ eu, 'good, well' and γένος genos, 'race, stock, kin')[2][3] is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population.[4][5] The exact definition of eugenics has been a matter of debate since the term was coined by Francis Galton in 1883. The concept predates this coinage, with Plato suggesting applying the principles of selective breeding to humans around 400 BCE.

Frederick Osborn's 1937 journal article "Development of a Eugenic Philosophy"[6] framed it as a social philosophy-that is, a philosophy with implications for social order. That definition is not universally accepted. Osborn advocated for higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desired traits (positive eugenics), or reduced rates of sexual reproduction and sterilization of people with less-desired or undesired traits (negative eugenics).

Alternatively, gene selection rather than "people selection" has recently been made possible through advances in genome editing,[7] leading to what is sometimes called new eugenics, also known as neo-eugenics, consumer eugenics, or liberal eugenics.

While eugenic principles have been practiced as far back in world history as ancient Greece, the modern history of eugenics began in the early 20th century when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom[8] and spread to many countries including the United States,Canada[9] and most European countries. In this period, eugenic ideas were espoused across the political spectrum. Consequently, many countries adopted eugenic policies with the intent to improve the quality of their populations' genetic stock. Such programs included both "positive" measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly "fit" to reproduce, and "negative" measures such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilization of people deemed unfit for reproduction. People deemed unfit to reproduce often included people with mental or physical disabilities, people who scored in the low ranges of different IQ tests, criminals and deviants, and members of disfavored minority groups. The eugenics movement became negatively associated with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust when many of the defendants at the Nuremberg trials attempted to justify their human rights abuses by claiming there was little difference between the Nazi eugenics programs and the U.S. eugenics programs.[10]In the decades following World War II, with the institution of human rights, many countries gradually began to abandon eugenics policies, although some Western countries, among them the United States and Sweden, continued to carry out forced sterilizations.

Since the 1980s and 1990s, when new assisted reproductive technology procedures became available such as gestational surrogacy (available since 1985),preimplantation genetic diagnosis (available since 1989), and cytoplasmic transfer (first performed in 1996), fear has emerged about a possible revival of eugenics.

A major criticism of eugenics policies is that, regardless of whether "negative" or "positive" policies are used, they are susceptible to abuse because the criteria of selection are determined by whichever group is in political power at the time. Furthermore, negative eugenics in particular is considered by many to be a violation of basic human rights, which include the right to reproduction. Another criticism is that eugenic policies eventually lead to a loss of genetic diversity, resulting in inbreeding depression due to lower genetic variation.



Hammer

Mourning Stan Lee fans incensed after Bill Maher claims Trump could only get elected in comic book-loving country

Comedian Bill Maher (left), Stan Lee (right)
© Reuters / Lucas Jackson / Mario Anzuoni
Comedian Bill Maher (left), Stan Lee (right)
While many are still reeling after Stan Lee's death earlier this week, HBO host Bill Maher lashed out at his legacy, claiming that comics don't make Americans smart enough for adult life - and maybe that's why they elected Trump.

HBO's Real Time host turned legions of comic-book fans against him with his comments last Saturday - days after the legendary Marvel creator died at the age of 95. Ironically, Maher took part in the Stan Lee-produced 'Iron Man 3.'


Gold Coins

Meet Swissindo, the debt cult that wants to save the world with a mountain of gold

Swissindo offers people an end to all their money worries, but there's a cost...
swissindo sino
© Vice
The King of Kings was holding court by the time we arrived at his royal residence, a lived-in one story home in a partially abandoned housing development on the outskirts of a small coastal city in West Java, Indonesia. Soegihartonotonegoro, Sino or "M1" to his followers, leaned forward in his throne, an ornately carved, but well-worn leather and wood chair, and told the man to ignore the letters from the bank warning that his house was on the verge of foreclosure.

His debt had already been wiped clean, paid for by the UN Swissindo World Trust International Orbit, a global debt-relief cult that claims to be the sole possessor of vast fortune of gold and platinum weighting 78 million tonnes. Swissindo had provided the man with a "M1 Master Bond," that they claimed would wipe his debt clean. All he had to do was print the document out and hand it to the branch manager of his local bank. The rest would take care of itself.


Comment: Soegiharto Notonegoro, a.k.a. Sino, a.k.a. M1, has since been arrested.

It's difficult to consider this guy and his organization a 'puppet master', given the transparency of the fraud, and the socio-economic conditions that give rise to beliefs in such fantastic vehicles of salvation.

Here's a screenshot from their website's homepage:

swissindo



Question

Canada: Ontario Progressive Conservative Party passes resolution to debate recognition of gender identity

Tanya Granic Allen

Tanya Granic Allen
The Ontario PC Party has passed a resolution to debate whether or not the party should recognize gender identity.

The vote happened Saturday morning, during the party's three-day convention in Toronto.

The resolution says gender identity theory is "A highly controversial, unscientific 'liberal ideology'; and, as such, that an Ontario PC Government will remove the teaching and promotion of 'gender identity theory' from Ontario schools and its curriculum."

Comment: This pretty much sums up the political climate at the moment: Conservative party says they're going to debate teaching gender identity in schools. Liberals freak right out. Why on earth would anyone in favor of free speech and working through contentious issues by talking them out object to a debate?!

See also:


Footprints

Migrant caravan taxes Tijuana as it struggles to cope with 'tsunami' of migrants aiming for the US

fence/migrants
© Sky News
Migrants at the Tijuana, Mexico border
The mayor of Tijuana says he faces six months of arrivals as central American migrants are met with razor wire and helicopters.

The Mexican city where the migrant caravan making its way through central America has reached the US border is unable to cope with the "avalanche" of people, officials have said.

Tijuana's mayor says the influx that has already seen nearly 3,000 people arrive in the last two days will continue for at least six months and may not stop.

Donald Trump issued a series of warnings about the caravan during the midterm election campaign, saying that many of those heading to the US to seek asylum are "bad people", and telling them on Twitter to "turnaround".

The US president claimed he would "call up the US military" to close the southern border - a request that was later turned down by the Pentagon, which said it would only allow logistical support for customs officials and border protection police.

Tijuana mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum said 2,750 migrants had arrived in his city so far but Mexico's federal government estimated the number could reach 10,000. He said: "No city in the world is prepared to receive this - if I'm allowed - this avalanche. It is a tsunami. There is concern among all citizens of Tijuana."

Comment: See also:


Star of David

Ultra-orthodox Jews beat up flight attendant to land plane to keep Shabbat Law

ulta-orthodox_jews
© REUTERS / Ronen Zvulun
According to Jewish religious law, Shabbat is observed beginning just before sunset on Friday evening, with devout Jews refraining from using electronic devices, electricity or travelling by plane on the day.

Ultra-orthodox passengers on board two Israel-bound El Al planes that took off from New York on Thursday assaulted flight attendants out of fear that they would arrive after the beginning of the Jewish Shabbat.

Both flights were delayed by hours due to a snowstorm in New York that resulted in the delay or cancellation of hundreds of flights.

After the planes finally took off, a number of passengers grew angry despite the fact that the El Al crew assured they would arrive before sundown Friday when Shabbat begins, according to a passenger on one of the planes, Roni Meital.

Meital posted a short video on Facebook and a lengthy caption to explain what had happened, criticising the behaviour of the religious individuals:

"After six hours of flying, I suddenly heard screaming and saw a flight attendant crying after she was hit, pushed amid threats they would break open the door to the cockpit. I found myself standing and protecting flight attendants who were crying and who just wanted to catch their breath after the behaviour toward them," she wrote.

Bad Guys

Over 100 workers begin 'heavy cleanup' after train carrying propane derails in Byromville, Georgia

train derailment georgia
© Montezuma Police Department
It happened on Highway 90, causing piles of debris and about 30 train cars to come crashing to the ground -- everyone within a half mile radius was told to 'get out.'

Around 7 a.m. on Saturday, dozens of people in Byromville woke up to police officers knocking on their doors -- instructing them to leave their homes immediately after a train carrying propane tanks de-railed off a bridge.

It happened on Highway 90, causing piles of debris and about 30 train cars to come crashing to the ground.

Everyone within a half mile radius was told to 'get out'.

"We were running around yelling, 'oh my gosh,' then we had to rush to get out of the house and everything," said Skylar Towns.

Eye 1

Canada's oil producers hit a massive roadblock

Ship
© Reuters / Chris Helgren
Canadian oil producers are in an increasingly tough predicament. With high and increasing oil demand around the globe over the last year, Canadian oil production has increased accordingly.

All of this is simple and predictable economics, but now Canadian oil has hit a massive roadblock. Producers have the supply, and they have more than enough demand, but they don't have the means to make the connection. Canadian export pipelines simply don't have the capacity to keep up with either the supply or the demand.

Canadian oil producers have now maxed out their storage capacity, and the Canadian glut continues to grow while they wait for a solution to the pipeline problem to materialize. As pipeline space is at a premium and storage has hit maximum capacity, oil prices have fallen dramatically, and the differentials that had previously been hitting heavy oil hard in Canada (now at below $18 a barrel for the first time since 2016) have now spread to light oil and upgraded synthetic oil sands crude as well, leaving overall Canadian oil prices at record lows.

Now, adding to the problem, growth in oil demand has begun to slow in the wake of skyrocketing United States production and the weakening of US-imposed sanctions on Iranian oil. First, the US granted waivers to eight nations to continue buying Iranian oil despite strong rhetoric, and now the European Union has undermined the sanctions even further.

Comment: See also:


Camcorder

Viral clip sees Chipotle manager fired for accusing black diners of serial dine-and-dash

Chipotle grill
© Reuters / Robert Galbraith
A Chipotle outlet
Chipotle has fired one of its managers after a video posted by a black customer recorded her asking his group to pay before ordering and accusing them of being serial dine-and-dashers.

"Can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session?" asked Twitter user Masud Ali, who posted the clip of him and his friends at a St. Paul, Minnesota branch of the US burrito chain on Friday.

The two-minute clip starts with the manager telling the wannabe carbo-loaders mid-sentence: "You gotta pay because you never have money when you come in here bro."

In response, the bewildered men repeat the woman's claim: "we got no money?" before attempting to convince the manager that they had honest intentions. The clip has received 3.85 million views and shared over 30,000 times.

Star of David

Journalist demands that Moshe Feiglin be investigated under the law for preventing genocide

Moshe Feiglin

Moshe Feiglin, Israeli right-wing pundit
On Thursday, Moshe Feiglin, a rightwing political figure, went on Channel Two in Israel and explained to broadcaster Udi Segal his plan for the Gaza Strip: ethnically cleansing it, and those who survive the IDF can then ask for refugee status in the EU.

Feiglin is a former deputy chairman of the Knesset, one of most sweet-talking Judeo-Nazis I've ever met. He's been at it for over twenty years. He tried to oppose Netanyahu (he was too moderate for his tastes) in Likud, and was squashed utterly for his trouble a few years back. He's still around, though, and still often interviewed, for reasons beyond human ken.

Comment: People are charged and jailed for far less when Israel is the subject. The hypocrisy is stunning.