Paul
Jay, editor in chief at The
Real News, gave some very interesting information
- some based on personal experience - about Canada's total alignment
with the US on its imperialist missions against Venezuela and other
countries:
Mexico
was part of the Lima Group, but now with the new leadership -
with AMLO now taking office in Mexico - Mexico is not going along
with this plan to recognize Juan Guaido. And Mexico is not the only
country of the region. Many, many countries of CARICOM have come
forward and have said they do not support this plan. So, the
corporate media is trying to make this sound like the whole region is
on board with this scheme.
For
months, Canada has been playing a leading role in preparing for -
according to the Canadian newspapers - for exactly what happened, the
recognition of Juan Guaido.
And
Canada has been into this scheme for months. And the rationale is
supposedly that the election of 2017 was not a legitimate election
because people were supposedly kept out. The press is not telling
people that there was a big boycott from the opposition that didn’t
want to run because there are supposed to have been various
infractions in the 2017 elections that reelected Maduro. This is the
rationale for why Canada gets so involved. Well, it’s a total
crock. And the reason it’s a crock is - I know from personal
experience - that Canada has been trying to destabilize [Venezuela]
and nurture and promote the opposition in Venezuela at least from
2004.
When
Chavez was still in power, Chavez had been elected over and over
again with internationally observed elections. Everyone said the
elections were clean during the Chavez period. Many people that tried
to throw the elections into disrepute were invalidated. The Carter
Center legitimatized them.
I
actually personally was on an election observer mission to go to
polling stations in 2004, 2005 - one of the elections leading up to
the referendum on Chavez’s presidency. And I went to 40 polling
stations, and I interviewed opposition people in all 40 polling
stations in Caracas. And I asked, ‘have you seen any infractions,
and if there were any infractions were they dealt with properly?’
And I took video, and I recorded it all, and there wasn’t a single
complaint from an opposition observer that there had been anything
done incorrectly with those elections. This vote led to a referendum
on Chavez’s presidency. And in fact, the opposition won that vote.
Right
around that time, when they were clean elections and Chavez was
getting elected over and over again, my first trip to Venezuela in
2004, I was producing the big debate show on Canadian TV called
Counterspin on CBC Newsworld. I was a well-known documentary
filmmaker. I had founded the Big Hot Docs! Documentary Film
Festival. So I was a known quantity in Canada.
And so,
when I was in Venezuela I said for the heck of it I’ll go say hello
to the Canadian Embassy, and take their temperature. The number two
charge d’affaires greets me and brings me into a meeting room with
seven members of the opposition who then for – it must have been
two hours – beat me over the head with how corrupt the regime was,
how awful it was, and so on.
I’m
not going to comment on what was right or wrong with what the
opposition people said. I have perhaps that sort of experience. I
don’t know. What I do know is what business does the Canadian
Embassy have bring in a Canadian journalist into a room with
opposition people, essentially trying to involve me in a conspiracy
against the Venezuelan government.
So this
Canadian role in Venezuela it’s been going on for a long time, and
has been very, very active in trying to destabilize the situation,
promote and nurture the opposition.
And
clearly for two reasons.
Number
one, Canada is one of the biggest mining nations in the world and
Venezuela has tremendous untapped natural resources, particularly
gold. Canada has a very strong gold mining sector. And Canadian
companies weren’t easily getting at that gold. There was one
company called Crystallex that actually had a concession and then
lost it. So, the ability to nurture an opposition and get an in with
an opposition that might come to power, and then favour Canadian
mining companies, I think that’s one motivation.
And
another motivation, I think, has to do with Canada’s role
historically; how it plays with the United States and helps the U.S.
and its foreign policy. And I once interviewed a Canadian general in
2004, Lewis MacKenzie. And I asked him, ‘why is Canada so into
this Afghan war? You know, this Afghan, post-9/11. It could have been
dealt with as a police-type operation, in terms of going after al
Qaeda. But a full-fledged invasion, full-fledged regime change? Why
is Canada in this, and in it for the long haul? Because it’s 2004,
after the invasion of Iraq.’ And his answer was, I think, very
instructive. He said, ‘well, we didn’t go to Iraq. So to keep
our ability to selling goods into the United States, we needed to pay
with some blood. We needed to send troops to Afghanistan and have
some Canadian soldiers killed to show we’re willing to share the
burden.’ He didn’t use the word empire, but that’s
essentially what he was saying.
So, this
role of Canada assisting in very nefarious American policy, and
giving it this Canadian, ‘oh, we’re for the UN, we’re
humanitarians’ - giving it that veneer, it’s an important role
that Canada plays. But I think, now the recognition of Guaido so
exposes Canada because it’s such a clear violation of the UN
charter of non-interference in internal affairs.
Justin
Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, it was his father that played
exactly this role in Vietnam. There was something called the
International Control Commission, the ICC, that was, I
believe, under the auspices of the UN, supposed to monitor treaties
and such and during the Vietnam War. And they would go to Hanoi and
interview people in the North, and they would observe, and then they
would come back. And it turned out that the Canadian delegation,
completely contrary to international law and the norms of such a
commission, was going back and reporting to the CIA on what was going
on in North Vietnam, and straightforwardly spying. So, it seems to be
a family business in the Trudeau family to play this kind of a role.
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