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On the surface, what we know about the integration of para-military forces such as Academi into Canada's military/security apparatuses seems fairly innocuous, however, para-military forces such as Blackwater/Academi have a huge presence overseas, and their covert operations, often with little oversight, and considerable immunity from prosecution, are increasingly involved in assignments that, until recently, would have fallen under the exclusive domain of the military.
Fascistic governments typically employ para military forces to create a buffer (of plausible deniability) to compromise transparency and accountability.
For example, Dawn Paley, author of Drug War Capitalism, explains in a research piece that,
"Through the 1980s, the Colombian state became increasingly paramilitarized, a process which 'manifested itself as threats, bombings, and selective assassinations or collective massacres of government officials (principally but not exclusively from the left), and of popular political leaders, workers, peasants, professors, human rights activists, and members of nongovernmental organizations.' "
Such is the danger when countries hire covert para-military forces, often beneath the radar, to advance their agendas.
Establish secret prisons
One final hallmark of the fascist shift as identified by Naomi Wolf, is the establishment of secret prisons. Since the U.S has "black sites" throughout the world, Canada's increasing "harmonization" with her ally, in terms of cross border policing and military operations abroad, raises red flags. If our closest allies use gulags/black sites, are we not at least indirectly implicated?
Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin explains in, "Canada complicit in torture of innocent Afghans, diplomat says", that "we detained, and handed over for severe torture, a lot of innocent people."
While we may not yet have our own secret prisons, it would seem that we have used "secret prisons" abroad, to detain and torture innocent civilians.
Clearly, Canada's fascist shift is in high gear, and Bill C-51, once passed, will put us in overdrive.
How will we ever be able to pull ourselves free of the mess that we've made?
By Mark Taliano
Citizen Editor, Daily Clout
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