Our Embassy in the North

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Canada’s ruling (and somewhat disgraced) Liberal Party is facing a special election to determine whether it will keep its control of the government or not. It’s a very testy time in Canada, and not the sort of moment for an American Ambassador to wade into another country’s domestic politics.

But that, of course, is exactly what the Bush administration’s man in Ottawa, David Wilkins, has done, calling out Canada’s incumbent Prime Minister, Paul Martin, for criticizing U.S. policies, and suggesting that the U.S. won’t remain a punching bag for much longer. (Martin has not held his tongue on Iraq or, perhaps more seriously, the long-going softwood lumber controversy.) Josh Marshall and Matt Yglesias have more, with both making the point that, since the Bush administration is so despised around the world, this could paradoxically end up helping out the Liberal incumbents.

While that dust-up has gotten a good deal of attention on the other side of the border, and a smattering of play down here, there an admittedly smaller indication that our embassy has forgotten that diplomatic is synonymous with delicate, judicious, polite, politque, etcetera. Curt Stone, the U.S.’s environmental counselor in Canada, has also managed to write off Canadian opposition to U.S. drilling in ANWR as electorally motivated by asking “Is it Really About the Caribou?”—and making it pretty clear that he thinks it is not. The left-leaning Toronto Star wrote up the controversy last month:

“I am surprised a diplomat would do this,” said [Canadian] Environment Minister Stephane Dion. “It is not according to the rules.

“I am surprised a diplomat would express such cynicism.”

Ottawa has long opposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska because of its feared effects on migrating caribou on which Canadian Gwitchin First Nations depend for food and clothing.

A bilateral agreement to protect the caribou was signed in 1987. The Canadian position has remained unchanged.

It seems that Stone stopped blogging after Thanksgiving, but not before attacking the Kyoto Protocol and other climate change measures. Of course the U.S. Embassy claims that Stone’s writings only represent himself. But isn’t that a rather flimsy cover? He’s a diplomat, for chrissakes—by definition he represents the entire United States.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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