Last Saturday, Webster Tarpley, author of Synthetic Terror, and Canadian Action Party Leader Connie Fogal spoke at a bilingual conference entitled "9/11: Let the Truth be Exposed" at Centre St-Pierre, discussing the motives behind and effects of the attacks.
Tarpley asserted that the Bush administration was responsible for the events of Sep. 11, 2001 and for concealing government involvement as well as latent imperialistic tendencies within American foreign policy. He asserted that the 9/11 attacks were planned, coordinated and executed by the White House in order to gain dominance over oil reserves in the Middle East.
Tarpley's argument included a visual analysis of the collapse of the towers with the conclusion that they bore many similarities to buildings that have been professionally demolished. Aerial shots of the Pentagon with a superimposed image of a Boeing 747 appeared suspicious as the wingspan of a 747 is 38 metres, while the damaged section of the Pentagon was only 19 metres wide. Tarpley also pointed out that the pictures taken of the plane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania shortly after officials arrived bear no evidence of the plane itself.
"It's an absurd contradiction," he said.
At both the beginning and conclusion of his presentation, Tarpley urged audience members to "be active, or become radioactive," implying that active protest is needed to prevent a nuclear holocaust.
In the second, shorter section, Fogal gave a presentation entitled "Let's Take Back Our Country," in which she discussed her belief that the events of Sep. 11 are being used as a pretext for both the collapse of rule of law in Canada and for the collapse of the country itself.
McGill law Professor Payam Akhavan disagreed with the notion that rule of law is collapsing. While there have been significant changes in Canada since Sep. 11, he suggested that this was inevitable in an environment where the political and social climate has been subject to such upheaval.
"I don't think that it would be reasonable to say there has been a complete collapse of the rule of law," Akhavan said. "I think we have to understand, in the post 9/11 world, our conception of liberties has to change. It is highly unrealistic to think we can continue with business as usual. There is a very real threat of violence. The question is where we draw the line."
"I think the fear is that Canada could turn into a police state where people can be abducted and tortured at will," he said. "That is clearly not the sort of society that we're dealing with."
2008 Woodie Awards
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