Balcombe Street Gang

The Balcombe Street Gang was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service unit (ASU) (also known as the Balcombe Street Four or the Balcombe Street Unit) who carried out a bombing campaign in southern England in the mid-1970s. The majority of their attacks and attempted attacks took place in London and the rest in Surrey, Hampshire and Wiltshire. Between October 1974 and December 1975 they carried out approximately 40 bomb and gun attacks in and around London, sometimes attacking the same targets twice. The unit would sometimes carry out two or more attacks in one day; on 27 January 1975 they placed seven time bombs in London.
On 25 November 1974, they carried out three bomb attacks in the centre of London injuring 20 people. They were eventually caught during the Balcombe Street siege in December 1975, thus ending their 15-month bombing campaign in England. They have been described as "the most violent, ruthless and highly-trained unit ever sent to Britain by the Provisional IRA".
Active members.
The six known members of the Balcombe Street Gang's ASU were Hugh Doherty, Joseph O'Connell, Eddie Butler and Harry Duggan (these four were captured at the Balcombe Street Siege). Liam Quinn (a US-born member) and Brendan Dowd were also active within the unit.
O'Connell and fellow ASU member Dowd flew from Shannon Airport, County Clare, to Heathrow in early August 1974, under the pretence of looking for work in London. O'Connell, as the bomb-maker of the group, was responsible for making the first devices the ASU detonated in their campaign, during the Guildford pub bombings on 5 October 1974. This was the beginning of a wide range of attacks O'Connell was involved in. They varied from the bombing of the Kings Arms, Woolwich, to throwing hand bombs in Sir Edward Heath's club and the murder of an insurance broker.
Background.
The Balcombe Street Unit was possibly the most successful IRA unit ever to carry out a bombing campaign in England. They had a focus on London (in particular the West End of London where they targeted pubs, clubs and restaurants with bombings and shootings. They attacked several of their targets twice. Within the space of nineteen days they had planted their first six explosive devices, two in Guildford on 5 October, another two in Seymour Street and St. James's Square on the 11th, another at St James's Square on the 22nd and one in Harrow on the 24th.
In spring 1973, the IRA extended its bombing campaign to England, attacking military and symbolically important targets. The aim was to both increase pressure on the British government by swaying popular British opinion, with the goal of British withdrawal from Northern Ireland.
It began on 8 March 1973 when an 11-person ASU, (which included Irish republicans such as the Price Sisters and Gerry Kelly) bombed the Old Bailey. Despite warnings, one person died of a heart attack and about 200 were injured, some seriously. The IRA always believed that one bomb in England was worth about 30 in Belfast and the huge media response seemed to prove this theory.
The ASU behind the Old Bailey bombing was caught trying to leave England by plane to Ireland. Although the IRA achieved its objective, it was a tactical error to try to leave so quickly, as British security forces would be extra vigilant at escape routes from England to Ireland.
The IRA General Headquarters realised this mistake. Instead, they decided that instead of sending over a large 10-person ASU for just one day of spectacular bombing, they would use smaller sleeper cells of three or four volunteers to carry out several bombings over a number of months.
IRA attacks in England for the rest of 1973 soon started to become more professional and sophisticated. The following attack was on 18 August 1973 when two IRA firebombs exploded at Harrods Department store, causing some damage but no injuries or deaths. This was the start of their prolonged bombing campaign in England. Just four days later an IRA book bomb exploded at the Conservative Party Central Office in London, injuring several people but none seriously. A few weeks later IRA bombs went off at King's Cross and Euston stations causing 13 injuries and wide spread damage, and panic in central London. From then on IRA bombs became a regular occurrence in London and other major English cities.
By 1974, England saw an average of one attack – successful or otherwise – every three days. These attacks included the Birmingham pub bombings on 21 July which were possibly the first major attacks on the Midlands.
It is believed that republican Brian Keenan was in charge of the IRA bombing campaign in England from 1974–1976. After the Balcombe Street unit was arrested in 1975 Keenan visited a flat used by the unit in Crouch Hill, London, to give it further instructions. In follow-up raids after the siege, police discovered crossword puzzles in his handwriting and his fingerprints on a list of bomb parts. A warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) at Banbridge in March 1979 on charges relating to the London campaign in the mid-1970s.
1974.
August.
Sometime in August 1974, the first members of the Balcombe Street Unit moved into its first safe house, a London home in Fulham, in Waldemar Avenue SW6. Dowd and O'Connell started drawing up plans with a list of targets for the campaign to start in Autumn.
1975.
August.
"Phase two" of the Balcombe Street Gang's campaign begins.
Trial.
The Balcombe Street four came to trial at the Old Bailey on 24 January 1977.
On 9 February 1977, the jury acquitted the defendants on twenty-six of the hundred indictments. On the remaining charges, the Balcombe Street Four were found guilty and each received a thirty-year minimum sentence. All were released on 14 April 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Type of attacks.
Most of the attacks carried out by the unit were bombings, but the unit was also involved in several shooting incidents.
The gang used several different methods to deliver and detonate their bombs. The unit's favoured method was using hand-thrown bombs. The unit made and used a series of these grenade-like devices. These were small devices with around of gelignite in them with a short fuse attached. The fuse would be lit and then thrown at its target by one volunteer while another volunteer would keep lookout. This method was used in the Woolwich pub bombing of November 1974 and the Waltons bombing of November 1975.
Another common method was making either a time bomb or an incendiary device with a timer on it, which would then be planted inside a pub, club, hotel, or other site. This method was used in the Guildford pub bombings of October 1974 and the Hilton bombing of September 1975. The unit also detonated a car bomb at Selfridge's department store on Oxford Street in December 1974. Booby-trap bombs were occasionally used. During these attacks, the unit would also place a second, hidden bomb with a timer nearby with the intent of killing or injuring security services reacting to the initial bombing.
On several occasions, the unit fired shots from rifles and machine guns (usually Sten guns and M1 carbines) into hotels and restaurants, as in the attacks on the Carlton Tower Hotel and the Portman Hotel in January 1975. The gang also shot and killed several people, the most famous of whom was "Guinness Book of Records" founder Ross McWhirter in November 1975.
Nineteen people were killed in the ASU's campaign: 16 from bombings and three in shootings. Six of the dead were British military personnel, one was a London police officer, one was a member of the bomb squad, and 11 were civilians.
Weapons.
Weapons used by the London ASU included...


Salem al-Hazmi

Salem al-Hazmi (, , also transliterated as Alhazmi) (February 2, 1981 – September 11, 2001) was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77 as part of the September 11 attacks.
Al-Hazmi had a relatively long history with al-Qaeda before being selected for the attacks. He obtained a tourist visa through the Visa Express program and arrived in the United States in June 2001 where he would settle in New Jersey with other American 77 hijackers up until the attacks.
On September 11, 2001, al-Hazmi boarded American Airlines Flight 77 and helped subdue the passengers and crew for Hani Hanjour, the pilot among the hijackers, to crash the plane into west facade of the Pentagon. His older brother, Nawaf al-Hazmi, was another hijacker aboard the same flight. Along with Ahmed al-Haznawi, who was one of the hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93 and Hamza al-Ghamdi, who was also co-hijacker with his older brother on United Airlines 175, he was among the youngest hijackers in the attacks.
History.
Salem al-Hazmi was born on February 2, 1981 to Muhammad Salim al-Hazmi, a grocer, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. His father described Salem as a quarrelsome teenager who had problems with alcohol and petty theft. However, he stopped drinking and began to attend the mosque about three months before he left his family.
There are reports that he fought in Afghanistan with his brother, Nawaf al-Hazmi, and other reports say the two fought together in Chechnya. Salem al-Hazmi was an al-Qaeda veteran by the time he was selected for participation in the 9/11 attacks. U.S. intelligence learned of al-Hazmi's involvement with al-Qaeda as early as 1999, but he was not placed on any watchlists.
Known as "Bilal" during the preparations, both he and Ahmed al-Ghamdi flew to Beirut in November 2000, though on separate flights.
Along with Nawaf al-Hazmi and several other future hijackers, Salem al-Hazmi may have attended the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was there that the details of the 9/11 attacks were decided upon.
In the United States.
According to the FBI and the 9/11 Commission report, al-Hazmi first entered the United States on June 29, 2001, although there are numerous unconfirmed reports that he was living in San Antonio, Texas with fellow hijacker Satam al-Suqami much earlier. Al-Hazmi used the controversial Visa Express program to gain entry into the country.
Al-Hazmi moved to Paterson, New Jersey where he lived with Hani Hanjour. Both were among the five hijackers who applied for Virginia identity cards at the Arlington office of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles on August 2, 2001, although Salem al-Hazmi already held an NJ identity card.
On August 27, brothers Nawaf and Salem al-Hazmi purchased flight tickets through Travelocity.com using the former's Visa card.
With the four other Flight 77 hijackers, he worked out at a Gold's Gym in Greenbelt, Maryland from September 2 to September 6 of the same year.
Attacks.
On September 11, 2001, al-Hazmi boarded American Airlines Flight 77. Airport surveillance video from Washington's Dulles Airport shows two of the five hijackers, including Salem al-Hazmi, being pulled aside to undergo additional scrutiny after setting off metal detectors.
The flight was scheduled to depart at 08:10, but ended up departing 10 minutes late from Gate D26 at Dulles. The last normal radio communications from the aircraft to air traffic control occurred at 08:50:51. At 08:54, Flight 77 began to deviate from its normal, assigned flight path and turned south, and then hijackers set the flight's autopilot heading for Washington, D.C. Passenger Barbara Olson called her husband, United States Solicitor General Theodore Olson, and reported that the plane had been hijacked and that the assailants had box cutters and knives. At 09:37, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west facade of the Pentagon, killing all 64 aboard (including the hijackers), along with 125 on the ground in the Pentagon. In the recovery process at the Pentagon, remains of all five Flight 77 hijackers were identified through a process of elimination, as not matching any DNA samples for the victims, and put into custody of the FBI. Forensics teams confirmed that it seemed two of the hijackers were brothers, based on their DNA similarities.
Mistaken identity.
Shortly after the attacks, several sources reported that Salem al-Hazmi, 26, was alive and working at a petrochemical plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. He claimed that his passport had been stolen by a pickpocket in Cairo three years before, and that the pictures and details such as date of birth released to the public by the FBI were his own. He also stated that he had never visited the United States, but volunteered to fly to the U.S. to prove his innocence. On September 19, "Al-Sharq Al-Awsat" published his photograph alongside Badr Al-Hazmi's, who they claimed was the actual hijacker who had stolen his identity.
After some confusion and doubt Saudi Arabia admitted that in fact the names of the hijackers were correct. "The names that we got confirmed that," Interior Minister Prince Nayef said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Their families have been notified." Nayef said the Saudi leadership was shocked to learn 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and said it was natural that the kingdom had not noticed their involvement beforehand.


Cheng Han

Cheng Han (; 303 or 304–347) was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms during the Jin Dynasty (265-420), situated in what is modern-day Sichuan Province in China.
Cheng and Han.
It represented two states, the Cheng state (成 Chéng) and the Han state (汉 Hàn). Cheng was proclaimed in 304 by Li Xiong, while Han was proclaimed in 338 by Li Shou. Since they were both ruled by the Li family of the Ba ethnicity, scholars with Chinese backgrounds often combined them into a single Cheng Han state. The Li family has also been described as being of Ba-Di ethnicity, they were originally Ba from modern Sichuan who had settled among the Di in modern Gansu. Western texts frequently referred to the two states separately. Whether the treatment is correct is debatable.
When Li Shou claimed the throne in 338, he did not acknowledge his throne as having been inherited from Li Xiong's line. While he continued to worship Li Xiong, it was done in a separate temple. However, Li Shou's son Li Shi, acknowledged the prior emperors including Li Xiong as his predecessors. Cheng Han's was the earliest establishment of the Sixteen Kingdoms.
All rulers of the Cheng Han declared themselves "emperors".
The commonly accepted founding year of Cheng has been 304. Nevertheless, Li Te declared a new era name in 303. Some scholars consider this self-declaration of era name to be a symbol of a new government. However, at that time, Li Te claimed no imperial or other special titles for himself.
The Li family Cheng Han was eventually conquered by the Jin when Huan Wen attacked Chengdu.


Iosif Grigulevich

Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich (; May 5, 1913 – June 2, 1988) was a Soviet NKVD operative active between 1937 and 1953, when he took a leading role in assassinating Communist and Bolshevik individuals who were not loyal to Joseph Stalin.
Under the false identity of Teodoro B. Castro, a wealthy Costa Rican expatriate living in Rome, Grigulevich served as the ambassador of Costa Rica to both Italy and Yugoslavia (1952–1954). His mission was to assassinate Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito but the mission was aborted following Stalin's death in 1953. Grigulevich then settled in Moscow, where he worked as an expert on the history of Latin America and on the Roman Catholic Church.
He was a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, served as editor-in-chief of the magazine "Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost" ("Social Sciences Today"), and published many books and articles about Latin American subjects.
Early life.
Grigulevich was born in Vilnius, Russian Empire (present day Lithuania), to a family of Crimean Karaites. His parents emigrated to Argentina when he was young. His father did well for himself and later sent Iosif to Europe to study. However, some sources claim that only his father moved to La Clarita, Argentina and he and his mother remained in Trakai, Lithuania, where he joined the Polish Communist Party and became acquainted with Edward Gierek, not travelling to Argentina until 1934. In any case, in 1933, he studied briefly at the Sorbonne. He was recruited by the NKVD and showed a gift for languages, soon picking up English, Spanish, French and Russian.
Secret agent.
In the late 1930s, Grigulevich was sent to Spain to monitor the activities of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM, the militia with which George Orwell served), during the course of the civil war in that country. Grigulevich worked under NKVD general Alexander Orlov, using the code names MAKS and FELIPE, and organized so-called "mobile groups" that killed, among other actual and suspected Trotskyists, POUM leader Andrés Nin. In this mission Grigulevich apparently collaborated with the assassin Vittorio Vidali, known in Spain as "Comandante Carlos Contreras."
Grigulevich was summoned back to Moscow in 1938. In January 1940 he was sent to Mexico, under the code name "Yuzek," to take part in the first attempt on the life of Leon Trotsky, again with Agent Vidali. In the wee hours of May 24, 1940, a group of peasants and miners, led by Grigulevich and David Siqueiros, stormed Trotsky's compound at Coyoacan near Mexico City. In terms of harm, they missed Trotsky and his wife altogether and managed only to wound their young grandson in the foot. The defector Walter Krivitsky managed to hear of this attempt and sent a warning to Trotsky through Dies Committee member J.B. Matthews. Trotsky acknowledged the warning. In a letter, he responded, "Krivitsky is right. We are the two men the OGPU is sworn to kill."
After the failed attempt to assassinate Trotsky, Grigulevich and two of his accomplices (Laura Araujo Aguilar and Antonio Pujol Jimenez) were helped by Pablo Neruda to escape from the Mexican police.
Later, Grigulevich was sent to Argentina under the code name "Artur", where he remained during World War II and organized anti-Nazi sabotage operations. He married a Mexican woman named Laura Araujo Aguilar, who was also a Soviet secret agent, operating under the code name LUIZA.
Costa Rican diplomat.
In 1949, with the help of Joaquín Gutiérrez, a Costa Rican writer who harboured very pro-Soviet and Communist sympathies and who worked in his country's diplomatic corps, Grigulevich procured a false passport identifying him as "Teodoro Castro Bonnefil", and settled in Rome. Grigulevich pretended to be the illegitimate son of a wealthy Costa Rican coffee producer and styled himself Teodoro B. Castro (using a middle initial in the "American manner"). He successfully established an import-export business in Rome and made extensive personal contacts with business figures and prelates of the Catholic church. He also became a friend and business partner of former Costa Rican president José Figueres and in 1951 "Teodoro B. Castro" was appointed as "chargé d'affaires" of the Costa Rican embassy in Rome, serving also as advisor to the Costa Rican delegation to the sixth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, in Paris. In 1952, he was appointed as ambassador to both Italy and Yugoslavia. In the meantime, Grigulevich was secretly granted Soviet citizenship and membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In early 1952, the Soviet intelligence services assigned Grigulevich the task of conducting the assassination of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, who had broken with Stalin in 1948 over his insistence in maintaining Yugoslav independence from Soviet control (see Tito–Stalin split). In his role as the Costa Rican ambassador (he presented his credentials on April 25, 1953), Grigulevich met with Tito on several occasions, but the death of Stalin in March 1953 interrupted the assassination plans and Grigulevich was eventually summoned back to Moscow, marking the end of his career as a Soviet secret agent. In Rome, the sudden disappearance of the Costa Rican ambassador, along with his wife and daughter, created a stir, with rumors of Mafia involvement circulating in diplomatic circles.
Historian.
In Moscow, Grigulevich settled into a new life as an academic. He was awarded a doctorate in history without having to defend a thesis and worked as an expert on Latin America and the Catholic Church. He was the author of 58 books, some of which were published under the pseudonym Iosif Lavretzky (Лаврецкий). In 1976 he wrote a biography of Che Guevara. In 1979 he became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Colleagues were puzzled by the lack of any biographical information about him prior to his forties and by his refusal to be photographed. The details of Grigulevich's role as a Soviet agent were clarified only after the fall of the communist regime, particularly with the release of the so-called "Mitrokhin archive" in the mid-1990s.


Feng Deyi

Feng Lun (568–627), courtesy name Deyi, better known as Feng Deyi, formally Duke Miao of Mi, was an official of the Sui and Tang dynasties who served as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Gaozu of Tang and Emperor Taizong of Tang. He was praised for his quick thinking but criticized by historians for his being overly attentive to the emperors' desires.
Background.
Feng Deyi was born in 568, when his grandfather Feng Longzhi (封隆之) was a high level official for Northern Qi. His father Feng Zixiu (封子繡) served as a provincial governor for Northern Zhou, but was captured by the Chen Dynasty general Wu Mingche in a battle, probably in 573, during Wu's main offensive against Northern Qi. Sometime after Northern Qi was destroyed by Northern Zhou in 577, Feng Zixiu fled back north, and was made a provincial governor by Emperor Wen of Sui, whose Sui Dynasty succeeded Northern Zhou in 581. Feng Deyi's mother Lady Lu was the sister of the official Lu Sidao. In Feng Deyi's youth, Lu Sidao often said, with regard to Feng Deyi, "This child is more intelligent than other people, and one day will surely be a highly-ranked official, even chancellor."
During Emperor Wen's reign.
In 589, Emperor Wen's forces destroyed Chen, reuniting China. In 590, with people in the Chen territory unaccustomed and aggrieved by Sui law, there were agrarian rebellions in much of former Chen territory, and Emperor Wen sent the major general Yang Su to quell the rebellions. Yang Su made Feng Deyi a secretary of his, and was impressed by Feng's calmness, particularly after an accident in which Feng was almost drowned but remained calm after the incident. Later, after he quelled the revolts, he was made chancellor, and he retained Feng on staff.
In 593, Emperor Wen put Yang Su in charge of constructing his summer palace Renshou Palace (仁壽宮, in modern Baoji, Shaanxi). Yang Su made Feng his assistant, and they constructed a magnificent palace, at much human and material cost. After the palace was completed in 595, the frugal Emperor Wen visited the palace and was initially displeased at its magnificence and human cost, rebuking Yang Su. Yang Su was fearful that Emperor Wen would punish him, but Feng correctly predicted that when Emperor Wen's wife Empress Dugu arrived at the palace, Yang Su would not only not receive punishment, but would be rewarded. That indeed happened, and when Yang Su, impressed with Feng's prediction, asked him the reason, Feng responded:
Yang Su was impressed with Feng's analysis and praised him. Further, while Yang Su was proud of his own abilities and often found ways to insult others, he respected Feng and often requested Feng's opinions on the matters he needed to resolve as chancellor. He often touched his seat and stated, "One day Master Feng will have this seat," and he recommended Feng to Emperor Wen, who made Feng a mid-level official, "Neishi Sheren" (內史舍人), within the legislative bureau of his government (內史省, "Neishi Sheng").
During Emperor Yang's reign.
In 604, Emperor Wen died and was succeeded by his son Emperor Yang. Emperor Yang, in 605, put Feng and Yuwen Kai (宇文愷) in charge of constructing the main palace at the eastern capital Luoyang, Xianren Palace (顯仁宮), and they constructed a magnificent palace. Despite this, Feng was not promoted, and was still "Neishi Sheren" as of 617.
In or around 617, Feng became a trusted advisor to the chancellor Yu Shiji. As Yu was unfamiliar with civil service, Feng effectively handled the civil service matters, and the edicts that he drafted were calculated to please Emperor Yang; he would also block the submissions made by officials who had different opinions than Emperor Yang. He was harsh in his application of laws, and often reduced rewards to officials with contributions. He was therefore blamed by the "Old Book of Tang" for Emperor Yang's increasing favors for Yu and the deteriorating state of Sui governance.
In spring 618, with the Sui state embroiled in agrarian rebellions, Emperor Yang was at Jiangdu (江都, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), when the general Yuwen Huaji led a coup against Emperor Yang. After Yuwen's soldiers trapped Emperor Yang in the palace, Yuwen ordered Feng to publicly denounce Emperor Yang for his crimes. Emperor Yang told Feng, "You are well-learned. Why are you doing this?" Feng, in shame, withdrew from Emperor Yang's presence. Yuwen subsequently killed Emperor Yang and declared Emperor Yang's nephew Yang Hao the Prince of Qin emperor.
During Emperor Gaozu's reign.
Yuwen Huaji subsequently abandoned Jiangdu, leading the elite Xiaoguo Army (驍果) back north. He made Feng the head of the legislative bureau (內史令, "Neishi Ling"), a position that Feng continued to hold after Yuwen poisoned Yang Hao and declared himself the emperor of a new Xu state at Liaocheng (聊城, in modern Liaocheng, Shandong).
Feng, seeing that Yuwen Huaji, who was repeatedly defeated by other rebel leaders, including Li Mi the Duke of Wei, Li Shentong (李神通) the cousin of Li Yuan (who, also in 618, established Tang Dynasty at Chang'an as its Emperor Gaozu), and Dou Jiande the Prince of Xia, was being weakened by the losses, befriended Yuwen Huaji's brother Yuwen Shiji, and suggested to Yuwen Shiji that he request permission from Yuwen Huaji to leave Liaocheng to collect food supplies for the army. Yuwen Huaji agreed, and Yuwen Shiji and Feng both left Liaocheng. After Liaocheng fell to Dou in 619, Yuwen Huaji was killed. Yuwen Shiji and Feng then fled to Tang territory. Emperor Gaozu, as he respected Feng as a Sui official, made him "Neishi Sheren" again, and soon promoted him to "Neishi Shilang" (內史侍郎), the deputy head of the legislative bureau. The chancellor Xiao Yu, impressed with Feng, recommended Feng, and Emperor Gaozu, in 620, made Feng "Zhongshu Ling" (中書令) -- a new title for the head of the legislative bureau, which Emperor Gaozu had changed the name of by this point to "Zhongshu Sheng" (中書省). As "Zhongshu Ling", Feng was considered a chancellor as well.
Later in 620, Emperor Gaozu sent his son Li Shimin the Prince of Qin to attack Wang Shichong the Emperor of Zheng, whose capital was at Luoyang. Feng accompanied Li Shimin as one of his strategists. In 621, Dou came to Wang's aid, and Emperor Gaozu, initially believing that Li Shimin could not prevail under those circumstances, secretly ordered retreat. Instead of retreating, Li Shimin sent Feng back to Chang'an to analyze to Emperor Gaozu that Wang was in desperate straits, but that if allowed to survive, could regroup and become a serious threat later. Emperor Gaozu was persuaded and allowed Li Shimin to remain. Li Shimin subsequently defeated and captured Dou, and Wang surrendered, allowing Tang to defeat two major enemies simultaneously. Pleased, Emperor Gaozu praised Feng, comparing his advice to that of the Jin Dynasty official Zhang Hua, whose advice had permitted Emperor Wu of Jin to destroy Eastern Wu. For his contributions, Feng was created the Duke of Pingyuan and continued to serve as Li Shimin's assistant.
Meanwhile, an intense rivalry was developing between Li Shimin and his older brother Li Jiancheng, who, as Emperor Gaozu's oldest son, was created crown prince. During Feng's service as Li Shimin's assistant, he was often suggesting Li Shimin various ways of seizing the position of crown prince from Li Jiancheng, but at the same time was developing a relationship with Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi, another son of Emperor Gaozu who supported Li Jiancheng, thus playing both sides of the rivalry without either side knowing the extent of his involvement.
In 623, Feng, in addition to his other posts, also became acting minister of civil service matters. He was praised for his efficiency in the post. In 624, when Li Jiancheng was found to have improperly requisitioned soldiers to serve in his guard corps, and his guard commander Yang Wen'gan (楊文幹) then rebelled in fear, Emperor Gaozu considered deposing Li Jiancheng and replacing him with Li Shimin, but Feng made a secret submission arguing against such a move, and at least partly because of Feng's intercession, Emperor Gaozu did not depose Li Jiancheng. In 625, Feng was created the greater title of Duke of Dao, a title soon changed to Duke of Mi.
During Emperor Taizong's reign.
In 626, Li Shimin, fearing that Li Jiancheng was about to kill him, ambushed Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji at Xuanwu Gate and killed them. He then effectively forced Emperor Gaozu to first create him crown prince and then yield the throne to him (as Emperor Taizong). He reorganized his government, and as part of the reorganization, Xiao Yu and Feng Deyi were made co-heads of the important executive bureau (尚書省, "Shangshu Sheng"), with the title of "Shangshu Pushe" (尚書僕射). They soon came in conflict, however, as Feng would often agree with Xiao on important matters, and then change his recommendations once they were before Emperor Taizong. Xiao, later in 626, became sufficiently angry at Feng that he wrote a submission to Emperor Taizong, denouncing Feng using unartful language. Emperor Taizong, who was already displeased with Xiao, who was also conflicting with his other chancellors Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui, soon removed Xiao from his post.
In 627, Feng became ill while handling official matters at the executive bureau, and Emperor Taizong visited him personally, and then used an imperial wagon to take him back to his mansion. Feng soon died, and Emperor Taizong posthumously honored him with the high title "Sikong" (司空), giving him the posthumous name Ming (明, meaning "understanding").
When Feng died, Emperor Taizong had not known that Feng was in fact associating with both him and Li Jiancheng, but as he reviewed imperial archives several years later, he began to realize this. In 643, with Feng's involvement in both camps becoming clear, the official Tang Lin (唐臨) submitted a posthumous indictment, requesting that Feng's honors be posthumously stripped. Emperor Taizong accepted the advice of another official, Tang Jian (唐儉), who pointed out that Feng had contributions while he was alive and that the offices should not be stripped but suggested that the posthumous honors be stripped. However, he also changed Feng's posthumous name from Ming to Miao (繆, meaning "inconsistent").


7th G7 summit

The 7th G7 Summit was called the Ottawa Summit, and was held in Montebello, Quebec, Canada and nearby Ottawa between July 20 and 21, 1981. The venue for the summit meetings was the Château Montebello.
The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada (since 1976) and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981). The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.
Leaders at the summit.
The G7 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The 7th G7 summit was the first summit for French President François Mitterrand, Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini, Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki and U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Participants.
These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:
Issues.
The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions.


Sergipe Province


Thought reform in China

Thought reform in China (, also known as ideological remolding or ideological reform) was a campaign of the Communist Party of China to reform the thinking of Chinese citizens into accepting Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (Maoism) from 1951 to 1952. Techniques employed included indoctrination, "struggle sessions", propaganda, criticism and self-criticism, and a variety of other techniques.
Terminology.
The Chinese term "sīxiǎng gǎizào" (思想改造, lit. "thought reform") "ideological remolding" compounds the words "sīxiǎng" (思想) "thought; thinking; idea; ideology" and "gǎizào" 改造 "transform; reform; remold; remake; correct".
The related term "sīxiǎng gōngzuò" (思想工作, lit. "thought work"; also translated as thought-work or thoughtwork) "ideological education", with "gōngzuò" (工作) "work; job". In modern CCP usage, "sīxiǎng gōngzuò" "thought work" is a more inconspicuous term for "sīxiǎng gǎizào" "thought reform".
History.
The Thought Reform Movement first began in September 1951, following a speech by premier Zhou Enlai calling for intellectuals to reform their thought. The "People's Daily "called for teachers and college staff to "arm oneself with the thought of Marxism-Leninism" and "throw away the vulgar perspectives of individualism and liberalism, and the cultural thought of European-American reactionary bourgeoisie".
Intellectuals who studied overseas were forced to confess to their role as "implementers of the imperialist cultural invasion", while writers across the country were ordered to study Mao's speech "Talk at Yan'an Forum on Literature and Arts" and engage in self-criticism. During the movement, many school curricula were restructured, with science and engineering adapting the Soviet models, while courses seen as "pseudo-bourgeoisie", such as sociology, political science, and economics, were abolished.
Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns.
The Thought Reform Movement ended by 1952 and it was merged with the Three-anti/five-anti campaigns. As a result, the Central Committee Department of Propaganda has taken ideological control of China's cultural and educations systems.
According to Robert Jay Lifton, the CPC's program of thought reform emerged as one of the most powerful efforts at propaganda ever undertaken, and included imposed doctrines, ideological purges, and mass conversion movements carried out in an organized and comprehensive way. The thought reform program was applied in universities, schools, special "revolutionary colleges", prisons, businesses and government offices, and peasant organisations. It brought significant personal upheaval to the individuals affected.
The Socialist "New Man".
According to a 1969 thesis by Theodore Chen, an important concept in thought reform is that of the "New Socialist Man", based on the idea that communist revolution is predicated on "new men with new minds, new ideas, new emotions, and new attitudes". Thus, before the new way of life can prevail, the old must be abolished. In China both the old and new generations were to be remolded according to communist ideology, so the making and remaking of "new men" became a fundamental task of the communist revolution and the main aim of education.
Chen reports that the CPC selected "model citizens" from various walks of life, including laborers, peasants, women, and youth to popularize the attributes of the concept. From the virtues put forth in indoctrination and propaganda, and from the various "models" selected to promote desired behaviors, Theodore Chen writes that it is possible to discern a few major characteristics of the model man envisioned by communist planners. These include: absolute selflessness; obedience to the Communist Party; class consciousness; ideological study; participation in labor and production; versatility; and being a "Red expert".
The Chinese notion of the "new man" was significantly influenced by its Soviet predecessor. In psychology, it was linked to Ivan Pavlov's theory of higher nervous activity and the method of conditioning, which were taken up by Chinese revolutionaries to promise the possibility of the "new man" to be created.
Thought reform of intellectuals.
The thought reform project on Chinese intellectuals is indicative of the nationwide program, according to Lifton. The most intensive of the thought reform programs for intellectuals were conducted in "revolutionary colleges", set up all over China immediately after the communist revolution. They were most active between 1948 and 1952, when they represented an ideological hard core for the entire thought reform movement, and an extreme model for reform efforts throughout the population.


International Network for a United Nations Second Assembly

The International Network for a United Nations Second Assembly (INFUSA) is a largely defunct organization devoted to the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. According to Citizens for a United Nations People's Assembly, "in 1982, during the second UN Special Session on Disarmament, Jeffrey Segall presented a proposal for a study on 'a UN Second or Peoples Assembly' which became the basis for an International Network for a UN Second Assembly (INFUSA). From 1988 to 1995 INFUSA and the Association of World Citizens collaborated on a series of annual conferences in New York, San Francisco, Vienna and back in New York". INFUSA once included more than 100 organizations.
CAMDUN.
The Campaign for a Democratic United Nations, or CAMDUN, was established in 1989 as a project of INFUSA. It is also largely defunct as of 2012.


Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 85,792, and the Greater Victoria Area has a population of 367,770. Victoria is the 7th-most densely populated city in Canada with .
Victoria is the southernmost major city in Western Canada and is about southwest from British Columbia's largest city of Vancouver on the mainland. The city is about from Seattle by airplane, ferry, or the Victoria Clipper passenger-only ferry, and from Port Angeles, Washington, by ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Named for Queen Victoria, the city is one of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1843. The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks, the Parliament Buildings (finished in 1897 and home of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia) and the Empress hotel (opened in 1908). The city's Chinatown is the second oldest in North America after San Francisco's. The region's Coast Salish First Nations peoples established communities in the area long before European settlement, which had large populations at the time of European exploration.
Known as "The Garden City", Victoria is an attractive city and a popular tourism destination with a regional technology sector that has risen to be its largest revenue-generating private industry. Victoria is in the top twenty of world cities for quality-of-life, according to Numbeo. The city has a large non-local student population, who come to attend the University Of Victoria, Victoria College of Art, Camosun College, the Canadian College of Performing Arts, and high school programs run by the region's three school districts. Victoria is popular with boaters with its rugged shorelines and beaches. Victoria is also popular with retirees, who come to enjoy the temperate and usually snow-free climate of the area as well as the usually relaxed pace of the city.
History.
Early history (1770–1871).
Prior to the arrival of European navigators in the late 1700s, the Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Songhees. The Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast, beginning with the visits of Juan Pérez in 1774, and of James Cook in 1778. Although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not explored until 1790, Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt Harbour (just west of Victoria proper) in 1790, 1791, and 1792.
In 1841 James Douglas was charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Upon the recommendation by George Simpson a new more northerly post should be built in case Fort Vancouver fell into American hands (see Oregon boundary dispute). Douglas founded Fort Victoria on the site of present-day Victoria in anticipation of the outcome of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, extending the British North America/United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Strait of Georgia.
Erected in 1843 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post on a site originally called Camosun (the native word was "camosack", meaning "rush of water") known briefly as "Fort Albert", the settlement was renamed Fort Victoria in November 1843, in honour of Queen Victoria. The Songhees established a village across the harbour from the fort. The Songhees' village was later moved north of Esquimalt in 1911.The crown colony was established in 1849. Between the years 1850-1854 a series of treaty agreements known as the Douglas Treaties were made with indigenous communities to purchase certain plots of land in exchange for goods. These agreements contributed to a town being laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony, though controversy has followed about the ethical negotiation and upholding of rights by the colonial government. The superintendent of the fort, Chief Factor James Douglas was made the second governor of the Vancouver Island Colony (Richard Blanshard was first governor, Arthur Edward Kennedy was third and last governor), and would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864.
When news of the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland reached San Francisco in 1858, Victoria became the port, supply base, and outfitting centre for miners on their way to the Fraser Canyon gold fields, mushrooming from a population of 300 to over 5000 within a few days. Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1862 Victoria was the epicentre of the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic which devastated First Nations, killing about two-thirds of all natives in British Columbia. In 1865, the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy was established in Esquimalt and today is Canada's Pacific coast naval base. In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria was designated the capital of the new united colony instead of New Westminster – an unpopular move on the Mainland – and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871.
Modern history (1871–present).
In the latter half of the 19th century, the Port of Victoria became one of North America's largest importers of opium, serving the opium trade from Hong Kong and distribution into North America. Opium trade was legal and unregulated until 1865, when the legislature issued licences and levied duties on its import and sale. The opium trade was banned in 1908.
In 1886, with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, Victoria's position as the commercial centre of British Columbia was irrevocably lost to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. The city subsequently began cultivating an image of genteel civility within its natural setting, aided by the impressions of visitors such as Rudyard Kipling, the opening of the popular Butchart Gardens in 1904 and the construction of the Empress Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908. Robert Dunsmuir, a leading industrialist whose interests included coal mines and a railway on Vancouver Island, constructed Craigdarroch Castle in the Rockland area, near the official residence of the province's Lieutenant Governor. His son James Dunsmuir became Premier and subsequently Lieutenant Governor of the province and built his own grand residence at Hatley Park (used for several decades as Royal Roads Military College, now civilian Royal Roads University) in the present City of Colwood.
A real-estate and development boom ended just before World War I, leaving Victoria with a large stock of Edwardian public, commercial and residential buildings that have greatly contributed to the city's character. With the economic crash and a surplus of single men, Victoria became a target-rich environment for recruiting. Two militia infantry battalions, the 88th Victoria Fusiliers and the 50th Gordon Highlanders, formed in the immediate pre-war period. Victoria was the home of Sir Arthur Currie. He had been a high-school teacher and real-estate agent prior to the war and was the Commanding Officer of the Gordon Highlanders in the summer of 1914. Before the end of the war he would command the Canadian Corps. A number of municipalities surrounding Victoria were incorporated during this period, including the Township of Esquimalt, the District of Oak Bay, and several municipalities on the Saanich Peninsula.
Since World War II the Victoria area has seen relatively steady growth, becoming home to two major universities. Since the 1980s the western suburbs have been incorporated as new municipalities, such as Colwood and Langford, which are known collectively as the Western Communities.
Greater Victoria periodically experiences calls for the amalgamation of the thirteen municipal governments within the Capital Regional District.
The opponents of amalgamation state that separate governance affords residents a greater deal of local autonomy. The proponents of amalgamation argue it would reduce duplication of services, while allowing for more efficient use of resources and the ability to better handle broad, regional issues and long-term planning.
Topography.
The landscape of Victoria was formed by volcanism followed by water in various forms. Pleistocene glaciation put the area under a thick ice cover, the weight of which depressed the land below present sea level. These glaciers also deposited stony sandy loam till. As they retreated, their melt water left thick deposits of sand and gravel. Marine clay settled on what would later become dry land. Post-glacial rebound exposed the present-day terrain to air, raising beach and mud deposits well above sea level. The resulting soils are highly variable in texture, and abrupt textural changes are common. In general, clays are most likely to be encountered in the northern part of town and in depressions. The southern part has coarse-textured subsoils and loamy topsoils. Sandy loams and loamy sands are common in the eastern part adjoining Oak Bay. Victoria's soils are relatively unleached and less acidic than soils elsewhere on the British Columbia Coast. Their thick dark topsoils denote a high level of fertility which made them valuable for farming prior to urbanization.
Climate.
Victoria has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen "Csb") with fresh, dry, sunny summers and cool winters with moderate precipitation and plentiful cloud cover. Trewartha places it in the Oceanic climate zone ("Do"). Although Victoria is farther north than such "winter" cities as Ottawa, Quebec City, and Minneapolis, westerly winds and Pacific Ocean currents keep Victoria's winter temperatures substantially higher, with an average January temperature of compared to Ottawa, the nation's capital, with .
At the Victoria Gonzales weather station, daily temperatures rise above on average less than one day per year and fall below on average only ten nights per year. Victoria has recorded completely freeze-free winter seasons four times (in 1925/26, 1939/40, 1999/2000, and 2002/03). 1999 is the only calendar year on record without a single occurrence of frost. During this time the city went 718 days without freezing, starting on 23 December 1998 and ending 10 December 2000. The second longest frost-free period was a 686-day stretch covering 1925 and 1926, marking the first and last time the city has gone the entire season without dropping below .
During the winter, the average daily high and low temperatures are , respectively. The summer months are also relatively mild, with an average high temperature of and low of , although inland areas often experience warmer daytime highs. The highest temperature ever recorded at Victoria Gonzales was on 11 July 2007; however, the University of Victoria reached on 29 July 2009. The coldest temperature on record is on 29 December 1968. The average annual temperature varies from a high of set in 2004 to a low of set in 1916.
Due to the rain shadow effect of the nearby Olympic Mountains, Victoria is the driest location on the British Columbia coast and one of the driest in the region. Average precipitation amounts in the Greater Victoria area range from at the Gonzales observatory in the City of Victoria to in nearby Langford. The Victoria Airport, north of the city, receives about 45% more precipitation than the city proper. Regional average precipitation amounts range from as low as on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula to in Port Renfrew just away on the more exposed southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Vancouver measures annually and Seattle is at .
One feature of Victoria's climate is its distinct dry and rainy seasons. Nearly two-thirds of the annual precipitation falls during the four wettest months, November to February. Precipitation in December, the wettest month () is nearly eight times as high as in July, the driest month (). Victoria experiences the driest summers in Canada (outside of the extreme northern reaches of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut).
Victoria averages just of snow annually, about half that of Vancouver. Roughly one third of winters see virtually no snow, with less than falling during the entire season. When snow does fall, it rarely lasts long on the ground. Victoria averages just two or three days per year with at least of snow on the ground. Every few decades Victoria receives very large snowfalls including the record breaking of snow that fell in December 1996. That amount places Victoria 3rd for biggest snowfall among major cities in Canada.
With 2,193 hours of bright sunshine annually during the last available measurement period, Victoria was the second sunniest city in British Columbia after Cranbrook. In July 2013, Victoria received 432.8 hours of bright sunshine, which is the most sunshine ever recorded in any month in British Columbia history.
Victoria's equable climate has also added to its reputation as the "City of Gardens". The city takes pride in the many flowers that bloom during the winter and early spring, including crocuses, daffodils, early-blooming rhododendrons, cherry and plum trees. Every February there is an annual "flower count" in what for the rest of the country and most of the province is still the dead of winter.
Due to its mild climate, Victoria and its surrounding area (southeastern Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, and parts of the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast) are also home to many rare, native plants found nowhere else in Canada, including "Quercus garryana" (Garry oak), "Arctostaphylos columbiana" (hairy manzanita), and Canada's only broad-leaf evergreen tree, "Arbutus menziesii" (Pacific madrone). Many of these species exist here, at the northern end of their range, and are found as far south as southern California and parts of Mexico.
Non-native plants grown in Victoria include the cold-hardy palm Trachycarpus fortunei, which can be found in gardens and public areas of Victoria. One of these Trachycarpus palms stands in front of City Hall.
Neighbourhoods.
The following is a list of neighbourhoods in the City of Victoria, as defined by the city planning department. For a list of neighbourhoods in other area municipalities, see Greater Victoria, or the individual entries for those municipalities.
Informal neighbourhoods include:
Demographics.
The population of Victoria was 80,017 in 2011. The Victoria Census Metropolitan Area, comprising thirteen municipalities informally referred to as Greater Victoria, has a population of 344,615 and is the largest urban area on Vancouver Island. By population, Greater Victoria is the 15th largest metropolitan area in Canada. The Capital Regional District, which includes additional rural areas, has a total population of 345,164.
Victoria is known for its disproportionately large retiree population. Some 6.4 percent of the population of Victoria and its surrounding area are over 80 years of age—the highest proportion for any of Canada's metropolitan areas. The city also boasts the country's third-highest concentration of people 65 and older (17.8%), behind only Peterborough, Ontario, and Kelowna, British Columbia. Retirees throughout Canada are drawn to Victoria's climate, scenery, year-round golf season, and pace of life. A historically popular cliché refers to the city as the home of "the newly wed and nearly dead".
Ethnic origins.
Population by ethnic origin.
Note: These categories are those used by Statistics Canada.
Social issues.
In January 2005, a volunteer study by the Victoria Cool Aid Society found the homeless population to be approximately 700 individuals. This was the first homeless count in the city. In 2006, a "Times-Colonist" news article estimated the homeless population to have increased by 30% in just a few weeks due to the anticipated tourism boom of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In early 2008, an anti-homelessness programme based on a successful Italian programme was introduced to Victoria.
Despite Victoria's reputation as a tourist destination, pervasive homelessness and panhandling are serious problems in the downtown area as is "open-air" drug use.
A 2018 survey on the homeless found 33% of the homeless population identify themselves as being of First Nations origin. The majority of people living on the streets do not receive income assistance from the government.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many homeless sheltered in Beacon Hill Park. This led to protests and groups of people organizing on social media.
Economy.
The city's chief industries are technology, food products, tourism, education, federal and provincial government administration and services. Other nearby employers include the Canadian Forces (the Township of Esquimalt is the home of the Pacific headquarters of the Royal Canadian Navy), and the University of Victoria (in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich) and Camosun College (which have over 33,000 faculty, staff and students combined). Other sectors of the Greater Victoria area economy include: investment and banking, online book publishing, various public and private schools, food products manufacturing, light aircraft manufacturing, technology products, various high tech firms in pharmaceuticals and computers, engineering, architecture and telecommunications.
Retail.
There are three major shopping malls in the City of Victoria, including the Bay Centre, Hillside Shopping Centre, and Mayfair Shopping Centre. Mayfair, one of the first major shopping centres in Victoria, first opened as an outdoor strip mall on 16 October 1963 with 27 stores. It was built on the site of a former brickyard in the Maywood district, a then-semi-rural area in the northern part of Victoria. Woodward's was Mayfair's original department store anchor upon the mall's opening.
Mayfair was enclosed and renovated into an indoor mall in 1974. The mall underwent three later expansions in 1984 (with the addition of Consumers Distributing), 1985 (expansion of the mall food court) and a major expansion in 1990 that saw the addition of more retail space. The Bay (now Hudson's Bay) replaced Woodward's as Mayfair's department store anchor in 1993 following Hudson's Bay Company's acquisition of the Woodward's chain. Mayfair now offers 117 stores and services including Hudson's Bay and Toys "R" Us. It has of retail space and it also provides customers with rooftop parking.
Technology industry.
Advanced technology is Victoria's largest revenue-producing private industry with $3.15 billion in annual revenues generated by more than 880 tech companies that have over 15,000 direct employees. The annual economic impact of the sector is estimated at more than $4.03 billion per year. With three post-secondary institutions, eight federal research labs, and Canada's Pacific Navy Base, Victoria has many of the elements required for a strong technology sector, including Canada's highest household internet usage.
Tourism.
Victoria is a major tourism destination with over 3.5 million overnight visitors per year who add more than a billion dollars to the local economy. As well, over 500,000 daytime visitors arrive via cruise ships which dock at Ogden Point near the city's Inner Harbour. Many whale watching tour companies operate from this harbour due to the whales often present near its coast. The city is also close to Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, the Canadian Navy's primary Pacific Ocean naval base.
Downtown Victoria also serves as Greater Victoria's regional downtown, where many night clubs, theatres, restaurants and pubs are clustered, and where many regional public events occur. Canada Day fireworks displays, Symphony Splash, and many other music festivals and cultural events draw tens of thousands of Greater Victorians and visitors to the downtown core. The Rifflandia and Electronic Music Festival are other music events that draw crowds to the downtown core.
The city and metro region has hosted high-profile sports events including the 1994 Commonwealth Games, the 2009 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship tournament, and 2006 Skate Canada. Victoria co-hosted the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup at Royal Athletic Park, and is the venue for the Bastion Square Grand Prix Criterium road cycling race. The city is also a destination for conventions, meetings, and conferences, including a 2007 North Atlantic Treaty Organization military chief of staff meeting held at the Hotel Grand Pacific. Every year, the Swiftsure International Yacht Race attracts boaters from around the world to participate in the boat race in the waters off of Vancouver Island, and the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival brings over 90 teams from around North America. The Tall Ships Festival brings sailing ships to the city harbour. Victoria also hosts the start of the Vic-Maui Yacht Race, the longest offshore sailboat race on the West Coast.
The Port of Victoria consists of three parts, the Outer Harbour, used by deep sea vessels, the Inner and Upper Harbours, used by coastal and industrial traffic. It is protected by a breakwater with a deep and wide opening. The port is a working harbour, tourist attraction and cruise destination. Esquimalt Harbour is also a well-protected harbour with a large graving dock and shipbuilding and repair facilities.
Culture.
The Victoria Symphony, led by Christian Kluxen, performs at the Royal Theatre and the Farquhar Auditorium of the University of Victoria from September to May. Every BC Day weekend, the Symphony mounts Symphony Splash, an outdoor event that includes a performance by the orchestra sitting on a barge in Victoria's Inner Harbour. Streets in the local area are closed, as each year approximately 40,000 people attend a variety of concerts and events throughout the day. The event culminates with the Symphony's evening concert, with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the grand finale, complete with cannon fire from Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Gunners from HMCS QUADRA, a pealing carillon and a fireworks display to honour BC Day. Pacific Opera Victoria, Victoria Operatic Society, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, Canadian Pacific Ballet and Ballet Victoria stage two or three productions each year at the Macpherson or Royal Theatres.
The Bastion Theatre, a professional dramatic company, functioned in Victoria through the 1970s and 1980s and performed high quality dramatic productions but ultimately declared bankruptcy in 1988. Reborn as The New Bastion Theatre in 1990 the company struggled for two more years before closing operations in 1992. The Belfry Theatre started in 1974 as the Springridge Cultural Centre in 1974. The venue was renamed the Belfry Theatre in 1976 as the company began producing its own shows. The Belfry's mandate is to produce contemporary plays with an emphasis on new Canadian plays. Other regional theatre venues include: Phoenix Theatre student theatre at the University of Victoria; The Roxy Theatre, home of the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre company; Kaleidoscope Theatre and Intrepid Theatre, producers of the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival and The Uno Festival of Solo Performance.
The only Canadian Forces Primary Reserve brass/reed band on Vancouver Island is in Victoria. The 5th (British Columbia) Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery Band traces its roots back to 1864, making it the oldest, continually operational military band west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Its mandate is to support the island's military community by performing at military dinners, parades and ceremonies, and other events. The band performs weekly in August at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site where the Regiment started manning the guns of the fort in 1896, and also performs every year at the Cameron Bandshell at Beacon Hill Park.
The annual multi-day Rifflandia Music Festival is one of Canada's largest modern rock and pop music festivals.
A number of well-known musicians and bands are from Victoria, including Nelly Furtado, David Foster, The Moffatts, Frog Eyes, Johnny Vallis, Jets Overhead, Bryce Soderberg, Armchair Cynics, Nomeansno, The New Colors, Wolf Parade, The Racoons, Tal Bachman, Dayglo Abortions and Hot Hot Heat.
Due to the proximity to Vancouver and a 6% distance location tax credit, Victoria is used as a filming location for many films, television series, and television movies. Some of these films include "X2", ', "In the Land of Women", "White Chicks", "Scary Movie", "Final Destination", "Excess Baggage" and "Bird on a Wire". Television series such as "Smallville", "The Dead Zone" and ' were also filmed there. Canadian director Atom Egoyan was raised in Victoria. Actors Cameron Bright ("Ultraviolet", ', "Thank You for Smoking", "New Moon") and Ryan Robbins ("Stargate Atlantis", "Battlestar Galactica", "Sanctuary") were born in Victoria. Actor Cory Monteith from the television series "Glee" was raised in Victoria. Actor, artist, and athlete Duncan Regehr of ' was raised in the region.
Nobel laureate Alice Munro lived in Victoria during the years when she published her first story collections and co-founded Munro's Books. Victoria resident Stanley Evans has written a series of mysteries featuring a Coast Salish character, Silas Seaweed, who works as an investigator with the Victoria Police Department. Other Victoria writers include Kit Pearson, Esi Edugyan, Robert Wiersema, W. D. Valgardson, Elizabeth Louisa Moresby, Madeline Sonik, Jack Hodgins, Dave Duncan, Bill Gaston, David Gurr, Ken Steacy, Sheryl McFarlane, Carol Shields and Patrick Lane. Gayleen Froese's 2005 novel "Touch" is set in Victoria. The comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun is based in Victoria.
Attractions.
Beacon Hill Park is the central city's main urban green space. Its area of adjacent to Victoria's southern shore includes numerous playing fields, manicured gardens, exotic species of plants and animals such as wild peacocks, a petting zoo, and views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains in Washington across it. The sport of cricket has been played in Beacon Hill Park since the mid-19th century. Each summer, the City of Victoria presents dozens of concerts at the Cameron Band Shell in Beacon Hill Park.
The extensive system of parks in Victoria also includes a few areas of natural Garry oak meadow habitat, an increasingly scarce ecosystem that once dominated the region.
In the heart of downtown are the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, The Empress Hotel, Victoria Police Department Station Museum, the gothic Christ Church Cathedral, and the Royal British Columbia Museum/IMAX National Geographic Theatre, with large exhibits on local Aboriginal peoples, natural history, and modern history, along with travelling international exhibits. In addition, the heart of downtown also has the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Emily Carr House, Victoria Bug Zoo, and Market Square. The oldest (and most intact) Chinatown in Canada is within downtown. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is close to downtown in the Rockland neighbourhood several city blocks from Craigdarroch Castle built by industrialist Robert Dunsmuir and Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.
Numerous other buildings of historic importance or interest are also in central Victoria, including: the 1845 St. Ann's Schoolhouse; the 1852 Helmcken House built for Victoria's first doctor; the 1863 Congregation Emanu-El, the oldest synagogue in continuous use in Canada; the 1865 Angela College built as Victoria's first Anglican Collegiate School for Girls, now housing retired nuns of the Sisters of St. Ann; the 1871 St. Ann's Academy built as a Catholic school; the 1874 Church of Our Lord, built to house a breakaway congregation from the Anglican Christ Church cathedral; the 1890 St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church; the 1890 Metropolitan Methodist Church (now the Victoria Conservatory of Music),
 which is publicly open for faculty, student, and guest performances, also acts as Camosun College Music Department; the 1892 St. Andrew's Cathedral; and the 1925 Crystal Gardens, originally a saltwater swimming pool, restored as a conservatory and most recently a tourist attraction called the B.C. Experience, which closed down in 2006.
Outside the city.
CFB Esquimalt navy base, in the adjacent municipality of Esquimalt, has a base museum dedicated to naval and military history, in the Naden part of the base.
North of the city on the Saanich Peninsula are the marine biology Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, Butchart Gardens, one of the biggest tourist and local resident attractions on Vancouver Island, as well as the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, part of the National Research Council of Canada, Victoria Butterfly Gardens and Centre of the Universe planetarium.
Recreation.
Victoria's climate, location and variety of facilities make it ideal for many recreational activities including rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, golf, water sports, informal team sports and jogging.
Victoria is also known as the Cycling Capital of Canada, with hundreds of kilometres of bicycle paths, bike lanes and bike routes in the city, including the Galloping Goose Regional Trail. There are mountain biking trails at Mount Work Regional Park, and Victoria is quickly becoming a bike tourism destination. Cycling advocacy groups including Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition (GVCC) and the Bike To Work Society have worked to improve Victoria's cycling infrastructure and facilities, and to make cycling a viable transportation alternative, attracting 5% of commuters in 2005.
Greater Victoria also has a rich motorsports history, and is home to a 4/10ths mile oval race track called Western Speedway. Opened in 1954, Western Speedway is the oldest speedway in western Canada, and features stock car racing, drag racing, demolition derbies and other events. Western Speedway is also home to the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Greater Victoria area also serves as a headquarters for Rugby Canada, based out of Westhills Stadium in Langford, as well as a headquarters for Rowing Canada, based out of Victoria City Rowing Club at Elk Lake in Saanich. The Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame is at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, and features numerous displays and information on the sporting history of the city.
The major sporting and entertainment complex, for Victoria and Vancouver Island Region, is the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre arena. It replaced the former Victoria Memorial Arena, which was constructed by efforts of World War II veterans as a monument to fallen comrades. World War I, World War II, Korean War, and other conflict veterans are also commemorated. Fallen Canadian soldiers in past, present, and future wars and/or United Nations, NATO missions are noted, or will be noted by the main lobby monument at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The arena was the home of the ECHL (formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League) team, Victoria Salmon Kings, owned by RG Properties Limited, a real estate development firm that built the Victoria Save On Foods Memorial Centre, and Prospera Place Arena in Kelowna. The arena is the home of the Victoria Royals Western Hockey League (WHL) team that replaced the Victoria Salmon Kings (ECHL).
International events.
Victoria has also been a destination for numerous high-profile international sporting events. It hosted the 1994 Commonwealth Games and the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship. The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was co-hosted by Victoria along with five other Canadian cities; (Burnaby, Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal). Victoria was also the first city location of the cross Canada 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay that occurred before the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Victoria co-hosted the 2019 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships along with Vancouver, British Columbia. Victoria will be one of four host cities for the 2020 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in June 2020.
Sports teams.
The city has also been home to numerous high-profile sports teams in its history. The Victoria Cougars are perhaps the most famous sports franchise the city has known, existing as members of several professional leagues from 1911–1926, and again from 1949–1961. The Cougars won the Stanley Cup as members of the WCHL in 1925 after defeating the Montreal Canadiens three games to one in a best-of-five final. The Cougars were reincarnated in 1971 as a major junior hockey team in the Western Hockey League, before they moved to Prince George to become the Prince George Cougars. Today, the Cougars name and legacy continue in the form of the Junior 'B' team that plays in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League. Minor professional hockey returned to Victoria in the form of the Victoria Salmon Kings, which played in the ECHL from 2004 to 2011, and were a minor league affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks. In baseball, Victoria was once home of the Victoria Athletics of the Western International League, a Class 'A' minor league baseball affiliate of the New York Yankees. Victoria's newest sports team is Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League. Pacific FC play their home matches at Westhills Stadium.
Victoria has been home to many accomplished athletes that have participated in professional sports or the Olympics. Notable professional athletes include basketball Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash, twice Most Valuable Player in the National Basketball Association, who grew up in Victoria and played youth basketball at St. Michael's University School and Mount Douglas Secondary School. Furthermore, there are several current NHL hockey players from Greater Victoria, including brothers Jamie Benn and Jordie Benn of the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks, respectively; Tyson Barrie of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Matt Irwin of the Nashville Predators. Current Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Nick Pivetta was born in Victoria and played summer collegiate baseball for the Victoria HarbourCats. Former professional racing cyclist and 2012 Giro d'Italia winner, Ryder Hesjedal was born in Victoria and still calls the city home. Victoria has also been home to many Olympic Games athletes, including multi-time medalists such as Silken Laumann, Ryan Cochrane, and Simon Whitfield.
Sports teams presently operating in Victoria include:
Notable defunct teams that operated in Victoria include:
Infrastructure.
The Jordan River Diversion Dam is Vancouver Island's main hydroelectric power station. It was built in 1911.
The city's water is supplied by the Capital Regional District's Water Services Department from its Sooke Lake Reservoir. The lake is connected to a treatment plant at Japan Gulch by the Kapoor Tunnel. The lake water is very soft and requires no filtering. It is treated with chlorine, ammonia and ultraviolet light to control micro-organisms.
Until the tunnel was completed in 1967, water flowed from the lake through the circuitous, leaky and much smaller Sooke Flowline.
The Hartland landfill is the waste disposal site for Greater Victoria area. Since 1985, it has been run by the Capital Regional District environmental services. It is on top of a hill, between Victoria and Sidney, at the end of Hartland Avenue. There is a recycling centre, a sewer solid waste collection, hazardous waste collection, and an electricity generating station. This generating station now creates 1.6 megawatts of electricity, enough for 1,600 homes. The site has won international environmental awards. The CRD conducts public tours of the facility. It is predicted to be full by 2045.
Victoria discharges per day of screened wastewater that has undergone preliminary treatment into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The wastewater treatment facilities at Clover Pt. and Macaulay Pt. serve seven municipalities composing the core area of the CRD. At these two facilities, wastewater is screened to exclude objects larger than then pumped through diffusers at the end of deep marine outfalls. The CRD's new wastewater treatment facility at McLoughlin Point is scheduled to open in late 2020, at a cost of $800 million, following the passage of federal regulations that forbid untreated discharge.
The Saanich Peninsula wastewater treatment plant serves North Saanich, Central Saanich and the Town of Sidney as well as the Victoria International Airport, the Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Tseycum and Pauquachin First Nations communities. This is a secondary level treatment plant which produces Class A biosolids.
Transportation.
Air.
Victoria International Airport has non-stop flights to and from Toronto, Seattle, Montreal (seasonal), select seasonal sun destinations, and many cities throughout Western Canada. Multiple scheduled helicopter and seaplane flights are available daily from Victoria Inner Harbour Airport to Vancouver International Airport, Vancouver Harbour, and Seattle.
Victoria is also home to the world's largest all-seaplane airline, Harbour Air. Harbour air offers flights during daylight hours at least every 30 minutes between Victoria's inner harbour and Vancouver's downtown terminal or YVR south terminal. Harbour Air also operate scenic tour flights over the Victoria harbour and gulf islands area.
Cycling.
Due to Victoria's mild year round weather with mostly rainy winters, commuting by bicycle is practical year-round compared to other Canadian cities. For this reason, the Greater Victoria area had the highest rate of bicycle commuting to work of any census metropolitan area in Canada in the 2011 and 2016 census. Greater Victoria also has an expanding system designed to facilitate bicycles and electrically assisted bicycles via bike lanes on many roads as well as separated multi-use paths for bicycles and pedestrians known as the Galloping Goose Regional Trail, Lochside Regional Trail and the E&N rail trail. These multi-use trails are designed exclusively for foot traffic and cyclists and pass through many communities in the Greater Victoria area, beginning at the downtown core and extending into areas such as Langford and Central and North Saanich.
Bike to Work Week Victoria is a bi-annual event held in communities throughout greater Victoria, British Columbia. It is organized by the Greater Victoria Bike to Work Society with a Spring bike to work week scheduled in late May every year and a Fall bike to work week scheduled in October. The purpose of the event is to encourage bicycle commuting. Bike to Work Week began in 1995 in Victoria and has expanded to include other communities in BC through their local bicycle advocacy groups all supported by the Bike to Work BC Society. In 2008, the Bike to Work BC Society was formed as a legal entity to run the event in other communities around BC. Since its inception ridership in the yearly event has steadily increased, and in 2017 over 7000 people participated in Greater Victoria. Bike to Work Week is first a marketing initiative and secondarily a cycling event that aims to attract new daily riders to commuting by bicycle. The behaviour change (public health) model, relying on research conducted by both the provincial and federal governments that identified barriers to cycling and reasons for choosing cycling, was applied as a way to accomplish the goal of recruiting employees to bicycle to work.
Victoria is building a protected bike lane network. The first lane opened in Spring 2017 on Pandora Avenue, between Store Street and Cook Street in the downtown core. The protected lane makes for an easy cycling connection for commuters across the new (April 2018) Johnson Street bridge, to the Galloping Goose Trail and E&N rail trail. The second protected bike lane in the network opened on Fort Street May 27, 2018. The next two roads in the downtown area bike network have been approved by city council for Humboldt and Wharf streets with construction planned to start October 2018 .
Ferries.
Victoria is served by several ferries with the Lower Mainland, Gulf Islands and the United States. BC Ferries provides service between Swartz Bay, up the Saanich peninsula from Victoria, to Tsawwassen on the Lower Mainland for cars, bus, trucks, pedestrians and cyclists. The Coho ferry operates as a car and pedestrian/cyclist ferry between the inner harbour of Victoria and Port Angeles, Washington. The Victoria Clipper is a passenger-only (no vehicles) ferry which operates daily, year-round between downtown Seattle and the inner harbour of Victoria. The Washington State Ferries runs a ferry for cars, pedestrians and cyclists between Friday Harbor, Orcas Island and Anacortes in Washington State from the port at Sidney, up the Saanich peninsula from Victoria.
Public transit.
Local public transportation is run by the Victoria Regional Transit System, which is part of BC Transit. Since 2000, double-decker buses have been introduced to the fleet, and have become an icon for the city. Rider fare payments can be made in cash, monthly bus passes, disability yearly passes, day-passes purchased from the driver or tickets purchased from a store. As of April 1, 2016 bus drivers do not provide transfers as proof of payment. Transfers were a source of disagreement and delay on the bus, due to improper transfer use, and disagreements over expired transfers or transfers used for return trips. Instead, a day-pass was added that can be purchased from the bus driver for $5, or two bus tickets (purchased from a retailer) for the equivalent of $4.50. To improve bus reliability and reduce delays, a bike and bus priority lane was opened in 2014 during peak traffic periods with fines for motorists operating in the bus/bike lane who are not turning in the same block. The dedicated bike and bus lane on Douglas street is being expanded from Downtown to near Uptown and may be changed to be restricted to only buses and bikes 24/7 rather than just during peak traffic periods depending on direction of travel. Most buses operating in the Greater Victoria area have a bike rack installed at the front of the bus that can accommodate two bicycles.
Rail.
Passenger rail service previously operated by Via Rail provided a single daily return trip along between Victoria – Courtenay, along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, to the cities of Nanaimo, Courtenay, and points between. The service was discontinued along this line indefinitely on 19 March 2011, due to needed track replacement work. Prior to further inspection of the track, service along the segment between Nanaimo and Victoria was originally planned to resume on 8 April, but lack of funding has prevented any of the work from taking place and it is unclear when or if the service will resume.
Roads.
Local roadways, although showing signs of increasing congestion due to increasing population, are relatively easy to travel via a variety of means. However, roads in Victoria are not based on a grid system as in Vancouver or Edmonton, and even most major streets do not follow a straight line from beginning to end as they wind around hills, parks, coastlines, and historic neighbourhoods, often changing names two or three times. There is little distinction between "streets" and "avenues" in Victoria as there is in other cities such as Vancouver or Edmonton where "streets" run north–south and "avenues" run east–west, and Victorians are unlikely to use the terms "north", "south", "east", or "west" when giving directions.
The compact size of the city lends itself readily to smaller, fuel efficient alternatives to full size passenger cars, such as scooters, as areas with significantly steep hills, such as one would find in San Francisco, are very few. Victoria is also in the process of making the use of such methods of transportation more desirable (in a push towards a more "green", eco-friendly environment), by offering incentives to use such modes of transport, such as parking spaces in the downtown core specifically designed for vehicles " or less" in wheelbase size, thus fostering the desirability for ownership of vehicles such as Smart Cars, motorcycles and small displacement scooters. Generally speaking, one can expect to reach most destinations within Greater Victoria within a time span of 20 – 30 minutes, perhaps approximately 60 minutes, dependent on traffic conditions, road construction or other reasons for blockage, where you are coming from, going to, and mode of transport. Travel time is longer during rush hour times due to large volume of traffic entering the downtown core in the morning and departing at evening rush hour.
Victoria also serves as the western terminus (Mile Zero) for Canada's Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world. The Mile Zero is in the city's southern part at the corner of Douglas Street and Dallas Road, where there is a small sign to mark the spot and a statue to honour Terry Fox.
Within the Greater Victoria area, private cars, SUVs, and light trucks together make up the majority of trips. However, the city boasts an excellent public transit system using a fleet of modern buses, and is beginning to plan for a rapid transit link to the suburban/rural western communities of Langford, Colwood, Metchosin and Sooke.
Other services.
Coach bus service between downtown Victoria and downtown Vancouver or the Vancouver International Airport that includes the ferry fare is called the BC Ferries Connector run by Wilson's Transportation Limited. The coach bus travels on the ferry to Vancouver with separate trips for the bus to downtown and a bus to the Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Average travel time between the two cities is under 4 hours with an hour and half of that time spent on the ferry crossing.
Bus service from Victoria to points up island is run by Island Link Bus or Tofino Bus. Both bus services depart from the Victoria bus terminal at 700 Douglas Street, behind the Fairmont Empress Hotel and offer trips to destinations further up island and the west coast of the island.
Education.
The city of Victoria lies entirely within the Greater Victoria School District. There is one public high school within the city boundaries, Victoria High School, founded in 1876, making it the oldest High School in North America north of Portland, Oregon and west of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Most of the elementary schools in Victoria now offer the popular French immersion programmes in addition to programmes in English. The educational needs of the Francophone community in Victoria are served by École Victor-Brodeur in the adjacent municipality of Esquimalt. In addition, within the city proper there are several smaller schools serving segments of the community such as the Chinese School in Chinatown and Christ Church Cathedral School. The senior campus of Glenlyon-Norfolk School is in the Oak Bay neighbourhood.
The "Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique", operates one Francophone school in the Victoria area: "école Victor-Brodeur" in Esquimalt. It is a M-12 primary and secondary school.
Victoria is served by three public post secondary educational institutions outside the city in the Greater Victoria area: University of Victoria (UVic), Camosun College, and Royal Roads University (RRU). The University of Victoria is on the Saanich, Oak Bay border. Camosun College has two campuses, both of which are in Saanich. Royal Roads University is in Colwood.
Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific is an international school, in Metchosin, a municipality to the west of Victoria. There are also several private vocational and English (ESL) training schools available for people who want to learn the English language or upgrade new job market skills. Sprott Shaw College is a private career training institution that has had a campus in Victoria since 1913.
Media.
Victoria is the only Canadian provincial capital without a local CBC Television station, owned-and-operated or affiliate, although it does host a small CBC Radio One (CBCV-FM) station at 780 Kings Road. The region is considered to be a part of the Vancouver television market, receiving most stations that broadcast from across the Strait of Georgia, including CBC Television, Ici Radio-Canada Télé, CTV, Global, Citytv and Omni owned-and-operated stations. The two television stations based in Victoria are CHEK-DT (an independent station) and CIVI-DT (a CTV 2 owned-and-operated station).
Sister cities.
Victoria has four Sister Cities:


UPA-Left Coordination Committee

The UPA-Left Coordination Committee was a platform dedicated to coordinate policy discussions between the Indian National Congress and the parliamentary left-wing parties during the UPA I cabinet governing India 2004–2009. During this period the parliamentary left parties were providing outside support to the government, without being part of the governing coalition as such.
The four left parties in the UPA-Left Coordination Committee were the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), Communist Party of India (CPI), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB). The left parties were represented by six members in the committee, two each from CPI(M) (Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury) and CPI (A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja) and one each from RSP (Abani Roy) and AIFB (Debabrata Biswas). The UPA was represented by its chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as well as by individual ministers who would be invited depending on the topics to be discussed. On the UPA side, no other party than the Indian National Congress was represented in the committee. During the Nationalist Congress Party convention of 2006, NCP leader and Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar appealed for inclusion of the different UPA constituents in the UPA-Left Coordination Committee. In the formation of the committee, there was an unwritten understanding that the Congress would let the communist parties vet any major policy proposals.
The first major friction between the government and the left occurred over the government plans to divest from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited in 2005. In June 2005, the left parties began boycotting the UPA-Left Coordination Committee. In October 14, 2005 the left parties suspended their boycott, as they had received reassurances from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi that there would be no divestment from BHEL and other 'navaratna companies'.
The second major friction between the government and the left parties occurred ahead of the March 6, 2006 vote on Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency. On February 10, 2006 the CPI(M) Politburo hinted that their support to the UPA government would be in peril unless their demands on the IAEA vote were headed. As tensions on the issue simmered, the left parties came to a common understanding with the opposition Samajwadi Party. Notably, in the same period, the Samajwadi Party and the Telugu Desam Party had announced that they were presenting a no-confidence vote against the UPA government on the coming budget session. The UPA-Left Coordination Committee met on February 13, 2006.
The seventh meeting of the UPA-Left Coordination Committee was held on March 17, 2006. Following the meeting Prakash Karat requested further safeguards to India before supporting the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The eight meeting of the UPA-Left Coordination Committee was held in May 2006.
Later phase of the UPA I government tenure, the UPA-Left Coordination Committee rarely met. On June 2, 2008 the RSP Central Committee decided to pull out of the committee, arguing that unilateral actions of UPA had rendered the committee meaningless and that the policies of the UPA government were paving the path for growing BJP influence. In response to the move of RSP to leave the committee, CPI(M) leader Biman Bose declared that the committee had become 'ineffective and defunct'.


Lucas Dolega

Lucas Dolega (19 August 1978 – 17 January 2011), born Loucas von Zabiensky-Mebrouk and also called Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, was a French/German photojournalist. He was reportedly killed by Tunisian police while he was photographing a protest in Tunis. As reported in The Guardian (UK), Dolega was the first journalist killed during the 2010-2011 Tunisian protests, according to Reporters Without Borders. He was also the first journalist to die while on assignment during the Arab Spring uprisings.
He was fatally injured on the same day that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia for exile.
Personal information.
Dolega was born in Paris on 19 August 1978 to a German mother and a French father, a journalist and a doctor respectively. He grew up in Paris, before moving to Tangier in Morocco. He had French and German citizenship, and started work as a photographer for European Pressphoto Agency in April 2006. He was based in Paris, covered a variety of stories in Europe, and in 2008 photographed the Congo.
Dolega was 32 years old when he died.
Death.
On 14 January 2011, the day after Dolega arrived in Tunis, and at the end of a demonstration on Avenue Bourguiba, he was within a group of journalists at the corner of rue Gandhi and rue de Marseille. He was hit in the head by a tear gas canister, about 20 cm long and 5 cm diameter, reportedly fired by police at short range and horizontally toward a group of photographers. He was taken first to a clinic and then to Tunis Rabta Neurologic Hospital where he was operated on but died on 17 January. Fellow photographer and friend Olivier Laban-Mattei brought Dolega's corpse back to France.
Impact.
Dolega was the first of a number of journalists who were killed over the course of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. He was killed while on assignment. He is among a group of photojournalists who were killed while covering protests, such as Hiro Muramoto, cameraman and journalist shot by a soldier in Bangkok, 2010; or Kenji Nagai, a photojournalist who was shot by a soldier in Rangoon, 2007.
Legacy.
The Lucas Dolega Award (Prix Lucas Dolega) was established in 2011 to honor photojournalists who have reported under difficult circumstances.
In popular culture.
Lucas Dolega is mentioned in the poem "A Love Letter from Emilie Blachère to Rémi Ochlik", written by Paris Match journalist Emilie Blachère on the occasion of the first anniversary of Rémi Ochlik's death. She writes: "My angel, give Lucas a kiss for me. Take care of yourself. Take care of us." After she read the poem on BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House news program, radio host Paddy O'Connell broke down emotionally and could not bring himself to continue the news broadcast for around 12 seconds. Rémi Ochlik was a friend and colleague of Lucas Dolega, he was with Dolega when Dolega died, and he worked on establishing an award in Dolega's honor after his friend's death.