Ontario MPPs Ignore International Denounciations of Israeli Apartheid
Posted on | March 2, 2010 | No Comments
Shourideh Molavi
On February 25, a group of Ontario Members of Provincial Parliament (MPP) voted unanimously on a motion to “denounce” this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). Claiming to send a message of so-called “moral suasion” to all “fair-minded Ontarians,” Peter Shurman, the MPP who tabled the motion, argued that the mere application of the phrase ‘Israeli apartheid’ is “about as close to hate speech as one can get without being arrested.” In what seemed a veiled threat of possible arrests in the future of those accusing Israel with the crime of apartheid, Shurman moved on to state that he was “not certain” that its use “doesn’t actually cross over that line.”
Israeli Apartheid Week, March 1-7, 2010 – apartheidweek.org.
To make the case for curtailing the use of this phrase, random online blogs not associated with IAW are quoted, after which a barrage of name-calling which vilify the organizers as “propagandists” and “liars,” and label IAW as “pure garbage” and “toxic” follow. Once tabled, a range of bizarre anecdotes of relatives, neighbours and friends who support the Zionist project were presented by various NDP, Liberal and Conservative MPPs as reasons for supporting this blatant censure of freedom of expression. Other than a letter written by Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, distancing the NDP from the motion, there was little disagreement.
Read the full article on The Socialist Project website
Tags: Andrea Horwath > IAW > Israeli Apartheid Week > Peter Shurman > zionist
Chiefs furious after Ottawa sends dozens of body bags to flu-stricken reserves
Posted on | September 17, 2009 | Comments Off
I have wondered about this since the time the revelations were made: why is it that Health Canada sent body bags to northern indigenous communities? Perhaps it was that they sent masks, hand sanitizers and body bags, but no medication. It’s a hell of a message to send our First Peoples. It has been said that it was an oversight, a mistake. Would that kind of a mistake been made for privileged white communities? Ask the question out loud and see what you come up with.
READ THE FULL STORY AFTER THE BREAK
Tags: Canadian Press > Carolyn Bennett > Chief David McDougall > Chinta Puxley > David Butler-Jones > Grand Chief David Harper > Indigenous People > Judy Wasylycia-Leis > Leona Aglukkaq > Liberal > NDP > New Democrat > St. Theresa Point First Nation
Climate Change and Indigenous People
Posted on | September 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Sept. 23rd 7:00pm
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave.
(south of Bloor, on St. George Street).
Free event
The impact of climate change generates more devastating effect on the Indigenous People than the average population. Some of the initiatives supposed to deal with climate change often result in very damaging consequence on the Indigenous People in various regions of the world.
http://www.climatechangeiscomingtotown.net/schedule.html
(Submitted by Vincent Pang)
Tags: Climate Change Film Festival > Indigenous People > Innis Town Hall > Vincent Pang
More than a tiff – The Toronto declaration
Posted on | September 15, 2009 | Comments Off
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is having a spotlight on cities by hosting a City to City component. This year, its first, TIFF is spotlighting Tel Aviv. While Cameron Bailey, the festival’s co-director in his first year at TIFF, is a well-known and-respected personality, he seems to have made a serious faux pas.
It is well and good to think of Tel Aviv in a vacuum – as just another city in this modern, hectic, and mondo-cool, world, he and his “team” at TIFF have conveniently forgotten the plight of the Palestanian people in that city. Moreover, they seem to think that separating Tel Aviv from Israel would separate the oppressive state from its oppressive tactics and practices. Read more
Tags: Anne McClintock > City to City > Danny Glover > Dionne Brand > Harry Belafonte > Jane Fonda > John Greyson > Joy Kogawa > Judith Butler > Julie Christie > Kerri Sakamoto > Naomi Klein > Noam Chomsky > Rawi Hage > Tel Aviv > TIFF > Toronto > Toronto International Film Festival > Viggo Mortensen
LATUC – it’s how we spell solidarity in Spanish
Posted on | September 14, 2009 | Comments Off
This past weekend, the Latin American trade Unionists Coalition (LATUC) was formed at their inaugural conference held at the venerable Steelworkers Hall on Cecil Street in Toronto, Ontario. The Coalition was supported by many unions.
The LATUC conference delegates bag.
Tags: ACLA > Asian Canadian Labour Alliance > Canadian Union of Public Employeers > CBTU > Cecil Street > Coalition of Black Trade Unionists > CUPE > IAMAW Canada > International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers > Latin American trade Unionists Coalition > LATUC > Steelworkers Hall > UFCW > United Food and Commercial Workers > United Steelworkers > USW
The Real “Norma Rae” Dies
Posted on | September 14, 2009 | Comments Off
Labor organizer succumbed to long battle with brain cancer
from Associated Press
Mon., Sept . 14, 2009
RALEIGH, North Carolina – Crystal Lee Sutton, whose fight to unionize Southern textile plants with low pay and poor conditions was dramatized in the film “Norma Rae,” has died. She was 68.
Sutton died Friday in a hospice after a long battle with brain cancer, her son, Jay Jordan, said Monday. Read more
Tags: ACTWU > Alamance Community College > Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union > Bruce Raynor > Crystal Lee Sutton > health care > healthcare > J.P. Stevens > Norma Rae > North Carolina > Sally Field > SEIU > Service Employees International Union > UNION > Workers United
Welcome to Buzzard Press
Posted on | September 11, 2009 | Comments Off
Hello and welcome to Buzzard Press. We are working on building a few rooms, closets, as well as walls and a roof. Drop by and see what construction projects we finish. We may ask you for help in some of our efforts. Wile it is true that it takes a village to raise a child, it is also true that it takes a community to build a community! See you in the real world!