EVENTS & MEETINGS:

1) Wednesday, January 2: March in Support of Chief Spence's Hunger Strike
2) Thursday, January 10: Meeting of Grassroots: Sudbury's Media Collective
3) Monday, January 14: General Meeting of Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury
4) Tuesday, January 15: Meeting of Justice and Freedom for John Moore
5) January 29 to January 31: Trans Health Connection Training

NEWS, ANALYSIS, & CALLS TO ACTION:

1) "Week of Action on Community Start Up Takes the Fight to a New Level" from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
2) "Join the Movement: Idle No More" by Robert Lovelace

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Wednesday, January 2: March in Support of Chief Spence's Hunger Strike

Time: 4pm
Location: starting from Tom Davies Square (200 Brady Street, Sudbury)

This march/rally will be a show of solidarity with the national- now INTERNATIONAL Idle No More Campaign.

This march/rally aims at demanding that prime minister Stephen Harper meet with Chief Theresa Spence and that the advancement of omnibus budget bill C-45 not only cease, but for the bill be abolished altogether.

This march will proceed much like the last Idle No More march- Beginning and ending at Tom Davies Square, and following a similar, if not the same route. The march will begin at 4PM.

More information to come, but please start spreading the word!!

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

Please invite your friends to this page!!
Miigwetch!

This event on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/events/419641688107098/

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Thursday, January 10: Meeting of Grassroots: Sudbury's Media Collective

Time: 10am to 11am
Location: Environmental Resource Centre (176 Larch Street, back
entrance)

Everyone is welcome to join us for our next meeting, next Thursday, January 10,  10 - 11am in the ERC (176 Larch, back entrance). We'll be discussing a planned community roundtable-slash-membership campaign launch event as well as other aspects of our new membership campaign, and of course, brainstorming story ideas.

Also, mark future meetings on your calendar, 10-11 am on the 2nd Thursday of each month: Feb. 14, March 14, Apr. 11, May 9, June 13 in the ERC.

Grassroots Sudbury Media is a working group of the The Media Co-op. We are creating independent media in the North, to speak to our issues and outlooks on our communities as well as the world around us. Independent media provides an avenue for people who are wishing to gain critical perspective on the issues that matter most to us, and to give a voice to those people and stories that you won't find in the mainstream media.

Find our site at:
http://www.mediacoop.ca/group/sudbury

Contact the Sudbury Working Group to learn more about writing for us or to let us know about community issues and events at: grassrootssudburymedia@gmail.com

Find us on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/GrassrootsMediaCollective

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Monday, January 14: General Meeting of Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury

Time: 7pm
Location: Environmental Resource Centre (176 Larch Street, back entrance)

Everyone is welcome to attend this general meeting of the Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury. If you’ve never made it out to a meeting, why not come out?  We’d love to meet you!

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Tuesday, January 15: Meeting of Justice and Freedom for John Moore

Time: 6:30pm
Location: Fromagerie Elgin, 5 Cedar Street (entry from Elgin), Sudbury

We will be discussing the ongoing work to cultivate opportunities for John to speak about his case outside of Sudbury, the interest from APTN in covering the case, and fundraising possibilities.

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January 29 to January 31: Trans Health Connection Training

Time: All day
Location: For details of the Sudbury location please register with Jordan Zaitzow at jzaitzow@rainbowhealthontario.ca or 416-324-4100 x5325.

Trans Health Connection is coming to Sudbury! Please spread the word to colleagues who may  be interested.   

Trans Health Connection - a project of Rainbow Health Ontario and Sherbourne Health Centre - will be coming to Sudbury January 29th, 30th, and 31st, to offer 3 days of comprehensive training for providers looking to build clinical capacity in working with trans/transgender/transsexual clients. We are inviting interested providers, allies, and community members to register TODAY for this exciting opportunity!

JAN 29: Introduction to Trans Cultural Competence
This session looks at language, terminology, and definitions, exploring some of the assumptions we make in our day-to-day interactions with the people around us. It provides a dynamic snapshot of colonial history of trans, lesbian, gay and bisexual people, as well as an overview of the general health care needs of trans clients. This session focuses on some of the social determinants of health for trans communities, how to recognize and address barriers to care, and how to work towards providing a welcoming and respectful environment for trans clients accessing general health care services.

JAN 30: Providing Trans-Related Clinical Care
This session focuses on providing holistic community-based transition-related services to trans clients. It aims to guide participants through assessment, monitoring, and follow-up for hormone therapy (including navigating the "gender dysphoria" assessment, hormone treatment protocols, treatment monitoring and health promotion). This session also includes some considerations around providing social and psychological support to clients and their families and friends, as well as familiarizing with other available community referrals. This is a clinical training largely directed at doctors and nurses, and open to anyone interested in the information.

JAN 31: Surgery Overview, and Holistic Case Work
This session is a review and general look at different surgical options for trans folks, including information about different procedures, as well as what surgeries are offered where for Ontarians. This session includes a segment offered by clinicians at the CAMH gender identity clinic, on the process of getting surgery coverage through OHIP. This day also includes clinical protocols and recommendations for preparing for surgery, as well as providing post-operative medical care and support. We additionally look at working with trans clients for whom there may be additional health challenges, and developing partnerships to enlarge the scope of services for trans communities.

If you are interested in attending any of these training days, please contact project coordinator Jordan Zaitzow at jzaitzow@rainbowhealthontario.ca or 416 324 4100 x5325 for more details.

hope to see you there!

jordan

NEWS, ANALYSIS, & CALLS TO ACTION:

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WEEK OF ACTION ON COMMUNITY START UP TAKES THE FIGHT TO A NEW LEVEL
from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

Confront the Liberals: Stop the Cut to Community Start-Up, Raise the Rates Now!(See bottom of this email for January actions against the cuts!)

Between December 7 – 14, 2012, actions were taken to defend the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit in local communities from Windsor to Ottawa to Sault Ste Marie.  People demonstrated at or occupied the offices of Liberal MPPS, marched through the streets of their communities, held clinics to enable people to obtain the start up benefit and more  For the most part, the Liberal MPPs hid from sight as this challenge to their brutal cutback unfolded in community after community.

The Week of Action, which was called by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), would not have been possible without the efforts of dozens of organizations and hundreds of people working together to make it possible.

GROWING SOLIDARITY WITH UNIONS: The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Ontario) has worked with OCAP for three years now on the Raise the Rates Campaign that created the basis for this challenge to the CSUMB cut. CUPE continued to provide organizational and communications support as the week unfolded.  The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Ontario Region provided material assistance and encouraged its local activists to be part of the week.  The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) supported the organizing in key ways and helped mobilize for the local actions.

BUILDING A COMMUNITY BASED FIGHT-BACK: Put Food in the Budget helped to involve local organizations it works with.  The North Shore Tribal Council mobilized people in First Nations communities between Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie.  Local poor people`s organizations and their allies played the decisive role in making sure that the Liberals were challenged in a wide range of places.

The week began December 7 with a rally at the Kitchener office of Social Services Minister, a.k.a Minister of Misery, John Milloy.  Milloy had announced his holiday open house would be held there at that time but, with news of the demonstration hosted by local KW group, Poverty Makes Us Sick (PMUS), he cancelled the event and hid.  PMUS continued to organize local actions in the Kitchener Waterloo area everyday throughout the entire week of action.

It would take too long to describe every single action that was organized over the week that followed.  A list of them is already on our website and we are updating this with pictures, reports and media stories. Delegations to Ministry offices took place in Oshawa and the Sault.  In Ottawa, a roving delegation visited five MPPs.  Meetings with MPPs were held in Sarnia and Halton.  The Peel Poverty Action Group, occupied the office of leadership candidate, Harindar Takhar.  Teachers held a bake sale outside a $500 a ticket cocktail party put on by Kathleen Wynne. Health Providers Against Poverty went to the office of Dr. Eric Hoskins, MPP to ask him about his role in eliminating the CSUMB only to be met by cops.  Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty in Toronto mobilized a contingent to the door-step of Mario Sergio’s office and were disrespectfully met with a locked door and note. The Kingston Coalition Against Poverty (KCAP) mobilized at the office John Gerretsen.  The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) mobilized at a City Council meeting and was able to get Council to pass a resolution opposing the cut to CSUMB.  Later in the week, joined by the North Shore Tribal Council and local S-CAP members marched on the office of David Orazietti.  Drawing on the strength and experience of our First Nations allies, this march succeeded in shutting down the Trans Canada Highway.  OCAP held an overnight campout at the office of leadership candidate, Glen Murray, about forty-five homeless people and allies, joined by OFL President, Sid Ryan, and Executive Vice President, Irwin Nanda, slept there.  Murray, himself put in an appearance and informed us that he supported the position that the CSUMB should not be eliminated.

Our Week of Action clearly shook the Liberals, won huge support and took the resistance to austerity in poor communities to a new level.  We mobilized with every intention of preventing the cut to CSUMB but, should they go ahead and end it on January 1, our challenge to them will become even more powerful. We will take those who are impacted by the cut to the Liberal MPPs.  We will begin this by mobilizing at their Leadership debates and then their Convention January25-27.  If they go ahead and kill the start up, we will escalate our fight back and we will do so as a common front of communities and unions resisting Liberal austerity in Ontario.

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Join the movement: Idle No More
by Robert Lovelace
(From Rabble.ca: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2012/12/join-movement-idle-no-more)