Other Recent Posts
Analysis: Rank and file solidarity with Palestine
Op/Ed: A Movement for Palestine Solidarity Grows in Surrey
As I reported recently, the mayor and council for the City of Surrey have been so desperate to keep Palestine solidarity voices from speaking at council meetings in an effort to get the city to vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, that they have taken to locking all residents out of council meetings. They have recently gone so far as setting up new riot fencing to keep the public from even coming within several meters of city hall.
Searching for queer community outside Toronto’s gay village
Every weekend, Toronto’s Church-Wellesley neighbourhood comes alive as one of the largest “gay villages” in North America.
Canadian Police-Involved Deaths in February 2024
At least five people were killed in Canadian police actions in February 2024. These deaths include people who were directly killed by police, as in police shootings, or died during police deployments or in police custody. Three people were shot and killed by police in February, one was killed during a police chase, and one died during an arrest while in medical crisis. Two victims were in mental distress at the time police were deployed against them. One person was in a medical crisis.
Op/Ed: Something is rotten in the City of Windsor...the Windsor Police Service
I was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, and still have connections there. So I keep an eye on goings on in the old hometown and still have great interest in what is happening. It was there that, as a blue-collar kid, I was first set upon, targeted, and harassed by cops, and that I started to figure out what policing was really all about.
Media Release: Toronto town hall on anti-Palestinian racism
Torontonians from Across the GTA to Attend Emergency Town Hall About the Rise of Anti-Palestinian Racism: In Our Classrooms, Campuses and Workplaces
WHEN: Friday, February 23, 2024, 7:00pm
WHERE: Yonge-Dundas Square area (please call for exact location)
LIVE STREAM: TBA
Healthcare workers slam their CEOs for slandering pro-Palestinian protesters
Toronto healthcare workers are pushing back against their employers, demanding an apology and a retraction for what they say are “false accusations of antisemitism over the fabricated Mount Sinai story.”
Anti-Palestinian racism permeates Canadian institutions, critics say
Referring to pre-1948 Palestine as a “crappy piece of land with nothing on it” — as former BC NDP Minister of Postsecondary Education Selina Robinson recently did — is not just a sign of ignorance but an expression of the anti-Palestinian racism (APR) that critics say runs deep within our institutions and across political party lines.
Op/Ed: Surrey City Council locks out residents, fails to shut down Palestine solidarity
Palestine solidarity organizing and mobilizations in Surrey, British Columbia (traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Katzie, Kwantlen, and Semiahmoo) have been growing in size and frequency. Now it seems local politicians are getting worried and taking pre-emptive steps to silence voices against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
How an urban village model is tackling Toronto's housing crisis
Kizito Musabimana is one of more than 1000 Rwandan refugees who came to Canada following the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsis in the 1990s, which claimed around one million lives in 100 days. After struggling through a period of homelessness in Toronto, and knowing the importance of culture and community, Musabimana would set out to help others from the African diaspora access culturally-sensitive resources, particularly affordable housing.
B.C. cabinet minister sacked after making racist comments about Palestinians
B.C.'s Minister of Post Secondary Education and Future Skills, Selina Robinson, stepped down on Monday, February 7, over anti-Palestinian comments she made six days earlier during a Zoom meeting with B'nai Brith Canada, a zionist organization. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Vancouver called an emergency rally Monday morning at the Guilford Sheraton Hotel in Surrey, where the B.C. NDP was holding the All MLA Retreat.
Canadian Police-Involved Deaths in January 2024
At least four people had their lives taken in police actions in January 2024. The police-involved deaths include people who were directly killed by police, as in police shootings, or died during police deployments or in police custody. All deaths in January occurred during arrests or in custody. This includes two people killed during intoxication arrests, a practice that is often deadly and should be ended.
More Than a House: Losing our Home to the Bush Creek East Wildfire
Unceded Secwepemc Territory — 2023 was the worst wildfire season recorded in so-called B.C.'s history. According to B.C. Wildfire Service, record-breaking warm temperatures and drought conditions from as far back as October 2022 set the stage for it, while an unusually high number of lightning storms started many of the fires in July, with cold and powerful winds in August fanning them.
Learning from Organizers – Nina Newington
Nina Newington is an organizer based in rural Nova Scotia. In recent years, her grassroots work has focused on protecting forests in the province.
Opposing police repression of drug user liberation organizers
On January 16 more than 200 people rallied at the Vancouver courthouse in support of Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) co-founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, and called for all state charges against them to be dropped. This was part of an international day of action in solidarity with DULF which also saw actions in Nelson, BC; Calgary, AB; Dublin, Ireland; and, London, England. Voices were raised against the policing and criminalization that make drug users' lives more precarious — and which themselves kill people.
Canadian photojournalist attacked while covering anti-Indigenous violence
On November 22, 2023, Canadian journalist and photographer Renaud Phillipe was assaulted by balaclava-wearing men, likely farmers, when visiting the city of Iguatemi in
First Nations Strategic Bulletin Sept - Dec 2023
FIRST NATIONS STRATEGIC BULLETIN: VOLUME 21, ISSUES 9-12, SEPT - DEC 2023.
Click on file attachment below to access the bulletin.
In this issue:
- Chiefs as Crown Agents
- Re-Colonization Plan
- No TRC Results Until 2081
- Feds Fight Tobacco Case
- AFN Report - NC Archibald
- Australia Fought UNDRIP
Click here to view the PDF of the First Nations Strategic Bulletin: Sept - Dec 2023 Issue
Canadian Police-Involved Deaths in December 2023
At least 97 people had their lives taken through police actions in 2023. This comes after a December in which at least 12 people were killed in police actions. This matched May as the deadliest month of policing this year, the two bloodiest months of police violence since October 2022.
Analysis: The Continuum of Misogynist Violence
Every 11 minutes, a woman or girl somewhere in the world is killed by a male family member or intimate partner.