ANTI-MINING GROUPS STAGE 36 HOUR SIT-IN AT CANADIAN EMBASSY IN MEXICO CITY

Submitted by tamara on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 09:46

On the morning of July 21st, Canadian Embassy workers in Mexico City were greeted by an assortment of angry community members, paper-maché pigs, anti-mining banners, life-sized rats and a photo-exhibit highlighting the impacts of a Canadian-owned open-pit mine.

The embassy was surrounded by a display of colourful resistance for the next 36 hours while communities affected by Canadian mining projects in four Mexican states staged a sit-in to mark the first Global Day of Action Against Open-Pit Mining.

The choice to stage a sit-in against open-pit mining in front of the Canadian Embassy was not arbitrary – the Mexican government reports that over 70% of its mining concessions are owned by Canadian corporations. Many of these corporations have been met with widespread resistance, culminating in blockades, demonstrations and legal cases.

Among the most infamous cases of opposition to a Canadian mining project is New Gold Inc’s Cerro de San Pedro open-pit gold and silver mine. In commercial operation since 2007, the mine has been the subject of fierce resistance since a Canadian corporation purchased its concession 13 years ago.

Various legal cases filed by project opponents delayed the project, located in a 400-year old historic village 8 kilometers from a city of 1.5 million. The mountains surrounding the village were granted protected status because of their importance in refueling the arid area’s aquifers. When the corporation was issued an environmental permit, opponents took the matter to court.

“Even though a federal court determined that the project is illegal, the mine is still operating” said Federal Deputy Armando Barreiro at the embassy sit-in. “We’re here today denouncing that the federal, state and municipal governments are allowing the flagrant violation of our environmental laws. Corruption and impunity permits corporations to operate like this, not only in Cerro de San Pedro but all over the country.”

Kalashnikovs, sex tapes and a lack of catastrophes

Submitted by isaac on Thu, 07/23/2009 - 13:35

If you've been waiting to hear what Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's sex tapes sound like, today's your day. A leftist website released them - and the Times has gone and translated everything for those who don't speak the Romance language. Leaders. Even Tony Blair's mother is a bit upset about the rough American crowd he's been hanging about with. Pakistani Taliban are confident that their head Swat honcho is still alive, and promise all sorts of revenge.

It's all very muddled in Pakistan. Pathans from Peshawar buying Kalashnikovs from the same black markets from which they acquire fridges, Punjabis getting warm about their boy Sharif, and spillover into Balochi lands.

Where was I? Right, Euros. They still think they'll set world trends, according to this Spiegel editorial. Does that include the reckless slaughter of humanitarian activists?

Five things the Corporate Media doesn't want you to know about the Coup in Honduras

Submitted by dawn on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 13:11

1. It was a military coup carried out on behalf of corporate and transnational elites. "Restoring Democracy" though a military coup is akin to bombing your way to peace.

2. Coup participants were trained by the CIA and at the School of the Americas. Reactionary, anti-democratic US training grounds such as these are responsible for mass murder throughout the Americas.

3. President Mel Zelaya is a centrist, and his movements towards the "left," such as joining the ALBA trade block, are a result of massive popular pressure for change.

4. The constitutional referendum was not focussed on extending Zelaya's term limit. The referendum on the constitution marked the beginning of a popular process of participative democracy, which is extremely threatening to local and transnational elites.

5. Transnational corporations support the coup. Goldcorp has been bussing employees to pro-coup marches, other Canadian companies have stayed silent and complicit in the coup.

Photo of demonstrators in Tegucigalpa by Sandra Cuffe. This write up was originally posted at The Dominion

Groundwire June 27, 2009

Submitted by GroundWire on Fri, 07/17/2009 - 09:37

Presenting the June 27, 2009 Headlinse: With Narration from the Women's News Collective at CHRY 105.5FM

- Abousfian Abdelrazik Returns to Canada | David Koch (CKUT)

-Adil Charkaoui's Cross Canada Tour | David Parker (CKDU)

- CSIS Security Certificate Update and the Case of Mohamed Harkat | Tariq Jeeroburkhan from CKUT

- Toronto City Workers' Strike | Candace Mooers (CHRY)

-Ontario Labour Actions Increase: Omme Rahemtullah (CHRY)

-Canadian Companies Sued by Palestinian Community of Bil'in: Libby Drew (CHSR) and Chris Albinati (CKUT)

Presenting the June 27, 2009 Features:

The National Community Radio Conference in Montreal: A Year in Community Radio. CHRY's Jacky Tuinstra Harrison talks with volunteers, speakers and organizers about the future of community radio in Canada and the spirit of volunteerism at this year's annual conference.

On Friday, June 19th, the National Association of Friendship Centres hosted a forum on Urban First Nations issues in Ottawa, with three candidates for the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations: Shawn Atleo, John Beaucage and Perry Bellegarde. Lisa Abel CHUO With threats to form a Caledonia militia aimed against Aboriginal activists, Jesse Zimmerman of CHRY brings us voices from a counter-protest, re-asserting territorial rights for six nations indigenous peoples. The June 27, 2009 edition of GroundWire was produced by CHRY 105.5FM in Toronto

For more information:

groundwire@ncra.ca

groundwire.ncra.ca

Minister of Deportation grilled about War Resisters

Submitted by dawn on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 15:03

March 18, 2009: A concerned Canadian questions the Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on his deportation of U.S. Iraq war resisters as he exits a press conference at the Sheraton Centre in downtown Toronto, Canada.

Minister Kenney is preparing to deport to jail a mother of three, Kim Rivera, who is an Iraq war veteran and war resister who saw first hand the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. Minister Kenney has called U.S. Iraq war resisters "bogus refugees" and his biased and discriminatory comments have been condemned by Amnesty International Canada and the Canadian Council for Refugees.

With tears and chants, a goodbye to activist Marcelo Rivera in El Salvador

Submitted by dawn on Wed, 07/15/2009 - 13:39

His relatives, friends, neighbours. His students from the school, attendees of his art workshops, colleagues of the association (ASIC). His comrades from the party, his partners in the anti-mining fight [in El Salvador]. Everyone. Perhaps even his murderers.

Almost always it is the family members and closest friends who say goodbye to a fallen one by crying profusely. It is rare at a funeral to see everyone in attendance crying. The burial of Gustavo Marcelo Rivera Moreno is one of those exceptional cases, hundreds of children, youth and elders, men and women, all crying together.

He was missing for three weeks and later was found murdered, with signs of torture.

Representatives of the ecological movement of Cabañas confirm that Rivera Moreno was a victim of persecution and threats over the last few months, especially since the legislative and municipal elections of January 18th, when he took lead the protests against the alleged attempted electoral fraud by the Mayor of San Isidro, ARENA's José Ignacio Bautista, who succeeded in being reelected one week later when they went back to the polls.

Over the last five years, Gustavo Marcelo also lead the resistance against the projects of Pacific Rim, a Canadian mining company that has brought the Salvadoran state before a corporate tribunal of the World Bank, for having denied them permission to reopen the El Dorado mine, situated only two kilometres from the urban centre of San Isidro.

"He fought against the mining threat from the perspective of a teacher, a cultural promoter, a director of a community organization, and as a political leader", says Francisco Piñeda, leader of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas.

Tune in!: Online radio show on media battles in Honduras

Submitted by SandraCuffe on Wed, 07/15/2009 - 09:40

LISTEN ONLINE TO THE SHOW!

Tune in: Online radio show on media battles in Honduras

Political upheaval continues in Honduras, after liberal leader Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup in late June. It is a battle that has played out not only in the streets of Honduras, but also on television screens and over radio waves across the world.

Some, including U.S. President Barack Obama and the Organization of American States, have condemned the ouster of the democratically-elected president, saying it was unconstitutional, illegal and a threat to democracy.

Others point out that Zelaya was pushing ahead with a referendum on term limits that Honduras’ Supreme Court had ruled unconstitutional, and consider his removal the result of healthy checks and balances.

The Honduran military has clamped down on pro-Zelaya channels in the country and blocked the signal of Telesur, a left-leaning television network based in Venezuela. Other state-run media across Latin America have broadcast programs in support of Zelaya.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show on explored the coup in Honduras and how Latin America’s media industry — from state-run stations to independent websites — has become a political battleground.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosts the following panel of guests:

Sandra Cuffe is an independent journalist and photographer from Montréal, Canada­. Sandra has reported from Latin America for several years and is the Honduras correspondent for UpsideDownWorld.org.

Daniel Duquenal is a blogger at “Venezuela News and Views,” which he’s been writing for six years. He hails from small San Felipe in Venezuela and spent 15 years in the US before returning to Venezuela to manage a small family business.

Honduras Resiste blog interview with social movement leader Berta Caceres of COPINH

Submitted by SandraCuffe on Tue, 07/14/2009 - 09:08

[interview conducted, transcribed & published by fantastic solidarity blog: http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/]

Honduras Resists Exclusive Interview with Berta Cáceres, Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH)

Honduras Resists: What is the state of resistance against the coup d’etat after two weeks?

Berta Cáceres: The resistance of the Honduran people has been firm and heroic not just in Tegucigalpa but in all of the national territory. Just today hundreds more friends came from the west from as far as 500 kilometers. In Olancho the army machine-gunned the tires of the buses that were coming leaving the passengers to walk days to arrive in Tegucigalpa. More and more people are arriving from all over, from every state, from every region of the country each day. Today there were marches in Olancho, Santa Bárbara, Cortés, Progreso, Tela, Comayagua, Intibucá and many other places too. In the whole national territory this resistance is growing.

For its part, the army has had blockades all over the country. We have to remember that we are confronting the ultra-right oligarchy not just from Honduras, but from the whole continent wanting to impede all of the processes of emancipation lead by the peoples of this continent. This coup has not just been against the people of Honduras and against Zelaya but against all of the peoples who share our dream of creating another world, a world where people can count on the basic necessities of life, a world with respect for human rights, with the right to popular participation in the government.

Demand the Suspension of All Canadian Aid to Illegal Government in Honduras

Submitted by dawn on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 11:13

Sisters and Brothers: The Latin American Solidarity Network calls on Toronto 's progressive organizations and individuals to participate in a rally supporting democracy in Honduras !

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 12:00PM
In front of the constituency office of MP Peter Kent, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas)
7600 Yonge Street, Thornhill

On Tuesday we will once again demonstrate our repudiation of the coup d'etat that took place in Honduras on June 28th and specifically demand that the Canadian government suspend all assistance, including military aid, to the illegal government in Honduras, much like several countries in Latin America and Europe have done. We believe that this will further isolate the illegitimate government in Honduras and pressure it to restore the constitutional pre-coup President and Cabinet.

In addition, given some of Minister Kent's ambiguous comments regarding the coup, including some that qualify Canada's opposition to the coup d'etat, we will demand that Minister Kent unequivocally condemn the coup, refuse to recognize any de facto government in Honduras, call for the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of legitimate President Manuel Zelaya and his cabinet, call for the respect of the human rights of people in Honduras, and insist on justice and reparations for the illegal actions and rights violations committed during and after the coup. We cannot help but contrast the Canadian government's rapid and unconditional condemnation of the recent state repression of mass demonstrations in Iran with the relatively tepid and equivocal positions taken in reaction to the coup in Honduras . As Canadians, we want our government to steadfastly denounce all attacks on democracy, human rights, and self-determination, irrespective of political and ideological interests!

Transportation to Minister Kent 's Office ( 7600 Yonge Street )

Pages

Subscribe to The Media Co-op RSS