Headlines for week of March 22nd, 2009

Submitted by ckutheadlines on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 15:51

Headlines for the week of March 22nd, 2009
runs 11 min, 50 sec

LOCAL:

Montreal – Community-based education initiatives offer another season of alternative learning

NATIONAL:

Alberta – Canada's first private nuclear power generator proposed site faces criticism

Canada – Three Billion $ stimulus package approved in House of Commons

Canada – Government trying to re-impose conditions on Adil Charkaoui

INTERNATIONAL:

Istanbul – Fifth annual World Water Forum and international criticism

Malawi – World Tuberculosis Day and Malawi's National TB Control Program

Afghanistan – Five more deaths from suspected US airstrikes on Pakistan/Afghan border
_______________________

Thanks this week to our friends at the Dominion, and our contributors Laura Glowacki, Juniper Belshaw, Brodie Macrae, Caitlyn Chapell, and Faberice of the CKUT Community News Collective.

If rebroadcasted, comments/feedback/questions please contact: headlines@ckut.ca

Exposé on Canadian Mining Companies Around the World

Submitted by annaluisa_daigneault on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 17:04

Canadian extractive activities are harming many people in Canada and around the world. The environmental impacts and social injustices caused by Canadian mining are growing. For those of you in Toronto on March 25 2009, I encourage you to attend an event exposing the devastation caused by Canadian mining companies around the world.

You can listen to the documentaries at:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/30233

Here are the details.

OPIRG-Toronto presents
The CD Launch of

*PATH OF DESTRUCTION:
CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES
AROUND THE WORLD*
Written by Asad Ismi
Produced by Kristin Schwartz

A three-part audio documentary about the global devastation spread by Canadian mining corporations. Featuring the voices of the communities affected by Canadian mining in Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Canada. (See full description below).

The series has been played on 12 radio stations in 12 cities from coast to coast in Canada and in the U.S. (see airplay list, reviews and funders below). The documentary has garnered enthusiastic praise from Canadian and international commentators. The series was funded by six progressive Canadian unions and five non-governmental organizations amongst others.

*Wednesday, March 25, 7 pm
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
Room 2214
252 Bloor Street West (St. George subway)*

Speakers:

1. Arthur Petahtegoose, Former Chief of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek or the Whitefish Lake First Nation located near Sudbury, site of the biggest mines in Canada.

Path of Destruction: Canadian Mining Companies Around the World

Submitted by annaluisa_daigneault on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 16:51

OPIRG-Toronto presents
The CD Launch of

PATH OF DESTRUCTION:
CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES
AROUND THE WORLD

Written by Asad Ismi
Produced by Kristin Schwartz

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/30233

A three-part audio documentary about the global devastation spread by Canadian mining corporations. Featuring the voices of the communities affected by Canadian mining in Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Canada. (See full description below).

The series has been played on 12 radio stations in 12 cities from coast to coast in Canada and in the U.S. (see airplay list, reviews and funders below). The documentary has garnered enthusiastic praise from Canadian and international commentators. The series was funded by six progressive Canadian unions and five non-governmental organizations amongst others.

*Wednesday, March 25, 7 pm
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
Room 2214
252 Bloor Street West (St. George subway)*

Speakers:

1. Arthur Petahtegoose, Former Chief of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek or the Whitefish Lake First Nation located near Sudbury, site of the biggest mines in Canada.
His interview is prominently featured in the documentary. Under his leadership, the Nation recently launched a $550 billion lawsuit against the Canadian federal government and the Ontario government, on the basis that the area of the Sudbury mines belongs to the Nation, as does the revenue generated by their operations for the last century. The Nation is also suing the two governments for health and environmental damage.

2. Edgar Godoy, Expert on Canadian mining companies in Guatemala and President of CUPE Local 2191.

An eyewitness account of a police officer attacking a teen and brutally beating him.

Submitted by JCoy on Fri, 03/20/2009 - 02:21

On March 15 at approximately 5:30pm on the west-north corner of Sherbrooke and St-Urbain I saw a plane-clothed police officer knock unconscious and then processed to brutally beat a young underage protester holding a found or stolen police shield

The incident begins while I was walking southbound on the west side of St-Urbain toward the Sherbrooke intersection. I saw a group of rowdy young high school aged kids some looking like punks blocking the Sherbrooke , St-Urbain intersection.

Soon after, I looked right just in-time to see a jovial looking high-scholar punk holding a police shield get attacked from behind, and stabbed in the stomach with what looked like a electroshock weapon but what could have been a medium-small sized knife. He let out a screaming “No” and then collapse on the ground. The plane-clothed police officer with a bizarre smile then proceeded to stomp on the child repeatedly, his point-man dressed as a punk then moved threateningly towards the crowd in the intersection.

The seen happened on the sidewalk between a parked care and a red brick building.

I believe there is probably security video of the incident, ether the Residences Universitaires UQAM security videos or maybe the security cameras of the red bricked building at the corner of St Urbain and Sherbrooke. My French is not at a level where I can communicate well with security guards or administration types the need to release this type of footage to the media.

Pleas if you or any one you know would be willing to help get this footage to the media pleas contact the UQAM people and urge them to release the footage.

Artists Against Apartheid VI

Submitted by annaluisa_daigneault on Fri, 03/20/2009 - 00:38

Artists Against Apartheid VI

Featuring hip-hop, jazz and experimental music in opposition to Israeli apartheid.

SUNDAY MARCH 22nd
20h00 $5-10
La Sala Rossa
4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec

A major event celebrating artist/activist Freda Guttman’s 75th birthday in the ongoing Artists Against Apartheid series uniting artists for the struggle against Israeli apartheid.
performances from

Antoine Bustros piano, keyboard, with Benoît Piché on trumpet and Greg Smith on sampler, accompanied by projected excerpts from ‘Territories’ a documentary film by Mary-Ellen Davis. Antoine Bustros is a celebrated film music composer for over twenty years, scoring soundtracks that cover a wide variety of genres and instrumentation. www.antoinebustros.com

Meryem Saci and Nantali Indongo the two women MCs from the celebrated Montreal hip-hop group Nomadic Massive, a collective of independent hip-hop artists who are made up of independent artists who have performed to major crowds in Montreal and internationally from Basil, to Cuba to Montreal’s International Jazz Festival. www.nomadicmassive.ca

Karen Young celebrated musician and vocalist joined by Éric Auclair, a duo performance entitled Electro Beatniks. Karen Young is an internationally respected artist who has been performing and writing songs for over thirty years, spanning a wide range of musical styles from folk, to Jazz, to experimental. www.karenyoung.org

Banana & the Flying Colors, music from the edges of Montreal’s experimental music scene, involving piano and keyboards, highlighted by live projections. www.myspace.com/bananaandtheflyingcolors

Headlines for the week of March 15th, 209

Submitted by ckutheadlines on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 14:49

LOCAL:

Montreal – Thousands participate in Annual Anti-Police Brutality March

Montreal – Mont-Royal MP Irwin Cotler makes public allegations against Iran

McGill University – Green Week highlights needs for ecological sustainability

NATIONAL:

Canada – Over 100 people pool money for Abdelrazik's plane ticket, despite facing up to ten years in jail

Alberta – Fails to publicly disclose environmental violations by oilsands contractors

INTERNATIONAL:

Washington, DC – First Nations activists deliver letter to John Kerry protesting US reliance on oil from Alberta tarsands, coinciding with Jim Prentice's visit

Calgary – Bush welcomed by Calgary Chamber of Congress

France – Highest levels of industrial tensions since start of financial crisis
________________________
Credits: TJ Kahan, Juniper Belshaw, David Koch, Brodie McRae, Chris Albinati, Anabel Khoo, in collaboration with our friends at the Dominion.

If rebroadcast, comments/feedback/questions please contact : headlines@ckut.ca

Ideological Institutions and Political Repression: Israel and free speech in Canada

Submitted by reganboychuk on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 08:13

Support for Israeli crimes by the Canadian government is reflected in our ideological institutions, universities and the media. In recent years, both have increased considerably.

To draw on personal experience as an undergraduate, organizing events and hosting speakers during the Second Intifada met obstacles from university administration and attacks in the media.

Though there had never been anything resembling an incident, our group was required to have security guards posted outside even the smallest events – at our expense.

When we brought in a major expert on the Israel-Palestine conflict in April 2004, we and our guest were viciously smeared in the media, who lamented that our group might somehow be tax-subsidized.[1]

At the last minute, we were also forced to pay the costs of having a number of city police perform security for our guest speaker’s talk. The bill came to over a $1000 – enough to cripple the average student group, no doubt the objective.

Such tactics have long been familiar but, as Ottawa’s apologetics for Israel have risen to new heights, so has university repression and media demonization of Palestine activism.

A few recent examples illustrate the lengths to which Ottawa is prepared to go for its relationship with Israel:

• Neither the government, nor the media responded when made aware that a Canadian member of the Christian Peacemaker Team was “spat at, kicked and stoned by young Israeli settlers” while Israeli soldiers looked on as he waited to check his documents at an Israeli army checkpoint near the Beit Hadassah settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron in March 2007.[2]

• During Israel’s widespread attacks on Lebanon in 2006, a vacationing Canadian family was killed when the Israeli air force attacked their family’s home in the Lebanese town of Aitaroun.[3] The incident garnered little attention in the Canadian media and no protest from the Canadian government.

“Two-in-five Canadians criticize Israel’s military actions in Gaza”

Submitted by reganboychuk on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 08:05

Unreported in the mainstream press, Angus Reid's poll on the slaughter in Gaza[1] is interesting for a number of reasons, some unintended. The slightest scrutiny reveals much deceit.

Previous polls conducted for Canada's 'pro'-Israel lobby inform us that a huge majority of Canadians oppose taking Israel's (or the Palestinians') side in the conflict; 83% prefer neutrality.[2]

It would obviously be awkward to revisit Canadians' desire for neutrality after the their government’s strident display of support for the most recent slaughter in Gaza.

Sensitive to the political winds, Angus Reid gets around this by asking if Canadians support the Harper government's position indirectly:

"Earlier this month, Canadian Junior Foreign Minister Peter Kent declared: 'Hamas bears a terrible responsibility for [Israel's attack] and for the wider deepening humanitarian tragedy. The burden of responsibility is on Hamas to stop its terrorist rocketing of Israel.' Do you agree or disagree with the junior minister's statement?"

Fifty-seven per cent agreed. This gives rise to the poll’s sub-headline, which claims “a majority agrees with Ottawa’s official position that Hamas is greatly responsible for the conflict.”

But the square brackets in Angus Reid’s question are curious.

Speaking to Reuters, Kent was not speaking generally about the conflict or Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’, he was specifically blaming Hamas for Israel's killing of 43 Palestinians outside a UN school in Jabaliya on January 6th.

Admitting he didn't yet know much about the incident, but having internalized Israeli claims (credible or otherwise), Kent declared:

"Hamas's record is to use civilians – the population and civilian infrastructure – as shields and it would seem quite possible that this is yet another tragic instance."[3]

Inadvertent reality: The peril of even sympathetic coverage

Submitted by reganboychuk on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 07:54

After pounding defenseless Gazans trapped in their cage for more than three weeks, Israel agreed to a ceasefire. It unclenched its bloody fists and returned them Gaza’s collective throat, which it continues to strangle as it did long before the launch of ‘Operation Cast Lead’.

With the ceasefire came a flood of western media pouring into Gaza. Having been forced to watch from the sidelines throughout the onslaught, when they were finally let in, their news priorities revealed much.

The Globe and Mail opted for a front-page exposé aimed at dispelling any potential confusion about the precise location of an Israeli war crime.[1]

My unpublished letter-to-the-editor:

"The Globe and Mail's latest contribution to Israel's propaganda efforts illustrates exactly why media were banned from the recent slaughter in Gaza.

"Israel prevented the media from entering Gaza because even the most sympathetic reporting can inadvertently reveal damaging details.

"Case in point: Patrick Martin's latest report verged on apologetics, but – rather than discounting a 'myth' – Martin actually provided further evidence of an Israeli war crime in the incident examined.

"We now have it confirmed by a western correspondent writing for a well-respected, 'pro'-Israel newspaper that there were no Palestinians firing on Israelis from the vicinity of the attack that killed more than 40 Palestinian civilians.

"Regardless of which side of the UN school's wall Israeli shells struck, it was an attack on civilians lacking even a pretext.

"In other words, a potential war crime.

"Small wonder Israel kept even sympathetic journalists away from the carnage – despite their best intentions, you never know what bit of reality they might let slip into public consciousness."

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