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G8/G20 Communique: Toronto G20 court support Thursday
FWD: G20 COURT SUPPORT
Thursday August 19, 10am 361 University Ave at Armoury Street (South of Dundas West, St Patrick Station)
This Thursday, August 19, Ontario Crown attorneys will continue the ongoing efforts to criminalize social movements and community organizers Alex Hundert, Leah Henderson, and Erik Lankin for their alleged roles in the demonstrations against the G20 in Toronto. Come show your support at the Ontario Superior Court at 361 University Avenue.
Please note that this is not a rally or a call to action, however people should feel welcome to be present in court to show their support.
G8/G20 Communique: Winnipeg panel discussion Thursday on G20 civil liberties and global justice
Winnipeg panel discussion Thursday on G20 civil liberties and global justice
Thursday August 19, 2010
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Carol Shields Auditorium, Millennium Library, 2nd Floor
251 Donald St.
See map: Google Maps
Contact: Rob McGregor robert.d.b.mcgregor@gmail.com
Join us for a panel discussion on issues pertaining to the recent G20 Summit in Toronto.
The panelists will be:
-David Camfield: Member of the editorial board of New Socialist webzine
The marginalization of Muslims in America
Salman Hamdani died on Sept. 11, 2001. The 23-year-old research assistant at Rockefeller University had a degree in biochemistry. He was also a trained emergency medical technician and a cadet with the New York Police Department. But he never made it to work that day. Hamdani, a Muslim-American, was among that day's first responders. He raced to Ground Zero to save others. His selfless act cost him his life.
The economist in Harper knows exactly why he's decimating the census
Industry Minister Tony Clement's tweets aside, Stephen Harper's Conservatives know that changing the 2011 long-form census from compulsory to voluntary makes it useless for public and private Canadian decision makers. That's exactly why they're doing it.
An economist, the prime minister understands the value of statistics. He appreciates that authoritative statistics on the relative social and economic well-being of individual Canadians empower the disempowered to demand government programs (higher taxes) to reduce poverty and disparity and promote upward mobility.
Canadian gold mine plan stirs anger in Central America
Canadian gold mining explorations in Central America might be close to expanding with a new project potentially going ahead in Costa Rica.
Industrias Infinito S.A., owned by the Calgary-based Infinito Gold Ltd., is a mine company that is trying to win a legal battle with the new Costa Rican government to push for the Crucitas project in the small community of Las Crucitas, north of the border of Nicaragua.
Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica's new president, revised the contract that former president Óscar Arias signed with the Canadian firm months before reaching the end of his presidential term.
But Chinchilla is under pressure from environmental groups, such as "Ni una Mina más" translated as "Not a single mine," to put a stop to the project.
Blogging with Mr. Duckett: Stand by for mainstream media whinging, Doc!
Alberta's best-read blogger, if the unique-visits stats are to be believed, isn't some political wonk like Daveberta, Ken Chapman or even Yours Truly.
It's Stephen Duckett -- Doctor Stephen Duckett -- the PhD economist imported from Australia in 2008 by Ron Liepert, Alberta's former minister of health and resident political train wreck, to reform, restructure, reinvent and re-whatever Alberta's public health care system.
Saving the prison farms: It's time for civil disobedience
For more than 150 years, prisoners have had the chance to work on farms inside the prison system.
In February 2009, it was revealed that the Harper government was planning to shut down this longstanding program.
Once the word got out, a wave of opposition from across the country organized to defend the farms. People could not understand why the prison was closing, what they saw as an innovative, sustainable and effective program.
Even as the government carries forth with their plans, people are continuing to fight to keep the farms running. And some of them are using civil disobedience to get their message across.
Labour news from the Asia Pacific region
Labour news from Turkey, Pakistan, China, Sth Korea, Indonesia and Australia. Interview with Lek, Action for People's Democracy in Thailand, on the ongoing repression in Thailand.
G8/G20 Communique: Today drop the G20 charges! Resist the criminalization of dissent!
Drop the G20 Charges! Resist the criminalization of dissent!
Date: August 17th
Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Location: Room 116, Wallberg building, 200 College Street, Toronto, ON
Speakers include Lesley Wood, Syed Hussan and AJ Whithers.
For 10 days at the end of June, police led a coordinated armed assault against Toronto's civilian population. Community organizers were in particular targeted. Mobilizations for justice, for dignity and for self-determination were infiltrated, harassed and intimidated.
Weekly Audit: Are handouts for billionaires more important than feeding children?
The crazy conservative assault on government spending has become one of the most irrational economic policy debates in recent years.
The Republican Party is trying to maintain the fiction that direct economic relief for millions of working Americans is a fiscally irresponsible splurge, while simultaneously backing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of economically useless tax cuts for the wealthy. The demands are staggering: cut food stamps for the poor, but preserve perks for billionaires.
The problem with foreign aid: A memoir
During the recent G8-G20 summit meetings, Prime Minister Stephen Harper hoped to elevate his status as a world leader by making Maternal Health the centrepiece of Canada's aid. Instead, his plan crashed when world leaders recognized it for what it really was, an ideologically driven scheme, offered with the condition that Family Planning was not to be included.
Having spent eight years of the 1980s as an "aid worker" in Indonesia, I learned a lot about conditional aid and the missionary zeal of so-called benefactors, the governments and agencies, such as the World Bank, that can corrupt donor and recipient alike.
Afghanistan, another Vietnam?
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae says it's a mistake to compare Afghanistan to Vietnam. Writing in the Toronto Star he concludes that in Afghanistan " the West can't afford to lose." The "deep instability in many parts of the globe" pose a risk, not just to the regions like Afghanistan, but to us, he argues. Though Rae wants Canada's combat role in Kandahar to end, he proposes our political and aid efforts grow.
Sasha: Sperm donations, and the criminalization of sex work
Dear Sasha,
My girlfriend went into menopause unexpectedly at 31, when a simple (botched) surgery ended in her waking up with a complete hysterectomy.
She is the only daughter, and her brother never had children of his own because he married a woman who already had five.
Both she and her parents really wanted her to have children of her own. When she and I met, we agreed that we, too, wanted children. It's been five years since the surgery, and she is still distraught over the issue.
Repay historic debt to Haiti: An open letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy
A Bastille Day hoax on the French government helped to expose the long history of extortion, betrayal and structural injustice that left Haiti so impoverished and vulnerable to devastation by the earthquake that claimed over a quarter of a million lives earlier this year.
Canada's treatment of the Tamil refugees is a defining moment
Whatever else happens, the MV Sun Sea shall be remembered as having posed a security, immigration and moral dilemma for Canada, depending on who you speak to.
A Thai registered cargo ship, the MV Sun Sea had approximately 500 potential claimants for refugee status, all of whom are of Tamil origin. It originated in Sri Lanka and was denied permission to dock by Thailand and Australia.
The ship arrived in Canadian waters Friday and was intercepted by armed Canadian military and the RCMP. After health and security officials boarded the ship in Victoria, B.C., the passengers were given medical check-ups; most have been moved to detention centres in the Vancouver area while their refugee claims are being processed. Hearings are due to begin today.
The Marie Factor: Is Alberta premier being pushed, or looking to jump?
Ed and Marie Stelmach are still on the job. But are they enjoying it? A persistent buzz says the First Couple of Alberta have had enough and are looking for a graceful way to slip out the side door.
Is the suggestion that Marie Stelmach has had it, even if Ed hasn't, fact or hopeful fiction? Who the heck knows? It's August and there's nothing much to report on but rumours here in the rainy New West.
Green gone wrong: Interview with Heather Rogers
Brookly based author and filmmaker Heather Rogers latest book Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution, takes a critical, on-the-ground look at popular market-based solutions to ecological destruction. Rogers has spoken internationally on the environmental effects of mass consumption and is a senior fellow at the progressive U.S. think tank Demos.
In your first book, Gone Tomorrow: The Life of Garbage, you took a hard look at how we discard our waste and what happens to it. How did you approach this topic and what made you pursue this as an interest? What is your critique of recycling?
