Fredericton Peace Coalition

Please sign the petition in support of the family of 28 year-old José Emanuel “Pepe” Méndez Dardón, who was assassinated on Friday, August 17, 2007. The purpose of their hunger strike is to call attention to: * Widespread human rights violations in Guatemala, including the right to life * The brutal, gender-motivated killings of over 3,000 Guatemalan women and girls * The rising number of extrajudicial executions and acts of “social cleaning” * The virtual state of impunity that has existed in Guatemala for those who perpetrated these crimes under the government of President Oscar Berger.

An optical engineer in B.C. is urging Ottawa to block the sale of Canada’s leading satellite developer — MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. — charging that the American buyer makes weaponry that kills people.

The star-studded hue and cry to Save Darfur and “stop the genocide” has gained enormous traction in U.S. media along with bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. But the Congo, with ten to twenty times as many African dead over the same period, is not called a “genocide” and passes almost unnoticed. Sudan sits atop lakes of oil. It has large supplies of uranium and other minerals, significant water resources, and a strategic location near still more African oil and resources. The unasked question is whether the nation’s Republican and Democratic foreign policy elite are using claims of genocide and appeals for “humanitarian intervention” to grease the way for the next oil and resource wars on the African continent.

The Etobicoke wife of a terrorism suspect held for more than six years without charges is urging Liberal MPs to vote against new Conservative-proposed security certificate legislation expected to come before Parliament later this month. Mona Elfouli and a half dozen supporters yesterday protested against secret trials in Canada outside the offices of Etobicoke Liberal MPs Michael Ignatieff, Borys Wrzesnewskyj and Roy Cullen. The so-called Freedom Caravan was expected to visit east Toronto MPs today to also request meetings with the MPs prior to the vote in Parliament.

On Monday, January 7th, the British Columbia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on whether or not Adbusters’ lawsuit against Global Television, the CBC, and the CRTC, should go forward. If the Adbusters lawsuit clears this hurdle, media rights advocates will celebrate an important victory in the battle against censorship. For more than a decade, Adbusters, a magazine and media foundation, has been trying to pay major commercial broadcasters to air its public-service TV spots, but these attempts have been routinely blocked by network executives, often with little or no explanation. In 2004, Adbusters finally turned to the courts. It filed a lawsuit against the government of Canada and some of the country’s biggest media barons, arguing that the public has a constitutionally protected freedom of expression over the public airwaves.

In contrast to carbon trading, what is reverberating within grassroots, coalface and fenceline struggles in many parts of the world is a very different strategy and demand by civil society activists: leave the oil in the soil, the resources in the ground.

Encounters with the Zapatistas by Rebecca Solnit

Is his refusal to condemn building at Har Homa a signal of change in Canadian policy?

At a press conference in Ramallah alongside Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki, Mr. Bernier said Canada opposes any move by Israel to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank as “contrary to the peace process.” But when asked, twice, whether the blanket statement included Har Homa – where Israel recently announced plans to build hundreds of new housing units – Mr. Bernier declined to answer. The future of Har Homa may determine the success or failure of the peace process launched last month by U.S. President George W. Bush.

This page has been developed by/for several Canadian interns working in and around Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and more specifically working with projects lead by Doctor Juan Almendares. The Doctor has indicated that one major way that we can be useful is to fundraise for the various projects that are ongoing. Here’s a bit about them. Plus please check out the videos and photos of grassroots change in action, care of the amazing women of COHAPAZ!

Dozens of Afghan journalists and activists on Saturday sought the release of a journalist detained by security officials for allegedly making blasphemous comments. The 23-year-old Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, reporter of Jahan-e Naw daily paper and a journalism student at Balkh University in northern Afghanistan, was detained three months ago. Kambakhsh was accused of mocking Islam and the holy book, the Koran, and for distributing an article which said Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women.