Fredericton Peace Coalition

The N.B. Human Rights Commission chose to give its Pioneer of Human Rights Award to the Asper Foundation for its Human Rights and Holocaust Studies Program. The award ceremony occurred at St. Thomas University on October 25.

The award raised many concerns for those critical of the Asper family’s source of wealth, the CanWest Globe media conglomerate. CanWest owns the National Post, Global TV network, Vancouver Sun and other newspapers.

In announcing the award, Gordon Porter, chair of the N.B. Human Rights Commission said: “The Asper Foundation is involved in the lives of many students in New Brunswick….The foundation is making a difference in allowing students to participate in a program that creates sensitization in tomorrow’s leaders. The human rights commission is proud to support this kind of awareness.”

What about awareness of the Israeli occupation of Palestine? CanWest Global’s late founder, Izzy Asper, told the Jerusalem Post in August 2003: “In all our newspapers, including the National Post, we have a very pro-Israel position….we are the strongest supporter of Israel in Canada.” Since Asper’s death in 2003, CanWest has maintained its unquestioning support of the Israeli government’s policies and the Israeli Defense Forces’ actions.

As Gideon Levy notes in his most recent column: “When we say that someone is a “friend of Israel” we mean a friend of the occupation, a believer in Israel’s self-armament, a fan of its language of strength and a supporter of all its regional delusions.”

The Palestine Liberation Organization reports that in the past eight years, Israeli forces have killed an estimated 5,526 Palestinians including 1,010 children under 18, demolished 8,300 homes and jailed more than 65,000 Palestinians.

The Asper family is not setting a great example. Censorship and corporate abuse of power shouldn’t be rewarded.

Tracy Glynn, Julie Michaud, Alisa Carnall and Ali Abbas
Organizers with Fredericton Palestine Solidarity

Barack Obama was elected president of the United States with a 62.5 per cent voter turnout, the highest in 44 years. 2.2 million more young people voted than did in 2004; over 2 million more African Americans voted this time ’round; and Hispanic voters made the difference for Obama in Colorado, Florida, and New Mexico. New Hampshire became the first US state ever to elect a majority of women to their State Senate. Residents of Washington DC, 75 per cent of whom are non-white, still do not have the right to vote for representatives in Congress.

…more

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (IPS) – The year is 1994. Pictures of Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley cover the pages of prominent U.S. newspapers and magazines. Yet hidden from national view is the attempted elimination of the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda.

Colombian coal fuels Atlantic Canada, but at what cost?

The UN in the Gaza Strip says it will run out of food aid in two days unless Israel’s blockade – which it describes as “shameful and unacceptable” – eases.

Democracy Now!: Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has worsened in the aftermath of Israel’s latest blockade of fuel and food. We speak to Diana Buttu, a former lawyer for the Palestinian Authority, and Reverend Edwin “Eddie” Makue of the South African Council of Churches, a veteran of South Africa’s apartheid struggle. They are on an “anti-apartheid” speaking tour across the US for the next two weeks.

On December 3, 2008, a new treaty will open for signature: the Convention on Cluster Munitions. After landmines, cluster munitions pose the greatest risk to civilians, causing more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system. Yet so far, Canada has not declared that it intends to sign the treaty on this historic day.

Sign the petition to ban cluster bombs!

RALLY TO OPPOSE THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT PLAN TO BUILD P3 SCHOOLS, COURT HOUSES AND A HOSPITAL

THE TIME AS COME FOR NEW BRUNSWICKERS TO SAY NO TO P3’S

WHEN: On November 25, 2008 (at the opening of the Legislative Assembly)

WHERE: Join us at 2:30 pm at Officers’ Square ­we will march on the Legislative Assembly

Organized by: CUPE NB

RALLIEMENT POUR S’OPPOSER AUX PROJETS DE PARTENARIAT PUBLIC-PRIVÉ DU GOUVERNEMENT LIBÉRAL POUR LA CONSTRUCTION D’ÉCOLES, DE PALAIS DE JUSTICE ET D’UN HÔPITAL

LE TEMPS EST VENU POUR LES GENS DU NOUVEAU-BRUNSWICK DE DIRE NON AUX PPP

QUAND : Le 25 novembre 2008 (à l‘ouverture de l’Assemblée législative)
OÙ : Venez nous rejoindre à 14h30 au Officers’ Square ­nous marcherons à l’Assemblée législative

SCFP N-B

Matthew Charles Keddy used to be a happy young man who was excited about his life. But according to his family that was before the 25-year-old Canadian Forces Base Gagetown soldier served in Afghanistan. He hasn’t been the same since his return from the war-torn country. He has suffered depression and anxiety, a suicide attempt, and in the summer he assaulted a woman who was then his girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Fredericton psychologists Robin Geneau and Joyce Belliveau told the committee that services to treat soldiers at the base who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are in disarray and carried out by unqualified mental health workers.

The only winners emerging from Afghanistan these days are the drug barons who preside over the world’s largest heroin trade and the pimps who control the Chinese prostitutes operating from the scores of bordellos and brothels which have emerged since the US military occupation.