Kevin Skerrett & Yves Engler: Canadians of conscience who pay attention to Haiti continue to be ashamed of what is being done in our name.
Posted: February 8th, 2007 under Canada, Haiti.
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Friday – International Day of Solidarity with Haiti
Join Women in Black, Haiti Action Fredericton and the Fredericton Peace Coalition in marking the international day of solidarity with Haiti at the regularly scheduled WIB time on Friday, Feb 9 at 12 noon, Fredericton City Hall. All welcome.
For more info, visit:
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/local.php?id=19, http://frederictonpeace.org/?cat=5 or email info@frederictonpeace.org
Feb. 7 International Day in Solidarity with the Haitian People
Bulletin #2 — 53 Cities on 5 Continents say:
STOP UN massacres of the poor in Haiti!
END the foreign occupation of Haiti!
53 cities — in South Africa, the Philippines, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and North America — are joining hands in the February 7th mobilization, in answer to the call from the popular movement in Haiti.
*** In Durban, South Africa, the Abahlali shack dwellers movement and its 34 settlements are holding an event at the Kennedy Road settlement Feb. 7 “in support of the shack dwellers of Haiti.” They’re showing videos of the heavy-caliber killings of Haitian children, men and women in Cite Soleil by an invasion force wearing the Blue Helmets of the U.N.
*** In Georgetown, Guyana, the women’s organization Red Thread is picketing a U.N. office Feb. 7 to protest UN massacres in Haitian shantytowns.
*** In New York City, the Haitian community is demonstrating Feb. 7 in front of United Nations headquarters to “demand an end to the occupation, exile and political imprisonment” being imposed upon Haiti. From coast to coast, many US and Canadian cities are organizing Haiti solidarity activities: Miami, Boston, Detroit, Atlanta, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax, Windsor, Washington, DC, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego, Philadelphia, Tucson.
*** In Cochabamba, Bolivia, on Feb. 7 they are showing the explosive new 90-minute Kevin Pina film, Haiti: “We Must Kill the Bandits”.
*** In Santiago, Chile, Feb.7th protest activities include the painting of a street mural about the Haitian people’s struggle and their suffering at the hands of the UN occupation force, which includes soldiers from Chile.
*** In Dublin, Ireland, as well as in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, protesters are targeting the embassy or consulates of Brazil, which supplies the top commander and many soldiers for the UN military force in Haiti.
*** In Rio de Janeiro, 6,000 Brazilian youth and students marched through the city center to demand the immediate withdrawal of all of Brazil’s troops from Haiti.
*** In Manila, Gabriela, the largest women’s federation in the Philippines, is joining the Haitian popular movement on Feb. 7 in condemning the US/UN occupation of Haiti, just as they oppose the presence of US troops on Philippine soil.
*** In Mexico, the National Democratic Convention and the Mexican Federation of Electrical Workers (SME) are throwing their weight behind the demands of the Feb. 7 mobilization for Haiti.
*** In Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada, Haiti solidarity activists are doing a high school and university tour, educating students about the Haitian Revolution, the grassroots liberation movement, and how Canada gave key support to the 2004 coup and today’s brutal occupation.
See below for City-by-City Calendar of Feb. 7th Protests in 53 Cities on 5 Continents
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Click this link to see and download the 7-minute trailer
of the Kevin Pina film, Haiti – The UNtold Story
[If it doesn't open, copy the link and paste it where you type the internet address in your browser]
These are 7 packed minutes of live footage of UN atrocities and recent Haitian history.
Show the evidence to your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, at meetings.
We all have a responsibility to face reality, get the word out and STOP the daily
UN attacks on the poor majority in Haiti.
=============================================================
Click this link for key documents of the International Haiti Solidarity Day:
1. Call to Action – in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
2. Sept 30th Foundation Declaration: “No to Occupation – No to Trusteeship” – in Kreyol; soon in English.
3. Article: “The Coup d’Etat Continues” – in French; soon in English.
==================================================================
Posted: February 8th, 2007 under Events, Haiti.
Comments: none
The term Green Scare refers to the U.S. government’s expanding prosecution efforts against animal liberation and ecological activists, drawing parallels to the “Red Scares” of the 1910′s and 1950s. http://greenscare.org/
Posted: February 8th, 2007 under Environment, Political Prisoners, US.
Comments: none
Italy tells Canada, other allies, to butt out of its Afghan policy decisions
“Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema sent a protest letter to six allied countries Tuesday, accusing them of interfering in Italian affairs with their public appeal for Rome to keep its troops in Afghanistan.”
” Prodi said Italian troops will stay in Afghanistan, and pledged to boost civilian aid and diplomatic action there, a key demand by far leftists who oppose the military mission.”
Posted: February 8th, 2007 under Afghanistan.
Comments: none
UPDATE ON HUNGER STRIKES AT GUANTANAMO NORTH
SITUATION CRITICAL WHILE “PUBLIC SAFETY” MINISTER LOST IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
“I saw large chocolate sauce.” — Stockwell Day, sounding like a B-movie actor in a 1950s sci-fi dud, Radio interview about the hunger strike, CINW, Montreal, Feb. 1
Links to developments in this email:
1. Reality Check: A Six-Point Guide to Countering the Lies and Deceptions of Stockwell “Chocolate Sauce” Day with respect to the hunger strike, http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/daylies.htm
2. Amnesty International writes to Day, http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/amnestytoday.htm
3. Letter from Chinese Canadian Redress Alliance, http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/chineseredress.htm
4. NDP MP Bill Siksay Questions Stockwell Day in the House of Commons, http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/siksay.htm
5. Rotating Solidarity Fast Gets Underway, http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/supportfast.htm
6. Senator Hugh Segal Calls on Government to Negotiate:
http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/printable.asp?paper=www.thewhig.com&contentID=393136&annewspapername=The+Kingston+Whig%2DStandard
UPDATE ON THE SITUATION AND NEXT STEPS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007
The Secret Trial Security Certificate detainees – held without charge or fair trial for up to six and a half years under threat of deportation to torture – are in their third month of a hunger strike at Canada’s
Guantanamo North. Today is day 75 of the hungerstrike for Mahjoub, and day 64 for Hassan Almrei and Mahmoud Jaballah. The three are demanding minor improvements in prison conditions, including medical care and the appointment of the Correctional Investigator, an independent ombudsperson, to investigate complaints.
Despite a mounting public outcry (see letters referred to above), the government continues to expose the men to the risk of death by denying them daily medical monitoring during the hungerstrike. Rather than intervening urgently to find a solution, Day and Harper prefer to propagate misinformation and spin campaigns (see response to six false claims by Harper and Day at http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/daylies.htm).
VICTORY AT HOUSE COMMITTEE
Thanks in part to the pressure exerted by people across Canada, a resolution was passed Tuesday, February 6 by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration calling on the federal government to respond to the crisis by appointing the Office of the Correctional Investigator, a federal prison ombudsperson, to assume control over Guantanamo North. All Tories on the committee shamefully voted against the motion.
The same motion will go before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on Thursday. It is crucial that calls go to those committee members calling on them to support the resolution (See list at bottom of this email: focus, in priority, on Liberals and Bloc before the Tories — the NDP member is on side).
==> ACT NOW – THE SITUATION IS CRITICAL
In the next days we are calling for :
1. PUBLIC ACTIONS
There will be numerous actions February 7 protesting the callous and cruel manner in which Stockwell Day is refusing to negotiate a solution. While on the one hand he says (falsely) he cannot intervene because the matter is before the courts, on the other he has invaded the men’s privacy by looking into a fridge and trying to make it sound like the trampling of their rights is okay because he saw “large chocolate sauce” in that fridge.
Ongoing actions, however, are needed. Actions could take the form of delegations to present letters to officials, pickets, or theatrical media actions (orange jumpsuits and chocolate sauce: chocolate sauce in Guantanamo! or Let Them Eat Chocolate Sauce!) at relevant government offices.
Actions should highlight the following demands:
a) Begin providing regular medical monitoring of these three men IN THE LIVING UNIT, immediately and without conditions.
b) Immediately appoint the federal Correctional Investigator to negotiate a solution to the hungerstrike.
c) After the hungerstrike, act without delay to address the underlying reasons for the hunger strikes: indefinite detention, denial of a fair trial, and deportation to torture.
2. CALLS AND FAXES to “Public Safety” Minister Stockwell Day, demanding:
a) Begin providing regular medical monitoring of these three men IN THE LIVING UNIT immediately and without conditions.
b) Immediately appoint the federal Correctional Investigator to negotiate a solution to the hungerstrike.
c) After the hungerstrike, act without delay to address the underlying reasons for the hunger strikes: indefinite detention, denial of a fair trial and deportation to torture.
* Write or call to:
The Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Phone: (613) 995-1702
Fax: 613 952 2240 and Fax: (613) 995.1154
day.s@parl.gc.ca, communications@psepc.gc.ca
*Send a copy of your letter and reports of your actions by email to the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, tasc@web.ca.
3. CALLS TO MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC SAFETY STANDING COMMITTEE, urging them to support the resolution to appoint the federal Correctional Investigator to negotiate a solution to the hungerstrike.
Public Safety Committee Members
Name, Party, Constituency, Phone Number
Gary Breitkreuz C, Yorkton-Melville, Sask., 613-992-4394
Gordon BrownC, Leeds-Grenville, Ontario, 613-992-8756
Pat Davidson, C, Edmonton Centre, 613-957-2649
Dave MacKenzie, C, Oxford, Ontario, 613-995-4432
Rick Norlock, C, Northumberland-Quinte, Ontario, 613-992-8585
Sue Barnes, L, London West, Ontario, 613-996-6674
Raymond Chan, L, Richmond, B.C., 613-995-2021
Roy Cullen, L, Etobicoke North, Ontario, 613-995-4702
Irwin Cotler, L, Mount Royal, P.Q., 613-995-0121
Serge Menard, BQ, Marc-Aurele-Fortin, 613-992-2617
Maria Mourani, BQ, Ahuntsic, 613-992-0983
Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor-Tecumseh, Ontario, 613-947-3445
Breitkreuz.G@parl.gc.ca ; comartin.J@parl.gc.ca ; Cullen.R@parl.gc.ca ;
Barnes.S@parl.gc.ca ; Brown.G@parl.gc.ca ; Chan.R@parl.gc.ca ;
Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca ; MacKenzie.D@parl.gc.ca ; Menard.S@parl.gc.ca ;
Mourani.M@parl.gc.ca ; Norlock.R@parl.gc.ca; Davidp@parl.gc.ca
Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, tasc@web.ca, (416) 651-5800
Posted: February 7th, 2007 under Canada, Guantánamo, Secret Trials, Security Certificates.
Comments: none
Events
WEDNESDAY, FEB 7: URGENT ACTION LETTER WRITING. 12:10pm at Wilmot United Church. This week’s subject deals with threatened activists in Guatemala and Colombia. For more info, contact: jloo@nbnet.nb.ca *Letter writing is always the 1st Wednesday of the month at Wilmot. The Fredericton Peace Coalition will continue to meet the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at the Underground Cafe at 12 noon. All are encouraged to partiicpate!
-WEDNESDAY: DAY OF ACTION AGAINST TUITION FEES. 1:00 pm – Meet in front of the Student Union Building (SUB) A crowd of supporters from Fredericton High School will converge onto campus to hear speeches and music.1:30 pm – The gathering will go to the offices of the presidents of St. Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick (making visits to each), and leave the 10% off coupons and any other personalized requests. 2:00 pm – The rally will finish by marching downtown to the Legislature to deliver the Reduce the Fees message. Note: people are encouraged to bring their own noisemakers and drums! http://www.reducetuitionfees.ca
-FRIDAY, FEB 9: HAITI DAY OF ACTION. Join Women in Black, Haiti Action Fredericton and the Fredericton Peace Coalition in marking the international day of solidarity with Haiti at the regularly scheduled WIB time on Friday, Feb 9 at 12 noon, Fredericton City Hall. The foreign military occupation of Haiti continues. For more info, visit:
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/local.php?id=19, http://frederictonpeace.org/?cat=5 or email info@frederictonpeace.org
-FRIDAY, FEB 9: NOCHE LATINA. The annual Noche Latina will be held on Friday, Feb. 9, starting at 6:00 pm, at Wilmot United Church (corner of Carleton and King). A traditional Guatemalan meal will be followed by entertainment by Cesar Morales, John Thompson and an exciting young band called Gyrate. Come prepared to bid in the silent auction. Tickets are available at Mazucca’s, True Food Organics, COCUY and at the door. Adults $10; children $5 (5-12 years of age) and family $20 (two adults, two children). Funds raised will support the scholarship fund for students in Rabinal, Guatemala and a new scholarship for Jesus Tecu, founder of the New Hope Foundation in his goal of attending law school. Organized by the Fredericton Chapter of the Maritime-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network. Sponsors: True Food Organics and COCUY.
For more info on local events, check out:
Posted: February 7th, 2007 under Events.
Comments: none
Interview with Aviva Chomsky, a professor of history and Latin American Studies at Salem State College in Massachusetts. She is also a founder of the North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee, which has been working since 2002 with Colombian labor and popular movements, especially those affected by the foreign-owned mining sector.
What is being done to apply international pressure?
We are working internationally on many different fronts. We have people in Australia, England, and Switzerland who have attended the owning companies’ shareholders meetings to bring the issues of the communities into public light there. We have sponsored tours by members of the affected communities in all of these countries, as well as in the U.S. and Canada, where we receive a lot of the coal. In Salem, Massachusetts, where I live, and where our power plant imports coal from Colombia, the city council, the mayor, our state representative, and our congressional representative have all written letters to the mine asking it to recognize Tabaco’s right to relocation. We’ve also met with power plants in Salem, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. New Brunswick Power has also written to the mine urging it to negotiate with displaced Tabaco residents. Dominion Energy, the owner of our plant, made a somewhat vaguer statement calling for a “just resolution” of the issues.
In Denmark and Holland two major importers have suspended contracts with the U.S.-owned Drummond coal mine in Colombia because of the murders of three union leaders there. This also sends a strong message to other foreign-owned mines in Colombia that their human rights practices are important to their clients.
Posted: February 6th, 2007 under Colombian Blood Coal, Mining, Oil & Gas.
Comments: none
Military probes abuse of three Afghan prisoners in Canadian soldier custody
CBC: The allegations come from University of Ottawa law Prof. Amir Attaran, based on government documents he obtained under the Access to Information Act.
Posted: February 6th, 2007 under Afghanistan, Canada.
Comments: none
Let Them Eat Chocolate Sauce? Emergency Vigil for Hunger Strikers
If not in Toronto, send a quick email to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day at Day.S@parl.gc.ca
An emergency vigil in support of the hunger striking secret trial detainees held at Canada’s Guantanamo Bay takes place Wednesday, February 7 at 5 pm at the downtown Toronto offices of CSIS, the spy agency whose lies have placed the men behind bars. (Location: 277 Front Street West, at John, across from the CBC)
Wednesday will be day 75 of Mohammad Mahjoub’s hunger strike, day 64 for Hassan Almrei and Mahmoud Jaballah.
Daily, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says the violations of the men’s rights are perfectly fine because they are held in a facility that has chocolate sauce in the refrigerator. His outrageous disregard for human life, and his justification — the presence of chocolate sauce — is as insipid as it is irrelevant.
We plan to pour chocolate sauce over a copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in front of the Toronto offices of the organization that regularly tramples those rights and freedoms, CSIS. We will also pour chocolate sauce over the Convention Against Torture, also being violated in the cases of Canada’s secret trial detainees.
Please dress warm, bring chocolate sauce and copies of the Charter, and your singing voices.
Campaign to Stop Secret trials in Canada, (416) 651-5800, tasc@web.ca
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A rotating fast in support of the hunger strikers has begun in Toronto. People can take one day a week (or more if they like) in a public show of solidarity. If you would like to participate, let us know the day you can fast on liquids only and contact us at tasc@web.ca
Posted: February 6th, 2007 under Canada, Guantánamo, Secret Trials, Security Certificates.
Comments: none
On Jan. 8, some 600 Guatemalan national police and army troops occupied two Kekchi Maya indigenous communities at El Estor, Izabal department. Their orders were to evict the 308 families that made up the settlements of La Union and La Pista. The following morning, 175 more Kekchi families were forcibly expelled from the nearby communities of La Revolucion and La Paz. A Kekchi community at Lote 8 in the neighboring department of Alta Verapaz was also evicted.
Posted: February 5th, 2007 under Guatemala, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oil & Gas.
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