Presented by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Right to Health Taskforce presents
Monday, April 06, 7:00 p.m.
Leslie Dan Pharmacy Building
Room B250
144 College Street, Toronto
Free admission.
Dr. Harry Shannon, Epidemiologist in Hamilton, spent one week in Gaza and has written provocative articles for the Hamilton Spectator.
Dr. Miriam Garfinkle, Family Physician in Toronto, is a strong and long time peace activist on health issues in Palestine.
Dr. Jim Deutsch, Psychiatrist in Toronto, has visited and worked in the West Bank in the area of mental health.
Judy Deutsch, Social Worker in Toronto, President of Science for Peace visited the West Bank and presented a paper on mental health.
Dr. Abdel Rahman Lawendy, Orthopedic Surgery Resident in London, traveled to Gaza as part of the international medical team and worked in a hospital in Gaza during this latest crisis in January, 2009.
For countless years now, world-renowned organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and others have documented the effects of occupation on the physical and mental health of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As the years pass, the health violations only continue to escalate, both in the West Bank, where access to health care is difficult at best and especially in Gaza, where a brutal blockade imposed as collective punishment by the Israeli government has denied Palestinians even basic supplies such as food and water, let alone health care. This blockade has been directly blamed and condemned by various health groups such as the International Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and many more. Health is a human right - one that an occupying power is obligated to provide for the civilian population according to the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Come and learn about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and hear first-hand accounts from Canadian health care professionals and researchers of all backgrounds who have traveled to Palestine -- one since the recent war -- and seen the damaging effects that this occupation has on the Palestinian civilians. We will be having a panel discussion and encourage participation from health care professionals and other citizens alike. To learn more, please see the five part series published in the Lancet (a prominent UK medical journal) being released this month entitled Health In the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
For more info please see the CJPME Website: http://www.cjpme.org/
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
March 30th Global Day of Action for BDS / April 4th Anti-War Demo
March 30th, 2009
Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel www.bdsmovement.net
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
In commemoration of Palestinian Land Day, and in support of the Global Day of Action for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) re-affirms its commitment to the BDS movement. We call upon all sectors of Canadian society to join us in Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning Israeli Apartheid.
Over the past year, the Canadian BDS movement has made tremendous gains across a variety of sectors. We would like to once again congratulate the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees – Ontario Division for their leadership in the labour movement and commitment to researching and implementing BDS.
Canadian campuses continue to be central to BDS – in March, Israeli Apartheid Week was held in 14 cities across Canada and over 45 cities internationally. Canadian student unions have commited firm support for the Palestinian Right to Education campaign, the Federation Autonome du Collegial in Quebec (FAC) have adopted a resolution joining the BDS campaign, and Faculty for Palestine issued a statement condemning the Israeli massacres in Gaza and calling on the Canadian government to issue sanctions on Israel.
The Israeli assault on Gaza has once again exposed the brutal violence and atrocities committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people. The Canadian government has shamefully played a key role in supporting Israel and championing the Israeli apartheid cause at home, at the U.N and around the world. Canada was the only country to vote against condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza in the U.N Human rights council.
This year we have seen unprecedented attacks on Palestine solidarity organizing from Zionist groups, University administrations and the Canadian government itself. Despite the backlash and attempts at repression, the BDS movement in Canada which is working to put an end to the Israeli military aggression and occupation, for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and for the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees – is growing and stronger than ever.
From the blockade of South African dockworkers against Israeli goods, to the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela that have cut official ties with Israeli Apartheid, we are inspired, gain strength and are proud to be part of the growing International BDS movement
Given the unrelenting and unapologetic Canadian political and economic support for Israel, and given the escalating violence of the Israeli state especially in Gaza – we see that now more than ever we must stand up and hold the Israeli state accountable and challenge Canadian complicity with apartheid. Now, more than ever, we must join and build the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement against Israeli apartheid!
JOIN US:
Monday, March 30th: The four-city speaking tour GEORGE GALLOWAY: RESISTING WAR
FROM GAZA TO KANDAHAR is going ahead as planned. The ban on Galloway's trip to Canada is being challenged. If, in the end, Galloway is not permitted into the country, all events will go on as planned. A live broadcast of Galloway's banned speech will be shown. For more information about the campaign to get Galloway into Canada, visit www.defendfreespeech.ca.
Saturday, April 4th: Anti-War Demonstration:
JOIN THE BOYCOTT ISRAELI APARTHEID CONTINGENT
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid supports the Global Week against War and the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War demonstration: 1 PM @ Younge and Dundas Square
/////////////////////////////////////
GET INVOLVED!
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
endapartheid@riseup.net / www.caiaweb.org
More on the Global Day of Action for BDS:
bdsmovement.net
Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel www.bdsmovement.net
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
In commemoration of Palestinian Land Day, and in support of the Global Day of Action for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) re-affirms its commitment to the BDS movement. We call upon all sectors of Canadian society to join us in Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning Israeli Apartheid.
Over the past year, the Canadian BDS movement has made tremendous gains across a variety of sectors. We would like to once again congratulate the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees – Ontario Division for their leadership in the labour movement and commitment to researching and implementing BDS.
Canadian campuses continue to be central to BDS – in March, Israeli Apartheid Week was held in 14 cities across Canada and over 45 cities internationally. Canadian student unions have commited firm support for the Palestinian Right to Education campaign, the Federation Autonome du Collegial in Quebec (FAC) have adopted a resolution joining the BDS campaign, and Faculty for Palestine issued a statement condemning the Israeli massacres in Gaza and calling on the Canadian government to issue sanctions on Israel.
The Israeli assault on Gaza has once again exposed the brutal violence and atrocities committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people. The Canadian government has shamefully played a key role in supporting Israel and championing the Israeli apartheid cause at home, at the U.N and around the world. Canada was the only country to vote against condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza in the U.N Human rights council.
This year we have seen unprecedented attacks on Palestine solidarity organizing from Zionist groups, University administrations and the Canadian government itself. Despite the backlash and attempts at repression, the BDS movement in Canada which is working to put an end to the Israeli military aggression and occupation, for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and for the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees – is growing and stronger than ever.
From the blockade of South African dockworkers against Israeli goods, to the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela that have cut official ties with Israeli Apartheid, we are inspired, gain strength and are proud to be part of the growing International BDS movement
Given the unrelenting and unapologetic Canadian political and economic support for Israel, and given the escalating violence of the Israeli state especially in Gaza – we see that now more than ever we must stand up and hold the Israeli state accountable and challenge Canadian complicity with apartheid. Now, more than ever, we must join and build the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement against Israeli apartheid!
JOIN US:
Monday, March 30th: The four-city speaking tour GEORGE GALLOWAY: RESISTING WAR
FROM GAZA TO KANDAHAR is going ahead as planned. The ban on Galloway's trip to Canada is being challenged. If, in the end, Galloway is not permitted into the country, all events will go on as planned. A live broadcast of Galloway's banned speech will be shown. For more information about the campaign to get Galloway into Canada, visit www.defendfreespeech.ca.
Saturday, April 4th: Anti-War Demonstration:
JOIN THE BOYCOTT ISRAELI APARTHEID CONTINGENT
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid supports the Global Week against War and the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War demonstration: 1 PM @ Younge and Dundas Square
/////////////////////////////////////
GET INVOLVED!
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
endapartheid@riseup.net / www.caiaweb.org
More on the Global Day of Action for BDS:
bdsmovement.net
April 2nd and 3rd: Symposium on Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responsesto the War on Gaza
A Women and Gender Studies Institute event at the University of Toronto
Co-sponsored by Faculty4Palestine
Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responses to the War on Gaza, April 2 & 3, 2009.
Program for Symposium:
Thursday April 2, 2009
5 -7pm Reception featuring artist talks and video installations
by b.h. Yael and Vicky Moufawad-Paul.
7-8:30. Keynote: The Political Absurd: The War on Terror in 'Post-Racial' America, Jasbir Puar, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutger's University.
******************
Friday April 3rd, 2009
1-2:30 pm Local Panel: Reflections on Violent Contradictions
Abbie Bakan (Queen's University)
Shahrzad Mojab (OISE, University of Toronto)
Dana Olwan (Queen's University)
b.h. Yael (OCAD)
2:30 - 3pm Poetry reading by Trish Salah
3 - 3:30pm Coffee break
3:30 - 5pm Closing Plenary. Gaza as a Metaphor: Victims and Perpetrators, Yosefa Loshitzky, Professor of Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, University of East London.
For full details, please visit the symposium website
http://www.utoronto.ca/wgsi/vcwg
Co-sponsored by Faculty4Palestine
Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responses to the War on Gaza, April 2 & 3, 2009.
Program for Symposium:
Thursday April 2, 2009
5 -7pm Reception featuring artist talks and video installations
by b.h. Yael and Vicky Moufawad-Paul.
7-8:30. Keynote: The Political Absurd: The War on Terror in 'Post-Racial' America, Jasbir Puar, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutger's University.
******************
Friday April 3rd, 2009
1-2:30 pm Local Panel: Reflections on Violent Contradictions
Abbie Bakan (Queen's University)
Shahrzad Mojab (OISE, University of Toronto)
Dana Olwan (Queen's University)
b.h. Yael (OCAD)
2:30 - 3pm Poetry reading by Trish Salah
3 - 3:30pm Coffee break
3:30 - 5pm Closing Plenary. Gaza as a Metaphor: Victims and Perpetrators, Yosefa Loshitzky, Professor of Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, University of East London.
For full details, please visit the symposium website
http://www.utoronto.ca/wgsi/vcwg
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Action Alert: British MP George Galloway Banned from Entering Canada
ITEMS IN THIS POST:
1) Call to action to defend free speech
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) Call to action to defend free speech
Defend free speech. Let George Galloway into Canada. Stop Jason Kenney¹s attack on civil liberties.
Dear friends:
By now you will have heard that Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway is scheduled to speak in four cities during a pan-Canadian speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.
Kenney's decision to ban Galloway is an unprecedented attack on free speech and on the right to criticize our own government's foreign policy. Kenney's office has publicly stated that Galloway will be banned because of his views on the war in Afghanistan and because he represents a "threat to national security".
The ban follows Kenney's recent attacks on Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations and on Palestine solidarity campaigners for their criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians. In the last few days, Kenney unilaterally cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for its immigrant settlement program. Kenney also recently attacked students organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada.
Kenney has attempted to silence their voices by accusing them of anti-Semitism, despite the wide range of support and participation of Jewish organizations and individuals in these Palestine solidarity events.
The organizers of Galloway's speaking tour the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Ottawa Peace Assembly, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - condemn in the strongest terms Kenney's attack on free speech and our right to criticize our government's foreign policy. We call on all supporters of civil liberties to join us in challenging these attacks and in reversing Kenney's ban.
In the next few days, we will launch a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech in Canada and to reverse Kenney's ban. We call on you to join in this campaign to ensure Galloway's entry into Canada. We must organize now to ensure that all events where Galloway is scheduled to speak will proceed as planned.
Supporters should continue to buy tickets for these events and to promote them widely.
To that end, we urge you to take the following steps:
1) Contact Jason Kenney's office to condemn the ban and to demand its immediate reversal:
E-mail: minister@cic.gc.ca; kennej@parl.gc.ca
Phone: 613-992-2235 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3480 (Calgary office)
Fax: 613-992-1920 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3504 (Calgary office)
2) Join an emergency city-wide organizing meeting in Toronto to defend free speech and to reverse the ban:
Sunday, March 22
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
This organizing meeting will take place during the closing session of the Student Assembly against War and Racism, scheduled to take place from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 in the same location (www.unitedagainstwar.ca). Anti-war delegates from across the country will be present to participate in developing a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech and to reverse the ban on Galloway.
3) Are you on facebook? Join the facebook group: Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway to Speak in Canada:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809
4) Buy tickets for the Galloway events in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa.
Help us promote these events. Spread the word widely. Ticket information for
each city is available at www.nowar.ca and www.acp-cpa.ca.
5) Forward this e-mail across all your lists to build the biggest response possible.
If Kenney does not reverse his ban, a delegation of Canadian MPs, lawyers, peace campaigners, and civil liberties advocates will travel to the US to escort Galloway across the border on the day of his scheduled arrival to Canada.
We will join with Galloway in publicly defying Kenney's attack on free speech, civil liberties and the peace movement.
Please spread the word about Sunday's meeting. If you are outside Toronto and would like to get involved, please contact us:
Email: stopthewar@sympatico.ca
Web: www.nowar.ca or www.acp-cpa.ca
Campaign materials will be ready following Sunday's organizing meeting in Toronto for local organizers to distribute across the country.
Together, we will defend free speech and civil liberties.
And one way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
In peace,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Ottawa Peace Coalition
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
March 20, 2009
The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.
Kenney is quite a card almost a joker in fact. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-Western prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable young members to self-immolate in public places.
While on one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Lord Conrad Black a Kenney ally, now breaking stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.
But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government (for we must assume cabinet responsibility) does not want its people to hear?
I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters" paraded at US Republican and British Tory party conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of Communism. I did not however.
On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". How long and how dark, as George Bush might have put it, I misunderestimated.
But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO governments today that your current policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.
The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British Empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan's plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this
adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for the troops - British, Canadian and other means bringing them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists, the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for themselves.
For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece. Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up a parody of liberty.
Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise known as the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in - end of story."
Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review of his decision. The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me greater in number now and including those who positively disagree with what I have to say.
More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17 minute telephone concert culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill.
Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard one way or another.
George Galloway MP
1) Call to action to defend free speech
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) Call to action to defend free speech
Defend free speech. Let George Galloway into Canada. Stop Jason Kenney¹s attack on civil liberties.
Dear friends:
By now you will have heard that Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway is scheduled to speak in four cities during a pan-Canadian speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.
Kenney's decision to ban Galloway is an unprecedented attack on free speech and on the right to criticize our own government's foreign policy. Kenney's office has publicly stated that Galloway will be banned because of his views on the war in Afghanistan and because he represents a "threat to national security".
The ban follows Kenney's recent attacks on Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations and on Palestine solidarity campaigners for their criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians. In the last few days, Kenney unilaterally cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for its immigrant settlement program. Kenney also recently attacked students organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada.
Kenney has attempted to silence their voices by accusing them of anti-Semitism, despite the wide range of support and participation of Jewish organizations and individuals in these Palestine solidarity events.
The organizers of Galloway's speaking tour the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Ottawa Peace Assembly, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - condemn in the strongest terms Kenney's attack on free speech and our right to criticize our government's foreign policy. We call on all supporters of civil liberties to join us in challenging these attacks and in reversing Kenney's ban.
In the next few days, we will launch a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech in Canada and to reverse Kenney's ban. We call on you to join in this campaign to ensure Galloway's entry into Canada. We must organize now to ensure that all events where Galloway is scheduled to speak will proceed as planned.
Supporters should continue to buy tickets for these events and to promote them widely.
To that end, we urge you to take the following steps:
1) Contact Jason Kenney's office to condemn the ban and to demand its immediate reversal:
E-mail: minister@cic.gc.ca; kennej@parl.gc.ca
Phone: 613-992-2235 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3480 (Calgary office)
Fax: 613-992-1920 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3504 (Calgary office)
2) Join an emergency city-wide organizing meeting in Toronto to defend free speech and to reverse the ban:
Sunday, March 22
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
This organizing meeting will take place during the closing session of the Student Assembly against War and Racism, scheduled to take place from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 in the same location (www.unitedagainstwar.ca). Anti-war delegates from across the country will be present to participate in developing a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech and to reverse the ban on Galloway.
3) Are you on facebook? Join the facebook group: Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway to Speak in Canada:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809
4) Buy tickets for the Galloway events in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa.
Help us promote these events. Spread the word widely. Ticket information for
each city is available at www.nowar.ca and www.acp-cpa.ca.
5) Forward this e-mail across all your lists to build the biggest response possible.
If Kenney does not reverse his ban, a delegation of Canadian MPs, lawyers, peace campaigners, and civil liberties advocates will travel to the US to escort Galloway across the border on the day of his scheduled arrival to Canada.
We will join with Galloway in publicly defying Kenney's attack on free speech, civil liberties and the peace movement.
Please spread the word about Sunday's meeting. If you are outside Toronto and would like to get involved, please contact us:
Email: stopthewar@sympatico.ca
Web: www.nowar.ca or www.acp-cpa.ca
Campaign materials will be ready following Sunday's organizing meeting in Toronto for local organizers to distribute across the country.
Together, we will defend free speech and civil liberties.
And one way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
In peace,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Ottawa Peace Coalition
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
March 20, 2009
The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.
Kenney is quite a card almost a joker in fact. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-Western prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable young members to self-immolate in public places.
While on one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Lord Conrad Black a Kenney ally, now breaking stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.
But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government (for we must assume cabinet responsibility) does not want its people to hear?
I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters" paraded at US Republican and British Tory party conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of Communism. I did not however.
On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". How long and how dark, as George Bush might have put it, I misunderestimated.
But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO governments today that your current policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.
The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British Empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan's plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this
adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for the troops - British, Canadian and other means bringing them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists, the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for themselves.
For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece. Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up a parody of liberty.
Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise known as the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in - end of story."
Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review of his decision. The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me greater in number now and including those who positively disagree with what I have to say.
More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17 minute telephone concert culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill.
Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard one way or another.
George Galloway MP
Action Alert: Harper Government Cuts CAF Funding
Canadian Arab Federation / La Fédération Canado-Arabe
ACTION ALERT
March 20, 2009
Harper Government Cuts Funding to CAF
The Harper government has cut funding to the Settlement Service of the Canadian Arab Federation alleging CAF promotes terror. In doing so, immigrants and newcomers will lose the opportunity to gain the necessary skills to successfully integrate into Canadian society. This arbitrary decision made by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, under the Harper leadership is an attempt to silence any dissenting voice and is being used as disciplinary action for CAF’s political stand which is contrary to their own. Furthermore, this is a warning to other non-profit, anti-racist organizations not to criticize members of the Canadian government or they may face a similar fate. This decision sets a dangerous precedence for a minister’s political posturing and attacks on a community, and its organizations, already subjected to Islamophobia and other negative stereotypes.
CAF urges you to call, fax and e-mail Minister Kenney in addition to e-mailing your local MP to express outrage of this unprecedented decision to cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation.
Contact Jason Kenney:
Constituency Office:
1168 137 Ave SE
Calgary , AB
T2J 6T6
P. 403-225-3480
F. 403-225-3504
Ottawa Office:
325 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa , ON K1A 0A6
P. 613-992-2235
F. 613-992-1920
Email:
kennej@parl.gc.ca
Contact your MP:
You can find your local MP and their contact information by entering your Postal Code in the link provided below: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
www.caf.ca
Established in 1967, the Canadian Arab Federation is a national, non-partisan, non profit and membership-based organization. CAF represents Canadian Arabs on issues relating to public policy.
ACTION ALERT
March 20, 2009
Harper Government Cuts Funding to CAF
The Harper government has cut funding to the Settlement Service of the Canadian Arab Federation alleging CAF promotes terror. In doing so, immigrants and newcomers will lose the opportunity to gain the necessary skills to successfully integrate into Canadian society. This arbitrary decision made by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, under the Harper leadership is an attempt to silence any dissenting voice and is being used as disciplinary action for CAF’s political stand which is contrary to their own. Furthermore, this is a warning to other non-profit, anti-racist organizations not to criticize members of the Canadian government or they may face a similar fate. This decision sets a dangerous precedence for a minister’s political posturing and attacks on a community, and its organizations, already subjected to Islamophobia and other negative stereotypes.
CAF urges you to call, fax and e-mail Minister Kenney in addition to e-mailing your local MP to express outrage of this unprecedented decision to cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation.
Contact Jason Kenney:
Constituency Office:
1168 137 Ave SE
Calgary , AB
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
An Open Letter from Trent Faculty Regarding the Removal of Israeli Apartheid Posters
http://www.trentarthur.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1334&Itemid=1
Robert F. Clarke, Head Librarian
Dr. Robin Lathangue, Head of Colleges
Meri Kim Oliver, Sr. Director of Community Affairs and Senior Partnerships
Don Cumming, Sr. Director of Public Affairs
Dear Mr. Clarke, Dr. Lathangue, Ms. Oliver and Mr. Cumming,
We are writing to raise concerns and questions about your decision to have the Israeli Apartheid Week poster removed (or its Latuff image replaced) from the Bata library showcase by the end of the day on March 4. Mr. Clarke’s e-mail to the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity states that your decision was made on the grounds that the Latuff image “communicates an inflammatory message”. Yet you provided no explanation to accompany this highly charged accusation.
We are also deeply troubled about the level of intimidation implicit in your “request” that the students of PCPS “voluntarily remove or replace the other copies of the poster containing the Latuff image”. We find it extremely irresponsible, and possibly actionable as harassment, for the university Administration to deliver such a “request” without a) citing the policy grounds for it, and b) informing the students about the penalties they face for non-compliance.
As faculty members of the Trent University community, we take freedom of expression on campus very seriously and are demanding that you provide the university community with the following information about your decision:
1) What do you mean by “inflammatory message”? What message, in particular, do you consider “inflammatory”? How is it “inflammatory”? Why was this explanation not provided to the students, in writing, at the time your decision was issued to them?
2) What university policy was used as the basis for your decision? What specific policy identifies “inflammatory message” as a violation, and what is the penalty for not conforming to it?
3) Your letter states that “the University is committed to working with all parties involved in this issue to promote a dialogue”. Which “parties”, specifically, are you referring to as being “involved in this issue”? We consider faculty to be a signifcant party in our university administration’s decision to ban a poster from campus, and yet we have not been consulted or invited into the dialogue. Who, then, is in this “dialogue”? What requests are other “parties” making, and what demands are you imposing on “parties” other than the PCPS? We are asking that you provide a full account of the actions, parties and processes that led up to this decision.
Finally, we want you to bring to your attention an Open Letter to defend freedom of speech, particularly as it regards Palestinian rights at Canadian universities. This letter has been signed by over 370 faculty from over 40 Canadian universities. Many of us are members of Faculty 4 Palestine network, and we can assure you that Trent Administration’s actions will be given due attention as we move ahead with this national campaign.
You can view the Letter and the signatures at the following link:
http://www.caiaweb.org/node/1148
Sincerely,
A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, International Development Studies
Feyzi Baban, Politics Department
Chris Beyers, International Development Studies
Davina Bhandar, Canadian Studies
Marion Boulby, Department of History
Paula Butler, Women’s Studies
Nadine Changfoot, Politics Department
Sally Chivers, Canadian Studies
Gavin Fridell, Department of Politics
Margaret Hobbs, Women’s Studies
Chris Huxley, International Development Studies/Sociology
Paul Kellogg, International Development Studies
Winnie Lem, International Development Studies
Paul Manning, Anthropology
Barbara Marshall, Department of Sociology
Anne Meneley, Anthropology
Mary-Jo Nadeau, Department of Sociology
Michael Neumann, Department of Philosophy
Colleen O’Manique, Women’s Studies
Bryan Palmer, Canadian Studies
James Penney, Cultural Studies
Paul Shaffer, International Development Studies
Jacqueline Solway, International Development Studies/Anthropology
Carol Williams, Women’s Studies
Robert F. Clarke, Head Librarian
Dr. Robin Lathangue, Head of Colleges
Meri Kim Oliver, Sr. Director of Community Affairs and Senior Partnerships
Don Cumming, Sr. Director of Public Affairs
Dear Mr. Clarke, Dr. Lathangue, Ms. Oliver and Mr. Cumming,
We are writing to raise concerns and questions about your decision to have the Israeli Apartheid Week poster removed (or its Latuff image replaced) from the Bata library showcase by the end of the day on March 4. Mr. Clarke’s e-mail to the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity states that your decision was made on the grounds that the Latuff image “communicates an inflammatory message”. Yet you provided no explanation to accompany this highly charged accusation.
We are also deeply troubled about the level of intimidation implicit in your “request” that the students of PCPS “voluntarily remove or replace the other copies of the poster containing the Latuff image”. We find it extremely irresponsible, and possibly actionable as harassment, for the university Administration to deliver such a “request” without a) citing the policy grounds for it, and b) informing the students about the penalties they face for non-compliance.
As faculty members of the Trent University community, we take freedom of expression on campus very seriously and are demanding that you provide the university community with the following information about your decision:
1) What do you mean by “inflammatory message”? What message, in particular, do you consider “inflammatory”? How is it “inflammatory”? Why was this explanation not provided to the students, in writing, at the time your decision was issued to them?
2) What university policy was used as the basis for your decision? What specific policy identifies “inflammatory message” as a violation, and what is the penalty for not conforming to it?
3) Your letter states that “the University is committed to working with all parties involved in this issue to promote a dialogue”. Which “parties”, specifically, are you referring to as being “involved in this issue”? We consider faculty to be a signifcant party in our university administration’s decision to ban a poster from campus, and yet we have not been consulted or invited into the dialogue. Who, then, is in this “dialogue”? What requests are other “parties” making, and what demands are you imposing on “parties” other than the PCPS? We are asking that you provide a full account of the actions, parties and processes that led up to this decision.
Finally, we want you to bring to your attention an Open Letter to defend freedom of speech, particularly as it regards Palestinian rights at Canadian universities. This letter has been signed by over 370 faculty from over 40 Canadian universities. Many of us are members of Faculty 4 Palestine network, and we can assure you that Trent Administration’s actions will be given due attention as we move ahead with this national campaign.
You can view the Letter and the signatures at the following link:
http://www.caiaweb.org/node/1148
Sincerely,
A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, International Development Studies
Feyzi Baban, Politics Department
Chris Beyers, International Development Studies
Davina Bhandar, Canadian Studies
Marion Boulby, Department of History
Paula Butler, Women’s Studies
Nadine Changfoot, Politics Department
Sally Chivers, Canadian Studies
Gavin Fridell, Department of Politics
Margaret Hobbs, Women’s Studies
Chris Huxley, International Development Studies/Sociology
Paul Kellogg, International Development Studies
Winnie Lem, International Development Studies
Paul Manning, Anthropology
Barbara Marshall, Department of Sociology
Anne Meneley, Anthropology
Mary-Jo Nadeau, Department of Sociology
Michael Neumann, Department of Philosophy
Colleen O’Manique, Women’s Studies
Bryan Palmer, Canadian Studies
James Penney, Cultural Studies
Paul Shaffer, International Development Studies
Jacqueline Solway, International Development Studies/Anthropology
Carol Williams, Women’s Studies
Toronto Universities must reject false claims that IAW is "hate" and condemn disruption and harassment at IAW events
Wednesday March 11, 2009
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) - York
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) -University of Toronto
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) - Ryerson
Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 is a series of lectures and film screenings on various campuses and communities (now 40 cities) across the world whose intent is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system. In its fifth year, Toronto's Israeli Apartheid Week has seen an alarming increase in harassment, intimidation and physical violence against its organizers and guests. While people who seem to be affiliated with the Jewish Defense League (JDL) are the primary organizers of the attacks, unfortunately, the student groups Hasbara and Hillel have also joined in, using cameras, physical proximity, and threatening language to intimidate activists, especially women students, calling them "terrorists" and repeating the accusations of "incitement" and "hate speech". When these incidents of harassment and intimidation are reported to campus police, the police have taken no action.
Prior to the start of IAW, several pro-Israel organizations, including B’nai Brith, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) made false allegations that IAW was a "hate-fest" and, in the name of the safety of Jewish students, they encouraged community members and students to take action to prevent the week from happening. Several Federal Members of Parliament, Peter Kent (Conservative), Jason Kenney (Conservative), and Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) have joined in this campaign of false accusation and innuendo, implying falsely that IAW educational events are threatening to the safety of Jewish students on campuses. While Kent, Kenney, and Ignatieff have not attended any IAW events, several high profile university administrators, including Nouman Ashraf, the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Officer at the University of Toronto, have attended this year. At a meeting with Ashraf, called by organizers to express their concerns over the violence at IAW, they asked him if he had witnessed any hate speech at the events. When he confirmed that he had not, organizers asked him to make a public statement to that effect. Ashraf refused and to date, no members of the senior administration have done so.
We demand the freedom to hold public debates and events on campuses without fear or intimidation. We do not want our events to be militarized, or for lecture series and film screenings to take place behind lines of police. Nor do we want the hiring of security to become a requirement for future Palestinian solidarity events. Imposing prohibitive security fees on volunteer-based activist organizations, would be a de facto shutting down of the right to free expression on campuses, and would be a reward to those organizations who come to our events to disrupt them.
Instead, we believe the freedom to hold IAW events could relatively easily be guaranteed by a public statement from University administrations stating that free expression on campuses will be protected and that the University rejects the false claim that IAW events constitute "hate speech". We therefore demand:
1. That York University, the University of Toronto, and Ryerson University all make official statements distancing themselves from the false allegation that IAW is incitement and hate speech.
2. That these Universities make a public statement that IAW events are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment at these events.
If Universities refuse to do this, their claims to protect free expression cannot be taken seriously. They will be engaging in a very dangerous game, entertaining false claims and tolerating physical disruptions of university events. It is within their power to de-escalate the situation, and it is their responsibility to do so immediately, rather than encouraging fear and engaging in campaigns of smear, false accusation, and innuendo against their own students. It is past time that Universities stopped looking for ways to prevent discussion from happening and look for ways to make such discussion productive and educational.
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) - York
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) -University of Toronto
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) - Ryerson
Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 is a series of lectures and film screenings on various campuses and communities (now 40 cities) across the world whose intent is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system. In its fifth year, Toronto's Israeli Apartheid Week has seen an alarming increase in harassment, intimidation and physical violence against its organizers and guests. While people who seem to be affiliated with the Jewish Defense League (JDL) are the primary organizers of the attacks, unfortunately, the student groups Hasbara and Hillel have also joined in, using cameras, physical proximity, and threatening language to intimidate activists, especially women students, calling them "terrorists" and repeating the accusations of "incitement" and "hate speech". When these incidents of harassment and intimidation are reported to campus police, the police have taken no action.
Prior to the start of IAW, several pro-Israel organizations, including B’nai Brith, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) made false allegations that IAW was a "hate-fest" and, in the name of the safety of Jewish students, they encouraged community members and students to take action to prevent the week from happening. Several Federal Members of Parliament, Peter Kent (Conservative), Jason Kenney (Conservative), and Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) have joined in this campaign of false accusation and innuendo, implying falsely that IAW educational events are threatening to the safety of Jewish students on campuses. While Kent, Kenney, and Ignatieff have not attended any IAW events, several high profile university administrators, including Nouman Ashraf, the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Officer at the University of Toronto, have attended this year. At a meeting with Ashraf, called by organizers to express their concerns over the violence at IAW, they asked him if he had witnessed any hate speech at the events. When he confirmed that he had not, organizers asked him to make a public statement to that effect. Ashraf refused and to date, no members of the senior administration have done so.
We demand the freedom to hold public debates and events on campuses without fear or intimidation. We do not want our events to be militarized, or for lecture series and film screenings to take place behind lines of police. Nor do we want the hiring of security to become a requirement for future Palestinian solidarity events. Imposing prohibitive security fees on volunteer-based activist organizations, would be a de facto shutting down of the right to free expression on campuses, and would be a reward to those organizations who come to our events to disrupt them.
Instead, we believe the freedom to hold IAW events could relatively easily be guaranteed by a public statement from University administrations stating that free expression on campuses will be protected and that the University rejects the false claim that IAW events constitute "hate speech". We therefore demand:
1. That York University, the University of Toronto, and Ryerson University all make official statements distancing themselves from the false allegation that IAW is incitement and hate speech.
2. That these Universities make a public statement that IAW events are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment at these events.
If Universities refuse to do this, their claims to protect free expression cannot be taken seriously. They will be engaging in a very dangerous game, entertaining false claims and tolerating physical disruptions of university events. It is within their power to de-escalate the situation, and it is their responsibility to do so immediately, rather than encouraging fear and engaging in campaigns of smear, false accusation, and innuendo against their own students. It is past time that Universities stopped looking for ways to prevent discussion from happening and look for ways to make such discussion productive and educational.
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