Sudbury Social Justice News - September 29, 2013

[UPDATED Sept 30/13 -- Several meetings and events were added to the list.]

EVENTS & MEETINGS:

1) Wednesday, October 2: Brief Meeting of Raise the Rates Campaign
2) Thursday, October 3: Friends of Sudbury Transit Meeting
3) Thursday, October 3: Educational Picket at the Ontario Minimum Wage
Advisory Panel
4) Monday, October 7: Idle No More Day of Action
5) Monday, October 7: Cinema Politica -- The Hole Story
6) Monday, October 7: Meeting of Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty
7) Monday, October 7: Meeting of Raise the Rates Campaign
8) Tuesday, October 8: Free Showing of *United in Anger: A History of
ACT UP*
9) Wednesday, October 9: Sudbury Workers' Education & Advocacy Centre
Forum
10) Wednesday, October 9: *Our Town* -- A Play in Honour of Mental
Illness Awareness Week
11) Thursday, October 10: LEAF Sudbury Person's Day Event
12) Saturday, October 12: March Against Monsanto in Sudbury
13) Monday, October 14: 'Thanksgiving' Raise the Minimum Wage Action
14) Tuesday, October 15: Free Showing of *Invisible City*
15) Thursday, October 17: reThink Green Open House
16) Friday, October 18: Restore the CSUMB Anti-Poverty March
17) Saturday, October 19: Province-wide Raise the Rates Rally in Sudbury

NEWS, ANALYSIS, & CALLS TO ACTION:

1) "Impending Charges? Tarek and John in their own words"
2) "Canada's rejection of inquiry into violence against Aboriginal women
is a national disgrace" by Harrison B. Samphir

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Monday, October 2: Brief Meeting of Raise the Rates Campaign

Time: 6pm
Location: Offices of the Sudbury and District Labour Council (Suite 209 upstairs in 109 Elm Street, which is across the street from the Native Friendship Centre)

This will be a brief meeting to make sure that the planning for the week of anti-poverty protest later in October is on track.

The venue is wheelchair accessible. Children are welcome to attend, or childcare support is available upon request.

For more information contact S-CAP at:

Please call us 249-878-7227.

Email us at sudburyCAP@gmail.com

Our website is sudburycap.com

S-CAP on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/257339454351403/

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Thursday, October 3: Friends of Sudbury Transit Meeting

Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Meeting room #2 (the smaller one), downstairs, Greater Sudbury Public Library, 74 Mackenzie Street, Sudbury

Agenda TBA.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/511723338909607/

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Thursday, October 3: Educational Picket at the Ontario Minimum Wage Advisory Panel

Time: 5:30pm
Location: Outside St. Andrew's Place (111 Larch Street, Sudbury)

The Ontario Minimum Wage Advisory Panel is coming to town. The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty recognizes the consultation process as a stall technique to avoid raising the minimum wage, and will be conducting an educational picket outside. Come join us at 5:30 outside St. Andrew’s Place.

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Monday, October 7: Idle No More Day of Action

Time: 5pm
Location: Starting from Tom Davies Square (200 Brady Street, Sudbury)

Calling all supporters of human and environmental rights.

October 7, 2013 is the 250th anniversary of The Royal Proclamation. The Proclamation was an agreement that formed the foundation of what is now the Canadian nation-state. This Anniversary was one of the motivating factors for the network of Idle No More to make a call for a day of action.

Regardless of how you view the movement, one of the main uniting factors for the mass demonstrations that occurred last winter was and continues to be the increasing denial of environmental or human rights. While we do support the six point list of demands that the Idle No More organizers have stated as their objectives for the demonstration on October 7th, it is also true many common sense proposals have been put forth by credible people to address First Nations and Canadians concerns around treaty rights, environmental rights, workers rights, and so on. However, they are almost never implemented. The 1996, Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples serves as a prime example.

Another uniting factor in the popularity of the Idle No More at its height was that Bill C-45 deregulated over 90% of waterways in Canada, presumably for industrial development. Those waterways remain unprotected in the face of the tar sands oil transport projects, the continued approval of permits for fracking, and the potential transport of nuclear waste through the Great Lakes.

The multitude of crises that are faced by the environment and ultimately the human race are not being addressed in a way that is consistent with Canadian values of equality before and under the law or in a manner that is consistent with the urgency of the types of issues demand.  It is clear that corporations are above the law and much more influential in writing legislation and directing economic or political processes than the will of the people, as it should be in a free democracy. The Prime Minister himself has analyzed the Canadian body poltic as a benign dictatorship as early as 1999.  It is for these reasons that direct action demonstrations are important.

The awareness among the broader public in the people who share the land base called Canada about corporate and government collusion against the interest of the broader public is no doubt growing. A notable example of this collusion between government and industry is the massive NSA illegal spying database and system that has been revealed over the past number of months. It has become a matter of record that Facebook, Google, and Verizon (who seems poised to enter the Canadian cellular market under the guise of more competitive rates) among others, to be caught at some level of complicity with this illegal and unconstitutional surveillance system. Monsanto is protected from lawsuits and the list of collusion goes on and on.

For Sudburians and other Northerners, the argument is often made that mining, extracting and exploiting are our means to an end. While this may be true, there is a fair segment of the population who seek social and environmental justice outside of the current mechanisms of change within Canadian law, politics, and other influential institutions. There seems to be a large population in the Sudbury area who appreciate nature in general and are concerned about the safety of local lakes and waterways. Idle No More is a network of such people and on October 7th, 2013, people who live in and around Sudbury are encouraged to attend this rally.

We want to come together in friendship, peace, positivity, and humility against the forces that deny the environment and us the fairness and equality we deserve.

Thank you- Miigwetch

Idle No More Sudbury Event Organizers

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1421666674722243/

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Monday, October 7: Cinema Politica -- The Hole Story

Time: 7pm to 9pm
Location: Classroom Building room C203, Laurentian University, Sudbury
        
To kick off the Cinema Politica Sudbury/GSA|AÉÉS 2013-2014 political film series, join us for a screening of THE HOLE STORY!

http://www.facebook.com/gsaaees
http://www.cinemapolitica.org/sudbury

THE HOLE STORY presents a skewering analysis of the the ways in which Canadian mining companies have put profit before people and the environment (and Sudbury's in it!).

Monday, October 7th @ 7PM, on campus at Laurentian University. In the Classroom building, room C203.

Engaging and inclusive discussions to follow the film! Snacks and popcorn included!

Bus routes:
500 - University via Paris
501 - Regent University

Parking is available (lot P4).

SYNOPSIS

"Don't know much about mines? Not many people do. Mines don't talk. Especially about their history."

Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie relate this history in their latest documentary, THE HOLE STORY, a documentary which continues in the same provocative vein as their earlier FOREST ALERT.

The history of mining in Canada is the story of astronomical profits made with disregard for the environment and human health. The story of nickel in Sudbury, silver in Cobalt, gold in Timmins, copper in Rouyn...Using striking images, rare archival footage, interviews and their trademark humorous social commentary, Desjardin and Monderie make their case against the way mining has been done in Canada with clarity and conviction.

THE HOLE STORY is a film that sounds the alarm about mining. In a country rich in mineral resources, mining companies have historically paid little tax, while local municipalities bear the financial burden of building and maintaining the roads they use to truck their wealth ou to other countries. Some films are essential viewing - THE HOLE STORY is  one of them.

Official website: http://theholestory.nfb.ca/#/theholestory

Join us!

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/432070603569461/

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Monday, October 7: Meeting of Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty

Time: 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: Offices of the Sudbury and District Labour Council (Suite 209 upstairs in 109 Elm Street, which is across the street from the Native Friendship Centre)

Matters to be discussed include the province-wide week of action called by the Raise the Rates campaign in October; our continuing direct action support work; and our drop-in space at APANO. The venue is wheelchair accessible. Children are welcome to attend, or childcare support is available upon request.

S-CAP is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. We provide direct-action support work assisting individuals in their struggles with welfare and ODSP, housing, employers, and others who deny people what they are entitled to in order to meet their needs. In addition, we mount campaigns against and support educational work about regressive government policies as they effect working people and people living in poverty. We believe in the power of people to organize themselves. We believe in the power of resistance!

La coalition contre la pauvreté de Sudbury (S-CAP) est un organisme d’action directe luttant contre la pauvreté. Elle se trouve à Sudbury en Ontario.

Le travail de la coalition se base dans l’action directe et consiste à apporter de l’aide aux individus dans leurs luttes pour l’assistance sociale, l’invalidité, le logement, l’emploi et à les aider à faire face aux gens qui leur refusent ce à quoi ils ont droit pour rencontrer leurs besoins. De plus, la coalition fait des compagnes de sensibilisation et de dénonciation par rapport aux politiques gouvernementales régressives quant à leurs effets sur les travailleurs et travailleuses et les personnes vivant dans la pauvreté.

La coalition croit au pouvoir des personnes de s’organiser elles-mêmes; elle croit au pouvoir de la résistance!

Please call us (249-878-7227)

Email us at sudburyCAP@gmail.com

S-CAP on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/257339454351403/

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Monday, October 7: Meeting of Raise the Rates Campaign

Time: 7:30pm
Location: Offices of the Sudbury and District Labour Council (Suite 209 upstairs in 109 Elm Street, which is across the street from the Native Friendship Centre)

Matters to be discussed at the Raise the Rates meeting include the October week of anti-poverty action and the events on Friday Oct. 18th focussing on restoring the CSUMB and the Oct. 19th province-wide action here in Sudbury focussing on defence of people on ODSP.

The venue is wheelchair accessible. Children are welcome to attend, or childcare support is available upon request.

For more information contact S-CAP at:

Please call us 249-878-7227.

Email us at sudburyCAP@gmail.com

Our website is sudburycap.com

S-CAP on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/257339454351403/

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Tuesday, October 8: Free Showing of *United in Anger: A History of ACT UP*

Time: 5:30pm
Location: Main branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library (74 Mackenzie Street, Sudbury)

Snacks will be provided!
Public Library, Main Branch.
In the large meeting room downstairs.
This is a wheelchair accessible location.

UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT UP in New York City is a unique feature-length documentary that combines startling archival footage that puts the audience on the ground with activists. It includes remarkably insightful interviews from the ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) Oral History Project to explore ACT UP from a grassroots perspective  how a small group of men and women of all races and classes came together to change the world and save each other’s lives. UNITED IN ANGER reveals the group’s complex culture – meetings, affinity groups, and approaches to civil disobedience mingle with profound grief, sexiness, and the incredible energy of ACT UP.

The movie will be followed by a brief discussion on direct action politics and AIDS activism facilitated by Gary Kinsman of the new AIDS Activist History Project, a group which is collecting and documenting AIDS Activist history in a number of places across Canada.

Organized by the AIDS ACTIVIST HISTORY PROJECT and the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty.

Contact Gary Kinsman at gkinsman@laurentian.ca for more information.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/474913672606019/

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Wednesday, October 9: Sudbury Workers' Education & Advocacy Centre Forum

Time: 6pm to 9pm
Location: 4th Floor, St. Andrew's Place (111 Larch Street, Sudbury)

The Sudbury Workers' Education and Action Centre wants to hear from you!

Have you ever been wronged at work?

Have you ever been unjustly fired?

Have you ever had to work overtime without proper pay?

Have you ever been paid less than minimum wage?

Join us and help shape *your* Workers' Centre!

Free pizza and pop. Hope to see you there! Please RSVP to
sudburyworkerscentre@gmail.com

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Wednesday, October 9: *Our Town* -- A Play in Honour of Mental  Illness Awareness Week

Time: 7:30pm
Location: Sudbury Theatre Centre, 170 Shaughnessy Street, Sudbury

In honour of Mental Illness Awareness Week, NISA will be hosting a fundraiser on Wednesday, October 9th at the Sudbury Theatre Centre.

The classic play, Our Town will be showcased this evening, bringing to life the story of Grovers Corners, a small town in early 20th Century New England. The evening will feature a silent auction, a selection of local desserts and some brief speeches from community members.

Join us on October 9th to see our town come out to support mental health awareness and enjoy a great night of theatre!

For more information or to purchase tickets, call Krista at 705-222-NISA (6472). You can also buy tickets online here:
http://nisa.on.ca/2013_stc_event_96.html

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1418705398350318/

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Thursday, October 10: LEAF Sudbury Person's Day Event

Time: 7pm
Location: Rainbow Cinemas, 40 Elm Street, Sudbury

Here we are again, for the 24th consecutive time, celebrating in Sudbury the anniversary of the day on which Canadian women were deemed “persons” by the court. For the third consecutive year we will be hosting a film event. We are pleased to present Still Mine, a film starring Genevieve Bujold and James Cromwell This Canadian movie, filmed partly in North Bay, offers an insightful exploration of the dilemmas older people face from a bureaucracy that has lost sight of basic common sense. Dr Jo-Anne Clarke, a local geriatrician, will answer questions after the movie with a reception to follow.

Our event will be at the Rainbow Cinemas, on Thursday, October 10th, at 7 pm (Doors open at 6:30pm).

Consider joining us once again, with your purchase of a sponsorship banner ad ($150) and/or tickets ($30 each). To purchase tickets, a sponsorship or to make a donation, please fill in the form (on the back of this letter) and send it to the address at the bottom of the form. Sponsors are named in our programme, and the banner ads will be featured prominently on the screen prior to the film.

Sudbury LEAF has had continuous, outstanding, and relevant events since 1989, bringing speakers and movies on wide ranging topics to enlighten and challenge us. With the funds raised, we will again give a portion to LEAF to support their equality cases through the courts, and we will continue to give a portion to the Greater Sudbury Public Libraries for the purchase of books/videos/subscriptions to journals that focus on women’s issues.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/623003257732098/

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Saturday, October 12: March Against Monsanto in Sudbury

Time: 2pm to 4pm
Location: TBA

This will be a solidarity march for the event "March Against Monsanto" (https://www.facebook.com/MarchAgainstMonsanto)

This event is still in the process of being organized. It WILL go forward and details WILL follow. I'm looking for other organizers and free-thinkers to help though. If you're interested in stepping up and stomping out toxic GMOs, please message me! :D

****♥ In this march, we advocate that everyone be non-violent and kind as well. We recommend non-violent and friendly communication towards any and all police and law enforcement officers.

We have many important messages about Monsanto (and other things like fluoride, big Pharma, etc) with which to inform the public, and we are committed that these important messages be given priority. We want as many posters and as much video camera footage as possible to be posted all over the Internet. We are also committed that as few of our fellows marching as possible get hurt, none if possible.

Thus, we are peaceful and accused of being polite even. We are non-violent, and yet we are also non-compliant in leaving the march until our message has made the front page of major newspapers, N.Y. Times & L.A. Times. Our message will be heard on ABC, CBS, NBC, CTV, CBC, and CNN. ♥****

I'm looking for people to collaborate with: speakers, demonstrators for workshops, strong leaders in our community. Let's take a stand and fight for our Earth! ♥

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/358752937575346/

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Monday, October 14: 'Thanksgiving' Raise the Minimum Wage Action

Time: Noon
Location: Meet at the McDonald's on Notre Dame, walk to the Tim Horton's downtown

The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty is taking part in another province-wide day of action to raise the minimum wage. Meet at 12 noon at McDonald’s on Notre Dame; walk to Tim Horton’s downtown. Both McDonald’s and Tim Horton’s oppose raising the minimum wage. We will have information sheets to hand out and postcards to sign.

We will also be doing a phone and email blitz the same day. Talking-points, phone numbers and email addresses will be released closer to the date. Please mark this on your calender and help out.

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Tuesday, October 15: Free Showing of *Invisible City*

Time: 6:30pm
Location: Main branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library (74 Mackenzie Street, Sudbury)

More details to follow.

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Thursday, October 17: reThink Green Open House

Time: 4:30pm to 6pm
Location: Environmental Resource Centre (176 Larch Street, third floor -- enter through the front door and take the stairs to the top)

With the completion of further renovations to the Environmental Resource Centre (ERC), reThink Green is happy to announce that a new date has been set for our Open House. Interested in seeing what we’ve been up to in the summer months? The ERC will be open to visitors on October 17, 2013, from 4:30PM – 6:00PM. Refreshments and snacks will be available. We will be presenting a slideshow of the ERC’s transformation, and we’ll also be sharing some information on “The Forge”, our upcoming social incubator. The Environmental Resource Centre is located on the third floor of 176 Larch Street. Enter through the front door and take the stairs to the top floor.”

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Friday, October 18: Restore the CSUMB Anti-Poverty March

Time: 2pm
Location: Starting from Memorial Park in downtown Sudbury

Free meal and anti-poverty march starting at Memorial Park with a focus on restoring the CSUMB benefit for people on social assistance, and ensuring in the meantime that the replacement CHPI benefit maintains at least CSUMB rates and policies.

More details to follow.

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Saturday, October 19: Province-wide Raise the Rates Rally in Sudbury

Time: 2pm
Location: TBA

People from across the province will be coming to Sudbury for a large Raise the Rates rally and march. The focus will be on defence of Disability Benefits from attack. Location TBA. We are hoping to arrange bus and van subsidization to get people to this event.

More details to follow.

NEWS, ANALYSIS, & CALLS TO ACTION:

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"Impending Charges? Tarek and John in their own words"
(Originally published on Justin Podur's site: http://www.podur.org/node/1043)

September 28/13, 11am

We have held on to this statement out of fear that the Egyptian authorities would harm Tarek and John if we released it. But given the announcement of impending charges in the Toronto Star today, we think that their own words can explain what the “evidence” the Egyptian authorities claim to have is. We believe that the impending charges have much more to do with what Tarek and John witnessed on August 16th, rather than what the Egyptian authorities claim they did.

Statement:

"We are on the 12th day of our hunger strike at Tora, Cairo's main prison, located on the banks of the Nile. We've been held here since August 16 in ridiculous conditions: no phone calls, little to no exercise, sharing a 3m x 10m cell with 36 other political prisoners, sleeping like sardines on concrete with the cockroaches; sharing a single tap of earthy Nile water.

"We never planned to stay in Egypt longer than overnight. We arrived in Cairo on the 15th with transit visas and all the necessary paperwork to proceed to our destination: Gaza. Tarek volunteers at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, and brings people with him each time. John intended to shoot a short film about Tarek's work.

"Because of the coup, the official Rafah border was opening and closing randomly, and we were stuck in Cairo for the day. We were carrying portable camera gear (one light, one microphone, John's HD Canon, two Go-Pros) and gear for the hospital (routers for a much-needed wifi network and two disassembled toy-sized helicopters for testing the transportation of medical samples).

"Because of the protests in Ramses Square and around the country on the 16th, our car couldn't proceed to Gaza. We decided to check out the Square, five blocks from our hotel, carrying our passports and John's HD camera. The protest was just starting – peaceful chanting, the faint odour of tear gas, a helicopter lazily circling overhead – when suddenly calls of “doctor”. A young man carried by others from God-knows-where, bleeding from a bullet wound. Tarek snapped into doctor mode...and started to work doing emergency response, trying to save lives, while John did video documentation, shooting a record of the carnage that was unfolding. The wounded and dying never stopped coming. Between us, we saw over fifty Egyptians die: students, workers, professionals, professors, all shapes, all ages, unarmed. We later learned the body count for the day was 102.

"We left in the evening when it was safe, trying to get back to our hotel on the Nile. We stopped for ice cream. We couldn't find a way through the police cordon though, and finally asked for help at a check point.

"That's when we were: arrested, searched, caged, questioned, interrogated, videotaped with a 'Syrian terrorist', slapped, beaten, ridiculed, hot-boxed, refused phone calls, stripped, shaved bald, accused of being foreign mercenaries. Was it our Canadian passports, or the footage of Tarek performing CPR, or our ice cream wrappers that set them off? They screamed 'Canadian' as they kicked and hit us. John had a precisely etched bootprint bruise on his back for a week.

"We were two of 602 arrested that night, all 602 potentially facing the same grab-bag of ludicrous charges: arson, conspiracy, terrorism, possession of weapons, firearms, explosives, attacking a police station. The arrest stories of our Egyptian cellmates are remarkably similar to ours: Egyptians who were picked up on dark streets after the protest, by thugs or cops, blocks or miles from the police station that is the alleged site of our alleged crimes.

"We've been here in Tora prison for six weeks, and are now in a new cell (3.5m x 5.5m) that we share with 'only' six others. We're still sleeping on concrete with the cockroaches, and still share a single tap of Nile water, but now we get (almost) daily exercise and showers. Still no phone calls. The prosecutor won't say if there's some outstanding issue that's holding things up. The routers, the film equipment, or the footage of Tarek treating bullet wounds through that long bloody afternoon? Indeed, we would welcome our day in a real court with the real evidence, because then this footage would provide us with our alibi and serve as a witness to the massacre.

"We deserve due process, not cockroaches on concrete. We demand to be released.

"Peace, John & Tarek"

CONTACT: Cecilia Greyson, cgreyson@gmail.com, Justin Podur,
justin@podur.org

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"Canada's rejection of inquiry into violence against Aboriginal women is a national disgrace"
by Harrison B. Samphir (Originally published with many links to sources at Rabble.ca: http://rabble.ca/news/2013/09/canadas-rejection-inquiry-violence-against-aboriginal-women-national-disgrace]