Sudbury Social Justice News - February 1, 2015

EVENTS & ACTIONS:

1) Monday, February 2: Palestine Solidarity Organizing Meeting
2) Monday, February 2: Meeting of the Revolutionary Student Movement - Sudbury
3) Wednesday, February 4: Support the S-CAP 3 in Court!
4) Friday, February 6: Meeting of S-CAP 3 Defence Committee
5) Monday, February 9: Meeting of Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty
6) Wednesday, February 18: "Agogkwe" with Waawaate Fobister
7) Thursday, February 19: Meeting of Sudbury working-group of The Media Co-op
8) Thursday, February 19: Classroom Closet Conference 2015
9) Sunday, March 1: Strategy and Campaign Planning Workshop with Chris Dixon
10) Monday, March 2: Another Politics: Talking Across Today's Transformative Movements

NEWS, ANALYSIS & CALLS TO ACTION:

1) Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty Statement on the Provincial By-election
2) Show your support for 3000 striking CCAC workers
3) "My call from a former hunger striker inside the Lindsay superjail" by Desmond Cole

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Monday, February 2: Palestine Solidarity Organizing Meeting

Time: 7pm
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 an organizing meeting for activities in Sudbury in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

It looks like we're holding an event on Tuesday, February 24th with independent journalist and filmmaker David Sheen as our guest speaker so we'll be focusing on that and putting together other Israeli Apartheid Week plans.

IAW has a strong student and youth presence internationally so if you are an undergraduate or graduate student or know people who are and might be interested, you are especially encouraged to attend the next few meetings and participate in the organization of IAW! Here's a link about IAW participation: http://apartheidweek.org/participate/.

 
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Monday, February 2: Meeting of the Revolutionary Student Movement - Sudbury

Time: 7pm
Location: Room C-201, Classroom Building, Laurentian University

It's the first general RSM meeting of the semester! Come out to meet your friendly campus anti-capitalists and see what's planned for the months ahead.

All students and youth are welcome, so invite your friends and comrades! Location is wheelchair-accessible.

If you want to attend but can't make it in person, let us know and we'll Skype you in. (For security reasons this is only available to those who have attended at least one meeting in person).

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1384354898539260/

 
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Wednesday, February 4: Support the S-CAP 3 in Court!

Time: 9:30am
Location: Courtroom B, Sudbury Courthouse (155 Elm Street, Sudbury)

Fighting Poverty is Not a Crime!

The S-CAP 3 Defence Committee is calling for all charges against the S-CAP 3 to be dropped, and for the draconian non-association condition to be lifted immediately!

We are calling on all supporters to attend the first court appearance of the S-CAP 3 on Wednesday February 4th at 9:30am in the Courthouse at 155 Elm St., courtroom B. Please come out and show your support!

_____________________________

What Happened?

On the night of January 12th, with a Cold Weather Alert warning in effect, three members of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty were unjustly arrested at the Emergency Out-of-the-Cold Shelter while supporting someone banned without adequate cause or due process from using the shelter.

These groundless exclusions are not to happen at this shelter, which the City only set up after a grassroots campaign of popular pressure and direct action lead by S-CAP. Unfortunately, this shelter has increasingly become another Salvation Army operation with many of the same barriers and restrictions to accessing this shelter.

Previous direct action support work that S-CAP has done has never resulted in arrest. We argue that the first arrest was racially motivated. We have an aboriginal woman advocating for an individual calmly but firmly, and this was met with hostility. Extreme and excessive force was used against her by the police when she attempted to call back for her son who was in the shelter with us. This is a clear demonstration of the racial discrimination and racial profiling that occurs here in Sudbury. More broadly speaking, we see this with the over representation of aboriginal people in the justice system and the unfair treatment they face within that justice system. These racial inequities need to be confronted!

The S-CAP 3 have been charged with trespassing and causing a disturbance with a draconian non-association condition imposed on them, preventing the three from speaking to one another, even indirectly.

That night, the Salvation Army staff showed their lack of openness to hearing problems with the service they are offering, and the police showed their readiness to repress even small scale collective political action. It was the major response of the police that caused the disruption at the shelter. In making these arrests and imposing the non-association condition, the police are effectively criminalizing supporting people living in poverty. This is unacceptable! The police clearly took the side of those who would have people living in poverty forced out into the cold by siding with the restrictive Salvation Army.

That’s what happened to three members of S-CAP just for trying to explain the individual’s situation to Salvation Army staff.

________________________________

For more information contact S-CAP at 249-878-7227 or SudburyCAP@gmail.com.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/929367103754466/

 
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Friday, February 6: Meeting of S-CAP 3 Defence Committee

Time: 5pm
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 an organizing meeting for anyone interested in working to defend the three anti-poverty activists who were recently arrested while advocating to get a man access to a warm place to stay on a bitter winter night. The space is wheelchair accessible.

 
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Monday, February 9: Meeting of Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty

Time: 6:30pm
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)

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

Matters to be discussed include: Defence of the S-CAP 3, the Out of the Cold shelter; CHPI exceptional circumstances funding; the SAMS computer crisis; the Raise the Rates campaign, affordable housing,  Another Politics book tour, and our direct action support work.

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

Website http://sudburycap.com/

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

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Wednesday, February 18: "Agogkwe" with Waawaate Fobister

Time: 7pm
Location: Collège Boréal (21 Lasalle Blvd, Sudbury)
Cost: $5 for students, $15 general admission

Agokwe (pronounced “agoo-kway; meaning “wise woman” or “Two-Spirited”)  explores unrequited love between teenage boys from neighbouring reserves. Mike is a hockey player and Jake is a traditional dancer. The boys notice each other at the Kenora Shoppers Mall and ultimately connect through a mutual love of movement while Mike is skating and Jake is dancing “like grass blowing in the wind.” They meet briefly at a post hockey-tournament party where they bashfully confess their desire for each other. However youth, distance and isolation strive to pull the threads apart when tragedy intervenes. AGOKWE speaks to bullying, homophobia, unrequited love, social isolation and the lost traditions of the Anishnaabe.

For more information please call 705-688-0500 extension 211 or 216.

You may purchase tickets online, or if you would like to purchase advance tickets in person, visit: Réseau ACCESS Network, 111 Elm Street, Suite 203 Sudbury, Ontario.

This event online:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/agokwe-sudbury-with-waawaate-fobister-ticket...

----

Réseau ACCESS Network présente :

Agokwe avec Waawaate Fobister

Agokwe (prononcé « agoo-kway », signifiant « femme sage » ou « bispirituel ») explore l’amour non partagé entre adolescents de réserves voisines. Mike est un joueur de hockey et Jake est un danseur traditionnel. Les garçons se remarquent au centre commercial de Kenora et établissent ultimement un lien grâce à un amour mutuel pour les mouvements, pendant que Mike patine et que Jake danse « comme l’herbe soufflant dans le vent ». Ils se rencontrent brièvement après une fête suivant un tournoi de hockey où ils admettent timidement leur attirance l’un envers l’autre. Cependant, la jeunesse, la distance et l’isolement menacent de tout détruire lorsque la tragédie frappe. AGOKWE porte sur l’intimidation, l’homophobie, l’amour non partagé, l’isolement social et les traditions perdues d’Anishnaabe.

Pour obtenir plus de renseignements, composer le 705 688-0500, poste 211 ou 216.

Vous pouvez acheter des billets en ligne ou, si vous souhaitez acheter des billets à l’avance en personne, visiter: Réseau ACCESS Network, 111, rue Elm, bureau 203 Sudbury (Ontario).

Cet événement en ligne:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/agokwe-sudbury-with-waawaate-fobister-ticket...

 
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Thursday, February 19: Meeting of Sudbury working-group of The Media Co-op

Time: 10am to noon
Location: Main branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library (74 Mackenzie Street, Sudbury)
 
At this meeting, we'll continue working on our collaboration with the Sudbury Coalition Against POverty for events in March with visiting author and organizer Chris Dixon; our collaboration with the Sudbury and District Labour Council for a media-related training for local labour activists; and our ongoing work to find a wide-range of interesting and original local content to publish on our site.
 
We encourage anyone and everyone who might be interested in making media themselves, or who recognize that a robust grassroots media infrastructure is essential for social change work being done across a broad range of issues, to come out to the meeting and share your ideas!
 
If you can't make it to the meeting but still think you might want to be involved somehow -- through organizing things, through participating in some of the editorial stuff, through writing or producing other content -- then be in touch with me at the email address above or send a note to grassrootssudburymedia@gmail.com.
 
Find our site at:
http://sudbury.mediacoop.ca/
 
Our callout for content, some of which we might even be able to pay for:
http://sudbury.mediacoop.ca/blog/grassrootssudburymedia/19108
 
Find us on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/GrassrootsMediaCollective

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Thursday, February 19: Classroom Closet Conference 2015

Time: 8:30am to 3pm
Location: Holiday Inn (1696 Regent Street, Sudbury)

Promoting safer spaces for two-spirit, queer, transgender, lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and questioning individuals.

This FREE, annual, one day workshop gathers students, teachers,
educational institution staff, community members, and allies to
discuss their roles in creating a safer, positive, and inclusive
environment for students and co-workers.

Keynote addresses will be in English, but breakout sessions will be
organised into four streams:

-English Educators/Educational Staff/Community Members
-French Educators/Educational Staff/Community Members
-English High School Students
-French High School Students

At lunch time we will be showing a documentary.

A film by Rémy Huberdeau, Transgender Parents is about love, life and
kids after a gender transition. It shares the struggles and strengths
of several trans women and trans men navigating different stages of
parenting: from pregnancy, through raising infants, toddlers and
teenagers.  Some, who transitioned prior to founding their families,
experience fertility clinics and hospital births; others, who
transitioned in the presence of their kids work to renegotiate their
identity and relationships within their families. All are openly out
in the world as trans and as parents in ways that weren’t possible
20 years ago.

This will be played in English and closed captioned in English. We
ask that when you register, please specify whether or not you will
be attending the screening at lunch.

Space is limited, so please register early.

A complimentary lunch will be provided.

A Classroom Closet Conference programme will be issued at the
registration desk.

For more information please call: 705-688-0500 ext. 211
or email: christopherg@reseauaccessnetwork.com
or carlaj@reseauaccessnetwork.com

_____________________________________________________________________________

Promouvoir des milieux plus sécuritaires pour les bispirituels, les
allosexuels, les transgenres, les lesbiennes, les gais, les bisexuels
et les personnes en questionnement.

Cet atelier annuel GRATUIT d'une journée rassemble des élèves, des
enseignants, des employés d'établissements scolaires, des partenaires
communautaires et des alliés dans le but de discuter de leurs rôles
dans la création de milieux plus sécuritaires, positifs et inclusifs
pour les élèves et les collègues de travail.

Les allocutions seront données en anglais, mais des séances en
petits groupes seront organisées:

-Éducateurs/enseignants/membres de la communauté anglophones
-Éducateurs/enseignants/membres de la communauté francophones
-Élèves d’écoles secondaires anglophones
-Élèves d’écoles secondaires francophones

À l’heure du dîner, nous présenterons un documentaire en anglais,
accompagné de sous-titres anglais.

Le film de Rémy Huberdeau, Transgender Parents, est un documentaire
sur l’amour, la vie et les enfants après une transition de genre.
Il présente les luttes et les forces de plusieurs femmes et hommes
transgenres explorant différentes étapes parentales, de la grossesse
à l’éducation des nourrissons, des enfants et des adolescents.  
Certaines personnes, qui ont subi la transition avant de fonder
leur famille, vivent l’expérience des cliniques de fertilité et des
naissances à l’hôpital; d’autres, qui ont subi la transition en
présence de leurs enfants, s’efforcent de redéfinir leur identité et
leurs relations au sein de leurs familles.  Toutes les personnes
s’affirment ouvertement en tant que transgenres et parents de
manières qui, il y a 20 ans, n’auraient pas été possibles.

Au moment de vous inscrire, nous vous demandons de bien vouloir
préciser si vous assisterez ou non à la présentation à l’heure
du dîner.

Les places sont limitées, veuillez vous inscrire tôt.

Un goûter sera servi.

Un programme pour la conférence Placard de la classe sera disponible
au bureau d’inscription.

Pour obtenir plus de renseignements, veuillez appeler le 705 688-0500,
poste 211, ou envoyer un courriel à christopherg@reseauaccessnetwork.com
ou à carlaj@reseauaccessnetwork.com.

 
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Sunday, March 1: Strategy and Campaign Planning Workshop with Chris Dixon

Time: noon to 3pm
Location: meeting room 1, main branch, Greater Sudbury Public Library
(74 Mackenzie Street, Sudbury)
 
Developing strategy – building effective plans of action to win what we
want – is one of the biggest challenges we face in organizing for social
change. This workshop will offer tools to address this challenge, laying
out a strategic organizing framework based in a campaign-planning model.
This model focuses on bringing more and more people together on our side
while undermining adversaries. It involves collective investigation of
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in our context of
struggle; a deliberate process of setting goals; an orientation toward
tactical escalation; and regular practices of appreciation and
evaluation. In this workshop, we will go through this model together,
applying it to our current organizing work.
 
Chris Dixon, originally from Alaska and a former resident of Sudbury, is
a longtime anarchist organizer, writer, and educator with a PhD from the
University of California at Santa Cruz. His writing has appeared in
numerous book collections as well as periodicals such as Anarchist
Studies, Clamor, Left Turn, and Social Movement Studies. He serves on
the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies and the advisory board
for the activist journal Upping the Anti. Dixon lives in Ottawa, Canada,
on unceded Algonquin Territory, where he is involved in anti-poverty
organizing. His new book is Another Politics: Talking Across Today's
Transformative Movements, published by University of California Press.
Find him at writingwithmovements.com.
 
Chris will likely also be doing a talk about his book at Laurentian
University during the day on Monday, March 2 -- check back for more details.
 
This workshop is organized by the Sudbury working-group of The Media
Co-op and the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1553204658268585/

 
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Monday, March 2: Another Politics: Talking Across Today's Transformative Movements

Time: 10am to noon
Location: room 132, West Res, Laurentian University

A talk by former Sudburian Chris Dixon about his new book.

Recent decades have seen the exciting convergence of anti-authoritarian radicalism and broader-based movements in the U.S. and Canada. From this convergence, a growing set of activists – from anti-poverty organizers in Toronto to prison abolitionists in Oakland, from occupy activists in New York to migrant justice organizers in Vancouver – are developing shared politics and practices. They are building “another politics,” to use a Zapatista expression. These efforts combine anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-oppression politics with grassroots organizing among ordinary, non-activist people. Drawing on interviews with organizers across North America, this presentation will explore another politics and distill lessons for building effective, visionary movements.

Dixon, originally from Alaska, is a longtime anarchist organizer, writer, and educator with a PhD from the University of California at Santa Cruz. His writing has appeared in numerous book collections as well as periodicals such as Anarchist Studies, Clamor, Left Turn, and Social Movement Studies. He serves on the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies and the advisory board for the activist journal Upping the Anti. Dixon lives in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Algonquin Territory, where he is involved in anti-poverty organizing. His new book is Another Politics: Talking Across Today's Transformative Movements, published by University of California Press. Find him at writingwithmovements.com.

This event is sponsored by the Sudbury working-group of The Media Co-op, the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty, and the Centre for Research in Social Justice and Policy at Laurentian University.

This event on Facebook:
s://www.facebook.com/events/906286682728859/

NEWS, ANALYSIS & CALLS TO ACTION:

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Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty Statement on the Provincial By-election

Anti-poverty action and the Sudbury by-election; Thibeault is running for the Liberal Party that continues the war on the poor.

In the weeks leading up to the Feb. 5th Sudbury by-election the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) is calling on candidates to support real anti-poverty action and is focussing on building an active movement against poverty and austerity. While the war on the poor was started by the Tories under the Mike Harris government it has been continued in major ways by the Liberals under Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne. Glenn Thibeault is running as the candidate for this ruling party that is continuing to make the lives of people living in poverty  worse through its commitment to an austerity agenda which puts the interests of the corporations and the wealthy ahead of those of poor and working class people. Thibeault is running for the Liberal Party that has done the following:

·        Abolished the vital Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) which was a vital program that allowed people on social assistance to move, to prevent themselves from becoming homeless, to purchase necessary household items like beds and other necessities and to flee violence and abuse. 11 members and supporters of S-CAP were arrested protesting this cut in Rick Bartolucci’s office and we note that this very same Bartolucci is actively supporting the Thibeault campaign. We call for the immediate reinstatement of the CSUMB program.

·         Slashed the Special Diet Supplement for people on social assistance so that many can no longer afford support for the special diets and nutrition that they need. As many studies have pointed out poverty is one of the leading causes of health problems in this society. We call for an immediate restoration of the Special Diet so that people on social assistance who need it can again receive it.

·        Has followed up the massive Harris government cuts to social assistance by maintaining people on social assistance in even deeper forms of poverty with people falling further and further behind with the rising cost of living. As a result a single individual on Ontario Works now needs an immediate 55% in their social assistance rates to just bring them back to where their buying power was in 1995 when the Harris government initiated the current war on the poor. This is why we call for major increases in social assistance rates just to bring people back to where they were in 1995.

·         Continues to keep low-income workers living in poverty. Regarding low income worker the Liberal government has refused to raise the minimum wage to $14 an hour so that many low-income workers continue to be forced to live below the official poverty line. We call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage to $14 an hour.

·         While it seems to have backed off overt plans to merge the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) with OW to the detriment of people living with disabilities, it has embarked on a program of unfair medical reviews for many people on ODSP that are designed to force them off ODSP. We call for an immediate end to these unfair medical reviews.

·         The Liberal government implemented the Social Assistance Management System or SAMS computer/administrative system for OW and ODSP. This has led to major problems for people on social assistance who have sometimes not been getting their cheques or benefits and for ODSP and OW workers who now have to spend far more time on their computers and can no longer address the needs of their large case-loads of people on social assistance. We call for immediate action so that people on social assistance and OW and ODSP workers are no longer hurt by SAMS.

·        The Liberal government continues to refuse to repeal the ‘Safe Streets Act’ which was implemented as part of the Tory war on the poor and has been used to criminalize panhandlers and homeless and poor people more generally. We call for the immediate repeal of this repressive legislation.  Last week in Sudbury three members of S-CAP (the S-CAP 3) were arrested doing support work for a homeless person. We need to end the criminalization of people living in poverty and the criminalization of anti-poverty activists.

These are some of the ways the Liberal government has made the lives of people living in poverty far worse across the province. We also note that when Wynne has been in Sudbury she has been busy meeting with the wealthy at fund-raising events, meeting with her political friends, or attending official events, but she has not been talking to people living in poverty and homeless people whose lives her government’s policies are hurting. We urge people not to vote for parties and candidates that continue to make things worse for people living in poverty. Instead we need people committed to real anti-poverty action and to build a grass roots movement against poverty and austerity that can reverse the direction of current policies by putting the needs of poor and working class people first. We need to house the homeless and feed the poor and to do this we need to kick the Liberals out the door.

We are calling in this by-election for candidates to support:

·         the re-instatement of the CSUMB;

·         the ending of the cuts to the Special Diet;

·         major increases in OW and ODSP rates – for a single person on OW an immediate increase of 55%;

·         a $14 an hour minimum wage;

·         the ending of the unfair ODSP medical reviews;

·         ensuring that the SAMS system does not hurt people on social assistance or OW or ODSP workers:

·         and for the immediate scrapping of the ‘Safe Streets Act.’

We will be raising these concerns with candidates and throughout this by-election. Of course we need far more than this to get at the social roots of poverty and to create social justice -- including the creation of safe, accessible, and affordable housing to begin to get at the social roots of homelessness and the transfer of wealth and resources to people living in poverty so they can live their lives with dignity and hope.

For more information call S-CAP at 249-878-7227 or email sudburycap@gmail.com

 
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Show your support for 3000 striking CCAC workers

Thousands of members of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) may be forced on strike this winter. These registered nurses and health team members who work at 10 Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) across Ontario provide care to tens of thousands of people in our communities and assist patients to access and navigate our complex health-care system.

CCAC Care Coordinators face serious patient caseload issues that can impact their ability to safely care for their patients.

Please send a message now to tell the CEOs of the 10 CCACs, along with the Ontario Premier, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and the Chairs and CEOs of the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) to reach a fair agreement with these front-line health care professionals today.

To send a message to CCAC officials and provincial politicians, go to this link: http://www.ona.org/political_action/supportccac.html

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"My call from a former hunger striker inside the Lindsay superjail"
by Desmond Cole

(From NOW Toronto: https://nowtoronto.com/news/my-call-from-a-former-hunger-striker-inside-...)