Canadian Crossroads International – Vancouver fundraiser, April 2nd

February 24, 2009

For those in the Vancouver area who may be interested….

Canadian Crossroads Internationally in

An Evening Fundraising Dinner with guest speaker Swaziland MP Nonglanhla Dlamini, with special introduction by the CBC’s Shelagh Rogers.


On April 2, please join us for an inspiring evening of exchange and reflection with longtime friend and Crossroads partner NON HLAN HLA , as she shares her unique perspectives during a special visit to Canada.

Nonhlanhla is the former Executive Director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA ), a current CCI partner whose work has provoked amazing results on the ground and in policy. In 2008, she was elected for the first time to Swaziland Parliament.

Event Details:

6 PM, April 2 2009

Pink Pearl Seafood restaurant

1132 E Hastings, Vancouver .BC.

Tickets: $60.00 per person (income tax receipts available)

Reserve your tickets now!

Visit http://bbnc.cciorg.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=268 to purchase tickets online or call Patsy George at 604-687-7115 for more information.

Money raised will support SWA GAA programming

This venue is wheel chair accessible.

Visit our website for details at http://www.cciorg.ca.


OPIRG event: Israeli Apartheid Week Toronto

February 24, 2009

Event: Globalization, Labour and Poverty in Palestine “Israeli Apartheid Week Toronto”

What: Lecture

Host: SAIA-UT, SAIA York and SPHR Ryerson

Start Time: Thursday, March 5 at 7:00pm

End Time: Thursday, March 5 at 9:00pm

Where: Koffler Institute Room 108 – University of Toronto

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=53244276283&aref=63195075


IDEA Burlington – local event: human rights day event

November 27, 2008

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Guest Speaker

Bob LOVELACE

“STEPS TOWARDS FREEDOM IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD”

Bob Lovelace is making Canadian history. Being co-chief of the Ardoch Nation and an Algonquin, he together with other members of his Nation blocked the uranium mining company Frontenac Ventures from prospecting and exploiting his Nation’s land (under dispute by a land claim) without permission. For his actions, he was sent to jail. He will speak about his experience and the struggle facing indigenous land rights in Canada today.


DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR A VERY SPECIAL TALK BY ONE OF CANADA’S LEADING ABORIGINAL ACTIVISTS

Date: Wednesday, December 10th, 2008, 7.30pm – FREE!

Location: McMaster University

Health Sciences Centre, 1A4

(at rear of hospital, near Health Science library)

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, GROUPS 1, 8 and 21

Co-sponsors: CUPE 3906, Indigenous Peace Education, OPIRG, The Centre for Peace Studies and Development & Peace.

For more information, contact amnestygroup1@yahoo.ca.


Toronto: Paul Croutch Memorial – Sept 15

September 6, 2008

PAUL CROUTCH MEMORIAL

12:00 Noon, Monday, September 15

MOSS PARK (North of Queen, between Jarvis & Sherbourne)

***FREE MEAL***

Paul Croutch, a homeless 59 year old psychiatric survivor, was beaten to death by military reservists next to Moss Park Armoury on August 31, 2005. The reservists also assaulted an under-housed woman who attempted to intervene to defend Paul.

Paul’s death is remembered as a symbol of ongoing human rights violations against homeless people, who continue to die at a horrifying rate in Toronto and across the Canada.

At noon on September 15, at Moss Park, we will remember Paul and others who have died as we continue to struggle for justice for all.

Those who know Paul and would like to speak are welcome.

*FREE MEAL*

*CHILD CARE AVAILABLE AT EVENT*

(please let us know ahead of time if possible)

Download the poster & see info on other upcoming events:

http://tdrc.net/index.php?page=upcoming-events

For more info, or for accessibility needs, contact TDRC:

TORONTO DISASTER RELIEF COMMITTEE (TDRC)
416-599-8372 | housingnotwar@tdrc.net
| www.HousingNotWar.ca
http://www.housingnotwar.ca/


Walk for Justice FRIDAY 6:30 PM, welcome women to Toronto – TOMORROW

August 29, 2008

Walk4Justice (a 4,700-kilometre trek from Vancouver to Ottawa) Arrives in Toronto to Raise Awareness About Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women

Welcome Reception: Friday August 29th, First Nations House (563 Spadina Ave.)
A meal will be served and the walkers will address the public & the media beginning at 6:30pm.

Hope to see some of you there!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Walk4Justice (a 4,700-kilometre trek from Vancouver to Ottawa) Arrives in Toronto to Raise Awareness About Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women

(August 27, 2008) Hundreds of Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada over the last decades. These tragic deaths received little public attention until Amnesty International took the unprecedented step of investigating a host country, Canada. The organization linked the disproportionate levels of violence experienced by Indigenous women to governmental polices and called the situation a human rights tragedy. While the public is well aware of the horrors that were committed at a Port Coquitlam Farm few know that one third of the women killed were Indigenous. Recently, in one weekend in Toronto the Native community lost Carolyn Connelly and Katelynn Sampson who was only 7 – both murdered.

The Walk4Justice publicly addresses the key issues faced by marginalized, missing, and murdered Indigenous women and their families. They will present a petition to Parliament Hill on September 15th and demand a national inquiry into these deaths and disappearances.

The Walk4Justice is organized by Gladys Radek, whose niece Tamara Chipman went missing on BC’s Highway of Tears, and Bernie Williams, a front-line worker in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, where many Aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered. The Walkers left Vancouver on June 21st and arrive in Toronto on August 29th.

The media is welcome at the following public events, organized to welcome and honour the Walk4Justice as they pass through Toronto:

Welcome Reception: Friday August 29th, First Nations House (563 Spadina Ave.)
A meal will be served and the walkers will address the public & the media beginning at 6:30pm.

Public Send-Off: September 2nd, 9am at Allen Gardens (across from the Native Women’s Resource Centre, 191 Gerrard St.). The Walkers will be continuing on to Tyendinaga on September 2nd, and arriving in Ottawa on September 12th. They will be on Parliament Hill September 15th.

A full day of events has been planned at Six Nations, where the Walkers will be welcomed by Bev Jacobs, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. They will also visit the Six Nations Polytechnic, where a tree has been planted in memory of Tashina General, murdered last Spring at the age of 21, and her unborn son, Tucker.

For more information, please contact:

− Audrey Huntley, No More Silence Network Toronto: 416-508-8632
− Gladys Radek, Walk4Justice Organizer: 778-839-0072
− Norma General, Grandmother to Tashina General (Six Nations) 519-445-4238
− Bev Jacobs, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada: 613-878-6922


U of T: Evening with Bob Lovelace – saying NO to uranium mining, August 13th

August 12, 2008

You are invited to attend:

An evening with Bob Lovelace

Wed. Aug. 13, 2008 – 7:00 p.m.
Hart House, Debates Room, 2nd floor
7 Hart House Circle , University of Toronto
(direction by subway: go to St. George station, walk south, left on Harbord)

Meet Bob Lovelace, former Ardoch Algonquin First Nation chief and Queen’s University lecturer, who was sentenced to six months in jail for saying ‘no’ to uranium mining on indigenous lands. Lovelace made this stand in defense of the Earth and Creation, which indigenous peoples regard as sacred.
Popular support for this cause contributed to the decision by 22 Ontario municipalities to vote against uranium mining and a promise by the Ontario government to revise antiquated legislation which currently gives mining companies ‘free entry’ to contested indigenous lands and private property. At stake is indigenous sovereignty, protection of the boreal forests from contamination by toxic mine tailings, and the right of indigenous communities to say no development which affects them.

Mr. Lovelace will share his reflections on the events of the last year, the meaning that the land has for indigenous peoples, and the challenges that attend to the current age of mass industrial development and destruction of the land.

Sponsored and promoted by GSU Social Justice Committee (U of T), Toronto MiningSupport Group/Students Against Climate Change, Sam Gindin Chair ( Ryerson University ), University of Toronto Students Union .


Resistance to Gold Mining in Latin America – Events in Toronto May 18-21

May 18, 2008

LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY EDUCATIONAL EVENTS & PROTEST ACTIVITIES
Toronto, Canada, May 18-21

[Please invite your friends and redistribute this information all around]

* * *

SUNDAY, MAY 18: PUBLIC EVENT
@ 7pm

“Goldcorp Inc. – Investing in Conflict” = Hear speakers from Honduras (Carlos Amador), Guatemala (Fausto Valiente) and Rights Action (Grahame Russell) tell stories about how indigenous and campesino communities are resisting the environmental and development harms and human rights violations that Goldcorp is causing on their lands. Multi-media event.
LOCATION: Steelworker’s Union, 7pm, 25 Cecil St, Toronto
CONTACT: Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org, cel: 250-231-5158 ; Sakura Saunders, sakura.saunders@gmail.com, cel: 530-304-8297

* * *

MONDAY, MAY 19: DOCUMENTARY FILM RELEASE & BANNER MAKING GATHERING
@ 3pm – 10pm
Banner making & action planning for street education and activities in front of Goldcorp’s Annual Shareholder Meeting.

LOCATION: OISE, 252 Bloor St W, Room 2198, (corner of Bloor St and St. George)
CONTACT: sakura.saunders@gmail.com, cel: 530-304-8297
@ 7pm

DOCUMENTARY FILM: “No Todo Lo Que Brilla Es Oro – Una Historia de Explotación y Resistencia”
(All That Glitters Isn’t Gold – A Story of Exploitation and Resistance) is an hour-long documentary that tells the stories of community members residing near the San Martin open-pit heap-leach gold mine in the Siria Valley in Honduras, owned by Canada’s Goldcorp. The first mine to be developed under Honduras’ controversial new mining law passed in the wakes of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, San Martin opened in 2000 and is the largest open-pit heap-leach mine in Honduras. As the mine nears its closure, community members discuss the complications they have experienced since the mine began operating — from wide-spread health problems to lack of water — contesting the company’s claims that the mine has been a model of healthy development for the community and has caused no adverse effects. Spanish with English subtitles. DVD. Comments will be made by Steven Schnoor (film maker) and Carlos Amador, community leader from the Siria Valley in Honduras.

LOCATION: 7pm, OISE, 252 Bloor St W, Room 2198, (corner of Bloor St and St. George)
CONTACT: Steven Schnoor, steven_s@yorku.ca, cel: 514 795 0825 ; Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org, cel: 250-231-5158

* * *

TUESDAY, MAY 20: STREET EDUCATION & PROTEST ACTIVITIES
@ 1pm – 2:30pm

GOLDCORP Inc’s ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING – STREET EDUCATION & PROTEST ACTIVITIES: Come join a festive, colorful street “education session” (bring your own banners, posters, happy noise makers, etc) in front of the King Edward hotel where the Goldcorp AGM will take place – support community members that have come to protest the environmental and development harms and human rights violations that Goldcorp is causing on their lands.

LOCATION: King Edward Hotel, 1pm – 2:30pm, 37 King St. E., Toronto
CONTACT: Sakura Saunders, sakura.saunders@gmail.com, cel: 530-304-8297 ; Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org, cel: 250-231-5158 ;

* * *

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21: PUBLIC EVENT: “Indigenous resistance to Canadian mining corporations in Latin America”
@ 7pm

An evening with Sergio Campusano, Chief of the Pueblo Diaguita Huascoaltinos, indigenous people of Chile and additional speakers from Guatemala and Honduras also resisting environmental devastation and human rights violations at the hands of Canadian gold mining corporations on their lands. In a rare visit to Canada, Sergio Campusano — an eloquent speaker on the subject of indigenous resistance to industrial development — will share the struggle of his people against Canadian gold, uranium and copper extraction industries on ancestral lands. There will be special mention of the infamous Pascua Lama mine, which threatens the water supply for 100,000 farmers at the drought-ravaged border of Chile and Argentina.

The Diaguita community has pressed charges against the Chilean State for its complicity with these corporations, including a notice to appeal before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Their fight is not only for survival and human rights, but also to preserve the living systems of the Earth, which they regard as sacred. Community leaders from Guatemala and Honduras, in Toronto for the Goldcorp AGM, will also share their struggles to protect the land against open-pit industrial mining.

This event is the final evening in a two week long series of events focused on international indigenous resistance to indigenous resistance to Canadian corporations Barrick Gold and Goldcorp. For more information see http://www.protestbarrick.net and http://www.rightsaction.org/

LOCATION: Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto (south west of Museum subway, off of Harbord St)
CONTACT: Paul York, pyork_2002@hotmail.com, cel: 647-342-7995

* * *

NEW REPORT: “INVESTING IN CONFLICT: Public Money, Private Gain – Goldcorp Inc in the Americas”
http://www.rightsaction.org/Reports/Mining_Goldcorp_BW_042608.pdf

Written by Dawn Paley (dawnpaley@gmail.com), with Mining Watch (www.miningwatch.ca) and Rights Action, and edited by Sakura Saunders, Investing in Conflict is about the “nexus of mining companies, the mainstream media, the Canadian government, International Finance Institutions and bought off NGOs” that are working “hard to keep the reality of large-scale, open pit mines out of picture, keep[ing] community resistance marginalized, and no matter what, to keep talking about “development”.” Focusing on Goldcorp Inc., Investing in Conflict brings “hard facts and community perspectives together to help North Americans become more informed about the nature of the mining industry.”

FREE COPY at www.rightsaction.org. Go to our website and read the report on line, or print your own copy. Feel free to print and distribute copies to family and friends, investors and politicians.

Facebook site:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19201587135

==================================================================

‘Canada does not yet have laws to ensure that the activities of Canadian mining companies in developing countries conform to human rights standards, including the rights of workers and of indigenous peoples.’
– Canada’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. June 2005

‘Canadian mining companies are taking advantage of [inadequate and poorly enforced regulatory controls] to expand into all corners of the globe, manipulating, slandering, abusing, and even killing those who dare to oppose them, displacing Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike, supporting repressive governments and taking advantage of weak ones, and contaminating and destroying sensitive ecosystems.’
– Jamie Kneen, MiningWatch Canada. November 2006

==================================================================

Resistencia a la minería aurífera canadiense en América latina

domingo, el 18 de mayo, a las 7pm.
—————————————-
Vengan a escuchar las historias de los lideres Fausto Valiente de Guatemala y Carlos Amador de Honduras sobre la resistencia de sus comunidades en contra de las operaciones de la empresa minera canadiense Goldcorp en sus tierras. Presentacion multimedia.
– Steelworkers’ Union Hall, 25 Cecil, Toronto

lunes, 19 de mayo, entre las 3pm y las 10pm.
—————————————-
!!!La fiesta de afiches y mantas!!! Vengan a charlar con los y las organizadores mientras todos y todas hagamos materiales para la protesta del dia siguiente.
– Sala 2198, edificio OISE, Universidad de Toronto
– 252 Bloor St W (estacion de metro St George, salida calle Bedford)

martes, 20 de mayo, 1pm a 3pm
—————————————-
Vengan y apoyen la delegacion internacional con el festival de resistencia y de educacion popular. !Traigan sus mantas, afiches, instrumentos, consignas, y voces! Estaremos frente al hotel King Edward, donde la Goldcorp llevara a cabo su reunion anual general.
– 37 King St. E., en el centro de la ciudad de Toronto

martes, 20 de mayo, 7pm
—————————————-
‘No todo lo que brilla es oro – Una historia de explotación y resistencia’: Vengan a ver el nuevo documental sobre la grave situacion que enfrentan las comunidades afectadas por la mina de oro a cielo abierto San Martin en el Valle de Siria, Honduras. El documental se discutara con la participacion de Steven Schnoor, activista de video, y Carlos Amador, lider ambientalista de la zona.
—————————————-
Para mayor informacion, contacten a Derechos en Accion (info@rightsaction.org) o a Sakura Saunders (sakura.saunders@gmail.com).