CANADIAN POLITICS TORONTO:
NO MORE WORKPLACE DEATHS:

Following the recent deaths of two migrant agricultural workers in Ontario people are organizing to demand an end to such tragedies. Tonight there will be a public meeting in Toronto to educate and organize opposition to unsafe workplaces. Here's the info from No One Is Illegal Toronto.
WDWDWDWDWD

No More Deaths: People's Resistance to Undocumented and Precarious Work
Start: Nov/04/2010 - 6:00 pm
End: Nov/04/2010 - 8:00 pm
please participate in a Community-Labour discussion hosted by No One Is Illegal – Toronto

November 4, 2010
6:00pm – 8:00pm
OPSEU Union Hall, 31 Wellesley Street
(across from Wellesley Subway Station)

supported by: Justicia for Migrant Workers, Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario, OPSEU Workers of Color, Caregiver Action Centre, Labor Education Centre, Workers Action Centre, Health for All, Latin American Trade Unionist Coalition

speakers:

FRANCA IACOVETTA is Professor of History and author of “Such Hardworking People: Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto” that focused on the Hoggs Hollow disaster.

TZAZNA MIRANDA LEAL is an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers

MOHAN MISHRA is an organizer with No One Is Illegal – Toronto

also remarks by Cosmo Mannella (Director of The Labourers International Union of North America (LIUNA) Canadian Tri-Fund); Elizabeth Ha (OPSEU Workers of Colour & OFL VP Workers of Colour); Jessica Ponting (Community legal worker with Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario); Pura Velasco (Caregiver Action Centre); Jojo Geronimo (Executive Director, Labor Education Centre) and members of the Workers Action Centre

on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159718884061029

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On September 10, 2010 two migrant workers Ralston White and Paul Roach died after inhaling toxic fumes at Filsinger's Organic Foods appleorchard and processing facility near Owen Sound, Ontario. On December 24, 2009, Alexander Bondorev, Aleksey Blumberg, Fayzullo Fazilov, Vladimir Korostin, migrant workers without full status, fell to their deaths when the scaffolding they were working on collapsed in half. Though these deaths made the mainstream news, migrant workers and undocumented workers continue to be hurt, to get ill and to die both in Canada or upon being deported to countries they have citizenship in. This injustice must end.

50 years ago, five Italian construction workers, Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Correglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and Alessandro and Guido Mantella, died while working in a dangerous tunnel near Yonge Street in Toronto, remembered as the Hoggs Hollow disaster. Knowing
that workers without full status were facing flagrant workplace violations, negligent employers and little legislative protection from occupational hazards, workers across the city rose up, and carried out a series of actions and strikes in a fight to organize the
building trades.

Today as migrant workers continue to die, labour activists and community groups must gather together, to reignite a new fight. A fight that creates far-reaching changes and challenges the very root of people's inability to access real safety – immigration status and racism.

Join community groups and labour activist to discuss and demand:

** Moratorium on deportations for all workers with WSIB claims and MOL complaints
** Access to Health and Safety without Fear
** Status for injured workers and their families
** Status for All!

Please email nooneisillegal@riseup.net to endorse.

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For background

** Criminal charges not enough, more needs to be done to ensure migrant workers come home alive, say community organizations:
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/490 (Oct 19, 2010)

** Stop the killing of migrant workers, end exploitative temporary work programs: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/483 (Sep 16, 2010)

** Hundreds mourn migrant worker deaths: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/391 (Jan 8, 2010)

** Justice for migrant workers killed at work: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/397 (Jan 7, 2010)

CANADIAN LABOUR-TORONTO:

WERE THE TORONTO SCAFFOLD DEATHS PREVENTABLE:

This story still 'has legs' since Molly last reported on the Christmas Eve deaths of 4 workers when a scaffold collapsed in Toronto. The comment that has followed reiterates certain things that Molly raised questions about in her first article ie the use of immigrant labour who may not either know their rights to a safe workplace or may not dare to demand it. Also the matter of the record of the company involved. Here's a recent editorial from the Toronto Star about the incident.

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WERE DEATHS AVOIDABLE ?:

The four workers who plunged 13 storeys to their deaths on Christmas Eve were all reportedly new to Canada. They may not have known that we have numerous laws and regulations to protect workers and ensure construction sites are safe.

But we do. And we owe it to these men, their colleague who remains in hospital with serious injuries, and all the other workers in Ontario, to find out why the system appears to have failed them.

Are the protections insufficient or were they not properly applied?

We know that provincial inspectors were so concerned about the scaffolding being used to repair balconies at the Etobicoke highrise that they ordered the company to stop work until safety was improved. That was in October.

Then, on Dec. 17, after seeing the changes, a government inspector concluded: "Compliance achieved. Stop work order lifted." Tragically, just one week later, with the five men working on it, the scaffolding, a multi-part swing stage, apparently snapped in two.

The workers did not appear to be wearing safety harnesses. Were they not supplied or were the men not trained in their importance? How did the company address the original safety concerns? Was that work properly inspected before they were allowed to resume work?

"This was a preventable accident," says a construction union representative. The province needs to determine whether that is the case and ensure that any shortfalls in the system are fixed to prevent a repeat occurrence.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Rather than waiting patiently until the "trusted government" completes its investigation (which, not so incidentally, is also an investigation of itself and its own regulatory processes- is there a conflict of interest here ?) others in Toronto are moving to bring the issues that underlie this tragedy to light. This Thursday, January 7, the Toronto No One Is Illegal group will be holding a public vigil for the workers who died. Here is the press release from their website.

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PUBLIC VIGIL FOR MIGRANT WORKERS KILLED AT WORK:
January 7, 2010, 7pm – 8:30pm

2757 Kipling Avenue

Buses leave 252 Bloor West at 5:15 sharp.

RSVP by Noon, Jan 6, migrantworkervigil@gmail.com
Four construction workers with precarious immigration status fell to their deaths on Christmas Eve in one of the worst workplace disasters that Toronto has seen in decades. The swing stage scaffolding they were working on broke into two pieces, plummeting the four workers over 13 stories to the concrete below at 2757 Kipling Avenue. A fifth man is in critical condition and will need medical attention for the rest of his life.

We mourn the deaths of these workers. We are enraged that such injustice can take place. Migrant workers take care of children, feed communities, construct housing, clean offices, and take up many other occupations in almost all industries but are treated like second-class workers and denied even the most basic protections.

The workers who died were provided insufficient safety harnesses and forced to work on a site where a cease and desist order had been issued. Workers without full status work the most dangerous jobs in the country and are systemically prevented from being able to assert their rights. These workers died because Canada denied them full status.

50 years ago, five Italian construction workers including Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Correglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and Alessandro and Guido Mantella, died while working in a dangerous tunnel near Yonge Street in Toronto, remembered as the Hoggs Hallow disaster. Knowing that workers without full status were facing flagrant workplace violations, negligent employers and little legislative protection from occupational hazards, workers across the city rose up, and carried out a series of actions and strikes in a fight to organize the building trades.

Today, fifty years later, racialized communities, immigrants, migrants and undocumented people continue to work in dangerous and sometimes murderous conditions. Not having full status means lax enforcement of health and safety legislation, absence of meaningful laws to protect workers, and negligent employers and recruiters who sacrifice health and safety of workers to gain further profit for themselves. This long-term negligence reveals the lack of social and political will in Canada to ensure justice and protection of all workers.

Workers without full status are often denied just compensation when they get injured or ill due to their labour. They are prevented from access to healthcare and translation services. They get deported because they are considered a burden on the health care system, and their injury is named a “breached employment contract.” They are unable to access full care in countries they are deported to. Like all injured workers, compensation by Workplace Safety and Insurance (WSIB) is inadequate.

Four men died on Christmas Eve, but every day, countless workers are killed or maimed on the job, while those responsible, employers, recruiters and government officials, do not face media or public scrutiny. In 2008, 488 workers were reported killed because of their labour in Ontario alone. Many more deaths went unreported. Thousands more workers were injured, many of whom have to learn to live with their injuries permanently. How many will have to die or be injured before this government ensures that our communities are meaningfully protected?

Government officials, recruiters and employers need to be persecuted while those precariously employed need to be protected at work! While we commemorate and celebrate the lives of these workers, we also demand justice for the workers, their families and all migrant workers across this province. Broad and far reaching changes are needed.

Dilshod Mamurov, Aleksey Blumberg, Fayzulla, Vladimir Korostin, and all injured and killed workers demand this.

This is first in a series of actions, please keep checking the website for updates.

CANADIAN POLITICS:

DON'T CLOSE CANADA TO REFUGEES:

News of the following demonstration, sponsored by No One is Illegal Toronto comes Molly's way via the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). The issue has been in the news recently with the Harper government deciding to impose visa requirements on visitors from both the Czech Republic and Mexico. Needless to say this has led to all sorts of bitterness in the countries affected. The supposed justification is that many people from these countries (the Roma in the case of the Czech Republic and those wishing to escape the drug wars in the case of Mexico) apply for a refugee status when they land in Canada, a status that the ruling Conservatives feel they don't deserve. The question of whether the Roma in all of eastern Europe are being persecuted (they are) or whether parts of Mexico are ineed overwhelmingly dangerous is beside the point to the government.

To Molly's eyes this sort of petty grandstanding (the stacked refugee boards routinely deny such status anyways, at least to Mexicans) on the Conservative's part has all the aspects of "throwing a bone" to their more rabid right wing supporters. This sort of thing, along with such visible petty actions as denying funding to gay festivals (in Montréal) or demoting ministers who let such grants slip by (as in Toronto), will, according to the hopes of Harper and his cronies, serve to pacify the right who must look askance at the recent conversion of the Conservatives to what will undoubtedly be very long term deficits and who will be ill at ease with the need to serve a more left wing administration in Washington. Throw the buggers a few little bones and they'll keep on marching out from the churches to the voting booths. Or so the Conservatives hope.

Others are appalled at this bit of vindictiveness. Here's the story of what's happening tomorrow. If you live down TO way try and join up with the demo.

CPCPCPCPCPCPCP

No One Is Illegal-Tor July 23: Don't Close the Border on Refugees:

No One Is Illegal-Toronto Events, Updates & News

http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org

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No Visa? No Rights?!

DON'T CLOSE THE BORDER ON REFUGEES!

Community Rally & March

Thursday, July 23rd 1:00pm

Meet at the corner of Davenport & Perth (to get there by transit, take the168 Symington bus from Dundas West station)

Come raise your voice against the Canadian government's recent decision to impose visa requirements on Mexico and the Czech Republic!

Using arbitrary powers, granted to him under Bill C-50, Kenney single-handedly slammed the door on migrants and refugees from Mexico and the Czech Republic last week.

Kenney's decision shows blatant disregard for asylum-seekers fleeing racism, violence and persecution and prevents families from reuniting. Following US-style workplace raids this spring, these new visa requirements are a clear escalation in the attack on migrant communities that force people to apply for a tourist visa before being able to apply for refuge. This change limits poor and working people's entrance to Canada to precarious and temporary work programs.

Rather than considering the individual merits of each case as stated under the Refugee Protection Act, Kenney has just decided that all claims from these countries are "bogus and illegitimate"!

NAFTA and the SPP regime are responsible for displacing millions within Mexico. The American led, Canadian backed War on Drugs has resulted in violence that has killed over 6000 people in 2008 alone. On one hand, the Canadian government has warned Canadians against traveling to Mexico (in a travel advisory this spring issued by DFAIT), but on the other hand continues to assert that Queers, Women surviving domestic violence and others fleeing persecution can be safe in Mexico.

Obviously there are two standards of safety: one for Canadians and one for people in the global south. The escalation of racist violence in the Czech Republic has gone unmentioned in Canadian and EU political circles. Kenney has turned a blind eye to vicious neo-Nazi attacks on the Roma people. Kenney also lies about the failures in Roma refugee cases - for when the Immigration and Refugee Board has actually heard a Roma case, even this arbitrary body has granted status 85% of the time.

Lets learn from history - don't let the borders be shut on refugees and immigrants!

Join your neighbors in defense of our rights!

Demand Status for All!

There will be speakers at the rally from the Roma Community Centre, the FCJ Refugee Centre, No One Is Illegal-Toronto and others.

Organized by the Bread and Bricks Davenport-West Social Justice Group. For more info call 416.652.7867 ext. 237.

Endorsed by: No One Is Illegal-Toronto

To read more on Kenney's lies and attacks, read:

http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/300

on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103940003093

...email at nooneisillegal@riseup.net

...facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2232590266

...twitter at

http://twitter.com/noii_to

...youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/user/nooneisillegal

...join the listserv:

https://lists.riseup.net/www/subrequest/nooneisillegal

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St.

Toronto, ON M5A 1R6

416-925-6939

ocap@tao.ca

www.ocap.ca

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-TORONTO:

MAY DAY OF ACTION:

Well, it won't exactly be May Day, the day after actually, but the following joint action planned for downtown Toronto this coming Saturday is very much in the spirit of international solidarity that May Day represents. Courtesy of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)...

>>>>>>>>>>>>

No One Is Illegal!

May Day of Action:

Rally and March 2 May - 1pm

Meet: Sherbourne and Carlton

On April 2nd and 3rd, over 100 temporary and undocumented workers were attacked by armed border guards, dragged in to detention and are now being forcibly deported. On 2 May, thousands of us will say Enough!

Migrants, poor and working people; undocumented people and people of colour live in constant crisis in Canada, attacked daily. A crisis has always existed in Teesdale, in Regent Park, in farm fields, on factory floors and in hotel service areas.

Corporate and political elites are using the current 'Economic Crisis' as an excuse to attack poor, working-class and racialized communities by increasing immigration enforcement; stealing public funds; wrecking social services; taking away people's jobs rather than cutting profits and targeting those they perceive as the weakest - indigenous people; the homeless; refugee claimants; women in shelters; queer and trans migrants, caregivers; factory workers and temporary workers.

We say there are no illegal human beings, only unjust laws and governments. No one, poor or undocumented, is illegal. The struggle of workers - waged and unwaged, with or without immigration status – is against powerful elites and systems of oppression. Citizenship, jobs and houses - granted to some and denied to others - are tools to divide us.

We will not be divided.

On May 2, join thousands of us as we take to the streets and demand an end to corporate and state attacks on our communities. We demand an end to detentions and deportations. We demand access without fear to essential services. We demand an end to security certificates and secret trials. We demand a full and inclusive regularization program. We demand justice, dignity, and status for all!

We did not create this crisis, and we will not pay for it. On May 2nd, create power. Resist.

The May 2nd rally and march will be preceded by a May Day Festival, on May 1st at 6pm, at 25 Cecil Street. coorganized by: No One Is Illegal-Toronto Mujeres al Frente SAWRO Migrante Ontario Canadian HART Casa Salvador Allende Basics Newsletter OCAP Jane and Finch Action Against Poverty Sikh Activist Network Toronto New Socialists Barrio Nuevo the Stop Community Food Centre BAYAN Toronto PCLS OPIRG Toronto CAIA GGAPSS

**

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St.

Toronto, ON

M5A 1R6

416-925-6939

ocap@tao.ca

www.ocap.ca

**

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

TWO TORONTO EVENTS:
The following announcements are from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), but the main sponsor seems to be the Toronto No One is Illegal.
...........................

2 upcoming events - February 19-21 & March 1-8‏:
Two important events coming up over the next few weeks-
THE CITY IS A SWEATSHOP 19-22 February 2009 and below,
5th INTERNATIONAL ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK Toronto - March 2nd to 8th, 2009 ***please forward far and wide***
THE CITY IS A SWEATSHOP:
19-22 February 2009
As the economy plunges, people without full immigration status are pushed further into unsafe and unfair work conditions. Falling wages, mass firings and workplace raids have seen temporary workers pushed to the margins while border guards and greedy employers continue to ruthlessly attack community members. Temporary workers grow food, build homes and take care of children and the elderly yet are considered disposable.




Workers, waged and unwaged, are kept without full immigration status, working in brutal conditions without access to basic services such as schooling, health and housing. Undocumented people are the unpaid, unrecognized, invisible fuel that make this city, Toronto, a sweatshop.




Unwilling to remain silent, migrants are raising their voices. This week, join in building a movement to dismantle this city that is a sweatshop,and re-build it as a community that is safe for all.
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Check out the website for more info at:
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/thecityisasweatshop
(Full details below)
Thursday February 19, 2009
-SERVICESSANCTUARYSTATUS: ACCESS WITHOUT FEAR
Rights and responsibilities of social service providers; non-status and precarious status people's struggle to access basic services; stories of victories from within the services sector; possibilities of winning a sanctuary city.
-WITHOUT BORDERS: QUEERING our CITY
LGBTT2IQQ* migrants fight against poverty and racism, violence and discrimination; multi-media performances and speakers; challenging homophobia and strengthening queer and migrant struggles.
Friday February 20, 2009
-THE CITY IS A SWEATSHOP
Poverty and displacement; labor and power; creative/artistic resistance; personal struggles and collective victories; police brutality and border security repression
Saturday February 21, 2009
-STOLEN LABOUR ON STOLEN LAND
Anti-Olympics Resistance; Land Reclamation and Self-Determination; Global Displacement; Indigenous-Migrant Solidarity; Enforcement Raids and Detention
-BUILDING A SANCTUARY CITY
Town-Hall and Speak out; Strategizing against the economic crisis; building alliances;
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**Thursday February 19**
SERVICES SANCTUARY STATUS:ACCESS WITHOUT FEAR
1pm
Lib 72, 350 Victoria Street (Ryerson University),
Toronto
- Moni Alam -
South Asian Women's Rights Organization
- Fariah Chowdhury -
No One is Illegal, Toronto
- Jackie Esmonde -
Lawyer and Advocate
- Dr. Susan Michelle Hoffmann -
Access Alliance Multicultural Community Health Centre
- Navjeet Sidhu -
Community Social Planning Council of Toronto
- Leonardo Zuñiga -
Refugee Claimant
WITHOUT BORDERS: QUEERING OUR CITY
7pm
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue
co-organized with Mujeres Al-Frente
Speakers and Performers:
- Gareth Henry -
Jamaican Queer Activist, 2008 Pride Grand Marshall
- Milo de Milo -
Drag King
- Janet Romero -
Spoken Word Artist
- Shyam Selvadurai -
Author of Funny Boy
- Leila Shah -
Audre Lorde Project, New York City
- Leonardo Zuñiga -
Refugee Claimant
- Sammy Tomato -
Drag King
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**Friday February 20, 2009**
THE CITY IS A SWEATSHOP
7pm
Steelworkers Hall
-25 Cecil Street,
Toronto
Speakers and performers:
- Veronica Bravo -
Mujeres Al Frente
- John Clarke -
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
- Beatriz Hererra -
People Organized to Win Employment Rights, San Francisco
- Sonia Singh -
Workers Action Centre
- Faith Nolan and the Women of CUPE 4308
- Eloisa -
Live-In Caregiver Fighting for Status
- Education Not Deportation documentary-
Mata Danze Dance Group
- SPIN -
Spoken Word Artist
- Ruben "Benny" Esguerra -
Musician and Percussionist
- Alejandra Higuera -
Video Animation Artist
- Solidarity Across Borders Photo Exhibit,
Montreal- Rose
- LAL- Nomanzland -
Tobermory Theatre Troupe
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**Saturday February 21, 2009**
STOLEN LABOUR ON STOLEN LAND
1:00pm
Lib 72, 350 Victoria Street (Ryerson University), Toronto
Speakers:
- Erline Brown -
Domestic Workers United, NYC
- Farrah Miranda -
No One Is Illegal, Toronto
- Chris Ramsaroop -
Justicia for Migrant Workers
- Dan Doreen, Tyindenaga Mohawk Territory
- Harsha Walia -
Vancouver based Organizer and Writer
- Alaina Tom -
Native Youth Movement
BUILDING A SANCTUARY CITY
4:00pm
Lib 72, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto
Town Hall of non-status people, migrants, and migrant justice organizers from across North America and their allies. Speak to the many performers and organizers you have seen throughout the three days of events. Share your stories. Participate. Make Toronto a Sanctuary City!
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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK:
Toronto - March 2nd to 8th, 2009
_____________________
BACKGROUND
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is taking place in more than 40 cities across the globe (the number of cities is growing daily). This year, IAW happens in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault on the people of Gaza. In Toronto, the birthplace of IAW, a full week of lectures, films, and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid.




The theme for IAW 2009 in Toronto is “Standing United with the People of Gaza”, events will take place at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University and York University. IAW 2009 will continue to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level.
MEDIA
See bottom of email
EVENTS
Monday, March 2: Resisting Apartheid: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Library Building
Ryerson Univesity
LIB 072
350 Victoria St.
Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, commentator and human rights activist. He is a founding member of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to uphold international law and universal human rights. He holds a bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, NY. He contributed to the philosophical volume, "Controversies and Subjectivity" (John Benjamins, 2005) and to "The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid" (Verso Books, 2001). He advocates an ethical vision for a unitary, secular democratic state in historic Palestine. Moderators:
Golta Shahidi,
Saron Ghebressellassie
Tuesday, March 3:
Education Under Occupation
Walberg Building, Room 116
University of Toronto
184-200 College Street
Toronto M56 3E5
Thaer Aliwaiwi was born in Palestine, and is a 2nd year Student at the University of Toronto (Economics and Political Science). Thaer is member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid and the Palestine House Arab Youth Program.
Yafa Jarrar: is a member of the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity. She was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, moved to Canada in 2003 to attend Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific. She has represented Palestine in the Arab League of Nations in Cairo in 2001 to speak on the effects of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian educational process and then was elected to represent Palestine to speak at the United Nations, in the same year. She is currently finishing her degree in Politics and International Development Studies at Trent University. Moderators:
Rachel Gurofsky,
Alan Sears
Wednesday, March 4:
Gaza: Breaking the Siege
Walberg Building,
Room 116
University of Toronto
184-200 College Street
Toronto M56 3E5
Leila El-Haddad is a freelance Palestinian journalist, media activist, and mother from Gaza who writes mainly for the Guardian Unlimited and Aljazeera English. She maintains the award-winning blog "Raising Yousuf and Noor: diary of a Palestinian mother"(www.a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com ), which explores the complex relationships between the personal and political as she raises her children and negotiates displacement and occupation. She is currently based in the United States with her husband, a Palestinian refugee from the ethnically cleansed village of Waarit al-Siris. Laila has also been published in Le Monde Diplmatique, the New Statesmen, the International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post among others. She has made appearances on CNN, NPR, CBC, Democracy Now, Aljazeera International and the BBC.
Jon Elmer is an independent journalist and researcher who has reported extensively from Gaza and the West Bank. He writes for Inter Press Service news agency and has contributed to a variety of publications including The Journal of Palestine Studies, The Progressive and Z Magazine.
http://jonelmer.ca/
Moderators:
Mary-Jo Nadeau,
Ilaria Giglioli
Thursday, March 5:
Globalization, Labour and Poverty in Palestine
Koffler Institute Room 108
569 Spadina Avenue
Toronto M5S 2J7
Leila Farsakh is assistant professor in political science at University of Massachusetts Boston. She holds a PhD from the University of London (2003), an M Phil from the University of Cambridge, UK (1990), and a BA from the University of Exeter in the UK (1989). She has worked with a number of international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris (1993-1996) and the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute in Ramallah (1998-1999). Dr.Farsakh has published on questions related to Palestinian labor flows, the Oslo Process, international migration and regional integration in a wide range of journals, including the Middle East Journal, the European Journal of Development Research, Journal of Palestine Studies and Le Monde Diplomatique. Her book, Palestinian Labor Migration to Israel: Labour, Land and Occupation, has been published by Routledge Press in the fall of 2005.She also edited Commemorating the Naksa, Evoking the Nakba (EMJES, Spring 2008). In 2001 she won the Peace and Justice Award from the Cambridge Peace Commission, in Cambridge-Massachusetts.
Robert Lovelace settled on land near Ardoch in 1979. He was born into a line of Tslagi Indians through his great grandparents Mungle, grandfather,and mother, a heritage he honours. Bob attended cultural school as a child, joined AIM for several years while at University, and in the Fall of 1979 joined Honourary Chief Harold Perry to research, negotiate, and then launch an uncompromising legal defence of the wild rice stands near Ardoch. For nearly 25 years Bob has remained a steadfast and determined representative for the Algonquin communities of Ardoch, Sharbot Lake and many others, seeking to invigorate a sense of dignity and freedom in all Algonquin Peoples.
David McNally is Professor of Political Science at York University and author of four books, including Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism. He is active with the New Socialists and the Popular Education and Action Project in Toronto.
Moderator:
Ali Mustafa
Friday, March 6:
From South Africa to Palestine: The Struggle Continues
Location TBA
Ronnie Kasrils was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1938. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia (Lithuania). He joined the ANC 1960 after the Sharpeville massacre. This led to a lifetime of political activism. He was a member of the ANC's military wing at its inception in 1961. He became chief of military intelligence, operated from exile in neighbouring African states and clandestinely in South Africa. For many years, he was a member of both the ANC and the Communist Party national executive committees. He was appointed deputy minister of defense in South Africa's first democratic government (1994-99); Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999-2004); Minister of Intelligence Services (2004-2008). Retired from government, he now devotes himself to writing, lecturing and Palestine solidarity. His autobiography is "Armed & Dangerous" (publisher Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg). He is married to a fellow struggle veteran and has two adult sons
Moderators:
Rafeef Ziadah and Abbie Bakan
Israeli Apartheid Week Toronto is endorsed by the following organizations:
* Canadian Arab Federation
* Palestine House
* Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
* Caribbean Studies Student Union (U of T)
* Equity Studies Student Union (U of T)
* Health Studies Student Union (Uof T)
* CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee
* CUPE Local 3907
* CUPE Local 3903
*CAW Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy
* Not In Our Name: Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
* Critical Area Studies Collective (Uof T)
*Centre for Middle Eastern Studies
* No One Is Illegal
* Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
* Always Question (Uof T)
* Canadian Forum for Justice and Peace in Sri Lanka
* Barrio Nuevo
* NOCOPS (Newly Organized Coalition Opposing Police in Schools)
* Women in Solidarity with Palestine
* Common Cause
* Faculty for Palestine
* Palestine House Youth Program
* Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance-Ontario
* Toronto Women's Bookstore
To ENDORSE Israeli Apartheid Week in Toronto, to make a DONATION or GET INVOLVED with the organizing please email saia@riseup.net . _______________
*Media info:
5th INTERNATIONAL ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK TORONTO
MEDIA ADVISORY
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 4, 2008
CONTACT: 416 890 3703 /
media@apartheidweek.org
WEB: www.apartheidweek.org
5th INTERNATIONAL ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK
Standing United with the People of Gaza
What: Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 – Standing united with the people of Gaza
When: March 2nd – March 8th 2009
Where: Toronto – multiple venues
The 5th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) will take place in Toronto from March 2nd to March 8th 2009. IAW will feature lectures, film screenings, cultural activities, and demonstrations aimed at raising awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies toward Palestinians and to gather support for the international boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign. Concurrent events will be held in over 30 cities throughout Canada and internationally, including South Africa and Palestine.
For further information visit www.apartheidweek.org or contact media@apartheidweek.org or 416 890 3703