News, Events & Comments

Please attend an emergency community meeting to support U.S. war resister Kimberly Rivera and her family!

WHEN: Wednesday, September 5, 7:00 PM

WHERE: Parkdale United Church, 171 Dunn Avenue, Toronto

WHY: STOP THE DEPORTATIONS!

When Kimberly Rivera saw with her own eyes the devastation of war, and the trauma it inflicts on children and families, she followed her conscience and refused to go back. Instead, she and her husband and their (then) two children came to Canada.

Since that day in 2007, the Riveras have been fighting to live their lives in peace. But despite the widespread support of the Canadian people for U.S. war resisters, and despite two votes in Parliament calling on the government to let war resisters stay, the Harper Government continues to target war resisters for deportation.

Kim and her family - which now includes two children born in Canada - now face deportation on September 20. In the U.S., Kim faces court martial, jail time, and a felony conviction that will follow her for life. All for the "crime" of refusing to participate in the invasion, destruction, and occupation of Iraq.

Kim stood up for peace at great risk to herself. Now we must stand up for Kim, and for other war resisters who face the same struggle. Please join the War Resisters Support Campaign for an emergency community meeting to support the Riveras, and to call on Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to stop the deportation.

Please share this information with your friends and neighbours. We hope to see you there!

In peace and solidarity, the War Resisters Support Campaign

Dear Friends of War Resisters: After a period of calm in the cases of U.S. Iraq War resisters, things are quickly coming to a head.

War resister Kimberly Rivera and her family will receive a decision in their case in a few days and they face imminent deportation to the United States. Another war resister has been told to complete all of the submissions for his case by September 20th and to expect a decision shortly afterwards. Many other resisters are awaiting decisions on Humanitarian & Compassionate applications or spousal sponsorships. It appears that these decisions will now start coming in quickly.

Today, we are urgently appealing to you for all types of help to assist with this crucial phase of the fight to win asylum for war resisters.

In spite of two motions passed in the House of Commons calling on the government to allow war resisters to stay in Canada, thousands of letters and petitions, and support across the country for war resisters, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney continue to fight to have every U.S. war resister removed from Canada. Minister Kenney has had Citizenship & Immigration Canada lawyers intervene in the individual hearings and court cases of war resisters. He publicly labelled them "bogus" refugees, biasing the decisions in their cases. And he took the unprecedented step of issuing a bulletin to all Immigration Officers requiring them to red-flag applications that involve war resisters, labelling them as 'criminally inadmissible'. (http://resisters.ca/operational-bulletin-202/)

Faith communities, human rights organizations, refugee rights groups and thousands of Canadians have called on the Minister to implement the motions passed in Parliament, or, at a minimum, to allow the individual cases to be heard on their own merits – the same free and independent consideration that Minister Kenney insists was given to Conrad Black.

The only reason that U.S. Iraq War resisters have been able to stay in Canada as long as they have is because of the tremendous support they have received from Canadians for their courageous decision to stand up against a war that was internationally recognized as illegal and immoral. In the coming days and weeks we will be asking supporters to once again take action to let the government know that Canadians still support the war resisters and believe as strongly as ever that they should be allowed to stay.

But we also urgently need funds. We are fighting a federal government that has unlimited resources, and they are dropping a deportation order on the eve of a long weekend, with Parliament not sitting, with possibly only days before the Riveras face removal. To build a public campaign in such a short period of time, we will need to pull out all stops to demand that the federal government not deport any war resisters.

Nobody deserves to spend even a single day in jail for making a conscientious decision not to participate in the Iraq War. A victory for U.S. war resisters in Canada will be a major victory for peace and justice, and for the kind of Canada we want this country to be.

Thank you, as always, for your past and ongoing support. In peace and solidarity, War Resisters Support Campaign www.resisters.ca
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For anyone who is able to and wishes to donate, here is how to do it:

1. Donate online by going here: http://resisters.chipin.com
2. Donate by cheque: To mail us a donation, please make a cheque payable to the War Resisters Support Campaign and mail it to:
War Resisters Support Campaign Box 13, 427 Bloor Street West Toronto, ON M5S 1X7 CANADA

Taodhg suggested reposting this appeal as action against a "non-social" enterprise, so...

some news from down under: the Australian Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation is calling for an nternational Day of Action against Domino-Pizza on September 15th.

Labels: Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, Dominos

from Hector Bunyan, Board of Directors -TorontotheBetter Larning and Development
________________________________________________________________________________
Annaleise Carr -

A heartfelt thank you, Annaleise, When they said you were too young, they had no clue of your spirit's maturity.

When they said you couldn't do it, they were clueless about the size and sincerity of your dream. You are an inspiration to all generations, everywhere.

From Toronto The Better

An appeal from the alliance for global justice:

TAKE ACTION FOR COLOMBIA'S STRIKING PRISONERS!

Over 11,000 Colombian prisoners in 21 penitentiaries have been participating in a hunger strike and other forms of nonviolent protests since August 2nd. They are demanding sanitary and healthy conditions, an end to overcrowding and an end to the extraditions out of Colombia of prisoners important to the peace process. Degrading conditions in Colombian prisons are part of a restructuring of the penal system that has been funded and advised by the US government. On Wednesday, August 15, 2012, Colombians in Bogotá will be protesting at both the US Embassy and the Colombian Capitol. 

Following is a sample script for emails or phone calls:

I am contacting you in solidarity with the more than 11,000 hunger strikers in 21 Colombian prisons who are demanding better conditions and a legitimate peace process. They are calling on the Colombian government to declare a State of Emergency in the country's corrections facilities and to install a National Board of Consultation with inmate representation to end the prisons' humanitarian crisis.

I demand that the US government investigate the US funded and advised Program for the Improvement of the Colombian Prison System (PICPS). US oversight has helped create these bad prison conditions.  Under the PICPS, assaults and torture of prisoners have become commonplace, food is often spoiled, rotten and contaminated, access to clean water is limited to a few minutes per day and health care is routinely denied.

I also call on the US government to end its practice of extraditing Prisoners of War and paramilitary prisoners whose presence in Colombia is needed for the country's peace process and fact finding efforts. Especially I call on the US government to end the extreme isolation of the Prisoner of War Ricardo Palmera while he is being held in the US, and to end the practice of solitary confinement in all US prisons.

To contact the Colombian Embassy:
embassyofcolombia@colombiaemb.org , or call 202-387-8338 
To contact your Congress Person:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

...There are many ways to participate in the Cancer Prevention Challenge:

* Become a participant: Register your own event, and ask friends and family to sponsor you. We are looking for expert fundraisers!
* Sponsor a participant: Find a participant who's event speaks to you, and sponsor him/her by donating on his/her events page.
* Donate to WHEN: If you are too busy to browse through the list of challenges and events, or can't decide who to sponsor, you can simply donate to WHEN. Our work is focused on the prevention of environmentally related diseases.


See the Women's Healthy Environments Network August 2012 News Buleetion for more details...

Labels: Women's Healthy Environments Network