[Bloquez l'empire!] Sept 11 Concordia Reading of North of 9/11 (dedicated to Lillian Robinson)

[David Bernans]

Dedicated to Lillian Robinson

On the 5th anniversary of 9/11, (September 11, 2006)

"9/11 RETROSPECTIVE: Troubling Directions North of 9/11" David Bernans
7:00pm @ Concordia Community Solidarity Co-op Bookstore, 2150 Bishop street, 
Montreal. The event will include readings from the novel North of 9/11 (Cumulus 
Press, 2006), musical performances and critical discussions of student activism 
in a post-9/11 Montreal.

The novel I am credited with writing owes much to the encouragement and 
merciless criticism of Lillian Robinson. She is also mentioned several times in 
the book. The main protagonist of North of 9/11, a first-year Women's Studies 
major by the name of Sarah Murphy, calls Lillian her "hero". She is my hero 
too.

Lillian has been following the media coverage of the banning of my book reading 
at Concordia and the subsequent scrambling of the PR department to concoct a 
cover story. She is very excited about the event and would very much like to be 
there.

We will be video taping the reading, discussion and musical performances in 
order to bring it to Lillian at the hospital. We also hope to show video of the 
speech that Lillian gave at the launch of North of 9/11 in May. That speech is 
even more relevant today than it was in May. As you may recall, the launch 
happened on the day Canadian parliamentarians were debating whether to extend 
Canada's military engagement in Afghanistan. Lillian made the connections 
between the lonely anti-war voices of the North of 9/11 protagonists and 
today's anti-war movement. Now, we are seeing the consequences of that House of 
Commons vote as the civilian and military death tolls mount.

So I really hope you all can make it.

As you may know, I have refused to fill out another booking application to hold 
this event at Concordia. Filling out an application would mean submitting to 
another risk assessment. I will not submit to any more risk assessments until 
the so-called "risk assessment committee" is fundamentally reformed. The 
secrecy of committee membership should end (only the head of the committee, VP 
Services Michael Di Grappa is known to the public). There should be a review of 
the committee's procedures and past decisions. It should give reasons to 
individuals and groups when it denies their events security clearance. And 
there should be student, staff and faculty representation on the committee.

Since Concordia is not helping with the event, we are trying to rig the proper 
audio and visual equipment to show the dvd of Lillian's speech ourselves. So if 
any of you have access to equipment such as a sound system, or even speakers 
for the video projector, your help would be much appreciated. If you can help, 
please call David Widgington at 514-523-1975.

Thanks for your solidarity and support,

David Bernans, author and security risk

for more info www.cumuluspress.com