From van-announce-bounces at lists.resist.ca  Sat May  1 09:24:50 2004
From: van-announce-bounces at lists.resist.ca (van-announce-bounces at lists.resist.ca)
Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 09:24:50 -0700
Subject: [news] Forward of moderated message
Message-ID: <mailman.0.1083428690.23897.van-announce@lists.resist.ca>

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From news at resist.ca  Sun May  2 13:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 20:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] General Strike Updates
Message-ID: <20040502201703.12632.qmail@resist.ca>

This article will remain in place throughout the duration of General Strike 
actions. It does not matter what name the BC Fed leadership are giving this 
groundswell of movement from the working people of this province - what we are 
witnessing today is effectively a General Strike - as come Monday most of the 
province will be shut down in protest of the Liberal Government's onslaught on 
organized workers and in particular, the Hospital Employees Union. Please email 
generalstrike at resist.ca with updates for this item. This is being provided in 
the absence of information being posted widely on union bulletin boards. With 
Solidarity - We can win!

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/1/21184/60849


From christoff at resist.ca  Mon May  3 03:15:58 2004
From: christoff at resist.ca (Stefan Christoff)
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 03:15:58 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [news] CKUT Radio: Iraq - Resistance, Occupation and Death 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0405030315420.8046@resist.ca>


CKUT Radio: Iraq - Resistance, Occupation and Death

Listen to an interview with Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist who is
currently in Occupied Iraq. Dahr speaks about the growing Iraqi resistance
to the American and British lead occupation. The interview also focuses on
the deadly reality of the military occupation of Iraq.

Associated Press has estimated that over 1361 Iraqis were killed from
April 1st to April 30th, and that at least 136 US troops died during the
same period, about 1/10th the number of Iraqi deaths.  A significant
amount of the occupation carnage inflicted on Iraqi civilians by
occupation forces, took place in the city of Falluja, where official
estimates have labelled the number of Iraqi deaths at over 700 during the
month of April.

The April 2004 siege of Fallujah, where Americans unleashed their arsenal
of warplanes and tanks, became a symbol of resistance that rallied many
Iraqis - Shiite and Sunni - and people throughout the world in support of
the Iraqi resistance.

It was also the deadly reality of resistance to the American lead
occupation, which was broadcast in images throughout Iraq and the world,
which illustrated the deadly reality of American & British military
occupation. Importantly the over 700 deaths in Fallujah and bloody images
broadcast from the occupation of Iraq throughout the month of April,
garnered almost zero response from G8 leaders, from Canada, to France, to
Japan, illustrating the absolute complicity for what many international
organizations are calling American war crimes in Iraq.

To listen to the interview with Dahr Jamail visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=9105

To read written reports from Dahr Jamail and independent journalism about
the occupation of Iraq visit:

The New Standard:
http://www.thenewstandard.org

-----------------------


From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Tue May  4 09:39:32 2004
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (Paul Browning)
Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 09:39:32 -0700
Subject: [news] Fw: York Student Expulsion
Message-ID: <007801c431f6$60bb25d0$6401a8c0@PAUL>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "s vally" <yllavs at yahoo.ca>
To: "san" <san at masses.tao.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 7:59 AM
Subject: san: York Student Expulsion


> Toronto Star May 4, 2004
>
>
> York U. expels student for 3 years
>
>
> LOUISE BROWN
> EDUCATION REPORTER
>
> York University has expelled a student activist for
> three years for taking part in unauthorized campus
> protests and using a bullhorn that disrupted classes.
>
> Third-year student Daniel Freeman-Maloy said he was
> told Friday he would be expelled the next day and will
> be charged with trespassing if he steps on school
> property.
>
> University president Lorna Marsden said Freeman-Maloy
> - a Jewish student who is a vocal defender of
> Palestinian rights - had disrupted learning twice this
> year by holding protests inside Vari Hall, where
> classes take place, and using what she called an
> "unauthorized sound amplification device," or
> megaphone.
>
> "This has nothing to do with politics, because there
> are other members of his group who have not been
> expelled. But it is about the repeated disruption of
> classes after several warnings," Marsden said
> yesterday. The expulsion cannot be appealed.
>
> Freeman-Maloy was involved in a March 16 clash between
> pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups on campus. One
> group re-enacted an Israeli border checkpoint and
> another wore T-shirts saying, "If I were a suicide
> bomber, you'd be dead by now."
>
> Marsden said Freeman-Maloy also broke the rules at a
> Vari Hall protest last fall when he used a bullhorn
> and failed to arrange a meeting with officials to
> discuss the breach in protocol.
>
> Political science professor David McNally said he is
> "shocked to hear of such excessive punishment. I would
> have thought such measures would be taken only in
> cases of extreme violence or a criminal act, not using
> a megaphone during a student protest."
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
> _______________________________________________
> SAN mailing list
> SAN at masses.tao.ca
> https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/san





From news at resist.ca  Sun May  2 14:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 21:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] Deportation order blocked for Palestinian Refugee
Message-ID: <20040502211703.18914.qmail@resist.ca>

Osama's victory represents the broader struggle of over 40 Palestinian refugees 
who have been refused refugee status in Canada and remain threatened with 
deportation from Canada. These refugees who have self-organized, as the 
Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees, continue to organize 
against their deportations, the majority of which are scheduled to be executed 
in the coming weeks and months. With your support and dedication, we will halt 
these profoundly unjust deportations.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/4/30/1748/29092


From news at resist.ca  Sun May  2 16:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 23:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] Iraqis Infuriated by New Flag That Was Designed in London
Message-ID: <20040502231702.28896.qmail@resist.ca>

Patrick Cockburn and David Usborne in Baghdad - April 28, 2004 - the 
lndependent/UK For many Iraqis it was the final insult. Again and again they 
expressed outrage yesterday that Iraq's United States-appointed and unelected 
leaders had, overnight, abolished the old Iraqi flag, seen by most Iraqis as 
the symbol of their nation, and chosen a new one.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/2/153547/0726


From news at resist.ca  Sun May  2 16:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 23:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] US military in torture scandal
Message-ID: <20040502231702.28895.qmail@resist.ca>

Julian Borger in Washington - April 30, 2004 - The Guardian (UK) Graphic 
photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US-run 
prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a military inquiry which has left 
six soldiers facing a possible court martial and a general under investigation. 
The scandal has also brought to light the growing and largely unregulated role 
of private contractors in the interrogation of detainees.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/2/153941/2274


From news at resist.ca  Mon May  3 01:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 08:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] BCFED sells out HEU workers
Message-ID: <20040503081703.2351.qmail@resist.ca>

Around 11PM Sunday night, a deal was announced between the Liberal government 
and the Liberal Union leadership. The deal will see workers wages slashed by 
15% and a cap on the number of jobs that can be privatized. This is essentially 
the same deal recently rejected by the HEU. Workers are pissed and threatening 
to wildcat. Get out and support HEU workers and the rights of BC families, 
workers and you! We need to let the government and trade union beaurocrats know 
we will not be sold out.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/3/0756/49589


From givara72 at yahoo.com  Mon May  3 00:15:45 2004
From: givara72 at yahoo.com (givara gaza)
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 00:15:45 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [news] TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB- by Seymour M. Hersh (The Newyorker)
Message-ID: <20040503071545.29977.qmail@web90107.mail.scd.yahoo.com>

TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the 
responsibility go?
Issue of 2004-05-10
Posted 2004-04-30
In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, twenty miles west of 
Baghdad, was one of the world's most notorious prisons, with torture, 
weekly executions, and vile living conditions. As many as fifty 
thousand men and women???no accurate count is possible???were jammed into 
Abu Ghraib at one time, in twelve-by-twelve-foot cells that were 
little more than human holding pits. 
In the looting that followed the regime's collapse, last April, the 
huge prison complex, by then deserted, was stripped of everything 
that could be removed, including doors, windows, and bricks. The 
coalition authorities had the floors tiled, cells cleaned and 
repaired, and toilets, showers, and a new medical center added. Abu 
Ghraib was now a U.S. military prison. Most of the prisoners, however???
by the fall there were several thousand, including women and teen-
agers???were civilians, many of whom had been picked up in random 
military sweeps and at highway checkpoints. They fell into three 
loosely defined categories: common criminals; security detainees 
suspected of "crimes against the coalition"; and a small number of 
suspected "high-value" leaders of the insurgency against the 
coalition forces. 
Last June, Janis Karpinski, an Army reserve brigadier general, was 
named commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and put in 
charge of military prisons in Iraq. General Karpinski, the only 
female commander in the war zone, was an experienced operations and 
intelligence officer who had served with the Special Forces and in 
the 1991 Gulf War, but she had never run a prison system. Now she was 
in charge of three large jails, eight battalions, and thirty-four 
hundred Army reservists, most of whom, like her, had no training in 
handling prisoners.
General Karpinski, who had wanted to be a soldier since she was five, 
is a business consultant in civilian life, and was enthusiastic about 
her new job. In an interview last December with the St. Petersburg 
Times, she said that, for many of the Iraqi inmates at Abu 
Ghraib, "living conditions now are better in prison than at home. At 
one point we were concerned that they wouldn't want to leave."
A month later, General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly 
suspended, and a major investigation into the Army's prison system, 
authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior 
commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained 
by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not 
meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its 
conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison 
system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between 
October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances 
of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Ghraib. 
This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was 
perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and 
also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd 
was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to 
Karpinski's brigade headquarters.) Taguba's report listed some of the 
wrongdoing:
Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on 
detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees 
with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with 
rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a 
detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his 
cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom 
stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate 
detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting 
a detainee. 
There was stunning evidence to support the allegations, Taguba added???
"detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic 
photographic evidence." Photographs and videos taken by the soldiers 
as the abuses were happening were not included in his report, Taguba 
said, because of their "extremely sensitive nature."
The photographs???several of which were broadcast on CBS's "60 Minutes 
2" last week???show leering G.I.s taunting naked Iraqi prisoners who 
are forced to assume humiliating poses. Six suspects???Staff Sergeant 
Ivan L. Frederick II, known as Chip, who was the senior enlisted man; 
Specialist Charles A. Graner; Sergeant Javal Davis; Specialist Megan 
Ambuhl; Specialist Sabrina Harman; and Private Jeremy Sivits???are now 
facing prosecution in Iraq, on charges that include conspiracy, 
dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault, 
and indecent acts. A seventh suspect, Private Lynndie England, was 
reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after becoming pregnant.
The photographs tell it all. In one, Private England, a cigarette 
dangling from her mouth, is giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign and 
pointing at the genitals of a young Iraqi, who is naked except for a 
sandbag over his head, as he masturbates. Three other hooded and 
naked Iraqi prisoners are shown, hands reflexively crossed over their 
genitals. A fifth prisoner has his hands at his sides. In another, 
England stands arm in arm with Specialist Graner; both are grinning 
and giving the thumbs-up behind a cluster of perhaps seven naked 
Iraqis, knees bent, piled clumsily on top of each other in a pyramid. 
There is another photograph of a cluster of naked prisoners, again 
piled in a pyramid. Near them stands Graner, smiling, his arms 
crossed; a woman soldier stands in front of him, bending over, and 
she, too, is smiling. Then, there is another cluster of hooded 
bodies, with a female soldier standing in front, taking photographs. 
Yet another photograph shows a kneeling, naked, unhooded male 
prisoner, head momentarily turned away from the camera, posed to make 
it appear that he is performing oral sex on another male prisoner, 
who is naked and hooded.
Such dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture, but it is 
especially so in the Arab world. Homosexual acts are against Islamic 
law and it is humiliating for men to be naked in front of other men, 
Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at New York 
University, explained. "Being put on top of each other and forced to 
masturbate, being naked in front of each other???it's all a form of 
torture," Haykel said.
Two Iraqi faces that do appear in the photographs are those of dead 
men. There is the battered face of prisoner No. 153399, and the 
bloodied body of another prisoner, wrapped in cellophane and packed 
in ice. There is a photograph of an empty room, splattered with blood.
The 372nd's abuse of prisoners seemed almost routine???a fact of Army 
life that the soldiers felt no need to hide. On April 9th, at an 
Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury) in the 
case against Sergeant Frederick, at Camp Victory, near Baghdad, one 
of the witnesses, Specialist Matthew Wisdom, an M.P., told the 
courtroom what happened when he and other soldiers delivered seven 
prisoners, hooded and bound, to the so-called "hard site" at Abu 
Ghraib???seven tiers of cells where the inmates who were considered the 
most dangerous were housed. The men had been accused of starting a 
riot in another section of the prison. Wisdom said:
SFC Snider grabbed my prisoner and threw him into a pile. . . . I do 
not think it was right to put them in a pile. I saw SSG Frederic, SGT 
Davis and CPL Graner walking around the pile hitting the prisoners. I 
remember SSG Frederick hitting one prisoner in the side of its [sic] 
ribcage. The prisoner was no danger to SSG Frederick. . . . I left 
after that. 
When he returned later, Wisdom testified:
I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling with 
its mouth open. I thought I should just get out of there. I didn't 
think it was right . . . I saw SSG Frederick walking towards me, and 
he said, "Look what these animals do when you leave them alone for 
two seconds." I heard PFC England shout out, "He's getting hard." 
Wisdom testified that he told his superiors what had happened, and 
assumed that "the issue was taken care of." He said, "I just didn't 
want to be part of anything that looked criminal."

The abuses became public because of the outrage of Specialist Joseph 
M. Darby, an M.P. whose role emerged during the Article 32 hearing 
against Chip Frederick. A government witness, Special Agent Scott 
Bobeck, who is a member of the Army's Criminal Investigation 
Division, or C.I.D., told the court, according to an abridged 
transcript made available to me, "The investigation started after SPC 
Darby . . . got a CD from CPL Graner. . . . He came across pictures 
of naked detainees." Bobeck said that Darby had "initially put an 
anonymous letter under our door, then he later came forward and gave 
a sworn statement. He felt very bad about it and thought it was very 
wrong."
Questioned further, the Army investigator said that Frederick and his 
colleagues had not been given any "training guidelines" that he was 
aware of. The M.P.s in the 372nd had been assigned to routine traffic 
and police duties upon their arrival in Iraq, in the spring of 2003. 
In October of 2003, the 372nd was ordered to prison-guard duty at Abu 
Ghraib. Frederick, at thirty-seven, was far older than his 
colleagues, and was a natural leader; he had also worked for six 
years as a guard for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Bobeck 
explained:
What I got is that SSG Frederick and CPL Graner were road M.P.s and 
were put in charge because they were civilian prison guards and had 
knowledge of how things were supposed to be run. 
Bobeck also testified that witnesses had said that Frederick, on one 
occasion, "had punched a detainee in the chest so hard that the 
detainee almost went into cardiac arrest."
At the Article 32 hearing, the Army informed Frederick and his 
attorneys, Captain Robert Shuck, an Army lawyer, and Gary Myers, a 
civilian, that two dozen witnesses they had sought, including General 
Karpinski and all of Frederick's co-defendants, would not appear. 
Some had been excused after exercising their Fifth Amendment right; 
others were deemed to be too far away from the courtroom. "The 
purpose of an Article 32 hearing is for us to engage witnesses and 
discover facts," Gary Myers told me. "We ended up with a c.i.d. agent 
and no alleged victims to examine." After the hearing, the presiding 
investigative officer ruled that there was sufficient evidence to 
convene a court-martial against Frederick.
Myers, who was one of the military defense attorneys in the My Lai 
prosecutions of the nineteen-seventies, told me that his client's 
defense will be that he was carrying out the orders of his superiors 
and, in particular, the directions of military intelligence. He 
said, "Do you really think a group of kids from rural Virginia 
decided to do this on their own? Decided that the best way to 
embarrass Arabs and make them talk was to have them walk around nude?"
In letters and e-mails to family members, Frederick repeatedly noted 
that the military-intelligence teams, which included C.I.A. officers 
and linguists and interrogation specialists from private defense 
contractors, were the dominant force inside Abu Ghraib. In a letter 
written in January, he said:
I questioned some of the things that I saw . . . such things as 
leaving inmates in their cell with no clothes or in female 
underpants, handcuffing them to the door of their cell???and the answer 
I got was, "This is how military intelligence (MI) wants it 
done." . . . . MI has also instructed us to place a prisoner in an 
isolation cell with little or no clothes, no toilet or running water, 
no ventilation or window, for as much as three days. 
The military-intelligence officers have "encouraged and told 
us, `Great job,' they were now getting positive results and 
information," Frederick wrote. "CID has been present when the 
military working dogs were used to intimidate prisoners at MI's 
request." At one point, Frederick told his family, he pulled aside 
his superior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum, the 
commander of the 320th M.P. Battalion, and asked about the 
mistreatment of prisoners. "His reply was `Don't worry about it.'"
In November, Frederick wrote, an Iraqi prisoner under the control of 
what the Abu Ghraib guards called "O.G.A.," or other government 
agencies???that is, the C.I.A. and its paramilitary employees???was 
brought to his unit for questioning. "They stressed him out so bad 
that the man passed away. They put his body in a body bag and packed 
him in ice for approximately twenty-four hours in the shower. . . . 
The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher, placed 
a fake IV in his arm and took him away." The dead Iraqi was never 
entered into the prison's inmate-control system, Frederick 
recounted, "and therefore never had a number."

Frederick's defense is, of course, highly self-serving. But the 
complaints in his letters and e-mails home were reinforced by two 
internal Army reports???Taguba's and one by the Army's chief law-
enforcement officer, Provost Marshal Donald Ryder, a major general.
Last fall, General Sanchez ordered Ryder to review the prison system 
in Iraq and recommend ways to improve it. Ryder's report, filed on 
November 5th, concluded that there were potential human-rights, 
training, and manpower issues, system-wide, that needed immediate 
attention. It also discussed serious concerns about the tension 
between the missions of the military police assigned to guard the 
prisoners and the intelligence teams who wanted to interrogate them. 
Army regulations limit intelligence activity by the M.P.s to passive 
collection. But something had gone wrong at Abu Ghraib. 
There was evidence dating back to the Afghanistan war, the Ryder 
report said, that M.P.s had worked with intelligence operatives 
to "set favorable conditions for subsequent interviews"???a euphemism 
for breaking the will of prisoners. "Such actions generally run 
counter to the smooth operation of a detention facility, attempting 
to maintain its population in a compliant and docile state." General 
Karpinski's brigade, Ryder reported, "has not been directed to change 
its facility procedures to set the conditions for MI interrogations, 
nor participate in those interrogations." Ryder called for the 
establishment of procedures to "define the role of military police 
soldiers . . .clearly separating the actions of the guards from those 
of the military intelligence personnel." The officers running the war 
in Iraq were put on notice.
Ryder undercut his warning, however, by concluding that the situation 
had not yet reached a crisis point. Though some procedures were 
flawed, he said, he found "no military police units purposely 
applying inappropriate confinement practices." His investigation was 
at best a failure and at worst a coverup. 
Taguba, in his report, was polite but direct in refuting his fellow-
general. "Unfortunately, many of the systemic problems that surfaced 
during [Ryder's] assessment are the very same issues that are the 
subject of this investigation," he wrote. "In fact, many of the 
abuses suffered by detainees occurred during, or near to, the time of 
that assessment." The report continued, "Contrary to the findings of 
MG Ryder's report, I find that personnel assigned to the 372nd MP 
Company, 800th MP Brigade were directed to change facility procedures 
to `set the conditions' for MI interrogations." Army intelligence 
officers, C.I.A. agents, and private contractors "actively requested 
that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable 
interrogation of witnesses."
Taguba backed up his assertion by citing evidence from sworn 
statements to Army C.I.D. investigators. Specialist Sabrina Harman, 
one of the accused M.P.s, testified that it was her job to keep 
detainees awake, including one hooded prisoner who was placed on a 
box with wires attached to his fingers, toes, and penis. She 
stated, "MI wanted to get them to talk. It is Graner and Frederick's 
job to do things for MI and OGA to get these people to talk."
Another witness, Sergeant Javal Davis, who is also one of the 
accused, told C.I.D. investigators, "I witnessed prisoners in the MI 
hold section . . . being made to do various things that I would 
question morally. . . . We were told that they had different rules." 
Taguba wrote, "Davis also stated that he had heard MI insinuate to 
the guards to abuse the inmates. When asked what MI said he 
stated: `Loosen this guy up for us.'`Make sure he has a bad 
night.'`Make sure he gets the treatment.'" Military intelligence made 
these comments to Graner and Frederick, Davis said. "The MI staffs to 
my understanding have been giving Graner compliments . . . statements 
like, `Good job, they're breaking down real fast. They answer every 
question. They're giving out good information.'"
When asked why he did not inform his chain of command about the 
abuse, Sergeant Davis answered, "Because I assumed that if they were 
doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone 
would have said something. Also the wing"???where the abuse took place???
"belongs to MI and it appeared MI personnel approved of the abuse."
Another witness, Specialist Jason Kennel, who was not accused of 
wrongdoing, said, "I saw them nude, but MI would tell us to take away 
their mattresses, sheets, and clothes." (It was his view, he added, 
that if M.I. wanted him to do this "they needed to give me 
paperwork.") Taguba also cited an interview with Adel L. Nakhla, a 
translator who was an employee of Titan, a civilian contractor. He 
told of one night when a "bunch of people from MI" watched as a group 
of handcuffed and shackled inmates were subjected to abuse by Graner 
and Frederick.
General Taguba saved his harshest words for the military-intelligence 
officers and private contractors. He recommended that Colonel Thomas 
Pappas, the commander of one of the M.I. brigades, be reprimanded and 
receive non-judicial punishment, and that Lieutenant Colonel Steven 
Jordan, the former director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing 
Center, be relieved of duty and reprimanded. He further urged that a 
civilian contractor, Steven Stephanowicz, of CACI International, be 
fired from his Army job, reprimanded, and denied his security 
clearances for lying to the investigating team and allowing or 
ordering military policemen "who were not trained in interrogation 
techniques to facilitate interrogations by `setting conditions' which 
were neither authorized" nor in accordance with Army regulations. "He 
clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse," Taguba 
wrote. He also recommended disciplinary action against a second CACI 
employee, John Israel. (A spokeswoman for CACI said that the company 
had "received no formal communication" from the Army about the 
matter.) 
"I suspect," Taguba concluded, that Pappas, Jordan, Stephanowicz, and 
Israel "were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse 
at Abu Ghraib," and strongly recommended immediate disciplinary 
action. 

The problems inside the Army prison system in Iraq were not hidden 
from senior commanders. During Karpinski's seven-month tour of duty, 
Taguba noted, there were at least a dozen officially reported 
incidents involving escapes, attempted escapes, and other serious 
security issues that were investigated by officers of the 800th M.P. 
Brigade. Some of the incidents had led to the killing or wounding of 
inmates and M.P.s, and resulted in a series of "lessons learned" 
inquiries within the brigade. Karpinski invariably approved the 
reports and signed orders calling for changes in day-to-day 
procedures. But Taguba found that she did not follow up, doing 
nothing to insure that the orders were carried out. Had she done so, 
he added, "cases of abuse may have been prevented."
General Taguba further found that Abu Ghraib was filled beyond 
capacity, and that the M.P. guard force was significantly undermanned 
and short of resources. "This imbalance has contributed to the poor 
living conditions, escapes, and accountability lapses," he wrote. 
There were gross differences, Taguba said, between the actual number 
of prisoners on hand and the number officially recorded. A lack of 
proper screening also meant that many innocent Iraqis were wrongly 
being detained???indefinitely, it seemed, in some cases. The Taguba 
study noted that more than sixty per cent of the civilian inmates at 
Abu Ghraib were deemed not to be a threat to society, which should 
have enabled them to be released. Karpinski's defense, Taguba said, 
was that her superior officers "routinely" rejected her 
recommendations regarding the release of such prisoners.
Karpinski was rarely seen at the prisons she was supposed to be 
running, Taguba wrote. He also found a wide range of administrative 
problems, including some that he considered "without precedent in my 
military career." The soldiers, he added, were "poorly prepared and 
untrained . . . prior to deployment, at the mobilization site, upon 
arrival in theater, and throughout the mission."
General Taguba spent more than four hours interviewing Karpinski, 
whom he described as extremely emotional: "What I found particularly 
disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness to either 
understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th 
MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the 
refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards 
and principles among its soldiers."
Taguba recommended that Karpinski and seven brigade military-police 
officers and enlisted men be relieved of command and formally 
reprimanded. No criminal proceedings were suggested for Karpinski; 
apparently, the loss of promotion and the indignity of a public 
rebuke were seen as enough punishment.

After the story broke on CBS last week, the Pentagon announced that 
Major General Geoffrey Miller, the new head of the Iraqi prison 
system, had arrived in Baghdad and was on the job. He had been the 
commander of the Guant??namo Bay detention center. General Sanchez 
also authorized an investigation into possible wrongdoing by military 
and civilian interrogators.
As the international furor grew, senior military officers, and 
President Bush, insisted that the actions of a few did not reflect 
the conduct of the military as a whole. Taguba's report, however, 
amounts to an unsparing study of collective wrongdoing and the 
failure of Army leadership at the highest levels. The picture he 
draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva 
conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-
day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-
intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating 
prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and 
torture, was the priority. 
The mistreatment at Abu Ghraib may have done little to further 
American intelligence, however. Willie J. Rowell, who served for 
thirty-six years as a C.I.D. agent, told me that the use of force or 
humiliation with prisoners is invariably counterproductive. "They'll 
tell you what you want to hear, truth or no truth," Rowell 
said. "`You can flog me until I tell you what I know you want me to 
say.' You don't get righteous information."
Under the fourth Geneva convention, an occupying power can jail 
civilians who pose an "imperative" security threat, but it must 
establish a regular procedure for insuring that only civilians who 
remain a genuine security threat be kept imprisoned. Prisoners have 
the right to appeal any internment decision and have their cases 
reviewed. Human Rights Watch complained to Secretary of Defense 
Donald Rumsfeld that civilians in Iraq remained in custody month 
after month with no charges brought against them. Abu Ghraib had 
become, in effect, another Guant??namo. 
As the photographs from Abu Ghraib make clear, these detentions have 
had enormous consequences: for the imprisoned civilian Iraqis, many 
of whom had nothing to do with the growing insurgency; for the 
integrity of the Army; and for the United States' reputation in the 
world. 
Captain Robert Shuck, Frederick's military attorney, closed his 
defense at the Article 32 hearing last month by saying that the Army 
was "attempting to have these six soldiers atone for its sins." 
Similarly, Gary Myers, Frederick's civilian attorney, told me that he 
would argue at the court-martial that culpability in the case 
extended far beyond his client. "I'm going to drag every involved 
intelligence officer and civilian contractor I can find into court," 
he said. "Do you really believe the Army relieved a general officer 
because of six soldiers? Not a chance." 
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact 

		
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From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 12:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 19:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] York U. expels student for 3 years
Message-ID: <20040504191704.6689.qmail@resist.ca>

May 4, 2004 - Louise Brown - Toronto Star York University has expelled a 
student activist for three years for taking part in unauthorized campus 
protests and using a bullhorn that disrupted classes.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/114845/5683


From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 12:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 19:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Athens Olympics $1B over budget
Message-ID: <20040504191704.6692.qmail@resist.ca>

Athens ? Massive cost overruns for the Aug. 13-29 Olympics have reached one 
billion euros ($1.61 billion Cdn), the country's new conservative government 
said today.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/113547/5843


From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 12:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 19:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Canada's largest union barred from P3 breakfast
Message-ID: <20040504191704.6691.qmail@resist.ca>

Toronto, April 28 /CNW/ The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships 
(CCPPP) has told a Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) researcher that it 
must "decline your registration" for a breakfast featuring a former British 
railway union leader and the Lord Mayor of London.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/113837/5308


From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 12:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 19:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Secretary General of El Salvadorian Health Union Violently
	Arrested in a Peaceful Occupation
Message-ID: <20040504191704.6690.qmail@resist.ca>

The HEU are not the only health care union in urgent need of assistance; look 
what's happening to our sisters and brothers in El Salvador...

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/114510/9439


From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 13:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 20:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Callout to support HEU workers - Demo info
Message-ID: <20040504201703.13194.qmail@resist.ca>

On Monday May 3rd, 2004, hospital workers across BC were feeling frustration, 
disbelief and anger. Overwhelmingly they rejected the "deal" that was made late 
Sunday night to end the HEU job action and the massive province wide strikes 
planned by unions across BC for Monday May 2 (which included over 70,000 CUPE 
members walking off the job). Workers are now figuring out how to regroup and 
move forward. Further actions are planned.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/12228/09305


From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 23:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 06:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Spain's PM: Iraq should serve as lesson. Troops return home
Message-ID: <20040505061703.2639.qmail@resist.ca>

Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Sunday, May 2, 2004 Madrid, Spain -- 
"...preemptive wars, never again; violations of international law, never 
again," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said. On Wednesday, the 
last 260 of the 1,300 Spanish troops who took part in the U.S.-led occupation 
returned home. Another 1,000 soldiers remain in Iraq to pack up military 
hardware and ship it back to Spain. The government says those soldiers will be 
in Spain by May 27.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/154714/3902


From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 23:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 06:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] B.C. Federation of Labour and NDP betrays thousands of
	workers
Message-ID: <20040505061703.2637.qmail@resist.ca>

Tom Hansen 03-May-04 Today, at a noon-rally of about 300 HEU workers and 
supporters at Vancouver General Hospital, palpable white rage was being 
expressed against the sellout of their strike by HEU and B.C. Federation of 
Labour leadership. Jim Sinclair and Chris Alnut were denounced as traitors to 
their strike and calls for their resignation were repeatedly made by many of 
the rally participants.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/155645/0653


From news at resist.ca  Tue May  4 23:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 06:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] How we survived jail hell (in Guantanamo)
Message-ID: <20040505061703.2638.qmail@resist.ca>

The Observer - Sunday March 14, 2004 For two years the Tipton Three have been 
silent prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Now, in this remarkable interview with 
David Rose, they describe for the first time the extraordinary story of their 
journey from the West Midlands to Camp Delta

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/155325/4390


From skisby at web.net  Wed May  5 15:46:12 2004
From: skisby at web.net (Steve Kisby)
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 15:46:12 -0700
Subject: [news] Eye In The Sky Exposes UBC Threat To Vancouver's Legacy
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20040505154612.015c8950@pop.web.net>

http://www.alternatives.com/prms/2004/wbps0503.pdf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- May 3, 2004

EAGLE TREE PARK
 NOT TOWERS --
MOTHER'S DAY DEMONSTRATION

6600 BLOCK OF NORTHWEST MARINE DRIVE BETWEEN AGRONOMY ROAD AND UBC GATE #6

Friday, April 30, the GVRD Board of Directors voted to send a letter to the UBC Board of Governors (BOG) asking them how proposed campus development such as the four, 20-storey Marine Residence towers "fit with the Cliff Erosion Management Plan (CEMP) for Pacific Spirit Regional Park," a plan that the BOG signed off on November 30, 2003.

With the GVRD Board of Directors asking that UBC's Board of Governors "take into consideration environmental sensitivities (of the cliffs within Pacific Spirit Regional Park) when they undertake planning of the towers," the pressure on UBC to relocate and drop the heights of the Marine Residence Towers is steadily increasing.

In the meanwhile, students, environmentalists, naturists, local neighbours, and Wreck Beach friends and supporters are planning a musical, peaceful protest against the towers for Sunday, May 9, Mother's Day, at high noon at the "Okay Corral" or location of proposed Tower #6, the tower closest to the cliff's edge. Beach musicians are enthusiastically writing original protest lyrics, and we plan to make a joyful noise for an hour on Mother's Day. We anticipate hundreds of demonstrators and will be unrolling banners reading: 
 
"EAGLE TREE PARK
 NOT TOWERS"

Support is expanding daily for the towers' relocation and for dropping of the heights by a minimum of 10 stories. Just last week, the People's artist, Joe Average, joined our cause. Find our online petition at http://www.wreckbeach.org or follow the link there or go directly to:  http://www.petitiononline.com/wreckbch/petition.html

Participants are invited to bring picnic lunches, Mom, children, musical instruments and pens to fill in the blanks on thousands of sample letters we will have available. Everyone is welcome in this massive show of solidarity. We'll also be accepting funds to help in this ongoing challenge with UBC. Parking is available at the Loonie Lot or at the Fraser Parkade.

UBC must understand when it comes to protecting the last unspoiled tree line and forested slopes by the sea in Vancouver except for Stanley Park, that people are united in their determination to not let UBC fulfill short-term goals at the expense of long-term park destruction!

Please note the artists' rendition of how these proposed towers would appear from the beach, river and sea. Thanks to photographer Bruce McPherson, and Glenn Stensrud, Mr. Eye in the Sky.
 
CONTACT INFO:
Judy Williams, Chair, WBPS: 604-856-9598 or 604-308-6336 / judyw at wreckbeach.org
Chris Rarinca, Vice-Chair WBPS: 604-420-4742
James Loewen, Public Relations, WBPS: 604-689-9697 / james3D at shaw.ca

LINKS: 
1.  Artists' Rendition of Proposed Towers From Wreck Beach (PDF)
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_superimposed_4-01-04.pdf

2.  Sunday, May 9, Mother's Day, Demonstration Poster (low & high resolution)
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_poster_5-04-04_color.jpg
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_poster_5-04-04_b&w_highres.jpg

3.  Petition Toward Relocation of Proposed Towers (PDF & Microsoft Word)
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_petition_4-26-04.pdf
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_petition_4-26-04.doc

4.  Sample Letter to UBC Board of Governors
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_sample_letter_to_ubc_bog.pdf
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_sample_letter_to_ubc_bog.doc



From news at resist.ca  Wed May  5 23:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 06:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] Chagnon sends police into Kanesatake
Message-ID: <20040506061702.18414.qmail@resist.ca>

MONTREAL - The Surete du Quebec and the RCMP are being sent in to Kanesatake to 
help aboriginal police officers to patrol the Mohawk community.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/5/162451/0951


From news at resist.ca  Wed May  5 23:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 06:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] Bush under fire from US ex-envoys
Message-ID: <20040506061702.18415.qmail@resist.ca>

BBC The attack on Bush comes after a similar broadside against Blair About 50 
retired US diplomats have written to President George W Bush to criticise 
current American policy towards the Middle East.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/4/153852/3479


From news at resist.ca  Wed May  5 23:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 06:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] The Good Guys?
Message-ID: <20040506061702.18416.qmail@resist.ca>

Robert Fisk; May 04, 2004 (W)asn't Hitler one of "us", a Westerner, a citizen 
of "our" culture? If he could kill six million Jews, which he did, why should 
we be surprised that "we" can treat Iraqis like animals? Last week came the 
photographs to prove we can.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/5/193444/5206


From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Thu May  6 17:20:14 2004
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 00:20:14 -0000
Subject: [news] TEST
Message-ID: <mailman.0.1308653415.6557.news@lists.resist.ca>

The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment.

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From news at resist.ca  Fri May  7 01:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 08:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Cyclists Arrested and Fined at Critical Mass in Montreal
Message-ID: <20040507081704.18313.qmail@resist.ca>

On Friday, April 30th, approximately 50 cyclists gathered at Phillip Square in 
downtown Montreal for a Critical Mass... ...The ride got off to a great start 
and wound its way peacefully through many downtown streets, including 
Ste-Catherine, Amherst, Ontario, and St-Laurent... ...At approximately 6:45pm 
the ride was going east on Rachel street and began to be followed by a police 
cruiser with its sirens on.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/6/3112/85101


From news at resist.ca  Fri May  7 01:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 08:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Disney forbidding distribution of film that criticizes Bush
Message-ID: <20040507081704.18312.qmail@resist.ca>

By Jim Rutenberg - The New York Times - May 5, 2004 Washington, May 4 - The 
Walt Disney Company is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new 
documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes President Bush, executives 
at both Disney and Miramax said Tuesday.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/6/125754/6154


From news at resist.ca  Fri May  7 01:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 08:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Toward the petro-apocalypse
Message-ID: <20040507081705.18315.qmail@resist.ca>

By Yves Cochet (Green Party) March 31, 2004 - Le Monde (Paris) In a few years, 
the global production of conventional oil will fall, while the global demand 
continues to rise. The resulting shock of this structural oil famine is 
inevitable, so great are the dependency of our economies on cheap oil and, 
related to the first, our inability to wean ourselves from this dependency in a 
short period of time.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/6/13755/29526


From news at resist.ca  Fri May  7 01:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 08:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Why the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre was closed for two
	days
Message-ID: <20040507081704.18314.qmail@resist.ca>

This excerpt from the Carnagie newsletter from May 1st, 2004 explains the 
reasons behind the recent two day closure of the Downtown Eastside Women's 
Centre in April. The negligence of the board to meet even the most basic 
responsibilities (i.e. paying the Hydro bill) has resulted in an overwhelming 
response from staff and community members, who are organizing and using the 
Societies Act to officially outst the board. Many women who use the services of 
the DTES Women's Centre were threatened with the denial of entrance and 
services if they continued to engage in a legal sit-in during the two day 
lockout that resulted....

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/5/161555/0108


From pat_wobbly at hotmail.com  Fri May  7 13:18:44 2004
From: pat_wobbly at hotmail.com (P S)
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 13:18:44 -0700
Subject: [news] MLA calls for ban on squeegee kids
Message-ID: <Sea2-F53WXIXvcUQAXJ00011b30@hotmail.com>

MLA calls for ban on squeegee kids
http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=squeegeelaw05072004

Vancouver Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt wants to ban squeegee kids and 
aggressive panhandlers, and he's introduced a private member's bill to do 
it.

The Vancouver-Burrard MLA says people are tired of being harassed on the 
street. "My community has suffered awful, awful atrocities," he says. "I 
just want these bills passed to give police the tools they need."

He began work on the Safe Streets Act 18 months ago, basing it on similar 
legislation in Alberta and Ontario. The act would make it illegal for 
squeegee kids and panhandlers to approach people for money.

Mayencourt has the backing of the Vancouver Board of Trade. But others 
aren't so supportive.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is denouncing the bill, saying that in 
a democratic society, people have a right to ask for spare change ? as long 
as they do it peacefully.

"We don't need this legislation," says Murray Mollard, the executive 
director of the association. "It's offensive in a variety of ways, and it 
prohibits behaviour that just shouldn't be prohibited."

Others agree. Vancouver city councillor Jim Green says the bill is a 
desperate bid to get attention before the next election.

Green says the law would attack the very people who have been victims of 
Liberal government policies. He says that in his 18 months in office, he 
hasn't heard from anyone upset over squeegee people.

"I have not had one e-mail telling me that people are feeling intimidated or 
harassed by somebody coming up and doing their windshield," he says. "It's 
not like somebody coming up with a gun and shooting somebody. I mean, these 
guys are trying to do something."

Green says if Mayencourt wants squeegee people to go away he should focus on 
job training programs, providing low-income housing, and reinstating people 
who have been kicked off welfare.

Private member's bills usually stand little chance of passing, but 
Mayencourt says he has the full support of his caucus, including the premier 
and Solicitor General Rich Coleman.

He also says the constitutionality of a similar law in Ontario was upheld by 
the Supreme Court of Canada.

_________________________________________________________________
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From news at resist.ca  Sat May  8 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Stand and support Kanehsatake
Message-ID: <20040508181703.20902.qmail@resist.ca>

On Monday, May 3rd the community of Kanehsatake was forced once again to defend 
its Territory against an outside and invading police force loyal to the ousted 
and former chief Jimmy Gabriel. During the night of the 3rd, Kanehsatake 
community member, Joe David died as a result of injuries he had sustained five 
years earlier.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/8/104652/9662


From news at resist.ca  Sat May  8 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Three more perspectives on the sellout of BC workers
Message-ID: <20040508181703.20901.qmail@resist.ca>

Here are three more articles on the sellout of the HEU and BC workers. One by 
Andy Lehrer of the Socialist Alterative, one by the BC Provincial Executive 
Committee, Communist Party of Canada and one by radical at large, Macdonald 
Stainsby.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/6/125338/6857


From news at resist.ca  Sat May  8 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] New McDonald's boss has surgery for colon cancer
Message-ID: <20040508181703.20900.qmail@resist.ca>

CBC - Thu, 06 May 2004 - CHICAGO Less than three weeks after assuming the top 
post at McDonald's Corp. following his predecessor's death from a heart attack, 
chief executive Charlie Bell underwent colon cancer surgery.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/8/103619/5046


From news at resist.ca  Sat May  8 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Columbian strikers will be treated as terrorists, police say
Message-ID: <20040508181704.20903.qmail@resist.ca>

03.05.2004 - Maria Engqvist, http://www.anncol.org Colombia's ultra-rightist 
president Uribe's move to declare an oil strike illegal, has sparked worldwide 
protests. More than a dozen union leaders have been arrested and police have 
announced that anti-terrorism measures will be taken against striking workers 
at the country's national oil company, Ecopetrol.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/6/124721/3397


From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Mon May 10 13:21:08 2004
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (Paul Browning)
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 13:21:08 -0700
Subject: [news] Fw: The case of Jewish pro-Palestinian student Dan
	Freeman-Maloyand York University
Message-ID: <015801c436cc$53f6ad80$6401a8c0@PAUL>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony Tracy" <tony at riseup.net>
To: <san at masses.tao.ca>
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 9:23 AM
Subject: san: The case of Jewish pro-Palestinian student Dan
Freeman-Maloyand York University


> I'd like to draw folks attention yet again to the continuing case of Dan
> Freeman-Maloy, a Jewish undergraduate student at York University who is an
> outspoken supporter of Palestinian self-determination and the right of
> return for Palestinian refugees, and his three year suspension
(expulsion?)
> from York University for the dubious crime of using a megaphone on campus.
>
> Please see http://www.en-camino.org/freespeechyorku/ for more information
> and background on this case.
>
> The University administration is digging their heels in considerably with
> respect to this case. York University President Lorna Marsden, who
> unilaterally issued a notice of suspension (and threat of trespass charges
> should he enter the York U. campus at any point in the next three years)
> without any form of prior process, has made several statements to the
media
> in defence of her position on Freeman-Maloy's suspension, which she called
> "rustication, an old academic form of discipline." She said the student
had
> twice used a megaphone during protests on the campus. "You can't disrupt
> the
> academy," Marsden stated to a National Post reporter. "It's all written
> down
> in rules that are very, very old. The decision comes to me. He cannot
> appeal."
>
> An annotated version of the letter of suspension that Freeman-Maloy
> received
> from York President Marsden is available online at
> http://www.en-camino.org/freespeechyorku/april26_2004marsden.htm
>
> On Friday, President Marsden released a public statement, issued to the
> press and displayed on York's website at
> http://www.yorku.ca/yfile/archive/index.asp?Article=2784 which justifies
> the
> bizarrely lengthy suspension of Freeman-Maloy by repeating the mis-truth
> that he refused to meet with university officials to discuss his case and
> indicating that therefore his "utter disregard for the rest of the
academic
> community here at York warranted this unusual measure".
>
> It is urgent that letters are sent to York President Marsden opposing the
> three year suspension of Freeman-Maloy.  Please write to President Lorna
> Marsden at presidnt at yorku.ca (no "e" between "d" and "n") and copy your
> message to freespeechyorku at yahoo.ca.
>
> Letters can also be postmarked to:
>
> Office of the President
> York University
> 4700 Keele St.
> Toronto, ON
> Canada M3J 1P3
>
> or faxed to: 416-736-5641
>
> (please email freespeechyorku at yahoo.ca with copies of any letters that you
> post or fax on this issue).
>
> Below is an article written recently by Dan Freeman-Maloy with respect to
> his case:
>
> --------
>
> Musings of a Rusticated Student
>
> Daniel Freeman-Maloy, May 9, 2004
>
> Over the past week, I've come to a startling revelation: the President of
> York University doesn't like me very much. It's a harsh reality, but one
> that I'm being forced to come to grips with. She has me pegged as "the
lead
> protagonist in two highly confrontational and disruptive protests," and
> seems set on submitting me to "rustication, an old academic form of
> discipline." Rustication, for those without an old dictionary on hand, is
a
> sort of rural time-out. At the very least, she's declared that for the
> three
> years following May 1, 2004, I will "have no purpose on campus." Whether
> she's old-school enough to ensure that I live a rustic life throughout
this
> period isn't yet clear.
>
> Now Lorna Marsden is no hero of mine, but I've really always admired her
> prudent, business-like approach to administration. Her tireless efforts to
> convert our campus into a factory for the knowledge economy have, in
> particular, been noteworthy. But alas, the respect doesn't appear to be
> mutual. And so I've been thrown into the difficult process of coming to
> terms with the fundamental deterioration of our relationship. When I first
> received notice that I was being expelled from York University on Friday,
> April 30, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions prematurely. True,
> President Marsden had written me a letter claiming definitive "authority
> over the conduct of students"; true, she'd threatened me with charges of
> trespass if I come on campus. (I had used "an unauthorized sound
> amplification device" at two unauthorized demonstrations, she explained,
> and
> would have to be punished.) But I remembered looking through the shelves
of
> the first office I ever entered at York University, and seeing books by or
> about Rosa Luxemburg every other foot. Could the head of such a
progressive
> school really be so authoritarian? It just didn't make sense.
>
> And so the (false) realization hit me: Dr. Marsden must have mistakenly
> thought that April fool's day was at the end rather than the beginning of
> the month! Self-assured, I resolved to credit her for her fine humor, and
> to
> correct the timing of her April fool's day joke for future reference. The
> threat of trespass charges still bore on my mind, however, so I decided to
> try to touch base with her off campus.
>
> York's Spirit Rally, scheduled for Monday, May 3, provided just the right
> opportunity. And thus I found myself at the doors of the Duke of York,
> hoping to join other students, faculty and staff at a press conference
> designed to celebrate York's unique spirit and opportunities. But - first
> things first - I wanted to clear things up with our good President. "Dr.
> Marsden," I said, as she walked up the steps of the downtown pub. "My
> name's
> Daniel Freeman-Maloy, and I just received a letter notifying me of a
> three-year expulsion from York." All of the sudden, the same security
> guards
> who sit in on our campus political meetings swarmed us, threatening to
call
> the police. "But what about York's uniquely progressive spirit? What about
> your fine joke? Did you know that April fool's day was fully a month ago?
> Was this letter a 'May Day' joke?" My questions went unasked as our
> encounter was cut short; and so my doubts about the letter's friendly
> spirit
> grew stronger.
>
> My mind flashed back to the passage in the letter citing her authority to
> expel me: "pursuant to my authority over the conduct of students, I have
> determined that you will not be permitted to re-register". Was this for
> real? Can I really by expelled from my school by executive fiat, with no
> notice, no hearing, no avenue for appeal? Little did I know what she was
> telling reporters in the press conference: I had been rusticated. As in
the
> days of old, I would be sent to the country to think about what I had
done.
>
>
> For those who are poorly-versed in the ins and outs of rustication,
> President Marsden elaborated. "It's all written down," she explained to
the
> audience, "in rules that are very, very, very old. The decision comes to
> me.
> He cannot appeal." I've always been bad at arithmetic, but doesn't three
> "verys" equal one "antiquated"? Or should I just be thankful that Marsden
> didn't find any provisions to justify a public flogging? Maybe, taking the
> lead from the public relations campaign kicked off by the press
conference,
> I should explore my confusion with reference to the unique spirit of York.
>
> York University's mission statement describes our school as "a community
of
> faculty, staff and students dedicated to . social justice and accessible
> education." With this in mind, try to understand my confusion. If it's all
> about social justice and accessible education, why am I in the process of
> deciding whether I should take the time to fight the administration's
> political repression, or work to pay off the tens of thousands of dollars
> debt that I've wracked up paying tuition? Why is Marsden so intent on
> converting a progressive school into a pet business project, and on
> treating
> its campus as her political fiefdom? Why, to stick to the immediate issue
> at
> hand, am I being expelled?
>
> On this last point, which for the moment is most personally pressing for
> me,
> the truth is that I don't exactly know. For starters, though, let's run
> down
> the specifics of the two demonstrations that I am alleged to have
"designed
> [so as] to create threats to students' personal safety." (Such malicious
> intent! No wonder I'm being expelled!)
>
> On this first of these days, the administration provided space for "Israel
> Defense Forces (IDF) Appreciation Day," an event at which people sporting
> military paraphernalia congregated in one of York University's principal
> public spaces to celebrate Israeli militarism. The mayor of an illegal
West
> Bank settlement led the event, which was attended by many people who have
> served in the forces. Did I help to organize a demonstration to
politically
> confront this event? Certainly. I hate militarism, and feel especially
> compelled to oppose its Jewish nationalist variety, given its supposed
> connection to me. But honestly, which strikes you as more threatening:
> anti-nationalist spiels delivered via megaphone, or chanting IDF thugs
> dressed in military garb?
>
> That I would be singled out and punished for the events on the second day
> in
> question - March 16, 2004 - is even more puzzling. Which isn't to say that
> the day ran smoothly. In fact, what happened on that day was without
> precedent in my experience. But that I orchestrated it all is really news
> to
> me.
>
> The occasion of our demonstration was the first anniversary of the death
of
> Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli
> bulldozer as she tried to block it from demolishing a Palestinian family's
> home in the Gaza Strip. Approximately thirty of us set up a mock
> check-point, some dressed as soldiers and some as civilians (in fact,
> unimaginative bore that I am, I had no dramatic role, and was slated to
> leaflet passersby with information about Caterpillar, the company that
> manufactures the three-story bulldozers that demolish Palestinian homes).
>
> Having seen that a crowd of some 150 militant Zionists had congregated
> nearby for the purpose of a counter-demonstration, we'd postponed our
> action
> for about 45 minutes to avoid a clash. But no dice - once we set up, they
> proceeded to rush our display. We were surrounded, vastly outnumbered, and
> for nearly an hour faced physical and verbal intimidation. In this
context,
> my role shifted first from pamphleteering to standing in a line designed
to
> separate the counter-demonstration from our own; then pre-planned roles
> gave
> way to generalized tumult. In the process, some of our activists were
> kicked
> and spat upon, and one Palestinian woman among us was told that she should
> be raped and killed.
>
> Certainly, I spoke and chanted through a megaphone at various points
> throughout this process, as did many others. But perhaps indicative of my
> role in generating all of the noise is the fact that it took myself and
> other organizers fully 10 minutes to walk around coordinating with each
> other to leave and go, as planned, to the local Caterpillar office, since
> no
> speaker could raise their voice above the crowd's noise for a final
> call-out. (York's media relations coordinator, Nancy White, was soon after
> quoted as saying that "People who are participating in this have strongly
> held views on an issue and we do want to encourage them to participate and
> take part in democratic activities. I think we achieved that." The
> administration made no reference to my conduct until I received this most
> recent letter.)
>
> All of that said, I don't think the deterioration of my relationship with
> President Marsden's administration can be attributed solely to the events
> of
> these two days - assuming, of course, that this isn't all a prolonged May
> Day joke. After all, it's safe to say that we've been politically at odds
> throughout the year. After Marsden introduced Israeli Minister Natan
> Sharansky as a champion of human rights, I publicly denounced the event as
> racist. After she clapped gleefully for Canadian diplomat Michael Bell's
> speech, I explained to the audience why I thought it was useless. As she
> scrambled to further the role of wealthy investors on campus through the
> York University Foundation, I participated in a campaign to demand that an
> abusively racist employer be removed from its board. And so on.
>
> Before my head gets too big, however, it's important for me to draw
> attention to the fact that I'm a political novice, and for this expulsion
> to
> be solely about me seems implausible. I'm an inexperienced organizer and,
> to
> be blunt, this diminishes my political efficacy profoundly. I was
attracted
> to York University from the University of Toronto by the dynamism of
York's
> social justice community, and this community's more rooted activists, and
> the foundations they have laid, are the real basis for progressive
politics
> at York - tumultuous or otherwise. It is absolutely necessary, then, to
> view
> my expulsion in a broader light, situated on an escalating continuum of
> political repression by York's current administration.
>
> All of this needs to be framed by York's recent political history in
> general, and last year's major upsurge of student activism in particular.
> Facing a strong anti-war movement on campus last year, President Marsden
> responded fiercely, bringing mounted police onto campus for the first time
> ever, arresting three prominent organizers of a March 5 student strike,
and
> beginning to slap prohibitively high "security" fees on progressive
> speaking
> events. This year, her administration has continued with this process of
> repression, moving on to ban tabling and leafleting in various public
> spaces
> on campus and to otherwise stifle student dissent. Her administration also
> intervened heavy-handedly to allow for York's traditionally progressive
> student government to be overrun by the Stockwell Day cheerleading squad,
> who summarily postponed elections.
>
> Marsden quite openly wants to convert York into just another elite
> university, freed from the stigma of striking workers, uppity students,
and
> challenges to her administration's authority. And it is in this light that
> my expulsion makes perfect sense. The intimidating precedent set by the
> expulsion of a student activist resonates, especially on a campus where
the
> most active elements of the student body are non-status students
> particularly vulnerable to repression. It is the threat of this precedent,
> rather than the immediate personal or political effects of my removal from
> campus, that is most importantly at issue here.
>
> The setting of a precedent for political expulsion of students would be
yet
> another step in the process of creating President Marsden's envisioned
York
> Incorporated. And this is why those with a different vision for our campus
> have, I think, a significant stake in blocking it. By now, even if this
> does
> turn out to be joke, it's run on long enough that I have no choice but to
> pursue legal recourse, and am delighted to be doing so with the help of
the
> amazing folks at Roach, Schwartz and Associates. As for the political side
> of things, immediately after the York Free Speech Committee publicized its
> email address, we were flooded with messages of support. We appreciate
this
> immensely, and hope that the flow of letters of outrage to York's
> administration will continue. We thank everybody for the support they have
> provided, and will keep people posted as the campaign continues. Whether
> for
> bad humor or for rampant authoritarianism, President Marsden needs to be
> called on her conduct.
>
> _______________________________________________
> SAN mailing list
> SAN at masses.tao.ca
> https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/san





From news at resist.ca  Mon May 10 14:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 21:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Resist.ca mail and web problems resolved
Message-ID: <20040510211708.22740.qmail@resist.ca>

Sorry for the interruption folks. Our service provider, Telus, is incompetent 
and provides shotty support, even for their 'business class' customers. Users 
were experiencing difficulties downloading their email and loading web pages on 
resist.ca from about 2:30PM Friday until 12:00PM Monday. Everything should be 
back to normal for now. We really need to stop using Telus and get ourselves on 
a real colocation but the cost is prohibitive at the moment. If this weekend 
was an inconvenince to you, SEND US MONEY!

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/10/101430/171


From news at resist.ca  Mon May 10 14:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 21:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Campbell designed Bill 75 to force RAV deal
Message-ID: <20040510211709.22742.qmail@resist.ca>

newswire.ca BURNABY, BC, May 4 /CNW/ - Gold River deputy mayor and city 
councillor, Craig Anderson, told reporters at a Vancouver press conference that 
Premier Campbell informed his council in an out-of-session meeting that Bill 
75, the Special Projects Streamlining Act, was designed specifically to force 
through the Richmond-airport-Vancouver (RAV) rapid transit line over dissenting 
municipalities.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/6/13231/68646


From news at resist.ca  Mon May 10 14:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 21:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Huntingdon, Quebec wants teen curfew
Message-ID: <20040510211709.22743.qmail@resist.ca>

HUNTINGDON, QUE. - The town of Huntingdon wants to impose a curfew on its 
teenagers because of a growing problem with vandalism and crime. The town's 
council has proposed a 10 p.m. curfew for anyone under 18, but not everyone in 
Huntingdon thinks the curfew is going to solve the town's problems.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/7/151910/4605


From news at resist.ca  Mon May 10 14:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 21:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] 
	&amp; quot; In the Class Struggle, Which Side are You On?&amp;
	quot; - An Interview with OCAP's John Clarke
Message-ID: <20040510211708.22741.qmail@resist.ca>

"The lesson has been clear for a very long time.  The problem is that the 
union bureaucracy is congenitally incapable of resistance.  It is a 
privileged layer that can only operate in conditions of stalemate in the class 
struggle.  A decisive victory by working people eliminates the need for 
them, because the energized roots don't need them."

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/7/04927/06600


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 09:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 16:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Crackdown hasn't cut drug use in Downtown Eastside
Message-ID: <20040511161703.22180.qmail@resist.ca>

Vancouver's police crackdown on the Downtown Eastside drug market didn't deter 
users from taking drugs, didn't prompt them to go into treatment, and didn't 
change the price of drugs, says a report published today in the Canadian 
Medical Association Journal. (now that's a surprising outcome.....)

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/83011/3452


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Sharon's Willing Accomplices
Message-ID: <20040511181703.2642.qmail@resist.ca>

by Haim Bresheeth; Al-Ahram; May 10, 2004 Sharon was the one to pioneer 
collective punishment and mass murder in the early 1950s as the creator and 
commander of Israel's first notorious death squad, Unit 101. His early military 
career was spent in killing: not enemy soldiers but civilians in villages such 
as Kibyia. In Gaza during the early 1970s, he instigated a reign of terror, 
supposedly designed to end Palestinian resistance to the occupation. It was 
really another phase in his lifelong struggle to make as many Palestinians as 
possible flee their own homeland.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/05854/5447


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] RAV line sent back to the drawing board
Message-ID: <20040511181703.2641.qmail@resist.ca>

Vancouver Sun - May 8, 2004 - By William Boei TransLink directors killed the 
RAV line on Friday, saying the $1.5-billion Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid 
transit project was a Rolls-Royce option while a Chevy 2 would do the job just 
as well.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/10223/2638


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] US announces new measures against Cuba
Message-ID: <20040511181703.2640.qmail@resist.ca>

Granma - May 7, 2004 Brutal political and economic measures against our country 
and against Cubans resident in the United States (Message from the Central 
Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban Revolutionary 
Government.)

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/10210/0109


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] New Labour, New Zealand
Message-ID: <20040511181704.2644.qmail@resist.ca>

(The article below, copied with permission, from Socialist Review in Britain, 
is relevant to what's happening in British Columbia both in the Labour 
movement, NDP and Government.) Date of original article is May, 1997

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/10/15253/8685


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 11:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 18:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] BOWDOWN.ORG
Message-ID: <20040511181703.2643.qmail@resist.ca>

Greetz This is Matt. On the news the other night I heard that Michael De Jong 
is getting charged for hacking the Canadian Government and threating rcmp. Now 
I can't condone what this guy did, but it seems stupid that the rcmp spends 
more time hasseling him than finding the murderer of the that killing on 3 road 
and westminster (May 8, 2004). Fight rcmp propaganda.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/10/222321/820


From sharai at resist.ca  Tue May 11 15:08:25 2004
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 16:08:25 -0600
Subject: [news] Monsanto Suspends Biotech Wheat Program
Message-ID: <40A14ED9.8020304@resist.ca>


Reuters <http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/inc/images/reuters.gif>
Monsanto Suspends Biotech Wheat Program
May 10, 2004 1:56:00 PM ET


By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) - Biotech crop pioneer Monsanto Co. (MON
<http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/inc/news/quoteredir.asp?symbol=US:MON> )
on Monday suspended plans to introduce what would be the world's first
biotech wheat, bowing to a storm of protest from around the world over the
company's scientific tinkering with a key food crop.

Monsanto said it had reached the decision after ``extensive consultation''
with customers in the wheat industry and would continue to monitor the
desire for crop improvements to determine ``if and when'' it might be
practical to move forward.

``It was a lot of things coming together at once,'' said Monsanto spokesman
Chris Horner, who cited declining spring wheat acreage as well as dissent
among wheat growers and buyers as factors in the decision.

St. Louis-based Monsanto has been doing field tests of Roundup Ready wheat,
which has been genetically modified to tolerate applications of Monsanto's
Roundup herbicide, for six years at a cost of hundreds of millions of
dollars.

The company already has commercialized Roundup Ready corn and soybeans, key
feedgrains and had hoped to spread its herbicide-resistant technology into
the vast wheat-growing industry, starting in the United States and Canadian
markets.

But the company's efforts have ignited an outpouring of opposition by
environmentalists, farmers, consumers and religious groups, as well as
foreign wheat buyers. Concerns include worries about possible human health
hazards, increased weed resistance and fears Monsanto is gaining control
over key world crops.

Opponents heralded Monsanto's decision.

``Monsanto haso correctly read the winds f public opinion and farmers and
consumers,'' said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the U.S. Organic
Consumers Association. ``The crops that are in the pipeline are not going to
be able to be introduced without a tremendous amount of debate and civil
strife.''

Wheat industry leaders, who said biotechnology could lead to improved
profitability for struggling wheat growers, warned Roundup Ready wheat could
devastate exports of all U.S. and Canadian wheat.

Foreign buyers, including top U.S. spring wheat buyer Japan, said they were
unwilling to risk alienating their own customers by accepting biotech wheat
supplies.

``This is a major acknowledgment by Monsanto ... it will be very hard to
market in the near future biotech products designed for human consumption,''
said Greg Jaffe, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. ``All the
other products have primarily gone to animal feed.''

Monsanto's decision to back away from biotech wheat came as opposition was
mounting, particularly in Canada, where an anti-biotech wheat ad campaign
was launched in March and the Canadian Wheat Board has opposed the product.

Monsanto had asked the U.S. wheat industry to consider letting it out of its
pledge not to introduce biotech wheat in the United States without a
simultaneous release in Canada. But that proposal was flatly rejected.

In the meantime, several U.S. groups had sought to derail the project,
including groups in North Dakota, the top U.S. spring wheat-growing state
and Monsanto's planned launching pad for the biotech wheat product.

``I think it is a very wise decision,'' said Louis Kuster, a North Dakota
wheat farmer.

Monsanto shares were down 64 cents, or 1.94 percent, at $32.35 in early
afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.


From sharai at resist.ca  Tue May 11 15:10:25 2004
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 16:10:25 -0600
Subject: [news] National Farmer's Union/PRESS RELEASE
Message-ID: <40A14F51.1030209@resist.ca>

National Farmer's Union
In Union is Strength

National Office
2717 Wentz Ave.,
Saskatoon, SK,
S7K 4B6
(306) 652-9465 ph
(306) 664-6226 fax


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MAY 10, 2004

WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION TO ROUNDUP READY WHEAT FORCES MONSANTO TO BACK OFF

SASKATOON, SK - Widespread opposition from farm organizations, environmental
groups and consumers has forced Monsanto to terminate its research and
promotion of genetically-modified (GM) wheat.  In a news release dated May
10, 2004, Monsanto announced it "will discontinue breeding and field level
research of Roundup Ready wheat."

"This is a tremendous victory for farmers in Canada and around the world,"
stated Stewart Wells, President of the National Farmers Union (NFU).
"Clearly, Monsanto is backing off because the opposition to
genetically-modified wheat is overwhelming."

"We look forward to Monsanto's official withdrawal of GM wheat from the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency's approval processes," added Wells.  "We
also look forward to assurances that no GM wheat will be planted anywhere in
Canada outside of greenhouses and that the threat of contamination and
subsequent market loss will be eliminated."

NFU Vice-President Terry Boehm pointed out that not only will this victory
ensure Canada preserves its traditional share of the global wheat market, it
will also save farmers millions of dollars in direct agronomic costs.  "The
savings in both these areas amounts to approximately $823 million annually,"
stated Boehm.  "That is good news for financially-strapped family farmers."

In addition to the direct savings, there are other indirect benefits.  Wheat
production will remain a viable option for many organic farmers, who would
otherwise face the possibility of their crops being contaminated by GM
seeds.  Consumers in both the domestic and international markets have also
indicated clearly that they reject genetically-modified wheat.

Boehm warned, however, that farmers and consumers must remain vigilant on
this issue.  "It is worrisome that, in its press release, Monsanto leaves
the door open for the introduction of wheat with other biotechnological
traits besides herbicide tolerance," he said.

The NFU was instrumental in bringing to light research by Agriculture Canada
scientists which proved a link exists between the use of glyphosate
formulations (like Monsanto's Roundup) and increased fusarium disease in
wheat.  Losses from fusarium already total hundreds of millions of dollars
per year, and the introduction of GM wheat may well have spread and
intensified the incidence of fusarium as a result of increased glyphosate
use.  Monsanto had been unwilling to provide Canadian regulators with full
disclosure of research on the correlation between fusarium and glyphosate
use.

The opposition to GM wheat included the NFU, Saskatchewan Organic
Directorate, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, the Canadian
Wheat Board, Canadian Health Coalition, Agricultural Producers Association
of Saskatchewan, Keystone Agricultural Producers, Greenpeace, the Polaris
Institute and others too numerous to list.  A letter signed by 220 Canadian
organizations expressing opposition to GM wheat was sent to then-Prime
Minister Jean Chretien on July 31, 2001.  It called on the Prime Minister to
"act immediately to prevent the introduction of GM wheat in Canadian food
and fields."

"The vast majority of farmers and a significant portion of civil society had
aligned against Monsanto and GM wheat," concluded Wells.  "In some ways, it
was Monsanto against 'everybody' - and 'everybody' won."

The victory echoes a similar victory in the 1990s, when Monsanto tried to
introduce a genetically-modified dairy cow hormone that Canadians didn't
want or need.  Rural and urban citizens united to oppose Monsanto and won on
that issue as well.  Today, a broad coalition has recorded a similar success
in turning back Monsanto's unwanted GM wheat.

- 30 -

Contact:          Stewart Wells, NFU President (306) 773-6852 or (306)
741-7694
                   Terry Boehm, NFU Vice-President (306) 255-2880 or (306)
257-3689
                   Terry Pugh, NFU Executive-Secretary (306) 652-9465


From lesleymoore at shaw.ca  Tue May 11 15:49:48 2004
From: lesleymoore at shaw.ca (Lesley Moore)
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 15:49:48 -0700
Subject: [news] anti-poverty advocates oppose criminalization of the poor
Message-ID: <010d01c437aa$439c47e0$76185018@vc.shawcable.net>

      The
      British Columbia
      Public Interest
      Advocacy Centre
      208-1090 West Pender Street
      Vancouver, BC  V6E 2N7
      Tel: (604) 687-3063  Fax: (604) 682-7896
      email:  bcpiac at bcpiac.com
      http://www.bcpiac.com 
      
       Richard J. Gathercole       687-3006
       Sarah Khan                          687-4134
       Patricia MacDonald           687-3017
       James L. Quail                    687-3034
       Jess Hadley                         687-3044
       (articled student)
       Barristers & Solicitors 



Anti-poverty advocates oppose 
criminalization of the poor
 

For immediate release:  May 11, 2004

 

(Vancouver)  Anti-poverty organizations are condemning the proposed Safe Streets Act and Trespass to Property Act.

 

"Being poor is not a crime in British Columbia - at least, not yet," said Lesley Moore of End Legislated Poverty.  "Lorne Mayencourt's 'Safe Streets Act' would strip away the right of poor people to ask for money.  It is an attack on the right of the poor to scrape by, and an attack on their Charter-protected right to free speech.  Maybe that's why Attorney General Geoff Plant isn't embracing this legislation with the same vigour as his colleagues."

 

"These bills have been tabled in the context of catastrophic cuts to social programs" said Bill Burrill of Together Against Poverty Society. "Over the past three years the BC Liberals have cut welfare rates and increased eligibility rules, and slashed housing programs, leaving more people destitute and homeless than ever before.  Now they want to criminalize the victims of their cold-blooded policies."

 

"While the government has slashed income supports and forced many poor and homeless people to beg in the streets, this legislation would hammer people for doing just that," said Jim Quail, a lawyer with the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre.  "Jail sentences up to 6 months and fines of up to $2,000 are not solutions to poverty.  We don't like to see the face of poverty - it is an ugly, troubling thing in such an affluent society.  Sweeping the poor off the streets and into our jails is a way of dodging the problem, not fixing it."

 

Quail pointed out that the "Safe Streets" bill prohibits any form of solicitation in various public places.  "A girl guide selling cookies in a parking lot would face arrest under this legislation," he commented.

 

- 30 -

For further information, please contact:

 

  a.. Sarah Khan and Jim Quail, Staff Lawyers, BCPIAC       604-687-3063
  b.. Lesley Moore, End Legislated Poverty                           778-885-1399
  c.. Bill Burrill, President, Together Against Poverty Society  250-361-3521 or 250-382-8135
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From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 19:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 02:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Poll says Iraqis now want US out now
Message-ID: <20040512021705.17404.qmail@resist.ca>

Partial results of a new poll commissioned by the Coalition are leaked in this 
Knight Ridder article. They indicate that most Iraqis now want U.S. troops to 
leave. A year ago, only 17% felt that way. Sixteen hundred Iraqi adults in 
seven cities were polled in mid-April (before the abuse scandal broke, no doubt 
accentuating this sentiment).

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/182646/976


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 19:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 02:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Venezuela captures 56 Colombians
Message-ID: <20040512021705.17403.qmail@resist.ca>

Venezuela's Electronic News President Hugo Chavez Frias: Today's capture of 
Colombian paramilitaries is a blow against opposition terrorism

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/184456/089


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 19:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 02:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] MLA calls for ban on squeegee kids
Message-ID: <20040512021705.17406.qmail@resist.ca>

vancouver.cbc.ca Vancouver Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt wants to ban squeegee 
kids and aggressive panhandlers, and he's introduced a private member's bill to 
do it.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/1850/40594


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 19:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 02:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Venezuelan President condemns US 'terror'
Message-ID: <20040512021705.17405.qmail@resist.ca>

Monday 10 May 2004; http://tinyurl.com/ys6y9 Venezuela's president has 
condemned the United States as a "terrorist state" for toughening sanctions 
against Cuba. Hugo Chavez vowed on Sunday that his government would increase 
its trade and cooperation with the Communist island.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/181926/810


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 19:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 02:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Even the NDP condemns BCFed over HEU sellout
Message-ID: <20040512021705.17402.qmail@resist.ca>

6 May 2004 The Vancouver-Kingsway NDP Executive says the BC Fed leaders? 
intervention in the HEU/BC Liberal dispute stifled the first significant 
collective response to a government that has attacked this province in ways 
that are devastating and unprecedented.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/18111/1661


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 11 19:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 02:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Strike-specialty security firm sets up in B.C.
Message-ID: <20040512021705.17407.qmail@resist.ca>

Vancouver Sun; Thursday, May 6, 2004; By Michael McCullough In a year that has 
seen B.C.'s labour relations climate once again turn stormy, an Ontario 
security company that specializes in strikes and lockouts is setting up shop in 
Vancouver.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/18230/0873


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 12 11:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 18:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] Cop conduct at Guns N' Roses riot probed
Message-ID: <20040512181705.22733.qmail@resist.ca>

VANCOUVER - A three-week inquiry got underway on Tuesday into the behaviour of 
Vancouver police officers during the Guns N' Roses riot in November 2002. 
Robert Parent and Detlef Schroeder filed complaints under the B.C. Police Act 
that they were injured when officers used unnecessary and excessive force

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/12/105315/372


From prms at alternatives.com  Thu May 13 10:34:18 2004
From: prms at alternatives.com (Press Release Media Service)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 10:34:18 -0700
Subject: [news] Greenpeace Erects Windfarm Outside Gordon Campbell's Office
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20040513103418.0187f2d0@mail.alternatives.com>

Greenpeace
                                          
GREENPEACE ERECTS WINDFARM OUTSIDE 
GORDON CAMPBELL'S OFFICE

For Immediate Release

Victoria, May 13th, 2004 - Greenpeace today erected a wind farm on the lawn of the BC Legislature on the same day as the federal government began its public meetings in Victoria into offshore oil and gas off the coast of British Columbia. 

Erecting 35, 8 foot tall and 6 foot wide wind turbines, all pointing directly at Gordon Campbell's office inside the provincial Legislature building, Greenpeace sent a clear message to the premier and his government -  which continues to aggressively lobby the federal government into allowing offshore oil development in BC - that wind, not oil, is the future.

"Gordon Campbell is so blinded by the dead end oil industry, Greenpeace wanted to make it impossible for him to ignore the cleaner, safer option - wind," said David Fields, Greenpeace Canada's Energy campaigner. "We urge the federal government to send the same message to Campbell - no offshore oil."
 
Greenpeace called on the federal government, in Victoria to hear what British Columbians think about offshore oil development in BC's waters, to not only maintain the moratorium it put in place in 1971, but ban offshore development once and for all.

"Wind is the fastest growing source of electricity in the world, and yet here in British Columbia, greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than the national average," said Fields. 

According to a Helimax study commissioned by Greenpeace last year, Port Hardy, Prince Rupert and Port Alice alone have the potential wind generation capacity of  4800 MW, which is one third of Germany's installed capacity.  Germany is a world leader in wind power generation.

-30-

For more information, please contact:
David Fields, Greenpeace Canada Energy Campaigner, Cell. (604) 722-4775 
Andrew Male, Greenpeace Communications Coordinator, (416) 597-8408 ext. 3030



From news at resist.ca  Thu May 13 11:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 18:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Anti-poverty organizations condemn the proposed Safe Streets
	Act and Trespass to Property Act
Message-ID: <20040513181705.7765.qmail@resist.ca>

May 11, 2004 (Vancouver) Anti-poverty organizations are condemning the proposed 
Safe Streets Act and Trespass to Property Act. "Being poor is not a crime in 
British Columbia - at least, not yet," said Lesley Moore of End Legislated 
Poverty. "Lorne Mayercourt's 'Safe Streets Act' would strip away the right of 
poor people to ask for money. It is an attack on the right of the poor to 
scrape by, and an attack on their Charter-protected right to free speech. Maybe 
that's why Attorney General Geoff Plant isn't embracing this legislation with 
the same vigour as his colleagues."

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/12/114616/646


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 13 11:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 18:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] 70% of World's Poorest are Women
Message-ID: <20040513181705.7769.qmail@resist.ca>

Kati Marton; Newsweek; 10/May/2004 Women suffer countless disadvantages 
compared with men. Even after decades of progress, women make up two thirds of 
the world's 880 million illiterate adults, and up to 70% of its poorest 
citizens.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/185415/119


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 13 11:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 18:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] Carole James will make No Difference
Message-ID: <20040513181706.7770.qmail@resist.ca>

Vancouver Sun ; May 8, 2004 ; By Vaughn Palmer VICTORIA - With the New 
Democratic Party doing well in the polls, leader Carole James has been trying 
to minimize expectations about what she could and would do if she forms 
government a year from now.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/19420/9151


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 13 11:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 18:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Klein thinks Pinochet was just swell
Message-ID: <20040513181705.7766.qmail@resist.ca>

By Ricardo Acu?a Ralph Klein recently asserted that dictator and murderer 
Augusto Pinochet was ?not much better? than the democratically elected 
government of Salvador Allende makes one wonder what kind of history books the 
Premier has been reading.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/13/105742/281


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 13 11:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 18:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] Iraq prison scandal - Most 'arrested by mistake'
Message-ID: <20040513181706.7772.qmail@resist.ca>

Los Angeles Times ; May 11, 2004 ; By Bob Drogin Washington ? Coalition 
military intelligence officials estimated that 70% to 90% of prisoners detained 
in Iraq since the war began last year "had been arrested by mistake," according 
to a confidential Red Cross report given to the Bush administration earlier 
this year.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/11/185927/405


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 13 12:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 19:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Blair faces leadership revolt as abuse crisis deepens
Message-ID: <20040513191704.15087.qmail@resist.ca>

Daily Telegraph ; 12/05/2004; By Toby Helm and George Jones Tony Blair was 
struggling to avoid a collapse of confidence in his leadership last night as 
Labour MPs denounced his alliance with President George W Bush and the chaotic 
handling of allegations of abuse against Iraqi prisoners.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/13/112333/843


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 13 17:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 00:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Union leaders' firm backed B.C. Liberals
Message-ID: <20040514001704.11376.qmail@resist.ca>

Georgia Straight ; 13-May-2004 ; By Charlie Smith Canada's top labour leader, 
Ken Georgetti, is on the board of Concert Properties Ltd. which donated $16,665 
to the B.C. Liberal party last year. Concert Properties is also a member of the 
Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/13/162445/813


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 14 10:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] A Few Questions for IWA Turncoat Haggard
Message-ID: <20040514171704.17625.qmail@resist.ca>

By Bill Tieleman ; 13-May-2004 The recent conversion of IWA Canada president 
Dave Haggard from lifelong New Democrat to instant Paul Martin candidate for 
New Westminster/?Coquitlam has raised the eyebrows and the ire of many. 
Long-time Liberals doubt his sincerity, New Democrats denounce his temerity, 
and Conservatives, who handily hold the riding, question his sanity.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/14/03536/1577


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 14 10:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Monsanto pulls the plug on Roundup Ready GE wheat
Message-ID: <20040514171704.17626.qmail@resist.ca>

Monday, May 10, 2004 Monsanto announced today that it is pulling the plug on 
its RoundUp Ready (RR) genetically engineered wheat. The company announced 
quietly today that, after seven years of development and failed efforts to win 
over farmers and the international wheat market, they will discontinue all 
research and field trial activities on RR wheat.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/13/111636/915


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 14 10:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Chief Margaret Swan thrown out of office
Message-ID: <20040514171704.17627.qmail@resist.ca>

Canadian Press - May 12, 2004 WINNIPEG -- The grand chief of the Manitoba 
Southern Chiefs Organization has been thrown out of office after being 
convicted of stealing from her band.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/13/11112/1369


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 14 10:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] School of the Americas: training torturers for years
Message-ID: <20040514171704.17628.qmail@resist.ca>

CBC Radio Commentary ; 13/5/04 [W]hy are [U.S. politicians] so surprised [about 
the torture] when only a few hundred miles south of Washington, at Fort 
Benning, Georgia, the U.S. government runs the Western Hemisphere Institute for 
Security Cooperation. You might have heard it called by its earlier name: The 
School of the Americas.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/14/05536/2889


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 14 10:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Kanehsatake: Community appeals for resolution ignored
Message-ID: <20040514171704.17624.qmail@resist.ca>

May 13, 2004 Community?s repeated appeals for legitimate policing body and 
resolution ignored. Martin, Gabriel seem intent instead on forcing a violent 
confrontation in Kanehsatake.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/14/04351/2414


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 14 13:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 20:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] India's poor bring back Gandhi clan
Message-ID: <20040514201703.2966.qmail@resist.ca>

By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor NEW DELHI ? In 
a stunning turnaround, India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party accepted defeat 
Thursday, opening the way for the Congress party to return to power for the 
first time in eight years. Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party 
leader, is now the leading contender for India's next prime minister.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/14/12268/5062


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 15 13:17:06 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 20:17:06 -0000
Subject: [news] Former head of US Interests Section denounces Bush's Cuba
	policy
Message-ID: <20040515201706.31437.qmail@resist.ca>

By Wayne Smith; South Florida Sun Sentinel; May 12, 2003 The Bush 
administration's Cuba policy has been largely ineffectual. Its objective is 
regime change, i.e., to bring down the Castro government, but it is as far away 
from that goal as it was three years ago. Castro is mortal, of course, and will 
at some point pass from the scene, but not likely as the result of anything the 
Bush administration has done.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/15/125625/945


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 15 13:17:06 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 20:17:06 -0000
Subject: [news] At rally of 1 million, Fidel pledges resistance to US attack
Message-ID: <20040515201707.31438.qmail@resist.ca>

Fidel Castro Ruz; May 14, 2004 Castro to US: We have withstood 45 years of your 
agression, we will continue to fight. Poll attached.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/15/124717/157


From christoff at resist.ca  Sat May 15 18:17:18 2004
From: christoff at resist.ca (Stefan Christoff)
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 18:17:18 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [news] CKUT Radio: Vancouver - The Downtown Eastside 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0405151817010.3695@resist.ca>


CKUT Radio: Vancouver - The Downtown Eastside

This radio documentary, explores a variety of issues directly relating to
life and death in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Featuring interviews
recorded in February 2004, with community organizers, which focus on a
various issues, from police brutality, homelessness, indigenous
self-determination, poverty, safe injection sites for drug users, the
human rights of sex workers and many other issues directly relating to
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, from the perspective of the neighborhoods
residents.

This documentary features interviews with community organizers active in
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, focusing on voices from the Anti-Poverty
Committee and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). The
Downtown Eastside is one of Canada's most impoverished and destitute urban
neighborhoods, often marked as the poorest postal code in Canada. Home to
an estimated 5000 injection drug users, the Downtown Eastside of
Vancouver, suffers from one of the worst urban epidemics of HIV / AIDS in
the world.

To listen to and download the documentary on-line visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=9110

For more information about the Anti-Poverty Committee visit:
http://apc.resist.ca

For more information on the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users visit:
http://vandu.org

-----------------------


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 15 14:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 21:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] IDF razing homes in Gaza refugee camp
Message-ID: <20040515211706.4797.qmail@resist.ca>

Haaretz ; May 14, 2004 ; By Arnon Regular The Israel Defense Forces launched a 
mass demolition of buildings Friday in the Rafah refugee camp, adjacent to the 
Philadelphi Route where five IDF soldiers were killed in a Palestinian attack 
on an armored personnel carrier two days before. Witnesses said armored 
bulldozers had demolished 20 houses and were threatening many more in the camp.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/15/13738/9039


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 15 14:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 21:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] Are Canadian communities subsidizing big cable companies?
Message-ID: <20040515211706.4796.qmail@resist.ca>

Shared Vision, May 2004; by Michael Lithgow At a time when the entire country 
is complaining about misspent money in Ottawa, local media activists say it's 
time to look closer to home. Their charge? That Canada's cable companies pocket 
$80 million of community funds each year - and Ottawa is letting them off the 
hook.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/15/123551/145


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 15 14:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 21:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] Unionism As Business - Are The Labour Bosses Becoming Bosses?
Message-ID: <20040515211706.4793.qmail@resist.ca>

By Will Offley; May 13, 2004 The fact that labour bureaucracy has voting 
control over Concert Properties, leads to two very uncomfortable questions: Why 
is Concert Properties a member of Canada's largest and most powerful P3 lobby 
groups, the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships? Why did Concert 
Properties donate more than $16,000 to the Liberal Party of British Columbia 
last year?

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/15/131657/258


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 15 14:17:06 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 21:17:06 -0000
Subject: [news] US takes over Iraqi communications
Message-ID: <20040515211706.4798.qmail@resist.ca>

Wall Street Journal ; May 13, 2004 ; By Yochi J. Dreazen and Christopher Cooper 
Haider al-Abadi runs Iraq's Ministry of Communications, but he no longer calls 
the shots there. Instead, the authority to license Iraq's television stations, 
sanction newspapers and regulate cellphone companies was recently transferred 
to a commission whose members were selected by Washington.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/15/13311/3059


From news at resist.ca  Sun May 16 22:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 05:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Bid starts to have No-voters reverse stand on RAV line
Message-ID: <20040517051703.18149.qmail@resist.ca>

Vancouver Sun ; Friday, May 14, 2004 ; By Frances Bula A behind-the-scenes 
battle is being waged in a bid to salvage the controversial Richmond 
rapid-transit line by convincing key TransLink directors to reconsider their 
"no" votes at a scheduled meeting next week.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/16/211157/769


From news at resist.ca  Sun May 16 22:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 05:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] From Abu Ghraib to Latin America: Map of U.S. Pattern of
	Abuse Grows
Message-ID: <20040517051703.18150.qmail@resist.ca>

School of the Americas Watch Recent reports of the torture of Iraqi detainees 
at the Abu Ghraib military prison near Baghdad are part of a larger pattern of 
abuse and torture at the hands of U.S. soldiers, U.S.-trained soliders, 
"independent contractors" and intelligence agents around the world. In fact, 
U.S. Army intelligence manuals advocating torture techniques and how to 
circumvent laws on due process, arrest and detention were used for at least a 
decade to train Latin American soldiers at the U.S. Army's School of the 
Americas, renamed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security 
Cooperation or WHINSEC.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/16/16848/9359


From news at resist.ca  Mon May 17 21:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 04:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] The Color of Abu Ghraib
Message-ID: <20040518041704.4599.qmail@resist.ca>

The Color of Abu Ghraib ; by Bob Wing ; war-times.org A friend of mine was 
discussing Abu Ghraib with his Egyptian father, who had originally supported 
the war. Referring to the photo of the female U.S. soldier with a leash around 
a prostrate Iraqi, he asked his Dad, "What is the message of that photo? It's 
that the Iraqi is a dog." His father replied, "No. The message is that he's MY 
dog."

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/17/203028/968


From skisby at web.net  Tue May 18 04:32:57 2004
From: skisby at web.net (Steve Kisby)
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 04:32:57 -0700
Subject: [news] Eye In The Sky Exposes UBC Threat To Vancouver's Legacy
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20040518043257.00cd3758@pop.web.net>

http://www.alternatives.com/prms/2004/wbps0503.pdf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- May 3, 2004

EAGLE TREE PARK
 NOT TOWERS --
MOTHER'S DAY DEMONSTRATION

6600 BLOCK OF NORTHWEST MARINE DRIVE BETWEEN AGRONOMY ROAD AND UBC GATE #6

Friday, April 30, the GVRD Board of Directors voted to send a letter to the UBC Board of Governors (BOG) asking them how proposed campus development such as the four, 20-storey Marine Residence towers "fit with the Cliff Erosion Management Plan (CEMP) for Pacific Spirit Regional Park," a plan that the BOG signed off on November 30, 2003.

With the GVRD Board of Directors asking that UBC's Board of Governors "take into consideration environmental sensitivities (of the cliffs within Pacific Spirit Regional Park) when they undertake planning of the towers," the pressure on UBC to relocate and drop the heights of the Marine Residence Towers is steadily increasing.

In the meanwhile, students, environmentalists, naturists, local neighbours, and Wreck Beach friends and supporters are planning a musical, peaceful protest against the towers for Sunday, May 9, Mother's Day, at high noon at the "Okay Corral" or location of proposed Tower #6, the tower closest to the cliff's edge. Beach musicians are enthusiastically writing original protest lyrics, and we plan to make a joyful noise for an hour on Mother's Day. We anticipate hundreds of demonstrators and will be unrolling banners reading: 
 
"EAGLE TREE PARK
 NOT TOWERS"

Support is expanding daily for the towers' relocation and for dropping of the heights by a minimum of 10 stories. Just last week, the People's artist, Joe Average, joined our cause. Find our online petition at http://www.wreckbeach.org or follow the link there or go directly to:  http://www.petitiononline.com/wreckbch/petition.html

Participants are invited to bring picnic lunches, Mom, children, musical instruments and pens to fill in the blanks on thousands of sample letters we will have available. Everyone is welcome in this massive show of solidarity. We'll also be accepting funds to help in this ongoing challenge with UBC. Parking is available at the Loonie Lot or at the Fraser Parkade.

UBC must understand when it comes to protecting the last unspoiled tree line and forested slopes by the sea in Vancouver except for Stanley Park, that people are united in their determination to not let UBC fulfill short-term goals at the expense of long-term park destruction!

Please note the artists' rendition of how these proposed towers would appear from the beach, river and sea. Thanks to photographer Bruce McPherson, and Glenn Stensrud, Mr. Eye in the Sky.
 
CONTACT INFO:
Judy Williams, Chair, WBPS: 604-856-9598 or 604-308-6336 / judyw at wreckbeach.org
Chris Rarinca, Vice-Chair WBPS: 604-420-4742
James Loewen, Public Relations, WBPS: 604-689-9697 / james3D at shaw.ca

LINKS: 
1.  Artists' Rendition of Proposed Towers From Wreck Beach (PDF)
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_superimposed_4-01-04.pdf

2.  Sunday, May 9, Mother's Day, Demonstration Poster (low & high resolution)
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_poster_5-04-04_color.jpg
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_poster_5-04-04_b&w_highres.jpg

3.  Petition Toward Relocation of Proposed Towers (PDF & Microsoft Word)
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_petition_4-26-04.pdf
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_petition_4-26-04.doc

4.  Sample Letter to UBC Board of Governors
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_sample_letter_to_ubc_bog.pdf
    http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/towers_sample_letter_to_ubc_bog.doc




From skisby at web.net  Tue May 18 04:51:34 2004
From: skisby at web.net (Steve Kisby)
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 04:51:34 -0700
Subject: [news] Something's Rotten At UBC;
 Proclamation To Be Presented To  City of Vancouver
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20040518045134.01e9fe1c@pop.web.net>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 17, 2004

SOMETHING'S ROTTEN AT UBC 

The Wreck Beach Preservation Society (WBPS) was puzzled to hear Dennis Pavlich, VP of External and Legal Affairs for UBC, say that the Phase I, Tower #1 of the Marine Residences would now move forward. Tower I is the farthest-removed from the cliff edge in the Marine Residences proposed 4-tower complex, and Mr. Pavlich is saying it would NOT be visible from the beach, although the WBPS blimp was! We are dismayed that UBC suggests they have tried to be "neighbourly and fair in spades," but have never sat down with us to discuss possible alternatives to the towers.

Vice President Pavlich said UBC is "under no legal obligation" to listen to concerned citizens about the potential destruction of a Vancouver heritage viewscape.

What he is NOT telling you when he says UBC raised its own blimp on May 11th, is that Project Manager, Jas Sahota, did not raise the blimp to the full height of the building. That is unfair as even if students would not be allowed up to the full height of the tower, the tower would still be visible from the beach by five stories. 

When Mr. Sahota was on the beach photographing the top of the cliffs, he could not see the blimp because he was at or above the high water mark! UBC has never played fair ball when they have indicated they would drop the heights of the buildings if they should be visible from the beach. What they should have but did not add was that they would lower the heights of the buildings IF THEY WERE VISIBLE FROM THE HIGH WATER MARK OR ABOVE!

WBPS Chair, Judy Williams and WBPS Public Relations Officer, James Loewen were told by Mr. Sahota that they had "to be reasonable" and had to expect to see the buildings at moderate to low tides from the tidal flats. The Society photographed the cliff tops from moderate low tide on April 10, but UBC photographed the cliff top from the top of the Breakwater at high tide! That is comparing APPLES and ORANGES and the people of Vancouver will not tolerate this myopic disregard by UBC of the public will. 

How shameful to sacrifice heritage views for the sake of luring new students. If a university of the stature of UBC cannot attract students because of academic excellence and one of the most beautiful campus's on this Earth, then it will forever be UBC's shame to be so tied to profit that it would destroy one of Canada's national treasures for the sake of short-term gain, especially when graduate design students have identified numerous locations where housing potential is underutilized. Totem Park alone could have its beds doubled, and Place Vanier is also under-utilized with regard to student housing. Yet, no one from UBC has sat down to speak with the public and their own students about alternatives to the proposed towers. And now we are told, they are steamrolling ahead!!!

UBC may not be under any "legal obligation," but they ARE under a moral obligation to the people of Vancouver. Why is UBC not following its own principles stated in "A Promise and A Legacy!" The Marine Residence towers are in no way sustainable, and innovative, and only prove once again how lacking in vision this university truly is! 

-30-

Media Advisory:  A Proclamation supported by 5,051 signatures and 150 letters will be presented to the City of Vancouver by Wreck Beach Preservation Society officials and other concerned citizens of Vancouver on May 18th at 10:30 am. Preparations for this presentation will begin on the south steps of Vancouver City Hall.

Contact Info: Judy Williams: 604-856-9598 or 604-308-6336; James Loewen: 604-689-9697 or Chris Rarinca: 604-420-4742

 
--------------------------------

Wreck Beach Preservation Society
28616 Haverman Road,
Bradner, B.C. V4X 2P3

May 17, 2004


Mayor Campbell and Vancouver City Councilors,
Vancouver City Hall,
453 West 12th
Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 1V4


Dear Mayor Campbell and Vancouver City Councilors:

Tomorrow May 18th at 10am concerned citizens of Vancouver will gather on the South steps of Vancouver City Hall to raise further awareness about UBC's Marine Residence development. We invite you Mr. Mayor (or your official representative) and all City Councilors to join us to receive a scroll from citizens concerned about the imminent loss of Point Grey's heritage viewscapes of forested cliffs by the sea. Would you Mr. Mayor, or whomever you designate as your official representative, be able to meet us at 10:30 on the south steps?

The situation brewing at UBC is becoming urgent and intolerable. UBC issued a press release May 12 announcing they are going ahead with plans to build a massive student housing development of four twenty storey high rise towers at 6600 NW Marine Drive despite increasing public opposition. This location is directly across the street from bald eagle habitat and perilously close to fragile, perched-aquifer cliffs. If built, this development would tower above the tree line and totally dominate the natural surroundings.

Visitors to Wreck Beach from around the world generate millions of dollars annually for the City of Vancouver. For example in 2001 Wreck Beach visitors generated 61 million dollars in goods and services for Canada's economy. Many of these people comment that perhaps the most impressive feature of this splendid place is the fact that adjacent to our full and vibrant city, there remains one opportunity to look back at the hillside and see no sign of civilization at all. When you look up at those trees, all you can see are the eagles swooping around with nothing but blue sky behind them. No buildings, no artificiality, no ambient light, unlike anything else at all in the whole Vancouver area. How absolutely priceless it is.

This is the last unaltered skyline in Vancouver. This wilderness like area is a Canadian treasure, sacred land to the first peoples of this region, and it must remain untouched and preserved in perpetuity. For anyone to consider destroying that skyline and creating a permanent blemish on it for the sake of economic development is simply preposterous.

We recognize that Vancouver has no jurisdiction over UBC land, the cliffs or the foreshore, but hope you might bring pressure on UBC to ethically reconsider this ill-proposed and environmentally-damaging project.


Most sincerely yours,

Judy E. Williams
Chair WBPS; Co-chair, Fraser River Coalition: Member, GVRD Parks Forum
604-856-9598, Cell: 604-308-6336

James Loewen
Public Relations Director WBPS
604-689-9697





From news at resist.ca  Tue May 18 22:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 05:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Venezuela Fuel Shipment Warmly Welcomed in Argentina
Message-ID: <20040519051704.2346.qmail@resist.ca>

Venezuelanalysis.com ; May 13, 2004 ; By Modesto Emilio Guerrero Argentina 
received its first shipment of fuel offered by Venezuela to ease its energy 
crisis. Several South American governments plan to create a continental energy 
company.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/18/211226/133


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 18 22:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 05:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Amnesty charges Israel guilty of war crimes
Message-ID: <20040519051704.2345.qmail@resist.ca>

Haaretz ; May 18, 2004 ; By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies 
The human rights group Amnesty International has charged that Israel is guilty 
of war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention in its destruction of 
large numbers of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 
course of the Palestinian uprising.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/18/211930/469


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 18 22:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 05:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] The Roots of Torture
Message-ID: <20040519051704.2344.qmail@resist.ca>

Newsweek ; May 24, 2004 ; By John Barry, Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff The 
road to Abu Ghraib began after 9/11, when Washington wrote new rules to fight a 
new kind of war.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/18/212649/532


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 18 22:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 05:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Premier Dalton McGuinty breaks campaign promise by
	introducing health care premiums
Message-ID: <20040519051704.2343.qmail@resist.ca>

James McCarten ; Canadian Press ; May 18, 2004 TORONTO -- Millions more 
Canadians will soon pay a ''premium'' for health care after Ontario followed 
the lead of Alberta and British Columbia in compelling taxpayers to bear the 
increasing burden of everything from heart surgeries and hip replacements to 
home care and health centres.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/18/21400/7325


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 18 22:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 05:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] High court upholds spending curbs on lobby groups
Message-ID: <20040519051704.2342.qmail@resist.ca>

Canadian Press ; May 18, 2004 OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada has 
upheld government-imposed limits on campaign spending by lobby groups during 
federal elections.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/18/214539/413


From christoff at resist.ca  Thu May 20 00:41:07 2004
From: christoff at resist.ca (Stefan Christoff)
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 00:41:07 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [news] CKUT Radio: War Crimes in Rafah 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0405200041000.13103@resist.ca>


CKUT Radio: War Crimes in Rafah

Listen to an interview with Mohamed an independent journalist from Rafah
Palestine, who posts daily reports and photos about Rafah at the website -
http://rafahtoday.org.

This interview is a powerful and direct testimony, as to the acts of
collective punishment, which have been unleashed on the Palestinian
population of Rafah refugee camp. The interview was recorded on Tuesday
May 28th, as Israeli troops continued to raid homes in Rafah, confining
its 90,000 residents without electricity, water or phones. On Tuesday
alone, more than 20 Palestinians were killed, marking one of the highest
one-day death tolls in three years of the Palestinian Intifada.

The Israeli military operation, which has been dubbed "Operation Rainbow",
continued on Wednesday May 19th, when Israeli tank fire and missiles hit a
3000 strong Palestinian demonstration, killing more than 10 Palestinians,
wounding many others. In the past week the Israeli military has demolished
more than 100 homes, which has left more than 1200 Palestinians in the
Rafah refugee camp homeless. Amnesty International has condemned the
current Israeli incursion as a "war crime".

To listen / download the interview with Mohamed from Rafah visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=9222

To read Mohamed's recent reports and view photos from Rafah visit:
http://www.rafahtoday.org

-----------------------


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 19 23:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Bennett incinerator being built in the Bay of Chaleurs
Message-ID: <20040520061704.6158.qmail@resist.ca>

Indymedia Bennett Environmental, Inc. is proposing to import large quantities 
of toxic waste (100,000+ tons per year of contaminated soil), from polluted 
sites in the U.S. & Canada, then treating it in the Chaleur region of New 
Brunswick.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/19/94632/0357


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 19 23:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] First US Starbucks  to be unionized
Message-ID: <20040520061704.6160.qmail@resist.ca>

New York, NY- Starbucks workers here have organized a union with the Industrial 
Workers of the World IU/660 and have submitted union cards today to the NLRB 
for a certification election. The workers are poised to become the first 
Starbucks Baristas union certified in the country.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/19/93932/2301


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 19 23:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Boston Celebrates Gay Weddings
Message-ID: <20040520061704.6159.qmail@resist.ca>

Michael J. Meade ; 365Gay.com Newscenter Nearly a thousand people crowded 
Boston's City Hall Plaza Monday to celebrate the start of gay marriage in 
Massachusetts.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/19/95531/9639


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 19 23:17:04 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:17:04 -0000
Subject: [news] Court boosts civil rights law for disabled
Message-ID: <20040520061705.6161.qmail@resist.ca>

By Warren Richey | Christian Science Monitor By ruling in favor of a paraplegic 
who crawled up to a second-floor courtroom, justices signal possible shift away 
from states' rights.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/19/101020/939


From skisby at web.net  Thu May 20 11:54:08 2004
From: skisby at web.net (Steve Kisby)
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 11:54:08 -0700
Subject: [news] On An Eagle Feather, A Prayer... And An Axe!
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20040520115408.01f6d400@pop.web.net>

http://www.alternatives.com/skisby/towers/wbps0519.pdf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ON AN EAGLE FEATHER, A PRAYER... and AN AXE!
MAY 19, 2004

In the face of strong public opposition, a letter from GVRD's Board of Directors, and the pledge of Vancouver City councilors to "ask a lot of questions" at the next GVRD Board meeting, UBC has already begun the massacre of heritage trees as they ram forward with Phase I of the Marine Residences towers! In all, although UBC only has a permit for Phase I of the Marine Residences, 68 trees including Sequoia, are slated for the axe.

The people who love the Point Grey cliffs and foreshore heritage Vancouver viewscapes of forested cliffs by the sea, do not accept the University of B.C.'s myopic interpretation of their own guiding principles as set forth in "A Promise and A Legacy!" Never mind their adopting the Cliff Erosion Management Plan (CEMP) which says that a full hydrogeological study must be done on the cliffs between Trails 6 and 7 before any cliff-top works can take place.

May 18, a group of 50 determined demonstrators gathered on Vancouver City Hall steps to take their concerns to Mayor and Council about the imminent destruction of their gateway to Vancouver and to the rest of Canada. If the UBC towers are allowed to go ahead, they will forever blight the beauty of one of Vancouver's last great viewscapes. Our Proclamation urged Mayor and Council "to remind UBC of its moral obligations," and for Council "to protect the Point Grey cliffs and foreshore
because it is the only morally-responsible action to take." (See full text of Proclamation attached).

Demonstrators as young as three years old and including renowned people's artist, Joe Average, waved placards, marched, and symbolically moved a model "tower" via people power as Judy Williams, Chair of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society (WBPS) and Co-Chair of the Fraser River Coalition read and presented a Proclamation along with one perfect eagle feather to Councilor Anne Roberts who received it on behalf of Mayor Campbell. 

Councilor Roberts vowed to have Vancouver's six councilors who sit on the GVRD Board of Directors, demand answers from UBC as to how and why they have chosen to build such heavy, high, and intrusive towers so cliff to fragile cliff edges of Pacific Spirit Regional Park. 

It is significant to note also, that UBC has resorted to partial truths to deflect media interest whenever possible. At this point, the VP of Student Housing may look at alternative sites for student housing as flagged by his own Urban Design staff, but doesn't know whether such a meeting between Wreck Beach representatives and himself would be "productive because the project is already quite far along."

If UBC is genuinely interested in being neighbourly to a park that has already altered its cliff and foreshore to help protect pre-existing buildings, they will call a moratorium on the present towers project until they can guarantee to their students, the public, the City of Vancouver and the GVRD that the adjacent cliffs have reached their angle of repose and will never require either beach armament or bioengineering to protect towers that should never have been constructed on that site in the first place!

CONTACTS: 
Judy Williams, 604-856-9598 or 604-308-6336, judyw at wreckbeach.org
James Loewen, 604-689-9697
Chris Rarinca, 604-420-4742

Towers Proclamation To Vancouver attached
 
--------------------------------

PROCLAMATION

To the Mayor of this fine City of Vancouver and All the Councilors Herein:

We, The Citizens of Vancouver and of the Lower Mainland who treasure the Point Grey forested cliffs by the sea, hereby present this Proclamation to the City of Vancouver SUPPORTED BY 5,161 SIGNATURES AND 156 LETTERS :

WHEREAS the City of Vancouver is the Gateway to Canada from the Pacific Rim;

WHEREAS the City of Vancouver  is named after Captain Vancouver who saw only forested cliffs by the sea when he first entered what is now English Bay;

WHEREAS the City of Vancouver is a city of natural wonders and guardian of cultural and aesthetic values of our Aboriginal peoples and mosaic of cultures from around the world;

WHEREAS the Point Grey promontory is a wilderness-like area and haven for bald eagles, where only 15 minutes from downtown Vancouver, people can reconnect with nature as nature intended; 

WHEREAS the City of Vancouver has a strong relationship between the University of British Columbia and the people of Vancouver, of British Columbia, and of all of Canada, and can remind UBC of its moral obligations to not site four 20-storey towers above the Point Grey cliffs too near adjacent parkland without proper environmental impact studies or proper hydrogeological studies:

WE, THE PEOPLE WHO VALUE POINT GREY'S FORESTED SLOPES BY THE SEA, HEREBY PROCLAIM THE CITY OF VANCOUVER AS KEEPER OF THE KEY TO VANCOUVER'S GATEWAY BETWEEN THE FRAGILITY OF THE POINT GREY CLIFFS AND ECOSYSTEMS, BIRTHRIGHT OF THE MUSQUEAM NATION, AND STANLEY PARK TO THE NORTH.  WE URGE VANCOUVER TO PROTECT THE POINT GREY CLIFFS AND FORESHORE FROM INTRUSIVE 20-STOREY TOWERS BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY MORALLY-RESPONSIBLE ACTION TO TAKE. 

THANK YOU.




From kropo at oat.tao.ca  Thu May 20 23:49:49 2004
From: kropo at oat.tao.ca (Wynn Buchwitz)
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 02:49:49 -0400
Subject: [news] [ism-alerts@palsolidarity.org: [palsolidarity] ARMY FIRED
	MISSILES AT A CIVILIAN DEMONSTRATION IN RAFAH]
Message-ID: <20040521064949.GA18264@tao.ca>


-- 
---------------------------------------
Wynn Buchwitz
kropo at oat.tao.ca
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From gflett1 at shaw.ca  Fri May 21 13:25:15 2004
From: gflett1 at shaw.ca (Gordon Flett)
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 13:25:15 -0700
Subject: [news] Tieleman on Mayencourt anti-squeegee law, Walls audit
References: <00bc01c43ee2$5e2c5070$9424aecc@DBRYWG31>
Message-ID: <005801c43f71$be3f72a0$d3ae5418@vc.shawcable.net>


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: West Star 
  To: West Star Communications 
  Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 8:18 PM
  Subject: Tieleman on Mayencourt anti-squeegee law, Walls audit


  Hi all,

  Lots of politics provincial and federal this week but I've written on Vancouver Burrard Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt's nasty attack on squeegee people, panhandlers and others, as put forward in two private member's bills.  I've also briefly touched on the Doug Walls audit.

  Two bankrupt Liberals, as I note.

  ALSO, lots of letters below the column, some critical of me.  I only note that Ian Gregson ran for the Green Party against Joy MacPhail in the 2001 election.

  Best regards,

  Bill Tieleman
  West Star Communications
  Read the Georgia Straight and watch CBC TV's Canada Now Thursdays for political commentary from Bill Tieleman

  Bill Tieleman's Georgia Straight Political Connections column for May 20-26, 2004

  Poor-Bashing Libs Bottom-Feeding Hypocrites 
  By  Bill Tieleman 


  We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side; one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach. 

  -- Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays, 1928 

  There are only a few people who should rank lower in anyone's esteem than politicians who bash the poor, the unfortunate, the needy, and the ill. Among those bottom feeders would be politicians who bash the poor after first cutting government support for those living in poverty. 

  And then even below that would be politicians who do both of the above after they themselves have been forgiven a debt of tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods and services by declaring personal bankruptcy. 

  Meet Lorne Mayencourt, B.C. Liberal MLA for Vancouver-Burrard. 

  Last week, two private member's bills introduced by Mayencourt made it to second reading in the B.C. legislature. The Safe Streets Act and the Trespass to Property Act aim to get rid of panhandlers and squeegee kids, not by helping them with safe housing, hot meals, or medical care but by fining or jailing them. 

  This would be the same Lorne Mayencourt who has sat in the Gordon Campbell government and voted to cut budgets for the ministries of human resources and children and families by hundreds of millions of dollars, slash legal aid, reduce welfare and disability benefits, make qualifying for social assistance far harder, and much more. 

  It would also be the same Lorne Mayencourt whose government recently ended funding for the Picasso Caf? in Vancouver, which offered street kids the chance to learn skills needed to work in the restaurant industry. 

  That same Mayencourt has not once but twice declared personal bankruptcy, in 1994 and in 1979, leaving creditors owed about $22,000 in total, according to insolvency records. 

  So, on the one hand we have young people who wash car windshields for a meagre living, earning quarters the hard way to buy food and shelter. On the other we have a politician who twice made use of goods and services without, ultimately, paying for them. 

  Mayencourt should be ashamed of himself. Despite personal knowledge of how life can go wrong, Mayencourt has chosen not to aid the less fortunate but to attack them. 

  Mayencourt's two bills have been criticized by many, including the Social Planning and Research Council, which questions how police would apply such laws against panhandlers and squeegee people. 

  "It's stupid. The real issues aren't to move them along, fine them, and put them in jail. That won't solve anything," said Michael Goldberg, SPARC's director of research, in an interview with the Georgia Straight. 

  Vancouver city councillor Tim Stevenson, who represented Vancouver-Burrard as an NDP MLA before losing the 2001 election to Mayencourt, says it's ironic that the Liberal backbencher is so uncharitable. 

  "It's kind of a mean-spirited thing from someone without compassion who himself was once in trouble and needed help," Stevenson, who is also a United Church minister, said in an interview. "He should be pressuring his government to find solutions because this government is what caused the problems in the first place. Personally, I believe he is bankrupt in ideas." 

  But Mayencourt is nothing if not brassy. His MLA disclosure statement for 2001 showed that he's been a bit of a panhandler himself, receiving "income support" from the B.C. Liberal party! 

  Fortunately, even this government appears unwilling to pass Mayencourt's vicious legislation into law, although Campbell and other MLAs supported it. 

  But as bad as Mayencourt's opportunistic poor-bashing is, another prominent Liberal bankrupt has stooped even lower, an independent audit has shown, by wasting more than a million dollars that should have gone to help people with disabilities. 

  Doug Walls may not be an MLA, but he is also no ordinary Liberal. Related to Premier Gordon Campbell by marriage, Walls is a former Liberal riding-association president and a close friend of Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond. Campbell leased his car from Walls's dealership and stayed at Walls's Prince George home when visiting. 

  Walls is also the bankrupt car dealer who was made acting CEO of the Interim Authority for Community Living BC, with a projected $500-million budget--funded by the Ministry of Children and Families--to provide services to people with disabilities. 

  Now a PriceWaterhouseCoopers audit commissioned by the Ministry of Finance and released last week provides both damning new information about Walls and raises additional questions about the scandal. 

  Children and Families Minister Gordon Hogg resigned and deputy minister Chris Haynes was fired shortly after freelance journalist Sean Holman first uncovered that a special prosecutor was examining an RCMP report on Walls's business. 

  Later it was found that Haynes had written off $400,000 owed to government by CareNet, a society for which Walls was project manager, against government rules. 

  But investigative auditor Ron Parks found that, in fact, the ministry wrote off $1.128 million owed to it by CareNet, almost three times more than was first thought. In total, the government lost more than $2.3 million on the project. 

  The report is an indictment of the Liberal government, citing: "a complete lack of due diligence" regarding Walls; that Walls was repeatedly awarded untendered contracts with no competition; that he was paid more than the contractual limit; that one of Walls's contracts was backdated by three months; and that Walls had insinuated himself into an influential position in the ministry through his relationship with Haynes. 

  Despite this, the Liberals gave Haynes a severance package of $288,867, plus another $233,000 in unused vacation pay. More on this outrageous story in a future column. 

  Bill Tieleman is a political commentator Thursdays on CBC TV's Canada Now and regularly on CBC Radio's Early Edition. E-mail him at weststar at telus.net 



  Letters



  May 20-26-04



  Where Can Unionists Find a Good Party? (I) 

  By Bill Engleson 

  Charlie Smith's expos? of Concert Properties Ltd.'s donations to the well-loved, labour-supporting B.C. Liberal party, coupled with Bill Tieleman's examination of the self-aggrandizing shenanigans of wannabe big-L Liberal Dave Haggard, just about floored me ["Union Leaders' Firm Backed B.C. Liberals"; "A Few Questions for IWA Turncoat Haggard", May 13-20]. Both articles set me to wondering what other cozy partnerships are out there. 

  I was a union trooper for most of my working life. Now, a somewhat youngish retiree, I lament the unrelenting assault on unionist principles both inside and outside the labour movement. I have no difficulty understanding the urge to be flexible and to compromise. The provincial Liberal government has been merciless in its contract-smashing, claw-back-gouging, poor-bashing machinations, and it has left unions precious little room to manoeuvre. 

  But to donate funds to them? To encourage them? To strive to achieve No. 35 on their hit list? 

  And for the life of me, I can't understand this attraction to the federal Liberal party and Paul Martin. The federal Liberal consortium has exhibited an indefatigable penchant for ugly power displays and ethical failure. 

  I'll just sit back and continue to observe the scurrying routes of the valueless rodent population and wonder where the next Vichy-like behaviour will turn up. And by referencing the Vichy government, I am not raising any comparisons about National Socialism other than to demonstrate that this capacity to seek political comfort from one's oppressors is universal and, sadly, appears to be endemic in B.C. 

  Bill Engleson 
  Denman Island 

  Where Can Unionists Find a Good Party? (II) 
  By Ian Gregson 

  Why is it a challenge for people like Bill Tieleman to conceive of trade-union activists not being card-carrying members of the NDP? 

  Tradition has it that union leaders are indistinguishable from decision makers of the NDP, but things have begun to change. As the NDP has swung over to the political centre, it has become easier for right-leaning NDPers to jump ship to the Liberals and, likewise, left-leaning Liberals to belch out NDP doctrine (Sheila Copps). 

  Although I do not agree with Dave Haggard in the political sense, I recognize the ability for some trade unionists to be affiliated with political parties other than the NDP. For the past few years, the political-action committee of the B.C. Federation of Labour has been stating the need for more political diversity and new partnerships--well, here they are. 

  As a trade unionist and Green party member who stood on the line with HEU members and marched in the May Day parade, I can tell you that the NDP is frantic over losing its traditional voting base yet is at a loss on how to do anything about it. The reality is that 70,000 members of CUPE have a political diversity similar to the general public, even though CUPE BC's leaders will never vote for any party other than the NDP. 

  For people like Tieleman who have a hard time dealing with the concept of political diversity, I suggest moving to a country with a government that fits his idea of what political diversity is about: for example, India. 

  Ian Gregson 
  Former vice-president 
  CUPE Local 3338 
  Vancouver 



  May 13-19-04

  HEU Member Claims Leaders Screwed Up 

  By Jim Kelly 

  Bill Tieleman writes that "union bargaining...was successful in limiting some of the most onerous aspects of Bill 37, particularly in winning a cap on the number (600) of health-care workers' jobs that would be privatized in the next two years" ["Liberals Strike Out in HEU Dispute", May 6-13]. 

  Wrong, wrong, wrong. Has Tieleman actually read the agreement instead of just the news releases issued from the union's spin doctors? Look at 2(b): the agreement excludes "employees who may be displaced as a result of agreements entered into under the Health Sector Partnership Agreements Act". Read that Act and you'll quickly discover that the 600 jobs is not a cap, it's a floor! 

  What's worse is that the HEU and the B.C. Fed have now tacitly endorsed American-style health care by agreeing to the Liberals' P3 plans while consequently failing to provide any protection to their rank-and-file members. More odious is the fact that the HEU membership rejected a very similar agreement about one year ago with a 60-percent no vote, but the membership wasn't even consulted this time. 

  The government got everything it wanted in this so-called agreement while the HEU union membership just got screwed by its own provincial executive and Jim Sinclair. Tieleman got it wrong; the unions struck out! 

  Jim Kelly, HEU member, VGH local 
  Vancouver 

   






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From christoff at resist.ca  Fri May 21 13:37:09 2004
From: christoff at resist.ca (Stefan Christoff)
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 13:37:09 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [news] PALESTINIAN REFUGEES: Update on Day of Action & Article on
	Sanctuary
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0405211337040.8405@resist.ca>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 12:30:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: No One is Illegal Montreal <noii-montreal at resist.ca>


{NOTE: More than 150 people gathered in Montreal yesterday to protest the
pending deportation of Palestinian refugees from Canada and in opposition
to the ongoing Israeli war crimes being committed against the residents of
the Rafah refugee camp. Yesterday's demonstration as part of a North
American wide day of action, illustrates the growing movement against the
effort of Immigration Canada to deport Palestinian refugees, to the deadly
and illegal Israeli military occupation and the poverty and persecution
which defines daily life in the refugee camps of Lebanon.

There were solidarity demonstrations and actions organized in New York and
Toronto. In NYC people gathered to protest outside of the Canadian
Consulate, in support of the Coalition Against the Deportation of
Palestinian Refugees and in Toronto a delegation of supporters visited the
offices of Immigration Canada, to stress their support for the struggle of
the Palestinian refugees facing deportation. There are many actions and
events being planned in the coming weeks if you are interested in getting
involved or supporting the Coalition Against the Deportation of
Palestinian Refugees please get in touch: refugees at riseup.net / 514 591
3171}

-------------------

THREE PALESTINIANS: LIVING IN SANCTUARY
"Where the sun don't shine"
by Sara Falconer

Palestinian refugees in lightless NDG church sanctuary see little movement
on deportation case
{http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=3154}

Outside, it's 23 degrees and the sun's touch is still a giddy novelty. But
in the cool church basement in Notre-Dame-de-Grace, three Palestinian
refugees have been touched by little except fluorescent light and
industrial pastels for nearly four months.

On January 30, 60-somethings Khalil Ayoub, Nabih Ayoub and Therese Boulos
Haddad took sanctuary to avoid deportation. Not that sanctuary is any
guarantee of safety these days: In March, police in Quebec City violated
the tradition for the first time ever in Canada to arrest non-status
Algerian refugee and activist Mohamed Cherfi.

Exhausted but patient, Nabih and wife Therese settle in at a worn folding
table to talk. Nabih's brother Khalil is in the adjacent kitchen. The
family has lived in Canada for three years ("Three years and 16 days,"
Nabih interjects). They spent the previous ten years living in the Ein
El-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon.

"Their situation was very difficult," explains translator Maya Antaki. The
camp was under the control of several militias, and their 24-year-old son
decided to flee rather than join the fighting. After he left, the Ayoub
family was harassed and threatened. "If you want to stay alive, you'll
have to leave."

Apparently that's not enough for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, who
denied their claim for landed refugee status. When asked about the
possibility of deportation back to Lebanon, both become visibly
distressed. After a moment of tense conferring, Antaki translates, "They
would prefer to die here than return."

Many of the Palestinian refugees in Montreal who are facing deportation in
the coming weeks have self-organized as the Coalition Against the
Deportation of Palestinian Refugees. The Coalition has proven tireless in
its ability to reach the public through petitions, demonstrations and
other events.

The 4.5 million Palestinian refugees worldwide have been stateless since
they, their parents or grandparents were expelled from their homes
following the declaration of the Israeli state in 1948. Most of Montreal's
Palestinian refugees are from Lebanon's camps and the occupied
territories.

According to the United Nations, the 360,000 refugees in Lebanon cope with
appalling human rights abuses. They are forbidden from owning property,
are not allowed to work in over 78 professions, and often have to perform
manual labour or work illegally, with 60 to 80 per cent living in poverty.
They have no political rights and their movement is restricted. In the
camps, residences are cramped, some without water, electricity and sewage
systems.

In the occupied territories, thousands of Palestinian refugees are
homeless as a result of house demolitions. Hundreds have been subjected to
illegal arrests, torture and extrajudicial executions by the Israeli
occupying forces. It is little surprise that many are desperate to leave,
at any cost.

"They came here with full hope because of the reputation that Canada has
in the refugee camps in Lebanon for protecting human rights," says refugee
Ahmed Mustapha.

Canada officially opposes the occupation and Israel's treatment of
Palestinians, and according to the Geneva Convention, will not send a
person back to a country where they might be persecuted or "exposed to the
risk of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."

Yet since 9/11, more and more Palestinian refugee claims are being
rejected by Immigration Canada. The controversial Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act, which was passed in June 2002, in part limits the ability
of refugees to appeal the decision of a single judge against them.

Mustapha got involved with the Coalition after he received a negative
decision in his own case. "There's no hope for judicial review," he says.
"It's a formality."

As a result of deportation orders, at least six Palestinian refugees are
hiding "underground" in Montreal. They live in constant fear of arrest,
unable to even see a doctor if necessary. "They prefer to live with these
conditions than to go back to refugee camps," Mustapha says.

Coalition members and supporters celebrated their first major victory in
April when a judge halted the deportation of Osama Saleh to the West Bank.
The federal court will now review his case in more detail before making a
final decision. Organizers credit the decision to a vigorous campaign of
letters, phone calls and protests aimed at Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration Judy Sgro.

This week, a day of solidarity with Palestinian refugees facing
deportation is planned in Vancouver, Toronto, New York and other North
American cities to demand a halt to the deportation of Palestinian
refugees and the acceptance of their claims for permanent residency on
humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

On Thursday, May 20, from 4 to 6 p.m., the Coalition Against the
Deportation of Palestinian Refugees and supporters will demonstrate at the
local offices of Citizenship and Immigration Canada at 1010 St-Antoine
West (Bonaventure metro). For more information, contact
refugees at riseup.net.

-----------------------
_______________________________________________
nooneisillegal-l mailing list
nooneisillegal-l at lists.resist.ca
https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 21 14:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 21:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] Mohawk Warriors face Canadian-style colonialism (from ZMag)
Message-ID: <20040521211706.15215.qmail@resist.ca>

On May 20, 2004, people from all over the Ontario and Quebec will go to the 
Mohawk community of Kanehsatake to show their support for a peaceful resolution 
to a confrontation between heavily armed agents of the state and a community 
that rejects them.  The conflict has gone on for months, with a Grand 
Chief ousted by the community trying repeatedly to return to power, against 
community opposition, at the head of a group of heavily armed police.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/21/75950/8143


From news at resist.ca  Fri May 21 17:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 00:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Carelessness 'defies belief' in US attack on Iraqi wedding
Message-ID: <20040522001703.2630.qmail@resist.ca>

The Scotsman ; Thu 20 May 2004 ; intro: NY Transfer News Collective In the face 
of their own hand-picked Iraqi officials saying the US had slaughtered 
civilians, and AP Television News video showing the bodies of women and 
children being buried, with their familiy members weeping over them, the US 
military was still claiming 12 hours later that they had hit a safehouse full 
of foreign devils, and not a village wedding party.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/21/16216/8522


From sharai at resist.ca  Fri May 21 18:29:45 2004
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 19:29:45 -0600
Subject: [news] Schmeiser vs Monsanto case/Supreme Court of Canada
Message-ID: <40AEAD09.8060602@resist.ca>

FRENCH TO FOLLOW...

PRESS RELEASE / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SASKATOON - In a decision rendered today in the controversial Schmeiser 
vs Monsanto case, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the judgement 
against Saskatchewan canola farmer Percy Schmeiser, sending shockwaves 
around the world.

In 2001, the Federal Court of Appeal found that Schmeiser had infringed 
on Monsanto's patent rights to its Roundup Ready canola when he saved 
and planted contaminated seeds growing on his farm.  Refusing to give 
up, the prairie farmer took his case all the way to the Supreme Court of 
Canada.  While today's decision is the end of Schmeiser's legal battle, 
the world-wide political battle to change patent laws wages on.

The vast implications of this case compelled the Council of Canadians, 
the Sierra Club of Canada, and the National Farmers Union to seek 
standing in the case.  The intervener coalition is devastated by today's 
results.

"It is horrific what this decision will mean for so many in Canada and 
around the world," explained Andrea Peart, Director of Health and 
Environment with Sierra Club of Canada. "This decision doesn't just 
condemn Percy Schmeiser, it also condemns the broader community.  The 
responsibility of dealing with the environmental contamination of GE 
genes will now be shouldered by the public, not the polluter."

The appeal required the Court to decide what constitutes patent 
infringement when dealing with life forms such as plants, which have the 
capacity to reproduce.

"This case was about preserving age-old agricultural practices such as 
seed saving and protecting farmers from being held responsible for the 
rampant contamination of our farm fields," says Terry Boehm of the 
National Farmers Union.  "A reversal of the lower courts' decision was 
essential to protect the rights of farmers."

The precedence associated with this groundbreaking case also attracted 
key international groups to the coalition.  These include the Action 
Group on Erosion, Technology, and Concentration (ETC), the Research 
Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, led by renowned Indian 
environmentalist Dr. Vandana Shiva, and the Washington-based 
International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA).

"Monsanto and other biotech companies have been relentless in their 
attack on farmers both in Canada and the US," says Andrew Kimbrell, 
Executive Director of the ICTA, "Nearly 100 farmers sued by Monsanto in 
the U.S. face similarly dire prospects. Mr. Schmeiser's loss should 
underscore the threats farmers face when biotech crops are allowed to 
invade our farmlands."

"Monsanto's victory will be short lived," says Pat Mooney from ETC. 
"This ruling is sure to unleash worldwide backlash against genetically 
engineered foods.  Monsanto may think that it's beaten us, but all 
they've done is galvanize the resistance."

"The biotech industry has grossly underestimated the people's resolve," 
adds Nad?ge Adam of the Council of Canadians.  "This loss makes it even 
more important for people around the world to take this battle to their 
governments.   We demand that our elected officials assume their 
responsibility and ban the patenting of lifeforms."

-30-

For more information, please contact :
Laura Sewell, Media Officer, Council of Canadians : (613) 233-4487 ext. 
234; (613) 795-8685 (cell); lsewell at canadians.org

For more information, please visit the Council of Canadians' website at: 
www.canadians.org/browse_categories.htm?COC_token=coc_token&step=2&catid=267&iscat=1.

----


COMMUNIQU? DE PRESSE								
POUR DIFFUSION IMM?DIATE

[21-mai-04] La d?cision Schmeiser suscite l'indignation dans le monde entier

SASKATOON - Dans une d?cision rendue aujourd'hui dans l'affaire 
controvers?e Schmeiser c. Monsanto, la Cour supr?me du Canada a maintenu 
le jugement du tribunal inf?rieur contre l'agriculteur de canola de la 
Saskatchewan Percy Schmeiser, suscitant ainsi des remous ? travers le 
monde.

La Cour d'appel f?d?rale avait ?tabli en 2001 que M. Schmeiser avait 
enfreint les droits de brevet de Monsanto envers son canola ? Roundup 
Ready ?, en conservant et en plantant des semences contamin?es qui 
poussaient sur sa ferme. Refusant de baisser les bras, l'agriculteur a 
d?cid? de s'adresser ensuite ? la Cour supr?me du Canada. Sa lutte s'est 
malheureusement termin?e aujourd'hui.

Les vastes implications de cette poursuite ont oblig? le Conseil des 
Canadiens, le Sierra Club du Canada et le Syndicat national des 
cultivateurs ? se positionner dans cette affaire. La coalition des 
intervenants est atterr?e par la d?cision rendue aujourd'hui.

?  Le mot d?sappointement ne peut m?me pas commencer ? d?crire ce que 
ressentent tant de personnes au Canada et dans le monde entier en ce 
moment, affirme Andrea Peart du Sierra Club. Cette d?cision ne condamne 
pas seulement Percy Schmeiser, elle condamne aussi l'ensemble de la 
collectivit?. Permettre ? l'industrie de la biotechnologie d'imposer ses 
droits de brevet ? cause d'une contamination par inadvertance aura des 
effets d?vastateurs pour nous tous. ?

L'appel de M. Schmeiser demandait ? la Cour de d?cider ce qui constitue 
une contrefa?on de brevet dans le cas de formes de vie comme des 
plantes, qui ont la capacit? de se reproduire.

? Cette affaire avait trait ? la pr?servation de pratiques agricoles 
traditionnelles comme la conservation des semences et visait ? prot?ger 
les agriculteurs pour qu'on ne les tienne pas responsables de la 
contamination galopante de nos champs, affirme Terry Boehm du Syndicat 
national des cultivateurs, l'un des membres de la coalition. Il fallait 
absolument que la d?cision du tribunal inf?rieur soit renvers?e pour 
prot?ger les droits des producteurs. Cette d?cision va transformer pour 
toujours l'agriculture canadienne que nous connaissons. ?

La grande importance associ?e ? cette affaire sans pr?c?dent a ?galement 
incit? des groupes internationaux cl?s ? se joindre ? la coalition. Cela 
comprend notamment le Action Group on Erosion, Technology and 
Concentration (ETC), le Research Foundation for Science, Technology and 
Ecology, dirig? par le c?l?bre environnementaliste indien, le professeur 
Vandana Shiva, et l'International Center for Technology Assessment 
(ICTA) de Washington.

? Monsanto ne pourra pas c?l?brer longtemps sa victoire, dit Pat Mooney 
d'ETC. Cette d?cision soul?vera certainement des vagues d'indignation 
contre les aliments transg?niques dans le monde entier. Si Monsanto 
s'imagine nous avoir battus, la compagnie va se rendre compte qu'elle 
n'aura fait que stimuler notre r?sistance. ?

L'industrie de la biotechnologie a gravement sous-estim? la 
d?termination des gens, et cette d?cision stimulera certainement le 
mouvement encore plus, ajoute Nad?ge Adam du Conseil des Canadiens. Nous 
esp?rons que cette victoire incitera les gens du monde entier ? demander 
des comptes ? leurs gouvernements et ? faire en sorte qu'on mette un 
terme aux brevets sur la vie. ?


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 25 10:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 17:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] Arctic melting at alarming rate:
Message-ID: <20040525171703.28838.qmail@resist.ca>

Global warming is hitting the Arctic two to three times as fast as the rest of 
the globe, according to a dramatic Arctic Climate Impact Assessment study. The 
warming trend is destabilizing buildings on permafrost, threatening an oil 
pipeline across Alaska, and could make Hudson Bay uninhabitable for polar bears 
within just 20 years, say published reports about the study.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/25/95518/0202


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 25 22:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 05:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Union Leaders Darkest Hours
Message-ID: <20040526051709.10539.qmail@resist.ca>

The sad reality is that guys like (Jim) Sinclair are drawn into the backrooms 
where the interests of thousands of working people are dealt away because they 
are a part of the machinery of domination. They're part of the machine and so 
they do their part for the machine. They publicly criticize the capitalists 
because that's part of their schtick. But deep down inside, they like the 
capitalists and they're like the capitalists. They can't imagine a world 
without 'em - if they could, they'd be talking about it. But they don't. 
Instead they talk about the need for workers to kiss the capitalists' asses so 
that they can be more competitive and to accept all the unpleasantness that 
goes along with this as their lot in life.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/22/22215/4328


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 25 23:17:09 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 06:17:09 -0000
Subject: [news] Unions demand rethink by Labour
Message-ID: <20040526061709.15747.qmail@resist.ca>

The Guardian ; May 18, 2004 ; By Kevin Maguire Tony Blair will come under 
concerted attack on a new front today when trade union leaders unveil plans to 
impose a leftwing election manifesto on the prime minister.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/25/222526/040


From news at resist.ca  Tue May 25 23:17:09 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 06:17:09 -0000
Subject: [news] Health Care CEOs get raises, as workers take cuts
Message-ID: <20040526061709.15748.qmail@resist.ca>

VICTORIA (from CBC) - Senior health authority executives have been given 
significant raises over the past two years - while many of their unionized 
staff have been forced to take pay cuts. At the Fraser Health Authority, two 
Chief Operating Officers received 18-per-cent raises - from $160,000 to 
$190,000 a year.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/25/14232/1246


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 26 11:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 18:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] High court rules on Percy Schmeiser vs. Monsanto
Message-ID: <20040526181705.4373.qmail@resist.ca>

Council of Canadians SASKATOON - The supreme court has decided in favour of 
Monsanto and against a Saskatchewan canola farmer who's crop was contaminated 
by the the mega corp's patented frankenfood.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/26/104929/314


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 26 11:17:05 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 18:17:05 -0000
Subject: [news] U.S. Tries to Get Off the Hook on War Crimes
Message-ID: <20040526181705.4372.qmail@resist.ca>

New York ; May 20, 2004 ; Human Rights Watch The United States is insisting 
that its troops be exempt from international war crimes prosecutions while 
serving in any U.N. force in Iraq, despite U.S. abuse of prisoners there, Human 
Rights Watch said today.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/26/105849/476


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 26 12:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 19:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Contracting out Health Support: Documents Raise Doubts
Message-ID: <20040526191703.11370.qmail@resist.ca>

TheTyee.ca Health inspection reports and a leaked document raise questions 
about the quality of privatized care, and about cost savings.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/26/112711/154


From news at resist.ca  Wed May 26 12:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 19:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] =?iso-8859-1?q?Canada=92s_Liberal_government_boosts_milit?=
	=?iso-8859-1?q?ary=2C_courts_Bush_administration?=
Message-ID: <20040526191703.11369.qmail@resist.ca>

By David Adelaide ; 22 May 2004 Under Paul Martin, Canada?s Liberal government 
has given increased importance and prominence to the Canadian Armed Forces 
(CAF). In answer to demands from Canadian big business and Washington that 
Canada increase its contribution to ?global security,? Ottawa has announced new 
or speeded-up weapons purchases, deployed troops to Haiti, extended the CAF 
mission in Afghanistan, and all but dotted the i?s and crossed the t?s on 
Canadian participation in the Bush administration?s missile defence program.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/26/113431/017


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 27 14:17:12 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 21:17:12 -0000
Subject: [news] Iraqis lose right to sue troops over war crimes
Message-ID: <20040527211712.28869.qmail@resist.ca>

The Observer ; Kamal Ahmed ; Sunday May 23, 2004 British and American troops 
are to be granted immunity from prosecution in Iraq after the crucial 30 June 
handover, undermining claims that the new Iraqi government will have 'full 
sovereignty' over the state.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/13251/5163


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 27 14:17:11 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 21:17:11 -0000
Subject: [news] Venezuelan elite imports soldiers
Message-ID: <20040527211712.28867.qmail@resist.ca>

ZNet ; May 23, 2004 ; by Marta Harnecker; venezuelanalysis.com If anything has 
become clear following the discovery of an incursion of a significantly large 
paramilitary group into the country, it is that the 'anti-Bolivarian and 
anti-Venezuelan oligarchy and its masters in the north' have not been able to 
recruit Venezuelan soldiers for their subversive objectives and 'have been 
forced to recruit them in another country,'

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/135449/552


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 27 14:17:12 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 21:17:12 -0000
Subject: [news] The white cat and black cat of medicare
Message-ID: <20040527211712.28868.qmail@resist.ca>

Winnipeg Free Press ; May 23, 2004 ; By Murray Dobbin If the actual campaign is 
anything like the warmup, this election is going to be a sorry spectacle -- a 
contest between two parties, both dedicated for a decade to dismantling 
medicare, competing for votes on the pledge to save it.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/134124/772


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 27 15:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 22:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] UBC bookstore to adopt anti-sweatshop policy
Message-ID: <20040527221704.4758.qmail@resist.ca>

May 24, 2004 After a several-month-long consultation with the UBC Oxfam club 
and other community human rights organizations, the Bookstore has drafted and 
adopted a strong new Code for all its apparel suppliers. The new Code will 
require suppliers to pledge to observe standards set by the International 
Labour Organization and the United Nations in making goods for university sale.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/142051/304


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 27 15:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 22:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Bush docterine: interview with Noam Chomsky
Message-ID: <20040527221704.4759.qmail@resist.ca>

Bush Doctrine ; BBC Interview ; by Noam Chomsky and Jeremy Paxman ; May 21, 
2004 If George Bush were to be judged by the standards of the Nuremberg 
Tribunals, he'd be hanged. So too, mind you, would every single American 
President since the end of the second world war, including Jimmy Carter.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/14739/6404


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 27 15:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 22:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Rumsfeld bans camera phones in Iraq
Message-ID: <20040527221704.4757.qmail@resist.ca>

Sydney Morning Herald ; May 24, 2004 Mobile phones fitted with digital cameras 
have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence 
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Britain's The Business newspaper reported yeterday.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/14269/7602


From news at resist.ca  Thu May 27 15:17:03 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 22:17:03 -0000
Subject: [news] Official Compares Israeli Action to Nazi's
Message-ID: <20040527221704.4760.qmail@resist.ca>

The Guardian ; May 23, 2004 Jerusalem (AP) - An Israeli Cabinet minister on 
Sunday said the army's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip 
reminded him of actions the Nazis took against his family during World War II 
and called for a halt to the policy of destroying homes.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/14253/7708


From ron at resist.ca  Thu May 27 23:33:25 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 23:33:25 -0700
Subject: [news] US Repression of Animal Rights Activists
Message-ID: <40B6DD35.9000908@resist.ca>


Animal Rights Arrests

by Will Potter; May 27, 2004

The Bush administration sent a calculated message to grassroots political
activists this week: The War on Terrorism has come home.

FBI agents rounded up seven American political activists from across the
country Wednesday morning, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey held
a press conference trumpeting that "terrorists" have been indicted.

That's right: "Terrorists." The activists have been charged with violating
the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 1992, which at the time garnered
little public attention except from the corporations who lobbied for it.
Their crime, according to the indictment, is "conspiring" to shut down
Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that tests products on animals and has
been exposed multiple times for violating animal welfare laws.

The terrorism charges could mean a maximum of three years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. The activists also face additional charges of interstate
stalking and three counts of conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking:
Each count could mean up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Since September 11, the T-word has been tossed around by law enforcement and
politicians with more and more ease. Grassroots environmental and animal
activists, and even national organizations like Greenpeace, have been called
"eco-terrorists" by the corporations and politicians they oppose. The
arrests on Wednesday, though, mark the official opening of a new domestic
front in the War on Terrorism.

Bush's War on Terrorism is no longer limited to Al Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden.
It's not limited to Afghanistan or Iraq (or Syria, or Iran, or whichever
country is next). And it's not limited to the animal rights movement, or
even the campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. The rounding up of
activists on Wednesday should set off alarms heard by every social movement
in the United States: This "war" is about protecting corporate and political
interests under the guise of fighting terrorism.

To use a non-animal rights analogy, these activists are the canaries in the
mine. They are part of a relatively new, isolated social movement, and
therefore more vulnerable to attacks on civil liberties. But what happens to
them now will happen to other movements soon enough.

The activists arrested are part of a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal
Cruelty, an international organization aimed solely at closing the
controversial lab. The group uses home demonstrations, phone and email
blockades, and plenty of smart-ass, aggressive rhetoric to pressure
companies to cut ties with the lab. It has worked. The lab has been brought
near bankruptcy, after international corporations like Marsh Inc. have
pulled out their investments.

To most, this is effective-- albeit controversial-- organizing. According to
the indictment, though, it's "terrorism" because the activists aim to cause
"physical disruption to the functioning of HLS, an animal enterprise, and
intentionally damage and cause the loss of property used by HLS."

That's like saying the Montgomery bus boycott, a catalyst of the civil
rights movement, was terrorism because it aimed to "intentionally damage and
cause the loss of property" of the bus company.

It seems the biggest act of "terrorism" by the group is a website. Members
of the group are outspoken supporters of illegal direct action like civil
disobedience, rescuing animals from labs, and vandalism. Whenever
actions-legal or not-take place against the lab, the group puts it on the
website. The activists are not accused of taking part in any of these
crimes.

Such news postings are so threatening, apparently, that the indictment
doesn't even name the corporations that have been targeted. They are only
identified by single letters, like "S. Inc." or "M. Corp."

"Because of the nature of the campaign against these companies, we didn't
want to subject them further to the tactics of SHAC," said Michael Drewniak,
spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New jersey, in an interview.

Some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet, and the U.S. Attorney's
Office must protect them from a bunch of protesters. This is what the War on
Terrorism has become: The Bush administration can't find real terrorists
abroad, yet it spends law enforcement time and resources protecting
corporations from political activists.

The lawsuit is so outlandish that some activists, who asked that they not be
identified, said they don't think it is intended to win. Instead, they see
it as an important political move in the War on Terror. In a hearing before
the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee just last week, a U.S. Attorney said the
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act needed to go further to successfully be used
against Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. If this lawsuit fails, the Justice
Department can say, "We told you so."

So, these activists face a double-edged sword. If they lose, they go to
prison, and are labeled "terrorists" for the rest of their lives. If they
win, it could be fodder for an even harsher political crackdown.

Their only chance is for activists of all social movements-- regardless of
their political views-- to support them, and oppose the assault on basic
civil liberties. Otherwise, in Bush's America, we could all be terrorists.

Will Potter is a freelance reporter in Washington, D.C. He has written for
the Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and Chronicle of Higher Education,
and closely follows how the War on Terrorism affects civil liberties.


From gflett1 at shaw.ca  Fri May 28 04:55:45 2004
From: gflett1 at shaw.ca (Gordon Flett)
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 04:55:45 -0700
Subject: [news] Steelworkers Still On Strike
Message-ID: <016701c444aa$b62dcb00$d3ae5418@vc.shawcable.net>

The 46 members of USWA Local 2952 at Modern Auto Plating Ltd. in Vancouver
have been on strike for over 28 months now, since January 24, 2002.

They are attempting to improve workplace health & safety conditions, while
asking for modest increases in wages and benefits. You only have to see the
outside of this sweatshop to realize why these workers need health & safety
improvements. On the inside they work under conditions similar to those that
existed in England during the Industrial Revolution in the latter part of
the 19th century. 12 members have crossed their own picket line and are
scabbing on their fellow workers, thereby prolonging the strike, as the
owner refuses to negotiate.

Initially the owner refused to allow WCB inspectors into the plant, thinking
it of course was optional, being his "private property" and all. But when
they did inspect it numerous violations were found and Modern Auto was fined
$12,000 and ordered to correct the violations.

Picket support is badly needed and people can help by visiting them at 60
East 5th Ave. (at Quebec St.) to bolster the spirits of these exploited,
mostly immigrant workers from Eastern Europe, and show the boss that they
are not alone. They picket from 6:30 AM to 4:00 PM Monday to Friday, and
from 8:00 to 11:00 AM on Saturdays. Refreshments and food are always
welcome, as are union/organization banners, flags, and signs.

The I.W.W. Vancouver holds a solidarity picket with them every Tuesday at
noon, and will continue to do so until the end of the strike. We invite
others to participate, but any time that someone can visit and show support
is greatly appreciated by these workers. It strengthens their resolve, by
showing that someone still cares. That they are not alone, and not
forgotten. They shall not be forgotten, these strikers who continue to stand
on that picket line after such a very long time, and refuse to be beaten.
Others might have been broken long ago, but not these brave souls. They are
the pride of the B.C. labour movement, and should be treated as such.

For further information about the strike, and/or about how you can help,
please contact Local 2952 President Scott McRitchie at 604-525-7481. The
company's # is 604-876-4161.

I.W.W. Vancouver Strike Support Committee

I.W.W. I.U. 450





From news at resist.ca  Fri May 28 18:17:14 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 01:17:14 -0000
Subject: [news] Rumsfeld bans camera phones in Iraq
Message-ID: <20040529011715.17876.qmail@resist.ca>

Sydney Morning Herald ; May 24, 2004 Mobile phones fitted with digital cameras 
have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence 
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Britain's The Business newspaper reported yeterday. 
(updated on Friday May 28)

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/27/14269/7602


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 29 21:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 04:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] New Strike Threat At BC Ferries
Message-ID: <20040530041708.26915.qmail@resist.ca>

cbc.ca WebPosted May 28 2004 02:41 PM PDT VICTORIA - Picket lines could go up 
at some B.C. Ferry terminals on Monday morning, as contract talks with ferry 
maintenance and repair workers have broken down.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/28/1608/96161


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 29 21:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 04:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Anarchists Attack Rich Montreal Neighbourhood
Message-ID: <20040530041708.26912.qmail@resist.ca>

Initially peaceful, the marchers soon began vandalizing luxury cars, breaking 
windows and mirrors and spray-painting them with "nasty words," mostly in the 
area near Sherbrooke and Green Sts.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/29/112421/089


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 29 21:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 04:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Assault On Seattle's Tent City 4
Message-ID: <20040530041708.26916.qmail@resist.ca>

Wednesday May 26 2004 - Seattle Post Intelligencer BOTHELL -- The city's 
lawsuit against the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle over the location of a 
homeless encampment known as Tent City 4 at St. Brendan Parish in Bothell will 
be the subject of a hearing June 9 and 10 in King County Superior Court.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/28/16532/8857


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 29 21:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 04:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Police Brutality Activist Dies in Police Custody
Message-ID: <20040530041708.26913.qmail@resist.ca>

Outraged community residents threw down the gauntlet against business as 
usual in Thursday's police board meeting, leaving their seats to surround board 
members and command level police brass and demand meaningful steps in the 
investigation of the death in police custody of May Molina. Police say they 
found Molina dead or near death in a police cell at Belmont and Western 
Wednesday morning. Her supporters have accused police of being responsible for 
her death.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/29/94034/4599


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 29 21:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 04:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Burnaby Joins Fight Against MSP Privatisation
Message-ID: <20040530041708.26914.qmail@resist.ca>

cbc news british columbia - WebPosted May 28 2004 VANCOUVER - Burnaby city 
council says the province should cancel its plan to contract out the 
administration of the Medical Services Plan to an American company.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/28/155544/022


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 29 21:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 04:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] &amp; quot; Wombles&amp; quot;
	Push Through Police Lines at European Union Summit in Dublin
Message-ID: <20040530041709.26917.qmail@resist.ca>

In a world where hundreds of thousands of people die every year due to the 
economic policies of global capitalism, the discussion of the "violence" of a 
push through police lines or property damage on a demonstration becomes an 
irrelevance.  Violence comes from the state. Violence comes from a system 
where profit takes priority over humanity. Our attempts to rise above the 
attempted division of "good" and "bad" protesters reflects the attitude of many 
of the discussions and manifestations of the global anti-capitalist movement 
over the last few years.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/28/174520/283


From news at resist.ca  Sat May 29 21:17:08 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 04:17:08 -0000
Subject: [news] Atrocities in Iraq:  &amp; quot;
	I Killed Innocent People For Our Government&amp; quot; 
Message-ID: <20040530041709.26918.qmail@resist.ca>

"I killed innocent people for our government. For what? What did I do? Where is 
the good coming out of it? I feel like I've had a hand in some sort of evil lie 
at the hands of our government. I just feel embarrassed, ashamed about it."

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/28/24920/4902


From news at resist.ca  Sun May 30 22:17:09 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 05:17:09 -0000
Subject: [news] RAV mess sign of 'Mr. Muscle' at work
Message-ID: <20040531051709.26830.qmail@resist.ca>

Vancouver Courier ; May 19, 2004 ; By Allen Garr The absolute mess we find 
ourselves in over the RAV line has Ken Dobell's fingerprints all over it. It 
was not some faceless force that drove the majority of the TransLink board to 
stop the Richmond Airport Vancouver rapid transit project in its tracks. It was 
not some provincial committee that spooked the TransLink directors. It was not 
"Victoria" or "the Province."

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/30/21421/6948


From news at resist.ca  Sun May 30 22:17:09 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 05:17:09 -0000
Subject: [news] UN says IDF troops raid UN office in Jenin
Message-ID: <20040531051709.26829.qmail@resist.ca>

Haaretz ; 23/05/2004 ;By The Associated Press Israel Defense Forces troops 
raided the office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the West 
Bank town of Jenin, threatened a UN official and detained him for three hours, 
an UNRWA statement said Sunday.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/30/214519/013


From news at resist.ca  Sun May 30 22:17:09 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 05:17:09 -0000
Subject: [news] 'Dead zones' in world's oceans are growing,
	say alarmed UN scientists
Message-ID: <20040531051709.26828.qmail@resist.ca>

Independent (UK) ; March 30, 2004 ; Michael McCarthy It is as sinister a 
development as any in the list of things going wrong with the planet. Marine 
"dead zones" - oxygen- starved areas of the oceans that are devoid of fish - 
are one of the greatest environmental problems facing the world, UN scientists 
warned yesterday.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/30/215736/816


From news at resist.ca  Sun May 30 22:17:09 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 05:17:09 -0000
Subject: [news] Bell Canada continues to stall on pay equity
Message-ID: <20040531051709.26832.qmail@resist.ca>

BC Federation of Labour Bell is aggressively marketing in British Columbia to 
get people to switch their phone service to Bell. In the course of their 
marketing efforts, they are claiming to be a 'great Canadian company'. Bell 
agreed to a pay equity plan over a decade ago, but the company has stalled on 
settling the claim, which covers about 5,000 current and former CEP telephone 
operators, many of whom are owed up to $50,000 in pay.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/30/212819/285


From news at resist.ca  Sun May 30 22:17:09 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 05:17:09 -0000
Subject: [news] NDP cutting health care in Saskatchewan
Message-ID: <20040531051709.26831.qmail@resist.ca>

REGINA: The union representing over 12,000 health service providers in 
Saskatchewan says the health care cutbacks announced today by the provincial 
government will lead to privatization by stealth.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/30/213233/654


From news at resist.ca  Mon May 31 09:17:02 2004
From: news at resist.ca (Resist!ca)
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 16:17:02 -0000
Subject: [news] Smashed windows at MLA's office
Message-ID: <20040531161703.4357.qmail@resist.ca>

VANCOUVER - Police are investigating an apparent attack on Liberal MLA Lorne 
Mayencourt's office in downtown Vancouver. "The windows were completely 
shattered. And there were four holes I assumed to be bullet holes or some sort 
of projectile hit the windows. And the police were in attendance.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/5/31/82716/2746