[opirgyork] Weekly Digest Feb/12/2010

[OPIRG York]

Hey all!

Hope everyone is gearing up for their reading week!
Don't forget to sign up for our upcoming ANTI-OPPRESSION and orientation 
sessions!
It's open and FREE for OPIRG volunteers, and will offered on two 
different dates!
The orientation session will consist of consensus based decision and 
facilitating meeting skills.

*Workshops:
Anti-oppression training
MONDAY FEBRUARY 22nd - 2pm - Student Centre Rm. 430
WEDNESDAY MARCH 24th - 2pm - Student Centre Rm. 430

OPIRG Orientation (Consensus 101 + Facilitation meeting skills)
Thursday FEBRUARY 25th - 2:30pm - Student Centre Rm. 430
Thursday March 25th - 2:30pm - Student Centre Rm. 430

email - aruna at opirgyork.ca to register for any of the sessions!*

andddddddd...

"Remembering Howard Zinn"
OPIRG York presents...
"You can't be neutral on a moving train"
Wednesday February 24th
4pm - 7pm
Student Centre - Rm. 430

In these turbulent times, Howard Zinn is inspiring a new generation. 
This acclaimed film looks at the amazing life of the renowned
historian, activist and author. Following his early days as a shipyard 
labor organizer and bombardier in World War II, Zinn became
an academic rebel and leader of civil disobedience in a time of 
institutionalized racism and war. His influential writings shine
light on and bring voice to factory workers, immigrant laborers, African 
Americans, Native Americans and the working poor.

Featuring rare archival materials and interviews with Zinn and 
colleagues such as Noam Chomsky, You Can’t Be Neutral captures the
essence of this extraordinary man who has been a catalyst for 
progressive change for more than 60 years.

Narrated by Matt Damon • Featuring music by Pearl Jam, Woody Guthrie & 
Billy Bragg!

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1) THIS SUNDAY! 5th Annual Rally for the missing/murdered sisters
2) In-De-Pend-ent! - TWB + Haiti relief fundraiser
3) Spoof The Sponsors! - ALL OUT in TORONTO on the 13th
4) she: a new biomyth-monodrama by d'bi young
5) Call to ACTION - Global day of action for the 254 Tamil Asylum 
seekers stranded on a boat in Indonesia
6) Book Love - Fundraiser for the TWB
7) Migrant Women in solidarity against Imperialism: The struggles of 
women here and abroad
8) Words of Resistance: Land & Who's Nationhood?
9) Venezuela Teach-in - UofT
10) Decolonizing Our Minds: Reclaiming Toronto
11) Israeli Apartheid Week @ York U
12) G8/G20 Community Mobilization - TORONTO G8/G20 Resistance
13) March 19th-21st - The City is a sweatshop
14) !!!!!!!!JOB POSTING ALERT!!!!!!!! - Tenant Organizer

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1)
5th Annual Rally for Our Missing Sisters

When: Sunday, February 14, 2009 @ 12 pm
Where: Rally at Police HQ, 40 College St. at Bay

We'll march to the Coroner’s Office, 26 Grenville St. Gathering with 
food immediately to follow at U of T’s Centre for Women and Trans People 
(563 Spadina Ave)

Over 500 Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing – most over 
the last 30 years – on Turtle Island. We come together in defense of our 
lives and to demonstrate against the complicity of the state in the 
ongoing genocide of Indigenous women and the impunity of state 
institutions and actors (police, RCMP, coroners’ offices and the courts) 
that prevents justice for all Indigenous Peoples.

Endorsed by: YU Free Press (York University); Centre for Women and Trans 
People (UofT); Canadian Chiapanecas Justice for Women; For Women’s 
Autonomy, Rights and Dignity (FORWARD); No One Is Illegal-Toronto; 
CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy (Ryerson U); 
Supporting Aboriginal Graduate Enhancement (SAGE, UofT); Women and 
Gender Studies Institute (UofT); Students Against Israeli Apartheid (UofT)

*If your organization would like to endorse and/or support the rally in 
other ways, please contact: nomoresilence at riseup.net

No More Silence is part of an inter/national network to support the work 
being done by activists, academics, researchers, agencies and 
communities to stop the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women.

In addition to the Toronto rally, marches and other events will take or 
have taken place in Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, 
Sudbury, and London, ON.

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

2) IN-DE-PEND-ENT!

1. not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, 
conduct, etc.
2. not subject to another's authority or jurisdiction; autonomous

Because we believe in independent businesses and autonomous nations, 
this night is in support of the Toronto Women's Bookstore and Partners 
in Health Haiti.

Performances by LAL, amai kuda, the Wilderness of Manitoba and Brescia 
Birdthroat Bloodbeard!

Music to dance all night courtesy of DJs Elle Nino & Sammy D

The amazing Kalmplex from Fresh 2 Def and Les Blues will be your MC for 
the night.

Come show ur support nd get there early to avoid waitin in line!

$5-10 suggested donation

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

3) Feb 13th is Opening Day for the Olympics... so rather than growling 
alone, lets get together and 'celebrate' the games though public 
education and some old school road hockey.

On Saturday, please come dressed up in some form of mockery of the 
games. Old school Olympic gear from VV or Sally Anne is encouraged, but 
lets put some touches on the clothes ;).

Please bring road hockey sticks and gear for a game.

Call Out Below:

All Out February 13th!
Call out for solidarity actions across Canada against Olympic and Tar 
Sands green washing!

We all know the Olympics are about more than fun and games but we need 
your action to help get the facts heard! The Olympics industry tries to 
promote that the 2010 Winter Games are making a positive contribution 
for our ‘social, economic, and environmental benefit’, but in reality 
the Olympic Industry causes large-scale environmental destruction and 
negative social impacts - as do many of its corporate sponsors.

Right here in our backyard, we have the largest industrial project on 
the planet, the Tar Sands, and two of the top Tar Sands investors are 
lead sponsors with the Olympics - Royal Bank and Petro Canada/Suncor. 
The Royal Bank of Canada is the largest financier of Tar Sands 
expansions and Petro Canada/Suncor directly operates six Tar Sands 
projects, is a major supporter of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline – a 
project set to devastate communities and land throughout Alberta, BC and 
the Northwest Territories – and is the main energy supplier to the Olympics.

This means the Olympics are being powered up by Tar Sands crude!

On Saturday February 13th, 2010 we are calling on all anti-capitalist, 
Indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, 
anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti 
colonial activists - who are not able to make it to the No 2010 
convergence in Vancouver - to hold solidarity actions in their 
communities against Olympics and Tar Sands projects like the Royal Bank 
and Petro Canada/Suncor. Please send in photos and updates about your 
actions to noolympicsnotarsands at gmail.com

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

4) ‘she’ is the first play in a new trilogy of biomyth-monodramas by 
d’bi.young entitled the labyrinth. a young black womban is enchanted 
with a pop icon. as her enchantment becomes obsession, what’s real is 
make-believe and lines of fantasy and reality are possibly permanently 
blurred. www.dbiyoung.net

wednesday-sunday feb 17-21 @ 9:30pm
buddies in bad times theatre chamber a

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

5)
Friday feb 19th
4pm - 7pm
Indonesian Consulate
129 Jarvis St.

News Update:

Feb 8th the IOM agreed to give some much needed medicine to the people 
on the boat with the pre-condition that people disembark from the boat 
to pick it up. Four men came off the boat to get the medicine and were 
subsequently brutally beaten by the Indonesian police. Another young 
child has boils all over his body and his parents are in utter 
desperation trying to get him medical attention which they are 
continually denied. Another young boy fainted today. He hit his head a 
while ago and since then has been fainting. Each time he is taken to the 
IOM doctor he is sent away without being examined and given only 
ibuprofen (advil for headaches). He is in desperate need of a CT scan of 
his head. Today another woman fainted. It is most likely because of poor 
diet due to the inedible food the people are provided with from the IOM.

Manju, the woman who is pregnant, has a due date of March 5th and so far 
there has been no commitment from the Indonesian authorities that she 
will be able to safely deliver her baby and be provided medical attention.

The Indonesian government is continuing to block humanitarian supplies 
to the boat and the authorities are becoming increasingly violent. The 
people on the boat are slowly breaking down mentally because of the 
combination of lack of food, disease and fear.

For the last 3 months, there are 246 Tamil asylum seekers with 30 
children on board a boat in Merak Indonesia. They are presently being 
denied asylum in Australia, their original destination. Over 100 of the 
people on board already have refugee documentation from the UNHCR. 24 
are in the final stages of refugee documentation, and the rest are 
waiting for the UNHCR process. They are suffering from ill health and 
are without access to medical supplies and the basic amenities. One man 
has already died form lack of adequate medical attention. We are 
imploring Australia to process their cases on Australian soil with 
medical treatment and supplies and adequate nutrition. Sending them back 
to Sri lanka, is condemning them to torture and death.

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

6) Sunday Feb 21st
1pm - 530pm
The TRANZAC

COME JOIN US FOR A SUNDAY OF FUN!

The Toronto Women's Bookstore is in crisis. They are one of the few 
non-profit feminist independent bookstores left on this continent and as 
a store rely primarily on sales to sustain themselves. However, despite 
courses and workshops and amazing community events and involvement, the 
existence of the TWB is threatened by the current economic climate.

We don't think we need to explain to you the importance of feminist and 
community spaces, but we do think you might like to help us make sure 
they stick around.

THUS! We are putting on a fundraiser for the Toronto Women's Bookstore 
and are having a day filled with performance, music, art and food goodness..

Hosted by Dainty Smith

Performances by:

Aimee Bessada
Amai Kuda et Les Bois
Emma McKenna
Kay Pettigrew
MataDanZe
LAL
Lee Lee
Nico Rubesque
Sarah Tompson
Stacey B

Arts and crafts vendors:

Brescia Bloodbeard
Mich Sutherland
Kasia Ulbin
Romy Cola
Ransack the universe
Sam Gorrie
and more..

Magical food treats by Erika P for Perrrrrfectly delicious
and Dani Ellaaaahhh

All funds raised will be going to the TWB. For more information (or to 
make a donation directly if you can't make it to the event), please 
visit www.womensbookstore.com

This is a family friendly event
Please spread the word

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

7) We'll be holding a forum on February 21, 2010 will focus on current 
struggles of women organizing in Toronto.

Our second forum for this year will be focusing on women organizing in 
Toronto. Please join us as we have speakers from Toronto highlighting 
their experience as women. Their struggles, actions and how they've been 
able to succeed, as well as continue to strive for change. We will also 
be reflecting on our role, as settlers, to not only engage in our own 
issues and connect with each other but to acknowledge the injustices 
happening to this day on this land.

Date: Sunday, February 21, 2010
Time: 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of
Toronto: ROOM 2211
Street: 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON

Speakers include members from:
Justice for Carolyn Connoly
SAWRO
Thorncliffe Neigbourhood Office
CUPE
Migrante-Ontario
& Many More

We are inviting members of the diverse community to join our struggle
here in the diaspora of Toronto and beyond. We also encourage male 
allies to attend be a part of this important forum.

Please be on a look out for our cultural celebration for International 
Women's Day on Friday, March 5, 2010 at the United Steelworker’s Hall, 
25 Cecil Street. More details to come!

Migrant Women's Coordinating Body for IWD on Facebook! Join Today!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=241464840529

Organized by: Migrant Women Coordinating Body for International Women's 
Day (Gabriela, Migrante Ontario, BASICS, Thornecliffe Neighbourhood 
Office, METRAC, Justicia 4 Migrant Workers, Canadian HART & many more)

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

8) WORDS OF RESISTANCE: Land & Who's Nationhood?
This event is free and open to everyone!

Open Mic 7-9pm
email Kenji to sign-up to read
ki.tokawa at utoronto.ca

Thursday, February 25, 2010
563 Spadina Ave. Rm 100
The Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T
*this space and its washroom are wheelchair accessible

Come out and SPEAK OUT against oppression, with subjects right off our
shelves!

THEMES for February 25th WORDS: Land & Who's Nationhood?

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics displaces a lot of people in the
name of national sport.

This month's Words of Resistance asks;

• What kind of wars are being fought on 'Canadian' land?
• In who's name? What is the goal?
• Where do you find yourself in all of this? What's your relation to the 
land?
• What is the cost to your own human rights? What is the cost to the land?

The olympics in February is a troubling event for reasons of
perpetuating injustices to Indigenous folks and reinforcing the
violent relationships settlers have with the land and Indigenous
nations. Our Words of Resistance in February this year is dedicated
to voicing resistance to the sentiment of the Vancouver olympics.


The Dr. Chun Resource Library is a collaboration of the Ontario Public
Interest Group (OPIRG) and the Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T.

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

9)
Venezuela Teach-IN
Saturday February 27th
10am - 5pm
Sidney Smith Building Rm. 2117 (UofT - north of Wilcocks St.)
100 St. George Street

Topics of plenary sessions and workshops will include:

• Ten years of the Venezuelan revolution
• Women and the Venezuelan revolution
• Communal councils and the new state
• The military threat: U.S. bases in Colombia
• ALBA: An international Bolivarian alliance
• Workers’ control and Venezuela’s unions

Vegetarian Lunch at 1 p.m.
Registration at 9:30 a.m.-- $10 or sliding scale
To make your reservation, email: vzteachin at hotmail.com

LOCATION: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Organized by: OPIRG TORONTO
Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice
Barrio Nuevo
Hands Off Venezuela/Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle
Latin America Solidarity Network–Toronto
Socialist Project
Venezuela We Are With You Coalition / Coalición Venezuela Estamos Contigo
Co-sponsored by Toronto Bolivia Solidarity
Toronto Haiti Action Committee

For information on the event taking place on the previous evening (Feb 
26), with Federico Fuentes and Kiraz Janicke, see the facebook event 
page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=461134320369

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

10) Decolonizing Our Minds: Reclaiming Toronto
Saturday February 27th
10am - 6pm
William Doo Auditorium, New College, UofT, 45 Wilcocks (SW Corner of 
Wilcocks and spadina)
ESSU, DTSU, WGSSU, CARSSU, TYPSA, R3 Artists Collective, Moyo Wa Africa, 
Seven Directions and Night at the Indies are proud to present the second 
annual Decolonizing Ours Minds conference: Decolonizing Our Minds: 
Reclaiming Toronto. This edition of DOM will feature 5 panels consisting 
speakers from the University of Toronto and community at large, with 
each focusing on distinct facets of Toronto. The panels will critically 
engage instances of inequity and oppression present in our city and 
discuss how these are or are not being redressed. Decolonizing Our 
Minds: Reclaiming Toronto will also provide individuals with an 
opportunity to liaise with numerous community groups and experience 
performances from some of Toronto’s most gifted local artists. Also, for 
the first time ever, DOM is proud to present an official after party!!!!

So come out and join us as we call on the community to band together and 
resist neocolonialism and the suppression of dissent in an attempt to 
decolonize our minds!

Schedule:
10:00am – Seven Directions and R3 Artists Collective: Opening Remarks on 
the Process of Decolonization
10:30am – DTSU: Toronto Talks: Gentrification and the Diaspora of Regent 
Park
11:30am – Performance: Amai Kuda et Les Bois
11:45am – ESSU: Metaphors, Narratives, and Community Stories of 
Disability in Toronto
1:00pm – Lunch by Afghan Women's Catering Group
2:00pm – CARSSU: The Haitian Community and Toronto
3:00pm – Performance: R3 Artists Collective
3:15pm – WGSSU: Gender and Violence in Toronto’s Aboriginal Communities
4:15pm – Performance: TBA
4:30pm – TYPSA: Accessing Excellence in Education
5:30pm – Closing Remarks

DOM: After Party Info

Have a couple drinks and unwind with music, words of resistance, dance, 
fun and friends after a day of education and action!

When: 8:00pm - 1:00am
Where: Hart House Arbor Room
Featuring artists and performers from GTA

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

Co-hosted by the Equity Studies Student Union, Caribbean Studies Student 
Union, Diaspora & Transnational Student Union, Women & Gender Studies 
Student Union, the Transitional Year Program Student Association, R3 
Artists Collective, Moyo Wa Africa, Seven Directions and Night at the Indies

***Lunch and Refreshments will be provided***
***Both the event and after party are accessible***
***There will be ASL interpreters present***

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

11) Monday March 1st to Thursday March 4th

We are very proud to announce that Israeli Apartheid Week will be 
happening once again this year at York University from Monday March 1st 
to Thursday March 4th at 1pm. The week will include a series of events, 
film screenings, and speakers including Na'eem Jeena and Nada Elia.

To check out video footage from previous events held in Toronto see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Af7WwDi0w

Full schedule coming soon! A complete list of speakers and events will 
be available at www.apartheidweek.org

About IAW 2010

First launched in Toronto in 2005, IAW has grown to become one of the 
most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar. Last 
year, more than 35 cities around the world participated in the week's 
activities, which took place in the wake of Israel's brutal assault 
against the people of Gaza. In Toronto, IAW 2009 featured a full week of 
events kicked off by Palestinian activist and writer Omar Barghouti.

IAW 2010 takes place following a year of incredible successes for the 
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the global level. 
Lectures, films, and actions will highlight some of these successes 
along with the many injustices that continue to make BDS so crucial in 
the battle to end Israeli Apartheid.

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

12) Third Community Mobilization Network Open Planning Meeting for G8/20
Resistance in Toronto

February 21, 2010
11:00am (meeting expected to run 2 hours)
25 Cecil Street (Steelworkers Hall)

Community based organizers and activists from across Ontario and
Quebec are invited to an open planning meeting focusing on Toronto's
response to the G8/20 Summits on February 21, 2010.

The Community Mobilization Network is organizing the community based
outreach, independent media, convergence and days of action leading up
to and during the G8/20 Summits in Ontario (June 25-27,2010)

If you are unable to attend but would like to participate in one of the
committees, get more information or host a G8/G20 related event, email
community.mobilize at resist.ca

To join the announcements list, visit:
https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/community.mobilize

Web: http://www.attacktheroots.net/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=236150947036


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

An Invitation: From Copenhagen to Toronto 2010

The Group of 8 Leaders and the Group of 20 Leaders are meeting in Ontario,
from the 25th to the 27th of June, 2010.

Following the collapse of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, they will be
discussing the global economy, development and climate change.

These gatherings are about trying to fix capitalism, a system that cannot
be fixed; about creating unsustainable market responses to ecological
catastrophe that reinforce systems of oppression; about ensuring the
continued exploitation of people of color and the South and about
celebrating war as a means to create puppet allies to maintain imperialist
power. The so-called leaders at these gatherings do not represent us.

In opposition and with a will to transform, people across Turtle Island
are organizing community-based days of action in Toronto, Canada. The
days of action will be led by Toronto-based organizations of people of
color, indigenous peoples, women, the poor, the working class, queer and
trans people and disabled people.

We will organize for these days of action by deepening our roots. With
sisters, brothers, friends and allies, we will shut down the places, the
systems and the ideas that exploit and exclude us.

In their place, we will creatively build the world we wish to live in. A
world with self-determination for indigenous peoples; climate justice;
income equity and community control over resources; migrant justice and an
end to war and occupation.

Change does not come from markets or from so-called negotiations with
so-called leaders. Change comes from people making decisions for
themselves. We call upon communities of resistance everywhere to continue
to build their local struggles.

Join us in Toronto in June 2010 to share your ideas and strategies!

On these days, we call for Days of Action across the world that showcases
solutions from the ground up.

To join the network, hear about open meetings and to get more information,
email community.mobilize at resist.ca

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

13)
Outraged by the global suffering and displacement caused by large
corporations based in cities like Toronto.

Knowing that corporations profit from war, occupation, environmental
catastrophe and the poverty of poor people worldwide.

Enraged by the mistreatment of migrants by these same corporations
that pay low wages, deny rights and exploit people.

No One Is Illegal-Toronto is organizing days of education, community
building and idea sharing, ‘The City is a Sweatshop’, from March
19-21, 2010.

Website: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/thecityisasweatshop

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

14) Services provided by the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations and

funded by the City of Toronto

Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations – Organizer and Outreach Worker


Our Outreach and Organizing Team requires a full time (35 hrs. per week) 
person to work with tenants in Toronto. This position will deal with 
issues under the Residential Tenancies Act such as rent increases above 
the guideline and other issues affecting the supply of affordable rental 
housing.

The ideal candidate:

Ø Must have strong interpersonal skills and speaking ability.

Ø Must support tenant rights and the goals of the Federation.

Ø Must be able to work with diverse groups.

Ø Must be able to work evening hours and occasional weekends.

Ø Must be willing to travel to all parts of Toronto, although car not 
required (TTC pass provided).

Ø Should have good knowledge of tenant legislation and policies, 
particularly rent regulation.

Ø Should have experience in the tenant community. Knowledge of smart 
metering and environmental issues would be an asset.

Ø Experience in working with a variety of cultures, and/or fluency in 
other languages would also be an asset.


The successful candidate will be working in a team atmosphere and with 
tenants across the City as we seek to improve the quality of life for 
residential tenants. Our Outreach program is part of the City of Toronto 
Tenant Defence Fund Program.

Salary will be $40,392 per annum with a benefit package after four 
months. FMTA Staff are members of CUPE Local 1281.

Interested persons should submit a covering letter with their resume to 
posting at torontotenants.org. For those without e-mail, regular mail 
(address below), or a fax may be sent to 416-413-9821. Please submit by 
February 23, 2010, 4:00 pm.

No phone calls please. Only those applicants considered for the position 
will be contacted for an interview.

For more information about the Federation, visit www.torontotenants.org .

We welcome the contributions that individuals from oppressed communities 
bring to our organization, and invites aboriginal people, people of 
colour, women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, two-spirtied people, 
transsexuals,single parents,members of ethnic minorities,immigrants and 
people with disabilities to apply. Any personal disclosure will be held 
in confidence.
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