[opirgyork] OPIRG York this week! November 7th 2011

[Aruna]

1) Volunteer for the OPIRG Resource Centre!
2) Rebel Film Camp (Starts Tuesday Nov 8th!)
3) Anti-Oppression and Facilitation 101 Trainings
4) Radical Design School (Register soon - limited space available)
5) Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change Conference
6) Indigenous Sovereignty Week (Nov 14th)
7) A few spaces left! Earth Defenders Training: Activist Skillshare and 
Retreat*//*

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

1) Volunteer for the OPIRG Resource Centre!

Interested in *developing alternative libraries* and building the 
availability of *radical resources* on campus? Would you want to develop 
reading clubs that prioritize texts on social and environmental justice 
issues? Are you excited at the prospect of *investigating and archiving 
the history of the radical student movement* on the York campus?

Join the OPIRG York Resource Centre Collective!
*Resouce Centre Collective Meeting Tuesday November 8th - 1 pm*
OPIRG York office - room C449 Student Centre (Fourth floor)

OPIRG York is a student funded organization, run by a student board of 
directors that funds events and working groups on and off the York 
campus that organize around various social and environmental justice issues.

We want you help, all those who are interested in radical resources, 
reading groups, archiving and institutional history, to make the 
resource centre a valuable resource for students on campus! We want your 
input on what books, films, magazines and graphic novels the centre 
should acquire to cover the breadth of social/environmental justice 
issues happening in Toronto and around the world. We want you to tell us 
what reading groups we should create and what events we should host 
related to radical texts and publications!

We are developing a Resource Center collective and all York students and 
community members are invited to join! Help us get this library in 
working order and develop programming that assists students in 
investigating and examining the injustice and oppression happening in 
the world around them, and what they can do to stop it.

For inquiries, ideas and how to get involved, please e-mail 
radicalresourcecentre at gmail.com
For more information on OPIRG york, please visit www.opirgyork.ca or 
e-mail aruna at opirgyork.ca

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

2) *Rebel Film Camp*
Series of workshop on rebel video-making

York University
Keele Campus

*Training and Filming workshop*
November 8, Student Center Rm. 313
3pm - 8pm

*Editing Workshop*
November 10, Student Center Rm. 311C
3pm - 8pm

Facilitator:
Owen Shepperd from LCO - Toronto

Art for Justice is pleased to announce their second workshop series at 
York University. Art For Justice is a new working group of OPIRG-York 
that aims to bring a radical and progressive approach to art-making 
within student and community organizing. We utilize different sorts of 
art not only to provide materials for movement, but also as a movement 
itself.

Rebel film camp workshop series will be presented by Art for Justice, 
OPIRG-York and Liberation Cooperative Organization. We aim to bring some 
basic filming, camera, and editing skills along with a creative and 
rebel approach of video-making to this workshop. We encourage you to 
sign up for this series of workshop by email or through our Facebook page.

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

3)
*Anti-Oppression Training*
Monday November 14th 2011
5:30pm to 8:30pm
Student Centre
RM. 307

*Facilitation 101 Training*
Wednesday November 16th 2011
5:30pm to 8:30pm
Student Centre
RM. 315C

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

4) *Radical Design School*

Are you interested in doing *design work* for your grassroots organizations?
Do you want to know more about the important role both design and art 
have in movement building?
Are you interested in *typography, grids, zine making, book binding, 
linoleum art or silk screening*?
Working with computers? or other mediums?

The Radical Design School is a series of workshops designed to give the 
skills and tools to those who wish to know more about design. These 
workshops are for those interested in design and social movements. 
Whether you've never used Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator...etc before or 
you've been the one making those fliers for that demo the next morning, 
everyone is welcomed. The purpose of these workshops, is to create a 
space in where we are all collectively sharing both artistic knowledge 
and different ideas as well as creating the effective graphic tools to 
challenge the different struggles we face.

*We encourage you to register as space is limited.
*
We also would like to have participants who will be willing to attend 
all or most of the workshops. If you have any accessibility needs, 
questions or wish to register, please contact radicaldesignschool at gmail.com.

Once you register we will provide you with further details.

This will be a space in where Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, 
Islamophobia, Anti-semetic, and Abelist language will not be tolerate.

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

5) Ontario-wide conference to advance the movement towards genuine 
settlement and integration
October 2011
Conference Announcement

The growing Filipino Canadian community from across Ontario and beyond 
will teem eagerly
with life as they take great strides towards transforming history and 
settling and
integrating into Canadian society as the Ontario-wide “Counterspin: 
Towards Building a
Movement for Social Change” conference takes place this November 19th 
and 20th at the
University of Toronto. All are welcome to join the flourishing 
discussion and contribute
towards concrete action in building a movement for social change.

Organized by the member organizations of the Magkaisa Centre under the 
auspices of
the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), this two-day 
conference will
take the necessary steps towards building a movement for social change 
by placing
the struggles of the transnational working-class at its fore. By drawing 
from the
distinct histories and resistance of the Filipino Canadian community’s 
struggle for
genuine settlement and integration, the conference aims to put forth a 
transformative
new paradigm that places the struggle of the working-class at the heart 
of ending
the crisis of neoliberal globalization in Canada.

“Counterspin” will bring the struggle for genuine settlement and 
integration to
new heights since its progression from its beginnings at 
2010’s“Counterspin:
Towards a just and genuine settlement and integration: link arms and 
unite for
freedom,” held in Montreal. While this conference broke the ground in 
introducing
the progressive Filipino Canadian community’s new path towards social 
transformation,
2011’s “Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement 
and integration,”
held in Vancouver, provided a further understanding of this emerging new 
path.

As the Philippines has now soared into the top spot of Toronto’s source 
of immigrants,
the growing Filipino Canadian community continues to enter Canada under 
restrictive
and exclusionary immigration policies that deny them from fully 
participating in
Canadian society besides as sources of cheap and disposable labour. 
Faced with the
community’s intensifying marginalization and social exclusion, 
“Counterspin” will
instead enable the community to take root in their new home and fully 
participate in
Canadian society by building a movement that will advance and make 
central the class
struggle of workers, women and youth.

“Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change”
Ontario-wide conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino 
Canadians (CPFC)
University of Toronto, OISE 2214
Registration is $20.00 (includes # meals and conference materials)

-30-

For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on at magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

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

6) Indigenous Sovereignty Week

Nov. 14-26, 2011

::::::SCHEDULE::::::::

Monday, November 14: Opening Ceremony & Feast
This event will feature an Elders’ welcome, traditional Big Drum 
opening, talking circle, and presentation.
7pm – 9pm
Location TBA

Jimmy Dick (Big Drum)
Lee Maracle
Tannis Nielsen, “ A Colonial Contagion”
An overview of the context of the Indigenous arts of the Americas, 
presented in order to exemplify the similarities, amongst colonial, 
capitalist, imperial, neo-liberal strategies, that have acted as a type 
of “disease”, amongst our communities.

The “Diagnosis” (Battiste)
The birth and lineage of colonization
Its persona, (through media)
Its ill effects / symptoms

Participatory Prescriptions, and Pedagogies
How do we find a cure?
“The stages of decolonization”(burgess)
The multiple modes, of implementation

Group discussion (to be recorded) - Emancipatory strategy
What is the dream?
What is the action?
Past successes
Present needs
Future strategies

Some of the artists/activists works presented; Rebecca Belmore, Robert 
Houle, Edgar Heap of Birds, Alfred YoungMan, Joanne Cardinal Schubert, 
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, James Luna, Guillermo Gomez Pena, Diego 
Rivera, - Jacques Louis David, John Gast, Thomas Cole and Edward Curtis

Tuesday, November 15: Racialized Peoples on Stolen Lands

This event will feature sharing circles on relationship building across 
Indigenous and other racialized communities. Everyone welcome.
6.30pm – 9pm
@ Beit Zatoun Community Centre, 612 Markham St. (near Bathurst Subway Stn)

Short presentations by: Seven Directions, R3 Artists’ Collective - R3, 
Robert Massoud, Beit Zatoun
Snacks provided. Donations accepted.
* Beit Zatoun is wheelchair accessible, but its bathrooms are not.
Endorsed by No One Is Illegal

Friday, November 18: Celebrating Community Victories - Standing up to 
the Harper Threat
Panel organized by: Defenders of the Land allies
Russell Diabo will be discussing big picture of the war against First 
Nations in Canada. He will discuss the challenges of getting rid of the 
Indian Act and having section 35 & the United Nations Declaration of 
Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Articles recognized and respected 
for Inherent, Aboriginal & Treaty Rights implementation.

Pamela Palmater will discuss her recent work analyzing Bill S-2, 
regarding matrimonial property rights on reserve, which, as she writes, 
“will have a significant impact not only on the nature and legal status 
of reserve lands generally, but specifically in relation to who can 
hold, occupy, use and benefit from reserve lands.” Palmater has learned 
that this bill could lead to the elimination of many bands in Canada 
over the next 75 years.

7pm – 9pm
@ University of Toronto Schools, 371 Bloor Street West (at Spadina 
Subway Stn)
(Chair) Sylvia Plain, Aamjiwnaang First Nation, Water Walker
Russell Diabo, Policy Consultant for the Algonquin Nation Secretariat, 
Editor and Publisher of the First Nations Strategic Bulletin
Pamela Palmater, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Governance, Ryerson 
University
Randy Kapashesit, Chief of the Moose Cree First Nation

More speakers to be announced shortly.
* This space is accessible. Please contact iswtoronto at gmail.com to 
arrange for access to elevators from the side building entrance. We will 
also have people on hand to accommodate drop-ins throughout the event.

Wednesday, November 23: The Justice Panel
7pm – 9pm
@ Native Women's Resource Centre, 191 Gerrard Street East
(Gerrard & Sherburne)
Christa Big Canoe

Thursday, November 24: The Silence is Broken: Now What?
Panel organized by: No More Silence, Native Women’s Resource Centre
Where should the energy of groups like No More Silence be focused? How 
do we best continue to raise awareness around the disappearance of 
Indigenous women and create conditions that stop the violence?

6:30pm – 9pm
@ Native Women’s Resource Centre, 191 Gerrard Street East 
(Gerrard/Sherbourne)

Lee Maracle
Darlene Ritchie, Executive Director, Atlosha Native Family Healing 
Services, London Ontario
Spokesperson from the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, a 
North-America wide organization working on issues of healthy sexuality, 
cultural competency, youth empowerment, reproductive justice, and sex 
positivity by and for Native youth.
Wanda Whitebird, Women's Outreach/Support Services, Ontario Aboriginal 
HIV/AIDS Strategy
Faith Nolan, Singer, Songwriter & Activist

* This space is accessible.

Saturday, November 26: COMMUNITY FEAST, POTLUCK, & BOOKSALE

In the spirit of community building and honouring our relationship to 
land and sustenance MUSKRAT Magazine, The Toronto Native Community 
History Project, ANDPVA, Indigenous Sovereignty Week, and The Accidental 
Caterer invite you to feast with us!!
BRING a "Traditional" dish to share (WHATEVER TRADITIONAL MEANS TO YOU! 
it may be featured in our next issue!)
Special Guests Include: Community leader and teacher: Sylvia Maracle; 
Entertainer Glen Gould; Poet: Giles Benaway and... a sneak peak of 
MUSKRAT's upcoming FOOD issue!
Bring home a new read from the Toronto History Project's booksale!
ANDPVA will lead children's craft activities so bring your little ones!

6:00pm - 8:30pm
Location: The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto 16 Spadina Rd.
Sunday, November 27: CLOSING CIRCLE
Location and Time TBA
Facilitated by Zainab Amadahy and Lee Maracle

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

Join Greenpeace’s first ever:

*7) Earth Defenders Training:/ Activist Skillshare and Retreat/
Friday November 11 - Sunday November 13*

*Please fill in this form to register: 
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/Blog/join-the-ontario-earth-defenders-training/blog/37299/***

Greenpeace volunteers and community organizers in Ontario are invited to 
learn the basics on campaign strategy, civil disobedience and organizing 
in your community!
Come meet others who care about people and the planet. Share your 
skills! Come with your group or organization to learn skills together!

Help us build a bigger, stronger movement to stop environmental 
destruction and social injustice!

*Workshops will include:*
- campaign strategy
- how to work with the media
- building and working within groups
- non-violent direct action and civil disobedience

*More Details:*

Free transportation from Toronto will be arranged: leaving late 
afternoon Friday November 11^th , returning the evening Sunday November 
13^th . The venue will be 1-2 hours outside of Toronto.

If you’re coming from outside of Toronto – we ask you to use public 
transportation or let us know if you can drive others from your area.

We ask participants to attend for the entire weekend, as the workshops 
will build upon each other. If you have family responsibilities, are in 
need of childcare or other barriers to attending the whole weekend, 
please share in your registration form and we will try to help.

Accommodation: shared accommodation – beds/bunk beds will be provided. 
Please arrange your own sleeping bag/pillow (we can provide a limited 
amount for those that don't have one).

Food: vegetarian/vegan food will be provided.

Accessibility: Please include any accessibility needs you have on the 
form and we will be in touch ASAP.

Cost: a suggestion of $50 to help pay for food and accommodation. Nobody 
will be turned away from lack of funds.

*/More information on the program, what to bring and confirmation of 
your participation will be sent as soon as possible after you register! /*

*/***********************************************************
/*

*If you want to join us, remember you must fill out the: 
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/Blog/join-the-ontario-earth-defenders-training/blog/37299/*

For any other questions or concerns, or if anyone does not have internet 
access but would like to participate please contact:
*Natalie Caine - Volunteer Organizer
natalie.caine at greenpeace.org
416 597 8408 ext. 3062*