[opirgyork] Events this coming week!

[aruna at opirgyork.ca]

1) Climate Justice: How Do We Move Forward From COP17?
2) Toronto's 7th Annual Rally for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women
3) AN OPEN MEETING ON HUMANE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION (Animal Rights)
4) *Not just a workshop: anti-oppression in practice* (FREE WORKSHOP!)
5) Living the Limit: Criminalization, Incarceration and the Law
6) Family Day action to demand justice for migrant farmworker deaths
7) Movement Caretaking: Mapping and Transforming Community Dynamics(FREE
WORKSHOP!)

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1) Climate Justice: How Do We Move Forward From COP17?
Monday February 13, 2012
1:00 - 3:00 pm EST
120E Stedman Lecture Halls
Keele Campus
Connect Electronically: http://connect.yorku.ca/cjw2b/

On February 13th, 2012 IRIS will host an academic reflective discussion on
climate change issues and what lessons we can learn from experiences at
COP17 with the goal of moving forward. Participants in this open
discussion will include faculty and students who were previously involved
in the Climate Justice II workshop in October as well as students who
attended COP 17 in Durban, South Africa in December.

IRIS is also pleased to welcome Miriam Dualibi as a keynote speaker at this
event to reflect on these issues from her role and experience as the
Executive Director of Ecoar Institute for Citizenship in Brazil. IRIS
would like to encourage everyone to come out to this event and take part
or listen. Thanks to the Faculty of Science and Engineering for supporting
this event.

We hope to see you all there from 1pm to 3pm in Steadman Lecture Hall 120E.

Participants will also be able to join this discussion virtually through
Adobe Connect.
http://climatejustice.irisyorku.ca/?page_id=658

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2) Toronto's 7th Annual Rally for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women
Tuesday February 14th 2012
12:30pm to 1:30pm

Rally Starts: Police Headquarters 40 College Street at Bay, Toronto
Feast at the 519 Church Street Community Centre; 519 Church Street
following the Rally.

Please signs and banners about the missing and murdered women only.

Tokens will be available at the rally.

Raising our Voices to Demand the United Nations Investigate Missing &
Murdered Indigenous women in Canada

According to research conducted by the Native Women Association of Canada
(NWAC) under the Sisters In Spirit Program, over 600 Indigenous women have
been murdered or gone missing, most of them over the last 30 years.

Despite clear evidence that this is an ongoing issue, the federal
government decided in the fall of 2010 to end funding to Sisters in
Spirit. Instead monies in the amount of $10 million have been dedicated to
a central RCMP missing person centre. The same institution - who, along
with the Vancouver Police Department, failed to properly investigate
Pickton
in 1997 - is now at the centre of a public inquiry in Vancouver. The sham
inquiry into the failed Pickton investigation has been boycotted by 20 of
the 21 groups who were granted standing due to the denial of adequate
funding for legal defense.

Pickton, who was convicted for six murders, has admitted to killing 49
women. A total of 18 murders occurred after he was arrested and released
for the attempted murder of a sex worker in 1997. This is blood on police
hands, yet RCMP officers testifying at the sham inquiry state “there are
few things they would change about how they did their work.”

It should come as no surprise that the Committee to End Discrimination
Against Women at the United Nations has accepted submissions put forward
by advocates of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) as well as the Native
Women's Association of Canada and announced their intent to launch an
inquiry into Canada's missing and murdered Indigenous women.

This inquiry procedure is used to investigate what the Committee believes
to be very serious violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Canadian government, however,
must consent in order for this to move forward. Alongside groups across
the country, Toronto's February 14th organizing committee comprised of No
More Silence, The Native Youth Sexual Health Network, The Native Women's
Resource Centre and other Indigenous and feminist organizations will be
mobilizing at Police Headquarters at 12:30 pm to show our support for such
an investigation.

On February 14th we come together in solidarity with the women who started
this vigil over 20 years ago in Vancouver's DTES, and with the marches and
rallies that will be taking place across this land. We stand 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, the courts, and
an indifferent federal government) that prevents justice for all
Indigenous peoples.

List of Feb 14th Memorial Marches in other communities:
http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/national/

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3) AN OPEN MEETING ON HUMANE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

When: 2:30-4:30pm, Tuesday, Feb. 14th, 2012
Where: Student Centre, Room 430 (GSA Conference Room), York University,
Keele Campus

Free Vegan Snacks!

Animal research is not only cruel, it also unnecessary! Numerous
sophisticated alternatives to the use of animals exist including models and
simulators, film and video, multimedia computer simulation, student
self-experimentation, ethically-sourced animal cadavers, clinical
practice,and in vitro labs.

Please join us to learn more from three guest speakers:

Olivier Berreville, national contact for International Network for Humane
Education, holds a PhD in biology. His talk provides an overview of
existing alternatives to animal experiments in medical, veterinary medical
and biological science education and training. Concrete examples of
alternatives successfully used to replace, and even outperform, harmful
animal use are featured.

Nick Wright, a Toronto lawyer and member of Lawyers for Animal Welfare,
will be talking about students' human right to opt-out of animal research.

Liz White, founding member of Animal Alliance Canada, will be presenting
the case study regarding her fight to end live terminal surgery at the
Ontario Veterinary College and the Veterinary Skills Training and
Enhancement Program (VSTEP).

For more information contact York Students for Animals
yustudentsforanimals at gmail.com

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4) *Not just a workshop: anti-oppression in practice*
Wednesday February 15th 2012
5pm to 8pm
Location TBA

Building on questions, conflicts and discussions that happen in the
workshop on Thursday January 26th, as well as experiences that participants
bring from their own lives, this workshop will create space for
participants and facilitators to share useful tools to dismantle and
transform oppressive relationship structures.

Facilitators Bio:
mo dreams and works towards decolonization and body sovereignty. she
fantasizes about movements collaborating to grow the strength to heal
from the traumas of institutional and personal violences of
colonialism, capitalism, ableism, mysogny, racism, and queer and
transphobias.

Ro is a community organizer, radical bookkeeper, nanny and doula-in-
training. When she's not in front of a computer writing remittances
and scheduling projects for The Public Studio, she can be seen working
through some serious anti-colonial land defense alongside indigenous
resistance movements. As a queer woman of color, and as a settler in
this land, an anti-colonial, anti-oppressive framework in all spaces
is not only important but vital to the survival of organizations that
seek to see change in the world, and to her friends, lovers and family.


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5) Living the Limit: Criminalization, Incarceration and the Law
A panel discussion to celebrate the double book launch of:

Dean Spade’s Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics
and the Limits of Law
and
David Gilbert’s Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground
and Beyond

Thursday, February 16, 7pm
Sandford Fleming Building, Room 1101
10 King's College Circle, University of Toronto
(copies of both books will be available for sale at the event)

Patterns of criminalization and incarceration reveal that the state
disproportionately persecutes marginalized people through its legal,
policing, and social services. This panel looks at how we might build
social movements critical of these state apparatuses that maintain
structures of injustice, while still recognizing our need to navigate
them strategically in order to provide crucial support for those most
vulnerable to persecution or already struggling in prison.

Participants:

Dean Spade is an attorney, educator, and trans activist who has taught
classes on sexual orientation, gender identity, poverty and law at the
City University of New York (CUNY), Seattle University, Columbia
University, and Harvard University. In 2002 he founded the Sylvia Rivera
Law Project, a collective that provides free legal services and works to
build trans resistance rooted in racial and economic justice.

Christa Big Canoe, is a First Nation woman, mother and lawyer, who aspires
to increase access to justice for Aboriginal people. She is known as a
passionate advocate for First Nation children and women's rights, as well
as rights for equal access to education and care. She is currently the
Legal Advocacy Director of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto.

AJ Withers is a Toronto-based anti-poverty and disability justice
organizer and author. They have worked with the Ontario Coalition Against
Poverty (OCAP) for many years and their book Disability Politics and
Theory will be out this spring through Fernwook Publishing.

(The event will feature an audio statement from David Gilbert, followed by
a reading of an excerpt from his book Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS,
the Weather Underground)

David Gilbert is an American political prisoner who is currently serving a
75 year to life sentence at Auburn Correctional Facility. Gilbert was a
founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society
and the Weather Underground Organization. Imprisoned since 1981, David
continues to organize from the inside and has inspired, and acted as a
mentor to new generations of activists.

This venue is wheelchair accessible.
*Childcare is available if notice is provided before Friday, February 10th.
*ASL translation can be made available if notice is provided before
Monday, February 6th

Sponsored by OPIRG-Toronto.

Endorsed by The Centre for Women and Trans People at UofT, Certain Days
Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar, Toronto Anarchist Black Cross,
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Centre for Social Justice, CUPE 3902,
Graduate Geography and Planning Student Society at UofT, and Upping the
Anti.

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6) Family Day action to demand justice for migrant farmworker deaths

Friday February 17, 2012
12pm
Office of the Chief Coroner
32 Grenville St (College and Bay)

Followed by march to the Ministry of Labour
400 University Ave. (University and Dundas)

As Ontarians prepare to celebrate Family Day, Justicia for Migrant Workers
is urging community allies to join us to demand justice for the families
of Ralston White and Paul Roach. We will also be remembering the lives
tragically lost in the recent crash that killed ten migrant workers just
outside London, ON. Ten migrant workers employed as chicken catchers and
the driver of a transport truck died on February 6, 2012.

Mr Roach and Mr. White were two Jamaican migrant workers who were killed
in a confined space accident at work in September of 2010. All charges
were
recently dropped against three people who operated Filsinger Farms where
these deaths occurred. A plea bargain resulted in a guilty plea for one
supervisor of a minor charge of failing to provide proper precautions
against confined spaces and a miniscule fine of $22,500 for both deaths.
This is believed to be one of lowest fines issued for a workplace death in
the history of Ontario.

On Friday February 17th, 2012 at 12:00 pm, Justicia for Migrant Workers
will be gathering at the Office of the Chief Coroner (32 Grenville St) to
renew our demand for an inquest into the deaths of brothers Roach and
White and to call for an inquest into the recent deaths of farmworkers
outside London. While there have been several tragedies involving migrant
workers, there has never been an Coroner's Inquest in Ontario examining
the death of a migrant worker employed under the temporary foreign workers
program.

>From there we will march to the Ministry of Labour to demand that the
Ministry step up to protect the rights of migrant farmworkers. In the face
of this terrible tragedy, the Ministry of Labour must take immediate
action to ensure that migrant workers have protection at work and that
basic employment standards and health and safety laws are being enforced.

Family Day is meant as a time where communities come together and share
time with their loved ones. We want to highlight that this year, and every
year after, countless families of migrant workers will not have the luxury
of having their loved ones present.

For more information, contact:

Chris Ramsaroop 647-832-4932
or Nicole Wall 613-296-8719

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7) *Movement Caretaking: Mapping and Transforming Community Dynamics*
Wednesday March 14th 2012
5pm to 8pm
Location TBA

Influenced by the experience of the February 15th workshop, as well as
experiences that participants bring from their own lives, participants will
be guided through a community weathermapping exercise where they map out
the positive, hopeful, difficult, ugly dynamics going on in their intimate
communities, and the broader worlds they connect to. Having mapped the
micro and macro climates shaping our struggles, we will ask ourselves how
we want to prepare for the weather ahead.

Facilitator Bio:
mo dreams and works towards decolonization and body sovereignty. she
fantasizes about movements collaborating to grow the strength to heal
from the traumas of institutional and personal violences of
colonialism, capitalism, ableism, mysogny, racism, and queer and
transphobias.

Ro is a community organizer, radical bookkeeper, nanny and doula-in-
training. When she's not in front of a computer writing remittances
and scheduling projects for The Public Studio, she can be seen working
through some serious anti-colonial land defense alongside indigenous
resistance movements. As a queer woman of color, and as a settler in
this land, an anti-colonial, anti-oppressive framework in all spaces
is not only important but vital to the survival of organizations that
seek to see change in the world, and to her friends, lovers and family.