[opirgyork] Weekly Digest July 20th 2012

[aruna at opirgyork.ca]

1) Call for Submissions: Rebels with a Cause Film Festival
2) Call for Volunteers: Rebels with a Cause Film Festival
3) MAHJOUB COURT HEARINGS: 24-25-26 JULY: CSIS IN THE DOCK
4) End of an Era - Aruna is leaving OPIRG York!
5) OPIRG York's Radical Bookworms reading series on Frantz Fanon! Part 2!

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1) Call for Film Submissions
2nd Annual Rebels WIth A Cause Film Festival
October 8–12, 2012
Call for Submissions Deadline: Monday August 13, 2012

Rebels With A Cause Film Festival is seeking submissions of film works by
York students, alumni and faculty as well as independent filmmakers from
the larger Toronto community for the 2nd annual Rebels With A Cause Film
Festival.
Rebels With A Cause is a film festival organized for and by York community
members. In screening films that are artistically, politically and
socially critical, combined with artist’s talks, panel discussions, and
q&a’s, the film festival aims to (re)introduce its audience to the
political and social spheres at York and its community while inciting
action and education through the avenue of film.
For programming details and recorded talks from our inaugural festival,
please visit http://opirgyork.ca/node/161

We encourage submissions that deal with topics including, but not limited to:
Indigenous Sovereignty
Queer & Trans Activism
Decolonization
Critical Thinking
Campus Organizing
Community Building
Environmental Justice

We welcome the contributions that individuals from marginalized
communities bring to our organization, and invites Indigenous peoples,
people of color, women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, queer-oriented people,
transgendered people, transsexual people, intersexed people, working class
people, single parents, members of ethnic minorities, immigrants and
people with disabilities to submit.
We accept DVD previews, Quicktime files, or online videos. Please include
a short summary/artist statement and a still image with your submission.
Submissions may be dropped off at OPIRG York, 449C Student Centre, York
University 4700 Keele St Toronto M3J 1P3 or emailed to rebels at opirgyork.ca
Please email us for other pick-up arrangements.

The programming line-up with presentation dates and times will be
announced on our website and social media on September 1, 2012.

Follow us on Twitter @RebelsFilmFest and Like our Facebook page Rebels
With A Cause Film Festival
For more information, please contact us at rebels at opirgyork.ca

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2) Call for Volunteers
2nd Annual Rebels WIth A Cause Film Festival
October 8–12, 2012
Call for Volunteers

Rebels With A Cause Film Festival is seeking volunteers to fulfill various
positions to help organize the 2nd Annual Rebels With A Cause Film
Festival
Rebels With A Cause is a film festival organized for and by York community
members. In screening films that are artistically, politically and
socially critical, combined with artist’s talks, panel discussions, and
q&a’s, the film festival aims to (re)introduce its audience to the
political and social spheres at York and its community while inciting
action and education through the avenue of film.

The Selection Committee
Deadline: Monday August 13, 2012
Responsibilities include:
+ Watching all submissions
+ Suggesting and soliciting films
+ Programming and planning
+ Writing program notes for the program book and website
+ Soliciting and communicating with speakers, panelists, facilitators
based on programming
+ Attending and introducing programs at the festival

The Outreach Team
We welcome volunteers to apply any time till mid-September.
Responsibilities include:
+ Tabling and postering
+ Ushering
+ Social media managing
+ Spreading the word

Applicants can send us an email at rebels at opirgyork.ca with their contact
information and availability, brief descriptions of relevant experiences
and why they want to volunteer for Rebels With A Cause Film Festival. We
welcome the contributions that individuals from marginalized
communities bring to our organization, and invites Indigenous peoples,
people of color, women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, queer-oriented people,
transgendered people, transsexual people, intersexed people, working class
people, single parents, members of ethnic minorities, immigrants and
people with disabilities to apply.

Follow us on Twitter @RebelsFilmFest and Like our Facebook page Rebels
With A Cause Film Festival
For more information, please contact us at rebels at opirgyork.ca

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3) *MAHJOUB COURT HEARINGS
24-25-26 JULY: CSIS IN THE DOCK
*
Join on facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/events/390246874358318/

Help pack the court in OTTAWA and in TORONTO!

* Stay tuned for possibility of more July and August hearings in TORONTO
(including Stockwell Day on Aug. 7th!)
* Endorse our campaign:
http://www.supportmahjoub.org/support/support-justice-for-mahjoub-network/

24-25-26 July from 9:30 to 5:30pm (lunch break 12 to 2pm):
in Ottawa: 90 Sparks St.
in Toronto: 180 Queen St.

**Hearings are subject to last minute change, so please stay in touch with
our website, where updates will be posted: www.supportmahjoub.org*.

PACK THE COURT in Ottawa AND in Toronto to show your support for Mohammad
Mahjoub, held for over 12 years without charge on the basis of his
profile,
under a so-called security certificate.

Exceptionally, Mr. Mahjoub will be in Ottawa for the three days of
hearings, which will feature the cross-examination of "CSIS #3", an
anonymous CSIS agent whom Mr. Mahjoub and his lawyers have called as a
witness. Warren Woods, another official who was involved in issuing a new
certificate against Mr. Mahjoub in 2008, will also be cross-examined.
While
the court will be in Ottawa, the hearings will also be publicly accessible
by videoconference in Toronto.

After a year's delay, Mohammad Mahjoub's "reasonability hearings" have
started again. Reasonability hearings are what pass for a trial in
security
certificate cases. In parallel to the secret hearings in which secret
information is presented to the judge in the absence of Mr. Mahjoub and
his
lawyers, public hearings, which Mr. Mahjoub, his lawyers and the public are
allowed to attend, will resume this summer and continue through the fall. A
secret hearing to cross-examine "CSIS#2" took place at a secret location in
Ottawa on July 6th.

It's been an eventful year: in the summer, Department of Justice employees
made off with boxes of Mr. Mahjoub's confidential defense documents,
leading to the suspension of reasonability hearings for an entire year. In
December, the media released confidential memos dating from 2008 in which
CSIS admitted that the "bulk" of their case against Mr. Mahjoub was based
on information likely obtained under torture. In February, for the first
time in 12 years, Mr. Mahjoub was permitted to leave Toronto; he
immediately embarked on a seven-city speaking tour to tell his story to the
public. In May, the Federal Court dismissed 11 government lawyers and
clerks who were involved in seizing Mr. Mahjoub's confidential defence
documents - but ruled that the case shold proceed. Finally, in June, on
the
eve of 12th anniversary protests in support of Mr. Mahjoub, the Federal
Court threw out key parts of CSIS's case against Mr. Mahjoub: after 12
years, the court acknowledged that CSIS-prepared summaries of some
conversations were not reliable as evidence and were no substitute for the
original transcripts, which CSIS had destroyed.

Mr. Mahjoub is one of three Muslim men, including Mahjoub Jaballah
(arrested 2001 in Toronto) and Mohamed Harkat (arrested 2002 in Ottawa)
still fighting to free themselves from the injustice of security
certificates.

*More information:
*Justice for Mahjoub Network
www.supportmahjoub.org
justiceformahjoub at gmail.com

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4) End of an Era - Aruna is leaving OPIRG York
Friday July 27th, 2012
8pm
The Common - 1071 College Street, Toronto, Ontario

In 2008, Aruna Boodram graced the offices of Room C449 in the Student
Centre of York University. She is sadly leaving OPIRG-York for the legal
world.

We begged her not to leave. But alas, as with all love stories, good
things must end.

The OPIRG-York Board of Directors and staff would like to invite all
former and current volunteers and allies of OPIRG York to attend a get
together. If you have ever sat with Aruna at a coalition meeting, if she
helped you start a working group or just gave you support - please come!
We hope you will also share stories of Aruna's time at OPIRG York - as
long as they are embarrassing and funny! Okay, poignant is ok too.

We will provide snacks and drinks and there will be a cash bar. There will
also be some music, stories and of course, a last chance begging Aruna not
to go.

Please come after 8pm to The Common
1071 College Street (at Dufferin)

For more info or to help: email Sharmeen - sharmeen at opirgyork.ca

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5) Join OPIRG York's Radical Bookworms in a reading series on Frantz
Fanon! Part 2!

Wednesday July 25th
2pm to 4pm
Student Centre RM. 430 (GSA Conference Room)

We will be discussing the ways in which understanding Fanon is critical to
developing mass movements that are inclusive, committed to anti-oppression
practices and attempt to eliminate white supremacy.

We will ground the examination of Fanon’s ideas in activist practice and
attempt to rescue him from the realm of academia!

The three readings chosen for this session are :

1.Fanon, Frantz. “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness” in The Wretched
of the Earth.
2. Gibson, Nigel. Is Fanon Relevant? : Toward and Alternative Foreword to
"The Damned of the Earth."
3.Patterson, Orlando. Frantz Fanon: My Hope and Hero.

All readings are available on PDF. Email radicalreadingroom at gmail.com

The discussion will be facilitated by Ajamu Nangwaya.

Ajamu Nangwaya, PhD, is an academic worker in the postsecondary education
sector and teaches courses in the areas of diversity/equity, community
development and social policy. He has a doctoral degree in Adult Education
and Community Development from the University of Toronto. Ajamu has held a
number of leadership positions in the Canadian Union of Public Employees
(CUPE) and is a former Vice-President of CUPE Ontario. He is an organizer
with the Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity.

Community members and students are welcome!
Snacks will be provided.