[opirgyork] New Events + Community Events Listings!

[OPIRG York]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the delay on the community event listings- here are just a few of
the amazing events happening this week. For further events, you can follow
us on Facebook, where we will be posting more as we receive them:
https://www.facebook.com/opirg.yorku

As always, you contact us at OPIRG York any time about ways to get
involved, and help out, or if you are interested in other issues that we
can help connect you too. Feel free to stop by the OPIRG York office at
449C Student Centre anytime during regular office hours (Mon-Thurs. 10-5pm)
to chat!

-OPIRG York
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www.opirgyork.ca
416-736-5724
opirg at yorku.ca



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*In this email:*
*
*
*OPIRG YORK NEWS*

*(1) ONGOING: Taking Risks, Taking up Space: How are we doing anti-racist,
queer, trans disability politics in our programs and in our communities?*
*(2) Mar 19: Know Your Rights Workshop*
*
*
*COMMUNITY NEWS*

*(1) **Mar 7: **Opening Up Metro Hall as an Emergency Shelter: NO MORE
HOMELESS DEATHS!*
*(2) Mar 8: **Womyn: Destroy the Patriarchal Prison System*
*(3) THIS WEEK: Israeli Apartheid Week Events*
*(4) **CALLOUT:  **(En)gendering Resistance School of Public Interest Call
for Proposals*
*(5) **Mar 19-22: **Courtroom Solidarity for Security Certificate Detainee
Mahmoud Jaballah*
*(6) ONGOING: **Call for Submissions to Breakthroughs Film Festival, No
Charge!*
**

*OPIRG YORK NEWS*

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*Taking Risks, Taking up Space: How are we doing anti-racist, queer, trans
disability politics in our programs and in our communities?*

The Critical Disability Studies Trans/Queer Caucus invites you to join us
for a series of conversations about radical Queer, Trans, and Disability
theory, politics, and experience, co-hosted by the YFS Access Centre at
York University.

Monday March 11, 5:30-7pm in HNES 402
Taking Risks, Taking up Space: How are we doing anti-racist, queer, trans
disability politics in our programs and in our communities?


Monday March 25, 5:30-7pm in HNES 402
Queer of Colour, Trans, and Queer Theory: What does it have to do with
Disability Studies?

Monday April 8, 5:30-7pm in HNES 402
Research in our Trans and Queer communities: What are we doing, why are we
doing it?

Monday April 22, 5:30-7pm in HNES 402
Queer Futurity? Planning the revolution

LGBTQI and Two-Spirited folks, friends, and allies from York and beyond
welcome!

Please consider our Safe Space Statement below.

ASL-English interpretation
Wheelchair accessible
Gender-neutral washroom
TTC tokens and refreshments available

Location:
To access HNES 402, take the elevator to the fourth floor, and turn right.
HNES is on the Keele campus of York University—see
http://www.yorku.ca/yorkweb/maps/ for maps and directions

For more info or suggestions on content, format, and accessibility, please
contact

Rachel Gorman gorman at yorku.ca.

*We would like to acknowledge the sponsorship of the York University
Critical Disability Studies Student Association (CDSSA), CUPE 3903, and
Center for Women Trans People (CWTP) at York, and OPIRG.*

Safe Space Statement:

The Trans/Queer Caucus conversations are meant to be spaces that are as
safe, inclusive and supportive as possible for people who are queer, and/or
trans-identified within the Critical Disability Studies program. We
recognize that we live in a society built on and supporting power
imbalances along lines of race, class, gender, sex, sexuality, age, hearing
status, ability, impairment, disability, size, immigrant-status, poverty,
colonialism and other forms of domination. Affirming the importance of
oppression and privilege in all our lives is intrinsic to the goals of the
Trans/Queer Caucus, informs participation in it and inspires us to fight
these norms. As we work towards ending oppressions, we need to be aware of
how we contribute to them, and in order to create these safer spaces, all
participants should remember that they play an active role in doing so. The
Trans/Queer Caucus is a feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonialist,
anti-audist, anti-imperialist, anti-heterosexist, anti-cissexist/genderist,
anti-disablist, anti-classist and anti-capitalist group that recognizes
that we all need to be allies to each other.

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*Know Your Rights Workshop - Cops Off Campus + CLASP*

*Date*: Tuesday, March 19th
*Time*: 1-3pm
*Location*: Room 313 Student Center
*On Facebook:* https://www.facebook.com/events/500058593386248

"Know Your Rights" is a presentation offering information about our rights
according to the law when interacting with the police. The topics include
general rights when talking to the police, situations where we are required
by law to provide information to officers, topics of detention, arrest,
search powers of the police, and discussion of strategies when these rights
are not respected in practice.

Brought to you by:

Cops Off Campus Coalition: copsoffcampus at gmail.com,
facebook.com/CopsOffCampusYorkU

Community Legal Aid Service Programme (CLASP) at York: (416) 736 – 5564,
www.osgoode.yorku.ca/clasp


*COMMUNITY NEWS*

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*Opening Up Metro Hall as an Emergency Shelter: NO MORE HOMELESS DEATHS!*

Thursday, March 7th
11.00 AM
Metro Hall: King and John St, Toronto

The City of Toronto refuses to admit that the homeless shelter system is
in a lethal crisis of overcrowding. By the City's own admission, homeless
shelters are operating at 96% capacity. This represents conditions of such
overcrowding and tension that people are being forced onto the streets and
lives are being lost. Every effort has been made to convince both the
administration and politicians to act and open an emergency facility but
we have been met with steadfast refusal. City Council refused even to
debate the issue when this was proposed by Councillor Adam Vaughan.

In 1999, the Council of the day voted to give Hostel Services the right to
open more space whenever the capacity in the shelters exceeded 90%.
Indeed, during that year, Metro Hall was opened for three weeks as a
shelter so that the pressure on the rest of the system could be eased.
Yet, today, under Rob Ford administration fully committed to an agenda of
austerity, an even worse situation is being dismissed and the line coming
from the City is to deny the crisis. There have been at least 8 homeless
deaths since the beginning of 2013, and 34 deaths in 2012 alone. At the
beginning of February the 700th name was added to the Toronto Homeless
Memorial.

If the City will not act then we will. On March 7, we are going back to
Metro Hall to open it as a shelter and we are appealing for the broadest
support in order to make this happen. We will be mobilizing homeless
people who need shelter to join us that day but we also ask unions,
community organizations, church congregations and people of conscience to
come and stand with us for the basic human right to shelter.

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT/GET INVOLVED:

If you are someone who does not wish to live in a City where people are
abandoned to die on the streets, then join us on March 7. If you wish to
donate sleeping bags or other supplies, call our office. If your
organization would like to help build this event, if you would like us to
come and talk to you or just need more information to make an informed
choice, then contact us by calling (416) 925-6939 or by e mail at
ocap at tao.ca

Thank you for all support and solidarity in this vital action

See information about past events on this issue here:
http://www.ocap.ca/node/1061

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/278184258978285/

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
www.ocap.ca
@OCAPtoronto
416-925-6939

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*Womyn: Destroy the Patriarchal Prison System*

WEICHAN: IN TIMES OF WAR
WOMYN: DESTROY THE PATRIARCHICAL PRISON SYSTEM!

Saturday, March 9th/13 @ 8PM
GSU Gymnasium (University of Toronto) – 16 Bancroft Avenue (Just East of
Spadina, North of College)

Presenting the Initial Book Launch of “These Burning Streets” and Cross
Klanada Wide Speaking Tour of the young poet and author Kelly Pflug Back.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Kelly Pflug-Back: Recognized author and Toronto G20 Political Prisoner will
officially be launching her poetry book, “These Burning Streets” upon her
release from Vanier Correctional Centre for Women. Kelly has spent the last
7 months in prison for having allegedly participated in the riots during
the Toronto G20 Summit in 2010. She is a published poet and author as well
as a well known activist for her work in anti-poverty and harm reduction
organizing. She will also speak of her experience within the prison
industrial complex, where prison serves as a Patriarchical tool to confine
and dispose the bodies of those that do not conform to the norms of
society, specifically in the case of women.

SPECIAL GUESTS:

International Anti-Fascist/Anti-Authoritarian Activists Directly From
Greece:

Sofia Papagiannaki, Vangelis Nanos & Thanasis Xirotsopanos – On
antifascist/anti-authoritarian organizing in Greece, the publication of
Anti-authoritarian newspaper/magazine Babylonia and the state of the
Anti-Authoritarian Movement.

>From Peterborough, ON:

Amanda Lickers (Anarchist Black Cross of Peterborough): Anti-authoritarian
prison abolitionist on the Patriarchical nature of the Prison Industrial
Complex from a radical feminist analysis.

George Horton Norabuena (Anarchist Black Cross of Peterborough): Political
Prisoner recently released on Bail Pending Court Appeal, convicted for his
alleged participation in the riots during the Toronto G20 in 2010. George
who was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment on September 28th, 2012 was
released on December 10th after serving just over 2 months of his sentence,
and will appeal his conviction in court beginning September 2013.

Poetry, Live Music, Video Shorts and Much More...

Presented and Organized by: The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free
Wallmapu [Toronto]
More info at http://wccctoronto.wordpress.com/
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The history of women has been plagued with humiliations and scorn on the
part of various systems of slavery and submission that have existed.
Domination, colonialism and violence have always been unleashed on the
bodies of women – and with it the earth – as part of the structural
patriarchy that has continued the rape, plunder and genocide of the land
and its indigenous peoples. The prison system is the vivid expression of
this structural violence – forcing all those who refuse to submit to the
colonial norms to submit their bodies and their lives to the will of power
and capital. However, much resistance has risen from the depth of this
brutality.

This International Women’s Day, we have nothing to celebrate and everything
to fight back.

WE DENOUNCE THE STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE OF THE JUDICIAL/PRISON SYSTEM ON OUR
COMMUNITIES IN RESISTANCE AGAINST COLONIALISM, CAPITALISM & PATRIARCHY ON
THIS STOLEN LAND!!

WE DENOUNCE THE USE OF FEMALE COPS USING ISSUES OF VIOLENCE TO INFILTRATE
AND IMPRISON OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS!!
DOWN WITH THE PRISON SYSTEM! FREE OUR POLITICAL PRISONERS!!

They may imprison our bodies, but they can never imprison our desire to
struggle; to be free.

The Women’s Coordinating Committee for A Free Wallmapu [Toronto]

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*Israeli Apartheid Week Events*

*THURSDAY, March 7th*
Peace vs. Pacification
Speaker: Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Location: Koffler House 108, University of Toronto, 569 Spadina Crescent
Hosted by Students Against Israeli Apartheid – a working group of
OPIRG-Toronto
http://www.facebook.com/events/227161224075743/

This event will be chaired by David McNally, professor in Political
Science at York Universit

Dr Abdel Razzaq Takriti is Lecturer in International History at the
University of Sheffield, England. He received his doctorate from Oxford
University and was subsequently elected to a research fellowship there
(2009-2012). He is the author of the multi-award winning Monsoon
Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965-76 (Oxford
University Press, 2013). He is currently co-authoring, with Dr Karma
Nabulsi, a book on the history of the Palestinian revolution.

*THURSDAY, March 7th*
Israeli Activism against Occupation and Apartheid: Strategies for Solidarity
Speaker: Noa Shaindlinger
2:30 - 4:30
Location: York University, York Student Centre, GSA room 430

As an Israeli anti-israeli-apartheid activist, Noa Shaindlinger will first
discuss her involvement in Zochrot, a Tel-Aviv NGO whose mission statement
it to educate Israeli-Jews about the Nakba and preserve the memory of
pre-1948 Palestine. Noa also joined anarchists against the wall and
participated in demonstrations and other actions against the current
realities of land theft, expanding settlements and limitations imposed on
the freedom of movement of Palestinians. She will speak about the nature
of this type of solidarity work, the joint struggle and its internal
tensions and pitfalls.

*FRIDAY, March 8th*
I Come From There: Stories of the Living Resistance
6:00 - 9:00 PM
Location: Ryerson University, Oakham House, Thomas Lounge, 63 Gould st.
http://www.facebook.com/events/431888756903818/

An intimate and rare night of storytelling featuring a cross-section of
Palestinian elders, youth, artists, and activists from the community.
Through personal stories, folk tales, and poetry, loved ones will share
their diverse experiences of living in the diaspora, under occupation, and
as refugees. The night will be an ode to our past, present, and future.

*SUNDAY, March 10th*
The Palestinian Question and International Law (2013 James Graff Memorial
Lecture)
Speaker: Afif Safieh
2:00- 4:00
Location: Ryerson University, Rogers Communication Centre, Eaton Lecture
Theatre (RCC204), 80 Gould Street
Co-hosted by the Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation of Canada
and Students Against Israeli Apartheid – a working group of OPIRG-Toronto
https://www.facebook.com/events/131136207060755/

Afif Safieh is the senior most Ambassador of the Palestinian Diplomatic
Corps. Safieh is considered the most experienced and skilled Palestinian
diplomat having served in three politically significant capitals: London,
Washington, and Moscow. During his service, he was involved in the
Stockholm negotiations that led to the first official and direct
American-Palestinian dialogue. He has met and interacted with the leading
figures of our age from Yasser Arafat, John Major, and Tony Blair to Jimmy
Carter, George W. Bush, and Pope John Paul II.

*TUESDAY, March 12*
Lessons from Palestine: Right to education, academic freedom, and the BDS
movement
Speakers:  Dr. Samia Al-Botmeh
3:00 - 5:00 PM
Location: York University, Room TBA

Dr. Samia Al-Botmeh, Director of the Center for Development  Studies at
Birzeit University, Ramallah, West Bank and member of Steering Committee
for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of
Israel (PACBI).

The Mobile Kitchen Lab Presents: beit Suad
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*
*FRIDAY March 15th*
(Performance and Dinner)
8:00 PM – Co-presented by FUSE Magazine and Israeli Apartheid Week Toronto

*SATURDAY March 16th*
*1:00 PM (Workshop and Lunch)*
*
*
*SUNDAY March 17th*
*1:00 PM (Workshop and Lunch)*

Venue: Xpace Cultural Centre, 303 Lansdowne Avenue, Suite 2
www.performanceart.ca

In The Mobile Kitchen Lab, Basil AlZeri will be activating a utilitarian
sculptural work with a cooking performance guided by his mother, Suad, via
Skype. At the beginning of AlZeri's performance on Friday 15 March,
audience members (the guests) will participate in preparation, followed by
a full Palestinian gastronomical (sight/site) experience. AlZeri will be
facilitating cooking workshops on the two days following the performance.

AlZeri's performances are part of the FADO Performance Art Centre:
Emerging Artists Series .sight.specific.

Curated by Francisco-Fernando Granados
Co-presented by Xpace Cultural Centre

Basil AlZeri is a Toronto-based Palestinian artist working in performance,
video, installation, food and public art interventions. His artwork is
grounded in his practice as an art educator and community worker, and
engages with the intersection of everyday actions and life necessities.
AlZeri’s performance work has been exhibited in Toronto (FADO, Nuit
Blanche, Whipper Snapper Gallery), Quebec (Fait Maison 14), Winnipeg
(Central Canadian Centre for Performance), and Mexico (Transmuted
International Performance Art Festival, Performancear O Morir). Upcoming
projects include a public performance project with the Ottawa Art
Gallery/Creative Cities Conference, and performances in Chile and
Argentina in 2013.

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*(En)gendering Resistance School of Public Interest Call for Proposals*

(En)gendering Resistance: Exploring the Possibilities of Gender, Resistance
and Militancy

WPIRG’s 2013 School of Public Interest Conference
April 19th-21st
University of Waterloo
engenderingresistance.noblogs.org
www.wpirg.org

Call for Proposals!

Examining the social, political and economic realities of gender, as well
as the liberatory possibilities of militant resistance to gender based
oppression, WPIRG’s 2013 School of Public Interest will focus on the theme
of (en)gendering resistance.  A purposeful play on words, the conference
theme is intended to encompass reflections on the lived experience of
gender, the gendering of activism, and strategies for fostering vibrant
resistance movements.

Taking place April 19th-21st at the University of Waterloo, the weekend
long conference will bring together community organizers, activists and
students, to critically discuss issues related to gender and
resistance/resisting gender. Shaping, while simultaneously being shaped by
the ways in which we live, love, fuck and resist, the intricacies and
potentialities of gender will be explored.

Our vision is to provide an inclusive space to engage in dialogue that
challenges the narratives of the mainstream feminist movement, expanding
its critique and radicalizing its practice. We dream of a feminism that
does not seek the inclusion of marginalized identities within the dominant
order, but rather, strives to unapologetically challenge the dominant order
itself. How can we develop a movement for gender justice that is
necessarily anti-capitalist, anti-colonial and critical of state
institutions? How can we foster resistance practices that are firmly rooted
in anti-racism and an intersectional analysis of gender?

Patriarchy and gendered oppressions are everyday perpetuated within our
communities and movements. Sexism, queer and transphobia permeate social
justice groups and organizations. Gender violence and sexual assault occur
with tragic frequently within our ‘safe’ spaces. How can we challenge the
reproduction of gender oppression within broader social and environmental
justice movements? How can we develop non-state responses to issues of
sexual violence? What potential exists for the construction of holistic and
nurturing communities of resistance? How can we strengthen our ongoing
work, and build our collective capacity to resist?

In the spirit of engendering resistance, WPIRG invites community-based
activists, those struggling everyday against gender oppression, supporters,
and anyone who sees value in gathering to resist and share strategies, to
participate!

Possible topics can include (but are in no way limited to):
- queer/ing resistance
- building a trans* inclusive movement
- feminisms/ (trans) feminisms/ anarcha-feminisms
- capitalism and the material reproduction of gender
- intersections and reflections on gender, sexuality, race and class
-  gender and disability justice
- histories of gender resistance
- gender and militancy/the gendering of militant resistance
- sexism, queer and transphobia within social movements
- challenging gender violence and rape culture
- community accountability: perils, pitfalls and possibilities
- the policing of bodies and enforcement of gender
- gender, incarceration and the prison industrial complex
- gender and the media

We welcome individuals, groups, and organizations to submit proposals for
workshops, presentations, panel discussions, art installations, and
performance pieces. From theoretical discussions to artistic explorations,
from practical strategy sessions and skill-shares, we welcome a diversity
of presentation formats. We acknowledge that discussions of gender cannot
be separated from considerations of race, class, sexuality, ability and
age, and encourage proposals that consider such intersections.

Please submit proposals, including a 1-page description and facilitator bio
to spi at wpirg.org by March 13th, 2013 at 9am. Travel subsidies will be
available to cover travel costs for conference presenters, and a modest
honorarium will be provided.


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*Courtroom Solidarity for Security Certificate Detainee Mahmoud Jaballah*

March 19-22, 2013

Federal Court, 180 Queen St. W.

For more than ten years now, Mahmoud Jaballah has been subject to a
security certificate.

A security certificate is one of the most draconian measures in Canadian
Law. Based on secret information gathered by CSIS, the Ministers of
Immigration and Public Safety can obtain a judicial order detaining a
non-citizen indefinitely without charge.

Mahmoud, a father of six who came to Canada in 1996 seeking protection from
the Mubarak regime, was separated from his family in 2001 and imprisoned
for six years. He was released in 2007 on strict conditions that continue
to this day. He has never been charged with any crime.

Mahmoud and his lawyers will be in Federal Court starting on Tuesday, March
19 to challenge his security certificate with an abuse of process motion.

If you are able to come, please indicate your availability at this doodle
poll http://www.doodle.com/48727xhehebc7a6q and send us an email to
justiceforjaballah at gmail.com. That way we can update you if there are any
changes in the court schedule.

We are asking everyone to demonstrate their solidarity by following court
decorum.

For more information on Mr. Jaballah and Security Certificate's please
visit www.justiceforjaballah.org.

Thank you for considering this,

Justice for Jaballah Committee

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*Call for Submissions to Breakthroughs Film Festival, No Charge!*

The Breakthroughs Film Festival is the only festival in Canada devoted
exclusively to short films by emerging Canadian female artists. There is no
charge to submit. All proceeds from this festival go to fund short films by
"new generation" Canadian women.

http://www.breakthroughsfilmfestival.com/submit/

-- 

-OPIRG York
--
www.opirgyork.ca
416-736-5724
opirg at yorku.ca


*There are many ways to get involved at OPIRG. We currently have 8 OPIRG
York working groups:*
Art For Justice, Justice is Not Colour Blind, Students for a Free Tibet, YU
Free Press, Environmental Justice York, Progressive Filipino Canadians for
Community Empowerment and Development (PFCCED), Students Against Israeli
Apartheid, and the Vanier Prison Support Line working group. You can contact
Victoria Barnett, our volunteer coordinator, about ways to get involved in
these working groups: victoria at opirgyork.ca.

*We also have three different collectives: *PrOPIRGanda Radio, Radical
Reading Room and PrOPIRGanda Zine- see the callouts below. You can contact
us about ways to get involved in these collectives: opirg at yorku.ca.
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