[Stopwar-l] Upcoming Events - Haiti, Afghanistan, Palestine and Wikileaks

[StopWar]

Upcoming Events

1) Feb 10 - Canadian Occupation from Here to Haiti and Afghanistan
2) Feb 12 - SPEAKING UP FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS
3) Feb 17 - StopWar.ca Forum War, Lies and Wikileaks

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1) Canadian Occupation from Here to Haiti and Afghanistan

Siraat and W2 Community Media Arts Society present a public forum...

Thursday, February 10 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm, W2 Storyeum
151 W. Cordova St

• Will pulling Out of Afghanistan end our Occupation?
• What is our Role in Haiti?
• What about our history of Colonialism?

Panel will include:

Yves Engler - Writer and critic on Canada's Foreign Policy
Wafi Gran - Afghan Political Scientist
Kat Norris - Coast Salish, Nez Perce and Musqueam Elder
Kaye Kerlande - Haitian Community Organizer

Pay what you can • Refreshments served

-Kat Norris, is Coast Salish and Nez Perce & her maternal great great
grandmother was from Musqueum. As survivor of the Kuper Island Residential
School, she learned to be ashamed of her color and ancestry. At 19 years
of age, she became involved with the American Indian Movement Leonard
Peltier Defense committee where she learned not only pride but how to
organize.

-Yves Engler has been dubbed “one of the most important voices on the
Canadian Left today” (Briarpatch magazine) and “in the mould of I. F.
Stone” (Globe and Mail). His books have been praised by Noam Chomsky,
Naomi Klein, Rick Salutin and many others.

-Wafi Gran grew up in Afghanistan, he has worked for the Afghan Government
and the United Nations as well as other non profit organizations.

-"The hearthquake has affected each of us at some level. Kaye Kerlande
organized events in the hope we remember the children and the ones with no
voice, and to help keep the vision for a strong Haiti"


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2) SPEAKING UP FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS

Understanding recent attempts to silence criticism of Israel in Canada

Free Public Forum
Saturday February 12, 6:30 pm
SFU Harbour Centre
515 W. Hastings St.

Featured Speakers:

Jenny Peto
 - Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto)

Omar Chaaban
 - Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights – UBC

Brian Campbell
 - Seriously Free Speech Committee

NOTE: Childcare will be available on site. Please call 604-779-7430 in
advance if you need childcare.

Over the past few months, two student organizations at UBC have come under
attack for their efforts to oppose Israel’s illegal siege of the Gaza
Strip.

The situation at UBC began when the Social Justice Centre approved a
donation for the Canadian Boat to Gaza at the request of the UBC
chapter of Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). The
Canadian Boat is part of an international effort to break the illegal
siege on Gaza and expose the Canadian government's unjustified support for
Israel.

Since then, zionist groups on campus have engaged in a vicious
campaign to both block this donation from being granted and to
undermine the work of these student groups.

This campaign is part of a wider strategy by pro-Israel groups in
Canada to undermine solidarity work for Palestine. As recently
documented by Al Jazeera, attacks on Palestinian-solidarity
organizations and individual activists are escalating in Canada, from the
defunding of the Canadian Arab Federation and KAIROS to the
banning of British MP George Galloway from entering Canada, the
condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week, and the attempts to ban Queers
Against Israeli Apartheid from the Toronto Pride Parade.

This repression is happening at a time when, around the world,
opposition is growing to the ongoing human rights violations and war
crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. It is also
happening at a time of increased repression within the state of Israel
itself, where efforts by both Palestinian citizens of Israel and
Israeli human rights organizations to challenge Israel's apartheid
policies are increasingly criminalized.

Join us for a free public forum to discuss why these attacks on free
speech are happening in the context of Palestine support work in
Canada, and what we can do to stop them.


About Jenny Peto:

A member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto, Jenny has
a Master's degree in Sociology and Equity Studies from the Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of
Toronto. Her Master's thesis, entitled  ‘The Victimhood of the
Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust
Education,’ has been at the centre of a recent firestorm generated by
pro-Israel groups in Canada. Jenny has faced personal attacks in the media
and her work was condemned by three members of the Ontario
legislature. These attacks have been met with a powerful response from
hundreds of outraged individuals and from a wide range of
organizations including Faculty for Palestine, PACBI, IJV, the
Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) and the Committee on
Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America
(MESA).


For more background information please check out the following links:

http://www.socialjusticecentre.org/
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/2010/12/2010121125638329942.html
http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1429&key=peto
http://www.caiaweb.org/committees/faculty-for-palestine/


Sponsored by the SFU Teaching Support Staff Union Social Justice Committee

For more information:
organizer (at) tssu.ca

Endorsers (in alphabetical order):
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign Vancouver, Canada Palestine
Association, Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet), Canadian Boat
to Gaza, Independent Jewish Voices BC, Seriously Free Speech
Vancouver, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights- UBC, Stopwar.ca, Voice
of Palestine

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3) StopWar.ca Wikileaks Forum
War, Lies and Wikileaks
A Public Forum organized by StopWar.ca
Thursday, Feb. 17
7pm, Location: Habour Centre, 515 W. Hastings, Room 1800
Join anti-war activists and media commentators in discussing the
significance of the Wikileaks revelations, especially in relation to war
and foreign policy.
Featuring:

-Gail Davidson, Lawyers Against War

-Micheal Vonn, BC Civil Liberties Association

-Ian Beeching, StopWar.ca

Admission by donation.
For more info, contact stopwar at resist.ca