[van-announce] Community Events Digest

[SFPIRG]

COMMUNITY EVENTS DIGEST 
== Social justice events happening around town == 

1) Film Screening: Free the health workers detained in the Philippines (June 4-5) 
2) Vancouver Protest: Gaza Freedom Flotilla Global Day of Action (June 5) 
3) Crude oil tankers in Vancouver Harbour (June 8) 
4) Hotel Workers Rising! Rally (June 9) 
5) Vancouver Report Back From People's Climate Summit (June 10) 

**To have your event included in the next digest, send a text-based email announcement to sfpirg(at)sfu.ca. SFPIRG is SFU's student-based social justice resource centre. www.sfpirg.ca



1) 
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Film Screening: DUKOT (Desaparecidos) and the struggle to free the health workers in the Philippines 

The Morong 43 are a group of doctors, nurses and community health workers in the Philippines who have been detained since February on false charges of rebellion. 

The Morong 43 bring badly needed health services and health education to poor communities throughout the Philippines. Members of our organization have gone on solidarity trips to integrate with the Council for Health and Development and have seen first hand the vital work that is done at the community level. We condemn in the strongest terms possible the arrest, detention and torture of the Morong 43, many of whom we have met personally, and we demand their immediate and unconditional release. 
Please see http://freethehealthworkers.blogspot.com/ for more information and support the following events here in Vancouver. 

DUKOT (DESAPARECIDOS): A FILM NOT TO BE MISSED! 

The film DUKOT (Desaparecidos), the 2010 Philippine Gawad Tanglaw Award winner for Best Story and Movie Screenplay. Dukot is based on true stories, with all incidents in it having actually happened. It had its world premier at the Montreal Film Festiva where it earned positive acclaim for its “great storytelling, thematic urgency, technical competence and tour de force performance of lead actors.” The film is in Tagalog with English sub-titles. 

UBC ROBSON SQUARE 
C-300 Theatre 
800 Robson St., Vancouver, B.C. 
Friday, June 4, 2010 (6:30pm) 

Vancouver Public Library 
ALMA VANDUSEN & PETER MCKAY ROOMS 
350 West Georgia St., Vancouver, B.C. 
Saturday, June 5, 2010 (6:30 p.m.) 

Tickets at $15.00 each. Public discussion follows each screening with our “DUKOT” guests: Dennis Evangelista (producer), Boni Ilagan (scriptwriter), Allen Dizon (the lead actor) and Melissa Roxas, who survived her abduction and torture in the Philippines. 

Art Beyond Barriers- Art Petition for the Morong 43 
Saturday, June 5, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon 
Mable Elmore’s Constituency Office 
6106 Fraser St., at E45th St., Vancouver, B.C. 

Art Beyond Barriers is a Live Art Petition made through different forms of art: visual, music, voice, written word, spoken word, movement, and theater. We invite concerned artists, communities, and human rights supporters to create art and music in the spirit of collaboration and in support for human rights. This is also an activity in support of the international campaign to free the detained 43 health workers in the Philippines who continue to be held in detention. People do not need to be artists to participate and all ages are welcome.Art supplies will be provided. 

Co-sponsors: Mable Elmore, Vancouver-Kensington MLA, NDP, Bert Monterona, a Vancouver-based visual artist, educator, and cultural worker, and Melissa Roxas, a US-based poet, artist, and human rights activist. 
-by the DUKOT Organizing Committee in Vancouver 



2) 
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Vancouver Protest: Gaza Freedom Flotilla Global Day of Action 

Dear Friends, 

On Saturday, June 5, human rights and community organizations will mobilize to join an emergency Global BDS Day of Action called by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC). 

Join us to protest the fatal attacks by apartheid Israel on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip (please see full BNC call-out below). 

R A L L Y & M A R C H 
Date: Saturday, June 5 
Time: 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery (Georgia Side) - 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC 

June 5 also marks the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Our action aims to draw the world’s attention to Israel’s continuing illegal occupation, its refusal to abide by international law, and its massacre of innocent humanitarian workers. 

Please join us, and stand with Palestine! The time for change has come now! It is time for action! 

Please spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to other organizations and people. 
Bring your friends and family and inform your communities. 

Organized by: 
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) – UBC 
Canada Palestine Association (CPA) 
Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) 
Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet) 
Boycott Israel Apartheid Campaign (BIAC) 
No One Is Illegal (NOII) 
StopWar 

Endorsed by: 
Jews for Just Peace (JJP) 
Pakistan Action Network (PAN) 
Color Connected 
Vancouver Catholic Worker 
Fraser Valley Peace Council 
Vancouver Muslim Community Centre 
Adala 
The Communist Party of Canada 
One Democratic State 
British Columbia Muslim Association (BCMA) 
The Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) 

To endorse, please email sphr.ubc at gmail.com or call 604-379-4050 



3) 
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Crude oil tankers in Vancouver Harbour 
Public Meeting 

Sponsored by No Tanks! 

Tues. June 8, 2010, 7:00 PM 
Wise Hall, 1882 Adanac Street, Vancouver 

Support our fishing fleet and coastal communities 

Help us avoid a Gulf of Mexico spill like this in Vancouver: 

No Tanks! is a coalition of fishermen, business people, environmentalists, and citizens of Vancouver who are working to keep our waters free from an oil spill. 

Two oil tankers per week are now shipping Alberta crude oil through Vancouver Harbour. A spill in our harbour or in Georgia Strait would devastate our marine environment, damage our fishing and tourist industries, and destroy our beautiful beaches, harbours, and inlets. 

We have a plan to end this practice. 

We’re staging a flotilla to support the fishermen when the fleet returns from the summer fishing season. Join the Flotilla: October 17, 2010. 

www.notanks.org 



4) 
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Hotel Workers Rising! Rally 

UNITE HERE Local 40- Hotel workers at the Hyatt are negotiating contracts all across North America. 
Come stand in solidarity with the workers. 

Hotel Workers Rising! 
Rally At The Hyatt Regency 
June 9th; 655 Burrard Street; 5:00 pm 

INFO: 604-473-4815 



5) 
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VANCOUVER REPORT BACK FROM PEOPLE'S CLIMATE SUMMIT 

Meet and hear from participants in the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth held in Cochabamba, Bolivia 

Thursday, June 10, 2010, 7:00pm 
Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings, Room 1900 

Featured speaker: Robert Lovelace, Algonquin First Nation 

Plus music, updates on campaigns for indigenous rights and the environment in B.C., and photos from the Cochabamba Summit by Kris Krug 

You are invited to join us in hearing about this historic gathering, and in discussing and planning future activities for climate justice. 

Suggested donation $5-10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 

Organized by Canada-Bolivia Solidarity Committee. 
For more information, call 604-715-4097 or email boliviasolidarity at gmail.com 

Speaker's Bio 
Robert Lovelace is an adjunct Professor at Queen’s University in the Department of Global Development Studies. Robert is also an activist in anti-colonial struggles. In 2008, Robert spent 3 ½ months as a political prisoner for his part in defending the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation homeland from uranium exploration and mining. Robert was released on appeal after a groundbreaking decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal found that Aboriginal law is an essential part of Canadian law. Robert continues to study and speak on issues regarding “corporate social responsibility” and the effects of the Canadian mining industry on indigenous people in Canada and internationally. He has traveled in Ecuador and Bolivia, speaking with indigenous peoples about the rights of mother earth. Robert is a retired Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation. He lives in the Algonquin highlands at Eel Lake in the traditional Ardoch territory where he continues to offer traditional teaching and ceremony.