-caravane collectif Dignidad Migrante, en coalition avec le Centre
des Travailleurs et Travailleuses Immigrant(e)s pour Noe Artegas Santos. M. Santos, employé dans une serre Savoura comme travailleur agricole temporaire a été rapatrié pour avoir dénoncé les abus de droits humains et non-respect du contrat de travail par son employeur et le syndicat. Il dénonce les conditions injustes du contrat, premier d’une longue série dee travailleurs et travailleuses rapatriÉes a revenir pour défendre ses droit et sa dignité
CKUT’s Laurin Liu spoke with Sandra Cuffe on Wednesday.
Sandra Cuffe is an activist working with Rights Action in Honduras, accompanying community-based organizations and working on human rights and global issues.
Jan Gehl, Danish professor, architect, urban designer, and consultant spoke at McGill University on the topic of livable cities at a talk put together by Montreal’s Urban Ecology Centre. The inspiring talk focused on creating high quality urban public spaces by prioritizing people, specifically pedestrians and cyclists over cars in city centres. Drawing from his long career of experience in cities all over the world, including his home city of Copenhagen, in London, New York, Melbourne and others, Gehl illustrated how gradual, incremental improvements are central to creating people cities.
His ‘one stone, five bird’ policy seeks to prioritize people and thereby make cities more lively, more attractive, safer, more sustainable, and healthier. According to Gehl, the key, on the political side, is data, namely systematic documentation of urban spaces, gradual improvements, and documentation of results. This empowers decision-makers to move forward on policies to make cities ever-more people-friendly. On the side of public use and involvement, Gehl says the key is quality and to make spaces inviting, obvious, and irresistible for walking and cycling. Discussion of the talk on CKUT and the full lecture audio is available below.
The full introduction, lecture, and question period is posted here in the first audio player below. The discussion on CKUT’s Ecolibrium is available on the second player below and was broadcast on Tuesday, July 7, 2009.
The Mohawk territory of Akwesasne straddles the jurisdictions of Ontario, Quebec and New York State. As a result, Akwesasne is a major international border crossing between Canada and the United States.
Canadian Borders Services Agency guards began arming in 2007, and there are currently more than 800 armed Canadian Borders Services Agency guards across Canada. The entire Canadian Borders Services Agency is to be armed, in stages, by 2016. The Canadian Borders Services Agency announced that their agents at the Port of Cornwall would be armed by June 1 of this year.
According to Mohawk Nation News, a Mohawk Band Council resolution forbids guns at the border. In the Mohawk territory of Akwesasne, local residents have protested for months against the arming of Canadian Borders Services Agency guards on their land.
As of June 1st, the customs at the Canadian border’s port of entry has been abandoned. Earlier this week, Cornwall city cops and NYS police shut down the border. According to residents of Akwesasne, CBSA border agents abandoned their posts just before midnight, out of fear of reprisals from the community.
To get some perspective on the issue, CKUT spoke with Sakoietah, member of the Warrior’s Society, Brendan White, Sandra Cuffe of the Dominion and 11-year-old Karoniate (Galunyadeh) during the week.
This audio aired on the Friday, June 5th edition of CKUT.
Updates:
- Seaway International Bridge, on the Mohawk territory of Akwesasne, remains closed
- Akwesasne community still not allowed full free movement on their own territory
- Tyendinaga Mohawks shut down Skyway Bridge in support of Akwesasne without sanction of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Council
- Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan states that permanently “moving the border crossing off the Akwesasne reserve” is an option
Above: Riot police deployed throughout Point Saint-Charles
Above: Riot police enter abandoned church occupied by squatters following first eviction
Above: Residents of Point Saint-Charles speak to CKUT about the ASC/CSA and the police intervention that took place Saturday
Last Saturday afternoon, riot police used clubs and pepper spray to evict squatters from two buildings in the Point Saint Charles neighbourhood.
The first building was once home to a candle factory, but it is now abandoned and slated for demolition.
Developers plan to build condominiums on the site, but activists have other ideas.
The organizers of the Autonomous Social Centre (ASC) attempted to squat the building and establish it as community hub last week.
Spokespeople for the ASC, who declared themselves anticapitalist and non-hierarchical in organization, said the social centre would include a housing project, an independent media centre, and a bike repair workshop, among other projects.
Last Friday — just one day before police shut down the ASC — hundreds of people gathered in Point Saint Charles to march in support of the building’s occupation.
Above: Supporters of the ASC address crowd of hundreds at rally
“We have occupied this building because we lack adequate and accessible spaces and infrastructure and autonomous social projects…because PSC is on the front-lines of gentrification, because we have no other means to get what we need, what we want in this authoritarian society,” a spokesperson said, as squatters draped a banner reading “Liberated Space” on the former factory.
The squatters have been building support in the neighbourhood over the past two years by organizing services including a communal bike network.
But this didn’t prevent riot police from forcing the activists out of the building on the day of its official opening to the public.
Immediately following the eviction, the squatters marched through the neighbourhood with demonstrators who had assembled for an emergency show of support.
They attempted to occupy a second building — an abandoned church — before police, who were deployed throughout the neighbourhood, once again dispersed them with pepper spray and clubs.
A long-time resident of Point Saint Charles who identified herself as Anik gave CKUT an eye-witness account of events that took place Saturday afternoon.
“What happened is that the squad came up and a fifteen year old was standing on his bike and they came up with the shield to make him move and they hit him in the face… and I guess his nose was broken ’cause he was bleedling heavily”
A spokesperson for the ASC told CKUT on Saturday that organizers were disappointed by the immediate shut-down of the squat.
She added that “the project is not dead,” but declined to offer details about the plans of ASC organizers.
MONTREAL – People from disparate corners of the globe – from Papua New Guinea to Quebec – say that Canadian mining companies are destroying the social and ecological fabric of their communities.
They gathered at Mont Royal Park on Monday to stake a claim and develop an open pit mine for a mock company called Royal Or.
“We’re not your daddy’s mining company,” said activist and actor Jason McLean.
Hear the exuberant McLean as he hammers the first spike:
Above: Jason McLean and the Royal Or surveying team get ready for their big dig.
******
Along with Royal Or’s costumed survey team were representatives from communities around the world impacted by Canadian mines.
Jethro Tulin is a representative of the Akali Tange Association, a human rights group based in the Porgera district of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
He spoke to CKUT at the protest:
Tulin (above) says the Portega mine has “destroyed our land, our water, our safety and our ability to feed ourselves.”
His visit to Canada coincided with an announcement by Amnesty International that violent evictions are taking place in PNG with the complicity of the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation.
Barrick’s Porgera operation recently came under fire from the ethics board of Norway’s pension fund, which said the company was causing “severe environmental damage” in the area.
PNG police have reportedly burned down the homes of three hundred indigenous villagers in the area around Porgera mine in an ongoing campaign of violence.
Tulin said that security officials employed by Barrick are participating in the violent evictions.
In a press release dated May 11, Amnesty International stated that “these evictions were carried out in breach of international law, without giving prior and adequate notice, and without consultation with those affected. The families have not been provided with any alternative accommodation.”
The human rights watchdog is calling on Canada to insist that Barrick uphold an agreement known as the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
This set of principles states that “force should be used only when strictly necessary and to an extent proportional to the threat.”
Barrick is the largest producer of gold in the world. Its global operations have met with resistance from people who say that the company is responsible for the violent repression of locals and the destruction of local economies and ecosystems.
******
Jean Moise Djoli, from the Congolese Lawyers in Canada group, said that the Anvil Mining company – which is headquartered in Montreal and Perth, Australia – has provided guns to the military of the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to kill and displace civilians for mineral exploitation.
Hear Djoli in his own words:
Djoli (above) says that the Montreal-based Anvil Mining company has helped the DRC’s military to kill civilians.
******
Montrealers will not find Royal Or drilling and blasting for gold in the playground of this Canadian metropolis any time soon.
McGill student and protest organizer Cleve Higgins told CKUT that after activists made an application with the province to mine Mont Royal for gold, the park suddenly became formally protected from the claims of potential developers.
Activists are calling for increased accountability of mining corporations through a number of measures, including the passage of bill C-300, which is based on recommendations from a consultation process between government, industry and civil society.
This “round table” process produced recommendations including the establishment of an ombudsperson’s office that would be responsible for dealing with complaints from abroad about Canadian mining companies.
However, such recommendations that have so far been ignored by the federal Conservative government under Stephen Harper.
Higgins explained some of the ways that activists worldwide are working to hold Canadian mining companies accountable for their activities.
Note: For the past few weeks, the CKUT server has been down. Archives are currently not available for download from www.ckut.ca. Please stand by; we’re working hard to fix the problem.
Canada / US – Plans for new pollution control zones for coastal ports
Canada – British MP Galloway banned from entry on grounds of “national security”;
Canada – Censorship and government compliance: Galloway speaks over Internet stream instead // 1952: Paul Robeson’s speech
INTERNATIONAL:
Europe – 60th NATO summit this week; Peace activists organize to protest
Israel – Israeli military’s lawyer calls soldier misconduct “based on hearsay”
Middle East/Africa – Arab League rejects decision of International Criminal Court, supporting Sudanese Pres. Omar El-Bashir
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Hosted by the NCRA: http://ncra.ca/exchange/dspProgramDetail.cfm?programID=82787
Thanks this week to our friends at the Dominion, and our contributors: Fabrice Fotso, Caitlyn Chappel, Anabel Khoo, Laura Glowacki, Chris Albinati, Laurin Liu, David Koch, TJ Khan and Juniper Belshaw of the CKUT Community News Collective.
If you rebroadcast, or have comments/questions/feedback, please contact headlines@ckut.ca
Montreal – Community-based education initiatives offer another season of alternative learning
NATIONAL:
Alberta – Canada’s first private nuclear power generator proposed site faces criticism
Canada – Three Billion $ stimulus package approved in House of Commons
Canada – Government trying to re-impose conditions on Adil Charkaoui
INTERNATIONAL:
Istanbul – Fifth annual World Water Forum and international criticism
Malawi – World Tuberculosis Day and Malawi’s National TB Control Program
Afghanistan – Five more deaths from suspected US airstrikes on Pakistan/Afghan border
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Hosted by Indymedia Radio: http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/17220
If rebroadcasted, comments/feedback/questions please contact: headlines@ckut.ca
Thanks this week to our friends at the Dominion, and our contributors Laura Glowacki, Juniper Belshaw, Brodie Macrae, Caitlyn Chapell, and Faberice of the CKUT Community News Collective.
Montreal – Thousands participate in Annual Anti-Police Brutality March
Montreal – Mont-Royal MP Irwin Cotler makes public allegations against Iran
McGill University – Green Week highlights needs for ecological sustainability
NATIONAL:
Canada – Over 100 people pool money for Abdelrazik’s plane ticket, despite facing up to ten years in jail
Alberta – Fails to publicly disclose environmental violations by oilsands contractors
INTERNATIONAL:
Washington, DC – First Nations activists deliver letter to John Kerry protesting US reliance on oil from Alberta tarsands, coinciding with Jim Prentice’s visit
Calgary – Bush welcomed by Calgary Chamber of Congress
France – Highest levels of industrial tensions since start of financial crisis
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Credits: TJ Kahan, Juniper Belshaw, David Koch, Brodie McRae, Chris Albinati, Anabel Khoo, The Dominion
If rebroadcast, comments/feedback/questions please contact: headlines@ckut.ca
Hosted by Radio4All.net: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/32170
- Montreal – International Women’s Day: thousands rally calling for a new world order
- Montreal – McGill University plans to purchase hotel where workers have been on strike since August
NATIONAL
- Fort Chipewyan – Former primary care physician for Ft Chipewyan First Nation states link between oil sands and cancer rates
- Canada – Mining in northern Canada is in sharp decline, while government tax break for junior mining companies still stands
- York University hosts landmark conference to discuss Canadian mining industry
- Halifax – Court proceedings continue for four activists protesting free Atlantica trade agreement
- Ecuadorian activists sue the Toronto Stock Exchange
INTERNATIONAL
- Peru – Peru Top Court Bans Some Oil Exploration Work including Canadian company Talisman Inc.
- Gaza – Montreal Engineer enters Gaza after three weeks of trying
- Worldwide – Israeli Apartheid Week took place in cities and on campuses around the world last week
- Iran/US – Six major american news organizations call for release of independent journalist
featuring voices of: Dolores Chew, Dr. John O’Connor, Carlos Zorrilla, Ehab Lotayef, Ronnie Kasrils
If rebroadcast, comments/feedback/questions?
Please contact headlines@ckut.ca
Credits: our friends at the Dominion, and our contributors Anabel Khoo, Juniper Belshaw, Leah Gardner, Laura Glowacki, David Koch, Brodie MacRae, TJ kahan, and Laurin Liu
Montreal – Casa del Popolo venue rennovating in facing two liquor/concert venue licensing court cases
Mile End – Redevelopment plans for St-Viateur street update: public and private investment interested; grassroots group organizes discussions and rally
National news:
Vancouver – lawyer plans to lay crimminal charges on George Bush upon Calgary visit
Canada / Afghanistan – Prime Minister Harper doubts “success” in Afghanistan, after sending 1,600 additional troops
International news:
US – Internal Bush admin documents reveal major legal errors post 9/11
Washington, DC – Thousands of youth travel to DC demanding action on climate change
Lahore, Pakistan – Attack on Sri Lankan cricket team: Five security officers killed, Seven cricket players injured
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Credits: Leah Gardner, Laura Glowacki, Chesley Walsh, Tariq Jeeroburkahan, Laurin Liu
If rebroadcast, comments/feedback/questions please contact headlines@ckut.ca
Hosted by the NCRA: http://www.ncra.ca/exchange/dspProgramDetail.cfm?programID=81772
Tune in for Off the Hour, broadcast live every weekday from 5-6 PM on CKUT 90.3 fm. Click on hyperlinks for archived audio.
On this week’s OTH:
Monday… the Homlessness Marathon was broadcast LIVE from the Native Friendship Center in Montreal, and rebroadcast on stations from coast to coast. Read more about the Homelessness Marathon here.
Tuesday… Some highlights from the Homelessness Marathon. Then, some events you won’t want to miss during the 5th annual Apartheid Week. Rounding out the hour, another episode of Homeless Radio hosted by Roach.
Wednesday… excerpts from a lecture given by Robert Fisk at Concordia University. Fisk is an award-winning Middle East correspondent stationed in Beirut, Lebanon and reporting for The Independent.
Thursday… CKUT aired a special four-hour broadcast to mark the fifth anniversary of the overthrow of Haitian democracy. The program will provide in-depth interviews with Haitian union leaders, progressive politicians, and rights advocates, and will also feature a panel discussion with members of the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN). Five years ago, Canadian soldiers participated in a military operation to overthrow Haiti’s elected government. Today, after five years of neoliberal “shock therapy”, Canadian personnel remain in Haiti under the cover of a UN mission. Haiti remains Canada’s other, untalked-of, occupation, along with Afghanistan. This special program aims to explore Canada’s role in Haiti and to highlight Haitian resistance.
Friday… This week’s headlines, brought to you by CKUT’s news collective. Aaron Lakoff then speaks to Jessica Carpinone about a poster promoting Israeli Apartheid Week that was banned at Carleton University. Then, a preview of the International Women’s Day conference from CKUT’s Caitlin Chappel and Anabel Khoo.
This week:
-Hotel workers enter 8th month locked out of work by employers at Holiday Inn Longueuil
-Montreal music venue Casa del Popolo forced to cancel all upcoming shows until further notice
-Court reduces level of police surveillance on Adil Charkaoui
-BC and Federal governments release swollen security budget for 2010 Olympics
-Ft. Chipewyan aboriginals and researcher Dr. John O’Connor renew call for Alberta to reverse environmental degradation caused by N. Alberta oil sands
-Homeless man found burned to death in Abbotsford, BC
-Media news: poor and homeless people and supporters take to airwaves for 14 consecutive hours during nation-wide broadcast of The Homelessness Marathon
-According to an unconfirmed report in The Jerusalem Post, Canada is now representing Israeli interests at Caracas
-British police warn economic recession could spark rioting by disaffected middle class, activists and environmentalists for a “summer of rage”
Hosted by the NCRA:
http://www.ncra.ca/exchange/dspProgramDetail.cfm?programID=81490
Here’s what aired on this week’s Off the Hour. Click on hyperlinks for archived audio.
Tuesday … the McGill Daily in Review, the York University strike, an interesting perspective on the economy and a sneak preview of next week’s Homelessness Marathon.
Wednesday… as part of our coverage for Black History Month, the Avalanche aired a lecture given by award winning historian and specialist in Black Canadian History, Dr. Dorothy Williams. You can read about her life and work here.
Thursday… CKUT’s David Tacium hosts a new edition of Labour Radio.
Friday… Abdelkader Balaouni hosts the Hour of Power from sanctuary in St. Gabriel’s church.
Abdelkader Belaouni (”Kader” to his friends) is a refugee from Algeria who came to Montreal via the USA. Kader is in sanctuary inside the St-Gabriel’s Catholic Church in his community of Point St-Charles — a mixed French-English poor working class neighborhood of Montreal, with a long history of community mobilization.
Kader defied an order to be deported on January 5, 2006, and has remained in sanctuary ever since.
CKUT is a community radio station proudly embedded in movements for social justice, particularly those of migrants in Montreal. Since Kader cannot leave the church, CKUT radio will join him inside the sanctuary of St-Gabriel’s Church, in the heart of Point St-Charles.
Off the Hour is CKUT 90.3 fm’s daily news show, which airs live from 5-6 PM every weekday.
- Dogwood Initiative: sticker campaign on loonies against oil pipeline, get Royal Canadian Mint’s attention
- Stats Canada: largest monthly drop in manufacturing sales since 1992, forcasting cut backs on work-force
- RCMP reveals new guidelines on Taser usage
INTERNATIONAL:
- Web: eligible for royalties from Google
- Afghanistan: NATO receives orders to attack Afghans who use drug trade to help fund Taliban
- US-Canada border: unmanned, remote-controlled flying robots to patrol border
- Massachusetts: Hampshire College first to divest from companies that profit from Israeli occupation
(+ audio clip)
- Middle East: Israel plans to expand illegal settlement, shakes negotiations for peaceful agreement
