Canadian Dimension Magazine, November/December 2007

Operation Objection

Operation Objection is a Canada-wide counter-recruitment campaign to reclaim education institutions for the cause of peace and to protect the interests of students from those who would co-opt them for war. The campaign was created by ACT for the Earth to counter Operation Connection, the Canadian military’s active and aggressive campaign to sign up more youth for military service in Afghanistan. Operation Objection includes War Free Schools, an organizing kit for Canadian students and peace activists.

For more information, go to www.operationobjection.org.

Stop Municipal Support for War

Many Canadian municipalities have endorsed the Support Our Troops campaign by allowing decals on government vehicles, including ambulances, buses, police cars and fire trucks. The Council of Canadians is asking people to tell their municipal councilors that it is unacceptable for them to endorse a political message of support for the war in Afghanistan.

A sample letter and more information are available at the Council of Canadian’s website at www.canadians.org.

Boycott Chapters/Indigo

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is organizing a rotating, monthly picket of Chapters and Indigo stores in the Greater Toronto Area. The coalition also holds a regular 5:00 p.m. picket every Friday at the Indigo store at Bay and Bloor in Toronto. The Chapters/Indigo boycott is to oppose the links of majority shareholders Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz to the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, a program that provides financial support to soldiers in the Israeli military.

More information on the coalition and the boycott campaign is at www.caiaweb.org. You can also contact them via e-mail at endapartheid@riseup.net.

Stop Shell, Save the Sacred Headwaters

Royal Dutch Shell wants to extract coal-bed methane from beneath the Sacred Headwaters, an alpine basin that is the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers in northern British Columbia. The Sacred Headwaters is also the home of the Tahltan First Nation. Members of the Tahltan have blocked the access road to the gas fields to stop the environmental destruction that would result from Shell’s planned pipelines, roads and wells. Along with their environmental partners, Tahltan members are asking people to contact the B.C. government to voice their opposition to coal-bed methane extraction in the Sacred Headwaters. Counities across the country are also encouraged to organize rallys at their local Shell stations.

More information is available at www.sacredheadwaters.com and www.skeenawatershed.com.

Support Grassy Narrows

Clear-cut logging threatens the way of life of the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation in Northern Ontario. Despite the objections of Grassy Narrows and other First Nations counities, the Ontario government continues to issue permits for logging, mining and other industrial activities on First Nations land. The Rainforest Action Network and its environmental allies are asking people to support Grassy Narrows’ struggle for self-determination and to oppose logging in their territory. They are working to stop lumber companies like Weyerhaeuser from clear-cutting forests on traditional territory.

People can support this campaign by pressuring their local retailers to stop selling products obtained from clear-cut forests. Fore more information, visit www.freegrassy.org.

Uranium Mining in Eastern Ontario

Members of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation are calling on other First Nations counities, concerned Canadians and environmental groups to stop planned uranium exploration and mining on their land by Frontenac Ventures. Local residents have created the Counity Coalition Against Uranium Mining, and are calling on the Ontario government to enact an iediate moratorium on uranium mining and exploration in Eastern Ontario. Since June, 2007, members of the Shabot Obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin First Nations have been occupying a uranium exploration site on their territory.

For more information, go to. www.aafna.ca and www.miningwatch.ca.

Ban Terminator, Stop GE Trees

The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) is a central action resource in the campaign against genetic engineering. A coalition of agricultural and environmental groups working for food sovereignty and environmental justice, CBAN’s recent successes have included the denial of Monsanto’s application for coercial use of Bovine Growth Hormone, the withdrawal of Monsanto’s application for approval of Roundup Ready Wheat, and the retreat of the Canadian government’s promotion of Terminator seed technology at the UN. This year, CBAN will be coordinating the Ban Terminator campaign and working on other emerging biotechnology issues, including genetically engineered trees. The Canadian government is expected to oppose an international moratorium on genetically engineered trees early next year.

More on CBAN, including links to member organizations and information on the November 2007 AGM, can be found at www.cban.ca.

Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Teach

Recent threats to academic freedom will be discussed at Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Teach: A Conference on Academic Freedom. The conference takes place on Saturday, November 10, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) in Toronto. Admission is $20 for the all-day event; $5-to-$10 sliding scale for students and the unwaged. Speakers include UBC’s Sunera Thobani, Sedef Arat-Koç of Ryerson University and David Noble of York University. Conference sponsors include Educators for Peace and Justice and the OISE Centre for Leadership and Diversity.

To register for the conference, or for more information, please e-mail freedomtoteach.register@yahoo.ca.

Coercialization of Canadian Universities

The Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group has released its report on the coercialization of post-secondary education in Canada. A publication entitled, New Paradigm for Paying the Piper: Access, Control and Coercialization at Halifax Universities, was written by Chris Arsenault.

For more information, or to download the report, go to www.nspirg.org.

This article was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 and is filed under Canadian Dimension Magazine, Canadian Issues and Politics, Canadian Left. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.