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Currently viewing entries by Judy Rebick.
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Israel is an apartheid state and that is why they are losing legitimacy
Before Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) even began members of the Ontario Legislature and the Canadian Parliament are falling all over each other to denounce it. I can’t remember another time when elected legislators formally denounced a student activity like this. Perhaps during the 1950’s when McCarthyism was rampant but that was before my time.
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Breaking Windows is not a Revolutionary Act
The first time I ran into people who believed that breaking windows was are volitionally act was in 1972. We had just had 21 people arrested for occupying the campus at University of Toronto to set up a tent city for transient youth. We called it Wachea, a place where everyone was welcome, or so we thought. A radical new left group called Red Morning tried to convince the assembled masses that going back to the University and “trashing it,” in the parlance of the day, was the best way to protest the arrests. It was the moment I stepped into leadership, debating them for hours, saying that more violence was counter productive and would give more strength to the arguments against us.
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A new opening for feminists
Yesterday when I heard that Stephen Harper was suddenly taken with a desire to promote maternal health as the key issue for the G8, I have to admit to being perplexed. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Harper talk about women’s issues. Behind the scenes his government, which of course means him, has not only cut funding to most women’s groups and the most progressive NGOs like Alternatives and Kairos but have eliminated the word “equality” from their women’s bureau. Harper is no doubt that most anti-feminist PM we have ever had.
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A great day for democracy in Canada
It was magnificent. After three weeks of online and off line organizing, tens of thousands of people across generations and political persuasions took to the streets in 65 cities and towns across the country and around the world to stop the erosion of democracy in Canada.
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Obama and Harper: Two book ends of a broken democracy
On Saturday, January 23 at 1 pm in 61 cities and towns, Canadians will hit the street to demand a real democracy in this country. What started as a protest against the prorogation of Parliament is starting to look like a democracy movement.
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Evo Morales to be inaugurated spiritual and political leader of Bolivia this week
With the horror in Haiti, we could all use some good news that we will not hear about from the mainstream media.
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A powerful grassroots movement for democracy is building in Canada
Am I the only one who saw Stephen Harper’s nose grow on the National last night? As he responded to Peter Mansbridge’s question about how he had changed, he said that partisanship was now really the terrain of the Opposition.
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Twenty years later: Remember them and then organize
Like almost every woman and many men I know, December 6 1989 was a day I will never forget. I heard it on the radio in my car. I guess I was driving home from work. It was that time of day. At first the news was confusing, a gunman shooting at University of Montreal. In Canada? Couldn’t be. But very soon it became clear that it was women he was shooting, women at an Engineering School. I could hardly breathe with the instant knowledge that a man was targeting women in a school where the vast majority were male. Shock first, then grief and then a chilling recognition.
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We are trying dear George but our government is not listening.
Today famed British journalist and environmentalist George Monbiot wrote an open letter to the people of Canada pleading with us to clean up our act on the environment.
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Gil Levine: The ultimate mensch
Last week I received an e-mail from Gil Levine, a legendary union leader, founding member of CUPE and a wonderful man. He was writing to say that he was fatally ill. He died a few days later on Nov. 16 at the age of 85, still vigorous and politically active.
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