In post-9/11 Canada, even minor immigration irregularities can quickly become the basis of suspicions of terrorist activities, depending on your religion and country of origin. The terrible consequences for immigrants of this new arrangement are obvious with the seven-month-long Project Thread investigation by the RCMP’s Public Security and Anti-Terrorism unit (PSAT) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

Canadian environmental organizations play a wide range of roles in combating climate change. Some analyze and popularize the science and impacts of climate change, some challenge industry and many target governments. Others are focused on long-term public education campaigns, grassroots initiatives and building the movement.

Tom Siddon, Brian Mulroney’s minister of Indian Affairs, promised in 1990 to clear the backlog of Native land claims within 10 years. Today, not only has that backlog ballooned, but Canada’s sloth-like system of settling land claims is about to get a lot worse.

As part of our plans to celebrate CD’s 40 years of publication, our Editorial Collective asked certain writers to reflect on racism in Canada and consider whether or not it has diminished over this forty-year time span. Their excellent contributions appear in this issue of Dimension.

I am Judy. I lived at the Strathcona “Squat.” Today I am poor. In my life I have raised two children, I have loved, I have struggled and I have survived. I faced the struggles of so many Aboriginal women in a white world.

The past forty years have seen dramatic changes among the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. In 1963 the legacy of colonialism was deeply entrenched, Aboriginal peoples were seen as a ‘problem population’ within Canada, Aboriginal rights were widely ignored and unknown, there were few national voices or fora for Aboriginal leaders. In 2003 the struggle to decolonize is being engaged in a wide variety of institutions.

There were several changes of the guard at CD as we entered our third decade and with them a decidedly more diverse content. More than ever before our collective was drawn from activists in various popular movements. But the new diversity arose from more than the changing composition of the collective.

By the time this commentary appears, another mawkish, duplicitous Remembrance Day will be history. Editors, writers, producers and photographers will have looked for new ways to honor Canada’s War Dead – though not very hard – and will likely have settled for yet another shot of the dwindling parade of fragile veterans who appear faithfully every year to fill what’s known among journalists as “the November Hole.”

Bolivia’s president just resigned following several days of popular and labour uprising and government repression. Once again in Latin America, the issue is one of access to resources (where isn’t it?) – the government wanted to export natural gas resources – Bolivia has Latin America’s largest natural gas reserves - to the United States and Mexico.

What can those of us committed to the socialist project, to laying the groundwork for a viable mass, democratic, but revolutionary party learn from what our fathers and forefathers did? Serious inquiry into the history of the Canadian socialist movement will help us not only to learn from the mistakes of the past, but also to reclaim what is valuable from this history.