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category: Canada

Experiments with truth: 3/4/10

  • An Irish town council has removed a page in its guestbook signed by the Israeli ambassador to protest Israel’s diplomatic record after the alleged use of fake Irish passports by the Jewish state’s spies.
  • Students at Sussec University in England are staging a sit-in to protest plans to make 115 staff redundant, which will close the environmental science degree and impact on English, history and life science departments.

Experiments with truth: 2/26/10

  • Hundreds of students from several Jordan, Utah district schools walked out of their classes Thursday morning to protest announced budget cuts that could slash teacher ranks, increase class sizes and impact extracurricular activities.
  • Nine days after an off-campus student party mocked Black History Month, UC San Diego went through a day of protests, on Wednesday, drawing attention to the small number of African American students enrolled at the beachside campus.

Protests mount as Winter Olympics begin

Here is a interesting report by Franklin Lopez of the Vancouver Media Co-op that aired on Democracy Now! about the developing protests around the Winter Olympics which began in Vancouver today. To thwart positive coverage of the protests, Canada has stopped at least two American journalists from entering the country this week, including John Weston Osburn of Salt Lake City and Chicago radio journalist Martin Macias.

Experiments with truth: 2/5/10

The Columbian/Troy Wayrynen

  • More than 250 Washington State University Vancouver students staged a “mass walkout” to protest budget cuts to academic programs, the elimination of crucial financial aid, and continued tuition hikes.
  • Canadian anti-Olympic protesters are promising a series of protests starting this weekend, culminating in a march on the opening ceremonies Feb. 12.

Experiments with truth: 1/25/10

Credit: The Daily Mail

  • A 150-strong group of Belgian firefighters sprayed foam from 20 trucks over a main road in central Brussels, blocking traffic in an effort to press for speedier promotions. Government buildings, including the Minister President’s office, were targeted.

  • About 2,000 photographers gathered in London over the weekend to protest stop and search methods by British police. The photographers say they’ve been unduly targeted by Section 44 of Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, which was designed to give police greater powers to fight terrorism.

Experiments with truth: 1/19/10

In Phoenix, more than 20,000 people marched on Saturday to protest the indiscriminate attacks and race-based raids conducted by Sheriff Joe Arpaio against residents of Maricopa County. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

In Phoenix, more than 20,000 people marched on Saturday to protest the indiscriminate attacks and race-based raids conducted by Sheriff Joe Arpaio against residents of Maricopa County. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

  • In India, leaders of all-party Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Telangana Saturday began a hunger strike to demand that the central government immediately initiate the process for formation of the state.

Experiments with truth: 1/8/10

algerianworkerstrike

  • Fujitsu workers in east Manchester, Warrington, Bolton and Crewe are taking part in a 48-hour walkout as part of the UK’s first ever national IT sector strike to protest redundancies, pay and pensions.

Experiments with truth: 12/9/09

ottawaprotest

  • Over 300 coalfield residents and their allies rallied at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection yesterday to protest the blasting of Coal River Mountain and support a transition to a clean energy future.
  • More than 200 people were arrested in Tehran on Monday during protests by tens of thousands at universities nationwide, marking the biggest anti-government demonstrations in months. Thousands continued protesting for a second day yesterday, as Iran threatened a tougher crackdown on the opposition.

Experiments with truth: 11/27/09

plymouthprotest

Experiments with truth: 11/19/09

UC tuition protest

  • Two priests and 25 tribal leaders from Mindoro Island (200 kilometres south of Manila) have gone a hunger strike to stop three nickel mine operations that will eventually cover almost 20 per cent of the island’s land mass.
  • After a 45-minute sit-in to protest budget cuts, SUNY students held a mock eulogy mourning many of the programs that could be eliminated.

Experiments with truth: 11/12/09

  • School bus drivers in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, 25 miles northeast of Detroit, carried out a one-and-a-half day strike Monday and Tuesday to secure promised wage increases from the private transportation company which services the district.

Experiments with truth: 11/2/09

  • Nearly 30 actions took place at EPA regional offices, JP Morgan Chase branches and other pillars of support for mountain top removal on Friday, as part of a national day of action. 14 activists staged a sit-in at EPA headquarters in Washington for nearly four hours, but left without incident.
  • A group of activists from Rainforest Action Network Toronto took part in a nation-wide campaign against Royal Bank of Canada on Saturday, setting up a coffee shop in front of RBC headquarters with seating so that passersby could stop and talk about the bank’s funding of the tar sands.
  • A group of climate change activists in Canada managed to breech Parliament security and disrupted a debate session last week, vowing to conduct “climate flash mobs” across the country each Monday to pressure Parliament into action on global warming.
  • Hundreds of activists and reporters gathered in central Moscow on Saturday for an unsanctioned human rights protest, where they chanted “Freedom!” and “Respect the constitution!”. At least 50 people were arrested.

Experiments with truth: 10/28/09

More than 5,000 people packed the streets of downtown Chicago yesterday morning, chanting, marching and rallying outside the American Bankers Association conference on the third and final day of what was billed as the "Showdown in Chicago."

More than 5,000 people packed the streets of downtown Chicago yesterday morning, chanting, marching and rallying outside the American Bankers Association conference on the third and final day of what was billed as the "Showdown in Chicago."

  • Catholic schools will close across Queensland today as teachers take to the streets over a pay dispute. Their 24-hour strike follows a rally by state school teachers outside Parliament House yesterday over their pay campaign.
  • All local trains of Mumbai on the Central and the Harbour lines were running behind schedule as motormen went on strike in protest against overwork and fatigue.

Experiments with truth: 10/27/09

People in Rio De Janeiro posed as dead bodies at Copacabana beach in a demonstration after a man was found dead in a shopping cart in the city slum.

People in Rio De Janeiro posed as dead bodies at Copacabana beach in a demonstration after a man was found dead in a shopping cart in the city slum.

An invitation from the Mobilization for Climate Justice coalition

Smartmeme recently released a video that introduces emerging climate justice organizing and activism. The video points viewers toward the Mobilization for Climate Justice coalition web site (actforclimatejustice.org), which serves as an online hub for projects with similar concerns and goals.

The US-based Mobilization for Climate Justice coalition was formed by various organizations, which are calling on others to help build a “climate justice movement that emphasizes non-violent direct action and public education to mobilize for effective and just solutions to the climate crisis.”

Bringing together forthright principles and on-the-ground actions, the coalition organizes around three key goals. These organizers urge others to join them:

1) To build a global movement for climate justice that encourages urgent action to avoid catastrophic climate change, and which addresses the root social, ecological, political and economic causes of the climate crisis toward a total systemic transformation of our society.

2) To promote and strengthen the rights and voices of Indigenous and other affected peoples, (including workers in energy-intensive industries) in climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

3) To expose the consequences of false and market-based climate ’solutions’ as well as corporate domination of climate negotiations, while advancing alternatives that can provide real and just solutions and which protect biodiversity.

This climate justice organizing draws from prior environmental justice critiques and activism, as well as wider opposition towards corporations, and other international market structures. While focusing on global warming—as a consequence and a cause of injustices and market structures—climate justice organizers also are responding to other interrelated impacts of established energy systems. Here in Ontario, a climate justice group will be waging a campaign against various pollution from tar sands projects—while other climate justice organizers oppose mountaintop removal mining explosions, oil refinery pollution, biofuel land grabs, and a range of other interconnected devastation around prevailing energy systems.

Like other climate organizers, the climate justice coalition is focusing on the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15) this December. Climate justice activists will be calling on others to follow and weigh in on those negotiations—if only to question the legitimacy of the proposals or the participants.

The coalition has called a major day of action at the end of November (“N30″), but activism associated with the coalition already is underway (as you can see on their web site). Some of these related actions will be connected with the coalition more than others. Since the coalition is calling on others to take on the same concerns and strategies, it will be difficult to track where the actual coalition begins and ends. In other words, anyone who wants to join us will find many grassroots points of entry into climate justice activism.