Tag Archive for resistance

Uncovering Canadian Involvement in Honduras

January 4, 2010 David Parker One comment
Hondurans in Tegucigalpa surround Braziliam Embassy this afternoon, upon learning Manuel Zelaya is inside. Photo by Sandra Cuffe.

Hondurans in Tegucigalpa surround Braziliam Embassy this afternoon, upon learning Manuel Zelaya is inside. Photo by Sandra Cuffe.

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Since June 2009, Honduras has seen it’s democratically elected leader, President Manuel Zelaya, ousted from government and sent into exile. He now resides in sanctuary at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Canadian journalist Dawn Paley (Dominion Newpaper, MediaCoop.ca) is spending a month in Honduras to uncover Canadian corporate and government involvement in the coup d’etat. Since the coup, Honduran civil society has risen up and taken to the streets by the tens of thousands to demand a return to democratic rule by re-instating President Zelaya. The de facto government, headed by Porfirio Lobo, held elections on November 29th, that saw a record low turnout.

The pro-coup regime has used violence to instill fear in the resistance, yet voices continue to speak out, such as Radio Globo, an anti-coup radio station operating in Honduras.

CKDU had the chance to do an exclusive interview with Dawn Paley for Operation Wake Up, on December 11, 2009.

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Goldstone Report condemns Israel of Crimes Against Humanity

November 5, 2009 Moustafa Youssef No comments

White Phosphorus shells fall on a UN school converted into shelter, Jabalya/Gaza, January 2009<br /> Picture: AP

White Phosphorus shells fall on a UN school converted into shelter, Jabalya/Gaza, January 2009
Picture: AP

See Report

“We came to the conclusion on the basis of the facts we found that there was strong evidence to establish that numerous serious violations of international law — both humanitarian law and human rights law — were committed by Israel during the military operations in Gaza. The mission concluded that actions [amounting] to war crimes, and in some respects crimes against humanity, were committed by the Israeli Defense Forces.“ – Judge Richard Goldstone

The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict was created by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) during the Gaza War to investigate possible Israeli violations of international law against the Palestinian people. The President of the UNHRC appointed Jewish Zionist judge Richard Goldstone, former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to head the Mission. The report was approved by UNHRC on October 16th 2009.

Israel fully rejected cooperating with the Mission and consequently denied access to witnesses and members of the Palestinian authority in the Occupied West Bank. The report noted that the Mission “…enjoyed the support and cooperation of the Palestinian Authority and of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations.”

The Gaza authorities reported 1,444 Palestinian casualties (The Israeli government reported 1,114 casualties); a third of whom which were believed to be women and children.

30. …The data provided by non-governmental sources on the percentage of civilians among those killed are generally consistent and raise very serious concerns about the way Israel conducted the military operations in Gaza.
…65. The economy, employment opportunities and family livelihoods were already severely affected by the blockade when the Israeli offensive began. Insufficient supply of fuel for electricity generation had a negative impact on industrial activity, on the operation of hospitals, on water supply to households and on sewage treatment. Import restrictions and the ban on all exports from Gaza affected the industrial sector and agricultural production. Unemployment levels and the percentage of the population living in poverty and deep poverty were rising.

The Israeli government has rejected the report. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he will not allow Israelis to be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court. The US State Department said the conclusions of the Goldstone report were ‘unfair to Israel’ and will more likely object to the recommendation that Israeli actions be referred to the International Criminal Court.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives voted 344 to 36 in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on President Obama and Senator Clinton, “to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration” of the Goldstone Report, which was found “irredeemably biased”.

The UN General Assembly is expected to discuss the Goldstone report this Wednesday.

Further readings:
So that the Goldstone Report Does not Get Buried at the Security Council
“Israeli War Crimes Were Daily And Too Numerous To Count”

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Nova Scotia transition houses in peril

September 11, 2009 David Parker 2 comments
Lori Walton attends the Halifax Labour Day celebration to raise awareness about the plight of transition houses.

Lori Walton attends the Halifax Labour Day celebration to raise awareness about the plight of transition houses. Photo: David Parker.

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Bryony House is a shelter for abused women and their children. It has been operating in Halifax for 31 years, and is the largest transition house for women in Nova Scotia. Each year Bryony House offers safety and shelter to over 450 women and children and answers over 4000 distress calls.

Due to a funding freeze from the provincial government, Bryony House has not seen a funding increase since 1996. This summer Bryony House cut it’s outreach services and let go their outreach employee.

Pressure is now mounting for the NDP government to help with immediate funding. CKDU spoke with Lori Walton from the Friends of Transition Houses, and Darrell Dexter, the NDP Premier of Nova Scotia at the Halifax Labour Day celebrations.

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Israel approves construction of more settlements in West Bank

September 10, 2009 Moustafa Youssef One comment

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the construction of 455 housing units in the West Bank. This has become the first approved construction project since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in March.

It comes despite US pressure to freeze settlement construction. Palestinian authorities have suspended peace talks with Israel until there is a complete freeze of settlement construction in the Occupied Territorities.

Close to half a million Jews live in more than 100 illegal settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. The settlements are illegal under a unanimous judgement of the world court, including the US justice system.

Colonization of Palestinian Land since 46

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VOICES OF OUR NATIONS: Eight hour special broadcast

June 26, 2009 David Parker No comments

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VOICES of our NATIONS
First Annual Radio-a-thon
on CKDU 88.1 FM
Friday, July 3rd from midnight to 8 am
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There are over one million First Peoples, from dozens of nations, with dozens of languages, living in Canada.

The Voices of our Nations Radio-a-thon is the first-ever collaboration of Indigenous programmers from radio stations in all corners of the country.

Tune-in on Friday, July 3rd from Midnight to 8 am for eight hours of First Nations stories, music and issues, celebrating Aboriginal identity, history and culture.

Topics include land rights, resources, missing and murdered indigenous women, the 2010 Olympics and the 120-year history of Residential schools.

After centuries of land and resource theft, attempts at assimilation and hundreds of missing and murdered women, it is time Indigenous peoples take something back. Join us as we take back the airwaves!

With such guests as Audrey Redman, Arthur Manuel, and many others, join host Irkar Beljaars of Native Solidarity News for this special broadcast on CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax, on Mi’kmaw territory.

This special broadcast is brought to you by the Native Caucus of the National Campus and Community Radio Association, CKUT fm in Montreal, and the CKDU News Collective in Halifax. For more information, call 494-2585.

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Investigating Haiti Since the Coup: Five Years of Resistance

March 7, 2009 David Parker No comments

The CKDU and CKUT Campus/Community Radio News Collectives present:

A SPECIAL BROADCAST TO INVESTIGATE HAITI SINCE THE COUP: FIVE YEARS OF RESISTANCE.

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On Operation Wake Up
CKDU 88.1fm
Tuesday to Friday,
March 10th to 13th,
8 AM to 9 AM.

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Five years ago, Canadian soldiers participated in a military operation to overthrow Haiti’s elected government. In the weeks following the 2004 coup d’état, minimum wages were rolled back, ministries were closed, corporate taxation was canceled, and Haitian activists who criticized the new order did so at the risk of their liberty or their lives. 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.

The shows will feature in-depth interviews with Haitian union leaders, progressive politicians, and rights advocates, and a panel discussion with members of the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN). This special programme will aim to explore Canada’s strategy and praxis in Haiti as indicative of its broader imperialist designs through the Caribbean and the Latin American regions, and to highlight and celebrate the patterns of the Haitian people’s resistance to those designs.

For more information, please call the CKDU News Collective at 494-2585.

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Capitalism and the Economic Crisis of 2008

December 3, 2008 David Parker No comments

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The economic crisis of 2008 has been the worst ever in global history. Is capitalism safe from crises or are they bound to occur? Under the free market model, are they avoidable or are they the product of a free market capitalist system where corporations and speculators are allowed to run rampant?

Featuring an interview with John Clarke from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) by Aaron Lakoff from CKUT in Montreal.  John Clarke looks at the economic crisis, upcoming elections and the effects on the poor. According to OCAP, while the rich get bailed out, the poor get homeless.

In Miami, the ‘Take Back the Land’ collective, a group of 10 volunteers, is helping homeless and recently evicted to get housing by liberating foreclosed and empty homes.  They chose to take illegal direct action in order to meet the immediate and obvious needs of a growing urban homeless population in North America.

To listen to the hour long program, click here.

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