This week @ rabble.ca: Black Lives Matter in Canada

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Published on Saturday, 20 December 2014 22:00

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s17 r18.

19 Dec 2014

Hey rabble readers,

As the #BlackLivesMatter movement spreads across the U.S., many Canadians have been quick to point fingers at systemic racism south of the border -- but in doing so, overlook anti-Black racism in Canada. In her latest column, Harsha Walia outlines why our institutions, communities, and movements need to be accountable for our own racism. As Naomi Klein makes clear, the racialized discounting of certain lives is built into our economic order -- and informs our entire response to the climate crisis.

The need to hold ourselves accountable is underlined in an important piece by The Belle Jar on the White Saviour complex and the woman portrayed by Sandra Bullock in the popular film, The Blind Side. It's been read over half a million times -- you should read it too.

Harper is attacking unions again. Bills C-525 and C-377 are yet another example of the Harper government pushing through highly contested and blatantly ideological legislation. Find out more in Karl Nerenberg's latest report from the Hill, and please donate to keep our Parliamentary reporting going!

Need a book recommendation? We've got a few in our best book reviews of 2014 list! rabble's books coordinator Kaitlin McNabb shares her favourites from the past year. Find them all here!

There's a new Indie Inside out now, featuring Kimmortal! The album "Sincerity" delves into topics often untouched by popular music artists -- like race, queer love, ancestry, and social justice. Check out the feature here, and for a chance to win a free download of the new album, retweet @rabble.ca with hashtag #indieinside or answer the following question: at what point in the video do you see a lock? Email answers to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This week's top news

International Migrants Day: Canada's exclusionary immigration practices have got to go!
Today is International Migrants Day. We need to reflect on Canada's current exclusionary immigration policy and demand changes.
By Amy Cohen, Elise Hjalmarson

No justice, no peace. Revolutionary advocacy is everywhere, but D.C.
There is a tension at the #BlackLivesMatter protests in D.C., not between police and protester, but between grassroots and local activists and the liberal agenda.
By Tiffany MacLellan

Climate talks face a long, hard road to crucial Paris meeting next winter
UN climate negotiation talks in Peru were extended by two days, but still delegates from 194 countries failed to resolve many key issues.
By Nick Fillmore

Last three members of Cuban Five released
Three members of the so-called Cuban Five have been released by the United States. Their release signals a new change in direction for diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.
By Francella Fiallos

Harper and Couillard: A dangerous combo for Quebec
The anti-austerity protests in Quebec at the end of November were just the beginning. The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) will keep fighting for equality as election 2015 approaches.
By Jacques Létourneau

Why more than 125,000 demonstrators in Montreal and Quebec City chanted 'no to austerity'
We want a fair, egalitarian, democratic society that cares for the needs of its people.
By Say No to Austerity collective

Across Canada, worker compensation systems are in crisis
Advocates across the country report that the experience rating system rewards employers for hiding workplace injuries.
By Ella Bedard

Hundreds in downtown Toronto protest systemic, state-sanctioned violence
A group of Black Torontonians organized a protest in response to the systemic abuse experienced by the Black community. 800 people gathered in downtown Toronto to share their stories and heal.
By Jesse Robitaille

This week's top blogs

A culture of memes and private suffering: Mental health in Canadian universities
We need a more nuanced approach when talking about anxiety in an academic context.
By Jessica Prupas

The time has come to start policing Canada's police
Many police officers and departments across the country act as if they are above the law and answer to no one. When is anyone with any political power or authority going to do something about it?
By Michael Laxer

Canadian indie publisher: Gerbil Meets Mouse
Gerbil Meets Mouse is a Canadian children's book publishing company that publishes books specifically about gerbils, that aim to bring certain social issues to light in a fun and relatable way.
By Lauren Scott

Playing Secret Santa this year? Why not try Crypto Santa?
Here's a fun way to learn about how Internet anonymity tools like the Tor Project work!
By Bob Chandler

Dear Ryan: The tragedy of the Yukon's commons
The controversy over the land use plan for the Peel River Watershed is broadly divisive. But the Yukon Government is moving full steam ahead with forsaking the commons for the profit of a few.
By Linda Leon

Hatched in secret, today's expected mass Wildrose defection to PCs brings party to pathetic end
I'd sure as hell rather have an Alberta NDP-style "moral victory" than suffer a collapse of principles and moral fibre the way the Wildrose Party just has!
By David J. Climenhaga

'The Blind Side' woman does something racist, gets retweeted by white people
Leigh Anne Tuohy profiles and accosts two black teenagers who were sitting alone and completely minding their own business and gets heralded as a white saviour. Something is wrong here.
By Anne Theriault

This week's top columns

What does #BlackLivesMatter mean for climate change? Everything.
The reality of an economic order built on white supremacy is the whispered subtext of our entire response to the climate crisis, and it badly needs to be dragged into the light.
By Naomi Klein

Taking the fight for housing rights to court
Last week, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision on a landmark Charter application on housing rights. Safia Lakhani considers what it means for the housing rights struggle in Canada.
By Pro Bono, Safia J. Lakhani

The U.S. Senate report and Canadian complicity in torture
The Harper government has noted that Canada doesn't torture people -- but ducks the question about whether Canadian authorities have used information obtained by others through torture.
By Linda McQuaig

U.S. and Cuba: Is it the start of a new relationship?
The failed United States policy against Cuba, which has stifled relations between these neighbouring countries and inflicted generations of harm upon the Cuban people, may finally be collapsing.
By Amy Goodman

Do Black Lives Matter in Canada?
As events in Ferguson and beyond unfold, many Canadians have been quick to distance ourselves from the systemic racism that plagues the U.S. -- but in doing so, overlook anti-Black racism in Canada.
By Harsha Walia

Harper is election ready. Are his opponents?
With 10 months to go before the expected October 19, 2015 election, the Harper Conservatives are running full out for re-election. Their strategy is simple.
By Duncan Cameron

MORE FROM...
Naomi Klein, Linda McQuaig, Rick Salutin, Duncan Cameron, Wayne MacPhail, Murray Dobbin and others! Read columns...

JOIN rabble.ca.: Put your money where your mouse is!

This week's top podcasts

Episode 160: Eggnog edition
No news, no protests or letters to write to politicians. Instead, some philosophical ideas to mull over in front of the fire. Your holiday break.
By Victoria Fenner

Building solidarity between migrant and Canadian workers
Chris Ramsaroop and Melisa LaRue talk about a grassroots effort to build relationships and solidarity between temporary foreign workers and Canadian workers.
By Scott Neigh

Eyewitness report from Mount Polley mine disaster site
Two activists from Vancouver Island travelled to a Secwepemc camp at Mount Polley to bear witness to the destruction following the collapse in August of the dam holding back a tailings pond.
By Redeye Collective

Building the feminist agenda
A panel discussion from the Women's Forum in Ottawa, October 2014.
By Victoria Fenner

Fat politics part 1: Fat politics 101 and health
The F Word's Pragya Esh and Carissa Ropponen speak to Kalamity Hildebrandt of Fat Panic! about fat politics. Part one of a two-part series.
By The F Word

This week's top rabbletv

Not Rex: The lethal over-policing problem
Why are police forces expanding and militarizing while crime is at its lowest in decades?
By Humberto DaSilva

This week's top books

Best book reviews of 2014
Book reviews! Get your book reviews here! We reviewed numerous books in the book lounge this year and here are a few of the standouts.
By Kaitlin McNabb

In this issue

• news
• blogs
• columns
• podcasts
• rabbletv
• books

Upcoming events

Vancouver21st Annual Women's Winter Faire
Featuring over 50 talented B.C. women artisans, a wide variety of gift items, set in a social and vibrant village atmosphere with an indoor café.
By Women's Winter Faire

Read more: This week @ rabble.ca: Black Lives Matter in Canada

BCSEA E-News: Message from the Mountain

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Published on Saturday, 20 December 2014 21:44

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BCSEA E-News for Friday, December 19, 2014
Message from the Mountain

by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., BCSEA Founder and Communication Director

BURNABY NEWS, DECEMBER 1ST, 2034

Journalist: Mayor Julia Alexander, it is a privilege to be interviewing you here on the mountain on the 20th anniversary of the Burnaby Mountain arrests. As we all know, those days played an important part in subsequent events. Do you have any thoughts that you’d like to share?

Mayor: I was young at the time, and we’d been camping on the mountain for several months, often in very cold and wet conditions. I remember feeling completely defeated when the drilling started, thinking it was all in vain. At the time, I didn’t understand quite how determined Canada’s climate activists were, or that we were just one pressure-point among thousands.

Journalist: Now that you are the Mayor of Burnaby, would you say that your actions on the mountain were an important factor in the changes that have happened since?

Mayor: They were probably a factor, but it’s not about taking credit. What inspires me is how so many went on to become engaged in the community. There’s a group of us who still meet regularly, so I know what they’re all up to.

Take Karen Mazumder, for instance. She started the Burnaby Cycling Alliance, whose members took the lead in promoting the Burnaby Complete Streets Plan. If I feel pride in the fact that most of Burnaby’s streets are now safe, secure spaces for pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders, as well as cars, it’s Karen and her fellow cyclists who made it possible.

ALL BURNABY BUSINESSES TO BE BENEFIT CORPORATIONS BY 2040

Then there’s Mai Tran, one of our city councilors. After the mountain she went on to convert her restaurant on Kingsway into a Benefit Corporation, giving it a legal duty to serve the community and the environment as well as to make a financial return. When she became a city councilor she sold the restaurant to its workers, who turned it into a workers’ coop, and now she is leading the drive to persuade all of Burnaby’s businesses to become Benefit Corporations by 2040. She was also instrumental in leading the drive for a $15 minimum wage, and establishing the Burnaby Cooperatives Network, which provides support and business services to the hundred or so coops we have in the city.

There’s also Jim Townsend, another city councilor. He came down off the mountain determined to do what he could to make Burnaby’s transportation operate without oil. It was hypocritical, he said, to be campaigning to stop an oil pipeline when almost everyone in Burnaby depended on oil to get around. He’s been our city’s climate conscience.

It was Jim who got people excited about making Burnaby a global leader in cycling, walking, transit, ridesharing and carsharing, as well as electric vehicles. He worked with Adam Bass, another mountain activist, to form the Burnaby Transit Riders Association, and he got himself appointed to the board of TransLink, where he led the drive to electrify every city bus, saving TransLink millions of dollars a year. Now it’s normal, of course, but Metro Vancouver was the first city in the world to have 100% electric transit.

FREE PARKING FOR EVS ANYWHERE IN THE CITY

Read more: BCSEA E-News: Message from the Mountain

Punish sexism with expulsion

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Published on Saturday, 20 December 2014 09:22

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[coalalert] GOVERNMENT GEOTECHNICAL INSPECTIONS AT MINES REDUCED UNDER BC LIBERALS

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Published on Saturday, 20 December 2014 07:22

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Today, your gift to PAN will go twice as far!

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Published on Friday, 19 December 2014 10:00

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Read more: Today, your gift to PAN will go twice as far!

Venezuelan Indians reveal alarm as armed gangs advance - News from Survival

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Published on Monday, 16 March 2015 13:46

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Read more: Venezuelan Indians reveal alarm as armed gangs advance - News from Survival