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Write a sonnet on women and girls reading and writing science-fiction.

Girls are reading science-fiction? What a
girl’s gotta do: transpose transform translate
re-do re-see re-late create update
hero thinker science nerd great white way
We are reading science-fiction – okay
girl, who are you? Are you hero’s soul mate
evil witch whore gopher silent oblate?
can you read science-fiction and re-play
each world in your mind as a maker of
worlds, each world of your mind makes a maker
of you, writing worlds out of words out of
science and her, robots and swords, shaker
of thoughts, whileaway nerds, and dreamer of
how you can change science-fiction, writer.

Be reminded that the deadline for Hugo nominations is Sunday 14th March 2010, 07:59 GMT (that is, midnight Saturday 13th March PST).

BC government aims to win hearts and minds in battle to open the province up to more mining, oil and gas

Beyond rhetoric about improving competitiveness and establishing the province as a centre for innovation, among the most concrete strategies suggested in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources 2010/11-2012/13 Service Plan are government sponsored marketing campaigns to promote the benefits of the extractive industries.

The Service Plan, released last week, is where the B.C. government outlines their primary strategies with regards to the energy, mining and oil and gas industries to 2013. The public relations efforts articulated throughout the Plan fly in the face of the demands of Indigenous nations, in whose territories these projects would be built.

One of the objectives of the Service Plan is to increase the involvement of First Nations in the oil and gas industry. This includes "advising" First Nations on how resources can be developed in an "environmentally responsible manner," by strengthening links to industry and government, and negotiating revenue sharing agreements.

The government also aims to "Facilitate involvement by local First Nations in oil and gas pipelines through the proposed Northern Energy Corridor between Kitimat and Prince George." Given the level of resistance to pipelines in Northern B.C., and the fact that much of land mass to be traversed by the pipelines was never ceded by Indigenous people, it appears that the B.C. government is on a collision course.

Toghestiy (Warner Naziel), a member of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, did extensive research on the Northern Gateway energy pipeline, proposed as part of an energy corridor which includes two Enbridge pipelines and a Kinder Morgan pipeline. The B.C. government has been promoting this energy project for over a decade.

"One hundred per cent of people [in my community] were completely against any type of development, especially anything in relation to this energy corridor," Toghestiy told the Vancouver Media Co-op in February.

Another objective of the Ministry's Service Plan is to create the social license for increased development of the extractive industries in BC. This can be achieved, according to the Plan, by financing public relations and educational campaigns.

"Develop and implement focused promotional programs to inform British Columbians about opportunities in the energy, mining and natural gas industries," reads one strategy. "...Engage school students in a discussion of responsible energy, mineral and natural gas resource development," reads another.

"They're trying to promote a pipeline that is completely unwanted," said Macdonald Stainsby, an anti-tar sands activist with oilsandstruth.org.

"People who promote these kinds of developments in areas where the benefits will be little to none tend to use a war on all fronts, from friends and neighbours to glossy pamphlets to promises of money that will never arrive," he said.

Stainsby calls the proposed PR strategy proof that despite his green image, Premier Gordon Campbell still takes his marching orders from Ottawa and Washington. "These efforts are linked to increasing energy supply from the tarsands, rather than reducing energy supply," he said.

Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, Shell, Teck, and Imperial Metals Corporation have all faced fierce resistance, led by Indigenous land defenders and supported by allies locally and around the world.

• Free Trade & Gateway Projects

I went to see an exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery this week: The Heart of the Great Alone, a collection of the photographs and artifacts from Scott and Shackleton’s explorations in Antarctica, that were presented to King George V and Queen Alexandra about a century ago, and which Elizabeth’s curators have dug out of the teeming collection to share with us plebs. (Granted, though Royal Prerogative=Bad, having these photos and books that once belonged to your grandfather is an extremely cool use of the Royal Prerogative.)

I wanted to go because I had heard great things about Herbert George Ponting’s photography of the ice, and I was not disappointed. (Frank Hurley’s photography was also excellent.) A friend who also visited that exhibition responded to it by making a music video to Holst’s Saturn: Scott’s Last Expedition, on Youtube.

But what struck me, wandering round the exhibition, listening to commentary on the photographs and on the landscape, was how much of the exploration of Sur (“that strange continent, last Thule of the South, which lies on our maps and globes like a white cloud, a void, fringed here and there with scraps of coastline, dubious capes, supposititious islands, headlands that may or may not be there: Antarctica”) is pure narrative.

Yes, the ice is there: yes, the magnetic south pole of the Earth is there: yes, there is the vast silence – the unliving land, across which polar explorers say you talk aloud to hear something living in all the dead world.

But what Amundsen and Scott and Shackleton went for was the story.

Amundsen, of course, got short shrift in this British Royal collection: there is one photograph of his team planting the Norwegian flag (each member of the Norwegian team raised and planted the flag at the Pole, so that each of them could say they had done it, and to signify that each of them had been responsible for the achievement). Amundsen, like Shackleton, brought his people all home alive.

There is a photograph of all five of the British team at the Pole, and another of three of them standing outside Amundsen’s tent (he left a tent there, the first South Polar Base, with the Norwegian flag flying, and two letters inside: one to Scott, and one to Haakon VII, King of Norway).

Amundsen had originally planned to be first at the North Pole: when he was beaten to that by the nominally British team of Robert Peary (British), Matthew Henson (American: in The Motion of Light in Water, Samuel R. Delany describes being taken to visit him by his parents, when Henson would have been in his 80s, living in Harlem), and four other explorers (Inuit: named as Ootah, Seegloo, Egingway, and Ooqueah) he changed poles and famously sent a telegram to Scott to let him know, as Scott’s expedition was already planned. (Amundsen is the first person known to have reached both North and South Poles.)

Amundsen’s team was all Norwegian, as Scott’s team (those who went to the Pole, at least) was all British. Both parties carried with them national flags to plant at the Pole: Scott’s flag had been presented to him by Queen Alexandra, and was returned by Scott’s widow to the Royal Collection after it was retrieved from the tent where they died. At the Queen’s Gallery you can look up and see it, out of reach, the very flag they carried and died with. What a story.

Amundsen’s expedition, like Shackleton’s, was planned and organised and carried out with proper regard for the health and wellbeing of the entire team. Scott set out with one more man than originally planned, so that supplies reckoned for four must be re-reckoned for five. Scott and Shackleton both took with them professional photographers: Ponting I envy particularly, to be the first photographer in such a landscape. (The key thing in overwintering in Antarctica, once the essentials of food and warmth are taken care of, is to stave off boredom: Shackleton’s first Antarctic expedition (1907–09) brought along a printing press, and published 80 copies of a book written at the shore base by the men of the trip: the motive was of course to sell them, but one was presented to George V. I do envy Elizabeth II her grandfather’s attic.)

The narrative of the Queen’s Gallery – a double narrative – is of two failures that make unforgettable stories. Scott’s failure was not his being second at the Pole: as a later Polar explorer points out in the voiceover, to reach the South Pole on foot is a tremendous victory. His failure was that all five died. They did not have enough fresh food: Oates committed suicide because his rotting feet were holding the rest of the expedition back; unlike Amundsen, who took (and ate) teams of dogs, Scott and his team simply walked, pulling their sledges behind them. And died. LeGuin wrote in one of her passages of commentary on writing “Sur” that she still finds Scott’s last words, written in his journal after they had lain in their tent for eleven days of a blizzard that would eventually kill them, profoundly moving:

“We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last.”

Shackleton’s story is less widely known but I found it more moving: in 1914 he planned to cross Antarctica from Weddell Sea to Ross Sea, but his ship was trapped by ice on its way to Antarctica, and the shifting floes (his expedition’s photographer, Frank Hurley, took risks I envy to photograph them) eventually cracked the ship like an egg. There are photographs of the ship heeled over, stuck in the ice: of the ship just before the wooden shell cracked. They took to the boats, and reached Elephant Island, every man alive: then Shackleton and two men took one of the boats and set out to reach the whaler’s station on South Georgia. The rest of the crew were left behind on Elephant Island, under the leadership of Frank Wild, for four months. They slept under two upturned boats: they ate seal and penguin: they lived through the Antarctic midwinter, and when Shackleton returned – after a journey that was an adventure in itself – Frank Wild was able to answer: All safe, all alive.

It is a more heroic narrative to die nobly with your men, in shared hardships. Scott’s story lives in part because of the photographs – all five of the Polar team were taught by Ponting – and partly because he did die. It is a narratively satisfying end to his story, that his desire to reach the South Pole was won and lost because he was not first – but he remains locked in memory because his body, frozen in perpetual cold, is still there. (Amundsen, who disappeared in a rescue mission in June 1928, lies somewhere in the Arctic Ocean; Shackleton died of a heart attack on South Georgia in 1922, and is buried there.)

When LeGuin wrote “Sur”, she meant to tell another story: of a team of women who, with the help of Captain Luis Pardo of the Yelcho (the ship which came to Elephant Island to rescue Shackleton’s team in 1917) reached the Pole before Amundsen. Who all returned home alive. Who built their home for the Antarctic winter out of snow. Who named the glaciers and the mountains, names that never were recorded outside of their diaries. (I found this Analysis of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Sur: A Summary Report of the Yelcho Expedition to the Antarctic, 1909-1910, by Abdulwahab Khaleefa, of use when writing this.)

Who left no footprints…

The narrative of Antarctica is a narrative from which women were excluded for decades. Three young women applied to join Shackleton’s 1914-17 expedition, and were turned down. The first woman known to have set foot on Antarctica is Caroline Mandel Mikkelsen, who participated in a 1934-35 Norwegian expedition as the wife of the ship’s captain. The Ronne Antarctic Research expedition (1947-1948) was the first to include women, but also the last for years: Jennie Darlington and Edith Ronne, researchers in their own right but also married to members of the expedition, wintered over.

The main American base in Antarctica, McMurdo Station, was established as a military outpost in 1956: the only way for Americans to reach Antarctica was via the US Navy and the National Science Foundation. The Navy wouldn’t transport women to Antarctica, and the NSF wouldn’t accept women as Antarctic researchers. (A Russian marine geologist, Marie V. Klenova, a member of an oceanographic team on a 1956 expedition that helped to produce the first Antarctic atlas, went ashore.) In 1962-63, however, Mary Alice McWhinnie and her research assistant Phyllis Marciniak were able to take part in Cruise 6 and Cruise 7 of the NSF Eltanin: there were two more women on Cruise 7, scientists from the University of Chile, Drs E. Figetti and D. Frelen. Doctor McWhinnie became the chief scientist at McMurdo Base, where now about one-third of the scientists and support crew are women.

The first women known to have reached the South Pole were six women who were doing scientific research: Lois Jones, Kay Lindsay, Eileen McSaveney, Jean Pearson, Terry Tickhill, and Pam Young: Lois Jones had set up a proposal for an all-female research team in the Dry Valleys, to avoid US Navy objections to mixed teams in field parties, but they also put their names down as “Pole tourists”, and were flown there on 12 November 1969. “Their arms linked together, they stepped off the ramp simultaneously…walked around the Pole, posed for pictures, and flew back to McM, where they eventually ended up at their field sites.”

Kim Stanley Robinson described in his fictional depiction of McMurdo Base in Antarctica a society whose sexual politics are similar to Robert Heinlein’s imagined Lunar culture in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress: Heinlein supposed that a society with women in a minority would be one where women get to choose their sexual partners, and Robinson (with some more realism) presents the same narrative: but neither one considers whether women in that culture are really free to choose or only free to fulfil the men’s expectations. (Robinson, as one might expect, edges closer to it than Heinlein: but Robinson’s novel has three narrators, one a woman, and only barely passes the Bechdel Test: though there are several secondary female characters, the only conversation Val has with another woman is set in a flashback in her past.)

But Antarctica was, for so long, a continent of narrative, where the footsteps were all left by men.

On March 5, 2010, B Channel News producer Chris Johnson traveled up island to the Halalt First Nation (64 kms north of Victoria, BC) to hear from people at a road blockade why they were there.  

To connect with the Halat, visit P.O.W.E.R. for Halalt

From Rochester Indymedia

On February 9th, two Rochester Indymedia journalists started their journey to Vancouver, unceded and occupied Coast Salish Territory to cover the 2010 anti-Olympic resistance movement.

Anti-Olympic organizers called for a convergence of anti-colonial and anti-capitalist forces in Vancouver, February 10-15, 2010, to confront and disrupt the 2010 Olympic Games. These dates were chosen to coincide with the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics (Feb. 12, 2010). The entire Winter Games ran from Feb 12-28, 2010. The slogan under which the convergence coalesced was, "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!"

After having their flight canceled in Chicago and being rerouted to Vancouver 20 plus hours later, Dawn Zuppelli was detained by the Canadian Border Services Agency where she was searched and questioned for over an hour until being released into Canada. Unlike Indymedia journalists Martin Macias Jr. and John Weston Osburn, Zuppelli and Ted Forsyth were not deported or denied entry into Canada, but allowed to enter with Zuppelli receiving a warning that the Canadian government would be tracking her stay in Canada.

On February 10, just a few days before the start of the games, Rochester Indymedia was at the scene of an action directed against Prime Minister of Canada Stephan Harper. Over 150 supporters of Insite, North America's only supervised-injection site, surrounded the Chinese Cultural Centre, wrapped it with caution tape, locked the doors using chains and locks, and pressed bullhorns blaring sirens against the windows forcing Harper to postpone a scheduled visit. (photos: Wise Blood | Murray Bush; video: Dawn Zuppelli | off2theairport | brentgranby) Insite has been shown to be effective in reducing public injections, overdose fatalities, and injection-related infections, while improving public order, according to over 25 peer-reviewed papers. The public education event was a response to the Conservative government's decision to appeal the recent ruling of the B.C. Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada. The B.C. appeals court ruling allowed Insite to continue operating.

The 2010 Peoples Summit, held on February 10 and 11 at Center for Socialist Education and Wise Hall, was a space for anti-capitalist, indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti-colonial activists to come together and learn about the two-week Olympic circus and gear up to confront it. According to the Olympic Resistance Network, presenters spoke on an array of topics including legal rights, street medic training, movement building and Native land issues. First Nations people from Cree territory spoke about the total environmental devastation of the Alberta tar-sands, the disruption of migratory routs and the effects that these mega-progects have on local water tables. There were also speakers from the Six Nations land reclamation movement, who spoke of worrier land defenders that are organizing using traditional pre-european customs. Years of negotiation between the federation of chiefs and the provincial government in the Canadian court system have resolved few land disputes because they failed to recognize the values of indigenous people and in fact are built to undermine the sovereignty of first nations communities. Organizers were happy with the turn out and felt they were successful at raising awareness around issues of poverty and native land rights, as well as bringing varied and multiple organizations together.

Of special note, was an Indigenous Resistance Panel where indigenous activists, artists and community leaders Gord Hill, Carol Martin, Arthur Manuel and Billy Thiere discussed the impacts of the Olympics on native people. (audio: listen to the full panel)

Before the anti-Olympic protests and actions started, Rochester Indymedia met up with and got situated in the Vancouver Media Cooperative located on East Hastings. The media collective has been doing a tremendous job with ongoing and breaking news coming from the heart of Vancouver. The website is: vancouver.mediacoop.ca—check it out for the latest news from the streets! The VMC, unlike other “independent” media groups that took money from the Vancouver Olympic Committee, has continued to produce and distribute critical coverage of the Olympic games. The VMC “is [part of] a coast-to-coast network of local Media Cooperatives dedicated to providing grassroots, democratic coverage.” (video: VMC's Dawn Paley discusses Media and the Anti-Olympic Movement) Along with video, audio, and written pieces from the anti-Olympic resistance, the VMC put out a daily broadsheet, titled the Balaclava, during the convergence. (editions: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7)

On the final day of the 2010 Winter Olympic Torch Relay, February 12, the torch was blocked twice in East Vancouver. The first blockade occurred at around 9:30AM when some 150-200 protesters successfully blocked the torch at Victory Square (Cambie and Hastings). Despite having a large number of police, including motorcycle and horse-mounted cops, protesters were able to block Hastings Street and force the torch to change its route, completely bypassing the scheduled event at Victory Park and abandoning all their 'pro-Olympic supporters' there as anti-Olympic protesters chased the torch down Pender Street. (photos: Murray Bush) Hours after demonstrators diverted the torch from Victory Square, indigenous people from across Turtle Island gathered to denounce the colonial project in Canada and affirmed their sovereignty as native people. (watch the video: Feb. 12, ORN Press Conference)

Shortly after the disruption at Victory Square, scores of protesters on Commercial Drive were able to blockade the torch and forced it to reroute along Clark Street. Rochester Indymedia was up bright and early to be on-hand to cover the events of this disruption. Over 200 protesters strung twine and barbed wire across Commercial Drive, then moved to intercept the torch after it had been rerouted. Vancouver horse-mounted police blocked Commercial Drive while dozens of foot and bicycle cops mobilized in the area. (photos: various | Chris Bevacqua and nofutureface) The resistance caught up to the torchbearer forcing her to be surrounded by police and shoved into the back of a waiting police car. (photos: Murray Bush) See what happened in Niagara Falls, Kitchener, and Guelph, ON in December 2009 when Genesee Valley Earth First! showed up carrying banners that read "No Olympic Eco Destruction" and "Torch the Olympics"!

The night prior, on February 11, protesters at the University of BC also disrupted the torch relay.

February 12 not only marked the final day of the harried 2010 Winter Olympic Torch Relay but also the beginning of the Olympics and the anti-Olympic protests and actions. At 3:00PM, hours after the torch relay disruptions, a massive rally and and family friendly march against the Olympic industry called “Take Back Our City!” met in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery. (video of rally and march: 1 | 2 | 3) The march, composed of thousands of people, lead to the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics at BC Place Stadium where demonstrators brought messages about the negative impacts of the Olympics and squared off with police. (photos: insurgentphoto | @torched2010 | Chris Bevacqua and nofutureface)

The Olympics saw no break from the resistance that continued on February 13. Early in the morning, as part of the Anti-Olympics Convergence, members of Coast Salish Katzie First Nation and supporters blocked the Golden Ears Bridge. The Bridge spans the Frazer River between Pitt Meadows and Langley, and is adjacent to Katzie 1 and Katzie 2 Reserves. It is about a half hour drive outside of Vancouver. Construction of the bridge desecrated a 3000 year old burial ground, while it’s massive pilings in the river disrupt currents, and the ability of local Katzie fishers to fish. (video: watch the action; read: Issue 6 of the Balaclava)

Later in the morning, demonstrators converged on Thornton Park just after 9:00AM for what was billed as the "2010 Heart Attack" set up to clog the arteries of capitalism with the goal of reaching the intersection of Denman and Georgia, where buses destined for the Whistler venues have to pass. A marching band accompanied marchers, who carried banners, shouted slogans and advanced through the streets of downtown. Overturned newspaper boxes and a dumpster were dragged on to the street as the march passed through, and when the crowd reached Georgia and Hornby, black bloc tactics were used to bust the windows of Hudson's Bay Company among other corporate sponsors. (videos posted by Stimulator: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5; photos: insurgentphoto) The day's actions were met with harsh violence coming from police, who beat demonstrators in the streets and arrested 13. The Olympics Resistance Network didn’t call the protest, but since 2006 it has organized “on the basis of anti-oppression principles and with a respect for diversity of tactics.”

After the arrests were made, the brutality doled out by the cops, and the crowds dispersed, ORN held a press conference in Pigeon Park in order to counter the spin of the corporate media, VANOC, the police, and city government that demonstrators were the "criminal element".

"I'm glad you brought up the criminal element. The IOC and VANOC is the criminal element, pillaging public coffers, the effects of which we will see long after the Games," with cuts to health care, affordable housing, education and meaningful social services, said Gord Hill of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation.

Later that night, a group of about 25 anti-Olympic protesters were encircled and detained by a much larger group of riot police for several tense minutes while walking quietly and peacefully along the sidewalk. Their destination—the Vancouver jail—to stand vigil for protesters who were arrested. The group was released in less than 10 minutes after being surrounded, with no arrests being made.

Since the 2010 Corporate Heart Attack much has been made in both the corporate and independent press about the age-old argument between property destruction as property destruction or petty vandalism and property destruction as violence within the politically charged context of the anti-Olympic protests—not to mention how the press will eat up broken glass and obscure the rest of the story. The debate started raging when, "David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said he was 'sickened' by images of Black Bloc members smashing windows and tossing newspaper boxes into the streets," according to an article by Steve Mertl.

One of the high points about the protests against the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN was the widespread adoption of the St. Paul Principles as endorsed by a vast spectrum of dissidents with the understanding that a diversity of tactics means that you don't have to like the tactics of others but that affinity groups would try to avoid putting other people at risk who wished not to be and that dissidents wouldn't come out and attack each other for tactics they didn't like. The ORN attempted something similar with its ORN Solidarity and Unity Statement. The outcome, unlike St. Paul, seems less than desirable with a well-known celebrity type like Eby violating his role as a legal observer and lawyer by publicly condemning the tactics used by the demonstrators. "It is not the job of legal support to be the free speech police. We're not there to editorialize on whether we like a demonstration or not. We're there to defend the demonstrators. Period," stated Larry Hildes, of the National Lawyers Guild.

After Eby's comments went viral, a deluge of dialogue, debate, and condemnation struck the VMC as well as other blogs and news outlets. Canada does not have an NLG like the States and Eby's comments left some community members feeling betrayed by the BCCLA. Organizers struggled and implemented new legal support including a new legal number from a sympathetic legal collective independent from the BCCLA. VMC members stated that any video or photo evidence that could help get charges dropped from those arrested and being defended by the BCCLA would be handed over to clients' lawyers.

On February 15, Hildes explained why he had broken ties with BCCLA. (video: Hildes Interview) The following day, an anonymous communique in defense of the black bloc appeared on the VMC site. Later, Andrew Loewen wrote a response to the communique where he questioned the tactics used by the black bloc.

Meanwhile, across the country in Toronto, ON, Judy Rebick made her opinion known in her essay titled, "Breaking windows is not a revolutionary act." She tells us that black bloc tactics are counter productive and that, "the 'diversity of tactics' approach does not allow us to debate these issues." I'm sorry Judy, but with all due respect I see a lot of debate going on. But who am I to criticize? Let me jump ahead to February 27 where we can read what Narrative Resistance has to say about Judy's critique. I'll give you a hint—they blow Judy out of the water. Check it, "What Judy Rebick, and many other critics who have had little to do with the anti-Olympic movement, have entirely failed to notice is the fact that the Black Bloc was supported by almost every constituency of the ORN. This show of solidarity was not divisive—it brought us together and has built deep trust between activists who, in the past, have often had very little to say to each other.

"Organizations that were publicly represented include (or had individual members present and unmasked): No One Is Illegal, the Council of Canadians, PETA, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), StopWar.ca, Gatewaysucks, the Vancouver Anti-Poverty Committee, Food Not Bombs, and many more. None of those organizations have denounced the actions of the Black Bloc that day. And they can’t, because their members know that on that day, they were there to support the Black Bloc. Anyone who says that they didn’t know what was going to happen is lying. There were 200 people in black with masks on, and 'Riot 2010' has been a rallying call for the movement for more than two years now. Everyone knew what was going to happen, and they all marched anyway.

"For Judy Rebick to claim that the Black Bloc had 'come into the middle of a demonstration with black face masks [to] break up whatever takes their fancy when the vast majority of people involved don’t want them to,' is either dishonest, or a sign that she has stopped paying attention to what actually happens on the ground. The Black Bloc is not dividing the movement—people with aspirations for mainstream acceptance who distance themselves from other activists are.

"Judy Rebick is going to have to decide whether she wants to be a celebrity, acceptable to the CBC and their mainstream audience, or work on the ground with people who are fed up with capitalism, with colonialism, and also with the paralyzing cult of non-violence. It is time to realize that there are people who are ready to fight back, and that it is time to support them."

On February 19, Michael Lithgow posted a recap of a discussion held at VIVO, a local artist run media arts organization, which was host to a tumultuous gathering of activists that had come to discuss the tactics of property damage complete with the pieing of David Eby himself. Splat! But let's give Eby his due: You decide how he does in defending his criticisms of demonstrators and the 2010 Heart Attack.

Moira Peters chimed in with her thoughts and angle on the 2010 Heart Attack in a piece titled, "Building Blocs: Olympics resistance chooses a diversity of tactics." On February 26, Jadis posted an edited video of David Eby's comments combined with critical analysis from Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of the ORN. (watch the video: David Eby Denounces Allies) The latest bit in the debate was a panel discussion co-hosted by rabble.ca and working TV on February 20 at the W2 Media Arts Centre. Panelists Harsha Wallia, a No One Is Illegal activist and Derrick O'Keefe, author and stopwar.ca activist debated the topics of property destruction and diversity of tactics. (watch the debate in parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5)

On February 14, the 19th Annual Women's Memorial March took place in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Anti-Olympic demonstrations and actions paused Sunday in solidarity as an estimated 4,000-5,000 people marched to honour and remember the over 3,000 missing and murdered women across Canada. Carol Martin, a victim services worker at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, along with Mona Woodward of the Rain City Housing Coalition, Fay Blaney, founder of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network and Dalannah Bowen, Director of Interurban Gallery, invited media to a press conference in lieu of including the press in the February 14 march. Journalists were told they would not be permitted to attend the ceremony in the Carnegie Theatre at noon on Valentine's Day, and were asked not to film or snap pictures during the march when friends and families of murdered and missing women would stop to perform healing ceremonies at sites where women had died. During the march, there was confusion about this. The march itself, lead by aboriginal women and families of victims, started around 1:00PM and marched through the Downtown Eastside on one of the only warm and sunny days of the convergence with at least five eagles circling above. (video: 19th Annual Women's Memorial March; photos: Chris Bevacqua | Murray Bush | Fathima Cader)

On Februry 15, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the evening in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery and marched through downtown Vancouver to denounce Canada’s role in Afghanistan and Haiti, the occupation of Indigenous lands, and the militarization of Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. (photos: 1 | 2) Gord Hill, mentioned above, addressed the anti-war crowd declaring, "I am not anti-war because sometimes it's necessary to go to war to defend your people and your territories." (listen to Hill's statement: Gord Hill: I am not Anti-War)

That evening was also the start of the Olympic Tent Village at 58 West Hastings. After a demonstration and march through the Downtown Eastside, the gates to the lot were opened and people streamed in. Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) Power of Women (POW) group organized Olympic Tent Village to highlight the injustice in the Olympics' $6 billion budget. The intent of the occupation was to demand "no more empty talk, no more empty lots," and called on the city of Vancouver and the BC government to begin making good on pre-Olympics promises of increased funding for social housing. About 50 tents and canvass shelters occupied the empty lot owned by Concord-Pacific, leased by VANOC for Olympics parking. The lot was empty for the duration of the games. The Olympic Tent Village was endorsed by over 100 organizations, but more importantly, according to Harsha Walia of POW, it had the support of DTES residents. (video: No More Empty Promises, No More Empty Lots | Update From Olympic Tent Village | multi-media from Olympic Tent Village | 2010 Olympic Homeless Tent Village Rally and March to Begin the Olympic Tent Village; photos: Chris Bevacqua | zozi | Eve Harlow | Maya Rolbin-Ghanie; read the Tent Village Voice: issue 1)

Not everyone was happy with the Olympic Tent Village though. For instance, on February 17, the VMC reported on police efforts to infiltrate the village as well as their subsequent exposure and removal. There was also some bitterness (Or was it ignorance?) coming from condo residents near the village who made and hung a banner that read, "BUILD RESUMES NOT TENTS!" Not to be outdone by the condo residents and the undercover cops, the Vancouver Police Department decided to exercise some force to remove housing demonstrators. On March 1st, as 4:30AM rolled up, so did the VPD gang, complete with 13 vehicles, 40 goofs from the riot squad, an emergency response team fully loaded with M4 carbine assault rifles and 6 shooter tear gas cannons, 4 loudly barking dogs and their animal handlers, and 15-20 regular uninformed officers. Because of a supportive and vigilant community, the police intimidation and force were nonviolently countered.

As a direct result of the grassroots campaign and the popular support for the Olympic Tent Village amongst incredibly diverse communities and social justice groups, over 40 homeless Tent Village residents have now been housed in BC Housing units across the Lower Mainland, while others have chosen to return home to their communities.

Rochester Indymedia's rather eventful trip ended on February 16. We said our goodbyes to our hosts and new friends and departed for the States. Our trip across the border was less eventful than coming to Vancouver—though our gear was thoroughly scrutinized and there was some heavy frisking. While our trip back went rather smoothly, other activists and journalists had much more intimidating and difficult experiences crossing the border. For instance, Pepperspray Productions reporter Lambert Rochfort from Seattle, was detained at the US / Canada border and questioned by the FBI, on his way home from Vancouver. This, in addition to many other stories of border repression of media before, during, and after the games, seemed to fit into a pattern as outlined in Nigel Parry's article titled, "The 2010 Olympics and Repression of Independent Media."

The Olympic Resistance Movement, initiated in Vancouver, unceded and occupied Coast Salish Territory, at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, was a success. Demonstrations occurred on the last day proclaiming "Game Over!" and "Resistance Lives!" (photos: nofutureface | Isaac Oommen) Native youth made a statement celebrating the failure of the Olympics. Over 40 homeless people who took part in direct action via the Olympic Tent Village have now been housed in BC Housing units across the Lower Mainland. Strong alliances and social relationships were forged between native and non-native activists and communities on the streets. The quick turn around and editing skills of Franklin Lopez, AKA the Stimulator, in conjunction with the VMC and an extremely talented group of media makers and journalists, were dishing up amazing clips like these (videos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4) as well as an unbelievable amount of articles, audio pieces, and photos—as I hope this piece shows—in order to get the word out about, "the mutha-fucken resistance." Because of the work accomplished by this media collective and all the folks who came, organized, and resisted, the IOC and the Russian government better look out when 2014 rolls around because it sounds like Circassian people are gonna rise up and put the kibosh on the IOC's bullshit. (video: No Sochi 2014) See you in the streets!

• Dominion Stories

 

The final day of the Olympic Games brought to Vancouver's streets not just celebrating, patriotic fans, but also another voice; a voice that has been consistently active and alive during the 2 week stretch of international competition. 

'Games Over - Resistance Lives!', a march and ceremony organized by various activist groups in solidarity against the Olympic expenditures and occupation, began at approximately 1:30 pm on the corner of Smithe and Howe in downtown Vancouver. 

Members from the Olympic Resistance Network, GatewaySucks.org, and the DTES Power of Women, among others, joined together in celebrating the end of the games, the leaving of VANOC and the IOC, and as a reminder of the continuous awareness needed for the social struggles left behind in the dust. 

The rally, led by Indigenous elders beating on traditional hand drums, began by marching down Howe and ended up standing off head-to-head with a police bicycle blockade. The crowd peacefully retreated and turned down Smithe, where they were greeted with yet another police blockade, refusing the march access anywhere near Yaletown, known well as the richer area of downtown Vancouver.

The march then fell back on 'Plan C', which was to carry through the downtown core towards Victory Square, a memorial park in the downtown east-side. 

As the crowd made their way up Mainland St. and past Robson, the maple-leaf-clad, red-wearing, flag-waving, drunken-hollering Olympic fan population grew. Full beer cans were thrown out of high-rise buildings at the peaceful protesters, hockey fans ran out of restaurants to wave Canadian flags and throw a middle finger, countless 'Go get a job!''s and other creative insults were shouted, and some aggressive fans managed to filter through the crowd to personally attack demonstrators. On several occasions, police officers had to step in to push away the angry fans and block them off the streets in order to let the march through.

The march stopped at Cambie and Hastings, where the torch was originally re-routed by an immense pack of Anti-Olympic advocates during the first day of Olympic ceremony. Here, the crowd blocked traffic for about half an hour as speakers took to the megaphone. 

They then carried on through the downtown eastside, stopping and blocking traffic at the newly revised Woodwards building as well as in front of Pigeon Park, both landmarks of the DTES and both recently revamped and upgraded to a stranger of their former self. The march consistently gained momentum and supporters, as well as attacks by angry fans, along the way. 

The crowd ended at Main and Hastings, where everyone sat down in a large circle, barricading traffic for well over an hour. An open-mic method fell onto the megaphone for most of the time, while everyone enjoyed traditional First Nations songs, each others company, and the spirit of solidarity and resistance.

Around 4 PM, a smudging ceremony for Harriet Nahanee, an Indigenous elder who died while incarcerated due to protesting the Sea-to-Sky Highway environmental degradation at Eagleridge Bluffs, took place. After which, all the women present were invited to join in an inner circle to sing and drum the Women's Warrior Song. 

Eventually, the march turned back and ended at the Olympic Tent Village, a camp set up in a vacant lot at Abbott and E. Hastings St. as an action to raise awareness on the homeless, the poor living conditions of residents in the DTES, and the lack of a budget or help for social housing in Vancouver. The peaceful and energized night carried through with live musical and poetry performances, bon fires, soccer games and a potluck, catered by Food Not Bombs, inside and out on the streets of tent city.

 

 

 

 

(Footage shot by: Carlos Melendres, Julie Belmas, Andrew Ainsley, and Brianna Chatwin)

Updates and Images from the Vancouver Media Co-op

The Vancouver Media Co-op has decided to continue, on a trial basis, publishing a fortnightly broadsheet.

The March 1-15 issue includes reports and photos from the Tent Village, about ongoing land disputes in the Okanagan, and about recent arrests of anti-Olympics activists in Vancouver.

Download a PDF of the Balaclava! Broadsheet, March 1-15 edition. If you would like to distribute the print edition, submit an event, ad, or have a story idea for the next issue, please email vmc at mediacoop dot ca.

AttachmentSize VMC_broadsheet_tent City.pdf2.33 MB

• 2010 Olympics

Employees, activists struggle against Tzeporah Berman's appointment

Activists launched a new website today, claiming Greenpeace International's appointment of  Tzeporah Berman as co-director of its climate change campaign will push Greenpeace "beyond the point of no return." The appointment would make her a leader of the organization's global climate strategy.

savegreenpeace.org urges people concerned about Berman's appointment to sign on to a statement of opposition, sometime before the countdown clock hits zero, and she becomes "a cog in the corporate greenwashing machine."

Berman is under fire for the Great Bear Rainforest deal, which saved only 30 per cent of the forest and left the public in the dark, and for her praise of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell. She carried the Olympic torch in the lead up to the 2010 Olympics.

"Greenpeace's original approach was confronting corporations and governments at the scenes of their crimes," said savegreenpeace.org co-creator Macdonald Stainsby. "That approach has softened lately, but if they hire Tzeporah Berman, they'll be on the fast track to corporate collaboration, beyond the point of no return," he said.

"It was greatly disappointing. I'm not willing to work for an organization that is willing to employ her, so I'm looking for alternatives," one Greenpeace staff member told savegreenpeace.org on the condition of anonymity. "There has been quite a bit of backlash to the decision already. 15 people I know have cancelled their memberships," he said.

-

Click here to listen to an interview with Macdonald Stainsby on the Early Edition with Rick Cluff on CBC Radio 1. Greenpeace declined to be interviewed.

Correction: Berman will become leader of Greenpeace's global climate strategy, not their tar sands campaign.

 

rabble.ca by Judy Rebick | March 2, 2010 Photo Palestinian women walk near Israel’s apartheid wall near Ramallah. 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 [...]

Media love-in with Winter Olympics challenged by city's new journalist co-op. For more visit: www.therealnews.com. Produced by: Jesse Freeston

• 2010 Olympics

This Demonstration was held on Feb 25th in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory against the Repression of critics of the Olympic Games by local Police and the Integrated Security Unit (ICU).

• 2010 Olympics

March 03 was the day the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) held its annual meeting in Toronto. RBC is the largest financier of the environmentally devastating Alberta Tar Sands project. Since 2007 the RBC has extended over $14.3 billion (USD) in credit to companies operating in the Alberta Tar Sands. The tar sands operation currently uses 350 billion litres of water annually, with 90% of that water being so toxic after use to process the heavy crude oil that it kills any animal that consumes it. RBC states that water quality is a top corporate priority. In support of activists who were gathering at the RBC annual meeting in Toronto, a group of Climate Change Protection Ninjas descended upon a reported environmental crime scene in Regina. This is their docket:

• Dominion Stories

Toronto's biggest protest against the Tar Sands

On March 3rd, 140 people gathered outside the RBC Annual Share Holders' meeting to protest the company's role in financing the Alberta the tar sands. They called it “the biggest protest against the tar sand in Toronto so far”. The protest is part of a rising ground swell of opposition to the tar sands across Canada and around the world. Indigenous leaders from Northern communities down stream from the extraction attended the meeting to express their grievances, before they addressed the crowd outside.

 

"I pleaded with the Board of Directors, the CEO and the Shareholders, to pay attention to their investments and lending. It's destroying our planet, its destroying us as human beings." said Warner Naziel hereditary Chief from the Wet'suwet'en First Nation. On lookers with placards and banners cheered on as he told them his community was going to resist the tar sands and the pipelines that come with them.  

 

The day long meeting of RBC Shareholders, Canada's largest bank, took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, on the edge of Toronto's financial district. The protesters say that while all the major banks in Canada and many others from around the world have been financing the tar sands, they have specifically targeted RBC because it is the largest financier of tar sand extraction. 

 

"These business people in suits are financing the destruction in Alberta." Said Eriel Deranger a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and a member of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the group that organized the protest, "People's lives are being broken, literally and figuratively. One way is that families are being fragmented as people leave home to find work. Another way is to through illness, Sickness, cancer and death." 

 

“RAN worked to get the message from communities in Northern Alberta.” She listed three major demands of those communities: free prior and informed consent before projects are under taken that will effect indigenous communities, a moratorium on extraction and an end to exploitation.

 

Five members of indigenous communities from Northern Alberta attended the share holders meeting and spoke to the delegates. We were successful at making the tar sands a major issue at the share holders meeting said a RAN spokesperson.

 

In the afternoon a loud and boisterous rally was held across the street from the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Several speeches were made, and a samba band played music. The crowd then marched through the streets chanting. They made their way to two nearby RBC branches.

 

This large rally was only the most visible part of what took place that day. Starting a 7am activists met to hand out flyers to shareholders entering the meeting, and to anyone else who was passing by. They also set up a pirate radio station, holding up a banner with an FM frequency on it, so motorists passing by could hear a broadcast message about why they were protesting RBC and the tar sands.

 

A member of RBC's communications department, was asked for an interview but he was not able to speak on the issue in time for the article. He did provided some written material to the Toronto Media Co-op on the corporations environmental excellence. “[RBC] is one of the planets greenest companies” said one brochure, another explained that the company had given “$4.6 Million to fresh water initiatives in 2009.”

RAN started their campaign against RBC in 2008. In February 2009, when they protested at last years RBC shareholders meeting, which took place in Vancouver, less than 25 people took part. Since then the campaign has steadily grown.

 

"It's night and day," said RAN spokesperson Josh Kahn Russell, referring to how the campaign against the tar sands has built momentum over the last year. “It hit a turning point in Copenhagen...the international community's eyes were on climate change and Canada became a pariah state because of the tar sands.”

 

“Canadians really started to feel we need to do something about the tar sands. RBC is an easy target,” said Deranger, “We don't have to go to Alberta to challenge the people who are destroying the planet, there is an RBC in every corner of Canada.”

 

RBC was one of the biggest sponsors of the Olympic Games “They were using it to green wash.” she said, “but the Olympic Resistance Network were able to show these connections to the tar sands and there was strong pressure against the tar sands in Vancouver.”

 

Deranger also said we can expect to see “RAN Toronto” among the groups organizing against the G20 summit which will take place June 26th and 27th, in the same building that the RBC shareholders meeting was held in. “Tar sands issues will certainly be discussed during the summit.”

 

Warner Naziel invited the crowd to come his community in Northern Alberta for an Environmental Action Camp which will take place from July 12th to 16th, two weeks after the G20 protests. to an the camp and ask them to spread word on the protest. “It is an opportunity for Wet'suwet'en to host our friends and allies, and mobilize to protect all our lands and waters.”

 

Deranger said that looking forward we can expect to see the movement against the tar sands continue to grow. “There is going to be an even more concerted effort to shutdown the tar sands.”

 

 

To View more Photos by Allan Lissner visit: http://allan.lissner.net/rbc-agm-tar-sands-protest

 

---------- please post widely -----------

The Halifax Media Co-op is seeking pitches for our next paid feature.

We are actively looking for pitches on underreported topics from a grassroots perspective that are relevant to Halifax and the surrounding community.

To pitch an article, send us less than 200 words outlining a) the topic you will cover, b) who you will interview or what sources you will consult, and c) one line bio of yourself, and a link to your previous work (if applicable).

The Halifax Media Co-op currently pays a flat rate of $100 for pitches that are accepted. Articles are either 800 or 1600 words. Writers do not necessarily need previous journalism experience but should be prepared for a rigorous editing process. 

Deadline for pitches is Friday March 5.

Send your pitch to: hillary@mediacoop.ca

Stories from the perspective of marginalized communities in Halifax will be prioritized, including, but not limited to: people with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, Black communities, First Nations communities, LGBTQ people living in poverty. 

Thanks for pitching!
~ HMC

Download Drupal 6.16
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Drupal 6.16 and 5.22, maintenance releases which fix issues reported through the bug tracking system, as well as security vulnerabilities, are now available for download. Drupal 6.16 also fixes other smaller issues.

Upgrading your existing Drupal 5 and 6 sites is strongly recommended. There are no new features in these releases. For more information about the Drupal 6.x release series, consult the Drupal 6.0 release announcement, more information on the 5.x releases can be found in the Drupal 5.0 release announcement. Drupal 5 will no longer be maintained when Drupal 7 is released. Upgrading to Drupal 6 is recommended.

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Badil Resource Center 3 March 2010. Photo: Palestinian waving flag at demonstration against occupation in West Bank. The Israeli parliamentary Law Committee has recently approved a law proposal the (“Nakba bill”) that, if passed by the Knesset, would impose economic sanctions on the organizers of Nakba commemorations. Every year in May, Palestinians and supporters of their right [...]

Cops comment on catching "a whole paddywagon full of anarchists"

Four people were arrested in Vancouver Tuesday evening upon exiting a Gastown restaurant. Three were released in the early hours of Wednesday and one person held overnight.

"We were arrested for allegedly writing anti-Olympic slogans at the restaurant we were at," said one of the four, who was arrested and later released.

According to those involved, the three arrested were picked out by police because of prior police intelligence.  All four of the arrested have been active during the two week long tent village at 58 W. Hastings.

"At one point [the cops] said 'oh, we've got a whole paddywagon full of anarchists'," said an arrestee. The four were later taken to the jail at Main and Cordova.

"They just fed the typical bullshit about like 'we understand the political nature of this', and 'we understand where you're coming from, but there are right and wrong ways to go about things,' yadda yadda, yadda," said an arrestee.

Two of those arrested and later released had their cellular phones removed by the police.  

There is one person who will have a court hearing tomorrow morning at 9am. Jail solidarity at Cordova and Main has been requested.

 

• 2010 Olympics

A first-hand experience of police repression during the 2010 games by Anti-Olympic Artist-Activist Jody Franklin

 On Thursday February 25th, at 9:30am, Victoria-based multidisciplinary artist & community activist jody franklin attempted to initiate his guerrilla public art reclamation project Free Speech Zone on Beatty Street, but was threatened with arrest by police.  Here is his story:

Shortly before the Olympics began, a block-long public art mural on Beatty Street, one block from BC Place, was painted over, with the words "Beatty Street Mural Coming Soon" stenciled on the wall.  The mural wall is City Of Vancouver property supporting a parking lot that was leased out to VANOC for the duration of the Olympics for the Canada Pavilion.

My intention was to create a painting explicitly titled "Free Speech Zone," a cluster of faces saying anti-Olympics messages, right along the pedestrian corridor between BC Place and Stadium Skytrain station. My purpose in creating this piece was multifold: (1) to start a public dialogue on the suppression of freedom of speech during the Olympics; (2) to create imagery and messages that counter all of the official Olympics, government, corporate and nationalist propaganda that are
pervasive in the downtown core; (3) to test the level of police involvement in the suppression of free speech during the Olympics; and (4) to reclaim a public art space that was erased by VANOC.  It was a conscious decision to take this action in broad daylight, as I believe that neither public art nor dissenting expression should be criminalized, and I wanted to take an action that would inspire other
artists to reclaim the same space in the name of public art.

I arrived on site accompanied by two journalists from the Vancouver Media Co-op, and two friends.  I made a brief statement to the media, and the moment I began to take my painting supplies out of my bag I was approached by three bicycle cops.  When I explained my intention to reclaim the space for public art, the officers threatened to arrest me for mischief, and said they'd arrest me if I so much as opened a can of paint. I realized that doing this painting would be a potentially arrestable civil disobedience action, but I did not want to take an arrest without having my painting up on the wall, so I told the officers that I would not proceed.  We left the site moments later.

I left with my friends and the journalists on foot, and three police officers on bicycles followed us for three blocks.  One of the officers got close enough to us that I turned around and asked "why are you following us?"  He said because he believed I was going to go and try to paint somewhere else illegally.  I told him that I was not going to do that.  Six hours later, following an anti-Olympics protest
in Grandview Park on Commercial Drive, a police officer approached me and asked to question me on the basis of him being in charge of "graffiti management" for the Vancouver Police.  "My colleague pointed you out to me," he told me, and I was surprised to see the officer who threatened to arrest me, and later followed me, was on protest detail.  On Friday night, the same officer tried to play "good cop" by riding up to me and trying to chat me up on the Critical Mass bike ride: four encounters with the same cop in the span of 36 hours.

It was clear to me that this was an intimidation tactic, they were trying to get in my head to scare me away from continuing to find creative ways to dissent, question and resist the Olympics behemoth.
Anti-Olympics protesters have been harassed, questioned, visited, subjected to surveillance and photographed by police officers for months, and the fact that the same police officer who threatened me with arrest the moment I tried to paint, and was later part of the contingent of officers policing the demonstration, may not have been a coincidence. I had been speaking openly in the Tent Village for two days about my intended action, I posted about it to two email lists, I alerted the Vancouver Media Co-Op, and I posted on Facebook, and my action was pre-empted by three police officers who were recognized as being part of the squadron of bicycle cops who had been monitoring all anti-Olympics demonstrations and the Tent Village for the past couple of weeks.

On Saturday, Pivot planned an action at the Canada Pavilion to promote their Red Tents campaign for a national housing strategy.  They received permission to temporarily wrap the entire block in tarps with messages primarily concerned with homelessness.  Part of this block included the Beatty Street mural wall, and there were blank tarps available for people to paint, draw and write messages.  I decided to take this opportunity to do a modified version of my intended Free Speech Zone painting, and I got to do it right in front of the mural wall.  For the entire time I was working on my piece, I had anywhere from one to three cops standing behind me, and it crossed my mind that since I was on their radar in a big way at this point, they decided to station themselves close to me to prevent me from slipping behind the banner to paint directly on the wall.

As part of one of my drawings, I wrote "stop police repression."  I could hear one of the officers grumbling and mumbling to his colleagues about this statement.  Five minutes later, he walked away
and borrowed a spray paint can from one of the protesters, and tagged a tarp with "VPD ♥s everyone" in response to what I had written, and later tagged a second tarp "VPD ♥s everyone especially the homeless."

As the tarps started to be pulled down, I walked past the lineup of hundreds waiting to get into the Pavilion, and noticed there was still a blank tarp that had not been painted on.  I took a can of white
spray paint out of my pocket, quickly scrawled a face, and in giant letters, I wrote "fuck the Olympics."  This agitated several people waiting in line, and people started murmuring, and shouting at me.
The cop who "♥s everyone" tapped me on the shoulder, and had three of his colleagues with him.  He pointed out a toddler to me and said, "do you see that little boy over there?  Do you think this is an
appropriate message for him, or for your cause?"  I almost burst out laughing as he went on about "protecting the children."  I asked, "Is what I did illegal?"  He responded in the negative, so I said, "thanks for your editorial comments, but I'm exercising my right to freedom of speech, and how other people react is not my problem."  I moved on as they followed me down the street again, I guess just making sure I wouldn't write any more messages that would offend their sensibilities.

In the end, I look at the whole mural action and follow-up as a kind of political performance art piece that succeeded in showing how the police have been put in the service of defending the Olympics from any form of freedom of speech that offers a dissenting perspective.

• 2010 Olympics

March 2, 2010 Link newspaper Concordia University, by Aaron Lakoff Photo Israeli military demolishes Palestinian Labbada house in Nablus, West Bank. The sixth annual Israeli Apartheid Week is back again in Montreal, and will be featuring events on three campuses in the city from March 4 to 11. Every year for the last six years, many cities [...]

An open letter from SFPIRG on the planned “coup d’etat” and failed fee referendum

On February 10, a group of students intentionally disrupted SFPIRG’s Annual General Meeting as part of a larger agenda to take down the organization. The agenda was later revealed in a blog (vanmaren88.blog.ca) written by two of the attending students, Sam Reynolds and Jonathon Van Maren . According to the blog, two students

“Sam Reynolds and Robert Lutener…began formulating plans to orchestrate a coup d’etat [the wording has since been changed to ‘action’] against the group. They worked hard to solicit support from like minded people, such as Jonathon Van Maren…organizing on Facebook in complete secrecy.”

Directly after the AGM, Van Maren presented a motion at the SFSS board meeting to put SFPIRG fees to referendum this March. The motion did not pass and the board decided that a petition by 5% of the student body was needed. The group did not obtain the necessary amount of student signatures for the petition to be successful during this election period.

SFPIRG welcomes open and constructive dialogue about our work and structure. However, we do not consider the ill will and secretive method of organizing used by this group of students as representative of SFU’s student body in general. SFPIRG was established through student organizing in 1981 as an autonomous organization specifically mandated to advocate for social and environmental justice. This means we work to empower student leadership in affecting change towards the full respect of human rights and environmental sustainability. SFPIRG offers a wide range of resources which include a Social Justice Lending Library; a bike tool co-op; and workshop trainings on anti-oppression, consensus decision-making, facilitation and creative media. In addition SFPIRG has the popular Action Research eXchange (ARX) program, which allows students to apply and develop their research skills in the real world through partnerships with community organizations. SFPIRG is home to a number of student-organized action groups on campus including Climate Change, Ancient Forests, Voice for Animals, and Letters for the Inside (a research initiative that helps prisoners access information to facilitate their rehabilitation process). SFPIRG further supports local and on-campus initiatives to achieve social and environmental justice through donations, including in the areas of housing and homelessness, indigenous rights, welfare of women and children, community health, and others. Students who wish to attend social and/or environmental justice conferences or organize action groups can also apply to us for funding support.

Students are integral at every level of SFPIRG – as board members, workers, volunteers and service users. We operate using consensus, a democratic practice that requires everyone’s voice and active consent in the decision-making process and outcome. We have three part-time staff to coordinate resources, provide organizational continuity, and mentor student organizers. We also have 5 to 7 paid student positions in any given semester.

Similar to The Peak and CJSF, SFPIRG is funded by a student levy. Full time students pay $3.00 and part-time students pay $1.50 each semester. In November 2007, the newly formed Graduate Student Society voted on all student fees and SFPIRG received 71.3% votes in favour of continued funding. Any student who doesn’t support SFPIRG can request a refund of their levy during the fourth week of the semester. We publicize this information at the start of each semester.

The students who came to disrupt our AGM have accused SFPIRG of withholding information and being an undemocratic “exclusionary ideological clique.” We want to respond to these charges. At the AGM, we provided a detailed annual report of all our work in 2008-2009. We also provided copies of our financial statements, which according to the BC Societies Act, we are not required to audit. No charges, complaints or concerns have ever arisen about SFPIRG’s financial systems. All of these documents are available on our website.

On February 10th, SFPIRG proposed several bylaw changes to guarantee annual board elections and outline the nominations process and voting on candidates at future AGMs. Currently elections occur only when there are more people interested than there are positions. The proposed amendments would have created a nominations process and an opportunity for members to vote on board candidates at annual elections. They were publicized on our website three weeks prior to the AGM. We respect the outcomes of the voting process at our AGM, where they did not pass in large part due to the disruption we experienced. Our next nominations round for the board will be this summer.

We find it hypocritical for a small group of students plotting in secrecy and abusing the platform of democracy to try and remove a critical space of leadership development, social responsibility and empowerment for all students. SFPIRG has championed social and environmental justice at SFU for the past 29 years and we believe the majority of students at SFU share our values around human rights and sustainability. We are surprised by the forcefulness of anti-community sentiment amongst the small group of students organizing against us. Interconnection between campus and community – both of which contextualize and shape students’ lives – is essential for genuine democracy. Students do not exist in a vacuum and the campus is meaningless without the multiple civic spaces that we inhabit in our daily lives.

If you have concerns or questions, come talk to us. Show your support for SFPIRG by signing this statement of endorsement and visit http://iheartsfpirg.ca for more ways to get involved.

In solidarity with you for a more just, sustainable and meaningful world,
Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group
 
TC 326, 8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6
Coast Salish Territories
778-782-4360 (P)
778-782-5338 (F)
www.sfpirg.ca