April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

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“Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize.”

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Robert Dziekanski, like Joe Hill was executed by the state on false pretences.

Joe Hill famously intoned; “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize.”

Let us organize on behalf of Robert Dziekanski and attend one of the following rallies, or organize one in your area.


Vancouver: Protest against RCMP using excessive force on Robert!
Host: Facebook Group – “Petition against RCMP officers involved in YVR Tazer Death”

Date: Saturday, November 24, 2007
Time: 12:00pm – 3:00pm
Location: Downtown Vancouver, Art Gallery (Georgia Street side)
City/Town: Vancouver, BC

Description:
A protest against the brutality shown in the video, which resulted in the death of new immigrant Robert Dziekanski, 40. Please express your interest by showing up next Saturday November 24th, downtown at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Georgia Street side. Rally will commence 12pm. Please try to wear the red/white colors of the deceased’s Polish heritage, in his memory. Remember, this is about awareness of the tragedy and a protest against the excessive use of tasers, _NOT_ an anti-police rally. THIS WILL BE A PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION!

More info on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8636840125

VICTORIA: Solidarity and Justice for Robert Dziekanski.
Express your outrage and show supprt for his family through a peaceful demonstration

Host: Facebook Group – “Petition against RCMP officers involved in YVR Tazer Death”

Date: Saturday, November 24, 2007
Time: 12:00pm – 3:00pm
Location: Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
City/Town: Victoria, BC

Description: PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION – come along and express your outrage and your disgust at the recent events resulting in the unlawful killing of Robert Dziekanski. Show Solidarity for the Dziekanski family and demand Justice so that this kind of thing NEVER happens again

More info on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6187158110

TORONTO: Defend Robert Dziekanski Toronto Queen’s Park Protest Nov 24
Protesting Unreasonable Force/Showing Solidarity with Vancouver BC Protest Nov 24

Host: Facebook Group – “Protesting the use of Excessive force on Robert Dziekanski”

Date: Saturday, November 24, 2007
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Location: Queen’s Park
Street: University Avenue
City/Town: Toronto, ON

Description: This Protest is designed to continue raising media awareness about the mistreatment of Robert Dziekanski and protest the unreasonable use of force. We want the government to know that Canadians, regardless of their location in Canada are disgusted and heartbroken by the handling of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver Airport. This situation involves issues of race, nationalism, violence and most significantly ethical human behaviour of kindness, patience and compassion.

More info on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6407280731

Official Protest site: http://nototasers.pbwiki.com/

My will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide
My kin don’t need to fuss and moan
“Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.”
My body? – Oh. – If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again

This is my Last and final Will
Good Luck to All of you

Joe Hill

see Getting it Right, bastard.logic and pogge

Uniform Murder

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Let’s start with a definition.

Murder:

  • To kill (another human) unlawfully.
    To kill brutally or inhumanly.

    • Which we will follow up with a snuff film… er video of an incident. {opens Windows Media Player}

    Nothing less than the word murder applies to what appears in that video. This was not a life or death action on behalf of the RCMP. This was not an armed and dangerous offender bent on cop killing.

    What on earth prevented the simple act of phoning for an interpreter from entering their minds? What was the rush to take down in such a violent fashion and then heap further abuse upon a downed, hand cuffed, unarmed, visitor to our country?

    Had this film shown a similar number of young persons, most particularly of colour, engaging in a similar act of aggression resulting in death there would be no end of calls for justice, for lack of mercy, for lifelong imprisonment.

    The act of donning a uniform, seems these days to give one carte blanche to engage in whatever thuggery one chooses in the name of the ‘greater good’. Yet no good seems to be coming from it.

    This was a pointless and senseless death. It is a tragedy for the family and a wake up call for Canadians.
    We have the right to expect more from those given the privilege of serving their communities. Those who make and keep the laws must never be allowed to be above them.

    Murder does not cease to be a crime simply because it was committed by someone sporting a uniform.

    UPDATE: Please visit this site and take action.

    An Open Letter to Dalton McGuinty

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    Dear Mr. McGuinty,

    My name is Devon. I am a 12 year old girl attending elementary school in Ontario.

    In the past election you said your government would be best for education.

    I recently watched this video, Writing on the Wall, by the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation.

    I don’t think that schools should have to be in a draw to get books for kids.
    School libraries should never get like this, the classrooms should never have only four textbooks for everyone in the class.

    According to the video 38% of Ontario’s grade 3 children fail the standard reading exam.
    The school library is the most important way to learn how to read, get up-to-date info for assignments and research and to get books to read for fun.

    Four textbooks per class is not acceptable, it’s not a very good way to learn and get an Education.

    Sometimes schools in rich areas can get books by donations from parents and bake sales, but poorer areas can’t do this. And bake sales are a bad way to budget for books anyway.

    I hope you will take this seriously and that you and your government will do what you said about being best for Education. You can start by giving enough money to schools for libraries and textbooks.

    Sincerely

    Devon S.

    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    child readingI would also like to let everyone else know more about the video

    you can find it on this page

    Also there is a pdf with a letter to send to the Minister of Education in your province.

    Please take this seriously. We are too young to vote. But our lives will be much poorer if we don’t get books and textbooks. Without them our education will suffer, and we won’t have much hope for the future.

    We need adults to stand up to government and demand that they put our education first.

    “Well, you’re not going to solve the problem if you even refuse to say what it is.”

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    War on WomenThe Star carried this article yesterday about The War on Women: Elly Armour, Jane Hursham, and Criminal Domestic Violence in Canadian Homes, by Brian Vallée.

    Stephen Lewis wrote an impassioned foreword for the book, urging the creation of a fully funded United Nations international agency for women that would provide “a tremendous force for advocacy and intervention” and would “inevitably move toward the recognition that domestic violence is its own holocaust….We’re not just fighting for women’s human rights; we’re fighting for women’s lives.”

    [Read more…] about “Well, you’re not going to solve the problem if you even refuse to say what it is.”

    How Harper celebrated Women’s History Month

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    As we near the end of Women’s History Month it is time to pause and reflect on the way our ignoble PM celebrated with us.

    Red Jenny tells us of a new bill

    The Harper government yesterday introduced legislation requiring all voters – including veiled Muslim women – to show their faces before being allowed to cast ballots in federal elections.

    A Creative Revolution informs us of his support for women in the north

    The Status of Women cuts that the UnReal women of Canada so lauded and cheered about like a bunch of mindless maroons, the ones that killed NAWL funding, have had an even harsher effect in the real great white north.

    Women in the Yukon are 2.9 times more likely to experience sexual abuse, or be killed by a spouse than women in other parts of Canada. The Organizations that seek to help them are being forced to scramble for alternate funds through bake sales and garage sales.

    Mere days before WHM we saw the passing of National Association of Women and the Law

    Close Harper friend and advisor Tom Flanagan speaks;

    Flanagan calls funding cuts to Status of Women Canada and the elimination of the Court Challenges Program a “nice step,” asserting without equivocation that Conservatives will “defund” all equality-seeking groups – with feminists at the top of the list. He goes further, clarifying that Conservatives also plan to choke-off these groups’ supposedly privileged access to government by, for example, denying “meetings with ministers.” But for strategic reasons, Flanagan notes, this will all happen incrementally. To avoid the perception of mean-spirited retribution, he says, “incrementalism is the way to go.”

    Avoid the perception yet not the reality.

    And the PM Statement section? Still reads, “forthcoming”.

    Of course Harper is proving that actions do speak louder than words.

    That’s ok Stevie we’re not waiting for your call…we’re just not that into you.

    Fighting Back or Prince hates Babies

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    Apparently Prince, in lieu of a career, spends his time scouring the net for instances of “copyright violation”.

    A well-placed source directly involved in the situation confirmed to ABC News that Prince was directly involved in seeking the takedown of Lenz’s video.

    “This guy scours the Internet,” the source said of the legendary artist, who once changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and wrote the word “Slave'” on his cheek until he won back the rights to his music from another publishing company.

    “He’s really intense about this stuff,” the source said, adding that Lenz’s video “happened to be one of many” that artist apparently located online and demanded be taken down.

    The violation in question involves 29 seconds, yes that’s right 29 seconds of Let’s Go Crazy Baby, in a home video of a baby. Serious stuff.

    Prince petitioned YouTube to take down the video, which they did. However, in a classic case of don’t get mad, get even, Stephanie Lenz has filed suit;

    “I thought even though I didn’t do anything wrong that they might want to file some kind of suit against me, take my house, come after me.

    “And I didn’t like feeling afraid,” she continued. “I didn’t like feeling that I could get in trouble for something as simple as posting a home video for my friends and family to see.”

    She contacted a leading cyber rights legal organization called the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and filed a civil lawsuit against the music publisher, claiming they were abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by sending out reams of what are known in the industry as “take down notices” to Web sites like YouTube, claiming their artists’ copyrights had been infringed upon — when in fact, sometimes they may not have been at all.

    Youtube has put the video back up.