[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[OPIRG-EVENTS] FW: March for Peace and Justice, Saturday, 23 November, 12:00






-----Original Message-----
From: Jo Wood [mailto:jwood@ccs.carleton.ca]
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 2:48 PM
To: nowar paix
Subject: March for Peace and Justice, Saturday, 23 November, 12:00


On Saturday, 23 November, the NOWAR/PAIX march will meet at the corner of
York and Sussex at 12:00.  Our dual theme will be opposition to the
continued threat of invasion of Iraq and concern for the rights of
immigrants and refugees, particularly those who are being subjected to
racial profiling at the border.  Come help us keep the momentum for peace
and justice going!  Share your concerns with others and catch up on the
latest information about the peace effort.


-------
Open Letter to the Prime Minister on Racial Profiling at the border

October 31, 2002

The Hon. Jean Chretien
Prime Minister
Langevin Block
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister Chretien,

We are writing to express our outrage at the Canadian government’s failure
to protect the rights of all Canadians who wish to travel outside Canada.

OCASI is not satisfied with the verbal assurance from the U.S. that Canadian
passport holders will not be subject to the United States National Security
Entry Exit Registration System (NSEERS) guarantees that Canadians travelling
to the US will not be harassed or detained on the basis of country of birth,
ethnicity and faith. We also condemn the Canadian Government proposal to
collect and retain personal information on Canadians that travel outside the
country.

Mr. Chretien, Canada has a long history of welcoming immigrants and refugees
from many different countries. The Canadian Charter and our much-vaunted
record on human rights demands that your government must do much more to
protect all Canadians and to clearly demonstrate that Canada does not
practice racial profiling.

The Government of Canada must provide Canadians with a guarantee that racial
profiling practices at Canadian ports of entry will change, provide an
acceptable timeline for implementing changes and provide Canadians with
recourse for review, redress and oversight to ensure that they are not
subject to racial harassment.

Racialized Canadians have to deal with racism within their country of
residence, as evidenced by the current debate in Ontario regarding racial
profiling by law enforcement personnel. This demonstrates more than ever the
critical need to ensure that equity policies that exist on paper need to be
implemented at the point of enforcement on the frontlines.

OCASI calls on the Canadian government to act immediately to guarantee
Canadians travelling to the US that they will not be subject NSEERS or
harassed by any other form of racial profiling practices by Canadian or US
authorities at the Canada-US border; an immediate end to any form of racial
profiling by Canadian Government agencies; and to ensure that immigration
and law enforcement practices do not target Canadians for differential
treatment on the basis of origin, ethnicity and creed.

Mr. Chretien, you must act on your obligation to protect all Canadians
regardless of their country of birth.

Sincerely,

Debbie Douglas
Executive Director

Cc: Hon. Bill Graham, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Hon. Denis Coderre, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

Contact Information:
Amy Casipullai
Policy & Public Education Coordinator
416-322-4950 x239
acasipullai@ocasi.org
-------------
 LETTER FROM THE ROAD BAGHDAD, NOVEMBER 2002

 FROM RABIA

  WAITING FOR THE BOMBS!

   How do you prepare to be attacked by the most powerful
   military in the
   world? This question troubles me daily. When I ask Iraqi
   people about their
   feelings and preparations I understand how utterly
   vulnerable they are. We
   know very little here about what or when something is
   going to happen, only
   what we can read on the internet when it is working  a
   luxury that most of
   the folks in Baghdad do not have. Every day they wait for
   tons of explosives
   to rain from the sky.  They wait and worry and go on
   living.



   I asked Fatima, a mother with nine children all living
   with her husband and
   her sister in three rooms, ³How are you preparing for the
   war?² She replies,
   ³Oh, there is not much we can do. We have a few extra
   liters of kerosene for
   our stove and we buried some gasoline in the yard if we
   need to leave
   Baghdad. We are just waiting and hoping America will turn
   away from this
   war.²



   Amal, an older, educated middle-class woman expressed her
   outrage at
   President Bush. ³I just donıt understand how he can do
   this! How can he
   discredit the inspections, and still talk about attacking
   us? He will kill
   innocent people. He wonıt even leave us our hope! Does
   this man have no
   blood in his veins?²



   Amalıs house was hit by a  bomb in 1991. She lives near a
   bridge over the
   Tigres River. I asked if she had a bomb shelter. ³No,
   bomb shelters are no
   good, we will just sit together in a room so if something
   happens we will
   all go together.² Her daughter reminds me of the
   disastrous  bombing of the
   Aamayria air raid shelter. It was hit directly by a U.S.
   missile in the Gulf
   War. 415 mothers and young children were killed and
   hundreds more were
   injured. Now there is the general suspicion the U.S. will
   deliberately
   target bomb shelters, so few people plan to use them.

-
This is the OPIRG-events@ox.org list. Announcement only please.
To unsubscribe, send email to opirg-events-request@ox.org, and put
"unsubscribe" in the body.
Archive at: http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/lists/html/opirg-events/