By Derrick O'Keefe and Melanie Raoul - Znet

David Emerson, Canada's foreign minister, attended the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games and made it clear that he felt that this was not the appropriate time to talk about human rights, "We're no shrinking violet on [the human rights] issue but we don't see the Olympics as the venue to make that point"...Perhaps Emerson was concerned that the world would be impolite about Canada's human rights record when Vancouver hosts the 2010 Winter Games.

By Tom Sandborn - August 21, 2008

For the first time, foreign workers imported to pick B.C. crops have been allowed to join a union...Migrant workers at Greenway Farms in Surrey have voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) of Canada. The historic certification was granted with the support of more than 75 per cent of the roughly 40 affected workers. Never before had B.C.'s Labour Relations Board approved a union to represent [migrant] workers...

Cafe Rebelde presents:
http://otravancouver.resist.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/vlogg...

Friday August 22, 7 pm
Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway at Kingsway Ave. Vancouver

“Don’t Hate the Media, Create Alternatives”

short video documentaries, presented by the documentary film-makers
and the aliveinmexico.org collective

*

Join us for a celebration of the arts, revolution and community. This event includes music, theatre, art, guest speakers and a social justice fair.

Date: September 6
Time: 11AM-7PM
Location: Camosun College (Lansdowne) By the Paul Bldg
Price: By Donation

Major Victory for Free Speech Rights

August 19, 2008, New York – A group of 52 local activists today announced a $2 million settlement in their lawsuit against the City of New York. The activists were illegally arrested on April 7, 2003 while protesting against the Iraq war in front of a military contractor's offices in midtown.

Oread Daily

The government of Peru suspended civil liberties following clashes between indigenous Peruvians and police. The action is taking place in remote jungle regions where Indian groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations. The recently signed Free Trade Agreement with the United States and a number of draft laws in the legislature all allow for the easy commercial exploitation of indigenous territories.

By Justin Podur - August 14, 2008

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is a women's organization that runs underground schools and other projects, educates Afghan girls, runs a periodic journal, and agitates politically for women's rights, human rights, secularism, and social justice in Afghanistan. From the 1979 Soviet invasion through to the 2006 closings of the camps, millions of Afghan refugees lived in Pakistan and many still do. While RAWA's operations were always based primarily in Afghanistan, they have also had a strong presence in the Pakistan refugee community. I spoke to Mariam from RAWA in Islamabad when I was there in July 2008.

By Jason Kunin - August 19, 2008

The problem...is Zionism. Any opposition to Israel rooted in Zionism can only seek to mitigate Israeli apartheid and racism, not end it, because apartheid and racism are what Zionism - and by extension, the Israeli state - are all about. Zionism is rooted in the fundamental premise that the state be a Jewish state and that it occupy the physical space of an ancient Arab Christian and Muslim culture. Because it is impossible to achieve these two goals simultaneously without violence and racist oppression, you cannot have a genuine peace movement that is Zionist.

Inspired by the mobilizing on the West Coast, organizers across "Canada" have begun awareness-raising efforts. Building on the call from the West Coast for anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance to the Olympics, some organizers affiliated with the People's Global Action Bloc (PGA-Bloc) in Ontario and Quebec have begun mobilizing around "Resistance 2010", linking anti-Olympics efforts to organizing against the G8 and SPP, and the day-to-day systems and institutions of power and oppression they represent.

By HOWARD LISNOFF - Counterpunch

The news that Jeremy Hinzman was ordered deported from Canada struck like lightning! Hinzman, a 29-year-old war resister who has been living in Canada since 2004 lost his bid to remain in Canada by way of a decision of Canada’s Border Services Agency. The agency found that Hinzman did not qualify for compassionate or humanitarian consideration in his bid to remain in Canada...If Hinzman is convicted by court martial, which is likely given the public nature of his case, he faces a five-year prison sentence.

*Communiqué by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP)-Montreal*

The death of Freddy [Villaneuva] is part of a long history of repression, abuse and brutality by the Montreal police. What happened is unjustifiable. The police know that they committed an enormous error. They are trying to hide the facts...

by Noel K. Gallagher | Portland Press Herald

PORTLAND, Maine - Oakhurst Dairy owner Stanley Bennett welcomed the news that Monsanto was divesting itself of its controversial dairy hormone business, after taking on the agribusiness giant in an expensive David-and-Goliath legal battle five years ago.

Police state tactics in America [are] growing in intensity.

"There will, of course, be a universal language, which will be either Esperanto or pidgin-English. The literature of the past will for the most part not be translated into this language, since its outlook and emotional background will be considered unsettling: serious students of history will be able to obtain a permit from the Government to study such works as Hamlet and Othello, but the general public will be forbidden access to them on the ground that they glorify private murder; boys will not be allowed to read books about pirates or Red Indians; love themes will be discouraged on the ground that love, being anarchic, is silly, if not wicked. All this will make life very pleasant for the virtuous." - Bertrand Russell, 1931