On May 12, a beautiful statue of Mary Ann Shadd Cary by local sculptor Donna Mayne was unveiled at the University of Windsor’s downtown campus at the corner of Ferry and Chatham Streets.
Monthly Archives: May 2022
In this election, a good option is to decline your ballot!
I am posting a very interesting article on the real alternative on the Ontario election. As a result, instead of just not voting, I will formally decline my ballot on June 2nd. (There are many informative articles on the election at Ontario Political Forum.)
The extent to which many Ontarians are disgusted with elections which don’t represent them, and this Ontario election in particular, is leading them to either not participate or, to the best of their ability, cast a protest vote.
Ontario’s election law allows a voter to decline their ballot. To decline your ballot, tell the election official that you are declining your right to vote when they hand you a ballot. This is a public process done out loud.
Filed under Canada
Anti-war protest against US nuclear weapons coming to RAF Lakenheath in Britain
Photo: CND
On Saturday, May 21, several hundred people gathered at RAF Lakenheath, a US air force base, to protest against US nuclear weapons and nuclear bombers once again being brought to Britain. In its statement CND [1] said: “The return of US nuclear weapons to Britain – along with the upgrading of its nuclear weapons across Europe – constitutes a further undermining of prospects for global peace. The US is the only country to locate its nuclear weapons outside its own borders and this major increase in NATO’s capacity to wage nuclear war in Europe is dangerously destabilising. Their return will increase global tensions and put Britain on the front line in a NATO/Russia war.”
Filed under Europe
False foundation of B’nai Brith’s data
– Canada Palestine Association –
Every year, B’nai Brith Canada releases its “Audit of AntiSemitic Incidents.” This report is then heavily marketed to multiple levels of government and often shows up in arguments for adopting certain policies, like the regressive International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition and flawed online hate legislation.
Time to disband the ‘NATO of the Caribbean’
The following item is based on a report by A.T. Freeman, published by the Caribbean Organization for Peoples Empowerment (COPE).
On April 5, the 24th Caribbean Nations Security Conference opened in Bridgetown, Barbados. The event, scheduled to run to April 7, was co-hosted by the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, General Laura Richardson and Commodore Errington Shurland, Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force, and was addressed by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley.
Filed under Caribbean
Armed Forces digital recruitment campaign
Besides increasing the amounts of money to fund NATO and weapons, Canada’s Armed Forces are also conducting what they call a Digital Recruitment Campaign to co-opt the youth.
The vice-chief of Canada’s defence staff said in a March 10 press release that the military is embarking on a digital recruitment drive to build up its numbers, Canadian Press (CP) reported at the time.
Filed under Canadian Forces
NATO war exercises conducted at Wainwright Military Base, Alberta
Reports inform that 3,200 Canadian Armed Forces troops, along with U.S. and British soldiers, concluded a ten-day military exercise at the 3rd Canadian Division Support Base Detachment Wainwright, in Alberta, on May 22.
Filed under Canadian Forces
CANSEC: Increased military spending and overall militarization in the name of “protecting Canadians from threats at home and abroad”
Unfettered Increase in Arms Trade
By Pierre Soublière
CANSEC, Canada’s “largest global defence and security trade show,” will be holding its annual gathering of arms and merchants of death on June 1 and 2 at the EY Centre in Ottawa. The event is organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), which is “the voice of more than 800 Canadian Defence and security companies,” including Boeing, General Dynamics and SAAB.
Filed under Canada, Canadian Forces
Do not let warmongers speak in our name! Oppose CANSEC weapons fair and all it represents!
By Pierre Soublière
Canada’s Global Defence and Security Trade Show (CANSEC), organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) is the biggest weapons fair held annually in all of North America. It is being held this year on June 1 in Ottawa in an already warmongering atmosphere verging on full-blown war hysteria. The principled foreign policy espoused by Canadians has always opposed the use of force to settle conflicts between countries. Such a foreign policy is not being followed by the Canadian government whose membership in the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) means that billions are being spent on weapons and the only option considered to end the war in Ukraine is the military defeat of Russia.
Filed under Canada, Canadian Forces
Report on racism in the Canadian military: Blaming the past to exonerate the present
Did the Charter of Rights and Freedoms indeed mark a break with the past? Is the Canadian Multiculturalism Act a break with racism, or is it a modernized declaration that the Canadian polity is made up of “two founding nations” and “others”?
The 121-page report, Final Report of the Minister of National Defence Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination with a Focus on Anti-Indigenous and Anti-Black Racism, LGBTQ2+ Prejudice, Gender Bias, and White Supremacy, purports to deal with racism in the Canadian military.
Filed under Canadian Forces
Insidious report on racism in Canadian military released
A racist outlook informs all the practices of colonial Canada and its institutions, including the military. The outlook and practice of racism must be discarded, along with the structures and chain of command based on preserving it.
By ANNA DiCARLO
The Liberal government recently released a report which purports to deal with racism in the Canadian military. The report, dated January 2022, was only made public on April 25. It bypassed the House of Commons, to whom all government ministries are said to be responsible and accountable.
Filed under Canadian Forces
Red letter day for the Irish language
A new sense of empowerment was evident in the largest ever demonstration for Irish language rights in Belfast last weekend, as up to 20,000 people demanded overdue legislation to protect the rights of Irish speakers under British rule.
Filed under Europe
No Irish jubilee celebrations for an imperial monarch
By Lasair Dhearg
Irish Republicans, and indeed Republicans throughout the world, will never celebrate the lives of any monarch and especially one who resides in massive palaces in England.
Filed under Europe
Barbados declares itself a republic. Yes! It can be done!
Ceremony swearing in Dame Sandra Mason as Barbados’ first President, November 29, 2021.
For the information of readers, we are reposting two articles on the declaration of Barbados, November 30, 2021 that it will become a republic.
Renewal Update
Today, November 30, Barbados became a Republic. The Republic of Barbados was declared at a ceremony late in the evening on November 29 at the National Heroes Square in the capital, Bridgetown, to coincide with the anniversary of Barbados’ formal independence from Britain, 55 years ago.
With this action, Barbados has become the fourth of Britain’s previous colonies in the Caribbean to become a republic, following Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica which have had already taken this path forward.
Peoples of the Caribbean give ‘working royals’ a fitting reception
The visits in March and April of the so-called working members of the British royal family to Commonwealth “realms” were shocking for their display of racist condescension, extravagant living and wasteful expenditures. | Margaret Villamizar
Protest in Jamaica against the Royal Visit, March 23, 2022.
Organized to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the English throne, these “Platinum Jubilee” tours to the 14 former British colonies that retain the British monarch as their official head of state have taken different members of the “House of Windsor” to six Caribbean countries, Australia and Papua New Guinea. The latest such tour brought “heir to the throne” Charles and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles to Canada from May 17 to 19.
Paramedics speak out and demand solutions
May 22-28 is Paramedic Services Week. Ontario paramedics who respond to 911 calls and transport patients to hospitals are speaking out about the crisis in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) sector. A major problem they and patients face is the long time it takes to hand patients in their care over to staff at hospital Emergency Departments which are already overburdened and short-staffed. Until patients are handed over, ambulance paramedics are not available to answer other 911 calls.
Filed under Canada, Working Class
Message given the Queen on her 1997 visit to Newfoundland
As is well known, in Newfoundland the genocide of the Beothuk Indigenous people occurred due to the slave trade and brutal treatment carried out by colonial powers of which the English set the pattern, something the Indigenous peoples have repeatedly raised.
Queen Elizabeth II visited Labrador in June, 1997 to mark the quincentennial anniversary of the “discovery” of Newfoundland by the Venetian John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), who was commissioned by Henry VII of England.
Filed under Canada, Indigenous Peoples
Royal family’s fortune from the slave trade
From the enslavement and deportation of the Irish to British colonies in Oceania and the West Indies to the kidnapping of Africans, the British Crown made much of their vast personal wealth from the human slave trade. Every monarch and their family from Elizabeth Tudor onwards were financiers and beneficiaries of this trade in human flesh.
Victoria Day – Empower yourself now
May 23, the third Monday in May, is officially slated as Victoria Day. This has been the case since 1845 when the birthday of Queen Victoria was celebrated and, at one time was officially called Imperial Day. Since then, it is used in England to celebrate the reigning monarch, no matter when they were actually born. In this sense, it is an out-dated practice which Quebeckers had the good sense to name Patriot’s Day to celebrate the rebellion against British rule in 1837-38. For Ontarians, it marks the beginning of good weather. Before climate change, when weather was more predictable, it used to mean that the ground was no longer frozen so planting could start and also that plants would no longer be subject to frosts.
But the fact remains that Canada’s institutions are tied to an anachronistic system. The recent visit to Canada of the so-called heir to the throne, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles was, in fact, to celebrate the jubilee platinum anniversary of the Queen’s reign. Pictures of her jubilee celebrations in England featured the more than £1000 gowns worn by members of the Royal Household as it is called – a reminder that those who rule over the people definitely live in another world that has nothing to do with the majority except for the fact that they carry its burden on their backs – a burden we must break with in order to renew the democracy in Canada so that it is set by the people and favours their interests, not the interests of the likes of the “Royals” and their retinues comprised of the party governments that keep them going.
– Laura Chesnick, Independent candidate in Windsor-Tecumseh in the Ontario election
Queen Victoria – The Famine Queen
On the Occasion of Imperial Day (now called Victoria Day)
Recently campaigns have been underway in Ireland, like that in Cork, to remove the name Queen Victoria, known as the “Famine Queen”, from street signs. That her main statue at Leinster House in Dublin survived until 1948 (26 years after the creation of the Free State) is something of a miracle. She was monarch when Ireland was beset by a famine organized by rich English and Irish landowners and millions starved or emigrated. After gathering dust in Ireland for some years, Victoria got a trip to Sydney, Australia to be “planted” outside the Queen Victoria Building, despite some bids from Canadian buyers. Writing in the Irish Times, Myles na gCopaleen (Brian O’Nolan/Flann O’Brien) the following month was not overly bothered with its removal – her statutes were more harmful than her statues, as he put it. “Besides, look at it this way,” he wrote. “Time has given the mere Irish their revenge. The fact is that Victoria has turned green. Of hue she approaches our decent Irish letterbox. And it is the price of her.”
Excerpt from Tony Seed, Signs of Change in Ireland
High time Canadians renounce the monarchy and everything it brings with it
British Royals’ “Jubilee Tour”
The little “Jubilee Tour” to Canada of the so-called Working Royals – Charles, who ruling elites presume to be the future King of Canada, and his wife Camilla – illustrates that it is high time Canadians renounce the monarchy and everything it brings with it.
Filed under Canada
Conception of Rights in Canada’s Constitutions of 1840, 1867 and 1982
185th Anniversary of 1837-38 Rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada
Anniversary of the 1837-38 Rebellion – Quebec Patriots’ Day
185th Anniversary of 1837-38 Rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada. May 23rd is Quebec Patriots’ Day.
Nation-Building Project of Quebec Patriots
National Patriots’ Day marks the 1837-1838 uprising to honour the memory of the Patriots who gave their lives or were forced into exile in the struggle to end British colonial rule by establishing a Republic of Quebec.
Patriots’ Day celebrates the striving of the people to affirm their right to be. Beginning in the spring of 1837, when the British Crown formally rejected the demands of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada included in the 92 Resolutions of 1834, numerous mass meetings broke out across Quebec where the people spoke and demanded their democratic rights.
Filed under Canada, History, Working Class
In the News*
July 13, 2022
Deep Roots of the Cuban Revolution
For Cubans, the month of July is clearly synonymous with revolution. For this is the month with the glorious 26th, when José Martí was reborn to lead, from his immeasurably great legacy, Fidel and the entire generation that continued the irreversible path to Cuba’s full dignity. – Granma International [More]
Historic Electoral Victory in Colombia Buoys Hope for Peace
Congratulations to the Colombian People!
Colombians who over and over again have had their hopes for peace and an end to over 70 years of war dashed are today expressing optimism for the future. [More]
Truth Commission Releases Final Report on Causes and Consequences of Conflict
On June 28 Colombia’s Truth Commission released its Final Report on the causes and consequences of the armed conflict in Colombia at a ceremony in Bogotá. [More]
Ecuador
Indigenous-Led National Strike Wins Significant Concessions from Neo-Liberal Government
For 18 days beginning on June 13, Indigenous and working people in Ecuador took part in a national strike to demand the government address the urgent needs of the population … [More]
Honduras
Those Who Stood with the Honduran People Honoured on Anniversary of 2009 Coup
The 13th anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup which overthrew democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya and his government on June 28, 2009 was commemorated this year with a number of political-cultural events. [More]
New Conviction Handed Down for 2016 Murder of Berta Cáceres
On June 20, David Castillo, a U.S.-trained former military intelligence officer and former chief executive officer of Desarrollos Energéticos (DESA), was sentenced to 22 years in prison … [More]
Filed under Canada, Europe, Working Class
Laura Chesnik, independent candidate in Windsor-Tecumseh, discusses why she is running in the Ontario election
My name is Laura Chesnik. I’m an independent candidate in the June 2 provincial election in the riding of Windsor-Tecumseh.
I’m running so that my fellow citizens can put an MPP in the Legislature who represents themselves and what they need and are struggling to achieve. I’m a teacher who for years has been in the thick of battles to affirm the rights of all.
Filed under Canada
127th anniversary of death of José Martí – May 19, 1895: Architect of the Cuban people’s unity
On May 19, 1895, Cuba’s national hero José Martí died. Martí (1853-1895) was a writer, poet, philosopher, patriot and fighter for the birth and independence of the Cuban nation. His name is synonymous with the struggle of the Cuban people to defend the high road of civilization, the Cuban Revolution, Cuba’s independence and struggle to build a society in the service of the well-being of the people.
Filed under Americas
World’s oceans at most acidic level in 26,000 years, climate report warns
The WMO detailed a range of turmoil wrought by climate change in its annual “State of the Global Climate” report.
An aerial view of floating ice taken by a drone launched from Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship in the Arctic Ocean, September 15, 2020 | Reuters/Natalie Thomas/File Photo
(May 19) – The world’s oceans grew to their warmest and most acidic levels on record last year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday, as United Nations officials warned that war in Ukraine threatened global climate commitments.
Filed under Fisheries & fishermen
Calls to place US missiles and other military installations in Canada
War preparations in the name of national interest. The situation in Ukraine shows how important it is to elaborate why Canada should get out of NATO and NORAD and how Canada’s membership in NATO and NORAD are factors that contribute to war | Enver Villamizar
CTV News reports that retired Canadian General Tom Lawson, a former NORAD Deputy Commander serving under U.S. command before serving as Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff from 2012-2015, said the opportunity the conflict in Ukraine presents is “a perfect moment to announce that we’re coming on board with all forms of [U.S.] ballistic missile defence and we are going to discuss the positioning of new [U.S.] radar systems and new [U.S.] missile interceptors on Canadian soil.” He added: “And, by the way, we are now announcing that we’re buying F-35s, the first of which will be delivered four years from now. Now, all of a sudden, you’re looking pretty beefy.”
Poll shows Canadians do not care for monarchy
Royal jubilee tours’ stop in Canada not welcome
The latest Angus Reid poll confirms that 51 per cent of respondents are in favour of abolishing the monarchy in the generations to come, while 24 per cent of respondents are unsure. Files from news agencies report the following:
Filed under Canada
The rest of the wasteful and farcical tour
Royal jubilee tours’ stop in Canada not welcome
Heritage Canada announced that during the visit of Prince Charles and Camilla to Ottawa on May 18, Charles will be invested as an Extraordinary Commander of the Order of Military Merit by the Governor General, lay a wreath at the National War Memorial, then meet with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
Filed under Canada, Canadian Forces, Indigenous Peoples, Palestine
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