‘Removing Cornwallis,’ it’s been a long time coming

In support of the “Removing Cornwallis” activities in Halifax, Nova Scotia – July 15, 2017 from 12:00 to 15:00 hours

By TONY SEED

On November 21, 2009 some 200 people gathered in a rally in Cornwallis Park to oppose the inaugural Halifax International Security Forum (HISF), a warmongering agency based in Washington, DC and funded by the Department of National Defence and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. They took the collective decision to rename it Peace and Freedom Park as their very first act, an act carried out in consultation with Mi’kmaq elders such as acclaimed historian Dan Paul.

They covered the statue of Edward Cornwallis with a white sheet. The anti-war rally was organized by an ad hoc committee consisting of activists from different affiliations and background, which became No Harbour for War.

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On the Causes of the 1967 Israeli-Arab War

Interview with Dr. Ismail Zayid, President, Canada Palestine Association, June 2007 by Tony Seed for Shunpiking Online

HALIFAX (5 June 2007) – THE 1967 war commenced forty years ago on June 5, 1967 by Israel against the Arab States carried in its wake an aftermath which became of great concern both to the Middle East and to the world at large: the military occupation by Israel of the West Bank of Jordan, the Sinai Desert and the southern heights of Syria; the expulsion or flight of over 250,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes or refugee camps and the destruction of many more of their villages; the subjection to Israeli domination and oppression of nearly 3.5 million Palestine Arabs in the West Bank of Jordan and the Gaza Strip; the occupation of the Christian and the Islamic Holy Places and the attempted annexation of Jerusalem; the shattering of the economy of Egypt, Jordan and the occupied territories and finally the interruption of navigation through the Suez Canal. 

In Memoriam: Ritchie Oakley

February 20, 1945–April 6, 2013

ON APRIL 6, Robert Ritchie Oakley, 68, left us forever when he passed away in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ritchie was a well-known Maritimes musician, band leader, and a longtime friend and colleague. His life was rich, reflecting the work and persistent struggle for a livelihood of a cultural worker and talented music producer who refused to be moulded by the stamp of the official establishment in the service of U.S. cultural domination; he came to affirm the dignity of Maritimes and Canadian cultural creators and indeed of the working people against the heartlessness and soullessness prevailing in this sphere of society and in turn was victimized by its cultural cabal, mainly through a wall of silence. Nevertheless, Ritchie Oakley’s creative talent and body of work was such that in 1995, the Nova Scotia Country Music Association honoured Ritchie as songwriter of the year and instrumentalist of the year. In 1998 the Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia named him producer of the year. In 2008, the East Coast Music Awards designated him one of the winners of the Stompin’ Tom Awards, tributes bestowed for “unsung heroes” of Atlantic Canadian music.

From our archives: Natural disasters – social responsibility and the media

By TONY SEED

Shunpiking Magazine, Vol. 9. No. 46, Summer 2005

THE EFFECTS of Hurricane Juan and the extent of other hurricanes and storms, as well as climatic change, electrical blackouts and other man-made and natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean earthquake of 26 December 2004 have promoted new debate. Despite the enormous reach of the mass media and modern communications, environmental knowledge is not popularized, and information is not communicated in a timely fashion to the public.

Flashback: The 1998 Halifax Transit strike

THE disinformation blaming the current Halifax trasit strike on the 763 workers and their union, Local 508 of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local (ATU), presents their struggle for their just demands as a unique local event in isolation from the neo-liberal, anti-social offensive by the state across Canada against public sector workers. The transit strike is also presented in an ahistorical prism, as if it is something entirely new. For the information of our readers, we are reproducing an article written at the conclusion of the summer 1998 strike from Nova Scotia’s Shunpiking Magazine.

Robbie Burns, Grand Falls, Mackenzie and Gaza

25 January 2009 marks 250 years to the day since Scotland’s national poet was born. PETER EWART* reflects on the legacy of Scotland’s celebrated bard whose polemics against the exploitation, injustice and oppression of his time enraged the establishment and won him enduring love from the peoples of all lands.

The statue of Robert Burns in Halifax’s Victoria Park Square is the centre of innumerable political rallies, as this one in October 2006 against the apartheid wall in Occupied Palestine | Photo copyright 2006, Howard Harawitz, All rights reserved.

MANY PEOPLE IN THE MARITIMES have Scottish blood in them, and the same holds true for people across Canada, especially in parts of Ontario and northern British Columbia where I reside. Indeed, at one point in Canada’s history, Scots were the third largest ethnic group, and they have certainly played an important role in the development of the country.

A good number of these men, women and children are descended from the hardy Scots who were scattered to the wind in the 18th and 19th Centuries, sometimes driven out of their homes and forced off their land, sometimes imprisoned or exiled, other times leaving poverty and hardship, in search of opportunity and a better life.

Third Halifax Symposium On Palestine, 2009