The Council of Canadians
Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada's largest advocacy organization, with members and chapters across the country. If you believe that our social programs and public services should be strengthened, not privatized; that our foreign and trade policies should be independent, not subservient to the United States; and that our water and natural resources should be protected, not exploited, please join us as a member.
The Weekly updates are now posted on our blog!
Upcoming Toronto Chapter Events
Tuesday, August 17th from 7:30 to 10:00pm
What: CP24 Your Vote: Race for Mayor
Where: MTV Studio, 888 Yonge Street (at Davenport)
Details: Would you like to be part of the live studio audience and ask the candidates a question on live TV? If so, please email us back with CP24 Mayoral Debates in the subject line and we will email you back with details and question ideas. We need to let the organizer know how many Toronto Chapter members will be attending! Please note, there will be no remote locations this time around, and there will be no theme for this debate, so any topic will be open for discussion by the candidates.
Wednesday, August 25th from 7pm to 9pm
What: Toronto Chapter Monthly Meeting
Where: TBA (Either City Hall or Metro Hall)
Movie: The World According to Monsanto - Monsanto, the world's largest producer of genetically engineered products, claims their patented GM seeds and bovine growth hormone (BGH) will increase worldwide production of agricultural, dairy, meat, and Bt cotton and can eradicate world hunger and poverty. However Monsanto (maker of Agent Orange), is frequently described as the "Gestapo" and "Mafia" by farmers who use their products due to their use of pressure tactics, attempts at corruption, misleading reports, and collusion with the American Government.
The World According to Monsanto pieces together the true, unsettling story of how the clean, green image conveyed by the company's advertising serves as a smoke screen for Monsanto's quest for market supremacy - to the detriment of global food security, public health and environmental stability.
Wednesday, September 29th from 7pm to 9pm
What: Toronto Chapter Monthly Meeting
Where: TBA (Either City Hall or Metro Hall)
Movie: A Question of Sovereignty by Kevin P. Miller – Kevin will be joining us to discuss his film and talk about his film and answer questions. We will also be discussing the Mayoral Election, and where the candidates stand on various issues.
In this patriotic and sentimental film, international award winning Writer/Director Kevin P. Miller GENERATION RX, WE BECOME SILENT) exposes how Canadians are being stripped of their personal sovereignty by government agencies — and how free trade deals and other international agreements imperil Canadian democracy.
Quietly, over a period of many years, unconstitutional legislation encompassed in Bills C-51, C-6, and the current Bill C-36 have placed not only basic civil liberties and freedoms at risk, but Canada's national sovereignty as well. The film shares how entangling alliances with groups like the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, Codex Alimentarius, the United States and even multinational corporate interests have become so powerful that they literally threaten to make elected officials in Parliament irrelevant.
A QUESTION OF SOVEREIGNTY discusses why this dramatic shift in the balance of power puts the nation and its people at a vital crossroad early in the 21st century — and why some of the past giants of Canadian politics may hold the answers to Canada's future.
October 23 & 24th
What: Council of Canadians, Annual General Meeting
Where: Ottawa, ON
When: October 23rd – all day workshops, October 24th – AGM in the morning.
The Saturday and Sunday events are open to everyone, so if anyone would like to attend, please let us know as the Toronto Chapter Core Team will be driving up either on Thursday or Friday. More details to follow. Please email back with AGM in the subject line if you would like to attend, and be part of our car pool.
Wednesday, October 27th from 7pm to 9pm
What: Toronto Chapter Monthly Meeting
Where: TBA (Either City Hall or Metro Hall)
Guest Speaker: Martha Rafuse with The Climate Project Canada.
Friday, November 12th from 6pm to 8pm
What: Toronto Chapter Book Club
Where: TBA
Book: In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan - Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. By urging us to once again eat food, he challenges the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach — what he calls nutritionism — and proposes an alternative way of eating that is informed by the traditions and ecology of real, well-grown, unprocessed food. Our personal health, he argues, cannot be divorced from the health of the food chains of which we are part.
In Defense of Food shows us how, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, we can escape the Western diet and, by doing so, most of the chronic diseases that diet causes. We can relearn which foods are healthy, develop simple ways to moderate our appetites, and return eating to its proper context — out of the car and back to the table. Michael Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating. http://michaelpollan.com/books/in-defense-of-food/ * Toronto Public Library has 177 copies and 35 holds as of August 15, and 20 large print copies with 2 holds.
Saturday, January 15th
What: Toronto Chapter Annual Planning Meeting
Where: TBA
Time: 10am to 4pm
Details: Everyone is welcome to attend. The active 2011 Toronto Chapter campaigns will be decided at this meeting.
Volunteer & Outreach Co-ordinators Needed!
The Toronto Chapter would like to take advantage of our many tabling and outreach opportunities, and we are looking for a few motivated volunteers who would like to take charge and get more involved. If you are interested in attending events, organizing volunteers for information tables and even finding new tabling and outreach opportunities, please contact us. We can match you to your campaign area of interest (Water, Food, Climate Change, or Trade). Tabling is a great way to meet new people, and greatly helps bring the Toronto Chapter Campaigns into the awareness of the public. The more active members we have, the bigger difference we can make together. If you are interested in tabling, or taking charge of tabling and outreach events for one of our campaign areas, please email us back with Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator in the subject line, and specify in the email what area you would like to participate in.
Volunteer Opportunities
In an effort to only email our members once a week, we thought we should create a separate group for those who want to be notified of volunteer and direct action opportunities. Quite often we receive very little notice of rallies, protests and tabling events, and cannot inform our membership unless we send out additional emails. Therefore, we would like to ask anyone interested in being put on our Volunteer List, to email us back with VOLUNTEER in the subject line. Putting yourself on this list will not mean we expect you to participate in any of the events that happen; it simply means you will receive emails of these events as we receive them. Whenever possible, we will group events into one email so you will not be bombarded. At any point, you can email us and let us know if you want to be removed from this separate email group, and we will remove your name. We hope to see many more of you out participating in active citizenry in the months ahead!
Toronto Chapter Facebook Group
* Check-out the Toronto Chapter’s photos from the G20 and related events. They take a LONG time to upload, so keep checking back as we will keep adding more.
Please join our local chapter Facebook Group to stay updated, discuss ideas and view photos of the events we are involved in. Search for us: Council of Canadians – Toronto Chapter, or use the link below.
Information on past guest speakers at our monthly meetings:
Mini Alakkatusery: Manager, Programs, Toronto Community Foundation, www.tcf.ca ž Toronto ’s Vital Signs 2009 Report (as released in the Toronto Star; contains about 65 indicators):
John O’Leary:
Director of Major Gifts, Amnesty International,
www.amnesty.ca
Join us in active citizenry. Get involved and make a difference.
Upcoming Toronto Events
August 16
DEMOCRACY CAFE
CAPP Toronto discussion on Canadian democracy in crisis with Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
Mon. Aug. 16, 6:15-8:30 pm.
Koffler House, rm KP108, 569 Spadina
Free.
torontoparticipates.ca
August 17
CP24 invites you to be part of the LIVE studio audience for YOUR VOTE: THE RACE FOR MAYOR
Date: Tuesday, August 17th from 8
– 10 p.m. ET (Please arrive for check-in no later than 7:30 p.m.)
Location: MTV’s Studio at 888 Yonge ST. (Yonge and Davenport)
To be part of the audience, contact: CP24VOTES@CTV.CA
Discuss. Debate. Decide. CP24 will host an exclusive series of six unique television events leading up to the Toronto municipal election in October. Entitled YOUR VOTE: THE RACE FOR MAYOR, the live, two-hour televised discussions will give leading local mayoral candidates an opportunity to debate the issues, present their ideas for the future of the city, and give Torontonians a chance to press the candidates for answers.
The five major candidates participating in YOUR VOTE: THE RACE FOR MAYOR are Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone, Rocco Rossi, George Smitherman and Sarah Thomson. CP24’s Stephen LeDrew moderates the debates, joined by host Melissa Grelo.
Torontonians are invited to participate by emailing their questions to
now@cp24.com and please include the subject "Your Vote". You can also tweet your questions and comments to @CP24 with the hashtag #CP24mayor. Phone questions and comments will be taken throughout the live event.
August 17
DROP G20 CHARGES! RESISTING THE CRIMINALIZATION OF DISSENT
Date: August 17th
Time: 6pm - 7:30pm
Location: Room 116, Wallberg building, 200 College Street, Toronto, ON
Full list of speakers and video statements to be announced!
For two days at the end of June, the Police led a coordinated armed
assault against Toronto’s civil population. Community organizers were
in particular targeted. Mobilizations for justice, for dignity and for
self-determination were infiltrated, harassed and intimidated. A
Canada wide response is at hand as people fight to have the criminal
charges dropped and to continu...e the struggle against the G20's
anti-people and anti-environment policies. (Support the Legal Defence
Fund! http://g20.torontomobilize.org/support)
To understand why people mobilized against the G20 and how organizers
were targeted; to hear accounts of police brutality and repression;
and to understand the political nature of the bail conditions, the
criminalization of dissent and ways to support the people facing
charges, join us for an informative panel and discussion.
This event is focused towards activists, grassroots organizers and
people who are interested in knowing more and acting in solidarity
with local struggles and defendants.
Endorsers: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty | No One Is Illegal - Toronto
To endorse this event, please email abeeramajeed@yahoo.ca
Sponsored by: Hussan Freedom Committee, Ontario Public Interest
Research Group - Toronto
August 17
Canning Workshop
sponsored by the West End Food Co-op
Tuesday August 17th
Parkdale Neighbourhood Church at 201 Cowan Avenue
The workshop will be led by Heather Kilner, an expert preserver with many years of experience.
We are hoping that our farmers will have tomatoes available for us to work with so, weather permitting, you will learn to make a delicious tomato sauce or a simple preserved tomato recipe and take a sample jar or two home with you! We will also take time to reflect on the meaning and significance of learning to preserve our own food, and our experiences of preserved food.
To register please visit our website at westendfood.coop.
If you have any questions about the workshop please don't hesitate to contact me at katie@westendfood.coop
Happy Canning!
August 17
Killing The Earth – G20 debt-based economics
Event: Killing The Earth Town hall meeting about G-20 debt-based economics
Date: Tues, Aug 17 @ 7-9 pm
Location: Trinity-St. Paul’s Church, 427 Bloor West
Cost: By donation
More Info: thedreamofcanada.ca
August 20
Culture Vibe Fundraiser
PLEASE buy tickets and help us promote this exciting event, in support of RESULTS
Canada’s advocacy efforts to end extreme poverty in development countries (printable flyer attached). Also let us know if you think you can help us SELL tickets.
If you are unable to attend, secure online donations to support us can be made at
https://www.results-resultats.ca/donate/donate_eng.asp
All proceeds and donations help us build the power of everyday people to advocate proven, cost-effective solutions for developing countries, including our recent success leveraging $1.1 billion from Canada and $7.3 billion total to date for maternal and child health at the G8. As an advocacy organization, we receive no government funds and rely entirely on the generosity of individuals to help us raise our voice.
"Culture Vibe Fundraiser" features:
Congolese Gospel Group (Génération Des Vrais Adorateurs)
Spoken Word Artist (Yusra Khogali)
Jazz Singer (Luwam)
Silent Auction featuring art, tickets to local attractions
Hors d'oeuvres will be served & Cash Bar
Door prize draw - Two tickets to Toronto City Lights Cruises
Tickets just $25
Friday, August 20, 2010 - Starts at 8 pm
Peridot resto/lounge - 81 Bloor Street East
To secure your ticket please contact:
Tel: 416-693-3999 or email Elizabeth at
elizabeth@results-resultats.ca
August 22
G20 legal fund Fundraiser
Event: Overnight For The G20 Arrestees – G20 legal fund Fundraiser
Date: Sunday, Aug 22 from 5 pm-5 am.
Location: Steelworkers Hall; 25 Cecil St.
Cost: $5 minimum donation
More Info: 416-531-4957
From the Organizers:
G20 legal fund Fundraiser with performances, installations, bike repairs, letter-writing and a speech by G8/G20 Toronto Community Mobilization Network.
August 24
THE RIDE FOR RENEWABLES
On Tuesday, August 24th, Greenpeace Canada is organizing THE RIDE FOR
RENEWABLES, a 45km bike trip from the Pickering Nuclear Station to the
Darlington Nuclear Station.
THE RIDE RENEWABLES will send the message to Dalton McGuinty's Liberals
that when Pickering Nuclear Station shuts down, Ontarians demand a green
energy replacement, not more reactors at the Darlington Station. No more
dirty, dangerous, and expensive nukes; Ontario .
Find out more and register for the bus ride out to Pickering:
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/event.php?eid=124793684233089
Or contact: steve.cornwell@greenpeace.org
August 26
Fresh The Movie and Panel Discussion
The panel discussion will be moderated by Wayne Roberts, food activist and chair of the Toronto Food Policy Council. The panelists include Chef Brad Long, owner ofVeritas and co-host of Food Network Canada’s Restaurant Makeover, Chris Wong, co-founder of Young Urban Farmers, Debbie Field, Executive Director of FoodShareand inaugural winner of the Green Toronto Award for Local Food and Tammara Soma of Sustain Ontario and the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council.
August 26 to 29
13th Annual Social Justice Summer Retreat:
“After the Crash: Creating Responses to Growing Inequalities"
Thursday, August 26th to Sunday, August 29rd, Camp Arowhon, AlgonquinPark
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!!
Early bird registration available until Aug. 10
Please visit www.socialjustice.org for more information and online
registration.
This annual event brings together people from a variety of social
movements – activists from all walks of life. You, friends and family are
invited to join us for a wonderful time of relaxation and renewal. Buses
from downtown Toronto.
September 20
Ontario Health Coalition
What: Oakville Town Hall Meeting
To address community concerns over the proposed P3 hospital
When: Monday, September 20th, 7pm
Where: Oakville Public Library,120 Navy Street
Who: Hosted by: Oakville Health Coalition
Hospital Fight-back Reduces Cuts
Some communities’ campaigns have worked to reduce proposed hospital downsizing and service cuts. But big cuts still underway in Niagara, proposed for Peterborough. Small town ERs at renewed risk in Southwestern Ontario.
Community campaigns have led to the stall or roll-back of proposed hospital cuts in a number of communities in recent months. Cornwall’s MPP Jim Brownell proudly announced a funding reprieve of $5 million towards the hospital deficit and a recent announcement of new long term care beds. In Northumberland Hills, the local coalition has succeeded in overturning a LHIN decision to close dozens of hospital beds, but the diabetes education clinic and outpatient physiotherapy cuts have gone ahead. To date, the closure of the Wallaceburg Emergency Department has been stopped, along with the ER closure on St. Joseph Island. But these proposals can be revived at any time and we are cautioning our members to stay vigilant.
Large funding increases have been given to hospitals such as the Niagara Health System, Lakeridge Health, Brampton’s William Osler Health Centre and others to offset deficits.
However, a number of serious new hospital cuts and ER closures are proposed.
September 28
Ontario Health Coalition
High-Level Briefing and Summit
on Changes to Hospital Funding
We will provide a briefing from experts in the U.K. and an update regarding plans of the Ontario government. What do the changes to fee-for-service hospital funding mean? What can we do about it?
Toronto Tues, September 28, 10:30am-3:30pm, Metro Central YMCA, 20 Grosvenor St
Send in your registration form to:
Ontario Health Coalition, 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 305, Toronto, Ontario M3C 1Y8
November 6 & 7
Ontario Health Coalition
Health Action Assembly & Conference on Health Funding and Sustainability
Saturday, November 6 & Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Bond Place Hotel, 55 Dundas St. E, Toronto M5B 2G8
Send in your registration form to:
Ontario Health Coalition, 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 305, Toronto, Ontario M3C 1Y8
Each year, the OHC invites our members and supporters to come together to plan strategy to deal with upcoming issues. Each local coalition is strongly encouraged to send one or two representatives at minimum. All our member groups and individual members are also encouraged to attend.
Health Action Assembly
Updates on key issues including hospital cuts and restructuring, protecting rural access to care, long term care funding/inspections/regulations changes, retirement homes, homecare, primary health care, P3s and privatization. Participate in strategy-setting session. This year will lead into the provincial election, so it is particularly important.
Conference on Health Funding and Sustainability
The newswaves reverberate with repeated stories about out-of-control health costs. Cuts, endless restructuring and delisting are justified using the funding crisis. But a closer look at the numbers shows a different story. It is time that those who want to protect our local public health care services fight back. This conference will provide the information and we will set a strategy to topple the myth of health care unsustainability.
Resource List
I had put together a massive resource list over a year ago, and although I don’t update it as often as I used to, I thought I’d start sharing it with our membership, one topic at a time. I would love to get great book, video, website and organization resource suggestions from you, so if I’ve missed anything, please let me know. Also, if you’ve read a book and didn’t think it was very good, let me know that too. Please note, TPL indicates how many books are available at the Toronto Public Library. I haven’t had the chance to search most of them. Enjoy!
Water:
ž Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis by Maude Barlow (TPL/47)
ž Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow (TPL/17)
ž Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow (TPL/1)
ž Bottled Up
ž Inside the Bottle (TPL/6)
ž Seasick by Alana Mitchell (Amazing book – a must read).
ž The Coming Battle for the Right to Water by Maude Barlow
ž The Holy Order of Water
ž (Movie – Documentary) Blue Gold
ž (Movie – Documentary) Downstream
ž (Movie – Documentary) Flow: For the Love of Water (2008) – Rogers on Demand until May 26/09; flowthefilm.com
ž (Movie – Documentary) The Fluoride Deception
ž (Movie – Documentary) The Water Wars are Already Here
ž (Movie – Documentary) Waterlife
ž www.safewater.org/ -
Safe Drinking Water Foundation (Publisher- Safe Drinking Water Foundation).
This site's aim is to increase awareness of health concerns from consumption of poor quality water through public education initiatives, research projects and an online newsletter.
ž myuminfo.umanitoba.ca/index.asp?sec=857&too=100&dat=5/14/2008&sta=3&wee=3&eve=8&npa=15994 -
For your patients: Bisphenol A (Publisher- University of Manitoba).
Addresses health concerns of Bisphenol A, used in plastic drinking containers (including reusable water bottles and baby bottles) and food storage containers. Links to factsheets and detailed consumer information, including how to recognise the plastic by searching for the number seven in the middle of the recycling symbol with the letters "PC" (referring to polycarbonate) next to it.
ž To find out if Toronto beaches are safe for swimming, call 416-392-7161, or visit: www.toronto.ca/beach/ for the up-to-date status. You can see a small map of all the beaches, or visit the detailed page for the beach you're interested in.
News – Articles - Announcements
Council of Canadians Campaign Blog
Council of Canadians ACTIVlist
The daily ACTIVlist e-mail is a compilation of blog posts, media releases and action alerts from the Council of Canadians.
If you would like to sign up to receive daily news from the Council of Canadians, join their ACTIVlist! by clicking
here to add your email address.
ALERT: Whistler Logging Old Growth Trees Post-Olympics starting next month
Hi all,
Now that the eyes of the world's media have left the Olympic host town of Whistler, BC, our mayor and other elected officials are starting to cut down our 300 and 400-year old cedar trees.
Local citizens have started a campaign for tourists to boycott the resort of Whistler until this senseless logging is halted.
If you have a chance, we are asking people from around the world to email to our mayor to express your outrage (details in the short YouTube video below).
Ony 24 words can make a difference!
Thanks!
Pina Belperio
Whistler, BC chapter
WHISTLER, Canada, host of the 2010 WInter Olympics, is about to start cutting
its old growth forests. This, despite the fact that Whistler likes to present itself
as a model of sustainable practices.
Locals have tried to intervene and stop the cutting of 300-year-old trees, but the
politicians, bureaucrats and business community aren't listening.
So we need your help. Please watch this short video by Oly and the Fat Cats then
send your email to the Mayor of Whistler to help save the trees.
Find out how just 24 words from you can make the difference,
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: Whistler Old Growth
*Paste this in your browser if the link above doesn't work - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liTncoaLXBk
Background information here: http://www.whistlerwatch.org/events.html
"Let's save the trees!" Oly, lead singer, Oly and the Fat Cats
St. Catharines says end coal use now!
In response to a flurry of calls and letters from concerned residents, St. Catharines’ city council has unanimously supported the OCAA’s call for an early end to burning coal. St. Catharines has now joined the cities of Hamilton, Kitchener and Guelph and Toronto's Board of Health in calling on the province to only use its coal plants in the event of a true power emergency.
This was a real victory for the people of St. Catharines and area who called and emailed the Mayor and Councillors urging them to support our resolution. Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak out on this important issue. Let’s keep the pressure on for cleaner air, a healthier climate and fewer illnesses and asthma attacks through an early coal phase out!
Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1
Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 246
P.S. Can you help us distribute our leaflets in your community? They’re free! They include postcards to politicians to phase out coal and oppose tax-payer subsidies for new nuclear reactors in Ontario.
Oil sands toxins growing rapidly
Volume of arsenic, lead increased 26 per cent in last four years, Environment Canada says
Canada’s oil sands mining operations produce vast and fast-growing quantities of deadly substances, including mercury, heavy metals and arsenic, new data released by Environment Canada shows.
The information on pollutants sheds new light on the environmental toll exacted by Canada’s bid to extract oil from bitumen, showing in stark relief how many nasty substances are being laid on the northern Alberta landscape in the process – and how quickly those are growing.
Greenpeace rappels off the Calgary Tower to remind government to separate oil and state
Greenpeace drove a message home to the heart of Canada’s oil industry today, hanging a huge banner from the Calgary Tower that says “Separate Oil and State” to highlight the need to sever the cozy relationship between the toxic tar sands oil industry and the federal and provincial governments.
“While oil may run your car, it shouldn’t run your government. Canada is not a petro-state and Big Oil should not be calling the shots and governments should not be ignoring the environmental destruction of the toxic tar sands,” said Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Melina Laboucan-Massimo, from the action. “Until both the federal and Alberta governments stand up to the oil industry, greenhouse gas emissions will continue to increase, more animals will die, more residents will be poisoned by the air they breathe and the water they drink, and more treaty rights will be violated in favour of profits in the senseless quest to squeeze every last drop of dirty oil from this province.”
Thousands of industrial incidents raise serious concerns about toxic oil industry
Greenpeace Canada, Sierra Club Prairie, Keepers of the Athabasca and Global Forest Watch Canada today released two databases compiled by prominent scientist Dr. Kevin Timoney, one with more than 6,500 incidents, regarding tar sands operations that raise serious concerns about how the Alberta government allows oil companies to operate in this province.
Fish feminizing in Alberta rivers
The study also revealed that females make up 85 per cent of the minnow population downstream from Fort Macleod and Lethbridge. Upstream of those communities, only 55 per cent of the population is female — a more normal sex ratio, Habibi said.
This could indicate that chemicals in the river are causing the fish to change sex, he said. "If these animals are exposed at very early stages, in fact there is evidence it could alter the sex development. The estrogenetic compound in fish could make a male fish develop into a female fish."
Monsanto: The world's poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit
G20 Resources and Coverage
Quick Guide:
Government Sites:
Options for Taking Post-g8/g20 LEGAL ACTION
G20 – Gathering Evidence
This is a list of organizations, lawyers and politicians that need to hear from you if you witnessed or were the victim of police violence and repression at the G20 in Toronto.
Places you should send your testimony and photos include
The Law office of David Midanik
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Public Safety Committee - Federal Government
The opposition parties on the Public Safety Committee are pushing for an inquiry. You can send your testimony, photos and or video links to the vice chairs (and all the members of the committee if you wish).
Action Alert
Sign the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s Petition for Action on the G20!
The actions of the government and the police during the G20 Summit demonstrate the need for answers, accountability, and action. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is calling for:
1) An independent inquiry into the actions of the police during the G20, including:
· The dispersal of protestors at the designated demonstration site in Queen’s Park late afternoon, Saturday June 26th;
· The detention and mass arrest on the Esplanade on the night of Saturday, June 26th;
· The arrests and police actions outside the Eastern Ave. detention centre on the morning of Sunday, June 27th;
· The prolonged detention and mass arrest of individuals at Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave. on the evening of Sunday, June 27th;
· The conditions of detention at the Eastern Ave. detention centre;
2) Repeal or amendment of the Public Works Protection Act to meet basic constitutional standards; and
3) Law reform to ensure that the Criminal Code provisions relating to “breach of the peace”, “unlawful assemblies” and “riots” are brought in line with constitutional standards.
If you share our concerns and want your voice to be heard, send your name and email address to us at g20petition@ccla.org. We will add your name to our list and, when we have 5,000 signatures, forward it to the federal and provincial governments.
Action Alert
Sign Amnesty International's call for an Independent review of G20 security mesures
Opportunities lost: peaceful protest suffered amidst heavy security measures and acts of vandalism during the G20
“Five feet away from me… Jesse fell down face first. The same officer [who punched him in the gut] then came and elbowed him in the back. The officer who was escorting me… looked over to me and said ‘Jeez, that shouldn’t have happened, shouldn’t have done that’.” journalist Steve Paikin (TVO)
Governments bear a very important responsibility to ensure security in and around events such as the G20 Summit. They have an equal responsibility to enable and protect the rights associated with peaceful protest, particularly freedoms of expression, assembly and association.
Some 900 people were detained between June 25 and 28, 2010 in Toronto. While some were connected to acts of violence and vandalism - acts which Amnesty International clearly condemns - many were engaging in peaceful protest or simply caught up in police actions while going about their daily business. Among those targeted were journalists and others attempting to document the protests and the police response. This scale of arrests in connection with protests is unprecedented in Canada.
The G8/G20 Summits were supposed to have been a chance to talk about putting human rights at the heart of global fight against poverty. Instead, the voices of thousands were silenced or ignored and the headlines dominated by images of burning police cars and broken windows.
We urgently need an independent review of the security measures adopted and the range of police actions taken in association with the G20 Summit in Toronto.
While we welcome the forthcoming review to be undertaken by the Toronto Police Service’s (TPS) Summit Management After Action Review Team, this is not an adequate response to the concerns of Amnesty International and other organizations and individuals. The TPS review is not independent, nor does it enable public participation or cover the wider range of actors involved, including various levels of government.
On July 2nd, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that he did not believe the circumstances warranted an independent review of the G20 security measures. He encouraged concerned individuals to use the existing police complaint procedures. Again, this fails to take into account the full range of actors involved beyond the police or the broader public interests at stake.
Action Alert
A public inquiry is an official review, ordered by government, of important public events or issues. Its purpose is to establish the facts and causes of an event or issue, and then to make recommendations to the government. All levels of government (federal, provincial, and territorial) have the power to call public inquiries.
Several issues have been raised this weekend: Consultation with the City of Toronto and it's citizens, Security build up, the Fence, the treatment of Toronto's homeless, mass damage, no relief fund for shop owners, innocent people and journalists detained, detainee conditions and much more.
This is something that police say we have "never faced in Canada." We agree! Let's learn from this weekend instead of trying to ignore it.
To every story there are many sides, and then there is the truth. Lets get as close to the truth as we can so that protesters, police and politicians alike can answer to the weekends events.
