By Harsha Walia, rabble, August 25, 2008

In the past few weeks, much has been written about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's so-called apology regarding the Komagata Maru incident, which was delivered at the Gadhri Babian Da Mela (Martyrs Festival) in Surrey on August 3, 2008.

Much of the debate has focused around the apology needing to be made in the House of Commons in order for it to be afforded the respect and dignity it deserves. Many South Asian-Canadians have expressed that the racist discrimination inherent to the Komagata Maru incident in 1914 is being enacted today in the treatment of the community as second-class citizens who are not considered worthy of a full apology by the Conservative government.

A history of racist exclusion

In order to discourage South Asian migration, the Canadian government amended the Immigration Act in 1908 with the "continuous-journey regulation," under which travel to Canada required a continuous passage from country of origin and entry with at least $200 cash.

These measures were intended to reinforce a "White Canada" policy, in conjunction with for example the Chinese Head Tax, to restrict migrants of colour at a time when massive numbers of European immigrants - over 400,000 in 1913 alone - were entering Canada.

Power to the Brown People

By Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, ColorLines, May/June 2008

IT WAS AN IMMIGRANT RIGHTS ORGANIZER’S dream come true.

On December 10, 2007, with just a few hours notice, close to 2,000 South-Asian Canadian immigrants flooded Vancouver International Airport. They paralyzed the international departures section and surrounded a cab taking a severely disabled 48-year-old Sikh refugee, Laibar Singh, to his deportation flight. The crowd did what no other protest in North America had done before—using civil disobedience, it stopped a deportation proceeding in its tracks.

The protest prompted a tense, hours-long standoff at the airport. Officers of the Canadian Border Services Agency announced, a bit nervously, that they were unwilling to wade into the crowd. And after eight hours, the cab—well, it just started backing up. Someone helped Singh climb out of the cab, and he was ushered back to the Sikh place of worship (a gurdwara), where he has sought sanctuary while awaiting a resolution of his legal challenge to stay in Canada.

Strength in Numbers?

Why Radical Students Need a New Organizing Model

Caelie Frampton

In October of 2006, 1,000 students gathered at a mass meeting at Simon Fraser University (SFU) to impeach seven elected student union directors who were widely perceived to be acting against student interests and to be supported by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).1 In the lead up to the assembly, the impeachment campaign involved classroom speaking, petitions, motions of non-confidence passed by 30 different student groups, occupations of student union space, and banner drops. The mobilization culminated in a court case that acknowledged the legitimacy of the impeachment meeting. Compared to these vigorous grassroots initiatives, the SFU component of the CFS National Day of Action four months later on February 7th, 2007 was dismal. Thirty people, mostly consisting of recently-impeached student leaders and their friends, stood around holding prefabricated “Freeze Tuition Fees” signs. Considering the recent spike in radical organizing at SFU, it was no coincidence that they protested alone. Having reclaimed their student government, many students at SFU were not interested in supporting a rally orchestrated by the national organization widely perceived to be linked to the actions of the impeached student officials.

Sunera Thobani is an assistant professor at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on race and gender relations, and migration, citizenship, and nation-building. She was the first woman of colour to serve as President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) between 1993 and 1996. During that time NAC, along with the Canadian Labour Congress, organized the National Women’s March Against Poverty. She made national news in October of 2001 as one of the first critics of US foreign policy and the “war on terror” when she stated, “From Chile to El Salvador, to Nicaragua to Iraq, the path of US foreign policy is soaked in blood.” Thobani is one of the founders of the cross-Canada Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equity (RACE) and is currently writing about media representation of the “war on terror” and its impact on gender, race, and empire-building. Sharmeen Khan interviewed Thobani in July 2007.

How did you get involved with the feminist movement and the National Action Committee on the Status of Women?

March 30, 2008 By Seriously Free Speech Committee SFCS
Seriously Free Speech Committee SFCS's ZSpace Page

Imagine you go to a public meeting on the Middle East; you see a humorous parody of the local daily, pick up a few copies and hand them out. Six months later you are served with a writ of summons that charges you with producing the parody, that threatens to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, that takes up hundreds of hours of your time and aims to prevent you from expressing your opinions in future. Impossible? A Kafkaesque fantasy? This is what is happening to Mordecai Briemberg in Vancouver today and we need your help to stop it.

In early June, 2007, a parody of The Vancouver Sun newspaper was produced and copies distributed. The parody, a slim four-page edition, coincided with the 40th year of the continuous Israeli occupation of territories it conquered in the 1967 war. The parody focused on the biased media coverage of Israel/Palestine in The Vancouver Sun.

What happened?

One gem of a mission: Feds' push for mining investors in Afghanistan muddles military presence
Saul Chernos
http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=162242
Canada's mission in Afghanistan, it appears, may not be limited to hunting down insurgents or building roads.

(the author of this article has requested that we simply link to the Now Magazine site and not print the whole article here.)

February 18, 2008

On February 18, 2008, members of the Native 2010 Resistance disrupted an
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and Four Host First Nations (FHFN) photo op
at the Sutton Hotel, located on Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver).

Indigenous women From the Native 2010 Resistance poured bags of apples onto
the podium where National Chief Phil Fontaine was announcing "First Nations
participation and volunteer opportunities with the 2010 Olympics". Like
apples, Phil Fontaine and the Four Host First Nations sell-out chiefs are
red skinned but white on the inside, bargaining off Indigenous lands for
profit. Fontaine tried to keep his composure, his podium filled with apples
as Native women yelled in front of his face "No Olympics on Stolen Native
Land!" and told the small crowd "You should all be ashamed of yourselves for
contributing to the rape and destruction of Mother Earth!."

Indigenous resistance against the games has been snowballing as more are

(important ways to support and UPCOMING EVENTS/ACTIONS, including
cross-country are included below)

Dear friends and allies,

Thank to all those who expressed and showed their support over the past 48 hours, it is deeply appreciated.

As people have likely heard by now, Mr. Laibar Singh was not deported on yesterday December 9th at 4:30 am and remains in sanctuary in Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey. The last minute notice of the deportation and the removal time of 4:30 am was a deliberate and under-handed attempt to thwart public outcry and support. At 4:00 am, approximately 300 supporters gathered to protest and bear witness to CBSA's enforcement of a deportation in violation of sanctuary. In light of a major backlash for violating sanctuary and in the presence of hundreds of supporters, CBSA
backed off from the deportation (FOR PHOTOS: http://noii-van.resist.ca).

The Surrey Guru Nanak Gurudwara has made clear to CBSA that Laibar Singh

Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 23:03:24 -0500
From: No One Is Illegal Montreal

On December 10, 2007, more than one-thousand protesters at the Vancouver Airport helped to stop the planned deportation of Laibar Singh, a paralyzed refugee claimant from India.

On the early morning of January 9, 2008, Canadian Border Services Agency officials again tried to deport Laibar Singh, attempting to remove him from a Sikh Temple in Surrey, British Columbia. But, hundreds of protesters blocked their way.

Laibar remains with friends near Vancouver, but still faces removal.

Dear friends and allies,

Mr. Laibar Singh and his supporters learnt today at 5 pm that Canadian
Border Services Agency plan on deporting Laibar Singh from Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey tomorrow Wednesday January 8th at 4:30 am.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Emergency Gathering: Wednesday Jan 7th At 4 am
Guru Nanak Sikh Temple
Scott Road (120th) and 72nd

Tomorrow: Wednesday January 7th At 3PM
Citizenship Immigration Canada
300 West Georgia Street At Hamilton
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