www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/560982
January 02, 2009, Michelle Shephard, National Security Reporter

The last remaining terrorism suspect who has been held for seven years under
a "national security certificate" has been ordered released from detention.

Federal court Justice Richard Mosley ruled Friday that there is no evidence
that Syrian Hassan Almrei "poses a threat to the safety of any individual"
and should be released under strict conditions.

"I am satisfied that any risk that he might pose to national security or of
absconding can be neutralized by conditions," Mosley wrote in his 100-page
ruling.

Conditions for his release will likely include 24-hour monitoring by agents
with the Canada Border Services Agency, wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet
and a ban on any use of cellphones or computers.

"Hassan was very, very happy - very pleased," said his lawyer Lorne Waldman
after speaking with Almrei by phone. "Personally, I'm delighted. Holding
someone in Canada without charge, without trial, is a very serious matter
and I'm relieved that this detention will end soon."

Critics of Canada's immigration law that allows the government to deport
non-citizens deemed a risk to national security have called the Kingston
holding centre where Almrei is held "Guantanamo North."

Common statement of anti-capitalist left organizations
OKDE-Spartakos

We, the organizations of the anticapitalist Left that sign this text, want to condemn the murder, in cold blood, of 16 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos by a police special guard in the evening of December 6th.

Our answer will be to resist and to keep fighting to overthrow the policy of police oppression, austerity and racism

We salute the demonstrations against the government of murderers all over Greece. In our opinion the reason for what happened is not the “extreme zeal”, or the “loss of temper” or the “lack of training” of a police special guard but the whole policy of the New Democracy government.

It is a policy that not only reinforces police oppression and legitimizes the use of lethal weapons against demonstrators, but also privatizes the Ports and Olympic Airlines, attacks social security and the rights of students.

It is the policy of police beatings of students, of the kidnappings of immigrants from Pakistan, of illegal interceptions of phone communications and of racist attacks that lead to the death of refugees that came here looking for asylum and a better future.

It is the policy of special “antiterrorist” legislation, of full compliance to the measures adopted by the EU against democratic liberties and against immigrants.

CANADA:Native Rights Concerns Cloud 2010 Games
Jon Elmer
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=1870

VANCOUVER, 1 Dec (IPS) - A coalition of indigenous elders, social justice activists and community organisers is voicing opposition to the upcoming Winter Olympics, promising to continue their protests up to and throughout the 2010 games.

Taking advantage of a three-day media briefing hosted by the official Olympic body in late November, the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC), activists and native representatives invited the local and visiting international media to an office in the heart of the what is commonly known as Canada's poorest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside, to hear 'the other side of the Olympic story'.

Rallying under the banner of 'No Olympics on stolen native land', speakers representing nine native and community groups outlined connections between native poverty, dislocation and homelessness and the staging of the games in Vancouver and Whistler, 120 kms north of Vancouver.

President Obama: Change the world can believe in?
by Sunera Thobani, from Rabble, November 3, 2008.

As the widely anticipated election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States grows closer, the priorities that will shape the early days of his Administration require critical attention.

With the banking system still in crisis and financial markets on a volatile rollercoaster, the pressure will be great for a President Obama to focus on domestic issues. But the new Administration will also be saddled with the increasingly unpopular War on Terror. How will Obama deliver on his promise of change to Americans, as well as those around the world who have greeted his candidacy with such enthusiasm?

The election campaigns have demonstrated Americans are more concerned about their houses, retirement savings, jobs, healthcare and education than they are about international issues, and Obama has successfully distanced himself from the deregulation promoted by the Bush Administration. But it will be critical for Obama to likewise detach his Administration from the disastrous Bush foreign policy.

Three steps could signal a clear break with the past: ending the Afghan war, closing down Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and prosecuting war crimes.

A Critique of the Militarisation of Social Conflict and the Securitisation of Everyday Life
Gipfelsoli from Interactivist

Recent unrest due to food price hikes, protests against rising energy costs, visions and realities of a climate crisis and growing concerns over scarce resources, in conjunction with the continued turmoil of financial markets, are creating a sense of insecurity for a neoliberal regime in severe crisis. The G8 states and their allies are seeking to contain these conflicts and the evident accumulation crisis of the global economy through market-orientated solutions in order to restore economic growth whilst calls for more state intervention in the regulation of financial markets are rife. At the same time, the 'war on terror' serves to justify ever-more militarisation of all spheres of life. Wars are waged to secure new markets, transport routes and resources. New techniques of governance are emerging within a logic of waging war against who- or whatever cannot be made profitable.

October 22, 2008 By John Gibler, Indypendent , Z Net

On October 27, 2006, Brad Will stood on Juarez Avenue in the municipality of Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca, Mexico. He was filming a violent clash between armed, civilian-clad municipal police and officials and members of the Oaxaca Peoples' Popular Assembly, or APPO.

Brad traveled to Oaxaca in early October 2006 to report on the protest movement led by the state teachers union that sought to oust governor Ulises Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, after his failed attempt to beat and arrest striking teachers during a June 14 pre-dawn raid.

Brad stood amongst the APPO protesters and other journalists, filming down the length of Juarez Avenue where the armed officials were firing at the protesters. Brad was shot and fell to the ground, his camera still running and having recorded the sound of the shot that hit him. Brad was shot from straight on, just below the chest, and yet his killer does not appear in the camera frame at the moment of the gunshot. Brad died on the way to the hospital. He had been shot twice.

BREAKING NEWS For Immediate Release
October 12, 2008

Rail Blockade Disrupts CP Rail’s Olympic Spirit Train
“Six Nations and solidarity activists resist Olympic theft of Indigenous
land, ecological destruction, and attacks on the poor”

Toronto, Ontario – Moments ago, a group of activists occupied Canadian
Pacific (CP) Railway’s train tracks by locking themselves down to the
tracks and hanging banners off of the rail overpass on highway 27 near
Elder Mills. The protest was organized in solidarity with the Olympics
Resistance Network (ORN) and their call to disrupt CP’s “Spirit Train”
that is traveling across Canada. Directions to the blockade site can be
found at the bottom of this release.

“We are here today to show the world what the Olympics really stands
for; capitalist greed and colonialist theft of Indigenous lands” said
Winnie Small. They continued, “In stark contrast to Canada’s cherished
reputation as a human rights advocate, our First Nations live in abject
poverty; casualties of Canada’s apartheid policy refusal to respect
Indigenous rights to their own land.”

The following excellent text is from the No One Is Illegal Montreal blog:

This coming Saturday at 2pm at Parc Pilon in Montreal-Nord, a diverse cross-section of Montreal groups and individuals are coming together to denounce police brutality as part of a child-friendly demonstration. This is a crucial protest for all those who oppose poverty, racism and police brutality, as well as support autonomous, grassroots organizing for real justice and dignity.

It comes just two months after the killing of Fredy Villaneuva in Montreal-Nord, one year after the tasering death of Quilem Registre in St-Michel, and more than two years after the unexplained shooting death of Anas Bennis in Côte-des-neiges. It comes in a context where 43 people have been killed by the bullets or electric shocks of the Montreal police in just 21 years.

There are three main demands for this Saturday’s demonstration: 1) a public and independent inquiry into the death of Fredy Villaneuva; 2) an end to racial profiling and to police abuses and impunity; 3) the recognition of the principle that as long as there is economic inequality there will be social insecurity.

DERAIL THE SPIRIT OF THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT TRAIN
ALL OUT ON OCTOBER 13 - THANKSGIVING MONDAY

MEET AT 12NOON !SHARP!
CORNER OF FRONT AND BAY/YORK (south-west corner)
FREE TRANSPORTATION
EMAIL NOONEISILLEGAL@RISEUP.NET FOR SEAT CONFIRMATION
OR AT COOKSVILLE STATION AT 1PM

On October 13, 2008, the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway)'s 'SpiritTrain' will be arriving at Cooksville GO Transit Station in Mississauga, here to continue its goal of spreading pre-Olympic "spirit".

The Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 are appropriating indigenous land, marginalizing the urban poor and exploiting migrant workers.

The 2010 Olympics spirit that this train carries is a spirit of racism and corporate greed. This spirit has met with opposition in each of its stops across the country.

This spirit of oppression needs to be met with our spirit of resistance.

When it stops in Mississauga, come out with pots, pans, whistles, flags and placards. As most of Canada gives thanks for the ongoing genocide of indigenous peoples on Turtle Island, we urge all allies to mobilize their communities to disrupt the Spirit Train in solidarity with the call for Indigenous sovereignty.

To confirm a spot or to share your solidarity, please email
nooneisillegal@riseup.net before Sunday, 12 October.

NO OLYMPICS ON STOLEN NATIVE LAND!

For further information, see: http://no2010.com/node/18

Carolina S. Romero 27 Aug 2008 18:36 GMT (translated by Carolina S. Romero), Indymedia.

“We demand security against kidnapping, too!”

Yesterday, outside the Molino de Flores prison, about 70 members of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) of San Salvador Atenco and members of The Other Campaign shouted out their rejection of the brutal new sentences in the Atenco case while the Zapatista Lawyers went inside to file an appeal. Demonstrators called to the state police (ASES) guarding the gate: “How can you look your own children in the face? They’re poor, like us. What if they turn out to be rebels? Are you going to murder, rape, and torture them, too?”
And... voilá! Leaving the prison, the lawyer Juan de Dios Hernández reported that Judge Alberto Cervantes, who determined the new sentences, has been replaced. On charges of kidnapping? Conspiracy? Corruption? Ineptitude? None of the above. He was never anything but a vile prosecutor disguised as a judge who had his little deal worked out with the statewide mafia headed by Governor Enrique Peña Nieto. He did the dirty work he was charged with, endorsing and prolonging the kidnapping of Ignacio del Valle and all the other compañeros that took place in Atenco and Texcoco on May 3 and 4, 2006 and has continued ever since then.