[Montréal, Québec, Canada -14°C] Yesterday, January 19, 2012, the “group” Anonymous (twitter: @anonops) returned to the public scene in response to the US Department of Justice shutting down of file-sharing MegaUpload’s website. They didn’t just shut down and disrupted a few minor websites, they went after the Department of Justice, Motion Picture Association of America, Universal Music, Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation, Recording Industry Association of America, Federal Bureau of Investigation, HADOPI law site, U.S. Copyright Office, Universal Music France, Senator Christopher Dodd, Vivendi France, The White House, BMI, Warner Music Group.
Why were these particular sites targeted? Because of their support or influence toward the US Congress vote for the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA and the Senates vote for the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The online protest movement against these two pieces of legislation was massive on January 18, when websites like Wikipedia, Google, WordPress, and many others went on strike to voice their opposition to the proposed censorship laws.
[Montréal, Québec, Canada -3°C] Occupy Montréal is not in its 35th day with below zero temperatures. As other occupations in other Canadian and American cities get violently evicted from their encampment, Montréal’s “indignated” continue onward. Support from people who are not actively living on-site is evident in the postcard below. the Occupy Montreal have also mapped out their encampment revealing an organized collectivity, despite the challenges.
Montréal, Québec, Canada 22°C] CBC News correspondent Nahlah Ayed and Radio-Canada’s Ahmed Kouaou and Danny Braün spent two weeks documenting life in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut whose 12,000 inhabitants are among the oldest group of refugees in the world. The web documentary introduces you to some of the remarkable people they met there.
Palestinian refugee camps exist throughout the Middle East, but Shatila is one of the poorest and most densely populated. More than 60 years after it was established, its residents remain in limbo, with no state of their own and few rights within Lebanon, raising generation after generation in a place never intended to be permanent.
The website’s interactive, street-level interface allows you to follow some of their personal stories from inside the one-square-kilometre camp and experience firsthand Shatila’s maze of cramped, dark tenements, narrow alleyways and shabby infrastructure.
A Web Documentary _ Exile Without End: Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon
(Carnival Against Capitalism - Protest the FTAA / Carnaval contre le capitalisme - Non à la ZLÉA. Une manifestation festive/A festive protest. CLAC - Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes Affiche/poster - offset - 56 x 40,5 cm - Rocky - 2001)
[Montréal, Québec, Canada 7°C] For the 10th anniversary of the April 2001 Summit of the Americas protests in Québec City against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), here is a selection of posters related to the FTAA (and other related) protests, taken from the book: Picture This!: Posters of Social Movements in Québec (1966-2007)by Jean-Pierre Boyer, Jean Desjardins and David Widgington. The book was published in 2007 by Cumulus Press. Each of these posters are archived with over 20,000 others in the impressive collection at the Centre for Research in Popular Imagery (CRIP).
À l’occasion du 10ième anniversaire des manifestations contre la Zone de libre-Échange des Amériques (ZLÉA) au Sommet des Amériques en avril 2001 à Québec, voici une sélection d’affiches revisitant les manifestations la ZLÉA tirées du livre Pour changer le monde : Affiches des mouvements sociaux au Québec (1966-2007)par Jean-Pierre Boyer, Jean Desjardins et David Widgington, édité en 2008 par Lux Éditeur. Ces affiches proviennent de l’impressionnant corpus de plus de 20 000 archives du Centre de recherche en imagerie populaire (CRIP).
Une modeste contribution à ce 10ième anniversaire vient de Bruno Dubuc qui a mis en ligne au complet le long métrage Le Gambit du fou (2002,) un film indépendant à petit budget get qui n’a rien à envier aux blockbusters hollywoodiens : avec sa finale apocalyptique faisant appel à 6000 comédiens-policiers et plus de 50 000 figurants-manifestants, il reconstitue le Sommet des Amériques de Québec avec un réalisme troublant…
Le gambit du fou sera diffusé en 4 parties durant tout le mois d’avril 2011 sur le site Enfin les vacances. Et ça commence cette semaine, avec l’exposition de cette intrigue dont notre pauvre D. Ranger se serait bien passé…
[Montréal, Québec, Canada -2°C] The Concordia Initiative for a Conflict-Free Campus (CCIC) works “towards consumer and student awareness surrounding conflict minerals as well as amendments to Concordia University’s purchasing policy for electronic products.” On March 22, I attended the CCIC’s panel discussion: The Concordia International Forum on Conflict Minerals.
(poster for the Concordia Forum on Conflict Minerals)
The four panelists offered a diverse perspective of the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. they provided inside to conditions in the mines, the militias that get rich of the minerals, international government collaboration, corporate complicity and our insatiable thirst for the minerals like coltan, in all of our electronic gadgetry.
Dr. Leander Schneider is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. His research focuses on the politics of development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Schneider provided a brief historical background to the conflict in the DRCongo. He also offered a visual, geographic view of the country and its neighbours and the location of many of the mines that finance much of the conflict, particularly in the North Kivu region that borders on Uganda and Rwanda. Listen to his conference presentation INTRODUCTION podcast below
The second speaker was Frank Poulsen, director of the documentary film, Blood in the Mobile. It is the story about how our phones are connected to illegal mining in the DRCongo. Every time we communicate through our cell phones we are associated with the crimes in that country. Blood in the Mobile won the Cinema for Peace Justice Award on Feb 14, 2011 at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. The film is having a special presentation in May 2011 at Toronto’s HotDocs Film Festival. Watch the trailer here and Listen to his conference presentation FILMMAKER podcast below
Paul Dewar is NDP federal member of parliament for Ottawa Centre who initiated Bill C-571, also referred to as the “Trade in conflict-Minerals Act”. Bill C-571 is an Act respecting corporate practices relating to the purchase of minerals from the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Bill C-571 is designed to force Canadian corporations to practice due diligence to ensure that they are not purchasing conflict minerals by reporting on the supply chain of the minerals. Although Dewar stated that the bill will not stop violence, rape and conflict in the DRCongo, it is a first step to creating a bill that can later be amended to more stringent regulation. The bill was tabled with a first reading on Sept 30, 2010 and has yet to go to a vote in parliament. Upcoming elections may kill the bill altogether. Listen to his conference presentation BILL C-571 below
Kambale Musavuli giving presentation at 2011 Concordia Forum on Conflict Minerals
Kambalé Musavuli is a Congolese activist, spokesperson and student coordinator with the Friends of the Congo, advocacy organization based in Washington, DC whose mission is “to raise the consciousness of the world community on the challenge of the Congo and support Congolese institutions in bringing about a peaceful and lasting change.” His presentation was the most dynamic. It is clear that he has travelled widely and presented the work of Friends of the Congo at university campuses and elsewhere many times. He gave an alternative history of the DRCongo and provided a framework of ways for people to act to bring about change. Listen to his conference presentation FRIENDS OF CONGO below
Alain Deneault, author of Noir Canada: pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, a book whose authors and publisher received are being sued for a combined total of $11 million by Barrick Gold and Banro Corporation in a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) in an attempt to quash freedom of expression and prevent public discussion about abusive and highly criticized mining practices in Africa by these two Canadian mining giants. Deneault is also the author of OffShore: Paradis fiscaux et souveraineté criminelle, also published by Les Édition Écosociété. The English language edition Offshore: Tax Havens and the Rule of global Crime is expected to be published later this year by The New Press. Listen to his conference presentation CANADA AS MINING HAVEN below
