George Galloway Speaks: Free Palestine, Free Afghanistan, Free Speech

Date: Monday, November 22, 2010
 Time: 7:30pm (Doors at 6.30pm)
 Location: St Andrew’s-Wesley United Church (Corner of Burrard & Nelson Street, Vancouver)
Admission: Tickets: $15 / unwaged or low-income $10. Available soon at People’s Coop Bookstore (1391 Commercial Dr.)

Come and hear the person Jason Kenney and his office tried and failed to prevent from speaking in Canada. George Galloway’s Vancouver appearance is part of a 10-day, 10-city pan-Canadian speaking tour.

Organized locally by StopWar.ca Coalition. Co-sponsored by Canadian Boat to Gaza, Seriously Free Speech Committee and UBC-Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights. For more information contact stopwar@resist.ca or call 604.737.1299.

Background:

Eighteen months ago, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney blocked then-British MP George Galloway from Canada, labeling him a terror supporter and a national security risk. At the time, Galloway was scheduled to appear in four Canadian cities on a speaking tour called “Resisting War: from Gaza to Afghanistan.”

Galloway and his supporters protested, saying the move was a crass political attempt to silence criticism of Canadian foreign policy on Afghanistan and Palestine. Weeks before the ban, Galloway had led a humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza as part of an international campaign to break Israel’s illegal blockade.

Galloway and his supporters were vindicated Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley issued his 60-page decision on the matter. (Read more here: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/09/what-galloway-court-decision-means-free-speech-canada).

The Canadian Premiere of “Degrees of Incarceration” (2009)

Date: Sunday, November 21, 2010
 Time: 11:00am
 Location: Vancity Theatre, at 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver.
 Admission: Tickets, which can be purchased online at www.ticketstonight.ca or at the door, cost $7.

The Canadian premiere of “Degrees of Incarceration” (2009), a Palestine-US co-production was directed by Amahl Bishara, will be shown in Vancouver on Sunday, November 21, 2010, at 11am.

Degrees of Incarceration http://degreesofincarceration.com/index.html documents the effects political imprisonment has on a community of Palestinians in the West Bank. More than 6,000 Palestinians, including more than 300 children under the age of 18, are currently in Israeli prisons for political reasons, and over 600,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since 1967. Yet this issue rarely receives the attention many Palestinians believe it deserves. The film introduces viewers to Palestinian mothers, teenagers, children, and community leaders as they strive to support each other through crises of arrest and detention.

This film is part of the 15th Annual Amnesty International Film Festival. For more information about “Degrees of Incarceration” as well as about over 20 other documentaries that will be shown in the festival, consult www.amnestyfilmfest.ca

Fundraiser for the Canadian Boat to Gaza

Date: Friday, Nov. 12, 2010
 Time: 7:00pm
 Location: Unitarian Church, 949 W. 49th (at Oak), Vancouver
Admission: Admission: $10 (limited income) and $15 (regular) Door prizes, Silent Auction – All monies collected will go to the Canadian Boat to Gaza http://canadaboatgaza.org

Facebook Event Link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164447990251209

Featuring the Vancouver Premiere:
SEVEN DAYS FROM A GAZA DIARY – A riveting personal account of the first seven days of Israel’s 2008-09 military assault on Gaza, written by a young woman living under the bombing. The first part of 27-year-old Khulood Ghanem’s diary has been adapted for reading performance by Seattle playwright Edward Mast.

Also Featuring:
Victoria activist and Mavi Marmara survivor, Kevin Neish
This is your chance to concretely help the people of Gaza. Commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians by supporting this people-to-people project.

Sponsored by:

  • Canada Palestine Association (www.cpavancouver.org)
  • Social Justice Committee, Unitarian Church of Vancouver

Racism on the Buses in Greater Vancouver‏

By Hanna Kawas. The following open letter was sent to Coast Mountain Bus Company regarding the unjust firing of a Lebanese Canadian activist, Marwan Marwan.

Canada Palestine Association also holds the current federal government responsible for this frightening increase in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria; this government has been promoting and sanctioning this racism by its unconditional and blind support for Israel and its opposition to the Arab and Muslim peoples’ liberation and control of their resources and destiny. On March 21, 2009, we warned in our statement “Jason Kenney is Promoting Racism”, that such policies will promote racism. We stated:

“Mr. Kenney, his government and his Zionist friends should be held responsible for any increase in anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism and any Islamophobic act.”

Open Letter to Coast Mountain Bus Company

The following article in The Tyee “Off the Bus: Fired Driver Says He’s a Victim of Politics” (http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/08/04/Fired_Driver_Victim/) has recently been brought to our attention. From all indications in the article, we in the Canada Palestine Association are deeply concerned and distressed by the firing of bus driver Marwan Marwan. It appears to us that your actions could regrettably be part of the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria that is engulfing this country (and continent) with no regard for basic international standards of human rights, or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, not to mention simple human decency and integrity.

We further feel that if Marwan was disciplined for his political beliefs about the situation in the “Middle East”, then what happened was motivated by bigotry and Islamophobia.

We feel that Marwan’s human rights were violated; he, our community and his family, including his pregnant wife and three children, were slandered and collectively punished.

Your company professes integrity in its corporate statement, saying “Integrity – We will act honestly and with integrity at all times. We will treat others with dignity and respect and will conduct ourselves in a manner that will instill and foster trust.” (http://www.coastmountainbus.com/aboutus/statements.asp)

Therefore, we call on Coast Mountain Company to:

  • Make public its findings, as we are sure you agree that racism is everybody’s business.
  • Apologize publicly to Marwan, as well as the Lebanese, Arab and Muslim communities for this racist incident.
  • Fire all those who are found responsible or complicit in this bigotry which we hope is an isolated incident in the company.

We hope that the lessons of what happened to Rosa Parks 55 years ago on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama will not be overlooked in your decisions regarding a fair settlement to Marwan’s case.

We are waiting to hear from you and we will make your answer available to the public on our website.

Hanna Kawas,
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
https://cpavancouver.org/
cc.
Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) http://www.caf.ca/
Canadian Arab Justice Committee (Adala), Vancouver http://www.adala.ca/
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal http://www.bchrt.bc.ca/
Canadian Human Rights Commission http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/
Amnesty International, Canada http://www.amnesty.ca/

(The above open letter is endorsed by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, UBC)