Rita MacNeil, who went on to become a popular singer, was named in an RCMP document on a 1972 feminist gathering, Feminist singer of 'women's lib songs,' among dozens under scrutiny in early '70s

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press, August 5, 2008

OTTAWA–RCMP spies infiltrated the women's movement in the early 1970s, monitoring marches and rallies to keep an eye on feminists including Rita MacNeil, who would become a much-admired Maritime songstress.

An undercover source reporting on a March 1972 gathering of women's liberation groups in Winnipeg compiled biographical sketches of several delegates, noting MacNeil was in attendance from the Toronto Women's Caucus.

"She's the one who composes and sings women's lib songs," says the RCMP memo, portions of which remain secret.

MacNeil, who lent her musical talents to the feminist cause before turning to music full-time, was among dozens of women from across the country who came under Mountie scrutiny, new research reveals.

The entertainer was not immediately available for comment, nor was her manager.

Historians Steve Hewitt, a Canadian lecturer at the University of Birmingham in England, and Christabelle Sethna, of the University of Ottawa, sifted through hundreds of pages of declassified files detailing the RCMP Security Service's interest in women's groups that began flowering in the late 1960s.

11th Hour Decision: Court of Appeal Throws Out Publication Ban Again

(Friday, July 18th, 2008) After a decision by a Napanee judge, rendered at 10:30 am this morning, lifting a publication ban on Tyendinaga Mohawk Shawn Brant's preliminary hearing, Crown attorneys attempted to have the effect of the decision stayed, but failed.

At midday, only Crown prosecutors (no defence lawyers) appeared before a judge of the Court of Appeal, and convinced the judge to issue a stay. The media was ordered to "immediately cease reporting on evidence heard at the preliminary inquiry and remove all related reports from websites".

Then, at shortly after 5pm, lawyers for the CBC and Mr. Brant appeared before the same Appeals judge, along with Crown counsel. After substantial submissions, the judge lifted her earlier stay and dismissed the stay application altogether, ordering the publication ban lifted once more.

END THE WAR AGAINST THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES

We, the organizations, collectives, movements, networks, communities, peoples, families and individuals who are adherents or sympathizers of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, women, men, children and elders of the entire country declare:

1. For almost a year, the harrasment, provocations, repression, militarization and aggressions against the indigenous zapatista communities have been worsening. The military incursion of this past June 4th is only the most visible sign of a strategy that seeks to attack the social base of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the heart of indigenous autonomy: the land and territory. We condemn and reject these actions and demand that they stop immediately.

2. This new offensive is articulated once again by paramilitary groups and by the State Government of Chiapas, as well as by the Federal Government. It is a political-military strategy that seeks to back zapatismo into a corner. Complicit in this strategy is the silence of the mass media and everyone who remains silent before the repression through which our zapatista sisters and brothers are living. We will not be silent. We demand an immediate halt to this offensive against the zapatista project, which represents an alternative for the peoples of the world.

ILLEGAL DEVELOPMENT OF “KINGSPAN" ON HAUDENOSAUNEE TERRITORY

MNN. July 14, 2008. 10:40 a.m. This morning the Brantford City police arrested a Six Nations Indigenous person at the construction site at Fenn Ridge in Brantford. At the same time Ontario Provincial Police are gathering on Highway 403, making way for cement trucks to enter the illegal construction site. More cruisers are arriving on the scene. They have laid spike belts on the road to keep Indigenous people on the outside. Ambulances and paddy wagons are arriving. There are men, women and children inside the site gates. All the workers have left.

This land is part of the Haudenosaunee Territory which was never surrendered by the Indigenous owners. This Indigenous land is being illegally used as collateral to raise money from the public on the Irish and other stock exchanges and constitutes fraud.

Kingspan manufactures insulation and is building a $4 billion plant on Haudenosaunee territory without consultation with or permission from the land owners.

Gene Murtagh, CEO, Kingspan Group
PLC, Dublin Road, Kingscourt Co.,
Cavan, Ireland; +353 (0) 42 969 8000;
admn@kingspan.ie

The Six Nations people had agreed to let the company remove all their equipment on this day. Instead the

This article was originally in published in Spanish - La Jornada 30th June 2008 by the well-respected Oaxacan activist and founder of the University of the Earth, Gustavo Esteva; he was one of the EZLN's advisors in their negotiations with the Mexican government.

We need to recognise and acknowledge the grave seriousness of the current situation, which cannot be overstated. Neither should we hide the fact that evil triumphs when people shrug their shoulders at it and return quietly to their daily activities. Now is the time to act. Only with concerted and effective mobilisation can we prevent the disaster that now threatens us.

In November 2007, 'Peace with Democracy', a group of independent thinkers who cannot be accused of partisan or dogmatic exaggeration, and who stand out for the calmness and solidity of their judgements, stated "Mexico is in a state of emergency". They presented many facts and reasons to substantiate their warning.

July, 07 2008, By No! G8 Legal Team -- NG8LT

* Arrestees are still in jail and face years in prison
* Local organizers may face arrests
* Arrestees and organizers friends and families are facing harassment and possible house raids by police

Activists and organizers are asking local groups and individuals to call, e-mail, visit and protest at Japanese embassies over the unjust arrests, detentions, deportations, and repression occurring around counter-G8 mobilization in Japan.

Japanese police continue to escalate repression against protesters of the Group of 8 Summit. This is part of a growing trend of the suppression of human rights in Japan. Yesterday's demonstration of approximately five thousand was lined with, and sometimes boxed in by, several thousand police in full riot gear. At least four people - including a Reuters reporter - were arrested. In one arrest, the police shattered the window of a sound truck and dragged out the driver. Hours after the demonstration ended the legal team had already received numerous reports of police misconduct.

To the people of Mexico:
To the EZLN:
To the Other Campaign:
To the International Community:
To the media:

As members of diverse collectives and organizations in different corners of the World, we wish to express our outrage and complete repudiation of the renewed military invasion of Zapatista communities on June 4th 2008.

Numerous reports from the International Civil Commission of Human Rights Observation (CCIODH), the Centre for Political Analysis and Socio-Economic Investigations (CAPISE) and Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center have raised concerns regarding the continued and increasing hostility from the Mexican Government towards the Zapatistas. In these investigations it is clear that this dirty war relies upon a system that involves paramilitary organizations, institutions such as the Agrarian Reform Secretary (SRA) and both Federal (PAN) and State (PRD) Governments, as well as the military occupation surrounding Zapatista territory since 1994.

by Eliza Ruiz Jaimes, translated by Kristin Bricker
Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca, June 21, 2008

Supporters of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO in its Spanish initials) were hit with rocks thrown by a group of thugs hired by the municipal president of Zaachila, Noe Pérez Martínez, as well as municipal police, who used stones, firecrackers, and firearms.

With barricades, residents prevented the state governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO), from entering the community, where he was supposed to tour.

The protesters accused Natalio Pérez Tomás--father of the current municipal president--of having fired a weapon: "He fired directly at the crowd, fortunately he didn't hurt anyone." The tension between the groups was brought under control after assistant Secretary of State Joaquín Rodríguez Palacios' appeal to the APPO to control itself.

The governor had to cancel the signing of the State-Municipal agreement and the start of public works in the municipality. Various people were wounded during the violence, including Asrael Torres Carmona, 71 years old, who believes that the repressive force is concentrated in the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI in its Spanish initials).

Fray Bartolome de Las Casas, Human Rights Center
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas on June 11, 2008

Military and police accompanied by civilians enter indigenous communities in Chiapas and Guerrero.

Aggressions against residents and persecution of members of dissident social organizations during the incursions are reported
Since the beginning of this year, this Human Rights Center has received denunciations of military and police incursions in various communities in Chiapas and Guerrero in a logic of counterinsurgency owed to the fact that said operations operate in a manner of mixed military and police forces along with civilian actors from the same communities, establishing deployment tactics in the territories inhabited by a civilian population organized around just social demands. The testimonies of the assaulted residents are clear and permit the documentation of the harassment of the civilian population, by means of unlawful entry into properties, physical and verbal aggressions, as well as videotaping and photographing of people and places in the assaulted communities.

by Rafael Landerreche, translation and footnotes by Kristin Bricker
La Jornada - November 10, 2007

Las Abejas from Chenalhó is an organization that professes non-violent principles. Time and time again they've declared that they don't want revenge for the Acrtal massacre, but that they won't give up their demand for justice so that incidents like that don't happen again.

It couldn't be a better time to review some tragic lessons from the Acteal case, since an agreement with the United States government known officially as the Merida Initiative is being cooked up right now.