PEACE CARAVAN HEADS FOR AKWESASNE

MNN. June 28, 2009. To support the Mohawks of Akwesasne who refuse to allow the border guards to carry guns at the CBSA check point, a Peace Caravan will be arriving on Wednesay, June 30. It will start in Six Nations and head east on the 401 to the Cornwall exit. The Six Nations police will be escorting the caravan over the International Bridge to Kahwenoke, Cornwall Island, to the tent site next to the former Canada Customs at approx. 3pm. There may be over 200 cars plus 4 buses. Hundreds of supporters are expected. Many are arriving on Tues. June 29th. All are welcome to stay for July 1st to hear speakers and take part in socials.

For those coming from the US side or making donations, they may go to or cross over from Loran Thompson's Dock or Mac's Marina at the old church in St. Regis, off Highway 37 to Cornwall Island.

Bring your camping gear.
NEEDED: water, food and money. Funds would be greatly appreciated: Go to www.akwesasnewomensfire.com and donate online. For donations by check or money order please send to: Akwesasne Womens Fire, 936 Island Rd, Akwesasne ON K6H 5R7

NOTE: Please disregard the unsigned June 27th press release from the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne which tried to redirect supporters to Ottawa. [613-936-1548 bwhite@akwesasne.ca]. Health Canada also gave a dire warning for Indigenous communities to stay away from large social gatherings to stop the spread of swine flu. Former Chief Nona Benedict responded: "Does this mean July 1 Fireworks are canceled, as well as all future lacrosse games at the arena and the Akwesasne Pow-wow?"

Canada is reviving the old tactic of disinformation, intimidation and threats. We are in the right. We don't want guns! This is a time to negotiate from a position of strength, not fear or weakness. We can't have appeasers make deals behind our backs. If we start giving away piecemeal, eventually we will wind up with nothing.

The Mohawks are obviously not going to break the peace that has pervaded the situation from the beginning to now. The Peacemaker Dekanawida and our ancestors will be proud of the message of peace that we have maintained. If anybody causes trouble, it will be outside agitators, police forces, military, undercover agents and professional trouble makers. We won‚t fall for it. We will protect each other.

We thank everybody for supporting us.
Posted by: Kahentinetha MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Go to MNN "BORDER" category for more stories.

Earth Song - an MJ song corporate America doesn't want you to hear

Caravan to Cuba Send Off Event

a note from janine -- i'll be leaving with the caravan from the peace arch border park (vancouver bc/blaine washington) on july 5th, and then blogging from cubajourney.blogspot.com as i did last year on my first caravan. it was such an incredible experience, i just gotta do it again!!

20th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba - Breaking the blockade, delivering humanitarian aid and standing in solidarity with Cuba.

5:30 potluck - 7:30pm presentation - Friday, July 3
@ BCGEU Hall 2994 Douglas, Victoria.

U.S. Pastors for Peace representative - Lisa Valanti will give an update on the Obama’s US/Cuba relations, what this caravan represents and why people should be in solidarity with Cuba.

Lisa has traveled to Cuba over twenty times - each time refusing the mandatory licence from the U.S. Treasury Dept. She participated in the 24 day hunger strike on the “Little Yellow School Bus” and the 90 day “Fast for Life”. She is on the executive and founder of the US-Cuba Sister Cities Assn., the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister City Project, the Pittsburgh CUBA Coalition and others. Lisa is a consultant to the University of Pittsburgh's Semester-at-Sea bringing the largest number of US students (over 700) ever to go to Cuba.

Join us to hear this dynamic, motivated guest for the Caravan’s farewell send off.

Admission by donation.

Sponsored by the Goods for Cuba Campaign 250-743-2994

in victoria, walter mcginnis can check your home for electromagnetic radiation (mcginniselectric.ca)

BC government compensates unions for breaking community social services agreements

June 25, 2009

Four unions have reached a settlement with the provincial government for community social services workers who lost their job security provisions under the BC Liberals’ 2002 contract-breaking legislation – Bill 29.

The total settlement of $425,000 will be divided among the Hospital Employees’ Union, the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees B.C., and the Health Sciences Association of B.C.

HEU’s share of the settlement is about $45,000 which is based on the number of members we have in community social services. The union has convened a committee to make recommendations as to how HEU should use the monies to collectively benefit all members working in the sector.

In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the charter right to freedom of association had been infringed upon because Bill 29 arbitrarily eliminated key provisions contained in the unions’ collective agreements. Following that ruling, the B.C. government paid a settlement of $85 million to compensate health care workers, who were directly impacted by Bill 29.

At issue under this latest settlement was the B.C. government’s removal of job security provisions from negotiated collective agreements that specifically affected community social services workers.

No 2010 Olympics !!! You're invited to join the resistance ...

Tune in to the Winds of Change radio programme today ... I'll be speaking with a native youth representative about their resistance to the 2010 Olympics, and with Lee Hall from Friends of Animals about the trophy hunting of African animals in America. Listen Live at CFUV.UVic.ca starting at 11 am pst or wait for the podcast to appear at RelativeNewz.ca.

Resist 2010: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics. (HIGH RES) from BurningFist Media on Vimeo.

Friends of Animals Win: African Antelope Shielded From Safari Club and Trophy Tourists

WASHINGTON D.C., June 23, 2009 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- A decision has been issued in FRIENDS OF ANIMALS v. KEN SALAZAR (Civil Action 04-01660): The Interior Department’s US Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by issuing a blanket exemption allowing trophy hunting at U.S. ranches of endangered African antelopes.

Friends of Animals (“FoA”) and others sued the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of Interior on the grounds that the Service unlawfully exempted US-bred scimitar-horned oryx, addax, and dama gazelles from prohibitions against harming, harassing, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing, or collecting endangered species.

Section 10 of the ESA allows some uses for “scientific purposes or to enhance the propagation or survival of the affected species,” if the government publishes notice and allows for public comment for each “good faith” application for an exemption or permit at every stage of the proceeding. It does not provide a means to authorize the sport hunting of these animals.

The antelopes at issue are native to northern Africa. Today, addax and dama gazelles are nearly wiped out, due to hunting, war, desertification of habitat, human settlement and agribusiness. Scimitar-horned oryx are virtually extinct; most live on Texas hunting ranches, where they are bred. In 2005, following a Friends of Animals lawsuit, these antelopes were listed as endangered, but the government issued a rule creating a loophole for captive-bred antelope, claiming “captive breeding in the United States has contributed significantly to the conservation of these species.”

“This is disingenuous,” said Lee Hall, legal director for Friends of Animals, noting that the Service’s exemption follows similar fragmentations of ESA listings, resulting in removal of protections for gray wolves, Gunnison's prairie dogs, and Queen Charlotte goshawks for political and commercial purposes.

Under Bush’s leadership, the federal government has eroded the Act’s protections to cater to local governments and special interests. In July 2008, for instance, the Service removed protections for Preble's meadow jumping mice in Wyoming while keeping the Colorado populations on the endangered species list -- so protections would end at the state line.

“The Obama administration must reject this fragmentation of the Endangered Species Act,” said Hall. “We’re glad the party’s over for ranches that allow hunters to kill antelopes, typically pimping the oryx for around $3500 each, and the gazelles and addax for more.”

The Endangered Species Act’s subsection 10(c), said the court, shows that Congress intended an individualized permitting process, to provide meaningful public participation. Yet advocates have been kept from even finding out which ranches were operating under the loophole. The Safari Club, which intervened as a defendant, said advocates could find their information on the Internet.

But US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. wrote, “Blanket exemptions under regulations are anathema to this intention because they allow the FWS to permit a great number of exemptions at once without providing the detailed information to the public that would be required in an individualized analysis.”

Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral expressed appreciation for the outstanding work of the University of Denver Environmental Law Clinic. Feral added, “We are heartened by the message the federal court has sent this week against exploitation. Why would the government allow the hunting of these antelope any more than they’d allow the hunting of a chimpanzee?”

“We’d like the federal government to protect the animals currently in captivity, who number about 2000 or more, from harm at the hands of hunting enterprises.”

www.friendsofanimals.org

Contacts:

Priscilla Feral, President, Friends of Animals, Darien, Connecticut
Current tel: (at Primarily Primates sanctuary): 830.755.4616, or mobile: 203.219.0428. E-mail: feral@friendsofanimals.org

Lee Hall, Legal Director, Friends of Animals,
Tel: 610.964.0090. Email: leehall@friendsofanimals.org

Mike Harris, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic,
University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Denver, Colorado
Tel: 303.871.6140, or mobile: 720.841.0400. Email: mharris@law.du.edu

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