CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

RCMP off the land

This is unconscionable. The RCMP are violently harassing Wet’suwet’en land defenders again for fighting against the sovereignty-violating Coastal Gaslink pipeline.

We’ve heard reports directly from land defenders that drilling for CGL is imminent — and the RCMP’s specialized unit CIRG (Community-Industry Response Group), is ramping up their enforcement. They have a history of using excessive force and violence against Indigenous people — all in the name of profit.

act.leadnow.ca

37th annual Mayworks Festival

When: May 1st – 28th

As we organize this year’s festival, we are moved and inspired by the networks of care celebrated through the work of the artists in our festival program. They celebrate how working people extend care to each other through generations, how this care is forged in resistance, and how it is shaped and remembered through story.

We’re excited to return to in-person programming while continuing to offer digital art and online events.

mayworks.ca

Reimagined Future of Food Security

When: Thursday May 19th, 12pm

Over 5.6 million Canadians live with food insecurity, hunger, and poverty every day of their lives! With the impacts of Covid-19, rising inflation, and climate change across the supply chain, the actual number of people living with hunger is likely a lot higher than reported.

eventbrite.ca

Poetry Night: Wahriz, Barrett, Nguyen, Keteku

When: May 19th, 7pm

HAPPENING Multicultural Poetry Nights celebrate poets who, among other things, identify as newcomers, refugees, or immigrants.

Despite the fact that poetry inhabits many geographical locations and speaks in different accents and languages, Literature continues to be the most exclusive of arts and the most resistant against outsiders. An immigrant’s linguistic, cultural, and political accents mark them as alien, and hence, undesirable company or colleague among fellow writers and poets.

Readings: Wahriz, Barrett, Nguyen, Keteku
Interview: Charles C Smith

Facebook event

Book launch: Breaking Barriers

When: Friday May 20th, 7pm (doors 6:30pm)
Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St

Join writer Alexandra C. Yeboah and illustrator Anna Jane McIntyre alongside CBTU President Yolanda McClean for a reading and discussion on the questions that grounded and guided the creation of this book. All registered attendees will receive a free copy of Breaking Barriers at the event.

eventbrite.ca

Corporate Capital and the Integral State

When: May 24th, 6pm

This book uses the relationship between the American state and General Electric from 1880 to 1980 to develop what Gramsci termed the “integral state.”

General Electric and a Century of American Power – a presentation and discussion with author Steve Maher.

marxedproject.org

Film Screening: The Ties That Bind

When: May 26th, 7pm

In Honour of Asian Heritage Month in May, the Foundation to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada invites you to join the “Ties That Bind” film screening.

Between 1881 and 1885, over 17,000 Chinese men came to Canada to work as labourers on the construction of the western section of the transcontinental railroad. Over 4,000 lost their lives due to unsafe working conditions, landslides, and premature blastings.

google.com

Summer School: The Climate Crisis and Future of Work

When: June 6-10th

Want to know how to navigate climate change and its implications in your work and your organization?

Climate change represents an epochal change, exerting multiple disruptive effects on the world of work that are often hard to assess. This is why we are offering you the opportunity to take advantage of an innovative in-depth one-week training (6-10 June, 2022) taking place simultaneously at the University of Toronto (in English) and at the Université de Montréal (in French).

Places are limited, so we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity as soon as possible. English-language activities are available in Toronto and French-language activities in Montreal.

The cost of registration is $425, which includes refreshments and lunch during the week (for in person attendees). Single day registrations are available for $85/per person.

crimt.net

Unfinished Business: The Hassan Diab Affair Continues

By Michelle Weinroth

Many in Ottawa may remember the day he returned to Canada from France. A crowd of longstanding supporters, his wife, and little children received him with open arms and crimson flowers. It was a euphoric moment. Dr. Hassan Diab, the man who was falsely accused of carrying out the 1980 bombing of the Paris synagogue on rue Copernic, who was wrongly extradited in 2014 on the basis of an egregiously flawed handwriting analysis, and who spent more than three years in solitary confinement without charge or formal trial, was finally released on January 12, 2018, from France’s Fleury-Mérogis Prison.

Source: The Bullet No. 2616

Canadian Diaspora Condemns Anti-Muslim Violence in India

By India Civil Watch International

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the recent wave of violence against the Muslim community in India unleashed by Hindu right wing groups affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The latest incidents of anti-Muslim violence occurred during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami which concluded on April 10th. The festival comprises a nine day long fast held by Hindu communities during which many of them maintain a vegetarian diet.

Source: The Bullet No. 2617

The Ontario Healthcare Crisis: Election Primer

By Ontario Health Coalition

As the writ was dropped for the June 2 provincial election, the Ontario Health Coalition warned against unprecedented healthcare privatization and called for it to be a key election issue. The Coalition also outlined a set of healthcare priorities for Ontarians. First, on privatization: The Ford government is privatizing an array of healthcare services, including in seniors’ care where 4,500 residents and staff have now died as a result of COVID-19 alone, one of the worst records in the world.

Source: The Bullet No. 2618

The Killing of Shireen Abu Aqleh and Israel’s Increased Use of Arbitrary Lethal Force

By Al-Haq

Al-Haq condemns in the strongest possible terms the direct killing of prominent Palestinian female journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh while on an assignment covering Israeli incursions in Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday 11 May 2022, as well as the injury of her colleague Ali Samoudi, shot in the shoulder with live ammunition by Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF). Al-Haq’s initial field investigation indicates that on the morning of Wednesday 11 May 2022, at approximately 5 am, the IOF raided Jenin refugee camp and attacked the Al Housari family home, firing live ammunition and sound bombs and attacking civilians found therein, under the guise of searching for “wanted” individuals.

Source: The Bullet No. 2619

The Ukraine War Is Accelerating the New Space Race

By John P. Ruehl

Shortly after Russia was sanctioned for invading Ukraine in late February, Russia’s state-run space agency, Roscosmos, announced that it was officially suspending the US from an upcoming Venus exploration mission. Weeks later, on March 17, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the suspension of a joint mission to Mars with Roscosmos, and further said that it would not be taking part in upcoming Roscosmos missions to the moon. These decisions have naturally generated concern across the space industry and political landscape.

Source: The Bullet No. 2620

As the Planet Warms, We Are Sacrificing Lives for Profits

By Sonali Kolhatkar

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently dropped a bombshell announcement that should have garnered news headlines in the major global and US media, but did not. New WMO research concludes that “[t]here is a 50:50 chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial level for at least one of the next five years.”

Source: The Bullet No. 2621