Articles

Hats off to the hat that’s finally on that dastardly oil pipe. We can all rest assured that the Gulf of Mexico will be as good as new in no time. Indeed, word is coming out that clean up efforts are being hampered by… a lack of oil to clean up. The dreaded standoff against a monolithic adversary has come to nought— the oil has dissipated, hooray! This development can only be described (…)

Canadian activists talk about their experiences onboard the Mavi Marmara and announce North American ships to depart for Gaza. Addressing a mixed crowd including Palestinian and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish supporters at a conference in Montreal on Sunday, Canadian activists Kevin Neish and Farooq Burney, who participated in the “Free Gaza” flotilla, announced that they are planning to join (…)

A month ago, thousands of chanting voices echoed between downtown towers in the core of Canada’s largest city, with people reclaiming the streets, facing down thousands of armed police — a dignified challenge to the closed-door G20 summit. Brightly coloured protest flags flew in the summer winds, while people confronted a billion-dollar security machine aimed at stifling dissent. Behind (…)

“The idea is definitely to bring people together.” Socially conscious rapper Lou Piensa chats with the AIJ. Lou Piensa is co-founder of the multi-cultural, multi-lingual, eclectic hip-hop super-group called Nomadic Massive. Montreal’s own will be playing at this year’s Journées des Alternatives on August 28th. I spoke with Lou about hip-hop and activism. How do you think music can (…)

After years of grassroots pressure, the UN General Assembly will debate a resolution on the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation. Maude Barlow, former senior advisor on water to the president of the UN General Assembly, has described the lack of access to clean water as the “most violated human right.” Currently, 1.2 billion people have no access to safe drinking water (…)

It’s summertime and therefore I’ve been in programming mode. After watching dozens and dozens of docs (and a few fiction), I thought I’d pass along some great summer flicks to cool off with, while ratcheting up the politico-meter at the same time. GASLAND: Part banjo-anthem, part agit-prop, part road-trip and oh yes, part burning faucets. This well-researched and extremely creative exposé (…)

The Israeli Knesset voted on July 13th to strip of MK Haneen Zoubi of key parliamentary privileges as punishment for her involvement in the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy, in which Israeli naval forces killed nine international activists, wounded dozens and hundreds were detained and deported. 
 
 "You are punishing me out of vengeance," Zoubi told fellow Knesset members during the hearing. (…)

I recently had the honour of joining Montreal’s Women of Diverse Origins as a volunteer for the upcoming Montreal International Women’s Conference (MIWC). Hosts and organizers of the conference, Women of Diverse Origins (WDO) Montreal are a collective of grassroots women’s organizations from a dozen different cultural communities in Montreal and have been organizing events and speakers around (…)