Alternatives International

The Government Has Declared a War Against Civil Society: Let's Turn Up the Heat!

Alternatives international — 2025-11-22T23:04:13Z

Rights advocacy groups, community and international solidarity organizations, unions, and other citizens are calling on the public to stand together and denounce the policies of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government that are dismantling our public services and our social and political rights.

Different bills are being presented, one after the another, reinforcing previous measures based on the same logic. They are aimed at weakening our democratic institutions and silencing any critical voices capable of expressing legitimate disagreements and defending the rights of all, in particular the rights of minorities that face poverty, marginalization and discrimination. Often adopted using closure, these authoritarian and demagogic policies are destroying the very foundations of our democracy in order to serve the interests of economic elites.

Anti-social and anti-labour laws

Bill 8 (previously known as Bill 89) and the announced modification of the rules concerning union representation are not only an assault on the rights of workers in Quebec; they are part of a disturbing trend, undermining the mechanisms that protect our democracy. This is a most serious attack by a government against the labour movement.

With Bill 1, the Quebec Constitutional Act 2025, tabled on October 9, 2025, the CAQ government is threatening to dismantle the entire system of protection of human rights in Québec, just as the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms celebrates its 50th anniversary. Drafted behind closed doors, without any debate or consultation, this bill is nothing like a constitution.

Demonstrating a poorly-disguised authoritarianism, Bill 1 will undermine the capacity of civil society groups to defend our rights and freedoms, and it will weaken legal tools such as the Charter and the ability to challenge laws before the courts. By emphasizing concepts such as “parliamentary sovereignty” and “Quebec values,” Bill 1 creates a dangerous drift toward identity-based politics, the likes of which have not been seen since the time of Duplessis.

In a statement published on November 13, the Quebec Bar Association stated that these bills “contain provisions that significantly deviate from the values and traditions of Quebec society in favour of strengthening the power of the State,” and it fears an “erosion of the rule of law in Quebec.”

A dangerous drift with Trumpian overtones

With the rise of the far right and authoritarian practices of power around the world, the very foundations of our democratic systems are under threat. In Quebec, as elsewhere, rights that we thought were guaranteed are being undermined by these political decisions.

Driven by a logic of profit-making and a disregard for science, hundreds of job cuts and mergers of public-service institutions are interfering with our taking effective action to protect our ecosystems and the common good. All of this facilitates the approval of large industrial projects, while limiting the possibility of environmental and public health controls.

Recently, François Legault answered Donald Trump's call for increased military expenditures by positioning Quebec as a major player in the military industry. His statement shows a troubling and dangerous change in orientation that can only be harmful to our society and the planet. At the same time, the militarization of the economy is coupled with anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies denying the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Measures such as lowering of number of immigrants and the cancellation of the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), as well as the erosion of asylum seekers' rights, clearly show the CAQ's strategy. While the government uses utilitarian arguments to restrict immigrants' access to its territory, it simultaneously invests in the military industry, profiting from conflicts and the climate crisis that impoverish populations and force them to flee.

Today, the genocide in Gaza is a stark symbol of the toxic effects of our complicity toward a racist and totalitarian government guided by colonial objectives. It has led us to a world dominated by fear, militarization, exploitation, and contempt for international law. It is shameful that Quebec is strengthening its diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, despite repeated condemnations by the UN, and still refuses to grant RAMQ health insurance to families evacuated from Gaza. On November 29, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, let us reaffirm that a violation of the rights of some is a violation of the rights of all.

Defending and becoming a society built on solidarity, justice and democracy

More and more Quebecers are struggling to make ends meet. Everywhere, the housing and homelessness crisis has reached alarming proportions. This situation is even more acute for Indigenous peoples. At the same time, as the planet reaches a tipping point, the CAQ is imposing cutbacks in environmental legislation and regulations. Despite the urgency of the issues that concern us, the government is diverting attention from its own failures by seeking scapegoats, such as migrants, immigrants, and religious minorities. And instead of seeking to resolve the root causes of social problems, it is attacking and suspending the funding of groups working to improve society.

We are committed to a Quebec that chooses solidarity over exclusion, respect over repression, dignity over fear, and social justice over the concentration of wealth in the hands of a privileged few.

The Quebec we want is rooted in values of solidarity, equity, and social justice; a society that welcomes all voices, in all their beautiful diversity, and respects the rebellious, critical, and free-thinking dissent that has long characterized Quebec's image.

Let's turn up the heat this winter! On November 29, let's take to the streets to protect the vision of the Quebec society that we want: a fairer, more egalitarian and more inclusive society!

Take to the streets on Saturday, November 29!

Authors of this declaration:

Yasmina Moudda , Alternatives
Zahia El-Masri, Labour 4 Palestine
Amir Khadir, Former MNA of Québec solidaire
Marc-Édouard Joubert, Conseil régional FTQ Montréal métropolitain
Amélie Nguyen, Centre international de solidarité ouvrière (CISO)
Amel Zaazaa, Observatoire pour la justice migrante
Patrizia Vinci, feminist and community activist
Roger Rashi, activist
Laurence Guénette, Ligue des droits et libertés
Bertrand Guibord, Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain (CSN)

You can add your signature here

Photo Credit: Dominic Morissette

Human Trafficking and Labour Exploitation of Dalits in the USA

Alternatives international — 2025-10-01T16:44:16Z

Behind the temple's elaborate stonework lies a hidden history of caste-based exploitation.

The Dalit Solidarity Forum, Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), Sikh Coalition, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), and India Civil Watch International (ICWI) together express deep concern over reports that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has closed its criminal investigation into the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan (BAPS) organization. This investigation involves the human trafficking and severe labor exploitation of approximately 200 workers, most of whom are Dalits, tribals, and other marginalized communities from India, and many of whom have tragically lost their lives. We demand full accountability and justice for these workers and their families.

In May 2021, following reports of widespread abuse and a worker's death, the FBI raided the Robbinsville temple. Workers told DSF that their colleague Mohanlal had died in October 2020 on the premises due to BAPS' negligence. BAPS' attempts to downplay this incident fueled worker unrest, ultimately leading to the raid that rescued over 100 workers. Soon after, a federal class-action lawsuit was filed, alleging violations of U.S. labor laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), alongside a parallel criminal investigation. It is this criminal investigation that BAPS and its allies are now playing to close without any confirmation from the DOJ. The civil wage theft case, however, remains fully intact and is actively moving forward.

Behind the temple's elaborate stonework lies a hidden history of caste-based exploitation. Dalit and Adivasi stoneworkers, including masons, cutters, and fabricators, have been treated as tools for profit, rendered invisible to devotees, and subjected to systemic segregation. Worker testimonies are well-documented, but DSF is compelled to reiterate them in light of an ongoing disinformation campaign being spread by BAPS and its allies. They have issued statements that instead seek to claim that it was the temple itself that was somehow victimized.

Workers' Testimonies

Misleading promises: Over 200 workers from marginalized communities were recruited to work on the Robbinsville temple with false promises of fair pay, healthcare, standard hours and dignity.
Immigration fraud: Workers were misrepresented as ‘religious volunteers' at the U.S. consulate in India and made to sign fraudulent forms.
Confiscation of passports and control: Workers' passports were taken upon arrival and withheld throughout their stay at the temple. Workers were made to live in hidden trailers, forbidden to speak to visitors or devotees, with penalties for violations like pay cuts, dismissal, or sent back to India.
Forced confinement: Workers were locked in the temple premises, monitored constantly, with limited outdoor access.
Grueling labor: Workers performed 13-hour daily shifts, totaling up to 87 hours per week, doing skilled masonry under hazardous conditions.
Extremely low wages: Workers were paid $1.20 per hour, over ten times less than New Jersey's minimum wage, with most of their wages deposited in India, trapping them financially.
Abuse and discrimination: Workers faced verbal abuse, casteist slurs, discriminatory food practices, leftover food with no choice and expired or unprescribed medicines.
Forced Labor in Hazardous Conditions and Workers Deaths: Exposure to hazardous materials such as silica and other serious health risks has caused the deaths of several rescued workers, including Bhagwandas Chamar, Devi Lal, Ramesh Chandra Meena, Ghanshyam Singh, and Pankaj Khant since their rescue in 2021. The broader impact of respiratory illnesses likely extends well beyond these fatalities, but has not been comprehensively documented.
Ongoing suffering: Survivors continue to suffer from life-threatening health issues, severe psychological stress, and prolonged separation from their families, including one worker (Gajendar Kumar) who tragically died by suicide in India after struggling with addiction and mental instability.

As of today, the DOJ has not issued any public communication indicating either the conclusion of the investigation or the closure of the trafficking case. Workers representatives have sought clarity from the DOJ but have not received any confirmation. Despite repeated efforts to obtain clarity from the DOJ, no public statement or conclusion has been issued. In this context, we demand that BAPS and its affiliates refrain from issuing further public statements on the matter until the DOJ provides an official update. Continued misinformation is not only reckless, it endangers the lives and safety of workers and their families across the U.S. and India. Such deliberate misinformation may also interfere with the ongoing legal process and affect workers' access to justice.

We Demand

The DOJ immediately direct BAPS and its allies organizations to stop spreading false or misleading claims and suspend all public statements until the department issues an official update on the case, as continued misinformation endangers workers and their families in both the U.S. and India.
The DOJ should release a detailed report clarifying the current status of the investigation, with a clear statement on whether the criminal trafficking case is open, closed, or requires further action.
A full investigation of BAPS exploitative recruitment and contracting practices, both prior to 2021 and ongoing, to ensure accountability for these preventable tragedies.
Members of Congress and political leaders, especially those who have introduced resolutions for BAPS, publicly call upon BAPS to take accountability for the mistreatment of these workers.
Unions and labor rights organizations along with South Asian diaspora groups in the U.S. join us in demanding justice for the workers and hold BAPS accountable.
Regulators and temple members across the world take concrete steps to ensure that all new BAPS structures are ethically built. That all temple workers enjoy health and safety protections and all of the temple workers are paid fairly for their labor.

Temples in the U.S. have long served as centers of resilience and community for diaspora populations. Yet, BAPS temple workers were exploited, forced to endure brutal working conditions, and subjected to systemic discrimination while building the Robbinsville temple. The civil case is still moving forward, and the fight for justice is far from over. We call on all allies to join us in demanding accountability, reclaiming stolen wages, and securing justice for the surviving workers and the families of those who lost their lives.

For further information, please contact:
dalitsolidarityforum@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Painting by Jaspreet Mahal

The Future Will Be Contradictory

Alternatives international — 2025-08-19T19:11:54Z

Interview with Gus Massiah by Catherine Tricot was published in Revue Regards on February 6, 2025

Catherine Tricot: How do you understand these tumultuous times?

Gustave Massiah: We are in a moment of structural crisis in the capitalist mode of production, a change in historical period that goes far beyond the election of Donald Trump. Even if Trump's election dramatically changes the situation and introduces new uncertainties. Social, ecological, and democratic issues are being challenged and disrupted, and are being redefined at different levels: local, national, regional, and global. We are in a period of rupture, of structural crisis in the capitalist mode of production, but this does not mean an end to capitalism.

What are these disruptions that allow you to talk about a rupture?

I would say: decolonization and the rise of the South; ecology; democracy; and finally, new social relationships, particularly with regard to digital technology.

One initial consequence is that social classes are changing, starting with the financial bourgeoisie. Trump, Milei, and Musk have lost all sense of proportion, and this is the first time we have seen such a violent assertion of the power of billionaires. The productive class is also in turmoil with the transformation of work and skills. And, on a global scale and in every society, the rise of the working poor and the middle class.

A second consequence, linked to ecology, is the crisis of productivism. Class changes and the crisis of productivism are reflected in the rise of social movements that are both complementary and alternative to social classes: the women's movement, ecology, anti-racism, immigration, indigenous peoples, housing and the city, and education.

These factors lead me to say that we are in a period of historic change, of crisis in the mode of production.

Is the rise of the far right around the world a reaction to these changes?

Yes, in part. But not only that. The rise of the far right is partly due to fear and rejection of social movements that are disrupting the dominant ideology. When Trump attacks women and trans people, he is violently expressing his fear of these changes.

To understand the rise of the far right, I asked myself what had happened in previous changes and crises in the capitalist mode of production. I realized that all the structural crises of the capitalist mode of production began with a rise of the far right, followed by responses from the left and then by a transformation of capitalism. This timing of crises is very striking.

To identify the crises of the capitalist mode of production, we can start with the structural financial crises of 1873, 1929, 1976, and 2008. Each financial crisis marks a rupture; it is the culmination of a period of crisis lasting twenty to forty years, with its social, ideological, and cultural struggles, often accompanied by wars.

The crisis of 1873 was followed by the Long Depression, which lasted from 1873 to 1896. It marked the transition from liberal capitalism to monopoly capitalism with the emergence of large industrial groups, significant intervention by banks, and the development of financial capitalism. The period began with the extreme right (and with Patrice de MacMahon in France) and continued, till around 1890, with the emergence of the new extreme right (with Charles Maurras in France). However, it was during this crisis that the First International was created in London in 1864 and the Paris Commune in 1871. These were the left-wing responses to this crisis of capitalism. This crisis continued with the second industrial revolution, from 1880 to 1914, which saw the rise of electricity, oil, and chemicals.

The second major crisis was the financial crisis of 1929; the great crisis, which began in 1914 and ended in 1945, included two world wars. It was marked by the rise of fascism. But it also saw the rise of the Popular Front. It continued with Fordism, a new form of capitalism that emerged after the Second World War and dominated until 1976.

"I realized that all the structural crises of the capitalist mode of production began with a rise of the far right, followed by responses from the left and then by a transformation of capitalism"

The third major financial crisis began in 1973 with the oil crisis and the financial crash of 1976. With Pinochet's coup in Chile in 1973 and dictatorships in several countries, neoliberalism was experimented with and imposed. This was combined with the rise of the South. In 1989, the end of the Soviet Union led to the belief in the “end of history” and the victory and eternity of capitalism. But the 2008 crisis disproved this false certainty and ushered in the crisis of neoliberalism.

The 2008 crisis came as a surprise to all those who believed in “the end of history” and the definitive victory of capitalism. The Indignados movements, Occupy, the Arab revolutions, social forums, and even the Tunisian uprising of 2015 initiated a left-wing response to this new financial crisis. Then came regression with repression.

The current rise of the far right is therefore not an exceptional phenomenon. It is part of the major sequences of change in capitalism. But it is always accompanied by a left-wing response and a transformation of capitalism.

That's comforting optimism?

Yes, absolutely. The responses from the left have not yet been completely successful, but they are changing the future. For example, after World War II, there was a Fordist transformation that gave way to new balances in class relations and international relations.

We can draw a first conclusion from this: the future is not written in stone and will be contradictory. The outcomes of crises will be contradictory. There will be no perfect future and no definitive resolution of contradictions. Nor will there be absolute catastrophe, even if wars are possible.

Let's return to the characteristics of our historical moment. You introduce an unexpected dimension, the decolonial factor.

Indeed, I believe that one of the major characteristics of the current situation is that decolonization is not complete. In 1927, in Brussels, we had a very important stage in decolonization movement. It was the meeting of the League Against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression, attended by Nehru, Ho Chi Minh, and Messali Hadj; and as honorary members, Mrs. Sun Yat Sen, widow of the first Chinese president, and Albert Einstein. In 1927, the rise of independence movements accelerated with Nehru and Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, with the founding of the Indonesian Congress Party by Sukarno and national movements in the Maghreb and the rest of Africa. It was a high point in the international expression of decolonization.

This movement found its full expression at the 1955 Bandung Conference, which brought together the first decolonized, independent countries of Africa and Asia. Sukarno, who hosted Nehru, Chou En Lai, and Nasser, opened the meeting. Chou En Lai made the following statement, which remains relevant today: “States want their independence, nations want their liberation, peoples want revolution.” He linked state, nation, and people in a strong complementarity, but with great complexity and even ambiguity. Thus, the United Nations Declaration, that is, the declaration of nations, begins with “We the peoples,” but in fact it is states that sit in the UN and make up the United Nations.

The first phase of decolonization was indeed that of state independence. It is now almost complete, except for Palestine and the 23 colonies listed by the United Nations, including New Caledonia and Western Sahara. We are therefore moving from the first phase of decolonization to the second: nations want their liberation. The question of nationalism is no longer limited to the nation-state and nations defined by states. It raises questions of identity and sovereignty. This is clearly seen in the way the far right emphasizes national identity and the nature of the state, based on a historical reinterpretation of identities. This new phase of decolonization begins with the rise of identity-based nationalism. It is reflected in the centrality of the question of migration.

Are you saying that the decoupling of the nation and the state relativizes the place of politics in favor of identity?

The definition of the nation becomes primordial. This is not necessarily extreme right-wing. But it explains the new rise of nationalism. We can understand why the United States is so fixated on a definition of the white American nation, even for those who are not white. The questioning of birthright citizenship in France and the United States is part of this movement to (re)define the nation. Previously, the issues revolved around the question of the state and the definition of politics that followed from it.

In the French case, politics and identity are linked insofar as, with the Revolution, citizenship became the foundation of the French nation. The place of migrants—non-citizens—has greatly disrupted this definition of French identity. In all surveys of French people, the issue of migration does not emerge as a key issue, but it is taken up in political debate as the key issue. This is a way for the right or the far right to build a new nationalism. We need to find a left-wing response and look at how to frame the question of identity differently, as a way of building society and inventing a common identity. We must find common identities that take into account origins and a common culture without falling into nationalist exclusions. The issue of migration must start from an understanding of the state of the world and not from identities.

Two major factors in the state of the world that characterize the nature of migration must be considered in this discussion. The first is the transformation of the rural world and sedentary lifestyles. Since Mesopotamia, some 5,000 years ago, the sedentary population was the agricultural population. This is no longer the case. Today, the agricultural population accounts for less than 5% of the population in Europe, North America, and Japan. It is between 15% and 40%, and declining, in China, South America, and India; and already less than 50% in Africa and Southeast Asia. The sedentary population in rural areas, including the agricultural population, still plays an important role, particularly a symbolic one. But urban populations are evolving differently. This is causing very strong differences between cities and rural areas, which are reflected, for example, in differences in voting patterns between cities and rural areas. Migration, whether rural exodus or international migration, plays a major role in urban cultures.

"We need to find a left-wing response and look at how to frame the question of identity differently"

Another major factor affecting the population today is mass education. This is also a global phenomenon. In France, 80% of the younger generation has a high school diploma. In Congo Kinshasa, in 1960, at the time of independence, there were three high school graduates, two of whom were in Brussels. In 2021, there were 328,000 high school graduates in Congo Kinshasa. Migrants, like the global population, are increasingly skilled; migration will shape the world and is the foundation of the new global culture. This upheaval is incredible, and we don't know what the outcome will be. It is understandable that it may raise fears; it affects economic relations, particularly between North and South, as well as demographic and cultural relations. The second phase of decolonization is not only the end of Western domination of the South, but also the qualitative evolution of the world's population.

How does this new situation change our thinking about relations between states, between North and South, and international law?

This phase of decolonization raises an important question: that of the relationship between colonized peoples and colonizing peoples. I asked myself this question in relation to the situation between Palestine and Israel. Does decolonization mean the departure of the colonizers?

When we consider the possible situations following decolonization, we find that historically there are three situations that characterize the relationship between colonized peoples and colonizing peoples. In the first situation, the colonizing peoples annihilate the colonized peoples. This was the case in North America, Australia, New Zealand... at least that was the idea. But contrary to what was thought, the indigenous peoples did not disappear; they were reborn and today are reaffirming their presence. Second scenario: the colonized peoples gain their independence and the colonizers leave because they cannot tolerate independence or because they are expelled. This is what happened during the period of decolonization and independence, for example in Algeria, Vietnam, and many other countries.

Are there other situations? Historically, there have been other situations of cohabitation, difficult and contradictory, but which open up new perspectives. I would cite three: Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa. The first example is Mexico. It is dominated economically but not politically. Mexico managed to avoid the situation of the Native Americans during the conquest of the United States. Mexico could have been colonized like the United States; it was economically dominated, but it managed to avoid colonization and build its political independence.

The second example is Brazil. Decolonization was not led by the indigenous people but by another colonized people, the former black slaves. Over the past 30 years, there has been a transformation, an extraordinary mixing of races. Brazil is one of the hypotheses of the current globalization.

Mexico, Brazil, South Africa: in these three large and very diverse countries the colonizers and the colonized are living together on the same land. We can therefore say to the Israelis, “Under certain conditions, which must be worked out together with the Palestinians, you can stay.” A two-state solution for Palestine and Israel remains possible; it is difficult to imagine in the immediate future, but it remains possible. And it would allow for the preparation of more viable solutions. For example, a region or confederation bringing together Palestine, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon. In the more distant future, and if the future moves towards large regions, including but not limited to the current forms of nation states, there could be a large region comprising Syria, Iraq, and perhaps even Egypt. All these countries have a shared history and a common language and culture.

Do you agree with the idea of recreating large empires?

Not at all, the future does not repeat the past. I think we are moving towards large regions made up of countries that have histories, geographies, and a possible future that connect them. These regions will bring together states that are not nation states. In Asia, there are three or four large regions: the greater Chinese region, the greater Indian region, Southeast Asia, and finally Japan and Korea. There is also the Pacific. There is North America. In South America, there is Central America with Mexico and the countries surrounding it. Brazil and Argentina with Chile, together or not. The question of language is significant. Finally, the Caribbean is also united by history and culture. The Middle East is a region undergoing reconstruction that could escape the conflicts and wars being waged there. Similarly, in Africa, there are four major regions: North Africa, which is more or less connected to the Middle East, West and Central Africa, East Africa, and South Africa. Europe; Russia and one or two other European regions.

Some twenty large regions that would reshape the space of the 195 states without eliminating them. This evolution will take time, as did the transition from empires to nation states. One of the most important areas of work is international law, which is being challenged by nationalist far-right movements and must be defended, renewed, and advanced.

What about internationally recognized borders?

In my opinion, the evolution of nation states towards larger regions is a structural evolution. We can keep borders and states; however, we must move beyond the nation state as the exclusive form of historical identity. Some places are more advanced in this evolution.

Europe is institutionally more advanced, but its structural difficulties are significant. It is a mosaic of languages and memories of war. Russia must build trust with Europe and find common projects that go beyond a capitalist common market and the quest for dominance. On the other hand, in the Middle East, Iran, Turkey, and Arab countries can build a common space. History has not yet been written.

"Some twenty large regions that would reshape the space of the 195 states without eliminating them"

In a period of change such as the one we are currently experiencing, marked by a historic crisis in the capitalist mode of production, contradictions are becoming more acute. This is particularly true of the contradictions of globalized capitalism. These contradictions include ecology versus productivism, democracy versus authoritarianism, new modes of production, and digital technology. Movements are becoming more radical, such as the women's movement, the ecology movement, the anti-racism movement, the immigration movement, the indigenous peoples' movement, the housing and urban movement, and the education movement.

There is no strategy for the progress of capitalism today. In the absence of a strategy, authoritarians and billionaires such as Trump, Milei, Modi, and Musk are given free reign. The only freedom tolerated is that of capital. The very idea of democracy is being challenged and fought against. Anti-globalization is confronted with renewed globalization that promotes nationalism and the return of sovereignty. To renew anti-globalization, we must take up the proposal of Edouard Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau and oppose worldliness to globalization.

Photo credit

Statement of Solidarity with Palestine and Condemnation of Attacks on Academic Freedom Related to Palestine

Alternatives international — 2023-11-28T21:07:29Z

As academics and other concerned persons, we, the undersigned, are outraged at the manner in which discussions on the ongoing war against Palestine are being silenced on Indian campuses, and in the public sphere more broadly. We are issuing this statement to call upon university administrators and the government to respect our academic freedom. We would also like to remind every one of India's own long history of anti-colonial struggle which has historically provided the lens through which the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, equality and human rights has been viewed in India.

We object to the way in which any discussion of the historical context of the occupation of Palestine and the barbaric Israeli assault on Gaza, along with the denial of food, fuel and water, since October 7th 2023, is being projected as support for the brutal terror attack on civilians in Israel by Hamas on October 7th.

We object to the Israeli ambassador's interference with academic freedom on Indian campuses. This disrespects the competence of Indian scholars to analyze historical and political situations for themselves. Defending the right to life and dignity of Palestinians, or pointing out the links between Zionism and Hindutva as supremacist ideologies, is not equivalent to antisemitism.

We strongly condemn the hijacking of the Palestine issue to further Islamophobia within India. In all the attacks on campus events on Palestine, we see the Hindutva ecosystem at work – known Hindutva individuals who tweet against the faculty members concerned, groups which organize protests against them on campus, and a pliant media which engages in defamation of the academics as terror supporters.

We demand that the Indian government, as well as all political parties in power in different states stop criminalizing protests in solidarity with Palestine. The FIRs filed against students of Aligarh Muslim University, and detentions of youth and students in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore are examples of this. Many Opposition parties have failed to show sufficient solidarity with the people of Palestine and have thus betrayed the history of India's own freedom struggle.

We call upon University administration to uphold their statutory and constitutional obligations and respect the intelligence, competence and integrity of their own faculty and students, and their right to organize talks and invite speakers as pedagogical interventions.

Signatories

Nandini Sundar, sociologist
Nivedita Menon, political scientist
Ravi Sundaram, media scholar
Rajshree Chandra, political scientist
Rohan D'Souza, historian
Pamela Philipose, journalist
Maya John, historian
Karen Gabriel, English literature
Achin Vanaik, political scientist
Apoorvanand, Hindi literature
Ayesha Kidwai, linguist
Atul Sood, regional development
Anita Rampal, educationist

Civil Society Organizations Condemn Harassment of Dr. Navsharan Singh

Alternatives international — 2023-05-19T16:03:35Z

The Modi regime's harassment and intimidation of progressive public figures who oppose its divisive policies and actions has been ongoing for the last nine years. The latest victim, reportedly, is the public intellectual and human rights activist Dr Navsharan Singh (Ph.D. Carleton University), daughter of the legendary theater personality the late Gursharan Singh, and a well known progressive public figure in India and internationally.

According to press reports Dr. Navsharan Singh, was questioned for 8 hours for alleged violations of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA based on her association with social activist Harsh Mander's Karwan-e-Mohabbat (Caravan of Love), a group that provides support to the most marginalized and deprived sections of Indian society, especially minorities who are frequently at the receiving end of violence by the goons of Hindutva organizations. During the pandemic, Karwan-e-Mohabbat was feeding the poor and daily wage-earners who suddenly found themselves without any source of income.

An accomplished scholar and women's rights activist in South Asia, Dr. Singh also has a long history of grassroots work and has taken the baton of such work from her late father. By reaching out to the impoverished and the disenfranchised in rural Punjab and elsewhere, her support and advocacy work has earned her the love and respect of the masses, as was evident when she courageously supported the Indian farmers' struggle against the draconian laws of the Modi government in 2020-2021. S. Joginder Singh Ugrahan, head of BKU (Bhartiya Kisan Union) [Indian Farmers' Union], one of the largest farmers Unions in India, has strongly denounced the shameful harassment of Dr. Navsharan Singh by the Indian government.

To those of us who have known or are familiar with Dr. Navsharan Singh and her grassroots and academic work, her harassment by the regime's investigative agencies is outrageous and unacceptable, and must be resolutely opposed.

Dr. Singh's bio and work can be accessed through the following links:
https://carleton.ca/politicaleconomy/people/navsharan-singh/
http://www.lcs-tcs.com/current.html

We, the undersigned organizations, call on the Indian authorities to immediately stop their persecution of Dr. Navsharan Singh and ensure that she is not subjected to malicious harassment in future:

Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia
Alternatives, Montreal, Canada
Alternatives International
Boston South Asian Coalition (BSAC)
Centre de travailleurs et travailleuses immigrant/es-Immigrant Workers Centre, Montreal
CERAS (Centre sur l'asie du sud)
Coalition Against Fascism in India (CAFI)
Critical Diasporic South Asian Feminisms
Democracy, Equality and Secularism in South Asia (DESSA), Winnipeg
Gursharan Singh Memorial Lecture Committee, Vancouver
India Civil Watch International
International South Asian Forum
Justice For All Canada
Montreal Serai
Secular People's Association, Edmonton
Progressive Cultural Association, Calgary
Progressive Kala Manch, Calgary
Pro-People Arts Project Media Group (Sarokaran Di Awaz), Toronto
Punjabi Literary and Cultural Association, Winnipeg
Rang Collective
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Book Centre, Calgary
Sikh Virsa International, Calgary
South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network, Canada (SADAN)
South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC)
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), Vancouver
Tarqsheel [Rationalists] Society of Canada
Teesri Duniya Theatre

Info: cerasmontreal@gmail.com
17 May 2023

AYITI (HAITI) TALKS BACK TO CANADA

Alternatives international — 2022-11-26T08:10:56Z

From Toronto Star-Week of November 20/22):

Last week, Defence Minister Anita Anand noted that Canada could play a role by sending aid to the country.

“We're being very prudent about the next steps, not just in terms of the Canadian Armed Forces, but in terms of our government writ large,” she said.

On Wednesday, Joly did not bring up troops when asked about Haiti, instead saying Canada will eventually sanction those profiting off the chaos.

“We are not going to impose a solution on Haiti. We will work with the Haitians to find a solution by and for them,” she said in French.

Canada and the U.S. have sent tanks, and the United Nations is considering a military intervention to restore order, which has been endorsed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Chantale Ismé's Address to the Sub-Commission on International Rights:

First of all, I would like to thank you for the invitation, and for providing this opportunity to speak about the situation in my native country. Most especially I am heartened by this chance to give voice to the demands and hopes of the "Ayitian" people.

Ladies and gentlemen deputies, I am here to deliver a strong message on behalf of the Ayitian people to you, those at home as well as those abroad. We, all our people, wherever we are. categorically reject any form of invasion of our land and would view any potential invasion as a criminal act of international aggression.

We are formally and irrevocably opposed to any form of intervention, regardless of whatever fake name those who invade our land invent for the harm they do Ayitian people and justice-loving people of the world are well-aware that previous invasions have masqueraded under titles like "occupation, intervention, stabilization and peacekeeping missions". We categorically reject such criminal invasions whatever mask they wear or whatever form, colour or style is employed by those who sponsor and pay for bone-crushing "boots on the ground".

The Ayitian people have historically experienced the disastrous consequences of unending White intervention since the European invasion of Indigenous land in 1492. The invader's rap-sheet is long. Case in point, Europeans began and ruthlessly pursued genocide against the Taino People, and then compounded their crimes against humanity by terrorizing and dragging Black hostages, bound and shackled to die, far from home, in this hemisphere. After Ayitians won their Independence, France imposed an ‘independence-debt' imposed in 1825. From the 1915-1934 the USA orchestrated a hostile occupation of the country, and robbed Ayitians of the gold reserves of their National Bank. No White thieves have never given back stolen treasure to its Black owners since that time.

In addition, under the USA's brutal occupation from 1915-1934, the country's peasantry also had their farmland stolen; there was a foreigner-created campaign of forced and orchestrated migration; state institutions were dismantled and the loyal National Guard were replaced of by a force without fealty or identity. The real ugly intent of these invasions has always been hidden by their perpetrators behind a conspiracy of crocodile smiles pretending to be Haiti's best friends, pretending to want to help or, ludicrously, pretending to be bringing civilization to Haiti or restore the very democracy and peace they had undermined and destroyed.

Today, the Core Group, under the leadership of Canada, among others, seems willing to respond to an unconstitutional, illegal request from an illegitimate government, denounced by the Ayitian people. Once again, those who failed to provide even clean water after the earthquake and failed to hold their countries' banks accountable as six billion dollars of critical aid vanished into thin air are shamelessly claiming once again to be invading Haiti to counter insecurity and resolve a humanitarian crisis.

It goes without saying that Haiti is currently facing one of the worst crises affecting all spheres of society. But this crisis is not new and is the consequence of policies imposed on the Haitian people by local stooges in both political and private business sectors. One glaring example of these false claims is the disastrous result of structural adjustment policies which have de-structured the Haitian economy. For evidence, the world can see the recent excesses of the government of Ariel Henry, who has decided to increase the price of fuel by 128% at the request of the IMF, supported by the Core Group, on an innocent, vulnerable and already battered and downtrodden population.

For more than 20 years, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and police forces such as the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) have been part of the Blue Helmets of the various UN missions in Haiti, from UNMIH 1993 to UNIHRO 2019. (MINUHA 1993, MANUH 1996, MITNUH 1997, MIPONUH 1997- 2000, MINUSTAH 2004, MINUJUSTH 2017-2019, BINUH 2019). This last stabilization force in the country until 2022 had a mandate to "support good governance, stability, professionalization of the police, reduction of community violence and gang violence''. All of these so-called stabilization and peacekeeping missions have been inconclusive but demonstrably incompetent and have failed blatantly to achieve even their own objectives, while heaping more suffering on the heads of Haiti's long-suffering Black women, men and children. Under Canadian “peacekeepers” there has been increasing to rape, fatherless children and prostitution. As far as Haitians can see, the individuals, groups or personalities guilty of many heinous crimes have never been called to account, questioned or even judged.

Why are Core Group countries, including Canada, feeling so pressured, so suddenly, to curb a crisis resulting from the very policies they forced on Haiti with utter contempt for the demands of the Haitian masses? Why are Core Group countries, at the same time, preserving a deadly silence in the face of the hardships of all kinds which Haitians suffer under, and arguably as a result of, their endless interventions? Nothing has been said about the massacres, the hundreds of kidnappings ruining the middle class, impoverishing the working classes, sowing mourning and despair in family upon family.

The government of Canada, as well as Canadian religious, academic and political institutions have remained remarkably and culpably silent while the national police, under Canadian RCMP and police tutelage, have carried out systematic and savage campaigns of repression against unarmed Haitians demonstrating for a return of the democracy Canada, France and the USA tore from their grasp. democracy. Nothing has been said about initiatives to federate and give legal status to thegangs that we now forced to fight. And, more immediately, there is an iron curtain of silence around the massive and ongoing importation of arms and ammunition from the United States of North America. And we could go on...

Based on these observations, the CHCDH (Haitian Coalition in Canada against the Dictatorship in Haiti) in accordance with the wishes for a return of their democratic and Human Rights by the Ayitian people and under the International Guarantees of The Nuremberg Agreement demand that Canadians and the Canadian government:

Cease all forms of intervention in Haiti, which risk igniting genocidal conflict in the country's popular neighborhoods now held hostage by heavily armed gangs;
Stop supporting the illegitimate, unconstitutional and illegal government of Ariel Henry, indifferent to the suffering of his people, and imposed on suffering Ayitians by anti- Ayitians powers;
Stop indirectly supporting the gangs through puppet governments, including that of Ariel Henry, which finances and protects them;
Support a Haitian solution to the crisis that has been systematically ignored, in particular the Montana Agreement that brings together the nation's active forces, the result of a broad consensus (peasant, worker, woman, youth, grassroots organizations, political parties of both the left and the right) and that advocates a transition that breaks away from corruption, outdated forms of governance, administrative mismanagement and impunity;
Provide cooperation that respects the dignity, the constitution and the sovereignty of Haiti, based on the real needs expressed by local actors such as:

Technical assistance to the national police and training on the respect of human rights
Support for the legal system to bring justice to the population in relation to the various massacres and the squandering of Petrocaribe funds
Support for the demands for reparation of the families of the more than 10,000 people who died of cholera and the 800,000 people infected with cholera brought by MINUSTHA.

Ladies and gentlemen deputies, the Ayitian people, standing up, struggling in spite of hundreds of years of denial of justice, of blatant social inequalities, urge you to listen to them and to respect their will. Thank you.

Chantale Ismé is from the Haitian Coalition in Canada Against Dictatorship in Haiti (CHCDH)

Mohammad Ali Shah

Alternatives international — 2021-08-12T14:38:00Z

With the passing away of Mohammad Ali Shah we have lost a dear comrade, friend and an untiring fighter for human rights of the most marginalized section of Pakistani society. He was a veritable leader of over 5 Million people from the fishing community of Sindh and Balochistan. He was the founding Chairperson of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF). Formally founded in 1998, PFF has a membership of 100 000 with over 35% of women members.

Mohammad Ali Shah was leading the battles at multiple fronts. When during the dictatorship of Parvez Musharraf, the army forcefully took over the fishing trade of the interior lakes of Badin district in Sindh province, Shah led a series of demonstrations and mobilized public opinion thus forcing the army to withdraw from the fishing industry. When the national and provincial government's neoliberal policies disregarded the licences of indigenous fishermen and instead auctioned the lakes on contracts to big landlords and business houses, the already impoverished fishing community was hit hard. This triggered huge mobilizations and protests all over Sindh led by the PFF. Under the leadership of Shah, PFF actively participated in progressive regional and international initiatives such as the Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) and the World Social Forum (WSF). It played a key role in organizing the WSF held in 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan.

With the demise of Mohammad Ali Shah the fishing community of Pakistan has lost a great, caring and a fearless leader and fighter for their rights. We extend our sincere condolences to his entire family, his friends and the entire community.

Challenges for Justice in Palestine

Alternatives international — 2021-01-18T16:55:41Z

Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM UTC

Zoom link

It seems that in Palestine old is new and new is more of the old. Justice remains elusive, a mirage in the fields of resistance. Occupation continues and keeps reinventing itself. Normalization has dug its roots deep in the arid government terrains across the Arab world. Is Palestine getting isolated?

It is also true that the struggle for the liberation of Palestine has been going on since generations and has sustained itself despite the unending challenges. It is also a fact that this struggle has been inspiring the people globally and has created an international solidarity movement, the largest ever, that continues to build momentum and reinvent itself.

What is the situation in Palestine today as far as the liberation struggle goes? What are the new challenges and what needs to be done?

Panel:

Moderator (Bill Fletcher Jr)
Ground realities and mood in Palestine (Yara Hawari)
International human rights mechanisms and unending occupation (Michael Lynk)
Bilateral Free trade agreements and normalization with Israel (Stefan Christoff)
Social movements' isolating Israeli apartheid: Challenges ahead (Alys Samson Estapé)

Yara Hawari is the Senior Analyst of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, where she taught various undergraduate courses and continues to be an honorary research fellow. In addition to her academic work which focused on indigenous studies and oral history, she is also a frequent political commentator writing for various media outlets including The Guardian, Foreign Policy and Al Jazeera English.

Bill Fletcher Jr has worked for several labor unions in addition to serving as a senior staff person in the national AFL-CIO. Fletcher is the former president of TransAfrica Forum; a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies; an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com; and in the leadership of several other projects. Author of “‘They're Bankrupting Us' – And Twenty other myths about unions.” Fletcher is a syndicated columnist and a regular media commentator on television, radio and the Web.

S. Michael Lynk is Associate Professor of Law at Western University in London, Ontario, where he teaches labour law, constitutional law and human rights law. Before becoming an academic, he practiced labour law and refugee law for a decade in Ottawa and Toronto. As well, he worked for the United Nations on human rights and refugee issues in Jerusalem. He is the UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied since 1967.

Stefan Christoff is an artist, community organizer and radio host in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Free City Radio broadcasts every Wednesday at 11h on CKUT 90.3fm and is also a podcast. Stefan launched the Artists Against Apartheid concert series in the city, which has built cultural support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement and led to the Montréal declaration of 500 artists expressing support for the BDS movement. Stefan is a contributor to bilaterals.org, launched in 2004, with the support of GRAIN, the Asia-Pacific Research Network and IBON Foundation, as a global collaborative project to express a shared concern about the growth of bilateral trade and investment deals outside of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a feeling that these less visible agreements were "under the radar" of many social justice activists. In the past months Stefan coordinated a collective statement of artists, academics and organizations to express opposition to the Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA). Stefan is studying history at Concordia University and also works at Casa del Popolo. Find Stefan on twitter @spirodon on Instagram @spirochristoff

Alys Samson Estapé is a feminist, anti-racist activist and the European coordinator of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions movement (BDS). Previously she worked at Hèlia, supporting women suffering from gender based violence and with cooperation projects with feminist organisations in Palestine. She also worked at Novact, the International Institute for nonviolent action she worked as project manager, and co- founded ODHE – the Observatory for Human Rights and Companies in the Mediterranean and published the “Guide for protection and promotion of Human Rights in public procurement”.

INTERNATIONAL WEBINARS ON KASHMIR

Alternatives international — 2020-08-02T02:40:13Z

INTERNATIONAL WEBINARS ON KASHMIR
Part 1

Date: Sunday 23 August 2020
Time: 10 AM New York time/7:30 PM New Delhi time/4 PM Brussels time

Moderator: Bill Fletcher Jr.

Topic: “Perceptions forming on the ground, growing fears and anxieties and apartheid-like situation shaping up Kashmir.”
Speaker: Parvaiz Bukhari

Topic: “Politics of Development within a Hindu Settler Colonial context”
Speaker: Mona Bhan

Topic: “Kashmir, Geopolitics, and the Threat to Global Peace”
Speaker: Mohamad Junaid

Join with this Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/93991839305

Part 2

Date: Saturday 29 August 2020
Time: 8 AM California time/11 AM New York time/8:30 PM New Delhi/Leh time/5 PM Brussels time

Moderator: Jooneed Khan

Topic: Kashmir: Between ‘Bare Life' and Death
Speaker: Angana Chatterji

Topic: Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)
– No right to life in Kashmir
Speaker: Tapan Bose

Topic: The 2020 Ladakh Debacle and China in the J&K Dispute
Speaker:Siddiq Wahid

Join with this Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/92980664581

Intro to speakers:

Jooneed Khan has worked as a journalist in International Affairs with a French Daily of Montreal (Canada) La Presse for over 40 years. In his vast coverage on international politics, he has also covered Kashmir. At present he participates as panelist and political commentator as a guest on several radio and TV shows.

Tapan Bose is the founder Director of South Asia Forum for Human Rights. He is also the co-founder chairperson of Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy.

Parvaiz Bukhari is a senior journalist based in Kashmir.

Mona Bhan is Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asia and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University. She is the author of Counterinsurgency, Development, and the Politics of Identity: From Warfare to Welfare?; co-author of Climate without Nature: A Critical Anthropology of the Anthropocene; and co-editor of Resisting Occupation in Kashmir.

Mohamad Junaid is an Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He has a Ph.D. in Anthropology with research on violence, nationalism, culture, and politics in South Asia. He has written extensively on military occupation, history, space, and political subjectivity in Kashmir.

Siddiq Wahid is Professor and Scholar-in-Residence at Shiv Nadar University and Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Chinese Studies in Delhi. Prior to this he was a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; the Founding Vice Chancellor of Islamic University in Kashmir; the Gulab Singh Chair Professor of History, Jammu University and Director, Institute of Kashmir Studies, Kashmir University. His field of study is Central Eurasian and Tibetan History.

Angana P. Chatterji is Co-chair, Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights Initiative at Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley. She is Co-founder, International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (2008). Her publications include, Violent Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present (author, 2009); Kashmir: The Case for Freedom (contributing author, 2011); Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India (co-editor, 2019), and the report, Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked and Mass Graves in Kashmir (lead author, 2009).

CONTEXT

Kashmir is under siege. Seven million people are under virtual lockdown for nine months since the BJP government abrogated Articles 370 and 35 reducing the former Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in to two ‘Union Territories' of Indian state.

The Indian Constituent Assembly had adopted Article 370 as a part of Indian Constitution to give a certain degree of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir the only Muslim-majority state — integration of which into Indian Union was to be done either through a ‘referendum' or through an internationally monitored ‘plebiscite'. The promise of ‘referendum' was made to the people of Kashmir by the Indian state at the time of accepting the ‘Letter of Accession' signed by the then ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh.

The Article 35A, gave the local Kashmir government the right to define who is a “permanent resident” of the state and who are able to own property or buy land. This was a condition that Sheikh Abdullah the pro-accession leader of Kashmir's National Conference had insisted upon to protect Kashmir's Muslim-majority status, and was the last thing Kashmiris were holding onto to preserve some semblance of their nationhood.

By repealing Article 35A & 370 of the constitution, people from the rest of India will now have the right to acquire property in occupied Kashmir and settle there permanently. Kashmiris see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.

A few days before the announcement of abrogation, the Indian government put Kashmir under military curfew and ordered all Hindu pilgrims and non-Kashmiris to leave the valley. They were denied access to all their family members and relatives living outside Jammu and Kashmir, their cellular phones and landlines were disconnected, access to television broadcast and internet was stopped.

These restrictions and disruption, which has been maintained over the last seven months, albeit with some relaxation, has resulted in loss of jobs to lakhs, collapse of business enterprises and massive loss to financial institutions as a substantial number of accounts have declared bankruptcy. Many business establishments dependent on internet like information technology and e-commerce have been ruined. The fruit crops, particularly Apple, which is the mainstay of Kashmir's economy suffered heavy losses and fruit trees suffered permanent damage due to the unavailability of weather updates on the heavy snowfall. The government intervention in the horticulture sector for which Rs. 8,000 Crores were earmarked for purchase of apples came a cropper and caused price turmoil and panic sales. As per a study by Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during first five months of the post abrogation lockdown, Kashmir's economy has suffered a loss of Rs 17,878.18 Crores.

For more than seven decades, the people of Indian Held Kashmir have been denied their inalienable right to self-determination. Human rights abuses in the India administered parts of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir are an ongoing issue. The abuses range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Personnel (BSF) and various separatist militant groups have been carrying out these heinous crimes against Kashmiri civilians with total impunity.

More than 100,000 killed during the last decade, over 15,000 Kashmiri women violated, over 15,000 Kashmiri youths imprisoned in Indian interrogation centres and torture cells, more than 20,000 kids orphaned, 8,000 to 10,000 involuntarily disappeared, over 200 totally blinded with pellet guns 2016. The extent of male disappearances has been so large that a new term "half-widows" has been created for their wives who end up with no information of their husbands' whereabouts. Human right activists estimate the number of disappeared to be over eight thousand, last seen in government detention. The disappeared are believed to be dumped in thousands of mass graves across Kashmir.

Mass graves have been identified all over Kashmir which contain bodies of thousands of Kashmiris of enforced disappearances. A State Human Rights Commission inquiry in 2011, has confirmed there are thousands of bullet-ridden bodies buried in unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir. Of the 2730 bodies uncovered in 4 of the 14 districts, 574 bodies were identified as missing locals, which expose the false claim of the Indian government that all these graves belong to foreign militants. It was claimed by local and international human rights groups that the total number of unmarked graves was more than 6,000.

Under all international agreements and United Nations Security Council resolutions, Kashmir is not the internal matter of India or Pakistan. It is a disputed territory whose status is yet to be determined by its people. The Indian act abrogating these two articles is an open contravention of UN resolution #122 adopted on January 24, 1957; # 123 adopted on February 21, 1957 and # 126 adopted on December 2, 1957. These resolutions prohibit any unilateral action to change the disputed nature of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. It is also against Tashkent Declaration of 1966, Simla Agreement of 1972, and Lahore Declaration of 1999 between Pakistan and India.

It is beyond doubt that the longer the uncertainties continue and the longer the United Nations and world powers ignore Jammu & Kashmir, the more dangerous and intractable the crisis becomes in light of the fact that both Indian and Pakistan are nuclear powers. There is an urgent need for the international civil society to step in to initiate a campaign for supporting the liberation struggles of the Kashmiri people, in the light of the UN GA Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 that the right to self-determination could not be proclaimed as fulfilled and that it did not involve only the political phase of decolonization. The principle of self-determination serves as legal support and target indicator of the struggles of peoples whose right to self-governance is at risk due to external and internal forces.

As the Modi Government's current response to Kashmir shows that New Delhi has declared total war against the civilian population. The history of Indian counterinsurgency policy shows that this is not the first time the Indian state has used this policy of using massive force with impunity. The patterns of state and state-supported violence are repeated across time and space. The continuing crisis requires immediate diplomacy that recognizes the explosive situation on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir and takes immediate measures to avert it before it explodes.

Statement by Montreal Academic Community Against Police Brutality in India, CAA, NRC

Alternatives international — 2019-12-23T15:55:19Z

We, the members of the Montreal academic community, stand in solidarity with students exercising their fundamental right to dissent and protest across India.

We condemn the brutality unleashed by the police against students of Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and many other academic institutions in the Northeastern states, and across the country. On the 15th of December, at JMI, police fired tear gas shells, entered hostels and attacked students studying in the library and praying in the mosque. Over 200 students have been severely injured, many who are in critical condition. There have also been reports of sexual harassment of female students by the police. A similar situation of violence has been unfolding at other universities, in some cases without any recourse to the press or public due to internet shutdowns and imposition of section 144.

For the Indian Government to mobilise police and paramilitary forces against its own non-violent and peacefully protesting students is emblematic of a troubling trend that attacks the very foundations of a democratic society. Under no circumstances should it be acceptable for the police to barge into University campuses, libraries, hostels or prayer spaces, to physically and verbally abuse and intimidate students and arbitrarily detain them. It is particularly concerning that this state-led repression is targeting students at majority-Muslim institutions, indicating the impunity with which the state can enact violence against minority populations in India. An atmosphere of fear, insecurity and anxiety is being deliberately created to brow-beat students into silence against what is a clear violation of the Indian Constitution and its secular ethic. To mischaracterize student protests as “riots,” and the police's use of excessive force as justified “peacekeeping,” is an unlawful denial of students' rights as citizens. We demand an immediate end to all forms of violence against the protesting students and call for accountability of those responsible.

Over the past several days, we have witnessed many peaceful protests and demonstrations against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019. The Act provisions for preferential treatment of religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan seeking to acquire Indian citizenship, while explicitly excluding Muslim refugees from its purview. This blatant discrimination against Muslims violates the principles of equality, liberty, and secularism that form the basis of the Constitution of India. We lend our unconditional support to all those across India fighting this unconstitutional law and join their call for its immediate withdrawal.

******
Date : 18 décembre 2019
Déclaration de la communauté académique montréalaise contre la brutalité policière en Inde, CAA, NRC
Nous, membres de la communauté académique montréalaise, sommes solidaires avec les étudiant.e.s qui exercent leur droit fondamental à la dissidence incluant le droit de manifester partout en Inde.
Nous condamnons la brutalité perpétrée par la police contre les étudiant.e.s de l'Université Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), de l'Université Aligarh Muslim (AMU) et de nombreux autres établissements universitaires dans les États du nord-est et dans tout le pays. Le 15 décembre, à la JMI, la police a tiré des grenades lacrymogènes, est entrée dans des résidences universitaires et a attaqué des étudiant.e.s dans la bibliothèque et celles et ceux qui priaient à la mosquée. Plus de 200 élèves ont été gravement blessés, dont beaucoup sont dans un état critique. Des cas de harcèlements sexuels perpétrés par la police ont également été signalés. Une situation de violence similaire s'est produite dans d'autres universités, dans certains cas sans aucun recours à la presse ou au public en raison des coupures d'Internet et de l'imposition de l'article 144.
Le fait que le gouvernement indien mobilise la police et les forces paramilitaires contre ses propres étudiant.e.s non violents et manifestant pacifiquement est emblématique d'une tendance troublante qui attaque les fondements mêmes d'une société démocratique. En aucun cas, il ne devrait être acceptable que la police fasse irruption dans les campus universitaires, les bibliothèques, les résidences d'étudiant.e.s ou les lieux de prière, maltraite physiquement et verbalement les étudiant.e.s, les intimide et les arrête de manière arbitraire. Il est particulièrement préoccupant de constater que cette répression menée par l'État cible les étudiant.e.s dans les institutions à majorité musulmane, ce qui indique l'impunité avec laquelle l'État peut recourir à la violence contre les populations minoritaires en Inde. Un climat de peur, d'insécurité et d'anxiété est délibérément créé pour intimider les étudiant.e.s et les faire taire contre ce qui constitue une violation de la Constitution indienne et de son éthique laïque. Qualifier à tort les manifestations étudiantes comme des "émeutes" et le recours excessif à la force par la police comme "maintien de la paix" est un déni des droits des étudiant.e.s en tant que citoyen.ne.s. Nous exigeons l'arrêt immédiat de toutes les formes de violence à l'encontre des étudiant.e.s qui manifestent et exigeons que les responsables rendent des comptes.
Au cours des derniers jours, nous avons assisté à de nombreuses manifestations pacifiques contre le National Register of Citizens (NRC) et le Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019. La loi prévoit un traitement préférentiel pour les minorités religieuses du Pakistan, du Bangladesh et de l'Afghanistan qui cherchent à acquérir la citoyenneté indienne, tout en excluant explicitement les réfugiés musulmans de son champ d'application. Cette discrimination flagrante contre les musulman.e.s viole les principes d'égalité, de liberté et de laïcité qui sont à la base de la Constitution indienne. Nous apportons notre soutien inconditionnel à tous ceux et celles qui, à travers le pays, luttent contre cette loi inconstitutionnelle et nous nous joignons à leur appel pour son retrait immédiat.
Signed / Signé :
1. Sumaira Nawaz, Ph.D. Student, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
2. Ayesha Vemuri, Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
3. Mehak Sawhney, Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
4. Hamza Rizwan, Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University
5. Archisman Chaudhuri, Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University
6. Aziz Choudry, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
7. Apoorva Malepati, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of Political Science, McGill University
8. Sajneet Mangat, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
9. Jessica Fontaine, Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
10. Ishita Tiwary, Cinema Studies, Concordia University
11. Bensouda Hamza, Sciences Po Paris, exchange student at the Faculty of Arts at McGill University (North African, Middle East politics)
12. Sarah Abdelshamy, Graduate Student in Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
13. Gabriel Larivière, Graduate Student at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
14. Mahnoor Ali Syed, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of International Development, McGill University
15. Murad Khrais, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University

16. Shealeigh Sangollo, Undergraduate Student in International Development, McGill University
17. Bibi Emina, Undergraduate Student, International Development, McGill University
18. Jayne Malenfant Dept. of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
19. Maria Valentina Figueroa, Undergraduate Student at Dept. of International Development, McGill University
20. Kelvin Mansaray, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
21. Rishav Das, Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University
22. Andy Stuhl, Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
23. Chitrank Upadhyay, PhD Humanities, Central for Interdisciplinary Study of Culture and Society, Concordia University
24. Emil Briones, Schulich School of Music BMus Alum (2013), Dept. of Integrated Studies in Education MA Alum (2018)
25. Ingo Miguel Tillessen, '19 B.A. Political Science Alumnus, McGill University
26. Lindsay Corbett, Dept of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
27. Lavanya Huria, Dept. of Economics, McGill University
28. Michelle Hartman, Professor and Director, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
29. Jonathan Sterne, Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University.
30. Yasir Piracha, Dept. of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University
31. Burc Kostem, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University.
32. Sheetal Lodhia, Independent Scholar, former ED of The Institute of Public Life of Arts and Ideas at McGill University.
33. Rohan Verma, Faculty of Law, McGill University.
34. Nina Morena, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
35. Gabriel Masi, Faculty of Education, McGill University
36. Hana Nikcevic, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
37. Shivashree Vysali, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University
38. Emmanuelle Leduc-Bouchard, Département d'études littéraires, Université du Québec à Montréal
39. Abigail Drach, Department of English and GSFS, McGill University
40. Benji Nothwehr, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
41. Maheen Akter, Department of Political Science, McGill University
42. Eric Gagnon, Undergraduate student, Department of History, Concordia University
43. Leia Bennaceur, Department of Psychology and School of Environmental Science Alumnus, McGill University
44. Chris Gismondi, PhD Student McGill University, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, MA Concordia, BA Hon. McGill
45. Gabriella Coleman, Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University.
46. Farah Atoui, PhD Student, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
47. Marco Meneghin, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University.
48. Hani Abramson, Undergraduate Student, Department of Jewish Studies, McGill University
49. Jude Khashman, Undergraduate Student, Department of Mathematics, McGill University.
50. Joel Auerbach, MA, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
51. Will Straw, Professor, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University
52. Maxime Robert, Undergraduate, Department of Computer Science, Université du Québec à Montréal
53. Chloe Garcia, Academic Affairs Officer at Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at McGill and PhD/alumni from the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill.
54. Tom Zhai, Undergraduate Pharmacology & Therapeutics, McGill University.
55. Giuseppe Fidotta, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
56. Peter C. van Wyck, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
57. Danji Buck-Moore, MA student, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University
58. Sima Kokotović, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
59. Hussain Awan, BA student, Faculty of Arts, McGill University
60. Reem Abdul Majid, BA student, Faculty of Arts, McGill University
61. Sahar Fazeli, Faculty of education, McGill University
62. Zoë De Luca, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
63. Iuliia Glushneva, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
64. Helen Hayes, MA Student, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
65. Amir Abushanab, BSc Student, Faculty of Science, McGill University
66. Anika Hundal, Department of Psychology, McGill University
67. Vanessa Robillard Social Service Program Dawson College.
68. Dariya Vzorov, MA Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
69. Beatriz Polivanov, Professor, Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil), Visiting Scholar at the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
70. Alastair Hibberd, Alumnus, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
71. Jordan B. Kinder, PhD, Petrocultures Research Group, University of Alberta
72. Rushdia Mehreen, PhD Student, Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal
73. Saima Ahmed, PhD Candidate, Department of Medicine - Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University
74. Allyson Rogers, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
75. Joe Delahaye, Undergraduate Student, Department of Anthropology, McGill University
76. Fariduddin Attar, PhD Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. d
77. Maia Salameh, Undergraduate Student, World Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and English Literature, McGill University
78. Nour Fahmy, Undergraduate Student, Political Science and World Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, McGill University
79. Feroz Mehdi, India Civil Watch, Canada
80. Yuvika Dandiwal, Undergraduate Student, Department of Psychology, McGill University
81. Anna Lee White, Ph.D. Student, School of Religious Studies, McGill University
82. Tanvi Rajvanshi, MA Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
83. Kevin Vogel, Dept. of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
84. Laurence J. Kirmayer, James McGill Professor and Director, Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University
85. Birendra Prasada, Retired Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University
86. Sirma Bilge, Full Professor, Department of Sociology, Université de Montréal
87. Yusuf Ashmawi, Alumnus Department of Economics, McGill University
88. Jaswant Guzder, Professor, Department of Psychiatry , McGill University
89. Rachel Bergmann, MA Student, Department of Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University
90. Charlotte Scott-Frater, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
91. Abisaab Malek, Associate Professor, McGill University
92. Maranda Raskin, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
93. Jihad Tichioui, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
94. Narendra Subramanian, Professor, Department of Political Science, McGill University
95. Usama Rehman, B.Sc Student, Department of Physics, McGill University
96. HD, alum*, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
97. Sarah Graham, Undergraduate, Department of Gender and Social Justice Studies, McGill University
98. Zamila Uddin, SN, Nursing Program, Dawson College
99. Sabeena Shaikh, PhD Student, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
100. Rawda Baharun, B.A. Student, Department of Psychology, McGill University
101. Komal Mohite, Graduate Studies, Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
102. Dounia Diatsentos, Undergraduate at Glasgow University - McGill on exchange, Geography and Political Science.
103. Robin Lynch, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History and Communications, McGill University
104. Ashwin Nair, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University
105. Damla Cakmak, Political Science & History, McGill University
106. Meghan Bussiere, Department of Pharmacology, McGill University
107. Sireena Divecha, Department of Engineering, McGill University
108. Rachel Takasaki, Department of Biology, McGill University
109. Rachel Berger, Associate Professor, History, Concordia University
110. Oliver Ndula, STM student, School of Religious Studies, McGill University
111. Inori Roy, McGill University Alumni
112. Sophie Toupin, Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
113. Heather Porter, PhD student, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
114. Sonia Summer Mahmud, Undergraduate student, Dept. Of English, McGill University
115. Ashley Grzybowski, Graduate Student, School of Social Work, McGill University
116. Rasha Rashid, McGill University Alumni
117. Rachel Webb Jekanowski, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Memorial University (Concordia University alumni)
118. Vijay Kolinjivadi, Post-doctoral researcher, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO)
119. Delali Egyima, Undergraduate Student, Department of Psychology, McGill University
120. Joy Kwak, Dept. of International Development Studies, McGill University
121. Norma Rantisi, Dept. of Geography, Planning & Environment, Concordia University
122. Darin Barney, Grierson Chair in Communication Studies, McGill University
123. Eloïse Albaret, Undergraduate Student, Department of English,McGill University
124. Emille Boulot, PhD Student, Natural Resource Sciences Department, McGill University
125. Sabrah Khanyari, Undergraduate Student, Department of Psychology, McGill University
126. Andreas Koch, Undergraduate Student, Political Science, McGill University
127. Rosamond Atkin, Undergraduate Student, Department of Jewish Studies, McGill University
128. Ashton Connor Mathias, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
129. Yuriko Furuhata, Associate Professor, Dept. of East Asian Studies, McGill University
130. Tamara Vukov, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal
131. Natasha Kotak, Undergraduate Student, Department of Biology,, McGill University
132. Mirra-Margarita Ianeva, MA Student, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
133. Veysel Simsek, Lecturer in Turkish, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
134. Amrita Chowdhury, Graduate (Alumni), History and Classical Studies, McGill University
135. Patrick McKenna, MSc Student, Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment, Concordia University
136. Anam Hossain, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Management, McGill University
137. Tali Ioselevich, Undergraduate Student, Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment, Concordia University
138. Afshan Nasseri, Faculty of Management, McGill University Alumni 2019
139. Andrea Lee, Undergraduate Student, Dept. of Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies, McGill University
140. Edna Wan, Dept. of English Literature, McGill University, Alumni.
141. Anoushka Arora, Undergraduate Student, Department of Biochemistry, McGill University
142. Aishwarya Singh, MA Student, Department of English, McGill University
143. Jacqueline Ristola, PhD candidate, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
144. Maya Kamal, MA Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
145. Anish Ramanan, Department of Geography and IDS, McGill University
146. Abhinav Mamidi, BCOM Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University
147. Nicholas Avedisian-Cohen, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
148. William Bourque, non-student community member
149. Florencia Marchetti, PhD Candidate, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University
150. Wendy Pringle, Course Lecturer, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University.
151. Paul Fontaine, Communications Department, University of the Fraser Valley
152. Christina Lau, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Management, McGill University
153. Maharshee Karia, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Science: Physiology and Mathematics, McGill University
154. Mir Abdullah Al Rakib, Undergraduate Student, Department of Political Science, McGill University
155. Evgenia Pateras, MSc OT, Depart. of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University
156. Shehrbano Jamali Niazi, Faculty of Arts: Political Science and World Islamic and Middle East Studies, McGill University
157. Madeline Wilson, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Arts: Political Science and Geography, McGill University
158. Aakanksha Mathur, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Arts: International development studies and communication studies, Mcgill University
159. Sunyam Bagga, MSc Computer Science, McGill University
160. Abrar Ahsan, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Arts: Political Science, McGill University
161. Idil Jama Isse, Concordia Political Science Alumni/Albert-Ludwig Universität Universitat Global Studies Alumni
162. Rituraj Rituraj,Faculty of Management,McGill University
163. Jonathan Karpetz, PhD Student, Department of Art History & Communications, McGill University
164. Cyntia Kraichati, PhD Student, Department of Anthropology, McGill University
165. Melissa Kuch, Undergraduate Student, Department of English, McGill University
166. Ethan Burg, Undergraduate Student, Department of Geography, McGill University
167. Anuradha Dugal, MA student, DISE, Faculty of Education, McGill University
168. Samia Marshy, Undergraduate Student, Department of Geography, Concordia University.
169. Dolores Chew, Ph.D., Departments of Liberal and Creative Arts and Social Sciences, Marianopolis College, Montreal
170. Costanza Graziani, MSc student, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University
171. Jacky Vallée, teacher, Anthropology and Indigenous Studies, Vanier College
172. Saleh Pezhman, PhD Student, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University.
173. Beenash Jafri, Assistant Professor, Cinema, Concordia University
174. Paul Di Stefano, teacher, Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Religion, John Abbott College, Montreal.
175. Veronica Ponce, Liberal and Creative Arts Department, Marianopolis College, Montreal.
176. Andie (Saša) Buccitelli, Social Service Program, Dawson College, Montreal
177. Lara Khattab, Phd Candidate , Political Science, Concordia University, Montreal.
178. Angela Ikuallaq, Administrative Assistant, Vanier College
179. Leila Bdeir, M.A., Humanities Department, Vanier College
180. Vrinda Narain, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University.
181. Zahraa Chorghay, PhD Candidate, McGill University.
182. Alex Robichaud, Program Coordinator, Curating and Public Scholarship Lab, Concordia University
183. Sarah Beer, PhD, professor of Sociology, Dawson College.
184. Ashwini Sachindran, Master's student, Department of Chemical engineering, McGill university.
185. Erica James, MA, English Department, Vanier College
186. Pat Bonner, PhD, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia
187. Nellia Halimi, Undergraduate Student in Political Science, McGill University
188. Gisele Amantea, Associate Professor, Concordia University
189. Ashok Malla, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
190. Ajna Islam, MA, Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University.

191. Aditya Bharadwaz Nemana, MEngg, Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University.
192. Ellen Corin, PhD, Departments of Anthropology and Psychiatry, McGill UNiversity (retired professor), Psychoanalyst, member of the Canaduan Psychoanalytic Society..
193. Prashant Keshavmurthy, Associate Professor, McGill University
194. Sandeep Banerjee, Associate Professor of English, McGill University.
195. Jonatan Campbell, MA, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia
196. Aaditya Malhotra, Undergraduate Student, Department of Political Science and Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University.
197. Kiersten van Vliet, PhD Student in Musicology, AGSEM President, McGill University
198. Harshita Khera, LLM Graduate, Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University
199. Ali Smears, PhD Student, Department of Religions and Cultures, Concordia University
200. Jessica Rose, PhD Student, Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
201. Priyesh Vijayan, PhD student, School of Computer Science, McGill University
202. Carrie Rentschler, Associate Professor, Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
203. Sanjna Navani, B.A. Psychology and English Literature Alumnus, McGill University
204. Kristi Kouchakji, Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
205. Jenny Burman, Associate Professor, Art History and Communication
Studies, McGill University
206. Andrea Pinkney, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, McGill University
207. Louise Blais, Faculté des sciences sociales, University d'Ottawa (ret.)
208. Nafeesa Salar, Alumni, Faculty of Education, McGill University
209. Suzanne Nobel, Master's Student, Hispanic Studies, Faculty of Arts
210. Katherine Zien, Associate Professor, English Department, McGill University
211. Rosa Sundar-Maccagno, Undergraduate Student, Biology, McGill University
212. Matthias Mushinski, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
213. Aurélie Petit, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
214. Rine Vieth, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, McGill University
215. Sarah Foulkes, Masters Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinéma, Concordia University
216. Saishree Badrinarayanan, PhD student. Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University
217. Rose Stiffarm, Masters Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
218. Lily Corne Klein, Graduate Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University.
219. Kim Matthews, PhD, Department of Humanities, Vanier College, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
220. Hannah Tollefson, PhD Student, Communication Studies Department, McGill University.
221. Alan Wong, PhD, English Dept., Vanier College, Montreal, QC
222. Mehwaish Raja, Bed major in kindergarten elementary, McGill, Montreal, Quebec
223. Kester Dyer, PhD, Department of Humanities, Dawson College, Montreal, Québec
224. Alex Pace, MSc, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
225. Lorraine Oades, MFA, Department of Studio Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
226. Patrick Brodie, PhD Candidate, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Quebec, Canada
227. Maurice Dufour, Department of Social Science, Marianopolis College, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
228. Sarika Joglekar, Master Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
229. Rosanna Maule, Professor, Film Studies, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
230. Ecem Yildirim, PhD Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
231. Camille Schull, International Development Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
232. Alanna Thain, Associate Professor, English, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
233. Gilles Bibeau, Professeur émérite, Anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada
234. Avni Aghi, Student in the Faculty of Arts- Political Science, McGill University, Quebec, Canada
235. Dominique Scarfone, Honorary Professor, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada.
236. Kristopher Woofter, PhD, English Department, Dawson College, Montréal, QC, Canada
237. Leslie Orr, Professor, Department of Religions & Cultures, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
238. Papagena Robbins, McGill Writing Centre, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
239. Nelly Wat, Undergraduate Student, Department of Geography, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
240. Erin Manning, Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University
241. Philip Howard, Professor, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
242. Pasha M. Khan, Associate Professor, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
243. Isadora Hellegren, MA Alumni, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
244. Miles Taylor, Master Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
245. Ghida Mawlawi, Undergraduate Student, International Development, McGill University
246. Gustavo Mejia, Undergraduate, Department of Computer Science, Université du Québec à Montréal
247. Manasvini SN, PhD alumni, Education, Concordia University
248. Felix Fuchs, PhD candidate, Department of English, McGill University
249. Alyssa Cannavino, DVM, Resident in Veterinary Internal Medicine, Université de Montréal
250. Afzal Rahman, MBA alumnus, Karachi University, Retired, Montreal.
251. Bayar Goswami, Doctoral Fellow, Institute of Air and Space Law, Faculty of Law, McGill University.
252. Simran Kaur Ratol, Undergraduate Student, Concordia University.
253. Nameera Armin, U1 Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Arts, Department of Economics and Political Science, McGill University
254. Samir Shaheen-Hussain (MD CM), pediatric emergency physician and assistant professor in the faculty of medicine at McGill University
255. Shikha Diwakar, PhD student, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
256. Debdeep Chatterjee, PhD student, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
257. Marcell Toth-Szabo, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Arts, McGill University
258. Roda Siad, PhD Student, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
259. Viviane Saglier, Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow, Department of Anthropology, McGill University.
260. Jenny Burman, Associate Professor, Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
261. Sima Aprahamian, Ph.D., Research Associate, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University.
262. Tamara Jacod, M.Ed University of British Columbia
263. Khalil Mohsin,, Undergraduate, Department of Computer Science, McGill University
264. Felix Mathew, PhD candidate, Department of Biology and Biomedical Engineering, McGill University
265. Catherine Larouche, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Université Laval (McGill Alumni)
266. Syeda N Bukhari, Research Associate, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Montreal
267. Lara Braitstein, Associate Professor, School of Religious Studies, McGill University
268. Rachel Sandwell, Faculty Lecturer, Department of History & Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, McGill University
269. Natalie Kouri-Towe, Assistant Professor, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
270. Shira Avni, Associate Professor, Film Animation, Concordia University
271. Geneviève Rail, Ph.D., Professor, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
272. Shanon Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor, History and Classical Studies, McGill University
273. Lynn Hughes, Professor Emerita, Fine Arts, Concordia University
274. Kathleen O'Grady, Research Associate, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
275. Emilie Duchesne, Master Student, Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal
276. André Habib, Professeur agrégé, Département d'histoire de l'art et d'études cinématographiques, Université de Montréal
277. Joshua Neves, Associate Professor, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
278. Hamsa Stainton, Assistant Professor, School of Religious Studies, McGill University
279. Ameera Kabir, Student, Psychology, Dawson College
280. Dr. Dushyant Yajnik, Member, Canadian Psychoanalytic Society
281. Tracy Zhang, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
282. Ourania Nima, étudiante en psychologie au Collège Dawson
283. Mariana Chajon, étudiante en Littérature au Collège Dawson
284. Tomas Oyarzun, étudiant en Cinéma et Communication au Collège Dawson
285. Anthony Vicente-Pereira, étudiant en Cinéma et Communications au Collège Dawson
286. Thomas De Luca, étudiant en Cinéma et Communications au Collège Dawson
287. Victoria Caputo, étudiante en Cinéma et Communications, Collège Dawson
288. Yuan Kelly, Undergraduate Student in Social Work, McGill University
289. Liuba González de Armas, MA Student, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
290. Kelly Rud, étudiante en Cinéma Communications au Collège Dawson
291. Sarah Shahid, McGill Alumni, BA ‘17 Economics & Art-History
292. Adeeb Amjad, Undergrad Engineering student, McGill University
293. Shivanshi Malhotra, International Development Studies and Political Science, McGill University
294. Guy McQueen, International Development Studies, McGill University
295. Meghomita Das, Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University
296. Arisa Mohiuddin, International Development, McGill University
297. Kelly Kim, Graduate Student, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
298. Iris Madeline, History BA, McGill University
299. Anirudha Jitani, Computer Science, McGill University
300. Krista Riley, PhD, Researcher and Pedagogical Counsellor, Vanier College
301. Mateus Domingues da Silva, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
302. Jim Aldon D'Souza, MSc, Robotics Team Lead, Algolux Inc.
303. Yasmin Farah Peer, Undergraduate Student, Majoring in Political Science and minoring in Human Rights, Concordia University
304. Marc Steinberg, Associate Professor, Concordia University
305. Mela Sarkar, Associate Professor, McGill University
306. Aziz Siddiqui, Masters Student, Information Studies, McGill University
307. Monica Popescu, Associate Professor of English, McGill University
308. Navneet Kaur, BSc Physics and Math Joint Honors, McGill University
309. Kiana Saint-Macary, BA&Sc. Biology & Philosophy, BCL/JD, McGill University
310. Rajeev Das, Scientist CHUM. Department of Electrical Engineering Alumnus, McGill University.
311. Katie McClelland, Political Science and World Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, McGill University
312. Derek Nystrom, Associate Professor of English, McGill University
313. Pierre Beaudet, Département de sciences sociales, UQO
314. Benoît Allard, Étudiant à la maîtrise, Science politique, UQAM
315. Fawaaz Azam Hussain, Student from Department of Civil Engineer, Concordia University
316. Muhammad Ghufran Rafique, PhD candidate, Department of Chemistry, McGill University
317. Yanick Noiseux, Professor, Department de sociologie, Université de Montréal
318. S.J. Adrienna Joyce, PhD candidate, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
319. Andrew Ivaska, Associate Professor of History, Concordia University
320. Kate Ellis, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Arts: History and Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies, McGill University
321. Mathieu Bédard, MA Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
322. Zahra Hussain, Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Arts, Department of Economics, McGill University
323. Ylenia Olibet, PhD Candidate, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Quebec, Canada
324. Suraiya Foss-Phillips, BA Political Science, McGill University
325. Mustafa Fakih, McGill University
326. Tharuvi Nanayakkara, BA Anthropology, McGill University
327. Tamara Yang, BA Honours Political Science and International Development Studies, McGill University
328. Elena Razlogova, Associate Professor of History, Concordia University
329. Aishwarya Sashini K Samarakone, '19 BSc Microbiology & Immunology Alumnus, McGill University
330. Aaditya Shah, Undergraduate Student, Concordia University.
331. Megan Lauzier, Masters Student, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
332. Maddie Le Gall, MSc Student Department of Geography, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
333. Albert Gunnison, Undergraduate Student, McGill University

Date: 18 December 2019