Toronto Social Forum Cultures of Resistance

The End of an Era

In early October, the federal government announced dramatic changes to Status of Women Canada that will, in effect, eliminate federal funding to feminist organizations in Canada. Combined with the removal of the Court Challenges Program, these changes will end the era of Canadian democracy that recognized the need for state funding to marginalized groups. The Harper government has taken us one more step toward U.S.-style “democracy” where only the powerful have access to government.
The administrative cuts to Status of Women have received the most attention in the media but the changes to the government agency's mandate are much more significant. The word “equality” has been eliminated from the agency's mandate replaced by the word “participation.” In addition, funding for lobbying and research, exactly what the agency always funded, is no longer permitted.
Another potentially even more significant change is that for-profit groups are now eligible for funding. In other words, the Royal Bank of Canada could apply for funding to Status of Women Canada to increase the number of women managers at the bank. For more http://http://www.rabble.ca/politics.shtml?x=53346

Nuit blanche last night, Toronto turns into a community

Cuts to Status of Women

Sorry for the long delay in my blog. I will be starting up again on a regular basis.
Can anyone doubt that today's cuts to Status of Women Canada is the beginning of the end of the women's program. FAFIA http://www.fafia-afai.org/ and NAWL http://www.nawl.ca/ managed to protect their funding by a major lobby campaign so the cuts announced yesterday are "administrative cuts." The Harper government is smart. They don't want to cut project funding right away and risk the wrath of the women's movement. This is a trial balloon. If they get away with it without much opposition, project funding will be next.

Even more signicant is their elmination of the Court Challenges Program. This is a critical source of funding for marginalized groups who want to launch a charter challenge. Many critics have already pointed out that the Charter has helped corporations and other privileged groups more than it has helped women, people with disabilities and racialized groups now it will be much more slanted in the direction of the privileged. Ideologically, this is the clearest symbol of where the Harper government will be going if ever they are to get a majority.

Iraqi women

The woman on the left is Fatima who is the General Secretary of Iraqi Women Rising at one of the public meetings in Toronto. I am now in Montreal after two meetings in Toronto and one in Ottawa. This week end we will do a panel at the Alternatives Journee d'etudes just outside of Montreal.

Its been a great trip for Fatima and Shameron and Massar their translator. For Massar it is the first time out of the Middle East and for the two women it's the first time since the 1970's so it is as Massar says, the trip of a life time.

For me it's been an amazing experience. In many ways Iraq is the opposite of Bolivia. It's a place that was very progressive in the 1950's and as Fatima says it has been under occupation for decades first by Saddam Hussein who according to them, militarized the entire society and created a dictatorship where you could not achieve anything in the society unless you were a member of the Baath Party. Both women were tortured by what they call the X regime and lost loved ones, Fatima, her husband. Now they are occupied by the Americans who have destroyed or allowed to be destroyed everything that had been built in the society.

To illustrate what the Americans are up to in Iraq Shamerin tells the story that the Americans have allowed everything to be destroyed and looted including museums and important antiquities and the only thing they have protected is the Ministry of Oil

Iraqi Women

Back home now and haven't posted in a while. I've been working with two women who are here in Canada from Baghdad. I met them last spring in Jordan and was tremendously impressed with them. They will be giving public talks in Toronto and Ottawa this week In Ottawa, they will be at the Ottawa Public Library at 6:30 pm on Wednesday Aug 23 and then they will be doing a panel at the Alternatives Journee d'etudes http://www.alternatives.ca/rubrique280.html?lang=en

This is the first time they have been out of Iraq since the 70's. One of them is seeing her brother here in Toronto for the first time in fifteen years. It is incredibly moving and sad at the same time. I guess this is my summer for realizing in so many ways how privileged we are living here in Canada and how easily we lose track of how most of the rest of the world has to live because of the wealth we have accumulated. I think the last time this reality was so stark for me was in the 60's. When I got back from Bolivia I stopped buying anything. My friend Aparna says that happens to her everytime she comes back after visiting her home in India. It doesn't last long. Today I broke my consumer boycott. It was a great sale.

Anti-war movement

I am back and yesterday I went to a demo in Toronto against the Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The demonstration was about 2,000 people. Given the horror of the Israeli aggression, I would have expected it to be much bigger. I understand that alot of people are confused about the situation in the Middle East and fall prey to the concerns that any criticism of Israel is anti-semitism and that somehow Israel is justified in an agression that would be universally condemned if it were commited by any other state but still.

I couldn't help but feel that part of the problem is the anti-war movement itself. When you are trying to moblize to stop a war, the most important thing is the unite the broadest number of people possible. In this case, the slogan should have been Israel out of Lebanon, or an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Instead there were any number of slogans and alot of support for Hezbollah and Hamas. I believe that Hamas is the legitimate elected government of Palestine and they should be recognized and treated as such but i don't support them. They are Islamists, that is fundamentalist Muslims and I don't support any fundamentalist religious group especially in politics. There were also supporters of Hezbollah and the Iranian President. I understand the support for Hezbollah as they are actually fighting back against the Israeli agression but such support should not be central to the demonstration It should be clear that the basis of the demo is broader. The suggestion by several speakers was that the left should get it together and realize that the people of the region support Hamas and Hezbollah and therefore we should too. I believe this is wrong politically and not the way to build an anti-war movement. I think there is an urgent need for a discussion on these issues.

I couldn't help but notice much fewer Jewish identified activists at the demo yesterday than in previous demonstrations protesting Israeli policies in the Middle East. It is my view that some of the progessive Jewish groups are getting narrower instead of broader too. Instead of reaching out to those in the Jewish community who are uncomfortable with Israel's aggressive tactics but who support the state of Israel in general, these groups seem to be making anti-Zionism a basis of unity. Now I have opposed Zionism since I was about 22 and traveled to Israel. I believe that Zionism was a trap for the Jews and that in essence it has meant that the Jewish people choose the side of the oppressor rather than uniting with other oppressed people in the world. But anti=Zionsim is no basis of unity of you are trying to get a small but significant voice in the Jewish community in Canada to speak out against the policies of the Israeli government. There are lots of left of centre Zionists who might be convinced to speak out against this kind of aggression but they will never support a position that opposes the ideological basis of the state of Israel. George Gallaway's speech to a huge rally in London, which as been circulated on the net, says clearly that the unity of the demonstration is for an immediate ceasefire but within that he is going to say what he thinks and he supports Hezbollah.

Anyway I left the demo feeling pretty discouraged. The good news is that last week-end there were 15,000 people protesting Israel's aggression last week end in Montreal.