The Daily GRRR! - March 5th, 2015

Welcome, I am your host dan kellar and you are listening to The Daily GRRR! on 100.3fm, CKMS in Waterloo, Ontario. Soundfm.ca on the web, today is March 5th, 2015.

We are broadcasting from the centre of the Haldimand Tract, the occupied Grand River Territory of the Haudenosaunee.

The Daily GRRR! is a project of the Grand River Media Collective; and is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

Today’s feature is a reading of Peter Gelderloos’s article from counterpunch.org called The Pandora’s Box of Antiterrorism. The piece analyses Spain’s recent crackdown on anarchists and other dissidents under the guise of fighting terrorism. With Harper’s C51 in the works, this read documents a likely future for Canada.

We start now with headlines:

The Daily GRRR!
HEADLINES for March 5th, 2015 
1. OCAP Delegation Demands Action for Andy and on SAMS
2. The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke Concerned Over Bill C51
3. Canadian Government Continuing With The Ol’ Divide and Conquer
4. No New Nuclear Waste Dump in Saskatchewan
5. Symposium on “Everyday Freedom” From Gendered Violence Hosted In Kitchener
6. Mexican Authorities Now Disappearing Teachers
7. Live Long and Prosper - With your Spockified 5$

1. OCAP Delegation Demands Action for Andy and on SAMS
On Wednesday, Toronto’s OCAP sent a delegation to the Ministry of Community and Social Services to demand immediate action to support “Andrew McLean, a 53 year-old man on ODSP with serious health concerns, including an upcoming double bypass surgery, who is facing eviction from his building due to an irreparably broken new computer system for administering OW and ODSP payments.” SAMS or the Social Assistance Management System, is the incompetently programmed/implemented computer system initialised in the fall of 2014 by the Ontario government.

Andrew is being evicted by his landlord who claims he has not been receiving rent cheques on behalf of Andrew, which were to be automatically issued by the government’s new computer system. While Andrew’s ODSP caseworker has sent letter to the landlord and the Landlord-Tenant-Board explaining the situation OCAP notes that with SAMS “even the simple act of issuing a replacement cheque has become nearly impossible.”

Andrew’s landlord won a LTB hearing which allows him to evict the 53-year old as of March 1st. OCAP notes that the apartment is in a neighbourhood where prices are skyrocketing as a new station for the high speed rail link from the airport to downtown is being completed. All this is ahead of this summer’s 2015 PanAm games.

OCAP’s press release explains “We've taken on Andrew's case because it highlights many of the issues poor people in Ontario face in this time of economic austerity, including gentrification, lack of affordable housing, the inequity of tenancy law, and injustice around social assistance and disability rates.”

2. The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke Concerned Over Bill C51
The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke has released an open letter to to Prime Minister Stephen Harper outlining their concerns with Bill C-51, the Conservative government's so-called 'Anti-Terrorism Act.'

Saying Canada must “avoid the temptation to engage in Big-Brother type methods”, the letter outlines concerns the MCK has with Bill C51 despite agreeing with efforts to “combat true terrorism”.

Of note is the concern that C51 will be used to further spy on Indigenous people who are defending THEIR land from industrial and toxic destruction. The letter reads “We feel that Bill C51, in its current state, could potentially and perhaps even predictably be used to further suppress our defense of our Aboriginal Rights and title.”

The full letter can be read through the link in this show’s transcript and at kahnawake.com.

This letter comes as the CBC reports that ”According to a draft list, committee staff are currently working their way through the names of as many as 70 potential witnesses who could be called to testify over the course of eight sessions allotted to expert testimony, including retired politicians, academics, security experts, First Nations and environmental activists and privacy advocates.
Among those who may be on the final witness list:
Retired Supreme Court justices Louise Arbour and John Major.
Former public safety ministers Anne McLellan and Stockwell Day.
Maher Arar, Canadian victim of torture at the hands of Syrian authorities and human rights activist.
Former associate chief justice of Ontario Dennis O'Connor, who chaired the inquiry into the events that led to Maher Arar being handed over and tortured by Syrian authorities.
Mi'kmaq lawyer and professor Pam Palmater and Grand Chief of Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Stewart Phillip.
Greenpeace Canada campaigner Keith Stewart.
Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien.
Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby.”

Hearings into Bill C51 are expected to begin next Tuesday

3. Canadian Government Continuing With The Ol’ Divide and Conquer
Heavily redacted documents show that the Canadian government established the Working Group on Natural Resource Development in 2013 which “held private meetings in Toronto and Edmonton in the fall of 2014 that were attended by several invited Chiefs and representatives from Enbridge, Syncrude and other oil corporations, as well as mining companies and business lobby groups. “

The guardian’s Martin Lukacs notes that “the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is sparking strong criticism from grassroots Indigenous people” for collaborating with the government as “The documents acknowledge that Indigenous community members are increasingly resisting those Chiefs who “try to establish and advance a “business to business” relationship with industry proponents.”

Speaking to the issue, Indigenous campaigner Clayton Thomas Mueller told the guardian “The Harper government and resource corporations are keenly aware that Indigenous rights movements are standing in the way of their polluting, destructive projects.” Mueller, who works with 350.org added, “Harper is desperately trying to manipulate the Assembly of First Nations and some of our Chiefs into sacrificing our rights and our lands at the altar of profit. But respect for our rights must be a basis for economic decision-making – indeed our rights offer a pathway to a more sustainable economic order for everyone in this country.”

4. No New Nuclear Waste Dump in Saskatchewan
The Committee For Future Generations is claiming victory in their 4 year battle to keep a deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel rods from being constructed in their communities. On Tuesday “Creighton was the last of three northern communities to be dropped by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) from site selection with Pinehouse and English River First Nations being eliminated in late 2013.”

The Committee for Future Generation was formed in 2011 and consists of residents from canadian towns as well as members of local Indigenous communities

“No industrial corporation or government has the right to manipulate the true spirit of Aboriginal stewardship,” emphasized CFFG member Marius Paul of English River First Nation. “The process that NWMO is following to secure a burial site for the most lethal waste product on earth is still the same systematic oppression that Aboriginal peoples have faced since the beginning of colonialism.”

Fred Pederson from Pinehouse, one of the Indigenous communities whose administration was paid to engage with NWMO in site selection process said “This is what happens when people stick together and fight for what they believe in, against terrorism of our land."

Nadine Smart, a resident of Creigton stated “I am happy and thankful this is over. I can forget and forgive all the mean and cruel things said and done.” She concluded “I have a sense of peace and relief, yet I’m sorry that nine (Ontario) communities are still fighting this. Nuclear waste should not be buried anywhere; it has to be kept above ground where it can be monitored, forever. This whole process is full of deception, money and bribes.”

One such site is the deep geological repository near Kincardine on Lake Huron which is still inching towards approval despite overwhelming opposition from other communities in the area and around the lakeshore. This victory in Saskatchewan is a reminder that together, we can resist horrible ideas and projects.

5. Symposium on “Everyday Freedom” From Gendered Violence Hosted In Kitchener
A two day symposium is taking place at the Wilfrid Laurier University faculty of Social Work in Kitchener, Ontario, March 11th and 12th. The Event which “aims to bring together university and community stakeholders whose efforts are directed at the prevention and response to gendered violence” will feature celebrations of efforts, panel discussions, and workshops “that explore the practical application of social justice principals to end gendered violence.”

Workshops include:
· Engaging Male Allies
· Responding to Disclosure
· Engaging with Campus Media
· Micro-Aggressions Against the LGBTQ Community
· Gendered Violence Against Racialized Students
· Combating Violence in the Trans Community and Queerphobias

For more information on the 2 day symposiumand to register, visit the links through today’s transcript up on grandrivermc.ca

6. Mexican Authorities Now Disappearing Teachers 
Not satisfied with only disappearing 43 students from a teachers college in Ayotzinapa in the country’s south last year, reports are emerging that Mexican authorities have disappeared 11 teachers following protests in Acapulco last week, which left one teacher dead.

Little information is flowing to my english reading eyes, but @MexicAnarchist has been translating news as he gets it and its not good. He wrote on twitter ”Fellow teachers have been demanding that police reveal where they are and release them alive.”

Despite the ongoing violence and corruption plaguing authorities in Mexico, the canadian government insists on keeping the narco-state on its “safe list”. This listing allows Harper’s canadian government to continue deporting migrants back to Mexico, where several have died following their return.

7. Live Long and Prosper - With your Spockified 5$
Following the death this week of actor Leonard Nimoy, famous for his “Spock” character in the original Star Trek, a fun hobby for some, has become a way to pay tribute to the Vulcan - the Spockification of the 5 dollar bill.

As the bills are surprisingly easy to change (make better) by adding Spock’s pointy ears, trademark haircut and eyebrows, and Star Trek badge to the image of Wilfrid Laurier whose face adorns the bill, the bank of Canada has asked people to stop tweaking the bills with these “markings”

Thats all for headlines, lets take a little break and go to a song, here is Leonard Nimoy with his cover of Johnny Cash’s I walk The Line

And we are back, you just heard Leonard Nimoy with his cover of Johnny Cash’s I walk The Line

You are listening to the The Daily GRRR! Today is March 5th, 2015 and my name is dan kellar and we are now moving into the feature portion of our broadcast.

Feature: a reading of Peter Gelderloos’s article from counterpunch.org called The Pandora’s Box of Antiterrorism. The piece analyses Spain’s recent crackdown on anarchists and other dissidents under the guise of fighting terrorism.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/13/the-pandoras-box-of-antiterrorism/

That was a reading of Peter Gelderloos’s article from counterpunch.org called The Pandora’s Box of Antiterrorism. Great writing on Spain’s recent crackdown on anarchists and other dissidents under the guise of fighting terrorism. And as Harper’s Conservatives try to pass canada’s own “patriot act” with Bill-C51, it is important to see how other Western states are treating those within “their” borders.

This was the The Daily GRRR! for March 5th, 2015. We are on weekdays from 9-10am on 100.3fm CKMS in Waterloo region, and soundfm.ca on the web. Check out all our past shows and other Grand River Media Collective work on our webpage grandrivermc.ca

The Daily GRRR! is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

Stay tuned in for more Grand River Radical radio after we close the podcast.

Thanks for Listening.

END OF SHOW