March 16 is the seventh anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteer who was run over by an Israeli army bulldozer while she was trying to stop the demolition of a home in the Gaza Strip. Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, are still fighting to hold the government to account, and are currently in an Israeli court with their civil suit.
4pm to 6pm, OISE
Panelists:
• Dr. Concepción Nieves Ayús, Dean Institute of Philosophy of Havana
This weekend, tens of thousands are expected to converge on Chicago to protest against a summit of NATO leaders. Originally, the G8 was also going to meet in Chicago this week, but that gathering of heads of the world's most powerful governments was moved to Camp David.
The war in Afghanistan will be at the top of NATO's agenda, and it will be a focus of the mass demonstrations planned outside the summit. Prominent Afghan women's rights activist and former parliamentarian Malalai Joya adds her voice in support of the anti-war protests in Chicago.
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe begins a speaking tour across Canada tonight in Montreal. The theme of his talk is "The False Paradigm of Peace: Revisiting the Palestine Question."
Based currently at the University of Exeter in the UK, Pappe will be discussing the history of failed negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. He is the author of nine books including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which is the definitive account of the expulsion of close to 800,000 Palestinians in 1948 upon the founding of the state of Israel.
Ted McLaren is Québec construction worker who wanted to donate his time and skills to help build a school in an indigenous community.
If that community had been anywhere in Canada or elsewhere in the world, there would’ve been nothing but praise for his voluntary service. But since the indigenous community where he wanted to help happens to be in occupied Palestine, Ted was instead treated as a criminal and deported by Israel. At least three other Canadians, Mario Dion, Yves Rochon and Sylvain Thibault, have also faced deportation, once again with the complicit silence of our Conservative government.