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Afghan-Canadian women peace activists respond to false accusations in Toronto Sun
Wed, 2012-11-14 08:50
#1
Maysie
Afghan-Canadian women peace activists respond to false accusations in Toronto Sun
Wed, 2012-11-14 08:50
#2
Maysie
We, as two Afghan Canadian women, were present at the Remembrance Day ceremony with a banner in remembrance of Afghans murdered by the Canadian military operations. We were not responsible for the alleged disruption of the Moment of Silence as the news media falsely reported, which has censored and attempts to discredit our peace activism.
....
The anti-fascist group began to chant slogans after the police aggressively confronted them and confiscated their banner. They were then pushed towards the sidewalk where we were silently holding our banner. As a matter of fact a elderly veteran chose to stand right beside us and shared no opposition to our message. As the group struggled to retain their banner while it was being crumbled, the police unexpectedly snatched ours. It was during this moment that a bystander began to video record this incident when we were shouting to have our banner back. It appears as if we were shouting for no reason other than to disrupt and provoke. However, in the start of the video, you can hear Laila saying “As an Afghan woman, you will not let me hold a sign. What freedom?” We were avoiding and preventing confrontation since the police had removed us earlier and threatened arrest before the ceremony began.
.....
The ugly side of freedom is the state-run military spectacle supporting the NATO-led imperialist war and occupation in Afghanistan but parading as a false guilt-trip memorial for those who sacrificed to fight for “our” freedoms. Well, just in case you selectively forgot, your parade is and has always been on stolen, occupied, Native land - what about their freedoms to sovereignty and the Afghan peoples for self-determination? What about our freedom of speech which was infringed on when an officer called our message “trash” and “laughable.” We courageously endured a violent and racist crowd calling out: “go back to your country”, “kill more [Afghans]” and “we dont care about Afghans.” There is no real freedom or peace - it is a national myth - when cultural, economic, military and political imperialism is what maintains it.
Wed, 2012-11-14 08:59
#3
I don't know why newstands and boxes that flog sun news go largely unmolested. Aren't they a diluted version of the volkischer beobachter?
Wed, 2012-11-14 12:24
#4
the other Canadian media aren't much better. Good for these women reminding Canucklheads about their disgusting military history - in the case of Afghanistan, NOT history - we're still there, which the same vile media no longer reports..
Thu, 2012-11-15 00:33
#5
I forget if the babble mods also handle stories on rabble, but if so, might I direct your attention [url=http://rabble.ca/news/2012/11/real-story-behind-remembrance-day-protest].... This story has obviously touched a few racist, misogynist, imperialist nerves.
Thu, 2012-11-15 01:09
#6
Catchfire
Thanks oda, on it. And thanks to Maysie (as usual) for starting this thread.
Thu, 2012-11-15 07:36
#7
Yeah, it seems like a volkstrum detachment of young boys was sent in there.
Thu, 2012-11-15 08:22
#8
Hope those little creeps don't find babble.
Thu, 2012-11-15 08:58
#9
I don't know why newstands and boxes that flog sun news go largely unmolested. Aren't they a diluted version of the volkischer beobachter?
Yes, and those newz rags and newz media lapdogs broadcasting pro-war propaganda are violating international laws established since Nuremberg.
Thu, 2012-11-15 09:17
#10
I've noticed a number of Sun newsstands in downtown Toronto spraypainted with "Lies!" on them over the years, but then, other newsboxes next to them are too (including the National Post, Globe, and Toronto Star).
Thu, 2012-11-15 15:04
#11
It sounds reasonably inclusive to me.
Thu, 2012-11-15 21:23
#12
Is that thread locked up? I tried to post there but did not seem to have the option.
Fri, 2012-11-16 12:01
#13
Catchfire
Yes, looks like the story has been closed to comments. Whew.
Wed, 2012-11-21 15:20
#14
Krystalline Kraus
I'm a lot confused here and could use some help understanding.
From what it seems, there were two (or more) different groups both demonstrating at the Toronto Remembrance Day ceremonies. These two women have distnced themselves from the other continigent of demonstators - the anti-fascists - whom they accuse of causing a commotion with the police during the moment of silence?
So there is no sense of solidarity between these women and their demonstration and the anti-fascists?
Wed, 2012-11-21 15:35
#15
Krystalline Kraus
From their note that I read on Tumblr where the incidents are chronicled, was there/is there any solidarity between the women's demonstration and that of the anti-fascists that were present?
I'm just trying to understand the following statement they make:? "We did not plan or cause any disruption to the Moment of Silence which can be proven by the fact that the memorial was on schedule. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the Toronto Sun and its Sun News Network has misrepresented us..."
Above the obvious bias of the Toronto Sun, was there issue with the service being disrupted at all? It seems as if they are putting all the blame on the anti-fascist organizers here.
Wed, 2012-11-21 17:08
#16
Wow. I find your insinuation - even presented as a question - to be pretty disgusting.
Meanwhile, [b]a mob of white, men escalated the incident when they branched out of the ceremony crowd towards the anti-fascists[/b].They singled out one of them and began to physically attack him with punches to his head several times. [b]At this point, we attempted to stop the violence being inflicted on this protester from his attackers.[/b]
Sounds like solidarity to me.
They also make it clear that it was the police who initially disrupted the ceremony - not the anti-fascists:
The anti-fascist group began to chant slogans [i]after[/i] the police aggressively confronted them and confiscated their banner.
And not that I have any knowledge that this [i]wasn't[/i] the case, but shouldn't the onus of demonstrating solidarity fall more on the anti-fascists than on those who are most directly affected [i.e. these Afghan-Canadian women]?
Thu, 2012-11-22 09:44
#17
http://julianichim.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/what-really-happened-nov-11th-2012/
On Nov. 11th, several of us thought it was important to take a stand on the issue of the deserving dead versus the undeserving dead, and in a non antagonist way to raise the issue of remembering the victims of imperialism and colonialism, not just those sent over to assist the great powers to colonize and plunder the world. Given the delicate nature of this task it was decided that we would take a non confrontational approach that would start dialogue on the way in which remembrance day glorifys those who die for the sake of profit while conveniently forgetting -or vilifying people in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan who are killed for colonialist plunder.
Thu, 2012-11-22 15:38
#18
Thanks TOC for posting that. His description of events has the ring of truth.
When I used to go to Remembrance Day celebrations WWII vets would march. They were a citizens army not career military people. We are now glorifying career military people for doing vile jobs not commemorating citizens who stepped up to defend their country.
Canada has been part of an occupying force for more than twice as long as the whole of WWII and our navy has spent the last 15 years on patrol in the middle east. Those facts mean the original idea of Remembrance Day as a day to contemplate the horrors of war and the effects on innocent people has been lost. My Dad and Uncles all decried militarism because that is what they had to fight. They were all vets and either Conservatives or Liberals. Celebrating the military is wrong, wrong, wrong. Remembering the horrors of war is proper.
Thu, 2013-07-18 17:09
#19
Somewhat related...
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council: [url=http://www.cbsc.ca/english/documents/prs/2013/130717.php]radio broadcast sanctioned violence[/url]
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning a conversation broadcast on the Dean Blundell Show on CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge, Toronto). The conversation was about a fist-fight that had broken out at the Toronto Remembrance Day ceremony. The program hosts commended a man who had beaten up a protestor. The CBSC found that the comments sanctioned violence, contrary to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics.The broadcast conversation occurred on November 13, 2012. At the Toronto Remembrance Day ceremony, people had apparently protested Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan. Blundell and his co-hosts spoke with a man who had got into a fight with a male protestor. Blundell and his co-hosts expressed approval for the man’s actions against the protestor with comments such as “Oh, you dummied him!”, “Good for him!” and “thanks for doin’ that”. They also asked him if he got “laid” by his girlfriend afterwards because she was proud of him. Some of the other protestors were female; the program hosts called them “bitches” and “skanks” and stated “I wish there were bigger girls around that didn’t share their views that just dummied them too.”
Thu, 2014-09-11 21:32
#20
Laila Rashidie and Suraia Sahar: [url=https://ricochetmedia.ca/en/previews/45/afghans-challenge-racism-settle-... voices will not be silenced[/url]