[*Organizing meeting for Tibet demonstration is this Thursday, April 3 at 7pm at 6050 University Avenue at Dalhousie, Room 142 (Teaching Lab 3) to plan and to make a banner.]
October 27, 2007 1pm Victoria Park (Spring Garden and South Park)
Rally at Victoria Park, followed by a march through Downtown Halifax.
Route: Rally@Victoria Park, then down Spring Garden, Barrington to Grand Parade for second part of rally
Canadian Peace Alliance has called for October 27 to mark a national
day of action on Afghanistan. Please plan to attend, and your
assistance in organizing and publicizing this event will ensure that it happens in an effective manner.
The Halifax Event is organized by Halifax Peace Coalition, Students Coalition Against War, and the Halifax Chapter of the Council of Canadians.
Why We are Marching
The war in Afghanistan is getting worse day by day. The Government of Canada and its NATO allies tell us that security and reconstruction are improving and that the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people is being won by the west. In reality the situation is much more dire. Reconstruction has been proven to be a smokescreen and the resistance to the occupation is growing. Violence increases every month that our soldiers remain in Kanadhar.
It is time to stop the bloodshed - not in 2009 as our politicians suggest - but now. A collection of Halifax social justice and anti-war organizations have responded to the call from The Canadian Peace Alliance to demonstrate this October 27, 2007 and call for the troops to be brought home.
The state of reconstruction in Kandahar is a shambles. The Senlis Council recently released a report that investigated the reconstruction claims by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The Senlis Council found little of the promised reconstruction in Kandahar. Afghan people are starving just outside the gates of the Canadian base. Their local hospitals have no medicine or equipment despite promises of money from CIDA. These failures, coupled with the rise in civilian casualties, have resulted in more people joining the resistance.
The death toll of Canadian soldiers is also on the rise as well, currently standing at 71. The total number of injured soldiers remains unknown after an order by the Harper government to obscure these figures. As the Department of National Defense ramps up its 'Operation Connection' recruiting campaign, it is clear that the Canadian government is preying upon the high cost of post-secondary education in order to encourage youth to join the Canadian Forces. This campaign is particularly targetted against Nova Scotians who already make up a disproportionate number of Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
Canada continues to be a willing accomplice to the Bush administration's "war on terror" and has yet to oppose the US invasion/occupation of Iraq, a war crime under international law which has claimed the lives of an estimated 1.2 million civilians. To make matters worse, Defense Minister Peter Mackay seems outwardly supportive of the Bush regime's drive to war in Iran, suggesting that Canadian naval vessels could take part in this war. Considering its own checkered history of selling nuclear reactors to US-friendly regimes, including North Korea and even pre-1979 Iran, Canada's condemnation of Iran's nuclear program reeks of hypocrasy.
The people of Afghanistan cannot afford to wait until 2009. As Canadians we will gather in the streets on October 27th to make our opposition to this mission clear to Harper, and to make it clear that Canadians are prepared to remove his government from office over Afghanistan.
Format
a local demonstration,
as well as a series of other local events around October 27th
How can I help?
Designing a leaflet/poster that we can start to put up ASAP
Postering/leafletting
Contacting other organizations (church, arab/muslim, union, student) in order to gain endorsement and urge their members to come out
Getting more people coming to HPC meetings
Finding SOLID speakers, who can keep things short
Look into other forms of promotion (web advertising, facebook, community radio stations, community noticeboards)
A Media release
Booking a sound system/sound person (Musicstop usually best to book early)
Talking to police (if that is actually what we want to do)
Other events/films leading up to O27th
Help in promoting the visit of Matthew Behrens to Halifax, in conjunction with O27th
The first 45 minutes of the HPC weekly meetings will be devoted to Oct 27th organizing until the day it happens, so if you can come for that time to coordinate it would be helpful.
HPC acts on Canadian policy that fosters
inequity or injustice, root causes of violence. Living in the shadow of
empire, we want a foreign policy that promotes justice, equity, and
peace. We are currently working on Canada's involvement
in:
Students Coalition Against War
(SCAW)