The STATUS Coalition invites you to a Symposium and Vigil: In the Shadow of 9-11: From Racialization to Security.

Tuesday September 11 at 7 pm. SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings). Followed by a Vigil to Vancouver Art Gallery at 9:30 pm

9-11 should never be forgotten. One of them happened six years ago with three thousand lives lost. The day has also become a landmark, dividing the world between the war-ravaging US government and the people of the world on the other. The “War on Terrorism” has led to terror in millions of Iraqis and Afghanis whose lives and lands are being devastated by foreign occupations; while in the name of ‘national security’ Muslim, South Asian and Arab communities are increasingly being racially targeted and resistance movements locally and globally are being criminalized through unprecedented police and state powers.

There are also many other “9-11s” to commemorate, going back to 1973, with a US-backed military coup in Chile. There was also September 11 of 1995 with the Gustafsen Lake siege- the largest Canadian paramilitary operation in Canadian history; September 12, 1977 with the death of Steven Biko; the crushing of the Attica Rebellion on September 13, 1971; the “humanitarian intervention” in Somalia on September 14, 1992; the September 16, 1982 Sabra and Shattila massacre of Palestinian refugees; the September 21, 1972 declaration of martial law by US-backed Marcos regime in the Phillipines; and many other unmarked days.

==> Opening by Traditional Mothers Drum Group

==> JUNE CLEARSKY: Vancouver Status of Women “Racialization of Poverty” Project examining the intensification of poverty experienced by Indigenous women & women of colour as a result of current and historic social and economic policies.

==> SUNERA THOBANI: Professor in the Women’s Studies’ Department at UBC and a former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. She has been an outspoken critic on the War on Terror, and is active on many feminist and anti-racist issues.

==> ALFONSO OSORIO: a Latino freelance journalist speaking on the US-backed military coup of September 11, 1973 in Chile.

==> NING ALCUITAS: from the International League of People’s Struggles and Philippine Women Centre of BC on imperialism in the post 911 context of the “War on Terror”.

==> ALNOOR GOVA: preliminary findings from the study and report “The Phenomenon Of Racial Profiling Via Post 9/11/01 Security Measures In Canada”.

==> GORD HILL: Kwakwakawak’w artist and activist speaking on the history of colonization of BC and indigenous resistance to Homeland Security since 1492.

==> HARSHA WALIA: Two-Tiered Citizenship in Post 9/11 Canada, examining historic apartheid systems of immigration and current criminalization of migration through neoliberal agreements such as the SPP.

r e c l a i m i n g  h i s t o r y &  r e s i s t a n c e

Organized by S.T.A.T.U.S. Coalition, a coalition of community-based organizations in the Vancouver area belonging to movements and struggles of the people of the Global South (Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Middle East, the Caribbean region) and the struggles of such migrant communities in Canada. We are: Al-Awda Vancouver, Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society, Bolivia Solidarity Committee, Canadian Network for a Democratic Nepal, Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca -Ricardo Flores Magon – Vancouver, Iranian Federation of Refugees, Iranian Refugee B.C, La Surda Latin American Collective, Justicia 4 Migrant Workers B.C, No One is Illegal, Salaam Vancouver, Siraat, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, Vancouver Status of Women.

For more information email saic@resist.ca or call 604-715-4816.