YOUR URGENT SUPPORT NEEDED- CALL, FAX, OR EMAIL LIBERAL AND NDP MPS TO SCRAP BILL C-50!

*** WED APRIL 9 – FRI APRIL 11, 2008: Flood the offices of Liberal and NDP Members of Parliament with calls, emails and faxes to pressure them to vote AGAINST Bill C-50.

On March 14th 2008, the Conservative government introduced a series of  amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act buried in Bill c-50, the ‘budget implementation bill’. This fundamentally undemocratic move sneaks in critical changes to Canada’s immigration policy without proposing any of those changes before Parliament. These sweeping changes will give enormous and arbitrary powers to the Minister around application processing, while perpetuating a racist and anti-poor agenda of setting immigration agendas based on ‘labour market needs’. In respose to an overwhelming negative response to these amendements- including the Canadian Bar Association- the Immigration Minister has recently been forced to attempt to spin these regressive changes as being guided by the principles of ‘fairness’!

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CONCERT AND FILM SCREENINGS!
benefit for no one is illegal with music by Ora Cogan and Erica Mah and films by Setareh Mohammadi and Alex Mah

FRIDAY, APRIL 18th at 7:30pm. RHIZOME CAFE, 317 East Broadway (corner Kingsway). $5-$10 sliding scale, no one turned away

Ora Cogan plays true folk, the kind that is strong and tells stories with a sense of urgency, be it heartbreak or revolution. www.myspace.com/oracogan. Erica Mah’s is a piano-based songwriter who will shake your dreams awake with her touching little waltzes and beautiful imagery. www.myspace.com/ericamah.

“Borderless Me” by Setareh Mohammadi and “Checkpoint” by Alex Mah are two debut short films that explore the complex issues of gender, identity, immigration, identification, and borders. They were both featured as part of the 2007 Out On Screen Festival in Vancouver.

For more information contact ericamah at riseup.net

Under the rhetoric of “protecting citizens”; governments, international bodies, and the corporate sector are rapidly intensifying security, surveillance and anti-terror regimes at the national and global levels.

In light of the next SPP Summit in New Orleans in April 2008, join us for a free public forum including SHORT FILMS and SPEAKERS to find out about these developments and what you can do to challenge this expanding industrial-complex.

Sunday April 27 at 6 pm. YWCA (733 Beatty Street, corner W. Georgia). 1 block from Stadium Skyrain Station

Did you know that:
– In Canada, over $25 billion has been spent on security measures since 9/11?

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In honour of Anna Mae’s birthday (March 27, 1945) and part of a series of events to commemorate March 21 International Day for the Elimination of Racism…

FREE JOHN GRAHAM
A public forum on the extradition of John Graham and the struggle for indigenous self determination against colonization, corporate control, and state repression…

Wednesday March 26 @ 7 pm. Room 7000, SFU Harbour Centre. 515 West Hastings (Waterfront Skytrain Station). BY DONATION. Suggested Donation $5-20. (no one turned away). All proceeds go to John Graham Legal Defence Fund.

(free john graham image by Angela Sterritt, Gitxsan Nation)

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* mark your calenders for March 21 *

March 21 marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa when police opened fire on hundreds of South Africans protesting against Apartheid’s passbook laws, killing 67 and wounding 186.

March Against Racism! 
Friday March 21
(Good Friday Holiday)  
Gather at 1 pm 
@ Clark Park (Commercial and 14th)

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