Posted by admin on Dec 4th, 2008
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun.December 4, 2008
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A group of temporary foreign workers who complained of substandard pay and housing while working on the Canada Line have won a discrimination suit against their employer. The BC Human Rights Tribunal on Wednesday ordered SELI Canada, SCNP-SELI Joint Venture and SNC Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc. to pay each complainant – all Latin Americans – $10,000 as compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect. “While the feelings and the self-respect of the Latin Americans was impacted, this case is primarily about dignity,” the tribunal said in its written ruling, released Wednesday. “For two years the respondents’ treatment of the [workers] conveyed to them the message that they were worth less and less worthy than other employees, because they were Latin American.”
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Posted by admin on Dec 2nd, 2008
Jon Elmer; Tuesday, 02 December 2008 – InterPress Service
A coalition of indigenous elders, social justice activists and community organisers is voicing opposition to the upcoming Winter Olympics, promising to continue their protests up to and throughout the 2010 games. Taking advantage of a three-day media briefing hosted by the official Olympic body in late November, the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC), activists and native representatives invited the local and visiting international media to an office in the heart of the what is commonly known as Canada’s poorest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside, to hear “the other side of the Olympic story”.
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Posted by admin on Oct 3rd, 2008
The Associated Press. October 3, 2008 at 4:03 PM EDT
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — U.S. prosecutors filed a new complaint Friday against a Vancouver man less than two hours after a judge dismissed the indictment in the slaying of a Canadian Mi’kmaq woman 32 years ago. John Graham was scheduled to stand trial Monday in Rapid City on a charge of first-degree murder for the 1975 shooting death of Anna Mae Aquash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation when both were affiliated
with the American Indian Movement. The ruling means Monday’s trial will be called off but the case will proceed under a new complaint and will likely go before grand jurors again.
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Posted by admin on Sep 29th, 2008
Mainstream News article follows Tyendinaga Support Committee Statement
CROWN BUYS FANTINO’S SILENCE WITH BRANT’S FREEDOM- Statement from the Tyendinaga Support Committee: Today, in a Belleville court, a conviction for three counts of mischief was entered against Mohawk spokesperson Shawn Brant for his role in the CN rail line and Highway 401 blockades which took place in April and June, 2007. Brant has been ordered to stay on the Tyendinaga reserve for three months and to be on probation for one year. Originally, the Crown had been asking for 12 years in jail for Brant. While Shawn Brant will face no more jail time for the blockades and will not go to trial, there are still 16 people from the Tyendinaga facing criminal charges for defending their community.
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Posted by admin on Sep 19th, 2008
Canadian Press, Sept.19, 2008
VANCOUVER — An event designed to drum up enthusiasm for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver is set to begin amid threats of nationwide protests. Canadian Pacific’s Spirit Train is scheduled to leave Port Moody, B.C., on Sunday for a 10-city tour and activists say they’ll be at every stop. “Across the country people have an understanding the Olympics has created (and) perpetuated, displacement, homelessness, destruction of the environment and increasing theft of indigenous land,” said Harsha Walia of the Olympic Resistance Network, which is spearheading the call for national protests.
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