Place: 27th on King William at the Sky Dragon Centre

Come out to enjoy a variety of dishes at the Free Nyki Potluck! It is being hosted on Sunday, May 15th at the Sky Dragon Centre. Vegetarian, vegan and meat dishes will be present and we encourage everyone to come and show off a dish of your own. There will be a reading of Nyki’s poetry and we as well welcome others to come out to share some of their own poetry.

The entire event is done by donation (pay what you can), with all donations going to the Free Nyki campaign.
The fundraiser goes from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m

Event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207161699314914

Free Nyki Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Nyki/138497129550958

Nicole Kish or Nyki to those who know and adore her is a talented singer songwriter, artist, poet, and dedicated community activist. Over the past few years, Nyki founded a non-profit organization dedicated to improving literacy and educational opportunities within Ontario’s correctional facilities. As well she co-founded Bound for Glory, a not for profit arts and literary magazine for talented and neglected artist. Sadly however, on March 1st 2011, Nyki was wrongfully convicted of 2nd degree murder for little reason more than that she was there and she was stabbed. Dismissing the complete absence of positive identification, the confession of a former co-accused in regards to having pulled the alleged fatal knife, the lack of any DNA on Nyki and the copious amount on others, and the two separately “lost” surveillance videos gone missing in police custody, which have been alleged to have captured the events of that night, the judge successfully undermined this country’s core judicial principal of having to achieve beyond a reasonable doubt for obtaining a conviction. In fact the defense breached that thresh hold in proving here innocent. In short, backed by a media complacent with the “official” yet inconsistent story of Detective Giroux and the crown, an innocent young woman temporarily if not indefinitely lost her right to a beautiful life. Nonetheless, an appeal is being put forth and we plea to all who have a good heart and poses a care for true justice to support Nyki through these dark times and to demand her release/ ultimate acquittal.
* A brief summary of the evidence presented can be found at, http://www.freenyki.org/

Where: 345 James Street North Hamilton, Ontario

RESIST against a culture in which rape is far too common – one in three Canadian women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.
REFUSE to participatein victim blaming and woman hating.

REBEL against the idea that women can’t rock out.

Cost: $5 or Pay What You Can. ALL AGES.

• Hamilton’s own all women punk band Rackula - http://www.myspace.com/rackulamusic
• Blocks Recording artists Betty Burke featuring members of The Hidden Cameras, Republic of Safety, The Barcelona Pavilion, CN Power, The Airfields, Sixty Stories, Anthem Red and even Shameless Magazine! It’s hard to believe that much rock cred comes from just three women - http://www.bettyburke.com/
• Sarah Mangle Buys a Bear who mixes ukulele, euphonium, organ and drums making you want to wear your sparkley-est sweater - http://www.myspace.com/buysabear
• Wicked dancing DJ sets by members of Rackula. Show us your moves!

Presented by:
SACHA – www.sacha.ca
This Ain’t Hollywood – www.thisainthollywood.ca
INDI 101 – www.indifm.ca

May is Sexual Violence Awareness Month

When: 6:00-7:30 Friday May 13th

Where:  Sky Dragon Center

Description: Join us for the launch of the latest book by award-winning radical journalist Yves Engler!

In North America, human beings have become enthralled by the automobile: A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for them; communities fight each other for the right to build more of them; our cities have been torn down, remade and planned with their needs as the overriding concern; wars are fought to keep their fuel tanks filled; songs are written to praise them; cathedrals are built to worship them. In Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay, authors Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi argue that the automobile’s ascendance is inextricably linked to capitalism and involved corporate malfeasance, political intrigue, backroom payoffs, media manipulation, racism, academic corruption, third world coups, secret armies, environmental destruction and war. An anti-car, road-trip story, Stop Signs is a unique must-read for all those who wish to escape the clutches of auto insanity. “Mugyenyi and Engler’s Stop Signs is at one and the same time an entertaining, fact-filled anthropological tour of the land of Homo Automomotivis, and the first all-out global ecological critique of the American automobile addiction. Not since Jane Holtz Kay’s Asphalt Nation has a book appeared that so clearly exposed the auto-irrationality of the most car-dependent country on earth.” John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review and co-author, The Ecological Rift Yves Engler has four published books including The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy (Shortlisted for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non Fiction in the Quebec Writers’ Federation Literary Awards) Bianca Mugyenyi coordinates campaigns at Concordia University’s Centre for Gender Advocacy

Location: Sky Dragon Centre 27 King William St

On Saturday, April 23rd at the Skydragon, Mayday Magazine, Hamilton FreeSkool’s Practical Solidarity, & the Peace Cafe are hosting a party to launch the special issue of the Dominion about climate change. For those of you who don’t know, The Dominion Media Co-op is one of the best news sources in the country today, and once a year they release a special issue going further in depth on an issue. This year, that issue is Climate Justice, which is a big, complicated scary issue, and so we figured, what better way to introduce it to you all than to throw a big giant party with lots of radical hip hop and spoken word?

Learn more at

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=179229265461241

ANIMAL FARM
adapted by ian wooldridge
directed by nea reid

Location: Village Theater Waterdown

Performance Dates
April 29th 8pm
April 30th 2pm and 8pm
May 1st 2pm
May 6th 8pm
May 7th 2pm and 8pm
May 13th 8pm
May 14th 8pm

Learn more @

http://www.villagetheatrewaterdown.ca/animal%20farm/animalfarm.html

Outdoor Events located at
299 Queen St. West (CTV building)
Queen St. and John St.

Outdoor event setup
11am-12pm

Outdoor Events
12pm – 4pm

Lectures & film screenings
5pm – 9:30pm

Cleanup
9:30 – 10pm

at Parliament Street Library
East/West Room
269 Gerrard St.
(Gerrard St. and Parliament)

Full details soon!
If you’re interested in participating or volunteering please email us. info@tarve.ca

We are seeking:

lecturers (speakers)
many volunteers
groups to partake in outdoor demonstrations
entertainment and musicians for outdoor events
videoographer
people to supply raw or cold foods (such as sandwiches)
vehicle needed (preferably a van)
farm animal costumes needed
projector needed

Location
Hamilton City Hall

###PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY###

DAY OF ACTION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY APRIL 30TH 2011! JUSTICE 4 ANDREAS! 1PM @ CITY HALL

Within the last year there has been 3 shootings resulting in 2 deaths at the hands of police officers in the Hamilton/Halton region. There have been numerous instances of police abuse reported in headline news. It is likely that many more accounts of brutality at the hands of Hamilton police have never been heard. We all know someone who has been targeted or affected by the harassment, intimidation and violence that have become the common practice of an unaccountable police force. These cops enjoy impunity while the complaints and allegations against them are met with outright hostility or pushed through a bureaucratic process of little consequence to law enforcement. The steadily growing list of high profile disgraces of our own police department illustrates this.

Sergeant Kevin Dhinsa is accused of sexual and personal harassment by 12 female co‐workers , only to return to policing in 2008. All charges were dropped after the chief of police dragged his feet through the courts which resulted in the case being thrown out due to a technicality.

Since its inception in May 2010 the Hamilton Police ACTION Team routinely intimidates and harasses people living, working and hanging out downtown. Their mandate of criminalizing the young, the poor, and the homeless is made clear in last year’s report which revealed that the vast majority of their work consisted of “street checks”, id checks and ticketing for minor offences.

The July 2010 G20 summit held in Toronto saw thousands of police assembled from across the country to execute the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. Nearly 100 Hamilton police officers were involved in the strategic crackdown on the right to political dissent and protest.

On May 4th 2010, 58 year old Myanmar refugee Po La Hay was severely beaten in his own home after police raided mistaken address. Hay, who speaks very little English, was punched and kicked after collapsing to the ground. Hamilton police did not call SIU following the incident. Following the investigation only one cop, Ryan Tocher, was charged. Tocher was also under investigation for “discreditable conduct and unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority” at the time of the incident. He is still working for Hamilton Police Services.

On February 2nd, 2011, 19 year old Andreas Chinnery was shot and killed inside his apartment by 3 police responding to a noise complaint. Andreas was not armed and the officers were let into the apartment. To date the Hamilton Police have refused to release virtually any information regarding
the shooting.

We as a community cannot let this behaviour continue unopposed in our city! The SIU has time and time again proven itself to be an impotent organization, incapable of keeping police brutality, assault, harassment and murder in check. The vast majority of cops investigated by the SIU (police investigating police) are cleared of all charges. The time has come for us as victims of the police to begin providing our own solutions. This is why we are calling for a rally and demonstration on Saturday April 30th in
Hamilton.

We demand an open investigation into the murder of Andreas Chinnery! We will no longer accept police brutality in our city!
We will stand together across our communities in defence of those targeted by the police!

TO ENDORSE THIS DEMONSTRATION PLEASE CONTACT:
905againstpolicebrutality@gmail.com

Please join us for World Week for Animals in Laboratories 2011 (http://www.wwail.org/) and help bring awareness to the cruelty involved with testing and research on animals.

DATE: Saturday, April 23
PLACE: Yonge & Dundas (SW corner)
TIME: 7:30pm -9:30pm

*To show solidarity please try to wear all black (shirt, pants,)*

All materials will be provide. Just bring yourself!

See photos of last year’s protest:
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=100000433249325&aid=15011

For more information regarding vivisection please visit:

http://www.buav.org/humanescience/alternativestoanimals
http://www.cruelscience.ca/index.htm
http://interniche.org./alt.html
http://www.cruelandunnecessary.com/
—————————————————

There are a total of five events occurring for WWAIL. Please show your support by attending one or all of them.

Monday, April 18
Bahen Centre, 40 St. George St., room 1170 – 7pm

Film showing: “Earthlings” (on the topic of animal rights), followed by guest speakers and discussion.

Trailer: http://www.earthlings.com/

Followed by guest speaker: Anya Yushenko, on the successful campaign against euthanization of dogs at University of Guelph. See http://www.lawyersforanimalwelfare.com/victories/view/1

———

Tuesday, April 19
Bahen Centre, 40 St. George St., room 1170 – 7pm

Film showing: “Behind the Mask” (on the topic of animal research and activist resistance to it), followed by guest speakers and discussion.

Trailer: http://www.uncagedfilms.com/trailer.php

Followed by guest speaker: Nick Wright of Lawyers for Animal Welfare, on the topic of animals and the law, and the legal right of students to opt out of using animals in research and education. See http://www.lawyersforanimalwelfare.com/about/

———

Wednesday, April 20

OISE, 252 Bloor St. W. room 5170 – 7pm

Organizing a fun and vibrant campaign against research on animals, with Brian Vincent of STOP UBC.

STOP UBC’s website: http://stopubcanimalresearch.org/

———

Thursday, April 21

OISE, 252 Bloor St. W., room 2279 – 7pm

The ethical argument against the use of animals in research and education, with Dr. David Sztybel.

Dr. Sztybel’s website: http://sztybel.tripod.com/popular_menu.html

———-

Saturday April 23

Dundas & Yonge – 7:30 p.m.

Peaceful protest against animal research with various members of the animal rights movement in Toronto.

All events are free.

Please send this notice to others. Thank you!

In Canada today are we witnessing a systematic attempt to silence discussion and free thought? Recent events like the G20 mass arrests,George Galloway being barred from speaking in Canada, the persecution of Wikileaks, and the unwarranted security demands at Dr. Finkelstein’s recent Canadian tour all indicate that free speech is facing unprecedented challenges.

Of particular concern is the possibility that our Post Secondary Institutions are succumbing to this dangerous trend. If Colleges and Universities – publicly funded institutions of higher learning – are becoming less open, what does this say for the health of Canadian democracy, and the informed debate it depends on?

Recent incidents at Canadian Colleges and Universities challenge us to ask how certain events are labeled security threats, while others are not. On what basis are these judgments made? What evidence is considered, and who makes the final decisions?

At this public forum, Mohawk students and concerned community members will speak to the issue of freedom of speech at post-scondary institutions. Following this, an open, moderated discussion will occur. All are welcome to attend and all voices will be heard. Please come out to express your opinion and engage in discussion.

If you’re interested in helping out with the forum or have any suggestions, please let us know and we will work together to provide a meaningful experience for everyone involved!