"My Entry into Aboriginal Understanding" is a collection of eight articles written by Common Cause member Greg Macdougall, also a member of IPSMO - Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa.

The articles cover a range of topics from culture and language to sovereignty and activism.

The booklet has just been released online as a PDF (16 pgs, or 8 pgs when printed doublesided) in two formats:
* one, a 'front-to-back' version that can be read online (or printed)
* two, a 'print-formatted' version that folds/staples into a booklet when printed.

IPSMO has handed out a couple hundred of these booklets in print form over the past year, but now it is also available online: http://equitableeducation.ca/2011/aboriginal-understanding-booklet

Please take a look, and also feel free to print multiple copies for distribution or for use in schools or other educational settings.

Post by Greg Macdougall (originally on apt613.ca)

Eternia, proclaimed by Exclaim! Magazine as “Canada’s dopest female MC,” was born in Ottawa and spent the first part of her life here. She later moved to Toronto, and at 15 she says she “started to take [hip hop] more seriously.”

Her latest album, “At Last” with producer MoSS, was nominated for a Juno and has made the long-list for the 2011 Polaris Prize. She’s performing in Ottawa this coming Thurday as part of the international Women’s Worlds 2011 conference.

“I’m really really excited and honoured that they would even consider me a voice for the Women’s Worlds conference. It’s actually a lot of responsibility, I think about it and I’m like, it’s kind of a big deal, especially when I go to the website with all the different programs they have going on.”

OFFICIAL NOTICE: K.C.C.S raided by police

The Kingston Compassion Club Society was shut down by the Kingston Police on Sunday June 19th. They seized the location and product without a warrant. The Kingston Police served a search warrant for the K.C.C.S on Tuesday June 21st, for our computer system and records and patient files. This was brought on by a former worker of the K.C.C.S, who made false allegations to the police, at the police station, about the K.C.C.S, on Sunday June 19th.

Currently all workers of the K.C.C.S face charges of trafficking. The members of the K.C.C.S, who all have a legal need and doctor supervised use of cannabis therapy, are now forced back to street dealers until the K.C.C.S re-opens. Their Section 7 Rights have been violated. Our landlords still support the K.C.C.S and its purpose, as do all of our local community agencies and allies.

CUPW postal workers & supporters take action at Canada Post head office

Action in Ottawa at Canada Post head office in response to a lockout by the company coupled with demands for concessions, and back-to-work legislation. Thursday June 16, 2011.

More info in the video description:
(Click on 'read more' at www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFhpWZnTvEg)

(repost)

Minister forced to intervene in Grassy road dispute

Grassroots women are blocking Segise Road to keep Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) enforcement officers out, so that the community can repair a bridge used to access the territory. The government had said they will only allow the road to be repaired if the community agrees to logging on the territory, but under increasing pressure and public scrutiny the Minister has been forced to step in to try and resolve the dispute.

Thanks for supporting Grassy Narrows' efforts to assert their land rights and self-determination on their territory. The Ministry of Natural Resources was flooded with calls and they have started back peddling fast. Here is the latest on the situation:

1. The government used a helicopter to fly over the grassroots road block and threatened the workers with fines and seizing of machinery if the work is not stopped.

Article and videos from the Rally Against Police Violence, and the Forum on Police Violence, Incarceration and Alternatives, held in Ottawa in mid-March 2011.
http://equitableeducation.ca/2011/fighting-back-police-violence

The article is in the latest issue of the Linchpin newspaper
If you'd like copies for distribution, please contact
http://linchpin.ca/contact

The videos include a compiled video of the rally,
plus the five speakers from the opening panel of the forum:
- Jaggi Singh
- Samir Shaheen-Hussain
- Bridget Tolley
- Julie Matson
- Ashanti Alston

In an article entitled "Slut walk anger misplaced" in Monday's Ottawa Sun (title has now been changed online to 'SlutWalk messages unclear'), Sun columnist Anthony Furey writes about how (he thinks) the walkers don't understand how to address the problem.

(( AND BEFORE I GET INTO IT - here are videos from the walk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoQX6frJTwo & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTsMuutzpmM ... and you can read someone else's take on Furey's piece here: http://keenanwellar.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/the-problem-with-having-a-problem-with-slutwalk/ ... and here's a list of some media coverage of the event: http://winottawa.org/1/post/2011/04/the-slutwalkers-have-spoken.html))