An open letter from Stephanie’s grandmother.

I wish to bring to your attention the grave matter of a vicious assault on my granddaughter by five members of the Winnipeg Police.

The following events were told to me by my granddaughter, Stephanie Kay Warren, age 18, of 125 Barber Street. On Sunday, March 1, 2009, Stephanie was in an argument with some girls at the Robins Donuts on the corner of Salter and Selkirk Avenue at approximately 6:30 p.m. The police were called because of the disturbance. Once the police arrived at the Robins Donut Shop, Stephanie ran outside. The police pursued and grabbed her by her hair. She slipped to the ground and the police pulled her up by her hair. The police told her to cooperate or they would taser her. At that time Stephanie stopped and put her hands behind her back and she was handcuffed. The police slammed Stephanie’s head over the police car and patted her down . They again pulled her by the hair and hit her head on the roof of the car as they shoved her forcefully into the back seat of the car, calling her a “dirty Indian”. Stephanie got mad at their deliberate act of hitting her head into the car and calling her names. Once in the back seat of the car, she began to kick at the door and window because she was being abused by the officers. An officer was at each door – one was strapping Stephanie’s legs and the other one, Cst. Prociuk, #2423, was gripping Stephanie’s face with force and she began to struggle, which made it difficult to secure her legs. Stephanie then received a few hits to her body from the officer attempting to secure her legs. Stephanie then bit into the officer’s gloved finger that was over her mouth and nose. He yelled at her to let go and Stephanie mumbled “you first”. Admittedly this was the wrong thing to do, but at this point she could not understand why she was being assaulted like this and was trying to protect herself from these men. Read more…

The Arts and Culture Correspondents Group of BASICS Free Community Newsletter presents:

Dining With Terrorists:

Gotabaya Rajapakse defends the illegal abduction and the detention of Vithyatharan:

Kothapaya got busted by BBC:


Hunting the Tigers

by Rayon
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

A few weeks ago, our high school, Weston Collegiate Institute, had a few people from the NO COPS campaign (Newly Organized Coalition Opposing Police in Schools) pay a visit to us at lunch time. They set up a table across the street and had stacks of free BASICS newspapers to give out. While BASICS organizers are well known for distributing the papers in Toronto communities, the members of NO COPS who were there that day, strapped with their BASICS issues, had another purpose.

What these guys had was a petition to the remove the “Special Resources Officer” – the uniformed armed police officers in high schools – from the 30 or so TDSB secondary schools across Toronto.

For the majority of the students at Weston, this petition is allowing us to voice our concerns about having a cop in our school. There was a lack of community consultation in bringing this cop here in the first place. The Toronto Police Services initiated and funds this program and the Toronto District School Board approved it at an executive level. The feelings among most of the students at Weston C.I. is that they do not want a cop in their school and they feel threatened by the presence of an armed police officer in the school for numerous reasons. The students cannot identify with an individual who wears a massive bullet proof vest and carries a loaded gun and taser, which is quite intimidating particularly for people coming from T.O.’s “priority neighbourhoods” – let’s be honest, ghettoes – who witness and experience police activity in a whole different light than youth from more affluent areas.

On a day-to-day basis, the police harass, bully, and brutalize people from our communities and get away without being held to account for their actions. How can we accept having police in our schools to “build relations” with us if they are getting away with daily brutality and sometimes murder in our communities? (Anyone remember Alwy Al-Nadhir or Byron Debassige?) We have already experienced police (SRO) harrassment at Weston C.I. There was a conflict with two young women and the SRO used unnecessary and excessive force on the two young women. This incident was captured on video.

The effect of having police in schools is going to push more and more marginalized students out of school altogether, furthering the divide between youth from financially-stable homes and communities and youth from working-class homes and communities. We cannot let this happen. We will not let this happen.

We want cops out of our schools!

If you are interested in becoming an organizer with the NO COPS campaign , please contact us at [email protected].

by Bryan Doherty
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

You want to know the names of those “waging global terror”? The new audio documentary, Path of Destruction: Canadian Mining Companies Around the World, from Asad Ismi and Kristen Schwartz, shows us we can start a list with the names of mining companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Canadian mining’s path of destruction isn’t limited to Canada. As these companies spread throughout the world, they apply the tried-and-true practices they developed in this country to be the top players in a global money game that thieves, pollutes, terrorizes and kills.

With perfect clarity, Ismi and Schwartz demonstrate how Canadian mining capital brings misery and devastation with it wherever it goes. In Sudbury, Ontario, the Canadian mining industry has worked hand-in-hand with the government and courts to steal the land from its indigenous people. In the documentary we hear from Chief Petahtegoose of the Whitefish Lake First Nation, not only about the theft of their land, but how those mines have poisoned the water in the area, polluted the air and contaminated the soil. The Chief’s own words link this devastation to the earlier devastation inflicted on his people by diseases such as smallpox spread by early European settlers. The genocide of indigenous people, started by the settling of this country, continues with the theft and destruction of their land.

Sudbury’s not the only place with minerals though. And when Canadian mining went looking for more earth to tear up and lives to ruin, they brought with them the support of their government and years of brutal know-how. Following the destructive path of Canadian mining in the Ismi and Schwartz documentary is to bear witness to a rampage where nothing stands in the way of profit. Read more…

by Louisa Worrell
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

This year’s international Israeli Apartheid Week was the largest ever – being held in over 40 cities all across the world – and its level of success was matched with an unprecedented level of repression from university administrations, the Canadian government and Zionist pro-Israel groups on and off campuses. Despite the sometimes-violent nature of this repression, the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel is growing each year and is showing no signs of letting up until apartheid in Israel falls.

Israeli Apartheid Week is a weeklong series of events that spread information and analysis about the nature of Israel as an Apartheid State. The word Apartheid was the name of the government created in South Africa from 1948-1994 that separated the population by Black (majority of population), White, and Coloured. The laws made it legal to treat the “Coloured” population like second-class citizens, and the “Black” (native South African) population like third class citizens, refugees in their own country. This status meant little or no education, no voting rights, poor healthcare, checkpoints and police terror for Africans.

Israel is now recognised around the world by more and more people as imposing a similar apartheid system on Palestinians. This is why Israeli Apartheid week exists: to spread information about this system and promote the boycott of Israeli products. In Canada, one of the main boycotts going on right now is that of major book retailer Chapters Indigo, for its financial support of Israeli soldiers.

The forms of university campus repression this year included the outright banning of the Israeli Apartheid Week poster in two of Ottawa’s universities (Carlton U and U of Ottawa), as well as banning of the group Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) group at York University. SAIA York was also fined $1000 for holding a rally at York U and the SAIA chapter at U of T suffered physical and verbal harassment from Zionist groups and individuals.

As for repression coming down from the Federal level, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff have both denounced the event, and Jason Kenney has pulled funding from the immigration settlement programs administered by the Canadian Arab Federation on the basis of its Palestinian advocacy.

Israeli Apartheid Week is against all forms of discrimination, including Islamaphobia, racism, and anti-Semitism. Despite the repression, the organisers stand strong against the racist Israeli state and takes a similar stand against the Canadian state for its racist genocidal policies towards indigenous peoples to this very day.

End Israeli Apartheid!
Boycott Chapters-Indigo!
Let the Palestinian Refugees Return Home!

If you are interested in getting involved in Israeli Apartheid Week 2010, you can contact [email protected] and check out the movement’s main website: www.apartheidweek.org

by N. Zahra
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has released a report predicting the fall of apartheid Israel within the next 20 years. The report points to the unexpected and quick fall of Apartheid South Africa after harsh and organized resistance by people all over the world. Similarly, there is growing support for a one-state solution as the only viable democratic solution in the region. According to an Al-Jazeera report, even American public opinion is rapidly shifting toward such a solution. After Israel’s latest assault on Gaza, public opinion continues to move away from supporting the continuation of Apartheid Israel or even the creation of two separate states. A one-state solution would allow for the return of Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes in the 1948 catastrophe, as well as a return for 1967 refugees. According to the report, the return of the refugees and an end to apartheid-rule are preconditions for a sustainable peace in the region. The study also predicts that a one-state solution would lead to an exodus of millions of Israelis who hold passports in the U.S., the E.U., and Russia.

While the CIA report cites shifting moral opinion as the cause for the likely end to the apartheid regime, it is important to recognize that is has been the ongoing resistance of Palestinians and their supporters that the anti-apartheid movement is gaining ground. Furthermore, it is important to recognize the need for a sustained and continued resistance against other repressive regimes in the region that are supported by imperialism, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. While the end of Israeli-apartheid would be an incredible triumph of the Palestinian liberation movement, only the end to all forms foreign domination and occupation in the Middle East can open up the possibilities for genuine national liberation.

by N. Zahra Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

This past March, Amy Miller and Boban Chaldovich, founders of Wide Open Exposure, a Montreal-based production team, released their debut documentary, Myths for Profit. The hour-long film is an important introduction to Canadian imperialism. In a short time, it introduces its audience to Canada’s role in ‘industries of war and peace,’ leaving them wanting to explore each facet of the documentary in greater detail. Filmmaker Amy Miller points out that throughout her years of research, she came across many examples of Canadian Imperialism. The film does a good job of picking particularly salient examples that the audience might have some degree of familiarity with and going into particular details to help bust the myth of Canada as the eternal peacemaker.

Through diverse interviews and case studies, the 60-minute documentary unveils the specific interests and profits made by certain corporations, individuals and governmental and non-governmental agencies within Canada. The documentary covers the three myths of Canadian identity: ‘Canada as a peacemaking nation,’ ‘Canada’s military purpose [as] defense,’ and ‘Canada’s aid [as] helping people around the world.’

In addition to the informative interviews from varying perspectives, the film also has a lot of archival footage as well as a clever and funny cartoon exploring the history and role of NATO in various conflicts throughout the world.

Wide Open Exposure is a particularly unique production team in that it is made up of social justice organizers and independent media activists. It is their mission to work with grassroots organizations and educational organizations such as BASICS to provide resources for political education. We look forward to any future projects.

Final part of a 3-part series on the life of Norman Bethune: Canadian doctor, internationalist, and revolutionary hero.

by J.D. Benjamin
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

The year 1937 marked the beginning of full-scale war between the Republic of China and the Japanese empire. Bethune saw China as the next great flashpoint in the worldwide struggle against fascism. “Spain and China, are part of the same battle,” he wrote. “I am going to China because that is where the need is the greatest.”

In 1938, Norman Bethune arrived in China and insisted on traveling to the North to join the Communists who were fighting a guerrilla war against the Japanese. Once there, he set about performing emergency battlefield surgery, training new medical staff, producing manuals and organizing mobile medical facilities. The conditions were extreme. Bethune traveled 4,800 kilometers in the course of his duties and once operated on 115 cases in 69 hours without rest, even when his team came under heavy artillery fire. Yet Bethune did not complain. “It is true I am tired,” he wrote, “but I don’t think I have been so happy for a long time. I am needed.”

The Chinese were amazed by this foreigner who had adopted their cause as his own and was literally willing to give them his blood. Bethune in turn was humbled by the Chinese dedication to liberate themselves and build a better world.

In late October 1939, Bethune was on a tour inspecting hospitals when a nearby brigade of the People’s Liberation Army came under attack by the Japanese. While operating on wounded soldiers, Bethune cut his finger, something he had done several times before. This time, infection set in. Bethune continued to work as best he could until the regimental commander, seeing Bethune’s deterioration, ordered him sent back. On November 12, in a small village in Hopei Province, Bethune died of blood poisoning.

Chairman Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party of China, had only met Bethune once, but upon hearing of his death Mao wrote an essay that would be studied by hundreds of millions of people in China and around the world. ‘In Memory of Norman Bethune’ praised his internationalism and devotion to the people. Mao held up Bethune as a model to be emulated, writing, “We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very helpful to each other. A man’s ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people.”

When we compare Mao’s estimation of Bethune with Bethune as a younger man, we can see the profound changes he had gone through. Gone was the Bethune of just a few years previous, with his drinking, womanizing, impatience and individualism. His commitment to serving the people and being part of a movement for a better society made him overcome these problems. He became not just a better person, but a hero for working people all over the world.