New Brunswick Public Interest Research Group

Last June, Honduran soldiers removed their President from power.
Farmers and teachers resisting Canadian-owned gold mines are being killed in Guatemala.

How is Canada responding? How is Canada responsible?

A public talk and discussion with Francois Guindon

Francois Guindon is a Canadian solidarity activist based in San Marcos, Guatemala – the region where Canadian-owned Goldcorp is operating. He was in Honduras during the coup and its aftermath. He reported on the coup for Rights Action.

Guindon will speak at 7:00pm on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at Renaissance College, 811 Charlotte St.

Co-hosted: Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, the Fredericton Peace Coalition and the NB Public Interest Research Group.

For more info: info [at] frederictonpeace.org

On September 29, Abousfian Abdelrazik spoke at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. Over 140 people attended his talk.

Abdelrazik is a Canadian citizen who was stranded in Sudan for six years. He lived the last year inside the Canadian embassy in Khartoum. He launched a $27 million lawsuit against the federal government for refusing to issue him a passport.

Abdelrazik asked for our support in getting him off the UN Security Council’s 1267 list – which denies his right to travel and freedom of movement.

” Really, I am in prison now. Physically, I walk the streets, yes, but I am not free”.

Julio Chávez on “From Representative Democracy to Participatory Democracy”

Monday, Oct. 5th, 2009, 7pm at Renaissance College UNB, 811 Charlotte St, Fredericton

From Venezuela, Julio Chavez is a member of the Lara state assembly, and head of the Venezuelan presidential commission on popular power and participatory democracy.  He has been active in grassroots politics all his life, and when he was elected mayor of the municipality of Torres in Venezuela, he implemented a number of sweeping changes at the municipal level all based on participatory democracy.  Chavez organized a constituent assembly process to re-write the constitution of the municipality, and turned over 100% of the municipal budget to an organized participatory budgeting process for citizens to decide how municipal money should be spent.  He has also been at the forefront of the creation of the communal council and mancomuna system in Venezuela, and the push for decentralization and increased participatory governance.  Julio Chavez will talk about the shift from representative democracy to participatory democracy, and the institutional and grassroots structures that support it. Further articles on Julio Chavez can be found:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2359

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/18895

Sponsored by the UNB Faculty of Arts Visiting Speakers Fund, Fredericton Peace Coalition, NB Public Interest Research Group, UNB Student Union & the Marie-Joseph Angelique Society.

More information on the speaking tour, visit: www.peoplescommission.org/abdelrazik.php or contact: projectflyhome [at] gmail.com

* Do you want to fight racism and oppression on campus? * Do you want to keep the bus station downtown? * Do you want to promote tap water on campus? * Do you want to work on tenant rights, accessible health care & child care for students? * Is there a problem that you want to help solve on campus or in the community?

Come out to our public meeting and find out what we are about!

WHEN: Monday, Sept. 21 at 7:00 pm
WHERE: Tilley Hall, Room 303

Talks followed by discussion with:

*Willi (Wilhelmina) Nolan is a 35-year veteran activist on environmental and human health issues. She is a mixed blood descendant of African slaves, the Mi’kmaq First People and Anglo-Celtic settlers. Over the years, she has worked with the Elsipogtog Restorative Justice Panel, Toronto’s Native Women’s Resource Centre, the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, the Coalition for a Green Economy and the Emily Stowe Shelter for Women. Committed to women’s issues, Willi is founding President of Project Esperance/Project Hope, which has provided supportive housing and services to women and children survivors of family violence in Toronto since 1987.  Willi has worked with PIRGs across the continent on environment and women’s reproductive health issues including the Terra Femme safer tampons project. She lives with her son in rural New Brunswick.

* Asaf Rashid has been the campaigns coordinator of the Nova Scotia Public
Interest Research Group for the past year-and-a-half. He has been particularly active in raising awareness and action around the Atlantica transportation and energy corridor and free trade zone. Previously, he has been a union organizer with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a collective member of the former Underground Cafe and Alternative Bookstore (2005 – 2007), and a member of the Fredericton-based Advocacy Collective, which aimed to provide access to justice for low-income people. Asaf has been active as a community radio broadcaster with the CKDU 88.1 Halifax’s News Collective and, previously, in Fredericton with CHSR 97.9, where he hosted an anti-poverty show called From the Margins.

* Ella Henry* is the VP Education on the St. Thomas University Student Union. She is active on promoting student interests at the municipal, provincial and federal level. Ella sat on the City of Edmonton Youth Council for three years, working with and lobbying city councillors to act in the interests of youth. She has led anti-oppression workshops and is active on lesbian, gay and transgendered rights. She is an organizer with the Coalition for Bottled Water Free Campuses and the NBPIRG Society. She studies sociology and economics at STU.

Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) have been taking action across campuses in Canada and the U.S. for decades. New Brunswick is one of a few provinces that does not have a PIRG. Their long history of success in research and action in the public interest elsewhere has motivated a group of students, faculty and community activists in Fredericton to start a PIRG here. NBPIRG is committed to promoting core issues of human rights, peace, social, economic, and environmental justice through public research, education and action.

For more info, check us out at: www.nbpirg.org or drop us a line at
nbpirg at gmail.com

NB-PIRG aims to offer a creative social and environmental justice orientation to the Fredericton campuses and the Fredericton community for new and returning students. The goal is to present a wide range of opportunities and issues to new students looking to get involved in social and environmental justice organizing, both o­n and off-campus.  Film screenings, workshops, tours and other activities introduce students to social and political issues, movements and organizations at UNB and STU, and in Fredericton.

Check out NB-PIRG during student welcome week!

Radical History Walking Tour of Fredericton – Friday, Sept. 11

Think nothing ever happens in Fredericton? Join the Radical Walking Tour of Fredericton and learn about our city’s hidden history.  Find out why Officer’s Square was called the Peoples’ Park.  See which university building was occupied by students for over forty days in the 1960′s.  Check out the hotbeds of recent political struggles, and much more.  The tour will begin at the University of New Brunswick’s Student Union Building and make its way downtown with plenty of stops and stories along the way. Don’t miss it.

Meet in front of the Student Union Building at 4pm this Friday, Sept. 11!  Prepare to walk for just over an hour!

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Public Meeting – Monday, Sept 21. Tilley Hall, Room 303, UNB.

Public meeting including presentations and open discussion about the possibilities of NB-PIRG. Interested public are invited to attend.

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ABDELRAZIK SPEAKS FOR JUSTICE - Tilley Hall, Room 303, UNB
Tuesday, September 29 at 7:00 pm

Abousfian, recently returned from 6 years of forced exile in Sudan, will be on tour accross Quebec and Canada, from the 24th of September to the 15th of October, accompanied by members of Project Fly Home. The launch of the speaking tour will take place the 24th of September in Montreal, at a community dinner during which Abdelrazik will tell his story, followed by a public forum to discuss strategies and next steps in his campaign for justice.

Despite the fact that Abdelrazik has now returned to Canada and has reunited with his family, his name remains on the United Nations 1267 list and no one has been held responsible for the grave injustices and terrible violence that he has suffered.  As Abdelrazik undertakes the challenge of recovering a life of dignity for himself and his family and regaining the rights he is due as a human being and a Canadian citizen, Project Fly Home is organizing this speaking tour so that he can meet his supporters and share his story in person. More than anything, this speaking tour aims to break the silence and fear — direct consequences of the racism  and injustice perpetrated against him in the name of « National Security » in Canada. The speaking tour encourages everyone to come together, express themselves, and show
solidarity.

:::Background:::

For more information on the speaking tour and Abousfian Abdelrazik please visitwww.peoplescommission.org/abdelrazik/en/abdelrazik/
Or contact us at projectflyhome@gmail.com

This event is organized by Project Fly Home (an initiative of the People’s Commission Network) and the Fredericton Peace Coalition.

The speaking tour is sponsored nationally by Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Council of Canadians, Council on American-Islamic Relations – Canada (CAIRCAN), International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), National Community and Campus Radio Association (NCCRA)

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NBPIRG/AIDS NB condom giveaway at STU Welcome Week 2009.

Alex giving away condoms at NBPIRG and AIDS NB's condom give away at STU's Welcome Week 2009.