FEBRUARY , 2008- Robert Lovelace, former chief of the Ardoch Lake Algonquin First Nation, has begun a six month jail sentence for his role in peacefully resisting uranium exploration near Sharbot Lake this passed fall. He and his community will also have to pay $35,000 in fines. Frontenac Ventures, A uranium exploration company has claimed 30,000 acres of land in eastern Ontario around the headwaters of the Mississippi system, which feeds the Ottawa River.

Common Cause Ottawa interview with Pete St-Antoine of Peoples Global Action (PGA) Bloc Ottawa

Q. Could you introduce yourself?

I’m Pete St-Antoine and I organize with Peoples Global Action (PGA) Bloc Ottawa.

Q. PGA Ottawa is organizing around the No 2010 campaign against the Olympics in Vancouver. What are the reasons that you’re opposing it?

There are lots of reasons we’re opposing the Olympics. One of the main ones is that they’re happening on stolen (aboriginal) land. That’s one on the main things that people are rallying around in Vancouver. People are losing their land and they’re also seeing a lot of land being destroyed. A lot of mountains are being destroyed right now. There are huge expansions right now of many resorts. Sun Peaks is one of them. They are countless resorts that are being expanded for the Olympics as part of the infrastructure and also because of the huge amount of traffic that they’re expecting during that time period.

Protest Armsfair in Ottawa

When:
Wednesday, 9 April 2008 – Thursday, 10 April 2008

Where:
Ottawa Congress Centre
55 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa ON

Contact:
People's Global Action - Bloc Ottawa
pgabloc@gmail.com

The annual conference of the Canadian Association of Defense and Security Industries is coming to Ottawa this April. It has been banned after long efforts from all City of Ottawa property but the Ottawa Congress Centre is provinicial property and therefore sustains this death showcase.

The first day is scheduled to be a family-friendly protest while the second is a call for action and resistance through a spectrum of tactics.

Please join No War/Paix and the People's Global Action-Bloc Ottawa in resisting to this abomination.

Media Matters is financially supporting the distribution of Linchpin in Ottawa. Media Matters is an action group of OPIRG-Ottawa that supports independent media and media reform:

613-230-3076, mediamatters@canada.com

Ottawa Indymedia (IMC):
ottawa.indymedia.org

Indigenous Peoples’ Solidarity Movement of Ottawa:
indigsolwg@gmail.com

The Garden-Spot:
www.opirg-carleton.org/gspot
Peoples’ Republic of Delicious:
prdottawa@gmail.com

Critical Mass:
ottawacriticalmass.blogspot.com

Ticket Defense:
www.flora.org/legal/tickets/

Triangle Trash:
triangletrash@yahoo.ca

Alternative Heritage Moments
www.opirg-carleton.org
(Link under ‘Working Groups’)

Ottawa Action Medics
ottawaactionmedics@gmail.com

Upcoming events

4thAnnual Israeli Apartheid Week:
Friday February 1, 7:30pm: Film - The Iron Wall (at Cinema Political)

Saturday February 2 & 16, 1pm: Picket in front of Chapters/Indigo @ Rideau & Sussex - No more support of Israeli Militarism!

by Greg Macdougall

The next Ottawa Anarchist Assembly is tentatively set to be held on Sunday February 24 (see info above). Judging from the success of the previous three Assemblies, it should be both a good time and a useful gathering point for people involved and interested in radical struggle in the Ottawa region.

Lia Tarachansky, an Assembly organizer, describes how “the first assemblies have been great venues for social organizing in Ottawa ... They had allowed for a space for sharing of activities, gathering voices for campaigns, and for community building.” Attendance has varied, between 40 and 80 people, with over a dozen local activist groups making presentations to those in attendance.

The purpose behind the initial idea to hold these events was
clear: “There was a consensus in the Ottawa activist scene that a space for regular large gatherings was needed.” The first Assembly was held in April of 2007, and every 3-4 months since there has been another.

Canada is getting ready to play host to the 2010 winter Olympic games and the 2010 G8 summit, and is also preparing to ratify the SPP agreement.

But resistance to these events has already started! From coast to coast anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, anti-poverty activists and folks opposed to the military and economic occupations at home and abroad are mobilizing and organizing to confront these institutions!

On February 12th PGA Ottawa is launching its “Capital Punishment 2010” campaign, aimed at disrupting business as usual for the corporations that will be profiting from the Olympics, the SPP and the G8 summit. Join us on Feb 12th (two year countdown to the games). We will be marching through the market area to expose and oppose the NACC, CCCE and Olympics sponsors operating in our city.
You are encouraged to bring noisemakers, a fiery heart and any other instruments to light up the night.

by Matt Morgan-Brown

The Ottawa Anarchist Discussion Group (OADG) is regularly held every second Sunday afternoon and is made of local Ottawa community organizers and participants who share an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-oppression politics. We are involved in diverse struggles and prioritize maintaining a link between theory and practice.

Dave interviewed Ottawa anarchist Andrew Nellis for Linchpin. Andrew is an organizer with the Ottawa Panhandlers Union. A shorter version of this interview appears in Linchpin 2.

The next meeting of Ottawa Common Cause is scheduled for Saturday, Dec 15 at 1pm at Exile Infoshop (256 Bank St.) in the back.

December 9 marks the 20th anniversary of the 1st Intifada.

The Intifada (uprising, shaking off) began in Gaza, and transformed Palestinian society. We will be showing the movie, "Soraida, une femme Palestinian". "Rencontrer Soraida, c'est échapper aux clichés sur la Palestine. Chez elle les femmes ne sont pas toutes voilées, les hommes ne tiennent pas de discours politiques creux, les jeunes ne portent pas de bombes à la ceinture et, comme partout ailleurs, les enfants s'amusent ensemble."

Sunday, Dec 9 noon
Jack Purcell Community Centre
320 Jack Purcell Lane off Elgin near Gilmour Ottawa, ON
Pay What You Can Wheelchair Accessible Child -friendly Contact: a_ottawa@mutualaid.org http://adg.roadnework.org

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