Northern Ontario

One day longer? The Vale-Inco strike comes to a close

Linchpin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:39:50 -0700

By Scott Neigh
Northern Ontario Correspondent

On July 7 and 8, 2010, striking members of United Steel Workers Local 6500 in Sudbury, Ontario, voted 75% in favour of a contract that ended a bitter strike against transnational mining giant Vale Inco. The 3300 strikers had been on the picket lines for almost one year (along with members of Local 6200 in Port Colborne, Ontario, who voted in favour by a similar margin).

Despite the immense effort and sacrifices made by workers over the course of the year-long ordeal, the settlement marks a defeat for a local with a reputation for strength in a town with a reputation for solidarity. It is a hard moment for those who are returning to work -- who endured so much and still lost significant ground -- but as the world faces the renewed neo-liberal assault promised by leaders at the recent G20 summit in Toronto, it is important to ask critical questions that might strengthen all of our struggles in the difficult times ahead.

Becoming the media in Sudbury

Linchpin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:47:30 -0700

By Scott Neigh
Northern Ontario Correspondent

One useful insight that emerged from the upsurge in struggle that became visible in North America at the end of the 1990s can be summarized by a maxim often attributed to Jello Biafra, "Don't criticize the media, become the media."

Israeli Apartheid Week hits Sudbury

Linchpin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:20:48 -0700

By Scott Neigh
Northern Ontario Correspondent

SUDBURY - March 4 to 11, 2010, marked the first ever Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) at Laurentian University in Sudbury, a small city in Ontario's near north.

According to Marwa Dimassi of the Palestine Solidarity Working Group (PSWG), which organized the event locally, they wanted, "To educate people about what Israeli Apartheid Week is and to get a mobilization for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns."

Campaign seeks to clear John Moore's name

Mick — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:05:08 -0800

By Scott Neigh
Northern Ontario Correspondent

A new group based in Sudbury, Ont. is working to build national support for John Moore, an Ojibway man wrongfully convicted of second degree murder in 1978. Moore and the committee are currently asking groups and individuals from across Canada to sign on to a one-paragraph statement that outlines the injustice and asserts that "in recognition of the long history of indigenous people being targeted unfairly by the Canadian justice system, we, the individuals and groups listed below, call upon the Government of Canada to conduct a review of Moore's conviction."

Moore, a member of the Serpent River First Nation who grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. was accused of involvement in the murder of cab driver Donald Lanthier in August 1978. Moore said, "I unequivocally did not commit the crime."

Students and Steelworkers march against poverty

Mick — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:01:44 -0800

By Scott Neigh

SUDBURY, Ont. — 150 post-secondary students, joined by dozens of striking members of Steelworkers Local 6500 and community supporters, marched in Sudbury Nov. 5 demanding a poverty-free Ontario and reduced tuition fees. The march was part of a provincial “day of action” organized by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

Ontario has the highest post-secondary tuition fees in the country. CFS publications state that more than 70% of all new jobs require post-secondary education while the youth unemployment rate has topped 18%.

Rafiq Rahemtulla, vice president of the Graduate Student Association at Laurentian University, said Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government is reviewing tuition with the intent of introducing a new comprehensive policy in 2010.

Nickel, Neoliberalism, and Nationalism

Alex_Hamilton — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:14:45 -0700

By Scott Neigh
August 1, 2009

More than 3300 employees of mining giant Vale Inco are on strike in Sudbury, Ontario, and in other Canadian communities to defend decades' worth of gains. Beyond that, the strike by members of Locals 6500 and 6200 of the United Steel Workers of America also raise important questions about how unions orient themselves towards their communities and towards the nation-states in which their members live.

There are a number of "very provocative issues for the men" in the company's demands, according to a 21-year veteran of Inco's transportation division who requested to remain anonymous when interviewed at a picket line in the Sudbury community of Copper Cliff.* He pointed out, "There's absolutely no monetary raise in this contract" and no expectation by the members that there would be one, given the low price of nickel and the state of the global economy.

June 28th 2008: Indigenous Struggles and Solidarity Day

Rev — Sat, 24 May 2008 15:12:34 -0700

Start: 06/28/2008 - 00:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Title TBA
June 28, 2008
Location TBA

All Are Welcome

• Learn about the struggles of Indigenous peoples across Ontario
• Protest corporate and government-sponsored destruction of Indigenous territories and our shared land
• Defend Aboriginal political prisoners

Hear speakers from: KI First Nation, Serpent River First Nation, Whitefish Lake First Nation, and more

There will also be activities for children and youth. Food will be available for donation, with proceeds going to John Moore.

For more information, call 705 675-8479
or email sudburyawo@gmail.com

Consultation, Not Consent: The First Interview with KI Political Prisoner Cecilia Begg

Mick — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:35:24 -0700

Cecilia Begg is the Head Councillor of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation. She is the lone female community leader in what has come to be known as the KI6, a group serving six months for contempt after blockading a mining company from its licensed operations on disputed land near their community. In her first interview since her incarceration, she spoke with The Enterprise’s Jon Thompson at the Kenora jail about the road that has led her to this point, the reasons she is fighting the development, and the path that she hopes will emerge from her imprisonment.

The land entitlement claim that KI filed back in 2000 had been licensed to junior mining company, Platinex. Did that claim have anything to do with the fact that the government licensed a mining operation on the traditional territory of your people?

Sudbury Indigenous Solidarity Film Showing -- Our Sacred History and White Man Lies

Mick — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:21:49 -0700

Start: 11/07/2007 - 07:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

With the Sudbury premiere of Billie Pierre's new film on the struggle to prevent the deportation and to free indigenous activist John Graham.

Wed. Nov. 7th, 7pm, 4th Floor McNaughton Room, St. Andrew's Place, 111 Larch Street. A wheel-chair accessible location. Organized by Sudbury Against War and Occupation. For more information go to: http://aws.roadnetwork.org

For background info. see the article below by Native Youth Movement activist Billie Pierre.

US Renews War on the American Indian Movement: The Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash Story

by Billie Pierre, Nlaka’pamux/Saulteaux Nation, Earth First! Journal January/February 2006

Sudbury Upping the Anti Issue 5 Launch: "The Future of Feminism in Canada"

Mick — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:17:28 -0700

Start: 11/22/2007 - 19:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Come see "In the Shadow of 9-11," a short film of a recent talk by Sunera Thobani, former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) who is interviewed in Upping the Anti #5. Join a discussion with local feminist activists and thinkers sparked by Thobani's interview ("The Fight For Feminism") on feminism in Canada.

* Thursday, Nov. 22, 7pm, Myths and Mirrors space, (in Victory Park. on the right side of Frood Road, three blocks north of Kathleen). For more info. and for travel and childcare subsidization funds call Gary at 523-2205.

Upping the Anti is a radical journal of theory and action which provides a space to address and discuss unresolved questions and dynamics within the anti-capitalist, anti-oppression, and anti-imperialist politics of today’s radical left in Canada. For more information go to http://uppingtheanti.org/