The future of Toronto’s social housing – how much there will be, where it will be located – will depend on the struggle of the people in Toronto’s social housing communities to demand and fight for better housing.

Residents of Lawrence Heights should brace themselves for the pro-paganda campaign that TCHC is set to unleash on them throughout the summer of 2008. Starting in May 2008, TCHC will choose its “Consultant Teams” which will begin deploying “community engagement” schemes in the commu-nity to get people on board with revital-ization. Essentially, people can expect more of the same empty consultations with their “voices” falling on deaf ears.

On February 16, 2008 Basics Commu-

nity Newsletter and a number of vol-unteer lawyers organized a legal clinic for residents at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre to fill-out Tenant Rights (T2) and Maintenance (T6) forms to the Ontario Landlord Tenant Board. Many families filled out these forms, with many more calling on Basics to help them with the forms in the weeks and months ahead.

However, TCHC and the Landlord Tenant Board have found sneaky ways to disqualify people’s applications.

In one case, a resident who filled out a claim to the Board was contacted by a TCHC representative asking the claim-ant to adjourn for another day. As nice

as the tenant was, she agreed. Trust-fully assuming that TCHC’s legal counsel would take care of the adjournment, the tenant in question did not show up for her trial. The tenant was sent a letter by the Landlord Tenant Board indicat-ing that her case had been thrown out because she failed to show up. TCHC had successfully fooled the tenant from going to her own hearing.

Another claimant – who was also contacted by TCHC requesting adjourn-ment – decided to ignore TCHC and proceed to the Landlord Tenant Board. Even though TCHC said that they could not attend, their legal counsel was in attendance. The results? The TCHC

BASICSFREE COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER

“Revitalization” vs. People’s Housing: Let the Struggle Begin Editorial

How Bill C-50 Means Lower Wages for all Canadian Workers

On March 14 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives sneakily introduced a number of amend-ments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act within the larger frame-work of Bill C-50, the Budget Implemen-tation Bill. By including the immigration changes within the Budget Bill, the Con-servatives made the immigration issue one of “confidence”, meaning that the opposition parties would have to topple the government and go to elections if they wanted anything changed in the bill. And with the Liberals propping up the Conservatives once again – like they did over the question of continuing the occupation of Afghanistan) – it looks like Bill C-50 will soon become the law of the land.

So what exactly is Bill C-50? What changes will it enact? Who will it benefit

Also in this Issue...IN BRIEF:•NY Cops Who Shot Man 50

Times Acquitted•CDN Soldiers Who Killed Home-

less Man Charged•TO Cops Siege East Mall Unit,

Terrorize Somali FamilyLOCAL:•Police Raids on T.O. Hoods•The Struggle for Housing

•Popular Filipino Congresspeople Tour Canada, Visist TO

PROVINCIAL:• Ontario’s Political Prisoners:

Native Activists• This Issue’s Enemy of the People:

Julian FantinoFEDERAL:•Bill C-51: Feds Trying to Ban

Most Natural Health Products•”Toronto 18“: Who are the real

terrorists?INTERNATIONAL:•1948-2008: 60 Years of Israeli

ApartheidCULTURE / ARTS:•Why are the Supersonics

going to Oklahoma?•March 15 Justice for Alwy Con-

cert and Protest - ReviewHISTORY:• May Day and the History of

Int’nal Workers’ Day

“PROVIDINg INDEPENDENT mEDIA THAT ENCOURAgES mEANINgFUL DISCUSSION ON THE ISSUES FACINg wORkINg CLASS COmmUNITIES.” ISSUE #9, mAY 2008

What is Basics? Basics is both a free newspaper with a pro-people perspective and a community organizing project. We want your input! Get involved! Turn over to page 2 for more details...

TCHC website shows this artist’s rendition of Phase 1 of “Revitalization” in Regent Park at Dundas and Parliament.

On April 10, 2008 elections were held in Nepal for the first time in 9 years. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) won an absolute majority in the con-stituent assembly. From 1996-2006 the CPN-M led a people’s war that liberated over 80 percent of the countryside from the terror of the Royal Nepalese Army, the monarchy and brutal feudal landlords. The CPN-M won rural people’s trust over the past decade by successfully fight-ing against Nepal’s racist caste-system, women’s oppression, feudal oppression and the stealing of Nepal’s vast natural resources by foreign states and corpora-tions. Under the slogan of ‘land for the

tiller,’ support for the people’s war led by the Maoists extended across the country.

The people’s support led CPN-M to move their struggle to the capital, Kath-mandu. In 2006, CPN-M agreed to put down their guns and enter into the politi-cal arena. Over the past two years since the end of the people’s war, CPN-M has maintained the support of rural people and has gained the support of those in the cities. This was demonstrated in the elections when CPN-M won 220 seats in the constituent assembly, beating out the next two largest parties combined. The constituent assembly was formed in order to rewrite the Nepali constitution and

People’s Movement in Nepal Wins Elections by Nadeen El-Kassem

Cherry-Picking Immigrants on the Cheap by Steve da Silva

Crowds cheer after Maoists win elections. » continued, pg. 6

» continued, pg. 5

WhAt they dIdn’t tell uS ABout the

ttC StRIKepg.4

IS theRe A food ShoRtAge

In the WoRld todAy?

pg.6

» continued, pg. 3

What is basics? What we are...We are workers, students, youth, and all around people con-

cerned with the worsening situations in our communities and the injustices in our society. Our paper is entirely self-funded and we accept donations so long as they don’t interfere with our principles. This allows us to speak the truth and deliver it to our people for free.

What we believe...We believe that if people are going to be able to resolve the

issues in their communities, they need the truth and they need to be self-organized. We certainly can’t depend on the politi-cians, the police, and the rich to solve our problems. Most of the time, they are the problems!

This is why created BASICS - to serve as a voice of the people.

So we need you to get involved!!!How? •Submit an idea for an article about your community! •Distribute copies of BASICS in your area! •Create a local tenant organization!Contact BASICS:Phone: 416-800-0823 / Email: basics.canada@gmail.comWebsite: basicsnewsletter.blogspot.com

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CDN Soldiers Guilty of Beating to Death Paul Croutch by Alok Premjee

If the amount of homeless people in Canada isn’t enough of an indicator of the injustice in this country, then look to the murder of the homeless man Paul Croutch in 2005 for more proof. On August 31, 2005, three Canadian soldiers beat to death 59-year-old homeless man, Paul Croutch.

Jeffrey Hall, 24, Mountaz Ibrahim, 25, and Brian Deganis, 23, were all charged with second-degree murder in the death of Croutch. Two of them were convicted with manslaughter charges after plea-bargaining and will serve sen-tences of five and ten years each. The third soldier, Ibrahim, will serve a mere 10 months for his role as an accessory.

A witness who was assaulted as she intervened in the fatal attack told the courtroom that one of the soldiers “shoved his dog tags in my face. He said this gave them the right to kill all derelicts, crackheads, whores and bums. And that I needed to tell all my friends – this was their park.”

If these are how Canadian soldiers feel and treat the marginalized and poor people in Canada, then we can only imagine the hatred they must have towards the peoples they have occupied in recent years in Afghanistan and Haiti. The bigger question is whether these are the attitudes that Canadian soldiers are taught as they are trained to become professional killers. ∗

NY Cops Acquitted of Shooting Sean Bell 50 times by Alok Premjee

Three New York police officers who shot and killed Sean Bell in a hail of 50 bullets in November 2006 have been acquitted of all charges by the New York State Supreme Court. Before announcing his verdict on April 25, 2008, the judge stated that he found the police had a more credible story than that of the victims.

No weapon was ever located at the scene, yet that was supposedly the motive that triggered the police to blast away.

This should come as no shock to people in Toronto, where more than six months after the murder by police of 18-year-old Alwy Al-Nadhir there is still no response from the S.I.U. inves-tigation. The family and friends of Alwy are bracing themselves for an equally unjust verdict, given the out-rageous acquittal of Toronto police officers in the May 2004 killing of Fili-pino youth Jeffrey Reodica.

The recent murder of the indige-nous man Byron Debassige in Febru-ary 2008 for stealing two lemons in the Yonge and Davisville area dem-onstrates that Toronto police are not all that different from New York police. ∗

Quite often cultural and reli-gious identities like “Black”, “Arab”, “Christian”, or “Muslim” are used by organizations to rally an identity group in such a way that hides serious class differences and political differences within those organizations. Often, though not always, the leaders of such organizations are individuals who maintain cozy relationships with government or big business. The Justice for Alwy (J4A) campaign recently learned this lesson the hard way when it was blocked from speaking at a conference organized by the Arab Commu-nity Centre of Toronto (ACCT).

Upon learning of the J4A Campaign against police brutal-ity, an individual from the ACCT requested that the J4A Cam-paign have speakers at one of its upcoming conferences. The May 3rd conference was entitled “Arab and Muslim Identities on Trial: Youth Step Up and Speak Out”. Only days before the conference, members of the J4A campaign were contacted and told that they would no longer be allowed to speak at the conference because of “liability issues”. It seems like Arab and Muslim youth are allowed to step up and speak out only on those issues that really don’t matter in the community.

Upon further investigation, members of the campaign

learned that the ACCT is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and also receives money from the City of Toronto. Further-more, the RCMP were among the panellists at the conference.

Following in the footsteps of Toronto Parks and Rec. Manager Lucky Booth of the Regent Park Community Centre South, once again a Toronto Community Centre has closed its doors on the struggle of youth and mothers in the community trying to expose and resist police brutality.

In an Open Letter to the ACCT, the J4A campaign wrote, “We are more and more coming to under-stand that entities funded by the government cannot be relied upon to be apolitical organiza-tions, and thus can not fully serve the people and the communities under whose name they work..”

The Arab Community Centre of Toronto cannot claim to represent the interests of Arabs if when one of their community members is senselessly murdered by the state the result is that organization takes the side of the state.

The people should not expect government-funded “community”centres to work for them unless the community itself has control over those centres. ∗

in brief

No Justice for Alwy at the Arab Community Centre of Toronto

Rest in Peace, Paul (1946 -2005)

Sean Bell, with fiance and daughter

Late in the night of April 22nd, 2008, a team of heavily armed and masked officers from the Emergency Task Force (ETF) and the Guns and Gangs Task Force broke into a Somali family’s home late at night in the East Mall area of Etobicoke.

The cops were supposedly looking for a firearm on an anonymous tip, but no guns or any other contraband were found. No charges were laid, other than a fail to comply with a curfew.

The cops ransacked the house, terrorizing the mother and viciously beating both her sons, leaving the 23-year-old son so severely beaten that he was hospitalized and has sustained permanent brain damage. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is now investi-gating. However, when ex-cops inves-

tigate cops, we know what happens: nothing. The only option is for the community to organize in response to police brutality. We must organize ourselves to break the siege on our communities! ∗

Cops Siege East Mall, Leave Youth w/ Permanent Brain Damage Editorial

TO Military Cops Raiding Our Hoods

LocaL

Police Raids: How Cops and Landlords Work Together to Destroy Our Hoods by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan

« “Revitalization” vs People’s Housing, continued from PG.1

3

counsel told the adjudicator at the Board that they were not able to pro-ceed with the case and that they had to reconvene another day. The Board went ahead and scheduled another hearing that was convenient for TCHC and not for the tenant. The tenant not only lost a day’s work, but she was sent home with a rescheduled hearing that she couldn’t even attend. In her words: “The system has failed me and this shows that the system doesn’t work for the working poor.”

There is a saying that goes: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I’m the fool”. TCHC tenants must learn from the experiences of their neighbours and not be fooled by the duplicitous slumlord.

These cases demonstrate that the law works to the advantage of the powerful. So people need to build their own com-munity power to take control of their communities. So long as communities wield hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in rent money, people need to recognize that they already have com-munity has power; but that power can only be used if organized.

One option left for residents is to flood the Board with cases. It will be very dif-ficult for them to throw out tens or even hundreds of cases, and if they do they’ll only prove to us even more how useless their laws are for the community. The other option, whether or not people use the Landlord or Tenant Board, is to orga-nize themselves into united community organizations to take further actions

The time to organize ourselves is here! Fight back through the Landlord Tenant Board! And if that doesn’t work, let’s unite as a community to fight for better housing! Only the people united have the power to make “revitalization” ben-efit the people. Contact Basics for more information! ∗

the fight for better housing: What tchc residents can Do

Option 1Fill out the T2 / T6 forms

and fight outstanding TCHC maintenance problems at the Ontario Landlord Tenant Board.

Option 2Organize an independent

tenants’ organization that can fight for better hous-ing, and organize local community programs for the people.

organize 5 or so of your neighbours and basics will come to your house or building to conduct a t2/t6 Legal clinic or talk about how to build a local tenants organi-zation to make “revitalization” serve the people.

contact us: 416-800-0823 / basics.canada@gmail.com

Since 2004, poor people in this city have had to deal with 6 major police attacks on their communities in Malvern, Galloway, Jamestown, Ardwick, Driftwood and most recently, the downtown East End. These raids involved hundreds of heavily armed cops and RCMP, undercover agents and paid snitches. They have arrested and jailed hundreds of youth, broken households and did absolutely nothing to address the conditions that force and lead people into crime in the first place. They seem directed more at terrorizing the people, and allowing the government, developers and landlords to further rob, destroy and vilify poor, black and racial-ized communities.

The most recent exposure of these raids was the 2005 police raid on Ardwick Boulevard, a small block off Finch and near Islington. Called “Project Flicker”, the sweep included over 300 cops who stormed the area as residents were still sleeping, arresting around 50 youth. The police claimed that all 50 were members of the Ardwick Blood Crew. Three years later, we find out that well over half of those arrested have been released, 20 were found completely innocent and the rest have had many of their charges dropped. In other words, this was defi-nitely not the huge ‘threat’ the police and media had talked about back in 2005. A lawyer for one of the accused believes the mass arrests were aimed more at showing Toronto was ‘safe’ and open for business during a year when many people were shot in the city.

However the fact that so many inno-cent people are arrested assaulted and jailed by the cops during these attacks on our neighborhoods is no surprise to anyone who’s experienced a raid. When Driftwood (in Jane and Finch) was raided last summer, Police busted up houses and destroyed furniture, threatened kids and mothers with machine guns, and

brutalized and handcuffed a number of people (including a grandmother) for simply being in the wrong house! Many of the people arrested didn’t commit any crime themselves, but were charged with ‘belonging to a criminal organization’, or with simply being in or renting a house where drugs and weapons were suppos-edly kept.

Besides exposing the violent and brutal tactics used by police, raids are also an example of how landlords and cops work together to oppress our communities. For example, after the 2005 raids on James-town (in Rexdale), which arrested around 100 people, TCHC (Toronto Community Housing) evicted the families of many of the youth arrested - before the youth were even put on trial! Many tenants have already been kicked out, while others have (and continue) to fight the notices. Despite the main and obvious point that a whole family has nothing to do with what one member does, the outcomes from other police raids show us that many of the people arrested were innocent to begin with.

The latest major raid TO cops have conducted happened this past Febru-ary/March 2008. During a six week period, which included a major undercover operation and multiple raids, Police of 51 Division arrested almost 300 people in the Church and Seaton area (just east of Regent Park). According to police, the raid was focused on “drug dealers, prostitutes and aggressive panhandling (begging)”!

In other words, we are supposed to congratulate the cops for throwing in jail the poorest people in one of the poorest areas of Toronto. This comes of course as the city is tearing down Regent Park, and cutting off services to the poor (including shutting down 3 rooming houses and shelters in the targeted area), forcing people further into a situation where they

have to beg, sell drugs, or sell themselves to survive or get an income. This raid is clearly just one part of the city’s/TCHC’s plan to take all community housing and poor people out of the Downtown East end (including Regent Park) in order to make way for land developers and condos. The raid was even code-named “Project Revival”, the similar term used to disguise the breaking down (“revitaliza-tion”) of Regent and the surrounding area.

So as we head into summer and people in hoods throughout the city are noticing a beefing up of police presence, along with the continued tearing up of our com-munities, we must be ready to defend our homes against future attacks - whether by the police or their partner landlords. ∗

Three Philippine Congresspeople – Satur Ocampo, Crispin Beltran, and Luz Illagan – conducted a cross-Canada tour in April, meeting with local com-munities, academics, journalists, and politicians to help raise awareness of the rampant human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Since current President Gloria Maca-pagal Arroyo took power in 2001, over 900 activists have been killed and 180 forcibly disappeared. Ocampo and Beltran were victims of abuses through repeated criminal prosecutions based on fabricated evidence and false testi-mony provided by government agents.

These and other abuses have been condemned by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston, man countries and numerous interna-tional human rights organizations.

The tour featured public events and press conferences in Toronto, Montre-al, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, a presentation to the House of Com-mons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Develop-

ment, and a meeting with Manitoba premier Gary Doer.The legislators called on the Canadian government to review the foreign aid going to the Philippines to find out if any funds had been used by the Arroyo regime in its campaign of violence.

Bern Jagunos of the Stop The Killing Network echoed the call, saying, “It’s appalling to think that Canadian taxes may have contributed to the intimida-tion, detention, torture and executions of innocent people.”

Philippine activists have noted a decrease in the number of killings in the past year and credit increased interna-tional attention. Ocampo told Canadian

parliamentarians, “The resolute efforts of human rights and people’s organiza-tions, religious groups, and progressive political parties to document cases and bring them up to the United Nations, international bodies, governments and Parliaments paid off in 2007 [and] large-ly contributed to the noticeable decline in the killings and abductions.”

With $1.5 billion in bilateral trade, $1 billion worth of mining projects, 32 different development programs, and a military and police assistance program that has members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine Nation-al Police receiving training in Canada, our government is heavily involved in the Philippines. We must demand that the Canadian government withdraw its assistance to the Arroyo regime and respect human rights of Filipinos!

Sadly, on the morning of May 20, after suffering head injuries due to a tragic accident at his home, Crispin Beltran died in hospital later that day. ‘Ka Bel’, as he was known, will be dearly missed by all Filipinos as their memory of him gives strength to their struggle. ∗

Philippine Legislators Tour Canada for Human Rights

Crispin Beltran, in Toronto (April ‘08)

by Jesse Benjamin

ProvinciaL

On May First 1886, more than 400,000 workers in Chicago held a demonstration during a nation wde labour strike. They were demanding an 8-hour workday and although this was a struggle that resulted in the deaths of several labour activists and leaders it lead to the eventual adop-tion of the 8-hour workday. From this point on, the First of May would be recognized as International Workers Day in celebration of the rights, strug-gles and victories of everyday workers (See History of May Day Article in this Issue, PG.8).

International Workers Day marks the importance of workers’ fundamental right to hold demonstrations, protests and to go on strike to demand safety, higher wages, union recognition and, ultimately, justice. The purpose of striking is not only to give workers a unified voice, but also to establish social and economic equality between workers and employers. Throughout history, strikes have been a symbol of workers’ collective strength and com-mitment to justice.

On April 25th when the TTC’s 9,000 strong workforce rejected the contract

under negotiation and overwhelming-ly voted to strike, thousands of riders were left stranded and frustrated at everything ranging from fare costs, route frequency, dirty subway stations and a supposedly greedy workforce. Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor David Miller reacted quickly and called an emergency session of the legisla-ture-at which time Back-To-Work leg-islation was passed bringing an abrupt end to the 2 day strike.

So why do transit fares seems to rise so often and why do riders feel like they are getting ripped off? Under Mike Harris’ Conservative government of the 1990s the TTC budget, which used to receive 50% of its operating costs from the province of Ontario, was slashed leaving behind an aging and severely under-funded public transit system. Thus while the city of Toronto continues to grow and with it demands for a better transit system, inadequate funding from all levels of government have left the TTC crippled and unable to respond to riders’ needs.

As workers struggling to keep up with the ever-rising cost of living and

poor working conditions, the recent TTC strike invites us to reflect on some of the key issues at stake during the demonstrations held leading up to and following the first International Workers Day. If the province refuses to provide adequate funding for public transportation at the same time that it beefs up the police’s operating budget with millions of additional dollars, what message is government sending to transit users who must pick up the tab? If 400 TTC managers earn more than $100,000/per year, who really holds power within the TTC? If workers’ right to strike can be so easily overruled without challenge from any of the main political parties, who can workers rely on to represent their interests? And if the mainstream media and politicians alike purposely and aggressively pit the public against a workforce who has a legitimate claim to better working conditions why do we so easily accept this antag-onism when neither politicians nor the media represent our interests?

Preventing employees’ ability to strike over labour relation issues undermines the democratic rights

of workers. Strikes are not only a key means for achieving economic justice but strikes also provide an opportunity for all workers to stand beside and support their brothers and sisters struggling for better conditions. Forcing workers to end their strike and stripping them of their right to strike on the basis that they provide an essential service isn’t justifiable and it sets a dangerous precedent that erodes the rights of ALL workers, not just those involved in the dispute.

If more than 1.5 million of us ride the TTC every weekday to get home, to school and to work, we should look for ways to build alliances with the 9,000 TTC drivers and maintenance staff that make this possble rather than divert our frustrations at them. If politicians and mainstream media are so invested in pushing an antagonism between TTC workers and the general public where there isn’t one, why should we buy it? We shouldn’t. We should work together to demand a healthy public transportation system that is well funded, well run and well supported. ∗

The TTC Strike, Back-To-Work Legislation and What it Means for Workers Paulina V.

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Native Political Prisoners & the Struggle for their Land by Sara Falconer

This issue’s enemy of the people is a familiar name to working people in Toronto.

Julian Fantino, notorious former Chief of Toronto Police who let the Police terrorize communities for 5 years from 2000-2005, has been spreading the fear across Ontario since Dalton McGuinty appointed him as Chief of the Ontario Provincial Police (O.P.P.)

More recently, Fantino has been attack-ing indigenous communities that are rightfully protecting their lands against a federal and provincial governments that have been allowing developers, mining companies and other big-business thieves to illegally exploit unceded Native territories . Fantino’s O.P.P. have arrested a number of indigenous leaders, includ-ing Bob Lovelace and Shawn Brant in an attempt to try to stomp out resistance from First Nations communities.

Fantino should know from his time in Toronto that his attempts to stomp on the rights of oppressed people will only serve to show people what the nature of the police really is – to protect the wealth of the ruling class (even when the ruling class steal that wealth). Julian, you will always be an enemy of the people. ∗

Enemy of the People: Fantino

A recent standoff between First Nations people and the cops has ended in six new arrests, bringing the total number of First Nations people facing charges from land struggles into the double digits. Are they Ontario’s political prisoners?

The storm around First Nations land claims has been brewing over the past several years around several controversial uranium mining and development proj-ects. On April 25, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) drew guns in a confrontation on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Dese-ronto. Solidarity blockades and actions took place at Six Nations, Akwesasne,

Kahnawake, Guelph, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver over the following four days. After the OPP withdrew from Tyendinaga on April 29, the other blockades were dismantled.

Mohawk warriors have occupied a quarry on the disputed Culbertson Tract for over a year. The latest conflict began when spokesperson Shawn Brant was arrested on an outstanding weapons charge, less than two weeks after he was acquitted of uttering threats at soldiers at a 2006 demonstra-tion.

During his arrest, which took place in the midst of an interview with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Brant offered some pointed criticisms. “This is it, justice for First Nations commu-nities: Lock us up.”

The Supreme Court noted in 1999 that although aboriginals make up only 3 per cent of Canada’s population, they make up 12 per cent of the prison population. Skyler Williams, a Mohawk from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, says that more and more it seems to be a case of “Canada settling land claims by arrests.”

Williams was arrested in September along with eight others at a protest

against construction of a subdivision in Caledonia and charged with mischief, as well as a previous assault charge.

Robert Lovelace, aboriginal student counsellor at Fleming College in Peter-borough, is serving a six-month sentence for contempt of court for protesting Frontenac Ventures’ uranium exploration near Sharbot Lake on traditional Ardoch Algonquin land. Paula Sherman, a Trent University professor and single mother of three children, was arrested along with Lovelace but paid a $15,000 fine to avoid jail time.

In the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (known as KI) in Northern Ontario, six council members are serv-ing six-month jail sentences for refusing to obey a court order to allow Platinex to resume mineral exploration near Big Trout Lake. The community has rallied for the release of the KI6, as they have become known, including Chief Donny Morris and Cecilia Begg, a community leader and grandmother.

“Solidarity is a big thing for all native people,” Williams says. “It’s something that’s happened throughout our history... Struggle will always bring those nations together.” ∗

Mohawk flag flies over a road blockade

feDeraLA recent survey shows that 70% of

Canadians regularly take some form of natural health products (NHPs). In recent years, more Canadians have been turn-ing to natural remedies for conditions and diseases that they could not resolve through drugs, and this had cut into the profits of the pharmaceutical industry. It is precisely for this reason the natural health industry is facing a serious attack by pharmaceutical companies and their puppets in Parliament.

On April 8, 2008, the Canadian Minister of Health Tony Clement introduced Bill C-51, which proposes significant changes to the Food and Drugs Act which will all but ban most natural health products (NHPs). NHPs, such as olive leaf extract or Echinacea, will be put under such strict licensing requirements that most will not pass and thus will be made illegal. The Natural Health Products Protection Association (NHPPA) of Canada has said that “it is expected that 75% of current NHPs will become illegal under this new system”. Most natural health and natural food stores will be driven out of business. Go into any natural food store in your area, like Noah’s, and just ask them.

If Bill C-51 becomes the law, possess-ing banned NHPs may result in fines up to $5,000,000 or jail up to two years.

While the law is being passed justified to protect Canadians from health risks, new regulations are also being imple-mented that will fast-track new pharma-ceutical drugs onto the market.

How many times have you heard of a

person experiencing detrimental if not fatal reactions resulting from overdos-ing or combining drugs? How often do drugs resolve one symptom of an illness only to give rise to a host of others? We have all heard these stories, if not had them happen to ourselves.

Now, how many times have you heard someone overdosing on ginseng, or having a fatal reaction from combining their garlic extract with their acidophilus? The NHPPA points out that “there has never been a death in Canada caused by a natural health product.”

Bill C-51 defies all reason when it comes to the health of Canadians. But the health of Canadians is not what the government and big business is after. They are after profits, plain and simple; and pushing drugs down the throats of people who don’t need them is a great way to make profits. ∗

rorist cell had been conducting “jihad-ist-training camps” in Ontario, and was plotting to storm government build-ings, take hostages, behead leaders and detonate bombs. Security forces assured us that the powers granted under Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act (warrantless arrests, unconstitutional monitoring, preventive detention) had been critical to avoiding a major terror attack, while Canada’s Minister of Public Safety warned that there were “more jihadists out there”. While not a single accusation was proven, editorials nationwide called for a 5-year extension of the 2001 Anti-Ter-rorism Act, coincidentally set to expire within weeks of the raids.

Last September, just as a prelimi-nary hearing was underway where the credibility of the case would have been determined; the prosecution suddenly (and oddly) stopped the proceedings. Instead, a publication ban was imposed and the case was ordered directly to trial. This means the public will not learn the truth about the accused or the actions of their accusers until the trials are completed, possibly in the year 2014 or later.

However, what is public knowledge is troubling enough to demand a complete public investigation. All of the accused have had their basic legal and human rights violated, including

their Charter right to be informed of their offences, their right of reason-able bail and their right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment. Most of the accused have been kept in solitary confinement for longer than what is humanely allowed, and most have reported systematic abuse and assault by their jailors.

The initiating factor for the surveil-lance of the eighteen had been the monitoring of Internet chat sites. It should be noted here that many of the accused were vocal critics of Canadian foreign policy, as are most Canadians. Two years of thorough CSIS and RCMP surveillance did not turn up anything to warrant arrests. However, the planting of two paid informants among the Muslim men by Canadian security agencies suddenly provided the “evidence” needed. One of the informants was paid $370,000 for a year’s work, and the second was paid $4,000,000. The only physical evidence in the case, the 3 metric tons of fertilizer purportedly to be used for bomb making, was ordered by the CSIS informant and paid for by the RCMP. In fact, it was during the cross-examination of one of these informants that the prelimi-nary hearing was suddenly and suspi-ciously shut down by the government lawyers.

At the time of the writing of this

article, three of the youth and four adults no longer face charges, includ-ing 43-year old Qayyum Abdul Jamal who was first identified as the “Islamic firebrand” leading the young plotters. As the government case unravels, and the “Terror 18” shrinks to the terror-ized 11, two other recent cases should be remembered. Project Thread in 2003 and Operation Shock in 2001 where mass arrests of Muslims and Arabs were politically motivated round-ups, targeting innocent people based solely on ‘racial profiling’.

At the end of the day, the political gain from the arrest of the “Terror 18” for Canada’s governing elite was the opportunity for the encouragement of domestic racism and Islamophobia, which was needed to extend Canada’s oppressive Anti-Terrorism Law. The fall-out for ordinary people is the continuing destruction of civil liber-ties, allowing for the crackdown on legitimate dissent and the creation of a climate of fear and terror.

The response for Canadians must be to demand open and fair proceed-ings for all the accused, a removal of those still in solitary confinement, a complete public investigation into the case and a repealing of the brutal Anti-Terror legislation that allowed the government to carry out this act of terror. ∗

“Toronto 18”: Home-Grown Terrorism by the Canadian Government by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan

One of the largest counter-terrorism raids in North America took place in Ontario starting in June of 2006. The excessively brutal operation employed over 400 heavily armed police and security forces dressed in commando-style uniforms, and ended with the arrests of 13 men and 5 teenagers. The youngest was 15 and the oldest 43, while most were under 25. All were Muslim.

The Canadian spy agency CSIS and the RCMP leaked reports to the press, and wild accusations were reported that a homegrown radical Islamic ter-

Father of one of the accused headed to court next to machine gun totting cops

5

Bill C-51: Feds and Big Pharma to Kill Natural Health Products by Steve da Silvaand who will suffer?

The Conservatives talk about moder-nising the immigration system in order to process the hundreds of thousands of backlogged applications. But what Bill C-50 is really about is giving the immi-gration Minister new powers to shape immigration to the benefit of big busi-ness and against all workers in Canada.

Whereas under the previous Im-migration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), anyone who met the already-strict criteria to enter Canada as a worker, student, visitor, or permanent resident would be granted that status, the immigration Minister will now have authority to reject any application with no right to appeal for applicants.

The Minister will have new power to set “quotas” on the “category” of per-sons entering Canada. This language has community organizations such as No One is Illegal asking whether these quotas and categories are just a white-washed version of earlier “quotas” in Canada’s racist history, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923; the Order in Council of 1911 prohibiting the land-ing of “any immigrant belonging to the Negro race”; or that of 1923 excluding “any immigrant of any Asiatic race”; or the “None is too many” rule applied to Jews fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe dur-ing the Second World War.

Furthermore, the Minister will no longer be obliged to review Humanitar-ian and Compassionate applications from abroad, the most common route through which immigrants reunite with their Canadian family members.

The immigration Minister will also

have new powers to decide the order in which applications are processed. This means that immigration applica-tions will be prioritized on the needs of Canada’s big businesses, rather than the order in which they are filed.

What the government and its big corporate backers are aiming for with Bill-C50 is cheap labour, plain and simple. Canadian businesses want the ability to bring in the most exploitable labour possible from around the world, while also bringing in high-skilled trades persons and professionals. Bringing in highly-skilled labour allows the Cana-dian government to spend less money subsidizing the education of its own citizens, which means more money is left over to subsidize big business.

Furthermore, by maintaining a large labour pool that is extremely exploited and poorly paid (and too scared to do anything about it because of the racism migrant workers face), the net result for other Canadian workers is that their wages experience a downward pres-sure.

So it’s clear that the new changes to the Immigration Act are going to nega-tively affect all working-class Canadians. What all Canadian workers need to be doing is fighting together for the regu-larization and status of all migrant work-ers, Moreover, migrant workers should have a right to live in peace in their own countries as well. So the fight of to put an end to Canada’s aggressive, imperial-ist foreign-policy is at the same time the fight for better working conditions and wages for Canadian workers at home. ∗

« Immigration, continued from PG.1

internationaLToday’s “Food Crisis”: A Crisis in Capitalism by Corrie Sakaluk

On May 17th, dozens of Palestin-ian flags flapped over the gathering at Queen’s Park, where about a 1000 people gathered at 1pm to listen to speakers from the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and other allied orga-nizations. People were gathering to commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Al Nakba”, which is Arabic for “the catastrophe”. In 1948, during Israel’s “war of independence” over 750, 000 Pales-tinians were expelled or fled from their homes, terrorized by Zionist militias to make way for what we now know as Israel.

This year marks what Israel calls its 60th anniversary. In Toronto, there have been many campaigns carried out by Zionist organizations and their allies to

brand Israel as the only democratic country in the Middle East, while covering up all the violence that goes on in witin its borders.

May 17th was a counter to that brand-ing, stating that Israel is an Apartheid state based on the differential set of laws that Palestinians and Israelis live under. This protest was supported by Jewish organizations, the Palestinian community, high school students, Arab and Muslim organizations, First Nations community representatives, and many other allied community organizations.

It was an example of the solidarity that can be achieved when people come together for a cause. For more information, people interested to learn

more about Israeli apart-heid and Palestinian resistance to it can visit www.caiaweb.org.

There is not a food shortage in the world today. There is more than enough food being produced to healthily feed everyone living on the planet Earth. And yet almost one sixth of the world’s population is starv-ing.

International institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations have worked together with a few huge agri-cultural businesses to ensure that the global food industry is designed to make a lot of money for a few people who own ever-expanding agricultural businesses instead of to do what we all need it to do – provide enough affordable food for our families and communities.

On April 2nd, 2008 the President of the World Bank told a meeting in Washington that there are currently 33 countries where

hikes in food prices could cause social unrest.

On April 3rd in Haiti demonstrators took matters into their own hands, loot-ing trucks carrying rice and attempting to burn a United Nations compound. Similar demonstrations took place in Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Egypt, Cote D’Ivoire, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mau-ritania, Niger, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Zambia.

Popular slogans of these world-wide actions included “We are hungry!” and “Life is too expensive! You are killing us!”

High food costs – and therefore hunger and starvation – are inevitable under capi-

talism.

Most present-day Third World countries were brutally colonized and then deliber-ately left in a state of underdevelopment after decolonization. Forced to take loans to provide for the basic needs of people, these countries then had to comply with political and economic loan-conditions designed to make them dependent on agricultural exports from the United States, the Europe-an Union (especially France and Germany), the British Commonwealth countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa), and Argentina and Brazil.

These four regions have flooded the Third World with government-subsidized food products over the past three decades, making any sale of locally produced food impossible for the domestic population. Poor people anywhere are obviously not going to buy food that is locally produced when it is more expensive than the import-ed products.

Another thing that has happened over the last three decades is that Third World countries were often successfully coerced, due to their desperate circumstances, into producing only one type of crop. This crop is always used for export purposes, and can often be a luxury item for people living in the First World.

For example, in Colombia where 13% of the population is malnourished, 62% of all cut flowers sold in the United States are produced and exported. Much of the land now used for growing flowers used to be able to provide food.

Traditional farming, orga-

nized by and for communities and families, has been pushed aside by industrial farm-ing organized by and for agribusinesses.

This new structure of agricultural pro-duction for capitalist profit has resulted in millions of people starving in countries that export food. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s tragically true.

It has also resulted in massive environ-mental damage, such as poisonous air and water, which create horrible health prob-lems for human beings and other living creatures.

The issue of rising food prices and the resulting food crisis is a political and social problem. It is a problem that people all over the world are taking in to their own hands, and we should do the same.

Canada is not immune from rising food prices, and many of us have families living in areas directly affected by the first wave of food crisis hunger.

The only way that global hunger and starvation can be stopped is for urban and rural working people to join together and actively organize an alternative society where the wealth and resources can be evenly distributed to meet people’s needs, as oppoosed to this miserable capitalist system we currently live in. ∗

« Revolution in Nepal, continued from PG.1

abolish the monarchy.

This resounding victory was unex-pected by the traditional parties in Nepal, especially the US-backed Nepali Congress Party (NC). The NC, with major backing from the United States and India, is trying to argue that the old Nepali Congress Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala should remain in power, despite the clear victory of Maoist party. CPN-M leader, Prachanda says that he has the right to lead the country and that CPN-M will form the new govern-ment despite protests from the current ruling party and its imperialist support-

ers.

According to Nepal’s interim constitu-tion, the first meeting of the constituent assembly has to be held before May 26, 2008. It remains to be seen whether the efforts of the NC, India and the United States, to undermine the election results will halt the people’s victory.

This interference, not uncommon, shows once again that it is people’s orga-nizing and mass movements that bring change, not party politics. Even if the NC and its imperialist supporters sabotage the CPN-M victory, the struggle of the Nepali people for self-determination and a just social order will continue. ∗

Crowds cheer the electoral success of the Maoists, who have fought a people’s war for more than ten years to overthrow the US- and Indian-backed monarchy.

6

Images of April 2008 food riots in Somalia (above) and Haiti (bottom right). Both countries are currently occupied by foreign armies.

60 years of Israeli Apartheid, 60 years of Palestinian Struggle by Louisa

Worrell

To commemorate Al Nakba, Palestinians painted the sky of Jerusalem black by flying 21,915 black balloons, one for each day of Israel’s existence.

On March 15, 2008 the Justice for Alwy Campaign had two amazing events in Toronto. First there was a rally in front of Police Headquarters at College and Bay to demand justice for Alwy al-Nadhir, who was shot dead by police on October 31, 2007. Approxi-mately 200 people rallied, with a number of speakers from Black Action Defence Committee (BADC), No One is Illegal (NOII), Central Neighbour-hood House (CNH), Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), and Basics Community Newsletter. The rally was very successful. Family, friends, and supporters spoke about police bru-tality and memories of Alwy. People were angry, upset and disappointed especially that the police officers

who were patrolling the rally were laughing. Their disrespectful laughter did not intimidate the people, it just made them stronger.

The rally was followed by a march from Toronto Police Headquarters to City Hall where the people demanded that the police be held accountable for the murder of Alwy al-Nadhir. They also vowed to continue their struggle to end police brutality.

Later that evening a benefit con-cert was held in memory of Alwy Al-Nadhir at the Holy Trinity Church. Approximately 200 people attended the concert to show their support. Various talented artists spoke up about different struggles. Performers included Lal, Waleed Kush, Boonaa Mohammed, Wasun, Bighead and many others. A special song dedicat-ed to Alwy - written and performed by The Voyce –outlined the story of Alwy’s murder and how it fits into a larger pattern of police brutality in our communities.

Since these successful events the members of the campaign have continued to fight hard to bring down police brutality – even while some government-funded organizations have closed their doors on our face. First, the Regent Park South Com-munity Centre refused to let us host our March 1 Memorial for Alwy. Upon further investigation we found out that the councillor for the ward where Regent Park South Community Centre is located is Pam McConnell, the vice-chair of the police services board. We exposed the hypocrisy of a com-munity centre working for the police instead of for the community by writ-ing an open letter to the manager of

the community centre, Lucky Booth and by talking to Now Magazine who has been following the story of Alwy closely.

Then again, on Saturday May 3, members of the campaign were blocked at the last minute from speaking at a conference organized by the Arab Community Centre of Toronto called, ”Arab and Muslim Identities on Trial: Youth Step Up and Speak Out.” The Canadian Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration-funded Arab Community Centre closed its doors to us because the topic of police brutality was a “liability”, even though Alwy Al-Nadhir was an Arab, Muslim youth. This proves to us that neither the government, nor most organizations funded by it, will help us in our struggle. Instead we need to organize ourselves.

Later that day on May 3 at the No One is Illegal May Day / Immigrants’ Rights march, we were given the chance to expose the hypocrisy of the

Arab Community Centre and deliver our message of organizing against police brutality in front of hundreds of people.

The Justice for Alwy Campaign continues to do outreach in differ-ent communities to educate people about police brutality through our stories of lost loved ones and our struggles. Our goal is to mobilize the communities and bring everyone together because “the people united will never be defeated”. ∗

It was 1967 when the Seattle SuperSonics made their NBA debut in the rainy west coast U.S. city. Over the years NBA greats like Lenny Wilkins, Jack Sikma, Xavier McDaniels and of course the famous 1990’s duo of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp would become synonymous with the Sonics franchise. Forty-one years and a championship later they have become a part of the pop culture of Seattle, a recreational outlet for generations of Seattle working people who have supported the team emotionally and of course, economically.

While many of the people of Seattle have embraced the Sonics over the years, it’s a loyalty that wasn’t to be returned by NBA Commissioner David Stern and the Sonic’s private ownership groups. With the Sonics now due to be moved out of Seattle either this coming season or within the next two years at the latest (pending court disputes), a whole generation of fans is discovering that what they thought was an entertaining escape from the grind of daily life is yet another opportunity for the rich to get richer, or punish the

world trying.

The basic problem is the corporate model of most professional sports franchises that predominates in North America. It’s a model whereby private

owners expect to have their private profits subsidized through public tax money. If the city councillors or other local politicians (rightfully) refuse such a ridiculous but all too common arrangement, the owners threaten to move the team elsewhere, and every

now and then that threat is carried out as a collective punishment on a city that stands its ground protecting public funds.

This is the situation Seattle fans have found themselves in. The recent chapter started in 2001 when the Sonics were purchased by Howard Schultz, the billionaire magnate of the Starbucks empire and infamous supporter of Israel’s racist militarism. Despite tax payers forking over $100 million for a new arena in 1995, Schultz held the city of Seattle hostage to a demand for a new $220 million renovation that he felt the public should again pay. When this was refused, NBA commissioner David Stern

began making noises about moving the team (despite it being one of the NBA’s most successful franchises) out of Seattle.

It was a threat he shamefully intended to make good on. In 2006 the NBA approved the sale of the Sonics to an

Oklahoma City based business group headed by Clay Bennett, a personal friend of David Stern’s. Despite empty public statements about making a good faith effort to keep the team in Seattle, the ransom was now raised to a new $500 million arena (again to be paid for publicly, but to be privately owned and to price out many of the working class fans). With this absurd demand also refused (the fact is the whole franchise itself had only been purchased for $350 million), Stern and Bennett then pushed through NBA approval to move the franchise to Oklahoma in order to send a message to sports fans throughout North America: if you refuse to publicly-subsidize the private profits of these team owners, your team could be next. Of course, the one reply they aren’t expecting in return, is perhaps the one ordinary working sports fans should most consider: it’s time to stop getting screwed and demand affordable cultural entertainment through not-for-profit publicly-owned teams, like the Green Bay Packers and Saskatchewan Roughriders. ∗

NBA SuperSonics Going To Oklahoma Because More Public Money to Subsidize Private Profits by Greg Dubecky

arts & cULtUre

Youth Stand Up Against Police Brutality With Music and Protest

7

by Sara Cain & Salma Al-Nadhir

Benefit Concert MCs, Iman & Sara Z.

Some of the young women who have been at the core of organizing the Justice for Alwy campaign.

You are dearly missed, Alwy!!!

The Voyce wrote and performed a song about Alwy’s death, “Shots at Hood”

PeoPLes’ history

8

SUBSCRIBE to BASICSSupport our Community Organizing Work

This May 1st, 2008, marked the 117th anniversary of International Workers Day, or May Day. The governments of Canada and the United States rec-ognize Labor Day in September in an effort to disassociate labor activism, protest, and struggle from its origins in police brutality and worker repression. Although the September holiday is a welcome one, the significance of May Day is a much more symbolic one as it is an international day of solidarity as declared by the working people, and

not the state.

May Day celebrations commemorate the Haymarket Massacres of 1886, when Chicago police officers open fired on workers during a general strike. At this point in history, most workers would work between 10 hours and 16 hours a day and death and injury were a common occurrence. The general strike’s aim was to try and get the 8-hour work-day.

Through organization and solidarity with their fellow workers in 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 busi-nesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day cel-ebration in history.

In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day struggle, 40,000 went out on strike. on May 1. More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, and yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCor-mick Reaper Works between police and strikers. The police and the Pinkertons (a 19th century private spy agency, forerunner to the FBI) open fired on the

Haymarket killing many and arresting dozens more. A bomb thrown into the crowd by a Pinkerton agent trig-gered the police firing. Eight protestors were then tried and convicted for the bombing by a biased jury comprised of upper class business-men who sought to prolong the unsafe and long work days to ensure their profits. The jury returned guilty verdicts for all eight defendants – death sentences for seven of the men, and a sentence of 15 years for the other. Four of the workers were eventually executed and one eventually committed suicide in prison.

Despite these hardships and the loss of the martyrs, workers would soon be successful in their goal of attaining the 8 hour work-day. This shows us that May Day is undoubtedly the real Labor Day. The welfare of workers is rooted in struggle and organization not gifts handed down from the bosses and their governments.

This year in the United States, May Day was used by our fellow workers as a rallying point to assert the rights of migrant workers, the most exploited workers today. Protests were held against deportations, anti-immigrant

legislation, brutality against migrant workers, the militarization of the border, and racist detention programs.

Here in Toronto, No One Is Illegal held a rally on May 3rd at Christie Pits, with a march that took hundreds of workers and activists across Bloor to Dufferin Grove Park. The rally was drawing attention to the racist and exploitative Bill C-51 immigration changes being rammed through by the Federal Con-servatives. ∗

May Day: 117 Years on, The Struggle Continues by Ellis Mayfield

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BASICSFREE COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER

Gov’t Monument to the Haymarket Martyrs; Graffitied message reads “First they took your life / Now they exploit your memory .

Give this form with cash to a BASICS member, or send this form, plus cheque or money order in the name of “BASICS” to:

Community Events Listing:

OPEN MIC song - word - speech - rap

Saturday, May 31, 2008 6pM-9pM C.N.H. 349 ONtariO Street, (N. Of duNdaS / W. Of parliaMeNt)

We are building a movement to put an end to police terrorizing our communities.

Come by and express yourself on the issue of police brutality and/or sit back and enjoy the song and word in solidarity.All are welcome / All are needed.

www.justiceforalwy.ca

we’re not asking, we’re demandingWe’re not Waiting, we’re moving

Justice for Alwy, NOw!

Seven of the eight convicted at the Haymarket Riots.