Freedom of the media violated at CKLN! No to Right Wing Censorship!

Freedom of the media violated at CKLN! No to Right Wing Censorship!

 

The crisis of governance at CKLN Campus/Community Radio continues to escalate. The illegal of Board of Directors has called  an

 

Annual General meeting:

Wednesday, October 29th at 7 pm in Oakham House, Room G.

Agenda: Financial Report

               Union negotiations

               Election of Community Reps to the Board of Directors

 

Oakham House is part of Ryerson University campus at Gould/ Church.

Station Manager Mike Phillips has called this meeting.  As "dismissed" volunteers and community supporters, we strongly object to this Staff Meeting for these reasons:

 

Mike Phillips, Interim Station Manager, has no legal authority to call a CKLN Annual General Meeting, because he was democratically voted out of office by an overwhelming 90% majority in a non-confidence motion on January 23, 2008 at a Special General Meeting called by the membership in accordance with CKLN by-laws. Nevertheless Phillips and a right wing clique have occupied the radio station from January until now and are violating the mandate of the station to be an inclusive and progressive station and a voice for marginalized communities in Toronto. Programming has deteriorated as indicated by the failure of this illegal board to raise adequate money at the recent Fund fest and the withholding of the student levy to the station by Ryerson Students Union.   

 

At previous meetings Metro Police have been employed to bar the new board and its supporters from participating. We intend to challenge this exclusion on October 29^th.

 

We therefore ask all "dismissed" CKLN volunteer programmers, hosts and staff (35 so far) and concerned community supporters of CKLN and Ryerson students to attend the Annual General Meeting Wednesday October 29^th at 7pm. Our purpose is to publicize and protest against this meeting as illegitimate and biased, a mockery of the democratic process, a complete sham!

 

Signed

Catherine Holliday 416 533 6630 catherine.holliday@utoronto.ca

Owen Leach

Don Weitz  dweitz@rogers.com

(Dismissed volunteers and community supporters)

 

  Take Back Our Radio Association For Immediate Release    October 27, 2008

Stop Harper!

Anti-Conservative demonstration draws crowd

by Ion Etxebarria

Protestors fight for their right to (arts) party.
PHOTO Ion Etxebarria

Thousands of people banded together and marched in the streets of Montreal to call electors to vote against the Conservative Party last Sunday.

A broad coalition representing collectives on the Arts, Feminist, Anti-War, Trade Union, Environmental, First Nations, Human Rights and Social Rights movements portrayed Harper's mandate as a "big leap backwards" and urged electors via spokesperson and actor Emmanuel Bilodeau to "say yes to environment, yes to culture, yes to peace and social justice by voting any party except the Conservative Party," adding "We just want a government that does not embarrass us."

Francois Saillant, coordinator of the housing rights collective Front d'action populaire en réménagment urbain, warned of the risk of a future conservative majority government.

"We have seen what conservatives can do as minority," Saillant said. "I think it will be a disaster if we give them the power to do whatever they want."

Among the crowd, two demonstrators in polar bear costumes waved signs for voteforenvironment.ca, an environmentalist website whose objective is to monitor voting tendencies in electoral ridings—a strategy for the candidate with the biggest chance to defeat the conservative counterpart to win.

The president of the Quebec Women's Federation, Michèle Asselin, criticized the conservatives' cuts on childcare funding and the proposed legislation challenging women's abortion rights.

Ghislain Picard, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, broke a traditional position of the First Nations—maintaining distance between themselves and the federal election debate—by describing the conservatives as the "the most oppressive and colonialist government ever."

Post-election roundup by David Tymoshchuk, RY Manitoba Bureau

Post-election roundup by David Tymoshchuk, RY Manitoba Bureau

TORONTO - Voters in Eglinton-Lawrence went to the polling station shown on their election cards, a church that wasn't there. It had been torn down.    Earlier in October, Liberal supporters who had lawn signs noticed that their cars had the brake lines cut or/and an "L" keyed on a car door or other body panel. Some had their homes spray painted with anti-Liberal slogans. Many supporters were intimidated by the vandalism, which was akin to fascist tactics. Some asked that the signs be removed after hearing the news.

SUDBURY - J. David Popescu, an independent candidate, stated at an election debate at a high school in front of students that "homosexuals should be executed". Students booed and called for him to be pre-empted but he was allowed to continue on other topics. On Oct. 2 he said during a radio broadcast that Egale Canada's director Helen Kennedy should be executed. He is under investigation for hate crimes. Popescu has discredited himself before. He has stated music stores should be closed because they "promote satanic music" and that dragon boats invoke the devil. He was living off his mother's pension and was found guilty in 2003 of assaulting her.

MONTREAL - On Sept. 28 and 29, Westmount Public Security removed election posters of Communist Party of Canada candidate Bill Sloan from public poles in the riding of Westmount-Ville-Marie. The recently posted signs, duly authorized by the registered agent of the Communist Party, put forward his positions on Canadian policy concerning Afghanistan and Israel. In one case, "CANADA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN" and the other, "END CANADIAN SUPPORT TO APARTHEID ISRAEL". The signs were removed by the Westmount administration without giving either the candidate or the Party notice. Sloan learned of the City's actions when the Westmount Independent published a story on the issue, mentioning that "Offensive" posters had been taken down by Westmount public security.

     "I called their public security on October 9 and spoke to the Director, Mr. Richard Blondin," says Sloan. "He confirmed that his service had indeed removed my posters on September 28 and 29, but did not tell me what they had done with them. He declined to explain for what reasons or under what authority they had acted. The next day I read a press release from Marc Garneau, Liberal candidate in the riding where he joins the Canadian Jewish Congress in denouncing the election campaign of the Communist Party of Canada, and alleges that my signs `may be' illegal because of their content!... The electoral laws allow an advertising message that promotes or opposes a registered party or the election of a candidate, including one that takes a position on an issue with which a registered party or candidate is associated. They were so sure of themselves that they filed a report with the Montreal Police (SPVM), leaving them a pair of each of the `offending' posters. As though I were the criminal.

     "This is a flagrant violation of freedom of expression, which the Supreme Court reminds us is at its most precious during an election campaign. These shameful acts, committed not by anonymous vandals, but by a public authority, must be punished and remedied in a public fashion."

SURREY - RCMP physically blocked and removed reporters from interviewing Prime Minister Steven Harper during the election, on the orders of a Harper aide. A similar scene with reporters and the RCMP took place in St. Eustache, Quebec. In addition, the Conservative Party gave gag orders to its candidates, most of whom did not show up at all-candidate meetings or talk to media for the duration of the election.

WINNIPEG - The city had more campaigning by activists than by politicians as sit-ins were a regular event. At 10 am on Sept. 20, anti-war activists staged a sit-in at the campaign office of Conservative candidate Trevor Kennard to make known that Canadians were not pleased with his party's policy towards war resisters. The office occupation was in opposition to the planned deportation of Jeremy Hinzman and his family to face persecution in the U.S. Students from the University of Manitoba had a "study-in" simultaneously at three campaign offices in Winnipeg to protest the lack of funding towards students, Aboriginal students especially.

     On Oct. 14, the electoral engineering done by a Harper- overhauled Elections Canada made itself known as many Aboriginals, youth, students, homeless and workers who frequently move were turned away at polling stations across Winnipeg's North and West Ends.