Three years ago, the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO brought to the surface the brutality faced by the black and poor population of the city of St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs. Now, the city finds itself in the news again with a murderous police officer at the center of the story.
There has been a proverbial media storm surrounding the recent settlement of the lawsuit launched by Omar Khadr. Khadr was a Canadian citizen who was captured by American forces during the invasion of Afghanistan. He was a minor at the time and was held as a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for ten years prior to being released and allowed to return to Canada. He then sued the Canadian government for breaching his charter rights by engaging in his interrogation, in collaboration with American officials, at the detention camp.
When Black Lives Matter halted the Toronto Pride Parade last year, they had a fairly short list of demands. These demands called for an end to Pride Toronto’s marginalization and exclusion of LGBTQ people of colour, prioritization of the hiring of members from particularly vulnerable sectors of the LGBTQ community (e.g. black trans women), the reinstatement of the South Asian stage, and the removal of police floats from all Pride marches and parades. Indigenous activists joined them by praying, smudging, drumming and chanting, and Latin allies participated in the drumming as well.
On Thursday March 23, the parliamentary motion (M-103) on Islamophobia rightfully passed in the House of Commons. Federal Liberal MP Iqra Khaled introduced this private member’s motion “to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear” and “condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination”. The motion has no concrete proposals and is essentially a statement which condemns Islamophobia. The only practical proposal was that a House committee write a report on Islamophobia.
The Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec was the victim of a brutal atrocity, a bit before 8pm Sunday evening, where one man opened fire, killing six people and wounding a further eight. The thirty-nine other people who were gathered for a night prayer were unharmed. Fightback strongly condemns this cowardly attack on the Muslim community and we offer our condolences and our solidarity to the victims and their families.
Constable James Forcillo, the police officer who shot and killed Sammy Yatim on a TTC streetcar on July 27th, 2013 is now asking that his sentence be served under house-arrest instead of facing jail time. Constable Forcillo was convicted of attempted murder on January 25th, 2016. The fact that Forcillo was actually convicted, even of the lesser offence of attempted murder instead of second-degree murder, has surprised many. In the 23 year old history of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Forcillo is only the second cop in Toronto to be charged for murder. He is the first to ever be found guilty of even so much as a related charge.
On Sunday March 19th, Black Lives Matter (BLM) Toronto initiated a protest outside Toronto police headquarters. The protest subsequently turned into an occupation which lasted two weeks. The instigating event was the failure of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to prosecute the officers involved in the fatal shooting of 45-year old Andrew Loku, who is of South Sudanese origin. After eight months of deliberation, the SIU ruled that the officer in question did not exceed the range of “justifiable force”.
The 100th anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident has brought into focus the history of Canada’s immigration policy. The anniversary of this mass deportation has been marked by coverage and specials in the mainstream press, by statements from politicians, as well as remembrance ceremonies, particularly in the Sikh-Canadian community. The same policies that caused the tragic events of 100 years ago are largely present today.
There has been a sense of outrage and betrayal with the news that Constable James Forcillo has returned to work for Toronto Police Services. Forcillo was responsible for the killing of 18-year old Sammy Yatim. The Syrian-Canadian youth was shot nine times and then tasered during a confrontation with police while he was isolated on a streetcar. The treatment of Forcillo stands in sharp contrast to the treatment meted out by the police in working-class communities in the city of Toronto. There is a feeling that there is one law for working people, and quite another for the police officers that are supposed to enforce the law.
A cheap, crude, anti-Islamic film entitled The Innocence of Muslims, produced and promoted by reactionary Christian fundamentalists in the United States and posted on the internet in July, has led to demonstrations in many countries around the world, including attacks on US embassies and in the case of Libya to the killing of four US diplomats at the US Consulate in Benghazi. We look into why all this is happening.
45 years since the 1972 Quebec general strike
Canada 150: Erasing struggle from Canada’s past
NDP Leadership: Support Ashton, Fight For Socialism!
