[Fdu] Jason Kenney to get honorary degree from Haifa U

[Cynthia Wright]

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

Jason Kenney is Coming to Toronto …
Confront! Oppose! Speak Out! Organize!

Honouring our Communities: March Against Racism
November 4, 2012 – 4 pm
Rally at David Pecaut Square (King & John) March to Fairmont Royal York Hotel (100 Front)

NO HONOUR IN DEPORTATIONS | NO HONOUR IN APARTHEID | NO HONOUR IN CORPORATE PROFIT

https://www.facebook.com/events/233309536798501 
#confrontkenney  #nohonour


Jason Kenney is being awarded an ‘honorary’ degree by Israel's Haifa University at a fundraiser supported by Stephen Harper, Ezra Levant, Peter Munk, Stockwell Day and others. This event is a celebration of war, racism, corporate profit, displacement, apartheid and anti-migrant xenophobia – all intensified by the Conservative Party of Canada’s agenda. There is nothing honorable about this gathering.

We call on our communities to gather in/to honour of our strength and resilience, in opposition to this award and gathering, and against the dishonorable acts of Kenney, Harper and their allies

Join us on November 4th! 

Childcare and ASL will be available. 

Organized by: Afghans for Peace, Caregiver's Action Centre, Centre for Social Justice, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), Educators for Peace and Justice, Faculty for Palestine (F4P), Health for All, Independent Jewish Voices - Canada, Independent Jewish Voices – Toronto Chapter, Indigenous Sovereignty and Solidarity Network, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) Canada, International Socialists, Justice for Migrant Workers, Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Munk OUT of UofT, New Socialist Group (NSG), No One Is Illegal – Toronto, Not In Our Name (NION): Jews Opposing Zionism, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), Protest Barrick, The Public Health Social Justice Collective, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), Queers for Social Justice (QFSJ), Roma Community Centre, Social Justice Committee of the United Jewish People’s Order (SJC-UJPO), Socialist Project, Toronto Haiti Action Committee, Toronto Immigration Legal Committee, Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, Women in Solidarity with Palestine

For further questions on accessibility, to endorse, or to join the organizing please email honouringourcommunities at gmail.com

BACKGROUND

Why is a major Israeli academic institution honouring Canada’s most infamous and despised Minister, Jason Kenney? And why are people like Stephen Harper, Peter Munk and Ezra Levant supporting this? 


It is well-known across Canada that Jason Kenney - Minister of Censorship and Deportation - is a key player in advancing the Harper government’s austerity and policing agenda.  Their agenda is transparent and their racist, xenophobic, neoliberal policy agenda is clear.  It includes:

** Giving unhindered access to corporations while cutting public services, attacking workers, and forcing communities into deeper poverty and greater precarity

** Unquestioned support for wars and colonization in Turtle Island, and globally from Palestine to Iraq to Afghanistan

** Unequivocal support for the Israeli apartheid state and its internationally condemned war crimes and human rights violations against Palestinians and all refugees in Israel

** Expanding an already exclusionary and racist immigration system by increasing temporary work programs, citizenship rejections, detentions and deportations while cutting off refugee status, family reunification and access to full services for migrants, in particular undocumented residents.

** Defunding, criminalizing and censoring dissent and organizing for queer rights, gender justice, Palestinian liberation, migrant justice and beyond

This fundraiser is also meant to establish the “Jason Kenney Holocaust Education Fund”. At the same time that Kenny receives this 'honour', the Roma community in Canada is facing intensified discrimination as a direct result of Kenney's brutal immigration policies. This is a horrifying insult to the memory of the Roma people who were also targets of Nazi genocide.  Indeed, Kenney has shown great disregard for the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. At a 2009 event, Kenney praised WWII-era fascist collaborator Cardinal Alozije Stepinac, who was convicted for his role in collaborating with the fascist Ustasha regime in Croatia.  This regime was responsible for the deaths of between 250,000 to 750,000 Jews, Roma, Serbs, and anti-fascist Croats.  And yet, in Kenney's words: "[Stepinac] was a kind of martyr for Croatia and the faith, and he for me is one of the great heroes of the 20th century".

This is the agenda that Kenney represents, and these are just some reasons why he and Harper should not be honoured.  Join us on November 4th to honour our communities, and to oppose this agenda.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserv.physics.utoronto.ca/pipermail/fdu/attachments/20121004/51c6057f/attachment.html