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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250522T080000
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SUMMARY:Learn about Ottawa’s radical history on a walking tour
DESCRIPTION:Learn about Ottawa’s radical history on a walking tour \nTake your radicalism outdoors this summer so you and your friends can learn from previous generations of troublemakers on a radical historical walking tour. \nMy name is Brian McDougall. Since 2014\, I’ve given hundreds of radical tours to visitors\, residents\, and local activists. \nWhy do we need to know our history? It’s true that history doesn’t repeat itself\, and it can’t provide us with ready-made formulae to guide us today. But\, knowing the inspiring stories about how others fought for social justice – whether they won or lost – helps to sharpen our ability to think through the strategic and tactical issues we face today. \nPeoples’ History Walking Tours: \n\nBuilding the Rideau Canal and the making of the Ottawa working class\nProtest\, strike\, and rebellion in the history of Canada’s capital\nAn unauthorized history of Parliament Hill: From Indigenous land to headquarters of Canada’s elite\nIndigenous peoples and colonialism in the history of Canada’s capital\nFrom sacred site to industrial wasteland: colonialism and class struggle in the Chaudière District\nMore than taverns and brothels: French Canadian\, Irish\, and Jewish struggles against oppression in Lowertown\nThe rise and fall of federal public service militancy in Ottawa-Gatineau\, 1965-2023\nColonialism and resistance in Canada’s capital: lessons from Indigenous\, Irish\, Black South African\, and Palestinian struggles\nFailure to revolt? Why Winnipeg had a general strike in 1919 while Ottawa’s was aborted\n\nHow good are the tours? In 85 reviews on Trip Advisor\, 79 tour participants rated their experience 5 stars out of 5. You can read their comments here: https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g155004-d7035441-Reviews-Peoples_History_Walking_Tours-Ottawa_Ontario.html \nWhat does a tour involve? Tours are given in English\, last from 3 to 3.5 hours\, and mainly take place in the center of Ottawa\, May to October. \nWho leads the tours? I do. I’m a former university teacher and federal public servant\, land long-time socialist\, trade unionist and social justice activist in Ottawa-Gatineau. I’m currently active with the Palestinian solidarity caucus and the national education committee of my public service union: the Canadian Association of Professional Employees. \nHow much does a tour cost? Tours cost $35 per person and require a minimum of four participants. Groups can be as large as 20\, with those of 10 or more eligible for a discount. \nHow do you book a tour? Organize a group and select a preferred day and time. (Tours are organized on demand.) Then send me an email brian.phwt@gmail.com or book through my website https://ottawahistorytours.com Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions.
URL:https://www.punchupcollective.org/reo-calendar/learn-about-ottawas-radical-history-on-a-walking-tour/
LOCATION:The streets of Ottawa-Gatineau
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250901
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250921
DTSTAMP:20250830T225800Z
CREATED:20250830T225800Z
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SUMMARY:Join the Chain Fast for Palestinian Family Reunification: Canada Must Evacuate Loved Ones from Gaza
DESCRIPTION:From September 1 to September 20\, please pick a day to fast to demand the immediate evacuation from Gaza of all remaining Palestinian applicants for Canadian visas and the finalization of all applications for the hundreds of Palestinian genocide survivors still stranded in Egypt. During your fast day\, we ask you to:\n• Make a selfie with a message (such as Fasting for Palestinian Family Reunification or “Fasting for Urgent Gaza Evacuation”) that you can share with us and on your social media;\n• Write a letter and make a call to your MP and the appropriate government officials (samples below) demanding immediate evacuation of all remaining visa applicants from Gaza;\n• Share on social media the story of one of the families hugely impacted by the negative impacts of this program (we will pair you with a family and provide pictures and text to share). We can also directly connect you with that particular family to stay in touch with them afterwards and continue advocating for their right to be free of the genocide and joined with their loved ones in Canada.\nTo pick a date to fast\, please email a preferred date\, your name and town/city to be shared on our website\, to the Canadian Palestinian Family Reunification Project of the Rural Refugee Rights Network at tasc@web.ca\nBACKGROUND Each day of the chain fast will represent one of the 20 months that Canada’s None is Too Many Gaza temporary residence visa (TRV) program has been in effect\, 20 months of deliberate institutional inaction and lethal obstacle creation\, with hundreds of lives lost waiting on Canadian visas. The final week of the chain fast coincides with the return of MPs to Parliament.\nCanada does have the capacity to evacuate visa applicants from Gaza. But it has only directly assisted in the evacuation of fewer than 2% of the 5\,000 applicants\, and in late July evacuated 11 Canadian citizens through the Kerem Shalom crossing. We engage in this fast to highlight the urgent need to evacuate the remaining 98% of applicants.\nThe punishingly slow pace of visa processing for Gazans – a paltry average of 2 applications completed per day\, with a lethal waiting time for some of over a year – stands in stark contrast to the Canada–Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program. During CUAET’s first year\, Canada welcomed 129\,000 Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion and approved over half a million visas (an average of 1\,400 applications per day)\, usually within a two-week turnaround. Canada waived security screening for those aged up to 17 and over 61\, and dropped a required medical exam despite the Ukrainian population’s much higher risk of carrying tuberculosis\, which Ottawa conceded “posed potential health risks to Canada.”\nSimilarly\, Canada welcomed over 8\,000 Israeli visa holders during 2024. Palestinian Canadians and refugee advocates point to such figures as clear proof of a painful\, discriminatory double standard that fails to adequately respond to what Canadian officials acknowledge are “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza.\nThe Gaza TRV program eerily echoes one of the most shameful periods of Canadian history\, the None is Too Many policies designed to keep Jews fleeing genocide out of Canada during the 1930s and 1940s. Almost 79 years after Canada turned away a boat packed with Jewish refugees (the St. Louis)\, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an apology\, noting 254 St. Louis passengers were murdered upon their forced return to Europe\, and declaring: “By issuing this apology\, it is my sincere hope that we can shine a light on this painful chapter of our history and ensure that its lessons are never forgotten.”\nSadly\, different lessons were learned by different people. For those in the government who historically and to this day wrongfully treat certain groups of people with suspicion\, the lesson is that they can get away with racist exclusion as long as there is no public outrage. Hence\, we have seen Public Safety Canada agencies like CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency) and CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) treat every last Palestinian from Gaza as a potential risk instead of viewing them through the humanitarian lens of families escaping the worst horrors imaginable. That is why actions like the Chain Fast are so important: another reminder of the many people across this land who stand in solidarity with and recognize the humanity of these Palestinian families.\nSee available dates and sample letters/call template at https://rrrncanada.blogspot.com/…/chain-fast-for…
URL:https://www.punchupcollective.org/reo-calendar/join-the-chain-fast-for-palestinian-family-reunification-canada-must-evacuate-loved-ones-from-gaza/
LOCATION:Ontario
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250903T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250903T130000
DTSTAMP:20250830T224123Z
CREATED:20250830T224123Z
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SUMMARY:See Their Faces\, Hear Their Names: Urgently Evacuate Canadian Palestinians' Loved Ones from Gaza
DESCRIPTION:Please join our weekly vigil to reunite Palestinian Canadians with their loved ones from Gaza on Wednesday\, September 3 from 11 am to 1 pm (we meet every Wednesday at this same time) at 300 Slater (at Kent)\, the Ottawa offices of Immigration\, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. \nCanada must immediately open an emergency humanitarian corridor to urgently evacuate all program applicants to prevent further death and physical and psychological harm to those who\, by all rights\, should have been in Canada with their families long ago. \nAs the apartheid regime threatens a complete takeover of Gaza\, it is more important than ever that our voices are heard. \nEvery week\, we bring family images and stories to the headquarters of a bureaucracy that fails to respect the life and death consequences of its failures in the Gaza Temporary Visa program. \nSince the Gaza Temporary Visa program was implemented in January 2024\, Canada has assisted in the evacuation of fewer than 2% of program applicants\, an astounding number considering the daily risk of being blown to bits or suffering the slow death of starvation. \nDuring the final weekend in July\, Canada reportedly evacuated 11 Canadian citizens from Gaza. This contradicts their stated position that they are powerless to get families across the border. \nRight now\, Canada is insisting no one can leave without biometrics (fingerprints and photographs). This violates Canada’s own very specific program guidelines: “Given the situation we understand that you won’t be able to give your biometrics or complete a full admissibility check until you’ve left Gaza. If your application passes a preliminary eligibility and admissibility assessment we’ll forward your name to the local authorities to facilitate your exit from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.” \nCanada already has photographs because all applicants sent copies of their passports. In addition\, since Israeli apartheid occupation authorities have a registry of all Palestinians in Gaza\, they would be the first to say no to the exit of anyone they felt posed some theoretical threat. But Canada is not even willing to take the word of its Israeli allies on this matter. \nInstead\, it is assuming\, based on anti-Palestinian racism\, that all Palestinians are a threat until they prove otherwise. That includes starving children\, grandmothers\, school teachers\, health care workers\, farmers\, gravely injured and ill program applicants. \nThe Canadian government’s assumption of guilt mirrors (indeed\, goes far beyond) the Obama assassination-by-drone policy which\, as reported in 2012\, “in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants … unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.” \nCanada can shed as many tears as it likes over the losses of hundreds of program applicants who would be here safe with their families were it not for wrongfully treating every Palestinian as a supposed threat. But that is no consolation for those traumatized for life by these immeasurable losses. It must take action. \nThe only Palestinians who have made it to Canada (861 as of July 1\, 2025) made it out on their own by exhausting life savings to pay border bribes to escape before the closure and demolition of Rafah. In the same 540-day period under the Ukraine program\, over 650\,000 visas had been approved and 186\,454 arrived in Canada. In the first year of the program\, over 8\,000 Israelis were granted visas to come to Canada.\nClearly\, Canada has the capacity to process applications in the same time period it did for Ukrainians (average 14-day turnaround)\, and it also has the ability to facilitate evacuations.\nThe fact that it has not done so is not a matter of organizational ability or staff resources. Rather it is rooted in systemic anti-Palestinian racism\, and the ludicrous racial profiling presumption of guilt that every Palestinian in Gaza is a risk until proven otherwise. \nIn the meantime\, far too many loved ones have been killed waiting for Canada\, a shameful reflection of another bleak period in our history when Jews fleeing a genocide were turned away under a None is Too Many policy. \nPlease join us for this peaceful vigil every Wednesday organized by Ottawa Palestinians with loved ones in Gaza and the\nCanadian Palestinian Family Reunification Project of the Rural Refugee Rights Network. tasc@web.ca
URL:https://www.punchupcollective.org/reo-calendar/see-their-faces-hear-their-names-urgently-evacuate-canadian-palestinians-loved-ones-from-gaza/
LOCATION:300 Slater Street.
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.punchupcollective.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Gaza-Family-BANNER-1.png
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250903T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250903T210000
DTSTAMP:20250830T230936Z
CREATED:20250830T230936Z
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UID:10466-1756926000-1756933200@www.punchupcollective.org
SUMMARY:one-night screening of A State of Passion
DESCRIPTION:oin us on Wednesday\, September 3rd\, at 6:30pm for a one-night screening of A State of Passion in collaboration with Forward Film Production\, Labour for Palestine Ottawa and Ottawa Healthcare Professionals for Palestine (OHCP4P). The film will be followed by a live Q&A with filmmaker Carol Mansour and Dr. Yipeng Ge!\n\nAfter 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s hospitals\, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon\, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah\, emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance. This was Ghassan’s sixth and most horrific Gaza “war”. Why does he do it? The answer lies simply in their shared passion: Palestine. \nFilmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi\, close friends of the Abu Sittahs\, waited anxiously for Ghassan to emerge from Gaza\, following a long and terrifying journey through the night\, to meet him in Amman. Determined to capture his raw emotions they began filming him the moment he arrived through the door. Following him to Beirut\, Amman\, London\, and Kuwait\, they and he explore their common State of Passion.\n \n\nDate: Wednesday\, September 3rd\nTime: Doors open 6:30PM\nLocation: First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa (30 Cleary Ave)\nPrice: $5 minimum donation (link below)\n \nTickets can be purchased here:\n\nhttps://www.simpletix.com/e/ottawa-movie-screening-a-state-of-passion-tickets-234057\n\n \nAll profits will be donated to The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund.
URL:https://www.punchupcollective.org/reo-calendar/one-night-screening-of-a-state-of-passion/
LOCATION:First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa\, 30 Cleary Ave\, Ottawa
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