noon-3pm

Inner City Campus  - 527 Selkirk Ave.

Please join us in celebrating the launch of Racialized Policing: Aboriginal People’s Experiences with the Police, by Elizabeth Comack.

Dr. Comack will deliver a talk as well as a question and answer session.

This event is free to all.

Policing is a controversial subject, generating considerable debate. One issue of concern has been “racial profiling” by police, that is, the alleged practice of targeting individuals and groups on the basis of “race.” Racialized Policing argues that the debate has been limited by its individualized frame. As well, the concen- tration on police relations with people of colour means that Aboriginal people’s encounters with police receive far less scrutiny. Going beyond the interpersonal level and broadening our gaze to explore how race and racism play out in institutional practices and systemic processes, this book exposes the ways in which policing is racialized.

Situating the police in their role as “reproducers of order,” Elizabeth Comack draws on the historical record and contemporary cases of Aboriginal-police relations — the shooting of J.J. Harper by a Winnipeg police officer in 1988, the “Starlight Tours” in Saskatoon, and the shooting of Matthew Dumas by a Winnipeg police officer in 2005 — as well as interviews conducted with Aboriginal people in Winnipeg’s inner-city communities to explore how race and racism inform the routine practices of police officers and define the cultural frames of reference that officers adopt in their encounters with Aboriginal people. In short, having defined Aboriginal people as “troublesome,” police respond with troublesome practices of their own. Arguing that resolution requires a fundamental transformation in the structure and organization of policing, Racialized Policing makes suggestions for re-framing the role of police and the “order” they reproduce.

Contact wpgcopwatch@gmail.com for tickets! Support Winnipeg Copwatch and other Winnipeg social justice groups.

Do you know about the new Refugee Exclusion Act tabled by the Tory government and Minister of Censorship and Deportation Jason Kenney?

It creates a discriminatory two-tier system of refugee protection, mandates incarceration for many refugees, and revokes permanent residency for many who have already been granted refugee status. This is a racist and repressive new bill that we need to resist.

Here are some ways to take action:

1. Raise awareness by sharing information online about the act:

No One Is Illegal Joint Statement:

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/no-one-illegal/2012/03/noii-alert-axe-refugee-exclusion-act

No One Is Illegal-Toronto Axe the Refugee Exclusion Act Video:

Human Rights Watch statement:

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/16/canada-vote-no-migrant-detention-bill

2. Sign & share Amnesty’s appeal to MP’s – an easy way to send a message:

http://www.amnesty.ca/iwriteforjustice/take_action.php?actionid=843

If you would like to send your own message, here are two sample letters:
http://scr.bi/GNtvx2 and http://is.gd/jCeRm6
You can find your MP’s contact info here http://bit.ly/mfMkVq

3. Post on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites about the Refugee Exclusion Act and migrant justice issues. 

4. Stay updated:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nooneisillegalvan/

http://wwww.twitter.com/nooneisillegal

http://www.youtube.com/NoOneIsIllegalVan

http://www.flickr.com/nooneisillegal/

Read her story here: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4077

The show is downloadable here:

http://ia700705.us.archive.org/15/items/PoliceAbolitionAnInterviewWithKristianWilliams/afm-final-straw-08122011.mp3

“We just go on searching,” said Bernice Catcheway, who spent $10,000 to excavate a dump in Grand Rapids in the search for the Portage la Prairie teen after she went missing in June 2008.

“We’re not waiting for the police. They say, ‘Oh, we’re with you, we’re with you.’ We don’t see that, we have no communication,” said Bernice Catcheway.

Their daughter’s case garnered intense media coverage after it happened, with the family organizing searches and gathering tips. Their experience with police had been frustrating, they said, and that frustration continues.

Update 10:57am: Global has a related story today titled Where are Manitoba’s missing women?

An (almost) Fortnightly Fundraiser for Winnipeg Copwatch’s International Conference featuring the following films:

June 1: Serpico
starring Al Pacino
directed by Sidney Lumet

“The true story about an honest New York cop who blew the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

June 15: The Departed
starring Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson
directed by Martin Scorcese

“Two men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy’s identities.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

June 29: Rambo: First Blood
starring Sylvester Stallone

“A mentally unstable Vietnam war vet, when abused with a small town’s police force, begins a one man war with it.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

July 13: Changeling
starring Angelina Jolie
directed by Clint Eastwood

“A grief-stricken mother takes on the LAPD to her own detriment when it stubbornly tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child, while also refusing to give up hope that she will find him one day.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

July 20: Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

IMDb: “A film account about the military 1990 siege of a Native American reserve near Oka, Quebec, Canada and its causes.”

Or: A documentary by Alanis Obomsawin about Mohawk resistance to neo-colonialism in Quebec.

Click here to view the embedded video.

All films will be screened starting at 7pm at:

Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre
91 Albert Street, 3rd Floor

Minimal donations accepted, no one will be turned away.

Bring your appetite because there will be popcorn, candy and drinks for sale.

This building unfortunately does not have an elevator is therefore not accessible for people who have trouble climbing stairs.

Visit our conference website to learn more about the panel, discussions, workshops and films we will be presenting; register for the conference, sign up to ride share and billet/be billeted.

One component of the bill that has gotten little public attention and little debate in parliament is a provision called “lawful access,” that affects Internet policing powers. It will require your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to provide the police with your personal information without any oversight from a court. Up until now they would need to present a judge with a good reason, and get a warrant.

It will also force your ISP to put in place technology to allow real-time surveillance of your activities, and those of their other customers, and give “several new police powers designed to obtain access to the surveillance data.”

Michael Geist’s column in the Toronto Star gives more details about “lawful access”, and discusses the privacy and free speech concerns raised.

UPDATE 25 May: Yesterday, Jesse Brown’s excellent show Search Engine took on the issue of Lawful Access, interviewing the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association’s Micheal Vonn. Have a listen!

He is facing charges including obstruction of a police officer, which could result in up to 6 years in jail. Police in Canada and the US have been eager to arrest or otherwise prevent people from lawfully filming them in recent years. So far, US courts have upheld people’s rights to film police, but it remains to be seen whether this will continue in Kurtz’s case.