Western’s Progressive Political News Source Since 2004 Vol. 6 Issue 2 October 2009

by Lindsay stevenson

For over a year now, I have been a resident of London’s Old East Village, a neigh-bourhood which is, by far, vastly separated from the Western student commu-nity in many ways. East of Adelaide, or ‘EOA’ as it is more commonly referred to, is largely stigmatized as London’s most prominent ‘ghetto’: identified primarily by its poverty, homeless-ness and levels of crime and prostitution compared to what many view as the more conservative, quaint city of London .

The Old East area was at one time the industry part of the city, dominated by factories which provided work for many people of the community. However, over the decades, most of these places of work have been closed down and converted

London Homeless Need Solutionsmany times over, disrupt-ing any sense of reliable income for many work-ing class individuals and families. This history plays a large part in contribut-ing to the identity of the Old East Village that many Londoners see today: run-down or vacant build-ings and homes, sketchy shop fronts which change management on a regular basis, and popular hang out areas during the days and nights for residents.

The lack of affordable and safe housing in the area is one issue that has been addressed by such initia-tives as The Unity Project, an organisation which assists many homeless men, women and couples with a place to stay, food, laundry facilities and so on. There also exists the Old

The Poverty and

Homelessness Issue

Inside:

Vain Face Forward, pg 2

Making Time for Change, pg 3

Unity Project, pg 4

“Couplings not Cufflinks” by Adam Szymanski, pg 5

Mathyssen Aids Food Bank, pg 6

Students Hit Hard by Recession, pg 6

End Poverty, pg 7

Gazans in Need, pg 9

UWO Should Divest, pg 10

Progressive Drug Policy, pg 11

Call for Submissions, pg 13

Event Listing, pg 14

East Village Business Im-provement Area (OEVBIA), which strives to, “beautify, improve, and promote the Old East Village shopping district on Dundas Street between Adelaide Street and Elizabeth Street.” Also, independent groups like the East Village Arts Co-Op, which has recently moved into 757 Dundas Street, provide space for local art-ists, musicians and social activists to make and share their work.

As imperative as these organisations are to restor-ing and preserving busi-ness, industry and the rich culture of the Old East area, they alone are not enough to address the root problems of the levels of poverty and homelessness that currently exist. Poverty See London, pg 8

2 LEFT October 2009

Opinion Vain Face Forwardby nikita de Gannes

I was listening to CBC radio one, and heard that the 2010 games were coming to Vancouver. Yay...the winter Olympics, whoo hoo. Call me unpatriotic, I don’t care, but I’m not exactly a fan of winter sports...or of winter in general. What caught my interest was the proposed “Assisting to Shelters” bill, which essentially states that the homeless can be forced, by police, to seek refuge in homeless shelters when the weather becomes too harsh. Ok, that sounds like a good deal right? However, it seems as though the intentions of this bill are a bit dishonest. The issue on the radio program was, why couldn’t this bill be passed months, or even years ago? Is it a coincidence that

it is being passed before Vancouver attracts international tourists and possibly international acclaim? It just seems that the city doesn’t want to be known for its homeless problem; that it’d rather deceive the world into thinking that everything is peachy keen in Vancouver. Does this possibly deceitful act strike a chord with you? Should the motive really matter here, or should we be concerned with the outcome? Why couldn’t this problem have been solved 10 years ago, or 20 years ago? Why must vanity be the motivator? Well, to some of you, vanity is never the motivator. To you, people always act out of the good will of their hearts, and their motivations are always pure. All of this is great and all, but seriously, wake up and smell the asphalt. Come join the rest of us in the real world honey, where you’d

never wear white after labour day. Welcome to the real world, where you would never be caught dead wearing white socks with black shoes, Micheal Jackson-style. Vanity IS a motivator, and it’s motivating Vancouver to keep the homeless off the streets. They just want to put their best foot, or maybe even face, forward...even if that face is covered with layers upon layers of make-up. In these economic times, they are lucky to be attracting international attention. So, you know what, I’m sorry that the homeless couldn’t be helped on a more honest principle (I really am!). At least something is (or potentially) will be done. If I was freezing on the streets and I was forced to hit a shelter, I might be quite happy to comply. Lock me up, I don’t care, at least I’m surviving the night. I’ll deal with your morality in the morning.

by Chris Eaton, Wrong Way Comics

www.wrongwaycomics.com

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3 LEFT October 2009

by MeGhan adaMs

A lot has changed for me since mov-ing from London to Toronto. I can see Casa Loma from my front door and I’ve come to recognize the scent of the sewer emanating from the TTC station nearest my abode as the smell of home. One of the bigger changes is having the human cost of poverty more often literally looking me in the face than it did in London.

That isn’t to say that poverty isn’t a London prob-lem. Poverty is everyone’s problem, but the upside of that is that everyone, including you lucky London readers, can contribute at the level and through the method of your choos-ing.

I will admit that, like a lot of Canadians, my response to a sign reading “Homeless and Hungry” is to keep walking. Like a lot of Canadi-ans, I keep walking not out of some misguided sense that I can’t make a difference, but because I’m not entirely sure what the right response actually is. If you’re similarly per-plexed, give these a try:

1)Volunteer at your local food bank or organize a non-perishable food item drive through an organization of which you’re already a part. Food banks need supplies and volunteers all year round, not just during the holidays.

2)Don’t feel like gathering cans? Use your passions and talents to raise awareness and funds for local groups in London such as the London Food Bank (http://www.londonfoodbank.net) or Habitat for Humanity London (http://www.habitat.london.on.ca). Or-ganize a charity coffee house, poetry slam, or barbecue in conjunction with

a local group.

3)Educate yourself with regards to local and global poverty issues. From http://www.undp.org/poverty/ (The UN Development Programme’s Poverty Information website) to http://www.unitedway.ca (The United Way’s Ca-nadian website), there’s a lot to read.

4)If you’re a Western student, remind your USC of their commitment to

reflecting student concerns, including poverty. Find out who your Senators are, if you don’t already know, and email them. Contact your VP Campus Issues. Make sure that your USC makes poverty a priority. Agitate!

5)Reach out to other activists by organizing and advertising meetings or discussions. Talk about the link be-tween poverty, gender and race or the relationship between poverty and the environment. You might be surprised by the turnout you get from a poster and/or facebook event that says “Let’s Talk about Poverty. [Date, time, loca-tion]. Free cookies for activists.”

6)Writing a letter to your MP and MPP. Grab your laptop, pen or type-writer and write a letter to the official you may or may not have voted for. Tell them that poverty sucks and that

Making Time for Change: A Pocket Guideyou expect them to represent this issue to their level of government. De-mand affordable housing, employment insurance reforms and assistance for impoverished Canadians. Extra credit: Make it a form letter and get others to sign. Have a letter-writing party, even.

7)Use your Google (or search engine of choice). Check out international campaigns like http://www.makepover-tyhistory.ca/. Getting involved with

national and international campaigns can be a great way to make “Think Globally, Act Locally” a real-ity, rather than a cool soundbyte.

8)…Ever heard of radical cheer-leading? Make pom-poms out of strips of garbage bags, figure out what rhymes with ‘poverty,’ clap to keep the beat and cheer/protest in public spaces. Sample Cheer (imag-ine the hand-claps with me here): “Housing Needs to Be /

Affordable for Me” or “We will not be swayed / We need better foreign aid / no need to sweat, just cancel debt / it’s us who’re getting paid”

9)Celebrate October 17th, the Inter-national Day for the Eradication of Poverty pretty much any way that you can while raising awareness and encouraging discussion. Change your Facebook status, even. Let’s face it – would you rather tell 574 of your closest friends that you’re hungry for muffins or agitating for change?

Photo by Jay Black

4 LEFT October 2009

by syLvia LanGer

The recent and quick developing financial crisis has brought increased concern about poverty and its broad impact. Social services like the one I work for, the Unity Project for Relief of Homeless-ness in London, a transitional housing facility and service, are increasingly asked to comment on future scenarios. I think it safe to say that it will be bleak, that is, bleaker than the same crisis we have been carp-ing about for a long time now.

The Unity Project is a relatively small, secular and home-like shelter built on mutual respect, cooperation, interdependence and compassion where residents take responsibility for themselves, each other, and the functioning of the shelter. The 50 – 70 men and women who utilize the service daily have 24-hour access, everyday, to a diverse and caring staff who work with each individual to develop, monitor and advance a personal action plan for stability and independence. Cooking and cleaning together, residents enjoy the safety and security of community, absorb the strength of community and practice important and creative life-skills to keep themselves and each other alive and well.

Homeless people are just people without a house. They are people like you, your brother, your sister, your

Economic Crisis Increases Need for Unity Projectmom, your dad, your niece, nephew, uncle and aunt. Sure there are some outstanding features or correla-tions between homelessness and addiction, mental health, disability, dramatization, and/or criminality (to

name a few), but the singular com-mon factor among homeless people is poverty, i.e. the gap between the resources you have and the unavoid-able costs of living at some healthy standard. The majority of people who are addicted, mentally ill, disabled, traumatized and criminal are actually housed. They have the resources, and however they come by them, are able to pay the costs of living. This is more likely to describe your brother, your sister, your mom, your dad, your niece, nephew, uncle, or aunt. For many, trauma, addiction, decline of mental health and criminality develop following homelessness.

The economic crisis we are in is not a recent development. It is a stage, hopefully reversible, resulting from the same set of principles, val-ues and policies that created and ne-glected the past and present stage of this crisis. In London, there is around 400 people a day sleeping in shel-

ters, more on the streets and couch surfing. More still are living a cock-roach’s life in some wretched hovel or doing without many of life’s necessi-ties to pay for their housing. They’ve been Now there is widespread fear

of massively increased levels of poverty and the numbers of those living (and dying) in it. We go pale con-templating that each of us really could be among the victims, just as we have so often contem-plated how lucky we are not to be. If more plants close and markets

continue to fall, we expect more job loss and recession. Massive job loss would likely bring an influx of people to London and its already full, mostly over-crowded shelters.

Dire predictions, following that line of thinking, anticipate that all levels of government, faced with deficits and declining tax bases, will cut spending, with grants to agencies likely going first. Foundations and individuals, facing 30% plus hits to their equity portfolios are forced to cut back on charitable giving. This is already hap-pening. Corporations facing layoffs, decreasing profitability and in many cases fighting for survival are in the same boat. The trickle down is drying up and charities and non-profits in all sectors are doing more with less.

The solutions are the same now as ever. For one, much would be improved were Unity Project values of mutual respect, cooperation, interde-

5 LEFT October 2009

The solutions are the same now as ever. For one, much would be improved were Unity Project values of mutual respect, cooperation, interdependence and compassion adopted deeply in society and exercised by government in its policies and operations. The Unity Project certainly senses this to be more the case in London municipality in re-cent years where strategies and initia-tives around poverty and homelessness are fairly well developed, but threat-ened in thedire prediction scenario. Sorely lacking is a national strategy for more abundant. safe, supported and affordable housing. This is still a priority, ever more urgent as those jobs build-ing and repairing the housing would come in handy right now.

There are some interesting devel-opments in this crisis. A coalition of business, charitable foundations and front-line agencies has recently formed calling for the federal government to create a Recession Relief Fund which would support Canada’s most vulner-able populations. Its demands include preventing spending cuts to public and private not-for-profits serving vulnerable people, increasing funding for settle-ment and shelter services, and imple-menting a fully funded National Housing Program with budgeted investment in social infrastructure. You can see more and sign on at http://socialplanningto-ronto.org/recession_relief_fund.html.

The Unity Project, which got its start as a tent-city in a downtown park, will continue to provide residents with qual-ity shelter and support services until we don’t have to anymore. We offer a safe home with good values for those who have no place to call their own. We hope for and encourage your sup-port. While financial support is always welcome, socks, bedding and toiletries bring comfort, too.

Sylvia Langer is in charge of Fund-raising and Communications for the Unity Project for Relief of Homeless-ness in London.

Visit http://unityproject.ca/ for more information.

Buy a car, a watch: spend your money,

Drive past the poor, you don’t have time to see

Eat your meat and leave the bones,

For the people of the streets who have no home

If you don’t have any change to spare,

Care enough to change the state of affairs

And you thought bed bugs were bad,

Some people wish that’s all they had.

“Couplings not Cufflinks” By Adam Szymanski

The Western New Democrats

meet every other Tuesday in SSC 4103 at 5:45pm.

Visit our website for more information:

westernnewdemocrats.ca

6 LEFT October 2009

A Western neW DemocrAt PublicAtion

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Our e-mail:left.publication@gmail.com

staff:Caroline Diezyn

editor in chief

Mark FilipowichAssistant editor

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copy editors

Graeme BrightonPublication manager

Ashton Forresteditor in chief emeritus

contributing Authors:Adam Szymanski

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Robin WingCFS

Irene Mathyssen

contributing Photographers:Ashley Annis

Check our website for details on submitting articles, opinions,

creative writing, photos, and art.

November’s submissions are due October 26th. The theme is

Women’s Triumphs and Tragedies

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FroM irene Mathyssen

With thousands of constituents strug-gling to make ends meeting during the recession, NDP MP Irene Mathys-sen is partnering with LUSO Com-munity Services during the month of October to collect donations for the London foodbank. The foodbank drive is Mathyssen’s contribution to LUSO’s 1000 Acts of Kindness initiative launched today.

The Anti-Hate and Anti-Bias program at the multicultural non-profit LUSO, is challenging local schools, businesses, and faith communities, and govern-ment leaders to eliminate hate and bias by promoting kindness as a posi-tive alternative and have launched a website at www.1000acts.ca to help promote the initiative.

“We are challenging the community to collectively complete 1000 random acts of kindness during the month of October,” says LUSO’s Anti-Hate, An-ti-Bias Coordinator Meredith Fraser. “A random act of kindess is simply a

kind thing one does for someone else without being asked. Things such as buying a stranger a cup of coffee, or sending a note of appreciation to a teacher or co-worker, these gestures make our community a better place.”

“A random act of kindness can be big or small, the important thing is that it sends a message that we value our fellow citizens for who they are,” says Mathyssen. “I am asking all those London-Fanshawe constituents who are able, to drop a donation to the foodbank off at my London office. With so many in need right now, it is important that those of us who are in a position to do so, help those less fortunate than ourselves.”

Donations of non-perishable food items can be dropped off at Mathys-sen’s London office, 1700 Dundas St. (just west of the Gibraltar Weekend Market) during regular business hours throughout the month of October.

Visit irenemathyssen.ndp.ca for more information.

Mathyssen Aids Food Bank

Students Hit Hard by RecessionFroM Canadian Federation oF students

According to a Statistics Canada report released earlier today students aged 15-24 faced the second high-est summer unemployment rate on record at 19.2%, furthering concerns that many students will not have enough money to make it through the year. Student unemployment reached a record high for the month of August at 16.4%.

“While politicians focus on making gains for themselves in a potential fall election, students are wondering how they will make ends meet this year,” said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “With summer unemployment at a record high and the vast majority of students facing

tuition fee increases this fall, students are being left out in the cold.”

Students continue to be hit hard by the recession. A recent Ipsos Reid poll found that over half of college and university students are concerned they will run out of money by the end of the year. Many students who were unable to find work this summer will be forced to borrow more, adding to already record high student debt.

“Post-secondary education and train-ing is an essential part of ongoing economic recovery,” added Giroux-Bougard. “Students are calling on all political parties to commit to reducing tuition fees and increasing funding for student financial aid.”

Visit www.cfs-fcee.ca for more infor-mation.

7 LEFT October 2009

“It is unacceptable that someone can work full time – and work hard – and not be able to lift

their family out of poverty. The women and men of Ontario have worked

hard and played by the rules all their lives. All they expect in return is a

fair wage for a hard day’s work.” -Cheri DiNovo,

MPP for Parkdale-High Park.

by robin WinG

In 2007 when the McGuinty Liber-als were re-elected they campaigned on and presented a Poverty Reduc-tion Strategy which won them praise in progressive circles and amongst some anti-poverty activists. In this strategy, the Liberals laid out their vision: 25% reduction in child poverty over 5 years. While this goal is laud-able and worth attaining, one must ask the questions: Is this the best way forward? Why focus only on child poverty? And why stop there?

I read the Liberal Party website dedi-cated to their poverty reduction plan (www.growingstronger.ca) and was surprised to note that the legislation they propose doesn’t actually commit the provincial government to spend-ing any money or taking any action beyond consultation. In fact Bill 152 An Act Respecting a Long Term Strat-egy to Reduce Poverty in Ontario only binds the government to four points:

•Require successive governments to report annually on key indicators of opportunity – these will typically in-clude income levels, school success, health care and housing.

•Mandate future governments to con-sult widely before developing future strategies, including consultation with those living in poverty.

•Require Ontario to develop a new strategy at least every five years.

•Require future governments to set a specific poverty reduction target every five years.

The entirety of the Liberal strategy, as laid out in their Breaking the Cycle plan for reducing child poverty, is to petition the federal government to raise the Working Income Tax Benefit to $2000/year/family and the National Child Benefit Supplement to $1200/child. Unfortunately, to date Harper has yet to gleefully throw open Ottawa’s coffers in order to make McGuinty’s poverty reduction plan work- well shucks!

Child poverty rends the soul and is a blight on our province. We can all agree that child poverty is something that must be done away with as soon as possible. But why focus only on

Stop Reducing Poverty: End it!children? It’s not as if we can’t fo-cus on eliminating child poverty and poverty amongst adults at the same time! Poverty affects all ages of people and all types of people and a truly progressive poverty reduction strategy must work for all Ontar-ians in need. If successful (doubtful given that Harper philosophically opposed to increased social spend-ing), the current Liberal proposal would award $3200/family/year for the first child they have and $1200/each additional child before taxes. I would ask why the government is perusing this option when it could address poverty at a much more fundamental level - the minimum wage.

Currently, a person working 5 days per week, 8 hours per day, at a mini-mum wage of $9.50/hour will earn, before taxes, $19,760. However, if we instituted a fair Living Wage of $12/hour as a standard below which no worker could fall, a per-son working the same hours would earn $24,960, instantly raising that individual and her or his dependent above the poverty line for a mid-size

city. I would argue that this strategy would help more people and reward hard work and make a real differ-ence to Ontario’s hard hit families.

Poverty reduction is much more than catchy “25 by 5” slogans and committing to hold meetings in order to review strategic plans. It’s about ending cycles of poverty in the working class, closing the prosperity gap between elites and the aver-age worker, and leveling the playing field for Ontario‘s working poor. The reason that the McGuinty govern-ment fails to succeed in it’s poverty reduction attempts is because it fails to realize that collective action is the only way to eliminate poverty. Government must step up to the plate and provide real leadership by investing in the solutions to social issues such as social housing, stu-dent debt, homelessness, domestic violence, addictions, consumer protection, and a fair living wage.

8 LEFT October 2009

is a gendered, raced and ability-centred concept; it does not affect all groups of people equally, and so resi-dents who have emigrated, have single parent families, deal with addictions, mental illness and disAbilities are particularly vulnerable. This is a multi-faceted problem, which requires a plan that addresses all issues: eco-nomical and social. Projects focused on aiding these specific areas do exist: the London Intercommu-nity Health Centre provides health care specifically for the homeless who deal with health concerns stemming from their less than ad-equate living situations; the upcoming presence of My Sister’s Place on Dundas Street which helps to house women in transition who

are survivors of domes-tic violence; St. Joseph’s Hospitality Centre and the United Way Coffee House, which both provide safe meeting places for clients in need. This list does not really even begin to cover the various groups who are dedicated to the betterment of others. Sadly, their work is still not enough to really start tackling the bigger picture.

The city of London seems to believe that investing nominal amounts of money into the aesthetic design of the Old East community is enough to traverse the oppression of its citizens. This is not to say that our city is alone. It is necessary for our municipalities to have provincial and national

examples of systematic approaches to dealing with such issues as these. We have yet to see the imple-mentation of a national daycare program to lessen the financial burden on single parent families, a disAbility support program that is actually accessible and adequate for those of us who face physical and mental challenges, and social education initiatives to combat various issues of discrimination that our multi-cultured population may face. While individual organizations are able to make some headway within their own communities, it’s impossible to eradicate poverty and homeless-ness in a country as rich as Canada without the full compliance of our govern-

ments, who have the power to organize our various resources: monetary and non-monetary. I personally think I have yet to see any of our politicians and people in power take the leadership role in beginning to address these problems, as a large part of the solution is their responsibility as our elected officials. Band-aid solutions to such needless and life-threatening issues as pov-erty and homelessness are insufficient, and to say the least, insulting to the people who are affected, whose identities and dignity are of-ten lost in what many of us, more economically fortunate residents, consider day-to-day goings on.

It’s time to wake up and smell the city. The problem cannot remain invisible.

London, con’t from pg 1

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9 LEFT October 2009

Gazans in Dire Need of Human Necessitiesby ashLey annis

The twenty-two day Israeli attack on Gaza, which that took place from December 27th 2008 to January 18th 2009, received widespread media coverage worldwide. It’s aftermath, however, has been essentially ignored ever since. Although the ramifications of the assault still have an abhorrent impact on the daily lives of Gazans, the world is seemingly oblivious to their suffering.

In May and June of this year I, along with two other UWO students, was fortunate enough to travel to Gaza with Codepink, a US-based feminist peace group. Our goal was to bring much needed medical supplies to the area; more importantly, we aimed to document what we saw and to share the realities of Gaza to others at home, so that they may truly under-stand what is still occurring to these oppressed people.

The Gaza Strip is a 360 kilometer squared area of land that has been occupied by Israel since 1967. It, along with the West Bank, is what remains of modern day Palestine. The

living, Gazans on average earn one thirtieth of the income compared to their Israeli counterparts.

Six months after the attack, one would assume that Gaza has made some progress in rebuilding and improv-ing their daily living conditions in the absence of physical violence. Yet vio-lence clearly remains in a structural form – Gaza is under siege by Israel, meaning that it is completely reliant on Israel for all of its goods. Currently Israel allows only 40 products into the Strip, which mostly are basic staples of a humanitarian nature. The result is that 70 percent of the products in Gaza are smuggled through approxi-mately 700 of its infamous tunnels. Unfortunately, cement is not a product that Israel allows, nor can it be trans-ported through the tunnels. Therefore Gaza is completely unable to rebuild its destroyed hospitals, schools and homes. If one had visited the area in January, it would have looked the same as it did in June because of the lack of products allowed into the area. The homeless are still living in tents, the parliament (located in the in the

assault in December / January re-sulted in approximately 1400 Pales-tinian and 13 Israeli deaths, with an estimated 50 percent the Palestinian deaths being civilians.

While the number of deaths are ap-palling, what’s worse are the condi-tions that have resulted. Schools,

hospitals, factories, farms and Ga-za’s only port were destroyed – ac-cording to Israel it was because the Hamas fighters (the ruling political party in Gaza) were hiding in these buildings. It became apparent to us that this was the systemic targeting of any infrastructure that would allow Gaza to have any sort of functioning economy. According to the United Nations, the current unemployment rate in Gaza stands at approximate-ly 50 percent. Although Gazans and Israelis experience the same cost of

“the homeless are still

living in tents...”

A bombed UN school. Photo by Ashley Annis.

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10 LEFT October 2009

by Jason noviCk, Co-vP Me-dia, stand

The UN has identified the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. To date, 400 000 civilians have been killed and over 2.5 million people have been displaced. The com-mencement of this genocide can be traced to events that occurred in 2003. After decades of oppression, the Sudanese Liberation Army in Darfur rose up against the Suda-nese government. The government and its allied militia, known as the Janjaweed, answered this rebel-lion with the large-scale massacre of non-Arab, indigenous civilians, which have included rape on a mass scale and the destruction of thousands of villages. STAND (Students Taking Action Now, Darfur) was originally formed in the United States after it became apparent that genocide was oc-curring in Darfur. The Canadian version of STAND was established in February 2005 at UWO, by a group of students who had taken a genocide awareness class and who aimed to terminate the geno-cide in Darfur. Since then, STAND chapters have been launched in universities and high schools across Canada. STAND has launched numerous initiatives in order to bring the genocide in Darfur to an end. One major component of these initiatives is the divest-ment of Canadian universities from companies that are currently doing business with the Sudanese govern-ment. Divestment task forces have proclaimed that those companies doing business with the Sudanese government have directly contrib-uted to the Sudanese government’s funding of the Janjaweed, who have committed atrocities against the indigenous civilians of Sudan. STAND has identified oil companies as the primary companies doing business with the Sudanese govern-ment. It has been estimated that the Sudanese government has used about 70% of their oil revenues on military spending. STAND is asking universities to divest from companies that are on the “worst of-fenders” list. According to the Sudan Divestment Task Force, to be on the

“worst offenders” list, a company must: contribute to government revenue or a government spon-sored project; impart minimal benefit to the Sudanese people; and have demonstrated no cor-porate governance policy regard-ing the genocide in Darfur. This implies that STAND isn’t targeting companies that help out the civil-ian population of Darfur, such as those companies involved with agriculture, and those companies that promote health and educa-tion. Additionally, the Sudan Divestment Task Force claims that Sudan’s government relies heavily on foreign direct invest-ment, so a targeted divestment program that encourages compa-nies to withdraw from Sudan will increase international pressure on the government to end the attacks, in addition to taking away the money that they use to fund their military and the Janjaweed. The UWO chapter of STAND is asking our administration to adopt a policy of not investing in any company listed as a “worst offender”. Currently (in October 2009), UWO is not invested in any company listed as a “worst offend-er”; however, UWO was invested in “worst offender” companies as recently as during the 2006 – 2007 academic year. Since we have no policy with respect to not investing in any company listed as a “worst offender”, UWO could be invested in such companies again in the future. Following a pro-divestment protest in January 2008, STAND’s divestment team at UWO met with the Senate, and the Senate recommended that the Board of Governors pass a reso-lution in order for UWO to commit to not invest in “worst offender” companies again. Unfortunately, the Board of Governors declined to pass such a resolution in June 2008. The divestment team at UWO is currently assessing which actions to take in order to make sure that UWO adopts a policy against investment in “worst of-fender” companies. The importance of divestment can be observed in South Africa, when di-vestment from companies funding South Africa’s apartheid govern-

Why UWO Should Divestmiddle of the city centre) is still in rubble, and the hospital in downtown Gaza City is still unusable. Humanitarian agencies, such as the United Nations Development Program, are stuck at very basic levels of aid because even they are not allowed to obtain the supplies needed to assist the Palestinians affected by the attack.

Despite the fact that Gazans are in dire need of more food, water, and shelter supplies, what they are most in need of is a voice. The world continually turns its attention away from this area, deeming in a longstanding and irresolvable conflict. Palestinians require assistance from us if anything on the international stage is to ever change. Thus far, any United Nations resolutions that seek to sanction Israel for its objectionable actions have been consistently vetoed by the United States or have not been implemented when passed. There essentially exists no international power that is currently willing to step up and make Israel adhere to international law. While Obama seems to be inching towards further peace talks, Palestinians need Canadians and other nationalities to stand up and oppose the siege on Gaza, so that its people may roam freely and obtain their basic needs. It is imperative that we contact our Members of Parlia-ment and make it clear that we support the Palestinian cause which encompasses ba-sic human rights. With increasing interna-tional pressure, we are hopeful that United States and Israeli policies will change to recognize Palestine and its people, and al-low them the freedom that Canadians take for granted. We must make our voices heard, for the voiceless cannot.

11 LEFT October 2009

ment helped lead to its downfall in 1990. STAND’s rationale for divestment proclaims that divest-ment would have little, if any, effect on the financial wellbeing of UWO’s investments, while also weakening the oppressive Sudanese government’s military operations. According to the Sudan Divestment Task Force, in the United States, 57 universi-ties and 22 states have a divest-ment policy. A major success in Canada was witnessed when Queen’s University adopted a divestment policy in 2006. The STAND executive is current-ly formulating the appropriate methods to take to ensure that divestment occurs this academic year at UWO. One possible method we’re considering is initi-ating a referendum on the issue of divestment during the Uni-versity Student Council (USC) elections in February 2010, asking students whether UWO should adopt a policy of divest-ment. Check out the following websites for more information: “http://www.sudandivestment.org” www.sudandivestment.org “http://www.darfurdivestment.org” www.darfurdivestment.org

by Josh daWson

With the looming extradition of Marc Em-ery to a United States federal prison and with Bill C-15 being hotly contested be-fore the Senate, September was certainly not short of any debate concerning drug law reform: specifically, the legalization of marijuana.

Marc Emery was taken into custody on September 28th; Once once our Minister of Justice signs a surrender order to allow the extradition to proceed, Mark will be transferred to a Seattle courtroom. It is expected that Emery will be sentenced to 5 years in a U.S. federal prison for sending seeds through the mail to his American customers. Although Emery has never ventured south of the border, I am sure the Washington residents will not mind having their taxes spent on his incarceration, and will sleep better at night knowing that a non-violent libertar-ian activist from Canada is behind prison bars.

The more I contemplate the purpose of these prohibition laws and how they ben-efit society, the more mystified I become at our relentless fight against cannabis.

Research has continuously shown that marijuana is not physically addictive and it is impossible to overdose on marijuana. Nevertheless, millions of tax dollars are

being squandered on drug and law enforcement pol-icies to suppress cannabis; The funding is also used to incarcer-ate those who use or grow this harmless plant. There are thou-sands of non-violent pot users in prison across Canada, and it costs about $75000 annu-ally to house one prisoner. The prohibition of marijuana is ex-pensive and our

hard-earned tax dollars could be better spent on anything else.

While the majority of Canadians sup-port the legalization of marijuana, our Conservative government has care-lessly pushed through drug legislation that would increase the penalties for marijuana offenses.

Bill C-15 seeks to implement manda-tory minimums where anyone caught growing a single plant would be handed an automatic 6 months – 1 year prison sentence. This is a reck-less amendment to our drug policy because it takes away the judge’s power to provide sentences at his or her own discretion. If this bill is put into effect, it will only result in our jails becoming more crowded with people who should not be in jail. Many young people who are not involved in gang activity will get caught for a minor drug offense and will be thrown in prisons that are run by gangs. This bill does nothing to target the high-level traf-fickers because they would already get 1-2 years for any kind of trafficking activity. It will almost exclusively affect young people who get caught experi-menting and they will be devastated to learn they have been slapped with a 6 month – 1 year prison sentence.

We need only to look south of the border to see that mandatory mini-mums are a failed drug policy. The United States enacted mandatory minimums in the 1980s but have had no particular reduction in violent crime. The whole ‘War on Drugs’ has been an expensive and utter failure and the U.S. continues to pursue it with an ig-norant fanaticism. They now have the highest incarceration rate in the world with 1 in 100 American adults currently locked up; Combined with those on probation or parole, an appalling 1 in 32 American adults are under some sort of correctional control. Marc Emery is just another prison statistic of the U.S.-led drug war.

Do we not have more important issues to be concerned with in our society? Should petty criminals be pursued for insignificant drug offenses?

Prohibition is harmful to society because it is expensive and fuels the

No Hope of Progressive Drug Policy with Conservative Government

12 LEFT October 2009

black market. Thanks to prohibition, the drug trade is a multi-billion dollar industry. Banned substances are unavailable over the counter and cannot be easily produced in one’s own home. The U.S. approach to crime prevention has been counter-productive because it further worsens various aspects of the black market, such as crime, addiction, gangs and violence, and a plethora of diseases that are transmitted between drug users.

Prohibition is especially harmful to our youth as they cannot easily grow it or obtain it from someone they trust, like older brother or a friend. As a result, the youth resort to the highly undependable black market just to buy pot. As they continue to pur-chase their material from the black market, they will eventually be intro-duced to harder and more addictive substances like cocaine and heroin. They essentially become slaves to the black market and resort to things

like gangs, violence, and prostitution to support their habit.

One must understand the dynamics of the black market to see the great harm that comes with prohibition. A prohibited substance is very profitable to those who can get away with traf-ficking it; There is great incentive for the trafficker to do whatever it takes to control his or her territory.

As long as there is prohibition, there will always be a black market for a highly lucrative drug trade that breeds crime and violence. It does not mat-ter what the consequences are for handling the drug, because stiffer penalties will only make the substance more profitable. The only way to put an end to the black market is to delink the profit motive from the drug.

If we remain under a Conservative government, there is no hope for a progressive drug policy in Canada; the

government has taken a complete step backwards by introducing mandatory minimums for drug offenses. Canada should be repealing its prohibition laws. It should not introduce bills that will worsen the drug problem, which would result in a more severe police state than we have now. Bill C-15 shows that the Conservatives have no regard for the wellbeing of Canadians, and are driven by their own reckless ideology. They are implementing a harmful bill to impress the public with their tough-on-crime approach. The Liberals, not really knowing what on earth to do because of their lack of core principles, simply sit there and nod and prop up every move the Conservatives make.

13 LEFT October 2009

14 LEFT October 2009

OCTOBER EVENTS CALENDAR

Monday 5th: WIN presents “The Truth is Not Sexy - Human Trafficking Workshop” at 7pm in the UCC Council Chambers (Rm 315). From the facebook event: “Please join in a lively discussion of the “industry” that engages women as objects,

young boys and girls as cheap labour, the dangers/damage involved and our community and individual responsibility regarding this issue. Suggested dona-

tion: $10/general $5/students”

Wednesday 7th: Rally in Support of Peaceful Communities. Presented by: The Canadian Auto Workers union, PFLAG Canada - London, and Diversity Training Live. From

6-8pm at the Victoria Park Bandshell. Rally in the wake of the recent hate and

violence in our community.

Saturday 17th: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Devote some time today to do something to eradicate poverty in your community or abroad. See page 3 for some great ideas. Or, commit to coming to the Food Bank to volunteer with

the Western New Democrats on November 18th from 6-7:30pm.

Friday 16th: Western New Democrats present Monty Python and the Holy Grail at

Western Film at 3pm. Admission is free!

Monday 26th: Submissions due for November’s issue of LEFT. See page 8 for more details.

Questions about an event? E-mail us at left.publication@gmail.com