People's Voice October 1-15, 2006

Nowhere to live in Lotusland

(The following article is from the October 1-15, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.) By Kimball Cariou

     "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being... including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services," says the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

     Fine words indeed, and drafted by a Canadian at that. But almost sixty years after the Declaration was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, homeless people in the Vancouver area are the target of a vicious media campaign. Visible poverty and panhandling are "bad for tourism" with the 2010 Winter Olympics coming up. But a new report by the Pivot Legal Society (see www.pivotlegal.org) projects that homelessness will shoot up from the present 1,300 to 3,200 by that time.

     The ranks of million dollar homes are multiplying here, along with luxurious hotels featuring a glorious view of the North Shore Mountains. Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts plans to launch a five-star hotel early next year, occupying 15 floors of a new 60-story downtown building. In 2009, just in time for the Olympics, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts will open a new hotel/condo project with 415 guest rooms.

     But the reality for most people in Vancouver is very different. As housing prices skyrocket, only a small minority can dream of buying a house. An international survey in 2005 ranked Vancouver tied for 15th among the world's most difficult housing markets. Using the ratio of house price to annual household income, Vancouver's score was 6.6, or "severely unaffordable." While the wealthy enjoy comforts virtually unparalleled in human history, most of us spend an ever higher chunk of our incomes just to keep warm and dry, and thousands sleep on the streets, or in shelters or decrepit single rooms.

     Even for those with steady jobs, the crisis is worsening. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation says the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver is $774 per month. For a full-time worker earning $10/hour (well above BC's minimum wage) over half of each paycheque goes to the landlord.

     Many housing co-ops in the Lower Mainland are being compelled to reduce the numbers of low-income members as subsidy levels are cut, and thousands of leaky condo owners have been driven into bankruptcy.

     Things are even worse for others. Changes to social assistance eligibility rules, such as the three-week waiting period and the two-year "independence" test, have reduced caseload numbers, driving thousands to rely on charities, survival sex, or petty crime.

     The number of people out on the street or in shelters in the Vancouver area has doubled in recent years, from 1,121 in 2002 to 2,174 in 2005 - not counting "sofa surfers." Conducted in March 2005, the count found 296 youth under 25 without a place to live. Forty families with children were enumerated, and over 600 people had been homeless for over a year. Shelters, safe houses and transition houses turned away 169 adults and 6 children on count night, up from the 111 turnaways reported in 2002. Reflecting the shameful reality of racism and poverty, 30% of homeless people in the Vancouver area were of aboriginal origin - fifteen times their level of 2% of the total population.

     Less than half of the homeless population in this count (45%) received steady income assistance, pension or disability benefits. The rest survived on binning or bottle collecting, panhandling, casual employment, or illegal activities. Almost three-quarters (74%) suffered from addictions, medical conditions, mental illness, and/or physical disabilities.

     The situation is increasingly desperate for many. For example, by the fall of 2006, soaring wait-lists for subsidized housing in the Lower Mainland have left over 800 HIV-positive residents without affordable, adequate shelter, up 20 percent from 2005.

     Those who have lived here for many years call this a relatively new crisis. Their belief is backed up by facts. In 1970, there were about 13,300 single-room occupancy (SRO) units in the city's Downtown core. By January 1995, this stock had shrunk by 43 percent, to 7,600 units. Most of the losses occurred in the 1970s, as a result of by-law enforcement and "urban renewal projects" - the beginnings of gentrification. The total today is just over 6,000, and another drop of 1,600 is predicted by 2010.

     This trend, combined with frozen or falling social assistance rates and the high jobless rates of the early 1990s, has meant an explosion of homelessness. The numbers got worse as provincial governments slashed welfare benefits.

     By the fall of 2002, Vancouver politics was shaken up by grassroots movements committed to better housing and safe injection sites for addicts. Fed up with civic politicians who spoke only for the wealthy, voters elected a COPE majority on council, committed to using the city's limited powers and resources to tackle the housing crisis. Some temporary successes were won, including measures to prevent redevelopment of low-income housing, legalization of secondary suites, and plans to expand affordable and low-income housing units as part of the Woodwards redevelopment and the Olympics village in False Creek.

     But this progress was stalled by the city's limited budget sources, and disastrous infighting within the COPE majority on council. Since the right-wing NPA returned to power in City Hall, the social housing units in Woodwards and False Creek were drastically scaled back, and more low-income housing is closing as the Olympic boom takes off.

     In March 2006, the Pender Hotel was shut down, costing 36 people their homes. On March 29, fifteen residents of the Burns Hotel were ordered to leave immediately when the fire department declared that fire exits were blocked, alarms didn't work and extinguishers were past due. Pointing out that these problems could easily have been solved, anti-poverty activists accused city officials of trying to clean up the Downtown Eastside at the expense of the poor. The city found temporary beds at a Salvation Army shelter, and promised to seek long-term housing for the evicted tenants.

     Then in July, the Powell Rooms lodging house was closed for health violations. A team of volunteer tradespeople and community members quickly made the necessary repairs. As the Pivot Legal Society said, "If the government won't do its job and protect low-income people from losing their homes, what will happen to the Olympic commitment to prevent homelessness?"

     In total, during the first seven months of 2006, 375 low-income units were lost or facing imminent threat due to rent increases or closures.

     And the problem will get worse. A study by University of Toronto sociologist Helen Jefferson Lenskyj notes that cities such as Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Amsterdam, Sydney, Beijing, Toronto, Athens, Turin, New York, and Vancouver all listed housing as part of their Olympic-legacy promises.

     "However," Lenskyj wrote, "the actual post-Olympic situation in recent host cities suggests that an affordable housing legacy is unlikely to materialize, and that, in fact, conditions for homeless and inadequately housed people are exacerbated by hosting the Olympics."

     Many host cities have seen evictions of tenants near Olympic venues; gentrification of low-income areas; inflated real-estate prices; weakened tenant-protection laws; the criminalization of poverty and homelessness; temporary or permanent privatization of public spaces; and temporary suppression of human rights, particularly freedom of assembly.

     The net social and economic impact of the housing crisis is staggering. This emergency calls for immediate government action to provide decent housing for all homeless people in the Lower Mainland.

     Wouldn't it be expensive to guarantee this basic human right? In the short run, the answer is yes. To build decent apartments for 2,000 homeless people in the Lower Mainland, at about $250,000 per unit, would cost about $500 million.

     But the present crisis is more expensive. The Pivot report found that the cost of homelessness to Vancouver taxpayers rose from $25 million in 2002 to $51 million in 2005. That means about $40,000 annually per homeless person, for hospital care, ambulance services, police incarceration, emergency shelter, and food aid. Most of that cost could be eliminated by spending $22,000-$28,000 per year on social housing, including construction costs. Housing for all would save lives, and it would soon reduce health care spending.

     Ironically, such a proposal is regarded as wild-eyed lunacy by right-wing politicians and corporate think-tanks - the same forces which pushed to expand the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, at an estimated cost of $600 million. Why? To improve safety for Whistler condo owners and Olympic athletes.

     The real question is what it will take to force governments to respond seriously to the housing crisis. On October 22, the local Anti-Poverty Committee is organizing a protest against the closure of housing as a result of the upcoming Olympics. A building formerly used as low-cost housing will be seized to demand that the city take decisive action to deal with Vancouver's homelessness disaster.

     Many such actions are needed to win new policies to meet the needs of poor and homeless people across Canada: sharply increased welfare rates and minimum wage levels, a genuine affordable housing strategy, and the creation of employment at decent wages. A good job, a place to live, and a meal on the table are far too important to be left to the whims of the corporations. Ultimately, to achieve the promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Canada needs a socialist economy based on human needs, not private profit.

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Health privatization battle heating up

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Bad cops, bad politicians - Editorial

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Anti-equality bigots must be stopped - Editorial

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HEU delegates to meet in Richmond

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Spotlight on deaths of BC workers

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South-South cooperation: the poorest are the richest

(The following article is from the October 1-15, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

By Susan Hurlich, Havana

WHAT CAN BE simpler than teaching people to read and write? Or to providing treatment for curable sight problems?

     "Of the over 700 million illiterate people who live in the world, over 630 million are found in member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. In only eight of the 116 members of the Movement is illiteracy resolved", observed Rafael Bell, director of International Collaboration in the Cuban Ministry of Education, during a press conference of the Movement's recently concluded 14th Summit, held in Havana.

     The World Health Organization estimates that there are 50 million blind people worldwide, of whom more than 1.5 million are children under 16. The majority of these eye afflictions are treatable.

     The statistics are a condemnation of the legacy of colonialism of the past centuries, and neo-liberalism of the present, concerned only with serving only the interests of the few at the expense of the majority.

     Recently, though, new models are emerging based on other values, models of South-South cooperation oriented towards mutually beneficial sustainable human development.

    Two seemingly simple examples, and yet profoundly illustrative of the many ideas which can enrich the lives of people, are the Cuban-led Yo, Sí Puedo (Yes, I Can) literacy program and the Operaciòn Milagro (Operation Miracle) eye-surgery program. The guiding principle of both is that you cannot begin to talk about changing society, or eradicating the massive accumulation of poverty and misery that exists in the world, without first taking care of the accumulated needs of the people, in the first instance in education and health.

Yo, Sí Puedo program helps millions

     With the help of the innovative Cuban Yo, Sí Puedo literacy method, which is taking off like wildfire, marginalized peoples around the globe are starting to gain vital literacy skills.

     In Latin America, it is estimated that there are some 40 million illiterates, and more than 110 million who barely know how to read and write their names.

     Yet in the just over three years since the Yo, Sí Puedo program began, almost two million people have learned how to read and write in nations as diverse as Mexico, Haiti, Nicaragua, Mozambique and New Zealand. When Venezuela launched its literacy program in May 2003 using this method, 1.4 million adults didn't know how to read and write. By October 2005, the country was able to declare itself free of illiteracy. In Bolivia, where the program only began in March of this year, over 200,000 of the country's 1.1 million illiterates have already graduated, and it's being extended to hundreds of thousands of others in indigenous languages. In Mexico, the program is working in ten states with over 200,000 now graduated. In Ecuador, programs have begun with indigenous groups.

     In total, some fifteen countries are now participating in Yo, Sí Puedo, and nine others will soon launch their own program. Literacy students include those who have never gone to school, those who are semi-literate but never finished school, and those who have special learning abilities.

     "This is a very young program", states Maria del Carmen Fernandez, vice rector of the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute (IPLAC) where the method was first created in 2001, "and it emerged from an idea of Fidel."

     Cuba has extensive experience with literacy campaigns, having designed and carried out its own immediately after the triumph of the revolution. The country's first great educational initiative under Fidel's leadership enabled approximately one million illiterate individuals to read and write. Less than three years later, in the midst of a mercenary invasion and increasing hostility from the United States, Cuba was declared the first territory in Latin America to be free of illiteracy.

     In the Yo, Sí Puedo literacy program, the innovative idea of Fidel was to use television to help teach literacy.

     The methodology of Yo, Sí Puedo (developed by Leonela Relyz, a Cuban teacher and advisor to IPLAC) is simple, going from what is known (numbers) towards the unknown (letters), with each letter associated with a number. Using an integrated method, the essential teaching props include audiovisual aids (TV and radio) and a literacy primer that use three approaches: eye/ear (see and hear), book/ear (read and hear), and pencil/ear (write and hear).

     The program is also short (seven weeks), inexpensive, effective and inclusive, so it can be used with a larger number of people at the same time. Classes are carried out on site, in any kind of structure, even in one's home as long as it's possible to use a video and a TV.

     "What Cuba offers is a methodology and advice", elaborates Fernandez, "but the program is executed by local people who are already literate, and who receive a short course. In this way, each country executes its own program."

     In total, only 600 Cuban Yo, Sí Puedo literacy advisers work overseas. This makes it easier to duplicate the program locally, as well as to guarantee important follow-up in the post-literacy phase.

     "The program is contextualized", explains Relyz, "and is adapted to the local language, culture and society of each country, even of each community."

     In Venezuela, the program has been used with prisoners and the disabled, with indigenous communities and people living in some of the country's most remote areas. In Bolivia, with vast and poor areas, a very diversified territory with difficult access, and a very dispersed rural population, Yo, Sí Puedo is placing great emphasis on reaching isolated indigenous communities. Bolivia is also considering installing solar panels in communities without electricity, to ensure that the program has the greatest outreach possible.

     The languages in which Yo, Sí Puedo presently operates are Spanish (five versions), Portuguese, French, English, Creole (Haiti), and three indigenous languages (Quechua, Aymara and Guarani) in Bolivia. In New Zealand, the program is done in both English and Maori.

     Along with teaching literacy both in letters and numbers, the program's integrated method also helps facilitate better communication between the family, the society and the teaching process. Both literacy exercises and the audiovisual modules provide information on themes such as the family, the environment, hygiene and health, economics and politics, etc. related to each country. When women are involved in literacy programs, they also learn more about their rights, as well as about health, hygiene, communication and childhood.

     For its work with literacy, IPLAC recently received the 2006 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize.

Operation Miracle: the gift of sight

     Operation Miracle is exactly what its name says.

     Since July 2004 when it began, more than 295,000 visually impaired people from 28 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have received free eye surgery under this program. Almost 80,000 Cubans have also been treated under Operation Miracle. In total, over 375,000 people have had their sight restored.

     Growing out of Cuba's internationalist collaboration in Venezuela, and with that country's backing, Operation Miracle intends to provide free treatment to an estimated 4.5 million people suffering from preventable blindness and eye-afflictions in Latin American and the Caribbean region over the next 10 years.

     "How much does it cost to return the sight to thousands of people?" This was Fidel's question to Cuban parliamentarians in December 2005, declaring that no riches can be compared to the happiness of those who get their sight back.

     "Operation Miracle is directed at those patients who can't pay for private health care and don't have insurance," explains Dr. Reinaldo Rios Caso, vice-director of the Havana-based Ramon Pando Ferrer Ophthalmological Hospital, which spearheads the program.

     "The patients are poor people who have been blind for years because they're poor", continues Rios, "and they would continue to be blind if not for this kind of help."

     Within each country participating in Operation Miracle, medical teams assess applicants for eye surgery before sending patients to Havana on special flights. Upon arrival in Cuba, a second medical assessment is carried out. After surgery, patients spend a short recovery period in Cuban tourist hotels, some of which have been entirely redirected to the program.

     In Havana, most of the surgeries are done at Pando Ferrer, as it's locally known, where 62 doctors and dozens of residents perform simultaneous operations in 34 fully-equipped operating rooms. During the past three years, Operation Miracle surgeries carried out at this hospital have tripled both for foreigners and Cubans.

     "This is a `Made in Cuba' program", continues Rios Caso, speaking with journalists visiting the hospital. "We have doctors who operate until three or four in the morning, doctors who work with a tremendous commitment. Without this commitment, we couldn't do what we're doing. This isn't `Made in Japan' or 'Made in the U.S.A.' It's a genuine product of the Cuban revolution."

     Most of the Operation Miracle patients had curable cataract-related sight problems, among them many children born with congenital cataracts. According to World Health Organization estimates, cataracts cause half of all cases of blindness, in spite of low cost surgery that can restore vision. The program also treats visual deficiencies such as glaucoma, pigmentary retinitis, pterygion (flesh growth in the eyes), strabismus, ptosis (drooping eyelids), retinopathy, diabetes, etc., in cases where medical diagnosis indicates that surgical intervention can help restore sight.

     Established in 1956, today Pando Ferrer boasts cutting-edge technology, mostly from the European Union and Asia, for carrying out procedures such as ocular microsurgery, early glaucoma diagnosis, early detection of macular infections, surgery using micro-incisions, and refractive surgery. The closer and more affordable U.S. market is closed to Pando Ferrer because of the trade embargo against Cuba.

     At Pando Ferrer, over 300 operations are carried out daily. The average age of cataract patients is over 50 years. The oldest patient to receive surgery under Operation Miracle was a 105-year-old Venezuelan woman, the day before the journalists' visit. She was reported to be recovering well.

     In Venezuela, Cuba has assisted in setting up eight advanced surgical clinics. Seven new ophthalmological clinics, donated by Cuba, now operate in Bolivia. There are also new clinics, linked to Operation Miracle, in Guatemala, Ecuador and Panama.

     Various countries in Africa and Asia have also asked Cuba to expand the program, explains Dr. Marcelino Rios Torres, director of Pando Ferrer. Soon, Cuba plans to provide the technology for the first eye clinic to be set up in an as-yet-unnamed country in one of these continents. Pando Ferrer also sends ophthalmologists abroad, mainly to Venezuela and Bolivia.

     Cuba now has over 800 ophthalmologists around the country, compared to only 117 eye doctors before 1959. Another 1,000 resident interns spend their last year of training at Pando Ferrer learning surgical procedures with state-of-the-art technology.

We shall have a future

     During the Non-Aligned Summit, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said "If we are truly unanimous in the South, we shall have a future, we shall have life and our people will have life."

     Bolivian president Evo Morales put it differently, but with the same meaning: "we do not represent a culture of death, but a culture of life."

     For Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, programs such as Yo, Si Puedo and Operaciòn Milagro are not just about socialism, nor are they simply humanitarian programs. They are about South-South cooperation, about solidarity, and about the poor helping the poor. They are about an alternative, and in this sense, they express the true spirit of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas. Most importantly, they are about the strength of the human spirit to do good for others. It should be a normal thing to do. But in the world of today, the normal has become revolutionary.

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Afghan mission sinking into the swamp

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Lee Lorch receives education award

     Mathematician and political activist Lee Lorch was given special recognition on Sept. 24 in Toronto by the Campaign for Public Education. Mayor David Miller presented Prof. Lorch with an award for "Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Public Education," which in future will be known as the "C.P.E. Lee Lorch Award for Meritorious Service in the Advancement of Public Education".

     Prof. Lorch was introduced by Sean Usher of the C.P.E., who said: "Our special guest today is indeed extraordinary! He is an internationally renowned and highly acclaimed mathematician; a fierce fighter, for peace and justice; for the recognition of women's equal rights in all walks of life; and, for an end to all forms of discrimination, especially toward the poor, the downtrodden and disenfranchised. He is passionate about an end to the draconian U.S. embargo and the restoration of full and free international status for Cuba.

     "Passionate too, about fully and fairly funded public education, from cradle to grave, as a basic right for all residents of Canada. He hasn't just talked the talk: He has walked the walk and paid a heavy price, which he has borne with great dignity and decorum. Born in New York City in 1915, he and his family moved to Canada as political refugees in 1959, a consequence of their civil rights activism. He is so very proud of his late wife, Grace Lonergan, whom he married in 1943, before serving his country in WWII, when in 1957 she defiantly faced down an angry mob to save a 15-year old black girl, at Little Rock High School in Arkansas, who committed the cardinal sin of exercising her right to equal public education. This was to become one of the highlight pictures of the civil rights struggle in the U.S., and one of its defining moments. Please join with me in warmly welcoming a man, who shortly will be awarded one of the world's most prestigious awards in the field of mathematics, who just a few days ago celebrated his 91st birthday and, who is Emeritus Professor in the Mathematics and Statistics Department, at York University - Lee Lorch!"

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What's Left

(The following article is from the October 1-16, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

VANCOUVER, BC

StopWar.ca meetings - to plan Oct. 28 rally to demand troops out of Afghanistan, 5:30 pm, Sept. 27 & Oct. 12, Maritime Labour Centre, 111 Victoria Drive. See http://www.stopwar.ca for info. See stopwar.ca for info.

BC Labour Against War - launched by Vancouver & District Labour Council, union members invited to the first organizing meeting, Wed., Oct. 4, 5:30 pm at the Maritime Labour Centre.

Iran: the situation today and the threat of war - forum with Mohammed Omidvar, member of Political Bureau, Tudeh Party of Iran, Oct. 5, 7:30 pm, Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive. For info call 604-254-9836.

"We Must Kill the Bandits," - Documentary film by Kevin Pina on the occupation of Haiti, followed by discussion, Friday, Oct. 13, 7 pm, SFU harbour Centre, Fletcher Room 515 W. Hastings St. Fundraiser for Haiti Info Project, $5 donation.

Left Film Night - 7 pm, Sunday, Oct. 29 at the Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive, film TBA in next issue, call 604-255-2041 for details.

SURREY, BC

Memorial Meeting - organized by the Darshan Singh Canadian Sangha Heritage Foundation to remember the political and organizing work done by this remarkable leader, in Punjabi, 2-6 pm, Sunday, Oct. 1, Strawberry Hill Library, 7399-122 St. Call Harjit, 604-543-7179, or Makhan, 604-771-2503.

DUNCAN, BC

Haiti to Afghanistan - forum on Canada's foreign policy, with independent journalists Jon Elmer and Anthony Fenton, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2 pm, Mercury Theatre, 331 Brae Road. For info, call Community Alliance for Public Education, 709-0527.

CALGARY, AB

Calgary Workers' Resource Centre Open House - Tue., Oct. 3, 10 am to 8 pm, 2002 -1st Ave. NW. Call 264-8100 for further information.

TORONTO, ON

Celebrate 85 years of struggle - social marking the Communist Party's anniversary, Sat., Sept. 30, cocktails 6:30, dinner 7:30, at 300 Bloor St. W. Guest speakers, four-course meal with vegetarian option, cultural program, displays, cash bar, live music & dancing. For info & tickets, call CPC Ontario Ctee. at 416-469-2446.

Iran, the situation today and threat of war - PV forum with Mohammad Omidvar, member of the Political Bureau, Tudeh Party of Iran, Monday, Oct. 2, 7:30 pm, Room 2-233 OISE, 252 Bloor St. West. For info, contact inter@cpc-pcc.ca.

Boycotting Israeli Apartheid - Oct. 6-8, at OISE, 252 Bloor St W., conference to promote the growing boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign targeting Israeli apartheid. Organized by Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, full info at http://www.caiaweb.org.

Anti-Poverty Rally - T10 am - 2 pm, Tue., Oct. 17, Queen's Park (North of College and University), rally to mark International Day to Eradicate Poverty! Contact: John Argue, OCSJ Coordinator, 416-441-3714, http://www.ocsj.ca/aap.php.

REDS ON THE WEB
http://www.communist-party.ca

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Canadian troops face high casualty rates

Canada has sustained the second-highest number of military deaths (after The U.S..) as a result of hostile actions in Afghanistan since the original invasion in 2001.
Since February 2006, when our troops began operations in Kandahar, Canada sustained 43% of all military deaths among U.S. allies in the coalition (20 of 47 non-U.S. deaths).
When adjusted for the relative size of troop commitments, a Canadian soldier in Kandahar is nearly three times more likely to be killed in hostile action than a British solder, and 4.5 times more likely than an American soldier serving in Iraq.
If the rate of deaths since February 2006 were to remain unchanged until the end of the mission in January 2009, the Canadian military would sustain another 108 deaths in Afghanistan, bringing the total to 140.

The study, by Steven Staples and Bill Robinson, notes that the Department of National Defence predicts the number of casualties that will be sustained by the Canadian Forces before undertaking new missions, but that these estimates are rarely discussed openly.

In one rare public disclosure, in June 2003 the National Post reported that military intelligence experts estimated that Canadian troops would likely suffer as many as 10 fatalities during their ensuing six-month tour of duty of troops in Kabul. The actual number of deaths sustained in the mission stood at three by January 2004, less than estimated.

But then, the relocation of Canadian Forces from the relative safety of Kabul to the unstable southern province was announced by Paul Martin's Liberal government on May 16, 2005. Both Defence Minister Bill Graham and Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier made public statements that this new mission would be more dangerous than previous missions in the country.

However, there is evidence to suggest that the military may have underestimated the level of violence Canadian troops would face, which would in turn affect any estimate of casualties.

For example, the Toronto Star reported on July 23, 2005, that Col. Steve Noonan, commander of Canada's Task Force Afghanistan, expected violence to increase leading up to the Sept. 18 national elections, but that he was "confident that the rise in violence is the 'last gasps' of the insurgents."

That assessment has proven completely wrong. From Jan. 1 through Sept. 18 of this year, 24 Canadian troops have died in the Afghan war, a far higher toll than in previous years. But instead of yielding to public demands to wind up its role in the occupation, the Conservative government has extended the mission to the end of January 2009, and to send hundreds more troops to Afghanistan.

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Colombia unions want ILO office

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Thai unions want quick return to democracy

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"History will spit on our graves"

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"Troops out of Afghanistan Now"

Rallies across Canada: Saturday, October 28

Charlottetown, PEI
Gather 12:30 pm in Rochford Square Park, (across from Charlottetown Hotel) for Peace Walk to PEI Legislature and rally with speeches, music and petitions. For info call Island Peace Committee, 368-7337.

Comox Valley, BC
"Bring them home, keep them home" rally at CFB Comox, 2 pm, car pooling 1:30 @ Coast Westerly parking lot, corner of 17th and Cliffe Ave. in Courtenay. Info: 250-897-3916

Edmonton, AB
Rally starts 1:00 pm at Corbett Hall (U of A), march down Whyte Avenue to Terminus at railcar caboose at end of Steel Park (103 St. & 87 Ave.). For info see: http://www.ecawar.org.

Fredericton, NB
Meet 1 pm at Officers' Square (corner of Queen and Regent streets) for a peace march followed by rally with speeches, music and info table. Contact the Fredericton Peace Coalition, http://www.info-at-frederictonpeace.org, 454-9527.

London, ON
Rally and March, meet 2 pm in the northwest corner of Victoria Park (Richmond and Central). For more info, visit organizing forum at http://www.londoncommons.net.

Ottawa/Outaouais, ON/QC
Meet 1 pm at the Peace Keeping Monument on Sussex. Visit http://www.nowar-paix.ca/oct28 for up-to-date information.

Regina, SK
Making Peace With Earth, one day conference, including workshop on "Canada's Militarism & our Role in Afghanistan" (11 am - 12:30 pm, Knox-Met United Church, 2340 Victoria Ave.), and slideshow/talk on "Afghanistan, Iraq and 'Missile Defence': Canadian Complicity in the Business of War" 7:30 pm, at Unitarian Fellowship, 2700 College Ave. For info, Regina Peace Council, 306-949-1222.

Toronto, ON
March and Rally starts 1 pm at US Consulate (360 University Ave.) For info see: http://www.nowar.ca or e-mail stopthewar@sympatico.ca

Vancouver, BC
StopWar.ca action, gather 12 Noon at Canada Place (by Waterfront Station, foot of Howe St.), march starts 1 pm, rally 2 pm at Vancouver Art Gallery (Georgia and Howe). For info, contact StopWar.ca.

Victoria, BC
Gather 12 noon at Centennial Square for speakers and music, followed by march. Info: 885-2210.

Winnipeg, MB
Assemble 1 pm at Central Park (Ellice at Edmonton) for march to University of Winnipeg and a People's Forum at the Bulman Centre. Organized by Peace Alliance Winnipeg, http://www.peacealliancewinnipeg.ca, 947-2220.

Endorsers List for October 28 rallies
Canadian Labour Congress
Canadian Islamic Congress
Le Collectif Échèc à la guerre
Council of Canadians
Canadian Arab Federation
National Union of Public and General Employees
Canadian Union of Public Employees
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
United Steelworkers - National
Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association
Act For the Earth
Muslim Unity Group
The Muslim Services, Toronto
Al-Hidaya Association (Montreal)
Halifax Peace Coalition
Rassemblement outaouais contre la guerre
NoWar-Paix - Ottawa
Student Coalition Against War - Ottawa
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
The Boundary Peace Initiative
Kootenay Region United Nations Association
Kelowna Peace Group
Palestine Community Centre of BC
Niagara Coalition for Peace
Niagara Secular Humanists
Burlington Association for Nuclear Disarmament
Stopwar.ca Vancouver
Communist Party of Canada
Canadian Auto Workers union
November 16 Coalition Hamilton
Solidarity For Palestinian Human Righnts - McMaster
Coalition Against Israeli A[partheid
Ottawa Raging Grannies
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Gerald and Maas
Canadian Action Party
Greenpeace Canada
Fredericton Peace Coalition
Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - Toronto
October 28 Coalition - Nanaimo

For more details of 'Troops out Now" actions in your area,
contact the Canadian Peace Alliance,
427 Bloor St. West, Toronto,
M5S 1X7
tel: 416-588-5555
email: cpa@web.ca

http://www.acp-cpa.ca

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October 1-16, 2006 Volume 14 - Number 17 $1

Rallies across Canada: Saturday, October 28

October 1-16, 2006
Volume 14 - Number 17
$1