VIPIRG past events – 2003

Nov 28-29

Jaggi Singh speaking tour

Montréal activist Jaggi Singh gave three presentations: The Criminalization of Dissent, No One is Illegal: Confronting Fortress North America, and Anarchism in Social Movements: Fighting War, Capitalism, and Global Apartheid.

Co-sponsors: Camus College Student Society, UVic Student Society, VIPIRG, Victoria Anarchists

Nov 21-23

Permaculture design weekend

Permaculture is an ecological design system used to develop homes and communities, taking into account basic human needs such as food, water, and energy and weaving landscape elements together in ways that reduce work, eliminate pollution, and sustainably address local needs. It is based on the observation of natural systems, and can be applied on any scale. This workshop, organized by VIPIRG's Urban Agriculture committee, focused on hands-on permaculture skills and aspects of permaculture design.

Nov 20

Ecological agriculture

VIPIRG's Urban Agriculture committee organized a presentation by two farmers who recently returned from an agricultural exchange in South Asia. The presentation included discussion of the international nature of the commonalities facing small-scale ecological farmers, as well as their experience with high-level agricultural policy discussion in India.

Nov 7

Film screening: The Leech and the Earthworm

Victoria premiere of a new film by Marc Silver and Max Pugh, produced by Debra Harry. Indigenous peoples voice their views on Western science, its vision of a genetically engineered future, and its deep links with corporate profits and globalization. The Leech and the Earthworm critiques a future threatened by genetic engineering, and shares living alternatives to a globalized monoculture. The Leech and the Earthworm is a provocative film that inspires us to ask serious questions of the collective illusion often called “progress”.

Co-sponsors: VIPIRG and the UVic Indigenous Governance Program

Oct 25

March and rally: U.S. out of Iraq

• Speech: VIPIRG's Stacy Chappel

Co-sponsors: Victoria Peace Coalition, Victoria Labour Council, Students Against War, VIPIRG, International Socialists, UVic Research Group on North American Politics

Oct 7

Workshop: Seed saving

Facilitator: Rebecca Jehn

VIPIRG's Urban Agriculture committee brought local organic farmer Rebecca Jehn to UVic to teach techniques for seed saving.

Oct 3

Free the Cuban Five!

Special guests: Aleida Guevara March and Irma González

Dr. Aleida Guevara March (daughter of Che Guevara) and Irma González (daughter of Cuban Five prisoner René González) came to Victoria as part of a cross-Canada tour to promote the Campaign to Free the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five are political prisoners serving life sentences in US prisons for defending Cuba against terrorist attacks aimed at crushing their revolution. Adonis Puentes provided a musical introduction.

• Workshop report: Terry Wolfwood

Co-sponsors: Goods for Cuba, VIPIRG, Canadian Network on Cuba

Sep-Oct

Researching for Change

In VIPIRG's annual Researching for Change workshop series, experienced researchers teach the "how to" of community-based research approaches, methods, ethics, and tactics. In 2003 VIPIRG offered 7 workshops:

1. Research as a tool for marginalized communities effecting change
2. On-line corporate research
3. When the field research and politics collide: Sharing the experience of back to work research and the Campbell cuts
4. Solid backing
5. Expand your research/activist toolbelts
6. Digging the dirt
7. Community-based interpretive research: The "RARE" experience

Mar 20

Preventing crimes against humanity:
Lessons from the Asia Pacific war (1931-1945)

Seventy years ago, racism, sexism, militarism and imperialism ignited a lethal conflict, precipitating terrible crimes against humanity. Have we learned the lessons? This symposium offered an opportunity to learn from the Asia Pacific War (1931-1945), in the context of current efforts to eliminate racism, prevent crimes against humanity, stop war, and address redress and reconciliation.

• Full program and speaker biographies

Human rights and the Asia Pacific war

• Kinuko Laskey: The atomic bomb and Hiroshima – A survivor’s testimony
• E. Patricia Tsurumi: Japanese women's movement leaders and the Pacific war: Postwar feminists criticize their foremothers
• Suh Sung: The Asia Pacific War – Lessons for today

Biological warfare: Forgetting and remembering

• Stephen Endicott: China during the Asia Pacific War (1931-1945)
• Martin Furmanski: Biological warfare in China and the US cover-up
• John Price: Conspiracy of silence: Canada and biological warfare (1942-52)

Racism and war

• Maryka Omatsu: Racism in wartime Canada – Uprooting and internment of Japanese Canadians
• Wang Xuan: Overcoming the legacy of hate: Justice for Chinese victims of biological warfare

Co-sponsors: UVic Humanities Centre, UVic Centre for Pacific and Asian Initiatives, UVic Institute for Dispute Resolution, UVSS “Armed with Understanding” lecture series, UVic Department of History, UVic Department of Pacific & Asian Studies, UVic Department of Women’s Studies, World History Caucus, VIPIRG, UVic Office of Equity Issues

Mar 18

Urban agriculture fair

This half-day fair featured information tables and speakers on sustainable food options in the urban environment.

Featured speakers:

• Emily MacNair: Community gardens
• Geoff Johnson: Permaculture in the urban landscape
• Ruth Whyte: Urban agriculture in Cuba

Mar 13

Screening: Prostitution Behind the Veil

As part of events relating to International Women’s Day (March 8), a screening of Prostitution Behind the Veil was organized, with discussion about the status of women in Iran after the showing. Produced by Iranian expatriate Nahid Persson, the film focuses on the everyday lives of two young women in Iran forced to work in the sex trade for economic survival after their husbands are jailed for political crimes, exploring how prostitution works in a country where adultery is illegal.

Co-sponsors: Iranian-Canadian Community Centre, UVSS Women Centre, Victoria Status of Women Action Group, VIPIRG, Inter-Cultural Association

Mar 12

Gentle giants: Sea turtles of the South

Speaker: Enriqueta Ramírez

Enriqueta Ramírez, with CESTA/Friends of the Earth in El Salvador, spoke about her experiences with sea turtle conservation in Jiquilisco Bay and youth involvement in environmental activism. Over the past three years, Enriqueta has worked at Toluca, one of El Salvador’s most important marine turtle laying beaches. There, in a nesting enclosure that Enriqueta adapted for her egg-incubation study, she and her colleagues documented that the number of eggs hatched over the past three years has risen from 19% of 2123 eggs produced to over 70% of eggs in the last three seasons. Enriqueta is in Canada as part of Be the Change! Youth Voices on Global Issues, an initiative by the Sierra Club of Canada BC Chapter's GAIA Project. Be the Change! documents stories of people around the world who are making environmentally, socially and economically sustainable choices in their lives.

Mar 11

Forum: On & of women! Mid-term crisis, exposing the impact of provincial government decisions

Studies in Policy and Practice forum, featuring an Aboriginal art display, speakers, panel discussions, and a community information room.

Presentations/workshops:

• Assessing the impacts of provincial policy decisions: Methods, maxims, moments, masks, and matters
  Presenter: Michael Prince
  Discussant: Marie Campbell

• Your community experiences: What are the impacts and how have you dealt with them?
  Facilitators: Mary Ellen Purkis and Betty Tate

• Panel: Life today
  Facilitator: Susan Boyd
  Presenters: Colleen Kasting, Jacquie Ackerly, Ginette St. Armant

• All my relations: Community building in difficult times
  Presenter: Leslie Brown
  Discussant: Brian Wharf

Co-sponsors: UVic Faculty Women's Caucus, UVic School of Nursing, UVic School of Social Work, Innovative Training & Research Initiative in Policy & Practice, VIPIRG, UVic Office of Equity Issues, Community and Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria

Mar 10

Iraqi women's plight under sanctions and war

Speaker: Yanar Mohammed

Ms. Mohammed is the Director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, a group that works to stop atrocities against Iraqi women and defend their rights. One of their main projects is the development of a battered women's shelter in Baghdad to protect women who are fleeing from violence and “honor killings”. In addition, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality).

Co-spnsors: UVSS Women’s Centre, VIPIRG, International Women's Day - Victoria

Mar 5

Student walkout for peace

As part of an international student walkout for peace, Victoria students held a day-long walkout to demonstrate their opposition to war on Iraq. Community members joined UVic students at the Student Union Building at UVic, and then walked downtown, with Camosun and local high school students joining the march en route. At the rally at the end of the march, there were performances by the Radical Cheerleaders and local musicians, and speeches by a variety of presenters.

Featured speakers:

• Stacy Chappel, VIPIRG
• Joy McPhail, NDP
• Dr. Mary Wynne Ashford
• Danielle Gould, UVic Women's Studies Outreach Committee
• Sharmeen Khan, UVic Students of Colour Collective/CFUV
• Jesson Moen, Students Against War
  

Feb 26

Film screening: First Nations’ struggle against Sun Peaks

VIPIRG organized a film night featuring three films produced by the Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre to document Secwepemc resistance to the Sun Peaks resort development. Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre offers an internal view of negotiations between Sun Peaks officials, different levels of government, and First Nations peoples, illustrating the power dynamic intrinsic in a colonially-oriented consultation process. Take Back the Land follows the journey of Secwepemc people as they struggle to build homes on their lands, despite opposition by the government of BC and the RCMP. Native Youth Movement Skwelkwek'welt Chapter depicts the NYM's blockade of a road that leads the resort, stopping tourists and workers from reaching the development.

Jan 31-
Feb 1

Assembly to End Poverty

Poverty has become an increasingly harsh and pervasive reality in our communities despite years of anti-poverty work. The Assembly To End Poverty brought together people living in poverty, activists, advocates and allies from around BC (and a few as far away as Québec!) to strategize and discuss the future of the anti-poverty movement. Organizers produced the End to Poverty Primer – featuring 50 articles from diverse perspectives on the realities, causes, and solutions to poverty – as a resource to stimulate thought and discussion towards the goals of the Assembly.