Catherina
Catherina's JournalLuka Rocco Magnotta alleged killing video shows need for new Internet surveillance laws: Vic Toews
Source: National Post Staff (Canada)
National Post Staff Jun 11, 2012 – 12:12 PM ET
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says a video of a gruesome killing allegedly at the hands of Luka Rocco Magnotta which made its way online shows the need for the modernizing of Canadian criminal code in order to make obscenity charges stick.
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“It’s difficult making those charges stick when the law doesn’t really correspond to the modern technology,” he said.
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Many had written off as dead after the massive online backlash against it, which included the public posting of Toews’ nasty divorce proceedings.
Bill C-30 would create additional requirements for Internet service providers (ISPs) and expanded police powers. ISPs would be required to install surveillance equipment on their networks and keep records of what their customers are doing online and police would be allowed to obtain some of this information without any judicial oversight.
Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/11/luka-rocco-magnotta-alleged-killing-video-shows-need-for-new-internet-surveillance-laws-vic-toews/
May 16, 2012
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is denying reports that the Harper government intends to quietly shelve its controversial online surveillance bill, C-30.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Toews insisted the legislation was moving ahead.
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When the bill was introduced in February, Toews said the legislation was necessary to protect Canadians from child pornography and organized crime. But although it mentions protecting children from predators in its title, there's no mention of child pornography in its actual text.
In the heat of the early debate on the bill, Toews told Liberal public safety critic Francis Scarpaleggia he could "either stand with us or with the child pornographers."
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Friday, Jun 8
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Vic Toews, far from backing down, is pushing for a renewed multi-faceted scheme to erode Canadians’ online privacy rights: Toews has been working on a deal with the U.S. known as “Perimeter Security”, which could lead to the U.S. government having access to your private data.2 Additionally, the Federal Budget for this year includes a plan to cut funding to the watchdog responsible for overseeing Canada's spy agency, CSIS.
All in all, Toews’ actions could lead Canada to become a large, recklessly-governed surveillance society.
2012 National Call To Action Institute & Conference, July 9-13, St Paul, MN.
(White sisters and brothers are invited too)
2012 NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION INSTITUTE AND CONFERENCE
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
The Women of Color Network (WOCN), in partnership with A CALL TO MEN, Share Time Wisely Consulting Services, and Clarina Howard Nichols Center, is excited to OPEN REGISTRATION for the 2012 National Call to Action Institute and Conference on July 9-13, 2012 in St Paul, MN.
The theme for this ground breaking experience is "Collective Empowerment, Collective Liberation". The framework for the NCTA Institute and Conference is based on the following guiding principles:
* Uniting women of color across ethnicity, race, age, citizenship, sexual orientation, disability, body type, faith, discipline, and locality for collective survival.
* Inspiring those working to be allies to aim for collective liberation in challenging racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, ageism and other forms of oppression and bias.
The 2012 National Call to Action offers 2-Day Institute (one for Women of Color, one for Men, and one for White Women Aspiring Allies) with joint keynotes throughout, and a 2-Day Conference bringing all groups together for workshops, plenaries, and a Cultural Cabaret and Marketplace.
This unique Institute and Conference will feature 5 Major Topics Impacting Women of Color:
Tribal Sovereignty
Trafficking
Homicide
Gender Identity
Immigration
Additional subjects include self-care, economic justice, anti-oppression, building multicultural alliances, leadership and capacity building, and other key topics.
http://womenofcolornetwork.org/news/index.php
If you don't know what a Call To Men, which I didn't until recently, this explains it:
Tony Porter: A call to men
Vanessa A Williams Presents A Call to Men
Highlights from the 2010 National Call To Action
In 2010, the Women of Color Network held a National Call to Action in New Orleans. This video shares some images from this event. We hope to see you in St. Paul, Mn this July. Save the Date! July 9-13, 2012!
The Women of Color Network (WOCN), a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV), hosted their second national conference, National Call to Action Institute and Conference: Supporting Women of Color Advocates and Activists Working to End Violence Against Women and Families, on May 10-14, 2010 at Westin Canal Place in New Orleans, Louisiana. With key sponsorship from the Office for Victims of Crime, and core partnership with A CALL TO MEN, Share Time Wisely Consulting Services, and Clarina Howard Nichols Center, the National Call to Action Institute and Conference was a historic success as one of the few conferences bringing both women of color, men of all races, and white women together to promote the importance of women of color in leadership and examine the barriers that women of color often face within antiviolence programs in reaching and serving their communities
2012 National Call To Action Institute & Conference, July 9-13, St Paul, MN.
(White sisters and brothers are invited too)
2012 NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION INSTITUTE AND CONFERENCE
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
The Women of Color Network (WOCN), in partnership with A CALL TO MEN, Share Time Wisely Consulting Services, and Clarina Howard Nichols Center, is excited to OPEN REGISTRATION for the 2012 National Call to Action Institute and Conference on July 9-13, 2012 in St Paul, MN.
The theme for this ground breaking experience is "Collective Empowerment, Collective Liberation". The framework for the NCTA Institute and Conference is based on the following guiding principles:
* Uniting women of color across ethnicity, race, age, citizenship, sexual orientation, disability, body type, faith, discipline, and locality for collective survival.
* Inspiring those working to be allies to aim for collective liberation in challenging racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, ageism and other forms of oppression and bias.
The 2012 National Call to Action offers 2-Day Institute (one for Women of Color, one for Men, and one for White Women Aspiring Allies) with joint keynotes throughout, and a 2-Day Conference bringing all groups together for workshops, plenaries, and a Cultural Cabaret and Marketplace.
This unique Institute and Conference will feature 5 Major Topics Impacting Women of Color:
Tribal Sovereignty
Trafficking
Homicide
Gender Identity
Immigration
Additional subjects include self-care, economic justice, anti-oppression, building multicultural alliances, leadership and capacity building, and other key topics.
http://womenofcolornetwork.org/news/index.php
Highlights from the 2010 National Call To Action
In 2010, the Women of Color Network held a National Call to Action in New Orleans. This video shares some images from this event. We hope to see you in St. Paul, Mn this July. Save the Date! July 9-13, 2012!
The Women of Color Network (WOCN), a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV), hosted their second national conference, National Call to Action Institute and Conference: Supporting Women of Color Advocates and Activists Working to End Violence Against Women and Families, on May 10-14, 2010 at Westin Canal Place in New Orleans, Louisiana. With key sponsorship from the Office for Victims of Crime, and core partnership with A CALL TO MEN, Share Time Wisely Consulting Services, and Clarina Howard Nichols Center, the National Call to Action Institute and Conference was a historic success as one of the few conferences bringing both women of color, men of all races, and white women together to promote the importance of women of color in leadership and examine the barriers that women of color often face within antiviolence programs in reaching and serving their communities
“There’s alot going on here…racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia…all equals one big fat INJUSTICE!
On Twitter, The View’s Sherri Shepherd declared it “cruel punishment.” A Shepherd follower responded, “No no now, this is AWFUL! Seems like a definite death sentence for CeCe.” And the poet Ursula Rucker shouted (virtually), “There’s alot going on here…racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia…all equals one big fat INJUSTICE!!!”
While the “big fat INJUSTICE!!!” part remains a give-in among people with common sense progressive observers and advocates, I was surprised to learn that McDonald’s local supporters are in wait-and-see mode regarding her placement.
“People tend to think about how CeCe identifies as a woman and say she should be able to go to a women’s facility. But there’s really no history of transgender people being placed according to their gender identity. So once CeCe is placed in a permanent facility, she’ll look around and decide if she feels safe there. If she doesn’t, she’ll move forward with a civil suit against the Department of Corrections to be relocated to a safer place. That may or may not be a women’s prison.”
At the moment, the larger issue for McDonald is the state’s evaluation process. Over the next month, says Burgess, an ad hoc committee of prison health officials and wardens will form to determine McDonald’s gender (you read that right), whether or not she’ll continue to receive the hormones she’s been prescribed in the past and if she’ll be placed in administrative segregation, which is really just a glorified version of solitary confinement.
“In my experience, the committee process is remarkably abusive and just disgusting,” says Burgess. “Generally, they’re made up of all non-transgender people with absolutely no cultural sensitivity. They look at three things: physiology—meaning your genitals—sex orientation and prior placement. Rather than protecting transgender people, who are easily the most vulnerable group when it comes to sexual violence in prison, the underlying idea is that transgender people are sexual predators.”
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(best to read the whole article here)
It's not feminism that hurts men
It's not feminism that hurts men
Jo T examines a recent article supporting claims that men are "the new second sex" and finds it to be a highly misleading piece that fails to consider the role of patriarchal structures in men's suffering and instead opts to blame feminism
Jo T, 21 May 2012
There's no denying that men are oppressed by certain cultural norms. These tell them that they shouldn't openly express their feelings, that there is only a very limited way to perform masculinity in an 'acceptable' way and that disagreeing with dominant tropes about what is and isn't 'manly' can lead to very unpleasant consequences. I read No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz and agree with a great deal of what is said there, about men, 'manliness' and the problems unique to men in a patriarchy. I also find Tony Porter's TEDWomen speech (I put the youtube below) on the pernicious and damaging "man box" to be moving, and accurate, and highly pertinent.
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Tony Porter: A call to men
However, as the section of the men's rights movement which hates women gains ground in online spaces, the recent Observer article by Elizabeth Day on the subject not only seems disingenuous but also potentially dangerous. Indeed, it all but concedes the vast majority of the anti-feminist talking points pushed by men's rights activists (MRAs). Before I begin, I should point out that Melissa at Shakesville has done a superb job of explaining many of the article's problematic aspects, not least that "it ain't women who are the primary gatekeepers of that bullshit [i.e. patriarchy]. It's other men."
Society teaches boys that to be masculine is to be self-contained, to be in control of one's emotions
The headline and standfirst of the article are bad enough: if women and girls were merely "lagging at school" and "the butt of cruel jokes", rather than victims of systemic violence and inequality, we'd count ourselves damn lucky. The piece then begins by setting out the usual tedious MRA talking points about the "supar sekrit!" oppression of men, using arguments promulgated by Professor David Benatar and men's rights author Warren Farrell. This is followed by a paragraph giving half a dozen examples of the oppression men supposedly face. In my opinion, these mislead the readers by omitting various highly relevant pieces of information and context. To highlight a few:
"...men are more likely to be conscripted into military service..."
... (rebuttal)
"...men are more likely to lose custody of their children in the event of a divorce..."
... (rebuttal)
"...Boys lag a year behind girls at reading in every industrialised country."
... (rebuttal)
"Men work longer hours, too..."
... (rebuttal)
"...men develop heart disease 10 years earlier than women, on average.."
... (rebuttal)
"...young men are three times more likely to commit suicide."
... (rebuttal)
Benatar says this state of affairs for men is "a neglected form of sexism." But who is perpetrating this "sexism"? Who punishes men for transgressing the boundaries of the "man box"? In many cases, it is other men.
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In the end, Day's article is fatally flawed because it does not put forward a remotely believable explanation for the difficulties faced by some men under patriarchy. The only people who mention the p-word in the article are Walter and Bindel. "Facts" about the "second sexism" are brought up with no explanation, no context and no discussion. Sadly, the article will doubtless be used by MRAs as "proof" that their thin arguments are actually valid, when all the problems facing men which the article lists are offshoots of patriarchy - unintended consequences of a system which causes disproportionate harm to women and girls. Talk about missing the point.
http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2012/05/its_not_feminism_that_hurts_men
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I remember asking a nine-year-old boy, I asked a nine-year-old boy, "What would life be like for you, if you didn't have to adhere to this man box?" He said to me, "I would be free."
Thank you folks.- Tony Porter
Walmart Sex Discrimination Claims Filed By 2,000 Women
Walmart Sex Discrimination Claims Filed By 2,000 Women
Posted: 06/06/2012
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May 25 was the deadline for women in most states to file charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that litigates on behalf of workers against employers. EEOC charges were filed by 1,975 Walmart women before the deadline. Under most laws enforced by the EEOC, plaintiffs must file a charge with the agency before bringing a job discrimination lawsuit. The filings mean women who say Walmart systematically favors men for raises and promotions can individually pursue lawsuits, even though a class-action lawsuit against Walmart was turned away last summer by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Charges were filed in every state except Montana and Vermont (the latter has only four Walmart stores, the fewest of any state). Women in Florida, Alabama and Georgia filed the most claims. Lawyers said they hope the filings will lead to new regional class-action lawsuits. Plaintiffs in last year's failed class-action have already launched new class-action suits in California and Texas courts.
“The fact that EEOC charges were filed in every single Walmart region in the nation demonstrates the widespread and pervasive nature of Walmart’s pay and promotion discrimination against its women employees,” said Brad Seligman, a lead attorney for the women, in a statement.
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The filings with the EEOC could also provoke that agency to launch its own investigation into Walmart. The EEOC has sued Walmart in the past, independently of the Dukes case. In 2010, Walmart settled a lawsuit brought by the EEOC, paying $11.7 million in back wages and compensation damages to women in London, Ky., who were denied jobs because of their sex.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/walmart-sex-discrimination-women-_n_1575859.html
France cuts pension age for some despite EU unease
Source: SwissInfo, Reuters
Jun 6, 2012 - 20:11
France cuts pension age for some despite EU unease
PARIS (Reuters) - France's new left-wing government announced on Wednesday a cut in the pension age to 60 for some long-time workers, carrying out an election pledge in the face of economic troubles and an EU warning that it would overburden an already creaking social welfare system.
Socialist President Francois Hollande, who took power in mid-May on a pro-growth ticket for the economy, had promised a partial rollback of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform if he won.
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The reform will also create vacancies at a time when unemployment is at its highest level this century.
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Sarkozy's pension reform, adopted despite street protests by millions in 2010, was welcomed by financial markets and credit ratings agencies concerned about France's ability to cut its debt and deficit levels in the face of stagnant economic growth.
Read more: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/France_cuts_pension_age_for_some_despite_EU_unease.html?cid=32851790
I like the PM's quote "Promise made, promise met"
More breasts and nursing. Corporate Rights vs. Human need
It's hard work convincing poor people that just because something comes from North America doesn't mean it's good.
Nestle has huge campaigns down here pushing their baby formula to mostly unschooled mothers who can't read Spanish, or even speak it because they want their language, not the colonizer's (there are 55 living languages in Guatemala, 26 of those account for the majority). So Nestle and Gerber do their campaigns for profit on poor women who have $1-$2 a day to live on. Because of shipping costs, they mostly sell the dry powdered formula here.
If you can't read, you can't see the fine print that says warning, use only clean water (a scarcity for poor women) and washy all utensils carefully. So they mix it with dirty water expecting their babies to grow up healthy and strong like the chubby White baby on the box of formula.
I think I just read that thanks to many women-run NGOs down here, they were able to undo some of the damage and breastfeeding has been going up despite the Nestles and Gerbers and near 50% exclusively breastfeeding now with most of the others doing a mix.
I wasn't aware of the following. I'm really pissed off after reading it.
I thought of posting it in Latin America since it's not a traditional topic for Feminist discussion but if all women are our sisters, shouldn't we discuss these things as Feminist issues?
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In 1983, Guatemala passed a law and regulations incorporating the WHO code. The goal of the Guatemalan government was to encourage new mothers (1) to breast-feed their infants and (2) to fully understand the threats to their babies of using infant formula as a substitute for breast milk. The Guatemalan law prohibited the use of labels that associated infant formula with a healthy, chubby baby; specifically, the law prohibited pictures of idealized babies on packages of baby food intended for children younger than 2 years. Furthermore, the Guatemalan law required labels to carry a statement that breast-feeding is nutritionally superior. The law also prohibited baby food manufacturers from providing free samples of their products (if a baby starts taking free samples the mother stops lactating, thus converting mother and infant into full-time, paying customers). And finally the law prohibited baby food manufacturers from directly marketing their products to young mothers in the hospital.The regulations went into effect in 1988 and all domestic and foreign manufacturers of baby foods -- with one notable exception -- came into compliance. Infant deaths attributable to bottle feeding declined, and UNICEF began highlighting Guatemala as a model for what works.
However, the U.S. baby food manufacturer, Gerber (motto: "Babies Are Our Business"
, objected to Guatemala's new law. Although the Guatemalan Ministry of Health made numerous attempts to negotiate with Gerber, the company reportedly continued to market its infant formula directly to mothers in the hospital, and continued to give free samples to doctors and day care centers. Most importantly Gerber refused to remove its trademark picture of a chubby, smiling baby from its product labels, and it refused to add a phrase saying breast milk was superior. In sum, Gerber thumbed its nose at Guatemalan health authorities, who were trying to protect their most vulnerable citizens, infants, against harm.
In November, 1993 -- ten years after Guatemala passed its law, and five years after its regulations went into effect -- Gerber lost its final appeal. A Guatemalan Administrative Tribunal ruled in favor of the Ministry of Health and it looked as though even Gerber would have to comply with the Guatemalan law. But Gerber opened a new line of attack on Guatemala, arguing that the Guatemalan law was illegal under international statutes because the law was really an "expropriation of Gerber's trademark." This tactic bought Gerber some time while the World Trade Organization was being created. Then in 1995, when the WTO came into being, Gerber dropped its claim about illegal expropriation of its trademark and began threatening to challenge Guatemala before a WTO tribunal.
Within a short time, Guatemala realized it was now up against immense power and the Guatemalan government changed its law to allow Gerber to have its way. Gerber won without ever having to formally request that the U.S. take its case to the WTO. Just a few letters containing the WTO threat were sufficient.
http://www.southerncrossreview.org/3/racheleng.html
6.5 million LinkedIn passwords leaked online
Source: The Independent
KEVIN RAWLINSON WEDNESDAY 06 JUNE 2012
Nearly 6.5 million passwords belonging to users of the professional social networking site LinkedIn have been leaked online, according to reports.
Users are being urged to change their login details over fears that, if confirmed, the leak would compromise vast amounts of personal data, including contact information. The information was reportedly posted as encrypted on a Russian hackers’ website and 300,000 are said to have been decrypted, with work ongoing, according to the respected technology blog The Next Web.
LinkedIn, which faced criticism recently after it was revealed that its mobile app was sending certain information from users’ phones back to the company without their knowledge, posted a message on Twitter saying it was looking into the reports, which are as yet unconfirmed.
A file containing 6,458,020 encoded passwords was posted online, and hackers across the world are said to be collaborating to decipher them.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/65-million-linkedin-passwords-leaked-online-7820696.html
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/65-million-linkedin-passwords-leaked-online-7820696.html
Change your passwords. CNET is also reporting this with a little more technical detail http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57448079-83/millions-of-linkedin-passwords-reportedly-leaked-online/
Guatemala: Pérez Molina downsizes Peace Archives
*3. Guatemala: Pérez Molina Downsizes Peace Archives
During the last week of May the government of Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina began a process that human rights defenders charge will virtually close down the Peace Archives, the agency in charge of preserving and investigating military and police records from the country’s bloody 1960-1996 civil war. Newly appointed Peace Secretary Antonio Arenales Forno announced that the agency was unnecessary. Its function, he said, is “to computerize and analyze military archives to establish human rights violations, but this is the responsibility of the human rights community, and the investigation of crimes is the responsibility of the Prosecutor’s Office.”
The government notified 17 workers in the Peace Archives on May 28 that they would be laid off at the end of June, and Arenales Forno indicated that there more than 100 unnecessary positions in the Peace Secretariat that might be eliminated. The government hasn’t decided where the Archives’ records will kept, but they may be divided between several different Guatemalan agencies and the General Archives of Central America.
Mandated by the peace accords of 1996 and put into operation in 2008, the Peace Archives has already computerized two million documents and published nine reports on topics ranging from the National Police archives to forced disappearances during the war years and the illegal adoptions of children. Staffers from the agency have served as expert witnesses in trials for genocide and crimes against humanities, including the ongoing trial of former military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983).
Efraín Ríos Montt
Kate Doyle, a director of investigations at the Washington, DC-based research group National Security Archive, wrote on June 1 that “the closing of the Peace Archives ends an important source of support to human rights prosecutions in Guatemala, and may in part reflect the current government’s particular distaste for the genocide cases.” President Pérez Molina has denied that there was ever genocide in the military’s counterinsurgency campaigns. The president himself was a major in the army during the Ríos Montt dictatorship, operating around Nebaj, El Quiché department, in the Ixil Mayan region (see Updates #1114, 1115). (Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 5/31/12; EFE 6/1/12 via Terra.com (Peru); National Security Archive blog 6/1/12)
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http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/2012/06/wnu-1131-mexican-presidential-race.html
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Name: CatherinaGender: Female
Member since: Mon Mar 3, 2008, 03:08 PM
Number of posts: 35,568
