*Ottawa–Montreal–Kingston–
Guelph–London–Kitchener-Waterloo–Toronto*

For almost twelve long years, Mohammad Mahjoub, a torture survivor, has been detained without charge in Canada. He was held for lengthy periods in solitary confinement and later under house arrest. All on the basis of secret information which the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has admitted was likely obtained under torture. Now, for the first time in twelve years, Mr. Mahjoub is permitted to travel outside Toronto.

Mr. Mahjoub is one of five Muslim men who have been struggling for justice in Canada against so-called security certificates. Security certificates allow the government to indefinitely detain or deport people on the basis of their profile. He will tell his story in a seven-city speaking tour, as the Justice for Mahjoub Network gears up for a day of protest to mark the 12th anniversary of his arrest on June 26th.

Kingston’s event is sponsored by:
No One Is Illegal Kingston, OPIRG Kingston, PSAC Local 901, Levana Gender Advocacy Centre, End the Prison Industrial Complex, Peace Kingston, The Society of Graduate and Professional Students, and CFRC 101.9FM.

Refreshments and childcare will be provided.  To register for childcare (not required) please email noiik@riseup.net.

** More on Mahjoub: www.supportmahjoub.org/background/summary-2/
** Security certificates: www.supportmahjoub.org/background/security-certificates/

The Twelve Year Tour is supported by:
CAIR-CAN, www.caircan.ca
Canadian Labour Congress, www.clc-ctc.ca
International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, www.iclmg.ca
No One Is Illegal (London, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories),www.nooneisillegal.org
Prism Magazine, http://prism-magazine.com/

MORE INFO:

Justice for Mahjoub Network
WEB: www.supportmahjoub.org
EMAIL: justiceformahjoub@gmail.com
FB: www.facebook.com/SupportMahjoub

Rad Frosh – Organizing Collective

Rad Frosh is a series of events occurring in September and October aiming to introduce incoming and returning students to grassroots community organizing and social justice initiatives on and off campus. This series will include workshops, film screenings, concerts, panels, etc., and will be led by a diverse group of community organizers involved in a variety of local projects. Rad Frosh seeks to create opportunities for incoming and returning students to become involved in movements for social and environmental justice in a diversity of capacities.

Rad Frosh volunteers over the summer months will work with the OPIRG Coordinator to contact community organizations as well as speakers to plan events for Fall 2012. We will meet regularly throughout the summer to develop the schedule as well as work on promotions and outreach to returning and incoming students.

People’s History Project

The PHP aims to preserve an aspect of Kingston’s rich history that is often overlooked in traditional histories – Kingstonians’ important roles in the broader social movements of our time. This archive has an emphasis on documenting the first-hand experience of participants in grassroots social movements. As well, it preserves a collection of relevant newspaper articles, placards, posters, handbills, buttons, t-shirts and other surviving materials.

This summer we will be undertaking a two part project to promote the existence of the PHP to increase access and use of the archives as well as to celebrate our rich history of social change. We will be seeking arists as well as volunteer researchers who will also act as bloggers. Researchers/Bloggers are also able to act as artists if they so choose.

• Researchers/Bloggers

Researchers will summarize information from the archives this summer in a series of short blog pieces that will be featured on the OPIRG Kingston website. These pieces will highlight often overlooked aspects of our social movement history, focusing on particular events or initiatives. Research topics will be decided upon by the researchers themselves .

• Artists

Artists will use the information and events gathered by the researchers to design a series of posters. Similarly to the Celebrate Peoples History Project, these posters will aim to celebrate our histories through art in claiming public and private spaces. For more about the Celebrate Peoples History poster series, click here.

Know Your Rights – Coordinators

Know Your Rights is a yearly campaign OPIRG runs around homecoming for students to understand their rights when interacting with the police. Currently it consists of a rave card which we distribute in and around the student housing area in September. You can view the rave cards on our website.

We are seeking to use this summer to expand the campaign through the production of posters and videos. We are seeking 2 coordinators to design the campaign and ensure its completion by the end of August.

Push It! – Organizing Collective

Currently our annual hip-hop festival, Push It is under construction. Push It  is one part of a larger movement to improve the knowledge and visibility around hiphop in the city of Kingston. We are committed to developing spaces to create, express, learn and perform through the various elements of hip-hop, aiming to use the art form as a tool for change in our own lives. We seek to create environments that are open and accessible to the widest range of Kingston’s population possible and that are empowering for Kingston’s youth. We hope to offer not only live shows but workshops, film screenings, dj sessions, open mics and more !

We are seeking volunteers interested in organizing performances and workshops. Basically, anyone interested in or passionate about hip-hop, we need you to be a part of the movement!

Summer volunteers will meet regularly to plan events such as a block party, graffiti contest, open mics, cyphers and more!

Mental Health Zine

We spent the past semester soliciting submissions for our mental health zine. We wanted to develop a zine that will explore resources, tactics and strategies around self-care, supporting our friends, consent, and other such topics. Currently we are in need of more submissions as well as a team of folks to work on the design of the project.

5:30-7:30 PM
The Grey House (51 Bader Ln)

Agenda:

1. Introductions
2. Elections of Board of Directors
3. Reflections and Updates from 2011-2012
4. Brainstorm – Outreach + Fundraising
5. Volunteer + Employment Opportunities

Snacks will be provided and childcare is available upon request! Please contact info@opirgkingston.org with any questions or comments.

On January 31st and February 1st, all undergraduate students will be    voting on whether or not to continue allowing OPIRG to receive this fee. Voting ‘no’ means that students do not want OPIRG to continue as an organization and receive funding. Voting ‘yes’ means that students want the option of giving us funding each September when they pay tuition.

Learn more about the campaign at our referendum site: http://voteopirg.tumblr.com/

Be sure to check out our ‘NOPIRG?‘ page for information on the anti-PIRG movement on campus and beyond.

To get involved in the ‘VOTE YES’ for OPIRG campaign, e-mail info@opirgkingston.org

Where? Queen’s Centre room 506, 284 Earl Street

A day full of workshops, lectures, discussions and other events designed to bring together the wide variety of groups working on social and environmental justice in our community. We aim to share our knowledge, experiences and skills in the hopes of empowering participants to take action and create change in their own lives and communities. Workshop descriptions will be available shortly on our website.

Workshop Schedule:

10:00 – 11:00 AM OPIRG – Introduction to Consensus Decision Making and Facilitation

11:15 – 12:15 PM Engineers Without Borders – Fair Trade Workshop

12:30 – 1:30 PM CFRC & Journalists for Human Rights – Media and Activism

1:45 – 2:45 PM Earth Centre – Green Consumerism

3:00 – 4:00 PM QPID – Youth Outreach and Engagement

4:15 – 5:15 PM POSSE – Theatre and Social Justice

5:30 – 6:30 PM SHRC – Consent Workshop

If you or a group you are involved in would like to be involved in a future Activism 101 workshop series, please contact us at opirgkingston@gmail.com

We believe that there are no better experts about our lives than ourselves. We want this publication to come directly from our community (students, staff, faculty) which has the knowledge, skills and experience to develop solutions for our community.

We are seeking to provide resources, tactics and strategies through soliciting

*articles
*artwork
*poetry
*stories, etc.

Please e-mail us at opirgkingston@gmail.com with submissions, questions, comments and more! Or feel free to post below.

Want to get involved? Send us an e-mail !

Submission deadline EXTENDED: January 27th, 2012.

Join us for PSAC 901′s first LGBTQ meeting of the year. We will develop our mission statement, appoint a chair and brainstorm ideas about LGBTQ committee goals. Some initial ideas include: gender neutral bathrooms, documenting everyday barriers and discrimination for LGBTQ workers at Queen’s, establishing equity and anti oppression training for 901 stewards and members at large, education and outreach around LGBTQ discrimination and barriers in the workplace, establishing safe space in our workplace, LGBTQ social events in collaboration with other equity seeking groups on campus, etc. These are some initial ideas, we are seeking more input and involvement from anyone interested in equity in the workplace. All are welcome (including those who are not 901 members)!

Contact the Equity officer, Hannah Johnston: equityofficer@psac901.org or Vice-President of Community Krystle Maki: vpc@psac901.org for more information.

Essay Prize

Awarded by the Department of Sociology Equity Committee

In April 2012, the Department of Sociology Equity Committee will award Two Social Justice and Equity Prizes.  We encourage all undergraduate students who write an essay concerning social justice and equity issues for a course taken during the 2011/2012 academic year to consider submitting an essay to the competition.  Essays can be submitted at anytime throughout the year to: sociologyequitycommittee@gmail.com.

The best essay in an introductory course will receive a prize of $200 and the best essay in an upper year course will receive a prize of $200.

The Equity Committee is pleased to announce that the 2010/2011 Social Justice and Equity Essay Prizes were awarded to Katharine Wolff and Alissa Warner.

Katharine Wolff won the award for best essay in an introductory course with her essay entitled, “The Correlation between Feminism and Agricultural Transition” which she wrote for Socy 122.

Alissa Warner won the award for best essay in an upper year course with her essay entitled, “Beyond Pro-Choice: Reproductive Justice and Inequality within the Feminist Movement” which she wrote for Pols 403.

Congratulations Katharine and Alissa!

To read Katharine and Alissa’s essays or to access more information about this year’s prize please email sociologyequitycommittee@gmail.com or visit our page on the Sociology department’s website: http://www.queensu.ca/sociology/?q=programs/undergraduate/announcements

The Equity Committee acknowledges the financial support of the Dean of Student Affairs, OPIRG, and the Department of Sociology.

Based on some feedback we thought it was important to add some information about sexual assault resources.

Pleas share widely!