FLQ Crisis

The Front de Liberation du Quebec Crisis

Primary Group Goal: If you belonged to this group you beleived in a revolutionary group goal that would promote an independent and socialist Quebec. You really wanted freedom for your 'province' from the rest of Canada.

The 1970s: FLQ terrorists kidnapped James Cross who is the British Trade Commissioner was kidnapped at 8.15 a.m. By three p.m. in the afternoon, ransom notes had been received. Five days later Pierre Laporte, who was the Minister of Labour, was kidnapped at his house by another two masked men. From this day there were countless Quebec people who were shocked by this act. Many of the FLQ terrorists had actually trained with the Palestinian terrorists. There were a series of bombings over the past two years as well.

Killings: The body of Pierre Laporte was found in the trunk of a car, so he was killed in the crisis while James Cross was not. His body was found near the St-Hubert airport on the south shore of Montreal. It appeared that he had been killed, on October 17 f this crisis. In responce, there was the War Measures Act. A universal reaction of revulsion and shock was felt over the murder of Pierre Laporte.

Solution? The War Measures Act is an act which allows emergency powers on the federal Cabinet level to govern by decree when it perceives the existence of "war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended." The Act was proclaimed in force with detailed regulations limiting the freedom of Canadians during both world wars. More limited emergency legislation, the was put into use and occurred in October and November 1970. There was a declared state of "apprehended insurrection" due to the hostage taking and threats that occured admist the crisis. Afterwards Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pledged to refine and limit the application of the Act in internal crises, but by the time of the Liberal defeat in 1984 the Act had not been modified. Finally, in 1988, a more detailed and limited law, the Emergencies Act, was passed into effect.

Somalia People: Stories of three different struggles

Somalia Events: Friday's Social:
** 3 summaries of people living in Somalia and their daily lives **

Story 1:

Name: Abdidir Ali Hashi, age 22

Occupation: married, no children bus driver.

Summary of his struggles: His bus route is 30km to the city of Mogdishu and on this path, he has to go through six-check-points. At these checkpoints he has to pay 50 000 shillings, which is equivalent to 3 dollars. These are mandatory for him, which is quite unfortunate because fighting would more than likely break out. Abdidir disagrees with it entirely, but its most likely that respects President Abdullahi's choices. Abdidir struggles daily with having to pay these dues because they also limit the amount of education available to him, with this downward daily spiral, there are limited chances for him to stop driving buses. Photograph:

Story 2:

Name: Halima Mubarak Rashid

Occupation: Carries goods for people in the market with her husband and 3 children

Summary of her struggles:
Everyday Halima's mind is "filled with thoughts about daily food". Her and her family does not know where they are going to be able to round-up food at the end of the day, so therefore her s very, very poorly off. Halima came here 14 years ago because there was constant rivalry in her old home region, which was Lower Shabelle. She, along with her husband was chased away and thus she became a refugee. Halima is actually infected with a serious stomach disease but cannot even afford to go to the hospital. Her one child is in secondary school while her other two children are in elementary school. Unfortunately here children were actually sent home because the school fees are 300 000 shillings, which is actually equivalent to 20 dollars a month.
Photograph:

Story 3:

Name: Abdullahi Abuker Mahamud

Occupation: Cattle Herder

Summary of his struggles:

Abdullahi does not have the easiest of a life. He and his family were chased off their own land by a group that was fully armed and dangerous, making his chance at survival smaller. Many of his cows and daily economic intake is stolen by the many freelance gunmen around him. His life is very difficult. Although his perspective on government is that, he fully supports it. It is hard for him because he lost his brother in a gunfight between allied and armed groups. The main reason for all of his support it that it has the opportunity to bring real stability and peace to Somalia. Abdullahi hopes to get his family's land back some day and continue on a better life with the new form of government.

Photograph:

--SaraH*

Somali Disaster: Movie Clip Reflection

•Video: Culture Chaos and Clans•

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-723-4302/conflict_war/somalia/clip1

–Describe your feelings about this disaster
–What should the world have done differently?
–How should we respond differently next time something like this happens – from beginning to end.

This movie is not functioning properly on this website....

--SaraH**

What does ETHNICITY mean?

Various Definitions of Ethnicity

• A sense of being different than other groups because of (your) cultural tradition, ancestry, national origin, history, physical appearance or religion. Ethnicity is an individual's identiy and can sometimes depend on the ethnic background group that they that feel safe and welcomed with.

• A Social Construction (such as a club or community group) can actually help INDICATE that indentification with a particular group: they become the minority group in society. This group is often affiliated with common ancestors.

• In the United States and other over-populated countries, ethnicity is a term that is very flexible in meaning beacuse of the great variety of cultures.

Ethnic: life sytle or culturlal identiy

nicity: actual area (niche) of culture

Interesting alternative definition: ethnicity can also mean a Student’s numerical age at the time of repot cards..


--SaraH*

Non-Government Organization: **Greenpeace**

Summary of a greenpeace News Event

Written by Sarah Hogg

New Industrial Logging has just been released for the Ngo Greenpeace to read about. Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organization. This is the key feature that may save the rainforest because they do not use violence to deal with issues, but more confrontation with creative undertones. The deforestation plans are threatening a very rich and unique area of the Papua New Guinea tropical rainforest. This area, sometimes termed by scientists as the "Lost World of Western New Guinea” is an area that is incredibly vast in terms of the variety in spices; all discoveries which could greatly benefit our sick and over-populated world. The most recent trip scientists have taken to the “lst world” was in December of 2005. A team of U.S., Indonesian, and Australian scientists took an expedition to the island. Conservation International, a group familiar with Greenpeace, led the journey. These scientists found dozens of new species of flowers, fungi, frogs, and insects. The most exciting discovery was of an orange-faced honeyeater, the first new bird found on the island of New Guinea in more than 60 years. These small but very important findings are diminishing in frequency every single day.

Specifically mentioned in this article is the "garden of Eden." this section of earth has over hundreds of millions of species that have yet to be studied thuroughthtly by scientists or even discovered. The logging maps show that over 48 percent—almost half-- of Papua New Guinea’s forests have already been sold to countries for logging rights so that they can sell and export wood. The only way to solve this problem would be to actually get the Indonesian Government to stop selling off areas of forests. It is also unfortunate to read that 72 percent of forests in Indonesia have already been cleared. In Papua New Guinea, the area, which includes the “garden of Eden”, is very depressingly 60 percent. Forests, like animals and sea life have to have adequate protection, and it may just be that people see forests as nothing more than areas filled with trees.
So what has Greenpeace proposed to do about this dilemma? Well they have very recently launched a project in Papua, which allows for a variety of eco-enterprises to lend a supporting hand I protecting the forests. There is also a Global Forest Rescue station set up deep in the forests of Papua New Guinea. Volunteers there try to stop the forest workers and their attempts to destroy the forest.

One can only hope that the forests are around in the next twenty years, or ten...I would like to visit them...

--SaraH**