News on Twin Struggles

What happened this past weekend at the Gardiner Expressway was crazy, when Tamil protestors occuped the highway. When I first watched it on tv (I was too busy with schoolwork to attend) I thought in my mind, maybe they had gone a little too far. I don't think that now. Michael Ignatieff is has said he would bring it up in Ottawa, as have other politicians. Now, when I think about it, I know Iggy probably doesn't give a damn normally about the welfare of Tamil people in Sri Lanka...this demo got him to speak. That's what it akes sometimes to get anyboyd to speak for you, it seems. If it were my people being wiped out in such horrible ways you damn well bet I would be doing the same. I'm going down to show solidairty later this week, hopefully can get some footage for my show on CHRY 105.5 FM for Monday, let's hope there are no technical difficulties like on my last show!

Secondly, Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University, just this past Monday had succeeded in ensuring an debate on the potential Academic Boycott of the Israel take place. It went forward, with two academics on the pro-boycott side and two on the anti-boycott side...I wont mention any of their names, hopefully may be able to get some video footage soon...but overall I'd say our side won. The anti-boycott Profs were two odd bunch, one insisted he was a replacement for someone else at the last minute and had merely researched the issue a bit on the internet before coming in. The other was one fo the most patronizing commentators I'd ever heard. He kept insisting that Iran is more terrible as they "threatened to wipe Israel off the map", so he's arguing with already debunked talking points http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mScWWtRfGQ At the end he starte don some rant saying more or less : "You'll never get a boycott going! I don't know what in the name of God, or Allah (to the hissing and booing of most of the audience)..." So it was pretty pathetic as an argument. One student asked where his source came from that, and recieved no answer in response. This debate, that has been repressed from the administration and rejected time and again, opens doors to turning this into action, at York Univeristy and elsewhere. Neutral viewers may have been swayed, of course critical thinkers that supported the Palestinian cause will continue to do so, whereas Zionist students will most likely continue to believe what their parents told them. We'll see where this goes.