Program Title: Aug. 13th Headlines
Description: [stinger music by Lee Fields]

GOOD MORNING.

I'm David Koch, and here are some of the week's HEADLINES from CKUT's COMMUNITY NEWS COLLECTIVE.

Last week, GOVERNMENTS, INTERNATIONAL bodies and civil SOCIETY met in MEXICO for the 17th International AIDS Conference.

Among the topics DISCUSSES was the need to respect the HUMAN RIGHTS of groups vulnerable to AIDS. These groups include men who have sex with men, transgender persons and sex workers.

Delegates also discussed scientific advances towards COMBATING the disease and FUNDING for treatment.

Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement on Monday ANNOUNCED that Canada will commit $45 million to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Canadian government has been CRITICIZED for reducing domestic funding for EXISTING and PLANNED AIDs-related programs and services by almost 15 per cent last year.

In QUEBEC, where the PROVINCIAL government stopped offering FORMAL SEX EDUCATION in PUBLIC schools in 2005, YOUTH HEALTH ORGANIZATION Head in Hands found most high school students think that there’s a VACCINE for AIDS.

****

MEANWHILE, The Walk4justice continues their MARCH to OTTAWA. Walk4justice is a group of INDIGENOUS WOMEN calling ATTENTION to the Indigenous women who have gone missing or been murdered.

The march left VANCOUVER, BC on June 21, 2008. IT is expected to reach Ottawa on September 15. They are demanding a response from Parliament Hill on cases of VIOLENCE against Indigenous women. Thewalk4justice will be heading from TORONTO to Tyendinaga on Tuesday September 2, 2008.

To contact organizers, write to nomoresilence@riseup.net.

****

We go now to a REPORT from independent journalist Aaron Lakoff about riots that erupted in Montreal NORTH this weekend after a youth was SHOT and KILLED by POLICE.

The streets of St-Michel, a predominantly Haitian area of Montreal, are often the scene of tense confrontations between local youth and police, and those tensions boiled over this past weekend. Eighteen year-old Freddy Alberto Villanueva was shot dead by police in a neighborhood park on Saturday night. Two other youths, aged 18 and 20, were injured by police gunfire in the same incident. Montreal Police say two of their officers opened fire after they were rushed by a group of around 20 youths. Rioting broke out Sunday night near the scene of the police killing, as propane tanks and cars were set on fire, and many more people were arrested at gunpoint. Francois du Canal of the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality comments on the riots: [clip] "It's good to see that kind of reaction because these kind of police killings happen a lot – as we've seen in the last 20 years, there's been about 2 per year. But if there's no public reaction, then the case will be forgotten and fall out of the news and nobody's gonna think about it anymore." Freddy Villanueva has become Montreal's first police fatality of 2008. Another youth was killed in the same neighborhood by police in October of last year, but the results of the internal investigation into that incident have not been made public. For FSRN, this is Aaron Lakoff reporting from Montreal.

Yesterday, Mayor Gérald Tremblay called on QUEBEC Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis for a SPEEDY inquiry and a public report into Saturday's police shooting which targeted UNARMED youth.

In Quebec, police officers have KILLED no less than 53 people and wounded 29 others since 2005. This includes Mohamed Anas Bennis, KILLED by POLICE outside of his MOSQUE in December 2005.

A planned coroner's inquest has not yet begun on Anas Bennis's case.

Mothers Against Violence are organizing a COMMUNITY RALLY to take place at NELSON MANDELA PARK in Côte-Des-Neiges between 3 and 6 PM, this Sunday, August 17.

The PURPOSE of the rally is to engage PUBLIC conversation around DEATHS resulting from VIOLENCE within the black community.

For more information on the community rally, call 514 846 2020 or write to millionsmoremontreal@yahoo.ca.

MEANWHILE, A New Brunswick court RULED last week that DR. HENRY MORGENTHALER has the LEGAL RIGHT to CHALLENGE the PROVINCE's POLICY on ABORTION FUNDING.

MORGENTHALER's PRIVATE CLINIC in Fredrickton reportedly provides MORE THAN HALF of all abortions in New Brunswick.

HOWEVER, the PROVINCE only pays for ABORTIONS approved by TWO physicians and PERFORMED at an APPROVED hospital. That means that MORGENTHALER's patients pay the $750 fee out of their OWN pocket.

The PROVINCE argued in court LAST YEAR that only women who had used Morthenthaler's clinic had LEGAL STANDING to challenge the policy. HOWEVER, Judge Paulette Garnett RULED that "There are MANY VALID REASONS why women who have had ABORTIONS at the Fredericton clinic would not or could not bring this CHALLENGE. Dr. Morgentaler is therefore a SUITABLE alternative person to do so," Garnett said.

****

Now we turn to news from the United States.

Four in ten WOMEN at a VETERANS HOSPITAL have reported being sexually assaulted while in the military. A government REPORT indicates that NUMBERS could be HIGHER.

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC representative Jane Harman calls the phenomenon an "EPIDEMIC".

She added that, "WOMEN serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be RAPED by a fellow SOLDIER than killed by enemy fire in IRAQ." More than 190,000 women have served so far in Iraq and Afghanistan.

*****

AND NOW TO GUATEMALA, where COMMUNITY leader was "ATTACKED and HACKED to death" on his way home on Thursday AUGUST 7.

Antonio Morales was ACTIVE in INDIGENOUS GROUPS that opposed LARGE SCALE MINING, HYDROELECTRIC projects and the PRIVATIZATION of water in Guatemala.

THESE ORGANIZATIONS have called MORALES' death POLITICAL INTIMIDATION.

Independent journalist Dawn PALEY spoke to CKUT yesterday about the role of MINING COMPANIES in Guatemala: [clip] “The thing that people repeat and constantly repeat, when you actually go into these areas that are affected by this mine, be it related to the pollution, the contamination, the violence, the intimidation they are experiencing is this did not exist before this mine was here.�

MONTANA EXPLORING -- a SUBSIDIARY of the CANADIAN company GOLDCORP INC -- recently spent THOUSANDS of dollars trying to HALT a community REFERENDUM in Guatemala that could THREATEN their MINING ACTIVITIES, according to Free Speech Radio News.

AGAIN, To contact organizers of the Walk4justice write to nomoresilence@riseup.net.

For more information on the community rally in COTE DES NEIGES, call 514 846 2020 or write to millionsmoremontreal@yahoo.ca.

[stinger music by Lee Fields]

THOSE are some of the week's TOP STORIES from CKUT's COMMUNITY NEWS COLLECTIVE.

Host(s):
Featured Speakers/Guests: Voiced by David Koch and Aaron Lakoff.

Credits:

Comments: