REPORT

Vancouver, BC - Students, workers, elders, and people of many ages came together in Vancouver on November 6, 2007, to protest Canada’s ongoing occupation in Afghanistan. Organizers and supporters of Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) protested at the Canadian Armed Forces Recruitment Center demanding “CANADA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN NOW!” The picket, which is MAWO’s 35th at the Recruitment Center, is part of a continuous campaign of reaching people in Vancouver to join together and demand an end to the Canada/NATO occupation of Afghanistan.

Several media outlets filmed the picket and interviewed organizers with MAWO about the campaign against Canada’s occupation of Afghanistan, which has collected more than 13,000 signatures calling for an end to the occupation.

MAWO co-chair and spokesperson Janine Solanki opened the picket by reading the statement issued by MAWO condemning the increasing destruction caused by occupation forces in Afghanistan today. After the statement was read protesters took to picketing and yelled loud and clear, calling for an independent public inquiry into Canada’s war drive.

MAWO Executive Committee member Andrew Barry spoke about the war at home against immigrants, refugees, non-status people and antiwar activists. He also condemned the political targeting and arrest of Alison Bodine. Alison is a co-chair of MAWO and was recently issued an exclusion order and 2-year ban from Canada. The protesters then went back to the streets for another round of picketing.

David Whittelesey, a MAWO organizer and veteran of the civil rights movement in the US, was the next to speak. David related the war at home and the attacks that are happening to social justice activists here to the extreme and violent measures being taken by occupation forces against resistance in Afghanistan. David’s powerful words were followed by the final speaker of the day, Nicole Burton, an SFU student and organizer with the MAWO-SFU club. Nicole spoke passionately against the Canada/NATO occupation of Afghanistan as a crime against humanityand how we in the anti-war movement need to continue organizing and acting against the injustice of this occupation.