The Dominion: All Stories

Issue #70

Tim McSorley — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:48:40 -0400

Solidarities of Resistance: Liberation from Education

dawn — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:04:38 -0400

Reflections on education, colonization, and freedom

Stopping the Flow

Cameron Fenton — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:24:19 -0400

Quebec Climate Action Camp takes on the Enbridge Trailbreaker project

Universal Access?

hillarybain — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:33:25 -0400

Barriers to accessing health care persist for transgender people in Nova Scotia

August in Review, Part II

dawn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:03:22 -0400

Israeli shipping slowed, Enbridge evicted, G-20 defendants appear in court

Less Than Animals

hillarybain — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:46:24 -0400

Palestinian women imprisoned by Israel speak out

Unofficial Transcript Radio #3

dawn — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 07:19:32 -0400

GRIP-UQAM activists work to transform food politics & challenge economic structure

Listen to Unofficial Transcript Radio #3

Scraping by on Mud Cookies

Wadner Pierre — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:39:05 -0400

By Wadner Pierre

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 27, 2010 (IPS) - At six in the morning in Cite Soleil, the poorest zone of Haiti's capital city, the sun is already up. It's the start of another workday for Lurene Jeanti, making cookies from mud, butter and salt. She's been mixing the ingredients on the side of the road to sell to her neighbours for the past eight years.

"The mud helps me take care of my children," she says matter-of-factly.

Jeanti is a slight, muscled woman, one of millions of Haitians who have migrated from the countryside to Port-au- Prince over the past decade. She left her hometown to find a way to feed her five kids.

"My children have no father. I am the mother and the father of them," Jeanti told IPS. The father is gone and Haiti has no statutes protecting women who are abandoned with their children.

Jeanti grew up in Anse D'Hainault, a remote town in Haiti's southwest near Grand Anse, known as the "city of poets". Ezer Villaire, one of the great Haitian poets, was born and raised there.

Unlike other parts of rural Haiti, trees still populate the mountains and little plateaus where yams and cacao are grown. "Have you visited Anse D'Hainault? It's really nice. You should go," she told IPS. "I used to farm. I am a farmer."

But the income from farming small crops wasn't enough. Unemployment rates rise to 80-90 percent in much of the countryside.

Now Jeanti lives in Cité Saint Georges, a tiny district within Cité Soleil. The concrete canal running through the neighbourhood is full to the brim with plastic bottles.

She sits in a dirty corner near the entrance to a narrow corridor where people come to buy mud cookies or a gallon of water from a neighbour. Most the houses are made with concrete blocks and unfinished.

Tamils Welcomed in Vancouver

dawn — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:24:54 -0400

Hundreds support Tamil refugees on the MV Sun Sea

Ties that Bind

Martin Lukacs — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:00:46 -0400

Canadian military seeking lessons from Israeli occupying army

Haiti Gears Up for Polls - Again, Sans Lavalas

Wadner Pierre — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:47:44 -0400

By Wadner Pierre
published by IPS
Photo by Wadner Pierre
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jul 30, 2010 (IPS) - After weeks of delays, Haitian President René Préval confirmed this month that presidential and legislative elections will take place on Nov. 28. The U.N. and Western donor nations are pledging millions of dollars in support of the polls, but with at least 1.5 million people still homeless from the January earthquake, questions loom over how to ensure voter participation.

In the last round of senatorial elections before the earthquake, less than three percent of the electorate participated. Fanmi Lavalas, widely seen as the most popular political party in the country, was excluded from the election on technical grounds, along with some other parties. Now, the party has again been banned from participating in the November polls.

International donors have expressed disappointment at Haiti's failure to hold inclusive elections, but have continued to fund them.

In recent weeks U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican member on the foreign relations committee, issued two reports recommending candidates from Fanmi Lavalas be allowed to participate. But his calls have been dismissed by Préval and the Provisional Electoral Council, the entity charged with organising elections.

On Wednesday, nearly one hundred Fanmi Lavalas supporters held a sit-in outside the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.

"We come in front of the Embassy to ask President [Barack] Obama to take action because we didn't support him for this," said a woman identifying herself as Madeleine. "President Préval excludes us from the elections. We voted for him, but this isn't what we wanted."

Gonaives Girds for Heavy Storm Season

Wadner Pierre — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:41:48 -0400

By Wadner Pierre

GONAIVES, Aug 2, 2010 (IPS) - Gonaives, the third largest city in Haiti, is rushing to prepare for an expected highly active hurricane season. The city was flooded by three hurricanes in the past six years - Hannah and Ike in 2008, and Jeanne, which killed at least 2,500 people in 2004.

While progress has been made in the recovery from those disasters, Gonaives - which was largely spared by the Jan. 12 earthquake - remains extremely vulnerable to new hurricanes.

Reconstruction of parts of the highway crossing the city was only recently completed. When this reporter visited Gonaives last year, the population was upset with the state of the dusty road, although Estrella, a Dominican construction company, has since fixed large portions of it.
Some locations that were routinely inundated with filthy water have been rebuilt. Last year, it might have taken a pedestrian almost 10 minutes to traverse the intersection in front of the Gonaives National Police headquarters after one hour of rain.

Belmour Myriam, a middle-aged woman, is working on drainage of the Biennac canal, which channels water from east of Gonaives to the ocean. Cleaning the canal has been a five- month project of USAID.

"I live in Baby Street," she told IPS. "Six years after the hurricane, my street is still not cleaned up. We have received no aid or attention from either local authorities or NGOs. We are alone in Baby Street."

"There is little change. We have power almost twenty-four- seven, and Avenue des Dattes is almost done. That's all," she added.

Traffic on the highway is bustling. But smaller neighbourhood streets were destroyed by the flooding. Many remain damaged, unpaved and dirty.

Guatemalan Women Speak Out Against Rape

dawn — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:05:42 -0400

Soldiers, police, security terrorized residents who live in nickel-rich area

Unofficial Transcript Radio #2

dawn — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 07:54:27 -0400

Thousands protest Quebec budget, riot police confront youth in Montreal’s World Trade Centre

Listen to Unofficial Transcript Radio #2

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation: A Myopic Watchdog?

Moira Peters — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:02:35 -0400

Anti-tax group setting up in Atlantic Canada, critics says it's all rhetoric