Thank you to everyone who were able to attend the talk!
If you were unable to be there, you can watch it here:
Thursday, January 30th, 2020
7pm to 9pm
338 Somerset Street West
(Enter through side entrance)
Free event – all welcome!
Author Paul Weinberg in conversation with
Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the ICLMG
We’re excited to be co-organizing the Ottawa launch of When Poverty Mattered: Then and Now, by Paul Weinberg.
Paul will be in conversation with Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, to discuss the history of national security surveillance of radical, progressive organizations and lessons that still resonate today. It will be a timely conversation, given recent laws allowing CSIS to engage in new, secret activities, as well as ongoing revelations of government surveillance and criminalization of activists. After a short discussion and reading, there will be a Q & A.
About the book
Founded in Toronto in 1968, the Praxis Corporation was a progressive research institute mandated to spark political discussion about a range of social issues, such as poverty, homelessness, anti-war activism, community activism and worker organization. Deemed a radical threat by the Canadian state, Praxis was put under RCMP surveillance. In 1970, Praxis’s office was burgled and burned to the ground. No arrests were made, but internal documents and records stolen from Praxis ended up in the hands of the RCMP Security Service. All this occurred as Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government shifted away from social spending and poverty reduction towards the economic regime of austerity and neoliberalism that we have today.
In When Poverty Mattered, Paul Weinberg combines insights gleaned from internal government documents, access to information requests and investigative journalism to provide both a history of radical politics in 1960s Canada and an illustration of misdeeds and dirty tricks the Canadian government orchestrated in order to disrupt activist organizations fighting for a more just society.
About Paul
Paul Weinberg has worked in journalism most of his life, primarily as a freelance writer. He has written for newspapers such as the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Daily Star and the Hamilton Spectator, weeklies including NOW Magazine and Eye Magazine, and a range of publications including the Report on Business, This Magazine and the CCPA Monitor. Currently living in Hamilton, he is editing an upcoming collection of articles about the City of Hamilton. And he spent a little over a decade researching his new book, When Poverty Mattered, Then and Now which he describes as combining the elements of history and investigative journalism.
“Anyone interested in the history of poverty and poor people’s movements should read this book.” — Gaétan Héroux, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
The venue is fully accessible. The bathrooms are gender neutral. The event will be in English but you will be able to ask questions in French.
Invite your friends and we hope to see you there!
Event co-organized with Octopus Books and Fernwood Publishing
More details: https://www.facebook.com/events/600965943978045/ & https://octopusbooks.ca/event/when-poverty-mattered-then-and-now
Since you’re here…… we have a small favour to ask. Here at ICLMG, we are working very hard to protect and promote human rights and civil liberties in the context of the so-called “war on terror” in Canada. We do not receive any financial support from any federal, provincial or municipal governments or political parties. You can become our patron on Patreon and get rewards in exchange for your support. You can give as little as $1/month (that’s only $12/year!) and you can unsubscribe at any time. Any donations will go a long way to support our work. |
