Representatives from the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) faculty and Students' Association (FNUnivSA), along with Aboriginal leaders, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), will be in Ottawa this week to appeal to the federal government to reverse its decision to end funding - at the end of this month - for the only Aboriginal university in Canada.

Over the past year and a half the general population has sat quietly by as governments everywhere have introduced numerous programs to bail out banks and large corporations. Governments have been printing money, and debt and budget deficits have balooned. Very little of the massive government spending programs has gone to assist people who have lost their jobs or their homes.

Now governments are going to have to pay for the bailouts. And guess who is going to have to tighten their belts? 

The silence and apathy of the great majority may be ending. In Iceland and Greece we are seeing  popular resistance to the right wing policies being imposed by their governments. European politicians and businessmen are fearful that the emerging popular movement will spread to Portugal, Spain, Ireland and even the United Kingdom, the countries with the most significant debt problems.

For people on campus, you can take part in an interactive conversation with Cullis Suzuki about education for sustainability tonight, Thursday, at the Education Auditorium. The event starts at 7:00 p.m.

Saskatoon protest. Andi Buffalo photo.

Independent media reporter rejected at border, detained by border agents and denied outside contact

Martin Macias Jr., an independent media reporter from Chicago travelling to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC, has been rejected by Canadian border agents and held without outside contact for at least 7
hours (as of 9pm) Saturday.

Macias arrived in Vancouver from Chicago (via Minneapolis) on a 11:30am Delta Airlines flight on Saturday, February 6, 2010.  He was detained for hours by Canada Border Services agents in the Vancouver International
Airport and questioned about his plans during the Olympics.  Ultimately he was refused entry to Canada. He was then put on an Alaskan Airlines flight to the Seattle / Tacoma Airport (departing at 2:40pm).  As of 9pm he had
not been able to contact legal counsel or his travelling companion since before his rejection at the border.  The information on his rejection was only made available through the US Consulate.  It is routine for people rejected at the border to be interrogated by both Canadian and US border agents; he may well still be detained for questioning in the USA at this point.

Although he is entitled to a phone call and legal counsel, nothing has been heard from Macias since about 2pm when he still expected to be able to enter Canada as planned.

Martin was travelling to Vancouver for political events during the Olympic Resistance Network anti-Olympic convergence and to document the effects of the Winter Olympics on the communities of Vancouver.  He was to leave Vancouver for the USA on Feb. 11.  He was travelling with political organizer Bob Quellos of No Games Chicago, who was allowed to enter Canada.  They were both to be picked up by Chris Shaw, a member of the
Olympic Resistance Network, local Olympic critic, and author of 'The Five Ring Circus' who himself has been questioned and detained when travelling to a sports conference in the UK and repeatedly approached by members of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (Olympic policing body) regarding his political activities.  Canadian border agents, police, and intelligence units have been actively surveilling, questioning and harassing opponents of the Olympic Games (and their associates and families) for years.  Media, such as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, have been subject to questioning and increased scrutiny as well.