Listen to a presentation from Bilal Elamine, the former editor of Left Turn magazine concerning the role of Hezbollah as a political force in Lebanon, touching on the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon, the recent political crisis / turmoil in Lebanon, including the general strike of 2006 and opposition demonstrations.

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MONTREAL: As the hearings of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences approach their final stage, the group ‘Rejetons l’intolérance au Québec’ (RIQ) calls on the Bouchard-Taylor Commission and Quebec society to tackle the causes of the current, biased ‘reasonable accommodation’ debate and to challenge its foundations in political opportunism.

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Montreal 2008: Throughout the past year Tadamon!, a volunteer-run collective of social justice organizers based in Montreal, has maintained a unique and important presence on the forefront of political organizing in North America in solidarity with struggles for social and economic justice in Lebanon and the Middle East.

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November 2007. Tadamon! & l’ASSE Present.

Wednesday, November 14th. 10am, UQÀM, room J-1120 (Pavillon Judith-Jasmin)
In the context of a day of workshops organized
by L’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ).

Tuesday November 20th, 12:30pm. Marianopolis College.
Hosted by the 3rd World Studies Department of Marianopolis College.

Tuesday November 27th, 11am. CEGEP Saint-Laurent.
Hosted by the Mobilization Committee of the Association
étudiante du Cégep de St-Laurent (AÉCSL)

Wednesday November 28th, 12Noon. Collège Marie-Victorin.
Hosted by the Syndicat étudiant du Collège Marie-Victorin (SECMV)

Tuesday, December 11th 12Noon. Collège de Maisonneuve.
Hosted by the Comité de mobilisation de la Société
générale des étudiants et des étudiantes du Collège de Maisonneuve (SOGÉÉCOM)

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BEIRUT: Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah cast a broad net on Sunday, vowing that no one could disarm his Hizbullah resistance fighters, recommending early parliamentary elections as a remedy to the standoff over Lebanon’s presidency, and warning that recent Israeli military exercises were preparation for a new conflict.

Nasrallah also reached out to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, many of whom live in camps near neighborhoods known as hotbeds of Hizbullah support, and voiced opposition to the government’s plans to privatize the country’s two mobile-phone networks.

In a televised address to a crowded Hizbullah rally in commemoration of Martyrs Day, Nasrallah promised that no power could force his group to give up its arms.

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BEIRUT: Emile Lahoud left Lebanon’s presidency at midnight on Friday, just hours after announcing the transfer of security responsibilities to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) because Parliament had failed to elect his successor. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora issued a statement shortly thereafter declaring Lahoud’s move unconstitutional.

Lahoud’s announcement explained his gambit by asserting that existing conditions in the country “could lead to a state of emergency,” but Siniora’s statement affirmed that only the Cabinet has the executive authority to declare such a state.

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“How can any man love but a Palestinian woman?” Ehab Lotayef asked the dimly-lit crowd at Sala Rossa. Although Lotayef was married to a Palestinian woman, the message of his poem was not romantic – it was political.

Alongside local and Juno-award-winning musicians, poets, documentary filmmakers and photographers who see their art as a voice for justice and the voiceless, Lotayef read his poem for the Artists Against Apartheid night on November 11th.

This event was held as Montreal’s part of the Fifth International Week of Action Against the Apartheid Wall, taking place around the world from November 9-16. This week is marked to raise awareness about the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the apartheid system enforced by the wall and the boycott campaign to take a stance against it.

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As Lebanese politicians hold last-gasp meetings to agree on a consensus presidential nominee who can then be voted into power, people remain fearful that the two main political blocs will fail to reach a compromise.

While the March 14 majority bloc wants to be able to vote on its preferred candidate, some members of that bloc feel they are being forced into accepting a nominee favorable to the Hezbollah-led opposition, known as March 8.

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Terrorism is a contested terrain, a political landscape on which the highest levels of international military power engage in a deadly war. In 2007 terrorism remains an ominous threat, a political ghost invoked in the foreign policy rhetoric of Canada’s Conservative government surrounding the ‘War on Terror’.

In 2002 Canada unveiled an official list of ‘terrorist’ organizations, strikingly similar to the US governmental list of an equivalent nature. Today the Lebanese political movement Hezbollah, both the military and political wings, is officially considered a ‘terrorist’ organization by the government of Canada, a policy only endorsed by two additional countries internationally, the US and Israel.

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An evening of Palestinian films to commemorate 60 years of occupation and to celebrate the Palestinian voice.

On November 29 1947, the UN General Assembly voted for Resolution 181 that “recommended” the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish, the other Arab. This solution went against the principle of a people’s self-determination and was particularly unfair since it was rejected by the native Arab population who were not involved in any negotiation regarding its path, one that favoured the Jewish side.

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