open social to build support for global BDS conference in Montreal October 2010

Friday October 15th
5 à 7 @ Casa del Popolo
4873 St. Laurent
donations welcome!
(métro Laurier or bus #55)
Montreal, Quebec

complimentary refreshments ! bring your friends !
network & build toward the global BDS conference !

In anticipation of the global Palestine solidarity conference taking place in Montreal between Oct. 22-24, aiming to build support for the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid we invite you to a 5 à 7 to socialize with conference organizers, friends and build links with great music by DJ Khalid M’Seffar of CKUT Radio’s popular weekend music program Funky Revolutions.

DJ Khalid M’Seffar

DJ Khalid M’Seffar works as a lawyer in criminal and intellectual property law. M’Seffar has been involved in community broadcasting for nearly twenty years and is the primary host of the celebrated radio program Funky Revolutions heard on CKUT.

Quebec/Canada Conference on the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Campaign
UQAM, Montreal, Quebec 22-24th October 2010

Since 2005’s historic Palestinian call for a comprehensive, international movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, we have seen many important victories for this movement in both Québec and Canada. Now is the time to reflect on the successes of the BDS movement in Quebec and Canada to date and to consolidate and intensify our efforts in solidarity with the people of Palestine, who continue to suffer under the brutal system of Israeli apartheid.

The past two years have seen growing numbers of Québec civil society organizations taking up the call for BDS. From the student movement and the commitment to BDS passed by L’Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ) in 2006; to college and university workers calling for boycott under the banner of College and University Workers United (CUWU) in early 2009; to the resolution in support of BDS adopted by the members of the Centrale des syndicats du Quebec (CSQ), one of Quebec’s largest labour federations, growing numbers of people have enthusiastically joined the international BDS movement.

Beyond Québec, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has become the first union at the Canadian level to join the BDS campaign, while the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE-ON) has also helped to push the boycott to centre stage. The past two years have seen increasing public debate on the issue of BDS in Canada, whether during the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival; within the United Church; in the public debates on the academic boycott on university campuses in Ontario; or in LGBTQ communities, where queer activists organized anti-Israeli apartheid contingents in pride parades in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

This energy in diverse sectors of society shows that the movement for BDS against Israeli apartheid is growing.

Together we will map out the next steps in the Quebec and Canadian movement to end Israeli apartheid and to free Palestine!

web: www.bdsquebec.org
email: info[at]bdsquebec[dot]org
phone: (514) 921-6414
facebook page
twitter: @bdsquebec