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Partera Blog

Highway of Heroes: An Open Letter to David Miller

9 years ago

Highway of Heroes: Open letter to David Miller, Mayor of the City of Toronto: 
Peacemaker  Autumn 2010
 
I would like to register my strong objection to the co-naming of parts of Bloor and Bay Streets and the Don Valley Parkway as the ‘Route of Heroes’.  Three years ago you did the right thing in rejecting the overtures of Legions and others whose interests are linked to war to change the name of the DVP; now it’s parts of Bloor and Bay, as well.

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They Have a Dream

10 years ago

The Khartoum Monitor carries news of yesterday’s attack on an Army Base in North Darfur by one of the rebel groups – to which the military responded with an air attack on nearby villages, the dead not yet counted. The ceasefire in a brutal war of attrition that has left 2.5 million homeless and at least 350,000 dead, enjoys the respect of neither side. The government is once again escalating the violence, targetting humanitarian aid efforts, hoping perhaps to present a status quo of permanent destruction prior to further UNAMID deployment in the months leading up to national elections. President Omar al-Bashir chafes under his indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, throwing tantrums that reach across the peripheries of this war-torn land.

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God’s Name is Celia

10 years ago

I raced past the little currency kiosk in the Vancouver airport, dragging my luggage behind me. The small, dark-haired woman inside leaned her head to the size, a quizzical look on her face. Can I help you? she mouthed at me through the glass that separated her and her cash from passersby such as me.

I halted abruptly and directed my suitcases and myself towards the kiosk, nodding my head in the affirmative. ‘Where’s the Air Canada passenger assistance counter? I’m told it’s right around here, but I can’t see it.’

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Mindanao: Something’s Happening Here

10 years ago

Above the muddied streets, once more, post-typhoon, filled with jeepnies and tuq-tuqs, pedestrians and the occasional SUV, an inauspicious meeting was assembling. The large sanctuary of a Pentecostal church dwarfed the modest handful of participants. Amongst those seated in a semi-circle of benches before a lectern is the Pentecostal bishop, his presence signifying, to me at least, an unanticipated endorsement of the proceedings.

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International Women’s Day: a memorial

11 years ago

IWD Improvised Womanist Device. What was He thinking? Foul, bloody, moody; bloodied. She. Her. Mother daughter sister crone. Dissected, brotherly raped, fatherly […]

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Retreat from Redemptive Violence

11 years ago

The question for this week’s Cross-Country Check-up[1] is ‘What is the relationship between religion and conflict?  Is religion a help or a […]

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The Gathering Newsletter – Fall 2008

12 years ago

  The Gathering Newsletter – Fall 2008

In this issue:

  • Of Elections, Wars, and Women
  • BPFNA Peace Camp 2008: Snapshots & Snippets
  • Fall Gathering: 24, 25 October
  • Redemptive Violence: A Case in Point: Re-imagining the almost-sacrifice of Isaac
  • Book reviews:
    • Jesus of the Non-religious
    • JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he died and Why it Matters
    • Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

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Fire & Ice: The Myth of Converging Values

16 years ago

Toronto, 27 June 2004
I write this on the eve of a Canadian federal election.  Incessant polls tell us the Liberals are up one day, the Conservatives are up the next, the New Democratic Party is flying in Ontario, irrelevant in Québec and the Greens are alternately poaching from either the Tories or the NDPs.  Not so much keen on the Tories, Canadians are mad at the Liberals who have been taking us for granted and doing dumb arrogant things. Who knows.

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