a 2003 report for Free Speech Radio News on the Safe Third Country Agreement between the U.S. & Canada & the detrimental impacts on immigrants & refugees. below is the intro text for the report :

Safe 3rd Country Begins (3:50)

The Safe 3rd Country Agreement was signed between Canada & the United States during the G8 Summit in Kananaskis Alberta in June of 2002. The agreement gives the ability to both Canada & the US to automatically deport asylum seekers back to their point of entry, the safe third county. As the Safe Third Country Agreement comes into practice the effects are being illustrated by the case of the thousands of Pakistani’s who are currently fleeing the United States to Canada. For many of the Pakistani asylum seekers their Safe Third Country is returning to the United States where they face INS registration. This agreement now embedded in both Canadian & American law leaves asylum seekers in a much more vulnerable position and with little options when it comes to seeking asylum in North America. Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

a report recorded at the protests against the deportation of Pakistani refugees from Montreal in the post 9/11 political atmosphere.

Pakistanis deported from Canada to the US (4:19)

"Currently in Montreal there are hundreds of Pakistani refugees facing deportation to the United States and Pakistan in the coming days, weeks and months. These Pakistani refugees who are mainly Shi’ia Muslim, fleeing religious persecution in Pakistan, are organizing to fight against the efforts of Citizenship and Immigration Canada to deport them. Today one Pakistani family with three children is scheduled for deportation to the US, their case has become a defining point in the fight to stop Pakistani deportations in Montreal. Stefan Christoff reports."

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

“Guantanamo North” Detainees Hunger Strike in Canada (3:30)

In Canada a group of detainees held under controversial national legislation entitled ‘Security Certificates’ are on a hunger strike. Three detainees are participating in the strike at a prison in Kingston, Ontario built exclusively for the detainees which activists in Canada label ‘Guantanamo North’. Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

Canadians Rally to Support Jean Bertrand Aristide (2:40)

In one of the largest demonstrations outside of Haiti, over 500 people took to the streets of downtown Montreal last Saturday, marking the one-year anniversary of the ousting of Haiti’s democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was forced by U.S. soldiers onto a military plane and into exile in South Africa. Free Speech Radio News correspondent Stephan Christoff files this report from Montreal.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

Canadians Rally Against Colin Powell (2:39)

About 15,000 Lebanese troops have headed to the south of their country to take control of Hezbollah bastions alongside UN peacekeepers as Israeli forces gradually withdraw after a 34-day war. But even as the fighting calms down, global fallout from the conflict continues. When former Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Montreal this week as a key note speaker at a large scale event organized by the Jewish National Fund, hundreds of protesters gathered outside to protest. FSRN’s Stefan Christoff was there.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

Who Will Prosper from the Security and Prosperity Partnership? (4:00)

The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) is a tri-lateral North American initiative between the governments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Ahead of a summit between President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Canada next week, FSRN’s Stefan Christoff brings us a report on the impacts of the SPP on North American border controls and migration.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

Opposition to Canadian Participation in Afghan Mission

Meanwhile, opposition to Canadian participation in the Afghan mission has been on the rise. Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal.

Six Canadian soldiers killed in a road-side bomb on Wednesday are the latest in a growing list of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan. The deaths are fueling a movement that has been calling for a full withdrawal of Canadian military forces from the country. A coalition of organizations in Quebec recently mailed 2500 copies of an open letter to soldiers at the Canadian Forces Base in Valcartier calling on them to refuse deployment to southern Afghanistan. Sophie Schoen is an activist with Block the Empire in Montreal. (sound) “The whole occupation in Afghanistan is on the one hand part of the U.S.’s so-called ‘War on Terror’ and on the other hand the whole rhetoric that Canada is using to justify being in Afghanistan is about liberating women or re-building failed states is Canada is using to justify Canada’s participation in the war in Afghanistan.” A recent poll conducted in Quebec suggests that over 70% of the French-speaking province opposes the deployment of further troops to Afghanistan. This is Stefan Christoff reporting for Free Speech Radio News in Montreal.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

Controversial National Security Law Introduced in Canada (2:35)

Canada’s conservative government has introduced a new national security law, which human rights groups say will amount to racial and religious profiling. The legislation was introduced after the Canadian Supreme Court struck the 30-year-old “security certificate” law that allowed for the indefinite detention of alleged terrorists in Canada. FSRN’s Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

PIPELINE DEAL STRUCK IN CANADA

The Canadian government and the Dene First Nation of northwestern Canada have reached an agreement on the controversial Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal.

The proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline once described as “the biggest project in the history of free enterprise” in Canada has been a major source of tension between the first peoples of northern Canada & the federal government for decades. The pipeline would stretch 1,200 kilometers from the Northern Beaufort Sea to Alberta. The agreement announced between the Dene and the federal government of Canada does not include multiple indigenous nations, which continue to oppose the pipeline on the grounds that it threatens local environmental habitats essential to their way of life. Wesley Hardisty of the Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance continues to oppose the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. (sound) “Without the Mackenzie Valley pipeline the northwest territories will still exist and if you are going to go ahead an go back on thousands & thousands of year of people actually living in co-existence with the land you are looking at a catastrophe waiting to happen.” World Wildlife Fund & the Sierra Club of Canada are calling for an independent review of the environmental effects proposed Mackenzie natural gas project. This is Stefan Christoff in Montreal reporting for FSRN.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon

Proposed Free Trade Agreement Causing Debate in Canada (3:38)

A national free trade and investment agreement is at the center of a growing controversy in Canada. The country’s conservative government and Provincial counter parts are pushing for the NAFTA-like agreement that labor unions and citizens groups across the country stand in opposition to. FSRN’s Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal.

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listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon.

putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past.

thank you for listening !

stefan @spirodon