From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 05 Oct 92 18:40 PDT
Subject: ETAN/CANADA NEWSLETTER
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700588:000:4378
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Oct  5 18:40:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: ETAN/CANADA NEWSLETTER

/* Written  7:13 pm  Oct  5, 1992 by web:etantor in cdp:reg.easttimor */
/* ---------- "ETAN/CANADA NEWSLETTER" ---------- */
**Activism spreads across Ontario

New East Timor support groups have formed around Ontario, and interest in 
East Timor in the province is running higher than ever. ETAN groups are 
planning many activities throughout the fall to try to raise awareness about 
East Timor in Ontario. 

An Ontario Regional East Timor Conference was held at thew 519 Church St. 
Community Centre in Toronto on Aug. 1, with keynote speakers Ab Barreto 
(speaking on behalf of the East Timor nationalist movement CNRM, National 
Council of Maubere Resistance), Liem Soei Liong of Tapol, the Indonesian 
Human Rights Campaign based in London, Li-lien Gibbons from 
ETAN/Vancouver and Peter Monet from ETAN/Ottawa. We were happy at 
the good tunout (31 people for a day-long meeting) and the wide 
representation from ten communities in Ontario. The conference got good 
media coverage, especially from the local Portuguese-language press and 
television and campus/community radio programmers who attended. Special 
thanks for making the day possible go to Maggie Helwig and ACT for 
Disarmament. 

-- A tour of Ontario universities will feature talks by Timorese refugee 
Ab Barreto and the first Canadian screenings of the full-length version of 
Cold Blood: The Massacre of East Timor. A forum has already been held at 
Wilfred Laurier University, and more are planned at McMaster in Hamilton 
(Oct. 12-13) ,Windsor (Oct. 14-15), York and Ryerson in Toronto (Oct. 27), 
University of Toronto (Oct. 28), Guelph (Nov. 3), Brock, Carleton, Ottawa, 
Queen's, Trent, Waterloo, and Western (dates still to be decided). 

-- ETAN/Ottawa is concentrating on lobbying on Parliament Hill and 
conducting a membership drive for Parliamentarians for East Timor (PET). 
There will be a demonstration in Ottawa on November 12, the first 
anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre, starting at Parliament Hill and going 
to the Department of External Affairs. East Timor supporters from across the 
province are invited to attend. Ottawa contact: Peter Monet, (613) 283-6933.

-- In Windsor, an East Timor support group is just being formed, and has 
had very good response from local unions, churches, community groups, and 
the Third World Resource Centre. The group is lobbying the 3 local MPs to 
join PET, collecting signatures on a Free East Timor! petition, and working at 
the University of Windsor. In the summer, a picket was held in support of 
the Bata Shoes Boycott. Windsor contact: Jason Amyot, (519) 976-3166. 

-- The East Timor Working Group in Guelph keeps up its pressure on the 
Guelph University to end its sponsorship of the Sulawesi Regional 
Development Project, the largest aid to Indonesia project of any Canadian 
university. A talk and information display at the School of Rural Planning 
(responsible for the Sulawesi project) is planned for this month, along with 
petitioning, radio shows, newspaper articles and other events. An external 
review into the Sulawesi project ordered by the university Senate (the first 
to consider ethical and human rights concerns) should table its report in 
November or December. Guelph contact: Sheila Wilmot, (519) 824-2091.

-- ETAN/Toronto and ACT for Disarmament continue to promote the Bata 
Shoes Boycott and hold educational events. This month, a joint "benefit for 
boycotts" involved ETAN, the General Electric Boycott Boycott Committee, 
United Farmworkers, and other groups engaged in consumer boycotts. A 
petition calling on Bata to divest from Indonesia is now available. On October 
1 there will be a benefit screening for ETAN of the new film Manufacturing 
Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Euclid Theatre, 7 pm, $10). This 
excellent film will also be screened at the Euclid Oct 2-7 and the John 
Spotton Theatre 29-Nov. 4. Peace vigils will be held on December 7 and other 
dates through the year. Toronto contact: David Webster, (416) 539-9589, or 
call ACT for Disarmament, 531-6154.

-- Groups and individuals are busy gearing up for fall campaigns in 
Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Oakville, Kingston and other 
communities. And ETAN has received inquiries from across Ontario, from 
Belleville to Thunder Bay. 

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