Standing in Solidarity with the Syrian People - November 25th

Tonight I'll be standing on the corner of Bishop and Ste Catherine between 6-7pm like I do quite often.

This video is Homsi's singing a song that I've been hearing more and more in the protests coming out of Syria. It is a sad song. I liken it to collective mourning. Hubby called it a lament.  This version has English subtitles so you know what they are singing.  I've listened to this video and another where Homsis were singing and have cried before knowing what the words meant. Very powerful and emotional.  God bless the Homsis today and all the Syrian people. May they be free soon!

Walmart: The high price of Low Cost

I've always been somewhat anti-Walmart and I rarely shop there. I'll shop Canadian Tire or other Canadian stores before I'll go to Walmart.

Is three really a crowd?

Life's good for my cats, as can clearly be seen here. They were three sharing the couch.

In order from the left, Jethro, Ziva, Spock.

Occupy Montreal/Occupons Montreal: Days 39/40 - First snow

Photos from the first snowfall at La place des peuples.

Resto-Pub a l'Aventure

On Saturday after standing at the Russian Consulate, we were looking for a place to eat. I remembered having particularly good mussels at Place Jacques Cartier in Old Montreal. So we walked from the Consulate on du Musee to Place Jacques Cartier.  I'm not sure if it's the same place as three years ago where I had the mussels but they were divine.

My mom would make "moules marinieres" at home and it was awesome. I always loved the dish. It's rare that I find some that I love elsewhere, but I love them at l'Aventure. Even though it was low season for this restaurant, the service and atmosphere was great. It wasn't crowded but there was constant coming and goings.

I loved the mussels, the fries were good too, I'd go back well in about 2 years, which is how often I have mussels. Most of the time I'm just a vegetarian

Really they rolled out a tank against Occupy Protesters?

I've probably spent more time in Tampa Bay and it's surrounding areas of Pinellas Park and St Petersburg, then anywhere else in the US.

Imagine how unimpressed I am with the fact that the Tampa Bay police took out their TANK against a couple dozen peaceful protesters?

We were poking fun at the Syrian Army for painting it's tanks blue and I was thinking what kind of civilized country has TANKS to use against it's citizens. Well I have my answer don't I? 

It's reassuring that when I search for Montreal tank on Google, all I can find is our police force selling woman's tank tops on their police brotherhood support website :)

Photos: Occupons Montreal - Occupy Montreal - Day 35

I took photos around La Place du Peuple and at the weekly March this week again.

The big difference at Place du Peuple this week was the fact there were no more wooden structures or Tempo tents.  Photos found here. 

The march started at 4pm instead of at 3pm, because the General Assembly was longer then expected, and since night was already falling since it was a cloudy day, most of my photo's were blurry. I have to improve my evening picture taking technique.  Photos here.

Syrians standing in front of the Russian Consulate in Montreal.

Yesterday morning, the ten of us who didn't go to Ottawa for the March, stood in front of the Russian Consulate for an hour.

There was a large march in Ottawa, with people bused in from Montreal and Toronto.  The march finished at the parliament buildings in Ottawa.

There wasn't many of us in Montreal but for what we lacked in numbers we did not lack in spirit. 

Since it was just a small group, I ended up talking to people more then I usually do. It's normal for people to talk in Arabic among themselves at these events as it is their mother tongue, so given my almost non-existant Arabic I cannot  normally follow conversations, except for the odd word I can pick up, that sometimes gives me a sense of the conversation.

I was thanked for showing up at many events since July. While I'm touched, I'm not standing with the Syrians to get recognition, I'm standing with them because I strongly believe that the Assad regime has done enough harm to Syria and should leave.  My short travel there in September 2010, along with my husbands fears, and the fact it's my mother-in-law's birth country got me attached to this country in a way I cannot explain. I suffer with them.  I could not live with myself if I did not at least support the Syrian People in one way or another.  Standing with them most week-ends seem like very little.

I also feel the same way for the Lebanese. Each time any violence erupts in Lebanon, I  suffer with them as well, and this has been since I met my husband back in 1996 though we were just friends for the following 10 years.

I was told that some of the Syrian group wants to somehow thank me for my support. My thanks will be when I can travel to Syria and not worry about Assad's crazy regime - where I will not be afraid that because my husband is Lebanese that he can be arrested and tossed in jail for no reason or for being a mouthy Lebanese. :) Where I can talk freely to Syrians and not worry about what comes out of my mouth. Not worry about my own safety or the safety of the people I'm talking to.

I want through travel across Syria and I want to see every region. From the coastal areas of Latakia and Banyas, to the province of Idlib that borders Turkey, to Homs, the heart of the revolution. I especially want to see every district of Homs. I know where our friends live, and I know what I've seen in Homs. Now I want to see every little part including Palmyria and spending time with the Bedouins there. I want to walk up to random Homsis and hug them just because they are Homsis. [Yes I'll have to stick to women for that, but you get my point!].

I want to see Abu Kamal, near the Jordan border. I even want to go close to the Jolan Heights and see the people there. Of course I'll want to go to Daraa, the birth of the current revolution and Hama, where they massacred so many in 1982 and now as well.  Of course no visit to Syria is complete without seeing Allepo and Damascus. Though I've seen  a bit of Damascus, I would still spend 2 hours easily in the Umayed mosque and days walking around old Damascus.   As for Allepo, even before the revolution I had told hubby we had to go back Syria, because I wanted to go to Allepo and Palmyria.  Now I want to see every nook and cranny. I want to visit every ruin, every large mosque and every museum. 

My dreams include a FREE SYRIA for the Syrian People. I dream that they have the same rights as I have as a Canadian.  

EDIT: I forgot to mention the Deir Ezzor region of Syria. I want to go there too! 

Montreal not just tolerant - doesn't want a legal battle

Occupy Montreal was happy there were no issues with the police and overall it seems that City hall cooperates. Well apparently according to Julius Grey the law is on the Occupiers side.

So long as the Occupiers follow the laws, there is little risk of eviction in Montreal. This is good. This means the city isn't using it's tax payers money to go against a segment of it's population!

For all of those interested, weekly march starts at 3pm at Square Victoria in front of the Statue. Join us!

My cats Occupy the Hallway to protest the food.

Occupons Montreal, Occupy Montreal

AOC US has a website that doesn't work.

I spend a fair amount of my time shopping for equipment needed for testing. Today I'm researching touchscreens. I'm looking for 1080p touchscreens that will also work with Wind8ws when it gets released. So far we have purchased models from Viewsonic, Planar and Acer. I just found a HP and a Dell model as well, all cost under $400.

I was asked to find one more model. AOC seems to have 1 touchscreen, but it's older so I'm expecting that it's end of life and won't be able to purchase so I went to their website. First I was using Firefox and I can't get anything to load. First I tried clicking to see 22" LCD's nothing loads. Then I went through their monitor finding wizard input all my details and it finds no monitors. Then I tried looking for TOUCHSCREEN on the search on their site. NOTHING FOUND.  I got pissed off and loaded IE and the flash isn't even loading at all.

In the past I had found AOC CRTs to be very low end. The pair I had bought didn't survive through the first year with the abuse we put monitors through.  AOC certainly did nothing to impress me today. Can't even use their site to figure out the products they have. So it's obvious I won't be getting AOC touchscreens to test with.

Mohawk children mass grave uncovered

More disturbing news uncovered regarding the residential schools. As a like minded individual on the Occupy Canada site said "It can NEVER be denied that a genocide of the Canada's indigenous peoples took place. Canada is a country that was built at the expense of an entire civilization; the whole Western hemisphere was built the same way. When will the common public begin to realize this? "

This is the article in question. The Catholic church was again involved in crimes against children and covered it up.  It's sad that it's a newspaper from the US reporting it.

Arab league extends Syria's deadline AGAIN!

I'm not sure why they keep doing that. This is the 2nd time they give Bashar Al Assad's government an ultimatum and the second time they don't apply their threat. They are giving them three more days to stop the bloodshed.

It won't stop a thing. If anything more time passes, more Syrian blood and Syrian bodies everywhere.  I mean it's sad when the Homsis post tips on how to stay safe when leaving your house.  I can't find it anymore I wish I had bookmarked it.  But when I read the tips to hubby it reminded him of the civil war. Which sadly is what Syria is slowly slipping into.

There's a huge march planned in Ottawa on November 19th, which is this Saturday. If you're in Montreal and would like to go, there is a bus planned from Montreal to Ottawa.

For those who would rather not go to Ottawa on Saturday there is a event to go stand in front of the Russian consulate, to protest the Russian sale of arms to the Assadi army.

A letter from Occupy McGill

This morning I found an article on the Occupiers of McGill last week, the one that brought Riot police to the McGill Campus.  There is no reason for the riot police to have been there at all, but I'll let the article speak for itself.

Here is another article about McGill from a different point of view.  


There was a March on Monday called "We are all McGill". I haven't heard too much about what happened there.

What's up with the bogus or spammy hits?

The past two days I've been getting spammed on my blog. Or at least I get randomly enormous amounts of blog hits and it makes little sense to me. What would be the reason to hit the blog 70 times in a row in the space of 1 minute?

Variants of websites with the following text are the ones that have given me over 200 hits in the past 2 days. I don't know what to make of it.

googlecorrection

777seo.com/seo.php?username=martyxmas

justforlaughsgags

I check statistics because I'm OCD. I want to know what demographics reads me. I mean other then one daughter, hubby, his mother and a few friends. :) I don't even have ads. So I'm not sure why I'm being spammed by them?!?

Lots of Action the past couple of days.

In Syria, over 70 dead, just yesterday alone. But they are following the recommendations of the Arab league can you not see? But the Assadi army keeps killing any form of dissent.

Al Jazeera has a good article today called Militarizing the Police from Oakland to NYC . Last night they hit the camp in New York, the night before it was St Louis, A couple of days earlier it was Portland, Oregon.

On this side of the border, first there was Occupy London that was taken down on the 9th,  there was Occupy Halifax that was dismantled on 11-11-11.  Here is a crappy summary of the Occupy Movement in Canada. It tends to imply that Montreal is on it's way to packing it up. Nothing could be further form the truth.  There was a fire at the Occupy St Johns in New Brunswick but that hasn't dampened people's spirits.

Across the big pond, the French were being arrested at "La Defense" as well, but I can't find anything about it this morning.

One theme is common among everything I wrote - Lots of brutality by the people who are supposed to PROTECT us!

Human Rights Violations in Syria between March 15 and October 15th

The Local Coordinating committee has been diligently cataloguing the abuse of human rights in Syria since the beginning of the people's peaceful uprising. This document is a seventy page long Adobe acrobat document that details much of the human rights violations in Syria between March 15 and October 15th 2011, with links to video's to back .

In the words of one of the admins in one of the Syrian groups I'm in on Facebook:

"It's impossible to fully appreciate how massive a task the LCCSy has completed in maintaining, verifying and cataloguing the crimes of the Syrian Regime. It's truth is that not one name be forgotten, not one crime unpunished in the Criminal Courts, with the wish of the Syrian people that it be their own courts, even if the process begins with the International Criminal Court."

The sad part is since October 15th, the violence has escalated in Syria and there have been even more human rights violations.  Here's hoping there's a new document with details about this as well. 

Please share the document and make people aware of the humans rights violations.

Come March with us on Saturday at 3pm!

Starting point is always the base of the Queen Victoria Statue at Square Victoria metro, also known as "La place du peuple".  You do not have to live in a tent to come march on Saturdays with Occupy Montreal. 

You can see some of the Egyptian group here.

Last Saturday wasn't a very big march, but we were joined by a group of Egyptians, who are protesting the military rule in Egypt. The Egyptians didn't get rid of Mubarak to put up with a totalitarian military regime.  Some of the chants included "al-shaab youreed esqat al nizam" in arabic, but also chants of solidarity between Quebec and Egypt. 

So I'm calling out to ALL Montrealers, be they Quebecois "de souche", or from Montreal's diverse English speaking community and have had it with the government or with the taxes, or with the way things are run, or you're an immigrant to Montreal and support the Arab spring back home, join us.  We'd like to see some Bahrainis, Syrians, Yemenis, Iranians, Iraqis, Lebanese [especially those who want a secular Lebanon!], Saudis, Jordanians, Palestinians, Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Libyans and anyone else I might have missed in this list. 

Carrying the Six Nations flag.

I'll invite the people from the first nations to join us but as one aptly said to me, they have been occupying these lands for 10,000 years.  Very good point. Here's the thing though, the movement is inclusive which means you're always welcome to join if you feel you would like to. Things have to change when it comes to native rights. 

We'd like to see everyone fed up with the status quo and wants change.  Everyone who feels that the system isn't working. It isn't working for elderly, it's not working for the workers, and it's not working for the youth.  Come and take the streets with us. Bring your own sign, voice your opinion of what's wrong with our society!

We are all the 99%. Some might be thinking, why bother, a few of us out in the street aren't going to make a difference, well you'd be surprised. A lot of people didn't think their vote were going to make a difference and didn't vote, and well we got stuck with Harper, and "his" government.  

So you have a standing invitation to come March on Saturday's at 3PM. Bring your kids, bring your mother, bring your grandpa, bring your 'cousins',  bring your friends, bring your neighbours, heck, bring your dog, it's an all inclusive movement.

Occupy Halifax Evicted on November 11th, 2011

Here's a video of the Police

Here's another one

One last one about the removal of the peaceful Occupy Halifax.