Many Canadians have been closely following the beginning of the Trump presidency, watching in shock and horror as Trump passes a series of authoritarian executive orders.

One executive order in particular, planned for the near future, is poised to resurrect one of the darkest chapters in recent American history. I’m talking about the potential reopening of CIA “black sites”—secret prisons where detainees were systematically tortured during the War on Terror.

In 2009, President Obama ordered that these black sites be closed, consigning the episode, perhaps prematurely, to history—alongside a long list of past American crimes.

Accompanying it on that list is a similarly chilling episode that played out right here in Montreal, but which has since been largely forgotten.

This event will begin at 3:30pm at Genoa Park with dedications for two local leaders who have died during the past year, Amber Evans and Rubén Castilla Herrera.

The march will step off at 4pm from Genoa Park, 303 W. Broad St.; we will then march to Bicentennial Park via the Broad St. bridge, the Ohio Statehouse, and W. Main St. If you cannot march, please join us at Bicentennial Park.

The Interfaith March for Peace and Justice is a nonpartisan event meant to affirm the freedom of religion and to condemn all acts of discrimination directed towards people because of their religion, race, or place of origin.

A new freely downloadable book

I would like to announce the publication of a book, which reviews the lives and thoughts of some of the women and men who have addressed the crucial problems of ecology and sustainability that we are currently facing. I have tried to let them speak to us in their own words.The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link:

http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Lives-in-Ecology-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

We face an ecological crisis

In the years following 2003, the U.S. military dotted Iraq with over 500 military bases, many of them close to Iraqi cities. These cities suffered the impacts of bombs, bullets, chemical and other weapons, but also the environmental damage of open burn pits on U.S. bases, abandoned tanks and trucks, and the storage of weapons on U.S. bases, including depleted uranium weapons. Here’s a map of some of the U.S. bases:

This map and the other illustrations below have been provided by Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the authors of a forthcoming article in the journal Environmental Pollution. The article documents the results of a study undertaken in Nasiriyah near Tallil Air Base. Nasiriyah was bombed by the U.S. military in 2003 and in the early 1990s. Open-air burn pits were used at Tallil Air Base beginning in 2003. See a second map:

Over 500 young people gathered for a climate strike at the Ohio Statehouse at noon on Friday, September 21  Their coalition calls for full implementation of a Green New Deal (immediate action on the climate crisis), a halt in future fossil fuel infrastructure projects, greater consideration and acknowledgment of the scientific consensus surrounding climate change in government decision making, the preservation of our land and wildlife, protection of safe, public water sources​, and the incorporation of the scientific veracity of climate change into public education curriculum.

A week of events is planned:

Saturday, September 21st - Community Mindfulness Day @ the Idea Foundry 10:30-11:30pm

• Cleveland (Cleveland Public Library) and Cincinnati (First Unitarian Church of Cinci)
• Games, art project, free store (bring items you no longer use that others could give new life!) (also a great chance to give away excess from your summer gardens!)

Sunday, September 22nd - Contact Your Reps Day