Join Relatives and Advocates of 43 disappeared Mexican students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, at the Vancouver leg of the Caravan from Ayotzinapa to Ottawa. From April 12-17, 2015, there will be three free public events:
==The Ayotzinapa Disappearances and Mexico’s Human Rights Crisis: Public Forum==
Sunday, 12 April, 2-5 pm
Fletcher Challenge Theatre (Room 1900)
SFU Harbour Centre (515 W Hastings Street)
At this public forum Hilda Legideño Vargas and Jorge Luis Clemente Balbuena will be joined by Professor Tanalís Padilla, a renowned expert in recent Mexican history at Dartmouth College. They will talk about the disappearances, the struggle for legal accountability, and the historical context of Mexico’s current human-rights crisis.
RSVP at facebook.com/events/1565145287069418
==The Ayotzinapa Disappearances: Talk and Public Conversation==
Wednesday, 15 April, 1-3 pm
UBC Global Lounge (2205 Lower Mall, Building 1)
Hilda Legideño Vargas, Jorge Luis Clemente Balbuena, and Vidulfo Rosales Sierra will talk about the current state of the legal investigation into the disappearances and join UBC students in a conversation about the struggle for justice in present-day Mexico.
Everyone welcome but space is limited.
RSVP to mugarte@interchange.ubc.ca
This is event is supported by the Liu Institute for Global Studies.
==From Ayotzinapa to Ottawa: A Party and Fundraiser==
Friday, 17 April, starts 6 pm
Royal Canadian Legion Hall (2205 Commercial Drive, at 6th Avenue)
Come celebrate the success of the Vancouver leg of the Ayotzinapa to Ottawa Caravan, and give your most cheerful farewell to the delegation as they head to Ottawa! Enjoy deliciously home-made Latin American food, dance the night away with DJs, bid for awesome prizes in the looney auction, and more. All proceeds go to support the struggle of the families of the 43 missing students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, so be generous and come along.
More at facebook.com/events/418477794991963
About the Caravan:
On September 26, 2014, Mexican state security forces attacked a group of students from the teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, killing 6 people and forcibly disappearing 43 others who were never seen again. The crime has pulled the veil off an acute human rights crisis in Mexico. The search for the students has uncovered more than 15 mass graves, none of them containing the bodies of the students.
Now, Canadian solidarity and human-rights organizations are organizing a Caravan from Ayotzinapa to Ottawa that will allow advocates and relatives of the victims to tell their story to the public and to Canadian policy makers. The visitors are Hilda Legideño Vargas, a single mother and crafts seller who lost her son in the attack; Jorge Luis Clemente Balbuena, a member of the student committee of the Ayotzinapa teachers' college; and Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, a lawyer from the human-rights center Tlachinollan and the legal representative of the families of the 43 disappeared students.
Visit makemexicosafe.ca/ayotzinapa2ottawa or facebook.com/ayotzinapa2ottawa for more information.
Organizers: CIPO-Vancouver and Co-Development Canada (CODEV) in British Columbia, the Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (CDHAL) in Quebec; Fuerza-Puwerza, Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN), and Common Frontiers in Ontario, and Amnesty International Canada.
Sponsors and Supporters: BC Teachers Federation (BCTF), United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW), United Steelworkers Canada (USW), Ontario Teachers Federation, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE National and CUPE BC), Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Social Justice Fund, Simon Fraser University Graduate Students Society (GSS), SFU Education Graduate Students Association, Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG), UBC First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program, UBC Department of Sociology, UBC Program of Latin American Studies, SFU Institute for the Humanities, SFU Department of History, SFU School of Criminology, Ontario Public Interest Research Group - Guelph (OPIRG), The peak, Growing community health, Colectivo Alternativa latinoamericana, Pay more get less campaign, Centrale syndicale du Québec (CSQ), Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain de la CSN, Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d’études latino-américaines, Faculté des sciences humaines, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Institut d'études internationales de Montréal (IEIM), L'Entraide missionnaire, Coalition québécoise sur les impacts socio-environnementaux des transnationales en Amérique latine (QUISETAL), Chaire Nycole Turmel sur les espaces publics et les innovations politiques de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Mexicain.e.s uni.e.s pour la régularisation, Réseau québécois d'intégration continentale (RQIC), Fédération des travailleuses et travailleurs du Québec (FTQ), Centre international de solidarité ouvrière (CISO), Laboratoire d’études latino-américaines, Réseau d'études latino-américaines de Montréal, Comité UQAM Amérique latine, Solidarité Laurentides Amérique centrale, Comité de solidarité québécoise à Ayotzinapa and many more organizations and individuals of the community!
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