America is creating the conditions for the return of slavery
Time for a global boycott of the United States.
By: Andrea Houston
In the second term of President Donald Trump, the United States is quickly descending into fascism — faster than even the most cynical among us could have predicted. American society and democracy are collapsing so frantically that few people have even noticed that their government appears to already be initiating a system of off-shore, industrialized slavery.
As planes leave for El Salvador, and we see the images of people, heads shaved, violently shoved into cages, with no trial, no due process, in flagrant contravention of a judge’s order, serious legal and human rights questions are being asked. The detainees, who are not from El Salvador, are being kept in a detention centre for “terrorists,” condemned to hard labour for at least the next year. This is not deportation. This is something else.
And we can see where it is heading.
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‘It’s basically international warfare’: Thunder Bay mayor says sex trafficking likely funded by drug cartels
Indigenous women and children have been trafficked into sexual slavery through Lake Superior’s shipping ports for decades
By: Jon Thompson
Speaking at a local services board meeting on homelessness last week, Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff suggested that criminal militias funded by international illicit drug cartels are abducting local children and using shipping channels to traffic them worldwide.
His comments touch on an issue local police and city officials have always denied when allegations have arisen: that particularly Indigenous women were being trafficked into sexual slavery through Lake Superior’s shipping ports for decades.
“I’m not really sure how we should be phrasing this to the public, but this is a worldwide pandemic. It’s basically international warfare, the scale of it,” Boshcoff told the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board on March 20.
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Toronto police move to upgrade facial recognition technology, raising concerns
Documents reveal that 11 companies are vying for the contract, amidst ongoing concerns of racial bias, surveillance overreach, and potential misuse at protests
By: Xavier Richer Vis
As Toronto police look to supercharge their facial recognition capabilities, documents obtained by Ricochet Media reveal a slew of controversial biometrics companies have formed a queue, each offering to provide them with the necessary technology.
Last December, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) published a request for proposal (RFP) seeking to upgrade the facial recognition system it currently employs. Documents obtained by Ricochet in a freedom of information request reveal that companies like Idemia responded to a similar request for information (RFI) two years prior, offering their facial recognition system as a suitable upgrade. Idemia currently provides its technology to neighboring Peel and York police and has been accused of racial bias.
“Torontonians should see this as a real threat,” says Beverly Bain of No Pride in Policing, an advocacy group focused on defunding Canadian police forces. “These machines are designed to target those who protest, including pro-Palestinian protesters. The idea is to weed those people out, to arrest them, and to punish them for protesting against genocide.”
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The newspaper that broke ground for Black Canadians
For three decades, Contrast covered stories of Black life that Canada’s mainstream media ignored.
By: Adrian Harewood
It called itself “the eyes, ears and voice of the community.”
And for 23 years it largely fulfilled that promise.
Contrast Newspaper wasn’t the first Black newspaper in Canadian history.
That was The Voice of the Fugitive, founded in 1851 by two leading abolitionists, the formerly enslaved Kentucky-born orator and writer Henry Bibb, and his Free Black Rhode Island-born wife Mary Bibb, an educator and institution builder.
Contrast punched above its weight.
It had guts.
It challenged power.
It was loud.
It was self-assured.
It had swagger.
It was proudly and unapologetically Black.
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Earlier this month, the University of Toronto’s Innis College held a screening of Ricochet journalist Brandi Morin and cinematographer Geordie Day’s award-winning documentary Killer Water: The toxic legacy of Canada’s oil sands industry for Indigenous communities.
The event was hosted by Environmental Defence, and Brandi was interviewed about her work covering Indigenous frontlines across the country and around the world, including those downstream of Canada’s tar sands. She also took questions from the packed audience about the challenges of doing her on-the-ground work – and she gave the inside scoop about her latest investigation into Canadian mining companies in Ecuador. Read the first part of that series here.
Killer Water is free to view today on Ricochet’s YouTube channel. If you want to support more fearless independent public-interest journalism, become a monthly donor today.
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