Scuba diver busted after trying to swim marijuana to U.S. | CBC News

A Canadian scuba diver has been arrested by U.S. authorities after swimming across the St. Clair River with about 3.6 kilograms of marijuana stuffed in a waterproofed piece of pipe.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said that a boater spotted a swimmer in the river around 1 a.m. on Monday. The boater contacted local police, saying they had spotted someone who appeared to be swimming toward the U.S. side of the river.

Full story: Scuba diver busted after trying to swim marijuana to U.S. – Canada – CBC News.

Border ‘thinning’ called U.S. goal | The Windsor Star

Canada and the U.S. must work together as a cohesive economic unit to fight global challenges over the next 50 years, a senior U.S. Homeland Security official said Thursday.

Alan Bersin, the current assistant secretary of international affairs and chief diplomatic officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, met with Matt Marchand, president and CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, during the lunch hour Thursday.

“The story of the next 50 years, as we get this right and the president and the prime minister see it, we will be able to compete with East Asia, with the Indian subcontinent, with Brazil, and that will be to the benefit of the Canadian and American peoples together,” said Bersin, a former commissioner of customs and border protection who is attending a Canada-U.S. border conference in Detroit.

“Specifically we need to knock down the transaction costs. We need to specifically be able to make it more economical to move goods back and forth across our border. Finished goods, and goods in process. Those are the kinds of issues I took up with the chamber and I look forward to continuing to work on the issues that affect the quality of life of our two nations.”

Full Story: Border ‘thinning’ called U.S. goal.

Danny Brown Fans Start Petition to Let Rapper Into Canada, Citing Potential Racial Bias | SPIN

Danny Brown may never set foot in Canada again, but his fans are hoping they can change that. The Detroit rapper has announced he was denied entry into the country for at least the second time, forcing him to miss two shows with Action Bronson as part of their 2 High 2 Die tour. Now, a petition on Activism.com calls on the Canadian government to reconsider its position.

At press time, the petition had only 46 signatures out of a goal of 10,000, but that number can only go up, right? “Danny Brown is of significant cultural importance within the music community, and has many, many fans of his work in this country,” the petition reads. “He is not a significant threat to the security of our nation, and i feel that his entry denial is unfair, biased, and potentially racially motivated.”

Brown described his border troubles earlier this week on Twitter. “Headed to Calgary Canada .. fingers crossed .. Pray 4 the bruh bruh y’all,” he wrote on September 9, only to add four hours later, “Sorry Canada .. I tried.” And then: “That’s so fucked up … Did all this paperwork .. Paid all this money and still got denied .. I’m so sorry,” followed by, “I know I’m not trying again .. It’s a wrap on Canada bruh bruh.”

Brown didn’t give a specific reason for the denial, aside from tweeting, “My past continues to haunt me” — most likely a reference to his prior convictions for drug dealing and probation violations. The 32-year-old spent eight months in jail, getting out in 2007.

Action Bronson played the duo’s planned September 11 show in Edmonton. He’ll also perform on September 12 in Vancouver as part of the scheduled dates. According to Pitchfork, Brown’s reps say they’re working on getting him cleared to head to Canada for gigs in Toronto and Montreal on October 1 and October 2, just after he releases his third album, Old.

Brown, who will wait in Los Angeles before resuming the tour in Denver on September 17, has been denied entry into Canada before. He, A$AP Rocky, and Schoolboy Q were turned away last fall during the Long Live A$AP tour, according to Hip Hop Canada, and L.A. rapper Hopsin was also barred from crossing the border the same day in a separate incident. Waka Flocka Flame, Game, and 50 Cent are among the many hip-hop artists who’ve also been told they’re not welcome up north.

Canada’s border policy for musicians has been in focus recently. In August, an outcry spread across the music world after a little-discussed rule change sharply raised the costs of booking artists from outside Canada. In effect, basically, any bar, restaurant, or coffee shop that tries to book a non-Canadian act must now pay $275 per band and crew member — with no guarantee the acts, like Brown, won’t be denied entry. That’s in addition to a preexisting $150 fee per person, capped at $450, paid one time to enter the country.

Full story: Danny Brown Fans Start Petition to Let Rapper Into Canada, Citing Potential Racial Bias | SPIN | Newswire.

Canadian Muslim leaders worried U.S. speakers will spread ‘hate’ about Islam | Vancouver Sun

TORONTO – A Canadian Muslim organization is calling on Ottawa to spell out how it decides whether to allow controversial foreign speakers into the country ahead of a planned appearance by two conservative American bloggers.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims worries Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer will spread “hate and misinformation” about the Islamic faith when they speak at a Toronto-area hotel Tuesday evening, the group’s executive director said.

Though it disagrees with their message, the group isn’t seeking to have the pair turned away at the border, Ihsaan Gardee said. But it would like to know how, exactly, that decision is made.

“What we would like from the government of Canada is clear and consistent direction… when it comes to the eligibility of speakers to enter Canada,” he said.

“It needs to be consistent and clear because if it isn’t, then it sends a message that freedom of speech and hate (are) being arbitrarily measured.”

Canadian authorities have previously denied access to some polarizing figures, such as Terry Jones, the American pastor best known for burning copies of the Islamic holy text.

Geller and Spencer have sparked their share of outrage through their respective blogs, Atlas Shrugs and Jihad Watch. The pair also co-founded the group Stop the Islamization of America.

They were barred from entering the U.K. in June, a move they condemned as a blow against freedom of speech.

The Canada Border Services Agency wouldn’t say whether it would consider similar action, noting admissibility is determined “on a case-by-case basis.”

“Several factors are used in determining admissibility into Canada, including: involvement in criminal activity, in human rights violations, in organized crime, security, health or financial reasons,” spokeswoman Vanessa Barrasa said in an email.

 

Politicians, pot and problems at the border | Macleans.ca

The recent outbreak of political frankness when it comes to past marijuana use, while refreshing, is not without consequences. Political leaders who made such admissions, including three provincial premiers, the leaders of two national parties and the mayors of Toronto and London, Ont., may find, as thousands of Canadians have, that honesty may not be the best policy when trying to gain entry to the U.S. If you’ve ever been arrested for cannabis possession, or even admitted to puffing pot, Uncle Sam does not want you.

There are more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, including admitting to smoking marijuana, a crime of “moral turpitude,” says Thomas Schreiber, Chief Customs and Border Protection Officer at Blaine, Wash., in an email exchange with Maclean’s. He cites the relevant section: “any alien convicted of, or who admits having committed or who admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of a violation of . . .any law or regulation of a State, the United States or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance . . . is inadmissible.”

That cuts quite a swath. Some 40 per cent of Canadians 15 or older admit to smoking marijuana in their lifetime, says a 2011 Health Canada survey. If a U.S. border agent asks any of those more than 10 million Canadians if they’ve ever used pot, and they answer honestly, they will be barred. Agents have no room for discretion, says Schreiber. “The law is very clear on matters of admissibility.”

Full story: Politicians, pot and problems at the border – Canada – Macleans.ca.

DC Comics to launch Justice League Canada in 2014 | Toronto Star

Move over, Captain Canuck and Alpha Flight. Our home and native land’s superhero population is set to expand as Justice League Canada steps up to save the world.

On Friday afternoon, at Toronto’s sprawling Fan Expo convention, DC Comics will announce that its flagship superhero team — which has included such celebrity superheroes as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern — is going to uproot from the U.S.A. and be headquartered north of the border in the spring of 2014. The ongoing Justice League of America series will be renamed and feature a new Canadian character alongside some of the world’s best-known heroes.

Better yet, it will be written by Toronto’s own Jeff Lemire, who has become one of DC’s superstar writers, and now gets the chance to bring those heroes to his familiar stomping ground.

“This is like my ultimate dream job,” said Lemire during an interview earlier this week. “It sounds like a joke and something like this would never happen, but it is actually happening, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Much of the action will take place in Toronto, Lemire says, but the actual team will be based around James Bay and Moosonee.

“I do want to create a cool, rural Northern Ontario headquarters for Justice League Canada, and I don’t want to spoil it yet.

“And it’s not a hockey rink, I promise. Although, of course, it did cross my mind,” he says with a laugh.

Full story: DC Comics to launch Justice League Canada in 2014 | Toronto Star.

U.S. pushes for cross-border officers to be exempt from Canadian law: RCMP memo | The Globe and Mail

The United States wants its police officers to be exempt from Canadian law if they agree to take part in a highly touted cross-border policing initiative, says an internal RCMP memo.

The debate over whose laws would apply to U.S. officers working in Canada raises important questions of sovereignty and police accountability, says the briefing note prepared for RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson.

“Canadians would likely have serious concerns with cross-designated officers from the U.S. not being accountable for their actions in Canada.”

The planned pilot project — part of a sweeping Canada-U.S. perimeter security pact — would see the two countries build on joint border-policing efforts by creating integrated teams in areas such as intelligence and criminal investigations.

The perimeter deal, being phased in over several years, aims to ensure the safe, speedy passage of goods and people across the 49th parallel while bolstering North American defences.

Full story: U.S. pushes for cross-border officers to be exempt from Canadian law: RCMP memo – The Globe and Mail.

CFP | De/Colonization in the Americas: Continuity and Change (Lima/Peru, 2014) » Inter-American Studies

Third Biennial Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies

 

Pontíficia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
August 6-8, 2014

 

The Americas have a long history of colonialism; even the concepts ‘America’ and ‘Americanity’ date back to European expansion, invasion and conquest. As the success of the term ‘postcolonialism’ suggests, the colonial legacy is a relic of the past that is continuously rearticulated and reactivated until today.

In the Americas, colonialism informs nearly all aspects of life. From European invasion onward it established a durable matrix of power based on gender relations, racism and ethnic classifications that defined white and criollo male superiority over the indigenous and ‘Afro American’ as well as over Asian, Jewish, Arabic, Muslim and Hindu populations, peoples and nations, in spite of the ambiguity of ethnic and racial frontiers. Moreover, in recent times, the thrust to decolonize has become a major aspiration that implies the rescue and re-evaluation of native and subordinated cultures.

In this sense the battles for recognition and self-determination of disenfranchised groups in the Americas demonstrate the overwhelming burden of colonialism and its connection to gender, ethnicity, racism, and class hierarchies. The state reacted with special procedures of ethnic administration such as exclusion through reservations, haciendas, and slums, or politics of forced inclusion in terms of forced homogenization and assimilation. Recently emerged new politics of recognition have led to a redefinition of nation-states as pluricultural or even plurinational.

Colonialism has deeply informed cultural production and popular culture in the Americas. Jazz, blues, rock music and hip-hop have given voice to the experience of ethnic and racial exclusion and Latin America’s boom literature is informed by ‘magic’ indigenous-colonial cosmovisions. Ethnic and racial struggles against quota systems and/or auto-ethnographic media productions are integral parts of the fight against the negative aspects of the colonial legacy. Thus, colonialism is not only a historical burden for American societies but also represents an uneven syncretism that must be deconstructed. The linguistic aspects of colonialism resonate in a high degree of exterminated and endangered autochthonous languages but also in the creation of creôle languages and techniques of code-switching.

Colonialism contains important material aspects as concerns the appropriation, reappropriation and redistribution of land, commodities as well as work force and citizenshipregimes. From early colonial land-taking to internal colonialism and imperial politics to the recent forms of neo-extractivism the colonization of space and nature has been an integral part of colonial and postcolonial projects.

The conference will adopt a broad concept of colonialism, which refers not to a single historical period but to a relational mode that creates asymmetric power relations and modes of exploitation. This cross-disciplinary forum of academic exchange invites contributions from all academic disciplines concerned with colonialism in the Americas. It will examine colonization, colonialism, nation building, decolonization, and continuing facets of coloniality as they relate to societies, politics, economy, cultures, and media. The participation of doctoral students is strongly encouraged. Scholars are invited to propose presentations and/or panels on a wide variety of topics including:

• Racism and politics of exclusion
• Multiculturalism, politics of recognition and cultural classification
• Identity politics and social movements
• Literature, film, visual arts and music in contact zones
• Colonial heritage and the politics of memory
• The “Colonial complex” of the young American republics
• Colonial power and resistance
• Colonialism, slavery, and their aftermaths
• Educational reform and the teaching of American histories and cultures
• Economic colonization and neo-extractivism
• The colonization of nature
• Imperialism and neo-imperialism
• The Coloniality and decolonization of media and mediascapes
• Creolization and hybridization in language and culture
• Decolonization, plurinationality and transnationalism
• Decolonization and knowledge production, the geopolitics of knowledge
• Transformations of coloniality
• Coloniality and religion
• Coloniality and gender relations

Please send proposals for individual papers or for panels with a chairperson and 3 to 5 presentations to iaslima2014@uni-graz.at. Please include your name, the title of presentation and/or panel, an abstract (200-400 words per presentation) and email addresses. Presentations can be held in English or in Spanish. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2013.

Host: Gonzalo Portocarrero (Pontíficia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú)

Organizing Committee: María Herrera-Sobek (UC Santa Barbara, USA), Olaf Kaltmeier (Bielefeld University. Germany), Heidrun Moertl (University of Graz, Austria)

De/Colonization in the Americas: Continuity and Change (Lima/Peru, 2014) » Inter-American Studies.

CFP | Surveying Comparative Literature’s Boundaries

Canadian Comparative Literature Association: Congress 2014

Comparative Literature is often seen as a quixotic discipline, since it attempts to cover not only the totality of literary production around the world but also the relations between literature and such diverse fields as music, sculpture, painting, theatre, and film, to say nothing of history, sociology, anthropology, folklore, and genetics. Given its profusion of interests, one cannot help but wonder what are the field’s limits, or boundaries. From May 25 to May 27, 2014, as part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Canada hosted by Brock University—in the beautiful Niagara region—the Canadian Comparative Literature Association (CCLA) invites scholars to explore the boundaries of Comparative Literature. What is the relation between national literatures and world literature? How are new media shaping Comparative Literature? What is the role of translation in comparative literary studies? How can historically excluded literatures and literary histories be incorporated into Comparative Literature? How are new geographies of literary production refashioning Comparative Literature? What is the role of interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, or transdisciplinarity in Comparative Literature?

Comparative papers on other topics are also welcome and will be collected into general sessions. Proposals for pre-arranged panels, roundtables or other formats too may be submitted. Joint sessions with other organizations are encouraged but should be arranged as soon as possible.

Please submit 250-300 word abstracts for 20-minute presentations to Program Chair Albert Braz (albert.braz@ualberta.ca) by January 15, 2014.

 

CFP: CCLA Congress 2014 – ACLC Congrès 2014  | CCLA | ACLC.

Conference | The Transnational Imaginaries of M.G. Vassanji

The Transnational Imaginaries of M.G. Vassanji

November 8-10, 2013
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Organizers: Dr. Asma Sayed, Dr. Karim Murji, Dr. Itesh Sachdev
 

The Transnational Imaginaries of M. G. Vassanji, an international conference which is to be held from November 8-10, 2013, is an attempt to bring together the global community of scholars working on the internationally renowned author, MG Vassanji. It will be the first such gathering on the writer and will bring together prominent academics from Africa, North America and Europe. Such an international network has never been brought together before and the formal programme will include a range of perspectives and debates about Mr Vassanji’s many books. The participation of these scholars is a testament to the growing recognition and importance of Mr Vassanji beyond Canada. It is also a significant academic event with papers considering the full range of his books which are set in Canada, India and East Africa. The conference includes the participation of Mr Vassanji himself who will give a keynote lecture.