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Steven Staples: Missile Defence and Space Weapons...

Steven Staples of the Polaris Institute and Ceasefire.ca is on a 5-week speaking tour throughout Canada. This week he will be in the BC interior: Castlegar (Tues), Grand Forks (Wed), Penticton and Kelowna (Thurs) and Kamloops (Fri). Next week, Steven will be in southern Ontario, including my city of Brampton. (see dates and locations below).

The meetings will raise the alarm over recent overtures to the federal government to join missile defence and embrace the weaponization of space.


Contact information:

Steven Staples

Director of Security Programs

Polaris Institute

* New address *

30 Metcalfe Street, Suite 500

Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5L4

CANADA

t. 613 565-9449 (direct)

c. 613 290-2695

f. 613 237-3359

e. sstaples@polarisinstitute.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Liberals should stay out of bed with Harper, Bush

(October 16, 2006 — Toronto) For the Liberal party to change its position on participation in the ballistic missile defence program is complete folly, said political organizer and author Steven Staples today in response to prominent Liberal Frank McKenna's suggestion that the party switch its position on missile defence.


"Canadians remain unconvinced of this dangerous and expensive system," said Mr. Staples who was instrumental in stopping Canadian participation in 2005. "Paul Martin made the right decision not to join, so why would the Liberals would want to climb into bed with Stephen Harper and George Bush?"

Mr. Staples is the author of the just published Missile Defence: Round One, which explains how an unlikely coalition of Canadian parliamentarians, peace activists, and ordinary citizens were able to fight the missile defence plan. Mr. Staples will be at several speaking engagements in Ontario next week to talk about this vital issue to Canadians.



Author tour schedule


Oct. 23, 2:30, London, ON, Natural Sciences Theatre 1, University of Western Ontario, hosted by Department of Political Science and the Centre for American Studies, University of Western Ontario

Oct. 23, 7:00, Woodstock, ON, CAW Hall, 126 Beale Street, hosted by Oxford Coalition for Social Justice

Oct. 23, 12:30, Hamilton, ON, Togo Salmon Hall, Room 719, 1280 Main Street West, hosted by McMaster University

Oct. 25, 2:30, Toronto, ON, 305 York Lanes, York University, hosted by University Consortium on the Global South (UCGS) and Ceasefire.ca

Oct. 25, 7:00, Brampton, ON, Four Corners Library, hosted by Council of Canadians Brampton Chapter and Ceasefire.ca

Oct. 26, 5:00, Toronto, ON, Book launch, Society of Friends (Quaker Meeting House), 60 Lowther Avenue, hosted by James Lorimer & Company, Canadian Pugwash Group and Ceasefire.ca


About the author


STEVEN STAPLES is a veteran political organizer from the peace and anti-globalization movements. >From his office at the Polaris Institute in Ottawa, he was one of the central backroom – and sometimes front-page – voices that led the political resistance to Paul Martin’s plan to put Canada in Bush’s missile defence system. Known on Parliament Hill, in newsrooms, and on the street, Staples is a key figure in Canada’s peace movement.


1-55028-929-2, 6"x 9", paperback, 248 pages, October 10, 2006, $19.95, James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers, www.lorimer.ca



Available at Amazon.ca and Chapters.ca.

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posted by Annamarie at 12:13 AM