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Canadian Boat to Gaza

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Jun 22nd, 2011
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After the Arab Spring, it’s time for a Palestine Freedom Summer
BY DERRICK O’KEEFE Rabble JUNE 21, 2011
Today is the first day of summer, and it’s now only a matter of days before the Canadian Boat to Gaza sails towards Gaza from a port in the Meditarranean.
After almost a year of determined organizing and fundraising across the country, the Canadian Boat is ready to join the international ‘Freedom Flotilla 2,’ which will include about 10 boats carrying over 500 activists from around the world.
 
 
CPTer David Milne was one of those charged at Site 41
AWARE Simcoe June 21 2011
the Canadian ship Tahrir, carrying civil society delegates and journalists from a range of media organizations, is about to set sail for Gaza.
Among those joining the effort to breach an Israeli blockade and bring supplies into the Gaza Strip is David Milne of Belleville
Milne, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, was a constant presence at Site 41 in 2009 and was arrested, along with Jen Meunier and others, during a blockade of the proposed dump site.
He was one of 18 people who were charged during the three-month protest that ended in cancellation of the dump site. All charges were stayed or dropped. 
The Canadians join an international flotilla of over one thousand civilians protesting the siege of Gaza and the intractable political impasse. 
The delegates on board the Tahrir include politicians; Jewish, Muslim and Christian Canadians; artists, peace and human rights activists; small business owners; some of whom have taken part in previous flotillas. 
Dylan Penner, steering committee member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada (and also an organizer with the Canadian Boat to Gaza) and Vivienne Porzsolt from Jews Against Occupation in Australia, will be joined by Harmeet Singh Sooden, who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2005 and held for 4 months (along with Canadian James Loney while participating in an international Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation), as well as Muhammed Hamou from the London Muslim Mosque. 
Also on board the Tahrir will be Former Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and professor of Indigenous Studies at Queen’s University Robert Lovelace; Canadian Voice of Women for Peace Co-Chair Lyn Adamson; Quebec Solidaire representative Manon Massé; small business owner Sue Breeze from BC; Toronto book publisher and children’s mental health activist Kate Wilson; Toronto filmmaker John Greyson; and Mary Hughes-Thompson, co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement who was on board the Free Gaza that broke the siege of Gaza in August 2008, and was part of the support team for the first Freedom Flotilla in May 2010. 
The Tahrir is honoured to be joined by 4 delegates from Australia, 4 from Belgium, 5 from Denmark, and one from Germany. 
Interview with David Milne
Canadian Boat to Gaza website
June 16 news release 

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