Information Policy Committee Salons
INFORMATION POLICY SALON XVIII
Friday, May 2, 2008
Topic: How to Free the Net: Community Wireless Initiatives in Canada
Join Joe Bowser and Mike West, representatives from Vancouver-based FreeTheNet, to learn about what "community wireless" means and what it can do for public access to the Internet in Canadian communities. FreeTheNet, a cooperative community wireless project, is working hard to create a
whole zone of wireless access in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Come learn about why this work is important and what you can do to participate in it! The meeting will be held at Theresa's, a workers' coop café on Commercial Drive.
Everyone is welcome; Theresa's is wheelchair-accessible.
Address: 1200 block of Commercial Drive, across from Grandview Park
Tea and coffee: 6 pm
Discussion start time: 6:30 pm Café closes at 9 pm.
Please RSVP to Sabina Iseli-Otto: sio@vcn.bc.ca
INFORMATION POLICY SALON XVII
March 28, 2008
Topic: CanWest and the Crackdown on Free
Speech
Potluck supper at 6:00 pm; presentation &
discussion at 7:00 pm; dessert to follow. Everyone is welcome!
Speakers:
Sean Condon (Associate Editor of
Adbusters
)
As associate editor of Adbusters, Sean Condon is
painfully familiar with CanWest's activities and the chilling effects of media
concentration in Canada. He has recently written an article about CanWest which
will appear in a forthcoming issue of
Adbusters
.
Condon will give an introduction to CanWest: what the
company does, what it owns and how it's grown, and why it plays such an
important role in the Canadian information landscape.
Mordecai Briemberg (host of "The Redeye" on Co-op
Radio)
In June 2007, Mordecai Briemberg,
a long-time peace and social-justice activist, attended a meeting at the
Vancouver Public Library to oppose the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. At
the end of the meeting, on a table, was a pile of newspapers which parodied The
Vancouver Sun, Vancouver’s leading daily newspaper and a CanWest publication.
Mordecai was amused by the parody, picked up a handful of copies from a table
and distributed them at a bus stop near his home. Briemberg is now being taken
to court by CanWest, though he had nothing to do with either the creation or
publication of the parody.
Briemberg will discuss his legal case with CanWest
and the corporation's motivations in choosing him as their target.
Optional reading:
E
xcerpts from Marc Edge's 2007 book "Asper
Nation:
Canada's Most Dangerous Media
Company
on The Tyee
.
This post from the Information Policy Blog has more information on the
Vancouver Sun parody.
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