3 maja to wazny dzien. Rocznica uchwalenia Konstytucji 3-Maja, rocznica zalozenia Polskiej Ligi Szlacheckiej w Kanadzie + Festiwal Wolnosci z Globalnym Marszem Marihuany + swieto Matki Bozej Krolowej Polski.
SAT. MAY 3 2008
2ND TORONTO FREEDOM FESTIVAL
TORONTO
GLOBAL
MARIJUANA MARCH
QUEENS PARK NORTH: TORONTO
GRAND MARSHALL: MARC EMERY
* LARGEST IN THE WORLD
* 15,000+ MARCHERS
TORONTO FREEDOM FESTIVALATTRACTIONS:
* 20,000+ in attendence
* Canada's largest marijuana event
* Breathtaking venue
* 4 stages of music & speakers
* 50+ vendors & exhibitors
* Great food, great vibes
SPEAKER STAGE
* MARC EMERY - PRINCE OF POT
* ALISON MYRDEN - LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST PROHIBITION
* LADY LOXX - POET
* ROB CONNELL - T.R.I.P.
* TRAVIS BLACKMAN - POET
* IAN LEVINE - PARDONS CANADA
* RON MARZEL - CARASEL ATTOURNEY
* NORA WOLF - REIKI MEDITATION
* GRYFFYN - SONG WRITER
* TIKHER TERERRA - FILMAKER
02:42 Hrs. 6 calow i 16 inczow wynosi srednia dlugos penisa meskiego, podaja w programie "Strictly sex with Dr. Drew" na kanale DHC 88 (Discovery & Health).
09:25 Hrs. Lektura tronowa. "Eye Spy".
Vodka Search Nets Alleged "Polish Spy Ring"
Four Belarusians convicted of spying for Poland
The Suprime Court in Belarus has sentenced four Belarusian Army officers to between seven and ten years in prison for espionage. The men were accused of providing Polish Intelligence with state secrets.
During the case, prosecutors said the men transported classified information inside a type of fire extinguisher that all Belarus citizens are required to carry inside their vehicles. It is understood from court documents, the men were "contracted" by Polish intelligence to obtain secrets on Russia's antimissile defence systems, in particular the long-range S-300 Air Defence. Deupty Chairman of the State Security Committee, Viktor Vegera said, "their espionage activities had been fully proven."
The information on the defence system was allegedly held on a number of CDs found in a fire appliance.
In July, Belarus state television showed two of the alleged spies apparently confessing.
The head of Belarus's intelligence service - BKGB, did not reveal how the men were exposed, but it is thought they were stopped during a routine border crossing - officers in this case searching for "smuggled vodka."
Vladimir Russkin, the suspected hear of the group, was found guilty of "organising espionage," while Sergei Kornilyuk, Pavel Petkevich and Viktor Bogdan were convicted of "treason."
The Supreme Court's military collegium found the four guilty of premeditated espionage which damaged Belarus' national security. Russkin was also found guilty of organising the collection and passing of secret information to a foreign intelligence - namely Poland. All four were stripped of their military ranks, that ranged from lieutenant to major. The court did not explain why the men received such short prison sentences.
* Belarusian security teams arrested Polish military attache Kasimez Witaschy in April 2004 on spying charges. He was ejected from Belarus a few weeks later (EYE SPY, Volume VII No. 51 2007).
10:33 Hrs. Zrywam kartke z kalendarza. Dzisiaj sobota. 3 maja 2008. SWIETO NARODOWE 3 MAJA. Dzien dluzszy od najkrotszego dnia w roku o 7 godzin i 22 minuty. Imieniny Marii, Aleksandra, Stanislawa, Antoniny, Marioli, Aniki, Swietoslawy. MATKI BOZEJ KROLOWEJ POLSKI.
1660 - W Oliwie zawarto pokoj pomiedzy Polska a Szwecja, na mocy ktorego, Jan II Kazimierz zrzekl sie praw do tronu szwedzkiego, a Polska zatrzymala czesc Inflant
1791 - Sejm Czteroletni uchwalil Konstytucje 3 maja; byla to pierwsza w Europie i druga na swiecie (po Stanach Zjednoczonych) demokratyczna ustawa zasadnicza; na mocy konstytucji nastapil m.in. podzial wladzy na prawodawcza, wykonawcza i sadownicza oraz zniesiono liberum veto.
1815 - Powstala Rzeczpospolita Krakowska (Wolne Miasto Krakow).
1858 - Urodzil sie Jan Antoniewicz Boloz, historyk sztuki i literatury; profesor Uniwersytetu Lwowskiego (zm. 1922 r.).
1945 - II wojna swiatowa: I Dywizja Pancerna gen. Stanislawa Maczka opanowala rejon Westerstede.
1966 - Na Jasnej Gorze odbyly sie uroczyste obchody Tysiaclecia Chrztu Polski.
1991 - W Ottawie, Kanada, zostala zalozona Polska Liga Szlachecka w Kanadzie.
Marsz marihuany
237 miast na swiecie uczestniczyc bedzie w sobote w marszu Global Marijuana March (GMM). W zeszlym roku bylo ich 233. W tym roku w Kanadzie marsze odbeda sie w 14 miastach, a w Polsce - w dwoch: w Gorzowie Wlkp. i Warszawie.
Najwiekszy marsz odbedzie sie w Toronto - w zeszlym roku uczestniczylo w nim 20.000 osob. Jest to tradycja od 1999 roku. Marsz odbywa sie w ramacy Toronto Freedom Festiwal (http://www.torontofreedomfestival.com/).
Uczestnicy marszu domagaja sie legalizacji marihuany, przede wszystkim dla osob chorych, dla ktorych jest to lek. Poza marszem, odbywaja sie seminaria, wiece, spotkania, wyklady, projekcje filmow i wiele imprez edukacyjnych.
Tradycja powstala z inicjatywy organizacji Cures-not-Wars w 1999 roku jako Million Marijuana March. Poczatkowo marsze za legalizacja marihuany odbywaly sie tylko w Nowym Jorku. W 2003 roku udzial bralo 200 miast. Od tego czasu, marsze zorganizowano w 450 miastach swiata. W 2005 roku zmieniono nazwe imprezy na Global Marijuana March.
W 2007 roku torontonski marsz poprowadzila para Marc i Jodie Emery ( oboje beda tez obecni na GMM w Toronto w tym roku). Marc Emery jest wydawca "Cannabis Culture Magazine". Caly ruch przez 10 lat byl finansowany ze sprzedazy nasion marihuany, za co Emery zostal aresztowany w Vancouver w 2005 roku. Grozi mu dozywocie w USA. Marc Emery, a takze dwie inne osoby - Michelle Rainey i Greg Williams - walcza z nakazem ekstradycji do USA.
Info: http://www.globalmarijuanamarch.ca/ (GAZETA 85, 2 - 4 maja 2008).
11:00-12:00 Hrs. Ogladam "Polish Studio".
11:13 Hrs. "Samobojcza ideologia polskiej zlotej wolnosci szlacheckiej" - komentarz w dokumentalnym filmie o Konstytucji 3 Maja.
"Kazde uczciwe zajecie moze byc droga do Boga" - sw. Jozef.
11:23 Hrs. "Rece precz od Kodeksu Pracy. Rece precz od Prawa Pracy", "Urodzony w PRL-u" - hasla pochodu pierwszomajowego w Warszawie.
11:34 Hrs. Widze twarz Stasia Stolarczyka na spotkaniu Credit Union. Stasio zawsze inspirowal mnie do pisania poezji. Mowil, ze publikowalby je w swojej gazecie. On tak jak s.p. pani Irena Kwilecka z Ottawy, polubil moje wiersze i namawial do pisania wiecej. Ja wybralem jednak pisanie esejow tzw "papierow" (papers, po angielsku) na uniwersytetach.
11:46 Hrs. "Czlowiek sie wiele nauczy, jak sie zyje na obczyznie" - mowi dr. Zbigniew Kabata w rozmowie ze szlachcicem Krzysztofem Lubicz-Szydlowskim, ktory daje dr. Kabata jako przyklad "jak nalezy osiagac cos co sie chce w swoim zyciu".
12:05 Hrs. "Did you receive newspaper today?" - zapytuje mily glos meski w sluchawce telefonu. Dzwoni dzial obslugi klienta gazety "National Post". Isabel dzwonila do nich ze skarga, ze kilka dni nie doniesiono gazety.
13:00 Hrs. Zmieniamy z Isabel posciel na lozu krolewskim. Jest to jedna z ciezszych, obok odkurzania i mycia luster, praca domowa. Zakladac trzeba cztery rozne przescieradla, unoszac przy tym ciezki jak cholera materac rozmiarow krolewskich. Wszystko to musi byc rowniutko pozakladane po czterech bokach, bez zadnych zmarszczek na gorze.
Nie stac nas na pokojowke, to musimy te czynnosci sami wykonywac. Wedlug opowiesci rodzinnych po stronie Kuciakow, dziadka Wladyslawa przed wojna na Wolyniu bylo stac na pokojowke. Czyli mial wyzszy standard zycia w owczesnej Polsce, jak ja mam w obecnej Kanadzie.
14:02 Hrs. Popoludniowa siesta z Isabel w lozu krolewskim. Isabel przeglada mazgazyny "Hello!" (http://www.hellomagazine.ca/), ja czytam "National Post" (http://www.nationalpost.com/) z "Israel at 60. Snapshotes from today's Israel. A land of conflict? Absolutely. But also pop music, French immigrants, sushi, annoying teens, high taxes and hope." na okladce.
Telewizor wyciszony na kanale "Shopping Channel" (http://www.theshoppingchannel.com/).
Zmawiam takze rozaniec za tworcow Konstytucji 3 Maja, czlonkow-zalozycieli Polskiej Ligi Szlacheciej w Kanadzie i uczestnikow Marszu Marihuany w Toronto, jak i na calym swiecie. Prosze Maryje o wstawiennictwo u Boga dla tych osob, ktorym tak jak kiedys, tak i dzisiaj przyswieca idea wolnosci.
Dzisiaj sobota. Tajemnice radosne.
I Tajemnica radosna
Zwiastowanie N.M.P.
Aniol wszedl do Niej i rzekl: "Badz pozdrowiona, pelna laski, Pan z Toba, blogoslawiona jestes miedzy niewiastami".
(Lk 1, 28)
Owoc tajemnicy: Pokora
Bog wybral Maryje na Matke Zbawiciela swiata. Jej pokora i prostota podobaly sie Panu. W pokorze swej byla gotowa wypelniac wole Boga. Maryja mowi: "Oto ja sluzebnica Panska, niech mi sie stanie wedlug twego slowa (Lk 1, 38). Po tych slowach dokonuje sie cud wcielenia Syna Bozego moca Ducha Swietego. Wola Boga, to pierwsza zasada naszego zycia. Mamy skierowac wszystkie sily nasze do jej wypelnienia. Maryja jest dla nas wzorem posluszenstwa i uleglosci wobec zamiarow Bozych.
Polecmy Bogu nasze serca, aby zawsze gotowe byly wykonac to, czego Bopg od nas oczekuje.
17:08 Hrs. Grzmoty za oknem. Dudnienie deszczu o dach domu. Wygladam przez okno. Ulewa. Biale galezie od kwiatow wisni kolysza sie na wietrze. Takze korony wysokich zielonych juz drzew.
18:02 Hrs. "Towarzyszu! W wolej chwili lepiej popeln harakiri" - wykrzykuja anarchisci na pochodzie 1-majowym w Warszawie w programie "Z ukosa".
18:11 Hrs. Obrazki z Marszu Marihuany w Toronto pokazuje CTV NEWS na 7 kanale. Prawie kazdy w gebie z cybuchem.
18:25 Hrs. "Macie trudne nazwiska" - mowi red. Sniegowski do dwoch harcerzy ze szczepu wodnego "Baltyk". Szymon Sekscinski uwaza, ze harcerstwo jest jedna z wiekszych organizacji polonijnych. "Plywamy co roku na obozie na Kaszubach", dodaje Marcin Rewkowski.
NARODOWE ARCHIWUM CYFROWE
Stone free
THE TORONTO FREEDOM FRSTIVAL ADDS POLITICAL CLUT TO THE 10TH ANNUAL GLOBAL MARIJUANA MARCH BY SIVAN KEREN
Even if you've never heard of the Global Marijuana March (GMM), the title itself probably conjures up a few images. And if those images include teenage boys hitting fluorescent bubbling bongs and hippie girls in cotton dresses moving oddly about to "Uncle John's Band," then you're not far off. But it's also likely that this image is missing a few details - like cops watching on with implicit approval, rousing speeches about decriminalization and a 20,000-person crowd spread across our provincial parliament's backyard. And these are precisely the details that the Toronto Freedom Festival (TFF), in conjunction with the GMM, will attempt to highlight.
So on May 3, while tokers from Osaka to Thunder Bay to Amsterdam puff, puff and pass in celebration of cannabis across 235 cities worldwide, the organizers of the TFF are hoping to keep the fun, but step up the serious.
To do so, the festival will call on a host of speakers, many of whom will use the "speak free" stage to discuss the politics of cannabis. Headlining the event is Marc Emery, a.k.a. "The Prince of Pot," Canada's high-profile cannabis activist and US Drug Enforcement Agency's "most wanted." Emery will address his impending five-year sentence in an American jail - time he'll be serving for countless cannabis-related transgressions such as selling marijuana seeds over the internet. Emery, among eight speakers, will give participants and cynics alike good reason to take the Freedom Festival a little more seriously.
One of the most compelling of these speakers, Alison Myrden ("Freedom From Bad Prohibition"), is the leading female spokeswoman" for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). The organization, composed of current and former law enforcement officials, seeks to educate the public about drug-policy failures while restoring faith and respect for officers. Myrden, who says that as a cop she "felt like quite the hypocrite," plans to speak about legalization. And, as she puts it, bringing an immediate end to "the war on drugs."
When we speak on the phone, Myrden described the constant and unbearable symptoms she esperiences from a disease called tic douloureux. Physicians, I later find out, refer to the neuropathic disorder, as "the most painful condition known to man." But Myrden, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis, says that most medications she's tried either don't help at all, or have unsustainable side affects.
"I have a realy excruciating pain in my face but I had to jump through hoops to get the only thing I could find to help," she says, inhaling deeply. That thing? Cannabis. "As soon as I smoked a marijuana cigarette, the pain went away," she says.
Since obtaining the prescription 13 years ago, Myrden says that her allotment (the largest in Canada) of one ounce a day has replaced over 60 per cent of her pills and thousands of milligrams of morphine. But she hasn't forgotten how it used to be. Her struggles in attaining cannabis, the side effects of which she likens to those of coffee, are precisely what led Myrden to campaign for its legalization. Since joining LEAP, she's written countless letters and conducted thousands of interviews advocating "to get all drugs regulated and off the street."
And with the recent momentum of Bill C-26, there's been plenty to write about. The bill, which would impose mandatory minimums and more severe penalties relating to drug crimes, was passed by the House of Commons on April 16 and currently awaits debate by the Justice and Human Rights Committee. And Myrden, among others, says enough is enough. She believes we need to stop getting caught up in arresting people for drugs, when drugs should be viewed as a health issue. And she's certainly not the only one who thinks so.
Ron Marzel, the lawyer who's been on call at the Global Marijuana March for the past four years, agrees that incarcerating marijuana users doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Marzel is a defending lawyer in the recently appealed high-profile Carasel suit. The case, which he defended before the federal courts, loosened laws surrounding the production of medical marijuana. Marzel, who'll attend the hearing for Carasel in early September, says he's optimistic that the federal court of appeal will uphold the original ruling.
"People should not be going to jail for possession of cannabis. It's that simple," Marzel says. "There are so many people engaged in smoking cannabis recreationally ... and [there are] people who are really, really sick and can't survive without the therapeutic effects that marijuana provides," he says.
"We need to really ask ourselves: what should we be keeping criminal and what shouldn't we be keeping criminal?" he continues.
On the speaker's stage, Marzel will address the implications of Carasel, and other legal issues around decriminalization. The former, he says, is "heart-wrenching and dramatic in itself," and later "philosophically important."
Like Marzel, Myrden is concerned that the drug debates are taking place in the wrong part of the public sphere. "Drugs don't belong in the legal realm," she asserts with a natural tone of authority. But with legislation constantly changing, it's impossible to ignore the highly political component to this weedy back and forthing. And Marzel isn't the first to point to cross-border politics. "Our neighbour to the south of us has a lot of imput and persuasiveness on the issue," he says.
If you ask Marc Emery, he'll say that's a watered-down version of the story. "The US plays a dominating role in Canadian drug policy," says the Prince of Pot from his office at Cannabis Culture in Vancouver. Emery whose royal nickname reflects years of cannabis-related activism, is fighting extradition to the US for drug charges of selling pot seeds by mail order, a process that could see him serve time in the country he calls "Canada's retarded younger brother." We'll assume that Emery means that though the US is 91 years older than Canada, it acts younger by dragging its feet on progressive drug policy. Still, Emery goes on to say he believes the US feels inferior to Canada, and is jealous and resentful that it is being forced to catch up to the modern world. And there's plenty more where that came from. The Prince of Pot will kick off the "speak free" festivities ("Freedom to Not be Extradited"), and says he'll encourage the tokers below the stage to continue to come out in huge numbers.
Emery, who's been known to blow smoke in cops' faces at similar events, says he'll also attempt to bring more seriousness to the party. He plans to remind the crowd that, "while we're all smoking and having fun, there are people in jail within blocks of Queen's Park." (It's a whole lot of blocks to the Don Jail, but his point is taken.) These are the people, he says, who "have made it possible for us all to break the law simultaneously."
Although the theme of TFF may seem a bit contrived, especially in the titles of some of the speaking events (e.g. "The Freedom to Know Who You Are," "The Freedom to Party Responsibly," etc.), there's a definite sense of political urgency to the content, even if it's sometimes lost in the public perception of the event. Not that it isn't also a celebration. "To a certain extent, it is a party," says Marzel. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And I hope the party grows and grows so that the political message gets bigger and bigger" (EYE WEEKLY, May 01 2008).
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