October 17, 2007

• • Bush Appoints Contraceptive Opponent to Run Family Planning
  • Lawsuit Over Forced Drugging of Immigrants Before Deportation
  • Vancouver Police Threaten to Evict Tent City Encampment
  • Pakistani Supreme Court Hears Post-Electoral Challenges
  • Indian Farmers to Launch Countrywide Campaign

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HEADLINES

Bush Appoints Contraceptive Opponent to Run Family Planning
President Bush has tapped an opponent of birth control to lead the family planning unit of the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to her work in the department’s child welfare unit, Dr. Susan Orr was the senior director of the marriage and family care program at the Family Research Council – a Christian Conservative think thank that promotes an abstinance-only approach to family planning. Her new appointment will put her in charge of a 283 million dollar annual budget for family planning programs, reproductive health care, and counseling services.

ACLU Lawsuit Over Forced Drugging of Immigrants Before Deportation

The ACLU and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut are taking on the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the forced drugging of deportees. Kellia Ramares has the story.

ICE forcibly drugged 56 people prior to deportation between October of last year and April of this year said ICE chief Julie Myers in response to written questions from Senator Joseph Lieberman. Myers said that 33 of those people were given drugs because of combative behavior. The ACLU of Southern California has filed a class action lawsuit to stop this practice. The suit’s two named plaintiffs, a Christian minister from Indonesia, and a Senegalese man who had a federal stay of his deportation, have denied combative behavior. They were injected with Haldol and Cogentin; psychotropic drugs that are not supposed to be used on subjects with no history of psychiatric illness. David Oaks, Director of Mindfreedom International, a human rights organization for survivors of psychiatric treatment: (audio) “When the old Soviet Union drugged dissidents it’s very obvious to people it’s a political violation. And that’s the same case here, where you have someone whose only crime is allegedly that they’re in the country illegally and you’re drugging them for the convenience of quieting them down…It’s just obviously political.” ICE would not comment because of the pending litigation. For FSRN, I’m Kellia Ramares.

Vancouver Police Threaten to Evict Tent City Encampment
The City of Vancouver says its police force will evict a group of about a dozen tent city squatters who are protesting the lack of affordable housing in the city. Zack Baddorf has more from British Columbia.

The activists erected their tents Sunday on a patch of grass in between two buildings in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area of about 10 city blocks with about 2,000 homeless Canadians. Thirty percent of the area’s population has HIV, the highest infection rate in North America. The group is squatting on city property alotted for social housing. But the squatters say it’s past time for the city to build housing for the homeless or those at risk of living on the streets. So, the Stream of Justice organization is taking the issue to court, on the same day the city police plan on evicting the squatters. The civic group will ask the British Columbia Supreme Court to allow the homeless of Vancouver to occupy the property indefinitly. On a visit to Canada for Homelessness Action week, the UN envoy on homelessness says Vancouver should take the opportunity of the upcoming Olympics here in 2010 to close the “striking gap” between the rich and the poor in the city. For Free Speech Radio News, I’m Zack Baddorf in Vancouver.

Pakistani Supreme Court Hears Post-Electoral Challenges
Pakistan’s Supreme Court today began hearing post-electoral challenges to the candidacy of President Pervez Musharraf. Provincial councils and local lawmakers earlier this month re-elected Musharraf to another term in office. However, Musharraf cannot declare victory until the Sumpreme Court rules on if he was eligible to run in the first place. The Musharraf camp has been holding talks with former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, about a possible power-sharing agreement. Bhutto has announced that she will return to Pakistan from self-imposed exile tomorrow.

Indian Farmers Launch Countrywide Campaign
Farmers in India have announced plans to launch a nation-wide campaign to highlight the country’s agrarian crisis. Bismillah Geelani reports.

A national meeting of the Indian Farmers Union concluded yesterday in New Delhi with a resolution to step up pressure on the government to help resolve the crisis in the countryside. The farmers are demanding full debt relief for outstanding farm loans and higher market prices for their produce. They also want the Government to pull out of the World Trade Organization and reverse the Special Economic Zone policy. The farmers say the Government of India has failed to force the United States and the European Union to scale down their farm subsidies, reduce their import tariffs and stop dumping subsidized agriculture commodities onto Indian markets. The campaign will focus on the states of Punjab, Hryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where an estimated 150,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last five years due to economic collapse. For FSRN, this is Bismillah Geelani from New Delhi.

FEATURES

Bush Appoints Contraceptive Opponent to Run Family Planning
President Bush has tapped an opponent of birth control to lead the family planning unit of the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to her work in the department’s child welfare unit, Dr. Susan Orr was the senior director of the marriage and family care program at the Family Research Council – a Christian Conservative think thank that promotes an abstinance-only approach to family planning. Her new appointment will put her in charge of a 283 million dollar annual budget for family planning programs, reproductive health care, and counseling services.

ACLU Lawsuit Over Forced Drugging of Immigrants Before Deportation The ACLU and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut are taking on the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the forced drugging of deportees. Kellia Ramares has the story.

ICE forcibly drugged 56 people prior to deportation between October of last year and April of this year said ICE chief Julie Myers in response to written questions from Senator Joseph Lieberman. Myers said that 33 of those people were given drugs because of combative behavior. The ACLU of Southern California has filed a class action lawsuit to stop this practice. The suit’s two named plaintiffs, a Christian minister from Indonesia, and a Senegalese man who had a federal stay of his deportation, have denied combative behavior. They were injected with Haldol and Cogentin; psychotropic drugs that are not supposed to be used on subjects with no history of psychiatric illness. David Oaks, Director of Mindfreedom International, a human rights organization for survivors of psychiatric treatment: (audio) “When the old Soviet Union drugged dissidents it’s very obvious to people it’s a political violation. And that’s the same case here, where you have someone whose only crime is allegedly that they’re in the country illegally and you’re drugging them for the convenience of quieting them down…It’s just obviously political.” ICE would not comment because of the pending litigation. For FSRN, I’m Kellia Ramares.

Vancouver Police Threaten to Evict Tent City Encampment
The City of Vancouver says its police force will evict a group of about a dozen tent city squatters who are protesting the lack of affordable housing in the city. Zack Baddorf has more from British Columbia.

The activists erected their tents Sunday on a patch of grass in between two buildings in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area of about 10 city blocks with about 2,000 homeless Canadians. Thirty percent of the area’s population has HIV, the highest infection rate in North America. The group is squatting on city property alotted for social housing. But the squatters say it’s past time for the city to build housing for the homeless or those at risk of living on the streets. So, the Stream of Justice organization is taking the issue to court, on the same day the city police plan on evicting the squatters. The civic group will ask the British Columbia Supreme Court to allow the homeless of Vancouver to occupy the property indefinitly. On a visit to Canada for Homelessness Action week, the UN envoy on homelessness says Vancouver should take the opportunity of the upcoming Olympics here in 2010 to close the “striking gap” between the rich and the poor in the city. For Free Speech Radio News, I’m Zack Baddorf in Vancouver.

Pakistani Supreme Court Hears Post-Electoral Challenges
Pakistan’s Supreme Court today began hearing post-electoral challenges to the candidacy of President Pervez Musharraf. Provincial councils and local lawmakers earlier this month re-elected Musharraf to another term in office. However, Musharraf cannot declare victory until the Sumpreme Court rules on if he was eligible to run in the first place. The Musharraf camp has been holding talks with former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, about a possible power-sharing agreement. Bhutto has announced that she will return to Pakistan from self-imposed exile tomorrow.

Indian Farmers Launch Countrywide Campaign
Farmers in India have announced plans to launch a nation-wide campaign to highlight the country’s agrarian crisis. Bismillah Geelani reports.

A national meeting of the Indian Farmers Union concluded yesterday in New Delhi with a resolution to step up pressure on the government to help resolve the crisis in the countryside. The farmers are demanding full debt relief for outstanding farm loans and higher market prices for their produce. They also want the Government to pull out of the World Trade Organization and reverse the Special Economic Zone policy. The farmers say the Government of India has failed to force the United States and the European Union to scale down their farm subsidies, reduce their import tariffs and stop dumping subsidized agriculture commodities onto Indian markets. The campaign will focus on the states of Punjab, Hryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where an estimated 150,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last five years due to economic collapse. For FSRN, this is Bismillah Geelani from New Delhi.