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<h2 style="margin: 0pt; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-size: 20px;"
class="post-title"><a
style="text-decoration: none ! important; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);"
href="http://samidoun.ca/2012/08/samidoun-statement-on-prisoners-justice-day/">Samidoun
statement on Prisoners’ Justice Day</a></h2>
<span style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);">by <a
href="http://samidoun.ca/?author=1"
style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136) ! important; text-decoration: underline;">samidoun</a></span>
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<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://samidoun.ca/2012/08/samidoun-statement-on-prisoners-justice-day/">http://samidoun.ca/2012/08/samidoun-statement-on-prisoners-justice-day/</a><br>
</p>
<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">August
10,
Prisoners' Justice Day, was initiated by prisoners at Millhaven
Maximum Security Penitentiary in 1976 as a day to remember all of the
men, women and youth who have died inside Canadian prisons, and to draw
attention to the conditions that contribute to prisoner deaths.
Thousands of prisoners across Canada went on a one day hunger strike to
protest the deaths of prisoners and, in particular, the use of solitary
confinement, and supporters outside held vigils and fasts outside
prisons across the country. In the ensuing years, prisoners in the US
and Europe also joined in 24 hour fasts on August 10 for justice,
dignity and against solitary confinement and repression.</p>
<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">36
years
later, on Prison Justice Day 2012, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner
Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with prisoners in Canada and
around the world struggling for justice on this day. We note in
particular that the prison system disproportionately affects Indigenous
people and communities, and has been a weapon of colonialism and
destruction further uprooting Indigenous nations from their land.
Prisons continue to reflect the horrors of the residential schools, as
people, families and communities affected by residential schools
continue to be frequently criminalized today.</p>
<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Refugee
claimants,
migrants, asylum seekers, racialized and oppressed
communities are subject to detention and imprisonment, and heavily
criminalized physically in prisons and through government rhetoric in
Canada. The creation of security certificate regimes and other forms of
"anti-terror" imprisonment particularly target Arab, Muslim and South
Asian communities, and highlight the ways in which political
imprisonment, criminalization and racism go hand in hand for all
prisoners. And while the government denies refugees access to health
care, defunds programs and supports for migrants, refugees and
communities, it pursues the building of ever more prisons across the
country.</p>
<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Palestinian
prisoners
in occupation prisons struggle daily against solitary
confinement, racism, and a mass imprisonment system that targets
Palestinians as a whole for criminalization and subjugation. Yet
Palestinian prisoners have been a beacon of resistance and
steadfastness, leaders of the Palestinian movement for liberation.
Today, at least 4 Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike - Samer
al-Barq (81 days), Hassan Safadi (51 days), Ayman Sharawna (41 days),
and Samer al-Issawi (10 days) - demanding freedom and an end to their
unjust imprisonment without charge or trial.</p>
<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Samidoun
expresses
its solidarity with all those in prisons struggling against
solitary confinement, racism and oppression, and longs for a day of
freedom, justice and liberation for all.</p>
<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Resources:</p>
<p
style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Statement
on Prisoners Justice Day: <a
href="http://alexhundert.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/prisoners-statement-on-prisoners-justice-day/"
style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);">http://alexhundert.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/prisoners-statement-on-prisoners-justice-day/</a><br>
Prison Justice: <a href="http://prisonjustice.ca"
style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);">http://prisonjustice.ca</a><br>
Prisoners Justice Day events across Canada: <a
href="http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/783/"
style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);">http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/783/</a></p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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