Location and/or Summary:

Where : Concordia University, Room H110 of the Hall! Building (1455 De Maisonneuve)

Description:

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) is proud to present the world renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger. For the first time in Montreal, John Pilger will be launching his new book Freedom: Next Time and answering your questions after screenings of two of his latest documentaries.

The first documentary is a Canadian premier co-sponsored by Cinema Politica and entitled The War on Democracy . It explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and Chile.

Where : Concordia University , Room H110 of the Hall! Building (1455 De Maisonneuve)

When : Monday , November 12th @ 7:30 PM

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The second documentary entitled Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the "war on terror" and the facts on the ground as Pilger finds them in Afghanistan.

Where : McGill University , Room 204 of the McConnell Engineering Building (3480 University St.)

When : Tuesday, November 13th at 7:30 PM

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Tickets are limited, please purchase your ticket ASAP by Calling (514) 8397335 or email pil...@sphr.org or online at sphr National website sphr.org

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JOHN PILGER

World-renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, began his career in 1958 in his homeland, Australia, before moving to London in the 1960s. He regards eye-witness as the essence of good journalism. He has been a foreign correspondent and a front-line war reporter, beginning with the Vietnam war in 1967. He is an impassioned critic of foreign military and economic adventures by Western governments.

"It is too easy," he says, "for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to 'our' interests and to follow government agendas that ordain good and bad tyrants, worthy and unworthy victims and present 'our' policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. It's the journalist's job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society." He believes a journalist also ought to be a guardian of the public memory and often quotes Milan Kundera: "The struggle of people against power is the s! truggle of memory against forgetting."
Noam Chomsky wrote: "John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration." Harold Pinter wrote: "John Pilger unearths, with steely attention, the facts, the filthy truth, and tells it as it is."


The War on Democracy

SYNOPSIS:
Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger claims that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".

Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who purportedly took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries and who he claims are profiting from the war in Iraq. He investigates the School of the Americas in the U.S. state of Georgia, where General Pinochet’s torture squads were reportedly trained along with tyrants and death-squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina.
Read More: www.cinemapolitica.org/films/65

Breaking the Silence : Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

"Astonishing...should be required viewing in every home, school and office." The Guardian (U.K.)

Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.

In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban".
Read More: www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/breakh.html

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* SPHR is a non-profit, student-based organization that advocates on a strong social justice platform to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people in the face of human rights violations and all forms of racism, discrimination, misinformation and misrepresentation.

Through awareness raising, advocacy work, non-violent direct actions, solidarity building, and the promotion of Palestinian identity, culture and history, SPHR works to support and protect Palestinian human rights both locally and internationally.