Racism rocks PSAC Montreal office

MONTREAL - The anonymous letter shattered what had started as a normal Monday morning at the office for "Joel," a union organizer at the Montreal office of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
"SPEAK NEGER BLACK," it started.
The rest of the letter was in French.
"It's well-paid we have all the jobs that pay. Where and when we want. INCOMPETENCE INCLUDED," it read.
Copies of the racist screed - obtained by The Gazette - were placed in the mail slots of the office's only two black employees on Feb. 21.
The hate mail has brought to light troubling allegations of racism in the public-sector union's Quebec division.
Both employees say they believe the letters are linked to a controversial incident that created deep divisions between PSAC's employees in Quebec and those in the rest of Canada.
On Dec. 16, 2009, PSAC staffers from Quebec read a poem and showed a film titled Speak White to colleagues at a national conference in Ottawa. The 1980, six-minute film by nationalist filmmakers Pierre Falardeau and Julien Poulin - based on the 1968 poem of the same name - includes shocking images of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi genocide. It denounces exploitation of Quebec's French-speaking working class, which it compares to the plight of U.S. blacks and other oppressed minorities.
However, the Quebec staffers did not explain what the film meant or provide a translation, so many visible-minority employees found the images racist and disturbing.
In January 2010, the Canadian Union of Labour Employees (CULE), which represents workers at PSAC, filed a grievance on behalf of employees who found the film out of line with PSAC's obligation to provide a respectful and racismfree work environment.
CULE lost the grievance and has requested arbitration.
Joel (not his real name), then a union organizer in Ottawa, was one of three employees on whose behalf the union filed the grievance.
In December, he transferred to PSAC's Montreal office for family reasons.
He said he had to wait several weeks for a computer and a desk, and was not given an assignment until January.
When the hate letter arrived, Joel said he was struck by the similarity between its wording and the Speak White incident.
"It has to be coming from someone who has a certain knowledge of the situation," he said.
The letter, stamped "Personal," was in a white business envelope with his name and PSAC's Montreal address affixed by tape. The stamp was franked by Canada Post but on close inspection, the transparent tape was on top of the franking marks.
"Luc," a second black employee, also received an envelope containing the same letter as Joel along with a second letter.
Both men, who are francophones, requested that their names not be used for fear of consequences for their future careers.
Luc's envelope was stamped but the stamp was not franked.
The second letter reads: "Speak Black it's Better."
It continues, in French: "You work when you like, you have the big JOB. The big Cash, no one asks you for anything. Always on the weekend."
Police did not check the letters or envelopes for fingerprints, the men said.
Joel said he called police after opening the letter and was told to take it to a police station. The duty officer at the station near PSAC's St. Laurent office told him police would not investigate because the letter contained no threat of violence.
Both men have been on medical leave since receiving the letters.
Two days after the letters arrived, regional coordinator Bertrand Lavoie announced a staff meeting to discuss ways to improve the work atmosphere.
In an email reply to Lavoie obtained by The Gazette, regional union organizer Mathieu Dumont refused to attend the meeting. Dumont wrote that despite his disgust for the letters, "all my sympathy stops (here). I refuse to be (...) taken hostage by rumour, calumny, popular opinion or the peanut gallery that obeys the dictates of the moment."
Dumont said Quebec should not be blamed for a situation that goes beyond its jurisdiction. He added: "I will not participate and I encourage my colleagues to do the same."
However, PSAC president John Gordon said the organization is "very disturbed" by the hate mail.
"We're viewing this as a very, very serious issue and we want to get to the bottom of it," he said.
Gordon added that PSAC is investigating the Speak White incident but refused to comment on that investigation.
Luc has worked in PSAC's Montreal office for four years. On Jan. 17, he returned to work after a sixmonth medical leave that he said was related to workplace harassment. He had been working three days a week and was about start a four-day work week when the letter arrived.
Luc said that when an opportunity came up to volunteer for a certain assignment, other employees were given a chance to apply but he was kept out of the loop.
When the Quebec staff planned the Speak White presentation, they did not reveal the plans to him or to the only other black employee, who has since resigned.
Luc said no one in the office said anything when a union member who frequently visited the office remarked that he got his job because he is black.
When staff dine out together, black employees are often not included in the conversation, he said.
"You come to realize that you're not part of the gang and you never will be," Luc said.
Other employees frequently badmouth anglophones and other minorities at work, Luc said. They say: "Those têtes carrées. Why should we have to follow their directives?"
Luc said that colleagues often criticize employment equity programs for favouring minorities. "They say, 'Why give jobs to blacks?' "
Luc said one staff member called Arab union members "dogs" and said of the executive of a union: "I'm going to kick out those damn Arabs!"
Both men said they have received sympathetic messages from colleagues across Canada since the hate mail arrived but - aside from a supportive note from regional coordinator Lavoie - not a word of support from their Montreal coworkers.
Jérôme Turcq, PSAC's executive vice-president for the Quebec region, said this is the first time to his knowledge a staff member in the Montreal office has been the victim of racism.
"I don't think they come from my employees," he said of the letters.
PSAC represents about 35,000 workers in Quebec employed by the federal government and universities.
mascot@montrealgazette.com

Asmaaa Mahfouz, a woman behind Egypt’s pro-democracy revolution (The Canadian Charger)

So much has been written about women's rights in Muslim countries, even citing this issue as a justification for the western military invasion, but the western feminist movement remains largely silent about the current pro-democracy uprising in Egypt.

As a result of miniscule coverage in the western press, perhaps many don't know that Asmaaa Mahfouz – a 26-year-old Egyptian woman – was and is a leading figure in Egypt's three-year old democracy movement.
A founding member of the April 6 Youth Movement – an Egyptian Facebook group started in the spring of 2008 to support workers in El-Mahalla El-Kubra - an industrial town north of Cairo - who were planning to strike on April 6 of that year, Ms. Mahfouz graduated from the business management school of the American University of Cairo in 2008.
Upon graduation, Mahfouz emerged as an activist on social media pages throughout Egypt. In 2008, Ms. Mahfouz and other activists connected with the April 6 Movement used the internet to mobilize support for a general strike. As a result, Mahfouz and her family were subjected to harassment by Egyptian security forces.
Subsequently her job as an accountant at Al Shaimaa export and import firm was suspended, due to her political activity in the current protests.
She is considered one of the most important symbols of the January 2011pro-democreacy uprising in Egypt – to the degree that the new Egyptian government that formed after the uprising requested to meet with her, but she declined.
Using Facebook, Twitter and a famous YouTube video and her January 18^th video tape, Ms. Mahfouz rallied thousands of people to participate in the current protests.
On January 31, Asmaa Mahfouz, told Egypt’s Al-Mihwar TV about her decision to use Facebook to take action in Egypt before the Internet was jammed by the Egyptian government.
Her YouTube video is a rallying cry for justice that rivals any the world has ever seen.
She begins by saying that four Egyptians set themselves on fire to protest humiliation, hunger and poverty and degradation, hoping to ignite a revolution like Tunisia, adding, “Maybe we can have freedom, justice, honour and human dignity.”
After posting the video she said she went down to Tahrir square and stood alone holding a banner - even writing her phone number on it - asking people to come and join her, but only three guys came; and all were soon arrested by the security police.
On the video she says: “These self-immolators were not afraid of death, but we're afraid of security forces. Can you imagine that? Are you also like that?
I will not set myself on fire. If the security forces want to set me on fire, let them come and do it. If you think yourself a man, come with me on January 25.
Whoever says that women shouldn't go to protests because they could get beaten, let him have some honour and dignity and come with me on January 25.”
She says anyone who says it's not worth it because there will be only a handful of people, is the reason for the problem.
“I want to tell him that you are the reason behind this and you are a traitor just like the president or any security cop who beats us in the streets. Your presence among us will make a difference. Talk to your neighbours, your colleagues, friends and family. Tell them to come. Sitting home and just following it on the news or on Facebook leads to our humiliation. If you have honour or dignity as a man, come. Come and protect me and other girls in the protest. If you stay at home then you deserve all that's being done to you. And you will be guilty before your nation and your people and you'll be responsible for what happens to us on the streets while you sit at home.”
While many people around the world wonder why the Egyptian people have lost their fear of the authorities after 30-years of iron-fisted rule, individual Egyptians like Ms. Mahfouz are inspiring them. In her video, she implores people not to be afraid of the government.
“Fear none but God. God says, 'He will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.' Do you think you can be safe anymore? None of us are. I'm going down on January 25 and I will say 'No' to corruption. ‘No’ to this regime.”
In a February 1, New York Times article Ms. Mahfouz said that when she posted this video she worried about the reaction that it might generate in a society that expected women to behave in a more subdued and reserved manner.
“I felt that doing this video may be too big a step for me, but then I thought: For how much longer will I continue to be afraid and hesitant? I had to do something,”
To her surprise, dozens of other people picked up on the spirit of her message and started to post their own pictures, holding similar signs to their chests that declared their intent to take to take to the streets on January 25, in what turned out to be the beginning of a revolution almost no one else thought possible.
“As long as you say there is no hope, there will be no hope,” Ms. Mahfouz said. “But if you go down and take a stance, there will be hope.”

Waves of Freedom in Egypt

One can not express his or her hapiness for the latest development in Egypt. After the quick success in Tunisia, Egyptians were the first to catch the magical spirit of independence and rushed down to Tahrir square. In that huge area in the middle of Cairo at the busy shore of Nile, youth from all Egyptian backgrounds and political parties gathered to tell everybody that "Done with Moubarak and Co. A new Era emerges for Egypt".

All the respect for those living martyrs. They are writing new lines in the history of Egypt and the area. They are teaching all oppressed nations that "Freedom" is there. It just needs some energetic and enthusiastic youth to call it.

Can Islamic Finance add value to the global recovery in 2011?

This question was posted on the "Islamic Banker" Group on Linked In. Below is my modest comment on that question. I can not claim that I can answer it of course because the Islamic banking sector is one of the poorest in terms of empirical data and statistical resources.

My Comment

I am not sure if the Islamic banks can add to the global recovery because they were in a neutral shell during the crash. Islamic banks do not contribute much to the global growth as well (so far).

If Islamic banks want to add value to the global recovery, they have to fund production at a decent scale. So far, banks were not involved in the production funding mechanism neither in their home countries nor in the west.

Another major area where Islamic banks can create a real value is by enabling the under-utilized Muslim resources in the west. A lot of the Muslim communities in the west are not fully efficient because of the non-friendly environment that is welcoming them to live in and do the low level jobs whatever degrees they have. If Islamic banks want to do well in the recovery of the big west, a good starting point for them is to invest in real projects that benefit the Muslims minorities and consequently the whole economy.

What kind of projects can they get involved in?
The best two sectors to start with is the SME financing and housing. These two sectors are very stable in North America and Western Europe and they have a decent return that can be mutually beneficial to the host countries and the banks as well.

Why would Islamic banks invest in the Muslim minorities activities in the West?
First of all, they will be franc to their original mission statement (creating well fare for the Muslim societies).
Second, Islamic banks have a minor stake in the global economy and they can fund a minor portion of the recovery. If this funding portion is allocated for the under-utilized human resources in the west, the resulting synergies are many folds more important than the yield of investing Islamic banks capital in the conventional investment venues that they pursue.

Honestly !!! honestly.com is the next big thing

I just got hinted on that website through linkedin.com. This site is looking to harness the web power to profile professionals. The web used to be the place to fame or shame something. However, honestly.com is coming to filter that out and bring in a quasi objective review of people.

Their job requirements are very interesting and reminded me of a Montreal based prove your net-worth project a while ago.

They are building a neat algorithm  (shown in the attached image is an advanced algorithm).which forms the the core of the application. Look at the jobs page, at the end and see those questions. This is very impressive and will be another fascinating place to work at. 

A thesis research worse than Wikileaks

Omar Choudary finished his master with an excellent  research work. However, this work might be threatening the whole banking industry in Europe and in Canada !!!

"Representatives of the UK banking industry have sent a take-down notice (PDF link) to Cambridge University, demanding that they censor a student's webpage as well as his masters thesis (PDF) . The banks' objection is that the information contained in the report might be used to exploit a vulnerability in the Chip and PIN system, used throughout Europe and Canada for credit and debit card payments. The system was revealed to be fundamentally flawed earlier this year, as it allowed criminals to use a stolen card with any PIN. Cambridge University has resisted the demands and has sent a response to the bankers explaining why they will keep the page online."

This is what we can amazing mind.

 

Firefox 4 new status bar

Another amazing aspect of Firefox. It shows the link URL in the right half of the address bar and not in the status bar. This will save some space for browsing.