The World Social Forum 2016 as well as the parallel World Forum on Theology and Liberation are
less than two months away and the preparations are moving along rapidly - and well.

You can find up-to-date information about both Forums by visiting their respective sites. They are easily accessed by googling WSF2016 and, for the other, ROJEP.  The detailed program of the Theology Forum is already available at the ROJEP site.

The detailed World Social Forum program should be available very shortly. (The team is laying out times and places for the workshops today!) Both are extremely dense with content and challenge.

The World Social Forum will take place in Montreal, largely at UQAM (The University of Quebec at Montreal) from August 9-14. The World Forum on Theology and Liberation will take place at the Jean-de-Brebeuf College in Montreal on August 8 and 13 with the other days being devoted to the activities of the World Social Forum and with a full program of workshops sponsored by the World Forum on Theology and Liberation.

In order to attend the World Social Forum you need to register ($20 for the week). In order to attend the World Forum on Theology and Liberation you must do the same and ALSO register at ROJEP ($25 - which includes some meals).

Three hundred participants are expected at the Forum on Theology and Liberation and 50,000 at the World Social Forum.

This year there is a special effort to move the World Social Forum from word to action. So, beyond the 1000 workshops in three days, there will also be extensive time given to the work of convergence leading to the open-air Agora (Marketplace) on Saturday where participants will be challenged to hone their action-proposals down to five major world-wide actions to form a program for follow-up to the forum.

It should also be a very festive occasion with the prominent participation of well-known speakers, artists, film-makers and musicians.

Please do come !! - and bring your ideas and hopes with you.

Peoples' Social Forum

   Last weekend the first all-Canada social forum took place in Ottawa, capital of Canada. It included the support and presence of a wide variety of labour union, NGO's, local community groups and Aboriginal peoples. About 3000 people participated in the opening march to Parliament Hill on Thursday. Over 500 workshops were presented that day and the following one. They covered every imaginable issue affecting Canadians and/or Canadian solidarity. On the following day (Saturday), more than 20 convergence assemplies took place. These brought together militants from a wide variety of organizations to think together about where a major issue was going. On the final day (Sunday) a general assesmbly was held to hear briefly from each of the assemblies held the previous day and to issue a final statement.
    To my mind, the most important presence at the forum was that of the Aboriginal people and the most important event was their entry and message at the final assembly. It was a very powerful presence that put into context all the various issues that had been discussed during the forum.
    Especially significant was the arrival of the Algonquin grandmothers (coucum) from Parc Laverendrye where clear-cutting is destroying their traditional territory. Ottawa stands on Algonquin unceded traditional Algonquin territory and so their call for solidarity was particularly significant.
Among the major speakers at the forum were Naomi Klein, Ellen Gabriel and Gabriel Nadeau Dubois.