[VegChat] Film Screening and Public Discussion on Transit

[vaalea]

Stumbled across this.... http://ontario.sierraclub.ca/ottawa/showevent.php?id=595

      Film Screening and Public Discussion on Transit 

     

     
      Date/Time: 2006, March 17th, 7 PM  
      Location: Main Branch, Ottawa Public Library (120 Metcalfe), Ottawa  

     
      Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Bus Rider's Union 

      Cost: FREE! 

      Film 
      Bus Rider's Union Directed by Haskell Wexler and Johanna Demetrakas 
      US 1999, video, color, 87 min. 

      Award-winning cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler's (Bound for Glory, Matewan, Colors) documentary traces three years in the life of Los Angeles' Bus Rider's Union through its moments of joy, crisis, and victory. The film depicts the BRU's fight to improve bus service and halt fare hikes through lawsuits, demonstrations, and sit-ins. 

      The Bus Riders Union seeks to promote environmentally sustainable public transportation for the entire population of Los Angeles, on the premise that affordable, efficient, and environmentally sound mass transit is a human right. The organizing and public policy work of the Bus Riders Union reflects the principle that the needs of low-income people, and oppressed nationality peoples and communities - Black, Latino, Mexicano/Chicano, Asian/Pacific Islander and Indigenous peoples must be given priority since they suffer systematic racial and national oppression in our society. 

      Panel Discussion: 

      Sharmeen Khan - organizer with Vancouver's Bus Riders Union 
      Cam Johnstone - President of CUPE 5500 
      TBA - organizer with Under Pressure Collective 

      Ottawa's public transit system is increasingly becoming unaffordable, unavailable, and unreliable. In 2005, Ottawa's transit users were subjected to two fare hikes in a five-month period, resulting in the highest fares in Canada. Ottawa City Council has announced its intention to raise fares by 7.5% each year through to 2010. While riders are paying more and more, the service that they're paying for is being reduced. OC Transpo is a popular target for councilors looking to ease budget pressures; resulting in reductions in schedule, cuts to bus routes, and privatization of services. 

      The struggle for safe, affordable, and reliable public transit is picking up momentum in cities and towns throughout Canada and the U.S. One strategy that has emerged is the formation of "bus riders unions", groups of transit users who have organized themselves to fight for the services which they depend on. It is our hope that this panel and film will serve as a catalyst for a similar public transit movement in Ottawa. 




     
     
     
      For more information, contact .  
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