IMPORTANT ACTION NEEDED THIS WEEKEND TO HELP PASS JOY SMITH'S HUMAN TRAFFICKING BILL ONCE THE SENATE SITS AGAIN AFTER THE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE:

The Speech from the Throne is always a key time for Canada. It is where the government sets the agenda for the next leg of this Parliament. Because the government was porogued this means that all of the government bills where wiped of the table and that new ones are about to be presented. Next Wednesday, March 3rd, the Speech from the Throne will happen. On March the 4th the Budget for 2010 will be presented and Parliament will be back in action with committees and debates resuming. -- WATCH ON-LINE -- You will be able to watch coverage of the Speech from Throne on-line @ cpac.ca beginning at 2pm EST (Ottawa Time) on Wednesday March the 3rd. Click here to go there now.

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IMPORTANT --- > THIS WEEKEND MAY BE THE LAST WEEKEND TO GET YOUR HUMAN TRAFFICKING PETITION TO SENATOR PLETT'S OFFICE. IN HELPING WITH THIS PETITION YOU WILL BE HELPING TO PROTECT CHILDREN IN CANADA WHO ARE BEING EXPLOITED IN THE SEX TRADE:

Human Trafficking has now become the second largest industry in the world with thousands of Canadians every year being abducted. Some of these are CHILDREN. It is nothing short of horrific. Joy Smith's bill will crack down on this injustice if it is passed through the Senate (reminder: it was passed through the House of Commons last Sept. and has been stalled in the Senate). As we have been sharing with you, Senator Don Plett asked us to work with him to get as many signatures as possible for a petition he wants to present to the Senate. The petition is calling upon the Senate to support C-268 and send it to Royal Assent speedily.

HOW MANY SIGNATURES HAVE COME IN OVER CHRISTMAS AND UNTIL NOW?

We were shocked to find out that as of the end of January there were only about 3,000 signatures received by Senator Plett's office. There are 5,000 people on this list and many more connected to us by Face Book. If even 150 of us took the petition to our pastors this week and to our churches this Sunday we could bring that number to over 15,000 signatures, easily. This would send a very powerful message to our Senate and would encourage Senator Plett in this, his first of such acts in the Senate, so that he continues to be a leading voice on these issues in the years to come.

When our MPs and Senators step up and begin doing the things we have been asking them to do, we need to back them up practically by things like this (signing their petitions). This is our time. Yeah.

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WE (MY CANADA) ARE ASKING IF YOU WOULD TAKE THIS E-MAIL TO HEART, DOWNLOAD THIS PETITION, GET SIGNATURES FOR IT, FAX IT IN AND HELP US HELP SENATOR PLETT GET THIS BILL MOVING.

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When you feel like you don't have time just ask yourself, "How would I feel, and act, if someone I knew was being trafficked?" This question will help us all keep perspective and motivate us to take a few minutes to act. Let's move together and make a great change for Canada! We are looking forward to hearing the good report from Senator Plett's office in the weeks to come.

** DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THE PEITION FOR THE SENATE. **

Instructions of where to send the petition are on the bottom of the petition page. As soon as you get a sheet filled, or partly filled, please fax it in ASAP.

Click here to go to our Human Trafficking information page.

(Note: Faytene's message at the Imagine Seminar was primarily tailored for a non-Christian audience.)

Over the upcoming weeks (March 1-14th) the Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) will hit our University campuses. Many Members of Parliament and advocacy groups have expressed concern about IAW because of some overt anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students that have happened during previous IAWs where students were aggressively threatened. This week, MPP Peter Shurman has already put forth a motion in the Ontario Legislature calling them to condemn IAW. One reason expressing concern for IAW is important is because earlier this month there were reports of Jewish students being physically assaulted (hit) during discussion with some anti-Israel students. Some IAW's are clearly hijacked by extremist ideology and it is clear that this has created an unsafe environment for Jewish students. People come to Canada for a better life, not to be abused. It is so important to take a stand against anti-Semitism and say, "Not in my Canada." We had a bit of a taste of the "fire" this week ourselves with the Imagine With Us seminar scheduled to take place at York University.

Those of you that have been following our e-mails will know that MYC participated in the first ever IMAGINE With Us seminar that was scheduled to be held at York University this week. The vision of the seminar was to bring some moderate (us) and pro-Israel perspectives to share "the other side of the coin" with students who will be bombarded with many aggressive, and controversial, anti-Israel messages from March 1-14th. This was our way of saying, "It is not O.K. that our campuses are becoming unsafe for Jewish students (or any students) and that it is important for students to look at all sides of the issues, not just the radical anti-Israel messaging."

YORK UNIVERSITY "IMAGINE" EVENT FORCED OFF SITE BECAUSE OF EXTREME SECURITY DEMANDS:

Ironically, the Imagine Seminar's room was cancelled last minute on Monday because of extreme demands that were being put on Imagine to pay for Toronto Police security because of security concerns. The disturbing thing is that it was clear that the security concern was not because the University felt those participating from Imagine's network may be aggressive but those who would have extreme opposing views. So, in essence, they were asking the coalition to pay for the potential bad behavior of others. Further more, after research, the Imagine Coalition was able to verify that it is highly unlikely these same demands are being put on anti-Israel (IAW) groups.

As a matter of principle the Imagine coalition refused to pay the large security fee (over $2000) as senior advisors felt that to pay it would be setting a negative precedent for future events that moderate and pro-Israel clubs may want to do. For the sake of the larger picture, the coalition stood it's ground expressing that they felt the demands were unjust (as these same security cost demands did not seem to be put on other IAW events with "controversial" speakers). The University did not retract their security demand. As a result the event was cancelled.

[Click here to read a recent report issued by the Jewish Tribune about the events.]

SOME GOOD NEWS: Because Imagine was aware that many of you were gathering to watch the stream live on Monday at 5:30pm EST the live speakers quickly regrouped with the tech team and put together a humble off site studio (with limited tech capacity) and streamed anyway! Technically, it was far beneath what the event would have been if it was hosted at York University, and, many York University students missed out because of the late cancellation HOWEVER the message still went out because of the determination of those involved.

Some of the videos are already posted on the Imaginewithus.ca site and more speakers will be posted in the weeks to come!

ACTION STEPS TO HELP DIFFUSE THE ANTI-SEMETIC CLIMATE OF THE ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK (IAW):

1. Pray. --> This is clearly our most effective mode of operation. Pray our campuses will be safe for Jewish students and that truth, love, peace and unity between Jewish and Arab students would prevail and that the Prince of Peace would break in prevail.
2. Write. --> One of the most effective things you could do is write an article to your local paper or our national papers, or write a response to one of the many articles that are already being written about IAW. See the list of articles below for some examples and feel free to use our "Letter to the editor tool" to write a response. Click here to use our letter to the editor tool.
3. Write again. --> E-mail your Member of Parliament and ask them to make a comment in Question period denouncing anti-Semitic behavior on our University Campuses. Click here to find out who your MP is by your postal code, and, get their contact info.
4. And write again. --> E-mail your Member of Parliament and ask them to make a comment in Question period denouncing anti-Semitic behavior on our University Campuses. E-mail the Prime Minister now.
5. What about contacting York to express your concern? You are welcome to do this, however, York is clearly on the defensive with what happened this week and is quick to pass blame back onto Imagine for not paying the security costs. We are not sure what good e-mailing them will do but you are welcome to give it a shot!

IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK:

Following are some articles that have been printed this week in our nation's media about IAW. There are a lot more! Subscribe to our 4MYC News Articles Twitter to get links to more as they come out.

• The dark side of a yearly ritual, Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 25th
• Campaign to 'delegitimize' Israel must be confronted: Think-tank, Montreal Gazette, Feb. 18th
• NDP Flees from divisions over Israel, National Post, Feb. 23, 2010

Click on the image below to go to our fact page about Israeli Apartheid Week.

ANNOUNCING MEDIA PRODUCTION TRAINING COURSE THIS APRIL 30th - MAY 1st IN TORONTO

MEDIA BOOT CAMP: APRIL 30th - MAY 1st, 2010

"This course is ideal for any Christians who are wanting to grow in their media skills to get the message out! It is going to be ideal for people in working in media for ministries, churches, advocacy organizations or even individuals that are just wanting to dive in and get equipped - especially if they don't have time or funding to go to a film school. I am really excited about it and thankful Jon is willing to come." - Faytene Kryskow, Director/Founder of MY Canada

If you have a desire to understand production, camera work, lighting, sound and the various elements of producing an incredible video piece but have not had time to go to a professional film school this media boot camp could be for you. Through the Media Boot Camp you will get a crash course in it all, in just 2 days.

Instructor, Jon Nixon, has over 20 years of film and production experience. He has produced work for Disney, Coca Cola, Cinemax, Colgate (and more), has worked on several feature films, with MTV, Fox and CBS. Students who have taken this 2 day workshop with Jon have testified that they feel they got more out of the 2 days than out of entire film schools. More information about the schedule and about instructor Jon Nixon will be posted on our Future Events link.

Cost of for the 2 day crash media course will be around $219 (TBC) and space is limited so we are encouraging people to register fast. On-line registration will be available shortly. If you would like to get put on a "contact me" list to be contacted as soon as on-line registration is activated e-mail us at media@4mycanada.ca.

THE JOURNEY OF FREEDOM: Next stop is Thunder Bay, March 10-12th then Edmonton on March 19th. Find out more information @ www.i4give.ca.