position:government spokeswoman

Dozens of indigenous women forcibly sterilised in Canada, ...
▻http://news.trust.org/item/20181123160226-zt1ay

Dozens of indigenous women were forcibly sterilised by Canadian health authorities, including as recently as in 2017, said the lawyer leading a class-action lawsuit against the government.

Alisa Lombard was speaking on Thursday after appearing in Geneva at the U.N. Committee against Torture during hearings into Canada’s human rights record.

More than 90 indigenous women in the western province of Saskatchewan contacted lawyers to join the lawsuit over forced sterilisation, said Lombard of Maurice Law, the indigenous-run firm spearheading the case.

“This practice needs to stop,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that she knew of cases in 2009, 2011 and 2017.

“If it happened then and nothing was done to prevent it, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be happening now,” Lombard said.

A government spokeswoman said officials were still gathering information on the issue, and could not say with certainty that the practice had stopped.

The U.N. committee will publish its findings on December 7.

#canada #stérilisations_forcées #peuples_premiers #suprématie_blanche #racisme #femmes

Actor Depardieu banned from Ukraine for stance on Russia - Yahoo News India
▻https://in.news.yahoo.com/actor-depardieu-banned-ukraine-stance-russia-082120764.html

Ukraine has banned French actor Gerard Depardieu from entering the country for five years, its state security service said on Wednesday, apparently for making comments that suggested he supported Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year.
Government spokeswoman Olena Hitlyanska said the 66-year-old, known for films such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card, had been on a blacklist of public figures deemed to be unsympathetic towards Ukraine’s in its conflict with Russia.
She did not cite any specific comments from Depardieu.
This month Culture Minister Ivan Kirilenko said that Depardieu was on a list of 117 prominent figures in the arts and entertainment world “who have spoken out in support of the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”.
Depardieu, who is notorious for riotous antics off-screen and scrapes with the law over drink-driving, motorbike accidents and his outspoken criticism of high taxes in France, was granted Russian citizenship by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013.
He has since defended Russia’s international policies in interviews with French and other media.

French government prepares to deploy security forces to break airport strike
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/fren-d22.shtml

Yesterday, President Nicolas Sarkozy held a cabinet meeting to discuss the necessary measures to end the strike. According to government spokeswoman Valérie Pécresse, “the head of State told ministers to be extremely attentive to the development of this situation, and to take all the necessary and opportune measures given its evolution.” She did not give specifics, but it is widely suspected the state will use police to smash the strikes. Yesterday, Sarkozy’s special advisor Henri Guaino warned that, “starting today, and in particular tonight, it will no longer be possible for the State not to act in accordance with its responsibilities” in the airports. He added, “I do not see why it would be shocking to replace private security agents for a limited time with agents of the public forces.”