Volume 105, Issue 9 Monday, October 26, 2015
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Vigil demands justice for victims of police killings
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October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
Vigil held for victims of police violence
NEWS
Vigil for victims of police brutality Roxane Gay in Montreal Public sector unions set to strike McGill University Health Centre employees to join strike Divest McGill meets with CAMSR Second annual Mental Health Week
08 COMMENTARY
Halloween and cultural appropriation
How Mulcair’s conformism backfired Two takes on vegetarianism
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FEATURES
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SCI+TECH
Judaism is not inherently Zionist
Political hackers Eating weeds in the city
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SPORTS
Israel, Palestine, and FIFA
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CULTURE
Murder and intrigue at Player’s Theatre Toy Story revamped In conversation with Norman Nawrocki Reviewing up-and-coming band Alvvays Au Contraire Film Festival previewed
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EDITORIAL
Better mental health services are a necessity
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COMPENDIUM!
Toking True D’oh Anarchist Aunt Abby
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Friends and family call for objectivity in police force Laura Bowker and Zoë Wilkins News Writers
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n October 22, the U.S. National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, over a hundred people gathered outside the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal (FPPM) building to commemorate those killed as a direct result of police violence. The event was organized by Montreal-based group Justice for the Victims of Police Killings, which is comprised of the families and friends of Anas Bennis, Claudio Castagnetta, Ben Matson, JeanFrançois Nadreau, Quilem Registre, Gladys Tolley, and Fredy Villanueva, seven individuals who were subject to police brutality in Canada. Various protests were coordinated throughout the U.S. by the October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. The coalition has been mobilizing every year since 1996 and serves to remember those who have been victims of violence at the hands of police. Since 1987, when a teenager named Anthony Griffin was killed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) by police, Montreal has witnessed the deaths of more than sixty people as a result of police violence. The vigil aimed to address all instances of police brutality in Montreal and elsewhere, but focused specifically on the victims whose friends and families were present. Outside of Laurier metro station, the doors of the FPPM building were lined by police officers. Attendees joined the candlelight vigil to stand in solidarity with the families and friends of the victims.
“The police are a [unit], a brotherhood, and I speak out to undo that in some way.” Anonymous attendee Members of organisations such as the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP), the Coalition Contre la répression et les abus policiers, Solidarity Across Borders (SAB), Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) Concordia, Montréal-Nord Républik, and Insurgent Projections were also present at the vigil.
A vigil attendee holds a photo of Anas Bennis. A musician who wished to remain anonymous expressed how it is “important to remember unjust violence targeting, killing people who are marginalized [already.]” This message was echoed by the participants through speeches and spoken word pieces as the demonstration progressed. Julia Matson, the daughter of Ben Matson, who was beaten to death after a minor confrontation with an off-duty police officer over a parking spot in Vancouver, was one of several who spoke against widespread police violence. She noted, “It’s sad that this happens every day, that it’s happening somewhere right now.” The gathering then turned from a memorial to a direct call for action. One of the speakers, Bridget Tolley, confronted the police, who were present at the vigil, demanding further investigation into the death of her mother. Her mother, Gladys Tolley, was a 61-year-old Algonquin woman who was killed in 2001 by a Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police cruis-
Saima Desai | The McGill Daily
er on the highway on the Kitigan Zibi reserve where she lived. At the protest, Bridget Tolley called for government action, saying, “My family still has so many unanswered questions.” Tolley noted that the investigator for the case was the brother of the police officer in question, stating that this was a direct conflict of interest within the police force, and called for greater police objectivity. An anonymous speaker at the event echoed Tolley’s point about the lack of objectivity within the police force, saying, “The police are a [unit], a brotherhood, and I speak out to undo that in some way.” Following Tolley’s call for action, ideas about the de-escalation of violence were raised. One attendee who lost a friend to police brutality spoke about the shortcomings of the police education system. The attendee, who had filed access to information (ATI) requests, argued that the bulk of police education is completed in CEGEP, but two
of the largest CEGEPs (Ahuntisc and Maisonneuve) do not include training for crisis de-escalation at any point in their programs. The result, the attendee said, is police being called in to respond to situations they were never trained for. Another speaker shared the story of a friend who was killed on his front lawn by police after the police overreacted to a complaint of noise and suspicious behaviour. The speaker alleged that the police were not adequately trained to de-escalate the conflict, resulting in the man’s death. The organizers emphasized the importance of remembering these people and sharing their stories so that their deaths were not in vain. As Matson seeks to build and strengthen the community of supporters that already exists in Montreal and raise awareness on these issues, she asked those present at the vigil to “remember those who have been killed in these really intense ways, support one another, and love one another.”
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News
October 26, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com
Roxane Gay discusses race and violence Critically acclaimed writer comes to Montreal
Marina Cupido The McGill Daily
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peaking to an enthusiastic crowd at the Ukrainian Federation Hall in Montreal’s Mile End on the night of October 22, critically acclaimed writer Roxane Gay discussed her recent work and the challenges she has faced as a queer woman of colour who routinely speaks out about race, gender, and identity politics. The conversation was facilitated by activist and McGill Education PhD candidate Rachel Zellars, and formed part of a series of events organized by the bookstore Drawn & Quarterly. Growing up in Nebraska as the child of Haitian immigrants, with “a foot in three different worlds,” Gay was forced to navigate complex questions of identity starting at a young age. “I think that’s what contributes to a lot of my ability to consider issues with nuance,” she explained. “I was American, I was Haitian, I was Black American, and I had to straddle all these identities at once, and so that taught me to see multiple sides of an issue.” “I think one of the biggest challenges we face in contemporary discourse is that no one’s interested in nuance. […] We don’t acknowledge that people who disagree with us might, once in a while, have some merit to their arguments. We have to listen to the other side, and we have to acknowledge the grey areas.” Gay explores these “grey areas” in her collection of essays Bad Feminist: her conflicted feelings about enjoying misogynistic hip hop; her profound admiration of her mother, who chose to stay at home and raise her and her siblings rather than pursuing a career; and her continuing fondness for the problematic teen romances she enjoyed growing up. Gay’s habit of approaching controversial subjects with nuance has drawn both criticism and widespread acclaim from across the political spectrum, and she spoke
at length about the challenges of having her writings subjected to increasing media scrutiny. “It’s really hard to be able to receive criticism. And I think [as] women, we’re criticized about everything, all the time. We’re criticized about how we look, and how we walk, and how we talk, and what we wear, and so when you deal with a culture where you’re constantly being criticized and evaluated based on your appearance and then your intellect, it becomes really hard to hear criticism of any kind.”
“You need to call people on that – ‘why do you read anger in me because of my Blackness?’ [...] That’s their fear. When they say that, they’re trying to shut you down. They’re trying to say, ‘don’t make me uncomfortable,’ and that’s not your problem.” Roxane Gay Zellars asked Gay about how she feels about being called an angry Black woman when she exists in predominantly white spaces. Gay said, “One thing I’ve learned to do is embrace anger, and say that
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Roxane Gay at the Ukrainian Federation Hall.
Vita Azaro | Photographer
given the difficulties and [...] the injustices of this world, and the way Black women have been subjugated and continue to be subjugated, anger is a perfectly reasonable response.” “You need to call people on that – ‘why do you read anger in me because of my Blackness?’ [...] That’s their fear. When they say that, they’re trying to shut you down. They’re trying to say, ‘don’t make me uncomfortable,’ and that’s not your problem.” Despite such criticisms, Gay continues to address issues of systemic inequality in her work. In the wake of the police shooting of Samuel DuBose, an unarmed Black man, at a Cincinnati traffic stop on July 19, Gay penned an article for the New York Times highlighting the vast discrepancy between the relatively subdued public reaction to his murder and the international outpouring of grief triggered by the killing of Cecil the lion. A second piece for the Times reflected on Sandra Bland’s death in police custody that same month. The articles provoked a storm of negative comments, but Gay said she has learned to rise above them, and not to “read things that aren’t going to help me become a better writer or thinker.” “A lot of people felt like – in my piece about Cecil and Samuel – I was saying we couldn’t care [about] both, and that means they didn’t read what I wrote,” she said. “But we had more cultural empathy for the lion than we did for the man. And I think that’s a problem.” Gay confronts violence against women in many of her works. In Bad Feminist, she describes her own experience of sexual assault as a young teenager, and her ongoing struggle to deal with the resulting trauma. Prompted by Zellars, Gay also
“I appreciate her work in acknowledging the grey area between what is ‘problematic’ and ‘unproblematic,’ as it’s most definitely something I go through every day.” They added enthusiastically, “The voice she gave for queer women of colour (who are writers! That’s amazing to me also as a writer who is [a person of colour]!) and her work in education. It was also a joy to lend an ear to her experience being a Black Haitian-American.”
commented on why she writes about the violence faced by marginalized communities. “I was compelled to write about Sandra Bland because all too often, when we talk about police misconduct and police violence, we talk about Black men. And, that’s understandable, and that conversation needs to happen, but we also need to talk about how Black women are equally subjected to violence from police. […] And when these inexplicable things happen, I want answers – and there are no answers to be found. But writing offers at least a sense of solace – a sense of trying to make sense of that which cannot be made sense of.” Zellars also asked Gay about her decision to use graphic depictions of violence in her debut novel, An Untamed State, about a Haitian expatriate who is abducted on a visit to Port-auPrince and held hostage for 13 days while her father hesitates to pay her ransom. The novel was described by the Guardian as “an unflinching portrayal of sexual and spiritual violence.” “When we see violence in entertainment, it’s stylized,” said Gay, discussing the novel. “It’s readable, or it’s watchable. And I wanted to make it unreadable. I wanted to make it such that you had to put the book down.” The conversation between Gay and Zellars was followed by a question period that covered a range of issues, from the media’s objectification of women, to Gay’s experience of reconciling her bisexuality with the homophobia she describes as prevalent in Haitian culture. When the discussion drew to a close, many of those present lined up to have books signed. In an email to The Daily, a U3 Education student who had attended the event expressed enthusiasm:
“All too often when we see violence in entertainment, it’s stylized, it’s readable or it’s watchable. And I wanted to make it unreadable. I wanted to make it such that you had to put the book down.” Roxane Gay On her experience with writing Bad Feminist, Gay commented that “writing these essays was a way of just acknowledging my existence, that you just don’t see written about. All too often, the Black experience is [...] limited to one very specific type of story, and I think that we have to broaden our cultural understanding of what it means to be Black.”
News
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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Quebec public sector employees to strike Salary freeze among concerns for health workers
Anya Sivajothy The McGill Daily
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everal Quebec public sector employee unions are expected to start a series of rotating strike days starting October 26. Teachers, health workers, and the province’s two largest labour federations are getting ready to hold demonstrations across the province at the start of this week if no serious progress is made during the ongoing negotiations.
“The offers on the table right now are just unacceptable. [...] In five years, the [salary] would have an increase of 2 per cent, which is way below the life cost increase.” Maxime Clément, press officer of SISP The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), which represents over 325,000 workers and the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), representing more than 130,000 members, voted overwhelmingly in favour of holding a strike earlier in the month. This mobilization comes in the aftermath of a series of failed contract negotiations and cutbacks with the provincial government. The rotating strikes are expected to start in the Laurentides on October 26 and finish in Montreal and Laval on November 16 and 17. The Front commun, a coalition
of public sector unions, is also expected to hold three consecutive days of striking from December 1 to 3, across the health and education sectors. According to a press release on the Front commun website, almost a year has passed since the union filed its demands and negotiations with the government started. The unions’ main concerns include a two-year salary freeze, followed by a salary raise of 1 per cent over the next three years, and the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62. Other concerns are job insecurity, setbacks in the working conditions, the transition of services toward the private sectors, inaccessibility of public services, and the loss of professional autonomy for employees in the public sector. Speaking to The Daily, Maxime Clément, the press officer of the Secrétariat intersyndical des services publics (SISP), expressed frustration with the current offers. “The offers on the table right now are just unacceptable, […] in five years the [salary] would have an increase of 2 per cent, which is way below the life cost increase.” “With all the workers who are retiring [in] the next year, we must be able to attract [a] qualified workforce. With salaries like that it will be really tough for the public sector to recruit in the next years,” Clément added. The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), a union that represents over 34,000 French-language teachers across the province, which has already been on a one-day strike on September 30, has also voted in favour of a strike following a work-torule mandate earlier in the year. It will be holding three consecutive strike days on October 26, 27 and 28, and the intended strike action will coincide with the labour federation’s first days of striking.
Lia Elbaz | The McGill Daily FAE’s main concerns include the proposed increase in teacher-student ratios, the elimination of funds toward special needs children’s services, the removal of 800 special education and resource-teacher jobs, a two-year salary freeze, and cuts to the employee pension plans. The Quebec French-language teachers have been negotiating without a contract since April 2014.
“If the negotiations still don’t get settled, we could be on strike December 1, 2, and 3.”
Peter Sutherland, MTA president
The Montreal Teachers Association (MTA), which represents all the teachers working for the English Montreal School Board, will be holding strike days as well. “We have a strike day in the [English Montreal School Board (EMSB)] for teachers on October 29, and we have two more scheduled for November 16 and 17 [...] assuming we need them,” MTA President Peter Sutherland told The Daily. “If the negotiations still don’t get settled, we could be on strike December 1, 2, and 3,” he added. The English-language teachers of Quebec have similar concerns as those represented by the FAE. According to Sutherland, the Quebec government initially proposed removing the practice of having smaller class sizes when classes included children with special needs. “For example, when they [were
forming] a class they [took] into account the students in that class with special needs,” Sutherland said. “If there were many [children with special needs,] then the class didn’t have as many students in it. Initially [the government] wanted to remove all that.” “We’ve been attending a lot of the meetings that the [university sector unions have] been having [...] as well as lending our support discursively,” said Molly Swain, president of the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE). Quebec’s labour federations have promised further disruption if the provincial government refuses to negotiate. The CSQ has also released a statement notifying that the series of strikes is part of the first phase and further scenarios will be considered if the negotiators have not found an agreeable settlement by November 9.
McGill University Health Centre employees poised to strike
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embers of the McGill University Health Centre Employee Union (MUHCEU) are preparing to go on strike on October 29 as part of the public sector strikes organized by the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), with which the union is affiliated. The MUHCEU represents more than 4,800 support staff at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). Its collective agreement expired in March, and the union is currently seeking a 13.5 per cent wage increase over three years.
The MUHC relocated to its West Island Glen site in April after the new campus was built in a private-public partnership between the provincial government and the company SNCLavalin. Since the campus’ opening, MUHCEU has been negotiating with the hospital administration and the SNC-Lavalin-government consortium over pay disparities, inadequate facility maintenance, and accusations of sabotage. Chronic sewage backups at the Glen site led to an investigation in September, which revealed that the
piping laid by SNC-Lavalin was built at an improper angle, and that latex gloves and newspapers had been flushed down employee toilets. SNCLavalin has sent workers to fix the issue with the angles, and is demanding $172 million from MUHC for these services which it claims were not covered in the contract. Upon these discoveries, MUHC administration made allegations of sabotage, which the union has dismissed as mechanical failures on the part of SNC-Lavalin. As reported by the Montreal Gazette, these allega-
tions surfaced just before the strike vote on September 29, which members of the union found insulting. In an email to The Daily in French, MUHCEU president Paul Thomas explained, “I believe that the investigations must continue to clearly establish the nature of the problem. Because the MUHC [was built as part of a private-public partnership], the responsibility must lie with the consortium [of SNC-Lavalin and the provincial government.]” According to Thomas, if the provincial government does not take the
negotiation seriously, strikes will continue on November 16 and 17, and December 1, 2, and 3. Thomas emphasized the need for widespread awareness regarding the issues faced by MUHC employees. “We face too much litigation and prosecution of labour relations. We need the MUHC to modernize and open [itself ] to greater dialogue with the union, particularly with respect to the organization of labour,” Thomas said. —Vincent Simboli
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News
October 26, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com
Divest McGill demands timeline for fossil fuel divestment Calls for immediate freeze in investments during deliberations
Cem Ertekin The McGill Daily
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n October 22, members of Divest McGill gave a presentation to McGill’s Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR). In its presentation, Divest McGill reminded the committee of its demand that McGill put an immediate freeze on its investments in the fossil fuel industry. In an email to The Daily, McGill’s Director of Internal Communications Doug Sweet explained that CAMSR meetings are not normally open to the public because “confidentiality of deliberations is essential to the presentation of diverse points of view, full and frank discussion, and arriving at a consensus [and] decision.” However, members of Divest McGill were able to convince CAMSR to let observers and members of the press into this meeting. As such, in addition to the 15 members of Divest McGill who were officially recognized by CAMSR, around 17 observers were present at the meeting. Speaking to CAMSR, Chloé Laflamme, an organizer with Divest McGill, explained that freezing the investments now would allow CAMSR to demonstrate that it is taking deliberations on divesting on the grounds of social injury seriously. “A freeze is a show of good faith and also follows a precautionary principle in that we stop further investment [in] the fossil fuel industry during the deliberations,” Laflamme said. “In doing so, CAMSR would also be protecting the university from additional reputational and financial risk, while taking the time to come to a meaningful decision on this very important ethical question.” “I do want to highlight that we do understand that [...] there is a certain time frame needed when making a decision as important as this one – and we have been patient for nearly three years,” Laflamme continued. In their presentation, members of Divest McGill talked about the global divestment movement and gave updates on recent ex-
amples of campus activism with regards to divestment. One of the most recent examples was Fossil Free Week, organized by Divest McGill from September 21 to 25. Julianna Duholke, a recent McGill graduate and another organizer with Divest McGill, recalled that members of the administration failed to attend the many events. Duholke addressed CAMSR, “our administration was notably absent from [Fossil Free Week]. You’ve repeatedly said that you need more information to make a decision, and we had this week right outside of your door and none of you came.” Duholke directed her comments at Principal Suzanne Fortier in particular, who, according to Duholke, had said that she looked at her window and “saw nothing going on.”
“You’ve repeatedly said that you need more information to make a decision, and we had this week right outside of your door and none of you came.” Julianna Duholke, member of Divest McGill Fortier responded to Duholke, saying “I was told there was an event, and so I did look to see when the event was occurring. [...] I checked several times and did not see. So, maybe it was postponed or it was before, or maybe I misunderstood. But I did check several times.” “Right outside your windows, outside your doors, we had frontline speakers, Indigenous organizers, who’ve been really on the frontline of this movement. Their communities have felt the effects
Divest McGill outside the James Administration building. Cem Ertekin | The McGill Daily of fossil fuel industries the most,” Duholke responded. “We had the privilege of getting these stories first-hand outside of your building and not seeing anyone there was hard to swallow, frankly.” Ellen Gillies, another member of Divest McGill at the presentation, talked about McGill Alumni for Divestment, some members of which have pledged not to donate to the university until McGill divests from the fossil fuel industry. In addition, some alumni have pledged to return their diplomas if McGill does not commit to divestment by March 30, 2016. Following the presentation, members of Divest McGill asked CAMSR what specific steps it has taken to determine whether or not there is social injury in investing in the fossil fuel industry and what CAMSR’s timeline would be in reaching a decision. CAMSR Chair Stuart “Kip” Cobbett said that the committee was “working hard at it.” “We have had four meetings, five meetings, six meetings, to discuss, to reflect on the petition.
[...] We have consulted a number of well-respected and leading scholars in environmental, [...] engineering, and social sciences fields to get additional information,” Cobbett added.
“They were very reticent to actually say what these other sources are or if in fact they would be willing to share that information afterwards.” Dave Clark McGill alumnus
Speaking to The Daily after the meeting, Dave Clark, a McGill alumnus, said that he was not convinced that the issue is being considered seriously enough. “I was concerned by one or two
of the responses by [CAMSR]. For example, they mentioned that they were going to some other sources to get information about whether, in fact, investment [in the] fossil fuel industry constitutes social injury,” Clark said. “They mentioned [...] other sources, but they were very reticent to actually say what these other sources are or if in fact they would be willing to share that information afterwards.” Cobbett expressed that there is no definite timeline. “I would expect, however, I would certainly hope – and I hope I can move that hope to an expectation – we will have a decision by early next year. Certainly by the March 30 deadline. [...] This is not a drop-dead deadline, because stuff happens.” Joey Broda, a U4 Chemical Engineering student and a member of Divest McGill, said, “The thing that’s kind of been disappointing for us for the last while has been that we have these discussions – we had a discussion in February, and again in May, and now we’re having one in October. It’s been taking a long time.”
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News
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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Second annual Mental Health Awareness Week continues dialogue Student-driven mental health initiatives seek more institutional support
Janna Bryson The McGill Daily
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ast week marked McGill’s second annual Mental Health Awareness Week. Spanning from October 15 to 23, the event series was organized by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) in conjunction with the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS), the university administration, and various student groups. The events included everything from workshops and speakers on different mental illnesses to therapy dog sessions to group painting exercises. The week was meant to continue a dialogue about mental health on campus and reduce the stigma that surrounds mental illness. According to SSMU VP University Affairs Chloe Rourke, mental health initiatives are critical for universities, especially ones as academically demanding as McGill.
“It was hard to push through, but my case was not incredibly severe and I was able to manage it enough. I don’t know how anyone else does it, though.” U2 Psychology student “Mental illness is quite prevalent on university campuses [with surveys showing] that over 50 per cent of students report symptoms of anxiety or overwhelming anxiety. [...] Also, a very high percent-
Jennifer Guan | The McGill Daily age report depression, and even suicidality is over 10 per cent,” Rourke told The Daily. “In terms of the unique culture at McGill, when I talk to students about it, they cite it as the competitiveness, the intensity of McGill’s curriculum – it doesn’t leave a lot of room for good mental health and healthy habits. That’s something that we need to internally reflect on and see how we can address it.” As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Healthy McGill and McGill Mental Health Services (MMHS) held a questionand-answer session with MMHS Clinical Director Nancy Low on Friday. According to Low, the demand for mental health services at McGill is high. At the session, Low told the group, “Of around 40,000 stu-
dents, about one in ten come in [to MMHS].” This high demand has implications for how quickly students can access care. In an interview with The Daily, one U2 Psychology student, who wished to remain anonymous, recalled that after their initial intake appointment at MMHS in November 2014, they were unable to begin therapy until April. “It was hard to push through, but my case was not incredibly severe and I was able to manage it enough. I don’t know how anyone else does it, though,” said the student. According to Low, this is not abnormal. “If you went in [to MMHS] in November, you were probably not seen that year. Which is really disappointing and discouraging,” she said. Low added that to address the waitlist at
MMHS, which currently numbers 105 people or a roughly threemonth wait, they are providing more group therapy options, with the hope that this change could cut the wait list in half. A student-driven culture of care The scope of Mental Health Awareness Week went beyond mental health services specific to McGill. According to Rourke, one of the goals of the week was to give students tools that can empower them to seek help. Speaking to The Daily, Rourke said, “We want to destigmatize mental illness. We want to say ‘It’s okay to not be okay sometimes.’ We want to encourage help-seeking behaviour. We want to validate [...] the huge number of students [who] are struggling, and tell them that they’re not alone.”
This week’s web-only News content: Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) continues fight for sandwiches Omar Khadr’s lawyer Dennis Edney speaks at McGill
Rourke added that the student-driven aspect of initiatives like Mental Health Awareness Week is important, and that these projects can have an institutional impact on McGill. “Students have always pushed the administration on issues we care about. [...] I think that if you look back historically, after this [kind of ] continued advocacy, the administration does respond.” “The one way that I’d strongly advocate for the University to step up a bit more is in the provision of resources to support [student-driven mental health] initiatives,” said Rourke. “The funding for these initiatives, and the human resources [required] should not unfairly and unduly burden students.” —With files from Saima Desai
Commentary
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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‘Tis the season for flaunting racism Cultural appropriation is nothing to celebrate
Inori Roy-Khan Minority Report
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t seems to me that with every season and popular celebration comes another opportunity to take part in the latest Western trend of cultural appropriation. Halloween is no exception. McGill’s Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE) office’s October newsletter notes that cultural appropriation occurs when “somebody adopts aspects of a culture that’s not their own,” and that “cultural appropriation also refers to a particular power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group.” Obviously, in an increasingly globalized world, an exchange of culture is unavoidable and can even be beneficial. But the key term here is appropriation: taking something for one’s own use without the consent of the owner. The sharing of cultures with permission is great, but taking from other cultures without their permission, often purely for aesthetic purposes with no understanding of the cultural significance of what’s being appropriated, can be incredibly harmful. Halloween is often used as an excuse to dress up as an offensive caricature or stereotype of a particular culture, ethnicity, or marginalized group. Spirit Halloween, one of the most popular costume stores in the U.S. and Canada, offers a wide selection of racist gems this year, such as the “Wild Spirit,” “Sexy Dreamcatcher,” “Reservation Royalty,” “Tribal Temptation,” and of course, the “Pocahottie” – and those are only the costumes featured in the “Cowboys and Indians” section. These oversexualized, cartoonish costumes attempting to depict some inaccurate, homogenized image of traditional Indigenous clothing are very popular. At a “Wild, Wild West”-themed Halloween event earlier this month, Montreal Alouettes linebacker Kyries Hebert sported one such costume – facepaint, a loincloth, and a feathered headdress. His
costume partner wore a matching dress and headpiece. As a public figure whose team plays on Kanien’kehá:ka territory, Hebert should have known better than to participate in what is obviously racist stereotyping. In response to Hebert’s costume debacle, Jessica Deer of the Kahnawake newspaper the Eastern Door wrote, “Indigenous people constantly have to defend their own identities from being mocked, used as a trend and a form of entertainment. [...] Since they are highly inaccurate and dehumanizing portrayals that are rooted in colonial ideology, all they accomplish is creating more layers of misinformation about [who] we really are.” Not only was Hebert’s costume racially insensitive, to say the least, but the similar costume worn by the woman he attended the party with was also particularly distasteful. Consider that Pocahontas, a historical figure now depicted as a seductive, oversexualized vixen in most costumes, is understood to be a survivor of rape herself; such a hypersexualized depiction of her likeness does an incredible dishonour to her memory and the memories of Indigenous women who have faced sexual violence. When Indigenous women in Canada face extreme levels of sexual and physical violence – with Indigenous women three times more likely than nonIndigenous women to be victims of violent crime, and conservative estimates stating that more than 1,000 Indigenous women having been murdered in Canada between 1980 and 2012 – the dehumanizing hypersexualization of Indigenous women that these types of costumes promote is actively harmful. It trivializes this disproportionate violence that is so often ignored and delegitimized. Despite the manifold offences the duo’s costumes presented, Hebert’s apology was half-hearted to say the least. “We’re not really talking about that so much,” he told the CBC. “There’s an understanding. There’s an apology, and now I’m focused on what’s coming up in the future.” Hebert’s flippant reaction serves to illustrate the fact that cultural appropriation is not often acknowl-
Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily edged as a legitimate and serious offence, on Halloween or any other day of the year. In fact, cultural appropriation as a practice exists commonly outside of Halloween, occurring regularly in fashion and entertainment, whether being exhibited on the Victoria’s Secret runway or making annual appearances at music festivals like Coachella. The repercussions of cultural appropriation – dehumanization, misrepresentation, stereotyping – have gone largely unrecognized outside of social justice groups. Appropriators can choose to don entire cultures as costumes, or merely pick and choose what they like best. Regardless, someone’s culture is being degraded and exploited. Cultural appropriation isn’t limited to headdresses. The appropriation of religious symbols has
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become a prevalent part of contemporary fashion and ‘boho’ chic. People with no connection to religious symbols like the Om used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, or the Jewish Hamsa, continue to wear them as tattoos and in jewelry, despite explicit disapproval from many members of the religious and cultural groups to which those symbols belong. When these symbols are decontextualized and applied solely for their aesthetic value, they are reduced to their image, losing the rich history, complexity, and meaning behind them. For those who practice the religions these symbols are associated with, this cheapening of significant symbols can be a mark of disregard for tradition, culture, and history. The same can be said for languages and characters that
are appropriated for their aesthetic value, often as tattoos. In most cases, cultural appropriation embodies and perpetuates racial inequity. In the West, Black women are pressured to alter their natural hair to suit Eurocentric beauty standards, and are subject to racist prejudices that associate natural hair with dirtiness, criminality, or unprofessionalism. The many different ways Black women style their hair, including locs, cornrows, braids, and twists, have been discriminated against, particularly in the workplace – until recently, the U.S. army did not allow braids, twists, or locs for Black women who were officers. In February of this year, when Black actress Zendaya walked down the Oscars red carpet wearing locs, one prominent entertainment journalist immediately “joked” that she must smell of patchouli and weed. Yet, when Kylie Jenner showed off her cornrows on Instagram and Miley Cyrus wore fake locs to the Video Music Awards, it became edgy, ‘cosmopolitan,’ and cool. White women continue to be applauded for making stylistic choices that aren’t theirs to make in the first place, based in cultures they don’t belong to, while women of colour continue to be subjected to racist double standards. There are countless other instances of cultural appropriation I could mention; no doubt as Halloween passes the number will grow. The debate around cultural appropriation is one that uniquely combines historical oppression with popular culture – it is polarizing, contentious, and not likely to go away anytime soon. Cultural appropriation may provide a short-lived aesthetic satisfaction to its perpetrators, but it encourages the continued marginalization of racialized groups and perpetuates harmful stereotypes, encouraging us to further dehumanize people who are already oppressed. That’s a frightening reality, even for Halloween. Minority Report is a bi-weekly column that deconstructs racism through an intersectional lens. Inori Roy-Khan can be reached at minorityreport@mcgilldaily.com.
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October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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Lessons in hope and disillusionment Mulcair’s conformity hurt the NDP and its supporters
Lia Elbaz | The McGill Daily Jules Tomi Commentary Writer
L
ast week, we emerged from the longest Canadian federal election campaign in recent history. The New Democratic Party (NDP) finds itself with 44 seats, only seven more than it had back before 2011’s ‘Orange Wave’ propelled the party to a record 103 seats. It’s not an overstatement to say that its momentum has been lost. If anything, it seems to have reversed, throwing the party back to its third-party status that the Layton-era NDP had escaped. This is where an opportunistic shift to the right leads you, Thomas Mulcair. Ironically, your attempt to appeal to a larger number of citizens may have been what made you appeal to fewer. Under your leadership, the party removed all mentions of socialism from its constitution. You tried to portray the NDP as a credible substitute for the Conservatives, taking a hardline anti-deficit stance. You shifted the NDP’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict toward full support of Israel, purging candidates that held other views. You watered down the package. In a nutshell, you tried to align with positions that had been crucial components of the policy of previous Canadian governments,
all of which were either Liberal or Conservative (or those parties’ predecessors). You jumped in head first in your attempt to replace the Liberals as ‘Canada’s Democrats,’ and it cost you.
I was fooled into thinking that this political masquerade could ever be more than an illusion. Don’t worry, though. Even before your takeover, the NDP was far from looking like a party of radical socialists. At best, it came across as one of well-intentioned third-way North American social democrats – relatively harmless to those for whom socialism is a scary word. But it appears that you somehow felt another layer of conformity was needed. Let’s be fair and say that you gave the game a chance; you played the mainstream card and thought it would work. You thought it would solidify what had led the NDP to become the official opposition for the very first time in its history. As if better marketing and a new, milder brand would grant you the throne.
However, I’m afraid there should have been a lesson to be learned from 2011, when the NDP won the second most seats in the House of Commons under the leadership of Jack Layton. Strangely enough, that NDP still had a pro-Palestinian faction and its constitution still had mentions of socialism, yet the party received roughly 30 per cent of the popular vote (only 9 percentage points less than the Conservatives). Layton’s NDP could still have been considered the rightful successor of the grassroots social movements and union activism of the early sixties. That NDP still had the potential – why not, let’s dream – to disrupt conventional politics and subvert the very foundations of the Canadian political system. People looked to this party as a viable alternative to the degenerating tradition of Canada’s two-party dynamics, something that certain activists, myself included, believe could be an asset to social change. Maybe voters are smarter than they’re given credit for, putting their support behind one party when the other disappoints. Perhaps people were just craving for a genuine change in politics and in the political class when they cast their ballots for NDP that one time in 2011. Maybe people voted
differently because they held a vain hope that this had the potential to shake up Canadian politics a tiny bit. Now, after the most recent election, I must admit that it is quite laughable to think that the NDP used to embody that hope. It seems Canadians didn’t buy into your rebranding, Mulcair. Although cheap knockoffs sell in this consumerist world, I’m afraid that the same kind of market dynamics don’t apply when it comes to picking a political party. People were never going to rally behind someone trying to emulate the Liberals’ century-old position in Canadian politics over the original formula. Indeed, you tried to sell them another liberal party – so they elected a Liberal government instead.
You jumped in head first in your attempt to replace the Liberals as ‘Canada’s Democrats,’ and it cost you. It seems that people wanted the still-somehow-slightly-socialist NDP of 2011, and instead you
presented them with this politically correct parody of something that once gave them hope. There is nothing sadder than a glimmer of hope that gets lost in a sea of darkness, and that’s exactly what happened to the NDP over the last four years. I feel tired. I know that I had hope. A very shy hope that the revolutionary socialist deep inside of me was trying to suppress, shouting that electoral politics never really lead to any good. I don’t usually put great hope in the capacity of representative democracy as a political system to spark or undergo radical social change. But I guess I held hope anyway, because sometimes you’re just naive and get caught up in optimism, this awfully vain optimism, fooling yourself into thinking that it is enough to vote to grant ourselves a government that would be slightly more reluctant to impede social change. Honestly, I’m the only one to blame here. I was fooled into thinking that this political masquerade could ever be more than an illusion. Anyway, you’ll soon find me marching in the streets again, swallowing my bitterness. Jules Tomi is a U2 Sociology and East Asian Studies student. To contact him, email juleslevautre@ gmail.com.
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The case for vegetarianism Two takes on personal food choices
Asking tough questions Elisha Aaron Commentary Writer
W
hen I mention my food choices, it often leads to questions like “Really?” “Are you serious?” and “Why?” There is also the common statement “Wow, that is so cool!” Is being a vegetarian really that cool? And why is it so surprising? I find these types of questions odd because they imply that critical thinking regarding daily choices is unusual and abnormal. I became a vegetarian about four years ago, when my family and I watched the Michael Pollan film Food Inc.. From that point on, all four of us became vegetarians. I was initially reluctant to follow suit, yet, as time went on, it became easier and easier to avoid meat products. I have essentially lost my appetite for meat, and, in general, the purpose for maintaining my eating habits has shifted from one of nutrition to one of ethics. In Canada – like in the U.S., where Pollack’s film is set – there are many issues with the meat and produce industries. Animals are raised and slaughtered inhumanely, large companies take advantage of independent produce farmers, and farm fishing has a profound environmental impact. The practices of large food cor-
porations are reducing this essential aspect of life – food – to pure capitalist terms of production cost without regard to animal cruelty and environmental degradation. As I became aware of these issues, I altered my food choices to reflect the fact that I did not want to continue supporting the unethical practices of the industry through my actions. While this in and of itself may not be extremely effective in the face of such a systemic issue, I find it important to align my actions with my values. Based on this, my rationale for vegetarianism has developed into a kind of mindful cleanliness I now associate with what I eat. The nutritional content of my food is no longer the sole indicator of its value; its source and the manner of its production are integral to how I consider what I eat. Although knowing the origin of food products in our highly globalized society is not always possible, I am making the effort to balance the knowledge I have and the information available to me. I am taking the time to reflect on the implications of my choices. I am in no way militant about my choice; I don’t believe that others are immoral for choosing to consume meat products, and I understand that not everyone is in a privileged enough position to have a lot of choice in what they eat. I also
Kevin Da Silva Castanheira | The McGill Daily recognize that in a place like McGill with an international student body, there are people who come from places where this is less of an issue: they may be able to purchase products from a local butcher, or their local meat industry is highly regulated, or perhaps they or someone in their families are able to humanely farm and consume animals. I do find it strange, however, that the fact that I make conscious choices about my food is met with surprise. We make conscious deci-
sions about the nutritional content of our food and its calorie and vitamin counts, or about the way it is prepared. Why don’t the source and production of our food deserve the same attention? Only by reflecting on the ethical implications of our daily choices can we make sure that our actions align with our values. I don’t expect everyone to make the same choices as I do. However, I do find it unfortunately common for people to make decisions that violate the
ethical values they claim to maintain. Instead of merely continuing to make decisions without reflection, I urge you to think about the implications of your actions and whether you are in a position to change them. Maybe, if more people did, being a vegetarian wouldn’t be such a surprising thing. Elisha Aaron is a U0 Art History student. To contact him, email elisha.aaron@mail.mcgill.ca.
Dismantling the meat industry Camille Malard Commentary Writer
P
eople who choose to be vegetarian due to their ethical convictions often do so because they want to change the system of factory meat production. But is vegetarianism the best means toward stopping the horrific treatment of animals in factory farms? Can more moderate methods such as ‘humane’ meat consumption be employed to the same end? The advocacy for ‘humane’ meat consumption is often presented as an alternative to vegetarianism, but this approach is fundamentally contradictory. This becomes clear from looking at the definition of humane found in Canadian law, which stipulates that “no food animal shall be handled in a manner that subjects the animal to avoidable distress or avoidable pain.” However, in clear contradiction with this clause, Canada’s federal Meat Inspection Regulations explicitly allow for an electrical prod or goad to be used on any animal body part other
than the “anal, genital, or facial region,” and for animals destined for the slaughterhouse to go unfed for just shy of a day. Other ‘humane’ labels such as “free-range” are equally empty. According to a Globe and Mail article, most free-range chickens have just as little space as their caged counterparts, and, since their excrements are not removed from their shelters, they are more apt to develop diseases and infections. The most comprehensive definition of humane treatment, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), would be a great improvement to the lives of most factory animals, as it would mean that the animals have access to fresh air and sunlight, are not mutilated without painkillers, and are not separated from their offspring. However, even this approach is inadequate, as it does not take animal consciousness into account. In 2012, a group of prominent neuroscientists published the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, in which they
conclude that “non-human animals, including all mammals and birds [...] also possess these neurological substrates [that generate consciousness].” Given that cows are aware that they are alive and are able to feel emotions, however well they are treated before they are butchered cannot justify the fact that they are being killed. One person’s decision to go vegetarian will not effectively bring down the meat production system. Rather, it would require everyone to make the same decision, as meat production will continue as long as there are people willing to buy its products. Clearly, a single individual’s decision is insufficient to tackle the complex social and cultural factors that motivate people to prefer meat over vegetarian products. A broader educational approach is necessary to effectively change the omnivorous tendencies of our society. Although it is important to shield kids from the horrors taking place in most factory farms, the idea of vegetarianism can still be discussed and
explored. For example, if, after having been read the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf, I had been led to consider that the big bad wolf was “bad” for eating members of a different species, I would have started to question my meat-eating habits much earlier. Vegetarian education can also play a crucial role in the lives of university students. Since many of us have just moved out of our parents’ homes, we’re faced with much more freedom concerning our dietary choices than before, and many choose a vegetarian lifestyle during their university years. At McGill, the Herbivore Society for Peace and Justice aims to facilitate discussion about the practical and moral aspects of veganism and vegetarianism, and the Midnight Kitchen serves pay-what-you-can vegan lunches every weekday. Another option to consider is the advocacy for legal change. Some may dismiss the idea of making meat production illegal as a breach to personal freedoms, but it deserves some
thought. Cannibalism is viewed as a crime, and not a dietary decision, so why is killing animals – who feel pain and emotions like we do, though they may lack the complex communication skills to make this apparent – not a crime? Of course, such legal changes are only justified in regions where a healthy vegetarian diet is possible and accessible, and must be planned judiciously so as not to abruptly cut the jobs of meat-factory workers without presenting them a viable alternative, but these changes are not impossible. Becoming a vegetarian is an important and necessary step that follows an individual’s realization of our society’s horrific treatment of animals. Ever so slightly lowering the demand for meat is a positive thing, and does make a difference. However, a broader approach remains necessary to bring down the meat industry. Camille Malard is a U1 Microbiology and Immunology student. To contact her, email camille.malard@ mail.mcgill.ca.
Not in My name
Why being Jewish does not necessitate being Zionist Article and photo by Anna Tv Illustration by Alice Shen Trigger warning: this article discusses the Holocaust and the Nakba
T
he summer of 2014 was the year my whole worldview turned inside out. I decided to go on Birthright, a fully-funded trip to Israel, mostly to take advantage of travelling for free. Little did I know that I was signing up to pledge my loyalty to a state that I, and “my people,” were supposedly tied to. Much of what I was told on Birthright echoed my childhood and the ideas and opinions I was told in Hebrew school, at the synagogue I belonged to, and in my home growing up. I was there on the brink of and during Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s rocket offensive on the Gaza Strip, which amplified the biases our trip leaders displayed. When I returned home, I began unfolding the stories to my family, describing every moment, taste, and sight in vivid detail. It was then that I began to sense an unshakeable fear in my gut that something was deeply wrong. Phrases like “Palestinian terrorists” and “Israel has the right to defend itself” began surfacing in my mind as flashbacks from what I heard on the trip. I started to hear the sound of my own voice, and realized I had drunk some seriously nationalist (and racist) Kool Aid. My identity was being used as a political tool, a way to indoctrinate me into believing that Israel must exist as it does now, in the name of my ancestors who faced discrimination. As new questions arose in me, I began to uncover the truth of what went on that July, as well as the nuances and
differences in Jewish worldviews. I suddenly felt the profound need to learn what I had never been taught. Throughout this process, I saw how Judaism and Zionism were being blended into a single identity on a massive scale, when in reality the two could not be more inherently separate. The fall after Birthright, I started at McGill and found myself at a SSMU General Assembly (GA), where a motion to stand in solidarity with Palestinians following the Israeli Defense Force’s assault on Gaza was put forward. I sat with my peers and listened to Zionist students defend the war crimes Israel had committed. I remember thinking, if this conversation is about oppression, how are we not considering the disproportionate death tolls from this summer? Or the fact that Gaza is the world’s largest open-air prison? Which identities were being truly oppressed both in Israel and in this room? I didn’t understand how things could look so clear-cut, and also why these particular Jewish students were speaking on behalf of all Jews. As I reflected on why this event made me uncomfortable, I soon came to realize that an internal hierarchy has formed within Ju-
daism. To start, mainstream Zionist discourse often assumes, whether consciously or not, that all Jews are white. This erases both the racial diversity within Judaism and the intersectional factors that elevate certain identities over others. Over half of the Jewish population in Israel is either Mizrahi (from Arab countries like Iraq, Yemen, and Egypt, among others) or Sephardic (Iberian Jews, mainly from North Africa). Ashkenazim (Jews from Central and Eastern Europe) make up only 30 per cent. A smaller 2.2 per cent of Jews in Israel are Ethiopian. However, when looking at the dominant images and rhetoric of Israel and Zionists both in the U.S. and Canada, Jews of colour are significantly underrepresented. Rarely does the media reference Jews of Arab or African descent, and based on my experiences, oftentimes mainstream Jewish education institutions in the U.S. and Canada perpetuate the idea that most Jews in the world are white or European.
Zionism’s colonial narrative It is important to situate these racial groups within the context of colonialism. See-
ing Israel as a colonial state and Zionism as a colonial movement can help to understand the ongoing, systemic violence Israel perpetuates. From its onset, one of the narratives Zionism promoted was the idea of Israel as “a land without a people, for a people without a land.” This conveniently erased the presence of Palestinians – whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish – who had lived there for centuries. The widespread implementation of such beliefs justified the first European settlements in Palestine, and contributed to the denial of an identity for its local inhabitants. Likewise, early Zionists had colonial views that saw Palestinians as lesser, despite some of them being Jewish. Figures like Theodor Herzl, commonly known as one of the ‘fathers of political Zionism,’ fueled his Zionist discourse with nationalism and racism. Herzl believed that Zionism was a “civilizing” mission that could bring European and particularly German cultural ideals to Palestine. He referred to the local inhabitants of Palestine as “dirty Arabs and Jews, and beggars.” This language echoes the countless colonial narratives prominent in Europe, in which the non-European world was seen as backward and the people living there needed to be educated and civilized by enlightened white Europeans. Such logic was present in European colonies in Africa, where societies were ranked based
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October 26, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com
on measures of ‘primitiveness’, a concept central to colonial rule and control. Like other colonial ideologies, Zionism constructed a racial hierarchy completely outside the realm of religion, which continues to operate today. Considering these historical attitudes, one can look at contemporary Israeli demographics to better understand which groups hold positions of power and privilege. The Israeli government, the upper ranks of the Israeli Defense Force, the police, and the corporate sphere are all dominated by white, Ashkenazi men. It’s no coincidence that these groups exercise racialized oppression, which most violently targets the Palestinian citizens of Israel, but also leaves all other racialized citizens at an extreme disadvantage. The term “Mizrahi” stems from racist categories imposed on Arab Jews by European settlers. Between the 1930s and 1970s, Mizrahi children were forcibly removed by the government from their families and often given to Ashkenazi parents, as Mizrahim were deemed unfit for parenthood. Similarly, Ethiopian Jews today face job discrimination, forced sterilization, exclusion from the education system, and rampant police brutality. These historical and present-day examples further prove how crucial it is to make it clear that not all Jews benefit from Zionism, considering how many Jewish communities are oppressed by the same system that claims to be representing them. Beyond harming certain Jewish communities, Zionism has also long been the basis for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This began with the Nakba, or “the disaster,” where 750,000 Palestinians (80 per cent of the Arab population) were forcibly removed from their homes and land. It is no surprise that this occurred in 1948, the same year that the state of Israel was founded. This Palestinian uprooting was deliberately conducted by Zionists, with the hope of creating a Jewish majority in Palestine. The effects of the Nakba are ongoing, as there are 7 million Palestinians of different generations who are currently refugees and displaced. Today, nearly seventy years later, Israel continues to colonize Palestine and strip Palestinians of their agency. Contemporary atrocities include the state-backed ongoing theft and expropriation of Palestinian land in the form of illegal settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, the
daily demolition of Palestinian homes, “greenwashing” initiatives launched by The Jewish National Fund (planting forests over the ruins of depopulated Palestinian villages), and the construction of what Israel calls the security barrier – the Apartheid Wall. Israel was founded upon and continues to exercise principles of racist oppression. Conflating Judaism with Zionism creates a single, monolithic definition of Judaism that erases the diversity of opinions and stances amongst Jews, and forces all Jews to support a state that systematically violates human rights.
Anti-Zionist Biblical justifications and activism Because the Zionist movement developed out of political and nationalistic aspirations, it, in many ways, contradicts traditional tenets of Judaism. This has caused many Orthodox communities to attempt to disassociate themselves from it both when the movement was founded, and in the present day. In the Torah, there exists a concept known as “Galut” or “Ge’ulah” that signifies the ideas of exile and diaspora. With the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, rabbis began to reinterpret the Biblical passages where God promised to give Abraham and his people the nations of Israel and Judah. The ancient rabbis concluded that God’s promise to Abraham was more of a pact, where the people will only be given a nation if they abide by His commandments. In other words, some rabbis believed Jews were committing sins, and thus were being revoked self-governance. They extended this interpretation into a belief that a Jewish nation can only exist under the Messiah, the only ordained leader, whom God has not yet sent. The Jewish diaspora is justified under this belief, and it is mirrored by the psalm of Solomon that states, “among every nation are the dispersed of Israel according to the word of God” (9:2). These references are being used to challende the idea of Zionist statehood in the present day. For instance, groups like Rabbis for Human Rights and Neturei Karta, both of which are devoutly Orthodox, use these Biblical justifications to call for the dismantling of the state of Israel as Jewish. Both are also pro-Palestinian, and attend anti-Israel demonstrations. Neturei Karta has been subjected to brutal beatings at protests by security guards hired by the Israeli ministry. There also exist many other activist groups
that identify as both Jewish and anti-Zionist. These include Jewish Voice for Peace, Independent Jewish Voices (based in Canada), the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Anarchists Against the Wall, among others throughout Canada, the U.S., and Israel. Many, if not most, of these groups support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, as well as other initiatives meant to disrupt the functioning of Israel’s state policies. I recently spoke to a Jewish, Israeli, and anti-Zionist activist named Sandra Ruch, who has worked for women’s groups resisting oppression in the Occupied Territories such as Machsom Watch and Bat Shalom. She told me that “realizing that all these atrocities were under my name gave me the responsibility to explain to people that this is not my Judaism.” In the context of discussing Israel as a place of refuge for Jews after World War II, Ruch mentioned the idea that relying on the memory of the Holocaust as a justification for the Zionist state holds people hostage to Israel’s oppressive policies. Such theories, she explained, often place an emotional burden on Jews (especially those who have survivors in their family) to support Israel. They have also been used to frame Israel’s violent actions toward Palestinians as defence. In a recent speech to the World Zionist Congress, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini in 1941, where Husseini apparently told Hitler to exterminate the Jews in Europe, in order to prevent them from immigrating to Palestine. A number of historians have commented on Netanyahu’s blatant distortion of facts, and his twisted shift of blame from Adolf Hitler to Palestinians. Netanyahu and the Israeli far right are so desperate to incite racist hatred of Palestinians that they are willing to offend Holocaust victims and survivors, and rewrite history to do so.
Nuancing our conceptions of Judaism The reality is, the Zionist voice is very loud, and it speaks over anyone who opposes it. Being an anti-Zionist Jew is deeply marginalizing, and, for me, unpacking the conflation of Zionism and Judaism came with painful internal conflict. Suddenly the identity my family had so carefully nurtured in me was crumbling, and I had trouble finding Jewish
friends to relate to. When I started at McGill last year, I felt alone and even more on the periphery. During the SSMU GA, I witnessed Zionist students, who were mostly white men, speak over people who have directly experienced Israeli brutality. I felt hesitant to speak up as an opposing Jewish woman’s voice, fearing intimidation and backlash. I was being misrepresented, brushed over, and spoken for, and it felt silencing. Pro-Palestinian student activism has been increasingly shut down and antagonized in both the U.S. and in Canada, causing students of all identities to feel targeted. Likewise, the Zionist domination over Jewish views has resulted in a lack of anti-Zionist Jewish spaces on university campuses: students who identify as such feel isolated, ashamed, unsupported, and conflicted about making their voices known. I was not surprised to find many students who felt this way at McGill, and now a group of us gather to share our experiences, histories, and politics with one another in a space that’s reassuring, anti-oppressive, and validating. Perpetuating the idea that as a Jew you are obliged to support the state of Israel silences the thousands upon thousands of Jews, including myself, who choose to self-identify as Jewish anti-Zionists. At the most basic level, how can we persist to deny people’s right to define themselves by their own terms? Supporting Israel’s violent crimes is by no means the only way to express one’s Judaism. For me, Israel in the present moment has nothing to do with religion. Its existence as a militaristic, nationalistic, apartheid state that institutionalizes racism both within it and the Occupied Territories prevents me from trying to find in it a place for Jewish spirituality and culture. Calling my views anti-Semitic is false, especially considering Israel’s ongoing oppression of Jewish communities of colour, and the social marginalization of radical Jewish voices. I am not a self-hating Jew, and Israel does not represent my identity as a Jew. I refuse to be placed anywhere in the context of Zionism, and to have my Jewish heritage used to justify the occupation and the erasure of the history and culture of the people indigenous to Palestine. I am ashamed that Jewish identity is being used to dehumanize people through systematic deprivation of the minimal right to exist. I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, and believe in Palestine’s right to be free. Saying all of this is by no means a denial of my people’s history. If anything, it stays true to the values they held and continue to hold deepest.
Sci+Tech
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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Infiltrating politics from behind a screen
How hacktivism levels the playing field between states and activists Michelle Guo Sci+Tech Writer
O
ctober is Cyber Security Awareness Month here in Canada, a national campaign that raises awareness of cyber threats against personal privacy, national infrastructure, the financial sector, and the economy. The world has been well-introduced to cyberterrorism, regularly being informed of politically motivated hacking attempts against banks, the military, and the government, and has become sensitive to any suspicious activities online. However, a lot more happens online than what you might hear about in the media, and many of the hacker groups from all over the world – such as Decocidio, cypherpunk, and Chaos Computer Club, as well as the larger-scale but more loosely organized group Anonymous – have taken it upon themselves to use hacking as a way to fight back against government oppression and level the playing field between those who have power and those who do not.
Hacktivists are not terrorists, as they are using hacking to bring about social change and do good, not incite fear and hurt people. The question that should be asked here is: what is hacktivism, really? Do hacktivists threaten the status quo or are they the new voice of justice? Hacktivists aim to bring their message to the world so everyone can have a chance to see. Cyberterrorism, on the other hand, is characterized as damaging, stealing, or leaking political, social, economic, or personal online properties. Hacktivists are not terrorists, as they use hacking to bring about social change and do good instead of inciting fear and hurting people. The reason why hacktivism seems threatening is because it has, in the past, demonstrated the vulnerability of governments and corporations. Hacktivism might also worry people due to the decentralized nature of hacktivist groups, such as Anonymous, as this means that these powerful
The Guy Fawkes mask is a symbol of hacktivism. organizations cannot necessarily be controlled or regulated. However, these fears ignore the fact that hacktivism does not unfairly take advantage of a certain group; instead, hacktivists act to give power back to people who have been disenfranchised and expose wrongdoing that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. Activists are being repressed more than ever in today’s society – for example, high profile activists in Ferguson, such as Deray McKesson and Johnetta Elzie, were targeted by police at protests marking the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown. Edward Snowden, infamous whistleblower who revealed practices by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that completely violated the privacy of millions of people, has been condemned by the U.S. as a traitor and is forced to live a life in exile. In light of these highly powerful and repressive corporations and countries, hacktivism provides people with a new way of speaking out against social injustice. In the end, hacktivism becomes the most efficient way to get the public’s attention, to stand up to increasingly repressive and secretive governments, and to inform citizens of the world what these governments and corportions have done. Hacktivism can take many forms. Some hacktivists create websites and use code to convey their messages and distribute information, as in the case of WikiLeaks, a group dedicated to
Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily
exposing oppressive government practices. Website monitoring consists of disguising censored material as another accepted website in order to bypass a censorship block. Denial-of-services attacks are also a common technique, through which a website, network, or a machine which offers a service is shut down or made unusable for a certain period of time. Existing hacktivist groups also dedicate themselves to a variety of causes. For example, Decocidio performs hacks in the name of radical environmental justice; in 2010, the group hacked the website of the European Climate Exchange to protest carbonemissions trading, citing carbon dioxide trading as an ineffective solution to the climate crisis. Telecomix is a network of hackers dedicated to freedom of expression, and was very active in overcoming network blocks during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. A bit closer to home, in March, Anonymous hacked the website of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), claiming that it was revenge for police brutality against an 18-year-old Montreal student during an antiausterity protest. Under the umbrella of the anti-austerity movement Printemps 2015, numerous student-led demonstrations took place around the city in response to the budget proposed by the government, and more than a few of them ended with arrests and violence. In one particular protest, a student was hit directly in the face
with a canister of tear gas, injuring her chin and mouth. In response, Anonymous retaliated by blocking entrance to the SPVM website. Although the website was down for over 24 hours, the SPVM announced that no personal information was leaked, though one member of the police force told the CBC, “There’s a lot of information for the citizens, so it’s pretty sad that right now [at the time], they don’t have access to the site.”
It is often difficult for the general public to distinguish between cyberterrorism and hacktivism, especially as the media often distorts hacktivism to seem like cyberterrorism. Anonymous said that if tensions between protesters and police continued to escalate, they would take over larger networks in Montreal, though it never came to that. From online security threats
to major websites leaks, it is often difficult for the general public to distinguish between cyberterrorism and hacktivism, especially as the media often distorts hacktivism to seem like cyberterrorism. Hacktivism is merely a type of activism to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and environmental change. As Anonymous noted to the public after its attack on the SPVM, it only blocked entrance to the site, no damage was done to anyone aside from minor inconveniences to the SPVM. On a global scale, Google worked with SayNow engineers to provide Egyptian citizens with a solution to bypass the government’s network shutdown during the Arab Spring which cut off the country’s communication from the outside. In that case, should Google be considered a terrorist for its hacktivism? It’s true that it can be difficult to distinguish between hacktivism and cyberterrorism. Certain attacks, such as the hacking of Sony Pictures in 2014 after the release of The Interview, a controversial movie about North Korea starring Seth Rogan and James Franco, did cause the company to lose a lot of money and succeeded in instilling fear in the motion pictures industry. Though the tactics used by these hackers were similar to those used by hacktivists in practice, the intent behind the hacks – whether they were meant to harm people or bring about social good – is incredibly important for their effect on society. Hacktivism is comparable to uprisings by the oppressed, such as those in Ferguson, which were necessary to draw attention to systematic racism in the police force, despite being condemned by the state as illegal rioting. The stigma around hacktivism, due in part to mainstream media’s fearmongering, as well as lack of technological literacy in the general public, serves to diminish its potential as a means for people to make their voices heard. So, what does this mean for the future of activism? Hacktivist groups continue to grow and evolve as technology changes. “The key is not necessarily the technology as much as it is the fact that there may be a cause to support, whether that cause is international or ‘small town,’” Erik Barnett writes in a statement on the Security Insight blog. “The next generation of youth will seize this opportunity of cheaply promoting their message and continue it forward.”
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Sci+Tech
October 26, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com
Wild food in the big city The potential of foraging for urban nutrition
Louis Warnock Sci+Tech Writer
Vanessa Waters, urban forager
for different plants. One of the weeds discussed during Waters’ tour is lamb’s quarters, sometimes called pigweed, which is easy to identify, making it a good plant to start with for beginner foragers. Its leaves have a white coating, and small green flowers form clusters toward the top of the plant. It grows in nitrogenrich soil, which means it has a high nitrate content. Despite this, the plant remains a favourite among foragers and is even cultivated in some parts of the world. “[It’s] like your local quinoa,” Waters explains, referring to the seeds, which can be collected and dried to eat. The seeds, along with the spinach-like leaves, make lamb’s quarters a high-protein food. Weeds have long roots, which helps them reach deeper for minerals, but more importantly, if a small portion of the root remains in the ground, it will release seeds by the millions to reproduce itself. Another wild plant Waters discusses and that you can find around Montreal is milkweed pod, which tastes like green beans, though as it matures it supposedly becomes cheese-like in texture. The plant’s leaves are similar to broccoli. Waters noted that thistle roots are steeped, they make a nice chai tea. One can make a preserve with high bush cranberries. Dandelions reach their most tender stage in May and taste bitter like arugula and radicchio. After gathering a basket of weeds, you can make a green salad, which will have a strong taste perhaps foreign to people who live in the city, or even put the weeds in a blender and have them as a smoothie.
As a youth, Waters accompanied her First Nations grandmother to scavenge for wild plants, and in her adult years, she would fall back on foraging when she was strapped for cash. “[Foraging] gave me a sense of abundance, but slowly it turned into a knowledge hunt,” Waters told The Daily. “I turned to it and got more into it when I was struggling financially. I would think, ‘What would my [grandmother] do?’ because she was so self-sufficient.” The process of foraging involves identifying whether the plant is poisonous or not and knowing the harvest season
The merits of foraging It may seem strange to learn about wild foods if you are accustomed to eating commercial foods from the supermarket. There is, however, more to a healthy diet than simply fulfilling the daily requirements of carbohydrates and lipids. Micronutrients, which include vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, are required in smaller quantities but are vital as well. Wild foods are especially known for their diversity and abundance of phytonutrients, a type of micronutrient. These are not lifesustaining chemical compounds but they do nonetheless perform
U
rban foraging, the search for edible foods that grow naturally in city landscapes, is still relatively unknown, and many misconceptions exist about the topic. As more and more people are getting excited about creative ways to live sustainably, our society could possibly adopt this solution. The urban foraging community is admittedly small, but avid forager Vanessa Waters is attempting to introduce people to the art of urban foraging through her Montreal tour “13 Weeds to Live By.” The tour introduces participants to a variety of edible plants that can commonly be found in urban spaces. Her tour’s website description reads, “Weeds are still considered to be something you kill, eradicate, make war on, get rid of. But weeds are the plants that thrive.”
“Weeds are still considered to be something you kill, eradicate, make war on, get rid of. But weeds are the plants that thrive.”
Lia Elbaz | The McGill Daily important physiological functions. Carotenoids, for instance, are thought to reduce the risk of cancer. Salicin is both anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving and constitutes the active ingredient in aspirin. In a commercial setting, such as with cash crops, it only takes about a year for the soil to be depleted of nutrients. Producers use fertilizers to provide energy for growth, but this does not improve the nutritional value of the crop. Foraged foods, on the other hand, generally grow in environments that have an abundance of microorganisms, minerals, insects, compost, and manure, providing good soil fertility. Weeds have developed strong defensive mechanisms against predators and against humans constantly pulling them. Weeds have also succeeded in evolving in harsher conditions than plants growing on a farm
or in a garden, a testament to their incredible resilience. Praise of kale as a superfood dims when it is juxtaposed with a couple of edible weeds.
Wild foods are especially known for their diversity and abundance of phytonutrients, a type of micronutrient. When foraging in the city, one usually follows a couple of general rules: stay at least twenty feet away from rails and ten feet away from roads, and if the plant smells
like dog urine, it’s probably best left alone – though, Waters argues, the toxins on food at the supermarket are equally unhealthy. Also, when picking wild parsnips or carrots, you must be confident that you are not in fact preparing your own deathbed with poison hemlock, which looks similar but produces an unpleasant odor. In a time when many are living fast-paced lifestyles in densely populated areas built of concrete and steel, it is easy to become detached from the land and forget the importance of living in harmony with it. As Waters explained, foraging is not only an environmentally friendly, healthy alternative to commercial foods – it can bring us closer to the land we live on. “I really feel like if we learn about the local food [...] that we walk over every day, that we pull out and make war against, we could really become more sustainable,” she said.
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Sports
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
15
Creating a fair playing ground
FIFA should impose sanctions on Israel for its racist practices Victor Depois Sports Writer
E
arlier this year, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) petitioned the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to suspend Israel’s membership to the federation. The discussion was brought up at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on May 29; however, PFA President Jibril Rajoub eventually withdrew the request, understanding that the Palestinian voice would remain unheard. The PFA accused Israel of racism, apartheid practices, and the hindrance of free movement of Palestinian players from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. The FIFA corruption scandal that struck the association diverted the media’s attention away from the petition until September 6, when Cardiff, UK became the stage for pro-Palestinian protests in the wake of a Euro 2016 qualifying game between Wales and Israel. Two days later, on September 8, the Palestinian national team hosted its first home game in four years: a qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup against the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This was a symbolic victory for Palestine, whose football association has been suffering greatly from Israel’s actions that restrict the movement of players. Sports mirror societal issues in many ways, and the lack of sanctions toward Israel’s team shows that Israel enjoys immunity on the international stage. Even though the PFA’s petition has been withdrawn, the allegation that the Israel Football Association (IFA) is guided by the state’s policies should be taken seriously. The IFA is a state institution supported financially by Israel’s government and controlled by the State Comptroller of Israel – the same state institution that manages the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). One would
Justine Touchon | Illustrator assume that it’s counterintuitive for a country’s football association to be controlled by the same body that controls the country’s army. This, however, does not appear to be of concern for Israel, which further worsens the oppression of Palestinian players through the strict border controls that hinder them in crossing from Gaza to the West Bank. During the pro-Palestinian protests that took place in Cardiff, the Guardian interviewed Adie Mormech, a human rights advocate working in Gaza. According to Mormech, “Israel can’t be part of Europe, can’t be part of European sport if it denies the people of Palestine their right to life, their right to a sporting life. We’ve tried diplomacy, we’ve tried everything, it’s time to say: ‘Enough is enough.’”
Palestinians are fed up with these oppressive policies and have been protesting to make their voices heard. By preventing the movement of Palestinian national sports teams, which can strengthen Palestinian national identity, Israel is taking away one of the components of maintaining Palestinian identity. Suspending Israel from FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) would be an effective way of showing it that the oppressive nature of its actions against Palestinian players must have consequences. Israel categorically opposes these sanctions, claiming that they wouldn’t be fair. According to the same article in the Guardian, Alan Melkman of the Zionist Federation, an Israel advocacy organization, said, “Those [pro-
testers] over there are not proPalestinian. What they are is anti-Israel. Much of what they say are outright lies, much of what they say about the discrimination of Palestinian footballers is absolute rubbish. We believe that football is a game that helps bring people together. It is one of the stepping stones to peace. The boycotting of Israeli football players alienates people, it forces them farther apart. It does nothing for peace.” But isn’t Israel alienating Palestinian players? As Melkman pointed out, sports are supposed to bring people together, but by preventing the movement of Palestinian players between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israel is keeping Palestinian players apart. Racism is strictly forbidden by
FIFA, and as such, Israel should be suspended from the association on those grounds. Perhaps the only way to get Israel to change its actions would be to explicitly declare them illegal under FIFA’s constitution. The U.S. has supported Israel since its inception, and along with other powerful countries, has helped provide it with protection and immunity on the international stage. The international support Israel receives, combined with the politicized nature of its team, allows for the state to mistreat Palestinian players without consequences. In order to be fair, FIFA should seriously consider the PFA’s proposal and ban Israel from the federation for some time in order to, at the least, create equitable playing conditions.
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Culture
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
16
Dial M for Murder gets A for acting
Strong cast performances and exemplary design elements a hit Jordan Gowling Culture Writer
P
layers’ Theatre’s production of Frederick Knott’s Dial M For Murder, which ran from October 14 to 24, shows how a sinister undercurrent of murderous intention can pervade the charming facade of the picturesque 1950s. The characters gleefully portray all kinds of immorality, including adultery, false identity, blackmail, and betrayal, throughout the performance, weaving an intricate narrative of intrigue and suspense. The play begins with Sheila Wendice (Eleonore Lamothe) and Max Halliday (Jordan Pollock) sitting in Wendice’s living room, making idle conversation over drinks. It soon becomes clear that they have had an affair, even though she is married to the ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Oskar Flemer). Tony, a man of great charm, has discovered his wife’s affair and plans to kill her. With the help of the play’s director, Ali Aasim, events turn darkly humourous as characters struggle to hide or uncover the truth about a murder plot gone awry. Aasim makes his directing known in many elements throughout the play, such as the use of music and lighting to emphasize dramatic and important moments that reinforce key characters’ revelations. The performances are well- timed, especially in scenes where tensions between characters run high. Standout performances include Lamothe’s
Sheila Wendice and Flemer’s Tony Wendice: the former for portraying Sheila with grace and true emotional depth throughout tumultuous character developments, and the latter for demonstrating subtle predatory behaviour with just the right amount of passive-aggression that characterizes his charm. These performances synthesize well with some of the key design elements of the show to make for a truly satisfying result. The character of Sheila is particularly well-performed in light of the widely-known misogyny inherent to the play. Critics have rightly pointed out the lack of female representation, and the written implications of Sheila being physically and emotionally weak. Lamothe fights against this interpretation by making her version of Sheila distinctly assertive, constantly countering her husband’s manipulation. Notably, Cain Humeniuk’s portrayal of Inspector Hubbard is a steadfast anchor in many scenes. The true talent of his performance comes from Hubbard’s antagonistic dialogue with Tony Wendice, whereby the audience begins to see cracks in Tony’s rather confident persona. Alastair Pitts’ portrayal of Captain Lasgate is also a decent performance of a rather complex character, and Pitts plays the part without being overly dramatic. The scenery, created by set designer Chip Limeburner, takes a minimalist but effective approach in constructing the Wendice home, and the set’s strengths
Eleonore Lamothe and Jordan Pollock.
Pam Austin | Photographer
are determined by its attention to detail thanks to artistic director Zoë Vnak. From the Jameson Irish Whiskey bottle and polished tennis trophies to the fake lit cigarettes used by the performers, attention to smaller elements of the show contribute to the overall authenticity of the 1950s veneer. This also comes through in the production’s costume choices, with tailored suits donned by the male characters and the fedora worn
scene, dark red light cloaks the whole set to reflect a deliberate horror. All of these important design choices along with Aasim’s nuanced direction give way to a very satisfying performance. The show’s strength comes from the collaborative effort of the cast members who play off of one another and who demonstrate exceptional dialogue tempo. The result is a show that simultaneously contains both drama and humour in an enticing display.
by Inspector Hubbard. Sheila’s costumes are probably the most aesthetically appealing: beautiful dresses with cinched waists and long elegant white gloves that emphasize not only the cultural period but also the character’s grace. The use of macabre music in scene transitions and climactic scenes is also an important element for the show’s overall morbid content. The same can be said for Sharanya Venkatesh’s lighting design: in a particularly climactic
Behind the scenes of Toy Story
Wild Fucking Improvisers In Action reads between the lines of the script Kateryna Gordiychuk The McGill Daily
I
mprov artists are excellent at bringing upbeat laughs into a boring Wednesday night. M Montreal Hostel and Bar, located downtown, saw a lively performance entitled “In-Betweeners” put on by Wild Fucking Improvisers in Action (WFIIA), a self-organized group of young comedians, on October 14. The show aimed to read between the lines of the movie Toy Story and act out the characters and scenes that were left to the imagination of movie audiences. What was actually happening in the toy box when nobody saw, and what were the lives of secondary characters? Those are the questions fans have never definitively answered, and WFIIA’s skillful improv helped fill in the blanks.
WFIIA has been around the block, with their recent show, “Surrogates,” featuring a version of the classic show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Each time the WFIIA group performs, the audience or one of the actors introduces a new concept, making the art of improv so much harder, and thus more entertaining for the audience. Improv concepts work as predefined conditions under which artists are supposed to perform. Some examples that were used were “forward – reverse,” making the actors do the scene in reverse order; “should have said,” the act of rephrasing the same line an infinite amount of times, thus changing the intended outcome to any variety of unexpected endings; and WFIIA’s specialty, “en français, s’il vous plaît” (“in French, please”), bringing translation wordplays onto the stage.
A big part of the comedic action was directed at exploring the Toy Story characters in a new and uncensored way, thinking of the movie heroes as real-life personalities and not just toys coming to life for only a few seconds. By playing through the lives of each figure, the comedians expanded the possibilities of the movie, portraying the characters with interwoven personal dramas in a real social setting. One of those was an imaginary situation where Woody and Buzz Lightyear never return from their adventure, leaving Hamm, the piggy bank, to take over the gang’s leadership. You don’t need to know much about the movie to appreciate the idea of a bossy piggy bank demanding 25 cents in rent from each toy. What was even funnier was the actors’ spontaneity, seeing as
they were thrown on the spot yet deliberately directed the scene to create a pushy piggy bank as a running joke. The design of the poster for the show is a parallel visual representation of “In-Betweeners” itself. Numerous arrows pointing in different directions hint that the improv actors can go anywhere in their comedy. WFIIA wasn’t the only creator of the sketch comedy; members of the audience were constructing the scene too, coming up with new circumstances and toy names for the actors to try on when certain scenes began to grow stale. It was a collaborative effort with no roadmap. The show that was “In-Betweeners” was itself a working concept as themes and characters shifted, swaying viewers’ attention to the periphery of the classic nar-
rative. These “quick quirky improv games,” as the group organizer, Kenny Streule, called them in an interview with The Daily, explore the rules of story and comedy, with the result being continually and unpredictably hilarious (though sometimes a little awkward). Even though the show wasn’t intended to provoke deeper contemplation, it definitely points to something essential – exploitation of a one-sided narrative. “It’s the side [of Toy Story] that we’ve all pretended to think of, except that now we get to perform [it] on stage, with the characters we love,” Streule said. Maybe it’s time to imagine the possibilities of our own unwritten narratives for some greater epiphany. Or maybe, as it was so effectively done by WFIIA, it’s a time to just delight in childlike imagination and laugh at what we find.
Culture
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
17
Anarchism unedited
Groucho masks, violins, and burning red hunger at Casa del Popolo Maxine Dannatt Culture Writer
I
arrive at Casa del Popolo and note the steady filtering of people into the venue, many unsure about passing through the dimly lit door shyly labelled with anarchist poet Norman Nawrocki’s “Agitate!” poster. I am joined by a surprising mix of CEGEP students and older activists. At the side of the room is a table with an impressive array of Nawrocki’s self-published books and the author himself, as shy as his unassuming poster. He admits he is nervous before hurriedly walking to the back of the room, but in his performance, he is anything but shy. A bell rings – he turns around from facing the back corner, staring disconcertingly at the audience and singing. He’s wearing a Groucho mask. Apprehension sets in – is this another loud and aimless experimental performance piece? There are definitely abrasive moments in the performance: a call and response song whose main line is “On the road to freedom,” is very uncomfortably reminiscent of an African American slave song in both its music theory structure and also its subject matter similar to traditional songs like “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and “Song of the Free.” Ultimately, such blatant instances of cultural misappropriation are inappropriate. It is the more subtle elements of Nawrocki’s performance that have the most impact. He eventually pulls out a violin to accompany his readings, which he builds into a song using a loop pedal. This complicates poems with a tension that may have otherwise been lacking. His rendition of “Another Starlit Tour,” a lament for the treatment of Indigenous peoples in Quebec, incites tears from audience members. They barely have time to gather their wits however, before the angry strumming of “Ter-roarwism” begins, a disorganized and poorly conceived rant about contemporary society that leaves one overwhelmed by the pile of injustices mentioned. The show ends with a rendition of “Red Waves Massing,” a piece alluding to the student protest movement of the Maple Spring, with Nawrocki leading the song in a dramatic moment worthy of a Les Misérables finale. Even the most reluctant audience members seem affected by the unity of the group crying out,
“We’re the burning red hunger of all our souls!” A faint smile lingers on his face as he walks off the stage, betraying a humour that lives at the core of his work. It is with this same humour that I am first introduced to Nawrocki at Café El Mundo for an “informal conversation,” as he affectionately calls interviews. I arrive ten minutes early, only to find Nawrocki already there, unapologetically sipping a glass of milk. As I sit, he slaps the book down in front of me with a coy smile, and declares “We’re here to talk about this book – Agitate!” And so we do.
He doesn’t hesitate to speak out against McGill either, which has repeatedly refused to re-invite him to perform his antisexism shows, cabarets that often involve him performing as a 7 foot tall penis. Born in a “working class, immigrant community where classism was really obvious,” Nawrocki became politically involved at an early age by observing the injustices suffered by the community around him. He currently practices “creative resistance,” all the while recognizing that participating in the creative process is a privilege in this society. It is this need for creativity that fuels his political tendencies. He views anarchism as “a collective movement for personal freedom” with which “everybody would have the chance to explore the creative side of themselves.” He writes that hopefully, this exploration will lead to identification of problems plaguing society, and thus, change. Not limited to poetry, Nawrocki’s vast collection of publications also includes rants and songs written in the past year. When asked to define “rant,” he becomes even more lively (if possible) and details the movement of established ranters in the 17th
Nawrocki in performance at Casa del Popolo. century that he emulates. Nawrocki is a self-professed spokesman for “public rage,” but later in the interview his language shifts to “witness for injustice.” And though he may not be a direct witness, through his repeated performances and writings he certainly calls a lot of what he sees as contributing to environmental collapse, austerity, privatization, missing and murdered Indigenous women, police brutality, cancer, sexual harassment, sexism, homophobia, and Islamophobia. These subjects, and more, constitute the base of issues that he writes about openly in Agitate!.
Photo Courtesy of Norman Nawrocki
has repeatedly refused to reinvite him to perform his antisexism shows, cabarets that often involve him performing as a 7 foot tall penis. Though his first anti-sexism show was created and inspired in part by McGill students, and attended by 300 people on campus, he says that the “irresponsible McGill administration refuses to admit it has a problem” with sexual harassment. Nawrocki started doing these anti-sexism shows in 1993, hoping that their informational benefits would allow him to stop after a few shows, laughably underestimating the extent
[Nawrocki] currently practices “creative resistance,” all the while recognizing that participating in the creative process is a privilege in this society. It is this need for creativity that fuels his political tendencies. Nawrocki does an excellent job of grounding these injustices in the local settings of Montreal and Canada, as evidenced by our discussion of the crumbling Montreal infrastructure and the “fascist” former Harper government. He doesn’t hesitate to speak out against McGill either, which
of systemic sexism. He is still performing these shows upon request in universities across the U.S. and Canada. On the subject of sexual harassment and rape culture at McGill, Nawrocki specifically mentions the various interviews that he has conducted with stu-
dents on campus. From what he has gathered, he says that McGill only “put[s] up a blue box with a blue light so that you can feel safe, but god, I know tons of women on campus, in classrooms, who don’t feel safe and who have been accosted by their professors. There are notorious professors in certain departments and year after year, woman after woman, all confirm the same stories.” Frustratingly, Nawrocki’s work deals frantically with too much subject matter, and the result is that he comes across as trying to tick off anti-oppression boxes with buzzwords rather than striving to effect tangible change. His best poems are the ones that attempt to dismantle oppressive systems in a subtler way: the random act of kindness he observes and retells in “This Little Old Woman” generates more thought than the outpouring of facts in “Sip a Beer and Meditate.” Though the louder poems are certainly able to unsettle in the way that Nawrocki believes they should, these subtler examples seem to do more for his project of reaching people on an emotional level. The Nawrockian anthology that is Agitate! may be an interesting read, but its scope is too large to hold any complex analysis or instigate systemic change.
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Culture
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
Breakout band Alvvays play Montreal Live performance falls short of studio recordings
Rosie Long Decter The McGill Daily
F
or a Toronto-based band with only one album out, Alvvays made it big very quickly. Since releasing their self-titled debut in the summer of 2014, they’ve been featured on Pitchfork’s list of the best songs of 2014, shortlisted for the Polaris Prize (pretty much the pinnacle of Canadian indie music-making), and booked festivals from Osheaga to Glastonbury. And they deserve the attention: their album is a well-crafted blend of jangly guitar hooks, cool, detached vocals, and soothingly bittersweet lyrics. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of their live performances. The band took the stage at Montreal’s Corona Theatre on October 20 to a relatively full main floor for a performance that was largely unremarkable. The sound itself was the band’s first problem – right from the start, the mix was way too loud and trebly, causing the guitars to sound piercing and in-your-face. Typically dreamy tracks like “The Agency Group” and “Next of Kin” played heavy and distorted. On top of the bad sound was a somewhat uninspired set from the band itself. The live element added nothing special to their recorded songs, and lead
singer Molly Rankin’s vocals certainly could have benefited from the reverb used on the album. Though initially shaky, her voice settled in after a few songs, as Rankin delivered the high notes on “Red Planet” with her signature beautiful emptiness. What Rankin may have lacked in vocal chops, however, she made up for in stage presence. Her charming banter was endearingly Canadian as she joked about hockey, Justin Trudeau, and Montreal parking tickets. While her vocals are known for their lack of emotion, her live persona is all spirit, and kept the show going through its sound troubles. Rankin’s music may be nothing like the folk songs of her heritage – she comes from the popular Rankin Nova Scotian music family – but she clearly has the Celtic entertaining gene in her. Alvvays played every track on their album, interspersed with new material; a cover of Camera Obscura’s “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” was particularly touching in its tribute to the Scottish band’s Carey Lander, who recently passed away. The new songs were surprisingly fast and punky, a departure from the first album, but at least fun to dance to. Not that the audience was doing much dancing – the crowd was mostly laid-back throughout the show, despite the occasional yell of
The 3rd Annual Au Contraire Film festival
Rosie Long Decter | The McGill Daily
Molly Rankin at Corona Theatre. “Marry me, Molly!” That is, until the final song, “Archie, Marry Me,” which had everyone singing along. Alvvays are by no means overhyped – their pop-like ballads
Sonia Larbi-Aissa and Virginia Shram The McGill Daily
have a depth that stands strong within the Canadian indie scene. If Tuesday’s performance is any indication, though, they haven’t quite figured out how their live perfor-
mances can match the expectations set by their debut album. Hopefully, they’ll take some time this winter to perfect their live sound. Then, who knows how big they could get.
The Au Contraire Film Festival (ACFF) attempts to raise awareness and destigmatize mental illness by showing films about mental illnesses. After each show, stick around for the post-screening panel discussions featuring clients of mental health services, health professionals, and movie producers.
Tuesday, October 27
Thursday, October 29
Touched With Fire Maxwell Cummings Auditorium, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 7 p.m.
DocuMental Series Maxwell Cummings Auditorium, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The festival opens with the Canadian premier of Touched With Fire, a film that tells the story of Marco and Carla, two manic-depressive artists who, after meeting at a psychiatric hospital, oscillate between the extremes of intense inspiration and destructive suicidal ideation. Despite warnings from doctors and friends, the two fall into a romance, and attempt to navigate love, medication, and sanity together. Institutionalized four times for bipolar disorder starting when he was 24, writer and director Paul Dalio decided to craft this autobiographically inspired movie, starring Katie Holmes, with executive producer Spike Lee, while studying film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
A series of Canadian and foreign short films delve into a handful of stories, some only five minutes longs, others 25 minutes or more. The DocuMental series allows viewers to experience a variety of cinematographic style and subject matter all in one sitting.
Friday, October 30 The Living Museum Maxwell Cummings Auditorium, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 7 p.m. In 1983, the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York housed about 1,350 patients. That same year, psychologist Janos Marton invited Bolek Greczynski, a Polish artist known for his work in political art and experimental theater, to join the hospital staff. Together, the two guided the transformation of an abandoned building on the campus known as Building 75 that housed the main kitchen for the Creedmoor patients. Marton and Greczynski had the ability to see through the grime and faded interior of the deserted building and, with time, created an ever-changing space full of art and beauty, the Living Museum. Academy Award-winning director Jessica Yu spent over a year following the artistic development of six different patients, creating a nuaced and complex account of life in a state mental institution.
Leben, A Short History of Madness 2 p.m. Leben is a German short film exploring the realities of living with obsessive compulsive disorder. Translated in English to “Touching Life,” the short follows the protagonist, Ben, over the course of a day. Fed up with his illness and invited to a neighbouring town for a job interview, Ben must decide between staying home or venturing out into the unpredictable world. A Short History of Madness uses contemporary dance to portray the evolution of the treatment of mental illness in Quebec, starting from the late 19th century. The Phone Call, Letting You Go 7 p.m. The Oscar-winning short The Phone Call follows the length of a phone conversation between a crisis hotline worker and a man in distress, unfolding over the course of its twenty-minute run time. Letting You Go is a Dutch documentary that follows the decision of Sanne, a young women, to self-euthanize after years of treatment for borderline personality disorder, chronic depression, and insomnia. Director Kim Faber, as well as Sanne’s father, will be present after the screening to discuss assisted suicide laws and self-determination.
Editorial
volume 105 number 9
editorial board 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
Still on the waitlist for better mental health services
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D
espite being a high-stress university, McGill has failed to provide its students with a sufficient mental health framework. Since The Daily last editorialized on this in October 2014, little progress has been made. Instead, students are the ones who have been taking the initiative, organizing events such as Mental Health Awareness Week, which took place last week, and the Kaleidoscope Mental Health Film Festival. McGill needs to make mental health a priority and provide adequate mental health care, instead of forcing the burden onto the students it purports to serve. The McGill Mental Health Service (MMHS)’s lack of resources jeopardizes the quality of service it can provide. Currently, not counting psychiatrist visits, MMHS tries to curb students at 16 visits per school year – that is, if they’re able to get an appointment in the first place. The waitlists for patients deemed “non-urgent” are incredibly long, delaying students’ access to crucial care by months. One student who tried to book an appointment for suicidal ideation told The Daily that they were told to buy a book because there wasn’t space for them to have a follow-up appointment. To make matters worse, McGill is cutting down on its contribution to the Student Services budget, which is otherwise primarily made up of student fees. McGill’s yearly transfer from its operating budget into the Student Services budget, which used to be $443,905 in 2009-10, has now been entirely cut. In addition, McGill increased the overhead costs it charges to Student Services from $30,679 in 2009-10 to $588,733 in 2015-16, forcing Student Services to eat into its accumulated surplus to provide essential services instead of hir-
ing more mental health professionals. Not only does MMHS lack resources, but the services it does provide are often subpar. According to several student reports, drop-in sessions are ineffective, and the doctors, many of whom are based off campus, have limited availability. The ineffective triage process forces students to articulate their needs in a short period of time and prove that they deserve access to one of the few doctors on hand. Additionally, some students have reported experiencing victim-blaming at the hands of these professionals, whose job is to aid students in recovery, which adds to the trauma these students are trying to cope with. Students have also reported experiences of gaslighting, a form of traumatic psychological abuse that manipulates people into believing that their experiences aren’t real. In response to concerns about MMHS’s insufficient resources, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens made the University’s priorities clear by declaring, “We are not a hospital.” However, depending on the breadth of students’ insurance coverage, the university may in fact be the only place where they can obtain mental health services. As these essential services are funded primarily by student fees, McGill must give students a meaningful voice in how they function, and be responsive to student concerns. The University is providing the bare minimum with regards to mental health, and the rest of the burden is falling on students. McGill claims that it can’t afford to prioritize mental health, but if it cares about the well-being of students, it can’t afford not to. —The McGill Daily editorial board
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The article “McGill alumni pledge to return diplomas in call for climate justice” (News, October 19, page 5) incorrectly referred to Camil Bouchard as Camille Bouchard. The Daily regrets the error.
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19
Compendium!
October 26, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
20
Lies, half-truths, and speaking bluntly.
True D’oh rips blunt at victory speech
Giant smoke sesh marks inspiring beginnings for the marijuana majority
y b b A Anarchist Aunt Abby An anarchist solves your problems! Dear Anarchist Aunt Abby, I’ve recently been demoted at my job, and am having trouble coming to terms with my loss. I feel like everything I’ve dedicated my life to is on the brink of falling apart. All I ever wanted was to turn Canada into a barren war machine run by robots and flying monkeys, but now that I’ve been removed as Heir to the Chamber of Secrets, women will have control over what they wear, the environment will soon be on its way to recovery, and children may even start to remember how to laugh. I’m just a hardworking guy, with feelings like anyone else. Sometimes, when I get really sad, I try to sing away my blues – but there’s only so many Neil Diamond songs in the world. Maybe I was wrong all along, and authoritarianism isn’t the true and glorious path for our nation. I mean, if the system is so flawed that a guy who looks like a wet puppy in need of a good kick can get elected, then maybe that system should be torn apart. Dear Abby, is it time to give up my beliefs and join the anarchist movement? —Soul-Searching Stevie
Hotboxing the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Patty Dem O’Chratis The McGall Weekly
J
usty True D’oh raised more than a few eyebrows during his victory speech last Monday. The 43-year-old prime minister-designate addressed crowds of supporters, eyes glassy and coloured the hallmark Liberal red, following a commanding victory for his party. But nobody in the room could’ve predicted what happened next. True D’oh has been known to work a crowd, but when he took the stage, that reputation was elevated tenfold. Producing a gigantic blunt from one inside pocket of his crisply pressed blazer and a lighter from the other, True D’oh took a huge hit of the chronic, sending his supporters into a frenzy of whooping cheers. In a gesture that bridged the linguistic gap between his supporters, he raised his arms high, middle fingers higher. The speech that followed was revelatory to all in attendance. Between bouts of coughing and
Patty Dem O’Chratis | Photograbber
fits of giggles, True D’oh admitted that his entire campaign was actually an elaborate ruse to push one issue: the legalization of marijuana. It turns out that the man whom his opponents called “just not ready” really just wanted to blaze. He went on to describe the emotional pain he endured in his youth, forced to hide his love of the green stuff growing up in the public eye. At one point, he trailed off, staring blankly into the distance before one of his aids shook him back into consciousness. The extent of his party’s victory seemed only to embolden True D’oh, who then challenged Stefon Arpeur to a boxing match and stripped down to his underpants to show off a fresh new tattoo of a pot leaf on the small of his back. After impressing the attendees with an assortment of smoke tricks, he ended by comically falling down a flight of stairs to the roaring laughter and thunderous applause of a room now thick with smoke. He then mingled with supporters, juggling babies
and doing other classic Justy things. Opposition candidates were understandably less enthusiastic. While True D’oh was smoking, Arpeur was seen drinking heavily and belting out a truly bloodcurdling rendition of Bette Midler’s “The Rose” with his band. Tom Mullé Claire appeared for the most part to take the results in stride. However, numerous reports indicate that he was later seen hurrying out of an animal shelter with a litter of kittens in his arms. Critics have torn into True D’oh, calling the whole ordeal “a disgrace” and “absolutely unacceptable.” True D’oh responded with a heavy hand, grabbing his crotch and shouting “my majority begs to differ.” To his credit, True D’oh has stuck to his guns, repeating that marijuana taxation will be an important revenue stream for the government. Less admirably, he stated that despite his new focus he still plans to run a deficit in the billions “to pay for Funyuns and more weed.”
Dear Soul-Searching Stevie, Wow, sounds like you’re having a hard time! Make sure to take care of yourself and mourn your loss. Dictators need love too. Maybe now would be a good time to explore your sensitive and creative sides – you could take up a soothing hobby, like knitting sweaters out of True D’oh’s shedding hair (the stress of the job will surely wreak havoc on his hairline), or pickling the broken dreams of Gil Dudeceppe. Alternatively, you could use your new spare time to catch up with your old friends – Argus Filch, Miley Cyrus’s dreadlocks, and that bald guy who hosts Deal or No Deal. Either way, it sounds like you really need to take a long look at yourself – who is the real Stevie? What keeps him warm at night? I think, if you probe deep enough, you’ll find you still believe in your core values – protecting the patriarchy, disenfranchizing the marginalized, and supporting cultural treasures like Nickelback. I’m not sure you’d really fit in with us anarchists; you would be the Chevy Chase to our Community (a white man asshole who’s just holding us back). But I’m sure there’s a place for you somewhere! In fact, I heard SHMU is looking for a new VP Internal – I bet you could give that Centrikov kid a run for his money! You should also probably go fetch Chris Alexander from the pile of manure he’s hiding under. Get him a shower and a warm cup of tea (make sure none of your co-workers have peed in the mug!) and then the two of you can settle down to some Netflix and discuss the future of the Conservative Parrots of Canada. I know there’s a lot of hate going around right now, but try not to be too blue. After all, if you didn’t exist, who would Canadians unite against? You’re bringing this country together, one strategic voter at a time. So Stevie, take some Imodium, sing a lullaby for your fallen regime, and go to sleep knowing that in four years, Canadians will probably be ready once again for real change and vote your party back in. And, whatever you do, don’t stop believin’!
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