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This September, the city of Montreal and the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) announced the creation of a new unit: Équipe-école . Framed as a way of tackling youth gun violence in Montreal, this project will send a team of uniformed officers, psychologists, and cybercrime specialists into schools in an ill-advised attempt to prevent violence and crime. Both the Quebec government and the city of Montreal are funding this project, contributing $4 million over three years and $400,000, respectively.
This new initiative won’t make schools safer. Instead, it will put marginalized students and their communities further at risk of being targeted by the police. It reinforces a phenomenon known as the “school-to-prison pipeline” present in many North American schools. When schools rely on police to maintain order and discipline, students have more contact with the police and thus face a higher risk of being sent to prison or a juvenile detention centre. Students who are undocumented or have family who are undocumented face an increased risk of being reported to the Canadian Border Patrol. Additionally, individuals engaging in petty crime, such as drinking in public and loitering, could also face incidental arrests and fines under the program. This increased interaction with police poses particular harm to Black, Indigenous, and other racialized students, who are more likely to be stopped by the SPVM and more likely to experience abuse within the justice system. Involvement with the carceral system at an early age can scar a person’s permanent record, limiting their options for employment, and increases the risk of re-offending. The school-to-prison pipeline particularly targets youth who are racialized, low-income, or disabled, leading to a disproportionate number of these populations in the prison system.
The funding to be allocated to Équipe-école will increase the SPVM’s already exorbitant budget. Despite claiming to be open to reallocating police funds in 2020, in her 2022 budget Mayor Valerie Plante increased the SPVM’s budget by $45 million, making it $724 million in total. In comparison, the city will spend $10 million on anti-poverty measures, $5.9 million to combat homelessness, and $4.1 million on measures to fight climate change. The CAQ also pledged to spend $250 million hiring 450 new police officers this summer, which would give Montreal the most police per capita of any Canadian city. This comes following a 2021 prebudget consultation in which 60 per cent of Montrealers surveyed said they favoured reducing the police services budget.
Urban security and policing expert Ted Rutland told CTV News that “none of the studies say that increasing police resources decreases gun violence, there’s a bunch of things that do decrease gun violence, and we’re not doing those things.” Policing does not address the root causes of crime and armed violence; to truly prevent crime, it’s necessary to invest in youth by providing services such as stable housing, free school lunch programs, affordable after-school activities, and mental health support. Many Montreal organizations providing social services are severely underfunded, which limits
their capacity to meet the needs of their community. While the SPVM claims to be in “collaboration” with community organizations, continued investment in police funding is not the answer to remedy the supposed rise in gun violence that has been purported in Montreal. Alternatively, true community care, as articulated by many residents, entails investing money elsewhere in social services. At a press conference attended by multiple community groups, Slim Hammami, co-ordinator at Cafe-Jeunesse Multiculturelle, a youth group from Montreal-Nord, said that “[W]e were not consulted or informed of this project” and that, had they been consulted, they would have been against it. Marlihan Lopez, the mother of a Black autistic student, says that most schools don’t have adequate resources to accommodate her child’s accessibility needs and would rather see funding go toward “better pay for teachers as well as more psychologists, counselors, cultural pedagogy and anti-racism training in schools” instead of more police. McGill assistant professor Nanre Nafziger expressed the need for transformative justice policies which “create alternative ways for teachers and educators to address problems within the school system without calling the police.”
Other school boards have already removed police from schools. In 2017, the Toronto District School Board, the largest in the country, voted to end their school resource officer program (SRO). Officers were replaced with unarmed safety monitors, although schools still maintained relationships with the police force. Although there isn’t much concrete data as to the effects of this decision, it is generally viewed positively by teachers, students, and community organizations. Data also shows that suspensions and expulsions dropped in the years after the program ended. While removing police from schools is necessary to keep students safe, it’s also important to address other areas of inequality that hamper students’ success and make them vulnerable to criminalization. For example, although The OttawaCarleton District School Board also recently ended their SRO program in 2021, racialized students still report experiencing discrimination from teachers and administration.
We must continue challenging ongoing increases in SPVM funding. Collective action is required to stop programs like Équipe-école from putting marginalized youth at increased risk of criminalization. Get involved with local campaigns to defund the police and remove police from schools such as École sans police. Support groups that help communities most threatened by police violence, such as Indigenous Street Workers Project, Black Healing Centre, Solidarité sans Frontières, and Sex Work Autonomous Committee. We must also explore alternatives when possible including restorative justice, conflict intervention, and harm reduction techniques. We can address crime by supporting organizations like Defund the SPVM that aim to reduce the police budget at large while reinvesting those funds into strengthening communities by providing much-needed social resources.
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million of the McGill endowment fund was being invested in Chinese government bonds, organizations contributing to mass surveillance, and businesses exploiting Uyghur people. In an interview with the Daily, Leo Larman Brown, co-author of the article, explains that “after the article came out we didn’t get a lot of attention, it’s disappointing but not surprising.” They were then contacted by URAP to create a project called “Clean Universities Campaign,” which intends to expand the research done by Brown and co-author Massey to all universities in Canada and eventually the US. Brown added that they now work with a research analyst, and “by looking into McGill’s $1.8 billion endowment fund, he found that $65 million are invested in complicit companies and $148 million are invested in Chinese companies.” Furthermore, Brown highlighted that they “are trying to show that this is student dollars that are going into the endowment fund, if students knew that their money was funding a genocide, I think they would have something to say. This is about transparency for the university.” On the matter of student activism MP Zuberi added that “student action is crucial in this kind of battle. [...] You have the power to put pressure on your administration, by raising awareness and organizing.”
India Mosca News Contributorcontent warning: genocide, sexual assault
On October 18, SSMU hosted an event with the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP) in solidarity with Uyghur rights activists and to raise awareness about an inves tigation led by McGill students about tainted investments from the McGill Endowment Fund.
According to the United Nations (UN), since 2017, the Chinese government (CPP) has held over one million Uyghurs in concentration camps in the Xinjiang region, also known as East Turkestan. Many individuals detained in these camps were never charged with crimes and were denied a legal defense. It seems that their only crime is their ethnicity and their religion. Months after her visit to China earlier this year, Michelle Bachelet released a report 11 minutes prior to the end of her term as UN Human Rights Commissioner describing the extent of human rights violations occurring in Xinjiang, stipulating that they might amount to crimes against humanity. The report is partly based on the testimonies of 26 former captives, who have reported having been subject to “patterns of
torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment [...] including rape.” Beyond the barbed wire gates, the 11 million Uyghurs living in the region are under constant harassment and continuous surveillance. Bachelet’s report details how at the camps children are separated from their parents and brought to reeducation schools, and captives are subject to forced labor, forced sterilization, and banned from practicing their religion,among other human rights violations. In the past years, reports have been issued, incriminating documents have been leaked, and stories have been told, yet action from the international community has been minimal. In addition, the CCP denies any of the allegations of human rights violation; for example the government responded to the OHCRH report with a 121 counter report saying that the terrorist threat required/ forced the creation of “de-radicalisation” and “vocational education and training centres.”
Among the panelists invited, Kyle Matthews, director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, talked about how these atrocities were characteristic of genocide according to international law. He said “there is a common myth that genocide only entails mass killings [...] just the planning of it, is an act of genocide. We have seen [in Xinjiang] the separation of children from their
families, the destruction of cultural heritage sites, and attacks on places of worship precursors of genocide attempts to destroy their identities. That is what genocide is.”
Much of the world has condemned China for its violations, yet countries still haven’t recognized the genocide. In 2021, the US was the first to do so. Since then, the European Parliament has recognized ongoing human rights abuses in East Turkistan citing “crimes against humanity and serious risks of genocide,” becoming the largest legislative body to do so. This has been followed by many parliaments in the world doing the same. The Canadian Parliament passed in a non-binding motion in February 2021 stating that the treatment of the Uyghurs constitutes genocide. Nonetheless, the Canadian government, like many others, still hasn’t officially recognized it. MP Sameer Zuberi spoke about this issue in conversation with the Daily: “the recognition of a genocide triggers requirements on the part of the signatories of the Geneva convention to respond in very dramatic ways [...] and it necessitates complete proof of the crime. Although there is a body of evidence [...] journalists and researchers cannot access the region [...] I would guess that the government wants to have a larger body of evidence inorder
officially recognize the genocide.”
On October 26, Motion M-62 initiated by MP Zuberi will be discussed in parliament. “This motion calls on the Canadian Government to create a specific stream of immigration [to Canada] of 10,000 Uyghurs in third [party] countries such as Turkey, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia where they risk being deported back to China and placed in concentration camps,” he says.
Another obstacle to concrete action and recognition of the genocide is the complex and intertwined presence of the Chinese government in many layers of Canadian society, as discussed by Doctor Susan Palmer during the panel discussion “China is everywhere.” She explains that China is present in our economy but also in our investments and in objects we use on a daily basis. For example, approximately 25 per cent of the world’s cotton is being produced in China, and 85% is cultivated in Xinjiang and most probably comes from forced labor. In the first part of the event, URAP organized mass mailings to MPs in order to support not only motion M-62 but also Bill S-204, introduced by Senator Leo Housakos, which would amend the Customs Tariff to prohibit the importation of any and all goods produced in the Uyghur region.
In March 2022, an article from the McGill Tribune detailed that $15
After the panel, traditional Uyghur food was offered to the attendees, including Polo, which is rice with carrots and meat, and Laghman noodles from the restaurant Urumqi Ozgu Uyghur Cuisine. Other Uyghur restaurants in Montreal include Le Taklamakan and Dolan Uyghur.
The event concluded with the screening of the documentary In search of my Sister by Jawad Mir. It follows the story of Rushan Abbas, an Uyghur activist, in her journey to open the eyes of people to the horrors of what is happening in East Turkmenistan while trying to find clues about the disappearance of her sister. Abbas then joined the event on Zoom to talk more about her experience and her mission. She emphasized the importance of speaking out but also the risk that comes along. “They took my sister because I spoke out,” she says. When asked if she has advice for people that are afraid to speak out, she said “ the power of love is what drives me, love for my sister, for my people, for my homeland, and love for freedom and democracy, that is what’s at stake. Today, the conscience of the world is being tested. [...] The Chinese government depends on people remaining silent. [...] Anyone who cares for humanity should speak up. Educate yourself and the people around you.”
Zoe Lister News Editor
The recent start of archeological investigations conducted at the site for McGill’s “New Vic Project” has resulted in acts and demonstrations in solidarity for the kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers). Last March, the Mohawk Mothers began the process of suing the University and the Canadian government in an effort to halt plans to convert the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) into a new research and teaching facility.
The Mohawk Mothers believe that the site of the former hospital contains unmarked Indigenous graves, namely ones from the MK-Ultra experiments that occurred in the 1950s and 60s.
Despite the promise from the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) that they would not start the archaeological investigation of the site until “information meetings” were completed, the archeological survey of the site began by the McGill-hired archeological firm Arkéos. A settler anarchist group occupied the site on October 10 in support of the Mohawk
Mothers, however they were evicted by police the following day.
On October 16, the Mohawk Mothers wrote that SQI reported to the Judge that the offices of Arkéos were vandalized by a group attributing their actions as being on the behalf of the Mohawk Mothers. The Mohawk Mothers deny knowledge of this action, stating: “As the plaintiffs in this matter[,] we are being falsely considered as prime suspects in organizing these actions, thus risking police searches and prosecution, even though we have absolutely nothing to do with any of this.”
Divest McGill held an anti-colonial vigil on October 17 at the McTavish step in support of the Mohawk Mothers. At the vigil, members and supporters of Divest walked to and gathered at the gate of the entrance of the RVH site. They read passages of Indigenous and anti-colonial literature, with the group saying their aim was to reflect on the role McGill has played – and continues
to play – in colonial violence. Candles were placed outside the gated entrance to commemorate the Indigenous graves and to block workers at the site from accessing their cars. However, these candles were “shamelessly kicked aside and stomped on” by militarized police officers carrying batons. Divest adds that the police response to the vigil was “frankly absurd considering the size of the group present.”
Time is running out as the hearing to block the New Vic Project is set to
take place on October 26. The Mohawk Mothers claim they appreciate tokens of solidarity and demonstrations, but they address these demonstrations in the context of the upcoming hearing, writing: “[...] we ask you to be mindful of the dire legal repercussions for us, and the high risk of jeopardizing all the work we have invested for more than one year to obtain an injunction, which could be ruined, as well as the hope of our families to know the truth and get justice.”
“We ask you to be mindful of the dire legal repercussions for us, and the high risk of jeopardizing all the work we have invested for more than one year to obtain an injunction [.]”
-Mohawk MothersEmma Bainbridge | News Multimedia Editor
the sanctions were useless and did more harm to Italians. Additionally, the centre-right coalition dedicated a whole section to “security and illegal immigration” in its unified program. They made “public safety” a priority, as seen with Salvini’s “Italy First (Prima L’Italia)” slogan. Immigration has also been a key part of the campaigns of both Meloni and the leader of the League party; Matteo Salvini has promised to enforce stricter border controls and block boat landings. The party leaders have also encouraged establishing EU-managed centres to evaluate asylum applications before refugees arrive in the EU.
Anna Zavelsky | Coordinating Editor India Mosca News ContributorSome quotations have been translated from Italian.
On July 21, Italian prime min ister Mario Draghi stepped down after 18 months in power. The fall of his govern ment occurred following a confi dence vote in the Senate in which three parties of his coalition –Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S), la Lega, and Forza Italia – refused to give their votes to Draghi. In a speech to the Senate, the outgoing Italian PM justified his resignation by saying that his decision followed “the collapse of the national unity majority that had supported this government since its formation.”’
During his 18 months as prime minister, the former director of the European Central Bank suc ceeded in reinforcing links with his European neighbours, something which has allowed Italy to receive more European financial aid than any country in the EU, and to tack le the economic crisis that followed the pandemic. President Sergio Mattarella dissolved Parliament and called for an early election. The search for new governments has been the norm in Italy, especially in recent years: this is the fourth new Italian government in five years.
On election day, the centre-
right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) obtained 44 per cent of the vote, winning a plurality. This is the first time since the Second World War that a far-right party has won a plurality of the votes in Italy. Meloni’s coalition partner, Matteo Salvini, head of the antiimmigration League (Lega) party won nine per cent, and Forza Italia, led by ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, took eight per cent of the vote. Left-leaning parties, for their part, performed dismally. The centre-left coalition led by Enrico Letta, secretary of the Democratic Party, gathered 26 per cent of the vote, while the Five Star Movement saw its share of vote decrease from 32.7 per cent in the 2018 elections to 15.6 per cent. “Today is a sad day for Italy and Europe,” said Enrico Letta after announcing his resignation in the wake of his party’s loss. In conversation with the Daily, Paolo Levi, correspondent of the National Associated Press Agency (ANSA) in France, explained that “the Italian electoral system rewards who presents a united front” and that “the center-right coalition benefited from the left’s failure to unite.” In other words, the mixed electoral system combining the use of majority and proportional representation benefits coalitions, and the left-wing parties in Italy have failed to find common ground
and offer a unified response to the social, political, and economic crises the country is facing.
Following negotiations between the various right-wing and farright parties and President Sergio Mattarella, who must all agree on the composition of the future government, Giorgia Meloni is likely to become the first woman in the history of Italy to govern the council of ministers. The victory of the Brothers of Italy, which is just ten years old, is a shock for Italy and Europe. The party has experienced a rapid rise in popularity, going from 4.3 per cent of the vote in 2018 to 26 per cent. Paolo Levi explains this rapid emergence to by saying that “Meloni has been very consistent in her political arguments throughout her career.” At 15 years old, she was already an advocate of the rightwing Alleanza Nazionale, and at 31
years old, under the government of Silvio Berlusconi, she became Italy’s youngest minister ever. In addition, the Brothers of Italy, has been a party of opposition for the past ten years. The Daily spoke to an anonymous Italian student at McGill, who states that “Italians want change, the party of Fratelli d’Italia is the only true opposition party, therefore it’s a party of change,” adding that “for many, this was considered as a strategic vote; the left-wing parties today are a dead end.”
Moreover, the coalition touches upon subjects that are close to the daily lives of many Italians – including the economy, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and immigration. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund released a report showing the growth projections in the world’s economic outlook. Italy and Germany are the countries whose economies are expected to be hit hardest in Europe in 2023 – in large part due to their dependence on gas. One of Meloni’s main campaign promises is to reduce Italy’s debt, which is estimated to be over 150 per cent of its GDP. Furthermore, the topic of sanctions in Russia is one of great debate within the centre-right coalition. If Meloni seems to have taken a clear position in favour of helping Ukraine, Salvini has stated on many occasions that
Italy is not the only country in Europe to experience the rising influence of the political right. Six national elections are taking place in EU member states from September to November of this year, some of which are high risk for the unity and efficiency of the EU. Recently, Sweden also saw a breakthrough for the far right in the parliamentary elections with the victory of the Democrats. The stakes of this election are perticularly high since the country will preside over the Council of the EU from 1 January 2023. Andrzej Duda, Victor Orban, and Marine Lepen – all far rightwing and conservative leaders across Europe – congratulated Meloni on her victory. Paolo Levi talked about the implications this election would have for Italy and Europe. He explains, “it is a big gamble for Meloni to go from opposition party to ruling party. Her first big challenge is to present a government that can tackle the multiple crises in Italy and Europe.” Furthermore, since the start of the pandemic, increasing solidarity has been observed in Europe, especially with the decree on the mutualization of debt –“a miraculous agreement, a true promise of brotherhood which brings us back to the initial hopes of the founders of Europe,” says Levi. However, this agreement is conjectural and was pushed by the government. “We need to see if Meloni will continue this mission and try to make it a structural pact,” Levi adds. Because Italy is the largest recipient of the EU’s $800 billion COVID recovery fund, Levi speculates that the country needs the EU to survive. He told the Daily that “Meloni’s patriotism will have to go through the European prism; if she truly wants the best for Italians, she will accept cooperation with Europe.”
The rise of far right-wing parties is a threat to the unity of the EU on which many depend, Europe’s capacity to act as a cohesive group is the only way to efficiently tackle these crises.
This is the first time since the Second World War that a farright party has won a plurality of the votes in Italy.
Last week (of October 16), 12 student groups across socalled Canada held actions to protest banks’ presence on their campuses.
We already know many unsavoury things about our university: that its history is one of slavery and colonialism and that its present is one of investments in fossil fuels. Little attention, however, has been given to McGill’s ongoing alliance with banks, an alliance that is strengthening not only in the administration, but also in faculties, faculty associations, student groups, and our student unions.
The most prevalent bank on our campus is Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). The Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) banks with them, they sponsored frosh for the Faculty of Arts and Science, they are currently sponsoring a class in the Faculty of Management, and they have had a steady presence at career events on campus.
Canada’s largest banks – RBC, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, and TD – are notorious for their ongoing investments in fossil fuel expansion. In the past few years, RBC in particular has come under fire for being a lead financier of the Trans Mountain (TMX) and Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipelines, passing through the territories of Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, respectively, without legitimate consent. RBC is investing $262 billion directly into the fossil fuel industry since signing the Paris Agreement in 2015. They have indicated no signs of slowing their involvement in the fossil fuel sector.
In other words, Canada’s banks are actively funding both climate change and modern day colonialism in Canada, specifically through ongoing Indigenous land dispossession,
denial of Indigenous sovereignty, denying the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous peoples and violating international, Indigenous, and human rights.
For RBC to be investing so much in students, we must be doing something for them. One thing we’re doing, of course, is putting our funds in RBC accounts which RBC then uses to finance projects like TMX and CGL. Another benefit is that we are part of their talent pipeline, which funnels students in their direction in exchange for sponsorships and banking privileges. Furthermore, it is an ethical concern when the SSMU associates with and supports institutions whose values are
opposed to those of the students they supposedly represent.
Students have made their values clear by pushing bills for better climate and solidarity policies such as the Climate Justice Policy (2019), Divest for Human Rights Policy (2021), and Indigenous Solidarity Policy (2021), among others. RBC stands for the exact opposite, regardless of the socially benevolent public image they tirelessly try to maintain.
As students we have unique influence over these corporate giants and we can pressure them to do better. Universities collectively pour billions of dollars into banks (McGill has $13.1 million invested in RBC as of June 2022, more in other banks). They lend an aura of legitimacy to banks’ reputations by
allowing banks to sponsor events and classes at institutions that are respected as pillars of progress, knowledge, and truth.
If universities across the country were to show their displeasure with banks’ practices by threatening to pull their funding from the banks, we would be a force to be reckoned with.
What’s more, we do actually have the option to pull money out of RBC. As of 2021, SSMU had $9 million of investments that could be moved to a credit union (which incorporate members’ voices in their governance structures, typically invest in local businesses, and tend to focus on environmental/social good). This would show big banks like RBC that we mean it when we say we’ll stop being their customers if they
don’t change their practices. Universities and student unions alone may or may not be able to unilaterally pressure banks to pull their money out of fossil fuel expansion and colonial pipelines. We don’t really know. But the good news is that the push for universities and student unions to pull money out of these banks is only one part of a nation-wide strategy to target banks at all levels. Banks’ reputations, shareholders, prospective and current employees, current and future customers, AGMs, and board members are all under pressure from NGOs, grassroots groups, and Land Defenders. With all of these strategies combined, we have the opportunity to force the banks to stop financing climate destruction and colonial violence once and for all.
date and circumstances of the protest are not clear.
*This article comes from The Daily Archives, originally published March 24, 1994. Last week, The Daily published a piece titled “Thousands Gather in Support of Iranian Womens’ Rights” covering the recent protests in response to the killing of 22-year old Mahsa (Jina) Amini by Iran’s “morality police.” The article references this 1994 piece. The Daily wants to highlight the legacy of protest in Iran and the importance of documenting women’s activism.
Although the international press has so far been quiet about the incident, earlier this month an Iranian woman killed herself in a public square, as a protest against the repression of women in Iran.
Shouting “Long live Iran! Death to dictatorship!” Dr. Homa Darabi, a lecturer at the University of Tehran, walked into a public square, doused her body with gasoline and burned herself in the street. The exact
“Fatima”, an Iranian woman living in Montréal, said Darabi’s protest comes after several incidents of political violence against women in Iran.
She said that, some months ago, a woman was shot by the police in a phone booth because she was “not appropriately dressed.”
Women have also been arrested and beaten for infractions like having a lock of hair showing beneath their chador (head cover).
“This policy is purely tactical because every time there is an economic or political problem the government cracks down on women who are not ‘properly’ covered. Hence the population is worried about this instead of more important issues,” said Fatima.
“Alia”, another Iranian woman, agrees. “She didn’t go into her room, lock her door and just leave a note for her family. She did this in a public place so it’s a political act. She wanted to show that women are unhappy politically and socially in Iran.”
In the 1970s, the Americansupported Shah tried to ban chadors, and large numbers of women demonstrated. The 1979 revolution which overthrew the Shah allowed conservative elements in society to gain greater control.
Although the government has praised women for the crucial role they played in overthrowing the Shah, it has since reneged on advances promised during the revolution.
“There are religious women who believe in the chador. That is their opinion and they are respected for it. But the problem is that the government takes away the choice to decide
whether to cover one’s head or not,” said Fatima.
Both Fatima and Alia believe the North American media is aware of Darabi’s action, but so far, except for one spot on the local Persian news, the media in Canada has kept silent.
The Western media is ignoring this incident because they don’t see it as important, says Alia. She feels the Western media is content to hold onto the stereotypical “submissive” image that it has of Iranian women.
eyes of the Western world they seem to be passive, powerless and ignorant. When North American television shows crowds of women wearing the black chador, people here assume that the women are all the sameeducated and complacent wives,” says Fatima.
She says she hopes Darabi’s death will be recognized for the political statement that it was, and that people recognize that the oppression of women is not only taking place in Iran.
And she thinks, if the West really had a commitment to promoting human rights, at least one government would have tried to change the situation of Iranian women.
“Terrorizing Iranian women helps the fundamentalist government’s hold on the people. The women have less freedom and self expression, and in the
“Homa Darabi’s death was a political statement that should not be ignored. Hopefully by giving her life, she may be saving others and it shouldn’t be localized to just Iran. Her line was ‘long live Iran, death to dictatorship!’ The point is the situation for her was getting intolerable. She died for a cause, it was a movement,” says Fatima.
She feels the Western media is content to hold onto the stereotypical “submissive” image that it has of Iranian women.Vishwa Srinivasan | Photos Contributor
The legacy of protest in support of Iranian women
“She did this in a public place so it’s a political act. She wanted to show that women are unhappy political and socially in Iran”
- Anonymous ProtestorPhoto taken at the October 1, 2022 protest
content warning: racism, slavery
“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” It’s a common expression in American political discourse, particularly present in rhetoric that presents self-reliance as the main tool in the fight for financial self-actualization. The concept is simple: to elevate oneself without any external help. This phrase has become part of America’s cultural mythology and the centerpiece of the West’s approach to uplifting the materially or socially disadvantaged. The bootstraps narrative also suggests that wealthy Americans rose to the upper echelons of wealth purely through rugged individualism and discipline. It implies that everyone can achieve the American Dream, even a young Black man from New York’s Marcy Projects. Indeed, the bootstraps narrative is a core theme within the works of Brooklyn-born rapper Jay-Z and symbolizes the idea that Black people can transcend racist systems and achieve liberation through the accumulation of capital. And although resources play a vital role in the amount of power and privilege an individual holds, the accumulation of wealth by any marginalized community will not eliminate or dismantle oppressive systems. Slavery and anti-Black racism have powered and continue to power the systems of American capitalism that exploit the labour of Black people in order to generate a profit. It is because of this that Jay-Z is mistaken when propagating the idea that material emancipation can be reached using these same tools that have marginalized the Black community.
Jay-Z, born Sean Corey Carter, is one of the world’s most successful rappers. He has won a total of ten Grammys and has had more number-one albums than any other solo artist on America’s Billboard chart. Describing himself as fulfilling the American Dream, JayZ’s discography is lined with tracks that document his uphill escape from the New York public housing complex Marcy Projects. He uses the bootstrap narrative to present to his listeners that his journey toward
financial security was fulfilled. In U Don’t Know, Jay-Z makes it clear through boisterous lyrics that his climb up was self-made:
That’s another difference that’s between me and them I smarten up, open the market up […]
You are now lookin’ at one smart Black boy
Mama ain’t raise no fool
Put me anywhere on God’s green earth, I’ll triple my worth, motherfucker
The bootstraps narrative in Jay-Z’s latest album 4:44 is used not only to reflect upon his own personal escape from material scarcity, but also to illustrate how his experiences reflect on the power of how Black entrepreneurship in reparing the societal scars inflicted by slavery and anti-Black racism. The Story of O.J. is the second and most explicitly political track of the album. The chorus recalls how American and Western economies were built by chattel slavery and anti-Black discrimination while being engineered to exclude Black people from thriving within it. In this way, it is a meditation on the inescapability of anti-Black racism regardless of a Black person’s economic status or vocation. Jay-Z is saying that whether you’re rich or poor — you’re still black:
Light n—, dark n—, faux n—, real n— Rich n—, poor n—, house n—, field n— Still n—, still n—
In response, Jay-Z seems to play the role of a financial advisor to the Black community. In the following bars, he showcases the reasons for which he believes Black entrepreneurship paves the way for liberation within the American capitalist structure. The type of liberation presented in The Story of O.J. is one that sees the Black community realize financial success in, what Jay-Z has stated to be, an economic system that has “locked us out.” Notably within the first and second verses, the bootstraps narrative manifests as a call to action for Black
communities to lift themselves out from economic hardship and use that wealth to repair the deep wounds inflicted through American systemic exclusion:
Take your drug money and buy the neighborhood That’s how you rinse it […]
I turned that 2 to a 4, 4 to an 8 I turned my life into a nice first week release date
Y’alloutherestilltakin’advances, huh?
These lyrics demonstrate JayZ’s awareness that the conditions of economic scarcity experienced by marginalized communities are perpetuated through the American economy. However, the way in which he describes the path to emancipation ignores how the mechanisms used to suppress the potential for marginalized communities to achieve upward class mobility are essential to the very model of the economy in which he wishes Black communities to thrive. Societal mechanisms like slavery were essential in America’s transition into industrial capitalism and were codified after its abolition in order to exist today. Modern slavery continues to contribute to the American economy and is protected via the 13th Amendment.
It exists in incarceration camps like Louisiana’s Angola Prison where convicts earn pennies for labour, if any at all. Possessing the highest prison population and
incarceration rate in the world, America possesses a monumental force of unpaid workers who, conveniently, are five times more likely to be Black.
In her essay The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, Audre Lorde argues: “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
The major point of Lorde’s essay is to highlight how it is impossible to solve problems related to systems oppression by working with the tools that were used to establish those very same systems. Racism, white supremecy, the consolidation of power, and slavery are all instruments of the “master” and foundational values upon which most modern workplaces were founded on. In this way, JayZ’s subscription to the bootstraps narrative as a means through which the Black community may achieve financial security seems almost historically revisionist; it ignores the fact that the exploitation of Black people is an essential cornerstone to the systems that allows one to amass capital in the first place. The idea that capitalism and the accumulation of wealth, which are the tools of the “master”, could be used by the oppressed to become liberated is mistaken.
In the recent past, Jay-Z has failed to exemplify the idea that Black billionaires are able to trickledown their influence and wealth to support the financial actualization of the Black community at large. A good example that displays Jay-
Z’s inaction within the realms of utilizing his own capital to uplift the Black community was the legal back-and-forth between Beyoncé and Kelis.
In August, Beyoncé removed an interpolation of Kelis’ song Milkshake from her new song Energy. Kelis, although singing the vocals for Milkshake, never received any money from the revenue generated from the original song. Instead, the rights to Milkshake were attributed to Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. Being credited on Energy, Williams and Hugo were able to profit off of the revenue made by Beyoncé’s interpolation of Kelis’ vocals. However, in the same fashion as what occurred with Milkshake, Kelis was barred from being credited on Energy. Instead of responding to a case in which a Black artist was clearly being alienated from the profits of their labour, Jay-Z remained silent. What is particularly troubling about Jay-Z’s inaction is that he has previously acknowledged the exploitative nature of the music industry within his lyrics. In Moonlight, he says:
Y’all n—s still signin’ deals? Still?
Afteralltheydonestole,forreal?
In failing to agitate the situation or advocate for the rights of those Black artists whose labour was exploited, Jay-Z displays how he is complicit in the systems used to financially marginalize the Black community.
Slavery and anti-Black racism have powered and continue to power the systems of American capitalism that exploit the labour of Black people in order to generate a profit.Hyeyoon Cho | Design Editor
OnWednesday, I made my way to 165 SaintPaul Ouest, where Maktaba Bookshop is located. After struggling to find parking in the heart of Old Port, I sat down with Sundus Abdul Hadi, an artist and the founder of the bookshop, to talk about the space and the role it plays in the community. The bookshop opened this June, and it serves as an alternative to traditional bookstores and large retailers.
Yehia for The McGill Daily (MD): How did you become the owner of Maktaba? What did your path look like?
Sundus Abdul Hadi (SAH): Well, I am an artist and a writer. I put out two books during the pandemic. I entered the world of books as a writer and as a person who is connected to a really beautiful community of writers, readers, and artists. With Maktaba, the idea started with the question: what does it mean to create a space
for us? A space for not just me, Sundus, the artist and the writer, but my greater community. Whether it’s the community of people in Montreal who have been seeking a space where they feel represented, whether as Arabs or as deeply rooted people who want to have a cultural experience rather than just a commercial one. I always say that even though Maktaba is a business,
it is first and foremost an art project and a space – a cultural space.
MD: Can you tell me a little bit about the boutique in general and about this new merch drop?
SAH: The boutique is my husband’s brainchild. Yassin has been making merch for 15 years. Each T-shirt he makes is a conversation-starter. So we wanted to approach the Maktaba boutique
the same way. We wanted to make wearable messages. And with the General Federation of International Women, I felt like we were at a time when we just wanted to be able to show as much solidarity as possible with what’s happening, especially in Iran, but also across cultures where there’s this beautiful show of strength and solidarity for women. That was the approach. The original image behind the drop is from a vinyl record that was gifted to us by the General Federation of Iraqi Women. And we always saw it as a T-shirt. We knew we wanted to do something with it in this way.
We’ve been doing drop chapters. So when we first opened, it was chapter one: Medium of the Message. And the second chapter was Love Language. And the third chapter is the General Federation of International Women. They provide different ways for us to express ourselves and express what Maktaba stands for.
MD: I wanted to ask you about the book selections. There are specific categories and specific books. Are
you the one who picks the books that get showcased?
SAH: Yeah, it was kind of like me channelling my creativity. My creativity came out in how to curate the book selection or how to select it and put it together and how to create a journey for people browsing. So the categories are nontraditional. And so the titles themselves are like food for thought.
I like people to start from right to left. Everything is Political, and that moves us into Black Power, Theory and Thoughts, Palestine, and then Edward Said. The second layer is books about Self Care, Community Care, Self Knowledge, Creative Self, Ancestral Knowledge, and Perspective Shift. So I think the top layer is a lot more political and a lot more theoretical, like the brain. And then the second one is very much about the self, your roots, your ancestry, your body. And then the third one goes into our planet: Indigenous Futures, Magical Realism, Deeply Rooted Fiction, and Octavia’s World.
Our Planet and Indigenous
With Maktaba, the idea started with the question: what does it mean to create a space for us? A space not just for me Sundus, the artist and the writer, but my greater community.
I always say that even though Maktaba is a business it is first and foremost an art project and a space.
- Sundus Abdul HadiPhotos provided by Maktaba Bookshop
Futures are a continuation of the Perspective Shift and Community Care. And then we get into the Deeply Rooted fiction and the books that I’m also very passionate about, which are books that really expand your imagination, that are written by people from what I call deeply rooted communities. So everything from SWANA (Southwest Asian/ North African), Indigenous, and Black communities as far and wide as you can imagine that have ancient cultures. And then the last row covers femme and queer writers. On our table, we have featured books. We have some art and design books and poetry, and we also have books about music and vinyl.
MD: You have a section in the bookstore devoted to Edward Said. What does he mean to you and to the Maktaba?
SAH: If not for Edward Said, Maktaba wouldn’t exist. He’s an OG. He paved the path. He inspired our generation. He inspired me and Yassin. His work impacted our work, the way we see the world, the kind of lens through which we view representation, and the significance of that word.
Because I’m a media studies graduate, and so is Yassin, we’ve always approached the consumption and the proliferation of information and media from an observer’s place. So instead of just taking and consuming the information, cultural theorists like Edward Said basically allow you to take an observer’s position and think about things in a much more complex way. By doing that, it actually simplifies things so much more because you start to see the bigger picture.
MD: We are now sitting in the majlis. Why do you have this space? Why is Maktaba Bookshop not just a bookstore?
SAH: I guess the majlis for me was a really important space to have for many reasons. First of all, it feels like an extension of home for me. It’s something that makes you immediately want to just get cozy, take off your shoes, and sit down. When your seat is very low and close to the ground, I feel like it opens you up in a different way. It just relaxes you. It encourages conversations that are very downto-earth. There’s no pretence about it. That’s number one. Number two: this space is amazing because it can get activated in so many different ways. We have a space to project on the wall for screenings. We’ve had poetry readings here. We’ve had different kinds of gatherings of minds and people. We’re planning a program for the fall and the winter that’s going to just activate the space even more on a regular basis. We have different kinds of workshops planned here. All kinds of different reasons to get people into the space, to connect on different levels.
On a good day, when it’s quiet in the shop, it’s the best place to disconnect from the hustle and the bustle in the city and the routine of your day and just come in here with some reading material. It’s really calming.
For me, it’s an offering. It’s an offering in the same way that opening a bookstore is an offering. Bookselling is a very humble business. I think that’s part of why I’m so attracted to it. It’s an offering for your community and an offering
to create spaces that are comfortable and that encourage community and bring people together, engage them, ignite ideas and creativity and imagination and knowledge of self. That, to me, is the ultimate goal and the best intention to set with Maktaba.
MD: You mentioned earlier that you thought there was a need for this space. Can you elaborate on that?
SAH: I can only speak for myself. As a lover of books and reading, I always struggle to find spaces for books other than, of course, the amazing independent bookshops in Montreal, which for me are the best. And there isn’t a lot here, by the way. We have very few independent bookshops. So when we opened, we received really warm support from other independent bookshops in Montreal, which for me was the best feeling. And it reiterated how humble bookselling is as a business.
But, yeah, what were my choices? Either ordering off Amazon, which I had almost completely stopped doing more than two or three years ago, or going to places like Indigo. Indigo’s founder is also the founder of a charity organisation called Loan Soldiers, where they donate a portion of their proceeds every year to buying books for IDF soldiers. Yeah, I don’t want to donate to that cause.
So you’re kind of stuck in a situation where you want to find your materials and your books and your resources, but you’re limited when it comes to where to get them from. When I decided to open Maktaba, I spent my book royalty money on buying books for the bookshop. I won’t take funding from just anybody.
MD: Personally, I didn’t know I needed a place like Maktaba until it existed.
SAH: Yassin and I always say that, actually, if we had had a place like Maktaba when we were in university, we would have had such a completely different experience. We spent our whole time at university on the sidelines, on the margins, creating our own spaces or having these very insular experiences. So if we had had a place like Maktaba, I wonder what a different experience that would have been. It’s a real privilege for me to be able to offer that to a new generation of young Arabs in Montreal, whether they are at university or not. It’s just been so beautiful seeing people come in here and say exactly what you just said. I didn’t know I needed a place like this.
It’s an offering for your community and an offering to create spaces that are comfortable and that encourage community and bring people together, engage them, ignite ideas and creativity and imagination and knowledge of self.
- Sundus Abdul HadiPhotos provided by Maktaba Bookshop Photos provided by Maktaba Bookshop
