November 2009 Ryerson Free Press

NOV

2009

STUDENTS UNITED From tuition fees to student unemployment, why unity matters for the student movement

NEWS

Mock inquest held into the death of social services

By Danielle Webb, CUP Ontario Bureau Chief TORONTO (CUP) – A row of ten students stood in the cold outside Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, wearing placards identifying key public services that have been affected by the recession, including public health care, employment insurance, and post-secondary education.

As the wind picked up, onlookers cried out in horror as a gleeful Premier Dalton McGuinty and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan slashed all ten services from the Ontario budget. A group of coroners came by to determine the cause of death with explanations such as stolen, under-funded, and high fees.

“This is a shameful day for the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and for the Ontario government,” an organizer yelled out during the coroners’ investigation.

“I’m sorry not all of us have the privileges [McGuinty] did.”

The carcasses of social programs strewn on the Toronto

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sidewalk were not alone, though. In the city of Ottawa, students gathered at the Human Rights Monument to mourn the death of affordable post-secondary education.

“The passing of affordable, high quality post-secondary education is a tragic loss for students and their families.

But with crushing student debts and mounting tuition fees, it really didn’t stand a chance,” said Erik Halliwell, Carleton University Students’ Association president, in a press release.

Shelley Melanson, Canadian Federation of StudentsOntario chairperson and make-believe chief coroner at the Toronto demonstration, emphasized the need to work together.

“The only means to revive Ontario is through collective action and unity,” she said.

“Perhaps if there are enough students, enough workers and enough community members who are willing to push back . . . maybe then we can see the kind of Ontario that we

really need – one that supports Ontarians.”

Student medics were on hand to try and revive the services, illustrating the unity Melanson was calling for.

“We’re working together to build a stronger Ontario,” she said.

The Oct. 29 events were held in preparation for the annual Drop Fees campaign, during which students from across the province rally in protest of the growing cost of tuition and the government’s inaction to produce change.

“We will take to the streets to call on McGuinty and Duncan to reverse their agenda of proposed cuts and prioritize spending in social services and standards that are the fundamental base for a strong and healthy Ontario,” said Melanson.

In a Statistics Canada report released Oct. 20, Ontario was listed as having the highest undergraduate tuition fees in the country, averaging $5,951 annually — a five per cent increase over last year.

Photos by John Bonnar

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Students to Rally on Nov. 5

By Shanelle Kaul

On November 5, Ryerson will be hosting a Day of Action where students will have the chance to call on Premier Dalton McGuinty to invest in a more poverty-free Ontario.

“It’s catching like wildfire,” said Toby Whitfield, RSU’s vice-president of finance and services, as he refers to the Drop Fees Campaign circulating Ontario universities and colleges.

Since 1991, tuition fees in Canada have risen nearly 400 per cent. Being the last year of the current provincial funding framework, students hope to achieve more this year than ever before.

Whitfield says, “As the government is working on re-drafting policies, we want to make sure we can bring our issues to the table so they can come up with new framework which includes lowered tuition fees and more student grants.”

The rally being held on Thursday, November 5 will be leaving Ryerson to join a city-wide

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convergence at the University of Toronto at two o’clock, followed by a march to Queen’s Park.

The Ryerson Students’ Union has been petitioning since early September, and has collected nearly 18,000 signatures to present to Queen’s Park Legislature as well. And with unemployment at an all-time high, especially for youth, the rally hopes to push McGuinty to make changes.

“We have the highest tuition fees in the country, and unless students come together and do something about it, nothing is going to change. This is just one piece of the puzzle. It isn’t going to stop on November 5th. We will continue until students win,” said Whitfield.

Ryerson students are meeting at noon outside of the student centre on Gould street to walk to join other students at the University of Toronto on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Toronto’s Karen Population Welcomes Zoya Phan

By Elizabeth Thipphawong

Representatives of Toronto’s Karen community arrived with anticipation – and in traditional attire – for one of the first in a long series of lectures to be given by Zoya Phan, on October 26 Ryerson’s Communication Centre.

Zoya Phan relocated to the UK as a Karen refugee. She is a political activist and, most recently, an author. Phan’s memoir, entitled Little Daughter for the nickname given to her by her deceased father, Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan (an influential Karen peoples activist), was released in early 2009.

Phan gave half of the address in the Karen language, outlining her upbringing before military invasion and the tragedies and journey that have since followed. For those of us in attendance not familiar with the language, it was a rare opportunity to observe the comfort and dignity bestowed upon the Karen community, unmistakably brought on by the sense of wholeness from such an occasion. The lecture was entirely interactive and felt more like a family gathering than a political assembly.

The Karen people are an ethnic group situated in Southern/Eastern Burma, with many having been internally displaced, as well as externally, primarily to refugee camps in bordering Thailand. As a result of the Military Regime in the nation, the Karen group have found themselves targeted most severely. Phan spoke of the ongoing injustices regarding Aung San Suu Kyi and the devastation of Cyclone Nargis, in addition to the countless disturbing human rights violations that continue to plague the Burma Nation, its people, and the Indigenous peoples.

Through Phan’s work as the International Coordinator for the UK chapter of the Human Rights Organization Burma Campaign (a.k.a.

Burma Campaign UK), a non-governmental organization dedicated to bringing human rights, democracy, and ethical development to Burma and its people, Phan has been able to raise awareness of these issues and bring continued hope to the many displaced peoples internationally. Phan is also Secretary of the Karen Community Association UK, whose mandate seeks to increase awareness of the many issues facing the Karen people internationally. Along with her brothers and sisters, Zoya Phan is a founding member of the Phan foundation, established in memory of her deceased parents, with the goal of preserving the Karen culture through education and awareness. When asked the reasoning for writing her life story, she hoped that, in sharing her experiences, more people can know the truth, and that hopefully these injustices will not continue to be ignored.

Phan and her audience conversed with the genuine vigour and relief of a community brought together through the most brutal of circumstances. Although the tragedies she has endured are distant to many, they were the stories of so many in the room that evening. Phan emphasized the ongoing struggle it is to survive and the relief felt at being able to participate in movements such as this. Yet, her vocation, and that of the people in situations similar to her own, serves a specific purpose: “Our goal is to still, someday, go home.”

Photos by Elizabeth Thipphawong

Ryerson Free Press november 2009 5

Rent soars in community Housing

By Mariana Ionova

The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) relinquished its efforts to increase tenant Edmundo DeSousa’s rent by 30 per cent last month, giving in to pressure from anti-poverty advocates.

The TCHC told DeSousa in a letter that the rent on his market-rent unit in Moss Park would be increased by about one-third to almost 1,300 dollars. The rent hike meant that DeSousa, who was already struggling with unemployment and was on the rent geared to income waitlist, could no longer afford his apartment and would face possible eviction.

DeSousa’s case flung the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), an anti-poverty group, into action and prompted them to plan a protest in front of the TCHC’s head office.

“It’s really quite mind-boggling...to have a state of affairs where a social housing provider, that is actually supposed to be more receptive and attentive to social needs and to be more socially responsible than private landlords, is free to do what they want,” said John Clarke, an organizer for OCAP. While private landlords in Ontario must keep rent increases within the standard 1.8 per cent set by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the TCHC is exempt from this standard and can impose unlimited increases on market rent units. According to OCAP, this gives the TCHC too much freedom.

“It seems that Toronto Community Housing can determine what the market rent is and can impose increases of virtually anything on tenants who live in market-rent units,” said Clarke.

Typically the TCHC reserves the market-rent units for middle-income tenants, who, presumably, can afford the higher prices. But Clarke argues that this is not always the case.

“It may well be that they [tenants] are in a market-rent place and that they economically would qualify for rent geared to income,” said Clarke. “But you can’t simply go on

rent geared to income in a market-rent unit because of your economic circumstances. All you can do is go on the waiting list.”

The apartment building in which DeSousa lives gained some notoriety in April, when Canada Post ceased mail delivery to it for nearly two weeks. Canada Post officials said that “health and safety issues that made it unsafe for the letter carriers who deliver there,” and drew attention to the building’s disintegrating condition. This, according to Clarke, makes DeSousa’s rent hike even more absurd.

“In Edmundo’s case, the amount they were assessing him at was considerably more than larger, newly constructed units that are just going up at nearby locations,” said Clarke.

But the TCHC maintained that it took measures to improve the condition of the building by hiring new cleaning staff and setting “clear staff protocol” that requires stairwells to be cleaned.

The TCHC decided to reset DeSousa’s rent to its original level the day before OCAP’s protest, reimbursing him and apologizing for the increase. In a letter to DeSousa, Community and Housing Unit Manager Bill Ward explained that the raise had been an “accounting mistake.”

“An administrative error resulted in staff incorrectly raising Mr. DeSousa’s rent,” said Kyle Rooks, Media Relations representative for the TCHC. But Clarke was convinced that the rent increase was not an accident.

“We have a deposition letter that he [Ward] sent to Edmundo saying, quite clearly, that as social housing provider, it [TCHC] is exempt from the ministry guideline and saying, quite boldly, that they can do anything they want,” said Clarke. “So there was no mistake—it was very, very deliberate.”

Although DeSousa’s case was resolved, Clarke noted that it is important to consider how many others may be caught in

Poverty criminalization bill goes to first reading in BC

By Kate MacNeill

The policing of homelessness in preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics continues with new legislation brought to a first reading at the BC provincial legislature October 30.

Under the new law, the Assistance to Shelter Act, police would be given the ability to detain individuals living on the street, and force them into shelter during periods of extreme weather.

Extreme weather is defined as any temperature near zero with precipitation, or under two degrees Celsius. The Olympic games are to be held February 12-28, during the coldest and wettest time of the year in Vancouver.

The Act stipulates that, “If a person at risk refuses to comply with or fails to respond to the police officer’s request, the police officer, using reasonable force if necessary, may transport the person at risk to an emergency shelter.” The definition of ‘emergency shelter’ is vague at best, and could be used to justify detainment of homeless

in mental institutions or prisons.

BC Civil Liberties Association Director David Eby argues that the Assistance to Shelter Act “would have police arrest citizens who are not guilty of any crime, and detain them without any charge, simply because they are homeless.”

The criminalization of poverty and homelessness during the lead-up to the Games has been an issue for anti-poverty activists for some time. As early as the fall of 2006, the Vancouver Anti-Poverty Committee occupied vacant buildings and hotels in the downtown to call attention to the growing problem of homelessness caused

by Olympic preparations. Dozens of arrests occurred as a result of these actions.

October 2007 saw a visit by UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari.

Following this visit the UN deemed the situation of homeless in Vancouver a “national emergency.”

The homeless are, however,

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not the only ones bearing the brunt of Olympics hysteria. Anyone who seems to be against the Olympics is also being targeted, as anti-Olympic protesters have come under attack in the leadup to the Games. Civil liberties watchdog groups have recently drawn attention to another proposed by-law amendment that would give municipalities the “temporary” ability to enter properties displaying anti-Olympic signs within any Games area with only 24-hours notice.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games bylaw was passed in June, in an attempt to restrict the “distribution and exhibition of unapproved advertising material and signs in any Olympic area during the Games.”

Three weeks ago, the BC Civil Liberties Association, in support of two activists have filed a lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the “gag order,” “to defend [the] right to distribute material critical of

a similar situation. As the landlord of nearly 60,000 households, the TCHC has a broad impact.

“Toronto Housing is actually the largest landlord in the country so what is happening to the tens of thousands of people in there is a matter of enormous importance,” said Clarke. “I think people should be very concerned about it.”

Some social housing tenants are not as successful as DeSousa in evading rent increases and eviction. One such case was Al Gosling, 82, who was evicted by TCHC several months ago because he could not afford his market rent apartment. He was left homeless and went to a shelter, where he became seriously ill and died. Gosling’s death last month brought on an “independent, third-party review” of his eviction from social housing.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Al Gosling,” said Rooks. “We regret the situation was not solved sooner.”

Rooks added that, in reviewing Gosling’s eviction, the TCHC “seeks advice to improve its organizational procedures and strengthen the broader systemic response to vulnerable tenancies.”

The TCHC also noted that, because most social housing tenants have no other residential option, eviction is not common in the first place.

“Toronto Community Housing recognizes this and commits to working with tenants to ensure that eviction is the very last resort,” said Rooks. “Our eviction rate is less than one per cent. That number is much lower than with private landlords.”

But, according to OCAP, the TCHC, as a social housing provider, must go further and set a more humanistic example.

“We should be living in a society where housing is not considered a market item but as an actual social right,” said Clarke. “We are a long way from that but that has to be the goal.”

the Games during and around the events.”

In order to enforce all the new rules governing anti-Olympic conduct, a significant military presence will also be felt at the Games.

While the Canadian Forces have said they attempt to keep their presence “discreet,” plans for the military, police and security personnel have escalated. The initial estimate of $175 million budgeted for security and surveillance at the 2010 Games has skyrocketed to $1 billion for the RCMP-led Vancouver Integrated Security Unit (ISU).

A massive surveillance system, including closed-circuit cameras, electronic sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles for constant satellite imaging of neighbourhoods will accompany approximately 13,000 troops and private security personnel, to keep a close watch on all Olympic (and anti-Olympic) activities throughout the Games. The extensive use of metal detectors at the 2010 Games, which has even come under attack by officials from the International Olympic Committee, will continue despite protest.

A particularly alarming aspect of the new security measures is the increased interpersonal and electronic surveillance of individuals and organizations deemed as “potentially disruptive.” Organizations and individuals involved in plans to protest the cross-country Torch Relay may also fall under the “surveillance net” of the ISU. Many anti-Olympic protesters involved in the Olympics Resistance Network have already been targeted by members of the ISU, approached for private interviews at their homes and at work.

The Tyee, a BC independent

news source, recently reported that in the case of Chris Shaw, one of the activists involved in the lawsuit against the proposed Vancouver bylaw amendment, constables approached Danika Surm, a friend of Shaw’s, while she was at school.

Other than knowing Shaw, Surm has no association with antiOlympic activities.

The two officers waited for Surm outside a biology class, and were very insistent she speak with them in an empty classroom. After they questioned her regarding Shaw and “his activities and associations,” the officers requested her phone number. Surm refused, but the next day had a voicemail from one of them asking her to call back.

The surveillance and intimidation tactics of the ISU will continue to escalate privacy concerns among watchdog organizations and individuals worried about their own civil liberties. Surm told CBC, “I can tell you that this is actually probably going to do exactly what they didn’t want, which is trigger me to be more interested in making sure we are able to express our feelings in public, in a safe, but you know, an open manner.”

The Surveillance Project, an international research initiative, points towards the Games as a centre of experimentation in surveillance techniques and technologies. Often justified for their “temporary” nature, increased surveillance and security measures are implemented during the leadup to and throughout the Games.

Citizens become adjusted to the heightened security and more tolerant of intrusions to personal privacy, and measures can easily continue once the Games depart.

“I plead Guilty, I’m a Racist.”

No One Is Illegal takes on Jason Kenney at forum

By Omair Quadri People shuffled their way into the packed lecture hall. Some sat on chairs, some on the floor and others perched themselves onto desks as the activist grabbed the microphone.

“Jason Kenney is a vicious racist and a xenophobic Immigration Minister,” he said. “Every time he speaks we hear his lies.”

The activist, Syed Hussan, was speaking at “What’s Wrong With Canada’s Immigration System?” an event organized by No One Is Illegal, an advocate group for immigrant rights. The event, referred to as a “migrant justice assembly” by No One Is Illegal, was held Friday, October 23 at Ryerson’s engineering building.

Hussan was reacting to a statement made by Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney in Montreal. Kenney was confronted by members of the Montreal chapter of No One Is Illegal outside a Conservative McGill event and asked to comment on the news that a Mexican woman, who was twice denied refugee status in Canada, was found murdered in Mexico. When Kenney refused to comment, he was told that his immigration policies punish immigrants and pander to racists to which he sarcastically replied, “I plead guilty, I’m a racist.”

Mexican authorities discovered the body of a 24-year-old woman in June 2009. The woman, identified as Grise (the family has asked the media not to publish her last name for fear of reprisal), along with her mother and sister had twice sought refuge in Canada from Mexican drug traffickers, according to an article in the Toronto Star.

In 2005, their asylum claim was rejected because they had not made enough effort to get help from Mexican authorities, according to Parliament’s Citizenship and Immigration Committee. Facing deportation, the family was forced into hiding.

Grise was deported to Mexico in December 2008. She was kidnapped last March and her body was found in June, according to the Star article.

Tragedies, such as this one, underline the need for refugees to have the right to appeal

when their claims are rejected, said Amina Sherazee, an immigration lawyer. “The Conservative government has effectively stripped away the legal rights of refugees,” she told the audience at the assembly. “These people have no way out. They become helpless.”

Kenney and the Conservative government have slapped strict regulations and restrictions on refugee asylum claims and the appeals process. The government claims too many of these applications are bogus.

The case of Grise is just one example of an immigration system that is becoming xenophobic and too politicized, say advocates of immigrant rights.

Bills C-50 and C-45 have effectively given the immigration minister and immigration officers the right to arbitrarily decide who can stay in the country and who can be deported. An estimated 30,000 people are deported annually from Canada. Eighty per cent of those people are deported from Toronto, according to No One Is Illegal.

The Conservative government has also modified the family reunification program. The changes make it more difficult for immigrants to bring their families to Canada and actually discourage reunification, said Salima Valiani, who writes on political economy and economic development. “The government is in the business of tearing families apart,” she said.

Restrictions have also been placed on migrant workers. Workers from other countries are issued four-year work permits and then deported once the permits expire. In 2008, the government allowed corporations to choose which workers could get new permits and which were to be deported.

“The idea of corporations choosing who is welcome in this country and who is not should be troubling to all Canadians,” said York University political science professor David McNally.

“Minister Kenney claims migrants abuse the generosity of Canada and should be shown the door,” McNally said. “Is this the kind of generosity Canadians pride themselves on?”

U of T contract faculty vote to strike

By Evan Brockest

Inequitable working conditions and low wages have prompted sessional teaching employees at the University of Toronto to vote 70 per cent in favour of a strike.

On November 9, Unit 3 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), local 3902, will enter a legal strike position. They represent contract faculty, teaching assistants, and both writing and music instructors.

The vote to strike follows a period of negotiations with the university that began in late August 2009 when the union addressed the urgent need for improvements in wages, job security, and support for scholarly activity and service.

Dr. Leslie Jermyn, a spokesperson for Unit 3’s bargaining team, says that contract faculty at U of T are among the most underpaid and overworked individuals at the university, despite performing up to 30 per cent of all undergraduate teaching there.

“Not only do we carry a large part of the teaching load at the university,” he said. “On average, our members earn a mere $15,000 a year.”

The current system for hiring sessional teaching employees involves the tender of contracts between the university and employees. This system undermines the job security of contract faculty members who must reapply for their jobs every four to eight months.

“The University of Toronto can’t claim to offer a high quality of education when it treats so many of its teachers like disposable labour,” commented Sandy Hudson, President of the University of Toronto Students’ Union.

“Many students here don’t even realize that not all their instructors are full professors. But quality is compromised when the people who teach them are underpaid and insecure about their employment.”

The media conference announcing the strike date also represented the kick-off of Fair Employment Week, a North America-wide event to address the growing reliance of contract faculty in post-secondary education and the kinds of employment inequities that this generates.

Ryerson Free Press november 2009 7

Battle of Seattle nearly forgotten 10 years later

By Inderjit Bansal

By Brett Throop

Last Monday during question period, in a complete role reversal, the House of Commons fell silent while the public gallery took centre stage as Indigenous, labour and youth activists came together to draw connections between and attention to the tar sands, colonialism, Indigenous rights and the current government’s climate change policy.

Video footage shows Members of Parliament and House Speaker Peter Milliken falling silent as the gallery erupts with shouting.

“The Canadian government needs to sign the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights,” protesters shouted. “The Canadian government needs to sign Bill C-311.”

Canada, along with the US and Australia, has not signed the UN declaration. Meanwhile, First Nations charge that tar sands development is destroying their lands.

NDP-sponsored Bill C-311 would set greenhouse gas reduction targets based on the research of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The bill passed second reading before the House in April; now stalled, it likely won’t be passed before a major UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December.

Activist Jessy Grass noted that the 200 people filling the gallery were Indigenous rights and environmental justice activists who were in Ottawa attending Power Shift, a national youth conference on climate change. Power Shift Canada has, however, been quick to distance itself from the protest

and issued a press release later the same day saying it had not “directed or endorsed the actions.”

The participants included youth (among them high school students), as well as workers (representing unions such as the Canadian Auto Workers), and Indigenous activists.

Many have charged that the protesters were under some direction from the NDP but Grass was quick to emphasize that the protest was organized independently of any political party.

Over the weekend, nearly 1,000 people came together in what Power Shift Canada describes as “the largest ever gathering of young Canadians on climate change in history.”

The conference coincided with the October 24 International Day of Action on Climate Change.

That day saw thousands of events around the world calling for strong government action to curb emissions.

As the Copenhagen conference draws near, environmental organizations intend to keep the pressure on the federal government. More “flash mob Mondays” are being planned each week leading up to the December 17 conference.

That conference will see 150 nations converge to strike a climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

With only a month to go before the conference, consensus seems to be that the final details of a new international climate treaty will not be finalized in Copenha-

gen. Top UN climate official, Yvo de Boer has stated that instead of an agreement he hopes the principles of the deal will at least be agreed upon there.

Environment minister Jim Prentice, who has also stated that a final treaty coming out of the conference is unlikely, will lead Canada’s Copenhagen delegation.

Still, activists at home and even governments abroad are demanding more action from the Canadian government.

A French government paper recently stated, “Canada and the United States need to raise their level of ambition... in order to prevent dangerous effects of climate change,” reported Reuters in June.

Defending his government’s emission reduction targets of 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020, Minister Prentice told Reuters, “We continue to take the position that, given our industrial base, our climate and our geography, these are realistic targets, but they are very ambitious (and) reflect what we are able to do in our country.”

Canada’s targets don’t stack up with those of the European Union, which pledged a 30 per cent reduction below 1990 levels by 2020 if a deal can be struck in Copenhagen.

Major emitters China and the U.S. have yet to commit to targets.

The tar sands are Canada’s single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not planning to attend negotiations in Copenhagen.

United States to lift HIV Entry Ban

By Brett Throop

Announced by President Obama on October 30, the U.S. will lift a 22-year-old entry ban on people living with HIV come January. Until then, that country remains one of a dozen which bars entry to visitors and immigrants living with HIV. In 2008, President Bush signed a bill which eliminated the statutory ban, though it remained in Department of Health and Human Services regulations. A new regulation, eliminating the restrictions Obama called “based on fear rather than fact,” is now being implemented.

“It will also take an effort to end the stigma that has stopped people from getting tested, that has stopped people from facing their own illness and that has sped the spread of this disease for far too long,” Obama said.

According to a 2009 Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) report, the entry

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City on April 2001. Other protests also took place from Melbourne, Australia to London, UK. Then 10 years after the Seattle protest, the world has seen the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, the War in Iraq, almost facing another depression similar to the Great Depression, and most recently electing the first Black American president.

Has this movement made any difference in the world?

Due to the Seattle protest, more people decided to inform themselves about the problems of international trade. Also, finance ministers now needed to defend their policies before the public, rather than having private meetings. Companies needed to start showing awareness of the social impacts of their business operations. NGOs suddenly gained more influence. Also, this protest went as far as changing the policies of trade. More people became interested in the activities of the large global organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Economic Forum, and the large national treasury banks.

In 2005, many of the wealthiest countries moved to cancel the debt of the less-developed countries, causing $1 billion in resources to shift into the southern countries. This money helped build infrastructure, fund education, and better the health care, just to name a few.

The protest in Seattle lasted for about 5 days. It managed to successfully postpone the trade negotiations, prevent the representatives from coming to a conclusion, raise media awareness on these types of organizations, and begin the anti-globalization movement. However, only a few people still remember this protest and it becomes difficult to determine whether this event still affects the everyday people around the world.

Its mark was faded by the other catastrophes we’ve experienced within the short period of ten years.

Correction

Justice activists take parliament

10 years ago, on November 30, 1999, large crowds of people gathered around the World Trade Organization in Seattle to protest and began what is now known as the Battle of Seattle. Within these past ten years, we have witnessed many historic moments, which have quietly buried this event in the eyes of many people.

On that Tuesday ten years ago, there was going to be a summit where negotiations were about to take place on new trade agreements. It was supposed to help increase globalization. However, this meeting was quickly interrupted by the protestors demonstrating against a broad range of issues from the social issues of capitalism to environmental concerns. The basic issue that the people seemed to be concerned with was the domination of the large multinational corporations over working class citizens. They believed that free trade would harm them. Also, many believed that the model of trading is unfair.

Over 50,000 people showed up to protest for their various issues despite the numerous police crackdowns, including hundreds of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Sections of the city needed to be blocked off. Then some decided to turn it into a violent protest where from then it became a state of emergency and law enforcement even considered Martial Law. Armored police cars needed to be called in, officers in riot clothes, and officers on horseback. They used whatever they could from tear gas to arrests to plastic bullets.

Total damages were estimated to be approximately $20 million.

This protest helped spark several anti-capitalist movements around the world. On January 2000, the groups of people arrived at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Sweden.

Then on April 2000 in Washington DC, 10,000 people came to protest during the meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This movement also hit here in Canada in Quebec

ban has contributed to that stigma. “Our report documents the devastating impact of the discriminatory U.S. travel and immigration ban that has for decades contributed to HIV-related stigma and the proliferation of HIV in immigrant communities,” said Marjorie J. Hill, head of GMHC. Using New York City Health Department data, the report concludes that while immigrants have a higher incidence of HIV and AIDS than non-immigrants, they are more likely to contract the disease after entering the U.S. The report’s authors point to both late diagnosis and poor access to healthcare as culprits behind higher rates of HIV/AIDS among immigrants.

In the same announcement, Obama confirmed that The Ryan White Act will be extended. That act provides HIV treatment and support for about 500,000 people.

In “Manufacturing crisis,” published in our last issue, Devon Monkhouse was misidentified as Andrew Monkhouse, his brother. His current student status was also misidentified.

The Ryerson Free Press regrets the error.

Photo: Ben Powless

OPINION “What is prEventing peace?”

Dr. Norman Finkelstein and Palestine

By Salmaan Abdul Hamid Khan

In a span of just six days, Dr. Norman Finkelstein, noted activist and author, with a knack for rubbing Zionists the wrong way, held a seven-city Canadian Tour. Toronto was his fourth stop, and for me and the other 300 or so audience members, a night of emotions, education, insight, and hope.

Not the best speaker in the world, it took some strength to keep me focused on his slow, steady tone, without giving into the urge of closely examining as to whether the lady in front of me was wearing a wig or a dead animal on her head. Nonetheless, Finkelstein did deliver, as he gave a sound and convincing argument on to topic of, “Israel and Palestine: What is Preventing Peace?”

Finkelstein’s main focus was on the use of the words “extremists” and “moderates.” When using these definitions he said, “We are told that it’s the extremists preventing the moderates in the region from achieving a diplomatic resolution.” Who the moderates and extremists really were, was made quite clear as the audience was reminded of: the illegal wall dividing East Jerusalem; the continual growth of illegal settlements; the fact that “apart from the 1948 war of independence, no other war conducted by Israel was out of necessity;” Evidence of Israel’s long history of arbitrarily detaining and torturing Palestinians; the fact that Israel has a much worse track record when it comes to abiding by peace agreements; and a list of countless atrocities and war crimes carried out by the Israeli forces, including the use of human shields during the recent bombardment inflicted upon the residents of the Gaza strip.

In regards to the latter, Finkelstein raised an interesting point as to the ‘label’ used to describe the events between December 27, when Israel began its assault on Gaza, resulting in the immediate deaths of more than 225 Palestinians; past January 11 when Israel started firing white phosphorous bombs on densely-populated Gaza; past January 15, when Israeli shells hit a UN warehouse, setting fire to tonnes of food and medical supplies, as well as three hospitals; to January 21, when Israeli forces finally withdrew from the Gaza strip, after more than 3 weeks, and after the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians. Up to 80 per cent of whom were civilians, with over 300 of them being children. These events he argues are inappropriately labelled as the “Gaza War.” “For something to be described as a war” he said, “there have to be two sides shooting at each other..” To further illustrate his point, Dr. Finkelstein quoted an article by an Israeli strategic

analyst who had written in Haaretz, Israel’s most respected paper, that “it is very dangerous for Israel to believe it won the war when there was no war. In reality, not a single battle was fought… this is not a war. It is not even a real battle.”

What we witnessed instead was a war crime, a destruction of a people, and what Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the president of the UN General Assembly, described as “genocide.”

However, before leaving the audience in such despair, before leaving our minds victim to the truth which is the injustice inflicted upon the Palestinians, an injustice so falsely carried out in the name of the Jewish people, Finkelstein gave us a glimmer of hope. To this he first referred to the Goldstone report. The Goldstone report, formally adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in October, is a detailed account of the 22-day offensive on the Gaza strip, one which outlines numerous incidences where Israel is found guilty of committing serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law.

The report was authored and is headed by Richard Goldstone, who also served as chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal proceedings for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and who is also Zionist by conviction. To this latter fact, Dr.Finkelstein views as a, “disintegration of what used to be called liberal Zionism…being liberal means you believe in the rule of law. You believe in international institutions. You believe in basic human rights…. And what the Goldstone phenomenon testifies is that it’s no longer possible to be liberal and justify the conduct and the behaviour of Israel.” According to Finkelstein, this demise in the equation of Liberal values and Zionism is a stepping stone toward a shift in attitudes in regards to the Zionist state of Israel.

However, not all have viewed the Goldstone report with open arms, as both Israel and the U.S have condemned it as unsound and biased, regardless of who chaired it or how much evidence it holds.

So what future does the Goldstone report hold in establishing some sense of justice in regards to such a volatile issue? I may not be as optimistic as Finkelstein, and in my opinion, one only need to refer to the latest statements made by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu who assured that, “the report will be vetoed if passed before the UN General Assembly.” As well, in response to the latest charges laid against it, much like the school bully who changes the rules of the game so that only he wins, Israel is now pushing to change the laws of war.

Health care in the Great White North As Americans debate the merits of nationalized health care, Norman Otis Richmond reflects on our own system in Canada.

Before coming to Canada in 1967, I honestly knew of only two Canadians: Harry Jerome and Norman Bethune.

Jerome was an African-born in Canada and a world-class sprinter who competed in the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics.

One of my schoolmates from Fremont High School in Los Angeles, Richard Stebbins, competed against Jerome in the 1964 Olympics. At one time in my arrested development, I even believed Jerome was the only Black person in the Great White North.

I knew about Bethune because Chairman Mao Zedong mentioned him in The Quotations of Chairman Mao Zedong.

I must confess many of my neighbours in South Central Los Angeles were aware of Mao, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De and other leaders of the 1949 Chinese Revolution.

Bethune (March 3, 1890-November 12, 1939) was a EuroCanadian doctor in the 1930s who was a pioneer in socialized health care. He also worked in Spain and China to support the struggles against fascism in those countries. He was a medical innovator and developed the first mobile blood-transfusion service in Spain in 1936. Many feel that Bethune is as important to health care in Canada as Tommy Douglas, the father of Canada’s health care system.

Born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Bethune was to the left of Douglas.

“Twenty-five years ago, it was thought contemptible to be called a socialist. Medical reforms, such as limited heath insurance schemes, are not socialized medicine. They are a bastard form of socialism produced by belated humanitarianism out of necessity,” Bethune said at the Symposium on Medical Economics in 1936.

There is a wide body of work both in film and books on the life and times of Bethune. The National Film Board of Canada and Hollywood also have work about him.

Many progressives recommend Ted Allan and Sydney Gordon’s volume, The Scalpel, the Sword: the Story of Doctor Norman Bethune. This work was published in 1952, revised in 1971 and reprinted in 1981. A Canadian film, Bethune: The Making of a Hero, was made in the 1990s.

servers feel that Washington was punished for playing in a film Adrienne Clarkson, a Chinese-Canadian and former Govthat points out the contradictions in the health care system in ernor General of Canada from 1999 to 2005, has attempted to the United States. But he was rewarded for portraying a correpackage Bethune and present him merely as a humanitarian rupt Los Angeles policeman in Training Day. in her new book Extraordinary Canadians Norman Bethune.

The Canadian health care system is clearly more humane But Bethune was for the total transformation of Canadian than the American system. However, all is not well in the society and the world.

Great White North.

I, along with millions who have had children born in A recent report from Member of Parliament Olivia Chow Canada, am in debt to Bethune. My son was born on November 10, 1987. He wasn’t due until March of 1988.

I was preparing for a trip to Africa when he was born prematurely. The child weighed in at one pound, nine ounces or 710 grams. He jumped the gun after only 26-and-a-half weeks. He stayed in Women’s College Hospital until April 4, 1988.

The issue of health care is the most burning question in the United States at the moment.

President Barack Obama is under attack by the right for his stand on health care. President Obama seems to have taken a single payer’s system off the table in the current debate.

Bruce Dixon, Managing Editor of BlackAgendaReport.com, has pointed out: “President Obama seems to have changed his promise from health care to coverage, not care. He’s turned the crusade for health care into a crusade for universal health insurance.”

Norman Bethune (right) operates a Canadian Blood Transfusion When President Obama was a senator from Unit during the Spanish Civil War. Illinois, he spoke forcefully for a single payer (New Democratic Party) revealed: “Presently, four million system and said it should be a human right. Not so in 2009.

Canadians are unable to find a family doctor and nurses President Obama has repeatedly said he is not a socialist. The continue to be overburdened… In fact, each patient that is hard right has repeatedly said that he is a Marxist who follows added beyond a nurse’s capacity increases patient mortality by Karl and not Groucho, Harpo or Chico. seven per cent, while citizens who are unable to find a general However, socialism’s obituary was prematurely written. practitioner go undiagnosed and minor illnesses become lifeVenezuela and other nations have joined Cuba and are opting threatening.” for what they call “21st century socialism.”

Denzel Washington gave a splendid performance in the Please let me know what you think. Email me at film, John Q, which was filmed in Toronto. However, Holnorman.o.richmond@gmail.com. lywood did not reward him for his role in this film. Many ob-

Ryerson Free Press november 2009 9

Unholy Alliance?

Conservatives and ultra-leftists unite against CFS

By Brian Latour

Recently, there has been much hullabaloo about the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) in the student media, as well among the usual suspects over at Maclean’s (here’s hoping the National Post somehow takes Maclean’s down with it). It’s mostly the usual stuff regarding disaffiliation campaigns, but with a twist this time.

The interesting thing is that it doesn’t seem like it is just Tiny Tories anymore. A website titled “Dear CFS” appears to be run by a section of the Montreal radical left which is opposed to the CFS and actively working for disaffiliation campaigns. Signatoried to the letter include Yves Engler, author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy.

As someone who identifies as an anarchist (anarcho-syndicalist if you want to get picky) and proudly carries my red card, yet is also active in my CFS-affiliated student union (to the point where I sometimes catch myself referring to it as “Local 103”).

First, the CFS is far from perfect. Student union bureaucrats, especially at universities which have an active right, a history of right-wing governance, or a hostile student media, often fear conflict which could threaten the prospects of the re-election of a “progressive” slate and the self-preservation of any sort of official progressive politics at a university. They think that everyone is out to get them and to some extent they are right, as evidenced by the exposure of Tiny Tory plots over the years. However, this understandable paranoia can cause sections of the bureaucracy to start to become insular and bureaucratic, which results in some of the issues that we see in our student unions.

Also, despite what it says on my hoodie, there is a difference between the CFS and a student movement. The CFS is a bureaucratic (meant without any negative connotations) mass membership organization, somewhat analogous to labour unions, with elected positions, an office, a big (by activist standards) budget, and a lobbying machine.

While a student movement, where one has any presence, is a grassroots movement of students organizing in their spare time with every student an organizer. And as we all can figure out, a bureaucracy detached from a movement inevitably results in all sorts of

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issues. And perhaps the praxis of the CFS does need a lot of work. This is an organization that needs more organization at the bottom and to move a little from the liberal politics of awareness to the radical politics of disruption and fucking shit up.

All that said, there are things in this supposedly left critique which ignore a number of progressive CFS-led initiatives.

From “Drop Fees” to “No Means No” to “Target Poverty,” it seems as though rather than hijacking campaigns, the CFS is at the forefront of creating and pushing campaigns. I don’t think the CFS attracts bad press to external campaigns it signs on to, if anything, it grants them a bit of legitimacy, resources and muscle, and may generate some positive publicity or an increase in support for the issues on campus. In Manitoba, instead of attempting to co-opt social justice organizing, the CFS and local student unions are the only mass membership organizations really making an effort to mobilize their members or even lend some bureaucratic support for any sort of campaign these days. This might be different over in Montreal, but in my experience, I have seen the CFS take part in campaigns, but I have never seen them attempt to co-opt them.

As for CFS-Services, I don’t see any problem with student-run services, especially under the model they have with CFSServices as a legally separate branch of the CFS. In fact, I would say that students do benefit from some of these services, especially bulk buying and economies of scale.

Incidentally, if I am not mistaken, all of the t-shirts ordered by the CFS or by individual student unions through their bulk buying programs are made by a worker co-op of single mothers in El Salvador – hardly the corporate behemoth that CFS-Services is portrayed as.

Surprisingly. part of the left critique coming out of Montreal is based on the argument that the CFS should stayf out of solidarity campaigns, and focus on “student issues.” This is more offten a common refrain of the right.

Why should this be “deeply problematic”? First off, there are more to “student issues” than just the ones which are seen as

directly affecting students. Attacks on students are just one part of something bigger, capital’s global known as neoliberalism. We should be building coalitions and working in solidarity with people opposing an incredibly brutal intensification of the capitalist system around the world, not dismissing it as “unrepresentative.” The CFS is a civil society organization and a democratic organization of students. Why should it be prevented from taking stances on issues?

Also, copyright is a “student issue” (did I mention I hate this dichotomy of student issues and non-student issues?). We often come across it in our research, and the commodification of knowledge and culture has deep implications for any student doing any sort of research.

Furthermore, the CFS represents a broad cross-section of society – women, LGBT students, students of colour, Aboriginal students, and international students from nations oppressed by global imperialism. It seems a little privileged to argue that the CFS, as their representative, should completely ignore their issues and refuse to take positions in support of their rights, especially given what myself and others have seen about the racist nature of our university.

It also seems awkward to complain about the CFS taking stances on issues such as gender when above the authors are complaining that “While quick to pay lip service to marginalized and disenfranchised communities, evidence of actual progress is hardly forthcoming.” The authors decry the CFS for not making progress, then complain about the CFS taking stands on these issues.

Do they want this acutal progress or not?

It is also absurd to claim that it is inapproprate to claim that the CFS is adopting campaigns such as Palestinian solidarity. I wish the national CFS, my provincial wing, or my local student union did, but they don’t (I wrote about this issue a few months ago). Also, CUPE Ontario and CUPW have voted to endorse the BDS movement against Israel – would it be logically consistent for these activists to also call for a decertification of these unions on that basis? Are they opposed to CUPE Ontario and CUPW’s

endorsement of the BDS movement as well?

Also, as someone who has a bit of experience in the Palestinian solidarity movement, I was under the impression that one of the goals of the BDS movement was to get large organizations to sign on and use their political and economic clout to end apartheid in Israel. It seems absurd to me that any Palestinian solidarity activist would oppose a civil society organization representing hundreds of thousands of students signing on to a BDS campaign. If anything, this only advances the cause and should make genuine Palestinian solidarity activists happy.

Finally, to address the notion that these “matters of urgent importance to all students” are going untouched, that is flat out wrong. It is the absolute height of absurdity to claim that the tuition issue has gone untouched when it is pretty much the biggest thing the CFS has done last year, and the CFS has been routinely and unfairly criticized for focusing too much on tuition.

Has the writer of this document ever seen this?

Some people may say that any “other” issues should be ignored until such time as the CFS has won on all the “core student issues,” but when you are a large civil society organization like a student union or a labour union, solidarity and coalition-building is not something you maybe get around to at some point when everything is peachy, it is something that you make time for. If we all decided to stop doing solidarity work until we’ve sorted out our own issues, no solidarity work would ever get done.

All in all, the CFS is far from perfect and I am sympathetic to genuine left critiques of the organization. And I am very intrigued by radical student federations such as ASSÉ in Quebec. But all that aside, I think we’re better off with the CFS than without. If you’re going to convince me that opposition to the CFS is a left position, you’re going to need a lot more than recycled Tiny Tory talking points and a rejection of any sort of solidarity campaigns.

This is an edited version of an article that was originally posted on the Canadian Dimension blog.

Students need solidarity, not sabotage

By Johan Boyden

The thirteen defederation campaigns against the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) have become a topic of debate beyond the politics pages of the English-speaking Canadian campus press.

From my outlook, this confirms that students are correct to be vigilant against the recent dangerous anti-student developments on campuses.

Those developments have included the attacks on academic freedom and free speech against Palestinian solidarity activists, the heavy-handed approach of many university top administrators to student demonstrations, and the exposure of cross-Canada training workshops with sitting MPs – “how-to” sessions on uniting disparate folks from Zionists and anti-abortion activists against local student unions, Public Interest Research Groups, and the CFS. This, and such things as MP Peter Kent’s interference in the students’ union elections at York University, are a marked escalation of Conservative party anti-student tactics (from mainly offering a secret slush-fund to right-wingers seeking election).

But now the signers of a well-circulated letter (“From the left to the Canadian Federation of Students,” which includes some well-respected activists with integrity) assert that the right is not alone in its disstatisfaction with the CFS. Postings on the anti-student Maclean’s blog also claim it’s the right with some on so-called “left.”

Let’s put aside the fact for a moment that their rallying call – destroying the CFS is more democratic than its continued existence – is as strikingly wrong-headed and ideologically narrow as their strategic evaluation that, to win a stronger student movement, “left” students should unite with forces representing, beneath the astro-turf camouflage, big business’ interests. This discussion will have a lasting impact on the character of the student movement in Canada. It is not idle talk.

Regardless of who is organizing these campaigns, right-wing governments have much to gain by effectively silencing the students; the most organized voice of the youth who are always a dynamic part of any resistance. Working communities are wrestling with an economic wrecking ball, as the recession continues to destroy jobs and families; and we’re footing a billion-dollar bill for an imperialist war in Afghanistan.

That’s why the most favourable scenario in the context of these defederation campaigns is that they fail, amounting to a huge waste of time that took students away from vital campaigning.

The worst case is that students and all the people’s movements become much more vulnerable to attack from the right. In fact, the way forward lies in placing greater emphasis on mobilization and resistance rather than just communications strategies and lobbying – exactly what countless genuine CFS grassroots militants across the country are actually debating and engaging in, with campaigns like Drop Fees.

It is helpful to reflect on the history of struggle for student unity across Canada. Campaigns for greater access to quality, democratic, public postsecondary education, afterall, began well before the elite gilded doors were finally burst open by a post-war influx of veterans (fresh with the memories of Great Depression era-struggles for accessibility of health care, education, unemployment insurance and other social programmes, and united formations of students like the Canadian Youth Congress).

Working people need education like we need medicine.

It is life. It connects us with our ancestors. It preserves our traditions of struggle, our achievements. It defines what and who we are. These demands temporarily corresponded with corporations that required an educated workforce in the 1960s, with a state-funded mass infrastructure expansion of schools, relatively cheap or even zero tuition fees, grants, and expansion of French-language post-secondary education to include scientific and technical training.

To many it appeared that, through struggle, Canada too might obtain the UN Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ important goal: that post-secondary be free in countries which can afford it, by then the case in most European states and almost all socialist countries like the USSR, many of them poorer than Canada. In 1976 Canada signed a UN covenant promising to gradually introduce free education at all levels.

The subsequent neoliberal assault on post-secondary education, however, viciously eroded earmarked federal postsecondary funding, forcing working families to pay for post-secondary through savings and wages, not corporate taxes, and facilitating the plunder of education for corporate profits. But as a recent letter from progressive students in defence of the Federation has noted, the urgent necessity of a federal role in post-secondary has never changed. Rejecting the narrow and flawed framework of Canada’s Constitution (which places education as a provincial matter) students have long fought for a federal-level movement that reflects the multi-national reality of the Canadian state.

Inseparably intertwined in that fight was unity with fellow youth and progressive forces in Canada and around the world (often expressed through the International Union of Students).

As Manitoba student activist Brian Latour has commented, “when you are a large civil society organization like a student union or a labour union, Photo: Joshua Freedman/CUP

solidarity and coalition building is not something you maybe get around to at some point when everything is peachy, it is something that you make time for.”

This unity of the students and their allies was won through countless skirmishes and trench warfare in the battle of ideas over the place and future of education in society. The students were not only poorly equiped, with uneven and limited access to even the basic tools of campaigning like resources for research, publication, education, mobilization, and coordination; they also faced an orchestrated campaign of surveillance, even infiltration by political police in the form of the RCMP and, much later, the CSIS. The shameful complicity of top university administrators, right-wing students and their various organizations (fraternities, campus conservative associations, etc), government and Big Business against the students is well documented. The ruling class and their political parties have even colluded with the ultra-left in trying to divert the efforts of students into limited service delivery and impotent strategies and tactics. But that is not the basis from which student unity flows. The basis lies in students need. The fight for student’s rights is therefore the fundamental purpose of any students’ union.

Thus we see the story of the students’ movement – sometimes misguided, occasionally tragically so, but also brave and noble: the development and then painful demise of the Canadian Union of Students in 1969; the emergence of a militant left pole in the Quebec students movement (ANEQ); re-grouping of the English-Canadian student movement during the 1970s with the National Union of Students later re-named the Canadian Federation of Students in 1981; the deliberate splitting of the left pole in Quebec (producing today’s ASSÉ and the Federations); the deliberate splitting of the CFS during its courageous campaigns of the 1990s (forming the reactionary Canadian Alliance of Student Associations); the magnificent united fights of the Quebec students in 2005.

If there were not progressive central student organizations, we would have to create them.

Certainly criticism can be made of the CFS – it is not all sorts of blemishes and defects. There are real problems, so let’s get to work to solve them. The desire for unity amongst people’s movements is not accidental, nor can it be permanently extinguished. Because of our common interests against Big Business, this desire constantly finds renewed expression and depth, even in the face of major setbacks.

As others have noted, those claiming the Federation can’t be reformed and must be destroyed have to face the objective necessity for students to have a cross-Canada organization to advance their rights to more accessible, quality and democratic education, student aid, housing, affordable transit, well paid and meaningful work, healthcare, peace, and many other causes. Indeed, apart from organization, what other power do students have?

And that’s a damn good reason for keeping and strengthening the Canadian Federation of Students – not only for our generation but generations to come.

Ryerson Free Press november 2009 11

Does Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

Yes.

Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Desmond Tutu…and Barack Obama: even though you may be thinking “one of these things is not like the other,” all the names on this list have one thing in common. All are Nobel Peace Prize winners.

There is no doubt that US President Barack Obama is a very well-liked and respected man, both in America and around the world, but news that he was named the latest recipient of the prize threw a lot of people for a loop. The general consensus seemed to be that this was all way too soon and that Obama hadn’t really done anything this early in his presidency to deserve such a great honour.

But is that really true?

If I had to be honest, and go against the grain, I’m not really sure that I agree with the “he-hasn’t-doneanything-to-deserve-it” commentary.

There is now so much more communication, multilateralism and sincere effort coming from the White House than when George Bush was president that all the comments about Obama not doing anything yet don’t really make sense. Heck, it wasn’t just America that was celebrating when he won the election last November.

There seemed to be a global party around the world when that happened, and it doesn’t seem as if there are as many people willing to admit that they dislike America ever since

By Sara Torvik

Obama came into office. That’s a step in the right direction, if you ask me.

To add to it, the Nobel Committee has also specifically cited Obama’s denuclearization effort, which is pretty huge. I am well aware that Obama is probably not going to save the world and that the United States is still in the midst of two wars but I have to appreciate his trying: a) not to antagonize the entire planet and b) to encourage countries to put down the nukes, his included.

Now that he has the Nobel Prize in his hands hopefully that will inspire him to keep doing things that are good for America and the rest of the world over the course of his presidency instead of getting lazy or apathetic later on.

According to the Associated Press, there are many misconceptions about the Nobel Prize, including the idea that it is always awarded to people who have made successful efforts for peace, human rights and democracy. More often than not, according to the website, the prize is awarded to “encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments.”

Sounds like they knew exactly what they were doing when they gave it to President Obama.

Do you think Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize? Let us know what you think. Email opinions@ryersonfreepress.ca.

Maybe...

By Sachin Seth

President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Some are ecstatic, some are confused and some are overcome with anger.

I thought it was an odd decision. Especially given the other nominees which include the Cluster Munition Coalition, a group that strives to clean up cluster bombs and decrease accidental civilian war deaths and Dr. Denis Mukwege, an inspired young Congolese physician who opened a hospital to treat female victims of sexual abuse.

Inspiring, to say the least. Deserving candidates, no doubt.

And then there’s the victor, Barack Obama. A Harvard law school graduate, community organizer, civil rights lawyer, law professor, junior senator and president of the most “powerful” country in the world. A stunning resume, but where are the accomplishments?

The peace work, the advocacy, the results?

That’s what so many are asking. What so many are wondering. And while I, a supporter of Obama, do not think he deserved the award based solely on his accomplishments to date, I do believe the award was given for a reason, and a just, sane reason at that.

Now hear me out. Obama won the prize not just for what he has achieved in less than 10 months (which is quite a bit if you look at it with an open mind) but for how he changed the game and reshaped the face of a nation so hated and demonized for so many years. For the potential of peace on a plethora of fronts.

Obama is in the process of sewing together the gaping wound that is America’s international reputation; not an easy feat. It’s something that no other modern Democratic or Republican candidate could do in two terms, let alone a quarter of one.

The fact that the Norway-based commit-

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tee stressed it made the prize decision based on Obama’s efforts to date was a little strange. I don’t really believe that to be the case, nor does anyone else, even the hardest and strongest Obama supporters. Obama doesn’t believe it either, rightfully so.

Strengthening the international reputation of the most “powerful”nation in the world contributes to peace in many ways. His efforts toward nuclear disarmament are commendable. His decision to end the missile-defence system in Poland led to strengthened ties with Russia, a nuclear powerhouse. His administration has striven for peace with India, another nuclear nation.

His efforts to strengthen relationships and mend ties between Americans and Muslims was politically risky, but so right and groundbreaking morally.

His confusion on Afghanistan is warranted, no one knows what the hell is needed there, and the answer given (”more troops”) isn’t a surprising one. But he’s taking his time and not rushing.

Some view him as the “do-nothing” president or the president of “inaction.” I view him thoughtful and rational, and I’d rather he take weeks to decide the fate of thousands of American soldiers than make a quick decision (like the last guy) and put so many soldiers in harm’s way just because of political pressure from both sides of the spectrum, without thinking it through and weighing the options. That’s called reasoning.

His no-nonsense discussions with Iran, without preconditions, a proposition he was so ridiculed for during his campaign, showed the world he is committed to nuclear disarmament and a more peaceful Mid-East.

His speech in Cairo, though predictable,

reaffirmed that idea. His quoting the Qu’ran was a great way to connect with an overwhelmingly large global group so alienated by American ideological extremists.

We elected him for that reason. Because he’s intelligent, thoughtful, peaceful, multiracial and ambitious. It’s been less than a year. How many ambitions are achieved in 10 months? None. But the path to realizing those ambitions has been laid.

Oz Let me make it a bit clearer by using a crude but wonderfully applicable analogy.

Think of Obama as Dorothy and his path to peace as the yellow brick road. When Obama crash landed in the White House after a whirlwind electoral campaign, he was curious, ambitious, excited and ready to overhaul the system. Soon he realized that that’s not possible, at least not as quick as he thought.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of people to please and political and social hurdles to vault.

Just as the Afghanistan war became more brutal and a reassessing of the plan was needed (just as Dorothy tried to find out from the munchkins how she could get back to Kansas), Obama was given hope, something he’d given, in abundance, to millions around the world.

The Peace Prize committee are the munchkins, they are Glinda (the good witch).

They gave Obama direction, thanked him for his bravery and pushed him, inspired him (as he inspired us) to continue his work. To keep on going. After all, he doesn’t want to be the guy who won the prize and did nothing to deserve it. And no, he’s not already that guy.

There will be obstacles (the wicked witch, the fake Wizard of Oz) however Obama/Doro-

thy prevail in the end, defeating the evils that stand in their ways. Yes you can think he was awarded prematurely, but only if you view the award as something given only for hard results.

More results will come, the award is faith in that.

In fact, the award was also given because he’s changed the world’s mood. He’s made global citizens happier and more tolerant in times of economic uncertainty, global racially charged fear, terrorism and war.

However there are many who wonder if Obama’s ego has been so inflated that he believes himself the saviour of America and the world.

But to those of you who ask that, I ask why is he so “humbled” by the award? Why is it the man, the president, started off his acceptance and justification speech by talking about his two children? Yes, he has speech writers, but only he heard what his kids said that morning. And he remembered.

Yes Obama is a little egotistical, he is, after all, the president. But don’t forget, we gave him that ego (see: road to ‘08 election).

Finally, for those who believe Obama didn’t deserve this prize, you hold a valid view.

I too believe Dr. Mukwege or the Cluster Munition Coalition deserve an award of recognition for peace work.

My argument is that Obama’s victory isn’t unwarranted or undeserving. His accomplishments to date are impressive, his future is full of possibilities and the peace prize was awarded to him by a panel “instructed to encourage international co-operation, arms reduction and acts of engagement” for his initiative and to ensure he keeps working towards his, and our, ultimate goal.

Peace.

FEATURES Student debt?

Only in North America!

Ontario students now pay the highest tuition in Canada. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

By Nicole Brewer

W

hen I was strolling through the clothing section of Ryerson’s store, I found a shirt that said “My kids and my money go to Ryerson University.” It had the desired effect, and I giggled silently to myself. This was one of those situations when it’s funny because it’s true. But when you find yourself in thousands of dollars of debt, the truth is that it’s no laughing matter. I am paying almost $6,000 this year in tuition and fees, more than any other firstyear student in my program before me, and statistically the education I’m receiving isn’t any better. Any improvement in the curriculum has come from evolution and dedication, not more resources, leaving the hike in tuition unnecessary and unfair.

Maybe it’s just me being oldfashioned, but education really seems like something that should be accessible by ability, not by finances. When the cost of living is combined with tuition and fees, many students simply cannot afford a post-secondary education, whether they meet the requirements or not. A limited number of scholarships are given to those who soar above and beyond the require-

ments of their institute of choice, but even those scholarships are only given out to a handful of students, and they rarely cover the cost of tuition.

For those students who have to take out loans, the stress of university is increased by the pressure of having a loan gathering interest in the background while you’re busy studying for your ten mid-terms.

Tuition-free universities and colleges are scattered all around Europe in France, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Finland, and Ireland. In South America, Brazil still offers free tuition. Even certain colleges in the United States provide free education, and still tuition fees in Canada rise year after year.

Just five years ago, it cost only $4,800 for the very same program I’m enrolled in today. Some say that tuition costs should rise with inflation, but according to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), in 2008, tuition fees were almost 1.5 times more expensive than they would have been had they only been increased by inflation since 1995.

A report put out by Statistics Canada on October 20 found that Ontario’s tuition fees are now the highest in the country, despite

PHOTO: MEDMOISELLE T/FLICKR

having the most government funding. The same report showed that students enrolled in undergraduate programs this year faced the same 3.6 per cent increase in tuition fees as they did last year, even though last year there was a 3.5 per cent inflation rise to match the tuition’s rise in cost, compared to this year’s 0.8 per cent decline.

Clearly there is more to the hike in fees than just inflation: two decades ago, 82 per cent of university and college operating funds were covered by public funding from provincial and federal governments, compared to a mere 57 per cent in 2007, as shown in a report from the CFS. Now, I wouldn’t go so

far as to accuse the Canadian government of squandering our money (it would hardly be fair, since I can hardly keep to a budget for myself, let alone a country), and in a lot of ways we Canadians are doing pretty darn well for ourselves.

What good is it, though, if the post-secondary education we do offer is only available to those who can afford it?

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) recently won a major battle with the government regarding tuition fees: since the mid 90s, Ireland has given university and college students free tuition, and the government was hoping to reintroduce fees. The system which

The stress of university is increased by the pressure of knowing your loan is gathering interest while you’re trying to study for your ten mid-terms.

enables free tuition is called the free fees scheme, and taxpayers “pick up the tab” for education, which costs the government nearly $505 million.

Thanks to Ireland’s free fees scheme, participation rates at college and universities have soared, with 72 per cent of people in the country having received post-secondary education.

Free tuition may seem like the perfect solution, but since it’s not foreseeable in the near future, what we need to realize is that a degree doesn’t need to cost $20,000 to be credible. Even in Quebec, tuition fees are almost half what they are in Ontario. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: “higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”

And let’s be honest: higher education costing $6,000 per year is not equally accessible to all. Postsecondary education doesn’t need to lower its standards to be rightfriendly, just its prices.

Join the movement to drop fees.

Contact your student union for more information: info@mycesar. org or volunteer@rsuonline.ca.

Ryerson Free Press november 2009 13

uP your alley?

Toronto’s grid of laneways offers a ‘hidden oasis’ in the heart of the city

By Otiena Ellwand the City’s hidden grid has made a regular appearance on CbC thanks to rick Mercer. During Mercer’s political rant segment, he marches up and down the graffiti-covered alleyways off of queen street West, between spadina avenue and bathurst street. the edgy alleyways provide the perfect contrast to the elite political world that Mercer rants about. back alleys were built for delivery trucks and garages, but if you grew up in the city, you may know them better as the jungle of your childhood.

For children and teens, the alley was the notorious place to escape cars and the prying eyes of parents. a forgotten world of unkempt garages painted outrageous hues of fuchsia and turquoise, the broken-down fences and garbage treasures encouraged the imagination to roam wild. alley-ways contain all sorts of stories. though the movies make us fear them, we continue to be drawn in because there is something mysterious hidden there. If you just take a peek, you might find something good, tasty even. like the food at Jamie kennedy’s Gilead Café. tucked away in an alley off of king street East, just east of Parliament street, the space was originally purchased because of its capacity to hold a huge kitchen for kennedy’s catering business. a year and-a-half ago, the café was born. It may seem risky to put a food establishment in a hard-to-find nook, but at lunchtime, there’s a steady stream of customers ready to dish $10 or more on a gourmet lunch.

It was the Toronto Star’s architecture critic, Christopher hume, who told me about the Gilead Café, claiming it to be the perfect example of what we should do with the “great, unused urban resources in the downtown core”. “alley-ways are part of the city, but slightly separate… they’re small, intimate and quiet,” says hume. “but the way we treat alleys is to ignore them; we fail to be innovative and see how they can work.” hume isn’t just talking about building more cafés in alleyways. he’s got a bigger issue in mind—where do you put more people in a city when you have limited space? the City’s solution is to build vertical monsters instead of getting creative.

“In the 21st century, alley-way housing has never made more sense,” says hume. “We need a new culture that will try to figure out how to make things work… the suburban ideal doesn’t make any sense. People want to be in the cities, where things are happening… the park is your backyard,” says hume.

Joe Pantalone, toronto’s Deputy Mayor and City Councillor for trinity-spadina, has other ideas.

“We have enough space to house the growing population for the next 20 years without turning peoples’ garages into housing units,” he says. he obviously hasn’t seen Elena soni’s laneway house. the 200-year-old former blacksmith’s shop recently won a toronto Urban Design award for Excellence. soni had her eye on the property for 20 years and finally purchased it three years ago. “there was just something about it,” she said. “here [in this alley-way] you forget you are in the middle of the city, and it is literally a block away from yonge street… It’s a peaceful oasis.”

What she didn’t bargain for was the bureaucracy that went with getting her house renovated.

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“It took about a year to convince the City it was okay and we weren’t going to endanger anyone’s lives,” says soni. then there was finding the right architects for the job… they chose superkül inc architect, a firm known for building in tight spaces.

“I think it is interesting to build in alleyways, to make something fit…” says Meg Graham, the Principal of superkül inc. architect. “It was like doing surgery. Usually you knock something down and start fresh, with a blank slate, but with this we had an existing building which we had to put back piece-by-piece. It was a surgical renovation and that’s what distinguished it from the average project,” says Graham, who says that these types of projects are rare.

Graham points out that alleyway housing poses a few potential problems: it’s difficult to service these houses because the trucks that collect our garbage and deal with emergencies are too big to fit down them, there are privacy concerns with houses facing some peoples’ backyards, and there’s not much room to manoeuver during construction, obstructing others’ access to the laneway. “the City has an obligation to make sure every resident has the right to the same services. there is no room for sidewalks [in alleyways] and they are not safe. there is more activity on streets,” Pantalone says. but wouldn’t alleyways become safer with more houses facing onto them, looking in? soni thinks that, “the only way the City can grow in a responsible way without towers going up everywhere [is to work with alleyways]… there’s a terrific network of laneways that should be explored and used. sending everyone to the suburbs is a very irresponsible thing to do. there is still unused space in the core of the city, so why exile them to the ‘burbs?”

Pantalone argues that, “[alley-way housing] would change the urban form, and what does it do to a particular neighbourhood if you have a hodge-podge?” toronto’s quest to be a world-class city, recognized for its daring architecture, stops with Daniel libeskind’s Crystal at the royal ontario Museum and Frank Gehry’s redesign of the art Gallery of ontario. these architectural thrillers led citizens to hope that uniquely designed residential neighbourhoods were next, but unfortunately hopes are being quashed by narrow-minded traditionalism.

In lisa rochon’s article about toronto in the “how to build a Great City” issue of Azure magazine, she writes, “Even today, [toronto] relies on systems of convention such as neo-victorian infill and clunky suburban housing—polite architectural dress that would have received a curt nod of the queen.”

Pantalone seems to think this is the way to continue. “[housing in alley-ways would have an] impact on toronto’s typical urban fabric, of street, front yard, house, backyard and then laneway,” he says. and so the alleyway’s charms remain a secret, but for a few. Maybe those who currently live in alleyway dwellings would be smart to keep it that way; keeping alley-ways the venue for subversive political rants, rather than political correctness.

To see more photos of the Laneway House, visit http://superkul.ca/projects/40-r-laneway-house.

PHOTO: Dan Rios

Ryerson Free Press november 2009 15

h1n1 virus: another Product of caPitalisM Thomas Garti examines the role of neoliberalism and the capitalist system in creating the conditions for global pandemics.

A new strAin of influenza virus continues to spread around the world, sparking fears of a deadly pandemic. Mainstream accounts paint a contradictory picture combining apathy and apocalypse.

Influenza has always been with us, yet suddenly there is a new hybrid strain.

Most seasonal outbreaks are mild, yet in 1918 a pandemic wiped out 50 million people. Most of the current cases are mild, yet it began with a high mortality rate in Mexico. and people continue to die in Canada. two dominant responses are forming to explain and deal with this confusion, one blaming the virus and the other blaming those affected. according to an epidemiologist at the Us Centre for Disease Control, “influenza is unpredictable. there are so many unanswered questions. “this is a brand new virus. there’s so much we don’t know about the human infections with this virus.” the only solution from the medical perspective is to wash our hands while we wait for drug companies to produce antivirals.

Meanwhile, governments initially lashed out at Mexicans. Egypt began slaughtering its entire pig population, and Canada is threatening trade wars with anyone who refuses our pork. China quarantined Mexican nationals, the right-wing in the Us is blaming “illegal immigrants,” and stephen harper labeled the new virus “Mexican flu.”.

Clearly a different approach is needed to understand this complex and contradictory situation, one which rejects reductionist theories, and empowers people to confront this latest crisis. influenzA a hundred and twenty-five years ago, Friedrich Engels published a groundbreaking book, Dialectics of Nature. building on the evolutionary theories of Darwin, Engels showed that all aspects of nature are interconnected and in a constant state of change, driven by internal contradictions. humans emerged from nature, and we change it through our collective labour; this, in turn, changes us. at certain points, small quantitative changes can produce qualitative changes—heating water leading to evaporation, mutations leading to new species, or strikes leading to a revolution. this scientific method of dialectics is a helpful framework to understand influenza, both at the level of the virus and as it relates to society. the virus does not exist in isolation, but is interconnected with humans and animals, using our cells for replication. the virus is internally contradictory because it has no proofreading mechanism for replication, making it incredibly unstable and in a constant state of change—producing new strains by mutating or incorporating genes of the animal it infects. these changes are usually minor (called antigenic drift), leading to seasonal flu for which humans have an acquired immunity. but occasionally a small change produces a profoundly different strain that humans have never seen (called antigenic shift), and for which our immune systems are not prepared. this can produce a pandemic, but it is not the only factor. a pandemic is by definition a social event, and cannot be explained purely by virology. the impact of a particular influenza strain is determined by natural and social conditions, which humanity shapes. First, like other evolving species, the success of the resulting strains is determined—or selected for—by material conditions. so under normal conditions, highly lethal strains extinguish their hosts and themselves before they are able to spread. secondly, the mortality rate of a pandemic is partially determined by the health of the population affected, and this itself is determined by social and economic conditions.

1918 flu pAndemiC Fears of the 1918 flu pandemic are based on not only its horrific death toll but also the perception that it appeared to have come out of nowhere. In 1918 the Journal of the American Medical Association described the dire conditions facing humanity: “the year 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked, the end at last for a time, of man’s destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings.

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“Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. now, it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all—infectious disease.”

It takes great effort to not see a link between these two, but the reductionist view that dominates science—seeing nature existing outside humanity and exerting a one-sided interaction with us—does just that. on the other hand, a dialectical view would see the emergence of the pandemic as a process resulting from the interaction the virus and human society at that time. an imperialist war forced millions of people, and millions of livestock to feed them, into overcrowded trenches—giving influenza a huge selection of genes to swap, facilitating antigenic shift. Deadly strains that ordinarily would have died out before finding a new host had ample opportunity to infect others and proliferate. the emerging strain found people weakened by not only four years of world war but also the oppressive conditions of colonialism—half those killed were the poor of India, and the mortality rate of First nations people in Canada was five times the non-aboriginal population. the Great War selected for the Great Epidemic.

AviAn flu What industrialized war did for the 1918 flu, industrialized agriculture has done for avian flu—producing episodic outbreaks since 1997. rapid turnover of millions of chickens selects for viruses that must spread quickly if they are to survive. a high density of chickens maintains deadly strains that would ordinary kill its host before finding another. the decreasing biodiversity of poultry means a severe strain can wipe out an entire group. the mixture of chicken genes and pig genes—either through a mixture of manure in concentrated factories, or the incorporation of poultry parts into animal feed—increases the chance of antigenic shift. the world only avoided an avian influenza pandemic through luck and a massive slaughter of 100 million animals, since the pharmaceutical industry is not interested in unprofitable vaccines. as the World health organization’s flu expert stated: “the market has failed here to drive companies into research.”

In the Us, government funding for vaccines was diverted into hypothetic threats of bioterror as part of the Iraq War campaign, leaving one official lamenting: “It’s too bad saddam hussein’s not behind influenza.” Meanwhile, the only source of tamiflu, an antiviral to treat the flu, is one swiss factory owned by pharmaceutical giant roche, which refuses to relinquish the patent.

Perhaps the drug companies will start to see flu as a growth industry. according to evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald: “We will continue to get severe influenza epidemics in chicken farms so long as the conditions in chicken farms, like the conditions at the Western Front, allow transmission from immobile chickens. this prediction has been confirmed by the lethal outbreaks in asia and in Mexico. anyone who dismisses this analysis as speculation does not understand how the scientific process works.” nAftA flu since the emergence of avian flu, the global response has focused on studying its genetics, while ignoring conditions that led to it. now a new influenza epidemic has emerged in veracruz, near a farm jointly run by the Us giant smithfield Foods. on his blog Farming Pathogens, Professor robert Wallace explains the cause of “swine flu:” “Pigs have very little to do with how influenza emerges. they didn’t organize themselves into cities of thousands of immuno-compromised pigs. they don’t ship themselves thousands of miles by truck, train or air. Pigs do not naturally fly. the onus must be placed on the decisions we humans made to organize them this way. “and when we say ‘we’, let’s be clear, we’re talking how agribusinesses have organized pigs and poultry. although considerable attention is being paid to the role of a particular company in the emergence of the new influenza, and rightfully so, we might better focus on the deregulation that allowed such porcinopolies to grow to the point that whole human communities are pushed off the land pigs now occupy. “so if we are to impart responsibility where it should lay, north america’s new influenza would be better called the naFta flu.”

In addition to its effects on pigs, naFta led to an epidemic of poverty, sweatshops, and pollution—conditions that weaken people’s immune systems and contribute to a higher mortality rate. sArs virus Canada was founded on epidemics, which combined with colonization to produce genocide. history books speak of “virgin soil epidemics,” attributing the decimation of the First nations population to their lack of prior exposure to European diseases. but this

reductionist view ignores the role played by colonization in weakening immune systems through physical, economic, and cultural violence.

In the past decade, neoliberal policies have produced a series of epidemics. In 2000, seven Canadians in Walkerton died from drinking water contaminated with manure. the tory government of Mike harris had cut and contracted out water inspection facilities, laying the groundwork for an epidemic of E. Coli.

In 2003, the sars virus killed 44 in toronto. While its emergence was a surprise, its devastating effects were tragically predictable. as a member of the sars containment team wrote at the time: “It’s been very clear to us that we were going to have to pay for the public health dismantling that has happened under the provincial and municipal governments.” last year, an epidemic of listeria emerged at Maple leaf Foods. In a refreshing departure from a reductionist view of health, the Canadian Medical Association Journal connected biology with society: “listeria is the biological agent, cold cuts the vector, but the ultimate cause may be found in risky government decisions… and listeriosis may be the least of it. “the same 2007 Cabinet decision that handed self-inspection to the owners of meat plants did the same for operators of animal feed mills and cut back the avian influenza preparedness program. “yet bad animal feed led to the epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalitis (mad cow disease), and in an influenza pandemic tens of thousands of Canadians may die.” resistAnCe the latest influenza pandemic is a dramatic reminder that humans and nature are interconnected through our labour. as Engels wrote: “let us not flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human conquest over nature. For each such conquest takes its revenge on us. “at every step, we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside of nature—that we, with flesh, blood, and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other beings of being able to know and correctly apply its laws.” the current influenza pandemic might be mild, but it will continue to change. While we have no control over what random mutations influenza makes, we can control the concentration of animals and humans with which it interacts, the conditions that select which strains predominate, the health of those affected, and the availability of vaccines and antivirals.

Influenza is shaped by our interaction with nature, but it appears as an outside force menacing us—against which drugs and hand washing are the only solutions—because we have no control over this interaction.

Instead, it is in the hands of a profit-driven minority maximizing the possibility of a deadly pandemic—cramming a monoculture of animals together to defecate and feed on each other, dismantling public health infrastructure, and denying access to medicine through patent laws. the recession will exacerbate these trends through increased poverty, cuts to health care, and streamlining of pharmaceutical research. this January, the largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, announced it was laying off 800 of its scientists and narrowing its focus to six diseases, none of them infections. at home, harper plans on spending $490 billion on Canada’s military budget, while his government (which includes three members of the harris government that gave us E. coli) has cut and deregulated food safety infrastructure, giving us listeria. he supports naFta policies that promoted influenza, cut funding from government programs to detect it, and has attempted to scapegoats Mexicans to distract from all this. but collective struggle can change the world and our relationship with nature. Working-class resistance in Engels’ time won housing and sanitation that reduced epidemics of tuberculosis and cholera. revolution ended the war in 1918 and dismantled the trenches that influenza had used to incubate. the Canadian labour movement fought for the establishment of Medicare and continues to fight for national pharmacare. south african activists led a global movement that defeated a pharmaceutical lawsuit against access to generic hIv drugs. the flu crisis is related to the economic and environmental crises, and they have a common solution: for ordinary people to win democratic control of production, so we can restore our interaction with nature under conscious collective control.

This article first appeared in socialist Worker issue 506, May 2009: http://www.socialist. ca/En/SW2009/SocialistWorker506/06-Swine_flu.htm

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november 2009

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Venezuela’s classical music revolution takes Toronto by storm Young classical superstars set a new standard that combines artistic excellence with a social conscience.

By Robin Breon The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (SBYO) of Venezuela has taken Toronto by storm. In a whirlwind of events in late October, the founder and leading spirit of the orchestra, Jose Antonio Abreu, was in town to accept the $50,000 Glenn Gould Prize, whose past recipients have included the likes of Oscar Peterson, Yehudi Menuhin and Pierre Boulez.

The renowned music educator, whose broad based “classless” teaching pedagogy, known as “El Sistema,” relies heavily on recruiting young people from the poor and disadvantaged barrios of Venezuelan society, said he would accept the award on one condition— if he could bring his entire orchestra with him to Toronto. Well not quite the whole outfit.

There are over 200 musicians in the orchestra of which 180 made the trip—their first performance in North America.

The maestro has donated his entire award to the orchestra and the amount was then tripled by Yamaha Canada translating

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into $150,000 worth of new musical instruments.

And to top it off, the wunderkind graduate of El Sistema, 28 year-old Gustavo Dudamel (whose debut last month as the new music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has electrified the classical music world) flew into town to direct the orchestra at the award ceremonies held in the Four Season’s Centre for the Performing Arts.

The following day saw the SBYO perform for 15,000 Ontario high school students at the Rogers Centre. Performing classical standards such as the high-octane finale to the William Tell Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number 4, Latin American masterworks and a lovely rendition of “Mambo” from Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances for West Side Story.

Speaking to journalists just before the concert began, Antonio Abreu was asked if his teaching methods had applications here in Canada. “Always it depends on the condi-

tions that apply locally. I would like to think that some of the methods we use in El Sistema have universal application but they have to be augmented and integrated with the local musical education programs and teaching systems that are already in place.”

Maestro Abreu went on to say how overwhelmed he feels by the interest, respect and good wishes he and the orchestra has received from so many Canadians.

A study guide distributed to teachers in advance of the concert noted that the music education program now in place in Venezuela involves some 300,000 members across the country in a system of pre-school orchestras (3-6 years), children’s orchestras (7-16 years), youth orchestras (16-20 years) and professional adult symphony orchestras. The program employs over 15,000 music teachers who work with students, 75 per cent of whom come from families living below the poverty line.

El Sistema also offers training in instrument making, arts administration and new media.

At the conclusion of the event at the Roger’s Centre the 15,000 high school students who had watched and listened to the orchestra (conducted by five students not much older than themselves) reacted with a jubilation and hysteria usually reserved for rock stars.

As they rushed the front of the stage, orchestra members began taking off their attractive yellow, blue and red jackets (the colors of the Venezuelan flag) and began tossing them into the audience with great gusto.

Visit the SBYO online: http://www.fesnojiv. gob.ve/en/the-simon-bolivar-youth-orchestraof-venezuela.html Robin Breon is an arts journalist and a member of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association/Association canadienne des critiques de théâtre. This article first appeared on rabble. ca: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2009/10/ venezuelas-classical-music-revolution-takestoronto-storm.

Sisters in Spirit lead struggle against violence

By Amelia Murphy-Beaudoin

In the last 30 years, there have been at least 520 documented cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada, according to the latest research from the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC).

More than half the cases have occurred since 2000. Over two-thirds of the total number of missing women have been found dead.

Twenty-five per cent are still missing. If the same murder and disappearance rate was applied to the general female population in Canada, there would be 18,000 murdered and missing women in the country.

The federal government’s willful ignorance has allowed many of the murders of Aboriginal women to go unsolved. According to NWAC’s research, only 52 per cent have been cleared, compared to a national homicide clearance rate of over 80 per cent.

It’s a national tragedy that Aboriginal women are not a priority for police and public officials. Sadly, when an Aboriginal woman is murdered or disappears, her case does not mobilize the police to act, or the media to report.

Women are more likely to be victims of social and physical abuse because of their gender.

This problem is amplified when we talk about Aboriginal women. For example, despite all the public attention on the Robert Pickton murders, we rarely hear that most of his victims were young, Aboriginal women.

It is an appalling double-standard involving racism, stereotypes and discrimination that makes the cases of these women less important.

Many of the Aboriginal women who have been murdered or disappeared have had difficult life circumstances. But it is precisely these circumstances that placed them at a much higher risk.

The oppression of Aboriginal people has been a fact for so long that the federal government is fully aware of the myriad of issues affecting their communities. But the government knowingly ignores them. The fact remains, despite the indifference of the federal government, that an Aboriginal person is five times more likely to be murdered than a non-Aboriginal Canadian.

It’s true that alcoholism, drug addiction, and involvement in the sex trade are more common in Aboriginal communities than in the rest of society. There are reasons for these trends. The murder and disappearance of Aboriginal women is the most severe example of the price that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples are paying for the appalling social conditions in which they are trapped.

Aboriginal communities endure environments that are overcrowded, sometimes contaminated, and usually without adequate basic services such as sewage services or running water. More than one third of Aboriginal people in Canada have, in government jargon, a “core housing need,” meaning their homes do not meet the most basic standards of acceptability. A lower standard of education and levels of unemploy-

ment and poverty three times higher than mainstream society are the norm.

Despite this state of desperation, or perhaps because of it, the Aboriginal community has mobilized around the cases of these murdered and missing women.

In the last five years, public attitudes have shifted, giving momentum to the cause. Craig Benjamin, Amnesty International Indigenous rights campaigner, said: “Five years ago, there was a sense that nobody was listening, which isn’t the case anymore.” Calls for a public inquiry into Canada’s missing and murdered Aboriginal women have been increasing, along with a growing body of research on the issue, which politicians are content to fund—but only as a substitute to heeding the calls for a national investigation.

Recently, the United Nations asked the Harper government to investigate why hundreds of deaths and disappearances of Aboriginal women remain unsolved.

The pressure is on the federal government to respond to this growing public pressure for accountability and justice, and to demand a thorough investigation of this ongoing horror.

On October 4, 72 Sisters in Spirit vigils took place in 69 communities, up from 11 vigils in 2006, the first year they were held. The vigils honour the lives of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls.

The vigils coincide with a report entitled No More Stolen Sisters from Amnesty International citing a “shocking failure” by the federal government to stop the killing and disappearance of Aboriginal women. There still remains a lack of coordinated action on the federal level. Amnesty International decries the federal government’s “piecemeal approach” to dealing with violence against Aboriginal women, calling for a coordinated, national action plan.

The following is part of a statement that was read out at the Sisters in Spirit vigils from coast to coast: “The violence experienced by Aboriginal women and girls in Canada is a national tragedy.

The disappearance and murder of our Aboriginal sisters is felt nationwide, with countless First Nations, Inuit, and Métis families and communities grappling with the loss of a loved one and struggling to find answers. We are speaking out, as individuals and organizations, because we believe this violence should be of urgent concern to everyone in Canada.

“More than that, this concern must lead to action—action to ensure that the rights and safety of Aboriginal sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers are respected and protected.

“Aboriginal women face disproportionate levels and severe forms of violence no matter where they live in Canada. There can be no piecemeal solution to a problem of this scale.

Therefore, we are calling on all levels of government to work with Aboriginal women, including the NWAC and other key stakeholders, collab-

oratively on issues of justice, safety, economic security and the well-being of Aboriginal women and girls.”

NWAC is calling for a national plan of action that recognizes the violence faced by Aboriginal women because they are Aboriginal and because they are women, that ensures effective and unbiased police response, that improves public awareness and accountability, that reduces the risk to Aboriginal women by closing the economic and social gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada, and that improves the child welfare system.

It’s time to begin this important work. There have been several recent initiatives undertaken by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, among others, that show “concrete acknowledgement” of the specific challenges facing Aboriginal women. This is progress, but it isn’t enough, and it doesn’t excuse the decades of inaction by the federal government.

Recently, under pressure from the Aboriginal communies and advocacy organizations, the RCMP has created a task force to try to solve a portion of the cases of missing and murdered women—the mysterious deaths and disappearances of women along Highway 16.

Yellowhead Highway 16 West, which runs 720 km between Prince George and Prince Rupert, has come to be known as the “Highway of Tears.” Since 1969, that stretch of road has seen 19 women, all but one of whom were Aboriginal, go missing or be found murdered. All of those cases are still unsolved.

Beginning in June 2008, hundreds of people joined a powerful journey called Walk4Justice— trekking from Vancouver to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to press for a public inquiry, and to honour the missing and murdered women of the Highway of Tears.

Canadians should not tolerate the horror of these crimes: more than 520 daughters, sisters, mothers, and grandmothers stolen away from their families, friends, and communities. These women were murdered in our cities and along our highways. As citizens, Aboriginal people are entitled to the same protection as any one else, and their disappearances should be investigated as vigorously as anyone else’s.

Our task is to join and support the struggles led by Aboriginal women in their communities as they resist these massacres. Progressives can play a role in building and expanding solidarity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to force the government and its agents to take decisive action and to stop the tragedies.

Visit the website of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC): http://www.nwac-hq. org/en/index.html.

This article originally appeared in Socialist Worker issue 512, November 2009: http://www. socialist.ca/En/currentissue.htm.

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CULTURE Home Safe reveals the recession’s impact, shows housing is a human right

By Amanda Connon-Unda, Culture Editor

As the lights dimmed at the Revue Cinema in Toronto on October 8 the audience went silent. Laura Sky’s latest film called Home Safe Toronto started playing. Serene yet emotive music filled the dark room as the SkyWorks Charitable Foundation logo crossed the screen.

Laura Sky is my former boss, so I know her organization well. Sky started SkyWorks after she left the NFB, in order to produce her own films about social issues. Sky’s films aren’t necessarily destined to be broadcast (although sometimes they are), but instead her films are funded through NGOs, government agencies and private donors. They are made in consultation with community participants who give feedback and consent along the way. Her films are eventually toured as feature length documentaries across the country. It’s a process that drastically departs from the broadcasting model, whereby independent producers are beholden to broadcasters’ audience and marketability considerations, budgets and deadlines.

Home Safe Toronto is a very timely film which was being researched both prior to the recession and in the wake of the recession being thrown about incessantly in the media. In the film, Sky and her executive co-producer Cathy Crowe reveal that homelessness is becoming a new reality today for more working families. As the manufacturing sector has weakened due to recent restructuring, housing insecurity is becoming more common.

Home Safe is a national film series that has several editions. It features what’s happening to children and their parents facing housing insecurity or homelessness in four cities across the country. Home Safe Toronto reveals what’s happening to families in the G.T.A. According to recent city statistics, in April there were almost 1200 families living in homeless shelters in downtown Toronto. Meanwhile more than 70,000 households were on the waiting list for affordable housing.

Cathy Crowe, a street nurse and co-producer of Home Safe Toronto, explained the objective of their film. “It was to witness family homelessness - to make it visible,” she said.

“But [we wanted] to go beyond the stereotype... To show that [homelessness] is families hitting a crisis or misfortune through lack of adequate social programs and employment that make them fall into homelessness,” she said.

While researching the film during the economic downturn Sky and Crowe found that laid-off workers and their families were facing some extreme stresses. The families they followed were relocating to follow work, doubling up in apartments with other families and even moving into family shelters. The producers said that some families are having to choose between paying their rent or feed their kids.

The Richards family in Brampton was one of the families featured in the film. Colleen Richards recently joined the fast-food workforce to support her family. She was working 60-hour weeks at $10 an hour. Her husband was

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laid off from Chrysler and his employment insurance ran out. She and her husband and two kids were finding it very hard to live off of her wage and at the time of filming they were facing an eviction notice.

After Home Safe Toronto’s premiere Richards explained what she got out of participating in the film: “We had a

hip hop matures

By Mohammad Ali Aumeer

voice,” she said. “It empowered us and it gave us an opportunity to open up dialogue and hopefully inspire some change…And to tear down some of those walls and the prejudice that is out there,” said Richards.

Home Safe Toronto is a touching film that includes the stories of loving families who are enduring tough times. The film highlights the social need for better affordable housing policies that would enable families to have a decent standard of living even during economic downturns. The film reveals a liberal, human rights oriented, pro-union stance through its sourcing and its request for economic justice.

Sky’s narrative voice is interwoven throughout the film.

She tells the story of her grandmother who helped organize labour unions in the Toronto garment factory where she worked during The Depression era. The concluding segment of the film depicts community building today amongst laid-off workers and it was particularly moving. “Together we’ve begun to ask the bigger questions… [about housing] and about recognizing housing as a human right,” said Sky in her closing narration.

As the finale music came on in the theatre during the film premiere, the audience clapped stridently. Their sound was resoundingly clear. The audience clapped even louder as the families who had participated in the film went on stage for the final Q&A period.

Audience members and friends of SkyWorks commented on the families’ bravery for having faced the stigma of coming out and talking about their economic hardship.

In the Q&A period the stereotype about homelessness was discussed and people talked about making changes to legislation so that there would be more affordable housing in future.

Home Safe Toronto will tour across the country at community screenings. The documentary is available for use by educational institutions, community groups and activists and is part of a tool kit of materials to help plan local strategies. For more information visit www.skyworksfoundation. org and www.vtape.org.

Hip Hop culture has matured from its early roots.

Over the past four decades, it has been cultivated and seasoned beyond more that a way of life that represents the streets that sewed its roots.

The renowned MC, Common Sense, went from rapping about conscious and Afrocentric rap in the 1994 underground classic “I Use to Love H.E.R.” to winning a Grammy Award with Erykah Badu on “Love of my Life” in 2003.

In between the time, he even shortened his moniker to simply “Common.”

The maturation process has taken the art on a journey from the urban street corners and back alleys to every stage and almost every crevasse of planet Earth. But the fact that the culture still remains true to its roots is why it is still important and influential today.

The commercially successful aforementioned Common collaboration with Erykah Badu, is actually a song paying homage to the 1994 record.

Hip Hop heads are showcasing their art on global stages, sharing their history on podiums across higher learning institutions and even presenting their work at art galleries in Yorkville.

The latter of the three is the case for Justin Bua. Bua, born in 1968, grew up in New York City at a time where the first seeds of Hip Hop culture were being sown.

He honed his artistic skills in the classroom as well as on the streets as a graffiti artist (a.k.a. a bomber). He then moved to California to attend the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Since then, his commercial work has included MTV’s “Lyricist Lounge Show” and EA Sports video games “NBA Street” and “NFL Street.”

But it is perhaps his original drawings that has brought him the most acclaim.

His original works, which serve as a snapshot of underground urban culture has been praised by everyone from Ali Shaheed Muhammad of “A Tribe Called Quest” to actress Eva Longoria.

Longoria describes his work as one that “stems from his ability to make us relate to what is universal– regardless of our ethnicity or cultural upbringing. His work is about ONENESS, guiding us to transcend boundaries and celebrate what moves everyone- passion, emotion, and love.”

Berry Gordy, Founder of Motown Records, describes Bua’s work as simply “Unique! Exciting! Current!”

Bua truly is a representation of Hip Hop’s maturation process.

He has gone from serving cans of spray paint to subway cars in the New York City to a celebrated artist who now teaches figure drawing at the University of Southern California.

Bua will be having a gallery show in Toronto on Saturday November 21 at the Liss Gallery (140 Yorkville Ave. Toronto, ON) from 8:00PM - Midnight.

For those who for every since they could remember “Use to Love H.E.R.” or for those who more recently have begun to declare hip hop as the “Love of my Life,” this event is not to be missed.

HOME SAFE PHOTO: Anna Prior, SkyWorks Charitable Foundation

international festival of authors celebrates 30 years

By Angela Walcott

it’s A book lover’s paradise, where writers from all over the world stimulate the imagination of festival-goers with literary delights, captivating stories and characters. the International Festival of authors (IFoa) celebrated its 30th anniversary this year with participation from authors from 15 different countries. the IFoa was spread out over three key locales at the flagship location of harbourfront Centre, which allowed for easy access to events. bookworms could be seen hopping to and from events. In the lakeside terrace, a magnificent view of the harbour on a bright sunday afternoon was the setting for The Fifth Estate’s co-host, linden MacIntyre’s reading session. MacIntyre read from his latest work entitled The Bishop’s Man which is an impressive tale of justice and healing. the novel garnered a spot on the shortlist of the 2009 Giller Prize. also in the lakeside terrace was France’s Eric Emmanuel schmitt who read from The Most Beautiful Book in the World, a collection of eight short stories of happiness from a woman’s point of view. In his view, women are stronger characters. “I tried to become a woman in the book, because women decide everything,” he said. over in the candlelit brigantine room, the line-up included a roundtable discussion entitled “on hearing voices and seeing Places you’ve never been,” with authors nicholson baker, Ian Pears, adam thorpe and David Wroblewski. It was moderated by fellow writer Charles Foran, and the focus was language in writing. David Wroblewski opined that when a character gets into an author’s head, the author becomes obsessed, and subsequently he or she loses the initial connection they established with that character. on the other hand, with historical novels there is more distance.

While language can pose problems to some writers, others see it as a chance to experience different eras through language.

David Wroblewski’s main struggle with writing is his preoccupation with language. once a software developer, he said he gets annoyed when the wrong word makes it into a sentence. “Every problem seems to be a problem of language,” Wroblewski said. “I wanted this book to be written for the body and not the head—based purely on sensory experience—soaked in the physical and abstracted from the linguistic world.”

Judging from the turnout for the events at IFoa this year, it appears that attendees don’t necessarily have to be part of the literary elite to enjoy an author reading or a good novel. additional highlights of the festival included a $500 door prize from book publishers, discounted student tickets for the event and autographed copies of novels from the authors themselves. IFoa is now in the third year of its ontario touring component. this year the festival will stop in barrie, burlington, Don Mills, Midland, orillia, Parry sound and Uxbridge.

for John irving, Writing is a coMPulsion

By Angela Walcott

An Angry voiCe filled the Fleck Dance theatre at the harbourfront Centre at the International Festival of authors. Writer John Irving wasn’t angry because he had to catch a flight for the Us immediately after reading from his latest novel, Last Night in Twisted River, it was because he was emotionally invested in the character he had created for the novel.

Irving was in toronto to read and talk about his latest literary creations, along with firsttime and established writers, during the festival which took place from october 21-31. as a writer, Irving understands the characters he creates. he knows how they react, why they react and what will trigger a response. his reading was especially unique in that he was so emotionally involved in the character’s response, that he read the novel like it was a script.

It is not hard to imagine Last Night in Twisted River adapted for the big screen, since two of his best-selling novels were made into movies. The World According to Garp starred Peter sellers and The Cider House Rules starred Michael Caine and toby McGuire.

In an interview following the reading, John Irving spoke with Canada AM host seamus

Photo: tMab2003/FlICkr

o’regan and he revealed that the novel was in his mind longer than any he had written— more than 20 years. he confessed that the last sentence to the novel eluded him until 2005.

When he finally found the last sentence, it was so obvious he didn’t know why he couldn’t find it before. the research for his novel was easy because he grew up in the world he depicted. It was very accessible to him. novels he read as a child made him want to become a writer. the 19th century writers wrote plot-driven stories. as a habit, Irving writes the last sentence of the novel first. this is a process that he used in Cider House Rules as well. he says he knew the tone of voice of the last sentence. It was more upbeat than the rest of the text and the tone of voice was one of elation.

“If you think you are capable of living by writing then write,” is a quote that Irving pulled from his novel in his reading at the festival. Writing represents much more to Irving, “Writing is not a career choice,” he said. “It is like an eating disorder. It is a compulsion.”

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Amreeka: one immigrant family’s experience

Review of Cherien Dabis’ new film at the Toronto Palestine Film Fest

By Pacinthe Mattar It’s 1991, and while the Gulf War rages on in the Middle East, a different war is being waged in the United States.

In Ohio, a Palestinian doctor sees more and more of his patients walk out on him (no real American wants to be treated by an Arab!), and he soon begins to wonder how he’ll be able to provide for his wife and two daughters. Then, the death threat arrives, and inspires more to follow suit daily.

Soon afterwards, the Secret Service shows up to his daughters’ school to investigate a rumour that his eldest wants to kill the president.

“Absurd things kept happening,” said PalestinianAmerican filmmaker Cherien Dabis in a recent interview in Toronto of her time growing up in the American Midwest. “I was 14, and it was a very eye-opening time for me. The way that the media was perpetuating stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims… I wanted to do something about that by trying to tell the story from my own point of view.”

And she did. Dabis’ real-life events, and those she heard about, are what inspired her award-winning film, Amreeka.

The film opened the 2nd annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival, attracting over 900 people to the film’s Canadian premiere.

Amreeka, which is the Arabic word for “America,” tells the story of Muna, an endearing yet strong-willed Palestinian mother. Muna has just plucked her teenage son out of their home in the West Bank and moved in with her sister’s family in Illinois in search of a better life—one without checkpoints, occupation, and daily reminders of her failed marriage.

The film dances delicately between humour and heaviness. A resilient Muna struggles to find a job and ends up

taking orders at White Castle, the local burger joint – the only place that will hire her. “Two degrees and 10 years’ experience, and in this country all it gets me is a hamburger,” the former banker Muna laments, while dressed in her blue uniform and matching visor.

Muna’s son, Fadi, gets a crash course in surviving high school, getting smashed into lockers in the hallway for speaking up to defend himself and his country when provoked by a posse of racist bullies. But Muna and Fadi’s chronicles are filled with laugh-out-loud hilarious humour as well. Muna brings her Palestinian flare into her work and creates the delectable Falafel Burger to add to White Castle’s menu. Meanwhile, Fadi gets fashion advice from his feisty, young American cousins who tell him what to wear so he doesn’t look like a (God forbid) ‘FOB’—Fresh Off the Boat.

This feature film, Amreeka, is a success story in more ways than one. But in the early days, Dabis says it was hard to gain support for the movie “I was going out with the script at a time when people were looking for a heavy Iraq war drama,” she explained.

“Amreeka was ‘too culturally specific’ or it was ‘too light.’ It was ‘too political’, it was ‘not political,’ or it ‘wasn’t political enough.’ This story is just about average people, but people were looking for a war-driven Iraq film.

Dabis didn’t bend, and eventually, the film that was seven years in the making was filmed between Ramallah, Palestine and Manitoba in a whirlwind 24 days. In 2009, Amreeka made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and played at the opening night of New Directors/ New Films, a co-presentation by The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Amreeka made

its international debut at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival.

Dabis says she wanted the film to tell more than just her personal story. “My goal was to make a movie about a family, about Palestinians, that could be mainstream,” she explained. “I wanted to bring in the marginalized. The message of this movie is family, and love and strength and resilience…in the general sense, not just related to Palestinians.”

Amreeka was the perfect selection to kick off the Toronto Palestine Film Festival, which aims to showcase “the extraordinary narrative of a dispossessed people living in exile or under occupation” through thought-provoking film, discussions and art. The festival, organized by Palestine House, took place between September 26 and October 2.

As Muna and Fadi navigate their new lives, they learn that life in the United States is not as rosy as they thought it would be. They discover that separation barriers exist even in the Land of the Free—if not literally, than figuratively.

Fadi had convinced his mother to move there because it was “better than living like prisoners in our own country,” but soon the duo tastes the bitterness of homesickness and experience the deep desire to belong somewhere—anywhere.

As they change to adapt to their new reality, they both rebel against what they know and what they’ve been taught and they find the meaning of being proud of who they are.

In the end, Muna and Fadi’s journey isn’t too different from Dabis’ personal journey in creating Amreeka. “It was a lesson in listening to your heart,” said Dabis.

Amreeka opens on October 30 in select Canadian theatres.

Toronto on Film depicts our many cityscapes TIFF Cinematheque celebrates Toronto’s 175th birthday

By Angela Walcott Hollywood actors have returned home, the red carpets have been rolled up and eager fans have caught a glimpse of their favorite stars. So the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is over, right? Not really. TIFF is not all about hype. The festival lives on in quiet ways, as in the recently published anthology entitled Toronto on Film which celebrates Toronto’s 175th birthday. The anthology includes interviews from film critic Geoff Pevere, TIFF CEO, Piers Handling and award-winning critic, Matthew Hays. It also follows the development of feature film making in the city with a glossary listing 175 key films.

Of the 175 films highlighted as part of Toronto on Film, is a film series that took place from October 9 to October 22 at TIFF Cinematheque. The series provided Torontonians with an opportunity to examine and enjoy the development of Toronto’s cinematic history. Some memorable movies in which Toronto is featured are Dream Tower, Bollywood/ Hollywood and EMPZ4 LIFE. Dream Tower is the story of the ill-fated Rochdale College—an educational institution run by ambitious-

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minded students—who wanted to take education to new heights during the 1960’s hippy era. Paul Goodman inspired a vision of self-education and self-sufficiency in a university with student residences. The idea went terribly wrong due to poor management, free loaders, motorcycle gangs and drugs that started to infest the complex. The dream crumbled. Director Ron Mann takes us on a tour of Toronto’s past, when Yorkville was a bohemian hippy hangout. From this historical perspective, the events that helped to shape the city serve as a reminder of how a cityscape changes.

Toronto has evolved and matured and this was captured on screen by the well-known director Deepa Mehta.

It was with her successful films such as Earth and Fire, and Bollywood/Hollywood that Mehta mixed comedy and love and featured Toronto prominently. In the film, her musical dramatization tells the story of Rahul, an attractive and wealthy Indian man, who employs a woman to portray his fiancée. The Eastern cultural traditions meet the West and Toronto serves as the happy medium where these cultural divides come together.

For the stark reality that Allan King depicts in his film EMPZ4 LIFE, Toronto is filmed as a wasteland. In the suburb of Malvern, crime and violence have robbed many youth of hope for a decent future. Young capable black men especially do not strive for academic success. But along comes Brian Henry, volunteer for youth agency HOODLINC, that helps high-risk young men achieve success. Meanwhile mathematician John Mighton volunteers in the same community. Together they instill confidence and the desire to succeed in their students. It is an uplifting film.

In all three films, there are different perspectives and viewpoints of Toronto. It’s this reflection of diversity in the films that is the beauty of the series. TIFF Cinematheque presents a selection of more than 300 films annually, including directors’ retrospectives, national and regional cinema spotlights, thematic programs, exclusive limited runs, and classic and contemporary Canadian and international cinema. The collection also includes many new and rare archival prints. There is a lot to choose from for anyone interested in film.

PHOTOs: amreeka.com

ImagiNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival celebrates 10th Anniversary

By Jessica Finch

The ImagiNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival has honoured Aboriginal culture by showcasing the latest work of filmmakers, performers and digital artists for 10 years. This year the festival celebrated its achievement with a series of special events. New Media Mash Up was a unique presentation that placed the sounds of Inuk throat singing against a backdrop of ‘mashed up’ video footage. The combination of old and new Aboriginal art forms was the idea behind this show and was the basis for the entire festival. In addition, this year’s special art gala event, Codetalkers of the Digital Divide, took the festival in a new direction. The event saw displays of digital art, and Native inspired websites accompanied by a discussion from the artists and curator, Cheryl L’Hirondelle.

New Media Mash Up New Media Mash Up was a powerful, collaborative media piece presented by two Indigenous artists: Tanya Tagaq and Bear Witness, of Six Nations. Tagaq is a professional Inuk throat singer. And with each performance, her voice goes to incredible lengths as she moans, growls and sings with throat sounds. The art of throat singing is deeply rooted in Inuk culture. As Tagaq states, “[throat singing] has helped me get in touch with my heritage; I’m proud to be Inuk.”

Traditionally throat singing is done by two people facing one another, singing back and forth as if in conversation. At the New Media Mash Up event Tagaq was singing solo but her piece was brought to life through the strength of her voice and her rhythmic movements. “[Throat singing] can take over your whole body” says Tagaq. She says that all of her movements come from a pure an emotional place. On stage at Mash Up, Tagaq is accompanied by a percussionist and violinist, but also by the experimental visuals of a video jockey (VJ) Bear Witness.

As a VJ, Bear Witness employs cross-over techniques in his work, combining the idea of DJing to video in a specific style called Jawa. Mash Up is Bear’s first attempt at live Jawa, but his remixes of home video and film footage flow perfectly with Tanya’s singing. Bear’s use of personal as well as Hollywood video clips is done to, “re-contextualize [typical] images of Natives seen in the media, [and] show Hollywood interacting with real life”.

The live mixture of old and new media in Mash Up was seamless and evocative, and both artists hope to collaborate with one another again in future. Outside of ImagiNATIVE, both performers pursue their arts in various streams. Tanya has worked with Icelandic singer Bjork as well as the Kronos quartet, and her CD, SINAA, is in stores now. Meanwhile Bear Witness works as an experimental filmmaker and DJ, based out of Ottawa and Toronto. Check out Tanya’s website at www.tanyatagaq.com for more information on her tour dates and new projects.

Codetalkers of the Digital Divide In war time, codetalkers were Indigenous people in

North America who relayed code to the allies, in languages unknown to the enemy. In today’s context, Indigenous people are still using code but the purpose, platforms and technologies have changed considerably. Codetalkers of the Digital Divide, presented by curator Cheryl L’Hirondelle, investigated our changing technological landscape, through art pieces done by artists from across North America. Paintings by artist Buffy St. Marie illuminated the gallery, while a webpage designed by Melanie Printup Hope was projected onto a once white wall. Hope’s web page, designed in the mid 1990s, is just one example of Indigenous digital work that was done prior to the rise of Web 2.0.

Two Mac computers in the gallery showcased additional web projects by Indigenous artists, past and present. The websites were open for public perusal, but many of the projects were later explained by their artists. One of the web projects called IsumaTV 2.0 was a video display and upload site, dubbed, “Indian Youtube.” The site was originally launched

by Igloolik Isuma Productions in 2008, with an upgrade to 2.0 earlier this year. Two of IsumaTV’s creators were on hand to discuss the site. They explained that Internet in remote Northern communities is slow and extremely expensive,

which has kept many Indigenous people from entering the 21st century. IsumaTV proposes that, “servers be set up with the site for remote communities [to access], so popular content can be seen by people who are off the grid.”

The ambition behind IsumaTV and a number of other new media projects at this exhibit were clear. Most impressive, however, was the presentation of Alanis Obomsawin’s Manawan, her documentary film made in 1972. The piece was projected in a separate part of the gallery. It was a touching film, but Obomsawin’s descriptions were truly breathtaking. The documentary focused on the Atikamekw people and their place in 1970s Quebec society. The oppression described by Obomsawin with regards to her own experience and that of the Atikamekw people was heart-wrenching. “The biggest oppression starts when you’re five [when you go to school],” as the Anglophone and Francophone teachers told the kids who they were, and who they should be, said Obomsawin. Oppression and overcoming adversity were strong components in many of the works presented at ImagiNATIVE. Manawan will be released soon on DVD by the NFB. To learn more go to www.nfb.ca/alanis-obomsawin and check out IsumaTV at: www.isuma.tv.

Elizabeth Chiang Tanya Tagaq demonstrates solo throat singing at New Media Mash Up, part of the Imaginative Media and Arts Festival.

We All Scream for Canzine

By Jennifer Tse

For years Canzine has been exposing Canadian ‘zine-makers to little magazine fans in Toronto. Jennifer Tse will interview Richard Rosenbaum, a Ryerson student and the organizer of Canzine in our next issue and have a full review of the festival. But first Tse provides a brief overview of the festival that took place on November 1st at the Gladstone Hotel.

Hosted by Broken Pencil magazine, Canada’s authority on zine culture, Canzine delivers a unique iteration of the country’s largest underground culture fair. It features an installation of over 150 “zines”—small-circulation, minority interest publications produced by independent

writers, artists, and publishers. The building remains flooded with publishers for the duration of the event, with a diverse lineup of indie creators.

“One-Two Punch Book Pitch” is the highlight of the festival. Here a series of two-minute book pitches are either famed or shamed by notable judges: Hal Niedzviecki (Broken Pencil fiction editor and Author of The Peep Diaries), Sam Hiyate (literary agent from The Rights Factory), and Alana Wilcox (Coach House Books editor).

Even if visitors don’t buy anything, they take home a part of the zine experience.

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Record Reviews

A satisfying debut from South London hipsters too detached for their own good The xx – XX

T

he hype machine is very inconsistent. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong and sometimes it creates something of such middle-of-the-road mediocrity that it’s hard to tell. The debut album from South London quartet the xx falls somewhere in the better half of the hype spectrum, but it still doesn’t do everything other critics tell you it will. It has been called haunting and mesmerizing, but it’s not. It has also been called R&B, but it’s not. What it is?

A smooth and easy-going, cleanly-plucked guitar album that tends to float along better in the background than if one is listening for something extraordinary. XX is a slinky and sensual album whose intimacy is created by the wispy, conversational singing style of vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim. It’s unfortunate, though, that instead of using romantic tension to create an album that builds and releases, they’ve opted for a less demanding route.

The album falls short of such great heights both melodically and musically. The album’s greatest flaw is that it sounds too content to pile on the style without enough consideration for substance or musical concern. There is nothing exciting about the band’s song-writing, nothing that indicates a willingness to push musical boundaries or to invest themselves fully in their craft. The album’s saving grace is the spacious, moody production which, to their credit, was done mostly by the band themselves.

XX is a “night album,” to be sure, one that sounds better on headphones than over speakers and works best when things are quiet and you’re feeling restless or pensive. It’s too musically and emotionally detached to be truly compelling and worthy of the hype heaped upon it, but XX is a consistently satisfying listen. Rating: B —Stephen Carlick

An astounding, engaging and rewarding album of rare quality The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

I

feel as though I have to put myself in context before I write this review, so here it is. I’ve never been the biggest Flaming Lips fan. I was too young to know about the Lips during their supposed heyday (when they released 1999’s The Soft Bulletin) but when Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots dropped in 2002 I was interested enough to pick up the CD. For seven years since then, I’ve been unmotivated to check out their past work. This was based solely on my impression of the pleasing-if-not-slightlynovel Yoshimi and 2006’s gallingly quirky At War with the Mystics.

It was, then, nearly earth-shattering to hear Embryonic for the first, and especially second and third, time. It was so loud and then so pretty; so cacophonous and then so sparse; so dissonant and then so melodic; so powerful. Lazy

An artistic statement from the Hip Hop Legend

K

Q-Tip – Kamaal the Abstract

amaal the Abstract was supposed to hit shelves seven years ago, but Q-Tip’s label at the time, Arista, cancelled its release because they doubted the record’s commercial viability. Since then, it has floated around the internet, being passed about by fans via torrents and peer-to-peer file-sharing. The album has finally been given a physical release and while it isn’t the best thing Q-Tip has ever done, it’s a necessary artistic step from a musician who never really fell off.

It’s hard to imagine a record label passing this up now, but that fact lives as a testament to both Q-Tip’s influence and his artistic integrity. For the latter, one might suggest the fact that Tip never changed the album to suit the demands of his label. One could also make the case that to even create the album in the first place demonstrated Tip’s indifference to commercial success and showed his commitment to making an album that paid hom-

Readers’ Top Ten Albums of 2009

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critics will likely point to the influence of Pink Floyd, but this record is an affecting mix of everything, an intoxicating blend of Kraut-rock, noise, soul, pop, children’s music, industrial and gentle shoe-gaze that gets better with every listen. The album was purported to be a double-album, so though the album measures in with eighteen tracks, the nine-track album sides make for satisfying and cohesive listens both individually and as a pair. Embryonic is an album of captivating riffs and constantly shifting musical ideas that never outstay their welcome. It’s an album of movements that come and go to create a dynamic, hypnotic whole that implores the listener to listen—actively. In an age where media often begs us to use all our senses at once, Embryonic is a rare album that deserves and rewards the unmitigated employment of just one. Rating: A —SC

age to the music that was influential and formative to his growth as a musician.

All this considered, however, it’s Q-Tip’s influence that makes it hardest to comprehend Arista’s decision not to release Kamaal. So many rappers have now gone the same eclectically jazz-funk route that it now makes the album seem conventional, despite Kamaal’s having preceded the trend. The amount of singing here, combined with the jazz-funk influence felt heavily throughout the album, provide listeners with some understanding for the genius of last year’s The Renaissance. However, while Kamaal the Abstract lacks the cohesiveness and sheer energy of that album, it stands on its own as a solid album of experimental jazz-hop. It represents a vital step in the career of one of the few rappers that never attached his name to something he didn’t stand wholeheartedly behind. Rating: B+ —SC

Note to the readers of the Ryerson Free Press: Next month is the December issue of the Ryerson Free Press and in the place of my usual reviews I will be publishing a list of my Top Albums of the Year. I’d love to hear from the readers of the Free Press. So, I’m asking all interested readers to email me your personal Top Ten albums of 2009 list (in order) so that I can compile a Reader’s Top Ten list in addition to mine.

Please send all lists to scarlick@ryerson.ca with “RFP Top Ten” in the subject line. All lists will be part of the compilation process so long as they are received before the November 20th due date. Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing your favourite albums of 2009!

tour de chocolat

By Gursevak Kasbia

A quiCk trip to the grocery store when I was young usually involved me begging for a chocolate bar but having very little selection to choose from. In fact, the first time I ever tried cacao was when I placed a spoon into the Fry’s cocoa powder tin, only to taste a putrid powder which did not resemble any chocolate substance I had before. years later, I realized that this was cacao in its purest form, and the process of creating the chocolate I recognized in stores was much different. so when I was invited to the toronto chocolate festival I could not help but resist finding out how chocolate is produced, a bit about its history and what different flavours are being created. the history of chocolate began thousands of years ago in Mexico and Central america.

It was not in the current form you would find in confectionary stores today - as bars, cookies or cupcakes—but rather as a liquid. the ancient Maya drank the chocolate since they believed it possessed many medicinal properties.

Cacao was unknown to Europe since Columbus and the spanish landed in parts of the Caribbean including Jamaica and the yucatan Peninsula in the early 1500s. the explorers saw that people were using cacao beans as a form of currency and were curious as to why. the spaniards initially hated the cacao beverage that they were offered by local tribes. however, they soon realized that agave nectar and evaporated cane sugar could be added to the mix to make the taste more appealing. With aristocratic spaniards forcibly taking native women as concubines, chocolate made its way into the kitchens of these explorers. however, it was not just the taste that lured the women into cooking with it, but also the addictive nature of cacao. From this point onwards chocolate began its hybridization, as when the explorers began substituting cinnamon for traditional spices for flavouring the chocolate.

Theobromide cacao, the scientific name of cacao, is a derivative of the Greek meaning “food of the Gods” and its no wonder traveling explorers brought back millions of pounds of this food fit for kings and queens.

Its rich texture combined with other ingredients such as vanilla and almond, had an aroma that could be sensed by any nose miles from where it was being processed. Columbus arrived in the americas and also began to export cacao to Europe, and so began the cacao trade. at first taste cacao is a very bitter seed that really would not seem pleasant to the average taster. but to aficionados, this first taste, bitterness and all, can help determine what end product it will become when ground and processed for consumption. there currently exist three different families of cocoa beans: Criollo, Forasteros and trinitario.

Criollo beans grow primarily in south america’s milder climates. Forasteros beans are produced in the amazon and account for about eighty percent of the world’s cacao production. trinitario is considered a hybrid bean and it is produced in the Caribbean and south america. thus our history lesson ends and our journey into toronto’s Fourth annual Chocolate ball begins. the inspiration for the Chocolate ball came from Joey C, the toronto based director of JCo communications. lina Dhingra, one of the event organizers who also contributed to this year’s tIFF, explained that the event was to showcase “toronto’s finest chocolates and chocolatiers” and it combined the pleasures of chocolate with a ’50s and ’60s theme.

Weather could not dampen or chill anyone’s hearts as the warm aroma of chocolate cakes, biscotti and even dinner items featuring chocolate were all on the tasting menu. I had a few different tasting chocolates to savour. among these was a strawberry-wasabi filled white chocolate. Its creator brandon olsen described his chocolates as being “unique and for a niche chocolate market, [all] [the] while promoting fair and sustainable cacao and business practices.” also present were bakeries such as la Patisserie la Cigogne, which featured beautiful rum chocolate balls and chocolate cream filled puffed pastries. they each had

IllUstratIon by astrID arIJanto

unique artistic impressions.

Chocolates with champagne filling added to this delectable menu. the entrepreneurial spirit of toronto’s finest chocolate producers was apparent. It didn’t take long to see why Canada positions itself among the few nations in the world who can use its cultural diversity to benefit chocolate making. this night was also dedicated to a great cause - in support of the ava rose foundation. ava was only an infant when she needed the help of sick kids hospital in toronto. as a thanks to her team of paediatric surgeons, the foundation was developed to help give back to her community.

ryerson free press

november 2009

25

LG FASHION WEEK From October 1924, LG Fashion Week walked across Toronto displaying the hottest new trends in fashion. Now in its eleventh year, LG Fashion Week is the second largest fashion week in North America.

Brian Iurello 26 ryersonfreepress.ca

Belstaff

Pink Tartan

David Dixon photos by david pike

Joe Fresh Ryerson Free Press november 2009 27

The Canadian Forces recruits on campuses by promising to subsidise post–secondary education. Recruiters know student debt helps press students from lower income backgrounds to risk their lives to get an education.

Education shouldn’t be that difficult.

Since taking office, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has increased military spending by over $15 billion dollars.

At the same time, he has ignored the federal responsibility to invest in affordable post-secondary education.

$6.8 BILLION WAS SPENT ON...

3

new Navy supply ships $4.7 billion

AND

16 new military helicopters $2.1 billion

With this money, the federal government could have... eliminated tuition fees at public colleges & universities across Canada

fund education NOT WAR!