February 2012 Ryerson Free Press

feb 12

Students demand lower fees Thousands of students marched through the streets of Toronto on February 1 to protest the rising cost of tuition fees and call for access for all students to the Liberals’ new tuition grant

NEWS

City Council Votes Down Shelter Closings More needs to be done to fund shelters in Toronto

By Kevin Young

There’s no pleasure in being evicted from your home.

Last year, Mayor Rob Ford called for the closure of three shelters as part of Toronto’s 2012 budget cuts. Among other city cuts, the shelters on the chopping block were Bellwoods House, Downsview Dells and the Birchmount Shelter. In January, city council decided against closing the shelters, a relief for those who campaigned to keep the doors open.

Trinity-Spadina Councillor Mike Layton is one of those who voted against the closures.

“It’s more than just a place to live,” Layton said. “People use these facilities to get back on their feet.”

Layton fought against and opposed Ford’s proposed budget cuts to keep Bellwoods House, which is located in his ward, an on-going haven for those who use the facility.

“It was on the top of my list to keep these shelters open,” said Layton.

Obliterating these shelters would have meant more than just a loss of a warm bed. People who use these facilities and its support system attempt to build a life for themselves and become a part of the community.

Bellwoods House, a transitional shelter for women above 50, is off the chopping block, but no one can be sure for how long. The same applies to Birchmount Shelter, a converted nursing home for homeless men, and Downsview Dells, a haven for men above 30 dealing with addiction to alcohol, drugs and gambling.

“It’s very possible to have this occur all over again next year,” said Layton.

According to Layton, in order to prevent measures like this from happening again, there has to be more money funneling into affordable housing from the federal and provincial governments.

At the YWCA, Sarah Blackstock, Director of Advocacy and Communications, says there needs to be more funding invested into long-term transitional housing-a place where the homeless can call home and access to support systems and social aid.

“Federal, provincial and municipal investing in housing has declined over the last decade.

So absolutely, this can happen again,” Blackstock explained.

The proposal to close these shelters is not the most ideal for Blackstock. She believes that there is a bed crisis in Toronto and to eliminate beds would only make the situation worse.

“Many of the people in those shelters and transitional homes are trauma survivors.

Women fleeing violence, men who have a range of health issues, most of them have lived in poverty for a very long time. So the loss of that home would really undermine their quality of life, their chance of living life to the fullest,” Blackstock said.

Instead of using emergency shelters, which costs taxpayers more money, investment into transitional housing will offer more than just a one-night stay. In transitional housing, people are offered not only a place to stay but also the tools they need to get back on their feet.

“For some of those people, it is their home. And for those of us who are lucky enough to have a home we know it’s not just a shelter, it’s also where we are nourished-mentally, emotionally, physiologically.”

Some in the U.S. have noted that investments in permanent and transitional housing often save municipalities money because these facilities offer tenants a way out of addiction and poverty.

“Emergency shelters are very expensive to run. If we have people in emergency shelters for a shorter amount of time, we’d save more money,” Blackstock explains. “It’s cheaper to have people stay in permanent and transitional housing because in the long-run this would benefit both the homeless and the community. “ Blackstock says it’s shortsighted. She believes that if more money is invested into affordable housing that there will be savings in the health, social and criminal system.

“If the shelters closed, there would be a sense of loss for the community of Toronto as an inclusive, caring city,” says Blackstock.

“When people are denied shelters, we fail them as neighbours. We fail to have what they can offer to the community.”

Coalition saves Toronto from cutbacks

By Abigale Subdhan Toronto’s city council passed its 2012 budget and $15 million in proposed cutbacks have been stopped.

A group of local councillors – spearheaded by Josh Colle, councillor of Ward 15– surprised Rob Ford Tuesday morning by introducing an omnibus motion to rescue Ford’s controversial cuts. The proposed lists of cuts included daycare services, homeless shelters, TTC services and public pools and arenas.

However, after private negotiations with fellow councillors, a surprising mix of conservatives, progressives and centrists, they decided to challenge Ford’s budget of $9.4 billion by introducing this motion.

In the end, Colle’s motion narrowly passed with a vote of 23-21.

Kristyn Wong-Tam, councillor of Ward 27 - the ward in which Ryerson is located – said that she voted for Colle’s motion.

“I’m a firm believer that the city needs

2 ryersonfreepress.ca

to run well for families,” Wong-Tam said.

“And while I do support being financially responsible, I don’t believe in shutting down services like homeless shelters, daycares and pools.”

The city had a $154 million surplus in 2011, money that Rob Ford wanted to leave alone. However, Colle convinced the city council to use $15 million of the surplus to fund the cutbacks.

The money will be used to keep public pools and homeless shelters open, save several TTC routes, keep arenas open on weekdays and keep funding for youth programs in priority neighbourhoods.

And despite being conquered by Colle’s motion, Rob Ford still claimed victory. His budget passed with a large majority of 39-5.

“I am pleased with the results of the budget,” said Wong-Tam. “The coming together of the city councillors was a positive thing, a broad coalition.”

The council voted in favour of a 2.5 per cent increase to property tax, which means paying about $60 more for a home worth about $400,000.

Ryan Kanhai feels that the property tax increase is ridiculous.

“We got $60 off the tax for our cars last year. But now, [Rob Ford] raised property tax, which is still $60 dollars we have to pay to the government. What’s the point?” Kanhai said, referring to the vehicle registration tax that Ford repealed in December 2010.

Also, the council initially agreed to use a portion of the money from the 2011 surplus to fund buying new streetcars for the city, a project worth about $700 million.

However recent talks with the TTC said that the money may be used for Wheel-Trans services.

While Colle’s motion saved a majority of public services, the public could not save all of the proposed budget cutbacks.

The hiring of 350 emergency personnel workers, including police officers, firefighters and paramedics will be deferred; the city will close its Christmas Bureau, a charity that helped lower-income children, there will be cutbacks on retirement homes and road cleaning services have been reduced.

Also, according to Wong-Tam, about 2,000 people in public labour jobs will be laid off.

Kanhai believes this cutback will do more damage than good.

“I understand the private sector pays millions of dollars and its going to save the city money, but [laying people off ] will leave them struggling in minimum wage jobs,” he said.

While councillors voted for the budget inside, hundreds of protestors against it demonstrated at Nathan Philips Square.

Police put City Hall on lockdown and four protestors were arrested.

PHOTO: JOEL BEDFORD via FLICKR

Saying No to CSIS Dozens of groups launch campaign to not co-operate with Canadian spy agency

By Tim McSorley

Ryerson Free Press The monthly newspaper for continuing education, distance education and part-time students at Ryerson Address

Nearly 70 groups across Canada have joined a campaign to encourage individuals and community organizations to no longer co-operate with the work of Canada’s national spy agency, and are calling on others to join them.

Those involved represent a broad swath of community and activist groups, who organize on a diversity of issues, including migrant rights, anti-war, women’s rights, social welfare, international solidarity groups, unions and community media organizations. These groups believe that the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) targets political organizations in Canada and sows fear and suspicion each time they knock on someone’s door.

Coalition groups are urging their members to not interact with CSIS agents should they be approached. This includes answering questions or even listening to what the agents have to say.

Legally, Canadian citizens can refuse to speak or even listen to CSIS agents. For others, the coalition suggests only interacting with CSIS with a lawyer present.

Some of these organizations held a press conference in Montreal on January 29 to promote their campaign.

“Visits [by CSIS] are meant to create psychological profiles, to instill distrust and to create tensions within groups and communities,” said Marie-Ève Lamy, a spokesperson for the People’s Commission Network, which has spearheaded this campaign.

The idea for the coalition came about when members of the People’s Commission Network (PCN), which organizes around questions of abuse in Canada’s anti-terror laws, began hearing a growing number of accounts of unannounced visits by CSIS agents to people’s homes in the lead-up to the Vancouver Olympics and the G20 meeting in Toronto, both held in 2010.

While the PCN and other organizations were already familiar with CSIS tactics, as visits from the spy agency were nothing new, the renewed and more widespread visits caused concern, especially when CSIS agents began to appear at workplaces, and were seen questioning family members and neighbours of those involved in anti-Olympic and anti-G20 organizing.

Such visits can be destabilizing and frightening, said Lamy. “People don’t know their rights towards secret services, given that all their activities are secret. From that came the idea of a community notice suggesting complete non-collaboration if visited by CSIS.” Now two years later, while the visits have diminished in frequency, their impacts remain. Representatives from Montreal’s South Asian Women’s Community Centre (SAWCC), migrant rights group Solidarity Across Borders, Tadamon!, and the Central Committee of Metropolitan Montreal of the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux, all spoke about how they are advising members to no longer collaborate with CSIS agents.

“We feel that CSIS is preying on our community’s insecurities and vulnerabilities,” said Dolores Chew, of the SAWCC. “The countries we come from already have a tradition where people feel they have no other option but to comply with police and the authorities. And we know from our experience that CSIS uses fear, sowing seeds of mistrust.”

“We feel that CSIS is preying on our community’s insecurities and vulnerabilities.”

That history of sowing divisions has been apparent for decades in the labor movement, according to Francis Lagacé of the CSN. Canadian security agencies have had a history of infiltrating labor and social movements, he said, pointing to Marc-André Boivin, an RCMP and CSIS agent who infiltrated and spied on the CSN for 15 years, as well as the spy agency’s targeting of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in the lead up to the 1991 postal workers strike.

Most concerning, said Legacé, is the agency’s history of making something out of nothing. “They don’t know the difference between organizing and conspiring...[CSIS officers] collect info, and once they hear our answers, imagine that we know something. They imagine that it’s useful info, they create plot, they continue to interview more and more people and they create a climate of fear and suspicion between people.”

CSIS was involved in gathering information on protests, along with the RCMP and other law enforcement agencies, in the lead-up to the Toronto G20 meetings and protests. Of the 17 people eventually charged with conspiracy following those investigations, 11 saw their charges dropped, and of the six facing jail-time, none were found guilty of the original conspiracy charges.

“It’s important to recognize that CSIS is not our friend,” said Jaggi Singh, a member of Solidarity Across Borders. “We can look to renditions to torture, through cases like Abdullah Almalki or Maher Arar [or] the treatment of Omar Khadr at Guantanamo, where he was interrogated by CSIS, and they were complicit in his torture there.”

Almalki and Arar both faced rendition, detention and torture in Syria based on suspect information gathered by CSIS and provided to the Syrian government. Khadr was arrested at age 15 by US soldiers in Afghanistan in 2001 and has been detained in the Guantanamo Bay prison ever since. There are allegations he has been tortured while in custody, and human rights groups say that as a minor he should have been treated as a child soldier under the Geneva Convention.

Despite these incidents, information sharing between CSIS and international intelligence agencies known or suspected to use torture continues. “[CSIS] maintains intelligence sharing agreements with 147 other agencies, including not only Israel’s Mossad, but also the Mukhabarats or secret police of Egypt, Syria and Morocco,” Amy Darwish of Tadamon! explained. “This not only causes complications for people when they travel overseas, but can also put community members and their families at risk.”

The result of CSIS actions, the coalition alleges, is a chilling effect on anyone who considers joining a social movement, getting involved in community organizing, or speaking out publicly on issues contrary to the federal government’s concerns. “[CSIS] creates a climate of fear and insecurity, so people stop wanting to get involved in community organizing of any kind because they feel it will attract unnecessary attention. It creates a chilling effect,” said Chew.

But the impact doesn’t just stop with the people who receive visits.

“There are many people who would like to be here from my community but who won’t come forward.”

CSIS has defended its actions in the past, saying that their investigations are necessary to ensure the safety of the Canadian public and for our national security and interests. CSIS, though, is not charged with setting those interests, leading some to question to what degree changes in the political wind can impact their investigations.

According to Darwish, the fact that CSIS is mandated to collect information about the influence of foreign interests on domestic activities in Canada provides a pretext for unfairly targeting groups, particularly those who support “national liberation struggles or anti-colonial movements abroad.”

“In fact, even the Security Intelligence and Review Committee, which is CSIS’ own oversight body, has claimed that CSIS has a regrettable attitude that supporting Arab causes can be suspicious,” she said.

Domestic activities also raise questions of the agency’s impartiality and whether its actions can be seen as separate from political priorities.

“The surveillance of Indigenous communities is one example among many showing that CSIS does not play a neutral role...It’s highly politicized and the state determines who the enemies are,” said Singh.

“Historically, the very origins of policing in Canada, the Northwest Mounted Police and eventually the RCMP, was to quell native rebellions and was in the service of Canadian colonialism.”

Echoes of this can be seen today, panelists said, in the government’s use of terms like “enemy of the government” in internal documents, publicly characterizing environmental groups as “radicals,” as Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver recently did, or dividing society into sectors such as government “allies” and “adversaries.”

Such heavy-handedness and political labeling may backfire. Lamy believes the Conservative government’s continued attempts to equate dissent with criminality will lead to the label of “radical” being applied to a growing number of organizations. The result will be that “the feeling of solidarity will grow larger and larger, because the label [of “radical”] will be stuck to more than anarchists or anti-capitalists or Indigenous movements, but will be applied to a variety of groups that work on questions of social aid, welfare, even women.”

The campaign, according to Singh, “is done in the spirit of support and understanding and dialogue. It’s trying to build community-based trust between our different groups and it’s there so that we can provide proper security versus any kind of threat.”

To that end, the coalition will continue to approach groups across Canada to join the campaign against cooperating with CSIS, as well as share information on what people should do if they or others in their community are approached by the service. Lamy also said that an annual march against what is seen as CSIS’ myriad abuses could be in the works for the future. “[We want to make] sure this gets out across the country and that there are clusters and nodes in every city and town that are getting endorsements and breaking that fear of CSIS,” said Singh.

Suite SCC-301 Ryerson Student Centre 55 Gould Street Toronto, ON CANADA M5B 1E9

Phone (416) 979.5000 x7715

Fax (416) 979.5223

Email ryersonfreepress@gmail.com

Website WWW.ryersonfreepress.ca

Editor-In-Chief Nora Loreto

News Editor James burrows

Features and Opinions Editor Scaachi Koul

Layout and Photo Editor Andrea Yeomans

Culture Editor manori ravindran

Cover Photo JESSE MCLAREN

Contributors lindsey addawoo davida ander brian boudreau anastasiya komkova joseph lee samantha lui haseena manek JESSE MCLAREN tim mcsorley kelsey rolfe rhiannon russell abigale subdhan amy ward sadiah waziri Kevin Young

Publisher CESAR The opinions expressed in the Ryerson Free Press are not necessarily those of the editors or publisher.

Advertising Ryerson Free Press’ advertising rates are as follows. All prices are for single insertions.

Discounts apply for Ryerson groups and departments.

Full page—$750 Half page—$375 Quarter page—$195 Eighth page—$95

This article was originally published in The Dominion.

Ryerson Free Press FEBRUARY 2012 3

Provincial Tuition Grant “Underhanded” Tuition fees are set to increase Fall 2012

By Rhiannon Russell Asha Ali has a full plate. The 44-year-old studies social work full-time at Ryerson, holds a position on the Mature Students Association at Ryerson’s (MSAR) executive and has two children, ages 11 and 16.

“It’s really stressful,” she says. “You cannot imagine.”

Money is tight for most post-secondary students, but it is especially so for students who have a family to support.

So when Ali heard that Premier Dalton McGuinty was promising a 30 per cent tuition grant to post-secondary students if he was reelected last fall, she voted for him.

Unfortunately for her and thousands of other students, she’ll never get a dollar from this grant.

Though McGuinty did release a grant – the new grant rolled out this month will provide $800 per semester to university students and $365 per semester to college students – there’s some fine print.

The grant comes with a list of conditions – students must be studying full-time, gross parental income must be less than $160,000 a year, students must be less than four years out of high school, they must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or protected person and an Ontario resident and they must be in a program one can apply to directly from high school.

Mature and part-time students, therefore, aren’t eligible.

Lalita Padathe, president of MSAR, is not impressed.

“Mature students have lots of financial responsibilities and liabilities,” she says. “If it’s a grant, it has to be for everyone. It shouldn’t exclude some students.”

“The purpose of this tuition grant is to help students make a smooth transition from high school into postsecondary studies,” Tanya Blazina, senior media relations coordinator for the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, wrote in an email. “Students who are more than four years out of high school do not have their parents’ income considered in their OSAP application and are therefore generally eligible for more OSAP assistance.”

During the election campaign last fall, these eligibil-

ity requirements weren’t made clear. In their platform, the Liberals stated they would “support all middle-class Ontario families with a 30 per cent across-the-board postsecondary undergraduate tuition grant.” Many students assumed the grant would be available to all.

Over 300,000 students will receive it, but, according to the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, there are approximately 920,000 post-secondary students in the province.

Once implemented, the new grant is expected to cost the province $420 million, and the CFS estimates that the government could have reduced tuition by 13 per cent across the board at this same cost.

And there’s another clause – the Liberals are eliminating and phasing out three student aid programs to finance the rebate.

The Textbook and Technology Grant (TTG) awards $150 annually to students who receive OSAP. It will be nixed come September, as will the Ontario Trust for Student Support (OTSS), a program that matches donations to colleges and universities to establish endowments.

The Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top scholarship (QEIIAT), which awards anywhere from $100 to $3,500 annually to full-time students based on their marks and level of financial need, will be phased out. Students who currently receive the QEIIAT will continue to do so until graduation, but no new scholarships will be awarded.

Dominic Wong is a non-profit management student at Ryerson. He’s also the director of communications and membership development at CESAR. He calls this move “underhanded.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” he says. “At the end of the day, they are taking money from some students and giving it to other students.”

Wong is also surprised by the restrictions. “It’s clear that the 30 per cent grant is not helping everyone who needs it,” he says. “It seems [the Liberals] just kind of made these

broad assumptions.”

Plus, some students could be in unique situations that the grant doesn’t address. “What if you’re a part-time student at two universities?” Wong asks. “What if you went from high school to work to earn money for education? What if you are in a very large family and a $160,000 income can’t feasibly send you and your siblings to university?”

In her email, Blazina writes that the government is “committed to making postsecondary education accessible based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.”

“If it’s a grant, it has to be for everyone.

It shouldn’t exclude some students.”

Full-time undergraduate students are, by and large, the ones benefiting from the grant. And, for those who receive the TTG, its elimination isn’t all too significant – the government is taking away $150 per year and replacing it with $1,600 or, for college students, $730. Not bad.

Megan Duvall, 20, is one of these students. She’s in her third year of Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson, and she’s not complaining about the rebate. “It’s benefiting me,” she says, but she recognizes the downside it has for others.

Mature and part-time students “are kind of left in the dark,” Duvall says.

She’s right. Students like Ali are taking the hit. Come September, she will no longer receive the TTG’s $150. “I voted for the Liberals because I thought they understand what students are going through,” Ali says. “It’s not fair. I’m disappointed.”

GRADUATING IN SPRING 2012?

Simply completing your graduation requirements does not mean you have graduated.

If you are a student in your final year/semester/course, you are required to apply to graduate on RAMSS (my.ryerson.ca)

ApplicAtion DeADlines: Monday, February 27, 2012 Final date to apply for graduation on RAMss for the spring 2012 convocation (with $40 graduation administration fee)

Friday, March 16, 2012 Final date to apply in person to graduate for the spring 2012 convocation (with $40 graduation administration fee and $50 late fee for a total of $90) please remind your friends and classmates of these deadlines, especially those who are not regularly on campus!

4 ryersonfreepress.ca

Applications to graduate will not be accepted after March 16, 2012. eligible students who either have outstanding debts in excess of $10 or who have equipment, cage cards, library books or Resnet cards overdue as of May 11, 2012 will still be invited to convocation but will not receive their award document at that time. log in to RAMss to determine if you have a 'negative service indicator' (Withhold) and contact the appropriate department immediately to make arrangements to clear the outstanding debt.

For more information visit: www.ryerson.ca/curriculumadvising

OPINION Liberated Women, Oppressive Laws

By Sadiah Waziri

The drastic shift in foreign policies over the past decade have had a huge impact on Canada’s public image.

The future implications of rights and freedoms are deeply worrisome. Since the Conservatives came to power in 2006, a much more direct and comprehensive effort has been made on the part of right wing politicians to further isolate minority groups. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney — (dis) reputable for his support of deportation policies — is in the spotlight once again.

This time, it’s for his recent implementation of the niqab ban. The ban was introduced this past December, pertaining to citizenship oath ceremonies. Coincidentally, Kenney made this an issue when the Supreme Court of Canada was hearing arguments in the case of a woman who wanted to testify in court while wearing the niqab.

Kenney stated that the veil “reflects a certain view about women that we don’t accept in Canada. We want women to be full and equal members of Canadian society...Certainly when they’re taking the citizenship oath, that’s the right place to start.’’ Right place? Is Kenney going to determine a woman’s place by banning her right to wear what she wants?

This isn’t just about the citizenship oath: Kenney is also a strong supporter of the proposed Bill 94 in Quebec. If implemented, the bill will seek to deny women who wear the niqab of essential services.

Kenney’s condescending tone reminds me of the same inferior lens that was once cast upon the Indigenous people of this land. Let’s not forget that residential schools were the most powerful component attempting to destroy Aboriginal culture and identity. Instead of learning from Canada’s past indiscretions towards minority groups, such as the intern-

ment of Japanese immigrants in WWII, the Conservative government has opted instead to further isolate the Muslim community.

Aneesa, a vibrant and educated South Asian woman, has been wearing the niqab for fifteen years. She was born and raised in Toronto, where she attended the University of Toronto, and obtained a degree in Near Eastern Studies at the St. George campus. She is now a married mother of two, and a small business owner. Aneesa is also treasurer and secretary of the largest home schooling organization in Canada, as well as head of a magazine dedicated to topics concerning Muslim women.

“I have grown up seeing women wear niqab for thirty years in this country. Why are they being harassed and targeted now?” she says. “One of the beauties of living in Canada was the strong commitment to tolerance. That acceptance is what made Canada beautiful, that it was okay to be you, that it was okay to disagree.”

Aneesa says her neighbours have no problem with her dress, and it doesn’t cause anyone else harm. “I am a law abiding citizen, I respect the existing laws of this land. I am a proud Canadian, my niqab does not cause any citizen harm.

They should be discussing more pressing topics affecting this country such as issues pertaining to the gun registry, joblessness, food price hikes. Not a ban that fuels misunderstandings.”

Aneesa also mentioned the hypocrisy of those within the Muslim community who did not support the rights and freedoms of women who wear the niqab. “Had the community been stronger and more tolerant within” she says, “a ban would not have effectively been implemented. How is it

anyone’s business how I choose to dress, especially Muslims who oppose it? I’m not forcing anyone to wear it.”

Elizabeth Strout teaches English in Egypt, but was born in Quebec to Protestant parents. She converted to Islam in 2010 and wears the niqab. As a child, she had always had an admiration for the veil in spite of having no understanding of Islam or veiling. “It’s absurd that secular, western governments have taken it upon themselves to dictate to Muslims what their own religion does or does not require of them,” Strout says. “By banning the veil, even if it’s only in certain situations, the government is effectively saying that the veil is in some way harmful to the citizens of this country.”

Stout also renounced the idea of women being oppressed by the veil when male relatives in her family, including her husband, had no say in what she does or doesn’t wear. As someone who wears the hijab, the more common head-covering worn by Muslim women, and as a Canadian citizen, I am deeply concerned about the implications of this ban. It goes against the observance of religious freedoms that is outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Rarely will you come across a niqabi who isn’t willing to cooperate with basic security measures. The ban in practice does not ensure that everyone is reciting the oath during ceremony. It is only a deliberate attempt to target and attack women who wear niqab, a gesture of intolerance and discouragement for those who seek to live in Canada. Hate the niqab, disagree with it, but do not ban a woman’s right to wear it. Kenney made it blatantly clear that the citizenship oath ceremony was the “right place to start.” The real question is, where will it end?

As transparent as a brick wall Government transparency under the Harper majority government—is it just a pipe dream?

By Joseph Lee We have lived under the rule of the Harper majority government for nine months now: about as long as the average pregnancy. If the Harper government were a pregnant woman, she would have just given birth to a loud, mean, and hateful baby.

It’s easy to parrot the most popular sound bites on Harper: “Harper is a bully,” or, “The power of the entire government is centralized in the PMO,” and on and on.

It has become a common thing for us so-called “leftists” to hate the Harper government, but do we really know why we loathe and distrust our nation’s ruling party? It might be because the man who once ran on a platform of reforming the Senate is now stacking it with Tory supporters and sympathizers, including a former police officer named Jean-Guy Dagenais, who apparently ran, and subsequently lost in the last federal election. Guess which party he was running for.

On the other hand, you might harbour some resentment against the government for the massive failure that was the G20 Summit, which, depending on who you ask, was either a total waste of time, or a total waste of money. Of course, that particular exercise in what I would call hyper-nationalist bravado cost the country somewhere upwards of $1 billion, and produced some of the most hilarious head-

PHOTO: EZIOMAN via FLICKR

lines of the past decade. (Anyone remember the Fake Lake?)

And of course, there’s Tony Clement.

I could just leave it at that and let you make your own decisions about the illustrious President of the Treasury Board, but why let him off easy? Firstly, I used to follow him on Twitter for his Star Wars-themed tweets, but he never followed me back. (Damn you @TonyClementCPC!) More importantly, that’s that little thing about the misuse of taxpayer money.

It was nice to see the entire Conservative Party unite behind Mr. Clement, you know, the way your group of friends does when one of you has done something wrong. Hell, we even got more John Baird out of it. (If you didn’t get that reference, I suggest you watch more CPAC. Or maybe I watch too much.)

One-sided Twitter feud aside, rather than investigate Tony Clement and prove, with facts, that the entirety of his G20 involvement was totally crime-free, the party just said “no,” and shrugged it off and “stood strong,” as they like to say.

So that might be why I agree with the MP for Papineau in his description: a “piece of shit,” talking.

Needless to say, the Harper government is about as transparent as a brick wall.

Ryerson Free Press FEBRUARY 2012 5

Justice in society and justice in the SIU

By Haseena Manek Our society defines justice for crimes by having someone put behind bars. We see this idea represented in television, movies, and other cultural media. According to our neo-liberal conservative police state, we have somehow drawn a connection between incarceration and closure.

This is an extremely problematic way to view a criminal justice system.

An alternative would be the kind of preventative measures that involve accessibility to education, keeping kids off the street so that they don’t grow up to be petty criminals and more importantly, rehabilitation. If you stick a child in the corner and don’t tell them why, will that keep them from making the same mistake twice? This is how our current system works, and this is why we have repeat offenders.

What if you take away those consequences and have no punishment at all? No rehabilitation, no prison sentence. You are neither satisfying the demand of the right wing justice system or its possible alternatives.

The majority of police-related incidents either go without investigation, or when they are investigated, leave the offending officer cleared of all charges, if any were laid.

Sylvia Klibingaitis was shot on her front lawn in October of this year because she threatened police officers with a large knife. The Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU) recently concluded, “There are no reasonable grounds to believe an officer with the Toronto Police Service committed a criminal offence in this case.”

In 2003, 67-year-old Mei Han Lee was struck and killed when a Toronto police constable suddenly accelerated into an illegal right turn. Constable Juan Quijada-Mancia, now a sergeant, was fined $500.

Enter the SIU, the organization that “conducts investigations of incidents involving the police that have resulted in death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault.”

It is the unit that it supposed to do for the police what the police do for civilians. While the SIU may most certainly be investigating police incidents, very few officers face the same consequences a civilian would face, having committed the same crime.

When we see crimes like these, we demand justice. But what does that mean if the criminal is supposed to be on “our side”? What does that say to the victims and families of victims involved in incidences of physical, verbal and sexual assault and even death caused by the police, if those perpetrators are not criminally charged and do not go to jail? It says that the system does not apply to criminals in uniform.

I do not believe its ineffective investigations are serving

The majority of police-related incidents either go without investigation or leave the offending officer cleared of all charges, if any were laid.

What you have instead is the system in place for officers of the law. You have no accountability, and no chance for reform because there are no efforts made to reform criminal offenders wearing a badge.

6 ryersonfreepress.ca

our police forces either. How can we have faith in people who suffer no accountability for their actions? How can those officers function effectively when they face no consequences?

Who is to blame? Not the police. I do not believe we should blame every person in uniform for the actions of the whole organization. I think that would be doing the same thing that the SIU does, but in reverse. We would just be assuming guilt instead of assuming innocence.

No, instead we should look at each individual and their actions. Take them outside of the context of their badge and gun but keep them within the context of socio-political and socioeconomic power relations. Judge their words and actions as citizens, not just as cops, because I do not believe these roles should be mutually exclusive.

If a police officer rapes someone, or beats up a homeless person, it speaks to a greater societal condition, and the officer’s actions should be considered as a product of that condition. That officer should then be subjected to the same system that prosecutes violence done by its citizens.

Now, what if “an OPP constable wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a baton and pepper spray shoots and kills an intellectually challenged 59-year-old man holding a small pocket knife,” or “a Peel Region police officer sucker-punches a handcuffed prisoner and breaks his jaw in two places,” or if “two teens chatting on the grass in a public park are run over by a Durham Region squad car,” (all examples of reported incidents) and all of the officers are cleared by the SIU? At that point you are looking at unnecessary violence that goes unchecked.

You are very simply seeing a message that Ontario officers of the law are above the law.

FEATURES From East Jerusalem to the West Bank

I was selected to take part in a six-week long media project organized by NGO Operation Groundswell. The objective of the trip was to explore the conflict region through the media’s lens — working with local journalists, human rights organizations, and community leaders. We explored the realities behind the Israel/ Palestine conflict, collaborating with Kalandia Youth Media in the West Bank, where I planned and ran photography and videography workshops for kids.

By Sadiah Waziri Her eyes shifted right to left, reading the black calligraphy on the tiny piece of paper stuck to the bus window. Her mouth steadily opened as she quietly recited in a measured and rhythmic tone. Adjusting her beige floral headscarf and gradually closing her eyes, she reflected on the verses. The words written in Arabic were from the Qur’an. Believed to be a potent protection from evil and harm, it is usually recited by Muslims during travel.

Muhammad’s expedition from persecution in Makkah to his great welcome in Madinah is known as the Hijrah, Arabic for “migration” or “flight.”

I too was on a journey of my own.

The scene unfolding behind the old purple curtains of the bus and the Quran passage stuck to the window, depicted reality. A lofty 26-foot tall cement wall cut harshly through the landscape, unwinding along the desolate road. Barbed wire, with plastic bags stuck in its thorns, wound cruelly along The Wall’s crown. Watchtowers loomed overhead appearing at regular intervals, covered with black nets to distort the silhouettes of soldiers high above.

This was The Wall. Depending on your politics, this was the security fence, the apartheid wall, the separation barrier.

The bus suddenly halted, creating a whirlwind of dust on the road behind us. A man stepped onto the bus, wearing a white shirt drenched in sweat. He wiped his slick forehead, and sat down to enjoy the air-conditioner. He looked around the bus, making a general observation of the occupants. A pattern I noticed in the West Bank was local people curious of loud foreigners, joining in on conversations they could make out. We were discussing the controversy concerning the Green Line — a temporary geo-political boundary based on an armistice agreement between Israeli forces and Arab armies in 1948.

“If they knew I live in the West Bank, they would strip me of my permit,” the man said.

“It is easy to lose a permit; they look for any excuse to take it from you.” The Palestinian man was referring to the residency permit issued to him by the State of Israel in Jerusalem.

In other words, this man had a permit that allowed him to live in Jerusalem- the religiously charged holy city at the heart of all three Abrahamic faiths. Every time he crossed into the West Bank, passing The Wall on his way in, the risk of losing his permit grew substantially.

The reason for this heightened risk is due to the fact that the Green Line is located in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem up until the annexation wall is Israeli administered. It is important to note that the Canadian government does not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, and rather identifies the Green Line as Israel’s border in Jerusalem.

The man left the bus a few moments afterwards, leaving me puzzled. Although I understood that the area was Israeli administered, I wondered, what are the implications of stripping Palestinians of their citizenship? I decided to research residency permits. I needed to understand the complexities of Palestinian daily life. Several laws had been enacted over the years by the Israeli government that could easily strip Palestinians of their East Jerusalem residency. Most Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, which is recognized by the UN as being occupied by Israel. The restrictions on Palestinians are manifold. If a Palestinian spent more than seven years abroad, the Israeli government stripped them of citizenship. If they acquired citizenship in another country, the Israeli government stripped them of citizenship. There have been many instances where Palestinians have had their residency permits revoked simply for obtaining their education abroad. The man who had just left the bus was one of dozens of Palestinians I spoke with over the course of my trip who faced having their citizenship cards taken away. I brainstormed possible reasons as well as investigating the rationale behind why the man feared the ease with which the Israeli government could take away his right to his own land.

Jamal, a Palestinian taxi driver I met during my stay in Jerusalem, provided personal insight. “I have been threatened with revocation. I am displaced in my own homeland,” he said while driving me to Abraham hotel. “So what if I choose to go to the West Bank? To me it is connected to East Jerusalem, they are both my home.” He jabbed his finger at the houses dotting the valley and mountains surrounding Jerusalem, as we drove further east.

“These homes...I know the families — real ones. They don’t live here anymore,” he said. “It was all taken from them.” The homes now housed Jewish Israelis, transplanted here from various parts of Europe and North America through settlement programs. I was puzzled, recalling Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that the “Occupying Power shall not transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

The sentiment that the Israeli Government was tactfully usurping land for a pro-Jewish

demographic in the city was collectively felt by the indigenous Arabs I spoke with during my stay.

I also met a former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) solider named Tzuli, who delegates part of his time to helping disenfranchised Arab youth in the region. During our visit, Tzuli had invited us to witness the solidarity movement and protests that take place every Friday in Sheikh Jarrah against the eviction of Palestinians from their homes. During one of our stop over’s in the village, the animosity in the air was apparent. The walls of local shops were spray painted with visual depictions of injustice or resistance art and graffiti; giving us a powerful indicator into the intensity of the battle to retain home and land.

The Human Rights Centre in Jerusalem identified that since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel had effectively withdrawn the residency rights of more than 14,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites. HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization that assists Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, also claimed and accused the Interior Ministry of systematically enacting a routine “quiet deportation” policy towards Arab residents, implying a deep embedded agenda to establish a pro-Jewish demographic in the holy city.

The statistics made me question the nature of the democratic principles that the current government routinely boasts of implementing. The issue strengthened my desire to understand how these policies in turn affect the calls for peace and stability in the region.

I researched further into the topic and found that under the Freedom of Information Act, the official interpretation that the Interior Ministry chose to pursue had been stemmed by a 1988 court ruling, which found that Israel had the right to repeal residency for any East Jerusalem inhabitant that showed transfer of “center-of-life.” It became clear to me why the Palestinian man we met on the bus would frequent trips to Jerusalem. It was to prove that East Jerusalem remained his “centre-of-life”. It was hard for me to ignore the severe economic, social and family oriented repercussions the Palestinian inhabitants must endure on a daily basis; from checkpoints to the separation wall, to the threat of revocation.

It is also understood that if a resident is overseas, the term “abroad’ also implies to residences that frequent the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This policy can be extremely difficult to bear or accept if a Palestinian chooses to marry someone in the West Bank. It is widely understood that their spouse will not be allotted Jerusalem residency. Israeli organizations such as ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) and HaMoked (Center for the Defence of the Individual) are adamant to expose and hold their government responsible for not abiding by international humanitarian law. “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his or her own and return, to it,” says Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The panoramic view of Jerusalem was remarkable; the conflict was arranged and laid out right in front of our eyes. We scanned the region from a high mount. This was my experience during a free study tour with the Israeli NGO Ir-Amim as they outlined, exposed and monitored government policies that have impeded stability and equity in the region. The gold circular copula of the Dome of the Rock illuminated from a distance. The highlight of the tour mapped out the separation wall. The most obvious travesty we could witness as participants on the study tour was the divorce of bereaved Bethlehem farmers from their olive groves and the lofty Israeli settlement fortresses perched on selected mountaintops. The absentee property law that was passed in 1950, which was detrimental towards Palestinians who were forced to abandon their homes, has been used by the state of Israel to once again continue a policy of “quiet deportation.” Farmers were deemed absent from their olive groves because Israel had erected the “security fence.” The Ir Amim tour guide outlined the socio-economic disparities prevalent due to the separation wall. She cited the economic deterioration, rise in poverty, and the lack of education and mobility as few of the factors affecting the indigenous communities.

Another discerning reality I perceive to be was in regards to the lack of transparency for Palestinians to construct homes in Jerusalem. The hurdles put in place to acquire a construction permit in East Jerusalem have inevitably caused a troubling housing shortage amongst Arabs. It is one of many reasons leading up to the loss of permanent residency statuses.

When I reflect back, I remember the old Palestinian woman on the bus. On her journey in her homeland, even as her eyelids shut, she was not absent from the reality of occupation. She was present.

Ryerson Free Press FEBRUARY 2012 7

PHOTOGRAPHY BY jesse mclaren

Rights, Campus, action On February 1, students marched against under-funded post-secondary education in Canada

By Stephen Hargreaves WINDSOR (CUP) — University students across the country mobilized in opposition to the underfunding of post-secondary education as part of a National Day of Action on Feb. 1.

“The National Day of Action is part of a nation-wide campaign called Education is a Right,” said Roxanne Dubois, national chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students. “The main goal is to fight for an acceptable, well-funded system of postsecondary education in Canada.”

Dubois points to the underfunding of education and rising tuition costs as major factors in educational inequity in Canada. “We not only need to educate people about the importance of post-secondary education, but also the importance of fair access to post-secondary education.”

“Universities have been under-funded since the 1990s,” said University of Windsor event co-organizer Vajo Stajic, the education and advocacy co-ordinator for the university’s Organization of Part-time University Students. “We need to pressure both the provincial and federal governments to make education a priority. Students can no longer stand by and let tuition fees rise and rise. Post-secondary education needs to be accessible for all.”

According to the CFS, only 34 per cent of university and college students are

eligible for the Ontario Tuition Rebate launched this month. Not covered by the Liberal campaign promise grant are part-time students, mature students, international students, students in a second entry program, including law, medicine and teachers college, and students whose parent or parents make over $160,000 annually.

“This is a lot of money to create a program which is very complicated and expensive to administer,” said Dubois. “It doesn’t increase access to post-secondary education, though it does give some students some help, which is important. The campaign promise was a tuition fee reduction of 30 per cent. That is not what this is.”

At the time the grant was announced, Minister of Training Colleges and Universities, Glen Murray told The Lance, “By giving a grant to students it reduces the cost to students but does not deny important revenue universities need to produce a high quality education.”

When asked about the omission of assistance for many students Murray said, “While we celebrate today, I am rolling up my sleeves.”

“Students are calling on the Ontario government to turn their rebate into an across-the-board tuition fee cut for all students,” said Stajic. “The students being excluded by the rebate are those who are most financially at risk.”

2011’s Most Important Story: A Modern Revolution

By Brian Boudreau “Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam.” The people want to bring down the regime. This is the overall sentiment that has spread through the Middle East like wildfire. But as alien and distant as the awakening might seem, the Occupy Wall Street movement here in the west was catalyzed by some of the same sentiments. Taking a close look, these were the biggest stories of 2011, and their impact on 2012 will be unmistakable. With tensions heating up in Syria and other Arab states almost every day, and the American presidential election around the corner, the influence of these movements shows no signs of stopping.

The Arab Awakening has stringed along revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, a civil war in Libya, and the hints of a civil uprising in Syria. The driving factors behind it are universal and well-established: high unemployment numbers, poor living conditions, and above all, government corruption. There are similar reasons why the Occupy movement began, like a crumbling economy and a lack of faith in the government’s ability to handle a recession while taking care of the middle and lower-class. The Occupy movement spread, branching out to various cities throughout the United States, Canada, the U.K., and even in Germany and Hong Kong.

But how did these two movements rise?

More than ever before, people have the power to gain numbers and knowledge on their own with just one click. Social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter heated up as people took their frustrations to the web. Online forums were formed, which materialized into protests and demonstrations of undeniable influence.

The success of the Tunisian revolution in early 2011 inspired people in similar situations, with equally desperate pleas to take the issue into their own hands. Egypt’s uprising and the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak received widespread media attention, similar to the media attention Libya received with their anti-government demonstrations last year. The

country underwent a violent civil war through much of the year. In the end, the rebels took Gaddafi’s body to Tripoli, Libya’s capital, with a new government in mind.

Regimes scrambled to block internet access, phone signals, or whatever they could get their hands on to stop the protests – including force. In a chilling resemblance to these regimes, American government sshot down the Occupy movement with police brutality and legal pretense. Still, to say that the situation in North America is comparable to that in the Middle East remains inaccurate.

In truth, these are different situations with completely different sets of rules that happened to be triggered by similar demands. The crucial difference between the two movements is that the Occupy movement is happening within a democratic way of life, while the other is an attempt just be a part of a democratic conversation. Occupy Wall Street focused on implementing a transition of power that would result to their benefit, but a transition of power that is expected and scheduled nonetheless. The picture is much bleaker in the Middle East, even now.

The future of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya isn’t any more certain than it was before the revolution took place. Protests have persisted in Egypt as the peoples’ response to what they see as unsatisfactory management of instituting reforms and change. The international community has increasing concerns over Libya’s well-being, and the peoples’ ability to lead a righteous government. Certainly, the revolution isn’t as clear-cut as it was made out to be.

This year will have new developments with what concerns the future of the Arab world and the future of America, its allies, and its business partners. With eleven months of 2012 left, the road remains unfathomable, but it is in the interest of all Canadians two follow these two movements closely.

Political Love

By Kelsey Rolfe It’s that time of year: love is in the air, everything is adorned in red and pink, and we’re collectively fretting over what to get our significant others for the most vacuous but well-meaning holiday. Just like us, our politicians need a little loving. Here’s a handy list of good gift-ideas for that special public figure in your life, should you run into them on February 14.

Stephen Harper: Like Brian Mulroney before him, our current Prime Minister has developed a friendship with the U.S. president, which can benefit our country and its southern neighbour. As of early December, the prime minister and the president announced a new border deal which involves joint government facilities, among other protection enhancements. Since Harper has been so chummy with Canada’s beard (are we still calling them that?), it seems only fitting to give him a star-spangled mug to sip his Valentine’s Day hot chocolate from.

Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe: It’s been a tough year for the former leaders of the Liberal and

Bloc parties: both parties were decimated in the fallout of the last federal election. But hey, in Canadian tradition, everyone deserves a trophy, so why not hand out a few with fuzzy red heart stickers? In Canada, everyone’s a winner, even when you’re a huge, huge loser.

Rob Ford: After a (very, very) brief honeymoon period following his election, Mayor Ford saw a steady decline in his popularity. He faced harsh criticism this past year for his proposed budget cuts, specifically related to childcare, libraries, arts, and HIV prevention. I bet he’s pretty stressed out from all that decisionmaking, never mind his new weight loss venture with his brother, Doug.

It would be worth it to show him a

10 ryersonfreepress.ca

little relaxation: I would take our mayor out to the ballet to show him what he’s missing. (Mostly because I love the ballet.)

Doug Ford: I love giving books as gifts, no matter the occasion. Christmases, birthdays, and Valentine’s Days alike are excellent times to give the gift of reading. (I like to think of it as the gift that keeps on giving.) I also adore Rob Ford’s outspoken, oft-hilarious brother Doug Ford (and I’m not even a little ashamed to say it). For the man who always says what’s on his mind, even when he probably shouldn’t, Margaret Atwood’s entire collection is the best gift possible. Hopefully then he’ll know who she is.

Bob Dechert: The Conservative MP got his fair share of attention in late November when his relationship with Toronto-based Xinhua reporter Shi Rong was revealed, and rumors of “sexpionage” ran rampant. (Better than sexting, weirder than actual sex.) Though his emails were merely “flirtatious” in nature, he issued an apology for his actions. If you happen to see him running around his Mississauga-Erindale riding on February 14, do me a favour and pass along a copy of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Peter MacKay: On December 29, Defense Minister Peter MacKay (once known as Canada’s most eligible bachelor) married rights’ activist

Nazanin Afshin-Jam. I don’t know where they registered, but I’m sure they could use some his-and-hers towels for the bathroom. Sometimes it’s just nice to be nice.

Justin Trudeau: The spirited Papineau MP emulated his late father near the end of the year when he slipped up in the House of Commons by calling Environment Minister Peter Kent a “piece of shit,” and reminded Canada why Question Period is occasionally worth watching.

(I, for one, will be tuning in more often, hoping for some swearing.

That’s just good entertainment.)

For Valentine’s Day I’d love to take him out for a dinner date. Not for any real reason. The guy is just gorgeous.

CULTURE The Road to the Oscars

By Samantha Lui

As the Academy Awards go live on Feb. 26, the year’s theme pays homage to old eras such as late 1920s Hollywood, Paris in the 1930s and Mississippi in the 1960s.

Paying tribute to the black and white silent film years of Old Hollywood, the film to beat is undoubtedly The Artist, which is currently up for 10 Oscars. Up for the top prize of Best Picture, writer-director Michel Hazanavicius’ film also received nods for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. For acting, Jean Dujardin was awarded a Best Actor nomination for his role as George Valentin, a silent film star who refuses to adapt to talking pictures. Bérénice Bejo, who stars as Peppy Miller, also earned a nod for Best Supporting Actress.

While The Artist appears to be the favourite, it is up against some heavy competition.

Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, a 3D homage to film preservation, currently leads with 11 nominations.

Following with five nods, Alexander Payne’s The Descendants is also nominated for Best Picture. Despite being recognized for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, the film is expected to win mostly because of George Clooney’s performance. Straying from his usually charming characters, the

Academy Award winner (Clooney previously won for Syriana) is transformed into a troubled father trying to re-connect with his two daughters after his wife is put into a coma after a boating accident. Since the film’s release, Clooney has won acting awards at both the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards.

The Help, a story of domestic workers in segregated Mississippi, is also expected by some to win. Nominated for four Oscars, it is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress for Viola Davis and Best Supporting Actress for both Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain.

While these remain the top runners heavily favoured to win awards, there were also many surprise nominees, the most shocking being Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a film about a boy searching for a secret from the father he lost during 9/11. Garnering mixed reviews and a low 48 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned nods for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Max von Sydow).

Another surprise nominee was none other than Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids.

Playing the raunchy man-eating bridesmaid Megan, her hilarious portrayal earned her a nod for Best Supporting Actress.

The Canadians also did not leave emptyhanded. Toronto-born Christopher Plummer received a Supporting Actor nod for his work in Beginners, where he plays a gay father who comes out of the closet after the death of his wife. Also nominated is Quebec director Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar for Best Foreign Language Film.

But with every awards show, the nominations also snubbed many notable candidates.

Canadian actor and current “it guy” Ryan Gosling’s work in The Ides of March and Drive was ignored by the Academy. While both films were not heavily favoured around the awards circuit, his acting in both films has received critical acclaim and earned nominations at the Golden Globes.

Another actor who was expected to be nominated but wasn’t was Michael Fassbender for Shame. Playing a damaged sex-addict living in New York City, Fassbender earned nominations at both the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes.

But despite the surprises, the 2012 Academy Awards is set to be an interesting one.

With host Billy Crystal coming back to host for his ninth time, it will be a night you might want to tune in for.

2012 Nominees include: Best Picture The Artist The Descendants Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Hugo Midnight in Paris The Help Moneyball War Horse The Tree of Life Best Actor Demian Bichir (A Better Life) George Clooney (The Descendants) Jean Dujardin (The Artist) Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) Brad Pitt (Moneyball) Best Actress Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) Viola Davis (The Help) Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn) Best Supporting Actor Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn) Jonah Hill (Moneyball) Nick Nolte (Warrior) Christopher Plummer (Beginners) Max Von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) Best Supporting Actress Berenice Bejo (The Artist) Jessica Chastain (The Help) Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) Octavia Spencer (The Help) Best Director Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life) Alexander Payne (The Descendants) Martin Scorsese (Hugo) Best Animated Feature A Cat In Paris Chico & Rita Kung Fu Panda 2 Puss in Boots Rango Best Foreign Language Film Bullhead (Belgium) Footnote (Israel) In Darkness (Poland) Monsieur Lazhar (Canada) A Separation (Iran)

12 ryersonfreepress.ca

PHOTO: ANTOINE TAVENEAUX

Now and Ten: TIFF celebrates the best in Canadian film

By Amy Ward If you’ve ever questioned where Canada’s place is in global film, TIFF’s selection of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2011 answers with one word: everywhere. Not just dressed up as a poor man’s New York, but represented in a breadth of great works that showcase Canadian directors, actors and writers in settings and situations as diverse as our people.

Where Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz is as much a love story to the neighbourhoods of Toronto as it is the romantic triangle between her lead characters, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method is unencumbered by Canadiana, but instead depicts a broadly European tale of an Austrian, a Swiss, and a Russian, portrayed by a Brit, an American and a German Irishman. Jean-Marc Vallée’s Café de Flore intertwines two stories of love in 1960’s Paris and modern-day Montreal, while Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun is set in the universal Hope Town (aka Scum Town) where the homeward-bound gent plants his feet. If the jury set out to pick a series of films to represent the breadth of the Canadian experience, this list is a good start, if you can forgive the relatively Eurocentric skew of the feature set. Fortunately, the future of Canadian film diversity looks promising, with the inclusion of Canada’s Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar, which tells the tale of an Algerian immigrant teacher, along with a number of shorts that explore Canadian experiences as broad as leaving a First Nations reserve, fearing that a poor school grade sparked the Bosnian war, or earning a long-lost father’s secret ingredient for doubles with slight hot pepper.

TIFF recently showcased the top ten features and shorts at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, but many of the films are opening soon in wider release or already available on video. Here are some of the highlights: Starbuck A prolific sperm donor (Patrick Huard) discovers after 20 years that he fathered 533 children, 142 of whom now want to meet him. While attempting to conceal his true identity to avoid the financial burden of 142 allowances, he sets out to meet the kids and prove to his pregnant girlfriend and to himself that he can be a good father. This Quebec charmer is sweet, funny and fresh, recently earning the audience award for best narrative feature at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

This is a universal tale that could take place anywhere but hints at the acceptance and diversity of all Canadian children and their parents — no matter how they spend their free time.

Take This Waltz Sarah Polley’s thoughtful second film is like a summer fling for married people. Michelle Williams is endearing as the awkward married woman who falls into a seemingly destined romance with neighbour Luke Kirby in spite of a cozy relationship with her husband (Seth Rogen). The frustration between two good options, the romantic artist lover and the more childlike but loving husband, makes this a sophisticated tale instead of a simple romantic comedy. The quirky script highlights the married couple’s sibling-like relationship with a running set of mock-violent come-ons, like “I love you so much I want to inject your face with a curious combination of swine flu and ebola.” Shots of shabby chic Victorians, Centre Island rides and Trinity Bellwoods Park reflect Polley’s love of Toronto’s liveable nooks and crannies with audiences who may have only seen the city as a stand-in for somewhere else.

A Dangerous Method David Cronenberg’s depiction of psychiatry titans Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) is a study in power play, both in its actors’ performances as well as in the subtle conflicts between the characters they represent. Keira Knightley’s portrayal of a hysterical patient’s jerks and outbursts is rightfully uncomfortable to watch, there as a reminder of the female psychiatric afflictions common in a time before psychoanalysis or

Simone de Beauvoir. The film’s painterly cinematography may well make up for Cronenberg’s redundant flogging of Jungian water imagery, from the patient’s baptism in a cold tub, to Jung’s perch on the lake, to an oceanliner crossing the Atlantic, where landlubber Freud keeps his feet planted firmly in ego and id and avoids Jung’s notions of an oceanic collective unconscious. While the setting, cast and storyline aren’t expressly Canadian, Cronenberg establishes his power as a filmmaker by setting himself free from the constraints of nationality to tell a good story.

Café de Flore A tale that pairs two storylines set in Montreal and Paris puts Canadian cities on par with the rest of the world. A father in Paris deals with his inner conflict over leaving his lifelong love and the mother of his children for a younger woman who stirs his passion. Forty years earlier, in Paris, a single mother pours herself into raising her Down syndrome son so that he can live past the condition’s then 25-year life expectancy. The stories of the boy and the man are intertwined by their mutual obsession with the titular song, Café de Flore, itself a reference to the Parisian coffeehouse populated by intellectuals in the years after the Second World War. A celebration of cultural roots, the cycles of history and the subconscious pull of a good tune.

Rounding out the top ten is the Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar, the over-the-top homage to 1980’s exploitation films, Hobo with a Shotgun, Guy Maddin’s trippy home odyssey Keyhole, and three films by first-time feature directors: Nathan Morlando’s bank heist flick Edwin Boyd, Sébastien Pilote’s storytelling salesman saga Le Vendeur, and Guy Édoin’s redemption tale Marécages.

A World of Shorts is a world of confusion

By Brian Boudreau A World of Shorts: Past Perfect, presented by the Canadian Film Centre, consists of six – quite dark – short films from around the world. Part of a series of monthly shows, the screening gave audience members the opportunity to watch some of the films that didn’t make the cut for the annual Worldwide Short Film Festival.

I arrived at the small cinema in excitement, not quite knowing what to expect, and I left with an underwhelmed and lukewarm opinion. But before you shoot this event down, hear me out: it wasn’t all bad.

The films varied from captivating and mesmerizing to dull and suffocating, but during the two hours that I sat there, I could not deny the obvious talent, creativity and inspiration that unraveled before me. And it’s quite true; shorts don’t nearly get enough love.

There are two films that particularly caught my eye: the British escape-from-reality film Nocturn, and the animated short Second Hand.

Nocturn, directed by Leanne Welham and running at about 15 minutes, succeeds in properly and intelligibly capsuling a married woman’s sleepless night with a rule-breaking and rebellious young couple, and how that night forces her to face the reality of her marriage and perhaps her own sexuality. The key aspect of the film is that Welham manages to keep things simple and to the point; instead of asking questions from the audience, she

answers them quite diligently. It is in this fashion, I found, that shorts work best.

Director Isaac King, who was present at the event, achieved this in his animated film, Second Hand, which stood out as a bright segment in an otherwise harrowing cinematic experience. It was by far the most stimulating piece in the lineup, using colorful imagery to convey an environmental message to recycle. King told the audience he was creative and humorous with his drawing, but that in the end, it all contributed to the message. However, the film refrains from being too preachy, relying instead on hilarious and remarkably memorable characters: two neighbours, a hoarding family and a waste-producing working man, who learn from each other how to lead green and healthy lives.

Other films shown in the event included Repressed, Just Before Dawn, Sibylle and 1994, a particularly dark array of shorts dealing with troubled characters looking for redemption. The films weren’t awful, and I appreciated some of the exceptional acting involved. But because they are shorts, as opposed to features, it becomes tricky to convey messages. And in the end these film left me yearning for more, and sometimes even a bit too confused.

Next month, the CFC will put together another screening, this time dealing with the antithesis of love and relationships in response to Valentine’s Day.

Ryerson Free Press FEBRUARY 2012 13

The ROM puts apocalyptic rumours to rest with Maya exhibit

By Amy Ward A powerful civilization known for its artistic prowess, military strength and love of corn-based beverages, bought down by its unsustainable growth, environmental degradation and love of warfare. Though you might be forgiven for thinking of another empire of the Americas, the Royal Ontario Museum’s Maya: Secrets of their Ancient World paints the picture of a culture quite familiar to us modern time-dwellers.

The exhibit, which focuses on artifacts from ancient Maya cities such as Palenque in what is now the Yucatán region of Mexico, explores the history of a civilization that once dominated central America and addresses that nasty rumour that its people predicted the world will end in 2012. The show focuses more on the cultural achievements of the Maya – through a collection of jewelry, spiritual items and tomb decorations – than on any superstitious misconceptions we may have.

There’s something about a culture fixated on ritual human sacrifice that surely freed its artists to explore both the dark and light sides of humanity. The Maya, in endless cycles of creation and destruction, is showcased in illustrations of warriors slaying hybrid beasts and funerary masks that decorated dead bodies of nobles before they passed to the afterlife. Artisans poured the same level of inspiration into the preparation of cosmetic facial scars, ear spools, lip plugs and dental modifications as to creating decorative jars depicting the delicious trade commodity cacao or incense burners where the blood of sacrificed enemies would be burned as an offering to the gods. This dual appreciation for the forces of life and death is on display in an incense burner honouring the Sun God, whom the Maya believed transformed every night into the Jaguar God

of the Underworld. What is death, then, but a temporary shift into another reality?

This is where the 2012 prophecy comes in. The ROM exhibit gives visitors a bootcamp in Maya glyph-reading and explains the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which predicted the end of a 5,125-year cycle on December 21, 2012. Most experts say the Maya did not believe humanity would cease to exist on that date, but that a new cycle would begin. Had the Maya truly been paranoid about the end of it all, perhaps they would have been better to focus on the demise of their own civilization under the influence of the colonizing Spanish. In a culture of creation and destruction, one cycle’s ending is just a new cycle’s beginning.

Still, this doesn’t stop modern thinkers from speculating that December 21 will mark a grand shift, such as the Earth’s collision with an asteroid, a spiritual transformation for the world’s inhabitants, or an astronomic hangover following the end of fall exams. More worrisome, the upcoming U.S. presidential election in November coincides a little too closely to the end of this cycle and threshold of a new one, at least for those who enjoy Canada’s commensal relationship with a mighty U.S. instead of the uncertainty of some new global power. Or the end of one system of economics in favour of a new one.

Perhaps the Maya were on to something after all. But, aside from anxiety-creating calendars, the Maya also popularized that anxietydestroying remedy: good old chocolate.

Maya: Secrets of their Ancient World runs at the ROM until April 9, when it will travel to Ottawa for the final countdown to December. Student tickets are available for $22.50, or $17 on Fridays between 4:30 and 8:30 p.m., including admission to the ROM’s general exhibits.

A RyeHigh Staycation Sticking around for Reading Week?

We’ve got you covered

By Lindsey Addawoo Planning on staying in the city for this year’s Reading Week? Finding it easier to slump in your dorm on campus?

Whether it’s your budget or sheer laziness that keeps you hostage in the heart of Toronto, we’ve got a list of activities for the perfect RyeHigh staycation.

Monday, February 20 is Family Day. In your case, however, it might just be laundry day and a calling card. Why not get out of your room and do some ice skating? And no, we don’t mean the pond beside the Victoria Building; free ice skating is happening at Harbourfront Centre from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Skates and helmets are available.

Tuesday, February 21, is a day of indulgence at the Canadian Opera Company, which will be hosting a free concert of poetry and music at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The show, featuring young Algerian pianist Mehdi Ghazi, will go from 12 to 1 p.m. Also playing at the COC is Italian opera Tosca, featuring a

passionate young woman caught in a spiraling life of lust and betrayal. Prices range from $12- $318. Not in the mood for the arts? Come out and support the Toronto Maple Leafs as they face the New Jersey Devils at the Air Canada Centre at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 22 The Toronto Raptors face the Cleveland Cavaliers at the ACC once again. Ticket prices may vary. Game time is 7 p.m. Alternatively, Love from Afar, a riveting musical creation about the pilgrimage of a young woman from Tripoli plays at the COC at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets range from $12-$318.

Thursday, February 23 Maple Leafs play the San Jose Sharks at the ACC. Ticket prices may vary.

Friday, February 24 Experience the first day of Sexapalooza at the International Centre from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. Adult shows, shopping and seminars will leave you (and hopefully someone else) brimming with ideas for the bedroom!

Happy “Reading!”

Toronto’s Best Vintage

Our second annual retro round-up

By Kelsey Rolfe Though it might not feel like it right now, spring is well on its way to Toronto.

While ushering in the new season, why not usher in a few new vintage pieces for your closet? In its annual vintage spotlight, the Free Press brings you five of the best stores to hit up when looking for some retro wardrobe staples.

Cinderella Vintage (56B Kensington Avenue) Just like the characters from the fairytale, the customers of Cinderella Vintage are just looking for the perfect shoe. And while I can’t guarantee that a handsome prince will slip it onto your foot for you, I can say that the selection is fantastic and super unusual (my favourites were a pair of beautiful sequined flats in the entrance room). The pricing on their shoes won’t break the bank (between $40 and $60 on average), and you won’t have a hard time finding a unique pair.

14 ryersonfreepress.ca

Bungalow (273 Augusta Avenue) Bungalow is a good place for people who are new to vintage shopping — or mildly dubious of it. The bright store carries a mixture of new and old clothes, and really fantastic furniture and home decor, to boot. (I fell in love with a little Pixar-style desk lamp in bright orange.) They have a great selection of jeans in a variety of labels, a plethora of soft cotton tees and a wall of vintage Coach bags.

Could you really ask for more?

The Public Butter (1290 Queen Street West) The massive vintage storehouse in Parkdale is packed to capacity with everything from furniture to records to clothes and jewelry. It’s unquestionably an urban hipster’s dream: there are more grandpa sweaters and fantastically-patterned shirts than you can shake a stick at. Nothing that I saw cost more than $40, and the jewelry in the front case was almost ridiculously cheap.

(Namely gorgeous glittering rings that could have at one time been engagement rings, all priced at $2 each.) The crates of records, wall of shoes and overabundance of brightlyframed glasses were admirable.

Courage My Love (14 Kensington Avenue) This Kensington Market store has the best selection of accessories, bar none. The display cases by the cash register hold an assortment of stunning rings (my personal favourites were a collection of skull rings, and my friend picked out a mohawk head and

a pyramid), and several hundred gorgeous necklaces and earrings. If you’re not satisfied there, make your own at the jewelry bar across the aisle. And in the back section, gemstone rings are sold for $2 each. Their collection of hats and masks are also great for costumes.

House of Vintage (1239 Queen Street West) Situated in Parkdale (right across from The Public Butter), House of Vintage is another great stop for anyone new to vintage shopping. The boutique has its clothes arranged by type (coats, dresses, shirts and jeans are all sectioned off ), and has several recognizable labels within its racks. Their men’s section is also well-stocked. Unlike the other stores, House of Vintage lacks in jewelry, but it more than makes up for it with an abundance of shoes and warm knit toques.

The staff are incredibly friendly and helpful, and the prices are reasonable for what you’re getting. (A Ralph Lauren polo sweater from the 1980’s only cost me $35.)

PHOTOS: TOP—JASON ROWE via FLICKR; BOTTOM—Chris Allaire

Reviews

THEATRE American Idiot

A

s the audience anxiously awaited the commencement of American Idiot, the musical, a message sounded from the speakers: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have an announcement. North Korea has just successfully detonated a nuclear weapon.” A friend next to me was in a panic, waiting for further information before realizing it was simply part of the show, as many other satirical TV messages followed. The lights finally dimmed, the curtains rose and the cast began performing the songs of American Idiot.

Based on the music of Green Day, American Idiot is an hourand-forty-minute Broadway show focusing on songs from the band’s titular album. The musical was created by Green Day in collaboration with director Michael Mayer, and was performed at the Toronto Center for the Arts from December 28 through January 15.

The story revolves around Johnny, Will and Tunny, young friends from Jingletown, U.S.A., who are unhappy living in suburbia. When Johnny and Tunny decide they need to go out and experience the city life, Will gets left behind because he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant. Throughout the play, the trio becomes increasingly confused and unhappy about their miserable lives: Johnny becomes a drug addict, Tunny joins the army and Will spends his time drinking.

The play appeared to be about children looking for the least amount of responsibility and maximum rewards in life, while complaining and feeling sorry for themselves. Instead, I thought, it should have been more about feeling inadequate and like an outcast in American society – what Green Day’s album always seemed to be about.

The story was basic, unstructured and uninteresting. The mini-

mal dialogue of Johnny’s diary rants, which were humorous, didn’t provide enough explanation, making it hard to follow. However, the story was written to fit the music, which was fantastic. The live band on stage was amazing with lots of energy and enthusiasm, and slower songs were given a more classical feel with violins and a cello playing in the background.

The set design and lighting – for which the musical won a Tony award – made the stage look like a tattered warehouse, with TVs, a couch and a bed, while the lights complemented the music and were very creative.

The cast performed the songs with great enjoyment, obviously having been Green Day fans themselves, and the excitement was felt by the audience who seemed unsure whether to sit quietly or jump up and join in the singing, as that is usually what Green Day’s songs deem appropriate by their unbelievable energy.

It was surprising to see an older, middle-aged crowd among the youth, who I thought would like the music better. I don’t know how everyone felt about the performance but I’m sure the sex scene, where Johnny and his girlfriend Whatsername were in bed dry humping in the middle of the stage during Give Me Novocaine, caused some discomfort. A much more artistic part of the show was a contemporary tourniquet dance where Whatsername and Johnny used a long rubber band signifying, perhaps, the beauty in doing drugs and feeling free.

American Idiot might be the story of “sex, drugs and rock and roll” in an all-over-the-place Broadway musical, but it was an enjoyable, humorous performance celebrating the wonderful music of Green Day. — Anastasiya Komkova

Hypnogogic Logic

I

t’s not every day that you see four full-grown men parading around with life-jackets, matching outfits and an amusing amount of boldness. For members of the “Uncalled For” comedy troupe, though, it’s an ordinary occurrence.

The troupe showed off their silliness at the fifth annual Next Stage Theatre Festival at the Factory Theatre. Their 70-minute show, Hypnogogic Logic, explores the transitory state the mind enters before drifting off to sleep.

The name “Hypothetic Ludicrousness” would perhaps be more fitting. For a show claiming to be logical, Hypnogogic Logic escapes all boundaries of coherent sense. But the sold-out show didn’t fail to satisfy, featuring a post-apocalyptic gourmet dining show, a silly piano teacher who picks on one lucky audience member and a bizarre paperboy scene. Let’s just say these boys put the IT in creativity.

It all comes and goes quickly, with little time to process. The transitions between scenes are smooth and eccentric. A sketch on a man who discovers his life has eerily been faked leads into a monster-dance, then immediately into an old lady outing and directly into a war zone.

Only the world of dreams could justify such absurdity.

One particularly laughter-inducing slapstick sketch introduces the five stages of wine tasting and concludes with a soppy stage and more than one actor drenched. Add that to the play’s rather alarming ending and it leaves quite the clean-up for the crew.

Throughout the show, performers Matt Goldberg, Dan Jeannotte, Colin Munch and Anders Yates are not afraid to get messy. They commit to their characters with talent and enthusiasm. In one scene, Dan is a show-off convinced the world’s answers lie within the dictionary.

He works himself into such a frenzy that his face reddens, his mouth foams and spit flies across the stage onto audience members in the front row.

The seasoned troupe has been performing together for nearly a decade and has taken home two Just for Laughs awards for Best Comedy at the Montreal Fringe Festival. They were nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Comedic Play last year and recently began their web series on WeAreUncalledFor.com.

Hypnogogic Logic is a play worth your while. Come with an open mind and make sure not to doze off in the theatre: there’s no way your dreams will ever live up to theirs. — Davida Ander

FILM

Design for Living programme reads between the lines of Helvetica

F

rom Jan. 13 to 17, director Gary Hustwit’s Design for Living trilogy was featured at TIFF, and each film included a talk with the man himself. I was present for the screening of Helvetica, a 2007 documentary that examines the pros, cons and history of the font we all know and love (or love to hate). The trilogy as a whole is an exploration of modern design, and the spaces that surround us.

Hustwit says the idea for Helvetica came to him in 2005, when he “really wanted to watch a film about font, but they didn’t exist.”

After deciding to make the documentary, he contacted font designers like Massimo Vignelli and Wim Crouwel (both of whom were old enough to remember the creation of Helvetica in 1957), and other graphic designers, to discuss the font and its impact on design — in fact, he willingly admits he “used” a big name like Vignelli to convince others to take part in the film.

“I contacted Massimo Vignelli first, wrote a little paragraph explaining the film, and asked him to be a part of it,” Hustwit said.

“When he said yes, I emailed [other designers] and said, ‘Massimo Vignelli is going to be in it. Would you like to, as well?”

Prior to seeing the movie, I didn’t have high expectations, nor

did I know what to anticipate. I’m far from what you would call an art student, and I don’t have much concept of design. So when I showed up to an almost sold-out screening, I had to admit I was a little shocked. But, five minutes into the film, I understood why so many people had come: Helvetica wowed me.

Sit-down interviews with graphic designers — that were not only informative, but actually quite humorous as well — were interspersed with beautifully composed shots of New York City, where the audience was implicitly challenged to “spot the Helvetica.”

(Which wasn’t really a challenge.) The documentary included a rich history for the font type, and provided arguments about its quality and usefulness. (Erik Spiekermann, a German designer, wasn’t afraid to share how much disdain he had for Helvetica, and it’s cheaper spin-off, Arial.)

Even if you’re not a graphic designer or a font enthusiast, and you don’t have any real interest in modern design, Helvetica is worth a watch. It’s clever, interesting, accessible and provides a revealing look at how many different companies, retailers and municipalities use the exact same font. ­— Kelsey Rolfe

Ryerson Free Press FEBRUARY 2012 15

Students’ Voice Writing Contest The Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson is launching a writing contest for the Winter 2012 term.

The writing contest entries are for the following categories: creative fiction, creative non-fiction, formal essay, and poetry.

CESAR will publish contest winners and writings in the Ryerson Free Press.

In addition, two winners from each category will each receive a CESAR certificate of recognition and $250 cash award.

Please send submissions to contest@mycesar.ca

by Saturday March 10, 2012

Visit www.mycesar.ca for contest rules and elgibility or contact us at 416.979.5193

Sponsored by: