Why The Apocalypse Edition? School Schmool is your radical guide to your often unradical school. University can be more than an ivory tower, and this agenda highlights exciting ways to bridge the gap between academia and issues outside the classroom.
and that alternatives are needed.
School Schmool is another tool in our arsenal. With three sections – The Issues to educate and inspire us, The Groups to help us get involved in the community, and The Agenda to keep us organized and on top of things – School Schmool dates back to as well as an expanded website 1994. It began as a bi-annual (www.schoolschmool.qpirgmpublication that brought togeth- cgill.org), we hope that this ader group profiles, articles, and free, anti-corporate organizer practical resources of use to all will be useful whether you are a students, especially those inter- new student, a seasoned veteran ested in environmental and so- of rad activism, or just curious. cial justice issues. It was resurrected as an agenda and resource We know that it is the present sobook in the summer of 2006, ciety that is truly dystopian – its and has been connecting the collapse can only mean our liberaMcGill, Concordia, and Mon- tion: so bring on the Apocalypse! tréal communities ever since. In solidarity, Montréal has been an espe- School Schmool cially radical place this past year – situated at the centre of CONTENTS the largest student mobiliza- The Issues page 3 tion in Canadian history – and The Groups page 35 amidst an economic and social The Agenda page 49 crisis that is spanning the globe. The coming Apocalypse; and the upsurge in grassroots mobilizing, political resistance, and critiques of capitalism in the mainstream is largely due to the fact that the privileged are starting to learn what we queers, people of colour, women, and radicals have known for GENERATIONS – that the current social system sucks, that capitalism is inherently oppressive,
QPIRG McGill The Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill) is a student funded, nonprofit organization that strives to raise awareness and motivate grassroots activism around diverse social and environmental justice issues. Here’s a quick guide to our resources and events. Board QPIRG-McGill is run by a student and community member volunteer Board of Directors, elected through campus-wide elections each March. The Board of Directors is responsible for all decisions pertaining to the operation of the organization. Library The QPIRG Library offers McGill students and the general public hundreds of books, films, zines, and magazines that you won’t find at universities or public libraries in the city. Radical Frosh Rad Frosh is an alternative orientation program for incoming first-year students. Running alongside faculty frosh programs, Rad Frosh brings a fresh, political, and active approach to introducing new students to life at McGill and in Montréal. Summer Research Stipends QPIRG’s Summer Stipend is intended to provide individuals or groups with a budget/honorarium for $3,000 to work over the summer doing research leading towards action and change within
the Montréal community. Film Series QPIRG, often in association with our working groups, presents an annual program of films that deal with specific issues. All films are free of charge. Discretionary Fund QPIRG’s discretionary funding program aims to provide support for external, non-QPIRGaffiliated groups and individuals to conduct short-term actionoriented social change projects or events both on- and off- campus. Proposals are reviewed by QPIRG’s Board of Directors biweekly, and a sum of $250 is allocated each time. Space QPIRG-McGill offers meeting space, computers, phones, and other resources to groups and community organizations free of charge. Call to make sure space is available. Working Groups Working Groups, autonomous organizations that work with and under QPIRG’s mandate, are the heart of QPIRG. QPIRG-McGill’s working groups organize around a plethora of issues, ranging from environmental concerns, to research for social change, to queer activism, to HIV/AIDS campaigns. 3647 University, 3rd Floor (514) 398-7432 qpirg@ssmu.mcgill.ca www.qpirgmcgill.org 3
QPIRG Concordia The Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia is a resource centre for student and community research and organizing. We strive to raise awareness and support grassroots activism around diverse social and environmental justice issues. Our work is rooted in antioppression analysis and practice. We seek to make campuscommunity links and inspire social change through engaging, inclusive, and non-hierarchical year, including speakers, films, skillshares, and other workshops. approaches. We support close to 30 working groups that organize on a wide variety of issues ranging from radical education and childcare to prison justice, from art skillsharing to migrant rights, from international solidarity to QPIRG also maintains an active anti-police brutality work. schedule of events throughout the We also publish Convergence, a journal of undergraduate and community research; School Schmool, an alternative student agenda; and At The Heart of Resistance, QPIRG Concordia’s Working Groups Journal. Both students and community members are welcome to make use of our space and resources and participate in QPIRG projects. Our core projects include: the Study in Action conference, DisOrientation, the Community University Research Exchange (CURE), and our Resource Library.
1500 de Maisonneuve O. #204 (514) 848-7585 info@qpirgconcordia.org www.qpirgconcordia.org
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Reflections on living in the end times 1 - 3 Laura Ellyn, 2012
The Articles -Table of Contents Radical Anger ................................................................................... 6 Women of Colour Feminism ............................................................ 7 Misogyny in Queer Communities .................................................... 8 D.I.Y. Emotional Well-Being Tips................................................... 10 Navigating Healthcare .................................................................... 11 Taking Care of Your Body .............................................................. 13 Confronting Sexual Violence on Our Campuses and Beyond ........ 16 Fighting for Access ......................................................................... 17 Transformative Justice .................................................................... 18 Migrant Justice and Decolonization ............................................... 20 Against the Commodification of Culture: ...................................... 21 Tuition Hikes .................................................................................. 22 Respecting a Diversity of Tactics ................................................... 24 Know Your Rights .......................................................................... 25 Language of Struggle ..................................................................... 26 D.I.Y. Finances ............................................................................... 28 Gentrification .................................................................................. 29 What is a Conscious Community, Anyway? .................................. 31 Eating Well In MontrĂŠal ................................................................. 32 Popular Education .......................................................................... 34 For expanded articles on these topics, as well as writings on issues such as student parenting, police brutality, alternatives to university, and more, check out our website www.schoolschmool.qpirgmcgill.org.
Radical Anger You should be angry. We live in a controlled society that values skinny white bodies and male voices above any others, and discredits and devalues any divergence from this arbitrary, bullshit “norm”. The university, the media, the floor of a government assembly – these are the “legitimate” spaces of dialogue. These are reserved for those willing and able to engage solely through academic, “civil” discourse. People of colour, women, queers, and other marginalized groups that show any flicker of passionate anger are dismissed as unreasonable and unproductive, as emotional and therefore irrational and not to be worked with – only to be brushed aside, shut out, shamed. “Civil discourse” is a tool that upholds patriarchy and white supremacy, and those not playing along are systematically excluded. It is used to silence and disempower those who feel most rejected and betrayed by the established system. But anger can be one of the most productive forces behind action. When anger is harnessed, it can be revolutionary, emancipatory. And acting through rage makes you strong – far stronger than those suffocating you, because the psychological and emotional controls instilled by our socialization can be broken. You can become a fucking force of nature that isn’t going to put up with any shit. You can destroy the domineering structures of society 8
that count on you remaining docile and complicit. Don’t forget to ask yourself, “Why am I angry?” and to realize the links that can be made at the root of it. We are rarely alone in our anger, and there’s a beautiful solidarity that can be found within it. Coming together through collective anger can be a deeply empowering and bond-creating experience. No one has any authority over your anger except for you. Your anger is legitimate. Whenever you feel your anger swelling – good. There’s probably a good fucking reason, and it’s crucial to recognize your anger as a legitimate source for critique and action. You don’t need to always articulate your anger – that’s not what’s important, but knowing that and feeling it and gaining empowerment from it is an end in itself. The rest can follow. You’re going to be told to “calm down.” You might be called an angry, scary bitch. Fuck ‘em. Be angry. And fucking use it.
Women of Colour Feminism Experiences of gender oppression are not universal. Though many texts, ideas, scholarship, and voices have often tried to universalize a notion of “Feminism” for all women, this capital “F” approach to feminism has often alienated women of colour by constructing a body of theory and knowledge that is largely white, western, and middle class. For women of colour, our experiences of gender and gender oppression cannot be separated from how we are racialized. On top of living in a world that is inherently patriarchal, our bodies have also been brutalized, commodified, and sexualized as a direct result of colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy. Women of colour are more likely to face sexual violence than white women, are often poor and working class, are more likely to end up in jail, and often end up in exploitative work situations or live in fear and isolation because we lack legal status. Because we must challenge sexism within our own racial and ethnic communities as well as racism within the mainstream feminist movement, women of colour have had to create our own brand of feminism that focuses on dismantling both the systems of white supremacy and of patriarchy, while building a movement that is meaningful and empowering for ourselves.
Because we are treated as “Other” and lesser in mainstream society, it is important for us to speak out against the injustices that we face and to work towards our own liberation. This often means taking up space in places where we are not welcome, expressing anger toward those who oppress us, resisting co-option from those who try to commodify us, telling our own stories, creating our own theories and ideas, educating ourselves, supporting each other, asserting our own autonomous identities, and surviving in a world that does not want us to survive. We need to build a resistance network that empowers all women of colour, while acknowledging that we ourselves are not a monolithic group, have diverse experiences, and have various privileges and oppressions based on a variety of intersecting identities. Therefore, women of colour feminism must be a radical movement that seeks to dismantle all forms of oppression, and we must actively work in solidarity with people who may not share all of our experiences. This means confronting anti-black racism, cissexism, ableism, heterosexism, and classism within our own movements and communities as well. Women of colour feminism provides the framework necessary for us to work towards the liberation of ourselves and our
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communities, without relying on mainstream feminist thought that has often ignored or outright devalued our unique and complex struggles and identities.
Misogyny in Queer Communities Misogyny: the discrimination, devaluation, and hatred of women and femininity. Rooted in patriarchal culture, misogyny is based on the belief that men and masculinity are superior and more valuable in society. It’s a form of sexism that intersects with cissexist, heterosexist, racist, classist, ableist, ageist, and sizeist beliefs about women and femininity.
Sometimes I feel like I only exist on the margins of queer communities. As a femme lesbian, my identity is not always valued. My voice is silenced. My experiences of oppression are trivialized. My femininity is stigmatized and delegitimized – seen as heteronormative, apolitical, less radical, and less queer in a community where being visible and valued depends on being masculine or androgynous.
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Misogyny in queer communities may go unnoticed, be dismissed, or be believed not to exist at all. But misogyny persists in the privileging of men and masculinity, and the devaluation of women and femininity in queer communities. Misogyny is not a singular form of oppression, and it does not result in the same treatment of all women and feminine people. Furthermore, not all expressions of femininity or femaleness are equally valued.
This is how I experience misogyny. Misogyny intersects with beliefs about who counts as a “real” While misogyny is present within woman. Central to this construction all areas of society, queer people of “real” women is the naturalization experience distinct forms of misogyny, of women who identify with the both in the dominant culture and gender they were assigned, referred to as cisgendered women. within our queer communities.
While I experience oppression as a multiracial femme lesbian, as a cisgendered woman I experience privileges that are not extended to trans* women. From safely entering public washrooms, to having preferred pronouns used without question, to being (conditionally) accepted in society as well as in lesbian and queer communities – the privileging of cisgendered women contributes to the oppressions experienced by trans* women. The discrimination and oppression of trans* women is referred to as trans-misogyny, a term coined by Julia Serano in her book Whipping Girl.
Ending misogyny and transmisogyny in queer communities begins with an engaged analysis of these forms of oppression and how they work through the privileging of men and masculinity. But we need to put our analysis into practice. We must give value to trans*, lesbian, bisexual, and other queer women’s experiences and identities as well as the experiences and identities of femme/inine queer people of all genders. We need to break down the systems that naturalize women as cisgendered, as well as the systems that construct female femininity as heterosexual. We need to recognize femme women’s femininity as radical, empowered, Even as queer communities and unapologetically queer. have become sites of resistance to heterosexism and cissexism, We must continue to make our misogyny and trans-misogyny are communities inclusive of all queer present in the lack of analysis and people. And this can only be done outright persistence of male (both by working against misogyny, cisgender and trans*) and masculine trans-misogyny, femmephobia, and privilege. all other forms of oppression. Where do I pee? To find gender neutral washrooms on campus, ask these folks McGill:
Concordia:
The SEDE office For more information, talk to Tynan Jarrett, the LGBTQ Advisor at the SEDE office tynan.jarrett@mcgill.ca.
The 2110 Centre You can get a list and info from the peer support and advocacy folks. Email them at psa@centre2110.org.
A map of all-gender washrooms is available in the SEDE Office
Also check out safe2pee.org/beta, a website with usergenerated information about gender neutral washrooms in the city.
Shatner Bldg. 3610 Mctavish, Suite 12
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D.I.Y. Emotional Well-Being Tips
(taken from Slingshot Planner 2009)
Standing up against oppression is righteous, but risky, behaviour. It’s hard work, both physically and emotionally. A much too large percentage of activists burn out and disappear from their communities. The frustrations and injuries from fighting an uphill battle (of which we may never ourselves reap the rewards) can be demoralizing and traumatic. Sharing our feelings about the difficulties of working on the front lines is a crucial form of solidarity and friendship. Crisis Prevention Everyone will eventually have a crisis. For example, if you love deeply, you may one day grieve deeply. The question is, “Are you prepared for your crisis?” It is a good idea to develop your network of support now. Modern society isolates. Some day you may need a shoulder you can trust to weep on. Crisis Recovery Society provides few options for people in crisis other than mental hospitals, religion, and psychiatric drugs. The value of freedom, love, and community do not end when you’re in crisis. In fact, they can save your life. The key is empowerment – What do you feel really helps? Examples: • A mutual support group – simply peers listening to and helping peers as equals – validating, if not “endorsing,” feelings. • Try to remember to breathe. • Ecopsychology is realizing nature and wilderness are our greatest healers. Spend some time outside the city to get centred and away from pollution, which is in itself mindaltering. • Exercise, dance, biking and physical movement often prove helpful for depression, etc. • Art, writing a journal, making a zine, playing music, singing, and other forms of personal expression are often safe ways to break the silence with others, and even yourself, about inner pain. • Don’t neglect your basic human needs: sleeping, eating, shelter, fresh air, etc. • Find a counsellor who actually supports your selfdetermination. Ask lots of questions, especially about confidentiality, if someone else – such as your parents, boss, or university healthcare – is paying for your therapy. • Practicing meditation or spiritual disciplines may help you relax. (However, joining a cult is not therapeutic, so take 12
•
care not to have your vulnerability exploited by a seemingly perfectly nice bunch of people who promise to rescue you…) There is no shame in using psychiatric drugs if you know they work for you.
Many communities have 24 hour crisis hotlines or crisis centres. You can call Action Suicide (514) 723-4000 or 1-866-APPELLE (277-3553) if you’re thinking about killing yourself, or SACOMSS (514) 398-8500 or the Montréal Sexual Assault Centre (514) 9344504 to reach a local rape crisis line for survivors of sexual violence. Social change: Actually address the stressful factors in your environment. Revolution can heal. If you have a loved one in crisis, consider asking them if you and/or their counsellor can hold an emergency gathering or potluck to weave together their mutual support network of trusted friends – and find out what they truly need at this crucial time. However, don’t act over their heads.
art by *gecko
Navigating Health: A Road Map *N.B. This subject is vast and complex! For the sake of brevity, this article has been tailored to an assumed audience of majority English speaking university students (or former students) living in Montréal, who may or may not be of Quebec origin.
Accessing health care can be a challenge at the best of times, which can make advocating for yourself and your health tricky. There is a shortage of family doctors in Montréal, and Quebec’s health care system is overburdened (and some might say mismanaged!). As a result, you may have longer than ideal wait-times for appointments, and some doctors may not take the time to check in about matters that are important to you. Knowing what you want/need (when possible!) before going to a doctor’s appointment will make you more likely to ask for and get it. Unfortunately not all clinics use an anti-oppression approach (wouldn’t that be amazing?)! Some of us may be treated differently in clinics depending on the colour of our skin, our sexual orientation, our gender identity, our socio-economic situation, etc. Assuming that a patient is straight, for example, happens far too often. Assumptions like this, although often unintentional, are nonetheless harmful and may cause folks to feel judged or uncomfortable disclosing important details about their lives to health care professionals. If you feel safe speaking up about assumptions and judgements (be it in the moment or later in an anonymous note or phone call), it can be very valuable feedback for the professional/clinic and 13
may prevent others from being treated similarly in the future. •
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Do you prefer to use a name, gender and/or pronoun other than those indicated on your medicare card? Tell your doctor! If they look confused or act weird, consider pointing them in the direction of ASTTeQ’s “Taking Charge: A Handbook for Health Care and Social Service Providers Working with Trans People” so they can get schooled. Are you a queer woman who wants to get an HIV test? Insist that they give it to you!! It is your right. Do you sense that a doctor is trying to push a certain method of birth control on you because of your race and/or age? Ask them to walk you through all your options, think it over, and don’t settle for something you don’t feel good about. Are you there to get a pap test and your doctor is giving you weird vibes? Ask to have someone else in the exam room with you. Or change your mind and leave, that is totally ok. Have you been feeling depressed? Need support? Unless you want medication, watch out for doctors who are quick to push pills (and you – out the door!) without offering therapy or counselling. Ask what mental health resources are available to you. Nervous about an appointment? Bring a friend for moral support!
Remember, you are the expert on your life and your body! Doctors are there to help you take care of it. Don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself and for what you need when you go to a clinic. Students can check in with the Union for Gender Empowerment (McGill) or the 2110 Centre (Concordia) for recommended doctors around certain issues at their respective university health services. Consult the profiles (and write your own!) on ratemymd.ca. And in the process of finding a good doc and advocating for yourself, be mindful of the reality of the system and that your alternatives might be limited. If you rub your doctor the wrong way, nobody wins. Be firm in your approach, but respectful. Got a question? Need a resource? Not sure whether or not to go to a hospital? Calling 811 gives you 24/7 free bilingual phone access to a nurse who will help guide you.
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A few logistical considerations... Don’t speak French? Although many healthcare professionals in Montréal are bilingual, you may encounter language barriers if you try to access health care off-campus. If you can, bring a bilingual friend with you or brush up on some relevant vocab beforehand. If you have out-of-province health insurance some clinics
may require you to pay upfront and then seek reimbursement later. Some places charge extra fees! Student health services, CLSCs and Head & Hands will see you hassle-free. If you’re not sure if a clinic will accept your insurance, call and ask first. International student? For non-emergencies, stick to your student health services or go to Head & Hands. Most other clinics will charge you. Once again, if you’re not sure, call first! No insurance? This article assumes that most people reading it have some manner of medical insurance, but maybe you don’t or you know someone who doesn’t! Head & Hands sees folks regardless or their insurance situation (as long as they’re between 12-25). Médecins du Monde offers a clinic to migrants with no status living in precarity, regardless of age.
Taking Care of Your Body Consent Getting it on means something different to everyone and here are some things to consider: It can be really helpful to start with where you are at. Taking the time to check in with yourself, and to prioritize your own needs, desires, and boundaries can be a really helpful way to start to understand these things for yourself. It can also help you be better able to communicate with sexual partners. Everyone has different places they like to be touched and places they don’t, different names for their body parts, and different things their bodies can and cannot do, so avoid making assumptions – find out what your sexual partners like. Communicating about sexy stuff might seem really awkward, but it’s the only way to find out what is or isn’t okay with someone, and for them to know what is or isn’t okay with you. It can be hard to talk about things in the moment,
so one tactic is to try talking at a time when things are less hot and heavy. Being communicative and getting consent is a super important part of having sex that feels positive and hot for everyone involved. Protection There are many different ways to 15
approach using protection, and many different kinds of protection available. Not everybody is into using safer sex stuff like condoms and dental dams, and some people are only comfortable doing sexy things if they are using some kind of safer sex gear. Checking in about this kind of thing will make sure that everyone can feel good about the plan regarding using (or not using) protection, navigating risk, and so on. Physical barriers are used in between two body parts coming into contact. Physical barriers include condoms, dental dams, and gloves. They’re used for a variety of reasons, including protecting against most sexually transmitted infections (like gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV), but condoms are also quite effective at preventing pregnancy (85% for typical use; 98% for perfect use). Watch your mouth: Certain STIs – including gonorrhea, chlamydia, and herpes – can be passed from person to person during oral sex. A dental dam can be used as protection for oral sex on a vulva or anus, and a condom can be used for oral sex on a penis. A dental dam can be made by cutting the tip off a condom and then cutting it up the side, or by cutting the fingers off a glove and cutting it up the side.
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Sex toys can include everything from dildos, vibrators, whips, rope, cucumbers, spatulas, and more. Remember to thoroughly clean sex toys before using them, and consider using condoms on things like dildos and vibrators –
this can be a good idea especially if you are sharing them with someone else, and use a new condom for each person. When using toys in anyone’s ass, it’s best to use a new condom before reusing the toy in any other body part to avoid spreading bacteria. Lube helps reduce friction and therefore prevent micro-tears from forming during any type of penetrative sex. This not only helps reduce the risk of STI transmission, it can also feel really good! It’s important to keep in mind the type of lube you’re using. Water-based lubes are great for almost all activities (and compatible with latex condoms), but they dry up faster. Siliconebased lubes are super slippery and compatible with latex, but they should not be used with silicone sex toys, as they can cause the toys to break down. Oil-based lubes should not be used with condoms, as oil degrades latex and can lead to condom breakage. Other stuff to consider: Latex allergies: For people with latex allergies, there are non-latex options such as polyurethane condoms and nitrile gloves. Unplanned or unwanted pregnancy: While condoms are pretty good at preventing pregnancy, they are not 100% effective. Internal condoms, spermicide, hormonal birth control, or something like an IUD or diaphragm are also methods of birth control that can be used, either in addition to or in place of a condom.
Technical difficulties: Since condoms and dental dams are only Resources for Students With Children! effective when used properly, consider carrying around a spare or two. McGill •
The SSMU Daycare provides care
Free condoms are available at for children aged 4 months and most health clinics, CLSCs, up: ssmu.mcgill.ca/daycare/home/ Head & Hands, and at lots of • McGill Daycare: student spaces on Montréal www.mcgill.ca/daycare/ campuses (QPIRGs, the UGE, Queer McGill, the 2110 Centre, • The McGill Student Parent Network offers grocery vouchers, volunteer etc). The Shag Shop at McGill childcare, a clothing bank and more. sells condoms, lube, gloves, dental dams, and pregnancy tests for cheap. Concordia STIs
See the Concordia University Student Parents Centre for support and services for student parents, such as referrals, a student parent network, a child-friendly space on campus, a lounge, workshops throughout the year, and more. Located at 1420 Guy St. (514)848-2431; cusp.concordia.ca/
Having an STI in no way makes someone any less sexy. However, STIs can cause serious health problems, so getting tested regularly is something to consider. The most common symptom of STIs is no symptom, so don’t necessarily rely on Montréal feeling “sick” before getting • The Montréal Childcare Collective tested. Having unprotected sex, works to meet the special sex with multiple people, sex needs of parents, children, lowwith new partners, and/or sex income communities, non-status with people you don’t really and immigrant folks, queer know are all reasons to consider getting tested more often than and trans* families, etc. www. you otherwise would. childcarecollective.blogspot.com, or There are different tests for different kinds of STIs, and • different tests depending on the body parts someone has. Some STIs can be tested with a blood or urine test, while others require a swab of the vagina, penis, mouth, or anus. Some STIs – like herpes and genital warts (HPV) – can be visually diagnosed.
email childcarecollective.riseup.net. For Aboriginal families, there is a CPE ($7/day) daycare located in Verdun called The Rising Sun Daycare. Aboriginal families have first priority, but they accept children from other backgrounds as well. They are the only daycare in the Montréal area offering the Aboriginal Head Start Program: gw.micro-acces.com/ cperisingsun/Publique/Accueil.aspx 17
Confronting Sexual Violence On Our Campuses and Beyond High-profile cases of rape and sexual assault on college and university campuses are hard to avoid, but when they cease to dominate news cycles, most colleges and universities are reluctant to address the issue of sexual assault within their institutions. The administration is afraid that it will turn off the parents of potential students, bring negative publicity to their school, and cost them valuable funding – who wants to be the first school to admit to being affected by a systemic problem? Unfortunately, sexual assault is a systemic problem. While statistics vary among specific demographics – with women of colour and trans* women at higher “risk” for sexual assault than their white and cisgender counterparts – conservative estimates indicate that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men are sexually assaulted in their lifetimes, with the majority of those assaults occurring before the victim reaches the age of 18. Colleges and universities are far from immune to the presence of this issue; in fact, academic institutions are often among the worst perpetrators of rape culture.
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Resources for Survivors Sexual Assault Center of McGill Students’ Society
english and french / open to all genders / 18+ / group / follow-up with loved ones / wheelchair accessible (514) 398-8500 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
english and french / open to all genders / peer-to-peer support / list of trans* and queer-friendly mental health practitioners / wheelchair accessible (514) 937-2110 Montréal Assault Prevention Centre
french and english / women and children only / prevention workshops / not wheelchair accessible (514) 284-1212 campus are incredibly rare, and are almost never established without large amounts of pressure from the university community. Where they do exist, they serve an urgent need. Students seeking to report cases of sexual assault and harassment – and seeking support in the aftermath – often face an uphill battle themselves.
How reports of sexual assault and harassment are handled often depend on the specific body within the university to which they are reported, which makes it hard to know who to go to if survivors wish to report at all. Security departments are University-supported sexual instructed to involve the police in assault crisis centres on
any case of sexual assault reported to them, regardless of the wishes of the person reporting: the university-run Office of Rights and Responsibilities at Concordia takes cases at their discretion (in 2010, only one reported case of sexual harassment proceeded to a formal hearing out of 12 reported cases). While SACOMSS at McGill and the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia (see inset opposite for contact info) have advocacy services to help people navigate these processes, it is important to recognize that
university negligence has caused said processes to become deeply dysfunctional and ultimately potentially harmful for survivors of sexual violence. An environment which does not adequately support survivors is an environment which enables sexual violence to continue.
Fighting for Access Disabled people are a part of every community; however, disabled people are too often apart from our communities because of systemic discrimination. Choosing not to act to make communities accessible to disabled people is making the choice to uphold an oppressive system of exclusion and marginalization. We all need to work to create accessible spaces – this includes, but is also a lot more than, ramps and lifts. Typically, the discussion about accessibility happens outside of the context of other oppressions, as if disability exists in a vacuum – as if the only conversation that we can be a part of is about physical access and disability rights regardless of other oppressions.
The conversation needs to be about more than accessibility: it needs to be about radical access. Organizing towards accessibility means thinking very specifically about who we make room for in our organizations, our workplaces, our classrooms, our homes, and our hearts, and who we leave out by our actions, by our attitudes, 19
many disabled people; if it doesn’t have disability accommodations, it isn’t accessible to many disabled people; and if it is racist, sexist, heterosexist, cissexist, ageist, or otherwise oppressive, it isn’t accessible to many disabled people. Radical access does not mean making space for someone in spite of their disability, but recognizes that everyone deserves space and that being Radical access does not mean “add disabled brings perspectives and ramps to the pot and stir,” it means experiences that are not only real and meaningful inclusion welcome but that are wanted. of all people, including disabled people. It means working against The word radical is derived from oppression and domination for all the Latin meaning “having roots.” groups. If a space costs money Radical access is not a fringe idea, to get into, it isn’t accessible to it is a fundamental idea looking many disabled people; if there is at what the essence of access no childcare, it isn’t accessible to means for everyone and fighting to make it happen. by the language we use, and by the physical composition of the space. Thinking about radical access means paying attention to the actual needs of actual people, keeping in mind histories and legacies of oppression, and trying to meet those needs, while always expecting and desiring more, different kinds of bodies and more, different kinds of needs.
Transformative Justice 101 Transformative Justice (TJ) is an approach that seeks to develop strategies to resolve conflicts in order to move beyond stateimposed, institutionalized criminal justice systems. A transformative justice philosophy seeks to address violence from a political organizing perspective, rather than relying on the criminal legal system or “professionalized” social services. Organizations and activists involved in TJ organizing do not rely on the criminal justice system, nor do they encourage survivors to engage with it. At the same time they do not tell survivors that they should never call the police or rape crisis hotlines. Instead they ask, “Why have we given survivors 20
no other option but to engage the criminal justice system?” TJ activists, in acknowledging the social hierarchies that exist in communities, refuse to leverage the racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism of state and systemic violence in their efforts to create safety, healing and self-determination for survivors of interpersonal and community violence. As well, TJ works within a framework that recognizes that gender violence is not simply a tool of patriarchal control, but “must be understood within larger systems of capitalism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, and heteropatriarchy” (Smith 2011, xiv), and that recognizes
that strategies designed to combat sexual and domestic violence within communities must be linked to strategies that combat violence directed against those communities, including settlerstate violence. The Transformative Justice philosophy maintains a prison abolitionist perspective and believes in crowding-out prisons with other forms of justice-making that will eventually demonstrate both the ineffectiveness and the brutality of prisons. It does this by seeking to build new forms of grassroots-based community organization based on mutual respect, substantive participation and interrelatedness rather than on domination, violence and control; seeking not only to “take
power” but to “make power” and therefore build community accountability structures that are not reliant on state power (i.e. do not claim non-profit status to accept money from the state and foundation founding stream grants). Safety, healing, and agency for survivors of interpersonal and community violence. Accountability and transformation for people who harm. Community action, healing, and accountability. Transformation of the social conditions that perpetuate violence—systems of oppression and exploitation, domination, and state violence. (Generation FIVE 2007)
To find out more about TJ goals, principles, and applications, checkout these organizations: STOP: StoryTelling & Organizing Project - www.stopviolenceeveryday.org Sista II Sista - Sisters Liberated Ground - www.sistaiisista.org/ CARA: Communities Against Rape and Abuse - cara-seattle.blogspot.com/ Works Cited: Generation FIVE. 2007. Toward Transformative Justice: A Liberatory Approach to Child Sexual Abuse and Other Forms of Intimate and Community Violence (A Call to Action for the Left and the Sexual and Domestic Violence Sectors). Oakland, CA. http://www.generationfive.org/downloads/ G5_Toward_Transformative_Justice.pdf.
Smith, Andrea. 2011. “Preface.” In The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities, ed. Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, xiii–xvii. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press.
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Doing Migrant Justice Work in Occupied Turtle Island Decolonization and migrant justice work are both based on the self-determination of migrants and indigenous peoples, and an active confrontation against a colonial system built on the dispossession and genocide of indigenous peoples, as well as racist anti-immigrant laws.
This all exists within a global capitalist system of oppression that has manufactured borders which separate, isolate, and regulate communities, while In the context of Canada and Quebec, that means that we need allowing for the free flow of wealth and capital. When to reckon, honestly and openly, with an irrefutable historical and people migrate to countries contemporary reality: our entire in Turtle Island, specifically society, as non-native peoples, is Canada, it is often because their own land has been taken, based on the systematic theft of destroyed, and ravaged by native lands, and the attempted the effects of capitalism and genocide and assimilation colonialism. While Canadian of native peoples and their mining companies destroy land cultures. Recognizing this reality, and organizing in support and displace people all over the global south, Canada refuses and solidarity with current entry to those same people. native movements for justice, From the Chinese Head Tax dignity and self-determination, and the Komagata Maru, to the is foundational to any social forced displacement of native movement. populations through starvation policies and treaty-breaking landSelf-determination must also grabs, Canada has a history of be understood as a process that using migration as a tool of racial involves our own struggles for liberation. To work in solidarity control and cheap wage labour. with indigenous peoples and Currently, the approval of Bill migrants fighting colonial C-31 (The Refugee Exclusion systems of oppression means challenging the states that create Act) will mean that migrants are put in a more vulnerable the racist immigration laws, cut and isolated position. The new funding to indigenous social programs and divide and isolate bill gives Immigration Minister Jason Kenney more powers to our communities. 22
determine who is considered a valid refugee claimant, while cutting vital medical services to those same claimants. This bill will increase the number of deportations (which in the last year have increased by more than 50%), detentions of children and
families, and will force more people into precarious living and working conditions. We must resist and work in solidarity for justice, dignity and self-determination! No one is illegal!
Against the Commodification of Culture: A Call-Out to Appropriators The past few years have seen a resurgence of the “tribal trend”: fake headdresses, “warpaint,” and “Navajo” patterns are being seen more and more frequently on the streets, at parties, and even in protests. While wearing these things may seem at best a sign of respect for native cultures, and at worst a simple fashion statement, the appropriation of our traditional symbols is both incredibly racist and contributes to over 500 years of ongoing colonization and genocide of native peoples throughout Turtle Island.
insulting, racist, and erases the diversity of our communities, making it easier to ignore and belittle us and our concerns when we don’t fit into what mainstream society thinks a ‘real native’ should be.
“Red Face” (dressing up as a native) stereotypes and generalizes native cultures – there are over 50 distinct linguistic and cultural groups in Canada alone, but the stereotypical images you see of ‘indians’ are drawn from only a handful of Plains tribes, often melded together to portray the savage warrior, the noble chief, or the sexualized indian princess. This stereotyping is
Headdresses, eagle feathers, etc. are extremely spiritually significant for the cultures to which they belong. These symbols must be earned and are deeply respected by both the wearer and their community. Appropriating the symbols that connect us to our traditions, lands, and families is disrespectful. It has only been within the past 60 years or less that native folks on 23
Turtle Island have been legally permitted to practice many of our cultural and spiritual traditions – the Canadian settler government outright criminalized our fundamental ceremonies for many years as part of a larger effort to assimilate natives into settler society. Settlers appropriating and disrespecting those same rituals and symbols against our wishes serves as another way to control our lives – stripping our cultural heritage of meaning and turning it into a crass commodity for consumption.
So do your research. The best way that you can show your respect for native cultures and peoples is to learn about the systemic racism we face at all levels of Canadian society, and to LISTEN to native folks when we speak about our struggles and challenges in this hostile settler environment. Listen when we tell you that you do not have the right to wear, use, or participate in some aspects of our cultures. You can stand in respectful solidarity with us without being appropriative!
www.aboriginalnetwork.mcgill.ca - The Aboriginal Network is your source of information about First Nations, Inuit, and Métis groups on campus. Browse the calendar for upcoming Aboriginal-focused events and to find out how to get involved. www.nativeappropriations.blogspot.ca A blog devoted to deconstructing and countering racist and appropriative images of indigenous folks. Native Friendship Centre of Montréal (514) 499-1854 www.nfcm.org
Tuition Hikes In Montréal, the red square is everywhere – painted on sidewalks, stuck to traffic signs, hanging in windows and off balconies, and pinned to backpacks. Over the past year this symbol has endured through a tumultuous social movement that grew from opposition to the government’s planned tuition increases of $1779 over 7 years.
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$254 more a year for a university education – this seems small compared to tuition
fees elsewhere. But in Quebec, a province historically dominated by a wealthy, anglophone upper class, a large system of public universities (like UQAM) was established in the 1960s to finally provide quality university education to francophones, and since then students have gone on strike every time the government has threatened to raise tuition. These universities can still be places where class and racial privilege are reproduced, but it’s important to know the
anti-tuition hike movement isn’t about being spoiled – it’s about protecting and improving access to a system with a tenuous history of accessibility.
navigate an invasive, bureaucratic system will not fix the problem. The answer is lower tuition, and ultimately free education. This isn’t impossible. But the Liberal government has Higher tuition affects many spent the last nine years cutting groups. Racialized communities, taxes for the rich and massively women, queer and trans* people, subsidizing exploitative, and those with disabilities face colonialist mining companies systematic discrimination in stealing from indigenous lands, the job market and consistently instead of funding education. earn lower-than-average wages. So it takes us longer to pay So again, we’re on strike. We are back student loans, and when not on strike against education, those loans start accumulating but against a system of education interest, suddenly the cost of that only lets in those who can our education goes up! This afford it. A system that puts up entrenches white barriers to access. A system that supremacy and performs an essential role in sexism under producing more bosses the guise of to continue exploiting “paying our workers, a system fair share.’’ that strengthens Meanwhile, capitalism and research creates lofty and theories to justify education the governments are that fill our controlled streets with by the cops. We bring mainly this education rich, white “system” to a people grinding halt (think of your because it is the professors) who only way to fight back already have access against the powerful, to universities. oppressive institutions that our universities Is the answer more have become. financial aid? No! Forcing lowincome students to
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Diversity of Tactics
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Why a diversity of tactics?
Direct Action
Respect for a diversity of tactics is needed because our movements are strongest when they employ many complementary tactics towards the same goals. At its most basic, it means not denouncing people for using tactics you wouldn’t use yourself. In other cases, it may mean showing solidarity in various ways – through community building, support demonstrations, etc.
Direct action is a broad category of tactics which seek to stop or interrupt business as usual. Some common forms of direct action include: • • • • • •
Occupations Banner drops Blocking streets or buildings Sabotage (and/or monkeywrenching) Marches Sit-ins
The risk level associated with The Importance of Care and each action will be different. It’s important for risk levels to be as Community Work clear as possible ahead of time, Care and support work are since there are often people who essential to the sustainability of wish to engage in visible dissent or the movement, since engaging in resistance but are not in a position any form of social and political to deal directly with authorities. resistance can be draining, This also provides people with the distracting and time-consuming. opportunity to choose the level of Burn-out can be debilitating, engagement with which they feel so working with one another comfortable. Some actions may to prevent and recover from be billed as non-violent in order to minimize the risk level, to make a exhaustion is essential. statement, or due to religious or Another essential part of our moral convictions. social movements is building actions specifically the world we’re fighting for. Other Communal kitchens, social support “a diversity of tactics”, spaces, art and music, free which can range from selfpopular education – these are the defence to vandalism, property spaces we’re defending when destruction, and direct attacks on we’re in the streets, and the things the institutions being protested. that will carry us forward when At these actions, even people the fight dies down. Find your who don’t themselves participate strengths and use them, whether in these tactics will often wear for militant action, caring for masks and black clothing to each other, or building strong protect the anonymity of those communities. And learn other who do. We also want to point out people’s strengths and how to that “non-violent” direct action is never an option for those of us balance each other out too. whose marginalized bodies are
seen as inherently criminal by the state and society. Resources • Concerning the Violent Peace Police nplusonemag.com/concerning-theviolent-peace-police [article] • Security Culture: a handbook for activists [zine] • ‘Action Directe Solidaire’ in La Mauvaise Herbe, vol.11 no.1 [zine; in French] • Self Care 101 [blog] self-care101. tumblr.com
Know Your Rights During the last academic year, over 3000 students and their allies were arrested by police in Quebec. While many have had their charges dropped, all have had to endure the inhumane experience of being detained and deprived of their freedom – be it for a few hours on a police bus, or overnight in a jail cell. Some were arrested individually under specious circumstances, while others were rounded up in mass arrests, which have been declared illegal by Quebec, Canadian, and international tribunals. All this in addition to the daily harassment experienced by youth, poor people, racialized minorities, aboriginal people, sexual minorities, and otherwise marginalized people in this city – not to mention the dozens of youth and minorities murdered by police. In short, the Montréal cops are among the nastiest and most handcuff- and trigger-happy around. The good news is, we do have some basic rights that –
hypothetically – even the police need to respect. That said, there is always a calculation to be made: the police are armed and have the power to arrest you on bogus charges. You may want to choose to be polite and deferential when dealing with cops, no matter how much they are behaving like assholes. Specifically in the case of protests, it is important to remember that most of the charges laid against protesters will never see the light of day in court. The point is rarely to make charges stick – the arrests are mostly intended to break up protests and deter future actions. If you are arrested, it is important to not give the police any incriminating information. When under arrest, you are obliged to give your name (first and last), your full address, and your date of birth. It is always advisable to provide absolutely no other information until you have consulted legal counsel. Do
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not think you are smarter than police investigators (though you likely are): they have an uncanny power to twist words against you.
is help available. If arrested in the context of a protest or other political activity, consider calling lawyer Denis Poitras at 514-2899995. Keep that number on you at Most student protesters arrested all times during protests. to date have been charged under municipal by-laws and the occasional criminal code infraction. The government, however, has adopted a “special law” (Bill 78/Law 12) that will allow for severe fines against protesters if ever brought to prosecution (the constitutionality of which is highly doubtful, meaning the law will almost certainly be overturned before anyone is forced to pay). As of publication of this document, no one has been charged under this law. No matter what the charge, there
The Language of Struggle Before delving into the complex issue of language politics in Quebec, it is important to remember from the start that the English-French divide is a divide between colonizing peoples and largely ignores the cultural and linguistic genocide committed against indigenous populations in Quebec and in Canada. There should be no doubt that any claim to English or French as the “founding languages” of the nation is nothing but a reinforcement of the colonial project.
as young, socially-conscious anglophones and allophones (first-language speakers of languages other than English or French) engaging in activism in Montréal. Many of us – particularly those of us arriving from the Rest of Canada – arrive in Montréal with many preconceived notions of French language politics. We associate it with a certain reactionary trend in Quebec nationalism that is, broadly speaking, xenophobic and anti-immigrant.
But the reality of the situation is That said, you can’t ignore the that an emphasis on the French question of English and French language comes from a politics 28
of working-class liberation. From the earliest days of industrial capitalism on this territory, being a Francophone relegated one to the lowest levels of unskilled labour. Ownership of capital, access to higher education, and the ability to migrate freely were largely dependant on one’s ability to speak English. Only the richest and most aristocratic of francophone families could access education, which was still controlled by the Church. Cultural institutions (from theatres to restaurants) served their clientele only in English and, famously, those who attempted to address their servers in French were told to “Speak White,” to speak English. In the 1960s, during Quebec’s so-called Quiet Revolution, one of the primary focuses of the social-democratic transformation that occurred was to re-align the language of the economy with the language of the population. As such, French was made the primary language of all business and government. The stated goal of this Quiet Revolution was to allow for the creation of a Frenchspeaking middle class, albeit within the confines of post-war capitalism. Nowadays, while the Frenchspeaking middle class is wellestablished, progressive politics in the province has not forgotten the history of Speak White: when language allowed for an almost-racialized class hierarchy
based on mother tongue. That said, despite the protests of certain anglophones, there is an openness to those of all linguistic backgrounds to engage with Quebec progressive politics, so long as an effort is being made to do so in the language of the movement: French. In this author’s experience, bumbling your way through a sentence in French before being invited to express yourself in English is a badge of honour for one’s involvement in the Quebecois leftwing. There are many resources available – through classes, at free government programs, at job placement centres, and most importantly, on the street at protests – to learn French and even more opportunities to practice it. Take advantage of this amazing opportunity you have to learn French and engage with a whole new language of struggle.
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D.I.Y. Finance Budgeting
Credit Cards
Budgeting can be really helpful, especially if you are working with limited funds. At its most basic, a budget is a tool used for financial planning that balances money spent (expenses) vs. money obtained/earned (revenue).
Credit cards are not ideal – they are convenient but can also lead to quick accumulation of debt . If you expect to receive income via a job, loan, or scholarship (i.e. a source of money that is quasiguaranteed) within the 30 days that you make your purchases, then by all means swipe away! It’s always best to pay the full amount you owe each month on a credit card. If this isn’t possible, try and pay as much as you can on a bi-weekly basis, you’ll incur less debt because interest won’t accrue as rapidly. Other quick tips: try to keep a credit card with a low maximum, or if you end up with several, try to consolidate your debt on one low interest rate credit card.
Here are some useful things to keep in mind when making and using a budget:
Categories: This can be particularly helpful when it comes to keeping track of expenses, as it can make it easier to track patterns in your spending, help you notice any changes (especially major changes), and give you a sense of how much you have to work with – not just overall, but also in terms of how much you spend on a particular expense (food, for Social Spending example). Something else that can play into Time: It’s really important when managing your finances is dealing budgeting to not only know how with “social spending”. The much money you will get/make beginning of the school year can and spend, but also when this will be a particularly tricky time for happen. Many people use weekly this. Oftentimes folks, for reasons or monthly budgets (or sometimes of ignorance, class privilege, both!). This is a really helpful social norms, etc., centre a lot budgeting practice as it can make of social activities around things it easier to conceptualize not just that require spending money. It the overall sum you have to work just hasn’t occurred to them that with, but also how much you have the cost of so many “typical” for any given moment. university social activities can be restrictive, and pointing this out to them can be a way to shift towards doing things that 30
you (and probably more than a aware of how much socializing few others you know) can more can cost. readily afford. Many of us have found managing Instead of going to a bar, get some money at the beginning of every drinks and go to someone’s house, school year pretty tough. There’s a park, or a rooftop. Instead of always that waiting game of going out for breakfast, take turns when your loan will come in making breakfast at different and whether or not you’ll have a people’s houses. Making these job during the school year. One suggestions might feel awkward option is to apply for Work Study at first, and it’s shitty if the (if you’ve applied for student responsibility of recommending loans, you will almost always be lower-cost options always falls qualified for Work Study). to the same person, but it’s also important for people to be made The most important thing is being financially transparent with oneself and being aware of what you can and cannot afford. Planning and budgeting are some of the best ways to deal with money, but there are also resources out there to help you out! Resources: www.youcandealwithit.com/borrowers/calculators-and-resources/calculators/ budget-calculator.shtml www.mint.com/ www.canlearn.ca:80/eng/onlinetools/index.shtml#planners
Gentrification
The mass displacement of working people from urban areas in favour of upwardly mobile populations is a persistent reality in Montréal, from those neighbourhoods already significantly transformed under its weight (the Plateau, Mile End) to those on the forefront of the shift from working class, long-term apartment-dwellers to upwardly mobile condo owners (Verdun, Pointe-Saint-Charles, Saint Henri, etc). And whether
we like it or not, as young and often relatively transient people, students play a significant role in that process. Gentrification happens on multiple fronts. On the structural level, property owners and developers seek to maximize profit by pushing out marginal populations and replacing them with people who can afford to pay higher rents – or even worse, by converting rentable housing into 31
condominiums, sold to young, urban professionals who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege of owning their apartments. In general, as property values increase in a given neighbourhood, the rich get richer and the poor… move. This process is widespread: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation statistics indicate that while the number of rentable housing units under construction in the greater Montréal area in 2011 was 40% less than in 2007, the amount of condo units being constructed was 73% greater! Gentrification is also a cultural phenomenon. As neighbourhoods change on a structural level, long-standing local economic infrastructure gives way to trendy, and expensive, new bars, restaurants, and galleries. The social connections and mutual aid networks of neighbours who have known one another for decades are taken over by the alienated lifestyles of those “passing through.” Students are often the shock troops of this socio-cultural process. As a generally low-income population, we understandably tend to advance ever-further into working class areas, seeking affordable rent. But we seldom stay in an apartment for long
and often don’t know our rights as tenants, allowing landlords to continue profiting from crumbling apartment buildings and then increase the rent indiscriminately upon our departure. Similarly, we bring our own social and economic networks with us, to the detriment of local businesses, cultural organizations, and ways of life. However, it doesn’t take much for students to resist being pawns in the capitalist game of gentrification. Familiarizing yourself with tenancy law and seeking guidance and resources available at your university and through local housing committees is an important first step (if you’re going to move, for example, transferring your lease instead of breaking it minimizes potential rent increases). Even more important is to get involved in local community struggles for accessible public housing, and to get to know your neighbours. Just because your presence is temporary doesn’t mean it has to be negative! For more resources, check out: CSU Off-Campus Housing and Job Bank www.hojo.csu.qc.ca Quebec Rental Board www.rdl.gouv.qc.ca Associations of Housing Committees (including listings of local committees by neighbourhood) www.frapru.qc.ca
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What Is A Conscious Community, Anyway? that these ideas – the ideas of “chosen family” and “conscious community” – are used to exclude. Do the people around you make you feel safe because they are respectful and challenging, or do they make you feel safe because they remind you of yourself? It is particularly necessary for white people engaged in “community building” – in outreach, support, and consciousness-raising activities – to challenge themselves in this regard. It is important to feel safe in our own communities, but also to distinguish between “safety” and “comfort”; it is easy for people who have lived most of their lives in unchallenged privilege to confuse these concepts, and easy for this confusion to result in prioritizing the comfort of a handful of community members over the well-being of others. For many activists, creating a “conscious community” – a support network of people who share similar values and politics with whom we organize, socialize, and interact daily – can be a means of self-care. We surround ourselves with people who we trust to respect us and our identities, people who help us create a safe environment. There’s nothing wrong with selfselecting who we’re close to and distancing ourselves from people whose lifestyles and politics are harmful to us.
Often, we come to activism and radicalism through deeply personal experiences of injustice and even trauma.
It is essential to recognize and respect this. For many of us, activism is not an abstract, theoretical exercise: it is about trying to improve our own lives and the lives of people around us in concrete and meaningful ways. Often there are the experiences of years of unspoken injustice lying beneath the surface of our politics. How do we negotiate between activism and community-building as a healing process, and activism However, in building our own and community-building as an communities, it’s important to external manifestation of our remain critical of the ways politics?
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Obviously, this is something that is an ongoing process for all of us – for we who are reading this, for the people in our lives, and for those whom our actions impact. But the first step to building healthier conscious communities, with all of this in mind, is to
continually challenge ourselves. We do not need to be uncritical of one another or ourselves in order to build safe communities. In fact, healthy critiques of our comfort levels are exactly what we need.
Eating Well In Montréal The food most easily accessed in Montréal often comes in the form of fast food, pricey restaurants, your university cafeteria, or expensive supermarkets. Because of this, it’s hard to minimize how much money you spend on food and know where your food is coming from. While it may seem daunting at first, there are many different ways to take control of what you eat. Cheap Eats There are countless great food joints in Montréal, and it’s impossible to list all of them. Here are a few near McGill and Concordia • •
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Al Taïb (various locations) Cheap pizza, falafel, and za’atar. Boustan (2020 Crescent) The best falafel sandwich in town. Ask for spicy sauce and a kibbeh. Buns (various locations) The cheapest and most reliable burgers, with veggie options. Wavel (1413 St Marc) A Polish patisserie.
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• • •
Croissanterie Linda (1909 Ste-Catherine) For coffee and pastries and breakfast dates, uber-crisp croissants. Chez Nouri (10 Pin O.) A discreet Iranian lunch counter. Antep Kebab (1626 de Maisonneuve O.) Try the lamb sandwich. Thali (1409 St Marc) Affordable and truly delicious Indian food. Try the chana samosa.
Super Sandwich (The mall at the north-west corner of Peel and Sherbrooke) $3 sandwiches.
packaging, and is a rip-off. To avoid this, you have to go out of your way to the best grocery stores in town. It’s worth the trip: you’ll experience new neighbourhoods, it can save you Communal Cooking hundreds of dollars a month, and Cooking and eating with others it will save you the time of having is by far the most cost-effective to go out for groceries constantly. way to take back control of the food system. There are many Some Places Where You Can Buy collective kitchens in Montréal Cheaply, In Bulk: (check out www.rccq.org for a full list) but if none of them appeals • Frigo Vert (2130 Mackay): to you, start your own! Buy a big This is the #1 bulk food pot (the investment is worth it), place. save your yoghurt containers for • Marché Lobo (3509 Parc): tupperware, cook once a week Not all bulk, but cheap with your friends, eat the meal, nonetheless. split the leftovers, and you’ll have • Segal’s (4001 St-Laurent): food for the rest of the week. Eat The cheapest produce, bulk well, eat cheaply, eat together. dried goods, and canned goods in the Plateau. Bulk Food In Your Pantry • Akhavan (6170 Sherbrooke): Enormous bags of dried The key to taking control over goods like lentils, rice, peas, the food you eat is making and flour. sure you have all the necessary • Sabor Latino (436 Bélanger, ingredients to cook up a meal at 4387 St-Laurent): A Latin any time. To do this, you need to American establishment buy in bulk. The following items with cheap canned goods, are always useful: vegetable oil, tortillas, and legumes. balsamic vinegar, large jars of • Jean Talon Market (Jeanspices and herbs, pasta, canned or Talon and Henri-Julien): pureed tomatoes, beans, lentils, Walk around a bit to find the rice, sugar, baking powder, salt, cheapest veggies. chickpeas, tea, soy sauce, flour, • Le Branche d’Olivier (4342 onions, and potatoes. Wellington): The cheapest herbs and spices, bulk flours. Most supermarkets in the • Anatol (6682 St-Laurent): A downtown area sell their food in wide and delicious variety individually-packaged portions. of dried fruit, pasta, cereals, This encourages individualized granola, tea, candy… the list cooking practices (which goes on. impacts our ability to share knowledge about cooking), is art by zoe ikeda wasteful because of the excessive •
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Popular Education in Montréal Context In the context of this year’s student strike, popular education movements across Montréal have grown and strengthened. Projects working towards creating dedicated places of learning outside of the traditional education system vary from those started by university students looking for learning spaces during the strike, to homeschooling collectives, to community discussion forums, and many others. These projects demonstrate that the education system in Quebec is not only increasingly financially inaccessible, but also built upon a style of education that is fundamentally flawed in many other ways. Education, as it is traditionally conceived and presented in the EuroCanadian context, is built on false hierarchies of knowledge that do not recognize the unique contribution and experiences of each individual involved. It fails to integrate community and creativity, and stifles the potential of people to learn independently, instead pushing them through a production line of educational experiences. Alternatively, popular education projects aim to provide their classes for free and make them accessible in other ways as well, in particular to marginalized communities. A focus on community is present also, and 36
those involved are encouraged to not see their learning spaces as isolated units, but rather as a part of their lives and other relationships. Most of these projects are also organized in a non-hierarchical way and are linked to other social justice initiatives. Some Implications Recently, many popular education groups throughout Montréal have begun to meet and work towards building a community of their own, the Popular Learning Network/Réseau d’Apprentissage Populaire. This collective will provide solidarity between the groups and recognize their common goals, while allowing each project to develop independently based on its own community. The growth of popular education in Montréal is an example of how people have taken initiative in the face of a broken system and have begun to create new means of interaction. It is an inspiring space for change. How to Get Involved Anyone can get involved in popular education. There are many groups already in Montréal that you can become involved with, by checking out the links on the School Schmool website. And, if none of them fit, create your own!
Reflections on living in the end times 1 - 3 Laura Ellyn, 2012
The Groups - Table of Contents
Mob Squad …................................................................................. 38 The Flat …...................................................................................... 38 The 2110 Centre …......................................................................... 39 SACOMSS …................................................................................. 39 The Midnight Kitchen ….................................................................40 The People’s Potato ….................................................................... 40 Santropol Roulant …....................................................................... 40 CUTV …......................................................................................... 41 CKUT …......................................................................................... 41 The McGill Daily …....................................................................... 42 The Link …..................................................................................... 42 Walking Distance Distro …............................................................ 42 Folio …........................................................................................... 43 Radical Reference …...................................................................... 43 The Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble …........................................... 43 First Peoples’ House …................................................................... 44 Le Regroupement de solidarité avec les autochtones .....................44 Life After Life …............................................................................ 45 The Termite Collective …............................................................... 45 Solidarity Across Borders ….......................................................... 46 Tadamon! …................................................................................... 46 ASTTeQ …..................................................................................... 47 Queer McGill …............................................................................. 47 The Justice for Anas Coalition …................................................... 48 The Filipino Solidarity Collective …............................................. 48 For more Concordia, McGill, and community groups, please see our website, www.schoolschmool.qpirgmcgill.org
With fists in the air, feet on the street, and mouths to the megaphone, Mob Squad is a force within the student movement at Concordia and McGill. We mobilize for accessible education, student space, and the democratization of our campus. Mob Squad is is an autonomous, non-hierarchical network forming a community that unites activists. We believe in anti-oppression, in collective action, and that we can make the world a better place by starting within our university. Join the community at McGill by getting on the listserv (send a blank email to mobsquad-subscribe@lists.riseup.net) or join the facebook group ( facebook. com/groups/mobsquad/) Check out the website for the Concordia Mob Squad at www.concordiastudents. ca or email info@concordiastudents.ca
The Flat is a collective that encourages cycling though the sharing of knowledge and tools. We have everything you need to learn how to fix your bike. All persons and bikes welcome – no experience necessary! We seek to make bicycling more accessible, provide a welcoming environment, minimize our environmental impact, and promote a greater sense of community. The Flat est un atelier de réparation de vélos coopératif visant à encourager le cyclisme par le partage de connaissances et d’outils. Nous avons tout ce dont vous avez besoin pour apprendre à réparer votre vélo. Tout le monde et tous les vélos sont bienvenus. Aucune expérience nécessaire! On cherche à rendre le cyclisme plus accessible, à offrir un environnement accueillant, à minimiser notre impact sur l’environnement, et à encourager un meilleur esprit communautaire. theflat.bikecollective@gmail.com theflat.wordpress.com 3480 McTavishSSMU Building B-02
40
The 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy is an independent student-funded Concordia University organization that promotes gender equality and empowerment, particularly as it relates to marginalized communities. Gender oppression is inextricably linked to social and economic justice, and we work within a feminist framework, in support and solidarity with broader social movements, to challenge systemic oppressions. Along with a variety of programming and campaigns, the Centre provides respectful, confidential peer-to-peer support, advocacy, and resources with a focus on harm reduction, empowerment and selfdetermination; houses a resource centre and libraries; and offers accessible spaces that can be used to facilitate community organizing and action.
The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) is a volunteerrun organization committed to supporting and empowering survivors of sexual assault and their allies through direct support, advocacy, and outreach. We provide a safe, accessible, and non-judgemental space with services open to the public and provided free of charge. For those interested in volunteering with one of our branches (Crisis Intervention, Support Groups, Advocacy, Outreach), trainings are offered at the beginning of each semester. For more information: Shatner Bldg., Room B-27, 3480 McTavish 514-398-8500 main@sacomss.org www.sacomss.org www.facebook.com/sacomss
1500 De Maisonneuve, Suite 404 (Campaigns, Events, Reference Library, Public Lounge & Meeting Space); 2110 Mackay Street, Ground Floor (Administration, Peer Support and Advocacy, Lending Library & Resource Centre) www.centre2110.org centre2110@gmail.com General Inquiries: (514) 848-2424 x 7431 Confidential Peer Support Line: (514) 848-2424 x 7880 41
The Midnight Kitchen is a non-profit, volunteer-run food collective organized according to principles of anti-oppression. We aim to empower communities by providing a working alternative to current market-based systems of food collection, preparation and distribution. MK serves by-donation vegan lunches five days a week, Monday through Friday, at 12:30 p.m. in the SSMU building on the McGill Campus (3480 McTavish).
You can volunteer by emailing us at midnightkitchencollective@gmail.com or filling out a volunteer form at our kitchen, located on the third floor.
Initiated in 1999 in order to address student poverty, the People’s Potato is an autonomous non-profit vegan community kitchen. Not only do we serve meals out of our anti-oppressive kitchen space, but we also work with other community groups on broader goals of social justice, environmental sustainability, and food security issues. We serve a four-course vegan meal on the 7th floor of the Hall building every Monday to Friday during the school year from 12:30 until 2pm. This meal is a by-donation, paywhat-you-can food service, and no one is turned away! This project would not be possible without our volunteers!
For more information about us, visit our blog at themidnightkitchen.wordpress.com
peoplespotato@gmail.com peoplespotato.blogspot.com
We’re always looking for new volunteers and collective members!
We believe that good food has the power to change lives, and to make the world a better and happier place. Come help us garden, cook, package, and deliver meals to seniors and people living with a loss of 42
autonomy. Fix bikes in our bike shop, compost kitchen waste on-site, and help us out at events or with special projects. We’re always looking for new volunteers and friends to join the fray and have a laugh with us as we learn and work together to improve food security and nourish Montréal and Montréalers. www.santropolroulant.org 111 Roy, corner of Coloniale
CUTV is a campus/community TV studio catering to the Montréal communities whose needs are not met by mainstream commercial TV stations. CUTV provides the space, equipment, and know-how of video production to student and community populations that are interested in producing content that accurately represents them and their interests. CUTV offers: • TV production workshops all year long • Access to video, sound and lighting equipment • Opportunities in community tv production • Special coverage of your community stories and topics • Public ServiceAnnouncements for campus/community events To find out more about CUTV, check out cutvmontréal.ca
CKUT 90.3 fm is McGill’s campus/community radio station that broadcasts to the greater Montréal area. Our podcasts are archived for 3 months on our website. We are live 24-7, 365 days a year. Our programming covers diverse musical genres (funk, folk, experimental, jazz, hip hop, electro...), news, and spoken word unlike what you get from your regular mainstream commercial outlets. And it is made by people like you – McGill students and Montréal Community volunteer members. If you would like to get involved make your way up the hill to 3647 University. We have orientations every Thursday in September and January, and every third Thursday of the month throughout the rest of the year at noon, 3pm, and 6pm. Check the website for more information. There is a wealth of knowledge, history, skills, and hands-onexperience to be gained at CKUT. Come check out CKUT and learn to make radio! 90.3 fm www.ckut.ca; www.music.ckut.ca campusmixtapes.org/
43
The McGill Daily, in production for 100 years, is an independent s t u d e n t newspaper at McGill University that aims to empower and give voice to marginalized groups on and off campus. The Daily publishes twice weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays. Its content and reporting are guided by an anti-oppressive mandate and a strong statement of principles that outlines the paper’s commitment to providing a critical analysis of the power relations involved in events and issues. For more information about the paper, or on how to contribute, contact us at: c o o rd i n a t i n g @ m c g i l l d a i l y. c o m ; mcgilldaily.com
The Link newspaper has been Concordia’s independent press since 1980. A progressive, passionate, and accessible hub of print and online media, The Link is an institution by students, for students. Run by a group of volunteers committed to keeping you informed and raising hell, The Link aims to get to the heart of the issues at this university and beyond, publishing stories not usually covered by mainstream media with a focus on advocacy journalism. Our space is a venue for writers, reporters, photographers, designers, and artists eager to hone their skills, gain experience, share what they know, and have fun. If you want to get involved, give us a tip, or send us a pitch, contact: editor@thelinknewspaper.ca Our office is located in H649 and meetings are held every Friday at 4 p.m.
Walking Distance Distro
The Saint-Henri Walking Distance Distro is a collective that focuses on community building and DIY production & circulation in southwest Montréal. When the distro is able to sustain itself through scamming photocopies, we provide free packages of predominantly locally-made zines, tapes and flyers to distribute on foot to neighbors’ doorsteps. Motivated 44
by the urge to build autonomous networks for creative, political dialogue & action, Walking Distance utilizes money raised from tabling at anarchist bookfairs & organizing fundraisers (such as the annual “Wanna Slow Dance?” at the Decadent Squalor) to put money back into local community workshops & events (like the Southwest Self Defense Week). Contact us at walkingdistance.distro@ gmail.com
Folio is a student-run magazine that publishes the visual art of McGill students on a biannual basis. It aims to act as an ongoing archive of the McGill artistic community by presenting a diverse cross-section of creative work. Folio showcases approximately twelve artists per issue and provides contributors with two to four pages for their work. Curated by a rotating panel of McGill students, Folio strives to be dynamic in its aesthetics while carefully holding onto its penchant for the unconventional.
Radical Reference is a collective that supports activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists. We provide experienced research support and access to information, as well as offering information literacy workshops and virtual reference services. The Montréal chapter of Radical Reference focuses on social justice and equality in our communities. Post a question at: radrefmtl.wordpress.com or email: radrefmtl@riseup.net
The Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble We are an activist marching band which organizes according to anarchist principles. We play songs of a political nature in remembrance of worldwide struggles against oppression; these songs are historical monuments to our own culture of resistance and are played to inspire our communities. We seek to reclaim public spaces, to help make political movements fun and exciting, and to celebrate resistance in a way that reflects our vision of the world we want to live in. Born for the 2006 “Status for All” demo in Montréal, we have been marching ever since. Many marchers have come and gone, and many have yet to come... maybe you are one of them? www.chaoticinsurrectionensemble.org 45
The First Peoples’ House – First, we acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee – the people of the longhouse – who are more widely known as the Six Nations of the Iroquois.The First Peoples’ House, part of Student Services, is dedicated to providing support for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis students at McGill. Playing many roles, including those of residence, gathering place, and resource centre, the First Peoples’ House is first and foremost a community. The First Peoples’ House also plans activities and special events throughout the year, such as the annual Pow Wow, to raise awareness within the McGill and Montréal communities regarding the past, present, and future aspirations of Indigenous peoples. First Peoples' House 3505 Peel street Montréal, Quebec H3A 1W7 514-398-3217 www.mcgill.ca/fph
Le Regroupement de solidarité aves les Autochtones
Le Regroupement de solidarité avec les Autochtones est né à l’été 1990 en appui à la lutte des Mohawks de Kanehsatake (Oka). Au Regroupement, nous mettons de l’avant le dialogue et la défense des droits des Autochtones pour résoudre les conflits entre la société québécoise et les Premières Nations. Nous tentons d’atteindre ce but à travers l’action. Nous avons organisé des manifestations et des assemblées publiques sur les grands enjeux concernant les peuples autochtones. Nous avons publié plus de 80 bulletins d’information en français et en anglais. Nous avons appuyé plusieurs luttes autochtones dont celles des Innus du Labrador contre les vols à basse altitude, des Innus de Maliothenam contre le projet hydro-électrique de Ste-Marguerite, des Algonquins du Lac Barrière contre les coupes à blanc et des Cris du Lac Lubicon pour la défense de leurs droits territoriaux. Maintenant nous appuyons activement la lutte des Mohawks de Kanehsatake contre le projet de mine de niobium à Oka. Pour connaître les activités du Regroupement ou pour nous contacter, consulter le blogue rsa.site.koumbit.net ou écrire à rsa.swnp@gmail.com. 46
Life after Life is a community based, intergenerational collective run mutually by girls, women, queer, transgender, and feminists dedicated to de-criminalization and de-carceration. Our aim is to build a viable community for people coming out of punitive state institutions who need a space to heal and support each other, and nurture their leadership. We work with allies across movements to practice and adopt a transformative justice and community accountability approach that demonstrates how personal and community safety can be achieved without relying on the cops, the criminal legal system, or “professionalized” social services. E-mail: lifeafterlife@centre2110.org Web address: www.centre2110.org/life-after-life/ Facebook page: www.facebook.com/lifeafterlifecollective
The Termite Collective We live in a time when the government of Canada is building 23 new prisons and about 9,500 new prisoner beds in existing facilities. The budget is estimated at $4 billion. Legislation that helped prisoners get out earlier, receive their pensions, and potentially get sentenced to less time in the first place have all been repealed or overwritten in the last two years. In that context, The Termite Collective is a group of creative and concerned people who want to expose the ever increasing repressive nature of prison through political parody and criminal cabaret. We aim to use a humorous alternative method to outline these injustices. We mostly write skits that focus on real prisoners’ experiences with prison issues on the inside and out (i.e. parole) as well as the effects of Harper’s new crime bills and plans for prison expansion in Canada. We attempt to highlight the difficulties prisoners face in attempting to navigate through such the invasive and repressive experience that is life in prison.
47
Solidarity Across Borders!
Justice & Dignity for Migrants and Refugees! We demand STATUS FOR ALL! We resist deportations and detentions, we struggle for a full and comprehensive regularization program for all nonstatus migrants. We are a network comprised of migrants, refugees, non-status people and allies that support individuals and families in diverse ways as they confront the immigration system. We also oppose and fight ‘double punishment’, the deportation of non-citizens with a criminal record, which mainly targets people in poor and racialized communities that have lived and worked in Canada for the majority of their lives. Since 2004, we have collectively built a network of mutual aid and support for migrants struggling for status and survival in the Montréalarea and beyond. Together, we aim to break fear and isolation and instead build a Solidarity City where all can live with full dignity. www.solidarityacrossborders.org (438) 933-7654 solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com
48
Tadamon! (“Solidarity” in Arabic) is a collective working to build solidarity with grassroots movements for social and economic justice in the Middle East, in coordination with grassroots activists in Lebanon, Palestine, and internationally. We are currently focusing on the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid. Some examples of our ongoing projects include: designing and facilitating educational workshops, hosting film screenings, and organizing the Artists Against Apartheid concert series. We also aim provide analysis on the struggles of workers, women, queer people, and refugees in the Middle East. New members are always welcome! www.tadamon.ca info@tadamon.ca (514) 664-1036 Facebook: Tadamon! twitter.com/TadamonMontréal
Action SantĂŠ Travesti(e)s et Transsexual(le)s du QuĂŠbec aims to promote the health and wellbeing of trans* people through peer support and advocacy, education and outreach, and community empowerment and mobilization. We understand the health of trans* people and our communities to be interrelated to economic and social inequalities, which have resulted in trans* people experiencing disproportionate rates of poverty, un(der)-employment, precarious housing, criminalization and violence. We believe in the right to self-determine our gender identity and gender expression free from coercion, violence, and discrimination. We advocate for access to health care that will meet the many needs of our diverse communities, while working collectively to build supportive, healthy, and resilient communities.
Queer McGill is a non-hierarchical social, political, informational, and support service for queer students and their allies. We curate an extensive library (in collaboration with QPIRG) and operate a resource centre on the McGill campus. We offer weekly discussion groups and social activities at McGill and across the city. We also facilitate the Political Action Working Group, a semiindependent collective that fulfills our political mandate on campus and beyond. Our office is open from Monday to Friday between 10am to 6pm in the Student Services (Shatner) building (Room 432) during the school year (September-April). (514) 398-2016 www.queermcgill.ca admin.qm@gmail.com
49
Justice Pour Anas Coalition
The Filipino Solidarity Collective
The Filipino Solidarity Collective (FSC) is a student group dedicated to promoting solidarity and education with grassroots groups in Canada on the political, economic, and cultural The Justice for Anas Coalition, struggles of translational Filipinos. under the leadership of the Bennis family, launched its efforts in 2007. The Coalition organized rallies, Our primary mandate is to raise popular education events, and awareness of the everyday coalition-building efforts (among experiences of Filipino-Canadians other initiatives). The Coalition as they encounter systemic barriers also played a role in further rooting related to racism, discrimination, broader struggles against police transnational migrant work, violence through spearheading women’s oppression, and low initiatives like the Forum Against educational achievement among Police Violence and Impunity and Filipino youth. In the past, we have the eventual Justice for Victims of participated in various research Police Killings Coalition. projects and creative arts-based events. A much-anticipated coroner’s inquiry finally took place in April 2011, but it turned out to be a These activities help promote complete farce by effectively our ultimate goal of a genuine denying the participation of the settlement and integration of Bennis family and the Justice for Filipinos in Canada’s multiethnic and multicultural society. Anas Coalition. On the morning of December 1, 2005, Mohamed Anas Bennis, a 25-year old Canadian of Moroccan origin, was killed after being shot twice by Montréal police.
Although the Coalition is not Contact info: filipinosolidarity@gmail. com currently engaged in an active campaign, the circumstances surrounding Anas’ violent death remain unresolved to this day and police impunity therefore persists. WEBSITE: justicepouranas.org 50
Reflections on living in the end times 1 - 3 Laura Ellyn, 2012
53
Lundi Monday
Mardi Tuesday
Mercredi Wednesday
Jeudi Thursday
30
24
25
18
17
16
23
11
10
9
4
3
2
26
19
12
5
27
20
13
6
books to read: 1. i know why the caged bird sings by maya angelou 2. for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by ntozake shange
Dimanche Sunday
22
21
29
15
14
28
8
1
Samedi Saturday
7
Vendredi Friday
54
23
22
29
21
28
30
16
15
14
9
2
1
8
Mardi Tuesday
Lundi Monday
7
Dimanche Sunday
31
24
17
10
3
Mercredi Wednesday Samedi Saturday
6
13
20
27
Vendredi Friday
5
12
19
26
zines to read: 1. hot pantz: do it yourself gynecology 2. it’s not the end of the world: living a life with limp wrists by ocean capewell
25
18
11
4
Jeudi Thursday
55
Lundi Monday
Mardi Tuesday
20
19
26
18
25
27
13
12
11
6
5
4
books to read: 1. can’t stop won’t stop by jeff change 2. one native life by richard wagamese 3. winter’s bone by daniel woodrell
Dimanche Sunday
28
21
14
7
Mercredi Wednesday
29
22
15
8
1
Jeudi Thursday
10
17
24
9
16
23
30
3
Samedi Saturday
2
Vendredi Friday
56
Lundi Monday
Mardi Tuesday
1. 2.
18
17
24
31
16
23
30
25
11
10
9
4
3
2
zines to read: fucking trans women by mira darling survival in solitary: a manual written by & for people living in control units
Dimanche Sunday
Jeudi Thursday
Vendredi Friday
1.
26
19
12
5
27
20
13
6
22
21
29
15
14
28
8
1
Samedi Saturday
7
books to read: open veins of latin america: five centuries of the pillage of a continent by eduardo galeano
Mercredi Wednesday
57
15
22
14
21
28
13
20
27
29
8
1
7
zines to read: 1. readin’ & fightin’ #1 - 3 2. how to stage a coup 3. shotgun seamstress
6
Mardi Tuesday
Lundi Monday
Dimanche Sunday
30
23
16
9
2
Mercredi Wednesday
5
12
19
11
18
Samedi Saturday
4
Vendredi Friday
24
25 26 music to listen to: 1. purple rhinestone eagle 2. sissyfist 31 3. nicki minaj
17
10
3
Jeudi Thursday
58
Lundi Monday
1.
26
19
18
17
25
12
11
5
10
3.
4
24
Mercredi Wednesday
27
20
13
6
2
9
16
8
15
Samedi Saturday
1
Vendredi Friday
21
22 23 zines to read: 1. when language runs dry: a zine for people with chronic pain and their allies 28
14
7
Jeudi Thursday
conquest: sexual violence and american indian genocide by andrea smith 4. three day road by joseph boyden
Mardi Tuesday
3
books to read: gabriel dumont by george woodcock 2. indian killer by sherman alexie
Dimanche Sunday
59
Lundi Monday
Mardi Tuesday
Mercredi Wednesday
31
25
26
19
18
17
24
12
11
10
5
4
3
27
20
13
6
28
21
14
7
Jeudi Thursday
blogs to read: 1. recipes for the people: www.recipesforthepeople.com/ 2. leaving evidence: leavingevidence.wordpress.com/ 3. crunk feminist collective: crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/
Dimanche Sunday
16
23
15
22
30
9
8
29
2
Samedi Saturday
1
Vendredi Friday
60
29
20
19
28
18
26 24 25 27 books to read: 1. the woman warrior by maxine hong kingston 2. feminism is for everybody by bell hooks 3. a xicana codex of changing conciousness by cherrie moraga 30 23
17
22
13
12
21
6
5
16
11
4
Samedi Saturday
Vendredi Friday
15
10
3
Jeudi Thursday
14
9
2
1
Mercredi Wednesday
8
Mardi Tuesday
Lundi Monday
7
Dimanche Sunday
61
Lundi Monday
21
13
20
27
12
19
26
28
14
6
5
7
Mardi Tuesday
zines to read: 1. truckface 2. doris 3. paint me a revolution by helen luu
Dimanche Sunday
29
22
15
8
1
Mercredi Wednesday
30
23
16
9
2
Jeudi Thursday
11
18
25
10
17
24
31
4
Samedi Saturday
3
Vendredi Friday
62
Lundi Monday
Mardi Tuesday
30
24
25
18
17
16
23
11
10
9
4
3
2
26
19
12
5
Mercredi Wednesday
books to read: 1. what we all long for by dionne brand 2. fledgling by octavia butler 3. the house on mango street by sandra cisneros
Dimanche Sunday
27
20
13
6
Jeudi Thursday
22
21
29
15
14
28
8
1
Samedi Saturday
7
Vendredi Friday
63
23
22
29
21
28
30
16
15
14
9
2
1
8
Mardi Tuesday
Lundi Monday
7
Dimanche Sunday
31
24
17
10
3
Mercredi Wednesday Samedi Saturday
6
13
20
27
Vendredi Friday
5
12
19
26 zines to read: 1. learning good consent 2. support zine 3. green zine by cristy c. road
25
18
11
4
Jeudi Thursday
64
13
20
12
19
26
11
18
25
27
6
5
4
28
21
14
7
Mercredi Wednesday
books to read: 1. half blood blues by esi edugyan 2. colonize this!: young women of color on today’s feminism edited by daisy hernandez & ed.s. bushra rehman
Mardi Tuesday
Lundi Monday
Dimanche Sunday
10
17
24
31
9
16
23
30 29
22
15
8
3
2
1
Samedi Saturday
Vendredi Friday
Jeudi Thursday
JEUDI THURSDAY
30 (ao没t/august)
VENDREDI FRIDAY
31 (ao没t/august)
1968 grade school students occupy their school in a montr茅al suburb, demanding reforms
SAMEDI SATURDAY
1
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
2
65
LUNDI MONDAY
3
MARDI TUESDAY
4
1917 montrĂŠal library officially opens
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
5
first day of classes mcgill and concordia
1995 jean-pierre lizotte, a homeless man, is beaten to death by montrĂŠal police constable giovanni stante on lower st. laurent; stante is never charged
66
JEUDI THURSDAY
6
VENDREDI FRIDAY
7
SAMEDI SATURDAY
8
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
9
2002 concordia students protest speech by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu; several students are suspended
67
LUNDI MONDAY
10
MARDI TUESDAY
11
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
12
68
JEUDI THURSDAY
13
2006 dawson college shooting
VENDREDI FRIDAY
14
SAMEDI SATURDAY
15
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
16
69
LUNDI MONDAY
17
MARDI TUESDAY
18
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
19
70
concordia add/drop deadline with refund
mcgill add/drop deadline
JEUDI THURSDAY
20
VENDREDI FRIDAY
mcgill pow wow
SAMEDI SATURDAY
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
21
22
23
1946 4000 workers march in valleyfield, qc to protest the arrest of madeleine parent; union organizer and mcgill alumni
71
LUNDI MONDAY
24
aboriginal awareness week september 24-28
1999 288 montrÊal high school students are arrested during a strike against reductions of teachers’ services
MARDI TUESDAY
25
mcgill deadline to withdraw from courses with refund
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
26
1990 in the kanehsatake land dispute, the remaining people in the treatment centre burn their weapons and leave after a 78 day siege. many are badly beaten by the army; ceremonial masks are stolen
72
JEUDI THURSDAY
27
2002 45 minutes after 60 people speak against a proposed condo development at a public consultation in montréal’s southwest the permit is granted
VENDREDI FRIDAY
28
SAMEDI SATURDAY
29
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
30
73
LUNDI MONDAY
1
MARDI TUESDAY
2
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
3
74
JEUDI THURSDAY
4
2002 the prefontaine housing squat is raided by montréal police
VENDREDI FRIDAY
5
SAMEDI SATURDAY
6
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
7
1969 montréal police and firefighters stage an 18 hour strike sparking riots
75
LUNDI MONDAY
8
MARDI TUESDAY
9
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
10
76
JEUDI THURSDAY
11
1869 beginning of the red river rebellion in present-day manitoba
VENDREDI FRIDAY
12
SAMEDI SATURDAY
13
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
14
1982 direct action (aka the squamish five) blows up a cruise missile manufacturing plant in toronto
77
LUNDI MONDAY
15
2011 occupons montréal begins
MARDI TUESDAY
16
mcgill deadline to withdraw from courses without refund
1970 3000 students gather in montréal in support of the flq
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
17
1970 pierre trudeau invokes the war measures act; thousands of political dissidents and citizens are arrested
78
JEUDI THURSDAY
18
1970 flq communiqué issued to police announcing that “minister of employment and assimilation” pierre laporte has been killed
VENDREDI FRIDAY
19
SAMEDI SATURDAY
20
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
21
79
LUNDI MONDAY
22
1977 montrĂŠal police raid the gay bar truxx; arrest 146 men and administer compulsory v.d. tests
MARDI TUESDAY
23
1844 louis riel is born
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
24
80
JEUDI THURSDAY
25
VENDREDI FRIDAY
26
SAMEDI SATURDAY
27
concordia deadline to drop courses without refund
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
28
81
LUNDI MONDAY
29
MARDI TUESDAY
30
1995 quebec referendum almost succeeds: 49.42% vote yes to sovereignty
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
31
1977 first woman bus driver in the history of montrĂŠal transit takes the wheel
82
JEUDI THURSDAY
1
1974 quebec’s test d’aptitude aux études universitaires, which limited francophone student’s access to university, is abolished
VENDREDI FRIDAY
2
2006 ssmu bans blood drive in the shatner building due to the organization’s discriminatory screening policies
SAMEDI SATURDAY
3
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
4
83
LUNDI MONDAY
5
MARDI TUESDAY
6
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
7
84
JEUDI THURSDAY
8
VENDREDI FRIDAY
9
SAMEDI SATURDAY
10
2011 one day strike protesting the liberal government’s proposed tuition increases, the james administration building is occupied and mcgill brings over 100 riot cops onto campus, brutalizing supporters outside
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
11
1987 anthony griffin, a black youth, is shot in the head and killed by montréal police
85
LUNDI MONDAY
12
2007 students across quebec begin a three-day strike against the unfreezing of tuition rates; dawson college becomes the first ever anglophone school to participate in a student strike
MARDI TUESDAY
13
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
14
2007 “tuesday of the batons”: more than 100 students are beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested by montréal police at the cégep du vieux-montréal
86
JEUDI THURSDAY
15
VENDREDI FRIDAY
16
1987 ckut receives its license to broadcast throughout montréal and surrounding areas
SAMEDI SATURDAY
17
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
18
87
LUNDI MONDAY
19
MARDI TUESDAY
20
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
21
88
JEUDI THURSDAY
22
VENDREDI FRIDAY
23
1968 rcmp arrest 114 in an anti-war demo at simon fraser university
SAMEDI SATURDAY
24
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
25
89
LUNDI MONDAY
26
MARDI TUESDAY
27
2007 jane vance rule, age 76, a canadian writer of lesbian themed novels and non-fiction dies
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
28
90
JEUDI THURSDAY
29
2005 roadsworth, famed montréal street stenciller, is charged with 53 counts of vandalism
VENDREDI FRIDAY
30
SAMEDI SATURDAY
1 (décembre/december)
2006 after leaving his morning prayer, mohamed anas bennis is killed by two montréal police bullets
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
(décembre/december)
2
1978 after 3rd general student strike, quebec education minister announces important changes to the financial aid program
91
LUNDI MONDAY
concordia last day of classes
3
1997 the comitĂŠ-des-sans-emploi raid a fancy buffet at the queen elizabeth hotel and share the food among more than one hundred supporters
MARDI TUESDAY
mcgill last day of classes
4
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
5
92
concordia exam period begins
JEUDI THURSDAY
mcgill exam period begins
6
1986 the montréal massacre: 14 women, engineering students at école polytechnique, are shot and killed
VENDREDI FRIDAY
7
SAMEDI SATURDAY
8
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
9
93
LUNDI MONDAY
10
MARDI TUESDAY
11
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
12
94
JEUDI THURSDAY
13
VENDREDI FRIDAY
14
SAMEDI SATURDAY
15
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
16
95
LUNDI MONDAY
17
international day to end violence against sex workers: marche des parapluies rouge
1875 bread riots in montréal
MARDI TUESDAY
18
1968 uqam created after a general student strike demanding the creation of a second french speaking university in montréal
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
19
96
mcgill exam period ends
JEUDI THURSDAY
concordia exam period ends
20
VENDREDI FRIDAY
21
SAMEDI SATURDAY
22
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
23
97
LUNDI MONDAY
24
MARDI TUESDAY
25
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
26
98
JEUDI THURSDAY
27
VENDREDI FRIDAY
28
SAMEDI SATURDAY
29
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
30
99
LUNDI MONDAY
31 (décembre/december)
1966 opening of ask community centre in vancouver to “serve the homosexual community,” the first such centre in canada
MARDI TUESDAY
1
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
2
100
**pick up your certain days for political prisoners calendar**
JEUDI THURSDAY
3
VENDREDI FRIDAY
4
1919 fairmount bagels opens and the montréal-style bagel is introduced to the world
SAMEDI SATURDAY
5
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
6
101
LUNDI MONDAY
7
MARDI TUESDAY
8
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
9
102
mcgill and concordia winter semesters begin
JEUDI THURSDAY
10
VENDREDI FRIDAY
11
1993 agsem receives union certification from the quebec labour commission
SAMEDI SATURDAY
12
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
13
103
LUNDI MONDAY
14
MARDI TUESDAY
15
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
16
1991 us, canada, and other imperialist un forces attack iraq and impose economic sanctions which are ongoing
104
JEUDI THURSDAY
17
1972 canadian air traffic controllers start a 12 day strike, grounding most commercial flights
VENDREDI FRIDAY
18
1971 quebec requires english-language schools in the province to teach french as a second language
SAMEDI SATURDAY
19
concordia add/drop deadline with refund
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
20
105
LUNDI MONDAY
21
MARDI TUESDAY
22
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
23
106
mcgill add/drop deadline
JEUDI THURSDAY
24
1955 start of the first canadian nuclear power plant at des joachims, ontario
VENDREDI FRIDAY
25
SAMEDI SATURDAY
26
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
27
107
LUNDI MONDAY
28
1916 manitoba becomes the first province to give women the right to vote
MARDI TUESDAY
29
mcgill deadline to withdraw from courses with refund
1969 the computer riots begin as over 200 students occupy concordia’s computer centre to protest racism at the university
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
30
108
JEUDI THURSDAY
31 (janvier/january)
VENDREDI FRIDAY
1
2005 canada introduces the civil marriage act, becoming the fourth country to sanction same sex marriage
SAMEDI SATURDAY
2
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
3
109
LUNDI MONDAY
4
MARDI TUESDAY
5
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
6
1976 leonard peltier captured by canadian police and extradited to the us
110
JEUDI THURSDAY
7
2012 over 60 mcgill students occupy the james administration building’s lobby and 6th floor, protesting the administration’s invalidation of qpirg and ckut’s referenda results, and calling for the deputy provost of student life and learning’s resignation. the occupation of the 6th floor lasts 5 days, under the name #6party
VENDREDI FRIDAY
8
1928 emma goldman travels to montréal where she gives lectures in yiddish - one on birth control and one on art and revolution
SAMEDI SATURDAY
9
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
10
111
LUNDI MONDAY
11
MARDI TUESDAY
12
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
13
2012 le déclenchement de la grève! the first wave of the student strike begins; at its peak over 300000 students are on strike
112
JEUDI THURSDAY
14
VENDREDI FRIDAY
15
2007 no one is illegal protests the racist ‘reasonable accommodation’ debates in montréal
SAMEDI SATURDAY
16
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
17
2012 the cégep du vieux-montréal is occupied and barricades are built; police eventually evict and charge occupiers under the criminal code
113
LUNDI MONDAY
18
MARDI TUESDAY
19
1930 quebec legislature rejects bill to admit women to the practice of law
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
20
114
mcgill deadline to withdraw from courses without refund
JEUDI THURSDAY
21
VENDREDI FRIDAY
22
SAMEDI SATURDAY
23
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
24
2005 waves of student strikes begin, cégep du vieuxmontréal is occupied, followed a few days later by collège st-laurent. the strike boasts 230000 students at its peak
115
LUNDI MONDAY
25
2010 500 montrĂŠal artists sign a declaration against israeli apartheid
MARDI TUESDAY
26
1942 canadian government begins internment of 21000 japanese canadians
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
27
116
JEUDI THURSDAY
28 (février/february)
2006 mcgill evicts the campus sexual assault centre from its night office
VENDREDI FRIDAY
1
SAMEDI SATURDAY
2
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
3
117
LUNDI MONDAY
reading week march 4-8
4
1946 montrĂŠal communist mp fred rose is dubiously charged with spying for the ussr
MARDI TUESDAY
5
2003 mcgill undergrads join in the north american student strike against the war in iraq
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
6
1925 12000 nova scotia coal miners begin a five-month strike
118
JEUDI THURSDAY
7
2012 riot police use tear gas, batons, and sound grenades for the first time during the strike. a student, francis grenier, is hit with shrapnel from a sound grenade and is blinded in one eye; a support demo that evening attacks an spvm station and vandalizes police cruisers
VENDREDI FRIDAY
8
2007 police attack montrÊal international women’s day march; several women are beaten and one person is arrested
SAMEDI SATURDAY
9
concordia deadline to drop courses without refund
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
10
119
LUNDI MONDAY
11
1990 mohawks set up a road block at the chemin du mille as the municipality lifts the moratorium on the golf club expansion project. a petition is also put forward with 1276 signatures against the expansion project
MARDI TUESDAY
12
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
13
2012 “unlimited creation night� strike event at uqam transforms the streets around the university into a huge party and art space; ends in an impromptu march through the city
120
JEUDI THURSDAY
14
VENDREDI FRIDAY
15
international day against police brutality and violence
2005 over 100000 students are on strike protesting the liberal government’s decision to transform most student financial aid into loans
SAMEDI SATURDAY
16
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
17
121
LUNDI MONDAY
18
2008 quebec superior court approves ban on student protests at uqam. it aims to prevent uqam’s 14000 striking students from disturbing the regular class schedule, or demonstrating within 100 metres of campus. in response, students form a human chain just outside of the 100-metre boundary
MARDI TUESDAY
19
1996 the ta union agsem stages a one day strike, the first ever legal academic staff strike at mcgill
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
20
122
JEUDI THURSDAY
21
VENDREDI FRIDAY
22
2012 first national march against tuition increases with over 200000 people demonstrating in montrĂŠal. massive marches are held on the 22nd day of the months following
SAMEDI SATURDAY
23
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
24
123
LUNDI MONDAY
25
2012 the first semaine de la perturbation ĂŠconomique (week of economic disruption) to stop the tuition hikes begins
MARDI TUESDAY
26
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
27
124
JEUDI THURSDAY
28
1969 10000 people rally at mcgill to call for the university to become francophone, pro-sovereignty and proworker in operation mcgill français
VENDREDI FRIDAY
29
SAMEDI SATURDAY
30
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
31
2011 anarchists and assé militants occupy crépuq offices
125
LUNDI MONDAY
1
1989 300 people, mostly mohawk, march through oka to oppose a golf course expansion into a sacred area and mohawk graveyard
MARDI TUESDAY
2
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
3
126
JEUDI THURSDAY
4
2012 national bank shareholders meeting disrupted by student protesters, leading to mass arrests
VENDREDI FRIDAY
5
SAMEDI SATURDAY
6
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
7
127
LUNDI MONDAY
8
MARDI TUESDAY
9
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
10
128
JEUDI THURSDAY
11
2012 disruptive strike demonstrations leave from square victoria every hour for 12 hours, each with different destinations, the first blockades national bank headquarters in downtown montréal, causing business people and cops to attack student protesters
VENDREDI FRIDAY
12
SAMEDI SATURDAY
13
concordia last day of classes
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
14
2012 blockade of concordia’s hall building during the second day of exams ends with violent confrontations between blockading and examtaking students
129
LUNDI MONDAY
15
MARDI TUESDAY
mcgill last day of classes
16
2012 bags of bricks are left on metro rails at locations throughout the the city as part of the disruptive tactics of the student strike, shutting down the metro; also date of the largest noise demo in montrĂŠal at the tanguay prison for women in solidarity with all those facing judicial repression for their involvement in the strike
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
17
130
mcgill and concordia exam period begins
JEUDI THURSDAY
18
VENDREDI FRIDAY
19
2006 over 50 police officers attack a solidarity with palestinian political prisoners event at el salon, arresting three individuals
SAMEDI SATURDAY
20
2012 multiple demos against plan nord job fair lead to occupations, riots, street bloackades, and vandalism; cops are chased down the street, the sq is called into montrĂŠal for the first time during the strike
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
21
1972 indigenous protestors end 6 month occupation of indian affairs office in edmonton
131
LUNDI MONDAY
22
MARDI TUESDAY
23
1980 montréal police raid the sauna david bath house and arrest 61 people // 2012 first of over 100 night demos leaves from place émilie-gamelin
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
24
2003 the ta union agsem launches a successful two week strike against mcgill
132
JEUDI THURSDAY
25
1845 hundreds of rioters set fire to the canadian parliament in montrĂŠal while members of the legislative assembly sit in session. // 2012 two smoke bombs detonate in the metro and at one at complexe desjardins, linked to the student strike
VENDREDI FRIDAY
26
SAMEDI SATURDAY
27
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
28
1813 us burns toronto to the ground in an unsuccessful attempt to gain control of lake ontario
133
LUNDI MONDAY
29
1971 quebec premier robert bourassa announces the james bay hydroelectric mega project, sparking a decades-long conflict between the quebec government and the james bay cree
MARDI TUESDAY
30
mcgill and concordia exam period ends
2005 la grande bibliotheque opens its doors to the public for the first time
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
1
may day
(mai/may)
2012 anti-capitialist demo draws hundreds of militants into the streets, but is attacked and dispersed by police within two hours
134
JEUDI THURSDAY
2
2009 bixi, a public bike share program, is launched in montrĂŠal
VENDREDI FRIDAY
3
SAMEDI SATURDAY
4
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
5
2012 the battle of victo: student militants and the sq face off in victoriaville at the site of the liberal convention. the mcgill/concordia bus is stopped on the highway on the way back to montrĂŠal; all inside are held in the bus for ten hours, arrested, and criminally charged
135
LUNDI MONDAY
6
MARDI TUESDAY
7
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
8
136
JEUDI THURSDAY
9
VENDREDI FRIDAY
10
2012 smoke bombs detonate along all metro lines, shutting them down. those arrested in connection with the action become the first in canada to be charged with committing a ‘terrorist hoax’
SAMEDI SATURDAY
11
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
12
1983 a mob of 100 fishermen burns and sinks two fisheries patrol boats in nova scotia to protest lobster quotas
137
LUNDI MONDAY
13
MARDI TUESDAY
14
1976 montréal police raid neptune sauna arresting 89 men in a clean up for the olympics
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
15
1885 insurgent louis riel is captured, effectively ending the métis north-west rebellion in saskatchewan
138
JEUDI THURSDAY
16
VENDREDI FRIDAY
17
SAMEDI SATURDAY
18
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
19
2012 special law 12/ bill 78 is put into place, restricting the right to demonstrate and introducing ridiculously high fines for anyone who violates it. it is summarily ignored by everyone, and inspires ‘casserole’ demos throughout montréal
139
LUNDI MONDAY
20
1980 the first referendum on quebec sovereignty, proposed by the pq government of rené lévesque, ends with a 59.56% ‘no’ vote and a 40.44% ‘yes’ vote
MARDI TUESDAY
21
2012 Over 1000 people are arrested in the streets over the course of the 3 days, out of the 2500 estimated to have been arrested since the beginning of the strike
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
22
2012 in the largest act of civil disobedience in canadian history, between 100000-400000 people march to mark the 100th day of the strike and in violation of law 12/bill 78
140
JEUDI THURSDAY
23
VENDREDI FRIDAY
24
2012 casserole protests, where community members bang on pots and pans from their windows or in the streets, have expanded to include most montrĂŠal neighbourhoods
SAMEDI SATURDAY
25
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
26
141
LUNDI MONDAY
27
1993 the house of commons passes legislation bringing canada into nafta
MARDI TUESDAY
28
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
29
142
JEUDI THURSDAY
30
1982 a bc hydro substation on vancouver island is destroyed and claimed by direct action; 4.5 million dollar damage
VENDREDI FRIDAY
31
2005 mcgill evicts the muslim student’s association from their prayer space
SAMEDI SATURDAY
1 (juin/june)
DIMANCHE SUNDAY (juin/june)
2
1970 dr. henry morgentaler is arrested in montréal for performing illegal abortions
143
LUNDI MONDAY
3
MARDI TUESDAY
4
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
5
144
JEUDI THURSDAY
6
VENDREDI FRIDAY
7
2012 despite police raids and arrests in the morning, students and anti-capitalists protest the grand prix; spvm politically profile hundreds of people wearing the red square commuting on the metro or travelling near grand-prix areas over the weekend, arresting them or banning them from public areas
SAMEDI SATURDAY
8
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
9
1919 winnipeg city council dismisses the police force during the general strike
145
LUNDI MONDAY
10
MARDI TUESDAY
11
1872 labour unions become legal in canada // 1990 500 heavily armed police attack mohawks in kanehsatake. the mohawks erected a road block in opposition to the expansion of a golf course further into mohawk territory
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
12
1843 twenty die when striking workers on the lachine canal are shot by the 74th regiment
146
JEUDI THURSDAY
13
VENDREDI FRIDAY
14
1972 front de libération homosexuel opens new gay centre with a dance that is broken up by a police raid
SAMEDI SATURDAY
15
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
16
147
LUNDI MONDAY
17
MARDI TUESDAY
18
2005 solidarity across borders’ march on ottawa begins, demanding regularization of all non-status persons, an end to deportations and detentions of migrants, and the abolition of security certificates
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
19
148
JEUDI THURSDAY
20
VENDREDI FRIDAY
21
1734 marie-joseph angélique, a black slave, is tried and hanged for setting fire to her “owner’s” home and burning down much of old montréal
SAMEDI SATURDAY
22
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
23
149
LUNDI MONDAY
24
MARDI TUESDAY
25
1970 minister of indian affairs jean chrĂŠtien announces a plan to end legal status for native persons
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
26
150
JEUDI THURSDAY
27
VENDREDI FRIDAY
28
SAMEDI SATURDAY
29
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
30
151
LUNDI MONDAY
1
MARDI TUESDAY
2
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
3
152
anti-canada day
JEUDI THURSDAY
4
VENDREDI FRIDAY
5
2003 clac-logement and other housing activists set up tent city in parc lafontaine
SAMEDI SATURDAY
6
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
7
1991 marcellus francois, a 24 year-old black man, is shot in the head by a montrĂŠal swat team who mistook him for someone else
153
LUNDI MONDAY
8
1852 the great montrĂŠal fire leaves one fifth of the population homeless, mostly artisans and labourers
MARDI TUESDAY
9
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
10
154
JEUDI THURSDAY
11
1990 the oka crisis begins as quebec police attack mohawks defending their land in kanehsatake
VENDREDI FRIDAY
12
SAMEDI SATURDAY
13
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
14
1976 montrĂŠal mayor jean drapeau orders an 8 km art installation dismantled for contravening bylaws on the occupation of public space
155
LUNDI MONDAY
15
1990 police raid the sex garage loft party in old montrĂŠal with over four hundred queers in attendance
MARDI TUESDAY
16
1763 jefferey amherst writes to colonel bouquet approving the plan of giving native communities contaminated small pox blankets. later, a montrĂŠal street is named after amherst
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
17
156
JEUDI THURSDAY
18
VENDREDI FRIDAY
19
1914 vancouver authorities attempt to board the ship komagata maru and are beaten back by its sikh immigrant passengers who refuse to leave the harbour
SAMEDI SATURDAY
20
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
21
1885 the trial of mĂŠtis rebel louis riel begins in regina. he is later found guilty of treason and hanged
157
LUNDI MONDAY
22
MARDI TUESDAY
23
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
24
158
JEUDI THURSDAY
25
VENDREDI FRIDAY
26
SAMEDI SATURDAY
27
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
28
2003 montrĂŠal police arrest 238 protesters in relation to demonstrations against the world trade organization ministerial
159
LUNDI MONDAY
29
MARDI TUESDAY
30
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
31
160
JEUDI THURSDAY
1
1993 montréal hosts divers/cité for the first time, an lgbt arts and music festival
VENDREDI FRIDAY
2
SAMEDI SATURDAY
3
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
4
161
LUNDI MONDAY
5
2007 pervers/cité is launched as a queer summer festival in contrast to divers/cité’s white-washed, corporatized gay agenda
MARDI TUESDAY
6
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
7
1968 the saskatchewan government allows 200 students to pay tuition in wheat, oats, or barley
162
JEUDI THURSDAY
8
2008 montréal north riot takes place following the murder of fredy villanueva by montréal police and in the context of constant racial profiling of marginalized communities
VENDREDI FRIDAY
9
SAMEDI SATURDAY
10
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
11
163
LUNDI MONDAY
12
MARDI TUESDAY
13
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
14
164
JEUDI THURSDAY
15
VENDREDI FRIDAY
16
2000 prime minister jean chrĂŠtien is pied. canadians claim the distinction of being the first to pie their head of government
SAMEDI SATURDAY
17
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
18
165
LUNDI MONDAY
19
MARDI TUESDAY
20
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
21
166
JEUDI THURSDAY
22
VENDREDI FRIDAY
23
SAMEDI SATURDAY
24
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
25
167
LUNDI MONDAY
26
MARDI TUESDAY
27
2005 sexual assualt takes place during a mcgill football team hazing ritual and prompts much rhetoric, little action from the administration
MERCREDI WEDNESDAY
28
168
JEUDI THURSDAY
29
VENDREDI FRIDAY
30
SAMEDI SATURDAY
31
DIMANCHE SUNDAY
(septembre/september)
1
169
notes
170
notes
171
notes
172
notes
173
notes
174
notes
175
notes
176
notes
177
notes
178
the coordinators molly swain & sves yeung art covers - emma ravindra dividers - laura ellyn monthly calendars - caitlin gallupe weekly calendar headers - keet illustrations - natacha girouard, keet, j. brager, zoe ikeda, gecko*, annie banks, s. ayton, jacqueline, emma ravindran, HAM, shavonne tovah somvong, sophie yanow, sves writing jos porter, aaron vansintjan, tanya gill-lalonde, joan, becca yu!, arij riahi, fred burrill, max silverman, cera yiu, digs whatever, laura ellyn, molly swain, jeannette young, dredre figs, emciel, alexandra nunn, amber gross, kelly munroe, life after life, a.j. withers, jaggi singh, noah, munaca, dan wolfe, allison jones, jérémie bédard-wien editors & translators sami fink, sam rose, molly swain, christina xydous, tanya m., sves, siobhan andthensome, jodie beck, noah, milena gioia layout & design sves yeung & molly swain funders (at the time of printing) midnight kitchen, the uge, first peoples’ house, agsem, munaca, amuse, qpirg mcgill, qpirg concordia, concordia university small grants program, frigo vert, concordia sustainability action fund, queer concordia assistance provided by the student’s society of mcgill university <3 <3 <3 qpirgs concordia and mcgill, the back porch of smellpirg, shyam, rad frosh, sabine & chadi at katasoho, christina with p
www.schoolschmool.qpirgmcgill.org school.schmool@gmail.com