Indigenous Sovereignty Issue, Volume 3, Issue 2 by YU FreePress

NEWS (3-6)

FEATURES (7-17)

Racism Between the Lines 3 The Snakes Sleep 4 Unholy Alliance 5 Protests Rock Quebec 5

Tunisia Revolution 7 Indian in India 10 Aboriginal Ghettos 11 Boreal Boycott 14-15

Winter Issue 2, 2011

COMMENTS (18-20)

ARTS & CULTURE (21-22)

Poems by Jorge Antonio Remembering David Noble 16 Report on G20 Fundraiser 17 Vallejos 21 Grace 18 African Liberation Film Guide 21 Review of Bill 83 19 An Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s WORTH 22

Your Alternative News Magazine at York

Volume 3, Issue 2

INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY ISSUE

(THE maiz IS OURS!) Peace Chief in Toronto, Jeff Thomas

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

Editorial Our Home on Native Land: Indigenous Sovereignty Issue The YU Free Press is happy to introduce the ﬁrst issue of the winter term and the 2011 year: ‘Indigenous Sovereignty.’

police murder Indigenous people, acts which are somehow justiﬁed by referring to the victims’ mental health.

Canada’s colonialist history is long and shameful. Although very early relations with Indigenous people were civil as long as trade was lucrative, European settlers looking to expand resorted to seedy tactics: trading blankets that had been infected with smallpox, tricking Indigenous people into signing treaties that were deliberately mistranslated. With the passage of the Indian Act, the ‘Indian problem’ was to be solved by isolating Indigenous people on reserves and leaving the populations to die out-death by deprivation.

Depression, substance dependency, and suicide are at all-time highs among Indigenous populations, and it is little wonder why: these are a people who have had to resist and survive genocide.

Through the 19th and 20th centuries, residential schools were built for the purpose of teaching Indigenous children European language and religion. Social workers would kidnap children from reserves and dump them in the school system, where they would stay until they were 18. Children were abused, murdered, and forced to renounce their cultural heritage. When racial hygiene became a growing concern, girls would be forcibly sterilized. Reserves have been moved and reduced, and are often located in areas that are dangerous to inhabit. Whole communities have been displaced due to oil production in the tar sands, while other communities nearby experience the toxic effects of Canada’s everexpanding oil industry in the form of cancers, respiratory problems, and contaminated drinking water. Hundreds of Indigenous women have been disappeared in the past ten years alone, and yet little is ever done to acknowledge or search for those missing. There are incidents whereby

COVER IMAGE

Indians on Tour: Peace Chief in Toronto By Jeff Thomas

Similar to Canadian Indigenous people, the Maori population has fought for land rights, and is more prone than the rest of New Zealand to health problems. Mayans of Guatemala were subject to mass rape, torture, and massacre as early as thirty years ago. The effects of apartheid are still felt in South Africa. Palestinians and Tamils have been displaced and systematically deprived of resources while locked in conﬂict with their respective colonizers, Israel and Sri Lanka. Such issues and more are explored in this publication. Our Features section showcases a gamut of works dealing with Indigenous issues at home and abroad. Maria GuadognoliCloss’s ‘Aboriginal Women’s Health Issues’ describes the exclusion of Aboriginal women’s health from the study of women’s health in Canada. Her article presents a detailed analysis of factors affecting the health of Aboriginal women like accessibility, sexuality and reproduction, and violence. In ‘The CanadianAboriginal Reserve as Ghettos and Aboriginal Suicide Rates,’ Athena Goodfellow explores how the effects of historical colonization negatively impact Aboriginal youth today. David McNally’s ‘Night in Tunisia: Riots, Strikes, and a Spreading Insurgency’ delves into the recent political unrest in Tunisia and the implications of such successful activism on insurgencies and working class movements around the globe.

In ‘Remembering David Noble,’ an article in our Comments section, Gordon Shean writes in memory of Professor David Noble who was an engaged and thought-provoking activist and educator at York University. Jen Rinaldi and Samantha Walsh argue in support of Bill 83, the Protecting Vulnerable People Against Picketing Act, noting that the interests of people with disabilities must be upheld. In our News section, Megan Kinch and Michael Romandel’s ‘Groups Protest Unholy Alliance between Jewish Defence League and English NeoFascists’ offers a ﬁrst-hand account of the protests of anti-racist and human rights activists held against the JDL’s blatant support of the English Defence League, a militant, extremist group known for its racist and anti-Islamic crusading. In ‘Racism between the Lines: Exposing and Opposing Racism Behind Toronto Star and Maclean’s Articles,’ the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario provides a statement on the recent, racist publications in Maclean’s and the Toronto Star and highlight the importance of inclusive journalism in mainstream media. Finally, our Arts & Culture section presents an article on AnishinaabeCanadian artist Rebecca Belmore. Kristen Daigle recounts Belmore’s courageous art performance titled Worth--created as a response to a lawsuit against the artist’s rights to her own artworks. We also present a series of poems by Jorge Antonio Vallejos. ‘I Keep Walking’ paints the cultural ignorance of the disconnect between different Indigenous struggles across time and space. ‘The Great Crime’ seems to create a space of mutual yet alternate meaning through contrasting the reality of our corporate, colonizing

S A V E Dear friends and allies,

Jeff Thomas is an urbanIroquois, born in the city of Buffalo, New York in 1956. His parents and grandparents were born at the Six Nations reserve, near Brantford, Ontario and left the reserve to find work in the city. You won’t find a definition for ‘urban Iroquois’ in any dictionary or anthropological publication-it is this absence that informs his work as a photo-based artist, researcher, independent curator, cultural analyst, and public speaker. His study of Indian-ness seeks to create an image bank of his urbanIroquois experience, as well as re-contextualize historical images of First Nations people for a contemporary audience.

After 28 loud and proud years on-air in Toronto, CKLN 88.1 FM at Ryerson University has had its license revoked by the CRTC. CKLN was Canada’s first campus community radio station. CKLN has provided a voice for a diverse community since then. CKLN’s membership and surrounding community are shocked at the unprecedented harshness of the decision by the CRTC, and its punitive outcome for ‘the Voice of the Underground.’ With YOUR support CKLN may still be able to continue to provide this alternative voice for the voiceless, a forum for the unrepresented that has remained resolutely free from commercial interests, mainstream reporting, and sales-driven forms of art and expression, one of the last bastions of freely and easily available independent media in this city... How can you help? Please visit www.ckln.fm for the following information and more! · Ask your federal MP to intervene--use our easy postal code lookup to find your MP and let them know why you care, and why they should take the message to the federal cabinet. · Respectfully ask the CRTC to reverse their decision--take the opportunity to tell why independent media, and particularly CKLN, matters to YOU. Does the loss of CKLN impact you in any way? The CRTC needs to know how and why. Contact information available on our website, at www. ckln.fm · Sign our online petition -find the link at www.ckln.fm. Sincerely, Joeita Gupta, 416.918.1935

Toban Black present with that of the Indigenous past. Of course, poetry can be interpreted in countless ways and Vallejos succeeds in creating an explosion of meaning with few words. We are at a turning point in history; as we reach the pinnacle of global integration, the existences of many local communities and Indigenous populations are threatened. The extension of historical colonialism-corporate globalization--has destroyed and/or endangered oceans, forests, habitats, and many animal species. Inequalities plague the working class and we now begin to see a mass global uprising against existing conditions. Insurgencies that began in Tunisia spread like ﬁre to Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, and Algeria. More and more nations are beginning to accept Palestinian sovereignty and statehood; the recent wave of Latin American countries like Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Guyana, and Cuba recognizing Palestine have planted seeds of hope in the hearts of activists everywhere.

We need not look far for injustice, apartheid, and colonial oppression, for our own history is tainted with it all. However, we also need not look far for resistance and victories; our issue is dedicated not only to people indigenous to Canada, for colonialism is a global phenomenon--and it is more global today than it ever was. Once again, we are proud to showcase stories and narratives that are structurally excluded from mainstream media and discourse. Please do not hesitate to send us your critical feedback and responses. Lastly, we would like to thank all of our contributors and welcome Jenelle Regnier-Davies as one of our newest Features Editors and Zahran Khan as our new Collective Administrator. Thank you for reading the YU Free Press; we hope you cherish reading this issue and enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed delivering it to you. YUFP Editorial Collective

The G20 Legal Defence Fund is now open and accepting applications for requests for ﬁnancial assistance from G20 defendants. All the information you might need about how to access the fund, how it operates, and how to get in touch with folks managing the fund can be found at the following site:

g20legaldefencefund.wordpress.com

The email address that has been established for questions about the Defence Fund is:

g20legaldefencefund@gmail.com

Also, the application itself along with submission instructions have been attached to this email for circulation. Please note that the deadline for receipt of applications is Feb. 15, (postmark deadline) and that all application materials need to be mailed to the following address:

G20 Legal Defence Fund c/o Paul Copeland Copeland Duncan 31 Prince Arthur Ave Toronto, ON M5R 1B2

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

News Racism between the Lines: Exposing and Opposing Racism behind Toronto Star and Maclean’s Articles Magkaisa Centre On Nov. 10, 2010, two articles--‘‘Too Asian’?: Worries that efforts in the U.S. to limit enrolment of Asian students in top universities may migrate to Canada’ and ‘Educators encourage parents of Asian background to let their children study trades and arts,’ published by Maclean’s Magazine and Toronto Star newspaper, respectively-fuelled anti-immigrant sentiments and racism. The Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario (UKPC/FCYA–ON), a progressive organization of Filipino Canadian youth and students, recognize that the articles fuel anti-immigrant sentiments and racism while masking the genuine concerns and issues that plague post-secondary education and its students. Without a clear understanding of the social, political, and economic situation of racialized communities in Canada, the experiences of Asian Canadian students are then seen within a vacuum devoid of a larger systemic context. The articles are not only examples of irresponsible and bad journalism, but they also represent propaganda that perpetuates racism, irrational anxiety, and fear. As the lessons of history have taught us, pitting white Canadians against immigrants of colour has been an all-too-classic tactic for carrying out racism in Canada. Reading the articles within this context starkly reveals even more pressing and prevalent issues: a full-time domestic student already pays exorbitant amounts for post-secondary education, with Ontario having the highest tuition fees in the country. Despite years of student mobilizing, education remains as one of the last priorities of the province. Consequently, higher education becomes increasingly inaccessible to working-class and racialized communities in Canada. This is evident in the low enrolment, retention, and graduation rates of disabled youth,

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of Canadian universities as producers of neoliberal thought and commerce. For the Filipino Canadian community, the stories behind the articles are all too familiar. We surely recognize that complaints of Asian youth stealing university spots and making academic institutions ‘too Asian’ are in fact extensions of something far more dangerous. Such complaints are clear examples of racist and anti-immigrant sentiments, whose topsy-turvy logic condemn the struggles of immigrants and migrants for adequate livelihood and landed status simply as ‘foreigners stealing jobs from North Americans.’ Aggressive recruitment techniques to attract international students are implemented by universities, similar to Canada’s continued importation of highly skilled, yet cheap labour from the Global South through Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP), Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), and The Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). Such actions are fuelled by speciﬁc economic and political agendas. Therefore, it is sheer irresponsibility on the part of Maclean’s and Toronto Star to miss out on the fact that the state has always used and excluded racialized bodies to build a globally competitive Canada. Let us not forget those who have been recruited from outside the country to construct and maintain our campuses, and to take care of and clean the homes of middle and upper class Canadian families. The Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance– Ontario, whose mothers, sisters, and cousins make up 95% of domestic workers in Canada, knows this all too well. By simple virtue of the women who have toiled under the LCP, insinuations within the articles of ‘Asians’ having unhindered access to post secondary institutions and higher learning are proven to be wrong. Work permits of Filipino Canadians under

“...it is sheer irresponsibility on the part of Maclean’s and Toronto Star to miss out on the fact that the state has always used and excluded racialized bodies to build a globally competitive Canada.”

Aboriginals, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians, especially for those with refugee status who are required to pay international fees. Ironically enough, the recruitment for international students has become more vigorous as universities aim to play a larger role within neoliberal globalization. University administrations’ recruitment trips to Israel, India, and East Asia are active efforts to yield higher proﬁt through international tuition fees, consequently securing the role

the LCP speciﬁcally state their ineligibility to attend post-secondary education, even for those teachers and nurses who are then consequently deskilled and relegated to low-paying service sector jobs. Alarmingly enough, Filipino Canadian youth inherit this cycle of poverty and exclusion as proven by the high drop-out rates of our youth in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Youth coming from struggling communities of colour and low-income families face greater

economic barriers than other prospective Canadian students. For immigrant children, enrolling in traditionally recognized fields of study and occupations is not simply a choice. Instead, we are further motivated by instinctive survival strategies in the face of deskilling and discrimination. Instead of promoting backwards sentiments of Asians being ‘too hardworking,’ both print media and universities, as shapers of educators of Canadian minds, have a responsibility to demythicize such pathologizing claims. In the Maclean’s article, the author argues that diversity threatens the heterogeneity of the institutions of education itself on ethnic lines, and attempts to support this claim by referring to the segregation of the student body and the specified mandatory ethnic margins a university should follow or have. While the Canadian government and universities continue to promote and encourage diversity and multiculturalism, we would rather ask, diversity for whom? What is this irrational fear from the “too Asian” rhetoric diverting our attention from? Multiculturalism has played a crucial role in advancing Canada’s neoliberal agenda, as its contradictions are felt in the everyday lives of working-class and racialized communities. For universities, institutions, cities, and the nation as a whole, multiculturalism has functioned as a major selling point as it has welcomed and streamed communities for particular cultural, political, and economic uses. We, UKPC/FCYA–ON and our sister organizations, the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and SIKLAB Ontario, are adamantly angered and unimpressed at the writings published by Maclean’s magazine and the Toronto Star newspaper. Such writings promote racist attitudes and fuel antagonism within universities, while preventing solidarity to strengthen marginalized communities along antineoliberal and anti-racist lines. We will continue to be steadfast and sharp in dismantling the frivolous efforts of the mainstream print media in perpetuating racism and backwards ideas, and we will be quick to expose and oppose the continued attacks on communities of colour in Canada. Together with other racialized and workingclass communities in Canada, we intensify our fight to assert that education remains to be a basic right for everyone--education that is useful for achieving our full potential and one that aids the advancement of our communities.

The YU Free Press is a free alternative monthly newspaper at York University. Our principal objectives are to challenge the mainstream corporate media model and provide a fundamental space for critical analysis at York University and wider community.

ADDRESS York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Canada EMAIL info@yufreepress.org WEBSITE http://www.yufreepress.org EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE Victoria Barnett Raji Choudhury Ashley Grover Amelia Jazienicki Evan Johnston Canova Kutuk Amee Lê Nathan Nun Jenelle Regnier-Davies Jen Rinaldi

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CONTRIBUTORS Jacqueline Bergen, Sandra Cuffe, Kristen Daigle, Darlene Drecun, Athena Goodfellow, Grassy Narrows, Maria Guadagnoli-Closs, Anna Hudson, Evan Johnston, Megan Kinch, Tristan Laing, David McNally, Magkaisa Centre, Hadiyya Mwapachu, Diana Ralph, Laila Rashidie, Jen Rinaldi, Michael Romandel, Gordon Shean, Jessica Squires, Jeff Thomas, Nishant Upadhyay, Jorge Antonio Vallejos, Jeff Van de Graaf, Samantha Walsh, Jesse M. Zimmerman

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NEWS

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

The Snakes Sleep: Attacks against the Media and Impunity in Post-Coup Honduras Sandra Cuffe In Honduras, there is a particular quote by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano that has been adopted into the country’s rich lexicon of idioms: “Justice is like snakes. They only bite the barefoot.” Of the thousands of human rights violations committed in Honduras since the coup in June 2009, in most cases the only serious investigations have been carried out by the grassroots organizations involved with the Human Rights Platform and the resistance movement. Very few charges have been laid against the human rights violators who ordered and carried out illegal detentions, kidnappings, beatings, torture, rape, and extrajudicial executions.

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were mainly countries officially deemed to be in conflict, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Somalia. When the Honduran population of less than 8 million is taken into account, the statistics are exponentially more serious. According to the IPI’s research, from 1997 when the Institute started the Death Watch until the coup, only seven journalists were killed. At the Universal Periodic Review, UN member States demanded investigations and justice in the cases of the nine journalists killed in 2010 alone. While the final report will not be adopted until the Human Rights Council meets again to discuss the case in March 2011, the Honduran government stated its acceptance of the 129 recommendations during the Review process earlier

“Of the thousands of human rights violations committed in Honduras since the coup in June 2009, in most cases the only serious investigations have been carried out by the grassroots organizations involved with the Human Rights Platform and the resistance movement.”

At the international level, however, there have recently been positive signals that spark the hope that justice may one day be served. In mid November, the International Criminal Court announced that preliminary investigations are underway to determine whether or not the Court has jurisdiction over a case related to Honduras. Essentially, the Court is investigating whether or not war crimes and/or crimes against humanity have been committed in Honduras since the coup on Jun. 28 2009. Also earlier this past November, Honduras faced its Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations, a process that each UN member State undergoes every four years. Tellingly, Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia did not attend because they do not recognize the government of Porﬁrio Lobo Sosa, who was elected President in November 2009 in highly controversial elections that many contend were simply the prolongation of the illegitimate rule of the civic and military authorities that coordinated the overthrow of democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, El Salvador, and Ecuador explicitly clariﬁed that they do not recognize the government of Honduras, but intervened in the Review process nonetheless in order to support the human rights of the Honduran people. At the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, several concerns were voiced about the impunity surrounding human rights violations in general, and the murder of journalists in particular. Nine journalists have been murdered in Honduras in 2010. According to the Death Watch compiled by the International Press Institute (IPI), Honduras is now the second most dangerous country for journalists, second only to Mexico. Prior to 2010, the countries with the most murders of journalists

this month. In the case of the journalists, however, the promise to investigate and to prosecute those responsible did not come without a rebuttal. “In none of the cases investigated have the victims or their families alleged political motivations, nor have the investigations turned up evidence that such a pattern exists,” said Honduran Vice President Maria Antoineta Guillen de Bogran during the Review. Earlier in 2010, in an interview with the Tribuna newspaper on May 3, Honduran Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez went even further, stating: “I guarantee that in all of the cases [of the journalists’ murders], there is no connection to indicate that it is due to their work as journalists. That is to say that there is no person or people trying to silence journalists; it is simply that, just as other people, after their work as reporters, journalists spend their time on their own personal situations.” Of course, as murdered journalists themselves, Gabriel Fino Noriega, Joseph Hernandez Ochoa, David Meza Montesinos, Nahum Palacios, Jose Bayardo Mayrena, Manuel Juarez, Jorge Alberto Orellana, Luis Arturo Mondragon, and Israel Zelaya Diaz are not able to contest the statements by Vice President Guillen and Security Minister Alvarez. However, as we will see below, in most cases, journalists who have been threatened, kidnapped, beaten, and tortured have demonstrated the clear connection between their work as critical journalists supporting or reporting on the resistance movement and the human rights violations they have endured. In the case of direct attacks against media outlets, the evidence is clear. Most of the violent assaults against radio stations and the conﬁscation of equipment took place either on Jun. 28 2009, the morning of the

coup, or three months later, on Sep. 28 2009, after a specific executive decree including more curfews and martial law also addressed media outlets. The decree established a State of Emergency and restricted several basic rights and freedoms, including the freedom of expression, giving authorities the green light to “halt the coverage or discussion through any media, be it verbal or printed, of demonstrations that threaten peace and public order” or that compromised the “dignity” of government authorities or decisions. “The decree [defined] the framework of a military dictatorship,” asserted well known radio journalist Felix Molina. “Honduras had not seen-- not even during the dirty war of the 1980s, when the military governed with a civilian facade--something like what we saw the morning of Jun. 28 2009, which was repeated the morning of Sep. 28 2009, exactly three months later. The arrival in person of soldiers to a media outlet. Confiscation. Well, on Jun. 28, there was no confiscation of equipment, but in September, channel 36’s equipment was destroyed and confiscated and completely confiscated from Radio Globo,” explained Molina after the military assault on Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur, the only radio and television stations, respectively, with nation-wide coverage to clearly identify with the resistance movement against the coup. “In the 24 hours after the publication of the decree in the official newspaper, the army invoked it to take away equipment and take two media outlets off the air. ...And we could have expected anything to happen, but as a journalist, I would have never expected that a media outlet be physically dismantled by the army, and yet that is what we saw at dawn on Sep. 28,” said Molina. On June 28th, in the hours after the Honduran army sprayed the house of elected President Zelaya with bullets and forced him onto a flight to Costa Rica, several radio stations around the country reporting the urgent news were targeted by the armed forces and forced off the air. That same morning, a nation-wide consultation was to have taken place for people to express their support or opposition for a fourth ballot box in the 2010 elections concerning a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution. The initiative was supported and coordinated both by Zelaya and much of the Honduran social movement. Many of the media outlets that would later support the coup either simply did not report anything that morning, or reported the official version of events involving Zelaya’s resignation and voluntary departure. Electrical power blackouts also occurred in much of the country. One of the radio stations attacked and forced to stop broadcasting on Jun. 28 2009 was Radio Juticalpa, located in the state of Olancho, home to both ousted President Zelaya and current controversial President Lobo. When station

director Martha Elena Rubi arrived before dawn, she found the windows and walls of the studio shot up from outside. The shells inside the studio were all from M-16s, the assault rifles assigned to the Honduran a r m y . Witnesses also identified the armed forces as responsible for the violent attack, but Rubi went ahead and broadcast the news of the coup. “We thought that this time, if we informed the people of what was really going on, we would help neutralize it. So, knowing that I was going to do this work, what they did was that when I got here, at about five thirty or five o’clock in the morning, [they thought that] I would realize that they had shot up the station and that I would be afraid and not even go on air,” said Rubi. “I knew they were going to come,” added Rubi, “so I had little time to tell people the truth, and for the town to realize the way in which they were trying to silence what we were, in an impartial way, saying: the truth. So I knew that I was racing against the clock and I committed to getting people to wake up to reality. About two or three hours later, they came with orders for me to shut down the station.” There was a power blackout in Juticalpa, but Radio Juticalpa had a solar plant and therefore became the only radio station on the air in the entire region. When the heavily armed soldiers were approaching, Rubi stopped her news coverage and switched to music. However, the station was forced off the air for the rest of the day. Luckily, Rubi and her colleague Andres Molina were able to prevent the army from confiscating their equipment. Likely due in large part to the persistence of Honduran human rights organizations and mounting international pressure, Colonel Rene Javier Palao Torres and subofficial Juan Alfredo Acosta were charged with abuse of authority for the assault on Radio Juticalpa and sentenced to prison in Juticalpa, Olancho. The military officials appealed the verdict, however, and the sentence was overturned earlier this month by the Court of Appeals. The number of cases in which charges have not even been laid is unfortunately far greater than those that have at least made it to courts. Flying in the face of the statements by Vice President Guillen and Security Minister Alvarez, one such case is the kidnapping and torture of 29-year-old Delmer Membreno on Sep. 28 2009, the same day as the military attacks on Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur. A former photographer for the Tribuna newspaper and the Spanish News Agency, the resistance-supporting El Libertador newspaper

photographer Membreno was forced into a vehicle by armed men in Tegucigalpa. “They put a balaclava over my head, they handcuffed me, and they burned my body. They hit me, and they uttered threats against the newspaper I work for: El Libertador,” said Membreno, with the bruises and burn marks still visible on his face and body. “They beat me. They burned my body with cigarettes. Here [on my arm], my face, and my chest. They ripped my shirt and left me without shoes. ...‘Cry, cry! Why aren’t you crying, you commie?’ That’s what they said. ...They said that the director better be careful, that they were following him, and that what they had done to me was nothing in comparison to what they were going to do to him,” stated the wounded photographer. When the torture of Membreno took place, there had already been so many cases of human rights violations against journalists and media outlets that the Committee of Relatives of the DetainedDisappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) had petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for precautionary measures speciﬁcally for a long list of journalists and media outlets that had been attacked. From July 2009 on, the IACHR granted precautionary measures to a long list of journalists and media outlets; however, during two separate IACHR hearings that took place one month ago in Washington DC, evidence began to pile up that Honduras had not been carrying out the measures. On Jul. 24 2009, the IACHR granted precautionary measures to television journalist Nahun Palacios, the news director of Aguan Television on channel 5 in Tocoa, Colon, in the Aguan Valley. Palacios had immediately and publicly voiced his opposition to the coup and reported on the mobilizations against the coup and in support of the fourth ballot box and the Constituent Assembly. Only two days after the coup, on June 30, soldiers raided Palacios’s home, intimidated his family, held his children at gunpoint, and seized his vehicle and some work-related equipment. Despite the IACHR precautionary measures granted the following month, Palacios never received any communication from the State, let alone any effective protection.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

News

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

Groups Protest Unholy Alliance between Jewish Defense League and English Neo-Fascists Megan Kinch & Michael Romandel On Jan. 11 2011, the alliance of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and the English Defence League (EDL) was challenged by counter-protests from anti-racist and human rights activists. The JDL and EDL alliance was supposed to be cemented in Toronto at an event held by the JDL in support of Tommy Robinson of the EDL, who addressed the Zionist group regarding his recent arrest. While the JDL is known for their militant anti-Palestinian or ‘proIsrael’ activism in Toronto and has a long history as a militant Zionist organization in the United States and elsewhere, their alliance with the English Defence League, a neofascist organization based out of Britain that focuses on anti-Islamic street activism, seems surprising considering the history of the relationship between Jews and fascist states and movements. Although the EDL does not claim to be fascist in any of their publicity and is not linked in any way to traditional neo-Nazi groups, the nationalist nature of their movement and their tactic of scapegoating one particular religious group to justify their broader political agenda betrays their underlying fascist politics. However, the JDL is on the extreme right-wing of the Zionist movement and organizes in a manner that is eerily similar to traditional fascists and white nationalists, with very disciplined organization and a major focus on building a militant national ideology among their rank and ﬁle.

for being who they are.”

In response to this JDL-EDL alliance, two separate counterprotests gathered, but organizers from both publicly expressed their solidarity with the other. One was an explicitly peaceful vigil outside Lawrence Square with candles and music, organized by the CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group and Christian Peacemakers Team, and attended by several other groups. Another protest, more militant in dress and slogans but still simply a demonstration, was organized mainly by a new incarnation of Anti-Racist Action Toronto (ARA).

Across the intersection of Marlee and Lawrence, 20 people at the vigil played music and gave speeches, holding signs that said “fight Islamophobia.” A car with five young women, several of them with full niqab, were simply driving by when they saw the signs and stopped to join the vigil briefly. “Personally I find it very compelling to see people here who are not even Muslim literally braving the elements for this cause.” Another woman said: “The Koran says ‘to you be your religion and to me mine” in chapter 109, and everyone has the right to their own religion.”

The ARA press release stated: “Their [EDL] claim of opposing ‘Militant Islam’ is a cover for their racist campaign of whipping up hatred against Muslims. Their

Standing with the peaceful vigil, Andy Lehrer from Independent Jewish Voices said: “The JDL are an extremist group with a violent history, yet they have been allowed

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“Although the EDL does not claim to be fascist in any of their publicity and is not linked in any way to traditional neo-Nazi groups, the nationalist nature of their movement and their tactic of scapegoating one particular religious group to justify their broader political agenda betrays their underlying fascist politics.”

organizing principles of opposing the ‘spread of Islam’ in the United Kingdom clearly show that they are not only against militant Muslims, but rather seek to destroy ALL Muslims regardless of political ideology. The EDL has organized violent street marches that target Arab and Muslim communities, demonstrating the fact that they target ALL Muslim people simply

to organize within the Canadian Jewish community with impunity. It is not enough for self-appointed leaders of the Jewish community like Bernie Farber to say they are ‘disappointed’ by the JDL. It is time for the Canadian Jewish Congress, B’nai Brith and other community institutions to join IJV in saying unequivocally that the JDL has no place in the Jewish community.”

Student Protests rock Quebec Jessica Squires Quebec City met London, UK in early December. With thousands rallying outside and 55,000 on strike across Quebec, about 50 students raided a Dec. 6 ‘consultation’ by the Quebec government on the future of universities and a proposed tuition fee increase of $1,500 per student over the next three years.

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A FÉUQ rally of several hundred took place outside the meetings, to be joined later by thousands marching through the streets of Québec at the behest of the ASSÉ. ASSÉ and the cégep student organization Féderation étudiante collégiale du Québec (FÉCQ, with 55,000 members) boycotted the summit meeting. A new coalition, the Table des

“University administrators have been clamouring for tuition fee increases, and in the weakness of the student movement that followed a failed general strike attempt two years ago, perhaps they believed it would be a cakewalk.”

Students defended against riot police using sticks against batons. Minutes before, the moderate Quebec university student organization the Féderation étudiante universitaire du Québec (FÉUQ), which represents about 125,000 students, had walked out of the meetings, saying the outcome was ﬁxed. Labour delegates joined the walkout. University administrators have been clamouring for tuition fee increases, and in the weakness of the student movement that followed a failed general strike attempt two years ago, perhaps they believed it would be a cakewalk. The Dec. 6 one-day strike was organized by the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), the most progressive of the many student organizations in Quebec and one that represents 45,000 students at all three levels of post-secondary education.

partenaires universitaires (TPU), which includes the ASSÉ, the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), representing another 65,000 university students, and nine professional unions, issued a Quebec University Manifesto, “For a free, accessible, democratic,

and public university.” Alliance sociale, a coalition formed in early November including seven major unions, FÉCQ, and FÉUQ, followed suit by issuing a statement on the eve of the education summit calling for tuition fee freezes. The Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ) had adopted a zero tuition policy in November. The various trends in the movement for accessible post-secondary education in Quebec are slowly converging. Moderate elements are being pressured by those sections moving faster and demanding more. The remarkable protests on Dec. 6 are likely to be followed by a very interesting 2011 on university and cégep campuses in Quebec. This article was originally published in Socialist Worker.

These activists gathered at a peaceful vigil at Lawrence and Marlee. There were two separate groups of counter-demonstraters.

The police formed a line between the JDF-EDL outside the building and the ARA protesters. About ten people, mostly older men, stood outside the building. The National Post claims there were 50 people inside. One man standing with them raised up his hand in a ﬁst in a manner resembling a nazi salute. One man raised his hand and called out “Hindu Pride.” One counterprotestor asked the man, “Do you think that these people will make a distinction between Muslims and Hindus when they are running through the streets beating brown people?” The reply: “tear gas.” About 50 ARA protesters chanted “EDL--go to Hell” and “Smash, Smash, Smash EDL.” One protester spoke to cars driving into the JDL lines: “I’m Jewish, I’m from this area, and I don’t support what you are doing. No one here supports what you are doing. You should be ashamed of yourself.” The police forced protesters aside by pushing them to allow cars of late-arriving

Honduras CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 Eight months later, on Mar. 14 2010, 34-year-old Nahun Palacios was traveling home when his vehicle was intercepted and gunned down with AK47s, automatic weapons that are illegal but easily acquired in Honduras. Two unknown men fled the scene, leaving Palacios dead in the street, his body and vehicle riddled with dozens of bullets. Another passenger in the car was seriously injured and died later in the hospital. As in many of the other murders of journalists this past year, all of which remain unsolved, police did not carry out a proper investigation at the scene of Palacios’s murder. After failing to gather sufficient evidence from the body back in March, the police exhumed Palacios’s body in August, further upsetting his distraught relatives who still wait for justice eight months later, despite the State’s international assurances that they are carrying out investigations and precautionary measures. Nahun Palacios’s murder in March 2010 was only one of five journalists killed that month. Due to the overwhelming impunity in the country, others have been forced to flee into exile. Many have also remained in Honduras, carrying out their vital work despite the ongoing threats and attacks. “They can intimidate. You know, yes, of course there is fear, but I

JDL people to move through. According to Jenny Peto from Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA): “The JDL and EDL both have histories of violence against Arab and Muslim people. As Palestine solidarity activists we have experienced the bullying and intimidation tactics of the JDL for years now. This rally in support of the Islamophobic English Defense League should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the JDL is an extremist, racist organization. As long as groups like the JDL and EDL are spreading their hatred and violence, we will be here to oppose them.” Despite there being no violent provocation by ARA protesters, riot police and mounted police arrived to clear them from the street. Eight police horses charged the ARA crowd, effectively clearing them from the western side of the road and forcing them onto the sidewalk on the east side, while riot police proceeded to arrest people from the crowd. Demonstrators from the vigil watched in solidarity, and some did close observation of the arrests at a risk to their own safety. The police singled out one individual at a time for arrest while pressing back the crowd into the fence on the eastern side of Marlee Avenue. Three had been released as of one this morning. One remains in custody and early reports indicate that he has been badly beaten. This story relies more than normal on anonymous sources, because of the known history of intimidation from the JDL against activists who oppose them, which has also been targeted at their families. Article originally published by the Toronto Media Co-Op; http:// toronto.mediacoop.ca. don’t think that it will stop us from informing the people of the truth,” said Delmer Membreno after his kidnapping and torture. The announcement of the International Criminal Court about its preliminary investigations into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Honduras, as well as the ongoing pressure within the United Nations and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, would not be possible without the work of the innumerable committed Honduran journalists, media outlets, and human rights organizations from day one. For now, back in Honduras, however, the snakes of justice are far from trying their fangs out on the high-ranking military, police, and political leaders behind both the coup and outrageous human rights violations. Justice may simply be sleeping like so many court cases in the country. Or perhaps Zelaya and democracy were not the only ones forced into exile at gunpoint on Jun. 28 2009. Sandra Cuffe is a writer and activist of no ﬁxed address. After living and working in Honduras for four years from 2003 to 2007, she returned ﬁve days after the coup, and stayed through April 2010, collaborating with COFADEH and other local organizations. Article originally published on Upside Down World; http:// upsidedownworld.org.

News

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News and Revolution in Brief Evan Johnston Georgia Prison Strike Thurs. Dec. 17 marked the end of a seven-day strike where tens of thousands of inmates in Georgia refused to work or leave their cells until their demands had been met. The strike was the largest prison strike in American history. The prisoners have been calling for better medical care and nutrition, more educational opportunities, just parole decisions, an end to cruel and unusual punishments, better access to their families, and payment for the work they do in the prisons. According to Dondito, one of the strikers, “Part of our purpose for doing this is that Georgia is the only state that does not pay its inmates at all. Some guys in here work seven days a week and they don’t get a dime.” Canadian CEOs are “recessionproof” The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has released a new study called RecessionProof, which places the earnings of Canada’s 100 best-paid CEOs 155 times higher than the average Canadian income earner. According to the study, the 100 best-paid CEOs in Canada had already earned the equivalent of an average full-time salary in this country by about mid-afternoon on Mon. Jan. 3. Further, the average CEO had earned a full year’s worth of minimum-wage work by about 3:15 pm on New Year’s Day. According to the study’s author, CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie, they “only have a conservative statistical estimate of the stock options that make up about one third of CEOs’ 2009 pay. The public will never know how much most of these CEOs actually got paid in 2009.” Thousands Rally in Solidarity with Hamilton Steelworkers Thousands of people gathered at Hamilton’s city hall on Sat. Jan. 29 to support the 900 striking steelworkers that have been locked out since Nov. 7, as well as the 9,000 retirees whose pensions are at risk of being de-indexed by US Steel. The rally, ‘People vs. US Steel,’ was organized jointly by the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005, the Hamilton and District Labour Council, and the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). The Canadian government gave its approval for US Steel to buy out Stelco in 2007 under the condition that it provide a “net beneﬁt” to Canada by maintaining jobs and production for three years. However, within two years the company’s Hamilton area plants had been shut down twice, with their work transferred to the United States. About 2,200 workers were laid off, and only 900 remained to be locked out in November.

consortium of developers, is set to clear a 29-hectare section of Kanata’s South March Highlands-an area that is home to over 679 species of wildlife (including 20 that are at risk) and is the last of Ottawa’s old growth forest, which includes two square kilometres of Beaver Pond Forest--to make way for a 3,300 unit subdivision. Scientists rate the forest as a ‘Provincially Significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI).’ At 11:45 am, concerned community members began a sitin at Mayor Jim Watson’s office, demanding that he immediately stop the cutting at Beaver Pond and call for an emergency council meeting, open to all residents of Ottawa. Nepal adds Category

Third

Gender

The government of Nepal will be adding a third gender category to their upcoming census, a move that follows a Supreme Court decision from 2007 ordering the government of Nepal to repeal all discriminatory laws against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people. Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal’s first openly gay member of parliament and the creator of the LGBTI rights and support group Blue Diamond Society, says the transgender community is delighted by the decision. Al Jazeera Releases ‘Palestine Papers’ Starting on Sun. Jan. 23, Al Jazeera began to release nearly 1,700 documents that they describe as “the largest leak of confidential files in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” which provide a unique overview of the three primary actors involved in the peace process: the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Israeli government, and American officials. Controversially, the leaks show that the PA proposed that only a handful of the nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees be allowed to return. Additionally, they show the extent to which the PA cracked

down on Hamas institutions to weaken the group and strengthen its own relationship with Israel. The release of these documents has sparked outrage against the PA in Palestine. ‘Baby Doc’ Returns to Haiti Haitian authorities arrested JeanClaude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier Tues. Jan. 18, two days after the former dictator returned to the country for the first time since being ousted in 1986. Duvalier and his father, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, tortured and killed their political opponents, ruling through fear and repression ensured by the Tonton Macoute secret police. He is currently being held by authorities and is charged with corruption, theft, and misappropriation of funds, amid accusations he expropriated hundreds of millions of dollars during his 16-year presidency. Many claimed he had only returned to Haiti in order to gain access to some $6 million deposited in foreign bank accounts. Sudan Votes to Separate Voting took place in Sudan from Jan. 9-15 on the referendum to determine whether the southern provinces of Sudan should secede from the north. According to the first complete results, an overwhelming majority (some 99%) of South Sudanese voted in favour, which would make South Sudan Africa’s 54th nation. The poll was agreed to as part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed between the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), which sought to end two decades of war. If the result is confirmed, the new country is set to formally declare its independence on Jul. 9.

Tunisia Massive protests erupted across Tunisia on Fri. Dec. 17 against the regime of long-time president Zine

El Adebine Ben Ali over rising rates of unemployment and restrictions on freedom of expression. The protests were sparked by the selfimmolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old street vendor, and led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 15, when he officially resigned after fleeing to Saudi Arabia. Throughout the uprising, Tunisian protesters relied on Facebook to communicate with each other, as it was not included in Tunisia’s online censorship. Egypt Inspired by the events in Tunisia, Egyptians organized protests in January against poverty, unemployment, and the corrupt government of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for three decades. Since the Jan. 25 ‘day of rage,’ when thousands of Egyptians marched in downtown Cairo and other towns across the country, pressure has been mounting on President Mubarak to step down. Following three days of clashes between pro-democracy protesters and pro-Mubarak supporters (widely reported to be either plainclothes police officers or others paid by the regime), hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Fri. Feb. 4 for what they have termed the ‘Day of Departure’ of President Mubarak. Jordan Thousands of protesters took to the streets on Fri., Jan. 28, calling for the country’s prime minister, Samir Rifai, step down. In addition, the protesters demanded that the government curb rising prices, inflation and unemployment. On Tues., Feb. 1, King Abdullah II of Jordan replaced Samir Rifai with former national security chief Dr. Marouf al-Bakhit, a former prime minister and ambassador to Israel. Protests continued on Fri., Feb. 4, with hundreds turning out in Amman, the capital city of Jordan, to pressure al-Bakhit to enact the promised political reforms.

Nick Bygon

Algeria On Thurs. Feb. 3, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president of Algeria, promised to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency and to provide more political freedoms. The move comes following a pro-democracy demonstration that was held last month in Algiers against the law banning public gatherings. The state of emergency was enforced in Algeria following a brutal 1990s conflict with Islamist fighters, which left tens of thousands of people dead. Protesters have announced plans to continue, and are organizing mass protests for Sat. Feb. 12. Yemen Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated on Thurs. Feb. 3 in Sanaa, the capital city of Yemen, against autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Protests have been taking place on a nearly daily basis in Sanaa since mid-January calling for an end to Saleh’s rule which began in 1978. Saleh announced Wed. that he would not seek reelection in 2013 and would not seek to pass power to his son, Ahmed, but protesters are demanding that he step down sooner.

Protests against Destruction of Beaver Pond Forest On Tues. Feb. 4, Warriors from the Algonquin Nations chained themselves to trees at Beaver Pond Forest in Ottawa ON, stopping the destruction of the sacred forest that started on Jan. 31. KNL, a

Al Jazeera English

Protests against President Mubarak in Egypt.

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

Features

magharebia (Flickr CC) Nasser Nouri (Flickr CC) magharebia (Flickr CC) “In a country where the ofﬁcial jobless rate is 14% and the real rate, especially for the young, is considerably higher, this dramatic episode became a lightning rod for popular discontent.” Left/Centre: Tunisia’s unity government unravels amid protests in Tunis, Jan. 18. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had ﬂed the country on Jan. 14. Right: Protests in front of the Constitutional Democratic Party (RCD) party headquarters, Jan. 20, 2011.

Night in Tunisia: Riots, Strikes, and a Spreading Insurgency David McNally

opular upheavals always carry a distinct sonic resonance. The cascading chants that reverberate through the streets, the roar of the crowd as it drives back the riot police and seizes the city square-all this and more produces an unmistakable acoustic effect. The rhythm of revolt pulsates through society, freedom music fills the air. Ruminating about this as I watched rebellion flow from Tunisia to Algeria, Jordan, and beyond, I was brought back to Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz anthem, Night in Tunisia. Gillespie’s tune emerged as part of a musical upheaval known as the bebop revolution. And its unique blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and bebop idioms makes it an early experiment in ‘world music,’ a border-crossing mixing of genres. And so it has been with the freedom music emanating from Tunisia. It, too, is hopping boundaries and echoing far and wide. “The street has spoken,” is how one Tunisian protestor puts it. Indeed it has, and it shows no sign that it is about to stop its raucous agitation. Riding a noisy wave of mobilizations, riots, and strikes, on Jan. 14 the people of Tunisia toppled the 23-year-long dictatorship of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, sending their former head of state into exile and recording the first great popular victory of the new year. What’s more, the voices of the street are growing louder, echoing across Algeria, Jordan, and beyond in a wave of popular protest directly linked to the world economic crisis. It is vital to insist on this last aspect of events and their connection to the global slump. Not only is this link especially ominous for the powerful and privileged of the world, foreshadowing revolts to come; it is also critical to countering the narrative running through the

Western press that Tunisia’s revolt is a product of corruption unique to politics in the Arab world. The claim is a convenient mystiﬁcation. For the Tunisian revolt grows out of the dialectic of the local and the global. In many respects, the point is obvious. Tunisia’s riots and demonstrations began as a direct outburst of anger over unemployment and rising food prices. The spark was a police attack on a university-educated street vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, on Dec. 17 in the central town of Sidi Bouzid. Claiming Bouazizi did not have a permit the police conﬁscated his goods and assaulted him.

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Bouazizi’s death, marchers at his funeral ﬁlled the air with chants of “Farewell, Mohammed, we will avenge you. We weep for you today; we will make those who caused your death weep.” They more than made good on the pledge. By this point, the protests had taken on an explicitly political character. Unemployment and food prices remained key issues, but the movement was now directly attacking the president and his government. Ben Ali reacted with the tools that had worked for 23 years: a ban on demonstrations; arrests of leftists

acquire a vital organizational forum and an increasingly working class character. Moreover, an emboldened and dynamic workers’ movement might undercut the demobilizing effects of backroom deals between the old regime and moderate opposition parties. Who’s next? Equally important will be the degree to which the insurgent wave continues to ﬂow across borders. In the early days of January, riots broke out in Algeria in response to announced increases in prices for

to demand the government’s resignation. Dubbed ‘Jordan’s Days of Rage,’ the protests included a sit-in outside parliament by the country’s 14 trade unions. Two days after the start of the Jordanian demonstrations, a new round of food riots broke out in northern Sudan, where the government is pushing up prices by lifting subsidies on food and petroleum. This escalating insurgency has clearly shaken the regions’ rulers. The Arab News warned for instance that “Those who see these disturbances as a local North African difﬁculty should think again. The hopelessness that drove this young Tunisian to his death that has prompted several thousand of his compatriots to do the rare thing for Tunisia--take to the streets and riot--and that has seen young Algerians looting and rioting this week against price rises are a breakdown in law and order that was waiting to happen. It can happen elsewhere in the Arab world. It is not just in North Africa that the specter of unemployment looms.”

"A revitalized trade unionism is critical to the development of the movement in the months ahead. If union activism surges forward and makes common cause with students, street vendors, and the unemployed, the insurgency could acquire a vital organizational forum and an increasingly working class character."

In and of itself, it was an ordinary event in the life of a poor man. But what came next was anything but ordinary. Using his remaining funds, the street vendor bought gasoline, marched to city hall, doused his clothing and set himself ablaze. He died in hospital less than three weeks later. “We will Avenge you”

and trade union leaders; tear gas, truncheons, and guns; police repression, including the killing of at least 66 protestors. But none of this was able to break the protests. Not only was the movement growing in size and militancy, but working class organizations were coming to life.

In a country where the ofﬁcial jobless rate is 14% and the real rate, especially for the young, is considerably higher, this dramatic episode became a lightning rod for popular discontent. Daily protests erupted immediately after Bouazizi’s desperate act, spreading to cities and towns across the country. Unemployed teachers, bus drivers, high school students, and street vendors joined the mobilizations. As the movement gained momentum, demonstrators became increasingly conﬁdent, torching police cars and trashing businesses linked to President Ben Ali and his family. Then, following

Trade unions, quiescent for years and their leaders initially hesitant to join the struggle, became key hubs of resistance thanks to pressure by rank and file members. Spurred into action and radicalized by events, the General Union of Tunisian Workers Days began organizing rallies and launched a general strike. It is difficult to overstate the potential significance of these developments. A revitalized trade unionism is critical to the development of the movement in the months ahead. If union activism surges forward and makes common cause with students, street vendors, and the unemployed, the insurgency could

food, and other staples. Railway workers struck, as did students at ﬁve universities. Clearly emboldened by events in neighbouring Tunisia, demonstrators attacked banks, police stations, and government ofﬁces. Police violence and mass arrests--at least 1,000 people were detained--failed to dent the movement. As in Tunisia, the struggle moved to a higher level as unions and student groups came together demanding democratization and an end to police violence. In a desperate effort to stave off a Tunisian scenario, Algeria’s government back-tracked, declaring a 41% cut to taxes on food. Yet the spirit of rebellion did not rest. One day after Tunisia’s president was toppled, mass demonstrations erupted in Jordan on Jan. 15, as thousands of people poured through the streets of the capital, Amman, and other cities to protest rising food prices and

This is all true. There are indeed reasons specific to the region and the regimes involved that make these states particularly susceptible to rapid outbreaks of mass opposition. But in the West, this has given rise to a colonialist discourse that attributes all ills to the demonstrable brutality of corrupt regimes. This conveniently ignores the direct role of states like the US and France in propping up and supporting Ben Ali’s dictatorship for more than two decades. It also ignores the way in which these are local expressions of revolt linked to global economic issues. Food and the Global Slump For the massive spike in food prices is directly connected to the turmoil in the world economy that has been raging since the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2008. The first effect of the global economic slump was to dampen rising food prices. As layoffs and

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WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

Haiti’s Ongoing Adversities: Beyond the Earthquake Jeff Van de Graaf

he strain the world is enduring is increasing at an alarming rate, whether the issue is global warming, poverty, or the corrupt distribution of wealth. The following article will be a brief examination of Haiti and their struggles in a paradigm that offers little support to impoverished and struggling nations. For most of you reading this, the beginning of January usually kicks off the new school term. After enjoying the winter holidays with friends, family, mass amounts of food, and good times, the workload slowly settles in. While most students begin to focus on their studies, in the comfort of their homes or school libraries, others face a more drastic situation. It was on Jan. 12 2010 when the heart of Haiti was devastated by an abrupt earthquake of 7.0 magnitude.

One of the many tent cities in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, following the earthquake that displaced thousands. “A tent city is an impractical housing method for almost one million people, to A year later and the remnants say the very least.” of the earthquake still remain. The devastating seismic rupture resulted in over 250,000 deaths, and to this day there are roughly 1 million individuals still homeless. Apart from the massive loss caused by the earthquake, the Haitians have been plagued by many more issues which have occurred both in the past and more recently. Haiti has a history of misfortunes-however, they have always seemed to persevere. Since their time as a French colony and the following revolt in the 1800s, during the momentary instalment of Americans as well as the uncertainty of any future political stability and the multitude of assaults by hurricanes, Haiti has managed to remain an independent nation, although it is largely dominated by external industry. However, the struggles and loss they face continue to increase. Following the earthquake in January there was an epidemic of cholera that emerged in October 2010. Cholera is a disease caused by unsanitary conditions that causes intestinal pains and dehydration. Already this disease has taken the lives of about 3,500 people. Cholera can easily be avoided, but under the conditions Haiti has been forced to endure after the devastation a year ago, their battle to overcome this disease becomes far more arduous.

chaotic. Hospitals are hours away and many individuals do not have the necessary transportation to access a hospital when needed. Those with cholera often do not make it to the hospital when suffering from diarrhoea and dehydration. Another pressing issue regards the children of Haiti. The displacement of people following the earthquake has exacerbated an issue that was plaguing them before: the trafﬁcking of people. Currently, human trafﬁcking is on the rise-children who may have been orphaned from the catastrophe are sold into the cruel world of prostitution or as organized groups of beggars. On top of that, children may be exploited for the ‘orphan industry,’ where adopting infants can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Cholera is a disease that spreads through food and water: the two basic necessities for survival. It is often fecal matter which contains the virus and when it is exposed to water, it results in the spread of disease. Even with attempts to inform individuals of the importance in boiling their water, in the desperate need to remain hydrated and sustain life, such practices may not always be carried out.

The majority of human trafﬁcking occurs through the Dominican Republic. Many individuals are kidnapped, abused, and sold as prostitutes, or they are mutilated and forced to beg on the streets. This slave trade is a common occurrence, and in a world so full of corruption, such practices tend to prosper. The recent situation in Haiti has only increased the number of individuals being trafﬁcked. The United States has threatened to place sanctions on the Dominican Republic in order to prompt them to deal with the issue. The sanctions include banning exports, suspending military and economic aid, and, the classic move: opposing its votes in international organizations (i.e. the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc). The Dominican Republic is a country that lacks in powerful law enforcement and these crimes that are imposing further pain and suffering on Haitians continue to go unpunished.

Haiti remains as one of the lowest countries on the ‘’developmental scale’.’ Like many nations that do not meet the standards of westernized societal practices, Haiti’s distribution of services is

With all this that weighs down upon Haiti, it appears that they will continue to suffer the cruelties of a corrupt world paradigm. Since it is not enough to have to worry about the natural struggles the

planet puts them through, the additional burden of political and social upheaval, and exploitation

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makes the struggle that much more difﬁcult. No amount of ﬁnancial bail-outs or IMF assistance will

bring the Haitians to a state of living that can be compared to wealthy western living. A tent city is an impractical housing method for almost 1 million people, to say the very least. These issues should raise alarming question about the future and our sustainability. For example, if a disaster strikes, will I be put into a tent city just like the Haitians? It seems that the answer is, yes, you would be. Take for example the crisis in New Orleans that occurred not too long ago. Even in a wealthy country like America, its peoples suffered immensely due to a natural disaster. Also, if a medical outbreak emerges, will the medicine I need be readily available to me? It can be noticed that cholera cases are a rare occurrence in nations labelled as ‘’developed’ since this disease is easily preventable. However, for all those who have limited access to healthcare and who cannot afford health care, the obvious answer is that such medication will not be made available. The medical industry is a proﬁteering entity. So as long as you live in the hub of wealth, you will have nothing to fear. However, for the vast majority of individuals who do not concentrate such wealth, one can conclude a future of uncertainty, exploitation, and continual degradation living in a world that may one day be almost akin to the way the Haitians are living now, day by day.

“Since it is not enough to have to worry about the natural struggles the planet puts them through, the additional burden of political and social upheaval and exploitation makes the struggle that much more difﬁcult. No amount of ﬁnancial bailouts or IMFassistance will bring the Haitians to a state of living that can be compared to wealthy western living.”

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unemployment soared, demand slumped and food prices came down. But now, as the crisis changes form, they are on the rise once again and reaching unprecedented heights. Indeed, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index has reached an all-time high, having risen a staggering 32% in the last half of 2010. Food is now more expensive than ever, aggravating economic hardship across the Global South and throwing fuel on the fire of popular resentment. One part of the story here has to do with new flows of ‘hot money’ generated by the world-wide bank bailouts and economic stimulus programs. As banks melted down and the world financial system teetered in 2008-2009, governments in the dominant capitalist nations poured something in the range of $20 trillion into propping up the system and pushed down interest rates. In the US a further $600 billion is being injected into the system by the Federal Reserve. With a growing money supply and record low interest rates, there is a huge incentive for investors and speculators to borrow on the cheap in order to buy commodities (and currencies) that look likely to appreciate. So, currencies like the Brazilian real have been soaring, as have prices for basic commodities

like food and oil. All of this is driving forward a wave of land grabs, particularly in Africa and Latin America, as global corporations and governments, like China’s, buy and lease millions of hectares of arable, drillable, and water and mineral rich land. The result is yet further waves of accumulation by dispossession, to use David Harvey’s term, that displace Indigenous peoples, peasants, and farmers and deprive them of means of feeding themselves, thus exacerbating problems of displacement, hunger, and poverty. Add into the equation two further factors--the increasing use of arable land for the production of biofuels rather than food, and speculation by investors gambling that a poor Russian harvest or ﬂoods in Australia will damage food supplies and further drive up prices--and we have all the ingredients for huge price spikes and a new world food crisis. These are yet further ingredients for popular revolt. This is why protests (some of them being manipulated by opportunists of the Right) are also building in India, where prices are soaring at a rate of more than 18%--this in a country where the World Bank says 828 million live on less than $2 a day. In short, we are not dealing with a problem speciﬁc to the Arab world, even if movements there more readily become a direct challenge to authoritarian regimes. No, the problem has deep roots in

the global economic system and the particular forms of its current crisis. In my last blog I wrote that I would soon take up the question of resistance to the politics of austerity that characterize this period of global slump. But the insurgents of Tunisia and beyond have beaten me to it. They are showing far better than any blogger what can be accomplished by spirited mass insurgency and revived working class activism. David McNally teaches political science at York University, Toronto and is the author of the recently published book, Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance.

magharebia (Flickr CC)

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Congo Research Group:

Canada is Complicit in Imperialism and Corporate Crimes Prevailing in DRC Laila Rushidie

ongo Research Group started in November 2010 after a realization that there was no Congo Week held on campus. Congo Week is an annual event since 2008 when it was originally called “Break the Silence” Congo Week. Friends of the Congo (FOTC) mobilized in 35 countries and 150 university campuses, participating in a week of actions in solidarity with the people of Congo.

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In 2010, Congo Week III took place in over 200 campuses across America and in 50 countries worldwide. FOTC is an advocacy organization established in 2004 and based in Washington, DC. FOTC has two primary aims: 1) to bring an end to the conﬂict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 2) contribute to fulﬁlling the enormous human and natural potential of Congo. They pursue these aims by there EMS strategy: education, mobilization and support.

of Lumumba held November 22 at York University with FOTC student coordinator and national spokesperson Kambale Musavuli as our guest speaker from New York City. The event drew a full attendance. The screening was an introduction into the American and Belgium supported assassination of ﬁrst-elected Prime Minister of DRC, Patrice Lumumba, after 11 weeks in ofﬁce. Lumumba

as the Scramble for Africa, he was responsible for the killing of 8-16 million native inhabitants of DRC between 1885 and 1908. Lumumba wrote in his last letter written to his

“FOTC explains that there are ﬁve major forces that are working against the interest of the Congolese people: foreign governments, foreign corporations, multilateral institutions (The World Bank, IMF), neighboring countries, and local elites.”

Thanks to the support of FOTC, Congo Research Group was able to start and expand quickly. Our ﬁrst event was a ﬁlm screening

was an anti-colonialist and antiimperialist who in his early 30’s led a movement that successfully brought independence for Belgian Congo. Lumumba was outspoken about Belgium’s King Leopold II genocidal colonization of his people since Belgium attempted and continues to re-write history. Belgium celebrates King Leopold II as a great civilizer though during his private colonization of DRC, known then as Congo Free State. During the period known

wife: “History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets.” Immediately after his brutal murder, the United States (US) installed and supported the dictator Mobutu Se Seko for over three decades.

“Lumumba was an anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist who in his early 30’s led a movement that successfully brought independence for Belgian Congo. Lumumba was outspoken about Belgium’s King Leopold II genocidal colonization of his people since Belgium attempted and continues to re-write history.”

Today, as you are reading this, the situation in DRC is described by FOTC on their congoweek.org website as being “the greatest humanitarian crisis” –a crisis that has brutally ended the lives of nearly 6 million Congolese since 1996. “Half of them being children under five years old and hundreds of thousands of women have been raped all as a result of the scramble for Congo’s wealth.” It is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War Two reports United Nations. A 2004 mortality study done by International Rescue Committee found that 31,000 Congolese die every month reaching to now 45,000 reports FOTC. The United Nations Mapping Report published in 2010 details in substantial length the crimes occurring in the DRC between the years of 1993 to 2003. The mapping report concludes that foreign mining companies serve as “the engine of the conflict in DRC.” Over the past 14 years, foreign corporations have been deeply involved in the exploitation of DRC’s mineral wealth. Did

you know that the uranium that was used in the nuclear bombs destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from the Congo supplied to the US by the Belgian Government ruling the Congo during that time? Congo is known as the storehouse of strategic minerals, since it has anywhere from 64% to 80% of the world’s reserve of coltan. Coltan can be found in our everyday digital gadgets, these gadgets are now known as ‘blood gadgets’. Canada is complicit in the conﬂict: Congolese victims in November 4, 2010 ﬁled a class action in Montreal against Anvil Mining Limited. Anvil allegedly provided logistical assistance enabling the massacre of more than 70 people in the village of Kilwa by the Congolese military. Musavuli informed us that 80 per cent of the world’s capital in mining comes from the Toronto Stock Exchange. In 2006, a study by Toronto-based Corporate Knights examined six Toronto Stock Exchangelisted mining companies to see if they followed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines

for Multinational Enterprises: Anvil, Banro, First Quantum Minerals, Katanga, Moto Goldmines and Tenke. Their examination shows multinational companies not adhering to the guidelines and their development perpetuates underdevelopment. FOTC explains that there are five major forces that are working against the interest of the Congolese people: foreign governments, foreign corporations, multilateral institutions (The World Bank, IMF), neighboring countries, and local elites. Congo Research Group is dedicated to exposing the forces behind the conflict. We also draw parallels between the conflict in DRC with other countries such as Afghanistan, Palestine, Bangladesh, and even Canada as a site of imperialism and corporate crimes prevailing. For further information, join our Facebook group: “Congo Research Group @ York University.”

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WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

The real Indian in India: Contemporary Realities of Adivasis in India Nishant Upadhyay

ndigeneity in India and South Asia is very complicated in comparison to white-settler colonies like Turtle Island (aka North America). Since there is no identifiable pre-Columbus or postColumbus era, the majority of the population is labelled as ‘native’ to the Indian subcontinent. Debates around Indigeneity usually remain within the fact remains; the Indian state is a settler state, since the majority of the population is not native to the land. Notions like Indigeneity, settlerstates, nativity, or ‘outsider’ are very complex concepts in India, considering that the temporal frame is vast. If we were to question ‘who settled first?’ or ‘who conquered who?’ the answer would be a difficult one. For this reason, the majority easily assimilates to the term settler. A question surrounding who is a ‘real Indian’ in India is always distorted in respect to Indigenous communities. Indigenous communities referred to as adivasis (which literally means ‘original inhabitants’ or ‘tribal people’), have lived in India for centuries before the IndoAryans settlers came from Central Asia. Comprising approximately 8.2% of the Indian population, the adivasi people form a substantial Indigenous minority population. The Indian Government officially recognizes these communities as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India. They have been marginalized and suppressed over the centuries, and their presence has been rendered as pre-historic, pre-modern, and primitive. It is not difficult to identify the systematic displacement, dispossession, colonization, and exploitation of the Indigenous communities, as the adivasi communities continue to face prejudice and violence from society. They are not only at the lowest point in many socioeconomic indicators, but also, they

experience excessive demands from the neo-liberal markets, reducing them to raw material collectors and providers. As a part of colonial dominance, the Indian government started an ongoing war against the Maoist movement in November of 2009. Operation Green Hunt, the paramilitary offensive termed by the Indian media, actively engaged ﬁve states in the Red Corridor. The district includes Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. This particularly impoverished region has a considerable Maoist and adivasi presence, and is extremely rich in mineral and forest resources like bauxite, iron ore, copper, gold, uranium, copper, coal etc, as well as teak, bamboo, abundant water resources, wildlife, and ﬁsh. Unquestionable is the motivation of the state, as respective governments have signed several hundred resource-extraction bilateral agreements with multinational mining and steel companies. While the war is against the Maoists in the region, there is a very blurry line between the Maoists and adivasis from the state’s point of view. Maoists have been very active in these regions for a long time, and have on different occasions collaborated with adivasi communities in their struggles. Mainstream left parties and many progressive groups have long ignored the plight of adivasis as well as issues related to their basic survival rights. It is only with the present struggles that these issues have come into the limelight, and are being discussed by the media and the political elites. The relationship between the Maoist and the adivasis is undoubtedly complex. When all the normal channels of redress are closed for the adivasis people,

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“There were at one point 54,000 people in the camps, forced from 1,000 villages. Further, the government claimed to ‘sanitize’ 644 villages. Over 50,000 adivasis left for the jungles.”

it has been the Maoists who have stood by them. Although the Maoist movement has given the adivasi people recognition (which has been long denied) and the state associates the Maoists with the adivasis, it would be naive and a great romanticization to equate the Maoists with adivasis or vice versa. It would also be ill founded to claim that their agendas are similar, or, that the emancipation of one would also be a victory for the other. The reality is that many adivasi people ﬁght against the state, and do not support Maoists in their struggles. While the Home Minister of India P. Chidambaram denies the existence of the Operation, the realities on the ground suggests otherwise. As a part of the Operation, nearly one lakh paramilitary forces (equal to 100, 000) and three lakh state forces (equal to 300,000) have been deployed. In July 2010, the central government allocated funds for 34 new battalions of paramilitary forces, 20 helicopters, 20 new counterinsurgency training institutes, and $214 million for better roads and bridges in 34 districts in the Maoist ‘controlled’ areas. A special central force called the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) has been raised and pressed into service in the state’s anti-Maoist war. In 2005, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing Hindu

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nationalist party, secretly funded and armed a private lynch mob in Chattisgarh. The mob, referred to as the Salwa Judum (Puriﬁcation Hunt), has since emptied hundreds of villages by forcing inhabitants into internally displaced prison camps, where they can be controlled. According to some estimates, there were at one point 54,000 people in the camps, forced from 1,000 villages. Further, the government claimed to ‘sanitize’ 644 villages. Over 50,000 adivasis left for the jungles. In this war, there have been an insurmountable amount of casualties. Mourned are the many activists, scholars, and artists who have been raped, tortured, or killed, and the many working for positive social-change who have been wrongly imprisoned. In July of 2010, Comrade Azad, a leading spokesperson of the Maoist movement, was assassinated in an alleged encounter. Dr. Binayak Sen, a renowned physician and an expert on public health, was detained in May 2007 for allegedly supporting the Maoists. In December of 2010, his trial was concluded when he was convicted for sedition and sentenced to life imprisonment. Kopa Kunjam, an adivasi youth leader working with the VCA (campaigning for justice, peace, and democratic rights) was arrested and framed under

“They have been marginalized and suppressed over the centuries, and their presence has been rendered as pre-historic, premodern, and primitive.”

murder charges in December of 2009. His previous work involved helping tribal villages defend their democratic rights against the abuses of the state. Today, after two years and two rejected bail applications, Kopa Kunjam remains in detention. Kartam Joga, an adivasi political activist, is also being detained in a Dantewada district jail after petitioning India’s Supreme Court regarding human rights violations in Chhattisgarh. He has been accused of being involved in the Apr. 6 2010 Maoist attack in which 75 members of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed. He has been detained since September of 2010. With neo-liberal economic growth in India, and the emergence of the multinational mining industry, abuse and displacement of communities are increasing. Countless are the cases of violence against the marginalized and oppressed communities like in areas such as Kashipur, Kalinganagar, Singur, Nandigram, Pentehsil, and Dadri. In these regions, mass struggles have been ongoing for some time. This is in addition to the violence of the state in its occupation of Kashmir and Northeast India. Countless are the cases in which women, adivasis, dalits, and other religious minorities experience violence and oppression. The state ignores the fact that almost 80% of the population lives under $2 a day; that 48% of the world’s malnourished children grow up in India; or that more than 200,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997. Under the facade of a democratic state, the Indian post-colonial nation-state has been reborn as a new colonial state. Note: Some folks in Toronto have recently started organizing in support of adivasis in India. We are working in support of Dr. Binayak Sen and other political prisoners and victims. We are against the state’s targeting of human rights activists and defenders of civil liberties in the name of national security. We challenge the Indian state’s use of repressive legislation as being counter to International human rights law. If you are interested in knowing more about these activities please contact Nishant Upadhyay at kneeshant@ gmail.com

Koustav2007 Wikimedia Commons Left: An Adivasis mother and child. Right: A man wears a sign supporting the release of Dr. Binayak Sen. Dr. Sen, a renowned physician and an expert on public health, was detained for allegedly supporting the Maoists

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WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

The Canadian Aboriginal Reserve as Ghettos and Aboriginal Suicide Rates Athena Goodfellow

he history of Aboriginal people in Canada has been plagued with the dramas of colonization. After the Canadian Confederation, the Indian Act imposed by British imperialism was intended to isolate Aboriginal people on reserves as a way of solving what was known as the ‘Indian problem.’ With over 130 years of negligible changes to the Indian Act, Aboriginal reserves have taken the shape of dependent ghettos. The economic, political, and social pathologies that have afﬂicted these communities for decades have taken a toll on the mental health of today’s Aboriginal youth. With a suicide rate of at least three times the national average, Aboriginal youth are clearly losing the war against the tyranny of segregation, marginalization, and deprivation. The Indian Act represented the primary regulatory mechanism to isolate Aboriginal people on reserves. Bond Head, lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, counseled the House of Commons that the ‘Indian problem’ would be resolved by isolating Aboriginal communities, since it was assumed that with declining populations they would eventually die out. This Act had several detrimental components: i) imposition of the British Poor Law; ii) establishment of models of white government; and iii) several Aboriginal customs labeled as criminal. This ‘protective’ act radically changed Aboriginals’ relationship with the land once they were conﬁned within the boundaries of their own reserves. Outside the reserves, the laws of the land were governed by neo-liberalist capitalism that continues to derive landownership as a mechanism for exchange, production and labour divisions. Economic Ghettoization The economic intercourse between European and Aboriginal communities was prosperous when the hunting wisdom of the latter was valuable for mainstream markets, such as fur trading during the time period 1770-1870, or hunting white fox pelts during 1920-1940. Unfortunately, these interactions dried up once Aboriginal skills and knowledge could no longer satisfy the economic hunger of European nations. Through the process of historical colonization, reserves have declined into places of paradoxical economic disempowerment: staying on the reserve means segregation from employment opportunities and exposure to communal poverty, whereas leaving the reserve means losing out on housing, Medicare and federal transfer payment privies. By comparing economic indicators of on and off-reserve Aboriginals, it is apparent that the economic dependency and spatial segregation of reserves are mutually reinforcing

the economic disempowerment of these communities. Statistics illustrate that urban Aboriginals fare better on almost all economic categories (i.e. median income, employment rates, welfare rates) in comparison to Aboriginal residing in reserves. Economic independence and stability have been welldocumented as features that greatly deter suicidal behavior. When Aboriginal youth are pressured to venture off the reserve

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for being mismanaged and for practicing paternalism. Thus, the political will is concentrated in the interest of the government that has historically colonized Aboriginal people and is masked by the misleading representation of Aboriginal persons. However, publically speaking out against political corruption makes one vulnerable to a band council resolution that could force one off the reserve. As one community member described it, lateral violence becomes the only feasible

“The cultural disconnection from eroding language and tradition-- rooted in colonization and anti-Indian policies-leaves young Aboriginal people’s sense of self and life direction in disarray.”

for economic pursuit, they no doubt encounter frustration. They are caught between two socioecosystems operating parallel to one another. Far worse though, those who choose to stay onreserve, while they receive benefits for doing so, face few employment opportunities and insufficient infrastructure that negatively affect the distribution of capital –capital which is necessary for survival, because of the capitalist infrastructure built up outside reserves. Despite the funding that the federal government supplies for reserves, we still see drastic impoverishment. Impoverishment leads to stress and despair, which in turn contribute to mental health issues and suicide rates. Political Ghettoization The tragic flaw of the Indian Act, which governs all the 614 First Nation communities, can be pinpointed to the historical colonization roots of this Act. Despite the fact that the community elects their Band Chief and Council, these political members are ultimately accountable to the Minister of Indian Affairs, not their electorates. Moreover, the Band Chiefs rather than community members have exclusive voting rights to the national representation such as the Grand Chief and the members of the Assembly of the First Nations (AFN).

alternative to communicating political unrest. Helin explains lateral violence in the 2006 book Dances with Dependency: Indigenous Success Through SelfReliance: “Instead of striking out at those responsible for oppression, people long rendered powerless we strike at each other.” Political disempowerment is further made manifest when Aboriginal people face violence at the hands of police ofﬁcers, experience discrimination from which they enjoy no protection, and see so many of their people disappeared. Suicide is typically a response to a situation where one feels helpless, as though nothing more can be done. The political conditions which radically isolate Aboriginal people within reserves no doubt leave Aboriginal people feeling defeated and at a complete loss for control. The political disempowerment and coerced segregation onto reservations have thus been

constantly argued to be significantly influential over the suicide rates of Aboriginal people. In a political environment that disempowers national elective officials and obstructs participation in legislation that governs social services, Aboriginal youth are tangled in an inflexible, regimented bureaucracy. In times of political unrest, there are pockets of activism, while others of this emerging demographic – as is indicated by alarming suicide statistics – are sinking into despair.

exempliﬁes the crucial role that the locality of reserve residency plays on social welfare indicators. The landscape of the reserve, rather than the ethnicity of Aboriginal communities, is understood to be the breeder of the social maladies and the producers of mental health outcomes. The cultural disconnection from eroding language and tradition – rooted in colonization and anti-Indian policies – leaves young Aboriginal people’s sense of self and life direction in disarray.

Socio-Cultural Ghettoization

I have sought to separate negative mental health outcomes such as suicide rates from ethnicity and unveil how the effects of historical colonization permeate through the economic, political, and sociocultural conditions affecting Aboriginal youth today. At the current pace, two avenues can occur. The first avenue involves the continued spatial filtering of Aboriginal youth away from the reserves, which reduces the Aboriginal population to the point that land use for reservation purposes is unjustifiable. The other avenue necessitates several measures: re-engineering capital flow into reserves; retooling the political climate to reflect the will of Aboriginal youth; and reimagining the communities’ strength of independence that once prevailed prior to European dominance. However, the longer we wait to acknowledge the toxicity that current conditions on-reserves has had on its inhabitants, the more these communities approach the dwindling of their sovereignty and identities. The irony is eerily similar to the intention of Bond Head who, nearly 180 years ago, advocated for the termination of the ‘Indian problem’ via isolation, segregation, and inaction.

Social indicators are embarrassingly poor among Aboriginal people compared to the mainstream Canadian standard. In 2005, a report released by the UN Human Rights Commission, cited in CBC News, noted that social welfare indicators such as “poverty, … criminal detention, women victims of abuse, child prostitution are all much higher among Aboriginal people than in any other sector of Canadian society.” Economic impoverishment and political disempowerment have rendered reserves more of a prison than entitled land, and have had a toxic impact on Aboriginal culture. Helin says: “Faced with inescapable situations, such as physical extermination, cultural genocide and colonial subjugation, individuals and groups often exhibit… this kind of behavior [that] occurs when an individual perceives that no actions on his or her part will control the outcome of the future.” It has been a widely held belief that Aboriginal people are the creators of their own misfortune rather than the product of systemic racism. However, a comparison between on and off-reserve Aboriginals

From an Aboriginal grassroots perspective, the alienbeatpoet (cc-Flickr) Indian Affairs Branch has Barriere Lake Algonquin protesting the Indian Act in Ottawa, Dec. 13, 2010. The Algonquin delegation traveled to Ottawa to been criticized deliver a copy of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People to the government.

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Indians o

"Canada Day" 2005, The Delegate in Brandon, Manitoba

Chief Folded Arms at Mem

The Delegate at Petro-Can oil reďŹ nery, Mississauga, Ontario

Buffalo Dancer at Bathurst Street Bridge, Toronto, Ontario

Peace Chi

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on Tour

Northern Plains Chief at trackside, Belleville, Ontario

mory Junction, Train Museum, Brighton, Ontario

York University’s Department of Visual Arts presents Jeff Thomas: Resistance is [not] Futile In 1615 Samuel de Champlain used his astrolabe to locate himself in the place that would be the capital of a ‘New World’ colony. In 2000 Bear Thomas used his father’s GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver to position his place in the narrative of Canada. He was standing on the empty plinth of the Samuel de Champlain monument at Nepean Point in Ottawa. Hamilton MacCarthy had designed the monument 85 years earlier to celebrate Champlain’s role in founding Canada. Below the ﬁgure of Champlain, who appears striding into the future with his astrolabe locked on discovery, crouched his imaginary aid – the ‘Indian scout.’ The Assembly of First Nations succeeded in their protests against this demeaning colonial narrative with the removal of the scout from the plinth in 1999. Jeff Thomas, Bear’s father, then began his Champlain monument series of photographs. Thomas always works in series, and all of his series are tied to his experience as an Onondaga man living in the city (Buffalo, Toronto, Winnipeg, and now Ottawa).

Wed. Mar. 23, 2011 1-2 pm Department of Visual Arts (Room TBD)

For Thomas, living between cultures means searching constantly for spatial affirmation of his belonging. He finds himself--his people--on billboards, in architectural details, and with souvenir and cigar store ‘Indians;’ he is moved by the liminality of graffiti, and the transience of passing trains, and construction sites. It all began with the frequent road trips he took with his grandparents from Buffalo, his hometown, to Six Nations of the Grand River, his grandparents’ Reserve outside of Brantford, Ontario.

Father and Daughter visit Toronto, Ontario

ief at Queen Street Parking Lot, Toronto, Ontario

On Mar. 23 the Department of Visual Arts will host Jeff Thomas’s lecture: Resistance is [not] Futile. Remember the Borg in Star Trek? They were the bad guys whose mantra as colonizers of the universe is ‘Resistance is Futile.’ Thomas was struck by the similarity between the Borg and the colonization of Indigenous people in Canada. As he explains, “My injection of ‘[not]’ in the title reﬂects my work as curator and artist in resisting complete assimilation and how I use the camera and the archive as points of resistance. The title also reﬂects on my residential school experience and the type of programming that was taking place in the schools.” - Anna Hudson Associate Professor: Canadian Art History, Curatorial Studies; Director of the Graduate Program in Art History (MA) and Graduate Program in Art History and Visual Culture (PhD), Department of Visual Arts, York University

About the Artist Jeff Thomas is an urban-Iroquois, born in the city of Buffalo, New York in 1956. His parents and grandparents were born at the Six Nations reserve, near Brantford, Ontario and left the reserve to find work in the city. You won’t find a definition for ‘urban Iroquois’ in any dictionary or anthropological publication--it is this absence that informs his work as a photo-based artist, researcher, independent curator, cultural analyst, and public speaker. His study of Indian-ness seeks to create an image bank of his urban-Iroquois experience, as well as re-contextualize historical images of First Nations people for a contemporary audience. Ultimately, the artist wants to dismantle long entrenched stereotypes and inappropriate caricatures of First Nations people.

About the Indians on tour series The Indians on Tour series expands on the street photographer aesthetic, but from a First-Nations perspective. Would that tradition expand or stay the same? Jeff Thomas realized that it could not stay the same if he was going to be able to address the urban Aboriginal experience. The series began to take shape after the artist received a box in the mail from his friend Ali Kazimi. Inside was a set of plastic Indian ﬁgures with a note suggesting that he would ﬁnd something interesting to do with them. His son Bear had just moved to the British Columbia and he was left without his muse. Jeff Thomas began experimenting with the toy Indians by posing them in his everyday world to see what would happen. From Jeff Thomas: A study of Indian-ness (http://www.scoutingforindians.com/index.html)

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Boreal Boycotts are Back Grassy Narrows renews boycott of Weherhaeuser products

IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 6, 2010 Grassy Narrows –Last October, after several logging companies and large environmental groups declared a truce to the “war in the woods”, a remote Ontario First Nation called for renewed boycotts against Weyerhaeuser Corporation, one of North America’s largest lumber producers. In an open letter to loggers, retailers and investors, Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister states that “[w]e continue to call for the boycott and divestment of Weyerhaeuser Corporation due to their violation of our human rights as Indigenous Peoples.” The letter goes on to say that “[w]e will work with our supporters to promote, monitor, and enforce this position.”

actions threaten to derail any progress towards resolution by pushing for access to clear-cut Grassy Narrows wood:

Grassy Narrows is home to the longest running logging blockade in Canadian history, now in its 8th year. Grassroots women and youth put their bodies on the line and blocked logging trucks passing by their community after decades of petitions, letter writing, speaking tours, environmental assessment requests, and protests failed to halt the destructive clear-cut logging of their traditional territory. “We have never given our consent to any logging on our territory, and we have repeatedly said ‘no’,” declared Chief Simon Fobister. “Unwanted logging has a severe impact on our community’s ability to sustain our health, culture, and livelihood.”

Chief Fobister also urged companies to “take note that the recent Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement does not apply to Grassy Narrows Traditional Territory which is entirely outside the area covered by the agreement.” The agreement in no way absolves Weyerhaeuser of responsibility for ongoing violations of the human rights of Indigenous people in Grassy Narrows. No Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement signatory had an active boycott campaign against Weyerhaeuser. In spite of numerous Supreme Court rulings, and international human rights instruments, provinces regularly ignore First Nations land rights when approving logging and mining plans. This injustice is giving rise to an escalating wave of conﬂict in communities including Grassy Narrows, Fish Lake, KI, Okanagan, and Barriere Lake.

The open letter explains that Weyerhaeuser’s

“Before any logging in Canada can be considered ‘responsible’, companies must respect the rights of First Nations to say ‘no’ to unwanted logging on their traditional territories,” said David Sone of Earthroots. “Any company that buys Weyerhaeuser products from Grassy Narrows is clearly in violation of Grassy Narrows’ human rights and may be targeted for protests and boycotts.” Contact Joseph Fobister for Grassy Narrows. 807-9252745. David Sone for Earthroots. 416-599-0152 x.13. For primary source documents email david. sone@gmail.com

Photographs by Jon Schledewitz

In 2006, after Grassy Narrows members and supporters blocked the trans-Canada highway near Kenora, the Ontario government entered into negotiations with the community, and later appointed former Supreme Court of Canada judge Frank Iaccobucci to oversee them. Since that time, three major logging corporations have bowed to boycotts and committed not to log against the wishes of the community. AbitibiBowater has now surrendered their license on the forest. Logging has been suspended on Grassy Narrows territory as of July 2008, but under pressure from multinational pulp and paper company Weyerhaeuser the province has produced a 3-year contingency logging plan for the Whiskey Jack Forest, allowing more than 27 clear-cuts, including 17 that will be more than 260 hectares in size (500 football ﬁelds). The province has now indicated that they intend to allow resumed logging.

“Far from respecting and supporting our process with the Province, Weyerhaeuser’s actions have been a primary irritant preventing reconciliation of our long-standing conﬂict over logging… The only way for Weyerhaeuser to correct this violation of our rights is to publicly commit not to log or source wood products from our Territory, unless and until, we give our free, prior, and informed consent, and outstanding conﬂicts are resolved.”

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

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In 2007 the Grassy Narrows First Nation Band Council called for boycott and divestment from Weyerhaeuser Corporation for violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples in their traditional territories until the governments of Canada and Ontario gain the consent of the community in decisions of land use. While other companies have publically committed to respecting rights on their territory, Weyerhaeser refuses. Below is the original open letter discussing issues of concern and declaring the moratorium. Grassy Narrows First Nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position toward those who would log on their territory has not changed.

Jon Schledewitz

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WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

Aboriginal Women’s Health Issues Maria Guadagnoli-Closs

hen it comes to women’s health in Canada, the needs of Aboriginal women are predominantly overlooked. Exposing the lived experiences of these women is paramount in creating an inclusive model for women’s health. Aboriginal women are typically depicted in health contexts as a homogeneous category. The identities of these women have become blurred and further complicated when issues of class, sexuality, ability, and gender, are considered. Due to these power dynamics and the social need for control, Indigenous women become what Pinto has described in Women, Disability, and the Right to Health (2009) as “passive victims of oppression,” erased historically and currently, because of colonialist ideals and society’s need to ‘other’ those who do not fit into predominantly normative categories. The experiences and health concerns of Aboriginal women become an individual problem instead of a larger social consequence of inadequate healthcare. Diabetes and AIDS/ HIV, for example, are concerns for this population because women indigenous to Canada are five times more likely to have diabetes than other Canadian women, and three times more likely to have AIDS. Nonetheless, little research is available on to the extent to which it affects this group. Employment, education, and poverty contribute to Aboriginal women’s health. Social Status Aboriginal women are less likely to have jobs, or are limited to lowincome jobs due to restrictions of education. The majority being minimum wage earners and having limited job opportunities, it is difficult for them to obtain and maintain regular income to pay for basic human needs (i.e. food) and medical attention. Due to these limitations, Members of this minority group become further socially isolated, ostracized, and marginalized. Considering the broad socio-economic issues, the facts become clearer as to why many are unable to attend to their illnesses as they arise. Sexuality and Reproduction Aboriginal women are frequently omitted from health policy, have limited available resources or information, and are unable to obtain access to needed services. Slightly more than half of women in indigenous to Canada who are 25 years of age or younger are mothers, according to Dion Stout in Healthy Living and Aboriginal Women: The Tension between Hard Evidence and Soft Evidence (2009). Their reproductive health concerns, such as higher fertility rates, Chlamydia, or lack of cervical cancer screening, shape their health experiences and health outcomes. The lack of information on reproductive rights and prevention, such as birth control, results in

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inadequate healthcare or no medical care at all. Historical eugenic ideas, still evident today, view Aboriginal women as women who will yield ‘rejects’ or delinquents. This becomes problematic since racialized persons are pressured to avoid having children, or are strongly recommended to terminate pregnancies. By being presented with these ‘choices,’ they are stripped of control over their bodies, their sexuality, and their reproductive health.

grossly unequal access and treatment in healthcare. These issues are further problematized by colonialist discourses, limited service and resources, and other determinants, which intersect to contribute to these women’s quantity and quality of care. These concerns are seen through the ways in which Aboriginal women are

“...women indigenous to Canada are ﬁve times more likely to have diabetes than other Canadian women, and three times more likely to have AIDS.” services and resources and who has the power to allocate these goods and services to the rest of society. Aboriginal

women

experience

dismissed, how they are perceived negatively, the ways stereotypes are created and re-created, the marginalization and segregation of Aboriginal women, and how their personal circumstances are ignored within the healthcare sector. These factors and determinants of health need to be addressed in order to attend to the needs and concerns of this marginalized group.

Violence Violence is an alarming determinant in Aboriginal women’s health. Aboriginal women frequently experience domestic violence, which “reinforces…their subordinate positions,” according to Pinto (2009). In many cases they have a hard time breaking away from situations of abuse, and are often blamed for the situations they find themselves in. This may account for the high suicide rates among Aboriginal women. Accessibility More often than not, Aboriginal women are rendered invisible, excluded from health policy or having their health related concerns attended to. Accessibility to healthcare thus becomes a challenge, especially if the policies and practices are not sensitive to the issues, and resources or services are not inclusive or accommodating. While the voices and experiences of Indigenous women are exposed, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure inclusivity. Further education; user-friendly materials or information available in alternative formats sensitive to social and cultural practices; access to resources and services; and inclusivity in the discussion, research, or studies will generate dialogue on their specific healthcare needs. What is also problematic is that reserves, found mainly rural areas, are usually far from healthcare facilities, which are predominantly in urban areas. Due to this segregation, Aboriginal women, and other women in rural areas, encounter increased health risks. There is limited or no access to public transportation on the reserves, which can prevent these communities from receiving the care they need until it is often too late. Ignoring Personal Circumstances Many Aboriginal women’s struggles and obstacles are often ignored. Mainstream healthcare providers do not take into consideration that their patients may have increased socio-economic pressures to arrive at appointments on time, or even to find ways to get to their appointments at all. As a result, those patients who arrive late are penalized with wait times that are longer than is customary. This plays on power dynamics in terms of who has control over the

Shattering the Illusion of Canada as an Advocate for Human Rights Darlene Drecun

s a Canadian living in Toronto, where we have unlimited access to safe water for drinking and sanitation, it is nearly impossible to imagine that there are currently over 100 First Nations communities across Canada living under boiled water advisories. These communities are forced to live with brown water coming from their taps, increased illnesses and living conditions comparable to some of the poorest countries around the world.

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When Canadians think of contaminated water, often the E. Coli crisis in Walkerton, Ontario comes to mind. In that case, we can see the degree to which First Nations communities are treated as second-class citizens in Canada. The contaminated water in Walkerton required swift action in order to ﬁx the problem and prevent future illnesses and deaths in the community, and rightly so. By comparison, some First Nations communities have been on boiled water advisories for as long as 13 years. Living without access to safe, clean water for 13 years would never be tolerated in Toronto, so why are First Nations communities largely being ignored? The lack of access to clean water leads to severe economic, social, and health concerns. For example,

in 2000, the Pikangikum Reserve in North-Western Ontario had an oil leak that left the 2300 residents of this community without access to clean water. Many had to resort to expensive bottled water or drinking untreated lake water. They also lack access to running water and indoor plumbing. The deplorable

tar sands project is contaminating their water sources, therefore contaminating the ﬁsh and animals in the area as well. The traditional lifestyles of the residents on this reserve are being threatened, as they can no longer live off of the land without fear of serious illness. Despite these problems, the

“All Canadian citizens are supposed to have equal rights, and Canada should be ashamed of the fact that our First Nations communities are being treated as if they have no human rights at all and as if their right to live safe, healthy lives are less important than the rest of the Canadian population.” conditions in this community have resulted in a community with a suicide rate thirty-six times the national average, with children as young as twelve taking their own lives. If we are wondering if any positive changes are on the horizon for these communities, we can look at the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation reserve, which is located 200 kilometres from Fort McMurray –the centre of the Alberta tar sands. Since the implementation of the Alberta Tar Sands project, life on this reserve has deteriorated dramatically. Residents of this community have become increasingly sick, with unusually high rates of cancer. The

Canadian government shows no signs of slowing down the project. These are just two of the many First Nations communities that are being neglected by the Canadian government. All Canadian citizens are supposed to have equal rights, and Canada should be ashamed of the fact that our First Nations communities are being treated as if they have no human rights at all and as if their right to live safe, healthy lives are less important than the rest of the Canadian population. Next time you poor a glass of clean, safe water from your tap, think of your fellow citizens on the First Nations reserves and how you might help them gain access to the same right.

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

COMMENTS Remembering David Noble Gordon Shean With Contributions from Sina Lack and Laila Rashidie Seeing the headline a few days after Christmas, I was at first excited about what my former professor and friend had done to earn yet another piece in the Toronto Star--“David Noble, activist and academic gadfly...” I had neglected to contact him throughout the summer and the fall term, and I had some things to share and was certain he did too. At every encounter he wouldn’t fail to arrive with fresh bumps, scratches, and stories. “...dies at 65.” My blood ran cold with the sudden absence. I welled with regret. Much to my embarrassment, I confess being first attracted to Noble’s third year class--Modernity at the Millennium--because it was marked as a pass/fail course. I as-

sustainable civilization it promises? ‘Innovation’ and ‘research and development’ branded across the York campus attested to this faith in technology and progress. Through a refreshingly playful inquisitiveness, we confronted the self-deceptions of our socio-cultural inheritance and did away with the usual rehearsed complaints and repetition of prefabricated truths.

Through risk and dedication, Noble renovated one corner of the York University factory farm into an enclave where the corporatization of education was suspended. This is perhaps the ﬁrst time in the history of the university when the radical content of a course was exacted by the method of its teaching. Against this sense of freedom was the refrain endemic to my encounters with students in their senior years of university. The motto typically includes a sincere wish for school to end--expediently--and,

From beginning to end, the new structure of the class offered a strange and uplifting experience of learning. Routine, formal introductions and course synopses were replaced by intimate conversations about what we really wanted as students from the course and from our institution. The curriculum was a guide for the year, malleable to our interests. He related to you as a fellow human being and not as a person with power over you, to whom you owed something. Never once talking to a student was there a trace of contempt in his voice. He was attentive with a brotherly warmth and familiarity. In his own scholarly work Noble meticulously traced the historical lineage of some of this society’s principal motivating beliefs. He argued that progress, technological society’s dearest truth, is deeply entangled socio-historically with the Judeo-Christian tradition of the promise--of salvation, redemption, and perfection. So we began to ask: was all this economic and psychological investment in technology really going to bring us the perfect life, the comfortable,

Grace Tristan Laing It is a common religious tradition to ‘say Grace’ before a meal. In Abrahamic religions ‘saying Grace’ refers to thanking the supreme deity for the food, and for the dominion he has granted humans over this earth. However, this meaning seems outdated in a time when the idea of ‘human dominion over the earth’ is ridiculed by the widespread disregard for the ex-

In early 2010, as a speaker in a conference called De-grading: sociological and pedagogical critiques of grading and alternative teaching practices at York University, the ﬁrst ever of its kind in York’s history, he articulated his own simple pedagogy: “You have something to learn from me, I have something to learn from you, end of story.” His courses therefore required no attendance, no forced participation, no power structure, no grades, and no papers. “If you don’t want to write it, I don’t want to read it.”

if not brimming excitement, then at least relief at the imminent prospect of being in the outside world. It does not seem to matter where, for many have no idea what they want to do, while most trudge into the next step haphazardly. York’s Brutalist concrete walls have come to be a prison from which escaping anywhere seems healthy. Why with such a precious opportunity do students end disenchanted? For Noble, it had to do with the relationship between students and teachers, and it was, in part, the dehumanizing grading system which pre-determined the essence of this relationship and the way students educated themselves.

Noble derided what he called “the illusion of individualism” propagated by the current schemes of evaluation. “It’s an illusion. It’s not real,” he said at a talk on critical pedagogy in 2009. “You sit in a room and do your exams as an individual but actually you’re in a room full of people. There’s an old, probably apocryphal anecdote where this guy goes to deliver a standardized test to a group of Navajo in the south-west of the United States. He comes in, he has his clock, he has his number two pencils, he has the forms and he gives the instructions. He says, ‘this is what we’re gonna do, here are your pencils, here are your exams, and when I say start you start, when I say stop you stop and put your pencil down, understood?’ Everyone says ‘yes,’ and he says ‘Ok, ready? Start,’ and everybody gets up and starts talking to each other. What do you think of that one? What do you think of this one? The prof goes apoplectic, he says, ‘What are you doing?’ The students calmly explain to him that although individually, they don’t know all the answers to all the questions, together they know all the answers to all the questions. They’re together, so why pretend they’re not?”

The Good Grade, the goal toward which students toil in university was the academic decree David Noble found unacceptable and violent, and against which he contended and eventually excised. “Grades,” he said while introducing his third year social science course, “are a tool of control and power.” Not only do grades have nothing to do with education, they in fact subvert education by systematically reproducing fear, intimidation, and subordination in students. Noble articulated, in his signature laconic, plain-speech, that under the threat of grades, “students are taught to be expert ass-kissers,” which is the most important ingredient for success in the working world. The university was, therefore, a place to discipline

The purpose of being together in class is to reveal yourself and build from one another’s ideas. In his fourth year course The Underside of Progress, this led to a surprising and exciting collaboration. We discovered that the plans to renovate Vari Hall came directly from the external direction of Israel lobby groups (and their associates in the administration) in order to stiﬂe its political and social uses: Palestinian demonstrations in particular, but the art space and the annual pow-wow were a couple of its collateral victims. Noble encouraged us to go beyond the routine outlets of expression such as marching, which would be glanced aside. We formed the Vari Hall Heritage and Preservation Committee which sent a formal request to The Heri-

ternalities of capital accumulation. The status quo of mere business as usual carbon emissions point our history toward a non-trivial chance of human extinction, and yet there are no signs of a world agreement which might prevent all fossil fuels from being combusted. Humans are failing to show their ability to take up the responsibility which any ‘dominion’ they might hold over the planet would bestow upon them.

ages, has in late modernist society become an anachronistic joke.

“Through risk and dedication, Noble renovated one corner of the York University factory farm into an enclave where the corporatization of education was suspended. This is perhaps the ﬁrst time in the history of the university when the radical content of a course was exacted by the method of its teaching.” sumed that the liberty and frivolity of a gradeless course would ease the burdens of my academic responsibilities. Instead, I was introduced to a new sense of what it meant to be a responsible human being and not just a ﬂeshy machine regurgitating papers.

students for the realities of the market economy. Here we are taught to please and obey, and leadership--if one wants to be a graduate or PhD student--involves mastering these methods of intimidation by employing them on younger students.

In other words, the idea of dominion, palpable enough in the middle

And yet, it seems foolhardy to throw out the idea of engaging in

tage Canada Foundation detailing why Vari Hall was worthy for immediate Heritage Status. Our actions sent the administration into a brief panic, for the consideration of Heritage Status was out of their hands and would mean prevention of any change. Although our nomination eventually fell through, the thrill of chartering uncertain waters, seeing fellow students discover the tricky mechanics at their school’s top dogs, being swept up with peers behind a cause that had a life force was indelible to my time at York. Real learning experiences should give you a rush. David Noble risked his neck time and again to articulate the actual illusions under which students were enrolled. These risks put him up against the university’s top administrators and the major business lobby groups outside the school who influence them. Noble detailed in an article called ‘Mamdouh’s Mandate: Mind to Market’ that Mamdouh Shoukri, York University’s current President, came to campus with a readymade corporate agenda to commercialize research. The university was and is being treated as a private corporation by a small ring of business elites, whose interests actually belong to a network of groups like the Toronto Region Research Alliance and the Ontario Research and Innovation Council. These groups seek to benefit through the public funds of the university and yet benefit privately by its yields. Shoukri is but a well-paid pawn among a coterie of, as Noble puts it, “enterprising hucksters;” not even the Dean of the newly amalgamated Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, Martin Singer, is exempted. humans, so is it wrong to see it as a place of potential communion between individuals of disparate cultures, with different political and class interests, etc? Some might

“It seems a nice enough idea, but the simple reversal of Grace is not enough as it fails to recognize the reality of ecological devastation which has followed from the perceived dominion humans do in fact hold over the earth, through powers of industrialization.” a reﬂective practice before taking a meal. Eating is perhaps the most universal practice engaged in by

suggest that we turn Grace around: rather than thank God for the dominion humans have been granted

The anonymous York Faculty Concerned about the Future of York University (YFCFYU), of which Noble was the media contact and the only named member, proved that Singer was promoted by Shoukri on the false accreditation of being a renowned scholar of Chinese History, as published on an YFile release. What York University later apologized for being an “error” was revealed from emails available through a freedom of information request by Noble to be an intentional case of academic fraud. The YFCFYU insisted that Shoukri should be held accountable as are all students in cases of fraud. And yet Singer’s academic appointment as full professor in the History department and his maintenance as Dean set a landmark precedent according to which no academic credentials are needed in a position that reviews scholarly candidates. It is an amusing privilege to know the messages we receive from these gentlemen to be commercials and circus acts. David Noble’s academic career is a detailed lesson in deﬁance; it is a continual exhibition of the relationship between personal vulnerability and social transformation. I had been so surrendered to the view that activism meant a lot of heartache toward minute, laughable differences, that the brick walls of bureaucracy and authority were too tall and too barbed to scale, so that I found myself caught in a kind of contented somnambulance. Noble rejuvenated an exciting sense of purpose from the husks of apathy. And he did so leaning back with jollity, a joke tucked in the cheek. For the hucksters are a sort of joke. Their austere walls are brittle to the touch.

over the world, why not follow a commonly perceived trend in Indigenous traditions and thank the animal or plant for its gift of life, recognizing that we too will be returned to the earth in time to allow for further rebirth and re-generation. It seems a nice enough idea, but the simple reversal of Grace is not enough as it fails to recognize the reality of ecological devastation which has followed from the perceived dominion humans do in fact hold over the earth, through powers of industrialization.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

COMMENTS

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

G20 Legal Defence Fundraiser Jacqueline Bergen On this brisk November evening, noted on my calendar as ‘Remembrance Day,’ it was not the gloriﬁcation of the military that was being remembered at the elegant Great Hall on the corner of Queen and Dovercourt. It was the G20 that we were all thinking about, and how it changed us. It was the remembrance of how 40,000 strong showed up from around the world to exercise their civil rights, and of how government ofﬁcials transformed the city into a police state. A few hundred people turned out to the sold out event to not only contribute to the legal fund for the approximately 300 activists charged during the G20 (legal costs total nearly a quarter of a million dollars), but also to remember how our city turned into a horrifying battleground. The event was opened and hosted by comedian Martha Chavez, journalist and author Naomi Klein, and it was closed with a musical performance by Juno award winning musician Hawksley Workman. Although the G20 days of action may seem a distant memory from over seven months ago, the brute actions of law enforcement have prevented individuals charged from

The Criminal Actions of the State Said Klein during her presentation: “We are here because we know what happened during the G20, and the wrong people are in jail for it. ...Because let’s always remember that the gravest crimes of that summit were not the fake lake, or the civil liberties violations, or even the security budget. The real crime was what the leaders decided to do while they were being so enthusiastically protected.” At the time of the fundraiser no police officer had been charged for committing acts of violence, and no political leader had been held accountable. Since then, to the best of my knowledge, one officer has been charged, and some officers have been docked a day’s pay for not wearing their badges. Challenges for Democracy Of the nearly 300 persons charged, dozens are facing the very serious charge of conspiracy, a charge with vague parameters. The stakes are high not only for those accused, but these trials may also have ramifications for human rights organizations. Activists’ ability to organize in a manner that is free from the fear of prosecution, or to participate in future actions, may be dampened.

State vs. Civil Conspiracy: Who’s Zoomin Who? If there were any aims to ‘conspire’ or to plan acts of violence, it was by the state. The oxymoron of the actual ‘conspiracy’ charges reveal themselves if we stop to consider what both camps, law enforcement, and activists, looked like pre-G20. When one compares the actual actions of those of state and the G20 mobilization network it becomes quite clear how those who have accused the activists (the state) with conspiracy are far guiltier of conspiring to enact acts of violence on civil society. I attended a few of the Community Mobilization Network meetings and the division of tasks had an incredibly careful and caring collection of individuals concerned with the health and safety of the protesters. The tasks assigned ranged from housing, to food, legal and medical supplies, rides, and making lots of outspoken art. State side, things were of a decidedly different nature. We heard of sound guns being purchased, techniques to kettle and detain were being trained, military units were brought in, forces were trained on how they could shoot when needed, activists homes were being scouted out and faced nighttime raids, but above all, there was

“Of the nearly 300 persons charged, dozens are facing the very serious charge of conspiracy, a charge with vague parameters. The stakes are high not only for those accused, but these trials may also have ramiﬁcations for human rights organizations. Activists’ ability to organize in a manner that is free from the fear of prosecution, or to participate in future actions, may be dampened.” maintaining a normal existence due to overly zealous bail conditions, and lingering emotional trauma from periods of detention and/or night-time raids. For the ‘accused,’ the fear of arrest, abuse, and detainment is ongoing. It is a fear that they must live with every day. At any time they could be harassed and interrogated for committing no crime, but merely carrying a cell phone, communicating with the co-accused (who may also be loved ones), or participating in solidarity meetings with friends and associates on social justice issues (all of which they have been prohibited from doing). Even during this gathering many friends could not attend for fear of the police raiding midway due to a violation of bail conditions.

In response, Klein assured the audience: “Some of the most effective organizers in the country are being taken out of the game when they are needed most, precisely when the stakes are highest. But here is what the Tories and the cops can’t seem to get: their attacks only make us more determined. Our movements are more resilient than they know.” Political Trials and Witch Hunts The call for a public enquiry, which was overturned by the current Liberal provincial government, would have been an interesting G20-gate consisting of illegal plans and collusion of the state to commit attacks against its own citizens.

a lot of money being spent. They did all of this on the taxpayers dollar. This, to me, is far more an act of conspiracy that needs to be charged, investigated, and brought to trial. Of course, to reveal the true conspirators and criminals would be to reveal the collusion of political and law enforcement actors leading up to the days of the G20. But memories of the kettling, the arrests without charge, the police violence, the anonymity, and the clear breaking of law by the lawmakers themselves, all reveal the true nature of a self-serving capitalist state and whom exactly the police are meant to ‘serve and protect,’ since it is surely not the people.

Poster from the fundraising event, Nov. 11, 2010. Klein noted that:“It must be said that to make these wild allegations about conspiracy while simultaneously gagging the accused, so that they are unable to tell their side of the story, is to engage in massive propaganda, and also it is a wild act of cowardice,” Building the Movement One of the beneﬁts of the G20 within Toronto is that it greatly damaged the public perception of the police, thereby leading to questions about the role of the state and its regard for human life. Fortunately, the more heavy handed the approach, the quicker and more obvious the need for political change arises. The legal system that persecutes the poor as criminals is the public enemy, and we ourselves become one with the enemy if we do not address these issues within our communities, our families, and our friendships. Naomi Klein applauded the work of First Nations Solidarity Organizations, anti-poverty and Immigration advocacy coalitions, and Environmental Groups, stating how much they are intertwined with the basic needs of all, for survival on this planet. “These are ﬁghts we can win if we build coalitions like the ones we saw on the streets of Toronto during the G20: immigrant rights advocates with anti-poverty

activists with First Nations defenders of the land with labour leaders and people who were just fed up with having their city taken over.” During the days of the G20 Toronto felt as if something had stopped. It was surreal, as if capitalism shut down for a day and we were participating in class warfare. If this system was truly democratic would it need such an expensive military industrial complex to support the needs of the state, which in turn support the needs of corporations? In many ways those days of the G20 are not over. In fact they may have just begun. Klein discussed how the ﬁght for human and social rights is not over: “My point is simply this: our government knows that there are heavy battles ahead. Battles over what kind of country we want. Battles with tens of billions of dollars on the line.” It has become increasingly obvious that the sheer vibrancy of the Community Solidarity Network has been proven an effective challenge to state oppression, organizing a variety of events and attracting new, energetic, and intelligent activists. Klein stated how important young people are to the movement and how: “We need these young people to engage in politics, we don’t need to punish them for it.”

Independent Jewish Voices Applaud Shoukri Diana Ralph British politician, broadcaster, and author George Galloway was invited to speak at York University on Nov. 16 2010. Due to his position on the Palestine/Israel conﬂict, his presentation exacerbated already heated tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups and activists on York campus. Many came to the event either in support or to protest against Galloway on Nov. 16, and libel suits, letters to the President, and press releases emerged afterward. In a letter to President Shoukri, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal alleged that Galloway violated “contemporary forms of antiSemitism” and was thus an “unacceptable speaker at any university.” Independent Jewish Voices wrote the following letter in response, and has launched a national campaign in support of the President.

Dear Dr. Shoukri:

Combat Antisemitism (ICCA).

Ours is an organization of Jews who stand for human rights for all people. It is our view that you have been the victim of a vicious attack by Rabbi Hoch, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal, and other proIsrael Jewish lobby groups.

Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) has forcefully opposed both the ICCA and the equally misnamed Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA), particularly their campaign to criminalize legitimate criticism of the state of Israel and to libel those who support justice for Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians by calling them anti-Semitic.

We applaud your stated intention to mount legal action against Rabbi Hoch for his libel against you, and we commit ourselves to challenging the attacks on you for taking this stand. Rabbi Hoch and his supporters do not represent Canadian Jews. Furthermore, your decision to take a strong stand against their abusive tactics is crucial for the integrity of Canadian universities. These people are using this attack against you to intimidate other Canadian university presidents into implementing the recommendations of the so-called “Ottawa Protocol” of the misnamed Inter-Parliamentary Coalition to

On the opening day of the recent ICCA conference in Ottawa, we released a video entitled “Defend Free Speech: The threat is from the new McCarthyism NOT the new antisemitism.” It explains our view that the misuse of the term antiSemitism is being used to suppress valid criticism of Israel and its actions We congratulate you for taking this courageous stand. In solidarity, Diana Ralph, Ph.D. for Independent Jewish Voices

Vanissa W. Chan

COMMENTS

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

Forgotten Stakeholders: A Case for the Protecting Vulnerable People Against Picketing Act Jen Rinaldi & Samantha Walsh The Situation In 2007, the workers of seven agencies responsible for the care of people with intellectual disabilities (agencies unionized under the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, or OPSEU) went on strike, and picketed outside the group homes where they worked and their clients lived. One agency under the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1521-02 struck in 2009, and again picketed outside homes. The Respect Our Homes Coalition (ROHC) was founded in response to strategies employed during the 07 and 09 strikes. The Coalition is constituted by members of the Council of Community Living Ontario, People First, and other citizens. Community Living Ontario is an organization founded by parents resisting the institutionalization of their children with disabilities and calling for alternatives grounded in community involvement. People First is a group established and operated by people with intellectual disabilities who advocate on their own behalf for greater social inclusion. The Coalition supports Bill 83, the Protecting Vulnerable People Against Picketing Act, which was drafted for the purpose of striking a balance between the right of union members to communicate information during a labour dispute (via

tinues to function as leverage during contract negotiations. There is thus a concern that Bill 83 may open the door to legislation that will only further limit workers’ rights. If group homes are inappropriate spaces for picketing, perhaps our Premier’s home, for example, is also out of bounds. Further, if it is inappropriate in this case to delay replacement workers from getting to their jobs, Bill 83 may set a precedent according to which employers can more easily make use of ‘scabs’ in response to strikes. Is this an instance whereby property rights are being used to disempower workers? Acknowledging Stakeholders To be clear, we do not mean to take a position against the workers involved. We acknowledge that there exists political pressure to curb union inﬂuence. A key talking point in the US becoming more popular is that public sector unions are to blame for economic shortfalls. Ontario’s Liberal provincial government passed back-to-work legislation that mandated the end of the 2008-2009 CUPE Local 3903 strike at York University. In Toronto, newly elected mayor Rob Ford campaigned on having the TTC declared an essential service so that workers no longer have the right to strike. These are a mere handful of examples that illustrate the sorts of political obstacles

www.respectourhomes.ca classes, as well as people who are racialized or have immigrant status. As long as care-giving is commodiﬁed and as long as it continues to be done for low wages, it will be the sort of work people along gender, class, and racial fault lines do when they have few options. Our contention is not with whether unions should be able to strike, especially those unions that represent people in this undervalued profession. The Bill in question even honours union members’ right to strike, yet would prohibit striking at a particular kind of location. An inappropriate location would be outside the homes of people with intellectual disabilities, those who during the 07 and 09 strikes reported feeling antagonized, unable to leave their homes, and incapable of daily living when replacement

“Our contention is not with whether unions should be able to strike, especially those unions that represent people in this undervalued profession...An inappropriate location would be outside the homes of people with intellectual disabilities, those who during the 07 and 09 strikes reported feeling antagonized, unable to leave their homes, and incapable of daily living when replacement workers were delayed from getting to work on time, all due to picket lines on the premises.” picketing, for example) and the right of those in group homes to enjoy those homes peacefully. The private members’ bill was brought to the House by a Progressive Conservative politician, Sylvia Jones, although this is not the ﬁrst time disability rights advocacy achieved milestones through unlikely allies and bipartisan effort. The AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) is one such example. Not that the Bill has received bipartisan support. New Democratic Party MPPs Peter Kormos and Michael Prue voted against. Opposition to the Bill stems from the concern that workers’ rights ought not to be hemmed in during labour disputes. Strikes are meant to be inconvenient and uncomfortable, after all. They are meant to ensure that business-as-usual grinds to a halt. Picket lines are set up in order to delay and inform those who do not or cannot honour the strike, so that the withdrawal of labour con-

unions encounter--interference which we do not endorse. Further, it is not our intention to vilify those workers involved. The striking agencies in 07 and 09 managed personal attendants to people with disabilities. Attendants are responsible for facilitating independent living, with responsibilities that may include administering medication, bathing, catheterization, cleaning, communication, dressing, eating, and so forth. When care-giving work is commodiﬁed, the relationship between the care-giver and the recipient changes. Assistance becomes a way of facilitating a consumer relationship, thereby devaluing the intimacy shared between the two parties. Often care-giving work is carried out by women, and thus may be mistaken for an extension of the domestic responsibilities still typically ofﬂoaded onto women. In addition, this line of work tends to be carried out by people in lower

institutions and practices. In CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 rent other words, the norm or ideal of This dominion must be recognized to be a product not of God, but of human history. To the extent that we fail to live up to the obligations that this event in human history places on us, we must redeem ourselves inside that same history. In contrast to either Grace or its reversal, I therefore suggest we say ‘Justice.’ ‘Justice’ refers to a human desire for the recognition and instantiation of certain moral principles beyond the extent to which they are manifested in cur-

Justice is always beyond the reality of shared human experience. And this is a good thing as it expresses the positive aspect of the human ideal of progress. So, what does Justice sound like? Whereas Grace thanks God for the dominion of humans over the earth, Justice demands that we recognize our privilege, and the expression of that privilege in our easy access to good, healthy food. Justice demands we recognize the inequality, tyranny, and oppression

workers were delayed from getting to work on time, all due to picket lines on the premises. Their lives were disrupted, their homes sites of spectacle. Response to Opposition We could worry about what the Bill would open the door to, what might happen if we seek to limit unions in any way. However, we cannot in good conscience propose trading in the interests of people with disabilities for indirect, hypothetical implications. It has also been suggested that granting legitimacy to the mandate of the ROHC would be analogous to agreeing with the York Not Hostage campaign, which during the York University strike pressured CUPE 3903 to return to work on the grounds that students were unjustly caught in the crossﬁre. The substantive difference between interfering with the basic functioning of a disadvantaged people and inconveniencing students, however, involved in the production and transportation of that food, and the struggles of the oppressed for better working conditions and access to justice itself. One such struggle is the march that took place this Thanksgiving, in which 125 migrant workers and allies walked the 50 kilometres from Leamington to Windsor to protest the precarious situation of migrant workers working on farms or as live-in caregivers in Canada. Another is the Lubicon First Nation, who having had much of their traditional hunting territory destroyed by oil and gas development, and who desire the

renders the analogy false. Also, the two organizations have vastly different rationales in that the ROHC actually supports unions’ entitlement to strike, and merely calls for a strategy change. One may argue that there is value to picketing on the premises of group homes if only to delay replacement workers. The use of replacement workers during strikes would divest the workers withdrawing their labour of leverage. However, in this case, the withdrawal of labour does not simply complicate or inconvenience business. Persons with disabilities cannot go unfed because of union principles, nor can they simply wait for their medication to be administered because their replacement attendants are delayed at the picket lines. Perhaps residents of group homes are expected to build coalitions with unions so as to support better wages and working conditions for their attendants. This strategy may even destabilize the commodiﬁcation of care and refashion the consumer/service provider relationship into one where the two parties work together to achieve a mutual interest: high quality care. Representatives of CUPE 1521-02 even suggested that they and disability advocacy groups work together during the 2009 strike. But should every citizen positioned in a space of marginality be thrust into activism? Is every person with a disability the consummate educator of the public about her needs? Impediments to Alliance-Building In 2008, outside the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), OPSEU displayed an advertisement depicting a nurse with a black eye, implying she had been hurt while dealing with a CAMH patient. The advertisement depicted a misleading message about workplace violence, reinforcing old stereotypes about mad persons being violent and dangerous--a stereotype also applied to people with intellectual disabilities, another group that has historically been institutionalized. It is actually far more common for people with disabilities to face settlement of land claims and restitution for violations committed against them by the Canadian state and corporations. Justice demands that we support such actions, and the reform which would make our privilege, or at least the environmentally sustainable portion of it, available to all humans. And what better place to start than with the demand for universal access to good healthy food, along with the demand that this food be harvested ethically, with an eye to future generations, and without barbaric labour practices such as the ongoing war against the

abuse at the hands of care-givers. Also in 2008, the use of physical restraints triggered a blood clot that ended the life of 34-year old CAMH patient Jeffrey James. James was left in 4-point restraints and heavily sedated in solitary conﬁnement for 72 hours. The patient was restrained on the grounds that he was violent and sexually inappropriate, though there are no accounts of him harming the staff members who complained about him. The myth that people with disabilities are violent may actually aid in legitimizing abuse committed by care-givers. People requiring care-giving services are especially vulnerable to physical, verbal, and sexual abuse as well as neglect, theft, and murder. Abuse persists in care-giving contexts because victims have few options, are dependent on their abusers for daily living, and are often not considered competent, which means their rights to decision-making are transferred to their abusers. Self-advocates along with their families have fought for deinstitutionalization, in part to avoid the violence faced within institutions, and more broadly because they believe that they too are entitled to independent living. And now we have unions picketing outside the very homes of those with whom they expect to build alliances. Why is this happening to members of a minority who have already had to struggle to have communities recognize their entitlement to independent living? Why has this happened twice, only now receiving political attention, when the uproar would be so much greater if picketing happened outside the private homes of nondisabled people? Coalitions should be built upon mutual respect. Unions should demonstrate that they respect groups like the ROHC and recognize the interests and experiences of people with disabilities. One way of demonstrating respect is to listen, and people with disabilities are calling for picketing to take place elsewhere. If unions want to build alliances with disability advocacy groups, this may be a good place to start. unionization of farm labour. So, why not say Justice tonight, before dinner? Or better yet, say it before every meal. And, if you are caught in a particular religious tradition which forces you to think transcendentally about human dominion, why not supplement your Grace with some Justice. After all, Jesus was a communist. Tristan Laing is a student in the department of Philosophy at York University and a frequent contributor to the site burycoal.com.

Comments

Kenney’s List Jesse Zimmerman Jason Kenney, minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, has been under a great deal of critical fire lately. He has been confronted by activists at various public engagements, for what many see as his draconian immigration reforms, and has even been blatantly accused of racism on a number of occasions. To add to this, since the embarrassing fiasco with his attempted national banning of former British MP George Galloway, critics have given him an unflattering title: Jason Kenney,

minister of Deportation.

Censorship

and

The Calgary-based Member of Parliament has been a rising star among the Conservatives since Stephen Harper’s government took power in 2006. There have even been rumours of him succeeding Stephen Harper as party’s leader and possibly as Prime Minister of Canada. The criticism being leveled at him, although largely ignored by his right-wing base, may have some detriment on his

possible leadership aspirations. The critics have been harsh, but no one has acted as much as a catalyst for these criticisms than George Galloway. The banning of George Galloway, according to Kenney, was due to Galloway’s apparent support of the Hamas government in Gaza, Palestine. Galloway has spoken out against these accusations, explaining that ideologically and politically he has never been a supporter of Hamas, but only supported the Palestinian people in Gaza by bringing them aid. The governing body in Gaza is, for good or for bad, Hamas, and thus Galloway reasons that in order to materially support the people of Gaza one has to go through the necessary avenues and networks to do so. There are, for instance, charities that give aid to children in North Korea. Would Kenney argue that these groups support Kim Jong Il?

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George Galloway, an outspoken anti-war activist, has just recently completed a cross-country speaking tour entitled Free Palestine, Free Afghanistan, Free Speech. He has called out Kenney for his actions and compared his ideologies to a dying remnant of the Bush era in North American politics. Kenney

YU Free Press is accepting submissions for our ‘Bodies of Identity’ issue The YU Free Press is now accepting submissions for our third issue of the 2010-2011 academic year, ‘Bodies of Identity.’ Our aim for this issue is to explore themes of gender, sexuality, desire, normativity, and transition within a larger discussion of embodiment. Like our ‘Feminist Issue’ (Vol. 2, Is. 3) last year, we welcome submissions on the dynamics of oppression and violence that exist against women, but we also wish to expand our discussion to include men, genderqueers, trans and intersexed people, and anyone else who falls outside of the normative gender binary of ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ We also seek to explore the complex intersection of gender and sexual identity with discourses of power, racialization, class, nation, ability, etc. These are just some of the themes we would like to cover for this issue, but we welcome submissions on a variety of topics concerned with the body or any other social justice matter. The submission deadline will be February 25. In addition to written submissions, we also invite you to send in photos, artwork, and poetry as well. We would also like to thank our readers, writers, and volunteers for helping the YU Free Press get to where it is today. Thank you, and we look forward to receiving your submissions! YU Free Press Editorial Collective

has also been challenged to an open debate of his choosing by Galloway, yet has failed to respond so far. Galloway stopped by his Calgary office, vowing to find him in Ottawa once it was obvious that Kenney would not be present to speak with him in his constituency office. It is estimated that around 8,0009,000 people in Canada have heard Galloway speak live at these functions, and it is likely that many more have heard him on the recordings of his speeches now. Kenney’s banning is seen largely as a backfiring move and has opened his office up for further criticism. Something quite bizarre has come to the fore since George Galloway’s

of Hamas’s designation on the terrorist list, one would assume that he holds this list in high regard, but his actions in regards to the MEK show otherwise. One might assume that Kenney’s invocations of this list are more politically motivated than principled. The word ‘terrorist’ gets thrown around a lot, particularly in the past decade in Canadian society. The MEK originated in Iran and its stated objective is to overthrow the Islamic regime. Throughout the past few decades they have been based in neighbouring Iraq where they were funded almost completely by Saddam Hussein’s government and were pivotal allies in the nearly decade long Iran-Iraq War. Some observers and governments have

“It seems odd then that Kenney could condemn Galloway for his apparent support for Hamas since its name is on the terrorist list, but at the same time be openly supportive of another group on that same list… One might assume that Kenney’s invocations of this list are more politically motivated than principled.”

Jason Kenney’s reason for objecting to George Galloway’s apparent support for Hamas is that Hamas is listed on the Canadian terrorist watchdog list, so perhaps for Kenney this is the solid criterion where one is considered a supporter of terrorism. Galloway and his legal team managed to overturn Kenney’s ban earlier this year through a federal judge, displaying in Galloway’s words: “that Canada remains a country governed by laws, not by ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ politicians and their whims.”

“The Calgary-based Member of Parliament has been a rising star among the Conservatives since Stephen Harper’s government took power in 2006.”

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speaking tour. Galloway mentioned that Jason Kenney has openly supported an organization that is dubbed a terrorist organization by Canada’s own terrorist watchdog list; the People’s Mujahadin of Iran or Mujahedin e Khalq (MEK). He had attended a rally in support of the People’s Mujahadin despite their designation as a terrorist organization by his own government. It seems odd then that Kenney could condemn Galloway for his apparent support for Hamas since its name is on the terrorist list, but at the same time is openly supportive of another group on that same list. It leads one to question how much Kenney really values this list. From the way he carries on about Galloway and Hamas, which he has recently started referring as “an anti-Semitic death cult,” and constantly brings up mention

accused them of helping Saddam’s regime put down Kurdish and Shia rebellions after the war. Whether or not the MEK should be considered a terrorist organization is up for debate, as is the designation of Hamas, but Kenney’s stance is puzzling. He condemns one, yet supports the other. If Galloway was banned from the country for giving ﬁnancial aid to a government that is run by a Canadian-designated terrorist organizations, can the argument be made that Kenney should go into exile for openly endorsing the actions and ideologies of another? It’s hard to say, as a federal court judge did ﬁnd Galloway not guilty of any wrong-doing. How much credibility and legitimacy does Jason Kenney have at this point?

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Arts & Culture Jorge Antonio Vallejos

I Keep Walking

Licence to Kill:

A Poem for Michael Bryant and Co.

Walking the grass, looking around, smelling sensamilla, a white dred wearing a green t-shirt looks, smiles, and says, “Cool shirt!”

Were we naive to believe a White Harvard educated Politician turned CEO would be tried for MURDER?

“HOMELAND SECURITY SINCE 1492” written in white on my black t-shirt showing Indigenous men holding guns ready to stop the white invasion. I look at the words on his shirt: “Israeli Defence Forces.”

When you're Metis bounced from foster home to foster home battling the bottle brother in the pen earning wages on a bike you're not CLASSiﬁed as a worthy life

I keep walking. Queens Park, Toronto, 2008 (Marijuana March/Day)

The Great Crime I think of Balzac’s words— “Behind every fortune lies a great crime”— When I remember seeing my Indigenous brother jaywalk North across Bloor Street.

System made Darcy System failed Darcy System killed Darcy System erased

Dressed in black, Facing West, Hair ﬂying in the wind, His feet danced across the asphalt, Like the ancestors on grass,

In memory of Darcy Allen Sheppard (1976-2009)

When: ROOTS were for nourishment, PEOPLES didn’t care or kill for diamonds, HARRY ROSEN hadn’t stepped on a boat yet, H & M and the 24 other letters in the english alphabet didn’t exist, WINNNERS meant all members of a tribe.

Jorge Antonio Vallejos is a poet, essayist, and journalist. His creative writing has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Our Times, Toronto Star, and Descant. See his new poetry magazine: blackcoffeepoet.com.

Guide m l i F n o i t a n Liber The Africa

Hadiyya Mwapachu In celebration of African Liberation month, it is important to examine how leaders within the struggle to decolonize the continent have been depicted within contemporary cinema. On the one hand, the portrayal has been crucial in representing the lives of people who have been signiﬁcant in shaping the freedom struggle; on the other the depiction of their lives has often fallen into misrepresentation and has been marred by the trappings of hagiography. The tendency to privilege the contribution of White/ Western characters within the narrative reduces the leaders to roles where they serve as mere mouth pieces for political ideals without examining both the personal and professional complexity of their lives. Most of these ﬁlms are shaped by the social and political tensions that were present when they were produced; this sheds light on both their limitations and successes.

Cry Freedom (1987) Dir. Richard Attenborough Cry Freedom is a ﬁlm about the relationship between the antiapartheid leader Steve Biko and South African journalist Donald Woods. The ﬁlm examines Steve Biko’s ideas around Black consciousness and how this galvanized the youth in South

Africa, especially in constructing a framework which influenced students who protested against a separate education policy which directed that their classes would only be conducted in Afrikans and not English. The implication of the ‘Bantu education policy’ meant that they could only work within the labour and service industries. The film articulates some of Steve Biko’s ideas around counteracting White supremacy, but it is told through the lens of the White journalist whom he befriends. Therefore the film is mostly about how Donald Woods through his conversations with Steve Biko becomes informed about how the repressive policies of the apartheid state directly affect the Black populace. Rather than examining how Steve Biko constructed his theories around political struggle and used them to mobilize the people within his communities, the film focuses heavily on Donald’s woods increasing disdain of the government. The reasons for the privileging of the Woods character can be understood as an attempt to have audiences go through the same journey that Woods experiences. He begins the film as a liberal journalist who is greatly critical of apartheid but who perceives Steve Biko as a reverse racist due to his emphasis on Black consciousness. His pronounced disapproval but slight appeasement of apartheid mirrored the beliefs of many internationally, particularly within North American audiences whose understanding of the policies of the

apartheid state was limited. Hence the ﬁlm can be seen as a way to consolidate support for the antiapartheid movement in a manner which would speak to commercial audiences by placing emphasis on a White protagonist. However, this frustratingly leads to a downsized portrayal of Steve Biko, a leader whose activism contributed greatly to the anti-apartheid movement and whose legacy continues to inﬂuence those striving for global justice today.

Death of a Prophet (1992) and Lumumba (2000) Dir. Raoul Peck Though the feature Lumumba has received more audience recognition than its predecessor, the documentary Death of a Prophet succeeds in depicting Lumumba in a manner which is absent from the sense of idolatry that pervades Lumumba. Death of a Prophet is a challenging film as it deviates from normative conventions that create a distancing effect between spectators and the subject featured on screen. Lumumba has been valorized for giving more visibility and a greater access to audiences than documentary. The film has been identified as polemical as it examines how Lumumba’s assassination implicated both European and American powers, thus depicting the problematic nature of foreign political intervention and influence

on African nation building after independence. However Death of a Prophet depicts Mandela through a discussion based on multiple perspectives, hence creating a more nuanced representation. This format also serves to critique the limitations of ofﬁcial history, thus giving legitimacy to a social history which is more inclusive and celebrates a sense of democratic participation which is ﬁtting to the legacy of Patrice Lumumba.

The twelve disciples of Nelson Mandela (2005) Dir. Thomas Allen Harris Nelson Mandela, whilst being hailed as one of the world’s most admired and cherished liberation fighters, still remains an elusive figure in the field of cinematic representation. Films like Invictus, Goodbye Bafana, and Mandela and De Klerk examine his legacy through an emphasis on his relationship with White characters that he has to win over. This is done by displaying his compassion, kindness, and willingness for national reconciliation through films that depict him later at a later stage in his life. Though these films cannot be dismissed as they attempt to recognize how Mandela’s ideas were visionary, his role is often relegated on making the White South African characters aware of the evils of the apartheid state. On the one hand, the White characters become aware of their own complicity; however, the films

then become mediations on the importance of social forgiveness and learning the lessons of the past. This elides how difficult the project of bridging social reconciliation has been, especially with the contradictions laden in working toward the promise of a liberated future whilst witnessing the political impunity that many of those who were responsible for carrying out state violence during apartheid received during the Truth and Reconciliation commissions. There are complex social fractures within the South African body politic which cannot be smoothed over though films have tried very hard to do so. The pattern within films about Mandela denotes an understanding of history which exposes audiences to difficult events but ultimately coerces them to accept that nations, despite the social turmoil of the past, have fixed these past tensions. The films often end with the tying of a narrative bow, hence giving force to the notion that historical events operate within the same narrative acts that are represented on film. The twelve disciples of Nelson Mandela is a documentary that depicts the experiences of a group of young South African men who were influenced by Mandela’s work and went into exile in the 60s to join the liberation struggle. Though Mandela is shown briefly in the film through a recreation, he is present within the film as a political guide for the young men. Perhaps the most crucial part of Mandela’s legacy is the way he galvanized grassroots movements and this is evident within the film through the emphasis on the impact of collective participation. This challenges the emphasis on the representation of singular leaders, which elides the efforts of the greater movement both inside South Africa and internationally.

Arts & Culture

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Rebecca Belmore: An Artist’s WORTH Kristen Daigle

Last September, Rebecca Belmore gave her latest performance, entitled Worth, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. In true Belmore style, she took the work out into the streets. Belmore unfurled a large bedspread made of human hair, the same bedspread used in her 2001 performance Wild, originally performed at the Grange in Toronto. The bedspread was laid out on a carefully scrubbed sidewalk, while a sign behind the artist read, “I am worth more than one million dollars to my people.” Propped up on a nearby tree, a small tape player blared the barely audible voices of Pow Wow singers, drowned out by nearby trafﬁc. Belmore wiped her feet, climbed onto the bedspread, and lay there for a moment before standing up and yelling, “I quit!” And that was the end.

Ontario, the artist has been known to enact many of her well-known works on reserves, both rural and urban. She cites as her main inﬂuences her mentor James Luna, a California-based Indigenous artist working primarily in performance and multimedia installation art, and Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. Most members of the general public are likely to know Belmore for her 1987 work Rising to the Occasion. This performance originally took place in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the occasion of a visit to Canada by Prince Andrew and Lady Sara Ferguson. An artifact from this performance, a red dress with a bustle made of twigs and containing a number of royal memorabilia, is currently part of the permanent collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The piece, like many of Belmore’s works, has been characterized as a protest work with strong political references to the effects of colonialism on First Nations’ peoples in Canada.

experience. In addition, the work was simultaneously aesthetically pleasing while still drawing attention to strongly violent imagery. Many of Belmore’s performances, installation works, and photographs call to mind speciﬁc times in the history of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, examining these moments through a critical lens. It is a mistake, however, to view Belmore’s works as simply polemical. Her work is subtly nuanced with references to various issues, and most importantly, it’s just plain good.

One of the best examples of a politically engaged work produced by Belmore came in 2002 with her performance Vigil. The piece concerns the disappearance and murder of a (still largely unknown) number of women from Vancouver’s downtown eastside, The performance has since received many of whom were of Indigenous attention in light of Belmore’s ancestry. The work itself articulates recent legal wrangling with the the violence and sadness inherent Toronto-based Pari Nadimi gallery. in the situation. Belmore chose to The performance, in particular its dramatic finale, is a reaction to the A common thread that runs enact the performance on the very artist’s legal woes concerning the through Belmore’s body of work streets from which the women went gallery. The drama began in 2006 is her ability to produce jarring missing, carefully scrubbing the when Belmore was made aware and visceral performances and sidewalk in much the same manner of an alleged sale by the gallery installations, which often speak as during Worth. The performance in October of 2004, for which the to Canada’s colonial past and took on the quality of a memorial artist was not notified nor properly present. For White Thread (2003), as Belmore lit candles and began compensated. Belmore immediately a successful collaboration between to yell the names of the missing women, which were also “Early in the artist’s career, she expressed a inscribed onto her arms and desire to move away not only from traditional art It can be institutions but also from the mainstream Canadian body. argued that this work strikes art scene; her art was not for critics, Belmore emotional stated in a 1992 interview with filmmaker Marjorie an nerve more Beaucage, but for ‘her people.’” than any of her other works requested that her relationship with Belmore and the Pari Nadimi because of its direct relationship the gallery be dissolved, and that Gallery, Belmore bound a model’s to contemporary events. This the remaining artwork held by the body in red cloth with a white piece, and the later installation gallery be returned to her. Gallery thread that ran along the fabric’s based on the performance (The owner Pari Nadimi has refused edge. This work mimicked the Named and the Unnamed) to return the unsold works and is experience of being isolated and demonstrate Belmore’s ability to currently suing Belmore for close silenced by colonial rule, but spoke collapse a number of concerns into to $1 million, based on the artist’s more specifically of a woman’s performance through attentiveness alleged interruption of the sale of another piece, thereby costing the gallery revenue.

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to her materials and to place. Personal taste and attachments aside, why is it so important that Rebecca Belmore not quit the contemporary art scene? What did she mean, anyway, during

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seems to ﬁgure more properly into Belmore’s tendency to protest the status quo. It is hard to believe that such an active and passionate artist might be abandoning her work completely. One revealing detail of Worth is Belmore’s aforementioned inclusion of the hair and fur bedspread used in her performance and installation, Wild. In 2001, Belmore became an unwelcomed houseguest during her intervention

“A common thread that runs through Belmore’s body of work is her ability to produce jarring and visceral performances and installations, which often speak to Canada’s colonial past and present.”

her latest performance when she declared to quit? Few artists have made such a statement in the art world, especially those who have enjoyed success equal to Belmore’s on the international level. Early in the artist’s career, she expressed a desire to move away not only from traditional art institutions but also from the mainstream Canadian art scene; her art was not for critics, Belmore stated in a 1992 interview with ﬁlmmaker Marjorie Beaucage, but for ‘her people.’ In the years since, Belmore has notoriously performed her works at a variety of locales, whether on the streets of Vancouver’s downtown eastside or as interventions in contested public spaces, such as her performance for the Havana Biennale. She has also had a number of successful exhibitions and performances within mainstream institutions. The recent drama Belmore has encountered with the Pari Nadimi gallery has perhaps shaken her into reconsidering her practice in more general terms, and it may be that the commercial galleries will not see much from the artist for the next few years. She may even be inclined to work primarily on a community level, away from traditional art institutions. There is also the remote possibility that Belmore is, truly, quitting any kind of an art practice, but this seems unlikely; a declaration to quit

at the Grange, a Toronto building owned by the AGO that was originally built in 1817 to serve as a residential home. Her presence, as an individual of Indigenous ancestry, was considered hostile in relation to the history of the original residents of the building, some of whom were first generation British settlers. In Wild, Belmore enacted a “fantasy [of finding a] comfortable, even luxurious, place to stay in a hostile world,” says former York faculty member and art historian Jessica Bradley. “[Her] work refers to an invisible history, in this case that of the First Nations tribes who were the earliest inhabitants of that land on which The Grange stands.” Belmore’s choice to reference these same issues during her performance of Worth, while simultaneous calling to mind notions of a hostile world, makes clear the artist’s current feelings toward the commercial gallery system. When Belmore finally took her place on the lush bedspread last September, it was ironically laid atop the hard concrete surface of a Vancouver sidewalk. She could not have found any comfort in this act. All Belmore was left with were the drowned-out voices of her ancestors’ words, comically struggling forth from a nearby tape player, with nothing but a meagre layer of fabric between herself and cold reality.

A website set up by supporters of Belmore (http:// rebeccabelmorelegalfund.com) provides an overview of the case to date and also offers opportunities for the public to donate money toward the artist’s legal fees. The possible main factor behind Belmore’s declaration to ‘quit’ can be found in the last lines of a press release on the website: “Though Belmore is conﬁdent that the case brought by Pari Nadimi is unfounded and unreasonable, it will still cost [her] an enormous amount to defend herself in court. ...Should she lose, this lawsuit will likely bankrupt her and severely jeopardize Belmore’s career as an artist.” Rebecca Belmore’s career spans over 20 years, with a number of notable highlights: a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, her early work focused on drawing and craft-based pieces, but Belmore soon discovered the usefulness of performance art in bringing her work out of the gallery space and closer to ‘her’ people. Born in Sioux Lookout, an Ojibwa community in Northern

Henri Robideau (Courtesy of Rebecca Belmore Legal Fund) Rebecca Belmore performed WORTH (-Statement of Defence) outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on September 11, 2010

WINTER ISSUE 2 2011

EVENTS FEBRUARY This is Madness! 2011 Art Show When: Feb. 1-28, 8 am-8 pm Where: The Oakham Cafe, Gould St. Contact: Danielle Landry, dlandry@ryerson.ca, 416-979-5000 ext. 6214 Details: Presented by students of A History of Madness, features artwork from 32 students from all ﬁve Ryerson faculties in scrapbooks and more. The venue is accessible. Capitalism and Culture Exhibition in the Junction: Exploring the reproduction of capitalist relations through cultural production When: Feb. 3-13, open every day 12-8 pm Where: 3901 Dundas St. W. Details: With the recent economic ‘crash’ the system of capitalism has come under increasing questioning by citizens. Artists and community members respond to life within capitalism: the contradictions and ethical problems it presents, its impact on us as individuals and groups, as well as what we think about it. As individuals who survive capitalism we generate knowledge about and against it, which is conveyed through a space we have created to explore the language of art. The works span mediums from photography, painting, sculpture, video, audio, installation, knitting, and performance and embrace themes of ecology, class, history, war, homelessness, hope, nurturing, friendship, recognition language, humour…and so much more. FEB. 10 My Journey to Afghanistan When: Feb. 10, 6:30 pm Where: Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St. Contact: info@nowar.ca Cost: $10-$25 sliding scale Details: Toronto Coalition to Stop the War. Eyewitness report and launch for Afghans for Peace with music, dinner, a dance performance, and talks by NDP MP Peggy Nash and others. Canadian Mining in Guatemala When: Feb. 10, 7:30 pm Where: Amnesty International, 1992 Yonge St. Contact: 416-363-9933 ext. 325 Details: Grahame Russell from Rights Action reports on the mounting tensions in Guatemala, as the Canadian mining company Goldcorp tries to expand its Marlin Mine into the community of Sacmuj. Fight The Ford Cuts! When: Feb. 10, 10:00 am Where: City Hall, (Queen and Bay intersection) Contact: http://www.ocap.ca/node/936 Details: Ford claimed there would be no service cuts--but what we are seeing from shelters, to tenants, to community services, to transit is that this is nothing but a blatant lie. It is time to challenge this opening round of cuts that Ford plans to impose on us. Our Way to Fight Book Launch When: Feb. 10, 7:00-9:00 pm Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St. Contact: 647-726-9500 Details: Our Way to Fight: peace-work under siege in IsraelPalestine documents creative resistance to occupation on both sides of the wall. In olive groves, besieged villages, refugee camps, and checkpoints, here are the dangerous lives of non-violent activists, the sparks that led them to resist, the escalating risks they face, and the many small victories that sustain them--and us! Granny Power! Challenging Stereotypes and Fostering Intergenerational Empowerment When: Feb. 10, 3:00-4:00 pm Where: Rm. 163 Behavioural Science Building, Keele Campus, York University Contact: Please RSVP to lavinas@yorku.ca Details: Peggy Edwards will discuss how we engage, nurture, and sustain older women advocates in civil society. Peggy Edwards is an Ottawa-based health promotion consultant, writer, and activist for social justice. FEB. 11 100 Days Of Resistance Film Screening When: Feb. 11, 7:00pm Where: Rm. 2-212, OISE Building, 252 Bloor St. W. Contact: 416-461-6942 Cost: $4 Details: Rebel Film screening and discussion about Honduras. FEB. 12 Art of Resistance: SFT @ York Activist Training for Tibet When: Feb. 12, 9:30 am-6:30 pm Where: 313 York University Student Centre Contact: http://sftcanada.org Cost: A registration fee of $5 will help cover lunch and training costs. Details: Don’t miss this opportunity to hone your activist

skills as well as learn about grassroots organizing and strategic campaigning--all to advance the goal of human rights and freedom for Tibet. This conference is open to Tibetans and non-Tibetans, students and youth. FEB. 14 The Justice Cafe When: Every Mon. of the term (with the exception of Feb. 21), 5:00-7:00 pm Where: Rm. 307, Student Centre but location may change based on availability Contact: http://www.yorku.ca/gyn/ Details: The Justice Cafe is a place for like minded seekers of justice to meet, network, socialize, learn, and teach. We do our best to create a safe and anti-oppressive space for people to share ideas, dialogue, and debate. FEB. 16 Black Star and the Civil Rights Movement When: Feb. 16, 6:30 pm Where: Rm. LIB-72, Ryerson Library Building, 350 Victoria St. Contact: imagearts.ryerson.ca Details: Human Rights and Human Wrongs curator Mark Sealy talks with civil rights photographers Bob Fitch and Matt Herron. Respect & Inclusivity Awareness Tutorial When: Feb. 16, 2:30-4:00 pm Where: 305 York Lanes Contact: http://www.yorku.ca/rights/tutorial.html Details: The Respect and Inclusivity Awareness Tutorial (RIAT) discussion groups provide an opportunity for interested participants to continue examining inclusivity and respect through in-person discussions with other York community members and staff from the Centre for Human Rights. Public Apathy, Funded Denial, & Political Cowardice: What’s a climate activist to do? When: Feb. 16, 4:00-6:00 pm Where: The Faculty Club, 2nd floor, 41 Willcocks St. Contact: pavel.pripa@utoronto.ca Details: A lecture followed by discussion with speaker Lauryn Drainie, from the Climate Action Network Canada. Sport for Development and Peace in Africa: The Promise and the Risk When: Feb. 16, 6:00-7:30 pm Where: 7 Hart House Circle, Music Room Contact: Jessica Acquaye @ 416 978 3436 Details: In the last 20 years the number of NonGovernmental Organizations (NGO’s) working in low-income countries, many in Africa, has grown significantly. A number of these NGO’s, which are based in Western countries, use sport and physical activity as a tool for development. Join us to discuss the complexities of these relationships, the impact of nationality on development efforts, and the role of sport and physical activity. FEB. 17 YouTube Rising: Publics, Popularity and Politics When: Feb. 17, 7:00-9:00 pm Where: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave. Contact: Tony Pi @ 416-978-5809 Details: Alexandra Juhasz came to YouTube after 20 years of making, writing, and teaching about committed media. Working inside the forms she analyzes, her reflexive process locates the questions she asks of YouTube and situates her innovative, born-digital, ever-online, video-book, Learning from YouTube (MIT Press, 2011). In her talk, Juhasz will suggest that her work on YouTube is only one example of many productive or radical uses of the site. FEB. 22 Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival When: Feb. 22-Mar. 4, various times Where: 350 King St. W. Contact: http://humanrightsfilmfestival.ca/ (416-322-8448) Cost: General tickets $12 Details: The 8th annual Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival opens Feb. 22 with the Canadian premiere of Ali Samadi’s documentary, The Green Wave, about the tumultuous 2009 Iranian presidential elections. The festival runs until Mar. 4. FEB. 23 Censorship, Advocacy Journalism and the Gay Press When: Feb. 23, 7:00 pm Where: Yorkville Library, 22 Yorkville St. Contact: torontopubliclibrary.ca Details: Discussion with Pink Triangle Press staffers and other queer writers, bloggers, and journalists. FEB. 27 Bolivia and the Right to War When: Feb. 27, 2:00-4:00 pm Where: OISE Building, 252 Bloor St. W. Contact: torontoboliviasolidarity@gmail.com Details: Teach-in on Lessons from Bolivia. Building a World Movement for Climate Justice.

MARCH MAR. 2 Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action Film Screening When: Mar. 2, 4:00 pm Where: NFB Cinema, 150 John St. Contact: http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/mediatheque/ Details: Fierce Light continues the quest for a fusion between spirituality and activism. The 2006 murder of friend and fellow media-activist Brad Will in protest-torn Oaxaca, Mexico, is the impetus for the film maker’s journey, which takes him to the flash points of spiritual activism around the world. MAR. 3 Climate, Culture, Change: Western and Inuit Dialogues with a Warming North Book Launch When: Mar. 3, 3:30 pm Where: HNES 141, Keele Campus, York University Contact: http://www.irisyorku.ca Details: Join us in celebrating the launch of Climate, Culture, Change: Western and Inuit Dialogues with a Warming North, the new book by York professor Timothy B. Leduc. York professor Anders Sandberg and Stephen Scharper of the Centre on Environment at the University of Toronto will discuss Leduc’s look at the impact of northern warming on traditional Inuit knowledge. MAR. 4 Solidarity through Resistance: A Social Justice Speakers’ Series When: Mar. 4, time TBA Where: TBA via e-mail Contact: RSVP to swsa.york@gmail.com (cite ‘Social Justice Series’ in subject line and include full name, e-mail address) Details: Are you in social work, sociology, sexuality studies, law and society, political science, social sciences, or have interest in social issues? We invite you to attend our weekly speakers’ series where we will explore themes related to social justice. This week: Women/Womyn. MAR. 7 The 7th Annual Israeli Apartheid featuring keynote speakers Judith Butler and Ali Abunimah When: Mar. 7-Mar. 13 Where: Available at http://apartheidweek.org Contact: iawinfo@apartheidweek.org Details: IAW 2011 takes place following a year of incredible successes for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the global level. Lectures, films, and actions will highlight some of these successes along with the many injustices that continue to make BDS so crucial in the battle to end Israeli Apartheid. Violence against Women and Transgendered People When: Mar. 7, 6:30-8:00 pm Where: Rm. 2-225, OISE Building, 252 Bloor St. W. Contact: cwse.oise@gmail.com Details: Feminist reading circle. MAR. 8 Kitchen Sisters: an Exquisite Dining Experience to Benefit Sistering When: Mar. 8, 6:00-11:00 pm Where: Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, 85 Hanna Ave. Contact: http://www.sistering.org/events/kitchensisters.php Cost: $500 for the four-course meal and a limited number at $1,000 for the VIP Chef’s Table Details: To salute IWD Toronto’s finest women chefs will prepare a succulent feast with wine pairings and kitchen gift registry to raise money for Sistering’s new kitchen. Sistering has been supporting homeless, under-housed, and lowincome women in the Toronto community since 1981. MAR. 23 The Coca-Cola Case Film Screening When: Mar. 23, 4:00 pm Where: NFB CINEMA - 150 John Street Contact: http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/mediatheque/ Details: Directors German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia present a searing indictment of the Coca-Cola empire and its alleged kidnapping, torture, and murder of union leaders trying to improve working conditions in Colombia, Guatemala, and Turkey. MAR. 30 Seminar: New Directions or No Direction? Climate Change and Global Risk Governance following Cancun When: Mar. 30, 4:00-6:00 pm Where: Rm. 1072, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George St. Contact: http://www.environment.utoronto.ca/Events.aspx Details: Free seminar with speaker Steven Bernstein who is Associate Professor, with research interests in global governance, global environmental politics, international political economy, globalization, and internationalization of public policy and international institutions.

Compiled by Stefan Lazov SEND YOUR EVENTS TO: info@yufreepress.org

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