Volume 43, Issue 12

Volume 43, Issue 12 • February 21, 2023 • thelinknewspaper.ca

"Strategically Cunty" Since 1980

CONCORDIA’S INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION SINCE 1980

News ConU in Palestine: Weaponizing Academia P. 3

News Eighty-Five and Kicking Ass P. 6-7

Fringe Arts Making Art Accessible Amid Gentrification P. 9

Opinions Therapy Cannot Fix Opression P. 13

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REST IS RADICAL

THE LINK'S EDITORIAL TEAM AND STAFF WILL BE ENTERING A HIATUS STARTING FROM TUESDAY FEB 21 UNTIL MARCH 16.

Our print production will continue on the weekends of March 3rd and March 17.

We will be postponing all meetings, workshops, office hours during this period. In the spirit of Reading Week, The Link would like to take this moment to remind its audience that rest, wellness and mental health is a priority for all students, including ourselves. Stay tuned for the Anti-Colonial Issue and Issue 14 coming soon!

AND WON TWO! Autumn Darey, “Concordia to repossess downtown daycare” The CWA Award for Labour Reporting (Nominated) Sara Eldabaa, “Sex workers: Neglected victims of the pandemic” The CWA Award for Labour Reporting (Winner) Olivia Integlia, “Concordia renews contract with notorious prison food provider” - News Reporting Award (Winner) Marianne Liendo-Dufort, “Inuit Voices Denounce the Health Crisis in Nunavut” - Indigenous Reporting Award (Nominated) Caroline Marsh, “A vigil for Shireen Abu Akleh Photo of the Year (Nominated) Aude Simon, “Anti Police Brutality Protest” Prize for Digital Storytelling (Nominated) Mohammad Ahmed Khan Student Journalist of the Year (Nominated) Ivan de Jacquelin Student Photojournalist of the Year (Nominated)

NEWS

3

Allied in Apartheid

Palestinian Students Denounce Concordia President’s Trip to Israel Maria Cholakova and Zachary Fortier

W

hen Palestinian Concordia student Nour found out how her university had been spending her tuition money, feelings of disappointment, hurt, disgust and disrespect overwhelmed her.

In August 2022, Concordia President Graham Carr participated in a trip to Israel to visit Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv and build academic connections.

Carr was one of 15 Canadian university leaders who took part in the trip organized by the Centre for Israeli and Jewish Affairs, a Canada-wide pro-Israel political action group.

“It’s extremely hypocritical that the president went to occupied Palestine to build international connections when Israel is uprooting Palestinians and demolishing homes as we speak,” said Nour, who is a member of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Concordia.

While Concordia told The Link the reason for the trip was to foster academic collaborations and create opportunities for students and researchers, members and allies of the Palestinian community have denounced the university’s participation.

On Nov. 28, 2022, SPHR released its official response to Carr’s Israel trip. “We fully and absolutely condemn our president’s visit to occupied Palestine and the resulting deal between Concordia University and this Zionist institution [BarIlan] as this action directly violates Concordia’s alleged commitment to decolonization,” the statement read.

Since Carr’s travels, questions asked by SPHR Concordia regarding the trip have gone unanswered.

Jenin, a Concordia student and member of SPHR, expressed a similar reaction to Nour. After spending her summer in Palestine, she found out about Carr’s trip in August 2022 a few days after landing in Canada. “The first thing I felt when I heard about the trip was shock. I felt deceived,” she said.

When asked for Concordia’s official position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci told The Link that it wasn’t the university’s place to have positions in political topics, and instead that the university intends to “strengthen academic freedom everywhere.”

However, Jenin couldn’t agree less with the university’s response.

“I don't think there's anything academic about the apartheid, colonization and years of mass expulsion, of terror or killings. I’m not seeing any academia in it,” she

said. “I think it's quite the opposite. I don't think that we should be taking any example from Israel.”

Nour expressed similar concerns. No matter the circumstance, she saw no valid reasons to justify the trip. “I am not going to give [Graham Carr] the benefit of the doubt,” Nour continued.

The trip itself was organized by CIJA in collaboration with 15 Canadian universities. When contacted for more information, CIJA Director of Communications Nicole Amiel said the organization would not comment on the trip and denied The Link’s request for an interview.

Apart from a notice published in September 2022 about the trip on the university’s website, Concordia did not make an official or public announcement about the planned visit to Bar-Ilan Univer-

modern Arab history at Université de Montréal and member of the Palestinian-Canadian Academics and Artists Network.

Rogin and Hamzah sat down with The Link to discuss the consequences of Concordia’s and other universities’ participation in the trip.

“One of the most problematic parts of this trip is that it was led

by CIJA,” Rogin said. “It is a political lobby group with no academic or scientific experience. Their mandate is solely political.”

“This means that Canadian presidents and administrators have made a loud and clear political statement in favour of the state of Israel and at the expense of Palestinian human rights,” she added.

Rogin explained that CIJA claims to educate Canadians about Israel’s central role in Jew-

ruptcy. She criticized the universities for legitimizing Israel through their academic partnerships.

“Israel needs allies left, right and centre. And what better allies are there than universities, given that their mandate is the pursuit of knowledge?” Hamzah said.

“No other social institution can better vouch for you and provide a moral shield than universities— and CIJA knows this.”

Hamzah further discussed that partnering with Israeli institutions like Bar-Ilan University does not come without larger ramifications. “Israeli universities are unfortunately not beacons of emancipatory knowledge or bastions of critical resistance to injustice; they are part and parcel of the apparatus of oppression stifling Palestinians,” she said.

COURTESY BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

sity prior to the trip.

Beyond criticism from students, Palestinian-Canadian academics and allies have also called into question the reasoning behind Concordia’s collaboration in the CIJA-organized project.

Although the university has defended its participation in the trip on the grounds of academic freedom, academics have highly disputed this argument.

On Feb. 2, a group of academics from universities in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta published an article in The Conversation in which they argued against the universities’ defences of the trip.

Among them was Jillian Rogin, assistant professor of law at the University of Windsor and member of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and the Jewish Faculty Network. Another author was Dyala Hamzah, associate professor of

ish life, a position she wholeheartedly disagrees with. “As a Jewish person, I don’t identify with Israel. I reject that idea—it’s not part of my identity.”

The group has multiple political priorities, Rogin said. One of them is to strengthen ties between Canada and Israel. Another is the redefinition of antisemitism in order to connect it with anti-Zionism, she continued.

According to Rogin, labelling legitimate criticisms of Israel as antisemitic encourages anti-Palestinian racism and damages academia. “The fact that university presidents went on a CIJA-sponsored trip is an indication that they have not reckoned with the severe impairments to academic freedom CIJA has sponsored,” she said.

For Hamzah, witnessing the ties between Canadian and Israeli universities is a sign of moral bank-

Rogin and Hamzah denounced Concordia’s use of academic freedom as justification for the trip. They argued that Canadian universities’ disregard of Palestinian voices, including Palestinian academics, is itself a violation of academic freedom.

For months, pro-Palestinian advocates in Canadian academia have been mobilizing to make university administrations hear their message: centre Palestinian voices.

The Coalition for Palestine, a network including PCAAN, IJV, Faculty for Palestine Canada and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, has called for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

“We sent a letter to the U15 presidents, but received very few answers. We then decided to turn it into a petition—we collected over 400 signatures,” Hamzah said.

After learning about the trip, she confronted the president of UdeM,

who told her he did not take part.

After further informing him about the weaponization of Israel's academic institutions against Palestinians, Hamzah ultimately submitted a resolution calling for the suspension of all UdeM’s agreements with Israeli universities.

“Of course, it was defeated,” she said, “but it had an effect.” Between the time she submitted the resolution and the time she was interviewed, Hamzah noticed UdeM had cleaned up its website; its inactive partnerships were taken down, leaving three up online.

“That’s still three too many,” she added. “We are now looking very closely into the agreements of every single Canadian university with Israeli universities.”

Additionally, Hamzah spoke about how multiple Israeli universities participate in military or defence research programs. According to Visualizing Palestine, a visual data tool founded in 2012, Bar-Ilan University has allegedly been involved in “work with the Israeli military to develop unmanned combat vehicles and heavy machinery used to commit war crimes like home demolitions.”

Concordia has denied knowing about Bar-Ilan’s alleged ties to the Israeli military.

The university also reached out to The Conversation following the publication of the piece Rogin and Hamzah were involved in, specifying a Concordia delegate visited Al-Quds University in Palestine, Hamzah added.

However, one of the primary purposes of Carr’s trip was to sign a memorandum of understanding with Bar-Ilan. The Link has obtained a copy of the MOU via an access to information request.

The MOU states that the universities have agreed to explore and implement initiatives focused on collaborative research, sharing of scientific information on areas of mutual interest, faculty mobility, summer programs for students and other academic collaborations.

“Neither institution shall have any financial commitments to each other,” the MOU reads. Concordia and Bar-Ilan have agreed to “endeavour to secure governmental, corporate, or other third party funding where possible.”

The MOU was signed on Aug. 28, 2022, and will remain in place until Aug. 28, 2024. In its Amendment and Termination clause, either party has the right to end the agreement at any time.

Continues on p. 4

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

4

NEWS

Continued from p. 3 However, the partnership with Bar-Ilan is not Concordia’s only academic collaboration with an Israeli university. In a Board of Governors meeting on Feb. 16, Carr announced the university received a $1 million donation shared with Ben-Gurion University.

The donation was courtesy of Miriam Roland, a former member of Concordia’s Board of Governors and Honorary President and Chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal. According to Concordia and BGU’s shared announcement, the money will be used to fund “sustainability pilot projects.”

Ben-Gurion has allegedly of-

fered special benefits and scholarships to student-soldiers who participated in the 2014 military assault on the Gaza strip, according to Visualizing Palestine.

As Concordia furthers its relationships with Israeli universities, students and activists have refused to stand behind these decisions.

Pro-Palestine activism has been present on campus for decades, making the university’s affiliations with Israel even more contentious.

Since Carr’s return, Palestinian Concordia students have continuously criticized him for his role in the trip. His return from Tel Aviv was a few weeks shy of the 20th anniversary of the Netanyahu Riot at Concordia.

On Sept. 9, 2002, Montreal riot police launched pepper spray into the Hall building after two windows on its ground floor were smashed.

Students were protesting a planned visit by then-former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His anti-Palestinian policies have been condemned by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and he has also blamed Palestinians for the Holocaust. Netanyahu’s talk was cancelled following the 2002 demonstrations.

When asked if the university was aware of the anniversary, Maestracci said the trip was not planned around Concordia, and that “these trips with a group of university presidents take place right before

the start of the semester, when most of them are more available.”

Since learning of the trip, SPHR, Nour and Jenin thought that because CIJA had organized it, the group also paid for it.

However, The Link found that Concordia paid for its participation in the trip to Israel. “The trip was not funded by CIJA. Concordia paid for it itself,” said Maestracci.

When Jenin learned about the funding behind the trip during her interview with The Link, all that could be heard was silence. “It’s crazy to think that the money I work for and use to pay for my tuition goes toward the apartheid,” she said.

Jenin continued to say that for Palestinian international students

at Concordia, who have essentially been forced to become asylum seekers, knowing their money has gone towards a state that has tormented their community is beyond painful.

Nour claimed the university did not want to publicize the trip due to potential backlash. “The student body at Concordia voted 86 per cent to pass a motion against apartheid,” she said. To her, that seemed to be one of many reasons Concordia remained quiet about the trip, knowing it would lead to a strong reaction from the student body.

“Palestinians in the diaspora are getting fed up,” Nour said. “If it continues down this road, if we continue to feel unheard, ignored, and disrespected, we won’t stay silent.”

Mourning and Mobilizing Turkish and Syrian Students Take Action Following Earthquake Philippine d’Halleine

PHOTO PHILIPPINE D’HALLEINE

“E

very time I open my social media, all I see is people outside their houses—people asking for help,” expressed Karam Helou. As a member of Concordia’s Syrian Students’ Association, he has followed the news in devastation, 7,000 kilometres away from his home country.

Although his family lives in Damascus, Syria’s capital and a region fortunately safe from the disaster, he explained how much the Syrian community in Montreal is concerned for those trapped in the rub-

ble. “It happened after a twelve-year war, so you can imagine the mental and physical damages,” Helou said.

For Jana Al-Atassi, a fellow member of the SSA, there is a feeling of guilt overwhelming her. “As a Syrian who lives outside the country, you feel like you don't deserve what you have because it could have been you,” she said. “The people who are suffering are literally my people.”

On Feb. 6, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria. A series

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

of aftershocks quickly followed. The region was hit with a second earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 on Feb. 20. The disasters have caused over 46,000 deaths at time of writing.

Beyond the loss of life, the impacted areas are still suffering from a lack of access to primary needs such as water, electricity, food and medical assistance.

Following the tragedy, Turkish and Syrian Montrealers have been in a state of mourning. In the face of despair, Concordia students from these communities have banded together to gather resources and send aid back home.

“We see this and we realize how many people are affected by the earthquake,” said Mert Kaan Kaşeler, president of the Turkish Student Association of Concordia University. “Whether it's the people who died, whether it's the people who are underneath what's left of a building or even the survivors, they have lost their homes, they have lost [their life savings].”

Across Montreal, schools, mosques and non-governmental organizations have mobilized since the moment they learned of the earthquake. They all share one goal: supporting the victims.

On Feb. 7, the Canadian government announced it will provide $10 million in humanitarian aid for the areas affected by the disaster and will allocate “approximately $50 million in humanitarian aid to Syria for 2023.”

In partnership with the different humanitarian branches of the United Nations, Canada has begun assisting in the distribution of shelter, heating and food to ensure the survival of rescued people.

However, getting aid to reach Syrians suffering from the earthquake has been challenging.

Since the beginning of the ongoing civil war in 2011 that followed uprisings against President Bashar al-Assad, numerous international economic sanctions have been imposed on the country. This is due Assad’s massive use of violence from police and military forces against his political opponents.

Early in the conflict, Canada imposed restraints on the Syrian economy. These currently include asset freezes, export and import restrictions, financial bans, technical assistance bans and an arms embargo.

Stuck between the restraints of wartime measures and the consequences of the earthquake, international organizations have struggled to send help to the affected areas.

In light of the mass casualties, the international community— including the United States—is gradually exempting Syria from the sanctions imposed over the last decade. American sanctions have been lifted for a period of 180 days to facilitate the entry of aid and assist in reconstruction.

One of the biggest issues in getting resources to victims has been the location of the earthquake. It took place in Syria’s opposition zone currently resisting Assad in the war. This has made it difficult for organizations to obtain approval from the government to utilize its border crossings with Turkey.

“It's sad that politics has to be in the way of helping people, but this is the sad reality. I think anyone with the right mindset [should] put politics aside and just help the dying people,” said Al-Atassi.

Following the earthquake, Turks and Syrians have been mourning the loss of life in their respective countries by joining

forces to gather aid in support of the victims and their families.

On Feb. 10, McGill’s Syrian Students’ Association organized a candlelight vigil to give mourners an opportunity to pray for the victims and think about those who lost their loved ones.

In order to show their support and solidarity, the SSA and the TSA have been hands-on in organizing fundraisers. The donations they have received surpassed their expectations thanks to the generosity of their fellow students, organizers said.

The TSA has been in collaboration with the Turkish consulate in Montreal. They organized a donation drive where students could bring clothes, hygiene products, blankets, flashlights and other essentials. All donations made during the campaign were sent through Turquebec.

The association created a GoFundMe whose funds will be entirely donated to the organization AHBAP. Thanks to the numerous donations, over $6,000 has already been raised. “They are [very] transparent with their operations on the zone right now; they are sharing all of the progress,” said Kaşeler.

The SSA has chosen to split its donation fund between the Molham Volunteering Team and the Aleppo Fund. “This is still tricky because of the laws and policies that are imposed on these foundations. Our main goal is to be able to reach everyone who is in need to get as much help for them as possible” said Al-Atassi.

"Monetary donations are more likely to make a bigger impact because they will be more on the spot,” Kaşeler added. “They will be spent on whatever is necessary at that time. Every dollar counts.”

NEWS

5

“No More Stolen Sisters”

Montrealers Hold Vigil for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Nadia Liboneye

O

n Feb. 14, Montrealers gathered near the Atwater metro station to commemorate the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Trans people.

The Iskweu Project, an initiative started by Montreal’s Native Women’s shelter, hosted the candlelight vigil which was attended by around 200 protesters.

Iskweu’s Research Coordinator, Janis Qavavauq-Bibeau, explained the importance of media exposure in the fulfillment of the project’s goal: assisting families impacted by the prevalent violence against Indigenous women and girls.

“The media wasn’t giving enough attention to cases of Indigenous women, so we started doing vigils to get some more attention,” she said.

PHOTO IVAN DE JACQUELIN

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Canada’s lengthy colonial history and the resulting intergenerational trauma inflicted on Indigenous communities have a direct influence on ongoing increases in violence experienced by Indigenous women. The Iskweu Project aims to advocate for and provide support to those directly and indirectly impacted by violence against Indigenous women.

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has reported that Indigenous women and girls make up 24 per cent of female homicide victims in Canada, despite only making up four per cent of the country’s female population.

In response to what Iskweu describes as a lack of adequate

response to police cases involving Indigenous women, the project gathers annually on Feb. 14 and Oct. 4 to help provide a voice to the families and loved ones of those who have suffered.

At the vigil, a number of volunteers assisted the event’s organizers. Handing out small tealight candles, Cabot Square was gently lit as the sound of throat singers and drummers kicked off the vigil.

Volunteer Matilda Cerone, who has attended Iskweu’s annual vigils for three years, expressed her joy at seeing the crowd that had gathered for the event.

“It’s just nice to see a lot of people,” she said, noting how the pandemic had previously impacted Iskweu’s ability to gather in person.

Before departing on the protest route down Sainte-Catherine

An Alternative to SMSV

ITFA’s Fight for Survivors of Sexual Violence on Campus Hannah Vogan

COURTESY BECCA WILGOSH

A

mid a series of potential Accreditation act violations, an ongoing boycott and an unbalanced ratio of students on the Standing Committee on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence (SMSV), a new grassroots association is budding at Concordia.

Growing to replace the foundation for how Concordia handles sexual misconduct and sexual violence cases is the Inter-organizational Table for Feminist Affairs.

ITFA is a collaboration between labour unions, student unions, and other groups working at Concordia, explicitly trying to achieve gender equity and fighting sexual violence.

The organization is also responsible for formally sending out a letter of demands to the university following the SMSV boycott, which began on Oct. 5, 2022. Since the letter was forwarded, ITFA's line of communication with the university has ended at receiving an acknowledgement of their demands.

Their three demands are for student-led solutions, transparency, and gender equity. ITFA plans to achieve these demands by maintaining its boycott, pressuring Concordia.

"I've been at Concordia since 2017. So I've seen how there has been this progression of sexual violence," Julianna Smith, the Concordia Student Union’s external affairs and mobilization coordinator and a representative for ITFA, told The Link.

Smith mentioned the issue of sexual violence on campus "is being addressed, but not in a way that is actually supporting students and supporting survivors."

So far, ITFA comprises the CSU, Graduate Students' Association (GSA), Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia (TRAC), and the Center for Gender Advocacy.

According to Smith, the organization is planning to reach out to other unions on campus. ITFA is working on gathering more stake-

St., community leaders like Elder Kevin Deer and Ellen Gabriel, addressed the large crowd.

Deer denounced the violence that has been taking place against Indigenous women. “When we see that we are all participating in this sacred dance of life [...] we have no right to kill another human being.”

During her speech, Gabriel encouraged attendees to hold governments accountable for their failures to properly investigate cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

“Put pressure on your government, don’t leave it up to Indigenous people,” she said.

“We can fight the fight, but we have been fighting for over 500 years,” Gabriel added.

After the leaders finished addressing the crowd, the vigil transi-

tioned into a protest march which exited Cabot Square and converged onto Sainte-Catherine.

Accompanied by police cruisers, the large crowd could be heard chanting “no more stolen sisters,” as drummers marched in unison with the crowd.

Iskweu’s announcements for the protest, which were widely shared through Instagram and Facebook, featured a QR code that leads to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Master List of Report Recommendations.

The document points out the numerous systemic failures in the treatment of Indigenous cases, and the areas in which Indigenous peoples need additional support in the hopes that the violence finally comes to an end.

holders because they desire to have a variety of voices at the table to ensure that they represent what students and workers want.

"Our next steps of where we wanna take [ITFA are that] we want to broaden it," Smith said.

"We are hoping that by having [other unions], we can have students have a direct line of communication with ITFA." ITFA gathers twice a month and meets with newer member organizations interested in sending representatives to the coalition.

According to Saskia Kowalchuk, TRAC’s Mobilization Officer and TRAC representative for ITFA, the meetings are to build and decipher capacity and clarify what mandates should be imposed.

When asked why ITFA was created, Kowalchuk answered, referring to SMSV, that "the student representatives were historically undermined. They weren't really given the chance to participate meaningfully."

"We have a minority seat on [SMSV]; we are four of 13 representatives. We were never able, in terms of our shared interest, to vote with any power against maybe opposing views from the administration,” Kowalchuk told The Link.

“We decided it would be a lot better use of our power and our

numbers to boycott the committee because we felt that as an advisory body, it didn't meaningfully do what it set out to do in terms of changing policy around sexual violence at Concordia,” added Kowalchuk. “As students, as student workers, and as supporters of survivors of sexual violence, we didn't want to participate in what we see to be an invalid process."

ITFA’s members wanted to additionally call out to and welcome any students currently sitting on the SMSV committee to have a neutral conversation with them.

"We would really like to give them the context as to why there is a boycott going on and just let them know our side of the situation, as well so that they can make a fully informed decision on whether or not they want to actually sit on the committee," said Smith.

ITFA is still in the process of developing an onboarding process and deciding who can be a member of the association. "The core of it is that we want it to be worker and student-run, rather than being run by the administration,” Smith added. “We want the democratic bodies at the university that represent students and workers to have the most power to enact policy changes and take action."

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

6

NEWS

The Grannies Are Raging

PHOTO DIANE YEUNG

Montreal Activists Say Their Work Is More Relevant Than Ever Diane Yeung

H

olding a stack of bright yellow flyers in one hand and a cane in the other, Maureen Adelman stopped students at the entrance of Concordia's Hall building to ask about their plans on voting day.

She was wearing a red felt hat with faux flowers along its rims, a matching red shawl, and a string of bright blue beads etched with peace signs.

Adelman, 88, was standing outside of her alma mater with five other members of the activist group Montreal Raging Grannies just a week away from the 2022 Quebec election.

“If you can’t be bothered voting, do not bitch!” they sang, with their quilted skirts, floral embroidered floppy hats and guitars in tow. The line stopped students in their tracks.

Some took a photo or video, and others nodded with their thumbs up as they passed by. The Grannies were familiar with this routine, and they expected it would be effective in encouraging the youth vote.

But elections aren’t the only thing the Grannies rage about.

For more than three decades, the Montreal Raging Grannies have been a fixture among the city’s activists, taking part in government hearings, marching in protests, blocking entrances to corporate banks—all while singing against what they consider conservative policies.

The gaggle of Grannies, as they refer to themselves, say their work is more relevant than ever, that their fight against pipelines, wars, racism and a long list of other issues, is one for future generations.

The Montreal gaggle is a chapter of the Raging Grannies, an international non-profit originally founded in 1987 in Victoria, B.C. One of its first demonstrations was aboard the Rainbow Warrior, a nuclear-powered United States Navy warship docked in Victoria Harbour.

Together with campaigning organization Greenpeace, the original gaggle of Grannies protested what they saw as potential health and environmental threats to the city. That year, they took their self-described “granny-style” outfits and provoca-

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

tive song lyrics to protest the Canadian government’s nuclear inaction and hearings on uranium mining.

The media attention they gained from their first protests spread word of the organization, and chapters began to sprout in cities across Canada and the United States. Today, gaggles of Grannies can be found in eight countries around the world.

Montreal’s chapter was formed

marched to the army recruitment office in downtown Montreal.

“The Grannies said, ‘take us instead of our grandchildren,’” said 76-year-old Sheila Laursen, a granny who’s been raging since 2010. “Of course, the officers didn’t know what to do with the Grannies.”

Today, the Grannies are more concerned than ever about the climate crisis, and find themselves fighting alongside teenagers and

“You have to be a bit bold, a bit bizarre and a bit in-your-face.”

—Sheila Laursen in 1989, and was headed by four women who were members of a peace group called “West Islanders for Nuclear Disarmament.” Founders Joan Hadrill, Mary Rowan, Barbara Seifred and Jean Laidlaw Perreault gave way to over thirty-four years of Grannies who rage.

The chapter’s first protest was against Canada’s involvement in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Outfitted with their flashiest granny garb, they

young activists across the city.

In 2021, they picketed the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en water protectors, calling for an end to its investment in the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.

Later that year, they joined students of Divest McGill in calling for the university to end its investment in fossil fuels and sever its ties with RBC. They raged along-

side young protesters when climate activist Greta Thunberg led 500,000 people in Montreal’s first Fridays for Future march, and have since participated in every annual youth-led climate strike.

They say their activism is distinctly aligned with younger activists both in the causes they fight for and the way they draw attention to the issues they’re concerned about.

Ultimately, they believe their goal is to serve the generations to come.

On their website, there is nearly no requirement to become a part of the gaggle. “Despite our name, you do not have to be a biological grandmother to be a Raging Granny,” it reads. “We sing out of a deep commitment to justice, peace and equal treatment for all.”

Long before Laursen retired as a director of the YMCA of Montreal, she knew she wanted to join the gaggle. She said that she’d been a “Raging Granny Wannabe” ever since she presented the group with the YMCA Peace Medal in 2001.

“I remember phoning [Hadrill] and saying, ‘Guess what? I’m

NEWS retired, and this is the first thing on my what-I’m-going-to-do-whenI-retire list,” Laursen recounted. “‘But I don’t sing that well,’ I said.

She told me that it’s nothing you audition for, it’s something you do because you’re passionate about it.”

According to Laursen, the only real requirement to join the gagglers is conviction. “You have to be a bit bold, a bit bizarre, and a bit in-your-face,” she said.

Being in-your-face is the goal of every routine. When the Grannies gather for upcoming demonstrations, they debate over the most provocative lyrics and catchiest tunes. They say that through the lyrics, they find humour and a healthy way to rage.

“The songs help us rage from our hearts,” Adelman said. “We also want to be a real nuisance to misguided politicians. We really just want to educate the public and get them to speak up for themselves, but we also like to humour and make people laugh.”

Humour was what led the Grannies to create a limited-edition nude calendar titled Old, Bold & Beautiful in 2013. Laursen is pic-

ordered 500. Well, we sold out and had to go into a second printing.”

Sales from the calendar raised $20,000 towards the documentary, which debuted in 2014.

The gaggle took the project as an opportunity to raise awareness towards local community initiatives. Each month featured a verse from one of their songs, and included a QR code that would take readers to a group that was working towards solutions on issues including housing, food or climate justice.

Years later, the Grannies still get calls on whether another issue is in their plans.

“We had a riot doing it. It was crazy, creative and fun, but we’d say that it was a once in a lifetime issue,” Laursen said. “We got our message across in a pretty different way.”

Adelman and Laursen both say that along with the fun, the Grannies also serve as peacekeepers, and that their presence was meant to de-escalate any confrontations between civilians and authorities.

After all, Laursen said, police would likely think twice before “rough housing” with a bunch of elderly women wearing feather boas and

PHOTO DIANE YEUNG

tured on its cover standing against a pink backdrop with ten other women, each of whom posing nude with just a floral floppy hat.

“The Montreal Raging Grannies expose the ‘bare facts’ about peace, social justice and respect for the earth—” the cover read, “issues that cause these Grannies to rage!”

Laursen says the idea came while she and fellow Grannies were brainstorming ways to raise funds for post-production on a documentary about the group.

The Montreal Grannies had been presented with eight years of footage of Grannies across Canada by filmmakers Magnus Isacsson and Martin Duckworth, but needed $40,000 to put it together. The Grannies didn’t think they’d ever raise enough money from bake sales alone, so they took inspiration from the 2003 British film, Calendar Girls.

“We thought, how many copies should we make, because who’s going to buy this?” Laursen said. “I decided our kids would probably buy at least a few to keep them off the market, so I think we

bright hats, regardless of how provocative their songs might be.

“When you see someone with a silly hat or a colourful shawl, it really does diffuse a situation that could be potentially ugly,” Adelman said. And given the Grannies’ track record, they’ve worked their positionality to their advantage.

“We’re a bunch of old ladies, but we stand our ground,” Laursen said. “Sometimes we sit our ground, and you know, there’ve been Grannies who’ve laid on the ground, and said, ‘No, I don’t want you to do this and this is how I’m protesting and I’m doing it peacefully’.”

For local activists, the Grannies remain a pillar in the city’s fight for environmental and climate justice.

Save Fairview Forest, an organization that has been picketing the commercial development of a 45acre plot of private woodland in the West Island of Montreal, says the Grannies are both icons and allies in their cause.

“We couldn’t do this without the Grannies,” said Genevieve Lussier,

7

PHOTO DIANE YEUNG

organizer of Save Fairview Forest.

“They are one of the reasons we’ve been able to fight for this long.”

Lussier and other residents of the West Island invited the Grannies for their 100th consecutive week of protests, where activists have been standing on the corner of Fairview Ave. and Brunswick Blvd. every Saturday for nearly two years. Drivers honked in support as they drove by, and young protesters cheered as the gaggle launched into song.

“Hey you!” Adelman said, waving her cane at the sedan that was stopped at the intersection. “We need to save Fairview Forest!”

At an organizing meeting the following Monday, the gaggle gushed about the event at the forest.

They chatted over each other excitedly, sharing details of what they considered a successful demonstration with another group of activists.

One granny mentioned that they had been interviewed by West Island Home and Life, a local online magazine. Another granny add-

ed that the mayor was there. Another added that there were several teenagers and young people who cheered when they walked up to the sign posted at the entrance of the forest that read, “Private Property: Do Not Enter.”

“I guess they didn’t want any trespassers. But it didn’t matter,” said Helen Van Veeren, a mem-

from the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

The group made a pledge to write letters to the minister then moved along the list of other issues they were angry about, and the other causes they were championing. They agreed that the gesture outside of the forest was appropriate for the cause, and that the defiance they share with

“We couldn’t do this without the Grannies.

They are one of the reasons we’ve been able to fight for this long.”

—Genevieve Lussier ber of the gaggle. “Our idea was to trespass, so we stood under the sign and gave it the finger.”

For most of the meeting, the gaggle spoke about the event and its success, touching on the attention they drew to Save Fairview Forest’s fight. The forest has been placed on a temporary development freeze, but a long-term solution would require intervention

young activists today is more relevant than ever.

If there were any expectations of what a granny should be, the gaggle was sure to subvert them or work them towards expressing the rage that kept them going.

“Good on us, good for the Grannies,” Adelman said, turning to Laursen. “We’re supposed to be outrageous, and that’s what we did.”

PHOTO DIANE YEUNG

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

8

NEWS

Fostering Black Healing Black Mental Health Connections Montreal’s Push for Greater Cultural Competence in Psychiatric Care Emily Pasquarelli COURTESY AISHAH SEIVWRIGHT

I

n February 2013, a small group of Black social workers came together after attending a Black History Month event at McGill University.

Recognizing a great lack in mental health programs catering to the Black anglophone community of Montreal, they felt eager to tackle the issue. Shortly after, Black Mental Health Connections was born.

BMHC is an alliance of organizations and individuals aimed at providing mental health programming and resources to young adults in Montreal’s English-speaking Black community.

The organization works in collaboration with members of the Black community who derive from all different walks of life,

“When you're Black, you’re marginalized racially, but being an anglophone in Montreal, in Quebec, then you’re marginalized by your language,” she said.

Seivwright made reference to the province’s strict laws implemented to protect the French language, which can affect anglophones’ employment opportunities and access to services, such as psychiatric care. These barriers create an arduous process for Black community members in search of mental health services.

Through their programs, BMHC hopes to break down some of these barriers. They explore how mental health circumstances and issues vary for Black people and discuss ways to im-

COURTESY AISHAH SEIVWRIGHT

experiences and academic levels, offering various forms of support systems to those involved.

Aishah Seivwright, co-director and program coordinator of BMHC, explained how Black anglophones in Quebec face multiple layers of discrimination.

prove on cultural competence for those within the community.

As defined by BMHC, cultural competence is “providing knowledge and awareness with humility, by respecting cultural diversity across the many intersections and aspects of identity.”

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

BMHC Administrative Coordinator Kristen Young discussed the organization’s initiatives on bringing forth a stigma-free and culturally competent environment for all their members.

“Our mission is to use our collective experiences to empower members of the Black community.

We are breaking mental health barriers and promoting healing through culturally competent education and innovative community care,” Young said. “We hope to do this in an anti-oppressive, non-hierarchical way that sparks bottom-up change.”

She emphasized the various difficulties in seeking therapy from a Black professional.

“There’s an assumption that ‘Black’ means the same thing for everyone, and it doesn’t,” Young said. “Finding someone who is Black is really hard, and then finding someone who is Black and understands or sees your intersections is even harder.”

This issue of cultural disconnect is common when seeking mental health support professionally, as Black people can identify with multiple ethnic or ancestral origins, explained Young.

Seivwright further expressed the exhaustion often felt by Black patients who experience a culturally incompetent psychiatrist.

“Not having that kind of cultural competence when you go to seek care, it creates more labour for the patient or the client because then you have to explain your lived experience in the hopes that someone will understand it enough to contextualize your mental health, to offer you the specific and knowledgeable support and advice,” said Seivwright.

Given that there is such a small number of registered Black psychiatrists in Montreal, Young pointed out the high demand for them. She explained that this can initiate burnout for them and long wait lists for patients.

BMHC often works with The Lavender Collective, a Black-run initiative aiming to provide mental health resources and professionals to BIPOC communities in

Montreal. The collective’s website provides a list of BIPOC mental health professionals in the city.

While the list contains 52 members, only 26 are Black.

“But a lot of the folks on that list have wait lists that are really long,” said Young, “so there is no guarantee that you will call someone on that list and they will be available to see you.”

Psychiatric services are also a financial restraint to many within the Black community, an issue BMHC tackles through their grant funding.

As the alliance’s programming runs entirely on grants, most of their programs—such as the Peer Support Program and Black Joy Sundays—are only launched if they have the financial means to cover them fully.

In collaboration with DESTA, the Black community network, BMHC has created Black Joy Sundays, a monthly community gathering that provides mental health resources and social activities to local members.

BMHC’s non-hierarchical structure consists of three membership stages, depending on one’s level of involvement. It currently consists of 57 community members, 16 being active voting members of the alliance.

Community members stay in the loop of BMHC’s information and contribute to events and services. Voting members attend a monthly meeting to consult and validate the resources, and volunteer up to five hours a month. Active members also take part in the

“I want to ensure that I can help create the support that I needed when I was managing my mental health journey.” ­— Aishah Seivwright The alliance aims to make their programming and events as accessible as possible, offering vegan food options to attendees and covering their public transportation fees.

BMHC’s Peer Support Program received $15,000 from the Ongoing Connections Grant, a continuous funding program by the SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation at Concordia. The free 12-week program, is hosted by a facilitator and active listener who welcomes Black members from the community to gather for weekly therapy sessions.

“The hope is to bring the community together to let everyone know that it's safe to express your vulnerability, that you can care for each other in a way that’s healing,” said Seivwright.

BMHC is also involved in Concordia’s Black Perspectives Office.

As of August 2022, they have been training student ambassadors with wellness skills to improve on active listening. They also cover the core values and competencies of Peer Support Canada.

voting process of BMHC. They meet minimally twice a month, but are responsible for the execution of the events and devote up to 10 hours or more weekly.

Young shared how to be a part of BMHC’s member hub. The alliance’s newsletter can be found under the “Get Involved” tab of their website.

“I think every member of BMHC is someone who is impassioned to tackle mental health in the Black community because in our own healing and mental health management journeys, we’ve all experienced a lack of support, a lack of resources and discrimination,” said Young.

Young and Steivwright are two of many BMHC members giving back to the Black community in ways they never felt before—and it's healing for them.

“I’m sure there are millions of others like me who need this support,” said Seivwright. “I want to ensure that I can help create the support that I needed when I was managing my mental health journey.”

FRINGE ARTS

Condos vs. The Crumper

Accessible Art Spaces in a Redeveloping Montreal Max Moller PHOTO MAX MOLLER

A

fter seeing a cherished art space fall to condominium development, Brett Martin and Emma Sharpe decided to carry on its memory by creating a new studio from scratch, dubbed The Crumper.

Picture a street in the midst of redevelopment. Minimalistic condo after condo line the snow-covered sidewalk. Suddenly, something stands out. There, surrounded by identical towers, sits a 60-year old building with dusty windows and a yellowing facade.

The studio occupies the second floor of this building, between an upholsterer and a machine shop.

The sky-blue paint that coats the lobby is chipped, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any un-rusted metal. Despite the building’s eerie atmosphere, The Crumper’s Persian rugs, newly built walls, and below-average price points make for a charming addition to Montreal’s lineage of DIYs “Most of my adult social and creative life has revolved around DIY spaces,” Martin said, referencing the unofficial studios and venues of Montreal. While these spaces were grimier than the professional ones, the shows in them were frequent and cheap. He said it was easy to get on stage, to see your friends play without having to pay a cover or buy drinks. He talked about a time when there were five DIY spaces within a 10 minute walk of each other in Parc-Extension.

All of those spaces are now closed due to condo development.

Although they were upset, Martin and Sharpe were hardly surprised when the DIY space that they had been going to for years closed. Martin said that it had been under threat for several years. The rent was constantly increasing to the point where, despite servicing the space’s maximum capacity of artists, there still wasn’t enough to pay the bills.

The situation kept getting worse. They had begun to receive police noise complaints from the person who had moved into the industrial space below them. After it became clear that their space was falling into redevelopment, Sharpe and Martin started looking for new options. It just so happened that maestros of the threatened space had opened other studios near Outremont and a decent amount of their clients had migrated there. Finding themselves with adequate energy, money and time, Martin and Sharpe decided to try their hand at running a DIY space in the building that seemed to be a spiritual successor of the one that was closing.

According to Martin, when they first acquired the space it was “2,100 square feet full of shelving, and junk, and electronic components[…] a hodgepodge mess of stuff and darkness.” They spent September 2022 cleaning the place out and tearing down the old walls.

A month later, they started to build using knowledge gained from YouTube, and used a mix of paid and volunteer work for

the things they couldn’t do. The largest part of this undertaking was constructing the new rooms.

Since they needed the walls to be soundproof, the amount of drywalling they needed to do was practically tripled. On top of the new rooms, they also had to soundproof the 56-foot wall that separates their space from neighboring studios.

Martin explained that while the name had been rattling around his head for years, it was only during construction that it really began to apply to the space. Through long days of hefting garbage and clouds of drywall dust, The Crumper was born. In November 2022, the space was ready to take on clients, but things still weren’t running smoothly. By the holidays, they only had a single client. “It looked very bleak,” said Martin January marked a turning point.

They had been reserving a large area of the studio as an event space, but at this point decided to put this idea on the back burner until the revenue from the studio was stable.

Martin and Sharpe began renting it out as an art studio in the meantime. Through social media and word of mouth, awareness of The Crumper started to increase and people began flowing in. They now host over a dozen bands as well as a handful of artists and writers.

“It’s a different vibe than other places,” said Daniel Horen, a writer who uses the art studio. He said that while there are some other options in the city, a lot of them

feel more formal, like they’re run as businesses instead of communities. “It’s one of the only environments that feels like it’s not career driven,” he added.

Joey Donovan, a singer who uses the studio with her band, said that while yes, the space is for profit, it’s much cheaper than the spaces she’d been to before. She added that it feels like the Crumper’s first and foremost purpose is supporting artists and the art they create. “It feels more like you’re a

9

part of it rather than just paying for a service,” she said. Horen said that the space allows for authentic, spontaneous collaboration, something which he and Donovan agreed is getting harder and harder to find as gentrification has increased in Montreal.

As redevelopment has moved north from the city's core, DIY studios and venues have been pushed further and further away from downtown. Donovan explained that one of the main challenges with finding a rehearsal space in Montreal is that they’re all out of the way, generally north of the mountain. “I don’t know if it’s gotten worse, it just keeps happening,” Martin said, adding that seeing these spaces be pushed further and further away is disheartening. “So many of these condos popped up in the last few years. it feels sad or delusional thinking we can maintain this place, but it’s here,” said Horen.

A similar phenomenon has occurred in other major cities such as Toronto, Sharpe’s hometown. She’s seen artists evicted and spaces closed over and over, which is one of the reasons she stayed in Montreal. While the pattern seems similar here, Sharpe said that it hasn’t gotten as bad as Toronto’s state, at least not yet.

“It feels… inevitable that one day this will be a condo as well,” Sharpe said. This inevitability is echoed by the modernist buildings that flank The Crumper on all sides, but Sharpe and Martin’s new space demonstrates that accessible artist spaces aren’t going away without a fight. “While everything cycles, and opens, and closes, things do open again…it’s kind of nice to be a part of that pattern,” Sharpe said.

PHOTO MAX MOLLER

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

10

FRINGE ARTS

L’Eau et les Rêves: N NAO and the (Literal) Sounds of Spring

Multidisciplinary Artist Experiments with Natural Soundscapes on Debut Album Menel Rehab

N

aomie de Lorimier, known by her stage name N NAO, is a Montreal-based dream-pop singer-songwriter. A third-year student at Concordia in the IMCA Studio Arts program, she experiments with natural soundscapes in her music. Under the heavy influences of Cocteau Twins, Jenny Jval, Bjork, Sybille Baier, and Vashti Bunyan, Lorimier’s sound is driven by ethereal, ocean-like vocal harmonies.

On March 24, de Lorimier will release her new album L’eau et les rêves, which she describes as an anthem and ode to the vertigo of falling in love. De Lorimier also hopes to emulate the adoration towards water she has always felt.

“Water constitutes us, we are made of it, so there’s this whole aspect [of it] that is very vital and essential,” said de Lorimier. “Waterfalls continuously flow, there is a

COURTESY NAOMIE DE LORIMIER

form of everlasting renewal that disturbs the flow of regular time. They have the power to induce dreams and subsequent vivid imaginations.”

According to de Lorimier, the album is meant to induce a trance on listeners—one heightened by the presence of water in its accompanying abstract music videos.

De Lorimier explained that what inspired the album's title is Gaston Bachelard's ontology on the imagination of matter, L'eau et les Rêves.

In this book, Bachelard posits that water is the very substance of dreams.

In the same lane, said de Lorimier, this album draws from her dreams and subconscious. According to the album’s press release, “Lyrics about dreams, romance, nature and healing stream along sinuous banks as the transdisciplinary artist erects both sonic and luminous canvases where to lay

her startlingly iridescent musings.”

Taking a break from her studies due to the launch of this upcoming album, de Lorimier notably drew from classes of her Studio Arts program at Concordia, including performance, video, ceramics, and sculpture. Specifically, many of the songs on this album took shape from extensive sampling.

De Lorimier explained that through sampling, she hopes to mimic the frenzy of the natural world. Her experiments with these samples are inspired by her frequent expeditions into nature.

For the beginning of “Tout Va Bien,” for example, de Lorimier sampled the sound of rain she’d recorded during a walk. “I have a lot of tools to record, be it cameras or recorders; cassettes, digital recorders too… I drag them around when I go on expeditions,” explained de Lorimier.

“I archive things… sounds, flowers, fragments of anything I find when I walk in a forest. I like to take my camera, collect footage of sound and images and put that on magnetic tape,” de Lorimier added.

Both de Lorimier and her boyfriend, Charles Marsolais-Ricard, who collaborated with her on the project by providing artistic direction and arrangements, sought to explore how multifaceted music is.

They explained this album was collaborative in nature as they did not limit the people they worked with. De Lorimier and Marsolais-Ricard invited Samuel Gougou, Lisandre Ménard, and Étienne Dupré to play with them during the recording process.

“The project takes so many different forms, whether it's just a folk version when it's just the two of us, or in a more experimental

trio or in a large group in a slightly more orchestral way,” said Marsolais-Ricard. “This project made me discover that there is no precise medium. It's more the project that is a medium. [There’s no] limitations with the forms it could take.”

For collaborations, de Lorimier and Marsolais-Ricard directed the choice of tones and aesthetic scope of each instrument. Aside from this, they explained, contributing musicians were offered artistic freedom in regards to how they played.

Since this album will be released in spring, de Lorimier said she tried to highlight the feeling of wanting to open up after winter, after hibernation. Rocking her listeners with the vastness of her music’s melodies and composition, de Lorimier hopes to convey her love for her profession through a sense of aerial softness.

“I would like to seek out an alternative audience of music lovers all over the world. To create a community that is not just francophone, I hope my music can transcend language,” said de Lorimier. “The music industry is a bit chaotic at the moment… It feels like the end of the world, but I'm gonna keep fiddling on the boat while it's sinking.”

Opera Reimagined by Haitian Composer

David Bontemps' “La Flambeau” Makes Its Debut India Das-Brown

F

eb. 7 was the world premiere of the original French-Haitian chamber opera “La Flambeau.”

Created by Quebec-based Haitian composer David Bontemps and librettist Faubert Bolivar, the show debuted to a sold-out audience at the Centre Pierre-Péladeau.

“La Flambeau” is primarily sung in French with short passages in Haitian Creole drawing from traditional Afro-descendent practices, music and spirituality. The opera was scored by a cast of four opera singers, backed by the Orchestre Classique de Montréal and conducted by maestro Alain Trudel.

Bontemps honoured Black History Month with an all-Black cast and production team. “Music is important to Black people as it is important to everybody,” he told The Link.

The plot revolves around Monsieur (Paul Williamson, tenor), his wife, Madame (Catherine Daniel, mezzo-soprano), and their housekeeper, Mademoiselle (Suzanne Taffot, soprano).

In the opening scene, Monsieur’s self-glorifying nature reveals itself as he rehearses a speech for the res publica, and Madame’s mental instability becomes evident as she converses with her dead mother.

Mademoiselle enters, embody-

ing the picture of innocence. She wears a ring symbolizing her devotion to Ogou La Flambeau (Brandon Coleman, baritone bass), a deity in Yoruba mythology and Haitian Vodou, associated with justice and war.

Monsieur quickly becomes infatuated with Mademoiselle. He declares his love for her and, driven by his own selfish desires, pins her down and rapes her, admonishing her to be “more civilized next time.”

Mademoiselle collapses in anguish. Taffot’s voice is simultaneously soulful and sharp, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

Monsieur is confronted by Papa Ogou, condemned to become a zombie with no free will, in the service of Mademoiselle and the community.

“It’s a beautiful subject because it [involves] zombification, but not in the way that Hollywood would present it as a creepy thing,” said Bontemps. “Zombies are an African way to [represent] justice and have a sentence for criminals, instead of a death penalty or handcuffs or jail.”

The opera exults in the textual and melodical power of Bolivar’s and Bontemps’ work. The succinct ensemble and modest set give the singers space to explore each scene as much as they can. The sound of

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

maracas alongside that of a traditional orchestra is colourful and compelling. “I think that is the first time it is done,” said Bontemps of this orchestral choice.

He also spoke about bridging classical Western opera with Haitian percussion, pentatonic, whole-tone and blues scales. “The way I blended and stylized for the orchestra: the strings, the rhythms and all the musical mediums in Haiti, I put them face to face with Western ways of writing music. I think it's a mirror of myself at the time I was here.”

“La Flambeau’s” origins are based on the 2014 award-winning play of the same name by Faubert Bolivar. “Faubert and I were attending law school together,” Bontemps told The Link. “So [we incorporated] a lot of topics we discussed at the time. Mainly it's a way to criticize our society; society in Haiti and society in general, in the world. For me, the main theme is the respect of everybody. That a world without respect, without love, without harmony is complete madness, is complete chaos.”

“La Flambeau” itself is a generic name for a family of spirits in Haitian vodou. “It's based in Afro-descendant practices and

COURTESY DAVID BONTEMPS

old belief systems that are still used to this day,” said stage director Mariah Inger. “And really, only a Black cast can do it justice.”

The casting was indeed well executed. Daniel’s mezzo-soprano voice is both lush and forceful, conveying the contrasting emotions of Madame. Taffot is not only an exceptional vocalist but also a quality theatre performer who acts with ease on stage. The low resonance of Coleman’s voice has a depth and richness that commands presence.

Williamson’s tenor is versatile and comparative, sounding low and deep in comparison to the voices of Daniel and Taffot, then high and slight when paired with Coleman’s baritone bass.

Inger went on to further discuss the all-Black cast. “I'm doing

my best to focus on the beautification of putting Black faces, singing opera, telling a Black story in a world that may not be used to it.”

“La Flambeau” is poignant yet modest, unique, weighty and moralizing. It preserves the importance of lyrical singing but also explores the possibilities of opera in different mediums of narrative and sound. “What are the limits of our readiness to put aside our conceptions of everything in life, to really listen to others?” asked Bontemps.

“La Flambeau” held its world premiere with the OCM in Montreal. The premiere will be followed by a performance at BrottOpera in Hamilton. A recording will be released on the ATMA Classique Label in 2024.

FRINGE ARTS

11

I Owe My World to Snotty Nosed Kids Zevida Germain I owe my world to the Snotty nosed country kids Cus they don’t like to use tissues no they Wipe their noses on their hands, fingers, palms, arms, And when they run through the cattails and wheatfield they carry old plastic baseball bats Covered in dirt from the ground where At least one of our great great great great great great Great great great great great great great great great grandfathers Is buried. he saw the world for the first time The world owes me At least some snotty nosed city kids Cus sitting in my place in the most milky way i get So so so lonely when i can’t see little people on The blue-green-gas-water-solid floating orb they Saw me. And cut the trees and made mazes of Concrete so dark that even when they come out to play Basketball jump rope 4 square cops and robbers I can see their shiny white shirts and notice The snot wiped on their sleeves Snotty nosed kids all over owe The world probably nothing cause they have missing-gap-crooked teeth leave them Under their pillows for pocket change but some like to Throw them up real real high to make new shiny constellations Then back in time so the ancient greeks can name em and All of them know how to braid beads hair and bright woollen string, beat Scraps of metal on roads in with big big sticks passed down like Ancestral knowledge of fossilised mothers and fathers so I get inspiration and braid together this galaxy into

A Handkerchief so they may Wipe their noses GRAPHIC RENEE KENNEDY

To Be Woman Michelle M. Ilunga Content warning: This piece contains mentions of violence and abuse towards women.

ife in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of so“L ciety being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.”

This is the opening paragraph of late radical feminist, Valerie Solanas’sself-published work, S.C.U.M Manifesto–S.C.U.M standing for “Society for Cutting up Men.” Lately, this opening paragraph along with similar radical feminist sentiments have been on my mind. Lingering.

Festering. All prompting the same question: What does it mean to be woman?

From the moment I was born into this world, a world that has long proved its violent hatred for women, my body became public property.

Born to be ogled at, spoken for, grabbed, beaten down and muzzled like the bitch I've so customarily been called.

But that's what I want, right? I go out at night. I drink. I flirt. I have sex. So I'm asking for it, right? Then I shouldn't be angry when the first thing my employer sees as I enter an interview is my chest. I shouldn’t be angry when a stranger grabs my crotch in the middle of a club. I shouldnt be angry when the boy in my grade nine summer school class says he wants to rip the slit in my dress and rape me. Right?

But I am. I'm angry. I'm angry. I'm angry and I have every right to be.

GRAPHIC JACKSON DUNNIGAN

Angry that my identity is reduced to my body. That my sex is above my humanity. That no matter what I have to say, think, do, in the eyes of the world and the men around me, I am a shell to be ogled at, spoken for, grabbed, beaten down and muzzled. Now I know. This is what it means to be woman. thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

12

SPORTS

Stingers’ Weekend Wrap-Up: Feb. 16-19

SCOREBOARD WOMEN’S BASKETBALL W 75-58 vs. McGill Feb. 18

The Final Push Before Playoffs

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Conor Tomalty

W 83-79 vs. McGill Feb. 18

WOMEN’S HOCKEY W 6-0 vs. Carleton Feb. 12

SCHEDULE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Saturday, Feb. 25 vs. Laval at 2 p.m

L

et’s talk Stingers…

Women’s Basketball: Currently fourth in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec division This past weekend, coach Tenicha Gittens’ team took matters into their own hands and sealed their destiny. They took on the McGill University Martlets on Feb. 18, and Concordia punched their ticket to the post-season with a 75-58 win. Cornerstone veteran guard Areej Burgonio showcased her hot hand, dropping 30 points and leading the charge attacking the rim. Despite shooting 37 per cent, Burgonio racked up foul calls and made 11 of her 15 free throws.

With the frontcourt contributions from forwards Gretta Ineza and Angela Batrla–who combined for 26 points–the Stingers looked like a complete team capable of bullying their competition through physical scoring.

Even with the double-digit win, the Stingers still find themselves with a 4-11 record. The team is often out-rebounded in matchups and, due to their shorter roster, has many key team members playing 30-plus minutes a game. Stamina is a core component of athleticism, especially within the sport of basketball, and competing against freshlegged rotation players has been a daunting task for Concordia.

Anything can happen in the playoffs, and the mentality this group exudes is fiery, hardworking, and dedicated. But can it withstand

the tediously strenuous road that is the RSEQ post-season?

The team's final game is against the Université de Laval Rouge et Or on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.

Men’s Basketball: Currently fourth in the RSEQ division It’s the final leg of the regular season, and coach Rastco Popovich’s team took this to heart with a hard-fought win over the McGill Redbirds on Feb. 17.

Both teams stacked up evenly statistically. The Redbirds led in rebounds 32 to 31, multiple contributors on both ends of the court recorded over ten points, and both squads forced over ten turnovers. Despite McGill’s best efforts of mounting a comeback– narrowing Concordia’s lead to within two points with 14 seconds left to play–Stingers’ guard Alec Phaneuf snatched the defensive rebound with three seconds remaining to close out the game.

This team has faced more tribulations during the second half, with a record of 3-6 in the new year compared to their 6-3 record to start the campaign. The roster displays shooters with offensive prowess such as guards Sami Jahan, Alec Phaneuf and rising star freshman forward Jaheem Joseph, any of whom can drop 10-20 points on a given night. However, the team is still inexperienced compared to the top-seeded universities. It should be noted, however, that the collective’s chemistry has grown throughout the year.

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

This team finds success in flexing their biggest strength: staying sturdy in bouts and going the distance to achieve victory. Could one big swing knock them out of contention come the playoffs?

The team’s last game of the regular season is against Laval on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 4 p.m.

Women’s Hockey: Currently first in the RSEQ division Ending the regular season on a high is an understatement for the Julie Chu-coached team. The final game of the season saw a 6-0 win over the Carleton University Ravens on Feb. 17. Unlike in previous games, where the team tallied the bulk of their goals in one frame, the team racked up two goals per period against Carleton. Forward Rosalie Begin-Cyr recorded four assists, making her one of eleven Stingers to register a point.

This team’s potential and reputation were set as a top contending team early this year. The bulk of their lopsided performances has reinforced this label. A dynamic, tight-knit group with star power and high-level competition experience will do them favours down the stretch. The RSEQ playoffs’ narrative is not set in stone, however, with upsets being a frequent recurrence throughout the year. Will the Stingers’ have that extra bit of luck on their side?

The first-round match-up is set against the Bishop’s University Gaiters. Game one is on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

MEN’S BASKETBALL Saturday, Feb. 25 vs. Laval at 4 p.m.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY Thursday, Feb. 23 vs Bishop’s at 7:30 p.m.

RSEQ SF Game 1 Saturday, Feb. 25 @ Bishop’s at 7:30 p.m.

RSEQ SF Game 2 Sunday, Feb. 26 vs. Bishop’s at 7 p.m.

RSEQ SF Game 3 (TBD)

MEN’S HOCKEY Wednesday, Feb. 22 vs. McGill at 7:30 p.m.

OUA QF Game 1 Thursday, Feb. 23 @ McGill at 7 p.m.

OUA QF Game 2 Sunday, Feb. 26 vs. McGill at 3 p.m.

OUA QF Game 3 (TBD)

OPINIONS

Therapy Cannot Fix Oppression Ladies, Stop Telling Marginalized Men to Just Go to Therapy Sandra Mouafo

GRAPHIC PAU QURESHI KLAMBURG

“W

eed is the therapy I can afford,” I tell a friend on the phone after venting about the latest injustice that plagued my life.

Soon after, I hang up the phone. I want to call my therapist and gleefully announce that I can afford returning but my lack of insurance or wealthy parents make it nearly impossible to fit therapy in between my two jobs, school and semblance of a social life.

I’ve always been deeply bothered at the omission of capitalism in mental health discourse.

The anxiety of financial insecurity, marketing ourselves for capitalist jobs that determine our value, the hopelessness of having to choose between rent, heating or food, or trading a social life for the necessity that is labouring for wages all constitute great hurdles to healing.

Purposefully ignoring financial, generational and racial struggles that cause inacessibility to therapy is a problem. This is even more true when it comes to racialized folks.

I thought of my dad. He lost both his parents, my mother, and was a single parent of four children.

I couldn’t conceive of a place to send him to for mental health support or find financial aid to support him in obtaining it. He was one of the many racialized men still tasked with the burden of male performance under patriarchal capitalism. I didn’t know how to help him.

It is true that women are not and should not be rehabilitation centres for insecure, wounded and unstable men. However, where should we send marginalized men that are in need and do seek healing? What should we tell margin-

alized men that exhibit undesirable traits of toxic masculinity?

I am willing to admit that it is hard to empathize with men these days. The rise of the manosphere and figures like Andrew Tate or Jordan Peterson do not make finding empathy for men easy.

However, women can exert the same violence as men over groups they can dominate, usually racialized (or otherwise marginalised) men, children or women they deem weaker. This is especially true of white women, who also constitute over 70 per cent of the mental health professional demographic.

This reality cannot be overlooked. It further highlights the relevance of trauma-informed, culturally competent approach to psychotherapy and the importance of being cognizant of the underlying power dynamics therein.

When it comes to mental health, imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal society does not discriminate. In fact, men and women exhibit similar rates of mental health struggles, men are simply less likely to seek help. This is due to male socialization and the social construction of masculinity and its promotion of dependency and self-reliance; the emotional vulnerability required in the therapeutic context is the antithesis of our societal understanding of masculinity.

It wasn't until I read The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks that I began to foster bigger tolerance and empathy for men like my father. That is when I started to reflect on the ways I contributed to their harm.

If we are to conceive of the notion that toxic masculinity is alive and well, we must also concede the existence of toxic femininity.

Terrence Real, therapist and author of How Do I Get Through To You: Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women, states: "If women contend more easily than men with deep relational wounds it is because they often have less to contend with."

While women are encouraged to externally express their emotions, men are shamed into repressing them.

While I could tell my father that he needed bereavement counselling, that he experienced various forms of compounding traumas and that the financial stress of raising a family on his own posed a great threat to his health, he, in turn, could only see the importance of providing for his family and the sacrifice necessary to do so. He couldn’t afford to feel his feelings nor told the importance of naming them.

Real later elaborates that girls are encouraged at a young age to exhibit traits of emotional lucidity that are part of traditional femininity. Conversely, boys are taught at a very young age to muff their emotional lucidity and instead are encouraged to "openly demonstrate their dependency" and perform the stoic code of masculinity.

Real calls this phenomenon the "normal traumatization of boys.”

If you’re anything like me, you probably recoiled when first reading Real's words. But I sat with the discomfort for a while and the words of bell hooks began to resonate in my mind: “Dominator culture teaches all of us that the core of our identity is defined by

the will to dominate and control others. We are taught that this will to dominate is more biologically hardwired in males than in females. In actuality, dominator culture teaches us that we are all natural-born killers but that males are more able to realize the predator role. [...] When culture is based on a dominator model, not only will it be violent but it will frame all relationships as power struggles.”

I began to understand the way violence and domination manifests in our relationships and interactions.

I observed that while men are brutal in their externalisation of relational dominance–even towards other men–women are instead vicious. In cases of intimate partner violence for instance, while men will raise their fist, women will sharpen their tongue and cut with their words. Studies seem to agree that women are aggressors too, but tend to do so in indirect ways such as spreading defamatory rumors or weaponizing male vulnerability, provocation and other forms of indirect aggressive strategies.

In her book, bell hooks puts a spotlight on female rage and the hypocrisy of some feminists within the movement. She talks of the mothers who take their anger out on their sons, the women who destroy the lives of black men on unfounded accusations, and of the reiteration of toxic patriarchal rhetorics like "man up!" or "boys don't cry!"

As the novelist, Wendall Berry asserts in his book The Unsettling of America: "If we removed the status and compensation from the destructive exploits we classify as 'manly', men would be found to

13

be suffering as much as women."

I know many marginalized men who are silently suffering at the hands of women.

Additionally, popular therapeutic approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, can also be a harmful clinical approach to therapy as they are standardized to white privilege individualism.

Is therapy truly the answer when even our very understanding of wellness is rooted in capitalism and the subsequent patriarchal myth of male ease?

Don’t get me wrong—men, like most people, do need therapy.

But first, we should ensure that their therapeutic options reflect their socialization, are affordable and go beyond blame.

As Real puts it in his book: “Feminist-oriented therapy, including most batterer's programs, hold men accountable for their offending behaviours, but often fail to address the significant trauma underneath.”

When dealing with relational dominance, women need not be vicious through our words but instead firm in our actions. Messaging like "all men are trash" is harmful to both men and women.

If we want marginalized men to do better we should embody what that looks like first. We shouldn't insult these men for not meeting our standards but rather disengage with those who don't.

Instead of dismissively telling marginalized men to seek therapy, we should invite the men in our lives to practices of self-care that promote introspection and provide entry points to the life long journey of self-healing.

Real and bell hooks agree: our modern relational crisis is a crisis of intimacy and emotional needs that is exacerbated by men without the language to verbalize it as such.

As it currently stands, very few spaces exist for colonized people to rebuild healthy relationships with each other and ourselves.

This is even more true for marginalized men. Instead of providing safe spaces, we leave marginalized men stranded between the disempowerment of the shame, hatred or isolation we treat them with.

The need for feminism then becomes overshadowed by the inability of its members to reflect as to whether they are part of the problem. The exercise of empathy requires constant training: it is not an inherent feminine trait.

Will we, women, accept that fighting the patriarchy also involves helping and empathising with marginalized men? Because perhaps the word of what is required is revolution rather than mere therapy.

Marginalized men deserve a soft place to land. Maybe if we were able to hold men accountable with love, we wouldn't hold them in such contempt.

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

14

OPINIONS

Every Size Needs to Be Available in Store

I Should Be Able to Be Fat and Dress Cute Lory Saint-Fleur

A

s a size 16 and a twenty-oneyear-old, all I wish for is cute clothes that fit me.

While I am a fan of online shopping, how nice would it be to enter an H&M and not hunt for that one pair of jeans that I can fit into?

Many would respond to this problem by simply suggesting weight loss because of course it makes everything in life so much easier.

Well here’s the big news people: I love my body the way it is.

While this might be a surprise to many people, being fat is not the worst thing that can happen to you.

Through the introduction of the body-positive movement, improvement in the fashion industry has slowly started. A few stores now have a plus-size section on their website which is often rather small, but we’ll give them a point for at least trying.

Let’s take the current H&M website for example. As of Feb. 12 at 11:47 p.m., they have 7,508 items in their catalog for women. Only 537 of those items were plus-size, which represents seven per cent of their items in the women's section.

In 2016, the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education declared that the average woman is between a size 16 to 18.

We shouldn’t have to rely so heavily on the same few brands while people size 12 and under have a million options presented to them the minute they walk into a store. It is unfair to be missing out on 93 per cent of possibilities.

Beauty standards are responsible for society’s distorted view of women’s bodies. They have controlled the way women look and want to look throughout history.

We can see that western society’s ideals have shifted from skinny to fat over a few decades.

The Renaissance started in the 1300s, and it was a time of renouveau. In Europe during that time, fat women were not only the ideal but they were also a representation of wealth. Larger women were recognized as the ideal as it represented that they were part of a higher class which made them desirable brides.

In the mid 1990s, Heroin chic was introduced. While it was connected to a slouchy look with dark

under eyes, it quickly converted to extremely thin models being used to represent that aesthetic.

As stated in the name, the heroin chic look could be achieved through the use of hard drugs or other dangerous practices. President Clinton stated at the time: “The glorification of heroin is not creative, it’s destructive. It’s not beautiful; it’s ugly. And this is not about art; it’s about life and death.”

Following the heroin chic movement, the ideal of skinny was reinforced by the media and society. In the 2000s, there was an unapologetic culture of shaming women for their body. The fashion trends of the time ignited that culture from lowrise jeans to bandana tops. From Victoria's Secret models to celebrities' “muffin tops” being plastered on every magazine's front page, the 2000s were a personal hell for most women.

Anyone higher than a size 6 was relegated to underground shops.

In 2006, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries said in an interview with salon that they “go after the attractive all-American

GRAPHIC MYRIAM OUAZZANI

kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” As Abercrombie & Fitch was one of the leading companies of the 2000s, their old CEO is a great presentation of the mentality of those years. Looking back on those years and seeing the pure hatred and disgust that designers had for fat people is disturbing. By staying in that restrictive mindset, retailers cut a profitable part of their market. It is ironic to look back on this quote as Abercrombie & Fitch later now caters to people that fit up to a size 22.

Fortunately for plus-size women, myself included, brands are expanding their sizes. Lululemon now goes to a size 20, Princess Polly now also

has a plus size section that goes up to a size 20. Old Navy even has a great jean selection!

While the fashion industry is excluding larger bodies, many are coming to light to accuse it of staying in its comfort zone. Companies have to feel uncomfortable with their practices to finally change them; compliance is not an option in this situation. There needs to be more than a handful of options. Scavenger hunting for clothes can leave out the most important part of a shopping experience: joy. Nobody should walk hesitantly into a store or feel excluded from a shopping trip with their friends because their only options are sunglasses and jewelry. Every size in every store.

My Childhood Memories Are Calling

Zellers is Back Kaitlin Gong

GRAPHIC PANOS MICHALAKOPOULOS

Z

ellers was a big part of my childhood, which is why I’m so excited that Hudson’s Bay Canada will reopen some of its stores.

I remember being a kid and thinking that Zellers had to be the coolest store ever. I’d go there every Friday after school with my sister and my cousin. We’d always enjoy ourselves while browsing around.

I remember trying different bikes; we’d ride around the store and the employees never seemed to mind. I remember the sweets section. I always got excited over

candy, especially the newest flavours. Zellers had the best of the best and for a discounted price.

As someone who has always loved entertainment, my favourite Zellers aisle was always the CDs and DVDs section. I’d hurry to that section every week to browse the newest releases. I still listen to my Avril Lavigne and Black Eyed Peas CDs from those days and watch my Mean Girls and Freaky Friday DVDs on occasion.

Whether it was 1st generation immigrant families or those on a

thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023

budget, many appreciated Zellers for its affordability. It was also a haven for children of immigrants.

Zellers was ideal for my sibling and cousin—we were children who didn’t properly understand the value of money. I had a piggy bank growing up and whenever I had enough saved, I’d spend it there.

This store is attached to a lot of good memories for me. Although my cousin and I often got into silly arguments, I don’t remember us ever being upset in the store. It was as though Zellers excited us enough to forget the little problems that stood in our way. This store brought a little bit of magic to our days, even when at home.

We’d receive weekly flyers in the mail. Coupons made it easy to forget about the stress of finances.

We’d search for anything that excited us and we used them whenever we earned a gift for a good grade in school.

Zellers was one of my very first experiences in a department store. As an adult, I came to appreciate department stores for their convenience. As a child,

these stores were a site like heaven. I could easily find something to get excited about, no matter which aisle was going to be next.

I could even get lost but never afraid because I was deep into my excitement for watermelon candy, whichever Lindsay Lohan movie was coming out, and more.

Whether it was school supplies, clothes, or whatever else, Zellers seemed to have it all. It provided my family everything we needed during arduous financial times.

2023 isn’t my first time living in a recession. I remember being in my early teenage years. It was the late 2000s. I was in high school. My father was the only financial provider in my immediate family. It was scary to live on just one income. The recession was a subject of conversation for many people, including my family. I remember not fully understanding the seriousness of it at first: all I knew was that I was worried.

I remember seeing the increase in prices and feeling anxious. The recession was a common topic at dinners with my extended

family. I often heard my relatives talk about the importance of work and how hard it was to make a living. My extended relatives were more financially secure than my immediate family; seeing my dad worried made me realize that things were harder for my family.

Zellers always brought comfort in terms of affordability. Today is not that different. Nowadays, everything costs more than it did a mere year ago, which makes now a great time to reopen Zellers stores. I hope the new stores that are reopening will replicate the affordable pricing I knew them for.

Although I’m an adult now, I’m still excited about Zellers. I think I’ll appreciate it more now, not only because the stores permanently closed in Canada years ago, but because I have a better understanding of the value of money.

Zellers was the ideal store for anyone regardless of their age and budget. I hope it returns to helping many families and exciting many more children like it did for my cousin as well as my sister and me.

EDITORIAL

15

GRAPHIC MYRIAM OUAZZANI

She Was Right, Quebec is Islamophobic A

few weeks after being elected as Canada's first special representative on combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby was asked to be dismissed by Quebec’s legislature for speaking the truth.

Politicians criticized Elghawaby for her comments in a 2019 opinion piece in which she legitimately criticized Bill 21. The bill is a racist law that bans public employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols; this intentionally targets Muslim women.

"Unfortunately, the majority of Quebecers appear to be swayed

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not by the rule of law, but by anti-Muslim sentiment," she wrote in her piece for the Ottawa Citizen.

Elghawaby has since apologized for these comments, yet, they still ring true.

From François Legault finding excuses to avoid solidarity with Muslim communities, to requesting her removal only a day after the Quebec City mosque shooting anniversary, Elghawaby’s case is an attestation to the province’s utter neglect, miscare, and outright resentment towards Muslims.

In a 2018 study conducted by

the Canadian Review of Sociology, asking Canadians to rate their agreeability with various social groups, it was found that Muslims are the least liked social group in Canada, and the most hated in Quebec.

According to the CBC, “the study found 70 per cent of respondents in the province expressed ‘significant’ anti-Muslim sentiment.”

Almost 60 per cent of Quebecois respondents had much stronger negative attitudes toward Muslims than any other groups mentioned.

Muslims in Quebec, especially Muslim women, face systemic violence, racism, oppression and discrimination, in every sphere of life.

There is no clearer racist double standard than Quebec’s hypocritical stance on freedom.

When it comes to the defense of free speech and expression in regards to intolerance, hate speech, the normalization of racial slurs and the berating of immigrants, Quebecois politicians are the first in line.

Ironically, these elected leaders are at the forefront of consistently

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adopting legislation that forcefully undermines the freedom, security and expression of Muslims and marginalized communities.

Quebec’s leaders have done everything right to prove their culpability in this.

This government, its people and subsequently its elected representatives have been the boldest in denying the fundamental human rights of Muslim women and silencing them under a false pretense of secularism.

Elghawaby is just the latest example.

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