December 2009-January 2010

DEC09/ JAN10

TORTURE. CORRUPTION. FRAUD. OPPRESSION. Will this be Canada’s legacy in Afghanistan?

NEWS

TO THE STREETS!

By Graeme Johnson and James Burrows, News Editor On November 5, students united through the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and several labour unions aired their demands to the curtained windows of the Ontario Legislative Building.

“Is it right,” asked CFS-Ontario Chairperson Shelley Melanson, “...for MPPs to sit in their offices, making over a hundred thousand dollars a year, and tell us that we have to deal with it?”

Melanson wants Premier McGuinty’s government to drop tuition fees for post-secondary students and was protesting as part of the Day of Action.

The November 5 Day of Action brings together Ontario students in 12 cities across the province as they take to the streets to demonstrate for accessible education.

Joining those students are representatives from the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), United Steelworkers (USW), CUPE, the Good Jobs for All Coalition and other anti-poverty and labour rights organizations.

Many in the crowd, numbering in the thousands, were also sure to express who they felt was responsible for the ongoing recession. “Let’s be clear whose fault this is,” one CUPE representative yelled over the crowd. “It is the fault of the politicians who refuse to invest in social services and public education ... [and] the banks and bond traders who

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are so frickin’ greedy who caused this economic downturn.”

Though there was no response from the Premier, and the occupants of the Legislative Building appeared to be doing their best to ignore the protesters, the assembly refused to be discouraged or silenced. “We’ll keep doing what we’re doing,” the CUPE representative called to the cheering demonstrators, “coming to our parliament, on our lawn, until these people – who work for us – invest in us.”

Thousands of students from across Ontario joined together to protest tuition fee increases as part of the Canadian Federation of Students’ Day of Action.

According to a recent summary of Canadian university tuition fees released by Statistics Canada, Ontario has indeed become the most expensive province in which to obtain post-secondary education, finally edging past Nova Scotia to claim the top spot in average tuition rankings. In the past year, the McGuinty government has also managed to raise tuition fees over $1000 above the national average and $3,679 above the lowest ranked province, Quebec.

Speakers representing international students were also present and expressed their anger with the current system, demanding that the excessive fees forced upon them are intolerable. “International students have to pay

three times what domestic students pay,” one student shouted, “this doesn’t make sense to anybody!”

The police were out in force at the rally with no fewer than three uniformed officers guarding the doors to the Governing Council offices at the University of Toronto and dozens of others on foot, bicycle and horseback surrounding the protestors and barring the entrances to public buildings. The marchers, however, ensured that the protest was kept peaceful and respectful despite the police presence as many sang and danced through Toronto’s streets, keeping time with the drumming of the Samba Elégua music collective.

Sessional instructors at U of T also came out to demand equitable treatment and job security. “We’re not asking for tenure,” an instructor told the assembled students, “we’re just asking for fair wages.” Student supporters added their voices to those of their teachers, arguing that because “instructor’s contracts are up for negotiation every 4 to 6 months...this clearly affects the quality of education we receive.”

For more information on the day of action and participating unions visit www.cfsontario.ca, www.psac.com, goodjobsforall.ca, www.uswa.ca and cupe.ca

PHOTOS: DAN RIOS

Ryerson Free Press The monthly newspaper for continuing education, distance education and part-time students at Ryerson Address Suite SCC-301 Ryerson Student Centre 55 Gould Street Toronto, ON CANADA M5B 1E9

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Website WWW.ryersonfreepress.ca

Editor-In-Chief Nora Loreto

News Editor James burrows

Features and Opinions Editor James Clark

Layout Editor Andrea Yeomans

Culture Editor amanda connon-unda

Photo Editor Dan Rios

Cover Design Andrea Yeomans

Contributors Astrid Arijanto Evan Brockest JAMES BURROWS Stephen Carlick Gursevak Kasbia TRACY CHEN James Clark Priya Jain GRAEME JOHNSON Iftekhar Kabir candice kung james laxer hassena manek mason mccoll Lian Novak Michelle Owusu kate spencer Brett ThrooP David Thurton Jennifer Tse Angela Walcott Danielle Webb shawn whitney

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

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Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 3

Students stand up for equity, create new exec portfolio Move comes during heated general meeting

By David Thurton It’s often said that things happen for a reason. Meaning exists in the pointless events that occur in everyday life. And even bad and unpleasant situations conspire to bring about a greater good. Such may or may not have been the case at the Ryerson Students’ Union’s Semi-Annual General Meeting (SAGM) on November 11, where students witnessed hateful words flying at David Fourney, a student who is hearing impaired.

Fourney is deaf in one ear. And on any given day he endures insults and neglect from people who don’t understand his condition. But at November’s general meeting, the discrimination hit new levels.

At one point in the meeting, Fourney asked the chair to recess the meeting because his interpreters needed a break.

Mark Single, a second-year engineering student, responded by saying he’d offer to yell into Fourney’s ear if he could no longer follow the meeting.

Fourney and others were shocked at Single’s comments.

“I was appalled. And I was frankly insulted that anyone would ever think about doing that,” Fourney said. “It’s probably the clearest form of ableism that I’ve ever seen. I’ve never heard anyone get up in front a microphone and be blatantly ableist—which is why I got up right away and said ‘no, this is unacceptable behaviour.’”

Just moments earlier, students had voted to oppose the creation of a new Vice-President Equity position on the student union executive, a portfolio that would be responsible for making sure that students are treated equally and fairly on campus.

Single later apologized to Fourney, but his words made students reconsider the motion they just voted against.

Marina Sevastianov was one of those students. She immediately wanted to reconsider her vote after hearing the discriminatory comment.

“My first reaction was: ‘thank God there wasn’t a bottle there!’ I would have chucked it at him,” Sevastianov said. “My second reaction was: ‘disgusting pig!’ I don’t know how your tongue can twist into those words.

“And then I calmed down. That’s when I looked inside my brain and said, ‘maybe we do need a Vice-President Eq-

uity,’” the second-year Global Management student said.

The discriminatory comments set in motion a chain of events that convinced students to reconsider their votes and pass the motion to create a new Vice-President Equity at Ryerson.

Students would not likely have created this new position to lead the fight for equity if it weren’t for the discriminatory comment.

RSU President Jermaine Bagnall agreed.

“I think that person’s comments may have been a turning point,” Bagnall said. “The first time the motion was considered it only failed by a few votes.”

If Fourney’s first name conjures thoughts of the Biblical battle between David and Goliath, then perhaps it should.

His experiences as a person with a disability show how he has struggled to overcome challenging odds.

Born deaf in one ear, Fourney didn’t attend the provincial school for the deaf. His mother insisted he attend public school like other students in Saskatchewan.

Constant taunts and insults from other students may have been reason enough to give up. But for Fourney, it meant he worked harder than other students to succeed.

“You’re probably reading three times more than your classmates. I’ve had classes where most of my classmates would be lucky to crack the textbook at all. And I’d have to crack the textbook. I had no choice.”

His hard work paid off. Fourney has so far earned two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree. He is currently a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at Ryerson.

Fourney remembers one childhood experience when a parent who lived across the street from his family wouldn’t let her children play with him.

“The reason was because she was concerned that her kids might catch whatever it is that makes me hard of hearing.

She was a kindergarten teacher which makes it even more surprising.”

Discrimination—whether direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional—has haunted Fourney his whole life. And despite the seriousness and public nature of the incident at the recent student union meeting, Fourney immediately

forgave the student for his harsh words. And he didn’t want students to use the incident as an excuse to create the position of VP Equity.

Regardless, he said that this incident has allowed people to understand what he endures daily.

“It’s one thing to have the sticker that says ableism, homophobia and transphobia exist. It’s another thing to see it.

Suddenly this thing that is ephemeral and abstract becomes real.”

VP Equity who?

At November’s RSU SAGM students voted to create a new Vice-President Equity position on the student union’s executive. The new equity position dedicates a full-time RSU executive member to address equity issues—to work against discrimination, including ableism. The new position also comes with a $27,000 a year salary and other benefits. Like other executive positions, it will be contested in the 2010 RSU election.

What else happened?

The “That’s so gay” campaign will continue to encourage students to avoid the use of homophobic speech. The Queer Bursary is now the Christopher Skinner Memorial Bursary in honour of the gay Ryerson student who was slain in October 2009. The RSU will also lobby the university establish a permanent memorial in his memory.

Students gave the RSU the green light to launch campaigns that encourage students to bring reusable canteens to campus and than ban the distribution of bottled water at events and the sale of bottled water on campus. Part of this campaign includes increasing the number of drinking fountains around campus.

The RSU will also pressure the Senate to give students a fall reading week.

The RSU pledged to help Verse City in its mission to provide skills to Aboriginal youth. Verse City is a student group started by the Ryerson School of Journalism whose aim is to cultivate interest in the media among racialized youth.

The RSU’s recent SAGM was standing-room only, as students packed the November meeting.

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PHoto: David Thurton

Feds chip in to help Ryerson buy hockey history

An artist’s rendering of a post-renovation Maple Leaf Gardens.

$20 million contribution allows Maple Leaf Gardens to become an athletic centre

By Danielle Webb, Special to the Ryerson Free Press The crowd sang along as “The Good Old Hockey Game” poured out of the loud speaker.

Moments later, a boyish grin crept over Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s face as he announced that hockey would officially be coming back to Maple Leaf Gardens.

“On behalf of generations past and present, I¹m very proud to announce a contribution from the government of Canada of $20 million to help to build a new Ryerson sports and recreation centre,” Flaherty said at a news conference on December. 1.

“Today, the dream is made a reality,” added Ryerson president Sheldon Levy.

The amount from the federal government was the final hurdle in realizing Ryerson’s dream to renovate the famous building. Construction will begin as soon as possible and will be completed by spring 2011 and will include an ice rink, basketball and volleyball courts, gyms, studios, fitness areas and academic space.

“Our recreation activities will have room to grow and flourish [and] our varsity sports will have the facilities and opportunities to grow and excel,” said Levy.

Ryerson athletes currently practice and play at rented facilities across Toronto, some as many as 10 km away from campus.

The total project cost is estimated at $60 million.

“It’s not just about celebrating a great iconic building,” said John Baird, federal minister of transport and infrastructure. “It’s about preserving history, urban revitalization and also, most importantly, helping the students at Ryerson University.”

“With today’s announcement we are keeping the Maple Leaf Gardens as a special place for generations to come,” added Flaherty.

The atmosphere across campus regarding the announcement has been really positive, said CESAR president Mohammad Ali Aumeer.

“It hasn’t been the case where the [federal] government is regularly stepping up and providing financial support to our institution. This is a good first step and hopefully other funding will follow,” Aumeer said.

Ryerson held a referendum last spring to increase the athletic fee in order to pay for the new facility. Approximately 74 per cent of students voted in favour of raising the annual fee from $61 to $187.

“It’s those fees that are providing an over $20-million contribution to Maple Leaf Gardens Project. So the whole thing really did begin with the commitment of our wonderful students,” said Levy.

The fee will continue after construction is complete in order to fund to operational costs

of the facility, explained Aumeer.

“People are just really excited to have a new facility. The hockey team won’t have to get on a bus to go practice anymore.”

But some students aren’t standing up and cheering just yet.

“As a Ryerson student I’m annoyed at having to pay $126 more tuition dollars plus a portion of my federal taxes in order to help build a supermarket,” one student wrote in a comment post on cbc.ca.

“While I acknowledge Ryerson’s need for more space and appreciate the uniqueness of the property they have just acquired, the athletics centre is not necessary nor is it worthwhile. How about spending my tuition and tax money on reducing class sizes, [or] bringing back tutorial and small group learning environments,” the post continued.

The new fee won’t come into affect for another three years.

The federal portion of the funding is part of the government¹s Economic Action Plan — a program designed to create jobs and stimulate the economy across the country. The Conservative government has committed $12 billion to 12,000 stimulus projects in communities across Canada. This project is also one of more than 500 in progress throughout the city of Toronto.

Maple Leaf Gardens, in fact, was a stimulus project itself. The building¹s construction, back in 1931, was an economic stimulus project to help bring Canada out of the Great Depression.

Maple Leaf Gardens has a rich history, including being home to the Toronto Maple Leafs for over half a century. The building hosted the first-ever NHL All-Star game in 1947, as well as Team Canada¹s 4-1 win over the Soviet Union in game two of 1972 Summit Series. Music legends such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles also played the venue.

But, since the Leafs moved to their current home at the Air Canada Centre in 1999, the building has gone largely unused. Recently, however, the doors were re-opened to host Battle of the Blades, CBC’s figure skating reality show.

“This project will inspire students and families to create new memories here at the Gardens,” said Baird.

Loblaw Companies Ltd. is also contributing to the project through a joint fundraising project with Ryerson to raise the other $20 million and have donated $5 million to that end already.

The company purchased the building in 2004 and will be turning the ground floor into a supermarket.

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 5

U.S. War resister gets second chance before refugee board Huge precedent for all refugees: lawyer

By Brett Throop

In a decision her lawyer calls precedent setting, U.S. war resister Bethany Smith won a second chance to claim refugee status before the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

On November 20, Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny ordered Smith’s case be reassessed by the IRB, calling conclusions denying her claim “unreasonable.”

Smith left the military base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, two years ago after allegedly receiving death threats because she is a lesbian. She came to Canada and applied for refugee status in October 2007.

The IRB rejected her claim in February 2009.

To gain refugee status in Canada, one must prove they have well-founded fear of persecution in their home country. de Montigny ruled that the IRB did not properly consider whether or not Smith would face persecution in the U.S military judicial system.

“The Judge... acknowledged that there was evidence showing that U.S. military judges are not independent, that there are problems with how the decision to prosecute are made and members of a jury are chosen, and also that there is disparity in sentencing,” Smith’s lawyer, Jamie Liew, stated in an email message.

While the U.S. military has laws meant to protect objectors, de Montigny ruled that in each case it must be proven that those laws are “enforced in a non-dis-

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criminatory fashion.” de Montigny found the IRB relied on a previous Federal Court decision to conclude that the U.S. has “a comprehensive scheme to ensure those who object to military service are dealt with fairly.”

It has been held time and again that it cannot be conclusively determined, on the basis of previous findings of state protection (or lack thereof ) pertaining to a particular case, that state protection exists or does not exist in a particular country,” de Montigny wrote.

The IRB also rejected expert testimony from an attorney with 32 years of experience serving in the U.S. military judicial system.

Attorney Donald Rehkopf testified that that judicial system is unfair toward gays and lesbians. de Montigny found the IRB dismissed Rehkopf ’s testimony on “speculation.”

The Justice found the IRB also speculated when it dismissed the 1999 murder of gay U.S. soldier Barry Winchell as an isolated incident. Winchell was beaten to death with a baseball bat at the same military base Smith served at. Smith claimed to have received threats she would be beaten the same way in her sleep.

There was simply no evidence

before the Board... to support [the] finding that the brutal murder of Private Winchell was an isolated incident,” de Montigny wrote.

The IRB held that Smith would have been offered protection had she gone to her superiors.

It based that finding in part on a decision involving another war resister, Jeremy Hinzman.

Hinzman applied for refugee status in 2004 as a conscientious objector.

Her case is completely different from Hinzman’s,” Liew said.

“She was a lesbian facing death threats, she asked her superiors to release her under don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Don’t ask, don’t tell is a policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve in the U.S. military as long as their sexuality remains hidden.

[Hinzman’s case] was decided in the specific context of a claim based on conscientious objection and not on sexual orientation,” de

Montigny wrote. “It was therefore the duty of the Board... to assess the fairness of the court martial process in the light of the particular set of facts and of the evidence that was before him.”

This is a huge legal precedent for war resisters specifically and other refugees as well,” Liew said.

“We cannot take for granted that just because one person from one country has not been given refugee status that another should be treated the same way. Each person has a different reason for coming to Canada, and different barriers and risks. All stories should be looked at individually to see why they are coming and whether they would be at risk.”

There are dozens of U.S. war resisters in Canada who have applied for refugee status. The IRB has rejected the refugee claims of several. Four, including Smith, have won appeals before the Federal Court, though none have been granted refugee status.

Smith’s rehearing before the IRB has not yet been scheduled.

Liew said there is no guarantee Smith will gain refugee status at that new hearing.

Between 50,000 and 80,000 U.S. war resisters were granted sanctuary in Canada during the Vietnam war.

PHOTO: rwkvisual/FLICKR

“The U.S. and Canada cannot Give us democracy” Suspended Afghan MP Malalai Joya speaks in Toronto

By Iftekhar Kabir In a recent article for In These Times, Noam Chomsky spoke of her as one of the “truly worthy choices” for the Nobel Peace Prize. At age 31, suspended Afghan MP, Malalai Joya, already has more than a decade of experience resisting oppression and injustice. From her teen years spent in refugee camps, she has been working towards grassroots social development by helping provide education and health care to war-torn people. For her years of work she has recently been dubbed, “the bravest woman in Afghanistan.” she spoke on November 18 at the Trinity-St. Paul’s United Chuch in Toronto.

Joya is currently touring Canada, speaking to audiences across five provinces about the state of Afghanistan – eight years into the US-led NATO intervention within the region. As she promotes her recently published book, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice, Joya urges solidarity from the democratically minded people in the West to halt the ill-conceived attempts at liberating her people and giving them democracy.

With conviction and courage she reminds us, “no nation can donate liberation to another nation.”

Malalai Joya came to prominence internationally in 2003, when she decided to speak out against the presence of “criminals” and “warlords” at the Loya Jirga – the national convention that approved the constitution of Afghanistan. In 2005, at the age of 27, she was the youngest member to be elected to the Wolesi Jirga (National Assembly of Afghanistan) as a representative of her home province of Farah. Since then, Joya has repeatedly faced persecution in her work. Apart from being suspended from the parliament in 2007 for her outspoken criticism of the country’s top officials, Joya has survived four assassination attempts. While in Afghanistan, she is always escorted by bodyguards and is forced to sleep in safe houses. Out of concern for his safety, she refuses to name her husband. Joya is not her real name; yet, there is no hesitation when she speaks. Addressing an audience of more than 400 people, Joya was adamant that, “liberation and democracy will not come from the barrel of a gun.”

The event included other speakers who welcomed Joya on her return to Toronto and thanked her for speaking.

Vicki Obedkoff, a minister from TrinitySt. Paul’s, York University student Nila Zameni, American war resister Kimberly Rivera and New Democratic Party MP, Olivia Chow, all spoke before Joya. Chow reminded the audience that it was Joya’s address at the 2006 NDP national convention that led the party to overwhelmingly pass a resolution calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan. It was that same message to end war and occupation that Joya impressed upon the audience.

Joya told the audience how she was initially hesitant to write her book. She

PHOTO: AfghanKabul/FLICKR

found her struggles to be commonplace amongst the Afghani people. But her coauthor – Canadian activist, documentary filmmaker and writer, Derrick O’Keefe – convinced her to tell the stories, as it would allow her to “write about the lives of others who struggle.” These are the people Joya felt were neglected by mainstream media. She felt the world, if truly concerned about the people of Afghanistan, needed to support the work of these “activists and democratically minded people who work for social justice.”

She believes what the world mostly gets are the stories of the horrors in Afghanistan, such as the brutalities perpetrated against the women and children.

The US-led intervention within the region is premised on bringing democracy to the Afghan people and ensuring human rights, especially the rights of women and children. Instead, Joya finds these so-called forces of democracy are negotiating with “warlords” and “druglords,” and legitimating their corrupt practices. The NATO-backed alliance is brandishing “criminals in suits” as moderates and as proponents of democracy. As Joya says, “they have established a puppet regime, full of people who are photocopies of the Taliban.”

Referring to a Human Rights Watch report, she noted, “since 2001 65,000 civilians have died in Afghanistan, while only 2,000 Taliban fighters have been killed.” The daily lives of the people of Afghanistan are progressively being mired in “corruption, poverty, injustice, violence and joblessness.”

“My people have no faith in these puppets and their government.”

Speaking on the state of women, Joya brought up the Shia family law. President Hamid Karzai signed this law, which restricts women from refusing to have sex with their husbands, and does not allow them to visit a doctor without the husband’s permission. Joya pointed out that now, under “so-called democracy,” people can legitimately perpetuate misogyny.

She told the audience of an incident where a young girl had been raped by the son of an MP. He was not brought to justice. The MP was able to create documents that altered his son’s age to less than 18, rendering him ineligible for prosecution under Afghan Law. Joya points out that there are some women in

Parliament, as it is now constitutionally mandated. However, these women have internalized the oppression. To them, “the Taliban is their father and the Taliban is their brother,” so they do not challenge the cycle of oppression and stand up for their rights or those of other women. “Your government lies that they brought democracy and women’s rights to Afghanistan.

The U.S. government and its allies have pushed us from the frying pan into the fire.”

To truly help the people of the region, Joya believes the international forces need to leave immediately. According to her, “the people of Afghanistan are fighting two enemies … the occupation forces who bomb from above and the Taliban who kill and torture on the ground.” She feels that “the casualties of both are the innocent people,” and that “the NATO led forces must leave” because “it is much easier for us to fight one enemy.”

Joya speaks from a proud sense of

history when she asks for the immediate withdrawal. She believes that her people, “who have never accepted occupation,” should have the opportunity to rebuild their own society.”

“We know what to do with our own destiny. Our freedom is our own responsibility.” She tells the audience, “if you want to help us then raises your voices against your governments. Raise your arms in solidarity with my people.”

This pride is not deluded by naiveté, as she makes clear during the question and answer period. Joya realizes that the withdrawal of the troops does not mean that peace will be established. As she says, “I cannot tell you how long it [peace] will take.” Yet, she is adamant that it can only come through a patient labor that her people have to perform. She reiterates that “ the US and Canada cannot gift us democracy.”

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 7

HBC Ads Erase Indigenous History

Remembering the dead: Trans Day of REmembrance

By Mason McColl

November 20 marked the tenth anniversary of the Trans Day of Remembrance. The first TDoR took place on that date in 1999 in San Francisco, as a memorial in honour of a transwoman named Rita Hester who was murdered in Boston. Transgender communities around the world gather on November 20 to mourn the lives of those killed because of transphobic and gender-based hate and violence.

The statistics around transphobic violence are staggering, and provide a glimpse into the impacts that transphobia have on transgendered and transsexual communities. According to numbers put out by the FBI, in the United States, trans people are 18 times more likely to be victims of murder. In Canada, at least one trans person is killed each month. These numbers, while already high, do not account for the many trans people whose deaths go unreported, and those whose trans statuses are not reported, nor does it include the high number of trans people who are driven to suicide by intolerance, indifference, poverty and isolation.

When looking at the names of the victims of transphobic violence, which are collected and can be found at www.rememberingourdead.com, it’s important to take note that the majority of names being read belonged to transwomen of colour, many

By Graeme Z. Johnson

The latest ad campaign for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s 2010 Olympic clothing line appears to be aimed at not only selling comfortable knitwear, but revising Canadian history as well.

Television spots from this campaign feature a montage of (mostly) white men they refer to as “pioneers, explorers and dreamers” braving their way through a barren “land of rock, ice and snow.”

The sentimental string soundtrack reaches its stately swell as, across the screen, smugly spread the words “We were made for this.”

The ‘we’ the commercial refers to is made explicit when the commercial’s narrator tells viewers that “We arrived [in Canada] 340 years ago.”

Even the most cursory history of the Hudson’s Bay Company cannot fail to recognize the contributions of Indigenous population to the success of the fur trade and the very existence of the Hudson’s Bay Company itself. However, the advertisements choose not to mention those contributions, instead focusing on the white European colonists and their intrepid adventures.

Perhaps most ironic is the fact that some of the clothing advertised, namely the extremely popular hand-knit sweater (retail price $350), are counterfeit copies of Indigenous designs. Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Tribes, who make the genuine article, initially offered to make the sweaters for HBC, but were turned down in favour of a non-Aboriginal company.

HBC’s disrespect and erasure of First Nations history is just another item in a growing list of offences the Vancouver Olympics has perpetrated against Canada’s Indigenous people, a list that includes (but is not limited to) the fact that much of British Columbia occupies illegally colonized land (practically no treaties were made during European settlement) and the fact that Indigenous images and art have been appropriated to make the Olympic logos and medals.

HBC declined to comment on the advertisements.

of whom were sex workers. The lack of awareness and tolerance within the legal, health, education, social service and justice systems all work against trans people, and we see the affects that this type of ignorance have on trans people most overwhelmingly when we recognize the intersection of sexism, racism, sex-worker stigma and homophobia.

Trans Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. Vigils held around the world work to raise public awareness about transphobia and hate crimes against trans people. These events also create a space to publicly mourn and honour the lives of those who might otherwise be forgotten. The day gives us an opportunity to publicly and collectively recognize and acknowledge, and express love and respect for those members of the trans community who have been lost in the face of indifference and hate.

While the date holds a solemn tone, many communities use it to send a positive message. The public is asked to take the knowledge raised back to their own communities, and work together to educate people and fight against transphobia and genderbased violence. “Let’s not let these deaths be in vain.

Let’s use our shared experience here tonight as an opportunity to begin to discuss gender freedom with our friends, families and coworkers.”

Life with Post-Traumatic Stress

By Gursevak Kasbia War has many consequences for mental health.

Whether it be innocent bystanders who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or a soldier who just happened to see his fellow battalion member’s limb destroyed. The scars of these events may harm victims months or even years from the moment they happened. The term “shell shocked” has been used to describe the horror faced by many veterans, but in order to appreciate the true nature of mental health and the traumatic experience one must respect the severity of the issue at hand.

Of the top ten leading diseases causing disability in the workplace four are considered neuropsychological, accounting for over thirty percent of total disability and twelve percent of the overall disease burden globally. This statistic is expected to rise to fifteen per cent by the year 2020. The ongoing war in Afghanistan, and a culture of fear have highlighted mental health issues.

One can look no further than watching an American network to find advertisements for antidepressants and sedative hypnotics for sleep as a culture of constant stress and even violence harms the health of “the first world.”

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While these advertisements are illegal in Canada, rates of prescriptions for these drugs have skyrocketed in recent years. This being said, everyday prolonged stressors completely differ from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which many victims including soldiers after battle and rape and sexual abuse survivors suffer as the result of a traumatic experience or episode that may have occurred. More acute forms of depression and anxiety can often be healed with counseling and medication.

From the killings at US Army Base Fort Bragg, to Canadian soldiers committing suicide after their missions in Afghanistan, the military has learned the harsh reality of neglected mental health. With traumatic events on the rise, PTSD has risen to the forefront of mental health research. Various “treatments” have been touted to work, but for sufferers the memories still linger. The neuro-physiology of PTSD is unlike many neurologically based disorders. In particular, frightening images in the months or even years after the event are common amongst suffers.

Many victims commonly avoid any type of event or stimuli, that may be perceived as a trigger for

the initial episode. Some victims may even enter a state of hyper-arousal, where stimulation of the amygdala (the fear centre of the brain) contributes to a lack of sleep and extreme sensitivity of the senses.

The biochemical changes as well are pronounced since many victims seem to have lower cortisol concentrations but higher secretion of catecholemines in urine. Cortisol is the bodies naturally occurring stress hormone and in depressive patients is found in higher concentrations, while catecholemines in a lower concentration.

PTSD is quite unique in that it involves catecholemines in a greater ratio to cortisol. Other key features of PTSD are brain imaging studies which have revealed that the amygdale; the prime brain structure involved in arousal and fear, is consistently more active than in those suffering with anxiety disorders and depression. Treatment for PTSD is very complex, yet modern research using state of the art technologies have found that psychotherapy in combination with cognitive behavioural therapy and medication, can allow for some victims to regain control of their lives.

For instance, recent

research at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland have focused on everything from repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS); a type of non-invasive magnetic stimulation, to the use of medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (anti-depressants) and even glucocorticoids, which can suppress the anxiety while impair memory consolidation immediately after the event.

Cognitive behavioural therapy has also been found to change victims thought processes to allow them to recognise and channel them away from the episode into a more calm state.

Other therapies include exposure therapy, which has also been hailed as an effective way for patients to confront the

trauma and is accomplished through reprocessing the memories slowly to habituate the victim to the episode. While this behavioural neuro-cognitive approach to treatment seems to work, it is important to note that therapy must be catered to the individual being treated. Even with psychiatrists such as Dr. Amin Muhammad indicating recently that PTSD may be over diagnosed. Perhaps the real issue is that more individuals and the medical community in general have learned more about the disorder allowing for clearer differential diagnoses. Still with greater numbers of PTSD, depression and anxiety suffering in society raise the question, could more funding for prevention and treatment of mental health needs be addressed?

candles photo courtesy of photo8.com

AntiAbortion Club suspended at McGill

By Evan Brockest

McGill University’s student union has voted to suspend the rights of an anti-abortion group to organize at the institution’s campus in downtown Montreal.

On Thursday Nov. 12, the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) passed a motion 16 to 7 in favour of suspending the club status of Choose Life, an anti-abortion organization that holds affiliated chapters across Canada.

The decision to suspend the group followed an unsuccessful attempt to revoke the group’s club status altogether.

According to students organizing against Choose Life’s tactics, the group has disseminated materials that present erroneous views and information on the health effects of abortion, including a pamphlet that links abortion to increased risk of breast and cervical cancer.

Ivan Neilson, president of SSMU, said that while the student council does not hold an official stance on abortion, Choose Life’s actions infringed on the safety of several members of the student body.

“We’ve received several complaints from our students that they felt harassed, that they felt that their safety has come into question and that they felt personally attacked,” Neilson told CBC News.

Addressing the content exhibited in the group’s materials, Neilson noted the appearance of a number of pamphlets containing “questionable statistics from questionable sources,” at sites throughout the campus.

Other tensions surround the group’s earlier decision to sponsor a talk led by Jose Ruba, co-founder of the controversial anti-abortion organization, the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBER).

The lecture, entitled “Echoes of the Holocaust,” was censured by the SSMU over concerns that it would involve comparisons between abortion and the Holocaust, and the depiction of women

PHOTO: TMAB2003/FLICKR

who have had abortions as Nazis. The CCBER has been known in the past for their strategies that juxtapose images of unborn fetuses against historical footage of genocide, a tactic used by the the well-known and controversial Genocide Awareness Project.

Early on, Ruba’s lecture was disrupted and subsequently shut down by 15 protestors, an action that culminated in the arrests of two protestors on mischief charges.

Responding to accusations of misconduct, Choose Life president and founder Natalie Fohl believes that the group did not contravene SSMU’s equity policy, and contends that it is her club’s mandate to advocate for “the respect of human life and human rights,” which in their view begins at conception.

Throughout her rebuttal, Fohl described fetuses as victims of oppression.

“The goal of our group is to promote the well-being of all persons, including those discriminated against based on age,” Fohl told reporters from the McGill student press.

Later, Fohl expressed dismay that the group’s activities at McGill were received negatively and as violating any of the student council’s policies, but says that Choose Life will concede to the demands outlined by the suspension order.

“It’s really unfortunate that they see what we do, just promoting discussion on life issues, trying to provide information on child development and abortion and things like that, as breaking any SSMU procedures,” said Fohl.

A condition of the suspension prohibits Choose Life from using university property for organizing purposes, cuts their access to council funding, and requires that they meet with the SSMU executive to discuss the situation.

Anti-abortion organisations have set up graphic displays a number of times this past semester at the University of Toronto.

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 9

Community demands access to education without fear Toronto’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy remains unenforced in many schools

By James Burrows, News Editor No One Is Illegal believes that to label a person “illegal” is to deny them of their humanity and to create a community that is constantly in fear.

This is the message that Grade 10 students at Harbord Collegiate received when they packed into their auditorium for a presentation by No One is Illegal and a documentary entitled Education not Deportation.

No One Is Illegal describes themselves as “a group of immigrants, refugees and allies who fight for the rights of all migrants to live with dignity and respect.

We believe that granting citizenship to a privileged few is part of racist immigration and border policies designed to exploit and marginalize migrants.”

Education not Deportation outlined the campaign

by No One Is Illegal and allies to encourage the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to pass a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Under this policy, when a parent attempts to register a child in school, their legal status is not requested and if their legal status is discovered, the school is forbidden from passing this information on to any government agency.

This policy was passed by the TDSB in 2006 but continues to be unimplemented in many schools.

Although the Education Act of Ontario is clear that a student’s status does not preclude them from an education, in practice the situation is much different.

When parents attempt to register their children they are often met with administrators and forms requesting proof of their status.

The Education not Deportation campaign argues that “despite being at the backbone of Canada’s economy, non-status people are barred from access to essential services including shelter, health care, social housing, emergency and settlement supports and education. They live in daily fear of detention and deportation.”

“Creating safe spaces for students is about more than just admission. You walk out of the classroom and you are scared. You are not just thinking about your marks. You think if you speak up, someone may report you,” noted one Harbord Collegiate student.

It is this fear that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was meant to address. But, as the Education not Deportation documentary attempts to show, much fear remains in the community because many schools remain unaware of the policy.

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“Without actual access to education [people are forced] into economically oppressed situations where they live in poverty,” said Javier Davila, a teacher and a member of Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, District 12. “This is a crisis and much of it is to be blamed on our fearful access to education that we have created by not following the Education Act.” Section 49.1 of the Ontario Education Act states that a person “who is less than eighteen years of age shall not be refused admission because the person or the person’s parent or guardian is unlawfully in Canada.”

This section was amended following Canada’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that all children should be able to access education.

In the documentary Davilla stated “Education not Deportation is a campaign initiated by grassroots actvist group No One Is Illegal with the huge help of community support, students, parents, a broad coalition of partners including the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.” CUPE also supports the campaign.

Pam Dogra, an elementary school teacher noted that “very few parents will come to schools, particularly if there are signs up that say the opposite of what the policy actually is. Sometimes you’ll walk into a school and the regular checklist is, ‘Can I see your immigration papers?’ ‘Do you have a passport?’ So parents, I think, are very fearful to come in, and word spreads very fast in the community” TDSB Trustee Chris Bolton stated “this is the first time that you as students have come together to hear about the policy.” Bolton also added that if anyone hears of a student not being able to access education in Toronto they should “call my office and we will make sure they have a space.”

No One Is Illegal believes that the TDSB, “in the absence of public education in schools and migrant communities to ensure access not fear for undocumented people, the TDSB is missing out on becoming the model for schools across the country.”

The documentary was part of a series of films that are being shown through the school’s “movies that matter” series. No One is Illegal was brought in as part of the history and civics program that focuses on immigration policy in Canada.

There are as many as 500,000 undocumented people in Canada.

OPINION Kick the Tories while they’re down

By Shawn Whitney

PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN Harper has had a remarkably easy ride over the past two minority governments. He’s been incompetent on the economy and undermined the population’s faith in their H1N1 plans. He’s been mean-spirited and taken every opportunity to attack the arts, Muslims, the unemployed, et cetera. He’s lied, broken promises, had a government that has gone against the sentiment of the vast majority of Canadians on the war in Afghanistan and climate change. He had Maxime Bernier as Foreign Affairs Minister, the incompetent dolt who leaves classified government documents at his girlfriend’s house, and Rona Ambrose as Environment Minister, though she had no knowledge or qualifications for the job.

How does he survive? It’s not anything to do with his ability to keep his people under control. This is a useful myth. If anything, the Stalinist-like paranoia of this government should itself be an easy target for the opposition parties and media. Nor is it about his particularly skillful ability to spin the government’s message in a way that connects with people.

He’s just not personable.

No, it’s the result of a politically weak opposition in parliament.

I’ll admit that I’m not one of those people who thinks that the NDP should link up with the Liberals to unite “progressives.” I think for the NDP, trying to differentiate themselves would be a disaster. And it would be counter-productive to the needs of the vast majority of the population.

The Liberals are a party of business, like the Tories, though they are, in their language, more pragmatic, consensus-builders, etc. than the latter. But we shouldn’t forget that it was the Liberals that sent our troops to Afghanistan. And it was the Liberals, under Chrétien and Martin who slashed social spending to eliminate a deficit created in no small part by cuts to taxes for corporations and the wealthy under Tory Brian Mulroney. And, of course, the leader of the Liberals is notorious for having supported torture by the US government to gain information from “suspected terrorists.”

However, this perfect storm of timidity and political consensus - disguised behind occasional bouts of oppositional fervour over silly technical side-issues (like Bernier’s forgetting his briefcase) – couldn’t last forever. Sooner or later, they would be hoisted on their own petard – just as with enough manure and rain, something eventually must sprout.

The prisoner scandal appears to be that thing. Even with lickspittle, Tory-toad columnists Rosie DiManno and Christie Blatchford working overtime to justify every inhumanity the Tories and their military enforcers implement, the Opposition has finally found something that they can nail the Tories on. And the Tories’ attempt to smear a man of obvious ability, commitment and honour, has blown up in their faces. They are now fighting a rearguard action to try and prevent a public inquiry on the prisoner torture issue. They have clearly lost the initiative and everything they now do simply looks like cover-up and back-pedaling.

This breach in the Tory fortress and sense of purpose and momentum by the Opposition - with the Liberals having to hide Ignatieff to be able to take advantage of this opportunity could help to reinvigorate not only the anti-war movement, but also other broadly anti-Tory forces across the country. This moment won’t last forever – that’s for certain. And the Opposition has demonstrated an uncanny ability to discover ways of missing any opportunity that

Stephen Harper, scumbag comes their way. The social movements, the union movement in particular, need to be taking this opportunity to put the boot in to the Tories - over EI, social spending, Afghanistan, Omar Khadr, climate change and more.

If we miss this chance, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves for several more years of Tory government, including the possibility of a majority next time around. And that is a possibility just too depressing to consider.

This article originally appeared on RedBedHead, a blog by Toronto artist and activist Shawn Whitney, on December 1, 2009: http://redioactive.blogspot.com

Who do you believe?

Tories and Generals, or Malalai Joya, Afghan MP?

By Shawn Whitney WELL, IT SEEMS that the Tories have recognized that their own ship of lies is sinking like the Edmund Fitzgerald. They spent the better part of the week attacking Richard Colvin. Then they set the attack dog generals on them, including master pitbull, General Rick Hillier. They all denied that anyone knew anything about anything - which makes one wonder what qualifies them to lead anything more complicated than a lemonade stand.

Well, now the Tories have changed their tune alright. Now PHOTO: teddyboy/FLICKR

they knew right from the very start something was amiss. Huh? Were they just testing us all week? Feeding us the big lie to see how gullible we are, and then, when they can hold a straight face no longer, they shout: “psych!”?

Somebody should have told their generals that this was the plan, because their story was still the old one, right up till the last minute. Then, suddenly, whooomp, everything was different. As Defense Minister, Peter MacKay put it: “Obviously there were concerns about the state of prisons,” he said.

“There were concerns about allegations. There were concerns about information found in reports.

There were concerns.”

I also have concerns about Peter MacKay, but they are a little different than his concerns. I’m concerned that he’s going to give himself whiplash.

Perhaps he read or listened to the CBC interview with Malalai Joya, the former Afghan MP thrown out of the Afghan Parliament for raising embarrassing questions about the human rights records of our “democratic allies.”

On November 19, Joya stated unequivocally that this was not news to people living in Afghanistan: “What [Colvin] has been saying is what I’ve heard from my people,” she said. “Many of the victims are women and children detainees who have been raped,” she said. “It’s not new for our people.”

What is clear is that were it not for pressure from people outside of the Tory government, with their paranoia, they would have hidden everything forever.

The only real concerns that Mac-

Kay and his ilk had was that it would get out that what we were (and are) creating in Afghanistan is a corrupt torture regime. The key difference between them and the Taliban is that the former are willing to do our bidding almost without question. In return for obedience, we’ll let them torture whoever they want.

This article originally appeared on RedBedHead, a blog by Toronto artist and activist Shawn Whitney, on November 28, 2009: http://redioactive.blogspot.com

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 11

Poor to pay more under McGuinty’s HST Rich people and corporations get a break

By Graeme Z. Johnson

With the Ontario Legislature currently debating a bill that could introduce major changes to taxation structures, including a new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) which would combine GST and PST, Ontario residents should know how these proposed changes will affect them.

In short, unless you are wealthy, or happen to be a large business, the HST will be bad for you.

The McGuinty Liberals claim that the HST, along with other proposed corporate tax cuts, will make Ontario more competitive in attracting business and investment. The bill, if passed, would cut corporate tax rates from 14 to 12 per cent, with the eventual goal of dropping rates to 10 per cent.

At the same time, with the introduction of the 13 per cent HST, the prices of many products that had previously been exempt from PST would jump by eight per cent. This means that much of the money previously collected from big business would now be taken from individual consumers.

Not all consumers will be affected in the same way, however. Because sales tax is a form of regressive taxation, the proportion of overall income that is paid by low-income

people is much higher than that paid by those with higher incomes.

Some of the greatest increases will be seen in basic living expenses such as electricity, natural gas, propane, home heating fuel, gasoline and telephone services – making this a tax grab that is almost impossible to avoid, and further restricting the already tight budgets of middle- and working-class people as well as the unemployed. Indigenous people, according to Statistics Canada, are 12.4 per cent more likely to be unemployed than non-Aboriginal people, and are also more frequently in the lowest income brackets, which makes it hard not to see harmonization as discriminatory tax reform.

There are some exceptions, however.

Many people hoping to own their own home in the near future will be pleased to know that the purchase of new homes will be exempt from HST – that is, as long as that home costs more than $500,000.

As if that was not enough, many Aboriginal leaders consider the HST to violate Indigenous groups’ treaty rights to tax exemption.

According to Stan Beardy, Grand Chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), “for the people of Nishnawbe Aski, the right to tax

exemption is based on the spirit, intent and letter of Treaties 5 and 9 which are protected

by Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982 ... [t]here is no doubt that an unmodified HST would be seen as a new tax in violation of this NAN Treaty right.”

Under the current taxation system, First Nations people receive a point-of-sale exemption from PST upon presentation of a status card. With the introduction of a single, blended tax, to receive exemption, goods will either have to be purchased on reserve or delivered to a reserve.

Increases in the cost of home heating fuel and propane will also unfairly target residents of rural Northern communities, of whom a disproportionate number are Indigenous. Additionally, higher gasoline costs could significantly restrict the mobility of rural dwellers who must travel longer distances to work or school and most likely do not have access to public transport.

The BC government, which also plans to introduce its own version of the HST, claims that it will actually reduce consumer costs since “[u]nder the current system, taxes are paid at every step in production and passed on to consumers.” Any lowering

of consumer prices, therefore, would only be created through voluntary price reductions by producers, manufacturers and retailers.

Although it would be nice to believe that companies would pass these savings on, a brief look at the pricing practices of oil producers over the past decade should explode any illusions of corporate generosity.

In order to win over the public to this obvious corporate handout, the McGuinty government has proposed a one-time, $1,000 rebate to lower-income people and families which, according to TD Economics, would not even cover the increases consumers would see in the first year, estimating that the HST could cost individuals up to $2,000 more than the current sales tax.

So, if you happen to be a large corporation, or the type of person who can afford to purchase a house worth over half a million dollars, then the HST will be great for you.

For anyone else, you might want to consider contacting your local MPP. Tell your MPPs you oppose McGuinty’s HST. Find them online: http://www.ontla. on.ca/web/members/members_current. do?locale=en.

Commerce Society Denies ACCESS to AGM

By David Thurton

The Ryerson Free Press (RFP) was denied access to the Ryerson Commerce Society’s Semi- Annual General meeting.

The meeting held in the business building in November allows business students who fall under the society, to vote and approve measures.

Two days before the meeting the Ryerson Free Press emailed the commerce society asking for permission to attend the meeting.

The society’s president Naeem Hassen replied saying that the RCS didn’t have enough room to accommodate the RFP. The RFP sent another e-mail to Hassen. But the president didn’t respond.

Another e-mail was sent to the RCS’s president saying: “As the newspaper that is in part funded by student fees from students in the faculty of business, it is of great interest for our

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readers that the Ryerson Free Press report on the various motions that are going to be debated at your meeting.”

Hassen said no again. However this time he said: “We will not be providing press passes at the SAGM. It will be closed for membership purposes only.”

The Ryerson Free Press still went to the meeting. However, this newspaper was greeted at the door by the commerce society’s general manager Abdul Snobar.

Snobar said that the meeting was for commerce society members only. He said that the RFP did not represent business students and as a result were not allowed entrance. He also said that the RFP was funded by the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson and not the commerce society.

However, the Eyeopener was still allowed to attend the

meeting, despite different funding sources and the commerce society’s claim that they were not issuing press.

Outside the meeting sat the RFP. Many other business students sat outside too typing on their laptops and bible sized text books opened on their laps.

“You have to provide your employees with the power to make decision,” said a hospitality student holding cue cards as he rehearsed a presentation that was due in the next few minutes.

Students. All busy. All concerned about mid-terms, final projects and not concerned or aware that the organization that represents them and they fund was holding an important meeting.

“I don’t know. What’s (RCS) it about,” said one business student who refused to give her name.

PHOTO courtesy of photo8.com

FEATURES

Obama’s Goldilocks plan for Afghanistan

By James Laxer

Barack Obama got mired in Afghanistan during his campaign for the presidency in 2008. To fend off attacks on him from Hillary Clinton and John McCain that depicted him as a geo-strategic lightweight, Obama talked tough about Afghanistan. To lend credence to his criticism of the US conflict in Iraq, Obama said the war the Americans really had to win was in Afghanistan. To show how unflinching he could be, Obama said he would be prepared to launch attacks on Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, along the Afghan border, even if the government of Pakistan withheld permission for this.

Now, following two months of lengthy consultations with his national security advisers in the Situation Room, the president has come up with his plan to handle the so-called “forgotten” war.

With West Point as his backdrop – the academy from which such legendary figures as Robert E. Lee and Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated – Obama announced what is being depicted as an “extended surge” which will see an additional 30,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan. By the end of May 2010, the American force in that country will total nearly 100,000.

The goal of the surge is to downgrade the Taliban insurgency to the point where a trained and expanded Afghan

PHOTO: marcn/FLICKR

military can handle the job. By July 2011, Obama pledged, the United States will begin to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

While the president did not claim that the fight was to transform the Kabul regime into a democracy, he did lay down some performance targets, in the areas of good governance and the fight to rid the country of corruption, that he says that Afghan President Hamid Karzai must meet.

What leaps out of Obama’s speech is that this is not so much a plan to achieve victory in Afghanistan as a scheme to ensure the political health of the US president. It is a Goldilocks plan, not too hot, not too cold, not too big, not too small.

While the planned surge is not as massive as General Stanley A. McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, wanted it to be, it is big enough to fend off Republican critics who are all-too-ready to accuse Obama of endangering American security by risking defeat in Afghanistan. By holding the line at 30,000 troops – additional cost, $30 billion a year instead of $40 billion if McChrystal had had his way – Obama shows that he’s concerned about keeping Washington’s deficit manageable. By announcing a firm date for the beginning of the troop withdrawal, the president is trying to placate Democrats who believe that the war is unwinnable, that America has had enough of war, and the government

should spend to combat poverty and homelessness in the United States, instead of wasting money and lives on a forlorn crusade in Central Asia.

The more you look at Obama’s plan, the more evident it is that the White House strategy is designed to suit the American political agenda at home, not the geo-strategic realities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The surge should have its maximum effect by the summer of 2010, just in time to hold off the Republicans in the midterm elections in the autumn of that year. The withdrawal of troops is to begin in July 2011, perfect timing as Obama seeks the re-nomination of his party and the ardent support of Democrats for the presidential election of 2012.

Does anyone in Obama’s inner circle actually believe that the plan will transform Afghanistan into a country that lives under the rule of law, with an effective non-corrupt central government, and a regime that respects the rights of women?

Do any of them expect the Afghan army to become an effective fighting force? Probably not.

This porridge is being served up for the American people, not for the people of Afghanistan. Canadians, who have seen their soldiers suffer the highest casualties, per capita, of any NATO country in this war, should avoid this delicacy, and any temptation to continue our mission beyond 2011.

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 13

The Waiting Game

By Matthew Kim

It may be justice deferred, but the latest batch of pictures documenting the existence of the Bush torture program will have to wait.

And rightly so. Although the delay will temporarily insulate former President George W. Bush and members of his administration from full exposure to the American (and International) judicial systems, it will also fan Western resentment, and so undoubtedly lessen the ammunition spent in Afghanistan, political or otherwise.

Yes, accepting the idea that a functioning institution is sometimes an accommodating one is an odious pill to swallow. Its application is prescribed for places like Afghanistan, where decisions of policy and strategy means balancing evil with a compromise of lesser goods, but also places like Canada where a reticent conservative government refuses to commit fully to a timeline for withdrawal.

With nearly three-thousand soldiers currently stationed in Afghanistan, mostly in Kandahar, Canada is the fifth-largest non-American force deployed behind UK, Germany and France. That whatever progress

made in Afghanistan is almost completely authored by these and other international actors present no doubt weighs heavy on the mind of the American president as he conducts a review of American policy in that country. Dutch forces are scheduled to end their participation next year, while a German populace grows increasingly distasteful of its involvement in Afghanistan.

Kunduz Governor Mohammed Omar recently commented on the latter trend in an interview with Der Spiegel: “If Germans don’t want to work, it would honestly be better if they left our province.”

It would be reasonable then to speculate that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will likely increase. But the question of exactly how many and of what is something to which President Obama— and Mr. Harper—can only level reasoned guesses. Should the new policy strike a balance between the prevailing voices of Gen. McChrystal and Vice President Joe Biden, the number of new troops will hover around 25,000

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in the short term with the possibility of more in the future, and the more focused, less ambitious objective of erecting a sustainable Afghan government while minimizing the insurgency’s disruptions will be its mandate. In any event, the number will more than make up for the withdrawl of Dutch forces in 2010 and the scheduled Canadian withdrawal in 2011, but by no means does it guarantee success in Afghanistan. And as long as uncertainty remains the Harper government will have to continue treading a semantic tightrope.

To wit, Foreign Minister Peter Mackay recently observed the mission in Afghanistan is presently “changing,” but failed to describe its mutation. However, he seems to feel it, whatever it is, will necessitate less of a military force in a conventional military role as “reconstruction, development” becomes the future of Canadian participation.

As if to bolster or rebuff Mackay’s comments—it’s hard to tell which—Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk stated in an interview with the CBC that “What we do for the Canadian Forces are

military missions.” Ergo…

Except the syllogism is unobvious or at least difficult to state. Take, for example, recent statements made, or not made, by spokesperson for the Prime Minister Dimitri Soudas exemplified. When asked about a Canadian withdrawal of soldiers, he refrained from articulating logical sum of a withdrawal—zero—and gave instead a somewhat ambiguous reply saying “I would caution you against saying dozens or hundreds or a thousands, there will be exponentially fewer.”

Soudas’ response illustrates something of a theme of Afghanistan, akin to Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, the preponderance of uncertainties, narration possible only in retrospect. Whether an able Afghan government will coalesce under the leadership of Karzai remains to be seen. While corruption and a suspect election, amongst other things, besmirch the president’s name, inactivity looms over crucial matters such as rehabilitation programs for defecting Taliban,

electoral reforms, parliament formation, filling of cabinet positions, not to mention the provision of basic services, infrastructure, and clean water to many rural areas.

Answers to vital questions, the Afghan National Army’s capability for example, are still in the offing.

Will additional American forces in Afghanistan remedy the failings of Kabul? Or is its legitimacy, irreparably damaged, insurmountable?

And Pakistan?

The parliamentary motion to withdraw being non-binding makes it possible that a Canadian presence will persist in Afghanistan beyond 2011. Whether they will or not is an uncertainty, and necessarily so as long as our goals remain establishing a functional government for the Afghan people. Indeterminacy, in this case, is a pill we’ll have to swallow.

On December 1, Obama announced his intention to increase the number of American troops in Afghanistan by 30,000. This will raise the total number of American troops to more than 100,000.

PHOTO: Kyle May/FLICKR

Why Canada must

leave Afghanistan now ‘The bravest woman in Afghanistan’ talks about peace, justice and women’s rights

By Haseena Manek

Malalai Joya addresses delegates at the 28th Annual National General Meeting of the Canadian Federation of Students in Gatineau, Quebec.

Malalai Joya was just 27 years old when she became the youngest person ever to be elected to Afghanistan’s parliament. That was in 2005. Four years later, she is also an author, a teacher, a peace activist, a women’s rights campaigner and a survivor of multiple assassination attempts.

Joya was recently in Canada to promote her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Speak Out, and to appear at numerous peace events across the country.

In May 2007, Joya was suspended from parliament, a result of her relentless criticism of Afghanistan’s corrupt, warlord government. To this day, Joya continues to face death threats, and must sleep in safe houses. She is constantly aware of her enemies, both inside and outside of parliament.

Joya shares these experiences as she meets and engages audiences across Canada. The topic of her speaking tour hits hard, since the first deployment of Canadian troops joined American soldiers in Afghanistan in early 2002. Military leaders still claim that the purpose of the mission is to rebuild Afghanistan, assist development and provide security.

But Joya sees things differently: “These occupation forces, they are victims of the wrong policy of their own government that sent them to a bad, costly war. Democracy will never come by war, by cluster bomb or by the barrel of a gun.”

In May this year, over 150 civilians were killed by US air strikes in Afghanistan; most victims were women and children. Eleven bodies are still missing. In September, another 200 civilians were bombed.

Between NATO air strikes from above and the dangers of warlords and drug lords on the ground, the people of PHOTO: federico carvajal

Afghanistan are caught in the middle of a bloody war that is supposedly being waged for their own liberation. At least that’s the line according to NATO leaders, including Stephen Harper.

Joya has also been fighting for women’s rights in Afghanistan, from the early days of the Taliban until now. She says: “The situation of women was, without a doubt, the best excuse for the US government to occupy our country—under the banner of women’s rights… But they pushed us from the frying pan into the fire.”

Afghan women face more hardship today than in 2001 when the war began. They have less security, and largely only enjoy human rights on paper. They are the primary victims of NATO’s bombing campaigns, and are often threatened with rape and murder by the warlords.

This is far from the image of women’s rights in Afghanistan peddled by the Canadian government and NATO leaders. For instance, one article on NATO’s website describes a meeting between 13 female members of the Wolesi Jirga (Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament) and NATO officials, citing “the progress made in recent years to integrate Afghan women at all levels of society” and “the current historic political empowerment of women in Afghanistan, with 68 women parliamentarians in the Wolesi Jirga…”

It is true that the percentage of female parliamentarians in Afghanistan is higher than in Canada, but Joya explains how many of these women either support the warlords or have no real power. “Most of them have only a symbolic role…

They are just a show-piece.”

During one of Joya’s appearances in Toronto, she asked

Canadians for their “helping hand, [their] honest, practical, helping hand.” She went on to say that this helping hand does not mean nearly a decade of foreign occupation, or the farce of democracy in the Afghan government. “There is a huge difference,” says Joya, “between ordinary people and policymakers […] between the people and their government.” It is the people Joya calls for support, not the military.

“As a great people, as anti-war people, as human beings … [you] should raise [your] voice against the wrong policies of [your] government.”

There are many ways that people in the West can support the people of Afghanistan, and none of them require ammunition, says Joya. International solidarity, educational support and moral support are just three examples of what Afghans need and seek from allies in Canada. In her memoir, after describing three decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, Joya says that the last thing the Afghan people need is more war.

“Education is the key to our emancipation” says Joya.

The job of Canadians, she continues, is to learn, to educate themselves and each other, and to become aware of the real situation in Afghanistan.

NATO troops, including Canadian soldiers, are sent to war in the name of democracy, says Joya. But Canadians must recognize that the war in not about democracy, which can only come about through the struggle of the people of Afghanistan themselves.

“The US government, Canada and NATO: they play chess with the destiny of my people… If they left us a little bit in peace, then we would know what to do with our destiny.”

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 15

GiRlS fOR SalE: cHina’S baby black maRkET

By Candice Kung

wIth 30 crIsP $100 bills in her hand, Cathy Wagner was handed a sleeping baby girl who she gently cradled in her arms.

Shortly after the birth of her first son, Wagner was diagnosed with epilepsy, so instead of conceiving another child, she and her husband decided to adopt from an orphanage in China’s Chongqing province in 2006. Even though she was overwhelmed with joy, Wagner had a nagging sense that something wasn’t right.

Three years later, Wagner now knows what that feeling was. The mandatory $3,000 she had paid was more than just an orphanage fee. It’s what drives a booming black market where Chinese girls are stolen and trafficked for their high “buying potential.” It’s the tragic irony behind China’s intercountry adoption program.

Historically in China, sons are preferred over daughters. When China implemented their onechild policy in 1971, the number of abandoned females reached crisis proportions in the 1980s and early 1990s. A medical guide to international adoption by Laurie C. Miller estimated that about 15 million baby girls have been abandoned since 1980 in China. Families have to pay exorbitant fines for exceeding China’s family planning quota and sometimes the fees can total from one half to ten times their annual salary.

With state-sponsored orphanages inundated with baby girls, China opened its doors to foreign adoption. The program offered exactly what some Western parents were looking for: young, healthy baby girls whose birth parents were unlikely to complicate the adoption process.

Over the past three years, however, the growing demand for adoption has failed to reduce the number of infants in orphanages.

This is because this isn’t the orphanage’s goal. The competition for healthy baby girls between foreign and domestic adoption has turned China’s adoption program into a supply-and-demand-driven market.

The lack of healthy infants has prompted orphanages to illicitly buy children from traffickers. They create fraudulent documents of where the babies come from and pass them off as being “abandoned.” The flood of allegedly unwanted daughters has become an exploitative opportunity for orphanages to profit from.

A recent publication in September 2009 by the Los Angeles Times told shocking stories of Chinese babies who were forcefully taken away, kidnapped and even sold by birth parents who were tricked by corrupt family planning officials and traffickers. Distraught birth parents say it’s a fallacy that they don’t love their daughters. They never wanted to give up their children, but they

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couldn’t afford to pay the fines for breaching China’s policy rule. Although it isn’t necessarily illegal to buy a baby in China, it is illegal to steal or sell a child, and officials don’t have the power to take babies from their parents.

“It’s a nagging, haunting feeling,” says Wagner, who is concerned that the daughter she adopted may have been stolen from her birth parents for the purposes of foreign adoption. After researching more deeply into her daughter’s origins, Wagner compared notes with others and found the adoption paperwork to be very generic and the finder’s name repeated over and over again.

Terrified by the fact that family planning could be involved, Wagner says she just hopes that she didn’t create a victim through the whole adoption process.

“It’s concerning because now I recognize that this is a demanddriven industry based on the want of a healthy female,” says Wagner.

“All of us request these non-special needs, healthy female children, thinking and buying into this myth that there is an overwhelming abundance and never-ending supply of these children, but the reality is very different. If families in China are losing children or being coerced, and children are going into the program because of the money, then I feel horrible about my role in this.”

Human trafficking is rampant in China, but the link between child trafficking and orphanages only started to emerge in 2003 after police inspected a number of nylon suitcases stacked on the luggage rack of a bus bound for an eastern province. Upon opening, they discovered in total 28 Chinese baby girls. Some were packed three to a suitcase and some died before they could make it to their destination.

The youngest was only a few days old.

In 2005, six orphanages in the

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Hunan province of China were alarmingly found to have matched hundreds of trafficked babies with Western parents between 2002 and 2005. Orphanage directors colluded with traffickers and bought infants for approximately $400 to $558 a piece. Twenty-seven people were arrested, 10 were convicted and intercountry adoptions from Hunan were suspended for several months.

“It really shook the foundation for China’s international program,” says Brian Stuy, an adoptive father of three Chinese girls and the founder of Research-China, an organization based in Utah geared to researching the origins of Chinese adoptees.

“Previous to the Hunan scandal, the conventional wisdom was that there were thousands of girls being dropped on the street, that millions of kids needed help,” he said. “Now it appears that not only do the orphanages not have all these children, but that they’re going out and paying people to give up their kids.”

In July 2009, an investigation by the Chinese Southern Metropolis Daily found that over 80 baby girls were confiscated from parents and placed into orphanages for adoption in the province of Guizhou. victimized parents complained that a local family planning official gave them an ultimatum: give away their daughter or pay fines of about 20,000 yuan.

It’s evident just how lucrative the business of baby buying can be. Given that the adoption fee is

$3,000 per infant, orphanages can easily cash into a million-dollar industry.

Orphanages and local family planning officials often split the donation money given by adoptive parents. Money becomes a top priority for them but at the expense of the children’s wellbeing.

Less than 15 per cent of the $3,000 adoption fee makes it to the maintenance of an orphanage. “In all honesty, most of these orphanages make hundreds and thousands of dollars in donations either directly from the adoption program or from donations the families make afterwards. But it seems that very little of those financial resources make it to the care of the kids,” says Stuy who has seen the conditions of the orphanages. He found that the facilities are relatively clean, but the staff is spread thin with about four caregivers in charge of 20 to 30 kids. In poor provinces like Hunan and Guizhou, misuse of the funds is common and orphanages receive only about $80 from the adoption fee of each child.

Wagner was shocked to find out that her daughter’s orphanage depended on a formula donation through a non-governmental organization when it failed to feed the children properly. “The conditions of her orphanage were very poor,” says Wagner, who saw pictures of the orphanage’s interior and saw that there were sometimes two babies to one crib. “I’m sure my daughter did not leave the crib.”

But even after the Hunan scan-

dal, nothing seems to have changed in China’s adoption system. Most of the orphanages involved in baby buying have resurfaced. The Canadian Embassy staff in Beijing has asked the chief of the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) to look into the matter. Chinese authorities have agreed to investigate, but in the past they have ignored corruption charges regarding the state-run adoption system.

A number of grassroots organizations have cropped up to help victimized parents search for their missing children.

Non-profit organizations such as Gu Er Net (Orphan Net) and Bao Bei Hui Jia (Babies Come Back Home) have created websites allowing parents to post information about lost children.

However, some orphanage officials believe that the baby-buying programs are giving the children an opportunity for a better life in the West. “The belief that children are better off in richer families, I think, is what drives a lot of people to approve of illegal activities such as baby buying,” says Stuy. Since 1990, more than 80,000 Chinese children have been adopted abroad. In Canada, about 1,000 of those children are adopted each year and there are about 30,000 foreign families still waiting for Chinese babies.

When Wagner fell in love with her now four-year-old daughter, she knew she would eventually have to answer to her one day. “It’ll be a hard job to explain this mess to her and I refuse to lie to her,” she says. “I do want her to know who her birth family was. I don’t feel like hiding from that whole factor because when I look at my daughter I can’t help but think about them. I want her to have the truth.”

In the meantime, Wagner would like to see the Canadian government step in to take serious action to reduce the vulnerabilities in intercountry adoptions with China. “Let’s take our time and investigate thoroughly and make sure the rights of the child are protected before we proceed. If we did that, we would probably see a dramatic decrease in the amount of children that come into the country,” says Wagner. “Put the rights of the child first.”

ILLUSTRATION: ASTRID ARIJANTO

‘Battle of Seattle’ launched anti-capitalist movement Ten years after historic protests

By James Clark, Features and Opinions Editor On November 30, 1999 tens of thousands of people successfully shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO) during the millennial round of trade talks in Seattle, Washington. The protests, now known as the “Battle of Seattle,” marked the emergence of the antiglobalization or anti-capitalist movement, and launched a wave of large-scale protests that targeted trade summits everywhere they met.

Protesters in Seattle came from all over the world, and represented a wide range of struggles. Indigenous activists protested corporate exploitation of their land and resources. Environmentalists sounded the alarm bell over global warming and climate change.

Church groups campaigned to drop the debt in the Global South. Farmers marched against unfair trade policies. Trade unionists resisted plant closures and job cuts. Women’s groups demanded equal pay and better working conditions.

Much to the surprise of those on both sides of the barricades, the protests actually succeeded in shutting down the WTO. The turning point came after days of smaller protests, teach-ins and tactical discussions. On “N30” thousands of activists converged in the downtown core and surrounded the summit site.

City officials were surprised at the number and organization of protesters, who had been planning their mobilization for months.

They soon occupied key intersections, blocking delegates from the summit. Riot police responded by firing pepper-spray, tear-gas and rubber bullets at the crowd.

In another part of the city, tens of thousands of trade unionists were just beginning to march in a labour-organized demonstration. Union leaders had planned a march that stayed away from the downtown core, but their members soon broke away and began marching toward the summit.

Rank-and-file union members were inspired by the resistance of the “turtle kids” (young environmental activists), especially in the face of repressive police tactics, and were moved to show their solidarity.

The arrival of thousands of trade unionists in the downtown core proved decisive.

The police began to back off, as they realized they were massively out-numbered. Protesters continued to occupy downtown streets, and a carnival-like atmosphere erupted as it became clear that the summit had been shut down.

As hundreds of delegates remained trapped outside the summit, and as tear gas wafted inside, Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper announced: “Those who were arguing they were going to shut the WTO down were, in fact, successful today.”

At Seattle, for the first time in decades, a growing number of movements and struggles began to link their issues together into a broader critique of the overall system. Participants may have represented a wide range of issues, but they all targeted their protest at the WTO, a symbol of global capitalism.

Some protesters called for more regulation, criticizing the “neoliberal excesses” of capitalism, instead of the system itself. Others were more

thoroughly anti-capitalist, calling for capitalism to be abolished. Either way, a serious and sustained critique of capitalism followed the Seattle protests, and would have far-reaching consequences for struggles everywhere.

Seattle may have marked the emergence of the anti-globalization or anti-capitalist movement, but it didn’t mark its beginning.

For years before Seattle, anti-capitalist sentiment had been growing all over the world.

Just five years after the collapse of “communism” in Eastern Europe, the Zapatistas led an uprising on New Year’s Day in 1994 to resist the creation of the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA), one of the first major struggles against the neoliberal agenda. In France in 1995, the largest strike-wave since May 1968 halted sweeping neoliberal reforms.

In Ontario, one-day general strikes took place in 11 cities across the province, the “Days of Action” against Conservative Premier Mike Harris’ cuts to social services.

Protests like these were a glimpse of an anti-neoliberal sentiment that had been bubbling under the surface, but which burst spectacularly at Seattle. In the months that followed, large-scale protests were organized at trade summits all over the world.

In Windsor, Ontario in June 2000, thousands of people—including members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW)—protested the summit of the Organization of American States (OAS). Nearly a year later, over 80,000 people mobilized in Quebec City during the Summit of the Americas to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Hundreds of people were arrested during the summit, and a record number of tear-gas canisters were fired throughout the city. Months later, support for free trade dropped dramatically all across Canada.

At the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, 300,000 people marched in protest of the death of activist Carlo Giuliani, who was shot dead by the Italian carabinieri. Protests followed in Gothenburg, Melbourne, Washington, Hong Kong—and anywhere else that the forces of neoliberal globalization attempted to meet.

In addition to the protests, anti-capitalism expressed itself through the phenomenon of Social Forums. In January 2001, the first World Social Forum (WSF) took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil—in opposition to the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Swit-

zerland. The WSF spawned local and regional versions, where activists from a variety of movements met to coordinate resistance.

Social forums continue to this day, but with varying degrees of success and popular appeal.

Despite its early successes, the anticapitalist movement was halted in its tracks on September 11, 2001—but not before laying a foundation for the anti-war movement that would follow it. The politics, organization and experience of anti-capitalism had a tremendous effect on the opposition that developed to George Bush’s “war on terror”—leading to worldwide mass demonstrations in early 2003 that involved millions of people.

In Canada, the anti-G8 protests held in Calgary and Kananaskis, Alberta in July 2002 became an organizing centre for anti-war activists. A new pan-Canadian network of peace groups, infused with the spirit and creativity of anti-capitalism, developed out of Calgary, and renewed the Canadian peace movement.

An entire generation of activists emerged from that experience.

The impact of Seattle was also felt in electoral politics. In English Canada, the New Politics Initiative (NPI) emerged as a serious anti-capitalist challenge to the New Democratic Party, winning over 40 per cent support to launch a new radical party at the NDP’s federal convention in Winnipeg in November 2001. The NPI eventually turned its attention to shifting the NDP to the left. It wrapped up a year after Jack Layton replaced Alexa McDonough as NDP leader.

In Quebec, the Union des forces progressistes (UFP) came together in the wake of the mobilizations against the FTAA in Quebec City. Its success laid the groundwork for the creation of a new political party, Québec solidaire, which won its first seat in parliament in provincial elections in December 2008.

The process of radicalization that gained momentum after Seattle has become more widespread in Latin America than anywhere else in the world, and has helped elect radical reformist governments that have thrown up serious resistance to the neoliberal agenda.

Perhaps the most important legacy of the Seattle protests is the shift in the political climate in the last ten years. So many of the issues that were first raised in Seattle have now become widely accepted by the public as common sense—even though political leaders

continue to drag their feet.

Climate change is just one example. At one time, most people dismissed climate change as a myth. Today a clear majority support initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and slow global warming.

The Seattle protests have also contributed to the growing opposition to neoliberalism that reached new heights during the current economic crisis. Even though the movement no longer has the strength or momentum it did ten years ago, it nevertheless continues to influence debates about capitalism, especially as more people consider alternatives to the system.

In the movements themselves, the impact of Seattle remains. Thousands of activists cut their teeth in the anti- capitalist mobilizations that followed Seattle. Many of them continue to organize in other movements. And many of the organizational relationships that were built during and after Seattle—especially the so-called “Teamster-turtle” alliance between trade unionists and environmentalists—have transformed today’s movements. A growing number of trade unionists now work closely with environmentalists to create good, green jobs. Likewise, more and more climate change activists see labour as an ally, not an obstacle.

Although the level of activity among labour never matched the general sentiment of anti-capitalism, trade unionists were nevertheless affected by their contact with the movement.

The current period represents another opportunity for anti-capitalism to reach a wider audience. Despite weak signs of growth, major problems persist in the economy: workers continue to lose their jobs, and workplaces continue to close. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan carry on, with no end in sight. And climate change now poses an even greater threat to humanity, as the planet warms at an even faster pace.

In each of these struggles, more and more activists—like those who were inspired

by Seattle—are connecting issues, and linking them to the global economic system. Among them is a growing number who understand that capitalism offers no solutions, that the system itself generates these problems in the first place.

At the moment, this radicalization has not led to widespread action against the system. Resistance, where it exists, remains decentralized, and is so far restricted to mainly defensive struggles.

But the future of anti-capitalism lies in activists like these, and in the potential of their struggles to transform themselves from protests against the effects of global capitalism to a movement against the system itself.

This article originally appeared in the December issue of Socialist Worker, number 513.

Visit Democracy Now! to watch a roundtable discussion about the impact of the Seattle protests and the birth of a movement: http://www. democracynow.org/2009/11/30/ the_battle_of_seattle_10_years

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 17

Dyer: Climate Change to global chaos

By James Burrows, News Editor “There is a point of no return,” Gwynne Dyer stated in his low casual voice to a packed theatre last month. “At two degrees hotter we lose control.”

Dyer is a world-renowned freelance journalist who has become famous for his investigations into politics and military strategy.

Dyer became interested in climate change after he realized that militaries around the world were becoming interested in the potential geopolitical fallout from catastrophic climate change. His resulting investigation led him to believe that climate change is more serious than is popularly believed. In the lead up to this month’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, he has been on a Canadian tour in an attempt to get people to understand the severity and immediacy of the problem.

“The scientists are really scared. The conversations I had with them generally had an undercurrent of panic.”

An increase of two degrees Celsius in average global temperature is generally regarded by the scientific community as the point where climate change cannot be stopped.

“If the permafrost around the arctic melts,” Dyer warned, there is “enough greenhouse gas stored to double the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.”

“But somewhere north of a two degree Celsius increase in global temperatures above a 1990 baseline, natural processes begin.”

Dyer also believes that it is unlikely that we will be able to stop the globe from heating before we reach that mark. “We are almost certainly going to blow right through that,” remarked Dyer.

Atmospheric concentrations of 450 parts per million (ppm) is generally thought to correlate to a two degree Celsius increase in global temperature. Right now, the planet sits at 390 ppm. “Before the recession slowed things down we were increasing that by three [ppm] per year…that means we are 20 years away from hitting 450.”

In a previous lecture Dyer did for TVO, he highlighted how much faster climate change is occurring than scientists had previously thought by highlighting the Interna-

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tional Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and their predictions regarding arctic summer sea ice. A 2007 IPCC report suggested that arctic sea ice coverage during the summer months would probably disappear sometime between 2040 and 2060. The IPCC now believes the sea ice could be gone as soon as 2013. This could result in an even faster increase in global temperatures.

At the end of November, Arctic researcher Dr. David Barber concluded that multi-year ice coverage in the Arctic is already nearly gone. “Unfortunately what we found was that the multi-year [ice] has all but disappeared. What’s left is this remnant, rotten ice.”

Multi-year sea ice currently only covers about 19 per cent of the Arctic basin. This ‘permanent’ ice used to be 10 metres thick and cover 90 per cent of the Arctic.

If runaway climate change occurs then most of the world will starve, Dyer warned, and as few as 500 million people might survive. Most of the world will be unable to grow food and the result will be massive increases in refugee populations.

In a CBC radio episode of Ideas, Gwynne Dyer has an actor outline what Europe might look like in 2046 if there is an increase of 2.8 degrees Celsius. This increase looks something like this: the collapse of the European Union, the southern part of Italy being taken over by refugees, Northern Italy and Spain developing nuclear weapons and all European countries militarizing their borders with both Italy and Spain planning on blockmailing Northern Europe for more food. And this is only the situation in Europe.

So, concluded Dyer in November, “Generals who think there will be lots of jobs under climate change are right.”

Dyer outlined several military scenarios that he says are already being discussed behind the scenes to control the flow of predicted climate refugees.

In off the record conversations he has had with representatives in the US congress, many have noted that they feel it will be necessary to “close the US/Mexico border in the next 15 or 20 years,” in order to control the significant increase in migrants seeking food.

Currently this border is “purposefully

easy to get through,” noted Dyer and only appears closed at official crossing points. But a few kilometers away the large walls and cameras disappear and in their place are only two barbed wire fences, which are patrolled maybe once every four hours.

According to Dyer, the loose security along the Mexico/US border is to supply cheap labour to the agricultural sector and to help stabilize the Mexican state.

“If you want to close the border you will have to kill people. I don’t believe that the US military has a problem with this but they understand consequences. The large Mexican population living in the US will not be happy.”

Dyer was careful to stop short of blaming climate change on capitalism and perpetual economic growth. “Even if I was a Marxist revolutionary, and of course secretly I am,” he remarked, “I don’t think that I want to fight that battle right now.”

Dyer believes that the hope for any climate change lies in the developed western countries supplying the developing world with funding to help countries such as India and China grow their economies through green alternatives. This must be agreed to because the developed world is responsible for climate change. “We did it over the last 200 years. It was not the developing countries.”

“This has to be a winning argument, otherwise it’s not fair,” he stated.

“We must accept that the history matters. People will die rather than accept unfair treatment.” If developed countries can’t accept this argument then “we don’t get a deal,” declared Dyer.

Dyer mentioned nuclear power as a viable energy alternative more than once, and when questioned about his nuclear recommendation, stated, “I don’t think it’s naïve to fight nuclear power, I just don’t think any other options are going to supply you with the energy necessary.” But, he continued, “If there is a split in the green movement then my feeling would be to not go with it.”

For more, including all three episodes of Gwynne Dyer on Ideas, as well as his TVO lecture, visit www.gwynnedyer.com.

New US climate target means Canada’s won’t budge

By Brett Throop

The Conservative government has one thing to celebrate going into next week’s climate talks in Copenhagen: Obama’s emissions reduction offer.

Last week, along with announcing he would make a brief appearance in Copenhagen, President Obama made an offer to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, was likely pleased to note how close that target is to Canada’s own goal of 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020.

“If we do more than the US, we will suffer economic pain for no real environmental gain,” Prentice said earlier this month. “But if we do less, we will risk facing new border barriers into the American market.”

That means if the US adopts a more ambitious target, Canada will likely follow.

On the other hand, with a comparable target in the US, Canada could more easily stick to its current target.

That is, if the Conservative government continues to ignore pressure from both at home and abroad to make deeper emissions cuts.

That pressure mounted last week as climate change activists occupied Prentice’s Calgary office and Parliament passed a motion calling for the Conservatives to make deeper cuts. There were also calls for Canada’s membership in the Commonwealth to be suspended for its climate change policy.

“Countries that fail to help [tackle global warming] should be suspended from membership, as are those that breach human rights,” said UK MP and former international development secretary Clare Short.

PHOTO: Rita Willaert/FLICKR

REmEmbER dEcEmbER 6TH December 6, 2009 is the twentieth anniversary of the Montreal massacre, where 16 women were killed at École Polytechnique. To mark the anniversary, and to call for an end to all forms of violence against women, the Canadian Federation of Students created this poster. Here, Malalai Joya holds it up, following her presentation to delegates at the most recent general meeting.

The names of the women are written around the poster that reads “United against violence against women:” Geneviève bergeron hélène colgan nathalie croteau barbara daigneault anne-marie edward maud haviernick barbara maria klucznik

PHOTO: FEDERICO CARvAJAL

maryse leclair annie st.-arneault michèle richard maryse laganière anne-marie lemay sonia Pelletier annie turcotte

ryerson free press December 2009/January 2010

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CULTURE Jonna’s Body debuts at BreastFest A surreal film about battling breast cancer

By Tracy Chen

A

t age 19 Jonna Tamases is a student and aspiring stage performer. She has oversized breasts that she wants to reduce. During her checkup with the doctor for a breast reduction she discovers she has cancer.

In Canada, an estimated 22,700 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer. That is 437 women diagnosed every week. One in nine Canadian women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. One-third of these women will die.

Jonna Tamases’s experience with cancer was presented on the big screen in her film Jonna’s Body. It was showcased at the second annual BreastFest in Toronto.

When Tamases was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at age 19, she recalls, “I was pretty angry…I couldn’t conceive what it meant to be facing death.” The next year, she found out she had large cell lymphoma. “Luckily in my case, the chemotherapy worked and the cancer died before I did,” she said.

During her battle with cancer, she didn’t have enough physical strength to

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go to school or perform on stage. “It’s so easy to feel reduced to be just a cancer patient that you lose sense of all that you are,” said Tamases. “But it’s not all that we are. We’re so much bigger than our tumors.”

Twelve years later, she found out she had breast cancer. “I suspect it was due to the radiation that I had in the area to treat the first cancer,” she said. Often secondary cancers appear in areas that were previously radiated.

She opted for double mastectomy instead of chemotherapy.

“Chemotherapy was really hard for me, it was very intense and I was not looking forward to having to go through that again,” said Tamases. She also didn’t like the idea of waiting and seeing, and wanted to move on with her life.

“I thought, I had twelve good years with my perfect little breasts and if I have to say goodbye to them that’s alright for me,” said Tameses. “Luckily I had a very loving husband, who assured me that my boobs were not the reason he married me and so we sort of faced it together.”

Tomases’ story and others are featured as part of Breastfest— the world’s first film festival dedicated to breast cancer awareness.

It took place in November at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum.

Breastfest explores the spectrum of issues surrounding breast cancer through films, panels, workshops and speakers.

The festival raised awareness and aimed to educate people who have not experienced breast cancer. This year’s theme was storytelling. “For the people who have experienced [breast cancer] when they see the stories up on the big screen, they’re able to sort of validate their own story and understand they’re not alone,” said Alison Gordon, BreastFest Film Festival’s director and a vicepresident at Rethink Breast Cancer. Rethink Breast Cancer is an organization that helps young people who are concerned about and affected by breast cancer. Proceeds from this year’s BreastFest go towards Rethink Breast Cancer and next year’s festival.

The mission of BreastFest is to open dialogue and to share stories together in a creative way, “Through all the different facets of how different people approach it creatively,” explained Tamases.

Tameses’ idea of turning her own experience into a film, Jonna’s Body, began in 1994. It started out as a script for a one-woman show. Her first version was completely comedic, until a director forced her to write about the darker aspects. “Oh boy, did I fight that tooth and nail because I was so afraid of being too serious,” said Tamases. But she was happy with her final product. “There are comedic moments, and there are serious moments - Really a roller coaster ride, which is kind of what life is like,” she said.

Jonna’s Body is based on her theatrical version. “It was always a dream to take that same and story and fully realize it on screen so that we could create the visuals that I had always imagined with it.”

Jonna’s Body is a bizarre journey in her body. Pearl is Jonna’s internal receptionist that fields calls from each of her body parts. Each body part is a character. “It had occurred to me that there had been so many side effects, that all my different body parts had a slightly different experience of having cancer,” said Tamases. For instance, her upper back loved it. “If you ask my upper back what it thought of chemo, it would be like oh it’s awesome, we can have more!” said Tamases. “If you ask my mouth, I’d be like I’d rather die than have to eat a bowl of apple sauce.”

Jonna’s Body has been praised by critics and has won numerous awards such as the award for Best Cinematography in the 2009 Show Off Your Shorts Film Fest. “People tell me that the humour makes the story less fearsome and more accessible,” said Tamases. “I really wanted to make the movie entertaining so people would want to watch it and not go: ‘oh it’s a cancer movie.’”

Tamases hopes the people watching the movie lighten up. “I want people to leave with a feeling of lightness and joy … How neat it is to be together in this life on this planet,” she said.

Movie Poster Courtesy of jonnasbodymovie.com

Away from Everywhere A new novel about two brothers, love and infidelity

By Kate Spencer

Chad Pelley’s debut novel, Away from Everywhere, begins with a car crash. It opens with a scream of metal and the scream of the main character, Owen, as he fights to stay alive and to keep his loved one alive.

Pelley’s great talent lies with his descriptions. In this opening scene, the reader finds that they are in the crash. They can hear the rain on the roof, feel the cold of the air and the warmth of the blood on the seats. Flashes of color—black and beige and red—look and feel so real that the pages of the book appear to change color.

It can be a little difficult to read on after the first few pages.

You get hit with such an emotional knock to the head that you almost don’t want to know what will happen next. But if the reader ventures on, they will find a novel that is worth reading.

The story revolves around the lives of two brothers, Owen and Alex. It follows them from childhood to adulthood, and examines the factors in their lives that define who they will become. They are bonded together by the mental illness of their father, and torn apart

by Owen’s love for Alex’s wife, Hannah.

The author, Chad Pelley, has been celebrated for his works of short fiction, but he said he sees his shorter stories as a way to “ramp up” to novels. His goal in writing Away From Everywhere was to explore why the two brothers became different men, and use the affair to explore the flip side of love. He asked, “What happens if you fall in love with the wrong person?” The answer, as presented in the novel, seems to be ambiguous, and that ambiguity is what makes it so good to write about. Pelley also delves into the primal urges of love versus social morality.

If this novel has a fault, it is

its character development and dialogue. Pelley said he feels like the kind of writer who would write nothing but heart-wrenching descriptions all day, if he was given the chance. In particular, the character of Hannah, who is told mainly through her journal entries, does not feel like a living, breathing woman, but rather very much like the idealized version that Owen would like to see her as.

The characters can also at times feel like they belong in the short story format that Pelley might be more comfortable with. They tend towards clichés: the neglected wife, the obsessively “normal” husband, and the alcoholic writer.

They also gravitate to a certain kind of intellectual snobbery; the ten-year-old brothers laughing over a botched reading of Mice and Men, for example, or the references to vaguely obscure Independent music.

References to music choices are made slightly more forgivable, however, when the reader is able to take into account the fact that Pelley himself finds a deep connection between music and writing.

He says, “I certainly always have the right moody music on while writing. Music really encapsulates the feel of the novel.”

Readers who are interested in what music Pelley listened to while he wrote, or wonder which band Owen and Hannah listened to, are in luck. Pelley created a soundtrack to the novel, which is available on his website, along with the “trailer” for the novel.

Pelley says he decided to create these multimedia add-ons because readers and writers take marketing for granted. He says, “Those features are tacked on to the novel to get attention, to get interest, to get word-of-mouth advertising.”

Whatever reason Pelley had for choosing to make a soundtrack

BOOK PHOTO COURTESY OF chadpelley.wordpress.com/awayfromeverywhere

for the book, it is strongly recommended by this reviewer that readers play it while they read. The novel and the music very clearly go together, and listening to the music while reading adds a whole new level of depth and meaning to the novel and its events.

Away From Everywhere raises some very interesting questions about life. How do we get to be the people that we become? If you love the person, is adultery still wrong? What makes life and love meaningful? Pelley doesn’t answer any of these questions in the novel, which is all for the better.

It’s thinking about these questions that enable a reader to join in on the discussion. Readers can examine the relationship between light and dark, which pervades in many of the novel’s characters.

The attention to detail continues throughout the novel. Pelley elucidates textiles, smells, hot and cold sensations and more. The aim really seems to be to shove the reader down into the trenches of the story—to affect you and to garner a reaction. If the reader is anything like this reviewer, they will find themselves beginning to cry halfway through the plot, and unable to stop for another fifty pages. This power of connection comes from feeling that the characters are real people who the reader has come to know and care about.

Away From Everywhere is a book that requires a lot of pauses.

Pauses to think, reflect, discuss, and most importantly, breathe, before you are ready to dive back in for the next disastrous event. But it is also a book that will continue to call you back to it, and call you on to the next page and the next chapter. It is a book you could read many times over. Maybe just have some happy books on hand to read in between.

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 21

Top TeN of The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

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It was a photo finish, but it’s the Flaming Lips’ gigantic twelth album that deserves the 2009 crown for best album of the year. From the jolting chords and mesmerizing stomp of opener “Convinced of the Hex” to the gentle sway of “Powerless,” the Oklahoma veterans prove themselves as musically fearless as they’ve been in a decade without sacrificing an iota of cohesion or flow. At a whopping eighteen tracks, the album is meant to be split as a double-album. Embryonic paints an intimidating picture, but the equal mix of power and melodic nuance make for an album that, rather than alienating the listener, challenges them to fully invest themselves in order to grasp the thing as a whole. The Lips match lyric to music here flawlessly, painting a picture of humanity informed equally by the pointedness of realism and the optimism of existentialism.

“People are evil, it’s true,” singer Wayne Coyne sings, “but on the other side, they can be gentle too—they decide.” It’s a thoughtful musing, as challenging, humane and endlessly engaging as the music surrounding it. No other band dared be as musically adventurous, or as thought-provoking as the Flaming Lips did on Embryonic. So why should album of the year go to anybody else?

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Mos Def – The Ecstatic After years of half-hearted musical experiments and phoned-in albums that had many thinking he might never recapture the magic he created nearly a decade ago with his classic Black Star collaboration or his solo masterpiece Black on Both Sides, Mos has finally returned to his first love—Hip-Hop. Granted, The Ecstatic doesn’t consistently reach the lyrical or thematic heights he reached in the late ’90s but musically and emotionally, The Ecstatic comes consistently close. Mos sounds outright invigorated on the timpani-driven “Quiet Dog Bite Hard.” Meanwhile he sounds completely invested on the album’s emotional highlight with the song called “Auditorium.” Both of these songs are as stylishly minimalist and expertly executed as anything from Black on Both Sides. The Ecstatic is a definite reflection of Mos’ recent globetrotting.

He seems to have soaked up enough inspiration during his travels in order to record an album so good that you can stop holding your breath. The Boogey Man is back, and The Ecstatic was worth the wait.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion Intended as a tribute to the cherished venue of the same name, Merriweather Post Pavilion was too musical, too unabashedly euphoric to compare to the rest of this year’s releases. It struck a perfect balance by being soul-rattling and intricate enough to captivate, but groovy and honeyed enough to suit any mood. The fact that it stood up to nearly a full year of frequent listening is a testament to both Merriweather’s universality and its versatility: I can now comfortably validate the claim I made in February that the album is as resonant in the summer as in the winter. It is as much a personal album, ideal for headphone listening, as it is a unifying album that transcends musical taste. Don’t let its rank diminish its quality: In any other year, Merriweather Post Pavilion could have been a safe bet for best album. Thus, it remains Animal Collective’s best and most accomplished work to date.

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4

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca Principal songwriter Dave Longstreth studied music at Yale, and it’s obvious. The fractured rhythmic structures, multi-layered harmonies and technical flourishes throughout Bitte Orca all point to the influence of years of musical study. Most impressive, though, is how Longstreth manages to effortlessly marry such musical complexity with the accessibility of pop music. While the album oozes technical ability and intelligence, it never conveys an aura of exclusivity. Sweetly melodic, subtly romantic and endlessly enthusiastic, Bitte Orca embodies all the trademarks of a great pop album. It’s somehow the most inventive and the catchiest pop album of 2009.

Albums 2009

Music critic Stephen Carlick divulges his top picks of the year.

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Why? – Eskimo Snow

Why is it that once a metal band employs melody in their music output, the metal community elitists snub the band? They’re missing out. With Crack the Skye, Mastodon has created an album as powerfully emotive as it is heavy, one that transcends genre in favour of sheer musicality. Crack the Skye is forceful and deliberate, and the band is practiced at their respective instruments to a degree uncommon to any genre but metal. By blending their technical prowess with a knack for arrangement and melody, Mastodon has created a monster as majestic as it is beastly.

On 2008’s Alopecia, Why?’s front-man, Jonathon “Yoni” Wolf ’s intensely intimate, confessional lyrical style and spiky, agitated rhyming style were enough to affront the average listener on first encounter. A year later, Wolf sounds just as witty and acutely perceptive, but where he once sounded coolly detached from his neuroses, he now seems more contemplative and emotionally invested. He imbues each song with the kind of sincerity and emotional nuance not often heard in pop music. More inhibited, conventional and melodic than their previous work, Eskimo Snow is Why?’s prettiest collection of songs—and a damn captivating one, too.

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Labyrinthine and sublime, Dragonslayer is a compelling listen. Spencer Krug’s caterwaul is unsettlingly emotive and here (crowded by guitar feedback, piano reverb and a haunting female vocal counterpart) it’s as affective as ever. Krug weaves a fine narrative tapestry throughout the album, complete with spikes of climactic bombast and valleys of quiet piano tinkling.

But while Dragonslayer twists and turns in dramatic fashion, it never threatens to lose the listener. Each rhythm and key change feels like a part of the plan, making Dragonslayer a decidedly cohesive and infinitely enthralling addition to the year’s musical yield.

There are few pop performers as dedicated to their craft as Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent. She wrote her second album completely on her computer, had it transcribed to sheet music, printed it out and forced herself to learn to play it. To do so, she believed, forced her to reach beyond her musical capability to perform something that she created unencumbered by her physical limitations. The result was Actor, a bittersweet collection of dramatic, pseudo-orchestral songs punctuated by Clark’s mellifluous alto wherein Clark is merely the actor. Here she performs her mind’s creation in the most expressive and human way.

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7

Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

St. Vincent – Actor

Mastodon – Crack the Skye

The Antlers – Hospice

8 Dinosaur Jr. – Farm

You’d think by now the ‘album as diary’ archetype would have gotten old, but there’s still something very captivating about it, especially when it’s imbued with as much sincerity and truth as Hospice is. Conceptualized as an account of watching a loved one passing away in a hospice, the Antlers’ fourth full-length is stunningly dynamic, alternating between epic, shoe-gazing moments of bombast and gently ambient verses to suit each lyrical mood.

Singer Peter Silberman’s fragile tenor is so wrought with emotion it sounds like it could give out at any moment, but then again, so could your heart.

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There’s any number of reasons why Farm is an essential album of 2009. The most important is that it’s an album of masterful song-writing based around the all-but-forgotten rock instrument of the last five years—the electric guitar. No contemporary band has embraced the versatility of the guitar like Dinosaur Jr. does and on Farm the band sounds as coolly energetic as they do irresistibly tuneful. While the rest of the indie world shies away from the electric guitar, these veterans continue to prove that a good (albeit long) rock album can still be solidly built thereupon.

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 23

SoJin Chun’s urban lullaby Ryerson alumna and artist examines big city living

By Michelle Owusu

South Korean-born artist SoJin Chun has called both tropical Bolivia and snowy Canada home in her 31 years.

She speaks English, Spanish and Korean fluently, visits Korea regularly and is active in Toronto’s Latino community.

And it all shows in her body of work, including her most recent photo animation project, An Urban Lullaby.

“A lot of my work deals with identity, and portraiture, and about place,” explains Chun. Academically, Chun’s experience was enriched by Ryerson and York University’s joint communication and culture master’s program. Chun’s undergrad is a bachelor of applied arts from Ryerson.

The self in big, bustling cities such as Toronto—Chun’s home since the age of 13—is the focus of An Urban Lullaby.

Produced over a five-month period this year, in collaboration with songwriter and musician Vanessa John (also a Ryerson alumna), the two-minute animation begins with a disturbing and mind-numbing hum that is soon replaced by footsteps on pavement, the ringing of bike bells and the obtrusive sounds of urban traffic. While replete with the usual audio cues of many an urban soundtrack, An Urban Lullaby surprises with a few unexpected sounds, such as the chattering of scorpions.

Chun balances the peaceful, dismembered, black-and-

white cutout of herself with an ever-changing milieu. At first, the viewer sees a baby blue sky filled with fluffy clouds, but the landscape soon transforms into a motley of graffiti, skyscrapers and lots of stubby wood and brick buildings. For the majority of the piece, the dark haired, bespectacled Chun gently tumbles down from the sky, floating and somersaulting through the city. Chun’s eyes are sometimes open and sometimes closed, but her expression is always calm and content. “Somehow in the chaos of the city,” says Chun, “I find peace.”

In 2004 and 2005, Chun captured residents of Toronto’s Scarborough district, where she now lives, on black-and-white film. She spent time in Bolivia last year to document life in Santa Cruz, the city where she spent five years of her childhood. Showcasing and exploring her own cultural fluency or, as Chun calls it, her “cultural hybridity,” appears to be central to her identity as a photographer and photo-based artist.

An Urban Lullaby is part of the tenth annual aluCine Toronto Latin Media Festival, which celebrates film, video and media arts by Latin artists living in Canada and abroad. aluCine runs from November 12-28.

To check out SoJin Chun’s work, visit: www.sojinchun.com/gallery

The Zolas on tour with their debut heartachefilled album Tic Toc Tic

By Priya Jain

Canada’s indie music scene continues to be the stage for more down-to-earth artists, as the Zolas make their debut release - the heartache-filled album Tic Toc Tic. Band-duo Tom Dobrzanski (keyboardist/producer) and Zachary Gray (singer/guitarist) are from Vancouver. Together they create bouncy rock music with catchy melodies, romantic flare and subtle echoes of frustration toward the pretentious hipsters that lurk about their city.

Having met as “wee lads,” they have been jamming together for years and have evolved with more charm and wanderlust since their former band days in Lotus Child.

Aaron Mariash from Will Currie & The Country French joins Dobrzanski and Gray as drummer for their current tour across Canada.

“It’s like having one big extended family,” says Mariash, who also shares the band’s quirky tradition of sharing Cherry Blossom candy at every provincial border.

They made their mark in Toronto at Lee’s Palace and The Drake Hotel, and were greeted by warm crowds.

The Zolas will end their tour back in Vancouver at the Vogue Theatre in mid-December with Hey Ocean and Current Swell. It will be their first time performing in their home city.

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PHOTO OF SOJIN CHUN: Michelle Owusu

A scene from the film Mommy’s at the Hairdresser, directed by Lea Poole.

Mommy’s at the Hairdresser

By Lian Novak

Is mommy really at the hairdresser? When that’s the title of the film, one is inclined to think, probably not. The mommy in question is Simone, a woman who is beautiful, intelligent and seems to have it all: a successful career, good-looking husband and three loving children. However, as the title has tipped us off, not all is as it seems.

The film, by Genie-nominated and two time TIFF award-winning director Lea Poole, is set in a pastoral Quebec town in the 1960s. It begins at the most anticipated time for children: summer vacation. The chanting of “school’s out” is heard throughout and one is transported back to that magical carefree time. We first meet Elise, a teenager and the eldest of the three children who is wise beyond her years and Benoit, her younger brother and the youngest of the three children. He is around 5 or 6 years of age and lives mostly in his own world. They decide to kick off their summer vacation with a trip to the river to go fishing. It is here where they meet “Mr. Fly,” an unusual character that lives on the fringe of society. This is the first hint that this town isn’t as picture perfect as it seems.

On arriving home from the fishing trip, Elise runs into her father with his golfing partner. They are returning from a golf trip and she starts to feel uneasy when she notices they are a little too affectionate with one another. It is also at this time that we meet the middle child, Coco, a boy on the cusp of adolescence who spends most of his time in the garage building his racecar.

From this point on, we see how the breakdown of their nuclear family begins with seemingly benign and harmless incidents. We see how this family copes when one parent leaves. That is the most interesting aspect of this film.

Elise and Coco handle their mother leaving by becoming almost parent-like themselves as their father is clearly not equipped to handle the challenges of raising three children.

This is especially the case when it becomes apparent that Benoit is slightly developmentally delayed.

This film is also an interesting look at the insular town of the 1960s where everyone is warm and caring - As long as one fulfills certain stereotypical roles. When that does not happen, the support of the community leaves and isolation and alienation set in.

It is heartbreaking to see the effect on little Benoit when his mother, who truly seemed to understand him, leaves. Elise and Coco, still being children themselves, can only do so much to help and protect him. Benoit does not understand why this is happening and

almost immediately starts to regress. We see him sucking his thumb, curling up in the fetal position and becoming very destructive toward himself and to all of his toys (he chops off their heads.)

The reversal of natural roles is a recurring theme. We get to know a few other families through the children’s friends that are also dealing with mental illness. Again, we see children having to act as parents to their parents. One can only imagine the effect this will have on them later on.

Lest one begins to think that this film is all doom and gloom, there are some lighthearted and comical moments that brighten the film. For example, when Elise and her friends play a kissing game in the barn with a great soundtrack in the background, it provides a needed relief to the darker, more serious moments in the film. The cinematography is gorgeous. There are many beautiful shots of summer in its full glory and one can almost feel the warm breeze floating by. The shots of Benoit are interesting. He is mostly framed alone in close-ups, emphasizing his aloneness in a world that does not fully understand him.

Mommy’s at the Hairdresser is not an easy film as it raises more questions than it answers. It doesn’t tidy up neatly at the end, but then neither does real life.

A note about the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival: Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival was started 17 years ago by Lisa Brown, Artistic Director, while she was working as an archivist and found hundreds of films about mental health issues. She decided it was important that these films see the light of day. The festival started small, but has grown to a 10 day festival which receives over 300 submissions a year (at least 50 of which are chosen to screen.)

Matthew Hogue, Program Director, believes that the festival is incredibly important because mental health issues are marginalized in our society. Furthermore the mainstream media tends to reinforce the stereotypes or simplify issues of mental health . This festival deals specifically with mental health issues in a complex and non-judgmental way. The festival also informs its programming through the involvement filmmakers, doctors and people who have had personal experiences with mental illness. Hogue notes that the film festival is a “great equalizer, where all viewers are on equal playing field with the doctors.”

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 25

The Body: A World of Its Own Gunther von Hagens’ plastination exhibit demonstrates the beauty of the human body

By Angela Walcott Science and art, art and science—either way you look at it, they are two different worlds and when you put them together they create something magical. Back in 1995, Dr. Gunther von Hagens first presented Body Worlds to the general public and the response was immense. Seen by a record 29 million people around the world, the exhibit has managed to unite people from different backgrounds on common ground—their appreciation for anatomical art.

BODY WORLDS & The Story of the Heart is the second presentation of the world-reknowned exhibit by Dr. Gunther von Hagens in Toronto. The figures in the exhibit perform complex poses—exposing tendons, blood vessels and lean muscle and displaying the strength, athleticism and beauty of the human body.

BODY WORLDS & The Story of the Heart is different than the previous exhibit—“It is a more personal/intimate approach to our bodies.

It offers visitors the means to explore and reconcile their considerations about the mind, the heart, the body, and the human condition,” said Dr. Angelina Whalley, the curator and conceptual designer for the exhibition.

Many visitors have commented that the special feature of The Story of the Heart has given them a reason to think more specifically about how they can improve their heart health, how serious heart problems can be and how amazing the pump in our bodies is.

Some skeptics argue that a human body should be respected after death and not put on display for our viewing pleasure. But this could not be further from the truth. The pieces aren’t disrespectful since Hagens successfully melded science with art. Given the fact that these bodies were donated to science for teaching purposes, the ethical question of whether science should be displayed as art continues.

The Javelin Thrower is statuesque and graceful, yet painstakingly positioned, to fully display how the muscles work in unison to execute a single fluid movement. All of the plastinates that make up the exhibit are made from people who have donated their bodies to science. In turn, science celebrates the human body.

Dr. von Hagens’ exhibit, presents what we take for granted. We do not see the physiological aspects, the inner workings of the human form beneath the skin, aside from computer graphic representations, but Hagens gives us that rare opportunity.

The exaggerated articulation of muscles at the exhibit is incredible to see. While these cadavers are only display for the public to see, a distance and respect is maintained. Carefully placed signs ask that patrons abstain from touching the plastinate figures at all times.

The exhibit is part of The Human Saga—a series that shows the workings of the brain, the heart and other findings about the human body. The discoveries stem from the latest advances in the fields of

neuroscience, cardiology, biology, genetics, gerontology, psychiatry and physiology.

Interlaced throughout the exhibit are a series of snapshots showcasing healthy vs. unhealthy organs and cross-sections that illustrate abnormalities in the body. The ill-effects of smoking (blackened lungs enrobed in nicotine versus the healthy lungs of a non-smoker), as well as enlarged and diseased hearts. Cross sections show abnormalities of the brain while another shows the effects of obesity. A red web of capillaries and veins is featured in another figure displaying the intricate detail of the heart.

The Ontario Science Centre was the first Canadian venue that invited Dr. Gunther von Hagens to bring the first BODY WORLDS exhibition to Canada.

It all started in July of 1977, with an idea of Dr. Gunther von Hagens got, while he was working as a scientist at the University of Heidelberg’s Institute of Pathology and Anatomy. He said, “I was looking at a collection of specimens embedded in plastic. It was the most advanced preservation technique then, where the specimens rested deep inside a transparent plastic block. I wondered why the plastic was poured and then cured around the specimens, rather than pushed into the cells, which would stabilize the specimens from within and literally allow you to grasp it.”

The notion was an epiphany for Dr. von Hagens, and the genesis of Plastination—his groundbreaking invention where all bodily fluids from anatomical specimens are extracted to stop decomposition, and replaced through vacuum-forced impregnation with silicon rubber and epoxy. The specimens are then hardened with gas, light, or heat curing, which gives the specimens their rigidity and permanence. The Institute for Plastination was founded in 1993 to meet demands for plastination once the science world saw the value of plastinates as a teaching tool.

Before BODY WORLDS only people studying anatomy could enjoy this, and now it is available for everyone to appreciate. Visitors include people from all walks of life who are interested in learning more about the human body.

“More plastinates are set to come in December, including a polar bear,” said the communications manager at the The Ontario Science Centre, Mavis Harris.

The exhibit is on display at the Ontario Science Centre until February 2010.

PHOTOS: Copyright: Gunther von Hagens, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com

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TOP: Ian Daffern promoting Freelance Blues, a comic book series he created with friends at Canzine. BOTTOM: McClung’s Magazine team from Ryerson at Canzine.

‘Zinesters are zany for Canzine

By Jennifer Tse

Ask Richard Rosenbaum about ‘zine culture in Toronto and he’ll put it simply: “There’s a lot of it.”

Rosenbaum would know. The 30-year-old Ryerson student, currently working on his Communication and Culture master’s degree, is also the associate fiction editor and online fiction editor of Broken Pencil magazine, Canada’s authority on ‘zine culture.

Broken Pencil hosted Canzine, the largest festival of alternative arts in the country, on Nov. 1, 2009 at the historic Gladstone Hotel. And the 2009 iteration of Canzine was its most successful yet.

“We had about 170 creators set up at the fair. We had to turn people away because of space,” said Rosenbaum.

Located in the heart of the Queen West art scene, the Gladstone became Toronto’s alternative culture Mecca for the afternoon. Many even found it difficult to move around, so jam-packed was the space with small press creators, or ‘zinesters,’ and visitors browsing their wares. Evident from the tables piled high with screen-printed t-shirts, CDs, and buttons, the colourful array of homegrown creation extended far beyond just mini magazines. “‘Zines are low-tech, self-published, creator-created publications that go through genres,” said Rosenbaum.

“Lately they’ve also been a supplement to other creative endeavors like comics and music, but ‘zines tie this do-itPHOTOS: JENNIFER TSE

yourself culture all together.”

Among those tabling at Canzine were editors from McClung’s Magazine, Ryerson’s feminist magazine; and Ian Daffern, a 2001 Ryerson Radio and Television Arts alumnus.

Dressed in a suit and tie, Daffern was a stark contrast with the sea of skinny jeans and vintage sunglasses tabling around him. Daffern was promoting Freelance Blues, a comic book series he created with friends Mike Leone and Vicki Tierney. The series highlights one man’s struggle with the perils of work and is a self-described “adventure in underemployment.”

“This suit reflects the hero of the story,” said Daffern, who first heard about Canzine from at a Book TV internship he started while at Ryerson. “It’s my first self-published book.”

Neither Daffern nor Rosenbaum would have been a part of the ‘zine scene if it weren’t for Hal Niedzviecki, Broken Pencil’s fiction editor. In true grassroots fashion, it was Niedzviecki who had reached out and encouraged both writers to become involved.

“I met him while taking a short story class at George Brown,” said Rosenbaum. “He told me that a story I’d written was Broken Pencil’s type of work, so we got it published, and kept in touch.”

Now an established member of the Broken Pencil team,

Rosenbaum organized Canzine’s Can’tLit, a collection of readings featuring some of Broken Pencil’s most celebrated contributors. A play on CanLit or Canadian Literature, a quarterly devoted to the criticism and review of Canadian writing, Can’tLit’s goal was to be everything CanLit wasn’t.

“A lot of people perceive CanLit as something that has a preconception and standard for writers,” said Rosenbaum.

“CanLit is also a catch-all term for Canadian literature. Boring, rural, historical. Can’tLit is modern, urban, and young.

It’s all over the map, with varied and broad interests.”

The anthology featured Joey Comeau, Greg Kearney, Jessica Faulds, and Zoe Whittall. All guests were handpicked by Rosenbaum, who tried to find local, Torontobased authors in an attempt to nurture ‘zine culture close to home.

“I think the Toronto ‘zine scene is helping a lot of people communicate very directly and very personally, which is something that’s not as easy to do in a more mediated form, like traditional publishing and music,” said Rosenbaum.

To Rosenbaum, ‘zine culture is special because of its grassroots nature and lack of intermediate stages between the ‘zinester and the audience.

“The personal touch—that’s important, because that’s really what art is about,” said Rosenbaum. “Communicating and connecting.”

Ryerson Free Press December 2009/January 2010 27