I write this as I fly west on Air Canada, to begin my Groovy West Coast Tour: Summer 2010. After being seated on the plane, I received a “free” copy of today’s Globe and Mail.
Mainstream media is never free for me.
Three articles stuck out for me, all having to do with Aboriginal rights and social status in Canada. Spoiler alert: I’m pissed off and the Globe is full of racist bullshit. I know, it’s no news flash.
One
Section A Editorial “Letting a monster go free”
The editorial is about Robert Picton, currently serving years in prison for 6 counts of second-degree murder, but suspected of killing at least 21 women over a period of years. It seems that in 1997 a woman was lured to his compound by him, and managed to escape by stabbing him (the Globe generously adds “in self-defence”) and in the course of escaping she lost three litres of blood and almost died herself. She and Picton were treated in the same hospital in Port Moody B.C. and he wasn’t charged by the Crown. With anything.
Why?
Because she wasn’t “credible”.
Feminists have heard this bullshit before many times. She had on a handcuff that Picton has used to try to restrain her still on one wrist when she was treated. The key that fit the handcuff to unlock it was in Picton’s possession. I’m not sure what more compelling physical evidence is required.
Oh right. She was a Native woman. And probably a sex worker. And perhaps a substance user.
Fucking hell fuck. The last time I checked, this is what systemic racism looks like.
Now that Picton has been safely convicted and demonized, the Globe has no problem saying that this was a very bad judgment call by the office of the Crown. Thanks for nothing, G & M.
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Events of the past week have crystalized a number of feelings inside me, and rather than do another “Fuck Canada Day” post (see my post on July 1, 2009) I thought I’d do something that I’ve meant to do for a long time.
I seem to need containment these days, or my blogs will just be a long scream of inarticulate anger. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just doesn’t make very interesting reading.
Canada’s anthem.
Those of us born here are taught it in school. Those who come here from elsewhere learn it. Or else. Those who are Aboriginal are probably offended by the whole thing. As is anyone who calls themselves an ally.
O Canada, our home and native land
Many people have taken this line to pieces, most popularly, “our home ON native land”. But I still have a problem with this. Who is “our”? Anglos? The broader category “white folks”? Are white folks still the centre of the fucking universe? For fuck’s sake. And “home”, such a loaded term. Ward Churchill talked about colonization in a very personal way. Someone comes to your house, sits down and then says “Hey I live here now. Get the fuck out.” And when you protest you’re either taken out of your home, or killed. Or both.
Toronto Star article, June 18, 2010
Her death sent shock waves through the city — and across the world — prompting heated debate on the hijab, the challenges of integration for newcomers, and whether her death was Toronto’s first crime of honour or a horrible case of domestic violence. …. Media in Toronto and around the world immediately reported and continues to report that Aqsa was killed because she refused to wear the hijab. But it was much more complicated than that.
Her death sent shock waves through the city — and across the world — prompting heated debate on the hijab, the challenges of integration for newcomers, and whether her death was Toronto’s first crime of honour or a horrible case of domestic violence.
….
Media in Toronto and around the world immediately reported and continues to report that Aqsa was killed because she refused to wear the hijab. But it was much more complicated than that.
You know, if one were to never pay attention to feminists, including Muslim feminists, one would be rather perplexed about the horror, fear and isolation that Aqsa had in the last moments of her life, being killed by her father and brother. Nobody in any of the regular state intervention machines (her school, CAS, the police) did much of anything to help her, to listen to her about what she needed.
And since her murder (why the media keeps calling it her “death” is beyond me) the white establishment has been desperately trying to “understand”, from the mealy-center of the Toronto Star to the hard-core right of the Globe and Mail.
“What I Learned from Preston Manning and William Shatner”
Given that I’m neither a father nor a son, my understanding of issues facing fathers is pretty miniscule.
But yesterday, Friday June 18, the Globe and Mail featured two articles, one written by Preston Manning, the other about William Shatner. As my more devoted readership would already know, reading the newspaper almost always enrages me, and no good can come of it, except maybe a new blog post.
1.
So, first, Preston Manning’s father-worship piece.
Deep cleansing breath.
I haven’t read such an emotional, yet fascinatingly cold-hearted suck up/ praise/ celebration of white ruling-class masculinity in a very long time. Certainly not something at least mediated by quotes and footnotes and a feminist/ anti-racist/ post-modern critique.
This undiluted stuff is pretty harsh, astringent. Like Old Spice mixed with Liquid Drano. Basically, a bio-hazard.
Preston mentions, rather off handedly, that he was one year old the year his father was first elected premier. What follows is a sad, disconnected piece praising his father’s political “achievements”, but demonstrating nothing about who his father was as a person, since of course, Preston doesn’t have any access to that information or experience. Nor did he care to, apparently.
Pride Toronto doesn’t like the phrase “Israeli Apartheid”.
Well, maybe that’s not true.
But funders of Pride Toronto (namely, the City of Toronto) and key corporate sponsors of Pride Toronto, definitely don’t like the phrase “”Israeli Apartheid”.
This phrase has been described as “hateful” and as contravening the City’s anti-discrimination policy and as making some community members feel “uncomfortable”.
Excuse me while I scratch my head, then pound it on my desk.
The phrase, not identifying any person or group of people, but speaking to a governmental policy and ideology is not hateful toward Jews, Israelis, or even Zionists. Because of that, it doesn’t in any way contravene the City of Toronto’s anti-discrimination policy, abiding by which is part of the agreement of accepting City money.
So first, Pride Toronto tried to ban the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from marching in the Pride Parade this year. This didn’t work because like all smart grassroots activists, they aren’t an “official” group. The name isn’t registered anywhere, and nobody is “on the hook” at QuAIA to funders or anyone else.
The next move is to ban the use of the phrase Israeli Apartheid.
Wrong move.
At a press conference this morning, 23 people who have been honoured in the past and in the current year by Pride (Grand Marshall, Honorary Dyke and other awards) returned their awards with words of sadness, regret and shame, that Pride Toronto has become a censoring body in the face of corporate and government funders. All indicated that they would be proud to take back their awards if Pride Toronto rescinded the ban on the phrase Israeli Apartheid.
The list of refuseniks, as Elle Flanders, moderator of the press conference, referred to them:
