Harper’s conservatives have already proved that they’re not afraid to cut funding to artists and are only willing to backpedal when their move loses them crucial votes in Quebec.  They’ve also shown that when they do pull an about-face rhetorically, it usually ends up with those who lost out still losing out and new private sector initiatives getting the bulk of the benefit.  Now it looks like government is taking the same approach to another area of Canadian culture, the CBC.

In order to cope with financial woes and survive the current financial storm intact, Canada’s public broadcaster, which operates CBC TV and radio as well as Radio-Canada’s radio and television divisions, asked the Harper government for a bridge loan.  They were denied.  As a result, they announced on Thursday that they were going to lay off about 800 people to save $171 million.

Harper’s refusal to help out the CBC comes amidst talk of a financial bailout of Canada’s private broadcasters CTV GlobeMedia, CanWest and Quebecor which are also suffering financial difficulties.  This move seems perfectly in line with the Conservative’s preference of private over public and also makes one wonder about how much the government’s relationship with some of these private media companies plays into it.

On one hand, this doesn’t really make for good business in a purely capitalist sense.  What kind of business lets its own company fail while giving money to the competition?  On the other hand, this is surely a blow to the CBC and public broadcasting in Canada, an institution with a long, storied history.

This move has left many wondering what will become of the CBC and whether or not we are headed for a gutting of public broadcasting as we know it similar to what happened in the US under Bush.  CBC already airs a considerable amount of commercial American programming on its main TV network and with this refusal to help them out, one wonders if this trend will continue and increase.

In response, Avaaz.org Canada has started a petition to “save the CBC” which has already received over 53 000 signatures, you can add your voice here.

The Left has always been a fractured and fragmented place rife with disagreement and conflict about how best to challenge oppression and change the world. Can the days of disagreement between neo-Marxist-Leninist Communists and Third wave post-Anarcho-feminist radicals finally be over? Yes, according to Judy Rebick, who descended on Montreal recently with to promote her new book Transforming Power: From the Personal to Political which she claims is her best-written and most important yet. Activists in the 21st Century are putting aside their differences to focus on inclusion, dialogue, networking, solidarity, and critical praxis because they ”understand that the crisis is too great for differences of ego or ideologyto divide us from others who share the goals of social justice, equality, and environmental sustainability. (9)”

On Wednesday March 25 at 5 pm Judy Rebick began the eastern leg of her book tour in Montreal. The Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy in collaboration with the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University sponsored the launch. Ironically, in contrast to the book’s activist message of hope, the event was held in the in the brutalist concrete Samuel Bronfman Building, which is named after one of Montreal’s most prolific bootlegging capitalists.

Judy Rebick is a well-known social justice activist, educator , writer, and speaker. An activist at least from the age of 16 when she rejected religious beliefs, Judy has worked hard for social change in various Leftist circles such as feminism, socialism, and arts activism. She was recently arrested for occupying the Israeli consulate in protest against the bombing of Gaza. Judy Rebick is the founder of rabble.ca, helped create the New Politics Initiative, and is the author of several books and articles, most recently Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution (Penguin 2005).  Her other books are Imagine Democracy (Stoddard 2000) and Politically Speaking (Douglas & McIntyre 1996). Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political is her fourth book.

“Transforming Power” looks at social developments such as the election of President Obama, the rise of democracy in Bolivia, and the success of Wikipedia, and analyses key processes at work: “bringing communities of people together to produce something new; building a movement from the bottom up; sharing experience, knowledge and wisdom; emphasizing co-operation and consensus over confrontation and political partisanship.”

Before launching into her talk, Judy Rebick gave a slideshow presentation to the gathered crowd about the places she visited, people she met, and activist struggles she encountered while writing the book. Her speech focussed on the circumstances behind her new book and why she is championing “new ways of achieving political goals by emphasizing co-operation and consensus over confrontation and partisanship.” Realizing the need for more inclusion in the Left, Judy Rebick advocates doing away with the divisions of yesteryear and working towards solidarity and convergence on activist issues.

Judy Rebick is calling for meaningful responses to the environmental crisis and social injustices across the planet.  She notes that substantial, sustainable change is needed at every level, and suggests this “can only come through building power from the grass roots, from the people most impacted.” Her book is designed to help us “discover the ideas, the people and the practices that can provide the paths to the change we need.”

Even the book’s website is designed to empower. The Transforming Power website is meant to be a continuous epilogue for the book. Readers of “Transforming Power” who wish to dig deeper into the book’s content will find tools and information necessary to begin the work that Judy urges throughout her book; work against oppression and injustice that has already begun across the globe.Visitors are encouraged to read and respond to Judy’s blog, and even post their own entries about where they see power being transformed in their very own community.

According to the site: “One of the most important things that one can do to transform power is to become organized and connected with others who share similar goals. In order to facilitate this, we have provided a forum for visitors to the site to explain the work they are doing in their community and to help aid in the networking that Judy discusses throughout the book.”

Judy Rebick is an inspiration to theatre activists, and her theories on the importance of inclusion and the need for activism to be “fun” are very much at play within local organizations such as the infringement festival. By following the same grassroots principles as LINUX, existing systems can be challenged and replaced with more viable and less oppressive alternatives. The Optative Theatrical Laboratories heartily recommends getting a copy of this book and starting the journey towards a better future, another world where injustice and oppression are stamped out and humans live sustainably and in peace. To buy the book online, click on the Octopus Books website here.

Montreal hosts North America’s oldest St. Patrick’s Day parade, which started officially in 1817, even though its roots go back as far as 1759.  With such an ancient history by Canadian standards, many assume that the parade is steeped in authenticity. After witnessing the parade this year, however, many viewers were left with the impression that the event was mostly a military and police parade and with lots of corporate advertising and very little trace of Irish authenticity, history or meaningful celebration.

Usually scheduled on the Sunday closest to March 17, St. Patrick’s Day proper, this year the parade was moved up a week to Sunday the 22nd, allegedly in hopes of having better weather. There is speculation that parade organizers were concerned about spillover into the parade from last Sunday’s anti-police brutality demonstration, which could have created a dangerous situation. Police firing tear gas into the parade crowd and clashing violently with demonstrators could easily have provoked a riot. Organizers also surprised the public by banning Falun Dafa activists from the parade despite their marching presence for over 5 years. Parade spokesperson Gerald Showers attempted to explain the rationale behind the ban by suggesting The Falun Gong practitioners “have a hard time with instructions,” and that “we’ve asked them repeatedly to stop giving out pamphlets that depict torture and some of the reasons why they’re in the parade.” Gerald Showers, representing the United Irish Societies of Montreal, claimed: “We have very clear rules about parade conduct, and people who don’t adhere to the rules aren’t asked back…The parade is a celebration, not a demonstration.”

Replacing the Falun Dafa activists accused of holding a “demonstration” against oppression was a demonstration of military power. After giving the activists the boot, Gerald Showers boasted of his replacement “celebration”:

“Between 12:50 and 1:10 p.m. two CF-18 fighter jets…from CFB Bagotville will fly about four fly-pasts from west to east (over the parade)…From 1:20 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. we’ll have three CH-146 Griffon helicopters doing four fly-pasts.”

It was difficult to understand how the United Irish Societies chose to differentiate between “demonstration” and “celebration”; while activists accused of “demonstrating” were banned, the massive military presence was deemed a “celebration,” despite the fact that the British imperialist history of these forces is clearly at odds with the Irish experience. Indeed, because Canada was colonized and created by Great Britain and because Canada’s head of state is still the Queen of England, these military units are essentially cut from the same cloth as the oppressive British forces that provoked historical Irish tragedies such as the Great Famine and Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

The latest edition of the St. patrick’s Day parade, its 185th, began with a phalanx of decidedly non-Irish security forces marching, such as the Montreal Police, RCMP, and Canadian military.

Indeed, the majority of the parade involved military units, secret societies and corporations marching, advertising both violent warfare and consumer products. The most shocking reality advertisement was by the clothing store L’Equipeur, who had people carry their billboards at regular intervals throughout the parade, much like a repetitive commercial on TV (albeit one that cannot be muted or blocked out)! L’Equipeur and parent company Mark’s Work Warehouse certainly deserve to be boycotted en masse for polluting the parade with their corporate spam. Many other corporate advertisements played prominently throughout the parade, and in contrast to the life-affirming, yet banned Falun Gong practitioners, one reality ad appeared for the francophone Urgel Bourgie funeral home.

As though Gerald Showers’ corporate “celebration” wasn’t enough already, true to his word, military helicopters and fighter jets flew past overhead in an intimidating performance, drowning out all sounds of human celebration with their noise pollution.

Following the parade, police became more heavy-handed than usual. After arresting 221 people last Sunday, the Montreal police warned parade-goers against celebrating too heartily with a posting on the official parade site:

“1. Civil behaviour toward all event participants is expected. 2. Montreal’s public assets and urban furniture belong to the entire population: please treat them with respect. 3. The consumption of alcohol is strictly prohibited on public roads.”

The police made good on their threats to rain on the parade and arrested 10 celebrants, mostly for “public drunkenness” according to Montreal police Constable Raphaël Bergeron. Following the parade, revellers headed to the nearby bars on Crescent, Bishop and Mackay Streets. There are reports that around 4:30 p.m., after being provoked by police over 300 revellers spilled over into the parking lot between Crescent and Bishop. There was a standoff, and police dispersed the crowd with a group of about 20 officers.

A group of six police officers on bicycles were also seen arresting two young men, with one officer screaming, “he’s the one,” while another officer grabbed a man who was heading into the Pharmaprix on the corner of Ste. Catherine and Guy St. The man’s head was slammed into the glass window of the store as police handcuffed him, and then dragged him away into a police van.

Culturally-speaking, this parade demonstrated firstly how weak, diluted, and scattered Irish-Canadian culture has become, and secondly, how easy it is for oppressive powers like corporations and military units to co-opt and profit from vulnerable cultures. The sad thing is that until Montrealers of Irish heritage start standing up for their culture, their culture will continue to erode and deteriorate only to be replaced with a parasitic and ersatz corporate culture where profit and marketing takes precedence over real Irish heritage.

The first-ever Roman Fee Theatre Award was handed out on Thursday, March 19, 2009, in the Grand Salon of Montreal’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. The Donor and Student Excellence Recognition Ceremony was presided over by Concordia University President Judith Woodsworth, who handed out various awards and bursaries to graduate and undergraduate students across all faculties and for various successes.

Ms. Woodsworth and Diane Slonosky, the aunt of the late Roman Fee, presented the Roman Fee Theatre Award on behalf of the Department Of Theatre to Deborah Forde, a hard-working and talented Theatre and Development student and youth worker. Recognized for her success in community-building and using theatre as a tool to empower youth, Deborah Forde embraces social justice and shares many of the ideals of the late Roman Fee.

The Roman Fee Theatre Award was established in 2007 in the memory of Roman Fee, a Montreal-born social worker, activist, and theatre artist. Known to use theatre as a tool for social empowerment and to challenge oppression, Roman was a passionate advocate for marginalized communities. In addition to his career as a social worker in Vermont, over the years he worked with various Montreal-based theatre organizations such the Wahoo Family Theatre Company, the Optative Theatrical Laboratories, and the Montreal infringement festival. Roman also appeared in Tetsuro Shigematsu’s film “Yellow Fellas”

He is remembered fondly by family, friends and colleagues as a talented performer who daily demonstrated optimism, integrity, friendliness, diplomacy, professionalism, humour, and commitment to others. He is especially missed by members of the Optative Theatrical Laboratories, the producers of this blog and a lot of theatre activism in Montreal.

The award was created to not only honour the late Mr. Roman Fee, but to keep his memory alive by empowering those who share his commitment to helping others, often through theatrical means. Awards of this nature can be very empoweriing as donors fondly remember their loved ones while recipients benefit both through financial support and by being recognized for their valuable work. Donors and recipients also share stories and anecdotes, keeping the memory alive while embodying remarkable legacies, such as that of the late Roman Fee.

The Roman Fee Theatre Award is currently non-renewable (it will be handed out for 3 years), but fundraising efforts are planned in the future to try and make the award permanent. Stay tuned to this blog for more details!

Once there was a girl who got married and the basket of apples handed over by the family symbolized fertility, fun, wealth and healthy relationships, not the proof that she was a pure virgin. Then I woke up and realized I was in Yerevan, marching with some women about that virginity rite! Bloody hell it can’t be true!

On this past International Women’s Day, Yerevan Womens Center (WRC) marched through the streets of Armenia’s largest city brandishing signs against the Red Apple ritual symbolizing the of piercing the hymen, but the protest was largely modified to adapt to local sensitivities. Initially the center was going to walk down the street costumed as a huge apple but decided eventually to tone it down, as some might think it was a protest against the choice to keep one’s virginity.

“The march went really well,” said a staff member of the WRC, “we buried 5 apples in the yard, the media was there… but you know, there were so many disturbing blogs and mysogynist discussion created and stirred because of our march…. but whatever, it was still good.”

They carried signs that read “rights before flowers” and distributed leaflets marked with “don’t give up and think you are powerless.” As they marched, many men chanted insulting and sexist one-liners as the marchers explained that International Women’s Day wasn’t a cheap rip off of Valentines Day. It ended with a burial ceremony of apples, not as expected in a public park, but in the Women’s Center backyard.

In brief, a normal protest. A lot of women have analyzed The Ritual of the Red Apple as being an application of patriarchy. The ritual itself is at its root a test of bridal virginity. This a problematic issue, because of double standards, but also generally one that diminishes women’s mobility and status before and within a partnership of marriage, while it reinforces the bride’s body as family property.

However, Armenians (mostly men) see “problems” in defying traditions as well. In a society where there is no gender analysis in the view of “tradition” and “culture” generally, this whole initiative sparked very intense and fiery discussions online and in the streets which I see as a much needed stirring of a patriarchal society’s denial that “anything is wrong”. Blogs indicated a strong link that cultural integrity is associated with preserving female purity and where desecration of rituals is seen as the evil work of feminism and not say, oh…western capitalist imperialism, with its SUVs, pollution, and popification of traditional Armenian dance and music.

The police told the marchers to turn back. This was not the first time this happened. But on International Women’s Day, this was too much. After some negotiations, the march continued. Local men, including the infiltrators also harassed the women by chanting: “Uzum enq! [We want!], Hima! [Now!].” Which i am assuming means “we want it now”, sexually speaking. Of course, in the fight for dignity, when it rains, it pours.

A local female artist and musician said of this misunderstanding of women: “you know, Mel (moment of silence) this march showed me that men have a deep hate of women…it was so apparent…now I understand that when my dad would beat my mom, it wasn’t just that, I think now that he really really hated her.”

Another added: “They are just a bunch of fascists, I had to take him [a man chanting] aside, to prevent the other girls from getting discouraged. He was all red, huffing and puffing, I called him a fascist because that’s what he is, a nationalist who thinks women’s dignity is anti-nationalist. Then i told him to think of his sister and mother a bit. That shut him up, and quickly too.”

The Women’s center still has a lot of work to do not only to change things in society but simply to exist without resistance. But is that new? Is that only in Armenia? Far from it. Armenia can pride itself as one of the more liberal and open minded nations in the Caucasus region and the only reason criticism is so rampant is because at least it permits it to be that way. Women protesters in Istambul on March 8th, for example, were severely beaten by police. As a rich ancient cultural center Armenians are justified in fearing the annhiliation of their culture, but on the other hand, when men prevent women from voicing violence against them, the men clearly are ’self-annhiliating’ their own soceity. 50% is 50%.

As one piece of art hanging in Utopiana exclaims: “Brnutyune Atad che” or “violence is not a tradition!” The point of all these debates should be whether or not the Red Apple is violent psychologically and physically. If not, no other productive discussion can continue.

In the end, the women laid a garland and a commemorative picture of the Red Apple in the backyard of the Women’s center and buried the five apples underground, where they belong. They broke the symbolic association of apples with the “purity and chastity” between women’s legs. I think these women have more cultural integrity than anyone in the country who professes dominance as a nationalist value.

* Photos on this post by Onnik Krikorian, licensed under Creative Commons

Six years ago this past Monday, 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, who grew up in Olympia, Washington and traveled to the Gaza Strip as a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she defended the home of a Palestinian pharmacist in Rafah.  Her memory, though, seems like it cannot be crushed and has only grown.

She kept a journal from when she was a small child and continued writing before and during her trip to Palestine.  That, along with a series of e-mails she sent to her parents became the text of My Name Is Rachel Corrie, a play edited by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner.

It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London with actress Megan Dodds as Rachel and was an instant success.  Its American premier was scheduled to be in 2006 at The New York Theatre Workshop, but was abruptly cancelled, er, postponed, according to a statement.

The play and Rachel herself had become a symbol of what was happening to the Palestinian people that people in the west and in particular the United States could identify with.  She was a passionate and talented writer and her words humanized a situation that was distant for many.  This, for some, was dangerous.

A memorial to Rachel Corrie (2007)

“In our pre-production planning and our talking around and listening in our communities in New York,” artistic director James Nicola told the New York Times, “what we heard was that after Ariel Sharon’s illness and the election of Hamas, we had a very edgy situationWe found that our plan to present a work of art would be seen as us taking a stand in a political conflict that we didn’t want to take.”

Many in the New York theatre community and in communities around the world saw this as censorship for political reasons.  From underground artists to Vanessa Redgrave and Harold Pinter, voices rose to oppose Rachel’s voice being silenced once again.  Some of the voices opposed to the censorship decided to start a viral theatre project called Rachel’s Words and placed some of Rachel’s e-mails from Palestine on the web and encouraged groups in communities around the world to read them on the anniversary of her death.  They did.

In Montreal, OTL staged Rachels Words with Rachel’s e-mails read by actress Cassandra Witteman.  This was preceded by The Words About The Words, a verbatim theatre script taken from all the raised voices in the media and online debating the censorship of the play from both sides.

video from the Montreal reading of Rachel’s Words (2006)

In addition to raising awareness about Rachel’s story and what people in Gaza were going through, Rachel’s Words raised money for The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice.  The foundation hosts forums, gives out a scholarship and helps to finance projects such as The Rebuilding Project to rebuild the Nasrallah home that Rachel died protecting and The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project.  In general, it hopes to continue the work that Rachel began.  Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie sit on the board.

Despite the global outcry and show of solidarity, Rachels Words were censored again by CanStage in Toronto when they cancelled their proposed production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie for similar reasons as the NYTW later the same year.

The play eventually made its way to the New York stage when the Minetta Lane Theatre  finally staged it off-Broadway in October 2006 with Dodds as Rachel and was presented in Canada as a co-production between Vancouver’s Neworld Theatre and Montreal’s Teesri Duniya Theatre in 2007 and 2008 with Adrienne Wong as Corrie.  It has since been staged in many different cities.

promo image for Neworld Theatre/Teesri Duniya production

Hardships and war in Gaza haven’t gone away, as was made perfectly clear with the bombardment a few months ago.  Neither have the voices speaking out against occupation and oppression, be they prominent or not.  Rachel’s voice is still among them.

On Monday, Theaters Against War and Rachels Words combined readings of Rachel’s e-mails wtih a reading of Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children written in response to the events in Gaza this past January.  They also ran some videos of those events as part of an evening in tribute to Rachel’s memory.  Musicians have written and continue to write songs about and for Rachel and artists and activists around the world still continue to mark her death and remember her life.  Many use the occasion to reflect not only on her and what she stood for but for those she fought and died to protect.

Rachel Corrie’s words are still with us and the world is better for it.

March 15th marked the 13th International Day Against Police Brutality, and in Montreal the mood was tense after an unusually brutal year whereby police officers killed a young man after they found him playing dice with his friends. Early in the evening on August 9th, 2008, 18 year old Fredy Villanueva was shot dead at point-blank range by Constable Jean-Loup Lapointe, as his accomplice, Stéphanie Pilotte, looked on. After killing the unarmed Villanueva, Lapointe went on to shoot two of the other youth present, one of them in the back. In Montreal police abuse is systemic, and there are special concerns about racial profiling, harassment of the disadvantaged, and police brutality in general.

Protest Against Police Brutality

Protesters met at 2 p.m. in front of Mount Royal metro station to express their displeasure with the Montreal police and their brutal ways. Organized by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP), the protesters are demanding justice for victims of police brutality and the end of police oppression. The COPB also provides legal information for people who are threatened by police.

Unfortunately most years in Montreal the International Day Against Police Brutality turns violent once police begin attacking protesters. Ironically by instigating violence against those opposing police brutality, the police actually highlight the message that they are, in fact, brutal. Last year there were over 30 arrests after police turned violent.

Dramatically-speaking, it has been a farcical year in Montreal with the police attempting to control the theatre in the streets, demanding the banning of masks and even attempting to make illegal certain types of discourse, script or language. Exacerbating these problems is the fact that the police not only want to curtail critical drama on the streets, but they have also upped the stakes of their own intimidating performance;  allegedly as a form of protest for higher wages, police have altered their uniform/costume by dressing up in military fatigues. Despite the fact that the mayor of Montreal has asked police to act professionally and not to wear the camoflage pants at the protest, the police refused, essentially creating provocative recipe for violence.

The protest began at 2 p.m. at Mount Royal metro station. Usually a bustling square, the public space was transformed into a huge carnivalesque gathering place, with protesters preparing to march as the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble rehearsed.

Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble rehearsing

The crowd was thick with arts-activists and many people wore masks of all varieties, a reminder of the recent victory against the attempted mask-ban.

Lovely dramatic masks

One man even dressed up as a Taser to raise awareness about the deadly police weapons.

Taser costume

Visiting the fringes of the gathering was a surreal experience, as critical citizens and dramatic voices melted away to what resembled a police state. Hidden in alleyways were riot cops, two helicopters buzzed overhead, and vans full of police officers lined surrounding streets.

Police chopper overhead

More overtly, a few lines of riot cops were visible on most sides of the square. One officer belonging to the very police force that attempted to ban masks was actually spotted wearing two masks himself.

Officer wearing 2 masks

Even more bizarrely, the horses of the cavalry unit were actually outfitted with riot masks.

Even police horses wore masks

At 2:30 p.m. the crowd began to surge and move. The marching band started playing, vegetables were thrown and fireworks exploded in the air, adding to the festive atmosphere. The line of riot police had to get out of the way at 2:50 p.m. as the protest surged to the west towards the tony Saint Denis street, which was quickly inundated with protesters chanting “A qui la rue? A nous la rue!” The Reclaim the Streets action quickly shut down traffic in both directions, and the avenue of pricey consumerism was transformed into a theatre of protest, complete with activist couples dancing as the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble played on.

Dancing in the streets

As the carnivalesque march moved south, at around 3:25 p.m. it was greeted by a wall of riot cops on Saint Denis and Sherbrooke streets. Rather than let the dramatic march continue, police fired tear gas at the crowd, who responded by pelting their own projectiles such as vegetables, eggs, and paint bombs.

Police fire tear gas at activists

The police responded with more tear gas and strategies to divide and disperse the crowd. Activists broke into smaller groups and police played cat and mouse with many of them throughout the afternoon, with reports of rubber bullets being fired at demonstrators. How many people were injured by the police is the subject of speculation, but there is evidence that over 200 people were arrested, an unusually high number for a march of this nature. Shell casings retieved following the police tear gas attack revealled that the chemical weapon is actually called “Direct Impact”.

police chemical weapon casing

Upon reflection, this important protest was very theatrical in nature. As activists struggled for control of the street performance to get the critical message out, police cracked down on the show with their own brutal theatricality. It was empowering to see activists countering the police’s helicopters, cavalry units, tear gas shells, and military costumes – with fireworks, a DIY marching band, Reclaim the Streets, dramatic performances, and a strong, clear message that every Montrealer should heed - no more police brutality!

Every person has a history and every group of people does, too.  What happens, though, when the history of two or more groups took place in the same geographic space?  Generally, that of the socio-economically, politically and militarily dominant group sets the narrative.

One only has to look back a few weeks to the recent debate over the proposed re-enactment of the battle of the plains of Abraham to see two dominant historical groups, the French and the English, essentially fighting over whether the historic defeat of one group at the hands of the other should be celebrated or mourned, ignoring completely a third group, Native people, whose own history has been almost erased.

The historic battle of the Plains of Abraham

A similar such situation happened last summer during the celebrations of Quebec’s 400th anniversary.  While discussions raged over who was to be in charge of the festivities and whether it should take a Quebec or Canada slant, the fact that they were commemorating the colonizing of another group’s land was left almost completely out of the discourse.

Around the same time, plans were afoot in Montreal to completely destroy any historical trace of the Irish communities that had originally settled in Griffintown and replace it with an elaborate  shopping mall.  Griffintown, is therefore quite an appropriate place for a discussion on how to reconcile many histories in one community and tonight it will be.

Griffintown redevelopment plans

A Changing Community is the name of a discussion taking place tonight.  It’s organized by the University of the Streets Café, hopes to find out how we can have a better understanding of the various histories that exist in Montreal today and asks if our diverse collective histories need to be merged into one unified story or if the multiplicity of stories can exist as their own narratives.

Historian and community archivist for the Black Studies Center Dorothy Williams will be the special guest and the event is being moderated by Lise Palmer, Youth Project Coordinator at the Quebec Community Groups Network.

It runs from 7-9pm and takes place at Café Griffintown, 1378, rue Notre-Dame Ouest, corner de la Montagne.

International Women’s Day is a yearly event that raises awareness about women’s issues across the planet, and has been doing so since 1911 after activist Clara Zetkin called for its creation in Copenhagen, Denmark. Created unanimously within a union hall called Folkets Hus (“The People’s House”), International Women’s Day has not shown any signs of abating over the decades. The ongoing global fight for gender equality and the end of abusive patriarchal behaviour continues to this day, and International Women’s Day is one strategy that brings together women and supporters to celebrate achievements while resisting patriarchy and demanding positive social change. It is a struggle fraught with challenges and nowhere on the planet has patriarchal oppression entirely disappeared. Ironically, one needs only look as far as Copenhagen where the movement began. In 2007 the historic and symbolic union hall where Clara Zetkin first created International Women’s Day was intentionally demolished – by a patriarchal Christian group calling itself Faderhuset (“The father’s house”) no less.

This year International Women’s Day fell on Sunday March 8, and in Montreal an event called “WONDER WOMEN” was created by local female artists. An evening of music and performances, the event was designed to “highlight the number of women who participate in Montreal’s cultural community and to raise awareness about the challenges that come with working in part-time, flex-time, contract, piecework, work-at-home, and other atypical conditions.” According to organizers: “These working environments do not provide a living wage. Rather, they keep women underemployed and in constant need of community support.” Living and working in the neigbourhood with Canada’s highest concentration of artists is a constant challenge, and many artists who cannot afford to live on their craft alone must work. As such, many of the workers on the Main lead double lives as artists, and “WONDER WOMEN” featured some of the best:

ANASTASIA LOMONOVA
AURESIA
BANANA AND THE FLYING COLORS
BITCHIN’ KITCHEN w/NADIA G.
CAMILLE McOUAT
CATCHFRAMES
CHRISTINE RIGBY
DEBORAH ADAMS DESIGN
ELLY ABRAMOVITCH
GRLFRNZ
FOCUS ALEATOIRE
JEANETTE HATHERILL
JULIA LOAN
KRISTI ROPELESKI
LADIES’ LUNCHEON
MAPLE FALLS
SUSAN MOSS
SVEA JONES
‘LADY LIKE’ DESIGNS

The evening was a truly interdisciplinary event with a vernissage of paintings and photographs alongside live music and theatre performances.  Strong and inspiring female characters peppered the evening, including Madonna, Freida Khalo, Rosie the Riveter, Lucile Ball and Wonder Woman herself.

Assuming the role of Lucile Ball, nursing student and bartender Eli Merkis performed because she feels strongly about gender equality: “Lucile could pull off anything – she could do it all. She didn’t want to fake anything about her life – her career, her dreams, her achievements – except her hair colour. She was a real pioneer and paved the way for women in film, for women in charge, and for proving that it’s not just men who can be sucessful both onscreen and off. She even broke a taboo by being the first woman on television to be visibly pregnant.”

Attesting to the popularity of the “WONDER WOMEN” performance was a packed house that cheered heartily all evening long. Erik Hamon, a male member of the audience, enjoyed the International Women’s Day performance because it “not only draws attention to issues affecting women today, but it also showcases extremely talented artists and performers.” Tim Hardman, another male spectator, exclaimed: “Patriarchy is useless. After all, when we sleep we are all equal in our dreams, so why not when we are awake?” Guests were invited to put pink handprints onto canvas to help create artwork opposing violence against women. These were sold later on, with proceeds going to women’s charities.

Behind the scenes, the organizing team is associated with an advocacy group called “The Main for women” who are putting feminist issues under the spotlight in for those living and working in the  Montreal historic site:

“the main boulevard has always been proud to call itself a liberal, all inclusive haven for workers of all industries to unite in the comforts of its cultural and material expressions. we’re trying to reinstate the values of our community by putting women’s rights back on the main agenda.”

A survey of female workers on the Main such as bartenders, waitresses, and other service staff reveals prominent concerns about the job environment: sexist attitudes and sexual harassment are prevalent from both staff and customers, there are expectations of objectification (e.g. “dressing up” to sell more product), it is difficult to get access to labour standards, getting home safely is no easy matter, and job security is non-existent.

Laura Nagy, one of the chief organizers of the collective hopes to bridge the gap between atypical workers, women artists, and women working in the service industry. She believes The Main is symbolic because it represents the main street of any city, and hence the best place to put women’s rights in the spotlight and on the agenda.

The Main for women collective plans to arrange a deal with ATLAS taxi company to ensure female staff can get home safely, and challenges are being launched against the hypersexualization of women through the group REBELLES, whereby sexist advertising has been culture-jammed with anti-sexist stickers. An action is planned for Worker’s Day and on May 4 organizations such as the CSN, Commission de normes du travail du Quebec, and WomenAware will meet to further discuss the agenda and take action against patriarchal oppression in the workplace.

Overall, International Women’s Day has once again proven itself to be a great opportunity to challenge sexist thinking through theatrical performance. Hearty applause goes to the female workers and artists who put the show together to raise awareness and challenge the oppressive patriarchal system that permeates our society.

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Any feminist and specifically Montreal feminists will tell you that the battle for gender equality is under attack every single minute of our lives.

When its not Harper bashing long- earned rights such as equal pay, chewing away at access to safe abortion or closing the Women’s Commission, it’s Father’s Rights or Fathers-For Life groups lashing out at feminists for not hearing God’s words, or their words, or whoever’s words.

This time around, a right-wing Quebec religious pro-life group ”Quebec Campagne-vie”  (Quebec Life Campaign) will be performing a 40 day vigil in front of the Morgentaler Clinic, a place providing safe accessible abortions, on the corner of St-Joseph and St-Laurent.  They are protesting what they see as baby-burning child-eating, godless women who seek to put an end to their pregnancy, for countless and sometimes desperate reasons.

Quite poignantly, their vigil begins during Lent, a Christian period of fasting and prayer preceding Easter.  It represents the time Jesus spent in the desert, where, according to the Bible, he endured temptation by Satan.  As I said: godless, baby-eating witches….

La Riposte, a grassroots pro-choice feminist collective, are gathering women once or twice a week to oppose the vigil in hopes of outnumbering Quebec Campagne-vie.

Their gatherings are non-mixed, simply meaning ‘no boys allowed’ which I believe is designed to make a point and show the integrity of the cause and the simplicity of the issue at hand.  This is not a battleground for bigger moral dilemmas, it’s not a war of ideas, it’s simply a ‘female’ issue.

The collective also organizes massive reappropriative workshops and conferences such as discussions on witches and other sterotypes associated with free women.

Like women’s bodies, abrotion clinics are renowned for being the battlegrounds of bigger social and moral  issues.  In the US and Canada clinics have been bombed and some doctors even killed.  Staff and members are often stalked and physically and mentally threatened.

Some pro-lifers have taken to more drastic means such as arson to prevent people from using these facilities.  In the U.S, 3 doctors, 2 clinic employees, a security guard, and a clinic escort have been killed in the past 10 years.

Women who often go through a very difficult period before deciding to abort often, as in the case of the Vigil at the Morgentaller,  face a parade of loud, intimidating men and women screaming:  ”you will go to hell”  ”baby killer” and ”murderer.”  Sometimes they brandish huge photos of (photoshopped or not) mutliated, sacrified and burned foetuses.  This time, the vigil will simply make a point about guilt and sin and the spirit of babies without the extreme fits associated with pro-lifers.

The battle for free and safe abortions has been incredibly rough in Canada and the states.  For example, abortion in Canada is not yet technically legal as there is no law indicating whether it is legal or not.  This means officials and legislators (incidentlaly +90% men) do not want to debate, know or think about the issue. Take that for complacency!

In Brazil and other south American countries women who are found to have had  (illegal or backalley) abortions are targets of fines, risk imprisonment and are forced to do community work in schools, kindergartens or nurseries.  Who says the state can’t psychologically harass you!

Quebec’s grassroots feminism is strong and alive, if not massively opposed and underground.  These women, young and old, fight uncompromisingly for the autonomy of women’s bodies.   Simply put they want people to: “address social issues, not women’s bodies” and “keep your laws out of my vag, out of my body.”  The lack of women’s rights to our bodies has often been associated with the historical view associating femininity with a meek mind and therefore lack of control over our own fate and bodies.

As I say, I am pro-life AND pro-choice and in other words, they say ”I’m pro-faith, pro-family, pro-health and pro-choice.”  Use that for a banner!

Contact La Riposte to make your Lent period more exciting: their next meeting is Thursday March 12 at 5:30 , corner St-Joseph and St-Laurent near the clinic.  You can also reach them by e-mail at collectiflariposte@gmail.com