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AUKUS Pact: How Will Canada Be Impacted?

The military dealings of Canada’s allies in the Pacific Ocean might play a large role in the future of Chinese-Canadian diplomatic relations.

On Sept. 15, the heads of state of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States unveiled a trilateral security pact that will serve to expand the three nations’ military influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The pact is more commonly known by its acronym AUKUS.

This deal comes after years of Australia’s tiptoeing on a diplomatic tightrope between American and Chinese partnerships, cementing the nation’s relationship with the U.S. for the near future. The agreement will put into place the construction of tomahawk cruise missiles, extended range joint air-to-surface standoff missiles, long-range anti-ship missiles, and most notably, nuclear-powered submarines, which will all be sent to the Australian military.

According to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the country “received overwhelming support when it came to Australia moving ahead to establish a nuclear submarine fleet for Australia to ensure that we could contribute to the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific.”

This deal will make use of British and American technologies and resources to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, vessels Australia has not acquired until now. The increase in size of Australia’s fleet will make patrolling the Pacific and Indian oceans easier as it looks out for what it perceives to be its biggest threat: China’s growing military presence in the region.

According to Dr. Julian Spencer-Churchill, Concordia political science professor and former Canadian Forces captain, “The issue AUKUS is attempting to solve revolves around power and values. Xi Jinping differs from his predecessors because he is dramatically more totalitarian: he’ll stop at very little to achieve some sense of greatness. Whether that’s the Spratly Islands, Taiwan, or the Uyghurs, he wants it all. These countries [involved in AUKUS] are trying to curtail his influence and get him to back down through military buildups.”

Due to the most prominent feature of AUKUS being Australia’s submarine program, many countries have reacted in a variety of ways, ranging from excitement to condemnation. For instance, the Indian government, which has been in heated armed disputes with China in the Himalayas, welcomed this partnership. The Japanese government has reacted with similar satisfaction due to its disputes with China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

On the other hand, one of the harshest critics of AUKUS has been France, which saw its nearly $66 billion contract with Australia for the construction of diesel-electric submarines scuttled with little notice before the new deal was announced. Another more obvious detractor of this deal is China, which views the trilateral agreement as an impediment to its influence in the Pacific.

On the day AUKUS was announced, many were quick to notice Canada’s absence in the deal. While the Conservative Party was eager to take a stance in favour of joining AUKUS and criticizing Trudeau for not signing on, the Prime Minister stated that Canada had no interest in acquiring nuclear submarines, and that the country had nothing to offer in this matter.

Canada remains a member of the Five Eyes partnership, meaning it will still receive tactical information from the three nations involved in the pact. Critics of the AUKUS deal view it as a stern finger-wag at China, but its long-term impact remains to be seen.

While the tension between the Chinese and Canadian governments is still present, all hope for diplomacy and civility is not lost. On Sept. 24, it was announced that Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians trapped in China for over a thousand days, will be returning home. In return, Meng Wanzhou, a Huawei executive trapped in Canada for just as long, will also be returning to her home country. If the AUKUS nations and their allies choose to pursue a more diplomatic approach, much could be in store on the global political stage.

 

Graphic by James Fay

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Sports

Colour Commentary: Canadians shine at U.S. Open

The final Grand Slam event of the year put Montreal athletes in the spotlight

The 2021 U.S. Open Tennis Championships were held in New York City, but it was the Montreal-natives that captivated the North American masses at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The 141st edition of the fourth and final Grand Slam event of the year saw Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez reach the women’s finals against Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu. The 19-year-old Fernandez lost in straight sets rather convincingly but would climb from 73rd in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings before the tournament to 28th following her inspiring finals run. 

On the other hand, the 18-year-old Raducanu went from qualifier to champion on Saturday, winning all her matches without dropping a single set. She also became the youngest female Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004. 

Here’s some more historical bombshells about their meeting on Saturday; Raducanu and Fernandez’s matchup was the first major final between two teenagers since Serena Williams, 17, beat Martina Hingis, 18, at the 1999 U.S. Open. It was also the first finals in the professional era, which began in 1968, to feature two unseeded women. 

So it’s safe to say the women stole the show, but what about the men?

Montreal’s very own Felix Auger-Aliassime made an improbable and exciting run to the semifinals but lost to the eventual tournament winner on the men’s side, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. Even so, Auger-Aliassime overcame a big hurdle in his young career by making it as far as he did.

If the women’s final was refreshing and exhilarating, the men’s final was predictable simply by comparison: world number one Novak Djokovic against the number two ranked Medvedev. 

But the competitive stakes couldn’t have been higher. 

Djokovic was chasing something that hadn’t been done in over 50 years; a calendar Grand Slam. The Serbian tennis icon won the first three majors of the year coming into the tournament, while Medvedev was looking to cement his place in history by winning his first Grand Slam. 

Medvedev won, an outcome that wasn’t entirely out of the question given his status as number two in the world. What was shocking to most spectators was how dominant he looked against Djokovic in his victory by straight sets. Medvedev dictated the finals with his serve and never seemed phased despite the pressure of the moment. 

Over the past few years, Canadian tennis players have shown an ever-increasing ability to perform well on the biggest stages in the sport, displaying not only the consistency it takes to succeed but also the skill needed to be the best. 

The 2021 U.S. Open was another feather to Canada’s impressive tennis resume, and I’m excited to see how the athletes and the nation’s fanbase develop from here.

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Vaccine passports: an inevitable measure in a post-COVID reality?

As Canada ramps up its vaccination efforts across provinces, the government tries to determine the best options for a gradual return to normalcy

The United States and the European Union have started outlining what fully vaccinated people can and cannot do, especially when it comes to international travel. While vaccinated Canadians are not granted special freedoms thus far, the Trudeau government is closely monitoring the idea of “vaccine passports.”

The concept of an immunization passport has already been in use well before the COVID-19 pandemic. In Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, many nations require international travellers to show proof of vaccination, particularly against yellow fever, polio, or meningitis.

This time, however, vaccine passports might also be required for daily life activities even within Canada.

Israel, currently the most vaccinated country in the world against COVID-19, has already defined privileges for vaccine passport holders. Those who present a green pass on their smartphone are allowed to dine in restaurants and exercise in gyms, as well as attend mass sporting events.

“I really wanted to get the vaccine to finally be able to enjoy the country,” said Ora Bar, a Concordia student currently living in Tel Aviv. She added, “If you want to go to a restaurant and eat indoors, you need to have the pass. Without it, I couldn’t even enter to go to the restroom.”

Officials in the United Kingdom are also developing COVID-19 passports, which would show that a person has received either the vaccine or a recent negative COVID test, or has gained partial immunity after contracting the virus in the last six months. Later this April, such proof may be required to safely attend soccer stadiums, concert venues, and nightclubs.

However, in the U.S., immunization passports have become a controversial topic fuelling political and ethical debates. Currently, 47 per cent of Americans are opposed to government-sponsored COVID passports, while a violation of privacy and freedom has been the most common concern raised by the general public.

On April 2, vaccine passports were banned in Florida as Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order that prohibited all businesses from requiring proof of vaccination from their customers. A few days later, he was joined by Texas Governor Greg Abbott who also outlawed such measures in his state.

“Government should not require any Texan to show proof of vaccination and reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives … Don’t tread on our personal freedoms,” stated Abbott on Twitter.

Meanwhile, New York became the first U.S. state to implement a digital vaccine passport. If one were to attend a baseball game, a play or a wedding reception, they would be required to show their vaccination papers. Now, New Yorkers can simply present a QR code via Excelsior Pass, an IBM-powered application available on both Apple and Android for free.

As for Canada, it is still too early to be thinking about relaxed COVID-related restrictions even for vaccinated Canadians, according to Justin Trudeau. The prime minister has made it clear that “we’re still in the middle of a very serious third wave.”

The Trudeau government is primarily focusing on mass vaccination instead of the freedoms that fully vaccinated Canadians can enjoy. So far, over 770,000 Canadians have received both doses of a COVID vaccine, making up just two per cent of the population.

As of April 9, Canada’s vaccination levels are far below those of Israel, the UK, and the U.S. — where 61,47, and 33 per cent of the population has received at least one dose, respectively. This category stands at 20 per cent in Quebec (and just over 17 per cent nationwide), suggesting it may be too soon to focus on the post-pandemic life.

Nevertheless, Health Minister Patty Hajdu confirmed that Canada has actively discussed the concept of vaccine passports with fellow G7 countries, focusing on international travel in particular.

“The G7 partners agreed that there needs to be some consistency and some collaboration among the countries, so we have some kind of system that would be recognizable, no matter where a person was travelling,” Hajdu explained last week.

When it comes to using vaccine passports domestically for everyday activities, Trudeau has so far refrained from officially implementing such a system, saying it raises questions of equity. Since the majority of Canada’s population is currently ineligible to get the COVID vaccine, the government is only monitoring the passport’s efficiency worldwide.

“These are things that we have to take into account so that yes, we’re looking to try and encourage everyone to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, but we’re not discriminating and bringing in unfairness in the process at the same time,” stated Trudeau in March.

While COVID-19 vaccines remain optional in Canada, the country’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam also strongly encourages Canadians to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible.

Once a larger share of the population receives both doses of the vaccine, Canadians can expect to have more specific guidelines for those who are vaccinated, along with a plan for a gradual return to ordinary life in Canada.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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Anti-Asian hate crimes spike in Canada

Following a mass shooting in Atlanta that targeted Asian businesses, Canada reckons with its own anti-Asian racism problem

Spikes in anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported all around the world, including here in Canada. Anti-Asian racism has been present throughout the nation’s history, and this year, the Asian community reports racial violence is becoming increasingly aggressive, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent study outlined that over 1,150 incidents of anti-Asian racism were reported in Canada between March 2020 and February 2021. According to a report published by The Chinese Canadian National Council’s Toronto chapter (CCNCTO) and Fight COVID Racism, Vancouver has experienced up to a 700 per cent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. 

In Montreal, there were 30 hate crimes reported between March and December of 2020, up from just six reported in 2019. Last May, a man of Korean descent was stabbed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

In September, two victims of Asian descent were killed in a double hit-and-run in Brossard. A 30-year-old man has since been arrested and charged with second degree murder.

Police insisted the hit-and-runs were not hate crimes, but failed to explain why. Both victims were of East Asian descent; Huiping Ding, 45, was Chinese, and Gérard Chong Soon Yuen, 50, was Korean.

This year on March 11, a man of Korean descent was walking in the Plateau when he was attacked with pepper spray in broad daylight. Initially, police were not investigating the incident as a hate crime, although the victim considered the incident to be one. However, following media coverage, the hate crimes squad was brought in to investigate. The victim, a man identified as Nicolas, detailed that while he was carrying “the latest iPhone, the latest Apple Watch, the latest iPad and MacBook Pro,” but his attackers made no effort to rob him.

Days later on March 16, breaking news of a mass shooting in Georgia reported eight dead, six of whom were Asian women. A 21-year-old white gunman targeted three separate Asian-owned spas in Acworth and Atlanta. The shootings sparked outrage among Asian communities across the U.S., with protests held in Atlanta and New York the same weekend.

In the wake of that tragedy, Montreal community leaders organized a march against anti-Asian racism on March 21. Organizers led thousands of supporters on a three kilometre march from Cabot Square to Chinatown, stopping at Quebec Premier François Legault’s office on Sherbrooke Street. Activists demanded acknowledgement of the sharp rise in anti-Asian sentiment within Quebec. Premier Legault continues to deny the existence of systemic racism in the province.

Speeches made by leaders of Montreal’s Asian community outlined Canada and Quebec’s own colonial and historically racist treatment of Asians. Cathy Wong, councillor of the Peter-McGill district, spoke passionately of the racist history that the Asian community has endured.

“We march in remembrance of our history, as racism against Asians did not begin yesterday. It was not born from the pandemic. We march in remembrance of our history because our history is coloured by racist laws that excluded the Chinese — targeting our great grandparents, despite building railroads in exchange for dreams of a new life,” Wong said to the crowd in French.

Among the speakers was part-time Concordia professor Jinyoung Kim, who identifies as Korean-Canadian. Four of the six Asian women who were killed in Atlanta were of Korean descent.

“[It became] an immediate reality for me and for my friends, my parents, and everyone I know with Asian bodies in North America,” she said, before describing the threat of violence against Asians in the last year. “It’s been a year of fighting for justice, and it feels like nothing has gotten better.”

“I feel deeply the traumas that my BIPOC students go through,” Kim said, speaking of her Studio Arts students at Concordia. “I have heard stories from my students.”

The Atlanta shootings have sparked conversations about the fetishization of Asian women, with many activists citing the gendered violence and racism that Asian women face. In a press conference held shortly after the shootings, law enforcement officials said that the gunman confessed to the shootings, but denied racial motivations behind the attacks. Instead, the shooter saw Asian women as “temptations that he had to eliminate,” that he had a “sex addiction,” and that it was a “bad day.”

Following the Atlanta shootings, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement saying, “While we have made progress toward a more just and equal society, more still needs to be done, and the Government of Canada remains committed to this work.”

On March 22, New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh introduced the Anti-Asian Hate motion, which passed in the House of Commons. The motion called for the federal government to “properly fund” hate crime units across Canada, and make efforts to “identify best practices in countering this trend.”

But Singh echoed the sentiments of many, tweeting in response, “Justin Trudeau needs to do more than offer words, he needs to act,” in order to combat anti-Asian violence.  

 

Photographs by Christine Beaudoin

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Thousands of Montrealers gather to protest violence against the Asian community

One of the protest’s organizers tells us how we can show continued support

Calls to “Stop Asian hate!” echoed through the streets of Montreal on Sunday, when thousands marched to protest anti-Asian hate crimes and to show their support for the Asian community in Quebec and abroad. The protesters marched from Cabot Square to Chinatown, shouting call and response chants.

Store owners along Saint-Catherine Street stood outside their businesses taking photos and cheering on the protestors as they made their way towards Chinatown. The protest ended with a vigil for the six Asian women murdered in Atlanta last week.

Violence towards the Asian community has increased rapidly since the beginning of the pandemic. British Columbia Premier John Horgan recently announced that the Vancouver Police Department has reported a 717 per cent increase in hate crimes against Asian-Canadians since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Protestors walking downtown.

One of the protest’s organizers, a member of Progressive Chinese of Quebec (PCQ) and Groupe d’entraide contre le racisme envers les Asiatiques du Québec (GECREAQ) spoke to The Concordian about the backwards sentiment behind these attacks. The individual wishes to keep their identity private.

“We are being scapegoated for a virus that’s a consequence of climate change, which is a consequence of our capitalist world.” They said that on top of struggling to adjust to life during COVID-19, “We are also feeling anxious to go into work or walk down the street, because getting attacked in broad daylight is becoming more common.”

“Even while we are born here, raise our families here, pay taxes and work here, we are not considered Canadian. We are subjugated to being seen as a ‘forever foreigner.’ When Canadians tell us to go back to where we came from, as if that same sentiment doesn’t apply to them, it’s to remind us that we do not belong here,” said the representative.

Chao Hua, a third-year international student at Concordia, found out about the protest “last minute,” but knew he needed to show his support. Speaking from the heat of the downtown protest, he argued that “You cannot just put your hatred on Asians, on us. We are not your scapegoat.” He pointed to his sign, which read those same words.

“Killing Asians, beating up the Asians, it’s not going to stop the virus. Everybody must work together. If all races, all ethnicities, all countries work together, we can beat up this virus. That’s the only way out.”

Onnie, another protestor, said that she feels sickened, not only by the violence directed towards the Asian community, but also by major media’s willingness to ignore the pervasiveness of the issue.

On the recent hate crimes, she said “They’re willing to put in the effort and energy to go into the fucking profile of a murderer, but not the grand profile of how this reflects on everyone else and our complicitness with the situation.”

Protestors laid flowers to honour those killed in the Atlanta shooting.

As the PCQ and GECREAQ representative stated, “It’s no secret that anti-racist work requires a lifetime

commitment.” To show support in the short term, they said to “Contact your representatives about denouncing the racist laws in this province, for instance loi 21; to continue standing with [the BIPOC community] against their racist relative(s); to ensure that the spaces, especially work spaces, are safe for their BIPOC friends and coworkers, especially women and gender minorities.”

However, in order to see real, actualized change, the PCQ and GECREAQ representative says we must recognize the root of the issue: colonialism, imperialism and capitalism.

“In the long term above all, keep learning about how prevalent racism is in our everyday lives and how it operates as such a fundamental gear in this capitalist machine we are all in.”

To the Asian community in Montreal and abroad, they give an important message.

“While we mourn for those who’ve lost their lives and who’ve been physically assaulted, it’s a great time to remind ourselves that we can’t feel disenfranchised. We have every right to exist. We have every right to be here. We are allowed to take up space and stand together against the colonial enemy.”

Photos by Christine Beaudoin

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Demystifying Dogecoin: The meme cryptocurrency on the rise

Welcome to the doge house

By now, you may have heard of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency with the face of a dog. Just like what happened with Gamestop last month, this small currency is trying to rocket itself to financial power. Here, we’re going to try to answer all your questions about the budding cryptocurrency.

First off, a quick explanation of what a cryptocurrency is. 

A cryptocurrency is a digital form of money that rides the line between a debit card and cash — entirely on the internet. In its most basic form, you exchange cryptocurrencies with participating entities just like any other purchase online, but instead of involving a bank, the money goes to the other person, more or less directly.

Most cryptocurrencies, such as Dogecoin, are built on a technology called the blockchain. Concordia professor and holder of the Industrial Research Chair in Blockchain Technologies at Concordia, Jeremy Clark says “The blockchain is about building something that’s like a database where’s there’s just one copy of the data and everyone agrees on what that copy of the data is, but it’s not held in a single location.”

It’s easiest to think of cryptocurrencies as a universal, digital version of cash.

The most popular cryptocurrency is Bitcoin (BTC), which you probably have heard of since it recently reached the value of $50,000 USD for one single Bitcoin after automaker Tesla announced it would accept Bitcoin as payment for cars.

Here in the explanation is where it gets meta.

Currencies in the world such as the Canadian dollar (CAD) and the US dollar (USD) are backed by the governments that print the bills. Faith in the monetary system the bills represent gives the currency its value.

Cryptocurrencies are backed by nothing but faith in their value. A Bitcoin has value because we all believe it has value. Just like stocks, cryptocurrencies are volatile and change value rapidly, and are influenced by developments around them.

The U.S. classifies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as commodities. That’s the same classification as gold.

Think of people who collect vintage coins. They may have a value printed on them, but they can fetch prices much higher. You wouldn’t spend a rare misprinted 1919 quarter on a pack of gum – even though the coin itself would work – because you can sell it for much higher than its printed value.

“Currency isn’t meant to be something that gives you a tremendous return on value,” said Clark, “You want people to use it and not hoard it for the possibility that it doubles its price in a month, it’s meant to be a currency.”

Cryptocurrencies currently work much like that rare misprinted 1919 coin. You can use them to purchase things now or hold onto them in the hopes that they can fetch a higher value later. They both only have value because someone out there says so, and both can technically work like cash.

Cryptocurrencies do offer reasons to be used as currency. They are decentralized so no one agency controls the currency, they are easier to manage and send to individuals being a digital native currency, and cryptocurrencies at large are secure with publicly accessible transaction records.

That being said, a currency should only be valuable in what you can trade it for, and a currency that’s worth more than what you’re spending it on isn’t much of a currency is it?

If circulation never occurs because everyone holds onto their crypto-coins, they’re not really coins anymore. Coins are currency to be traded. You’re holding onto ones and zeros that at one point might have been cash should people have used them as such, but now are just code.

Everyone okay? Existential crisis under control for now? Okay good.

Now onto Dogecoin.

Beyond the popular coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum ($ETH), there are literally hundreds of cryptocurrencies. They all function similarly but have different features, advantages, and prices.

Dogecoin is part of a smaller class of cryptocurrencies called altcoins, short for alternate coins.

Basically, Dogecoin is just like other cryptocurrencies except it was created as a joke with a picture of a dog — the doge meme — as its mascot. Well, that and being quoted on the project’s website as the digital currency “Favoured by Shiba Inus worldwide.”

“I always thought that there would be a sort of winner that would be chosen by the market,” said Clark when referring to the hundreds of smaller coins on the market. Currently, there’s value in many of them and no clear winner.

The Doge in question is an image commonly found in memes. Doge herself is a Shiba Inu named Kabosu from Japan.

So, why should I care?

Dogecoin has had quite the boom as of late.

Just like what happened with Gamestop and other meme stocks, an organized group of Reddit traders all decided to buy into Dogecoin, leading it to achieve a peak value of just under $0.085 USD per Doge on Feb 8.

Eight cents doesn’t sound like much, but this is a massive jump from below one cent per Doge just over a week before.

On top of that, Dogecoin has had lots of support.

Elon Musk, ever the champion of nonsense, tweeted about Dogecoin on Feb. 24 using language reminiscent of r/wallstreetbets and the Gamestop meme stock surge, “Literally, on the actual moon.”

ATM company CoinFlip announced in a tweet on March 1 that it would begin trading Dogecoin at its ATMs across the country.

The Dallas Mavericks basketball team announced on March 4 that they would accept Dogecoin for tickets and merchandise.

“It’s hard to say what the longevity of these things will be if people will continue to prefer having dozens of [currencies] around,” said Clark, “or if eventually, the market will coalesce behind one or two winners.”

For now, all that can be said for the joke-turned cryptocurrency is much coin, such wow.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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Liberals to move ahead with the introduction of assault weapons buy-back program

Bill C-21 invites controversy from all sides of the gun debate

Following the ban of 1,500 makes and models of firearms in May, the Liberals are proposing new gun restrictions under Bill C-21, which will grandfather out assault weapons currently in circulation with a voluntary buy-back program, should the bill pass.

“Gun violence has had devastating effects on communities across the country, and on too many Canadians who have lost loved ones. According to Statistics Canada, firearms were used in over 40 per cent of homicides in Canada in 2019. This violence must stop,” states a press release from February 16 on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s website.

A two-year amnesty period is in place, which began in May of 2020, to last until April 30, 2022. The goal of the amnesty period is to “protect lawful owners from criminal liability and to enable them to comply with the law,” according to the press release.

The buy-back program is voluntary; those in possession of weapons eligible for buy-back will be able to keep them past the amnesty period but they won’t be able to fire, transport, or pass them on to a new owner. Canadians could hope a new administration will reverse the ban and allow them to retain possession of their firearms.

If Bill C-21 cannot be passed before the next election, it will have to be dropped and reintroduced after the election by the new administration. Trudeau campaigned on stricter gun control in 2019.

“One Canadian killed by gun violence is one too many. The tragedies we have seen in Sainte-Foy and Portapique, and more recently in Toronto and Montreal, should never happen. This is why our government has taken some of the strongest action in our country’s history against gun violence,” Trudeau stated in a press release in February.

But some are questioning whether this current policy is a genuine attempt to achieve stronger gun control, and whether the Liberals intend to pass it before the next election.

One such person is James Hanna, one of the founders and president of the Concordia University Sports Shooting Association (CUSSA) and a Concordia Student Union (CSU) councillor. He is opposed to the buy-back program and the May 1 ban.

“They’re basically doing a giant PR stunt before the election. That’s my personal theory … it allows them to claim victory without actually doing anything on the ground,” said Hanna.

Many people on both sides of the gun debate see the buy-back program as a policy that will be ineffective and simply a piece of electioneering. For anti-gun advocates, the policy allows too many firearms to remain in circulation.

Meaghan Hennegan was injured in a shooting at Dawson College in 2006. She was recently quoted in a press release by PolySeSouvient, “The reason we applauded the Liberals during the last election and told Canadians they are the best party for gun control is because their promise included a total ban. That is why we endorsed them. […] We were used and betrayed.”

Even if the guns can’t be operated legally, the concern on both sides of the issue has always been to crack down on illegal gun use. Some people on the pro-gun side think the best way to do this is to turn the issue to gangs and gang violence rather than gun control.

“We want to look at the source of all this gun violence, which is gang violence, and if we’re targeting gang violence … this is going to have much more holistic positive effects,” said Hanna.

Bill C-21 will also allow municipalities to regulate handgun usage as they see fit, which is another controversial part of the legislation. Those living in areas where handguns are banned could simply travel to somewhere with looser regulations, purchase a gun and return home with it.

“They’re jettisoning responsibility off to the municipalities. So if gun crime continues to rise, the government can just say, ‘Well, we gave municipalities the power to fix it. They’re not using it, it’s not our fault’ and just absolve themselves of responsibility for any issues,” said Hanna.

Bill C-21 will also increase the maximum penalties for firearms trafficking, and provide $250 million over five years to anti-gang programming in municipalities and Indigenous communities throughout Canada.

 

Graphic by Lily Cowper

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The Black Student Union utilizes its social media to educate the Concordia student body

How four young women started the organization

Concordia students Amaria Phillips, Lorry Joseph, Tanou Bah and Ernithe Edmond were all shocked to see there was no Black club or union at Concordia University.

“We were like, ‘Wait a minute, there’s no actual like, Black club?’ It’s either Caribbean or African? But there’s not one for just Black people,” said Phillips.

For example, McGill, the other anglophone university in Montreal, does have a Black Student Network, which acts similarly to a union. Before the BSU initiative, this overarching support would fall under the Concordia Student Union’s responsibilities.

Phillips said, “We realized that, really, there was no Black Student Union period, then we kind of like changed our minds and we said, ‘Okay, let’s just do a Black Student Union’ … It’s going to be something that’s actually going to advocate for students.”

“We kind of found a good batch of people to help the BSU take off … We’re so like-minded,” said Phillips.

The process of becoming an official student union at Concordia is a complicated one.

“We put a lot of focus in establishing [the BSU],” said Phillips. Tired of wasting time trying to establish themselves, the BSU decided to create its own path for representation.

Now, almost a year later, they have grown their team to 13 students who help run the day-to-day operations, just by asking who wanted to be involved.

“We put something on social media to ask if anyone wants to join the team. And yeah, a lot of people were DM’ing back and saying ‘Yeah, I’m interested,’” said Phillips.

The BSU’s main platform is their social media — mainly Instagram. Run by Kyla Renee Jallow and Beza Getachew, the BSU is able to spread awareness on Black issues and educate their followers on Black Canadian History.

Phillips is excited to see the growth that comes along with the bigger team. She said, “Since we decided to start the executive team, our Instagram grew from, I think five hundred to now nine hundred something in a month.”

The increase in posts also helped grow their following. On the heels of Black History Month, Phillips does not plan to slow down the flow of information shared on the page. She said, “We’ve gotten so many messages of people saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that,’ or ‘I really wish that I would have known that before, that it was taught in schools.’”

The executive team decided to extend Black History Month to Black History Year, in order to educate and highlight Black history and Black people in general, because “Black History is everyone’s history,” said Phillips.

“There’s so many things we didn’t get to cover for the month,” said Phillips, so may as well continue to put an emphasis on reteaching ourselves to our history.

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Canada Joins Australia in the fight for the future of the internet

Can’t share this

The fight for the future of the internet has gotten the heat turned up. Earlier this month, the conflict playing out in the Australian Parliament between Google and a proposed law that would make them and Facebook pay to link to news sources jumped to the public consciousness.

Google has since decided to get ahead of the legislation and began paying news outlets for their stories in their Google News Showcase program. This is a complete reversal after threatening to exit the country completely, should Australia go through with the legislation.

Facebook, on the other hand, went on the offensive. On Feb. 18, Facebook users in Australia were unable to see or share any news content. The ban was far-reaching, covering both domestic and international news outlets. The ban went so far as to remove some pages relating to government institutions. In regards to this issue, Australian Prime minister Scott Morrison said, “They may be changing the world, but that doesn’t mean they run it.”

Facebook relented once they began striking deals a few days later on Feb. 23 after the code was amended.

Facebook claims that they are different in handling news than Google, namely that publishers choose to publish their articles on Facebook. Facebook claims that they give publishers “5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers worth an estimated AU$407 million.”

According to Axios, the number of visits to Australian news sites both domestic and international dropped during the few days the ban was in place. It remains to be seen how restoring sharing affects these sites or if the ban hurt Facebook usage in the country on a larger scale.

Enter Canada. The same day that news was removed from Facebook in Australia, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, who is in charge of similar legislation, doubled down on his commitment to the project. His proposed legislation is expected to hit Ottawa later in the spring, according to Reuters. Indications suggest the legislation will follow the Australian model rather than the French model, which differs in that publishers are paid to have their content used in a special content area called Google News Showcase, rather than charging for access to links. 

Pandora’s box has been opened, with Australia leading a charge that appears to only be snowballing from here.

Canada’s follow-up to Australia will likely be pivotal. Many popular outlets of Australian media are owned by a rather controversial company, News Corp., which contains The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and Fox News, among others. News Corp. championed the legislation through their various channels, leading some to question the motive of the legislation and consider it “media blackmail,” such as Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

Other companies such as Seven West Media have joined Google News Showcase in Australia.

Canada following the Australian model legitimizes it and establishes it as a standard, even though it’s not an actual law yet. 

As we spend more time online due to the continuing pandemic, the market dominance of Google and Facebook has come to the forefront. The Canadian Media Concentration Research Project clocked Google at 50 per cent market share in Canadian online advertising in 2019, and Facebook was nearing one-third, leaving only roughly one-fifth of the market.

It is unknown how this legislation will change those figures or anything as of yet since France is the only country to enact a law similar to this, and their model is not applicable.

So by the time you read this, you may not be able to share this. We are now in the waiting game to see what Canada’s heritage minister’s legislation brings to Canada, and how Facebook and Google react. If Australia is a model to go by, we may go a few days without sharing.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

Categories
News

Survivors speaking up as Canada continues to investigate Mindgeek

The company’s most popular website, Pornhub, faces allegations of hosting abusive content

Content warning: This article covers topics such as sexual abuse and the sexual exploitation of minors. 

On Feb. 19, the House of Commons ethics committee heard several survivors’ accounts of being traumatized by Pornhub’s refusal to take down exploitative videos from its website, which included sexual abuse and underage individuals.

The survivors said their traumas were exacerbated due to Pornhub’s continuous refusal to remove such videos. These survivors, living in the United States and Canada, explained how Pornhub, which is owned by Mindgeek, had constantly rejected their pleas for action made through all available channels.

In fact, there are numerous allegations of this kind. For long, Mindgeek has been accused of hosting abusive content, such as rape and exploitation of underage girls. For instance, last January, an Ontario woman initiated a $600 million class-action lawsuit against Mindgeek, alleging she was videotaped being raped as a 12-year-old, and the recording was posted on Pornhub.

On Feb. 5, top executives of Mindgeek testified before the House of Commons ethics committee. In the face of these accusations, they still claimed they run “the safest adult platform in the world right now.”

In 2004, two Concordia graduates, Stephane Manos and Ouissam Youssef, founded an entity in Montreal named “Mansef,” where the main function was to hold links to various free pornographic websites, and sold these assets after six years. After another change of ownership in 2013, this company got its current name Mindgeek, which is most well known for its flagship website Pornhub. Manos and Youssef successfully continued their entrepreneurship journey, and now run Valsef Group — a technology investment group mostly focused on software business. In 2019, they contributed to Concordia’s District 3 Innovation Centre to support the “ANA Avatar XPRIZE” competition.

Mindgeek, the company they once founded and nurtured, continued its impactful journey. In terms of traffic, Pornhub has always remained in the global top list. However, since this past year, Mindgeek has come under significant backlash for different controversies.

Run from a commercial complex on Decarie Boulevard in Montreal — along with its other offices in the United States, Luxembourg and Cyprus — Mindgeek possesses some impressive statistics. According to the company website, every day it has over 115 million visitors and 15 terabytes of content uploaded.

On March 8, 2020, International Women’s Day, a large protest took place outside Mindgeek headquarters in Montreal, as part of a continuous campaign. Similar demonstrations occurred in the same location on Oct. 2, the International Day of Non-Violence.

This protest ultimately turned into a weekly practice, which continued even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Tuesday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., activists and demonstrators protest outside Mindgeek’s Montreal headquarters. This endeavour is being led by “Stop Exploitation Hub,” a Quebec-based non-partisan and non-religious campaign against Mindgeek.

In early December 2020, The New York Times published a special op-ed which detailed experiences of women victimized by this website, as it continued monetization on content depicting child rape, and revenge pornography (when someone publicizes intimate photos of their former partner without their consent).

Some of them narrated how videos depicting them being raped as an underage girl were never removed from the website, even after years of requesting Pornhub to take them down.

On Dec. 4, 2020, after being asked during his regular press briefing, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his deep concern over the issue and stated that the government would continue to work with its law enforcing agencies to tackle it.

After a week, a motion was unanimously passed in the parliament, asking senior officials of Mindgeek to testify regarding recent allegations before the House of Commons ethics committee, which ultimately happened on Feb. 5, 2021.

A crucial development occurred on Dec. 10 2020, when Mastercard and Visa announced that they had started blocking their customers from using their credit cards to make purchases on Pornhub, due to the presence of unlawful content on the site (Paypal enforced similar blocking in 2019). These steps by online payment giants have been hailed by anti-pornography activists.

Consequently, Mindgeek announced some policy changes on their end: suspending uploads and downloads from all non-verified users and deleting millions of non-verified videos — which were nearly 80 per cent of its hosted content. Mindgeek has announced that it is implementing a standard third-party system, Yoti, for user identity and age verification.

Enforcing age verification for adult sites has been a long demand of the activists. Online age-verification technologies — ID document or face-based verification for anyone accessing the site —  which are commonly used in some countries to verify people intending to buy age-restricted products (such as alcohol, weapons, banking services), are now getting more sophisticated through artificial intelligence.

In 2017, the UK became the first country to legislate mandatory age verification of adult sites. A similar bill is currently under consideration in Canadian parliament. German authorities are currently working with Microsoft to develop a “globally unique” AI process to combat child pornography.

Rapid emergence of digital technology during the last two decades has obviously increased the availability of pornographic contents. However, such tech tools can be utilized to curb the damaging consequences of pornography as well.

Choosing a balanced approach is crucial in this regard. One good example can be how Tumblr (a popular American social networking platform) banned all sorts of adult content in 2018 after discovering uncontrollable presence of child pornogrpahy in their site.

While Mindgeek focuses on surviving amid their current challenges, the Ethics committee will continue to hold hearings to prepare a recommendation report for Parliament on if, and how, Ottawa should intervene in the issue.

Disclaimer: Azfar Adib is a recurring volunteer with “Stop Exploitation Hub.” 

 

Photograph by Christine Beaudoin

Categories
News

Film production students demand action against structural racism in Concordia’s Film department

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Faculty commits to changes incited by Film Production Students for Inclusivity and Action organization

In fall 2020, the Film Production Students for Inclusivity and Action (FPSIA) drafted a letter of demands, clearly outlining their recommendations to address structural racism within Concordia University’s Film department. After collecting over 100 student and alumni signatures, their initial demands were met and accomplishments outlined in a recent Instagram post.

FPSIA demands

  1. Transparency and accountability in the department’s recognition of the demands and concerns raised in the letter.
  2. Transparent hiring process for new faculty members from diverse backgrounds.
  3. Increased BIPOC perspectives and subjects within the department’s curriculum.
  4. Increased responsibility for teaching assistants within the department.
  5. Clarity in the admissions process and that the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema work together in collaboration with students towards inclusivity in the film industry.
  6. A redefined jury system for Filmmaking II & III (FMPR 332 & 432), with a redistribution of roles and resources, in favour of “real world experience.”
  7. Refreshed training for faculty, staff and students regarding the Code of Rights and Responsibilities, and that the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema makes a commitment to handling complaints filed underneath the Code.
  8. Future equipment purchases be made with accessible, affordable options, and that money acquired through donations can be distributed as grants or bursaries to students who need it most.

Faculty commitments made thus far 

  1. The Film Department has formed an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee to address the FPSIA’s demands listed in the letter. The committee holds seven seats, with two reserved for students. Two seats are currently occupied, one by the co-chair of the department, along with Assistant Professor in Cinema, Marianna Milhorat. Three committee seats are also reserved for a full-time, part-time and technical staff member.
  2. The faculty, who has previously committed to annual artist-in-residence positions, is reserving this position for a person who self-identifies as BIPOC or who is otherwise deserving through rich community engagement experience.
  3. Workshops, training programs, and funding opportunities have been implemented.

In a conversation with Flora Nwakobi, member of Film Production Students for Inclusivity and Action (FPSIA), Video Editor at The Concordian and Film Production student Adam Mbowe framed the need for diversity and inclusion at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. Watch the interview below.

The FPSIA will be hosting a discussion on the topics of Film, Gender, and Education with Dr. Tracy Ying Zhang, Alexia Roc, and Whitney Norceide on Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. For more information or to attend the event, visit their Facebook page.

 

Feature graphic courtesy of Flora Nwakobi.

Categories
Concordia Student Union News

Addressing discrimination in the CSU

The CSU is creating letters apologizing and acknowledging past and ongoing discrimination

A motion to create four letters that apologize, acknowledge, and address the issue of racism, anti-semitism, sexism, and queerphobia in the Concordia Student Union (CSU) was passed on Feb. 10. These letters will be published at the end of each month from February to May.

The CSU has had several councillors who have said they have faced instances of discrimination and racism against councillors, leading many Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) members to resign. Eduardo Malorni, the CSU’s student life coordinator who came up with the idea of the letters, sees them as a way to try to remedy this issue, and is helping facilitate their creation alongside the executive team and other CSU members. Malorni hopes the letters will help fix this issue of discimination in the CSU.

“If you look at the councillors that have resigned, many are members of the BIPOC community,” said Malorni, who explained that many members that leave the CSU don’t want to rejoin since they see no change, and the issue was swept under the rug.

On March 13, 2019, former CSU internal coordinator, Princess Somefun, said she resigned due to the toxic environment and online harassment.

“The union that claims to want to empower marginalized and racialized folks has let me down due to their negligence,” said Somefun at the CSU’s meeting in 2019.

On Sept. 6, 2020, former councillor Paige Beaulieu said they resigned due to feeling unsafe in the work environment. According to an article in The Link, Beaulieu, who uses they/them pronouns, said they were mocked for their gender identity by another councillor. In the article Beaulieu explained that it is common for jokes about racism, white supremacy, sexism and transphobia to be made by some CSU councillors.

Former councillor Ahmadou Sakho said he resigned on Sept. 20, 2020, due to how difficult it was to pass motions relating to diversity. In an article by The Link, Sakho stated that it was like an arm wrestle to get councillors to implement measures that would improve the lack of diversity on the CSU.

Former councillor Christopher Kalafatidis resigned during a meeting on Aug. 26, 2020. Earlier in the meeting, Kalafatidis had accused Isaiah Joyner, the general coordinator of the CSU and a person of colour, of refusing to denounce the KKK when Joyner suggested changing a motion from denouncing the KKK to a broader stance on anti-racism.

Honestly, [it was] one of the most racist things that has ever been said to me in a professional context,” said Joyner in an interview with The Concordian.

“It happens year after year and literally nothing has changed. Not our accountability procedures or the way we approach it,” said Malorni.

Malorni explained that he came up with the idea for the letters because he saw the Jewish, BIPOC, and queer CSU councillors were feeling hurt and that their message wasn’t getting across.

“If these councillors are feeling they aren’t being heard and acknowledged, imagine what it is like for the students outside of council,” he said.

“The first thing the CSU should do is apologize, that’s what you do when you are wrong, you apologize,” said Malorni. He explained that the goal of these letters is to hold the CSU accountable for past instances of discimination, and then move forward by ensuring measures of diversity and inclusivity.

“The letters are definitely, if alone, superficial. Part of the letter is going to be actionable steps,” he said. “If a year from now, nothing has changed, then the letters were superficial and completely failed.”

Malorni explained that while these letters will be apologizing for things that the current CSU council has not necessarily done, it is important for the CSU to take accountability for past councillors’ actions.

He stated that this has to be a communal effort, from the CSU as a whole. And that by acknowledging it, the CSU can take the next step, which is fixing the issue.

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