Tag: protest

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Briefs

World in brief: Deadly protests in Chile, Catalan pro-independence activists sentenced

Protests against the cost of living have now taken 11 people’s lives in Chile after a weekend of on-going demonstrations. The vandalism and violence were originally prompted by the rise of transit fares announced two weeks ago, which has since been suspended by President Sebastián Piñera. Yet, the initial reason was only a reflection of a deeper national frustration against growing economic inequalities. As reported by The Guardian, the state of emergency declared on Oct. 19 led to more than 10,000 military troops taking over the streets of Santiago, imposed curfew in major cities and the interruption of subway services. Such interventions haven’t been seen since the end of Pinochet dictatorship back in 1990.

Tensions in Spain have been rising as the Supreme Court sentenced nine pro-independence activists up to 13 years in jail. The sentenced leaders were judged on their role in the 2017 Catalan referendum which was backed up by more than half of the 5.5 million voters but deemed illegal by Spanish courts, reported Global News. The decision, which came on Oct. 14, led to an entire week of extreme protests by separatists. As more than 300 people have since been detained by the police, Catalan President Quim Torra, who initially called for civil disobedience, is now open for talks with the Spanish Government.

The White House finally backtracked and dropped plan after announcing that the next G7 would be held at Trump’s golf resort in Miami. The initial move was considered by many to be further evidence of the President using his office for personal gain. CBC highlighted that Trump was the first administration official to praise one of his properties for hosting the international summit. While it comes as one of Trump’s rare reverse decisions, his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said that he knows people think it looks lousy.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Categories
News

Extinction Rebellion Quebec presents their cause at Concordia

The Quebec chapter of the international climate action group is rebelling against human extinction, which they say is caused by human-induced climate change and biodiversity loss.

“We are at the beginning of the sixth mass extinction,” said geologist and climate change scientist Heather Short, of Extinction Rebellion Quebec. “Or as some people call it, the first extermination of other life on the planet. We have extinction regularly – it’s a normal thing. However, what we are causing right now is in no way, shape, or form, normal. It’s way outside the scale and the rate of any sort of extinction we’ve seen in the last 550 million years.”

Short explained that there have been five other mass extinctions in Earth’s past, which she said were all caused by a rapid, excess amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

“The kind of ‘rapid’ CO2 emissions that we’re talking about is the same magnitude of emissions that we put into the atmosphere in 200 years but spread out over six, 10 thousand years,” said Short. “What we’re doing right now is absolutely unprecedented in all of Earth’s history.”

As stated on their website, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. According to Short, IPCC came out with a statement in 2018 saying we must stick to a rise of only 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is about pre-industrial levels. In order to have about a 50 or 60 per cent chance of meeting that goal, the IPCC said we must reduce CO2 emissions by 45 per cent within 10 years. Short said in all of the scenarios published by the IPCC, we need to start reducing our emissions by the end of 2020.

“Our present emissions trajectory is going to get us to a 4 to 4.5 degrees Celsius rise by the end of the century if we continue living life as we do, business as usual,” said Short. “Though the Paris Climate accord had been signed by almost 200 countries in 2015, we’ve been increasing emissions since then – we haven’t been decreasing any of them at all, anywhere. It’s really quite remarkable.”

Short said within the IPCC statements, which are very conservative, we could still have a worst-case scenario 8-degree Celsius warming in about a century.

“At a 7-degree Celsius warming, it’ll be impossible for people living in equatorial regions to cool off ever, and if you combine that heat with typical high humidity in those areas, it’s basically lethal to move around outside after a few hours,” said Short. “The conservative reports say limiting warming to 1.5 degrees would inquire transformative systemic change in all aspects of society.”

Short explained the oceans are affected by increased CO2 emissions as well. Ocean acidification, where the oceans absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and create carbonic acid, makes it impossible for phytoplankton to make their shells. Phytoplankton are the base of the ocean food web, so if we lose phytoplankton, Short said we will essentially lose the oceans.

“It’s not really a stretch to say that humans are at a threat of extinction,” she said. “It’s not gonna happen in our lifetime, it’s probably not going to happen by the end of the century- but the decisions that we make as a global society within the next year, and certainly within the next 10 years, are going to determine whether this happens or not.”

The demands of Extinction Rebellion are in direct relation to this science. The organization demands governments and the media tell the truth about the climate crisis; to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the year 2025 and to create a citizens assembly to help oversee the government in the transition toward a carbon-free world.

“Basically, what we’re doing is equivalent to a one in 20 chance that the plane you’re about to board will crash,” said Short. “We would never get on that plane, with a one in 20 chance of it coming down, but we’re willing to send our children and grandchildren on that plane- for the sake of luxury and convenience and growth capitalism.”

Protests

Extinction Rebellion protests in two ways; the first is direct action, like climbing the Jacques Cartier bridge during morning rush hour. The second is peaceful forms of protests like the upcoming slow swarm on the 24 where people will cross the intersection of Parc and Sherbrooke holding up signs to drivers idle at a red light to encourage them to rethink their ways, or die-ins, like the KlimAde event which took place on Oct. 13.

This event was a play on words for the general population having to drink the “Kool-Aid” of false information and propaganda, fed to them by the government and the media, about the environmental crisis. During the demonstration, protestors drank the Kool-Aid and “died” of the poison, lying on a sidewalk in the heart of downtown. Demonstrations like these serve as mobilization and outreach actions to educate the general population about the climate crisis and cause some minor unrest.

According to Concordia university sociologist Guillaume Tremblay-Boily, social movements that balance radical direct action with softer forms of protest could be effective to encourage policy change. But he explained there is never a guarantee.

“It’s too early to tell if their action is effective,” Tremblay-Boily said. “But from previous movements, we can know that sometimes it is. For example, in 2012, the student strike very efficiently combined two types of action, and the movement eventually managed to obtain quite a substantial victory.”

Tremblay-Boily said their timing for their protests is right, and that doing a more radical action right after a milder protest in which almost 500,000 people participated seems to be a good idea. He said there’s a rise in awareness of the climate crisis, and protesters who participated in the Sept. 27 global climate strike can clearly see there has been no federal governmental change since the demonstration.

“A lot of these people who were part of that softer, more quiet protest might be ready to hear the kind of message that Extinction Rebellion is putting forward – this idea that you need to go further, to take more radical action,” he said.

Tremblay-Boily said a challenge for Extinction Rebellion Quebec could be to ensure their ideas stay rooted and to continue creating connections with the rest of the population. The sociologist said there is a risk their organization could become isolated from the larger environmental movement when they participate in direct action. A balance of protest is often key to staying on track.

 

Graphic by @justine.draws.sometimes

 

Categories
News

Historical climate protest in Montreal: Quebec is standing up

On Sept. 27, millions of Canadians took to the streets across the country to protest inaction on climate change.

“Today, we are nearly 500,000 people gathered here in Montreal, but there are also 52 protests everywhere across Quebec,” said the spokesperson of La Planète s’invite au Parlement (LPSP), François Geoffroy.

In a historical association of 21 environmental organizations, including the David Suzuki Foundation, Pour le Futur and Greenpeace, LPSP took on the responsibility of planning the massive strike. It took place at the tail end of a worldwide cry that took place between Sept. 20 and Sept. 27, during which over 150 countries protested the climate crisis.

According to Geoffroy, more than 200,000 students were given permission to strike on Friday. The growing youth movement taking over the climate crisis led school boards across Canada to cancel Friday’s classes in support of their students’ decision to demand more from the government.

“We want laws, we want specific plans which will force our government to reach the objectives set by scientists, in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees,” said the LPSP organizer, to an energetic crowd. “We want to make this transition everybody’s business. We want to build it with workers, communities that are currently struggling with their dependency on polluting industries. We want to build it with the most vulnerable; they need to be part of the solution. We need to build it with First Nations because they have a lot to teach us and for once, we should listen to them.”

Photo by Alex Hutchins

Beginning at Mont-Royal, the protest was symbolically opened by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, alongside Indigenous youth. “To the front lines for Mother Earth” was the first banner you could see them holding as they travelled through downtown Montreal, chanting and calling for action.

Prior to the march, Thunberg met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where it was reported by various media that she told him he was not doing enough to protect the environment. Indeed, the past few weeks have seen a rise in critiques towards Trudeau’s environmental speeches and his government’s decision to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline.

“If people in power won’t take their responsibilities, then we will,” Thunberg said at the end of the protest. “It should not be up to us, but somebody needs to do it. They say we shouldn’t worry, that we should look forward to a bright future. But then, they forget that if they would have done their job, we wouldn’t need to worry. If they had started acting in time, then this crisis wouldn’t be this crisis, it is today. The climate and environmental crisis are beyond party politics.”

Friday’s event was beyond historical. It was not only Quebec’s most important protest yet, but also the largest climate strike during the Global Week for Future, a series of international protests asking for climate justice.

For whatever reason people decided to protest, it demonstrated the power of union. No one was in school or at work, because this is an emergency and we will not be bystanders, Thunberg said during her final speech.

“The people have spoken and they will keep on speaking until our leaders listen and act. We are the change. And change is coming.”

 

Feature photo by Alex Hutchins

Categories
News

ConU’s inaction prompts students to protest

Students demand a standalone policy on sexual violence and misconduct

Many Concordia students are unhappy with the way the university has handled sexual misconduct complaints. So much so that students will be protesting this Friday in front of the administration building to demonstrate against Concordia’s inaction.

Gaby Novoa, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said it’s important to unite in support of survivors of sexual violence. “The administration has demonstrated that they are not interested in listening to students—we are protesting to make sure that our campaign for a survivor-centric policy is heard, and recognized as urgent and essential,” said Novoa.

According to Bill 151: An Act to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions, universities must have a standalone policy. Although Concordia has repeatedly said its current policy is a standalone one; it refers to the academic code of conduct and the various collective agreements and contracts with faculty regarding the appropriate procedures for filing and responding to a complaint.

“It’s really hard to read if you’re a survivor going through this process,” said Margot Berner, one of the demonstration’s organizers. The current policy, according to Berner, “really cements that gap between faculty and student because they are held to different standards and they have different protections under these policies.”

Although the university’s Standing Committee on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence has been holding community conversations to hear feedback from the students, Berner said they haven’t been heard. Students have even presented the committee with an extensive document outlining the issues they perceived in the current policy and how to mend them.

For Berner, the protest is a “response to the administration being very focused on PR and not really focused on making actual changes to their policy.” She added “there’s been no action, there’s been no assurances, there’s no concrete timeline we can hold them accountable to and it’s mostly been institutional gaslighting.”

The students are demanding a standalone policy on sexual violence, a concrete action plan with timelines to respond to student recommendations and that Concordia lobby the Quebec government to change its privacy laws.

Per Quebec’s privacy laws, educational institutions cannot reveal the result of an internal investigation to the public nor to the complainant. “As a university, they have a lot of power, and a lot of pull, and they have a lot of friends in government,” said Berner. “Even just making these demands public and working towards this step-by-step is something they can do.”

Berner said the university’s been dismissive of the students’ request at community conversation, going as far as changing the format of the community conversations. Instead of the initial back-and-forth conversations students were able to have, the sessions were changed to a presentation and a controlled question period. “If they are going to ignore our voices, we’re going to get a lot louder,” said Berner.

Diana Gerasimov, another organizer of the protest, said “I think we, as current students within the current sexual violence climate at Concordia, have a greater responsibility to persevere with our aim for policy changes to be seen as high-priority.”

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

Categories
Opinions

Editorial: Hideous figures in history must be taken down

graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

You’ve probably heard of the debates surrounding whether or not certain statues of historical figures should continue to be proudly displayed. The reason for removing these statues is often that they’re celebrating historical figures that promoted and perpetuated oppression. Take the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Montreal’s Place du Canada, for example. Just last week, a group identifying itself as part of #MacdonaldMustFall drenched the statue in red paint, according to the Montreal Gazette.

In a statement, the group said, “Macdonald statues should be removed from public space and instead placed in archives or museums, where they belong as historical artifacts.” Similarly, the statue of Queen Victoria in front of McGill’s Schulich School of Music was coated in green paint on Sunday, according to the Montreal Gazette. An anti-colonial group called the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade said it was responsible. In a statement published online, the group said, “the presence of Queen Victoria statues in Montreal is an insult to the struggles of self-determination and resistance of oppressed peoples around the world, including the Indigenous nations of North America (Turtle Island) and Oceania, as well as the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and wherever the British Empire committed its atrocities.”

We at The Concordian  strongly agree with groups like #MacdonaldMustFall and the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade. Proudly displaying figures like Queen Victoria and Sir John A. Macdonald means praising their actions––actions which, in reality, are nothing to be proud of. As most know, Sir John A. Macdonald was a part of the approval of the first residential schools in Canada, according to Global News. He set up treaties with Indigenous Peoples and broke them, and starved thousands who lived on reserves, according to the same source. The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (EFTO) has called him the “architect of genocide against Indigenous Peoples.”

To this day, many of the struggles Indigenous communities face in Canada can be seen as results of Macdonald’s legacy. How can we praise a leader who helped create these hardships? The same goes for Queen Victoria––how can we praise a leader who perpetuated oppression for so many around the world? How can we support colonialism, imperialism and repression of self-determination?

The answer is, we can’t. And we won’t.

We at The Concordian support groups who dedicate their lives to combating and resisting against symbols of oppression––symbols like statues, plaques or any other form of commemorating a hideous figure in history. The call to remove these statues reminds us of another event two years ago, where counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia clashed with white supremacists who were protesting against the removal of a statue of Confederate icon General Robert E. Lee. The protest turned violent, with a car ploughing into the crowd of anti-racist and anti-fascist protestors, killing one and injuring 19 others, according to Al Jazeera.

We at The Concordian believe statues of oppressive historical figures is one of the many ways white supremacy is still upheld in our society. We’re proud to see groups and people that fight against this in proactive ways, by choosing to attend anti-racism protests. We must remain vigilant, and we must become more outspoken against all forms of oppression. For those who think this is an old conversation, it’s too close to home for us to turn a blind eye—our current CAQ government is playing a role in upholding racist ideologies, by establishing values tests and French-language tests for immigrants. Canada’s complicit too—Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and an expert on hate groups in Canada, believes between 120-130 hate groups exist in Canada today, according to Al Jazeera.

Some of these hateful people exist online, in the darkest corners of the internet and some even in broad daylight on Facebook comments and Twitter threads. Others form and join far-right groups like La Meute in Quebec, the Proud Boys, Soldiers of Odin and anti-immigrant group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (PEGIDA). Perry told Al Jazeera that this onslaught of hate groups is “a unique era in our history.”

Unique, indeed. Uniquely terrifying, wrong and downright disgusting. We at The Concordian fiercely denounce all oppressive acts, figures and groups. We stand by those who fight against this systematic oppression and white supremacy that continues to see the light of day in our society.

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

Categories
Opinions

Let’s talk about the environment

graphic by Ana Bilokin

Why the upcoming protest about climate change is needed

On Friday, March 15, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., many Concordia students will participate in a walkout to protest inaction from authority figures on the issue of climate change. The strike will be in solidarity with international climate strikes and walkouts in other institutions in Montreal, such as McGill and UdeM. Later in the day, protesters will join a Montreal-wide march to stand up for climate action.

Now, although I do not condone skipping class, I would like to stress the importance of the call to action this protest aims for: to raise awareness on the current environmental crisis we find ourselves in and to act now for a more sustainable future for our planet. To get a little scientific, the Keeling curve (which many aren’t aware of) is a graph of the accumulation of measurements of the concentration of CO2 emissions taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii from 1958 to today. The sense of urgency to take action stems from the Keeling curve, as it has been increasing—this year it has reached its highest level of CO2 concentration measured ever!

As a Master’s student in environmental assessment, in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, I’ve learnt about the environmental science behind these issues firsthand and the detailed extent of how humans impact the planet. Just last week, our class visited the Anthropocene exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. Witnessing attendees appreciate the beauty in photos of environmental destruction as art was terrifying, to say the least. However, it did bring about an opportunity for the public to learn about the effects we’ve imposed on our environment, similarly to what the walkout aims to do.

March 15 is an important date since many schools will be on strike that day to follow the European demonstration movement initiated by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish political activist working to fight against climate change and global warming. It is crucial to acknowledge that this walkout is a response to a global issue. It is also important to emphasize the international scale of this crisis, as seen by the lone protest of Thunberg. Her actions have led to a powerful global movement of school climate strikes, spreading to countries in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Germany, the United States, Japan and dozens more, demanding politicians act on behalf of the planet, according to The Guardian.

At the UN Climate Change COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018, Thunberg announced, “[World leaders today] only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess even when the only sensible thing to do is to pull the emergency brake.” Following this urgency for action against today’s environmental issues, Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning and Environment has begun a number of projects in support of raising awareness and promoting ways to reduce our environmental impact.

Some of these projects include Concordia’s Climate Clock, which shows how current greenhouse gas emissions affect our planet’s trajectory to reach two degrees. Another project is Climate Bytes, which aims to translate complicated studies on climate change into “digestible byte-sized pieces of information” for the public to more easily understand the science behind these issues. Another is the newly formed Climate Emergency Committee, which allows students within the department and professors in the field to come together and discuss the issues and ways to move forward in addressing these problems.

To learn more about these issues, I invite you all to attend the upcoming Sustainability in the City and Beyond conference from March 19 to 21 at the Loyola Jesuit Hall and Conference Centre. Here, the Climate Emergency Committee will be speaking more about their work.

Remember, the need for action is urgent, and the time to become aware of environmental issues and how to help is now!

Graphic by Ana Bilokin

Categories
Student Life

Memories of the SGW Affair

From left: Clarence Bayne, H. Nigel Thomas, Philippe Fils-Aimé, Brenda Dash and Nancy Warner spoke at De Sève Cinema on Feb. 8. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Re-examining the socio-political climate of 1960s Montreal

In light of the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Sir George Williams Affair, Protests and Pedagogy, a two-day conference commemorating the largest student occupation in Canadian history, took place at De Sève Cinema in the LB building on Feb. 8 and 9.

The series of panels saw speakers, academics and activists from across the country join together to share information and memories of the events on Feb. 11, 1969. Resituating the occupation within the broader socio-political context of racial tensions in the 1950s and 60s in Montreal, as well as globally, underpinned each discussion.

Michael O. West, professor of sociology, Africana studies and history at Binghamton University, kicked off the conference by giving some much-needed historical context to the occupation. On April 28, 1968, eight students approached the Dean of Students with the initial complaint regarding their biology professor. “1968 was a year of protests and rebellion worldwide,” said West. “The Sir George Williams Affair was deeply rooted in the revolution of 1968.” Twenty-two days before the students came forth with their initial complaint “was the assassination, on April 4, 1968, of the King of Love,” said West. “Martin Luther King.”

Following West, H. Nigel Thomas, an author of various novels, poems and scholarly texts, chaired the second panel discussion between four individuals who were all involved, in one way or another, with the events surrounding Feb. 11.

Clarence Bayne, a then-professor at Sir George Williams University; Philippe Fils-Aimé, one of the Hall building occupants as well as one of the 97 people arrested that day; Brenda Dash, a Montrealer who vocally supported the students and was also arrested; and Nancy Warner, then a student-supporter from McGill who was outside the Hall building on Feb. 11. Every panelist had unique, insightful details of the intentionally misrepresented protest-turned-riot, all to convey one theme: it’s time the truth got a fair hearing.

The 9th floor computer centre after Feb. 11, 1969. Archive photo courtesy of Concordia University.

“Many people saw a face of Montreal that they had never seen before. The sheer hostility, the racism, the things that were said to people,” said Warner. “The degree to which what we thought were the rules of due-process, of the people being treated like they had some kind of civil liberties, were dashed.”

Some major news outlet headlines from Feb. 11 and onwards read: “Police Stay Cool in Chaos” and “Riot Squad Impressive” (The Gazette, Feb. 12, 1969) in which police are praised for appearing “relaxed and in good humour,” as well as “Student Moderates Alienated—Extremists go it Alone,” (The Star, Feb. 12, 1969) which stated that black students wanted to “burn down the university.”

“Much has been said about the destructive danuma of February 11,” said West. “A favourite description became and remains: riot. It being assumed that the rioters and protesters were one and the same.”

To this day, the administration and major news outlets present the mysterious fire as a point of contestation from the riots that day, despite the fact that students were arrested and charged with arson, among other offences, in the ensuing trials.

“I am going to also make a few comments on the question of this fire at the computer centre. I will tell you things that I have never said or mentioned before,” said Fils-Aimé. “As we were in jail, I had the chance to talk with Rosie [Roosevelt Douglas] and I said ‘Rosie, did you start this fucking fire, man?’ and he said ‘Phillippe, I must tell you, I didn’t have to.’” Fils-Aimé went on to explain how Rosie speculated that an individual whom they knew to be a devoted anarchist was the arsonist.

Details of the brutal events that took place once the riot squad stormed into the Hall building have not been downplayed—they have been left out of the history books altogether. “It is true that a riot occurred at the computer centre,” said West. “Except the riot only began with the arrival of the Montreal police riot squad.”

“The black occupiers were singled-out for especially brutal retribution. Black women, as could be expected, got the worst of it,” said West. “Subjected to bigoted bile as well as sexual violence. [Black men’s] bodies were ground in broken glass, they were kicked in the groin and genitalia.”

The students who made the initial complaint were taking a biology course, many of whom had dreams of attending medical school and ascending to the professional realm of society. “In sum, the police riot was also an attack on black sexuality and black reproduction,” said West.

West explained that, in regards to holding the police and the university accountable for the riots, “that has occurred to no one; that is, no one in a position of authority.” Fils-Aimé left attendees with a metaphor: when history is written by the lions, you’ll never hear the side of the antelopes. “In the process, truth became another victim,” said West. “It’s time, officially, that truth got a hearing at Concordia University. It’s time.”

Feature photo by Alex Hutchins

Categories
Opinions

Learning from the 1969 Computer Centre Occupation

Graphic by Ana Bilokin

50 years ago, a riot called the Sir George Williams Affair occurred at Concordia University. About 200 students occupied a computer centre here at Concordia for 14 days to protest institutional racism. What resulted was the largest student occupation in Canadian history and two million dollars in property damage.

Rodney John, one of the eight students who raised the initial complaint of racism against the university’s administration, said of the event’s survival in public consciousness: “The only thing people know is that there was an occupation, that the computers were destroyed,” in an article by CTV. We at The Concordian think that it is important to revisit the overlooked details in order to remember the event in its entirety, as the specifics may hold relevance to some of our own campus initiatives today.

Here is a brief timeline of the protest according to an essay titled “The Georgian Spirit in Crisis: the causes of the Computer Centre Riot,” written by Keith Pruden in 2004.

On Apr. 29, 1968, a cohort of eight students approached the Dean of Students, Magnus Flynn, with the claim that a lecturer in the biology department, Perry Anderson, was influenced by racial bias. The Dean promised to look into the matter, and students apparently “trusted the university to deal with the situation fairly.” On June 14, the university declared that “there is no substance to the charges of discrimination and racism leveled against Mr. Anderson,” and in the fall semester Anderson was promoted from lecturer to assistant professor.

On Dec. 5, the students approached the school principal, Dr. Rae, to find out why Anderson had been cleared. Dr. Rae knew little of the situation and agreed to set up an investigative committee. On Dec. 6, there was an emergency meeting in the Faculty of Science, and another on Dec. 12, both of which were unproductive and the students’ faith in the institution was diminishing. That day, Dr. Rae resigned from his position as principal. After several more meetings, the university set a hearing committee with the first meeting on Jan. 26. Students refused to comply with this procedure, however, since the committee was entirely chosen by the administration, and thus was obviously biased.

Only after all this—nine months of unresolved complaints—did the students’ frustration culminate into their occupation of the computer centre. The occupation was intended to get the university to agree to five specific demands concerning the judicial process around the Anderson matter. According to CTV, it remained peaceful until the police were summoned to remove protestors, which triggered a fire. It is disputed whether the fire was started by the police or by the students, but it had the immediate effect of smoking protesters out of the building. Also, this led to the physical destruction of the computer centre and the arrest of 97 students, according to the same source.

It is troubling that what is remembered most about this event, as Rodney John notes, is the occupation and destruction of property. Modern retellings fail to recognize that the university initiated the violence by sending in the police (who are no doubt responsible for some—perhaps all—of the property destruction in the centre). Instead, the media paints protesters as impulsive and destructive, when in reality, several attempts over almost a year’s time were made to negotiate with the university administration on their terms prior to the occupation.

This event can teach us about a strategy that seems to be used all too often—either intentionally or unintentionally—by the university, which is to lose people in the paperwork. Often, when bureaucratic issues like this are raised, the process is drawn for so long that complainants either forget, lose interest, or feel too helpless and move on from the issue. The 1969 protesters didn’t allow the university to get away with this strategy, and it resulted in them gaining coverage from every major news source in Canada, and being remembered 50 years later.

Students like the ones who took part in the Computer Centre Occupation have gradually helped to establish Concordia as a progressive school—or at least one with politically-conscious students. This can work in favour of current student-activist groups, since the student body’s potential for disruptive protests is well known, which gives certain bargaining power to campus groups. The computer occupation and similar protests serve as reminders to the administration that students are willing to persist and even put themselves in danger for issues that they feel strongly about. We feel that this reminder can only be effective, however, if we commit to remembering these events in their entirety.

Graphic by Ana Bilokin

Categories
Student Life

Exploring the “Computer Riots” 50 years later

Exploring the Computer Riots 50 years later

Fifty years ago today, on Jan. 29 1969, the Sir George Williams Affair began—also known as the Concordia Computer Riots. According to CBC, about 200 students occupied the ninth floor computer centre in the Hall building and engaged in a peaceful sit-in protest for 14 days. The occupation was organized following the administration’s mishandling of racism complaints lodged by a group of six students against their biology professor, Perry Anderson, who they accused of unjust grading. Negotiations between the administration and the students fell through on Feb. 11. The peaceful protest turned violent after the administration handed the case over to the police, which resulted in 97 arrests, a mysterious fire and $2 million worth of property damage.

Blackout: the Concordia Computer Riots, organized by production company Tableau D’Hôte Theatre, is a play that explores the events that led to the student occupation and questions how race relations have changed in Quebec over the last 50 years. Blackout will essentially explore and interrogate the historical events of the Sir George Williams Affair through fictional characters.

About a year ago, Mathieu Murphy-Perron, the creative director and owner of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre, gathered a team of uniquely talented artists, poets and writers to start researching the history of the protests for Blackout. “We were trying to identify with these students who experienced injustice and, when they spoke out against it, realized the root of the problem was much bigger,” said Tamara Brown, a Concordia graduate as well as assistant director and part of the writing unit for Blackout. “We realized that the moments we read about were all too painfully familiar.”

Brown said that while they were exploring archived media coverage of the peaceful protests-turned-riots, the team also tried to look at what wasn’t covered. “When you do research on the event, you find images of the destruction and the $2 million of damage,” said Lydia Dubuisson, part of the writing unit for Blackout. “You don’t read about the events that led up to the riot.” Students were blamed for the mysterious fire that started after police got involved. However, according to the CBC, some believe police set the fire as a means to sidebar the protest.

Blackout invites viewers to question how different the events that unfolded in 1969 are in comparison to current events. “[The students] didn’t have support from the population, or from the media, or from society,” said Dubuisson. “Today, when people of colour express their same frustration, the response is the same.” The intersection of theatre, politics and education is unique to this performance in relation to its context and relevance within our current political state of polarization. “There is a terrifying racist rhetoric circulating now that makes people afraid,” said Brown. “We’re so polarized and it makes people afraid to stand up against injustice.”

In 2014, former Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) Executive Mei Ling, a pseudonym, filed a complaint against the administration after experiencing sexual and racial discrimination from two ASFA executives. Despite Mei Ling winning the case in 2015 and ASFA supposedly reforming its harassment policies to be more survivor-centric, the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) filed a sexual harassment complaint in 2018 against then ASFA president, on behalf of Harris Turpin.

“I observe how much things have changed, but also how they have not changed,” said Dubuisson. “I hope students take pride in knowing that it’s part of your job to fight your administration.” Brown, Dubuisson and Kym Dominique-Ferguson, part of the writing unit and one of the lead performers, all touched on the importance of re-examining history in order to fully understand where we are currently. “It’s time to start looking at the folks that have experienced oppression and look at the groups—white people—who benefitted from this,” said Dominique-Ferguson. “We need to look at that, acknowledge that, respect it and respect the individuals that are still affected by this.”

“I find what these students did to be so remarkable,” said Brown. “Everything we do matters, and the administration tried to tell [the students] otherwise, but they knew better.” Despite the 97 arrests and property damage, the protests led Concordia to revise its policies and procedures, which resulted in the creation of the Ombuds Office, according to CBC. According to Concordia University’s website, “the Ombuds Office’s role is to assist in the informal resolution of concerns and complaints related to the application of university policies, rules and procedures.” It is allegedly independent of all the administrative structures of the university, and impartial.

“We’re trying to frame extremely difficult events with a lens of hope, and I think that will inspire people to not be afraid,” said Brown. “They weren’t afraid, and we can learn from what they did.”

Blackout will show every evening from Jan. 30 to Feb. 10 in the DB Clarke Theatre from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.     

Feature photo courtesy of Concordia University Archives

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News

Marchers decry Nazi flag-waver in Park Ex

Protestors walked around the building in question to denounce the waving of a Nazi flag in Park Extension.

Protesters and tenants of the condominium at 7080 Hutchison St. rallied together to demand the release of the Nazi flag-waver’s identity who was spotted after this year’s May Day protest. The rally occurred on May 5 and was comprised of about 100 protesters, armed with banners and posters and showing no mercy to the police officers guarding the neighborhood. They marched from Parc metro station to their destination with unwavering determination.

May 1, known as May Day, marked a day dedicated to a series of annual protests in support of workers’ rights. This year, montrealers marched with “same class, same battle” posters and “for the right to work in security for all and those without paperwork” signs.

According to the Montreal Gazette, the man waved a red flag bearing a swastika after the demonstration. Many photos were circulated on social media, including a community Facebook page called Parc-Ex Action Squad, which initiated an online debate about whether the board of directors of the condominium should disclose the identity of the man.

Soon after the incident, Valérie Guilmain, who sits on the condo’s board of directors, expressed to media the directors’ distress despite the fact that they cannot disclose the man’s identity. Guilmain said, “as a result of the sad and deplorable hateful incident of which our building was the theatre, we reiterate our absolute disapproval of this gesture. We condemn it unreservedly.”

Protesters chanted “Make racists afraid again” as they walked, repeating after protestor Aaron Lakoff

Nonetheless, anti-racist activist Jaggi Singh, who is part of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia, co-organized the demonstration and condemned the board of directors. “The administration of the condominium know exactly the identity of this person, but they won’t reveal it because they are getting intimidated by the police who are saying there is an investigation going on,” Singh said. “I find the fact that they trust the police over the community to be very insulting.”

“This manifestation is to remember and give the message that there is no place for such a message in Park Extension and Montreal,” said Samiha Hossain, the spokesperson and co-organizer of the event alongside Singh, who claimed the man also performed the Nazi salute. “It completely shocked me. I couldn’t believe it. It is honestly the first time I see a message of this nature in Park Extension,” she told The Concordian. “We need to remember that Park Extension is the neighborhood that is the most multicultural in terms of cultures, nations and religions.”

Hossain has been living in Park Extension for over 22 years. “We want to know the identity of the person, because we want to make sure that we create a feeling of security. We are hoping that once the police investigation has concluded, we will get to know the identity,” she said.

Hossain said she believes there is a link between the May Day incident and neo-Nazi racist “Zeiger,” whose identity was announced last week. “We do not have concrete proof that they are connected,” said Hossain. However, she added that because of the timing, it may not be coincidental. According to the Montreal Gazette, “Zeiger” is the pseudonym of a controversial writer for The Daily Stormer, a far right-wing news website. His identity has since been revealed as Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie resident Gabriel Sohier Chaput.

Aaron Lakoff, a protester from Solidarity Across Borders and a Concordia student in the media studies master’s program, said he is certain there is a connection. “By the simple fact that [the man waving the flag] is a Nazi—yes,” Lakoff said, adding that it is difficult to know exactly how the two individuals are related.

According to Lakoff, many far-right individuals such as neo-Nazis use the dark web to recruit members, which motivates them to perform unlawful gestures. Lakoff initiated one of the main chants of the march: “Make racists afraid again.” As a Jewish man,  Lakoff said he was appalled by the sight of the flag that day.

Hossain told The Concordian that “as long as [neo-Nazis] exist, we will need to continue to be bigger, stronger and be more vocal to stop hate speech and move for a better future.”

Photos by Mackenzie Lad

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Opinions

A first step in the march for change

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth.

Most people are familiar with the phrase: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” On March 24, that change manifested itself in the March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C., and hundreds of other cities across the United States. Although the march was organized by American students to protest against weak American gun laws following a lengthy streak of shootings in American schools, thousands of Canadians marched in solidarity on Saturday. The ability of a group of Florida teenagers to spark a transnational demonstration is courageous, inspiring and a major step toward effecting real change.

We live in an age where mass shootings are normalized in the United States—or at least they were until about six weeks ago. So far this year, there has been an average of more than one school shooting every week in the United States, or a total of 17 shootings in 12 weeks, according to CNN. While Canadians should be proud to support our neighbours to the south in their fight to improve gun control, it’s important to remember we are not immune to the problem in our own country.

There were 13 shootings—two of which were fatal—in Ottawa alone in January 2018, reported CBC News. This equals to 40 per cent of the shootings recorded in the city in all of 2013. Of the 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, Canada has the fourth highest rate of death by firearm, according to The Globe and Mail. The rate in Canada is more than twice that of Australia and 10 times the rate in Britain.

Effective gun control has been terminated at the federal level, and gun circulation in Canada has amplified. According to The Globe and Mail, the Harper government overruled the RCMP’s ban on military assault weapons, and eliminated the legal requirement that the sale of shotguns and rifles be tracked. Today, people with gun licenses in Canada can buy an unlimited number of unrestricted guns (i.e. shotguns and rifles, among others), and there is no record kept about any of these purchases. Gun owners in Canada can also avoid background checks because of automatic six-month license extensions that kick in if they fail to renew their license on time. Additionally, from 2012 to 2016, the importation of guns to Canada almost doubled compared to the previous four years—increasing from more than one million to just under two million, according to The Globe and Mail.

So while most of the news media turns its attention to the overwhelming number of massacres in the United States, it is undeniable that gun violence and a lack of gun control are problems in Canada as well.

As Canadians, we should be proud to stand against the people who deem corporate greed and political gain more valuable than the innocent lives of children. We should be proud to support anyone who tries to effect positive, peaceful change in a world that seems increasingly polarized and violent. Canadians should take inspiration from the brave voices and powerful words of young Americans, and make sure our own government understands that weak gun control will no longer be tolerated here either. We should all be determined to end gun violence and school shootings.

A school should be a safe space for everyone. It’s where we go to learn, to flourish and to create a future for ourselves. It is outrageous that shooting drills have become as commonplace in schools as fire drills. Parents should not drop their children off at school fearing they’ll never see them again.

Change comes slowly, but we at The Concordian believe it will come. Children are the future, and Saturday’s march was just a taste of the future these courageous young people will build for themselves. The people in charge can not be relied on to protect that future, nor should it be solely their responsibility. As the students of Parkland high school continue to show us, we must become the change we wish to see in our world.

Graphic Alexa Hawksworth

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News

Joining forces to denounce exploitation and sexual violence

A protester chants through a megaphone and rallies the crowd minutes before marching from the downtown Concordia campus. Photo by Alex Hutchins

30,000 Quebec students rally to demand salary wages for unpaid internships

Nearly 30,000 students across Quebec mobilized to protest against unpaid internships and denounce the sexual violence many students, particularly women, experience in the workplace on Thursday, March 8. In tandem with International Women’s Day, the Montreal Coalition for paid internships organized their third large-scale protest to demand that student interns be given proper wage compensation, as well as access to the internal resources at their workplaces that are exclusively available to paid employees.

The coalition was formed in early June 2017 by multiple student unions and associations to unite against labour exploitation. “We think that by asking for wages for interns it will change the situation because, in Quebec […] when you’re an intern, you are below every [paid] worker, and you don’t have protection,” said Kaelle Stapels, one of the organizers of the march and a member of the Montreal Coalition for paid internships.

Unpaid internships are illegal in Quebec, except when the student is completing an internship for course credit either for an approved educational institution, as part of vocational training or if the student is working for a non-profit organization, according to the Canadian Intern Association.

Jeanne Dufresne, a Université du Québec à Montréal student protester, explained how degrees that require students to do a minimum number of hours as an intern before graduating are particularly problematic. According to Dufresne, an internship is a “full-time job [and students] need to do that to get their diploma, so that’s why it’s frustrating, because after the work, they need to go [find] a part-time job” to subsidize the costs of being in school and working full-time with no income.

“When I’m doing my internship as a nurse and I’m with my patients, I’m legally responsible for [them] as I would be if I were a real nurse. But I’m not paid,” Stapels said.

While the coalition demands that every student, regardless of gender, be fairly compensated as working interns, many of its members emphasize that women are more vulnerable when it comes to labour exploitation and sexual harassment in the workplace.

A crowd of 300 protesters chant while they trek uphill towards Docteur-Penfield Avenue along Atwater Avenue. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Although it’s possible to experience sexual violence in every program or field, Stapels explained that women who are in programs such as nursing, social work or education have an increased chance of experiencing exploitation and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Stapels also explained that because female interns in particular are not given the same protection as paid employees through their placement’s administration, if they experience sexual harassment while working, often their only option is to use the resources available through their university. “And we all know schools do nothing,” Stapels said. “The resources that are in place now, they’re not [enough]. They don’t do the job.”

According to a report titled l’Enquête sexualité, sécurité et interactions en milieu universitaire (ESSIMU) conducted by over a dozen researchers, about 37 per cent of university students have reported incidents of sexual violence or harassment in Quebec training programs. One third of the reported incidents occured within a hierarchical context. Due to the power dynamics found within academic institutions, the report explains, students are often at a disadvantage when reporting sexual misconduct.

The march was organized mainly to protest against unpaid internships and sexual violence in the workplace, however, given that it occured in conjunction with International Women’s Day, many protesters gathered to denounce gendered violence altogether. Maintaining an open dialogue between people and encouraging women to speak up about the problems they experience daily, explained student protester Giverny Welsch, “[is] what is so remarkable about what’s happening right now.” Welsch emphasized how this open dialogue is key to formulating both a community and a movement that are geared towards inclusivity. “We’re humans because we are able to communicate.”

A crowd of 300 protesters chant while they trek uphill towards Docteur-Penfield Avenue along Atwater Avenue. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Building relationships by empowering women, said Lucie Arson, a protester who preferred to use a pseudonym, is the first step towards starting a movement and creating a strong community that works towards positive change as a united front. “[As] a non-binary trans person, and as a sex worker, I kind of feel alone and not represented […] but right now, I’m feeling great,” having met people with similar experiences, Arson said. “There’s a [feeling of] solidarity.”

Sexism still exists, “[it] is a problem everyday,” said Arson, and it can be life-threatening for countless women all over the world. “Patriarchy works in a way where we are always opposed to other women around us, so I think it’s time to rebuild these relationships and fight together.”

Photos by Alex Hutchins

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