Blog column post example
Why clean drinking water should be an election issue
By Krystalline Kraus | April 28, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/04/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-why-clean-drinking-water-should-be-elec
I know a lot of Canadians would be ashamed to know that in Canada
— on Turtle Island — there are people living on this land who do not have
access to clean drinking water.
Sure, I know most people reading this are looking around right now, sure that there is a tap or drinking fountain nearby where they can safely take a sip of water or wash out a cup.
Most Canadians take for granted that for them, access to clean water is a given.
Clean water comes from the pipes just as milk comes from a grocery store, with little sense of the connection to the earth from which the waters flow.
Imagine if that Canadian-given access to clean water were to no longer exist — because of our own pollution and lack of accountability for our actions as humans on the earth?
There would be general panic, massive outrage and moral pontifications from citizens, demanding immediate action from Ottawa to remedy the problem.
So let me tell you now that there are people living in Canada who do not have access to clean drinking water.
But as most Canadians live safely tucked away in cities, they are the invisible “others” who live on Canada’s reserves. Out of sight. Out of mind. Wrong demographic. Wrong skin colour.
While First Nations communities across Canada have been begging for clean water, there has been no panic, massive outrage or moral pontifications from citizens demanding immediate action from Ottawa to remedy the problem.
Nor has there been any outrage or concern expressed by the federal government or the opposition while it sat in parliament or now on the campaign trail.
Frankly, most Canadians don’t even think about their fellow Canadians who don’t have access to clean water as they pour themselves a drink, nor thank the earth from where the water came.
According to a CBC report, “As of Feb. 28, 2011, 116 First Nations communities across Canada were under a drinking water advisory. Health Canada won’t provide a list of them, citing privacy concerns. CBC News has obtained one from Aug. 31, 2010, which sources say is still current.
There are more communities on that list now than in 2006, when a CBC News investigation first looked at this issue, despite the fact that the Department of Indian Affairs will have spent $2.5 billion dollars to improve drinking water access on First Nations by 2013.”
Right now, during this federal election, I have yet to see any politicians making the effort to join or major news organization running a story about the Mother Earth Water Walk 2011, while Anishinaabe grandmothers, women, men and youth from Canada and the United States are walking to protect the water — from us.
The message:
“ni guh izhi chigay nibi onji” (Ojibwe)
“I will do it for the water” (English)
“Je le ferai pour l’eau” (French)
“Nin tla’teka’s wu’jit samquan” (Mi’kmaq)
“Biish maandah waanda zhitch gayon” (Odawa J)
The Mother Earth Water Walk began in 2003 in answer to question — “What will you do?”
What will you do to help protect the water?
Luckily for the rest of us, some of us two-legged (humans) have been brave enough to answer this question and take up the call to protect the water. Thus, the idea of a Mother Earth Water Walk became a reality.
The Water Walk 2011 began on April 10, 2011 from Aberdeen, WA, and then, “the walkers, journeying over 10,400,000 steps and carrying the healing and sacred salt water from the four directions will converge June 12 in Bad River, Wisconsin. The water will then be united in Lake Superior, where the first Water Walk began.” You can view the schedule here.
From the Mother Earth Water Walk call out, “The 11,525 miles or 18, 549 kilometers were walked to call attention to the sacred gift of water, the source of our life, the source of all life. The past walks also raised awareness of the need to take care of the water, and to help our Mother Earth who is struggling to survive and to provide for all her children.
Each of the 24,113,700 steps taken was a prayer for the water, for Mother Earth, for the animals, the birds, the insects, the trees and for us, all two leggeds. Together the walks were one prayer for life.
This spring the Water Walk returns and the prayer continues. The 2011 Water Walk unites all the waters of our Mother Earth — beginning on April 10, 2011.
As the northern snows begin to melt and further south spring rains fall, our Mother Earth awakens and new life begins.
Water from the vast Pacific Ocean, from the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Hudson Bay will be gathered in copper pails and carried by hand to the shores of Lake Superior. Ocean water from the four directions will travel the miles with Anishinaabe women and men walking side by side.”
So take a break from the noise of the election and now ask yourselves: What will you do to help protect the water?
For more information on how you can get involved in the Mother Earth Water Walk, please check in at these following sites:
www.motherearthwaterwalk.com (Background information)
www.emptyglassforwater.ca/map (Please check the map to see what the needs are for the walkers)
Facebook: Water Walk 2011 (Photos, videos, good wishes)
Or email waterwalk2011@gmail.com (Please email us your best wishes for the Water and the Water)
All people are encouraged and welcome to participate in and to support the 2011 Water Walk as it passes through their provinces, states and communities.
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Feature news interview example
People need to tell their G20 story in a public hearing: CCLA and NUPGE
By Krystalline Kraus | March 2, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/news/2011/03/people-need-tell-their-g20-story-public-hearing-ccla-and-nupge
Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and James Clancy, the National Union of Public and General Employees’s national president, spoke to rabble.ca about the release of a report by the CCLA and the NUPGE based on public hearings on the G20 mass arrests. The hearings were held in Toronto and Montreal last November.
Q: Different First Nations communities emphasize the power of narrative-based information and storytelling as gathering tools — both in regards to evidence gathering and reflection. How do you feel your method of creating this kind of space benefited the inquiry and the debate regarding the impact of the G20?
James Clancy: It provided an opportunity to tell the human story behind the G20 events. Without a human story there’s no larger picture to make information meaningful. Without a human story the public just hears numbers.
We knew that more than a 1,000 people were arrested — the largest mass-arrest in Canadian peace time history. But what did that mean exactly? What did it mean for the individuals arrested? And what did it mean for all Canadians — our values and our rights? That’s what we wanted to learn and share with others. The personal stories add significant weight to the numbers being tossed around in the public debate and help provide the larger picture of what occurred.
Also, there seemed to be some disconnect between what was happening in Toronto and the rest of the country. People in the rest of the country saw news coverage but didn’t necessarily feel strongly connected to the G20 events. We hope the personal stories told at our hearings help connect people to the events in Toronto in a more profound way than the mainstream media coverage could.
We know people connect with each other through stories. And if you attended our hearings (or read the report) you’ll know how difficult emotionally it was to hear these stories. Again, the official numbers in say a lot of people were mistreated and abused. But who are these people? It turns out they are a sister, a grandfather, a mother, a wife and a husband, a student, a union activist, an innocent bystander, a journalist — they are real people, our fellow citizens, who had their fundamental rights and dignity violated. Their stories, we hope, will have a profound impact on anyone who hears or reads them. We hope they cause Canadians to reflect on how the values and rights we cherish — and too often take for granted — can be easily threatened and violated. More importantly, we hope they motivate people to take action to ensure this kind of thing never happens again.”
The people we heard from, based on their unique experiences, actually had answers and solutions for what went wrong. They’re actually experts in what went wrong since they experienced it in a direct and personal way. They just needed someone to listen — and the police and governments weren’t willing to listen. We hope our public inquiry provided them an opportunity to express their ideas and solutions on how fix the problems.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: People need to tell their story, particularly when something traumatic has happened and certainly the G20 was traumatizing for many. In my view, it is important that there be a public inquiry for the public airing of the stories and the different people who were variously affected.
Q: What is the benefit or negative consequences of a people-led, independent inquiry?
Nathalie Des Rosiers: The benefit is that the people receive an inquiry that is certainly more immediate and responsive to the situation being investigated and that has a certain value to it. This would allow civil society and the appropriate authorities to react faster to any abuses and institute changes.
The negative aspect, as we’re seeing now, is the inability to compel anyone to testify. With the lack of subpoena power, we can invite certain people to testify but we cannot compel anyone to come nor can be compel the review of certain documents related to the G20 decision making process. This is needed because we want to dig as deep as we can as for the benefit of an inquiry.
Q: One characteristic I noted while documenting the testimony of those injured and arbitrarily arrested last summer was the honesty of how they approached the inquiry. How do you feel this contrast against the current frustration of civilian oversight groups for the police and the SIU who feel the Toronto Police Service and G20 Integrated Security Unit have been less than forth coming regarding any G20 inquiries?
James Clancy: The format — people sharing their experiences — helped create an authentic dialogue between people. It allowed people to be totally open and honest about what went wrong and their desire to find the truth and fix things.
It’s difficult to characterize the response to date from police and security forces in the same way. In my view there’s been a total lack of transparency and accountability in explaining the excessive overreaction by police and security forces. It’s in their interest to stonewall and keep information hidden. But each day this goes on the public’s faith in our police and security forces diminishes. A full public inquiry with the power to subpoena witnesses and documents under oath is needed to restore the public’s trust and confidence in public security services.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: A public inquiry would allow for cross-examination and for a power to compel attendance. This is essential if we want to get to the bottom of this.
Q: In the report and during the testimony there were a few different people who commented on the “uncivility” — as you have termed it in your report — of the police. Do you feel police conduct during the G20 has hurt their reputation and would a transparent inquiry help remedy this?
Nathalie Des Rosiers: Certainly, the actions of the police during the G20 protests hurt their public reputation and the actions of the police were captured and broadcast to an audience well outside of Toronto, so the impact is much larger than just the reputation for one city.
There is a basic rule of behaviour for any police force in regards to their conduct with civilians because they represent the authority. In is in fact because they represent the authority that their conduct towards the public must be polite and decent. We expect a certain amount of professionalism from the police because they are supposed to be professionals.
The inquiry would allow for the transparency necessary for the public to see that the police are willing to investigate and hold those responsible for their actions and conduct before and during the G20 protests. Any changes that come about because of a review of police behaviour should also be made public so the public can see that changes are being made.
Q: How do you — or your organization — feel about how the CCLA/NUPGE inquiry became known as/referred to as “the People’s Inquiry”? Do you feel that reflects the lack of a true people’s inquiry into the G20 Summit?
James Clancy: I’m proud of that and I think it’s a fair description of what our hearings were about.
It’s been the only public venue to date where Canadians impacted by the G20 mass arrest had an opportunity to tell their side of the story. The hearings and report we released today is one of the few opportunities where Canadians have been able to find out the real extent of the excessive police brutality and the flagrant disregard for human rights and civil liberties that occurred.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: It was a civil society initiative and as such has an importance. None of the other inquiries have, up to now, open their doors to the process. We are hoping that they will do it soon.
Q: There are I believe seven or eight inquiries being held now, and only one is an independent inquiry, does this reveal a pattern to government behaviour regarding government accountability?
Nathalie Des Rosiers: The issue is not so much one of independence, it is about the ability for any inquiry to dig deeper into the issues regarding policing. The issue is about the amount of limits on the scope and mandate of any inquiry.
Regarding the Toronto Police Commissioner’s inquiry, the scope only relates to the conduct of their own officers but since this was a provincial-federal affair, it does not encompass the role of the RCMP or other forces. It can only focus beyond its mandate to review the conduct of the Toronto Police Service alone.
Q: “NUPGE and the CCLA believe the majority of the arrests that occurred during the G20 were excessive and unwarranted.” (p. 43 of the report.) Regarding the amount of testimony gathered during the two days of the inquiry, are you surprised that there was only been one arrest (two charges) laid against one police officer –Toronto Police Constable Babek Andalib-Goortani?
James Clancy: I’m really not surprised. I am, however, extremely disappointed that the stonewalling and lack of transparency by police and government officials continues eight months after the G20 and is still preventing justice from being served.
There’s ample evidence that many police officers used excessive and unreasonable force and conducted themselves in an unlawful manner. There’s absolutely no valid reason why those officers have not been formally charged.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: Massive and illegal arrests may not lead to criminal charges against individual police officers. It could be that orders were given to kettle and detain and massively arrest. We just do not know at this stage.
Q: With this one arrest (and perhaps a few more), how do you feel about the police’s approach to singling out a few bad apples as opposed to looking at systemic reasons why there were so many alleged abuses?
Nathalie Des Rosiers: It is obvious from the sheer amount of testimony gathered at the inquiry’s hearings in Toronto and Montreal that this issue of police misconduct goes beyond the work of one of two (rogue) officers.
There were several different police agencies on board during the weekend and they were all receiving orders I assume from one central body. Only a public inquiry with the power to dig deeper into these kinds of relationships will reveal the truth regarding who were giving the orders and what those orders were regarding the police’s behaviour towards the public, and why we saw a shift in police behaviour from the Saturday (June 26, 2010) to the Sunday (June 27, 2010) in regards to such things as aggressiveness.
Q: On page 59, the report mentions the police’s treatment of the media (mainstream media and alternative media) who were “just ‘doing their job reporting” during the G20 Summit. At the people’s inquiry, testimony was also given regarding the destruction or confiscation of media cards (digital cameras, cell phone logs, etc). Also, 91 Toronto police officers were reprimanded for not wearing their mandatory police ID (p. 57). Is this one of the systemic patterns you feel revealed itself in the analysis of police conduct and accountability?
James Clancy: Absolutely. I don’t think you can simply attribute this to inappropriate conduct of individual police officers. Someone with authority must have directed police to engage in activities that ignore proper conduct and even the rule of law. Whoever that person or persons are, they must be held accountable. That’s not going to happen unless we have an independent public inquiry that has a broad mandate with full legal powers to find out who is in fact is responsible.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: One issue is certainly why police officers thought that they ought to remove their badges, why they did in such large numbers and what training they received. These are issues that need to be investigated fully.
Q: The reprimand for those officers was only the loss of one day’s pay, should there have been a stronger response?
Nathalie Des Rosiers: I am not so much concerned about the severity of the reprimand but what are the longer term consequences for officers in the field. What I think needs to be revealed is how come there were so many officers without name tags, was it each individual’s independent decision to not wear theirs or was there some sort of a larger order or directive given to the police. Was this order given only to the Toronto police or to other police jurisdictions? What will be the consequences if their officers were caught without name tags?
Q: Regarding next steps, do you feel it would be worthwhile investigating the role of the federal government in all of the policing of the G20 Summit? If you feel this is important, why the lack of attention regarding the role of Prime Minister Harper, the PMO’s office and the federal government?
James Clancy: It’s critical that the federal government establish an independent public inquiry into the G20 events. Canadians deserve answers.
Unfortunately, it appears the prime minister is determined to sweep the whole thing under the rug. The G20 cost Canadians dearly, not only in the billions of dollars spent in taxpayers’ money, but also in terms of damage to our reputation on the world stage. For Prime Minister Harper to deny Canadians a public inquiry is a clear indication that his government has a lot to hide about the role they played in this very dark moment in Canadian history.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: We think that a public inquiry should investigate the role of the RCMP in developing the strategy of policing deployed at the G20, we do not know about the relationship between the policing tone and abuses and any interference, counsel, complaints by political figures.
Q: Would you like the inquiry you’re calling for to investigate the role of the PMO’s office and do you feel it would be useful?
Nathalie Des Rosiers: I think it would be useful for the public — and there is clearly a desire for this — to know what role the PMO’s office played before and during the G20. Certainly, the PMO’s office would have been kept aware of the actions of the police and the demonstrators on the street during that weekend, but we have yet to know exactly what the relationship between all these different agencies were; you clearly have some sort of contact or communication between the RCMP and the local police, but what else, who else was involved, this is what we would like to know.
Q: “This is not to say that the right to protest is absolute. Indeed, the rights of protesters must be reconciled with the interests of members of the general public, foreign dignitaries, police officers and others” (p.17). Can you flesh out this statement in more practical terms regarding the expectations of organizers? At what point does organizing a demonstration put an activist or group at risk for “conspiracy” charge?
James Clancy: The starting point for me is that all Canadians have the constitutional right to engage in peaceful and lawful demonstration. No activist who exercises this right should ever be at risk of a conspiracy charge.
Unfortunately, this constitutional right wasn’t respected or protected by police and security forces during the G20. We need to ensure this never happens again so that all Canadians are free to exercise their constitutional rights.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: Organizing a protest should not put someone at risk of a conspiracy charge unless there is a conspiracy to engage in a criminal activity.
Regarding the conspiracy charges, we will have to wait for the courts to rule, but it should be noted that more than half of the charges laid during the G20 were dropped or people were released without any charges as all.
Q: Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows for certain protections and rights regardless of sex, gender, race, etc. “There were also numerous reports of police incivility, including the use of abusive language and racist, sexist, anti-Francophone and homophobic slurs by police” (p. 12). How can groups like the CCLA with its allies like NUPGE use the Charter to prevent such cases of “police incivility” in the future?
James Clancy: Section 15 of the Charter guarantees equal protection of the law without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. This represents basic values shared and cherished by Canadians.
NUPGE, as I’m sure CCLA, has a strong and proud tradition of supporting Section 15 challenges. We’ll continue working with our allies to ensure all police and public security agencies not only respect, but also protect the core values expressed by our Section 15 of our Charter.
Nathalie Des Rosiers: At this stage, the Charter will not help much with police incivility unless it demonstrates a discriminatory pattern which would bring the equality section into play.
Q: At what level would the change need to be at to prevent such future abuses?
Nathalie Des Rosiers: The Charter applies to all actions of the state and the police. There are comprehensive rules found within Chapter 8 regarding the arrest, search (and seizure) of activists. What we will need to see is if these rights were violated in any way during the G20 — were there any specific orders given during the G20 — we don’t have the answers to any of these questions yet.
Some of these (answers) will be revealed by the courts (during the trials) but we certainly need to see the bigger picture regarding the arrests and searches made. For example, there were many different testimonies given during our inquiry where people complained they had their rights violated in regards to illegal searches. The complaints are too numerous in nature to point to the actions of isolated officers.
Nathalie Des Rosiers is the general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and d James Clancy is the National Union of Public and General Employees’s national president. Listen to testimony from witnesses at the inquiry by clicking here. Krystalline Kraus is a regular contributor to rabble.ca, writing the Activist Communiqué blog and covered the G20 weekend for rabble.ca.
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Feature news writing example
Their spirits live within us: Marching for murdered and missing Indigenous women
By Krystalline Kraus | February 16, 2011
Article Link: http://rabble.ca/news/2011/02/their-spirits-live-within-us-marching-murdered-and-missing-indigenous-women
February 14 — Valentine’s Day — is a day to honour love and
honour those loved ones who have passed onto the Spirit world.
It can be a painful time filled with memories and grief, but also a time to unite together to demonstrate how much we honour the presence of others in our lives — even if they no longer alive.
So on this day to honour love, marches were held across Canada — Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, London and Montreal — on the national day of action for justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women. A national day of action which — to quote Che Guevera — is driven by a state of love for our community’s women and all the caring and wisdom they represent.
First Nations communities across Canada have been carrying the burden of this sadness for generations as they have walked this trail of grief. They are stepping out of the shadows and coming forward. First Nation communities and the allies demand that these murders and the disappearances stop.
According to research conducted under the Native Women Association of Canada’s (NWAC) Sisters in Spirit program, over 580 Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing, most of them over the last 30 years.
I concede that the number is much higher as Gladys Radek from Walk4Justice estimates over 3,000 women are known to have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1970s, with at least 80 per cent of these women being from First Nations.
Two years ago, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued this statement: “Hundreds of cases involving aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in the past two decades have neither been fully investigated nor attracted priority attention.”
It is unclear how Canada’s recent ratification of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will improve matters.
On another front, on Sept. 27, 2010, the Lieutenant Governor issued an Order in Council establishing the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry to be led by former B.C. attorney general, Commissioner Wally Oppal, with the conduct of the investigations made between Jan. 23, 1997 and Feb. 5, 2002, by police forces in British Columbia in respect to women reported missing from the Downtown Eastside of the City of Vancouver.
In a presentation by MP Libby Davis (Vancouver East) regarding the Inquiry on Jan. 19, 2010, she commented:
“I’d like to say to you today, Commissioner Oppal, that I believe your biggest challenge is to produce a report that cannot be ignored, nor forgotten, nor dismissed. It must be a report that addresses the deeply disturbing and egregious wrongs done by our society to the most defenseless people in our community. Your report must have built-in mechanisms that ensure its active follow up. All of us as witnesses, experts, victims, families, friends and advocates must compel you to issue a report that is bullet proof, hard hitting and will cause shock waves as to what went wrong and why.”
And in support of the Feb. 14 national day of action, Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo released a statement calling for an independent inquiry:
“The Assembly of First Nations continues to urge the Federal government to work collaboratively with Indigenous and women’s organizations on an action plan focused on prevention and the safety and security of Indigenous women.”
The national feelings ran deep.
Angela Marie MacDougall of the Battered Women’s Support Services, stated at the Vancouver Downtown East Side rally that, “this is the most pressing social issue of our time.”
In Ottawa, there was a rally to protest the Federal government’s funding cut announced on Oct. 29, 2010 to Sisters in Spirit program by the Native Woman’s Association of Canada (NWAC).
In Toronto, people gathered at a Toronto police headquarters for the 6th annual No More Silence march to partake in a Strawberry (Heartberry) Ceremony before marching to the coroner’s office.
Demonstrators held placards with the names of murdered and missing women, including a placard for Carolyn Connolly who was murdered on Aug. 2, 2001 in Toronto. No one was been charged with her murder.
In London, there was a march through the city centre in support for justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women. Darlene Ritchie from the At lohsa Native Family Healing Services told the crowd, “It’s your little sister, your daughter, your granddaughter, your cousin, all of them missing…Their lost legacies and the potential legacies of their children are immeasurable.”
In Vancouver, on the 20th anniversary of this memorial march, children laid red and yellow rose petals along the walk; the red roses honoured the dozens of women who have been murdered in the Downtown Eastside, the yellow roses were in memory of the women who are still missing.
The marches for missing and murdered Indigenous women began its legacy in British Columbia in 1991 in response to the murder of a woman on Powell Street in Vancouver.
The most recent disappearance appears to be that of 23-year-old Nikita Jack, who, according a press release released just yesterday, went missing on Feb. 10, 2011, from her Surrey, B.C. residence. She was reported missing by her family on Feb. 12, 2011, with her parents stressing she would never leave her three-year-old daughter.
The first question that comes to my mind: How would I feel if I had a daughter who went missing? What if my sister simply disappeared? Or my mother or auntie vanished?
It’s a painful but necessary question to ask. I pondered this question and others during Toronto’s march and realized that all these missing Indigenous women is tantamount to genocide. Yes, that’s an ugly word that makes most Canadians uncomfortable but please do not turn away.
How else do you account for such numbers? Almost 3,000 missing women since the 1970s? Let’s be honest, if it were 3,000 white-skinned women, would the response to this epidemic of violence and death be different?
I know that’s a hard question but we must answer honestly.
Even relying on the more modest statistics from NWAC, the list of missing and murdered native women in Canada grows: Out a total of 582 cases, 393 died as a result of murder or negligence. And 115 remain missing. Only 53 per cent of the cases involving native women was someone charged, whereas the average rate for charges in a homicide in Canada is 84 per cent.
Think about it.
For more information on how you can help, please see:
Women’s Memorial March (B.C.)
Highway of Tears (B.C.)
Justice for Missing and Murdered (Montreal)
No More Silence (Toronto)
Native Women’s Association of Canada (Sisters in Spirit program)
Toronto’s Aboriginal Missing & Murdered Women Awareness Conference March 3-4, 2011 at the Native Canadian Centre Toronto.
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Feature news writing example
Avatar’s other missed opportunity
By Krystalline Kraus | March 9, 2010
Article link: http://rabble.ca/news/2010/03/avatars-other-missed-opportunity
The movie Avatar might empower indigenous people to rise up and defend the earth but it does nothing to empower people with dis/abilities to rise up and conquer the oppression they face through ableism. Regarding dis/ability, the message in Avatar is clear: redemption through the casting off of a defect or dis/ability. Salvation can be found by re-becoming able-bodied.
“In fact, the main character in the movie — a crippled U.S. marine named Jake Sully –isn’t really a warrior in either human or Na’vi culture until he gets the use of his legs back through a scientific miracle.
It is not an Avatar of Sully still in a wheel chair who can fight for both the humans and then the Na’vi, it is an Avatar of him in perfect form and function that’s embraced by both cultures to go to war.
What if it was a dis/bled Na’vi Avatar that was presented as the saviour of their people? What would be the reaction then? Any similar to the reaction Jake Sully-as-marine gets when he first rolls off the spaceship, when his fellow soldiers refer to him as “meals on wheels?”
But I cannot abandon this broken body to drive a billion dollar, perfect, Avatar of myself. I’m stuck in this body on this planet where my biggest enemies are both the compression force of gravity on my damaged spine and the weight of people’s prejudices regarding my assumed to be diminished worth.
Even as an activist, I get frustrated knowing that I cannot always march the full length of a protest route because the distance is too great or run with the other quick-footed radicals during a direct-action protest as they break out into a sprint to escape the police, leaving me behind. You don’t know how much it hurts to be left behind.
A Matter of Value and Worth?
Not only am I challenged — sometimes daily — to re-define my worth in a capitalist society where my ability to produce has been compromised by an injury, I also question my worth (and the potential liability) at any physical manifestation our combined rebellious spirit. Trust me, while my flesh may be weak, my spirit is willing.
I have to confess, just like anybody else, I like to feel strong. I want to feel mighty. I don’t like to be left behind; struggling to keep up terrified that I’ll end hanging out with the cops at the back of the march. Bringing up the rear. (And for right now, don’t suggest to me the nobility of an activist desk job. And yes, I do know that demonstrations aren’t everything to the movement but as someone who embraced direct-action, manifestations of protest mean something to me.)
This said, I admit to the extremely rude audacity (as can happen in the hierarchy of dis/ability) of thinking to myself: “Well, at least I can still walk with these braces and this cane. At least I’m not in a wheelchair!”, letting the grief and self-pity I feel towards myself pollute any feelings of solidarity towards my own people.
So what is our worth as the dis/abled; people who move, communicate or process information differently than what is considered the norm? With the Na’vi people representing a sort of physical perfection (unless I missed the screen shot of any Na’vi people with a visible dis/ability like me, let alone any suggestion to an invisible dis/ability and any required accommodations?)
As plots go, since it is unlikely that any human would want to move into a defective Avatar. I’m not sure what my worth would be on planet Pandora if my Avatar was a Na’vi mirror image of myself? In the film, the Na’vi all looked able-bodied, not a crutch or cane to be seen, they embodied a perfection through their physical strength and ability.
It should be noted that in Hinduism, the word Avatar or Avatāra is Sanskrit for “descent” [viz., from heaven to earth]) and refers to a deliberate descent of a deity from heaven to earth.
Emphasizing perfection, what kind of human would be interested in a malfunctioning Avatar or other crippled divine incarnation? I mean, imagine how such an image could challenge a religious belief, for example, that we humans are supposedly made in the perfect image of God. If a human is born different, or becomes different through the trails of life, if that perfect image is altered, does our worth diminish as our proximity to that perfection decreases?
Wanting to see myself reflected in my culture, so far relying on a media which uses dis/ability like some sort of visual prop to reinforce a character’s broken-ness, no matter how feisty they may march around hospital corridors, I was looking to Avatar to add something to the cultural fabric of the 21st century.
Planet Earth
As for my worth here on Planet Earth, the United Nations passed the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century when the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted on Dec. 13, 2006.
It gained the highest number of signatories in history for an UN Convention on its opening day and entered into force on May 3, 2008. According to the UN, the Convention, “takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as ‘objects’ of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as ‘subjects’ with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.”
These are pretty words. But only words. Canada has yet to ratify this Convention even though it signed on, on March 30, 2008. By signing, it was assumed that the Federal government was signaling its intent to ratify the UN Convention as soon as possible. On December 3, 2009, the Government of Canada did table the Convention in the House of Commons and hopefully the official ratification will soon follow.
Again, such pretty words while people are struggling to survive on in Ontario on meager Ontario Disability Support Payments (ODSP), which leave little room for dignity.
In Ontario, according to a April 2009 report by the Manitoulin-Sudbury District Service Board, a single individual living in Ontario on ODSP could receive $566 for basic needs and $454 (max) for shelter, bringing their monthly total received from ODSP to $1,020.
An individual on ODSP, the sole supporter of a child under twelve years of age, would receive $709 for basic needs and $714 (max) for shelter for a monthly total of $1,423.
That’s not enough to survive on, let alone live. While there was a 2 per cent increase in such support payments in the March 2009 Ontario budget (then taking effect in November 2009), it doesn’t help much.
As of April 2009, close to 350,000 Ontarians depend on government disability support. As for levels of poverty, when determining poverty rates, one key point to factor in is that the poverty rate for people with disabilities is 47 per cent higher when extra costs of disability are taken into account. Most commonly used “poverty lines” like the Low Income Measure, do not take into account the extra costs of disability.
When some Ontarian’s with a dis/ability don’t have enough each month to pay the rent and pay all their medical expenses, fantasy could become escapism. Could anyone be blamed for wanting to abandon their current form and thus abandoning all the oppression and prejudice they encounter for a perfect body and a better life?
Rise Up
In the movie Avatar, I witnessed the uprising of an indigenous culture, a peoples’ resistance against colonialism. I see no reason why people living with dis/abilities cannot rise up — in their own socially imperfect but authentic bodies and minds – to launch a resistance.
While I understand the immense pressure some individuals feel on ODSP regarding speaking out against the system as they fear a backlash, I know I feel a burning desire for justice in my heart that transcends any material obstacles I may face, including my own battle regarding my self-esteem and self-worth.
And I want, demand, change; not a scientific revolution to solve the problem by giving me a new body but a social revolution that would recognize my worth as is, as a part of the great web of diversity that is human life on this planet.
Sure the Jake Sully character wanted to prove himself, but couldn’t he have been considered an honoured warrior in his own right, as someone who was dis/able as opposed to a useless piece of flesh because he can’t walk?
You can just sense the importance of Sully’s ability to redeem himself when he first wakes up in that Avatar body and takes his first run. Somehow that is when he re-becomes a warrior.
I mean, let’s face it, who would want to move into a dis/abled Avatar?
I, in fact, had to watch the movie twice because the first time I got so wrapped up in the Jake Sully character as a crippled marine given a second chance to walk that I missed most of the first half. Like the feeling of depression that Sully expressed when he stated to the research scientist (Doctor Grace Augustine) that the only reason he’d signed up for the mission (to take the place of his able-bodied, scientist brother) was because he himself has nothing left to lose; as if being or becoming dis/abled brings nothing but hopelessness and despair.
To be honest, I sort of lost it during the movie segment where Sully gets to run again, after his consciousness is inserted into a healthy Avatar body. Since the 2005 accident that damaged my spine, there are moments in my life where I’d absolutely kill to be able to run again; jealous of Sully’s position. I can’t tell you how many nights I wake up from a “running” dream wishing it were real.
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Feature news writing example
Conflict in Caledonia: Peacekeepers or a new settler militia?
By Krystalline Kraus | July 8, 2009
Article link: http://rabble.ca/news/2009/07/caledonia
The area surrounding the town of Caledonia, Ontario, has been this province’s ground-zero when it comes to First Nations land claim issues.
A 200-year land claim dispute between the government and the Six Nations came to the mainstream media’s attention in the winter of 2006, when Six Nations protesters occupied the Douglass Creek Estates (a residential development) to defend their rights to the land.
Six Nations protesters argue that the Douglas Creek site was given to them by the Crown in 1784. Anti-Six Nations protesters from the Caledonia area assert that the land was official surrendered to the Crown in 1841.
Animosity against the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), under Commissioner Julian Fantino, has come from both sides in the dispute. Residents of Caledonia organized through the group Caledonia Wake Up Call (CWUP) feel that Commissioner Fantino botched the police operation to remove the Six Nations protesters from the development site, triggering clashes between activists and local residents and solidarity blockades.
On June 16, 2006, the Ontario provincial government eventually purchased the development site and is currently holding it in trust until the land claims dispute can be resolved. In addition, the province pledged $1 million to compensate businesses hit hard by the ongoing dispute, bringing the total to $1.7 million.
On March 29, 2007, Minister Jim Prentice announced efforts to advance negotiations with Six Nations and bring ‘peace and stability’ to the Caledonia area. The twofold announcement includes $26.4 million toward Ontario’s extraordinary costs incurred as a result of the occupation near Caledonia.
In addition, it was promised that the Government of Canada would expand its negotiations mandate to allow more flexibility in moving these historical claims forward. Currently, the land claim negotiations continue at the Lands Side Table. (An explanation from the government regarding its negotiations can be found here.)
The land claim troubles have simmered on through these past three years with no resolution, flaring up from time to time like a fire refusing to burn out until its cause is resolved and leading to 148 charges being laid by the OPP against 61 people.
Along with protests from the Six Nations community which caused an Ontario Judge to suspend land negotiations regarding the Douglas Creek Estates until protesters evacuated the site, a group of Caledonia residents organize a “March for Freedom” in 2006 and 2007 demanding that Commissioner Fantino honour his declaration that, “There is one law for all,” and end what organizers consider the unequal distribution of justice and law enforcement which they claim favour Six Nations protesters over Caledonia land owners
The recent erection of a Six Nations smokehouse (small tobacco store) on the private property of a local resident is the new flashpoint in this conflict. It has been the fuel for residents Doug Fleming and Gary McHale, members of Caledonia Wake Up Call (CWUC), to create a local militia to defend what they describe as their land and their “Canadian rights” against “Native lawlessness” and “terrorism.”
The CWUC claim that the OPP has not been fair in its policing of the two communities, forcing them to create a militia to take matters into their own hands.
According to Tom Keefer from the CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group (FNSWG), militia organizers such as McHale strictly control the group’s message by, “Never being openly racist because he frames everything in terms of not being against Natives but that they are for the rule of law, or that they want equal rights. And he constantly talks about the racist police practices of the OPP and about all this oppression towards the while people in the area.”
McHale holds fast to his political line, running as an independent candidate — with a law and order platform — in the last federal election in the Haldimand-Norfolk region on Ontario, where he claims he came in first in the city of Caledonia itself.
Crying ‘terrorism’ to discredit Native land claims
The CWUC has certainly proven its part in the escalation of the conflict here, as it throws around emotion-laden terms such a ‘public safety,’ ‘lawlessness’ and ‘terrorism’ to maintain a red alert level among the citizens of Caledonia
As an example, a June 11, 2009 post on the CWUC site titled, “Six Nation Women march in support of terrorism,” stated, “In another exceptionally pathetic display by police, a group of Six Nations women including extortionist Ruby Montour and Janie Jamieson were among those conducting a highway blockade near Hamilton, Ontario.”
Also on the CWUC site is a post declaring First Nations activist Sean Brant a terrorist and including numerous links to ‘supporting evidence’ — including Brant’s involvement with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and an anonymous quote from a police officer.
Regarding the issue of smokeshacks and trespassing charges, Tom Keefer explains that Fleming is simply making the Six Nations community a scapegoat. Holding Native people, “responsible for a crime wave in Caledonia; breaking and entering into homes and then running back with the stuff they steal.” Of McHale, “he pathologizes Native people as being violent terrorists and the CUPE union as supporting terrorism.”
The threat from the Caledonia Militia
Keefer helped organize a CUPE 3903 FNSWG protest on June 23, 2009, against the creation of the militia. Two hundred people attended the counter-protest while the police kept the group from shutting down the meeting.
Keefer himself is on CWUC’s terrorist list in his own right for supporting the Six Nations. CUPE is also named, charged with supporting terrorism.
Parkinson, head author of CWUC’s website, posted his opinion of CUPE and Keefer, “This is a union after all so I anticipated something different from the usual racist, bigoted, ignorant crowd that gathers in small numbers to protest against law and order in Caledonia. Fortunately I’m not afraid to admit it when I’m wrong and I was very wrong.”
Regarding the militia itself, Keefer explains, “According to Fleming, the militia would patrol areas in Caledonia by car and by foot wearing uniforms and communicating with radio equipment. If alerted to an instance of native lawlessness the militia would then use reasonable force to affect a citizen’s arrest and would hold the native person until such time as the OPP arrived to take the prisoner to jail.”
At the June 23 meeting itself, the group “made a show of stating they were not racist and that they welcome people of all races into their militia, but the fact remains they were still going to be carrying about actions to restore the rule of law.”
The “rule of law,” according to McHale and Parkinson, is of course the rule of law based on a traditional British system steeped in colonial history towards First Nations communities — this is the institution they seek to protect.
Semantics: When a militia become a ‘peacekeeping force’
The militia organizers have since declared that they are not organizing a “militia” but rather a “peacekeeping force.” It should be noted that, according to the online version of the Farlax dictionary, a militia is defined as: “An army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.” Peacekeeping, on the other hand, is defined as, “Of or relating to the preservation of peace.” The former refers to “an army” while the later refers to the “preservation of peace,” as a wolf wears sheep’s clothing.
In a statement released to the media, Doug Fleming laid out the motives of the newly formed group: “Enough is enough! Due to the ongoing reality that the OPP refuses to enforce the Criminal Code with regards to people’s property rights I am forming the Caledonia Militia to ensure that the criminal code is upheld. Hotheads need not apply. We’re opposing terrorism, not engaging in it.” He ends the statement with the words, “Your community needs you.”
The militia/peacekeeping force will keep a sharp focus on the Douglas Creek Estates land, which Fleming states is a “safe-zone for native criminals” because the police refuse to patrol there. The ultimate goal would be to provoke confrontation, forcing the police to act.
OPP Commissioner Fantino warned the militia to reconsider its potential actions. He said, “the days of vigilantism are long gone in this country. That group had better seek good and adequate legal counsel because, if they exercise what they think is their right and their authority, they better be prepared to defend themselves, as we always have, and justify what they do.”
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Brad Duguid stated, “We’re trying to do everything we can as a government to help bring people together… Efforts such as that — forming a militia — it’s a shameful attempt to divide, and that’s exactly what people should not be engaging in.”
Regarding the issue of Six Nations smokeshacks on the private property of Caledonia residents, the Caledonia farmer, Ernie Palmer, at the center of the controversy over land right use told local news that he is upset that the militia is using his situation as their justification, stating he had already spoken to the operator about an agreement to tear the site down. “The agreement that the natives were going to leave was destroyed by Doug Fleming,” Palmer said. “My problem is with Doug Fleming.”
A tortured analogy: The ‘Native Supremacy Movement’
The protection the peacekeeping force seeks to provide is from what organizers have defined as the “Native Supremacy Movement”, their enemy and the raison d’etre behind the urgent need for an escalation in tactics represented by the formation of a militia.
For a glimpse into the mentality of the CWUC, we can look at what Jeff Parkinson wrote in a 2007 Internet communiqué entitled “Red Power – Native Supremacy Movement in Ontarip,” which was hosted on the CWUC site:
“The ideology of these people is clear. Hatred for everyone but Natives. The same ideology that fuels White Supremacist groups, Black Supremacist groups, a German Supremacist group that changed the world we live in, and now a Native Supremacy movement. To these people equality is a loathsome idea that can not be allowed to take place and we should all live in a world controlled by them or die.”
Another section of the site actually states, “Native Protesters and the KKK share ideology.” Here, Parkinson rants: “Natives and KKK look the same because both have masks and wear something to cover their head while using Flags to make it look like they are being patriotic. … Burning Crosses or Tires the message is the same.”
To conclude the linking of the KKK to the “Natives,” he envokes Martin Luther King Jr., “While Mr. King would hold peaceful marches, the KKK showed they were willing to destroy things and attack people to express their sovereign rights … The Natives have repeatedly proven they share the KKK’s view that violence, not peaceful marches, is the means to force your sovereign control over land & people.”
One of the vwebsites vilified by the CWUC is the Six Nations Reclamation site. Upon searching for language representative of the supposed “Native Supremacy Movement,” no text that the website carried contained the same tone as the Wake Up Call website.
Instead, on the Six Nations Reclamation Site, the group explains their concept of ownerships regarding land: “First and foremost is the concept that we are connected to the land in a spiritual way. The earth is our mother and she provides for our long-term well-being, provided that we continue to honour her and give thanks for what she has provided.”
“Second, according to our law, the land is not private property that can be owned by any individual. In our worldview, land is a collective right. It is held in common, for the benefit of all. The land is actually a sacred trust, placed in our care, for the sake of the coming generations … If an individual, family or clan has the exclusive right to use and occupy land, they also have a stewardship responsibility to respect and join in the community’s right to protect the land from abuse.”
On some level, even the notion of anyone forming a militia in Canada provokes that nervous type of humour that we as Canadians are prone to. Even considering the creation of such a group seems reactionary and hysterical if not outright paranoid. Unfortunately, the Doug Fleming’s and Gary McHale’s types exist in the world and they are dead serious about their intentions.
Using only the short history of Canada for a moment, considering the case of Dudley George, when land right disputes such as these do erupt the First Nations community ends up on the losing side of the conflict, often paying for the ignorance and paranoia of others with their own lives.
And yet, it is often ancient unresolved issues at the heart of such conflicts. In this case, the troubles of Caledonia are only a symbol of the larger, much uglier issue of unresolved land claims, a symbol of a greater problem across Canada where governments hide behind superficial skirmishes between communities rather than tackle the deeper issue of fairly resolving land claims.
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Feature news writing example
Sanctuary for war resister: Rodney Watson takes refuge in Vancouver church
By Krystalline Kraus | October 22, 2009
Article link: http://rabble.ca/news/2009/10/sanctuary-war-resister-rodney-watson-takes-refuge-vancouver-church
The battle to keep U.S. Iraq war resisters in Canada has been ongoing since January 2004 when Jeremy Hinzman first arrived in Canada and filed a refugee claim as a conscientious objector.
Hinzman was the first U.S. Iraq resister to seek sanctuary in Canada as he and others face punishment under a charge of being Absent Without Official Leave (“going AWOL”) or for desertion under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for refusing to participate in the Iraq war for moral reasons.
As of July 2009, there are at least 28 public cases of US Iraq War resisters in Canada, some of whom have either brought their families or started new ones in Canada. They live legally as refugee claimants awaiting legal decisions from Immigration Canada from, for example, Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds (H + C) applications. An unknown number — the War Resister Support Campaign (WRSC) estimate the number to be around 200– have also come to Canada but have remained underground.
They have been embraced kindly by the Canadian public and the current opposition parties in Parliament, who have united twice on motions voting to support resisters, on both June 3, 2008 and March 30, 2009.
These motions were supported by the Canadian public, as proven through an Angus Reid Strategies poll taken on June 6 and 7, 2008 which showed that 64 per cent of Canadians agreed with the premise of the motion, which would allow soldiers of conscience objecting to any non-United Nation sanctioned war to seek refugee status here in Canada and to stop all pending deportation cases. While both motions passed, their recommendations were non-binding and never implemented by the minority Conservative government under the leadership of Stephen Harper.
Commenting on the resister’s immigration situation in Canada, on January 7, 2009, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, referred to Iraq war resisters as, “bogus refugee claimants” and later commented that “war resistance is futile.”
Opposition to allowing U.S. war resisters to seek sanctuary in Canada has also come from the United States. For example, in 2004, the BBC analysis of the situation reported that U.S. political pundit commentators such as Bill O’Reilly of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News TV network, “… seized on the case [of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey], even calling for a boycott of Canadian goods if the pair [were] not extradited quickly.”
It also reported on the types of comments resisters were receiving from their fellow Americans. “‘I’m coming for you,’ reads one threatening e-mail, laced with racism and obscenities. ‘Desserters [sic] should get shot in the back especially at war time,’ reads another.”
The case of Rodney Watson
The latest flashpoint in the battle has been the case of Rodney Watson who on Monday October 19, 2009, decided to seek sanctuary in a B.C. church rather than face deportation to the United States to face desertion charges. Watson, who is originally from Kansas City, Kansas, enlisted in the US Army in 2004 for a three-year contract with the intentions of becoming a cook since he wanted to serve the troops in a non-combat capacity.
In 2005, he was deployed to Iraq just north of Mosul, where he was put in charge of searching vehicles and Iraqi civilians for explosives, contraband and weapons before they entered the base. He was also expected to “keep the peace” by monitoring Iraqi civilians who worked on the base and fire his weapon at Iraqi children who approached the perimeter.
After his first tour was over, Watson was informed that he was instead being Stop-Lossed as the Army intended to have his serve beyond the date of his contractual obligation with the military. On two-week leave, he decided not to return to his base at Fort Hood, Texas, and instead fled to Vancouver, B.C. in 2006, where he lives with his Canadian born partner and their infant son.
In a September 2009 press conference, Watson — who is African-American — described his experience in Iraq, “I witnessed racism and the physical abuse from soldiers towards the civilians. On one occasion, a soldier was beating an Iraqi civilian, calling him a sand-nigger and threw his Qur’an on the ground and spit on it. The man was unarmed and he was just looking for work on the base. He posed no type of threat. He was beaten because soldiers brought their personal racist hatred to Iraq.”
It was experiences like these — plus coming to understand that the motivation behind going to war was based on lies — that led to his decision to come to Canada. He has been living in refuge at the First United Church in Vancouver, B.C., since September 18, 2009. He was welcomed with open arms and publicly declared sanctuary on Monday. Sarah Bjorknas from the Vancouver arm of the WRSC notes that Watson was issued his deportation order before his H + C case could be resolved through the courts.
Watson wishes to remain in Canada because of his objection to the Iraq War but his passion for his infant son remains the strongest pull — two heartbeats desperate to remain as one.
At the press conference, Watson’s voice trembled, “I don’t want to be torn away from him. I want to be there for him during his first steps, every waking moment, I want to be there. And I know if I’m deported, it is to prison and I will not be able to see any of those moments for who knows how long, for God knows how long.” If convicted of desertion as a felony charge he will not be able to cross the border to visit his son.
While Watson made the decision to seek sanctuary on his own, he has been receiving support from across the country. Bjorknas defended his choice. “Rodney was Stop-Lossed, he had served his time, he fulfilled his contractual obligation, and the fact that he is being sent back to the United States to stand trial is outrageous.”
‘Stop Loss’
In the U.S. military, the Stop Loss policy allows for the involuntary extension of a service member’s active duty service under their enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond their initial end of term of service date.
The policy remains in effect despite numerous court challenges from military service members challenging their extension and affects 12, 000 personnel, though in March 2009, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered deep reductions in its enactment against service personnel by fifty per cent by June 2010.
In 2005 during the presidential election, Democrat John Kerry accused President Bush of creating a “backdoor draft” through the use of Stop Loss.
Commenting on Watson’s case of seeking sanctuary in Canada to resist a Stop Loss order, Michelle Robidoux from Toronto’s WRSC said, “Rodney’s case is a clear example of how the notion that the U.S. military is an all volunteer army is actually false. Rodney completed his contractual obligations and was facing redeployment to Iraq despite this and his objections to the war.”
Now Watson sits and waits in a B.C. Church, hoping the government will intervene or enact Parliament’s motion to stop him from being deported and separated from his partner and newborn son.
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This is the online journalism portfolio for Krystalline Kraus
This site is designed to be the online journalism portfolio of Krystalline Kraus. These examples of my writing are posted according to date published.
Here you will find writing samples from my work on rabble.ca. I have been writing for rabble.ca since September 2001. From 2001-present, my duties include feature news and current event articles, publishing photo-essays and writing a daily blog column called the “Activist Communique”. My articles are also published in Manitoba’s First Perspective News and The Drum.
Rabble.ca is a Canada, online political and current issues magazine, which began publishing in April 2001 under publisher Judy Rebick. Therefore, my writing in this case is geared towards an audience that is left-wing, progressive and activist orientated.
Thank you for considering my work.
Sincerely,
Krystalline Kraus
416-829-5729
Krystalline Kraus - journalist, blogger and photographer. 