Welcome to the “New” Canada. You want proof of how insane our financial system has become? Try this!
In a debate on CTV Monday, the president and managing director of Megantic Asset Management compared Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath’s proposal for a tax hike on the rich to ethnic cleansing.
… and that’s what I think about that.
Unlike the United States, where there is at least an admission of the fact that racism exists and has a history, in this country one is faced with a stupefying innocence.
— DIONNE BRAND
Viola Desmond. On November 8th 1946 Ms. Viola Desmond decided to go and see a movie while she was waiting for her car to be repaired. She requested floor seats and paid for the ticket. As she sat watching the movie she was approached and asked to move, but claiming an inability to see from the balcony she refused.
Her refusal would not be accepted and she was subsequently dragged out the theatre by two men who injured her knee in the process. She was arrested and was forced to spend the night incarcerated on the male cell block. Such was her dignity that she sat upright throughout the terrible ordeal.
During her trial she was not told that she could have legal counsel, or cross examine the witnesses testifying against her. The fact that she was unfamiliar with the legal segregation that the cinema utilized and that the sign indicating the seating standards by race was obscured was not taken into consideration. She was subsequently found guilty of tax evasion because though she asked for a floor seat the segregated seating meant that she had actually purchased a ticket for the balcony where Blacks were forced to sit.
By not sitting in the supposedly appropriate place, she had avoided paying exactly one cent in taxes. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail and was ordered to pay a total of 26 dollars in fines, with 6 of those dollars to be given to the manager of the theatre who had damaged her knee when he roughly removed her from her seat.
Not content with the verdict, with the support of NSACCP (The Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), Ms. Desmond would fight her way to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Despite the fact that this was clearly a miscarriage of justice based solely in the theatre’s racist policy, the conviction was upheld.
Frederick Bissett, Ms.Desmonds White lawyer, donated his fees back to the NSACCP which then used the funds to fight segregation in Nova Scotia. In 1954, (well before Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat) segregation was struck down in Nova Scotia thanks in large part to the struggle of Ms. Desmond.
At the end of the supreme court battle, Ms.Desmond’s marriage failed because it could not withstand the strain of the trial and publicity it resulted in. She was also forced to give up her dream of owning a chain of beauty salons that catered to Black women. Ms. Desmond moved to Montreal to attend Business school and, upon completion of her degree, to New York to start her business as an agent. Ms. Desmond died at the age of 50, shortly after she arrived in New York City.
Day 64 of Racism Free Ontario’s100 People of Colour Spotlight.Follow our facebook fanpage , tumblr, twitter and website for daily updates.
I received a petition from Change.org today, as I often do, about Women’s rights.
Here is the content of the email:
Dear [redacted!],
Girls in a Toronto public school are sent to the back of the room — just because they’re menstruating.
Valley Park Middle School in Toronto allows Muslim students to use the cafeteria for Friday prayer: Seventh and eighth grade girls pray behind the boys, separated by tables, while girls who have their period must sit on their own in the back of the room, not allowed to join in the prayer.
The Muslim Canadian Congress, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, and newspapers both left and right have spoken out: Segregating 12-year-old girls who are menstruating sends an unhealthy and sexist message that can scar these children.
But the school still hasn’t budged. That’s why Tim Das, a father of two kids in Toronto,started a petition on Change.org calling for the Toronto District School Board to enforce its general equity policy and stop segregating menstruating girls in schools. Will you add your name now?
Tim said he started the petition because school should be a safe place for children, not one in which girls are shamed and ostracized for a natural function of their bodies — a development they’re just getting used to. “As a taxpayer, Toronto resident, and first-generation Canadian — and most of all, as the father of a sweet, spirited six year old girl in the Toronto Public School system — I was aghast,” said Tim. ”I knew I had to do something.”
Toronto’s School Board is required to promote “gender equity ideals” in “all aspects” of the city’s schools. One board member has already said he thinks the board should enforce that policy. Widespread public outcry can push the rest of the board to agree to stop segregating girls who have their period.
Sign the petition to tell the Toronto District School Board to stop treating girls like second-class citizens — and worse — in publicly funded schools.
http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-segregate-menstruating-girls-in-public-schools
Thank you for taking action.
- Shelby and the Change.org team
I don’t … know how I feel about this. I seem to have a lot of “on the one hand” opinions.
On the one hand - no, I do not think that girls should be ostracized because something is occurring in their body which they cannot control and they certainly should not be shamed for.
On the other hand - I don’t entirely feel comfortable with the idea of a public school board saying: yes, you can come in and practice your religion within these walls every Friday at lunch, oh but, we are going to dictate some of your cultural practices and standards.
To be honest, I don’t particularly like the idea of a public school permitting religion on their grounds at all (particularly if the school board and trustees start to step in and dictate based on their own views, context and policies).
But on the other hand, I can appreciate the inclusiveness and multiculturalism that the school has attempted to create given that three to four hundred of its twelve hundred students are taking part. The question of religious rights is valid, particularly since our school weeks and years are set up around the Christian religion. This would be, as I understand it, akin to allowing Christians to have a small mass on Sundays if they were also required to be in school, or Jewish students to have a place to pray during the Sabbath.
On the other other hand, I feel as if this is not the place to raise the complaint and the issue. Is the Imam who is running the service part of the same service that the boys and girls would have attended if they had needed to go off schoolgrounds to attend? If not, or if the parents of the participating children would not normally worship in a place with segregation like this, then perhaps a change in officient is in order? Or a different sort of prayer group? There seems to be other options other than handing down an edict from above.
I suppose the real reason I do not feel comfortable with this is I do not have enough knowledge to know if by signing the petition, would I be an ally in this or not? I do not know the opinion of the students and parents who are affected by this. There are a variety of opinions from Muslim groups who obviously feel that this is more strict than they agree with, however, nothing specific from those who choose to attend every Friday or their parents. And while it might seem like the simple solution is: Just get everyone to stop the segregation! I have no way of knowing the context or the affects this would have on the people who are actually impacted by this. It seems to be part of a greater picture, and really, the only outcome I can currently see if the Toronto school forbids the segregation (at least, if the parents and children are not requesting the change as well - at which point, this is a WHOLE other story) is making a lot of people who are not affected by this feel better about themselves and pictures they see on the internet.
![[Political Cartoon: This cartoon has two panels. On the top panel are two people with shaggy hair on either side of a car at a gas station. The person on the left is only visible from torso up, but he appears to be wearing a long sleeved white golf shirt and is holding a gas nozzle, and the other appears to be wearing bell bottoms and a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. The CN Tower is in the distance. To the right side is a sign which says: “Gas .49L” The person on the right has his fist in the air, looking excited: “LET’S GO TO VANCOUVER!”
On the bottom panel are two people on either side of a car at a gas station. They are different people from the first panel. The one on the left is wearing a nike baseball cap on backwards, brown pants and a yellow shirt and is holding a gas nozzle. The one on the right is wearing baggy pants low on his hips, his boxers showing. he is wearing a white t-shirt. The CN Tower is visible in the background. To the right side is a sign which says: “Gas 1.49 L”.
The person on the right looks unexcited, and says: “Let’s go to Hamilton.”]
The Toronto Star - Stephen Nease - 25 April 2011](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk7w24LHHv1qhszy3o1_500.jpg)
[Political Cartoon: This cartoon has two panels. On the top panel are two people with shaggy hair on either side of a car at a gas station. The person on the left is only visible from torso up, but he appears to be wearing a long sleeved white golf shirt and is holding a gas nozzle, and the other appears to be wearing bell bottoms and a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. The CN Tower is in the distance. To the right side is a sign which says: “Gas .49L” The person on the right has his fist in the air, looking excited: “LET’S GO TO VANCOUVER!”
On the bottom panel are two people on either side of a car at a gas station. They are different people from the first panel. The one on the left is wearing a nike baseball cap on backwards, brown pants and a yellow shirt and is holding a gas nozzle. The one on the right is wearing baggy pants low on his hips, his boxers showing. he is wearing a white t-shirt. The CN Tower is visible in the background. To the right side is a sign which says: “Gas 1.49 L”.
The person on the right looks unexcited, and says: “Let’s go to Hamilton.”]
The Toronto Star - Stephen Nease - 25 April 2011
A group of Toronto marchers took to the streets Sunday afternoon in what they’re calling a “slut walk” in response to controversial comments made by a police constable earlier this year.
In January, Toronto Police Const. Michael Sanguinetti told a personal security class at York University that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”
Sanguinetti apologized for his comments, but his apology failed to satisfy walk organizer Sonya Barnett.
“It was evident that if you’re going to have a representative of the police force come out [and say that] then that kind of idea must be still running rampant within the force itself and that retraining really needs to happen to change that mentality,” she said.
A statement on the event’s website says: “Toronto Police have perpetuated the myth and stereotype of the slut, and in doing so have failed us.”
Bit of a change from Election-Stalk 2011 but still a rather important political article.
(also, can we all marvel that the word “slut” made it into the headline? And was in the article multiple times? WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?*
*please note my sarcasm here and I am not suggesting the word should not have been in the article, but I am impressed that it was!)
The Chronicle Herald - Brian McKinnon - 1 March 2010
(For those unfamiliar with the G20* protests, Toronto hosted the G20 Summit last year, which sparked a series of protests. Due to an old law and an act added to that law, the police were given unprecedented power to arrest, detain and demand information from anyone in certain areas.
What happened in the G20 protests is currently under review from five different directions, and sparked over 200 complaints to the Ontario Ombudsman, André Marin who called it: “The most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history,” in a blistering report on the incident. Just recently another recommendation for a public inquiry has been tendered by a review, but Dalton McGuinty, the Ontario Premier is refusing on the basis of the reviews already ordered.)
*I dunno, are these explanations annoying? I’m reasonably sure most Canadians know more or less what happened with G20, but when I post something that is not PRECISELY WHAT IS IN OUR FACES RIGHT NOW - I feel like it deserves some explanation.
Not just Canadian politics, just all politics with a Canadian slant.
