Head Space

A Place For the Good Shit

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/right-thing-admit-banning-alex-jones-kinda-wrong/

Do the Right Thing, Admit Banning Alex Jones is Kinda Wrong

Let’s get the obligatory out of the way: Alex Jones is the worst. He’s a malicious blowhard the likes of which we’ve perhaps never seen. The perfectly horrible lovechild of late-stage capitalism and an American identity crisis. A living lab experiment babbling to its inevitable conclusion. Alex Jones has made millions off the fear and weaponized hyper-partisanship that beleaguers our culture, adding nothing to the world but more ugliness.

Yet I’m still not sure that banning him is the right thing to do. And it’s this doubt, this hesitance, that feels crucial.

Last week a group of major media companies (Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcasts) all nearly simultaneously removed Alex Jones and his content from their platforms. Jones’ and his InfoWars rantings have millions of loyal followers, including President Trump, so this kind of industry-wide ban was big news.

The reactions have so far been familiar: mild outrage from the right; wide approval from the left. But reading through the subsequent commentary, there seems to be something different in this latest skirmish of the free speech wars.

An assumed consensus.

As of today, the only major platform not to ban Jones is Twitter. And we are not pleased.

“Twitter’s stance on Infowars’ Alex Jones should be a moment of reckoning for users. The site has arrived at a moral crossroads — and it’s choosing the wrong path — VOX

“Twitter is the last major host for Alex Jones’s rants. Why does he get to break their rules?” — The Guardian

“Twitter Finally Admits Alex Jones Violated Their Rules and Still Won’t Do Anything About It” — GQ

Almost every major media platform has banned Jones (Vimeo just bounced him after he sought refuge there), but this near-complete exile is apparently not enough. Despite some decent moral reasoning and promises to address the evolving problem of online abuse, the outcry against Twitter for delaying their part in Jones’ total execution has been swift and relentless and, most troubling, seemingly unanimous.

Even with my progressive leanings, I was personally heartened to hear that a major gatekeeper had taken a moment to consider their position as arbiter of truth. To resist the pressure of the majority. To acknowledge that in the world of free speech, restricting anyone, no matter how unpopular, is a precedent we should be very wary of setting.

Now it could be because I’m currently binging The Handmaid’s Tale, but the whole thing feels kind of, well, totalitarian.

Expected compliance. Intolerance for dissent. An assumption that you must do this thing because it’s the right thing to do and that’s all there is to say about it.

Photo: Hulu

Forget all that free speech stuff. That at the core of any doubt is a devotion to the potentially oppressed. That access to speech being controlled by a private corporation, beholden to nothing but arbitrary considerations, should be a very worrisome prospect for those concerned with minority rights and unequal access to power.

Forget even that we might simply take a moment. An opportunity to stop, reevaluate our positions, consider this new world we are navigating.

No. First you do it and do it now. Then we’ll talk. The cleansing must be complete. For we are building a better world. (Just ignore the dead bodies hanging from the wall)

Oh you crazy lefties, you make it so easy. But then I look at the White House. The country. The contrast between what is and what should be. And I get it.

Today the President of the United States tweeted that a black woman who used to work for him was a lowlife dog.

I understand the urgency. The impatience. It’s time for something new and we’re no longer gonna wait.

Like we did with #MeToo and gay rights and Black Lives Matter — this is just the way it’s going to be. Yes, we are making the decisions for you now. So here are female Ghostbusters and a black President and a gay neighbor and an immigrant schoolmate and we’re gonna keep putting this shit in your face until you get used to it and shun away anyone who doesn’t.

Because it’s the right thing to do and we’re tired of waiting for you to grow up.

No more kids gloves. Maybe in the end this is the way it has to be. The way change is catalyzed, cauterized.

Maybe.

The problem with the faithful in The Handmaid’s Tale’s newly built utopia isn’t that they justify any means for their undeniably worthy ends — it’s that they actively don’t let themselves see their own sins. Despite daily doses of hanging nooses and restricted rights, all they permit themselves to see is the cause. And so with every cognizant self-betrayal they become more lost.

So please dispense with the “I’m a staunch supporter of free speech, but…” Just admit what you’re doing. A grown up finally dragging their asshole kid by the wrist, spanking them for everyone’s good even though you really really don’t normally condone violence.

As in the fictional Gilead, it may be sometimes necessary to get one’s hands dirty for the greater good — but know that you are. Consistently let yourself see the moral bends along the way, like breadcrumbs to find your way back.

***

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/cohen-was-crescent-too/

Cohen was Crescent, too

It was exactly a year ago today that Montreal’s favourite wordsmith left us. I can still remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in a bar with friends watching the Habs play (does it get any more Montreal than that?) when the texts starting coming in fast and furious. I was numb for the rest of the night.

Since then, much has been said and done to honour him, and this month will see a flurry of events and activities around the city meant to, once again, remember him and pay tribute to his legacy.

Few attempts at commemoration, however, have managed to anger and baffle Montreal residents – regardless of which side of the linguistic fence they reside on — like the city’s announcement earlier this year that a mural (officially being inaugurated today) honouring its favourite son would be painted on the façade of a 20-storey building on Crescent Street.

I was one of the many avid Cohen fans who struggled with the location. Not only did I not understand the connection, I found it insulting. I desperately needed to find my peace with it. What did a street so — how shall I put it? — slightly basic, have anything in common with a man so refined?

Crescent Street. Land of the inelegant, the unrefined, and the uncouth. Where the weather-beaten, the off-the-boat, the out-of-place, and the slightly out-of-touch gather to drink and dance too closely to one another.

“What is the appropriate behaviour for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood.”

Crescent is Montreal’s toned-down Bourbon Street and Vegas Strip all rolled into one, a place where American tourists congregate, looking for Quebec joie-de-vivre and French finesse, often too inebriated to realize they’re just talking to another hapless U.S. tourist from Missouri.

“We’re drinking and we’re dancing, but there’s nothing really happening, the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night. And my very close companion gets me fumbling, gets me laughing, she’s a hundred but she’s wearing something tight.”

Crescent is an amplified, jacked-up version of Montreal playing up its bawdry past. It hurts your eyes and ears. It wears its badge of Grand-Prix tackiness with ease and no regrets. Dresses are a little too short, heels a little too high, tans a little too dark, teeth a little too white, the cologne is a little too strong. Behind the glitz, the Nick auf der Maur alleyway reeks of stale beer and vomit.

“He is a courtly man, elegant, with old world manners. He bows when he meets you, stands when you leave, makes sure that you’re comfortable and makes no mention of the fact that he’s not,” acclaimed biographer Sylvie Simmons writes in the prologue of her excellent biography, I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen.

“Darling,” he tells her, “I was born in a suit.”

What does Crescent have to do with a stoic, elegant man like Cohen?

Everything.

Cohen was as much about sex and longing than he was about the sacred and the divine. He melded the two so effortlessly, you didn’t know where one ended and the other began.

“Nobody can say the word ‘naked’ as nakedly as Cohen,” wrote Tom Robbins in the liner notes for the Tower of Song tribute album. “He makes us see the markings where the pantyhose has been.”

The thing about Cohen, is that he exuded such baritone-tinged class and gracious depth, he managed to make even a poem about a quick blowjob at the Chelsea Hotel an eloquent study in existential angst and redemption. Of course, he regretted writing it later — it’s what a gentleman would do.

While the obscenity of an 8,500-square-metre mural to honour this city’s favourite wordsmith — ostentatious for a man so discreet – has ruffled feathers, to re-read his poetry and lyrics is to understand that Cohen was Crescent, too.

After all, a young Leonard wrote often about having his advances spurned, about the agony of longing, of pleasure denied, of wanting to be desired and touched by a beautiful woman. The only reason he even picked up a guitar, he willingly admitted in many biographies and interviews, was in the hopes of attracting that elusive female attention. Despite his mastery of language and the brilliance of his prose, Leonard was, in the very beginning and at his most elemental, just another horny boy with a wet dream and a master plan. His just happened to pan out better than most.

There’s some semblance of logic to be found in a mural in his honour being erected on a street where people go looking for love – of the quick and of the long-term variety. A street filled with equal measures of hope and desperation, one-night stands and connections; that easy companionship found in the bottom of a glass and the soothing embrace of a random Sister of Mercy.

“I know you’re hungry. I can hear it in your voice. And there are many parts of me to touch. You have your choice.”

Leonard knew who he was speaking to. In a letter to his publisher, he once said that he was out to reach “inner-directed adolescents, lovers in all degrees of anguish, disappointed Platonists, pornography-peepers, hair-handed monks and Popists.” That’s you and me, too.

Cohen managed to elevate the tawdry and the pleasures of the flesh into a religious experience. After all, isn’t our perpetual, very human desire for sex an out-of-body revelation, a prayer for the living, an imperfect glimpse into perfection, that light coming in through the cracks found in our bodies; a broken Hallelujah?

“Don’t go home with your hard-on, it will only drive you insane. You can’t shake it (or break it) with your Motown, you can’t melt it down in the rain.”

Perhaps, one can’t help but think, he would have been unperturbed by a mural on Crescent, familiar with the street’s lascivious, salacious, quick-fix associations and his own very real, very admitted relationship failings and desires.

Montreal’s graceful, wise, benevolent bard looking down on the lonely and the lusting, touching so many perfect bodies with his mind. His words compassionately serving for them, and for all of us, as a manual for living with defeat.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/media-guide-report-sexual-violence-now-french/

Media guide on how to report on sexual violence now in French

Most Quebecers might remember the Journal de Montréal headline earlier this year.

“Presumed gang-rape victim had consumed too much alcohol.”

Never mind that the victim was a 15-year-old child, the editor somehow thought it appropriate to add “presumed” before “victim” (even though the terms “presumed” and “alleged” are usually added – often unnecessarily – before the names of the accused to protect their presumption of innocence and the media from any liability, not the victim) and to start off the reporting with a mention of her alcohol intake.

What were the actual facts? Three adult men were accused of gang-raping a 15-year-old teenager. That should have been the Journal de Montréal’s headline. But it wasn’t.

The public outrage was immediate and justified, and the Montreal daily did eventually alter their online headline, but the print version remains and the damage is done. One more irresponsible click-bait headline to add to the myriad already out there, perpetuating victim blaming and rape culture.

As particularly egregious an example of victim-blaming as the Journal de Montréal headline was, though, it’s just one of many (see above) that continue to be seen across the country. Just last week, the same paper referred to a woman’s murder as a “conjugal drama”, in essence reducing and downplaying it to an isolated marital “private” matter between a couple, when stats clearly prove that conjugal violence is killing women across the country with alarming consistency.

Despite attempts to raise awareness and to better educate the media about the importance of using the right language when reporting on sexual violence, dangerously antiquated attitudes about women, consent, slut shaming and victim blaming continue to seep through in reporting.

Use the Right Words

Last year, Toronto-based Femifesto decided to do something about it. With  the help of sexual violence and women’s rights advocacy members across the country (myself included) they created an immensely valuable media guide on how to appropriately and responsibly report on sexual assault without re-victimizing the victims.

Mainstream media has the power to shape conversations about violence in our communities. News stories about sexual violence affect the way we think about it. This tool was created in recognition of the power media has in shaping understandings of sexual violence, and to support those who work in the media as they navigate covering sexual violence. Use the Right Words provides the language and frameworks required to report on sexual violence in ways that do not shame or blame survivors.

Use the Right Words includes information on sexual violence, resources for journalists (e.g. Checklist when Reporting on Sexual Assault, and Tipsheet: 10 Essential Tips on Interviewing Survivors of Sexual Assault), infographics and statistics on sexual violence, all informed by survivors, journalists, anti gender-based violence advocates, lawyers and community members from across Canada.

As Femifesto states, “this guide can be a valuable tool and resource for journalists, media makers, community organizers, educators, and others who want to think, talk, and write about how we can shift from rape culture to consent culture in Canada. This is a multi-purpose tool can be used in several ways:

finding tips for specific language or frameworks to use in a news article;

facilitating conversations or trainings with colleagues about responsible reporting on sexual violence;

mentoring new journalists on ways to report about sexual violence

My fervent hope is that this media guide will be found in every newsroom across the country and consulted in every journalism department. Journalists and editors need to do better educated on how to report on sexual violence and the tools are now at their disposal. They can no longer feign ignorance.

Les Bons Mots

And now, a year later, after months of work and collaboration between the initial organizers and the Coalition d’Ottawa contre la violence faite au femmes (COCVFF) and the CALACS francophone d’Ottawa, the French-language version of the media guide is finally available to those who work and read in French — in and outside of Quebec.

You can access it here.

The official launch is taking place today, starting at 11 a.m. You can follow the conversation on Twitter by searching for the #lesBONSmots hashtag.

You can also find out more information about the guide and the people who helped put it together by contacting Josée Guindon, at the CALACS francophone d’Ottawa via email: [email protected]

Media needs to do better

Victim-blaming headlines abdicate the responsibility that media organizations have to report accurately and fairly about sexual assault, rape, and all gender-based violence. To choose not to, simply because you don’t care enough to ensure that your editors and reporters are educated on how to report on sexual violence, or to maliciously choose salacious and sensationalist headlines to attract clicks is to consciously fail sexual assault victims when they need you most.

I’m extremely proud to have served on the advisory board of Femifesto’s Use the Right Words and now it’s French-language translation Les Bons Mots. The guides are meticulously researched, contain an impressive number of examples, and are written in a very clear and easy-to-use educational way.

All editors and journalists simply need to do is click on a link, look at the language and image checklists (what to say, how to say it, what to avoid, what images to use to accompany your article, etc.) when reporting on sexual assault, and follow the helpful tips on how to interview a victim of sexual assault.

And while I think it’s utterly vital that media management understand that this should be required reading for all their staff, I also encourage media consumers to read it in its entirety. We need to be savvy consumers when we consume news, and call out irresponsible and damaging reporting when we see it.

It’s only through bringing attention to victim-blaming reporting and raising public awareness that media will make more of a concentrated effort to report fairly and in unbiased fashion on sexual violence. That, in turn, will help improve the way victims of sexual assault are seen and treated by society.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/climate-change-villains-victims-justice/

Climate Change: Villains, Victims and Justice

This is going to sound bad, but I was kind of cheering for Irma.

The world was watching, hoping that at the last moment the strongest storm in recorded history would veer east and peter out in the Atlantic. But not me, I wanted her to hit. Hard.

Hurricane Harvey had the right idea. Sitting right over Houston, Texas and pissing a biblical amount of comeuppance onto the great state of oil production and climate denial.

I know, I know, it’s in poor taste to casually throw this around when people are at risk of losing their homes or even their lives. But since when does any of that matter?

Here is Donald Trump proudly declaring that he will pull out of the Paris climate accord and that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. The United States, the world’s economic and cultural leader, able to greatly influence this issue, an issue that holds in its fickle meteorological hands the lives of vulnerable millions, still voted the climate change denier in as President.

And please direct your attention to Governor Rick Scott of Florida, seen here wearing a man-of-action baseball cap during a recent hurricane press conference. Since coming into office Mr. Scott has consistently refused to admit that global warming is real and his administration has been accused of muzzling employees and scientist, “encouraging” them to stop using terms like climate change or global warming or even sustainability in any internal or public statements. Florida residents, in addition to voting for Trump, re-elected Scott for a second term over a centrist former Republican candidate who had climate change action as part of his campaign platform.

Question. When one proves themselves thoroughly unconcerned with the welfare of others, when they time and time again act not only passively but actively in ways that put their own petty considerations ahead of all others, do they at some point default the right for our sympathy?

MATHIAS EICK, EU/ECHO

During the lead up to Irma I felt myself beginning to slip into one of my classic “America is the root of all evil” diatribes. It’s a chronic condition, one my friends and family have had to learn to live with. And even though this latest boiling rant was hard to pin down, and despite once calling Florida home and having loved ones in harm’s way, I still could not help but think it.

Good for you.

Along with respected world leader, Syria, the US is the only nation to not support the Paris climate accord (Nicaragua also refused to sign but only because the deal didn’t go far enough). The United States is the largest CO2 emitter per capita of all industrialized nations and number two in the world in total emissions. More than half the members of Congress (elected and re-elected by American citizens) are on-the-record climate deniers.

You deserve this.

Hurricanes are not caused by climate change but are made more severe and more frequently severe by it. Warmer water and warmer temperatures, along with rising sea levels, all contribute to more devastating storm surges and flooding. The overwhelming majority of scientific and military experts predict paradigm-shifting increases in the numbers of victims of these climate-related disasters. The United Nations Refugee Agency predicts as many as 200 million climate refugees by 2050, with the majority coming from the poorest and most vulnerable nations.

It should be you.

In July of this year, India planted 49.3 million trees in one day as part of their commitment to reforest significant portions of their land and meet new emission targets. China, the world’s largest polluter by volume, is rolling out the largest green investment program in world history. Germany, a major industrial nation, has already gotten as much as 85% of its electricity in one day from renewables.

Markets eventually shifting themselves towards renewables and then waiting for these changes to work their way into the climate will take too long. The rest of the world has moved past the stage of selfishness and ideology and partisanship and has accepted that action is necessary. And yet despite the evidence and urgency you keep on resisting, keep on drilling and denying and obfuscating, your size and influence delaying a process that is already naturally slow and difficult to implement. What will it take to finally make you stop?

It has to be you.

Of course it’s callously frivolous to sit back and wish a hurricane to hit here instead of there. These hippie rants won’t accomplish anything. Except to maybe see things differently. To say out loud that continuing to myopically root in your own self-centeredness is not going unnoticed. That if there is a Lord, or a court of unanimous public opinion, you are being found guilty of an amalgamation of sin. That a ledger is being kept and that, either by eventual poetic justice or global moral judgement, there is some sort of price to pay.

I can’t do much of anything else, so I guess I’ll do this. I’ll hope that in an unfair world of devastating natural and unnatural wrath that the brunt of it is borne by those making it worse. That the most vulnerable and least guilty are best protected. That the world’s greatest climate villains pay their fair share.

I’ll hope that whatever warming water rises into your home and not into some more innocent other, that any raging winds knock on your door, time and time again, until one day it enters through that thick fog of indifference, and is finally made real.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/women-killing-jfl/

The women are killing it at Just For Laughs this year!

Debra DiGiovanni

The minute Debra DiGiovanni finished her 50-minute word-tornado of a comedy set at Place des Arts last night, my friend turned to me and said: “How in the world have I never heard of this woman before?”

I understood exactly what he meant.

There is no way you can see DiGiovanni perform and not marvel at her wealth of comedic material, ease of delivery, and her mile-a-minute non-stop verbal assault of your senses. The woman don’t stop, won’t stop! And I loved every minute of it.

This was the first time I saw DiGiovanni during a solo show. I had caught ten minutes of her act years ago as part of an ensemble show (perhaps The Nasty Show) and found her incredibly entertaining. Little did I know that the Toronto-born comedian (she now lives in LA) could sustain that level of energy and entertainment for close to a solid hour. She barely stopped to breathe last night, that’s how fast she ran from topic to topic to topic. And she had no shortage of topics and never did I feel a lull during her show. It just kept on going strong.

This woman is simply brilliant and you’ve got a few more opportunities to see her before she packs her bags and wows some other comedy-loving crowds. Montreal’s very own lovely and funny Trana Wintour (fresh off her own Crazy Sexy ’90s comedic run ) opened for her so you’re guaranteed an all-around good night. Just GO!

For information and/or tickets to her show, go here.

Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room

After a quick dinner of Pho in Chinatown, we rushed off to Café Cleopatra afterwards for Katherine Ryan’s impeccably timed comedy solo show. I’ve seen Ryan perform live before and knew what to expect. Thanks to her Netflix special (which I haven’t seen yet) she seems to have made quite a few more fans since her last appearance in Montreal, since the lineups in the dreary rain were impressively long last night.

Ontario-born Ryan (now residing in London, England for over a decade) is such a contradiction in every possible way. She confuses people when they first see her and I suspect she relishes that.

She’s stereotypically beautiful in a blonde-hair and blue-eyes sort of way. She loves to always dress up for her shows and takes care in her appearance. But while she appears “harmless”, she swears like a sailor, is quick as a whip, and talks about sex and bad relationships through the prism of feminism and equal rights. I love her. She makes me laugh effortlessly and she’s comfortable and at home on stage, which makes me want to watch her perform even more.

Whether she’s talking about raising a British daughter (like a tiny, inefficient butler), failed relationships, or why men are like dolphins, she’s affable and funny and always on the money with her observations.

Alex Edelman opened for her and I really enjoyed what I saw of this young up-and-comer. I could have listened to an entire set by him, which is pretty much what any comedian would hope you would say. I hope he comes back to JFL with a proper set of his own.

Just a few more shows left for Ryan, so for information and/or tickets, you should go here.

All in all, two solid female-led solo shows really worth catching if you can. You really won’t regret it.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/4322-2/

It’s hard to believe that Just For Laughs has been making Montreal comedy fans (and the millions of tourists who have visited our city over the years) double over with laughter for 35 years now. That’s quite a long time to be tickling someone’s funny bone.

Amidst the comedy mayhem and thousands of shows and comedians that have made us crack up two major annual shows have managed to become festival staples in the past decade — The Ethnic Show and The Nasty Show.

The Ethnic Show

Now in its 9th year, the Ethnic Show continues to make fun of our multicultural backgrounds with gusto. It’s impossible for someone who has an ethnic parent (guilty!) to attend the show and not get it. I, for one, most certainly do.

The immensely likeable and very funny Alonzo Bodden is hosting the show this year and he proves to be an excellent host – impeccable timing, great rapport with the audience, smart humour, and Trump-related jokes that had the Club Soda audience howling.

The comedians representing various ethnic backgrounds this year are Jewish-American Jessica Kirson returning after highly praised performances in 2016, international comedian and one of the most sought-after performers Korean Irish-American Steve Byrne, the return to the Festival of audience favourite Italian-Canadians The Doo Wops, comprised of John Catucci and David Mesiano, rising star Portuguese-Canadian Mike Rita, and staple of the New York comedy scene Dominican-American Vladimir Caamaño.

Unlike previous years, except for Bodden and Kirson, all the other comedians in the lineup were completely new to me and it was a real joy to discover them. Original and funny material, interesting stories, even singing, and some home-grown talent. Both Vladimir Caamaño and Mike Rita had a field day imitating their dads and as someone who grew up with an ethnic dad I related immensely. Steve Byrne’s comedy is polished and smart. John Catucci and David Mesiano’s songs about perfectly made pasta were both silly and hysterically funny.

Kirson ended the show with her stereotypically strong comedic act, making fun of her Jewish community, her low self-esteem, and the comedy gigs she plays.

At the end of the day, what always entertains me (and I suspect many others) about The Ethnic Show is realizing how painfully similar we all are, no matter what our ethnic background is. The good, the bad, and the utterly ridiculous… it’s all there for us to laugh at.

The Ethnic Show continues until July 27 at Club Soda. For information and/or tickets go here.

The Nasty Show

The Nasty Show is exactly what it sounds like. It’s nasty. Meaning it’s not PC, it’s not nice, and if offensive language, scatological references, and raunchy sex talk offend you, you should probably skip it.

Pushing the boundaries of what is taboo to joke about; this humorous-yet-raw comedy show encourages audiences to let go of their fear to laugh at the obscurity of life, making this no-holds-barred JFL series an exhilarating experience, this year’s show is hosted by Ari Shaffir and featuring heavy hitters Jimmy Carr, Robert Kelly, Godfrey, Big Jay Oakerson and Yamaneika Saunders.

Ari Shaffir comfortably takes over for long-time nasty host Bobby Slayton. Likeable and funny, he’s a solid host for this year’s run. With the exception of Yamaneika Saunders I’ve seen all the comedians in the lineup before and I enjoy them a lot. Saunders deserves to be up there with them too. Godfrey’s hilarious imitations (from Trump to Bill Cosby) and giggling energy are infectious and I never tire of seeing him perform. Jimmy Carr, Robert Kelly, and Big Jay Oakerson are solid performers. Witty, observant, and very fast on their feet.

Which begs the question: what would possess hecklers to want to take them on? I mean, if you’re a mediocrely funny person with below average wit, why would you want to publicly heckle brilliant minds like Jimmy Carr or Big Jay Oakerson who make their living by their comedic observations and their wit and will destroy you without even breaking into a sweat?

And yet the night that I was there a few hecklers thought it would be a good idea. This was the first time that I can remember hecklers being so bad, so unfunny, and so obnoxiously loud and persistent that they practically ruined the fun for me and affected the rhythm of the comedians on stage. I was annoyed for them and secretly wished that Metropolis security would have kicked them out sooner. I’m assuming that they did at one point because they stopped heckling. Or maybe they just died of embarrassment or passed out from the alcohol they had obviously consumed. Either way, the show went on.

Other than that hiccup, The Nasty Show was up to its usual nastiness, eliciting its traditional groans and guilty laughter from the crowd. It’s a solid lineup and includes a lot of funny, raunchy, “wrong” jokes.

The Nasty Show runs until July 29. For information and/or tickets, you can go here.

DeAnne Smith: Post-Joke Era

I’m a long-time, unabashed fan of DeAnne Smith’s comedy. She’s smart, silly, and very likeable. She could have walked on stage at Mainline Theatre last week and simply limited herself to one joke about how Montreal’s 375th celebrations are “in white years” and that would have been enough for me to write about her.  Luckily, she stayed on for another hour and talked about everything from her love for her dog, relationships, women, men, and lots more.

Her solo show runs until July 28 and if there are any tickets left, you can get them here. She’ll also be appearing in Montreal: An Intervention Gala on July 31.

Tons more shows still available for Just For Laughs and you have your pick of intimate solo shows or star-studded galas. All you have to do is find the one that’s right for you and get ready to laugh. After all, until the JFL fun is over, you’re in the “funniest city in the world”, right?

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/reveurs-definitifs-pure-magic/

Rêveurs définitifs is pure magic

I’m still not quite sure how to describe Rêveurs définitifs. Is it a magic show? A quirky cabaret of sorts? A surrealistic mish-mash of acts and performances that come together to make you dream and laugh? I suppose it’s of all that and more.

Currently presented by Vidéotron in collaboration with Loto-Québec as part of Just for Laughs, Rêveurs définitifs is something special. Unlike the routine stand-up comedy acts (of which I’m a huge and devoted fan), this cabaret brings us a few laughs, but it mostly brings us the magic. You’re awake, but you feel like you’re dreaming. There’s a kind of poetry to it at all, a sense that you’re being treated to something that isn’t quite real and isn’t quite illusion either. You know there are tricks and manipulation and technology behind all the illusions and the acts, invisible cables and slights of the hand and masterful techniques, but I personally didn’t care to find out how it was all happening. I just went along for the ride. And oh, what a ride it is!

Directed by Raphaël Navarro and Clément Debailleul, Cie 14:20 is a company that has been mixing magic and other circus disciplines primarily in France for close to two decades now.

“Magic is an emotion more than it is a discipline,” says Navarro and after being in the audience last night I completely understand what he means.

Dancer Ingrid Estarque is exquisite. Strong, majestic, powerful, accurate with her movements, and ethereal in her levitation. Every single one of her performances is poetry in motion.

Yann Frisch, Eric Antoine, and Gabriel D’Almedia Freitas keep us entertained and amused with their silly magic tricks and their banter with each other and the crowd and offer much-needed levity in between the more artistic illusion acts.

My favourite act of the night without a doubt was Etienne Saglio’s performance. I don’t exactly know how to describe this act without giving it away, but suffice it to say that seeing someone transform a plastic ball and a sheet of (plastic?) paper (with the help of a single light) into something resembling a cross between a haunting ghost and a jelly fish flying all over the dark room was the stuff of pure magic. I was completely and utterly mesmerized throughout his act and couldn’t take my eyes off the flying spirit as it whirled around the room. That entire act is a lovely and deeply moving testament to human imagination and it alone is almost worth the price of admission as far as I’m concerned.

Add to that performances by Calista Sinclair, Sarah Cerneaux, Léonie St-Onge and Mick Holsbeke, the ethereal and haunting melodies of Montrealer Patrick Watson, performed last night by singer Erika Angell, and you have the makings of an evening that feels like you’re dreaming while still awake.

I left Théâtre St-Denis smiling and walked out to a perfect summer night on St-Denis Street, packed with people and performers. A number of quirky circus performers, who I assume are part of Montreal’s 375th celebrations, were dancing, playing music, walking on stilts, covering unsuspecting tourists with colourful streamers, and the street felt so alive and so happy and so festive that it all just felt like a continuation of the dream I’d just experienced indoors. Summer in Montreal is a bit of a beautiful dream, after all. If only it lasted longer…

For Anglophones worried that this might be a French act they won’t be able to adequately follow, it is, but only barely. The show is primarily a visual show and relies on movement and images to get its points across. The little bit of banter that takes place during the magic acts is pretty basic and if you can’t follow it why are you even living in Montreal?

If you want to experience something hauntingly poetic and magical, something out of the ordinary; if you want a touch of surrealism to go along with your stand-up at this year’s Just For Laughs Festival, go catch Rêveurs Définitifs.

You only have until July 22 before they hit the road on a 400-show world tour, so I’d hurry up if I were you. Magic doesn’t wait forever.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/no-french-songs-in-cd-set-of-canadian-hits-proof-of-anglocentricism/

No French songs in Canadian CD set is absolutely proof of Anglocentricism - among other things

To mark Canada’s 150th anniversary, Universal Music Canada recently released Canada 150: A Celebration of Music, a six-CD set of Canadian hits from the 1960s to now. Despite plenty of francophones also singing up a storm for the past 60 years or so, not a single French song was included. Celine Dion was the sole Quebec francophone with My Heart Will Go On from Titanic on that list.

“Assembling a package that sums up Canada’s 150 years would be impossible,” reads the press release. “A country as vast and diverse as ours, with rich histories from countless perspectives could not be contained in one place. But I believe it can be visited – and contemplated by viewing through the lens of the many thoughts expressed here in picture, story, and song,” explains Jeffrey Remedios, President and CEO of UMC. “Hopefully, this one-of-a-kind odyssey across our country goes some way to answering the question of ‘how does a nation sing happy birthday to itself?’”

Apparently, if one takes a quick look at the six-CD compilation, it does so in English.

The minute I looked at the list, I groaned. I groaned because as a Quebecer I could immediately see what was missing (francophone music), and because I knew what was coming.

“What more proof do you need? It’s obvious Quebec isn’t considered part of Canada.”

“How many times are they going to insult us before we stand up for ourselves?”

“It’s time to separate and quickly!”

These were just some of the not-so-measured reactions I saw online. While I certainly don’t blame French Quebecers for getting upset at the lack of any French music in a six-CD compilation meant to celebrate the country’s 150th, it’s too easy and too tempting to simply assume that this is just another routine example of Canada snubbing Quebec’s French language and culture. Mainly because it happens often and from a variety of sources.

Huffington Post’s 100 Best Canadian Songs Ever list in 2014 didn’t include a single French song and the Polaris Music Awards have routinely failed to shortlist French artists in the past. But in this specific situation Canada didn’t snub Quebec because Canada had nothing to do with snubbing Quebec. Universal Music Canada did.

But Universal Music Canada’s glaring omission of any French songs is more proof of gross incompetence and ignorance, severe navel-gazing, shrewd commercial calculation, and a glaringly Toronto-centric approach to management than it is a malicious snub intended to insult French Quebecers.

Let me explain.

First off, don’t let the “Canada” at the end of the company’s name fool you. UMC isn’t a national corporation or a homegrown company. It is part of a for-profit American global music corporation that has been 100 per cent owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi since 2006. Its main headquarters are basically either in California or Paris, which means this company is as Canadian as the Santa Monica Pier or the Eiffel Tower.

While I don’t necessarily wish to pigeonhole people, or paint them with one giant brush, a quick Google search of UMC President Jeffrey Remedios also explains a lot. Remedios is a Toronto boy who studied in Hamilton, Ontario, moved up the ladder by promoting local indie bands like Broken Social Scene, and is featured in Toronto Life’s Arts & Life spreads as half of a “best-dressed couple”. It’s just so… Toronto.

Finally, I suspect that the people making the song selections fell prey to stereotypical (and perhaps not that far-fetched) assumptions that those inclined to purchase a six-CD box set celebrating Canada’s 150th might just not reside in Quebec and speak French as a first language. In other words, the specific song selections were a money-motivated decision to appeal to as many of their potential buyers as they could, which is what most for-profit companies do. Just because this music compilation is draped in the language of celebration and sesquicentennial red and white flag-waving patriotism, it doesn’t mean it’s anything more than an opportunistic and calculated business venture.

I also suspect the people putting the list together (which was, no doubt, already limited by label approvals – notice how Alanis Morrissette, Neil Young, The Tragically Hip and other major Canadian superstar names are also missing) don’t have much of a clue about francophone music.

Is that lamentable and worth pointing out? Absolutely! Is it another example of how this country pretends to be bilingual a mari usque ad mare without having an actual clue about what that really means? Yes. Was the tone-deaf (pun intended) decision to include only English songs a conscious and politically motivated slight against Quebec by the rest of Canada? Of course not.

Universal Music’s Canada 150 compilation controversy, however, is fascinating to me for many other reasons and is a perfect example of people seeing what they want to see.

Many in the ROC didn’t observe anything wrong with this list because they didn’t even notice who’s missing. To them, francophone music is something separate from Canadian music, the way English-language writers or musicians are so often excluded from many lists of Quebec artists even if they were born and worked here.

To many French Quebecers this omission was first and foremost a slight against Quebec. French Quebecers have developed such a knee-jerk reaction and an (often justified) need to circle the wagons around their own, they often forget about francophones outside of Quebec. Acadian music and Franco-Ontarian musicians, to name but a few, were also slighted here, lest we forget.

There are plenty of examples of Quebec being mistreated by Canada, and I like to believe that I’m quick to point them out, but I don’t see this being one of them. If anything, the failure to include any French music here is an indictment of how Toronto-centric and oblivious to anything other than English culture so many Canadians (and particularly big businesses) in Canada are.

One final observation of a blind spot I see often. Not a single person complaining about the French omissions noticed or to my knowledge commented that Indigenous musicians were also missing from the list. No Buffy Sainte Marie, no Kashtin, no Robbie Robertson, no Tanya Tagaq, no A Tribe Called Red.

Remedios was right when he referred to Canada’s “countless perspectives” and “rich histories” in the UMC press release, but PR acknowledgment serves no purpose if you don’t include all of those perspectives and histories in your six-CD box set for people to be exposed to them and learn to appreciate and love them.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/best-just-laughs-bets-year/

The Just For Laughs shows you need to see

Until July 31, this city will be on comedic overdrive as the jokes keep coming fast and furious. Just for Laughs is easily my favourite Montreal festival because it makes my face ache from too much laughing and who can possibly hate what keeps them happy and howling?

My one issue with the festival? That website of theirs can be a real nuisance to navigate sometimes. Every year I feel like throwing my laptop against the wall while researching shows I want to see because the entire process becomes one convoluted mess. Perhaps it’s not even their fault; it’s just that THERE’S SO MUCH GOING ON!

So I’ll do you one solid this year and narrow it down for you because I’m nice like that. Sure, there are the corporate-sponsored galas and big names like Jerry Seinfeld and Gad Elmaleh, Joel McHale, The Jane Krakowski Gala, The Laverne Cox Gala, John Mulaney performing, and of course the always popular The Ethnic Show and The Nasty Show runs, but it’s the ones that might fly under your radar I’ll focus on here.

Here are my personal bets for JFL and who I’m most looking forward to watching this year! And, as always, there is no shortage of awesome to choose from.

Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room

This deceptively demure Canadian girl now living in London, England, likes to talk about what she left behind in search of better opportunities. Her quirky, occasionally cringe-worthy observations about pop culture will crack you up. I saw her one-hour solo show last year (from the over 25+ shows I saw last summer) and her show was a wonderful surprise and on my Top 3 for sure.

Watch her here as she suffers an acute case of the Beyoncés.

DeAnne Smith: Post Joke Era

I won’t even pretend to be nonchalant and unbiased. I’m a huge DeAnne Smith fan and have been since I first saw her perform at a local comedy club as part of a lineup that didn’t feature enough of her as far as I was concerned. This Canadian-American is the perfect combination of smart and silly and is a fantastic social observer, tackling real issues in a way that makes you listen.

Watch her talk about feminism here and then “deliver you safely to a poop joke, because you’re in the hands of a professional and everything will be just fine.”

Ron Funches: Funch-A-Mania

Ron Funches is one big, lovable, giggling teddy bear who also happens to be ridiculously funny. Seriously go catch his show at the tail end of the festival run if you can.

Watch him talk about weed, his Vision Board, his anxiety, and so much more in this video.

W. Kamau Bell

Emmy-nominated comic and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, like Hari Kondabolu, is part of the new generation of socially conscious comedians who like to discuss race, politics, and social issues while making you laugh. They are smart and they are on point with their observations. And it’s cathartic to laugh about this stuff, because you can’t always be angry or sad.

As host of the CNN docu-series United Shades of America, Kamau travels the country, offering viewers a rare yet eye-opening look inside the various subcultures of American life.

Watch him ask the question: “How do you know it was racism?” in this video.

Kate Berlant

Kate Berlant is an LA-based writer and performer who is deliciously smart and funny. This woman is bright and eloquent and very quick on her feet. I love watching her perform and she never disappoints. I still don’t know why she hasn’t broken through and become more widely known, but I’m happy she keeps coming back to Montreal.

Watch a tiny snippet from a recent Netflix series called Characters, where comedians were given the task of performing a wide array of hilarious characters and she’s obviously making fun of pretentious artists.

Guys We F@#ked: The Experience

Guys We F@#ked: The Experience is being billed as the Anti Slut-Shaming Podcast. Ok, you’ve got my attention. I don’t know either of the co-hosts, Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson, but I’m willing to sit back and watch them bring their hit podcast to life through games, audience participation, rants, stories, stand-up comedy, and never before seen video.

Ali Siddiq: Who Has Good Service?

Yes, Houston comic Ali Siddiq got his start in the business while in prison and lots of articles on him tend to focus on that, but ultimately he’s a very funny — and extremely likeable — guy and his decision to make comedy his career seems to be working out pretty well so far for him.

Here he is talking about jogging in a white neighbourhood.

The Alternative Show and Midnight Surprise

One final tip: if you’re a night owl and can handle staying up late (even on a weeknight), some of the best comedic performances of JFL take place after midnight and always in the city’s very intimate, far-from-flashy, non-mainstream venues. You never know who the performers are and I can assure you that some of the surprises are big names you’d pay much more to see in gala settings. Well worth the slight sleep deprivation.

I’m referring to The Alternative Show with one-of-a-kind Andy Kindler as host for five nights, and Midnight Surprise (Louis C. K., Dave Chappelle, and NBA superstar Blake Griffin are just some of the surprise appearances in the past).

As many shows and comedians as I’ve mentioned here, this is but a tiny smidgen of what’s actually available to you for the next two weeks. Check out the Just For Laughs website and prepare to exercise your funny bone because there’s nothing more contagious than laughter and Montreal’s going to catch a serious case of the funnies for the next two weeks.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/4257-2/

Prayer should be private say people who flaunt their faith in public

A video of Muslim community members praying outdoors at Parc Safari — a popular Quebec zoo and amusement park — quickly made the rounds yesterday and prompted outrage by many concerned onlookers who suspected that, despite claims it was just an innocuous display of faith, it was really meant to be a deliberate and malicious provocation to everyone around.

“I’m fed up with these people always flaunting their religion and throwing it in our faces,” said one onlooker, while he gently fondled the crucifix around his neck and thoughtfully contemplated what to say next. “Can’t they keep this stuff private?”

“Look… I’m really not racist, but shouldn’t we ensure the separation of religion and public spaces?” asked Alice, a soft-spoken mother of two who lives in the McGill Ghetto and is blinded nightly by a 131-metre high illuminated cross staring down at her from Mont Royal.

“I go to Parc Safari with my family to see nature and animals, not some creepy ritual people are trying to normalize,” said James, as he leaned closer to the Cheetah Centre to watch wild animals that can reach a top speed of 110 km/hr confined in a space roughly the size of a condo kitchen.

“Watching them chant something I couldn’t understand was traumatizing to me and my kids,” he added, while banging loudly on the window pane to get the visibly distressed animal’s attention. “I mean, what about my freedom to enjoy the outdoors and nature as I see fit?”

“They can easily do this in private, just like my parents and my parents’ parents did, but they want to be a spectacle for the world to see,” said a man identified only as Costa. Costa surprisingly forgot that he comes from a long line of people who can’t even publicly debate what movie they’re about to see without sounding like they’re engaged in a 300-year-old bloody feud involving farmland and multiple vendettas.

He also conveniently forgot that every year he takes part in the Greek Orthodox religious procession of Epitafio, which involves a large flower-decorated tomb of Christ mounted on tall polls solemnly carried around quiet streets while the faithful follow behind loudly chanting along in ancient Greek, carrying incense and candles like a peaceful, well-dressed cult. A few days later that very same community sets off firecrackers at midnight in residential neighbourhoods to celebrate Greek Easter.

“Some things, like your faith, should simply be private,” he continued, pausing for a moment while the bells from the Catholic Church around the corner from the park started chiming as parishioners spilled out from mass.

“Maybe if they hadn’t been so loud about it…” Gino offered helpfully in a conciliatory tone, as he packed his car, decorated with an Italian flag, several icons of the Virgin Mary, and a huge sticker decal in the back window that said “Italia: Campioni del Mondo“

“Freedom of religion guarantees everyone the right to practice their faith free from persecution or harassment,” muttered Alice under her breath, but no one heard her as another loud group chimed in worried about how badly this bodes for the future.

“Where will this end? Wait and see, this is just the beginning,” said the woman who took the video. “You should be able to be out in public living your life and not worry about your security or the security of your family,” she said as she uploaded the video on YouTube.

“Why are they so obsessed with religion? This is a secular province and Montreal, where most of the Parc Safari visitors are from, is a secular city,” said Gilles. “Quebecers worked too hard to escape from under the control of religion and now everyone is finally free to do as they like. Let’s all move forward”

There has been no official statement from the province or the City of Montreal, possibly because officials are busy celebrating its 375th anniversary. The event was ostentatiously marked last month with the symbolic sounding of St. Joseph’s Oratory’s first bell, the subsequent chiming of church bells right across Montreal for 10 minutes, then followed by a public mass, where priests, deacons, members of religious communities and special guests were all in attendance.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/quebec-biggest-export-denial-right-now/

Criticizing Quebec isn't hating Quebec

Ever since that Fête Nationale parade fiasco I’ve been watching the columns pop up from both sides and I’ve pretty much read them all. The denial and the unwillingness to acknowledge that something went array and that it was symbolic of a bigger problem has left me speechless – and more than a little disappointed.

Not that I have to show my Quebec card for my point of view to have added value, but this is how I woke up on June 24 and this is what I tweeted.

https://twitter.com/ToulasTake/status/878650334821965826

  This is what I immediately tweeted out after two minutes of watching that debacle.

  https://twitter.com/ToulasTake/status/878688515231547392

  It shouldn’t have taken the parade organizers two entire days to come back with an official apology. It was a mistake. A bad one, and one that would have blown over for the most part by Day Two if they had simply come out and admitted it and vowed to do better. Instead, all that denial simply escalated the situation even more. With accusations flying left and right, let’s just clarify a few things here.

No, Quebec isn’t any more racist and intolerant than the rest of Canada, but that’s not saying bloody much. No one should get a medal for being less racist or equally racist. It’s not a race to the bottom here.

No, I don’t think that the unfortunate optics that took place were deliberate or malicious, but they were a clear representation of willful blindness and whitewashing that happens here, like elsewhere.

The fact that that embarrassing mistake was even allowed to play out and no one EVEN NOTICED speaks volumes about the lack of diversity in upper management of such events and the lack of historical awareness and cultural sensitivity that often plagues them. It needs to be rectified.

No, I don’t want to hear about how “you don’t see colour” (only white people say that shit, by the way) when systemic discrimination and racism has been repeatedly documented here and in the ROC, when only five out of 125 members of the Quebec National Assembly are from racialized communities, and only four out of 103 City of Montreal councillors are racialized, even though visible minorities account for 30 percent of this city’s population.

I’ve refrained from adding my two cents to this conversation until now because I’m frankly exhausted at my allegiance and loyalty to Quebec being questioned every single time I point out that we have a problem.

Because, in Quebec, this is always how it plays out: If you’re a Francophone Quebecer and say something bad about Quebec, you’re treated as a traitor to the cause.

If you’re an Anglophone, you’re already suspect and must prove allegiance to Quebec. Anything deemed as critical of Quebec will instantly lead to accusations of committing “Quebec bashing”. Even if, as in my case, I have written a ridiculous number of columns over the years attacking the ROC’s Quebec bashing, my motives are always suspect because I write in English and Toula is clearly not a name any of les Filles du Roi had while coming over on that boat oh, so long ago.

If, on top of living and working as an Anglophone, you happen to be an Allophone, you are routinely told to “go back to where you came from, if you don’t like it here” in the comments section. It’s a waste of time to try and explain that you were born here and that despite speaking three languages and living abroad for a decade, you actually CHOSE to live here because you LOVE it here.

As someone who moderated the comments sections of news websites for years, I’ve seen the hateful and dismissive messages that many from the ROC will launch against Quebecers. I’ve also seen the terrible messages that French-speaking Quebecers will post against English speakers. If you think that one particular group has a monopoly on civility and fairness you are going to be sorely disappointed. Blinders (particularly of the political and linguistic kind) have the ability to make people see what they want to see and nothing more.

Our racism problem isn’t any bigger than everyone else’s racism problem, but it’s a PROBLEM and it needs to be tackled, not denied or swept under the rug just to appease those who feel bad about being called out.

Being called out on your blind spots is SUPPOSED to feel bad and uncomfortable. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or a malicious human being. It means you have a BLIND SPOT and in this day and age, with the internet at your fingertips and with this specific issue coming up multiple times in the past few years, there is simply no more justifying to be had for ignorance and lack of awareness and there is no more excuse for it.

Our biggest problem as I see it now is our inability to criticize what’s happening under our noses without the conversation always being derailed by people too concerned about how it makes Quebec look.

I DON’T CARE HOW IT MAKES US LOOK!! Parade apologists can’t possibly claim that the optics were bad for that float, but no one should be concerned by it, and than with the very same breath be horrified by the optics concerning Quebec. Which is it? Do optics matter, or don’t they?

This isn’t a hateful attack from “outsiders”. A Francophone took the video footage, most of the people I’ve seen outraged have been French-speaking. To imply that this criticism is motivated by linguistic politics or by internalized hatred of Quebec is to minimize and diminish people’s real concerns. It’s unfair, it’s counter-productive, and it’s equivalent to sticking our heads in the sand.

I love this place enough that my expectations are high. I’m not “picking” on Quebec because I hate it or because I’m looking to make Quebecers look bad (as way too many columns have already suggested of anyone appalled by that parade visual). I AM a Quebecer, why in the world would I want to make us look bad? I simply love this place enough to expect and want better for us all.

Derailing the conversation, getting our backs up against the wall, and making excuses is helping no one. We can do a lot better. And right now the only thing we’re excelling at is denial.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/montreals-folk-fest-celebrates-10-year-anniversary/

Montreal's Folk Fest celebrates its 10-year anniversary

Anyone who knows me, knows that I adore my neighbourhood. Montreal’s Sud-Ouest borough (the South West as it’s commonly referred to by Anglophones) is such a big part of who I am and what I do on a daily basis. I’ve paddled in the Lachine Canal for close to 17 years now, worked in the area for over a decade, and have resided here for close to six. This area fits me like a glove.

A big part of my love for this neighborhood (aside from the fact that I can’t walk out the door with0ut bumping into at least 3-4 people I know and like) has to do with the activities and the happenings that take place in this part of Montreal.

There’s something special about the vibe in the South West. Something current and underground, yet very laid back and welcoming. No one’s really trying to impress anyone in this hood. Sure, just like in all rapidly changing neighborhoods, valid issues of gentrification occasionally rear their ugly head, and you do get business entrepreneurs with no real feel for the area looking to swoop in and cash in on its current trendiness, but for the most part that “vibe” some are looking to capture and exploit —  like lightning in a bottle — can’t be forcibly contained and utilized for someone’s commercial purposes. Those who get it wrong (and many do), die a quick death.

That “vibe” has been built up over decades and carefully nurtured by artists and people who wanted to bring something special to the hood and share a little of their own passion with the rest of us. Those small affairs full of heart sometimes turn into big things.

Montreal Folk Fest

One of those small affairs turned big is the Montreal Folk Festival sur le canal, celebrating its 10-year-anniversary this year. Looking back, it’s almost impossible for me to believe that it all started at the St. Ambroise Terrace at McAuslan’s Brewery an entire decade ago with very humble expectations, a small but enthusiastic folk-loving crowd, and an even smaller reach. I remember it well because I was in the audience and have been ever since.

And when I say “St. Ambroise Terrace” I’m not referring to today’s spanking brand new and vastly expanded terrace that employs dozens of people and works like a well-oiled machine welcoming hundreds and hundreds of beer-guzzlers on any given day to take in the sun and the south west love in the shadow of my beloved and rapidly crumbling Canada Malting plant silos.

I’m talking a tiny little part of all that (mainly the stage area to the far left and the bar area) played host to the very first Montreal Folk Festival sur le canal, organized (still to this day) by Matt Large and Carl Comeau, for whom it’s still a real (and often, very stressful) labour of love.

Attendance was tiny and the buzz was minimal, but the bluegrass and folk bands were extraordinary, the audience was enthusiastic, and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming, full of kids and animals and smiling faces — exactly what you want a folk fest to be.

An impressive 10-year anniversary lineup

Celebrating a decade is no small feat for the little folk festival that could. It’s only understandable that the good people behind it want to commemorate it with something special, and that’s exactly what they’ll be doing.

From June 14 to 18, the annual family-friendly festival announces five days of world-class music with singer/songwriter, world music, Quebec traditional, Indigenous music, bluegrass, and indie-folk options in both French and English.

It all kicks off on Wednesday, June 14, with a free opening party at my favourite bar in the world Bar de Courcelle featuring The Off-Whites.

On Thursday evening, concerts at the beautiful Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay and the gorgeous Paradoxe Theatre will simultaneously pay homage to Montreal’s queen of folk, Penny Lang, and country music legend Willie Nelson. Organized in partnership with FamGroup, the Penny Lang tribute will see musicians from across the country coalesce in Montreal to show their love and respect for the late singer/songwriter. Across the street at the Paradoxe Theatre, some of Montreal’s finest folk and country musicians will perform classic Willie Nelson hits and deeper cuts.

Free outdoor venue

Donovan Woods, Sarah Harmer, John Jacob Magistery, Les Tireux d’Roches, Ian Kelly, Birds of Chicago, and Beyries are just a few of the world-class musical acts playing at the free outdoor venue at Centennial Esplanade (corner of St-Patrick and Pitt). From Friday afternoon to Sunday night, the outdoor venue along the Lachine Canal will host music and dance, local food and crafts, and family-friendly activities.

The Lhasa de Sela tent will host close to 20 young local musicians, plus a feature concert showcasing cherished youth performer Henri Godon. This year’s Quartier du Canal stage will feature a dozen homegrown acts.

An array of auction items will be up for grabs to raise funds for the Lhasa de Sela Youth Bursary for Excellence in Music. The bursary is an annual financial award intended to support young Sud-Ouest musicians who wish to further their study or practice of music.

New to the Folk Fest this year, veteran Montreal folkie and current Yellow Door Coffeehouse director, Marc Nerenberg and Les Troubadours du Yellow Door will host a singalong under the Lhasa Tent.

On Friday, June 17, an old-time community square dance will be held under the Lhasa Tent we will hold a square dance with renowned caller Peg Evans and an all-star old-time band featuring members of the All Day Breakfast Stringband.

On Saturday, June 18, the celebrated Veillée du canal will be hosted by traditional Quebecois dance caller Michel Payer and a stellar dance band led by fiddler Marie-Pierre Lecault from Bon Débarras and Zogma.

Every night, festivalgoers can head to Bar de Courcelle, the official after-hours venue!

If you’ve never been to the Folk Fest, you’re missing out. It’s one of the most chill summer events a city already known for its chill summer events has to offer. Bring your blankets, your friends, your kids, your pets, and your good vibes and just prepare to spend the day outside, hanging by the beautiful Lachine Canal on a gorgeous summer day, taking in the relaxing sounds of banjos, bluegrass, acoustic harmonies, and harmonicas, as you watch the sun set and become convinced the world can be a little softer.

As always, food trucks and beer tents will be out and available to supply everything you need to make your day (or weekend) there a wonderful experience, as well as a family area for the kiddies.

A closing party for Folk Fest volunteers (volunteer if you’ve got the time, it’s a great way to help out a festival that’s big on enthusiasm but always low on funds) will be held at Bar de Courcelle. Montreal musician and long-time favourite of mine, Shane Murphy, will be ending the festivities on a loud note.

See you there!

Where and when

When: Wednesday, June 14 to Sunday, June 18.

For the entire schedule and to purchase tickets for the indoor events you can check out their website.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/time-get-fringe-montreal/

Time to get your Fringe on, Montreal!

Ok, it’s that time of year again, and I’m just going to cut to the chase and say this: If you’re a Montrealer and haven’t attended a Fringe performance in the past 27 years or have no plans to attend one in the coming weeks, I’m going to sit here and silently judge you. Mainly because it makes absolutely no sense to me.

The Fringe Festival is quirky, unpredictable, original, imaginative, free-spirited, funny, titillating, ground-breaking, heartbreaking, experimental, hysterical, bizarre, fucking strange, and oh so Montreal. It’s simply a creative crapshoot of the weirdly wonderful and a huge part of the fabric of this city and its summer.

Can you tell I’m a fan? No, seriously… where else can you get over 100 original, thought-provoking shows (most in English, many in French, a few bilingual) that span theatre, dance, poetry, puppetry, magic, sketch, drag, clowning, Shakespeare, burlesque, musical, and more to choose from over a span of two weeks?

Where else can you check out over 50 bands and a bunch of fun events for free? Where else can you enjoy the creative fruits of someone’s labour knowing that artists keep 100 percent of their box office revenues and that tickets are super affordable at $10, allowing you to see more than a few shows at a time without taking out a bank loan?

I’m an unabashed Fringe supporter because I love the arts, I love creativity, I love people who live (often dangerously close to the poverty level) to create, I love all the volunteers and staff at Fringe Montreal, I love the vibe at the Fringe Park (a.k.a. the Beer Tent), I love the quirkiness and tiny impossibilities of most of the haphazard Fringe venues sprinkled around the Plateau like afterthoughts.

I love that some productions in the past were so damn good that years later I still can’t believe I paid less than the price of a movie ticket to witness sheer magic on stage, and that some were so bizarrely bad I still giggle uncontrollably and shake my head when I recall them. Either way, they’re always memorable because art is trying stuff out and taking chances and not everything will work, but you can’t help but admire and support folks brave enough to bare their souls for us so we can laugh and cry and commiserate on our existence. There is nothing more beautiful, more intimate, more life-affirming than artistic creation, and the impractical and audacious act of someone standing on stage sharing a part of who they are for you to witness, consume, and hopefully embrace.

So, with that full-blown declaration of Fringe love out of the way, here are the productions that caught my eye during Monday’s Fringe-For-All and which I plan to see. If you find the descriptions intriguing, simply click on the links and find out where and when to see these shows. Keep in mind that I can’t possibly include them all, so do your own homework and scan the website for additional descriptions, times, and all the other fun events (Scavenger Hunt, Drag Races, Pinball Karaoke, 13th Hour, etc.) surrounding the two-week festival. There’s bound to be something here you’ll fall in love with too.

Cherry Docs

A neo-Nazi skinhead is charged with murder, and legal aid has assigned him a liberal Jewish lawyer. An epic battle that leaves each man marked by the other’s belief, David Gow’s Cherry Docs is a provocative exploration if the inescapable and insidious presence of hatred in our society.

Peter Pansexual

Peter Pansexual lures Wendy and her darling brothers from suburbia to Neverland, a.k.a. Montreal. They discover the magic of snorting fairy dust, crushing the patriarchy and exploring their sexuality. Captain Hooker seeks revenge on the Lost Boiz for flaunting their eternal youth on social media. For young at heart adult audiences.

Illustrated Lady

Do you have a tattoo? Do you want one? Sophie had been collecting them since she was eight years old. Through stories of terrible choices and happy mistakes, she will take you on a journey reflecting on memory, body and ink. She also plans on live tattooing drawings made by audience members on her body each night of her show and half-seriously joked on Monday night that she hopes she doesn’t end up with a bunch of penises on her thighs.

Syl-lo-go-ma-ni-e/a

Syllogomanie (ou accumulation compulsive) : fait d’accumuler de manière excessive des objets et incapacité ou réticence à jeter un grand nombre de possessions. Syllogomania (or compulsive hoarding): pattern of behavior that is characterized by excessive acquisition and an inability or unwillingness to discard large quantities of objects. This quirky and frankly quite adorable bilingual duo had me intrigued. I need to see more.

The Thrill of the Chaise

Spirit of the FRINGE winner Chocolate Moose returns with a license to thrill. Intrigue, love and betrayal are hidden just under the table in this well-upholstered epic of Russian spies and world-class set design. Warning: Contains very convincing sex.

Wolves

This “deconstruction” of Little Red Riding Hood fractures a familiar yarn into a prismatic and lacerating reflection of the monsters that lurk in the big city and within. A darkly comic, predatory tale that explores the conflation of sex and fear in modern culture, the comfort of lava lamps and the dangers of a handy axe.

Comment le cancer de mon grand père m’a fait découvrir le disco

Comment les derniers jours d’un homme atteint du cancer seront-ils salutaires pour son petit fils, accro au pot, aux jeux vidéo et à Tinder ? La vie nous ouvre parfois des avenues par le biais d’évènements totalement imprévisibles. Le cancer peut-il se transformer en Disco ?

Crazy Bitch

Crazy Bitch is a fresh, dark and biting look at how the princess becomes the villain. Half autobiography, half social commentary, 100% comedy, MacDonald uses stand-up, film and storytelling to explore the ubiquitous phenomenon of the crazy bitch in this high-energy one-woman show.

Old, Fat & Fucked! Now What?

How do you grow old and fat when you are a gay man living in a community where being young and slim is the official standard of attraction? Puelo Deir’s latest comedic show tackles this struggle with humour, wit and raunchy personal anecdotes.

The Detective, the Dame, and the Devil

A troubled detective, down to his last dime; a mysterious dame, cool as a cucumber; a maniacal husband, out for revenge. But who to believe in this crazy world of danger, intrigue, wordplay, and the odd anachronism? Welcome to Spadesy’s Private Investigation: no case too small, no laugh too cheap.

La Ronde

Don’t you hate it when you’re sleeping with someone who’s sleeping with someone who’s sleeping with someone who’s sleeping with you? We do too! But we still find it funny to watch! Come see this merry-go-round of sex and confusion at La Ronde.

Precinct: An Improvised Cop Story

Montreal’s Plateau is the toughest borough in the roughest city. Officers John Calgary and Carl Boucher are hitting the street to shake down perps. Guided by Captain Bill Garber, Calgary and Boucher will investigate and solve every single miserable case wrapped in manilla that drops on their desk… in the Precinct.

Things Drugs Taught Me

Nisha (Self-Exile, 2016 Best English Production) and Jeff (The Balding, 2013 Best Comedy nominee) have had wildly contrasting drug experiences. In this two-part storytelling show, they share everything they’ve learned from their substance use and abuse. As best they can remember. “Will leave audiences howling.” – Montreal Gazette

Also, a quick shout out to Cabaret Abnormal, 0 Days Without Crying, Mapping Grief, Docile Bodies, and Periscope. Many more shows online, so go check them out.

The 27th edition of the Montreal Fringe Festival runs until June 18. For information and/or tickets,  you can go online to: www.montrealfringe.ca or call 514-849-FEST. Pick up the schedule available around town, and follow the hashtag #FringeBuzz on Twitter for all the latest show reviews. It’s often the best way to find out what’s most popular with audiences. Happy Fringing and see you at the Beer Tent!

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/blue-metropolis-celebrates-women-intersectional-feminism-year/

Women front and centre at this year's Blue Metropolis Literary Fest

For a city that has so many international festivals — Just for Laughs, the International Jazz Fest, and the Fringe Fest to name but a few of my favourites — Montreal has one festival that a book lover like myself has always held close to her heart; Blue Metropolis.

The Blue Metropolis Foundation was founded in 1997 by the wonderful Linda Leith, a Montreal novelist, essayist, and publisher of Linda Leith Publishing, whose book Writing in the Time of Nationalism: From Two Solitudes to Blue Metropolis, I never fail to recommend to readers wanting to get a true insider’s perspective of what it was like (and in many ways, still is) to be a writer in Quebec representing one of two distinct minorities; French-language writers within English-dominated Canada, and English-language writers within French-dominated Quebec. Leith practices the linguistic diversity and intercultural understanding that she preaches. Linda Leith Publishing recently translated journalist Pascale Navarro’s excellent French essay, Women and Power: The Case for Parity, into English.

A non-profit organization dedicated to bringing people from different cultures together to share the pleasures of reading and writing, the foundation gave birth to the first Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival in 1999. While the festival has always been bilingual, (featuring and promoting Quebec writers writing in either or both languages), it has increasingly put the emphasis in latter years on multilingualism, cultural and linguistic diversity, and respect for inclusion. In other words, this festival has always represented – at least to me — the very best of Montreal’s cultural and linguistic offerings and spirit of openness.

This year, Blue Metropolis has plenty to interest anyone who wants to read and promote the works of women. Its series Women & Words highlights women authors who continue to be under-represented and under-valued. As part of the series, here are a few notable events taking place that are very much worth catching and I worry may not have been covered as much by mainstream media.

  LE FEMINISME – UN PASSAGE OBLIGÉ?

This 60-minute round table taking place Friday, April 28, at 4 p.m. hosted by Laura T. Iléa, with participants Houria Bouteldja, Chantal Maillé, and Naïma Hamrouni is certain to be of interest to many.

Houria Bouteldja is a French-Algerian political activist and writer focusing on anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and Islamophobia. She serves as spokesperson for the Parti des Indigènes de la République (Party of the Indigenous of the Republic). Her book, Whites, Jews, and Us: Toward a Politics of Revolutionary Love, a scathing critique of the European Left from an indigenous anti-colonial perspective, reflecting on Frantz Fanon’s political legacy, the republican pact, the Shoah, the creation of Israel, feminism, and the fate of postcolonial immigration in the West in the age of rising anti-immigrant populism, claims that whiteness is not a genetic question, but a matter of power.

Chantal Maillé is a professor at Concordia University’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute and its Women’s Studies Department. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Université du Québec à Montréal and has written and co-written numerous books on feminism, postcolonial theories and intersectionality, among them Le sujet du féminisme est-il blanc? Femmes racisées et recherche féministe and Malaises identitaires échanges féministes autour d’un Québec incertain.

With both a Ph.D. in philosophy and post-doctoral studies at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia, Naîma Hamrouni, who co-wrote Le sujet du féminisme est-il blanc? Femmes racisées et recherche féministe with Chantal Maillé, there is no question that this round table will probably be one of the most diverse, multi-layered, informed, potentially controversial, and most definitely intersectional conversations on feminism and women’s issues organized in a while. It shouldn’t be missed. Admission is $10.

  POWERFUL WOMEN IN TRADITIONAL CULTURES; IS MATRIARCHY A THING OF THE PAST?

Writers Anita Desai (Clear Light of Day, Fasting, Feasting), Imbolo Mbue (Behold the Dreamers), and Samah Sabawi (I Remember My Name) discuss their cultures of origin, their fiction and their female characters. Hosted by journalist, political commentator, social activist, and proud feminist Anne Lagacé Dowson, this 60-minute panel discussion is certain to be enlightening and lively. It should be noted that world-renowned Indian writer Anita Desai is being honoured with The Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix this year (which also comes with a $10,000 prize) for her impressive and critically acclaimed body of work so far. Cameroonian author Imbolo Mbue (seen in the main picture above), is also being honoured with The Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize ($5,000 to an author whose work upholds the values of intercultural understanding and social inclusion) for her debut novel Behold the Dreamers. The event takes place Friday, April 28, at 5:30 p.m. and is free.

  DENISE DONLON: FEARLESS, FEMINIST AND A FORCE FOR GOOD

Denise Donlon, Canadian business executive, television producer, host, and member of the Order of Canada, joined MuchMusic in 1985 as a host and producer of The NewMusic, and certainly has some stories to tell. In her critically acclaimed memoir, As Fearless as Possible (Under the Circumstances) she reflects on touring with Whitesnake, on being the president of Sony Music Canada, and discusses feminism, leadership, and pop culture. Her 60-minute interview with musician and filmmaker Matt Zimbel will take place on Friday, April 28, at 7 p.m. Admission is $10.

  LITTLE SISTER: BARBARA GOWDY IN CONVERSATION WITH HEATHER O’NEILL

Canadian novelist and short story writer of all things strange and unusual, Barbara Gowdy sits down with Montreal’s very own literary darling, Heather O’Neill, to discuss her latest book, Little Sister. The book explores the astonishing power of empathy, the question of where we end and others begin, and the fierce bonds of motherhood and sisterhood. The event takes place Saturday, April 29, at 7 p.m. and is free.

  FEMINICIDIO NO MORE

From #stolensisters in Canada to #niunamenos in Argentina, a conversation about violence against women in the 21st century, enveloped by the darkly symbolic and often-disturbing work of Mexican artist Teresa Margolles now on exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. The price ticket of $20 includes admission to the exhibition. The 90-minute multilingual round table is hosted by Ingrid Bejerman and includes the participation of Innu poet Natasha Kanapé Fontaine who is well known in Montreal’s literary scene with her beautiful French-language work that focuses on Indigenous women, American novelist, journalist, and Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Francisco Goldman, and Canadian poet and biographer Rosemary Sullivan. The event takes place Saturday, April 29, at 4 p.m.

  Once again this year, Blue Metropolis has managed to impress me with the depth, breadth, and quality of its events, and the awareness and emphasis it places on ensuring that all languages, cultures, and points of view are represented and discussed. In a world where most people still have problems defining, let alone understanding the importance of intersectionality, the direction and organizers of this wonderful literary event deserve a round of applause.

For a look at the complete schedule of events, go to: www.bluemetropolis.org

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/property-values-prejudice/

Of Property Values and Prejudice

Written by Bruce Norris as a spin-off of sorts to Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park is a play fully aware of its importance and the satire and social criticism it serves up. You can see the playwright’s message coming at you from a mile away. It still doesn’t prevent you from enjoying it, though. Particularly when it’s delivered by such a competent group of local actors.

Clybourne Park is a two-act play about racism and the politics of race, but also about integration, social structure, gentrification, and how we navigate our expectations and perceived limitations within those often-unseen confines.

In the first act, we’re transported back to 1959 Chicago in an all-white, middle class neighbourhood; black maid and all. Bev and Russ have sold their bungalow to a black family, upsetting the ‘social order’ and creating havoc among their friends who now fear that the value of their homes will be affected as a direct result. The dialogue, the dynamics between men and women, between black and white characters are true to the times. It’s a time warp of sorts and, if you exclude the racism and sexism, there’s a nostalgic twinge of bygone simplicity to it all.

In the second act, we fast-forward to Chicago in 2009. The now predominantly black neighbourhood has bounced back, and affluent, young, and mainly white buyers are looking to purchase. With shifting dynamics and demographics, the (mainly black) owners in the community are worried about gentrification and about the character of the area changing along with new arrivals.

It’s a current theme in many urban communities today (Montreal being no exception) as older, established, working-class neighbourhoods that have survived lean times, suddenly become hip and desirable, driving prices up and low-income residents out.

It’s interesting to see Norris take inspiration from A Raisin in the Sun, use certain references and secondary characters as the main characters of his play, and then flip the script around and show us an entirely different social dynamic, observing different people during a very different era fearing different things. The social divide is still there, though.

Post-racial world? Not quite!

Norris’ play was cleverly written to poke fun at notions that we’re living in a post-racial world. Racism still exists of course; it’s just much more subtly displayed and observed in civilized company. Perceptions, expectations, clichés abound and guide people’s behaviour. Racial integration has, of course, taken place, if we compare today to the ‘50s and ‘60s, but things haven’t gotten any easier. In some respects, if one takes their cues from a chaotic, messy Act Two, things are even more toxic and convoluted today. Sometimes, to borrow Maya Angelou’s line, even when you know better, you still don’t do better.

When the play first hit stages in 2009 Obama was getting ready to move into the White House and the time was ripe for conversations on race and racial tensions. The world seemed a more hopeful place. Clybourne Park went on to win the Tony Award, the Olivier Award in the U.K. and the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for drama.

While complex and still biting as satire, the play and some of the dialogue in Act Two feel a little dated in 2017 (when you’re living in a time when the President of the U.S. has been recorded saying “grab them by the pussy”, it’s hard to be shocked by any on-stage interaction challenging PC culture) but it’s still a masterful piece of writing, touching on numerous hot-button issues in a hilarious fashion.

At the centre of this play is a home. Home, of course, is about more than four walls and the roof over your head. It’s about belonging, about finding your refuge and your escape from the world. Home is about the bonds that are formed – both within the four walls and the outside perimeters. The concept of home means different things to different people, coloured as it is by our cultural and racial background, our history, and our knowledge of the past. Home is the part of the world that you get to decorate and define as you wish. Home, ultimately and inevitably, extends to your neighborhood and how it can enhance and expand your value (gentrified, hip neighborhoods) and how it can limit you and put you in your place (segregation, ghettos). And, often, those definitions and those property and human values are arbitrary, imposed societally, and extremely fluid and ever-changing over the years.

Solid Montreal production

The Centaur’s Quebec English-language premiere is a solid undertaking, in the capable hands of local actor and director Ellen David. Harry Standjofski as Russ probably gives one of the best performances of his career (and as an avid theatre goer I’ve seen this competent local actor more than a few times in the past two decades), while Lisa Bronwyn Moore is pitch-perfect as the ‘50s housewife with the high-pitched sing-song-y voice and the simplicity and naivete of her world views, which in some ways are wiser than the views of all the men in the play. Marcel Jeannin, last seen in the Segal’s incredibly fun production of Noises Off, is excellent as Karl Linder, the neighbour who’s worried that a black family moving into the neighbourhood will affect property values. Liana Montoro as Francine the long-suffering and patient maid and Kwasi Songui as her baritone-voiced husband strike the right balance between graceful patience and eye-rolling annoyance. Matthew Gagnon and Eleanor Noble provide the much-needed laughs and competently ease in and out of their different roles and vastly contrasting characters.

All in all, I felt that the first act of the play worked much better than the second one, which felt a bit jumbled and chaotic to me. But perhaps that was the playwright’s intent. Perhaps he meant to show that nothing’s been smoothed out, nothing’s been figured out. We’re awkwardly stumbling along, moving forward in tiny increments, making a lot of noise along the way.

There are no answers to be found in Clybourne Park. Only astute observations about prejudice and property values – tackled with and without PC culture. It’s a production worth catching, both for its ever-pertinent subject matter, as well as its solid performances by a very competent local cast.

Clybourne Park runs at the Centaur Theatre until April 30. For information and/or tickets, you can call 514-288-3161 or access the Centaur Theatre website online here.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/syrian-conflict-leaves-us-nothing-hope/

Syrian Conflict Leaves Us With Nothing, But Hope

I write this with the crippling cries of a small child playing in my earphones, nerve gas choking him literally to death, his desperate rasping gasps for breath ringing in my ears and unnerving my insides, his agony repeating over and over in the background as a foaming espresso machine steams beside me at the counter.

From somewhere overhead toxic bombs dropped on the young boy, waking him into panicked paralysis. No air. His body clenching and revolting against itself. I watch this sitting in my local coffee shop, playing on a Facebook video linked between Trump posts, little pieces of my spirit crumbling and falling away.

On Tuesday, the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun in the province of Idlib was hit by a poisonous gas attack. Most analysis to date reports the Assad government as responsible, with this region being one of the last hold-outs of the rebel forces in Syria.

The video below reports on some of the carnage. I will not warn against any graphic images.

The ongoing conflict in Syria has been one of abstract horror and lingering frustration — it is endless, and amorphous.

The tragedy is now many years old and the repercussions forever relevant, as the victims flee the hell and flow into our world and into our politics. But still it all remains nebulous. From the human suffering, to the geo-political gamesmanship, to the looming menace of strange newcomers messing with our lives — all of it floats somewhere out of the reach of tangibility, giant pieces we cannot grasp.

There is Russia supporting a murderous Assad regime just so it can keep its biggest ally in the region in power, and the U.S. hesitating to engage militarily so as to avoid escalation and further carnage. Then there is ISIS and oil and millions of refugees and the utter destruction of cities priceless in history and culture. More than any other issue in recent memory, Syria is completely beyond us.

For years, the players and positions in this game have remained unchanged and yet nothing has been done. It seems that Syria will be left to bleed itself into some solution, and we can do nothing but sit here and watch it happen.

This is what rolled around inside me. listening to that child suffer in my ears. The absurdity of the horror, and the overwhelmingly size and complexity of the pieces, is paralyzing. With every horrible image, the Syrian conflict encapsulates our powerlessness and impotence. It is a situation that consistently shows itself immune to international efforts or pleas of decency, one that offers us no real options to affect change.

And so there seems to be nothing left available but the pointless. The irrationally human.

At their core these giant daunting pieces are made of smaller parts, of people. Every action, every decision, from Russian propaganda to political campaign ulterior motives; no matter how apparently complex we scared silly creatures have made this thing, it is in the end, in some way, made by us.

Therefore perhaps the only thing left to do in the face of such terrible human frailty is to be more human. To resist the comforting call of apathy. To look right at the thing we cannot change and still hope to change it.

[headspacepress]

http://headspacepress.com/fighting-domestic-violence-women-doesnt-even-enjoy-unanimous-support/

When fighting domestic violence against women doesn’t even enjoy unanimous support in Laval

In a press release issued this morning, the Mayor of Laval, Marc Demers, deplored the fact that City Council could not reach unanimity on a resolution proclaiming the City of Laval a “municipality allied against spousal violence”. Against all odds, the Council member for Chomedey, Aglaia Revelakis, voted against the resolution, as did the three members of Parti Laval, headed by Council member Michel Trottier.

Their reasoning? The resolution did not include a mention of male victims of conjugal violence and was therefore “too restrictive”.

Eerily reminiscent of “All Lives Matter” debates, the resistance to what should have been a pretty straightforward resolution in the world of municipal politics is misinformed and dismissive of a very real problem in Canada – one that overwhelmingly involves women.

According to Statistics Canada and police-reported data, there were just under 88,000 victims of family violence in Canada in 2013. These numbers represent all violent crimes reported to police, but experts working in the field unanimously agree that the numbers of unreported cases are much higher.

The over-representation of female victims was most prominent in the spousal violence category, where nearly 8 in 10 victims were female.

Half of all women in Canada aged 16 or older have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence, according to statistics compiled by the Canadian Women’s Foundation. Approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner, the organization says. On any given night in Canada, 3,491 women and their 2,724 children sleep in shelters because it isn’t safe at home. On any given night, about 300 women and children are turned away because shelters are already full.

The numbers are similar across North America. A study by the Violence Policy Centre in the U.S. found that nationwide, 94 percent of women killed by men were murdered by someone they knew. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence cites that 94 percent of victims of murder suicides are female.

Right here in Canada, with respect to homicide in 2014, females were victims of intimate partner homicide at a rate four times greater than their male counterparts, according to Statistics Canada.

The most dangerous time for an abused woman is when she is attempting to leave the relationship, as the recent tragic deaths of Quebecers Mylene Laliberté and Daphné Boudreault reminded us.

It’s simple, and no amount of posturing or philosophizing about biased sources and skewed numbers will change that: domestic violence overwhelmingly affects women. It overwhelmingly is the reason for them being assaulted (physically and sexually), injured, hospitalized, and murdered. It is a societal scourge and one we need to take a strong stance against.

No one is denying that men are also affected by conjugal violence and one suspects that due to overwhelming stigma and toxic notions of masculinity, some male victims are very hesitant to come forward with accusations for fear of being viewed as weak.

But in my years of advocacy I have seen one common thread persist: when men’s rights advocates (MRAs) interrupt a conversation about sexual assault or violence against women to “inform” me about male victims, it is never to add to the conversation, it is always to derail or dismiss the initial conversation. There is a perplexing resistance to any movement or support focused exclusively on women, as if acknowledging that women comprise the overwhelming majority of abuse victims is somehow playing the “victim card”, as if that sort of “hand” is something that any human being would really want to play.

Passing a motion in support of female victims of domestic violence shouldn’t be controversial and refusing to do is empty posturing that benefits no one.

“Refusing to support actions against spousal violence targeting women under the pretence that men are also victims contributes to trivializing the issue and belittling the work of everyone who gives refuge to the victims, acts as their advocate or supports them,” stated Mayor Demers in the press release.

I must agree with Mayor Demers. Like activist Matt McGorry recently said in very plain terms when attempting to explain the importance and need for the “Black Lives Matter” movement, “’Save the rainforests’ is not saying ‘F*ck all other forests’”. It simply means that the rainforests are in dire need of attention right now.

Placing the emphasis on a huge problem isn’t a denial that other problems exist or in any way a refusal to tackle them. It’s a conscious decision to place the focus where the biggest issue exists and no one is stopping anyone from working towards multiple goals and causes. Multi-tasking is one of our greatest strengths as humans.

Numbers simply don’t lie. Women continue to be the overwhelming victims of conjugal violence. They continue to comprise most of the people assaulted, abused, and murdered. Refusing to support a motion that supports these victims because you feel it isn’t inclusive enough accomplishes nothing. All it serves to do is trivialize and minimize a very real issue overwhelmingly affecting women. And we already have enough trivializing and minimizing of women’s issues as it is.

Sponsored by Council member Sandra Desmeules, the resolution was eventually passed despite the opposition of both Parti Laval and Action Laval. I continue to remain disappointed, however, that something so uncontroversial didn’t immediately enjoy the unanimous support of all council.