#nora loreto

[fartblr]

Comrade Evergreen

[naheemc]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Let Nora Loreto have her say

The recent tragic bus crash that took the lives of 16 travelling with the Humboldt Broncos has rightfully shaken many people across Canada. Popular folklore would present us as a “hockey nation”, one where our national sport forges bonds that transcend provincial and territorial borders, race, or even class.

The recent tragic bus crash that took the lives of 16 people travelling with the Humboldt Broncos has rightfully shaken many Canadians.

Popular folklore would present us as a “hockey nation," one where our national sport forges bonds that transcend provincial and territorial borders, race, or even class. The outpouring of support towards the bereaved is understandable and historic. Parents who see their children off on buses en route to sporting events expect them to return home safely. This truth is a major factor behind the collective sympathy offered to the prairie families that have had their lives forever shattered by a deadly collision at a dangerous country road intersection.

It is not, however, the sole factor. As Quebec City writer and organizer Nora Loreto pointed out on Twitter Sunday evening, “the maleness, the youthfulness and the whiteness of the victims are… playing a significant role. I don’t want less for the families and survivors of this tragedy. I want justice and more for so many other grieving parents and communities.”

Loreto’s tweets were a response to news that a GoFundMe for the families of the victims had raised four million dollars after having started off a few hours earlier with a $10,000 goal. That number has since risen to over eight million dollars, making it the most successful GoFundMe campaign in Canadian history. Her tweets have since garnered a flood of furious public and private responses, including death threats and wishes of bodily harm.

It has solicited the ire of Ontario Proud and of Jason Kenney, the leader of the United Conservative Party in Alberta. Others have set out on a mission to get her fired, despite the fact that she is self-employed.

Many accuse Loreto of attempting to be “edgy” in order to garner greater notoriety as a writer and commentator. But is her analysis that extreme? Loreto’s tweet does not diminish or besmirch the memory of the victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash. It simply raises some important questions.

Namely, why do we rally more around certain communities in times of tragedy as opposed to others?

Continue Reading.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

How has Quebec City changed, one year after a deadly mosque shooting?

Opinion: A city continues to mourn the death of six people at a Sainte-Foy mosque—and grapple with the issues that helped fuel the attack

Nora Loreto is a writer and activist who lives in Quebec City.

January is a difficult month in Quebec City. The bitter winter is at full force, and it will linger well into April. But as the month nears its end, the city’s Winter Carnival takes over some of the streets. Bonhomme smiles upon us from shop windows and houses. He reminds us that it’s going to be okay; we can have fun amid such isolating cold.

At city hall, flags that feature Bonhomme Carnaval are already hung. Characteristic carnival horns adorn winter floral arrangements. And under several flags featuring this carefree snowman mascot, the city’s mayor ends a terse back-and-forth with a CBC journalist about how safe this city’s Muslim population feels.

It’s one week before the anniversary of the attack on Sainte-Foy’s mosque, and CBC News’ Catou MacKinnon presses the mayor to comment on the fact that she has struggled to get individuals to show their face, give their name or talk publicly about how things have changed—for better and for worse—since the attack that left six men dead and five men seriously injured. Régis Labeaume refuses and asks for the next question.

From the beginning, the reaction of Mayor Labeaume to the mosque shooting has seemed like a proxy for how many white, francophone Québécois feel about this attack: shock, anger, and sadness amid a struggle to grapple with what happened and what to do next.

Continue Reading.

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 19

It's coming together.

Thirty-one books in a compact box. One gem stood out: with a title like In God We Trust: All Others Pay in Cash, you wouldn't think it's a Christmas classic. But it is. It's the basis of Ralphie's classic, desperate quest for a Red Ryder Carbine-action 200-shot Ranger Model Air Rifle: A Christmas Story. Add it to the yule pile, ma.

Some books in here I'm planning to read: A Winter Book by Tove Jansson (having read The True Deceiver with my wife last winter, and The Summer Book in its season before that), Spin Doctors by Nora Loreto (which feels necessary) and Working by Studs Terkel. A dear friend gave me the latter book and said he thought of its opening quite a lot, and I do too: "This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body."

[fartblr]

Got to meet Nora Loreto today in St. John's!!! 😍 unfortunately did not get to meet Sandy Hudson.

They fuel me with their leftist Kool-aid 😍

[bookofshitposts]

Life turns even the most reluctant of folks into feminists if they are judged by what they wear, if they are not taken seriously because of their gender, if they’ve been sexually assaulted or pushed out of positions of power, if they have been harassed or denigrated or if they have just a stitch of critical thought.

Nora Loreto, Take Back the Fight

[oopsabird]

Remembrance means committing ourselves to peace and justice

We would be wise to challenge Remembrance Day orthodoxy and learn from the mistakes of the past, writes Nora Loreto.