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A letter to city council regarding councillor Barry Dalrymple's treatment of Occupy NS

posted by bsichel

Dear mayor and members of council,

I was recently alerted to the following news item:

http://halifax.openfile.ca/blog/curator-blog/curated-news/2011/fall-river-community-discussion-group-gets-lesson-free-speech

The article describes how a discussion group in Fall River were told by Barry Dalrymple that if they brought in an Occupy NS person to speak to their group, he would apparently "do everything in his power" to stop the meeting from happening and to make sure they could no longer meet at the community centre where they have met for 2 years.

If this story is true, then it both astounds and horrifies me - even if Mr. Dalrymple was not acting in his capacity as councillor, he is a public figure and he should take care to act, in his public life, in a way that befits someone in his position.

Also, even though he is not officially my councillor, it is a fact that because decisions at city hall are made through a vote, that I have a personal interest, as a resident of this city, in ensuring that all councillors in HRM are honest, respectful and accountable individuals.

I cannot conceive of how Mr. Dalrymple could call himself a respectful and accountable person while behaving as this article alleges him to have behaved.

What on earth (on earth?!?) could be wrong with having someone from Occupy come and speak to the group?

- Does he believe that Occupy promotes hate or represents a terrorist organization? These are the only two legitimate reasons I can think of for barring their their visit, and if Mr. Dalrymple actually believes either of these things then he is clearly not an educated enough person to deserve the position of councillor.

- The only other possible explanation I can fathom is that our councillor is terrified that the Occupier's arguments will be so very compelling, that this speaker will instantly convert the entire community of Fall-River into drum-beating, hula-hooping, dreadlocked, tent-dwelling hippies.*

...

When in Doubt, Blame Unions

posted by bsichel

Our friends over at Openfile (yay! someone on the local media scene is even newer than we are!) published some gratuitous union-bashing commentary by education consultant Paul W. Bennett yesterday. Bennett says public schools aren’t doing enough to integrate modern technology in the classroom, especially the things kids are most fond of, like Facebook and smartphones.

The guilty parties, according to Bennett, don’t seem to be the school board or the Department of Education, both of whom have technology integration programs he apparently disapproves of. Nope, it’s the big bad Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union, a “powerful organization representing 9,800 teachers” that holds “invisible influence” over the way technology is (not) implemented in schools.

Bennett backs up this accusation with…um, nothing. He links to a long, general anti-union report by the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies which mentions the word “technology” exactly once (I ctrl-F’ed it), and then references the union’s recent collective agreement, which he claims “put[s] teachers ahead of kids in the system.“

There are no quotes from anyone at the NSTU, no link to any news articles, press releases, position papers, nothing. But you know, unions are bad. And as every parent knows, teachers as a breed are very selfish people, never giving up lunch hours or after-school time to coach teams, direct musicals, run clubs, give extra help, or talk to kids and their parents about their problems.

Improvements could certainly be made in the way technology is used in many classrooms – use varies by subject and by individual teacher. But although kids of course need to learn to navigate the high-tech world around them, sometimes the last thing I want to do is stick them in front of a computer screen for yet another hour of the day.

Want kids to learn better? Want them to gain the life skills like critical thinking and problem-solving, essential for mastering all that new technology (much of which will be obsolete by the time any curriculum gets around to absorbing it)? Then give teachers smaller classes and...

Why Rename Cornwallis Jr. high?

posted by bsichel

This week the Halifax Regional School Board voted unanimously to re-name Cornwallis Jr. High School in South End Halifax. The motion was brought forward by Kirk Arsenault, Mi'kmaq representative on the Board, and was largely influenced by the 25-year campaign of Daniel Paul, Mi'kmaq historian.

Edward Cornwallis, celebrated by mainstream Nova Scotian society for centuries as the 'founder of Halifax,' put a generous bounty on the scalps of Mi'kmaq men, women and children during his short stay in Nova Scotia. While Paul says it's impossible to know how many died as a result of the bounty, the order undeniably had a powerful effect. You can read his take on Cornwallis here.

The following is from a presentation to the school board before they voted on the re-naming resolution.

My name is Ben Sichel, and I teach Mi’kmaq Studies 10 at Prince Andrew High School here in Dartmouth. As a non-Aboriginal person who talks about Aboriginal issues in the classroom on a daily basis, I felt it was important to come speak in support of Kirk Arsenault’s motion to re-name Cornwallis Jr. High School.

As some of you may be aware, Mi’kmaq Studies 10 is a very popular course in our school board right now. In each of the 4 years I’ve been at my current school, more students have taken it than have taken Canadian History 11 or African Canadian Studies combined – this despite the fact that our school has virtually no self-identifying Aboriginal population. Through teaching about Aboriginal issues to mostly non-Aboriginal students, it’s become apparent to me that we still have much work to do in terms of fostering respectful, productive relationships between native and non-native people in this region, and honouring the place of Mi’kmaq people in our shared history. Harmful, unjust stereotypes and misconceptions about Aboriginal people are still present in the mainstream of our society, and these do real harm not only to them, but to Nova Scotia as a whole.

The issue of re-naming monuments to Cornwallis comes up every year in my class, and...

Will You Vote? We Want to Know

posted by bsichel

The federal election campaign is in full swing. 3 middle-aged white men (4 in Quebec) are criss-crossing the land vying for your vote, as the press scrutinizes every word, tweet, and handshake (sometimes standing behind a steel fence).

Of course, fewer and fewer Canadians are going to the polls in federal elections – more than 40% of eligible voters did not vote in 2008. 18- to 24-year-olds had the lowest voter turnout of all, with more than 60% staying home.

Perhaps this is not surprising, considering none of the mainstream parties’ campaigns focus on fundamental issues like the global environmental crisis, the worsening gap between rich and poor, and Canada’s participation in two foreign wars. The sentiment that there is not much difference between parties is common, and the only two parties ever to hold power have done little to invalidate it. Canada’s asinine first-past-the-post voting system only makes things worse: if your riding’s not a close race, you had just as well stay home.

Still, everyone from Rick Mercer to Murray Dobbin is encouraging you to get involved in the current election campaign: “If you think you don't have time to get involved in this election, that it's too painful or irritating -- try to imagine what it will be like every morning for four years waking up to the fact that Harper has a majority,” says Dobbin. Networks like Catch-22 have been set up to defeat the Conservatives via strategic voting in selected ridings.

In contrast, many who make a point of not voting argue that it legitimizes a broken system; that staying home on election day is a more potent political act. “Can't eat chicken, beef, fish or pork if I'm a vegetarian. I find this situation analogous to how I regard electoral choices,” says one non-voter I know.

What do you think? Will you vote in the federal election on May 2nd? Why or why not? Reply by posting a comment.

Is it Israel or Not? A Local Conservative Causes Some Confusion Around Kairos

posted by bsichel

Screen shot of Wanda Webber's comment on Kairos, prompted by my own playful "NOT" as a comment on some Conservative sound bite.

I’m Facebook friends with Wanda Webber, the federal Conservative candidate for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour. We work at the same school.

Something on Wanda’s wall caught my eye the other day. Referring to Kairos, the church-based foreign aid organization that was denied funding in the NOT-gate scandal, Wanda wrote:

“It is a religious-based organization which has received funding for 37 yrs from our federal gov't. From what I've read, its funding was withdrawn because the organization had changed its original mandate and has become higly (sic) politically active. It's (sic) stance on Israel is counter to Canada's stance." (my emphasis)

Now, I’m used to reading Conservative sound bites in my news feed from Wanda, which I often find kind of interesting in terms of learning how the Harperite mind works. This one struck me as odd however, since (unless I’m mistaken) the Conservatives have never officially stated that Kairos’s stance on Israel had anything to do with their loss of funding.

Sure, there was that speech Jason Kenney gave in Jerusalem where he bragged about cutting funding to organizations that the Conservatives consider anti-semitic, in which he named Kairos specifically, calling them a leader in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign Israeli goods (which of course in no way equates to anti-semitism; several Jewish individuals and organizations also endorse BDS). But then Kenney wrote a letter to the Toronto Star in which he quite clearly claims that what Kairos may think about Israel had nothing to do with its funding cut:

“While I disagree with the nature of KAIROS’s militant stance toward the Jewish homeland, that is not the reason their request for taxpayer funding was denied. International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda – not me – is responsible for the Canada International...

Love and War in the Congo

posted by bsichel

Two local events bring a few snapshots of life in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the world's most horrific conflict zones, to Halifax this African Heritage Month. The central African country has been the scene of resource-driven wars which have killed more than 5.4 million people since the late 1990’s. The country also has possibly the highest prevalence of rape in the world, with rape regularly used as a tool of war.

Foreign mining companies, including several Canadian firms, have frequently been accused of profiting from the conflict, with the Canadian government’s response being that it will do its best to “ensure Canadian investment in the DRC is protected, while empowering those within the country as they work towards peace and sustainable economic development.” This summer, Canada sought to block an IMF and World Bank decision to relieve Congo of its $8-billion debt, accumulated over decades of corrupt autocratic rule, citing concerned over the copper mining rights of Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd..

On February 14th from 7-9 pm, "From Congo with Love," an exhibit by British photographer Rankin, appears at the Hub (1673 Barrington St.). "The photos highlight the love & solidarity that exist even in a conflict zone," according to the event announcement. You can preview some of the photos here.

For an important historical perspective on the DRC, check out Lumumba, a 2004 documentary about Patrice Lumumba, the country’s first democratically elected leader, subsequently deemed “dangerous” by the...

Halifax Youth Report from the Cancún Climate Summit

posted by bsichel

Drawing attention to links between oil, water issues, and climate change (Photo: Adam Scott)

While the mood in Cancún is much more subdued than at last year's summit in Copenhagen, the Canadian Youth Delegation to Cancún is doing its best to keep tabs on Canada's federal negotiators.

Robin Tress is a Dalhousie University student whose blog appears here. Her most recent posting is below. Emilie Novaczek studies at King's College and is also blogging from Cancún here.

Greenwashing at its Finest

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Robin Tress

Written by Robin Tress

Today I did some conference tourism – I went to the Water Dialogues around Climate Change, and the UNEP Climate Action Cocktail Party. The Dialogues mostly covered water infrastructure adaptation plans for central and south American countries, and the Climate Action party covered mostly nothing useful. There was a large display of ´green´products like compostable take-out containers, compostable coffee cups, biodegradable diapers, corn-based white out, and eco-friendly cosmetic containers. After inspecting the booth and deciding that those products were not “green” but were instead contributing to the disposable culture that got us into this mess in the first place, I had the great fortune of being cornered in the bathroom by a woman who worked for the greenwashing company.

(I would also like to add that this Climate Action party was held at Hotel Now Sapphire Riviera, which was probably the most over-the-top hotel I´ve ever been to. The bathroom in which I was approached by the greenwashing woman was bigger than the hostel that the entire CYD is staying in for 2 weeks. Very contradictory to climate action ideals).

“Have you seen our products? We make things like my iPhone case, diapers, coffee cups and shampoo bottles, from plant materials instead of petroleum...

Haligonians look at Cuba's transition

posted by bsichel

Photo and caption from Aljazeera.net: "Cubans who previously worked for the state will be encouraged to take up farming under new economic policies [AJE]"

Halifax native Chris Arsenault, now a staff reporter for Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, has written an illuminating piece on economic transitions underway in Cuba. He muses about what Che Guevara would think of the Cuban government's forthcoming layoffs of 500,000 public employees, who will be encouraged to become small-business entrepreneurs.

Arsenault gets analysis from two Halifax academics with long histories of work in Cuba. Isaac Saney, adjunct professor at St. Mary's University and author of Cuba: A Revolution in Motion, notes that "Cuba exists in the real world" and that this type of reform is, to some degree, inevitable; while John Kirk, professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University and author of several books on Cuba, says capitalists should think twice before gloating about Castro’s socialism being a failure: “look at what is happening in the rest of the world … look at capitalism, look at the bailouts and the recession," says Kirk. Meanwhile, the island state will still "have the best statistics for infant mortality and literacy in the developing world" even after market reforms, he notes.

The contrast with capitalist economies is refreshing, especially considering most mainstream articles like this one treat Cuba as an authoritarian rogue in isolation of the rest of the world, with no mention of the 50-year-old crippling U.S. trade embargo, high Cuban scores on the human development index, or the fact that some Western free-market allies like Saudi Arabia are hardly lands of political freedom. A good break from the casual demonization of Cuba that permeates our consciousness (except during those all-inclusive vacatons, of course).

Stop the anti-migrant hysteria: Response to a Chronicle-Herald editorial

posted by bsichel

The Chronicle-Herald wrote an editorial yesterday that says Canada needs to work harder to "stop the migrant tide" represented by the Sun Sea arriving in Victoria, and "turn back future ships." Here's my response:

Re: "Stop migrant tide: Turn table on Tigers"

Your editorial plays into the wave of anti-migrant hysteria that seems to grip the country when a highly visible boatload of refugee claimants arrives on Canadian shores. Never mind that the 490 migrants on board the Sun Sea represent a tiny fraction of those seeking asylum in Canada each year, or that reports from Amnesty International indicate that tens of thousands of people still live in squalid camps in Sri Lanka, that thousands more were massacred by government forces just last year, and more still are arrested and jailed indefinitely on mere suspicion of being associated with the Tamil Tigers. Never mind, either, that Canada accepts less than 0.1% of the world's refugees - 80% of the world's refugees are in developing countries.

You casually throw around the language of "terrorism" and "smuggling," stereotyping all migrants without a shred of evidence. In fact, as Harsha Walia writes in the Vancouver Sun, we should wonder why "well-financed...terrorists or traffickers would suffer in a three-month long, arduous journey risking death?"

You mention that "an earlier migrant ship, the Ocean Lady, which landed in B.C. in October, is believed to have been on a test run to probe Canada’s reaction, which did not disappoint. All those passengers were released pending the outcome of their refugee application," while not mentioning that all those passengers were released because again, as the Harper government admitted barely a month ago, there was absolutely no evidence to suggest that the migrants from that boat - held in jail for months after their...

PSAC condemns closing of Human Rights Commission office

posted by bsichel

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) condemned today that the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) will be closing its branch in Halifax. PSAC's press release says that CHRC offices in Toronto and Vancouver will also close, even though these 3 branches received "70 per cent of all signed complaints" to the Commission in 2008.

PSAC, which represents employees of the Commission, says that the closures "will have a particular impact on racialized people and recent immigrants. In many cases, the closures will make it much more difficult to challenge both systemic abuses and individual instances of discrimination."

Right-wing attacks on the CHRC have resurfaced recently as American Islamophobe Ann Coulter claims she will file a complaint to the Commission against the University of Ottawa relating to her cancellation of a speaking event there. Coulter's spokespersons claimed they cancelled the appearance due to "violence" in the crowd of two thousand that had come to protest her. (Although Ottawa police stated there was no violence and no one was arrested.)

A common conservative criticism of the commission is that it limits free speech, most often in cases when hate speech or incitement to violence is in question. Coulter, who regularly makes racist remarks against muslims in particular, had been warned by the University before her Ottawa speech about Canada's hate laws.

(It should be noted that while much mainstream debate seems to be concerned about whether Coulter's 'right to free speech' was violated - by her own decision to cancel her speech - not much is said about a 17(!)-year-old muslim's right not to be subjected to public racial slurs followed by applause. Here's a good op-ed in the Vancouver Sun on the issue.)

Halifax had its own incident of shutting down a racist speaker in 2007, when Jared Taylor of American Renaissance magazine was prevented from speaking by a crowd of protesters. (I can't find a link to a story on this, but here's...