Displaced/Misplaced Norman Nawrocki Les Pages Noires, 2017 Norman Nawroki, long a stunningly creative voice from out of Montréal’s anarchist community, combines spoken word with guitar, drum, piano and some very haunting violin in this compilation to benefit the city’s Immigrant Workers centre and Solidarity Across Borders. There were other instruments
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Canadian Dimension: Historical foundations of Aboriginal rights
Aboriginal Rights Claims and the Making and Remaking of History Arthur J. Ray McGill Queen’s University Press, 2016 Having long ago established himself as a foremost scholarly interlocutor of Canadian Indigenous history, Arthur Ray, with a career that spans those ’70s books on my shelf (two magisterial studies: Indians in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Addiction among the middle class
Opium Eater: The New Confessions Carolyn Zwarenstein Nonvella Publishing, 2016 In recent years, my newsfeed has played host to a steady trickle of articles documenting the alarming rise of opioid addiction rates in North America. Described by political pundits as a “quiet epidemic,” the explosion in the use and abuse
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Exploring settler-colonial culture
Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada Emma Battell Lowman & Adam J. Barker Fernwood Publishing, 2015 Lowman and Barker’s Settler really dwells on the dominant culture in Canada as a settler-colonial culture. Hence it is not “about” Indigenous peoples per se, but rather the bad faith of a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: First choice for a younger generation
Indigenous Nationhood: Empowering Grassroots Citizen Pamela Palmater Fernwood Publishing, 2015 No doubt for a younger generation of activists, Palmater’s Indigenous Nationhood will be a first choice. Her cadences — and anger — capture the mood of an emerging generation of social justice, broadly Left-oriented, ground level activists. When she writes
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Criminal law ejects Indigenous peoples from the frontiers
Fragile Settlements: Aboriginal Peoples, Law, and Resistance in South-West Australia and Prairie Canada Amanda Nettelbeck, Russel Smandych, Louis A. Knafla and Robert Foster UBC Press, 2016 A legal system designed to settle new territories and eject the resident population. A security apparatus installed to monitor the movements of dissenters. Collective
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: One girl’s trauma exposes plight of nations
The Break Katherena Vermette House of Anansi Press, 2016 I received Indigenous author Katherena Vermette’s debut novel, The Break, as a gift over the holiday season. Having heard nothing of it, little did I know, upon turning its opening pages, that I would be carried from the comforts of my
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Mothers of colour challenge white feminism
Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines Edited by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens and Mai’a Williams Between the Lines and PM Press, 2016 This is an extraordinary book. Its dedication to all the revolutionary mothers expands Malcolm X’s call for freedom, justice, equality “by any means necessary”: “mothering is
Continue readingArt Threat: How Do you Spell Colonialism? A Review of Hot Docs’s 2017 Opening Film Bee Nation
The article below also appears at POV Magazine, which is providing comprehensive coverage of the Hot Docs festival, including an alternative take on the film reviewed below (by Judy Wolf). The notion that an Indigenous spelling bee competition could serve as the cohesive force to unite disparate First Nations children
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Review: I Am Not Your Negro
I Am Not Your Negro Raoul Peck Velvet Films, 2016 Now and then, and despite its capitalist and racial biases, our culture throws up something that can speak quite eloquently and uniquely about the times we’re living through. In this case, I’m referring to an amazing documentary film that has
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Essays on Indigenous struggles offer both insight and oversight
Blockades or Breakthroughs? Aboriginal Peoples Confront the Canadian State Yale Belange & Whitney Lackenbauer McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015 Canada has a long history of Indigenous resistance to colonialism. A geography of Indigenous struggle with the state is invoked by the names Oka, Ipperwash, Gustafsen Lake and Caldeonia. Blockades or Breakthroughs,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘People’s history’ brought to life with voices from vibrant era
A Future Without Hate or Need: The Promise of the Jewish Left in Canada Ester Reiter Between the Lines, 2016 This is a wonderfully dense, rich, descriptive and analytical volume, certain to be unique in the appreciation and understanding of the Canadian Left. Emerita professor Ester Reiter deploys an amazing
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Reopen Bethlehem!
Open Bethlehem Leila Sansour Iambic Dream, 2015 He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’ Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: ‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Transnationalism and Italian anarchists in Canada, 1915-1940
Transnational Radicals: Italian Anarchists in Canada and the U.S., 1915-1940 Travis Tomchuk University of Manitoba Press, 2015 There are numerous studies of the left in Canada. These studies range from social-democratic parties like the CCF, various socialists movements, and communists. Curiously there is a lack of studies into anarchist groups
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Mapping the vocabulary of the radical Left
Key Words for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle Edited by Ian Kelly Fritsch, Clare O’Connor and AK Thompson AK Press, 2016 In social movements, terms like “accessibility,” “bodies,” “communities,” “revolution” and “space” are in frequent usage, yet their meanings are often so varied that it is a miracle
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Comic collection inspired by everyday heroes
Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working-Class Struggle Edited by The Graphic History Collective with Paul Buhle Between the Lines, 2016 Comic books have a political substance whether we like it or not. The gender dynamics are overt in mainstream comics, with aggressive male characters and hyper-sexualized female characters. This
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Mother Tareka addresses the elephants in the room
Elephants Mother Tareka & the Rebel Funktion Self-released, 2016 With blasting Afro-beat horn lines, a funky rhythm section, clever samples and lyrics that cut to the point of the major issues in our world, Elephants by Mother Tareka & the Rebel Funktion is music for movement and action. Mother Tareka
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Propaganda System in Canada
A Propaganda System: How Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation Yves Engler Fernwood, 2016 Propaganda is only as good as the processes through which it is concealed. Traditional examples of propaganda — the cult of personality, the political commissar, and the threat of the work camp (or
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ava DuVernay’s ‘13th’ a must-see exposé of mass incarceration in the US
13th Ava DuVernay 2016 Avu DuVernay’s latest documentary 13th comes at an important junction in American history. The 2016 presidential elections confirmed that divisions of race and class continue to be central and defining features of contemporary US society. After all, Donald Trump ran on a platform of open bigotry,
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Product Review – Amopé Pedi Perfect
I’m not sure when the state of our heels became such a huge concern, but apparently it’s a big thing. Like. At some point in the past few years, someone realised that the true path to success is through baby-soft heels. To be clear, I’ve never had a pedicure in my
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