by Ayan Bihi
my recent
insatiable thirst for all
things documentary
lead me to this find;
to be a high
maintenance of
glamour, regardless of
the complete
preoccupation to their
affliction,
the aesthetic is
minimal, allowing the
frame of the
subject to tell their
silenced
story.
_____________________ Continue reading
I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this matter, but I was stirred to comment (however briefly) about the Shafia murder trial.
(As a trigger warning, I briefly discuss rape and domestic abuse in this note).
I presume your basic knowledge of the case, as most mainstream media outlets spent a considerable time with it. It was, after all, a most horrific crime. Today, the verdict was handed down to the father, brother, and mother – all guilty, and all facing life in prison.
Before going on, I would like to reiterate the heinousness of the crime here. I have no intention of arguing for the convicted members of the Shafia family, making excuses for them, or pardoning them of the crimes they have been accused, charged, and convicted of.
This piece was inspired purely by the discussion that the verdict has generated. Specifically, the expression of outrage at ‘honour killings’ (the going term) and the lament for Canadian multiculturalism and how it has gone too far. I would like to suggest that, actually, by dubbing this an honour killing, we satisfy an elementary understanding of the crime while sidestepping the larger point.
Traveling always opens my eyes to other ways of life, and often provides important comparisons to cultural norms we take for granted. For example, the Spaniards relaxed pace of life in which nothing is more important than siesta/socializing with friends and family. Or in Morocco, where people readily share rides with strangers in an attempt to decrease the cost of transportation. Or in Germany, where cities are so well organized the wait for a bus or a train never exceeds 5 minutes.
Returning to North America and the United States in particular, I am reminded how this nation’s identity as a ‘world leader’ has been rebuked by years of poor leadership, corruption, greed, and overall poor health. It is amazing the food that this resource rich country consumes. I would argue that many people suffer at comparable levels as malnourished people; as the food they consume is devoid of nutrients and minerals, laden with toxic chemicals, and highly processed and genetically modified. Chronic illness such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, etc. are extremely common. It is scary to me, and my stance on organic has grown ever more established (as well as plant-based diet).
by Sarah Allan
In 2002, Karla Berenice Garcia Ramirez uncovered corruption in her native Mexico that went straight to the top of the country’s cultural ministry, the National Council for Culture and Arts (Conaculta). As a result, she and her family received death threats, forcing them to move to Canada. Now their application for refugee status has been denied, and what will happen to her family next is a frightening unknown.
Water is essential to life. To deny any person or community the access to safe and clean water is an irrefutable human right violation that is hardly debatable from any angle. So when Vancouver, BC based mining company Goldcorp faced accusations of overconsumption or contamination of the main water sources in the areas its mines operate in, there was no route to save face other than outright deceit.
Goldcorp’s public relations department came out with a ‘Responsible Mining’ campaign proclaiming on their website how cherished water is and how they are working with this value in mind: “All potentially contaminated water is retained on-site and is only discharged to the environment once it meets stringent water-quality standards” claims their Environmental Stewardship and Water section of the site, assuring its investors can continue on with a clear conscious.
But if anyone actually takes a look at the levels of contamination in the river water surrounding the Marlin mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala they’d be hard pressed to explain how this is ‘responsible mining’: International standards for strip mining set the maximum of 10 parts per billion (ppb) and a test run by COPAE found the San Miguel rivers had levels of 70ppb, which hardly meets any ‘stringent water-quality standards’.
by Sarah Allan
Today, internet mainstays Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, WordPress and Boing Boing have gone dark to protest against pending legislation in the US, the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) which are set to drastically change the landscape and operation of the Internet for Americans, AND Canadians. I am not embarrassed to say that I LOVE WIKIPEDIA. I trust much of the information shared there, credit it for making encyclopedia’s relevant again and am not sure how I would have made it through so many years of school without my trusty wikis. As SOPA and PIPA present a threat to the internet as we know it and the creative developments that come from the relatively free flowing of information and open sharing of ideas it facilitates, we all need to think about what we can do to protect it’s openness. We need to ensure the Internet is free to be used be all people for a variety of purposes, not laden with legislation to protect the interests of the already wealthy entertainment industry at the expense of all else. While supporting the black out, we at Pass it to the Left have chosen to give you some info on SOPA and PIPA today instead of blacking ourselves out entirely, as many Canadians don’t know as much as they should about the issue that WILL impact them. Now click on this hyperlink to see what a world without Wikipedia feels like…
by Gregory Johannson, Marco Campana & ZS Worotynec
1. IMMIGRATION POLICY
2011 was a year for changes and consultations leading to changes in Canadian immigration policy, from temporary foreign workers, to family reunification, to refugee processing and more. A series of changes with potentially long-term impacts on Canada’s immigration policy and regulations occurred in 2011. There have been consultations, the results of which we may see over the next few years. One thing appears certain, the shift from an immigration policy focused on family reunification and concerns to one focused on economic and security considerations continues.
by Kyle Estes
About nine months ago I had six cavities in my mouth. Whenever I had hot, cold, sweet, or salty food, I felt excruciating pain deep in the roots of my infected teeth. As a firm believer in natural medicine, the last thing I wanted to do was go to a dentist and pay thousands of dollars to have my teeth drilled and filled with toxic metal. So for about a month I was stressing pretty hard over the health of my teeth. Then, out of the blue one day, I mentioned my cavity dilemma to a very health conscious friend of mine, who upon my mentioning reached into his pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a small wooden stick. “Have you ever cleaned your teeth with licorice root?” he questioned.
