-Slavoj Zizek

As we all move slowly into the second week of October, grabbing thicker jackets on our way out the door, wearing chunkier socks, drinking hotter beverages, we can see that in nature things are starting to change—leaves are rustier, grass is sparser and the last, desperate bees try for warmth indoors. Fall has this kind of grey realism about it—people mean business now. And as fall begins, the fall of corrupt institutions, kleptocratic governments and social inequities are given a chance to follow suit. After all, they have—as the leaves—worn out their welcome.

October has always been a month of protests: In 1917, the Bolsheviks led a revolt on Petrograd, beginning the first Socialist state; in 1969 the “Days of Rage” protestors took to the Chicago streets to voice their opposition to the Vietnam War; in 1990, Germany officially reunified after its Berlin wall came down; and, less commendably, in 1970, the FLQ kidnapped James Cross and Pierre Laporte in Montreal, executing Laporte.

However they manifested themselves, whether they were ultimately good or bad, the undercurrent in each of these protests was the same—something is wrong, and so something needs to change. Let’s kick off October by looking at this week’s protests (by no means is this a comprehensive list; it’s merely a smattering; feel free to add, in the comments section below, anything that I’ve missed!).

Idle No More

On Monday, Idle No More called a Global Day of Action to remember the October 7^th signing of The British Royal Proclamation in 1763, which legally mandated Canada to recognize Indigenous land rights. Groups across Canada convened to make their voices heard, and many people added videos to the Idle No More website showing support.

Shawn Atleo discusses the day’s significance:

250 years later, Indigenous peoples continue to struggle for sovereignty, especially against large-scale projects such as…

The Pipelines

Idle No More’s October 7 protests, in addition to remembering the Royal Proclamation, took aim at Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, as well as the 14 other new or expanding oil and gas pipeline projects in Canada.

Torontonians meanwhile took to a concert near Finch station on October 6 to call attention to Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline, because, as you can see here, the pipe runs right through Toronto, (something Enbridge would rather we didn’t know).

Also, on October 9, protestors in Montreal disrupted the National Energy Board hearings on the Line 9 project, interrupting those speakers who supported the pipeline. Young protestors launched loudly into stories about a fictional “Mr. Enbridge”, making it difficult for the pipeline to be promoted.

Quebec had more than a pipeline to oppose though, as protestors continued to show their indignation over the misguided…

Charter of Values

On Sunday October 6, around 200 demonstrators in Quebec City gathered to again remind us all how ill-considered the Quebec Charter of Values—that proposed ban on noticeable religious symbols on public sector workers—really is. Adil Charkaoui, the Muslim leader who also organized September’s 5,000-strong protest in Montreal, led the demonstration.

Here’s a video from the protests (okay, this video is not October, it’s the September 29 protest. But hey, it’s the same astrological sign, so let’s watch it.)

Where and how people publicize their religion continues to be a source of contention, but I think we can all agree on when religion is used incorrectly. I speak of course about…

Westboro Baptist Church

Get Shot, a U.S. punk band, protested the WBC’s draconian anti-gay dogma this week in a rather unlikely way: They filmed a porno. Laura Lush, the group’s bassist, was filmed stripping and masturbating on the organization’s front lawn in Topeka, Kansas. She said, in a comment on Facebook, “As a bisexual woman and the bass player of a ridiculous punk band, I wanted to spread my legs and cause controversy.” The video, should you wish to see it, is somewhere on this site (NSFW).

And in other nude protest news…

Spain’s Anti-Abortion Plans (link: NSFW)

Activists for the feminist group FEMEN broke into a Parliamentary session in Madrid on Wednesday to voice opposition to the conservative government’s proposed abortion law reform, which would limit women’s access to abortions. FEMEN (NSFW link) is known for their topless protests, having staged them in such enclaves as the Vatican, the London Olympics, and a “Topless Jihad” in front of the Great Mosque of Paris.

As I said above, if you have any more to share, or if you have a burning opinion you just can’t hold onto much longer, feel free to drop in the comments section below!

The more obvious question (you’d be right to ask) is: Why I don’t do them? I co-founded the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting in 2009 in order to produce the types of stories that will be highlighted here. The sad fact is there have been many more stories worthy of examination cross my desk than I and the CCIR have been able to do because the resources to do them simply haven’t been there. Sometimes, to paraphrase a Sweet Honey on the Rock song, ‘our stories are not our stories . . . they come through us but they are not from us’. And so, sometimes the CCIR has painfully sought to place good stories in the hands of other news organizations elsewhere – with mixed results.

What I’ve learned during my time as a journalist is that it is not simply a case of a monolithic media keeping information we all need about the powerful at bay. Most, if not all, journalists I’ve met would jump at the chance to expose, for instance, widespread civil rights abuses by the police of demonstrators if they felt the information was there. Why good stories don’t always get picked up is more complicated, and we’ll explore why this is too.

I should be clear though, about two points before going much further: 1. I don’t think the role of the Canadian journalist is to be in the service of, “peace, good order and government,” and 2, the views expressed throughout this column are mine alone, and not those of the CCIR.

So without further ado . . .

I don’t need to tell you that the internet is a great resource for news and information about the world we live in (you are after all reading this online), but with the proliferation of insta-news through social networks and near universal technology it’s also a frequent receptacle for misinformation and opinion dressed up as fact.

A case-in-point is the photo of German riot cops minus their helmets flanking the occupy demo in Frankfurt that went viral last week. It was presented as evidence of police solidarity with the demands of the protestors . . . but I had my doubts. Twenty years ago German riot police routinely fired water cannons from atop armoured vehicles at anti-nuclear and anti-capitalist demonstrators in pitched battles on the streets of Berlin, Bonn, and elsewhere in Germany, reminiscent of what we see today in Montreal.

German attendees to the recent demo have since done their level-best to clarify in message threads that the photo is not as advertised and in fact there were mass arrests and blocked routes by police later that day.

It’s not that this is impossible to contemplate. Historians have pointed to the necessity of the police and military standing down, or standing with the populace in moments of great social upheaval in order for wholesale change to be possible.

So this got me to thinking about a story I haven’t seen yet about the mass protests in Montreal: Have there been any Montreal police/SQ refuse orders to crack down on demonstrators?

As with the German photo, Montreal police refusing orders in the months since the protests began  have become the stuff of rumour, supposedly existing somewhere out there in the French-language twitter sphere. This would be difficult but not impossible for a journalist to verify.

If there are refusals there’ll be disciplinary hearings. A chain-of-events that becomes possible to track—though the Montreal police have been notoriously difficult to pry information from.

Something else that has been noticeably absent from the slow-to-burn national (that is to say, English) press coverage of the tuition hike fight is how Canada, as a signatory to the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, committed to higher education being made, “equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education;” (See s. 13(2)(c))

So what ever became of this commitment?

With national media pundits and editorial pages quick to point out that the students in Montreal are “spoiled and entitled” because they have reportedly the lowest tuition rates in the country, this would invite, you would think, a national discussion about the rights and obligations to a post-secondary education in this country—there have been stories recently in the U.S. press about the likelihood of a school loan debt bubble burst to rival the mortgage loan crash—which got me thinking about  what approach, if any, the Harper government is taking on the issues and events in Montreal? Has there been government-to-government discussion about the widening protest? Are there contingencies in place as this fight spills over into other parts of the country?

Obviously, what’s going on in Montreal is bigger than tuition, and this is certainly no longer a case of the media looking away; this is the biggest story in the country—but what’s the story? It’s this kind of fog that we need to pierce in search of the truth.

Bilbo Poynter is the co-founder and executive director of the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting. His reports have been seen and heard on CBC National Radio News, CBC.ca, As It Happens, the Montreal Gazette, the Global Post, J-Source, and MaximumRockNRoll. Stories Undone will appear on This every second Monday.

Protesters gather outside Union Station dressed as an oil spill in demonstration against Harper's environmental policy, June 17, 2010. Photo credit: Jesse Mintz

Unless you have been living under a fake rock beside a fake lake, chances are you’ve heard about this G8/G20 business in some way, shape, or form. The reasons why many people are protesting, however, may not be as clear. That’s probably because there isn’t any single issue uniting all protesters. And, despite what you may have heard, there is no one type of person who protests. Not all protesters are communists or socialists, not all are anarchists or against the government, and not all are ‘hapless hippies’, as one recent article stated.

You don’t have to be a feminist to believe that the Harper government’s paltry track record with domestic policies towards women has discredited any maternal health discussion led by our government. You don’t have to be a civil liberties advocate or an anarchist to oppose the spending of 1 billion dollars to turn Toronto into an military zone, complete with barricades, checkpoints and closed circuit security cameras monitoring our every move. And you certainly don’t have to be an environmentalist to doubt the Canadian government’s willingness to combat global warming and to turn a blind, or worse, defiant eye towards the Tar Sands issue.

While outrage over the price tag of the summits is pretty easy to understand, it’s the other issues on the table in front of us today in Canada, in our cities, and throughout the world, which are harder to untangle. It may require a lot of breath, but now is the perfect time to demand firm commitments instead of half measures and excuses on issues such as the environment, Indigenous rights, women’s and queer rights, the end of systematic economic injustice, justice for migrants and non-status people and an end to all wars and occupations. The interconnectedness of these issues shouldn’t be a problem–it should just provide more fuel for your fire.

Here are the reasons why everyone–not just the anarchists, hippies and commies–should give a damn and make yourselves seen, heard and understood in the week before the summits.

1. Gender justice: the Canadian government has pledged 1 billion dollars over 5 years for maternal health initiatives. This number stands in stark contrast with the 1 billion spent on security over the three days of the summit. The sad reality is that any initiative tabled by Harper will be a half-hearted one at best as he has refused to advocate the same rights for the women of the global south–specifically, the right to a safe abortion–as women enjoy in Canada. In addition, our government’s inability (or refusal) to understand the link between the health and status of women, children, the queer community, climate change and the failing global economy further, hinders any potential progress for these already marginalized communities.

2. Creating a just global economy: the road the current G8/G20 leaders in conjunction with the IMF and World Bank are taking us down will simply repeat the economic mistakes of the past. The economic crisis must impel leaders to implement a more sustainable development model worldwide. There are currently roughly 50 million people living below the poverty line–that is less then $1.25 U.S. a day–and this summit must be seen as an opportunity to push for fair economic trade regulations to help those in the global south.

3. Indigenous rights: The policies of the G8 have consistently marginalized indigenous populations around the world facilitating the transfer of wealth and power from the global south to the political elite. Domestically, indigenous populations have been dealing with the effects of globalization and neo-liberal economic policies that have ravaged their land and exploited their communities. Indigenous women and children are hit especially hard by ‘economic reform’ and budget cuts, and some Indigenous communities in Canada do not even have access to clean water.

4. Environmental justice: The summit presents the first opportunity since Copenhagen for world leaders to meet and reevaluate their commitments to reducing carbon emissions and aiding poorer nations in their attempts to adapt to climate change. Canada received the Fossil Award at Copenhagen as the nation that has done the most to impede global action on climate change. The summit must be used as an opportunity for us to ensure that our government knows that its environmental policy will not stand.

5.  Imperialism: The G8 nations are responsible for roughly two-thirds of the world’s military spending. G8 nations are engaged in a self-serving global war on terror that militarizes the world. Domestically, Harper has increased our defense budget in the wake of massive cuts to public services, such as feminist-minded NGOs and arts programs.

These protests cannot be for the select few; they must be the voice of the many. There isn’t one issue that concerns and unites all people–but that’s okay. These issues fall under the same banner of demanding justice and rights from our government, for us and for others throughout the world, and that in and of itself, is quite a mandate.

We are no longer dealing with “Canada the good”; and we can no longer afford to be silent.  So please, give a damn.