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Politics après Jack
When Jack Layton, newly minted Leader of the Opposition in Canada’s parliament, died on August 22, even politically indifferent Canadians took serious notice. Here was a political death that could dramatically affect the country’s future. What might the actual impact of Layton’s loss be, not just on the federal political landscape, but on the New Democratic Party, on Québec, and the “larger Left” in general? We asked observers on the front line to consider those questions.
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Sexuality’s ebb and flow
One compelling question is thus whether capitalism contains the seeds or shackles of sexual liberation. This is no simple matter, and it merits close scrutiny.
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The Meaning and Importance of Cultural Boycotts
This past September, just a few months after the bombardment of Gaza by Israel, John Greyson, Naomi Klein and 1,500 others including myself signed the Toronto Declaration: No Celebration of Occupation to protest the Spotlight on Tel Aviv at TIFF 2009. The controversy surrounding the Declaration conflated censorship, boycotts and political protest. As the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is only five years old, this seems like a good time to make some important distinctions.
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Hip Hop: Palestinian Style
DAM, or Da Arabian MCs, the premier Palestinian rap group, were in Winnipeg on September 30th, 2009. Jonah Corne, a co-organizer of the event, spoke with the Tamer and Suhell Nafar - two of the three MCs of DAM.
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Own The Podium; Own the World
I went to a Wilco concert in Ottawa recently and a hockey game broke out.
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Debating Avatar
Avatar has been criticized for being unsophisticated, simplistic, New Age-y, anarcho-primitivist, a white man’s fantasy of redemption for the crimes of his race. Can this be overlooked considering the movie allows people to understand some of the elements of Indigenous struggles?
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On Avatar
We have a new biggest-box-office-hit-ever on our hands. More people have been recorded to have seen this movie than any other movie in history. Avatar is a story of an interaction between aliens and humans. In very general terms it can be said that the aliens are represented as good guys while humans represent the bad guys. This is not entirely true as the special few, led by a classical ‘hero’ figure, are both human and good.
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The Power of Myth
“Winnipeg is an oubliette,” says Guy Maddin in his mythical memoir “My (Other) Winnipeg” in Border Crossings magazine. It is? The conception of a cold city populated by sleepwalkers, perpetually astonished at its own age may work for the city of Maddin’s mythologies. Yet, this author left Winnipeg for Montreal five years ago quite ready to forget the place — but forgetting Winnipeg has been impossible. It is impossible because, in the realm of art nowadays, Winnipeg is everywhere.
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Winnipeg’s North End
Winnipeg’s historic North End was a contradictory place. Poverty was widespread and deep; out of its midst grew a rich and vibrant culture. Today’s North End is similar in many respects — deep poverty and racism, and an emergent culture of resistance, for example — yet different in important ways.
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Radical Winnipeg
As you cross the Slaw Rebchuck bridge, a cement arch straddling the vast rail yard that in earlier times cut off the city’s north from its south and center, a sign is visible. Opposite a high school named for a prominent organizer of the Winnipeg General Strike, on the sloped, brown roof of Nepon Motors, it reads “Welcome to the North End: People Before Profits.” Only an aspiration, I know — but where else but in Winnipeg would you find this welcoming?
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