The Uniter | Blog

Non sequitur

Chris Campbell — 2010-03-11T04:37:42+00:00

Last night I saw Alice in Wonderland, the new Tim Burton and Disney collaborative take on the Lewis Carroll classics Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871).

Although I enjoyed it - mostly on the aesthetic and visceral level of 3D nausea-inducing delirium (no, I wasn’t high) - I realized that I’d never been a very big fan of the literary nonsense genre (e.g. Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Shel Silverstein). Of course, it’s fun to watch and listen to, to experience the edge of language and logic through a variety of non-sensical (and sometimes, extremely sensical) elements. After all, who-zle doesn’t like a foozle?

But I think my brain has an awfully hard time with the world when it doesn’t make sense. That is - ironically, in the case of nonsense literature - when the world is filled with too much sense, an excess of meaning, rather than the absence of it. So, as in most every case, meaning arises out of the various multiple associations between things. Nonsense literature picks up on these double meanings, triple meanings, witticisms, plays on language and the places where logic doesn’t quite work out - although it’s very well-toned, yuk yuk!

After the film, for all its visual wonder, all I could think about was how much I wanted the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry) to come hang out with me. He used to creep me out when I was a kid because he seemed pervy (see Disney’s original 1951 cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland) - but somehow, Burton managed to make him quite charming, not very vexing and even pretty helpful in a pinch.

So, I wanted the Cheshire Cat to come around, make some wisecracks, disappear in a puff of smoke, just kinda float around and, you know, wow my friends and neighbours.

There’s something very charming about that cat.

Even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking it. And even though I’m allergic to cats, I don’t think I’d be allergic to Chessur. He’s mostly smoke anyway and I don’t imagine he’d leave much dander lying about - as opposed to, say, the cat that’s sitting on my lap right now who I’m sneezing on. And even though this cat in my lap is purring, it hasn’t once smiled at me or floated in the air or presented me with a philosophical quandary. I think that’s the kind of cat that I’d be down with.

Or a robot to clean my bathtub. I’d call him “scrubobot,” or “bub” for short.

Don’t get mad (get even)

Ethan Cabel — 2010-03-10T21:49:07+00:00

“I came to the province as an independent man and I will leave as an independent man.” -Don Woodstock

My interview with Winnipeg environmental activist Don Woodstock for Issue 22 of The Uniter was a great insight into the life and political views of an intelligent and down-to-earth guy. I was impressed by his prominent grassroots activism but, more than anything else, I was pleased that Woodstock doesn’t shy away from partisan heckling.

I was fascinated by his commentary over what he sees as Manitoba’s expansive and secretive NDP political machine. He maintains that there are significant ideological divisions in the NDP party, signified by the stark split (centrist and socialist) in support between the two candidates (Greg Selinger and Steve Ashton) in last year’s leadership race.

“If the staunch differences between Selinger and Ashton came out, the NDP would be seen as a farce,” he said in an interview at the Dandelion Cafe, a small restaurant in Organza Market, an Osborne Village environmental and organic store. “I don’t have any faith in a government that looks at any issue and plays around with it for their own political gains.”

Woodstock believes that if the government refuses to pass an outright ban on plastic bags out of fear that the party would resemble the Liberals and would lose the support of their huge electoral base. As a result, they their environmental policy is lax and flimsy.

“The NDP have been pretending to be something else for years and people are loving them,” he said, referring to the fact that they pretend to be progressive while governing firmly from the centre. “Don’t hate the Liberals, don’t hate Jon [Gerrard]; you can’t hate the Liberals when your government is right down the middle.”

It seemed like Woodstock was at first surprised by his relative fame. He attributed his prominence to his willingness to speak out, while others hold their tongues to keep well-paying jobs with the provincial government.

“Hats off to Gary Doer,” he said. “The best way to keep a man or woman silent is to give them a job…we have two forms of welfare in this province, the guy who gets $1,000 a month and the guy who gets $5,000; they’re both waiting for a cheque from the government.”

There is more to Woodstock than a series of political ruminations and other commentary, however.

He has been active as a Jamaican culture organizer and is an established Jamaican cook. Since coming to Winnipeg, Woodstock has marketed his own combination of ingredients to create a Jamaican jerk spice, a spice used to flavour meats to be prepared in Jamaican jerk style cooking. The spice is distributed and bottled by the Winnipeg-based Spice World.

According to Woodstock, his jerk has been featured in Flavor Magazine, the only Jamaican jerk spice to be included in the publication.

“I’ve managed to find a concoction that just works,” he said.

Woodstock further claims that he was able to convince Rita Marley (widow of the late Bob Marley) to donate something out of musicians personal collection for the soon-to-be-opened Canadian Human Rights Museum.

“Bob Marley IS human rights,” said Woodstock.

Check out Don Woodstock’s documentary “Your World and Mine” on YouTube. I urge you to watch episodes of his hyper-local green tenchology series U, Me and the Environment that have run on the Shaw Cable network.

Website hardcopy

Andrew McMonagle — 2010-03-09T03:38:29+00:00

A friend of mine received a book for her birthday this year, and it immediately had half the party laughing as hard as they could, crowded around the coffee table, reading excerpts to each other.

The book was Wanted: Bear Cubs for my Children - One Hundred of the Weirdest Posts Ever Seen on Craigslist (and Their Responses) and it had me sold immediately.

That is, until it was my turn to read, and I accidentally read the front cover first (I’m bad for that).

Turns out the book was relying on a false premise to entertain. Rather than being a collection of actual posts by real weirdos, each entry was written by one man, Gary Fingercastle. I stopped laughing; turns out the deck was stacked. I really hoped they were real, but the fabrication was epic.

It reminded me of when I saw The Blair Witch Project and thought it was the scariest thing ever. Right up to the moment I saw the credits report it was a work of fiction. I had invested a lot of emotion into that movie and it turned around and slapped me. Serves me right for being uniformed? Maybe. The memory still stings though, as does the one with Wanted: Bear Cubs.

I vowed never to trust another book based off a website.

Ever been to www.thisiswhyyourefat.com? The infamous stomach-exploding website has a book for you to buy. It was written by random people.
Well, not “written” so much as “submitted.”

The opposite of the Craigslist book, where I was hoping for a slew of authors, the TIWYF book is entirely composed of random people’s entries to the website. No originality from the authors required further than marketing skills.

Thanks, but I can get the same effect by hitting “print.”

Now if I could only get off my ass to write a book myself, maybe I wouldn’t feel so strongly.

Your opinion matters, too

Andrew Tod — 2010-03-05T13:43:52+00:00

Writing and editing the comments section of The Uniter is an interesting experience.

Unlike other forms of journalism, which tends to rely on the opinions of others, or telling a story without casting overt judgement, comments writing is a different beast altogether.

It relies on fact. But it mostly relies on opinion. It does away with notions of objectivity, fairness, and a lot of other values journalism is pretended to uphold.

At the same time, it is a necessary part of any newspaper, current affairs magazine, and has become an even more practised concept with the rise of the blogosphere. ‘Commentary’ in a loosely-journalistic sense is everywhere these days. Now that everyone can conceivably be their own brand, they can also elevated to the level of ‘critic’.

Which brings along a host of problems, not the least of which being the common criticism levelled at public commentators: Just who asked for your opinion anyways?

This question has a lot of answers, but my personal favourite can be summed up by one of today’s best (in that he is controversial and thought-provoking) public commentators, Christopher Hitchens.

In his book Letters to a Young Contrarian, Hitchens addresses this question by writing that “the right and warrant of an individual critic does not need to be demonstrated in the same way as that of the holder of power. It is in most ways its own justification.”

As part of its role as a community paper, The Uniter is open to all who wish to submit commentary to its pages. These pages specifically are aimed at provoking debate about the serious and non-serious alike.

Thus, you may have noticed that, like last year, the past two issues have featured a debate of sorts surrounding the state of Christianity in 2010, spearheaded by the University of Winnipeg’s Volunteer Chaplain Jack Duckworth. One writer writes a response to Duckworth, but this does not mean that the debate is over.

The real point of this series, and the comments section in general, is to get people talking. One way to do this is to write in a good, old-fashioned letter to the editor. The less space-constrained method is commenting on articles on this website, which is easy to do as long as you log into this site on a free account.

In keeping with the social media theme of this week’s print issue, The Uniter team welcomes you to weigh in on what you read.

As comments editor, I would especially welcome your opinions, because they are equally important as the ones offered by the people who get their pictures in the paper—which, by the way, is anyone who wants to do so.

Journalists behaving badly

Ethan Cabel — 2010-03-04T06:34:03+00:00

“Journalists [in 2008] just didn’t see what they were doing to one of their own,”—-Lesley Hughes

While researching an article on politicians using social media for Issue 21 of The Uniter I almost immediately thought of the unique case of Lesley Hughes, who was dropped as a Liberal Party candidate for the riding of Kildonan-St. Paul in the 2008 federal election by then-leader Stephane Dion.

Lesley Hughes is a sensible woman and local journalist who was arguably made the subject of excessive and unfounded ridicule. Her only crime was the fact that she published an article in local community newspapers in 2002 that arguably suggested that Israeli businesses vacated the World Trade Center shortly before 9-11 (a suggestion that can be received as subversive or controversial, but one that does not warrant discrimination). Hughes ran as a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in 2008. The article was printed in such “radical” publications as Winnipeg’s Lance or Herald six years earlier.

The article surfaced and was made public by Winnipeg blogger The Black Rod; that marvelous local “journalist” who is so wary of editorial accountability that he has refused to disclose his identity. It was then picked up by Canadian political blogger Jay Currie, later spreading to the National Post.

Hughes’ controversial discussion of the 9-11 Truth movement was a story of alleged antisemitism. As such it was championed by the National Post‘s Jonathan Kay who wrote a series of columns that went so far as to claim that the Lesley Hughes “scandal” could destroy the Stephane Dion Liberals.

Once the National Post picked up the story it reached organizations like the Canadian Jewish Congress and B’Nai Brith who called for an apology from Hughes and, later, that she be removed from her candidacy. Furthermore, Peter Kent, Conservative MP from the Ontario riding of Thornhill was active in advocating for her resignation as a candidate. Kent was supported on this front by the editorial board of the National Post, who publicly agreed with Dion’s decision to relinquish Hughes’ candidacy.

Hughes is now seeking a defamation suite against the Canadian Jewish Congress, B’Nai Brith, and Peter Kent. She is not pursuing legal action against the Liberal Party or against the National Post.

“My lawyer assures me we can always add to the list of defendants,” she added. It is wise, however, that Hughes is not seeking compensation from the Liberals. The Liberal Party of Canada acted for the sake of political expediency, just as any federal party would. The conduct of Canadian journalists is far more disturbing than the actions of a political party looking out for it’s own electoral interests.

Hughes claims she was never contacted about her column by the mainstream media, who relied heavily on bloggers, one of which is entirely anonymous.

“Bloggers have the privilege of complete lack of accountability,” she said. “If you Google my name you will find a monster, a fool, a bigot and an unstable person and that will be there forever…I think that blogs are dangerous but they are only dangerous because of the [low] standards of the mainstream media.”

Ultimately, the mainstream media relied on the opinions of an anonymous Winnipeg political blogger for their information and slant on Hughes’ column. Journalism is greatly concerned with editorial accountability. In other words, we put our names on our published works and we shy away from attributing information to anonymous sources, even if their identity is known to us personally.

In this case, the media decided to pounce on a story from a source that is not only anonymous in print, but entirely unknown otherwise. In the process journalists dodged responsibility by citing the views of a blogger, who seemed convinced that all serious discussion of the claims made by 9-11 Truthers necessarily connote antisemitism.

My view? The Liberal Party of Canada was obligated to drop Hughes as a candidate, largely due to the backlash by Jewish supporters in Manitoba.

The media, however, ignored responsibility and did a fellow journalist a gross disservice.

Celebrating the Vote

Kristy Rydz — 2010-03-03T05:46:59+00:00

There are a few things I’m truly passionate about. Words. Coffee. Big, ridiculous dreams. And, rounding out the list, is politics.

I’m one of those nerds who adore political theory, takes joy in bickering about party politics loudly with large hand motions and reads any newspaper or blog that covers conventions to public spats.

You’d think with that much political pomp and circumstance, I’d overdose on policy, speeches and spin. And yet one of the most exciting parts of the democratic system, in my opinion, is an election.

Once, just before voting in a federal election, I likened the experience to Christmas. I get the same anticipation waiting, watching and getting into the election spirit as I do trying shopping, baking and trying to fall asleep knowing the stockings are hung and the tree is decorated.

Living in the provincial Concordia riding, I had the opportunity to vote in the by-election held to fill the seat left vacant when Premier Doer stepped down from provincial politics and walked into his role in Washington D.C.

With candidates running from all the major parties – Progressive Conservative, New Democratic Party, Green and Liberal – the cast of characters was one that should have made for an intense battle of ideologies and perspectives. The reality, however, was anything but.

As aforementioned, the Concordia riding has been an NDP stronghold for upwards of 23 years. Even with campaign pamphlets, phone calls and door to door canvassing there was no sense of suspense of who would win the seat come March 2. It was more like a predictable type of holiday, such as Thanksgiving, rather than Christmas. You’re certain that Thanksgiving will bear be turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing whereas with Christmas you never know what you’re going to find under the tree.

That said, I still voted. Scratch that.

I still enthusiastically voted.

While it wasn’t as flashy as a major federal or provincial election, being able to exercise my democratic right to participate in electing the official representing me is something I take seriously—even when I’m fairly certain the outcome can be predicted.

Political apathy is a problem that we, as Canada’s youth, can’t afford to shrug off. Personally, I refuse to wake up 20 years from now in a political situation that I had no hand in creating. Even if my vote doesn’t elect a government that I support, I know that I had my say and that I have a right to criticize and question. That fundamental right is one that others around the world would kill or die for and in fact have en masse.

For me, that’s the importance of celebrating every chance to vote – whether it’s like Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Facebook broke the news to me that a friend had been killed

Karen Kornelsen — 2010-03-01T23:20:42+00:00

Facebook broke the news to me that a friend had been killed.

Amanda Frizzley, a Dr. Hook tow truck driver, was just doing her job that fateful morning on Sept. 30, 2007 when she was hit by a drunk driver. The collision, which was the result of the driver speeding the wrong way down a one-way street, was so forceful that it flipped Mandy’s tow truck onto its roof.

She was only 26 years old.

Everyone I knew figured someone had notified me; but no one had. I’ll never forget the evening, a few days after the accident, when I was doing my homework and took a break to check my Facebook. The first thing that popped up in my Facebook news feed was a page dedicated to the memory of a dear friend I thought I still had.

It was a total shock.

Although I hadn’t seen Mandy in a few months, it didn’t change the fact she had a huge impact on my life for the two years leading up to the crash. We used to share tea, stories and hugs in my apartment which was right above her own. However, as it sometimes does, life got busy and I lost track of her.

Normally, Facebook is a means to stay connected with the people around us; but in the case of Mandy and I, it was only there to tell me about her tragic death. It wasn’t there to console me after breaking the news the way a friend would have been. It didn’t hug me and reminisce about the good times we had together. It didn’t prepare me for the harsh reality of the situation. It just told me with cold, emotionless truth and without explanation, that my friend was gone.

Social media has changed the way we receive news, for better or worse.

In the case of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger who lost his life at this year’s Olympic Games, how many times did his family and friends have to see his horrific accident? How many times did the hearts of his family and friends break as it was repeatedly broadcast on TV and the internet?

Now when you Google the names of the two people mentioned above, the stories of their deaths are right there at the top of the page. You can’t escape it.

While I wish that Facebook hadn’t brought me such devastating news about my friend Mandy, it did create a positive forum in which people could remember her. Through this forum, those who loved Mandy could share with each other. The page, which was used to post stories, upload pictures and remember her is mentioned in almost every article written about her death. In this sense, Facebook served its purpose and brought a great amount of healing for friends and family.

I just wish it had been one of those friends, rather than a social networking site, which had broken the news to me that day.

Ahhhh, the pleasures of being a student…?

Courtney Schwegel — 2010-03-01T14:45:18+00:00

It’s that time of year where most students feel incredibly excited by the fact that there is only one month of classes left in the term. But upon the realization of just how much work needs to get done in that month, the excitement quickly turns into a gut-wrenching fear.

The days seem to just keep passing and you don’t seem to be getting any work done. The due date for those three papers is rapidly approaching, readings are practically a write-off and the thought of exams is swiftly pushed back into the far corners of your brain because there is simply no time to think about them right now.

The instant you complete one assignment you move immediately to the next, only pausing long enough to put a tick on your list – one down, 18 more “to-dos” to go. Your feel a dull yet distinct pressure against your skull and you swear you have just about filled every inch of your mind with some piece of knowledge.

And amid the endless cups of coffee, packs of jelly beans and sleepless nights you wonder, why the hell am I doing this?
Does this sound familiar?

Some students live for this chaotic time of year. Sure, they may complain while they’re in its midst just so the rest of us don’t strangle them for being so nerdy, but they love it. It’s an adrenaline rush for them. A raison d’être, if you will.

Others would rather choke down an entire set of pig entrails than go through with the month.

In my first two years of university, I definitely fit into the first category. That’s right. I was one of those annoying little keeners who felt a rush of pleasure with the onslaught of term papers, exams and final tests.

But this year – I’ve already had it. This final month just started today and already I am feeling perpetually nauseous at the thought of all the work that I have to do by the end of it. Staying up until the wee hours of the morning writing papers and getting up before the sun to study for exams has lost all of its appeal for me.

Oh, and I HATE Kristeva.

So in keeping with my life motto – keep it up until it stops being fun – I’ve decided to graduate this year. Yep, that’s right. I decided just yesterday, actually. The thought of being finished with school for good at the end of the next month is the only thing that will get me through this gruelling stretch.

So, here’s to the end of my career as a university student. It’s been fun(ish) while it’s lasted, but I can’t say that I am going to miss it.

What’s next? I plan on taking time after graduation to de-student myself. I’ll start by weaning myself down to only two gallons of coffee today, purging my apartment of all sugary substances and ripping my alarm clock out of the wall.

It’s not going to be easy, but at least I won’t have to write a 16-page MLA-style paper about it.

Toxic Justice!

Sam Hagenlocher — 2010-02-26T01:03:12+00:00

I recently watched the 1984 B-movie “classic” The Toxic Avenger. I had heard about this film for a long time, and had always wanted to see it.

This was due largely to its cult status and its ever-bitchin’ cover art. Also, it has not one, but two great tag lines to boot: “Criminals, beware of the Toxic Avenger. He will kick your butt HARD!!” and “The first Super-Hero… from New Jersey!”

The film follows health club mop boy Melvin as he is repeatedly mistreated and abused by four hedonistic, contemptuous, vain and randomly murderous health club members. These douches and their wicked girlfriends pick on Melvin at the health club by day (don’t they have anywhere else to go?) and kill random innocent people with their car by night.

On one particular night, the friends manage to hit an old lady with a walker AND a little boy on his bicycle. Why you might ask? ‘Cause they’re bastards dammit! No time to explain.

Anyway, these pricks end up pulling one final prank on poor Melvin, which ends with him falling into a vat of nuclear waste (which is conveniently uncovered sitting on the back of a truck outside the health club. Some people!). And thus he becomes…The Toxic Avenger! A giant disgusting, but surprisingly well-spoken, mutation!

The next 70 minutes of the 87-minute film feature Melvin, er, the Toxic Avenger killing pretty much every bad person in town, in always inventive and amusing ways. One such dispatching features heavily armed “punks,” who decide to hold up a taco restaurant (are there no other businesses in town?), but are interrupted. By justice! (In the form of the Toxic Avenger.)

He proceeds to serve the gang leader his “just desserts,” literally, by holding him down, making a fudge sundae on his face (including cherry) and then sticking his head in the ice cream mixer. Oh the irony.

But the Toxic Avenger isn’t just a disfigured killer (for justice), he’s also a sweet and caring lover as well. He meets a conveniently blind (what woman could look such a monster in the eye, let alone go to third base with one?) blonde bombshell, and they fall in love.

But all of this is interrupted when… On second thought, I won’t spoil it for you.

But I must say that while I often find cult B-movie type films like this to be highly disappointing, I couldn’t help but open my heart to this one. It’s a near-perfect “so-bad-it’s-surprisingly-awesome” film.

So if you’re looking for a film about caring for those who are different than you (except bad people—they can burn), with all the romance, adventure, charisma and high-caliber acting you expect from a Hollywood blockbuster, this may not be your film.

But if you’re looking for anything else, this’ll probably fit perfectly.

The size of the scandal

Chris Campbell — 2010-02-25T02:59:10+00:00

Sensationalist news stories have become less and less shocking. It seems there’s always one scandal or another in the news, whether it be a celebrity (such as the Tiger Woods fiasco) or a politician (Mark Sanford and his Argentinian mistress springs to mind) or a church leader (Ted Haggard’s homosexual propositioning). Certainly these are head-shaking moments, but not earth-shattering ones.

At this point, after years of scandalous indiscretion making the news, another “breaking news” revelation about some hypocritical action hardly ruffles my feathers. But perhaps it should.

I’m not saying that I’m going to pull out my Uncle-Sam finger to point out impropriety, charging down the street with a moral high-ground attitude; nor do I aspire to be incapacitated by outrage with every breaking news scandal.

But I am thinking that there’s a healthy level of indignation to be had - not to revel in my own superiority, but rather to learn to recognize moral corruption. After all, there are a lot of stories out there that never hit the level of high scandal, but still reek of indiscretion and impropriety.

As an example, I would suggest we look no further than scandal within the Christian church.

Here we can clearly see instances to illustrate the discrepancy between professed statements of belief and actions - from priests molesting children to evangelical pastors being caught in adultery. The most well-known examples are the televangelists that are surrounded by high scandal, caught in the midst of sexual and monetary indiscretion. After years of tax fraud, misappropriated funds and adultery, it hardly seems surprising when another church-leader scandal hits the headlines - from Jim Bakker to Jimmy Swaggart to Ted Haggard. Their scandals explode because of their inflated church-celebrity status.

But what about those stories that never hit the front page, that slip through the news in the back pages? It’s not just the big league church leaders that should cause high scandal. One of the most disturbing patterns of misconduct can be found in the figure of the youth pastor, those leaders entrusted with the care and spiritual development of burgeoning adults.

Dan Savage, activist, writer and sex-advice columnist, tracks these news stories on his blog, under the heading “Youth Pastor Watch.” Drawing from the beach convention to hang a “Shark Attack Watch” sign when there are known attacks in the water, Savage posts any stories he finds in the news that concern youth pastors being accused or indicted of molestation, sexual assault or violation of trust.

Savage lists dozens of stories from the past year. Here’s a brief sampling:

- One youth counsellor / minister from Connecticut is accused of having sexually abused several young men. Troy Grant insisted, however, that he was not gay and was saving himself for marriage, saying, “[It] was more a release for me, because I am engaged to a woman I have not been sexual with yet … We are getting married in August of 2010, and I do not want to have sex before marriage.” Grant is a minister and former executive director of a program for at-risk youth.

- A youth minister from Virginia was indicted on charges that she had sexual relations with a 15-year-old boy - 10 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child and 10 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Jennifer Michelle Brennan, 36, met the boy through her position as a youth minister. Apparently, the boy’s mother said that Brennan had counselled her son and his girlfriend against premarital sex.

- Former youth minister Adrian Estrada is currently on death row in Texas for killing a teenage church member who was pregnant with his baby. Subsequently, two more teens have come forward and accused Estrada of raping them. When these allegations were brought to church leaders, no action was taken. Currently, one of these girls is suing the church and the lead pastor for their complicity.

- Indiana youth pastor Jonathan James Hartman was arrested in April 2009 and charged with molesting three girls under the age of 15, impregnating one of them and pressuring her to get an abortion. Even though he has not been convicted and his trial is still pending, Hartman made headlines again when he tried to hire a hit man to kill the three teenage girls with whom he was accused of having sex, and to kill the child of one of the victims (which he believed to be his).

These stories should produce outrage: they are not only scandalous but morally reprehensible. Yet they don’t make headlines like Tiger Woods or Ted Haggard, despite the magnitude of the offenses. It shouldn’t just be the fame of the celebrity that dictates the level of scandal.

The prevalence of these occurrences should be scandalous in itself. The frequency with which youth pastor violations occur should be recognized and the imagined cloud of safety that surrounds the trustworthy figure of the youth pastor should be dispelled.

Of course I’m not saying that every youth pastor is a molester or sexual predator - please do not mistake that. But I am saying that the atmosphere of silence that surrounds occurrences of youth pastor sexual misconduct should be shattered, if for no other reason than how often it occurs. It is a false notion that a youth pastor should be trusted simply because of what he/she claims to believe.

In this instance, silence itself is what’s scandalous.

Check out Youth Pastor Watch by going to www.thestranger.com and entering “Youth Pastor Watch” in the “Search” field.

News Flash: the NDP don’t really care about electoral reform

Ethan Cabel — 2010-02-24T22:19:51+00:00

While researching an article on limiting the Prime Minister’s power to prorogue Parliament for the Feb. 25 issue of The Uniter, it was clear that the anti-prorogation movement that was so influential in January was growing fragmented just a month after it was formed.

Although the local chapter of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (CAPP) still regularly meet and discuss, the group is dwindling. Different people had originally gotten involved in the movement for different reasons: some were simply life-long Liberals that were taking advantage of what was seen as an abuse of prime ministerial power, while some were aiming at more systemic reforms of our House of Commons or Canada’s First Past the Post electoral system.

“The proposals [to limit prorogation] from the opposition parties limit a legitimate Parliamentary procedure,” said Colin Carmichael, who created Noprorogue.ca.

He believes that the abuse of prorogation, both this year and in 2008 (when the PM prorogued to avoid a confidence vote) were caused by larger systemic problems in the Canadian political system. He maintains that a Bill making it tougher to prorogue Parliament will do nothing if it is not accompanied by larger parliamentary reforms and more engagement by the public in the political system.

“The root cause of the problem is that Canadians haven’t been engaged in their political process in quite a while and that’s of far more concern than how or why the Prime minister prorogues Parliament,” he said.

As the week progressed, I started to realize that many in the anti-prorogation movement were vastly in favour of electoral reform as the solution to these kinds of prime ministerial abuses of power.

Larry Gordon is the executive director of Fair Vote Canada, a multi-partisan organization founded in 2001 to lobby and advocate for proportional representation (PR) as the preferred voting system in Canada. Gordon is their only paid and full-time employee/spokesperson but the group has a chapter in nearly all of Canada’s 10 provinces.

Proportional representation is an electoral system employed by many European countries and is vastly different from our own British First Past the Post system. The implementation of PR varies but the crux of the system involves representation proportional to the percentage of the popular vote: if Parliament (hypothetically) has 100 seats and the Liberal Party wins 10 per cent of the popular vote, the Liberal Party will we have 10 seats in Parliament.

This is incredibly different from the current Canadian electoral system where the Bloc Quebecois won 49 (out 308) seats in the House of Commons with just 9 per cent of the popular vote in 2008, while the Green Party, with nearly 7 per cent of the popular vote, won no seats. A political party in Canada can form government (even a majority government) without the majority of the popular vote.

“The electoral system of a country is the foundation of democracy, and the fact that Canada does not have a modern voting system is appalling,” said Gordon.
I am sympathetic to organizations like Fair Vote Canada, and others that advocate for systemic reforms of the Canadian political system. I found the anti-prorogation movement to be reactionary and found some of its members oblivious to the systemic problems that have given Harper the power to prorogue the House twice within 12 months. I also don’t think that proportional representation is the solution to these problems. In my view, PR completely dilutes authority and forces Parliament to form loose coalitions for the purposes of governing. It is unsuited to a country already regionally fragmented.

Think of the chaos and hyper-partisanship of the last four years of minority governments in this country. You can argue that adversarial politics is the preferred method of political debate because Grits and Tories are still obsessed with winning a majority government. You could argue that PR would make a majority impossible and thus force opposition and government to cooperate and work together but this simply leaves Canada open to becoming a two-party system or a working coalition of parties that could be hijacked by dysfunction.
Despite disagreeing with Gordon on principle, I was very interested in his answer to a question I raised over the NDP’s commitment to proportional representation. The federal NDP have maintained (mostly because it benefits them) that proportional representation is the best route for Canadian democracy.

“I think the NDP has not been assertive enough on this issue,” he said.

He added that Jack Layton made a commitment when elected leader in 2003 that he would only support (at that time a hypothetical) minority government on the condition of a national referendum on proportional representation. Since 2003, Layton has propped up both Prime minister Paul Martin and Stephen Harper through several confidence votes. Neither of them are committed to electoral reform.

“One thing that is holding back the NDP federally is that when they form government provincially they abandon proportional representation,” he added.

Could it be that the NDP only support initiatives that benefit the party? PR would never benefit a governing party. The Manitoba NDP have no interest in proposing or instituting electoral reform. Instead they elect their leader’s (and our Premier) based on a flawed delegate-selection system last year.

Gordon is confident that PR will be a reality in Canada. He believes that we must start provincially before the federal government will step up.

The provincial NDP is perfectly positioned to rise up to that challenge.

I’m in a relationship with journalism. And it’s complicated.

Kristy Rydz — 2010-02-24T01:59:57+00:00

Journalism is pretty much my boyfriend.

I spend the majority of my days with it, thinking about it and/or talking about it. It’s exciting and exhilarating. I’m passionate about it while it opens my mind to new experiences, people and places. Everything a typical significant other should do for you.

But last week, journalism and I fought.

It was ugly. It was one of those mud-slinging, dirty- laundry-airing, smack-down kind of arguments. I yelled, cried and considered ending our relationship.
For the first time in years of writing for newspapers and magazines, I had to admit defeat when my story was cut from publication. As much as I tried not to take it personally, the insult stung like a pointed dig you wish you could take back the moment it slips from your lips.

Working on an article about an upcoming annual event in the aboriginal community that will be held in Winnipeg, I hit roadblock after roadblock. From organizing officials being out of town all week, to “no comment” and “I don’t know” lines, to being passed along to up to three people by long-distance phone call – I was practically tearing out my hair. By mid-week I had zero interviews completed. Waiting for the beep, I grew increasingly frustrated with every cheery voicemail message of a person that would turn out not to return my call. Finally after four straight days of cold calls with no results, I talked to my editor and we made the call to drop the story.

As a writer it’s incredibly frustrating to not be able to tell a story that deserves to be told. After all, that’s my job. Personally, I usually find the very chase I struggled with last week the best part of the process. Sure, I love choosing well-spoken quotes, crafting sentences and gauging reaction to the articles I write, but all that comes after talking to people.

The art of conversation with individuals I most likely would never get to talk to otherwise about topics as random as graffiti, suburbs or rock and roll, is the best part of journalism to me. It’s when I get to shut up, listen and learn.

It still amazes me that complete strangers will let me intrude on their day to ask questions about their lives, their beliefs and their struggles. But the most astounding part is that they trust me enough to tell me their incredible stories – usually without more than a short phone call or e-mail.

So while my relationship with journalism is still complicated, I decided we’ve been together too long to throw away that kind of connection in light of one ugly fight.

Because at the end of the day, trust is what makes a relationship work.

What kind of news are you into?

Andrew McMonagle — 2010-02-20T00:16:41+00:00

One of the challenges of being the news assignment editor at The Uniter is figuring out how to offer unique news stories, such that you don’t get elsewhere.

This leads me to ponder the question: What is news?

News is events. That grammatically awkward semi-sentence is as succinct as I can put it. Another way is to say that news is what you make it.

The Uniter‘s method is to keep a local focus and to not copy what other mainstream media (MSM) sources are up to. I read the Winnipeg Free Press daily, listen to CBC as often as I can and keep up-to-date on what independent journalists in Winnipeg are up to. (I read a lot more than that, but you get the idea.) I have no interest in reading the same story twice, so why should you?

It sometimes happens that we cover a story you’ve seen elsewhere, like cap and trade, Haitian relief efforts and prorogation. We always try to offer a unique angle on these stories. We want to appeal to not only the student population, but to those living downtown and all over Winnipeg.

As a weekly publication, it’s hard to keep up with dailies like the Free Press. However, we still manage to scoop the MSM sometimes, such as our story on the supposed city-sanctioned graffiti which the Free Press picked up on three days later. Or, like when we published the story on the new disability studies program at the U of W, days before the official press conference announcement.

What we don’t look for are: car crashes, petty crime and other pieces with seemingly little relevance beyond striking fear in the hearts of citizens. I always cringe when I hear about a car accident on the news - it’s a tragedy when lives are lost, but beyond updating the traffic report, I am puzzled why the public needs to know. I understand that a dramatic angle is needed to capture people’s attention - especially for TV broadcasting (nothing jumps from the screen like a twisted, smoking wreckage), so sometimes drama takes precedent to news. But at the same time, while we’re offered windows into tragedy like that, we don’t often hear about suicides though they are much more dramatic and occur nearly as often. What makes one tragedy more newsworthy than another?

So what makes better news? Federal mandates or bikini girls? I’m not going to say you shouldn’t watch TV news or read the tabloids, but it’s nice to know that there are options, isn’t it?

If you have any thoughts about this or just plain disagree, feel free to write us! We publish letters to the editor and welcome the chance to engage in the debate on our blogs. Write to me at news@uniter.ca and pitch the car-crashingest story you can think of. I’ll still be puzzled.

Winter doesn’t have to suck

Andrew Tod — 2010-02-19T16:34:55+00:00

Winter in Winnipeg is morose, bone-chilling and generally a blatant assault on happiness…right?

That’s why it’s called, pejoratively, Win-ter-peg Man-it’s-cold-a, or such other stupid things. If there is one thing that unites ‘peggers, it is the four months or so we all spend battling the elements in a city that is, as I recall a high school science teacher stating matter-of-factly, the coldest place on earth that sustains a population above 600,000 people.

If there is another thing that unites us, it is a latent disapproval of living here for said four months, and an almost obsessive looking forward to spring melting and summer warmth. I once remember Brad Roberts, of Crash Test Dummies fame, being asked why so many good bands, relatively speaking, emerge from Winnipeg. His answer went along the lines of ‘there is nothing to do there in the winter except play hockey or play in a band. And not everyone is good at hockey.’

But winter in Winnipeg can be a fantastic place, even when the thermometer plunges to depressing levels.

Of course there is the disputed ‘World’s longest skating rink’ that has undergone an off year with such unpredictable weather, but is nonetheless a great way to get together with friends, exercise, or impress a date with your skating prowess (or, alternatively, encourage physical contact by pretending to fall a lot).

These days, many are flocking to catch the last days of the Festival du Voyageur, which is always a great time to enjoy music, eat heartily and transport yourself (kinda) back to the founding years of Winnipeg.

But there are also activities which, though they are not commonly practised, make for a fun winter day or night.

Winter bonfires are a great way to keep warm, spend time outside, and cover yourself in a unique smoky aroma for a night on the town.

Building a quinzhee is an economical way to build shelter for a night outside. Ditto for a snow fort, which has the double benefit of making one feel young and careless once again. Add a snowball fight to the mix for the full effect.

These are but a few options, but it’s clear that fun can be had here despite our weather. In fact, due to our weather, Winnipeggers can experience the full expression of the season in a way which many Canadians (just watch the Olympics) simply cannot.

So dress warm, bring a thermos, flask or wineskin filled with whatever keeps you warm, and get out of the home-to-motorized transportation hibernation cycle that plagues many this time of year.

mpFree

Aaron Epp — 2010-02-16T19:41:56+00:00

One of the best things of the dawn of digital music just might be the free mp3s musicians give away to promote an album. With that in mind, I’ve made a list of five disparate free downloads I’ve come across recently that are worth checking out.

In most cases, the musical act in question will ask for your e-mail address in exchange for the mp3, so that they can add you to their mailing list. Don’t want the extra e-mail? Why not give them that old zany Hotmail address you abandoned three years ago (Cool_Dude_69, MMMBopGurl, Incredible_Volleyball_Playa_204, BackstreetsBack97, etc., etc.) but still check from time to time? Everybody wins!

1. It Ain’t Nothin’ by Cypress Hill

I’m starting with what I think is the weakest track on this list, but that’s mostly because I’ve never been huge into Cypress Hill and their insane-in-the-brain hip hop. But they’re about to release their first record in six years in April, and you can get a taste of it by downloading this free track at www.cypresshill.com. B-Real-tastic!

2. Flume by Peter Gabriel

From Cypress Hill to Peter Gabriel. Did I tell you this list was eclectic, or what? Log on to www.petergabriel.com/flume and you can download Gabriel’s cover of the Bon Iver song Flume. It’s from his new orchestra-and-voice-only covers record Scratch My Back, in stores today. Don’t write Gabriel off as Dad-music. The quality of his catalogue is intimidating at best, and this new record is already earning him rave reviews.

3. Some Kind of Sign by Quinzy

I have to include some local content or the CRTC will come after me. Ha, just kidding folks. I want to include some local content, so here’s a free track from Quinzy you can get at www.reverbnation.com/quinzy. “Guess what? Sign up for that e-mail list to the right and we’re going to give you a free, unreleased track,” the band writes in an accompanying blog. “This is because we care about you.” The track in question, titled Some Kind of Sign, was recorded with Michael Phillip Wojewoda (Rheostatics, Barenaked Ladies), making it most likely a leftover from the sessions that produced the Quinzy EPs One Boy’s Guide to the Moon and These Nautical Miles. Mmm—leftovers.

4. Colouring of Pigeons by The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock

Eccentric Swedish electro-pop duo The Knife are back this year with their collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. Tomorrow, in a Year, an opera based on Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, was released digitally on Jan. 28 and will hit stores in hard-copy form on Mar. 1. You can download the 11-minute Colouring of Pigeons at www.theknife.net.

5. Vika by The Pets

This song is from 2002, but it’s one of my favourites of the past decade and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. Hailing from Steinbach, Man., The Pets recorded one great album (Love and War) in their basement, released it and then broke up soon after. (Some members of the band went on to form The Waking Eyes.) Eight years later, the pop opus is just as fresh and exciting as it was back then. You can download the song Vika—a frenetic ode to eternal love—right here, courtesy of the fine folks at Endearing Records.

Blechsploitation

Sam Hagenlocher — 2010-02-16T07:24:28+00:00

I recently watched the neo-blaxploitation film Black Dynamite. It’s a rip on ‘70s cinema ala Shaft, Dolemite and Super Fly. I have to admit, I quite enjoyed it. What’s not to love about a badass brother who don’t give a damn, cracking heads and kicking asses? I mean, there’s even a nun-chuck showdown between him and Tricky Dick at the end. Certified gold.

After it was over, I got to thinking: What’s the point? I mean obviously I get it, “ironic nostalgia” is way in. But should blaxploitation be brought back?

There’s been a number of “attempts” to revive the genre in recent years, usually ironically, from bombs like Undercover Brother to the ill-conceived Chris Rock vehicle Pootie Tang. But why? I understand those ‘70s films are ripe for comedy, but those were also called blaxploitation for a reason: they created and popularized racist stereotypes of black people, negative stereotypes which are still around today.

This really isn’t something that should be revived. It’s something that should be buried. But this brings me to another query: Did blaxploitation even ever leave?

I attended Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon as he performed at the Pyramid Cabaret last week. I quite enjoy his music, and loved the show itself. But I question the stereotypes popularized by such artists.

I mean, it’s not that different from the gun-toting, pimping, well-endowed caricatures of the ‘70s. They rap about ‘bitches’ and ‘hos’, their massive egos and how they “ain’t nothin’ to fuck with” etc., etc. So while most historians consider the blaxploitation of the ‘70s to be a bad thing, it seems there are also many black artists today who still not only embrace it, but continue to popularize it—like Raekwon, who, in front of a crowd of *mostly* white kids, asked a question like, “You niggas smoking the good marijuana?” (I believe the answer was “yes.”)

But it’s not just him. I mean, the hip-hop crew who opened for him (“National Syndicate,” from Vancouver, B.C.) were far worse. A key example of this was the double-sided t-shirts they were selling which said in big bold letters “FUCK A BITCH” on one side and “GET MONEY” on the other. I couldn’t tell whether I was offended more by their blatant sexism or their lack of rhyming skills. (I think I’ll go with the latter.)

But does this embracing of negative stereotypes make these artists racist? Or is it simply that their self-expression is promoting stereotypes that they themselves are not aware of?

Who knows. At the end of the day, these artists need to realize that while they may feel that they are simply expressing their real issues (such as getting laid, stealing other peoples girls, being pimps, etc.), their audience, which is mostly white teenagers, are another generation who are growing up with pre-conceived negative notions of black culture.

And that’s no joke.

Injecting the LIST with character

J. P. Perron — 2010-02-15T22:24:12+00:00

When applying for the position of Listings Co-ordinator at The Uniter I had grand plans to make it the best, most informative events list in Winnipeg. First off, I decided to list all music events by the day of the week, rather than by venue, genre or highlights, as some other papers do.

So far I’m not sure if anyone else looks to The Uniter for what’s up, but I look back on my own section for a reminder of which events to attend. When I read over the list, I find it lacks character, just such-and-such a band playing at this-or-that venue.

So I’m gonna make a list below of connecting verbs to add sporadically throughout, so in the future, I don’t have to think too much. Please, please make some more suggestions that I can pilfer without giving due credit.

Here goes…

Such-and-such a band/DJ/Performer:

Takes the stage, Whoops it up, Makes you sweat, Rrrocks the party, Heats things up, Have a hootenanny, Fill your ears, Spin tracks, Bring goodness to, assault your aural receptors, Appear, Hold a shin-dig, Is shaking it, Explode onto the stage, Jam the club, Make beautiful music, Freak out, Sing ditties, Start a riot, On the ones and twos (DJ’s only), Play a live concert, Wow the crowd, Share the love, Entertain, Pack themselves onto the stage, Fly through a set of tunes, Get you shimmy-shaking, Pack the room, Invite you to, Rock and or roll, Change the world with music (only slightly), Show you who’s boss, etc. etc.

at this-or-that venue.

Yeah, you get the idea. Let’s hear your suggestions—the sillier, the better.

...And it’s official

Courtney Schwegel — 2010-02-14T05:58:10+00:00

February 6 was the official announcement of the new Disability Studies degree program that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

The event, held in the University of Winnipeg’s convocation hall, attracted several important members of the disability community in Manitoba. Spearheading the announcement was Professor Michelle Owen, chair of the Disability Studies advisory committee. Other committee members were in attendance, such as Andrea Johnston of Disability Services and Jim Derksen, a prominent disability activist.

Derksen spoke about the increasing awareness of disability issues in Manitoba and said he thought the new program will be successful in making the province an even more disability-friendly place, in terms of both awareness and accessibility.

Dean Fitzpatrick, Lloyd Axworthy and president and CEO of Red River College, Catherine Rushton, all made brief speeches expressing their excitement about the program. They all spoke of their hope that the program will help increase the number of students with disabilities at the U of W.

Dean Fitzpatrick mentioned persons with disabilities are largely underrepresented at the U of W considering 15.5 per cent of Canada’s population lives with a disability.

Axworthy also took the time to announce the planned move of the disability resource centre.

All in all, I think it is great that the U of W is really striving to not only expand the types of degrees offered, but to make a conscious effort to improve the student experience for those with disabilities and increase their presence on campus.

However, there may be some things that I am unaware of that the U of W could improve upon when it comes to disability issues.

What do others think? Is the U of W doing their part for the disability community or are there still things that could be improved?

Winnipeg Transit tries convenience on for size

Andrew McMonagle — 2010-02-12T22:23:20+00:00

Winnipeg Transit just introduced the new Bustxt program, adding one more reason to the list of why you should have a cell phone.

Transit has slowly been improving, but it’s still behind the more advanced systems like in Western Europe where you can pay for your bus fare by phone.

Winnipeg Transit continues to roll out the digital displays at stops, but it will be a while before they’re done. This texting schedule will help alleviate the wait. The stops nearest my home are set up so the digital displays are on the corners where I get off the bus, but not where I get on. I find this a bit frustrating because I want to play with the new toys!

Bustxt is a great supplement to these digital displays, and much superior to the mud-caked and vandalized schedules they’ve been using for years.

The Free Press tested the system and found it only took 15 seconds for a response saying when the next bus was to come.

I love that. One of the great stresses in my life is getting to work - an hour bus ride with one or two transfers - and this should help me relax.

I hate wondering if I just missed a bus because it decided to come early. I have a small panic whenever I round the corner to the stop, expecting to see the my bus just pulling away. Especially since one of the transfers on my way to work is a bus that only comes every 45 minutes. If one of my connections is late, I’m screwed.

Well, no more wondering! Thank you Transit, and thank you cell phones.

Axworthy Cisco interview

Samuel Swanson — 2010-02-11T19:15:18+00:00

This week’s Uniter includes an article regarding the new Cisco Systems technology that was recently approved and will become part of university operations next school year.

The article includes quotes from University of Winnipeg (U of W) president Dr. Lloyd Axworthy and Dan Hurley, senior executive officer and adviser to the president.

Both Axworthy and Hurley provided more information than could fit into the assigned limit of 500-words, so I have uploaded the entire interview to release additional information and provide full context to the quotes in the article.

Axworthy Cisco interview - Part 1
Axworthy Cisco interview - Part 2