Andraé Lerone Lewis

The nuances of cannabis legalization

The SQDC on Crescent Street is one of 100 locations in Quebec. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Marco Deveaux,
Local Journalism Initiative

Stigma around cannabis continues to plague its full-fledged legalization

A five-leaflet plant known by many names, with a deep history mired in controversy, has been shaping cultures and societies far beyond its recent century of prohibition. 

A five-leaflet plant known by many names, with a deep history mired in controversy, has been shaping cultures and societies far beyond its recent century of prohibition. 

On Oct. 17, 2018, Canadians awoke to a new era as cannabis was legalized, making its return to the public sphere after being banned in 1923. Since then, the stigma surrounding cannabis has persisted, creating a positive face-value effect, but an underlying apprehension.

Cannabis has a rich history, with studies indicating its use in Central Asia dating back 11,700 years. Although recreational use primarily relies on the compound THC for its cerebral high, hemp served practical purposes such as making ropes and nets. 

Additionally, cannabis, specifically that with low THC content, was used among Indigenous and First Nations people for thousands of years. Earliest evidence suggests hemp was used by the Mound Builders of the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley. 

In India, myths described cannabis as a divine ingredient. Known as ‘Vijaya,’ cannabis was recognized for its ayurvedic medicinal benefits, alleviating pain, nausea, anxiety, hunger and sleep issues for thousands of years. 

Yet in the 1900s, cannabis became a subject of growing controversy. Its use became increasingly stigmatized due to racist attitudes and legislation, despite its cultural and medicinal background.

The racial and political climate surrounding cannabis deteriorated under Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who launched a campaign against the substance. By using the term “marijuana” to link it with Mexican immigrants and associating it with jazz music—an art form largely associated with Black artists—Anslinger fuelled racial biases and unfounded claims about its criminal influence. 

Lailaah Wilson, a 23-year-old Montrealer of Caribbean descent, touched on the association that cannabis has had with the Black community.

“Weed has been smoked by everyone for God knows how long,” Wilson said. “I just think a lot of times, it was just a way for white cops to unfortunately criminalize and lock up a lot of Black youth.”

This association became a stereotype, one that is rooted in efforts to single out Black and Latin Americans. With that effort, Ansligner created the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which imposed strict regulations on cannabis and hefty fines. Cannabis subsequently became a Schedule I drug in the United States in 1970 under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning cannabis was classified as a drug which had no acceptable medical use and was defined as having a high potential for abuse. 

“Criminalization, it really puts a negative connotation towards weed in general and to the Black community in general,” Wilson said. “It really put a lot of people in jail for more than decades for crimes, with reasons that are not warranted.” 

Growing up in a Trinidadian family, Wilson was used to seeing weed around, much like how alcohol is a normal staple in other households. 
Despite legalization, Wilson said the stigma surrounding weed hasn’t disappeared. 

Similar to the U.S., Canada’s federal government has not always had a favourable position with cannabis either.

Former Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King added cannabis to the Act to Prohibit the Improper Use of Opium and Other Drugs to criminalize the herb. The act never actually passed through parliament, but it still became law. At the time, few Canadians knew what cannabis was, and it wasn’t until 1932 that the first seizures of cannabis occurred. Possession charges weren’t made until 1937, 14 years after the substance had been criminalized.  

Since its return, weed has brought a new influx of money to the economy. According to a 2021 Deloitte study, Canada saw $11 billion in cannabis sales between 2018 and 2021. 

Christopher Mennillo, CEO of Prohibition, a Quebec-wide shop selling cannabis paraphernalia, emphasized the economic impact of legalization on his stores; it led to a noticeable uptick in sales. However, it also brought new legal challenges, particularly in Quebec. 

“A bunch of products had to go in the garbage,” Mennillo said. 

According to the Quebec Cannabis Regulation Act, sellers are prohibited from selling items with cannabis-related logos or slogans in the province. Before legalization, selling these products wasn’t an issue. 

Mennillo also noticed a negative shift in the public’s education regarding cannabis. 

“The education toward the public was a little bit better pre-legalization because the Cannabis Act didn’t exist and there was nothing particularly illegal about selling [products related to cannabis],” Mennillo said. “For example, a book on cannabis or how to consume cannabis or how to grow cannabis. All of that was fine, but now post-legalization in Quebec, all of those things […] are illegal.” 

Mennillo doesn’t think that the same standard is applied for different stores. A pharmacy or book store selling a product with hemp oil, or a book about growing cannabis, that has a logo related to weed, won’t be inspected. 

“Theoretically, their mandate is to kind of dissuade you from consuming cannabis,” Mennillo said. “So if you walk into an SQDC and they see you showing any hesitation towards buying cannabis, that’s a prompt for them to try to convince you to leave the store.”

“It’s just a completely different philosophy here in Quebec, and one of the things that goes with it is our inability to grow our plants,” Mennillo said. “Federally, the government permits up to four plants per person. The idea being that, ‘Hey, if it’s legal, you don’t have to buy it.’ You might not have the means to buy it. You can just grow it yourself right on your balcony, in your backyard, whatever. And in Quebec, we don’t have that.”

Mennillo sees this stigma in Quebec as being a roll-on effect from the racialization of cannabis. 

There are currently eight other countries that have legalized recreational cannabis use, including Germany, Mexico and South Africa. It is also legal for recreational use in certain U.S. states, such as Colorado and California. 

Despite legalization, Wilson said she still feels self-conscious about smoking weed in certain public spaces because people often give judgmental looks, reflecting the lingering stigmatized attitude towards cannabis use. 

Wilson recalled a time at work when she lit a joint during a meeting, where alcohol and cigarettes were common. She was quickly criticized.

“They were like, ‘Lailaah, you’re smoking weed in a meeting,’” Wilson said. “It wasn’t like I was interrupting the start of the flow of the meeting.”

Wilson was then brought to a meeting with higher-ups where she was reprimanded. She recalled the story as being a testimonial moment, reminding her that cannabis is still not accepted.

Outside an SQDC in Anjou, The Link spoke with cannabis consumers about how legalization changed their lives.

Some consumers told The Link outright that legalization had no effect on their smoking routine. However, car builder Antonio Vittoria expressed a different perspective on legalization. 

“[Weed legalization] didn’t change anything, but it kept me safe,” Vittoria said. “I didn’t have to worry about getting arrested or hiding it—which was my main concern.” 

Many can feel safer consuming cannabis. According to Statistics Canada, about 29.4 per cent of cannabis users obtain their cannabis from a legal source which is nearly three times higher than before legalization.

Canada’s Department of Justice website highlights this advantage of cannabis legalization with an 85 per cent decrease in the criminalization rate since before the legalization of cannabis.

“You can’t just wash away stigma that’s been breathing in people’s subconscious for 100 years,” Mennillo said. “This will take a very, very long time to go away.” 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 4, published October 22, 2024.

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City of Montreal announces expansion of EMMIS squad amidst criticism

The city’s announced EMMIS expansion will cover all 19 boroughs of Montreal. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Houda Kerkadi,
Local Journalism Initiative

EMMIS threatens the trust between social workers and the unhoused population

Projet Montréal, the municipal political party led by Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, announced the expansion of the Équipe mobile de médiation et d’intervention sociale (EMMIS) initiative last month, covering all 19 Montreal boroughs. 

This decision came amidst criticism from urban experts and the unhoused community, who believe the initiative threatens trust between street workers and the unhoused.

Expansion of EMMIS

EMMIS is operated by the Société de développement social, an organization that promotes the involvement of the private companies in responding to the houselessness crisis. In 2021, the City of Montreal introduced the EMMIS project as a solution to cohabitation issues arising due to the housing crisis. 

“There’s [been] more violence, [EMMIS] is really a way to prevent things from escalating,” Notre-Dame-de-Grâce City Councillor Despina Sourias said. 

Citizens, businesses and residents can call on EMMIS to de-escalate and provide support with cohabitation issues that may arise between unhoused and housed individuals. The EMMIS team has social workers and police working in tandem in response to these calls. According to Sourias, EMMIS aims to deploy approximately 90 intervention workers across the city by 2025 to work in partnerships with existing local organizations.

With the expansion, teams would be able to offer services such as car rides to shelters and referrals to community resources, as well as provide support tailored to the unique realities of each borough. 

The expansion is set to cost $50 million, with funds coming in from both the city and the Ministry of Public Security, which Sourias said supports the SPVM investing in local initiatives. 

Criticism of the squad 

Ted Rutland, an urban politics and policing expert, said that the EMMIS team destroyed the bond community members had with social workers. 

In 2023, he published a report alongside the Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM), in which 38 street outreach workers who work with unhoused people were interviewed about EMMIS. The report found that EMMIS impaired the workers’ ability to gain the trust of the unhoused population and form long-term relationships. 

Rutland said that the starting point of EMMIS’s intervention comes from a complaint regarding an unhoused person, with the resolution often being removing that person with or against their will.

“They’re not working for unhoused people,” Rutland said.

According to the city’s website, EMMIS does not offer any follow-up interventions to unhoused individuals. 

Rutland said that EMMIS workers do not seek to build relationships with the unhoused to help them in their goals—neither the short term nor long term—but instead seek to respond to complaints from residents or businesses. He argued that Projet Montréal’s investment in projects such as EMMIS help create a sanitized view of downtown Montreal.  

“It’s fundamentally a middle-class and largely white vision of what it means to live in a city,” Rutland said. “They want the police to ensure that anyone who wants to enjoy a pedestrianized view, or a cute cafe, or move into a neighbourhood and renovate a complex or tower downtown, never have to feel uncomfortable.” 

Investing in long-term solutions 

John Wright has been unhoused for the last two years, ever since he said he lost his wallet and keys. Today, he sleeps in a makeshift shelter outside of the Open Door, a drop-in service centre for low-income and unhoused people in downtown Montreal. Wright said that the centre does not always have room for him. 

Wright believes that only social workers should be working with unhoused folks. 

“I’m not scared of the cops, but [for] someone that’s a crackhead or on panic [and is] scared, it’s wrong. The social worker that’s on-site should make the call for the cops if they need help,” Wright said. ”If not, you’re doing [it] wrong. These people are on drugs, they don’t want the cops, they’re scared shitless of the cops. I think calling the cops is just wrong, get them out of our life.”

Wright said there are two social workers who support him regularly, but he still believes that the city should be investing in long-term solutions if they want to support the unhoused population at large. 

“Build more [and] more homes, more social housing, it’s not enough man, it’s not enough,” Wright said. 

For the city, dealing with the root causes of houselessness is not only a municipal problem. 

Sourias said that, as the provincial government controls housing and health services, the municipal government is limited in what it can do in this domain. She added that all levels of government need to invest and care about houselessness. 

“To work on all these issues, the city does not have all the means to do it. We don’t have all the competencies either,” Sourias said. “[The provincial government] has the funds and the competencies to act globally on it. What we work on is what we call cohabitation.”

Sourias emphasized that investing in EMMIS is essential because it prevents escalation, but Rutland argued that EMMIS does not truly prevent escalation since they do not answer 911 calls directly but instead are referred to by police. 

“We haven’t solved the problem of the police ending up in these situations where they’re not trained to respond, where there’s a high risk of violence,” Rutland said.  

Rutland argues that the decision to expand EMMIS instead of offering funding to community organizations is a reflection of the city’s ultimate goal of simply removing the unhoused off the street; an extension on the “Not In My Backyard” mentality. He said that EMMIS ultimately can remove somebody from a public space, even if they do not want to move. 

“You can make a source of discomfort disappear if a person disappears for a while,” Rutland said, “but if you don’t address the fundamental needs, the problem doesn’t go away.”
 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 4, published October 22, 2024.

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Montreal community takes to the street to defend trans rights

Demonstrators gathered at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 to counter the “1 Million March 4 Children” protest. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Francis Turcotte,
Local Journalism Initiative

Anti-trans protests across the country are being met with resistance

Demonstrators gathered at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 to counter the “1 Million March 4 Children” (1MM4C) protest, a nationwide anti-trans rights protest taking place on the same date as last year.

The anti-trans protest was organized by far-right groups like Hands Off Our Kids, who are campaigning to ban sexual orientation and gender identity curricula in public schools across the country.

Trans-rights activists gathered at Place Vauquelin whilst the anti-trans group formed across rue Notre-Dame E. at Place Jacques-Cartier.

The 1MM4C started marching and the counter-protest attempted to follow, but after being blocked by police, they went through Champs de Mars towards rue St. Antoine. 

The counter-protest was met by riot police, preventing protesters from moving west toward St. Laurent blvd. The counter-protest moved back up towards rue Notre-Dame and towards the Palais de Justice, where they caught up with the 1MM4C group again. Tear gas was fired toward counter-protesters twice at around 11 a.m., then the police pushed toward the group without warning.

A spokesperson for the SPVM told The Link that she could not comment on the use of violence at the protest as the SPVM does not comment on police intervention. 
 

Protesters and counter-protesters gathered across the street from each other on rue Notre-Dame E. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Montreal-based trans rights activist Celeste Trianon, who has been organizing pro-trans marches and protests across the country, said these recent anti-trans movements could lead to major consequences for the community. 

According to Trianon, the main potential consequence would be that these groups would manage to occupy a much more public space, which would allow anti-trans rhetoric to spread further and seep its way into the Canadian mainstream through media, politics, or other avenues.

“We’re seeing how [anti-queer groups have] led to public opinion of LGBTQIA2S+ existence in Canada going down, which used to never be the case,” said Trianon.

Zev Saltiel, a trans parent and activist, said police brutality has escalated recently. “In the past, when we had these protests, police have intervened, but they never deployed tear gas on us,” Saltiel said.

“I was monitoring about six different counter-protests last year, and people all across the country were talking about it,” said Trianon on the 1MM4C protests last year. “We had Prime Minister Trudeau weighing in for the counter-protest and saying that transphobia has no place in Canada.”

Saltiel believes that most people influenced by the nationwide transphobic group are not educated on trans issues and lack an understanding of what it really means to be trans.

“Have [transphobic protesters ever] had a conversation with a trans person? They probably have–they just don’t know that they have,” said Saltiel. “People are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
 

Counter-protesters held up signs with slogans such as “Protect Trans Kids” and “Trans Resistance 4ever.” Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

According to Saltiel, anti-trans protesters used children as a tool to persuade others to join their cause, by chanting taglines such as, “Protect the children”, and bringing their young children with them to the protest

“It’s an easier target,” Saltiel said. “People don’t really understand that children don’t have access to gender-affirming care, […] but people are convinced, for some reason, that the kids go to school and get surgery.” 

Still, Trianon said she thinks there has been an increase in groups looking to protect queer and trans folks. 

“People have actually formed more and more groups in order to help defend trans people in these times of heightened violence against them,” she said.

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Hundreds gather for trans day of vengeance

Around 700 people gathered on March 31. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Andraé Lerone Lewis,
Local Journalism Initiative

Montreal’s queer community united against Quebec’s transphobia

On March 31, around 700 demonstrators marched from 600 Fullum St. through downtown Montreal, donned in transgender and non-binary colours.

The protest was organized by the group Nous ne serons pas sages, and dubbed the “trans day of vengeance.” The group’s name is a play on words on the Coalition Avenir Québec’s (CAQ) “comité des sages,” or wise men committee. 

In light of trans visibility day, various transgender, queer, and allied people demanded the axing of the committee, meant to advise the provincial government on gender-related topics. 

Protesters denounced the CAQ wise-men committee and asked for its dissolution. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Protesters denounced that the committee does not include a gender-diverse person, and that subsequently, the decisions carried out aren’t representative of the genderqueer community in Montreal. 

One speaker cried out, “In creating this committee, the CAQ enables the latest wave of transphobia that has been rising everywhere around the world.”

Transgender and genderqueer people and allies were united under the fight against province-wide transphobia. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

The protest made a stop next to the Radio-Canada offices, where attendees expressed their frustration against the “Trans Express” documentary that aired on Feb. 29. The video has received nationwide backlash for its transphobic messages, such as calling young trans men who seek out gender-affirming care “little girls who often struggle with mental illness.”

Demonstrators held signs reading “Transphobia kills,” and “No discussion on trans people without trans people” while chanting “Everyone hates transphobes.” 

TERFs, trans-exclusionary radical feminists, oppose trans inclusivity. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

This article originally appeared in Volume 44, Issue 13, published April 2, 2024.

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The cedar and olive tree are forever interlinked

Lebanese and Palestinian protesters unite at a protest to denounce Israel’s attacks on both countries. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Yasmine Chouman,
Local Journalism Initiative

In January 2024, Salima Telal, 48, was sitting on her couch with her shisha in hand. The TV was playing while her dog ran around the house. One of her sons was cooking in the kitchen, while the other sat across, listening as she spoke about their 2006 trip to Lebanon. 

“We went all the way to Syria, afraid [our car] would get bombed,” Telal said, “with my 8-month-old with 40-degree fever on one side and my 5-year-old on the other.”

The day was July 12, 2006, when Israeli forces invaded Lebanon with air strikes after Hezbollah succeeded at a cross-border raid during an ongoing conflict over land. This resulted in what is called the Second Lebanon War. 

Telal and her family drove from Lebanon towards the Syrian border, avoiding impact holes left in the ground by airstrikes. Cars were being bombed left and right. Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport had been bombed. Civilians had few chances to escape. 

Telal was one of the few who managed to flee the war in its early stages, returning to Montreal. 

“Everybody was scared. It was hell and back,” she said, exhaling the smoke from her shisha.

Telal lived in Beirut, Lebanon for most of her life. She grew up there before coming to Montreal around 25 years ago where she raised her kids. During her visit to Lebanon in 2006, she recalled buildings being destroyed, civilians being bombed and people trying to flee. Water and electricity were restricted and there was no cell service. 

“They emptied the city so they could take it over,” Telal said, “like they’ve been [trying to do] to Palestine for years.”

The conflict ended with a ceasefire that was brokered by the United Nations, which came into effect on Aug. 14, 2006, after a month of bombings. 
Since 1948, after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out of their homeland, they have continued fighting for their lives in response to Israel occupying their land and turning cities like Gaza into open-air prisons. As for Lebanon, it has had a strained relationship with Israel since 1982, when it invaded southern Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, and with the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

This is why many people in the Lebanese community in Montreal have stood in solidarity with Palestine and continue to do so. This was the case when The Link spoke with Telal in January, and has become especially true now. 

On Sept. 23, Israel fired airstrikes across Lebanon. At the time of publication, Israel has killed over 1,000 and wounded at least 6,000 Lebanese people in the attacks, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. These are the heaviest tolls since 2006.

In response, Hezbollah fired missiles targeting Israeli military air bases. 

From the south of Beqaa to Beirut, hundreds of thousands of residents have been forced to flee, leaving behind their beloved homes, with seemingly nowhere to go. At least 58 towns have been hit with over 1,300 Israeli airstrikes. Before the escalation, Israel had detonated pagers used by Hezbollah, killing 37 and injuring about 3,000 people.

In an interview with CBS, former CIA Director Leon Panetta called the targeted pager attacks on Lebanon a “form of terrorism.”

Reina Sinno, a Lebanese LaSalle College student, said the media does everything in its power to dehumanize Arabs.

“Western media is good at manipulating,” Sinno said. The 20-year-old student sat on the school floor during her break between classes to talk about how she thinks the media views Arabs. Sinno was born in Montreal but lived in Lebanon for the first few years of her life until her family moved back to Quebec.

She keeps in contact with her father, who lives in Lebanon. Over the past 11 months, border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel have been happening almost daily, with little to no coverage in the media, Sinno said. Her father said he received daily alerts on his phone about incoming missile strikes.

Sinno said the media only portrays Israel bombing Lebanon as a two-time occurrence, referring to the civil war and the 2006 war, when in reality, it has been happening on and off for the last 37 years

“They’re portraying it in a lie,” Sinno said.

On Jan. 3, Israeli forces attacked the Lebanese capital with drone strikes, killing seven people, including Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri. While this made some noise in the media for a few days, Israel has not officially accepted responsibility for the attack. Israel has been known to censor information in the media regarding their actions.

Jean Balka, 61, was not surprised at the avoidance of accountability. In a phone interview, he alleged, “Habibti, the media is controlled by Israel. How could you put stuff out against yourself?” 

Balka is a former fighter in the Lebanese Civil War and fought for the Christian side. They were called the Lebanese Front and consisted of national Maronites who were against Palestinian militancy in Lebanon. Despite disagreeing with the politics, Balka was forced to fight for the Lebanese Front rather than the Lebanese National Movement.

After the war, he went to New York and has been living both there and in Montreal since.

He spoke on his recent experience of being an Arab man in the Western World after the current war broke out. Sometime in early January, Balka was on his way to New York, a drive he has routinely done for the last 33 years, when he was stopped at the border. 

“I’m going to ask you some questions,” the man in the uniform said. “Are you Muslim or Christian?”

He had never been asked this question before.

“Since 9/11, us Arabs are viewed as terrorists and murderers,” Rayane Sakr said as she sipped her coffee at the local Second Cup Cafe in the cold December weather.  

Sakr is the child of Lebanese immigrant parents and has felt the struggle of being an Arab-Muslim woman in today’s society. Over the sound of coffee beans getting ground, the 19-year-old said, “We aren’t viewed as humans.” 

“They have lives, they go to school, they have hopes, they do birthday parties, they get married, they do their makeup, they dance,” she added, her voice trembling. “They are human!”

In January, there were over 250,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanese refugee camps. Now, with many camps being destroyed, the stateless refugees have the possibility of living in poverty and facing harsh legal discrimination in Lebanon. 

Despite the daily fear, many individuals in the Lebanese community are confident in their nation’s ability to defend itself if the occasion arises. 

“Our people, being depressed and struggling for so many years, are ready to die for the cause of Palestine,” Balka said.

The Arab community in Montreal has mobilized for Palestine with protests drawing hundreds to thousands, raising awareness of the situation.

“At the protests, you see so many Lebanese flags because we know we can expect it too,” Sinno said.

Balka believes going to protests in support of the Arab community won’t make a difference. 

“Free Palestine! Free Palestine!” Balka shouted, “Free Palestine, but no one listens!”

“The more awareness you spread, the more people will try to help and put pressure on foreign governments to go for a ceasefire,” Telal said. 

However, spreading awareness both online or in person brings hope to those worried about their communities. Telal said the media is finally giving a voice to the Palestinian people and the Arab community.

“You don’t have to carry a gun to be a fighter for a cause,” Telal said. “A fighter can be a musician, a writer, a politician, a protester, a donator. Could be anything.”

For privacy and security reasons, the name ‘Salima Telal’ is a pseudonym.

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One year since Oct. 7

Protesters marched through downtown Montreal for the Palestinian liberation cause on Feb. 18, 2024. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Hannah Scott-Talib,
Local Journalism Initiative

Reflecting on the heights of activism this past year and the future of the movement

It will soon be one year since Oct. 7.

Exactly 357 days ago, the Palestinian militant group Hamas fired rockets into and re-entered the occupied territory known as Israel, killing over a thousand Israeli civilians, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s retaliation of the event continues, with the displacement of over 2 million Palestinians and 42,000 confirmed Palestinian civilian murders to date, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

Reflecting on the past year, advocates for Palestine in Montreal talk about how the Palestinian liberation movement has progressed and discuss where it is now. 

Peaks of activism

Last year, the first peak in mobilization came immediately after Israel’s escalated attacks on Gaza. 

“In the heat of the moment, everyone just wanted to do something for Palestine. They didn’t care what we were doing [or] how we did it, as long as we did something,” said Hassan Ridha, a member of Concordia University’s Thaqalayn Muslim Students’ Association and an active advocate for Palestine. 

“We hadn’t mobilized this quickly and this efficiently until an attack happened, until we saw the death numbers rise significantly within a matter of days,” Ridha said. “So this is when we reacted.” 

Ridha added that, over the past year, another key point in the liberation movement was the establishment of the encampment at McGill University.

“When students came together to say ‘No, we’re not going to get used to what is happening in Gaza, until the university meets [our] demands we’re not just going to sit idly,’” he said, “I think this revived the spirit of many people who weren’t as involved anymore with the movement.”

Ridha isn’t the only one that feels like the encampment was a key step towards liberation. 

“The encampment set a precedent,” said a member of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance Concordia (SPHR ConU), who has been granted anonymity for safety reasons. They said that the encampment saw a huge surge in student mobilization in particular, and that it set a precedent for what was considered fair protest in Montreal through McGill’s two rejected injunctions to dismantle the encampment.

According to Ridha, throughout the year, collective activism for the Palestinian cause was the most prominent directly following Israel’s heaviest attacks. He said there was a surge in activism most recently following Israel’s air strikes on Lebanon that began on Sept. 23.

“People came back together after they saw the heavy bombardment of Beirut,” Ridha said, “which at least shows consistency, that we are able to come back together [and mobilize].”

The future of the Palestinian cause 

“Over the last year, I think we’ve seen action from the masses at, what I would say, is an unprecedented and an inspiring level,” said Haya, a member of The Palestinian Youth Movement’s (PYM) Montreal chapter, whose last name has been kept anonymous for safety reasons. “People have responded to the fact that the genocide has been going on for a year and continue to respond to it.”

Now, Haya added, PYM is looking to shift to more long-term forms of activism. She said that PYM recently launched a new campaign entitled “Mask Off Maersk.” which aims to target one of the largest shipping companies in the world, the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. 

“[Maersk] acts as a middleman for arms and weapons shipments to Israel,” Haya said. According to her, by interrupting the logistics of shipping, this campaign will attack weapons and arms manufacturers “across the board.”

Meanwhile, the SPHR ConU member said they feel that—through heightened awareness for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement—successfully pressuring Concordia, McGill and other large Montreal institutions to divest from Israel is a realistic goal for 2025. 

“We’re closer to divestment than ever,” they said. “[The] BDS movement has grown so much it’s become a [central] topic in the city.”

They added that, in relation to the BDS movement, the next step after divestment would be an academic boycott of institutions such as Concordia. 

“Everyone has the freedom to learn whatever they want, but if it’s at the cost of the occupation of a people, or if it’s at the cost of killing people, then I don’t think that’s academic freedom,” they said. 

Still, activists like Ridha believe that certain important accomplishments have already been made since Oct. 7, 2023.

“The biggest achievement, for me, is awareness—it’s something you can’t lose,” Ridha said. “Over time, people might lose interest in participating in protests or in doing active work for Palestine, but no one is going to go home and forget about the companies to boycott.”

He added that new activists for the Palestinian cause have learned so much more about the movement as a whole over the past year, from the meaning of the keffiyeh to the history of Palestinian resistance

“This, I think, is the best thing we have achieved since Oct. 7,” Ridha said. “It’s the gaining of knowledge that gives us a foundation for the next time.” 

With files from Menna Nayel

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 3, published October 1, 2024.

One year since Oct. 7 Read More »

Armenian student union sends appeal to Concordia President

Images hung on the door of the Concordia Armenian Students’ Union’s office. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Julia Cieri,
Local Journalism Initiative

The appeal concerns Concordia’s decision to send delegates to climate conference in Azerbaijan

On Sept. 15, the Concordia Armenian Students’ Union (CASU) sent an appeal to Concordia University’s President and others, urging them to reconsider sending delegates to Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th session of the United Nations’ (UN) Conference of the Parties (COP29). 

The university sent out emails to students and faculty in select departments, offering them the opportunity to sign-up for the in-person or virtual delegation. 

Azerbaijan has been accused of ethnic-cleansing by Armenia. The country filed a case with the International Court of Justice in 2021, contending that Azerbaijan has been subjecting Armenians in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory to “systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture and other abuse.” 

In 2023, multiple international organizations have expressed alarm regarding the humanitarian situation in Azerbaijan following the country’s blockade of the Lachin corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, stopping all humanitarian goods transport. 

CASU’s vice-president internal, Matthew Doramajian, believes the country is hosting COP29 as a method of greenwashing. “The hope for Azerbaijan is that, by hosting this kind of prestigious event, they can get people to look at their cause with more sympathy and have a better opinion [of] Azerbaijan,” said Doramajian.

The UN has opted to hold the climate conference in Azerbaijan due to the country’s claimed commitment to “developing its renewable energy potential.” According to the International Trade Administration, oil and gas production is the anchor of Azerbaijan economy, with the fossil fuels accounting for around 47.8 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2022.   

CASU is not alone in their concerns. Armenian activists and Concordia alumni, Yon Nersessian, in partnership with his sister, Maria Nersessian, created a petition to protest the university’s decision to send delegates to COP29. “This is unacceptable and the fact that university is supposed to represent a lot of Armenian students […] it’s insulting,” said Yon Nersessian.

Maria Nersessian hopes the petition makes Concordia reevaluate their stance. “We want them to withdraw their participation and be aware of what it means to be participating in such an event,” she said. 

Doramajian feels similarly, as someone who considers Concordia students and faculty to be part of his community. “We feel that it is our responsibility to educate them where it is necessary for their own safety and for righteousness,” Doramajian said.

Concordia University spokesperson, Vannina Maestracci, said that one or two students and faculty members at the university attend COP each year. 

“We believe we are fortunate to have observer status with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which allows faculty and students to attend the primary global forum that addresses climate change,” Maestracci said.

Maestracci added that Concordia is not responsible for choosing the country hosting the climate conference. “Our association is with the [UNFCCC],” said Maestracci. “The UNFCCC chooses the host-country for their annual COP meetings.” 

With files from Matthew Daldalian

A previous version of this article stated that Matthew Doramajian was CASU’s vice-president external. Matthew Doramajian is CASU’s vice-president internal. The Link regrets this error. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 2, published September 17, 2024.

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Fighting back against transphobic movements in Montreal

Hundreds marched for trans rights in Montreal last September. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Hannah Scott-Talib,
Local Journalism Initiative

Here’s what to know about the wave of anti-trans protests happening this month.

A nationwide set of annual anti-trans rights protests are set to take place on Sept. 20. Here’s what to know about this oppressive movement, and what is being done in Montreal to counter it.

What is ‘1 Million March 4 Children’?

Under the name “1 Million March 4 Children,” the anti-trans rights protests taking place throughout various Canadian cities on Sept. 20 seek to silence trans voices and prevent children from learning content within the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum in Canadian schools. 

Those involved with the movement have expressed that they believe that the SOGI curriculum in Canadian schools is “adult-themed content” synonymous with sexual education classes, and is inappropriate for children to learn about. According to Montreal-based trans rights activist Celeste Trianon, this movement peaked in popularity at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside the Freedom Convoy movement. 

Over the years, these protests have been backed by far-right conspiracy theorists and anti-public education groups. One such group, known as “Hands Off Our Kids,” states in its mission that it “refuses to stand by while the government and school system allow sexually explicit content and gender ideology to be distributed in our classrooms,” and that it strives for a school system “free from biases and indoctrination.” 

“They’ve successfully fear-mongered a lot of concerned parents,” Trianon said about these far-right groups. According to her, several of these parents are not inherently transphobic but have been pressured into believing that the SOGI curriculum is harmful to their children. However, she added that the majority of those involved with the Million March 4 Children movement are people who have “absorbed anti-trans rhetoric” and now identify with it. 

How is the Montreal community fighting back? 

In retaliation for this year’s 1 Million March 4 Children protest in Montreal, queer and trans rights advocates like Trianon have been spreading the word about a counter-protest also taking place on Sept. 20. Faction Anti Génocidaire et Solidaire—a queer collective focused on “denouncing Fierté Montréal’s pinkwashing” as stated on their website—is organizing this Montreal counter-protest. 

Trianon said she is hopeful that the turnout for this year’s counter-protest will be better than last year’s. 

“Last year with the community, the response was unfortunately not sufficient,” she said. She added that most people in attendance didn’t know what to expect, and didn’t anticipate how many people would be part of the anti-trans movement. According to her, counter-protesters were significantly outnumbered by the anti-trans rights protesters. This year, however, she believes there is more of a sense of clarity and mobilization. 

“Show up if you can,” Trianon said, “and I’m speaking especially to all the people who call themselves allies.”

Attending the counter-protest on Sept. 20 is not the only way to support the queer community at large.

“[That protest] is not the only option, and I want to make that very clear,” Trianon said. “There are other ways to support queer and trans communities.”

Trianon said that an important way to provide support is to spread awareness through the sharing of knowledge on resources for the queer community. She also encouraged people to check in on trans friends and family. 

“Ask them if they’re doing okay, which is very important right now. A lot of trans folks are not doing okay,” Trianon said. “Be there for them.”

“The anti-trans hate machine runs on billions of dollars,” she said. Contrarily, Trianon added that many resources and facilities for the queer community have little to no funding. 

“Go support a local organization and movement if you can,” she said. 

The Protect Trans Kids counter-protest will begin at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 at 275 Notre-Dame St. E. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 2, published September 17, 2024.

Fighting back against transphobic movements in Montreal Read More »

Divestment then. Divestment now. Why does it seem tougher?

The student-led divestment movement against Israel follows a similar framework to the one that helped liberate South Africa from Apartheid. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Hannah Vogan,
Local Journalism Initiative

A look at the historic student-led divestment campaign against Apartheid South Africa and the current against Israel

From 1949 to the early 1990s, South Africa was under the boot of a racist, oppressive, nationalist, segregationist regime.

It went by the name Apartheid, which in Afrikaans translates to ‘separateness.’ The minority of white South Africans dominated the region socially, economically and politically, impoverishing the Black population. Eighty-six per cent of South Africa’s land was apportioned to white people, with the remaining 14 per cent to the Black population per the Native Trust and Land Act enacted in 1936. Sexual relations between different races were illegal. Black people could not vote or form political parties. They had limited access to education and were excluded by law from holding skilled jobs, as they were reserved for whites. The Apartheid government also enforced a mandatory birth control plan for the Black population to suppress their growth.

In the 1960s, activists began denouncing the racist regime by calling for divestment from South Africa. The movement grew to immense popularity in the late 1970s. Student campaigns popped up around the globe demanding their educational institutions to economically isolate from Apartheid South Africa. Upwards of 200 universities and colleges in the United States took part in the grassroots movement against Apartheid, which notably stemmed from Columbia University, Yale, Berkeley and Stanford. Canadian students dually partook in the movement with campaigns from the University of British Columbia, York, Queen’s, Dalhousie, University of Toronto, McGill and Concordia. 

On Nov. 19, 1985, following years of pressure from anti-Apartheid student activists, McGill became the first Canadian university to divest wholly from South Africa, with York and Dalhousie following soon after. According to The Link‘s archives, McGill’s Board of Governors (BoG) voted 9-4 to divest $45 million CAD from companies doing business in South Africa.

A number of McGill’s student activists’ success in pressuring the university to comply with their demands can be attributed to the university’s South Africa Committee (SAC). Barbara Jenkins, was a political science student at McGill, the chairman of SAC, an undergraduate representative on McGill’s BoG and a student union representative in 1980, a year after SAC’s inception. 

While she was chairman, her goal was to raise awareness about divestment. Jenkins was at every BoG meeting, consistently bringing up the problematic nature of the university’s ties to South Africa.

“It became such a big student movement on campus,” Jenkins told The Link. “It became the movement on campus.” 

She noted that following BoG meetings, the governors would regard her speeches as unimportant. The governors saw Jenkins as no more than ‘cute.’ She recalled an instance where the chair of the BoG at the time allegedly came up to her after she made a rousing speech for divestment, saying: “Oh, my sweet little girl, can I give you a kiss?” Nevertheless, SAC and students united for the cause never backed down.

She explained how the group’s popularity grew rapidly on campus as it organized protests, integrated into student government and continually raised questions at the Senate, while also handing out pamphlets, hosting events, talking to students, going to classes and delivering speeches.

To Jenkins, this persistence, coupled with years of advocacy, yielded success.

“Any successful grassroots movement takes time,” she said. “You have to be persistent and keep going, and building and building your influence until […] they can’t ignore you anymore.”

Jenkins also attributes McGill’s divestment to an overall shift in the political tide in 1985.

“It was starting to become more normal around the world to divest,” she said. 

An example of this shift was in the 1980s when the Canadian government encouraged Canadians to boycott Apartheid South Africa.

“I don’t even think I remember Concordia ever divesting formally from South Africa,” said Grant Spraggett, former Concordia student and organizer for Concordia University’s SAC, later renamed to Concordia Students Against Apartheid (CSAA).

Spraggett is correct. Concordia never divested formally from South Africa. Other associations within Concordia, however, did. 

CSAA was pushing for Concordia to divest its funds from the Bank of Montreal (BMO). At the time, the university had more than $54 million in outstanding loans to the South African government and its agencies, according to The Link’s archives.

In the same month McGill divested, Concordia’s BoG established a 10-member standing committee on social policy to consider divestment, including two members who head companies that bank with BMO.

In 1986, the Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA) withdrew all the money it had invested in BMO and transferred it to government securities instead, citing moral reasons warranting the decision to divest. 

That same year, Concordia University Students Association (CUSA), later renamed the Concordia Student Union (CSU), decided all Carling O’Keefe products would be boycotted and no longer sold by CUSA due to the brewery’s ties and “symbolic connections” to South Africa. 

Spraggett was on CSAA until he graduated in about 1985. He had found and shortly after joined CSAA while they were tabling.

“We used to set up tables everywhere,” Spraggett noted. CSAA would set up their tables outside the Hall building cafeteria and spark up conversations with other students, screen documentaries, hand out flyers and advertise events.

According to Spraggett, CSAA was primarily an educational group with the goal of mobilizing divestment locally.

“Divestment was a core issue, which is why the local was involved,” Spraggett emphasized.  “We are implicated, and we should know that we can do something about it.”

CSAA may not have had the same campus influence compared to McGill’s SAC, but they made due. 

“We showed movies because you didn’t see much about Apartheid on the news,” Adrian Archer told The Link. “The movies dealt with the personal lives of these people under this regime that controlled your life from cradle to grave.”

Like Spraggett, Archer chatted with students who stopped by the CSAA table to provide context about the reality of Apartheid.

“I would also explain to people on the tables what Apartheid was like,” said Archer, who educated himself extensively on the matter at the time. “I could give students the concrete information that they could identify with, and that was key to me.”

Spraggett, Archer and Jenkins all agree that the anti-Apartheid movement took time but was nonetheless successful, and was nowhere near as complicated and widely-debated as the current divestment movement against Israel.

“There was no other side to the anti-Apartheid movement, merely inertia and indifference,” Spraggett said.

“The support South Africa had was not equivalent to the support Israel has from, for example, the United States,” Archer said.

Pro-Palestinian activists and students in Montreal have long been calling on Concordia and McGill for an academic boycott and divestment from Israel. The pressure has only increased as Israeli attacks have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. The coalition of pro-Palestinian students leading the demand on university divestment, the Montreal Popular University of Gaza, is composed of and supported by organizations like Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill and Concordia, and Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal. This student movement follows a similar framework to the academic boycott of Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, which contributed to the liberation of Black South Africans. Students are demanding the university comply with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which works to “end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.

The CSU voted to divest from Scotiabank in March due to accusations of the bank investing in Elbit systems, which produce weapons for the Israeli Defense Force. However, in the past few years, it has made no by-laws or public statements about divestment or BDS. In the 1980s, the CSU voted in agreement that the university should divest from entities tied to and funding the Apartheid state of South Africa. The CSU has yet to respond to The Link’s request for comment after multiple attempts to clarify the union’s stance on divestment, particularly in alignment with the BDS movement.

Concordia has made its stance on BDS crystal clear.

“Concerning BDS specifically, [Concordia] stated clearly in 2014 that barring contact with other universities and scholars would be contrary to the value of academic freedom—a pillar of all universities,” Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci said.

Though the current academic boycott against Israel follows the same structure as the one in the 1980s, activists are having a harder time garnering support because it is a much more divisive matter.

Michael Bueckert, vice president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, compared the South African anti-Apartheid movement to the current BDS movement in his PhD dissertation. Bueckert said he believes that, even if the same tactics are being applied to a new case of oppression, pro-Palestiain activists are having a more challenging time building a case as the movement is being framed as an issue of antisemitism.

He explained how there was a fringe of people who believed the boycott of South Africa was racist to white South Africans, “yet very few people fell for that,” Bueckert said.

“Whereas, with the history of Jewish persecution and genocide, I think people are much more likely to see the sorts of claims as credible when you say that boycotting Israel is racist,” he said. 

Like Jenkins, Bueckert added how it takes time to thrust a movement into the agreeable mainstream with many social dynamics changing the way people think about a movement’s credibility.

“The anti-Apartheid movement in the South Africa case really spent decades organizing before they really got a lot of traction,” Bueckert said.

In 2016, Parliament voted to condemn Canadians who used divestment tactics against Israel in solidarity with Palestinians, signalling to activists Canada’s strong stance with Israel. However, Bueckert notes that with persistent movements, each small step taken toward liberation is an example of the changing tide, like Canada halting arms sales to Israel.

“[This] is something that, a year previously, we couldn’t have imagined,” Bueckert noted.

To Bueckert, it is not just students but all areas in civil society that need to demand change to spur the Canadian government into action. However, he believes students are essential to spearheading movements and building momentum that addresses complicity domestically.

“Power speaks its own language, and that language is often money. So long as there is money to go after, sites of resistance will be crushed,” Spraggett said. “But when money is held back from the powerful, that is one hope we might have.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

Divestment then. Divestment now. Why does it seem tougher? Read More »

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