Takamura described how there are currently 50,000 to 200,000 North Korean refugees believed to be taking refuge in China. “They are repressed [in North Korea] and repressed in other Asian countries that they have escaped to,” she said. “Advocacy is particularly important, but also we have to listen to the voices of refugees, for documenting those voices.”

HanVoice is also leading a project called North to North, which aims to provide private sponsorship opportunities for refugees from North Korea to settle in Canada. Kevin Seo, co-president of McGill Students for HanVoice, stated his belief that Canada will become a place for North Korean refugees to start a new chapter of their lives.

Alice Kim was born in 1995 in Pyongyang, North Korea, and the following year Kim’s family got the chance to escape North Korea when her father was promoted to a diplomatic position in China. North Korean diplomats who travel abroad must leave a family member in the country. Since she was a baby and was sick at that time, her family chose to take her with them, leaving Kim’s older sister behind, who was six years old. Kim did not know she was from North Korea until she was seven years old. Her peers at school in South Korea bullied her for her background. “My origin became a fact, I became Alice Kim the North Korean,” she recounted, “I didn’t understand why I was discriminated against. […] In South Korea, I am [considered] a North Korean with all the negative connotation attached to it.”

Kim also shared the economic struggles that her parents faced after moving to South Korea. They lived in poverty for years. She stated that many North Korean refugees were once elites, or government officials back in their country; however, these people ended up working in low paying jobs in South Korea. The government fund for North Koreans is not enough she said.

Closing her speech, she spoke to the split of South and North Korea. Kim stated, “the [border] shouldn’t be there in the first place.” She wished “to remind future policy-makers and young generations in this room, [their decisions] impact real people in real time. As my family story shows, this can leave devastating marks.” She continued, asking Canadians, especially young students, for their continued support. “Your determination is the driving force for change. With the right support, the right content, and with plenty of cooperation, maybe we can change the lives of North Korean refugees like me.”

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Slogans shouted in the demonstration include “Change the name today” and “Hey hey, ho ho, the R*dmen name has got to go”. The demonstration started with an Indigenous men’s drumming circle, which included McGill students. Students held a multitude of posters supporting the cause. Some said, “Not Your R*dmen,” and one proclaimed, “Intent Does Not Erase Impact.”

Tomas Jirousek, the leader of the #ChangetheName campaign, the SSMU Indigenous Affairs Commissioner, and an Indigenous varsity rower, led the demonstration. Jirousek welcomed everyone to the demonstration, then gave the stage to Nakuset, Executive Director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. “You don’t understand how hard it is to speak about our injustices because they are always ignored,” she said, “the struggles we go through are not what this university really wants to have as a team name, […] we are struggling and you are wearing our name like it’s some kind of badge and it doesn’t belong to you.”

Ella Martindale, co-chair of the Indigenous Students Alliance (ISA), from the Cowichan nation in British Columbia, described how the “R*dmen” name affects her life: “it connects to identity. Who am I? What am I doing here? Do I really belong here at McGill?”

The Black Students’ Network (BSN) of McGill spoke in solidarity with #ChangeTheName demonstration. Abdel Dicko, VP Political Coordinator of BSN, stated “we, the BSN, firmly believe that the ‘R*dmen’ name and the very significant weight it carries does not have its place at this university. Just like any other unambiguously derogatory racial slur, the ‘R*dmen’ name has been harmful and this needs to stop immediately.” Joshua Archibald, a varsity athlete on McGill’s football team, raised his voice on the issue, “First Nations are patronized by being referred as ‘R*dmen.’ By changing the name we will send an important message that they are welcomed, included, and valued. […] With my support and along with the support of many student athletes, I think it is time for a change.”

Jirousek invited everyone to sign the online petition on change.org and the open letter urging the university to change the name. As of November 1, the online petition has already reached 9,000 signatures. Jirousek also strongly encouraged every student to vote “Yes” on changing the name in the upcoming SSMU referendum, which will be held between November 9 and November 12. In his closing statements, Jirousek asserted that “the ‘R*dmen’ name is not the end, Indigenous students will not stop fighting […] until we see ourselves reflected in every level […] of the university. […] Truth before reconciliation and the truth is this name is hurtful and it is time for the ‘R*dmen’ name to change.”

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The Maldives held their presidential election on September 23. The incumbent President Abdulla Yameen represented the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). Ibrahim Mohamed Solih represented the opposition, Maldives Democratic Party (MDP). Solih won the election with 58 per cent of the votes, which was 17 points more than Yameen. Mariyam Shiuna, executive director of Transparency Maldives, said that “prior to Sunday’s elections, many feared about potential fraud [in Yameen’s favour] due to limited freedom of mass media.” According to BBC News, international monitors have been banned from observing the election, and most of the foreign media’s access was restricted on election day, which raised questions about the elections’ integrity. For Solih, his election is “the first successful step on the road to justice.”

Yameen recently signed a free trade agreement with China, and accepted Chinese investments in current and future construction projects in the Maldives. Solih supports an alliance with India and strongly opposes business with China. Solih believes China is allying itself with the Maldives to access the essential trade routes of the Indian Ocean. According to analysts, the Maldives’ association with China was an important issue for voters, and for China itself. Yameen’s loss could mean the loss of trade access for China. The Maldives’ future, and its new foreign policies, will be determined once the national electoral commission approves Solih’s claim on winning the election.

More Detentions of Nicaraguan Activists

Amaya Eva Coppens, a Nicaraguan-Belgian activist and medical student, was detained in León, Nicaragua on September 10, 2018. The police
accused her of “terrorism,” “assaults,” and the “illegal possession of firearms.” Together with the imprisonment of dozens of other
activists, the arrest of Coppens is part of the latest wave of Nicaraguan authorities detaining activists, many of which are student members of the April protests. In April 2018, Nicaragua’s Ortega administration announced a social security reform that would increase workers’ tax contributions, and ultimately lead to a decrease in pensions. Nicaraguan pensioners, students, merchants, members of feminist and Campesino (farmer) movements, and other citizens protested the proposal until it was revoked 22 April 2018 by President Ortega.

Discontent with the Nicaraguan authorities’ violent handling of the demonstrations has resulted in ongoing protests since April 2018. The protestors demand the resignation of President Ortega and of Vice-President, Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega’s spouse. Concerns of police violence, infringements on free speech, violations of Indigenous peoples’ land rights and violence against women in the country are among the reasons people believe the government should resign.

According to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (Asociación Nicaragüense Pro Derechos Humanos), the Nicaraguan authorities’ violent response to the protests has resulted in the deaths of over 500, the injury of over 4,000 and the detention of over 1,400 individuals since April 2018. The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (Centro Nicaragüense por los Derechos Humanos), as well as the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, criticize the detention of Coppens and other activists.

Coppens was held in incommunicado detention for nine days. This means that she was denied access to a lawyer, family members, or an independent physician. She has now been transferred to the women’s prison “La Esperanza” in Tipitapa. According to a statement from her father, despite a visit from her parents being monitored and filmed by prison staff, Amaya managed to communicate that she was beaten up while in detention. She also revealed that she has not been tortured due to her diplomatic position as a Belgian citizen. However, her fellow Nicaraguan prisoners may not be immune to this treatment. A Nicaragua Today article described the conditions in the prison as “inhumane” and reported that prisoners are denied medical attention despite some of them enduring critical illnesses such as terminal cancer.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Testifies at Kavanaugh Hearings

Supreme Court nominee Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27, following allegations of sexual assault. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, Justice Kavanaugh previously worked as a top aide to President George W. Bush, and in the US Court of Appeals. He is considered to be a likely opponent of Roe v. Wade.

The allegations against Kavanaugh by a then-anonymous woman first arose in July, Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had requested to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote to the Supreme Court. Ford came public with her allegations against Kavanaugh on Sept. 16. In the past week, three other women, Deborah Ramirez, Julie Swetnick, and one other anonymous woman
have come forward with allegations against Kavanaugh.

In Ford’s testimony, she described her experiences with Kavanaugh in detail, stating that her “motivation in coming forward was to provide the facts about how Mr Kavanaugh’s actions have damaged [her] life, so that [the committee] can take that into serious consideration as [they] make [their] decision about how to proceed.” Remaining composed during her testimony, she recalled the alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge. When asked her most vivid memory of the night, she responded with “all of them having fun at my expense.” Kavanaugh adressed the allegations in a heated testimony, describing the current allegations as a political smear campaign by the left. He spoke of his good character as attested to by the women in his life, his relationship to alcohol, and his high school experience as he remembers it.

War, Famine, and Disease Plague Yemen

Content warning: death, war, terrorism

In 2017, 50,000 children lost their lives due to war in Yemen. Now, as the UN reports, Yemen faces a famine, which is expected to put 5 million children at risk of starvation. For almost three years Yemen has endured civil war between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed forces who support Yemen’s former government. The Houthi rebels have been fighting for terms surrounding political and economic demands. By the end of this year, the country may be facing “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster for 50 years,” says Mark Lowcock, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Seventy-five per cent of the population is in need of assistance, but fighting near the main port Hodeidah is blocking the distribution of vital supplies.

In September 2014, the Houthi rebel group overtook the capital Sana’a and tried to seize Yemen’s second largest city, Aden, in order to overthrow the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. In response to the Houthi’s actions, a coalition backed by neighbouring country Saudi Arabia, launched airstrikes in an attempt to restore Yemen’s official government. These missiles, as well as other weapons and intelligence, came from the USA and the UK. Without this support, it would be difficult for Saudi Arabia to continue the war. The US has also claimed to have deployed a small number of troops on the ground, and France and the UK are also supplying the Saudi-led coalition with weapons and intelligence. Although Canada has provided upwards of $65 million in humanitarian aid to Yemen, it has also sold more than $284 million in weapons to the countries that are bombing Yemen. As a result of the war, both Al-Qaeda and ISIL have spread within the country; Al-Qaeda has taken over territory in the south of Yemen, while ISIL has launched an attack killing more than 140 people. The bombing operations have killed tens of thousands of people and caused the displacement of over 3 million. Many members of the US Congress, as well as humanitarian organizations, have called for the US and others to be charged with war crimes for the crisis in Yemen. Yemen’s people and economy are suffering greatly because of the war; the price of food has doubled, and the nation’s currency, the Yemeni riyal, has collapsed.

The war has taken a great toll on an already impoverished society. Airstrikes are killing civilians in hospitals and schools; most of the casualties are children. In August of this year, a US-backed Saudi missile hit a bus carrying children killing at least 29 children and wounding 30 more. Now, citizens of Yemen face famine and an outbreak of cholera. “We may now be approaching a tipping point, beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country,” said Lowcock to the UN’s Security Council. “We are already seeing pockets of famine-like conditions, including cases where people are eating leaves.” Last year, the UN declared that Yemen had seen “the world’s worst cholera outbreak,” with a million suspected cases in December 2017 and 5,000 new cases being reported each day — over 2,300 lives have been lost. Even though Yemen has since reduced and recovered somewhat from the disease, the World Health Organization has reported that the country is about to face a third wave of cholera.

The fighting near the port of Hodeidah is making it nearly impossible to get any sort of aid to citizens. Understaffed and under-equipped health centres are noticing a spike in the amount of malnourished patients they come across. In August, Aslam’s health centre saw up to 99 cases of malnutrition, half of which were in the most severe stages. The UN is trying to raise more money and resources for the people of Yemen, but Lowcock claims that “humanitarian organizations simply cannot look after the needs of all 29 million Yemenis. That is untenable.”
You can donate to: Save The Children, Unicef, and Oxfam

The post Outside the Bubble: International News for the Week of October 1 appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Didier Chelin’s Experience

In an interview with the Daily, Didier Chelin detailed his experiences at McGill. He spoke of his encounter with the services provided by the OSD, including the effect of waiting two months to receive course materials from the Office. Chelin said this lack of service and his struggle to catch up with his peers caused him to lose sleep, and was a source of high stress and other mental health issues for him. “There is an organization like the OSD in every university in Quebec,” he said, also noting how the Office has a different set of mandates than their equivalents. “The OSD has several mandates, and the OSD has failed every one of them,” said Chelin. He called for the organization, and others like it across the province, to fulfill their mandates: “The first mandate is to make sure that students have access to all the government programs that they are entitled to.” Chelin also says the OSD did not contact either professors, or his rehabilitation center, on his behalf during the school year, and that he even had to find and pay a scribe on his own accord. About accessing mental health services at McGill, Chelin states that even after his several attempts to
receive therapy or guidance from the school, he still was not accommodated. “My primary disability is blindness but my secondary disability is simply called mental health, and the OSD has completely ignored my mental health needs.” Chelin stated. “I was diagnosed primarily with generalized anxiety last December,” he went on, “eventually, I got therapy in May of this year after having needed it over a year ago.” Chelin ended up paying for psychiatric services himself. Overall, Chelin believes that there has been a lack of effort and advocacy on his behalf from his advisor. Chelin, who considers himself an activist, adds that there are various kinds of activism, and the type he engages in does not include any kind of civil disobedience: “It is possible to be an activist without breaking any laws or any rules and without disturbing the peace.” For various people, Chelin’s complaint can have a major and long-term effect not only in the McGill community and administration, but for other legal and private institutions in Canada.
Chelin has met many people with disabilities who are fired from their firms, which had failed to accommodate their needs.

Solidarity from Centre for ResearchAction on Race Relations (CRARR)

On September 12th, the McGill’s Campus Community Radio (CKUT) interviewed the Executive Director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), Fo Niemi for its program the Avalanche. Niemi is actively helping Didier Chelin in the filing his complaint. The mandate of CRARR is “to promote racial equality and combat racism in Canada and is considered as one of the leading nonprofit race relations organizations in
the country.” In the interview with CKUT, Niemi explains how he got to know Chelin, “Mr. Chelin has been [working with] our organization for almost two years. He was involved in many cases dealing with systematic discrimination.” Niemi expresses his and CRARR’s support for Chelin, “We have been following him in his efforts and struggle to do his law studies at the university, it seems as if there is some sort of regular systemic barriers. That’s why we believe the situation got critical.” Both Niemi and Chelin put emphasis on the effects of systematic discrimination. Niemi describes it as “a multiplicity of barriers.” He applies this to the OSD “[they] seem to have provided inadequate information to [Chelin] despite government policy and program. [Chelin] was not made aware, he was not given the kind of accommodation that is necessary for him to be able to function […] It appears that professors are not [informed] beforehand on the fact that they are going to have a student with a disability in the class [so] that they could prepare the reading materials before, or adapt some materials to the student’s needs […] That is one of the gaps.”

Chelin’s complaint is expected to be filed in the upcoming weeks, and Chelin is determined to get the help he needs.

Fo Niemi believes that every student must have the conditions not only to meet the minimum requirements, but to excel. Niemi proclaims that
“students with disabilities should have all the institutional conditions in order to be visible and to be heard.”

Further Activism

During his interview with the Daily, Chelin says that since going public with his complaint he has received many personal messages from people who face similar struggles due to their disabilities. Chelin wishes to provide three pieces of advice to students with disabilities, both within McGill and beyond. First, he would like them to know “[that] it is okay to be different.” Elaborating he said, “many people think that belonging to the mainstream is the most important goal of their life. They basically say as long as I am normal I am fine. […] You have the right to be different, and the law itself gives us that right. The moment you recognize you have the right to be different: that’s 90 per cent of the process started — it starts within.” Secondly, he encourages students with disabilities
to “know your rights! For everybody and especially for the people with
mental health issues because you are not sure what to expect, you are living in a world that is not necessarily comfortable for you.” He concluded by saying, “my last advice will be that the moment a single right has been violated, don’t just pocket the insult! Because many students with disabilities are tired, basically it is easy to stay silent. Enforce your rights! It can be hard to make human rights
complaints and mobilize but that’s what it needs to be in a democracy.”

An earlier version of this article referred to the Executive Director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), Fo Niemi, as Fo Niomi. The Daily regrets the error.

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