‘.سلام لأرض خُلقت للسلام، وما رأت يومًا سلاماً’

سلام

[‘Peace to a land that was created for peace, and never saw a peaceful day.’]

—Mahmoud Darwish

Writing about civil war is not easy: six years of chaos and catastrophe are difficult to sum up in a few paragraphs, or even an image. As tragedy continues to fall from the sky in Syria and wash upon the shores of Europe, how long can we – the broader Western public – remain spectators?

One year ago, on September 2, 2015, the image of Alan Kurdi – aged three, lying face down on the shore of a Turkish beach – broke into the news cycle and captured the world’s attention. A little more than two weeks ago, on August 18, the image of Omran Daqneesh – aged five – did the same.Images like these demonstrate the true human cost of conflict and startle the world anew.

Despite the global attention then and now, almost three thousand migrants and asylum seekers in 2016 alone have met the same fate as Alan Kurdi, and dozens are killed by sorties in Aleppo each day. What can we say of our global inattentiveness in the time lapsed between? Perhaps this past summer the world has been too preoccupied with other events (Brexit, the U.S. presidential election, or the Rio Olympics) to be concerned with the ongoing humanitarian disasters in Syria, Yemen, Turkey, Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kashmir, and so on. But loss and tragedy wait for no one, not its spectators – and perpetrators – in the Western world, and certainly not its victims – trapped in the towns and cities they once called home.

A child dies, or is pulled out of the rubble, and the world coalesces around an image to give the tragedy meaning. The image becomes a viral sensation. It makes its rounds on social media, soliciting captions and comments, even emojis, of shock and outrage. Each iteration juxtaposes a robbed childhood with the more lighthearted realities of most viewers. The image captures the viewer’s attention – an unsightly break from your regular newsfeed. It’s hard not to feel obliged to watch, and perhaps even share it. Unlike its appearance on your screen, what’s captured by the photo is an ongoing reality, not a series of isolated incidents: the image represents a single moment amidst six years of tragedy.

Unfortunately, reality is a relative concept. For the geopolitical and ideological actors involved in the conflict, the image and its subject is another casualty of war, their life a transient existence which they prefer to ignore. For the broader Western public, the child (and the tens of thousands like them) represents a temporary moral outrage, one usually expressed in a boring black and bold headline – decontextualised and dehumanised. Except, of course, when their death is made manifest in the images we are now all too familiar with.

Why is it that shock and awe are necessary to drive the Western public to express outrage towards unnecessary human suffering, to demand an end to the conflict, or to even perhaps donate towards established, though ineffective, aid efforts? This is, inherently, nothing less than a function of Western guilt. Donor-fatigue manifests as empathy-fatigue, as increasingly sensational images of horror are required to wake people to the ongoing reality. It is not that the public is unaware, but that we prefer to be ignorant; once the image has grown stale, we collectively move on.

If the Western audience is willing to remain ignorant of an ongoing genocide, towards generations of youth lost to years of psychological trauma, physical and sexual abuse, illiteracy, and inadequate healthcare, among other basic social services, then they should do nothing at all. They should admit their ambivalence and openly claim the detached resignation they already abide by. Privileged guilt is not sustainable, nor is it ethical; any effort to bring an end to the conflict or to alleviate the suffering it causes, based on such a premise, will be for the benefit of the Western subject, not those who are made “objects” by Western perception.

War photography must be sensational and captivating to convince us of its truth. It is for this same reason that our society will loop the murders of Black people on 24-hour cable news, but deny the legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter movement and its leaders. It is for this reason the “Alleppo is Bleeding” Facebook campaign failed to materialise in any meaningful way.

For this reason, mainstream reporting on this conflict has brought no meaningful attention to the scale of human suffering: the news is far too often passed through a lens that strips it of its humanity. The headlines read in any number of ways – uprising, revolution, civil war; terrorism, religious fanaticism; human rights, self-determination, independence – in order to appeal to spectators of different sensibilities. We filter the chaos in a way that makes sense to us, most often forgetting the reality of life beyond political narratives.

Buzzwords mean nothing to those living through the conflict. Airstrike, explosion, smoke, dust and rubble, loss and struggle: these are the daily lived experiences of its victims, inexplicable to those not facing these realities themselves, as they lay beyond what words can convey. The stories of over 1.1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, of whom 500 thousand are children, 635 thousand in Jordan (225 thousand children), and the some 6.5 million internally displaced Syrians – a forgone Syrian generation – will never be as captivating as clickbait. Despite what your retweets and captions suggest, these are not the victims of a childhood robbed. These are the victims of a humanity denied, forced to live a life of indignity and degradation, as the world watches at its leisure.

Let us go beyond the headlines of the civil war power struggles. It is not sufficient for us to reject the complicity of our state leaders. What of our own? This is not meant to be an accusation, nor is it about assigning blame. This is an effort to acknowledge our collective complicity – one that comes with the privilege of ignorance, the privilege of clear and peaceful skies.

—

The author would like to acknowledge that this article was written on August 23, 2016, and encourages readers not to ignore all that has happened in Syria, and beyond, since that date and into the future.

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The demonstrators stood in front of the main entrance of the James Administration building, holding signs that said “Divest McGill” and chanting, “Get on the podium, divest from petroleum.”
In an interview with The Daily, Benji Astrachan, U2 World Religions and International Development Studies student and a member of Divest McGill, said, “We just wanted to make sure that our presence was loud and clear, and that they knew that we’re there and we’ll continue to be there.”

“Climate, today, is at the intersection of several struggles which link racialized people and people who are socioeconomically disfavoured.”

Since 2012, Divest McGill has submitted several petitions to the BoG’s Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR), urging the University to divest from Canadian tar sands and the fossil fuel industry.

Divest McGill has since garnered the endorsement of faculty and staff. For example, in November, the Arts Faculty Council voted to endorse the campaign.

Three years of consistent campus advocacy have failed to influence McGill’s investment portfolio. Divest McGill alleges that the University has incurred an estimated $43 million in losses stemming from its current investment holdings during the time it has spent considering Divest McGill’s petitions.
At a CAMSR meeting on October 22, CAMSR Chair Stuart “Kip” Cobbett had said that “[CAMSR would] have a decision by early next year. Certainly by the March 30 deadline.” However, Cobbett had also added, “This is not a drop-dead deadline, because stuff happens.”

In an interview with The Daily, Gregoire Beaune, U3 Political Science and Philosophy student and a participant at the rally, said, “For me, [climate justice] goes beyond just the climate. […] Climate, today, is at the intersection of several struggles which link racialized people and people who are socioeconomically disfavoured.”

“Divesting from fossil fuels […] is more than just asking for a green campus. It’s asking for an ethical campus – one that is aware of the repercussions of its investments and also aware of the world around it,” Beaune said.

This article was updated on February 13, 2016.

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Speaking to The Daily, Kripa Koshy, a member of MISC, said that interfaith events help foster dialogue between the McGill community and different faith groups, as well as dialogue between the faith groups themselves.

“Our diverse team of faith representatives often uses the resources their respective groups have to facilitate one event specifically aimed at demystifying their faith to those outside of the faith tradition.”

A Jumu’ah prayer, a Catholic mass, a Sikh meditation, Shabbat services, and a roundtable discussion were all a part of the day’s events.
According to Koshy, “Our diverse team of faith representatives often uses the resources their respective groups have to facilitate one event specifically aimed at demystifying their faith to those outside of the faith tradition.” Each student-led, on-campus organization hosted an event representative of a feature of their faith, and all of these groups joined the roundtable discussion.

Koshy went on to emphasize how the roundtable discussion spoke to the purpose of Interfaith Day. “Rather than engaging in complex religious rhetoric, [it was] an informal chat where students of faith [discussed] the challenges they encounter while fulfilling their study objectives and faith commitments,” said Koshy. “Exploring these spaces allows me to better understand my neighbour, and thus offer better support to religious minorities and communities in our multicultural society.”

Phoebe Warren, a U2 Political Science and History student, told The Daily that she heard of Interfaith Day through her involvement with the Unitarian Church of Montreal.

“Exploring these spaces allows me to better understand my neighbour, and thus offer better support to religious minorities and communities in our multicultural society.”

Speaking about the Shabbat services hosted by Ghetto Shul, Warren said, “It was wonderful. Our individual beliefs weren’t particularly important during the religious part of the evening, and we were able to focus on enjoying the practices and rituals for what they are and how they compare to our own.”

The services were followed by a community dinner. Warren recalled a conversation she had that night, saying, “I was able to engage in a discussion […] no holds barred, about our beliefs, why we believe them, and how it impacts our worldview.”

In an interview with The Daily, Cassie Frankel, a U3 Political Science student involved in Ghetto Shul, spoke about the same event, saying, “It gave the anthropological opportunity to observe different religious prayer customs while also providing a social forum to meet other interested students of faith in a more low-key setting.”

“I was able to engage in a discussion […] no holds barred, about our beliefs, why we believe them, and how it impacts our worldview.”

“I also really enjoyed the opportunity to bring my own friends along to something so important to me, that is such a regular yet not necessarily understood part of my life at McGill,” Frankel added.

Koshy also attended the Shabbat services, and, regarding the Torah passage shared during the services, said, “[It] really resonated with me, as it narrated a story of how new perspectives can add great value to existing traditions and can in fact help strengthen communities.”

Speaking more broadly about Interfaith Day, Koshy said, “What I found most noteworthy was how beautifully the diverse faith groups worked together to connect their communities and offer a warm welcome to friends and strangers alike.”

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Later that week, on January 26, PCP held an event at Café Ouvert which included screening a movie and reading from a zine written by a prisoner. This was the first year the day of solidarity has been held. The PCP aims to raise awareness around and give a voice to the challenges faced by trans prisoners, adopting an intersectional approach to incarceration and LGBTQ issues as a whole.

The PCP is a non-hierarchical, volunteer-run collective operating as a working group of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) Concordia. The PCP’s main initiative is a pen pal program between LGBTQ prisoners and the broader community. It also provides a resource library which includes reading materials that address questions regarding coming out while in prison, gender transitioning, and legal aid concerns.

While some support programs do exist, the PCP aims to give voice to those who fall through the cracks. Its initiatives, such as the pen pal program, aim to connect the queer and trans community outside to those in prison, specifically connecting those imprisoned in the U.S. and Canada with people outside of prisons. The majority of pen-pal correspondents are from outside of the U.S..

Day of action and movie screening

In an interview with The Daily, Parker Benley, who is a member of the PCP, said that the purpose of the day of action and the movie screening was two-fold.

First, it served as a call for more pen pal program participants. Benley explained that currently there remains roughly 700 trans prisoners on the PCP’s waitlist looking to establish a correspondence. Secondly, the day of action aims to raise awareness on the issue and garner further donations to the cause.

As a result of finance issues – mainly due to the weakness of the Canadian dollar and their purchases of U.S. postage for their pen pals based in the U.S. – Benley said that the PCP will be launching a campaign for monthly donors in the next few weeks.

Benley was optimistic about the event’s impact, and was pleased to see a full house during the movie screening and reading of PCP inside member Catherine Lynn Quick’s zine, A Caged Bird Sings. The day ended with a collection of contributions and many new pen pal sign-ups.

Benley expressed hope that the movement will grow and continue to raise awareness of the harsh realities of imprisonment.

According to Benley the day of action sought to “raise awareness of the things that we can change to alleviate the harm [experienced by trans prisoners].” Concretely, this would focus on the currently lacking healthcare provisions. Benley expressed hope that the event would amplify the discussion around prisons themselves, remarking, “prisons aren’t safe for anyone.”

The PCP garners its main contributions from McGill’s and Concordia’s branches of QPIRG, as well as McGill’s Union for Gender Empowerment. While pleased with the level of campus support, Benley said that “more would be better.”

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The plan is the second-largest mining development project in the history of Canada, just after the tar sands development in Alberta. If successful, 72 per cent of Quebec’s land will be transformed over 25 years. The aim is to develop the region to facilitate resource extraction and to make profit. The plan also entails developing infrastructure in northern Quebec, such as roads, airports, hydroelectric facilities and housing.

Couillard calls it “an exemplary sustainable development project,” and a report in Canadian Mining Journal estimates it will create and sustain 20,000 jobs, as well as $80 billion in public and private investment: $47 billion to renewable energy and $33 billion to mining and infrastructure. Bringing jobs to Northern Quebec is an aspect the government is particularly keen to stress; however, Quebec’s mining industry stands to benefit most.

Despite the official rhetoric, the government’s current approach to northern Quebec land and its Indigenous inhabitants is economically self-serving and environmentally destructive.

The government does have a fund of $1.2 billion set aside for infrastructure development, but this is mainly meant to make it easier for mining companies to access resource-rich areas. Moreover, since the program’s revival in 2014, the government has been offering economic incentives for Quebec-based mining companies. Because the Quebec government is effectively subsidizing interested contractors, the plan has managed to attract the interest of both domestic and global mining companies.

While job creation for under-developed regions is good, the government’s plan has serious and potentially harmful problems. The way the government is treating Northern Quebec’s Indigenous communities under the plan is a particularly acute problem. As it stands, Plan Nord targets resource-rich areas that will generate the most money, which will almost certainly result in huge wealth disparities between different Indigenous communities. However, if the argument is to develop northern Quebec, everyone should be included equally. What’s more, the fact that Canadian mining companies have a history of exploiting the communities in which they operate is troubling.

The other question to ask is why the government is pursuing infrastructure development only in tandem with resource extraction. Compared with non-Indigenous land, many of the areas that Plan Nord targets suffer from a lack of infrastructure. The land is only really being developed now in the pursuit of profit, and as it stands, many Indigenous communities won’t see any, anyway.

The area under consideration in Plan Nord is inhabited by a number of Indigenous communities, including Inuit, the Innu, the Cree, the Naskapis, the Algonquin, and the Atikamekw.

Even where governments make specific commitments to Indigenous communities, they have a history of making similar deals that they subsequently fail to uphold. As The Daily reported on February 23 (News, page 6, “Algonquins of Barriere Lake file lawsuit against government, managers”), the Algonquins of Barrière Lake recently filed a $30 million lawsuit against the federal government for failing to honour its commitments. This is in no way an isolated incident: numerous instances of hollow guarantees on land use have meant that profit is effectively stolen from Indigenous people. In many cases, the only way forward has been direct action.

Now, under Plan Nord, Northern Indigenous communities face a difficult decision. Either they support the plan (with minimal consultation) in the hope of guaranteeing a form of economic security, or they reject the plan, perhaps for cultural or environmental reasons.

Indeed, the danger Plan Nord poses to the environment is serious, and numerous organizations have raised concerns. Although the government has allocated 50 per cent of the designated area for conservation by 2035, activists point out that this number is arbitrary and open to corporate manipulation. As Bruno Massé, general coordinator of the Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes, an environmental organization, told The Daily on October 31, 2011 (News, page 7, “Environmental and First Nations groups criticize Plan Nord”), the exact area covered by this figure has not been determined. This leaves open the possibility of boundaries shifting according to new resource discoveries, which suggests that the guarantee is meaningless.

In Northern Quebec, the government’s obligation should be to provide economic security to all the communities who live there, as well as to protect the environment.

What’s more, even if half the land is protected, this just means that the other half will be destroyed. The promises made by the government on behalf of mining companies are only meant to hide how destructive the mining industry actually is. In 2014, huge amounts of metals mining waste were accidentally released in Mount Tolley, British Columbia, contaminating local water supplies and the surrounding environment. The type of mine dug in Mount Tolley is strikingly similar to what’s being proposed all over Northern Quebec.

McGill’s own fossil fuel divestment movement, Divest McGill, has issued a statement opposing Plan Nord: “Quebec’s Plan Nord involves some of the largest, dirtiest companies on the planet and provides for extraordinary environmental destruction across huge swaths of Northern Quebec. Much of this will occur on Native land, as the voices of Indigenous peoples fall on the deaf ears of politicians.”

And indeed, not listening to Indigenous voices is exactly what the government is doing. The area under consideration in Plan Nord is inhabited by a number of Indigenous communities, including Inuit, the Innu, the Cree, the Naskapis, the Algonquin, and the Atikamekw. These communities have reacted differently to the plan. It’s supported by Inuit and the Cree, but opposed by the Innu, whose traditional territory covers one-third of the land slated for development by Plan Nord. Facing diverging interests, the government has attempted to establish a comprehensive consultation framework under the Société du Plan Nord. Opposition comes at a price, though: communities that have not agreed to Plan Nord are excluded from the legal framework within which their interests can be protected, including recognized territorial and resource-use rights.

The obligation of government at the most basic level is to ensure equal dignity, respect, and protections to all citizens. In Northern Quebec, the government’s obligation should be to provide economic security to all the communities who live there, as well as to protect the environment. Both the environmental and social fairness of the plan need to be improved. Northern development should mean sustainable development for all, rather than unbridled profits for a few mining companies.

George Ghabrial is a U1 Joint Honours student in Political Science and Philosophy. To reach him, please email george.ghabrial@mail.mcgill.ca.

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