SEPAQ is an agency under the government of Quebec that is tasked with overseeing Quebec’s provincial parks and nature reserves. SEPAQ employs some 3,400 workers, the majority of which are seasonal employees.

In June, the workers’ union announced an unlimited strike coinciding with Quebec’s construction holiday following five months of fruitless negotiations with the government. Reaching an “agreement-in-principle,” a negotiator acting on behalf of SEPAQ intervened, and the strike was called off before it began. This agreement fell through with employees rejecting 60 per cent of the proposed resolutions. Though negotiations continued, a stalemate ensued and a series of strikes began. The strikes over Thanksgiving were the latest effort by the union to push negotiations onwards.

The Daily spoke to Jonathan Dupont, a maintenance repair worker at Oka National Park during the October 12-14 strikes. While Dupont is a full time employee, he described himself as “one of the lucky ones;” most employees there are seasonal workers, making $13-14 per hour. Despite wages rising with minimum wage, the union says there has been no real increase in salary relative to inflation. Central to the union’s demands is an annual salary increase, relative to rises in the cost of living.

Premier François Legault has made his position on salary increases for public sector workers clear in a September news conference. Despite a $4.4 billion surplus last year, Legault forewarned unions that the surplus is not theirs to have – indicating the state of negotiations between SEPAQ and the union.

In the end, Dupont says that employees continue working here because they like it, not because they get high wages. This sentiment was echoed as protestors welcomed visitors to the park, wishing them well on their holiday weekend hikes.

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XR is a movement that began in the United Kingdom but has since spread internationally, likely due to their strategy of autonomy and decentralisation. They offer groups the tools and guidance to join the movement and then encourage groups to plan direct action, offering to support them with legal aid. This method is part of what they call “creating a regenerative culture.”

Their activism is based upon the principle of non-violent civil disobedience. Ultimately, they imagine a future where civil disobedience – resulting in widespread arrests – disrupts the economic and political systems enough to the point where those in positions of authority are forced to submit to change. In July of this year, 25 XR climate activists were arrested outside of McGill’s Roddick Gates after staging a sit-in in front of Premier François Legault’s office. This action is just one of many that they have carried out and plan to execute in the future, including a two week-long international rebellion event beginning on October 7.

XR’s presentation at McGill invited students to join their movement. At one point, the presenter asked audience members to raise their hands if they were willing to be arrested, to which a few of the audience members did so. The presenter told them to “remember who you are,” and later told the audience members to write an “A” next to their name on the sign-in sheet if they are willing to be arrested for their cause.

The attentive audience asked XR a series of tough questions, raising concerns regarding the place of marginalized groups within this style of activism. By default, encouraging mass arrests is a strategy that lends itself to be undertaken by the white majority, since marginalised groups face far greater risks when interacting with the police.

The presenter validated the importance of the question, and admitted that XR is still figuring things out as they go. Ultimately, they said, the issue of climate change and how to create a just transition for all is quite possibly the largest issue in human history, simply by the sheer number of individuals impacted.

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Before the final TRC report was published, the commission released a document with 94 “calls to action.” Actions 62 through 65 call upon federal, provincial, and territorial governments, as well as the Council of Ministers of Education, to create a mandatory curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Indigenous peoples in Canadian history for students in K-12.

According to the government of Canada, their response to Action 62 on the TRC Calls to Action is to transform education on reserves, contribute financial resources to the First Nations University of Canada, and allocate $275 million within 2016’s budget for language and culture until 2020.

Aside from the dedication of funding, federal response to Action 62 centers itself upon structuring the education of Indigenous peoples. Indigenous-specific educational institutions are disadvantaged when compared to non-Indigenous educational systems, in terms of funding and follow-through on behalf of policy-makers. The government must take care when intervening in the systems of knowledge they once worked to systematically destroy, especially in the context of the settler-colonial project that continues to erase Indigenous ways of knowing and living.

As for Action 63, the responsibility for responding to this Action falls on the Council of Ministers of Education. In Ontario, Indigenous educators and elders were invited to partake in the curriculum revision project. These curriculum writing sessions, scheduled for July 2018, aimed to infuse Indigenous perspectives into the course content of each subject. The writing sessions were cancelled just three days before they were set to begin. It is unclear who is responsible for the cancellation, though it is likely that the Ministry of Education cancelled the sessions in response to budget cuts by the Doug Ford administration.

Frustrated with this cancellation and the government’s failure to act, citizens are taking matters into their own hands. One endeavor, led by the University of Toronto’s Outreach Librarian Desmond Wong, initially aimed to create a list of free resources in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Comission’s Calls to Action and the Ontario government’s cancellation of the curriculum rewriting sessions.

This list of resources eventually evolved into a research guide, entitled “Infusing Indigenous Perspectives in K-12 Teaching.” The material includes audio and visual material as well as games, lesson plans, Indigenous language materials, and other forms of course support for teachers and educators. The research guide that houses these materials was started in 2013 by current Acting Director of the University of Toronto’s library, Jenaya Webb, and a student, Rebekah Bedard, in collaboration with the Deepening Knowledge Project and Dr. Jean-Paul Restoule. The guide is made available to all online through the University of Toronto’s teaching and education research program.

Though not the first of its kind – the University of Alberta also offers a comprehensive education guide – it is set apart by being a living, breathing entity, inclusive of a wide range of media forms; Wong is continually looking for new resources to improve and add depth to the guide. Most recently, a section on Indigenous-created Virtual and Augmented Reality has just been added. In conversation with the Daily, Wong expressed that he hopes the next step will be to more fully incorporate resources on Indigenous languages, which he says are “essential to Indigenous knowledges and worldviews, into pedagogy and every day interactions in classrooms.”

However, in regards to Quebec’s Ministry of Education and school board system, progress towards fulfilling the TRC Calls to Action is similarly slow-moving. A March 2017 report from the Advisory Board on English Education entitled “Indigenous Education: Walking on Both Sides of the River” includes a section on involvement of [Indigenous] community members in developing the education system. This report uses the rhetoric of “preserving community traditions and heritage […] as elders die” contributing to the image of the disappearing Indigneous population. Much of this report is centered upon improving the education process for Indigenous students, yet fails to commit to concrete changes for the implementation of Indigenous knowledges and historical processes within the education of non-Indigenous students. Section 8 condemns the present instruction of Indigenous content for non-Indigenous students in Quebec; though it mentions the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, it merely describes what school boards in other provinces have done rather than putting forward any concrete changes to address this gap in curriculums.

As of October 2018, Quebec’s school system further revised its curriculum to include mention of residential schools, though it did so without consulting with Indigenous peoples. Further, the revised curriculum fails to address Indigenous treaties and contributions of Indigenous peoples.

While citizen-led initiatives such as Wong’s guide serve as an excellent resource, he recognizes “this resource is fairly limited compared to the breadth of materials that are available.’’ As he describes, “there is an entire world of fantastic Indigenous resources.”

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Christopher Ragan, Director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy, laid out two questions at the start of the conference: Are we going to act? And if so, how are we going to act?

Alongside Ragan were Crystal Lameman (environment and climate policy analyst at the Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 First Nations) and Karel Mayrand (director general at the David Suzuki Foundation). Bill McKibben (co-founder of 350.org and veteran activist) streamed in from his home in Vermont. The panel was moderated by CBC Television’s Montreal host Nancy Wood, who appropriately nudged the panelists along.

While panelists reached an implicit consensus on the first question, the latter on how to approach climate activism was subject to much debate. Specifically, panelists disagreed on the role of individual action in this movement. Lameman, for instance, saw power in individual action to make small differences and kickstart a massive, yet crucial transition in the way humans consume energy.

On the flip side, McKibben suggested that “the most important thing an individual can do is to be a little less of an individual” and condemned the “great premium” humans have put on hyper-individuality at the expense of community. According to McKibben, “joining together is how civilizations defend themselves.” For Canadians, he imagines this as effectively stopping the pipeline, referring to the expansion of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline which would “twin the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and expand the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, B.C.”

Ragan, however, disagreed with McKibben regarding his call to discontinue the pipeline. This stance was met with an exaggerated cough from an audience member and a round of slightly uncomfortable laughter from the 60 others in the audience. Ragan described stopping the pipeline as an extremely expensive way to reduce emissions, partly because income from the pipeline is significant.

But while the pipeline has been touted as a source of vast economic growth, it may not actually provide the boom that Kinder Morgan and the Canadian government have promised, according to a 2016 report from Conversations for Responsible Economic Development (CRED). As a matter of fact, they found that in B.C., “technology, tourism, construction, film and television each create more jobs than oil, gas, and mining combined.” The pipeline would also only create 50 permanent jobs in the province, and should an oil spill occur – as has happened numerous times with Kinder Morgan – the cost would have a $1.2 billion impact on the economy, hurting some of B.C.’s most profitable sectors, such as the province’s ocean-dependent industries.

The environmental impacts would undoubtedly be devastating as well. For example, an oil spill from the pipeline could cause “one of the top bird mortality events ever caused by oil because of the exceptional abundance and diversity of birds in Burrard Inlet,” per Dr. Jeffrey Short, an expert on the impacts of oil spills.

Undoubtedly, Ragan’s proposition was not without controversy. McKibben described his approach as attempting to “have your cake and eat it too.” Citing the fires in California, the loss of Arctic sea ice, and record-breaking temperatures in much of the world, McKibben reminded audience members that climate change is an emergency, and in emergencies, “people act with fortitude.”

Although Ragan said the end goal is to get away from fossil fuels, he told the audience to “[not] pretend producing oil is immoral.”

But while Ragan may see no issue in the expansion of the pipeline, it has and continues to negatively impact the First Nations communities on the west coast. Per the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s assessment of the pipeline, its expansion would significantly affect their economy, as “environmental damage, safety hazards, the perception of pollution, and impaired views will dissuade business partners, customers, and potential customers.” Further, they write that the pipeline would “indirectly force economic and dietary change and cause health effects” due to the loss of natural resources such as salmon, herring, clams, and birds.

The cultural impacts of the pipeline’s construction are widespread as well. Just recently, Coastal GasLink bulldozed over an area of cultural significance to the Wet’suwet’en Nation, per APTN News. Na’Moks, the highest ranking chief of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s Tsayu Clan, told APTN News in response to the destruction, “it seems like Indigenous rights, our culture, our spirits, where we get our names — all of our history — means nothing at this point.”

Ragan’s pro-pipeline sentiment is hardly a surprise; earlier this year, he moderated a panel at the Max Bell School based on the idea that it is possible to both combat climate change and build pipelines at the same time. And certain members inclusion on the school’s Advisory Board, such as co-chair Christy Clark (former premier of B.C.), pose concerns as to the school’s bias towards pipelines. In 2017, the Narwhal reported on Clark’s ties to the oil and gas industry, as B.C.’s Liberal party has received more than $3.7 million from the industry’s top donors between 2008 and 2015 (Clark was B.C. premier beginning in 2011).

As the panel concluded, members of the audience had the chance to voice their questions or concerns.

On the topic of strategic voting in the upcoming election, one audience member expressed the necessity for this movement to make a conscious decision to back the NDP or the Green Party. Another suggested that if people simply voted with their conscience, then perhaps there would not be only two political parties dominating. A third audience member described their loss of faith in Canada’s electoral system as an ally to this movement. Once more, the audience was left asking, how are we going to act?

This article has been updated to provide more information about the environmental and economic impacts of the pipeline, the effects on First Nations communities, and Christy Clark’s role as co-chair on the Advisory Board of the Max Bell School of Public Policy.

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Becca Yu, QPIRG’s Finance Coordinator, then presented the organization’s financial reports. The organization ended the 2017- 2018 year with a larger surplus than the year before, largely due to the third full-time staff position remaining unfilled for a short period of time, as well as lower working group spending. With this surplus, the organization bought a camera, a projector, and laptops for staff members and working groups to use.

QPIRG staff members then proceeded to give their reports. Staff updated attendees on School Schmool as well as QPIRG’s Popular Education Event Series, which includes Culture Shock and Social Justice Days.

Coordinators of Rad Frosh reflected on their alternative to SSMU’s Frosh that took place in September. This year’s Rad Frosh theme was “We’ve got the beat,” which the coordinators described as an attempt to “archive the reciprocal relationship of social justice and political activism of the ‘80s in relation to the present.” Rad Frosh took place in September and offered 152 participants events such as radical campus tours, Queer prom, a DIY fair, and benefit concerts hosted by BIPOC artists. According to staff members, it was highly attended and a very successful event.

Other presentations included the organization’s outreach report and the summer stipend report, which was awarded to the Third Eye Collective this past summer to construct a zine with resources for sexual and genderbased violence. After updates from the library coordinator, the Community University Research Exchange (CURE), and the Prisoner Correspondence Project, the meeting moved to board reports.

The Board of Directors, the radical research committee, the policy committee, and the accessibility committee all presented brief updates from the past year. Their biggest challenge for the year was reaching quorum and disseminating information between board members for time-sensitive issues.

The meeting then moved to elections for student members and community spots on the Board of Directors, as well as elections for the Conflict Resolution and Complaints Committee (CRCC). Everyone who ran for the positions was elected; this includes nine students elected as student representatives to the Board of Directors, two individuals elected as community representatives to the Board, and two individuals elected to the CRCC.

Finally, all of QPIRG’s working groups in attendance gave their annual reports. A great deal of QPIRG’s mandate is carried out through working groups, who operate autonomously from QPIRG, but receive funding and resources from QPIRG. This past year, QPIRG supported 18 working groups, all of which centre their research and action around social and environmental issues. Working groups include Food against Fascism, Independent Jewish Voice, McGill Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, Women from the Committee of Women of Diverse Origins, Black Indigenous Harm Reduction Alliance, Solidarity Across Borders, and STAND for Prison Justice, among others.

The AGM allowed QPIRG and its working groups to report to its members on the work they have done over the year. For attendees, it was a reminder of all the various organizations that exist on campus and in the community, and what students can look forward to for the upcoming year

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The Algerian Consulate in Montreal, located at the corner of Saint Urbain and Sherbrooke, has been the site of recurring protests since the announcement of Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term. An estimated 1,000 protestors participated in the most recent demonstration on March 10.

Following these demonstrations, on March 11, Bouteflika rescinded his bid for the presidency in the country’s upcoming elections set for April. Bouteflika made the announcement via a letter that describes the need for “deep reforms in the political, institutional, economic, and social fields;” this includes a postponement of the April presidential elections until after reforms are implemented.

Bouteflika, 82, has been in power for 20 years. When he came to power in 1999, he was credited with ending the country’s civil war and praised for maintaining social stability throughout the first ten years of his rule, largely with the good fortune of high oil prices.

As oil prices fell, so did the country’s unemployment rate. In 2008, he amended the country’s constitution to remove the two term limit on presidential rule, enabling him to serve a third and fourth term.

After suffering a stroke in 2013, Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public. As a result, many Algerians deem him unfit to govern. There is great concern that Bouteflika is used as by the military, business elites, and politicians as a way to rule. Allegedly, Bouteflika’s brother, Saïd Bouteflika, is acting as de facto president in his place.

Since Bouteflika announced his planned reforms, there have been concerns over internal power dynamics. The announcement mentions his plan to appoint a new government as well as a “national conference.”

This conference will be responsible for drafting a new constitution as well as setting the date of the next presidential election.

Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui has become Prime Minister following the resignation of Ahmed Ouyahia. The new Prime Minister has announced plans to create a technocratic interim government with a cabinet representative of the young people leading the recent protests.

Some are concerned Bouteflika will remain in power until this election, thereby extending his final term. Others are looking to those in Bouteflika’s inner-circle, waiting to see if someone will emerge as his successor. Ultimately, it seems that the protests have been effective, but what will happen in the long-term remains unclear.

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The weekend was filled with panels, workshops, music, and art. The workshops were categorized into six main streams: Non-Violent Direct Action, Organizing & Mobilizing, Indigenous Perspectives, Art & Resistance, Intersectional Movement Building, and Storytelling.

Workshops were led by activists, filmmakers, professors, community organizers, and political strategists, with a focus on Indigenous perspectives. Powershift aimed to provide youth with strategies to enact change in their own communities. Workshops taught concrete skills and engaged participants in topical discussions. Through workshops such as “resisting arrest,” “2019 Federal Election Strategy discussion,” “how to run for office,” and “climbing for resistance!” participants learned about aerial blockades, banner hangs, and the prusik climbing system. Other workshops taught participants ways to conceptualize movements including, “niches not silos: thinking of movements as ecosystems” and “global decolonization: contextualizing climate change impacts.”

The conference closed its first night with a panel on cross movement solidarities featuring keynote speakers Eriel Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, film director Sean Devlin, and Manon Massé, co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire and member of Quebec’s national assembly.

Saturday night began with a panel on the role of art in resistance movements. Speakers included Isaac Murdoch, an Ojibwe visual artist and storyteller, Clayton Thomas Muller, an organizer and member of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Manitoba, David Solnit, a puppeteer and arts organizer for 350.org, and Christi Belcourt, a Métis visual artist and 2015 Aboriginal Arts Laureate for Ontario. The night ended with performances from various artists, including El Jones performing her poem “Canada is so polite,” Silla and Rise, a group that fuses Inuit throat singing with dance floor beats, Socialist Hip Hop, and the Ottawa River Group.

On Sunday, participants organized a banner drop on the Rideau canal and canvassed to spread awareness about the Green New Deal in regard to the upcoming federal election. This event was discreetly labeled on the schedule as “action” and included the description, “participants should bring outerwear & skates if possible.”

The weekend culminated with a march to Parliament Hill on Monday, accompanied by banners and paper maché puppets of Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump made over the weekend in the conference’s art space. Though Powershift occurred in an isolated time and space, movements like “La planète s’invite” in Quebec indicate broad continued pressure on governments to pursue climate-conscious policies. Students across Quebec plan to walkout on March 15 as part of “La planète s’invite à l’Université,” a province wide strike that aims to highlight the urgency of climate change.

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The central narrative of the exhibit is told through a 70 page spiral-bound booklet published and written by members of the Milton-Parc Citizens Committee (CCMP; Comité des citoyennes et citoyens Milton-Parc). The booklet intends to remind members of the Citizens Committee of their own history, as well as to disseminate Milton-Parc’s history to a wider audience. As an ode to the collective efforts of this movement, the book does not name a single individual throughout the telling of this history.

The history of Milton-Parc has largely been obscured by complicated legal jargon that renders it inaccessible to the broader public. Fortunately, the booklet is incredibly effective in simplifying legal terms and the sequence of events, and helped to inform much of the history described in this article.

Milton-Parc residents halted developers’ plans to demolish their community and began a movement that continues to advocate for residents today.

In 1968, a group of developers, who would later become known as “Concordia Estates Ltd.,” announced plans, backed by Jean Drapeau’s city administration, to tear down six blocks of residential buildings. Prior to this announcement, the developers had spent years inconspicuously buying properties within the neighbourhood. These six square blocks, an area marked within the limits of Milton, Hutchinson, des Pins, and Sainte-Famille, were to become grand apartment buildings, high-rise offices, and commercial shopping complexes. The exhibit at the CCA displays the developers’ proposed plans as well as photographs of a 3D model of their plan.

From the onset of the plan’s reveal, the Citizens Committee began organizing active resistance through what they described as non-violent “militant action.” This included petitions, marches, sit-ins, and the formation of housing cooperatives. Housing cooperatives are a form of collective home ownership where members are often united by shared economic, social, or political needs. Within one home, they pool their resources to create a space for members’ needs to be met. Members of a cooperative will buy in and own a share of the cooperative.

As the Committee organized itself, the developers carried out phase one of their three-part plan. Among the buildings constructed during this phase were a hotel, now McGill’s New Residence Hall, the underground mall now known as Les Galeries du Parc, and the La Cité apartment high-rises.

Shortly after, Concordia Estates Ltd. ran out of funding and put the remainder of the property up for sale. The Canadian government bought the property in 1979, via its Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, with the intention of helping residents form cooperatives. The Citizens Committee’s mission evolved into seeing the formation of cooperatives and nonprofits through, and they started the Milton-Parc Housing Project.

Six square blocks, an area marked within the limits of Milton, Hutchinson, des Pins, and Sainte-Famille, were to become grand apartment buildings, high-rise offices, and commercial shopping complexes. The exhibit at the CCA displays the developers’ proposed plans as well as photographs of a 3D model of their plan.

In time, the group created a set of agreed-upon social values; they wanted each cooperative group to have full ownership over their property, rather than being controlled by a larger entity. They urged the government to impose restrictions that would ensure the preservation of the heritage of the buildings. They also wanted to be assured that the housing would remain affordable despite the properties’ inevitable appreciation of market value over time.

The group worked to configure the legal ownership and financing of these cooperatives in a way that allowed them to work in tandem with their established set of values. The significance of this project is the steps the Citizens Committee took to accomplish this, despite the lack of a preexisting legal framework that could outline all that they were trying to achieve. They created a “Declaration of Co-ownership,” which granted each cooperative ownership over their own building and its land. Through this configuration, they could ensure the historical preservation of the buildings, and their heritages, without submitting to being governed by a larger entity. Instead, the declaration created a governing body made up of representatives from each of the cooperatives that collectively own and manage the properties, called the CMP (Communauté Milton-Parc), which remains intact today. The land in front and behind each building is collectively owned by the CMP. The declaration also set out legally binding conditions that members had to abide by, such as allocating a certain portion of vacant space to low-income residents. Once adopted as a bill under the Quebec National Assembly, it became the legal governing framework of the cooperatives.

The Committee’s activism did not stop with the establishment of the cooperatives and nonprofits, however, and the streets that surround McGill function as testament to the efforts of countless individuals over the span of many years. Sit-ins by the Milton-Parc Citizens Committee are the reason why the top section of Jeanne-Mance, near des Pins, is closed to traffic, and why Hutchinson is a one-way street, as well as why its intersection with des Pins has been reduced to only one lane. The Committee can also be accredited with the plaque on the exterior wall of La Cité, which acts as a token of reconciliation between the Citizens Community and the initially unwelcome apartment complex. Yellow Door, a nonprofit on Aylmer, was awarded property through the Committee’s Milton-Parc Housing Project, and remains a significant legacy of this cooperative movement.

As the Committee organized itself, the developers carried out phase one of their three-part plan. Among the buildings constructed during this phase were a hotel, now McGill’s New Residence Hall, the underground mall now known as Les Galeries du Parc, and the La Cité apartment high-rises.

The photos in this exhibit show a version of Milton-Parc that is uncannily similar to the one that exists today, diverging from the common use of visuals within the retelling of history to portray how drastically things change over time. Instead, the images show how little has changed, and pushes viewers to recognize the community responsible for preserving the neighborhood.
This exhibit forces its viewers to recognize the history of struggle behind the neighborhood that many members of the McGill community reside in. It also reminds us of the effectiveness of direct action and non-violent forms of protest, as well as the spirit of community behind the Milton-Parc area as it stands today. The efforts of the Milton-Parc Citizens Committee should guide us when property developers inevitably return to our communities.

Milton-Parc: How We Did It runs until March 17 and is open to the public, free of charge. For more information, visit the CCA’s website at cca.qc.ca.

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Much like in 2017, these purges are being carried out by state agents. Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic, has denied his involvement in the purges as well as the existence of queer people in Chechnya entirely. In December 2017 he was listed under the US Magnitsky Act for supporting extrajudicial killings, which has allowed the US to impose sanctions.

Until now, the persecutions have targeted mostly gay and bisexual men. It appears this most recent crackdown has expanded to target women as well. In addition, recent reports have described authorities destroying victims’ passports and pieces of identification in an effort to prevent them from leaving the country.

Andrea Houston, Communications and Development Officer for Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto based organization that works directly with the Russian LGBT network in Chechnya told the Daily, “with this new wave of arrests, it’s not just the people themselves; it’s their entire families, their networks. They’re finding LGBTQ people on social media, they’re confiscating their cell phones and looking for people’s names. They’re torturing people until they give up the names of other community members. To top it off, many of them are being taken to their families where they are being told to kill them.”

While understanding the motivation for the purges is merely speculative, Andrea Houston suggests that “it’s an ongoing terror campaign and that seems to be the motivation: to instill terror and invoke fear in the LGBTQ population.”

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