Notice a trend? To put it in cultural studies-speak, the subversive has been incorporated into the norm. All this sexy, gender-bending, potty-mouthed, usually morally suspect junk has been deemed morally acceptable because it’s in the name of the fight against cancer.

To be honest, I find all of it really nauseating. Then I feel like I should feel guilty or something. Even writing this article, am I doing something wrong criticizing the fight against cancer? But it just makes me feel weird, in the same way that campus charity has an all-you-can-drink club party to raise money for kids in Africa that don’t have any drinkable water makes me feel weird.

I know I’m not the only who feels weird about this stuff. Someone asked my boyfriend, “Did you shave off your moustache for Movember?” (He had been growing it for Halloween, so it just worked out that shaving it off post-Halloween meant shaving it off at the beginning of “Movember.”) When he said, “Yeah, I guess,” the person responded (without sarcasm), Good for you! Something isn’t working right if people are turning against the fight to cure a disease.

There’s this Seinfeld episode where Kramer participates in the AIDS walk, but he doesn’t want to wear a ribbon. He gets beat up. It’s really funny – but it also makes you think. Making these causes trendy works to mobilize people and raise awareness. That’s a good thing. But they also do other things, like in Kramer’s case: they dictate that there’s only one way to be a part of the movement. That’s a bad thing.

—
Whitney Mallett, U3 English Literature, is a former Daily Copy, Culture, and Features editor. She’s currently a member of the DPS Board of Directors. You can reach her at whitney.mallett@hotmail.com.

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The Conservative government has announced they will appeal the Ontario Superior Court’s decision, which would otherwise take effect in 30 days. The ruling only applies in Ontario, but if the ruling survives appeal, the government will almost certainly take the case to the Supreme Court. If Himel’s decision is upheld at the national level, the criminal prohibitions restricting sex work will be abolished across the country.

Hedy Fry, Liberal Vancouver-Centre MP and Chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, applauded the landmark ruling. “This is an important step in recognizing the constitutional rights of adult sex-trade workers to security of the person and acknowledges the difference between the rights of consenting adults and the exploitation of vulnerable persons,” she said.  
“[The ruling] means that the safety of sex workers is a new criteria to analyze prostitution. … Now, saving the lives of sex workers will be taken into account,” explained Pascale Robitaille, Outreach Team Coordinator for Stella, a Montreal community group run by and for sex workers. Stella is applying for intervener status in the appeal case. 
Fry explained why transparency means increased safety. “There are sex trade workers, especially street workers, who face greater risks daily, because they cannot call the police for protection or report a ‘bad trick,’” she said. 
Minister of Justice and Attorney General Rob Nicholson provided no explanation when he announced the Conservatives’ decision to appeal.

Fry suggested that disapproval can tacitly condone violence against sex workers. “There are still those who say that street sex workers are ‘not respectable’ and the work they do is ‘shameful and indecent’; ergo these are throw-away humans who ‘deserve what they get,’” she said.

“The state above all cannot be devoid of compassion and care for all of its citizens. The responsibility to do so is not limited to the ‘decent’ nor can it subjectively and ideologically measure that ‘virtue.’”

Robitaille and Susan Davis, a Vancouver sex worker and coordinator of the BC Coalition of Experimental Communities (BCCEC) both say they are unsurprised by the government’s decision to appeal. Davis’s testimony was used in the trial, along with research submitted by the BCCEC.

“The plan all along was to win this one and then win at Supreme Court level,” explained Robitaille.

“It’s good for [the case] to go through to the highest court of the land. … We just want to see [these laws] come down all over the country,” said Davis.

Davis is optimistic that the ruling will be upheld.

The laws struck down by Himel’s ruling were adopted in 1985 in response to complaints of sex work being a nuisance and an eyesore.

A 2006 report the Standing Committee on the Status of Women urged the decriminalization of sex work in combination with strategies to deal with intersecting social problems. Fry explained that these included “dealing with issues of poverty, addiction, the plight of urban aboriginals, prevention, education and helping women in the sex-trade with exit strategies when they wish to do so.”  

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“I moved to Montreal when I was 17. Dropped out of school. Toured North America for three years sleeping in parks and on couches and playing music,” says Susil Sharma. “Shortly thereafter, we flipped our van in a ditch somewhere in northern Vermont, lost all our money, and got deported. At that point I entered a brief depression and fled to Nepal where I received my mantra during my Upanayana [a Hindu rite of manhood].” Sharma then returned to Montreal to embark on the rest of his life.

As this was happening, Jeff Boyd was working in a play house in Hollywood. “I had come out of the house [where] I was living in Los Angeles – I was living on chicken corner. I opened the gate and there was a coyote. We just stood eye to eye. I knew I had to make a change,” professes Boyd. 
He booked a ticket to Montreal, and met Sharma late at night in Parc Jeanne-Mance. Boyd and Sharma started playing music together. Soon after, Dyck showed up on Sharma’s couch. The band Dirty Wedding was born.

The three have been playing together for over a year now. The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Otis Redding, Oasis, and Tom Petty are among their influences. They describe their music in one word: Soul.

Dirty Wedding aims to transcend the tendency of Montreal bands to cater their music to a hip niche audience. “We don’t subscribe to a scene. What we do isn’t just for the Plateau; it’s for everyone,” Boyd explains. “We don’t conform to anything that’s imposed on us,” adds Sharma. Tall claim, but from living with them, I know they’re not full of shit.

“We live together. Play everyday. We don’t work jobs – we’re dirt poor, hustle for everything we’ve got,” says Boyd. And whether it’s intuition or sheer determination, they’re not counting on needing to do anything else. “There’s no plan B. We have to do this,” confesses Dyck. “It’s the only thing that makes any lick of sense in this topsy-turvy scheme.”

Dirty Wedding is releasing their self-titled first album this week. “The last album we recorded in one take off the floor in one day,” notes Sharma. While the record was being produced, they wrote another album’s worth of songs. This second release is their real debut, they explain; it’s titled My Generation. Sharma proclaims, “It’ll be one of the biggest albums in the last decade.” He adds, “We’re the best band from Montreal. Second-best is Men at Work.” 
Their philosophy is somewhere in between brotherhood spirituality and gang mentality. They want free love, and they want world domination. And, most importantly, they want to resurrect rock ‘n’ roll. “It ain’t just a thing; we’re going to be around for a long time,” Dyck predicts. “It may not be in Montreal. It may not be in Canada, but someone’s gonna get an earful somewhere.” Sharma adds, “It’s an unspoken truth that silences the juror.”

“There’s nothing but within,” says Boyd. “That’s where our music comes from.”

Catch Dirty Wedding at 9 p.m. Thursday March 25 at Club Lambi (4465 St. Laurent).

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Through the Health Canada program, Bilodeau officially supplies three patients with marijuana for medical relief – which he grows for them absolutely free of charge. Off the books, to support the costs of growing, he sells his surplus to the Montreal Compassion Club, where he also works as a manager. The club dispenses medical marijuana to members who demonstrate a legitimate medical need, but haven’t got a doctor’s prescription and aren’t part of the government program.

“One of the ways to get quality marijuana in the Compassion Centre is relying on surpluses from people that have legal Health Canada permits. That part is still considered illegal, but we’re fighting strong because we believe there is no sense in throwing the cannabis away,” asserts Bilodeau.

Whether you are growing for yourself or for someone else with a medical need, the government limits the number of plants and grams of pot allowed. “There are ways to stay within your limits and still have a surplus,” Bilodeau points out. “There is no true value to a number of plants because you can have a super big plant or you can make many small plants. If the person is allowed 300 grams a month, you can produce 600 grams a month: you produce 300 grams every two weeks, which is never really illegal because you’re allowed to have 300 grams.”

—
The legal situation around medical marijuana is about as sticky as sticky green weed – even law enforcement officials find it baffling. The recent history of its partial legalization has been a chain reaction of reluctant allowances, which have resulted in unequal access and inconsistent risks, leaving many in a legal grey zone. Under the current system, Bilodeau explains that different doctors’ perceptions of marijuana use make it completely legal for some while it remains restricted for others. Permission for medical cannabis is granted on an individual basis: to buy it from the government through the Health Canada program, a patient’s doctor needs to sign off. To apply for a permit to grow, you also need a patient with a doctor’s signature. “Right off the bat, nine out of 10 doctors won’t sign the forms because they want nothing to do with marijuana – to them it’s something that’s evil,” Bilodeau says.

That’s where the compassion clubs come in. “[The Montreal Compassion Club’s] mission when we started in 1999 was to facilitate access to people who need it but who don’t have access to it legally,” said Bilodeau. Over the past decade and a half, dozens of similar non-profit community-based initiatives have opened across Canada.

In spite of these clubs’ efforts, Bilodeau notes that the demand for medical marijuana still exceeds the supply. Over 90 per cent of Canadians who use medical marijuana buy it from compassion clubs, according to the CBC. A Canadian AIDS Society report found that less than two per cent of medical users get their supply through the government program.

Many medical users resort to buying on the street. They have to break the law while stomaching higher prices and inconsistent quality. “It’s expensive, when you think of the black market, to get $10 of weed which is probably schwag and they don’t know what it is. Ten bucks a day: that’s like $3000 or $4000 a year,” explains Bilodeau.

The current system leaves growers without Health Canada permits especially vulnerable. “A lot of [the compassion centres’] growers…produce only for medical use but they don’t have the permits to protect themselves, so they’re the most at risk in the whole operation,” explains Bilodeau. “At the club where we dispense the marijuana…we’ve already gone to court and proven there is a medical demand for marijuana: we have that protecting us. And then the members, on an individual level, they have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that permits them to use marijuana for medical use.”

The complicated genealogy of these protections begins in 1996 when Terry Parker, an epileptic man who used marijuana to control his seizures, was arrested for possession. The next year, the judge ruled that the “security of a person” in the Canadian charter defended Parker’s right to smoke pot. “People were allowed to possess [marijuana] but weren’t allowed to buy it, so the government was not offering the actual medicine that it was allowing,” explains Bilodeau.

Across Canada, compassion clubs cropped up to provide a product to which the government had recognized sick Canadians had an inherent right but still refused to supply. The first clubs opened in Victoria, Vancouver, and Toronto in 1996.

A year after opening, the Montreal Club was busted in 2000 – nationwide, clubs were being taken to court around the same time. After a long-winded procedure, charges against the Montreal club were dismissed in 2002 and the club reopened. The judge ruled that people who use the drug as medicine need a safe and legal place to acquire it. The laws that got them in trouble in the first place, though, haven’t changed.

The complications posed by the compassion clubs made it clear that the government needed to define on what terms medical marijuana was legal and how it would be supplied. In 2001, the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations were created, which lists the conditions and symptoms that warrant access to marijuana – weight loss and nausea from cancer, severe pain from arthritis, and muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis all appear on the list. But it wasn’t until two years later that the government finally supplied the drug, in the form of either dried weed or seeds, to authorized users. Medical users have to pay for government pot out of their own pocket.

—
“The marijuana that the government offers is only one type of cannabis that works on one type of symptoms,” says Bilodeau. “It’s a really basic sativa strain. If it doesn’t work for you then you’re pretty much screwed,” Bilodeau says. Compassion clubs offer their members a variety of strains – the main argument for their continued existence in spite of the government program.

Before working at the club, Bilodeau, like most of us, thought, “You get stoned, you get stoned.” But he explains that there are different strains of cannabis that have different effects on the body: “Some people have arthritis; other people have nausea from chemo for cancer, and they don’t want to use the same type of cannabis.” The main distinction is that sativa strains provide more of an energetic and cerebral high while indicia strains provide more of a sleepy, whole body high. Bilodeau grows three different strains for his patients.

“We are creating the standard [for medical marijuana] with the compassion centres. It’s up to us to make something better because the government is not helping,” says Bilodeau, explaining that right now, there are no inspections or standards on medical pot or grow-ops.

“We’re working on opening a co-op of growers,” explains Bilodeau. “We’d inspect grow-ops and set a medical standard for growing marijuana. A grower would have to make sure he uses only natural products, no pesticides.”

For some people, marijuana is the only medicine that works. It has fewer side effects than many prescription medications, and it complements a more holistic view of health. “People don’t see it as a burden. It’s therapeutic for people to have a ritual, to roll their joint, to have fun with their medication,” says Bilodeau.

—
Before prohibition in the ’30s and ’40s, cannabis- and opiate-based medicine was common – parents even gave it to their children. “We’ve forgotten it was once legal, we’ve been living for so long in this prohibition,” says Bilodeau, adding that often people say, “‘We used [marijuana] to have fun; we didn’t even think of it as being medical.’ Then you speak to their parents or grandparents and they used to use it medically.”

The medical industry’s profit motives have played a role in the cultural shift toward synthetic medicines. “The only way to get a patent on a product is if you can synthesize the molecule. Obviously, you can’t synthesize a plant. Since God created it, no one can own it,” says Bilodeau. “That was a big threat for pharmaceutical companies.” Case in point, the medical ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, has been synthetically created and patented – it’s sold as Dronabinol or Marinol, which costs hundreds of dollars per month to use. Imagine the loss for these companies if the people using their product could just grow the same thing in their backyard.

Pharmaceutical companies aren’t the only ones threatened by cannabis, Bilodeau explains: “Marijuana comes from the same plant as hemp. Hemp was pushed to be illegal, which was really absurd because there’s no psychoactive value. But it was a big threat to the oil companies because from hemp fibres you can make clothing; the first Ford car was made with hemp plastics.”

In February 1937, Popular Mechanics Magazine predicted that hemp would be the world’s first “Billion Dollar Crop” that would support thousands of jobs and provide a vast array of consumer products, from dynamite to plastics. The same year, the United States passed legislation that levied a tax and added regulation to anyone who dealt commercially with hemp or marijuana. Also that year, DuPont Plastics received two patents that allowed them to replace hemp plastics with synthetic varieties.

The proponents of this legislation preyed on existing prejudices. Bilodeau explains that they would associate marijuana with black and Mexican Americans, saying that it drove these racial groups to crime and violence. He points the “the whole Reefer Madness-syndrome,” noting the 1936 propaganda film.

—
The war on drugs is still a big business. The Harper government’s Bill C-15 reminds us that laws and regulations on drugs rarely lead to harm reduction or ensure public safety. The bill proposed a mandatory minimum sentence of six months for any drug-related charge, even for the possession of one cannabis plant. It targeted marijuana more than hard drugs, and drug production rather than distribution. In short, it targeted people who grow pot, rather than the gangs who deal it.

“I have trouble trying to find the logic behind the Harper government,” says Bilodeau. He speculates that Harper plans to privatize prisons, creating a system where the more people there are in jail, the more the government profits.

A silver-lining to Parliament’s proroguement, however, is that Bill C-15 was dropped. Bilodeau hopes that the momentum behind medical marijuana will ensure it won’t be brought to the floor again: “There are so many permits being issued every day; there’s so many more clubs opening up across Canada that are selling marijuana. And every day that we’re open there’s new members. The cause becomes bigger and the fight is harder for them to win.”

—
Bilodeau has no doubts that the legalization of medical marijuana will lead to the drug’s full legalization: “Marijuana is marijuana, whether it’s medical marijuana or recreational marijuana. It’s the same God damn plant.” Even though in many ways it’s the same fight against prohibition, Bilodeau regrets that some people see medical marijuana as just an excuse to legalize recreational marijuana.

Outside of Canada, there are indications that prohibition is on its way out. President Barack Obama has relaxed the enforcement of medical marijuana and stopped federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in California. These dispensaries are legal under the state’s laws but not permitted by federal regulations.

Unfortunately, there are international pressures to reign in Canada’s growing tolerance toward pot. A U.N. watchdog is currently reviewing the national medical marijuana program, and the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board has suggested that it violates international treaty rules.

Despite the pressure to uphold zero-tolerance policies, Quebec is in the position to play a leading role in cannabis legalization within Canada. Bilodeau notes that our province’s unique Charter of Rights could be useful in promoting legalization across the nation. The Quebec Charter bars the discrimination against the use of any means to palliate a handicap and takes the onus off of individuals to prove their sickness if they are using marijuana medically. “We are trying to push our own Charter here. And if we legalize it here, then it will create a domino effect across Canada,” he predicts.

“This is my life, my business, and what I’m truly going to be doing for the rest of my life,” says Bilodeau. When it comes to the future of medical marijuana in Canada, he’s optimistic: “It’s not absurd to think that one day I’ll be able to be totally open about everything I do.”

—–
This article has been amended from the original version published in print on March 15, 2010.

The post Legal green zone appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The McGill Daily: Why do you paint 40s?
Mark Stroemich: I use the 40 bottle as a base to start a painting. I try to approach every new 40 painting in a different way. I use the 40 as an object to explore different ways of painting. It’s just a symbol that holds together an inconsistent body of work. I think it’s very important to try new things not only in painting and art but in life. I will always try a new 40.

MD: Do you paint when you’re drunk?
MS: I don’t normally paint drunk. Although in the past I have used alcohol when I was struggling to start. 
MD: Is beer your favourite drug?
MS: Beer is my favourite drug. I don’t do weed. I used to. Now I do harder drugs.

MD: Do you remember your first 40 – or your first beer?
MS: In high school I remember drinking 40s after water polo practice every Friday with my teammates. I don’t remember my first 40 – it probably tasted like piss and made me puke. The first beer I drank was a Coors Light that my friends and I stole from our parents’ barbecue. We couldn’t handle the taste so we poured it into a Slurpee.

MD: Describe the taste of malt liquor.

MS: Malt liquor can taste like a sweet juice, like poison, or warm piss.

MD: What’s your favourite brand?
MS: I don’t have a favourite brand. It’s all the same shit. I like the ones that are aesthetically pleasing and have good design.

MD: If you were a millionaire would you still drink 40s?
MS: I would hope that I would still drink them if I was a millionaire. A forty would be a good reality check for a millionaire. 

—Compiled by Whitney Mallett

The post Cheap drunk appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Just like prescription medication, street drugs can be used and they can be abused. The potential for benefit or for harm must not be reduced to what’s legal and what’s illegal. The growing tolerance of the medicinal use of marijuana is a prime example. Another: heroin is still prescribed by doctors in the U.K. as a remedy for severe pain.

Susan Davis, coordinator of the B.C. Coalition of Experimental Communities, regrets the increased drug regulations that have accompanied the government’s renovations of single-room occupancy residences in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Vancouver.

“A zero-tolerance for drug use policy is in direct conflict with recommendations for post-traumatic stress,” explains Davis. “[Enforcing prohibition] is punishing people for symptoms of violence they’ve experienced.”

Both leftists and libertarians – whether they argue for harm-reduction strategies or support individual medical freedom – agree that prohibition is not the answer.

Gabor Mate, a doctor who has worked with addicts in the Downtown Eastside, is in favour of the decriminalization of street drugs. In an interview with the Toronto Star, she explains, “Prohibition doesn’t work. Addiction happens because people are traumatized, not because drugs are available.”

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to one class of men, and deny equal privilege to others, will be to constitute the Bastille of medical science,” said Benjamin Rush in 1787. Rush was one of the founding fathers of the United States and a pioneer of therapeutic approaches to addiction. His wish never came true: medical freedom was not put into the American Constitution.

A lack of protections for medical choice has resulted in a medical-scientific community whose infallibility is rarely questioned. Western medicine offers many benefits. However, time and time again, it also fails to provide holistic treatment. It also causes harm: the American health care system is responsible for between 225,000 and 284,000 deaths annually from unnecessary surgeries, pharmaceuticals, and infections caught in hospitals, according to Barbara Starfield, a professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In Quebec hospitals, the super-virus Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus plagues patients – and as the name explains, the virus has become resistant to antibiotics due to its over-exposure to them.

Whether or not you agree with the legalization of cocaine or heroin for self-medication, the idea of taking an interest in your own health is worth consideration. Rather than always deferring our health to other authorities and bureaucratic institutions, we should take an active role in our own well-being.

Whitney Mallett thinks she’s a U2 English student. She’s also The Daily’s features editor. Write her at features@mcgilldaily.com.

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“We want to be allowed to come back inside,” states Susan Davis, a Vancouver sex worker and the coordinator of the British Columbia Coalition of Experimental Communities (BCCEC). Across the country, sex workers are demanding the same thing. Last week, ex-sex worker Sheryl Kiselbach took the stand in the B.C. Court of Appeals in an attempt to overturn a ruling that dismissed her constitutional challenge to prostitution laws on the basis that they intensify the dangers of sex work. A similar legal battle is being fought by dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford and others in Ontario. 
Davis has taken a different route to get sex workers safely inside. The BCCEC proposed opening a cooperative brothel owned by sex workers in time for the 2010 Olympic Games. Its approval depended on an exemption from the clause criminalizing bawdy houses. The BCCEC was twice denied federal funding for such a project. Instead of supporting this groundbreaking initiative and the improved working conditions it entails, the Games are turning out to be “a disaster for sex workers in the East End and the West End,” says Davis.

“The Downtown Eastside of Vancouver is really sandwiched between multiple Olympic venues, and the entire community is concerned about the influx of tourists, media, and security forces into this small community,” says Kerry Porth, executive director of Prostitution Alternatives, Counseling, and Education Society (P.A.C.E.). Porth anticipates that security, traffic restrictions, and congestion will make sex work more difficult, and speculates that this could lead to workers putting themselves in riskier situations than they otherwise would.

In addition to increased dangers, the Games will not be the payday many were hoping for. “Increased security means we will be cut off from clientele,” says Davis. The period before the Olympics is turning out to be especially sparse. “People have been migrating here expecting big money for the Olympics. Right now, there’s just what money there usually is, being divided between more people,” she explains. “We’re starving.”

Fry also notes concerns that an increase in the demand for sex caused by the Olympics will aggravate trafficking and exploitation. She explains that in preparation for the games, the Standing Committee on the Status of Women met with the RCMP and Canadian Border Services, whose plans involve a public awareness campaign.

BCCEC, P.A.C.E., and other organizations are providing support for sex workers during the Olympics. The Mobile Access Project van, operated by WISH Wellness Centre and P.A.C.E., will continue its services seven nights a week. The van provides nighttime services and supplies like juice, water, condoms, and clean needles for working women. And P.A.C.E. will have some food outreach for the duration of the Games, says Porth. 
Davis and Porth note that these organizations will be distributing media packets to prepare sex workers for the increased number of reporters in the area. These are the same packets they distributed during the Pickton trials, and they outline sex workers’ rights to refuse interviews. The packets also provide a list of questions they might be asked if they do choose to speak with reporters. 
Many media outlets incorrectly reported that P.A.C.E. would be holding media training for sex workers in November. “I found it very interesting that this erroneous story was picked up internationally and treated, in some cases, as some kind of a joke,” notes Porth. Even more troubling is that this inaccurate story is some of the only attention given to how the Olympics will affect sex workers. 
Reactions to the brothel
“Olympics or not, these women need stability and safety now,” says Davis, explaining that the proposed co-op brothel aimed to provide a clean and secure place to work, including a panic button in each room and facilities for workers to wash after entertaining clients. 
But BCCEC’s proposed brothel was met with diverse emotional responses. Frontline workers in the Downtown Eastside, former Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, MP Libby Davies, and the Vancouver Organizing Commitee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games were among the project’s supporters. Opposition came from escort agencies that were threatened by organized competition, and women’s groups opposed to any sort of legitimization of sex work. In the end, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson refused the initiative.

Media coverage of the debate pitted Davis against Daisy Kler of the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, the brothel’s most vocal opponent. Kler told press outlets that the brothel “entrenches prostitution as legitimate, and therefore legitimatizes pimps and traffickers.” Kler ignored The Daily’s repeated requests for an interview. 
“The anti-brothel campaign lied about the intention of our enterprise,” says Davis. “They have misinterpreted us in so many ways, saying we are trying to profit off vulnerable women. It’s a co-op; sex workers own it; they have developed and designed it…. No one profits. We don’t want to round people up. We don’t support red light districts.”

Kler’s opposition seems based in a conviction that an industry that includes exploitation and human trafficking should never be legitimated or legalized. But Davis sees regulation as the only way to rid the sex industry of these deplorable aspects: “We need balance, acceptance, and transparency in the industry. We need to be able to weed out the people are exploiting [sex workers].”

Davis had ambitions that the brothel could be a safe place, but also a space for celebration. Her plans included a museum and gallery showcasing the history of prostitution and showgirls, and artwork by sex workers. “We wanted sex workers to put on a play during the Games so they could connect with the cultural aspect of the Olympics,” she adds.

The Olympic Games was a missed opportunity for Canada to spotlight innovative initiatives that would give sex workers security and respect. “They might have seen it as a chance to prove we are at the forefront of something…. They could have shown the world that we are doing something meaningful,” says Davis. “It’s so hard to watch us being destroyed on the international stage.”

“Solicitation laws currently in the criminal code leave exploited women more vulnerable. This must be dealt with before Canada can play a leadership role,” notes Fry.

It’s unfortunate Canada hasn’t yet made these necessary changes in legislation. However, the Copenhagen climate conference – which levelled a harsh blow at Denmark’s legalized sex industry – demonstrated that laws need to be coupled with an attitude of respect and acceptance. Copenhagen’s city council sent postcards to each delegate’s hotel room reading “Be Sustainable – Don’t Buy Sex.” The Sex Workers’ Interest Group fought back with a system that turned these warnings into coupons for free sex.

On the plus side
Davis illustrates the innovative partnership between sex workers and the Vancouver police: “Nowhere else is there a sex worker liaison officer.” She also notes the positive steps that have been made through the two parties working together over the past few years as a result of the Sex Industry Workers Safety Action Group. 
Despite the disappointments that the approaching Games have brought her cause, Davis applauds the police’s interaction with sex workers in the lead-up to the Games. Due to the location of the Olympic headquarters, sex workers have been displaced from Seymour stroll, a street with some of the highest earning potential in the city, where one can make $200 to $600 per client, says Davis. “They didn’t arrest anyone; they just told them to move down the street. It’s harmful to be displaced from where they can earn a high wage, but it’s still a leap forward,” she explains. “It shows a shift from punishment to protection.”

That the Women’s Memorial March is maintaining its date and route is another source of consolation. Because of the Olympics, the city initially attempted to change its itinerary. A petition was launched, which Davis notes was successful. As a result, the 14th-annual march commemorating missing or murdered women will keep its usual schedule. 
History of violence
There is a correlation between high rates of violence against women and the criminalization of the peripheral activities of sex work. “The year they kicked us out of supper clubs and bars was the year the first murder took place of a sex worker,” says Davis. The communication law came into effect in 1985 and aimed to reduce the visibility of sex work in response to residents’ complaints of it being a nuisance. In “Violence and the Outlaw Status of (Street) Prostitution,” John Lowman finds a dramatic increase in the murders of sex workers after 1985. This law makes sex workers vulnerable because they cannot properly judge their potential clients. They legally cannot take time to talk in a public place and ensure that they feel secure in the situation. 
“There must be a change in the laws that deal with communicating for the purposes of soliciting, with living off the avails of prostitution, and with running a bawdy house,” Fry explains, citing that this was the conclusion reached by both the recent Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws, of which she was a member, and the 1985 Fraser Commission. She adds that Liberal and NDP members of the committee recommended decriminalization.

Fry urges more than a constitutional amendment: “Just changing legislation is not enough; there must be a program of public awareness.” She notes that this program must work to prevent exploitation and provide assistance and tools for women who want to exit the profession.

Olympic aftermath
Development in the area escalated by the Olympics creates an uncertain fate for the residents of the Downtown Eastside, where many of the city’s sex workers live and work. Plans to sell the property as condos and rental suites have quelled rumours that the community may be transplanted to the athletes’ village. However, as the high end developments of Gastown creep closer and closer to the Downtown Eastside, the survival of the community is in jeopardy. Rent will inevitably rise with property value nearby. Davis also notes that the Downtown Eastside itself is some of Vancouver’s most valuable property. “Ultimately, the area will be developed,” she says. 
The city has already renovated many of the old hotels in the neighbourhood. Davis says that while this improves living conditions for residents, development has been coupled with stricter rules. “They were some of the last places where [residents] could freely live, doing drugs and turning tricks,” she says. 
On the whole, development is positive, according to Davis. While the benefits of the Olympics are not yet palpable, she is sure they will reveal themselves in time: “I think that all the infrastructure that came with the building for the Olympics will make this into an international city. A good economy is good for sex workers.”

The post Discrimination of Olympic proportions appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Because gold-farming usually exists outside the law, it is largely undocumented – making it difficult to grasp the size and scale of the industry. In “Current Analysis and Future Research Analysis on ‘Gold-Farming,’” Cambridge professor Richard Heeks explains that annual revenue could range from US$200-million to US$20-billion. He also estimates there at least 400,000 gold farmers and five to 10-million buyers.

The vast majority of gold-farming takes place in China, but it’s also been documented in other East Asian countries, and to some degree, in Mexico and Russia. Business models vary, but most reports describe micro-enterprises typically run out of a one- or two-room apartment or office spaces with 10 or 20 employees and computers.

Remko Tanis, a Dutch freelance correspondent living and working in Shanghai, explains that gold-farming firms crop up on the outskirts of cities where rent is cheap. Often, there are colleges nearby where potential employees can be found – most gold-farmers are males in their late teens or early twenties who are already familiar with MMORPGs.

Myth-busting
Though most know little about gold-farming, those that do usually associate it with words like “sweatshop” – just look at the Wikipedia page. This image of an exploitive industry is grossly distorted. Heeks affirms that “most [gold-farmers] enjoy their work and that the oft-applied ‘virtual sweatshop’ label is at best partial and at worst inappropriate.”

Tanis explains that the gold-farmers in Shanghai whom he spoke with “all said they were playing these games anyways, so why not try to make money out of it.” Tanis finds that many continued to play the same games in their free time. He added, “The problem is more that they are addicted to the computer than that they are being exploited as computer slaves.”

Heeks and Tanis both place a gold farmers’ monthly pay at about US$200 to US$250 – slightly higher than the average in China. “Pay and conditions are poor by Western standards but are good or better than the alternatives that gold farmers face,” Heeks notes. Victimizing narratives are often unsubstantiated and reveal the Western penchant to impose their opinions of acceptable employment onto others. Ulises Mejias, an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Oswego, explains, “There is a tendency for us in the ‘First World’ to look at an image of, say, a bunch of shirtless guys in a room somewhere in Asia and immediately think ‘sweatshop’ and ‘oppression.’”

Along with pay and conditions, the nature of gold-farmers’ work is often criticized. Killing the same monsters and retracing the same game-space for gold coins is boring and repetitive. An anonymous gold-farmer in Heeks’s paper is quoted: “You try going back and forth clicking the same thing for 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week, then you will see if it’s a game or not.” However, accusations lodged against the automated nature of gold-farmers’ virtual tasks deserve reassessment. Heeks’s research finds that many gold-farmers gain a sense of achievement from their work and saw little difference between play and work.

The measures many gaming companies have taken against gold-farming threaten the livelihood of these digital labourers, but they also diversify and enhance the complexity of their work. Gold farmers have to outwit the gaming companies so that their clients can continue to buy characters, weapons, capital, and access to levels without being noticed. Tanis explains, “It challenges the people here to get smarter.” Heeks also notes that gold-farming may provide valuable IT skills, and could potentially be a step toward more highly skilled work as a programmer.

Gold-farming is typically thought of in terms of a simple dichotomy: the rich Westerners buy the virtual products and the poor Easterners slave away acquiring them. But this narrative only vaguely fits a small portion of the industry. Since the late nineties, Asian countries have developed and launched their own MMORPGs, and Heeks notes that although the global gold-farming trade garners the most attention, it is likely smaller than national, regional, and local trade. Heeks and Tanis both point out that the market for gold-farming is actually much bigger in Asia than in Europe or North America. Tanis explains that gold-farming firms in cities in the southeast of China, like Shanghai, “tend to specialize in the domestic market, and some other Asian countries.”

Last year, students from Ithaca College worked with Mejias and Tanis, as well as other academics, to research gold-farming. Their blog, although titled stopgoldfarming.wordpress.com, shows a movement away from their initial, unequivocal negative stance toward gold-farming – assuming it exploited workers. Their final posts from last April acknowledge that their primary assumptions were called into question and that gold-farmers are not necessarily victims of the industry.

Cheating fantasy
Although the demand for virtual trading comes from gamers, the biggest opposition to gold-farming is also from individuals in gaming communities. Nicholas Yee, a research scientist from Palo Alto Research Center, estimates that 22 per cent of the tens of millions of online game players participate in trading. Although this means there is a huge market for gold-farmers, it also suggests that most gamers object to the idea of buying wealth and status in the games. It’s cheating.

Cooper Sellers, an American who manages nogold.org and other gaming-related sites, explains that “being able to ‘buy’ your way to the higher levels degrades the accomplishments of the others who earn their prestige through hard work.” The site aimed to help web masters of MMORPG-related sites who opposed gold-farming through efforts like blacklisting ads from gold-farming brokers.

It seems convenient for gaming companies to align themselves with anti-gold-farming activism when their primary concerns are the integrity and quality of their game play. An unofficial World of Warcraft web site (wow.com) posted an article promoting an upcoming documentary about Chinese gold-farming made by Ge Jin, a USCD Ph.D. student.

About anti-gold-farming members of the gaming community, Tanis speculated, “I don’t think they’re at all concerned with sweatshop practices. They might say it because that sounds better than ‘they cheat their way into my fantasy world.’’’
Virtual racism
Unfortunately, gold-sellers rather than gold-buyers become the targets of gamers’ resentment toward what they deem unfair play in games, which, for many, are more “real” than reality. For all players, gold-farmers, gold-buyers, and those that object to the practice, MMORPGs can provide a welcome escape from reality and a virtual world where a fantasy avatar gives the individual a greater sense of fulfillment than their position in the real world. However, resentment toward cheating often manifests in in-game racism, which can make the game a hostile place for gold-farmers, and even other players with poor English assumed to be gold-farmers.

Gold-farmers are often easy to spot, and other players often go out of their way to kill their characters or send them hateful and violent messages. In “The Life of a Chinese Gold Farmer,” Julian Dibbley’s 2007 article for the New York Times, she notes the disturbing racism in homemade movies on sites like Youtube titled, “Chinese Gold Farmers Must Die” and “Chinese Farmer Extermination.”

This is “how racial meanings can be insidously re-mapped in cyberspace” explains Dean Chan of Edith Cowan University. Yee finds the vocabulary of this in-game racism eerily familiar – noting similar tropes of disease and pestilence and a need for extermination associated with Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. He notes the similarities between the contemporary and historical narratives: “Chinese immigrant workers being harrassed and murdered by Westerners who feel they alone constitute acceptable labour.”

Efforts to fight gold-farming often rely on other players’ hostility toward gold-farming, as they are encouraged to report suspicious behaviour – for instance, a character trolling the same area over and over again for gold. These accounts are then banned, which can compromise gold-farmers’ employment. Tanis notes that gaming companies may have been trying to maximize profits – by eliminating gold-farming, players are unable to buy their way into higher levels, and must pay months of subscription fees to earn it through proper play. However, Heeks points out that “doing nothing about gold-farming also costs nothing whereas doing something costs money in staff time and other resources.”

Corporate farming
Despite the measures taken to prohibit gold-farming, it continues. Gaming companies have already started to realize the potential for economic gain by incorporating it into their business model. Mejias explains, “While MMORPGs initially tried to ignore and then repress gold farming…they will realize there is a demand and figure out a way to make money from it.”

This is already happening to some extent. Mejias and Heeks both note that Sony Online Entertainment hosts trading for their game Everquest 2 – Sony’s 10 per cent commission earned them $250,000 the first year. Heeks also notes that many Asian games, which follow a free-to-play business model rather than a monthly subscription like Western games, sell levels and characters – capitalizing on the demand for the services gold-farmers provide. This model, however, leaves no room for gold-farmers who profit from the demand for purchasing fast-tracked virtual goods and services, and the gaming companies’ failure to provide them.

Mejias explains that what started out “in the interstices of the network…will become mainstream, and more importantly, automated.” This leaves an uncertain future for gold-farmers whose services may receive less reward, or may not be required at all in this new business model.

Gaming governmentality
Looking toward the future of the industry, questions of government involvement arise. Like other cyber activities, governments have difficulty understanding and regulating gold-farming. Mr. Wang, a gold-farm owner that Tanis interviewed, explained that he tried to apply for a government registration in order to pay taxes and get insurance and social security for his employees, but the government turned away his request because they didn’t understand if his business was farming or virtual gaming. Heeks’s research finds some gold-farming firms in China registered and paying taxes – an obvious economic incentive for governments to regulate the industry.

The Korean government banned the trading of virtual currency in 2007, but little has been done to enforce this prohibition. There are claims China has a similar ban in place, but Tanis, a Shanghai resident, explains that if this is true it would have little relevance or consequence. On the other hand, Heeks’ notes that there are reports that local governments in China have invested directly in gold-farming.

Real-world implications
One solution proposed, which relies on regulation, has a fair-trade model for gold-farming. For the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival at Ithaca College in New York State, Mejias organized an alternate reality game that explored “whether there could be fair-trade gil [gold], just like Fair Trade coffee and chocolate – in other words, a system for compensating workers appropriately.” Mejias is, however, skeptical that this would be feasible. He doubts that the Chinese government will regulate the industry and predicts that it will inevitably be incorporated into the games by the game manufacturers themselves.

Another inhibition to a fair-trade model is that many workers may already be compensated proportionally to the value of their work. According to Heeks’s research, most micro-enterprises seem to pay the workers relative to the profit made by the firm. This being said, business models are diverse across the industry, and numbers show both firms just breaking even, as well as firms with the potential for super-profits. Heeks notes one South Korean entrepreneur who out-sourced Chinese gold-farmers for the Korean game Lineage and made $9.6-million in three years. The potential for this super-profitability is less likely since the deflation of virtual gold in 2007.

Whether this virtual world merely reproduces current labour patterns of inequity and exploitation, or if the features of digital technology could create different and better patterns is difficult to ascertain. Heeks writes that gold -farming largely reproduced “real-world institutions and social forces” in the virtual realm. But, he also finds reason to be more optimistc. After the price of virtual gold fell in 2007, changes took place necessary for its survival, one being that intermediary brokers between the gold-farmers and the gamers were largely cut out and power became more dispersed. “While this falls short of an argument that technology has transformed social structures and behaviours,” notes Heeks, “it means the mix of technology, structure, and agency is unpredictable.”

Though the issues related to gold-farming currently have little audience aside from gamers and academics, these are questions that we all should be contemplating, as the commodification of the Internet increasingly infiltrates our day-to-day lives through sites like Facebook and Twitter. Insisting that the victims of this commodification are only other people on other continents shifts the focus away from the primary issues. “Underlying cyber-Orientalism…serves to conceal the fact that…we all find ourselves being (sometimes willingly) exploited by Web 2.0 companies,” says Mejias. “It’s just we find it much easier to think of those being exploited as the Chinese…. But at least the folks in China are getting paid!”

The post All your digital labour are belong to us appeared first on The McGill Daily.

While in Montreal, Califia is hosting two workshops presented by Queer McGill. The first, titled “FTM body image and sexuality,” takes place today at 6 p.m. in the SSMU Clubs Lounge on the fourth floor of Shatner (3480 McTavish). Much of the workshop will focus on creating new definitions of masculinity for female-to-male transsexual folks. Although the workshop will be anchored in discussion of one group of transgendered people, many of the topics of discussion – relationships, body image, fantasies, lovemaking, and the pressures of conformity – apply to everyone. The second workshop, titled “The Psychology and Spirituality of Erotic Pain” will take place tomorrow at 6 p.m. in room B-30 in Shatner. In this session, Califia will provide basic info on bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism (BDSM). Most of the presentation will feature a live exploration of the top/bottom dynamic – with the help of a brave volunteer. Do not attend this workshop if explicit BDSM play offends you. For more information on these events, visit queermcgill.ca.

The post Busting binaries appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Every state in the U.S. has a sex offender registry. In many states, registration is for life. Some states require registration for soliciting sex and indecent exposure. Public access means anyone can readily access the name, address, and photo of the registered individuals online, subjecting them to vigilante crimes, which have, in the past, included murder. Restrictions limit where they can live and work. In Florida, registered offenders cannot live within 2,500 feet of places children may gather – this leaves almost nowhere in the state for them to live. In 2007, CNN reported a group of convicted child abusers that the Department of Corrections moved under an overpass. Their reported situation is shocking; however, little follow-up attention was given to this marginalized community.

Canada created its own registry in 2004. It is thankfully not public (although some lobby groups argue it should be). Still, it is part of a worrisome trend in Canada’s corrections system. Under Stephen Harper’s administration, sentences have been increased for serious and violent crimes, which include sexual assault. Presently, a lack of funding threatens to close Alberta’s only sex-offender rehabilitation program. Nationwide, the focus seems to be mistakenly placed on punishment rather than recovery.

Registries fulfill the admirable task of keeping the public – especially children – safe. Measures undoubtedly must be in place to protect children. However, policies are often passed following highly publicized violent and disturbing crimes taking advantage of fervent emotions, and little research is done to ensure their efficacy.

Recidivism rates prove that Canadian prisons often fail to rehabilitate sex offenders. The Correctional Service of Canada notes the inherent difficulties in calculating “overall” recidivism rates due to the varying nature of offenders and their offences; often misdemeanours like parole violations skew these statistics. The John Howard Society of Alberta (a non-profit agency concerned with crime prevention) reports that 42 per cent of child molesters in Canada were re-convicted of a violent or sexual crime within a 15- to 30-year follow-up period. Even taking into account the problematic nature of these sorts of statistics, this number suggests recidivism is real threat, especially for children.

However, the thinking behind registries paints all convicted sex offenders as monstrous perverts eager to return to the bushes around schoolyards the instant they get out of prison. In fact, the nature of sex offences varies drastically from case to case. Wendy Whitaker is an extreme example of how measures taken to protect can cause only harm. As a 17-year-old, Whitaker performed oral sex on a consenting classmate, who happened to be weeks away from 16. She was charged with sodomy, which in Georgia included oral sex even between willing spouses until 1996. Because of a change to a clause that makes sex between two teenagers a misdemeanour, not a crime, her actions would not be illegal today. She is still registered as sex offender. A local television station broadcasted a map of where she lived. Restrictions bar her from living within 1,000 feet of any school, park, library, or swimming pool, and working within 1,000 feet of a school or child-care centre. Consequently, she was evicted from her home, and her husband lost his job and health insurance.

Whitaker is an easy example of the inhumane treatment of sex offenders. However, all sex offenders should be given basic human rights, such as a place to live. The way our society dehumanizes perpetrators of sexual assault is unacceptable and unproductive – from the language used in media that essentializes them as “rapists” or “child molesters” to the restrictions registries impose on them that breach their privacy and subject them to violence. This does not prevent sexual assault; nor does it not compensate for the damage abuse inflicts on its survivors.

Whitney Mallett is a U2 English Literature student and The Daily’s Features editor. Write her at features@mcgilldaily.com.

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Compared to many artists, Savage makes music at a frantic pace. Spread Free is but the latest of three albums he’s written since he moved to Montreal from Edmonton last fall – and his fourth effort in the past two years. “I work on two or three albums a year. A year is a long time,” says Savage, downplaying his productivity.

While his most recent album was materializing, Savage confesses he was listening to a lot of Yoko Ono. But most of his prairie summer was spent revisiting past pleasures. “When I go through my old records at my dad’s house, I sometimes flip around a lot, just from favourite song to favourite song,” explains Savage. “It’s a trip down memory lane.” And like his time in Edmonton, his new songs are ripe with nostalgia. Stories of heartache mingle with yearnings for blue skies and summer nights.

Traces of Leonard Cohen and Tom Petty can be heard on the album, respectively, in the melancholic “Kisses Like A Girl,” adorned with ethereal back-up vocals, and in the ringing guitars that run through “Heart Wish.”

Savage’s trip to the Arctic in August also found its way into the album: “I finished the words and put together the song ‘Grandson’ while up in the Northwest Territories.” He adds, “I had a lovely time. I drank and ate well, and I fly-fished.”

Savage, who’s known to endorse casual nudity, collaged the album cover with photos of his friends’ naked bodies. It’s his lyrics, however, that catch him at his most strikingly bare – revealing a frustrated romantic life, in which he never gets the girl (and hears her with another guy), or when he does, he can’t love her.

Don’t feel too sorry for Savage, though. He’s got his first vinyl release to look forward to. When I spoke with him, he was just finalizing song selections for the 12-inch, which will feature a combination of songs from Spread Free and his previous release Sunshine Melodies/Weird Daze. The record will be released on local label Arbutus, with whom Sean has worked on his past three albums.

Tonight, Savage kicks off his tour with Vancouver-based Jasper Baydala. They take the stage with local folk act Oxen Talk, before journeying west. “This tour is going to be an adventurous one,” Savage forebodes.

The post Getting under your skin appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Psychic Handshake was born out of little more than three friends and their rough idea of founding a record label. The buds, Shaun Anderson, Lisa Czech, and Graeme Langdon thought it was “mind boggling” that no one wanted to produce a record for the ex-Montreal, NYC-based band the Nymphets. And they were onto something–—all 500 copies of the garage punk band’s debut seven-inch sold out. Since then, Psychic Handshake has put out two more records: a 12-inch for the Montreal band Red Mass and an LP for the Edmonton-based Wicked Awesomes (currently number two on CKUT’s Top 30 chart). Anderson puts an emphasis on communally making wise choices about which bands Psychic Handshake works with. He explains, “We set out to put out quality releases. We just want to do records we all feel strongly about.”

In addition to selecting quality bands, Psychic Handshake’s business model is sure to keep artists on board. The label gives a quarter of the pressings to the band–—most labels often offer between 10 and 15 per cent. Anderson emphasizes fairness when explaining the motivation for such a generous cut. He adds, “It’s pretty much the most you can give away and still make money.”

While the World Wide Web is directly responsible for the crippling downturn in record sales over the past decade due to music downloading, online traffic has helped rather than hurt smaller labels. “If it wasn’t for the Internet, people wouldn’t find out about the sort of bands that we put out,” says Anderson.  
In addition to exposing the bands they release to a wider audience, the Internet has proven to be the most economical way to sell records for Psychic Handshake. Anderson explains that “when you consign, you end up getting owed thousands of dollars.” In other words, record stores only pay labels after the albums have sold out. But online distributors, Anderson notes, “pay cash up front. ” In these online stores based out of various cities across Canada and the U.S., Psychic Handshake’s records are featured alongside other punk albums released on indie labels. Anderson adds that it’s been frustrating getting on board with larger distributers who often have access to a wider market: “A lot of distributers don’t take you seriously unless you’ve put out so many records.” He’s optimistic, though, that these distributors will give them the time of day as the label gains notoriety.

While Anderson points out that “the market for vinyl is stronger than it has been in 20 years, and there’s so much interest in punk and underground music,” he also acknowledges that “it’s a huge financial risk.” Anderson, Czech, and Langdon each invested about $600 when they started the label, and they’re only now starting to earn it slowly back. Although the first release was successful, it cost them money. Due to a miscalculation, they were underselling the album by 20 cents before they realized their error. Their second release, however, is proving to be more profitable.  
Although Psychic Handshake has two more releases of Montreal bands lined up, Dead Wife and TONSTARTSSBANDHT, Anderson urges, “We never set out to be localized label.” The group is set on continuing to work with bands from all over–—possible fall releases include a split between two Miami bands, Electric Bunnies and Jacuzzi Boys. Anderson explains that he and his partners didn’t have a big picture in mind when they put out their first release, but now their ambitions to release quality albums to an international market have become clear.

Arbutus, on the other hand, is a community-based project. Sebastien Cowan, who heads the label, records and lives in the Mile-End art collective Lab synthèse, also involved in small-scale literature, visual art, and theatre projects. Cowan, who is close friends with the handful of artists he represents, explains that “the part that really interests [him] is working creatively with the artists”–—something which isn’t typically a responsibility of the label. While Psychic Handshake prefers that bands come to them with recordings already done, Cowan focuses on physically producing the records.

Cowan’s hands-on approach means that he runs a sort of one-man show, singly responsible for recording, mixing, mastering, designing, marketing, and distributing the releases. He appreciates distributing the music himself over the Internet at labsynthese.com: “I get to interact with the consumer directly, get to know who they are, how they found out about it.” (The recordings are also available by consignment at a few stores in Montreal and Edmonton.)
Producing albums on CD-Rs is cheaper than vinyl. Cowan explains, “I risk a couple hundred dollars when we do a run, and I always make it back.” His venture is in the early stages: Arbutus’ first album came out last August. Since then, the label has put out four more, all also on CD-R, a practical choice because of the cost and the accessibility–—you can buy them at the drugstore. Cowan also notes, “With CD-Rs you can press as many or as little as you want and the price difference isn’t significant.”

Among the handful of artists that Arbutus represents, there’s a diversity of musical styles–—Sean Savage puts out melodic eccentric pop, Oxen Talk make gentlemanly acoustic folk, Claire Boucher sings dreamy ukulele-accentuated tunes, and in the past the label’s also worked with straight-up rock ‘n’ roll bands. This range keeps Cowan challenged as he confesses: “In order to be satisfied [he needs] to be doing a lot of different things.” And while he doesn’t cater to a certain niche, Cowan appreciates the ability to introduce fans of one artist to the others on the label: “One of the most interesting things about a label is how it can act as a curator.” Although Arbutus’ releases span a variety of sounds, the artists are all in the same insular Mile-End scene–—a drawback when it comes to expanding the audience of each artist.

Brett Wagg’s cassette venture Campaign for Infinity is also grounded in the local scene, putting out weird punk and psych music that sounds good coated in tape hiss.Wagg lives at the Griffintown loft and venue Friendship Cove, where many of the bands he works with play regularly. Campaign for Infinity has existed since last spring. Without any concrete plans, Wagg bought a tape duplicator and, when bands were in need of merchandise for touring, “it kind of went from there,” he explains. Wagg, who has always had a soft spot for tapes, cites the benefits of using a format that’s fast and cheap. He adds that the medium gives a warm feeling for low-cost releases.   
So far, the label has been prolific. In a little over a year, it’s put out around 27 releases, each in runs of about a hundred tapes. The lo-fi recordings on coloured tapes are matched up with sexy, psychedelic album art. Wagg evidently realizes that he’s not just selling the music, but an entire package. He distributes these releases online at campaignforinfinity.blogspot.com, and they’re also available for sale at Cheap Thrills in Montreal ,as well as shops in Halifax and Ottawa.  
Looking ahead, Wagg maintains the same casual attitude with which he started the label. “A lot of this stuff is pretty spontaneous, so who knows what the future holds?” He’ll definitely be keeping busy with a handful of releases on the docket for fall, including a larger run of an international compilation comprising acts from Canada, U.S., and Britain. He also adds he’s excited about working with Psychic Handshake in the near future, a collaboration that exemplifies the camaraderie of the local scene.

Making real records is far more expensive than putting music out on CD or tape. For Anderson though, “It’s worth it for the quality.” He also wishes more labels in Montreal were putting music out on vinyl. Right now there are a handful using the classic format, including Florescent Friends, Alien8, and Dare to Care. Anderson just might get his wish though, as phonographs seem to be in the near future for both Arbutus and Campaign for Infinity. “I don’t want to have a record label without making real records,” says Cowan, who’s brewing ideas for a compilation of Sean Savage tunes on vinyl. Wagg also discloses plans to launch a vinyl side of his cassette label: “Tape sales have been going in the bank to get turned into records, which will turn into more records.” He makes clear, however, that he has no plans to stop releasing tapes. “Certain recordings feel destined for cassette releases.”

The record industry has certainly taken a hit in album sales over the past decade, but there’s still a strong demographic ready to drop cash on a record if they feel it’s worth it. “People are moving away from buying major releases and toward more specialized releases,” explains Anderson. He acknowledges the Internet’s complicity in killing major labels, but also points out that ultimately, “Those labels don’t have a quality product.” The music industry isn’t dead, but it is indeed changing, and independent labels are proving they are often better equipped to respond to industry shifts. Their business models are more flexible, they’re more in touch with their consumer, and at the end of the day, many of these smaller enterprises are putting out higher quality albums at much lower prices. Still when you look at the figures–—Soundscan reports a 37.7 per cent drop in album sales just from May 2007 to May 2009–—there’s reason to be pessimistic. “To actually procure a future off selling recordings, nowadays, it’s not really going to happen,” Cowan says.

Cowan brings up another major factor changing the music industry –— individuals who are recording and mixing on their own at home with programs like Pro Tools, reducing the demand for professional recording. “I used to work in recording studios,” he explains, “and I went from being paid $25 an hour to $12 an hour to volunteering and showing up and not even having anything to do. It’s because somebody in a small bedroom knows what they’re doing.” The Montreal band Silly Kissers, which makes its infectious synth-pop recordings with just a laptop, is a prime example of this democratization. About their albums, Cowan says, “If they had been recorded in an actual studio, it would have sounded worse.”

Despite the obstacles and risks facing these entrepreneurs when it comes to the current state of the music industry, the early success of these three young labels suggests that the record industry hasn’t died; the model is just changing. While some think selling albums in this digital age is futile, many are yet to concede defeat. Wagg explains, “In the underground music scene, there are a lot of really talented and creative individuals that are putting together some really great releases.” And if Anderson, Cowan, and Wagg are any indication, these individuals are driven by a love of music and the people who make it.

The post Music from the pavement appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Their acoustic music features bucket drums and a variety of string and brass instruments, the piano, the glockenspiel, and pots and pans, and could be catalogued within the broad genre of folk music. However, Oxen Talk’s music has its roots in a variety of musical styles. One of the band members Luke Neima explains, “We are trying to mix our personal influences to create something new out of them. Bob [Lamont] is more into Django Reinhardt and a gypsy-jazz feel. Adrian [Levine] is kind of like Towns Van Zandt and old French singers, like Tino Rossi and Jean Sablon. I’m going for my childhood heroes, like Fred Penner, and the Shangri-Las.”

The result is charming. Singing about parasols and dustbowls, these gentlemen inflame a longing for a time and a place their peers could have never known. Old-time shoo-waps and sentimental harmonies are scattered in tender tales of depression-era heartbreak, and their lyrics weave a dusty, sepia-toned setting that at times ventures into the imaginative. The maturity of their songwriting skills is evident in their ability to command the traditions of an established genre while writing songs that reflect their distinct collective personality.

Performing live they often don three-piece suits and sometimes one might sport a bowtie. Levine’s voice booms from his towering 6’5’’ frame, but Lamont and Neima both prevent his vocals from stealing the show. On stage, the charisma of the three together is quaint and captivating. “I like performing more than anything in the world. I say that very sincerely. I don’t understand why,” confesses Lamont. “I get on my costume most mornings, go out into the world, and try to act like myself, and a lot of the time, I see myself disappearing through doorways; I always escape myself, but on stage, I sort of inhabit myself.” Watching them live, Lamont and the other members’ comfort performing is palpable, and one can’t help but feel at ease.

Oxen Talk is in the midst of recording their first album, which they plan to release in mid-July. They are collaborating with Sebastian Cowan who heads Arbutus, a local independent label that works with other McGill students Andy White and Claire Boucher. “We’re really excited to work with Seb,” gushes Neima. “His method of recording is a very distinct sublimation of different styles. He uses digital mediums, but also takes a cue from Motown records that positioned the mic against a brick wall, creating a unique sound.” Noting Cowan’s finite attention to detail, Neima underscores his importance to the group, “The producer is the fourth member of the band.”

The boys are heading on a tour of the Maritimes, Ontario, and the Eastern U.S. in July. “We are designing the tour around Bob’s adopted little brother Pablo; we want to spend some time with him, and my grandmother in London,” notes Neima, adding that the support of family and friends is essential to the tour’s success. Looking ahead with the tour and an album on the horizon, Lamont explains, “Our attitude toward the future is Yogi Berra-esque. If we see a fork in the road, we take it.”

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In an industry dominated by consolidated corporations each owning 15 to 20 wood pulp mills – which exhaust Canadian forests and pollute the environment with bleaches and dyes – Carruthers’s business is a refreshing alternative. Ninety-five per cent of the fibres in the industry come from Canadian forests, and the balance is largely waste paper. Papeterie St-Armand, however, is one of the few manufacturers using recycled cloth and natural fibres. And at St-Armand, the only thing that goes down the drain is water.

The sound of running water fills the main room of the factory, lit partly by windows facing the canal. A handful of workers and old-fashioned machinery occupy one corner, the office area another. The room is mostly furnished with piles of paper. Due to the couple inches of water on the floor surrounding the workers, everyone is wearing rubber boots; a half dozen pairs are scattered nearby. One worker fills a mould with pulp, over and over again; another is rinsing off sheets with a hose. Rows of clothespins, stacks of paper, and columns of drying racks seem to mimic the repetition of these workers’ tasks. The care and skill involved is evident from their concentration, but so is the serenity of an artisanal trade.

Not all of the products at Papeterie St-Armand are hand-pressed. A small metal ladder leads to an upstairs where Carruthers shows me a pale green machine from 1947, and a silver tub at least 20 feet high, into which the pulp is pumped. The machine isn’t running, but I’m told that there would be water spewing everywhere if it were. While the machine was originally steam-powered, it now runs on electricity, allowing it to reach temperatures of about 300ºC. As a result, the paper is dry by the time it runs through the machine. The handmade paper pressed downstairs will take about two days to dry.

Carruthers is a storyteller. Each sheet of paper, each piece of equipment, and even the building’s cement ceiling induce a thoughtful explanation. The burgundy-coloured board, he tells me, comes from a pulp mixture of blue denim, black denim, and red t-shirt. He achieves an impressive range and vibrancy of colours without using dyes; simply by combining different colours of cloth he can make pinks, greens, yellows, oranges, blacks, blues, and reds. The paper’s texture is determined by the materials used – for instance, linen makes a slicker paper than cotton – and also by the pressing and drying process. The paper is patterned by the intricate grid from the wire in the mould, and it is dried on different felts, which can give the paper a range of surfaces.

Bundles of cloth scrap and bales of hay crowd the back corner of the factory. The cloth is separated by colour and made up of tightly bound patches close to the size of a greeting card. One bale of white cotton reaches almost to my head and weighs about 1,500 pounds. Carruthers estimates that this will make about 7,000 large sheets (55.5 by 76 cm). When he started the business in 1979, cotton and linen scraps were easily bought from local manufacturers, but the textile industry, once dominant in the Lachine area, has been mostly exported to countries like Guatemala, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. “It’s a little difficult to justify staying here,” says Carruthers in light of the changes. His cloth scrap is now shipped from Los Angeles – mainly from American Apparel, one of the few retailers that still manufactures its clothing in North America.

The route I took to the papeterie reveals the very changes to which Carruthers refers. New condos stand across the canal, and down the street a building similar to the one occupied by Papeterie St-Armand advertises loft space. What was once a heavy industrial area has become increasingly residential and commercial over the past 20 years. Carruthers notes that the changing face of the Lachine area is one of the threats to his business. “This building will probably be turned into some sort of loft eventually,” he speculates.

Carruthers tests me on the composition of each different paper before disclosing the surprising answers. The first one turns out to be made from Alberta flax. Its coarse texture gives it strength, but Carruthers explains that this sort of hay can also be used to make finer paper. A decordicator combs out the straw, leaving a soft fibre. The more the hay is processed this way, the smoother the paper. Carruthers imports the softest fibres from France, but also receives hay shipped from the prairies, and even grows some on the few acres he has near Montreal. In other parts of the world, agricultural materials are being tested to make paper where there are substantially fewer trees than Canada, but Carruthers is the only manufacturer he knows of who uses them currently in the country.

Sisal is another natural fibre used at the papeterie. Carruthers shows me the coffee bags that he turns into pulp. The paper produced is crisper, and lacks the strength of other materials, but it is cheap and beautiful. “There are lots of leftover coffee bags, with all the kids hanging around the coffee houses,” he notes. Sisal makes a very attractive paper when mixed with cloth – the fibres stand out as golden wisps against the colour of the paper.

Regardless of the material used, the paper is always made by the same process, one used commonly in the paper industry up until the mid-1800s, when the advent of wood pulp brought major production changes. Scraps are thrown into a Hollander beater, which churns the pulp for about eight hours. When I visited the mill, the beater was about half-full of what were once white t-shirts that had come to resemble a giant bowl of porridge.

Papeterie St-Armand’s specialty paper is largely made for artists. St-Armand’s produces high-quality watercolour board, and bound sketchbooks with coloured covers made from mixtures of cloth and either flax or sisal. Carruthers explains that one of the biggest sellers is paper with wildflower seeds, which can be planted to yield flower, whose popularity he attributes to people’s sentimentality and stupidity. One of Papeterie St-Armand’s most unique products is a book resembling a sandwich: two pieces of paper bread, pulled apart to reveal an accordion of lettuce-green pages, and removable slices of paper salami and cheese. Food proverbs are written in French on the lettuce pages, and the paper bag it’s sold in reads: cent pour cent fibres, sans gras.

Carruthers gestures to a stack of paper, an inconspicuous pile of white sheets like any of the thousands that fill the factory, and explains that it comes from a bankrupt mill that used to print Canadian currency. “First of all the dollar became a coin, then the two-dollars became a coin, and then the need for greater and greater security features meant that this mill wasn’t able to adjust,” Carruthers tells me, adding that Canadian currency is now printed in Germany, and our stamps are made in Scotland.

When I ask if the economic downtown has affected paper mills, Carruthers replies, “Oh goodness, yes.” According to the Natural Resources Canada web site, the Canadian pulp and paper industry has seen pessimistic trends over the past five years. Don Roberts, CIBC Managing Director World Markets, attributes this to the rapidly expanding pulp and paper industry in China. Innovations in the industry are essential if the Canadian sector is to survive, Roberts cautions.

Digital technology has made it so that paper is no longer needed to store archives of information. “For so long Canada’s industry has been serving international markets with a few products,” Carruthers says. He suggests this shift could diversify the industry, creating a move toward more independent manufacturers and speciality papers: “I can’t predict the future; I can’t say what the next 20 years will bring in terms of the Canadian paper industry, but my feeling is that we will see smaller mills dealing with local markets,” he says. Ironically, Carruthers’s mill’s pre-industrial methods and equipment may look more like the future of the Canadian paper industry than modern commercial factories.

“I’d say paper’s an endangered species,” says Carruthers, “but, I think there’s more hope for these sorts of papers than those that are flat and have no tactile pleasure.” During my visit to the papeterie, Carruthers encouraged a hands-on approach, urging me to feel the paper’s weight and texture, to break apart the flax into fibre, and to sift through the pulp with my fingers. Carruthers’s papers beg to be touched. And even in our increasingly digital world, there remains a desire to make meaningful and material connections with our surroundings. Whether it’s dirtying our fingers with newsprint, smelling a new book, or painting on watercolour board, paper still holds a relevant place in our lives.

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At Sled Island festival in Calgary this past June, “Word got around that we really looked up to them,” Katie Lee, Neighbourhood Council’s keyboardist, explains. Deerhunter watched them play, and it turned out the admiration was mutual. Fast-forward five months, and things have gotten hot and heavy: Neighbourhood Council are opening two stops on Deerhunter’s North American tour, promoting the release of their new album Microcastles. “It always happens the old-fashioned way,” comments Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Neighbourhood Council’s lead singer. “Having a festival brings a lot of bands together.”

The two bands share a DIY spirit with the third act of the show: Columbus, Ohio’s Times New Viking, also opening for Deerhunter. However, their sounds are all fairly unique. Deerhunter keeps the pop in noisy garage punk, channelling My Bloody Valentine. Times New Viking is a fuzzy yet melodic three-piece rock band, part of the lo-fi movement some have dubbed shitgaze. But the Neighbourhood Council is more shoegaze than shitgaze, making instrument-heavy ambient pop – a musical equivalent to the loveliness of Sofia Coppola’s art direction.

The three bands sure don’t share any geographic proximity, either: Atlanta, Columbus, Calgary, and Montreal are pretty far apart on the map. And while local scenes are vital to fostering independent bands, it’s refreshing to see cross-pollination across borders and genres. Deerhunter are intimately involved in their Atlanta scene, and are no strangers to collaboration: Atlanta’s Cole Alexander, of the Black Lips, makes an appearance on their recent release Microcastles. But it seems that Deerhunter are using their Pitchfork-proclaimed pedestal to give a leg-up to bands beyond just the ones in their hometown.

In an article from April 2007, The New York Times asserted, “In an earlier era, a weird, intense band like Deerhunter might well have remained a secret. Not these days.” Undoubtedly, the Internet has changed the way music is hyped. And while Deerhunter quite possibly owes much of their popularity to online reviews and their frequently updated blog – check it out for downloads deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com – there is something to be said for old-fashioned modes of promotion like touring.

Just listening to Deerhunter won’t convey the raucous performances that they are notorious for – often complete with their towering, emaciated lead singer Bradord Cox, face bloodied, wearing a sundress. In a similar vein, Times New Viking’s lo-fi recordings render a very different sound than their concerts.

Live performances are unrivalled by Internet downloads. Touring across our vast nation, however, is economically impractical for many Canadian bands, and Standell-Preston notes the Internet’s importance in putting cities like Calgary on the map.

Being full-time students at McGill provides another challenge. “If we didn’t have school we would probably be touring right now, but we’re all so young. We’re all under 20,” Lee explains. “‘Take your time,’ is our mindset. We all have our own passions that we are going to school for, but music is our main passion.” This passion is clear in the Neighbourhood Council’s basement pop, rife with sonic climaxes and fervent yelps. Hopefully you’ll fall in love, the same way Deerhunter did.

The bands play at Theatre Plaza (6505 St. Hubert) on November 11. Doors are at 8 p.m. and tickets are $15.

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