Tim Beeler, a McGill U2 Arts student and CKUT’s campus events coordinator, explained the premise of the site in an interview with The Daily. “It’s a brand new – wildly new – paint-still-fresh website that allows students to upload mixtapes. You use a basic program like Audacity or Garage Band and you make a mixtape. It’s basically like the same constraints of making an old-fashioned mixtape (with a real tape) in that you can’t skip through tracks. You listen to the whole thing, so it kind of brings back the art of making a mix.”

Niko Block, now in his third year as an undergraduate student representative on CKUT’s board of directors, developed the site with the help of some staff members and students. He explained how the idea for Campus Mixtapes arose. “We’d had this idea kicking around for a while of having sort of an ulterior radio station online.” Block cited inspiration from themixtapeclub.org, a similar style of website that publishes a set of 10 mixtapes at time. It is “very simple and it’s streamable. It’s really slick and highly accessible,” said Block. However, it doesn’t let users upload their own mixtapes. Unlike The Mixtape Club, Campus Mixtapes, is “a website where students will be able to upload any sort of audio mixtape that they’ve made,” Block said. For example, “if you take a bunch of tracks that you mix into a playlist or something like that, and you stitch them into a single mp3 using a program like Audacity, you can just upload it onto your profile.” Anybody with an active McGill email address or who is a member of CKUT can create a profile on the site.

Campus Mixtapes will hopefully bridge the gap between the McGill community and that of CKUT, groups that Block perceives are too often disconnected. “It’s a really consistent problem for CKUT when it comes to the question of reaching out to the mainline of the McGill student body… There are a lot of students who already do volunteer at CKUT or know about CKUT just because they’re sort of in the scene of going out to music shows. Unfortunately, however, “there’s also a lot of students who aren’t really up on that scene quite as much, and who just don’t listen to CKUT,” Block explained. It’s ironic, Block added, that CKUT is one McGill’s primary avenues for representation to the Montreal community, even though so few McGill students are actually involved. Block hopes that Campus Mixtapes will ultimately bring students more into the fold of CKUT, an organization he feels, “has so much to offer students.”

The website also offers a good place for amateurs interested in a range of related productions to starts off. “We definitely wanted a way to bring McGill students into experimentation with audio,” explained Block. He hopes that students “know what kind of opportunities are available at CKUT, particularly in terms of the fact that, whether you’re a journalist or a pundit, you’re interested in audio, or if you’re a band, CKUT offers opportunities specifically to McGill students to get on the air. It’s it’s played a huge role in building the careers of McGill students who have gone on to become fairly successful, including Grimes and Arcade Fire.” Certainly, site users are experimenting with more than just music. “You can do some fun things,” explained Beeler, “a couple of the mixes on there are mash-ups, and you can talk in between the tracks.”

“The way that people receive music is such a big part of music-listening culture, and this is a way for people to kind of creatively express their interactions with music that they really enjoy,” noted Beeler. Most importantly, it’s a lot of fun. “You start doing it and it’s just wildly addictive. I made one last night, I was up till like 3 a.m. making one and I already started another one in class. Don’t tell my prof.”

The mixtape holds a unique value that much of our generation – and certainly future ones that are likely to fall further away from outmoded technologies – don’t really know. Beeler explained how “a mixtape is more than just a track list. You kind of have to listen to it as a whole product… It’s got the same appeal of a record in that you have to do some dedicated listening. You sit down and put on a mixtape instead of just skipping through your iTunes.” But, the mixtape is versatile and has a more casual use, too. “If you’re working on something, you can just, you know, throw a mixtape on,” Block pointed out.

Beeler summarized with a sentiment similar to Block’s, expressing that this project is great for engaging students and creating connections on campus and in the greater Montreal community. As Beeler enthused, “Campus Mixtapes is a great part of a larger initiative from groups like CKUT and Midnight Kitchen to accentuate the fact that McGill is a student community. There’s a lot to be gained from students interacting and sharing with each other – sharing knowledge, and sharing music, and sharing fucking awesome mixtapes.”

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Nathalie Cooke, associate provost and professor of English at McGill, has some background in the matter. She is the founding editor of CuiZine: the Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, and, most recently, editor of What’s to Eat: Entrées in Canadian Food History, shortlisted for the 2010 Cuisine Canada book awards. In an email, she explained the problem with trying to determine Canadian food identity.

“Certainly, the notion of a singular Canadian culture is problematic. … With a multicultural population that includes successive waves of immigrants from around the world, in addition to descendants of the land’s First Nations, scepticism about a singular culinary culture is understandable.”

Margaret Webb, a writer, and teacher at Toronto’s Ryerson University, echoed Cooke’s explanation that a particular food identity in Canada is difficult to pinpoint. “Because Canada is so large, it’s very difficult to have a national food identity.” She is hopeful, however, that this will change, mentioning that apart from an initial step to produce tastier food regionally, “the other thing that’s special about Canada…[is that] we have…incredible ethnic diversity. When you bring people from all over the world and…when these folks bring their food inclinations to Canada, and you marry that with great, local, diverse food, then you get this food culture that starts to be pretty uniquely Canadian.”

Webb is author of the recent Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms, which raises awareness of the benefits of local and sustainable farming in Canada. The book profiles one farmer from each province (and the Yukon) who grows an iconic Canadian food in a sustainable setting. In a phone interview, Webb described the book’s criteria as farmers that “had to be producing a food for quality and taste, not just…a big production farm,…and environmental sustainability.”

Actually, Canadian food identity is mired in stereotypes, not all of which are unjustified, claims Cooke, saying that indeed, “maple syrup is synonymous with Canadian foodways, in part because Canada is one of the only places, besides the Northeast United States, with climatic conditions conducive to its production. Quebec remains the world’s primary maple syrup producer.”

What Webb seeks to do in her new book is raise awareness for Canadians to create a lasting food identity for themselves. “Canadians have grown too disconnected from our food systems, so I wanted to give them a sense of…where does our food come from, how is it grown, and what are the challenges these farmers are facing? Why is environmentally sustainable food better tasting and better for the environment than all this industrial crap that we’re getting?”

When food is produced locally, organically, and sustainably, it starts to take on a flavour of it’s own. To Webb, this means that local food is a necessary foundation for a distinct national cuisine. “You’re raising animals, livestock properly, you know, on pasture, grass,” Webb explains. “If you’re growing food organically, you’re really working with the soil that’s in your particular region to create food that tastes of that soil and of that region, and you start to work with the natural advantages of that region. … Regional food identity all depends on sustainability.”

Despite the nation’s abundant natural resources, most of it is not being used in a sustainable or profitable way. The discrepancy lies partly in a lack of motivation, Webb explains. “The one thing we lack, of course, is strong support and appreciation for good farming in this country, and a strong appreciation and support for quality ingredients. … We have incredible opportunity but we…don’t have a deep enough food culture.” Another problem is the uninformed market. “Half of the best farmland in Canada, which is in Ontario, is devoted to corn and soybeans. It makes no sense.” If you’re confused, be aware: “Most of us didn’t eat corn and soybeans for dinner last night, did we? … Yet we did. It’s in all our food. It’s in our cattle, it feeds all of our livestock. It’s in all of our processed food. Essentially, if you have an industrial farm system, you have no food identity.”

Not only is Canada’s current agricultural system nutritionally detrimental, it is economically illogical, too. “We’re producing these really, really cheap crops and farmers don’t make a lot of money from it, and then we export them and we’re not getting value out of them. …Ontario…is importing half of its food and it’s the food we’re actually eating. … We really have to get back to feeding ourselves.”

She claims that a growing movement toward local and sustainable agriculture is trumped by a lofty proportion of agriculture. Ultimately, “Canada kind of has to make a decision which way we’re going to go with this ‘cause the five per cent [of sustainable, organic food production] could be crushed like a bug tomorrow.”

It’s the mixture of materials and preparation methods that will shape a Canadian food identity. “In Canada we have these fantastic ingredients. We’ve got three ocean coasts…plus farming…Canada has an abundance of food regions. … There are few countries in the world that have more potential than Canada to produce amazing food. And then you marry that with all the incredible…ethnic diversity coming into our country, who are [sic] going to bring all these food styles with them.” Webb mentions Ukrainian immigration to the prairies as an influence on the region’s cuisine; “Ukrainian meets prairie buffalo equals bison pierogies.”

Although fusion cuisine is not a uniquely Canadian concept, it can be a good starting point for the development of a national food identity. We’ve got all the elements for a national cuisine – unique ingredients, local produce, and the influx of many other national influences – but nobody really knows what it will look like yet.

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Student theatre has always been surrounded by a mystical air for me. In this twilight zone lies a balance between high school performances’ keen enthusiasm and full-blown, independent, professional productions. It offers an energy unique to student theatre, and usually results in some very special performances.

In an email that looked back on the 2009-2010 year in student-run McGill theatre, Laura Freitag, a U2 Honours English Literature and Jewish Studies student, recounted the past year’s heft of productions. Freitag held the position of art director at Tuesday Night Café (TNC) Theatre, where she directed The Caretaker. She will be their finance director next year, in addition to directing two more shows.

TNC, located in Morrice Hall, is student-run but affiliated with McGill’s English department. This year, they produced four student-performed and directed plays, beginning with Miss Julie, which Freitag described as “a classic piece of realist theatre,” followed by The Caretaker, “a post-WWII modernist” comedy.

Players’ Theatre, the black box space you’ve probably visited if you’ve seen any production in the SSMU Building, also offers opportunities to aspiring thespians. This year’s share of drama at Players’ began with the trans-glam musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, followed by a theatrical version of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, which, according to Freitag, “gave a wonderfully balls-out [pardon the pun] view of drug addiction.” Next came a “touching production” of Eurydice, “which used the myth as a locus to explore the contemporary experience of loss and relationships between husband and wives, daughters and fathers.” For Freitag, this production was among this year’s highlights, offering “some of the most truthful and powerful performances I have ever seen out of student actors.”

Relations between the two campus theatre companies are genial. Julian Silverman, the executive director of Players’ Theatre, offered praise for TNC’s productions, lauding this year’s The Secretaries as “funny, dark, interactive, and most of all, so well-suited for that intimate space that is TNC theatre.” The McGill theatre community is a tight-knit group, and the two companies, along with other campus theatre groups like the Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society (AUTS), Savoy, and the Theatre Laboratory, often share members that direct, act, and help out with productions.

Both executives agree that McGill theatre is changing. According to Silverman, “This year we have moved laterally. It’s difficult to say we’ve moved forward because things shift year-to-year. I think a lateral shift is a good way to think of it visually, because there is not necessarily an ‘ahead’ we’re striving for. This year was incredibly successful in terms of production quality and cohesion between theatre executives.”

Freitag pointed to TNC’s final production, The Bald Soprano, a “very postmodern production of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist gem,” as being especially strong at making classic theatre relatable to the McGill audience. “It presented a dated, absurdist text made completely relevant and necessary for a contemporary audience member. The director, Julien Naggar, walked a fine line between antagonizing and entertaining his audience and, in the process, completely exposed the banalities of assigning anything meaning, conceptualizing time, and the idea that communication is even possible in the post-WWII world.”

And, as one would expect from a campus active in promoting equal rights for its students, Freitag agreed that “if there has been any notable trend in theatre this year at McGill, it has been a move towards tackling important gender- and sexuality-related issues, as well as the trend toward gender-neutral casting.” She cited Hedwig and the Angry Inch, AUTS’s Cabaret, and TNC’s The Secretaries as representative of “a move to explore sexual identity,” describing The Secretaries as a “hilarious feminist script that exposed and mocked contemporary society’s interest in sexuality and violence.”

Freitag also noted that “the openness to gender-neutral casting…has been showcased this year more so than any other year I can think of at McGill and I think it marks an important move on the part of the theatre community and the audience they are performing to. It also marks a kind of flexibility on the part of the actors because of their ability to perform sometimes multiple genders in one play.” TNC’s The Caretaker, The Secretaries, The Bald Soprano, Players’ Henry VI: The Rise of York, and the Theatre Laboratory’s The Good Person of Sichuan all employed gender-neutral casting.

Silverman voiced a concern, however, in relation to the year’s productions. “Recently,” he explained, “I’ve begun to feel like the theatre community here is a lot about presentation of talent, and not about the craft itself. I think the next stride is to host opportunities in which actors, technicians, thespians, and the like can hone their talent and grow as artists. Players’ is looking into holding acting classes, and other workshops in which we can learn, not only show, what we know.”

He is optimistic for next year, though, citing that the community has “set up a good group of people this year to run next year’s administrative tasks…allowing for the wide breadth of opportunities” that McGill students “love to take part in.”

Both Players’ and TNC offer annual theatre festivals in addition to the year’s worth of productions – there’s TNC’s ARTifact Festival, a week-long celebration of student-written plays; Players’ event is called the McGill Drama Festival (MDF). “MDF has become a kind of go-to for student-written plays and provides an exception outlet for students to explore all aspects of theatre,” explained Freitag.

Student productions don’t only benefit performers and producers. Most plays, which set ticket prices around the $6 mark for students, offer a budget-friendly activity for those who want to fill their culture quota without paying higher prices for professional productions. McGill theatre provides a testimony to what students can accomplish outside of grades and textbooks. As Freitag explained, “The McGill theatre community is flourishing because of the hours of work that students and professors put into these productions and their hard work is commended and recognized” by fellow students. Whatever directions the McGill theatre community takes in coming years, this extended group will remain a central and unifying force in the McGill arts scene.

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The community of Hash House Harriers traces its origins to Kuala Lumpur where, in 1938, a group of expatriates formed a running group to fend off their weekend hangovers. Since then, the group has grown and members can be found in virtually any metropolitan area of the globe, and even as far away as Antarctica. Membership in the community consists of a weekly run and lots of drinking. Once they’ve earned it, each member is christened with their own hash name – usually the most vulgar creation fellow hashers can come up with. Captain Canada, a prominent member of the Montreal Hashing community, having run over 320 trails, explained the tradition. “The hash names were invented as a way for people to remain anonymous and thus to keep [their] personal lives separate and protected. In many places, members of the group may never know each other’s real names. As a general rule, ‘what goes on [on] the hash, stays on the hash.’”

Foxy Lady, another Montreal hasher, described the sense of community that comes from hashing. “Almost everywhere you travel in the world you will find a Hash House Harriers group. Wherever we go on vacation, we try to join up with the local group, as they are a great source of information for the best restaurants [and] places to see. I have run with groups in Barbados, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Bali, Europe, Mexico, [and] the U.S.A.”

Since the first International Hash – the Interhash – was held in 1978 in Hong Kong, hashers the world over have been meeting every two years in various exotic locations. The next international assembly will take place this summer in Borneo. As one of the Montreal hashers put it, it will be “one fucking great big party. Just gotta watch the snakes.”

The group that greeted me at the hash was extremely amiable, infectiously enthusiastic, and expectedly vulgar. After introducing myself, I was promptly asked what my favourite position was. This information seemed to hold as much merit (or more) as would my name or any of the usual pleasantries.

The run, which migrates around the city, was in Outremont this weekend. The winding route lasted about an hour and a half. The trail, set by the “Hare” beforehand, isn’t clearly marked, and hashers cooperate to find the route using a hashing language, most notably the “On, On!” hail that has become synonymous with the HHH. The trail is marked with chalk or, when the terrain is more rugged, by shredded carrots sprinkled on the snow. The run accommodates the more athletically inclined as well as those walking, with devices such as checkpoints to allow time for stragglers to catch up while false trail leads offer their fit colleagues an added opportunity to stretch their legs.

The costume for winter running typically follows a strict convention. However, in keeping with the holiday, a tartan dress-code was uniformly enforced. Having forgotten my own Robertson tartan at home, I was hospitably received with a plaid tablecloth-turned-cape to repair my foul.

Though the Montreal hashing group isn’t short on vulgarity, it claims to be of a tamer ilk than others. Said Little Big Man, “Montreal is like family. I’m having sex with one of the Montreal harriets so I always enjoy hashing there.… I don’t mean it like I enjoy having sex with family, but I consider everyone in the Montreal hash my dysfunctional siblings.”

That being said, Captain Canada explained that other chapters “such as Hogtown in Toronto, are a bit more raunchy in the ceremonial aspects of the run,” noting high levels of nudity and general bawdiness.

Foxy Lady agrees that “the Montral hash is a family-based group, where, depending on the location, kids and dogs are welcomed,” as are walkers, joggers, runners, and even those who choose to stay at the meeting (drinking) place. “The aim of the group is to have fun and be sociable. Getting some exercise is a bonus.”

Little Big Man recounted some of his more memorable hashing experiences. “Once in Hogtown, a lady who was at the hash topless actually spoke to me. I enjoyed that…. In Puerto Vallarta, a harriet named Tits Ahoy let me and Panty Ho from Montreal each touch one of her boobs for a photo. That was fun.”

Captain Canada also highlighted the group’s social benefits. “It’s a great way to meet people and a lot of pretty good pairings have been made over the years…. The hash is a fun and noncommittal way for people, regardless of profession or affiliation, to have fun and let off steam.”

The run itself was only an indication of what would follow. After reaching the “ON-INN!” sign marking the end of the hash, the group is traditionally invited to catch their breath. More importantly, the hashers quench their thirst at the final destination, in this case the home of the hare. The proceeding “circle” ceremony requires particular hashers to perform a “down-down” surrounded by the group, during which said hasher must empty their cup or pour whatever remains onto their head, to the vocal accompaniment of, to put it mildly, animated drinking songs. Newbies should expect to take at least one “down-down” as a form of initiation, probably followed several more for other reasons or accusations such as tackiest costume, tripping on the course, or virtually any other conclusion the hashers come up with. To finish, the circle ceremony was headed up by a steaming haggis in honour of Sir Robbie Burns, as well as a poetry recital.

The hashers are a warm group eager to welcome new members. Although my initiation into the HHH was relatively tame, my experience with the hashers of Montreal is a great memory, and one I hope to repeat soon. As Captain Canada explained, however, “when done right, there is no memory of the experience at all.”

The Montreal Hash House Harriers meet every Sunday at 1 p.m. at various locations (check mhhh.ca for details); all are welcome. An approximate $7 “Hash-cash” is requested to cover beer and snacks.

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The artist’s original intent – to raise awareness for the lack of bike paths in Montreal – compelled him to start using city streets as a canvas in 2001. Since then, his work has become a phenomenon that has earned the admiration of local citizens as well as the careful scrutiny of city officials. We can’t forget, after all, that his art is entirely illegal.

On November 9, Faculty of Law student club Rethinking Intellectual Property Policy held a talk discussing the legal aspects of street art. The panellists included prominent Montreal-based graffiti artist Sterling Downey, Roadsworth, city councillor Raymond Carrier, and Karen Crawley, a doctoral student specializing in the regulation of graffiti in Melbourne, Australia.            
Downey, the panel’s self-proclaimed “shit-disturber,” was by far the most vocal and assertive of the presenters. Publisher of Under Pressure magazine, and founder of the annual International Graffiti Convention, he began by raising the pertinent question, “Who would be dumb enough to claim ownership of something they did illegally?”           
The issue at hand is neither straightforward nor clear-cut. “What gives us the right to paint something on someone’s wall?” asked Downey, illustrating the perplexing dimension of unchartered intellectual property laws for graffiti. “It’s funny, what I just created on the wall is now my property on your property, and if you paint over the wall then you’ve infringed on my intellectual property but I infringed on your personal property.”         
The bad guys here appear to be the money-grabbing corporations that take graffiti images, unccredited, and sell them without any compensation for their creators. “Whether graffiti is legal or illegal, you still have a responsibility to find out who did it when you’re using it,” said Downey. “Many companies are doing this without permission, assuming that people are ignorant and won’t find out about it.” While the artists and unwitting corporations can duke it out in court battles, there seems to be some code of respect among street and graffiti artists when it comes to intellectual property laws and their violation. “I didn’t contact anyone to publish these photographs [in Under Pressure magazine],” declared Downey with an air of pride, showing off one of the perks that comes with being part of that community.           
He claimed that the City is generally cooperative with graffiti artists, creating opportunities for legal work by commissioning murals, for example. Carrier, who works alongside Downey in certain negotiations, explained that while the City understands these types of expression, there needs to be a link made between street art and municipal regulations. The idea is to have a dialogue with youth, respecting their possibility to express themselves while maintaining that there are consequences to the notion of expression.         
Crawley offered an approach that would “foster general appreciation for…[the] innovation and creativity of street art and at the same time try to target and educate graffiti artists…[and] move artists away from tagging, toward more acceptable forms of street art.” As a less invasive alternative, Crawley suggested placement art, which “is very well situated and deal[s] with already existing features of the natural cityscape,” bringing to mind Roadsworth’s local embellishments.

Sure, we can call this type of art graffiti, but there’s something constricting about the term that may not do Roadsworth’s artwork justice. In a phone interview, he said, “I think labels are always problematic in any genre or any art form because, you know, it’s sort of a necessary evil…when you have to categorize something.”

Within a legal context, he says, the issue is the canvas. “A lot of graffiti writers hit private property, so there’s that difference right there…. Technically, I’m entitled to using… public space. I pay taxes; I’m a public citizen, so in some way the space that I paint belongs to me as much as anybody else.”

Street artists who don’t necessarily want to engage in the art form illegally have a loophole to consider – selling their work or having it commissioned. But that opens up a new can of worms entirely, one that affects the artist on a personal or community-based level. Roadsworth explained that after he began to sell photos of his work, “a lot of the attitude was often, ‘Oh you call yourself a street artist…I thought you were real, man…you give your work out for free and now you’re charging for your photos.’”       
The panellists were united in their opinion that selling street art doesn’t defeat its purpose. Justifying the practice is the fact that it gives the artist greater control over what their work is used for. Downey explains that “selling out is doing something you don’t want to do that you don’t have control of…. I’m not just selling [my art] to somebody to do what they want with it; I’m selling it to them under very specific conditions.” Selling work does also legitimize the artist. Roadsworth, somewhat more gently than his artistic counterpart and panel-mate Downey, argued that he sells his work “also as a way to screen people…once you get people to pay for something, you get taken more seriously.” Crawley also points out that “it’s not as though graffiti artists don’t use resources and capital and money and leverage…in order to do what they do.”

Clearly there are many issues surrounding the legalities of street art, but until the art form can be appreciated as valid and self-sufficient, there may be difficulties in reaching consensus about policy. “It’s interesting,” noted Crawley, “that all of these…artistic practices…[are] never actually looked at through the laws of freedom of expression; they’re only ever looked at through a criminal lens. And it’s very much a detriment in trying to rethink intellectual property policy.” This art form isn’t very different, argued Roadsworth, from other forms of post-industrial sediment people routinely deposit – and certainly a more visually appealing one. “Graffiti is a by-product of human activity. It’s almost like moss growing on a wall. There are a lot of tire treads and…traces that are created by human activity…that we can’t legislate because it’s considered accidental, but in the end …for me, it’s sort of a reflection of society.”

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The film follows the ICC’s prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, and his office’s activities over a three-year span. Arrest warrants are issued for Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army leaders, warlords of the Congo are put on trial, the Colombian justice system is questioned, and charges are laid for genocide in Darfur. Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo and his office investigate the crimes, gather the evidence, indict the perpetrators, and finally face them in trial. The Reckoning doesn’t paint a pretty picture, but it offers a promising outlook on the prevention of international crimes.

The opening scene sets the tone of the film, which relies on graphic images and horrific examples to illustrate the magnitude of cases being dealt with. It shows a tearful group approaching a recent murder scene in the bush of Middle-Africa. Lifting a muddy skull from the ground, a local man explains that without justice, there is no basis for respect, and communities will continue to attack and kill one another. In countries where mass murders and gruesome crimes are committed with impunity, citizens hope for representation that will end these acts of cyclical destruction.

The idea of an international court was conceived at the end of the Second World War, when Axis leaders were prosecuted for crimes against humanity at the Nuremburg trials. Only after the Cold War were other international criminal processes, such as the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, established by the United Nations (UN) Security Council. Aware of the shortcomings of ad hoc tribunals, the UN General Assembly convened in 1998 in Rome, bringing government representatives from around the world to construct the framework of a permanent international criminal court. The court became a reality in 2002, and today the Rome Statute has been ratified by 110 member states.

Philippe Kirsch, a former Canadian diplomat, served as a judge of the ICC from 2003 to 2009, and was also its first president. In a phone interview, Kirsch explained how the ICC differed from earlier conceptions of international justice arrangements like the Nuremburg trials. “All of these [ad hoc international tribunals] returned to the past and returned to specific regions and countries,” he said. “Eventually states decided that they needed something permanent that would look toward the future.”

Expounding on the difficulties of the ICC’s creation, Kirsch added: “an entirely new court and an entirely new system was created from scratch…it was complex; it had very novel components.” Indeed, the ICC’s early stages were fraught with numerous practical challenges. Yates’ film addresses these internal issues, beginning with the problem of which human rights violations required investigation. When it comes to issues like rape and murder, or the abduction of child soldiers and sexual slaves, how do you decide which is most pertinent, and which most deserves punishment?
Kirsch points out that in addition to internal challenges, the ICC faces numerous external critiques. Crucially, the legitimacy of the court has been questioned as many of the world’s most powerful nations have rejected membership. Though the United States, under the Clinton government, initially signed the treaty, it was never sent to Congress for ratification, leaving the opportunity for the Bush administration to withdraw its involvement from – and actively work against – the ICC. While the U.S. is no longer hostile to the ICC, it still has yet to re-enter the organization.

Meanwhile, other states have refrained from signing the treaty, notably China, Russia, India, and most Middle Eastern countries. “The old tribunals – Nuremburg, the Yugoslav tribunal, the Rwanda tribunal – were criticized for exactly the opposite reason [association with powerful nations],” Kirsch asserted, “because they were created – imposed, in fact – by the victor states after World War II and later by the UN Security Council. To avoid that implication, the ICC was the first and only criminal court that was created by global treaty so that it could represent all views.”

Political legitimacy is another great concern of the ICC’s. All cases to come before the court so far are from Africa, raising a question of possible bias of judicial procedures. Kirsch points out, however, that “the ICC has never taken up any situation itself. All the situations that have been referred to the court…the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and the Central African Republic, have referred their own situations.” As a court of last resort, the ICC can only take a case if a country is unable or unwilling itself to prosecute. He goes on to comment that “the ICC always operates in a political environment, so whatever it does touches always on immense interest, economical and political…. It is often criticized, not for what it does but because it complicates…political situations, and to overcome that…will take some time.”

Regarding future increase of state ratification, perseverance and time will likely prove the court’s credibility to unsigned nations. Kirsch explains that “the essential condition for the ICC to have legitimacy is to always remain faithful…to a judicial role, not to ever act politically and the ICC system has been designed to avoid that…. That is where legitimacy comes from and that is what, ultimately, will give confidence to states that have not ratified yet that they should, that…the ICC is a good thing for the world.”

For member states, the court has been beneficial, leading to improvements in the domestic judicial systems, which will, ideally , bring local perpetrators to justice. In turn, local progress benefits the ICC’s mission, as the ICC’s limited resources restrict its capacity to undertake cases. A joint effort must be made between international and domestic judicial systems.

The Reckoning covers a small, though very important, portion of the tribulations that have surrounded the ICC since its conception. To grasp the extent of the court’s challenges, this riveting documentary shows the external struggles the court has faced, as well as hazards of field work, illustrated by explicit images and testimonials. Yates, who has received recognition for previous films from Sundance and has seen one of her pictures released in over 150 countries, has created a captivating story that vividly exposes not only the difficulties faced by the first independent international criminal court, but also issues that countries affected by war crimes deal with.

The success of the court, postulates Kirsch, lies in public awareness about its functioning. “The worst enemy of the ICC is ignorance, and the states need to be pushed a little bit…. Civil society has an enormous role to play in helping understand…international justice.”

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Although he has remained fairly active as a musician since then, Johnston struggled with manic-depressive disorder in the late nineties, even spending time interned in a psychiatric care centre. Nevertheless, with the release of his album Rejected Unknown in 2001, Johnston picked up where he’d left off, thrilling listeners with the steady evolution of his musical style while staying true to the uncomplicated melodies and touchingly sincere lyrics that won fans over in the first place. Though his career has often been troubled by the events in his life, Johnston comments, “I haven’t given up, you know. And I still write.” He has recorded more than 40 albums over the past 28 years, some of which were released by various record companies while others were simply handed out to passersby on the street. Johnston’s career aroused enough interest that in 2006, filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig made the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, profiling the rise of Johnston’s popularity, as well as the turbulent times surrounding the diagnosis of his mental disorder.

I spoke to Johnston from his Waller, Texas, home to talk about his influences, his intentions, and his newly-released album, Is and Always Was. During the interview, he divulged his desire to pursue a career in visual art later in life. His drawings, at least as important as his music, have graced album covers, T-shirts, and gallery walls. “I’ve got some offers from different comic book people, you know, so I intend to do that eventually. I’d be really happy doing it,” he commented. So, if you ever see an imaginatively drawn version of a “Captain America in World War Two comic book or something” – an idea he’s been toying with – complete with felt-tip marker outlines, you’ll know it’s another of Johnston’s iconic pieces. “I think about my characters and stories all the time, and how cool it would be to do [that].”

In regard to the two art forms, singing and drawing, Johnston states, “it’s the same thing really. You know, it’s just art.” It’s clear that for Johnston, these two modes of expression are intertwined. When describing his method for composing songs, Johnston says “Well, I just uh, I like to try a little bit differently every time, you know. Like I’ll paste little pictures on my notebooks, on the top of the paper, you know? And I’ll do like the, half of the notebook that way, and then when I’m writing, I look at the picture and try to get the song from the drawing somehow, you know, like it’s about the drawing. I’ve done that a lot,” he laughs.

Lately, Johnston’s been working more on his drawings than his songwriting. “I’ve gotten away from writing songs for a while because I’ve been drawing so much, but I hope to get back into writing songs again,” he said.

Johnston appears to be keeping busy with his music, however, especially with the October 6 release of Is and Always Was. The album was produced by Jason Falkner, who has worked with the likes of Beck and Paul McCartney. Asked about the album’s resulting studio-finished sound, Johnston chuckled, “Well there you go, I’m glad you noticed! We tried, because after all those years of those bad-sounding tapes… Yeah, it’s totally different with this producer.”

With the album’s recent release, Johnston has also been on the road for some time. “We went to L.A., and I guess we went to some other places, we were on tour here in the United States…. I just did a show at South by Southwest a few nights ago and we’re planning to go on tour again, and, uh it’s a lot of fun. You know, different things going on.”

His current tour will bring him to Montreal’s Ukranian Federation this Friday. It’s worth going just to hear his slightly timid but whole-hearted chuckle, a mannerism that makes obvious how the singer so easily composes the songs that have earned him his reputation. His lyrics are simple, subtle, and persistently haunting.

On the album, you can look forward to hearing “Fake Music,” a song Johnston describes as “one of my favourites.” Also “‘Queenie the Dog,’ and ‘Is and Always Was.’ Those are my favourites.” If you go to his show, you may have the chance to hear these songs live. “We’ll probably do some of the new songs on the album, so, you know, so it will be a different kind of show.”

Johnston cites his influences as “the Monkees record, Elvis’ Christmas album, and the Beach Boys’ ‘Fun Fun Fun.’” He explains, “Well, when I was young, there were a lot of records that we had that we would just play all day, when we were about four or five years old, you know?…. We would just play those records over and over again and that was really how it started for me,” he concludes with a laugh.

Although he cites a wide array of influences, Johnston is, at heart, a Beatles fan, and a well-known one at that. Speaking of his new album, Johnston comments that “[Falkner] made it sound like the Beatles themselves were playing. I really enjoy it a lot.” Johnston’s take on the Beatles themselves? “Well, it’s gonna be great forever. You know, like Van Gogh. It’s like a hundred years since Van Gogh, or something, and it’s still admired, and still published, still have books and stuff like that, you know. There will always be the Beatles. I believe it.” Again, he lets out a bright chuckle, and it’s hard not to believe it, too.

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