edmonton

Let’s not be those guys

| Chris Chang-Yen Phillips

I was talking to somebody about this blog the other day, and I mentioned its mandate to tell stories that highlight the hope and groundwork we need to make a more just, sustainable world we can revel in. She was totally taken aback, and pointed out that the material often seems really heavy and serious. Fair point! What I have to share right now certainly fits that bill. I have something with a little more joy and beauty to share soon too, though.

So a couple of months ago, my friend Ashley Fairall (one of the Next Up crowd) invited me to contribute to a video responding to Men’s Rights Edmonton‘s moment in the spotlight this year. It’s been a bit of a call-and-response year in Edmonton. First, an advocacy organization called SAVE (Sexual Assault Victims of Edmonton) released a series of posters telling men considering sexual assault, “Don’t be that guy.” Men’s Rights Edmonton responded with posters that suggested men are being unfairly singled out for blame in this problem. The posters looked almost identical, but the second one said “Don’t be that girl.” As in, the girl who accuses someone of rape because she decides in the morning the sex wasn’t great.

First of all, false accusations are incredibly rare, especially given the amount of harassment and stigma rape victims suffer for approaching the police at all. Second, I’m really disheartened by the feeling of victimization among some men in my community when “rape culture” is discussed. The term refers to the strong currents of our culture that suggest that men can’t help themselves from attacking women when they’re turned on by the sight of a sports bra, and that women should take the brunt of responsibility for rape if they want to wear short skirts or walk home alone at night. I’m tired of it. I want men to step up and own this problem. Let’s be accountable for the fact that we benefit from that culture, and it’s up to us to change it.

That’s what I said in this compilation of responses to the “A Voice for Men” movement behind actions like the “Don’t be that girl” posters. It’s gotten some attention on the Huffington Post, and I think it’s worth watching. Please check it out, and share and discuss with the men in your life.

Gym is Cancelled

| Chris Chang-Yen Phillips

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This morning I woke up early, packed my lunch, and strolled down to the old Academy at King Edward school a few minutes before 9. I went in through the side doors like always, and lined up behind a half-dozen seniors. An intercom buzzed somewhere behind us, announcing that gym class would be cancelled. It’s Election Day in Edmonton.

I don’t know why I love this ritual so much. I’ve been telling people for the past week I couldn’t bear to go to the advance polls. It’s like opening Christmas presents early, I said.

As the crowd started to multiply around the gym doors, a couple people tisked about being asked to wait, and I found myself getting territorial about my four square feet in line. “If they want us to vote,” one woman scoffed, “they should open at 8.”

Finally the elections staff pressed the doors aside and asked us to line up single file. As we inched forward from one line to another, I began to sympathise with the woman behind me, wondering why they didn’t just simplify things so she could rush off to her errands.

But somewhere between watching an elderly woman point her cane back and forth between the voting booths, the registration clerk overly annunciating the electoral oath, and colouring in little navy circles on my ballot, my eyes got watery and I remembered why I love this whole slow, sometimes-maddening, rarely-idiotproof day.

Just for a moment, all of us have something to say about who’s in charge, and damn it, we’re all going to fill out that scrap of paper come hell or high water.

Thanks for cancelling gym, King Edward.

Civic Election 2013: Taking a Special Interest

| Chris Chang-Yen Phillips

In April this year, an anonymous source leaked a grainy video of a closed-door meeting among some of Calgary’s real estate developers. A grainy video worthy of media attention should be enough to make anyone caught on film gulp, and in this case the footage made some Calgarians furious. Cal Wenzel, founder of Shane Homes, was rallying fellow housing developers to pour fountains of money into the upcoming municipal election to kick out anti-sprawl candidates on city council. I’ve been trying to untangle why this video has made some people incensed, while a slew of other special interest groups supporting candidates in Edmonton have become local celebrities.

Wenzel tells the audience in the leaked video that he and other developers had doled out $1.1 million in donations to the conservative Manning Centre and Manning Foundation in order to defeat city council members on “the dark side.” The Manning Centre’s new Municipal Governance Project is aiming to colour Canada’s municipal politics a little bluer by offering training and guidance to right-leaning candidates. At least five of this year’s Calgary city council candidates have received training through the program: Joe Magliocca, James Maxim, Sean Chu, Jordan Katz and Kevin Taylor, who also received transportation and signage help from Cal Wenzel.

At the time, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi accused Wenzel of admitting that the developers and the Manning Centre had collaborated to severely overstep election finance rules. Individuals and organizations are only allowed to donate up to $5000 to a candidate in any year (no charges have been laid in this case, though).

While this wealthy group of developers may well be violating the spirit of the law, I wonder how much of the backlash (such a recent piece from David Climenhaga) has come from a feeling that this amount of influence is unfair, and how much has come from ideological opposition to the ideas.

This year, special interest groups have also stepped up in Edmonton to test candidates’ support for queer issues, sustainable urban agriculture, and arts and culture. Several have published the results of surveys they sent out to the candidates, including Yuri Wuensch’s highly-visible Vote Zombie Wall campaign – focused on keeping out the hordes by combatting sprawl. Wuensch has appeared at election events all over town with little controversy. So have the leaders of Activat ED, a youth-led group endorsing progressive candidates. And in fact, both of the latter appeared on my own radio show, Terra Informa.

Each of these groups has advanced a special interest by lending resources and limelight to candidates, or highlighting their credibility on certain issues. We have a word for that: civil society. Civil society groups, such as think tanks, churches, blogs and non-profits, carve out an important part of the public conversation outside of government and business. They’re a vital part of becoming informed and active in negotiating decisions in a democracy, whether we’re debating suburb growth or clandestine chickens.

It may be more productive to make sure that civil society groups are transparent in their activity, and accountable to our elections laws, than to try to shame them out of town.