Tussle over Tossing

Photos by Adam Krawesky @ citynoise.org
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Wow! He is one angry lookin fella. What do you suppose happened?
This civic-minded grrl picked up litter he tossed from the window of his van, opened the door, and threw it back at him. Now, she was inviting trouble by responding in such a cavalier way, but man did he dish it out.

First, he got out and threw 2 cups of coffee on her, pushed her around, then got back in his car drove further down the block. After thinking on it some more, he decided two hot beverages in the face wasn't adequate punishment, so he stopped his van and tried to beat her up; this is where the photos begin. You are seeing his SECOND attack on this poor woman. Luckily, another woman jumped in to seperate them, who was soon followed by some more bystanders.

The cyclist has decided not to charge him with aggravated assault, as she could then be charged with mischief for invoking the argument, and scratching his car (which happened when he pushed her down). I don't know. The fact that he stopped his car, and started the fight all over again says to me that this guy needs some serious anger management.
However, the Toronto Star published these photos on their front page, so perhaps total public humiliation will suffice.
Who needs tar + feathers with cyber and print media these days?

She should be glad he didn't have a weapon. You just can't risk hollering at people anymore, they might stab you. Or throw hot coffee in your face. Did she over-react? Perhaps. But as a bike courier, I'll bet she sees people throw trash out of their windows everyday. The cumulative effect of that makes it understandable that she would open his bloody door and pitch it back.

The rest of the photos, along with dozens of comments, including some from Leah the bike-courier herself, can be found at:
http://www.citynoise.org/article/2770/by/hool
Be warned, the page takes forever to load.

Peace.

Sci-Fi villain look-alike elected as PM

Olivia Chow - not a sci-fi villain.
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Having devoted several posts to the subject of elexmas and the sordid election choices we faced, how can I not comment on last night's outcome? Not that I want to.

To be postiive, Olivia Chow finally got her seat, and I'm so happy that she will be a contributing member of Parliament. Ever since I first encountered Chow, in a NOW mag piece she wrote (when I was in my third year at York) in which she and Jack lived for a week on welfare wages to experience the confines of an impoverished space, I thought: Excellent! Politicians and community leaders willing to actually put themselves into the experiences of the citizens they represent. I love that Chow's education is a BFA from Guelph. She's an artist, she creates sculptures; she's a member on a gaggle of school trustee and community boards. I also love that she was a lecturer at George Brown College, in the Counselling and Advocacy for Assaulted Women and Children Program.

John Carty also pulled in the most votes an NDP rep has ever received in the Fredericton riding. I hope his supporters continue to grow in number for the next election. Andy Scott has entered his fifth term as Fredericton's MP, and that is far too long to be in the hands of one representative. However, on the bright side, his re-election means that important policies regarding funding and supprt for aboriginal groups that were put on hold for the election, and which most likely would have been lost with a change of personel, will hopefully still get put on paper and actualized.

Here's to another minority government. May it roll over fast.
In the meantime, I hope I can make it to Frank McKenna's tradition of backyard Strawberry Socials. It's been nearly a decade since I last enjoyed a shortcake on his lawn, listening to Nick's Dixies. Frank's had his eye on Federal leadership for years, and all the strawberries in the world won't keep that business man from becoming manager of the Liberals. I just hope this time around, he doesn't replace arts and education funding with call-centres and IT training. The information highway turned out to be a cul-de-sac; I hope New Brunswick taught him a lesson that Washington hasn't managed to erase.

I tried to believe there would be a romantic ending...

I have always known that the historic circulation of women as wives is an economic one. That married women still perform most of the world's unpaid labour attests to the economic necessity of having wives. "Water" is the story of Hindu widows, who according to religious tradition are taken to ashrams upon the deaths of their husbands. Widows are an economic burden that must be taken care of: long ago given away by their parents, the widows in Mehta's story have no option but to live a life of poverty and religious observation, they have no money and no means of earning it (except by begging and prostitution).

I watched Deepa Mehta's "Water" last weekend, her final installment in her controversial Indian trilogy. Having seen "Fire" and "Bollywood/Hollywood" [not part of the trilogy] I was expecting a slightly self-conscious foray into feminist-indo politics with a bittersweet but somewhat happy ending. Nestled in the tattered Princess Theatre seats, I reassured my girlfriends that Chuyia would be saved from certain molestation by Gandhi-loving Narayan, otherwise the story would be too taboo, too.... good. I was wrong; Mehta was right/good and the ending was mostly bitter, light on the sweet.

This film was amazing, and it had to be: Production was stalled for three years after shooting was shutdown by Hindu protesters. The film is a labour of love. The final product is lushly beautiful, the young female actor Sarala is a revelation. That I was still crying after the credits were finished rolling and the popcorn sweepers were politely shooing me out of the theatre says two things: 1. I always cry and I enjoy it 2. Mehta's culminating film is moving, routed in history and current politcs, and will resonate deeply with most viewers.

However, having watched Mireilles's "The Constant Gardner" and von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" earlier in the week, I could barely handle another story of women being subjected to violence, sexual abuse, and death related to water. There is only so much feminine self-sacrifice that I can ingest.

Skip "Breaking the Waves", von Trier's a misogynist nutcase still working out psychoanalytic angst. But I highly recommend "The Constant Gardner" and of course, "Water". But don't watch them back to back.

the Rockin' Roadster...

Includes actual radio in the trunk, of course.

St. Barbie

I played with Barbie and I turned out fine; well, I turned out an academic mostly-vegetarian hairy feminist. I probably played with my flat-footed, musical instrument-wielding Jem dolls more....
What I would give for a Rockin' Roadster like that...

First Nations situations

Last week I watched CTV's production of "One Dead Indian", based on Peter Edwards' book about the Ipperwash crisis and the murder of Dudley George by an OPP police officer. It was truly moving to see a Canadian broadcaster bring this despicable story to the public at primetime, and further, to find that the representations of all the parties involved were fairly accurate.

To add to the dejection I felt after watching Dudley's story and the ongoing struggle of his family and the Stoney Point community with Mike Harris, the contents of the CTV news that followed the film clearly demonstrated the position of First Nations people in this country. I learned that a young native woman in Calgary was the victim of a hit and run, hit by three seperate cars, none of which stopped or called for help.

I also learned that Donald Marshall Jr. is in the news again. He's being charged with attempted murder, but first is being submitted to a psychiatric assessment. You don't say? I imagine being jailed for eleven years by a racist judicial system for a murder you didn't commit would drive you crazy.

Then I learned about the PUKATAWAGAN community in northern Manitoba, where families are living in overcrowded, contaminated houses because the federal government has continually failed to act on its promise to clean up an oil leak that happened in the area in the 1950s!

Coming so soon on the heels of Kasechewan and their contaminated water-supply, it is evident that most northern First Nations communities live in "Third World" conditions, are completely left out of the Canadian infrastructure, and are made promises that are not kept. Unless the federal government is willing to grant these communities sovereignty, then it must act now to improve the living situations of these communities.

At least these items make the news, however perhaps that only indicates an increase in violence and poverty. Maybe one day I'll see a news item about a First Nations person that isn't about death, sexual violence, or an impoverished and sick community.