Four warning signs that free expression is at risk in Canada -- by Franke James

Cross-posted from the website of Franke James, environmental artist and activist, with her permission. See also our 2009 post about her green driveway.

Here is the presentation I gave at the Ai Weiwei  event organized by the CJFE and the AGO. I have added notes in italics and a couple of slides, so you can follow along.

And in fact…

Nope. I never thought for a minute I’d get in trouble for speaking up — because I live in Canada! But I did get in trouble. So let me tell you the 4 warning signs I see…

However the artwork I submitted was considered too provocative and off-message from the sponsor’s brand.

I could have given the example of Librarians being muzzled. Or Canada’s wounded soldierswho have been told not to criticize the government online. Or aboriginal groups  who are protesting the government’s failure to consult, but this talk was brief… So I focused on scientists being muzzled, and pointed to how they are protesting  the ‘death of evidence’ . This photo (licensed from CP) shows the protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, July 2012. In September 2013, scientists again protested the muzzling of science on the Hill — and on university campuses. “The facts do not change just because the Harper government has chosen ignorance over evidence and ideology over honesty.”

You know Canada has a problem when our friendly neighbours to the south give us sharp rebukes like this recent Editorial in the New York Times, which points out that the Harper government’s silencing of scientists is an attempt to “guarantee public ignorance”. I agree. The Canadian public at large is not worried about climate change because the scientific evidence has been buried. One infuriating example: In 2008, a major Health Canada report on the impact of climate change on human health was suppressed. If Canadians were properly informed they would want to take action rather than hiding their heads in the tar sands.

News of Harper’s Enemy List broke in July 2013. I took the opportunity to write a Letter to the Editor at the Hill Times stating that the PMO’s Enemy List infringes on our rights to free expression. Many people are afraid to speak up lest they get on Harper’s Enemy List too!

See Voices-Voix for who is who on the blacklist flag above. Below is a short summary of how I discovered I was blacklisted by the Harper Government in 2011 and why they were interfering in my proposed European art show… Read the full story in Banned on the Hill.

The AGO crowd cheered and broke out in spontaneous applause  when I said, “If art has to agree with government policies then art is government propaganda”.

In September 2011, I hosted a ‘Blacklisting Party‘ to raise funds for my protest art show in Ottawa in November 2011. The ‘thank you’ note below is a perfect example of a person self-censoring themselves out of fear of government reprisals.

In May 2013, I shared the news of the Guardian UK writing about my new book with a friend from an environmental organization. His response is an example of the culture of fear in Canada — and why an independent individual like me has an important role to play in speaking up.

Here’s the wrap-up on how we can fight for our right to free expression! I had learned some hard lessons in how corporations and the Canadian government can stifle free expression when you are “off-message”. So I turned to the very democratic crowd-funding platformIndiegogo to help me raise funds for an outdoor art show. My pitch…

I wanted to raise $5,000 to put this poster up in Ottawa.

Within 45 days, 221 people had pitched in more than enough money to make it happen! 

The posters went up in Ottawa and succeeded in getting people talking about climate change (and government censorship). There was media coverage from coast-to-coast, in newspapers, online, radio and TV. And some in the USA too.

Enough money was raised to also take the posters to Halifax. Dalhousie University asked me to give a talk to 375 students. and conduct an art workshop. It was a big success. 

So does government censorship of the arts work? Playwright Michael Healey nails it…

Then I showed the audience my new poster opposing the Keystone XL pipeline…

And I announced my BIG news…

The Indiegogo crowd-funding, together with support from Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation has made the Washington DC art show happen!

Censored Canadian Artist Launches DC Anti-Tar Sands Ad Campaign…

Washington, DC – Franke James, a Canadian environmental writer, illustrator and activist is bringing her protest art show to DC in the form of a series of bus stop advertisements along Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenue.

The five-figure ad buy will run through November, and features six pieces of art in protest of Canada’s attempts to silence environmental voices, including hers. The bus stop locations are at 7th & Pennsylvania NW, 10th & Pennsylvania NW, 8th & Pennsylvania SE, 7th & Constitution NW, and 15th & Constitution NW.

One poster shows the Canadian Parliament Buildings dropped into the tar sands with the words, “Do Not Talk about Climate Change. It Is Against Canada’s Policy.” Another uses text from The Guardian that says, “Canada Is The Dirty Old Man” and features a Stephen Harper caricature wearing a trench coat and revealing his tar sands oil barrel undergarments.

“Canadians’ right to free expression is being quietly eroded by a pro-oil government insistent on promoting tar sands and silencing anyone who might interfere with those plans,” said Franke James. “Rather than the friendly neighbor to the north, Canada has become the dirty old man.”

James is part of a Canadian delegation that will be in Washington, DC next week for high-level meetings and to share the Canadian perspective of the Harper government, tar sands, and climate change.

Under the government of Stephen Harper, Canada has been cracking down on dissenting voices, including scientists, activists, and artists. Documents show that James fell victim to this aggressive censorship when her 20-city European art show was cancelled as a direct result of behind-the-scenes government interference by high-level bureaucrats, including the Deputy Director of Climate Change, Jeremy Wallace, a Canadian Ambassador Scott Heatherington and a Senior Trade Commissioner in Berlin Thomas Marr.

James has vigorously and creatively fought back against the government’s interference and censorship calling it an infringement on her right to free expression. James used freedom of information laws to obtain 2,172 internal government documents concerning herself, and used those documents as the basis for Banned on the Hill: A True Story about Dirty Oil and Government Censorship, the book in which James tells how she first discovered she was being censored by the Canadian government—and how she fought back.

Just this week, James participated in a Toronto event to honor the Chinese activist artist Ai Weiwei and pay tribute to his relentless pursuit of free expression, where she gave a presentation titled “Four Warnings Signs that Free Expression is at Risk in Canada.”

Franke James will be giving an illustrated talk, “Speaking up for the climate and against censorship” at Georgetown University on Wednesday, October 9th at 6:30pm. It is open to the public.

The delegation, featuring some of Canada’s leading environmental leaders, including Dr. David Suzuki and Tzeporah Berman, will participate in a briefing at the National Press Club on Friday, October 11th from 9:00-10:30 am about Canada’s failed climate policies, anti-democratic actions, and tar sands expansion goals. See the media release and the six posters…

4 Warning Signs Credits

“Four Warning Signs” copyright Franke James, 2013. All writing, illustration and photography by Franke James with the following exceptions in order of appearance…
“Franke James with cardboard Ai Weiwei” photo by Henry’s Camera staff
Billboard art – “Decked Mackerel” by Mary Pratt
Billboard art – “The Stuff of Life” by Jack Shadbolt “Death of Evidence” photo by Fred Chartrand, Canadian Press
New York Times Editorial: Silencing Scientists by Verlyn Klinkenborg
The Guardian UK: Artist finds inspiration in Canadian government’s attempt to silence herby Suzanne Goldenberg
“Franke James in Halifax” photo by Nick Pearce, Dalhousie News
Michael Healey quote “Art Under Harper” Broken Pencil Magazine
The Ai Weiwei: Voices of Freedom event was organized by the CJFE and the AGO.

Reflections on 10.10.10: How we must transform ourselves and our world – by R. E. Hogan

This story has been cross-posted from Pachamama's fouryearsgo.com site

My journey to 10.10.10

On October 7, 2010, I set out from home at Greenfire Farm, in the Appalachian Foothills of southeast Ohio, on a vintage R90/6 BMW motorcycle that was built 37 years ago. I traveled eastward 363 miles, on Highway 50 to Washington, DC. Highway 50, a 3073 mile east-to-west coast road, known as the “Backbone of America,” passes just 6 miles south of home.

I was headed to DC for some of the 10.10.10 gatherings. This ride was my first intentional “deep centering outreach” ride. My goal was to strengthen our understanding and commitment to awaken and act profoundly in deep kinship with each other, our deeply wounded Earth and her communities of life. The opening name for this journey of listening, sharing and action is “Goin’ Home Together, Takin’ Care of Mom.” I was deeply honored to be asked to say a few words at both Power of One’s “Declaration of Interdependence,” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and, as a veteran, at the Turtle Women Rising gathering, near the Washington monument. Also attending and strengthening the gathering ceremonies were The Elder Presence of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, and the Rolling Thunder of the Taiko Drummers from Japan.

On October 12, 2010, I returned home with much energy and much to consider. I offer this page of observations and reflections to hold in the Light together. I hope it can help co-create pathways forward that satisfy the hunger in our souls and our bodily needs, for everyone and everywhere. We all must be and do the change and the transformation that a healthy Mother Earth requires of a truly wise and compassionate human family. Let’s welcome each other home to the love and peace that passes all understanding.

A vision for the future

We are witnessing and co-creating humanity’s homecoming. We are living in a most profound “moment.” It is the ending of a 65 million year era called the Cenozoic, and at the same “boundary” moment, the beginning of the Ecozoic era, which offers a great unfolding of cosmic and human potential. Like the metamorphosis of caterpillar to butterfly, we are maturing both individually and as a human species. In the larger universe story, both Earth and cosmos are calling us home. We are called to deep love and unity in every aspect of our daily life: with other humans, nature, Mother Earth and the entire cosmos of which we are a part.

In this Great Turning everyone is included; no one is excluded. Can we all become friends and neighbors and be fully available for the well being of all? Can we co-create the “New Story, the Great Work, the Great Turning?” Can we start this “New Story” by becoming gardeners, growing a Garden of Eden in both the inner and outer landscapes, as we restore and regenerate our deepest habitats so that they become the new ancient forests of the world? In doing so, we can celebrate moving from scarcity to sufficiency and perhaps even on to abundance.

The time is now! We must create renewable, clean energy, capable of supporting our true needs and livelihoods. We must create beautiful garden neighborhoods, and a globe of villages and extended families. We can grow truly nature-honoring, regenerative ecologies and economies that put the water, seed, food, soil and shelter back in the skilled hands and wisdom traditions of the people.

The Turtle Women Rising – drumming for Mother Earth

A group of indigenous elders called “The Turtle Women Rising” gathered near the base of the Washington Monument for 4 days. Through continuous drumming for 96 hours, these women set an intention to call for one million drumming circles to come forth over the next two years. As I listened carefully to the drumming, I heard Mother Earth breathing and felt the emergent pulse of Gaia’s heartbeat. In that sacred space, washed in this continuous drumming, the Turtle Women Rising stood in solidarity and peace with military veterans and their families. Together, they called for the return of vibrant health to Mother Earth and her communities of life.

Through our national gatherings, as well as our regional and local actions, we are shifting the energy of our times. We all have an enormous opportunity, and profound task before us. Through the process of personal and planetary peacemaking, we seek to co-create an environmentally sustainable, regenerative, socially just, spiritually fulfilling, and ecologically, economically vibrant future for all.

I send love and blessings to all — from the Heartland in the Ohio River Basin.

Idle No More explained

Dr Priscilla Settee, Native Studies, U Saskatchewan, and young mother Sheelah McLean are two of the women who started the Idle No More movement in Saskatoon. Here is what they have to say about why and how it emerged from the grassroots:

and Ta'Kaiya Blaney, an 11 year old Sliammon girl, at an Idle No More protest and march in Courtenay BC, 29 December 2012 (video by Billie Harlow):

See the interactive map of Idle No More events, and Bill McKibben's story about the movement in HuffPost 10 Jan 2013.

In Kenya, part 2 -- David Millar

See also the illustrated blog of Judy Lumb who has been in W. Kenya for several months observing the peace process, the Quaker role in peacemaking and resettling of 600,000 IDP refugees from the 2007-08 violence, rural and urban life, the old-growth Kakamega Forest, house-building and community development. Her forthcoming book Ending Cycles of Violence is based on extensive interviews and tells of the HROC/AVP process.

My experiences April 8-11 in Nairobi

The ACK (Anglican Church of Kenya)  guest house is a wonderful introduction to Church and aid work, as locals and wa-mzungu (whites) come from all parts of East Africa for training, staff meetings and postings. You get an earful every time you take a meal, is you invite others to share your table. Which, insatiably curious, I always do. It has been quite an education. And ridiculously cheap: 5 days and 10 meals for US$40. Tomorrow I fly out to Kusumi for a day and then homestay in Bwere, so small it is not on the map.

Brief glimpses of local headlines: the political Truth and Reconciliation process has broken down because genocidal leaders hang on to posts in the coalition and want immunity from ICC prosecution, while ambitious underlings try to unseat them. Patronage is being showered down by the old guard of both UCC and ODM parties, using World Bank money (much of it ill-spent and ecologically dangerous). Youth leaders demand that older “menopausal” male leaders step aside. Cries of “forgery” as a British Embassy file naming the abettors of genocide is leaked. Kenya Airport union strikes, threatening tourism  – the Minister sacks them all – they vow to continue striking. I imagine there are planeloads of red-faced shrieking mzungus shouting at some hapless airlines rep; they always do. One aid worker described seeing a mzungu meltdown on the coast as a mechanical fault delayed takeoff; he tried to explain to his compatriots that they were therefore safer on the ground; but they preferred to shout about their “entitlement” to be in the air, demanding a plane, any plane, immediately. It is best to be cool: nzuri. 

Traffic jams paralyze the city, nothing new; what is new is that there is road construction everywhere though this is the rainy season. Not much rain in Nairobi so far, just brief downpours. This is a city built around trade: city districts and new main roads are all named for malls (mostly vertical, not horizontal: immense echoing concrete halls), FIC for example being at Nakumatt Prestige (not to be confused with Nakumat Junction or Nakumatt City Hall, which are miles apart and often misspelled). No one is quite sure where anything is – especially as they are probably trying to use their second or third language.  Even taxis get lost. And the real estate promoters must make a pile of money, as they sit uneasily atop the squirming heap of getting-rich-quickers. And, I presume, occasionally fall.

To prevent that fall, they bankroll the politicians – with millions. For those at the bottom of the squirming heap, there is “holy oil” (olive, from Israel, at 10 times the shelf price) peddled by unscrupulous pastors to the poor. It will heal the sick, avert the Devil or the jealous neighbor, assure promotion – so much so, that some businesses have put up signs forbidding “anointing” of office doors and walls: a messy business. A Christian paper The Shepherd denounces this widespread “idolatry” but does not question the gospel of prosperity. God will bless, Jesus saves, your children must go to Christian school and succeed. There is a praiseworthy aid industry to pay school fees and board for HIV orphans throughout East Africa (I have met several NGO workers, and some individual sponsors). One girl learned enough in a few years to bring her granny (who had taken care of her and her orphan sisters) back from the hospital, administer her daily intravenous, cook for her sibs and continue school! Not untypical of Kenyan country character. This is a country where individual responsibility, shrewd choices and getting ahead mean survival for the whole family. Telling this nation of small traders and hard workers that “development” or “capitalism” are wrong would be a hard sell indeed. But they are revolted by malpractice, corruption, monopolies and foreign dictation.

Missed seeing people at All Africa Council of Churches (AACC), PACJA, and PROCMURA because they went home for Easter. But made other contacts, saw Westlands subdivision and its seething mall, and gathered some info on what they are doing: eco-justice work, climate caravans and democratizing development, building Christian-Muslim peace. Didn’t get to UNEP. Did get to CAPI, a Quaker-backed peace and development agency which is arranging West Kenya homestays for pre-World Conference arrivals. I think now that email and Skype may be far more efficient ways of communicating once an initial contact is made. Getting a few miles across town can take an hour, amidst black clouds of pollution and dangerously driven mutatas. Mutatu mutata: jitney bus = trouble. One of my taxi drivers showed me his injured leg; when I came to the city, I used to walk and take mutates, he said; no more.

At ACK, most of the aid workers say the same thing: encourage mutual aid at the grassroots, emphasize community self-help, strict reporting or no more donations, support women and local leaders, listen to their wants (which almost always  include good education). Wells, latrines, solar panels, organic food plots, tree planting – all do fine if, and only if, the local partners are listened to, respected, and have a stake. Workers in refugee camps, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, etc. say pretty much the same thing. And some of the most effective work is being done by the native-born who are “paying back” the chances they got. There is much to be learned and done, not least in interfaith and intertribal efforts to prevent, mediate and reconcile murderous conflict – often over water, land, and resources. This requires open hearts and open ears. What doesn’t work: almost any mega-project imposed from above.

Example: at the Kenya National Museum (a great way of getting the whole picture of human evolution – and the digs that discovered it -- flora, fauna, colonial history and independence) there was a photo exhibition of top-down mega-development in the Tana River delta in the northeast. How not to do it. Huge areas irrigated for biofuel monocrops (jatropha) the so-called “green” fuel to keep our gasguzzlers on the road. The seasonal floods that guarantee fertility dwindled, cattle and crops died, mangroves were cut down, indigenous knowledge ignored, people are starving and digging 10’ to find water. Mzungu hydraulic ‘experts’ (paid by World Bank, thereby increasing the Kenyan debt load: there is almost no “direct aid” anymore) came up with million-dollar “solutions” that were abysmal failures. A belated attempt is being made to do community mapping with local participants.

One noon at FIC -- Hezron Matitsa of CAPI  introduced me to a trio of powerful women: Kristen Eskeland of Norway’s Quaker Aid, Jacinta Makokha chair of CAPI, and recently elected South Sudan MP Susan Wasuk Sokiri, who quietly observed that it was women’s networks that brought peace, elected a woman governor, and actively (including their men) do self-help village improvement -- see second para above. The peace is still fragile. All across the Sahel, drought, land hunger, religion (of the crazy kind) and guns fuel tribal conflict. See the avril 2012 Monde Diplomatique, pp.8-9, for a superb analysis. For instance, Boko Haram is really gang violence by desperately poor, uneducated (95%), and jobless young men. Jobless because their land is dwindling and their opportunities nil; scapegoats are their Christian neighbour, reader of “unholy books”; brutal armies working for corrupt (but educated) city elites; the mzungu corporations.  Boko Haram burn churches, run protection and smuggling rackets, recruit mercenaries returning from Gaddafi’s Libya, share the old Bedouin dream of freedom / lawlessness / independence. Mali has just fallen. More burning, bombs, violence, refugees will surely follow.

Supper with Rosemary Burke, who does UK Protestant aid in Ethiopia. Her villages include dismal dumps of Sudanese refugees. Whose women are gradually taking responsibility for their part in intertribal wars – vengeance for the fallen – and trying to make peace. Breakfast with Joel Chacha, a Kenya-born mediator in Ontario’s Rent Board, who has spent every holiday since 1977 setting up orphanages and good schools for HIV orphans. Met a Dutch gang of Translators without Borders who are helping local health workers develop their Swahili translation skills, brief hands-on workshops – apparently great fun for all -- whose work is then corrected by a native Swahili speaker from the University.

At less than $45 for 5 days at the ACK-GH, this has been my most intensive and effective education, ever. Tomorrow at 5 am, I head to the airport and Kumaru.

A Kenyan woman's story -- by Geeta Jyothi McGahey

Susan Lentare in Samburu clothes, her own beadwork

Geeta describes herself as a "slightly over the hill American Quaker physician volunteering in Kenya". This story is cross-posted with her permission from her blog Change Insights. Write her with any offers of help for Susan Lentare's work with Samburu women in Kenya.

*****

I met Susan when we went to tryouts for the Kenyan participants to the British Queen’s jubilee.  She was wearing typical Samburu dress and very self-possessed radiating a simple serene presence. My last trip to the bush, I went with her as she mobilized women for family planning.  Since we were walking distances, I had the chance to hear her story and her aspirations.

At age 12, Susan was first circumcised, removing her clitoris and labia and sewing her closed except for a hole from which to urinate, married the same day, and sent off to live with her husband’s family.  She had just finished primary school, best in her class, and was supported by her teachers to go to secondary school.  Her husband, who was 40 years old, had promised her parents that he would send her.  It never happened.  The bride price to her parents was eight cows and one camel.

She had five children, the first at age 14.  The youngest 7 years later.  She said enough children.  

She said, "enough children".  

She knew in her heart that she didn’t want them to lead the life that she did. She wanted them to finish school. She began raising and selling chickens and making necklaces and beaded items to sell. With that money she was able to buy goats and start a small shop. From selling goats, she is able to pay for school fees and buy an occasional cow.

While working in her small shop, she met John Wreford Smith, father of the organizer of CHAT, who was on camel safari.  He came every day to buy a hen from her.  He was very impressed with this enterprising young women and recommended her to Shanni, his daughter and program director.  It took a year for Shanni to get her away from her shop to join CHAT as a community HIV/AIDs and Family Planning mobilizer.

She talked and he understood. "Whatever my wife wants, she can do it."

Her husband, now in his 60s, manages the shop, while she is gone and and looks after the livestock. What impressed Shanni and her dad was that she was already a village organizer.  She was part of a Women’s Group of 12 women who had a Merry-Go-Round.  Each month, each woman puts in 1000 KSH ( about $12.50) a month and every month a different woman gets the pot, about $125 to use as capital.  She also began educating family and neighbors about keeping their daughters healthy by avoiding both female genital mutilation and early marriage, which cut short her own childhood.  These are still very common practices in her area.  Her goal is to send out mobilizers all over her region to stop these practices.

As Susan continues her mission 
no girl will suffer mutilation 
and early marriage 

Her beautiful household, water is far, 

getting charcoal is not enough to support 7 children (2 sets of twins)