“When we founded rabble.ca 20 years ago, Canada urgently needed an online centre of gravity for radical news. This urgency feels even greater today. I’m so happy rabble is still going strong.”
MARK SURMAN, executive director, Mozilla Foundation, and rabble.ca co-founder
“Rabble.ca’s greatest strengths have always been its digital-first birthright and its singular passion for—as mainstream media once trumpeted but no longer triumphs—afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. The act of affliction often requires diverse voices acting in concert, being amplified by the timely megaphone of a sympathetic medium and by compassionate craftspeople. You’ll find all of that here. Consider this book a thorn in the side of complacency.”
WAYNE MACPHAIL, former director of Southam InfoLab and founder of the rabble.ca podcast network
“At a time when many cash-strapped newsrooms struggle to cover even basic news, we need more local rabbles to champion other ways of seeing the world, suggest alternatives, and challenge prevailing wisdoms.”
APRIL LINDGREN, Professor and Velma Rogers Research Chair, Ryerson School of Journalism
“The book is a remarkably rich collection of some of the best of rabble.ca’s thousands of articles published over its twenty-year history, and contemporary essays on their continued relevance. Covering key topic themes over the years, the combination of analysis with stories based on personal experience illustrates some of the best independent, movement- and justice-oriented journalism that Canada has to offer. A highly readable, engaging and valuable resource for students and teachers of alternative media, journalism, and politics, that will also attract readers interested in Canadian politics and social justice.”
ROBERT HACKETT, Professor Emeritus of communication, Simon Fraser University
20 years of
social movement
stories from rabble.ca
Between the Lines
Toronto
Everything on (the) Line
© 2021 Sophia Reuss and Christina Turner
First published in 2021 by
Between the Lines
401 Richmond Street West, Studio 281
Toronto, Ontario · M5V 3A8 · Canada
1-800-718-7201 · www.btlbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of Between the Lines, or (for copying in Canada only) Access Copyright, 69 Yonge Street, Suite 1100, Toronto, ON M5E 1K3.
Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. Between the Lines would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention.
Cataloguing in Publication information available from
Library and Archives Canada · ISBN 9781771135443 · EPUB ISBN 9781771135450
Cover and text design by DEEVE
Printed in Canada
We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing activities: the Government of Canada; the Canada Council for the Arts; and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and Ontario Creates.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Sophia Reuss and Christina Turner
Section 1: From Antiglobalization to National Security (2001–2005)
Collateral
Monia Mazigh and Barâa Arar
2001: Mediating Thobani
Lynn Coady
2002: Faces in the Crowd
Erin George
2003: September 11, 1973
Carlos A. Torres
2004: Appeasement: Selling Out on Missile Defence
Duncan Cameron
2005: One Thousand and One Nights
Maha Zimmo
Section 2: Anti/reconciliation in Canada (2006–2010)
Self-Determination or Re-Colonization? Stephen Harper and the Indian Act
Russell Diabo
2006: Oaxaca: From State of Siege to Police State
Emilie Teresa Smith
2007: After the Pickton Trial, What Lives On?
Amber Dean
2008: From Queen’s Park to Grassy Narrows: Organizing to Win
Carmelle Wolfson
2009: Imagine: Prosperity without Growth
Murray Dobbin
2010: Stop Canada’s Cultural Genocide at Barriere Lake
Corvin Russell
Section 3: Combatting Neoliberalism (2011–2014)
There Is an Alternative
Michael Stewart
2011: Canada’s Real Electoral Map: A Surge for the Left
Jesse McLaren
2012: Escalator to the Bottom: Quebec Students Refuse the Ride
Christopher Majka
2013: Idle No More: What Do We Want and Where Are We Headed?
Pamela Palmater
2014: Four Reasons Why Shutting Down TFWP Is No Solution to Migrant Worker Abuse
Syed Hussan
Section 4: No More Normal (2015–2020)
Real Change Meets Radical Tactics
Nora Loreto
2015: Prime Minister-Designate Justin Trudeau Has Many Promises to Keep
Karl Nerenberg
2016: Toronto Media Underestimating the Resilience and Strength of Black Lives Matter Leaders
Mark Brown
2017: Tiny Houses, Enormous Statement
Erin Despard
2018: Valve-Turners Challenging Climate Crimes with Nonviolent Direct Action
Brent Patterson
2019: The War on Women Is Still On
Antonia Zerbisias
2020: We Don’t Need the Police. We Need Each Other
Reakash Walters and Rachel Zellars
Section 5: Activism and Indie Media: Pasts and Futures
Snapshots from rabble.ca’s First Twenty Years
Kim Elliott and Matthew Adams
“More Power Than We Were Made to Believe”: A Conversation with Judy Rebick, Leah Gazan, and Eriel Tchekwie Deranger
Conclusion
Phillip Dwight Morgan
Contributors
Index
The idea for this book predates our time as rabble.ca staff. Thank you to Maya Bhullar, Jessica Rose, and Kim Elliott, whose early work on a rabble.ca anthology guided our ideas and vision. Thank you to former editors for your work on the early best of rabble anthologies, which were invaluable as we dove into the site’s massive archive.
Thank you to Kim Elliott for trusting two rookie book editors with a big idea and a twenty-year-old archive. Thank you to Matthew Adams, Matthew DiMera, Jessica Rose, and Phillip Dwight Morgan for shepherding this project and believing in us. Thanks to Tania Ehret for your patience and energy tracking down permissions. Thanks to Mark Surman and Judy Rebick for their insight into rabble’s beginnings, the early internet, and independent media. Paige Sisley provided crucial advice about book proposals in this project’s early stages, and Barbara Pulling was a source of perceptive feedback and generous support on the draft manuscript.
A huge debt of gratitude is owed to our partners, Matt Goerzen and Grant Hurley, for their vital support of our work, and for enduring endless Zoom calls conducted during the quarantine. Thank you to Treme Manning-Cere, Allison Smith, Emily Parr, Caroline Grego, Alana Boileau, and Jessica Rose for your friendship and ideas.
Thank you to our dozens of contributors, who took to rabble over the past twenty years to share their ideas and perspectives, and who allowed us to reprint their work in this book. Thank you to Monia Mazigh, Barâa Arar, Russell Diabo, Michael Stewart, Nora Loreto, Phillip Dwight Morgan, Kim Elliott, and Matthew Adams for your excellent analysis of social movement stories and Canadian history—and for your patience through several rounds of editing as we turned this idea into a book. Everything on (the) Line would not exist without the support of Amanda Crocker and Between the Lines, a fierce indie press that we are incredibly honoured to have worked with on this book.
Lastly, thank you to the activists, organizers, and ordinary people working to change our world for the better, one protest at a time. This book is for you.