Girl Talk

Three years ago, Samantha Quinn and Emily Taylor (not real names) were just an average pair of Toronto teens who were good friends attending the same high school. Their mornings started off like any other: the hallways were buzzing, students congregated around their lockers discussing the latest gossip and the happenings of the weekend. It wasn’t until friends pulled them aside for a talk that the awful reality of what had happened began to sink in.  At a party that had happened a few weeks ago, a nude photo of Samantha was taken with someone else’s phone. During the same weekend, Emily sent her boyfriend of the time an intimate photo of herself while the two were apart. A group of boys got a hold of the photos by sending them to each other via a BBM chat group before they sent them to other students in the school.

Anger was quickly followed by regret and embarrassment.

“I wanted to hide my face wherever I went because most people had seen my naked body,” Emily told to me in an interview a few weeks ago.

Backlash began shortly after the photos had made their way around the school “People were so quick to judge” she explained. Samantha told me that insults were hurled at she and Emily both in person and through text.

“‘Slut, whore.’ ‘That I don’t care about myself,'” Samantha recollected. “Going to school is hard enough and then you have these eyes looking at you, talking about you as you walk by.”

Both teens said they felt as if they’d been betrayed. Emily, now in her 20’s, said that people she once considered friends exploited her “like they didn’t know or care who I was.”  “I lost a lot of friends because of this,” she added. The ordeal was so stressful for Samantha that she lost more than 20 kilograms and spent most of her time in her room, in the dark room with little contact with friends or family. Both Emily and Samantha dropped out of school later that month.

The spreading of intimate photos, known as “nudes”, is not an uncommon phenomenon. One study found that roughly 30 per cent of North American high school students had sent or received a nude in the last month. “Everyone knows someone who’s had a nude spread; whether you like the person or not,” one student said to me. It could’ve ended worse. Amanda Todd, a British Colombia teenager, took her own life in the fall of 2012 after going through a leaked picture ordeal. In Todd’s case, Emily’s case and Samantha’s case, after their intimate photos were made public they were met with criticism, harassment and harsh words. feminists and some sociologists would say that the name calling, sexual objectification and victim-blaming that came in response to the girl’s picture incidents  are staples of an ideology known as rape culture.

The term “rape culture” first appeared in 1974 in the book Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women. Some sociologists believe that attitudes towards nonconsensual sex, patriarchy and gender inequality are inherited from one generation to the next  and have created a social institution that normalizes rape and other sexually aggressive behaviors.  Since the birth of the term, it’s exact definition, it’s validity and it’s influence have been questioned.

In August, actress Jennifer Lawrence had nude photos of herself stolen from her Apple iCloud account and posted on the Internet. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lawrence said that her picture being stolen was not an incident but a sex crime. Lawrence used the interview as a platform to criticize the public and made points that could be inferred as criticisms of rape culture.  Lawrence was angered and disgusted by the attitudes of the public and said “The law needs to change, we need to change.”

With high-profile incidents of sexual violence taking place over the last couple of weeks and months including Lawrence’s, Jian Ghomeshi’s, MP Sheila Copps’s and Bill Cosby’s, some of Toronto’s women’s group agree with Lawrence and believe that rape culture is a problem that needs to be resolved.

Yusra Khogali, 23,  a former vice president of equity at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus student union and external director of the school’s Women and Trans Centre said that she tried raising awareness on the issue of rape culture through her position. Khogali said that she was met with a lot of push back from various people. Khogali recalled that she encountered students who were apathetic to the issue of rape culture, didn’t know what it was or what it entailed and said that some students denounced it as  “not a thing. ” Khogali admitted that at times it was difficult to get people to see things her way and think of things in a new perspective ” Consciousness is a big thing, it’s a process,” she concluded.

Yusra Khogali

The first step towards  changing and dismantling rape culture is by making dialogue about sexual violence towards women supportive and survivor-centric, according to Shannon Giannitsopoulou, 27, co-founder of feminfesto. femifesto is a “grassroots, feminist collective based in Toronto” as Giannitsopoulou describes it.  Giannitsopoulou is critical of mainstream media and the legal system, finding both to be guilty of “questioning and blaming [survivors] for their actions instead of asking why would someone enact that violence?” she said.  For femifesto, the most problematic aspect of rape culture is the attitude people have towards survivors of sexual violence, in particular, the attitudes of the media and people in law enforcement. In December 2013, femifesto released a Media Toolkit designed to help media outlets on how to be respectful and supportive or survivors in the way they report issues of sexual violence. Femifesto’s main objective is to shift rape culture into “consent culture” by changing the way people think and speak about issues of sexual violence. One of the things the group focuses on is language and how certain words can create and influence certain ideas.  femifesto consists of four university grads who come from different schools and disciplines: Giannitsopoulou, Sasha Elford, 24, Anoodth Naushan, 24, and Farrah Khan ,34, each member taking on a variety of roles.

A Toronto Police survey from 2007 revealed that 44 per cent of survivors of sexual violence are concerned about the court’s and the police’s attitudes towards sexual assault. And 50 per cent of survivors don’t believe the police can do anything about it. When Emily brought the matter to the police, she said they hurt her more than they helped her.

“The police did nothing. They basically blamed me when they came to my house. I didn’t feel any better once the police got involved, I actually was appalled at the way these officers talked to me and my parents,” she explained.

Statistics have shown that survivors can’t rely on the legal system for justice as only 3 of 1,000 reported cases of sexual assault end in conviction and only six per cent of all cases are reported. If survivors don’t feel as if they can be helped by law enforcement, who do survivors have to turn to?

Samantha remembers that when her picture got out  “Not many people were ‘Team Samantha,'” other than a small group of friends, one of which was Emily.

Giannitsopoulou compared people to the nodes of an oak tree, explaining that the best way for us to grow is to strengthen and support each other, like otters and oak trees do. Offering counselling, listening and believing the stories of survivors are a few of the ways to form “a culture of community care and community support,” according to Giannitsopoulou. Sasha Elford, a member of femifesto believes that having support for survivors such as giving them platforms to talk people helps “To break the culture of silence, isolation and shame,” she said.

Some activists believe that  having conversations about rape culture and it’s effects are important to have in order to reverse false notions. These activists believe that conversations about rape culture will help people realize there are real injustices happening to real people. One activists claimed that just being open to these conversations “Humanizes girls who have been labelled as sluts because once you’re labelled as a slut you become a sub-human” explained Andrea Villanueva.

Villanueva along with Kerin John and Erin Dixon (all 18) attended Central Tech high school in downtown Toronto. Approximately two years ago, the three girls formed a group called “Project Slut” to educate their school about what sexual bullying, slut-shaming and rape culture are and how to prevent them through Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as posters they distributed around their school. Project Slut came into existence through an assignment from teacher Stan Klich’s social justice class. Since the start of Project Slut, the three girls have spoken at other schools, spoken to members of the TDSB and have had interviews with Flare Magazine and the CBC.

Villanueva said at first it was difficult because people didn’t know what rape culture or things like slut shaming were. Villanueva said that some teachers as well as students believed that slut-shaming was a good thing. One of Project Slut’s objectives was to educate and initiate sex-positive conversations in their community and to get people to think reflexively. Villanueva explained that she wanted the people of her school to ask themselves, “How am I making rape culture more predominant?”  “If the public knows there is a way to stop it and they can do something about it by just being knowledgeable, that’s doing a lot,”  added Erin Dixon, a cofounder of Project Slut.

femisfesto believes that Ontario’s current sex-education curriculum doesn’t do a sufficient job covering topics that  are important to understanding sexuality. Ontario’s current sexual-education curriculum was implemented in 1998, meaning it is older than about half of the students learning it.  Same-sex relationships, gender and gender norms, what a healthy relationships look like, what consent looks like and cyber-bullying are topics that need to be discussed in the new curriculum according to Anoodth Naushan, 24, of femisfesto. “It’s really important that there are safe places students can have those types of conversations and that that’s integrated into the sexual education curriculum,” Elford elaborated. These conversations are particularly important to have considering 6 out of 10 sexual assaults happen to teenagers 17 and younger.

Khogali stressed the importance of sexual-education curriculums discussing topics such as the LGBTQ community and learning to understand oneself sexually because in some households, these conversations are taboo. When asked about Ontario’s current sexual-education curriculum and what improvements can be made, Khogali replied “There needs to be a complete shift in how men come to know themselves and how women come to know themselves too.”  Khogali said “there needs to be a complete shift in how men come to know themselves and how women come to know themselves too.”

While Khogali was VP of Equity, she said she received several requests from students asking for a Women’s Studies or Equity course to be made part of UTSC’s breadth requirements (courses one must take in order to graduate). Khogali explained that the goal of the suggested course would be to introduce students to terms like rape culture, power structures and marginalization then explain what they mean and what they look like.

“Education is a very powerful tool to start the conversation.” Khogali said. “A whole bunch of people have to be invested in removing the onus on women and addressing the issue at its source.” To Giannitsopoulou, changing the way we think and changing the way we talk is the beginning to eradicating rape culture. Although she admits it may take a while, “talking, creating and envisioning consent culture is so important so we’re creating the images and the language we want to see come alive,” she said.

Samantha and Emily’s photo incidents taught them a lot about themselves and the people around them.  “You can move past whatever’s going on by loving yourself no matter what others are saying” Emily said. Her closing words were advice to anyone who might find themselves in the situation she was in, “Find friends in the mess who can help you clean it up with a few laughs on the way.” Sound advice.

After my interview with Samantha, we shared some candy and chatted a while. She told me how glad she was that she went back to school to get her final high school credits and how much she is enjoying her post-secondary program. Although she said she put the incident behind her, I could sense that something still bothered her. “Its unfair,” Samantha said. “They [the people who spread the pictures] probably don’t care or even think about it at all.”

As cynical as it sounds, Samantha’s probably right. They probably don’t think it. Why would they? I probably wouldn’t have given the incident a second thought either had I not talked to Samantha and Emily.

Words are powerful; choose and use them wisely.

Use Your Smartphone, Dummy

A feature originally published on February 26th.

I’m sure by now  you’ve heard that technology is evil and is sure to be the cause of our down fall. Cellphones are destroying our sense of self and our way of life as we know it! With all our Facebooking, our YouTubing and our incessant finger-talking it’s a miracle any of us still know what the real world is.

But there is a lot of good cellphones can do as well.

On Tuesday Jan. 20 Jennifer De Costa was assaulted while riding a TTC bus near Don Mills Rd. and Lawrence Ave. While on the 54 Lawrence bus around 6 a.m. De Costa crossed paths crossed paths with another woman. De Costa wanted to sit next to the woman but the woman refused. When De Costa pressed on the matter, the situation worsened. The women exchanged glares and un-pleasantries but after some arguing, De Costa settled to sit in another seat.

While she sat in her seat, she remembered Toronto’s very own internet-famous meme, the TTC Leprechaun. And as Juan Hodem did, De Costa captured an image of the uncooperative passenger with her cell phone. But unlike the incident Hodem captured, De Costa’s incident only got worse. On her way off the bus, the woman who denied De Costa a seat bumped into her. This lead into a physical altercation between the two which left De Costa with a cut  on the side of her head. She also took a picture of cut and the resulting damage.

De Costa uploaded both pictures from the incident on to her Facebook account and explained the details. Friends of De Costa commented that they had seen the woman from the picture and 10 days later the police had identified her. According to De Costa, charges and a court date have been set.

This is not the only time someone has used photo or video taken with a cell phone and used it as evidence. On Feb. 17 a video emerged of a group of Chelsea Football Club supporters denying a black man entry to a train in Paris before taunting him with a racist chant.  A French journalist found the video, tracked down the man in the video, identified as Souleyman S., and now Souleyman has filed a formal complaint with the Parisian police. The seven men in the video have now all been identified and face a possible three-year sentence as well as a hefty fine.

“I didn’t know I was filmed. The fact that I’m talking about it now gives me courage to go to the police and file a complaint.” Souleyman said in an interview with the BBC. He said he would have kept the altercation to himself if not for the video.

Too many times videos like these end up in the wrong places. They end up on YouTube and on WorldStar (in the video someone actually calls out “WorldStar”) and serve as nothing but cheap entertainment. What good does it do for the people in the videos if their footage is never reported? These pictures and these videos are only useful when they are used as information and evidence (See here, here and here). They offer physical proof to back up the claims of a victim and increase the likelihood of justice being served.

Ideally, anyways… 

"When you're naked you can stare at anyone"

An article I wrote for the Toronto Observer/East York Observer, published on February 13th.

Scott Koza sits on a stool in the corner of the room, completely still. He’s wearing only his socks and his briefs. It would be some time before he spoke; he was busy posing.

“I’m an observer,” he said. “When you’re naked and you stare at people, no one will ever question it.”

Koza’s work posing gives art students at Centennial College’s Story Arts Centre a chance to learn life drawing. David McClyment, a Centennial fine arts teacher, leads the course.

“(Life drawing is) code for drawing people naked.”

McClyment explained that life drawing helps artists sharpen their hand-eye co-ordination by drawing a model who is posing in front of them.

A life-drawer's sketch of the night's life model at Centennial College's Open Drawing Studio.

Scott Koza, 27, modelled for the first time when he was 17 because the original model didn’t show up.

“It was completely terrifying,” he recalled. “I was super red. … It was embarrassing.”

He pointed out that most people who become life models are artists themselves or dancers or musicians who become comfortable with it after repeat sessions. Koza was a fine arts student himself for five years and did life modelling part-time to help pay for school.

He admitted that at first he was very conscious of his body and curious as to what he looked like to other people. Becoming comfortable with one’s body is a “process” he explained.

“(It’s) super liberating,” he said. “Just learning to love yourself and really accept your body.”

McClyment recognizes the intensive effort required for modelling.

“What most people don’t recognize is that it’s rigorously physical and rigorously mental,” he said.

“If I work three classes, that’s like nine hours of yoga Pilates a day,” Koza said. “I learned more in two years of full-time modeling than I ever did in four years of art school.”

McClyment thinks that life-drawing studios can also help artists retreat into their own minds. He described it as “totally Zen,” and said that it allows artists to “draw like no one’s looking.”

McClyment organizes a weekly life-drawing studio at Centennial that’s open to the public. He said students enjoy open drawing because there’s no evaluation.

“The hardest thing about drawing is turning your brain off,” he said.

Agnes MacPhail's spirt lives on

An article I wrote for the Toronto Observer/East York Observer on February 27th

For Eden Bridge-Cook winning at public speaking was only a part of the objective.

“I’m very passionate about animals,” she said, “so I was happy to share (my views) with everybody.”

Eden, a Grade 6 student at Westwood Middle School, in East York, won the 2015 Agnes Macphail Award for her speech on factory farming at the 18th edition of the contest.

Agnes Macphail was a suffragist, humanitarian and animal-welfare advocate. She was also the first woman to be elected to the Ontario Legislature, where she served as MPP for East York. Before becoming a politician, Macphail was a teacher.

Portrait of Agnes Macphail.

Contestants in the public speaking contest were students in Grades 6, 7 or 8 attending schools in East York; they had previously competed and won speaking contests at their schools. The students’ speeches dealt with stigma surrounding mental illness, sexual assault and societal pressures.

Bob Lister, who co-received the Agnes Macphail Award with his wife Lis in 1998, served as the MC during the evening.

“We call it a competition, but really it’s a celebration,” Lister said.

The Listers have been co-ordinating the contest since they won it and agree that the purpose of the event is to celebrate the principles by which Agnes Macphail lived.

“She was a rebel. She was somebody who stood up for her passions and what’s what we want (the students) to do,” Lis Lister said.

She also pointed out that the contest offers the student contestants a great learning experience; it fosters their “growth and development” and it gives them confidence.

For Meghan Mackye, of G.A. Brown Middle School, a speaking contest is not the kind of competition she normally joins. Meghan is a soccer player in Grade 7 and gave a speech on the value of competitive sports. Meghan describes herself as shy and said that public speaking was a “first time thing.” Despite the novelty, however, Meghan said she enjoyed the experience.

“It was nice for me to do because it was really open,” she said.

For this year’s winner, Eden Bridge-Cook, the event was all about the speech content and dealing with the stress.

Eden Bridge-Cook and her mother at the East York Civic Centre for the 2015 Agnes Macphail speaking contest.

“It was really nerve wracking, but I was having a good time,” she said.

Harper Seeks to Extend ISIL Mission

One of several of my unpublished stories written for the Toronto Observer. Written  on March 31st.

The Canadian military could be in the Middle East for another six months to a year if Prime Minister Stephan Harper has his way.

In a speech Harper gave in the House of Commons Tuesday he outlined his plan to expand the operating area of Canadian military into Syria to prevent the growth of ISIL.

Harper insisted that it is necessary for Canadians to continue their mission in Iraq to combat ISIL which is growing at "a truly terrifying pace" and are "far from an idle threat." Harper said that extending the mission will not change Canada's non-combat role in the conflict.

"Our objectives remain the same: we intend to continue to degrade the capabilities of ISIL, that is, to degrade its ability to engage in military movements of scale," Harper said.

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau voiced concerns about Harper's plan after the announcement. Mulcair insisted that Canada "has no place" in the conflict in Iraq. Trudeau accused Harper of being dishonest with Canadians about the nature of the military's mission.

"Canadians need to know what the government is getting them into," Trudeau said.

The Observer took to the streets to get  reactions from the public. When asked if they thought the Canadian military should extend their mission in Iraq, some responses were:

"I don't really know what's going on over there anymore.  I heard we're moving into Syria but I thought no Canadians were on the ground?" said Vanny, a high school teacher.

"I think that we need to protect ourselves but I think this is going to cause more problems... for everyone," said Brandon , an environmental engineer and university student.

"I think we should take up a non-combat role, like providing economic support. It seems that we're doing this to maintain international relations. But this is not our war. It's not a UN mission and it's not a NATO mission," said Cameron, a journalist and university student. When asked if he thinks ISIL poses a threat to Canadians he added "I think a lot of their (ISIL's) threats are empty. To make them seem more capable than they are."

"Canada should continue its current initiative overseas. I don't think leaving foreign countries would decrease the threat level at home. They should remain deployed for as long as it takes. Indefinitely if need be," responded Adrian, a construction worker and business owner.

"There's no legal basis for this mission at this point in time. Your (the Conservatives) disregard for diplomatic law is symptomatic of (their) approach to this mission, which is irresponsible and doesn't take seriously the need to protect the lives of the Canadian Armed Forces." Said Matthew Kellway, NDP Member of Parliament for Beaches-East York.

When asked if he thought Canadians were clear on what the mission in Iraq was Kellway responded "If Canadians are confused or simply don't know what our troops are doing and engaged with in Iraq and now maybe Syria it's perfectly understandable. This is a government that's been economical with the truth and that's the most charitable way to put it."

I've always seen Canada as a peace-keeping nation doing their part to make sure that people in countries abroad to live peacefully.What I would like to see Canada do more is reach out to the Canadian-Muslim population. So what I think needs to be done is we need to come together and engage youth and figure out whatever their angst is to have more of an open dialogue," said Georgia who works as a journalist.

Tory Takes on Traffic

One of several of my unpublished stories written for the Toronto Observer. Written April 1st.

John Tory plans to create Big Data Innovation Team to find solutions to traffic congestion in Toronto.

Last week Tory announced his plan to use travel data to better understand people's travel habits to combat congestion in the city. Tory's announcement comes after Dutch navigation company Tom Tom released it's annual traffic index which revealed that Toronto has the second highest rate of congestion in the country.

Using the travel data Tory wants to understand "how, where and when people travel" to improve travel by all means of transportation. The city's Transportation Services department created "Big Data Innovation Team" and will spend months developing strategies to "improve travel by all modes." The team will work with McMaster University and the TTC improve to analyze past travel patterns and improve streetcar service.

Tom Tom's survey revealed that traffic congestion in Toronto has been steadily on the rise and is likely to get worse. The report showed that congestion in Toronto increased from 27 per cent in 2013 to 32 per cent in 2014. Toronto has the second highest traffic-congestion percentage in Canada after Vancouver, which has an overall level of 35 per cent.

Tom Tom's survey also revealed that traffic congestion causes 84 hours in delays for the average TTC rider, five hours more than the national average. According to the survey, there is the a 23 minute delay per day for a 30 minute commute.

Toronto Observer asked commuters about their experiences with traffic:
"It's annoying not knowing when the delays are. How can anyone plan for that?" Radihka commented.

"It sucks" Owen said.

"The worst thing about TTC delays is the fact that travelling in a city that heavily relies on public transit, becomes really inconvenient," Samantha said.

"Being a person who is not so great with time management, delays can often make me late to things," Aashna said.

"End result of 30 years of failed urban planning," said Winston.

"The worst part is not knowing how long it will take to get somewhere because you have to think about the time of day and factor traffic,"  Anthony said.

Improv

Sorry for the redirect, wordpress is being difficult

Improv "The grass i s always greener"
Posted by Anje Santibanez on Saturday, December 18, 2010