The Shameless Blog is thrilled to announce that we have a new blogger! Watch out for Jessica Yee’s posts:

Jessica is a multiracial youth of Native descent who was called to the line of action by raising controversy in her Catholic school and began volunteering at Homeward Family Shelter at the age of 12. Now at 23, she is a proud Chinese-Mohawk woman whose work is nationally focused on sexual health initiatives for Aboriginal youth and cultural competency. She also does anti-racism work with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, is a forum facilitator for the Highway of Tears Initiative in British Columbia, serves on the Board of Directors for Maggie’s Toronto Community Prostitutes Project, and is a family group facilitator for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She has written for the Globe and Mail, rabble.ca, and Feministing. Jessica is constantly looking for new ways to be a kick-ass activist!

Welcome to the team Jessica! We’re happy to have you.

If you’re like me, you heard about the case of Noellee Mowatt yesterday and were dismayed that it seemed like there was nothing to do to help.

Good news: Mowatt’s lawyer Lydia Riva believes that the visible support for Mowatt is having a positive effect. To show support for Mowatt and ensure that no criminal charges are laid against her, show up outside of Toronto’s Old City Hall this Friday.

Details:

11 April 2008
10 a.m.
Old City Hall
60 Queen St. W (Northeast side of Queen and Bay) Toronto

Thanks to the Shameless reader who sent us a tip on this awful story.

From the Toronto Star:

19-year-old, who faces no charges, distressed at being behind bars after attempts to subpoena her as witness in domestic assault case failed…Due to deliver next Tuesday, [Noellee Mowatt] has been detained at Vanier Centre for Women since Thursday, when a justice of the peace denied her bail. Mowatt, who faces no criminal charges in this case, won’t be let out until she testifies at her boyfriend’s domestic assault trial on Friday.

…Toronto police said they tried several times to serve the expectant mother with a subpoena to show up in court. When she wasn’t present March 20, a judge issued a material warrant for her arrest…Mowatt, who lived in shelters and a rooming house before her arrest April 1, said that while she had several conversations with detectives, no one ever asked her to pick up a subpoena or tried to drop one off.

More frightening than Mowatt’s case in and of itself is the precedent it sets, and the message it sends to women stuck in abusive situations:

Several groups said yesterday they can’t remember the last time a victim of domestic violence was held in jail on a material warrant…Amanda Dale of the YWCA is baffled that such means, which are usually employed to compel other criminals to testify, would be used on someone so vulnerable.

“It’s counterproductive to the broader goal of getting women to leave violent situations,” [Dale] said…”It will have a chilling effect on anyone coming forward and reporting to the police.”

(more inside…)

From Guest Blogger Jessica Yee:

I am damn happy to be of Native ancestry. I take a real look around and see that we as Aboriginal peoples have so much to be proud of! The media continuously paints ignorant and negative pictures of our peoples and our ways. But our heritage, our culture, and our traditions give us the tenacity to endure many feats and the strength to climb many mountains. It’s time to recognize those on the forefront making a difference for future generations, our YOUTH! The National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) calls Aboriginal youth ages 18-30 to nominate other Aboriginal youth for the National Role Model Program who are making waves in their community.

The program which began in 2004 aims to:-promote healthy self-esteem among Aboriginal Peoples
-strengthen Aboriginal identity
-enhance a positive public image of Aboriginal Peoples
-facilitate availability of Aboriginal role models to Aboriginal youth and communities
-influence behaviours and attitudes of Aboriginal youth toward healthy lifestyles
-foster Aboriginal-inspired leadership

The deadline to submit was March 28 so stay tuned for the winners!

Not Aboriginal? We all have a responsiblity to ensure the First Peoples of this land are being recognized and viewed in the light we deserve to be seen in. Contact the program to have a Role Model visit and learn about the amazing things Indigneous youth are doing to effect positive change across the country.

Start looking out for Aboriginal role models in your community to nominate for next year!

This article from the National Post forwarded to me by Stacey May made me snort-laugh:

At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, [Toronto] Mayor David Miller got in a car and drove from City Hall to a Shoppers Drug Mart on Eglinton Avenue West. He bought a card for the bar mitzvah of a family friend. Then he got back in the car, driven by his press secretary, Don Wanagas, and went to the bar mitzvah.

The Mayor did this during Earth Hour, after having called on Torontonians to “join me in the dark.”

The Post article goes on to insinuate that Miller is a big fat hypocrite, though it does stop to quote his supporters who say funny things like ““The Mayor has lots of things to do. He was very helpful in turning off the lights.”

But is it Earth Hour that is the big fat hypocrite? Tell me if I sound like the kind of person who enjoys crushing the dreams of small children and ripping up flower beds, but like the much maligned Buy Nothing Day, to me Earth Hour seems like one of those days that requires zero sacrifice, and allows the extremely class privileged to feel like we’re doing our part for one day (or one hour!) of the year. We get to pat ourselves on the back for really doing the absolute least possible that we can do.

I know that my bitterness and cynicism makes me very unattractive. But superficial and extremely showy acts towards social or political consciousness make me hopping mad. Not only do they allow people to think that things aren’t as dire as they are - because the fact that turning off our lights for one hour seems meaningful, implies (inaccurately!) that things can’t possibly be that bad - they allow people to feel righteous about acts which really aren’t that righteous. They set the bar for “doing the right thing” pretty damn low.

Is something really better than nothing? I must admit that the numbers from Earth Hour are worth noting: in Toronto energy use dropped by 8.7% (compared to average use for this time of year), in Christchurch, New Zealand it dropped by 13.1%.

But we wouldn’t celebrate “Don’t Use Racial Slurs” Hour, “Don’t Say Abusive Things to Your Female Partner” Week or “Let a Homeless Person Sleep On Your Porch” Day. Because those holidays would clearly trivialise hugely important issues, and deeply insult efforts to meaningfully end racism, violence against women and poverty.

So is Earth Hour ok?

Ok, so you may already know that I spend a lot of time trying to rationalise my love for the Spice Girls, and convincing people that teen dance movies are the vanguard front of the revolution, but you may not know that I have an undying love for Mariah Carey.

Earlier this week MC knocked Elvis out of the #2 spot for most number of #1 singles and is now second only to the Beatles. This is what she had to say:

“I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionised music but also changed the world,” she said…”That’s a completely different era and time …I’m just feeling really happy and grateful.”
…
Carey said being in such company was gratifying not only because of her personal success, but what it meant for women and minorities.

Score one for the ladies (and the ladies of colour, and the mixed race ladies, and the ladies who’ve struggled with mental health…)!

Watch the video for her new single “Touch My Body” after the jump. I could go on at length about how it joyfully celebrates sexuality, pokes fun at diva conventions, and confronts the stereotype that ladies don’t know tech talk, but I won’t push it…

(more inside…)

Ok, so some might claim I’m just fishing for excuses to post this ridiculous video, but I swear, there’s something feminist about this one.

On a Cincinnati news show the weather reporter Bob Herzog throws a dance party every Friday morning that there are no traffic accidents. From the Globe and Mail:

The concept is simple: When there’s no traffic news on Friday morning – which happens regularly in Cincinnati, population 332,000 – it’s dance-party time in front of the traffic map…The phenomenon started last year when a friend showed Mr. Herzog a funny YouTube clip of high-school kids celebrating a “Dance Party Friday.”

…And thus, Dance Party Friday was born. There are ground rules, which Mr. Herzog discussed with his boss at the start: He dances only when there are no tragic stories in the news and no accidents on the road.

If you’re having trouble picturing this:

For me, a big part of why this video is funny is because it’s grown men in suits dancing badly. They’re so cheerfully making fools of themselves and in a sense, rejecting the expectations of seriousness, and taciturn professionalism, that we normally associate with grown men in suits.

And to me this video isn’t just funny, it’s also kind of exhilarating. Because who hasn’t wanted to shake their booty (or scream, or throw something heavy and possibly flaming…) in the face of workplace demands - demands which often include dehumanising ourselves, and following stringent gender guidelines on how to behave.

Do you hear distant cries of revolution? No? Ok, well at least enjoy the video. And if you want more, go here.

The Miss G______ Project for Equity in Education is looking to put together an activist anthology (an “actology” if you will) of art and writing by high school aged youth that take on and challenge the media. The working title for the project is “‘The Media is Not Fooling Me’: an Actology.”

Interested? Here are the details:

We want you to put your fabulous critical lenses on and take a long hard look at the media and mass-produced images of “how people should be” in society. At the same time, we want you to share your own positive affirmations, images, and ideas that are alternatives to those currently being produced by the mainstream.

Be creative, be critical, be satiric, be political!

(more inside…)

Queering Film: A celebration of award-winning films for, with and by
Black Lesbians

FRIDAY MARCH 28
Medical Sciences Building Auditorium, University of Toronto
1 King’s College Circle

Tickets are $12 at the door, and $10.00 in advance at Toronto Women’s
Bookstore, Good For Her, A Different Booklist, and This Ain’t the Rosedale Library. The festival is wheelchair accessible.

MPENZI: Black Women’s International Film and Video Festival will
showcase 5 award-winning national and internationally renowned films by 5 Black Lesbians as part of their 4th annual festival.

This year’s line-up includes:
· the Toronto Premiere of Rape For Who I Am, directed by Ugandan-born
British filmmaker Lovinsa Kavuma
· Pariah, written and directed by 2007 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow and
2008 Rockefeller Grant Nominee Dee Rees
· the Toronto Premiere of Legacy by British director Campbell Blackman
· the Toronto Premiere of local director Hana Abdul’s Before Nine; and
· named one of Toronto’s Top 10 Best Filmmakers by Cameron Bailey in NOW
Magazine, director/producer/writer Michèle Clarke’s Black Men and Me

This years programming will include the popular Caribbean food and
beverage reception at 5:30p.m.; films, panel discussion and Q&A from
6:30-9:00p.m.; and a silent auction. Brand new Mpenzi T-shirts and other merchandise will be for sale.

For more information, please visit www.mpenzi.ca.