Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by BerBer Xue

Councilor Giorgio Mammoliti has been pushing for a teen curfew for half a decade now, and he’s not stopping because of his run for Toronto mayor. I, for one, do not like the fact that Mammoliti wants to pass a curfew that will dictate how our lives are lived.

Mammoliti’s logic for this curfew is that it will reduce the number of murders in Toronto, but he is playing on fear, not logic. People are afraid of guns. People are afraid of teenagers. A natural instinct would be to suffocate that threat of teenagers wielding guns until it is gone. But last time I checked, there are not many teenage murderers in Toronto. Watching the news these days, I do hear my fair share of murders and shootings (more so last year). But the majority of these are done by people over 18.

In any case, this curfew would be an overreaction. This is akin to enforcing the War Measures Act during the October Crisis, over-the-top and unnecessary. Parents should reserve the right to set their own curfews, at their own discretion. It should be the parent’s right, not the government’s, because they know their children far better than an impersonal law.

Finally, let’s talk logistics. How is this going to work? There is no efficient way to keep teenagers off the streets at night. It would take a tremendous amount of people and organization to execute this well. Toronto isn’t a small town; there are so many places where teenagers could be. No matter how much the city spends, most of the night owls will be able slip away - we’re like Jell-O in that way.

Mammoliti wants to use teenagers as a scapegoat, but his plan will backfire. I know parents who are not voting for Mammoliti just because of this curfew issue, because they do not appreciate Mammoliti’s insinuations. If only youth could also vote, just for this one election - we would show Mammoliti a real reason to fear Toronto’s youth.

Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by Diana Faria

City Councillor Georgio Mammoliti thinks that we need a curfew for Toronto’s teenagers. Mammoliti is wrong. He is also making way too many assumptions about teens, implying that we are all irresponsible, that we all need this.

We probably shouldn’t be taking Mammoliti seriously anyway – after all, his platform includes a casino and a red-light district in downtown Toronto, and giving bylaw officers guns. Strangest of all, Mammoliti argues that a curfew would reduce the murder rate. That is ludicrous. To quote Statistics Canada, “in 2008, 55 youth aged 12 to 17 were accused of committing homicide.”

Does he realize that with Canada’s population at 30 million and growing, having only 55 youths accused of committing murder is extremely small? We can clearly state here that youth homicides are both rare and unusual. Statistics Canada also points out that “80% of solved homicides were committed by someone known to the victim.” The main problem does not lie in strangers on the street, attacking other strangers at random.

If the problem is that teenagers are murderers, as Mammoliti seems to believe, than why not focus on the biggest problem, which is gang violence, instead of trying to label every teenager by making a curfew? In 2008, gang violence was on the rise. Why didn’t Mammoliti look at those statistics before trying to force a curfew on every teenager, peaceful and violent alike? Of course there are teens out there who are lost and confused, some even involved with gangs. But most teens do not need this curfew, and Mammoliti should leave them alone.

Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by Rachel Lee-Thomas

Given the chance, some teenagers are practically nocturnal. We stay up late. Some of us stay out to odd hours of the night. Some drink alcohol, abuse drugs, do whatever they want on the darkened streets. Georgio Mammoliti, a city councillor and mayoral candidate, wants to put a stop to this - he thinks that we need a curfew for teenagers. He believes that it would help to decrease the crime rate.

On some levels, I do agree with Mammoliti. Having a set curfew for teens under a certain age would really help to keep them safe. The curfew would keep youth off of the sometimes dangerous streets, and into a hopefully safer environment. One of the things some teenagers do when they are out alone at night is experiment with drugs and alcohol. If teens are wandering outside, under the influence, it can be pretty dangerous. While teenagers are out in the streets having fun, their grades are suffering. If students were to be inside after a certain point, they would have more time to focus on school work.

If teens were inside at night, they might be a lot safer. While it’s true that teens can still drink and do drugs indoors, it’s a much safer environment than being alone outside. But it’s going to take a lot to get teens to listen. A curfew is a good idea in theory, but in the real world, it would be almost impossible to implement.

Unfortunately, these rules and restrictions would make most teenagers angry. Teenagers don’t want to be babied. We want to feel as adult and independent as we can. If teens are told that they must stay inside after a certain time, they might feel a need to rebel. The demand for fake IDs would increase. Teens might be more willing to pay for a fake ID, figuring they need it to stay out late. But owning ID would then give them the power to do all sorts of other things, from buying alcohol to going to clubs.

Overall, I feel that a curfew is a smart idea. It would keep teenagers safe, and in line. Their grades could improve, and there might be less crime. But realistically, it would never work in today’s world. Once the boundaries are set, most teenagers will find it almost thrilling to bend around the rules, and stay out anyway. It would take a lot to ever get this law off the ground.

Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been reading applications for Shameless Wire with rising excitement. We don’t have any shortage of applicants, but a local organization has requested some more time to spread the word to their participants. That sounds like a great idea to us, so we’ve extended our deadline to December 31st.

If you have already applied, thank you! You will hear back from us shortly after the new deadline. If you are interested in the program but haven’t applied, there is still time to send us an email. If you are in the GTA, a young woman or trans youth, and 20 or under as of January 1st, we’d love to hear from you!

If you work with youth, or know anyone who works with youth, there is also still time to let them know about the project. Details about the program and how to apply are posted here. (Note that the PDF poster still has the old deadline on it - we will fix that as soon as we can. In the meantime, if you would like an updated poster, you can email us.) We’d especially appreciate it if you could get in touch with any teachers in your lives, but remember that there are only a few days of school left before the holidays. Depending on her schedule, our coordinator Allison Martell is available to drop by classrooms and youth groups to talk about the program.

It’s also not too late to donate to the program. While we’ve raised enough money to go ahead with the project, we still don’t have the capacity to take in as many participants as we’d like. Just $500 is the difference between running the program with 10 youth, and expanding to take 15. Every donation makes a difference.

A month ago we posted about an exciting new project called Shameless Wire, and we are now ready to accept applications! Details are below, and the deadline for applications is December 31, 2009.

SHAMELESS WIRE CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: A FREE HANDS-ON PROGRAM FOR WOMEN AND TRANS YOUTH INTERESTED IN JOURNALISM

YOU ARE…
…interested in learning how to how to report, write, and get published in magazines, newspapers, or online.
…committed to using the media to improve your community and the world.
…20 or younger as of January 1, 2010, identify as female and/or trans, and are not enrolled in university or college.

WE ARE…
… a progressive magazine for teen girls and young women that has been publishing in Toronto for more than five years. Learn more about us at www.shamelessmag.com/about.

TOGETHER, WE WILL…
…meet every second Saturday afternoon from January to April 2010.
…learn the basics of reporting, writing and editing.
…learn how to come up with story ideas, pitch them to editors, and get published.
…meet and learn from professional journalists.

SHAMELESS WIRE IS FREE TO ALL PARTICIPANTS. WE WILL PROVIDE TTC TOKENS AND LUNCH FOR EACH MEETING.

TO APPLY: Email wire@shamelessmag.com with your full name, date of birth, and answers to the following questions. Each answer should be 200 words or less – much less is fine. There are no right or wrong answers. We aren’t your teachers, and we don’t care whether you like school – we’re more interested in how you express yourself.

1. Why do you want to be part of Shameless Wire?
2. If you are in high school, what school do you go to? Do you like it? Tell us why or why not. If you are not in high school, tell us why that is, and a bit about how you spend your time.
3. Do you speak, read and/or write in any languages other than English? Explain briefly.

We strongly encourage all eligible youth to apply, especially transgendered and queer youth, youth with disabilities, immigrant youth, youth of colour and First Nations youth.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 31, 2009

A PDF of the Shameless Wire call for participants is available here. Please feel free to put it up in your schools/libraries/community centres/etc.

We’re having a fundraiser for Shameless Wire in Toronto on November 11th. Come out and support our new journalism training series for teen girls, or just come for a night of free entertainment from some awesome Toronto writers!

Featuring Zoe Whittall, Dianah Smith, Karine Silverwoman and Stacey May Fowles, music from DJ Winnie, and some great door prizes!

Granny Boots presents Shameless Wire Fundraiser
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., Toronto.
November 11th. Doors at 7pm, show 7.30pm. FREE.
Click here to RSVP on Facebook.

(Granny Boots is free weekly queer-friendly entertainment hosted by the Gladstone Hotel and Chelsey Licht-a-Womyn.)

We are working on an exciting new project, and we need your help. Some of you may remember the Shameless teen editorial collective, a group of young women who advised the magazine in its first few years. The editorial collective has been dormant recently, but we hope to bring back youth involvement in a big way this January, in the form of Shameless Wire – a journalism training program for teen girls.

What is Shameless Wire?
We will recruit a diverse group of at least 10 high school-aged teens from across the Toronto area and introduce them to pitching, researching and writing articles. Participants will have the chance to write, report, edit, and meet other women journalists in eight workshops held over four months. The program will be free to participants, and we want to provide transit tokens and lunch for each workshop, to make Shameless Wire accessible to girls who might not otherwise be able to join this sort of program.

Why is this project important?
Last year, while working with new writers at a university student paper, Allison - now one of the Shameless Wire directors - noticed a gender divide. She found that right out of high school, women fall behind their male colleagues in the newsroom. Men arrive at student papers full of confidence, ready to pitch and take assignments, while women hang back, feeling that they need more training, experience, and time before they can start publishing.

While there is no shortage of young female writers in the industry, there are systemic barriers to them entering positions of power in editorial, which means that they often cannot decide what stories are covered. This problem, it seems, are not disappearing over time. Routes into journalism are difficult - most of us can’t get published or network until we’ve done at least one unpaid internship, and for many talented young women, that’s just an impossibility. Once it’s time to hire junior reporters and editors, the applicant pool has already narrowed far too much. If we want to change the face of journalism, we need to start with youth.

Why do we need your help?
As a grassroots, volunteer run magazine, we can’t do this alone.
Please consider helping us get Shameless Wire off the ground by making
a donation of any size. We need a small starting budget to provide
food and tokens for 10 students, and to cover teaching essentials like
photocopying. A contribution of just $36 would cover one participant’s
travel to and from every workshop. A donation of $100 would let us
provide one modest lunch for all of our participants and speakers. Another $500 would allow us to expand the program from 10 young women to 15.

The easiest way to donate is through PayPal:

Or, you can send a cheque with “Wire” on the memo line, payable to
Shameless magazine, to: Shameless Magazine, P.O. Box 68548, 360A Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1X1.

If you have any questions or comments about this exciting new project,
please get in touch with us at wire@shamelessmag.com.

Come and see Shameless at Word on the Street in Toronto tomorrow!

We’ll be at the corner of Queen’s Park Crescent West and Hoskin Avenue from 11am-6pm, and we’ll have back issues of the magazine, as well as copies of She’s Shameless: Women Write about Growing Up, Rocking Out and Fighting Back.

Here’s where to find us:

Even in Canada it’s been hard to miss the coverage over the last couple of weeks of the murder of Yale Grad student Annie Le.

In Slate on Thursday, Jack Shafer posted a rant about the extent of the coverage, in which he complains about the media’s obsession with crimes that take place at Harvard and Yale. The opening sentence, “If you plan to be murdered and expect decent press coverage, please have the good sense to be a Harvard or Yale student or professor” really sets the tone for what follows, which misses a lot of the other factors involved in this case.

In a blog post, Colin McEnroe takes Shafer to task for his flippancy, and gets to the heart of what it is about this murder in particular that has everyone scrabbling for the latest updates.

A comment on McEnroe’s blog reads:

“As a working woman, the fact that this horrific crime happened in the work place, during a work day, with lots of people in the building and all those cameras scares the daylights out of me … When I returned to work in Hartford on Wed I discussed this with several women at work. We all seem to feel the same. We are shocked, we are sad, and we are frightened.”

I think this is really important. What Shafer doesn’t get into even slightly, McEnroe points out, is that a lot of people are caught up not on the fact that this happened at an Ivy League university, but that it happened in a building with 75 security cameras. More significantly, it happened in circumstances in which so many women could easily imagine themselves.

(more inside…)