Women still face routine discrimination as they increasingly take their place in geek culture, a study from Carleton University has found.
“‘Women spoil the fun’ … This was a pervasive form of discourse,” said Dr. Benjamin Woo, an assistant professor with Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication. Woo’s study focused on misogyny in so-called “geek culture,” which can include interests as broad as technology, gaming, cartoons, and film sub-genres.
Men in Woo’s study talked about what they heard happened to their peers when they got married or found a girlfriend—limiting their ability to play games, for example. According to Woo’s findings, men who had partners were especially likely to think this way.
“Women are portrayed as nagging and seen as unsupportive,” Woo said, adding that men talked about this with a “50s sitcom sense of humour.”
On the other hand, women who participated in Woo’s study said they must expect either invisibility or fetishistic hyper-visibility to be accepted as members of geek culture.
Gina Freitag, a communications co-ordinator and horror film enthusiast, said other fans of the genre almost always expect her to prove herself.
“I have to have the awareness of being categorized. People will have assumptions about my interests, which are usually incorrect,” she said.
But Freitag said she’s never been bullied while attending fan conventions, adding that the geek community—in her experience—is very supportive.
“Women in particular are standing up and saying, ‘Hey! We accomplish things. We do things just as well as men do, and we deserve to have recognition for that,’” said Keya Prempeh, a program co-ordinator with Carleton University’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre.
She said that women find solidarity with other women in male-dominated spaces.
“It’s so interesting,” said Sarah Cleary, a Carleton University psychology student who attended Woo’s presentation. “I want to learn more… It left me with more questions than answers.”
Independence and transparency are crucial to avoid conflict of interest between the pharmaceutical industry and doctors, health experts said Tuesday.
“Doctors are trained and socialized to think that we are special, that we are better human beings than other people,” Thomas Perry, an internal medicine and clinical pharmacology specialist at the UBC Hospital in Vancouver, told the House of Commons health committee. “It’s very difficult for us as a species to come up with the idea that we might be bought or conflicted or influenced.”
Perry, said he got used to declaring conflicts of interest as an elected official in British Columbia, which has strict conflict-of-interest rules. It was only when he returned to UBC, he said, that he realized his former medical colleagues were not used to declaring these conflicts.
Conflict of interest can arise when doctors receive benefits from the drug industry to prescribe a certain medication without knowing whether there is a better product on the market, noted Ramez Ayoub, a Liberal member of the committee.
Doug Coyle, a medical professor at University of Ottawa, suggested several steps that could be taken to address conflicts, including independent experts making decisions about drug coverage, and an oversight body to ensure the experts are adhering to principles of fairness and transparency.
Coyle, the interim director of the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, also stressed the importance of finding experts outside of the pharmaceutical industry.
“Don’t believe the argument from the pharmaceutical industry that those who have pharmaceutical money are the experts,”said Coyle.
The issue of conflict of interest arose earlier this year, when Matthew Herder, associate professor at the Faculties of Medicine and Law at Dalhousie University, submitted a brief to the committee emphasizing the need for institutional independence.
“Those charged with making drug coverage decisions must not simply disclose real or potential conflict of interest; instead, they should be conflict free,” wrote Herder.
The committee also heard testimony on the need to properly educate doctors on pharmacare to ensure its success.
“If we are going to go ahead with a national pharmacare strategy, the decision has to be that there is physician education as a key component,” said Coyle.
Perry echoed Coyle’s testimony and said that as drug therapy becomes more complex, physicians’ understanding is falling behind.
“This is something that will require enormous effort to undo,” he said.
Pharmacare is a system of public insurance coverage for prescription drugs. Under the Canada Health Act, “medically necessary services” which includes drugs administered in hospitals are free of charge. However, prescription drugs used outside hospital settings are not free.
A May 2013 survey entitled “Canadian Views on Prescription Drug Coverage” found that 78 per cent of Canadians support the idea of a universal public prescription drug insurance program.
The committee has been tasked with the development of a national pharmacare program.
The Ottawa Redblacks are bringing home a national icon for Canada’s 150th anniversary.
When the Redblacks defeated the Calgary Stampeders in a stunning overtime finish Sunday, they didn’t just win the Grey Cup. They won part of this nation’s culture, and a symbol of what the CFL means to Canada.
The James Street Pub erupts in joy as the Redblacks win the Grey Cup. Video by Matthew Olson.
The historic victory was all the sweeter for Ottawa as the city will play host to the 105th Grey Cup in 2017 as part of Canada’s sesquicentennial.
“It’s not just about gridiron football, it’s about bringing people together,” said Jeff McWhinney. “I think Grey Cup weekend brings out the best in people.”
As a keeper of the Grey Cup, McWhinney is one of a handful charged with taking care of the famous CFL trophy.
“If we are to define it perfectly, we are a trustee of the cup,” McWhinney said. But it is more to him than that: It is a responsibility that McWhinney takes very seriously, and he hopes that Canadians take it seriously, too.
“It’s not been watered down in any way; this was commissioned by Earl Grey over 100 years ago,” McWhinney said. “And we have a responsibility to maintain that honour, and the integrity that is really about our country. And we have to maintain the lines of respect that come along with the cup. It is a champion’s cup, it is a Canadian’s – it is a people’s cup, too.”
McWhinney’s passion comes from a personal place: his father, former CFL player Glenn “Keeper” McWhinney, won the Grey Cup in 1954. Glenn passed away in 2012 at the age of 81.
But having been around the Grey Cup for many years, there is an obvious connection for McWhinney between the Cup and Canada’s national identity.
“The Red Serge,” McWhinney said, of the Mounties who walk the cup onto the field to be awarded to the victors. “The Royal Canadian Mounted Police – no question, hands down … Watching these guys that are truly Canadian representation, holding our Canadian Holy Grail, and they surrender it that way – if people would see it that way, it’s beyond exciting. It’s magic.”
The fans in Ottawa share McWhinney’s enthusiasm for the game, and have waited a long time for successful football to return to the capital. The last time Ottawa won the Grey Cup it was 1976, and the team was still called the Rough Riders.
“Ottawa sports in general, we haven’t had a lot to celebrate in my lifetime,” said Paolo Del Rio, a long-time Ottawa sports fan and administrator of the fan website Defend the R.
A child of Italian immigrants to Canada, Del Rio was also drawn to the CFL by his father. Del Rio said football helped fulfill his father’s desire for sport when he first came to Canada, and helped his family embrace their new home.
“Coming to this country and having something to bring themselves into the community – it might sound cheesy, but it’s their way to feel Canadian,” Del Rio said. “If it made them feel Canadian, then it’s incumbent on me to pass that along to other people. If it’s that important to them, how could it not be equally important to me?”
The City of Ottawa, recognizing the importance of the Grey Cup to the city and to the country, worked hard to bring the championship game to Ottawa as part of the celebrations of Canada’s 150th in 2017.
City Councillor Mathieu Fleury, a co-chair of the City of Ottawa’s Task Force on Canada’s 150th Anniversary, called the Grey Cup a “showcase event” for the festivities.
“The more traditional Grey Cup parade, the events that go around the Grey Cup, I think it certainly builds an important environment for cities and communities to rally around not just the sport but the sport team.” Fleury said.
The CFL and the Grey Cup are part of a sports community that spans generations. And just like McWhinney and Del Rio, the players feel that connection. When Ottawa’s MVP quarterback Henry Burris was asked how he felt after the match was over, his first response wasn’t about the game.
“There’s my parents right there,” said Burris with a huge grin, looking into the crowd. “That’s what it’s all about. That’s what it’s all about.”
Ottawa has a new way to make winter driving fun this year, and light up the holiday season to boot. For the first time, Gift of Lights is visiting the capital, and has set up a two-kilometre roadway, consisting of 30 animated light displays and a tunnel made of lights at the end that drivers can navigate through.
The display, which started on Nov. 25, can be found at Wesley Clover Parks, on Corkstown Road.
It is $20 per car to visit and will be running every night from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. until Jan. 1. It is presented by radio station MAJIC 100 FM, and proceeds will support the Sens Foundation.
The 17-year-old arrested in racist and anti-Semitic graffiti attacks last Saturday was allegedly carrying a knife and BB handgun when he was apprehended by the Ottawa Police.
According to police reports entered into the court record, the teen was caught in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, Nov. 19, while vandalizing the Soloway Jewish Community Centre on Nadolny Sachs Private.
He appeared in court late this morning via video feed from a holding cell in the basement of the Ontario Court of Justice.
Prior to addressing the accused, the Justice of the Peace asked those in attendance whether the parents or guardians of the boy were present. A man and woman seated in the court raised their hands.
The accused stood before the camera, his wrists in handcuffs, wearing all black and sporting a shaved head. The Justice asked the teen to state his name for the record and announced the adjournment of his hearing.
The case is set to resume next Wednesday, Nov. 30, when the youth will appear in court yet again via video feed in the early afternoon.
In the meantime, the accused, whose name is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, will be held in custody.
The young man was arrested and charged with six counts each of uttering threats and mischief to property following six incidents of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti being spray-painted on various places of worship throughout Ottawa. Police allege he is responsible for all of the attacks.
The graffiti, including swastikas and derogatory language, was found spray-painted in red on the doors of a prayer centre, mosque, church, a Jewish community centre, and two synagogues.
The young man also faces two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and six counts of failure to comply with a sentence or disposition. According to court records, the youth was on 18 months’ probation for previous charges of assault, robbery, and bail violations committed last August.
Carleton researchers Jeffrey Monaghan and Andrew Crosby say they found Project SITKA almost by accident as part of a wider search for government documents that illustrate surveillance techniques. After filing one of their many routine access to information requests, they found a 2015 RCMP report listing 89 indigenous rights activists who were closely profiled and monitored by the police.
Created by the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre in 2014, the database originally contained 313 individuals. Those were grassroots indigenous activists. Many were deemed “passive,” and were dropped from active consideration, the report says.
According to the report, the 89 who showed potential for “criminality” were further scrutinized and added to a database to be shared with front line officers and industry partners.
Monaghan, a criminology professor at Carleton, said that this report is part of a long history of indigenous people in Canada being placed under far more scrutiny than other people.
“SITKA is notable because its scope is not just the really prominent actors,” said Monaghan. “It shows us how much information’s being accumulated, and stored.”
Monaghan’s research partner, Crosby, said the 89 individuals under surveillance are unaware of it, and therefore have no recourse to challenge the activity.
While names are redacted from the report, it breaks down where the scrutinized activists are from. The majority, 35, are from New Brunswick, but 15 are from Ontario.
Metis activisit Gabrielle Fayant said she found only one thing notable about the report: they now had proof of surveillance. “People have been watching indigenous people very closely for a very long time,” said Fayant, who is from Alberta. But now, she says, “It was laid out in a report, ‘we’re watching you’.”
Gabrielle Fayant (left) participating in an Idle No More protest on Parliament Hill. (Photo Gabrielle Favant/Instagram)
The Metis woman calls herself “oskapewis”, which means “helper” in Assiniboine. She helps when she is needed. An active indigenous rights protector since the round dances of Idle No More in 2013, Fayant believes that she has been watched for her activism in the past.
The report names dozens of indigenous groups of particular concern including Unis’ot’en Camp in British Columbia and Idle No More. Fayant says she has been involved with all of them. She’s confident that of the 313 people on the original list, she knows over half of them.
But Fayant is optimistic: “Being under surveillance, in many cases, means that you’re doing something good.” The tension between state surveillance and indigenous activists is ongoing.
A week after the Project SITKA report was released, Carleton coincidentally held a lecture on campus called “Infrastructure Security and Resilience.” According to the agenda, the evening’s speakers were to include a former Assistant Deputy Director for CSIS, as well as the COO for a major North American energy regulatory authority.
The night’s facilitator, Martin Rudner, said that the lecture’s speakers were looking at the critical infrastructure needed for Canada’s security.
Carleton student and activist Ashley Courchene said he was incensed by a security industry presence on campus and quickly took to Facebook to gather a group of similarly concerned people. After a quick briefing session, the group set about shutting down the lecture.
Courchene said the group was “protesting the criminalisation of indigenous people,” reasoning that when industry and government talk of “protecting the critical infrastructure,” it can often be in opposition to indigenous peoples.
Security guards block protesters from entering Richcraft Hall during last Tuesday’s protest. (Photo: Ruth Yohanes-Tecle)
Crosby was not at the protest, but commented later that organizations concerned with National Security, like CSIS, have reframed their role as protecting infrastructure from domestic extremists and terrorism. He says this leads to the troubling association of “indigenous activism” with “terrorism.”
After a conveniently timed fire alarm, protesters were successful in shutting down the lecture series.
Rudner said that he was disappointed that the protesters did not attend the lecture and ask questions rather than shutting it down.
“It was an outrageous violation of the right of academics, professors and others, to have an open discourse on issues of national security,” said Rudner.
The refrain from the activists and academics in the wake of Project SITKA, is that surveillance will not put a stop to their activism.
“My parents have been watched,” said Courchene, who is Anishnaabe from Sagkeeng First Nation, “so I’m carrying that on if I am.” He added somberly, “I’m not scared.”
Fayant draws strength from the veteran activists who mentored her during Idle No More. Surveillance is part of life for them. Fayant keeps their message in mind as she reads Project SITKA: “If you want to watch, then watch. But we’re not doing anything wrong.”
