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Sorry,
everybody! We sent
the last one with
some wrong links.
Here are the right
ones!
It’s that time of
year again, folks!
The money that you
helped us raise last
year allowed us to
publish a lot of
great content. Along
with continuing our
monthly examination
of police-involved
deaths in Canada, we
regularly looked at
tenant organizing
struggles, the
harmful conduct of
Canadian mining
companies abroad,
and the growing
movement in
solidarity with
Palestine, among
many other
topics. For a more
complete list, have
a look at our 2023 year-in-review newsletter.
Our goal for the
coming year is to do
even more! We’re
currently in the
middle of an
outreach campaign
seeking talent in
university campuses
and newspapers. Over
the last few months,
we’ve also been
receiving a growing
number of pitches.
That’s why we’re
hoping to raise a
minimum of $3,000 so
we can pay our
writers (plus a
little to pay for
the infrastructure
that allows us to
publish). If you can
give enough to cover
one article — we pay
writers $100 to
$250, depending on
the piece — it will
go a long way, but
any amount helps.
Please donate if you
can!
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Finding
new writers with
fresh voices and
perspectives is
imperative to any
publication, but
even more so when
your goal is
amplifying
grassroots
struggles.
One of those new
voices this March
came from Omar
Taleb’s debut piece
for The Media
Co-op: Searching for queer community outside Toronto’s
gay village.
While providing a
fresh look into one
of Toronto’s iconic
neighbourhoods, it
also explores what
it means to search
not only for one’s
identity but for a
space to express it
freely, safely, and
in your own terms.
We caught up with
Omar to hear about
how this fascinating
story came about.
MC: What
made you want to
pursue the
story, and what
were some of
your initial
thoughts and
leads that you
wanted to
explore?
OT: This story
really came from
conversations I had
with friends, as
well as some
personal reflection
I've done as a gay
man. Our
relationship to
queer nightlife and
Toronto's "gay
village" seems so
much weaker than our
Millennial or Gen X
counterparts, and I
really wanted to
explore why that is.
I especially wanted
to dive deep into
the barriers facing
my peers when
seeking queer
community outside
nightlife, because
there really is no
easy answer other
than "social media."
If my generation is
looking for more
meaningful
(in-person) queer
connection but
meaningful queer
connection can only
be found in a gay
club, where do we go
from there?.
MC: What
did working on
this story
reveal to you
about the
grassroots
political and
organizing work
that goes into
carving out
these spaces for
LGBTQ+ folk?
OT: It tells us that
celebrating
queerness, and the
desirability of
queerness, remains
inherently political
— even though by
most indicators in
Canada (i.e. gay
marriage) we've been
accepted. Grassroots
work keeps the
community plugged
into our political
systems and
vocalizes issues
within our
community, and I
think it serves as a
more concrete,
actionable way of
affirming and
celebrating our
queerness outside of
an escapist
environment. It's
more work, and it
requires community
members (like Nedda
Baba and the
organization I
highlighted, Meem)
to show up and do
the work, but I
could see the
connections between
what [Toronto-based
makeup artist Shadi
Be] was saying and
what grassroots work
can do to fill that
gap in a meaningful
way.
MC: What
did you learn
about how
different
generations are
either working
together or
building on what
has come before
to continue the
struggle for
liberation?
There's two sides to
the coin — I think
the generational
"divide" comes in
when we talk about
our experiences. For
example, I came out
in high school, I
had my first
boyfriend in high
school, etc. My
ability (and other
Gen Z queers) to be
myself at 15/16 is
something that
Millennials and Gen
X can't necessarily
relate to. Our lived
experiences are
different in that
sense, which then
colours our
relationship with
queer spaces. But on
the other side,
writing this piece
reminded me that Gen
Z's relative freedom
to be ourselves
comes from decades
of queer struggle
for recognition and
acceptance. Imagine
that after
generations of
activism, we're
still in the same
place — we'd be in
serious trouble.
While we can differ
on perspectives
around bars/clubs
being the de facto
queer spaces, we're
all still after the
same thing:
community.
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Moving
beyond electoral
politics and the
sedative of
empathy
- In
this incisive
rebuttal to a Toronto
Star op-ed
penned by Mayor
Olivia Chow,
writer N.W. argues
that Chow’s “easy
platitudes” and
“empty gestures”
are part of the
political
machinery that
continues to allow
banks, companies,
and universities
to invest in
Israel’s military.
Chow is not alone.
Many of the same
“politicians who
consider
themselves
well-intentioned
or progressive,”
writes N.W., are
also the ones
suggesting the
best we can do is
look into
ourselves rather
than demand that
they take action.
The result? The
systemic
“prevention of an
arms embargo and
[of] cutting off
ties to a
genocidal Zionist
entity.”
After occupation, students meet with U of
T president
- In
this developing
story, Fernando
Arce looks into a
30-hour occupation
in front of the
university’s
president’s office
at the beginning
of April and the
subsequent meeting
with the president
that the
organizing
students secured
because of it. At
the meeting, it
was revealed the
university’s
Expendable Funds
Investment Pool
(EFIP) has
military
investments.
Op/Ed: A movement for Palestine
solidarity grows
in Surrey
- In
Surrey, despite
the local
government’s
efforts to
dissuade
pro-Palestinian
voices from
speaking at City
Council and
showing up at
demonstrations,
people have
continued
organizing. In
fact, writes
criminologist and
organizer Jeff
Shantz, they have
been galvanized by
the heavy-handed
approach and have
become a “growing
movement” in that
city.
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