March 26, 2003

Professors for Peace Band Together

Black
ribbon
campaign
part of
effort to
allay
apathy

ae

News

the other press

 

http://otherpress.douglas.bc.ca

Phil Koch -
Gradzette

WINNIPEG (CUP)—A group of female pro-
fessors at the University of Manitoba, clad in
black armbands, are taking aim at campus apa-
thy while responding to world events.

Jila Gomeshi, a professor in the Department
of Linguistics, founded the loosely-knit group
Professors for Peace. With no over-arching phi-
losophy and no mission statement, Gomeshi
says it’s simply a group of women who do the
same job and share the same feeling of frustra-
tion.

In fact, according to Gomeshi, it’s somewhat
unusual for them to have come together in this
way at all.

“Tm not a joiner,” she said. “I don’t like
groups.” Nevertheless, she maintains that it’s
important for her at this time to know there are
other people who share her concerns about
world events.

What brought the group together was oppo-
sition to an invasion of Iraq—that and an invi-
tation sent from labour studies department
head Julie Guard to approximately 40 female
academics. Guard asked them to attend an
informal meeting at her house early in
February, and she encouraged them to invite
other interested women.

“That's where I actually met some female col-
leagues for the first time,” Gomeshi noted. “It’s
an amazing thing that we rarely have an oppor-
tunity to meet people from other depart-
ments.”

Joanne Valin, a PhD student in English,

became involved when her academic supervisor
mentioned the afternoon meeting. “She knew
my frustration and that I was feeling very iso-
lated because there isn’t any visible anti-war
movement on campus with the students,” Valin
said.

Valin is pleased to see professors taking a
stance, and possibly risking isolation, in order
to engage the university community.

“This is especially important on a campus
like ours where there is an apathetic feeling that
pervades the student space,” she noted.

The group wants to make use of the degree of
influence their positions entail.

“If we have very strong opinions about some-
thing that’s going on in the world, are we
allowed to share those opinions?” Gomeshi
asks. “And in what way is it acceptable to do
so?”

Gomeshi and her colleagues recognize that
they are in positions of power with respect to
their students, and they do not want to abuse
that. So rather than making speeches to their
classes, which some group members feel would
be inappropriate, they chose to wear black-rib-
bon armbands.

This is something Gomeshi finds difficult, in
part because of people's tendency to make
assumptions.

“The way this is playing out as a black-and-
white issue—that you're either with us or you're
with the terrorists—makes it very difficult to

‘wear something like the black armband,” she

Queer Forum Condemns Cuts

Panel aims to make pride political

Jodi Garwood
The Peak

 
  
  
   
  
  
   
   
 
  
   
 
  
   
 
 
  
    
   

said.

“It makes me feel vulnerable and. visib
because there are certain kinds of implicatio
that are not valid—like, ‘if you are against t
war, then you hate the US,’ or, ‘if you are an
war, then you condone the events of Septemb
Vin Was

While she feels uncomfortable with t
assumptions some people may make, Gomes
feels she must wear the armband. “If everybo
is afraid to voice their opinion, then the pr
war people have won.”

Gomeshi observes that Canadians are in ge
eral quite modest. Rather than reacting stron
ly to their feelings, she says, Canadians are a
to think they don’t know enough to have
position.

“If we do nothing else, we're demonstrati
that it’s okay to have an opinion.” Gomes
says the group wants people to know that y
don't need to be an expert to take a positi
about something like war.

Valin also finds it sometimes difficult to we
the black ribbon. “I am constantly reminded
the isolation factor,” she said. “When you we
something like that and you look around t
room, you remember that other people are
wearing it.”

Yet the group isn’t looking to dramatical
expand its membership. To the contrar
Gomeshi says they are trying to help by pr
viding a model for others. “We'd like to inspi
people to form their own groups.”

BURNABY, BC (CUP)—Poor turnout
for a forum on BC Liberal cuts affecting
the queer community took some of the
attention away from the provincial gov-
ernment’ human rights mandate and
focused the spotlight on the queer com-
munity itself.

Organized by Queers United Against
Kapitalism (QUAK), the forum featured a
speakers’ panel that included queer youth
advocate Victoria Henry, Blain Butyniec
of the Anti-Poverty Committee, past
Human Rights Commissioner Mary-Woo
Sims, and transgender/transsexual rights
advocate Lukkas Maitland.

QUAK is accusing the provincial gov-
ernment of attacking the queer communi-
ty through the elimination of the Human
Rights Commission, cuts to health care
for people with HIV/AIDS, slashing of
queer youth support programs, cuts to
health care for transgendered/transsexu-
als, and the reworking and privatization of
social services.

The panel took aim at openly gay BC
Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt for his
role in the cuts, arguing that he has failed
to stand up for the interests of the com-
munity he claims to represent.

“Mayencourt has supported every one
of his government's attacks on the queer
community,” said forum facilitator Mary-
Woo Sims. “He has done nothing for us
in this fight.”

When asked to comment on QUAK’s
claims, Mayencourt’s office replied that he
was unavailable.

The turnout, which totaled just over a
dozen people by the end of the two-hour
forum, was disappointing but not surpris-
ing for some of the speakers. “This is
indicative of the problems of organizing
within the queer community and trying
to mobilize a queer response to the cuts,”
said Butyniec. “It’s definitely an ongoing
problem.”

For Butyniec, it seems that many in the
queer community don’t want to rock the

boat and will accept what little, if any,
representation they can get in mainstream
society.

“Lorne Mayencourt is a perfect example
of someone who is queer and doing a lot
of harm to this community, but we aren't
supposed to question it, for the very fact
that he is queer,” Butyniec said. “Gay
equals good a lot of times in this commu-
nity and that’s something QUAK definite-
ly wants to challenge.”

According to QUAK, one of the reasons
for forming the organization was to repre-
sent those that are often ignored or out-
cast by their own community. “We are a
space that honours the voices of those
queers who are silenced by the main-
stream capitalist gay and lesbian commu-
nity: queers of colour, trannies, First
Nations, disabled, sex trade workers, poor
and working class,” reads a QUAK infor-
mation pamphlet. “We challenge the
notion that queer liberation is achieved
simply through gay politicians, their

police forces or by mimicking the straig
status quo.”

“The phrase ‘queer community’
thrown around a lot,” said Butynie
“More and more when we talk about t
queer community it means white,
means male, it means able-bodied and
means upper-class.”

“We see this reflected in our represent
tions, whether through corporate medi
and shows like Will & Grace, or withi
our own community media, such as Xi
West, or our supposed queer leaders suc
as Lorne Mayencourt.”

However, Mary-Woo Sims wanted
make it clear that despite a lack of uni
and mobilization, the forum was not ju:
about airing the dirty laundry of the que
community.

“It’s not a bitching session, it’s about fi
uring out how to fight back, it’s about su
viving, and it’s about forming a resis
ance.”

  
   
 
 
 
 
   
   
 
  
   
 
 
  
   
 
 

 

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