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Tales of activism

By Danielle Pope —
CUP Western Bureau Chief

VICTORIA (CUP) — Craig Ashbourne
knows a thing or two about being an
activist. At 15, he staged a walkout in
support of his high school teachers’ strike.

‘Since then, he’s been on the front
lines of protests and demonstrations from
Ontario to B.C. He’s been chained to
stairways, he’s lead speeches at gender
awareness forums and, above all, he says
he’s never been afraid to stand up.

Ashbourne, 27, is working on
his master’s degree in sociology at
the University of Victoria. But the
Newfoundland native, who changed
his major five times at the University
of Waterloo and then the University of
Western Ontario, says that some of his
deepest education has come from his
activism experience.

“You spend so much time reading
about things and talking in school, and
occasionally it’s good to just get out and
do things,” he said.

Ashbourne is the regional coordinator
for Canadians Advocating Political
Participation. In 2008, he became the
president of a Canadian Union of Public
Employees chapter, and in 2007 he was
director of communications for the group
Standing Against Queer Discrimination.

And that only skims the top of the list.

Ashbourne began as the executive co-
ordinator for the Pride group on campus
during his time at Waterloo in 2004. It was
also when he decided to come out.

“TAt Waterloo], we started this
campaign called Wear Jeans if You’re
Gay Day. There were a few flyers around,
but we didn’t tell a lot of people before
hand, which was kind of the point,” said
Ashbourne. “The whole campaign really
made you think about the fact that you
just don’t know who is gay, but once you
start examining this, think about your
feelings on the matter and the comments
you make.”

While Ashbourne says he has
experienced homophobic violence first-

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UVic student’s experiences showed him the
importance of fighting for what you believe in

hand, especially when a close friend was

attacked one evening walking home from
the bar. The friend’s jaw was broken, and
had to be hospitalized.

“The threat of living in that kind of
violence, and the fact that it lives on in
Canada is just unbearable,” he said.

Since then, Ashbourne has led a
number of campaigns, both to do with
equality and politics, To him, activism
is one prime way students can actually
show their impact. But first, he says, you
have to have a clear message, at least
for yourself, about what you’re trying to
change. And you have to know your level
of commitment, whether that’s signing a
petition, or staging a protest.

“You have to consider your long-term
consequences and what you're willing to
put in,” he said. “You likely won’t ever
have to stand up later just for signing
a piece of paper, but if you’re chaining
yourself to a building there can be various
consequences, academically and legally.”

One such incident happened to
Ashbourne in 2007, after the Western
student paper, The Gazette, ran a spoof
issue making light of date rape and gay
bashing. In one instance, the paper mocked
the Take Back the Night campaign with a
line that involved a police chief taking a
“wild vagina into a dark alley to teach it a
lesson.”

While dozens of students complained
and brought the issue to both the paper and
university, little was done.

“The unfortunate thing was the
response that everybody complaining
about this was getting. [It] was, ‘Oh,
can’t you take a joke?’ It was horrible,”
Ashbourne remembered. “But the thing
was, if we all think this is so terrible, why
are we standing around doing nothing?”

In an effort to prove a point, Ashbourne
chained himself to a staircase in a student
union building, with ripped up clothes,
derogatory words scrawled on his arms
and graphic makeup to look like he’d been
jumped. While his point was made to the
hundreds of students who walked by and
saw him, Ashbourne received a cease and

desist order and was told that he would be
arrested if he went back to campus. Still, it
was a punishment Ashbourne was willing
to take for his cause.

“The only thing worse for Western
than to have headlines floating around
the local papers saying, “University paper
prints hate speech’ was ‘Student arrested
by university for protesting hate speech.’
Now, that made some waves,” he said.
“The university got calls from people
saying they were revoking contributions,
and from others saying they were dropping
out or pulling their children out. Finally,
the president of the university stepped in.”

While Ashbourne says he’s not sure
what the long-term effects will be, he
was pleased with his actions and how the
matter was settled.

“Tf you believe strongly enough to put
a little on the line, you might really effect
a situation and change something that
many people would have just said, ‘Oh
well, there’s not much we can do.’ There’s
always something you can do.”

Ashbourne says that one of the things
to be most aware of is that some elements
of activism can be really powerful. So
much so, that it can be easier to get
wrapped up in an activity and forget about
your schooling.

“One of the hardest things is trying
to find that balance,” he said. “The best
activists are so intimately involved with
what they’re working on because they
have a strong passion about it. It can be
difficult to find a balance to make sure
you’re still going to school and taking
care of yourself and you’re not sacrificing
everything for it.”

However, Ashbourne also says that
one of the worst things that can happen
in university is that bubble that forms,
which can often make it seem like nothing
outside university exists.

“It’s really important to maintain that
connection [to your community] in order
to remember why you went to university
in the first place,” he said. “Work you do
outside school is also some of the best
learning that you get.”

Ashbourne now spends a lot of his time
working in communications for various
activist and community groups. He writes
press releases, connects people with
resources and works with groups to ensure
they have what they need for their active
missions.

“What you’ll find is that activism itself
is good to put on a resume for a reason,
you do actually learn a lot from it,” he
said. “You also have a unique opportunity
to meet people just as passionate as you,
and not necessary in agreement. Figuring
out how to deal with that can be extremely
rewarding.”

Ashbourne warns however, if you’re
only looking to pad your resume, it will
be obvious, it’s imperative that you find
something you’re passionate in enough to
keep going with it long enough to make a
difference. But, he is quick to emphasize
that most groups do need help, even if it
can be a challenge at first.

“Sometimes, it can be hard to break
into some groups. They also have to trust
that your intensions and dedication is in
the right place. If you tough it out for a
little while and you're willing to learn and
pitch in, though, people will recognize that
really quickly,” he said. “Once you cross
that threshold it can create some of the
most lasting friendships of your life.”

What about those missions where it
seems like there’s no way to win, like
single-handedly saving the environment,
for example? Ashbourne says the most
successful missions are those that take a
small piece of a bigger issue.

“You always have to be a little bit of
a dreamer. If you believe entirely that
it’s hopeless then it’s a lot harder to do.

I realize I’m not going to win on a lot of
the issues I believe in, but everything I’ve
done there’s been at least one person who
learned something from it, even if that
person was me. And the standing up is
important, no matter the outcome.

“You don’t have control over whether
or not you win. You have control over
whether or not you stand up.”