Briarpatch Magazine » Briarpatch Magazine Issues

Letter from the Editor: Briarpatch’s jade anniversary

dave — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:23:22 +0000

By Dave Oswald Mitchell Briarpatch Magazine September/October 2008 In our most recent reader survey, we asked readers how they first learned about Briarpatch. Whether it is a sign of the loyalty of our readership or the advanced age of the magazine I don’t know, but a whopping 26 per cent checked the box “It’s been so long I [...]

Mock justice: The trial of Omar Khadr

dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:22:12 +0000

In this, our 35th anniversary issue, Briarpatch tackles stories ranging from an in-depth look at the outrages of the Omar Khadr case to the politics of immigration in France & Canada, from an assessment of the alternatives for Canada in Afghanistan to an exploration of the culture of youth gun violence in Canada's capital. To subscribe or order a copy of this issue, call 1-866-431-5777 or visit our secure online shop.

Peace begins at home: Real alternatives for Canada in Afghanistan

dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:19:37 +0000

**By John W. Warnock Briarpatch Magazine September/October 2008**

"No nation can donate liberation to another nation. Liberation should be achieved in a country by the people themselves."

Malalai Joya, Member, Afghan House of the People

The U.S. imperial project in Afghanistan has faltered. The government created by the United States lacks credibility and legitimacy. The vast majority of the people remain poor. The drug economy is dominant. Despite an increase in NATO military forces, the armed resistance led by the Taliban is increasing in strength. So what should Canada's response be?

The public debate on Afghanistan has had a very narrow focus in this country. The primary concern has been the role of the Canadian Forces in the counter-insurgency war: How many more Canadians will be killed? How long will our forces remain in Kandahar province? What will the United States think if Canada withdraws from the southern conflict zone? If Canada pulls its forces out of Afghanistan, will there be chaos? Meanwhile, the occupation grinds on and the hopes for peace in Afghanistan recede into the distance.

It is time for Canadians to ask what the Afghan people want. At the top of the list would certainly be an end to the death, destruction and despair of the current occupation (the real "three Ds" that Afghans have inherited from Canada's "development, diplomacy and defence" state-building strategy). The polls all show that a large majority of Afghans want a negotiated settlement and an end to the war. The majority do not want to see the return of the Taliban to government. The fact that the Afghan public supports negotiation with the Taliban insurgents is an indication of how far they are willing to go to end the violence. The current U.S.-NATO policy, supported by the Canadian government, however, only perpetuates the war.

The Afghan people also want their sovereignty, their right to self-determination and their democratic rights. Since October 2001 the United States, its allies and United Nations agencies have directed political, military and economic policy in the country. Afghanistan has been treated like a 19th-century colony.

Mock justice: Why Omar Khadr should walk free

dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:17:21 +0000

**By Brent Erickson & Dave Oswald Mitchell Briarpatch Magazine September/October 2008**

"The shaming of one Canadian has shamed all Canadians."

-Liberal MP Paul Szabo, apologizing in the House of Commons for the RCMP's treatment of lobbyist and arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber. (Schreiber's pants had fallen down while RCMP officers led him, in handcuffs, to a waiting cruiser after his testimony before the Commons Ethics Committee.)

You're 15 years old, in the company of hardened militants who are associates of your father. A foreign army has invaded the country and unleashed a massive bombing campaign. Soldiers come knocking one morning and demand entry. The men around you refuse and a firefight ensues, culminating in the occupying air force bombarding the compound you're in, killing everyone but you and one other person.

What happens next is disputed. As the soldiers enter the bombed-out compound a grenade is thrown and explodes near one of them. He later dies of his wounds. Based on witness reports, the thrower could have been one of three people: you, the man lying beside you, or a U.S. soldier outside the compound wall.

The man beside you is shot by an advancing soldier as he reaches for an AK-47 lying beside him. Cowering in the corner, you, in turn, are shot twice in the back. As shock sets in, you plead with the soldiers to kill you, to finish the job.

You are Omar Khadr. Your ordeal has barely begun.

Not wanted after the voyage: The politics of immigration in France and Canada

dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:14:12 +0000

**By Aaron Lakoff Briarpatch Magazine September/October 2008**

It's a Tuesday evening in Paris, and in the predominantly immigrant neighbourhood of Belleville, people from all corners of the world are crowding into the metro station. Tension is high tonight; for many, this ride home could be their last in France.

Outside the turnstiles of the metro, a small group of people have gathered to call out warnings to those entering the station. "Attention sans-papiers! There are police in the metro!" Down on the platform, a unit of French police officers are doing a random check of people's immigration documents. Those who are in the country illegally can be swept up right away, put in detention, and then eventually deported. These immigration sweeps in public places have become a common occurrence in France over the last year, and for many undocumented migrants in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's republic, the country is no longer seen as the terre d'accueil, or "land of welcome" it has so long promoted itself to be.

Meanwhile, here in Canada, migrants may not be undergoing such horrific experiences on as large of a scale, but the threat of being snatched up by police in the subway, a hardware store, or even at home is still an everyday reality for many. Particularly in light of the Conservative government's recent changes to the Canadian Immigration Act, an examination of the politics of immigration in France has real bearing on the future of immigration in this country as well.

Nicolas Sarkozy rose to power in May 2007 on a platform of tightening immigration controls. Migration has been a hot button issue in France for the last few years, especially since the riots in the working class, immigrant suburbs of Paris in late 2005. For weeks, youth in these suburbs burnt cars and engaged in running battles with riot police following the deaths of two youth of colour during a police chase. For some, the riots were an indication of the failures of youth from immigrant families to integrate into French society, while for others they represented a very clear reaction to the ongoing poverty, unemployment, discrimination and police brutality that their communities face. In France, the unemployment level amongst immigrant families is three times the national average.

August 2008: Olympics, anti-racism, despair, etc.

dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:11:19 +0000

From an investigation of the impact of the Olympics on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to an exploration of Buddhism's looming schism, from an in-depth look at the confrontational tactics of anti-racist activism in urban Alberta to Derrick Jensen's thoughts on the liberatory potential of despair, this issue of Briarpatch seeks out tales of grace and courage in the unlikeliest of places.

Letter from the Editor: Drinking deeply from a half-empty glass

dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:06:45 +0000

“We are moving into a period of bewilderment, a curious moment in which people find light in the midst of despair, and vertigo at the summit of their hopes. It is a religious moment also, and here is the danger. People will want to obey the voice of Authority, and many strange constructs of just [...]

“It’s tremendous fun to fight back”: An interview with Derrick Jensen

dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:06:20 +0000

**By Dave Oswald Mitchell Briarpatch Magazine August 2008**

"If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it? . . . what we must have are those books which come upon us like ill fortune, and distress us deeply, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us."

Franz Kafka

Derrick Jensen has been called the philosopher poet of the ecological movement. His books include The Culture of Make Believe, the two-volume Endgame, and most recently How Shall I Live My Life?: On Liberating the Earth from Civilization. Common to all his work is a fierce commitment to expose the roots of the violence and destruction that underpin the comforts and privileges of civilization.

Going Dutch: Reflections on nation, race and privilege

dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:03:53 +0000

**By Sadiqa Khan Briarpatch Magazine August 2008**

i. I stop at a roadside chip truck on a bright November afternoon. The chip truck worker is an older man leaning from an elevated window over a handful of customers.

-A medium fries with mayo, please. -You must be Dutch! Only the Dutch eat 'em that way. -Yeah, I am Dutch. -You know what else they like on their fries? -Peanut sauce. -What? No, mustard! Only the Dutch will ask for mustard. -Oh, really? -But you're not actually Dutch. -Yes, I am. -No, no. Come on, now.

ii. I am volunteering at a festival, working the doors of an event with a fellow volunteer, a tall, friendly man. We are seated at a desk together, searching through a box of name tags for our own names.

-Your name sounds Dutch, I say. -Yes, my parents are Dutch. -I'm from there, too. Do you speak Dutch at all? -No, not really. A bit of German. But I've been to Holland. To a little town in the north called Stadskanaal. -Oh, really. My aunt lives there. I've been to Stadskanaal lots of times. My mom's family is from the north. -Hey, small world! -Yeah. -But you're not Dutch, are you?

iii. I walk into a Dutch vice-consulate office to renew my passport. There are photographs on the wall: Amsterdam's narrow row houses and boats with curved, dark sails. I speak to the secretary, a woman with square-framed glasses on a gold chain.

-Hi, I'm here to renew my passport. -This is the Dutch vice-consulate. -I know. -You need to have a Dutch passport.

iv. At a crowded reception following a graduation ceremony, an acquaintance introduces me to a stylish, white-haired woman.

-This is Sadiqa. She's Dutch, too. -You mean Indonesian! -No, Dutch. The woman turns to my acquaintance. -How can she be Dutch?

I do not know how to divide myself into fractions when it comes to my ethnicity; I cannot say how much of me is my first language, or the food that was common on our family table, or where that food was grown. A genealogist might classify me as half Dutch and half Kenyan, and within the Kenyan half, several eighths and sixteenths Pakistani and Afghani.

Olympic Profits: The 2010 Games versus Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:00:46 +0000

**By Christopher A. Shaw Briarpatch Magazine August 2008**

"I'm watching things speed up in my own city, Vancouver, as legislators tighten the noose around society's most defenceless members. In the lead-up to 2010's Olympic orgasm for developers, the city council has passed laws to keep street people from sitting on park benches or reclining in parks. Behind this crazy-making effort to create a ‘civil city' is a conception of humans as rubbish."

Geoff Olson, "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be," Common Ground, July 2007

"The law in its majesty prohibits rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges."

Anatole France

Home to legions of homeless people, drug dealers and users, sex trade workers and the working poor, Vancouver's Downtown Eastside suffers levels of disease that are comparable to the worst found in the Third World and crime rates on persons and property that exceed all of the rest of Vancouver combined. A sense of defeat hovers over much of Hastings Street like a fog. But in defiance to circumstance, there is pride here, too, and community. It's more than possible to imagine that the Downtown Eastside with its vibrant history would blossom in thousands of ways if only the various levels of government cared enough to help. That government doesn't care speaks volumes to social priorities in Vancouver's headlong rush to be a "world-class" city, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the handling of the Downtown Eastside and its inhabitants in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics.