Brief round-up of interesting things for the 7th of June 2019

And we're back! I took the month of May to myself and took a break from the blog (with the exception of my little blog post about my finds at the Festival BD de Montréal). I was aiming to concentrate on a few different writing projects but in retrospect I needed a break from a lot of things. And now I'm back feeling fresh-eyed and ready!

→Lire ce billet de blogue en français.              
→Read previous round-ups.

Another small change to help me get through my 2019 blogging challenge without any further breaks: I'm going to shorten these blog posts (a bit) by limiting my responses or reactions per each item. For the moment, I'll continue assembling lists of "things" in both French and English even if translating can be a bit of a drag because it feels like I'm repeating myself.

Without further ado let's jump into the stuff I found important lately :

Blogs

• Re: telling people to go to therapy by Kai Cheng Thom : The latest blog post from writer Kai Cheng Thom, who also has training in social work. She decries the kind of thinking that should surround any recommendation that someone get therapy. I really recommend this one to all!

Livres

• All Day I Dream About Sirens by Domenica Martinello : the first collection of poetry from this Italian-Canadian writer, from the perspective of the Starbucks logo as she is redesigned through the years. The verses discuss marketing, feminism, sirens, Ulysses, James Joyce, mythology, and more... My only criticism is the lack of a good "bonjour/hi" joke, classic expression of all baristas in Montreal...

Articles

• Oser un féminisme décolonial : Former president of the Fédération des Femmes du Québec, Alexa Conradi criticizes mainstream Québec feminism, especially in the context of climate change the climate catastrophe. As she write, it has never been more important for the left to reconsider their solidarity with Indigenous peoples in the fight against capitalism.
• The Intersectionality Wars : A really good history on the term intersectionality and it's creator, professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, and how the term leapt out of legal and academic spheres into the mainstream.
• Canada finally acknowledged the genocide against Indigenous women. It’s time to act. : Writing by Courtney Skye, Haudenosaunee journalist, on the report on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people in Canada. The verdict : Canada is guilty of genocide.
• Un parti ultranationaliste québécois au fédéral? There's a new political party here in Québec based on a radical nationalism with Québecois ethnic overtones (that wants to emulate Trump) under the leadership of Donald Proulx. We can trace the formation of the groupe to protests in support of Bill 21 on "laïcité" that took place in front of the TVA offices here in Montréal on the 4th of May, 2019. The party brings together many individuals and members associated with radical and reactionary identitarians. (This same protest saw strong support from Nazi group Storm Alliance.)
• Residential school survivor's son wants recognition for kids whose labour helped feed home front during WWII : Article by Ka’nhehsí:io Deer on the "students" of the Mohawk Institute residential school. From the 1880s to the First World War, the children of the residential school performed agriculture labour to supply the Canadian military. The children did not receive any actual education in return, nor were they acknowledged by the Canadian government.

Podcasts & Videos

• Debunking Jordan Peterson’s “Cultural Marxism” with Richard Wolff : FASCINATING interview. I had no idea Jordan Peterson was as ignorant of the Marxism he purports to critique. I also really liked listening to Richard Wolff criticize appeals to the authority of the "natural." I found it really gratifying!

Other

• This tweet took my breath away. A photograph of Tiananmen Square on the 3 of June, 1989.
• Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls : The report's been out since Monday but I'm not yet finished reading all 1200 pages. I finished the introduction of volume 1, and threw myself into reading the special report on Québec. For years the First Nations and Métis people I know have been using the term genocide when talking about Québec and Canada. If this term really took you by surprise, please interrogate why. In English, Harsha Walia has prepared a short summary of the entire report on Facebook.  

I'm not including my usual biweekly round-up conclusion, but I do leave repeat readers with a little question: do you like the change in format?

Thanks for checking out my blog and see you next time!