Category: Media

400 000 in the streets? Quebec’s students are winning…

I started to realize the immensity of the day four or five blocks away when the sidewalks on both sides of the street were packed with one way traffic. Arriving at Place des Festivals at 2PM on the dot, I found a sea of humanity as far as the eye could see. The entire Place, from St. Catherine to Président Kennedy, was packed too densely to allow much navigation. I made my way to a raised photographer’s platform…

Montreal artist Rémy Couture’s trial set to pit artistic freedom against state censorship

How to describe the bizarre case of local artist Rémy Couture? Some in the media seem to have coined a new and disturbing term for it: art crime (also the title of a sympathetic documentary on the subject). You see, arguably, Coutures only ‘crime’ is that he is pushing the boundaries of good taste with his horrific images of women being dismembered and people being crucified…

CUTV journalist arrested live on the internet for doing his job (VIDEO)

This morning, CUTV (Concordia University Television) cameraman and programming director Laith Marouf was filming a student protest in Montreal when SPVM riot cops moved in. His footage was streaming out live on the web to approximately 5000 viewers. Despite repeated attempts to inform police that they, as journalists, were simply doing their job by filming the protest and police actions…

The Progressive Revolution

For much of the past thirty years conservative leaders have been driving the nation uncompromisingly and unapologetically rightward. In the 21st century, that right curve has revolved so much that it is now going completely backwards. Woman’s rights, union rights, the poor and even the middle class have been under constant attack for years, but as of late conservatives have been going to extremes…

Anonymous’ Actions Amount to Blackmail

The message from Anonymous to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews was chillingly simple: scrap C-30 (the perversely titled Protection of Children Act designed to enable the government access to the IP addresses of the nation without so much as a court order) or else they will continue with even more scandalous revelations about the minister’s checkered personal life being made public. On February, 22nd, they released another video through YouTube where they revealed more details about Toews’ mistress…

SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, C11 and all the other letters and numbers they can throw at us be damned! The Net’s Not Gonna Change

To paraphrase Micheal Corleone’s only noteable line in Godfather III: “Just when we thought we were out, they pull us back in!” I had to paraphrase it because I wouldn’t dare embed the YouTube clip these days and am even a little skittish about a direct quote from such a heavily copyrighted film. Yes, we all know that SOPA and PIPA got shelved in the US, thanks in large part to sites like Wikipedia going dark for a day and showing everyone just what a heavily censored and regulated internet might be like. But that doesn’t mean they’re done for good…

The Primary Media

In the past, a candidate’s success in the primaries depended on momentum carried over from previous victories. This time around that momentum seems to be fueled by the media, proving that in the age of the super PAC, media still matters more than money.

New Canadian Surveillance Bill Recipe for Government Abuse of Power

When Harper’s anti-terrorism czar Vic Toews tells Canadians that they should trust their government not to abuse the new set of Orwellian measures that he is proposing with his online surveillance bill, you know it’s time to sound the alarm! In much the same way the Government deliberately stokes hysteria over terrorist threats to legitimize the re-enactment of the invasive clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act, by claiming falsely…

Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies Conference

This Thursday and Friday the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) will be hosting a conference on the media’s role in halting Mass Atrocities and to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) initiative by the United Nations. For those familiar with the terrain of activism in mass media, it is common knowledge that spreading awareness is one of the keys to preventing crimes and injustices…