2014- Five Stories from a Year of Hard-Fought Battles

As the title suggests, this year has been one of hard-fought battles. After struggling through the second half of my course work, french classes and two comprehensive exams I'm happy to share that I'm now a Ph.D. Candidate. At the same time I'm disappointed to share that after great efforts on the part of myself and Paul Dewar, and our supporters, the Conflict Minerals Act lost by a close margin in the House of Commons in late September. 

Because I've been delinquent about updating my blog, this New Year's Eve I've decided to share five stories that rocked my world from the past year. 

Grad Student Politics

In September 2013 I was acclaimed the external representative for the School of International Development's Graduate Association. This meant that I had to represent our association at monthly meeting of the Graduate Student Association. The relationship between the Council of which I was a member and the Executive became strained early in the year after the Council was asked by the Exec to retroactively approve a loan for the grad cafe that was spiraling out of control in November of 2013 (it has since recovered). 

In February of 2014 the Finance Officer presented the proposed budget for the 2014-15 Academic year in which $25,000 was allocated for a position, that had been interim and has not been sufficiently reviewed to determine its relevance. As the meeting progressed it became clear that there was strong dissent among the exec members regarding the renewal of the position and I led the call for the position to be reviewed before the budget was approved. I also volunteered to be on the review committee.

After agreeing to be on the committee it became apparent that I was in way over my head. Soon several members of the exec and staff of our association came forward with complaints regarding bullying and harassment against not only the person occupying the position but also his most vocal advocate among the exec. After sharing this information at a subsequent meeting the exec member tried to force the renewal of the contract. In response I brought together a number of the Council members to work together to find a solution. After much discussion we called an emergency meeting of Council which eventually postponed the renewal of the position and unsuccessfully tried to impeach two of the outgoing exec members. 

I felt pretty good about what we had done as a group to stop what appeared to me to be a great injustice to Council and the employees of our association and ensured that the additional $25,000 would be available for student programming. 

However, what really rocked me about this small endeavor into grad student politics didn't happen until months later. When I returned as a Councilor to the Association in September, the employee at the center of the harassment complaint thanked me sincerely and indicated that their work environment had dramatically improved. It then became clear that our actions as a Council had a profound impact on creating a safe working environment for her and other employees of the Association. 

The Coady Institute - Being a Leader

I'm not sure what story specifically to tell you about the Coady Institute. If you read my previous post I'm sure you have the idea that attending Skills for Social Change had a profound impact on me and more specifically my self-perception. In the last week of our certificate course one of the other young women in my program referred to me as a role-model. This really shook me. I had never really considered the possibility that I was accomplished enough that someone would aspire to be, or perhaps more accurately, do like me. At the end of the week my friend Kambwali from Zambia who was participating in another program at Coady stopped me in the stairwell and told me that I was a leader and reminded me of some of the responsibilities that, that entails (which, on a lighter note, includes not swearing in my facebook statuses!). 

When we drove away in the airport shuttle that afternoon I cried for the first time since arriving (there seemed to be a lot of crying in my group over the three week course). My heavy heart was not only from the new friends I was leaving behind but also a reflection of the transformation I experienced being there including my perception of myself as a leader and who I am as a whole-person. The driver reassured me and the other distressed passengers that 90% of the people he drove from Coady to the airport cried. 

I now keep a page on which my classmates all wrote notes to me about our time together on my desk and I read it when I need a reminder of who I can be. 

Grandmothers 

For the most part, the Just Minerals Campaign, which I have been coordinating since October 2013, has been driven by grandmothers and students; so it was appropriate that on the evening of the vote on the second reading of the Conflict Minerals Act I was surrounded by about 20 grandmothers from the Grandmothers Advocacy Network (GRAN).

I had felt reluctant to go to the vote on Bill C-486 which we knew would fail, not because of any problem with its content but because of the political divide that persists in Canada. However, in the days leading up to the vote several people expressed interest in attending and so I knew I had to be there in solidarity with our supporters and Paul Dewar, who had introduced the Bill around which our campaign grew. Paul seemed surprised when he saw me in the office that day but seemed somewhat lifted when I told him members of the campaign were coming to watch. So I sat among 20 grandmothers and we all glared at the Conservative side of the House as the Bill failed. I can't describe the gratitude I feel for the grandmothers who came out that night.

In the immediate aftermath of the vote in decided what message to send to supporters about our defeat I proposed "this ain't over" to Gavin, Paul's legislative assistant, which has since become my slogan, not only for the campaign, but life in general. 

A Birthday Surprise

This year I promised my friends in Ottawa something different, a surprise for them at my Birthday party. They knew the time and location of the party but nothing else. My initial plan was to play a paperclip trade-up game where teams have two hours to trade a paper-clip up for the most 'valuable' prize they can.

And then the Ottawa shooting happened.

Wondering if my friends would be nervous about approaching strangers in the immediate aftermath of the shooting I dramatically shifted the plan and decided to do some good. After consulting with my friend Kate I went out and bought art supplies and sandwich supplies. I also provided two envelopes with a bit of cash for anyone who wanted to choose their own adventures. Wow, did my friends ever step up. 

When I revealed the surprise I asked my friends to choose between making sandwiches for homeless people, giving free hugs, doing random acts of art or choosing their own adventure. What happened next totally surprised me. 

I brought the group that decided to choose their own adventures to a separate location, and returned to the main group in my apartment. Ten minutes later the buzzer sounded, the group had returned to announce that they planned to use the money to buy coffee and hot chocolate  which they would give away along with free hugs to people visiting the war memorial, where the shooting had occurred. Moments later, everyone was in. Some of us stood and offered hugs and hot drinks to visitors, others went further downtown to distribute the sandwiches. 

I was deeply moved both by the generosity of my friends and the people we met at the Memorial. I couldn't have asked for a better Birthday Party. 

Being the Change 

What I like best about this last story is that it's not really mine.

Over the autumn I spent a lot of my spare time painting ceramics in Old Ottawa South. One of my favorite bakeries, Life of Pie, is in the same neighbourhood so I became a Saturday regular stopping in for a coffee and a cupcake. I quickly got to know the young cashier who served me every week. One Saturday she told me that she was in her grade 12 year and was hoping to go University in the autumn to study forensic science and nursing. She also told me that her High School wasn't offering enough university level math classes for all of the students who needed to take them.Somewhat shocked, I urged the young woman to contact her school board trustee. 

About a month went by before we met again and when I walked into Life of Pie one Saturday morning the young woman's face lit up, "I did it!" she said and told me about how her school board trustee had followed up and that the school was now offering an additional university level math course. The young woman was not only thrilled to be able to take the course she needed to graduate but she was also overwhelmed with pride in taking control over her own future. 

I'm sure graduate school life and politics will continue to have their ups and downs over 2015, but one thing is for sure:  

This. Ain't. Over.

Happy New Year! 

Michael Brown

How are you not outraged? 

Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager was shot 12 time by a white police officer. 
A Grand Jury failed to indict the officer responsible. 
Was he dangerous because he was black? 
Did his parents not deserve justice because they were black?
Did Michael Brown not deserve to live because he was black? 
Right now protesters in Ferguson, most of whom are unarmed are facing police in armored vehicles, with automatic weapons and tear gas. While the outcry and media coverage is extraordinary the situation is not. We casually accept racism in the media, from the police, among our friends. While our brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours are stifled and stymied we accept language related to equal opportunity and legalized equality while in politics, business, education, and justice they have far from a fair chance. 

Please don't post about Pat Quinn, your new coffee mugs or some enlightened quote. Please don't forget about your privileges whatever they may be. 

It is time that we used our voices and our power to stand in solidarity with one another and speak out against injustices when we see them. 

Justice for Michael Brown. 

Deep Reflection: Skills for Social Change 2014

Well Hello There,

It's been quite a while since my last blog entry and that's because I have been absolutely swamped. Along with taking two Ph.D. courses this semester I took a French class, had two research assistant positions and took on leadership roles both with the Just Minerals Campaign AND the Graduate Students Association at the University of Ottawa, so while my course work was a little bit less intense this semester I was just a busy as the last.

As you may know I'm currently in Antigonish (pronounced Anigonish) Nova Scotia at the Coady Institute participating in a course for Skills for Social Change. This blog post serves the dual purpose of updating you on what I've been up to and fulfilling the course requirement of presenting a reflection on my time here.

Things are about to get intense.

Skills for Social Change is a course geared towards young people aged 19-35 with some leadership experience and an interest in social change and community development. It's hosted at the Coady Institute which offers courses in community and international development to people from around the world. The class has provided a broad overview of topics related to development including power analysis, a focus on theoretical lenses, asset based community development and more. We have also been exposed to a wide variety of tools that can be used for social change including advocacy, theatre of the oppressed and creating Zines. We've had a wide range of guest lecturers and community visitors who have shared their experiences in community development and activism with us.

The facilitators of the course have also created a great deal of space for personal reflection including daily group and individual reflections. Further the assignments for the course are all designed to reflect our personal interests and goals, including this assignment on reflecting the assignment that we've been asked to write on the process of reflecting.

So I've been thinking. Quite a lot and reflecting everyday very deeply on the topics we cover in class, as well as my concurrent and competing roles as a Ph.D. student and human rights activist. I'm going to try to make sense of these reflections below.

Academia

Academically this course has been very interesting for me. Although I'm quite familiar with some of the topics we have covered in the course from my previous academic experience, our facilitators and guest lecturers have offered new approaches to old problems. Most significantly the program introduced the idea of asset-based community development which focuses on the assets that already exist within a community that can support community development. This approach is consistent with my interest in locally driven approaches to peacebuilding and offers the prospect of moving beyond identifying the needs of individuals and communities to exploring ways in which they can drive their own development and peacebuilding processes. I am planning to integrate this new approach into the research design for my Ph.D. thesis either as a component of my primary research question or as a significant secondary question to be explored. I'm excited to be able to integrate this approach into my work as it offers a greater potential for transformative action through my research process. 

In addition, a large portion of this program has focused on the role of power in development, advocacy and peace work. It has explored both privilege and power structures both which relate to my research. First, my understanding of privilege has shifted dramatically. Where I previously thought of privilege in terms of binaries; white vs. not, rich vs poor, male vs female etc, through discussions in our class about how we each understood our privilege I now understand privilege as something that is both contextual and deeply personal. I also feel that it's presence or absence is not necessarily visible. By understanding privilege in this way I feel that there is more capacity to empathize with people on either side of the binary and create space for solidarity. Personally, I also feel that this reflection will help me to better understand my privilege and perceived privilege in relation to my research participants and develop more innovative approaches to engaging with them.

Finally, in relation to power structure I feel that I can now use a tool called the "power cube" to consider power in relation to peacebuilding at the local and international level. The power cube considers the multiple dimensions of power including: open, invited and un-invited spaces; visible, hidden and invisible power; and the global, national and local levels. 

Activism

I also feel that the new insights I've gathered academically can inform my approach to activism. But wait, there's more! On top of these new conceptual approaches we also have been exposed to a large number of tools and skills for activism. These include understanding that advocacy can be undertaken for, with and by affected groups. We also learned how to make Zines, about theatre activities that explore oppression, how to develop web tools, how to better understand the corporate systems that influence the food we purchase from grocery stores and even about solidarity with indigenous groups in Canada. 

It was a lot to take in I know, but I also have an idea of where these insights will take me next. As many people know I have spent the last year working as part of the Just Minerals Campaign as a platform to create greater awareness for peacebuilding in the DRC. While I've heard lots of feedback from Canadians on the issue I really have no idea how Congolese civilians feel about this initiative or whether it has any potential to contribute to peace. I feel that the campaign and subsequent advocacy work could be improved by making connections with groups in the DRC and moving away from advocacy for towards advocacy with or even by conflict affected people from the region. 

I'm hoping when I go to the DRC that I might be able to use some of the tools I was exposed to at the Coady Institute to conduct my research and that the results I collect will not only contribute to my research but also to a movement for meaningful participation by Congolese groups in Western advocacy on the issue. 

Personal Reflection

While I appreciate the insights that this course has brought to my academic and activist pursuits I feel that the most valuable insights I've gained through this course have been deeply personal and affect my life in a much deeper manner. 

By asking us to reflect on our experiences throughout the course I have taken the opportunity reflect on many things including what characteristics, assets and skills make up who I am; how I should create space for myself in the midst of my busy academic and professional schedule and how I can be more open with my friends, family and allies. 

On the very first day of class we were asked to draw body maps outlining who we are at our core, what we're doing, where we are going and what is holding us back. We were then asked to present on these issues. I don't enjoy reflecting about myself very much and I like talking about myself even less. Yet through doing this activity and subsequent ones I felt for the first time like I was able to identify what some of my assets and skills were in addition to the usual personality characteristics I usually identify as representing who I am. These include that I am very passionate and driven, focused on my area of study and activism and also that I am an excellent facilitator, listener, that I am resilient and other traits that make me stronger and able to bounce back from adversity. I also can articulate that I put great importance in my roles as a friend, family member, human rights activist, student, facilitator and community member. 

Participating in this course also gave me an opportunity to start creating more space for myself. After all of this reflection on who I am I started realizing that there are certain elements in my life that I would like to change so that I can be a more active community member and commit more time to initiatives that matter to me. While here, I acknowledged that the institution I'm currently studying at may not be the best possible choice given it's overarching approach to development which focuses heavily on international institutions and positivist approaches to knowledge which contradict my interest in local knowledge and peacebuilding from below. I'm not sure that it's worth trying to make a change in this regard but I feel better having acknowledged it. I also think that it gives me more space to challenge these dominant modes of thinking and acting. I'm also planning on limiting my presence at school and formal work to about 45 hours per week which will allow me to put more time into other things like improv, photography, swing dancing, involvement in different community activism initiatives (I'm leaning towards idle no more because it seems hypocritical to be supporting indigenous knowledge abroad but not in Canada) and my budding relationship. I think that investing more time in me will likely lead to being more effective in my professional capacities as well and be more strategic about what direction I choose to go in life. There is a lot of pressure in academia to go all in but when I look back I want to know that I contributed to my community and enjoyed life rather than being stressed all the time and stuck in my windowless office in the ivory tower of academia while life passes me by. I think that this new approach also compliments steps I've already been taking to create space for myself including participating in yoga and meditation practices and healthy lifestyle choices.

Finally, I've decided that it's time to be more open with my friends, family and other co-conspirators. I've known for a long time that I don't share as openly when I feel like something in my past is difficult to understand or relate to. I've also realized through this course that I also often hold back to make sure that I don't upset other people or ensure that they have a choice to speak. However, I feel like I've taken the opportunity to share a little bit more with people here than I normally would, and for the most part the outcome has been good. It has led in some cases to my classmates opening up with me about what they feel might relate or other deeply personal issues. It has created spaces for empathy and support and better understandings of each of our journeys.

It is for this reason that I've chosen to present my final reflection for this course as a blog post. I want to share my deep reflection with my friends and family who read this blog and let them in on more of what's been going on in my life.

This process of reflection hasn't been easy. At times it's left me exhausted and with a bad case of the grumps but I really do feel that it's created the opportunity for some of the personal growth to occur that I've been seeking for a relatively long time.  

With love from Antigonish,

K. 

P.S. Our final assignment for the course is a community action plan! Mine is on creating a solidarity movement in Canada for locally driven approaches to peacebuilding in the DRC! More to follow. 

Canadian Interests in the DRC

Ever since my trip to South Africa in 2009, where I had the opportunity to interview Congolese refugees about their experiences of armed violence in the deadliest war since WWII I have struggled with the question of why average Canadians should care. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is very distant from Canada geographically, it is the site of a complex conflict which is difficult to describe at best, and the scale of death is certain to deter any call for Canadian boots to arrive on the ground there. 

The introduction of the Conflict Minerals Act by Paul Dewar in March has been an avenue for me to start talking to other Canadians about the conflict, some of the stories that I've heard directly from people who have experienced the war why morally we are required to intervene. In addition to founding the KW Just Minerals Campaign, since my return to Ottawa I've been working with Partnership Africa Canada and Paul Dewar's office to assist with public outreach pertaining to conflict minerals. 

Through this process I have learned about how deeply Canadian mining and electronic corporations are invested in the minerals which are extracted from the DRC, some of which are extracted and sold by groups who use the profits to buy guns and attack civilian populations. I also have become familiar with various initiatives in addition to Paul Dewar's bill which are being undertaken to curb those practices.

Yet, when Canadian Foreign policy seems to continue to shift away from any promotion of human rights, sustainable development and international law, and in the context of emerging information about atrocities occurring in the Central African Republic, Syria and South Sudan I began to wonder whether the Congo was relevant.

It is, and turns out that the answer lies precisely where I started.

This evening I attended a CIC event which featured a discussion of the role of NATO in Afghanistan which featured two prominent scholars in the field and one retired commander of the Canadian Armed Forces, Lt. General Andrew Leslie. When commenting on the possibility of future engagement of Canadian forces in peacekeeping missions, Leslie suggested that Canadian foreign policy is now driven primarily by economic interests which for numerous reasons prevent the commitment of troops to peacekeeping missions, which is particularly relevant in the DRC because of the commercial economic interests of Canadian mining companies. 

He went on to highlight that historically there was another case in which Canada chose to exercise its commitment to human rights and international law over its economic interests in another African country which held their potential for lucrative mining investment. That case was when Canada chose to impose sanctions against the Apartheid South African government. 

I believe that the majority of Canadians still hold the same values that led us to oppose Apartheid during the 1980's. We believe in human rights, racial and gender equality, freedom and democratic governance. In fact research has found that Canadians strongly link their identity to the promotion of these values through our foreign policy. 

As Canadians we either have the opportunity to allow the government to continue to act in the economic interests of large corporations through our foreign policy or to represent fundamental values which make up both our individual and collective identity. By standing up for human rights and democratic values in a country where we do have a vested economic interest, we will be demonstrating an even stronger commitment to those values.

To conclude, I think that Canadians should not only support the Conflict Minerals Act but also greater efforts towards achieving sustainable peace in the DRC because it represents a Canadian identity that is founded upon human rights, equality, freedom and democracy.

Sign the conflict minerals petition: http://petition.ndp.ca/conflictfree