My activism began when I was a teenager, with doleful candlelight vigils in front of the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa. We were taken there after church by our parents. All I knew about these demos was that Communism was bad and that Ukrainian people had been unfairly imprisoned, including my dad and some aunts and uncles I’d never met. It was somewhat more entertaining than going to the museum, so we played along. People held candles and placards; there were speeches and songs. Sometimes we’d be rewarded by a tantalizing flicker of movement behind the curtains of the embassy. Afterwards, we’d go for pastries to the nearby Jewish bakery. Nothing seemed to change as a result of these actions, but there was a certain warmth and energy about them that I liked. Years and years later, however, the Berlin Wall did come down: I’m not sure if those Sundays had anything to do with it, and the jury’s still out as to whether things are much better for Ukrainians since Independence.

What I learnt from those slo-mo afternoons at the Embassy is to see activism as part of the fabric of my everyday life. Church before, hamantaschen afterwards. You win some, you lose some, but you don’t ever stop. Sometimes activism is as much for the activists as it is for those on whose behalf we agitate, and that’s OK too.

I’ve been involved in the women’s movement, in anti-racist coalitions, in arts organizing, and trade union struggles. I’ve done a lot of video activism, and I’ve gone to my share of peace demos. Sometimes, as with the feminist movement, we changed the world. Other times, we changed ourselves, or one another. These days, change seems slow; sometimes, it feels impossible. But like those long slow Sundays at the Embassy, activism also about community, and about living an ethical life.

Recently, I’ve enjoyed engaging in specific, more short-term struggles, like the squat at the old Woodwards Department Store in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, that brought attention to the lack of affordable housing. One of my favourite activist projects was a loosely-knit group I helped to found, The Friends of Frida Kahlo. We were a cabal Vancouver artists who produced a series of colourful culture-jamming actions to protest the cutbacks to social services and the arts imposed by the BC Liberals led by Gordon Campbell. Check out an article about another one of our projects, Billionaires for the Olympics, linked from this page. I’ve also included links to activist groups with which I have been allied, or which I simply think are doing important work. It’s a short list at this point, but I’ll keep adding on to it….

Anti-Poverty Committee (Vancouver)
An organization of poor and working people, who fight for poor people, their rights and an end to poverty by any means necessary.

Billionaires for the Olympics (Vancouver)
Watch at CreativeResistance.ca.

Jewish Women’s Committee to End the Occupation (Toronto)
A social justice group working in solidarity with Palestinians since 1987. They hold weekly vigils outside the Israeli consulate in Toronto to protest the occupation. (Fridays, 5-6pm, 180 Bloor St W, at University)

No One is Illegal (Toronto)
A group of immigrants, refugees and allies who fight for the rights of all migrants to live with dignity and respect.

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
A direct-action anti-poverty organization. They mount campaigns against regressive government policies as they affect poor and working people. They also provide direct-action advocacy for individuals against eviction, termination of welfare benefits, and deportation.

Toronto Video Activist Collective
tvac.ca

Sometimes my activism takes place in words and sentences hurled at the world via popular and alternative media. I write articles and essays to respond to what’s going on in the world around me, and to figure out new ways of thinking about them.

“Not in My Name”, Rabble, November 8, 2001.
I wrote this essay after 9/11 and the American-led invasion of Afghanistan. One of my most popular essays, it was republished in Vancouver’s Georgia Straight and also circulated as a broadside put out by Lazara Press.

“Toiling at Sweatshop U” Now Weekly April 6-12, 2006
This was a difficult article to write, because the topic is so close to home. It outlines the exploitative nature of sessional teaching, a labour that I and many of my friends and colleagues are engaged in. Again, this article stimulated much discussion, and has been republished in union newsletters across Canada. It was originally published (in abbreviated form) on rabble.ca.

“Same Sex Marriage is Not Enough” Capital Xtra, September 28, 2006
This article, recently published, tries to get at some of the complexities of the struggle for same sex marriage which I, in principle, oppose. Here's why...