...And Another Thing!

MARLO CAMPBELL Enlarge Image

Reflecting back on 2011, I’m inclined to agree with Time Magazine, which named "The Protester" as its Person of the Year.
   
Whether against authoritarian regimes, unjust economic systems or the way our societies unfairly blame victims of sexual assault, public protests in countries around the world dominated headlines over the past 12 months.
   
Of course, people power was just one notable aspect of the year that was — a year filled with news-making events that ranged from the heartwarming to the horrifying to the hilarious.

• • •
   
What became known in 2011 as the Arab Spring actually began in December 2010 — and can be traced back to the desperate act of one man: 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi, a university-educated street vendor in Tunisia who lit himself on fire after police confiscated his scale and local authorities ignored his complaint. Emboldened by Bouazizi’s self-immolation (he died from his burns two weeks later), Tunisian citizens took to the streets to demonstrate against joblessness and government corruption.
   
Their month-long collective effort resulted in the ousting of long-time President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and marked the beginning of a pro-democracy uprising that soon spread to countries throughout the region. But it wasn’t until massive street demonstrations began in Egypt that the international media really started paying attention. There, hundreds of thousands descended on Cairo’s Tahrir Square for a Jan. 25 protest dubbed a "day of rage." They stood their ground for 18 days in the face of tear gas, beatings and bullets until President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, in power for 30 years, finally stepped down.
   
A completely different though no less inspiring example of strength and determination was Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot point-blank in the head on Jan. 8 by a 22-year-old man while meeting with her constituents in a Safeway parking lot. Thanks to the heroic actions of those on the scene, Giffords was one of the lucky ones; six people died during the shocking attack, among them, a nine-year-old girl. Against all odds, Giffords not only survived the assassination attempt but has since made a near-miraculous recovery.
   
Also in January, Canadian-born hockey hero Sidney Crosby sustained a serious concussion after being hit in the head — an injury severe enough to keep him off the ice for the next 10 months. The 24-year-old’s eventual return in November was short-lived; he played just two games before "concussion-like symptoms" sidelined him once again, this time indefinitely.
   
Crosby’s concussion turned out to be a foretelling incident, as hits to the head — more specifically, the lasting and profound brain damage they can cause — emerged as one of 2011’s biggest sports stories. (To most Winnipeggers, the biggest sports story of the year was, without a doubt, the return of NHL hockey to the city. The official announcement came May 31 and kicked off a non-stop barrage of Jets talk that has yet to stop.)
   
Certainly the subsequent deaths of three hockey enforcers — Derek Boogaard of an accidental overdose in May, followed in August by the suicides of Rick Rypien (who had been signed to the Jets) and Wade Belak — only intensified the public discussion about to protect athletes against the effects of concussions.
   
In February, Manitoba judge Robert Dewar gave a convicted rapist a conditional sentence instead of jail time, justifying the light sentence by saying "sex was in the air" on the 2006 night in question because the victim had been wearing a tube top without a bra and had been flirting with her assailant earlier in the evening.
   
His widely publicized comments — which provoked multiple complaints to the Canadian Judicial Council and a protest outside the Law Courts at which some people demanded he resign — came on the heels of another high-profile example of victim-blaming: the "advice" of a Toronto police officer who, as part of a campus safety information session at Osgoode Hall Law School, told students "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."
   
That incident inspired a group of women to organize a march against victim-blaming which they named Slutwalk. The April 3 demonstration inspired a decentralized movement that saw at least 100 similar marches held throughout the world; almost 600 people participated in Winnipeg’s Slutwalk on Oct. 15. A month later, in November, the CJC announced the results of its review of the complaints against Dewar. It noted he had apologized to the victim and met with an expert on gender equality, and concluded that no further disciplinary action was necessary.
   
Well then; clearly, if Judge Dewar is sorry, nothing more needs to be done.
   
Spring brought with it an earthquake and tsunami in Japan — an epic natural disaster made worse by a nuclear plant meltdown just four days later. Closer to home, the spring melt overwhelmed Manitoba’s Assiniboine River (the one that never floods — except, apparently, when it does), prompting widespread evacuations in multiple rural communities and First Nations, the deployment of hundreds of soldiers to help with the round-the-clock sandbagging efforts, and an emergency response that included a controversial decision by the province to intentionally breach the dike at a point in the river adorably named the Hoop and Holler Bend. (Flooding devastated communities around Lake Manitoba into the summer, though by then most media had moved on to other stories, leaving affected residents largely on their own.)
   
In April, I had the opportunity to interview Jose (Coche) Luis Inciarte and Gustavo Zerbino, two Uruguayan men who were among the 16 survivors of a 1972 plane crash (and a subsequent avalanche) in the Andes. Stranded with no food, water, warm clothes or gear, the group stayed alive by eating the bodies of the dead, enduring more than two months on a barren mountaintop before two of them hiked for 10 days to get help — an ordeal that was immortalized in the 1993 movie, Alive.
   
Inciarte and Zerbino’s riveting presentation at the University of Manitoba marked the first time any of the survivors had told their story in Canada and is my pick for the most interesting event Uptown covered all year. (My pick for best interview of 2011, meanwhile, goes to Canadian philosopher Joseph Heath, with whom I spoke in November in advance of a Winnipeg lecture. The co-author of The Rebel Sell was as smart as he was funny — and believe me, he was really, really funny.)
   
Spring also saw the royal wedding of Prince William and his (gasp!) commoner bride, Kate Middleton and the rise of an unlikely star, Winnipeg’s own Maria Aragon. The 10-year-old became a household name after posting a cover of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way on YouTube; the video went viral and Aragon went on to be invited by none other than Lady Gaga herself to perform at a sold-out Toronto concert. ‘Lady Maria’ managed to parlay her fame into several commercial spots — and she was also used as a prop in the federal election campaign of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as their extremely awkward duet was one of the funnier moments to occur in the lead-up to the May 2 vote, which ultimately saw Canadian voters award the Conservatives with the majority government they’d been working to attain for years. (Sigh).
   
The biggest story of the election, however, was the stunning rise of the federal NDP in the campaign’s final weeks under the leadership of the charismatic and indefatigable Jack Layton. Recovering from both hip surgery and prostate cancer, Layton led his party into official opposition status for the first time in history with an unprecedented 102-seat win that included the unexpected victories of several university students and Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who ran in a francophone riding despite only speaking English and spent half the campaign vacationing in Las Vegas.
   
The unexpected wave of momentum, nicknamed the Orange Crush, was bad news for the Liberal and Bloc Québécois parties — both of which were absolutely decimated come election night. Things were slightly brighter for the Green Party; its leader, Elizabeth May, finally won a seat.
   
Fate can be cruel, sometimes; the glow of victory had barely faded when a gaunt-looking Layton held a press conference to announce he was taking time off to fight a new cancer. He died on Aug. 22, leaving behind an open letter to Canadians which contained an inspirational message: "Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."
   
Other notable deaths in 2011 included those of Elizabeth Taylor, Amy Winehouse, Jack Kevorkian, Reg Alcock, Steve Jobs, Knut the polar bear, Betty Fox, and a trio of bad dudes: Osama Bin Laden, Moammar Gadhafi and Kim Jong-il. (Suffice to say 2011 was not a great year to be a dictator...)
   
With summer came former Winnipegger Brigette DePape’s attention-grabbing protest against the new Conservative majority government. The parliamentary page held up a "Stop Harper" sign during the throne speech before being escorted out by security, the picture of her — complete with braids and a look of determination — becoming one of the iconic shots of the year.
   
In June, hundreds of people rioted in downtown Vancouver following the Canucks’ loss in the seventh game of Stanley Cup final — an embarrassing display of senseless destruction that was followed by the equally shameful behaviour of those who carried out online acts of vigilantism. (The Vancouver riots would also see another one of 2011’s iconic photographs taken, that of a couple that appears to be lying on the street, kissing during the melee. In fact, the young woman had been knocked over by riot cops and was being comforted by her boyfriend.)
   
In July, Norway experienced one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in its history when a right-wing extremist named Anders Behring Breivik bombed government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people, before making his way to an island campground where he opened fire on a youth retreat; 69 teenagers died during the massacre, including several shot while trying to swim to safety.
   
July was also when the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the horn of Africa began appearing in North American media. The worst drought in decades, coupled with ongoing civil war in Somalia, sent hundreds of thousands of people pouring into Kenyan refugee camps in search of relief, prompting overwhelmed aid groups to beg the international community for help.
   
August saw a string of arsons committed in Winnipeg’s Fort Rouge and Crescentwood neighbourboods. Arson made news across the pond, too, as disaffected youth in London rioted, initially in protest of the way Metropolitan Police had handled the shooting of a North London man. Fires, violence and looting spread over the next three days throughout the capital city and to other centres, including Manchester and Birmingham and the world was witness to gangs of young people burning buildings, looting stores and assaulting bystanders.
   
September was provincial election time in Manitoba. With Gary Doer no longer at the helm of the NDP, pundits predicted Oct. 4 would be an exciting and possibly surprise-filled election night with higher-than-usual voter turnout.
   
They were soon proven wrong. Ignoring the "Time for a change" mantra of the Progressive Conservative Party, Manitobans instead chose  to return the NDP to power with its fourth consecutive majority government.
   
September also saw the birth of the Occupy movement. Responding to a call from Vancouver-based activist network Adbusters, protesters set up camp in New York’s Zuccotti Park near Wall Street to demonstrate against corporate greed and other economic injustices. Ignored by most at first, the occupiers eventually caught the attention of the world — especially after police forces attempted to crack down on camps in other cities, sometimes using excessive force.
   
It would be another month until an Oct. 15 day of action brought the Occupy movement to Winnipeg. The camp in Memorial Park ended up being one of the longer-lasting ones; provincial authorities here waited until Dec. 21 to shut it down, citing safety concerns as the reason.
   
Still in September came news of a leaked Air Canada memo which said the company was pulling its flight crews from staying in downtown Winnipeg during layovers because of crime and violence caused by "displaced people from rural Manitoba" — a phrase that most reasonable people recognized referred to the 1,000 or so Aboriginal folks forced off their reserves earlier in the year due to flooding.  The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs called the memo racist and Air Canada issued an apology — although it’s still moving its crews.
   
In November, news broke of a disturbing hazing incident that occurred in the dressing room of the Neepawa Natives junior hockey team. It involved forcing young men to strip and trying a water-bottle rack to one teen’s genitals.
   
Strangely, though the incident received as much media coverage as the victim-blaming comments of Judge Dewar, no one insinuated during the subsequent public discussion that the male victims in this situation somehow brought the hazing on themselves or that they should have known better.
   
Funny, that. I wonder why? In the end, there was at least one similarity to the Dewar case — no charges were laid against those who did the hazing. I imagine it’s because they said they’re sorry…
   
Winnipeg set a new record for homicide  in November, when Harry Gegwetch became the city’s 35th murder victim of 2011. Sadly, the number continues to rise; as I write these words, it’s sitting at 38.
   
In December, Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin made national news for two profanity-laced tweets — one decrying the Conservative’s decision to end the budget debate, the other, a succinct "fuck you" directed to a fellow Twitter user. Much hand-wringing and pearl-clutching ensued, as did the gratuitous use of cutesy euphemisms for Martin’s words. (Writing for an alternative paper, I have the freedom to just write the word fuck — yet another reason why I love my job.)
   
Speaking of ‘Fuck yous,’ Canada ended the year by giving a big one to the international community by announcing its intention to formally withdraw from the world’s only binding climate treaty, the Kyoto Accord.
   
Hopefully Canadians against the decision will be inspired by the protests of 2011 to make their voices heard in 2012.