For more than two weeks, tens of thousands of people have been protesting in the streets of Nigeria, with people picking up signs and raising their voices in solidarity around the world. Their goal? To #EndSARS. If you’ve been online in recent weeks, chances are you’ve seen the now-viral hashtag trending. And everyone needs to be paying attention to what’s happening.

Here is everything you need to know about SARS, the #EndSARS movement and what is happening in Nigeria now.

What is SARS?

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was established in 1992 under the dictatorship of Ibrahim Babangida, according to Carl LeVan, Professor at American University in Washington, DC. (There is some disagreement around when SARS was actually established, with some saying it’s as far back as 1984.) “SARS itself is explicitly a product of the dictatorship in 1992,” LeVan, who specializes in comparative political institutions, democratization and African security and has published books on the subject, says. When Babangida took power in 1992 (by overthrowing Muhammadu Buhari, who has since come back into power as the current elected President of Nigeria), “he took power with the goal of dealing with more serious crime,” LeVan says. At the time, the country was facing rising levels of crime, especially pertaining to armed robbery and kidnappings. (Nigeria has one of the world’s highest kidnap-for-ransom rates, where wealthy citizens or groups—who are assumed to be able to afford to pay a fee—are typically targeted.)

“They were doing a good job dealing with reducing the level of armed robbery in Nigeria,” Isa Sanusi, media manager at Amnesty International in Nigeria tells FLARE of the early days of SARS. But, somewhere along the way they started to derail from their initial goal, he says. Since at least 2014, the human rights organization has logged widespread human rights allegations against SARS, including extrajudicial executions, torture, rape and extortion by officers, documenting 82 cases between January 2017 and May 2020. On top of this, SARS officers have also been accused of taking bribes. Per a 2020 report, “detainees in SARS custody have been subjected to a variety of methods of torture including hanging, mock execution, beating, punching and kicking, burning with cigarettes, waterboarding, near-asphyxiation with plastic bags, forcing detainees to assume stressful bodily positions and sexual violence. Findings from our research indicate that few cases are investigated and hardly any officers are brought to justice on account of torture and other ill-treatment.”

“They’re increasingly become lawless,” Sanusi says of SARS’s actions. “They’ve turned their job into an opportunity to make money instead of protecting Nigerians.”

What is the #EndSARS protest movement?

Since the beginning of October, Nigerians have taken to the streets to protest police brutality in their country. Young people in particular are mobilizing in major Nigerian cities, calling for the abolition of the SARS special police task force that has been operating for more than two decades. The task force, which is under government jurisdiction, has been accused of inflicting severe human rights violations on its citizens. And people have had enough.

The #EndSARS hashtag dates back to at least 2017, when people began using it online share their experiences of violence and assault at the hands of SARS. This most recent protest was launched by an October 8 viral video which allegedly showed SARS officers killing a young man in one of the country’s southern states. While authorities have denied that the video is real, according to Al Jazeera, the man who filmed it has been arrested, leading to more outrage from citizens. And this recent round of mass protests has led to further violence against the protestors themselves, including 25 people who were shot in Lagos, Nigeria while demonstrating on October 21 , with an unnamed witness telling BBC News that soldiers “pulled up… and they started firing directly” at protestors. An investigation by Amnesty International also found that Nigerian army and police killed at least 12 peaceful protesters on October 20.

In addition to protesting police brutality, demonstrators are also speaking out against Nigeria’s bad governance, citing grievances such as poor educational opportunities for citizens.

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Tell me about the history of SARS

Why would members of SARS, who are meant to protect the Nigerian people, exploit and harm them? It’s a little more complicated than just a group of bad people doing bad things. As Sanusi points out, this move from legitimacy towards lawlessness has been in part spurred on by poverty in the country. “I think it has to do with the declining standard of living in Nigeria,” he says. While Nigeria experienced a drop in the poverty rate between 1999 and 2007, impacted in part by the return of the country to civilian governance in 1999 (meaning that the people of the country could elect a president, as opposed to the previous dictatorship), a 2019 study in the Journal of Poverty found that “the majority of Nigerians have low living standards,” and that, despite this decrease in poverty between 1999 and 2007, more recently there has been an increase in poverty in almost every region of the country, both urban and rural. As of 2019, according to data from the Washington-based Brookings Institutions, around 87 million Nigerians live in dire poverty.

And those who work within SARS are not exempt from that poverty—or the cycle of corruption themselves, Sanusi says. “Increased corruption, mismanagement of resources, even corruption within the police force” all may impact an individual or organization, according to Sanusi. “Nigeria is [in a] situation where someone superior or in a leadership role within the Nigerian police may corruptly steal money meant for equipment or for salaries of policemen,” he continues.

Which is something that has actually happened. Despite the fact that there are about 350,000 police officers in the country, according to LeVan, it was disclosed several years ago that about 50,000 to 60,000 people on the police payroll didn’t actually exist. “They were ghost employees,” LeVan says. “So not only are individual police officers engaged in corruption, but there’s corruption—where people want police and they want security—and someone in the middle level management is just taking those invisible salaries.”

So, Sanusi says, when policemen are sent to the streets in the name of protecting people, they’re also looking for money to care of themselves; and they use their position as SARS officers to that end. “Gradually they become more brutal, they become more cruel.”

Another reason SARS has been able to wield their authority with impunity for so long? The remnants of centuries of dictatorship. Over the years, leading up to 1999, dictatorships established different subgroups that held different functions within the security services. SARS was one of them. “In some ways, this is another example of something that was created by a dictatorship and then the government never really got rid of it,” LeVan says. Working in the legislature during the time after the government’s transition away from a dictatorial regime, LeVan witnessed conversations around overhauling the laws and giving the country a clean slate. “But people became so focused on the daily economics that I think some of these rule of law questions really got pushed into the background,” he says.

Further, in understanding Nigeria as it stands now, it’s important to know that current president Muhammadu Buhari is a former dictator himself who staged a military coup at the end of 1983. In 2015, Buhari was elected as president after running four times, which was in itself monumental, as LeVan, who explored Buhari’s election win in his book Contemporary Nigerian Politics: Competition In a Time of Transition and Terror, says a ruling party hadn’t lost an election since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. “There was something that was compelling about Buhari’s message,” LeVan says. “And his coup, when it happened in 1983, was actually fairly popular; people thought that somebody like Buhari at that time could really get a handle on things and calm down a difficult security situation.” While Buhari’s campaign message in 2015 was one of anti-corruption, LeVan says that what we’re seeing now with SARS and the continuing corruption under Buhari’s government is that, as he says, “the old habits die hard.”

“There are still these ghosts of the dictatorship that haunt the habits of governance,” LeVan says. “[Buhari] has surrounded himself with some people who believe that a strong hand of the state is what is needed to really stabilize things.” Meaning, in many ways, that the government benefits from this corruption.

This complacency from the federal government means that SARS can continue to do what it’s been doing, with little institutional accountability on the part of the police.

Is SARS’s behaviour a human rights issue?

100%. “This is a serious human rights issue,” Susani states. “We consider torture a human rights violation and they do torture people. They also confiscate property from suspects, we also consider that as an egregious human rights issue. And the fact that SARS is supposed to be dealing with armed robbery and other high crimes like kidnapping, but instead of doing that they have concentrated their attention on arresting young people; these are all violations of human rights.” In fact, over the past 10 years, Amnesty International has issued four separate reports on SARS and their tactics.

In addition, SARS’s response to the protests is also an issue. “Nigerian citizens protesting police brutality in the past few weeks have reportedly been shot and killed, or tortured, by the disbanded SARS,” says Sukanya Pillay, an international human rights expert and member of Canadian Lawyers For International Human Rights (CLAIHR). (On October 11, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that he had dismantled SARS, re-deploying former SARS officers to other unites. There’s more on this below.) “If true, such actions by SARS raise serious questions about violations of international human rights law, particularly the right to life, right to peaceful protest and freedom of assembly, and serious questions about extrajudicial executions and torture.” These rights, Pillay says, are protected in several international human rights laws, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in the African Charter on Human Rights, both of which are legally binding upon Nigeria. “The use of excessive force and violence against protestors contravenes international standards on policing and use of force.”

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What has the response been to the #EndSARS protests?

The global response to the #EndSARS movement has been overwhelming, with people across the world calling for change. Celebrities like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kanye West and John Boyega, not to mention politicians like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have called for the end of SARS on social media.

I have a feeling that this is more than just SARS. Nigerians want true change! They are done managing faith without practical action and we support you. 💪🏾 https://t.co/FpNqb1wufa

— John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) October 14, 2020

I’m calling on @mbuhari and the @hqnigerianarmy to stop killing young #EndSARS protesters. #StopNigeriaGovernment

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 20, 2020

I thought SARS was dismantled. Isn’t that enough?

The #EndSARS protests and high-profile calls to action have worked, to a certain extent. On October 11, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that he had dismantled SARS, replacing it with the newly-formed Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) task force. Former SARS officers have been deployed to other policing units. But protestors and academics say that isn’t enough, because it feels like more of a reallocation than dismantling. “I’ve been chatting with activists in Nigeria a lot the last couple of days, and no one is satisfied with the creation of the new police unit at all,” LeVan says. “It just seems like putting a new name on the same group of offenders.”

“I don’t think it is the end [of SARS],” Susani agrees. “Even though SARS has been dismantled, Nigerians believe that something concrete has to be done to prove that the atrocities [they’re] committing will stop.” Susani refers back to the numerous offences SARS has committed over the past four years, and the immediate uproar and then inaction from the government. “When SARS has either killed a young man or tortured Nigerians, people will be angry. They will come out and protest maybe for half a day or one day, and the government says, ‘we are going to report this. We are going to look into your complaint.’ So four times within the last four years, they have promised to end the atrocities of SARS, but nothing changed in power. They just become [worse]. That is why Nigerians don’t trust the government when they say we are going to protect you from SARS and make it better.”

So, what happens next with SARS?

For one, real police reform. “[This needs to be] where individuals can be held accountable and that isn’t seen as punitive to the police as a whole, but something that encourages better behaviour and builds trust with the people that they need to protect and work with,” LeVan says. As well, there needs to be better training and pay for law enforcement. (As Susani notes, some torture tactics by SARS has been attributed to a lack of modern policing and investigating skills, though it’s important to emphasize that that isn’t a blanket statement and in no way excuses torture.) “There should be a mechanism of accountability when it comes to policing so that if a policeman tortures someone, the person has the right to and can get justice,” he continues. “But a situation where people cannot get justice, that’s not good.”

“It’s a hard conversation, but I think there is some political space in the country to do that sort of thing now,” LeVan says of reform.

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What can Canadians do to help the#EndSARS movement?

For people who are outside Nigeria, Susani says the key to helping is to put pressure on the Nigerian government and politicians to end corruption and make the government work for the people. “The governance should not be about providing luxury for people in politics, it should be in service to the people,” he says.

And also, as LeVan emphasizes, don’t let the current news cycle about Nigeria be the only thing you read about the country. “It’s really important to learn about African countries when things are also good,” he emphasizes. “We wouldn’t want this bad news about police violence to reinforce negative stereotypes.” Especially because Nigeria is modern, resourceful country in so many ways. LeVan points to the country’s low number of COVID-19 infections as an example of this. The country—which has 200 million citizens—had, as of July, only counted a total of 33,000 cases since the start of the pandemic. This, despite the fact that many would assume they have a weak health capacity. (It’s important to note that these numbers could in part be due to limited testing.) In contrast: the United States. “I’m living in the richest country in the world and there are 70,000 new infections every day,” LeVan says. “So Nigerians find great resourcefulness and ways to do things right. This is a moment where all eyes are focused on police and public safety and the dignity of the individual, and that’s a wonderful thing to observe.”

The post What To Know About the #EndSARS Protest Movement In Nigeria appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

Because we’re going to be staying inside for awhile, we got tips on nailing the shot—whether it’s an outfit selfie, an artful nude or a professional headshot—from the comfort of your home

Pandemic life has been an adjustment, to say the least. As cities have gone in and out of (and back into) lockdown, we’ve become our own hair colourists, estheticians and office managers. We’ve staged Zoom weddings, gone on virtual first dates and turned our living rooms into candle-lit restaurants. And we’ve gotten pretty good at taking our own photos at home, snapping outfit pics, artful nudes and, yes, even professional-looking headshots chez nous. But there’s always room for improvement so that we don’t phone in our next sext with something that looks like it wasn’t downloaded from iStock. (Looking at you, Chris Evans.)

Since we likely won’t be taking croissant-eating selfies in the Jardin des Tuileries like Emily in Paris anytime soon, I got advice from Toronto photographer Briony Douglas on how to be Jenn in Toronto Living Room instead. Here, Douglas answers all of my most pressing questions about how to be your own best at-home photographer including tips for maximizing the camera features on the new iPhone 12 Pro. Plus, scroll through photos of Toronto content creators Donte Colley and Sarah Nicole Landry (a.k.a. @thebirdspapaya), all shot by Douglas on iPhone 12 Pro. 

Yes, you can take a good selfie even when there is zero natural light

Feel like you’re living in a dark grotto? Chic photos are still possible with Night Mode, which is available on most new iPhones and Androids. “This is one thing I love about the new iPhone 12 Pro—Night Mode is now available on the front-facing camera and it’s really good at taking selfies in the dark by sucking in the little light there is and illuminating your face,” says Douglas. Brace yourself for the next tip, which is so easy and genius, I can’t believe it never occurred to me before. “You can actually use the display of your iPhone 12 Pro to illuminate your face when taking a selfie in Night Mode, too by reducing or increasing the brightness of your display based on the look you are going for.” *Brain explodes*

Pandemic job hunting is real and it is possible to take a professional-looking headshot at home

With so many Canadians coping with layoffs because of COVID-19, LinkedIn has never been so lit. With Douglas’s tips, you can make sure your new DIY headshot is, too. “Natural light is your friend for this! Sunny days are actually not the best, but if you can pick an overcast day then the clouds act as a natural diffuser for the skin. For a dramatic effect, shoot inside next to a window.”

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Wanting to take a pretty food photo doesn’t mean you’re more basic than Emily in Paris—here’s how to nail the shot

If being ringarde is wrong, I don’t wanna be right! Douglas concurs. “As Emily says, being ‘ringarde’ is essential to life. There are so many different tips and tricks [for how to shoot a cool food photo], but I love to go on Pinterest and find new inspiration there. One quick tip that I have from [a recent shoot I did with] Sarah [Nicole Landry, AKA @thebirdspapaya] is holding flowers at the base of the camera to create the illusion it’s being shot through flowers.” An aerial photo of my homemade frittata shot through flowers? Emily Cooper could never.

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Artful nudes don’t have to be for anyone but you (or your besties)

Is it just me or are more and more people taking artsy nudes for themselves instead of a partner or lover? Douglas says the easiest way to elevate your artful self-portrait is to experiment. “First, make sure you are creating these because they make YOU happy! Second, the body is so incredible and to be able to use it for art is such a wonderful expression of ones self, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box and get creative. This can be done by coming in closer for the picture; for example, the curves of the body or a shot of just your legs. There are so many different pieces of art just waiting to be discovered.”

Sarah Nicole Landry shot on iPhone 12 Pro (Photo: Briony Douglas)

You can shoot a bomb outfit photo at home that *isn’t* a mirror selfie

This one is easy, even for us amateurs. “Bless the self timer on the iPhone!” Douglas tells me. “Or if you have an Apple Watch, you can control from there and see the photo your phone is seeing.” P.S. If you do venture outside for a socially distanced walk with a pal and need to capture her cute outfit, try playing with the new Wide Camera (available on iPhone 12 and 12 Pro). It’s got the fastest aperture of any iPhone and captures 27% more light. That means better pics in low light and tons of detail on both the OOTD *and* the backdrop behind her.

Who among us hasn’t tried to take a photo of a beautiful sunset or insane full moon and been gravely disappointed? Douglas says don’t give up!

When asked if it’s possible to shoot a sleek full moon shot, Douglas, a longtime artist and professional photog, says don’t get your hopes up. “I am more than 30 years old and have never taken a good full moon photo for the life of me,” she says with a laugh. “That said, a sunset you can totally nail! If you have your iPhone handy, the AI will correct everything to make sure you have perfect colours captured.”

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Night Mode will make you feel like a legit photographer

When all else fails, shoot at night and play with colours. “Night Mode is by far one of my favourite features of the iPhone 12 but like with anything, you should play around with it and see what works for you! For the images [I recently shot] with Donte [Colley], I used Gels over a light but you can create this effect at home as well. If you place a sheer coloured material over a low light, like a red scarf for example, you will make the whole room a dark red! Play around and have fun with it. For any Night Mode shots, make sure you and your subject stay still and look for a scene with just a tiny bit of ambient light behind your subject.”

Scroll through for more of Briony’s shots with Donte and Sarah, all shot on iPhone 12 Pro: 

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Sarah Nicole Landry shot by Briony Douglas using the iPhone 12 Pro

The post Pro Tips on How to Elevate Your Photography Game At Home appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

With the U.S. election happening this week—smack dab in the middle of a pandemic and a worldwide crusade against racial injustice—there’s no denying it’s a stressful time. According to the American Psychological Association, 68% of Americans say the current political climate is a significant source of stress regardless of their preferred candidate. (That’s up from 52% in 2016.)

We’re feeling the stress in Canada, too. The impact of American politics, after all, is not limited by borders, and can affect global issues including everything from migration to environmental policy. Plus, uncertainty—of our political future, health and economy—has already raised stress and anxiety levels for most of us thanks to the pandemic, which has caused job insecurity, health scares and a lack of access to our usual supports, like seeing friends and simply being able to get out. A recent Angus Reid Institute poll found that 50% of Canadians feel their mental health has worsened since the start of the pandemic in March. 

With a potential second Trump presidency looming over all of us, this uncertainty and inequality has never been more in the spotlight, highlighted by chaotic debate after chaotic debate, and the recent confirmation of pro-life Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. This is an election, then, that stands to impact many, particularly BIPOC, the LGBTQ community and women. 

“When someone is in a perceived position of power and supports division, inequity, racism, sexism and perpetuates re-opening the wounds of history that have yet to be healed, it can create a sense of collective anxiety, grief and stress,” explains Randi-Mae Stanford-Leibold, a Toronto-based mindfulness and self-care instructor and counsellor who held over 100 free counselling sessions this year for people impacted by American politics everywhere from Toronto to Tanzania. “Trump has brought a painful truth to the forefront that many BIPOC have been living with quietly all over the world. I’ve had people reach out to me who were deeply impacted and experiencing vicarious trauma. The loss and unrest has sent a ripple in the world that cannot be denied.”

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Making matters even more tense is that news media likely won’t call the election results for several days, if not longer, due to an overwhelming number of mail-in ballots this year. (Usually, they have enough data to make a call on election night even though ballots are still being counted, but this year it’s expected a higher percentage of ballots will come in post-November 3.) And, of course, Trump is already setting the stage to contest ballots that arrive after election day if he loses. 

It’s more important than ever, then, to formulate a self-care plan ahead of the election, the results of which are likely to be drawn out for days or even weeks. 

“Before a wound heals, we must look at it with clear vision, flush out any debris,” adds Stanford-Leibold. “Figure out what tools we are going to use to heal it. Apply the tools, and take care of the wound as it heals. America is at the stage of looking at its historic and generational wound with clear vision.”

Here are six tools you can use on the big day and well after:

Build a support network

Whether it’s a group chat, an election night bubble or a community hub, build a network of support around you. Times as stressful as these are made much more difficult when navigating solo. By finding and creating your own safe space, whether that includes friends, family, a therapist or neighbours, you’ll have somewhere to share your feelings, and find support and validation.

“Human connection is so important; it restores hope,” says Stanford-Leibold, who explains that, at a time when uncertainty is high, optimism can be cultivated collectively. “People have been afraid to feel joy because it feels ‘wrong’ right now. But coming from a spiritual point of view, we still need the vibrations of joy to lift each other up. We can be afraid but we can be courageous at the same time.”

Eat your feelings

There is nothing that brings people together—even from across the aisle—than food. Just ask Capri Cafaro, former Ohio Senate Democratic Leader, political commentator and author of United We Eat, which compiles 50 recipes from politicians all around the U.S. 

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“The warmth and hospitality of a shared meal is something everyone can relate to,” says Cafaro. “During my time as minority leader, I found that cooking kept me grounded, and focused on what’s important: home, community, family. Even the aromatherapy, whether you’re working with garlic and onions or cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s all self-care. In the State Senate, when we would get bipartisan legislative victories, I would bake a pie for Democrats and Republicans to share and build camaraderie. It’s using food as a way to unite people, no matter their views. You may not like the politician, but you may like their recipe. We all gather around the table the same way, and that’s a disarming and humanizing practice.”

So whether it’s “game night”—as Cafaro dubs election night—or a dark winter that you’re cooking for, comfort food is key. (She recommends Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar’s tater tot hotdish from United We Eat.) And she knows what she’s talking about. The former senator says she’s feeling just as much stress as we all are. “Election night is always nerve-wracking, whether I’m on the ballot or not. You feel powerless after voting and during the lead-up. A lot is at stake this year and there has been a particular divisiveness within America, which bleeds over into a lot of Western nations. We’re facing not just matters of inequality, but a basic belief in science.”

Meditate and self-soothe

Take some time each day—even just five minutes—to unclench, breathe, connect with yourself and meditate. Make this a moment to be thankful for what you have and your loved ones. Stanford-Leibold advises, “Treat gratitude like a little snack for your mind, body and spirit throughout your day. In the morning, pause and write down three things you’re grateful for. Before bed, pause and offer gratitude to your body for carrying you throughout the day.” 

Meditation can also look like yoga or taking long, quiet walks. If you’re skeptical, plenty of research has linked meditation to lowered anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. And in 2020, it’s especially easy with the help of apps like the BIPOC-owned Shine, Headspace, Calm, Breethe and Ten Percent Happier. The latter two even offer special election-related meditations to help you prep for November 3.

Unplug

Social media has never been louder than it is now. And we’ve never been more glued to our screens, thanks to social distancing. But if there were ever a time to distance yourself from media and technology, this may be it. Give your Twitter fingers a break for a day, maybe even a week, and especially before bed. Disengage and immerse yourself in the world around you. Your iPhone’s screen-time notification might be annoying, but it’s there for a reason; give it a listen and set boundaries. 

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“I don’t engage with the news until I choose to,” says Stanford-Leibold. “I don’t engage in social media unless I intentionally choose to engage. People can take their power back by being intentional about their engagement. Instead, let nature be your healing place.”

Take action

All of that said, it’s the obvious things that can make a difference, too, whether that’s watching your favourite comfort movies, having your most grounding playlist on repeat, or just taking care of the physical. In other words, don’t be afraid to distract yourself in whatever ways you can, and don’t be hard on yourself for being less productive or feeling anger and frustration. Instead, redirect those emotions into action in your community. 

“We can always make a difference in our own backyard,” says Cafaro. “Think about the things that you’re passionate about, whether it’s a local domestic violence shelter, senior centre, school; the little things you can do for your neighbours matter.” 

It’s supporting your community that can make a real difference in the world, and will give you a sense of control during a time when you feel little. As Stanford-Leibold says, “Believe that change is possible; regardless of the election outcome, you are a powerful agent of change. You can make choices that can impact people and the world beyond the distance you can conceive of.”

The post How to Deal With the Stress of Election Night appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

We hate to break it to you but we don’t know who won. Late into election night, it was unclear whether Donald Trump will be re-elected, or if Joe Biden will uproot him and become the next president of the United States.

Trump and Biden both have paths to victory, but a handful of key states—Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio—were still too close to call late on Tuesday night. So we wait. We wait for the results, and we wait for the inevitable disputes and legal challenges thereafter. We try to ignore Twitter.

You may be flashing back to four years ago and you may not believe your eyes. We aren’t sure we do either, although you are reading our best attempt to decipher the flood of early results that flashed across our screens Tuesday. The nation’s eyes are strained. And we Canadians didn’t even have to vote.

If your tired eyes weren’t glued to network television on election night, here are a few things you missed, and a few key conclusions—at least the ones we’re prepared to make—about what it all means.

No landslide for Biden 

What the early election results show is that the electoral map in 2020 looks pretty similar, in many ways, to the map in 2016. People are set in their partisan ways—despite Democrats’ best attempts to frame this election as a decision on the very soul of American democracy.

By early in the night, it was clear that there would be no resounding victory for Joe Biden, as some pundits predicted. Pollsters had noted that several southeastern states could portend a Biden victory if he flipped them—Georgia, North Carolina, Florida. He didn’t even come close.

If Biden did win, it would be because of small gains here and there. There were no big upsets; the only states that looked likely to flip, like Arizona, had been identified well in advance as major battlegrounds. Trump support remained strong, especially in rural areas—stronger, perhaps, than most of the commentariat expected.

It all sounds a little familiar. Pollsters tried to be cautious about their models this time around, after their failure to predict the 2016 result. Dare we suggest they take yet another look at their methodologies?

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It’s not over by a long shot

We permit you a celebratory beverage of your choice, if the results so far encourage you—and a hearty drink if they don’t—but please take it all with a grain of salt. (Especially if you chose tequila.)

Even if the election looks to be leaning one way or the other by early Wednesday, a final call won’t come for a while. Nor should it. We won’t be in a position to know which way some key states—cough, cough, Pennsylvania—will swing until a few days after the election, because of when officials are expected to finish processing ballots.

And then, even if one candidate declares victory, the other won’t necessarily be in a position to concede until anticipated legal battles are settled.

Trump told several rally crowds in the lead-up to the election that if he doesn’t win, that’ll be because of a “rigged” election. You can bet that Democrats will be just as motivated to make sure no fraud is at play.  Republican and Democrat lawyers—along with civil rights organizations—are preparing for legal battles over recounts or contested results, especially where large portions of mail-in ballots were involved. Some estimates suggest these battles could drag into January.

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Democracy is healthy… at least, based on this one metric?

If one thing’s for sure it’s that Americans wanted to make themselves heard this year, one way or the other. This election looks like it will be historic for voter turnout.

The proportion of eligible voters who showed up to the polls in 2016—about 59%—was already higher than any other U.S. presidential election since the ‘60s. Any higher than 63% turnout this time around and we’re looking at the best participation rate in a hundred years. Another potentially historic trend, per exit polls: the majority of white voters is getting smaller.

The pandemic made for a quieter election day in many parts of the country, but early voting more than made up for that. Upwards of 100 million early votes were cast in total, almost 74% of total votes cast in 2016. Strikingly, before the polls opened on Tuesday, a third of Texas’s entire population of 29 million people was represented in a count of 9.6 million absentee or early ballots.

We can safely rename them the Divided States 

We know this subheading isn’t very witty, but we are tired. On a positive note, election day itself does not appear to have featured the kind of widespread chaos or attempted voter suppression of pessimists’ wildest dreams. It may be too early to tell whether doomsayers are on to anything with predictions of civil war, but for now let us say those concerns feel overblown, too.

No matter which candidate wins, neither will have won by all that much. There is no sign that the United States’ increasingly-polarized political landscape will get any less so. Divisions will play out dramatically during the election fallout, with Trump expected to sow much uncertainty about the result. For people protesting systemic racism in the U.S. who’ve decried Trump’s veiled nods to white supremacist groups, such a close result will be worse than discouraging.

And in the immediate future, rifts will continue to play out as the country struggles to get its public health crisis under control. Compliance with health advice, especially mask-wearing, has become politicized. Already, more than 230,000 Americans have died during the pandemic. As the final results pour in, we hope our neighbours can muster the compassion and civility that will be required to weather the extended tragedy.

Read this next: Here’s What You Need to Know About the Major Issues in the U.S. Election

The U.S. electoral system is a mess 

Did you think a list of “takeaways” would fail to mention how incredibly confusing American elections are? Especially in a close race?

It’s not that nobody has noticed how convoluted things are, or how difficult for average people to understand. It’s that the system is set up for inertia, not for nimble pivoting to more-coherent mail-in ballot rules. The fact the system is so weirdly inconsistent from state to state—when and how voters can register; when and how ballots can be received; when and how they are counted—prevents Trump’s predictions of widespread fraud from making much sense.

Then there is the broader, seemingly eternal debate over the existence of the electoral college, whose members represent states in actually electing the president. Most states operate on a winner-take-all basis but, again, not all of them.

Although America is likely to avoid the nightmare scenario of an electoral college tie, will this close shave with a disastrously unclear result finally convince states to opt out of the system? Don’t hold your breath. In 2016, if the U.S. elected presidents based on the popular vote, Trump would not have entered the oval office. Republicans will do everything they can to hang on.

The post Five Things To Know About Last Night’s Unresolved U.S. Election appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

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Shortly before noon EST on Saturday, history was made when Pennsylvania—and its 20 electoral college votes—was called for Joe Biden, pushing him over the 270 electoral college votes needed to beat the sitting president, Donald Trump. Celebrations ensued across the United States, and the world, with jubilant Biden supporters dancing, singing and popping bottles of champagne on the streets. (These celebrations occurred alongside ongoing, baseless claims of voter fraud.) The Democratic Party’s win was a salve for many following an incredibly difficult year, and it was also incredibly historic on multiple fronts. Here, six takeaways from this monumental victory.

While I may be the first, I won’t be the last. pic.twitter.com/R5CousWtdx

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 8, 2020

Kamala Harris becomes the first female and first woman of colour vice president

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in her victory speech on Saturday night in Wilmington, Delaware. She was dressed in all white—honouring women’s rights activism—and also spoke about her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who came to the U.S. from India when she was 19, and the generations of Black, brown, Asian, white, Latino and Native American women who “paved the way for this moment tonight.”

We did it, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/oCgeylsjB4

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 7, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden becomes the first candidate to unseat an incumbent in 28 years

The last presidential candidate to do so was Bill Clinton, who beat Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1992, then held on to the job for two terms.

Throughout U.S. history, only eight other incumbent presidents have lost their re-election bids: Jimmy Carter (D), Gerald Ford (R), Herbert Hoover (R), William Howard Taft (R), Benjamin Harrison (R), Martin Van Buren (D), John Quincy Adams (Whig) and John Adams (Federalist).

Senate control remains undecided

The Democrats need 50 seats to control the Senate; following the election, the Republican and Democrats each hold 48 senate seats, with no party likely to take control until a runoff election for two seats is held in Georgia on January 5, 2021. (A runoff occurs when no candidate earns enough votes to clear a state-mandated percentage for victory.)

The New York Times has proclaimed the southern state—which typically runs Republican—“a new political battleground” after Biden eked out a narrow lead there that is headed for a recount. The state has not sent a Democrat to Senate in two decades, and much of the Dems’ newfound success there has been credited to Stacey Abrams—who ran for governor in 2018, lost by a narrow margin and became a staunch advocate against voter suppression.

Georgia, thank you. Together, we have changed the course of our state for the better. But our work is not done.

Join me in supporting @ReverendWarnock and @ossoff so we can keep up the fight and win the U.S. Senate➡️https://t.co/JTyH1UVEtd #LetsGetItDoneAgain #gapol pic.twitter.com/qH5ZfmsgI7

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) November 7, 2020

Trump has not conceded

To be clear, the current POTUS does not need to concede in order for Biden to become president on January 20, 2021—but doing so is the standard, and not to mention, the decent thing to do. However, as of Sunday afternoon, Trump has made no move to admit defeat, although CNN reports that his son-in-law Jared Kushner has broached the topic. (The White House disputes this report, but if it’s true, what we wouldn’t give to witness that conversation.)

Instead, since the election was called for Biden on Saturday, Trump has issued a series of petulant tweets that allege election fraud—with absolutely zero proof—most of which have been flagged by Twitter for misinformation.

In an official statement following the Biden call, Trump maintains (incorrectly!) that the election has not been won, and says that on Monday his team will “will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”

If they don’t start this soon there might not be any press left here to cover it. Journalists keep leaving.

— Richard Hall (@_RichardHall) November 7, 2020

To that end, on Saturday afternoon, Rudy Giuliani—Trump’s personal lawyer—stood in front of a podium in Philadelphia to discuss alleged examples of voter fraud in the state. The event quickly went viral—though not for reasons that the Trump camp had hoped. Instead, it was the location of Giuliani’s speech—the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a Philly business which is adjacent to an adult bookstore and crematorium—that drew the most attention, as many assumed the event was incorrectly booked, and that the campaign meant to reserve the swanky Four Seasons hotel in downtown Philadelphia. (The New York Times says the landscaping business, “in a friendlier part” of the predominantly Democratic town, was always the intended venue.)

To clarify, President Trump’s press conference will NOT be held at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia.
It will be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping— no relation with the hotel.

— Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center (@FSPhiladelphia) November 7, 2020

Biden’s Day One promises

Biden’s transition website, buildbackbetter.com, lists four immediate priorities: COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equity, and climate change.

After he takes the oath of office, Biden says that the United States will rejoin the Paris climate accord. (The U.S. officially withdrew from the global agreement on climate change action on November 4.) Christiana Figueres, a key architect of the accord, was shown on Twitter jumping up and down over the news of Biden’s win.

Thank you, United States! The election of @JoeBiden is huge not just for America, but for the world. Here’s how it landed with @CFigueres to see that the US is on it’s way back into the #ParisAgreement #ElectionDay @UNFCCC pic.twitter.com/iaDpELx2mb

— Tom Rivett-Carnac (@tomcarnac) November 7, 2020

Biden also has his work cut out for him on getting COVID-19 under control—the disease is currently surging in the U.S., which saw a record 132,790 new cases on Friday. In his victory speech on Saturday, Biden said that as of Monday, he’ll “name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisors to help take the Biden-Harris COVID plan and convert it into an action blueprint that will start on January 20, 2021. That plan will be built on bedrock science. It will be constructed out of compassion, empathy and concern. I will spare no effort—none—or any commitment to turn around this pandemic.”

And, generally, the last part of January is looking pretty packed for Biden: the Washington Post has a rundown of other executive orders the new president reportedly plans to sign shortly after inauguration, including reversing “Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization,” repealing “the ban on almost all travel from some Muslim-majority countries,” and reinstating “the program allowing ‘dreamers,’ who were brought to the United States illegally as children, to remain in the country.”

What Biden and Harris’ victory means for Canada

Congratulations, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. Our two countries are close friends, partners, and allies. We share a relationship that’s unique on the world stage. I’m really looking forward to working together and building on that with you both.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 7, 2020

Obviously, Biden will be a more predictable president, and the new administration promises to have a closer, less-fraught relationship with the Canadian government. And, as Edward Keenan points out in the Toronto Star, Biden’s win is a hopeful sign for Canadian politics, as “the nationalism, populism and misinformation tactics of Trump’s campaigns and government will look less attractive to Canadian politicians now that they’ve been defeated—for now, anyway.”

Congratulations to President-elect @JoeBiden. As your friend, neighbour, and closest ally, Canada will work shoulder to shoulder with you as together we confront the greatest challenges of our time, at home and abroad.

— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) November 7, 2020

Biden has also promised to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Alberta to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast. And, while the United States remains Canada’s top trading partner, Biden has vowed to ensure “the future is made in all of America,” which could concern Canadian manufacturers. If Biden is successful at curbing the coronavirus, border restrictions could ease.

And, as Keenan writes in the Star, the Biden administration will likely also have a positive effect on treatment of asylum seekers in the U.S.—which will also impact Canada: “The Trump administration’s treatment of asylum seekers led to a flood of irregular refugees at the Canadian border, and to the Supreme Court ruling our pact with the U.S. on refugees unconstitutional. Biden’s promises to accept more asylum seekers and dramatically overhaul treatment offer the prospect of a partnership on refugee policy we may be able to live with.”

The post 6 Takeaways From a Historic Election Weekend appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

After days of suspense, the swirling uncertainty around the 2020 United States presidential election settled in the late morning of November 7 when news outlets reported Joe Biden as the projected winner. The momentous win for the Democratic party meant, of course, that Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris would join him at the White House as vice president-elect, making her the first woman, Black person, and South Asian person, to take office.

The symbolic victory made many women, especially women of colour, feel that the dream of reaching the country’s highest offices is actually attainable. But Harris’s journey to historic juncture, like her legacy, has been a complicated one, leaving many grappling with weighing the magic of this moment with her controversial record as a “progressive prosecutor” whose accomplishments were not always beneficial to the communities she claimed to advocate for.

Here, we take a look at Harris’s path to the White House, including her teenage years in Montreal, early career as a prosecutor, history-making Senate win and some of the challenges, and controversies, she has faced along the way. 

Kamala Harris’s childhood as a daughter to immigrant parents 

Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California to Shyamala Gopalan and Donald J. Harris, on October 20, 1964. Before Harris was born, her mother had immigrated to the U.S. from India to attend the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) where she obtained both a master’s and doctorate degree, and went on to have a career as a biomedical scientist. Her father, who had immigrated from Jamaica to also study at UC Berkeley, was an economics professor at Stanford University. While Harris has said that her parents met during the civil rights movement and would frequently take their young daughters to civil rights marches, as a multi-racial American and the child of two immigrant parents, Harris learned at a young age that the country she called home was not always friendly to its citizens of colour. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Harris recalled visiting her father in Palo Alto after her parents divorced and being told by a neighbourhood child that she was forbidden from playing with Harris and her younger sister, Maya, because they were Black. While in elementary school she was bussed to an almost entirely white school in a different district as part of a federal attempt to desegregate schools, something Harris has said made her feel like an outsider. 

Her early education—and Canadian connection

In 1976, five years after her parents divorced and at the age of 12, Harris’s mother accepted a teaching position at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal. Harris, her mom and her younger sister moved to Canada where she finished elementary school, then attended and graduated from Westmount High School where a former classmate told CBC’s Let’s Go “she got along with everyone.” While living in Montreal, the future vice president-elect learned French and even started a dance team at her high school. After graduating, Harris moved back to the U.S. where she pursued a degree in political science and economics at Howard University, one of the longest standing Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the country. During her time at Howard, she became a prominent member of the campus’s debate team and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha (the first Black sorority ever created, and whose origins began on Howard’s campus). After completing her degree at Howard, Harris went on to obtain a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law where she served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association.

Read this next: Here’s What You Need to Know About the Major Issues in the U.S. Election

The milestones—and controversies—of Harris’s career as a prosecutor

Shortly after graduating from law school, Harris began her career as deputy district attorney in the prosecutors’ offices Alameda County, California. She spent eight years there before moving to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office as assistant district attorney where she later oversaw the career criminal unit. From there, she took a job at San Francisco City Hall where she ran the Family and Children’s Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases. 

It would be in this role, and subsequent positions, that she prosecuted a number of controversial three-strike cases whose harsh sentencing has been the subject of much public criticism. While considering a person’s criminal past during sentencing is not a new concept, the Three Strikes Law, which was first established in 1994 as a part of an aggressive nationwide anti-violence strategy, enforces mandatory life sentences for repeat offenders. A number of states have adopted some form of a “three strikes” rule that seeks to punish repeat offenders, but California has been widely criticized for its particularly harsh enforcement of the law. Under California’s controversial three strikes law, any person who has committed three felonies, which includes crimes like arson, robbery, drug possession and firearm violations, can receive a life sentence. Despite the fact that the law was meant to be applied to violent repeat offenders, many crimes on the list of offences that can contribute to a mandatory life sentence are, on their own, ones that would not carry such a harsh punishment. As a result, critics say the law has had catastrophic results for people who have committed a series of non-violent crimes such as drug possession which disproportionately impacts Black people who make up 43% of the state’s prison population. 

Even though Harris has consistently faced criticism for prosecuting people under the three strikes law, it is seemingly a decision she stands behind. During a radio interview with The Breakfast Club, the vice president-elect said that she “would never apologize for saying that when a child is molested or a woman is raped or a human being kills another human being that there should be serious consequences for that.” 

Harris’s history-making appointments as the district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California

In 2003, Harris ran and won against her former boss to become San Francisco’s district attorney, making her the first person of colour ever elected to that position. During her time in the District Attorney’s office, she launched the “Back on Track” initiative that was designed to help low-level offenders get a fresh start by providing them with education and job opportunities. She went on to become the first Black, and first woman, attorney general of California in November 2010. However, as historical as her win would be, some of the decisions she would make as attorney general would come back to haunt her. 

As attorney general, Harris supported certain causes that proved potentially harmful to those that she said she so desperately wanted to protect. For instance, she advocated passionately for a truancy initiative where parents of students that were habitually late to school faced risk of prosecution, even though there were concerns that it would disproportionately affect low-income people of colour the most. (There’s much evidence that it did just that.)

And during a time when the public has become increasingly aware of the violence that police officers disproportionately inflict on people of colour, it’s jarring to learn that Harris opposed a bill that would require her office to investigate shootings involving police officers as well as refused to support body-worn cameras. The Vice President-elect has also been reluctant to commit to defunding the police. 

A picture of Harris’s career accomplishments, and controversies, would be incomplete without mentioning her history of fighting to uphold wrongful convictions, including the case of Kevin Cooper, a death row inmate whose trial was laced with racism and corruption. As science advanced during Cooper’s sentence, he sought a more advanced stream of DNA testing that could prove his innocence. Harris opposed it. It wasn’t until an exposé of the case went viral that she changed her position.

Read this next: How to Deal With the Stress of the Election

Her time in the U.S. Senate

In 2016, after the first California Senate seat in 25 years opened up, Harris ran, won, and made history again after becoming only the second Black woman, and the first South Asian American, ever to do so. After joining the Senate, Harris’s accomplishments included advocating for a single-payer health care system, supporting the introduction of legislation to increase access to outdoor recreational sites in urban areas, and providing financial assistance to low-income families facing an increasingly expensive housing market in the state of California.  

Harris made headlines when, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, she questioned Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 on the sexual assault allegations he faced. And when clips of her persistent and unwavering questioning went viral, it was clear to many that Harris’s impact on the world had only just begun. 

Harris again made headlines and proved that she was a force to be reckoned with when, as part of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she confronted Attorney General Jeff Sessions about his contact with Russia during the Trump campaign. Her anger and distrust towards the Trump administration was anything but concealed. Having a firsthand look at how things were being run in Washington as a Senator fuelled a fire in her to really make change in her country. In an interview with Vogue, she recalled sitting on the couch after Donald Trump had been elected president and thinking “This. Can’t. Be. Happening.”

Read this next: 6 Takeaways From a Historic Election Weekend

Harris’s bid for the U.S. presidency

On January 21, 2019 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day, no less), Harris announced on Good Morning America that she would be running for president in the 2020 election.”I love my country,” Harris said. “And this is a moment in time that I feel a sense of responsibility to fight for the best of who we are.” She started strong in her bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee, giving an especially strong showing at the Democratic primary debate in June 2019 when she confronted none other than Joe Biden on his history of opposing the federal bussing program that sought to desegregate schools, a program that Harris, despite feeling at times like an outsider, had benefited from. Harris detailed the journey of a young girl who boarded the bus every day in search of a better education before revealing, “That little girl was me.” 

But after candidates began poking holes in her idealistic healthcare plan, one that limited the costs that Americans would have to contribute for healthcare, but neglected to take into consideration the guaranteed pushback from private insurers, and bringing up many of her controversial decisions as attorney general, her popularity began to slip. In December 2019, Harris announced that she was withdrawing from the presidential race. 

And finally, Harris’s path to the vice presidency

Although her run for president was unsuccessful, on August 11, 2020, Biden announced that he had selected Harris as his running mate, to which Harris responded “I’m honoured to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice-President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.” This made Harris the fourth woman ever to appear on a major political party’s presidential ticket in the U.S., and the first Black woman, as well as the first South Asian person, to be nominated for national office. 

Despite reservations about Harris’s past as a prosecutor, her road to becoming the U.S. vice president-elect has been historic, and for many, the future is a hopeful one. “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” Harris said during her November 7 victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware. 

What’s next for Vice President-elect Harris? Between Trump’s refusal to concede the presidency, Biden’s ambitious transition plan and the president-elect’s COVID-19 task force, the next few months will be busy as the work of transforming the country begins and the American people start to see if Biden and Harris will indeed champion policy that ameliorates the lives of the people who elected them. As Harris put it in her victory speech: “Now is when the real work begins, the necessary work, the good work, the essential work, to unite our country and heal the soul of our nation.” 

The post 7 Things To Know About Kamala Harris’s Path to the White House appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

The post The Danger in Alek Minassian’s Autism Defence appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

That distinction matters. Here’s why

When Marc Lépine walked into Montreal’s École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989, he was there to kill feminists. He was very specific about this, both in the manifesto he wrote and the things he said as he rampaged through the school. “You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists,” he spat when one of his victims tried to defend herself and her classmates. His suicide note blamed feminists for ruining his life and included a list of 19 “radical feminists” that he would have killed if he’d had time.

Lépine left little room for ambiguity when it came to his motive, but when the story is re-told, the word “woman” is often used as a substitute for “feminist,” with turns of phrase like “he was hunting women.” On some level, this transposition is understandable—after all, many feminists are women, feminism is primarily occupied with promoting the advancement of women, and, of course, the 14 people killed by Lépine were women. Further, the anniversary of the massacre is now observed as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and Lépine’s actions are recognized as a symptom of a broader cultural problem with misogyny. Isn’t it just academic quibbling to insist that Lépine was targeting feminists? But ignoring that means erasing a more complex truth: Lépine’s violence had its origins not in some vague hatred of women, but in a very specific fury over a social movement that promotes women’s basic humanity.

“There’s a difference between saying that it’s a crime against women and a saying it’s a crime against women who are trying to change how society works,” says Francine Pelletier, a prominent Québec journalist whose name was on Lépine’s list. “It’s beating up on women because they’re rattling the cage.”

Top, from left to right: Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Michèle Richard, Nathalie Croteau; Middle: Sonia Pelletier, Anne-Marie Lemay, Anne-Marie Edward, Annie St-Arneault, Maud Haviernick; Bottom: Annie Turcotte, Barbara Daigneault; Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan (Photos: Canadian Press; Design: Leo Tapel)

The shooting at the École Polytechnique is far from being the only mass killing rooted in a hostile opposition to women’s equality; it’s not even the only mass killing to fit that description here in Canada. In 2018, Alek Minassian drove a van onto a crowded Toronto sidewalk and killed ten people shortly after making a Facebook post that said that the “Incel Rebellion” had begun. The term “incel” is a contraction of the words involuntary and celibate, and has been adopted by an online community made up of men who feel disenfranchised by the fact that women don’t want to have sex with them, which they believe is a basic right for men. Unsurprisingly, many of these men indulge in misogynist fantasies in which they punish women for not sleeping with them. Sometimes, like in Minassian’s case, those fantasies turn into real-world violence.

Read this next: Pascale Diverlus: Remembering the People We Often Forget on December 6

Neither Lépine nor Minassian were ambiguous about their apparent motives, and yet we still struggle with calling their crimes what they truly were: violence against women asserting themselves as equal in public and private realms. Violence against women who want the same education and career opportunities as men. Violence against women who want to be in control of their own bodies. Violence against women, yes, but violence especially against women who step out of their place. Even though some of the women Lépine killed might not have identified as feminists, the fact is that he set out to kill feminists. Even though some of the people Minassian killed were not women, the fact is that his rampage was inspired by his fury that he didn’t have unlimited access to women’s bodies.

Pelletier describes Lépine’s actions as “a crime against the future,” because what he was trying to destroy was the idea of women someday achieving social and economic equality. He targeted female engineering students because, to him, they were not just women but women who were trying to take the place of men. It’s tempting to call these killings senseless, but it’s important to remember that both Lépine and Minassian had a strong sense of purpose, and that purpose was terrorizing women back into what they thought was our rightful place.

But really, you might ask, does it matter what we call these killings?

Yes. It does.

Just ask Pelletier. After the École Polytechnique massacre, she received a phone call from a man who told her that if she wanted to understand what Marc Lépine was thinking, he would tell her. She agreed to meet with him in a public place and listen to what he had to say; she wanted, after all, to understand why the killings had happened. But when she wrote a column for La Presse about the things this man described—how men’s anxieties and frustrations over feminism bubbled over into violence—she was told that it wouldn’t be published. No one wanted to acknowledge that Lépine’s anti-feminist beliefs had deep and widespread social underpinnings.

“We were told to shut up,” says Pelletier. “In Canada, we like to think that we’re a progressive place, so this completely upset the apple cart. How could this happen here? There was so much denial. It had a very chilling effect.”

Read this next: The Danger in Alek Minassian’s Autism Defence

I know that I’ve personally been guilty of inaccurately describing the École Polytechnique killings as “violence against women.” Of course they fit within the broader context of gender-based violence, but why did I remove the word feminist? The answer is as silly-sounding as it is sad: because I thought it would make it more palatable. Because even people who hate feminists still have women in their lives that they love. Because I was afraid.

It’s been over 30 years since Marc Lépine killed 14 women at the École Polytechnique for the crime of being present at an engineering school, and yet feminists are still routinely harassed, stalked and tormented. Hatred of feminism is especially virulent online, where people will happily compare demanding equal rights for women to a terminal illness; don’t forget that until Milo Yiannopolis made a comment that seemed to defend the sexual abuse of children, many platforms, including a major publishing house, had no problem with him saying things like “feminism is a cancer.”

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that we can’t fight against violence that we can’t name. So this year I’m saying what I’ve been too afraid to articulate until now: Marc Lépine was hunting feminists on December 6, 1989. His followers are still hunting feminists, and they don’t care what labels those feminists use. We can’t save ourselves by trying to appease men who see us as less than human. All we can do is keep rattling the cage until it finally breaks.

This article was originally published in December 2018.

The post Anne Thériault: Marc Lépine Didn’t Want to Kill Women, He Wanted to Kill Feminists appeared first on Easy At Home Workouts.

Across Canada, farmers have been gathering outside consulates in cities like Toronto and Vancouver in support of their counterparts in India, who have been protesting a series of agricultural laws implemented by the Indian government in September of this year. The marches in India, from the Punjab region of the country towards New Delhi, began in late November and have escalated into violent clashes between police and farmers, making international headlines that inspired peaceful protests here in Canada with calls for the Canadian government to step in. But what exactly are the Indian farmers protesting and how does it affect Canadians?

Here, everything you need to know about the ongoing protests in India, and why we should all be paying attention.

Why are farmers in India protesting?

On a micro level, these protests are about agricultural legislation. On September 20, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government passed two agriculture bills aimed at reforming the country’s stressed farming sector.

According to BBC, the two bills passed loosen rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce. Specifically, farmers will be allowed to sell their produce at a market price directly to private buyers (for example: agricultural businesses, supermarket chains and online grocers). In turn, these private businesses can hoard essential commodities for future sales.

Typically, farmers have sold their wares to government-controlled wholesale markets; these markets are run by committees comprised of other farmers who act as middlemen for brokering sales and storage. The benefit of this system, also known as the “mandis system,” is it allows farmers to sell the majority of their produce at assured prices. But with the passing of this new legislation, “the Modi government is effectively getting rid of that system,” says Jaskaran Sandhu, director of administration at the World Sikh Organization. And it’s a problem for small, independent farmers, Sandhu says, which just so happens to be the *majority* of farmers in India. “The government is also going to be removing what’s known as MSP, so the minimum set price,” he says, “which would do away with a  kind of  guaranteed return on crop; for pretty much all farmers that allows them to have some predictability in their income stream so that they can plan for the next year.” According to BBC, many farmers are nervous that this is a step towards abolishing the Mandi system altogether, which would mean the end of wholesale markets and assured prices, leaving them with no back up option; for example, if they’re not happy with the price offered by a private buyer, they can’t use the Mandi as an alternative option or bargaining tool.

Read this next: What Does #EndSARS Mean and What’s Happening in Nigeria?

But these protests aren’t *just* about the new legislation itself, but rather, about the way the legislation was implemented. “First and foremost, [the farmers] weren’t consulted properly and the Indian government bypassed the normal hearings that would be done on something like this in order to pass it through quickly,” Sandhu says. Which is true. The bill was passed in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which may have contributed to its acceleration, but which meant that the typical processes of consulting with farmers wasn’t accessible. In September, when the bill was passed, Modi and his government were heavily criticized by even members of their own party for the speed with which the bills were passed.

Is this Democracy?

Bills are passed amidst complete chaos,
Opposition MPs are silenced,
Vote division is not done,
Rajya Sabha Procedure, hidden from the public

Our democracy, our farmers, our Nation is under attack, we must protect it at all costs. #KisanVirodhiNarendraModi pic.twitter.com/jtBIkDdCDe

— Congress (@INCIndia) September 20, 2020

The big issue, Sandhu explains, is that this isn’t the first time the current government has passed a bill without proper consultation. In November 2016, Prime Minister Modi decided overnight to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1000 as legal tender, leaving citizens in a lurch, and in August 2019, the government stripped the state of Kashmir of its autonomous status in a controversial and highly contested move.

“This was actually a pattern from the Modi government of a kind of authoritarian maneuvering,” Sandhu says of the latest agricultural legislation. “So there’s been a repeated pattern from the Modi government to take authoritarian measures and bypass democratic procedure that would be normal in a parliamentary democracy.”

Why would the government do that?

So, if it’s so controversial, why exactly would the government implement this new legislation? “In the government’s eyes, this is modernizing farming and bringing reform into the farming sector in India,” Sandhu says. In fact, Prime Minister Modi called the decision a “watershed moment,” with the government projecting that support plans in the agriculture sector will double farmers’ income by 2022. But that doesn’t mean that this is necessarily the way to go about it.

“I want to be clear, farmers have called for reform  for decades,” he emphasizes. “There’s [just] a stark disagreement on what that reform looks like.” As opposed to the corporate model Modi’s government has implemented, Sandhu says farmers want a more holistic approach to farming reform. It’s something farmers *have* been asking for, for awhile now. In fact, between December 2004 and October 2006, the Swaminathan Commission—a commission headed by agricultural scientists to address issues in farming—submitted five reports identifying causes of farm distress and suggesting ways in which the government could support farmers. According to India Today, since 2006, farmers have been calling for these suggestions to be implemented, among them the statement that “farmers [need] to have assured access and control over basic resources including land, water, bio-resources, credit and insurance, technology and knowledge management, and markets.”

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The Swaminathan reports have gone largely unacknowledged by the government. “It’s kind of  a re-imagining of how to support folks on the ground,” Sandhu says of what farmers need. “This corporate privatization model is not what they asked for.”

So why exactly does farming need reform? For a lot of reasons. “There’s issues with water tables in India, especially within the Punjab region, depleting. There’s been environmental impacts as a result of the green revolution back in the sixties, when modern pesticides were introduced that have caused irreparable damage to ecosystems and lands,” Sandhu says. In addition, due in part to diminishing economic clout, farmers in India are currently facing a suicide epidemic. According to Al Jazeera, more than half of the country’s farmers are in debt, with India’s National Crime Records Bureau reporting at least 20,638  farmer deaths by suicide in 2018 and 2019.

How does this affect farmers?

The major issue farmers have with the new legislation is the fear that it’ll push out the Mandi system entirely, forcing them to only work with—and at a disadvantage to—private corporations. If these corporations deal with farmers directly—in what’s called contract farming, dictating produce prices—”a lot of farmers feel like it’s an asymmetrical negotiation with corporations who will then box them out or force them into more difficult situations where the corporation is going to turn around and take advantage of them,” Sandhu says, “whether it’s buying up land, whether it’s forcing up prices on things and making it unaffordable for farmers;  they’re going to be at the whims of private interest versus public interests.”

It’s also important to note that the agricultural sector employs 80% of working women in India; with 48% of that number engaged as self-employed farmers, per 2018 stats from Oxfam India. This means that women and their livelihoods are disproportionately impacted by these new bills.

What has the response been from the Indian government?

So far, the response has been not so great. When farmers initially started marching towards New Delhi on November 26, they were met with barricades along the route, with the government going as far destroying parts of the national highway and digging trenches at certain points to block their path. For Canadians: “That’s the equivalent of the federal government in Ottawa going to the 401 [highway] and essentially bulldozing sections of it,” Sandhu says. In addition, police have released tear gas and used water cannons, as well as physical brutality against protestors. “There’s images of police attacking and protesters with sticks, beating them up; and [just] indiscriminate violence from the state,” Sandhu says.

And what does Canada have to do with this?

While Sikh Canadians may make up just over 1% of Canada’s overall population, they have strong ties to their communities and have a visible presence in Canadian culture, society and business. And many Punjabi Canadians still have family back home, making their plight a personal one, and therefore making the protests in solidarity across Canada unsurprising. “Those are our family and friends; they’re our mothers, our fathers, our elder brothers and sisters,” Sandhu says. “So there’s a deep, personal connection that we’re marching in solidarity here with.”

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“A lot of [Canadians] are connecting through India and even have land there,” says Suka Kahlon, a B.C. berry farmer whose family has been in the industry since the 1980s. “[These protests] are really important, as far as the political situation back home, and it’s important that the agriculture community in the Punjab and the rest of India does well and continues to do well.”

And having Canadians protest *is* helpful, because it puts pressure on the  Indian government and signals to Canadian politicians that this is an issue that requires international scrutiny. For his part, in early December Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke out about the protests and in support of the farmers, stating: “We believe in the importance of dialogue and that’s why we’ve reached out through multiple means directly to the Indian authorities to highlight our concerns.”

“The protestors [in India] are literally risking their lives by doing this, and without international scrutiny, there is nothing stopping India from resorting to statewide violence,” Sandhu says. “By protesting at Indian consulates around the world, including in Canada and getting politicians and Prime Minister Trudeau to speak out on it, India has to ensure that the people protesting are respected and that a state security crackdown doesn’t happen.”

So, what happens next?

The government has to listen. “This specific issue can be solved,” Sandhu says. “I think that’s why they protest, because they think there’s a solution here.” And the solution is re-appealing the implemented legislation. “The farmer unions have been pretty steadfast in that there’s no compromise on this issue. So the only reality here is that the government, take these suggestions and it goes back to the drawing board on what reform looks like.”

Kahlon agrees. If the farmers do win this dispute, he says, it’ll be a symbolic win, but important, as hopefully indicative that the government can’t push *anyone* around, and has to listen to the country’s citizens and their needs. “If the government appeals those law, it’ll only go back to the status quo, and that wasn’t a perfect situation,” he says of farming reform. “What’s more significant would be the BJP [government party] having to pull back and sit back and say, ‘Oh, the people have come together and we’re willing to listen and we can’t just push our agenda forward.’ I think those are the real issues behind the headlines.”

And until then, the farmers will keep protesting. CTV News reports that some protestors have stocked up on six month’s worth of food supplies, should it come to that. “For the Sikh faith, you’re supposed to stand up against all forms of oppression, irrespective of whether it actually impacts your community or not,” Sandhu says. “So the Sikh psyche is one designed for fighting for rights, human rights, decency and respect.”

FLARE has reached out to the office of Prime Minister Modi. This story will be updated with any response.

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