The Dominion - Kingston

The Honorable Voices of Four Women Killed in Kingston

Tim McSorley — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:21:20 +0000

Reflections on the Shafia murder trial

TORONTO—Somewhere in the calm setting of an Islamic cemetery in Laval, Quebec, lie four headstones belonging to four women; all members of a single family. Neatly arranged next to each other, they share similar color, style and design. A Farsi gender-specific religious title for the deceased (Marhoome) is prefixed to their names. One verse of Koran, in Arabic, decorates all four gravestones: “Yea, enter thou My Heaven!” But it was their mortal lives, the very hellish existence that they had to endure, which is more telling. Who were these people? And how did they, all originally from Afghanistan, end up buried, thousands of kilometers away, in the serene surroundings of a town in Quebec?

The primary details of the case were always clear from the outset. In Summer 2009, three sisters aged 13, 17, 19, and their 52-year old stepmother, were found drowned in a car in the depths of the Rideau Canal. It was always unlikely that it was an accident that had led them.

Now, we know much more. The police investigation led to the largest trial in Kingston's history; it took over three months, was conducted in English, French and Persian, and involved summoning 58 witnesses. The accused were the parents and brother of the three murdered sisters. Over the course of the trial, those in the courtoom were able to form a picture not only of the gruesome murder, but of the real lives of Geeti, Sahar, Zainab and Rona.

In the last days of January 2012, the jury returned a guilty verdict for all three accused on four counts of first-degree murder. Police uncovered damning statements, primarily from Mohammad Shafia, the patriarch and murderer-in-chief of this plot, which recorded no sorrow.

But as Shafia’s statements fill the newspapers, what we don't hear is the story of the four victims. Shafia said that they had to be murdered because of their "treason" in supposedly violating his "honor", and that of Islam. What he saw as betrayal, however, was a brilliant story of resistance and expression.

A breathtaking exhibit in this trial was a journal kept by Rona Mohammad Amir, 52, the first wife of Shafia, who was discarded for her infertility and later murdered along with the three children of the second wife. Written in a beautiful Persian prose, it describes an educated woman, who was just 20 when the 1979 revolution signaled an era in which a proliferation of woman's rights, and other social progressive policies, took place in Afghanistan. The Kabul in which she spent her youth was called "Paris of the East", a city with a young female population, known both for their university degrees and liberal fashion sensibilities. Her own polygamous father, a retired colonel, had welcomed the waves of modernization. Rona could wear whatever she wanted and was fond of cheering for her favorite basketball teams in the stadiums. Those days ended in 1981 with an arranged marriage to a young man from a rich family, who gave her an extravagant wedding ceremony at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel.

One would need a novel to delve more into the story of how this ‘family’ found new members; how it traveled around the world to Pakistan, India, the UAE, Australia and finally Canada; how the very-rich Shafia (whose business included buying a shopping centre in Montreal for two million dollars) decided to run his family according to his own sick notion of “Islam,” a notion that (as Kurdish-Iranian Feminist scholar, Shahrzad Mojab testified) is discarded by millions of Muslims around the world as a backward tribal code that has nothing to do with the religion.

Never resting, the eldest girl Zainab, 19, made recurring attempts to escape with a Pakistani boy whom she loved were not tolerated. Sahar, 17, loved nothing like taking cellphone pictures of herself and her large beautiful eyes. And Geeti, 13, never got a chance to go beyond her first teen year.

These voices of resistance are the true honorable voices in this story, a story which, when finally told, will defy all clichés about Afghan women. Both those that the patriarch Shafia had in mind, and those apparent in the sensationalized racist accounts that have filled the newspapers in this country.

Arash Azizi has spent countless hours covering the Shafia case for Shahrvand, a Toronto-based Persian publication.

This article was originally published by the Toronto Media Co-op.

Shafia

Prison Farms on Death Row

Moira Peters — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 05:04:16 +0000

Feds invest $9B in prisons, progressive rehab program phased out to save "pocket change"

MONTREAL—The movement to save prison farms has intensified in recent months as increasing numbers of Canadians have voiced concern about the Conservative government’s overarching plans for the federal prison system.

Twenty-four people were arrested during protests on August 8 and 9 outside the Frontenac Institution in Kingston—one of the six prison farms across the country that the Conservative government has slated for closure. Correctional Services Canada (CSC) was attempting to transport Frontenac’s dairy herd out of the facility when protesters formed a human barricade to prevent livestock trucks from passing onto the prison grounds.

Police attempted to break the blockade, periodically grabbing and detaining protesters, but they remained numerically outmatched.

“Sunday was a major victory for the campaign,” said Andrew McCann, a member of Urban Agriculture Kingston and one of those arrested. “Over 500 people held the blockade for two hours. They started to drag old women and young women away to intimidate people, but the line just grew.”

By the next morning, an estimated 150–200 Ontario Provincial Police officers had been called in. Several more arrests were made and the protest was eventually broken up. McCann stated that he and the other 23 defendants plan to plead not guilty at their first court date on September 14, 2010.

The farms employed about 300 inmates, and their produce fed inmates throughout the neighbouring CSC institutions, while surplus was typically donated to food banks. The prison farms program has existed in Canada for well over a century.

In recent months a groundswell of support for the farms has spread—from environmental groups to prison activists and former inmates, to the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Union of Solicitor General Employees (USGE), of which the prisons’ correctional officers are members.

“This issue touches on everything from food security, food banks, rehabilitation and self-sufficiency,” said McCann.

He emphasized the rehabilitative aspects of farm work, which research has corroborated. “I toured the farms back in June 2009. ...I met people who have murdered, and talking about the impact of working with cows, milking them, taking care of them while sick—it’s a really profound change in their lives, and I can’t think of a more effective way to make Canada safer.”

Part of the government’s rationale for closing the farms has been that less than one per cent of former participants enter the agricultural sector after their release from prison, though critics—and several former inmates—have argued that the work experience is broadly applicable.

“We think the skills you can learn in the prison farms are useful, even for those who don’t go directly into farming,” said NFU Executive Director Kevin Wipf. “We don’t see the sense at all in taking away such an important method of rehabilitation.”

The 2007–08 annual report of CORCAN—the rehabilitation and employment-training arm of CSC—indicates that prison agribusiness is costly in contrast with its manufacturing programs, which bring in more money than they cost.

In an email to The Dominion, CSC Senior Media Relations Adviser Lori Pothier stated that the decision to close the prison farms was the result of a “Strategic Review process” which she said is meant to ensure that “all existing government programs be reviewed on a four-year cycle to ensure the programs are effective and efficient, and are meeting the needs of Canadians.”

NDP MP and Public Safety Critic Don Davies stated that a program’s expense should not dictate whether it is scrapped. “It’s not unimportant, but it should be seen as secondary to the primary goal of rehabilitation,” he said, adding that the availability of rehabilitative training programs is already far too limited. According to the CSC’s 2008–09 financial statement, only 0.4 per cent of its $2.2 billion annual budget went to CORCAN programs.

The Ministry of Public Safety, headed by Vic Toews, emphasizes that the program loses over $4 million annually, but has refused to disclose the full cost of outsourcing its food services to the private sector.

“There’s a lot they’re not telling us,” said USGE Labour Relations Officer Fred Sadori. “They haven’t even disclosed the numbers, so they haven’t given us a very good reason to believe that [closing prison farms] is a good idea.”

In her email, Pothier stated, “CSC does not anticipate any increase in the annual cost of food procurement due to the closing of the CORCAN farms. CSC will purchase food and products through existing contracting authorities and mechanisms, including the government tendering system.”

McCann said the privatization of CSC’s food services might save some money at first due to competitive bidding, but would likely lead to cost overruns in the future as firms attempt to ratchet up the price of their contracts with CSC.

The $4 million annual expense, said McCann, is “pocket change compared to the billions of dollars they plan on spending on expanding the prison system.”

McCann was referring to the $9 billion that Treasury Board president Stockwell Day recently requested for the expansion of the federal prison system in early August. Day claimed that the expansion was necessary due to an “alarming” spike in unreported crime. After being pressed for his source on this, Day pointed to a 2004 StatsCan report indicating that 66 per cent of criminal activity nationwide went unreported, up from about 58 per cent in 1993. (Reporters and bloggers were quick to point out the irony that only minutes earlier Day had criticized the long-form census as unreliable for being as much as five years out of date.)

Two weeks before Day’s announcement, StatsCan released data indicating that the national crime rate has declined by 17 per cent in the past decade. This encompassed a 22 per cent drop in StatsCan’s crime severity index, and a marked drop in violent crime, with homicides, attempted murder, serious sexual assaults and crimes against children comprising less than one quarter of one per cent of all reported offenses.

The Harper government's approach to the prison system, according to critics like Davies and McCann, has largely been shaped by a policy paper released in October 2007 entitled “A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety.” The document calls on several occasions for the CSC to “strengthen its partnerships” with the private sector, and recommends CORCAN in particular for private sector involvement.

The panel that authored the report was chaired by Rob Sampson, formerly the Minister of Corrections in the Ontario government of Mike Harris. Sampson was a staunch proponent of prison privatization during his tenure there, and established Canada’s first ever privately run prison. The Central North Correctional Centre was built to replace three older provincial prisons and was managed by the Utah-based Management and Training Corporation. (The Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty refused to renew Management and Training’s five-year contract once it expired in 2006, noting that publicly run jails offered better security, prisoner health care and rehabilitative programs.)

Following the precendent set by the Central North Correctional Centre, the Roadmap also calls for CSC to establish “regional complexes”—prisons that would accommodate several times more inmates than current federal penitentiaries, and encompass minimum-, medium- and maximum-security blocks. Neither Davies nor McCann have faith in the ability—or the intent—of such institutions to deliver meaningful programs to inmates.

“The Conservative approach to the prison system is entirely ideologically motivated, not empirically based,” said Davies, adding that he doubts the government will expand vocational, educational and rehabilitative programs in tandem with the rest of the prison system. “They just want to pursue their tough-on-crime agenda, which appeals to their base.”

Day’s push to expand the prison system has been matched with initiatives for longer prison terms and more convictions. One of the Roadmap’s recommendations is an end to statutory releases, and the implementation of a system of “earned parole.” (Under the current system of statutory releases, convicts are granted mandatory parole after two-thirds of their prison sentence has been completed, unless they have been identified as a significant threat to themselves or others.)

The Ministry of Justice under Rob Nicholson has also been angling to increase the country’s prison population. The day after Day revealed the planned prison expansion, Nicholson announced that crimes such as betting, keeping a bawdy house and trafficking in cannabis and barbiturates are now treated as “serious offenses.” This builds on legislation passed in 2007 that abolished conditional sentencing for serious offenses and enforced mandatory minimum sentences for gun crime, robberies and fraud.

Pothier stated that in the 2008 federal budget, “the Government announced its intent to fundamentally transform the federal corrections system, and one of the objectives was to provide more employment and employability skills for offenders.” She did not elaborate on what those skills would be, how much money would be allocated to those programs in the future, or what would be done to replace the prison farms program in the short run.

McCann noted that under Canada’s Corrections Act, the government has an obligation to offer some sort of employment training to supplement the farms program, but said he remains skeptical.

“I honestly feel that the Conservative government’s vision for the future of corrections in Canada is not to do corrections, but to do punishment.”

Niko Block is the Features Editor at the McGill Daily and sits on the Board of Directors of CKUT Radio in Montreal.

Prison farm blockade

Prison Farms Umbrella

Bendable Business

Moira Peters — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:18:58 +0000

Cooperatives less likely to break in economic crises

OTTAWA—Mondragon Internacional (MCC), the world’s largest worker cooperative, has been the focus of a lot of media coverage in recent months, inciting discussion on how worker cooperatives have been affected by, and are responding to, the global economic crisis.

On October 27, 2009 the United Steelworkers announced a framework agreement with Mondragon to develop unionized worker cooperatives in the manufacturing sector in the US. Under the agreement, both parties have pledged to develop a model that combines the collective bargaining system with the “one worker, one vote” hallmark of cooperatives. While it will not be the first time worker cooperatives have looked to unionization, the scale and formal partnership of the Mondragon-Steelworkers proposal is without precedent and could signal a way for cooperatives and unions to work collaboratively in weathering economic storms.

Perhaps even more surprising, The Economist recently published an article on how Mondragon is coping with the current economic crisis. According to the article, cooperatives can react more quickly to such a crisis because workers decide themselves to cut wages or take unpaid leave, avoiding the delays of formal negotiations with labour unions.

Mondragon is the world’s largest worker cooperative, located in the Basque region of Spain. Started in 1956 by five workers, and inspired by the work of local priest Don José María Arizmendiarrieta, it has grown into a complex of over a hundred worker cooperatives, a cooperative bank, and housing and social cooperatives. It now employs approximately 34,000 people and is one of the largest producers of domestic appliances, machine tools and automotive parts in Spain.

However, Mondragon is not your average worker cooperative, and not everyone thinks that it is a great model to look to. While many people on the left assert that the prospering Mondragon is an example of how cooperatives present an alternative business model that puts its workers above profits (it is referred to as an “empire of egalitarianism” in a September, 2009 article by Kelly and Massena in Yes Magazine), there is also growing criticism that Mondragon is straying from its cooperative principles by centralizing decision-making, developing partnerships with capitalist firms and hiring more non-member workers.

So, beyond the mammoth Mondragon, how are smaller, less powerful worker cooperatives weathering the economic crisis?

The International Organization of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers’ Co-operatives (CICOPA) reported that cooperatives have been more resilient in the face of the economic crisis than other business models. Based on a survey it conducted of its members, CICOPA found that while cooperatives have experienced a downturn in production and sales, they have experience almost no job losses, focusing instead on adaptation measures such as a reduction in hours or wages.

CICOPA attributes this resilience to the combination of flexibility and security of the worker cooperative model. Participating in decisions about the future of their workplace, workers—who are also owners—collectively decide what they are willing to sacrifice for the long-term viability of the business, and ensure that this is achieved equitably. By contrast, in a traditional capitalist businesses, managers and owners may simply inform workers of a decision to cut wages or hours, lay off staff or force labour concessions to save profits, leaving workers outside the decision-making but front and center in the effects of re-structuring.

The fundamental goal of cooperatives is to provide employment for members, as opposed to other business models, which seek profits or return on investments above all.

Three worker cooperatives in Ottawa and Kingston have come up with creative ways to make ends meet. Though they were not easily made, these choices have kept their cooperatives alive and, in some cases, stronger.

***

A recent addition to Ottawa’s Centertown neighborhood, the Umi Cafe, is a cooperatively-run coffee shop, selling light meals and drinks, as well as hosting music and political events in the evenings.

Sergio Guerra, one of the directors of Umi, says the shop was hit hardest by the recession about a year ago when the Ottawa bus drivers strike made the economic situation all the more difficult, grinding the entire downtown to a halt. Without public transit, Umi saw fewer people coming through their door. During the worst of it—late fall and winter of last year—the worker-members faced the choice of either shutting down the business or not getting paid. Guerra says Umi didn’t loose a single worker; everyone stayed, even with low wages, because they were committed to the cooperative and their investment.

They also drew on the neighbourhood and called a meeting where they presented the coffee shop’s financial situation as well as what they needed to stay afloat. The community responded, raising the necessary funds to keep Umi alive, a testament to the solidarity built between the cafe and the neighborhood. For its part, Umi has increased the variety of its products to entice passersby into the cafe.

According to Guerra, the cooperative model—with its commitment to outreach and solidarity—was invaluable during the difficult economic times. Without support from the neighbourhood the cafe’s survival was uncertain.

They also consulted other cooperatives and received advice and support that might be unlikely from traditional competitive businesses. “Without that help and solidarity we wouldn’t have been able to do it, in other businesses it's all about competition,” says Guerra.

Also, as a co-op, it is in Umi’s interest to educate and empower its members; in return, members are committed to the survival of the business. The cooperative model helps to ensure that the perspectives of members are incorporated into the very direction the co-op takes.

Sergio says they’ve come a long way in a year: “We’ve proven that we can exist and we can grow.”

He finds humour in their difficulties, saying sometimes it feels like they are on the set of a sitcom: “We’re in season two, and its been very entertaining, not only thinking about the bottom line.”

La Siembra Cooperative, another worker co-op, manufactures and distributes organic fair trade chocolate and sugar products. La Siembra has twice been awarded the Worldwide Democratic Workplace Award by WorldBlu, a not-for-profit social enterprise offering programs, services and awards for democratic workplaces. Cailtin Peeling, the cooperative’s Marketing Communications Manager, reports that while La Siembra has been facing some challenging times, they’ve been able to use the challenges as an opportunity to explore new products and re-affirm their commitment to supporting their production partners in the South.

La Siembra was facing declining sales and stalled growth and was hit hard by the fluctuating US exchange rate. The co-op reacted by focusing its energy on areas where it was still seeing strong sales: baking products. La Siembra found that people still wanted to support organic fair trade products, but were doing so in a more affordable way.

That focus led several of their producer co-op partners to increase manufacturing capacity, allowing them to sell a higher value-added product instead of the raw materials. A producer co-op in Peru now manufactures chocolate chips to send to La Siembra, as opposed to the raw cocoa powder, allowing more of the revenue to stay with the producer in Peru. During the most difficult period, many of the workers at La Siembra took a voluntary reduction in hours.

Peeling says La Siembra has been able to use the tough economic situation to deepen its commitment to its values, not dilute them, by connecting with producer cooperative partners in new ways, and supporting the increased capacity of these co-ops to manufacture their own products. She says, “It's been a tough time but we’ve been really motivated for a longer–term vision.”

The Sleepless Goat, a worker cooperative cafe in downtown Kingston, has gone through a difficult year. While it hasn’t seen a reduction in overall sales, rising food costs and a realization that some menu items were in fact losing money, the Goat had to increase prices. Dave Burling, a worker-owner, says that while the cafe wants to keep menu prices accessible, without the increase the Goat likely would have gone out of business.

It has also been forced to make modest reductions in the number of staff working particular shifts, and has canceled its contract with overnight cleaners.

A sole owner of a business may decide it is in her interest to close up shop; however, the workers at the Sleepless Goat were committed to keeping their doors open, acting in their own collective self-interest to keep themselves employed. “Frankly, if the Goat had been a capitalist business it probably would have closed six months ago,” says Burling.

While difficult, the plan seems to have paid off: the Goat has recovered from the economic shock of last year. The cafe foresees some hurdles, including planned street closures due to construction, and the upcoming increase in minimum wage. Nevertheless, Burling is optimistic, saying that experience has shown that the cooperative model can adapt to change.

Worker cooperatives, like any businesses, are not immune to crises in the economy. They do seem to be surviving better than other business models, however. While every worker cooperative is different, the structure provides more freedom and control to adapt to a changing economic environment. What a cooperative does with that flexibility depends on its values and commitments and the strength of its community. At the very least, the cooperative structure gives workers choices in how to address the challenges they face, allowing them to take their fate into their own hands.

Amanda Wilson lives in Ottawa. She is interested in questions of alternative organizations of work and non-capitalist production and exchange models. She has an MA in Labour Studies.

Bendable Business