Wednesday, September 30, 2009

article FAIL.

So, this is an important lesson to learn: don't ever, ever, ever write for the national post if you're in an altered state of mind.

Monday, September 28, 2009

stephen harper: one child left behind?

we here at pamphleteers are pretty serious about edumacation. this is one of the major reasons that we were pretty upset by stephen harper's statement that "canada has no history of colonialism."

it's not just because it's crazy racist or that it's a lie. it's upsetting because colonialism is part of our education system in canada. it may not be the most in depth or progressive of educations, but in school we learned that canada was a colony and that canada is a colonial state. that's just the truth.

so we've decided to take this serious educational matter into our own hands. we think that stephen harper should go back to high school and learn or re-learn the history of canada.

we've drafted a letter to the principal of the high school that stephen harper graduated from, as well as the superintendent and trustee of its school board on stephen harper's behalf:

"Principal Zimny, Superintendent Winter, Trustee Campbell:

We were concerned to learn that at the most recent G20 Summit Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared that "Canada has no history of colonialism."

As we are sure you can tell, embedded in this statement are a few historical inaccuracies:

  • Canada was a "colony" of England and France. The history of Canada is actually undeniably "colonial." John Cabot explored what is now called Canada in the late 15th century and Jacques Cartier arrived for France in the early 16th century. The first permanent settlements were established in in the name of both France and England in the 1600's.
  • Generally speaking, there was a great deal of conflict between the different "colonists" of Canada: King William's War, Queen Anne's War, The Seven Years War, The War of 1812. These are described as "Intercolonial Wars" because they involved fighting between the Colonial powers, all trying to take control of territory in order to spread their colonies. This is otherwise known as "colonialism".
  • The original inhabitants of the country we now call Canada were the "colonized" population, since their land and resources were annexed by the incoming "colonists"
  • Due to the many injustices perpetuated by the "colonists" against the "colonized", systemic economic, political, and social inequity now exists in Canada which the Government of Canada has recognized.

We noticed that your website lists many of the courses that are available to your students including: "World History to the Sixteenth Century", "World History: The West and the World", as well as "Canadian History Since World War I." We wonder, what, given the mandate set by the history classes offered at this school, is the reaction to Stephen Harper's suggestion that Canada has no history of colonialism?


This leads us to believe either that Mr. Harper has simply forgotten the historical facts your courses presumably teach, or that a grave error has occurred and he did not, in fact, complete the History courses required to receive his High School diploma. In either case, Mr. Harper should be invited to take these courses, either for the first time or as a refresher of knowledge he has obviously forgotten.

As Member of Parliament Olivia Chow has written: "The Canadian Government worked very hard to make reparations with the First Nations Community with the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, and to hear Mr. Harper’s remarks on the world stage destroys this work."

As an elected official who is responsible for representing and speaking for Canada on the world stage, we are sure that Stephen Harper would welcome the opportunity to learn more about the history of his country.

We eagerly await your invitation and look forward to witnessing the process of self discovery that education offers.


eff and tee
the pamphleteers "

we're serious. stephen harper is not reaping the benefits of this country's educational system and the effects of this are detrimental not only to the country and its image but to stephen harper himself!

send stephen back to high school!!!



this is what i received from ms. chow:






do it?

Sunday, September 27, 2009

as if we even needed another reason to hate this guy

we all know that, had an election been called, stephen harper probably would have been voted in for a third time...but that doesn't have to stop us from pointing out the plethora of reasons to vote him out to the people that DO vote him in every time.

i think this is the number one reason, on my list, of why stephen harper is not prime minister material.

on september 25, 2009 at the close of the G20 summit.. prime minister harper showed the world what kind of idiot he truly is when he said this about canada:

"We also have no history of colonialism."

canada has no history of colonialism.
CANADA, has not history of colonialism.

that sound is just the sound of your mind blowing every time you read that. the prime minister of canada(who also, incidentally, doesn't believe in the charter of human rights and freedoms) thinks that we have no history of colonialism.

stephen harper exists in a parallel universe where there were no people living on this land before explorers and settlers arrived.

stephen harper lives in a world where the principles of terra nullius(land belonging to noone) and terra incognita(empty land/unknown land) weren't used to "discover" land in the name of the Crown, land that was already populated, and wasn't used to steal said land from such people and void their claim to it.

in stephen harper's world it has nothing to do with colonialism when, in 1989, the government of canada argued against a land claim by both the gitskan and wet'suwet'en peoples by stating:

"canada doubts that the gitskan were ever civilized enough to have sovereignty."

i guess stephen harper doesn't consider anything in the indian act or the fact that it even exists a legacy or continuation of colonialism.

the sytemic rape, murder, and kidnapping of aboriginal women and children has nothing to do with colonialism nor does public and legal nonchalance towards such crimes today.

reserves aren't part of our colonial history or our colonial present, apparently.

these are just a few of the trillion examples of canada's colonial "history," there are entire libraries devoted to the subject. it's too bad that stephen harper can't read. he should never have cut all those funds to adult literacy programs.

we should all be writing to every political representative we have and complaining about this gross misrepresentation of canada, its history, and the fact that colonialism is still state policy. the person in charge of running this country should not be allowed to lie publicly without any consequence.

colonialism isn't an OPINION, stephen harper, it's a FACT. your stupidity might embarass canadians and make us look bad on the national stage, but your racism is revolting and beyond reproach.


i found this picture on my computer of a trip i took to nova scotia once. this was taken in the town of grand falls, new brunswick:

if you look carefully you can see that the statue is, indeed, of a white settler giving a blanket to an aboriginal person.

remember how when you learned about colonialism you learned about how the settlers brought diseases on their blankets? and it wiped out huge populations of people? and the settlers were all like "sorry, this is OUR land now!"?

remember that? because apparently stephen harper doesn't.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

banana evolution and yorku: redefining the possibilities

i just realized that i have solved every single one of york university's problems.

i have the ultimate solution.

york university, meet kirk cameron.

he's probably just as much of a renowned scholar as martin singer is, and he has a way with words AND the ladies.

hire him. he has such interesting views on things like education, evolution, and women. he and york are a perfect match!!!

he believes that the banana is proof that there is a god. this is exactly the same as president shoukri thinking that no publications is proof of being a renowned scholar.

kirk cameron for yorku president!!

douchebag award goes to.... york university!!

dear york: please, please, please pull up your socks.


on the 19th of september a little bulletin popped up on the yorku main website. it said that a student had been arrested for sexual assault.

for two sexual assaults.

on the 15th, a woman was sexually assaulted in the library at yorku and then another woman was sexually assaulted on the 18th, in the library.

generally speaking, on university campuses, when someone is assaulted a general warning or bulletin goes out to the university community via email. also, the library at york has these fancy new tvs everywhere with news and security updates, warnings about stolen items.

so, did a warning go out on the 15th? no, of course not.

did a warning go out on the 18th? no, of course not.

only when the assailant was arrested did the university alert the community that someone had been arrested. so why bother telling us of his arrest if we didn't know about the crimes in the first place?

so understandably the university community is a little annoyed with the university and have been contacting alex bilyk, media relations director, about their concerns.

alex bilyk has yet to respond in a substantial and satisfactory way. and why? it's his job to do this media shit, why isn't he doing his job?

because yesterday and today alex bilyk was at the ontario human rights tribunal, sitting at the back of the room, twiddling his blackberry, watching as the former and current presidents of yorku testified.

so instead of dealing with students' concerns for their safety, instead of warning students of a threat against their safety, the university has been carefully and vigilantly protecting its own reputation.

according to the toronto star's louise brown, alex bilyk noted in speaking to her that "the university must try to strike a balance between notifying students of a threat and causing undue panic."

um, women live with the fear of sexual violence every single day. when we hear about such crimes, generally we don't start panicking and fainting.

suggesting that giving women the information they need so that they can make informed decisions about what they feel is safe and comfortable for them will somehow cause mass hysteria is not only patronizing to the max but also belittles and minimizes the extent to which sexual violence pervades women's daily existence.

and suggesting that any panic experienced over the news of TWO sexual assaults occuring in a public library at one's campus is somehow "undue" just makes bilyk look like an insensitive prick.

as one circulated letter to bilyk aptly pointed out:

"i know you have been quite busy with york politics over the past two days but it would be a welcome change if the safety of the university community could take precedence over this for once."


now this is a real education!

just what the world needs, more idiots who deny people actual education to further their own crazy theories.

kirk cameron, "growing pains" heart throb, is a crazy evangelical christian.

apparently he had the best idea ever. november 22, 2009 is "darwin day"-the 150th year anniversary of the publishing of darwin's 'origin of species'. on this day, kirk cameron is going to deliver 50'000 copies of the 'origin of species' to universities and colleges across the united states.

altered copies.

he's going to alter 50'000 copies of a book, an educational tool, as a publicity stunt for his religion.

apparently the edited edition of the book includes an extra special introduction explaing "adolf hitler's undeniable connection" to darwin's theory of evolution as well as highlighting darwin's "racism" and "disdain for women."

riiight, because evangelical christianity doesn't disdain women whatsoever, or espouse racism.

here's the youtube video explaining this great idea:

"hi, i'm kirk cameron, and i'm a crazy freakshow"

Friday, September 18, 2009

kanye west, the perpetual meme generator

oh privacy, what a silly idea!

york university, tentanda via: "the way must be tried"

since we started this blog we've talked a lot about yorku for a lot of different reasons.

there was the strike, for one. there was the conservative government interference in student elections.
there was a president who said one thing in the media and did the complete opposite.
there was the blatant attack on free speech and the destruction of a student newspaper.
there were the fraud accusations(well, not accusations anymore because they were true).

then there was the time the university tried to get an emergency court order to force google to release identities associated with a certain gmail account.

the last one should probably throw you off a little, if you're an email user or internet subscriber and you have a notion that what you do from your gmail account is somewhat private.

according to the national post last week, and about a million other sources since then,york has won court orders which require google, bell, and rogers to " to reveal the identities of the anonymous authors of contentious emails that accused the school's president of academic fraud."

there it is. it's proof we're not just paranoid about these kinds of things!! this is a fact--york went to the court to FORCE your internet service provider to give them this information. the email address is anonymous so what that looks like is IP addresses and names/addresses of people whose IP addresses/internet were used to access the gmail account.

this motion went unopposed by bell and rogers. translation: they don't give a shit about protecting your anonymity or privacy. they also got payments for this service, how convenient.

the media contact for the anonymous group who utilizes the gmail account has stated on many occasions that the group(faculty at york university) don't want to be public because they're afraid of reprisal--a totally legal stance to take.

and also, how can the courts grant this order when the fraud accusations made by the group turned out to be true?

will mcdowell, who is one of the lawyers for york(and also one of the lawyers defending york in a human rights tribunal hearing), thinks this kind of action is completely necessary:

"academics enjoy quite extensive latitude in what they say and what they write and what they research at canadian universities but i would say this about any of us: the right of free speech is not unlimited ...what was said is quite damaging to the institution."

actually, i think what was said was appropriate and reflected the political climate at yorku right now. maybe it damaged the president, but he lied, he committed fraud, and he put york's academic integrity on the line to save his own ass.

i'm sorry, mr. mcdowell, but if you think academics have "extensive latitude" to say, research, and write whatever they want in canada right now, you've been living in some kind of hole in the ground.

currently at the ontario human rights tribunal a complaint is being heard against york university.

for... REPRISAL. this shit isn't just being made up. professors and students in every institution can attest to the fact that they have been punished for researching, writing, and saying what they think. professor denis rancourt lost his job at the university of ottawa(you can read his statement HERE).

at the human rights tribunal hearing this week(which continues at 655 bay street, 14th floor, room 12, 10am the 22-24th next week), pat bradshaw-former senate chair at yorku- said that the boundaries of institutions are so fluid that sometimes its hard to see where a university begins or ends.

as students, professors, educators, activists, or whatever we have to say that this is unacceptable. york university's reputation is being sold up the river, its adminstrators and henchpeople are moving unilaterally to make boundaries between the university and outside organizations/lobbies/"stakeholders"/corporations more and more "fluid" until they're completely non existent(along with our academic freedom and freedom of speech).

a few months ago the yu free press released an issue entitled alia tentanda via est, another way must be tried.

another way must be tried, and as students and profs at yorku we shouldn't let one office decide what way that will be.

so i guess this is it then, the battle for york. time to choose sides.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

wait, these body bags are magical H1N1 fighting bags?!

in june we commented on the fact that health canada didn't want to send alcohol based hand sanitizers to native communities in canada, despite many of the communities lack of clean/running water(which is essential for hand-washing, a major weapon in the arsenal against H1N1):

"so health canada is all like, we know, it's all about hand sanitizers for these communities. presumably this is a good idea(forgetting just for a second that these communities don't have basic infrastructures which are actually human rights) except they forgot to factor in one tiny little thing: racism.

'shit bitch', health canada is saying,'we can't send ALCOHOL-based hand sanitizers into reserves because those people are going to DRINK it.'"

well health canada has truly outdone themselves this time.

aboriginal leaders in manitoba are reporting that two of their communities received a shipment of hand sanitizers, facemasks, and BODY BAGS.

body bags!!

grand chief david harper stated:

"i make a plea to the people of canada to work with us to ensure the lowest fatalities from this monster virus. don't send us body bags. help us organize; send us medicine."

chief jerry knott of wasagamack also said:

"we had asked for funding so we can get organized and to ensure medicines, hand sanitizers and other preventative kits were in place but, instead, we are shocked to receive the body bags"

i have a better question: did health canada send the body bags with the hand sanitizer so that when the people in these communities drink themselves to death with hand sanitizer they have the bags on hand? is this their logic?

health canada, the blatant racism probably doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in your to manage a flu pandemic in this country.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

pedophile? child pornographer? no jail time!

after being busted with 400 images of child pornography on his computer, being completely unrepentant, abusing the trust that is placed in teachers to NOT do things like this, and being an all around sleaze-bag, david carswell of barrie will serve zero jail time.

according to the judge, who admits that carswell is a risk, six months house arrest is enough punishment.

carswell's own lawyer said that carswell had never sought out help for his problem due to the fact that he simply doesn't believe he has a problem. apparently in his mind it's absolutely fine to buy child porn.

in court carswell declared that no children were hurt by his looking at the porn. riiight, because porn just magically appears out of thin air.

so this disgusting pervert, who taught for 29 years, will be on probation for 2 years, serve 160 hours of community service, wear an electronic ankle monitor, and not go anywhere there are children under 16.

his name will be put on the provincial and federal sex offender registries for 10 years and his DNA will be on the national data bank.

excellent job, judge dawson, you've ensured that when carswell finally does hurt a child in the flesh(or, when victims start coming forward claiming abuse at his hands), you'll have his DNA and whereabouts all ready to go.

Monday, September 14, 2009

back to school? enjoy!

in honour of the new school year i'm re-posting something from march, 2009 with a few updates.

eventually, i was fired from my position as a t.a for giving too many good grades--apparently. one month before my students sat their exam i was summarily executed as their teacher and a new phd student was hired to finish their year for them.'

anyone who has taken a full year course at any educational institution can imagine the toll this must have taken on the students--first year students--who had the same teacher all year and all of the sudden were forced to start fresh with someone who didn't know them, hadn't had the entire year to learn their personalities and work, and who probably wasn't interested in getting to know them or educate them.

there's an appeal in the works--although the university has decided that taking five times longer than what their own policy dictates as their deadline is a good idea.

but anyways, if you give or receive grades you might be interested in the grading policy of a high ranking university professor.

welcome back to school, suckas.


pretty much everyone thinks that, in school, if you work hard enough you'll be rewarded for it. that, if you do what you're being asked, you'll get a decent grade.

guess what. that's a dream. apparently grades are actually meant to "weed students out who shouldn't be in universities". students in humanities and social sciences are especially screwed when it comes to marks, because in these fields it is virtually impossible to get a perfect grade.

and why is that? in sciences and maths when you answer the question correctly you get 100%, simple as that. unlike the humanities and social sciences, hard science and math have actual answers. disciplines like women's studies, sociology, political science, history, etc have a more flexible approach to answers because we recognize that the answer is more or less relative and that nothing can be identified as a simple "truth".

that being said it is extremely easy for profs and teaching assistants to hide behind such relative marking, such flexibility and "reflexiveness", as an excuse for using marking as a means of wielding power, of punishing students for not thinking/writing/working in the same ways that their teachers do, and of simply protecting their own comfortable position in the hierarchy that is the university.

simply put, students who don't conform to a teacher's expectations will often face a bad grade as a result. professors and teaching assistants can use bad grades to decide which students do/do not "belong" in university. marking is a form of institutional gate keeping and is regimented in such a way that "progressive" educators can hide behind the university grading scheme and not question their own complicity in its sexist, racist, and elitist logic.

this is an actual quote from an email i received about grading:


i) I think it would be useful for you to think about baseline grades (see clip below from TA handbook). So begin by asking whether the student has done more or less than what is expected for a C"...... I suggest in the future you start from the C grade (average for most students), and grade in relation to it."

"It is also the case that an A+ grade tends to indicate to students that there are no areas in which the student could improve."
"in a B assignment, a student has done all parts of the assignment and followed instructions."

so essentially an A+ is impossible because students are never "perfect".

so what if your pedagogical approach to education is that students thrive on positive reinforcement, that motivating their dedication with a good grade(even if they aren't perfect) is more effective than punitive marking?

well, too bad! the marking scheme says A+ is perfect and we must obey the almighty marking scheme.

what if after a three month strike your students come back to class and they're still into it. they're getting the material, they're excited to be in tutorial and in class, they're applying what they're learning to their lives and they feel energized and excited? and so you decide, hey, you guys studied your asses off for this midterm, you haven't missed any classes, you had to hand in a shit load of assignments in the two weeks before the midterm and yet you still come to class attentive and ready to learn so i'm going to reward your learning with marks that reflect all of this?

well, be prepared for a lot of resistance because marks are the currency of academia and as we all know: mo' money=mo' problems.

marks do work for the university and if you screw with this(regardless of how effective it is for your students--because universities don't actually care about whether or not students learn) you will be punished.

what is most important to universities is that things remain as normative as possible:

"if you have a profile that differs excessively from the ‘normal profile’ , please consult with me immediately and certainly before you hand back grades or assignments, so we can look at your assignments together."

having a grading profile that differs "excessively from the normal profile" doesn't mean that you've done a great job teaching and that your students deserve high marks. it means you're a fuck up. it means you could possibly be trying to undermine everything the professor is doing. it also means you're lazy. the normal profile means everything is as it should be, or as my students have been learning, "just the way it is".

well, if there's one thing i'm glad i've taught my students it's that "just the way it is" doesn't mean it's right. they get this.

and for anyone who might actually believe in teaching assistants having any kind of marking or pedagogical autonomy:

"The final grades are to be determined by you[the professor] and any anomalies have to be investigated. I have had a problem with new tutors not grading according to York standards in the past and have had to have these reviewed. It is the tutor's job to submit the grades and grade breakdowns to you for your approval.”( a recent communiqué from Larry Lyons, the Undergraduate Co-ordinator in Social Science).

so professors get to lecture for 2 hours per week and teaching assistants do the majority of work in the course: the one on one office hours, answering emails, the marking, the ACTUAL teaching. however, the professor remains completely in control of the final grades and feels entitled to harass and intimidate their teaching assistants in order to maintain a "normal" profile at all costs.

universities, professors, and teaching assistants who engage in this kind of normative grading for no reason except that its "just the way it is", i have a great idea:

let's just get rid of teaching assistants all together and from now on robots can mark papers and teach students. this way you can have your cookie cutter approach and result as well as make your exorbitant salary without the messy hassle of having to deal with "people" and their crazy ideas about marking and teaching.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

"so fresh, so clean"

sometimes you just need to watch a little K Pop.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

we will out LOL you- part two

you may recall a story we posted back in july about a really creative protest(which you can read here). unfortunately the protest inspired some nasty behaviour on the other side and one protester was kicked.

well we've been waiting for an update on charges etc and we received an anonymous comment about that the other day:

One of the protestors (one who was kicked) has since posted an update on his facebook account that no charges will be laid by London Police Service because "the man slipped and we don't want media attention".

this sounded kind of strange because it sounds like the protesters don't want the media attention, so we contacted the protesters and the comment is, at its core, correct.

according to the kicked the cops took their evidence to the crown and it was the crown that felt the evidence was insufficient.

as well as insufficient evidence, the crown also felt that pressing charges wouldn't be in the "public interest".

interesting considering the man who was assaulted is part of the public and a crime was committed against him. not only was he allegedly physically assaulted, but i would argue that those homophobes carrying those vile signs were committing a hate crime by being there in the first place.

those homophobes are also totally misrepresenting the bible, which is a conscious decision made on their part to misuse and rewrite the bible for the express purpose of instilling fear in one population and stirring up hatred in another.

it's not in the "public interest"for one human being to see a sign held by another human being saying that they are going to hell. it just doesn't really foster a lot of good feelings.

potentially(especially considering the cops initial reaction to the complaint, that the men had brought the kicking on themselves) the cops maybe didn't investigate thoroughly or maybe they collected shitty evidence because they didn't WANT charges to be laid.

maybe at the end of the day the police decided charging an old man would be more of a hassle than they wanted to deal with, even though it's their job to deal with it.

although it is disapointing that it looks like the police chose to take this avenue it's nice to remember that they've already gotten a shitload of media around this, and police are pretty good at making their own bad media through inaction and apathy so maybe this one will work itself out in the end(especially with the help of a few sign-carrying protesters).

Monday, September 7, 2009


one puppy.

oh no!! vampires!

i saw this on youtube today and was very frightened. not only because this man wants us to have another election when he already had the chance to be part of a coalition government, but also i was frightened by the very obvious fact that ignatieff is a vampire.

at approximately 00:20 seconds ignatieff reveals his true self... canines and all.

i don't know about you, but i don't really feel like i want a vampire running the liberal party.. i mean, yes, they mainly are bloodsucking vampires anyways but ignatieff's teeth speaks to a more literal vampireness..and that scares me.

Friday, September 4, 2009

this week on huffington post

this is my favorite hard-hitting news story from the huff post this week:

Rihanna Topless and Muzzled in Italian Vogue: Which is Your Favorite Photo?

thank you huff post for, as usual, raising the bar.

"noone is listening"

this is a pretty great video on the health care debates in the states right now. this dude is right, people just refuse to listen to one another.


it's a bird! it's a plane! no... it's a.... fighter jet?

i've been out of the city for a few days and upon my arrival i've noticed that there are fancy planes flying over the city. apparently it's some kind of air show thing.

it's annoying, loud, and i actually feel like it's in really poor taste.

here in north america people effing love air shows. they love to stand with their necks craned and watch the planes do neat tricks and make loud noises.

well that's great, here in north america we don't have jets and the like flying over us constantly and we don't have to live with the fear that they may drop some kind of killing weapon on us or our homes.

doesn't it seem like right now in the world, at this moment in history, maybe we should rethink the air show a bit? maybe it's time to stop parading our military and technological prowess in the skies as some kind of fun afternoon-filler when in reality this technology is on the other side of the world hurting and killing people?

i understand the utility of the military--it's not going anywhere soon, i know--but this isn't world war II and we aren't a part of an even remotely honorable war right now.

it just seems like another example of how ridiculously cut off from reality we are here. people sit outside oohing and ahhing over crazy flight maneuvers without thinking that these maneuvers are used in ways that are seriously ethically dubious.

but, north america is known for everything but being tact/tasteful, so i guess we'll have to keep hearing these crazy planes fly over our houses as entertainment while people in other countries hear the same noises and fear for their lives.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

hobbit house!

i want this hobbit house!it's a sustainable house!
in wales...aka the shire!
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