Writing & Editorial Work

Malcolm X's stance on violence, framed by his iconic declaration "by any means necessary," underscores his nuanced and deeply pragmatic perspective. Notably, his unapologetic refusal to cater to whiteness, prioritizing Black liberation. This phrase encapsulates his belief in the right of oppressed individuals to defend themselves, highlighting a commitment to securing freedom, justice, and human dignity.

Malcolm X argued that in the face of systemic oppression and violence, communities must be prepared to protect themselves and assert their often violated human rights through whatever methods were effective and necessary. His perspective was not an endorsement of violence for its own sake but a recognition of the right to self-defence in the context of a society/peoples that were often left no other viable path to change.

Or how we took a human rights stance regarding: Palestine and were punished for it.

In the last month, the On Canada Project was kicked off of panels, lost large client contracts, and our founder was doxxed and received threats.

On Canada Project, and we hope you’ll join us, is rejecting any climate solution by the people who have been historically failing us, that does not comprehensively and inclusively and sustainably address the climate catastrophe we are currently in. Call us old fashion, but we like our air clean and safe to breathe.

Since we don’t feel that the vast majority of the politicians in Canada have our back (most politicians prioritize political party over public interest at best, and private side deals with corporations over public at worst) — the advocates we trust to take care of our planet is Indigenous peoples.

Indigenous peoples across Canada and the world, have been fighting alone to protect our planet for much longer than any Western climate activist group, and they have seen the most gains in protecting our planet (especially when you consider they did all this while facing land theft, systemic violence, physical violence (@ rcmp) and ongoing human rights violations). They aren’t just saying we need to protect the land, they put their bodies on the line to do so and have been successful.

Pierre Poilievre doesn’t give a sh*t about human rights violations of QTBIPOC in CANADA and I’m supposed to believe he cares about Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka? — please, amma and appa didn’t raise no fool.

May 18 commemorates the 2009 genocide of Tamils by the government of Sri Lanka, and the global failure to intervene on behalf of human rights, yet again.

If you don't know what we're talking about, it is because, like nearly all stories of human rights violations against BIPOC (in Canada and around the world), this story didn't get the news coverage it deserved until the Tamil community in Canada took their cry for help to the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.

The ultra-wealthy and people with power and influence do not need democracy, and our public systems like the vast majority* of us do.

Think about everything you've seen on shows like Succession; The Roys don't use publicly funded services like public transit, education, healthcare, childcare, etc.,

White moderates want to mean well, but the reality is they aren't comfortably decentering their right to comfort (which is a characteristic of white supremacy). They aren't opposed to change, progress, and inclusive communities, but aren't willing (either knowingly or unknowingly) to actually do anything about it.

This makes them harmful to the people and movement they claim to care about.

According to Statistics Canada, more than 235,000 people in Canada experience houselessness each year.

We struggle to wrap our heads around this because Canada's deliberate neglect of unhoused people results in preventable and premature deaths. The average life expectancy is 82 in Canada, but for unhoused people, it is 42.

Understanding systems of oppression, intersectionality, power and privilege is essential to our ability to understand each other and show up in solidarity for each other.

So POC, despite having experienced ancestral and ongoing trauma as a result of colonization in our ancestral lands, now benefit from these colonial structures in the West.

And because our education systems do an incredible job of ensuring that we don't see/understand the link of colonization to white people or colonization to the 'success' of Western nations, we begin to become conditioned to see whiteness as a key to success.

We view financial security, success, stability, as things that result from whiteness. We accept whiteness as the standard for what is "normal", "acceptable", "polite", and thus celebrated - so we try to mimic it.

And in doing so, we interalize these beliefs that run counter to our very existence, resulting in internalized racism.

Today, on this auspicious day for the Tamil community (Happy Thai Pongal!) I thought I'd take a second to write about the importance of solidarity, even when all you've known is scarcity.

In a statement in November, Pierre Polieiver's claimed that "it feels like everything is broken in this country right now" in a move to undermine political competition in Trudeau's leadership as PM.

In a speech at the Liberal Party's Christmas Party last Wednesday, Trudeau seemed to respond to this by declaring that "Canada is not broken."

Which begs the question, which one of these wealthy politicians and white cis-het men is correct?

Tried and true ways European Colonizers have spread their violence for centuries at the expense of the global majority BIPOC

Look, we're clearly not royalists, but we do have empathy for the Queen's family, and even for her subjects who loved her. What sucks is that same empathy is rarely reciprocated to the global majority (BIPOC) whose families and ancestors experienced (and continue to experience) violence and harm because of the Queen and her family.

Anyone can be radicalized online, but white teenage boys are increasingly being targeted, and are falling for this rhetoric, many times in very violent ways.

Capitalism and Colonialism (which is rooted in white supremacy) are two of the foundational components of our current society (~600 yrs).

A quote we recently came across by former US President (1961-1963) Lyndon B. Johnson says:

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”

It's important to understand that white people - who are not ultra-rich - have been targeted to work against their own interests (for the ultra-rich) for centuries.

This isn't new: we've been systematically indoctrinating white people (and to a degree, "model minorities") since the advent of our colonial societies, but the internet has made it easier to target these populations and has allowed for more overt violence responses to occur.