NEW FICTION FROM Jowita Bydlowska

HOW CANADA’S SYSTEM

FAILS ADOPTEES

PM40007656 R8934

$5.95 MAY/JUNE 2015DISPLAY UNTIL JULY 1, 2015

THIS.ORG

In defence of Kanye West

Straight, white men still dominate the tech industry

That’s

RM Vaughan on why we need more diversity

PROGRESSIVE POLITICS, IDEAS & CULTURETHISWHY IS

CANLIT so white?

May/June 2015 | THIS.ORG 1

30 FICTION Cheating BY JOWITA BYDLOWSKA

34 POETRY BY EVIE CHRISTIE and JENNIFER LOVEGROVE

37 IN PROFILE inside musician Tamara Lindeman’s creative journey

38 MUSIC Tara Baswani’s music is a conversation

39 SPOTLIGHT Retelling a Canadian novella on stage, with puppets

40 READ THIS a romance of love, drugs, and music

40 REVIEWS Confidence, The Purpose Pitch, A Free Man, Beyond the Pale, Lost Boi

41 TRAVEL connecting Canada by art and train

42 BOOKS fan fiction imagines whole new worlds

43 ENVIRONMENT the great lake killer

44 INTERVIEW can we create a new definition for beauty?

contents

2 EDITOR’S NOTE

4 THE CONVERSATION

5 PROFILE giving oppression the middle finger

6 EASILY MISSED the Burrito Project’s mission to combat hunger

7 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO … anti-scab legislation?

7 SPOTLIGHT Manifest Change seeks to end violence against women

8 PROGRESSIVE DETECTIVE how do universities support student parents?

8 LIST sex education debate across Canada

10 RACE in defence of Kanye West

11 HUMAN RIGHTS after fleeing from Iran, one writer warns of eroding rights here

ON THE COVER 20 Straight, white men still

dominate the tech industry

24 Why is CanLit so white?

10 In defence of Kanye West

14 How Canada’s system fails adoptees

30 New fiction from Jowita Bydlowska

May/June 2015 ■ vol. 48, no. 6

features 14 S.O.S TO THE WORLD Foreign adoption is often painted as a Brangelina fairytale.

But for many adoptees and their families, Canada’s broken system means a not-so-happily-ever-after of trauma, mental health crises, and isolation. SAM JURIC on why it’s time for a new story

20 PROJECT DIVERSITY Straight, white men still dominate the technology industry.

RM VAUGHAN introduces us to LGBTQ activists around the world who are fighting for change

24 WHITEWASHED From our education system to our literary community, why is

CanLit so white? NASHWA KHAN challenges the default narrative

11

14

2 THIS.ORG | May/June 2015 Illustration by ANTONY HARE

editor’s note

Diversity nowA FEW MONTHS AGO, I was chatting with the co-founder of a company that focused exclusively on designing video games for women and girls. As we discussed sexism in the indus-try and its general, if sometimes unstated, “no girls allowed” ethos, she remarked “this is the version of us being in the house in the 1950s.” The truth of that statement made me queasy—like I had the sudden onset of the flu, or was a kid again, defying my dad’s good advice not to eat an entire pillowcase’s worth of Halloween candy in one night. I didn’t want her to be right, but I knew she was. In fact, I feared it was worse.

It’s not just women who are being locked inside the house, making metaphorical cherry pies instead of par-ticipating in the economy’s next great, innovative wave. No, last summer all the biggest tech companies in North America released their diversity statistics, and the numbers are troublingly dismal. Overwhelmingly, and with few exceptions, from Facebook, to Twitter, to Apple, these companies’ tech and engineering departments are a homogeneous sea of straight, white men.

Perhaps now is the time to put in the obligatory disclaimer: there’s nothing wrong with straight, white men. Of course, there isn’t. But there is something wrong when an entire industry is dominated by one type—and especially when that industry is the next, exciting eco-nomic frontier. We need to make space for more people, all people. A more diverse technology industry is better for everybody: for com-panies, who get a wealth of perspectives; for consumers, who benefit from that innovation; and for potential employees, who are no longer shut out, merely because they don’t fit a default setting. Just imagine what amazing things could come from breaking the current narrative.

We are, at least, collectively starting to pay more attention to the dearth of women in technology. But we need to remember that’s only a starting point: people of colour are also ridiculously underrepresented, and many companies didn’t include LGBTQ or disability representa-tion in their diversity statistics at all. We need to start building a holistic definition of diversity, and actively, aggressively work to break down the prevailing culture so that it can flourish.

In this issue, RM Vaughan spends time with the people and organi-zations working toward creating a better space for LGBTQ folk in tech (“Project diversity,” p. 20). From Germany to San Francisco, advocates are fighting for more representation and safer environments. We intro-duce you to these amazing people and their mission, but also ask: Why isn’t Canada doing more? I encourage you to read on, and write us at editor@thismagazine.ca if you know of more awesome activist groups that are shaking up the tech industry. — LAUREN McKEON

EDITOR Lauren McKeon ART DIRECTOR Dave Donald NEWS EDITORS Catherine McIntyre, Anna Bowen ARTS & IDEAS EDITOR Sue Carter REVIEWS EDITOR Natalie Zina Walschots FICTION & POETRY EDITOR Dani Couture EDITOR EMERITUS Mel Watkins

EDITORS AT LARGE André Alexis, Alison Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, Anurita Bains, Joyce Byrne, Arnold Chiari, Susan Crean, Julie Crysler, Lynn Cunningham, Andrea Curtis, Patricia D’Souza, Moira Farr, Judy Fudge, Jessica Leigh Johnston, Mark Kingwell, Naomi Klein, Gordon Laird, Linda McQuaig, Judith Parker, Laurell Ritchie, Lisa Rundle, Rick Salutin, Doug Saunders, Emily Schultz, Graham F. Scott, Jason Sherman, Lynn Spink, Clive Thompson, RM Vaughan, Joyce Wayne, Armine Yalnizyan

PUBLISHER Lisa Whittington-Hill

BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR Deborah Brewster DIRECTORS Rebecca Gimmi, Mark Higgins, Evan Munday, Richard A. Johnson EX-OFFICIO Lauren McKeon, Lisa Whittington-Hill EMERGENCIES Brian Iler, Clayton Ruby

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40 THIS.ORG | May/June 2015 Photo by JAMES PATTYN

LYNN CROSBIE’S NEW NOVEL is the beautiful and brilliant tale of “two goofballs who are madly in love. With drugs and music and each other.” Protagonist Evelyn Curtis-Anne Deleuze Gray is a moody, lonely 16-year-old from Carnation, Wash. Dressed like a “Walmart goth,” she spends her days failing English, playing with her cat Flip, writing suicide notes, and carrying a folded poster of Kurt Cobain in a freezer bag.

After a drug overdose leaves her “the coma girl in 786,” Evelyn is convinced the young man in the hospital bed beside her is the spirit of the long-dead Nirvana front man. The two escape the hospital and begin a dark, destructive, and doomed love affair as the-would-be musicians—now Celine Black and Evelyn Gray—chase fame, heroin, and each other.

Not your standard tale of romance—way more punk than paradise—the lovers’ journey includes mystery, murder, and a missing dog named Speck. Along the way, readers experience the passion, jealousy and devotion of the couple’s love; as well as the emptiness and complications their musical superstardom brings. Black becomes the lead singer of Bleach and Gray is the front woman for SLITCH.

Crosbie’s latest work is fan fiction for smarty-pants. Original and imaginative, filled with wonderfully witty wordplay and plenty of pop culture references from Snooki to Method Man. Crosbie has also crafted clever cheeky twists on ’90s nostalgia; Bleach records songs at Love Buzz Studio and Grey shoots a video for SLITCH’s song “Pageant.” — LISA WHITTINGTON-HILL

CONFIDENCE by Russell Smith Biblioasis, $19.95

It’s a delicious darkness that pervades Russell Smith’s latest short story collection, Confidence. Much like his past story collection Young Men and his novels, such as How Insensitive and Girl Crazy, cynicism seeps into the eight tales in this compilation; urban-weary penitents opt for the path of least resistance, and throughout the dyspep-tic moralities on display make for unflinch-ingly honest reading. A seasoned storyteller, Smith is adept at fashioning nuanced narra-tives operating on a singular premise: human transactions occur within an emotional con-tinuum of trust and power.

Within the worlds of “Confidence,” social isolation leads to impaired rationality while love-as-commodity leads to unintended and unexpected consequences. Stories like “Sleeping with an Elf” and “Fun Girls” have before appeared in print and hang together thematically within this collection under the banner of confidence, or lack thereof. Tales like “Research” and “Gentrification” are the literary equivalents of watching someone pick off a scab to experience that short-term satis-factory sensation and having to mitigate the transferable consequences later.

These aren’t new or even profound truths, yet Smith’s literary realism and cadence of prose lay bare such human frailties, leverag-ing classist and multicultural underworlds as the proving grounds for his hubristically dam-aged people. — RYAN B. PATRICK

■ LYNN CROSBIE AND FRANK

THE PURPOSE PITCH by Kathryn Mockler Mansfield Press, $17

It’s not just that The Purpose Pitch is wickedly, rakishly, cruelly clever in a way that can cut a subject of scrutiny straight to the bone in a way that makes you laugh helplessly and guiltily—though it is, indeed, those things. Merciless as a grin full of razor blades, these poems rapidly cycle from hilarious to gutting, delighting in knocking the wind out of the reader. But even more than this, what defines The Purpose Pitch is how it revels in its cultural and linguistic vocabulary, drawn from pop and online culture, contem-porary documents and search engine results. Taken apart and reconstituted, the shattered interviews and alienated search strings,

arts & ideas

R E A D T H I S

Your biggest fanA romance of music, drugs, and one long-dead Nirvana front man

WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT by Lynn Crosbie House of Anansi, $19.95

May/June 2015 | THIS.ORG 41Photo courtesy Jumblies Theatre

abjectly violent police reports and imaginary biographical notes take on the feel of a dig-ital oracle, and one with a vicious sense of humour. — NATALIE ZINA WALSCHOTS

BEYOND THE PALE by Emily Urquhart $27.99, HarperCollins

Emily Urquhart’s debut memoir, Beyond the Pale, is an exploration into the author’s unique family lineage. After discover-ing that her first daughter has a rare congeni-tal disorder, albinism, which is characterized by a lack of pigment in the skin, eyes, and hair, Urquhart begins an introspective jour-ney in an attempt to fuse her daughter’s exis-tence with her folklore-inspired worldview. Urquhart’s journey ultimately leads her to Tanzania, where it is not uncommon for folks with albinism to be attacked, murdered, and dismembered for their limbs, which are seen by some “witch doctors” as supernaturally powerful. Memoirist Emily Urquhart is nov-elist Jane Urquhart’s offspring, and both writ-ers figure prominently into the book (though neither are of any relation to the reviewer). This touching and personal memoir is a must-read for parents of children with genetically inherited special needs, or anyone interested in genetics, albinism, or family trees in gen-eral. — CHRIS URQUHART

A FREE MAN by Michel Basilières ECW Press, $18.95

Michel Basilières sopho-more effort A Free Man, is a delightfully dark and funny take on the dysto-pian novel, with all the best shades of Vonnegut. Styled as a pot and booze soaked conversation between two reunited friends, the narrative takes us deep into Skid Roe’s sadly normal life: a less-than-stimulating retail job, annoying co-workers, weird customers, a crush on a girl who’s out of his league, and, above it all, an encompass-ing sense of ennui—a losing battle to achieve free will, someone who exists outside the cog-in-machine routine of daily life.

Oh, but there’s also a time-travelling, shape-shifting robot, a future where humans are facing extinction, and a shadowy govern-

ment agency threatening to lock-up Skid. Anchored in Toronto, A Free Man is inven-tive and strange (but in all the right ways). It’s also a surreal and fantastical trip that expertly pushes readers to confront the realities of modern life—no matter the lengths we, like the delusional and self-absorbed Skid, would rather go to avoid them. — LAUREN MCKEON

T R AV E L

Healing journeyCross-country train trip connects Canada through artFOR MOST OF US, travelling across the country by rail is a romantic fantasy. But for Train of Thought, a touring cross-country arts project, it’s a non-traditional way to connect with Canada’s many regional and cultural communities.

Produced by Toronto’s Jumblies Theatre, the trip begins with a ceremonial performance and feast in Vancouver on May 12. The participating artists will then make 20 stops across the country, joining local community groups for performances, workshops, storytelling, and other creative activities via a “counter-colonial route,” before arriving in Halifax on June 18.

Jumblies workshop and outreach coordinator Jackie Omstead says the local partners are “rooted in their home communities with some level of active cross-cultural collaboration involving First Nations and other cultures.” And while much of the travelling will be on VIA Rail, there are points when the Train of Thought will journey off the map. “The route is rather idiosyncratic,” says Omstead. — SUE CARTER

LOST BOI by Sassafras Lowrey Arsenal Pulp Press, $16.95

“All children, except one, grow up,” J.M. Barrie famously wrote at the beginning of Peter Pan. Sassafras Lowrey borrows from this classic line, beginning hir inventive lat-est novel, Lost Boi, with “All bois, except one, become grownups.”

Lost Boi reimagines Peter Pan, taking readers to a Neverland far dif-ferent than the one we knew in childhood. As Lowrey writes, the lost bois’ lives were “a gritty Disneyland. We made the magic and the rules. No one told us when to go to bed, who to fuck, or where we could or couldn’t pierce ourselves.” Needless to say, this subversive gem isn’t the Peter Pan of J.M. Barrie’s imagination.

“Queering his work has been a tremen-dous honour and a great deal of fun,” writes Lowrey in the acknowledgements. But this book goes beyond fun. It’s fearless, ener-getic, and captivating. It’s unlike anything else, except of course, Peter Pan. — JESSICA ROSE