Senator Murray Sinclair speaking at 4th Annual Aboriginal Lecture Series
One of the most important messages from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the report to redress the catastrophic legacy of residential schools and the degradation of our Canadian indigenous populations, is this can no longer be just seen as an indigenous issue. It is a Canadian issue.
We cannot move forward until the country as a whole understands and addresses this systemic inter-generational trauma as indigenous and non-indigenous. It is time for the Canadian government along with all its citizens, to move from ignorance and discrimination to empathy and understanding. As the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, First Nations lawyer, chair of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Senator, had explained: “Reconciliation is about forging and maintaining respectful relationships. There are no shortcuts”.
And that is just what husband and wife Tim O’Loan and Margaret Embleton of Ottawa have been empowered to do as models, like their marriage of indigenous and non-indigenous cooperation. The couple realized that a word was needed for Canadians of all backgrounds to better understand the concept of reconciliation is. As Margaret explained, Màmawi in Algonquin, the language and territory of the Ottawa region, means “Together”. Together is exactly how we achieve reconciliation. Màmawi Together is a grassroots initiative of parents, students, community and cooperative supporters working together to bring indigenous awareness, education, and reconciliation projects to life. Tim and Margaret initiated this organization in order to grow more caring and inclusive communities based on greater knowledge, respect, and action of indigenous persons.
Ottawa River Singers
Màmawi-Together began by contacting parent-teacher associations, and their hard work and determination has lead them to host their 4th Annual Lecture Series on May 25, 2016 at Rideau High School in Ottawa.
Featured at the Lecture Series was Honourable Senator Murray Sinclair. Sinclair discussed the critical role of education in reconciliation. The event opened with the Ottawa River Singers presenting to an auditorium packed with people of all ages and backgrounds. One of the drummer's baby sits on his lap as he drums. Barbara Hill, Algonquin Elder and Meeka Kakudluk, an Inuit Elder began with blessings and prayers. Gabrielle Fayant represented Metis youth affected by the seven generations of abuse and separation from the Canadian government. Senator Sinclair opened the floor with a powerful art interpretation of Aaron Peter's “The Perfect Crime” as a reminder that through art comes a critical point of healing.
“From unmarked graves, their bones cry out” -Aaron Peters
Residential schools were instituted by the Canadian government and was justified by non-indigenous families due to inherent prejudice and discrimination. The separation of indigenous children into church-run school was ordered, followed by years of beatings, sterilizations, and sexual abuse in the name of unlearning their indigenous identities. The Residential School Era has left inter-generational trauma during their 116 years of existence. The last residential school was closed in 1996, and the effects on indigenous youth in contemporary society is apparent today.
Ottawa River Singers
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Sinclair explained, came from such legal breakthroughs as Blackwater v. Plint (2005) which concluded the ability to sue a church. The United Church of Canada was held as a responsible factor for physical, sexual, spiritual, and mental abuse of these generations. The government was held as the primary responsibility as Indian Affairs was deemed superintendent for the children once they were taken away from their families. The Catholic Church has yet to make a formal apology.
But Senator Sinclair reminded the audience that it was not just the residential schools that are responsible for this mistreatment of our indigenous populations, including Metis, and Inuit, but also private and public schools. Since colonization, schools have continued to teach the inferiority of indigenous persons while failing to incorporate education that include non-colonial narratives of indigenous peoples' history and existing social structure. Government policy makers and businessmen who also have also gone through this education system have consequently, felt apathetic and justified to breaking land treaties throughout the years. From pagan, to savage, to degenerate, we have taught Canadians to be apathetic to this inhuman and degrading treatment throughout these many generations, leaving indigenous populations a the very lowest socio-economic level.
Sinclair himself admits, he himself was victim to these single-sided narratives, taught to believe the Western way of life as superior or progressive, even though "we have never been told what the other, the alternative even was”. It wasn’t even until 1970 that Sinclair could hear the first indigenous drumming, as it had been illegal up until then. Once out of university, Sinclair began connecting the dots and challenging the narrative of the treatment of indigenous Canadians.
Every nation believes in the importance of educating young people. The following video best describes the current situations and the positive role this reconciliatory education currently plays.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action asks all Canadians to participate in the education of our citizens regarding the indigenous peoples' plight(s). it is the job of Canadians to start educating our youth, alongside our workforce. If all Canadians young and old have old heard or care to listen to such such single-sided narratives, how do you ever create empathy, respect, and understanding? Many Canadians remain blinded by their prejudice, but thankfully these initiatives are finally starting to receive more recognition, even if it is just the arts. We must look beyond and challenge these toxic and degrading stereotypes. Reconciliation begins by initiative, of listening to the accounts and impacts of the legacy of the residential schools. Initiatives like Màmawi-Together and Project of Heart open up community dialogue for issues such as to why and how their are so many missing and murdered indigenous women, why and how this demographic has the highest prison and suicide rates, why and how they still have the lowest access to education, and why and how there remains unsanitary water. It is time to hold the TRC's Call To Action and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples seriously.
Earth Day, April 22nd has rolled around again since its first commemoration in 1970, founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson. This time Prime Minister Trudeau has travelled to New York for the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.. This was, that in November 2015, Canada and 194 other countries reached this international agreement to address climate change that is “ambitious, durable and applicable to all parties”. Its framework recognizes the important roles of subnational governments, civil society, and the private sector. It also highlights Indigenous, community, human and gender rights. In specifics these countries pledged to work to limit the temperature rise overall below 2 degrees Celsius, but are aiming to achieve a temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2025 and 2030.
“The number of countries that have indicated their intention to attend and sign the Paris Agreement on 22 April is now up to 155”, said the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Farhan Haq in a press conference last Friday. It has been proclaimed to be a record number of countries to sign, validate and then to ratify it. They must also submit a proposal plan for actions for the agreement to be effective. Although, under International Law, signing treaties does not hold the power of enforcement but rather the voluntary dedication to individual countries to uphold the treaty. Preceding the negotiation period the signing of the treaty is to represent each of the states involved between national delegations as expression of intention to comply with the treaty. This process, however is not binding. In fact it is open to a far range of flexibility for countries to modify how they would like. For the next process is for each state to deal with it according to its own national procedures. Only after the approval has been granted under a state’s own internal procedures, will it notify the other country parties under ratification that they consent to be officially bound by the treaty.
Trudeau is holding plenty of baggage as newly elected Prime Minister after the UN Conference Board reports Canada with a ‘D’ 14th among 16 countries when it comes to environmental performance; that’s just above United States and Canada. Nine years can greatly tarnish a country’s focus on the environment, of which was blatantly disclosed internationally when former PM Harper removed Canada from the Kyoto Accord. From our geographic size, to our society’s persistence of using dirty energy through coal and oil, our obsession with achieving an American Dream though ownership of gas-guzzling cars. So much of these large policy decisions have been the voices and pressures of the large corporation powers, which have taken control of the room. Where are the train systems that European and Asian countries are flaunting their environmental consciousness? Where is the business in alternative energy taking advantage to our geographical diversity? Thus, it is not just a political or policy change but a cultural shift.
We hear the words ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability’ almost everyday but how well do those who hear and use these terms. One definition is an ability or capability of something to be maintained or to sustain itself. It’s about taking what we need to live now, without jeopardizing, the potential for people in the future to meet their needs
Sustainability is what most government policies struggle with. Even if a party at the time has truly made the years of dedication toward, sought insight from many consultants, research groups, and citizens voicing concerns; sustainability falls through the cracks of bureaucracy. Through elections we have lost focus of upholding sustainable goals and values. Parties have measured their focus so far to the left or to the right that they become blinded to working with what we have already established and how we can continue long-term rather than only foresight of four years. It is however very reassuring that MPs including the House Speaker, are standing up against the party bureaucracy in order to focus on making more representative, partnership and planning in order to make Canada a more sustainable society by listening to civil society.
Referring to the political will and the wave of action that allowed for the agreement’s adoption, UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres said in a talk at TED 2016 last February in Vancouver, “Impossible isn’t a fact; it’s an attitude.” Perhaps, Prime Minister’s focus on Youth empowerment is just is just the step into the sustainable society we need and have been looking for.
While living in Guatemala City, a few of us girls under Equipo Forense Internacional took the afternoon off to watch the highly anticipated final part of The Hunger Games. It provided me with a much deeper reflection than before and brought a meaningful conclusion to the situation for Guatemala and my own country.
The book and the film have always intrigued me (other than being far more meaningful and far more empowering than the other teen book and movie series at its time ...cough..Twilight...). I have found that I have grown with the story throughout my undergrad in Conflict Studies and Human Rights, minoring in Psychology. Suzanne Collins has woven quite a few parallels between the novel's political, social, cultural and environmental messaging to our own world's truths and realities pertaining to both historical and contemporary issues. The messaging is a reminder that truly history repeats itself if both citizens and governments do not hold themselves accountable. Despite our innovations, we continue to forget, dismiss the pleas that have always been there, and continue to be silenced. Just some themes I found to have stood out include: the effects of being under control of tyrannical oppression, the propaganda of keeping citizens dorment, the control of first world over third world states, the psychological effects of killing, how rebel and extremist groups form and the propaganda around it that labels whole groups as enemies. The conception of the arena and its dangers, the weapons, the different machines - all are very futuristic but not too unreal. Thus we can see a direct relationship with the real world, which makes the story even scarier and the criticism fiercer. Having had Guatemala's history and contemporary issues fresh in my mind I must have been sensitive to any occurring similarities. I sat in the theater wondering if these citizens ever felt the empowerment to do the same, rebel again, or assassinate a president due to the continuous oppressive corruption and blatant disparity. For example, Katniss in Mockingjay at knife point exclaims: “We have either reason to kill each other...it just goes around and around and around...I am done being be pieces of his game. Why are you fighting the rebels, your family? These people are not your enemy. We have only one enemy, Snow. He turns the best of us against each other”.
So what really defines a radical or terrorist, like the Capitol labels to those who are so desperate for basic rights? It is now an open fact that it was the US CIA led coup to remove Guatemala’s hero presidents Juan Jose Arevalo (1945-1951) and Jacabo Arbenz Guzman (1951- 1954) because he was deemed a threat to US’s United Fruit Company. Companies as this were supported by the country’s authoritarian rulers and the US government through their support for labor regulations and massive concessions to wealthy landowners. After a series of authoritarian governments and great political instability, he was one of the most progressive presidents representative of the human rights and livelihood of his citizens, with sweeping social and economic reforms, including significant increases in literacy and a successful agrarian reform programs. See first hand footage in the film When The Mountains Tremble (Youtube FULL). No wonder much of the rest of the world is skeptical when all they see that human rights are the white and rich.
These progressive policies led the United Fruit Company lobbying the US government for their overthrow, and a US-engineered coup in 1954 ended the revolution and installed a military regime in its place. From that point on military governments took over, then sparking the brutal and genocidal 36 year Civil War (1960-1996) backed by the US military, the same one I helped uncover mass graves from! Catholic and California-based Evangelical churches had popped up, supported by the US government to preach “blessed be to those who suffer”. It was this ‘good-Christian’ mindset that the worst of the massacres, rape and genocides were conducted from Lucas Garcia (1973 - 1982) to General Rios Montt (1982-1983) including the scorched earth campaign, and the Plan de Sanchez massacre in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz of which I went to visit and heard the heart-wrenching recollections of locals there. Sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church, Israel, and Reagan government, Rios Montt, a former minister, his signature for his campaign was “ If you are with us, we’ll feed you, if you are not, we’ll kill you”.
Now, just think on that for a minute: the height of the Cold War paranoia, not only is the government saying they will kill you, but just how do you think they decipher as an ‘enemy’? On what grounds? Let me just tell you, there was no such consideration as a fair trial for justification of gunning down hundreds and thousands of men, women and children. On December 4, 1982 Reagan declared, “ President Rios Montt is a man of great passion personal integrity and commitment...I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice”. Much like the praising relations with Hitler just before the war, Reagan even claimed Guatemala’s human rights conditions were improving and used this to justify several major shipments of military hardware to Rios Montt: $4 million in helicopter spare parts and $6.3 million in additional military supplies in 1982 and 1983. The decision was taken in spite of records concerning human rights violations, by-passing the approval from Congress. These records included 1982 Amnesty International report estimated that over 10,000 indigenous Guatemalans and peasant farmers (most of the demographic) were killed from March July and that 100, 000 rural villagers were forced to flee their homes. Estimates of over tens of thousands of non-combatants were killed by the regime’s death squads in the subsequent eighteen months. At the height of the bloodshed under Rios Montt, reports put the number of killings and disappearances at more than 30,000 per month. These deaths would include the thousands of women abducted and taken into the military camps, repeatedly raped, then killed and buried in mass pits like the recent Sepur Zarco case. With just a little US propaganda about removing Communism in the name of ‘democracy’ to keep other countries happy, the government and this corporation could do what they pleased, and the rest is history after repressive after repressive leader. It makes me sick to know how many wars, genocides and endless human rights violations around the world through proxy wars as Latin America, Vietnam and Laos. And the reality is that all the hundreds of thousands of individuals who were labeled Communists, in order to justify their violent deaths, where individuals who half the time had no idea what the term even meant, rather just families like you or I. Therefore whenever I hear that name in the media, news or conversation I remind myself to question just what exactly you are using that label for and what are the root causes. Do you feel comfortable everything you hear? We fight a war against terrorism while our own money funds their gun supply.
As I hear the repeated phrase of “Never Again” in The Hunger Games and our own history and media, I now cringe as it is used over and over while the same disparity continues over. Plutark letter at the end of Mockingjay critiques this : “Now we're in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated," he says. "But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss."
To my horror after visiting the interactive exhibit in Guatemala City, Por que estomos? (Why are we the way we are?) Por una convivencia digna/ Internaitional Training Institute Training Institute for Social Reconcilliation and Centro de investigacianes negionales de mesoamerica, so many of these last couple generations since the Civil War (1960-1996) have little knowledge as to the extent their governments carried out mass killings on non-combatants as acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. Why? Because their governments and the powers of control continue to refuse to hold themselves accountable past to present as their research proves. And why is it now one of the most violent countries in the world? Because the powers that are supposed to be in support of citizens’ well-being including the justice system and police, are left alone in fear and distrust from all the impunity. The sad part is, that technically you can say, a tyrant is gone, but where is the repair? Why are those who are ‘elected’ in, continue to not take the responsibility to work on fixing the issues that were created in the first place. Conveniently, this information continues to be left out of the history books, continues to leave out any progressive dialogue and organizational funding for social support for the families lost and those now paying the ultimate cost. As a result, there are little effective measures to crack down on the reasons of the endless cycle of violence. Up until Canada’s recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the treatment of our own indigenous continue to mistreated, discriminated and refused equal social support as the rest of the population as we were left ignorant to the truths of history. The recent Attawapiskat suicides is just a glimpse that has been going on for years. Canada has also sent citizens to POW concentration camps during war times, has been quick to accept a label another as an enemy, as we have done to “communist” to “terrorist/guerilla”. Like the Hunger Games, the over-dramaticized shows, or the offensively shallow humour, we remain dormant; taken little social responsibility for the violence and discrimination which starts as a child is born. Just as Haymitch notes in Catching Fire: “They will continue to play your love story so people forget what the real problems are”.
">Democracy is never officially presented in the book as a model to follow. Collins goes beyond the simplistic and is not afraid to show the limits. From Winston Churchill’s “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried”, I am appreciative of this from the endless debates we had in classes on the pros, cons and challenges of democratically run states. Much of the academic discussions included how transitioning democratic models of government can be just as dangerous than per se a dictatorship, and the vast variety in whether a state will hold any amount of legitimacy and accountability (Goldstone, Jack). Collins addresses today’s people, those in power right now and the present population: “Everyone,” Plutarch tells him. “We’re going to form a republic where the people of each district and the Capitol can elect their own representatives to be their voice in a centralized government. Don’t look so suspicious; it’s worked before.” “In books,” Haymitch mutters. “In history books,” says Plutarch. “And if our ancestors could do it, then we can, too.” Frankly, our ancestors don’t seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars and the broken planet. Clearly, they didn’t care about what would happen to the people who came after them. But this republic idea sounds like an improvement over our current government.”
As vaguely hinted at in Mockingjay we can promise fairness and justice during, after rebellion, civil or ethnic conflict but most often the system and former political members have not just suddenly changed their values and methods of leadership from its history's dictatorship. So where do these former party leaders go? I’ll tell you. In Guatemala after the 1996 Peace Accord which in part, a Truth Commission was brought up, the military was disbanded. Then left jobless, they began to saturate into the police and justice system, taking on the same dirty work and bribery as they had learned in their previous career. These generations of police would continue to agree to bribes to let murderers discard of the evidence, not to mention the thousands of XX uninvestigated female femicide victims. Now there has been some international work such as with the Justice Education Society training in 2003-2011 with police and justice (see Most Violent Place on Earth film). Research and individuals on the ground as Christian Silva of EFI-IFIFT and the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses de Guatemala did express some positive outlooks on the newest generations of police and justice force but are still highly controlled from these ex-military. As a result, I now hold a critical eye on Peace Treaties and Peace Accords, even though they are the very thing I hope for during the war and terror of conflict. This just marks the very beginning of the work to come. Just like Snow’s white roses, I see the statues of peace hands erected all around Guatemala City and the fresh white roses placed in their Cultural Palace. I see the dissatisfaction and lack of legitimacy and accountability they represent to so many Guatemalans; a false hope.
Furthermore, I want to discuss the real-world similarities around the centrality around Panem as a representation of just what first-world nations do to control of third-world countries. Just as we see the great poverty and abuse of the Districts in order to benefit of the first world in blinding ignorance, denial and desensitization of the real horrors of violence of the Hunger Games and the poverty of the Districts they live in, we see the glorified violence in our own games and entertainment. Guatemala, like the hundreds more countries that are pushed around and ‘raped’ of their resources, are without a fair payment, polluting and worsening corruption. And in most cases, these first-world countries like the US and Canada involve themselves calling it humanitarian aid or economic trade when their work contrary to our own Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In a recent New York Times article Guatemalan Women’s Claims Put Focus on Canadian Firms’ Conduct Abroad Mrs. Caal said, the men who had come to evict her from land they said belonged to a Canadian mining company also took turns raping her. After that, they dragged her from her home and set it ablaze. I soon found out this was not the only matter.
Just before the 2015 Canadian Elections I was presented to summarize a recently published book The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy , by Yves Engler. To my horror I learned of Canada’s disgraceful relations to Central and South America. Chapter after chapter was documented evidence of just how many multi-disciplinary issues had seriously risen up under the Harper government, from the tar sands and environment, to the Arab Spring, bombing Libya, concerning relations with Israel, at war with Lebanon and Iran, the consequences of our militarism and promotion as a warrior nation, mining, and business above all else. As Englar expresses, “No matter how much Canadians wish we were simply known for hockey or our comedians, the mining industry increasingly represents Canada abroad...thousands of projects outside of Canada, displaced communities, destroyed ecosystems and provoked violence. Pick almost any country in the Global South - from Papua New Guinea, to Ghauna, Ecuador, and the Philippines”. To understand some of the unrest, on a pre-planned visit to Chiapas, Governor General Michaelle Jean and deputy minister Peter Kent were greeted with chants of "Canada get out". During a July 2007 trip to Chile PM Harper was greeted with signs stating "Harper go home" and " Canada: What's HARPERing here?" This has been because not only did the Harper government provide huge support for the large companies as Barrick Gold, the funds had been pumped through internship and development projects. In June 2011, CIDA announced. $6.7 million in funding, the biggest was between Plan Canada and IAMGOLD...."to respond to the needs of the mining company..that the number of Graduates are expected to go directed into jobs at mining company". The company's CEO warned miners "I have zero tolerance for strikers. I will not tolerate anything that is negative to our stakeholders.The other two NGO-mining company projects announced by CIDA, were $500000 to to project between World University Service and Rio Tinto AlCAN, then $500000 to World Vision Canada Barrick Gold projects. In response, Miguel Palacin, the head of a Peruvian indigenous organization sent a letter to World Vision, Barrick and CIDA claiming that "no 'social works' carried out with the mining companies can compensate the damage done, particularly in the face of the rights having been violated". It is important to note from Engler’s research that CIDA-funded NGO-mining contracts are problematic: 1) taxpayers should not subsidize the social responsibilities of highly profitable mining companies,
2) while such CIDA contracts further weaken NGOS critical of Canadian operations while strengthening those groups willing to defend the work with mining companies,
3)it places moral weight of the aid agency (and NGOs) on the side of the company.
Not only Canada’s mining relations, but the power of corporations and the focused mindset of business above all else has prevented of social change in the Latin Americas. For example, Engler reports of the impact of international political interference, when new policies do not help powerful corporations. “The coup in Paraguay had been the primary tool of foreign interference in this region”. Canada was one of only a handful of countries in world that immediately recognized new government: "Canada notes that Fernando Lugo (of Paraguay) has accepted the decision of the Paraguayan Senate to impeach him and that a new president Ferderico Franco has been sworn in" said Deputy foreign minister Ablonczy the day after the coup which was premature. Both the Canadian Labour Congress and IndustiALL Global Union criticized the Conservative's move to recognize the new government.
Then 3 weeks after Lugo alluded to Ottawa's hostility, " the coup now attempts to attack the South American regional integration efforts". On a couple of occasions the overthrown president claimed Canadian economic interests contributed to the coup saying, " those who wanted to solidify the
negotiations with the multi-national Rio Tinto Alcan... for a $4 billion aluminum plant". Even Vice President Franco had complained, "I told the president why did you send me to Canada to study the aluminum project if Deputy Minister (Mercedes) was going to oppose it". After the coup the vice president became president and Franco announced that negotiations with Rio Tinto Alcan would be fast tracked.
Then in 2009, Canada’s government supported the Honduran military removal of elected president Zelaya. Soon after demonstrators took to the streets calling for return of president. In the midst of state backed repression, the Conservatives gave the regime a boost of legitimacy by commencing bilateral trade negotiations in October 2010 which was designed largely to serve the interests of Canadian investors, some $600 million but 10 Honduran human rights organizations reposed with "Pronouncement Rejecting the Extractive. Policy towards a more united Latin America joining the Bolivian Alliance for the People of our Americas, while post-coup withdrew the bilateral trade deal between Canada and Honduras" claimed the agreement would lead to further abuses by Canadian mining companies. Zelaya had tried to raise the minimum wage in 2009 but was blocked by Montrael-based Gildan, which met regularly with Foreign Affairs under pressure from US-based Maquila Solidarity, Nike, Gap and other US apparel operating in Honduras called for restoration of democracy. Gildan had refused to sign, whom is dependent on producing apparel at the lowest cost possible. Harper told reporters on a tour of the facility "Gildan pays about minimum wage. It runs health, nutrition and transport programs..and is a very good corporate citizen", while demonstrators carried banners criticizing its labor practices an Harper's support for the coup. Some tried to deliver an open letter to the PM by the Honduran Women's Collective explaining that the production quotas imposed are the highest in the Industry in Honduras. In 2008 Zelaya responded to grassroots pressure and announced no new mining concessions would be granted. Much to the annoyance of Canadian mining companies that dominate the Honduras Extractive industry, the coup interrupted final reading to raise royal rates and greater community consent. Vancouver-based Goldcorp had provided money. The most concerning aspect to me is the tarnished reputation that has been established in those 10 years and how hard it will be to ever re-establish a positive and trusting representation. Remember, those businessmen, or farmers affected don’t know we had a change in government who value upholding respectful and accountable relations. No matter how much people put blame, we need a government for a state to exist, so rather than complaining about it, actively participate in order of to monitor accountability
Lastly on a more positive note, I would like to acknowledge the role Katniss plays in opening discussion for the reality of violence, corruption and the struggle of dealing with trauma. Katniss struggles with overcoming loss and the trauma she and those around her face. Katniss' voice of humanity and realism is so very refreshing; for once this narrative is not silenced by the glorification of war we see in far too many stories and dialogues. She shows us the emotional and physical pain, the trauma of violence of which the protagonist and those around her continue to struggle with. From this it opens up the discussion of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is very real and a very real human response we see around the world, diagnosed or not, as Lt. Col. Dave Grossman writes in the novel I am reading On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Just consider all the children who live though violence in domestic homes, interstate violence, ethnic conflict, the youth who are forced to kill their families and manipulated into killing machines or provide no other source of income other than join forces and destroy ‘another’ to survive or for a duty from a great threat to their nation. Some of these families I have met, all experienced serious trauma and after decades, still have little sense of closure. The character Gale, was so focussed on killing those of the Capitol, says sometimes “you gotta think that the killing is not personal." But, Katniss responds right back, “I of all people, know that it is personal". Seeing first hand the catastrophic effects of systemic fear, distrust, lack of proper support and social services, we need good reminders in our first world lives. As I sit in that Guatemalan theatre I wonder if at the ending scene they take her words to heart in dealing with and overcoming the pain of loss and trauma of violence, as the family we uncovered the mass graves of:
"My children, who don't know they play on a graveyard. Peeta says it will be okay. We have each other. And the book. We can make them understand in a way that will make them braver. But one day I'll have to explain about my nightmares. Why they came. Why they won't ever really go away. I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years. But there are much worse games to play.”
March 8 is International Women’s Day. It is sad for me when some people laugh at the idea that there is a day in recognition of women. Therefore, I will pose a reminder: International Women's Day is a international day all about celebration, reflection, advocacy, and action - whatever that looks like globally and at a local level; reflecting on the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. It is a collective day of celebration and a call for gender equality. No one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women's network or media hub is solely responsible for International Women's Day. "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights," says world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist Gloria Steinem.
Many organizations declare an annual IWD theme that supports their specific agenda or cause, and some of these are adopted more widely with relevance than others. International women’s day is both a reminder and a call to action; gender equality is still not a reality and there are many issues affecting women all over the world.
This International Women’s Day I will dedicate my time and efforts by attending multiple panels on Gender Equality, and will also raise attention to the thousands of men and women affected by rape and murder committed through the case of Sepur Zarco. Sepur Zarco was one of military bases where by the Guatemalan military committed mass killings and rape against the local populous beginning in 1981 through 1988. I have a personal connection to this case, I learned of it while I was working in Guatemala and had the opportunity to interview individuals who were directly affected, many I spoke with had lost their loved ones and continue to suffer to trauma.
After more than 30 years of shame, the women had received a form of justice when the court declared: “We believe you … it wasn’t your fault … the army terrorised you in order to destroy your community.”
"This is historic, it is a great step for women and above all for the victims," said Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, who attended the hearing.
On February 26, 2016, after the last 20 days of traumatic testimony, Francisco Reyes Giron and Heriberto Valdez Asij were found guilty of crimes against humanity in a precedent setting case for sexual slavery. Francisco Reyes Giron, who was the commander of the Sepur Zarco military base, was found guilty of holding 15 women in sexual and domestic slavery and for killing 20-year old Dominga Cuc Cocand and her two daughters. Heriberto Valdez Asij, a paramilitary who carried out commissions for the army, was convicted for the same, as well as the forced disappearance of seven men. The victims have been demanding accountability for the crimes at Sepur Zarco for decades. Like so many other areas of the world, Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, rape was widely used as a weapon, according to human rights groups. But last week’s ruling marked the first time, anyone had faced justice for sexual violence during the conflict – and the first time anywhere in the world that sexual slavery perpetrated during an armed conflict had been prosecuted in the country where the crimes took place.
Former army officer Esteelmer Francisco Giron
The post-war Commission for Historical Clarification documented 1,465 such cases, and almost 90% of the victims were indigenous women. But as for anything in seeking legal action, evidence and witness’ accounts are crucial. Finally giving a voice to the victims is so important as they were the ones silenced. According to the prosecution, the military set up camp in the village of Sepur Zarco at the end of 1981 where the armed forces repeatedly attacked the village of Sepur Zarco and killed or took away Mayan leaders who had been applying for land titles on which their families had lived and farmed for centuries. The men were accused of being associated with left-wing guerrillas.
Agustin Chen, one of the men who survived said the soldiers took him to a cell and beat him every day.The court heard how military commanders considered the women to be "available" without their men and had then taken them into sexual and domestic slavery. They were required to report every third day to the base for "shifts" during which they were raped, sexually abused, and forced to cook and clean for the soldiers. In a report to the court, anthropologist Irma Alicia Velasquez Nimatuj said military outposts were installed in the region "to give security to the landowner's farms and to take possession of the lands". For some of the victims, their ordeal lasted as long as six years until the base was closed in 1988.
Former paramilitary fighter Heriberto Valdez Asij
Throughout the trial, the 14 surviving victims aged between 52 and 75, sat very still in court with their heads covered in traditional embroidered shawls, just a few metres away from the accused.
The court heard from Petrona Choc Cuc who said, her husband, and their four children fled to the mountains in 1982 as soldiers rounded up their neighbours. “At night we wrapped ourselves up in nylon sheets. We got rained on. There were many insects … This is not the product of my imagination; I lived this. We suffered a great deal.”
The family was eventually found by soldiers and Choc Cuc’s husband was killed, but the children managed to flee deeper into the mountains until they could no longer endure the dire conditions. “We went to the military base and got on our knees and begged them to forgive us, to not kill us,” she said in her recorded testimony. “Many times I was raped. One of my daughters was raped too … Every day I suffer because of what they did to me.”
A number of women testified that they were forcibly given contraceptives by military medical staff. Demecia Yat de Xol explained how she was raped at home and then forced to live on the camp for months as punishment for searching for her disappeared husband. “They put us [women] in a room and began raping us. I was pregnant at the time and suffered a miscarriage.”
Yat de Xol also testified that her cousin Dominga Cuc was locked in a small house at the base and raped by soldiers until she was “practically lifeless”. “I don’t know who gave the order but we could hear them shooting, then we heard that she had been killed,” she said.
Cuc’s elderly mother Julia Cuc Choc told the court how years later when the bodies were exhumed, “They found hair, clothes, and my daughter’s bones. But they only found the undergarments of my granddaughters. Their bones had turned to dust.”
Another witness, Rosa Tiul, described how she was forced to cook for the soldiers for six months during which time she was taken to different rooms and raped by up to six men at a time. The terror continued even after she was allowed to return home.
“The [soldiers] told me if I didn’t let them [rape me] they would kill me,” she said. “Sometimes they tied me down and put a rifle on my chest … They knew which ones of us [women] were alone … They treated us like animals.”
One of the most stirring moments of the trial came in the second week when the court was presented with 38 boxes containing the remains of 51 victims recovered by forensic anthropologists from Sepur Zarco and another nearby base. The bones were so badly decomposed that only two of the victims, including Rosa Tiul’s husband, have been successfully identified. In fact, towards the end of my stay in Guatemala, a couple of the EFI-IFIFT members were contacted by the court and asked to come back to testify about the mass graves of women the forensic anthropologists had discovered. They told the courts told that a mass grave had been uncovered right outside the army barracks and that the victims had been disposed of like trash. The EFI-IFIFT members lacked faith in the system, as they had testified about these findings 6 years before, and still the case was being dragged out, with no sign of a resolution. The people Guatemala lacked faith in system as well due to the “Guatemalan legislature’s continued refusal to ‘recognize crimes against women despite the 2008 passing of Ley Contra Femicidio y Otras Formas de Violencia Contra la Mujer (Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women), which called for longer penalties.
At one point, Reyes’s defence lawyer Moisés Galindo – who previously defended the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt at his 2013 trial for genocide – caused uproar when he accused the victims of being prostitutes, and dismissed the experts and protected witnesses as liars. In his own defence, Reyes repeatedly denied working at Sepur Zarco, even though there are records of his placement there.
“Prostitutes” or not, confining someone and forcing them against their will to be raped over and over again is rape, no matter who it is or what their occupation. This accusation is only used to dismiss the victims claims and justify the violence committed against them and should be disregarded by the courts.
The Guatemala City supreme court has technically sentenced the two former members of the military to 360 years in jail for the murder, rape and sexual enslavement of the Q’eqchi women. But we must not forget that the perpetrators rarely serve their full sentence. Rather, we need to refrain from a sigh of relief like the problem is solved because it is not. Far too often a case becomes no more than a public stunt to appease those short-term. The women were “awarded” ( much of the article uses this term but it is improper to “award” compensation to people whose rights and lives were violated in the first place)compensation for the long-term physical, psychological and economic harm suffered. But can there really be justice when those accountable do not accept punishment or guilt? What about all the other hundreds in the country who experienced the same. This case only recognizes only a small portion of victims who suffered. Still, this is a major step forward in victims receiving the justice they deserve. Catalina Ruiz Navarro exclaims “ Guatemala sexual slavery verdict shows women’s bodies are not battlefields.”
Lastly, I cannot stress enough that this is not something in a far distant place. Assault and rape is all around us. Many of us do not hold uphold gender equality, or the dignity we all deserve. Rape and indiscriminate violence are legacies of colonialism. Similar to Spanish conquest, Chris Hedges in the book I am reading, Days of Destruction Days of Revolt, accounts on the rape and disrespect of others in the American indigenous history.He writes, ‘Soldiers on the western frontier who passed captive squaws from tent to tent joked that “Indian women rape easy”, as accounted by Ben Clark, General Custer’s chief of scouts about Custer’s 1868 Washita raid’. From then on after, families after families continue the cycle of violence on their children or neighbors. Moreover, one of the EFI-IFIFT Cristian Silva’s thesis, Importance on Gender-Based Violence in Guatemala, 97 percent of the atrocities committed towards women, girls and senior women (60 and above) were committed by the armed forces to ensure that the “effects of sexual assault” maintained a patriarchal legacy of “long-lasting shame, fear, and self-degradation”, and entire communities were left facing “silence and denial”. Impunity is entrenched in Guatemalan social life. The perpetrators of femicide continue to do so without fear of consequence.
So then what about the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada? We continue to perpetuate with name calling and ostracizing, even if you say it is “just a joke” (Dear daddy video). Like the 97 year old Petronilia who we interviewed or the hundreds of contemporary cases of gender-based violence post Peace Accord, they will never get to see their daughters again. It takes two. Together, man and woman we are the ones to make a difference.
