[URBAN NOTE] Outsiders2012

It turns out that I was wrong, that the man-sized effigy I’d seen carried on someone’s shoulders during Nuit Blanche was part of an official exhibit, Outsiders2012. The project has an official website, and Nuit Blanche has this to say of it.

Outsiders2012, 2012

Seeingred
Ramune Luminaire – Big Cedar, Canada
Judith Mason – Peterborough, Canada
Micky Renders – Peterborough, Canada
Anne Renouf – Peterborough, Canada
Kim Renders – Kingston, Canada

Interactive Installation

Outsiders2012 highlights the way we treat strangers. With interest? With suspicion? With an open heart? With contempt? The Outsiders want to be included. How will people at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche respond to an invitation to participate in a project where openness and hospitality lie at its heart?

Throughout the night Outsiders will appear around the downtown core. Life-sized, luminous, human-like forms are visiting Toronto for the first time. They need your help. “If you find me, take me with you, take a photo, pass me on. Post photos to Twitter or Facebook (Outsiders2012).”

Follow what happens by visiting the Outsiders’ Headquarters at the Urban Eatery in the lower level of the Toronto Eaton Centre. Each Outsider will be dispatched from HQ and go somewhere downtown. Watch the live streaming of uploaded images, and track the experiences of the Outsiders as they unfold. This project can also be followed on Twitter and Facebook (Outsiders2012).

Seeingred artists live and work outside Toronto in what often feels like a parallel universe. Their mission is to bring art into people’s daily lives, often moving beyond traditional exhibition sites, into public spaces and onto the streets.

Seeingred is a fluid collective of artists who share an interest in social commentary and a wish to make art more accessible. Recent shows include: Galerie Centrale Montreal, Anna Leonowenz Gallery at NSCAD, Artspace and the Art Gallery of Peterborough, The Campus Gallery in Barrie, Station Gallery in Whitby and The Artist’s Project Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] Jing Yi at the Church of the Redeemer

Probably the most interesting thing I saw at Nuit Blanche was, at 1:30, a performance by Toronto-based drum troupe Jeng Yi at Church of the Redeemer on the northeast corner of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road. Jing Yi performed a piece from their interesting Tent & Semaphore

(I’ve a 2008 photograph of the church from across the street and photographs from 2011 of a wedding reception on the church’s grounds.)

I missed the first few seconds, sadly, and the shakiness of the image shows my lack of advance preparation. I think the clip I filmed still shows what a great performance it was.

[PHOTO] The balloons of House of Lords

Another non-exhibit at Nuit Blanche, this column of balloons stretching out to a traffic pole in front of the House of Lords hair salon at 639 Yonge Street caught my eye. Pretty colours in the night.

[URBAN NOTE] Jing Yi at the Church of the Redeemer

Probably the most interesting thing I saw at Nuit Blanche was, at 1:30, a performance by Toronto-based drum troupe Jeng Yi at Church of the Redeemer on the northeast corner of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road. Jing Yi performed a piece from their interesting Tent & Semaphore

(I’ve a 2008 photograph of the church from across the street and photographs from 2011 of a wedding reception on the church’s grounds.)

I missed the first few seconds, sadly, and the shakiness of the image shows my lack of advance preparation. I think the clip I filmed still shows what a great performance it was.

[PHOTO] Buddy on her shoulders, Nuit Blanche 2012

One of the most eyecatching things I saw this Nuit Blanche wasn’t one of the exhibits, but rather this woman carrying this man-size sculpture on her back at the intersection of Yonge and Gerrard.

[PHOTO] The balloons of House of Lords

Another non-exhibit at Nuit Blanche, this column of balloons stretching out to a traffic pole in front of the House of Lords hair salon at 639 Yonge Street caught my eye. Pretty colours in the night.

[PHOTO] Buddy on her shoulders, Nuit Blanche 2012

One of the most eyecatching things I saw this Nuit Blanche wasn’t one of the exhibits, but rather this woman carrying this man-size sculpture on her back at the intersection of Yonge and Gerrard.

[FORUM] What do you think of Omar Khadr’s return to Canada?

I’d have expected articles like the CBC’s “Omar Khadr returns to Canada”, recounting how the Egyptian-Canadian taken to Taliban-era Afghanistan by his al-Qaeda father and later captured in battle to be held at Guantanamo for more than a decade was finally returned to Canbada, to have made more appearances in my friends’ posts on Facebook.

Omar Khadr has been returned to Canada and is being held at a maximum-security prison in eastern Ontario, after spending a decade at a U.S.-run detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Khadr, 26, left the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo early Saturday and arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton before being transferred to the Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., to serve the balance of his sentence for war crimes.

“Omar Khadr is a known supporter of the al-Qaeda terrorist network and a convicted terrorist,” Toews said.

“I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration.

“Any decisions related to his future will be determined by the independent Parole Board of Canada in accordance with Canadian law,” Toews said.

[. . .]

Under a plea deal with prosecutors in October 2010, Khadr admitted to being responsible for the death of American Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.

In exchange for that plea, he was promised he would be transferred to Canada to serve out the rest of his sentence.

He agreed to a sentence of eight years, with no credit for time served, with the first year spent in U.S. custody.

[. . .]

Khadr’s Canadian co-counsel, Brydie Bethel, told CBC News that he is “very relieved that he’s finally back in his home country… It’s obviously a huge day for Omar. He has been anxiously awaiting this day for over a decade.”

News that Khadr was back in Canada caught his relatives in Toronto off guard.

“Do you know where he is so we can maybe go see him?” one close relative asked a Canadian Press reporter.

[. . . ]

Khadr was 15 when he was found badly injured in the rubble of a bombed-out compound near Khost, Afghanistan. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay a few months later, accused of throwing the grenade that killed Speer.

“I am very satisfied, even if [the repatriation] is done in the dead of night and on a weekend to avoid media attention,” said Senator Romeo Dallaire, who recently wrote a book about the use of child soldiers.

Khadr was the youngest and last Western detainee to be released from the naval base, which opened in January 2002.

Amongst other things, Khadr was held in stress positions, threatened with rape and deprived of sleep during some of his years in custody.

“Because he was a child soldier, Canada would have an obligation to provide rehabilitation and counselling to him under international law,” constitutional and human rights lawyer Paul Champ said.

In a 2008 post I suggested that Khadr’s fate would be dire unless the military commission system proved to be better than I feared. I’m pleased those fears have been proven wrong.

The Khadr affair speaks to a lot of different issues, like the question of the responsibilities of the Canadian government towards its citizens, and concerns over the fate of child soldiers. Did the Canadian government–for more than a decade, with multiple prime ministers and two different parties in charge–fail to repatriate a child soldier to his homeland because of the side he was fighting on?

What do you have to say about this affair?

[PHOTO] Looking towards the Gardiner

Standing on the patio of one of the new condos at the foot of Bathurst Street, the Gardiner Expressway stands in front of Fort York.

Everything in front of Fort York is landfill: at one point, before Toronto developed, Fort York was on the waterfront.

[FORUM] What do you think of Omar Khadr’s return to Canada?

I’d have expected articles like the CBC’s “Omar Khadr returns to Canada”, recounting how the Egyptian-Canadian taken to Taliban-era Afghanistan by his al-Qaeda father and later captured in battle to be held at Guantanamo for more than a decade was finally returned to Canbada, to have made more appearances in my friends’ posts on Facebook.

Omar Khadr has been returned to Canada and is being held at a maximum-security prison in eastern Ontario, after spending a decade at a U.S.-run detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Khadr, 26, left the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo early Saturday and arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton before being transferred to the Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., to serve the balance of his sentence for war crimes.

“Omar Khadr is a known supporter of the al-Qaeda terrorist network and a convicted terrorist,” Toews said.

“I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration.

“Any decisions related to his future will be determined by the independent Parole Board of Canada in accordance with Canadian law,” Toews said.

[. . .]

Under a plea deal with prosecutors in October 2010, Khadr admitted to being responsible for the death of American Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.

In exchange for that plea, he was promised he would be transferred to Canada to serve out the rest of his sentence.

He agreed to a sentence of eight years, with no credit for time served, with the first year spent in U.S. custody.

[. . .]

Khadr’s Canadian co-counsel, Brydie Bethel, told CBC News that he is “very relieved that he’s finally back in his home country… It’s obviously a huge day for Omar. He has been anxiously awaiting this day for over a decade.”

News that Khadr was back in Canada caught his relatives in Toronto off guard.

“Do you know where he is so we can maybe go see him?” one close relative asked a Canadian Press reporter.

[. . . ]
Khadr was 15 when he was found badly injured in the rubble of a bombed-out compound near Khost, Afghanistan. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay a few months later, accused of throwing the grenade that killed Speer.

“I am very satisfied, even if [the repatriation] is done in the dead of night and on a weekend to avoid media attention,” said Senator Romeo Dallaire, who recently wrote a book about the use of child soldiers.

Khadr was the youngest and last Western detainee to be released from the naval base, which opened in January 2002.

Amongst other things, Khadr was held in stress positions, threatened with rape and deprived of sleep during some of his years in custody.

“Because he was a child soldier, Canada would have an obligation to provide rehabilitation and counselling to him under international law,” constitutional and human rights lawyer Paul Champ said.

In a 2008 post I suggested that Khadr’s fate would be dire unless the military commission system proved to be better than I feared. I’m pleased those fears have been proven wrong.

The Khadr affair speaks to a lot of different issues, like the question of the responsibilities of the Canadian government towards its citizens, and concerns over the fate of child soldiers. Did the Canadian government–for more than a decade, with multiple prime ministers and two different parties in charge–fail to repatriate a child soldier to his homeland because of the side he was fighting on?

What do you have to say about this affair?