STORY about Educationpublié le Novembre 28, 2010 by Tami Starlight
Panel Discussion on Goldcorp's Donation to SFU
Students, faculty, artists and activists debate the merits of funding education through the profits of the extractive industries
Panel Discussion on Goldcorp's Donation to SFU
Panel Discussion on Goldcorp's Donation to SFU
Panel Discussion on Goldcorp's Donation to SFU (documentary short on the negative effects of mining in Latin America)
Panel Discussion on Goldcorp's Donation to SFU (documentary short on the negative effects of mining in Latin America)
Panel Discussion on Goldcorp's Donation to SFU (SAGG's demand #3)
Panel Discussion on Goldcorp's Donation to SFU
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On Wednesday, Nov 24, over 200 people from the Downtown Eastside (DTES) and the Simon Fraser University (SFU) communities, gathered at SFU's Woodward's campus for a panel discussion on Goldcorp's $10 million donation to SFU, which helped complete the construction of the Woodward's campus.
The donation has raised concerns among groups working on a wide variety of issues, including, but not limited to, Canadian mining abuses, academic freedom, gentrification of the DTES, and the erosion of public education. In response to this donation, which among other things meant a renaming of the centre which houses the School of Contemporary Arts at SFU, a group of students, faculty and activists came together to form a group called SFU Against Goldcorp and Gentrification - SAGG which formulated four demands to address the many facets of this issue.
The event on Nov 24 was called Framing Cultural Capital and was organized by the Visual Arts Student Union at SFU: it was an attempt at addressing some of the concerns mentioned above through dialogue. The panel was moderated by Jeff Derksen from the Department of English at SFU and it consisted of Ian Angus (Department of Humanities, SFU), Alexandra Henao (SFU Against Goldcorp and Gentrification), Cecily Nicholson (Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre), Irwin Oostindie (W2 Community Media Arts) and Jayce Salloum (Vancouver-based visual artist).
Ian Angus, who is a scholar of politics and activism, talked extensively about the gradual demise of the public university over the years and its takeover by corporate interests, which are by their very nature at odds with the mandate of the university. He also proposed organizing a conference on Canadian mining abuses abroad at the Woodward's campus to truly test the limits that this donation imposes upon freedom of expression and academic integrity at SFU.
Alexandra Henao, an activist and a graduate student at SFU, covered some of Goldcorp's abuses around their Marlin mine in Guatemala showing excerpts from the work of Toronto-based mining activist and visual artist, Allan Lissner. She also went over the demands that the group SAGG has put forward to the SFU administration.
Irwin Oostindie, the executive director of W2 Community Media Arts Society, talked about the history of mining activism in Vancouver and suggested that the centrality of mining to Vancouver's economy might explain why it receives so little criticism.
Cecily Nicholson, who works at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and is a member of the VIVO arts collective, spoke passionately about the difficult choices that one faces in the process of raising funds for various projects, but pointed out that the women’s centre that is in much greater of money than SFU has drawn a line and refused to accept money from unethical sources. She also critiqued the overuse and the abuse of word "community," which often gets utilized to push through various transformations that the powers that be want pushed through. As she put it "everything gets done in the name of the community," but what Goldcorp means by the "community" is a different group of people than the "community" that the various DTES activist groups are trying to assist.
Finally, Jayce Salloum, a visual artist and a Palestinian solidarity activist, drew parallels between the plight of the Palestinians and that of the First Nations communities living in DTES and the rest of this great Turtle Island. He also talked about various DTES arts projects that he has been involved with.
Even though the event was not one to invoke an adrenaline rush, it was very thought provoking if only for the simple reason that it brought to light the many ways in which corporations try to push poor people out of their path to domination, and how we fall because we allow them to divide us. It was interesting to see the fact that there isn't that much of a difference between the mother in Guatemala who has to live in constant fear of the collapse of her house over her children's head because of the blasts at the mine and the DTES mother who has to migrate, with her children under her wings, because she has been pushed out by the gentrification machine that is aided and abetted by the same entity that is wreaking havoc in Guatemala.
One cannot help but marvel at the art of divide and conquer that has become the favourite tool of the masters of the universe.
The truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
Tami Starlight - VMC / Masrour Zoghi - VMC
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