CBC News - Ottawa - Ottawa barbershop to serve all after complaint

CBC News - Ottawa - Ottawa barbershop to serve all after complaint

Imperial Barber Shop announced Friday evening that it will offer its services to everyone at its Glebe location after an Ottawa woman complained she was refused a haircut there.

Co-owner Nancee Hunter said in a release that the barbershop on Bank Street has received an amendment to its lease that her business partner said forbid the shop from cutting women's hair. It will now offer services to all customers at the location as it has been doing at all its other Ottawa locations.

Hunter says the shop "regrets the circumstances leading to CBC's report."

Last month, Jayda Kelsall said she was riding her bike along Bank Street when a sign promising a cheap haircut caught her eye.

She said she went inside the Imperial Barber Shop and was told to go somewhere else.

"I was pretty shocked," she told CBC News. "I have really short hair. I have a mohawk. I was just looking for the sides to be shaved a little bit and trimmed up, and they flat out said no."

Imperial co-owner Gilles Lemenoise said his staff turned women away all the time.

Pointing to the hair salon above his barbershop, he said Thursday that to avoid competition his landlord bans him from cutting women's hair.

But the landlord, Minto Group, said Imperial misinterpreted the agreement.

"However, exactly it's written in the lease I don't know," said Greg Rogers, executive vice-president. "But the spirit of the agreement is that he deliver men's-style haircuts."

It doesn't matter whether a man or woman gets the cut, but it has to be a men's style, Rogers said.

Ottawa human rights lawyer Nigel McCready said it is a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code to deny someone service based on gender, whether or not the landlord has a contract with a business owner.

"The rights that are enshrined there are important enough that you shouldn't be able to make a private agreement that you're going to disregard someone's human rights," said McCready.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/07/15/ottawa-imperial-hair.html#ixzz0txm0QF4S

HAIRFIGHT! Free Haircuts to Fight Gender Oppression

FREE HAIRCUTS, FIGHT GENDER OPPRESSION
Show some solidarity for your family and
CUM GET YOUR HAIR DID! : D


Recently a friend and active (not to mention, loved) member of our queer and radical community was denied service at a barbershop because of hir biological sex. You may have heard that Jayda tried to get hir haircut- not a complicated hair cut, a simple, sophisticated although traditionally considered men’s haircut- no great task for a barbershop that only does men’s haircuts.

“WOAH! And she was denied because she had boobs!?”

No, Jayda was not asking for a beard trim on a beard glued on with spirit gum- sie wanted a very simple haircut- the kind of haircut I as a male-bodied person have gotten from the same establishment in under ten minutes.

But for Imperial Barbershop on 275 Slater Street, Ottawa, that was too long. Heavens to BETSY- why, our friend’s very BEING in their fine, traditional establishment offended their intentions! From their website:

“For generations fathers and sons have visited neighbourhood barbershops not only forthe distinctively male haircuts and shaves, but also for the casual atmosphere in which they were able to relax and discuss the day's sports events and political topics. Many of these cultural icons have disappeared and have been replaced by trendy salons catering primarily to women.”

Those pesky women, always butting their heads in to ask what I want with my roast when I’m TRYING to talk about sports and politics! Am I right, guys?

I think that’s enough forced sarcasm.

In response to Imperial Barbershop’s discrimination, the TENTH OF JULY, a Saturday, Queer Faction intends to host a cut-in where our friend was cut-out because of hir biology. Show up to Imperial and ask for a men’s hair cut if you’re female-bodied, show up in drag (doesn’t have to be full drag) for a haircut if you’re male and SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY!


What’s with charging female bodied people more for the same haircut, anyways? Every woman with simple hair knows a fag with a complicated cut getting in for a fraction of what she pays for her trim every month or two. Forget this gender disparity!

WE’LL DO IT FOR FREE IF THEY WON’T DO IT FOR WHAT IT’S ACTUALLY WORTH.
Two ‘X’ chromosomes do not a sixty dollar haircut make, when your hair is a couple inches long!

We will be offering FREE HAIRCUTS outside of Imperial Barbershop (at the colloquially ‘anti-imperialism’ cutters) on the curb. EVEN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO GO INSIDE, OR COME IN DRAG- CUM GET YOUR HAIR DID! YEEEAH!

Check out the Facebook event here!

The Lady Gaga Debate…Can we just fuck to her songs and be done with arguing about her?

Originally posed on Fierce and Fabulous on May 20, 2010

The Lady Gaga Debate

DISCLAIMER: So we thought that we’d lighten up this site with some light reading/humour, i’d love to continue this pointless debate with anyone who wants to challenge the points i make here….

by: justin timberdick

So yeah, its obvious…Lady Gaga is clearly not an anarchist, and not queer positive, well she’s not rad. queer positive at least. She’s a fucking celebrity who makes millions and millions of dollars, she’s an assimilationist asshole just like every other celebrity, but even still i have a hard time even calling her assimilationist at all…im tempted to say that she’s the exact opposite but i know better.

The question that i think is important to ask is whether or not she fucks with/challenges the gender binary, societal norms, and what it means to be obscene/perverse. Whether or not she does these things intentionally or not doesn’t really matter. Its also interesting how much she has been coming up in conversation/debates within the anarchist community. In my experience the only folks that i’ve gotten into debates about her with is cis-gendered, straight, male, anarchists. Thats also something thats really interesting (but not surprising at all) to me. Most queer/trans identified anarchists i know love her! All the cissy straight anarcho boys seem pretty upset, furious and just generally disgruntled over the fact that queers could like her. Ya know.. usually when i start pissing off straight cis boy anarchists i know i’ve been doing something right…. i mean really the fact that she’s getting this sort of  repulsed response from anarchists is hilarious! Lady Gaga pisses off cissy anarchist straight boys like she pisses off Fred Phelps and any conservative, just for different reasons. Ya sure she’s a sell out and has marketed herself to make millions, but seriously guys im sure you never listen to any artist that has sold out….right? Only crust and D.I.Y folk punk….mmm hmm sure.

There’s also another question that comes into play now that we’re talking about marketing yerself for money. I feel like having a job is the equivalent to this, you create a resume, you go to the interview and try to market yerself to a potential employer. Then you hope to get the job and make some cash by selling a service, sure its on a smaller scale, and ya there are some differences, but in the end its all the same. The way im feeling more and more of the time is that lady gaga is more queer positive, and is fucking with gender norms way more than most cis straight boys i know. Whether or not she’s a rich snob isn’t relevant to me, what is is that id still probably feel more comfortable sitting in a room with 10 Lady Gaga’s than 10 insurrectionary rhetoric spewing macho cissy straight anarchist boys. Maybe thats a problem?

TD Bank sends letter to Pride Toronto

FUCK corporate sponsors!

 

From: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&tid=1398780607937#!/group.php?gid=352762041138

Flag Wars [film screening and discussion]

Cum join Queer fAction for a screening of the documentary Flag Wars and a discussion about gentrification afterwards!

Thursday March 11th 4-6PM
Pride Centre [UCU 215-C]
University of Ottawa



Check out the website at: http://www.pbs.org/pov/flagwars/

Ottawa Israeli Apartheid Week 2010

Students Against Israeli Apartheid Carleton and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights uOttawa are very excited and proud to announce the confirmed speakers for Ottawa's Israeli Apartheid Week 2010:

Week Overview:

Monday (Carleton): Student-to-Student Solidarity in the Fight Against Apartheid
Featuring: Nada Elia, Haya Zaidan, Andrew Stachiw, Yafa Jarrar
Azrieli Theatre 301
7 pm

Tuesday (Carleton): Queer-Friendly, Multicultural, Green: Debunking Israel's Myths
Featuring: Natalie Kouri-Towe, Saron Ghebressellassie and Ilaria Giglioli
Mackenzie Engineering Building 3235
7 pm

Mercredi (Université d'Ottawa): La lutte pour l'autodetermination en Palestine
Sabrien Amrov et Denis Lemelin
Pavillon Colonel By B012
7:30 pm

Wednesday (Carleton): Cinema Politica presents Films Against Apartheid.
Have You Heard From Johannesburg?: Apartheid and the Club of the West
Carleton University, Tory Building 360
7 pm

Thursday (University of Ottawa): Fighting Racism, Fighting Apartheid
Featuring Naeem Jeenah, Gabriel Ash, and Nahla Abdo.
University of Ottawa, Fauteux Hall 147
7:30 pm

Friday (Carleton): Indigenous Sovereignty from Turtle Island to Palestine
Featuring: Dr. Jamal Zahalka, and Dr. Paula Sherman
Carleton University, Fenn Lounge, Residence Commons Building
7pm

To see a detailed schedule with bios Click Here

Sponsored by:
Agitate! Queer People of Colour
Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians
Books 2 Prisoners
Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian Friends of Sabeel
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Carleton University Aboriginal Service Centre
Carleton University Womyn's Centre
Common Cause Ottawa
Faculty for Palestine-Carleton
Human Rights Program of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University
Canada Palestine Support Network-Ottawa
Collectif du chat noir
EXILE Infoshop
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa
No One Is Illegal-Ottawa
Not In Our Name: Jews Opposing Zionism - Ottawa
NOWAR-PAIX
Ontario Public Interest Research Group-Carleton
Ontario Public Interest Research Group-Ottawa/Groupe de recherche
d'intérêt public de l'Ontario-Ottawa
Queer fAction
Socialist Project
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-Ottawa
Students Against Israeli Apartheid-Carleton
Under Pressure//Sous Pression Coalition Against Poverty

http://ottawa.apartheidweek.org/

Open Letter to the Ottawa Citizen

This is an open letter is in response to this article.

Instead of engaging with the issues at hand, Mr. Stern in his article “The dark side of a yearly ritual” focuses his criticism (six paragraphs in fact) on those who are supportive of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). From OPIRG, to Carleton’s Womyns Center, the Canadian Arab Federation to “gay and lesbian groups” Mr. Stern’s attacks on these groups, are misreprestative, and at times false. He reserves his hardest criticism for those who happen to be Queer. To Mr. Stern it is disheartening that some gays and lesbians are part of the quest for Palestinian human rights, because all of those queers just don’t seem to understand that Israel is a haven for homosexuals and celebrates LGBTQ culture, with parades and movies. Try doing that in Gaza, or Syria probes Mr. Stern. As queers, activists and academics this logic is not only insulting but flawed. We resist the idea that because there exists a place of relative safety for LGBTQ people in the Middle East, illegal occupation is justified. Mr. Stern fails to mention that Palestinian Queers are targets along side the rest of the population. We should be fighting homophobia everywhere, even in Muslim countries. However, Palestinian Queer groups have said the biggest threat to their organizing is the Israeli occupation, not homophobia, so that’s where we choose focus our energy. Occupation: not it our name.

Now that that’s settled, we need to return to the actually issues at hand, which is the illegal occupation which is exactly what Israeli Apartheid Week is bringing to the forefront.

The main problem with Mr. Stern charging that IAW is trying to “erase the distinction” between Jews and Zionists is that its blatantly false. Judaism is a religion, and Zionism is a political ideology. The example given by Mr. Stern is that the Ontario Public Interest Research Group’s refusal to work with Hillel on an event about development. Hillel, although it claims not to be a Zionist organization, has as part of their structure an Israeli Awareness Committee and their current participation in the Israeli public relations campaign “Size Doesn’t Matter” speaks to a different story, a Zionist story. It is important to note though, that IAW has Jewish members organizing, funding and speaking during the week, making Mr. Stern’s accusations of disconnecting “Jew” and “Zionist” completely ridiculous.

Mr Stern’s article exemplifies a typical defense tactic of the supporters of Israel, which is to say that any criticism or questioning of the action of the state is hateful and anti-Semitic. All that IAW is trying to do, is just that, to legitimately criticize the actions of the state. It maybe true that no other nation is subject to a weeklong event criticism the actions of their government, but that speaks to an important fact. This is that Israel claims to be a liberal democracy, which respects human rights, and demands that their actions be accepted on the international stage. Israel gets special status in the international community to violate domestic and international law, including the Geneva conventions. Yet, these same conventions if broken by other states, these states would face huge backlash in the international community. Again this is what Israel Apartheid Week is aiming to bring into focus.

The word Apartheid brings up strong images and emotions, as it harkens back to the racist ideology exemplified in South Africa during its Apartheid. Mr. Stern is absolutely correct that international law defines Apartheid as a crime against humanity. The Convention on Apartheid spells out conditions in which a state, if met, is considered an Apartheid State. Desmond Tutu- Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, John Dugard-a renowned Jewish South African international jurist, and Jimmy Carter –former President all agree that the occupation of Palestine amounts to Apartheid according to international law. If they can see it, why can’t Mr. Stern?

If Israeli actions do amount to apartheid, then we (Queer Faction and Agitate) do question and act to undermine this state. This is not anti-Semitic, nor is it unprecedented, because in fact in the Convention on Apartheid, which Michael Ignatieff cites, calls for that same action to be taken. To fight apartheid until it is gone. We will not stop until Palestine and Israel can agree upon a mutual beneficial solution that respects human rights for all.

Sincerely

Agitate: Queer People of Color and Queer fAction