This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.
This edition has a large number of articles and pieces focusing on the horrific misogynist terror attack in Toronto.
This list covers the week of April 22 - 29. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.
Toronto Misogynist Terror Attack
Arshy Mann, Twitter
A Facebook post is circulating that appears to be from Alek Minassian, the man charged with the Toronto van attack, that references "incels." This is a primer on the violent ideology that underlies incel culture.
North 99
Speculation abounded online in the wake of the horrific van attack in Toronto, and one voice did its utmost to ensure that speculation had an anti-Muslim tinge: foreign right-wing media and pundits.
Anti-Racist Canada
On April 23, 2018, a van swerved onto the sidewalk in Toronto in what appears to have been an intentional act. When the carnage was over, 10 people were dead and more than a dozen injured. The people killed and injured were men and women, young people and old, people of different faiths, Canadian citizens and tourists.
Read the full article.
4) "I laugh at the death of normies": How incels are celebrating the Toronto mass killing
Rachel Janik, SPLC
"That moment when this random dude killed more people than the supreme gentleman Elliot. I hope this guy wrote a manifesto because he could be our next new saint."
Read the full article.
5) Incels hail Toronto van driver who killed 10 as a new Elliot Rodger, talk of future acid attacks and mass rapes
David Futrelle, We Hunted the Mammoth
But on the Incels.me forum, one of the more egregious hangouts for incels online, many are already hailing the alleged mass murderer as one of their own.
Read the full article.
6) After Toronto attack, online misogynists praise suspect as 'new saint'
Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News
Before allegedly killing 10 people with a van in Toronto, Alek Minassian appeared to have posted a message on Facebook that linked him to a toxic online community of misogynists that has become the source of a growing pattern of violence.
Read the full article.
7) How The Far Right Spun The Toronto Van Attack As Islamic Terrorism
Jonathan Goldsbie, Canadaland
A tweet from a CBC reporter got picked up and taken out of context.
Read the full article.
8) If incels’ violent misogyny had a role in Toronto, we mustn’t downplay it
Emer O'Toole, The Guardian
On 6 December 1989, a misogynist who claimed he was “fighting feminism” shot dead 14 women, mostly engineering students, at Montréal’s École Polytechnique. I won’t use the murderer’s name. These men want us to use their names.
Read the full article.
9) Toxic Masculinity Is At the Heart of This Darkness
Drew Brown, Vice
The two biggest massacres in the last 40 years of Canadian history have been explicitly linked to misogyny.
Read the full article.
10) Nearly every mass killer is a man. We should all be talking more about that
Gary Younge, The Guardian
After the Toronto attack, there should be a debate about toxic masculinity, and the issues of identity and rage that turn so many men towards violence.
Read the full article.
11) The misogynist ideology behind Toronto’s incel terror attack must be confronted
Arshy Mann, Xtra
It’s happened before. It shouldn’t be shocking that it would happen again.
Read the full article.
12) Incels, Alek Minassian and the dangerous idea of being owed sex
Alia E. Dastagir, USA Today
Before Alek Minassian killed 10 people, the majority of them women, by driving his van into pedestrians on a Toronto street Monday, he posted on Facebook praising mass murderer Elliot Rodger and called for an "Incel Rebellion," an uprising of men who are angry women won't have sex with them.
Read the full article.
13) From the Montreal Massacre to the Toronto van attack: Why the reluctance to talk about male violence?
CBC Radio
On Monday, 10 people were killed and 16 others were injured in a van attack in Toronto. Alek Minassian has since been charged with 10 counts of murder in those deaths. He also faces 13 counts of attempted murder. He will be charged with three more counts of attempted murder at his next court appearance.
Read/Listen to the segment.
Rest of the Round-Up
14) Kim Stanley Robinson Makes the Socialist Case for Space Exploration
Dayton Martindale, In These Times
In an interview, the leftist sci-fi author argues that democratic space science is crucial to saving Earth.
Read the full interview.
15) Republican lawmakers threaten to jail Colorado teachers if they strike
Elham Khatami, Think Progress
Colorado teachers are preparing to stage walkouts in favor of higher wages and more education funding later this week, but Republican legislation in the state Senate could penalize them for striking — with far-reaching punishments that include fines and jail time.
Read the full article.
16) Israeli government justifies killing child protesters in Gaza: They’re not in school
Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss
The picture of Alaa Zamli, 15, is on top of this post because of his beautiful smile, which should have taken him very far in life. But he lived in Gaza, where he was killed by an Israeli sniper during the fence protests April 10. Today Ben White tweeted Zamli’s picture along with those of three other children protesters Israeli snipers have killed in Gaza.
Read the full article.
17) Israeli Troops First Shot a Gaza Journalist's Left Leg, Then His Right. And They Didn't Stop There
Gideon Levy and Alex Levac, Haaretz
His left leg was amputated in Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, and now efforts are underway, in Istishari Arab Hospital in the West Bank, to ensure that his right leg doesn’t suffer the same fate. More than two weeks passed between the amputation of the first leg – which itself could have been prevented – and the action undertaken to save the other one. Precious time in which Israel refused to allow Yousef Kronz, the first Palestinian seriously wounded during the recent weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, to be moved to the hospital outside Ramallah. The High Court of Justice finally forced the Defense Ministry to bring this disgraceful conduct to an end and allow the transfer of the 19-year-old student and journalist from Bureij refugee camp, to that more sophisticated facility.
Read the full article.
18) From Natalie Portman to Iran, the Telltale Signs That Israel May Have a Loose Screw
Chemi Shalev, Haaretz
Thank God for Twitter. Were it not for the social media giant’s decision to suspend Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich’s account, his tweet clamoring for Palestinian teen provocatrice Ahed Tamimi to be shot – preferably in the knees – might have gone virtually unnoticed. The total lack of political reaction to an Israeli legislator’s call for Israel Defense Forces soldiers to commit what is essentially a war crime was not only shameful: It provided yet another sign – one of many – of the accelerating spread of lunacy in Israel’s public domain.
Read the full article.
19) Israeli Lawmaker: Palestinian Teen Tamimi 'Should Have Gotten a Bullet, at Least in the Knee'
Haaretz
Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager famed for slapping an Israeli soldier on camera, should have been shot, at least in the knee, Deputy Knesset Speaker Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) wrote on Twitter Saturday.
Read the full article.
20) The NDP’s Oil Problem
Gerard Di Trolio, Jacobin
On April 8, the energy company Kinder Morgan announced it was suspending plans to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline. The news should have been cause for celebration on the Canadian left. Instead, it’s only ratcheted political tensions to new heights.
Read the full article.
21) Preparing for a Hard-Right Government in Ontario
John Clarke, New Socialist
With a June Ontario election looming, it is clear that the most likely outcome is a Doug Ford-led Tory majority government. I will be the first to agree that this lamentable result might still be avoided. These are volatile times and prevailing moods can shift. However, the Ford threat is serious enough that unions and social movements would be well advised to think now in terms of how we would respond to a vicious Tory regime. It seems rather absurd to wait for the day after a grim election result to ask ourselves “what do we do now?”
Read the full article.
22) Spurned Tories cry foul over Doug Ford’s ‘brazen abuse of power’
Steve Paikin, TVO
But then, can’t political leaders just dispense with the BS about “local democracy” and “respect for the grassroots”? Every leader talks a good game about that, but almost none of them actually follows those principles. The consequence is a further erosion of public trust in politics and politicians. In this case, some very disillusioned Tory supporters are now asking themselves who they’re going to vote for. They simply can’t support their own party, which in their view has so flagrantly abused the process and disrespected local democratic traditions.
Read the full article.
23) What change looks like in a Doug Ford government
Martin Regg Cohn, The Toronto Star
Doug Ford hasn’t publicly uttered all the words spoken by Tanya Granic Allen, notwithstanding his record of vulgarisms when denigrating people who annoyed or challenged him, but the so-called straight shooter has played a double game of first embracing Granic Allen, and only later distancing himself — and never denouncing her hateful words.
Read the full article.
24) A Leaked Memo Exposed the Toronto Sun’s Secret Plan to Manufacture a Right-Wing ‘Culture War’
Press Progress
Even though polling shows Ontario voters care about healthcare and the economy, the Toronto Sun apparently has a secret plan to convince its readers that policies promoting diversity and equality are the real problems facing the province.
Read the full article.
25) The sadism of white men: Why America must atone for its lynchings
Ed Pilkington, The Guardian
Vanessa Croft was driving home after work in Gadsden, Alabama last month when she noticed something strange in her rear-view mirror. There were two huge flags bearing the starred cross of the Confederacy fluttering angrily behind her from the back of a menacing black pickup truck.
Read the full article.
26) Lynching memorial leaves some quietly seething: 'Let sleeping dogs lie'
Sam Levin, The Guardian
Black men were lynched for “standing around”, for “annoying white girls”, for failing to call a policeman “mister”. Those are just a few of the horrific stories on display at a new national memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery, Alabama.
Read the full article.
27) READ: Full declaration of North and South Korean summit
CNN
"During this momentous period of historical transformation on the Korean Peninsula, reflecting the enduring aspiration of the Korean people for peace, prosperity and unification, President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea and chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea held an Inter-Korean Summit Meeting at the 'Peace House' at Panmunjom on April 27, 2018.
Read the full declaration.
28) Yoga's Culture of Sexual Abuse: Nine Women Tell Their Stories
Matthew Remski, The Walrus
Disturbing accounts of misconduct against the founder of one of North America’s most popular forms of yoga.
Read the full article.
29) 20 killed including bride as Saudi-led coalition airstrike hits a wedding party in Yemen
Jon Sharman, Ghaida Ghantous & Ahmed al-Haj, The Independent
At least 20 people including the bride were killed when an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, health officials have said.
Read the full article.
30) Calgary officers guilty of corruption in harassment campaign targeting mother
Meghan Grant · CBC News
Three Calgary police officers have been found guilty of nine corruption-related offences related to the harassment of a local mother whose bitter ex-husband hired them to stalk her.
Read the full article.
31) The Cost of Accusing Bill Cosby
Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic
The women who faced the comedian in court this week faced a shocking array of attacks on their stories and their characters.
Read the full article.
32) 'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention
Patrick Barkham, The Guardian
“We’re doomed,” says Mayer Hillman with such a beaming smile that it takes a moment for the words to sink in. “The outcome is death, and it’s the end of most life on the planet because we’re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. There are no means of reversing the process which is melting the polar ice caps. And very few appear to be prepared to say so.”
Read the full interview.
33) Protests in Spain as five men cleared of teenager's gang rape
Sam Jones, The Guardian
Protests are being held across Spain after five men accused of the gang rape of a teenager during the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona were found guilty of the lesser offence of sexual abuse
.
Read the full article.
34) Golf course that called the police on black women loses business, faces call for state investigation
Rachel Siegel, The Washington Post
In the days after white golf course owners called the police on five African American women they said were not playing fast enough, a Pennsylvania state senator has called for an investigation into the incident and the club is losing local business.
Read the full article.
See also: Miguel Diaz-Canel, Kinder Morgan, Starbucks & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 15-22
