Indigenous Writers Rising 12
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WRITE THE MAGAZINE OF THE WRITERS’ UNION OF VOLUME 40 NUMBER 3 CANADA WINTER 2013 Idle No More: Indigenous Writers Rising 12 Writing the Family: Perils, Promises and Payoffs 17 Copyright Update: The Latest on Fair Dealing 21 WRITE Support the new Write! Take advantage of amazing advertising opportunities! Members: Get 25% off all ads. Reach 2000+ proven readers. Ask us about our small press discounts. For more information, or to book an ad today, email [email protected]. write From the Chair By Merilyn Simonds According to the Mayan calendar, as I write this the world is supposed to be ending in a few days, which tempts me to ignore deadlines. But the thought of you reading this, safely ensconced in 2013, keeps my fingers on the keyboard, eager to tell you about the last few very busy months. • Edmonton writers suggested we do something dramatic to get First, we have a new Executive Director. The Executive of the government’s attention during our AGM in Ottawa in May, National Council formed a search committee, together with “to show the population that writers are thoughtful, reflective Siobhan O’Connor, TWUC’s Associate Director, and former Chair imaginative people, deeply concerned about our world.” Alan Cumyn. We had an excellent field of candidates from which • Saskatoon writers said writers should connect directly with to choose, and from among those we unanimously selected John teachers because many do not support their administration’s Degen, a man of great experience and skill, who took the reins view of copyright licensing. firmly in hand on November 26. John is especially knowledgeable on copyright, the key issue • Winnipeg writers argued for closer association between facing us as writers today. As fresh fires erupt, we continue provincial writers’ organizations and TWUC, perhaps with fighting at the front, while developing a campaign that we hope quarterly information sharing sessions such as former will see writers universally and fairly compensated for the use of executive director Kelly Duffin initiated with our sister their work. international writing organizations. For six weeks this fall, as the copyright bombs fell and at least • Waterloo members want more regional meetings to learn one major publisher declared insolvency, I travelled the western about the Union’s advocacy work. provinces, Ontario and Quebec, meeting with writers — members and those who want to know more about what we do. A few other • Toronto writers urged us to post a generic election toolkit TWUC chairs have taken themselves across the country: Betty so members across the country can promote the arts during Jane Wylie in 1988; Dave Williamson in 1992; Bill Freeman municipal, provincial, and federal elections. in 2004. Betty Jane talked about sleeping on friends’ couches, • North Bay suggested TWUC keep an updated list on its meeting in coffee shops. Not much has changed. Even so, for me, website of universities and colleges that have NOT signed as for those other Chairs, it was a profound experience. agreements with Access Copyright, so members can monitor Writers gathered in living rooms, in a bakery, a bookstore, a the institutions they work for. university board room. The same concerns were voiced again and again: alarm at the theft of copyright material; despair at • Montreal writers said the Union should post recommended the challenges of digital publishing, ebooks, and the need for compensation rates for members who are approached self-promotion; concern about Canadian books in schools and individually by teachers for permission to photocopy their Canadian content in the media; dismay at the lack of progress work. within the Union on cultural diversity and the growing gender imbalance (again!) in reviewing and prizes. So many good ideas! We are already following up on several. Discouraging? Yes, a little. But writers are irrepressible; they What was especially heartening was the tremendous support look for ways to make the plot come out right, and so every for TWUC’s advocacy activities, and the deep desire to meet and discussion was enlivened with innovative ideas. share information and ideas. Grassroots engagement is always a challenge with an • Vancouver writers suggested our web designers develop a organization as far-flung as ours, but all voices need to be heard flagging system on the new Forums to indicate to NC where — young and old, from every genre, every gender, every cultural action is needed. background. Our new online forums will provide the opportunity for • Whitehorse writers suggested trying to institute the copyright everyone to engage on issues vital to writers. If you want to get income deduction in the Yukon: if several regions have it, the more involved, consider joining one of the Task Forces or run federal government might be more inclined to consider this for a position on National Council as an Advocate or Second Vice tax incentive for creators. K Chair. Mail-in nominations close on February 28, but candidates UN • Calgary writers suggested making the first year of for these positions can be nominated from the floor of the AGM. S F membership free to writers from minority backgrounds. Lots of time yet to throw your hat into the ring! ARLI : M They also cheered the notion of One Big Union, an umbrella I’ll be heading through Ontario this winter and east in the group to increase our voice, bring solidarity, and eliminate spring. If you’d like to host me in your region, please write me at OTO PH duplication of services to writers. [email protected]. I’m eager to continue the conversation. WINTER 2013 national council Nominating Chair Susan Crean and Merilyn Simonds Myrna Kostach First Vice-Chair Race Issues Dorris Heffron Wali Alam Shaheen Contents WINTER 2013 Second Vice-Chair Rights and Freedoms Genni Gunn Ron Brown Treasurer Status of Women Writers 3 Chair’s Report Silver Donald Cameron Betty Jane Wylie 5 Executive Directions BC/Yukon Representative membership committee Michael Elcock Jillian Dagg (Chair) 6 News Alberta/NWT/Nunavut Norma Charles Representative Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer Writer’S Blot Glenn Dixon John Parr Ann Walsh 8 Writer’s Prompt Manitoba/Saskatchewan Representative twuc national office 9 Industry Q+A Anita Daher Executive Director Ontario Representative John Degen, ext. 221 Dispatches Steve Pitt [email protected] 10 @IFOA as a @TWUC #Delegate Quebec Representative Associate Director BY FarZana DOCtor Joyce Laird Scharf Siobhan O’Connor, ext. 222 Atlantic Representative [email protected] 12 Idle No More: Indigenous Writers Rising Lee D. Thompson Office Administrator BY Paul SeeSEQuaSIS Advocates Valerie Laws, ext. 224 13 Seven Writers Come Together in a YA First-of-Its-Kind Douglas Arthur Brown [email protected] Project Eric Enno Tamm Membership and Fund Katherine Gordon Development Coordinator BY EriC WalterS Nancy MacLeod, ext. 226 committee chairs [email protected] 15 Back to the Wilderness: In Poland, Canadian Government Contracts Cuts Threaten to Quash a Growing Field of Study Maggie Siggins Projects Coordinator Kristen Gentleman, ext. 223 BY Eugenia SoJKA Curriculum and Libraries [email protected] Ted Barris Pacific Coordinator Features Electronic Rights/Copyright Raquel Alvaro Bill Freeman 17 Resurrecting the Dead Or, Writing about Family [email protected] International Affairs BY WAYne GradY Webmaster Gale Zoë Garnett Elaine Wong 19 Too True to be Good: The Consequences of Writing Grievance [email protected] Memoir Barbara Killinger BY LESlie SHimotaKAHara Editor Hal Niedzviecki [email protected] 21 Copyright Updates: What You Need to Know Now Deadline for Winter issue March 10, 2013 Editorial Liasons Silver Donald Cameron, Wayne Grady, Kelly-Anne Reiss BY Jeananne KatHol Kirwin Copy Editor Alison Lang 24 On Writers & Retreats Write Magazine Advertising Kristen Gentleman [email protected] BY LawrenCE SCanlan Design soapboxdesign.com Fiction Cover Illustration Patrick Dias Views expressed in Write do not necessarily reflect those of The Writers’ Union 26 The Meaning of Yellow of Canada. Services advertised are not necessarily endorsed by the Union. All BY urSula pflug submissions are welcome. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $154 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout Canada. business & reports 29 Committee Reports We acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of 33 Provincial Reports the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,681 individual artists in 216 communities across Ontario for a total of $52.8 million. 35 Member Awards and News 36 New Members 34 in memoriam Write is produced four times yearly by The Writers’ Union of Canada, 200 – 90 Richmond Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 1P1, T 416.703.8982, F 416.504.9090, [email protected], www.writersunion.ca. © The Writers’ Union of Canada, 2012. The text paper used for this issue contains 100 % post-consumer fibre, is accredited EcoLogo and Processed Chlorine Free, and processed in a mill that uses biogas. If you would like to help us save on paper, please contact [email protected] or 416-703- 8982 ext. 223 to request future on-line editions of the Newsletter. Thank you. FSC LOGO to write BE plce BY the printer Executive Directions Leading TWUC’s Fight for Copyright By John Degen Two weeks before taking my desk in the TWUC offices, I walked protest, diplomacy over direct action; but, after a decade of having uninvited into an Association of Canadian Community Colleges our reasoned debate ignored, and our diplomatic insistence seminar to deliver TWUC’s Statement on Fair Dealing. I was scoffed at, we are in exactly the position you see in that video. That accompanied by TWUC members Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Hal doesn’t mean there’s no room left for discussion and respectful Niedzviecki (also the editor of this magazine), and a professional advocacy; but we certainly can’t let these doors stay closed.