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12 TRIPWIRE12 TRIPWIRE 12 For the monthly purpose of re-upping the state of emergency & toward the interpretation of shipwreck we assemble in this playhouse by the light of a gibbous moon —Peter Culley OAKLAND : 2016 TRIPWIRE a journal of poetics editor: David Buuck assistant editor, design & layout: Cassandra Smith editorial assistant: Lara Durback co-founding editor: Yedda Morrison front cover image: Andrea Creamer, “Colonial Realty” back cover image: Elisa Ferrari, photo of Peter Culley and Shasta, 2015. Special thanks to Danielle LaFrance, Daphne Samuel, Donato Mancini, Rolf Mauer, Aaron Vidaver, Louis Cabri, Andrea Actis, Elisa Ferrari, Steven Tong, Reg Johanson, Lee Ann Brown, and all the contributors. Tripwire was founded by Yedda Morrison & David Buuck in 1997, and published six issues from 1998-2002, plus a pamphlet in 2004. Back issues are available at http://tripwirejournal.com. Submissions: please send proposals or inquiries to [email protected]. Looking for essays, reviews, interviews, translations, black and white visual art, etc. No unsolicited poetry, plays or fiction, please. Tripwire Translation Microgrants: The Tripwire Microgrants for Translation are designed to provide support and recognition for translators of contemporary avant-garde and experimental writing. Each time donations to the fund reach $100, that amount will be awarded to a translator for work published in coming issues of Tripwire. Go to http://tripwirejournal.com/tripwire-microgrants-for-translation to donate. printed by Bookmobile distributed by Small Press Distribution (spdbooks.org) all rights revert to contributors upon publication. ISSN: 1099-2170 tripwirejournal.com TRIPWIRE 12 : AKA VANCOUVER : WRITING FROM THE UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORIES Mercedes Eng 5 Anahita Jamali Rad 11 Amy De’Ath 18 Cecily Nicholson 20 Danielle LaFrance 30 ryan fitzpatrick 38 Roger Farr 44 Sonnet L’Abbé 52 Phinder Dulai 57 Jordan Abel 63 Rita Wong 68 Stephen Collis 71 Andrea Creamer 80 Fred Wah 89 Jeff Derksen 95 Christine Leclerc 107 Carolyn Richard 111 Donato Mancini 116 Renée Sarojini Saklikar 120 Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite 141 Tiziana La Melia & Vanessa Disler 153 _______________________________ Peter Culley tribute 161 Elisa Ferrari * Louis Cabri * Colin Smith * Rolf Mauer * George Bowering * Lisa Robertson * Chris Nealon * Lee Ann Brown * Stephen Collis * Jonathan Skinner Danielle LaFrance & Anahita Jamali Rad on About a Bicycle 222 Natalie Knight on Cecily Nicholson 233 Jules Boykoff on Mercedes Eng 242 Gregory Betts on Lisa Robertson 249 Louis Cabri on Catriona Strang 254 Deanna Fong on Jordan Scott 261 rob mclennan on Jordan Abel 264 Julia Polyck-O'Neill on Jordan Abel 268 Cameron Scott on Colin Smith 276 ______________________________ Contributor Notes 308 MERCEDES ENG SECTION 1: REFLECTION OF CANADA’S MULTICULTURAL REALITY IN FEDERAL INSTITUTIONS Q. 1.1 Does your institution’s vision, mission, mandate and/or priorities statement(s) include reference to multiculturalism? Earlier this fall, the federal government hired auditor Deloitte to examine various international jurisdictions that have utilized the Public Private Partnership (P3) model for correctional facilities. PPP Canada aims to build its understanding of the various models, approaches, and experiences of P3 correctional facilities in a global context to determine their relevancy to the Canadian market. Of particular interest is the US, which currently houses the largest prison population in the world and deploys inmates as a captive labour force. Meanwhile, several private-sector operators of detention facilities are working to land contracts to operate Canada’s immigrant detention centres, some of which are undergoing expansion. Real-estate developer BD Hamilton and Associates lobbied the Conservatives to work with the Government of Canada to build a refugee detention centre in Toronto. 6 SECTION 2: EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN FEDERAL INSTITUTIONS Q. 2.1 Throughout your institution, does your workforce represent Canada’s diversity? A strike by federal inmates over a cut in their pay that began in Ontario has now spread to prisons in New Brunswick, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Inmates are protesting a 30% pay cut that took effect this week. The Harper government began deducting the money from prisoners’ pay as part of a move to recover costs under the Deficit Reduction Action Plan. Correctional Service Canada confirmed “work and program refusals are occurring sporadically across the country.” The average pay is $3 a day, a rate established in 1981 and based on a review by a parliamentary committee that also factored in a deduction for inmates’ room, board and clothing. Despite inflation over the past 30 years, inmates have not had a pay raise. The strikes have also forced the shutdown of the government’s CORCAN operations inside the prisons. CORCAN makes textiles, furniture and other goods for the war machine. A spokesperson for Minister of Public Safety called the strike “offensive to hard working, law abiding Canadians.” 7 Q. 2.2 How does your institution benefit from having a multicultural workforce? Federal Prison Industries (FPI) is a wholly owned US government corporation. Its mission is to employ and provide job skills training to inmates confined within the Federal Bureau of Prisons; produce market- priced quality goods and services for sale to the Federal Government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and minimize FPI’s impact on private business and labor. Inmates earn 23¢ to $1.15 per hour. They gain marketable job skills while working in factory operations such as metals, furniture, electronics, and textiles, producing goods for the military industrial complex. A Business or Correctional Program? FPI is, first and foremost, a correctional program. The impetus behind FPI is not business, but helping offenders acquire the skills necessary to transition from prison to law-abiding, contributing members of society. The production of items and provision of services are merely by-products of those efforts. Who are the Customers? FPI is restricted to selling its products to the Federal Government. Its principal customer is the Department of Defense, from which FPI derives approximately 53% of its sales. Other key customers include the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, the Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. 8 SECTION 5: CONSULTATION AND COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITIES Q. 5.1 Did your institution undertake initiatives to improve federal services for ethnocultural groups? a partial commissary list for Metro Detention Center Los Angeles: Timex watch $36.40 Timex watchband $11.70 watch battery $2.60 Talit shawl $15.95 prayer rug $13.99 Kufi (white) $5.96 Dikr beads $4.96 regular relaxer kit $6.50 super relaxer kit $6.50 Luster’s Pink lotion $4.95 Afro pik $0.50 Afro comb $0.55 hot waves brush $2.75 dictionary $1.95 envelope $0.05 legal envelope 3pk $.080 writing pen $1.20 writing tablet legal $1.25 photo album $3.45 9 Q. 5.2 Did your institution collaborate or partner with ethnocultural community organizations to help promote and deliver federal programs? Vancouver Pretrial Centre is presently undergoing a $90-million expansion that includes 216 new high-security cells with high definition televisions and 100 new staff. Dean Purdy, BC Government and Employees’ Union corrections component chair, said the jail currently has a ratio of 1 guard per 38 inmates, but the upgrade would change that to 1 guard per 72 inmates. “Our No.1 priority is the safety of the officers. We’d like to see resources go toward staffing, have proper staffing levels and have proper safety protocols.” He did however acknowledge that TVs in each high-security cell play the role of unofficial “babysitter” to inmates residing within. 10 Q. 5.3 Did your institution collaborate or partner with ethnocultural community organizations to help promote and deliver federal reality television programs? up next on Border Security: Canada’s Front Line The B.C. Coroners Service has confirmed that 42-year-old Lucia Vega Jimenez died in Canadian Border Services Agency custody. Jimenez was awaiting deportation to Mexico when she attempted suicide. She was found hanging from a shower stall in the immigration holding centre at the Vancouver airport, on Dec. 20, 2013. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association wonders why it took so long to announce the news of Jimenez’s death and whether there have been other in-custody deaths the CBSA has not reported. Jimenez had a job as a hotel worker in Vancouver when she was arrested over an unpaid transit ticket, transferred to jail, then sent to the CBSA holding cells at the Vancouver airport to await deportation. 11 ANAHITA JAMALI RAD at times, struggling and complicated structurally positioned was in a blurry when who but girls like us ache lost timelines and the people twisted in a map kind of pain curved in finite rituals until always displaced girls like regions negate trembling a fury incalescent skin layered walking in mountains 12 post-harem heavy breathing asleep in the bodies of girls like me persistent in wanting vigilante tendencies and you know i killed that feeling of wanting intimacy in a desert when my skin smelled like the dust of the desert drought wind blasted hills crumble under the weight dragged absent workers ragged dust covered plastic sandals this small space always poor and movement 13 drove over stacks of wheat and i don’t tangerines scent clay hills the body that weapons civilian point factory town hum a nausea