Welcome to reginastreets.ca. The Regina Streets Magazine is an anti-poverty initiative that is published throughout the year by the Regina Street Magazine Inc. Founded in early 2008 by two young U of R grads, the RSM is a fiercely independent media source with no political or organizational affiliations. We are about hard work, opportunities, and personal achievement - everything else is just shades of grey. Sometimes we will publish things just to make you angry, and as always, we reserve the right to make frequent spelling mistakes, shoddy editorial decisions, and tasteless references.
There’s this news story I have been following with great interest, and the deeper I research it, the more complex it becomes. A white man from South Africa by the name of Huntley has applied for refugee status in Canada on the basis of his experience of violent racial discrimination he claims is being perpetrated by the South African government.
What made this particular refugee claim newsworthy? Thousands of refugee claims are processed in Canada every year that are the result of violent racial discrimination and oppression. Why was Huntley’s case singled out as newsworthy… was it because he is caucasian? Is it SO rare that a white person from another country applies for refugee status as to make it newsworthy? Is it really that rare; are white people universally privileged and immune from racial oppression? Oh, but wait… this story gets better! Read more »
On Sunday, August 23rd, the Regina Symphony Orchestra played a concert in Wascana Park, marking the opening of the 2009/10 season. A wonderful event with vendors, great opening acts and scenery, Symphony Under the Sky was a shining example of accessible fun for all ages. More significantly, it was free.
Regina has had a whole host of amazing events this summer, from classical performances to AC/DC. The problem is that it often costs a great deal of money to attend. They are exclusionary when they are supposed to bring people together. While events often have larger corporate or business sponsors, for the first time Regina’s city council stepped up to the plate to the tune of $25,000. Read more »
In case it’s not a place you go regularly, downtown Regina’s largest mall, the Cornwall Center, has been undergoing several changes over the past year. Some stores have been moving to other locations in the mall, while others are being renovated. However, it was during my last visit to the Cornwall Center that I noticed the gravest change of all. It appears as if only one store amidst all these changes has actually *closed*… and it’s the bookstore.
As a longtime resident of downtown Regina, let me tell you what this means – it signifies the closure of the last book store in the downtown area. That’s right, you didn’t hallucinate that last sentence, and it’s not a typo. If you want to BUY A BOOK you must leave the downtown area. Read more »
This is a brief and very interesting interview with K’Naan, a hip-hop protest artist from Somalia now based in Canada. His music speaks to the struggle people face living in his home country, and the government and warlords that prevent peace and prosperity. In this interview he talks about the origins of Somalian pirates from an angle that no other media source has addressed… watch on.
This song is called “Yesterday’s Halo”, and it seems to sum up nicely the barriers and battles that so many of us face. The second verse is my personal favourite – it’s so poignant that chills inevitably follow!
Do you want a new stadium in your backyard? How about a landfill or a nuclear power plant? I know what you’re thinking – who on earth would want to live with the noise, smell, or danger? I wouldn’t!
There’s a new buzz word that I really dig that’s being used to describe this conundrum – eco-discrimination. The hot topics of the day, such as the unanimous (albeit grudgingly) support in the Saskatchewan Legislature of nuclear power, or the equally hot debate surrounding Regina’s new stadium, often neglect that massive amounts of discrimination go into decisions like these. Especially when it comes to location – and the consequences are grave. Read more »
There’s something that has caught my attention from the very start of the Regina Streets Magazine, and it continues to peak my interest since the start of this website. That is, we get just as many comments and compliments from the “right” of the political spectrum as we do from the “left”.
I think that partisanship is both detrimental and ridiculous, in politics and in life. Take this magazine. Do I have to be on the left to talk about the causes and effects of poverty? Do I have to be on the right to have a strong corporate business model and believe in microdevelopment? Absolutely not. Read more »
The Indian Act specifies that if a person with status earns income on a reserve, his/her income is not taxable. This means that aboriginal people can technically get paid less and still take home the same amount as a comparable worker off reserve. Despite this powerful competitive advantage, in 2007, the Aboriginal employment rate was only 66.4% in Saskatchewan. This compares to 88.3% for non-Aboriginal people. This 19.9% difference represents the largest employment gap in all of Canada.
What does Canada Day mean to you? Is it simply a day off… kind of like ‘today’s reason to drink’? In the briefest of terms, to me July 1st is a day of pride and reflection.
It’s a day of pride! No matter what you take away from this brief post, know that I love Canada passionately – for this is true. We have so much beauty, so much prosperity as a whole. Don’t think that I didn’t toast my country with a pint tonight… I did! I’m one of the luckiest people of in the world because I get to wake up in Canada; and I’m certainly very privileged.
However, July 1st is also a day of reflection. Canada has a repugnant, violent, and often invisible history. Canada was not founded by noble pioneers that lived off the land in the face of all odds. Nor was it a mosaic of culture or a project of multiculturalism that succeeded. Canada was founded on the violent misappropriation of Indigenous land. It was founded on the backs of those people that still experience marginalization and poverty to this day.
Do I toast my country on the eve of its birthday? Sure. Do I remember that I only have as much privilege as I do because of colonialism, both historic and contemporary? You better believe it.
First Nations youth commit suicide at five to eight times the Canadian rate. The suicide rate for Inuit youth is six times as high as in the rest of the country.