Recently the canadian embassy in Israel celebrated Canadians who currently serve in the Israeli army as Lone Soldiers. The ambassador even went as far as saying: “We both share a love of Canada and a love of Israel. We at the embassy are very proud of what you’re doing.”

If encouraging Canadians to enroll in a foreign military wasn’t bizarre enough, encouraging Canadians to join an occupation army is reaching a level of absurdity that should only be seen in political satire.

Lone soldiers represent only 2% of the israeli occupation army, they don’t have a major impact on the army’s operation. Despite that, the israeli government still spends millions on Lone soldiers-focused programs. Why?

To look at these questions and more, I talked to author Yves Engler who recently wrote an article about the topic called “Canada celebrates agents of Palestinian misery”.

Interview by Sawssan Kaddoura for Under The Olive Tree

facebook.com/uot.interviews

twitter.com/uot_interviews

Intro/Outo music: Reach out by Simona Abdallah

Songs Played:

Kafiyeh Arabiyeh by Shadia Mansour ft. M1

Look at this (remix) by Tribe Called Red

Growing global demand for cheap vegetable oil for processed food, biofuel and cosmetics is a key factor behind land grabs across Africa. There are many Canadian connections to this story, including the agribusiness company Feronia, which now stands accused of complicity in the murder of an activist and the incarceration of five others in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gwen talks to Devlin Kuyek of the organization GRAIN about these developments, and the growing push back by communities in response to the dispossession and despoliation of their lands, the loss of biodiversity, grim labour practices and repression.

Graphic designer, Tré Seals, discovered that only only 3–3.5% of all practicing designers in the US are Black. That number is dramatically lower when we talk about Typeface designers in particular.

So, Tré decided to infuse more of his identity into the design world via the most basic design element used in everything, Typography. He founded the typeface foundry, Vocal Type, and designed several typefaces inspired by important historical events from various marginalized cultures. This included the Typefaces: Martin, inspired by the Memphis Sanitation Strike, Ruben, inspired by the National Chicano Moratorium movement, Carrie, which honors women’s suffrage in the US, and so on.

But how was Tré inspired by these movements to create his typefaces and how he would like them to be used? To answer these questions, Tré joined me on the phone from Washington DC to talk more about his design approach.

-

Hosted by Sawssan Kaddoura (insta: @sawssankreates)

www.facebook.com/digitalsights

-

Intro/outro music: Thomas VX - Outcast

Filministes est un nouveau festival qui a débuté en 2018 à Montréal. Cette année est la 3ème édition de ce festival féministe de cinéma. Le festival rapproche les féminismes et le cinéma en organisant des discussions sur des enjeux féministes par le biais de la projection d'œuvres cinématographiques. Ainsi, le festival a pour mission d’apporter un regard féministe et critique sur divers enjeux de société en utilisant des projections comme point de départ pour ces discussions.

Mais pourquoi le cinéma? Qu’est-ce qui rend ce médium particulièrement propice à cette mission? Et quel genre de participation de la part du public elles reçoivent?

Pour répondre à ces questions, Gabrielle Doré, une des organisatrices de ce festival, m’a rejoint au téléphone. Gabrielle nous parle aussi des débuts de ce festival, comment elles choisissent les projections, et à quoi on peut s'attendre cette année.

-

Animatrice: Sawssan Kaddoura (insta: @sawssankreates)

www.facebook.com/digitalsights

-

Intro music: Thomas VX - Outcast

4 upcoming events are taking place in Montreal in the next days:

Event 1 (March 6): Screening focusing on Israel Lobby in US.

Event 2 (March 10): Yves Engler new book launch. House of Mirrors: Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy.

Event 3 (March 12): Round table about Greenwashing Colonialism and Environmental Racism from Tibet to Palestine.

Event 4 (March 13): Tarek Loubani’s talk about Gaza and new Glia Project (3D printing used to help hospitals in Gaza)

3 of the events are organized by students, so I talked to a member of SPHR Mcgill to talk to us more about these events.

At the end of the segment I covered the recent development in Ontario surrounding Bill 168, which aims at making Ontario adopt the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism (noihra.ca)

**Intro Music: Reach out by Simona Abdallah

Interview by Sawssan Kaddoura for Under The Olive Tree

facebook.com/uot.interviews

twitter.com/uot_interviews

Since 2008, no boats from the Free Gaza Movement were allowed to Gaza. Since then, the Freedom Flotilla faced many challenges, from the deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara of 2010 to the Greek complicity of 2011, from the sabotage of Gaza's ship in 2013 to the bombing of the ship in 2014. The list goes on to include detention of activists, false accusations, and confiscation of boats. But despite the challenges, the campaign achieved many successes and benefited from support from around the world.

In this interview we went over the 12 years of solidarity of this campaign with Zohar Regev from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Zohar was recently in Montreal as part of her brief Canadian tour to talk about the history of the Flotilla and what's planned for 2020.

At the end of the show I read the BNC's solidarity statement with the Wet'suwet'en nation in its own fight for self-determination.

Interview by Sawssan Kaddoura for Under The Olive Tree

facebook.com/uot.interviews

twitter.com/uot_interviews

Kanahsohon (Kevin Deer) is a Kanien’kehá:ka elder from Kahnawà:ke, and is currently the acting Vice-President - Academics at the First Nations Technical Insititute (FNTI) in Tyendinaga. In this interview, he speaks about the ongoing rail blockades - part of a wave of solidarity actions in support of Wet'suwet'en land defenders - from his own perspective. Then the conversation shifts to Indigenous language issues: from the importance of immersion education at a young age, to the role of post-secondary institutions like FNTI and McGill.

This interview was recorded Wednesday February 19, 2020, and broadcast on the Monday Morning After on Monday, February 24, 2020.

Produced by Charles Joseph O'Connor (Charlie)

Special thanks to Monday Morning After hosts Sonora Grimsted and Nick Pineau

Suhrid Manchanda was a force in Montreal's music community before decamping to the United States and eventually to New Dehli, India. He was studying at McGil but ultimately spent most of his time playing guitar around the city. The mighty Detroit Metal, the unforgettable Bloody Gashes, with Chloe Lum, Yannick Desranleau and Joel Taylor were both Suhrid's babies. He formed Aum Supreme with Dane Mills, the original drummer in the Arcade Fire. Suhrid booked shows, ran festivals and was generally a personality on the Boulevard. He was eventually hired as Fundraising Coordinator at CKUT in 2004. Suhrid was tireless in his devotion to the radio station's community, the city's musicians and DIY music in general. No one was surprised when Suhrid turned up as Su Real, dj/producer and star of India's Desi Bass scene. Music Coordinator Alex Moskos sat down to talk about it all with his old buddy and colleague Suhrid.

One of the digital sights we see all around us on a daily basis is words! We are exposed to hundreds of typefaces every day by the simple act of reading the world that surrounds us. Phones, computers, tablets, TVs, books, documents, street signs, posters, menus and the list goes on of examples of platforms that show us text every day.

Typefaces are important to convey a variety of messages and stories but also to make sure the written word is continuously adapted to its various modern usage.

Despite its importance, it seems that Typeface design in the Middle-East is in a bit of a crisis. While the design world is extremely rich and constantly evolving, Typeface design is falling behind. Why? and is the situation getting better?

To answer these questions and more, I was joined on the phone by one of the few type designers for Arabic alphabet, Azza Alameddine (twitter: @3azalam)

---

Show hosted by Sawssan Kaddoura (insta: @sawssankreates)

Follow us: www.fb.com/digitalsights

Intro music: Thomas VX - Outcast

One of the main tools used by apartheid apologists is smear campaigns. The goal is often to intentionally tarnish the reputation of anyone who dares to acknowledge Palestinians as human beings who have rights too.

Fighting Facts with Lies, is the essence of these politically motivated campaigns against any group or individuals who have any criticism of the Israeli government and the Israeli occupation military.

The trend is getting so intense that one pro-apartheid group in Canada has no less than 3 defamation lawsuits against it.

I had with me on the phone, human rights lawyer and activist, Dimitri Lascaris, to talk more about these cases and the widely used tactic of smears used by Zionist activists against human rights activists around the world today. Will these tactics end up backfiring?

Interview by Sawssan Kaddoura for Under The Olive Tree

facebook.com/uot.interviews

twitter.com/uot_interviews