Culture

• In this landscape, Seattle is marking a milestone of sorts – the first anniversary of adopting its Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance.
• Other cities have adopted equity-focused policies for specific programs related to housing access or police conduct, for example.
• Based on our current and recent research as scholars of urban policy, Seattle’s race and social justice law offers critical lessons for other cities looking to create more equitable places.
• It’s our belief that more commitments like Seattle’s are needed if the U.S. is to make substantive progress on racial equity.

Developing the Race and Social Justice Initiative

• Seattle’s persistent racial wealth and income gap – and its impact on housing, health, education outcomes and other significant social components of daily life – was part of the reason that Seattle officials launched the Race and Social Justice Initiative 20 years ago.
• Then-Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels called for the development of the initiative after learning more about how race impacted people’s experiences in Seattle.
• A critical part of the Race and Social Justice Initiative has been creating professional development trainings to ensure common understandings of how racism affects city government.

Seattle’s racial justice commitment

• Another way racial justice efforts are integrated throughout Seattle’s city government is with step-by-step guides that show how to put racial equity into practice.
• In April 2023, a former white municipal government employee sued the city because of alleged racial harassment.
• Other community members have voiced frustration with the differences between the daily discrimination experienced by people of color and the stated commitment from city officials for racial justice.

Lessons for other cities

• This has been possible through a 20-year commitment to create a culture that makes achieving equity integral to city government.
• Working to end institutional racism is part of every employee’s job and the functioning of municipal government.
• What Seattle officials have learned is that robust professional development trainings for employees create common understandings and shared knowledge.

• Instead, it is a central part of how all decisions are made in city government.
• Finally, and arguably most important, we recognize the uniqueness of different cities and towns and caution against the impulse to wholesale copy Seattle’s efforts.
• Crafting and sustaining municipal programs that focus on racial equity is possible for cities seeking a more just future.

• This research included interviewing government employees and community members, gathering data in the municipal archives, and conducting participant observation.
• Houston and Trudeau maintain a commitment to the highest ethical and academic standards.

• A man named Hadi Matar has been charged with second-degree attempted murder.
• He is an American-born resident of New Jersey in his early twenties, whose parents emigrated from Lebanon.
• Review: Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder – Salman Rushdie (Jonathan Cape) Knife is very good at recalling Rushdie’s grim memories of the attack.

• “Let me offer this piece of advice to you, gentle reader,” he says: “if you can avoid having your eyelid sewn shut … avoid it.
• Here, for a number of reasons, Rushdie is not on such secure ground.
• Read more:
  How Salman Rushdie has been a scapegoat for complex historical differences

  Rushdie, who studied history at Cambridge University, described himself in Joseph Anton as “a historian by training”.

• Indeed, a speech he gave at PEN America in 2022 is reprinted in the book verbatim.
• For these intellectuals, principles of secular reason and personal liberty should always supersede blind conformity to social or religious authority.

Old-fashioned liberal principles

• In Knife, though, Rushdie the protagonist confronts a world where such liberal principles now appear old-fashioned.
• He claims “the groupthink of radical Islam” has been shaped by “the groupthink-manufacturing giants, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter”.
• But for many non-religious younger people, any notion of free choice also appears illusory, the anachronistic residue of an earlier age.
• Millennials and Generation Z are concerned primarily with issues of environmental catastrophe and social justice, and they tend to regard liberal individualism as both ineffective and self-indulgent.
• A new book traces how we got here, but lets neoliberal ideologues off the hook

Suffused in the culture of Islam

• The Satanic Verses itself is suffused in the culture of Islam as much as James Joyce’s Ulysses is suffused in the culture of Catholicism.
• In their hypothetical conversation, the author of Knife tries to convince his assailant of the value of such ambivalence.
• He protests how his notorious novel revolves around “an East London Indian family running a café-restaurant, portrayed with real love”.

Attachment to past traditions

• Rushdie discusses in Knife how, besides the Hindu legends of his youth, he has also been “more influenced by the Christian world than I realized”.
• He cites the music of Handel and the art of Michelangelo as particular influences.
• Yet this again highlights Rushdie’s attachments to traditions firmly rooted in the past.
• Part of James’s greatness lay in the way he was able to accommodate these radical shifts within his writing.

‘A curiously one-eyed book’

• Particularly striking are the immediacy with which he recalls the shocking assault, the black humour with which he relates medical procedures and the sense of “exhilaration” at finally returning home with his wife to Manhattan.
• Yet there are also many loose ends, and the book’s conclusion, that the assailant has in the end become “simply irrelevant” to him, is implausible.
• He insists he does not want to write “frightened” or “revenge” books.

• This was despite several brave comeback attempts by Milburn that likewise cited Pataudi as an example.
• Knife, by contrast, is a curiously one-eyed book, in a metaphorical, as well as a literal sense.

Paul Giles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• It’s still not clear how Juste Pour Rire / Just for Laughs (JPR/JFL) went from one of the biggest comedy festivals in the world to bankruptcy.
• On April 12, La Presse reported the festival lost $800,000 in an email phishing scheme in 2023.
• The company also applied for protection from creditors under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

From burst to bust

JPR was founded by businessman Gilbert Rozon in 1983 as a two-day French-language comedy event in Montréal. In 1985, Rozon was joined by promoter Andrew Nulman who brought the event to anglophone audiences and co-founded the company’s bilingual iteration. JPR/JFL is a behemoth in Canadian comedy and tourism. The flagship festival still took place in Montréal but expanded nationally and globally.

Conflicts around sexual assault, harassment

• In recent years, JFL has contended with a series of high-profile conflicts.
• At the height of #MeToo in 2017, Rozon stepped down as president after being named in numerous sexual assault allegations.
• This also brought back to light Rozon’s previous 1998 sexual assault charge that he plead guilty to.
• : Sexual misconduct and the pursuit of justice

  Mausner said Rozon’s stepping down was a “a surface-level solution for a systemic problem” and called the festival an “accessory to sexual assaults.” Following the earlier assault allegations, the organization implemented an
  anti-harassment policy and brought in new investment partners.

Royalties issues, pandemic challenges

• The channel, which once played exclusively Canadian content, would now primarily feature classic JPR/JFL recordings, meaning a substantial reduction in royalties for Canadian comedians.
• Intense public pushback from comedians led JPR/JFL to walk back their proposal and commit to playing 100 per cent Canadian content.
• The pandemic hit live festivals hard, but JPR/JFL did receive significant monetary assistance from government sources.

Blockbuster festivals, broke comedians

• Canadian comedians often think of performing at JPR/JFL as a massive career goal.
• But for years, JPR/JFL has been taken to task for their prioritization of American comedians.
• Even if JPR/JFL survives restructuring, comic Sam Sferrazza says this likely will mean “bringing in more bankable American talent paid for by Canadian taxpayers and artistic institutions.” Canadian funding agencies tend to favour blockbuster events like JPR/JFL but in the world of art grants, stand-up comedians are at a disadvantage.

Boosting international exposure

• But what if we created an environment where they not only wanted to stay but could stay.
• One option is boosting Canada’s comedic digital content internationally.

Funding for local comedians and festivals

• Another option is putting more funding directly into the pockets of individual Canadian comedians, producers, and (smaller) festivals, strengthening the comedy industry nationwide.
• We need to be asking comedians what they need to succeed and recognizing their work as both artists and contributors to Canadian culture.

Madison Trusolino has received funding for her research from SSHRC, OGS and the Jackman Humanities Institute.