A Bit More Detail

• Hornet Stories looks at the history of the queercore punk movement.


• Sarah Fonseca at them examines the subgenre of the lesbian pulp novel.


• CBC carries the argument of drag queen Halal Bae that, after RuPaul made drag mainstream, it's up to new artists like her to broaden the scope of the genre.


• I am strongly inclined to agree with Andrew Sullivan that the closeted corruption documented by Frédéric Martel in the Roman Catholic Church is morally repugnant. His New York blog has it.


• Kai Cheng Thom writes at Daily Xtra about the #MeToo movement in the context of queer communities, and the extra burdens it--and we--face.

• The final cost of the Scarborough subway remains unknown, on account of the many design changes. The Toronto Star reports.


• Steve Benjamins reports on Toronto's Jimmy's Coffee.


• The old Fairland Grocery in Kensington Market on Augusta Avenue is being made over into a funhouse. (Tickets still available at print time.) NOW Toronto reports.


• The Malta Bake Shop in the Junction is trying to resist gentrification as best as it can. The National Post reports.


• The New York Times reports on a remarkably multilingual kindergarten in Thorncliffe Park.

• blogTO lists some interesting things to do and see in Toronto's American neighbour, Buffalo.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly strongly defends contemporary journalism as essential for understanding the world.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money rightly takes issue with the claim identity politics hinders the US left. Remember New Deal coalitions?


• Marginal Revolution notes just how expensive it is to run Harvard.


• Otto Pohl notes the upcoming 76th anniversary of the Soviet deportation of the Volga Germans.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer reports on the remarkably fluent code-switching between English and French of some Washington D.C. subway riders.


• Strange Maps notes rival food and fabric maps of India and Pakistan.


• Tricia Wood at Torontoist argues that, for environmental and economic reasons, Ontario needs high-speed rail.


• Window on Eurasia suggests Tatarstan has done a poor job of defending its sovereignty from the Russian government.

• blogTO shares some photos of Toronto in colour from the 1950s.


• Centauri Dreams talks about SETI in the light of the Anthropocene era.


• Dangerous Minds notes that there is now a hipster nativity scene available for purchase.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper suggesting that tidal heating could explain the difference between super-Earths and mini-Neptunes.


• Joe. My. God. notes that protecting Trump in New York City costs that municipality a million dollars a day, and notes a parade of Spanish fascists in support of Trump.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that politics is identity politics.
  
• The LRB Blog notes the end of Sarkozy's campaign and revisits Goldwater.


• The Russian Demographics Blog reports on the latest about the population of Ukraine.


• Towleroad notes the hateful mail received by an out mayor in Massachusetts.


• The Volokh Conspiracy looks at Trump's apparently anti-constitutional entanglement of business and politics.


• Window on Eurasia reports on how Russia's promotion of the Russian language in neighbouring countries is backfiring, and looks at the hard nationalist line of Patriarch Kirill against Ukrainian autocephaly and multiculturalism in Russia.

Earlier this month, Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie was lauded for standing up against racism for the second time in a year. On Sunday Oct. 9, she filed a hate hate-crime complaint with Peel police after a local website published an article claiming she “is converting Mississauga into a dangerous Islamic war zone” so “they can kill her son just for being gay.”

The article comes a year after Mississauga council approved the zoning application for the Meadowvale Islamic Centre. During one council committee meeting, Crombie shamed Kevin Johnston, owner of the website that published the article, for distributing flyers denigrating the Muslim community and strongly petitioning against the construction of a mosque.

“Racism and flat-out lies have no place in Mississauga,” Crombie told the Toronto Star, in a statement that was widely celebrated as strong leadership.

Denouncing racism, however, is a reaction that occurs only after it has reared its ugly head. Crombie’s moves, both times, outwardly demonstrate her intention to tackle racism head-on. But they are little more than symbolic gestures, underscoring Mississauga’s preferred image of itself as a seemingly open and welcoming multicultural city. The fact is that her denunciations don’t address the reality that the Mississauga council continues to both govern and plan in a way that marginalizes its new immigrant communities, explicitly creating political spaces for racism to exist.

Like most multicultural cities, Mississauga embodies a great display of urban diversity, with 47% of residents reporting a mother language other than English. For many, it is an advertisement for global urbanism, where ethno-cultural pockets exist side by side, each with their own sounds, smells and signs.

But the city’s social diversity isn’t working as well as it may outward appear.

As the royal tour makes its way through Canada, one southwest Ontario mayor is calling on Canada to scrap its current multicultural policies and focus on ties to the monarchy.

[. . .]

Paterson stood by his Facebook comments Monday, telling CBC he welcomes new Canadians from around the world. But he expects them to conform to Canadian culture.

"If you're going to come to Canada and swear allegiance to Canada, which includes an allegiance to the monarchy, then be Canadian, that's all I'm saying," Paterson said. "Don't force us to change our ways. Come to Canada and be Canadian."

Paterson said he's not criticizing immigrants, but federal programs promoting multiculturalism. To Paterson, those come at the expense of traditions like the British monarchy.

• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper considering rates of water loss in a moist greenhouse world's atmosphere.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that leftists in Catalonia blocked separatists from forming the government.


• Far Outliers notes Persian cultural influence in the South Caucasus, among Christian and Muslim cultures alike.


• Joe. My. God. notes that the Catholic cardinal of the Dominican Republic insulted the gay American ambassador in a manner combining homophobia with misogyny.


• Language Log notes the growing multilingualism of Hong Kong, beyond Chinese languages.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money responds to a feminist criticism of Jessica Jones, and notes it is entirely possible to respond to a feminist criticism without sending death or rape threats.


• Towleroad notes the publication, by the Russian edition of Maxim, of a list of gay respected by the magazine.


• Transit Toronto notes that you only need proof of payment to board streetcars by any door.


• Window on Eurasia notes a move in Russia to undermine that country's ethnofederalism, to the demerit of minority peoples like the Tatars.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes how the old habit of the Enlightenment to organize museums by curiosities does not work if you use artifacts from indigenous peoples in the mix.

Rogers Media has cancelled multicultural news programs in Ontario and B.C. and will replace them with new current affairs programming targeting the same audience.

On Thursday, Rogers Media said in a release that it will air three new half-hour current affairs programs that will air in multiple languages in the 8:30 to 10 p.m. timeslot. The new shows will be hosted by "veteran OMNI Television on-air personalities," Rogers said.

Those shows will replace 30-minute newscasts that used to air weeknights on OMNI's local channels. Unifor, one of the largest media unions in the country, said Rogers is also cancelling V-Mix and Bollywood Boulevard, two English-language programs for South Asian audiences.

A Conservative Toronto MP, Chungsen Leung, recently attended an event organized by the Association of North American Ethnic Journalists and Writers. During the meet-and-greet, Mr. Leung was asked about the increasing difficulties faced by Iranians attempting to obtain a Canadian Visa. Emotions apparently ran high. At one point, in a heated exchange, Mr. Leung asked a member of the audience, "If you like Iran so much then why do you come to Canada?"

He then demanded to know: "Why are you here?" Some audience members were so offended by his comments and his dismissive attitude -- which one attendee characterized as "arrogant" -- that they decided to leave the event.

Mr. Leung is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism. It kind of sounds like a bad joke, doesn't it?

According to a CTV report, Mr. Leung's office claims that the exchange was a "miscommunication." His email apology expressed regret for the misunderstanding. Perhaps Mr. Leung's comments were off-the-cuff, but they were, by no means, innocuous.

Even if unintentional, Mr. Leung's comments were discriminatory and hostile. The subtext of the messaging is: "Why don't you go back where you came from?" They betray an underlying attitude that many non-white Canadians encounter when expressing views critical of government policy. This attitude becomes even more pronounced when that non-white Canadian comes from a country that, like Iran, is on the outs with Canada.

Gaelic speaking Nova Scotians are not happy with federal minister Jason Kenney.

Kenney has weighed in on the merits of the language and the government's role in preserving it. Kenney said federal government money should not be used to promote languages that are fighting for survival.

"I think we should focus on the common languages that unite us in our diversity, English and French," said Kenney. "I encourage communities to maintain their heritage languages, be they Gaelic or Punjabi or Mandarin, but that they do so with their own funds."

In the Cape Breton community of Mabou, those words are not going over well. In Mabou, you'll find street and road signs that show you the Gaelic language is alive and well.

Former Nova Scotia Premier and now CEO of the Gaelic College, Rodney MacDonald, said the Gaelic language is the cultural fabric of the Celtic community.

"I think the minister should apologize to the Gaelic community of Nova Scotia. He should apologize for the remarks. They were inappropriate. Like they say in politics, it's never too late to do the right thing."

For the last six years, the Nova Scotia government has had an Office of Gaelic Affairs. This year's budget is a little more than $500,000.

At the local grocery store in the heart of the community, people were saying the Gaelic language is important.

"It's a cultural thing and it's as important as Mi'kmaq and French is to the culture of the country," said Janice Langille. "It's all part and parcel of our heritage and should be preserved."

"Well there's a lot of things in French is that a waste of money," said Maureen Hart.

Nova Scotia Gaelic is facing its “Yiddish moment.” Yiddish was, for generations, the language of the shtetl, the small Jewish communities of central and eastern Europe whose culture was dealt its final blow by the Holocaust, just as Gaelic was once the language of the Highlands and was dealt its near-death blow by the Highland Clearances.

Both Yiddish and Gaelic made it over to the New World and, for a while, did fairly well; Yiddish was once very strong indeed in New York (where the Yiddish edition of the newspaper The Forward is still published) and Montreal, just as Gaelic was once an inescapable part of the life of Cape Breton. And both languages have declined very sharply.

Both have some fluent speakers left, but with Yiddish as with Gaelic, most are elderly. Younger people who consider either language part of their identity rarely (not never, but rarely) know enough to hold down a conversation. It’s more typical for them to know snatches: songs, little sayings, a few words and phrases. Nobody who spends any time getting to know either Gaelic or Yiddish can avoid seeing that reality.

It does not have to be that way. Gaelic speakers have rights, and they could start to assert those rights more forcefully. Nova Scotia’s Office of Gaelic Affairs offers a model of how that could be done. Anyone who has visited their website knows that every-thing they do is available in Gaelic. Everyone who has been to an event where they are present has seen their indefatigable chief Lewis MacKinnon speaking mellifluous Gaelic; whenever he says anything in public, he says it in Gaelic first, and then repeats it in English. The office is fully capable of doing the everyday and sometimes tedious work of government in Gaelic.

Rodney MacDonald is working to move St. Ann’s Colaisde na Gàidhlig, formerly known as the Gaelic College, in the same direction. Institutions like these are pointing those of us who care about Gaelic’s future as a living language away from the realm of the folkloric and sentimental, and towards the reality of the world we live in.

They are pointing us towards Romansh. Romansh is, along with German, French and Italian, one of Switzerland’s four “national languages.” But unlike the other three, it’s not an “official language.” The Swiss government doesn’t use it more than it has to, and you don’t encounter it much outside of small mountain communities, where it has always had to struggle against German for survival. But Romansh speakers have made a lot of progress over the last years.

Advocates of Nova Scotia Gaelic have worked hard to get the language in more schools, and that’s a struggle in Romansh communities as well. Nova Scotians who drive towards Cape Breton start to notice bilingual signage as the approach the causeway, and signage is an area where Romansh communities have actually done quite well. You can get your phone bill in Romansh, if you ask for it.