China’s Nightmarish Censorship

I’m very honored to be invited by PEN American Center to attend today’s meeting.

As a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), a close friend of Liu Xiaobo, and a writer who yearns for freedom of expression, I’ve experienced great changes in the past ten years of my life.

I was honoured to be vice-president of ICPC when Liu Xiaobo was the president. In defiance of the Chinese Communist Party’s restrictions on freedom of association and assembly, we held meetings with our colleagues. We provided many kinds of support to imprisoned writers.

We also shouldn’t forget those imprisoned writers who are not as famous as Liu Xiaobo. Their names appear in the report to be released today. While they are in prison and don’t know about the release of this report, they certainly know that so many fellow writers around the world are concerned about them. Thank you very much to everyone who has participated in and supports this work.

The ICPC can still exist in China because it is a member of PEN International. If the Chinese Communist Party publicly announced that the ICPC is an illegal organization, it would be as though they announced that PEN International is an illegal organization. They would not dare to do so for the time being. Over the years, many governments and non-governmental organizations, big companies and tycoons have given in to the Chinese government’s soft and hard measures, because they are only concerned about doing business with China and pretend that they don’t see the increasingly serious human rights problems. However, PEN International isn’t like that. Instead, it continues to support the freedom of expression and other basic human rights of Chinese writers.

This makes me think of American writer Hemingway’s famous book For Whom the Bell Tolls. The bell tolls for every one of us. If we forget our brothers and sisters who lose their freedom due to their words, we don’t deserve to enjoy freedom.

I can’t answer this complicated question for the moment. I can’t tell him that the Chinese Communist Party’s secret police hooded me and kidnapped me. And that they bent back my fingers one by one and said that as my fingers typed 10 million characters in articles on the computer opposing the Chinese Communist Party, all ten of my fingers should be broken. They said that they only needed to make a phone call to their senior, and then they could dig a hole and bury me alive in half an hour. In numerous nightmares, I have dreamed of the torture I experienced. That is China. A writer who speaks the truth needs to endure such pain. He needs courage to do so.

I hope that when my son grows up, he won’t have to listen to such a horrifying answer. By that time, I hope that all Chinese writers can think and write freely. By that time, Liu Xiaobo and I will meet each other again in Beijing and invite you all to hold a conference for PEN International.

In order for that day to come sooner, let us all work hard together!

Thank you!

Photocredit: Matt Chase

The post Ten Million Troublesome Characters appeared first on PEN Canada.

On May 16, 2013 PEN Canada will host Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book: Race, Censorship, and Free Speech, Lawrence Hill in conversation with Carol Duncan at the Royal Ontario Museum. We caught up with them ahead of the event and asked  a few questions about cultural boundaries and writings that transgress them.

Lawrence Hill
PC: Commenting on the controversy over Deborah Ellis’s Three Wishes, you write: “[a]pparently, Palestinian and Israeli children are old enough to live through hell, but children in Canada are not old enough to read about it.” What other inappropriate books would you recommend for Canadian children, or adults, and why?

LH: One good starting place would be books challenged in the last year or two. I consulted the 2013 Freedom to Read brochure published by the Book and Periodical Council and found myself intrigued by three such books. I‘ll recommend one for adults and two for children.

For adults: Thieves of Bay Street: How Banks, Brokerages and the Wealthy Steal Billions from Canadians, by Bruce Livesey. Subject of a lawsuit by Conrad Black. May every book club in Canada spend one year reading nothing but books by authors who have been threatened, sued or chased out of town.

For children: As She Grows by Leslie Anne Cowan. About troubled teenagers, and challenged because it is sexually explicit. Could you please find me a teenager whose moral or emotional foundation will be shattered by sex on the page?

Body Drama, by Nancy Amanda Redd. A shoot-from-the-hip description of girls and their bodies. Challenged for reasons of nudity and being age inappropriate. I can’t think of a better reason to read a book than being told that you’re not the right age for it.

PC:  You end your book with the idea that “[t]he very purpose of literature is to enlighten, disturb, awaken and provoke. Literature should get us talking – even when we disagree…It should inspire recognition of our mutual humanity. Together.” Sadly, PEN’s large WiPC case-lists suggest that this noble ideal is honoured more in the breach than the observance. Are you hopeful that this will change, or is it the inevitable fate of writers who ‘disturb, awaken and provoke’?

Carol Duncan
PC: In This Spot of Ground you refer to the “long tradition within black churches in North America of using church gatherings as places to address political, economic, and civic matters” and you recount the ways that Canadian Baptist churches have helped West Indian immigrants quietly prevail over racism and social exclusion. In other contexts, however, North American Christian churches seem to prefer intemperate confrontation rather than dialogue and civic engagement (most notoriously, perhaps, in the case of the Westboro Baptist Church). To what extent are these outcomes due to the cultural differences between the respective churches? Are these differences diminishing with time, or deepening?

CD: I hesitate to assess these differences as the result of perceived or actual cultural differences between churches. There has been a history of condemnation among many Christian churches in North America on issues of gender and sexuality (including same-sex marriage), but recently there has also been a significant progressive movement on these issues too. One important area of change is women’s leadership roles and the place of the LGBTQI community. It’s also important to note that some churches have made progress fighting racism and other discrimination while lacking a similar attitude towards sexual diversity and gender inclusivity. In other words, it’s possible to hold varying perspectives on the political spectrum simultaneously.

PC: You mention Paul Gilroy’s description of “the Black Atlantic” as a “counterculture of modernity” and the idea of “the [slave] ship as a metaphor of cultural transmission” connecting Western Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. How does the complex hybridity that results from this experience compare with the Canadian idea of multiculturalism? Does it contribute to a more inclusive or more tolerant culture?

CD: Caribbean experiences of hybrid identities emerge from a long history of intercultural contact. While it’s tempting to speculate that there is more inclusivity or tolerance in the Caribbean, historically, compared to Canada, such an observation overlooks the painful histories of colonialism, indentureship and slavery. Comparisons between the “one drop rule” which sharply divided racial categories of “blacks” and “whites” in North America with systems of skin colour gradation in the Caribbean as being somehow more liberal miss the underlying valuation of whiteness as the pinnacle of both systems. In this sense, both the Caribbean and Canada have shared legacies of unfree labour, ideologies of race and practices of racism.

These complex hybridities resonate with and challenge multiculturalism in Canada as a program of nation building. The resonance or points of similarity lie in notions of identity rooted in plural experiences. In Canada, that is perhaps most popularly signalled in the notion of hyphenated identities. Multiculturalism, however, has been criticized for not adequately challenging the status quo regarding the distribution of economic and political power. From this critical viewpoint, multiculturalism remains most active at the level of cultural representation.

On Censorship
PC:Which of the twentieth century’s most-censored books would you like to have written? Why?

LH: Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Short, disturbing, powerful, equally exciting for children and adults. It astounds me that Steinbeck could pack so much power into so few pages. My eldest child, Genevieve, picked it up at the age of ten, she read a few pages, looked over at me and said, “Daddy, this guy can write.”

I also wish I had been living in the 1930s and bold enough at the time to have written Native Son by Richard Wright. However, if you will permit me — I would not have written that dreadful 33-page courtroom scene near the end of the novel, which damn near killed the book. Other parts of it are so courageous and unflinching, though, that Native Son still stands out as raw, unputdownable indictment of racial injustice in America.

PC: Lawrence writes that: I don’t agree with those who burned my book. But I empathize with them. And that, and the troubling relationship we have with books that offend us deeply, is what I want to talk about.” Can you name any book(s) that offend you deeply but nevertheless taught you something valuable?

LH: Mein Kampf, by Hitler. I have not read the whole thing. But I’ve read enough to understand how hatred can make a man blind to humanity and turn him into a monster. If you want to glimpse hatred up close, what better way to do it than to enter the mind of the world’s greatest practitioner?

CD: I was, and remain, deeply offended by Little Black Sambo written by Helen Bannerman. Published in 1899, it was a popular children’s classic during the first half of the twentieth century. Even as a child of the Civil Rights era, I was familiar with the book and its imagery. The racialized stereotypes of black children – in the text and illustrations – are stark examples of racist imagery from only a few generations back. I find it most disturbing and informative that such imagery was widely acceptable for children and persisted even into the era of the Civil Rights movement. The book showed me the pervasiveness of racialized stereotyping as a part of children’s everyday reading culture.

PC: In his book on the Rushdie fatwa, Kenan Malik suggests that modern hate-speech legislation resembles a secular, multicultural reinvention of medieval blasphemy laws. By contrast, the US First Amendment often protects opinions and practices to an extent that few Canadians would find acceptable. Where do you think Canada should fall on this spectrum? Would you, for example, approve or disapprove of the French proposal to ban on hateful tweets?

LH: Some countries such as Canada have anti-hate laws. Others, such as the States, do not. Some people argue that anti-hate laws cannot be justified in their infringements on free speech, and others argue that they are necessary. I fall into the camp of those who believe it is better to have anti-hate laws, than not, and that the right to live without having one’s life threatened by, say, incitements of racial hatred trumps the right to free speech. Remember the Holocaust? Remember Rwanda?

The argument for pro-censorship legislation by government raises thorny questions about the role of the state in protecting citizens from potentially harmful  ideas. Such a position, however, rests on the notion that those who assess the acceptability of an idea are somehow occupying a moral high ground from which pronouncements are infallibly made. Being convinced of the rightness of one’s ideas at all times often seems to underscore the support for censorship. Decision making demands the ability to hear other viewpoints which might challenge our own deeply held convictions.

The historical record on viewpoints on race in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries, for instance, demonstrates that views that were once held to be widely acceptable within society were subsequently debated and subject to critique. New media should not circumvent the process of debate and dialogue. If anything, these forms of communication could be used for even more democratic forms of participation in debate and dialogue. Perhaps we need to encourage more civic engagement and rigorous debate. As a teacher, I see the cultivation of this ability as one of the major roles of education.

Photo credit: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lse67xjx6T1qd206po1_500.jpg

The post Race, Censorship, and Free Speech appeared first on PEN Canada.

Art as a “hammer with which to change the world”

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer

The Canadian premiere of Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer coincided with news that one of the feminist-punk group’s imprisoned members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, had been denied early release by a Russian court. That solemn update – delivered to the audience by directors Maxim Pozdorovkin and Mike Lerner – could not dull the filmmakers’ fiery account of what they called the “most provocative piece of performance art in history.”

That now infamous “punk prayer” highlighting the fusion of church and state in Russia under Putin – a frantic and colourful performance by several mask-clad members of Pussy Riot in Moscow’s Christ the Cathedral Church on February 12, 2012 – resulted in grossly disproportionate two-year jail sentences for Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich (for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”) and sparked a worldwide campaign in support of the group.

At the heart of Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer rages a battle between freedom of expression and deeply entrenched religious beliefs and nationalistic ideals. Eschewing a strong editorial tone, Pozdorovkin and Lerner allow Pussy Riot, their feverish supporters, and even their ardent critics, to carry the narrative as the “culture of protest” in Russia gets put to the test. The film captures moving defences from the three accused (positioning themselves as the “voice of the voiceless”) as they attempt to overturn what seems like a sad but inevitable outcome.

As the three young women receive their sentencing near the end of the film, a pro-Pussy Riot protester outside the courtroom is chased up a steel fence by a police officer. The end result of the encounter is not shown in the film. It makes for a fitting allegory about the future of free expression in Russia.

Samutsevich, 30, was granted early release in October 2012 based on having not actively participated in the Cathedral performance. Tolokonnikova, 23, and Alekhina, 24, continue to serve two-year sentences in separate Russian prisons. Pussy Riot are honorary members of PEN Canada.

Terms and Conditions May Apply

Have you ever bothered to read the wall of text that precedes the option “I Agree” on web-based terms of agreements? If like for most people, your answer is no, it may actually be for the best, at least as far as your peace of mind is concerned. In Terms and Conditions May Apply, director Cullen Hoback approximates that it would take 180 hours a year to comb through the avalanche of privacy agreements inherent to using popular internet sites like Google, Facebook, and YouTube. That turns out to be one of the least chilling discoveries in the film

Despite the inclusion of interspersed animated shorts and humorous pop culture references, Terms and Conditions is a downright scary look into the death of personal privacy as we know it, an illustration of a post-9/11 climate rife with secret surveillance. Hoback sheds light on how many major corporations continue to shell out users’ personal information to advertisers – for big dollars – and perhaps more dangerously, to governments and government agents (in one memorable scene, a satirical CIA director calls Facebook a “dream come true”).

Addressing the issue of why people should care that information is being gathered on them based on their Google searches, e-mails, and social media activity, Terms and Conditions highlights the ability of governments to use this information to prevent public protest, stifle whistleblowing and dissent, and create an environment of self-censorship. Or as one of the experts interviewed in the film puts it: “You don’t have anything to hide until you do.”

The Convict Patient

Described by director Alejandro Solar Luna as an illustration of journalism’s capacity to change history, The Convict Patient tracks the horrifying story of “Don” Carlos Castañeda de la Fuente, one of the few “disappeared” political prisoners in Mexico to have their cases declassified.

Inspired by a piece on Don Carlos published in a Mexican newspaper, and with the help of human rights lawyer Norma Ibanez, Solar digs deep into the secret torture and wrongful 23-year psychiatric imprisonment of Castañeda from 1970-83 – the result of his failed assassination attempt on then-Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz in 1968.

Literature and religion get mixed in with Castañeda’s motive – a wish to avenge the victims of the Tlatelolco Massacre (October 1968) – while issues of impunity and access to information come to the forefront as Don Carlos’ detainment record is initially nowhere to be found. As well as being a damning account of the disproportionate punishment suffered by Castañeda, The Convict Patient illuminates the extent to which oppressive governments can push its citizens to the edge.

The Great North Korean Picture Show

Shining a light on a much-discussed, highly secretive part of the world, The Great North Korean Picture Show takes us behind the walls of the country’s only film school to document a fascinating overlapping of arts and politics. As might be expected, the late Kim Jong-il (a notorious film buff) casts an inescapable and omnipresent figure, his presence permeating every corner of arts and culture in the country (even the student production at the core of the film is a thinly-veiled bit of propaganda exalting the virtues of the North Korean socialist health care system).

Though the film’s subjects express an unyielding devotion to the “eternal general secretary” that can be described as nothing less than cult-like – history is re-written, dissent seemingly unthinkable – a human rights documentary confirming Western preconceptions this is not. They risk lingering on the mundane, but in following the lives of two North Korean film school students, directors James Leong and Lynn Lee offer up heartening stories that provide a semblance of familiarity to a country that through the mainstream media has only ever seemed distant and cold.

Photo Credits: http://www.hotdocs.ca/

The post Hot Docs 2013: Censorship and Dissent appeared first on PEN Canada.

PEN Canada’s Writers in Prison Committee  (WiPC) has recently learned that a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence passed on the Tunisian blogger Jabeur Mejri, for expressing allegedly blasphemous views online, was confirmed by the Court of Cassation on April  25, 2013. Mejri has been in prison since his arrest on March  5, 2012. PEN considers Jabeur Mejri to be targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Tunisia is a signatory. PEN calls for Mejri’s immediate and unconditional release and urgently seeks guarantees of his safety in detention.

According to PEN’s information, blogger Jabeur Mejri was arrested on March  5, 2012 for using social networks to publicise a satirical book entitled The Illusion of Islam. On March 9, 2012, a primary court in Mahdia charged Mejri with “disturbing the public order and violating social morals” under article 121 (3) and 226 of Penal Code, and with “publishing articles which violate good morals” under article 86 of Communication Law. These laws were established by the Ben Ali regime.

On March 15, 2012, a primary court in Mahdia (eastern Tunisia) sentenced Mejri to seven and half years in prison. He was also fined 1200 Tunisian Dinars ($790). The author of the book, writer Ghazi Beji, was also charged in the case but fled Tunisia and was sentenced to seven and half years in prison in absentia. Mejir, however, has been in prison since his arrest on March 5, 2012. Mejri has lost all appeals and, on April 25, 2013, the Court of Cassation upheld his sentence.

According to Mejri’s lawyer, he was tortured during his interrogation and was also attacked on several occasions inside the prison by other prisoners after news spread that he had “insulted Islam”. Mejri suffers from behavioural problems, and requests by his defence team for an examination of his mental state were refused by the court.

On April 23, 2013, a committee supporting Jabeur Mejri and Ghazi Beji published a letter from Mejri, written in his prison cell in Mahdia, in which he claims he has been subject to torture. Mejri wrote:

“There’s no freedom of expression here in Tunisia, it is dead…I am denied medicine to cure my illness and other rights. Seven years and six months is a long period to spend in a small, dark and gloomy place. Officers take pleasure in torturing me.”

 More information on Jabeur Mejri can be found here

Please send appeals

• Condemning the harsh prison sentence handed down to blogger Jabeur Mejri solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to free expression;
• Calling for his immediate and unconditional release in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Tunisia is a signatory;

• Expressing concerns for his safety, and seeking assurances that he is not being tortured or ill-treated in detention which violates Article 5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

• Urging the Tunisian authorities to allow him access to immediate medical attention.

APPEALS TO:

President
Moncef Marzouki
Palais Présidentiel
Tunis, Tunisia
Fax: +216 71 744 721

Prime Minister
Ali Laarayedh
Place du Gouvernement – La Kasbah
Tunis 1020
e-mail : boc@pm.gov.tn

Minister of Justice
Nadhir Ben Ammou
Ministry of Justice
31 boulevard Bab Benat
Tunis 1006, Tunisia
e-mail : mju@ministeres.tn
Fax: +216 71 568 106

Minister of Human Rights and Transitional Justice
Samir Dilu
2 rue d’Alger 1000 – Tunis
Fax : +216 71 349 900
e-mail : boc@maffepa.gov.tn

H.E. Mouldi Sakri
Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia
Embassy of Tunisia in Ottawa
515 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 3P8
Canada

COPIES TO:

Directeur général des prisons
Rue 8003, Appartement –L-
Espace de Tunis Monplaisir
Tunisia
Fax: +216 71 904 472

Photo credit: Amnesty

The post RAPID ACTION NETWORK Appeal | May 7, 2013 appeared first on PEN Canada.

Art’s capacity to deliver social change is one reason why it so often provokes controversy and, occasionally, censorship. With hindsight, when we consider the history of censored works—blasphemous paintings, pornographic books—we may marvel at how something now embedded in the canon could ever have caused such outrage. But contemporary censorship is even more surprising.

Two films in this year’s Hot Docs Festival, Salma and The Exhibition, consider the silencing of two artists who endeavoured to confront and oppose the marginalization of women in their societies. Both generated controversy and faced various forms of censorship, but ultimately the outcomes of their situations were quite different. What their stories share is their determination to represent female bodies—their own and those of other women—which had undergone oppression and/or violence. The criticisms they faced and the reasons for these criticisms lie at the heart of the two documentaries.

Kim Longinotto’s Salma tells the story of a Muslim Tamil woman who, at the age of thirteen, was forced to remain inside the home of her parents—and after marriage, that of her husband’s parents—for the next twenty years of her life. Far from being a uniquely cruel form of punishment, this situation is common to all the Muslim girls of Salma’s village and villages like it; once they hit puberty girls are sentenced to a life indoors, their bodies literally hidden from the world. Hidden too are their voices.

Consumed by loneliness and the demands of an unwanted marriage, Salma found her release through writing. At night while her husband slept, or by daylight sheltered in the confines of the toilet, she would scribble lines of poetry onto paper scraps torn from calendars. For safekeeping she kept her pen hidden in the box designated for sanitary napkins. Despite the threats uttered by her husband whenever he found her poems, Salma continued to write. When she had written enough poems to fill a book, she entrusted them to her mother to send to a publisher in Chennai. This was all done in utmost secrecy. The poems went on to be published as a collection and achieved almost immediate success. Miraculously, and through a series of events of which Longinotto’s film oddly enough provides few details, Salma went from oppressed housewife to leader of the village council, and now lives independently in Chennai. We are made to understand that hers is a rare feminist success story that owes everything to the power of art. As her husband at one point confesses to the camera, there was no denying that his wife had a unique gift.

In an interview with Poetry International, Salma says that her poems can be read more broadly to reflect  “the feelings and experiences of other women who exist in similar life situations.” This may seem at odds with the poems’ confessional tone, but one need only consider how very few women in situations like hers have ever openly expressed the kind of sensuality and emotional candour her poems depict. In poems like “Lake,” which likens a woman’s body to the eponymous body of water, Salma communicates the paradox of female sexuality in a society where such a thing cannot exist in public. Through language, Salma’s body and the bodies of other Muslim Tamil women are uncovered in order to make visible the pain they endure within a patriarchal culture.

The Exhibition hits harder and closer to home for Canadian viewers. Director Damon Vignale trains his lens on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where dozens of women went missing in the past three decades. These women were mostly prostitutes and drug users, many of them Aboriginal, and for years their disappearances were ignored or downplayed by the police and RCMP. It wasn’t until the 2002 arrest of Robert Pickton that the mainstream public even realized the extent of the crisis, while those familiar with the Downtown Eastside were incredulous it had taken authorities so long to pay attention. Vignale’s film pieces together footage of old news clips with contemporary interviews to show the extent of society’s failure to protect its most vulnerable persons. In this respect, as a record of that tragic miscarriage of social justice, The Exhibition is an important documentary film.

Yet the missing women and the Pickton murder case are not Vignale’s primary subjects. Instead, he tells their story by focusing on a Vancouver artist who chose to make the missing women the subjects of her art. Pamela Masik’s The Forgotten consists of 69 larger than life portraits of each of the women officially declared missing from the Downtown Eastside. Painted from photos issued by the police department, many of the portraits contain smears of blood-red paint on the subjects’ faces or a deep tear in the canvas across their throats. In the film Masik explains that her intention was not so much to memorialize the women but to confront her audience with the brutal reality of how society had abandoned them. The blood-like paint and other “wounds” are meant to recreate the violence inflicted upon many of the women in real life.

Understandably, Masik’s project encountered a good deal of resistance. Several family members of the murder victims were aghast that an artist who had no personal ties to any of the missing women—and who moreover had no ties to the aboriginal community from which most of them came—would use the faces of these women as material for her art. Other critics unrelated to the victims made similar objections. The exhibition that was planned for Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology was eventually cancelled, just weeks before its debut, and since then Masik’s portraits have remained in storage. Their first public display was in Vignale’s film.

The challenge Masik encountered was that the female bodies she tried to put on display were not her own, and therefore she faced charges of objectifying them for personal gain. Although the gallery’s official reason for cancelling the exhibition remains unclear in the documentary, it appeared to stem from the grief of the loved ones who survived the victims, and from the fact that the portraits are violent renditions of real people who lived in the city. Vignale’s documentary suggests the decision had a hint of hypocrisy to it, or at least showed that society was still unwilling to look its victims in the eye. One reporter he interviews argues that media descriptions of the victims—who, for the most part, were discovered as traces of blood and body parts on the Pickton farm—objectified them no less than Masik’s paintings. The paintings, even if they do strike one as distasteful, oblige the viewer to gaze at and be gazed upon by complexly individual faces. Perhaps there is something to be said for this endeavour, given the public’s widespread ignorance of the lives of these women.

Salma’s poetry helped her escape from a restricted existence and, by giving people knowledge of a female body they had always tried hard to ignore, it helped other women do the same. By initially publishing anonymously, Salma more easily defied the cultural norms in place to censor her, and thereby effected real social change. Longinotto shows this by filming a friend of Salma’s, wearing a full niqab, explaining how Salma’s writing emboldened her to leave the house unaccompanied by her husband.

Pamela Masik’s art, by contrast, failed to educate society about the plight of the women on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside because her exhibition, The Forgotten, never took place. Concerns that Masik was profiting from the dead women tainted critical responses to the paintings, and put the focus more on the artist than the artwork. Fortunately Vignale’s film rectifies this to a certain degree, by giving us a better idea of who some of these women were both in body and in mind.

Photo credit: Sundance still for Salma

The post Censoring the Body appeared first on PEN Canada.

“By misusing anti-terror legislation to stifle the peaceful work of journalists like Mr. Nega and his colleagues Reeyot Alemu and Woubshet Taye, the government has, unfortunately, demonstrated that it is willing to disregard the legitimate rights of the Ethiopian people and undermine the credibility of international efforts to address real security threats in the region, all in an attempt to silence critical voices in the country. It is time for the international community to make it clear to the government in Addis Ababa that such violations will no longer be tolerated.”

The decision upholding the verdict came yesterday after the Supreme Court postponed the appeal proceedings on seven separate occasions. Mr. Nega, who has been detained by the government eight times because of his journalism, was arrested on September 14, 2011 after he authored a series of articles and spoke publicly about the possible implications of the Middle East and North African-style popular uprising spreading to Ethiopia. Authorities held Mr. Nega without access to family for nearly one month and without access to an attorney for nearly two months. At trial, Mr. Nega admitted criticizing the government but affirmed that his writings only called for peaceful democratic reform in the country. He was convicted on June 27, 2012 and sentenced to 18 years in prison on July 13, 2012.

After his sentencing, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that the continued imprisonment of Mr. Nega violates Ethiopia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a party, and called for his immediate release.

For additional comment, please contact:

Patrick Griffith, Freedom Now, +1 202.223.3733, pgriffith@freedom-now.org

Claire Beston, Amnesty International, +44 (2)203.036.5490, claire.beston@amnesty.org

Jason McLure, Committee to Free Eskinder Nega, +1 202.670.1422, jmclure@gmail.com

Nani Jansen, Media Legal Defence Initiative, + 44 207.324.4089, nani.jansen@mediadefence.org

John M. Donnelly, National Press Club Press Freedom Committee, +1 202.650.6738, jdonnelly@cq.com;

Sarah Hoffman, PEN American Center, +1 212.334.1660 (ext. 111), sarah@pen.org

The post Ruling by Ethiopia’s Supreme Court in Eskinder Nega Case Another Missed Opportunity appeared first on PEN Canada.

Today, PEN International released Set Culture Free: Creativity and Constraint in Today’s China, presenting findings on the ongoing threats to individual writers and journalists in China and an assessment of the climate for freedom of expression in the world’s most populous state. These findings and assessments are echoed and amplified throughout the report in ten essays contributed by leading writers living inside and outside of China.

Findings

1. Freedom of expression continues to be curtailed in China, despite pledges by Chinese leaders to safeguard and expand essential rights in the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

• There has been an escalating series of crackdowns on targeted writers and activists since 2008, and widespread and ongoing crackdowns on freedom of expression in Tibetan regions and the Xinjiang Uighur and Inner Mongolian Autonomous Regions.
• The human cost of these crackdowns has been severe, as prison sentences handed down to writers have lengthened dramatically and as authorities have begun to bypass the courts completely, detaining writers incommunicado in secret locations and subjecting them to abusive interrogations.

2. Chinese citizens are breaking through the barriers of censorship and self-censorship by finding new ways and using new tools to share their experiences and opinions, including highly critical social and political views.

• Chinese people have increased their capacity, creativity, and sense of freedom to express critical thoughts and ideas, despite widespread censorship of the Internet and wholesale surveillance of its users.
• The government has responded with new attempts to impose control but the people appear determined to hold, and expand, the ground they’ve gained.
• The increasingly assertive voices of China’s citizens is the single most important phenomenon for freedom of expression in today’s China.

3. Ongoing government efforts to silence dissident voices coupled with the Chinese people’s ability to creatively respond has created a pressure from above/pressure from below dynamic that is playing out in the realm of literature.

• State-controlled publishers and writers associations are now competing with private publishing houses and with individual writers who are publishing their work directly on the internet.

• China’s stature as a major player in the international literary scene is being undercut by its efforts to extend a censoring hand, despite China’s increasingly visible presence at international book fairs and the awarding of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature to state-approved but often critical writer Mo Yan.

Recommendations

PEN International therefore calls on the government of the People’s Republic of China to:

1. Restore and protect the right of all writers, journalists, and bloggers in China to exercise their right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the Chinese constitution and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by:

• Immediately and unconditionally releasing Liu Xiaobo from prison and Liu Xia from extralegal house arrest.
• Immediately and unconditionally releasing Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC) members Shi Tao, Yang Tongyan, and Zhu Yufu, and all other writers, journalists, and bloggers listed in this report who are currently imprisoned or detained, either in detention facilities or in residential confinement, in violation of their right to freedom of expression.
• Ending all forms of surveillance and harassment of writers, journalists, and bloggers in China. This includes but is not limited to: dismantling surveillance cameras placed outside the homes of dissident writers; removing guards who are posted outside and inside the homes of writers under house arrest or surveillance; terminating all electronic surveillance including monitoring cell phone conversations, text messages, and email messsages; and ending the practice of informal questioning and warnings by police against writers.
• Instituting legal reforms that will end the imprisonment and extralegal detentions of writers for the exercise of their legitimate right to freedom of expression, including:Immediately banning the use of enforced disappearance, house arrest, and all other forms of detention without trial or due process;
• Ending the use of administrative sentences including “residential surveillance” and “reeducation through labor”;
• Amending China’s criminal code—particularly Article 105 on “subversion,” Article 111 on “state secrets,” and Article 103 on “splittism” against writers—to ensure that these provision do not penalize the practice of peaceful freedom of expression.

2. Respect and protect the right of Chinese citizens to a free and independent press, as guaranteed under Article 19 of the ICCPR, and guarantee the right of Chinese and international journalists to practice their profession without fear of persecution, by:

• Ending censorship of print, digital, and broadcast media and dismantling government structures and offices that carry out press censorship and otherwise exert pressure on the press.
• Allowing full media access to so-called “sensitive areas” including Tibet and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, and allowing domestic and international journalists unfettered access to these regions and peoples.
• Encouraging and fostering the establishment of private, independently-owned media outlets that operate free of governmental interference.

3. Respect and protect the right of writers and publishers in China to publish without fear of reprisals or government interference, and foster the creation of domestic and internationally-treasured literature and the growth of a world-class publishing industry, by:

• Ending systematic censorship and book bannings;
• Stopping post-publication retributions against publishers and editors who publish disfavoured material, including firings, harassment, closures, and the denial of new ISBN numbers;
• Relinquishing state control of ISBNs and creating a fully independent agency that allows both state-controlled and independent publishers equal and unfettered access to ISBNs.

4. Uphold the right of all Chinese citizens to exercise fully their right to freedom of expression under Chinese and international law by:

• Ending Internet censorship and the blocking or suppression of all digitally transmitted information to which access is guaranteed under international standards of freedom of expression;
• Ceasing all surveillance of digital communications. This includes but is not limited to state monitoring of emails, Skype conversations, SMS and text messages, and microblog and blog content.

5. Protect the fundamental right of ethnic minorities and all who are living in so-called “sensitive regions” to full freedom of expression by:

• Abandoning the practice of shutting down the Internet in certain regions, including Tibet and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, during periods of unrest;
• Respecting the linguistic rights of Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians, and all minorities, as well as their right to cultural expression including freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.

6. Ensure the vitality and reach of China’s languages and literatures, and the international stature, influence, and impact of its literatures and other cultural exports, by:

• Altering its approach to international book fairs and other cultural events overseas, demonstrating a tolerance for diverse and independent voices and opinions in conversations about the country;
• Lifting travel bans and restrictions on dissidents and other disfavored writers and ensuring that all China’s writers, journalists, and bloggers can travel freely outside China;
• Ending visa denials for international writers, journalists, and scholars and ensuring that visiting writers, journalists, and scholars can travel freely inside China.

 
To encourage positive action by the Chinese government on the above recommendations, we call on the international community to:

• Use every opportunity and all available diplomatic means to press for the release of Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xia, and all writers, journalists, and bloggers currently in prison or in detention in China in denial of their right to freedom of expression;
• Officially protest all attacks and restrictions on domestic and international journalists working in China and demand conditions for domestic and international media workers that meet accepted international standards.
• Support and foster private and joint-venture traditional and new media outlets and publishing houses and demand full freedom of expression protections for all international and joint-venture media and publishing operations in China.
• Reject requests by Chinese publishers to censor, alter, or adapt the content of international publications for Chinese editions.
• End all government and private sector complicity with, support for, or facilitation of censorship and surveillance organs and technologies and press the Chinese government to adopt and comply with emerging international norms guaranteeing the digital freedom of all citizens.
• Foster and engage in an energetic, open, and free exchange of literature and ideas that includes welcoming a full range of Chinese voices, including those who are currently barred from official delegations and those who are currently forced to live in exile.
• Celebrate and encourage the growing richness and diversity of discourse in Chinese literature, traditional media, and new media by expanding opportunties for Chinese writers, journalists, and bloggers to have their work translated and published outside of China.

PEN’s concern about the treatment of individual writers in China is connected in no small part to the experiences of PEN members in China, including poet and critic Liu Xiaobo, a founding member and past president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Liu Xiaobo is serving an 11-year prison sentence for seven sentences that allegedly amount to “incitement to subversion of state power.” His freedom, and the freedom of his wife, Liu Xia, who has been held in extralegal, incommunicado house arrest in her apartment in Beijing since Liu’s Nobel Prize selection was announced, remains one of PEN’s highest organisational priorities. This report:

• tracks the fate of over 100 writers who were jailed, assaulted, held in extrajudicial detention, or hounded into exile in the last five years. They include Liu Xiaobo, a former President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center and the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, and 16 other PEN Members.
• is the culmination of five years of research and advocacy on behalf of writers, journalists, and bloggers targeted for their work in China
• is the product of a close collaboration of writers and PEN members inside and outside of China
• includes ten essays by leading Chinese writers illuminating situation for freedom of expression in China from—at times harrowing—personal experience

About PEN
PEN International celebrates literature and promotes freedom of expression. Founded in 1921, our global community of writers now comprises 144 Centers spanning more than 100 countries. Our programs, campaigns, events and publications connect writers and readers for global solidarity and cooperation. PEN International is a non-political organization and holds consultative status at the United Nations and UNESCO. www.pen-international.org.

Photo credit: Lennart Preiss/AP

The post Set Culture Free: Creativity and Constraint in Today’s China appeared first on PEN Canada.

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN Canada is disturbed by the disappearance of Cardel journalist Sergio Landa Rosado from Veracruz state. Landa has been missing since January 23, 2013. The WiPC is also concerned by alleged threats made by Veracruz authorities against Proceso reporter Jorge Carrasco Araizaga. PEN calls for a prompt and thorough investigation into Landa’s disappearance and the threats against Carrasco, and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. It urges Mexican government to provide appropriate protection to Carrasco.

On January 23, 2013, Sergio Landa Rosado, 45, a police reporter for the newspaper Cardel, based in the town of Cardel in Veracruz state, was reported missing after he failed to return home the previous day. He was reportedly last seen at his offices, preparing material for publication. Landa is the first journalist to go missing in Mexico since Enrique Peña Nieto became president in December 2012.

According to reports, colleagues had nicknamed Landa the “oilcloth reporter” due to the fact that he had escaped unharmed from previous attacks. Landa had reportedly only recently come out of hiding and returned to work at Cardel after being kidnapped in November 2012. Kidnapped by an armed group, he was later released after the intervention of federal forces. He is said to have returned to work following the murder of the man who had been identified as the leader of the group which had kidnapped him.

Additionally, the national newsweekly magazine Proceso has recently reported threats against its reporter Jorge Carrasco Araizaga. On April 16,  2013 Proceso reported that current and former Veracruz state officials, along with the police and state attorney general, had met in Las Ánimas, Xalapa, in order to agree on actions to take against Carrasco in response to his most recent article on the case of Regina Martínez Pérez, which began to circulate nationally on 14 April. Carrasco has been investigating the murder of Martínez, who was Veracruz correspondent for Proceso until she was killed in April 2012, and had reported finding the authorities’ investigation to be lacking in credibility. For more information on Martínez’ case, please see here.

According to Proceso, the officials involved agreed to search for personal information on Carrasco using all national databases and on April 15, 2013 agreed to capture him, taking the decision to harm him should he resist. The National Commission for Human Rights (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH), the federal attorney general and the ministry of the interior have reportedly been informed of the developments by Proceso and are working to protect Carrasco. Those who are reported to have been involved in the meetings have vehemently denied the claims; the Veracruz state attorney general published an open letter on April 16, denying the allegations, reiterating his commitment to freedom of expression and urging the magazine to share its evidence to allow for an investigation. Carrasco has reportedly gone into hiding.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a journalist. In total, 47 print and Internet journalists and writers have been murdered in Mexico since December 2006, when former president Felipe Calderón began his armed offensive against the drug cartels. Including Landa, at least nine print journalists have disappeared in the same period. Few if any of these crimes have been solved.

In March 2013 PEN International submitted a report on this violence and impunity in Mexico to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights as part of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review. In its report, PEN calls for full and transparent federal-level investigations into the murder and disappearance of journalists and writers as well as investigations into all allegations of attacks carried out by government entities. PEN also calls for the strengthening of Mexico’s new protection mechanism for journalists and human rights defenders. The report and full recommendations can be viewed here.

In late 2012, PEN International published the anthology Write Against Impunity, a literary protest highlighting the escalating violence against journalists, writers and bloggers in Latin America – in particular Mexico, Honduras and Brazil – and the impunity enjoyed by those who commit these crimes. For more information, see here.

Please send appeals:

• Protesting the disappearance of Cardel journalist Sergio Landa Rosado in January 2013, as well as threats against Proceso reporter Jorge Carrasco Araizaga in April 2013;

• Calling on the Mexican authorities to conduct a full, prompt and impartial investigation into Landa’s disappearance as well as the threats made against Carrasco, with the involvement of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE), and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice;

• Urging the Mexican authorities to ensure that Carrasco receives immediate and appropriate protection under the government’s protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists;

• Asking that federal authorities including FEADLE are empowered to investigate and prosecute crimes against journalists and freedom of expression, by ensuring that all necessary secondary laws are passed in order to implement fully the amendment to Article 73, Clause 21 of the Mexican Constitution, including making the necessary changes to the Federal Penal Code, the Federal Code on Penal Procedures and the Organic Law of the Federation’s Judiciary;

• Calling on the Mexican authorities to ensure as a matter of urgency that FEADLE is allocated sufficient financial, material and human resources in order to carry out its work;

Appeals to:

President
Lic. Enrique Peña Nieto
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, DISTRITO FEDERAL, México
Fax: (+ 52 55) 5093 4901/ 5277 2376
Email: enrique.penanieto@presidencia.gob.mx
Messages can also be sent via the Presidency’s website
Salutation: Señor Presidente/ Dear Mr President

Attorney General of the Republic
Lic. Jesús Murillo Karam
Procurador General de la República
Av. Paseo de Reforma No. 211-213, Piso 16
Col. Cuauhtémoc, Delegacion Cuauhtémoc
México D.F. C.P. 06500
Tel: + 52 55 5346 0108
Fax: + 52 55 53 46 0908 (if a voice answers, ask “tono de fax, por favor”)
E-mail: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
Messages can also be sent via the Attorney General’s website
Salutation: Señor Procurador General/Dear Attorney General

State Attorney General
Lic. Carlos Manuel Salas
Fiscal General del Estado de Chihuahua
Calle Vicente Guerrero 616 Col. Centro
Chihuahua, Chihuahua
Tel: +52 614 429 3385 (switchboard: +52 614 429 3300)
Fax +52 614 415 0314
Email: csalas@chihuahua.gob.mx
Messages can also be sent via the State Attorney General’s website
Salutation: Señor Fiscal General del Estado de Chihuahua/Dear Chihuahua State Attorney General

Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression
Lic. Laura Angelina Borbolla
Fiscal Especial para la Atención a Delitos cometidos contra la Libertad de Expresión (FEADLE)
Procurador General de la República – Subprocuraduría de Derechos Humanos
López 12, primer piso
Colonia centro, Delegacion Cuauhtémoc
México D.F. C.P. 06500
Tel: + 52 55 5346 4238
Fax: + 52 55 53 46 0908 (if a voice answers, ask “tono de fax, por favor”)
Electronic messages can be sent via the Attorney General’s website:

His Excellency Francisco J. Barrio Terrazas
Ambassador of Mexico to Canada
The Embassy of Mexico in Canada
45 O’Connor St., Suite 1000
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A4

Photo credit: AFP PHOTO/Yuri CORTEZ

The post RAPID ACTION NETWORK Appeal | April 24, 2013 appeared first on PEN Canada.

STEPHEN KING AND OWEN KING TO HEADLINE BENEFIT FOR PEN CANADA

 April 16, 2013 

Toronto – Thirty-nine years, 50 books, and 350 million copies into his literary career, Stephen King will discuss the writing life with his son, first-time novelist Owen King on the opening night of the 34^th International Festival of Authors.

In his only scheduled Canadian appearance, Stephen King and his son, Owen King, will headline PEN Canada’s annual benefit to take place on Thursday, October 24^th, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. in the Fleck Dance Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto. Award-winning mystery writer Louise Penny will moderate the discussion.

“We are thrilled that Stephen and Owen King are supporting the work of PEN,” said Charlie Foran, President, PEN Canada. “The evening promises to be a rare glimpse of an intimate father-son conversation about life and art.”

Stephen King will present his new novel, Doctor Sleep, which returns to the characters and the territory of his first best-selling hardcover novel, The Shining, including the now middle-aged Dan Torrance. Owen King will present his debut novel, Double Feature, which explores the creative life and the complicated relationship between a B-movie actor and his filmmaking son.

Tickets to the event are $100 with all proceeds going to PEN Canada. Advance tickets will be available to PEN Patrons and the International Festival of Authors Patrons at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16^th by calling the Harbourfront Centre Box Office at 416-973-4000. Tickets for the general public will be available on Thursday, April 18^th at 1:00 p.m. by calling the box office or by visiting www.readings.org. For information on how to become a PEN Canada Patron call 416-703-8448. For information on how to become a Patron of the International Festival of Authors call 416-973-4760.

About the authors

Owen King is a graduate of Vassar College and the MFA program at the Columbia University School of the Arts. He is the author of Double Feature: A Novel and We’re All in This Together: A Novella and Stories. His writing has appeared in Fairy Tale Review, Guernica, One Story, and Prairie Schooner, among other publications. Owen has also taught creative writing at Columbia University and Fordham University and is a working screenwriter with a script in development by the producer of Winter’s Bone. He is married to the novelist Kelly Braffet.

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1973, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world’s most successful writers.

Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities including many libraries and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.

Louise Penny is the New York Times and Globe & Mail bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Gamache crime novels of which How the Light Gets In is the most recent, set in Quebec and translated into 25 languages. Her books have won the American Anthony, Agatha, Barry and Macavity awards, the Canadian Arthur Ellis and the British Dagger. CBC Television is turning her works into a series of films. Louise lives with her husband Michael outside a village in southern Quebec.

-30-

Media Contacts:

Sasha Chapman, Event Chair, sasha[at]sashachapman.com or 416-971-5004 ext. 240

Tasleem Thawar, Executive Director, PEN Canada, tthawar[at]pencanada.ca or 416-703-8448 ext. 24

PEN Canada is a nonpartisan organization of writers that works with others to defend freedom of expression as a basic human right, at home and abroad. PEN Canada promotes literature, fights censorship, helps free persecuted writers from prison, and assists writers living in exile in Canada. http://pencanada.ca

International Festival of Authors

Each October, the IFOA presents a wide range of readings, round table discussions, on stage interviews, book signings and a number of special events featuring the most exciting authors in contemporary literature. Administered by Authors at Harbourfront Centre, this year’s 34^th annual IFOA takes place from October 24 to November 3, 2013. www.readings.org

Photo credits: Stephen King (Shane Leonard);  Owen King (Danielle Lurie)

The post Stephen King and Owen King to Headline PEN Canada Benefit appeared first on PEN Canada.

LIVEBLOG

For the opening talk at Spur Festival Toronto, PEN Canada is liveblogging our “Future of the Book” event with Paul Holdengräber and Hugh McGuire at the Toronto Reference Library. Please note that it may take a few seconds for the liveblog timeline to appear correctly.

8.35

And with that final quotable, we wrap up our “Future of the Book” event. Our thanks to Sarah Fulford, Paul Holdengräber, and Hugh McGuire for a great discussion.

8.34

Sarah Fulford, Paul Holdengräber, and Hugh McGuire field a question from the crowd.

Holdengräber: ”We read to discover who and what we are not“.

8.20

McGuire on the issue of depth/focus: We’ll get better at designing our technologies to address the current deficiency in this area.

8.16

Holdengräber argues that the notion of ”isolating ourselves to do one thing” is becoming increasingly rare.

8.14

Holdengräber: ”How do we remain focused in an era of distraction?”

8.13

The conversation turns to the importance and value of focus.

8.09

Our panelists have now opened up the discussion to Q&A.

8.08

 

Sarah Fulford, Paul Holdengräber, and Hugh McGuire in conversation.

8.01

McGuire says that he doesn’t see paper books and e-books as being an either/or dichotomy (possible to have the best of both worlds).

7.52

McGuire: The transition to e-books has been very orderly compared to the transitional chaos that befell the musical industry.

7.48

Holdengräber on the role of librarians: they are there “to make sense of the mess that the internet has created.”

7.46

Holdengräber describes the NYPL as being not just a great reference library, but a great “point of entry” for New York (he says that for two-thirds of the people who frequent the library, it’s about just having a “place to be”).

7.42

Holdengräber says his goal at the New York Public Library is “to make books irresistible.”

7.40

The question of what a book is in the 21st century leads to a sidebar: what is a library in the 21st century?

7.35

What does it mean to be attentive? Do present tools allow for immersed reading? Hugh McGuire (speaking about his experience reading War and Peace on an iPhone) contends that it’s the words, not the mechanism, that is of utmost importance.

7.30

Paul Holdengräber raises a concern about people spending too much time alone in front of screens (not conducive to a discussion-friendly culture).

7.25

The primary question at hand: What is the book in the 21st century?

7.24

Our moderator tonight is Toronto Life editor-in-chief Sarah Fulford. She will be guiding a discussion on the future of the book with Paul Holdengräber (director of public programs at The New York Public Library) and Hugh McGuire (founder of LibriVox.org – the largest library of free, public domain audiobooks in the world).

7.18

 

Dawit Isaak

PEN Canada’s Empty Chair for the event is imprisoned Eritrean playwright and journalist Dawit Isaak.

7.12

 

It's a packed house for our "Future of the Book" event.

The room is filling up!

6.45

Spur Festival stage at the Appel Salon (Toronto Reference Library)

PEN Canada is live from The Bram and Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library for the opening talk at Spur Festival Toronto! We’ll be liveblogging our “Future of the Book” event featuring Paul Holdengräber and Hugh McGuire.

The post Opening Night of the Toronto Spur Festival is Now Online appeared first on PEN Canada.