Malcolm Archibald: 50 years of Black Cat PresS  

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

Nov

01

2024

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I WAS HIS PRINTERS DEVIL 

From Freedom News by Sean Patterson

In this interview, the founder of Edmonton’s anarchist publishing house looks back on its legacy

For the past five decades, Black Cat Press (BCP) in Edmonton, Canada, has served as a local hub for the city’s radical community and as an important publisher of anarchist material. Over the years, BCP has produced many notable titles, including the first English translations of the collected works of the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno in five volumes. Other stand-out works from BCP include The Dossier of Subject No. 1218, the translated memoirs of Bulgarian anarchist Alexander Nakov; Lazar Lipotkin’s The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America, a previously unpublished manuscript held at Amsterdam’s International Institute of Social History; and Kronstadt Diary, a selection of Alexander Berkman’s original diary entries from 1921.

Amongst reprints of classic works by the likes of Kropotkin, Bakunin, and William Morris, BCP has also highlighted the work of anarchist researchers from around the globe, including Alexey Ivanov’s Kropotkin and Canada, Vadim Damier’s Anarcho-Syndicalism in the 20th Century, Ronald Tabor’s The Tyranny of Theory, and Archibald’s own work Atamansha: The Story of Maria Nikiforova, the Anarchist Joan of Arc.  

Sadly, Black Cat Press closed its doors in 2022, an economic victim of the Covid pandemic. Any future hopes to revive the press were subsequently shattered in the wake of a second tragedy. On June 26, 2024, an early morning house fire started by arsonists destroyed BCP’s remaining equipment and inventory. The loss of BCP is painful not only locally for Edmonton but nationally as one of Canada’s few anarchist publishers. Sharing BCP’s five-decade-long story will hopefully inspire others to follow in the steps of BCP’s legacy and the broader tradition of small anarchist publishing houses.

This month, BCP founder Malcolm Archibald sat down with Freedom News to reflect on a lifetime of publishing and his personal journey through anarchism over the years.

—

You have been involved with the anarchist community for many years. Can you tell us a little about your background and how you first became interested in anarchism?

Growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the Cold War, I certainly had no exposure to anarchism. Nor did my family have any predilection for left-wing politics. The only book on socialism in the public library was G. D. H. Cole’s History of Socialist Thought, which I devoured. In 1958, at age 15, I attended a provincial convention of the CCF (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation) as a youth delegate. The CCF in Nova Scotia was a proletarian party with a strong base in the coal mining districts. After that, I was hooked on left-wing politics.

I became interested in anarchism by reading books about the Spanish Civil War. The first real anarchist I met was Murray Bookchin at a conference in Ann Arbor in 1969. Bookchin understood that many student radicals were anarchists in practice, even if they called themselves Marxists, so he emphasised the libertarian elements of Marx in his propaganda.

What anarchist organisations/groups have you been involved with over the years?

As a graduate student at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, I was on the staff of underground newspapers, including an anarchist tabloid, The Walrus. Later, I helped start an anarchist magazine in Edmonton called News from Nowhere (printed by Black Cat Press). In Edmonton in the 1970s we had a branch of the Social-Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (SRAF), but most anarchist activity was centred around the IWW, Black Cat Press, and Erewhon Books. Anarchists were also involved in the newspapers Poundmaker (circulation 19,000!) and Prairie Star. In 1979, the North American Anarchist Communist Federation (NAACF, later simplified to ACF) started up, and I was active in two of their branches for a number of years but was unable to get much traction for the organisation in Edmonton.

When did you start Black Cat Press, and how did it evolve over time? What are some key moments in its history you’d like to share with our readers?

Black Cat Press started when I purchased an offset press and copy camera in 1972. The previous owner had tried to earn a living with this equipment and ended up in a mental institution, which was not auspicious. BCP became a “printer to the movement” in Edmonton, used by almost all the left groups and causes. In 1979 BCP became the unofficial printer of the ACF and printed a number of pamphlets for that organisation.

From 1989 to 2001, BCP shared space with the Boyle McCauley News, the monthly newspaper of Edmonton’s inner city, with an all-volunteer staff. The newspaper generally tried to print positive news about the community, but an exception was the issue of juvenile prostitution, a terrible blight until we started printing stories about it and the authorities finally took action.

In 1994, the government printing plant where I worked was shut down, and BCP began to operate full-time with three partners who had been laid off at the same time. Our customer base included social agencies close to our shop in Edmonton’s inner city plus various unions. In 2003, I purchased a perfect binding machine and was able to start printing books. Our first book was Kropotkin’s Anarchist Morality, a perennial favourite. Eventually, about 30 titles were printed, which were distributed by AK Press, independent bookstores, and literature tables at anarchist book fairs.

How did you come to translate Russian-language radical and anarchist texts?

I studied Russian at university and later took night courses in German, French, Ukrainian, and Polish. I first became aware of Nestor Makhno in the 1960s from a book by the British historian David Footman. Ending up in Edmonton, it turned out that the University of Alberta Library held four books by Nestor Makhno, bibliographical rarities.

I’m constantly amazed at the richness of the anarchist tradition in the Russian Empire and the USSR. For many years, The Russian Anarchists by Paul Avrich was the only survey work on the subject, but recently, two histories have appeared in Russia and one in Ukraine. It is a measure of the depth of the movement that these histories are practically independent of one another and pay hardly any attention to Avrich.

My first works of translation from Russian were physics articles, which don’t give much scope for originality. In translating historical texts, most of the effort goes not into the actual translation, but research on the names of places, persons, etc. and preparing annotations. I try to provide the reader with maps, graphics, and indexes, which make it easier to understand the text.

Although I generally do not work with literary texts, I did translate some poems by Nestor Makhno. He wrote a poem called “The Summons” while in prison in 1912. A search of his cell in 1914 discovered this poem, for which he was given one week in a punishment cell. While in this cell, he composed another poem, which he wrote down as soon as he was allowed back to his regular cell. But another search discovered the second poem (more bloodthirsty than the first one), and he ended up in the punishment cell again. So, it wasn’t easy being an anarchist poet!

Some of your major contributions to anarchist studies are the translations of Russian and Ukrainian primary sources. In particular, you translated and published the first English edition of Nestor Makhno’s three-volume memoirs. Can you describe this translation project?

The University of Alberta library holds copies of Makhno’s memoirs, including both the French and Russian versions of the first volume. I started translating these memoirs as early as 1979 when BCP published a pamphlet entitled My Visit to the Kremlin, a translation of two chapters in the second volume. This pamphlet was eventually published in many other languages.

Most of the work involved in preparing translations of Makhno’s works went into research about the people and places he mentions. An effort was made to provide enough material in the form of notes and maps to make the narrative intelligible to the reader.

Black Cat Press recently closed its doors after fifty years in business. The economic environment for publishing is increasingly difficult in general, and especially so for small anarchist presses. What are your thoughts on the current prospects for anarchist publishing, and what changes might have to be made to maintain its long-term viability?

Most anarchist publishers have to order a substantial press run up front and then hope to sell the books over a (hopefully) not-too-long period. BCP was ahead of its time in using a print-on-demand model where inventories were kept low so that capital wouldn’t be tied up in stock that wasn’t moving. The publishing arm of BCP was not much affected by the pandemic; rather, it was the job printing that suffered, forcing the business to close.

How have you seen anarchism (particularly in Canada) change over the decades? Canada has rarely seen an organized anarchist movement in the same way as some groups in Europe or the United States. Why do you think this is so, and do you see any hope for an organized Canadian movement in the future?

When I became active in the anarchist movement in Canada in the 1970s, the anarchists were all poverty-stricken, trying to survive in minimum-wage jobs. The next generation was much better off and had a lot of money to throw around. Now, the current generation is back to being dirt poor again, lacking the resources to make an impact. But I think the prospects for the future are good because (a) the old left (communists, Trotskyists, i.e., the alphabet soup brigade) are intellectually and morally bankrupt, and (b) the New Democratic Party (in Alberta, at least) is environmentally irresponsible. This leaves a lot of room on the left for anarchists to stake out their territory and attract young people into the movement.

Malcolm Archibald at the Edmonton Anarchist Bookfair, 2013.

Thanks to Kandis Friesen for sharing previously collected interview material.

Royal Ontario Museum returns Chief Poundmaker's pipe and saddle bag to family

Wed, February 22, 2023 

Nikita Ashley Poundmaker, left, and lawyer and family friend Lawren Trotchie look at a saddle during a repatriation ceremony at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, on Feb. 22, 2023. A pipe and saddle belonging to Chief Poundmaker were returned to the family from the ROM collections. 

(Evan Mitsui/CBC - image credit)

Century old artifacts belonging to a 19th century Plains Cree chief who was known as a peacekeeper were returned to his descendants in a repatriation ceremony at the Royal Ontario Museum.

After months of conversation, the Toronto-based museum transferred a ceremonial pipe and a saddle bag that belonged to Chief Poundmaker back to members of his family on Wednesday.

Pauline Poundmaker, or Brown Bear Woman, has been leading efforts to repatriate her great-great-grandfather's belongings and sacred objects from collections held in Canada and internationally.

"It's an honour to be the generation that's able to bring these artifacts home," she said in a phone interview.

Under Poundmaker Cree Nation laws, descendants are required to initiate and lead repatriation. Poundmaker's family members are striving to bring home his personal belongings, which they say were taken from him under duress.

Pauline Poundmaker travelled this week from Saskatchewan to Toronto with nine others, including other direct descendants, to partake in a repatriation ceremony with staff at the museum.

It was the first time she got to see the two items in person that belonged to her great-great-grandfather. The special moment was sacred and emotional, she said.

"I had a moment there where I couldn't hold back the tears. The significance of being here and the honour it is to be able to bring these artifacts home. It's hard to describe."

A famed 19th century Indigenous leader

The museum acquired the two items nearly a century ago. The saddle bag is made out of tan hide and adorned with beads in colours ranging from red, yellow and green. The museum said the item was sold to them in 1924.

The ceremonial pipe is dark in colour and made out of ceramic or stone. Like many First Nations customs objects used in ceremony, the pipe cannot be photographed. The museum said in an email information from the donor suggests Chief Poundmaker presented the pipe to a doctor in 1885 after which is was passed down to others in the medical field before the museum received it in 1936.

The ROM did not make any representatives available for an interview ahead of the repatriation ceremony.

Oliver Buell/Library and Archives Canada

Poundmaker, whose Cree name is Pitikwahanapiwiyin, is considered one of the great Indigenous leaders of the 19th century and was key in negotiations that led to Treaty 6, which covers the west-central portions of present-day Alberta and Saskatchewan.

A number of the leader's belongings were taken and housed in museums after the Northwest Rebellion in 1885 — the same year Poundmaker was convicted of treason for leading his warriors in the battle against Canadian Forces after government soldiers attacked about 1,500 Indigenous people, including women and children. He served seven months before dying shortly after his release.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a formal apology and exoneration for Poundmaker at the First Nation that bears his name in 2019.

As the Poundmaker family strives to bring home the personal artifacts of Chief Poundmaker, they continue to be inspired by his willingness to stand up for what he believed in a peaceful way, said Pauline Poundmaker.

Parks Canada returned a ceremonial staff believed to belong to Chief Poundmaker last year that is to be put on display at the museum named in his honour in Saskatchewan.

Addressing harm

Pauline Poundmaker says the growing movement of institutions repatriating items shows there is a willingness to address previous harms against Indigenous Peoples.

"It's a beautiful shift to having different relationships and writing a different history," she said.

The saddle bag is to be put on display at the Chief Poundmaker Museum and the ceremonial pipe will be placed in safe keeping with the museum. The museum is tasked with making sure they are equipped with the tools to preserve the items for generations to come, said Pauline Poundmaker.

"We want to continue to preserve our history and honour history."

Liam Richards/The Canadian Press

She has been told there are about 20 other items spread across North America and Europe. The family is in the beginning stages of getting two other items repatriated.

The Royal Ontario Museum temporarily closed its gallery dedicated to First Peoples art and culture last year to work with Indigenous museum professionals on what they called critical changes to the gallery.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for POUNDMAKER 

'Witnesses to history': University makes 3D virtual replicas of residential schools


CALGARY — A new project from the University of Calgary is creating 3D digital records of some Alberta residential schools.

'Witnesses to history': University makes 3D virtual replicas of residential schools

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Taylor Family Digital Library, in consultation with Indigenous communities in Alberta, has created accurate virtual and physical models of three former residential schools with plans for more in the future.

Prof. Peter Dawson, the project's leader, said it is important to preserve a dark part of Canada's history.

"Why preserve these buildings that are associated with so much tragedy and human trauma? It's for precisely that reason that we are working with (three groups) to preserve these schools. Because these schools really are witnesses to history and sites of conscience," said Dawson, head of the university's Department of Anthropology and Archaeology.

"They're the physical manifestation of an education system, in name only, that caused great harm and suffering to generations of Indigenous children."

An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools in Canada over a century. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has detailed mistreatment at the schools, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children.

With the use of lidar technology and original building plans, three dimensional images of the Old Sun Indian Residential School at Siksika Nation, east of Calgary, Blue Quills school in St. Paul, Alta., and Poundmaker's Lodge Carriage House, which once formed part of the Edmonton Indian Residential School in St. Albert, Alta., have been created.

Stories from residential school survivors are to be embedded into each virtual replica.

"The sad reality is that many, many people don't know about this history. I thought it was important to preserve it digitally because the young people, as they heard more and more about the residential schools, were angry," said Vivian Ayoungman, 75, who spent nine years the at Old Sun school.

Related video: 'Brings to Light': exhibit on legacy of the residential school system opens in Winnipeg    Duration 3:25    View on Watch

"I thought we've really got to do some work. We can't be part of erasing our own history. We have to have the evidence. We want to preserve that building so that people know that it wasn't a figment of our imagination. That it really happened to us."

Ayoungman eventually became a teacher and now works at a community college located in the old residential school building where she attended as a child.

"We have really painful memories of those times when it was a residential school," she said.

"I got strapped for speaking my language at a very young age. I entered that school not speaking a word of English."

Ayoungman said those who survived residential schools are getting older, and having a digital record will ensure their history survives.

"There's no danger of it being forgotten. It's preserved how forever long digitization lasts," she said.

Her nephew Kent Ayoungman, 42, said both his parents and grandparents attended residential schools and he had no idea what they went through.

"Growing up, they never talked about their experiences, what they went through. So we didn't really know," he said.

"Who wants to hear about what they went through when they were in those places? It just changed the life of our people. We need to talk about it. Our people need to hear these stories of what they went through."

The project is entering a second phase, which is to digitally document the original grounds surrounding the three residential schools — a landscape that included hockey rinks, athletic grounds, gardens, and barns — to provide a more complete account of daily life at the schools.

The scans are eventually to be archived at each former school and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2022.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

Poundmaker Cree Nation leaves FSIN, will leave AFN, to 'protect treaty rights' independently

Saskatoon StarPhoenix - 

Poundmaker Cree Nation Chief Duane Antoine speaks to media in 2016.© Provided by Star Phoenix

Poundmaker Cree Nation is pulling out of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, and also intends to leave the national Association of First Nations (AFN). Leaders say the band will preserve and protect Treaty rights as an independent nation.

Poundmaker, “in exercising their jurisdiction,” served a band council resolution to the FSIN terminating its membership, effective immediately, the band said Thursday in a news release.

According to the notice, Poundmaker members “no longer want to be associated or represented by the FSIN, as they do not serve the purpose it’s intended for, which is to ‘preserve and protect Treaty.’ ”

Chief Duane Antoine said Poundmaker will also serve notice to the AFN “within a couple of weeks,” ending that relationship.

He said the First Nation will now represent itself directly with the provincial and federal governments “on its own desired self-determined initiatives that support Treaty and inherent rights within the terms of Treaty 6.”

“We are moving along,” he said. “We want to deal directly to our Treaty partner, the Federal government, nation to nation.”

Longtime councillor Bryan Tootoosis said this decision has been years in the making.

“ We’ve discussed it publicly, through our Elders, our band members, in meetings we’ve had about what’s best for our children, the unborn and our Elders, thinking, of course, all the time, about the needs and the requirements of the people from Poundmaker,” he said.

Matters have now come “to a boiling point,” Tootoosis said.

“FSIN has not preserved and protected our Treaty rights for a long time. We just lost faith in the whole area of jurisdiction.”

He said the First Nation has been working hard on issues of education, community safety, health and food sovereignty — but when it needed help, “there was no FSIN around, anywhere.”

In particular, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tootoosis said it has been difficult to get the money and support they need to keep their people safe and well.

“Funding for the pandemic was going through everybody else,” he said. “By the time it got to us, we got crumbs.”

Tootoosis echoed Chief Antoine’s wish for Poundmaker to take on a nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government, one Treaty Six signatory to another.

“We have the education. We have lots of professional people from Poundmaker. We have lawyers, we have social workers, we have all the university-educated people.

“We need to do things ourselves — and I think we do better when we do things ourselves.”

Tootoosis emphasized that this decision is “not a personal attack” on the these advocacy organizations or the people who work there — he himself used to work for the FSIN, and Poundmaker members are still employed there.

“We are trying our best to make things work for everybody, and our number one priority is protecting our Treaty rights and obligations,” he said. “It’s a business, political and community-based decision. The Elders have spoken many times about this, and we decided that this is the appropriate time.”

The FSIN now represents 73 First Nations in Saskatchewan. The federation, which could not immediately be reached for comment, says its mandate is to honour the spirit and intent of the treaties, as well as the promotion, protection and implementation of the treaty promises that were made more than a century ago.

The AFN represents more than 600 First Nations and more than 900,000 Indigenous people in Canada.

Poundmaker Cree Nation, located near Cut Knife, has more than 1,250 members.

— Local Journalism Initiative

jupeterson@postmedia.com

Creator's Stone meteorite to be returned to its historic site after over 150 years

Friday

EDMONTON — After years of negotiations, the Alberta government signed an agreement Friday with a First Nations group committing to return an ancient meteorite to its historic location after being displaced for over 150 years.


Creator's Stone meteorite to be returned to its historic site after over 150 years© Provided by The Canadian Press

Manitou Asinîy, also known as the Creator's Stone or Manitou Stone, is a 145-kilogram iron meteorite that landed close to the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary, near modern-day Hardisty, Alta., billions of years ago.

The chestnut-coloured stone weighs about the same as a red-tailed deer and is the size of a large tire.

The stone holds spiritual significance to Indigenous people across the Prairies and was thought to have healing properties and protect buffalo herds.

The stone was taken in the late 1860s by Rev. George McDougall, who attempted to use it as a way to draw Indigenous people to Christianity. FOUNDER MCDOUGALL ANGLICAN CHURCH IN EDMONTON

It was then sent to the Victoria Methodist College in Ontario.

When the stone was taken by McDougall, Indigenous spiritual leaders prophesized illness and famine that soon came to fruition with the introduction of smallpox and the mass killing of buffalo herds by colonizers.

The Royal Ontario Museum displayed the stone until 1972 when it was placed on long-term loan with the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.

Consultations between the museum and Indigenous groups about the fate of the stone started in 2002.

Elder Leonard Bastien said the return of the stone is important to reawakening a sense of peace, prosperity, hope and healing for all people.

"It is my hope, my faith and belief that tomorrow will be better for us," he said.

Bastien is chair of the Manitou Asinîy-Iniskim-Tsa Xani Center, the group that engaged with several Indigenous communities and elders to build consensus around the future of the stone.

At the ceremony, Premier Jason Kenney spoke of his first time learning about the stone in a history book several years ago.

"It does not and should not belong to the government of Alberta," said Kenney. "It does, and must belong, to the First Nations of these lands."

Kenney said returning the stone marks a deeply meaningful moment of reconciliation.

Bastien praised Kenney for his actions to repatriate the stone. "You moved mountains for us."

A geodesic dome designed by Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal will be the stone's new home and serve as a prayer centre. The structure will be built over the next couple of years and will cost between $7.5 million and $10 million.

Blaine Favel, former chief of Poundmaker Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, said they are in the process of final land negotiations and that funding has started to come in from corporate donors.

Favel said that the prayer centre will help preserve culture and traditions for future generations.

The Royal Alberta Museum will continue to house and take care of the stone until the centre is built.

Hardisty, Alta., is about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2022.

___

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Angela Amato, The Canadian Press

A brief history of U of A; The Gateway

How well do you know your campus newspaper? In the past 112 years, The Gateway has seen a lot of changes while one thing has remained consistent: serving students campus 

 

Helen Zhang

Founding

Two years after the founding of the University of Alberta, The Gateway was born.

The first issue of The Gateway was printed November 21, 1910, establishing itself as the oldest university paper in Western Canada (Brandon University’s The Quill published their first issue two months later). Being situated in Edmonton, commonly known as “The Gateway to the North,” the founders of The Gateway saw the University of Alberta and their newspaper as a “gateway” to opportunities for this geographic region.

“There is something unique about our position in this institution, the university farthest north in America and farthest West in Canada,” said The Gateway staff in the first issue.

In the 112 years since its founding, The Gateway has been front and center for the most significant events facing the university, province, and country – the same year The Gateway was founded, a typhoid outbreak struck campus.

Much like The Gateway of the past two and a half years, The Gateway of 1910 wrote an editorial calling for measures to be taken to protect students’ health,and argued that “present conditions point to the need of some protection for students who may be stricken down by such epidemics in the future.”

They even proposed the introduction of a health insurance fee specifically for students. “The time seems most opportune for the introduction of a scheme of insurance.”

The following year, two Gateway editors contracted typhoid, which led to only six issues being published that year. The Gateway also experienced disrupted publication in 1914-1918 due to influenza outbreak, meaning The Gateway has survived not one, not two, but three pandemics!

The Canadian University Press

The Gateway has also played an important role supporting student journalism in Canada. The Gateway was a founding member of the Canadian University Press (CUP), the association of student newspapers across the country, in January 1938. The paper was represented by Editor-in-Chief Duncan Campbell in the founding and helped produce the collective’s constitution.

“New Year’s Eve in the Manitoba metropolis, seventeen editors, head men on college papers from the Atlantic to the Pacific put their heads together and gave birth to the C.U.P..”

The Gateway goes on Strike

For years, The Gateway selected a new Editor-in-Chief each year through an election by staff. The newspaper, however, was not yet independent from the Students’ Union and the UASU Personnel Board was responsible for the final decision. Typically, the board respected the choice of Gateway staff and hired their choice of EIC as a convention.

In 1972, the UASU overruled The Gateway‘s selection of Ron Yakimchuk, who had been with the paper for five years, and selected Terri Jackson, a student who had never done work for The Gateway. Jackson applied on the basis of changing the consensus-based structure of the organization and the need to focus on local campus news. However, her appointment was met with a backlash from The Gateway staff, resulting in staff unanimously deciding to go on strike.

The strike featured a petition, picket line, and a rally, and The Gateway received messages of support from students, faculty, and other community organizations.

“If you care about your paper, even with all its deficiencies, and do not want an uncritical Student Council mouthpiece, you have a chance Friday to guarantee our right to publish unhindered by petty bureaucrats and power-trippers,” wrote the staff in a special strike issue of the paper.

The UASU carried forward their decision despite protests. This conflict ultimately resulted in all members of that year’s staff resigning and starting their own newspaper called the Poundmaker, housed a block off campus, which lasted until 1974.

During the strike, the former Gateway staff received support from other student papers who viewed the situation as SU overreach and a threat to a free press on campus. As a result of the UASU appointment of this EIC, The Gateway was expelled from CUP by request of the former staff.

I WAS A MEMBER OF THE GATEWAY UNDERGROUND/POUNDMAKER COLLECTIVE WHICH LASTED WELL OVER FOUR YEARS AS AN INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY WEEKLY WHICH RAN OUT OF A COLLECTIVE HOUSE ON CAMPUS, THEN CONTINUED PUBLISHING OUT OF OUR ANARCHIST BOOKSTORE; EREWHON BOOKS.  

The Gateway continued to print the following school year, without any of the institutional knowledge of previous staff. It wasn’t until fall 1975 that the paper started publishing as a member of CUP again. Over the years, new generations of staff joined The Gateway and worked to revitalize The Gateway’s focus on independent journalism — but never forgot the limitations of being owned by a third party. 

The Autonomy and Magazine Era

Fast forward over thirty years, and The Gateway ran a successful campaign to achieve independence from the UASU in the spring of 2002. 71.4 per cent of voters chose to support The Gateway as an independent publication separate from the Students’ Union. Students committed to paying a fee to support this independence, at $2.50 per semester for full-time students, and $1.25 for part-time.

Allowed The Gateway to become a registered non-profit, hire its staff without the UASU’s involvement, and manage its own finances to better fulfill its mandate as the community’s media outlet.

But more importantly, it gave the paper autonomy to cover all aspects of campus life, without facing conflicts of interest or undue interference.

“Finally, we’re free to pursue [our ideas] without having to go through miles of red tape and a mountain of bureaucracy,” said former EIC Dan Lazin.

The next big structural change for The Gateway was the introduction of a monthly magazine, rather than a weekly paper in 2016 — otherwise known as the “swagazine era.” 

The Gateway published its “the end of an era” paper on April 6 — the last printed newspaper (until now!). The issue featured years-worth of alumni tales and renditions of their time publishing the newspaper.

The Magazine went on to be a success for five years, winning the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association “Best New Alberta Magazine” award in 2020.

The following year, The Gateway lost its DFU, necessitating a reassessment of the organization from the ground up. The Gateway became an online publication, staffing was reduced to make a more lean and nimble editorial team, and new revenue sources were pursued by the business management unit — all with a focus on continuing to provide journalism by students, for students.

A New Era

The Gateway has proudly served the students of U of A for 112 years and continues to carry forward that legacy. This paper has survived pandemics, strikes, cuts, and immense changes of all shapes and sizes since 1910; most importantly, it is still around today because of the dedication and hard work of generations of university students.

The first issue of The Gateway wrote “​​We believe that this journal will fill a real need and that it will more and more make its influence felt as a factor in student life” — not only do we believe this to be true today, but we see it also as an aspiration to live up to tomorrow

This print edition of The Gateway is about tapping into our roots, showing what we are capable of, and telling stories that matter to students. Through all the changes we have gone through, we truly believe we are at the beginning of a new chapter of The Gateway.

Welcome to the legacy era!

ABOLISH MONARCHY
Damaged Queen Victoria statue is beyond repair, Manitoba government says

WINNIPEG — A statue of Queen Victoria that was toppled and beheaded by protesters last year outside the Manitoba legislature is beyond repair and will not be restored.


© Provided by The Canadian PressDamaged Queen Victoria statue is beyond repair, Manitoba government says

"It's gone through a lengthy assessment process and is not repairable," Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said in an interview.

Trying to replicate it is also out of the question, Goertzen said, because it would cost at least $500,000.

"I know it will be disappointing to many people — it won't be recast — but that's the decision."

The statue, a prominent monument on the front lawn of the legislature, was tied with ropes and hauled to the ground on Canada Day last year during a demonstration over the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools. It was covered with red paint. The head of the large statue was removed and found the next day in the nearby Assiniboine River.

While the statue was toppled in an area covered by many security cameras, no one was charged with causing the damage.

A smaller statue of the Queen, on a side lawn next to the lieutenant-governor's house, was also toppled but suffered less damage. That one of Queen Elizabeth II is being repaired and will be put back in place, Goertzen said.


Discussions with Indigenous groups are ongoing about what might replace the Queen Victoria statue, he added.  

TRIPTICH OF LOUIS RIEL, GABRIEL DUMONT 

AND POUNDMAKER

There is no word yet on what is to become of the broken Queen Victoria statue. In online discussion forums, some people have suggested the statue be installed in a museum as-is to commemorate last year's protest.

The decision to not restore or replicate the statue comes amid a public debate over how to mark Canada Day this year, at a time when the country is still coming to grips with the legacy of residential schools. Winnipeg is home to the highest concentration of Indigenous people among major cities in Canada.

Organizers of the city's big annual Canada Day celebrations at the Forks — the downtown junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers — have renamed the event this year "A New Day," cancelled fireworks and promised events that will be reflective as well as celebratory.

That has led to accusations that organizers have cancelled Canada Day, which they deny. Jenny Motkaluk, a candidate for the city's mayoral election in October who finished second in the last race in 2018, blasted the decision and said she would go elsewhere because she loves the country unconditionally.

Other mayoral candidates are supporting the renamed event and have said acknowledging the country's history, including its flaws, is important.

Wab Kinew, Manitoba's Opposition NDP leader, said there are ways to mark the holiday while acknowledging the wrongs.

"I think it could mean things like marking Canada Day, attending a Canada Day celebration, but wearing an orange shirt in honour of the (residential school) survivors," Kinew said.

"I am a patriot, but I'm a patriot who is also the son of a residential school survivor, and my dad shared a bunk with a child who never came home from that residential school."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2022.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press