Sunday, October 31, 2021

 SOUTH SLAVE

For decades, she gave Hay River Halloween. Now, the town’s giving back.

Hay River residents will assemble on Sunday to honour Linda Carter, who has masterminded Halloween for generations of the town’s children.

The Carter family’s haunted house is a Hay River legend, a production so all-consuming that the family needed two years to plan and execute each one. There were secret doors, holes in the floor, hiding places, mannequins, and a dozen or more helpers behind the scenes.

This year, though, 73-year-old Linda – who has lived in Hay River since 1954 – is too ill to run her haunted house.

“Mom has been diagnosed with colon cancer and unfortunately, as of today’s date, it is terminal,” her daughter, Sharlyn, said on Friday.

“After mom got the diagnosis – of the treatments no longer working – we decided she wasn’t going to be able to do it.”

Sharlyn Carter with mom Linda
Sharlyn Carter with mom Linda. Photo: Submitted

When residents like Erika Walton heard that, they knew what to do.

“I thought, how can Hay River give back to her when she has given so much to our community?” Walton said.

“Why not bring Halloween to her?”


From 5pm on Sunday, residents wearing their Halloween costumes (and following Covid-19 restrictions) will parade past Linda’s home. She will watch from her vehicle at the end of her driveway.

“This is almost like passing the torch over,” said Sharlyn, through tears.

“They’re already doing it in front of her, for her. It’s a beautiful thing to witness … I’m crying just thinking about it. I can’t even imagine when I start watching it.”

“I’m just overwhelmed with everything this town has done for me,” said Linda. “I’ve always been very proud of this community and I hope I’ve passed that on.”

Nothing cutesy here

Halloween for the Carters wasn’t always a sprawling extravaganza.

“Years ago, everybody was so poor that we didn’t do much for Halloween,” Linda recalled. “I just started doing little things in my house and I realized, when the kids invited friends, how much they enjoyed it.

“I thought I had to keep carrying it on, and it just exploded into this massive Halloween that I have now.”

In particular, when Hay River began holding Spookarama for teenagers each Halloween – itself now a local institution – Linda felt smaller children were being left out.

“That’s why I decided to start a van and have a haunted house for younger groups to come to,” she said.

Photos show Linda appearing in all manner of genuinely horrifying Halloween costumes over the years, usually replete with heavy makeup. (Her outfits were always “kinda spooky,” said Sharlyn, adding her mother “doesn’t like the cutesy-cutesy thing.” Linda simply says she has a “morbid imagination.”)

People would travel from Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, and Kakisa to see the haunted house. Her record, she says, is around 700 visits in one evening – including children who came back multiple times. “That’s a lot for a community of 3,500, right?”

Residents in mid-scare at the Carters' haunted house
Residents in mid-scare at the Carters’ haunted house. Photo: Marilyn Marshall
A haunted house detail. Photo: Submitted
The steps to the haunted house. Photo: Submitted

For Sharlyn, growing up in a Halloween-obsessed family was fantastic.

“It was so much fun,” she said. “It started off small – it would be just in the house, handing out popcorn balls and homemade candy apples. Then it turned into mom dressing up. Then my family had a trailer that they turned into the haunted house.”

Sharlyn’s brothers and their families excitedly pitch in, too.

“It’s almost more exciting to our family than Christmas,” she said. “We talk about it and plan for it for two years. It’s a family event we look forward to.”

That enthusiasm was palpable to residents who turned up to be scared out of their wits.

“It’s scary as heck,” said Walton of the haunted house. “I don’t do scary but I have made it through there a few times. It’s just a wonderful event for Hay River.”

Another surprise

The appeal for residents to take part in Sunday’s parade has proven surprisingly successful to Walton, even though she knew how much Linda is loved. (If you want to take part, see her Facebook post for instructions.)

“It’s overwhelming to me, the outpouring expressed from everybody,” Walton said, beginning to tear up.

“It’s bigger than I thought it was going to be. I hoped it would be like this and I’m glad it is – it’s emotional for me because it wasn’t what I expected, everyone reaching out.

“I know Hay River will rally together and come out, support it, and give Linda Halloween like she has to us for years. She loves Halloween and it’s our turn to say thank-you and bring Halloween to her and to her family.”

From left: Garry Carter, Linda, werewolf, and Sharlyn. Photo: Submitted

Sharlyn said: “Mom has been a pillar in this community for so many years, doing little things like this, because she wants to give love back to the community that she grew up in.

“Somehow, with the chaos that’s happening in the world, this little town has risen above and beyond to show that compassion, kindness, and respect are still at the forefront.”

Linda, though, isn’t quite prepared to sit back, relax, and let everyone else do the work.

“We have a little surprise, too, when they walk by,” she told Cabin Radio, without divulging any details.

While her daughter howled “it never ends!” in the background, Linda added: “I won’t let it go without my little input.”

In Yellowknife, survivors of past conflicts urge action in Sudan

Published: October 30, 2021














Magdi Hassan speaks at a rally of Yellowknife's Sudanese community on October 30, 2021. 
Ollie Williams/Cabin Radio

Members of Yellowknife’s Sudanese community say they are joining many thousands of people in Sudan’s streets in resisting the military takeover staged in the past week.Magdi Hassan speaks at a rally of Yellowknife's Sudanese community on October 30, 2021. Ollie Williams/Cabin Radio

After more than three decades of dictatorship and military-backed rule, Sudan had been on the verge of transitioning to a democratically elected civilian government.

However, a general named Abdel Fattah al-Burhan led a military coup on Monday, seizing control of the country and arresting senior politicians including Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

On Saturday, several dozen Yellowknife residents with connections to Sudan staged a protest in the city’s Somba K’e Park condemning the coup. Yellowknife’s Sudanese community wants Canada to vocally “stand against these brutal forces and support Sudan’s revolution to civilian rule,” a news release from the protesters stated.

Political unrest in Sudan has been taking place for decades. For 30 years, the country was led by the dictator Omar al-Bashir, who overthrew the democratically elected government of Sadiq al-Mahdi in 1989.

Magdi Hassan, who has lived in Yellowknife for the past six months, was arrested and tortured by al-Bashir’s government in the late 1990s while president of the students’ union at Ahlia University in the country’s largest city, Omdurman.

A US Department of State report compiled in early 1998 details the regime’s treatment of Hassan.

“Armed security personnel with handheld radios detained Ahlia University student, Magdi Abdelmoniem Hassan, chairman of the student union of the university. They took him to two locations where they severely beat him. Photographs show weals on his back and his medical report also indicated a ruptured ear drum,” the report states.

Hassan says the damage to his ear was permanent.

“I was arrested, like, seven times,” he told Cabin Radio after addressing the crowd at Somba K’e Park.

“The last time I was arrested, I had a tough time. I was beaten from the afternoon till night. I passed out.”

Hassan came to Canada as a political refugee in 1998. He now wants his adopted country’s government to speak out forcefully against the revival of military rule in Sudan.

“We need to send a message to all the world: people in my country are struggling to survive right now,” he said.

“There are millions of people on the street, refusing to accept the military government. We are here to say we support them: you are not alone, we are going to fight with you, and we’re pushing our government in Canada to take strong action.”

Members of Yellowknife’s Sudanese community in Somba K’e Park.
 Ollie Williams/Cabin Radio

Earlier this week, Canada signed a European Union and United Nations statement to “strongly condemn the ongoing military takeover in Sudan.”

The statement called for a return to the transitional arrangement that had, since al-Bashir’s removal from power in 2019, seen military and civilian leaders share power and move slowly toward the eventual election of a civilian government.

“Any attempts by the military to unilaterally modify these provisions and upend the critical civilian-military partnership are unacceptable,” the statement read.

“The actions of the security forces deeply jeopardize Sudan’s hard-won political, economic, and legal gains made over the past two years and put Sudan’s security, stability, and reintegration into the international community at risk.”
Internet access cut

On the ground, that statement appears to have made little difference.

General al-Burhan claims he led the coup to prevent “civil war,” alleging civilian leaders had been inciting violence against security forces.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters took to Sudan’s streets and demanded the reinstatement of Prime Minister Hamdok. In Omdurman, the city where Hassan once led a students’ union, three people were reportedly shot and killed by military forces.

Internet access in Sudan is currently almost non-existent and many phone lines have also been cut. Gen al-Burhan earlier said the internet would only be restored “in phases if we feel that the media is telling the truth,” the BBC reported.

“They are being silenced but I can hear them,” said Amna Idris, a Yellowknife 15-year-old who left Sudan when she was two, referring to protesters in the country where she was born.

“No matter what side of the world I’m on, if I was there with them, I’d be protesting the same way I am here.”

Ritaj Hamad Dawoude, left, and Amna Idris. Ollie Williams/Cabin RadioSalah Mohammed. Ollie Williams/Cabin Radio

Idris said she feared for the safety of her relatives and friends in Sudan.

“Since they don’t have wi-fi they can’t communicate anything to us. It’s very difficult being in the darkness that way,” she told Cabin Radio.

Salah Mohammed, who moved to Canada in 1967 but spent time in Sudan during a previous uprising, said the forces that divided the country during the civil war that created South Sudan were emerging again.

“They displaced millions of people. We lost a third of the whole country,” said Mohammed, a Yellowknife resident for the past six years. “And then they came back to the north with the same iron fist: repression, killing, displacing.

“We are born free. We have to live free in the context of the law – not the law of the AK-47 or whatever tanks, it doesn’t work.

“I wish the free world and Prime Minister of Canada would condemn what is happening in Sudan with very strong language. There is no in-between here.”


OTTAWA
Protestors march on Sudanese embassy over country's military coup

About 150 people took part in the event in Ottawa to protest the military coup that took place in Sudan last Monday. It was one of many such demonstrations internationally on Saturday.

Author of the article: Bruce Deachman
Publishing date:Oct 31, 2021 •
Saturday's protest began near the Global Affairs Canada building on Sussex Drive before heading to the Sudanese Embassy in Sandy Hill.
 PHOTO BY ASHLEY FRASER /Postmedia
Article content

Shouting chants of “For justice for peace, for all Sudanese,” waving Sudan’s red, white, black and green flags and carrying placards that read “Someone is dying now for democracy in Sudan,” “Stop killing our people” and “#iamthesudaneserevolution,” about 150 people took part in a march in Ottawa on Saturday to protest the military coup that took place in that country last Monday.

That overthrow, in which General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ousted North African country’s civilian leader, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, was followed by demonstrations in Sudan that, leading into Saturday, had left at least 11 people dead and many more injured. On Tuesday, al-Burhan promised to hold an election, but not until July 2023.

Saturday’s demonstration, with participants marching from outside Global Affairs Canada’s offices on Sussex Drive to the Sudanese embassy on Stewart Street in Sandy Hill, coincided with other “march of millions” demonstrations around the globe, including in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan, where protestors took to the streets to demand a return to civilian rule.

“We want a civilian government,” said Reem Abbas, one of the organizers of Saturday’s march in Ottawa. “We are against the military coup and do not want any kind of military rule, whether it’s by al-Burhan or Hemedti (Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces paramilitary) or any military representative.

“We are calling for the immediate release of all the detained activists and (government) minister, and the end to the killing and torture of the Sudanese public.”

With the Internet and other communications in Sudan now either shut down or unreliable, Abbas counts on outsiders and the odd happenstance of an occasional 30-second phone call, after which the line goes dead, to find out how her family members in Khartoum — her father, sister, grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins — are doing.

And, as sporadic and brief as those calls are, she says she doesn’t want longer chats; she worries that Sudan military officials could be listening and might retaliate if any personal information is revealed.

“It’s been very difficult,” she says. “We’re trying to get them not to say anything because they are being watched and we fear for their safety.

“But I just want to hear their voices and make sure they’re alive, and we’ll take care of everything else.”

Other participants described similar experiences and concerns.

“All my family, all my extended family, live there,” said Fahima Hashim, president of the Sudanese-Canadian Association of Ottawa. “And I haven’t been in touch with them. And, on the street where we live, three people were killed today, around 9 a.m. Ottawa time.

“So we are here to say that we condemn the coup, and we are calling for the return of the civilian government and democracy to be maintained. And we’re not accepting that the military be a part of it.”

Hashim added that the coup had worsened the already tenuous economic situation in Sudan, with the United States, World Bank and others suspending financial aid to the country as a result of the military action.

“The support we got from the international community to uplift the economic crisis in Sudan has all gone. Everything has stopped, and now we have to start again, from the beginning.”

Hanan el-Hassan took part in Saturday’s march in part to convince the Canadian government to put pressure on Sudan’s military to reinstate Hamdok, the prime minister. “All the people there support him,” she said.

Mandela Abdalla, meanwhile, said he was marching to protest the violence, corrupt politicians and police brutality in Sudan and was also concerned about family members of his in Khartoum. “I know how corrupt the military is there. They cut down the Internet and it’s possible they could be listening to phone calls.”

Tala el-Monem, with Sudan’s older, post-independence blue, yellow and green flag draped over her shoulders, noted that, “Even though we’re far away, we’re trying to stand with our people. We’re trying, as much as we can, to do something.

“It’s little, but we’re trying.”

bdeachman@postmedia.com

Reem Abbas was part of Saturday's protest in Ottawa. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest in Ottawa was part of an international call for the restoration of civilian rule in Sudan. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Reem Abbas was part of Saturday's protest in Ottawa. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest began near the Global Affairs Canada building on Sussex Drive before heading to the Sudanese Embassy in Sandy Hill. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest began near the Global Affairs Canada building on Sussex Drive before heading to the Sudanese Embassy in Sandy Hill. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest in Ottawa was part of an international call for the restoration of civilian rule in Sudan. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest in Ottawa was part of an international call for the restoration of civilian rule in Sudan. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest in Ottawa was part of an international call for the restoration of civilian rule in Sudan. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest in Ottawa was part of an international call for the restoration of civilian rule in Sudan. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Saturday's protest in Ottawa was part of an international call for the restoration of civilian rule in Sudan. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Fahima Hashim was part of the protest in Ottawa on Saturday. Photo by Ashley Fraser /PostmediaNext Gallery ImageToggle gallery captions

 Nfld. & Labrador

'They need your voices': St. John's protesters rally for Sudan after military coup

Protesters joined anti-coup protesters in Khartoum, Sudan, from a distance

Protesters in front of St. John's City Hall are showing solidarity with anti-coup protesters in Khartoum, Sudan. (Henrike Wilhelm/CBC)

Suad Mohamed and her husband Mohamed Birama organized a protest in St. John's on Saturday, as thousands of people took to the streets of Khartoum in faraway Sudan to protest a coup, in which the military seized power over the Northeast African country.

Mohamed and Birama fear for family and friends in Sudan.

"It's very stressful," said Mohamed.

"It's really hard even to know what's going on with your family or your friends.… We cannot be there, but we can do as much as we can here to support them."

Suad Mohamed organized the rally in front of St. John's City Hall Saturday to garner support for the people in Sudan. (Emma Grunwald/CBC)

Mohamed and her family came to Canada in 2003, and moved to St. John's in 2013, where her husband works as a veterinarian.

He says it's important to show solidarity with the people in Sudan.

"This is an international support organized all over the world so that the dictators who took over the power in Sudan should not be recognized and should not be supported and should also be isolated," said Birama.

In a military coup led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the transitional government under Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was dissolved. Hamdok himself was arrested and is currently under house arrest.

In St. John's, about 30 protesters gathered in front of City Hall on Saturday to ask the Canadian government for support.

One of them was Omnia Khamis, a first-year nursing student who hasn't been able to reach her extended family in Sudan for a couple of days due to internet outages and cut phone lines.

"I haven't been able to connect to anybody," said Khamis.

"The internet comes back for like two or three hours a day and people post videos and stuff, but we haven't been able to reach our actual families."

Omnia Khanis was one of the protesters at Saturday's rally. She wants to raise awareness for the situation people in Sudan are in. (Emma Grunwald/CBC)

Khamis grew up in St. John's, yet she still feels the need to support people in Sudan from a distance.

"Being Sudanese, I feel like no matter where you are, it's always going to be a part of you," she said.

"Any good thing or a bad thing that's happening in that country is going to affect you wherever you are, regardless of how far away you are."

Einam Mohamadain grew up in Sudan and arrived in St. John's in 2018 with her three children. Her mother and siblings are still in Sudan.

Mohamadain says the country was under military control since before she was born.

"We are here because we are running from the war," said Mohamadain.

"Every morning, I tell my kids how lucky we are to be in a safe place. They have education, they have health systems. They have the right to choose whatever they want to say or whatever they want to do."

Protesters at the rally in St. John's were flying flags and chanting. (Emma Grunwald/CBC)

The last time Sudan had an elected government was in 1989 when Omar al-Bashir took power with a coup. The country was then ruled by al-Bashir for 30 years before another coup removed him in 2019.

The country had since been ruled by a transitional government under Hamdok and a sovereign council led by Burhan. A technocratic prime minister is expected to be appointed in the coming days.

"Time for Sudan to experience some peace and … the right to choose who will be in power," said Mohamadain.

Joingingkwe Togol, who is originally from Darfur, says his family has been displaced by the conflict ongoing in the Darfur region since 2003.

"The Sudanese people should have their freedom. The Sudanese people deserve better. That's what we believe," said Togol.

About 30 people gathered in front of city hall in St. John's Saturday to draw attention to the military coup on Oct. 25. (Emma Grunwald/CBC)

He says the rally in front of city hall in St. John's is in solidarity with anti-coup protesters in Sudan.

"Many countries know exactly what is happening. But we also want the people in the western world to know exactly what is happening in Sudan, because that is really inhumane," said Togol.

Khamis agrees it's important to get people's attention about the political situation in Sudan.

"I just want the people in St. John's to know that the Sudanese people need your help," said Khamis.

"They need your support. They need your voices. Honestly, just your voices."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador



Youth are 'wired' to push for change, researcher says about why they're climate choice influencers

'Intergenerational collaboration' key in pushing for change,

 says expert at Ontario's University of Waterloo

Shakti Ramkumar, centre, shown during a climate strike demonstration, says her activism began with her family's move from India to Surrey, B.C., when she was eight years old. She'll be at the UN's COP26 climate change summit that starts Sunday in Glasgow. (Submitted by Shakti Ramkumar)

From decisions about what car to buy to what families eat, young people can have a big impact on choices their parents make, and that can benefit the environment, according to Canadian experts and young activists.

It's something Shakti Ramkumar discovered when she was growing up.

A climate activist most of her life, her journey began with her family's move from India to Surrey, B.C., when she was eight years old. Ramkumar said adjusting to a new life and seeing a new culture made her curious about the city around her, so in Grade 4, she did a science fair project about how public transportation could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

"It was really shocking to me that we had this global problem and I really wanted to help solve it," she said.  

Since then, she's been focused on finding solutions to the climate crisis, and that's extended to her efforts to influence the people around her. 

I would really urge adults who feel jaded maybe, or indifferent to the crisis, to see that young people are doing this out of a sense of fear. And also because we have hope that we can build systems that are so much better than this, that can be better for all of us.- Shakti Ramkumar, 25

As part of her job as director of communications and policy with Student Energy, a global and youth-led organization that aims to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy, she'll be attending the UN's climate change summit, COP26, in Glasgow that begins Sunday. 

"I would really urge adults who feel jaded maybe, or indifferent to the crisis, to see that young people are doing this out of a sense of fear. And also because we have hope that we can build systems that are so much better than this, that can be better for all of us," said Ramkumar, 25.

She said one of her big victories was convincing her parents, who were already vegetarian, to give up all animal-based products.

"I finally asked my parents to go vegan with me in Grade 12. It was actually after visiting Antarctica with an organization called Students on Ice and kind of seeing the effects of climate change first hand on this remote ecosystem," she said.

Her father, Ramkumar Perumal, said he'd tried going vegan before but couldn't get used to drinking his coffee black. At his daughter's urging, the family finally went all in.

"We had allowed ourselves the occasional consumption of dairy products when we were outside, like when we had to buy a sandwich or a bean burrito, or the occasional slice of vegetarian pizza, telling ourselves that it was just occasional," he said. "But Shakti decided that we had to stop even that because things were getting bad on the climate change front."

Kids' brains behind them thinking outside the box

Ilona Dougherty is a postdoctoral fellow and the managing director of the Youth and Innovation Project at the University of Waterloo, and has studied how young people can influence the adults in their lives.

  • Have questions about COP26 or climate science, policy or politics? Email us: ask@cbc.ca. Your input helps inform our coverage.

Dougherty and her group looked at how the brains of 15- to 25 year-olds are different from those of adults, and said the findings can explain why youth tend to be at the forefront of movements like the fight against climate change.

"Young people are literally wired to challenge the status quo, to think outside the box. Their brains are really amazing and they have a lot to offer us."

Ilona Dougherty, managing director of the Youth and Innovation Project at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and her group looked at how the brains of 15- to 25 year-olds are different from adult brains, work she says can explain why youth tend to be at the forefront of movements. (Lisa Griffiths)

Dougherty also looked back at the last 35 years of youth movements and found adults play an important role, too.

"Intergenerational collaboration is key," she said. When young people get together with decision-makers who have the power to change things, "that's when the magic happens."

And that change can start at home.

"In marketing research, we hear a lot about the 'nag' factor, you know a kid [or] young person bugging their parents to buy something. But it's interesting — there's actually some research that talks about how this can have an impact on the environmental behaviour of parents," Dougherty said.

A child or teen having an open and trusting relationship with their parents or caregivers can help start those conversations.

Dougherty offered this advice for young people: "Be curious about what your parents think, why they think what they think, how they form those views, open a dialogue with them and challenge their beliefs."

It can go both ways.

If children are raised in an environment where adults are concerned about environmental issues, it will have an impact on those young people, Dougherty said. 

"That's certainly my own experience. I have wonderfully engaged, activist parents and I grew up in the back of community meetings, so that's something that I have personally experienced."

Family can foster environmentalism

Shakti Ramkumar certainly credits her family for planting the seeds of her environmentalism — and not just her parents, but her grandparents and ancestors in southern India as well.

"I come from a rural background. My family are farmers and even now I see firsthand the changes and the challenges that they are facing because of climate change, and because of the changing expectation on what is profitable to grow and what they need to survive on this farmland so they're a huge influence on me and how I approach my work and my climate advocacy," she said.

Ramkumar, 25, has been a climate activist most of her life. She decided to become a vegan after a trip to Antarctica. (Submitted by Shakti Ramkumar)

Her father said he is proud of his daughter's activism and believes it is critical that adults listen to young people.  

"I'm hoping that they will get more support from the rest of society so that we can move towards a safer situation and move out of this constant sense of crisis, because this can take a toll on people's mental health. It's not easy to be in a crisis-feeling year after year," Ramkumar Perumal said.

WATCH | What do young activists want to see Canada commit to at COP26?