Speak Up… But Not Too Loudly

Elle Canada publisher fails to walk the talk

The November issue of Elle Canada recently came out with a tone-deaf and colour blind editorial written by its publisher Sophie Banford. In it, Banford laments the abuse women experience who speak up, naming Montreal mayor Valerie Plante, Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland and former Liberal MP Catherine McKenna, all women politicians who have received vicious, abusive online threats for, as Banford terms it, “speaking up.”

When people talk of “white feminism” I usually cringe, knowing that something gauche has gone down and I experience, vicariously, the embarrassment of my sisters, knowing that they could have, should have done better. Some anger and frustration as well, to be honest. These scenarios usually play out as exclusionary, racist, classist, ablest or just plain rude.

But this is peak white feminism and it serves as a textbook example

To recap:  The September issue of Elle Canada caused an unseen before controversy. The print copy, and for a time the online version, contained an article celebrating eight women who broke the glass ceiling. Nothing controversial there. The publishers of women’s magazines have lined their coffers celebrating women, publishing profiles of women who have overcome adversity, who have risen in their fields. Firsts, innovators, exemplars, even “the average woman” have found space in their pages. There’s only so much fashion, makeup and weight loss advice a women can absorb; seeing successful women is aspirational. Women’s magazines are nothing if not aspirational. It sells product.

Included in the list of women was Ontario Independent MPP Sarah Jama, who was kicked out of the Ontario NDP and censured in the Legislature by the Conservative government for her call for a ceasefire and her position on the occupation and genocide happening in Gaza. In response, she rebranded herself as an Independent and continues to be a popular MPP in her riding of Hamilton-Centre.

What happened next was something I’ve never witnessed in my half century of obsessively reading women’s magazines.

Sarah Jama  was unpublished from the piece.

Apparently complaints came in. The pressure from the pro-Israel lobby was too great and Elle Canada caved and removed the bio of Sarah Jama. They provided no explanation other than to disclaim the “opinions of a political personality” and allude to “a number of concerning messages posted online and received by our magazine.” Sarah Jama was scrubbed from the online version. Rather than walk the talk, Elle Canada ran away when it mattered to women most.

To rub it in, Elle Canada turned mean girl. Rather than just issue a disclaimer about views not aligning, they chose to remove her altogether and refer to her anonymously as a “political personality.” A duly elected member of the Ontario legislature, a woman of colour, reduced to a “political personality.”

It was a lost moment. Elle Canada could have taken the opportunity to educate everyone on how to support women when the crazies come out. They could have chosen to expose the hateful comments rather than keep them hidden. They could have publicly asserted a woman’s right to political disagreement in a diverse and ever evolving world. They could have recognized a smear campaign when they saw one.

Women are not homogeneous. We aren’t all the same. We don’t agree on many issues, we argue, we have debates. We have different politics. We are part of the world and what is happening, everywhere. We have spent centuries being told what to do, how to think and blamed for all that goes wrong. We’ve had our words twisted and used against us.

What aspirational message did removing MPP Jama, a young, black disabled women, from the pages of a women’s magazine convey to young women of colour reading their pages? Or to disabled women? Or to women who don’t support the genocide happening in Gaza? Or to Canadian Palestinian women?

They’ll see the hypocrisy for what it is. They’ll see that the construction of women as rendered in today’s women’s magazine has no space for the questions that matter to the women of today. Questions like, how do I live my life as a woman participating in globally competing military-industrial regimes that refuse to recognize humanity? How can I live my life honest to my principles? How do I understand the complex issues facing us? How can I make a difference? As well as can I still express myself with fashion at the same time?

That’s the kind of aspiration women are looking for.

MPP Sarah Jama became a controversial figure for taking an early position on the Israeli bombing of Gaza by contextualizing it, via UN wording, within an occupation under apartheid. Her statement called for a ceasefire and requested Canada refrain from military intervention. She called for a “solution to the endless death and destruction” and an end to the occupation. This was three days after the Hamas attack. But it was too soon for such a reasoned reaction as western governments, including Canada, parroted Israel’s “right to defend itself” without considering, perhaps, what that would entail.

Sarah knew.

I spoke with Sarah about her statement. She said, “it was clear to anybody paying attention that there was genocidal intent, white phosphorus was immediately used. Three days later the borders were closed, nobody could leave. It was very obvious to me.” She continued, “it was so harmful to watch every single other politician say Israel had the right to defend itself while Netanyahu and others were literally putting out statements saying that they wanted to wipe out the Palestinian people.”

Sarah also knew she had to say something. “No one was talking about what was going to happen to the Palestinian people because by day three, I think like 3,000 people were killed.” She was the first Canadian politician to call for a ceasefire, to not give Israel the right to defend itself into a genocide. Others have since followed. Watching the killing happening in real time has sickened everyone.

That’s making change. Or tying to.

Who complained? Jama personally didn’t receive any threats, she didn’t feel threatened. The author of the piece went incommunicado and Elle Canada isn’t saying anything. So who could be perpetrating violence on a woman’s reputation and trying to eliminate her voice from the conversation?

Let’s look at Honest Reporting Canada as a possible agitator. They have a Sarah Jama archive on their site where they proudly link to their anti-Sarah Jama hit pieces, alerted to her pro-Palestinian support for BDS cultivated during her student activism days at McMaster University. Mike Fegelman authored the piece taking Elle Canada to task for its “glowing tribute to fanatical politician Sarah Jama.” They also take aim at the “anti-Israeli” author whose name was removed from the article. I’m not including it, because I believe she, also, is a victim of hateful and violent speech, maybe even death threats, and might want to remain anonymous. It takes a special kind of strength to standup to the prevarications and propaganda coming from deep-pocketed pro-Israel lobbyists.

Davide Mastracci, writing in The Maple has exposed Honest Reporting as a pro-Israel lobbyist group influencing the media; “Israel’s sword and shield” mobilizing its “digital army” to root out those who criticize Israel, purporting to promote “fairness and accuracy.”

In reality they promote and give license to others to harass and abuse those engaging in pro-Palestinian discourse to effectively shut down free speech in Canada. That MPP Jama, again, a duly elected member of the Ontario legislature, is slandered and attacked publicly and the author has to hide away, to the point where Jama is removed from the piece altogether should be abhorrent. It should be unthinkable. But it’s not. It’s the end result of a successful smear campaign by pro-Israeli lobbyists looking to affect public opinion. And we’re all suckers falling for it.

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East condemned the removal and identified the action as anti-Palestinian racism. They cite the report of the Canadian Association of Journalists, ”Ethics of Unpublishing” emphasizing that “it is highly unethical to unpublish material, especially when the media is surrendering to political pressure and doing so in an explicitly racist fashion.” They call on Elle Canada to right the wrong and include MPP Sarah Jama in her rightful place as a Canadian changemaker.

MPP Sarah Jama deserves a public apology for the personal hurt and public humiliation caused by the cowardice of Elle Canada to stand up to pro-Israel propagandists. She deserves the accolade of Changemaker for the courage she demonstrated in going against the dominant narrative of “Israel’s right to defense” to defend the Palestinian people against the certain death and destruction facing them. Her position calling for a ceasefire and an end to military intervention is echoed today in the House of Commons. She did this against overwhelming efforts by pro-Israel actors to silence her.

It’s too bad Sophie Banford couldn’t find the courage to speak out in defense of both the author of the piece, who clearly considered Sarah Jama worthy of the honour and Sarah Jama herself. White feminism strikes again.