kar0ling

  What do you do when a creepy fun project on a little Nazi episode in your hometown uncovers an uncomfortable fact? If you’re Andrew Wall of Refuge 31 films, you make it your next project! Well, actually, about a decade and many other projects passed before Wall got to make this film about his great-grandfather’s Nazi episode. But the timing of the release of The Devil’s Handshake is perhaps exactly right for a film that asks what motivations, what history, what blinders lead us to support extremist movements that should be anathema to us. In the talk-back after the screening at U of W, Wall and several audience members concluded the point was that you can’t judge folks in history because they have all kinds of reasons for why they do what they do. But I don’t think that’s quite what Wall is doing. After all, he made the movie. It there was no valuation that something was off about what his great-grandfather supported, there would be no point to film. All that e...

Peace Train Canada painting by Norma Emerson To the leaders of Canada’s political parties: I write to you to echo Elizabeth May's call for Canada to endorse the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “Although Canada does not possess nuclear weapons of our own, engaging with the TPNW is Canada’s opportunity to be a global leader in moving disarmament forward by influencing our allies with our decisions ,” she writes. “The threat of nuclear weapons being used once again is becoming more real every day.” “We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines any longer. ” Canada has a reputation for being a country that supports peace. We must not rely on reputation only but continue on many fronts with proactive statements, policies and initiatives to declare that violence solves no problems. At both individual and state levels, peoples of the world must recognize that human flourishing requires peace, not war. At this crucial moment in history, rather than raining destruction upon...