Activism | SPOTTED COUCH

Browsing All Posts filed under »Activism«

Appeal Denied: Nyki Kish Remains Behind Bars in a Travesty of Justice

March 18, 2014

Poet, songwriter and community activist Nyki Kish is currently serving a life sentence for a murder she did not commit. Nyki was charged and convicted in 2011 for the stabbing death of Ross Hammond, an internet porn marketing executive with no physical evidence and despite multiple eye witnesses accounts that all verified her story. Justice […]

Family of Murder Victim Loretta Saunders Vows to Keep Fighting for Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women

March 12, 2014

(Are you listening, Stephen Harper?) On February 13, 2014, Loretta Saunders, a pregnant 26-year old Inuk woman, went missing. Sadly, on February 26, her body was found in a wooded median along a New Brunswick highway. Police have not revealed how Loretta was killed, only that it’s a part of the evidence in the first-degree […]

Whipping the Pussy Riot Grrrl Act

March 7, 2014

“Riot Grrrl, in a conscious response to second-wave feminists’ rejection of the word “girl,” reclaimed it with pride — and also in parody. Songs, performances, and fashion statements mocked the depictions of feminine innocence and compliance served to us in the face of discrimination, exploitation, and endemic sexual abuse.” – My Riot Grrrl by Johanna Fateman Powerful words […]

Blood in the Snow: Belligerent Drunk Gets Starlight Tour to Highest Power in the Land

February 19, 2014

One starry winter night, you stumble down the walk, drunk, in a city on the Saskatchewan prairies. The cops pick you up; drive you to the edge of town; and dump you off. Rubber tires recede, crunching on bitter snow. The wind howls, stalking and taunting its prey. You are miles from anywhere with no […]

Playing Dirty: A Tale of False Charges

November 8, 2013

“When pigs fly, wrongful convictions will be dust in the wind.” Too cynical? Perhaps. The story I’m about to tell you will shock some, but not those who follow wrongful convictions. Hopefully, it will shed some light on the precarious dance between a media who wants “its dirt” and law enforcement who wants “its perp.” […]

Media Abuse and the Wrongful Conviction of Nyki Kish

November 3, 2013

Crime myths are falsehoods that grow into public ‘truisms’, told and retold over time, or sensationalised to create “moral” mythologies surrounding a crime. This type of mythmaking is usually aimed at specific groups (i.e. femme fatale, black youth, the homeless, etc.) or behaviours (i.e. panhandling or fatal attractions) that are flagged as potential threats to […]

Dear Jailer: Free Nyki Kish

June 18, 2013

Dear jailer Hello. I just wanted to say hello. You see me everyday But you never say hello. You’ve yelled at me before You’ve touched my body before You’ve written reports on me before, But you’ve never said hello. Excerpt from A Poem written by Nyki Kish from her cell at the Grand Valley Institution for […]

Ribbons Gone Amiss

June 8, 2013

In 1989, my dad revealed that he was HIV+. Oddly (or perhaps not), his confession came the same year that The Names Project – AIDS Memorial Quilt was touring to several host cities across the US and Canada. It was a surreal time filled with intense emotion and shock. Along with the quilt display was a […]

Browsing All Posts filed under »Activism«

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