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Women’s Movements in Canada: 1985–present

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Women’s movements (or, feminist movements) during the period 1985–present — sometimes referred to as third- or fourth-wave feminism — engaged in multipl...

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Eternia's performance with Rah Digga from February 24, 2011.

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LADIES FIRST: Eternia & The Band ft. RAH DIGGA   (02-24-11)

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Yes, the fashion industry has been ravaged by COVID-19, leaving countless people out of work and rendering previously planned strategies for 2020 redundant. Still, brands and designers in Canada have been adapting, moving ahead with dope drops to get us through these dark times, while demonstrating that fashion is also very much about community. Labels like Reigning Champ and Raised By Wolves, for instance, have been releasing special items in order to raise money for the Black Lives Matter movement and people afflicted by the pandemic.

Over the past decade, streetwear in Canada has turned into a movement of its own, bringing about brands inspired by the multiculturalism of Toronto as much as scenery deeper in the country. Here, we share some of the labels from that movement we're stoked about, and think you should be too. These are 12 Canadian streetwear brands you should have on your radar.

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12 Canadian Streetwear Brands You Should Have on Your Radar

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Yes, the fashion industry has been ravaged by COVID-19, leaving countless people out of work and rendering previously planned strategies for 2020 redundant. Still, brands and designers in Canada have been adapting, moving ahead with dope drops to get us through these dark times, while demonstrating that fashion is also very much about community.

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A picture of a younger Michie Mee wearing streetwear.

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Someone wearing a coat from the "Get Fresh Company" streetwear brand.

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Reema Major Live At Reema Day @ Wonderland

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Eternia's live performance from August 1, 2010.

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Eternia LIVE @ Rock Steady Crew 33rd Anniversary Concert (08-01-10)

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Michie Mee performing one of her more recent songs "Badgyal Bubble."

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Michie Mee | Badgyal Bubble | Junos: The Block Session

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Michie Mee performing one of her song from the 90s, "Jamaican Funk Canadian Style."

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Michie Mee | Jamaican Funk | Junos: The Block Session

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Current Prime Minister of Canada: Justin Trudeau

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Pop music genre, introduced in the mid-1970s in New York. Rap was predated by various forms of vocal expression in black cultures, in particular the verbal insult games known as the "dozens" and the practice of "toasting" (in the southern US, a spoken folk narrative; in Jamaica, the rhyming of DJs over sound systems). The early 1970s fusion of political poetry with jazz, rhythm and blues, and funk was also influential. Rap typically involves the rhythmic recitation of rhyming couplets to the accompaniment of rhythm tracks often drawn from recordings manipulated in live performance (eg, turntable "scratching") or in the studio (eg, digital "sampling"). The term "rap" has been used interchangeably with "hip hop," although the latter also describes urban dance styles (eg, break-dancing), visual art (especially graffiti), and fashion. As rap's popularity grew in the 1980s and 1990s, it continued to be influenced by other styles, including reggae, ska, and calypso.

1970s - 80s

Initially a sub-cultural genre in the US, and to a lesser extent in Canada, rap was introduced to a wider pop audience by hit recordings as early as 1979. It was not, however, until the mid-1980s that it enjoyed substantial success in the pop mainstream and, in turn, that Canadian rappers - most of West Indian background, many already performing on an amateur, social basis for several years - began to emerge from the black communities of Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. The first wave of rappers, ca 1980-4 - MCs Supreme, Brother A, Sunshine, and the Ebony Crew - were not recorded.

The broader acceptance of Canadian rappers lagged behind that of their US counterparts as a result of the lack of interest shown by major Canadian record companies in black music generally. As a result, Canadian rappers were groomed by independent producers and managers, most notably Ivan Berry of Toronto's Beat Factory Productions, established in 1987. One of Berry's first projects, Michie Mee (Michelle McCulloch) and LA Luv (Phillip Gayle), had their early reggae-influenced efforts in 1988 ("On this Mike," "Elements of Style," and "Victory Is Calling") released by US and European labels.

1990s - 2000s

It was not until the domestic mainstream success in 1990 of "Let Your Backbone Slide" by Maestro Fresh-Wes (Wesley Williams, b Toronto, of Guyanese parents, 1968) that Canadian labels began to take an active role in the recording of rap. Fresh-Wes' debut album Symphony in Effect sold more than 150,000 copies, included a second hit, "Drop the Needle," and in 1991 won the inaugural Juno Award for best rap recording.

Other Canadian rap artists to emerge in 1990 included MCJ and Cool G, HDV, and the Dream Warriors. Montreal's MCJ and Cool G (James McQuaid and Richard Gray respectively, originally from Halifax) employed an R&B-influenced style exemplified by "So Listen" and "Smooth as Silk." HDV (Sean Merrick of Toronto) presented provocative "hard core" rap (eg, "Pimp of the Microphone") that spoke of the harsh, inner-city realities faced by some Canadian blacks. The Dream Warriors (King Lou and Capital Q, Louis Robinson and Frank Allert respectively, of Toronto) had great success 1990-1 in Europe with the lyrically and musically eclectic songs "Wash Your Face in My Sink," "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" (1992 rap Juno), and "Ludi," while still relatively unknown in Canada. Other rappers active in this period included Simply Majestic featuring B. Kool ("Dance to the Music [Work Your Body]"), Krush and Skad, Main Source, RazorBlayd, Top Secret, Slinky Dee, Self-Defence, and K-4ce (K-Force).

Rap A Powerful Alternative Since 1991

With the European success of the Dream Warriors and the flurry of debut albums by other artists, Toronto was hailed in 1991 by the international press as an important new rap music centre. If the wholehearted acceptance of rap by the Canadian pop music industry remained in question, the country's rappers by then had nevertheless developed a strong, community-based media, production and entrepreneurial infrastructure that, together with the rise of still newer artists - Fresh B., KGB, Nu Black Nation, R&R, Sonyalive, Base Poet, Sweet Ebony, Brothers Doing Work, Nubian Islamic Force, etc - ensured that their music would be, at the very least, a powerful and often defiant alternative to the Canadian pop mainstream of the early 1990s.

In the late 1990s and 2000s a number of important Canadian rap artists emerged, such as Vancouver's Rascalz (1997's "Cash Crop"); Nova Scotia-born Buck 65 (Richard Terfry, 1997's "The Centaur"); Toronto's Choclair (Kareem Blake, 1999's "Ice Cold" and "Let's Ride"); Saukrates (Amani Wailoo, 2000's "Love or Money"); k-os (Kevin Brereton, 2004's "Crabbuckit," "B-Boy Stance," and "Joyful Rebellion"); and Kardinal Offishall (Jason Harrow, 2008's "Dangerous"). Also notable was the 1998 collaboration "Northern Touch" (winner of the 1999 rap Juno) by Rascalz with Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust, and Choclair. Rascalz also won the 1998 Juno for best rap recording for "Cash Crop," but declined it on the basis of racism, as the first eight years of rap Juno awards (1991-8) were not televised.

Rap Adopted By Non-Blacks

The success of rap in the 1980s prompted white performers to adopt the style, among them - in Canada - the Shuffle Demons, who had success as early as 1987 with their rap-influenced "Spadina Bus" and "Get Outta My House, Roach." A rap version of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" by the bilingual and interracial Montreal trio Laymen Twaist was popular in 1990. The Japanese-Canadian Kish (Andrew Kishino of Toronto who, like Maestro Fresh-Wes, was produced by the First Offence team of Peter and Anthony Davis) made his record debut in 1991 with "I Rhyme the World in 80 Days." In the mid-1990s rap also established a foothold with Aboriginal youth, especially in Cree communities, who saw the genre as a powerful mode of political expression. Among Aboriginal rap artists to emerge in the 1990s and 2000s were Alberta's Bannock (Darren Tootoosis) and War Party (originally Rex and Cynthia Smallboy, Karmen Omeosoo, Tom Crier); BC's 7th Generation (Rob Sawan, Zane Gold, Nacoma George); Ontario's Tru Rez Crew; and others.

Rap in French

Rap in French was introduced by the Montreal group, Les French B., (Jean-Robert Bisaillon and Richard Gauthier) in 1989 with the politically charged "Je m'en souviens" (on the subject of Quebec's language law Bill 101). The Mouvement rap francophone - Kool Rock (Ghislain Proulx) and Jay Tree (Jean Tarzi) - followed with "M.R.F. est arrivé" later in 1990, and Le Boyfriend (Stephen Chétrit) with "Rapper chic" early in 1991. A white Muslim rapper, Malik Shaheed (John Morrow) of Montreal, produced politically driven tracks in Spanish, as well as French and English. The bilingual soul- and gospel-influenced Dubmatique, also of Montreal, emerged in 1997 with its debut album La force de comprendre. The album sold 100,000 copies, penetrating both Francophone and Anglophone markets, and won the group a Félix trophy at the 1997 ADISQ. The separatist rap group Loco Locass has been very successful in French-speaking Quebec. In 2004 the single "Liberez-Nous des Liberaux" (Liberate us from the Liberals) received media attention for its scrutiny of the Quebec government, and became the unofficial anthem for a variety of like-minded political groups and unions.

Rap Elements in Pop Songs

Rap choruses have also been heard in reggae songs recorded by Messenjah and in pop songs by Céline Dion, Nathalie Simard, Nelly Furtado, and others. The reggae-pop artist Snow (Darrin O'Brien) also included rap elements in some of his songs, such as 1993's "Informer." The Toronto-based rock bands Rush and Barenaked Ladies also explored rap elements in such songs as "Roll the Bones" (1991) and "One Week" (1998), respectively.

Rap Awards

Vancouver's Swollen Members have won the most rap Junos, followed by Choclair. Rap Junos since 1993 have also been awarded to Devon, TBTBT, Ghetto Concept, Rascalz, k-os, Somalia-born K'Naan, Palestine-born Belly, and Kardinal Offishall. Winners of The Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards' rap and hip hop category (introduced in 2001) have included War Party, Tru Rez Crew, Team Rezofficial, Eekwol, Reddnation, Da Skelpa Squad, 7th Generation, and Chief.

Selected Discography

Belly. The Revolution. 2007

B.T.K. Birth Thru Knowledge (with BTK). 1998

Buck 65. Vertex. 1997

Cadence Weapon. Breaking Kayfabe. 2005

Choclair. Ice Cold. 1999

Dream Warriors. And Now the Legacy Begins. (1991). Island 391-310

- A Decade of Hits 1988-1998. 1999

Eekwol. Apprentice to the Mystery. 2004

Ghetto Concept. "Certified" (single). 1993

HDV. Sex Drugs & Violence. (1990). Isba ISCD-2018

Kardinal Offishall. Not 4 Sale. 2008

Kish. Order from Chaos. (1991). A & M 70301-9172

K'Naan. The Dusty Foot Philosopher. 2005

k-os. Joyful Rebellion. 2004

Laymen Twaist. Walk on the Wild Side. (1990). Isba ISCD-2022

Loco Locass. Manifestif. 2000. Audiogram

- In Vivo. 2003. Freeset Interactive Entertainment

- Amour oral. 2004. Audiogram

Maestro Fresh Wes. Symphony in Effect. 1989. Attic ACD-1272

- The Black Tie Affair. 1991. Attic ACD-1312

- Built to Last. 1998

MCJ and Cool G. So Listen. 1990. Cap C-94700

Michie Mee and L.A. Luv. Jamaican Funk - Canadian Style. 1991. First Priority/Atlantic 7-91654

Rascalz. Cash Crop. 1997

- "Northern Touch" (single). 1998

RazorBlayd. Razor's Gruv. 1991. Blast/Justin Entertainment BLD-1001

Reddnation. Now or Never. (2006)

Saukrates. "Saukrates Season" (single). 2005

7th Generation. Kasp Komplikations. 2002

Simply Majestic. The Album. 1991. Cap C2-96543

Shad. The Old Prince. 2007

Slinky Dee. King Creo. 1988. Cold Kick'N Records CKR-001

Swollen Members. Balance. 1999

- Bad Dreams. 2001

Tru Rez Crew. Ain't No Turning Back. 2003

War Party. The Reign. 2000

- The Greatest Natives from the North. 2001

Also, the anthologies Breakin' Out (Up Your Records 2B No 1 As B4, issued in 1987), Je rappe en français (Station 12 STAC-500, issued in 1991 with 'Je m'en souviens' and 'Rapper chic,' etc) and Cold Front (Attic ACD-1313, issued in 1991 with Dream Warriors, Kish, Main Source, Maestro Fresh-Wes, Nu Black Nation, Top Secret, and others)

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Pop music genre, introduced in the mid-1970s in New York. Rap was predated by various forms of vocal expression in black cultures, in particular the verbal insult games known as the "dozens" and the practice of "toasting" (in the southern US, a spoken folk narrative; in Jamaica, the rhyming of DJs over sound systems).

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Chapter 3. Urban, Industrial, and Divided: Socio-Economic Change, 1867-1920

Nancy M. Forestell, Department of History, St. Francis Xavier University

Alongside and sometimes overlapping with the various social reform causes which emerged in the latter part of the part of the 19th century was the first wave of the Canadian feminist movement. While historians once identified the creation of the Toronto Women's Literary Society in 1876 as marking the official origin of a women's movement, more recent scholarship indicates that a variety of women and organizations were engaged in pursuits related to fair treatment and equal rights at least several decades earlier. The specific context of British North America as a settler society shaped by histories of colonialism and slavery had a significant influence on women's activism from the outset. Belated acknowledgement is now being given to the Indigenous rootsof the first wave in North America with documented cases of Aboriginal women demonstrating a critical gender consciousness, acting "in what they perceived to be their own best interests as women as human beings," and most often to combat the deleterious consequences of colonialism. One prominent example involved the Anishinaabe woman, Nahebahwequa (also known as Catherine Sutton), who protested in 1860 against her dispossession from land she considered a birthright, an event that arose because she had married a non-Aboriginal man. Another key element in the genesis of feminist activism was the ongoing legacy of slavery and female engagement in international abolitionist networks. By the mid-19th century, concerns about the injustices of slavery became increasingly connected with another kind of bondage seen to be experienced by women. It remains unclear the extent to which Black and White female abolitionists were able to easily or consistently overcome the racial divide, but there is a record of mixed race attendance at lectures on anti-slavery and women's rights as well as mutual support for integrated education in the 1850s and 1860s. These initiatives were accompanied by efforts to secure women's property rights, the quest for higher education, and the formation of female-exclusive church organizations. Altogether, they laid the basis for women to pursue the attainment of additional rights and play a more significant role in public campaigns for social reform. As in other national contexts, there was not a singular women's movement in Canada as such; rather, a diverse range of activists who dedicated themselves to a wide array of political, social, economic, and cultural issues.

In the latter part of the 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, two main arguments were put forward by feminists to secure greater civil and political rights, and to achieve greater influence for Canadian women in civil society. One was premised on an equal rights ethos that women and men shared a common humanity, and hence, women should be able to attend university, gain access to selection occupations, vote, and etc. as a matter of natural justice. The other emphasized women's differences from men, and in particular that their near universal role as mothers specially equipped them to participate in a wide range of reform and political campaigns. Referred to as maternal feminism, this form of argument emphasized that women could apply the knowledge and attributes they acquired as mothers to address various inequities and social ills. While some female activists solely employed one position over the other, many strategically used both. Nonetheless, those who came to predominate among the mainstream women's organizations, namely middle-class Anglo-Celtic Protestant women, most closely identified with maternal feminism. They were especially prevalent in the first national umbrella women's organization, the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC), formed in 1893. They were not the only ones of course, as francophone Catholic women who became part of the provincial group, the Fédération National Saint-Jean-Baptiste (FNSB), founded in 1907 also saw themselves as maternal feminists.

One of the central issues of the first wave was the struggle for female suffrage which involved a protracted campaign with feminist activists laying claim to full political citizenship. While single-issue suffrage groups in Canada remained relatively small and mainly confined to urban centres until the turn of the 20th century, the large female prohibition group the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a vocal proponent from the 1870s onward. As with a number of other women's reform groups at the time, the WCTU did not view the attainment of female suffrage as the primary goal in and of itself, but rather as a means to achieve greater political influence for social improvement. Although the suffrage campaign was dominated for the most part by Anglo-Celtic bourgeois reformers, other groups of women participated. For example, female immigrants from Iceland were supporters from early on, as were women originally from Finland, especially after their home country granted women in the vote in 1906. In the specific case of Quebec, the staunch opposition of the Catholic church to women's enfranchisement combined with the higher priority female reformers gave to advances in their legal rather than political status, meant that support for women's suffrage was more muted there and the campaign longer.

At the federal level, decades of struggle resulted in the achievement of a partial franchise with the passage of the Wartime Elections Act in 1917. Against the backdrop of World War I, this legislation granted the vote to the female relatives of Canadian soldiers, a large majority of whom were of British ancestry, and withheld the vote to any immigrant citizen from enemy countries who had been naturalized after 1902. These provisions in the legislation not only meant that significant a proportion of non-British immigrants were left out entirely, but also that French Canadians were greatly under-represented among the women who were enfranchised. Although universal adult suffrage was introduced the next year, select populations of women andmen were explicitly left disenfranchised: Aboriginal people, as well as Chinese, Japanese, and Indian immigrants.

Other key issues garnered the time and attention of feminists beyond the vote. Working-class women, on occasion in concert with middle-class allies, attempted to oppose the inequities of industrial capitalism and inequities within the labour movement. They also specifically agitated as wives and mothers protesting high consumer prices. Farm women lobbied for legislative changes which would allow them greater financial independence and power especially as related to homestead rights and dower laws. There were still other efforts to raise the moral tone of Canadian society primarily by Euro-Canadian middle-class women. These feminists were not alone in this battle, but far more than others, they raised concerns particular to the situation of women and with a view to altering existing gender relations through the attainment of a single moral standard. Social hierarchies of class, race, religion, and colonial status were at times questioned and contested during the first wave but far more they were unquestioned and re-affirmed.

Key Points

Aboriginal women were early campaigners for women's rights as regards property.

Legal and property rights were a continuing focus for several generations of post-Confederation women, especially in Quebec.

The movement to abolish slavery provided opportunities for women to develop activist and political skills and for alliances that crossed racial lines.

First wave feminism engaged ideas like equal rights and maternal feminism: the first emphasizing the similarities between men and women; the latter highlighting differences based on motherhood.

Figure 3.41 long description: Flyer for women's suffrage meeting. It reads "You will wish to hear The Famous Canadian Woman Suffrage Leader Mrs. Flora McD. Dennison and Mr. Frank Dunham (Formerly of Colorado)-Also-The Liberty Loan Speaker Rev. Dr. J. Ellenwood at The Final Suffrage Mass Meeting in The Common Council Chamber City Hall. Thursday, October 25 at 8:00 P.M. Presiding Officer, Mayor E. J. Foley. Vote for Woman Suffrage Amendment No. 1. Nov. 6th." The flyer is printed by Century Printing Co., Broadway, Watervliet (in New York State). [Return to Figure 3.41]

More fully: first wave feminists. Advocates for women's rights in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; also sometimes called "maternal feminists."

Holders of an ideological position that advances the ideal of equality of women and men.

Individuals and groups associated with the movement to end slavery in the United States. In Canada, abolitionists assisted African-Americans fleeing the United States, whether they were slaves or otherwise. The abolitionist movement built the foundation for subsequent social movements in Canada.

In the context of feminism, the belief that rights accorded to men and women ought to be the same. Diverges somewhat from maternal feminism which claims rights based on gendered differences.

Also called first wave feminism; a movement to achieve greater civic rights for women; based its appeal on the biological differences between women and men, arguing that women have a natural nurturing instinct and ability which ought to be welcomed in a democratic system; women could apply the knowledge and attributes acquired from their universal role as mothers to address various inequities and social ills.

A feminist activist group formed in 1893; predominantly Anglo-Celtic Protestant women who mostly identified themselves as maternal feminists.

Founded in 1907, francophone Catholic women activists who also saw themselves as maternal feminists.

One of the central issues of the first wave feminists, involving a protracted campaign with feminist activists laying claim to full political citizenship.

One of the largest and most effective anti-drink lobbies in Canada. Established in 1874, months after its first branch was announced in the United States, the WCTU emerged as a vehicle for contiguous reforms in public behaviour, the political environment, and social conditions.

With the passage of the Wartime Elections Act in 1917, female relatives of Canadian soldiers were granted the vote.

Introduced a year after the partial franchise, to grant adults the right to vote; however, select populations of women and men were explicitly left disenfranchised: Aboriginal people, as well as Chinese, Japanese, and Indian immigrants.

The Dominion Lands Act protected women's interest in homesteads by forbidding the sale of the homestead by a husband without the wife's written consent.

Formal recognition of a widow's lifetime interest in matrimonial property on the death of her husband. See also homestead rights.

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Chapter 3. Urban, Industrial, and Divided: Socio-Economic Change, 1867-1920 Nancy M. Forestell, Department of History, St. Francis Xavier University Alongside and sometimes overlapping with the various social reform causes which emerged in the latter part of the part of the 19th century was the first wave of the Canadian feminist movement.

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News, music, and event outlet for the Canadian Hip-Hop Audience

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The Gateway to Canadian Hip-Hop. Get Connected!

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First Wave: Fight for access to voting and holding political office.
Second Wave: Fight for job and pay equality as well as access to contraception.
Third Wave: Inclusive to all groups of women. The term "intersectionality" was conceived here.
Fourth Wave: Use of the internet to enhance inclusion and call out harassment and discrimination.

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History of the Movement

The history of feminism is divided into four periods, often called "waves." While this is a helpful way to understand the history of feminism, it is important to remember that history cannot be neatly divided in this way. However, these different waves happened at different times and in different places.

First Wave

The first feminist wave lasted from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. This feminist movement is sometimes referred to as " women's suffrage," because the most important goal of these feminists was to give women the right to vote and be elected to political office. These feminist activists, often called suffragists or suffragettes, also focused on subjects like married women's property rights, child custody, and citizenship. Many of these early feminists can also be described as maternal feminists. They argued that women had special responsibilities as "mothers of the nation," and were therefore more naturally suited to take care of matters regarding child care and education. In Canada, the most prominent first-wave feminists were the Famous Five, including Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby.

While first-wave feminists are often credited with giving women the right to vote in various countries, this was not always a benevolent or an inclusive process. For example, many first-wave feminists in North America, including the Famous Five, believed that only white women deserved the right to vote or be elected. This was one of several different methods they used to preserve their racial privilege in the face of a growing immigrant population. ( See also Immigration to Canada.) Some campaigned against allowing Indigenous, Black, or women of colour the right to vote at all. ( See also Prejudice and Discrimination.) The history of first-wave feminism cannot be separated from the history of eugenics, nationalism and racism.

Second Wave

The second feminist wave was mainly active from the 1960s to the 1980s, and is sometimes also called the "Women's Movement." Feminists in this time period, like Canadians Thérèse Casgrain and Doris Anderson, generally concentrated on subjects like equal pay for equal work, access to birth control and abortion, and ending gender discrimination. The movement's most well-known slogan was "The Personal is Political," meaning that all people's social and political lives are intertwined and cannot be separated. Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, is seen as one of the key publications of this wave and marked the start of second wave feminism in North America. This book exposed the unhappiness and lack of fulfillment that many women homemakers felt in the 1950s because of restrictive gender roles. ( See also History of Gender Roles in Canada.)

Some individuals have critiqued second-wave feminism because, particularly in North America, the movement was not inclusive. Instead, the movement was dominated by white middle-class women who argued that all women are united as "sisters." This erased the diverse kinds of oppression that many individuals faced. As a result, many working-class women; Indigenous, Black, and women of colour; queer, trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary folks ( see also Queer Culture), and women with disabilities formed their own feminist organizations. They did so both to fight for their rights and to create solidarity in their own communities, which were excluded by mainstream feminism. Many feminists outside of North America and Europe, including Indigenous feminists in Canada like Lee Maracle (Stó:lō), also critiqued second-wave feminism for its emphasis on the idea that women and men must necessarily be equal, arguing instead that it was important to recognize that women and men contributed to society equally, but in different ways. (See Indigenous Feminisms in Canada; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in Canada.)

Third Wave

The nineties are often seen as the dividing line between second- and third-wave feminism. The origins of third-wave feminism are often connected to the "Riot Grrrl" feminist punk subculture in the United States. The subculture emerged in response to criticisms of second-wave feminism around the exclusion of racialized and marginalized individuals. Third-wave feminists worked deliberately to be inclusive. Major third-wave organizations, like Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), concentrated on subjects like sexual liberation, reclaiming derogatory words, and violence against women.

One of the key thinkers in this wave was Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term " intersectionality " to describe the ways in which different aspects of identity and oppression intersect and interact. Another important thinker in third-wave feminism was Judith Butler, who introduced the idea of gender performativity, or the idea that all gender is a performance. The introduction of these two concepts also corresponded with the third wave's emphasis on fighting for justice on behalf of all people who experience gender discrimination. This includes cis-women as well as trans, non-binary, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse. However, while many individuals believe that third-wave feminism was more inclusive than earlier feminist waves, the movement was still focused mostly on the experiences of white cis-women, especially in North America. It has also been criticized for its lack of a central message.

Fourth Wave

The fourth feminist wave began in the period between 2008 and 2012, and is connected to the rise of the internet. Building on the third wave's emphasis on intersectionality, the fourth wave is even more deliberately inclusive. It has generally focused on justice for survivors (particularly around sexual harassment, assault, and rape culture), education on issues like pronoun usages, and the importance of personal narratives. Internet access, especially social media, has made it easier than ever for feminists to connect and organize politically. One of the key realizations of fourth-wave feminism has been the#MeToo movement, which originated with Tarana Burke in 2006. The #MeToo movement has empowered gender and sexual violence survivors to come forward with their stories and make public allegations against the powerful or prominent (often male) perpetrators.

Some have critiqued the fourth wave particularly around the exclusion of sex workers as well as the continuing exclusion and marginalization on the basis of class, race and ethnicity, Indigeneity, gender diversity, and disability. Some have critiqued the movement for so-called "cancel" or "call-out culture," where individuals are often condemned online, as well as for "hashtag activism," or activism for show, without any real change.

Conclusion

Today, there are many different feminist theories, perspectives, schools of thought, and organizations fighting for gender equality for all people. No matter the form, feminism's impact on history is enormous, and feminism continues to be a vibrant force today.

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The history of feminism is divided into four periods, often called "waves." While this is a helpful way to understand the history of feminism, it is important to remember that history cannot be neatly divided in this way. However, these different waves happened at different times and in different places.

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Increase of Feminist Support Across the Country

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Increase of Feminist Support Across the Country

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A majority of the women population of Canada considers themselves to be a feminist, meaning that there is an increase of women who willingly support feminism.

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Transcript

00:00:00 Andrea

Hi, I'm Andrea.

A new national survey has been released this new year. It shows that a majority of women in Canada describe themselves as feminists: 57%, a big increase over previous years.

This number is especially large amongst young women aged 18 to 24: 70% described themselves as feminist and 40% of men identify as feminists. 90% of all people in Canada think more needs to be done to promote equality of women.

Is feminism no longer the F-word?

Welcome to Alright, Now What?, a podcast of the Canadian Women's Foundation. We put an intersectional feminist lens on stories that make you wonder "Why is this still happening?" We explore systemic roots and strategies for change that will move us closer to the goal of gender justice.

The work of the Canadian Women's Foundation and our partners takes place on traditional First Nations, Métis, and Inuit territories. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land. However, we recognize that land acknowledgements are not enough. We need to pursue truth, reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship in an ongoing effort to make right with all our relations.

My colleague Michelle Musindo, manager of Community Initiatives at the Canadian Women's Foundation, joins me today to talk about this data that shows that more people than ever consider themselves feminist and what this might mean for the future of feminist movements and the systemic change for gender justice we need in Canada today.

00:01:32 Michelle

It's a good thing. I think it's a good thing that many more people across Canada identify themselves as feminists. I think that we are moving past the idea that feminism is only just for a certain group of people, like we are now broadening our thought process.

Housing is a feminist issue.

Education is a feminist issue.

Health care is a feminist issue that's shown up so much in the pandemic.

Security is a feminist issue, we're seeing people talk about gun control and violence.

It means a lot more people are seeing that a lot more things are feminist issues, and we've just really moved away from feminism is for a certain group of people, but not all of us are getting that.

And also, I think that we definitely need to think about what we mean by feminism. I think that there's so many movements out there, been so many movements in the past that have excluded lots of people, so when we think about feminism in the most broadest sense, sometimes that mainstream feminism doesn't exactly include everyone.

So, if we're seeing more and more people identifying as feminists, it's great, but also like what kind of ideologies are they being exposed to?

Whose voices are they hearing?

And whose voices are they not hearing?

And we know that the feminist movement or the feminist movements have been so many. And the leaders of those movements sometimes have excluded folks on purpose. When we're talking about how people identify as feminism, I think that we need to move a little bit further and think about whose voices were putting at the forefront. And a lot of those voices are historically oppressed and marginalized communities who have been working for everybody, but however, most mainstream movements have not been working for them.

00:03:16 Andrea

So, I'm thinking about the work that you do with girls and youth-facing grantees and programs.
70% of young women aged 18 to 24 consider themselves feminists. First of all, do you see this as a sign of the time?

00:03:29 Michelle

I think of all the young people around me, and I think most of the young people around me, identify as feminists and I can't say that when I was young there was that level of acceptance of the term, feminism and the ideology of feminism.

00:03:43 Andrea

I do wonder, though, sometimes when we're thinking about young feminists, are we really listening to them?
How are we co-mentoring and supporting them and you know making sure that the future of our movements, plural, is strong?

Tell us a little bit about what you think around that.

00:03:59 Michelle

I think that's a complicated question because I do think we, we do listen to young feminists. I think there are spaces where we do listen to them, but I also think that's 100% because young feminists are at the forefront. They're the loudest voices in a room, so they're making us listen to them. It's not that the movement or movements have been creating certain spaces for young feminists to come in and voice and feel like they're invited to the table.

I think that there are instances that we are listening to young feminists, but I do think that we need to listen a little bit more and we need to support young feminist groups, young grassroots groups, youth collectives, communities that are operating sort of outside of the box who are usually supported and spearheaded by young people. At the Canadian Women's Foundation, in the work that we do on building the field, a lot of it is done by young people and spearheaded by young people.

We fund a youth collective that's focusing specifically on advocacy efforts around sexual violence in schools, and they're working hard to hold their schools, communities, teachers and community members accountable around sexual violence and bullying in schools.

Well, like in the Girls Fund program, we see grantees share stories of participating and advocating for trans rights in their schools, for speaking up about using pronouns within their programming.

And these are all young feminists who are working hard without really the support of institutions because they don't really fall under these sort of like traditional processes or ways of doing things, so it's very like ad hoc, so I think that there is a lot of space for organisations, for feminist leaders, for leaders, for communities to really start listening to young people more intentionally and to really start focusing on the fact that young people know what's good for them. And also that young people are our future.

So that means that we need to think more critically about how they're brought to the table, and that if you're in a room where there's no young person in that space maybe think a little bit more about why is there no young person in that space because they can absolutely speak to the experiences of their community, but also experiences of they can speak to everything, so not to discount people because they're young. And to create those co-mentoring spaces because in the future in 10-15 years they're going to be some of the leaders leading these spaces, and hopefully they break the cycle bringing more and more young voices to the table, I guess.

00:06:35 Andrea

At the Canadian Women's Foundation, we've seen this as well too, that we need to have more young people voices in decision-making, in the way that this foundation runs. A public foundation means that it has to represent and reflect the public, and that includes in a big way, young people. When we think about feminism and gender justice movements in Canada, what do you think this booming identification of feminism really means?

00:07:00 Michelle

It means feminism is trending.

I think it's of interest to a lot of people at this moment.

I mean, I think you see governments across the world take on feminist international policies, feminist approaches to housing. You can see people bring in, sort of the feminist perspective into different things, at like different levels, whether it is organizationally or you know nationally or internationally, but I do think it means that we are talking about what feminism means.

And what does it mean for gender justice?

I think it can mean a lot of different things. I think it can mean that we're moving a bit further away from just focusing on it, like I said before, that is just an area of conversation for certain communities or for certain policies, and I think that's something that's definitely happening.

I think that it's definitely a space that we're seeing more grassroots organisations be able to speak more. The more we talk about feminism, the more we're emphasizing the work of young people, the work of black and indigenous leaders. We're looking at looking at how oppressive methods impact the ways in which we have done stuff, and how history in itself impacts the ways we do all the work that we're doing, so we're having a bit more critical conversations about like what we are doing as a country, as a people and as a community.

However again, I do want to go back to whose voices are we putting at the forefront.

Are we listening to indigenous and black voices?

Are we listening to immigrant voices?

Are we listening to people with disabilities?

Who's at the forefront of all these conversations and who are we listening to?

Because that impacts the ways in which we start working towards gender justice.

Are we listening to trans voices?

So yeah, I think that the boom means it's trending.

However, we need to go further than just trending.

We need to go into impact and we need to go into action. Take from all the learnings that are happening in the feminist movement and in past feminist movements and use those to move forward to actually realizing the rights and protecting communities across the country.

00:09:15 Andrea

Trending doesn't necessarily mean change, but certainly trending is something you can leverage for change.

So, I'm thinking here about some of this data that we've seen.

There is a gender gap when it comes to people agreeing that more should be done to promote gender equality.

The data shows that more women than men believe that more should be done.

And of course, when it comes to education and good mentorship and modeling for young people, how can we help young people of all genders grow in their understanding of equity issues so that when the next surveys happen, we see the numbers go up all the more for all genders.

00:09:48 Michelle

So I think we can start at first just by listening to them.

I think it's really important to listen to young people and understand where they're coming from, and then from that it's inviting them to decision making spaces. It's by funding them and paying them for the work and support that they do in their communities. I think once we start actually actively and intentionally listening to young people, you'll see more and more young people asking questions, being interested in all these different spaces and you'll see more and more people feeling comfortable to navigate through the journey that is learning about feminism.

Like I always say that I learned about feminism through the women in my family, but I only learned to name what I was learning in university. And then even further than that, I learned to learn that this thing existed after university, after having read. Like I didn't even know there was such a thing as women and gender studies where you could actively learn about feminism as a theoretical perspective until then, so I think listening to young people and supporting them through the journey of constantly learning and relearning and finding opportunities and sharing all these theories and ways of thinking with them, as well as listening to them is one way that we can definitely help and maybe will lead to more people identifying as feminists in the future.

And I think that we should also really focus on funding and paying young people to do the work that they're doing because they know how to speak to the issues that they're going through. Young feminists across the world we know are organizing at the forefront so providing them the funds and support and care for the work that they're doing that's transforming the ways of thinking and transforming people's lives I think is really important. If you see a young person being able to do this, I think more and more young leaders will step up and want to do things and transform people's lives because they see it can be done.

I think opportunities to mentor young people and to provide them access to resources is really, really important. So if we create spaces of mentorship, if we create spaces where people are allowed to investigate and learn more about what it is, what feminism is, I think that you'll see more and more people identify as feminists and I think that also that needs to be like in schools, conversations about feminism need to be integrated in after-school programs, in just all the spaces so that young people are already connecting with this idea of feminism as they're growing up.

And as we know feminist movements have changed over time and they've been informed by the different voices that have come through and the different experiences of different people. So I think that if we start the conversations around feminism at a young age, we'll be seeing transformational change happening over and over and over in the future.

And then I think the last thing I would say is that we just need to keep talking about how gender justice and equity is integral to community building to young people. And starting from such a young age talking about the ways in which gender intersects with everything that we do, I think it's important to talk about all of that stuff constantly and how it relates to how we build communities.

I think about as well, like I talked about the older women in my family, but a lot of them, I don't think would have identified as feminists 10 years ago. And then I just would say I'm a feminist and they would be like OK, but now I can, I saw that even in the data there was a jump of people who are 55 and plus identifying as feminists, and I think that it's because people are understanding more and more what it is to be a feminist, and it's no longer that F word that is taboo to speak.

It's trending and it's like a word that you can use comfortably and not face any backlash. Hopefully we'll be seeing that jump to more and more people identifying as feminists and then also questioning what that means and who they're listening to and whose voices they're elevating in their journey of becoming feminists.

00:13:57 Andrea

So as we know, speaking of learning, speaking of understanding feminism is for everybody understanding what intersectionality and opening up who is a feminist and why, we've heard that of course, bell hooks passed away recently at age 69, and you recently read a trailblazing book by bell hooks. Can you tell us a little bit about that and the lessons that you took away from that?

00:14:21 Michelle

I read Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

I thought it was an amazing book.

She breaks down everything that like I think you should know as like a feminist 101 in 19 chapters and how it relates to so many things. Like I think my favorite chapter that was in there was feminist class struggle, which was chapter 7. And really, the conversations around class and feminism are so important because I think it allows us to see why for so long so many people voices were not included, especially for those who think that there's one feminist movement.

I think in that chapter I think she summarized exactly why there's no such thing as one feminist movement. There's multiple feminist movements, and there's clearly ways in which specifically, in this chapter black women were not included in a lot of feminist conversations. And why they weren't included by white feminists. So I really loved that chapter but I think the whole book is like a perfect read for someone who's trying to figure out what feminism means and where they want to start in their journey of learning more about feminism.

For me, I've been learning a lot about feminism.

It's like a, it's a journey.

It's great that people are identifying as feminists, but that it's a constant journey of learning what it is to be a better feminist. And I think that we focus a lot of time on how to be the right type of feminist or the wokest feminist or the best feminist in the group, but I think from interacting with so many feminist leaders, and people in my community consider themselves feminists, I think what I've really taken away from that is that you're constantly learning to be better, to understand feminism better and to integrate feminist practices and thoughts into the work that we do.

Thinking about what are the concrete goals for gender justice?

Is that it's a constant learning process and I think that you see that a lot in feminist work that it's about learning and integrating and continuously moving forward and picking up things constantly.

00:16:38 Andrea

Paulette Senior, President and CEO of Canadian Women Foundation, wrote a tribute entitled The Enduring Legacy of bell hooks. It was published in Chatelaine on December 20 th , 2021.

"She was taken from us far too soon, at a time when we might need her more than ever. At the end of 2021, there certainly seems to be more public acknowledgement of gender and racial dynamics than ever, more room to speak to inclusion, equity, and systemic racism and what real justice looks like.

But does this mean we're closer to the life-sustaining transformation she wrote about? Are we, really and truly, more loved?"

"The only way we can try to answer that in the affirmative is to keep bell hooks' legacy strong. To read her writing and reflect; to transgress inequitable forces; to protest and vote accordingly. To lead with transforming love. It's exactly what she wrote about over thousands of pages, her life's great work. At the very least, it's what makes her loss a little more bearable."

Please listen, subscribe, rate and review this podcast and share it with others.

If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate today at canadianwomen.org and become a monthly donor. And thank you for being tireless in your support for gender justice.

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00:00:00 Andrea Hi, I'm Andrea. A new national survey has been released this new year. It shows that a majority of women in Canada describe themselves as feminists: 57%, a big increase over previous years. This number is especially large amongst young women aged 18 to 24: 70% described themselves as feminist and 40% of men identify as feminists.

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Where Michie Mee was raised and a hotspot for Canadian Hip-Hop.

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Table of Contents

Where is Toronto located?

What is the climate of Toronto?

Has Toronto ever had a hurricane?

Read a brief summary of this topic

Toronto, city, capital of the province of Ontario, southeastern Canada. It is the most populous city in Canada, a multicultural city, and the country's financial and commercial centre. Its location on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, which forms part of the border between Canada and the United States, and its access to Atlantic shipping via the St. Lawrence Seaway and to major U.S. industrial centres via the Great Lakes have enabled Toronto to become an important international trading centre. Moreover, the city is positioned on the edge of some of the best farmland in Canada, with a climate favourable to growing a wide range of crops, thereby making Toronto a transportation, distribution, and manufacturing centre. Most importantly, its central location, along with a host of political policies favouring international trade, places this city with the greatest economic ties to, and influence from, the United States. Since the second half of the 20th century the city has grown phenomenally, from a rather sedate provincial town-"Toronto the Good"-to a lively, thriving, cosmopolitan metropolitan area. Area 244 square miles (632 square km); metro. area, 2,280 square miles (5,905 square km). Pop. (2011) 2,615,060; metro. area, 5,583,064; (2021) 2,794,356; metro. area, 6,202,225.

City site

The melting of ice from the past glacial age altered the Toronto region's landscape profoundly. Approximately 11,000 years ago a body of water much larger (about 130 feet [40 metres] higher) than the present-day Lake Ontario was in existence there-a glacial lake referred to as Lake Iroquois. With the opening up of the St. Lawrence River, the lake waters receded, dropping in excess of 300 feet (90 metres) below the present level. Over time, the water levels rose to the present condition, leaving a marshy shoreline but a fine natural harbour. The site of the city is almost uniformly flat, although 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 km) inland there is a fairly sharp rise of some 40 feet (12 metres)-the shoreline elevation of the former glacial lake.

The resources of the surrounding land were also important to Toronto's development. The rich sedimentary soils of southern Ontario provided excellent farmland, and the ancient rock of the Canadian Shield to the north not only was a source of valuable mineral wealth but also was endowed with forests of spruce and pine. Another physical feature is Toronto's location at the mouth of the Humber River, a river that facilitated a trade route north to Lake Simcoe and a shortcut to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron.

Climate

Toronto has a continental climate that is modified considerably by the proximity of the Great Lakes. Average temperature for January is in the low to mid-20s F (about -4.2 °C), but the wind chill factor can decrease this temperature considerably. In summer, the average July temperature is in the low 70s F (about 22.2 °C); however, it is not unusual to have summer days where the temperature exceeds 90 °F (32 °C) and the humidity is 100 percent. The prevailing westerly winds and the Great Lakes also influence precipitation, which is relatively even year-round, amounting to about 33 inches (834 mm) annually. In winter, though, this precipitation is in the form of snow and totals in excess of 4 feet (131 cm). Latitude plays a role in Toronto's relatively mild climate (as well as that of the farming region of southern Ontario); at 43°40′ N (with much of the farmland to the south of this latitude), Toronto is located only slightly north of California 's northern boundary (42° N). However, this location can subject the city to hurricanes-such as Hurricane Hazel in 1954, which caused approximately one billion Canadian dollars (in today's terms) in damage and took 81 lives.

City layout

A major increase in the population of Toronto (nearly fourfold expansion, from 1.3 million in 1951 to over 5 million by 2006) and national economic growth influenced the city skyline, which is dominated by the CN Tower (a communications and observation spire 1,815 feet [553 metres] high) as well as by the First Canadian Place (Bank of Montreal), Scotia Plaza, Canada Trust Tower, Manulife Centre, Commerce Court, Toronto-Dominion Centre, and Bay Adelaide Centre, each of which is more than 50 stories high. Other prominent buildings include City Hall (1965), Eaton Centre (a large indoor shopping complex), the gilded Royal Bank Plaza, the Toronto Reference Library, the Ontario Science Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum, with its crystal-shaped facade, and Roy Thomson Hall, noted for its excellent acoustics. The city also features an extensive system of underground tunnels and concourses lined with shops, restaurants, and theatres. Through the construction of new housing and mixed-use projects, together with the restoration and rehabilitation of heritage buildings, an extraordinary vitality has been brought to the urban core.

The city's lakefront is separated from the downtown area by railway tracks and the Gardiner Expressway. However, there are many points of access to the waterfront, which is almost entirely public space and includes Sunnyside Pool, Balmy Beach Park, and the Waterfront Bike Trail. East of downtown, surrounding Kew Gardens, the area known as the Beach (or the Beaches) appears more like a resort town than a neighbourhood in a big city. In the Harbourfront neighbourhood, ferry service connects the dock area to the Toronto Islands, about half a mile (four-fifths of a kilometre) offshore, which have yacht clubs, an airport, recreational facilities, and a residential community.

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Toronto is a city with scores of neighbourhoods, some of which have identities that have been imposed upon them by realtors, whereas others are of much longer standing and have a more distinctive character. West of the central business district, following Queen Street W, is West Queen West, once a trendy bohemian section, now a more mainstream shopping district. Northeast of this area are two of Toronto's best-known neighbourhoods, Chinatown and Kensington Market, the latter of which features an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants that reflect the city's multicultural diversity. Still farther north, beyond the campus of the University of Toronto, is the Annex, a residential area that is home to many students and is the site of a number of attractive 19th-century homes. North of the Annex, on a hill overlooking Davenport Road is Casa Loma, the turreted castlelike mansion built in 1911-14 for $3.5 million (Canadian) by Sir Henry Pellatt. East of the Annex is the fashionable Yorkville-Cumberland boutique shopping area, to the south of which are Queen's Park and the Ontario parliament building. Large expanses of grass and tall shade trees make this a pleasant area, complementing the ravines that form so important an element in the metropolitan parks system.

To the northeast of Queen's Park is Rosedale, one of the most attractive residential areas in Toronto. It is an older neighbourhood of dignified houses and winding tree-lined streets quite close to the downtown centre, which itself contains many attractive streets of modest well-designed houses. South of Rosedale and bounded on the north by St. James Cemetery and on the east by the Don River is Cabbagetown, which takes its name from the cabbages that were once grown on lawns in this neighbourhood that is now the site of many beautifully restored vintage residences. Farther south, abutting the Gardiner Expressway, is the Distillery District, where brick-paved pedestrian walkways wind through architecturally significant Victorian-era industrial buildings that house restaurants, shops, and theatres. Immediately to the west, at the core of Old Town Toronto, is the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood, a district of red and yellow brick Georgian structures centred on the historic market building (founded 1803) that gives the area its name.

People

Toronto's growth and demographic makeup were influenced by many political and economic events that affected the whole province of Ontario. After the American Revolution, Ontario was referred to as a loyalist creation because of the influx of English-speaking Protestants (and a number of First Nations) that chose to live in British North America. Immigration continued, slowly to begin with but then much more rapidly through transportation improvements that placed Toronto as a key transportation and industrial centre. Many of the immigrants were from across Europe as well as the United States. Still the population remained largely English-speaking and Protestant.

Following World War II, Toronto was a magnet for thousands of new immigrants, many coming from Europe during the 1950s and '60s. Immigration laws had become more flexible by the 1970s, thus opening the door to a flood of new arrivals, particularly South Asians and Chinese. By the time of the 2006 census more than half of the Toronto metropolitan area was made up of "visible" minorities, making Toronto a truly cosmopolitan city.

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Toronto | History, Population, Climate, & Facts

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Toronto, city, capital of the province of Ontario, southeastern Canada. It is the most populous city in Canada, a multicultural city, and the country's financial and commercial centre. Its location on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, which forms part of the border between Canada and the United States, and its access to Atlantic shipping via the St.

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Where female MC, Eternia, and Keshia Chanté were born.

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Spanish street artist, Okuda San Miguel is coming to grace Vancouver with his mural presence.

The mural is in conjunction with Vancouver's hottest urban art exhibition Art Rapture, in which Okuda is headlining the event. Art Rapture will be held on September 22 & 23 featuring international and local art talent and Okuda's original paintings will be on display and available for collector's to acquire.

Okuda's work is pop surrealism mixed with street art. His artwork is composed of geometric prints and multicolored ephymeral architectures that help blend with grey bodies and organic forms. These pieces of artwork often raise contradictions about existentialism, the universe, the infinite, the meaning of life, and the false freedom of capitalism. They ignite conversations about the clear conflict between modernity and our roots.

From September 27 - 29, Okuda will be painting over the 1200 sq ft wall at Portliving's HQ on W. 4th street. The theme is set to be westcoast wildlife. No matter what it is, it will be bright and colorful and a really cool addition to Vancouver to add to your instagram.

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Add to favorites Spanish street artist, Okuda San Miguel is coming to grace Vancouver with his mural presence. The mural is in conjunction with Vancouver's hottest urban art exhibition Art Rapture, in which Okuda is headlining the event.

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Toronto's artists are forgoing canvases for cement and paintbrushes for spray paint, throwing blankets of color over the city's neighborhoods. So, skip the galleries and head to these sky-high murals and streetside mosaics instead.

Once upon a time, street art was a synonym for vandalism. However, over the past few decades - thanks in part to Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and others - the craft is now seen in a new light. Now, Toronto has a thriving street-art scene, reflecting just as much of the city's vibrancy as the art galleries that line the streets.

Much of the city's street-art renaissance comes at the hand of StreetARToronto, a program founded in 2012 that pushes the art form into the spotlight. Under the mantra "one neighborhood at a time," StreetARToronto works to "[add] beauty and character to Toronto's communities." Eight years following the program's inception, StreetARToronto has done just that, successfully pushing street-art creators to the upper echelons of the city's art scene in the process.

Now, artists in Toronto think beyond gallery walls and exhibition spaces. Murals large and small dot the city's main thoroughfares and laneways, meaning much of the area's best work can be seen without an entrance fee. Writers and painters scrawl visual narratives on the walls of alleyways, sidewalks and storefronts, with topics ranging from political statements to visual trips to panoramas inspired by the culture of the neighborhood. But no matter what shows up on the walls, expect the landscape to change regularly and fluidly. After all, permanence is never the plan for street art.

Whether you're a walker or cyclist, a tour through Toronto will unveil a host of visual delights. Stroll through Kensington Market's melange of murals, or hit Graffiti Alley - which more than lives up to its name. However, one of the best ways to see the city's street art is to wander, letting your chosen route reveal a surprise or two along the way.

If you prefer a more structured approach to your sightseeing, StreetARToronto's website is home to an interactive map. It lays out all the street art throughout the city in an easy-to-use digital blueprint, outlining the artists and concepts behind each piece. Alternatively, let Tour Guys lead the way - the group runs a two-hour tour through some of the visual highlights of the street-art scene.

Graffiti Alley: The aptly named alley is one of Toronto's most celebrated street-art areas, evident from the crowds of tourists and the multitude of photoshoots and music videos that use it as a backdrop. Covering over a half-mile of space south of Queen Street West between Spadina Avenue and Portland Street, the alley is brimming with mesmerizing murals from artists such as SKAM and Uber5000. The latter is the artist behind Graffiti Alley's Toronto Tribute: a multi-story ode to the city and a focal point of the alley. It includes a portrait of Gord Downie, mayor Rob Ford riding a moose and, of course, a few of Toronto's famed raccoons.

Kensington Market: There's no shortage of street art in the vibrant market district - a spray-painted car permanently decorates the main strip, after all. However, if you veer off the colorful main thoroughfare, you'll be treated with a rainbow of murals from beloved street artists Kwest and Anser, among others.

Queen Street West: Jesse Harris's You've Changed mural (a project collaboration with Spectrum Art Projects and COOPER COLE Gallery that overlooks the busy strip) is one of the most documented pieces in the city, but the neighborhood is home to many other excellent works for those willing to wander. Stroll farther east on the street for Tom Dean's This is Paradise wall, a satirical piece outside the grunge haven of The Cameron House.

The Ossington Laneway: The laneway off the hip Ossington strip became a street-art destination in 2012 when Well and Good jump-started the street's beautification project. It banded together 20 artists from across the city and let them loose on the garages of the laneway. Now, each garage shows off a different artist's work - catch pieces by Lovebot and Li-Hill, as well as a few painted by talented local teens.

Underpass Park: Though the pillars under the speeding Don Valley Parkway may not sound like a prime canvas, many Canadian artists have transformed the underpass with vibrant street art. New murals go up regularly, and now, the highway's posts feature everything from totem-pole paintings to portraits, by artists including Peru, Denial and BirdO.

The Annex: Lee's Palace is a destination in itself - the iconic music venue has hosted everyone from Nirvana to Oasis. However, one of the defining points of the building is the massive mural by Alex 'Al Runt' Currie that takes over the venue's facade - a two-story scene of colorful, cosmic beings.

Traffic signal boxes: Each year, artists across Toronto compete for a commission to paint a series of the city's traffic signal boxes. As a result, decked-out traffic signal boxes now adorn street corners across the city. A stroll through Toronto will certainly unveil a few, but try and spot standout designs by Elicser, Paul Byron and Gary Taxali.

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Toronto's artists are forgoing canvases for cement and paintbrushes for spray paint, throwing blankets of color over the city's neighborhoods. So, skip the galleries and head to these sky-high murals and streetside mosaics instead. Once upon a time, street art was a synonym for vandalism.

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The Canadian hip hop scene was first established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much more slowly than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained largely an underground phenomenon until the early 2000s.

Canada had hip hop artists right from the early days of the scene - the first known Canadian rap single, Singing Fools' "The Bum Rap", was released in 1982. Toronto's CKLN-FM was also an early supporter of the genre, launching Canada's first hip hop program, The Fantastic Voyage, in 1983. For the most part, however, the infrastructure simply wasn't there to get most artists' music to the record-buying public.

Even if a Canadian hip hop artist could get signed to a record label at all, it was very difficult for them to get widespread exposure - even if their music videos were played on MuchMusic, many artists still couldn't get their records into stores or played on the radio. Although a few Canadian hip hop artists did break through to mainstream success around 1990, and a few Canadian acts such as Maestro Fresh-Wes, Main Source and Dream Warriors even gained cult-status recognition internationally from the underground hip hop scene, through much of the following decade, Canadian hip hop acts experienced a slowdown without any significant artists breaking through to the mainstream - although many hip hop musicians continued to record and tour, not one Canadian hip hop song reached even the Top 100 on a Canadian pop chart between 1992 and 1998. Beginning in 1998, however, a sequence of events spurred by the anthemic collaborative single "Northern Touch" finally brought hip hop back into the mainstream of Canadian music.

Canada's propensity to create quality artists who rarely achieved public recognition prompted Allmusic to state that Canadian hip hop is the "best-kept secret in hip-hop." However, with the strong entrance of Drake, K'naan and the burgeoning success of Kardinal Offishall after the turn of the millennium, Canadian hip hop artists have finally achieved worldwide mainstream international recognition.

Late 1980s/early 1990s: The rise of Canadian hip hop

Artists such as Devon, Maestro Fresh-Wes and Dream Warriors did manage, for a brief time in the late '80s and early '90s, to break into the mainstream. In 1989, Maestro's first single, "Let Your Backbone Slide", was the first Canadian hip-hop single to break the national Top 40 and U.S. Billboard charts. It remained the bestselling Canadian hip hop single of all time until 2008. Other notable rap singles of this era include Maestro's "Drop the Needle", Devon's "Mr. Metro", Dream Warriors' "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" and "Wash Your Face in My Sink", Ground Control's "Another Dope Jam", MCJ and Cool G's "No Sex With My Sister" and "So Listen", and Kish's "I Rhyme the World in 80 Days".

Michie Mee became, in 1988, the first Canadian rapper to sign a deal with an American record label. This action did not result in significant chart success for her - she has asserted in interviews that the reggae influences on her 1991 debut album Jamaican Funk-Canadian Style met with resistance from American label executives and radio programmers.

The Get Loose Crew released an independent mini LP in March 1988 from their own record label East Park Productions with global distribution, thus becoming the first Canadian rap group with international record sales. The group featured the first recorded white rapper (MC Shadow) in Canada, second in the world only to American Def Jam artists Beastie Boys. The group disbanded in 1990 forming notable groups JUST Me, B-Kool (a Juno Award nominee), and Self-Defence.

In addition, DJs K-Cut and Sir Scratch of the Toronto/New York-based hip-hop group Main Source were Toronto natives. In 1991, Main Source released the hip-hop classic Breaking Atoms, which featured the debut of a young Nas before his rise in popularity. Rap also began to surface in Canadian mainstream pop in the early 1990s. Rapper Frankie Fudge performed a rap break in Celine Dion's 1990 single "Unison" and appeared in her video. Female R&B duo Love and Sas performed rap in their 1991 single "I Don't Need Yo' Kiss".

In 1990, Milestone Radio applied to the CRTC for an urban music station in Toronto, which would have been the first such station in Canada, but that application was denied in favour of a country music station - which Toronto already had on its radio dial.

The decision was controversial, and hurt the Canadian hip hop scene considerably. Hip-hop and R&B fans in Toronto relied on Buffalo, New York's WBLK, an American station with no Canadian content responsibilities, while other Canadian cities often had no access to any urban music radio stations at all. After 1992, Michie Mee was the only Canadian rapper to make an appearance on the national pop charts until 1998 - and even she didn't accomplish the feat with a hip hop song, but by partnering with the alternative rock band Raggadeath for 1995's "One Life".

Sol Guy, a hip hop promoter with Figure IV Entertainment, said in 1999 that

"

after "My Definition", nothing happened for two years. No labels were signing, or trying to sign, anything. Nobody was getting a shot. Radio disappeared with Wes and the Dream Warriors and it still hasn't come back.

"

Ottawa-based hip-hop group Organized Rhyme, which featured a young Tom Green before his rise to fame, had some success on MuchMusic with "Check the O.R." in 1993, but did not receive widespread radio airplay or reach the RPM charts. Maestro Fresh-Wes, who moved to New York City in 1992 and attempted to break into the American market with the albums Maestro Zone and Naaah, Dis Kid Can't Be from Canada?!!, found his career faltering in this era. Snow, who had a number one Billboard hit in 1993 with "Informer", is sometimes mistakenly labelled a rapper, but in fact his style was more accurately described as dancehall, a style of reggae, than as hip hop.

Many American hip hop artists were popular in Canada, and Black Canadian musicians such as Infidels, Deborah Cox and The Philosopher Kings had notable successes in the R&B, pop and rock genres; however, even the most prominent Canadian hip hop acts during this era, including Ghetto Concept, Rascalz, Farm Fresh, TBTBT, Graphidi Logik and Hip Club Groove, struggled to gain any kind of commercial traction. Although Toronto-market radio stations CHOG and CING-FM began to include some Canadian hip hop songs in their contemporary hit radio formats, the hip hop audience in the city remained loyal to WBLK - and for most artists the only venues available for reaching an audience anywhere outside of the Greater Toronto Area were campus radio and MuchMusic's RapCity and X-Tendamix.

That began to change in 1996, when the Urban Music Association of Canada was formed to build the domestic and international profile of Canadian urban music. The following year, Dubmatique broke through as the first Quebec rap band to top Canada's francophone pop charts, and some controversy erupted in Toronto when Milestone was again passed over for an urban radio station on its second application. Instead, the CBC was awarded 99.1 to move its existing Radio One station, CBLA, from the AM band - and, ominously, this was believed at the time to be the last available FM frequency in the city. The CRTC decision was not met with as much uproar as there had been in 1990, because the ruling was not seen as much of a shock; indeed, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the CBC would receive the frequency.

The most notable Canadian hip hop album during this era, Rap Essentials Volume One, was a compilation which featured the debut singles of both Kardinal Offishall and Choclair.

However, 1998 proved to be a transformative year in the development of Canadian hip hop. The Vancouver hip hop band Rascalz quite unexpectedly found themselves at the centre of a sequence of events which gave Canadian hip hop an unprecedented level of media attention, leading the Canadian music and broadcasting industries to make a number of structural changes which would ultimately give hip hop musicians a more stable and commercially visible platform going into the 21st century.

First, Rascalz collaborated with emerging rappers Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair to record "Northern Touch", a galvanizing statement of purpose for Canadian hip hoppers which was released as a single in 1998 - and which beat the odds to become the first Canadian hip hop hit since 1991. Although the song just barely missed the national Top 40 charts, peaking at #41 in RPM, it reached the Top 10 in most major markets, and was the first Canadian hip hop song to reach the Top 100 at all, and the first to garner widespread radio airplay both in Canada and internationally, since "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style".

Later that year, Rascalz won the Juno Award for Best Rap Recording for their 1997 album Cash Crop. Because of Canadian hip hop's lack of commercial visibility, the award was presented during the non-televised portion of the ceremony, along with the technical awards, rather than at the televised main gala. The band had not yet arrived at the ceremony when the award was announced - when they did arrive, they were simply pulled aside and told that they had won the award.

Alleging that racism was a factor in the award's scheduling, the band refused to accept the award. Speaking to the press afterward, the group and their co-manager said that

"

In view of the lack of real inclusion of black music in this ceremony, this feels like a token gesture towards honoring the real impact of urban music in Canada. Urban music, reggae, R&B, and rap, that's all black music, and it's not represented [at the Junos]. We decided that until it is, we were going to take a stance.

"

For several weeks cultural critics and hip hop musicians debated the issue in the press - some suggested, in fact, that the hip hop award's lack of visibility could be seen as not just a result of Canadian hip hop's poor commercial performance, but also a contributing factor.

Maestro Fresh-Wes, now known simply as Maestro, also broke his own hit jinx in 1998, with "Stick to Your Vision" - buoyed, in part, by a Guess Who sample - becoming his first Top 40 hit in seven years. Although he would not actually reach the Top 40 until 2001's "BaKardi Slang", Kardinal Offishall also made his first appearance as a solo artist in RPM's Top 100 in 1998, peaking at #91 with "On wit da Show". Artists such as Choclair and Saukrates were also beginning to make waves in the press, as the year's more dramatic events renewed attention on Canadian hip hop.

As a result of the Rascalz controversy, the Junos moved the Rap award to the main ceremony the following year. It was won, inevitably enough, by "Northern Touch".

On June 18, 1999, the CBC's Toronto station completed its move to FM. Because the FM frequency offered better broadcast coverage of the region, the CBC found that it was able to surrender two FM repeater transmitters serving communities outside of the city - thus opening two new frequencies for license applications. In response, the federal cabinet issued an Order in Council to the CRTC directing it to give precedence to applications that took into account Toronto's cultural and racial diversity, effectively guaranteeing that Milestone would get a license in the new round of hearings.

On June 16, 2000, the CRTC awarded one of the frequencies to Milestone, on the company's third attempt. The other frequency was awarded to Aboriginal Voices for a station to serve First Nations communities. At the beginning of this same year, the internet became home to Canada's largest rap/hip-hop website publication and community, HipHopCanada.com. Also in 2000, the CBC created and aired Drop the Beat, a television series about hip hop music and culture which was billed as one of the first such series in the world. The show starred Merwin Mondesir and Mark Taylor as the hosts of a hip hop show on a campus radio station; the cast also included Michie Mee, DJ Shamann and Kardinal Offishall.

Finally, in 2001, CFXJ (Flow 93.5) debuted as Canada's first urban music station. Urban stations quickly followed in several other Canadian cities, as well, and for the first time, Canadian hip hop artists had a network of radio outlets for their music - as well as numerous record labels committed to rectifying their past lack of interest in the genre. In the 2000s, numerous Canadian hip hop artists, including Kardinal Offishall, Drake, Classified, k-os, K'naan, Swollen Members, Sweatshop Union, Buck 65, Belly, Moka Only, Shad and Cadence Weapon, as well as many R&B artists, have emerged as mainstream stars. Cadence Weapon, in fact, was named poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta in 2009.

In addition to terrestrial radio, the national satellite radio networks CBC Radio 3 and Bande à part, which are both dedicated to Canadian independent music of any genre, also include numerous emerging hip hop artists in their playlists. Bande à part has produced a compilation album of unsigned Quebec hip hop artists, 93 tours, which it distributed as a free download from its website. Several prominent contemporary hip hop artists, including Shad, Cadence Weapon, K'naan, Sweatshop Union, Radio Radio and Omnikrom, have in fact risen to prominence through these channels instead of through terrestrial radio.

Apart from a few major stars the hip hop scene has largely continued to struggle in obscurity. Virtually all of the urban-format radio stations which debuted in the early 2000s, including Flow 93.5, have since shifted from a pure urban format to a rhythmic contemporary format. While the stations still play some hip hop, they now focus far more on artists who have already established crossover Top 40 appeal - meaning that emerging artists can no longer rely on the stations to help them build their audience. In 2010, further, Milestone announced a deal to sell Flow 93.5 to CHUM Radio, a division of the mainstream media conglomerate CTVglobemedia. However, a new radio station, CKFG-FM, was licensed to Toronto in 2011 as a community radio station authorized to broadcast a broad spectrum of African and Caribbean musical genres, including hip hop, reggae, soca and rhythm and blues.

Canadian hip hop musicians have also continued to face obstacles when attempting to break into the American and international markets. Music critics and journalists have sometimes attributed this to the perception, real or imagined, that stereotypes of Canada as a land of igloos and hosers get in the way of Canadian rappers being taken seriously. As early as 1994, noted Canadian hip hop record producer Derek Brin was telling Billboard that "Americans like something that sounds American. From here, it seems if you don't have that sound, you ain't it."

It was not until 2008, when Kardinal Offishall reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with a collaboration with established American star Akon, "Dangerous", that a Canadian rapper had a major chart hit in the United States. He was shortly followed by Drake, whose 2009 single "Best I Ever Had" reached #2 on the Hot 100, making it the most successful Canadian hip hop single in the U.S. to date. Another major international breakthrough came in 2009 when a remixed version of K'naan's single "Wavin' Flag" was announced as the official Coca-Cola theme song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The song has since become a chart hit in at least 16 countries worldwide.

Montreal, being Canada's second largest city and one of the world's largest French-speaking cities, has developed its own niche of French language hip hop, which later spread to Quebec City and throughout the province of Quebec. Although a few French rap singles broke through to mainstream success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as Les French B's "Je m'en souviens", Kool Rock and Jay Tree's "M.R.F. est arrivé", Le Boyfriend's "Rapper chic (Je rap en français)" and Dédé Tracké's "T'es qui toé", as in English Canada this early success was not sustained, and francophone hip hop remained largely an underground phenomenon until the emergence of Dubmatique, who became in 1997 the first francophone Canadian hip hop group to have a number-one hit on Canada's francophone Top 40 charts. Dubmatique were followed by acts including Muzion, Manu Militari, Yvon Krevé, Loco Locass, Catburglaz, Atach Tatuq, Taktika, Sir Pathétik, Sans Pression, Omnikrom, Anodajay, Gatineau, Radio Radio and Treizième Etage.

In 2005, The Dope Poet Society released a multilingual single and video entitled, "All of Us" off the album ProIntelpro: Promote Intelligence Program. Lead vocalist ProfessorD.us raps in both English and French on the track, accompanied by a posse of six other rappers rhyming in a total of five different languages. The most internationally successful hip hop musician from Quebec is Ghislain Poirier, a producer whose own albums primarily feature francophone rappers from Quebec and France, but who is also now an influential remixer equally sought after by anglophone rappers and dance musicians from Canada and the United States. Roi Heenok, a rapper from Montreal, has become an Internet phenomenon in France, and has performed in Paris three times since 2004.7

Hip hop is also a prominent influence on contemporary First Nations youth culture, spearheaded by artists such as Winnipeg's Most, Kinnie Starr, War Party, Eekwol, Inez Jasper, Joey Stylez, Lil Pappie, Plex, Anish, Wab Kinew, Tru Rez Crew, Samian, A Tribe Called Red and Team Rezofficial. First Nations hip hop artists typically perform a style which blends hip hop with traditional First Nations music.

David Dacoine, a member of Tribal Wizdom, has hosted workshops across Canada encouraging aboriginal youth to take up hip hop as a method of creative expression and self-empowerment. Anish created the first ever First Nations Hip Hop Festival; subsequently, the event was held at Pasqua, Saskatchewan in 2004. The Aboriginal Voices radio network also airs a weekly program, hosted by Plex, devoted to First Nations hip hop.

In 2009, Team Rezofficial became the first aboriginal hip hop group with a song on the RapCity Top Ten. The song "Lonely" went to number one. In the same year, Manitoba's Native Communications radio network launched Streetz FM, a hip hop station in Winnipeg which was Canada's first radio station marketed primarily to aboriginal youth.

Although American East Coast hip-hop and West Coast hip-hop are major influences on Canadian artists in the genre, Canadian hip hop also incorporates a number of other influences not commonly seen in the mainstream of the American genre. The Black Canadian community is much more dominated by people of Caribbean heritage than is the African American community in the United States. As a result, Canadian hip hop is significantly influenced by the rhythms and styles of Caribbean music. English Canadian hip hop tends to be influenced by Jamaican, Trinidadian and Bahamian styles, while francophone hip hop from Quebec is commonly influenced by Haitian music. Artists such as Michie Mee, Dream Warriors, Ghetto Concept, and Kardinal Official have incorporated dancehall or reggae into their music.

Even those artists that do not use an obvious Caribbean sounds are often influenced by Caribbean English and themes. A famous example is the Kardinal Official song "BaKardi Slang", which gives examples of Toronto black youth slang - many derived from Caribbean speech. As well Rastafarian vocabulary, speaking of good as "Zion" and evil as "Babylon" for example, is quite common, even if the rapper is not themselves a Rasta.

The genre-hopping "Tom Waits with a beatbox" style of Buck 65, who integrates country, rock, folk and blues influences into his music, has also become a major influence on Canadian hip hop in the 2000s. His influence is especially strong on hip hop artists from the Maritime provinces, such as Classified, but can also be seen in artists such as Ridley Bent and mcenroe.

Electronic music is also a significant influence, notably seen in artists such as Cadence Weapon, No Luck Club and Ghislain Poirier, and jazz music has been incorporated since the early 1990s, particularly in the work of Dream Warriors, Social Deviantz, Mood Ruff and Da Grassroots. Artists such as K'naan, k-os, Grand Analog, Touch and Nato, Dragon Fli Empire, DL Incognito and Graph Nobel have pursued styles which blend a diverse mix of hip hop, rock, jazz, world music, and R&B influences.

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The Canadian hip hop scene was first established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much more slowly than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained largely an underground phenomenon until the early 2000s.

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How Toronto Became Hip-Hop’s Multicultural Nerve Center

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Canadian Music Week: How Toronto Became Hip-Hop’s Multicultural Nerve Center

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At last March’s Juno Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammys, the presentation of the year’s best rap recording award was accompanied by a look back to a pivotal moment of the country’s hip-hop …

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Map of Canada, its provinces, and cities

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Performing Diaspora 2013 conference and the discussions of hip-hop's history from it

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In 1991, Toronto rapper Maestro reminded Canadians that, "we live in this place with racism called C-A-N-A-D-A. I'm watching it decay everyday. We got to hurdle the system, cause hate penetrates multiculturalism."[1] Referencing the 1990 Oka Crisis, Maestro's lyrics suggested that Canada's language of tolerance of diversity was hypocritical and reflected an unequal treatment of racialized people. Over the course of Hip Hop's history in Canada, practitioners like Maestro have used the culture to re-imagine Canadian history, confront their own sense of exclusion, create a narrative of belonging to the Canadian state, and problematize the state project of multiculturalism. On June 1 st 2013, Performing Diaspora, a flagship project of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, explored Canadian Hip Hop's engagement with the Canadian narrative in a one-day public history conference at York University.

Performing Diaspora 2013: The History of Urban Music in Toronto, a landmark academic conference and act of community engagement, brought together the work of budding Canadian Hip Hop scholars, legendary African Canadian Hip Hop artists (Maestro, Michie Mee, Dan-e-o, Motion & Minbender), music producers (Chris Jackson), radio and television personalities (DJ Mel Boogie, DJ X, Master T), journalists (Dalton Higgins & Del Cowie) and fans. The conference was intended to highlight the histories and developments of Hip Hop in Canada, problematize the term 'Urban Music' as a discourse that homogenizes and ghettoizes black Canadian music, and discuss the challenges posed by the Canadian Music industry and how it has envisioned, and at times problematically failed to imagine and incorporate Hip Hop as part of its broader popular culture.

Over the course of the conference, participants used Canadian Hip Hop as a site to discuss issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, the body, urban development, concepts of immigration, discrimination and multiculturalism, and notions of national and local citizenship. The conference also aimed to use Canadian Hip Hop in order to discuss how practitioners, participants and cultural critics have used the culture as a site to destabilize, contest, negotiate and expose the shortcomings and falsehoods of multiculturalism and Canadian realities. Perhaps most importantly, participants engaged in a discussion of "performing blackness" across the diaspora, and the politics of creating, sustaining and performing music that represents people of African descent in Toronto.

Performing Diaspora 2013 was in part an attempt to illuminate the history of Hip Hop in Toronto; an incredibly unique, rich and multifaceted narrative that has yet to be fully collected, documented and disseminated. Toronto Hip Hop (and Canadian Hip Hop more broadly) has been largely overshadowed by the dominant narrative of American Hip Hop. As such, in uncovering the stories of our practitioners, the conference highlighted Hip Hop culture's most enduring legacy: its ability to speak of the environment it sees before it, to speak to a diverse audience and to speak back to the societal structures of domination present in the lives of everyday people.

In Canada, all of the ways in which Hip Hop speaks of, to and back are uniquely Canadian. What Canadian Hip Hop has long offered to its listeners is a needed critique that exposes Canada's real histories, its social relations and interactions and the racialized code that produces Canada as a "white nation." This year's conference demonstrated that Hip Hop practitioners have, and continue to, use the culture to articulate their visibility in a nation that often silences their communities and contributions, claim the space and ability to speak, and privilege their voices as valuable. In doing so, Hip Hop has, and continues to, act as a site to help destabilize our ideas about Canada by including those who often are forgotten, excluded or erased from Canada's history and its present.

Given that Performing Diaspora 2013 was in part an attempt to promote research and share Toronto Hip Hop's story, the conference has been recorded ( links to each of the six sessions can be found here), and will be transcribed in an effort to collect the oral histories of the day's participants and create a record of the diverse experiences under examination. In addition, the academic papers presented will also be published in a Performing Diaspora publication of working papers, to be available in the near future.

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Remixing the Canadian Narrative: Hip Hop as Public History

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In 1991, Toronto rapper Maestro reminded Canadians that, "we live in this place with racism called C-A-N-A-D-A. I'm watching it decay everyday. We got to hurdle the system, cause hate penetrates multiculturalism."[1] Referencing the 1990 Oka Crisis, Maestro's lyrics suggested that Canada's language of tolerance of diversity was hypocritical and reflected an unequal treatment of racialized people.

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How Michele Geister helped bring hip hop to Canadian audiences

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Michele Geister used her television shows to help introduce hip-hop to more audiences in Canada.

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It's hard to imagine that 20 years ago, Canada didn't have a mainstream radio station that played rap music or R&B. While veteran Canadian male artists such as Kardinal Offishall and DJ Starting From Scratch (who I interviewed for The Agenda in the Summer) are well known, and Drake, K' naan and The Weeknd have dominated the charts south of the border, the domestic hip-hop scene owes a debt to a grassroots TV show called RapCity, launched in the late 1980s on MuchMusic. The show, produced by Michele Geister, was an outlet that not only supported but broke new artists. Before RapCity, it was mostly college radio and local DJs who championed the music.

As part of my VJ duties when I worked at the station, I occasionally hosted RapCity and produced segments for it from 1998 to 2003. But the show began with an idea by Geister, a broadcast journalism graduate from Conestoga College in Kitchener.

Geister got her start at MuchMusic working as a master control operator.

"After much brainstorming one night after my DJ gig at the Taz (Tazmanian Ballroom in Toronto), myself and some friends came up with the name RapCity," recalls Geister. " John Martin (program director of MuchMusic and co-creator of the NewMusic) liked it. Shortly after we found out that BET was doing their own show with the same name. Our spelling was a little different and John felt it was a non-issue."

Geister had always wanted to get into production and had her own music show on community television. Once she working at MuchMusic, she began to volunteer her editing and post production skills on Fashion Notes and Indie Street, shows hosted by popular VJ Erica Ehm.

"I found Michele working in master control at MuchMusic, I knew the Montreal hip-hop scene and she knew Toronto's. We had equally strange music taste," says veteran broadcaster Michael Williams and former host of Soul in the City and RapCity's inaugural host. "Michele and I would chat about music, the show I wanted to do.

"No one was sure of her skills fresh out school, but I believed in me and her together ... so I fired my [ Soul in the City] producer in the nicest way and fought to have Michele in the position. She had a great understanding of what I wanted to do and how to present it to me the way I wanted, I trusted her, and [she trusted] me. We were out to make history, and we did."

Geister and Williams would remake Soul in the City, a show which was syndicated in 21 countries and which Williams says was "bootlegged" in the rest of the world. And they also worked on RapCity together, which Williams says Geister campaigned for.

"Michele was the missing link," he says. "I could not have done it without her, as my partner in crime, collaborator, producer, editor, talent coordinator and friend. Without her behind the scenes controlling the 10 to 20 other people you need to do a proper television show. It is the best creative collaboration I have ever had. We did our best work with each other."

On one occasion when Williams couldn't make a trip to New York City to cover an event celebrating the first record release for DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Will Smith (now an Oscar-nominated actor), Geister went with camera operator Gord McWatters.

They were able to conduct interviews with legendary indie labels Tommy Boy, Jive, Def Jam and Sleeping Bag, plus cover a release party showcasing Kool Moe Dee.

She was so worried about missing anything that they didn't take a break and only took cat naps in the taxi between each location. The day would end after 11:30 at night with an interview from Kurtis Blow, who had the " first rap hit on a major label." Her only regret was that she was too exhausted to take Blow up on his offer to take them clubbing after the interview was finished.

"One of things that I did was get out and document the scene whether with a Much cameraman or a small camera I was shooting myself," she says. "So I was all over following the early acts from Toronto and the rest of the Canadian hip-hop nation, or visiting acts - wherever they went.

"It was extremely important to me to capture all the elements of hip hop with respect to the youth movement and culture. The producers, MCs, dancers, graffiti artists, managers - all of it. In the same way I felt driven to give a voice to that art and energy that really wasn't getting the exposure anywhere else on the levels that [our shows] could expose."
Related:
On another trip to NYC and this time with celebrated cinematographer Basil Young (and brother of VJ Master T), Geister invited her student intern Little X to meet them on the set of a video shoot. The intern - a talented artist - was in his final year of high school and used the opportunity to network with the video's director, Hype Williams (who's worked with Tupac, the Notorious B.I.G and Guru). X would become Williams' storyboard artist and is now known as Director X, the name behind Drake's " Hotline Bling."

"Producing Soul in the City and RapCity made [Michele] one of the most important figures in music," says Michael Williams. "It gave her a platform to help artists, teach artists, and introduce artists to Canada and the world."

Geister recalls a trip she took with Michie Mee to Kingston, Jamaica, Michie's country of birth. Michie was in town to record with the local producers.

"At the airport there was this kind of undercover exchange going on between her and some young guys in the parking lot," Geister says. "When I asked what she was doing, she told me she was bringing her cousins VHS tapes of Soul In The City. The youth were literally starving for the music and I always tried to educate and inspire while entertaining at the same time."

Before the advent of YouTube, RapCity airing on mainstream media, found an audience across the country.

"The show for me was about building the community, the artistry of the youth, an industry. I named an info segment we did 'Canadian Hip Hop Nation' kind of before it was even realized," Geister says. "The editorial vantage point was to follow the music journalism style of The NewMusic but for hip hop and breakdown all elements of the music from its artistry to management to marketing.

"How did so and so get their break? What is the process? We shared it all and incidentally when The NewMusic did air hip-hop stories it was because I was on the ground field producing to get what I wanted for RapCity but also for the exposure on [that show] as well.

"We made the careers of the Michie's, Rascalz and so many others that in turn inspired the next generation. I was there shooting the Dream Warriors in a sold out Brixton Academy, with a Hi8 camera bringing back testimony that Canadian rap was international. It was inspiration for the youth to see these images. People were achieving their dreams."

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How one woman helped bring hip hop to Canadian audiences | TVO.org

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It's hard to imagine that 20 years ago, Canada didn't have a mainstream radio station that played rap music or R&B.

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Canadian hip-hop artists greatly struggled to gain success in the 90s due to radio stations and labels unwilling to support their music. In addition, the best rap recording award segment at the 1998 Juno Awards was untelevised and generally pushed to the side, causing a large protest to fight for hip-hop's right to be on TV. In the end, the protest was successful and the hip-hop segment on the Juno Awards was televised the following year.

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During what many would call the "golden era" of hip-hop in the United States, Canada's hip-hop scene was just beginning to enter its development. Through the very late eighties and early nineties it was nearly impossible for Canadian hip-hop acts to gain exposure. Due to the lack of label support and general resistance, these artists had an incredibly difficult time getting their product placed in record stores; moreover, the fight for airtime on the radio was a losing battle. At the time there were no stations playing hip-hop music, and Milestone Radio's application for an urban music station was ultimately turned down by the CRTC in favor of a country dedicated station.

This was particularly unfortunate as it would have been the first of its kind in Canada, and provided an exposure outlet for hip-hop artists. Canadians living close to the border could listen in on American urban broadcasts, but these stations rarely, if ever, played music from Canada.

Despite the overwhelming lack of support however, some artists did manage some success during this time period. Most notably Maestro Fresh-Wes (now known as Maestro) managed to enter the Billboard top 40 in the United States with his debut single "Let Your Backbone Slide" in 1989. In addition to this, one of Canada's first female emcees, Michie Mee, landed a record deal with an American label. A feat which has been incredibly difficult just years early.

Others, such as Dream Warriors, Organized Rhyme, and Get Loose Crew had varying degrees of success in the nineties as well; however, Canadian hip-hop was still failing to garner respect and recognition with listeners. Domestic support for artists was still scarce, and to make matters worse international interest was practically non-existent. Those who attempted full moves into the American market, such as Maestro who moved to New York (and released Naaah, Dis Kid Can't Be from Canada?!!) saw their careers hit an abrupt standstill.

Frustration was high for any hip-hop artist trying to make it in Canada. Domestic media didn't seem to care, leaving many disgruntled.

The dissatisfaction with Canadian media would boil over at the infamous 1998 Juno Awards. A hip-hop group from Vancouver called the Rascalz, won best rap recording for the album Cash Crop. Much to their dismay, the award was briefly presented during a non-televised portion of the award ceremony, and they were told to give their acceptance speech in a press room backstage. Citing general frustration and a lack of respect for the genre, Red1 convinced the rest of the Racalz to protest the award.

Their decision was discussed at length by artists, journalists, and fans. The context of racial tensions, as well as the lack of exposure for Canadian artists put a spotlight on a genre that was often on the back-burner.

The Rascalz had support country wide for the protest, and ultimately it was successful. The following year the Juno Awards would move hip-hop to the main televised stage. Simultaneously, a new generation of Canadian hip-hop artists began to crop up. Kardinal Offishall, Saukrates and Choclair made their debut efforts in the mid to late nineties, and would cement themselves as mainstays in the genre. Even though commercial success was still relatively rare, hip-hop in Canada as a whole was beginning to grow.

Authors Note [March 17th, 2018]: This article was originally intended to be part of a series back in 2016. This series never happened; however, with the creation of our "Hip-Hop History" section of the site this article has seen a few edits and been moved into this category to better organize our articles.

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View all posts by Extraordinary Nobodies

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A History of Canadian Hip-Hop in the 1990s

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by Dustin During what many would call the "golden era" of hip-hop in the United States, Canada's hip-hop scene was just beginning to enter its development. Through the very late eighties and early nineties it was nearly impossible for Canadian hip-hop acts to gain exposure. Due to the lack of label support and general resistance,...

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Canadian hip-hop legend Michie Mee writing memoir to be published in 2023

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Canadian hip-hop legend Michie Mee is writing a memoir.

The book, which does not yet have a title, will be published in 2023 by Random House Canada.

Michie Mee, the stage name for Michelle McCullock, is a Jamaica-born, Toronto-raised music legend and a rap icon. She was the first Canadian hip-hop artist to be signed to an American record label.

Known as the godmother of Canadian rap, Michie Mee created a getaway for Canadian rappers and musicians to succeed in the U.S. market. She has been credited as an influence by many celebrated Canadian hip-hop artists, such as Maestro Fresh Wes and Drake.

"Without Michie there would be no me. That's the queen right there, understand what I'm saying? All I really did was follow in her footsteps. I just did it my way," Maestro Fresh Wes said in a 2016 interview with CBC Music.

She was the first Canadian female MC who, in the late 1980s, broke into a then-nascent genre of hip-hop. Amalgamating her Jamaican identity and dialect with her rap persona, she released classics such as On This Mic, Jamaican Funk and later on Don't Wanna Be Your Slave - as well as with many of her rap-reggae-alternative-metal fusion releases with her all-female Rage Against the Machine-esque band Raggadeath.

The memoir will reflect on her career and life - from her early memories in Jamaica to growing up in Toronto's Jane/Finch area and pursuing her passion for music.

"I wanted to live more musically through the eyes of an artist, before having to relive and write about my journey without the music," said Michie Mee in a statement.

"Now I have to memorize the music and remember why I wrote the lyrics, so here we go again."
WATCH | Michie Mee performs Badgyal Bubble on Studio at the Junos: The Block Session:

The book is a story of passion, determination and courage, as Michie Mee had to find her way in a male-dominated music genre and a white-dominated music industry.

"No one wants to hear what a rapper girl has to say. They want to know 'Okay, who is the Black guy in charge of her and who is the white guy in charge of him?'"

An instrumental figure in Canadian music and pop culture, Michie Mee has led a 40-year musical career and continues to produce music and perform around the world.

She released her first full-length record, Bahdgyal's Revenge, in 2020.

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Canadian hip-hop legend Michie Mee writing memoir to be published in 2023 | CBC Books

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Canadian hip-hop legend Michie Mee is writing a memoir. The book, which does not yet have a title, will be published in 2023 by Random House Canada. Michie Mee, the stage name for Michelle McCullock, is a Jamaica-born, Toronto-raised music legend and a rap icon.

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A multi-talented young lady, fifteen year old Reema Major has a bright future ahead.

First introduced to music at the age of 5 through her older cousin who used to rap, Reema has been around the mic her whole life. She moved to Kansas City at the age of 9 and spent a lot of her childhood there writing and rehearsing. Bay Area artists were a big influence in Kansas at the time, and she was mainly introduced to hip-hop through them. Eventhough she doesn't listen to much of it now, Reema still manages to astound listeners with her delivery and lyrical abilities.

Moving to Toronto in 2009 facilitated a lot of things for the young artist. She was introduced to Kwajo Cinqo from Canada's legendary hip-hop group Ghetto Concept, and her career took a toll for the better. Kwajo absolutely loved Reema. "From The Moment I met her I knew that she was destined to be a superstar," Kwajo says. "I was very impressed by her confidence, swagger, and lyrical wordplay. I feel she is the hottest female in the game and she's only 15!" Besides her skills on the mic and her glowing beauty, Reema has incredible work ethics. A studio enthusiast, she understands the amount of effort and work that goes into taking herself to the top. In one session she easily records 3-4 records, which she pens herself. Her writing ablities make her a sought after ghostwriter. "I want to go down as one of the best female rappers ever," she says matter-of-fact. And she knows it's not going to be an easy task.

Her sound is versatile, and it depicts her worldly outlook on life. At only fifteen years old, Reema speaks Arabic and Tribal Tongue (Sudan) as well as English. Her music is a reflection of her personal experiences and not those of others around her. As an artist, Reema has the potential to relate to a large fan base thanks to her vast cultural exposure. For the past three years she has also been taking acting classes both in the U.S. and Canada, preparing herself for a career in film also. Her style doesn't fall behind of her music either. Reema is looked up to by a lot of young females her age for her impeccable fashion sense. Although she is young, Louis Vuitton and Gucci are her favourite stores to shop at any given day.

Working with G7 Universe as her home label, she has access to some of the best guidance and resources any label could offer. With a powerful team behind her, Reema Major is sure to break boundaries with her music. Her first single "Gucci Bag" was released to an online audience in October of 2009 introducing her to the public. Due to the large demand and positive feedback, Reema released her first mixtape "Youngest in Charge" in January 2010 to an online audience as well. The feedback was terrific. Her second street single "Arabic Princess" off her mixtape followed shortly and it has helped Reema break through a young audience. Both her singles are now available on iTunes. Currently she is working on her second mixtape entitled "I'm So Major", which is due to come out in spring 2010. This CD will differ from her first mixtape as all the songs will be on original beats produced by Kwajo Cinqo, T-NYCE, Major Music, and the Fliptones. To maximize the fans' visual experience, G7 will soon also be releasing short videos for Reema's first two singles: "Gucci Bag" and "Arabic Princess" in spring 2010. This year, Reema is also working on several other projects outside of music, and is preparing to launch her own clothing line in Fall of 2010.

Reema Major has a big year ahead, and it's all hers for the taking.

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Reema Major age, hometown, biography | Last.fm

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A multi-talented young lady, fifteen year old Reema Major has a bright future ahead. First introduced to music at the age of 5 through her older cousin who used to rap, Reema has been around the mic her whole life.

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Explore releases from Keshia Chanté at Discogs. Shop for Vinyl, CDs and more from Keshia Chanté at the Discogs Marketplace.

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Eternia music, videos, stats, and photos

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Eternia music, videos, stats, and photos | Last.fm

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Listen to music from Eternia like From99, Home & more. Find the latest tracks, albums, and images from Eternia.

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AllMusic provides comprehensive music info including reviews and biographies. Get recommendations for new music to listen to, stream or own.