The Forget the Box Person of the Year for 2016 is the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In what will hopefully become an annual tradition, we put up a poll briefly asked our readers to vote for the person or group of people who had the biggest and most significant cultural impact.

We also asked that voters treat mainstream corporate media coverage as one factor among many, not the predominant one. When you only look through the mainstream lens, as Time Magazine does every year, you end up being forced to pick people like Donald Trump, as Time did this year.

Despite being almost completely shut out of mainstream press coverage, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe managed mobilize the largest gathering of Native American tribes in recent memory and bring in allies and supplies by the busload. They also created an infrastructure that was built to last through harsh weather, attacks by private security dogs as well as water cannon and pepper spray assaults by militarized police.

They’re not protesters, they are water protectors. That is a very important distinction, and not just because it’s true. Yes, it changes the narrative, but it also changes the very concept of what resistance actions are.

It’s not just about being against something, in this case the construction of the environmentally hazardous Dakota Access Pipeline over sacred burial grounds and the tribe’s only source of clean water. It’s also about being for something, in this case, protecting everyone’s water.

It’s about building an alternative. By all accounts I heard, the camp was akin to a small city, not only in size but in infrastructure. It was a real community with community services.

Independent media like Democracy Now helped spread what was happening and DN’s compelling footage of the dog attacks even pierced the mainstream media bubble for a bit. It was, though, social media and word of mouth that really let the public know what was going on in Standing Rock.

The tribe also won…for the moment. After threats of expulsion and a firm deadline from the Governor of North Dakota, the Obama Administration relented.

The US Army Corps of Engineers announced that the Dakota Access Pipeline would not cross the Missouri River at Standing Rock. Permit denied. Again, only for now.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind DAPL, has pledged to keep building, pay the fines and wait for the incoming Trump Administration to overturn the Army Corp’s decision. Given Trump’s love of big business, disdain for the environment and indigenous rights and the President Elect’s previous business ties to Energy Transfer Partners, it looks like the fight will pick up again in 2017.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will be ready. They have created an infrastructure that is built to last and have already shown the world a sustainable way to fight for social justice. For that, they deserve to be Person of the Year.

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders placed second in our poll just as he did in the Democratic Primaries. If he had been the candidate and beat Trump in the General Election, he would most definitely have been the political upset story of the year and probably Time’s Person of the Year, too.

As things played out, though, he did have a huge, or rather yuuuge, impact on the American political system, proving that someone who proudly claims to be a Democratic Socialist can be a major contender for the Presidency. He also gave people upset with the political establishment’s close contact with Wall Street a unified political voice.

When he first entered the Presidential race, he was largely unknown outside of Vermont (and among Montrealers who watched Vermont network affiliates). He ended up winning over 20 states, beating out the largest political machine within the Democratic Party.

Now he is a borderline folkloric household name and someone who may very well shape the Democratic Party’s post-Clinton future.

Gord Downie

Gord Downie on stage during The Tragically Hip’s farewell show (image: CBC)

Canadian rock icon Gord Downie placed third in our poll. The Tragically Hip frontman showed everyone in Canada and the world both how to go out rocking and how to use your celebrity privilege the right way.

After being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, Downie led the band on a month-long farewell tour, culminating in a final concert over three hours long broadcast and streamed live from Hamilton. It was emotional, raw and incredibly powerful. A real thank-you to their fans.

During the show, Downie had a chance to address our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly (he was in the crowd, wearing a Hip t-shirt no less). Downie used that opportunity to urge the PM, in front of basically the whole country, to do something about the situation in First Nations communities up north. He did it in the most polite way imaginable, too, by implying that Trudeau was already going to do something.

Since the show, Downie has released The Secret Path, a ten-song album telling the story of Chanie Wenjack, a young boy who escaped from an Indian Residential School and died on the 400 mile journey home. His hope is to shine much needed light on the horrors of the Residential School system.

The man who is considered by many to be as emblematic of Canada as Tim Hortons and hockey said he is doing this project because “Canada is not Canada. We are not the country we think we are” and it will take another hundred years to hopefully fix things.

Downie was honoured by the Assembly of First Nations in December and given the Lakota spirit name Man who walks among the stars.

Honourable Mentions

There were fourteen choices in total in our poll, some of which were added at the suggestion of our readers. In this case, the nominations themselves count as a vote. The public-nominated choices were: Amy Goodman, Nigel Farage and Yoshua Bengio.

The other honourable mentions that got some votes were (in no particular order): Anarchopanda (who finally won, at least partially, his court case against Montreal bylaw P-6), Black Lives Matter (always relevant and extremely important), Donald Trump (yes, even by our criteria, he had an impact) and Barack Obama (one last shot, I guess).

Thanks to everyone who voted. We should do this next year, too!

 

 

 

 

For this very special podcast our host Jason talks with panelist Ron Roxtar about the last Tragically Hip concert, it’s political implications and the Monkland Street Fest. Plus the Community Calendar and Predictions!

Host: Jason C. McLean
Producer: Hannah Besseau
Production Assistant: Enzo Sabbagha

Panelists

 

Ron Roxtar: Pop Culture Aficionado , Journalist and Promoter

 

*Reports by Hannah Besseau

Band image: Radio Canada 

Author’s Note

When writing previews I usually try to remain impartial, take personal preferences out of the equation, be open to suggestions (especially in support of local bands) and present a little something for everyone. Well this week too bad, I’m only previewing one show.

The Hip’s Last Show

As a music fan and/or a Canadian I’m sure you’re well aware that the Tragically Hip will be playing their last show this Saturday night in Kingston. While most people around the country will be watching/listening at home on pretty much any device they want (CBC will be airing it on TV, radio and all their online platforms commercial free) there is the option of making this a more communal experience.

In Montreal the best choice (and by best I mean the one I’m doing) is to head over to Monkland and Melrose where the Flavours of Monkland street fest was already scheduled to take place and so they decided to partner with CBC and present the show on a big screen. This fest is food truck heaven with a full liquor license and a few activities, such as live music, sprinkled in.

Admittedly this is grafting one event on top of another but if you want the “crowd experience” this is the best bet in the area.

Another solid choice would be to head to one of the many bars that have promised to air the show. Trying to compile a comprehensive list of all the locations screening the concert is proving impossible but suffice it to say you’re safe with any Irish Pub, downtown or otherwise. My suggestion is to call first and try to get a reservation.

The rest of the preview has nothing to do with ideas for where to see the show, I need to say a few things.

Anyone who has seen up close the brutal certainty and finality of terminal cancer knows the emotional toll being placed on Gord and his friends/family right now. It’s amazing that he’s been willing to go on this last tour and I’m not sure how anyone could lift that heavy a weight.

He didn’t have to do a final tour, we all would have given him a pass. So then why go through it? I think saying he’s doing it for “the fans” or for closure or to raise money for cancer research is far too simple. I mean it is all those things but it’s more than that.

I think the best way to explain is with my own personal encounters regarding the “myth” of Gord Downie because it seems that everywhere you go in Canada there’s always someone who has met and hung out with him just waiting to tell you their story. There was the guy on my hockey team who spent a weekend with him at a bachelor party, the former coworker who would always have drinks with him when he came to town or the friend of a friend in Toronto who used to “hang with him before he was big.”

It seems that Gord has shown up at every local bar in the country, had a beer with every person in that bar and shared a unique story-worthy moment with all of them. In all occasions the tellers of these tales always had the same things to say, “he was just there hanging out like one of the guys”, ” the dude was so down to earth”, “he would chat with everyone that came up to him”.

While obviously not all of these encounters occurred I think the myth around Gord stems from the fact that we see him as our friend, the approachable star, the uniquely Canadian form of celebrity. Smart, funny, humble and hard working. This last show isn’t a farewell concert, we’re parting ways with an old and dear friend. No one wants this to happen, we all just realize it has to and we have to be a part of it.

Ok enough serious talk, this is a music blog after all. Here’s (arguably) the best improv moment from (clearly) the best at improvising. Sorry “killer whale tank” fans, this one’s better.

* Featured Image: Gord Downie performs with The Tragically Hip in Vancouver July 23rd (CBC)