Anti-hate speech group condemns reggae artist

MONTREAL (CUP) — When Akim Larcher walked into a local restaurant in Toronto three years ago and saw a poster of reggae star Elephant Man promoting upcoming tour dates, he said he “got pissed off.”

Larcher, who works as director of policy and research for the gay rights group Égale Canada, was appalled that Canada would allow an artist who preaches hate speak to come into the country.

“I just thought, ‘Something has to be done about this,’ because he’s being given a platform to perform and he represents a certain element of homophobic violence,” Larcher said.

Out of the movement to prevent Elephant Man from entering Canada, Stop Murder Music was born.

Larcher, founder and spokesperson for Stop Murder Music, said the organization’s mandate is not only to stop the spread of hate speech — which the organization has found most frequently in Jamaican dancehall reggae — but also to rectify the perception of the Caribbean as being a homophobic place.

“We wanted to correct the information in the media and let people know that [homophobia in the Caribbean] is something new. That element of violence has not always been there,” Larcher said.

“The objective was to raise education and awareness about what the music actually meant. Although some people enjoy dancehall — I myself enjoy dancehall — there’s certain songs and artists that are offensive.”

Larcher, a law school graduate, has also been successful in getting iTunes to remove some music inciting hate towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities, including songs from Sizzla and Elephant Man.

“It was not their entire albums, just the specific songs that glorified hate and violence and murder, or that could be considered to be contravening the criminal code,” Larcher noted.

Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada states that anyone who incites hate against an identifiable group can be subject to penalty of a maximum two-year prison term. Although the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms asserts equality before and under the law, it does not protect gender identity. Aside from the city of Toronto, the Northwest Territories, under their territorial Human Rights Act, is the only jurisdiction in Canada that does (other provinces protect sexual orientation only).

Besides focusing on Stop Murder Music, Larcher said his goal is to educate people about the oft-ignored inter-sectionality of colour and gender identity.

In a paper called “Negotiating Stigmas: Black Gay Males Reconciling Race and Sexuality,” Northwestern University PhD candidate Marcus Hunter discussed the lack of qualitative theory regarding black identity and the resulting effects of leaving minorities out of queer theory and discourse.

“This [omission] imposes a cursory homogeneity upon the black community, wherein certain dividing lines within the community are blurred or ignored altogether,” he wrote. “Thus, the nuances of smaller communities within this larger minority are not considered.”

Although Elephant Man was not denied entry in the end, Larcher said the goal was never to stop his entire tour.

“[The campaign] got a lot of media attention and a lot of community involvement, and with that, there were many cancellations of his tours. Although some went ahead, that was fine. In my eyes, that was positive. It was important the conversation [started] and people were taking notice of this issue.”