Hear perspectives on Canadian mainstream media's portrayal of the War on Terror as it plays out abroad and at home. Learn how independent journalists and activists are engaging with media, creating alternatives to racist and Islamophobic stereotypes as they appear in mainstream North American coverage on terrorism and war.
Stefan Christoff Stefan Christoff is an independent journalist and social activist based in Montreal. He has worked extensively in Canada and internationally, reporting on a wide spectrum of social, economic and political issues. Christoff is a member of Tadamon! Montreal and is deeply involved in struggles for social and economic justice in Montreal, throughout Canada and internationally.
Sameer Zuberi, CAIR Sameer Zuberi is the Communications and Human Rights Coordinator at the Canadian Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), a national civil liberties organization headquartered in Ottawa, working in the areas of media relations, human rights and political advocacy. Between 2002 and 2005 Sameer was involved in dozens of Montreal-based grassroots campaigns. While studying Mathematics at Concordia University, he served two terms as a member of the Concordia Student Union Executive. Sameer is currently pursuing graduate studies at Concordia's School of Community and Public Affairs.
Arshad Khan Arshad Khan was born in Pakistan. Growing up in a creative and artistic family, he took keen interest in visual arts and making home movies. At sixteen he migrated to Canada with his family. At the turn of this century he was a student at Ryerson University architecture school. After 9/11, he became a peace activist. On 14th August 2003, the 56th independence day of Pakistan, the newspaper headlines screamed of a terror cell in Toronto of all places. The RCMP's (Canadian Police) terror sweep was labelled Project Thread. Arshad joined an activist group in Toronto called Project Threadbare that came together in response to the arrests, once it was clear that those arrests were made under wrong implications. The Muslim and Pakistani community wanted nothing to do with the Project Thread victims, due to the taint of terrorism attached to them. Arshad dropped out of architecture school, bought the cheapest mini DV camera he could find and set out to help get Project Thread's 21-25 victims out of jail. Over the next few months, along with Project Threadbare, he helped Project Thread victims and tried to find justice for them. He taught himself film editing and tried to capture the struggle of the Project Thread victims on tape as best as possible. "Threadbare" is his first feature documentary.
