Local concert supports community defence fund for pro-Palestine protesters

Lit by red and green stage lighting, musical duo SUBR opened their performance with a visceral soundscape of Palestine at Live! On Elgin on Jan. 9. 

SUBR joined local acts Sven and Backseat Dragon in a charity concert with all ticket sales and donations going toward a community defence fund for the safety of Palestinian protesters. 

Lougien Dawoudiah and Nicholas LePage started SUBR last summer in response to the pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Ottawa. 

Following the encampment’s dismantling, Dawoudiah and LePage discussed the role of music in activism and decided to start making music together. 

“When we first jammed together, we were angry, we were mourning, we were sombre and I think this time the anger carries us, but we’re also almost in your face, we’re still here,” Dawoudiah said.

LePage and Dawoudiah have backgrounds in dance music but wanted to shift away from the genre for SUBR. 

“We felt like there was sort of an awkwardness of that genre of music, amidst the situation, amidst the genocide,” LePage said. “We started to think about, ‘What other potential can we find in this music or in other genres that speak more to the situation?’ So that led us down this road towards ambient music.” 

SUBR performed live-mixed layers of Palestinian music and voices. Dawoudiah said they use mixers as if they were instruments, ebbing and flowing between different sounds. 

Dawoudiah said their music helps her honour her Palestinian background and share it with others. She also said it’s an important part of celebration and self-expression. 

“[Music] is our connection, and even sometimes disconnection, from the world around us and the world that we want to build,” she said. 

The Fisher Collective organized the event, with ticket proceeds going to the Ottawa Community Defence Fund, managed by three pro-Palestine organizations: Labour 4 Palestine Ottawa, Palestinian Youth Movement Ottawa and Independent Jewish Voices Ottawa. 

The defence funds goes toward any future bylaw tickets issued related to noise complaints, as well as legal defence and bail costs related to arrests at Palestinian protests, according to the Labour 4 Palestine website. 

An event organizer of the charity concert, who asked to remain anonymous because she fears for her safety, said there was a “sharp uptick” in police harassment and arrests of activists at demonstrations in November 2024.

During and after a pro-Palestine demonstration on Nov. 18, 2024, the Ottawa Police Service arrested five people, one of whom was arrested outside of the Ottawa Police Station on Elgin Street while waiting for the release of another activist. 

“It’s getting more difficult to be an activist on the ground,” the event organizer said. “So we really need to make sure that we are resourcing our activists properly and making sure that we are being as safe as we can.”

The event organizer said she wanted to host a concert to support the legal defence fund to bring a sense of unity to the activist community. 

“I think this has provided an outlet for a lot of people who weren’t involved up to this point to show up for the community and for our activists,” she said.

Sean Lundy, one half of the two-man duo behind the Fisher Collective, helped organize the event, and said he was “more than happy to make the show happen” helping to book the venue and local acts for the show. 

Ottawa band Sven also performed at the show with their upbeat, crowd-pleasing style that got the crowd up on their feet and dancing. 

The band’s drummer, Leighton, who asked only to be referred to by their first name for safety reasons, said there’s been an influx of charity shows in the city recently. Sven’s previous show was in support of the Bank Block Tenants legal defence fund, which provided funds for legal costs related to  their upcoming hearing at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board. 

“There’s enough bands playing enough shows to where we can allot some of our time to contributing to activism in any capacity,” Leighton said. “In the same capacity here, being able to donate money so that activists can continue fighting against settler-colonialism, genocide [and] imperialism.”

An audience-member and member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, Rawan, who asked only to be referred to by their first name for safety reasons, said the event felt empowering and encouraging. 

“We really only have each other,” Rawan said. “We have [a] community to uplift each other, to support each other, to push each other further in our liberation movements.”

Featured image by Grace Huntley/The Charlatan.