Back in the early ’90’s, the landscape of intolerance around the world would radically change: Ethnic war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing forever scarred Rwanda, Iraq was invaded, and, against this backdrop, some of the most astounding acts of racism in Canada’s history were to dawn in l992.

Lisa Cherniak, a few months before co-founding Artists Against Racism with Mendelson Joe, was a news monitor at Bowdens Media Monitoring, watching the news eight hours a day for her reports. Already appalled by what was happening worldwide, the final straw was the constant deluge of news revealing white supremacists who were targeting youth by pamphletting schools and using churches to hold concerts blaring hate music. Such concerts were held by the likes of RaHoWa (which eventually lead to the Oklahoma bombing, in 1995, orchestrated by a man who subscribed to RaHoWa’s magazine (run by a Canadian, George Burdi) which just fuelled Timothy McVeigh’s hatred.

Then there was the news of Canadian Jewish, Black and Aboriginal leaders receiving death threats, and Holocaust deniers becoming louder and some deported. Lisa realized the change in Canada’s scenery wasn’t just a fly-by-night event.

She wasn’t alone.  A concerned Canadian filmmaker, Peter Raymont, went undercover to produce an award-winning documentary about Canada’s burgeoning white supremacist movement, and Margaret Cannon, a York university professor,  infiltrated white supremacist meetings to write a first-hand, investigative account into this new, extremist racism in Canada.

Against this backdrop of extreme darkness, Artists Against Racism was born. After writing an article in the Globe and Mail about her experience with anti-semitism at university, Lisa was contacted by a renowned ’60’s musician (of McKenna Mendelson Mainline) and painter, Mendelson Joe, and, after Lisa had an epiphany to create a poster campaign for schools across Canada,  a partnership was formed: Joe agreed to paint AAR’s first campaign poster that would, four years later, grace the walls of more than 20,000 schools nationwide. With Joe’s help, they were also able to attain the support of: RUSH, Raffi, and a few other artists who  would join the bandwagon over the next three years.

The rest, as they say, is history. In November 1995, in a nationwide-televised launch at a downtown-Toronto HMV Record store, Artists Against Racism was born. It has since won international acclaim, such as the 2002 Global Tolerance Award, garnered international press, and, as you can view throughout this website, has produced major campaigns worldwide.