Stories by Rose Lemay
Are apologies enough when a political leader refuses to represent some Canadians?
When a political leader refuses to represent all Canadians in her or his riding, what should be the consequence?
We need chief public health officers and elected politicians to do consistent communication and action against this threat to our collective safety. If there was a national approach, we might get through this together.
Take heed, political party leaders. Indigenous peoples, Black Canadians, and people of colour are now more than 26 per cent of Canada’s population. We will not be dismissed any longer.
Public health leaders need to understand the implications of relying on a flawed database and its colonial roots. There is no alternative until First Nations determine our own ways of building and recognizing community, based in our own values and knowledge systems.
When hand-washing is our best defence in the midst of a pandemic, the federal government chose to stall its work on clean water for a portion of its citizens. The pandemic is the reason this file stalled? 
François Legault's fight against 'wokeness' and social advocacy isn’t about academic freedom. It’s about a small group of white people refusing to change or hear about any other lived experience. 
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond and Harmony Johnson recently led a team to review complaints of racism in health care in British Columbia, and the resulting report should be mandatory reading for all Canadians. 
The prime minister and most premiers will not take political risk to protect those who most need it most. Some leaders don’t believe it’s really a problem, some don’t see it as an urgent enough issue.Author
We can be horrified by the actions of those among us, by systems that perpetuate racism, and by the people who uphold the system, to white supremacists in our midst. 
Indigenous peoples face a much higher risk of most diseases, and much higher risks for COVID-19. One of the largest factors contributing to this inequity today, is the historic racism which denied health care outright.
Five years into reconciliation, and the government hasn’t added reconciliation nor personal learning for cultural competence as basic knowledge requirements in job descriptions nor performance reviews. 
Iqaluit, which is a Canadian capital city, lacks stable electricity, its power is diesel-based and has to be shipped in, and it doesn't have a stable water source. The next first ministers conference should be held here.
This is a failed institution built with archaic structures that protect internal wrongdoing, including racism against Indigenous peoples and deaths of citizens at the hands of police.
The federal government has convened an emergency meeting on racism against Indigenous peoples in the health-care system. It’s a start. But it has to do the serious internal work to fully understand unconscious bias.
When we discuss the challenges facing Indigenous peoples, we also need to reflect on the resilience of Indigenous peoples because we have some serious work to do to ensure we don’t lose another Indigenous life to racism.
Indigenous rage will not fade away. With more allies than ever before, politicians can't assume it won't make the evening news anymore.
We shouldn’t have to negotiate or fight for the basics that other Canadians receive. But if we don’t do it, who will?
Would a Sāmi model work better in Canada? If the model had constitutional authority, then yes. Ottawa eats up advisory bodies like beavertails and all that’s left is the crumbs of good intent messing up the floor.
Indigenous inclusion with enough numbers to be heard is fundamental to any democratic structure, especially for one that claims to represent Indigenous peoples in Canada. This also applies to the civil service.
Authentic action will include the public recognition that Canada is built on legislated racism, and the significant work to do better. We can’t have one without the other.
Calls for investigations into the existence of racism are akin to asking Indigenous people to prove they have suffered. 
Anti-racism is a commitment to the value of equity and human rights. One must value the human rights of others, including others who are different, to be inclusive. 
If this makes you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is required in this discussion. Discomfort won’t kill you. But the fear and alarm that Indigenous peoples have when we have to interact with police, it might kill us.
Dump the private companies in long-term care, it just leaves a bad taste. The model was attempted, and it failed. Move on. Regulate long-term care funding through non-profit organizations with health expertise.
We need a reputable organization that collects data on racism, which has the legal mandate to force change in police forces. 
With racial demographics on the impact of COVID-19, we will have the policy ability to do something about it. Without the data, we will not have the policy ability.
So many are realizing that mental health is actually a daily practice, and practice is work. First Nations sometimes call it something else; we sometimes call it balance.
COVID-19 is the defining challenge of our generation, and we’re only beginning to feel the effects. But if it’s the right thing to do now, why not continue the collaboration after we get through this crisis?
Métis, Inuit, and First Nations youth need to see role models who live their lives with culture and intention. But so do all Canadians.
This is also about government overreach in Indigenous governments, the oil and gas industry’s hardening grip on a dying energy source, and the alarming tendency of the RCMP to use excessive force.
This is the most urgent problem facing health-care organizations and leaders: how to ensure and demand that frontline providers deliver the care and empathy that Indigenous patients deserve. Correctional investigator’s scathing report illustrates Canada’s refusal to protect its own citizens
Reconciliation demands that we deconstruct the status quo. Politics This Morning
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