Canada’s new year’s resolutions must focus on gender justice
In so many senses, 2020 was a year of testing. The position of women in Canada and our national progress toward the goal of gender equality over three decades was tested and found terribly wanting. Can progress so swiftly reversed in crisis be progress to count on? As we move into a new year that […]
The CBSA must protect our borders from the far right
People around the world struggling against dictatorships and fighting for democracy have often looked to the United States for inspiration. But America’s democratic credentials have been tarnished. The assault on democracy on Jan. 6 was the culmination of years of Donald Trump inciting his base with hateful rhetoric and radicalizing people, who eventually led an […]
One white supremacist in CAF ranks is too many
OTTAWA—In his final media interview as Canada’s chief of the defence staff, General Jonathan Vance openly addressed the issue of white supremacists within the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces. Specifically, Vance pointed to a July 2017 incident involving members of a right-wing, anti-immigration group known as the Proud Boys. What was a fairly benign […]
Canadian conservatives content to keep courting the whitelash
CALGARY—Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, will be a day that will live in infamy—the day armed domestic terrorists laid siege on Capitol Hill, the first time since we did it in the War of 1812. The year 2021 is already making 2020 feel as soothing as a Supermud Glam Glow mask from Sephora. On the morning […]
Will 2021 be any better than 2020?
OTTAWA—The first five days of 2021 seemed promising, until the American insurgency went down on Jan. 6. The world stood wide-eyed in shock, Twitter lost its collective mind, and there went all hopes of a dry January. In 2020, the moments of calm were even more notable when surrounded by grim numbers of COVID cases […]
Association of Justice Counsel files grievance against Canadian Human Rights Commission, amid ongoing complaints of racism, discrimination
The Association of Justice Counsel filed a grievance against the Canadian Human Rights Commission last week on behalf of its Black and racialized members, and, according to a number of sources with information about the commission’s operations, they say there is ongoing systemic discrimination and a disproportionate dismissal of race-based complaints at the commission. The […]
Bring back core funding for women’s groups, say MPs as new report warns sector at risk of ‘financial devastation’
Canada should return core funding to women’s groups, say MPs after a report warns the sector faces “financial devastation,” with organizations struggling to stay in operation under the weight of the pandemic’s gendered impact. The report, released Tuesday, said a survey of women-serving agencies and equity-seeking organizations shows more than half of the sector has […]
Anti-abortion laws and radicalization
“Get your rosaries off our ovaries,” chanted the women marching in support of the referendum that made abortion legal in Ireland in 2018. Two years later the 2020 election broke the century-long stranglehold on power of the two centre-right parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They got fewer than half the votes even together. Did […]
Addressing high rates of assault in the North ‘daunting’ as Senators press feds to support shelters, address housing gaps
More than half of Canadians living in the territories have been victims of physical or sexual assault at least once since they were 15, a “daunting” reality that has northern Senators and advocacy groups redoubling requests for more shelters and housing as an essential safety net. In the territories, a little more than half of […]
Lawsuit a clanging wake-up call on anti-Black racism in the public service, but will the feds hear it?
On Dec. 2, a dozen Black public servants filed suit in Federal Court, seeking to launch a class action against the government for decades of alleged discrimination and exclusion of Black employees in the federal bureaucracy. “There has been a de facto practice of Black employee exclusion throughout the public service because of the permeation of systemic […]
