Throne Speech a missed opportunity to signal real action on tackling systemic racism
A Throne Speech isn’t meant to be much more than a high-level outline of what the government intends to do in the coming session of Parliament. But there is room for specificity, and the government has taken advantage of that for other initiatives. For example, this time around, the Liberals zeroed in on the creation […]
Driving right-wing extremism out of the Canadian Armed Forces
OTTAWA—Last week Army Commander, Lieutenant-General Wayne Eyre presided over the annual army council meeting. Although the sessions were held in Ottawa, the majority of the attendees participated virtually due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions. Reaching out directly to 450 top- to mid-level army officers, Eyre outlined to his chain-of-command a new set of explicit directions […]
Attacking prominent women does no one any good
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—Among the “bon mots” offered by Maryon Pearson, none stands out more than her comment, “Behind every successful man stands an astonished woman.” Maryon Moody’s brilliance attracted Professor “Mike” Pearson to her in his University of Toronto history class. Her early married life was not easy, living in Ottawa while her diplomat husband spent […]
University education and Black youth
In Statistics Canada’s recent report, Changes in the socioeconomic situation of Canada’s Black population, 2001 to 2016, René Houle writes that “one of the main challenges” faced by members of Canadian Black communities is that Black youth—especially young men—“are less likely to have attended a higher educational institution and to have earned a post-secondary diploma.” […]
Black student groups lead the charge as StatsCan data gives deep dive on racism in education
As the international focus on systemic racism continues, disaggregated data from Statistics Canada gives a new glimpse into how anti-Black racism affects Black students in Canada, and the findings should compel universities and other major institutions to “look back to the basis of the structures we’ve operated in for years” to reform racist practices, says […]
CAF still has far to go to address racism in its ranks
OTTAWA—On July 2, there was a bizarre incident at Rideau Hall when an armed intruder drove a pickup truck onto the premises and subsequently stalked the grounds on foot. Police were able to defuse the situation peacefully. After this arrest, it was discovered that the alleged perpetrator—Corey Hurren, 46—was in fact a member of the […]
Lies, fantasies and extremism: the rising risks to the world’s democracies
OTTAWA—The final, horrible truth is that it really doesn’t matter what Donald Trump does or says. Over the summer, the U.S. president and his captive Republican party have shed any pretence of governing in the best interests of Americans or protecting norms of democracy and civilized behaviour. Running openly under a white supremacist banner, Trump […]
Police watchdog’s pledge to publish archive of reports is transparency at its ‘bare minimum’ without demographic data, say experts
The civilian police watchdog’s reversal of its position to publish only a “sample” of investigations into allegations of police misconduct falls short of its intention to increase transparency in the absence of data about the identities of individuals involved, say experts. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP plans to release its […]
New StatsCan data ‘indispensable’ for understanding systemic anti-Black racism, says professor
Data released by Statistics Canada over the past year and a half could help to dispel the myth of a single, uniform Black population in Canada, and will be “indispensable” for researchers studying systemic racism in the country, say professors from three universities across the country. Statistics Canada has released a spate of data on […]
Black Caucus still waiting for government action on racial justice
As the end of summer approaches, members of the Black Parliamentary Caucus say they are still waiting to see how the government will act on their call for racial justice reforms, released in June after protests against anti-Black racism swept the world following the killing of African-American George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota […]
