‘I don’t celebrate Black History Month, I celebrate Black history 12 months of the year’: Sen. Bernard on her fight for equality
On a snowy day in 2018, Independent Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard boarded a Parliament Hill shuttle bus in front of the Victoria Building, heading to Centre Block. She said the Senators getting on the bus before her boarded with no issues, but the driver stopped Sen. Bernard to ask for identification that she was a […]
Still a long way to go on the road to more women in the Armed Forces
OTTAWA—Those readers old enough to remember may recall an advertising campaign from the late ’60s promoting Virginia Slim cigarettes. The theme behind this series of television commercials and magazine ads was to illustrate just how far feminism had advanced throughout North American society. The plotline was consistent, wherein we were reminded of how, not so […]
Lynn Beyak gets second chances this country would never give to Indigenous people
How do you solve a problem like Lynn Beyak? The answer could be so simple, but the Senate of Canada would rather make it hard. The ongoing saga of Senator Beyak and her unrepentant racism added a new chapter this week, with the release of the Senate Ethics Committee’s report on the latest efforts to […]
Kuwait ambassador brings team approach to diplomacy
Diplomacy is not so different from the calculations Kuwait’s new ambassador to Canada says she made as a squash player for her country, bringing the same “drive for achievement” to her now third head of mission posting. Strategy also comes into play on both fields of interest, noted Reem Al Khaled. “When do you place […]
Raitt’s loss sparks questions about future of women in the Conservative Party, says political expert
Lisa Raitt’s defeat on Oct. 21 raises larger questions about where women fit within the Conservative Party, says one political expert, but Conservative MPs say the groundwork that was laid in the last election, where the party fielded a record 106 female candidates, won’t be easily undone. “Clearly, Lisa is a huge loss for the […]
Racism is rearing its ugly head, and we have to call it out
OTTAWA—I was on a plane flying from Montreal to Ottawa a few weeks ago. I was sitting at the back of the plane when a young Black man came down the aisle to sit down. The flight attendant, a white man in his 50s, immediately told him not to sit in his intended seat, as […]
Because it’s 2019, let’s stop using feminism as a not-truly-equal cabinet crutch
OTTAWA—Gender parity, once on-trend in 2015, is now merely a passing thought just four years later. Cabinet announcements will be made today and not since in the days immediately following the election in October has gender parity in cabinet been discussed. What’s that we hear? Oh, crickets. In 2015, the nascent Trudeau government formed a […]
How Canadian foreign policy can build on synergies, address global challenges
A new cabinet provides opportunities to reconsider how public policy can be synergized in addressing interconnected global challenges. Canadian think tanks periodically urge Canada to take global leadership on specific issues. A selective focus on foreign policy priorities is deemed necessary because, as the story goes, Canada cannot realistically address too many issues, given its […]
Military making progress on Indigenous, visible minority recruitment, lagging on attracting women
New statistics on military recruitment provided to The Hill Times show the Regular Forces and Primary Reserves are close to meeting their targets for Indigenous people and visible minorities in the armed forces, but are still lagging on bringing more women into the fold. The data also shows certain positions are well short of the […]
Western alienation is real, but Kenney, Moe grievances are about entitlement
OTTAWA—Never in the annals of history have white men been so oppressed and subjugated—or that’s what Jason Kenney and Scott Moe would have us believe. In fact, all over the world, we have been inundated by mainstream media about the care and support we must give our fallen white brothers. Two and a half weeks […]
