Save us the ally song and dance—Canada needs action, not more faux-lidarity
OTTAWA—“Alright Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” This iconic line from Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard sums up the Trudeau government’s flirtation with the advancement of social issues: from marching in Toronto Pride in 2016 while Black Lives Matter-Toronto protested for more inclusive spaces for queer people of colour and against police marching in Pride, […]
Though badly needed, curbing officially sanctioned racism may prove long and difficult
OTTAWA—Technology and the internet have led to deeply troubling questions about the ongoing health of politics and democracy. But a single invention, the camera phone, has opened the possibility of a singular, historic societal breakthrough by finally providing indisputable evidence of the appalling, deeply ingrained racial injustice and police brutality built into our governance systems. […]
When responding to racism in Canada, we need to do better than saying ‘do better’
As Canadian activist and journalist Desmond Cole recently said, “If Minneapolis hadn’t burned, would we be having this conversation…?” With the death of George Floyd and the dawning of a global movement, we—as Canadians—must also look inwards at our own racial biases and discrimination. Now is the time to do more than state “we must […]
Trudeau must understand anti-Black racism has to stop, and he’s got the power to help stop it
HALIFAX—Both Canada and the United States are each deeply embroiled in the largest pandemic of anti-Black systemic racism since the height of the Martin Luther King civil rights movement that featured vicious attack dogs, and the brutal beatings, shootings, and murders by whites and by police of unarmed, innocent Black, men, women and children. Only […]
Women peacebuilders key to just recovery towards a post-pandemic world
These days in Canada we often hear the phrase “We’re stronger together.” But stronger how? And who, precisely, are “we?” COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of certain communities and, in my work in Canada and globally with Indigenous peoples, migrant workers, and women peacebuilders, I have learned that we are only as strong as the […]
Thousands gather at Parliament Hill in a show of solidarity against racism, police violence in Canada
Thousands took to the streets of downtown Ottawa on Friday for the “No Peace Until Justice” march to protest racism, police brutality, and systemic discrimination in Canada and across the world. Friday’s protest in Ottawa was one of several that took place across Canada, including demonstrations in Toronto and Winnipeg. The organizers began addressing the […]
‘Piecemeal reforms have not saved the lives of Black people’: anti-racism, police brutality protests raise visibility, urgency of long-overdue reforms, say activists, some Parliamentarians
The scenes of solidarity expressed on the streets, where tens of thousands of people across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, have been marching for several days with their fellow Black compatriots, point to a growing recognition that it’s time to go beyond long-overdue “piecemeal reforms,” says an activist and some Parliamentarians. Robyn Maynard, author of […]
‘I have a nightmare’: Donald Trump’s racist whirlwind
As Donald Trump tweeted from his Pennsylvania Avenue lair last Saturday night about setting “vicious dogs” on protesters outraged over George Floyd’s murder, it became clear that the man whose racism was so absurdly dramatized by his 2017 turn as an apologist for the tiki-torch Central Casting Nazis of Charlottesville would be getting the band […]
Pandemic makes delayed MMIWG action plan more urgent, say Senators, advocates
Indigenous politicians and organizations say rather than justify the government’s delay, the COVID-19 pandemic has created more urgency for it to finish the action plan on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. An action plan was the first among 231 calls for justice in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and […]
‘We’re past talk’: MPs call on feds to re-examine policies underpinning systemic racial inequities
The civil unrest unfolding in the U.S. has touched a nerve in Canada, prompting a wave of largely peaceful protests in numerous cities that underscore the need for a broader re-examination of systemic inequities before racial tensions reach the level seen across the border, say some MPs. “We’re past talk. The prime minister has the […]
