Can Canadians trust CSIS to help keep us safe?
OTTAWA—This piece was never going to be an easy one to write. The organization where I proudly worked for more than 15 years—CSIS—is now the subject of a $35-million lawsuit by five employees alleging racism, Islamophobia and homophobia. Canadians may very well ask whether an agency apparently “rife” with these problems should be allowed to […]
Financial portfolios still ‘a man’s world’ on Parliament Hill
Women remain underrepresented in economic and finance ministers’ offices, a political sphere that former cabinet staff say continues to be an “old boys’ club” and especially unavailable to women at the senior level. Long before and after Michele Austin worked as a chief of staff to Conservative minister Rona Ambrose, she noticed women weren’t in […]
Women making unforeseen breakthroughs, but still have a long way to go
OTTAWA—As North Americans witnessed this past week, unforeseen breakthroughs for women in Quebec’s municipal elections and in state elections across the border, their wins signal a potential new (and better-late-than-never) era for women in politics. And while there is no doubt that many women have simply had enough, thank you very much, the story of […]
Sexual harassment bill takes on systemic power problem, but won’t touch MP-to-MP behaviour
At a time when sexual harassment has hit the Hill hard, Employment, Workforce, and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu introduced Bill C-65 on Nov. 7, which would amend existing provisions in the Canada Labour Code to prevent harassment and sexual harassment in the federal workplace, now including MPs’ offices, the Senate, the House of Commons and […]
Trump isn’t the only norm-blaster
One of the more dangerous phenomena associated with the presidency of Donald Trump in the United States is that the bellicose president is revising political and social norms with every tweet, decree, and viral outburst. No previous president, or G7 leader for that matter (with the disclaimer that Googling my way back into Silvio Berlusconi’s […]
And baby makes history: Bloc couple first pair of sitting MPs to become parents
New parents have enough work in a baby’s first weeks without having to represent two ridings, attend parliamentary votes, change diapers, and breastfeed between committee meetings and Commons sittings, but that’s the new world Bloc Québécois MPs Xavier Barsalou-Duval and Marilène Gill are navigating together. The couple earned a footnote in Canadian history with the […]
Scapegoated, held to a higher standard, but proud: how visible-minority MPs feel about carrying the mantle of race
The face of Canada is changing, which has potential for the face of the country’s federal representatives to change as well. According to 2016 census data released last week by Statistics Canada, the percentage of Canadians who identify as a visible minority now sits at 22.3 per cent, up from 19.1 per cent in 2011. […]
‘Why don’t you go back to where you came from?’: what it’s like to be a visible-minority MP
“I rarely feel hurt.” Growing up in a predominantly white community, where a quarter of the small local Vietnamese population consists of her own family members, NDP MP Anne Minh-Thu Quach (Salaberry-Suroît, Que.) said she isn’t shaken by discriminatory or racist remarks levelled at her. “Yes, there were some bad comments, and ‘Go back to […]
Locals, women most affected by corporate harm, least heard
Re: “House subcommittee hearings on mining in Latin America a public disservice,” (The Hill Times, Oct. 18, p. 15). Kairos too is alarmed that the voices of people affected by Canadian mining operations have not been heard during the current subcommittee hearings on human rights and mining in Latin America. Through tours to countries in […]
No need for Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day in Ontario
In a Hill Times article from July 24, Soo Wong, Member of Provincial Parliament for Scarborough-Agincourt, Ont., defended her bill to create a “Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day” in Ontario as a way of teaching Ontarians about “truth,” “injustice and promoting human rights.” In fact Bill 79, if enacted, would advocate for issues of conflict between […]
