‘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 […]
‘We’ aren’t the world: specificity is key in beating back anti-Black racism
On May 29, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first addressed the ongoing protests against anti-Black racism and police brutality that erupted after what is only the most recent string of deaths of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement—or any white person with a gun who happened to cross their path. At the end of […]
Don’t piss on our shoes and tell us Black lives matter
OTTAWA—Burn. It. All. Down. We’ve marched. We’ve bent the knee. We’ve attended your diversity and inclusion workshops that don’t include us and are run by some random privileged white woman. We’ve been on your mostly white diversity panels and working groups. We’ve reported racism. We’ve spoken nicely to the police. We’ve gotten an education (and […]
Creating a better world for future generations means speaking out on racism now
OTTAWA—It will shock nobody who reads this column to learn that I am a slow learner. Specifically, I always thought it quaint, but attached no real meaning to it, when friends who were parents used to say you see the world differently when you have a child. As someone who became a dad just shy […]
Stuck with Trump in a nation-defining moment, there’s no turning back for the U.S.
OTTAWA—In 1989, as five young teens (four Black, one Latino) were going to trial in New York for allegedly beating and raping a woman who was jogging through Central Park, Donald Trump took out full-page ads in New York city newspapers suggesting they should be executed. “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” […]
Trudeau condemns violence at anti-racism protests in Montreal, says it detracts from ‘very real issues’ country faces
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced the actions of some protesters responsible for disrupting what had largely been a peaceful demonstration against anti-Black racism in Montreal over the weekend. Thousands of Canadians held demonstrations in Montreal amid the pandemic, joining several thousands more across the country, in the U.S., and Europe in expressing solidarity with the […]
Online tool tracks more than 100 pandemic-related racism incidents since February
Preliminary research shared Thursday by a group of Chinese-Canadian organizations that is encouraging the public to log experiences of racism throughout the COVID-19 pandemic found more than 100 reported cases in the last three months, with the vast majority of incidents registered in May. Since February, there have been 138 cases of racism related to […]
