whcrand

Hill Times May 17, 2021 Once upon a time, not so long ago, First Nations and many Indigenous societies governed with balance—men and women, including Two Spirits, equally shared the roles of leadership to serve a community. It wasn’t perfect. No governance structure is perfect. Then came the Canadian government, overly influenced by the church […]

May 3, 2021 Are apologies enough when a political leader refuses to represent some Canadians? Just what is “lesbian activity”? I’m asking for a friend. Getting a short, hawk haircut? Listening to k.d. lang? Sharing a beer with a “friend”? Are these “lesbian activities”? Here’s an activity that doesn’t fall into the basket of “lesbian activity.”

Hill Times April 19, 2021 Did you know that about 140 countries had zero new COVID cases last week? Canada has suffered about 67 deaths per one million population and ranks 60th in the world. Canada is falling behind with poorly executed and politicized public health measures, complicated by each jurisdiction making up its own

Hill Times April 5, 2021 Don’t talk about racism. It’s a sign that there may be an election close. Many racist acts have occurred in Quebec recently and almost all of those acts have been loudly defended or completely dismissed by its government. Matthew Fry Jacobson is a historian and professor at Yale, and he

Hill Times March 22, 2021 I am status, card-carrying First Nations—the federal government calls me a real one. The status card is a race-based ethnic identity card used to limit access to certain federal government programs for real First Nations peoples only. It used to be based on blood quantum, one had to prove at

Hill Times March 8, 2021 “When it comes to the safety of drinking water, residents of First Nations communities do not benefit from a level of protection comparable to that of people who live off reserves,” reported the auditor general in 2005. The Council of Canadians, meanwhile, declared “little progress with First Nations drinking water” in

Hill Times February 22, 2021 Quebec Premier François Legault used social media on Facebook last week to share his belief that “a handful of radical activists who are trying to censor certain words and works” are the problem, in reference to the recent use of the N-word by university professors in Ottawa and Montreal and those

Hill Times February 8, 2021 Institutional racism is strong in many sectors, but it’s life threatening health care in Canada. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond and Harmony Johnson recently led a team to review complaints of racism in health care in British Columbia, and the resulting report, released on Nov. 30, 2020, should be mandatory reading for