When it comes to addressing anti-Black racism in Canada, I can’t help but think of the mythic plight of Sisyphus. As the story goes, the Greek gods sentenced Sisyphus to an eternity of repeatedly rolling a large boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down again once…
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The pandemic’s tightening grip and government efforts to strengthen public health measures are impacting employment in Canada: we lost 63,000 jobs between November and December 2020. And with additional necessary public health measures this winter, we can expect even more job losses—especially among Black, Indigenous and other racialized workers who…
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The January 6 storming of the United States’ Capitol reveals just how dangerous the organized white supremacist right has become. It is imperative that we face the threat that white supremacists pose to what are already weak-functioning Western democracies. And, perhaps just as importantly, we must face the inanity of…
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Amazon’s rise from online bookseller to trillion-dollar global logistics, internet, merchandising and entertainment behemoth was fast and ferocious. Behind the same-day deliveries and trend-setting television series is a company committed to ruthlessly destroying productive economic activity and debasing workers. It is helped along in this pursuit by aggressive (but legal) tax…
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I started writing this column on September 18 as my social media feed filled with posts about National Black Voter Day, marking 50 days until the U.S. presidential election on November 3. Launched this year by the National Urban League, Black Entertainment Television (BET), and more than 50 other partner…
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Overcoming this pandemic that we’re living in requires the work and resolve of every order of government, every community, and each one of us—throne speech 2020 is a test of that resolve. It sets the stage for whether the federal government is going all in to ensure that no one…
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When it comes to anti-Black racism in Canadian policing, we don’t have an information gap, we have a police accountability gap. I’m reminded of this as I review some of the findings of two significant reports released jointly in August by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, with news channels in…
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Photo courtesy of HWDSB Kids Need Help A History Of Us On Monday June 22nd, after hosting a sit-in on the street for almost seven hours, we celebrated and danced as we listened in on the school board meeting, where trustees ultimately voted to terminate the Police Liaison Program for…
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With the reopening of the economy in June, more women are back at work and others are picking up more hours, but their recovery continues to lag that of men. This unequal situation creates numerous challenges for Canada as we move into what may be a long, slow recovery, especially…
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In 25 years of Alternative Federal Budgets, this edition of the AFB stands out: reflecting a chapter of history as it is unfolding, in real time, in the middle of a global pandemic. Future generations will look back at 2020 as a critical turning point, a year in which the…
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