This post started as a standard “what i’m reading” post. But as I thought about it, I realized that it touches on several other themes that are important to me: history, Reconciliation, libraries, readers’ advisory… and maybe some others I’m not seeing yet. The Secret Pocket In September, for National
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wmtc: national truth and reconciliation day 2023: blankets, and an apology
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Port Hardy was especially meaningful this year. Not quite as many people joined the walk as in the previous two years, but there was still a good-sized crowd of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Totem pole at Port Hardy Secondary School In Port
Continue readingCathie from Canada: Today’s News: From All Over
Reconciliation visit: The final stop for Pope Francis in Canada was a visit to Iqaluit. The Globe and Mail reports: On Friday, [Pope Francis] met with several school survivors In Iqaluit before an outdoor performance that included traditional throat singing and drum dancing. His speech before hundreds began with another apology
Continue readingCathie from Canada: Today’s News: "Rescind the Doctrine"
The Pope’s reconciliation events were in Quebec today – above is a photo of a delegation from the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, where the last Quebec residential school closed in 1991. The group of a dozen people walked 275 km to reach the Quebec City reconciliation events, and included members
Continue readingCathie from Canada: Today’s News: Updates
Papal reconciliation visit: An apology from Pope Francis. This was the best part after the apology that is.#PopeFrancus crowned with Indigenous headress, While crowd erupts with approval.đź‘Źđź‘Źđź‘Ź #PapalVisit2022 pic.twitter.com/14cYlrTWfo — Jaro Giesbrecht 🇨🇦🇸🇰 (@JaroGiesbrecht) July 25, 2022 Giving the Pope a headdress is not being well received online, however –
Continue readingCathie from Canada: Today’s News: Pope Francis arrives in Canada
#PopeFrancis arrived in Edmonton on Sunday to an honour drum song ahead of what he describes as a “penitential” trip aimed at advancing reconciliation with Indigenous people over the lasting harm suffered in residential schools.#PapalVisit2022 pic.twitter.com/YWRJ7YUPX8 — Jaro Giesbrecht 🇨🇦🇸🇰 (@JaroGiesbrecht) July 24, 2022 The Pope has arrived in Edmonton,
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: A left-wing case against Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act
The central issue with invoking the Emergency Act is twofold: First, it is a step too far in consolidating state power against dissenting citizens. Second, police already had the tools they needed to deal with the occupation in Ottawa but chose not to. If the police had exhausted all their
Continue readingNorthern Currents : While the state arrests land defenders and the press, a new report highlights government apathy toward climate change
An all-to-familiar juxtaposition has arisen with the recent arrests of Indigenous land defenders and journalists by the RCMP. On the one hand, we have politicians like Justin Trudeau and John Horgan insisting on the importance of climate change and that we must act now. On the other, these same politicians
Continue readingNorthern Currents : Reconciliation is a sham to our political leaders
Our political leaders have a deficient understanding of reconciliation. What they want to reconcile are the contradictory interests between Capital and Indigenous self-determination. Ultimately, our political leaders, embodied by the Canadian state, side with Capital. There is a much more radical, transformative understanding of reconciliation available.
Continue readingNorthern Currents : Chrétien comments show that being out of touch is a feature of the Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is out of touch with the needs of working-class and Indigenous people. More and more people are realizing this as time goes on. This is not new, either. Given the recent comments of former Prime Minister and minister the (previously named) Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien, this out-of-touchness
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Looking Deep Within
These days, for various reasons, it is growing increasingly difficult for us, as Canadians, to feel smug about ourselves. There are the bleak indictments in the form of unmarked graves, attacks on Muslims, and people living in fear of such attacks. What is to be done? In my previous post,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: How Does Canada Atone?
I have a practical suggestion to partly address the title’s question, but I’ll leave it for a future post. Today, some letter-writers from the print edition of the Toronto Star offer their views: All the groups that have been victimized by threats, abuse, violence and death as a result of ignorant
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: Tearing down colonial statues is making history, not erasing it
While confederate statues get bashed down in the south, Canada’s own architects of genocide and apartheid have also come to a crumbling demise. Statues of John A MacDonald and Egerton Ryerson have been defaced and torn down across Canada. My opinion on this is very clear: this is a good
Continue readingAlberta Politics: While Jason Kenney promises the best summer ever, it’s hard to shake the feeling of apocalyptic foreboding this Canada Day
ST. ALBERT, ALBERTA – It’s Canada Day. The pickup trucks with their maple leaf flags may or may not be screeching around Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue tonight, laying rubber in celebration of the provincial government’s edict the masks must come off, Delta variant or not. The Youville Residential School in St.
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: The truth about Reconciliation: it’s really not that complicated
Reconciliation with First Nations has been described as many things: complex, difficult, and multifaceted. I’ve even seen it described as a “shitshow.” But is this really the case? The post The truth about Reconciliation: it’s really not that complicated appeared first on Northern Currents –.
Continue readingGlen and the Greens
I first took note of Glen Murray when he was mayor of Winnipeg. I was active in my community in inner city Calgary and Murray seemed to share my sense of what cities can and should be. Now he aspires to lead the Green Party of Canada and this strikes
Continue readingAre the Blockades Backfiring?
If the objective of those protesting the construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory was to bring attention to the issue, they have certainly done that. If their objectives were to gain support for reconciliation and opposition to the pipeline, they appear to not only have failed but
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: A VERY HUMAN STORY OF COMPLICATED CARING
Yesterday I had the delicious pleasure of sitting in a small, country community centre hall with seven other writers. We were there for a workshop at the invitation of Brian Doyle, my neighbour who also happens to be a highly distinguished Canadian novelist. My favourite book of Brian Doyle’s is
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: 9 Favourite Tragically Hip Songs
I’ve never considered myself a Tragically Hip superfan, but in the wake of singer Gord Downie’s passing last night, it is hard not to feel impacted. The group produced many great songs over its three-decade career (as well as a few not-so-great ones) and gradually cemented its status as “Canada’s
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada 150: Reconciling who we are with who we want to be
Today, on the occasion of Canada 150, we should be asking ourselves tough questions relating to the role of public policy in Canada’s ongoing efforts at reconciling with Indigenous people. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: “Above all, we must deliberately put Indigenous voices and lived experiences at
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