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This is based on something I wrote as feedback after listening to a Canadaland episode . I was cringing during parts of your discussion with Former Executive Director of the World Sikh Organization Jaskaran Sandhu.  I thought I would offer a different perspective. The term secularism has been co-opted recently by those with a very specific political viewpoint that differs from the secularism movement. They are suggesting that secularism is the separation of state from church , meaning only that the state doesn't intervene in the church. The term is more broadly understood to be the separation of church from state , meaning that it was understood that over humanity's history that it is the church that is the aggressive entity that needs to be removed from any attempt at fair/impartial governance infrastructure. Some shortformed it by saying " separation of church and state ", to include both the times when the state was the aggressor as well as the more common situatio

I sent a letter as feedback to 'This isn't just an issue in Caledonia': Muskokans show solidarity with 1492 Land Back Lane A few suggestions to improve these types of articles. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is widely recognized as one of the oldest participatory democracies in the world (possibly founded in 1142). Elected Members of the Canadian Parliament, as well as Canadian immigrants, are required to swear allegiance to a foreign hereditary monarch. Band councils are bureaucrats that serve the federal government, often elected by a tiny number of people given it is a foreign government. I am Canadian, not British. I believe that Canadians should support the long-standing democratic nations within Canada and not a foreign barely-democratic government or its monarch.

Searching YouTube for #LandBack related videos, I was recommended a video by activist Lindsay Shepherd on why she rejects Indigenous Land Acknowledgements . I had been struggling with land acknowledgements , so was curious. Antiracism and the "settlers" terminology There was some thinking in the more recent video that sounded familiar from my ongoing antiracism training, as she focused on individuals rather than systems.  As I compared Indigenous Peoples Worldviews vs Western Worldviews , I came to understand the basis of the laws and systems that are built from those world views. There will always be persons of European descent (such as myself) who will hold world views closer to indigenous North Americans, and people of indigenous descent that hold views closer to European world views.  This is why I don't find it useful to focus on individuals, but on systems which impose world views on societies even where individuals will disagree. Listening to Lindsay talk about h

I just made the maximum $1625.00 donation to help elect Annamie Paul in Toronto Centre . I'm of European descent, born in 1968 in what was recently called Northern Ontario.  This year I stated my antiracism training, and it has been a major eye opener. I've spent decades fighting against treating land, animals, people and ideas as "property", and the treatment of "property" as exclusivity without responsibility.  In taking a course on Indigenous Canada I have learned that this is down to world views, with the view I've been fighting against being one of the core aspects of European world views. Now that I'm aware of the differences in world views between those indigenous to North America and those indigenous to Europe, I have come to understand that my personal views are more North American than the Canadian federal, provincial or municipal governments that claim to represent me as a citizen. I've come to understand that fighting for environmen

I watched a video which CPAC put up of the new Green Party leader Annamie Paul speaking with reporters.     I became increasingly annoyed at the number of times reporters asked the same form of question. In their corporate minds, Annamie Paul was just placed as the CEO of the corporation called the Green Party of Canada. They wanted to know the many different ways that she would dictate commands to those the media insisted were subordinate to her, whether that be staff at the party, elected members of parliament, or candidates.  She had to constantly remind them of what a "healthy democracy" looks like. Many of the biases of these reporters were obvious, even though these reporters would likely falsely claim they weren't biased. As I have watched Canada's democracy decline over my lifetime, I have noticed that rather than the corporate media holding politicians to account that they are only making things worse.  Rather than recognize that democracy is more healthy th

When Italian explorers happened upon Turtle Island in 1492, they found existing nations with governance structures different than what they had experienced with European nations. While Europeans had a very top-down hierarchical structure largely based on hereditary monarchs or "elections" with a tiny number of elite electors, some of the nations in North America were using what is often called a participatory democracy. Kainerekowa (the Great Law of Peace) of the Haudenosaunee is widely recognized as one of the oldest democracies in the world ( possibly founded in 1142 ). The North American nations often had hereditary leaders that would help talking circles come to a consensus. This leader is a trained facilitator and promoter of group values and interests, and is able to act as a spokesperson with others about these common interests. Many roles in various societies worldwide are inherited, often because training is required from an early age. Each nation had their own wor

As part of the Indigenous Canada course , Dan Levy has been hosting some informal conversations after each module.  When the topic of indigenous peoples wanting their land back comes up, Paul Gareau has jokingly said something along the lines of "we don't want your pool". I heard another version of that thought during the Q&A section of a talk given in February by Dr. Kim TallBear titled  "Decolonizing (≠ Reconciling): Science, Technology, and Indigenous Relations".  The entire talk is amazing and worth listening to, but if nothing else please listen to this 4 minute clip. "Settlers are always afraid you are going to do to them what they have done to everyone else.  So whatever their fears are, it tells you they know what their ancestors really did. Nobody is going to kick anyone out." "You can be kin to us without being us." ... "Be careful about making those types of appropriative claims". "The settler state cannot