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Many people are writing and talking about how they are happy to see the end of 2020. I posted a Goodbye 2018 as that had been a rough year for me personally. I hadn't been up to writing anything that year since April when I wrote about my new job. Since then I have been thinking about my future in a different way than I had in the past. The year 2020 introduced changes greater than 2019. This Gregorian calendar year I paid close attention to a series of events: Wet'suwet'en blockades, conspiracy theories about COVID and China, and the most recent Black Lives Matters protests.  This inspired me to learn more, and I started some self-directed anti-racism training. As I was born in a place recently called Sudbury, Ontario, Canada , this quickly lead me to learning about the indigenous civilizations and peoples of this homeland. This has been a important turn in my own life. While there was some discomfort during this year due to the pandemic, I feel I am in a better position

While I've been thinking about electoral reform since the 1990's, I learned quite a bit since that time and thus changed my opinion with new knowledge. I wrote an article discussing one of the major changes since 1997 and 2017 when Canada was having consultations and had an active committee on electoral reform. This year I have been learning about Canada as part of my antiracism training. Learning about pre-contact Turtle Island and the First Nation, Métis and Inuit civilizations that exist in parallel with Canada and the USA on Turtle Island is critical to knowing what Canada is. As with electoral reform, I can remember what I thought prior to my learning.  I can recognize missing knowledge in other people that I also lacked, and want to share with them what I have learned.  What I can't do is unlearn and go back to what I thought in the past.  Please share with me any new information, but please don't expect me to go backwards to my lesser informed self.   During the

Many people will already know the connection between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Until recently I hadn't given it much thought. I grew up in a Christian family.  My father was Seventh-day Adventist, my mother Catholic, and they then moved together to a United Church. I live within a Christian Country -- meaning that the Government promotes and includes Christianity within it, not that every Canadian is Christian. When I was a child and told about Judaism, I was told that they were in some way wrong. I was too young to question, so I took it on faith along with everything else I was taught as a Christian. Later in my youth when I was finally told about Muslims, I was told they were dangerous. I was told that "we" fought the crusades against "them" so that "they" would not kill all of "us". As a young adult I was told I should have Judeo-Christian values, suggesting that the underlying values of Judaism and Christianity are the same and

I am interested in Canada implementing UNDRIP, so I watched APTN News' recent Nation to Nation episode on UNDRIP.     While I am skeptical about the Liberal Party and NDP's ability to move forward with UNDRIP, I do find the honesty expressed by many representatives of the Conservative Party to be interesting. Their focus is always on resource extraction, and how they are concerned that lawsuits against human rights violations might restrict resource extraction.   During the Indigineous Canada course I took this summer it was recommended I read the journal article Decolonization is not a metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang. On page 4 the authors discuss two forms of colonialism.   Generally speaking, postcolonial theories and theories of coloniality attend to two forms of colonialism. External colonialism (also called exogenous or exploitation colonization) denotes the expropriation of fragments of Indigenous worlds, animals,plants and human being

This topic regularly comes up in discussions around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) report that recognized a few examples of genocide committed by the Canadian government against indigenous peoples. This was specifically discussed in the context of the residential schools policy, but applies to other related policies. Inevitably someone gets angry and says something along the lines of, "You just called my homeland genocidal" ( Example on facebook ). While I can understand someone being upset if I falsely called their homeland genocidal, I can see a few problems with this statement. The Dominion of Canada (Canada) is not "their homeland" even if they were born here. Canada is a subsidiary of the British created for the purpose of expanding the British Empire here. That purpose is clearly articulated in the British North America Act that came into effect on 1 July 1867, which people reference as the creation of "Canada". Contrary to

The text of Bill C-10, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts , didn't surprise me. It is only the latest example of a Heritage Minister and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage misunderstanding their mandate and the purpose of various laws.  The problem isn't specific to any political party, as Heritage Ministers from the Liberals or Conservatives, and Heritage Committee members from all parties, have all exhibited the same problems. I'm just going to use the term "Heritage" to refer to this group. The Conflict of Interest A big part of what the Department of Canadian Heritage does is provide funding to creative Canadians -- arts funding, entertainment funding, and funding for heritage projects (including libraries and archives).  The Heritage Minister and Committee are intended to direct that department, so will also have a focus on that funding. But, for a variety of reasons, the cabinet doesn&

I have written previously about how many Canadians can't understand systemic racism , because they believe this is the same thing as an individual racist.  They know there is a difference between socialism (the system) and a socialist (a person), but have been hardwired to not understand the difference between racism (the system) and a racist (a person). Many Canadians think of Canada as the group of people who currently hold Canadian citizenship. To discuss Canada is to discuss a group of living individuals. To discuss any flaws in Canada's systems is in their mind to impune the reputation of each of these individuals. I don't think of Canada as a group of individuals, but only as a group of systems. I consider it unhelpful to think of countries as groups of individuals, as that allows the systems to hide from required scrutiny and accountability. Systems may grant individuals citizenship and other identification, but systems exists separate from any specific group of indi

Bill C-15 was tabled on December 3'rd, the next step in implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada .  As I wrote in a letter I sent to my MP and MPP on the 4'th, this is a process that started at the United Nations in 1982 after a study on the issue.   1982 is the same year the UK parliament passed the Canada Act 1982 which allowed it's subsidiary of Canada to modify the Canadian constitution without future changes needing to be passed in the UK parliament. Canada is still a constitutional monarchy, with the UK Queen is still the head of state. MPs and new citizens still need to swear allegiance to the UK Queen. Given this I don't consider Canada to be a fully separate country yet, even if Canadian marketing suggests otherwise. I had many thoughts as I watched a news conference on C-15.     As was discussed by Indigenous spokespersons, this bill is not perfect.  Any discussion of those imperfections should not be misunde

The following letter was sent to my MP and MPP. John Fraser, my MPP in Ottawa South, Honourable David McGuinty, my MP in Ottawa South Yesterday the federal government tabled a bill to start discussions about possibly doing something towards implementing  the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within Canada. The largest policy change is that there will now be a yearly report, and the government will have to justify their lack of progress. https://canada.ca/declaration I have criticisms of the bill, which I hope will be quickly addressed in amendments before passing. As an example, the preamble of the bill includes this clause: Whereas First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation have, throughout history and to this day, lived in the lands that are now in Canada with their distinct identities, cultures and ways of life; This clause shows a lack of understanding of the wampums, including the 2-row and dish with one spoon we should be very familiar with in Ontario.

When discussing Canada's poor relationship with First Nations, Canadians like to discuss John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister.  This makes them comfortable as they can claim it was in some distant past, a Conservative PM, a drunk, or other thing that they can use to distance themselves from it. I have come across Russell Diabo work in a "Truth Before Reconciliation" campaign.  An article sparked my interest, and Russ tweeted a slideshow that provides additional details. Canada’s use of UNDRIP as cover for implementing White Paper 2.0 termination plan Trudeau Gov't's Plan to Entrench 4th Level of Indigenous Gov't & Permanent Subjugation of First Nations From the 1969 White Paper on Indian Policy to Today's White Paper 2.0   I was born in 1968, and thus a story of 1969 to today is entirely within my lifetime. Even Canadians who think of themselves only as individuals, and thus pluck themselves out of time and don't see their link to