Public policy discourse needs to move away from where Indigenous issues are paramount to where they’re one set among many
Indigenous people too often seem to think that their rights are absolute or act as if their rights trump everything else. This attitude was seen clearly in a reaction from the Saskatchewan-based Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) after the Saskatchewan government changed the policy regarding when people can hunt on summer pasture lands. All…
Pulling the plug on a successful product to curry favour in a politically correct environment is all too common today
Did ABC make a mistake last month in cancelling Roseanne? Few people would disagree that lead star/co-executive producer Roseanne Barr’s May 29 tweet about former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett (“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj”) was incredibly offensive. Yet many don’t understand why the show’s entire cast and…
On fictional program after fictional program, women dominate. Now universities reflect that trend in reality. Will the job market follow?
In contemporary British and Canadian television programs, women are portrayed as the prominent police officers, with men of colour as their main complements, and white men presented in demeaning ways or absent altogether. Scott and Bailey (British) is both produced and directed by women. It features two white female detectives, both constables at first, then…
The assertion that we are on treaty land should not allow anyone to impose expectations or rights beyond the societal standard
CBC Radio recently aired a story about an Indigenous woman who complained that a security officer, and then a City of Winnipeg police officer, treated her improperly while she was attending a Winnipeg Jets-related “Whiteout” event. The woman, who described herself as an elder and a grandmother, says she was standing in a place that…
The Trudeau government’s aspirations to mandate equality, diversity and inclusion must be open for discussion, not just blindly accepted
I seem to have a penchant for seeking out protests – not necessarily to participate but to observe, to soak in the screams, the worn-out chants, the always amusing soundbite slogans. This particular demonstration, while not well attended, took place in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. The “anti-capitalist” rally and march in support…
The treaty land acknowledgment is part of a very sophisticated strategy to soften Canadians up for a new and radical campaign to rewrite treaties
The governing body of the Ontario Medical Association recently voted down a motion to open its meetings with the currently fashionable acknowledgment that “you are on treaty land.” They were roundly criticized for their effrontery by Indigenous spokespeople. Andre Picard wrote an article in The Globe and Mail thoroughly scolding them and saying that the…
We need a way to drill down to the science and legality related to Trans Mountain. We need to replace cacophony with compromise
The last few months have illustrated how we now argue in public in Canada and the picture is not encouraging. I’m referring to what many think of as the great pipeline debate: the pros and cons of the Kinder Morgan diluted bitumen Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from the Alberta oilsands to tidewater in Vancouver. We…
It has become commonplace to seek large monetary settlements to allow resource development to proceed
Every member of the Manitoba Hydro board, except Conservative MLA Cliff Graydon, resigned on March 21, 2018, over a dispute with Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister. According to Pallister, the board resigned because the province won’t agree to pay $67.5-million to the Manitoba Metis Federation to smooth the process for the Minnesota-Manitoba transmission line. The outgoing…
Television has taken it upon itself to correct social wrongs. But it doesn't fairly represent the mosaic of our society
Television programs not only entertain, they also influence our ideas about society and culture. These messages aren’t meant to solely and accurately reflect social reality – they’re also meant to shape that reality. People and their actions and opinions are presented as if they’re typical and to be emulated. These programs offer a view of…
According to Brian Lee Crowley, social licence devotees disparage due process and are attacking the very foundations of democracy
The logic of democracy is to democratize. Democratic desire is drawn toward the ideal of an ever-purer or more perfect democracy – one where the people’s will is expressed with immediacy. History offers many examples where immediacy has given way to democratic excess, be it the despotisms of Oliver Cromwell and Maximilien Robespierre, or the…
Indigenous people too often seem to think that their rights are absolute or act as if their rights trump everything else. This attitude was seen clearly in a reaction from the Saskatchewan-based Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) after the Saskatchewan government changed the policy regarding when people can hunt on summer pasture lands. All…
