Reparations raises the racism disconnect

"I wasn’t around when slavery existed and I’m not responsible for it, so why should I have to pay reparations? The past is past, things are better now, so let’s just move on…" It’s a comforting argument, but it pre-supposes we, as whites, haven’t benefited from centuries of slavery and racism, or that our black fellow citizens aren’t still suffering its after-effects. It also assumes the economic, educational, judicial, and social scales are now in perfect colour-blind balance. Neither notion is correct.

October 10, 2017 By Stephen Kimber

On Sept. 25, the United Nations Human Rights Council discussed a report on Canada by its Working Group of Experts on Peoples of African Descent. The report, which shone its white-hot light on our country’s sordid history of slavery and racism in virtually every sphere of life — from education to justice to the environment…

This content is for subscribers only.
Log In Subscribe

Vinessa Antoine, a Black woman with shoulder-length curly hair, standing in front of a pale blue-green background, wearing jeans and a white shirt

Episode 49 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

The Halifax-set Diggstown, which launched its third season this week on CBC TV, was part of the wave of #NSFilmJobs able to shoot in the COVID-light province over the past year and a half, with the added bonus of being able to employ tonnes of local actors. Star Vinessa Antoine joins the show from Toronto to chat about Marcie Diggs’ emotional evolution, what she learned from her years in soaps, and her favourite place to eat in Dartmouth. Creator Floyd Kane — a Dalhousie law grad before he moved into producing, writing, and directing — also beams in to talk about threading the pandemic into the current season, how the team fits so much story into such a short episode run, and what’s up with that Fox broadcasting deal that was announced off the top of the year.

Listen to the full episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Recent episode transcripts here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

Commenting policy