In Ottawa, one of the legal advocates for the Elizabeth Fry Society tells me that the Human Rights Commission refused to speak with Black gay women in prison. E. Fry filed a complaint that argues that Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) discriminates on the grounds of sex, race, ethnicity, and mental disability in its programming […]
Dear Prospective Atlantic Schooners Football Players: think twice before coming to racist Halifax
Dear Prospective Atlantic Schooners Football Players, Prompted by news that Halifax police have street checked Black males nine times more often than the general population and the finagling of white men determined to bring a Canadian Football League franchise to Nova Scotia, I’ve been thinking about the day I met legendary National Football League player […]
A White People’s Guide to Black History Month
It’s February, the most dangerous month of the year for free speech and free expression in Canada. A good way to start off the month if you’re white is by a bunch of white people having a conversation among themselves about how important it is to have a conversation about whether blackface is racist or […]
“Racist, Full Stop.”
In his book, Interim Dalhousie President Peter MacKinnon downplays and excuses the wearing of blackface while mischaracterizing and sidelining those who object to it. But MacKinnon ignores the vast scholarship on blackface, so let's hear from the scholars.
INTRODUCTION On Monday afternoon, Dalhousie students protested the welcoming reception for incoming president Peter MacKinnon. As Tim noted on Tuesday, “The students are particularly riled over MacKinnon’s book, University Commons Divided: Exploring Debate & Dissent on Campus.” One of the serious issues students identified in their press release is MacKinnon’s declaration in the book that blackface […]
What Black kids think about cops
It’s been an eventful week in police accountability in Canada. On Monday, the Ontario Human Rights Commission released a report on race and policing showing Black people are “overrepresented in several types of violent police interactions, including use-of-force cases, shootings, deadly encounters and fatal shootings.” The Broken Trust report from the Office of the Independent […]
Bullshitter of the day: Jacques Dubé
Morning File, Thursday, November 1, 2018
November subscription drive It’s time for our annual November subscription drive, so all month I’ll be banging the subscription drum a bit more frequently and a bit louder. The Halifax Examiner is just over four years old. As owner, I run this business very conservatively. The Examiner is financially sound, there’s zero debt, all taxes […]
Image at NSCC Early Childhood Education classroom reflects centuries of negative stereotypes of Black women
Vanessa Fells is the programming and outreach co-ordinator for the Black Loyalist Heritage Society. This weekend, Fells was at a Black Educators Association professional development event when a young African Nova Scotian student shared with her the following picture from the Early Childhood Education class at the Nova Scotia Community College Burridge campus in Yarmouth: […]
Black and Indigenous: prisoners of mixed heritage face institutional ignorance
Prisoners who are of both Black and Indigenous background report that they face discrimination in jail based on their mixed heritage. There have recently been a number of stories about white people falsely claiming Indigenous ancestry. Jorge Barrera’s investigation for APTN established that author Joseph Boyden has no traceable Indigenous ancestors. Elizabeth Warren’s claims of being […]
Immigration lawyers used a Sesame Street reference to argue that Abdoul Abdi should be deported to Somalia
Abdoul Abdi’s sister Fatuma once told me that the reason she and Abdoul do not speak Somali is because when they would speak to each other in their language, the workers would put them on time out and isolate them in their rooms, accusing them of plotting together to escape. It was like being in […]
Working While Black: Founders Square tenant Robert Wright says firing of Black janitors is a “travesty of racial injustice”
An apology: The Halifax Examiner acknowledges that the Armour Group Limited neither hired, nor fired, the janitors previously employed to clean Founder’s Square. Further, The Halifax Examiner retracts, and apologizes for the allegation that Armour Group engaged in racial discrimination in determining to no longer engage with GDI Integrated Facility Services. On Friday morning, the janitors […]