In her book Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975, acclaimed University of Ottawa Law professor Constance Backhouse examines (among other topics) the life of Rose Marie Roper, an Indigenous woman from British Columbia. In April 1967, Roper’s nude and brutally beaten body was discovered “lying face down … near a garbage dump,” Backhouse […]
Dalhousie Senate in uproar over disciplinary action taken against student: Morning File, Tuesday, October 24, 2017
News 1. Dalhousie Senate takes up Masuma Khan issue After news media reported that Dalhousie student Masuma Khan is facing disciplinary action, many members of the Dalhousie Senate demanded that the issue be discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the Senate. To back up, as explained by the Globe & Mail last Thursday: A student at Dalhousie University is […]
I Just Threw Up a Little In My Mouth: Morning File, Saturday, October 21, 2017
1. A note I threw up before I wrote this. It’s true I’ve had the flu for two weeks, I’ve been travelling, my body is run down. I’m sure that had something to do with it. But really, it was because I read through the comments on Tim’s article from yesterday. It’s not that they […]
Viola Desmond, Carrie Best, and serving face
A Black journalist and her newspaper championed Desmond's cause
Having abandoned my dream to become a prison warden, I came late to a journalism career. There was one other Black woman at the San Francisco Chronicle when I joined the staff, as a rookie reporter, in the mid-1980s. But having had a falling out with the powers-that-be over the paper’s lackluster coverage of the local Black […]