Today is meant to be the celebration of 153 years since Canada became a new federation with its own constitution by signing the Constitution Act – formerly known as the British North America Act. And yet, I’m not celebrating. Not this year, out of respect for a community mourning. As non-indigenous folk, we have to come to terms with a dark, not-so-distant past that indigenous … Continue reading Canada’s Birthday 2021
I’ll keep this brief. The bodies of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were recently discovered in unmarked graves at a former B.C. residential school site. This most recent discovery is part of a much larger and inexcusable pattern of deaths, by disease or “accidents” in Canadian Residential Schools. The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society reports that they have identified … Continue reading 215 out of 4,100
When I first started this blog, it was meant to be a dumping ground for everything I had opinions on, funny stuff, sarcasm, whatever-the-fuck. And it has been that, definitely. But there’s a trend going on for me that I’ve noticed more recently, and that’s issues to do with the fallout of systemic racism, violence, and injustice. And these have become very important issues to … Continue reading What Allies Owe…
With all the outrage, all the hurt, all the fear coming from the black community, with the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement comes the issue of white privilege. And with the issue of white privilege, comes the masses of white folks who feel attacked or blamed because they misunderstand the fundamental jist of the phrase. Full disclosure: I was seriously irate about the term “white … Continue reading How Can I Have White Privilege When I’m Disadvantaged? Here’s How:
tour·ist/ˈto͝orəst/ noun1. a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure.“the pyramids have drawn tourists to Egypt” Storytime! When my oldest son was perhaps a tad younger than 3 years old, something happened. A switch flipped. My sweet, happy, and charming boy turned into a raging nightmare. Terrible twos, right? Or is it threes? That was what I thought until it got worse. And … Continue reading Don’t Be A Tourist
There are a few things that have come up in response to my previous post about indigenous issues, and rather than do massive edits of my original post, I’m just going to add this lil addendum. Number 1: I feel like she must’ve strained a few muscles reaching so far. I mean, it’s not even a good spin attempt. Plus, she followed the Trump Rule … Continue reading Addendum: Canada’s Whitewashing…
Leaving huge pieces of history unspoken does nobody any justice in the end, and more often than not, ignorance is not bliss. When I was growing up, our curriculum wasn’t at all geared toward aboriginal study in school. Native people were either non-existent or placed in roles supporting the more important white people we were learning about. I recall briefly learning about the homes that … Continue reading Canada’s Whitewashing of Indigenous History & Refusal to Understand Current Issues
Yesterday, I saw for the first time, a post on social media about the Amazon Rainforest fires. It was competing for attention with some crap to do with Sony and Spiderman and Disney. You know. The important stuff. Once social media picked it up, it was everywhere – and kudos to the power of social media, by the way. NASA notes that they can see … Continue reading Danger! FIRE! DO SOMETHING.
illjustleavethishere.home.blog 