Much is heard these days about Canadian history and the truth, particularly regarding the fortunes, or misfortunes, of the Indigenous population. The narrative has been biased against them, we hear, now we want the truth, the whole truth. But do we? Judging by the recent contretemps in Quesnel, B.C. one
Continue readingTag: Residential Schools
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Steve Turton writes about the dangers of global temperatures which were far exceeding recorded highs even before the start of an El Nino cycle. And Denise Chow reports on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s warning that a spike in ocean temperature will likely linger
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Beth Blauer writes about the continuing need for accurate and timely data about COVID-19 as it represent an ongoing threat. And Rachel Bergmans et al. examine the impact of long COVID on Black Americans in particular, while pointing out a few ways to make
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Truth & Reconciliation Day Links
Some material for learning and reflection on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action can be found here, And Peter Zimonjic reports on the limited progress that’s been made in giving effect to them. – The reports and calls for justice
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Belen Fernandez discusses how the reckless normalization of masklessness even in particularly dangerous portions of a pandemic is leading to avoidable suffering and death. And Solarina Ho reports on new research showing the effects of prenatal COVID on babies, while Tzvi Joffre
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nathalie Schwab et al. study the results of autopsies, and find that COVID-19 appears to be the actual cause of death even for many patients treated as having died of other causes. Eva Hejbol et al. examine COVID’s wide range of effects on muscles as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mustafa Hirji discusses how basic public health protections offer the best chance of controlling the spiraling harms from COVID-19 without resorting to lockdowns. Andrew Woo writes that the elimination of regular testing and reporting at the provincial level is making it impossible
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Emma Farge and Mrinalika Roy report on the World Health Organization’s warning that it’s dangerous to act like the COVID pandemic is over. Davide Mastracci observes that governments who have been willing to bother protecting citizens against substantial community spread have been successful even
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Truth and Reconciliation Day Links
A few links and reports for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. – Rose Lemay writes that reconciliation requires systemic change at the level of individual assumptions and awareness. Murray Sinclair notes that the proclamation of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is just one small step in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Erika Edwards reports on a push from U.S. pediatricians to speed up the development and distribution of COVID vaccines for children due to the significantly increased threat of the Delta variant. – Jim Stanford responds to the spin of greedy bosses and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Heartbreaking Testimony
Elder and knowledge-keeper Evelyn Camille attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School for 10 years. Here is an excerpt of her stirring testimony: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Examination Of Conscience
When I was a young lad on the receiving end of a Catholic education, we had two regularly-recurring rituals. Once a month we would be led over to the parish church to go to Confession. While sitting in the pews awaiting our turn, we would pore over a booklet called
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Looking Deep Within
These days, for various reasons, it is growing increasingly difficult for us, as Canadians, to feel smug about ourselves. There are the bleak indictments in the form of unmarked graves, attacks on Muslims, and people living in fear of such attacks. What is to be done? In my previous post,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ed Yong sets out the three simple rules of COVID-19 at this stage – with the spread of variants among unvaccinated people threatening to undo the success achieved so far in limiting the risk to vaccinated populations. James Tapper and Robin McKie
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: How Does Canada Atone?
I have a practical suggestion to partly address the title’s question, but I’ll leave it for a future post. Today, some letter-writers from the print edition of the Toronto Star offer their views: All the groups that have been victimized by threats, abuse, violence and death as a result of ignorant
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Roni Caryn Rabin, Apoorva Mandervilli and Shawn Hubler discuss the U.S.’ reconsideration of plans to lift COVID-19 recommendations and restrictions in the face of the Delta variant, while Mike Hager points out the expert response to the push by some Canadian premiers to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Confronting Our Past: Gabor Mate Speaks
Like many blogs, mine is largely informed by the thoughts of others. To be sure, I try to make it my practice to shape and filter things through my own perspective and commentary, but on this Canada Day I reproduce in its entirety a piece by Gabor Mate in which
Continue readingAlberta Politics: While Jason Kenney promises the best summer ever, it’s hard to shake the feeling of apocalyptic foreboding this Canada Day
ST. ALBERT, ALBERTA – It’s Canada Day. The pickup trucks with their maple leaf flags may or may not be screeching around Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue tonight, laying rubber in celebration of the provincial government’s edict the masks must come off, Delta variant or not. The Youville Residential School in St.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Mao discusses how the Delta variant has exposed weaknesses in Australia’s COVID response, while Madline Holcombe notes that it’s causing the U.S. to revisit the measures needed for people who have been vaccinated. The Royal Society of Canada examines how our already-tragic
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: On Canada Day and cognitive dissonance
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” In psychology, the mental discomfort experienced by an individual holding two opposing ideas at the same time is
Continue reading