Dear vigil speakers, Thank you for speaking your truths to those of us gathered last night to honour the 215 children, victims of the residential school system, whose remains were found in Kamloops last week. There was so much bravery in the speaking of these truths. Whether you were an experienced speaker or not, whether…
Category: HotButtonitis
A letter to party leaders about climate change
This climate change letter was sent to: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh Green Party Leader Annamie Paul Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield Dear fellow Canadians, This has been a year like no other, for all of us. You, the political leaders – particularly the Prime Minister – have been…
Anti-Racist Book Club – Gratitude Day 4
I’m grateful for this book today. I am also really grateful for the meeting and discussion we had this week, the first of several we will have as a group of educators unpacking this book together. Especially on a day like this, it’s a source of solace… Talking with a whole bunch of people who…
A Message to the Anti-Masker
To the anti-mask woman I encountered recently in Shoppers Drug Mart, You don’t know me. We haven’t had a conversation, even though I was tempted to start one. I simply witnessed you entering a busy Shoppers. I was right behind you as you came through the automatic doors, breezing past the hand sanitizer without slowing…
Here’s why Ontario teachers’ unions are still “fighting” Doug Ford
If you’re hearing Doug Ford saying he loves teachers in one breath and bashing teachers’ unions in the next, here is something you should know. He is an actor, telling his audience a made-up story. He’s working hard to get the Ontario public to believe in – and condemn – the faction he’s chosen to…
National Indigenous Peoples’ Day – Let’s Learn Something
Today is National Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Canada. As people all over the world engage in discussions of racism with renewed intensity, it seems like a good opportunity to learn something about the Indigenous peoples in our respective areas of the land we call Canada. It is easy to find news, most of it very…
7 Things This White Person Has Learned About Racism
On November 9th, 2016, the day after the US election, when even my elementary students were freaking out about Trump, I pictured chaos in the United States. Society – which may never have truly earned the term “civil” – crumbling. Now, I feel like that moment has arrived. Pandemic, hospitals overflowing. Unemployment and poverty off…
Pandemic + Nova Scotia Shooter = nobody’s okay.
It’s Day 41 of pandemic distancing. I began an innocent little check-in post about two weeks ago. I wanted to ask how you are, and to write about what life is like during these “trying times” for posterity. It was difficult, though, because how one is doing keeps changing. The post has morphed several times…
Social Distancing: Indulging my introverted side, FOMO-free
It was for mostly selfish reasons that, when I heard that schools would be closed for an extra two weeks after March break, part of my heart – through the worry – was full of joy. It wasn’t the joy of knowing that the closures are the right thing to do, even though that’s true….
An Average Person’s Advice about COVID-19: Vegetation and Self-Deprecation
The news just came out yesterday in Ontario that, after March break ends next week, there will be two more weeks of school shutdown in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. This makes good sense. Schools are places where social distancing is just not possible – it’s a crowd situation every day. So…