Slavery existed across British colonies, but often white Canadians, both in and outside the church, talk about enslavement by fixating on the Underground Railroad. Alydia Smith through her own experience in church culture, addresses this misconcpetion.
Read MoreAnish Bensdira writes about her experience growing up as a person of colour in a predominately white culture. “Years of living in a small town nearly ‘white-washed’ me,” she writes. “Then BLM came along. Getting involved with activism made me realize who I am.”
Read MoreThe Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network has taken up the challenge of resourcing and accompanying communities of faith in their journey toward truth and reconciliation. This resource zeros in on White privilege as an essential aspect of anti-racism work. Racism is one expression of the White privilege and supremacy that is present in day-to-day interactions and built into systems and church structures. It is impossible to do anti-racism work without examining White identity and the unearned power and privilege that flows from that identity.
Read MoreSo often in the Christian church, and no doubt in mosques and synagogues and temples too, people ask themselves, ‘where has everyone gone?’ CBC's Tapestry offers to the church and those who feel at once drawn and dismayed by the church, new insight into the how and where and when people gather for spiritual nourishment.
Read MoreAuthor Robyn Maynard delves behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides readers with the first comprehensive account of over four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black lives in Canada.
Read MoreAdele Halliday, writing in Broadview Magazine, expresses her dismay at the events taking place in the summer of 2020. “I write as a Black Canadian. The events of the past few weeks have been deeply traumatizing. I have been cycling through three main emotions – intense anger, immense exhaustion and deep pain. These emotions are not new to me – they are part of what it means to live in a Black body with the reality of racial injustice.
Read MoreTrailblazers is a disruptive children’s book that introduces readers to Canada’s Black history through the under-told stories of over forty incredible Black change makers. With each short story carefully written in poetic form and accompanied by beautiful illustrations, this tribute brings complex topics and historical facts to life. Engaged readers will finish Trailblazers feeling enlightened, inspired, and ready to blaze their own trails.
Read MoreFresh Start at Kingsway-Lambton welcomed Rev. Michael Blair with his sermon "Why Our Lives Matter" on John 4:1-26. Rev. Blair's sermon explores the question, "Can saying Black lives matter be a theological statement, or is it limited to a statement of solidarity with the BLM movement?" Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and his affirmation of her particular life, calling those who follow Jesus to affirm particular lives as well.
Read MoreThere is a major conversation happening globally between those affected by racism and those with the privilege not to be affected. The latter have an opportunity and a responsibility to learn about it.
If you’re white, this work might feel uncomfortable. It’s supposed to. Canada is not immune to racism.
Read MoreMany Canadians view slavery as something that happened in the United States of America from the arrival of the first slave ships in 1619 until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but fail to understand that the buying, selling, and enslavement of Black and Indigenous people went on for about 200 years in our own country (beginning with the arrival of Olivier le Jeune in 1628 to New France and ending with the Slavery Abolition Act, August 1, 1834).
Read MoreFor people living in the Arctic, climate change is hacking away at their foundation. It drives storm surges, washes out roads and clogs rivers with sediments. It produces sinkholes and triggers landslides capable of altering the topography and tilting houses. The climate crisis is even seen by some as a form of environmental racism — a problem created down south and suffered up north. Susan Nerberg, from Broadview.org headed up north to witness these dramatic changes.
Read MoreIn "The Skin We're In," Desmond Cole, journalist and activist, creates an incriminating account of institutionalized white supremacy. Cole gained prominence as a journalist thanks to a story he wrote for Toronto Life in 2015 detailing his own experiences with police carding.
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