Within the past two days, both the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Independent Police Review Director published reports containing evidence of systemic racism in policing in Toronto and Thunder Bay, and it’s already clear that neither the TPS, TBPS, or their municipal governments have any sense of accountability or desire to create change.
The TPS made a statement dismissing the issue, refusing to admit that their officers assault, shoot, and kill black people at disproportionate rates and instead saying that maybe some black people “feel” that this happens. The TBPS referred to evidence of their racism and callous disregard for Indigenous lives as a “barrier in policing.”
None of these people are going to take responsiblity and actually do something unless we force them to. This means calling our city councillors, demanding that the recommendations from the OHRC and OIPRD are accepted, supporting political candidates who aren’t going to sit on their hands, and showing up at police board meetings – the next Toronto Police Services Board meeting is January 18.
> The college I attended was small and very LGBT friendly. One day someone came to visit and used the word “gay” as a pejorative, as was common in the early 2000s. A current student looked at the visitor and flatly said, “we don’t do that here.” The guest started getting defensive and explaining that they weren’t homophobic and didn’t mean anything by it. The student replied, “I’m sure that’s true, but all you need to know is we don’t do that here.” The interaction ended at that point, and everyone moved on to different topics. “We don’t do that here” was a polite but firm way to educate the newcomer about our culture. […]
> It turns out talking about diversity, inclusion, and even just basic civil behavior can be controversial in technical spaces. I don’t think it should be, but I don’t get to make the rules. When I’m able I’d much rather spend the time to educate someone about diversity and inclusion issues and see if I can change how they see the world a bit. But I don’t always have the time and energy to do that. And sometimes, even if I did have the time, the person involved doesn’t want to be educated.
> This is when I pull out “we don’t do that here.” It is a conversation ender. If you are the newcomer and someone who has been around a long time says “we don’t do that here”, it is hard to argue. This sentence doesn’t push my morality on anyone. If they want to do whatever it is elsewhere, I’m not telling them not to. I’m just cluing them into the local culture and values. If I deliver this sentence well it carries no more emotional weight than saying, “in Japan, people drive on the left.” “We don’t do that here” should be a statement of fact and nothing more. It clearly and concisely sets a boundary, and also makes it easy to disengage with any possible rebuttals.
> Me: “You are standing in that person’s personal space. We don’t do that here.”
> Them: “But I was trying to be nice.”
> Me: “Awesome, but we don’t stand so close to people here.”
> Them: Tells an off-color joke.
> Me: “We don’t do that here.”
> Them: “But I was trying to be funny.”
> Me (shrugging): “That isn’t relevant. We don’t do that here.”
I really really do want to endorse this. Making a person’s behavior about capital-M Morality is a great way to get people to dig in their feet and escalate situations. By going “Hey, that behavior doesn’t fit in this context.” it removes a ton of the resentment and toxicity on both sides of the interaction.
So far from what I’ve heard Jair Bolsonaro, the nationalist president elect of Brazil has threatened to take away territory belonging to 900k indigenous people. He’s also threatened to shut down the country’s indigenous affairs department and has been quoted saying “It’s a shame that the Brazilian cavalry wasn’t as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated their Indians.” as well as “If I become president, there will not be one centimeter more of indigenous land.” If this doesn’t sound genocidal…
here, here, and here are some articles explaining more.
It’s pretty evident people don’t seem care about South America and especially its indigenous tribes. Please please please keep an open mind and spread some word around. I don’t have a big active following but a little bit can go along way if people bring awareness to it.
Write to elected officials, someone up there will care. As far as helping with donations you can donate here to Survival International. Their mission is to prevent the annihilation of indigenous tribes. if you guys know of other organizations, maybe local, that can help please add them.
Brazil’s indigenous people shouldn’t be threatened with violence and persecution while the rest of the word just sits back and watches. Not in this day and age. Please get the word out there.
Hate crimes in Canada increased 47 percent in 2017, primarily targeting Muslims, Jews and black people, according to figures released by the country’s statistical agency on Thursday.
The biggest increase was in crimes targeting Muslims, Statistics Canada reported, in a year that saw a deadly mass shooting in a Quebec mosque, followed by a government motion to study Islamophobia that itself sparked anti-Muslim sentiment.
Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Honor those killed in anti-trans acts of violence; mourn the lights in our community that have gone out; say their names and tell their stories; and vow to fight for those still with us.
The federal government and the provinces must examine “monstrous” allegations of modern-day forced sterilizations of Indigenous women, NDP reconciliation critic Romeo Saganash said Monday before he pressed for answers in the House of Commons.
Coerced sterilization clearly breaches human-rights standards that Canada must fight to uphold, Saganash in an interview Monday, and said that authorities should very carefully read Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the UN in 1948.
That international agreement says that “genocide” includes any acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, such as by “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”
Canadians should not tolerate allegations of forced sterilization in their country, Saganash said, and Ottawa must address the issue as victims share their stories.
Why I never mock or even bring attention to mispronunciation in a conversation, and will snap down anyone who tries to
Besides poverty, for many peoplevEnglish is a second (or third+) language and has weird rules too.
Most of the time, even when words are mispronounced, they’re still understandable if you make an effort. Just be patient and don’t look down on people who mispronounce!
Also social anxiety and/or autism (among other things) will do that to you – anything where you grew up reading much more than you spoke (and getting shut down for mispronunciation when you do speak up does a whole lot to *keep* you quiet, turns out)
This is part of why the concept of “proper English” and “speaking properly” in general is classist, along with ableist and racist.
This is part of why when tone policing people or applying respectability politics about the way they speak, is as well, and is also why implying someone is less educated and/or less important because of how they speak, is too.
Queer Fiction Writer 