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Every year, Canadians turn up by the hundreds to watch the Remembrance Day ceremony unfold at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Rain or snow, they’re there to mark the passing of friends, family and time. It’s a sombre affair, a mood that is mirrored through similar ceremonies across the country. But even as we remember Canada’s troops, we continue to forget many of the less palatable aspects of Canada’s past and present.
Things like our participation in colonial conquests. From requesting possession of the British West Indies to snubbing black voters, Yves Engler explores the often overlooked nuances of Canada’s complicated colonial past. He challenges the repetitive binary of war and peace, questioning who and what guides our recollection of history, and what we should be remembering on November 11.
Doreen Nicoll spins that history of colonial prejudice right into the present, demanding our current government get the ball rolling on an inquiry into Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women. Like Engler, Nicol looks back to the past before stepping forward — and what she finds isn’t pretty. As it turns out, our former PM might have misread the situation when he said it wasn’t “really high on our radar, to be honest.” With 1,181 cases of femicide still unexplored, it’s going to take a lot for Canada to start rectifying the damage done.
Remember Jian Ghomeshi, the former CBC host connected to a series of violent sexual assaults? Lucia Lorenzi does, and so should you. She looks at the slow death of that national narrative and how our collective forgetfulness puts the survivors of sexual assault at risk. As she says, there’s a cost to privacy, and for speaking out. If we don’t pay it in consciousness and action, then those touched most by injustice will continue to pay it in stigmatization, discrimination, and labour.
But not all Canadians are so adept at forgetting the past. While looking at the fanfare surrounding the election of Canada’s new PM, Dennis Gruending encounters a group of vocal critics who aren’t taking the change well. Are Trudeau’s core supporters really a group of “Laurentian elites, tribal Quebec voters, disempowered and miserable Aboriginals, and Maritimers possessing a loser ethos,” as one professor at the University of Calgary termed them? Or are we entering a time of debate and social change?
If it’s a debate, talk is cheap. As Postmedia amalgamates more papers in Canada’s west to save costs, Canadians are increasingly turning away from mainstream media outlets to stay informed. David Climenhaga looks at editorial bias and the problematic business of journalism, delving deep into the conflicts that arise between papers and their owners. Should we be planning for succession, or is our flawed national media still worth saving? John Miller follows things up with a look forward, and what we should expect if we’re decide to shake off the shackles to traditional media. Hint: Things don’t end well in a world dominated by “gigantic corporations who want to control your every keystroke.”
And on that cheery note, we’re nearly through the week. Have a great weekend!
Jen Halsall is a journalism student based in Ottawa and the rabble.ca blogs intern.
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