1) When I went to the Governor General awards as Poet Laureate, multiple people asked me if I was “an actor” when I said I did spoken word. The idea that Canadian Literature is some sacred, civil space that must be treated with obsequious silence is laughable. Canadian Literature 2) has sexual assault scandals, excludes and gatekeeps authors who aren’t white,refuses to honour translation or other works that don’t fit in the English-French binary, and is hostile to any political expression that might disrupt their cocktail parties. What disrespects authors

David Lametti whose PM wore blackface decides to take the nearly unprecedented step of interceding on the side of SRC in an appeal where SRC defends using the n-word 4 times - 3 in French and once in English. An apology to a Black man was too much. cbc.ca/news/politics/… This is the man who is supposed to run a “Black Justice Strategy” but thinks it’s an overstep for the regulator to suggest more caution should be used in using the n-word given its harm and impact. This intervene is about calculating that Black people matter less to him…

Back at the hearing into the stop and arrest of Kayla Borden in July, 2020. The hearing has been adjourned for almost a year after COVID interrupted (right before Chief Dan Kinsella was scheduled to testify.) halifaxexaminer.ca/black-nova-sco… Kayla now has new counsel, @AsafRashid9 is now representing her in the hearing.

We need to start talking about activism fraud in universities. There is no accountability mechanism that checks with communities or with activist groups as to whether claims to being an activist or community researcher are true. Too often, those who already have power… …in institutions and so often got there by strategically not doing the activist work (and even worse, often by actively blocking, undermining, and pushing out activists) are able to then use their resources and platform to turn around and claim activist credentials…

Remember when Ahmed Hussen claimed parliamentary privilege and refused to show up at a judicial hearing where it was revealed there were 2 senior staff in the room for a meeting with a sitting judge and no-one could produce a single note from the meeting, calendar entry… …or record of the meeting being booked, and did not do so even when ordered by a judge, and one of those senior staff went on to work in the PMO and not a single journalist in Canada reported on this because they are incapable of wrapping their minds around anything Black…