March 19, 2022

RACISM in 7 webinars

By Sharon Fernandez, Research Associate

Dialogue on Racism & Diversity 2021-2022: 7 webinars Exploring Racism in Canada

WATCH WEBINARS here: https://bit.ly/3NeT9zI

READ REPORTS reports here:
Table of Contents

1. A Conversation with Michelle Good (June 25, 2021)
• Author Michelle Good in convo with Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller

2. Multiculturalism @ 50 (Marking the 50th anniversary of the Multiculturalism Policy (October 6,
2021
• Hon. Hedy Fry, Dr. Karen Mock, Andrew Griffith, Moderator: Andrew Cardozo,

3. Conversation with Senator Don Oliver (October 19t, 2021)

4. Defining Systemic Racism (November 2, 2021)
• Dr. Patti Doyle-Bedwell, Indira Naidoo-Harris, Rachel Décoste, Mohammed Hashim, Co-Moderators:
Dr. Karen Mock and Andrew Cardozo,

5. Le racisme systémique, 17 novembre 2021
• Rachel Décoste, Larry Rousseau, Fo Niemi, Dominique Dennery

6. Overcoming Racism (November 19, 2021)
• Jacqueline Lawrence, Thaioronióhte Dan David, Yasir Naqvi, MP

7. Indigenous Advancement (December 7, 2021)
• Tom Jackson, Moderator: Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller

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Dialogue on Diversity

1. A Conversation with Michelle Good
Webinar on June 25, 2021

Key Takeaways:

▪ Impetus for writing this book is to make residential school survivors suffering ‘alive in the minds of people’; because for decades no one has listened to us.

▪ Residential schools were a key implement in the colonial toolkit, and the Canadian people need to understand the scope of the broader intergenerational harm and profound psychological injury that survivors suffered. To understand that a certain disrespect has been woven into the very fabric of Canadian society since the beginning of the colonial effort which continues to this present day.

▪ Non-indigenous people need to educate themselves and use their privilege to make space for indigenous people and respect indigenous knowledge.

▪ Justice is only going to come when reconciliation is real and moves beyond symbolic gestures.
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Guests:
• Michelle Good Cree writer, poet, lawyer and author of the award-winning novel “Five Little Indians”. She is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan; and, as a lawyer, advocated for residential-school survivors.

• Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller of mohawk ancestry, is an associate professor at the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies, at Carleton University.
Personal history /career

• I obtained a law degree after three decades of working with indigenous communities and organizations since I was eighteen. As a child I was enamoured with the concept of justice so at forty I went to law school and got a law degree. This involved me in working on litigations of residential school survivors. I also always wanted to write a book and knew I needed a structure to do this, so I went to UBC to earn an MFA in Creative Writing, while still practising law. And from there wrote poems and now this first novel. I am also working on a second historical novel, loosely based on my grandmother.

Why did you want to write this book?

• The inspiration has come from stories my mother told me, my own lived experience and those of survivors who are part of my world for years and years. And this is not news as early as 1907 Peter Bryce reported that indigenous children were being mistreated and dying in residential schools. We have been truth telling about this atrocity for decades, but no one listened to us. I asked myself how can I convey this reality to people? I wanted to be a witness to the collective burden, the nature of these hideous abuses and the pervasive individual harm to the children; I also wanted to provide our own look on history.

The discovery of the 215 graves at the residential school in Kamloops – your thoughts?

• Perhaps with the recent revelations people can now understand that residential schools were a life and death experience for indigenous children.

What should we do next about the missing children?

• Resources and expertise should be made available to indigenous communities so that they can undertake this work themselves.
• The religious orders should be opening their doors to provide the necessary data and
documentation.
• Protect the sites and the children need to go home
• Stop litigating against indigenous children
• Provide ongoing supports for indigenous children in foster care
• Support the indigenous advocacy organizations that can support the future children

Who do you want to read this book?

• The book is for a lot of people; I want everyone read it. As I have said it was partially written as a response to all those Canadians who think or say: “why can’t they just get over it”. But it is written also as a love letter to survivors, so they know they have been heard and seen.

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Dialogue on Diversity
2. Webinar on Multiculturalism @ 50
October 6, 2021

Key Takeaways:
• Canada’s Multiculturalism Policy and Act has been a non-partisan issue supported by both Liberal and Conservative governments, over time, parties were all on the same page.

• “The Federal Multiculturalism Act is amongst the more forward looking and insightful pieces of legislation of its kind in the world. The concept of multiculturalism which the Act embodies is one which makes real our commitment to equality for all and an end to racism. And establishes this an attainable goal if we all do our share.”

• ‘Everything Old is New Again’ stop reinventing the wheel! Build on past efforts and all the analysis and the best practices that exist that are still very relevant today.

• When I look back at the Act and the policy the one thing it did not address explicitly is religious diversity. Today, this is the area where we see most of the accommodations. Issues tend to revolve around religious diversity.

Guests:
• Hon. Hedy Fry, MP (Vancouver Centre), Former Minister for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women
• Dr. Karen Mock, Human Rights specialist; Former Chair, Canadian Multiculturalism Advisory Council and former Executive Director, Canadian Race Relations Foundation (Board member, Pearson Centre
• Andrew Griffith, Researcher and Blogger; Former Director General, Citizenship and Multiculturalism, Government of Canada
• Moderator: Andrew Cardozo, President, Pearson Centre

Evolution of the policy, where have we come and where do we need to go?

• On October 8th, 1971, the announcement in parliament by Pierre Elliot Trudeau of the Canada’s multiculturalism policy came as a wonderful statement for so many of us. It created an ethos of recognition and celebration of different ethnicities and their cultural and economic contributions to Canada.

• Educators also welcomed the policy as it provided funding for Canadian Council of Multicultural and Intercultural Education. And in 1981, CCMI held their first conference and found a voice there and realised there needed to be a stronger focus on anti-racism. We need to do much better today on education.

• The original policy was created within an equity and bilingual framework of inclusion. Through community lobbying efforts in 1988, the policy was strengthened and became law with the enactment of the Multiculturalism Act. In it was the language of equality under the law and justice for all.
• Systemic racism occurs when there is a differentiation in equality of outcomes between different groups. That is why data is so important to show if there is systemic discrimination and the Act helped us to do this work.

Role of the Minister of Multiculturalism?

• The whole portfolio was informed by the Multiculturalism Act which was specific and informed by the legislation, by the vision and evidence/data on the extent of participation of diverse communities in the cultural, economic, political and social life in Canada. It was a whole of government approach not just the department.

• To promote respect amongst Canadians so that the understanding and appreciation of each other grew. And showing the world that diverse people could come here and build a nation together.

• Based on what the Multiculturalism Act data showed us from Statistic Canada research within all the areas of government we were able to analyze the gaps and barriers to participate fully and based on fact create the policy and tools to overcome these.

• We need to remember that mutual respect was a fundamental aspect of nurturing a global nation here in Canada. And it is no secret that the world often looked to Canada’s approach to building something new and different around diversity and global economic access. Ethnicity, languages and religion are all important aspects that matters in terms of inclusion.

Role of Multiculturalism program, and what does it do?

• The Multiculturalism Policy and Act were more aspirational than prescriptive. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Employment Equity Act provide the more prescriptive framework for implementation of the Policy and Act.

• The Multiculturalism Program has 2 elements; one is a small funding program and the other policy work that promotes an ethos of inclusion that percolates across departments works within the reporting of the Multiculturalism Act.

• For such a small program it has had an incredible impact in terms of how Canadians think about who we are as a country and have difficult conversation. Its initial focus was on the recognition of cultural contributions that various ethnic groups made to Canada. And evolved after the Charter to an emphasis on equity and addressing systemic discrimination.

How diverse is the federal public service is?
• It is by no means in line with the demographics, but the overtime the numbers are improving. We are now getting better disaggregated data, along with the removal of Canadian citizenship as an employment requirement.

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Dialogue on Diversity
3. Webinar discussion with Senator Don Oliver
October 19th, 2021

Key Takeaways:
• My new book A Matter of Equality deals with the things that can be done, to be change agents to make Canada a more equal place. It strives for equality to become a major factor in the way that we run the country and the way we live our lives.

• Because of my position as a senator, I was able to take on equity issues and white superiority and challenged through studies and data the lack of representation of racialized communities.

• An important step in 2020 is the BlackNorth Initiative, launched by the Canadian Council of Business Leaders against Anti-Black racism that is doing proactive work to fight racism, develop tools and bridge gaps in access for blacks and to create more inclusivity.

Guest:
Senator Don Oliver was born in Wolfville NS and studied law at Dalhousie University. He was appointed to the senate by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1990, where he served for 23 years. He chaired various Standing Committees and advanced multiculturalism and racial equity through most of his career before and during his time in the Upper Chamber. He has recently released his autobiography, A Matter of Equality.

Share a memory from your childhood – perhaps times with your aunt Portia White?

• She came to our house often and performed with my mother for distinguished guests and I remember on one occasion she sang ‘let us break bread together’ we children were upstairs listening, and her voice was so powerful and strong I thought it was shaking the house.

What attracted you to the law?

• Before I graduated, I worked as a reporter for the Chronical Herald and had seen poverty and racism in the slums of Africville, and I wanted to do something about this, so I decided to study law. Hoping I could find some solutions to the racism in Nova Scotia that persisted in all our institutions

What attracted you to politics?

• Several things attracted me to politics. Brian Mulroney was also a student in the area at St. Francis Xavier university he and I became young Progressive Conservatives. I became President of the history club and in that role invited our new premier Robert L. Stanfield to speak and from then on, we became great friends.

• He was a great mentor to me, and that nurtured my taste for politics, and I kept connected to him thereafter.

What value does the Senate play in our political system?

• The Senate has an important constitutional role to play. The senate must be the place of sober second thought, that’s the main role of the senate.

• But when I was appointed in 1990 by Brain Mulroney it also opened many new doors for me to fight the doctrine of white superiority and to ask the question why is it that we cannot all be equal.

• So, in the senate I initiated inquiries, investigations and studies, on inclusion and equality and it began with looking at representation in the senate itself.

Share your thoughts on “the Business case for Diversity”

• In my encounters with corporate Canada, I noticed that the top ranks had no diversity and I questioned this and was challenged to provide evidence of discrimination, and this led me to initiate and find funding for this study that was undertaken by the Conference Board of Canada.

• This was a very successful report that impacted corporate Canada, as well as garnered international attention.

• Diversity pays big dividends and the evidence showed that.

What is needed to counteract anti-Black racism?

• The main thing is to encourage Canadians to accept and understand the doctrine of white privilege and how it operates systemically in Canada to discriminate against non-whites.

• I like the approach of the BlackNorth Initiative engaging with major companies to hire and include blacks proportional to their demographic in Canadian society.

Regarding racism, are we in a better place than we were 50 years ago, when the Multiculturalism policy began?

• Things are a bit better today, but there are still lots to be done and I have outlined some of what can be done in my new book.

What is your definition of systemic racism?

• It means what is says that it is in the system, it is a major part of all our institutions that advantages white privilege and superiority.

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Dialogue on Diversity
4. Webinar on Systemic Racism
November 2, 2021

Key Takeaways:
• Systemic racism is a soul wound based in a long colonial history of superiority and greed that has dehumanised and tried to destroy indigenous people.

• Canadians do not understand the intergenerational trauma legacies of residential school survivors that persists to this day. They really need to educate themselves on this and on the persistence of racism in society.

• On-line hate is a major issue that needs to be addressed by legal instruments.
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Guests:
Dr. Patti Doyle-Bedwell, Associate Professor, Indigenous Studies and women’s issues, Dalhousie University
Indira Naidoo-Harris, Associate VP, Diversity and Human Rights, University of Guelph:
Former Ontario MPP Minister and national broadcaster.
Rachel Décoste, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the National Film Board of
Canada; Cross-sectoral leader in strategic communications
Mohammed Hashim, Executive Director, Canadian Race Relations Foundation
Co-Moderators:
Dr. Karen Mock, President, JSpace Canada; Board Member, Pearson Centre
Andrew Cardozo, Pearson Centre

Start with racism in general – how would you explain what racism is?

• Racism is bias based on race and skin colour, the practise or belief of racial superiority that is constructed to discriminate against certain groups and assumes privileges for some but not for others. “I’m in your out”.

• Impacts of racism is felt differently across different races, regions, and religions.

Define Systemic Racism

• Systemic racism is institutional racism where practice and policies advantage white people and disadvantages racialized groups. Or where certain practices are enacted differently when it comes to targeting racialized groups.

• Baked-in bias in the system, tied to who has power and tendency to favour those who are like them. Deeply rooted in our Canadian society.

• Harsh reality is that unconscious bias in systems perpetuates lack of representation at the top. Is a threat to Canadian capacity for excellence through a lack of diversity.
• Systemic racism is so embedded in our mainstream institutions that people are not aware that certain standards continue to perpetuate racism.

Examples of systemic racism – in education, policing, film and culture

• Historical legacies of documentary films made at the National Film Board that perpetuate retrograde and colonial attitudes that have-to-have disclaimers accompanying the work.

• Survey of Canadians done by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation in 2021 showed that awareness of residential schools was very low.

Solutions – Measures to turn this around, identify embedded policies or practices

• Important that institutions accept that racism lives in our society and is in our institutions.

• People have not read the Truth and Reconciliation Report and this needs to be part of the curriculum so that they can understand and examine Canadian history and the intentional racism that is embedded in it toward indigenous communities.

• Canadians need to educate themselves and admit that racism exists.

• Evidence-based data as a tool that can point to the discrepancies occurring in the system.

• Blind resumes used by the US military and the Orchestra that had immediate results in greater inclusivity.

• Equity Action plans that have consequences if targets are not met; awareness is not enough.

• Dalhousie University has some very successful bridging programs for indigenous, black and Mi’kmaq students, over 1000 students have gone through these programs and have done well.

Solutions – Better cross-cultural understanding

• ‘Together we are stronger’ need to work to connect people through respectful conversations. Communication is key to emphasizing our common humanity.

• There is a real opportunity to build a successful Canada now, racism is an issue for the entire Canadian family.

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Dialogue sur la diversité:
5. Le racisme systémique, 17 novembre 2021

Points clés à retenir :
▪ Le racisme systémique est un système qui maintient certains groupes d’une population dans un état de soumission et de domination sociale, politique et économique invisibles.

▪ Malgré des efforts, le racisme systémique au Canada reste endémique et continue de perpétuer l’exclusion et les préjudices.

▪ Nous devons nous rassembler en tant que communauté, cesser de nous diviser et parler d’une seule voix.

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Conférenciers:

Rachel Décoste, directrice, Diversité, équité et inclusion, Office national du film du Canada. Elle a une longue expérience en tant que leader intersectoriel en matière de diversité et de communication stratégique au Canada et à l’étranger. Elle est l’auteure de nombreux articles sur les questions entourant la diversité, le racisme et la politique d’immigration.

Larry Rousseau, vice-président exécutif, Congrès du travail du Canada. Il a préalablement occupé différents postes de direction au sein de l’Alliance de la fonction publique du Canada et est largement reconnu dans le mouvement syndical pour son travail en matière de droits de la personne et de lutte contre le racisme.

Fo Niemi, directeur général, Centre de recherche-action sur les relations raciales, Montréal. Il est reconnu au Québec comme l’un des plus ardents défenseurs de la lutte contre le racisme. Il joue un rôle de conseil auprès de nombreux comités, agences gouvernementales et organisations, et aide les individus et les communautés à obtenir justice.
Dominique Dennery

Le racisme en général – comment expliqueriez-vous ce qu’est le racisme ?

• Discrimination explicite, directe et intentionnelle fondée sur la race: Noirs, Autochtones, personnes de couleur et membres d’un groupe racialisé (selon la couleur de peau, le nom et le pays d’origine; p. ex., Arabes).

Le racisme est la domination et l’exploitation par la race dominante sur une autre pour le bénéfice économique et social. L’expérience en est une d’exclusion et de traitement différencié qui compromet leurs droits, l’égalité, les capacités, les compétences et l’égalité des chances.

• Le racisme est devenu si insidieux, très subtil et très complexe, c’est pourquoi il faut revoir en profondeur sa définition. La définition a évolué en 400 ans.
• Le racisme le plus important au Canada est celui envers sa population autochtone (dans les pensées et les comportements individuels ainsi que dans nos organisations sociales, politiques et économiques).

Définition du racisme systémique au Canada

• Le racisme systémique va au-delà de l’éducation pour inclure des lois, des décrets, des règles encore en place aujourd’hui. Il se définit ici comme un système où certains groupes sont maintenus dans un état de soumission et sont dominés par les Blancs au point où la question du « pourquoi » de ce système d’exploitation ne se pose même pas, comme on le constate avec la colonisation des peuples indigènes pour des richesses économiques.

• Les traumatismes causés par les pensionnats autochtones sont passés de génération en génération et perdurent encore aujourd’hui. Lorsque l’État colonise, l’idéologie raciste coloniale devient la norme. En 200 ans le racisme est devenu systémique. Le système opprime un certain groupe basé sur leur race qui se perpétue ensuite d’une génération à l’autre.

• Le racisme systémique est institutionnalisé; les méthodes de travail conventionnelles, les politiques et les pratiques engendrent alors l’inégalité et perpétuent l’exclusion et le préjudice.

• Parce que le racisme a été autrefois défini comme un problème de comportement individuel, cela nous a empêchés de comprendre qu’il était devenu endémique à nos structures. Cette façon de fonctionner est tellement intégrée partout qu’elle est normale et invisible pour ceux qui en bénéficient.

Exemples de racisme systémique – dans l’éducation, la police, le média, le lieu de travail.

• À l’époque des grandes industries manufacturières, les organisations syndicales, par la force des choses, reflétaient également dans leur rang et entre groupes minoritaires le racisme et le sexisme ambiants. Cependant, la négociation et la mise en œuvre des conventions collectives ont permis de faire des avancées sociales et d’améliorer les conditions de travail en général.

• Il reste néanmoins que l’application de ces conventions amenait des problèmes de discrimination et de différence de traitement à un niveau individuel, notamment entre les travailleurs noirs et les travailleurs blancs (p. ex. en termes d’avancement en milieu de travail). La question d’une meilleure représentation au sein des comités syndicaux s’est alors imposée et un important travail a été effectué depuis lors dans ce sens.

• L’ONF existe depuis environ 80 ans et les documentaires ont évolué au fil des ans. Prenons pour exemple Le festin des morts, documentaire produit en 1965, qui représentait négativement les peuples autochtones et dont les acteurs n’étaient pas autochtones (les deux faits étaient acceptés à l’époque). L’ONF a changé au cours des 20 dernières années et a créé des occasions pour les artistes autochtones de raconter leurs propres histoires et d’avoir une place à la table de décision.

• Au milieu des années 80, le gouvernement Mulroney adopte la Loi sur l’équité en matière d’emploi pour les femmes, les Autochtones, les personnes handicapées et les minorités visibles. Il faut malheureusement constater qu’aujourd’hui encore peu de progrès ont été réalisés dans la fonction publique, à l’exception de l’emploi pour les femmes.

• En 2021, le milieu éducatif reste problématique : il y a encore de l’exclusion et de l’iniquité dans la représentation des enseignants et dans l’ensemble des infrastructures éducatives. Du côté des étudiants, on constate des situations de profilage racial, où la présence d’un jeune noir sur un campus ou dans une bibliothèque peut être remise en question.

• L’un des indicateurs évidents en ce qui a trait au racisme systémique est la représentation équitable.

Solutions – Mesures à prendre pour renverser la situation, identifier les politiques ou les pratiques enracinées.

• Ce sont les mouvements populaires comme Black Lives Matter qui aident à faire des changements: ils sont la culmination de ras-le-bol généralisés où il est nécessaire de secouer et faire bouger le système en mettant en œuvre des actions qui attirent l’attention.

• Nous devons favoriser les mesures encourageant un accès pour tous à la démocratie numérique, une meilleure régulation concernant l’extrémisme et la haine sur les médias sociaux et pour lutter contre l’ingérence étrangère dans notre démocratie qui favorise les divisions.

• Nous devons aussi avoir l’intelligence émotionnelle nécessaire pour dialoguer et discuter de questions difficiles afin de favoriser notre humanité collective.

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Dialogue on Diversity
6. Webinar Overcoming Racism
November 19, 2021

Key Takeaways:

• On these issues of racism and reconciliation ‘change happens at the speed of molasses in January’. At the level of governments and policy there are lots of reports and symbolic gestures, but all are slow to take real action. At the extreme end of the spectrum, you have the Quebec premier for example that is denying that there is systemic racism.

• Now is a moment of reckoning and learning for Canadian’s writ large brough about through greater awareness of the killing of George Floyd and the finding of residential school children in unmarked gravesites. So, there is some momentum for us to evolve toward more consciousness and perhaps greater systemic change. Many Canadians desire to do better on these issues; but we won’t convince everyone.

• Diversity is a fact; inclusion is a choice; we need to be truthful to ourselves about our fears and ignorance about difference and about other cultures. The hard truth is that while there is progress, especially in the national conversation, in other ways structural barriers continue to persist: in policing, housing, education, foster care, prisons, the military, that is the systemic nature of racism that still needs to be addressed.

Guests:
Jacqueline Lawrence is the Diversity & Equity Coordinator, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. She is truly a force of nature in a large and complex education system who has a track record of making change happen in schools.

Thaioronióhte Dan David from the bear clan, Kanienke:haka (Mohawk), is a journalist. He’s worked at CBC TV and Radio, TV Ontario, Vision-TV. I know of him as the founding director of News at the very successful Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. He taught journalism in Canada and abroad and has earned two National Magazine awards and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

Yasir Naqvi, newly elected Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre); A lawyer by training, he is a former Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario and occupied various cabinet positions including Labour and Attorney General for Ontario.

What is your definition of racism?

• A set of beliefs, practices, policies predicated on erroneous, unsubstantiated assumptions of any human group and creating this notion of a superior and inferior group. Whereby a dominant group disadvantages or dehumanizes a group of people because of race or religion. It is about power about who gets to define everything that you are, your identity.
• Denies access, opportunity and equal outcomes for the individuals impacted.
• Racism is to cause harm, to deny opportunity and create inferiority.

What is Systemic Racism? are we seeing it today?

• It is a system that mainstreams racism to disadvantage people based on race and is institutionalized through practices and policies.
• The system is intentionally designed to serve some and not others, to accumulate power and wealth by disempowering others.
• To undo the system, we need to be just as intentional to target and increase the inclusion of those that have been excluded.
• The foundational colonial construct is that Canada exists only since 1867, a racist framework that deliberately negates thousands of years of indigenous people’s history and presence here. And yes, it is going on today!

Increasing understanding of the diversity and its complexity in the general population

• The Ottawa Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) has 7,600 students and 1,200 staff, need to build a more inclusive curricula such that it positively reflects the diversity of our student body. Ensuring that students have access to the breadth of collective stories and can listen to the diverse classics from different cultures that contribute to making Canada what it is today. Need to support efforts to expand our mindsets.
• Need to put ourselves in uncomfortable places so that we learn from each other.
• Public policy has an important role to play to drive action on inclusion.

Increasing understanding of Reconciliation

• Evidence is there, story after story and reports show that there are significant problems. Even the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report that sits on a shelf, and little gets done. For all the good that is happening there is still a lot of denial and intransigence.
• The OCDSB has an indigenous education team in our district, they are decolonizing the curriculum, supporting indigenous students, families, and their unique needs, doing professional development with staff, studying indigenous writers that is enlivening the students making them curious to know more.

Laws or policies in practice in education, justice system, and other areas

• Need to work on issues like racial profiling, when you look at the RCMP, CSIS and CBSA there is a lot of work still to be done.

Role of media – traditional and online

• Media has a critical role to play and needs to intentionally bring diverse perspectives into the equation. APTN does this by telling the stories of the diverse communities, honouring the full diversity of our collective humanity.
• After 911 we saw a lot of racist media that jumped on the band wagon of the ‘war on terror’
• Social media is a rabbit hole that is hurting discussion and reinforcing polarization and fear

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Dialogue on Diversity
7. Webinar Indigenous Advancement a Conversation with Tom Jackson
December 7, 2021

Key Takeaways:
• We need to leverage this moment of ‘lost souls’ to keep their voices alive and strong. Now the opportunity is greater than it’s ever been, there is a lens on indigenous people.

• Others are not others they are our sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.

• If you want to make the world a better place, then be better; put into action love and joy as verbs and share them with all the people you care about this year.

Guests:
Tom Jackson, one of Canada greatest givers, an actor, singer, activist, and an entertainment legend. Tom founded the annual Huron Carole fund raising concerts in 1987 that raised millions of dollars for hunger relief. He has had numerous awards and honors including the Order of Canada in 2000, was Chancellor of Trent University from 2009-2013, received 6 honorary degrees and for his remarkable acting career received the August Schellenberg Award of Excellence in 2016.

Moderator:
Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller plays an important role at Carleton University. Of Mohawk ancestry, she is the inaugural Assistant Vice President, for Indigenous Initiatives, in the Office of the Provost and Vice-President, (Academic). She is also an Associate Professor in the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies.

Dr. Jackson’s career – highpoints
• Looking back, I was living on the streets, when I convinced this folk musician Graham Jones working for the Friendship Centre in Winnipeg to teach me how to play the guitar. He invited me to play one night, and I experienced the reaction of his audience; and same with theatre what was evident to me is there was an opportunity to create change because you had the power to make people react.
Reflection on Role as a leader what is the greatest strength you bring to your audience?
• I try to instill this thought in the audience there is only 3 words that I can say to you that are more important than anything else that I am going to do today and that is: I love you. Love is priceless but it loses its value if you don’t share it.

• What we need right now is a social prescription: learn, leap and love, if we leap (dance) till we sweat, then that eliminates the toxic trickster sitting on us and allows us to not necessarily forgive and forget but it allows us to forgive.

What role does music, art or theater have in truth and reconciliation?
• First, music or art is the most powerful transformational instrument of change in the history of humankind. We aspire to go deep inside of others, to touch them, change them. It is a great responsibility.
Do you think that the climate crisis that everyone is experiencing together is opening a window on indigenous knowledge, has opened the lens to focus on indigenous people and what we know?
• In part, right now mother earth is responding; we ignored that she is a living breathing spirit. I didn’t quite understand this living in harmony relationship with mother earth, so I went to talk to people who knew things I didn’t know. I went to a camp outside of Atlin, Tlingit people lived there. And the old man sat me down overlooking a stream which was so abundant with salmon swimming horizontally and to this day when I think about it -it was such a powerful moment, I heard the salmon speak, and my life changed, I got it.

• We have an opportunity to feel the soul, stand with your feet on the ground and if you are open to it, you will be in touch with mother earth and you will get it.
If you could think about your songs which of your song best captures what you just described, of that connection, that relationship to mother earth?
• I would have to refer to the comment that if you want to see a better Canada you have to see Canada better. You have to think of places like Old Crow, Mayo, Pali Crossing, Whitehorse, Kispiox, the hiding place, the teepee circles in Saskatchewan, Boissevain, Sioux Valley, Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, Mabou in Cape Breton and maybe go back to Ottawa and look at all the maple leaves, that we celebrate and remember that that maple leaf is our sister. Does that make you want to sing?
We have had quite a time in the last 8 months, as we think back to the reawakened pain with the discovery of our native children that have come back to speak to us with their bones. Can you tell us about the song you wrote and why you choose the language you did to describe this?
• When I first heard about the discovery it was so overbearing, I needed something to release my feelings, what it made me acknowledge in the wake of haven written it is that they have voices and the last phrase in the song is: ‘they found us, they found us’. We have to keep those voices alive.

• That their voices are being heard is reflected in the release of 1200 volumes of files from the Archives on residential schools. As long as we keep speaking, we will keep their voices alive.
What are projects are you working on to keep those voices alive?
• I have got a film script in the works called 215 dealing with what brought us to this moment.
How has this impacted your life personally as an artist?
• It goes from the weight to the elevation; my attitude has determined my altitude.
Music is such an important part of our lives as indigenous people it goes back to the question, I asked earlier what role does music or theatre play in reconciliation?
• Art saves lives, it can help people find joy, it may not always give joy, but it gives us emotional release.
What are you witnessing amongst the people you are seeing as an artist? What is the feeling out there?
• Again, full circle, I see that we are in a time where joy is more important than anything else. Think about of those gifts that are priceless: family and friends. Joy is what I found is what the world needs now.
If there was one song you could sing for the leaders of this country to open their hearts, what would it be?
• I have a song called Light Inside, the essence is to say go help someone less fortunate and this little flame inside will grow.
What other projects are you working?
• The Bear and the Rose with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, a series: four pieces about creating health.

• The other is a love story, between mankind and mother earth, a musical called Blue Water, we have a world tour planned, it is about the environment.

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