If whoever is elected NDP leader squeezes out one of the talented, principled & hardworking Indigenous and racialized women MPs who are holding the party down I WILL BE AGGRIEVED.

Shout out to @chrrumanitoba.bsky.social's @adeleperry.bsky.social for this generous review of my Massey Lectures book, Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World, in @winnipegfreepress.com. And she is spot on. I am indeed "10-toes down for human rights"; as we all must be.

LIVING LANGUAGE RIGHTS by Lorena Sekwan Fontaine is officially here! Pick up a copy of this groundbreaking read at the book launch next Wednesday, November 12, 7pm, at @mcnallyrobinson.com!

The purpose of austerity budgets is always to transfer public wealth into private hands. And in a country like Canada that always means a transfer to the same handful of domestic oligarchs and resource extraction multinationals.

With the Major Projects Office wiping out environmental protections, with a spending freeze, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what kicked off Idle-No-More, no? This isn't Trudeau light, it's Harper plus.

Look at this, every year infrastructure spending for non-Native communities goes up, and at the same time spending for First Nations infrastructure goes down.

"My Grandma would want me to fight them." I have loved Lynda Barry cartoons for 40 years. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...

If you’re wondering what I’m thinking about at any given time, it’s probably the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, 1988-1991:

I’m trying to wean myself off the free version of Sp0tify, and so far haven’t found anything with playlists and radio’s that do the same thing, or close to it. Any advice?

The Exchange District’s sole public school has received national recognition for mapping out a walking tour of often-overlooked landmarks that represent Black Canadians’ struggles and resilience #mbed #wfp www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews...

Ahead of this year's Orange Shirt Day, I had the great honour of speaking with Kimberly Murray about the need to fight residential school denialism and stand up for the truth about residential schooling. Thanks to the Centre for Human Rights Research for their support: chrr.info/resource/fig...

Here’s today’s version of the HBC, proceeding in their own narrow interests, as if they owe nothing to the people or places they drew their wealth and authority from for the 350+ years.

Nothing cheers me up as much as this photo of Jean Folster, the first elected woman chief in Manitoba (Norway House) and her pet eagle, circa 1975: epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/...

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

Action against the slave trade from 1807 enabled British colonisation, but Jane Lydon shows here how achieving the abolition of slavery in 1833 and expanding territory through conquest were also interrelated, not separate, processes. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Forever grateful social media didn't exist when I was young and knew everything.

Today’s post, by Laura Ishiguro, Nicole Yakashiro and Ayaka Yoshimizu, explores their creation of an OER (open educational resource) on the life of Kiyo Tanaka-Goto, a Japanese woman who lived in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Never a dull moment.

Hoo boy air canada picked the wrong people to tangle with: www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-air-canada-flight-attendants-union-strike-deal-bargaining-agreement/

I wish I had time to do a search through 19th and 20th C newspapers reporting that they were witnessing a new & terrifying youth crime wave because dude, people have thought this at literally every decade. We’ve been here before and more cops and more jail didn’t fix things then and won’t now.

Winnipeg's transit overhaul was intended to deliver faster and more reliable service to better serve all corners of a growing city. But a Free Press/Narwhal analysis of the system before and after the June 29 transition date reveals a different story. www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews...

In the last decade or so in Manitoba I’d watch the pandemic, the late arrival of the opioid/poisoned drug supply crisis, & brutal provincial governments. I’d think man, it’s going to take a long time to get over this particular phase in colonialism’s history. And it really, really is.

for my sins, I'm re-reading the main tracts in support of national and nationalist Canadian history published in the 1990s, and what is striking is how very, very little they have to say about histories of Indigenous people or colonialism.

For a refresher on HBC's ill-gotten gains: 🔊 HEAR pod.fo/e/11f08e

You’ll find us in the corner with our elbows down.

I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.

As we watch super rich dudes compete to buy the HBC Charter, we should be asking why we still haven’t seen a catalouge, let alone the 4,400 items potentially io for grabs: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/david-thomson-hudson-bay-charter-1.7614837

Today I wrote to Prime Minister Carney urging his government once again to ensure the safety of wildfire evacuees, especially women and girls who are at high risk of violence in urban centres, including through sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (1/4)

Not only did MB’s previous PC government make a platform out of the cruelest racism & misogyny, but they traded in inflated estimates of the costs of treating Indigenous women & their families with basic respect and dignity.

How can Indigenous histories change our understanding of the medieval period? Solveig Marie Wang shows how medieval stories reveal the Saami at the heart of the Nordic world — and why recognising their history matters in the fight against racism and far-right myths.

This is a huge win for a group of workers who are mostly women and mostly young. It’s also a win for solidarity in difficult times: cupe.ca/cupe-air-can...

Air Canada workers are on the front lines defending a crucial constitutional right from being eroded. We must support them with everything we've got. By @policyalternatives.ca Executive Director @peggynash.bsky.social #canlab www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

It is as if Canada was asked if the right to strike extended to a largely female workforce, and answered not really. Good for CUPE for holding fast on this one. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/air-canada-flights-sunday-1.7611078

City must make improvements to Millennium Library www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/anal...

The assault on history and historians has begun. This from @tlecaque.bsky.social in @thebulwark.com is a must read.

Every single degree Celsius of increased global temperature is associated with a 4.7% increase in domestic violence, the UN found. When wildfires — like those raging across Canada for months now — cut off roads and communication, it “prevents any kind of escape or intervention,” a B.C. expert said.

Can someone talk about what a colonial fantasy it is to be saved by an guy who left when he was a kid and has returned with a global pedigree?

You can’t write material this good. The new oligarch is trying to swoop in to purchase the record the old oligarchs, while Indigenous governments & non profit cultural institutions are left scrambling and petitioning courts.

I’ve used Her Own Fault in teaching for years, and whoo boy, it tells you a whole lot about gender, racialized respectability, and public health discourse in inter war Canada.

Lolsob, for real.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announces that Canada will recognize the state of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September. Carney says this move comes amid Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and its relentless war on Gaza.

York Factory Cree Nation in northern Manitoba has declared a state of emergency, claiming 600 members could be trapped as wildfires burn in the area.

Today I wrote to Liberal government ministers reiterating calls by Indigenous leadership to respect Crown obligations to First Nations and uphold the health and wellbeing of wildfire evacuees.

Sending all my love to survivors and others impacted by sexual assault. I stand in solidarity—in rage and grief—against systems that normalize sexual violence and discredit women and other targeted people. EM deserves a better world. We all deserve a better world.

Interesting how 80% of the press corps are stenographers for law enforcement when the subjects are poor and working people but when it comes to the powerful, all of a sudden everything is alleged and also "hard to prove."