Not all the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report recommendations stand up to scrutiny
The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIW) report declares that violence against Indigenous women is genocide. But do the recommendations stand up to scrutiny? Already, a Senate committee is at work dealing with some the report’s 200-plus recommendations, as part of the Senate’s study of an omnibus criminal justice act, Bill C-75. One…
Instinct says to fight or flee, yet often neither is possible. Examining the story of Cinderella shows us that being kind and having courage can be enough
Though The Walt Disney Co. has been criticized for changing traditional fairy tales to make them palatable for modern audiences, sometimes it simply brings the lesson of the legend into very clear focus. A good example is the 2015 live action version of Cinderella starring Lily James, of Downton Abby fame. Cinderella’s birth mother gives…
Carrie Gour of PwrSwitch talks about helping those being harassed, stalked or abused reclaim peace of mind, a sense of security and a measure of control
Carrie Gour is co-founder and CEO of PwrSwitch. What is PwrSwitch and what does it do? Gour: PwrSwitch is an application designed especially (though not exclusively) for anyone managing the aftermath of a high-conflict relationship, or anyone dealing with cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking. It effortlessly creates the foundation of evidence you need to file court orders,…
Mike Sloan’s positive, upbeat tone and zest for life in the face of adversity has truly been inspiring
“Death is not the opposite of life but an innate part of it,” Haruki Murakami wrote in his acclaimed novel Norwegian Wood. “By living our lives, we nurture death.” This is rational. Nevertheless, death isn’t something we enjoy spending every waking moment thinking about. That’s especially true when we’re still at the point in our…
Gillette has stepped boldly into the socio-political minefields of #MeToo, bullying, spousal abuse and male self-absorption
It’s tempting to take the recent’s ‘controversy’ over the Gillette shaving company’s new advertising campaign at something less than face value. For starters, controversy itself is no longer the conversational cutting edge it once was. In this era of fake-versus-false news, universal short attention spans and ludicrous overstatement as the entry price for even being…
If we can be ‘enlightened witnesses’ and listen without judgment, we can help the healing process
Much of the study of genocide has focused on how it happens and what it looks like. This is important but perhaps we need to go further. What do people go through after these crimes have been committed? What happens to children? There are many amazing books written by survivors of genocide: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s…
Connie Jakab of Movement with a Message talks about addressing mental wellness concerns at home and in the workplace
Connie Jakab is a mental health speaker and owner of Movement with a Message. Tell me what Movement with a Message is all about? Jakab: Movement With A Message is about building community, courage and compassion in our society. We do this through school workshops, mental health presentations with our National Hope Talks division (nationalhopetalks.com),…
Memory is not a video camera accurately recording our experiences and is easily manipulated
People frequently ask me about the possibility of repressed memories being the origin of their problems. This is a holdover from the once dominant psychoanalytic approach to psychiatric treatment. On television and in the movies we frequently watch psychiatrists help people recover memories of events from their childhood that may somehow explain the way they…
The basic presumption of democracy requires us to try to understand one another rather than calling opponents murderers
Dennis Raphael, a professor of health policy and management at York University in Toronto, recently penned an opinion piece that represents a low point for discourse about public policy in Canada. Raphael describes the policies of the new Conservative government in Ontario, and specifically the decision not to increase the minimum wage next year, as “social…
Indigenous women are vastly over-represented among those sentenced to life
What’s wrong with mandatory minimum sentences? Plenty. Especially when it comes to murder. High-profile serial murderers come to mind when Canadians think of murder convictions: Bernardo, Olson, Pickton. Few turn their minds to the 18-year-old Indigenous teen who kills her abusive drug dealer. Such a situation can amount to murder in our law. When it…
The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIW) report declares that violence against Indigenous women is genocide. But do the recommendations stand up to scrutiny? Already, a Senate committee is at work dealing with some the report’s 200-plus recommendations, as part of the Senate’s study of an omnibus criminal justice act, Bill C-75. One…
