✌️not here anymore!
Musqueam Territory, Vancouver
Joined February 2009
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gorgeous feature by @jsrutgers if you’re looking for an uplifting weekend read ❤️
Five First Nations separated, flooded and pushed out by hydroelectricity are uniting to defend their homelands.
@jsrutgers and 📸@othertimsmith went to northern Manitoba for the launch of Kitaskeenan, an Indigenous-led plan to preserve the northeast coast. thenarwhal.ca/kitaskeenan-ma…
The @TimesColonist did an interview with Lauzon about 1939, which cites my @thewalrus investigation but doesn’t engage w/ gaps between Lauzon’s claims and the facts of my reporting. Notably, Lauzon is doubling down on her claim that her dad attended residential school (1/x)
still no response from Lauzon, nor any of the partners for 1939: @BelfryTheatre (which is now in previews), @canadianstage and @stratfest. maybe this is what theatre people mean by "the show must go on"?
New from me: The new play 1939 from acclaimed director Jani Lauzon promises to advance truth & reconciliation. But there's no evidence its central story — her own Indigenous family history — is true. thewalrus.ca/an-acclaimed-ca…
Neither Lauzon nor @BelfryTheatre have responded to this story, but sometime in the last few days Lauzon updated her bio on her website — from "Métis/French/Finnish" to "mixed settler and Indigenous ancestry."
ALT new bio saying "mixed settler and Indigenous ancestry"
New from me: The new play 1939 from acclaimed director Jani Lauzon promises to advance truth & reconciliation. But there's no evidence its central story — her own Indigenous family history — is true. thewalrus.ca/an-acclaimed-ca…
as per the story, the only confirmation that Lauzon has of her Indigenous ancestry is a 23andMe test — which the company itself says cannot be considered "confirmatory proof"
ALT Over thirty years, Lauzon began looking for evidence of this ancestry in church and government records; at one point, she thought she had found an ancestor five generations back, but it turned out to be basically a dead end. She brought her research to the Métis Nation of Ontario—an organization with a history of notorious lenience in accepting applications with scant evidence—but was advised that she did not have sufficient basis for her application. She engaged a genealogist, who suggested Lauzon get a genealogy test. Lauzon said that she finally received the results of a 23andMe test in 2022. “What is clear is that what I thought my ancestry was, is most likely not what it is,” Lauzon admitted in her letter to The Walrus. On its website, 23andMe notes that it has “several features that can reveal genetic evidence of Indigenous American ancestry, although they are not considered a confirmatory test or proof of such ancestry in a legal context.”
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so proud to be a part of this team & to work each day with another First Nations journalist like the brilliant @Sevawood is such a gift. ❤️🙏
an important part of this story is that 1939 is opening tomorrow at @BelfryTheatre in Victoria; the theatre has been aware of the concerns around this play for several weeks and has chosen to proceed with it anyway
New from me: The new play 1939 from acclaimed director Jani Lauzon promises to advance truth & reconciliation. But there's no evidence its central story — her own Indigenous family history — is true. thewalrus.ca/an-acclaimed-ca…
many parts of this story are outrageous — here is just one that stood out to me:
ALT She has also identified with the struggles faced by visibly Indigenous theatre performers, with her being called a “pretty brown” person and being placed in an “ethnic file” by agents, as per an interview with Windspeaker. She recalled in the University of Waterloo interview that an acting teacher once told her she could never be a Shakespearean actor because of the colour of her skin. “I spent the rest of my life trying to prove that man wrong.”
ALT A photo of the fair-skinned Jani Lauzon
New from me: The new play 1939 from acclaimed director Jani Lauzon promises to advance truth & reconciliation. But there's no evidence its central story — her own Indigenous family history — is true. thewalrus.ca/an-acclaimed-ca…
New from me: The new play 1939 from acclaimed director Jani Lauzon promises to advance truth & reconciliation. But there's no evidence its central story — her own Indigenous family history — is true. thewalrus.ca/an-acclaimed-ca…
credit to @lucyuprichard for fact-checking (not an easy feat on these stories) & @hmrustad for editing
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hmm wonder why her Indigenous patients didn’t want to chit-chat with her
NEW: A B.C. Conservative candidate awaiting the results of a recount that could determine who forms the provincial government used a racist slur to describe Indigenous Peoples, among other comments, during an election-night interview.
vancouversun.com/news/local-…
been dreaming of a big beautiful bison story since I joined @thenarwhalca & so thrilled to publish this gorgeous feature by @kaylabythesea in partnership with @IndigiNewsMedia ❤️
Millions of bison once roamed the grasslands, until colonialism nearly wiped them out. Now, Indigenous people are bringing them back and restoring balance to their homelands. thenarwhal.ca/indigenous-rem…
lol this monstrosity is finally complete and it is listed for... $15.7 million zillow.com/homedetails/6615-…
what I took away from this unabashedly racist & Islamophobic editorial is that Selina Robinson could not find a publisher for her memoir
Selina Robinson: NDP's cynical ploy to gain Muslim votes by championing the Palestinian cause vancouversun.com/opinion/sel…
excited for this man to lose today so he can take a break from posting about how the illegal seizure of unceded First Nations lands is justified by the invention of the lightbulb
The Haida Title Act is being debated in the Legislature this week. If passed, it will relinquish British Columbia’s ownership and jurisdiction to over 10,000 square kilometres of land and resources on Haida Gwaii. Haida laws and customs will govern the territory. It will call into question the validity of every tenure ever granted without Haida consent. And contrary to the Premier’s claims, the agreement does not protect private property rights either.
It's a big deal. So we should probably talk about it outside of the Legislature too.
The Conservative Party of BC is not alone in sounding the alarm. Tom Isaac, who has written 12 books on aboriginal law and been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, is warning that the Haida Agreement has ambiguous and conflicting provisions which include a recognition of Haida title over fee simple lands. This could tie the province’s hands in the ongoing litigation (the agreement will *not* settle the Haida’s court claims) or if the Haida decide to assume control over private lands in the future.
Over the next two years, the Haida’s leaders and laws will replace British Columbia’s. This will mean roughly *half* the population, who are not Haida members, will be governed by rulers who they do not elect. Nor is it clear to what extent the Charter rights of these British Columbians will be enforceable against the laws and other actions taken by their new government.
Wave goodbye to democracy on Haida Gwaii.
This is precisely what the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) foresees: that all lands previously owned, occupied or otherwise acquired be given to people with indigenous ancestry or compensation paid in lieu. And it is precisely what the NDP is busy implementing across the entire province, aligning BC laws with UNDRIP under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), a law the Conservative Party of BC has committed to repealing if elected in October.
Does the dream of UNDRIP look like moral progress to you?
Not to me. Not anymore.
As a lawyer, I dedicated the first dozen years of my career helping indigenous clients to achieve these goals. I had the best of intentions, believing as I’m sure the NDP do now, that since indigenous people had lost power in the past the only ethical thing to do was to give it back to them.
But there’s a missing variable in this moral arithmetic.
Indigenous inhabitants did lose ownership and control of these lands to Great Britain and successor governments. But they and their descendants got something in return.
Keys to the modern world. The wheel, the lightbulb, the microchip. Modern medicine, which has tripled human lifespans from 25 to 75 years. And every right possessed by their fellow British Columbians. How could one ever quantify that? Will they be returned under the Haida Agreement?
We cannot turn back the clock. Our history is complex, with leaps forward as well as setbacks. And I understand as well as anybody that there are legal realities we need to face. So let’s acknowledge the racist boxes that have historically defined us and ask: Will we dig them deeper? Or will we extract ourselves, gracefully and collaboratively, from those boxes and onto firmer ground?
We must choose.
I believe we can have reconciliation now.
If we recognize our common humanity.
If we refuse to calculate a “balance owing” from our distant past.
And if we instead build on the legacy of our mutual trade, cooperation, and empowerment.
Let us rise above our racial distinctions and walk as equals on the path to peace, prosperity, and good government.
received a really excellent submission for the Vancouver change table map today, from the Richmond pumpkin patch! now that the rainy season is back, here's where to find (indoor) baby changing stations: vancouverchangetables.com/
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really looking forward to this conversation!
03. Reconciling History
The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould @Puglaas shares True Reconciliation, with @michellecyca
writersfest.bc.ca/festival-e…
billionaires are so in touch! many people would have you believe a 40 year old with young kids is worried about childcare costs or secure housing, but Chip knows they truly desire tax incentives to start risky business ventures
just a few days left to enter @EVENTmags non-fiction contest! excited to read all your beautiful work: eventmagazine.ca/2024/09/ent…
some Canadians are so obsessed with the idea that First Nations are out to get them. they're not trying to make you feel guilty, taking away your property rights or punishing you by building a (very popular!) housing development. get over yourselves, please!!!
Watching the BC leaders debate. @Dave_Eby says we should look at the great things First Nations are doing at the south end of the Burrard St Bridge. Well, I see it almost every day and as an architect said to me today, it's their way of saying "it's payback time". It's awful.
