Equity Matters

Mar 24

Global sustainable development goals have potential to drive change in Canada

Shannon Kindornay, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University

There is no question that 2015 is a year for change both within Canada and abroad. As noted by Julia Sánchez, President-CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operation, in her blog on Canada’s engagement with global social justice, not only are Canadians facing an election year in 2015, but changes are afoot on the global stage. This year, governments will negotiate a set of universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United Nations to replace the Millennium Development Goals that will expire at the end of 2015. These goals will apply to all countries...

Mar 5

Les femmes et le terrorisme

Nathalie Des Rosiers, Université d’Ottawa

Partout dans le monde, on s’efforce d’inventer des solutions juridiques pour mettre fin au terrorisme. Le Canda ne fait pas exception : un projet de loi propose des détentions préventives, un partage d’information entre agences et un mandat au service de renseignements « d’agir » pour prévenir des attaques. Le public est prêt à accepter ces mesures sans précédent parce qu’ils ont peur de ces attaques féroces imprévisibles qu’on voit sur YouTube et à la télé.

La violence faite aux femmes, la disparition ou le meurtre d’une...

Feb 20

A pivotal year for Canada’s engagement with global social justice

Julia Sánchez, President-CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC)

February 20^th is World Day of Social Justice, as recognized by the United Nations since 2007. The day is a call to observe social justice by supporting “efforts of the international community in poverty eradication, the promotion of full employment and decent work, gender equity and access to social well-being and justice for all”.

Three events make 2015 a pivotal year for global social justice: first, there is the 20^th...

Jan 20

"The Nuances of Blackness and/in the Canadian Academy" – A tool for engaging with equity pedagogy in the graduate classroom

Author: Dolana Mogadime, Associate Professor, Brock University

Over the past few years, I have used the Federation for the Humanities and Social Science’s Equity Matters blog series as a teaching tool for my graduate level courses in education. The Federation’s blog is an excellent mechanism for community building and knowledge exchange. It provides scholars who are committed to theoretical and critical research with a wealth of public, open access materials to share with students. These materials, in the form of panel presentations, online discussions and posts, provide a way for students to step into equity conversations and engage with them.

"The...

Dec 9

Canada and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By Rhoda Howard-Hassmann, Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights, Wilfrid Laurier University

This blog post was contributed for Human Rights Day, observed on December 10.

December 10, 2020 is the 66^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

In his Why Canada Cares (McGill-Queen`s University Press, 2012, pp. 4-5), Andrew Lui shows that Canada`s initial response to the formulation of the UDHR was extremely negative. Canada was worried the UDHR would give rights to Communists, Jehovah`s Witnesses, Japanese Canadians and Aboriginal Canadians. Canada also opposed economic and social rights. Indeed, Canada actually abstained on...

Dec 9

Executive Override of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

By Pearl Eliadis
Pearl Eliadis is a Montreal lawyer. She teaches at the Faculty of Law, McGill University and is a Full Member of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.

This blog post was contributed for Human Rights Day, observed on December 10.

This text is drawn from the introductory pages of Speaking Out on Human Rights: Debating Canada’s Human Rights System (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014).

There is a broad consensus in Canada when it comes to human rights. Between 2010 and 2012, Focus Canada surveys showed that more than 70 percent of respondents considered the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to be an...

Nov 14

Humanities and social science research is crucial to our understanding of the changing workplace

Jean-Marc Mangin, Executive Director, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

In her recent op-ed for The Globe and Mail, Federation President and McGill Professor Antonia Maioni rightly asks why women, who have outnumbered men at universities for years, remain underrepresented in leadership positions in the workplace. Behind these numbers, suggests Maioni, is a larger picture of evolving notions of work-life balance spearheaded by women who are successfully negotiating a happier (and healthier) model of work. This...

Jan 28

Women in science: challenges and opportunities

Mélanie Béchard, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Curious. Bold. Resilient. Lucky.

These were all adjectives used by the panelists at a recent roundtable discussion at McGill University entitled Women in Science: Challenges and Opportunities.

The esteemed panelists – whose titles, accomplishments and accolades are too numerous to mention here – included Brenda Milner, Victoria Kaspi and Rima Rozen from McGill, and Jane Stewart from Concordia.

The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ president-elect Antonia Maioni chaired the discussion, which was hosted by the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of the UK.

Interestingly, most members of the panel felt they had never personally experienced gender-related bias during their careers as leading scientists.

...

Dec 18

A Personal Account of Integrating the Federation Blog while Teaching Diverse University Students

Dolana Mogadime, Brock University, Member of the Federation’s Equity and Diversity Steering Committee

One cannot help but notice when walking through the corridor of a university setting that the student body attending Canadian institutions is becoming increasing diverse. As such, university professors have an ethical responsibility to respond in relation to both curriculum resources and teaching approaches in ways that engage learners where they are. The concept of intersectionality (Shields, 2008) provides theoretical insights into how social categories (e.g. race, class, gender, sexuality) operate in everyday life experiences along the axes of both oppression and domination. For the past ten years I’ve been teaching graduate level courses in both Curriculum Studies and the Social and Cultural...

Dec 10

Disability in the Canadian Academy

James Deaville, Carleton University, Member of the Federation’s Equity and Diversity Steering Committee

According to the revised version of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act from 2005 (originally drafted in 2001),

“disability” means,

(a) any degree of physical disability, infirmity, malformation or disfigurement that is caused by bodily injury, birth defect or illness and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, includes diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, a brain injury, any degree of paralysis, amputation, lack of physical co-ordination, blindness or visual impediment, deafness or hearing impediment, muteness or speech impediment, or physical reliance on a guide dog or other animal or on a wheelchair or other remedial...

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