Defining Contemporary Canada 1982-Present

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

Social justice fighters restore our faith in humanity

Shauna MacKinnon 5 minute read Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016

On Dec. 12, housing and anti-poverty advocates gathered to recognize Clark Brownlee, a local activist who retired after a long engagement with social justice and policy advocacy. It was a much-needed reminder there is still good in the world.

It has been difficult not to lose faith in humanity in a world where millions of people recently saw fit to elect Donald Trump as leader of the United States.

Many Canadians are watching in horror as a new political era begins to take shape south of the border. It’s not just the United States that has seemingly gone mad. Racism in politics is rampant in Europe and Kelly Leitch has shown us Canada is not immune. In her bid for leadership of the Conservative party, Leitch has been vocal about her support for Trump and has pitched a number of racist policy proposals. She is currently a frontrunner.

So yes, it is hard to be hopeful at a time when hate and fear of “the other” seems to be inspiring a disturbing number of voters.

Marc Lavoie photo La jeune Minyaka et Marc Lavoie, au march�� de Kaboul, la capitale de l�Afghanistan, en 2005.
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Les souvenirs d’un vétéran de Bosnie et d’Afghanistan

Par Daniel Bahuaud 4 minute read Preview
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Les souvenirs d’un vétéran de Bosnie et d’Afghanistan

Par Daniel Bahuaud 4 minute read Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015

On n'a jamais tiré sur Marc Lavoie. Ni en Bosnie, ni en Afghanistan. Mais l'adjudant-maître du 38e Groupe-brigade du Canada connaît intimement les zones sinistrées par la guerre.

Lorsque Lavoie est arrivé en Bosnie, en 1997, la période de violence armée dans l'ancienne Yougoslavie était révolue. Le natif de Kapuskasing, aujourd'hui adjudant-maître chargé du maintien de l'équipement du 38e Groupe-brigade du Canada, se souvient "bien clairement" des ravages de la guerre.

"Les forces canadiennes faisaient alors partie de la mission de l'OTAN, chargée de stabiliser les zones sinistrées en Bosnie-Herzégovine, Croatie, Macédoine et au Kosovo. J'étais stationné la base canadienne de Drvar, en Bosnie, pour mes deux tours de mission. "J'assumais le maintien des véhicules, des génératrices d'électricité et d'autres équipements militaires. Parfois, il fallait quitter la base pour remorquer des véhicules qui avait été touchés par des mines.

"Le grand défi c'était de stabiliser la région. On était l pour aider les habitants du pays se remettre sur pied. Des villages entiers avaient été dévastés par la guerre. Dans bien des endroits, les gens vivaient comme au 19e siècle. On chargeait nos camions de bois pour le chauffage, sans parler d'eau potable.

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Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015
Shaney Komulainen / THE CANADIAN PRESS files A Canadian solider and First Nations protester face off at the Kahnesatake reserve in Oka, Que., in September 1990.
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Oka at 25, lessons in reconciliation

By Will Braun 5 minute read Preview
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Oka at 25, lessons in reconciliation

By Will Braun 5 minute read Saturday, Jul. 11, 2015

It's been a generation since July 11, 1990, when a SWAT team piled out of a truck and advanced against a small Mohawk protest on a dirt road in the pine forest outside the Quebec village of Oka. What followed was a 78-day armed siege -- the most violent and consequential clash between indigenous people and the Canadian state in modern times.

What has changed during the past 25 years? What hasn't? And why has there not been another Oka despite repeated warnings about indigenous unrest across the country?

The crisis was sparked by a proposed golf course expansion and condo development that would have turned a Mohawk cemetery at Kanesatake into a parking lot. It represented something much bigger -- a history of inequality and a society divided by race and seething with anger.

The images were jarring. Tanks rolled through quiet communities, white rioters burned effigies of Mohawk warriors, cars carrying Mohawk women and children were pelted with rocks as police stood by, and most iconic of all, a soldier and Mohawk Warrior stared each other down at point-blank range. Generations of tension compressed into the few inches between their steely faces. The nation was on edge.

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Saturday, Jul. 11, 2015