An Ojibway woman says she was among at least 30 people, mostly Canadian natives, who walked out of Rumor’s Comedy Club in Winnipeg on Friday due to a number of racist and homophobic comments they heard from the stage.
Kelsey Lenaghan says she was almost immediately turned off by comedian Rich Vos’s set, which included what she called targeted harassment toward a table of Canadian natives and Indigenous women.
“One of the things he said was, ‘Listen, lady, I’m not your sponsor. You need to go to your next AA meeting.’ … He was making a joke about a talent show and saying that you know, these ladies would likely come up and make dreamcatchers,” she said.
The American comedian also made a joke about hoping the women would get ticketed for driving under the influence on the way home, she recalled, which she felt perpetuated offensive stereotypes.
Mark Turner, who was sitting at a table with Lenaghan, says he felt uncomfortable throughout Vos’s set, including when the comedian used the word “gay” in a derogatory sense but didn’t want to make a scene because he was at a birthday party.
“The one that he said that caused our table to go, ‘Right, that’s it. We’ve had enough and stand up and walk out in unison was he said, ‘They should all go back to their f—— wigwam,'” Turner said, adding that particular comment was made toward the group of Indigenous women after they had walked out.
“It was very clearly racist and nobody was really laughing. It just felt like full-on racial attacks, especially against the Indigenous community.”
Tyler Schultz, the club’s general manager and booker says he was there for Vos’s set that evening and confirmed he heard some of the racist comments toward the Indigenous women.
“I think when minority groups or groups that are particularly being targeted in comedy, if they don’t find it funny and if they find it hurtful or damaging, then I think that’s a very clear indicator that it’s not comedy,” he said, referring to Canadian natives for this instance.
A mass protest against racism will take place in downtown Montreal this weekend
mass protest against racism will take place in downtown Montreal this weekend
Thousands of participants are already signed up to partake in a mass protest this Sunday.
The goal is to march against racism in retaliation to the CAQ’s stance on immigrants and religious symbols.
Hosted by a public group called “Contre la haine et le racism” (Against Hate and Racism).
Moreover, the anti-racist protest will take off from Place Émilie-Gamelin at 3 pm
And encourages people and families to show support in large numbers.
“With the results of the recent Quebec election
– giving a majority to a political party that unapologetically used xenophobia against immigrants and religious minorities –
It’s more important than ever to take the streets in opposition to racism.”
Reads the group’s website.
The group says that immigrants have been scapegoated and made to feel fear by far-right proposals, like lowering immigration levels, a French values and language test, and deporting those who fail the test.
The protest will also refute the policy that public workers will be banned from wearing religious symbols in the workplace.
The group urges participants to take to the streets with a clear opposing message to the CAQ and “their racist far-right supporters.”
The march will support the members of all communites, the struggles of Indigenous people, immigrants and all oppressed people.
The march will bring together people for a society without borders, based on solidarity and inclusion.
Nothing for Indigenous people in Canada to celebrate on 10th anniversary of UN rights declaration
Nothing for Indigenous people in Canada to celebrate on 10th anniversary of UN rights declaration
Ten years ago this week — on Sept. 13, 2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN’s General Assembly (although Canada did not officially adopt it until last year).
But in my opinion, for grassroots Indigenous peoples in Canada, there is nothing to celebrate on the 10th anniversary of the UNDRIP — not until Canada speaks to its assertion of sovereignty and claim to underlying title to the land, which they take as a given and do not question.
On behalf of the Algonquin First Nations of Barriere Lake, Timiskaming and Wolf Lake, whose rights are being ignored and denied by the Trudeau government, I traveled recently to Geneva, Switzerland to appear before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), where the government of Canada was scheduled to appear on Aug. 14 and 15 to report on, among other matters, their treatment of Indigenous peoples.
There was a large contingent of Indigenous representatives in Geneva to provide information to CERD members about Canada’s violation of Indigenous land rights so the CERD members could question Canada about its efforts to eliminate racially discriminatory land claims and self-government policies used against Indigenous peoples in negotiations.
Ten years ago this week — on Sept. 13, 2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN’s General Assembly (although Canada did not officially adopt it until last year).But in my opinion, for grassroots Indigenous peoples in Canada, there is nothing to celebrate on the 10th anniversary of the UNDRIP — not until Canada speaks to its assertion of sovereignty and claim to underlying title to the land, which they take as a given and do not question. Read more
Canada’s record on racial discrimination under scrutiny at UN.
Canada will appear before a United Nations committee in Geneva on Monday to defend its record on fighting racial discrimination.
A delegation — led by the Department of Canadian Heritage — will face two days of questioning by a panel of independent experts tasked with monitoring the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which Canada formally adopted in 1970.
All 178 state parties to the convention are required to undergo periodic reviews outlining efforts made to implement the accord. But dozens of Canadian civil society groups have also submitted alternative reports prior to the UN session arguing that Canada is not living up to its obligations.
The convention “solemnly affirms the necessity of speedily eliminating racial discrimination throughout the world in all its forms and manifestations.”
It was 2012 when Canada last went before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
“We see that in many areas there has been no improvement and in some areas it’s gotten worse,” says Emily Hill, advocacy director at Aboriginal Legal Services in Toronto.
In its concluding observations at the time, the 18-member panel noted its concern about the “disproportionately high rates” of incarceration of Indigenous people, and recommended that Canada reduce the “excessive use” of this practice.
Hill says that hasn’t happened. ”Currently in the federal prison system Indigenous men account for 22 per cent of the population, and Indigenous women represent 31 per cent of the overall population,” she says. “But in Canada as a whole, Indigenous people only make up about four per cent of the population.”
Five years ago the committee also recommended Canada do more to ”eliminate violence against Aboriginal women in all its forms,” including through better funding of emergency shelters.
”The federal government has reported that it currently funds 41 shelters to serve women and girls in First Nations communities,” says one of the alternative reports jointly submitted to CERD by the National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence and Quebec Native Women Inc.