On July 1st, 2021 the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) — which represents some 650 professional historians across the country — released a statement saying that Canada’s “long history of violence and dispossession” directed at indigenous peoples “fully warrants our use of the word genocide.” It was an unusual step for an institution representing an academic discipline that has long shied away from using language that might be deemed “controversial,” particularly when the lens of analysis is directed, not at faraway …
Tag: Canada
In Political WritingsTags Canada, Canadian History, Historiography, Media Analysis, Settler-Colonialism4055 Views5 Comments Paul Burrows
A version of this was published in Canadian Dimension magazine (July 4, 2021) Every so often the media and political pundit classes work themselves into a frenzy of finger-wagging over the vandalism, toppling, or destruction of …
In Short RantsTags Canada, Israel, Media Analysis, Palestine, Settler-Colonialism239 ViewsLeave a comment Paul Burrows
Tha Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) followed the corporate media newswire framing for its headline on May 11, 2021: Israelis are “killed” with the active voice; Palestinians “die” with the passive voice. Even the headlines are colonial. …
I’ve heard a lot of Canadians get indignant over the years about charges that this has always been, and continues to be, a fundamentally racist and colonial society. They were indignant when Maclean’s published a piece …