Reasons not to freeze or cut the OPS budget

Abid Jan – Feb 02, 2023. This is not surprising that ten Ottawa community groups released a statement Wednesday calling for a freeze to the police budget and investment in other services. This is again that time of the year for heated budget discussions, including Ottawa Police budget. There are many divergent views. However, for …

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How to deal with the hate movements posing national security threat.

Abid Jan There is no denying that the so-called “Freedom” Convoy in Ottawa was just one act of a more significant movement, and there is a need to know how to avoid future manifestations of the hate that fuelled the convoy. Researchers and analysts have concluded that organizers of the truckers convoy had a history of white nationalism, and the occupation in Ottawa was …

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Violent Hate crimes are a threat to national security

Abid Jan, Jan 05 2023. We cannot continue to draw the line between a terrorist act and a hate crime according to textbook definitions if we are serious about accurately tracking and addressing the root causes of our country’s hate crime problem. In order to draw the appropriate conclusions, it is important to remember the …

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Focusing on Neighbourhood Inequity for Community Safety

Abid Jan, January 04, 2023. Director Capacity Building at United Way East Ontario 6 articles Published January 4, 2023 The tally of Ottawa-Gatineau’s homicides crept up slightly from 15 in 2021 to 18 last year, with stabbings and second-degree murder charges dominating. The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) crime status report for 2022 will be released in …

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Opportunities for police reform

Police reforms are needed. However, reforms need to take 360 degrees of perspective to help us understand that policing is a challenging job to do. It is costly and complex. Police officers are not born and bread in police academies. They are part of the same society and reflect its values. They interact with community …

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Be kind: A lapse in judgment or an error doesn’t define a person forever.

People do change. People can change when they’re self-aware, receive support, and become intentional about behaving differently. Therefore, we need to be kind and considerate – mainly if we are in leadership positions. A lapse in judgment or an error doesn’t define a person forever. Although some TV shows thrive on the idea that successful …

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Time to reflect

We are in the best time of the year again to reflect and figure out who we are and what we truly want. As always, the passing year has taught us some work and family life lessons – lessons that will turn future obstacles into gateways and opportunities if we remember and apply them and …

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How addressing neighbourhood inequity will make our communities safer

Abid Jan 6 articles December 28, 2022 According to a Stats Canada report released last month, 2021 witnessed the highest rate of gang killings in Canada in the last16 years. We need to do something different if we want to change the trend. Although there are theories blaming everything on Trudeau and Obama and linking it to …

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Research: What Effective Allies Do Differently

Pursuing social justice is truly at the heart of everything we do in the social service sector in partnership with government, law-enforcement and corporate world.  However, “allyship” in the journey to achieve social justice comes with may questions – particularly, how can you sustainably and systematically develop into a strong and effective ally? This write-up …

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Only tangible actions can put life in words like diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice

From 1930s to 1950s, a group of Canadians took racism to court. It was the beginning of the struggle for Black civil rights. The 6 people who refused to accept inequality include Viola Desmond and Fred Christie. These are the brave pioneers who are thought to have secured justice for all Canadians. The disparity and inequity around …

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How Ottawa’s faith-based organizations can contribute to community development

Abid Jan A bank account for any organization is a must-have, and non-profits are no exception. However, recently some major banks in Canada have told an increasing number of Muslim charities to find new homes. The unfair scrutiny by the banks is just one aspect of the lack of integration of the Muslim charities in …

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Assault in Toronto mosque

An Imam was allegedly assaulted during a morning prayer in Toronto. A person representing a community is targeted yet again, leading to a new cycle of fear and pain. Hate-based violence is hate-based violence, whether we classify it as terrorism or not. However, classification has a direct relationship with law enforcement and resource allocation. Despite …

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United for All coalition condemns rise in antisemitism

United for All partners are deeply disturbed by the rise in casual and overt antisemitism in local schools, online, and in our communities. We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community, and we recognize the deep-seated harm that is caused when antisemitism goes unchecked, dismissed, and underestimated as a form of discrimination. We condemn this …

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Wonder why so many are still in denial of systemic racism?

Tamba-Kuii Bailey,Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota, makes an interesting observation about systemic racism. “You don’t see it,” Bailey says. “We don’t see air. For fish and other things swimming in water, they don’t see water, it’s their environment. So, our environment then is the systemic enforcement of these things [rules or laws …

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Mainstreaming Hate Prevention: A Community Safety and Human Rights Perspective

Transcripts Presentation at the Ottawa Police Service Annual Human Rights Learning Forum – December 08, 2022 Thanks so much to the facilitator today. I am sorry, I am off-site, so I couldn’t catch your name, but thanks a lot. I will give you a high-level overview of the United for All Coalition. So let me …

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Anti-semitic hate crime on the rise in the mainstream across Canada, U.S.

I know the rise in anti-Semitism is not representative of our community here in Ottawa, but its happening and its outrageous, hurtful and wrong. All of us need to strongly condemn the rise in antisemitism and other forms of hate and intolerance in Canada. We are proud to partner with organisations representing Jewish community in …

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Jews defining hate against Jews isn’t controversial. Ignoring their lived experience is

Police-reported hate crime data from Statistics Canada shows that Jews remain Canada’s most targeted religious minority and the second-most targeted minority overall. Though less than one percent of the population, Jews were victims of 14 percent of all reported hate crimes in 2021. Even though not every hate crime can be investigated and prosecuted as …

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Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want

Could systemic racism be dismantled by implementing small changes? Is the violence against persons of color easily solvable? How can society transform through choices a few people make every day? What small changes can society make to have a bigger impact on racism? How does technology play a role in systemic racism? This book has …

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Hate speech dramatically surges on Twitter

o counter the rising hate, we need to take a moment to pause before we share; check the content’s origin; speak up calmly but firmly against hate speech and call it out to make clear that we do not agree with the content; counter hateful content with positive messages; extend solidarity to people who are …

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Being the ‘only one’ at work and the decades long fight against anti-Black racism

Of course, representation matters and the business case for diversity is strong. However, recent studies caution that representation without structural changes to office culture, including creating platforms for underrepresented decision-makers, can lead to an “add diversity and stir” approach that is counterproductive. #systemicracism

Hijacking the concept of freedom

What made my head spin for a long time was the use of word “freedom” by the leaders of divisive forces. Finally, I reached this conclusion that words like freedom, democracy, choice, diversity, community, and identity take on whole new meanings in the political lingo of the populist right than they do in general sense. …

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On Hate Crimes – A stick in time will save nine

A stitch in time saves nine. Reading about the investments in anti-hate, community resilience-building measures in this story is astonishing. The little provincial and federal investments in this area here in Canada pale by comparison. Failing to adequately invest in what’s needed today for prevention initiatives will require way more to turn the tide tomorrow. …

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Composite Violent Extremism: A Radicalization Pattern Changing the Face of Terrorism

Canada has long way to go on recognising and preventing domestic extremism and terrorism – starting from refining/updating hate crime legislation. This is a great piece of work from US about dealing with a weird hodgepodge blend of ideologies that is producing challenges to law enforcement officials as well as those who are active in …

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Achieving Racial Equity is Not Impossible

In 1991, the Economist magazine reported the problem of race as one of “shattered dreams.” 1n 1992, Thurgood Marshall said: “wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories, but as I look around I see that even educated whites and African American…have lost hope in equality,” in 1992. These statements are …

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Surviving Digital Revolution

The worst form of social media misuse is the dissemination of misleading information. Keeping your cool and avoiding spreading false information is the greatest tip for using social media responsibly. There is no question that residents who lack critical thinking abilities, are underinformed, and are equipped with social media megaphones pose a severe threat to …

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Social Justice and Canadian Labour Congress

Just came across the website of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). The balanced approach under “Social Justice and Democracy” is impressive: Unlike the criticism of the social justice movement that we started hearing from some quarters, CLC’s take on issues that Canadians face is pragmatic and balanced. This shows that, like any other concept, there …

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Ontario Government introducing Grade 6 Holocaust education requirement in 2023

Ontario government introducing Grade 6 Holocaust education requirement in 2023 History has shown us that genocide and other atrocities begin with hate. Hate begins with words and manifests itself in various forms. Hate speech and hate crimes are the product of ignorance and misunderstanding. The solution is education and awareness combined with promoting kindness, compassion …

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How Stochastic Terrorism Uses Disgust to Incite Violence

Very interesting and useful to understand for our preventative work. “Dehumanizing and vilifying a person or group of people can provoke what scholars and law enforcement officials call stochastic terrorism, in which ideologically driven hate speech increases the likelihood that people will violently and unpredictably attack the targets of vicious claims. At its core, stochastic …

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A welcome step by Halton Police

A welcome step by Halton Police. Community and police forces are collaborating in preventative efforts. However, when it comes to enforcement, unfortunately, in the Criminal Code of Canada, there is no such thing as Hate Crime. Hate Crime doesn’t exist. No wonder why nearly a quarter million Canadians said they were victims of hate-motivated incidents …

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A great role model approach to dismantling structures and barriers

Racism actively contributed to the development of our systems of ownership, employment, health care, education, and nearly every other aspect of our lives. History has taught us that eliminating discriminatory laws alone won’t be enough to bring about true justice. These previous policies shaped our society and established ingrained habits and behaviours that can only …

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Both far left and far right are avoiding the common ground

We must seriously consider a lesson from the US experience because trends from the South are replicated in the North – sometimes without delay. We are witnessing copycat extremism and polarisation in Canada, from insurrection (occupation) in the capital to hijacking the social justice movement and holding law enforcement alone responsible for the pervasive systemic …

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Rethinking Philanthropy: Emerging paradigms of social justice

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of collective action and exposed how existing systems nourish politics of exclusion in which people are treated as disposable. In this broader ecosystem of societal transformation, Canadian philanthropy is on a path toward a “just transition” that requires more deliberate efforts to abandon false hierarchies and co-construct new visions …

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Putting Equity First

It’s good news for folks busy in social impact work to know that building equity is now the centre of attention and an international priority for action (https://lnkd.in/eAzWQrfJ). There are a FEW FACTORS that make this good news even more encouraging at this time of resource crunch in the sector (https://lnkd.in/ekxHyXhp) for social services and …

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Rise in antisemitism: Silence is complicity

It’s dawning on 2023, and we witness an anti-Semitic group hanging a banner from an L.A. overpass https://lnkd.in/eQKwqyzg Such outrageous efforts to fan the flames of hatred and bigotry at this age in human progress are unbelievable. With such troubling trends of rising hate in the 21st century, it seems like we are regressing on fast forward. …

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Ottawa Public Health REALLY confronts systemic racism

Hats off to OPH. GREAT job, OPH, for tackling the issue head-on. Not an easy task to turn things around when a report presented to the board said: “every racialised staff member shared multiple occurrences of incidental and systemic racism and discrimination…Further, racialised staff highlighted the lack of representation within leadership, challenges in being promoted …

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Let’s commit to not leaving behind a legacy of shame

This shows how institutions that supported slavery and racism in the past are being humiliated and disgraced today. The same will happen to the systems, structures and institutions that sustain the legacy of systemic racism in our age. From the pitiful response https://lnkd.in/edqrtM2b to the white supremacist movement to the exponential inequity https://lnkd.in/epuhSyX4 , what we see and hear …

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Dismantling systemic barriers benefits everyone

It’s time to act. Merely talking and thinking about racial justice is not enough. Racism doesn’t just hurt black and other racial minorities; it hurts everyone. Heather McGhee draws on a wealth of economic data to make the case in her book, “The Hidden Cost of Racism,” that discriminatory policies and practices negatively impact organizations …

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Diversity is not enough

Improving diversity for the sake of statistics is not enough. The truth is diversity alone will not provide a competitive advantage without inclusivity. Inclusive organisations take an objective approach to talent management based on employees’ skills and experiences. Many of these companies utilize talent marketplaces to ensure internal mobility is determined by competencies and ambitions, rather than subjective factors that will …

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Rethinking Philanthropy: Emerging paradigms of social justice – The Philanthropist Journal

“A social justice model of philanthropy replaces investment in projects with investment in communities and organizations affected by the very social challenges they are working to solve.”… “more than 70 organizations across Canada have co-constructed a binding sector-wide Anti-Racism Framework for Canada’s International Cooperation Sector and committed to annual reporting on progress, with the baseline report issued in June …

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Some lessons from social justice grant-making

Increasingly, funders who consider themselves “progressive” are leaning into social justice frameworks in their grantmaking. But what does that mean, and how can foundations adopt social justice philanthropy practices more intentionally? Social Justice Philanthropy is catching up. Here is a very thoughtful and impressive “Putting Equity First” strategic framework (https://lnkd.in/eHqquVKK ) by The Funders Network (https://lnkd.in/eyk5QGFH) …

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Appropriately Applying Equity Lenses

Equity lens for Community service organisations. Just like in life reasons don’t count. Its the results that matter. In the community development work, mere talk is not enough. Actions lead to results. Its time to focus on specific programs to address specific barrier and structures that perpetuate systemic racism and systemic discrimination. And this is …

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Violent Attack near Gloucester High School

The petition ( https://lnkd.in/e7Jb7B6P ) is fine – calling for steps to ensure this violence never takes place again to the visible minorities due to race, religion, gender, or any other distinctions that might indicate vulnerability. Board officials contacting the Ottawa police is fine, as is the offer to cooperate with the investigations. However, we need to …

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Assault charges after the fact vs a proactive, upstream intervention for longer and deeper impact

Freeing schools from intimidation, harassment, and violence requires more than just punishing individuals after the fact. Students will benefit most from stopping hate-motivated harassment from happening at all. The right approach needs to incorporate several preventative strategies. Besides policies and procedures, schools need to use all programs activities at their disposal – from class rooms …

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Centering Equity in Collective Impact

A fascinating read: Building equity is now a prerequisite for Collective Impact work. It might sound like a new development. Regardless of our simple approaches to community impact in the past and our research-based, data-driven, refined work of today, one thing that stands out as common is that, knowingly or unknowingly, we have been addressing inequity. …

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Products Vs Values: The power of Differentiating Values

Sadly, we talk about products more than the values we stand for – not just in the business world but also in the non-profit world. For example, some of us still believe we don’t need to discuss building an equitable world – free of systemic barriers – because it’s divisive and polarising. So, let’s talk …

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A Path to Reconciliation

Truth and Reconciliation day has come to an end. However, this is a journey we all begin at some point in life. Here is a powerful video that shows no one knows everything. Misunderstanding is normal in life: from not being able to express a thought properly to an opinion that could be different from …

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Traditional DEI approaches perpetuate systemic racism

In this interview author of The Anti-Racist Organization argues that diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are used to perpetuate systemic racism. Shereen Denials maintains that vague platitudes about inclusion and belonging without addressing systemic barriers means all organizations have done is assimilate all minoritised communities into a single homogenised unit of not being ‘normal’, of …

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Police reforms that could be model for other communities

Sometimes a few simple steps can save lives and resources. In this case: Partnership with local mental health agencies. Gathering necessary information about people with mental health. Preparing officers for the MH crisis calls made a huge difference. We don’t need to take years and continually invest heavily in reinventing the wheel with chances of …

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Respond to crisis calls: A new approach

Here is an interesting new approach tried by some police services in US. Persons with mental illness have been killed or seriously injured during attempts to manage their crises. A growing number of very recent reports (like the following) confirm that COLLABORATION between law enforcement and mental health systems is crucial, and the very different …

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The unease some feel when existence of systemic discrimination is confirmed

Time is changing. In a few decades, things that we consider as normal today would change considerably. What we hear in reports like the one by MUHU would soon become shameful practices and inhuman treatment of fellow human beings just like the institution of slavery not too long ago. The denial and the resistance by …

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International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Today, August 23, 2022 is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This day is observed in memory of all victims of the slave trade and also aspires to promote critical examinations of such behaviors and mindset that has lead to modern forms of systemic racism, exploitation and inequity. …

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The role social media can play in preventing polarisation and violence

You know the old children rhyme about sticks and stones. Well, it’s wrong. Words most certainly can hurt, and they can inspire other people to take threatening actions. The signs of growing political polarisation are all around us. Three days ago: Calgary neo-Nazi group claimed responsibility for hanging racist banner over Macleod Trail. Four days ago: There …

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The antidotes to prejudice

The antidotes to prejudice: “‘I’m not going to hide. I’m not going to allow myself to disappear because I do want to challenge other good people to stand up and say no. You know, if you don’t know the other at all, it’s easy to believe all of the stereotypes, all of the rumors, all …

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Ignoring the root causes that led to the convoy occupation in the first place

The idea that the important thing to debate is whether the Emergencies Act should have been invoked or not is not right. The point to deliberate is how to address the root causes of genuine grievances, some misunderstandings and outright lies that led to the convoy occupation in the first place. As long as those …

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Four ways ordinary citizens can help confront online hate

Every one of us has a role to play, but many people don’t know how to intervene effectively. Here are some tips: Author of the article: Abid Jan Published in Ottawa Citizen Aug 09, 2022  •  3 minute read Statistics Canada recently reported a 72-per-cent increase in hate crimes over the past two years. Hate threatens the health and wellbeing …

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Protecting Canadians from Online Harms

Hate speech is prohibited in a restaurant but not online. No wonder why online hate and extremism are on the rise. All eyes are on the government to fulfil its promise of criminalising and regulating hate speech. People genuinely believe they would be safe inside the fence of a legal framework controlling hate speech. However, …

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The difference between DEI and anti-racism at work

We largely seek to develop the race equality agenda, without the acknowledgment that there are no effective solutions for systematic and behavioral change without active realization of anti-racism. Most often, the anti-racism is left out of conversations around organizational change in favor of broad brush, superficial conversations, lumping every other issue under the DEI umbrella …

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Racism. It Stops With Me – Ask yourself the hard questions

National projects that can have signifant impact includes the new public awareness campaign that urges Australians without lived experience of racism to reflect on its impacts and do more to address it. It includes a multiplatform ad campaign and resources to support learning and action. It aims to build awareness of how racism operates at both a structural and interpersonal level and give people tools to recognise and address it.

Addressing Right-Wing Extremism in Canada

Here is an interesting read. See: “Canada’s Right-Wing Extremists: Mapping their Ties, Location, and Ideas.” We have a long journey from hate to hope to real concrete actions ahead of us. Based on what we have learned from research, consultations and working with United for All partners, some of the ways to address the issue …

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Lesson from the painful story of a black student who was named a ‘monkey’

What an amazing – must-watch story this is!!!! Agree; we CAN control our destiny to a point. However, not everyone is like Dr. Myles Monroe. The reality is that some people, typically wonderful people, find themselves with a dark cloud of race, religion, colour, or any other stigma hovering over their lives. Instead of judging …

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Alberta leads – others need to follow the suit

Alberta updates Crown prosecutor’s manual to go after hate crimes Great progress indeed: “Prosecutors will now be explicitly directed that it would be in the ‘general public interest’ to prosecute a crime motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on the victim’s ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation, among other markers of identity.” Other jurisdictions …

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Our response to growing hate

What Martin Luther said could be a way to deal with the growing polarization and hatred in our society today. Some of us ask, why are hate movements on the rise that seek to divide us? Is this a failure of those who love? We need working definitions to answer this: Hatred: egoistic, self-centred, harmful …

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The impact of police leadership on public trust

An interesting read. The author, a retired commissioner of the OPP, believes it’s critically important to be aware of the linkages between public trust in police and police leadership, as the factors influencing public perception of police services are much bigger than officers on patrol can control. Chris argues there is not sufficient acknowledgment of …

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Increasing the number of ‘diverse’ hires doesn’t lead to DEI’s success

Organisations that are anxious to prove they are not racist frequently increase the number of “diverse” hires. However, representation does not always equate to giving coworkers (and leaders) the clout, authority, and agency to better their own and other people of colour’s working conditions. #AntiRacism #Equity #TalentAcquisition

The pyramid of hate

Like a real pyramid, the pyramid of hate must be build up from the bottom. The layers at the top of the pyramid require all the layers beneath it, or it will simply crumble to the ground. It takes large amounts of time and effort, and must be accepted by the society it is being …

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The anti-racist organization

Hot off the press. A very interesting read. I strongly recommend it to those who are genuinely interested in addressing systemic racism in their organisations. Here is rip from the intro of the book: “Whilst this book is addressed to you, I’m centring your Black colleagues and the issues at hand that uniquely impact on …

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THE AGONY OF BEING JUDGED DIFFERENTLY

Note the following in Nazem Kadri story published here today. “ In the following game, Kadri scored a hat trick. As pleased as I was for Kadri the player, my concern for Kadri and the wider Muslim and Arab community was that the narrative would be that Kadri “fought back against racism” by playing his …

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Moving Beyond Diversity Toward Racial Equity

Here is a great read from Ben Hecht about moving beyond diversity. The lines that stood out for me are: ““…it’s clear that the suite of diversity and inclusion tools and practices that went mainstream in the ‘90s are grossly insufficient for racial equity work. Instead of driving fundamental changes in organizations, they largely focus …

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How Ottawa’s faith-based groups can strengthen social services

The Hollyer House in Bells Corners is a compelling example of how this can work. It’s a community hub set to feature mixed-use affordable housing, community programming, a food cupboard and a women’s shelter. Author of the article: Abid Jan Published Jun 15, 2022  •  Last updated 7 months ago  •  3 minute read As we begin to emerge from two crushing …

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