They just don’t see it. They just don’t see that it’s her idenniny, and thus unassailable.

Among those quoted by CBC was Janet Smylie, a health academic of Métis heritage at the University of Toronto, who wrote a chapter in a 2017 book on Indigenous parenting edited by Bourassa.

Smylie told the broadcaster she had done her own research into Bourassa’s ancestry. “It makes you feel a bit sick,” she said. “To have an impostor who is speaking on behalf of Métis and Indigenous people to the country about literally what it means to be Métis … that’s very disturbing and upsetting and harmful.”

But it’s her iden

Ok I’ll drop the sarcasm now and ask straight up: if … Read the rest

An investigation challenged her claims.

A Canadian official and academic specialising in Indigenous health issues has been placed on administrative leave from her university after an investigation challenged her claims of Indigenous ancestry.

Carrie Bourassa, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, has described herself as having Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit heritage. In 2019 she appeared at a TEDx talk wearing a blue embroidered shawl and holding a feather, where she identified herself as “Morning Star Bear”.

However, an investigation by CBC television alleged that Bourassa was entirely of European descent.

But how would the CBC know better than Bourassa? How does the CBC know she doesn’t identify as of indigenous descent? We know that identifying as is all … Read the rest

I wrote about Biden’s visit to the pope for The Freethinker.

It’s appalling that it’s become some kind of normalized tradition that US presidents are supposed to drop in on the pope, even if they’re not Catholic. Trump did it and he’s not Catholic or Protestant or atheist or anything else, he’s just empty, but still he toddled along. Obama did it, and he even let the pope return the favor.

Not appropriate.… Read the rest

Helen Joyce NAILS it. No we can’t have dialogue, no we can’t get together for a good searching conversation that will lead to a truce, no we can’t split the difference, we just have to win, that’s all.

Best clip I've seen in a long time. Can we find compromise & dialogue? @HJoyceGender: "No. I think we just have to win, that's all. The only way that we can actually get male people out of women's prisons and women's domestic shelters and so on is to actually win against them." https://t.co/2jM1Vkf2Us

— MortyArty (@artymortyarty) November 1, 2021

… Read the rest

Whence all this drivel about the authentic self?

All this ‘you are on a journey to discover your true authentic self’ is what comes of too much Disney and not enough bleak french cinema. Throw in a few Russian novels as well. Let the bleakness enter your soul (which you probably don’t have).

— Bertha Dalziel (@BertDalziel) November 2, 2021

Also throw in Hume. Specifically, the Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part IV, Section VI: Of Personal Identity.

1. There are some philosophers, who imagine we are every moment intimately conscious of what we call our SELF; that we feel its existence and its continuance in existence; and are certain, beyond the evidence of a demonstration, both of

The Guardian media editor on the BBC and That article:

The BBC has rejected complaints that it published a transphobic article and has instead given a commitment to covering different viewpoints in the name of impartiality.

The corporation has faced protests outside some of its regional newsrooms, petitions from trans campaign groups and disquiet among many LGBTQ+ staff members over a piece published online last week entitled “We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women”.

On Monday the BBC said it stood by the article about the experience of some lesbians, adding it had been subject to a rigorous editing process, and that it met its editorial guidelines.

…

One BBC source said the broadcaster has received 4,819

I too keep wondering how Manchin can justify putting his personal political survival ahead of the planet.

Late in the evening on Friday 15 October an alert appeared on my phone that seemed at last to portend the end of the world. Two weeks before the UN climate summit in Glasgow – a make-or-break moment for American leadership and international ambition – Senator Joe Manchin had decided to gut our country’s best, and perhaps last, attempt to save itself. With three decades left to decarbonize the global economy, and a window of Democratic control unlikely to recur for years, Manchin’s benefactors in the coal and gas industry had managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, killing the Clean

If fit for gander then fit for goose, yeah?

The International Handball Federation has responded to widespread accusations of sexism by changing its rules around women’s uniforms to allow bike shorts and tank tops instead of bikini bottoms and crop tops.

The sport’s global governing body has been the subject of international pressure since July, when the European Handball Federation made headlines for imposing a €1,500 fine on the Norwegian women’s beach handball team for wearing shorts like their male counterparts during the Euro 21 tournament in Bulgaria. At the time, the EHF described the shorts as “improper clothing”.

Yes because it’s “improper” for female athletes not to show off their tits and groins while competing.

At some point

The children stamp out another artistic endeavor.

A forthcoming production of Into the Woods at The Old Vic was cancelled after staff expressed discomfort at Terry Gilliam’s involvement, reports claim.

The former Monty Python star had been due to direct a new production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical at the London theatre in April alongside Leah Hausman.

On Thursday (28 October), it was announced that the production would no longer be taking place, with no reason for the cancellation given.

However, The Stage now reports that The Old Vic pulled the production following unrest from members of staff who felt that Gilliam’s comments to the press regarding the #MeToo movement, trans rights and racism were at odds with the theatre’s

The Times picks up the Girl Guides-Ace story:

Girlguiding has been criticised for promoting asexuality awareness, causing some parents to threaten to withdraw their daughters from the group.

The organisation, which provides activities and regular meetings for girls aged five to 18, posted a tweet in support of Ace Week, an awareness event for asexuality, acknowledging all members and volunteers who identify as such.

But there is such a thing as “Ace Week” according to whom? Asexuality is a thing that requires an awareness week how, and according to whom? People “identify as such” according to whom? Is there a week for every kind of No Thank You there is? One for people who don’t like pickles? One for … Read the rest