Critical Perspectives and Reflections

It’s not surprising that not many people know that October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. While a lot of people have heard about dyslexia not very many have much understanding of it and may in fact possess some misunderstanding. This little piece is based on a brief comment that I posted on Facebook. It was to recognize those of us who wrestle with the condition of dyslexia, but even more, for those who don’t and are unaware of the problems it causes and the ways people deal with them. Dyslexia is usually referred to as a learning disorder. It is more complex than that and if we stop at that it can be misleading. Scientific research shows that children and adults, who have dyslexia, process information differently from non-dyslexics. It involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Called a reading disability, it can involve writing and doing math as well. Very simply put, dyslexia effects areas of the ...

"The police are the public and the public are the police." – Robert Peel While reports of improper actions are not as front and centre, at the moment, the failure of society to take seriously the problem of the dysfunctional sense of privilege and impunity that is so apparent in policing is still a real problem. As well, there is an unfortunate deference to the institution (with the exception of the calls to “Defund Police”) that has existed in our society which hampers our ability to critically examine and act to get a hold of the problem. The deference seems to be centered on a mythology that has grown and that must be confronted and countered. Last year (September of 2020) on CBC Radio's Sunday Edition the then host, Michael Enright, made a few cogent comments about the myths surrounding policing in Canada. Dangerous Work He noted that one of the myths is that police have a particularly dangerous work environment and stated that in reality it is not a dangerous occupat...

We are reposting this poem by Peter Shepherd. There were two errors in the editing process regarding the Introduction that sneaked by so we are now republishing the work. Apologies to Peter and the readers. - The Editor. "This is heavy truth," Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said on July 15, 2021. When I wrote the poem below in early July, it was days after the Tk'emlups revelation. I immediately thought 'this is just the tip of the iceberg’ and I was clear that we would hear about more, and more. I was 100% convinced that 'thousands of small voices' were yet to be heard. This horror resonates with the killing fields of Cambodia, the genocide of the Armenians, the holocaust of the Jews, the genocide of the Tutsis (perhaps I sense more the anguish of General Romeo Dallaire), the eradication of the Beothuk in Newfoundland, and on and on. As a person with white privilege, I know I am pretty blind to how my status has blinded me. But this...

Toxic masculine and feminine traits are related back to the Patriarchal system1 in which those that possess them are reared. It is caused by the difficulty in this system of being able to develop the ability to nurture and be nurtured. This in turn results in a certain insufficient level of trust and/or feelings of safety. Men over compensate their masculinity because they haven't been given the opportunity to be truly in touch with their emotions. Raised by emotionally unavailable or absentee fathers, they were not allowed to show emotion. And when they do release emotion, there is a tendency to use those emotions to manipulate, usually related as a survival mechanism. Emotionally unavailable mothers start their journey towards mixed feelings about other women in their lives because they attach, either through chasing someone else who is emotionally unavailable or not trusting when love is present. They also have a hard time accepting love because they feel they themselves are n...