TRC

Canada 150

Across the country, young and old will be marking Canada Day in different ways this year – by celebrating its many successes, drawing attention to its painful shortcomings and, most importantly, reflecting on what it truly means to be Canadian.

In the week leading up to Canada's 150th birthday celebrations, protests at the nation's capital have been reminders that while there is much to celebrate, there is considerable work that still needs to be done.

In an Op-Ed in the Toronto Star, U of T's Charles Pascal, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), and Suzanne Stewart, an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, argue that there would be more to celebrate if the nation connected its 150th birthday bash with a more promising future and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.

Throughout the year, U of T has been exploring these themes for Canada 150 – from artist Kent Monkman's take on Confederation with the Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience exhibit to symposiums and conferences exploring the ethics of celebrating Canada 150, CanLit's relationship with Indigenous communities, the controversial Louis Riel opera, the sesquicentennial's relationship to the TRC and a public event in Ottawa featuring author and U of T alumnus Margaret Atwood and poet and U of T Professor George Elliott Clarke talking about the role of religion. Many of these events, along with research projects and cultural initiatives were supported by U of T's Canada 150 Fund.

For Saturday, there's a wide range of activities planned by the U of T community to mark the day – ranging from a carillon concert to an aerial drone light show.

Here are a few of the things to check out:

For the musically inclined

Listen to the bells at the Carillion Recital at Hart House's Soldier's Tower, which features alumnus Roy Lee. You’ll have the chance to hear the world debut of the youth category winning entry for the House of Commons’ Chime In, Canada! sesquicentennial composition competition.

Scott Allan Orr, a U of T alumnus, was the winner in the open category of the competition. His composition will premiere at the Peace Tower in Ottawa on Canada Day.

(Photo by Makeda Marc-Ali)

For the stargazers

If astronomy is more your thing, make your way to U of T Scarborough for the Guided Solar Walk and Observatory that models what the night sky would have looked like at the time of Confederation.

For the visual artists

If you find yourself in Calgary, visit the Glenbow Museum to check out Monkman’s exhibit. The Art Museum at the ��Ƶ partnered with Monkman for the large-scale show, which debuted at U of T in January and is now travelling around the country.

For the history buffs

Get a quick history lesson at Queen’s Park with the Canada by Treaty exhibit. Co-curated by Heidi Bohaker, an associate professor of history, Laurie Bertram, an assistant professor of history, and James Bird, an undergraduate student, the exhibit combines maps, paintings and photos to illustrate how Canada was formed through legal agreements with Indigenous peoples.

(Photo by Diana Tyszko)

Want more history? The Struggle and Story: Canada in Print exhibit at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library presents the tumultuous journey Canada has taken in its attempt to become a more peaceful and inclusive nation through a collection of historical documents.

An illustration of Louis Riel in the magazine, Canadian Pictorial & Illustrated War News, is among the documents in the Struggle and Story: Canada in Print exhibit (photo by Romi Levine).

The U of T Libraries has also created U of T Showcase, 150, an interactive online timeline which highlights some of the unique holdings at the campus archives and special collections from the past century and a half.

For the poets…and for everyone else

If you find you have a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect, read Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Elliot Clarke’s Anthem for Liberty’s Champions. In the poem, the U of T professor of English highlights the “[u]nsung champions” who have made the sesquicentennial possible.

Canadian Geographic also invited Clarke to pen a piece of prose about the stonework at the parliament buildings in Ottawa to run alongside a series of photos by Toronto photographer Peter Andrew Lusztyk.

For the fireworks futurists

As an alternative to the Canada Day fireworks displays, watch one of Arrowonics' choreographed drone ballets light up the night sky.

Arrowonics is a company spawned from the lab of Professor Hugh Liu at the Insititute for Aerospace Studies at U of T. The company CEO is Everett Findlay, one of Liu’s former graduate students.

Catch one of Arrowonics' drone aerial night shows at Ontario Place in Toronto or at White Oaks Park in London, Ont., this weekend.

Learn more about U of T and Canada 150

Reconciliation grove: U of T student designs memorial to facilitate conversation on Canada's relationship with Indigenous people

hjames — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 20:30:54 +0000

Reconciliation grove: U of T student designs memorial to facilitate conversation on Canada's relationship with Indigenous people

hjames Fri, 04/28/2017 - 16:30

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Chief Stacey Laforme (left) looks over the model for a “reconciliation grove” designed by James Bird (right), a U of T undergraduate student, at a launch event on Thursday (photo by Hannah James)

Author legacy

Hannah James

Architecture

Undergraduate Students

Faculty of Arts & Science

Canada 150

Humanities

Arbours where visitors can sit and contemplate, headstones engraved with the names of children who died or went missing in residential schools and a maple tree to symbolize the country's efforts at reconciliation – those are the elements of a “reconciliation grove” designed by a U of T student.

James Bird designed Words to Form – an architectural model for a potential memorial that would put the words of reconciliation into a physical form – for his fourth-year independent study.

His model is now on display at Hart House, through May 3. It will then be transported to Ottawa where it will be showcased at the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in an International Indigenous Architecture and Design Symposium.

Bird hopes that his “reconciliation grove” will generate interest, and one day the memorial will be built as a site where Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can come together and reflect on Canada's difficult history.

“I wanted to build a reconciliation grove,” says Bird, a mature student who is Nehiyawak (Cree)/Métis from Fort Smith, N.W.T., and actively involved in U of T's Indigenous community. “I wanted to create a space where you could talk about this very difficult thing – murder, missing children, this dark past – in a space that was supportive.”

James Bird (left) with U of T President Meric Gertler (centre) and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell (right), looking over Bird's model at Hart House (photo by Hannah James)

In 2015, U of T formed a Truth and Reconciliation steering committee in response to the federal TRC report, and Bird has been part of that comimittee. Early this year, the committee recommended 32 calls to action for the university to work towards reconciliation.

Read the full report

The federal TRC's call to action that inspired Bird to create Words to Form related to commemoration. No. 79 calls on the federal government to collaborate with survivors, Indigenous organizations and the arts community to develop a reconciliaton framework for Canadian heritage and commemoration. There's another call to action for a national monument to be built in Ottawa and monuments in each province and territory.

On Thursday, Bird displayed his model at Hart House as part of the Canada By Treaty: Histories of a Negotiated Place exhibit, which will run through May 25 as part of U of T's Canada 150 initiative.

The Hart House event was attended by U of T President Meric Gertler, Munk School of Global Affairs Director Stephen Toope, who co-chaired the university's TRC steering committee, Chief Stacey Laforme of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, and Ontario Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell.

The focus of Bird’s design is a maple tree, which sits at the centre of the memorial and needs to be nourished with water flowing from fountains throughout the grove.

“The idea is that we can gauge the health of reconciliation by how this tree grows,” he says. “In fact, reconciliation is a live, growing process.”

The tree is encircled by seven headstones rich with meaning: they represent the Seven Grandfather teachings of humility, bravery, honesty, wisdom, truth, respect and love.

The back of each stone is engraved with the names of the 141 residential schools in Canada. The front has the names of all the children who went missing or died in those schools. The fountain water flows up and over the stones and toward the maple tree.

“The water flows along the children’s names almost like eternal tears,” says Bird.

Bird says he's included the arbours as places to sit and contemplate and lots of trees to attract songbirds which will add music to the air. He envisions big black slabs of granite in the grove to act as workspaces for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to come together and build projects of reconciliation on the site.

“The word reconciliation makes a huge assumption – that there was a mutual relationship that started. It was never mutual, and so I call it conciliation,” he says.

“Taking reconciliation out of the colonizer’s hands and reinventing it again – that’s what I wanted to do.”

Canada 150: U of T symposium examines Canadian Opera Company’s revival of “Louis Riel”

hjames — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 18:06:58 +0000

Canada 150: U of T symposium examines Canadian Opera Company’s revival of “Louis Riel”

hjames Tue, 04/25/2017 - 14:06

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Author and essayist John Ralston Saul spoke to a packed room at Innis College Town Hall on Friday (photo by Hannah James)

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

Opera enthusiasts, activists, scholars and students gathered at U of T the morning after the Canadian Opera Company’s premiere of Louis Riel to analyze the revival of the opera.

“Hearing Riel: An Interdisciplinary Symposium” was hosted by the Canadian Opera Company at Innis College last week in partnership with U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs and the Faculty of Music.

Backed by U of T's Canada 150 projects fund, the symposium examined the 2017 production of the opera – the original is considered by many to be contentious and provocative – and the steps the Canadian Opera Company took to restore a more inclusive and expansive history this time around.

Former Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson introduced Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin (photo by Hannah James)

Symposium panelists talked about the Métis leader, and the opera company's efforts to include more Indigenous voices in the opera, which is a modern production of the original composed by Harry Somers for Canada's 100th birthday.

Peter Hinton, the director of the 2017 production, said that there were many factors to take into consideration when doing a piece about Louis Riel.

“It was my intention with the production to treat it as an artifact,” he said.

“I use that term deliberately,” said Hinton, adding that in 2017 there's an opportunity to take another look at the beauty and the musical virtuosity of the opera “and to cast light on its colonial biases, its absences, its silences, and what it doesn’t speak to and not be afraid of that.”

Estelle Shook, assistant director of Louis Riel talked about how she put together the opera's ensemble of 36 Indigenous men and women who represent those directly affected by the outcomes, victories and losses of history.

Estelle Shook (left), assistant director of Louis Riel with Joanna Burt (right), the soprano who sings the part of Sara Riel (photo by Hannah James).

Shook is Métis and the descendant of Saskatchewan pioneer, Thomas McKay, who testified at the trial of Louis Riel in 1885. She said it was important that the 2017 production had to reframe the original telling in 1967.

“It was a way to interrogate the piece, put the opera on trial,” she said.

Jean Teillet, the great-grand-niece of Louis Riel, spoke about her ancestor and about the historical documentation she found in family collections. She's now working on a book about the history of the Métis people.

Jean Teillet, great-grand-niece of Louis Riel, shared some documents she discovered in family troves while working on her fortcoming book on Riel (photo by Hannah James)

Linda Mitchell and Judith Burgess said they came to the symposium as a primer, before seeing the production. Burgess said it’s a part of Canadian history, and she felt it was important to come and learn.

Joanna Burt, the soprano who sings the role of Riel's sister, Sara in the opera opened a roundtable discussion titled, “Collaborations: Indigenous Art and Western Art Forms,” with a song and drum performance.

Linda Mitchell (left) and Judith Burgess (right) came to learn more about Louis Riel prior to seeing the opera (photo by Hannah James)

The roundtable included Shook, along with Hinton, the playwright, performer, director and producer, Marie Clements, and the dramaturge Paula Danckert.

“There's nothing more Eurocentric than opera,” said Danckert, a graduate student at The Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance at U of T. “So how do you operate in this form with this content? This is the time to hand over the story to the people to whom it belongs.”

Sarah Koval and Taryn Jackson, graduate students in the Faculty of Music, participated in another roundtable discussion titled, “A Year with Riel.”

U of T students, Taryn Jackson (left) and Sarah Koval (right) created the Louis Riel podcast (photo by Hannah James)

The grad students spoke about what it took to create their Louis Riel podcast.

With funding from U of T's Canada 150 student fund, Koval and Jackson spent months researching Riel and interviewing experts, historians and people involved in putting together the sesquicentennial Louis Riel opera.

U of T launches free MCAT prep course for students in financial need

hjames — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:59:07 +0000

U of T launches free MCAT prep course for students in financial need

hjames Mon, 04/24/2017 - 15:59

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Students at a Faculty of Medicine conference promoting diversity within the profession (photo by Justice Achampong)

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

Subheadline

“We hope for greater diversity within our MD program”

This spring U of T's Faculty of Medicine has offered 30 high potential, low-income students the chance to take a free course to help them prepare for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

Designed by students in the Faculty of Medicine, the MCAT Student Support Program or MSSP doesn't just follow other popular college prep courses. It offers a regimented study program as well as opportunities to network and meet mentors in the medical community.

“We want to alleviate barriers to doing well on the MCAT,” says Ike Okafor, who came up with the idea at the Faculty of Medicine, and then found students to help design it.

Okafor, who is senior officer of service learning and diversity outreach at the Office of Health Professions Student Affairs, says the program is part of the faculty's Community of Support initiative and part of a broader strategy to increase the number of medical students from underrepresented communities. In designing the program, he also consulted with U of T's Faculty of Law, which runs a similar program for the LSAT called, the Law School Access Program (LSAP) for high potential, low income students.

“The cost of the MCAT is something that I personally really struggled with,” says Tal Milman, a second-year medical student who helped work on the Faculty of Medicine's program. He and other students in the Communications Populations and Public Health class were approached by Okafor to help design the program.

Milman and his classmates wanted to go beyond coming up with a study plan and hiring facilitators to oversee student progress for the program.

“A big thing for me is not only the financial capital but the social capital. Another barrier is not being connected with anyone who can help,” he says.

Dawn Maracle, Indigenous undergraduate medical education program coordinator at U of T, says the program is a great support for Indigenous and other marginalized students.

“Many privileged groups have doctors in their families or doctors to guide them,” says Maracle. “Typically Indigenous students are first generation in their family in postsecondary education so they don’t have the same networks of experiences and mentors who can assist them in the process.”

The MCAT support program provides access to medical students, physicians and mentors to “keep students on track, inspired and motivated,” says Milman.

The program has secured funding from the Faculty of Medicine as well as the Canadian Medical Association’s MD Financial.

The program also offers mentors. The Summer Application Support Initiative (SASI) – launched last summer by the Black Medical Students Association (BMSA) and Communities of Support (COS) – matches students with mentors who can help with medical school applications.

Students who weren't able to take advantage of the MSSP program this year can still sign up for the SASI.

“Last year, we connected 97 students to mentors, and we’re hoping to see our numbers increase this year because the MSSP will bring new students to this program,” says Rahel Zewude, a second-year medical student and co-director of the BMSA.

The MCAT support program will begin May 1st and runs for 11 weeks.

“We're focused on creating greater access for underrepresented students – Black, Indigenous, economically disadvantaged,” says Okafor.

“We hope for greater diversity within our MD program and in the medical profession.”

U of T’s new director of Indigenous initiatives

ullahnor — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 19:31:19 +0000

U of T’s new director of Indigenous initiatives

ullahnor Wed, 04/19/2017 - 15:31

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Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo in front of First Nations House earlier this year (photo by Lisa Lighbourn)

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo – a central figure in U of T’s Indigenous community as the director of Aboriginal services at First Nations House – is embarking on a new leadership role.

Hamilton-Diabo has been appointed the director of Indigenous initiatives – a position established to support and guide the U of T community as it begins to work towards reconciliation.

“I feel honoured to be chosen for this new role and to be creating more opportunities for Indigenous peoples at U of T,” says Hamilton-Diabo, who has been at U of T for 17 years as a student, staff member and educator.

The position was created earlier this year in response to the report by U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Steering Committee, which Hamilton-Diabo co-chaired.

Why Blanket Exercises are experiencing a resurgence, and U of T is at the forefront

hjames — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 21:38:35 +0000

Why Blanket Exercises are experiencing a resurgence, and U of T is at the forefront

hjames Tue, 04/11/2017 - 17:38

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A Blanket Exercise hosted by Emmanuel College Student Council (all photos by Shannon Neufeldt courtesy of KAIROS)

Peter Boisseau

Author legacy

Hannah James & Peter Boisseau

Topic

Subheadline

“It is common to have a reaction – emotional or surprising”

Blanket Exercises are being organized across U of T, at events and at conferences, as a way for people to better understand the history of the land we now call Canada.

Blankets, laid on the floor, represent the land and the many cultures and nations that live on it.

“These are not academic exercises. They connect with us on levels both physical and emotional,” said Dawn Maracle, who has facilitated Blanket Exercises at U of T and beyond.

The Blanket Exercise was developed by KAIROS, an ecumenical group promoting social justice and peace as an educational tool when the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was released in 1996. It was a way to help people understand the shared history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. During the exercises, participants represent First Peoples. When they walk on the blankets they are taken on a journey through time. A script is read aloud that takes participants through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance.

“They are meant to be received by us differently than traditional schooling,” said Maracle who is also the Indigenous undergraduate medical education program coordinator at U of T's Faculty of Medicine. “They help to tap into empathy, an element of education that has never been systemically attended to in this country.”

Shannon Neufeldt, a Blanket Exercise facilitator at KAIROS and U of T alumna said that since Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its 94 calls to action in 2015, there’s been a lot of interest in Blanket Exercises.

“It’s one of our most popular workshops,” said Neufeldt.

(Below, participants at Emmanuel College)

In January, U of T's TRC steering committee released its own report, and the university responded by accepting its responsibility in contributing to the plight of Indigenous peoples.

“There’s more and more interest in opening up conversations about reconciliation,” says Neufeldt.

Neufeldt said she has helped facilitate Blanket Exercises at U of T’s Campus Chaplains Association, the Multi-Faith Centre and Emmanuel College.

In November and January, Neufeldt helped train Blanket Exercise facilitators at U of T's Hart House.

At a recent Blanket Exercise hosted by the Faculty of Law, Amanda Carling, manager of the Indigenous Initiatives Office, warned participants that what they were about to hear might be upsetting.

“It will be really difficult for some of you to hear these things, and you might want to cry, or hug a friend, or step out for a moment,” Carling said. “But the reason to tell you this is not to make you feel guilty or bear the burden of this. We’re here to learn and support each other.”

Elder Robert "Bob" Phillips shared some of his own life experiences, as he prepared a smudge.

“When I went to school, teachers would say things like, ‘You just be quiet, you little savage,’ and other times they’d call me stupid,” said the 72-year-old Phillips, who was born in Nova Scotia but grew up in Toronto's west end.

A polyglot with a PhD in Indigenous studies, Phillips told the group he was thrown out of school in Grade 12 and said “even to this day, I sometimes have the feeling that I'm stupid.”

Phillips said his mother told him to avoid telling people he was “an Indian” and to say he was English, French or Scottish instead. His great-grandfather bought a farm outside the Pictou Landing reserve in Nova Scotia so that his descendants would no longer be considered “Indians” under federal law, and their children would therefore be protected from being taken away to residential schools.

“Now I understand why great grandfather would do that,” Phillips said.

U of T's giant powwow draws hundreds of people from across the province

hjames — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 21:00:49 +0000

U of T's giant powwow draws hundreds of people from across the province

hjames Mon, 03/13/2017 - 17:00

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Traditional dancers performed at Saturday's powwow to celebrate Canada's indigeneity (photo by Hannah James)

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

Hundreds gathered at the ��Ƶ's Athletic Centre on Saturday for a major powwow, featuring traditional dancers, food and Indigenous culture.

The event, organized by the university's Indigenous Studies Student Union, was the first powwow at U of T in 20 years. It drew young and old from across the province, including Carolyn Bennett, the federal Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and a U of T alumna.

Bennett spoke briefly at the event and presented the Indigenous Studies Student Union with a painting of a wolf.

New Indigenous studies expert uses song and dance to bring class to life

ullahnor — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 15:53:29 +0000

New Indigenous studies expert uses song and dance to bring class to life

ullahnor Fri, 02/10/2017 - 10:53

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Assistant Professor Amos Key Jr. says he’s focusing on debunking the idea of a monolithic “culture” as a way to identify Indigenous people (photo by Hannah James)

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

Centre for Indigenous Studies

Faculty of Arts & Science

Round and round the students go, dancing in a circle as their instructor leads them in a call and response song. No one gets left behind.

Amos Key Jr., an assistant professor at the Centre for Indigenous Studies and department of linguistics, just joined the Faculty of Arts & Science last summer. But already he's developed a reputation among students as someone whose classes you don’t want to miss.

He shows his students some videos of Pow Wow competitions, pointing out his favourite dancer from Saskatchewan and aspects of the dancer’s regalia – a golden eagle visor, a bustle made of eagle wings, and a headpiece made of porcupine and deer tail.

“My people are told that we’re dancing for the creator so you want to be as beautiful as you can for him, or her,” Key Jr says.

“The class is great,” says student Harry Zhang. “The culture is fascinating, and I’m happy to get a chance to learn about Indigenous music.”

Key Jr. is a member of the Mohawk Nation at Six Nations of the Grand River in Brantford, Ont. For more than 30 years, he has been an activist and educator who has been engaged on work to highlight Haudenosaunee peoples in Ontario.

He also founded the First Nations Language department at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, where he continues to work today.

As a teenager, Key Jr. travelled three hours by bus just to get to and from the high school, from his First Nations community.

“I love education. I love people,” he says. “I was highly motivated, even then.”

Key Jr. says he wants to see U of T become a leader in Indigenous research in Canada.

“I’m encouraging our Centre for Indigenous Studies (CIS) at U of T to become a think tank,” he says.

Through data collection and evaluation, he says, he’d like the CIS to keep track of data in order to keep some sort of “barometer for how well Canada is doing in its relationship with the First Peoples of this country.”

Key Jr. says there are three themes he’s focusing on in his classes: debunking the idea of a monolithic “culture” as a way to identify Indigenous people, examining the role of colonial and traditional theology, and examining how Canadian law and practice applies to Indigenous people. He tries to keep the class engaging and reflective of Indigenous tradition.

“Our music always includes dance,” he says. “We don't go somewhere to see someone sing in a concert. That's rare.”

The classes he teaches at U of T include: “Politics and Process of Reconciliation in Canada”, “Indigenous Music: Technical and Theoretical Aspects” and “Special Topics in Indigenous Language.”

“Amos Key Jr. has been engaged in work to highlight Haudenosaunee civilizations over a long period,” says University Professor Keren Rice, chair of linguistics and interim director of the Centre for Indigenous Studies at U of T. “He is an activist who is highly regarded for the depth and breadth of his knowledge, his creative thinking, his substantial contributions to his communities and his ways of working with people.

“He brings us the wisdom of an Elder, a love of teaching and learning, a sense of humour, and a drive to enrich his world. He brings a remarkable background to the ��Ƶ.”

Truth and Reconciliation on Campus

sgupta — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:58:04 +0000

Truth and Reconciliation on Campus sgupta Fri, 06/03/2016 - 13:58

Rachel Halpern

Author legacy

Rachel Halpern

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