Feb 28 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Sun., Feb. 28, 2021timer3 min. read Black History Month presents an annual opportunity to reflect on the achievements and legacy of Black Canadians. But the month itself is more than that. It is also a good time to consider the impacts our systems of public policy development and implementation have in terms of anti-Black racism. […]
Feb 21 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Jaime Watt By the time you are reading this, it will have been 31 days since Julie Payette’s unprecedented resignation as governor general. And although Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner is acting as Administrator of the Government of Canada, the office remains vacant. There was good reason for Payette’s resignation. She stood accused of […]
Feb 14 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — This week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will test changes to its algorithm to cut back the political content on its network and rein in divisiveness. The move is welcome news for those who recognize the corrosive influence of the platform on political discourse and who are aghast at its real-life consequences. Canada, alongside Brazil […]
Feb 7 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — When this all started, it’s fair to say that no one, no government, could be truly prepared for what was to come. And so, Canadians responded with their characteristic reasonableness. They supported the government as it scrambled to launch a blizzard of programmes and plans in response to a crisis, the dimensions of which were […]
Jan 31 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — For the past year, the word “unprecedented” has been overused to the point of farce. From the pandemic to the final, violent gasps of the Trump administration — and more recently, the presidential inauguration — there has been plenty of cause to trot it out.
Jan 24 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — The ejection of the lamentable Derek Sloan from the Conservative caucus this week marks Erin O’Toole’s most important and consequential moment since his election as party leader. It is the precise moment O’Toole made the party his own. Think of it as his very own Sister Souljah moment — a deliberately engineered decision that served […]
Jan 17 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — The first two weeks of 2021 feel like they have been fifty-two. In those opening days, the world bore witness to an attack on the seat of American democracy — an attack without parallel, in times of peace or conflict, since the War of 1812. A crazed mob of citizens was instigated, cajoled and sanctioned […]
Jan 10 2021 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — As the pandemic explodes into the new year, the roller-coaster of emotions we all are experiencing continues. We have been afraid as we confronted an unknown virus, and we continue to be afraid. We have felt guilty as we wondered what more we could do to help friends, colleagues or neighbours get through these difficult […]
Dec 13 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — On Tuesday, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first patient outside of clinical trials to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, a few short days after the U.K. became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Keenan’s jab brought with it a collective sigh of relief from every corner of the world as the moment we have […]
Nov 22 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Alexander Pope has long promised us that “hope springs eternal,” but in Canada we know we are entering a less pleasant and more dreary phase of the pandemic which has upended the lives of so many. Much of the summer — and for a time, the fall — brought good news of case counts stabilizing, […]
Nov 16 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — While the sane world acknowledges — and in many corners, celebrates — president-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Donald Trump and much of the Republican Party hang onto their election denialism the way Linus hangs onto his blanket. From an anthropological perspective, it is a fascinating phenomenon: there is clear cognitive dissonance in accepting the surprisingly strong […]
Nov 8 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — On Friday afternoon, it looked increasingly likely that Joseph R. Biden Jr. would secure the 270 electoral votes needed to earn the title of president-elect. It also became clear he wouldn’t be given the tools to drive sweeping change anywhere other than at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. True, Biden has probably sent Trump packing from the […]
Nov 1 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Lately I have been reminded of a conversation I had with myself, around this time back in 2016. Perhaps, I thought, Donald Trump would prove so ill-suited to the job of president and the task of governing that effectively nothing would be accomplished on his watch. Maybe — apart from four years of squandered potential […]
Oct 25 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — As the warmth of summer has faded and the chill of fall set in, we have felt a similar change in temperature in legislatures across Canada. From the House of Commons to Queen’s Park to the Alberta Legislative Assembly and the Quebec National Assembly. From provincial capitals to city halls, the tone of pandemic politics […]
Oct 18 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — It seems a safe bet that, if one were to survey Canadians, more of them would be able to identify Amy Coney Barrett than any one of the judges who sit on the Supreme Court of Canada. This may well be attributable to the fact that Barrett has, in many ways, become just another act […]