Why foster your own cultural innovation and creativity when you can pillage and exploit the cultures that you’ve already ravaged for centuries!? Apparently, companies have decided not to explore all the great amounts of non-offensive and really awesome art coming out of the West, because ignorantly capitalizing on the sacred image of Ganesha is just way more fun. It’s no biggie that we’re settlers on a brutally colonized land that was stolen from Indigenous people, because the genocides of the past can be so easily forgotten when you make Navajo-inspired underwear. Hey, let’s throw in a shirt reminiscent of the horrors of the Holocaust. Cultural insensitivity is so chic, don’t you know?

Is it just me, or do half the necklaces they’ve been selling these days look like they went through my Grandma’s jewelry box and stole my family heirlooms? Yeah, probably.

But in case cultural appropriation isn’t your thing, why not capitalize on a university shooting or serious mental illnesses? Nothing says fashion like trivializing eating disorders.

Apparently, when I was wearing my Hamsa necklace—a popular symbol in the Middle East that is thought to ward off bad luck and the evil eye—this somehow made me a “Spiritual Gangster.” Yes, that’s the name of this top: “Spiritual Gangster Henna Hamsa Tank Top.” Urban Outfitters never fails to get my eyes rolling.

Seriously Urban Outfitters, you’ve got some nice clothes—I won’t lie—but every now and then you manage to create an item that is heinously awful and ignorant.

Urban Outfitters is a repeat offender of crimes of cultural appropriation, blatant insensitivity, and just, well laziness. With the vast abundance of art and design in this world, and the magical portal of information and exploration that is the Internet, you would think UO could come up with something better-looking and less offensive. I guess being called out dozens of times for really awful clothing concepts hasn’t gotten through to the retailer. Many of the products shown and mentioned above have been pulled from the store, because of the enormous backlash. But not to worry, UO will certainly be back with more!

And let’s be clear here: Urban Outfitters is not the only clothing brand doing this. Every day as I walk down the street, I see more of my culture and the cultures of others being sold as meaningless commodities in store windows. I can’t exactly boycott all these stores, or else I’d have nowhere else left to shop. So I bear the ignorance and go for the non-offensive and, of course, inexpensive goods instead.

He shared this opinion with the staff of an Etobicoke home for teens with autism, owned by the Griffin Centre, a non-profit mental health agency. The Etobicoke Guardian reports that Ford held a public meeting with the centre’s staff last Thursday. He informed them the home’s neighbours were upset about police calls, noise disruption, and not receiving advanced warning about the residents. Deanna Dannell, the director of Griffin Centre, sent an email to the Canadian Press, stating that the centre had spoken to Ford before the home opened and explained their housing situation.

Apparently, Ford sympathizes with the teens but believes they should not be allowed to leave the house. He is willing to buy the house and sell it, if need be, the Guardian says.

There has been some warranted backlash against his beliefs.

“It was disappointing to hear that kind of reaction from [Ford],” Dannell told the Star. “Certainly we had hoped for something different.”

John Tory, a Toronto mayoral candidate, released a statement calling Ford’s comments “from another age”.

Ford blames the Liberal government for closing Thistletown Regional Centre in the west end. “It was a beautiful centre, had 43 acres that allowed families to have their children with challenges there,” he told the National Post.

Children with challenges…

Although Tory benefits by pointing out a Ford’s flaws, he raises a good point. Canada has a serious problem when the people in our government do not want to respect those with mental disabilities. There is no easy way out. No one knows that better than the staff who work with autistic children.

So despite the noise and other various disruptions, these people deserve as much fresh air as the rest of us. Canadians will have taken one step forward and five steps back if we try to whisk away all human “inconveniences.”

“The various activities and initiatives undertaken by MCFD during the past decade have created only an illusion of action and progress,” Turpel-Lafond wrote. “There has been no concrete resulting change in the aboriginal child welfare service-delivery system or demonstrable improvements in outcomes for aboriginal children, youth and their families.” She says she understands the money was given to the agencies with sound intent, but adds that many of the child and family reps have no clear spending strategy and no understanding of their roles in the community.

The report concluded with recommendations for the government: develop a comprehensive plan to transfer control of child and welfare services to aboriginal organizations; suspend “open-ended initiatives” that don’t benefit aboriginal self-governance; and create ways to close the gap of education and health between aboriginal and non aboriginal youth—on or off reserve

The deadline for these government drafts were February, March, and April. As of today, nothing has been submitted.

The only change came in January—when the provincial government “cut funding to 18 indigenous-run projects” two months after Turpel-Lafond’s report. It has not yet addressed what may be the next steps (or any steps) to help aboriginal kids in foster care, who made up more than half —almost 4,500 of 8,106 —of B.C.’s kids in the system.

“The ministry has been overly focused on transferring the responsibility to provide services instead of ensuring aboriginal children and youth are getting the help they desperately need,” Turpel-Lafond told CBC. Which sums up her opinion of throwing money around without knowledge of the outcome.

Ministry officials have said they generally appreciated the report, but also criticized it for being one-sided. Much of the $66 million, says the government, helped give aboriginal peoples a public voice.

“I don’t want it to be misinterpreted that government spent $66 million to have these discussions around governance and jurisdictional issues without receiving some benefit,” Minister Stephanie Cadieux told the Tyee. “There are better working relationships with indigenous communities. First Nations, in many cases, have increased capacity to provide culturally relevant care for their own children, including child protection mediation.”

The child and youth watch dog is aware that her report’s guidelines are complex. Since November, Turpel-Lafond has seen more money donated to indigenous agencies that were “crippled by underfunding”. Yet, these organizations need government coordination along with the money allotted them.  As the report states, “the ministry needs to re-focus, and dedicate the time and effort required.”

The lesson here is to start fresh, start planning, but start.

I’ll let that fester.

Sterling’s reaction was triggered by someone telling him about a picture Stiviano posted of herself and Magic Johnson on Instagram (which has now been removed). The NBA’s reaction to the tape was swift.

Yesterday afternoon, NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a packed press conference where he banned Sterling “for life from any association with the Clippers’ organization or the NBA.” Silver then fined Sterling for $2.5 million, “the maximum allowed under the NBA constitution”, promised to donate the money to anti-discrimination and tolerance organizations, and is pushing Sterling to sell the team. He needs three-quarters of owners’ votes to boot out Sterling. Silver expects full support.

This is an important step that some media outlets did not think Silver would make. But it may not be a step against racism. Instead it seems like a need to preserve image and ensure players don’t boycott games. Otherwise, if this were solely about equality, Sterling would have been gone long ago. In 2009, for instance, Sterling paid more than Silver has fined him to settle trouble for discriminating against black and Hispanic people in his own L.A. apartment buildings. Deadspin has collected an entire list that dates back to 1983 of Sterling’s past disgusting and racist beliefs and actions.

The public response has varied.

Over the past few days, celebrities, NBA players, NBA coaches, and former players expressed their disappointment on social media. Some even urged fans not to come out to the games. Warriors coach Mark Jackson and comedian and actor Kevin Hart explained that Sterling has to be hit where his money grows.

On the flip side, musician Pharrell recently said there is a “new black” that should not blame non-people of colour for their ignorance . He told Oprah, “the New Black doesn’t blame other races for our issues…”

I wonder how Pharrell feels about Sterling. I wonder if he knows that the NBA was aware of his ignorance long before Saturday.

People like Pharrell who may be shocked that racism is alive and well need to be reminded that not all racism looks like Sterling’s. Racism comes in all forms: insensitive “innocent jokes,” remarks about stereotypes, an innocent opposition to dating a specific race. All of it—and more.

And unless we are open to admitting personal ignorance and even privilege, we could end up hurting fellow humans as much as Sterling has his team.

Spoiler alert for all Game of Thrones fans who have not seen the episode “Breaker of Chains,” and a trigger warning. The word “rape” is used often.

On Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones (GOT), fans watched the Lannisters deal with the death of their son, grandson, nephew, and brother king Joffrey. Basically, Cersei is the only crier. When mother and father, Jaime, are left alone with the corpse, the Kingslayer sees an opportunity to force sex on his sister. In plain words, he raped her. In front of their dead son.

Here’s where things get tricky.

After the episode aired, GOT director Alex Graves spoke to writer Alan Sepinwall of HitFix and claimed it was not rape. I demand to differ.

Let’s breakdown the scene. Brace yourself. In this clip, Cersei is still crying over the reprehensible Joffrey and turns into her brother’s arms for comfort. They embrace and begin to kiss, but Cersei pushes Jaime away with clear distaste. Jaime calls her a “hateful woman,” forces her to look at him, and then into another kiss.

The first protest we verbally hear from Cersei is “Jaime, not here. Please, please.” Then while she tells him to stop it, as he is ripping off her gown, Jaime growls, “No!”

True to his word, he never stops and she never stops telling him to stop. At one point she says, “It isn’t right,” to which Jaime ends the clip by repeating, “I don’t care.”

It was not only disturbing, but unnecessary.

Episode director Graves and GOT creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff altered this scene from the version by writer George R.R. Martin. In the book, the sex was consensual. It’s worse that Graves first admitted to the Hollywood Reporter that it was rape. Then he told Sepinwall it became consensual by the end.

I watched to the end. No consent was ever given. Why deny that?

It is known that GOT is HBO’s second most watched show since The Sopranos. It is safe to assume that in that viewers’ demographic are women and men between the ages of 18-24. This age group makes up a large portion of Canada’s post-secondary campuses. This age group is also when most Canadian women “experience the highest rates of sexual violence“.

This is a problem.

A 2013 fact sheet by the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario explains how rape culture remains prominent our nation today. “Many on-campus sexual assaults occur during the first eight weeks of classes,” the report states. And more than 80 percent of rapes that occur on a post-secondary campus are committed by someone the victim knows. This is literally what happened in this week’s episode. Jaime returned from captivity, his lover denied his sexual advances repeatedly, so he forced her.

Granted, this isn’t the first violent or sickening scene GOT lovers have seen. It’s a common trend on the show. An argument can even be made that Jaime’s assault happened because his true nature is a constant battle between kindhearted and antagonistic. Like all the characters, the Kingslayer is conflicted.

But on his blog Martin, the character’s creator, admitted he originally had the siblings mutually lust after each other in the scene.

If the episode’s writers saw the need to tarnish Jaime’s new-found goodness, so be it. But there is no excuse the writers could make about filming a rape scene, and then denying what it is. Look at the statistics. That’s a risk we really can’t afford to be taking.

The Star recently conducted an investigation into the usage of these pharmaceuticals in Ontario nursing homes. It discovered that in over 40 homes across Ontario, nearly half of the inhabitants are given these anti-psychotics. In about 300 homes, more than a third are on the pills. One home uses them on about 75 percent of patients.

The pills include olanzapine, quetiapine, and about 10 others, but none of them are approved by Health Canada for use on people suffering with dementia. Some of these medications even have a “black-box” warning on the label—the strongest possible warning on a pharmaceutical. Commonly the label cautions that patients with dementia have a 60 percent increased risk of death after using the drug.

Then why are nursing homes offering these drugs to its residents?

Olanzapine and quetiapine were approved in 2004 and 2005 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and episodes of mania.

Yet, doctors continue to prescribe these drugs off-label, even though the government was warned about overuse of this anti-psychotics in 2007 by the auditor general. Yesterday, Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews told the Star, “Let’s remember, it’s the doctors who prescribe these drugs, not the government.”

This sounds suspiciously like the blame game. Doris Grinspun would agree. She’s head of the registered nurses association and told the Star she is “quite frankly, outraged at anyone, let alone the minister, who tries to divert responsibility. It’s all of our responsibility.”

But it is a doctor’s choice to medicate a patient without fully divulging potential danger to relatives.

One family explained to the Star their aunt, lovingly known as Aunt Gerry, died four months after Wellesley St. nursing home used olanzapine to “quiet her down”. Her husband had no idea what the drug would do and would not have consented to it if he had.

This isn’t the first time Canada has been in trouble for its misuse of anti-psychotics. Prisons use these methods as well. A large amount of female inmates are given quetiapine to help them sleep. Last year, CBC and the Canadian Press discovered that about 400 of the 600 prisoners in five different correctional institutions are given “psychotropic medication—drugs that impact mood and behaviour,” the Star reported.

Quetiapine’s side effects include: diabetes, hyperglycemia, high fever, intestinal obstruction, and rigid muscles, to name a few.

Clearly, prescribing off-label is a common issue.

Matthews acknowledges it is a serious issue but did not explain any specific, rectifying action the government is suggesting doctors take. She did mention “doctors cannot prescribe this kind of medication without the consent of the individual or their substitute decision maker.” Which doesn’t say enough.

Grinspun has some suggestions of her own. She believes the province should increase staff numbers and provide in-depth training focused on those with dementia. Some homes mention trying to get their prescription rate down by learning to recognize triggers for agitation in seniors.

Dr. Andrea Moser told the Star good work has been done to limit the use of these drugs in nursing homes. “We’re making progress. We still have a long way to go.”

A long way sounds ominous. Especially for current patients like Aunt Gerry. The government and doctors owe these families better work to ensure a long way does not translate into a long time.

CBoC reports this wage gap will cost our economy approximately $7.5 billion over a 10 year span. It also forces some youth to remain dependent on welfare which will cost all levels of government about $126,000 per former foster youth.

This is Canada’s first comprehensive look at the lack of social and economic opportunities available to those leaving a children’s welfare system. Despite Canadians requesting a deeper analysis of the issue and better support of it for years.

In early March, York U professor Stephen Gaetz wrote a report titled “Coming of Age: Reimagining the Response to Youth Homelessness in Canada.” His research specializes around national homelessness solutions.

“Difficult transitions from care often result in a range of negative outcomes,” he wrote, “such as homelessness, unemployment, lack of educational engagement and achievement, involvement in corrections, lack of skills and potentially, a life of poverty.”

He explained these transitions occur because many youth “age out” of foster care without a safety net.

The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies released a survey in 2010 stating that 44 percent of foster children leaving the system at age 18 graduated from high school. Compare that to the 81 percent of the “average Canadian”. Those numbers tend to swap in mental health scenarios with foster youth needing more support than their peers.

This is something many other Canadians noticed a while ago. And something many Canadians have been living. Finally, we have the data behind it.

Louis Thériault, CBoC’s executive director of economic initiatives, believes our nation needs a substantial strategy for youth in foster care organized by the federal government and supported with data collected at all government levels.

The conversation has begun. Let’s make sure we act on it.

In Canada, there are nearly 40,000 medical marijuana patients; when the program was initiated in 2001, there were 100. Many patients grow their own marijuana, depending on their needs and ailment, such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, or chemo therapy. Most say they need the drug to function, and some require 40 grams or more a day to manage their condition. In such cases, patients would have to pay $200/day for the drug—a prohibitive cost, and one that is much higher than what it takes to grown the plant themselves.

The government contends the new change will help regulate medicinal marijuana, and protect patients from hazards such as fire, mould, and potential break-ins and burglary. It also claims the new law will also stop abuse of licences and black market trade.

Opponents to the law, however, say it really just makes it harder to get medicine patients desperately need.  John Conroy, a lawyer from Burnaby, B.C., has launched a constitutional challenge against the law. Conroy argues that the law would deny his clients’ reasonable access to medicine they desperately need. Not only will patients be unable to afford buying from state approved growers, he argues, certain strains of the plant that have been found effective for some conditions would no longer be available.

Conroy has asked for a temporary injunction to the law until the court makes a decision on his constitutional challenge. In the meantime, one couple is also suing the government for  $6.5 million, the amount they say they will be forced to pay for the medicine they could happily grow for a fraction of the price: $500. Many medicinal marijuana users are simply vowing to ignore the new law, and continue growing their own pot.

Let’s hope it is all one big, elaborate April Fool’s prank.

And yet, the Chinese occupation of Tibet seems to have been met with little resistance from the worldwide community, despite a reported 127 self-immolations and a duration of more than than 50 years.

March 10 marked the 55^th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against the Chinese occupation, and in 55 years very little has changed. With the severe repression of human rights, mass relocation of peaceful nomadic tribes, and an estimated 1.2 million deaths as a direct consequence of Chinese occupation, one might expect countries, like Canada, to voice strong protests, to threaten sanctions, and even to put severe pressure on China, as they did to other countries in similar situations.

Well, back in 2008, Stephen Harper did send a strongly worded statement to the Chinese government in regards to the then brutal crackdown on uprisings in Tibet. “Canada shares the concerns about what is happening in Tibet,” Harper said. “Canada calls upon China to fully respect human rights and peaceful protest. Canada also calls on China to show restraint in dealing with this situation.”

This seemed more than a little hollow however, as a few years later, in 2012, Harper agreed to a Chinese takeover of Nexen, despite the ongoing atrocities in Tibet, and protests against said takeover. Arguably, the Harper government is more interested in trade opportunities rather than human rights, despite previous statements to the contrary. According to Students for a Free Tibet at the time, this take-over “would give the Chinese government direct control over critical energy resources.” They added: “It will also make Canada complicit in China’s human rights atrocities in Tibet as the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) is heavily funding the forced resettlement of Tibetan nomads.”

But hey, on the plus side, at least we got those cuddly panda cubs.

To be fair, the Canadian government has been very supportive of the Dalai Lama since his exile, and made him an honorary Canadian citizen back in 2006. The Dalai Lama has also made several trips to Canada and met with Harper despite warnings from China, who branded him a “political exile who has long been engaged in activities aimed at splitting China under the camouflage of religion.” But this hasn’t been much help to those in Tibet, and the protests and calls for Canada to do better continue.

Protesters matching down Toronto’s Queen’s Street Monday in protest of China’s occupation of Tibet

In Toronto, more than 1,000 people marched to mark the 55th anniversary, and the sixth year since widespread protests have swept through the Tibetan region. It ended outside of the Chines consulate. “Despite 55 years of China’s brutal occupation and systematic attempts to wipe out Tibetan resistance, the Tibetan people’s hope for freedom is stronger than ever before,” Urgyen Badheytsang, national director of Students for a Free Tibet, said in a release. “March 10 is symbolic of the enduring spirit of the Tibetan people’s struggle for freedom.”

He and others are calling on the worldwide community to hold China accountable for its actions. As Badheytsang told Inside Toronto: “I want China’s government to stop torturing Tibetan citizens, give back their human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, their freedom.”

Canadian politicians have also taken a stand—albeit with significantly more loaded language. Over the past few days, Stephen Harper and foreign affairs minister John Baird have been in discussion with the Ukrainian ambassador Vadym Prystaiko. And, in public statements, both Harper and Baird have compared Russia’s actions to that of Nazi Germany on the eve of WWII.

While on CBC’s Power and Politics, when asked about Russia’s right to protect so-called “Russian rights” in Crimea because of it majority Russian-speaking population, Baird answered: “The Sudetenland had a majority of Germans. That gave Germany no right to do this in the late 1930s.”

On March 4, Harper also told the House of Commons: “What we’ve seen is the decision of a major power to effectively invade and occupy a neighbouring country based on some kind of extra-territorial claim of jurisdiction over ethnic minorities. We haven’t seen this kind of behaviour since the Second World War.”

This statement followed the decision to raise the Ukrainian flag over Parliament Hill in a sign of support for the new Ukrainian government, and a universal condemnation of Russia’s actions in the House of Commons on Monday.

Indeed, politicians from all sides of the Canadian political spectrum are condemning Russia’s actions and showing support to the new government. Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland arrived yesterday in Kiev, to join the Canadian  Conservative-led delegation, which arrived last week to welcome and show support to Ukraine’s fledgling government. She spoke to CBC news about the importance of solidarity:

It’s really important for me right now as a Canadian MP outside Canada in a country which is in grave jeopardy to present a united front with the government … So there’s no dissent between me and the Liberal Party and the prime minister and the foreign minister on Ukraine right now.

While not physically represented in Kiev, the NDP party has been expressing concern for Ukrainian citizens since December 10th 2013, near the start of the peaceful protests. Paul Newer, the NDP foreign affairs critic, also wrote to Baird asking for a government-wide delegation to Ukraine. While the “government-wide” aspect of the request was ignored, Dewer was reported to tweet “Glad for Canadian delegation to #Ukraine as NDP requested. Too bad only MPs from one party. We all stand with Ukrainian people.”

Harper, along with six other G-8 countries, has also agreed to boycott all preparatory meetings of the G-8 meeting scheduled in Sochi later this year, recalled the Canadian ambassador from Russia, and has suspended all joint military activities with Russia with threats of further severing of ties if the situation is not resolved.

Harper said in a statement March 4 that: “We continue to view the situation in Ukraine with the gravest concern and will continue to review our relations with President Putin’s government accordingly.”

Ukrainian Crimean Tatars, a muslin minority in the Crimea region that are strongly opposed to Russian rule, have planned another protest outside the Russian embassy this Friday.