Mascots are more than sports, says Brad Gallant.

A PhD student of sociology and social justice and a member of Qalipu Mi’kmaq band, he directed and produced a film documenting his experiences fighting Indigenous mascots and the culture of racism surrounding them.

“They are representative of cultural permission to treat Indigenous people as less in Canada,” Gallant says. “They hint at a darker culture of Indigenous racism than most might expect, and that Canada is not the country you think, or you hope, it is.”

He will host a screening of his film, Systemic Injustice: Mascots, Human Rights, and Indigenous Racism, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in room 203, Toldo Health Education Centre.

Systemic Injustice was named Best Native American Feature at the 2022 Latino and Native American Film Festival and received a special prize at the 2021 Paladino d’Oro Sport Film Festival in Palermo, Italy.

Thursday’s screening is the film’s first in Canada. Admission will be by donation to the Orange Shirt Day fundraisers. Find a list of related events on the University of Windsor’s main Orange Shirt Day webpage.

Airlines should require passengers travelling with minors to produce affidavits from custodial parents authorizing the children to travel, says Khawla Khalifa.

The third-year law student draws on her own experience with parental abduction to highlight the need for legal reform in an opinion piece published this month in Canadian Lawyer magazine.

“My legal nightmare drove me to study law and push for change,” Khalifa writes, before detailing how her ex-husband took two of their children to Lebanon despite an order from the Ontario Superior Court banning travel with them.

After more than two years, the children were returned to Canada as part of a legal settlement that included a statement from Khalifa that she did not want the abductor prosecuted.

“I would have signed anything to get my children back,” she recalls.

When her story went public, she heard from many other women who have had their children taken.

“My children and I are among the lucky ones,” Khalifa says. “Too many victims of parental abduction have suffered for much longer and are still hoping to be reunited one day.”

She calls for changes to law and policy that can help protect children and parents. Read the entire article.

An internship exploring the history of Black experiences in the Windsor-Essex-Detroit region will focus on previously understudied family histories and pockets of settlement established in the area primarily during the 19th century.

A collaborative project of the UWindsor Department of History and the Amherstburg Freedom Museum, the position will run from January through August 2023.

Applications now invited by Oct. 14 from undergraduate students at the University of Windsor; the ideal candidate will have experience in courses that address Black, local, or public history.

Consult the posting for details of the internship and the application process.

Twenty-one years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the onset of the War on Terror, a UWindsor professor has co-edited a book exploring the ongoing growth and impacts of Islamophobia around the world.

Naved Bakali, assistant professor of anti-racism education in the Faculty of Education, co-edited The Rise of Global Islamophobia in the War on Terror: Coloniality, Race, and Islam, published by Manchester University Press.

This volume is the first book to date that addresses the topic of Islamophobia over such a diverse international range, covering the theme of anti-Muslim racism across six continents.

Dr. Bakali notes it presents a nuanced appreciation of specific themes that critically engage with the complexity and evolution of Islamophobia in the War on Terror.

The book’s 12 chapters provide up-to-date accounts and analysis of Islamophobia across the global North and South, the impact of Islamophobia on the political landscape of differing country contexts, and the resulting Islamophobic pathologies that have emerged.

Together with co-editor Farid Hafez, visiting professor of international studies at Williams College in Massachusetts, Bakali and the authors explore what activists and scholars can learn from the strategies, tactics, demands and visions generated by resistance, grassroots movements, and other forms of struggle, to challenge multiple forms of interpersonal and institutional racism.

Bakali also contributed the concluding chapter, “The Rohingya genocide through the prism of War on Terror logic.”

Find more information about the book on the publisher’s website: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526161758/.

An information session held by one of Canada’s foremost technology companies Sept. 19 offered UWindsor students a chance to discuss and learn about co-operative education and experiential learning opportunities in the tech industry.

Over 100 students attended to hear representatives from BlackBerry promote their brand and answer questions about its co-op and internship programs, which give students the opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, Engagement of Things, and cybersecurity.

Noah Campbell, a graduate of the University of Windsor computer science co-op program now working as a technical marketing specialist for BlackBerry, attended the event to talk to students about the impact co-op has had on his career journey.

“It was absolutely tremendous to return to campus to speak to students directly about the numerous positive impacts co-operative education has made in my employment journey,” says Campbell. “By leveraging the connections I made as a co-op student at BlackBerry, I had the opportunity to keep the lines of communication open when identifying potential professional roles at the organization several years after my initial placement, and post-graduation.”

Johanna Beneteau, business development and employer engagement co-ordinator for Co-operative Education and Workplace Partnerships, says BlackBerry believes in UWindsor talent and provides a meaningful experience for students.

“Our students really enjoy their placements as they are made to feel like part of the team and are given challenging and rewarding work,” she says.

Students were eager and enthusiastic to connect with BlackBerry recruiters and managers face-to-face, as this was their first in-person event with the office of Co-operative Education and Workplace Partnerships since 2019.

Although the Consumer Price Index is moving in the right direction, inflation and higher interest rates to combat it will continue to have an impact on equity markets and employment, says finance professor Gurupdesh Pandher.

He discussed August data on inflation in an interview with CBC News on Sept. 21, the day of the data’s release.

“There is a mixed picture, with food prices increasing year-over-year while gasoline prices fell,” Dr. Pandher says. “This indicates some stabilizing; however, food and energy prices tend to be volatile and can change rapidly due to multiple factors, including extreme weather, geo-political events such as Russia-Ukraine, and local and international supply chain disruptions.”

Since the Bank of Canada has set a target of 2 per cent annual inflation, it will likely keep interest rates high through 2023, Pandher predicts. His interview also discussed how Canadians can plan ahead and the impact on cross-border shopping.