Urban Informed's look at the stories that might not have received enough light from the past 7 days
Here we go with another week of new items you may not have noticed in the last 7 days. Keep in mind these are my own personal opinion to these news topics. If you have any comments definitely let me know.
Here we go.
1) Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is now a "Sir"
One of the greatest Formula One drivers in history has just been knighted. British driver Lewis Hamilton was knighted this week by Prince Phillip in London and will now have the title of Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton is a 7-time racing champion driving for the Mercedes F1 Team and has won 103 races in his career including the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal 7 times. The only other races he has won more are the Hungarian and British races which he has won 8 times each. How 7 wins in Montreal is the most all-time in F1 tying him Michael Schumacher for the most Canadian Grand Prix wins.
Hamilton also is big on activism and philanthropy. Hamilton has been a supporter of Black Lives Matter taking a knee before races in 2020 and wearing shirts with the slogan. He lent his voice as a public figure in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and criticized those in F1 who were not speaking up. Hamilton also supporter the Breonna Taylor protests by wearing t-shirts during a race weekend in 2020. In addition, Hamilton is known to be involved in environmental and animal rights, working with UNICEF and supporting charities like Make A Wish.
Lewis Hamilton has done even more than I mentioned but this little bit is impressive and I can understand how influential he is and how deserving he is of this title.
Congrats Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Read story from CTV News.
2) Civil Rights Pioneer Claudette Colvin's record is cleared
Here is a story that rarely gets publicity but I am glad Claudette Colvin is getting her shine now. In 1955 Claudette Colvin was a 15-year-old teenager who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a White woman and was arrested for it. In those days in Alabama Black people were forced to give up their bus seats to a White person but a young Colvin at just 15 said no and this was even before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. In fact, Rosa Parks was encouraged by Claudette Colvin's stand which led to her protest.
"I said I could not move because history had me glued to the seat,"- Claudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin at 15 had to live with a record that stained over her for doing the right thing. Truthfully, she deserves to be considered a Civil Rights hero for what she did and then had to endure. Her record was only expunged last week, at age 82 almost 70 years after the 1955 incident on that bus.
You can read more on the story here.
3) Prime Minister Trudeau says not only governments can fight Quebec's Bill 21
So last week we were talking about the teacher in Chelsea, Quebec who lost her teaching job because she wears a religious symbol. Since that story came out a lot of people have said a lot of things but some of the main actors have said little to nothing or the wrong things altogether.
Legault's government continues to double down that Bill 21 is a good law mostly because the majority of Quebecers are in favour of it. Meanwhile, some other provincial leaders in Quebec passively react with party-line statements with no real conviction and in other parts of Canada, federal politicians who knew about this law for 2 years now think it's time to speak up about it.
Let's be clear, other than Legault the only politician that is important in this matter is Justin Trudeau. As Prime Minister, it is Trudeau and his government's responsibility to defend the rights of Canadians in every part of this country. So it perplexes me to read that Trudeau is still considering a challenge to Bill 21 and that he would say that it's not only up to the government to challenge these laws. What? It is absolutely up to the government to fight these laws and either repeal them or make them better. Court challenges are one thing but they have not worked.
"The challenge we have on this one is making sure that people understand that fundamental rights need to be defended," he said. "Governments can and should defend them and have a role in it, but our fellow citizens can also be standing up for each other."
The fact that the feds have still yet to decide on challenging this law only tells me that they are looking at the votes over the rights of certain people. This is where we are in this country and to be honest... are we surprised? I bet that this story will die down over the next few weeks and the feds will still be thinking about a challenge to the bill when the next federal election comes around.
I won't compare Quebec's Bill 21 to Texas' Anti-Abortion bill but there is one similarity that I will highlight. There are local, provincial and federal politicians... and the courts that need to protect minority populations from the will of the majority at certain times and this is one of those times. Unfortunately, we are seeing elected officials in each level of government be clueless about what's happening or do not dare to stand behind a Muslim woman or a Sikh man and speak up for what is right. This should not be something left for citizens to do alone, this is why we have elected officials who pledge to uphold the constitution.
Read the story at CBC News.
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