CBC’s new show to focus on Aboriginals
TORONTO—CBC IS OPENING a new chapter in Canadian history by spotlighting the relationship between First NationS and the rest of Canada. This January, a new series entitled 8th Fire is airing across the country in hopes of disbanding stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding Aboriginals in Canada.
The TV series will focus on a new generation of indigenous Canadians who are confident and ready to reclaim their culture. The show will be released in four parts, accompanied by a website on CBC.
8th Fire, which is hosted by Winnipeg-based CBC journalist Wab Kinew, is hoping to show Canadians how indigenous people live.
The series’ namesake comes from the Anishinaabe nation’s Seven Fires prophecy from pre-Columbus America. The idea of the series is that the eighth prophecy will bring indigenous peoples and settlers together to form a new fire—that of justice and harmony.
—Leia Atkinson
Canadian artist uses Facebook as her muse
TORONTO—FIFTY-SEVEN-YEAR-old self-proclaimed “re-emerging artist” Carole Freeman has mashed up the long-standing tradition of an artistic muse with the digital age. The Winnipeg-born artist will be featured at Toronto’s Edward Day Gallery in her first-ever solo show, Friend Me: Portraits of Facebook. The exhibition is a compilation of portraits and images taken directly from Freeman’s 1,400 Facebook friends.
Jordan Banks, the Canadian managing director for Facebook, attended the display’s opening and was moved by Freeman’s imagination and commented on her show in the Globe and Mail.
“[Facebook] minimizes isolation, fosters socialization … gives people a voice and it’s amazing to see such a unique expression of that in Carole’s exhibit,” said Banks.
Although she drew inspiration from Facebook, Freeman said she never had much use for the popular social media site until recently.
“It was about opening up the art world to me,” said Freeman in the Globe and Mail. “It floored me that someone like Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst were [on Facebook] and I could actually message them.”
After a hard time getting her career started, Freeman is excited to finally have an exhibition and hopes to have more in the future.
“I started getting fairly emotional because this has been what I have always wanted,” said Freeman. “This is finally my time.”
—Sofia Hashi
Is pregnancy a disability?
DAYTON, OHIO—JEANETTE COX, A law professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio believes the United States federal government should include pregnant women in their Americans With Disabilities Act.
“The goal there is of course to get pregnant women accommodations so they can continue working as [long as] they can, hopefully up to the moment of birth,” said Cox in a statement.
Professor Cox maintains employers regularly discriminate against pregnant women. According to her studies, Cox found that U.S. courts allow employers refuse to accommodate pregnant women who are dealing with issues associated with pregnancy, such as standing up for a long period of time.
“This reluctance to associate pregnancy with disability, however, has resulted in a legal regime in which many pregnant workers currently have less legal standing to workplace accommodations than other persons with comparable physical limitations,” added Cox.
Cox has found this lack of consideration sometimes leads to termination of pregnant women. The U.S. law professor has uncovered ONE situation in which a pregnant police officer was fired because she was not allowed to perform less strenuous work and other similar circumstances.
—Sofia Hashi
