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2021 Spry Memorial Lecture | Changing the Spectrum: Race, Media, and Building Democracy in Canada

2021, Summit Towards Equity, Media + Information, Equity + Justice, Indigenous Voices

The Spry Memorial Lecture has a long history of tackling key issues facing Canadian media and its role in the national conversation. For the 2021 event, Spry joined with Media Democracy Days and the Digital Democracies Institute, with support from ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Public Square, to bring together leading figures in Canadian media in conversation about race, media and building democracy in Canada.

Our panelists Desmond Cole and Tanya Talaga, along with moderator Candis Callison, considered recent attention over the escalation of commentary on the representation of Indigenous, Black, and people of colour; the structural challenges that impede calls for greater diversity; and discussed how institutions and platforms can foster a more constructive dialogue. At a time when violent events internationally, nationally, and locally are making headlines on a frequent basis, the urgency of this panel was incontestable.

Fri, 23 Apr 2021

Online Event    

Part of Towards Equity

Speakers

Desmond Cole

Desmond Cole is a Canadian activist, journalist, broadcaster, and best-selling author. He was awarded the 2020 Toronto Book Award for his book The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power. Publications he has written for include The Toronto Star, NOW magazine, and The Tyee. Desmond's activism on issues such as racial profiling, police carding, and systemic racism earned him the 2017 PEN Canada/Ken Filkow Prize for freedom of expression. CBC television released the documentary The Skin We're In based on Cole's 2015 award-winning essay of the same name.

Tanya Talaga

Tanya Talaga is an Ojibwe award-winning journalist and author, producer, director, and speaker. She has earned multiple awards for her book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City including the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Tanya has worked for publications such as The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, and has been nominated five times for the Michener Award in public service journalism. She is also President and CEO of Makwa Creative, a production company amplifying Indigenous stories.

Moderator

Candis Callison

Candis Callison is a Tahltan environmental journalist, author, and associate professor at UBC in the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, and in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies. She co-wrote Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities after doing five years of research with journalists from various news organizations in Canada and the U.S.

Candis was a 2019 inductee to the The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is also a member of the Advisory Circle for The Indigenous Screen Office.

Emcee

Adel Iskandar

Adel Iskandar is an Assistant Professor of Global Communication at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV, whose work deals with media, identity and politics. He is the author, co-author, and editor of "Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution" (AUCP/OUP); "Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism" (Basic Books); "Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation" (University of California Press); "Mediating the Arab Uprisings" (Tadween Publishing); and "Media Evolution on the Eve of the Arab Spring" (Palgrave Macmillan). 

Watch

Event Recording

In the News

 â€” CBC's All Points West (April 22, 2021)

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