‘I felt silenced’: voices missing from Upper Chamber’s systemic racism debate, say some Senators, highlighting need for hybrid model

Senator Mobina Jaffer is among those who say the in-person-only approach to spring Senate sittings limited participation and worries it will remain in place when Parliament returns in September.

COVID-19 meant some racialized and Indigenous Senators couldn’t be present for the Chamber's June 18 emergency debate on systemic racism, including Senators, from left, Mobina Jaffer, Lillian Dyck, and Wanda Thomas Bernard. The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade, Sam Garcia

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BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN

July 1, 2020

Witnessing the Red Chamber debate on systemic racism from afar was tough on Senators who have lived the experiences but couldn’t be in Ottawa, and while some accepted the pandemic made that unavoidable, others say it demonstrates why virtual sittings are so importan...

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