Today in The Conversation Canada, as the Manitoba provincial election gets underway, Frank Deer, Canada Research Chair at the University of Manitoba raises a concern about the moral responsibilities of leadership. 

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson has stated her government will not be funding a search for three murdered Indigenous women at a Winnipeg-area landfill due to safety concerns. But criticism of her decision has been growing. As an Onkwehonwe (Native) scholar who studies morality and ethics in communal and societal contexts, and as someone who experienced the Oka crisis of 1990 in his home community of Kahnawake, Prof. Deer calls the decision both callous and immoral but also, “alarmingly familiar.”

Yes, a landfill search would be expensive, yes, it may be risky and it may not yield the exact results wanted. However, the current trauma being experienced by the Indigenous families and the community is significant. He says, searching the landfill would help bring emotional closure to a traumatic situation. And he adds: “That alone should make the decision to search rather straightforward.”

Also today:

Vinita Srivastava

Host + Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient | Senior Editor, Culture + Society

An ethicist calls the government’s decision to not support a search for murdered Indigenous women immoral. Pictured here is a protest to support the search in Winnipeg. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

A moral argument to search the landfill in Winnipeg for murdered Indigenous women

Frank Deer, University of Manitoba

Manitoba’s provincial government has declined to support a search for three murdered Indigenous women, citing health and safety concerns. An ethicist explains why this decision needs to be rethought.

Sexual and gender-based violence can seem like an insurmountable problem, but interdisciplinary thinking encourages creative approaches to social change. Queen’s University students in Kingston, Ont., protest sexual assault on campuses in September 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

How students are developing solutions to the problem of campus sexual and gender-based violence

Rebecca Hall, Queen's University, Ontario

Faculty and university staff are embedding training to prevent gender-based and sexual violence into curricular goals of both arts and STEM classes.

Cadets stand together during training at the West Point military academy in New York state. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

‘Male soldiers can’t help themselves’ is among many rape myths that need debunking

Megan MacKenzie, Simon Fraser University

Rape myths dominate international media coverage of internal military sexual violence.

La Conversation Canada

Les médecins ne sont pas nécessairement de bons vulgarisateurs ou n’ont pas toujours le temps d’expliquer tout dans les moindres détails. (Shutterstock)

La littératie médicale permet aux patients de mieux comprendre leur état de santé et favorise leur bien-être

Isabelle Carignan, Ph.D., Université TÉLUQ ; Adèle Gallant, Université de Moncton; Annie Roy-Charland, Université de Moncton; Marie-Christine Beaudry, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM); Rony Atoui, MD, MSc, FRCSC, FACS, Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Le développement des compétences en littératie médicale permet aux patients de prendre des décisions plus réfléchies par rapport à leur propre santé. Mais un accompagnement adéquat est nécessaire.

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