What links Michaëlle Jean, Lincoln Alexander, Jean Augustine, and Nelson Mandela? They are all highlighted on a new biweekly bus tour focused on the legacy of Black Canadians in the nation’s capital.

Organized and developed by Black History Ottawa, the volunteer-run tour—“Black History on Ottawa Streets”—visits “over 25 sites with special connections to Black pioneers and Black Canadian history,” according to its website.

Heard on the Hill hasn’t yet had the chance to do the tour, but CBC Ottawa’s Hallie Cotnam shared her experience on July 22. 

One of the tour’s first stops is at the Human Rights monument on the corner of Elgin and Lisgar streets where anti-apartheid activist and then-president of South Africa Mandela—who was granted honorary Canadian citizenship in 2001—unveiled a plaque during a visit in 1998.

Other stops with a government flavour include to Rideau Hall, highlighting Haiti-born Jean’s tenure as governor general from 2005 to 2010; to Parliament Hill to learn about the country’s first Black MPs Alexander (a Progressive Conservative who became labour minister under Joe Clark), and Augustine (a Liberal whom Jean Chrétien appointed to his cabinet); and the National War Memorial to learn about the No. 2 Construction Battalion, an all-Black military unit in the First World War.

“At the Public Service Alliance of Canada headquarters on Gilmour Street, tour participants learned about James Best, a key figure in the precursor to the county’s largest public sector union,” Cotnam relates.

Black History on Ottawa Streets runs Wednesdays and Saturdays until Oct. 18. Thanks to funding from the City of Ottawa, the mid-week tour is free, while the weekend tour is $20 per adult. Tours begin at Ottawa City Hall’s Lisgar Street entrance.

Conservative MP Wagantall won’t reoffer

With just more than three months gone since the last federal election, longtime Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall is already thinking about the next one, and has decided she won’t take part.

“I will continue to represent the wonderful people of Yorkton–Melville until the next federal election is called,” the Saskatchewan MP said in a July 28 statement titled “Wagantall announces she will not seek a fifth term in the next federal election.”

First elected in 2015, Wagantall is now serving her fourth term in the House, and has been a member of the Veterans Affairs committee for the past 10 years.

ITK President Obed to seek fourth term

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed has decided to seek a fourth term. The 49-year-old confirmed his change of heart in a Facebook post last week.

“As my current term as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president concludes in September, I want to let everyone know that I will be seeking re-election,” he wrote on July 31. “I wish to continue in my role during these turbulent times.” 

During the 2021 campaign, Obed said it would be his final term as president, Nunatsiaq News reported July 31. “But last fall, in the ‘dying days of the Trudeau government,’ he reconsidered that decision.” Obed won the 2015 and 2018 presidential elections, but was acclaimed in 2021, Arty Sarkisian writes.

July 31 marked the start of  the Inuit advocacy group’s  nomination period for its presidential election. The nomination deadline is Aug. 28, with voting taking place Sept. 18.

Senator Miville-Dechêne joins the PSG

Quebec Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne announced she has left the Independent Senate Group on Aug. 1. 

“I chose to join the Progressive [Senate] Group, another independent group of Senators in the Senate of Canada,” she posted on social media last week, thanking PSG leader Senator Brian Francis “for welcoming me with such kindness!” Miville-Dechêne was appointed to the Senate in 2018.

As of Aug. 1, the standings in the 105-seat Red Chamber are: ISG with 45 members, the Canadian Senators Group at 20, PSG at 18, the Conservative Party at 14, six non-affiliated Senators, and two vacancies (one each in Manitoba and Quebec).

Cynthia Miller-Idriss to speak in Ottawa on Oct. 30

Award-winning author and American University professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss is expected to be in Ottawa this fall to speak about extremism in a lecture hosted by Carleton University.

The lecture is organized by history professor Jennifer Evans and communications professor Sandra Robinson who are collaborating on a project called Populist Publics, analyzing how populist narratives enter and circulate in public discourse on social platforms, Evans told HOH last week.

“We have just been awarded a new [Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council] grant to host an international workshop here on conspiracy theories, how they took shape in the past, what the differences are in the analog versus digital era, and, critically, what we can do to arm against them,” Evans told HOH by email. 

Evans explained that scholars from Canada as well as from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany will work together with Carleton colleagues and students. “One of our aims is to work together with local stakeholders on how to teach digital literacy in the classroom, to help students navigate the challenge of on and offline hate,” she said.

“As part of this, we have invited Cynthia to give a public lecture on her new book Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism,” said Evans. Man Up will be released Sept. 16 by Princeton University Press.

Miller-Idriss runs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) research lab at American University in Washington, D.C,, and is the author of books including Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right; and The Extreme Gone Mainstream: Commercialization and Far Right Youth Culture in Germany, both published by Princeton University Press.

The public lecture will take place Oct. 30 from 6-9 p.m. ET at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre in Ottawa.

Rubicon Strategy welcomes D.C.-based associate Woodruff

Ottawa-based government relations firm Rubicon Strategy announced on July 30 that David Woodruff is its man on the ground in Washington, D.C.

This news is part of Rubicon’s push on the United States file, following up on a Jan. 7 announcement that it’s entered “an exclusive partnership [with Washington-based Capitol Counsel] to address the growing complexities of cross-border trade and government relations.”

Rubicon’s vice-president Daniel Pascucci told HOH on Aug. 1 that Woodruff’s addition is part of the firm’s “strategic focus on the U.S. market” in response to their clients’ evolving needs. “In an era of increased complexity and trade tensions between Canada-U.S., our clients require a seamless, integrated approach to government relations on both sides of the border.” He also noted that the Rubicon/Capitol coupling gives clients “a more co-ordinated and robust service than a typical ad-hoc arrangement, whether they are operating north or south of the border.”

Nicknamed “Woody,” according to his LinkedIn profile, Woodruff has more than 25 years of experience advising international companies and senior elected officials including in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Republican director of communications for the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He’s been with Rubicon since this last January, according to his profile.

Rubicon Strategy was founded in 2018 by former Conservative staffer Kory Teneycke, who is the firm’s CEO.

cleadlay@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times