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This session will focus on the COVID-19 pandemic’s implications for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities in Canada. This session, like all Emergence sessions to follow, is open to the general public. However, the corresponding debrief taking place that afternoon will be a community-only discussion led by our Scholars. As recognized by Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities across the country are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 due to long-standing social inequities, including the lack of access to health-care services and clean water in many rural reserves; the overcrowded living conditions on First Nations reserves; and the higher rates of problematic health conditions in these communities.

Canada’s arts sector has been deeply disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, happening at a time when the sector was already under significant pressure financially as it transitions toward a more digitized, globalized and diverse ecosystem.

As the Foundation continues to develop spaces for discussion in a virtual space, I am pleased to let you know a special webinar discussion will take place on August 13 entitled “Racial Justice, Righteous Outrage and Open Discourse”. 2017 Scholar Sarah Mason-Case will host this extraordinary conversation with intellectual leader Dr. Richard T. Ford, who is a world-renowned expert on race, civil rights, and anti-discrimination.

The gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic have received relatively little attention in public discussions. While men appear more likely to die from COVID-19, women face greater danger from confinement and lockdowns due to a rise in domestic violence. As well, women are disproportionately represented in the ranks of health care workers, especially front-line workers.