Erica Ifill

While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Erica Ifill.

Red-pill populism

Red-pill populism

Crowd size is the new phallic symbol. The red-pilling of Canadian politics is complete. In The Matrix, the main character Neo is faced with two choices: living an illusion represented metaphorically by taking the blue pill, or awakening to a hidden reality, represented by the red pill. The dilemma is popularized by the manosphere, the radicalization of men through misogynistic...

Trump’s chaos is imperialism in a transparent disguise

Trump’s chaos is imperialism in a transparent disguise

United States President Donald Trump is mashing up the global order. I have a theory.Last week, Trump imposed so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on American trading partners. His actions sent markets plunging, investment funds devaluing, and panic rising. There are no rules for the new global economic regime.

The NDP is dithering on the fringes of survival

The NDP is dithering on the fringes of survival

The NDP has a love affair with losing. Although the Conservatives are fumbling the bag, the New Democrats have no bag to fumble. On March 23, Prime Minister Mark Carney presented Governor General Mary Simon with advice to dissolve Parliament, which she approved. In other words, we have an election—the one we’ve all been waiting for since Justin Trudeau’s resignation...

Carney’s cabinet a step backwards in the dark

Carney’s cabinet a step backwards in the dark

This is a historical pattern that rears up when those who were once marginalized gain representation within the white supremacist social and economic structure. One step forward, three steps back. On March 14, newly minted Prime Minister Mark Carney formed his cabinet. Unfortunately, this configuration of ministers is not only tighter, but it also has some notable distinctions from cabinets...

Mid Mark Carney may not meet the moment

Mid Mark Carney may not meet the moment

The new Liberal leader is a component of the technocratic elite who got us into this mess of inequality. The Liberals have rallied around another cult of personality: Mark Carney. On March 9, Carney became Liberal leader and the unelected prime minister-designate with 85.9 per cent of the vote. He’s yet another white man who flew above the normal barriers...

Trump’s Uno reverse

Trump’s Uno reverse

What if we’re thinking about U.S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state declarations all wrong? Let me cook. We should not take what Trump says at face value. However, we must take what he says as pieces of a greater geopolitical reality: the western world is in decline, and the Global South is rising. Last year, I wrote about the symbolism...

Lessons ignored, voices silenced

Lessons ignored, voices silenced

Jan. 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Holocaust remains a stain on the soul of the western world, especially. Antisemitism is their original sin, as slavery is America’s. There continues to be a rise in antisemitism, and, as stated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “it is more important than ever for us to recognize the critical lessons...

Drawing the wrong conclusions

Drawing the wrong conclusions

There is a belief by mainstream Canadian reporters and pundits that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s demise came about because he was too “woke.” Let’s talk about the word “woke,” which has been siphoned from the Black community, manipulated, and weaponized against us. The word has become a pejorative slur for marginalized communities fighting for their rights against the injustice of...

Turnout for what?

Turnout for what?

Never underestimate the Democrats’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. On Nov. 5, America chose Donald Trump, instead of Kamala Harris, as its president. Trump accrued 312 electoral college votes to Harris’ 226, and Harris also lost the popular vote with 48 per cent compared to Trump’s 50.3 per cent. It is the first time in 2...

India interference allegations exposing who’s not ride-or-die for Canada

India interference allegations exposing who’s not ride-or-die for Canada

On Oct.14, while people were eating their Thanksgiving meal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a press conference where he accused the Indian government of “supporting a campaign of violence against Canadians on Canadian soil,” including homicides. The RCMP maintains that the Indian government poses a threat to Canadian safety; they have “identified serious issues of violent extremists working in both...

Kamala Harris has entered the chat

Kamala Harris has entered the chat

Anyone else exhausted from living in unprecedented times? On July 21, United States President Joe Biden unexpectedly did the expected: he bowed out of the presidential race, and then endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris. She will be the first Black woman and first South Asian presidential nominee in American history. Since Biden’s cataclysmically rancid debate performance, his tragedy of an interview...

L on wheels: liberals and centrists paving the runway for fascism to take hold

L on wheels: liberals and centrists paving the runway for fascism to take hold

Never trust centrists or liberals to get the job done. Last week, we saw liberalism brick some easy layups, taking ignominious Ls for their efforts. On June 24, electors went to the polls to vote in the Toronto–St. Paul’s, Ont., byelection. Once a seat former cabinet minister Carolyn Bennett held for 27 years from 1997-2024, it was considered a Liberal...

Rafah massacre lays bare domestic media shortcomings

Rafah massacre lays bare domestic media shortcomings

When you’ve lost Piers Morgan, you know you’ve really screwed up. On May 26, Israel conducted an airstrike on a Palestinian displacement camp in Rafah. Israel had designated part of this area as a safe zone. The strike killed 45 people, and wounded at least 249 others. This was a carnage that hits one to their moral core. We saw...

Campus crackdowns earning a failing grade

Campus crackdowns earning a failing grade

Take a deep breath. You smell that? It’s the scent of resistance affecting your olfactory system. You can’t shove an ethnic cleansing down gen-Z’s throats and think they’re going to swallow. All over the world, college and university students are occupying administrative offices and setting up encampments in solidarity with Palestinians and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. They are...

Getting hosed on housing

Getting hosed on housing

Do the Liberals have any concept of the effects of this affordability crisis for the unwashed masses? On March 11, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland posted on Twitter her visit to the downtown Victoria, B.C., housing development, Hudson House. The rent at Hudson House ranges from $2,470 per month for a one-bedroom apartment, to $3,515 per month...

Paying the price for a false promise of prosperity

Paying the price for a false promise of prosperity

In response to access-to-information stonewalling by Canada’s defence establishment, Parliament’s freedom of information watchdog is asking the Federal Court to compel the Department of National Defence to follow the law.Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard submitted two new applications to the Federal Court on Feb. 20, on the heels of one from Dec. 18, 2023.

New bill pushes for accountability from platforms that won’t police themselves

New bill pushes for accountability from platforms that won’t police themselves

New legislation just dropped. The long-awaited Bill-63, or the Online Harms Act, is the newest offering by the Liberals.And guess what? I don’t hate it.

Parental rights battle cry is turning private grievance into public policy

Parental rights battle cry is turning private grievance into public policy

Some may call Alberta Premier Danielle Smith a nut, but to me, she’s as nutty as a fox, and she’s in the hen house. If you listen to Smith speak, she is very even-keeled and media savvy—a far cry from some of the adjectives people use to describe her. Watching her on CBC’s Power and Politics on Feb. 5 with...

The Islamophobic silence is deafening

The Islamophobic silence is deafening

If one compares the empathy for Israelis and empathy for Palestinians, there is no comparison in public relations, communications, and posturing. When did the Liberal Party become so blood-thirsty and Islamophobic? That’s usually the Conservatives’ schtick.

Unseasoned Grits: the Liberals aren’t beating the charges of lacklustre governance

Unseasoned Grits: the Liberals aren’t beating the charges of lacklustre governance

Remember when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was riding high in April, only to be shot down in May? Well, that’s life. It seems like almost a generation ago when Trudeau was levitated in the polls, riding a political high from the dark days of the pandemic. Now that Icarus has flown too close to the sun, his wings are getting...

Selective acknowledgement of humanity a grim sign of the times

Selective acknowledgement of humanity a grim sign of the times

For the second time that I can remember, I am deeply saddened. I am embarrassed by the leadership of this country who have polluted what it means to be a human being, and it’s up to us to push back at the one-sided nature of their performative empathy. Who gets to be the victims of the Israel-Hamas war is directly...