Q&A: Hamilton author on the 'shocking' lack of understanding about the impacts of racism on mental health
CBC
McMaster professor Ingrid Waldron has had quite the journey over the past several years.
Her book on environmental racism in Nova Scotia, There's Something in the Water, became a documentary co-directed by Canadian actor Elliot Page, alongside Ian Daniel. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.
The spotlight helped put Waldron at the forefront of discussions in Canada on environmental racism and the author's work was behind the push for a new law requiring the Canadian government to track how racialized groups have been disproportionately affected by polluting industries.
Waldron left Dalhousie University to return home to Ontario in 2021. She is now the HOPE Chair in Peace and Health in the Global Peace and Social Justice Program at McMaster University, where she continues to work on issues of environmental justice but has also returned to what she calls her "first love" — the study of mental health.
Waldron recently completed a study on the mental health issues facing Black youth in Hamilton and the challenges they have accessing services.
That work, along with previous studies involving the experiences of Black youth and women in Halifax and a long career in this field, informs her new book, From the Enlightenment to Black Lives Matter: Tracing the Impacts of Racial Trauma in Black Communities from the Colonial Era to the Present.
The book launches Feb. 12 at a McMaster University space in Hamilton's Jackson Square.
In advance of the launch, CBC Hamilton executive producer Eva Salinas spoke with Waldron about the book, the need for change in the health-care system and how Canadians, including health-care practitioners and researchers, understand how racism impacts mental health.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Did the move to McMaster inspire the book or did your interest in the topic draw you to McMaster?
Actually, neither one.
People see me so much in this space of environmental racism, but before I encountered that topic, I was fully engaged in mental illness, the impact of racism on mental illness in Black communities, and my PhD thesis back in 2002 [at OISE at the University of Toronto] was on the mental health impacts of racism on Black women.
So, I thought that that's what I would continue to do.
It was only in 2008, as I mentioned in my book There's Something In The Water, that an environmental activist came to me when I was at Dalhousie, asking me to do a project on environmental racism. So, it wasn't something I knew anything about. It was new to me.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday Canada will hit back at the U.S. if President Donald Trump goes ahead with punishing tariffs on Feb. 1, promising this country will respond in kind with "robust, rapid" and "very strong" retaliatory measures.
As U.S. President Donald Trump renews his tariff threat, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says diplomacy, not retaliation, is the best way for Canada to stifle the risk of punishing new trade sanctions.
As U.S. President Donald Trump begins his second term in office, the president of the FFAW says she's playing the waiting game to see how threatened tariffs will take shape.
The Town of Hearst says power has been restored to all residents.
The effects of any kind of tariffs from the United States on Canada's lobster industry could depend on timing, but officials say just the threat is further proof of the need to keep diversifying markets.
A growing number of university students across the country are reporting disabilities — and receiving academic accommodations — with Maritime institutions leading the way.
A plan by a developer for a mixed-use building at the site of a popular drag bar in Toronto's gay village has been rejected by the Toronto and East York Community Council after many residents objected to the proposal.
More than 50,000 Hydro-Québec clients are without electricity in Montreal, primarily in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montréal-Nord and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension.
Two anonymous letters first tipped the Manitoba government off to possible collusion by contractors vying for dozens of public housing projects more than a decade ago, according to search warrant documents — but charges against the people accused could now be stayed because the process has taken so long.
When Brenda Herback woke up the morning she was set to fly to France from Regina for a vacation, she had no idea she would be in a coma in a matter of days.
This First Person column is the experience of Karen Langtved, who lives in Lac Ste. Anne County, Alta. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
The head of the Vancouver Public Library is defending a policy that dictates what symbols its roughly 800 staff can wear while at work, amid concerns from employees that the rules unfairly single out symbols that show support for Palestinians.
McMaster professor Ingrid Waldron has had quite the journey over the past several years.
Administrators at Windsor's largest school boards want city council to stop a plan to eliminate and redeploy Transit Windsor buses that high school students pay for to get to school.
Curlers from across northern Ontario will be competing for the chance to represent the region at the national curling championships this week.
Ontario's Progressive Conservatives have a substantial cash advantage over their opponents after raising millions in 2024, as rumours of a snap election persist at Queen's Park.
The Region of Waterloo announced Monday that a new overnight warming centre will open in Cambridge.
The Souris Striders Ski Club has started a project to extend the lighted section of its trails to make it the longest lit ski trail in the Maritimes, the group says.