So who's 'woke,' what does it mean and how is it being used in Canadian politics? | CBC News (2024)

Darren Major · CBC News

· Posted: Sep 17, 2022 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: September 17, 2022

The word "woke" —originally used to describe awareness of discrimination — has been adopted by figures onthe political right to discredit policies and politicians they considertoo progressive, experts say.

The word was directedearlier this week at the Liberals and NDPbyConservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.And some Liberalshave been dancing around the term when asked about it by journalists.

"It's a term that's been evolving fast," said Jennifer Saul, a professor who specializes in the philosophy of political language at the University of Waterloo.

"For a while, there were people happily identifying themselves as woke. Itnow has been adopted as a term of abuse."

Some Liberals distance themselves

After Poilievre was elected to lead the Conservatives, a number of Liberal MPs told Radio-Canada that they want their party to shift to the centre to combat Poilievre's populist brand of conservatism.

"We need a government that is down to earth and less woke,"one MP, speaking on the condition they not be identified, told Radio-Canada.

Poilievre would later call the Liberals and the NDP — who are supporting the government through a confidence-and supply-agreement — a "radical woke coalition" in his first address to caucus as Conservativeleader.

Poilievre'suse of "woke" as a pejorativehad a number of Liberal cabinet ministers circling the word cautiouslyduring the party's caucus retreat earlier this week.

"Frankly, I don't even know what it means to be woke.I'm working to serve Canadians," said Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

"I certainly don't believe I'm woke, trust me, and no one in my family believes that either," said Innovation and Science Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

Even NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh didn't explicitly embrace the term when asked about it during an interview on CBC Radio's The House— although he did sayhe doubts Poilievre understands what it means.

"I don't think that Mr. Poilievre knows what he means when he says that. I don't think he understands what he's saying when he just throws the words around," Singh told host Catherine Cullen in the interview airing Saturday.

"I think it's a baseless kind of position. It doesn't really add up to the reality," he said, adding that his party's focus is on getting help to Canadians.

Where does the wordcome from?

The use of the term "woke" in a political context originates with Black activists in the United States in the early- to mid-20th century, according to McGill political science professor Terri Givens.

Givens said it was used as a term of vigilance, calling for greater public awareness of racial discrimination. As a Black woman growing up in the United States, she said, she was very familiar with the term.

"I've heard this term throughout my life," she said. "It's a term that means, 'We need to wake up to the fact that [discrimination is] happening to us.'"

Givens said that while the term has been used within Black communitiesin North America for decades, it gained prominence in the wider public discourse during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Saul said that in the years following the rise of Black Lives Matter, people started applying the term more broadly toawareness of other social issues, such as sexism, poverty and the challenges facing LGBTQ people.

Both Saul and Givens said the term has since been seizedby right-wing figures to castigate people or policies they see as too progressive.

"This has become a blunt instrument of the right," Givens said.

Saul agrees but notes that "woke"has gained some negative meaning on the left as well. The term"woke-washing," she said, is used to describe the actions of people or organizations thattry to convince others theycare about certain issues.

Woke in the current political climate

Both Saul and Givens said Poilievre's use of the word to discredit the Liberals, and subsequent attempts by some Liberals to distance themselves from it,are notsurprising. The same things are happening inthe U.S. and Europe, they said.

"I think a defence of, 'Yes I'm woke and proud of it' is unlikely to succeed because the term 'woke' has become so thoroughly appropriated," Saul said.

Givens said she doesn't think the historical context of the term is understood by either the Liberals or the Conservatives.

"It really pains me to see politicians throwing these terms around … [as] a quick soundbite, instead of having a nuanced conversation," she said.

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