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    • Canada's first Black senator says racial diversity in government still a 'big order'

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    Anne Cools, Canada’s first Black senator says there’s still too many racial barriers for aspiring politicians of colour to overcome and that getting more diverse representation in government is a challenge.

    “I can tell you that that's a big order. That's a big order,” Cools, who served as a senator for 30 years, told CTVNews.ca in a video interview on Feb. 1.

    She says anyone looking to get into politics are driven by something she understands deeply.

    “They have a hope that somehow or the other, they can get through all these difficulties,” Cools said, noting they’ll have fighting chance if they “hold on to the ground” on issues they’re passionate about.

    However, she warns political newcomers to hold their constituents above their own personal aspirations. She says if they do that, they’ll succeed.

    Check out the video above for more of her comments.

    COOLS' CAREER IN A SNAPSHOT

    Born in Barbados, Cools moved to Canada with her family in 1957, when she was a teenager and grew up in Montreal.

    During her younger years, Cools and dozens of others occupied Sir George Williams University – now Concordia University – to protest against the alleged racist treatment of six Black students in 1969.

    She was arrested and charged with willful obstruction and went on to serve four months in jail. Her vindication would take decades, with her being pardoned in 1981.

    Anne Cools ran several failed attempts to enter public office including contesting the Liberal nomination in a by-election in the central Toronto riding of Rosedale in 1978 and failing to win the riding when she was the Liberal candidate in the 1979 general election.

    After several failed attempts to enter public office, Cools spent 1980-84 serving on the National Parole Board of Canada. That was until she was nominated to the Senate by then-prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

    Before her, no Black Canadian had ever served in the Senate. “The politics was very different 30 years ago than it is now,” Cools said.

    She cited her work with domestic violence survivors as the reason Trudeau sought her out.

    Cools founded Women in Transition in Toronto in 1974 -- one of Canada’s first shelters for female victims of violence. She was involved with the agency for nearly two decades.

    “I thought it was a good thing and a desirable thing to do,” she said. “And you know, if anything has to be done, somebody has to do it.”

    Sen. Anne Cools standing next to Prime Minister Jean Chretien and South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela in 2010.

    For 20 years, she caucused with the Liberals to represent Toronto Centre – later Toronto Centre-York – but she crossed the aisle to the Conservatives in 2004 for several reasons, including her opposition to same-sex marriage and a gun registry, as well as the sponsorship scandal which dogged the ruling Liberals at the time.

    Sen. Anne Cools caucused with the Liberals for 20 years before crossing the aisle to Conservatives in 2004, and three years later, she became an Independent until she retired in 2018.

    She only caucused with the Conservatives for three years, before spending the rest of her years as an Independent.

    She retired in 2018 shortly before her 75th birthday, and was the longest serving senator at the time.

    Check out the video above to hear more about her thoughts on politics today.

    IN DEPTH

    Opinion

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    opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

    When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

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    The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

    Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

    B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.

    Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

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    • Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

    • Friends and strangers have set up a makeshift memorial outside the home of a five-year-old boy who was found dead yesterday in Coteau-du-lac.

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    • The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

    World

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    Health

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    • Viewers of Jeopardy got a chance to test their knowledge of trivia about B.C.'s biggest city Wednesday night.

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    Sports

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    • A Winnipeg man is asking for help after a classic car that has been a part of his family since the 1950s was stolen from his garage.

    Local Spotlight

    They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

    Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

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    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

    It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

    A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

    David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

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    • The Parole Board of Canada says a man who assaulted a young pregnant woman and left her for dead remains too dangerous to be released into the community.

    • A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.

    • Police say a man who was taken to hospital in critical condition after being shot Thursday night has died.

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    • Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

    • A harrowing video has been presented to a jury at the trial of three men facing first-degree murder charges.

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    • Five bison are dead at Elk Island National Park east of Edmonton following an early Thursday morning collision.

    • An Edmonton man who is charged with sexually assaulting a teen boy is a member of the Alberta sheriffs, CTV News Edmonton has confirmed.

    • The mayor of Fort Saskatchewan apologized on Thursday for comments she made earlier this week about killing feral cats.

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    • Police are asking people to avoid the Dartmouth Commons area in Dartmouth, N.S., as they assist with a wildlife call for a bear.

    • An 83-year-old man is facing sexual interference charges following a Nova Scotia RCMP investigation.

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    • Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

    • A Winnipeg pet rescue is putting out a warning to dog owners across the city about a possible parvovirus in the province.

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    • Police are trying to identify a man who approached a woman and child in Wellesley.

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    • Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.

    • A social media post of purple apples “growing” in Saskatchewan has sparked a lot of attention. However, garden experts say there's no such thing.

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    • Two men from Barrie have been charged after a deadly shooting at a park in Keswick on Wednesday.

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    • In a rare move, the Greater Victoria School District Board of Education has been slapped with a ministerial order from the province requiring it to update a student safety plan – drawing concern around political posturing leading up to an election.

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    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

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    • A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.

    • A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.

    • Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.

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    • North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.

    • Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.

    N.L.

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