The last time we featured Celina Caesar-Chavannes on the “Race, Health & Happiness” podcast was way back in 2019, when we were preparing to launch the first season of the show. At the time Celina was an elected Member of Canadian Parliament, and she was fierce and outspoken about who she was, and the issues that she cared about. From the outside, it would have seemed that she was on top of the world. But that just wasn’t the case, the truth was much more nuanced, and even ugly, as you will hear in this episode. Being in the political sphere broke Celina down, and she eventually decided to leave politics and rebuild her spirit.
Celina went on to write a book about her experiences, (https://www.celinacc.ca/book/) after reading it I wondered, how is Celina doing today? How does she reconcile all that has happened in the past couple of years? So I decided to give Celina a call, and the first part of this episode is that conversation.
The second part of this special episode is a "Race, Health & Happiness" throwback! It's my original interview with Celina from October 2019, after she had left the Canadian liberal party. We decided to bring back this gem after yet another Black woman, Annamie Paul resigned as the leader of the Green Party this year. A troubling but empowering pattern of Black women saying enough is enough. There is healing and wisdom in that so we’re bringing it back!
- Dr. O
View our ShowNotes for more information. [https://bit.ly/3DkKfeu]