FIRST BLACK POET LAUREATE DEFENDS USE OF RACIST WORD

Parliament said Monday it will not remove the slang form of the n-word from a poem on its federal website, Blacklock’s Reporter reported. The slur is found in a poem written by Halifax’s El Jones that was republished by Parliament’s former poet laureate, George Elliott Clarke. “Good poetry ought to be provocative,” said Clarke, who republished the poem, Shakespeare, which depicts the literary legend as a black rapper, three years ago. Clarke was Canada’s first Black poet laureate.