BY MICHAEL THOMAS

Is Canada’s Wonderland participating in the racial profiling of young black men too? Try asking this question to Keishia Facey and the answer would be a no-holds-barred YES, and I shall explain why as we progress in this article.

Imagine you are the mother of a sixteen-year-old son who happens to be Black. Imagine sending your son off by Uber to enjoy himself at Canada’s Wonderland, but when he gets there, he is refused entry.

N (as I would call him) was told that he fits the profile of someone who was not welcomed at the amusement park and that was it, case closed and if he persisted, he was told they would call the police on him. As we shall find out later, N and his mother decided to show his ID as evidence that he was not there before, but that was ignored, and he was left outside the amusement park. Imagine that!

Readers, your next question would be why, or what happened? Let us keep imagining things for now. Remember this young man was put in a cab by his mother, so naturally when he was refused entry at the Vaughan amusement park on September 28^th, 2024 he called his mother to see if she could help clarify things.

Let’s imagine that you are the mother of this 16-year-old, you show up at this amusement park thinking this should be easy, he is going to be admitted now that you are here, what is the misunderstanding?

Picture yourselves readers as the boy’s mother trying to find out why your son was refused entry, only to be dismissed and to find out there is another group of black boys that are not wanted at the entrance either. This article will test your imagination, but you will be unpleasantly surprised.

Now picture yourself standing at the entrance of this amusement park with your son and seven, or eight other Black boys between the ages of 14-16, being refused entry into Canada’s Wonderland. Shall we imagine that all nine, or so of these little Black boys looked like someone who was denied entry previously? Shall we?

Now readers, this gets worse, try, and imagine you as N’s mother having the police called on you by Canada’s Wonderland just because you are inquiring why your son cannot enjoy an amusement park in the country where he was born.

I think this imaginary horror story has run its course, and regrettably, I must inform you that all that you have read so far is not a fairy tale, but a real-life ordeal. Now let me introduce you to this real-life cast.

I had the privilege of speaking with N’s mother Mrs. Keishia Facey, Co-founder of the REST (OR) REFORM Equity Conference which advocates for racial justice in our community.

According to Facey, Canada’s Wonderland security called the police on her and her son to inquire why he was refused entry.

Facey told me that when the officer arrived and she tried explaining what happened, Officer K. Ramos told her that, as a minority himself, he found nothing racial about this incident. “After taking what the security guards told him, he said he deemed it not racist,” Facey told me.

It is important to note here that the amusement park security called the police not to clarify things regarding her son’s refusal of entry, but to arrest her because they deemed her manner aggressive. After all, she questioned their decision.

“It just goes to show how a lot of the racist troupes against my son and myself were at play. I am a Black woman so therefore I am angry, and I am aggressive, when all I am trying to ask is what is the reason why my son is not allowed to come in,” Facey told me.

“The problem is that this is not just an individual case of my son and his friend. I am standing here with a group of Black boys who are not allowed to come in, while all these other kids are dressed the same and are allowed to go in, while there is a wall of security screening people out. That is racial profiling,” she said.

Facey told me, “Whoever they were saying my son was, they had no ID for such a person.”

Facey believes that these security guards are not properly trained, and so, one dangerous Black boy to them means one size fits all. “That is racial profiling,” she told me.

Canada’s Wonderland Marketing Director told another news source the reason for turning back N from the amusement park was for wearing an item that concealed his identity, an act that is a violation of the park’s Code of Conduct, yet as stated earlier in this article Canada’s Wonderland downplayed the idea of an ID check from N and his mother. For the record, N’s mother called that statement by Canada’s Wonderland a lie.

In all fairness, I reached out to Canada’s Wonderland by contacting Dwayne McMulkin, the Corporate Director of Marketing and Brand Management at Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, which owns the theme park, to obtain their version of this tragic incident, but no one replied to me.

I asked Facey what she would like to see happen at the end of all this, she replied, “I think the security guards need to be trained, they need to know what anti-Black racism is, they need to know that no matter if  they are: Brown, Indian, White, or Chinese that anti-Black racism in Canada needs to be fought against, and so they can respond differently.”

Facey said she is in conversation with York Regional Police on the matter as well.

BY STEVEN KASZAB

“The truth is everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find those worth suffering for.” Bob Marley spoke of both a personal and national quest. Find unity, and you’ve found those worth suffering for.

The Caribbean diaspora is one of the untapped powerhouses of North America. Imagine how many fellow citizens of Caribbean descent: live, work and prosper in America and Canada. Together we are looking at 18 million legal and illegal migrants giving to their preferred neighborhoods throughout the continent. A million in Canada and many more in the USA inject into our societies their: passion, emotions, social activism, professionalism and their: blood, sweat and tears to build a home and community for themselves and their future comers. A population centered in the urban spheres, in Florida and New York City. Toronto is home to over a hundred thousand of this incredible diaspora of: artists, workers, professionals, and educators.

There are many forms of misinformation regarding the migrants trying to achieve citizenship in America and Canada. “They are a drag upon the established financial and social order, criminals and social dependents.” Thank you, Donald Trump, and most Republicans, for showing what type of people you really are. In fact, the Caribbean diaspora make up a majority of small businesses in their new homelands, creating employment and financial investment in places once not there.

Those that flee: Haiti, Dominican, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and other places are often ambitious: professionals, teachers, skilled workers and potential citizens for a marketplace that can and does welcome them. Financial, or security are the primary reasons these people leave their homelands to brave travel to our neighborhood.

Imagine if a group with such vitality and connection could unite in the face of America’s chaotic financial and political onslaught. Being a minority in America has always been a challenge particularly if you’re still considered an “outsider” like most visually, socially different people are. How could this small group reflect its desires, demands and expectations? Perhaps alliances between Canadian-American and Caribbean based groups are essential. Acquiring, managing, and programming media outlets not only friendly to the Caribbean, but centered upon the Caribbean community’s needs, wants and future expectations.

Reimagining the old notion of traveling to the Caribbean for a week, or two and bye bye until next year. Developing notions that the Caribbean is not over there, but right here in Canada, and the USA, in your community and neighborhood. Being a distant place to vacation makes it easier to forget that place and its people. Bringing that place and its people’s traditions, culture and lived reality to Canadian and Americans attention is another story. Establishing a connection with their host nations is essential.

The Caribbean diaspora has a massive financial sway upon the Canadian and American economy as too their political sector. The Caribbean diaspora interjects 145 billion dollars into their host nations’ economies annually. Those who came from the Caribbean invest their professionalism and money into their host nations’ businesses, corporations, and governmental agencies. The Caribbean diaspora is a huge asset to their hosts. Make the host nations realize this in real time. The Caribbean diaspora must leverage their importance to their host nations: culturally, socially, financially, and politically.

In unity will any cultural, or ethnic group achieve attention and consideration from the majority. Look at how and what the: LGBQT community, the Jewish community, and the Black Lives Matter achieved. The Caribbean diaspora with the greater Caribbean community can achieve much if they can unite their commonality and purpose here in Canada/America as to their homelands.

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Many of my American customers have made commentary upon the relationship between Canada and the USA, and upon what makes up a Canadian. Are these two people the same or somehow different? Canadians and Americans share a great deal, watch the same television, have similar love for democracy and work together in business and play. Millions of us travel back and forth with seemingly only our national labels separating us from the other.

Our histories are intertwined, families spread across each border, with Canadians expressing their trust and love for the cousins down south. We have historically fought one another, distrusted one another, yet become the greatest of allies as well. A huge border separates each nation from the other, yet millions cross this border freely each day. Our economies are interwoven, and we walk in space together as a unit of explorers with lapel flags identifying us from the other.

What makes Canadians and Americans different? Two words and their meaning makes the case clearly. Family and Cooperation: A group of related things living together – descendants of a common ancestor working together.

“Family” holds a special place of reverence and historical significance socio-politically to both Canadians and Americans. That similarity is clear. I believe the difference in how we view family, and what family means to us. American individualism holds a pivotal historic place within the American social fabric. This flows into how they view and live their family experience. Family is a part of the greater national experience, but individualism maintains a separation from the greater public’s expectations. Individuals and their families are separate from the greater whole. Importance to the needs, expectations, myths of the individual run supreme and above the national needs and expectations. Nationalism in America is characteristically centered on independence and self-reliance.

Canadian expressions of “family” are similar, but the lived concept of family is far more holistic in its approach. Not only are family members part of the family unit, but Canadians view others in Canada as family as well. Our acceptance of the social compact unites Canadians and presses our expression to help the other. Canadian social thought evolved to accept and place social policy decisions such as our universal health care and the protection of the citizen from undue: financial, mental, and physical challenges.

America’s acceptance of the supremacy of capital and individualism places its citizens in harm’s way should that citizen face such challenges as illness (no insurance), or loss of job (loss of home). Canadian social attitudes place cooperation among our citizens as the primary method of achievement as a society and family.

Americans’ reverence of competition places citizens and American institutions against one another. Darwinian attitudes place capital and individualism into every aspect of American life from the moment an American is born in a hospital to the day they pass away. Capital, wealth, personal achievement reaches into every American’s lived experience as though it were a religion. Not so in Canada. Perhaps it is Canadians feeling of inferiority living beside the greatest democratic nation on earth, or because we understand America’s importance to Canada’s welfare and well-being be it: financial, economic, or our national defense. The proverbial little cousin.

That feeling unites Canadians, making us far more empathetic to our neighbors and the world. This empathy enters our political and social realities, as to how we see ourselves. Our inferiority makes us more cooperative, and socially responsible.

American individualism and Canadian cooperative thought. Alternatives offered to free people. Choose and choose well.