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Celebration of New Emancipation Day Memorial Artwork brings City of Brampton and community together

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Photo Credit: City of Brampton

BY PAUL JUNOR

It was an historic day on Thursday, August 1st,2024, when the City of Brampton unveiled a new cultural monument at Emancipation Park, which is located near Dixie Rd and Highway 427. On hand were Patrick Brown, Mayor of Brampton, Regional Councilor Rowena Santos as well as many community members, residents and supporters.

The press release issued by the City of Brampton states that it has added to its collection of more than 50 public art installations having recently unveiled a new memorial artwork commemorating Emancipation Day. August 1st has been celebrated across the British Empire which includes Canada, because it was on that day, 1833 that the Slavery Abolition Act was signed. The new cultural monument is titled, ”Fah Who Dis?” and it features two colourful sculptures symbolizing the vibrancy, resilience and cultural heritage of Black-identifying Canadians. It invites residents and visitors to learn, celebrate and reflect on their journey towards freedom and equality.

Details about the unveiling of the new Emancipation Day memorial artwork were released in a press release issued by the City of Brampton on Friday, August 2nd,, 2024. There were four artists who were commissioned to participate in the multi-artist project. They were:

Kanisha Dabreo A multidisciplinary artist, digital designer, Caribbean-Canadian and the founder of Artist Perception

Komi Olafimihan He is a Toronto-based visual artist who is of Nigerian background and works in diverse fields such as: painting, digital illustration, mural art.

Jamera Dacosta She engages in a wide view of areas such as: acrylic, oil pastel and digital art.

Jason O’Brien His work draws from Black-Afrocentric themes such as: culture, literature, music, fashion, and of culture.

Patrick Brown, Mayor of Brampton states, “This new monument stands as a powerful symbol of our commitment to learning from the past and building a future rooted in equity and inclusion. It honours the remarkable achievements of Black-identifying Canadians in our country’s history and the importance of staying together in solidarity. We are delighted to recognize Emancipation Day with such a significant and meaningful piece of art, and I want to extend our heartfelt thanks to AstroSankofa and the artists for their incredible work and vision.”

Rowena Santos, Regional Councilor, Wards 1 & 5, Chair of Community Services states, “AstroBlackJoy is not just an art installation; it is a celebration of culture, resilience and the unyielding spirit of Black-identifying Canadians. This memorial invites us all to reflect on our shared history and renew our commitment to combating racism and discrimination. It beautifully highlights the strength and diversity of our city, and I am deeply grateful to the artists for their dedication and creativity in bringing this project to life.”

Kelly Stahl, Director of Cultural Services, City of Brampton states, “We are thrilled to unveil AstroBlackJoy as a part of Brampton’s public art installation. This memorial embodies the collaborative spirit of our community and the incredible talent of our artists. It is a vibrant and thought-provoking piece that will inspire conversations and reflections on Emancipation Day and beyond.”

Kanisa Dabreo, Lead Artist of AstroBlackJoy states, “Creating AstroBlackJoy has been a deeply meaningful journey. This memorial is a tribute to the ancestors who fought for freedom and to the generations who continue to build on that legacy. It is a celebration of our culture, our history and our future. I am honoured to have collaborated with such talented artists and to contribute to Brampton’s public art collection.”

With a last name that means “Faithful and loyal,” it is no wonder that Paul Junor has become a welcomed addition to the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper Team. Since 1992, Paul has dedicated his life to become what you call a great teacher. Throughout the years, he has formed strong relationships with his students and continues to show them that he cares about them as people. Paul is a warm, accessible, enthusiastic and caring individual who not only makes himself available for his students, but for his community as well.

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Trying to eat clean in an age of the dirty food industry

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BY MICHAEL THOMAS

“The oils, found in almost all processed foods, are heavily subsidized because agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the oils, are funded by the industries that produce them.”

The above quote is from RFK (aka Robert F Kennedy Jr., Chairman and Founder of CHD, aka the Children’s Health Defense) while speaking about the family’s health in today’s profit-driven world.

The type of oils in question here is known as seed oils, which are produced using a very high volume of heat and are less beneficial to the body in comparison to oils that are cold pressed like: avocado oil and olive oil, which provide several health benefits.

Another hazard to our health is the coloring in the foods we consume. Do you know that food colors like red no 40, yellow no. 5, and yellow no. 6 are petroleum-derived? These substances are banned in places like Europe but are approved for use by the North American consumer, and what is more troubling is that they are linked to psychiatric and autoimmune problems.

There is scientific evidence that shows how diets high in ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are associated with an increased risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, as well as cognitive wasting and mild cognitive impairment. These foods are often high in unhealthy fats, salt, added sugar, or artificial sweeteners, like sucralose and aspartame.

Avoiding the pitfalls of ill health due to faulty diets is no walk in the park. This is especially true with today’s hefty grocery bills, but one must remember that the body is an investment, and you cannot withdraw what you did not deposit.

That said, a lifestyle rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats has been associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

In 2022 a prospective cohort study was published in Neurology and included the data of more than 700,000 people in the United Kingdom. After examining ultra-processed food consumption and various forms of dementia, the researchers found: “In the fully adjusted model, consumption of UPF was associated with higher risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia, respectively.”

“In addition, replacing 10% of UPF weight in diet with an equivalent proportion of unprocessed, or minimally processed foods was estimated to be associated with a 19% lower risk of dementia.”

The same researchers concluded, “Our findings highlight the contributory role of UPF consumption to the development of dementia and that coordinated global and national public health policies, and clinical guidelines are needed to displace consumption of UPFs with fresh, minimally processed, easily affordable food, to tackle the societal burden of dementia.”

So, the big question here is how we as consumers prevent all this dementia and other degenerative illnesses from taking us to the undertaker sooner rather than later.

In the opening of this article, we looked at the main culprits, namely the Food and Drug Administrations, and the industries that produced the food in every country that you the readers live in.

These are entities that need to be held accountable for giving the green light on importing and exporting such toxic goods, and the industries too should not be allowed to produce such fake foods.

Another major contributing factor to ill health universally is the pesticide that the industry is allowed to use on most of the fresh fruits and vegetables. If consumers do their homework and reject these heavily sprayed foods, this will send the folks behind this deadly game a financial message. “You spray and we keep away.”

“Despite the abundance of science linking exposure to pesticides with serious health issues, a potentially toxic cocktail of concerning chemicals continues to taint many of the non-organic fruits and vegetables eaten by consumers,” said Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., EWG toxicologist.

With this information in mind, there has never been a better time for us the people (aka consumers) to try and watch what we eat, know where our food is coming from, eat only organic food if you can, and apply pressure on the people in the food industry to do better.

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One would think that transparency would be mandatory when it had to do with people’s health

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Photo Credit: Raw Pixel

BY ADRIAN REECE

COVID-19 shook the world for years—quarantining countries and stripping people of their individual freedoms. Conspiracy theories were rampant during the lockdowns claiming that it restricted the rights and freedoms of most of the world. Misinformation and conflicting “truths” caused people to split over all information that came out during the course of the seemingly deadly virus.

Social media has for a while now been a source of information that is constantly updated and readily available. Many prominent and trustworthy news sources leverage social media to get information out to the public. Professionals of every discipline use social channels to provide information and updates on content relevant to their field to the general public in a less formal manner, while still maintaining 100% of the authority they hold in their professions. This content is subject to peer review. The content is public and a widely accepted practice that is almost encouraged to make correct information that much more accessible.

However, COVID-19 saw information disappear from social channels. Experts across every platform were silenced, banned, or their posts removed, hidden behind the guise of “giving out real information.” Doctors with years of experience, nurses who have been working in the healthcare field had their posts either shadow banned (the process of not letting others see their content), or outright deleted. Meta (the company that hosts Facebook and Instagram) was encouraged to censor information pertaining to the COVID-19 virus and vaccine.

Even experts who freely shared information on these platforms previously were being censored. Subject matter experts, with the intellectual authority to say what they want pertaining to a topic, had posts that were taken down, and professional reputations were in danger of being ruined due to the Covid information being spread.

The government seemed to want to push a particular narrative, and anything that didn’t align with that kind of information wasn’t accepted in the pipeline of allowable information. Measures like social distancing and masking were unnecessary. It made no sense as to why such measures were put in place when it can travel the same distance and space as the common cold. Also, the mortality rates of COVID-19 were widely unknown, many sources were relaying different information.

Healthcare professionals were talking about their experiences in hospitals with some doctors talking about how deadly it was while others were saying that the death rate was heavily exaggerated. We may never know the truth about what those rates really were, and what deaths were Covid related, or had other causes. Information about these sorts of things tends to come out generations later when people are no longer affected or interested.

Companies creating vaccines were not beyond reproach either, information related to the Covid vaccine was, and still is widely unknown to the general public. Companies wanted to release information regarding the contents of the vaccine in 75 years, or at the very least 10 pages at a time over a long duration.

One would think that transparency would be mandatory when it had to do with people’s health, but so much information was and still is hidden from the public eye that as more time goes by the truth will get more and more distorted until it is impossible to know what COVID-19 was really about and why we were forced to quarantine and take vaccinations for a brand new virus.

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We cannot avoid accountability for our spending ways, nor escape financially unscathed

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Photo Credit: rawpixel.com

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Paying the piper refers to you accepting responsibility for your actions and decisions. Overspending has consequences.

$411+ billion dollars. That is what is owed to others by Ontario’s government, its agencies and corporations. Your share is $27,000 per Ontarian. Not important? Disinterested? Got better things to think about today? So, move along then, but be patiently weary as this debt will reappear soon enough and you will be forced to acknowledge its importance once and for all.

Debt has a way of increasing, while your saved income can and will decrease in time because of items such as: increasing taxes, governmental monetary acquisitions decreasing, governmental charges never seen before appearing, less governmental staffing to serve you, less services offered you, possible services once in the public’s hands now put into private businesses hands. Once a private corporation controls something the “profit” principle is applied, and it will cost the public big time. While the public authorities look at something well over time, private industry wants its profit “right now.

Once public debt grows, private banking institutions put the public sectors through the ringer with higher interest rates, sharper payment schedules and loads of legal this and that. The public’s borrowing ability can and has been harmed because its debt is just too massive, too much a threat to the public’s ability to repay. The government may need to cut services and staff in the essential service industries like healthcare. Most Conservative governments have no problem cutting services that are provided by Liberal-NDP friendly staff members.

Doug Ford has relied upon private industries’ ability to expand, grow and flourish in Ontario. Employment levels in some quarters are very high, and revenue is being acquired by the Provincial and local governments throughout Ontario, but is that enough? $411 billion is a lot of dough to repay or allow to hang over the heads of all Ontarians for many decades to come.

The public will have to face the music, reap what we have sown, pay the price, and get what is coming to us. We cannot avoid accountability for our spending ways, nor escape financially unscathed. Dodging the bullet today will only place the weight of our debts upon generations to come.

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