Black history must become part of Ontario’s curriculum to help fight systemic racism in schools, advocates say

Natasha Henry, the head of the Ontario Black History Society, told CTV News Toronto that her organization has been trying to push the province for decades to have Black history part of learning mandated in Ontario.

“It’s an example of systemic anti-Black racism in the country,” Henry said. “There isn’t a level of recognition that’s consistent as it relates to the 400-year presence of Black people here in Canada.”

But Poppy Day bad!

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Ford government warns of potential counterfeit N95 masks in provincial stockpile

“The Ministry of Health is urgently reviewing all inventory in its warehouses to identify any affected product. We have also alerted our federal partners at Health Canada of the situation by 3M and have been working with them to address the issue,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

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Violent arrest of skateboarder aided by CBC employee

A video has recently gone viral of police in Barrie, Ontario performing a very physical arrest on a young man who was skateboarding. Allegedly, the 20-year-old man had ran a red light. The officers involved shoved the man’s face into the cold, snowy pavement and also at another point hit him with a Taser, threatening to “light [the skateboarder] up.”

In a strange twist, a third man came over to assist the officers in their efforts to restrain the man — while wearing a CBC jacket. It was later revealed that the CBC employee was also a volunteer auxiliary Ontario Provincial Police officer.

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FUREY: The public health experts continue to fear-monger

In January, public health experts fear-mongered that we would see 20,000 cases per day by mid-February in Ontario. It turns out there has been a massive decline in cases – now Ontario is at about 5% of that prediction.

Why aren’t health experts celebrating the fact that their predictions didn’t come true? Instead, they’re now warning Ontarians about a new variant of COVID-19.

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‘They’ve failed Ontarians’: Doctors highlight mistakes and missteps of Ontario’s COVID-19 response

Dr. Jennifer Kwan responds to Ontario Minister of Health Christine Elliott on Twitter to include the death total that the Minister leaves out of her daily update on social media

“The COVID-19 response has been one of waiting for things to get worse before acting. A lot of what’s happened has been preventable,” said Dr. Kaplan-Myrth.

“There’s a lack of transparency, there’s a lack of honesty about what is happening behind the scenes, what’s happening on the ground and nothing is changing,” she said.

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59 per cent compliance rate found during safety blitz at Ontario big-box stores

Another weekend safety blitz at big-box stores across Ontario has led to 20 tickets thus far, resulting in a 59 per cent compliance rate.

“There’s no excuses at this point in the game,” Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton said on Sunday afternoon. “Every business knows what to do.”

“This is not good enough.”

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Doug Ford sent his Justice Department after Rebel News

You’ve likely heard of Rebel News’ crowdfunded campaign called Fight The Fines. We provide a lawyer for individuals who receive a charge under abusive, unconstitutional lockdown rules. We send a journalist to tell the story of how the person was fined, we hire a lawyer and then we crowdfund to cover the fees.

It’s a project that’s been ongoing for nearly a year now, beginning all the way back in April, 2020.

All of a sudden, however, the Government of Ontario has taken issue with one aspect of our campaign. It’s something you’ll see if you visit our special portal at FightTheFines.com — go ahead, visit the site and see for yourself if you can guess what Premier Doug Ford’s justice department has taken umbrage with.

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Ontario lacks Black and Indigenous engineering profs — this program hopes to change that

A new University of Waterloo-led project hopes to make Canada’s engineering schools more reflective of the country’s population.

The Indigenous and Black Engineering Technology (IBET) PhD Project will provide $25,000-a-year fellowships – along with mentorship and networking opportunities – to Black and Indigenous students pursuing doctoral degrees in engineering and math.

“Currently, we have a huge under-representation of Indigenous and Black scholars in academia,” said Tiz Mekonnen, who is the inaugural director of the PhD project.

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Music store fined: Family trying piano broke gathering limits

Here’s what happened: a family of three came to Gladys’ store to pick up guitar strings. The store had already closed for the day, but she let the family in to purchase the strings. The father mentioned he was also looking to buy a piano for his son.

Given that the piano he was eyeing was about $5,000, he wanted to try out the piano before purchasing it. His request was perfectly reasonable, and Gladys gave him permission to tickle the ivories.

That’s when someone who likely deserves the 2020 title of “Ultimate COVID-Karen” wandered over and looked inside the store window. You see, there is an individual who “patrols” the strip plaza where Excel Music is located, dutifully ensuring that all the merchants play by the ‘rules.’

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