Celebrating Black Innovation and Resistance in Ontario

tures Month from 2015 - 2017 within the Greater Toronto Area focusing on events and art exhibits. He founded the Canadian chapter for the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM Canada) in 2016. Quentin’s passion is artivism in which he utilizes art as a tool for social change.

The celebration of Black History Month 2023 by the Toronto Transit Commission was truly an unforgettable experience for those who witnessed the project: Moving Legacies: Celebrating Black Innovation and Resistance in Ontario. On Saturday, February 25th, there was a bus tour that highlighted stops where art works and installations were present. Details about the project can be seen on their website: www.TTC.ca/BHM. The project resulted from a partnership between the TTC and Astrosankofa Arts Initiatives spearheaded by Quentin VerCetty.

Quentin is an award-winning multidisciplinary storyteller, educator, and Afroturist. He describes himself as a: visual griot, artpreneur, educator, artivist, ever-growing interstellar tree. He is the first-ever visual artist commissioned by Carnegie Hall to create a signature work of art to represent one of the Hall’s festivals.

Quentin graduated from OCAD University, previously known as Ontario College of Art and Design. His work reflects a speculative narrative with a strong Afrofuturism motif to address issues of representation, immigration, decolonization and the absence of PDAA (Public display of Appreciation for Africa). He told Carnegie Hall that Afrofuturism is, “A Pan-African frequency that’s a time-bending collage of legacies, an arts movement, and a creative practice. It is about thinking creatively about the collective healing of all living things through an Afro-centred lens and represents the continuation of life in a fantastic holistic way.”

Quentin’s work has been featured in countries all over the world including Mexico, Haiti, Peru, Australia, United Arab Empire, and Germany. As an educator working in the Greater Toronto Area, he co-organized and cocurated the programming for Black Fu-

The Moving Legacies project showcased the unique works of several individuals: Adeyemi “Ying” Yem Adegbesan, Autumn Beals, Kanisha Dabreo, Danilo “Deluxo” McCallum, Meighan Morson, Komi Olaf, Quentin VerCetty and Troydell Wallace. These individuals have played very important roles in diverse areas of Ontario such as: politics, education, infrastructure and industry, and thus reflect the richness and diversity of the province.

VerCetty coined the term “AstroSankofa” which is included in AstroSankofa Arts Initiatives. He told Carnegie Hall that he conceived this word to describe the function of his art. “It comes from the West African Ghanian word sankofa which describes how one learns from the past, present and future, or connects with it.” He builds on his Afrofuturism motif to relate it to Sankofanology. He notes, “The intentionality of representation in Afrofuturism allows for timeless deep connections on many levels to many different people. This is important, as this has been the practice of African people that dates to the Nok of Nigeria and the people of Kin.”

Quentin is one of the leading Afroturist a/r/tographers in the world and has also coined the term “Rastafuturism” to extend the creative conception of Black representation. He created Canada’s first art book on Afrofuturism, “Cosmic Underground Northside” in 2020.

I spoke with Quentin on Wednesday, February 22nd, about the TTC project. He expressed excitement about the educational, inspirational and motivational artwork as part of the campaign by AstroSankofa. “They bring art to life.”

On Saturday, February 25th, a customized bus tour occurred between 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm where community partners celebrated the outstanding contributions of Black Canadians.

Anyone interested in learning about Moving Legacies can visit www. TTC.ca/BHM

Could Digital ID’s be the reason Trudeau’s government deleted COVID-19 injection data from their website?

MICHAEL THOMAS michael@carib101.com

TC REPORTER

After such a vigorous campaign to inject all Canadians with a trial injection, separating them by injection status (aka injection passports), travel refusals, and calling them racist and misogynist, Justin Trudeau’s government is now scrubbing the internet of its COVID information data.

Many questions come to mind, but the main one is why now?

This information was on their website in detailed form, which consisted of age group, amount of dose taken, and time of injection uptake. Could it be that Canadians have begun to wake up about the damage and deaths caused by these experimental poi- son shots, and as a result have started refusing them? Or could COVID have been the spare tire used to take Canadians up the hill of a Digital ID system?

Let’s try and analyse this situation and not fall prey to whatever the culprits have planned for us.

On January 10th, 2023, the cumulative percentage of people who received a COVID shot in Canada was deleted. Just before this data was deleted, the first booster uptake in Canada was reported at 50.7%. The second booster uptake was reported at 23.4%.

Note that not only is there a reduction in people showing up for this poison shot, but a drastic reduction. Less than half of the people fell for the game this time around, and this could just be the reason that the organizers decided to change tactics or even change the line-up of the game completely.

On February 3rd, 2023, more items were deleted from the federal government website, again the question remains why and why now? Could it be that Trudeau’s government is fully aware of the death and damage done by these so-called vaccines, but wants to keep most Canadians in the dark?

Could it be that this Liberal government is getting ready to categorize Canadians into groups, like compliant and noncompliant?

Judging from this government’s previous track record one can almost be sure that if the masses allow them to roll out Digital ID it will most definitely be tied to their famous so-called vaccines. It is extremely important for Canadians not to forget the way those who were not injected were treated just over a year ago. If you were not injected, you were in the rejected category.

Under a Digital ID system, this same treatment will be reserved for your brothers and sisters who don’t comply, only this time it will include jail time and God knows what else. So, as Canadians, we need to look before we leap.

On February 3rd, 2023, Manitoba Premier Scott Moe responded to a request from the Trudeau government to trade its citizen’s medical data with the federal government, but he refused. Here are the quotes from his letter.

“The government of Saskatchewan is not creating a Digital ID, nor will we accept any requirements for the creation of a Digital ID tied to health care funding.”

“The government of Saskatchewan will not share any personal medical information with the federal government. This information is protected under the Health Information Protection Act and will remain so.”

“The government of Saskatchewan may share already publicly available health care statistics, including the number of physicians in Saskatchewan and surgical wait times if requested by any party, including the federal government.”

“The government of Saskatchewan will not surrender nor weaken any health privacy rights when signing a new Canada Health Transfer instead. We will work diligently towards a funding agreement that benefits Saskatchewan people by investing in health care in both rural and urban areas of our province.”

It could be a prudent move for all provinces in this country to adopt Moe’s policy toward any Digital ID system. This move might just avoid Canadians who are seen as enemies of the new narrative from ending up in a concentration camp.