You were my first love. I fell in love with you at 16. When we met, I was dazzled by your charm. You smelled sweet and offered me everything a girl could ever want. I saw some warning signs when some of the products I needed were not on your shelves, but chose to ignore them.

Instead of focusing on the short-lived joy of spending, we must take notes from those who lived before us.

Columnist Marc Grannum breaks down his personal struggle with the Occupy movement as someone working within the capitalistic financial industry with an upbringing that taught him fairness and equality for all.

Black students in Toronto have among the lowest graduation rates as student apathy runs high, according to the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). The reasons for this are both complex and varied but in part due to a flawed school system that fails to address the needs of some its most vulnerable students.

For fifty years, AI activists have been speaking out. They have written letters, organized public events, met with their MP’s, circulated petitions, set up Facebook pages, and so much more. And it makes a difference. We hear that all the time.

It is my hope that we continue to look beyond our own backyard to celebrate the unique qualities and characteristics that have made our Canada a different country than most.

Any effort to tear asunder what many of our Ancestors fought and died to put together - namely, Black unity across all boundaries, be they of class, caste, religion, geographical location, language or sexual orientation - is unnatural and abnormal and should be roundly condemned wherever it rears its ugly head.

I refuse to buy into the idea that I need to start developing a strategy of either dating outside my race (not that there’s anything wrong with that), losing my seemingly innately bitchy attitude or becoming more submissive in order to be valued and deemed worthy of marriage.

In an Ontario that is diverse and modern, the visibility of visible minorities in elected office - especially that of black Canadians - should concern us all.

I initially became a Liberal because of the universal misconception of what the Liberal Party of Canada / Ontario is all about. I remember my history teacher in high school, explaining to us how the Liberal party liked “immigrants and black people” in very rosy and simple terms where as the conservatives were “racist”.