As a news producer for E! News Daily in 1998, I covered the 35th anniversary VHS (!) widescreen premiere of To Killing a Mockingbird in Beverly Hills. The actors who played Atticus, Scout, Jem, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley were there -- 35 years older, but still in love with this story of young enlightenment defeating prejudice in the mid-1930s American South.

Courtesy of blogger

For so long, popular media has, in a sharp but narrow way equated BHM with "slavery"! So much that new African immigrants to the America's like myself have often struggled with seeing their role in the BHM celebrations. Subsequently, this has led to questions and doubt as to where global Africans fit where BHM is concerned.

JGI/Jamie Grill via Getty Images

I have been asked recently why I blog on the Huffington Post. The question has come from a friend as well as a journalist, on Twitter, who suggested that I am taking food off his plate. My intention in my blogs is not to court conflict. Rather, I want to highlight the misuse of science in environmental decision-making.

AndreyPopov via Getty Images

Food bank use currently hovering at record levels. Food Banks Canada's HungerCount report shows that the food bank network acts as an unofficial Canadian safety net, trying to fill the gaps left by low-wage jobs and radically inadequate provincial social assistance programs.

dave.cournoyer | Flickr

I watched the new Manitoba NDP ad this morning with some interest and after a few seconds I realized I have seen this ad before. Back in 2011, then-Premier Dalton McGuinty looked like he was about to lose a looming election, the polls were bad, his approval numbers were terrible -- sound familiar?

gpointstudio via Getty Images

When most of us are asked what makes one a great communicator we usually emphasize speaking or writing ability. When in fact, the art of communicating rest with improving our passive listening. Active and passive listening are as different as listening and hearing.

KeithBishop

This generation is among the most talented, educated and globally connected ever. While some of the experiences and expectations of these young people are unique to their cohort, they have much in common with Canadian workers of all ages and backgrounds: they are looking for a way to make a difference -- be it at the local, national, or global level.

CHRIS ROUSSAKIS via Getty Images

Since the $15-billion Saudi arms deal was announced on Valentine's Day 2014, there have been numerous occasions when Ottawa should have explained to Canadians how this contract is compatible with the human rights safeguards of Canadian export controls. Yet two years on, we are still waiting for an explanation.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

As you might imagine the Alberta Prosperity Fund poll finds a small majority, 52 per cent, would vote for a newly formed PC/Wildrose party. Quito Maggi is the CEO of Mainstreet Research, the pollster for Postmedia and he correctly called the majorities for both the federal Liberals and the provincial New Democrats. He has three major concerns.

Robert Postma via Getty Images

Almost half of Canadian children in foster care are aboriginal, even though indigenous people make up less than five per cent of the population, according to the most recent statistics in the 2011 Census. What's particularly gut-wrenching is the majority of aboriginal children are placed in care, not because of parental abuse, but because their families are poor.

Ross Setford via Getty Images

We have a lot to learn from the Maori in how to sell our Indigeniety as something that can attract investment (both monetary and social) from the rest of the world. Luckily, we can add to this learning as we already have a model that helped shape Manitoba's business future internationally, many, many decades ago.

Adam Sylvester via Getty Images

The Canadian dollar is at an all-time low and that can mean a lot of re-planning or at least careful planning for Canadians looking to get away during March break. So where can you go to get away while not having to plan a getaway from a bank just to pay for it? Here's an easy way: stay in Canada.

Shutterstock

If you were in Uganda today, you wouldn't see an "out" LGBT person on the streets. You might not see an LGBT person at the polls. Why? Because LGBT folks have gone underground. They are afraid for their lives, even more than usual.

ericsphotography via Getty Images

All liberal democracies link nationality to origin from or residence in a territory. Not Israel. If you're a non-Jewish citizen, you can never be accepted as a national of the "Jewish state," and are hence subject to discrimination based on dozens of laws.

Tetra Images via Getty Images

In the span of roughly 50 years, the government and mainstream media condemned dietary fat before making a now near-complete 180. In 2016 butter is no longer bad, and in case you missed the headlines, the U.S. government declared cholesterol no longer "a nutrient of concern for overconsumption" and completely removed it from their dietary guidelines.

shutterstock

Companies with long histories of not giving a shit suddenly taking the high-road gives me the creeps. Reminds me of a guy volunteering at UNICEF just to get laid. For decades you bombard us with impossible standards and superficiality, making us believe that we need to be thinner, poutier, sexier, helping push our culture to historic levels eating disorders and social anxiety, saddling our women with insecurities and our men with jaded expectations. And now you care?

Comstock Images via Getty Images

Chances are that if you have been a patient in a large metropolitan hospital or are regularly treated in a teaching clinic, you have interacted with a resident doctor. Medical residency is that crucial period between our first days as newly-certified doctors and emerging as full-fledged, licensed physicians.

Perry Mastrovito via Getty Images

Payday loan companies in Ontario can charge a maximum of $21 on every $100 borrowed. That may not sound like a lot, but if you take out that loan every two weeks, for a year, you will have paid $546, which is an annual interest rate of 546 per cent. That's a lot higher than even the highest credit card interest rate.

FrancescoCorticchia via Getty Images

You set your hours, you choose your colleagues and you control your brand. Though entrepreneurship definitely has its upside, it can also be a rude awakening for those who don't have a realistic understanding of the challenges that come with being your own boss.

Science Photo Library - TEK IMAGE. via Getty Images

A start-up company is looking to establish a new business model in Saskatchewan. In worsening economic times, that might seem like great news. But if their business model is one that takes advantage of people's poverty and may undermine voluntary blood donations, then the prospect is far less appealing.
If Canada did need to collect more blood, opening for-profit clinics is not the way to do it.

Vinay_Bavdekar via Getty Images

If city charters are passed without true consent from the people, our fate is clear. We can expect new taxes, new levies, new fees, without change set aside to even afford new pants with deeper pockets. Our premier should do the right thing and put any new city taxes to a referendum.