By Oscar Wailoo “Christmas-time [is]… the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound […]
By Sukhram Ramkissoon A 34-year-old Jamaican citizen has her “best Christmas gift”, victory on her recent application to remain in Canada under humanitarian and compassionate grounds. She came to Canada in July 2006 as a visitor and after several unsuccessful applications to remain in Canada she was finally approved. I will refer to her as Sharon, […]
Music, drinks, food and merrymaking are now the order of the day. And so it should be. Let us kick-start the festive season with some Christmas music. As a first option, we have at our electronic disposal the offerings of Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and the others who have dominated the Christmas music genre […]
By Michael Lashley The shock we feel on learning of the horrible violence visited on the adults and children in a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, cannot be properly addressed in this commentary. I have therefore changed my format to try to reflect these emotionally charged circumstances and to honour the memory of those who perished […]
One should never become too blasé to react to yet another formal confirmation of the use of torture by agents of the government of the United States of America. It is nevertheless necessary to concede that there are some positive aspects to the story surrounding the release of the report of the U.S.A.’s Senate Intelligence […]
By Sukhram Ramkissoon One of the goals of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) is to help reunite families. For this reason, Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor their spouse to become a Canadian permanent resident. Some people abuse spousal sponsorship by entering into marriages of convenience, so that they can sidestep Canada’s […]
By Lauren A. Albert The Presidential Housing Allowance under debate in Trinidad and Tobago raises serious questions about accountability, transparency, integrity – and perhaps legal and constitutional questions – within that nation’s governmental system. Central to the debate is the division of responsibility by public officials and President Anthony Carmona’s access to a monthly allowance […]
By Michael Lashley Let me tell you a little story about the importance of a sense of accountability to oneself for finding fulfillment in life. A story is sometimes a very effective way of explaining a principle. Almost a year ago, I sent the following tribute to the family of my friend Helen Atteck who […]
Even as we in Canada are hundreds of miles away, the objectionable odor of Black men being killed by the police services of the United States of America is choking us with its outrageous mix of racism and blatant injustice. Whether or not police action is found to be excessive in any specific case, we […]
By Sukhram Ramkissoon Trinidad major dailies trumpeted the headlines ‘Back to Africa’ and ‘11Africans Deported’ as a late-night legal battle in the courts on Dec. 6 failed to stop deportation of 15 illegal Ghanaian migrants. According to news reports a Caribbean Airline (CAL) plane was chartered at a cost of $2.6 million to deport illegal […]
