Black filmmaker Jonte Richardson says he is stepping down as a BAFTA judge:

People still don't think Black and Indigenous people exist in Canada even though we've *been* here for centuries. Canada is a literal ongoing colonial project and yet it's viewed as a racism-free utopia. Meanwhile we're shot dead, denied care, discriminated against on the job etc. by design.

Oh this is EXCITING. I'm ready! deadline.com/2026/02/ryan...

Too difficult to acknowledge that harm was done, irrespective of what was meant/intended. Too difficult to recognize that Black people deserve to be in spaces with their dignity intact. Too difficult to recognize that structural oppression makes IMPACT. Too hard to show empathy to Black people.

That "if" is LOUD. He confirms that he left b/c he was mortified. No mention of the real harm that Black people experienced. And *once again* the focus is not the impact of racism and the weight of the word irrespective of what was intended. I see that the disrespect has entered another galaxy.

1. BS apology from the host 2. Zero apology from BAFTAS 2a. No editing of the broadcast 3. N-word hurled more than once 4. No acts of care or concern towards MBJ or Delroy, Black people 5. Zero accommodations for safety 6. All during BHM The disrespect is in outer space at this point.

(……one of the more useful things journalists do, I think, is help people understand who to be mad at, and why)

You, an individual, cannot "fix" the whole world. You can act at the scale of your life. You should act at the scale of your life.

Finally started Cross S2 and my Toronto spidey senses are tingling. I swear I just saw York U, lol.

In better news, Ryan's speech is so so beautiful. The love he has for everyone but especially Michael is just so powerfully radiant. youtu.be/n44HeX9fqqQ?...

The BAFTAs need to apologize to Black people, if we're being 100. MBJ and Delroy Lindo may have been subject to that shit but every Black person in that room had to hear it and were impacted, I'm sure.

💙

Laughing together. Blesses my heart and spirit that we can *and* do, no matter what. It's a beautiful way of taking up and sharing space in the world.

Ebo Taylor, who did for Ghanaian music what his friend Fela Kuti did for Nigeria, has been called the greatest rhythm guitarist in history. His son Kweku Taylor: “The world has lost a giant, a colossus of African music, leaving behind an unmatched artistry legacy. Dad, your light will never fade.”

"one of Boseman’s plays, Deep Azure, is being revived for a 9-week run at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London. ...The play tells the story of the aftermath of the death of an unarmed Black man, Deep, who is murdered by a police officer." inspired by his friend Prince Jones (murdered sept 2000)

This Relationship Goals movie is just Christian propaganda and a very long ad for the book. 👎🏿 It's like Think Like A Man but the 2020s version. Unfortunate, when the two leads are fine.

Can't say it enough, if you are going to build ANYTHING, you are going to be criticized much more than you will be praised. Do not be deterred. Build what you want to exist. Find your people and seek their counsel. Keep it moving.

US sanctions are strangling Cuba’s oil supply, putting hospitals, electricity, and essential services on the brink of collapse. Members of the Canadian Network on Cuba discuss how this blockade isn’t just an attack on Cuba—it’s a challenge to sovereignty, solidarity, and global justice.

Something fun in advance of tomorrow’s looooooooooooong-awaited opening. thelocal.to/understandin...

Just got flashbacks to the way ABC completely pulled the rug from under the Danny and Lacey relationship because the white best friend wasn't getting any screen time. Gosh, that was such a horrible turn of events and a clear example of white tears on and off screen.

J. "I don't read" Cole is trying to reclaim, *checks notes* "mulatto"? Tracks. Let me go back to ignoring him.

And as usual, this city has more signage and alerts about the Eglinton LRT than at the stations it actually runs by. Lol I really hate the way the city hates its residents in the ends. It's always so glaring.

Of course I had a dentist appointment on the *morning* of an extreme cold weather alert in the city. OF COURSE. Just came back and my whole window is covered in frost.

Very inspiring day spent at the PERL launch. Canada's first Pandemic Readiness lab in a university, but hopefully not the last! montrealgazette.com/news/local-n...

Eldest daughters:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwio... A beautiful song (that I wish she could perform with a full orchestra!) on my mind today:

I think there is some merit and value to the ways in which moms in particular blogged and shared about their experiences as parents. Sometimes that may have been the only way to draw attention to particular aspects of parenting. I get that. But then it became currency and personality.

It's really wild. The whole thing is like an ecosystem at this point because people watch as well and turn regular children into celebrities they "follow" and beg for updates from, which is weird. Many of these parents refuse to let go of their own allegiance to their desire for visibility.

(Precisely why I can't watch it again without balling.) It was so so beautifully done and so seamless in those connections. They highlighted the best part of musicianship and the love that grows in it. I like to think both D'Angelo and Roberta Flack are so very happy about it.

Nearly 200 artists are boycotting the Scotiabank Photography Award over the bank’s investments in Israeli weapons maker Elbit Systems, rejecting cultural prestige built on war profiteering and genocide. @tianareid.bsky.social on the growing cultural boycott and the fight to divest art from war.

Oh Macaulay 😭😭😭

I just started my Schitt's Creek rewatch last week too. A brilliant show and one of the best, ever. It's my comfort show. A real bright spot during the first few years of the pandemic for me. I marvel at Catherine's brilliance as an actor every time. So much love to her fam.

Oh my goodness. 💔 An absolute legend and Canadian treasure. Man, this Friday sucks.

New from me: More Than 100 Gazans Have Been Accepted to Canadian Universities. Canada Isn’t Letting Them In.

Message for all the parents, staff and kiddos!

They're both awful in their own ways but if I had to choose? It's Frank and it's not even close. He was toxic masculinity personified, called his daughter a tramp had an outside baby on his dead wife (and lied about it at first) and was super dismissive of and insensitive towards Miles.

I think a lot of us get hope wrong. Hope, I do not believe, is an emotion. In fact, hope makes space for lots of emotions to exist alongside it. You can DO hope scared, angry, sad etc... Hope doesn't find us. We make hope through action and struggle. It's a practice of living and is re-made daily.

Orange level snowstorm warning today in TO, y'all. It's already started. Stay warm. Stay indoors. Stay safe!

Extreme cold hitting -30 C plus 20-30 cm of snow on Sunday? I'm in the house for the entire weekend. Everything's cancelled!

LOL WOW Here I thought he was gonna say something below -25 with the way he's dressed 😂. -9 is like two layers for me. Definitely no need for oven mitts for gloves.

Hoping y'all have a safe tomorrow with the impending winter storm hitting places that it usually doesn't. From someone who lives in a place where a) snow storms happen every year and b) there's always a major accident, stay home if you can. It is absolutely not worth it.

HELLO. Black Canadian here and I can tell you it's the thing so many white Canadians rely on to make arguments or assessments about anything. Canada's national identity is enmeshed with the idea of not being like other places in that context... while denying that it's an ongoing colonial project.

There's something really callous and insidious about creating a product using state-sanctioned murder context in order to line pockets, and using your celebrity to frame it as "honour". There is nothing honourable about doing something in MLK's name that does not reflect any of MLK's values or work.

I really, really thought to myself: NO WAY a BLACK person would design sneakers using the colour scheme of the sign from the motel where MLK was *assassinated* to...."honour" him today. NO WAY. I just... All the rhetorical questions are flooding my mind because HOW?

*Finally* getting around to seeing S2 of For the Culture created by the brilliant Amanda Parris. Only on E1 but it is excellent, informative and super relevant. It's about Black Tourism with a focus on Jamaica and Ghana.

I really want Black women to keep some of themselves for themselves. I want us to feel entitled to that peace/piece. I want us to preserve and protect our willing and soft hearts with guardrails and boundaries. I want us to stop running ourselves into the ground and calling it success.

If anything, I wish I had more time to *just* be a kid.

Nah. I wished that I wasn't burdened with so much responsibility as a child onwards by my parents and the adults around them who reinforced those messages. I didn't know how exhausted I was until I started saying "No".

This is huge: For the first time since the early 1970s, coal power generation has fallen in both China & India. It undercuts claims that decarbonisation is pointless while they expand coal. Renewables are no longer just adding capacity — they’re displacing coal. www.theguardian.com/business/202...