July 26, 2021 For today’s flavour of Secret Sauce, let’s talk about Maafa, aka The Transatlantic Slave Trade. Maafa means "Terrible Thing" in Swahili. On August 1, 1834 the British government abolished slavery across the Commonwealth including Canada. On June 19, 1865, slavery was abolished in the United States. Today, that day is referred to as Juneteenth. Many Canadians are now familiar with Juneteenth because last year many Canadian companies gave their employees the day o

May 29, 2021 This past week marked one year since the world watched in horror as Minneapolis citizen George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer on May 25, 2020, the act caught on video by multiple witnesses with cellphones. Floyd’s murder in broad daylight sparked ongoing worldwide protests against police brutality and white supremacy, with officer Derek Chauvin finally being found guilty of murder just last month. It’s been a hard year but one filled with demands fo

Originally published June 3, 2020 It’s been a difficult 48 hours. I have not felt this emotional since 9/11. Anger. Frustration. Sadness. Exhaustion. Joy. Hope. The first four are obvious. The latter two may not be. Joy for me is about change. Racism, overt and systemic, is nothing new for me. It has always been a part of my life. So much so that dealing with it has become akin to breathing. You just do it. Black folks know this. It has been a part of our lives for generation