It's back to Blogger we go

Readers, apparently Wordpress has self-destructed (one hopes it is temporary) and we are back to blogger for the moment.

Applying for Legal Aid, Part 1

Basic information on how to apply for Legal Aid (in Ontario) can be found on the Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) website.

Some things to keep in mind when you are applying:

Legal Aid is designed to assist low-income people. You will need to consent to providing your financial information.

Obtaining a Computer at Low Cost

 Individuals who are resident in Ontario and make the same or less than the Low Income Cut-Off may be eligible for a reduced-price computer from the RCTech OUTREACH program.

Information is available here: http://www.rcto.ca/programs-rctech-outreach.asp#learners

Proxy marriage in a time of COVID-19, Part I

During the current pandemic, many couples have had to reschedule or entirely replan their weddings. For Canadian-US couples stuck on opposite sides of the border, one option has been weddings actually held on the border - on private property, aboard boats on a cross-border body of water like Rainy Lake, or in the American side of Peace Arch Park.

Still others have chosen to marry or hold their weddings using telecommunication technology like Zoom. 

As long as the parties to the marriage, the witnesses, and the officiant are all in one place, the fact that some or all of the guests participate remotely is not relevant to Canada's immigration or border laws.

The difficulties arise when any of the key parties are not present in person. This is considered a "proxy marriage" under Canadian law, and does not create a family relationship for the purpose of immigration legislation.

Marriage Under the Act and Regulations

Spouses are defined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227 (IRPR).

• Family members are defined in Reg. 1(3) and include both "spouse" and "common-law partner"
• Common-law partner is defined in Reg. 1(1) as requiring co-habitation for a year or under s. 1(2), including a conjugal partner for whom cohabitation is impossible "due to persecution or any form of penal control".
• Conjugal partners are defined in  Reg. 2 as essentially spouses or common-law partners who cannot co-habitate (see "Conjugal Partners", below)

Exclusion of Proxy Marriages

The exclusion of proxy marriages arises out of a 2015 amendment to the IRPR, such that Reg. 5 excludes proxy marriages from the definition of "spouse". There is an exception: "unless the person was not physically present at the ceremony as a result of their service as a member of the Canadian Forces and the marriage is valid both under the laws of the jurisdiction where it took place and under Canadian law".

Canadian Forces Exemption

The relevant manual does not really expand on this definition, stating only:

An exemption exists for members of the Canadian Armed Forces who, due to travel restrictions related to their military service, were not present at their marriage ceremony, whether or not that marriage was conducted and registered in a foreign jurisdiction where it is legally valid.

In the case of a marriage where one or both parties are not physically present, officers should identify the sponsor’s employer on the IMM 5532 (Relationship Information and Sponsorship Evaluation form) to determine whether he or she is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. If it is confirmed that the sponsor is or was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, the officer should send a letter requesting submissions or conduct an interview with the applicant to determine whether travel restrictions related to military service caused him or her to be incapable of being physically present at the marriage ceremony. If so, an exemption will be applied and the officer will continue processing the application as a spouse.

Note that the IRPR states that the marriage must be "valid both under the laws of the jurisdiction where it took place and under Canadian law", whereas the manual states "whether or not that marriage was conducted and registered in a foreign jurisdiction where it is legally valid."

There is no consideration of the exemption in reported case law.

Resource: List of Mental Health Apps from Scarborough Hospital

 

The Scarborough Health Network has a list of smartphone (Android and Apple) applications for improving and managing mental health.

Scarborough Health Network (SHN) is the only Canadian hospital to offer a Mental Health App Library, featuring 18 free apps designed to help improve mental health.

SHN physicians and therapists have assessed each of these apps for quality, and curated them with Mental Health Adult Outpatient programming in mind. These apps are meant to complement prescribed treatment plans, and are not intended to replace any professional treatment.

The list is here. Please note that while the apps are free to download, some have additional content that can only be purchased.

[Picture: By Wokandapix at Pixabay - https://pixabay.com/photos/mental-health-wellness-psychology-2019924/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76348157]

Resource: Access to books from reading lists

The current discussions about empathy and learning more about the BIPOC (and other) experiences and supporting creators who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or otherwise marginalized, has resulted in a wave of amazing book/media recommendations, especially about or relevant to anti-Black racism. Unfortunately, especially in the current climate (global pandemic etc), many of us cannot afford to buy books, which can be very expensive.

 

I wanted to remind everyone with a Toronto Library Card that many of these books are available as e-books or audiobooks, for free. You don't need a special device; there are reader apps for smartphones, tablets, and computers.

If you didn't have a library card when everything shut down, you're NOT out of luck. If you live in Toronto and have a phone number which can receive text messages with the area code 647, 416, or 437, you can get temporary (to Sept 1) access to Overdrive (TPL's main ebook and audiobook source), and instructions are here: https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/digital-services/2020/04/digital-library-card-tpl2020.html

Just as examples, the following ebooks from the following recommendation lists are available on Overdrive from TPL (some also have an audiobook available):

From Ibram X. Kendi, "An Antiracist Reading List", NYT, 29 May 2020 (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/books/review/antiracist-reading-list-ibram-x-kendi.html):

- FATAL INVENTION: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century By Dorothy Roberts (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3813543&R=3813543)

- THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD By Zora Neale Hurston (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM2809125&R=2809125)

- TPL doesn't have an ebook of THE NEGRO ARTIST AND THE RACIAL MOUNTAIN, but has other works by Langston Hughes (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?N=37910+4294911070&Ntt=Langston+Hughes)

- THE BLUEST EYE By Toni Morrison (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM2808789&R=2808789)

- THE BLACKER THE BERRY By Wallace Thurman (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3567443&R=3567443)

- THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X By Malcolm X and Alex Haley (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3338480&R=3338480)

- DYING OF WHITENESS: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland By Jonathan M. Metzl (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3800645&R=3800645)

- LOCKING UP OUR OWN: Crime and Punishment in Black America By James Forman Jr. (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3538725&R=3538725)

- HOW WE GET FREE: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3695583&R=3695583)

- WELL-READ BLACK GIRL: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves Edited by Glory Edim (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3743072&R=3743072)

- REDEFINING REALNESS: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3198257&R=3198257)

- SISTER OUTSIDER: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3411491&R=3411491)

From Suyin Haynes, "Several Antiracist Books Are Selling Out. Here's What Else Black Booksellers and Publishers Say You Should Read", TIME Magazine, 2 June 2020 (https://time.com/5846732/books-to-read-about-anti-racism/):

- Conversations in Black: On Politics, Power and Leadership, Ed Gordon (2020) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3909791&R=3909791)

- 55, Underemployed and Faking Normal: Your Guide to a Better Retirement Life, Elizabeth White (2019) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3762139&R=3762139)

- An African American and Latinx History of the United States, Paul Ortiz (2018) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3671920&R=3671920)

- Chokehold: Policing Black Men, Paul Butler (2017) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3579518&R=3579518)

- What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays, Damon Young (2019) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3788932&R=3788932)

- Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3326922&R=3326922)

- The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates (2019) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3846121&R=3846121)

- (Children/Youth) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (2020) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3909183&R=3909183)

- (Children/Youth) Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson (2014) (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3175255&R=3175255)

And from TPL's own "Black Lives Matter: A Booklist" (https://account.torontopubliclibrary.ca/shared/blacklivesmatter-a-booklist/7a30VmdcoaVzXnHz5QRMyCEAsh7MfWLIhaF08xO8JLFLNB1xuF):

- The skin we're in : A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3894274&Entt=RDM3894274)

- Until we are free : Reflections on Black Lives Matter Canada Edited by Rodney Diverlus et al. (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3920213&Entt=RDM3920213)

- Me and white supremacy : combat racism, change the world, and become a good ancestor by Layla F Saad (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3894256&Entt=RDM3894256)

- Breathe : a letter to my sons by Imani Perry (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3844485&Entt=RDM3844485)

- How to be an antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3835356&Entt=RDM3835356)

- How we fight for our lives : a memoir by Saeed Jones (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3849512&Entt=RDM3849512)

- I'm still here : Black dignity in a world made for whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3713867&Entt=RDM3713867)

- I've been meaning to tell you : a letter to my daughter by David Chariandy (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3691813&Entt=RDM3691813)

- So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3650400&Entt=RDM3650400)

- White fragility : why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism by Robin J. DiAngelo (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3704886&Entt=RDM3704886)

- Policing Black lives : state violence in Canada from slavery to the present by Robyn Maynard (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3649259&Entt=RDM3649259)

- We were eight years in power : an American tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3590493&Entt=RDM3590493)

- Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3656927&Entt=RDM3656927)

- Viola Desmond's Canada : a history of blacks and racial segregation in the promised land by Graham Reynolds (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3649193&Entt=RDM3649193)

- The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children : the hurt, the hope, and the healing by Wanda Lauren Taylor (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3452387&Entt=RDM3452387)

- (Children/Youth) We are not yet equal : understanding our racial divide by Carol Anderson (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3781907&Entt=RDM3781907)

- (Children/Youth) Coping with racial profiling by Del Sandeen (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3872198&Entt=RDM3872198)

- (Children/Youth) What do I do when people I know are racist? by Caitie McAneney (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3897190&Entt=RDM3897190)

- (Children/Youth) # blacklivesmatter : Protesting Racism by Rachael L. Thomas (https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=3885865&Entt=RDM3885865)

[Pictures at left: By Tom Murphy VII - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=295698; By Kullman - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15707453; By Honza chodec - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18466481; By Roman Eisele - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87283345; By Thomaseagle - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3777013; By Janto Dreijer - Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=867335]

General Interest Events: Does Peacebuilding Work? The Cases of Mali, Somalia, and Sudan by Science for Peace

Does Peacebuilding Work? The Cases of Mali, Somalia, and Sudan

Description

Panelists: Dr Robert Matthews, Professor Emeritus and former Chair, Political Science, University of Toronto

Dr. Vladimir Zhagora, former Senior Political affairs Officer at the UN engaged in peace negotiations

Dr Khalid Ahmed, adjunct professor, African Studies Program, University of Toronto

Please note: An invitation link will be emailed to you once you have registered for our webinar.

Date And Time

Fri, June 26, 2020

6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT

Link to registration