A former GM plant in St. Catharines is leaking toxic chemicals
Long waiting for new owner Bayshore Groups to clean up the site, residents have learned Ontario and city council kept suspicions of chemical leaks quiet for two years
Ashley Okwuosa
I am a journalist, researcher, and editor based in Toronto. My stories on immigration, education, politics, and more have been published in The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, WNYC, Quartz, TVO.org, The Narwhal, and others. I'm a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School where I was a recipient of the African Pulitzer fellowship. I'm also a 2022 National Magazine Award nominee. From 2019 - 2020, I was a grantee at The Brown Institute for Media Innovation where I helped build a database of maternal health interventions implemented in Nigeria over the last 30 years.
Running apps are great for motivation, but take note of privacy settings
In a month, Dhushan Puvanachandran runs at least 25 times. Whether he’s running through his neighbourhood in Brampton, Ont., or on a treadmill, it’s almost second nature for Mr. Puvanachandran to track his pace, heart rate and distance and share it with his friends.
The ability to share highlights of successful runs via apps such as Nike Run Club is one way to motivate himself to keep going. “Getting those affirmations definitely helps when you share milestones,” said Mr. Puvanachandran.
Fitne
‘Our voice is making a difference’: Five immigrant Ontarians on voting for the first time
‘It’s political violence’: What women and racialized candidates face on the campaign trail
Passenger rail in northeastern Ontario again? Three parties choo-choo-choose trains this election
Canada ranks as satisfactory on a global list of press freedom. Is that something to...
‘COVID acted like a minefield’: What we know about migrant-worker deaths
‘She waged a war’: A daughter’s intimate look at Nigeria’s most-decorated figure
TVO.org speaks with author Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr about her mother, Dora Akunyili, and how she battled discrimination and death threats to take on corruption
‘That’s how you do it’: Black women in Ontario politics — past, present, and future
What do we gain from having more Black women in politics, and why aren’t there as many as there could be?
Two Years Later, has the NEMCHIC Initiative Reduced Maternal Deaths in Nigeria?
Dr. Shuaib, the executive director of Nigeria’s healthcare development agency, was serious about the state of maternal health, and wanted everyone to know. So he called a press conference and declared a state of emergency.
“Having noted the high rate of maternal, newborn and under-five child mortality, and the insufficiency of our current efforts to reverse the trend, I hereby declare a state of public health concern on maternal, newborn, and child deaths occurring at the primary healthcare com
‘For us, by us’: How a new Caribbean exhibition is changing the AGO
Kenneth Montague was 10 years old when he first saw pictures from the Harlem Renaissance. A child of Jamaican immigrants in Windsor, he’d visited the Detroit Institute of Arts and been moved by the images of Black people in their Sunday best lounging in Harlem brownstones or sitting in Cadillacs. “It was definitely an eye-opener,” says Montague, who had before that seen mostly images that reflected negative stereotypes about people who looked like him.
Chiamaka Okoli was a rarity in physics. She challenged norms until her untimely death.
On a brisk day in late May 2019, Chiamaka Okoli decided to go for a walk with her young son along the tree-lined streets of their Waterloo, Ont., neighbourhood. The 20-minute excursion had become a daily occurrence after her recovery from a near-fatal aneurysm the year before. But this time, the 31-year-old did not make it back to their third-floor apartment.
‘A very long journey’: Another challenge for newcomers — finding affordable housing
Tetiana Karbovanets and her family have moved three times in the past five years. Karbovanets, who works as an immigration consultant, moved with her husband and son from Ukraine, in 2016, as part of Canada’s express-entry program for skilled workers. The family arrived in June and rushed to find suitable housing in Toronto. After securing a short-term rental, they moved into an apartment, where they stayed for two and a half years.
But when they started looking into buying a house, they realiz
Anatomy of an outbreak: How COVID-19 overran this Ontario prison
On April 14, 2020, employees at Brampton’s Ontario Correctional Institute received a memo informing them that a co-worker had tested positive for COVID-19. “It is important to note that the individual did not experience symptoms while at work,” wrote Mark Parisotto, director of the central region for the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s Institutional Services Division. “The employee remains in self-isolation and is following protocols recommended by health authorities.”
Employees were advise
African Entrepreneurs Are Banking on ‘A-Beauty’
African beauty doesn’t stop with shea butter, says Linda Gieskes-Mwamba. The beauty entrepreneur who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and raised between Brussels and Johannesburg has always been a fan of the fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree. Growing up in a part of Central Africa where it wasn’t abundant, she was always sure to request some from anyone coming from West Africa.
Kids in crisis: Inside Ontario’s overloaded mental-health system
About two years ago, Suzanne noticed that her daughter was getting thinner and thinner. The Ottawa resident suspected that her daughter, then 14, had developed bulimia. By December 2019, she was struggling to get out of bed and looked gravely ill. Her parents were worried about her heart: purging — a symptom of bulimia that can involve self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, and other behaviours — can cause imbalances of the electrolytes that help maintain a regular heart rhythm.
In January 202
Africa’s Powerhouse Is Rewriting the Fashion Week Playbook
Omoyemi Akerele had one thing on her mind ten years ago and she wanted the world to hear it loud and clear. “Business can be done here. And by here, I mean Lagos, and by Lagos, I mean, Nigeria, and by extension, I mean, West Africa,” she says. “It was important to send a consistent message.”
What it’s like for international students graduating during COVID-19
While job loss and underemployment have been a provincewide challenge during the pandemic, international graduates looking for skilled work face a specific set of stresses: their ability to remain in the country hangs in the balance.
‘They’re at risk’: How COVID-19 is affecting health-care workers of colour
At work, Jean-Géthro Joseph was known as the one who was always willing to offer help when needed and was fond of telling his co-workers about his children’s latest achievements. He was also a major presence in his community: before his daughter-in-law, Daphney Attis-Joseph, met his son Clifford, her parents already knew Joseph. When they’d moved from Haiti to Ottawa in the early ’90s, not too long after Joseph had made the same trip, he’d been there to help them settle in.
‘People are dying’: What does it take to get a supervised-consumption site?
For eight years, Christine Nayler’s son, Ryan, battled mental illness; three years ago, he began using illicit drugs. A librarian and music aficionado, he was, Nayler says, a “born activist.” Although he didn’t use opioids, he had friends who had died as a result of them, and he made sure to have Naloxone with him whenever he could.
A New Wave of African Photographers
For Lakin Ogunbanwo, there is beauty worth capturing in ordinary moments. Whether that’s an intimate portrait of a bride preparing for a traditional wedding ceremony or headwear that reveals unspoken codes of masculinity, the goal is to lay bare Nigerian life and preserve it for future generations.
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