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Ottawa Ethnic Media Forum publishes followup volume of the COVID-19 Chronicles – Ottawa Citizen

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The city was in a different place last summer when the Ottawa Ethnic Media Forum’s second volume of COVID-related essays, stories and poems went to press. Infections were down. Hospital were empty. The end of the pandemic seemed at hand.

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Its title? COVID-19 Chronicles Part 2: Road to Recovery.

“We thought we were,” says Jagjeet “Guddi” Sharma, president of the Ottawa Ethnic Media Forum and the driving force behind the books.

“The title was decided way back in July and August so there was no way we could change it. Next time we’ll have to make it more general. We’re still on the road to recovery, it’s just a little longer than expected.”

The book is a followup to last year’s COVID-19 Chronicles: Reflections on the 2020 Pandemic , which last month won the print category in the 43rd annual Canadian Ethnic Media Association Awards for Journalism Excellence.

The 93-page Part 2 features 41 essays and poems, most of them by ethnic writers, immigrants or New Canadians.

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“We wanted to give people a voice and an outlet to express their feelings,” said Sharma, who contributed some of her own poetry to the collection.

In Lab Rat, she describes the feeling of being trapped by the lockdown order.

“We’re all stuck in our homes,” she said. “I go down a hallway, then I go left or right. It’s like I’m a lab rat stuck in a maze.”

One of the most compelling stories comes form Shailish Kapadia, who writes about flying to India to visit his father who was critically ill in hospital with COVID-19. At the time, India was in the grips of a fierce wave of the Delta variant. More than 400,000 new cases and more than 500 deaths were being recorded each day and the country faced critical shortages of bottled oxygen.

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After more than two harrowing weeks in hospital, his father eventually recovered and Kapadia returned to Canada.

“Always remember: Our parents don’t expect expensive gifts from us, but all they want is our love and time,” he writes. “If you are reading this, I just want you to wish your mom and dad a healthy and strong life. Make it a point to call them every day. What we are today is due to their unconditional love, blessings and sacrifices.”

In her short essay, A Year Ago, Kathy Tang recalls how what once seemed normal — dance recitals at the National Arts Centre, haircuts and concerts — seem impossibly far away during the pandemic.

“A year ago, around this time, I did not know what PPE, PUI, N95, or ARDS stood for,” Tang writes. “The term ‘long hauler’ only made me think about truckers.”

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One poem by Ranjit Devgun is printed in Hindi, untranslated. It describes how difficult it was to celebrate Holi, the Festival of Colours, during a pandemic.

“He describes the desperation of the situation: Not being to interact with people. Not being able to throw colours. Not being able to hug or kiss,” Sharma said. “That’s something that’s very relevant for the South Asian community.”

Another immigrant, Bill Fairbairn, describes being ill as a child in the United Kingdom and how another medical advancement — penicillin — saved him from a Scarlet Fever infection. Fairbairn, now 86, writes of seeing parents visit their quarantined children through hospital windows, not unlike the window visits at his seniors’ home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He then recounts all the illnesses that have been brought to heel by vaccinations: “Diphtheria, scarlet fever, polio, influenza, measles, chickenpox, mumps, smallpox, tetanus and more,” he writes. “I, like thousands of others, had two COVID-19 virus shots. How about you?”

Copies of COVID-19 Chronicles Part 2 will be available at the Ottawa Public Library and at the North Grenville Public Library. Copies can also be purchased directly by contacting Sharma at asiansounds1@hotmail.com for a cost of $20. All proceeds will go to the Ottawa Heart Institute.

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CTV National News: Social media giants sued – CTV News

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CTV National News: Social media giants sued  CTV News

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India’s media – captured and censored

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Across almost every form of media in India – social, broadcast and print – Narendra Modi and the BJP hold sway.

With India amid a national election campaign, its news media is in sharp focus. Until recently it was believed that the sheer diversity of outlets ensured a range of perspectives, but now, India’s mainstream media has largely been co-opted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just how did the media in India get to this point and what does it mean for the upcoming elections?

Featuring:

Ravish Kumar – Former Host, NDTV
Shashi Shekhar Vempati – Former CEO, Prasar Bharati
Pramod Raman – Chief Editor, MediaOne
Amy Kazmin – Former South Asia Bureau Chief, Financial Times
Meena Kotwal – Founder, The Mooknayak

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Social media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards

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Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against multiple social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.

The school boards, including three in the Greater Toronto Area, have launched lawsuits seeking $4.5 billion in damages against Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, the owner of both Facebook and Instagram, for creating products that they allege negligently interfere with student learning and have caused “widespread disruption to the education system.”

But at an unrelated news conference in Ottawa on Friday, Ford said that he “disagrees” with the legal action and worries it could take the focus away from “the core values of education.”

“Let’s focus on math, reading and writing. That is what we need to do, put all the resources into the kids,” he said. “What are they spending lawyers fees to go after these massive companies that have endless cash to fight this? Let’s focus on the kids, not this other nonsense that they are looking to fight in court.”

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Four separate but similar statements of claim were filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of JusticSocial media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” Colleen Russell-Rawlins, the director of education with the Toronto District School Board, said in a news release issued Thursday.

“It is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation.”

The school boards are represented by Toronto-based law firm Neinstein LLP and the news release states that school boards “will not be responsible for any costs related to the lawsuit unless a successful outcome is reached.”

These lawsuits come as hundreds of school districts in the United States file similar suits.

“A strong education system is the foundation of our society and our community. Social media products and the changes in behaviour, judgement and attention that they cause pose a threat to that system and to the student population our schools serve,” Duncan Embury, the head of litigation at Neinstein LLP, said in the new release.

“We are proud to support our schools and students in this litigation with the goal of holding social media giants accountable and creating meaningful change.”

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