THE WEEKLY GLEANER | FEBRUARY 12 - FEBRUARY 18, 2026 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 12 Do you want to assist family or friends to migrate to Canada but don’t know where to start? Are you a Spouse/Parent or Child in Canada – find out if you can Sponsor family. If you are in Canada on a Work or Student Permit, find out how to qualify for Permanent Residency. Are you outside Canada, and want to find out your options for migrating to Canada? Then contact our office to find out your options. We advise and assist with Canadian Immigration applications only. Please note that we are not a Placement Agency. Nadine Mahabeer is a Licensed Immigration Consultant, with over 22 years of Experience, and is a Weekly Guest on “Immigration Mondays” @ 9:00am on Nationwide 90FM. Consultations may be done via Zoom, Telephone or WhatsApp. Please call or e-mail to get the details for a consultation. Christine Marzouca/Contributor ATLANTA. GA: AS WE honour Black History Month alongside Reggae Month, we are called to reflect not only on the past, but on the legacy we are actively creating and how it will be remembered. Black history is not confined to archives or anniversaries. It lives in culture, in resistance, in creativity, and in the voices that continue to shape global consciousness. Reggae, born from the lived experiences of the Jamaican people, is one of the most enduring expressions of that history. It is sound with purpose, music rooted in truth, and a cultural force that has carried messages of justice, unity, and hope far beyond our shores. Black History Month and Reggae Month are not separate observances. They are interconnected reflections of the same journey. Reggae is black history in motion. Black history is the foundation that gives reggae its power and meaning. Together, they remind us that our heritage is not static. It evolves, it speaks, and it demands responsibility. From a public relations and media perspective, this moment requires intentional storytelling. The narratives we choose to amplify shape perception, and perception becomes legacy. Media has the power to preserve authenticity, elevate voices, and ensure that cultural contributions are not diluted or misrepresented. With that power comes accountability. As individuals, each of us plays a role in carrying this legacy forward. Through our work, our platforms, our creativity, and our everyday actions, we are contributing to the story that future generations will inherit. Black History Month and Reggae Month invite reflection, but they also call for purposeful action. History is being written daily by what we choose to stand for and how we choose to show up. How would you like to be remembered? Black History Month and Reggae Month Christine Marzouca CONTRIBUTED The legacy we carry forward GREATER TORONTO AREA KUUMBA, TORONTO’S largest and longest-running Black Futures Month festival, takes place at the Harbourfront Centre, February 1-21, at 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto. harbourfrontcentre. com The Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora in the Faculty of Education at York University, and Unifor present their annual Black History Month celebration, “Word, Sound, Power: Black Artistic Expression,” featuring Canadian dub poet, writer and Juno Award winner, Lillian Allen, on Tuesday, February 10, 5:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. at the CIBC Lobby and Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan Theatre, Accolade East Building, York University. BAND presents the exhibition, A Kind of Order, featuring Timothy Yanick Hunter, Aaron Jones, Thato Toeba, and Hazelle Palmer, February 12 - August 31, at Union Station, 55 Front St. W., Toronto. This exhibition uses transitional walkways and concourses as sites for micro-journeys that echo commuting rhythms: arrivals and departures, disruptions and re-routing, anticipation, short and long trips, last-minute scrambles, daily routine. A Kind of Order treats the “in-between” as a site for resourceful practice amid uncertainty. The artists’ collage processes are methods for learning, exercises in noticing, and ways of relating. The 14th annual Toronto Black Film Festival will run from February 11 to 16. TorontoBlackFilm.com Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) will host a symposium “Living in Colour: Black Life, Law and Belonging in Canada,” a hybrid event, with options to attend in person or online, on Wednesday, February 18, 2:00-5:00 p.m., at The Chestnut Conference Centre, 89 Chestnut Street, Toronto. Online via Zoom (link provided after registration) International Union of Painters and Allied Trades – DC 46 celebrates Black History Month under the theme “Honouring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Building the Future” on Friday, February 20, 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m., at Union Hall, 132 Toro Rd., Toronto. Free admission. Peel United Cultural Partners, a partnership of the United Achievers’ Club of Brampton and the Congress of Black Women of Canada (Brampton Chapter) presents the 25th annual Black History Month Concert on Saturday, February 21, 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m., at Century Gardens Recreations Centre Auditorium, 340 Vodden St. E., Brampton, Ontario. Verity Centre for Better Living will hold its Black History Month celebration, ‘Led To Love’, on Sunday, February 22, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., where The Mabel-Helen-Rose Foundation Stone Award will be presented to Ken Noel at 449 Vaughan Road, Toronto. www.veritycentre.org The Reporting in Black Communities Project, led by journalism professors Eternity Martis of Toronto Metropolitan University and Nana aba Duncan of Carleton University, will hold the Reporting in Black Communities Symposium on Saturday, February 28, at The Catalyst at Toronto Metropolitan University. For more information about the project and the symposium — including the schedule — visit reportingblack. com/events. Black History Month Events THE MONTHLY GLEANER | FEBRUARY 12 - MARCH 14, 2026 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS
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