'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Marching bands sparked loud cheers and quieter reflections about racial justice from crowds gathered on Saturday to mark Juneteenth as a new U.S. federal holiday commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of Black Americans.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday signed a bill making Juneteenth the 11th federally recognized holiday, just over a year after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis ignited nationwide protests for racial justice and for ending police brutality.
"Juneteenth is a day of profound weight and profound power," Biden tweeted on Saturday.
Juneteenth, or June 19th, marks the day in 1865 when a Union general informed a group of enslaved people in Texas that they had been made free two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.
"This particular Juneteenth is special because last year we were in the George Floyd protests, and this year we received some resolution," said Andrea Johnson of Atlanta, watching a parade under rainy skies near the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Outside the church where Martin Luther King, Jr. preached and led protests for voting rights, equal access to public services, and social and economic justice, boisterous crowds cheered marching bands and their dancers, who competed with dramatic dips and twirls and were followed by Jeeps adorned with "Black Lives Matter" signs.
Many onlookers were joyful but some said declaring a national holiday might be a hollow victory for Blacks, many of whom still suffer racial injustice in the United States that can be remedied only through more substantial efforts by the federal government.
"There are mixed feelings for me," said Jermaine Washington, a marching band director who lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia, 32 kilometres northeast of Atlanta.
"Oftentimes we see these types of events as a win when it's just pacification for the Black community instead of making sure there's an equal education or equitable housing," Washington said as he herded his young musicians at the Atlanta procession.
Stone Mountain, a tiny village that is holding its first ever Juneteenth celebration this year, stands in the shadow of a nine-story high bas-relief of Confederate figures carved into a sprawling rock face, the largest monument to the pro-slavery legacy of the U.S. South.
Around the United States, concerts, rallies, art displays and lots of food were among events planned for Juneteenth.
Atlanta and its metro area have been celebrating Juneteenth for years. Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, said this year's designation of Juneteenth as a federal holiday resonates in the city often called the "cradle of the civil rights movement."
"While we celebrate, what we have to remember is that we must fight for our rights - in the ballot box, in the schools. And we have to stand up, city-to-city, across this nation," Rose said.
Across the country, many events will take place in-person, unlike last year, as the United States emerges from the coronavirus pandemic and more Americans get vaccinated.
Chicago's "March For Us" has a mile-long route in the city's business district known as the Loop.
"We celebrate Independence Day, so we would be remiss if we don't celebrate the day that people who were worth three-fifths of the person finally became free and started this journey towards equality," said "March for Us" organizer Ashley Munson.
Munson said that while strides have been made, recent incidents of police brutality toward Black people and legislation in several U.S. states that curtails voting rights show that much work still needs to be done.
Among events planned in New York City is "Juneteenth in Queens," a week-long festival of virtual panel discussions set to conclude on Saturday with food trucks of jerk chicken and waffles, BBQ and more, as well as in-person live performances.
The initiative is spearheaded by Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, who sponsored legislation last year that made Juneteenth a state holiday.
One of the events taking place in Colorado is a flyover to honor the legacy of aviation pioneer Bessie Coleman, who in 1921 became the first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license.
Deneen Smith, a 17-year-old Black high school student and aspiring pilot, is inspired by Coleman's story.
"That's what Juneteenth means to me – independence and freedom for African Americans because of what our ancestors struggled through," Smith said.
----
Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Maria Caspani in New York, Rich McKay and Merdie Nzanga in Atlanta and Keith Coffman in Denver; Writing by Maria Caspani and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Donna Bryson, Alistair Bell, Diane Craft and Richard Chang
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
Police have released video footage of a dramatic takedown of a group of teens wanted in connection with an attempted carjacking in Markham earlier this month.
Canada called for 'all parties' to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.