History in a wrap:

The story of Shawarma dates back to the Ottoman Empire around the 18th and 19th centuries. It was common at the time to cook meat by threading the meat onto a spike and leaving it to roast over the fire by rotating it from time to time to ensure that it is well cooked on every side. Anissa Helou, a chef and food writer, says the word “Shawarma” is derived from the Turkish word “çevirme” which means “rotating”. People use different words to refer to Shawarma as it is called “gyro” in Greece, “döner kebab” in Turkey, and “Shawarma” in the Middle East and worldwide.

The vertical cone-like shape Shawarma skewer is believed to be used for the first time in 1830 in Bursa, Turkey, by Iskender Efendi who changed the traditional way of stacking the Shawarma skewer horizontally. Helou says the vertical shape of the shawarma skewer makes it easier for the Shawarma vendor to slice the meat off. “The disk on the bottom of the vertical skewer that is holding the Shawarma is smallish and when it is rotating against the heat and the Shawarma vendor is slicing it off for each sandwich or serving or whatever and the slicing action goes at an angle,” she says.

Shawarma in the make:

The secret of the delicious flavor of Shawarma lies in the spices and the preparation method, says Noura Al-Khwailed, a chef assistant at the University of Waterloo and food blogger. The magic starts when the Shawarma chicken or beef meat is marinated for at least a day in a unique Middle Eastern combination of spices that includes cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, dried bay leaves, ginger, turmeric, olive oil, black pepper, ground coriander, lemon and orange juice, plain yogurt and minced garlic. Al-Khwailed says “the long marination time is very important to magnify the flavor and allow the spices to permeate deeper into the meat along with making the meat softer and juicer.”

It’s time to serve it up:  

After a long day resting in the seasoning, the Shawarma tower is now ready to face the heat. As the skewer rotates slowly against the vertical rotisserie until the outside layer is roasted from both sides, the Shawarma vendor starts slicing the meat off with his long flat knife and stuffing it inside a Saj bread accompanied with pickles, vegetables and garlic sauce. Al-Khwailed says “Shawarma should be served in the traditional Arabic flatbread as it helps preserve the authentic taste of Shawarma.”

The popular Arab version of “hamburger”:

It is no secret that the popularity of Shawarma has spread throughout the world. Helou says Shawarma is “the Arab equivalent of hamburger”. She says one of the main reasons that made Shawarma popular is that it is “a typical street food” as it is easy to make, and it is rich in nutrients that include meat, vegetables, and bread. “It has meat it has vegetables; it has sauce, it has bread. I mean it’s like a full meal and a very easy sandwich to eat while you’re walking around,” she says. Al-Khwailed says the combination between the unique taste of the well-spiced meat, the garlic sauce, and the Arabic flatbread has also played a role in making Shawarma more appealing to people globally. “Shawarma has a unique combination of tastes and flavors. It is an inexpensive meal for people who are willing to eat while walking around,” she says.

It is worth mentioning that the National Day Calendar refers to October 15 as the National Day of Shawarma in Canada. It was first celebrated by Osmow, a popular Mediterranean restaurant chain, on October 15, 2020.

The post Shawarma: the spear that reached the far ends of the world appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

The post As farmland values soar, young farmers become more vulnerable appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

When Zaid Aslan, a 35-year-old Syrian business analyst, got onto a small rubber dinghy headed to Greece from Turkey, it didn’t occur to him that the distance separating him from his wife and two children would be measured in years, not kilometres.

A missed WhatsApp voice call was the last thing his family heard from him on the night of his disappearance.

“We just need to know what happened to him,” Aslan’s wife, Diana Alessa told Humber News. “We need to know if he is alive or dead. We need to know if he is in jail.”

Aslan went missing while trying to make his way to Greece by a small boat on New Year’s Day 2020. The dream was to reach the Netherlands, where he was supposed to reunite with his wife and two children, who were able to enter the country legally as they hold Russian passports.

His disappearance is among the more than 48,000 migrants who have gone missing since 2014, with 25,000 recorded lost trying to cross the Mediterranean, according to the Missing Migrants Project, an initiative implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to track the deaths and disappearances of migrants who have gone missing around the world.

The recorded numbers of migrants’ deaths and disappearances do not reflect the actual numbers as many cases go unrecorded, said Angelo Cotroneo, global adviser of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the International Migration Review Forum.

“Real numbers are likely much higher, as many cases go unrecorded,” Cotroneo told the International Migration Review Forum last month. “This also does not include the thousands of migrants who are missing because they cannot communicate with their families.”

Alessa said her husband told his friend the boat would leave Turkey on Jan. 1 and that he shouldn’t pay the agreed amount to the smugglers until they ensured that he arrived in Greece.

“I did not know that his journey was on that night. He tried to call me, but I was sleeping,” she said. “A missed call was the last thing we heard from him since then.”

Alessa said the boat that carried her husband capsized off the coast of Turkey that night and that 11 persons were found dead, while the fate of four others, including her husband, remains unknown.

“It is like he vanished. We tried to reach out to the smugglers to get any information, but they pretended that they did not know him,” she said.

The increasing number of missing migrants is closely related to the restrictive migration and mobility policies tailored to prevent them from reaching territories, especially in Europe, North America, and Australia., said Scott Watson, associate professor and chair of the department of political science at the University of Victoria.

“The number of missing migrants is a result of border enforcement policies,” Watson said. “The international community is not at all that serious about addressing this problem.”

He said the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1990, should be given more attention when dealing with the crisis of missing migrants.

“We need to have a rights-based approach to migration rather than the current restriction-based approach where states have the power to restrict mobility as much as possible,” Watson said.

He said the International Organization for Migration only collects data on missing migrants and that no department follows up.

“The international community should empower the IOM to sort of establish the next step, which is actually to implement an investigative branch that can figure out what happened to these people who are missing,” Watson told Humber News.

The Missing Migrant Project is the only global database on migrants’ disappearances worldwide where we document cases of missing migrants and make them public by publishing them on our website, said Andrea García Borja, data analyst at Missing Migrants Project.

“There are a lot of efforts from civil society organizations from different regions of the world, but the Missing Migrant Project is the only global database on the issue,” Borja said.

Watson said most states do not have a political will to ensure the safety of migrants and improve response to human smuggling and the main reasons why migrants disappear.

“Most states quite frankly don’t care,” he said. “We need home states to be much more active and to press transit and destination countries to be much more involved in this.”

Alessa said she left no stone unturned in pursuing any information that might lead her to the fate of her husband. But the only information she got was that her husband might be detained by the Turkish police.

“After three days of his disappearance, we were able to get in touch with a Turkish girl who had connections with someone in the Turkish parliament,” she said. “We have been told that the Turkish police detained Zaid in Fethiye city.”

Alessa said they have been living with uncertainty during the past two years as they could not get any confirmation about the fate of her husband.

“We are still looking for answers, and we won’t stop looking until we know what happened to him,” she said.

She said the Netherlands refused to give her and her two children asylum status and protection as they hold dual citizenship and that they were forced to leave for Germany.

“They decided to deport us back to Syria,” she said. “We lived for more than a year in constant fear of being deported before we were able to arrive in Germany and apply for asylum.”

Alessa said she reached out to the German Red Cross on her arrival in Germany to file a missing person report and she hasn’t heard back from them since then.

“I have been trying to follow up with the Red Cross, but they stopped replying to my emails,” she said. “It just feels like we are being ignored.”

Addressing the crisis of missing migrants requires a transnational approach that brings countries and other concerned actors along mandatory routes together, said Florian von König, deputy head of the Missing Persons Project at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“The crisis of missing migrants suffers from the politicization of migration,” König said. “It is also often being normalized as people assume that is normal for hundreds and thousands of migrants to die, and obviously it is not.”

He said shedding more light on the crisis of missing migrants would make it more visible and thus mobilize a proper response.

“People need to see and acknowledge that this is happening, and migrants are dying and going missing at staggering numbers,” König said.

He said the reported cases of missing migrants do not reflect the accurate picture as many migrants go missing or end up dead in remote locations without being registered or documented.

“The current numbers are just the tip of an iceberg. The real numbers are much higher as many cases are not recorded,” König said.

He said that looking at the missing migrant crisis from a narrow perspective where countries either open their borders or close them won’t prevent more migrants from going missing.

“The black and white dichotomy that tells either we open up borders to everyone, or we close our borders is a gross oversimplification,” König said. “There are always ways to control borders that respect states’ international legal obligations.”

Alessa said she contacted the International Commission on Missing Persons and that they took DNA samples from the children to try to match them up with their database of dead persons and the other databases available from hospitals and cemeteries.

“The International Commission on Missing Persons told us they are having difficulty accessing the databases in Turkey as the authorities there are not collaborating with them,” she said.

According to the International Commission on Missing Persons, more than 20.000 missing persons have been identified worldwide using DNA technology.

But Andreas Kleiser, director for policy and cooperation at the International Commission on Missing Persons, said the international community is not doing enough to address the crisis of missing migrants in terms of providing a structured and systematic approach to dealing with the families of missing migrants,

“The international community is clearly deficient,” Kleiser said. “Missing migrants is certainly an area where the international community is not doing enough.”

He said there are gaps in the migration policies and practices being implemented to document the disappearance of missing migrants as authorities collect information on missing migrants within criminal datasets that they don’t give access to, making the identification process even harder.

“The police usually take DNA samples and GPS coordinates of unidentified migrants into criminal datasets. On the other hand, we have families reporting people missing,” Kleiser said. “We have two separate datasets, and we don’t succeed in putting these two datasets together.”

He said missing migrants and refugees worldwide are not treated equally and that many geographical and racial factors play a role in shaping migration policies and determining the international response to the missing migrants’ crisis.

“I’m a European citizen. If my daughter went missing and I went to the police, we could be sure that the police would investigate,” Kleiser said. “I also know sufficient reports of a Somali woman who went to the police in Europe and was sent to the Red Cross. There are different standards of investigative intensity.”

He said the families of missing migrants are not getting enough support and that they deserve to have answers and should not be subject to any kind of physical or emotional abuse.

“They need a reliable, just, and fair state response. When you go to the police and report your missing family member, you are not exposed to threats, violence, and possibly abuse,” Kleiser said.

He said the investigation process of the unidentified missing migrants should be standardized and that authorities in the home and transit states should abide by those investigation standards.

“The investigation is all the families have,” Kleiser said.

Alessa said they have every right to know if her husband is detained in Turkey so that they could hire an attorney for him.

“We have been struggling for two years now to learn anything about the fate of Zaid. It’s inhumane to hide the truth from us. We want to know if he is in jail. He is not a criminal,” she said.

König said it is vital to urge countries to take part in resolving missing migrants’ cases by either finding them or identifying their bodies.

“There are many examples where migrants might be alive in detention facilities. They might be unaccompanied minors who went missing in custody systems. They might be dead, which is a question of identifying their bodies,” he said.

He said that providing families of missing migrants with the help and support they need is insufficiently acknowledged and poorly addressed by the different concerned parties.

“These families are depending on a stigmatized context,” König said. “Women might find it impossible even to have guardianship of their children. They might be unable to control properties if the person is missing.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund reported that unaccompanied minors fleeing to Europe are subject to abuse, exploitation, and death.

The IOM has recorded more than 10,000 children who arrived in Europe either unaccompanied or separated in 2020.

Borja said the Missing Migrants Project conducted a series of four studies in Zimbabwe, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Ethiopia, exploring the different experiences and challenges that families go through as they search for their missing relatives and the amount of support they receive from states.

“We discovered that there are no mechanisms to support the search for missing migrants,” she said. “The families face significant challenges in finding their loved ones, and they have to navigate complex systems.”

Countries signed on to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Indicator (SDG) to keep track of the number of migrant deaths and disappearances. They also adopted the Global Compact for Migration, which has 23 objectives to manage migration, in particular, Objective 8, which calls for international cooperation to “save lives and prevent migrant deaths and injuries through individual or joint search and rescue operations.”

Borja, however, said the initiatives are being neglected by the concerned countries.

“Unfortunately, no country in the world reports on the SDG indicator, and very few countries are doing anything to address the Objective 8 of the Global Compact for Migration,” she said.

The adoption of Objective 8 of the Global Compact for Migration by 152 states in 2018 aimed to accelerate the international efforts to save migrants from going missing. However, little has been done globally to address the crisis of missing migrants since then, Cotroneo said.

“Objective 8 is one commitment in the Global Compact where little progress has been made, as last year’s regional reviews showed and as the Secretary-General has repeatedly highlighted,” he said.

Borja said people do not choose to endanger their lives and the lives of their loved ones, but they are forced to take dangerous routes as they do not have any other choice.

“The way to end migrant’s deaths is to provide more safe routes for migration,” she said. “There are also other things that states can do, for example, increase and prioritize search and rescue not only in maritime routes but also in land routes through the Sahara.”

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 11.000 migrants have been recorded dead in the Sahara since 2014.

Alessa said the traumatic disappearance of her husband left a big hole in her kids’ lives, especially her 10-year-old son Zain Aslan, who was able to connect the dots regardless of her efforts to keep the father’s disappearance from him.

“Zain suffers from anxiety and behaviour disorder. He becomes more violent and angry. He finds difficulty sleeping due to the recurring nightmares,” she said. “When I am late for home, he thinks something bad happened, and he gets hysterical.”

Alessa said she has a gut feeling her husband is still alive and that they will reunite again as they did nothing wrong. All they wanted for themselves and their children was to live a better life.

“I have tons of hope. I am confident that he is alive,” she said. “We will never stop waiting for Zaid to come back.”

The post Migrants’ untold tale entails misery, uncertainty, abandonment and hope appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

The post Federal-provincial agriculture deal a boost for sustainable agriculture, but falls short on emissions appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

The post Canadian farmers call on Ottawa to boost funding for sustainable agriculture appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

The post Farmers plant a record amount of wheat, prompted by surging prices appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

The Institute released the report today on the grave impacts of climate change on the infrastructure across the northern regions due to colonial policies and historic underinvestment.

“Because of the accumulated impacts of colonial policies and historic underinvestment, the poor condition of Northern infrastructure leaves it uniquely vulnerable, particularly with the North warming three times faster than the global average,” the report said.

The report calls for a radical change in how infrastructure is approached by improving policies and promoting investment to increase the North’s infrastructure system’s adaption and resilience to the different climate-related changes.

The report said accelerated and targeted investments in infrastructure can directly have an impact in reducing costs and protecting communities. Foundations of homes and buildings are crumbling because of the permafrost melt.

“Properly adapting paved roads could reduce annual costs by 38 to 42 per cent on average in Yukon and Northwest Territories,” the report said. Roads are cracking and collapsing because of permafrost thawing and half of the Northern permanent roads would be unusable in 30 years, it said.

The report has also suggested that increasing airport runways’ climate resilience could also play a vital role in reducing annual infrastructure costs. The report stated runways are warping and cracking caused by permafrost thaw.

“Adapting airport runways for climate change impacts could reduce annual costs by 74 to 88 per cent on average, depending on the global greenhouse gas emissions trajectory,” the report said.

The report has made it clear that much of the North’s existing infrastructure is not resilient enough to survive the various climate changes brewing across the globe and that the government’s intervention is inevitable.

The report echoes a 2008 federal government report that predicted climate change would cost the country and its people about $5 billion a year by 2020.

“Governments must make transformative investments in new infrastructure that can sustain Northern lives and livelihoods for generations to come,” the new report concluded.

The federal government should have a clear vision of what should be done to increase infrastructure investments within the North and the importance of supporting Northern communities to adapt to the different climate changes, said Ryan Ness, adaptation research director at the Canadian Climate Institute.

“The significance of adaptation within the North and the empowerment of Northerners must be highlighted in Canada’s forthcoming Nationwide Adaptation Technique,” Ness said.

He said that not having a consistent and well-designed approach for dealing with the effects of climate change on infrastructure has been reflected on the readiness of the infrastructure systems across Canada.

“The ad hoc, reactive, and under-resourced approach to climate change adaptation of Canada’s provincial and federal governments has left Canadians unprepared for and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change that are already happening,” Ness said.

As part of the federal government’s climate change adaptation plans and actions, Canada has committed to protecting 25 per cent of its land and 25 per cent of its oceans by 2025, “using nature-based solutions to fight climate change, and reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

The post Infrastructure across Northern Canada is not ready for climate change: report appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

“I am sorry, and I apologize unreservedly that the release of this data will cause pain for many,” Ramer said at a news conference.

The released statistics show that Black people in Toronto have faced an excessive amount of police enforcement and use of force in 2020.

The statistics also revealed that Black residents were 230 per cent more likely to have an officer pointing a gun at them than white people, regardless of being armed or not.

The statistics have also shown differences in enforcement, use of force, and strip searches among other racialized groups, including Middle Eastern, Latino, and East and Southeast Asian groups.

Middle Eastern people were overrepresented when it came to enforcement and use of force in 2020.

Latino and East and Southeast Asian groups experienced more use of force when interacting with police in Toronto.

Indigenous people, however, experienced more enforcement and less use of force in the more than 86,500 Toronto police interactions that have been reviewed.

Ramer said Toronto police should do more to stop any racially biased policing practices in Toronto and that the data reflects the “unfortunate” experiences that people of colour had to endure.

“This data demonstrates the unfortunate realities of those experiences,” he said. “As an organization, we have not done enough to ensure that every person in our city receives fair and unbiased policing.”

Ramer said Toronto police will continue their efforts to end systematic racism and discrimination that has led to “differential treatment by our service.”

“We recognize that it is essential to identifying ways to reduce and eliminate disparities measure and evaluate improvement and continually look for ways to live up to the goal of equitable policing,” he said.

The apology has been described by Beverly Bain, from the group No Pride in Policing, as a “public relations stunt.”

“Chief Ramer, we do not accept your apology,” Bain said during the news conference.

Executive director of Peacebuilders Canada Marlon Merraro said the Black community in Toronto has not been asking for an apology and that stopping violence and the racist, oppressive action of the police service should have been the priority.

“My initial reaction was anger because we did not ask for an apology,” Merraro said. “It’s really difficult to come to hear the apology when we’ve been denied, not believed, ostracized, penalized for telling the stories that we’ve experienced.”

He said holding police accountable by applying the proper mechanisms and policies that ensure no violations go without penalty should be one of the top priorities.

“Chief Ramer talked about a lot of mechanisms already existing, but what he failed to tell us was if those mechanisms were working, and obviously they are not working,” Merraro said.

He said Toronto Police are not serious enough in their endeavour to end systemic racism in policing in Toronto.

“Having an apology would never be your first step,” Merraro said. “If you’re serious talking them up, being accountable should be your first step.”

The post Toronto Police chief apologizes to BIPOC communities as race-based data released appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

The summer programs offer Torontonians a wide array of more than 6,500 in-person programs, including arts, sports, swimming, fitness, and wellness.

The programs will start on July 4, with approximately 114.500 spaces to fill and more spaces are still available for CampTO programs which will run weekly from July 4 to Sept. 2.

Mayor John Tory said in a Monday news release that the return of the summer recreation programs will offer the residents of Toronto a bunch of entertainment activities that appeal to all ages.

“For the first time in two years, we are delighted to be able to offer a full and dynamic offering of summer programs for Torontonians of all ages and help create a healthy, fun, and memorable summer,” Tory said.

Torontonians can register for the programs by calling 416-396-7378 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7.

They can also register by visiting one of the five assigned community centres, including Centennial Recreation Centre, 1967 Ellesmere Rd., Dennis R. Timbrell Resource Centre, 29 St. Dennis Dr., Driftwood Community Recreation Centre, 4401 Jane St., Masaryk-Cowan Community Recreation Centre, 220 Cowan Ave., and Wellesley Community Centre, 495 Sherbourne St.

The city urges families to have their family and client number ready before registration day which they can access by setting up a new account or by retrieving their existing numbers either online or by phone.

People who receive Ontario Works assistance and live in Toronto can use their welcome policy credit by reaching out to their caseworkers.

The return of the summer recreation programs will offer kids of all ages the opportunity to participate in a variety of in-person activities after having most of their activities restricted over the last two years, said Lianne Castelino, founder and president of Where Parents Talk, an online parenting advice community.

“We are getting into a more normal period of things now, it’s important for kids to unplug for prolonged periods of time,” Castelino said. “It’s really important for them to engage in activities that spark creativity, that allow for skill development and physical movement.”

She said the importance of such programs stems from their role in encouraging kids to be aware of their physical wellness as it allows them to take part in a wide range of physical activities.

“I think that kids learn how to take better care of their bodies just by virtue of participating in sports activities, hopefully, there’s also instruction that goes along with it that talks about eating healthy and sort of having your mind healthy as well your physical health,” Castelino said.

More information about the summer recreation programs is available here.

The post Registration for summer recreation programs opens up in Toronto appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.

Humber News reporter Liam Mccurry is standing by at the Toronto Congress Centre where the PC leader is expected to deliver his speech.

It is still a bit quiet at the centre as more Ford supporters continue to gather at the Dixon Road-Highway 27 facility.

A few supporters are dressed up in blazers and dresses.

Ford, 57, is from Etobicoke, where he reportedly will be watching the results from his family home before joining his supporters.

He is running against several candidates, including Aisha Jahngir of the NDP, Gabriel Blanc of the Green Party and Julie Lutete of the Liberal party.

This is Ford’s second election as PC Leader as he was first elected in March 2018 after winning a 76-seat majority.

The PCs’ promises mainly focused on building more highways and hospitals, along with attracting more lucrative job opportunities.

Housing was one of the main issues the PCs have focused on promising to add 1.5 million new homes across the province over the next 10 years.

The PCs’ motto, “Let’s get it done,” has been their anchor in allocating more than $40 billion in promises this election.

The party has also made it clear that if re-elected they would ensure the province is well prepared for any future emergencies by spending more than $40 billion to increase capacity across the healthcare system over the next 10 years along with improving the healthcare infrastructure.

They pledged to pay incentive payments of up to $5,000 to nursing staff who stay in their current positions for the next two years.

The Progressive Conservative plan included addressing the needs of the elderly. They promised to offer low-to-moderate income seniors support by increasing the credit maximum amount.

By allocating $14 billion over the next 10 years, the party promised to build more schools across Ontario.

The party’s plan to lower emissions by investing in clean steel-making technology was also one of the many promises of their campaign.

Ford’s gas tax cut was proposed to put extra funding into Ontario Businesses and families by “committing to temporarily cut the gas tax for six months by 5.7 cents per litre and the fuel tax by 5.3 cents.”

Transportation has also made up a good share of the promises by the PCs as they pledged to spend about $25 billion on improving the roadway infrastructure in Ontario, including the construction of Highway 413.

The post Premier Doug Ford to speak to his supporters at Toronto Congress Centre appeared first on Tarek Youzbashi.