QUOTE: “We can’t
put this on police,” Provo said in an interview prior to the march. “A reason
why a lot of these crimes continue to happen is we have a no-snitch policy and
everyone being silent — we’ve got to do our part and start to speak out and
stand up.”
#blackonblack gang violence nova scotia
Tyler Richards
Daverico Downey
Joseph Cameron
NARICHO CLAYTON, 23
Kaylin Diggs
Nathan Cross
Anyone with
information about the recent shootings can call police at 902-490-5016.
Anonymous tips can also be sent to Crime Stoppers by calling toll-free
1-800-222-TIPS (8477), submitting a secure web tip at www.crimestoppers.ns.ca or texting a tip - Tip 202 followed by the message to
274637.
----------------------
Halifax anti-violence activist marks
inaugural Stop the Violence Day
http://globalnews.ca/author/rebecca-lau/
http://globalnews.ca/author/rebecca-lau/By
Rebecca
Lau Reporter Global News
http://globalnews.ca/author/rebecca-lau/By
Rebecca
Lau Reporter Global News
WATCH
ABOVE: Halifax anti-violence activist Quentrel Provo spent the first-ever Stop
the Violence Day sharing random acts of kindness and speaking to young
students. He's hoping to spread a message of peace in light of a recent rash of
shootings and homicides. Rebecca Lau reports.
- A A +
It was a busy inaugural Stop the Violence Day for Halifax
anti-violence activist Quentrel Provo on Friday.
Provo and members of his group spent the day travelling
throughout the city spreading random acts of kindness and meeting young
students.
“We’re doing the opposite of violence and basically
spreading the love and getting people to talk to the person next to them,”
Provo said.
Stop the Violence Day was proclaimed at Province House
earlier this week, after a passionate push by Provo.
His drive to promote peace began in 2012, when his cousin Kaylin Diggs was killed on a Halifax downtown street.
The recent rash of shootings and homicides in the city
prompted him to create this day.
“It needs to be happening so we can raise
violence awareness basically — so we can be the voice of those victims that
have passed on, those that have survived and those families that are still
hurting,” he said.
The group started the day off by buying Tim Horton’s coffee
and treats with donated gift cards, as a way to spark conversations about
anti-violence.
“People instantly begin to smile and their body language is
more open as well,” said Provo’s girlfriend, Alexis Fogarty.
“It’s a great way to be communicating with the city.”
Provo also made a stop at St. Joseph’s-Alexander McKay
Elementary School, where he spoke to students, sang with them and shared some
hugs.
“If we start them off young, then we’re building good
habits so when they get to junior high, when they get to high school, they have
those habits to succeed,” he said.
Students seemed to be receptive to the message and spoke
openly about how violence has affected their community.
“Lots of gun incidents have been going on. So other lives
have been lost and family members have been sad about that and the community
has been sad,” said Grade 6 student Kiez Verreault.
“I really think killing each other doesn’t
help, so you should just stop.”
Provo hopes Stop the Violence Day will become an annual
event and grow through the years. He’s also hoping it will be effective and
eventually prevent future tragedies.
----------------
#BlackLivesMatter
-----------
BLOG:
Canada Military news -4 #KAYLINDIGGS #blacklivesmatter -
black on black youth violence -part of CeaseFireHalifax (CeaseFireChicago
Model) - is bringing pride and impressive skills 2 our youth in need in Nova
Scotia- Check out all the programs on settling violence and turning our
youngfolks lives around- because our kids matter- thank u this is awesome news-
August 21- I'm Asking 4 Help Now-Why won't u help me???? - Homelessness in
Canada of Youth- We must get back 2 basics/Thank u Jesus- Devon Downey turns himself
in and confesses- thank u
-----------------
CHRONICLE HERALD- OPINION PIECE APR 26-
QUOTE:
But there has never been a better time in
history to be black in Canada and it’s time we start acting like it.
Community must confront, change lethal youth violence
Community
must confront, change lethal youth violence
RACHELLE M. TURPLE
I was raised in North Preston and although
I’ve been away for some time now and have established myself in Ontario, Nova
Scotia will always be home to me.
I fully respect this is a sensitive subject
and some will find it odd that I’m writing this when I’m so physically
far-removed from the epicentre of the recent tragedies.
But I’m never so far away from home to not
share my honest opinion on the status quo of my home community and,
ultimately, what I believe it’s going to take to change it.
With my father, sister and many other family
and friends still residing in North Preston, I have a selfish and personal
interest in the sustainability and safety of the community.
Some of the people I love most in the world
live “up home” and, unfortunately, I already know how it feels
to lose someone to gun violence.
I was 15 in 1992 when we lost our beloved
brother.
He was murdered in a Toronto nightclub. At
the time, I believed those types of tragedies could only happen in the “big
city.” I wish I could still be so naïve.
It’s painful to know my former home is
plagued by the same gun violence that happens here.
When it happens in Toronto, most times you
don’t know the victims personally.
But we’re deeply disturbed when it happens to
someone from the black community in Nova Scotia because there are fewer degrees
of separation between us.
My condolences and support are extended to
each and every family member on all sides of these incidents.
They are tragically losing their children to
careless acts of violence.
This article is barely a scratch in the
surface of the conversation about work that needs to be done in this crisis.
The outpouring of violence is symptomatic of
something more insidious working beneath the social surface in our black
communities.
I believe decades of subjugation and
simplistic, bare-bones municipal infrastructure have led us
here. We’ve confused having city sewer systems, city buses and a local
police detachment with “progress.”
Working together toward advancement,
development, growth and opportunities for young black Nova Scotians is
progress.
Supporting community members is progress.
Surviving long enough to see the positive
changes is progress.
Community leadership, development and
political advocacy have to be at the helm of any forward-moving society, so
education, employment and growth can occur.
Security and protection are also major
pillars of society and are integral to progress.
If this lethal violence continues to
escalate, it will result in a generational extinction.
Once the able-bodied have left the community,
or are dead or in jail, North Preston and other black communities will succumb
to complete government control and, inevitably, gentrification.
We will lose our land. We will lose our
heritage.
If we do not begin to approach this crisis
with a framework of progression, our youth will continue to stagnate and
believe they’ve got nothing to look forward to and, worse, nothing to lose.
This is largely to blame for what we see
happening now. Our youth are desensitized and apathetic to the consequences of
their actions.
A change of attitude in the way we parent our
children is also needed to turn this around.
We need to re-evaluate the ways in which we
rear and raise our offspring to build a future for them.
We need to re-design our approaches to
discipline and setting healthy boundaries, extracurricular activities and
exposure to mainstream media.
We need to get quiet with ourselves and be
humble to ask the hard questions.
Am I a good parent? Are my priorities
straight? Am I a good example of social responsibility, self-respect and
integrity?
Am I teaching my child how to show and accept
love, care and affection for and from others?
Is my home physically and emotionally safe?
Do I abuse substances that hurt me and, therefore, the development of my child?
Do I need help? What could I be doing better?
What can I do to improve?
When it comes to family matters, there will
always be challenges. But if we can be the best, healthiest version of
ourselves, it will spill over into our parenting and our children will benefit
from it.
Our communities will benefit from it. It’s a
positive feedback loop.
We need an overhaul because we cannot afford
to lose an entire generation of young black people.
Every time a youth is murdered, it’s one less
person to maintain and build upon our legacy as indigenous black Canadians.
There is simply no room in society for
violent, antisocial behaviour and deciding to stand up and speak out against
it, regardless of the repercussions, is progress.
I’d rather live in fear that my convictions
and efforts toward progress would get me harmed than be struck by an unintended
bullet.
Get involved. It takes an entire village to
raise a child, but it only takes a passionate effort to improve the social
conditions and to spark progress within the village.
The hardest things to do and the right things
to do are usually the same things.
Trust that I realize it’s easy for me to say
all of this from beyond community borders. But any of you who know me
personally also know that if I was there, I’d be the first to speak up and get
involved in action for improvement. I’d be the first to demonstrate and support
leadership and partnership toward progress.
It’s not lost on me that I’m writing this
article from my cozy bedroom just outside of Toronto, far removed from the
thick of it all.
But there has never been a better time in history
to be black in Canada and it’s time we start acting like it.
Rachelle M. Turple is a writer who grew up in
North Preston and now lives in Brampton, Ont. She blogs atBlackLit101.com.
--------
----------
“The highest result of education is tolerance,” Helen Keller
Blogged: 2014
Canada Military news -4 #KAYLINDIGGS #blacklivesmatter - black on black youth violence -part of CeaseFireHalifax (CeaseFireChicago Model) - is bringing pride and impressive skills 2 our youth in need in Nova Scotia- Check out all the programs on settling violence and turning our youngfolks lives around- because our kids matter- thank u this is awesome news- August 21- I'm Asking 4 Help Now-Why won't u help me???? - Homelessness in Canada of Youth- We must get back 2 basics/Thank u Jesus- Devon Downey turns himself in and confesses- thank
-----------
BLOGGED: 2013
Canada Military News: DON'T B AFRAID CAMPAIGN- speaks out against homophobia- We have been gender illiterate since 1969
----------
CHRONICLE HERALD – EDITORIAO 26 April 2016
HOMICIDES
IN HALIFAX
Taking
on guns-rule
Halifax has a serious violence problem
related to guns, young guys and the drug culture.
More serious than in most other Canadian
cities. More like many American inner cities, with their cult of guns and their
culture of gang-fodder violence. Young men settling scores, chasing status and
killing each other with guns.
That message was delivered two years ago in a
review by criminologist Don Clairmont of his 2008 report into Halifax violence
and public safety.
Looking at how violent crime in the city had
changed over six years, he found violence related to conventional crime,
swarming and the bar scene (problems that prompted his first report) had
declined significantly since 2008.
But gun violence involving young men in the
“drug milieu” had risen dramatically. It had pushed homicides and attempted
homicides to all-time highs in HRM.
Drug dealing, the report found, had become
the rationale for marginalized young men to get guns, the means of paying for
them and the subculture in which gun violence is not just about turf and money,
but is used to settle personal grievances. The report found these attitudes
were “now prevalent in HRM among both whites and blacks in the illicit drug
business” and agreed with U.S. studies that “the key is getting at the
marginality, the zero-level social status that translates into a violent quest
for ‘respect’.”
These concerns are all-too present now as
Haligonians cope with a wave of gun violence in the last week: three young men
killed and one badly wounded in the course of three shootings — in the West
End, on Gottingen Street and in North Preston. Police say three of the men knew
each other. One was facing trafficking charges. But investigators have not
linked the shootings and have not said there is a connection with drugs.
But there clearly is a connection to a
growing and dangerous gun culture in Halifax. So it was important that hundreds
of people joined a march Sunday to say they won’t stand for this escalation of
violence, to recognize it as a city-wide issue and to commit to working with
police to make Halifax safer. There are no quick solutions here, but a key to
any progress is a public that stands up to the guns-rule cult by demanding
safer streets and by providing information to police that makes safer streets
possible.
The 2014 report found gun violence marked
Halifax as one of the more dangerous cities in Canada. This was happening in
spite of good police programs to disrupt the supply of firearms and to provide
rewards, like cameras, for turning in guns. It saw hope in police-community
programs to work with vulnerable neighbourhoods to disrupt patterns and
attitudes of violence. We need more of those. But people who have information
to take guns and gunmen off our streets also need to give it to police.
-------
blog
Canada Military News: CANADA'S GANG VIOLENCE-QUOTE: But
there has never been a better time in history to be black in Canada and it’s
time we start acting like it./#blackonblack Gang Wars Canada-2 many innocent
Canadians dying! #firstrespondersmatter and #victimsmatter/ Please stop hurting
and killing our innocents- and raping Canada of our innocence and gentle nation
of so much good – we deserve better in 2016- #alllivesmatter/April 2016- Nova
Scotia 2 many black sons murdered by black sons with guns /Keep the peace stop
the violence
-----------------
Rapper makes special music video in honour of Tyler Richards
EVAN WEBSTER
Last Updated July 17, 2016 - 3:37pm
Rapper and former basketball star Christian
“T-Bear” Upshaw was in Halifax on Friday shooting a special music video in
honour of Tyler Richards.
Upshaw,
who grew up with Richards in the Mulgrave Park neighbourhood, recently moved to
Calgary to focus on his music career after stepping away from pro basketball.
Richards
was murdered earlier this year, and the case remains unsolved.
“This
is all about Tyler,” said Upshaw, 29.
“He
was my best friend, and we were as close as it gets. Of course, the loss was
devastating, but now we’re just trying to celebrate his life and show people
how much he meant to this community.”
Upshaw
and his entourage were at the community basketball courts in Mulgrave Park
shooting the music video for a song called For Twitch, which was Richards’
nickname.
They
also shot some footage in front of the new community mural honouring Richards.
A
group of children played basketball on the court while Upshaw rapped over the
lyrics in front of them for the camera.
A
lot of the kids were wearing special t-shirts in Richards’ memory, but Upshaw
opted for a simple black shirt and shorts.
“I
didn’t just lose a best friend,” he said.
“This
whole community lost a best friend, and we’re like a close-knit family over
here. But I’m just trying to be as positive as possible, and show these kids
that they can do anything. Just look at what Tyler was able to accomplish. He
was an inspiration to us all.”
Upshaw
wrote For Twitch just after Richards’ passing in April.
It
wasn’t easy, he said, but it’s all from the heart.
“I
wrote the song pretty much right after it happened,” he said. “I just sat down
and wrote it. It’s my dedication to Tyler, and my way to express how much he
meant to me. I feel like I got my message across, because people in the
community seem to be receiving the song really well. This song means a lot to
us.”
He
also said he’s feeling a lot more fulfilled since he hung up his jersey and
decided to focus on music. His latest mixtape, Flow State, is set for release
in a couple of weeks.
“It’s
all been going really well,” said Upshaw. “I was just in Houston doing a few
shows down there, and I also went to South by Southwest. I didn’t get to
perform, but it was still a great experience. Right now I’m working with a
couple different producers and my creative team, just trying to figure out the
next move.”
No
matter where Upshaw’s music career takes him, Mulgrave Park will always be
close to his heart.
Even
all the way from Calgary, staying connected and giving back to his community
will always be his number one priority.
“This
is the community that made me,” he said.
“So
at the end of the day, I have to give it everything I’ve got and make this
community proud. If people need me to do anything to help this community, I’ll
do it, no questions asked. I really love it here, and if the economy on the
East Coast wasn’t the way it is, I would still be here.”
For
more information about Upshaw, and to listen to For Twitch and other tracks,
check him out on Soundcloud at www.soundcloud.com/tbear481.
------------------
Activist Quentrel Provo to host
anti-violence march in Halifax on Sunday
THE CHRONICLE HERALD
Last Updated April 20, 2016 - 6:59pm
Last Updated April 20, 2016 - 6:59pm
·
l
Put the guns down, activist Provo pleads after shootings
Ending violence and keeping young men off the street is
Quentrel Provo’s life’s work, and with two shootings in Halifax this past week,
it's never been more important.
On Sunday night, former Halifax Rainmen player Tyler
Richards was shot dead in a west-end Halifax home. Just two days later, one man
was killed and another was injured after a late-night shooting on Gottingen
Street.
Police say the two incidents could be connected.
For 29-year-old Provo—a friend of Richards and founder of
the Stop the Violence, Spread the Love campaign—every life lost to unnecessary
violence is one too many.
RELATED:
Provo is hosting a community march down Gottingen Street
this Sunday to speak out against the recent spike in violence, and urge young
men everywhere to just put down the guns.
“I’m going to funerals for guys five to 10 years younger
than me. Mothers are losing sons. Children are losing fathers. It’s
heartbreaking,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
“We all have to stand up against this, because we’re all
affected by violence. It doesn’t matter your race, religion or background, and
this isn’t just a one community issue. Violence hurts every single one of us.”
Provo has been working to end violence on the streets ever
since his cousin was fatally shot two years ago. He said the recent shootings
are devastating, but they don’t discourage him. Instead, they motivate him to
continue spreading his message.
“I know how these families are feeling. I know what it
means to mourn,” he said. “But that just drives me to keep being the voice of
these victims, and keep working to stop the violence on our streets. It’s
become my purpose in life.”
He started speaking out and formed the Stop the Violence
group after a friend was killed.
According to Provo, at-risk youth need to know about the
consequences of violence from a young age. He said nothing is going to change
if we don’t start talking about it.
“We need to talk to our kids about violence and bullying,”
he said. “For some kids, violence is all they know. Parents need to educate
their kids about what violence is, and how to stay out of it. We all need to
stand together to take back our streets, and make sure our children grow up
with the right values.”
Provo knows violence won’t go away overnight. But if his
activism can stop even one person from picking up a gun, that makes it all
worth it.
“I can’t stop a bullet. I know that,” he said.
“But if I can stop that person from shooting that bullet,
then that's a life saved. That's why I do this, because people who get into
violence on the streets only wind up dead or in jail.”
Provo’s march against violence starts at 4 p.m. Sunday on
the corner of Novalea Drive and Duffus Street. The group will march down
Gottingen Street and end at the Grand Parade, where Provo and others will say a
few words.
He wants everyone—especially young men—to come out, show
their support, and take a stand against violence.
“I’m not looking for a few hundred people to show up,” he
said. “I want thousands, maybe more. Let’s all stand tall and march together
against violence on our streets.”
--------------------------
July 8, 2016 5:41 pm
‘I feel your pain’: African-Nova
Scotians react to violence in U.S.
http://globalnews.ca/author/alexa-maclean/http://globalnews.ca/author/alexa-maclean/By
Alexa
MacLean Video Journalist Global News
http://globalnews.ca/author/alexa-maclean/By
Alexa
MacLean Video Journalist Global News
WATCH
ABOVE: African Nova Scotian community leaders share their thoughts on how to
cope with violence south of the border. Global’s Alexa MacLean reports.
- A A +
After a deadly week of gun violence in the United States,
African-Nova Scotian community leaders are sharing their thoughts on the impact
violence has.
“Returning violence for violence, just multiplies
violence,” Quentrel Provo said, the founder of Stop The Violence, an
organization that works to decrease violence.
Provo knows firsthand how devastating the effects of gun
violence can be — his cousin was shot and killed in 2014.
That inspired hime to create Stop the Violence.
“If violence continues it becomes a cycle that never gets
broken and this isn’t the way to get justice,” Provo said.
READ MORE: Black Lives Matter: Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and
what the social movement is demanding.
Provo says despite the anger people may feel after two
black men were shot and killed by police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota,
retaliating with violence is not the answer. He says he’s disturbed by some of
the social media reaction he’s read.
“People were practically happy that someone actually killed
police officers forgetting that these are people. That these people have
families and that a few bad cops, doesn’t label all cops,” Provo said.
Members of CeaseFire Halifax, a community outreach program
that works to reduce gang and gun violence, expressed their views on the
shootings and their violent aftermath.
“Most of the families, a lot of the black
families have been touched by violence somehow or another, mine included,” Mel
Lucas, a project manager with CeaseFire Halifax, said.
As part of their training, they participate in “talking
circles,” where they discuss ways to diffuse violence before it escalates.
"No violent act deserves another violent act" – @CeaseFireHFX
reaction to shootings in States @globalhalifax pic.twitter.com/1EyUGOwQlH
— Alexa MacLean (@AlexaMacLean902) July 8, 2016
“The intent of the circle is to calm everyone down and make
people look within themselves. We want to work to heal everybody who’s involved
in the discussion process,” Lucas said.
It’s a healing process that Provo says he can relate to.
“I feel your pain and I’m angry and upset
being a young black man but we have to try and stay positive and not use
violence
----------
Crime
expert releases SHOCKING new statistics about black men killed by cops
By Michele Hickford, Editor-in-Chief2:09pm November
7, 2015
This will no doubt send a giant shiver down the backs of
every supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
As The New York Post reports, according to what you’re hearing from
activists, “bloodthirsty, racist cops are blasting black men like clay
pigeons at a shooting range. The pace of this alleged slaughter is
breathtaking.
“Every 28 hours, a black person is murdered by police,”
Black Lives Matter activist Cherno Biko told Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly.
“It feels like we’re in a war.”
Advertisement - story continues below
If true, killer cops are rubbing out some 313 innocent,
law-abiding blacks annually.
Rise Up October asserts that there are “over 1,000 people a
year killed by police.”
Except it’s not true, by a long shot.
University of Toledo criminologist Dr. Richard R. Johnson
examined the latest data from the FBI and Centers for Disease Control.
From 2003 through 2012, law-enforcement officers killed an
average of 429 people per year in “legal interventions.” These include a
relatively small number of innocent people killed by cops and many more who
died due to reasonable use of force.
But the biggest problem black men face is that their black
lives don’t matter to other black men.
On
average, 4,472 black men were killed by other black men annually between Jan.
1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2012, according to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide
Reports. Using FBI and CDC statistics, Professor Johnson calculates that 112
black men, on average, suffered both justified and unjustified police-involved
deaths annually during this period.
This equals 2.5 percent of these 4,472 yearly deaths. For
every black man — criminal or innocent — killed by a cop, 40 black men were
murdered by other black men. The, at most, 2.5 percent of the problem generates
relentless rage. And, yet, it is rude-to-racist to mention 97.5 percent of the
problem.
The notion that America’s cops simply are gunning down
innocent black people is one of today’s biggest and deadliest lies”.
But as black conservative, radio host, humorist and author
Kevin Jackson points out in his new book, Race Pimping: The
Multi-Trillion Dollar Business of Liberalism,
it’s not only a big lie, it’s a very, very profitable one.
Race pimping has cost America TRILLIONS of dollars, because
there’s big money in race guilt. Politicians line their pockets and those of
family and friends, while delivering little to nothing to their constituents or
the community at large.
Jackson says, “At the time I wrote this book, I had no
idea that the ridiculousness of Ferguson would have occurred, and morphed into
the racist and equally idiotic movement, #BlackLivesMatter.
In the book I humorously chronicle what happens every time
somebody black feels “oppressed,” yet how often black people are the
OPPRESSORS. The latter is generally ignored, and when it’s not, a plethora of
excuses are given for silly “coloreds.”
So when I wrote the book, it was meant to shine the light
on how much money is spent on the ignorance of liberalism in all aspects of
society. Companies are extorted, education has become putrefied with
liberalism, and then there is the pervasiveness of liberalism and its cost on
society at large. The police are now afraid to what? POLICE!
Michael Brown is a thug who has been elevated to the level
of civil rights icon. That just about says it all!”
But this is the crazy, mixed-up world in which we live,
folks, where the liberal media has been able to drive false narratives. After
all, as they say, if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth.
All we can do is change opinions one person at a time. So
here’s a holiday gift idea: Why not give copies of Kevin’s book to your liberal friends for
Christmas? You’ll either end up with even better friends, or they’ll cross you
off their list for next year and you’ll save money!
-----------------
BLOG
NOVA
SCOTIA- Come and visit-Nova Scotia music baby- this year Nova Scotia’s Cape
Breton Celtic Colours will be joined by the Nordic brothers and sisters of
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Shetland/NOVA SCOTIA- Mi’kmaq, Black
Loyalists, Acadians, Scots, Irish, Jamaica, Africa, China, India, German,
Japan, Dutch – over 200 cultures and 2 official languages- French
(Acadian)-English- come visit…CANADA PURE (TracyBeck-died 2 soon now Composing
with God) 2013
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