🍁 🍁🍁🍁🍁 Monsanto wanted its growth hormone in every glass of Canadian milk. One government scientist stood in the way and his own bosses spent 14 years trying to destroy him for it. His name was Dr. Shiv Chopra. Born in India, 1934. Came to Canada in the 1960s. PhD in microbiology. Senior scientist at Health Canada's Bureau of Veterinary Drugs. 35 years reviewing drug applications. Approve the safe ones. Reject the unsafe ones. Protect the public. For 20 years he did it quietly. Then Monsanto came knocking. A new drug. Bovine growth hormone. Brand name Posilac. Inject it into dairy cows, get 10-15% more milk. Bigger profits for the industry. Far bigger profits for Monsanto. The FDA had rubber-stamped it in 1993. Monsanto expected Canada to follow. The file landed on Chopra's desk. He started reading the science. He started finding holes. The data was thin. Long-term safety studies were missing. The cow studies that did exist showed lameness, mastitis, reproductive failure, shortened lifespans. If it was doing that to the cow, what was it doing to the milk? His recommendation: reject it. Demand real safety data. His managers had a different idea. Approve it. The Americans approved it. Why are you holding it up? Just sign off. He refused. So the pressure started. Closed-door meetings. Attempts to pull the file and hand it to someone friendlier. Gag orders don't talk to the media, don't talk to anyone. Suspensions. Reprimands. Demotions. Dead-end reassignments. He kept refusing. Two other scientists refused with him. Dr. Margaret Haydon. Dr. Gérard Lambert. Same data. Same alarm. Same answer. In 1998 the Canadian Senate launched an investigation into what was happening inside Health Canada. Chopra and his colleagues did something almost nobody does. They walked into the Senate and testified under oath. Said managers were pressuring them to approve unsafe drugs. Said industry was running the regulator. Said the system was broken. It made headlines around the world. In 1999, Health Canada rejected Monsanto's application. rBGH would not be approved. Europe banned it next. Then most of the developed world. Sit with that. One immigrant scientist in Ottawa beat one of the largest chemical corporations on Earth — and won. Then his own government fired him for winning. July 14, 2004. After 35 years of service, Health Canada fired Chopra, Haydon, and Lambert on the same day. Official reason: insubordination. Real reason: he embarrassed them in front of the country. The same year, the Prime Minister mailed him a gold watch for "illustrious service." While they were firing him. He called it comedy. He sued to clear his name. The fight took 13 years. He lost appeal after appeal. The final ruling came down in 2017. Three months later, in January 2018, he died. 83 years old. Never reinstated. Never given his pension back. Never owed an apology by anyone. But here is what they could never take back. rBGH is still banned in Canada today. Every glass of Canadian milk is still hormone-free — because one man refused to sign. And the United States? Never banned it. It's still legal there. Right now. He kept it out of Canada and they fired him. The system he fought is still pouring it into glasses across the border. So tell me below was Shiv Chopra a hero, or just a troublemaker who got what was coming to him? Pick a side. Because someone in those meetings is still telling scientists to "just sign off."

This really is beautiful. The moose, polar bear, whale. Indigenous Nations of Canada welcoming the world to the World Cup in Toronto.

CYLE LARIN SCORES CANADAS 1ST GOAL AT WORLD CUP 2026! 🇨🇦

I wouldn’t be where I am today without the love and support that @MichelleObama has poured into me over the years. Her story — from her South Side roots to the White House and beyond — is a central part of the Obama Presidential Center.

Happy 107th birthday to Ivorgene Metilla Williams!

Happy to speak at the 12th Annual “Walk The Path" Walkathon along with Cllr @Navjitkaurbrar and Cllr @RodPower7_8. This walk supports The Walnut Foundation, a volunteer-led, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing Black men’s health, with a particular focus on prostate cancer awareness, education, and support.

Chapman's Ice Cream is amazing. They used to source fruits & nuts from US suppliers. Then Trump slapped on 25% tariff. So what did Chapman's do? They called Italy. They called Spain. They signed contracts with European suppliers. This is a family-run business of good Canadians!

@justflycom, Running out of patience with you over a refund that am due since early April. After numerous Chatbot conversations over the past 6 weeks, I resorted to phone support, but it's the same. Earlier today I held on for 27 minutes. Right now, am holding on 4e minutes. ???

Brooklyn, 1952. Judith Love Cohen, 19, asks her high school counselor about math classes. The counselor smiles like she’s talking to a child. “Honey, nice girls go to finishing school. Learn to pour tea.” Judith enrolls in Brooklyn College. Engineering. Hundreds in the lecture hall. Women: one. Her. “Boys laughed when I raised my hand,” she said. “So I raised it higher.” She transfers to USC. Finishes bachelor’s master’s. Never sees another female engineering student. Graduates 1957. Class of 800. Women: 8. America’s engineers: 0.05% women. She’s one of them. Then NASA calls. 1960s. Apollo needs brains. Gender? Secondary. Competence? Everything. Judith joins the team building the Abort-Guidance System for the Lunar Module. The AGS. The “oh crap” button. If the main computer dies, this box flies you home. Or you don’t come home. “It had to work,” she said. “Because if you needed it, you were already dying.” Orbital mechanics. Electrical chaos. Code that can’t glitch. She lives in equations for months. August 1968. Nine months pregnant. Still at her desk. Coworkers: “Go home, Judith.” Judith: “The math isn’t due. I am.” Morning contractions start. She grabs her printouts — pages of trajectories, circuits, logic — and drives to work. Contractions get real. Team: “HOSPITAL. NOW.” Judith: “Fine.” Takes the printouts. Hospital bed. Nurses walk in. She’s between contractions, scribbling on computer sheets. “Ma’am, you’re in labor.” “I’m in math,” she says. Then it clicks. The final bug in the AGS. Solved. Then she pushes. Baby boy: Thomas Jacob. You know him as Jack Black. Next day she calls her boss. “I fixed the guidance problem.” Pause. “Oh. And the baby came too.” April 13, 1970. 200,000 miles from Earth. BOOM. Apollo 13. Oxygen tank explodes. Command Module dying. Three men crawl into the Lunar Module — built for 2 people, 1 day. They need it for 3 people, 4 days. Primary computer stutters. Backup comes alive. Judith’s AGS. It holds. Calculates burns. Aligns spacecraft. Verifies they’re not flying into deep space forever. “Without AGS, we don’t come home,” said Jim Lovell later. April 17, 1970. Splashdown. Alive. The world cheers the astronauts. Inside NASA, engineers hug. “The backup worked.” Judith’s backup. Apollo 13 crew visits TRW to say thanks. Judith shakes their hands. No speech. Back to work. She keeps going. Hubble Space Telescope systems. TDRS satellites — ran 40 years. Papers. Patents. Mentors girls. Writes kids’ books: You Can Be a Woman Engineer. “Girls need to see it to be it,” she said. “TV gave them lawyers. I’ll give them astronauts.” Raised four kids. Danced ballet with the Met Opera while doing engineering school. “My first loves,” her son Neil wrote, “were dancing and equations.” July 25, 2016. Age 82. She’s gone. Son Jack Black posts 2019: Photo of Mom, 1959, next to a Pioneer spacecraft. “My mom literally helped save Apollo 13. Finished the problem IN LABOR WITH ME. How do you top that?” The counselor said “finishing school.” Judith chose “finishing equations.” Three astronauts owe their lives to that choice. “They said I didn’t belong,” Judith said once. “So I built something that belonged in space. And brought them home.” She never flew. But she made sure others could. From a hospital bed. Between contractions. With a pencil.

The National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, NDTC, mourns the passing of former principal dancer Mrs. Noelle Chutkan, a cherished member of the company’s family whose life, artistry, and spirit formed part of the rich tapestry of the NDTC’s history and legacy.

100 years of life. A lifetime of service. Today, we celebrate Dr. Mavis Gilmour on her 100th birthday. Before entering Parliament, she was a pioneer in medicine as the first woman surgeon in the Caribbean. This background in healthcare preceded a long career in public office focused on building national institutions. As Minister of Education and later Minister of Social Security during the 1980s, Dr. Gilmour led the expansion of the Jamaican school system and managed the country's social safety nets. Her work included advancing consumer affairs and social protection programmes to support people across our island. From the operating theatre to the Cabinet, her journey has been defined by "service above self." Today, Jamaica recognizes her contributions to our national systems and celebrates a full century of her impact. Happy 100th Birthday, Dr. Gilmour.

In 1948 50,000 #Jamaicans went to see Paul Robeson speak and sing at Race Course (now National Heroes Park). He wrote: “These people saw in me not a singer, or not just a singer. They called to me: 'Hello, Paul. We know you‘ve been fighting for us.’” Paul Robeson (9 Apr 1898 – 23 Jan 1976), legendary American singer, actor, activist, born 128 years ago today. #PaulRobeson en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R…

The Raptors just went on a 31-0 RUN against the Magic 🫨 That’s the longest unanswered scoring run in NBA HISTORY 🔥🦖

Dear Toronto Blue Jays fans at Rogers Centre: Thank you for (mostly) playing it classy tonight, and resisting the temptation to boo the American anthem. While I'm as livid at America as you are, I'm glad you didn't. Because I noticed some American players on our team were singing the Canadian anthem, with reverence, and solemn respect. Your decision to take the high road made it easier for them to do that. You created a beautiful, powerful moment of mutual respect. You reminded me our problem is with Donald Trump, and not most Americans. Bravo. #BlueJays