RCMP worries foreign actors could gain foothold in northern Indigenous communities - Canada's National Observer

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When DJ Mr Famous sat down with Grammy winner Shaggy on Roadblock Radio’s Island Mix, one line from the dancehall legend went viral on social media: “There’s no one king for a genre.” “Beenie Man is a king. Kartel is a king. Shabba is a king,” Shaggy said, then grinned and added, “I’m a king.” But the conversation was about more than who deserves the dancehall crown. It pointed to something bigger, Jamaican/Caribbean music now having a foothold on prime-time American radio. Every Sunday from 7 p.m. to midnight, urban Power 96/Roadblock Island Mix dedicates a full five hours to reggae, dancehall, soca, konpa, Afrobeats, and the classics that never get old on a mainstream platform. And given Shaggy’s own career, it’s hard to think of a better voice to underscore just how significant this is. “When I started, there was no radio station that played dancehall or reggae,” Shaggy told Mr. Famous. “There’s no reggae budget. I realised that I was in the underground, so I had to work 10 times harder with 10 times less budget, 10 times less sleep, and make my records 10 times better.

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement