Unity and diversity celebrated at Bob Marley Day Awards

For the past 24 years, Courtney Betty has been rewarding outstanding citizens and organizations that have played key roles in promoting unity, diversity and equality with Bob Marley Day Awards.

At last Friday’s celebration to mark the late reggae artist’s 70th birthday, Betty was on the receiving end of a Bob Marley Day Lifetime Award.

He stepped down this year as the event’s principal organizer because of business commitments.

“Knowing when to pass the baton on is something that I am cognizant of and that’s the message I want to leave,” said Betty, who has a first degree from the University of Prince Edward Island and a law degree from York University’s Osgoode Hall. “Success, for me, is measured when you pull people up along the way and not by what an individual has achieved.

“I have done many of the things I wanted to do which is great, but happiness for me is looking around and seeing others who have achieved. Unfortunately, we as a community have forgotten about the legacy piece and how do we enhance, empower and enlighten others around us rather than focussing on ourselves.”

Betty said the Bob Marley Day Awards were launched to build relationships between the Black community and the police.

“I was a crown attorney at the time and I was caught in a divide,” he said. “Here I was representing the Department of Justice on the one hand and then we had a lot of issues with the police and our community. I saw this event as a bridge to link the police and the community.”

When the event started in 1991, Keith Forde and Karl Davis – Staff Inspectors at the time who are now retired – were the highest-ranking Black Toronto police officers.

The Toronto Police Service now has two Black deputies – Peter Sloly and Mark Saunders – and a female Black Inspector, Sonia Thomas.

“The Service has become much more reflective of the community it serves and relations between the police and the community are not what they were 24 years ago,” said Betty, a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Bar of Jamaica.

A leading advocate for the development of a legal framework for supplier diversity, Betty successfully assisted the Jamaican government in deregulating the telecommunications sector. He also helped AT&T negotiate a cellular license in Jamaica.

Betty is the president and chief executive officer of Timeless Herb Care, a Jamaican medical marijuana company that recently recruited former Ontario premier, Ernie Eves, to be its chairman.

Other Bob Marley Day Lifetime Award recipients were the Jamaican Canadian Association, Mayor John Tory, Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture & Sport Michael Coteau; councillor Michael Thompson and Sloly, who was the recipient of a Bob Marley Day Award in 2004.

At the time, he was a Staff Inspector.

“Over those 11 years, I have continued trying to improve the Toronto Police Service to be better at the service part of things, including the safety, but very particularly the service – serving a diverse city in a way that’s respectful and a way that captures the spirit of our city’s theme which is ‘Diversity is our Strength’,” said Jamaican-born Sloly.

“In that time, I have tried to build the fabric of the city by sitting on boards like Covenant House, the YMCA and Civic Action because it’s more than just policing. It’s about building social cohesion and capacity in small neighbourhoods and building resilience in our young people.”

Bob Marley Day Awards were presented to Dr. Laura Mae Lindo and Dr. Afua Cooper, who was unable to attend the event and Epilepsy Toronto director of public education and outreach, Rachael-Lea Rickards.

An award-winning author, poet and historian, Dr. Cooper is the chair of the James Johnston Endowed Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Her interest in slavery, abolition and women studies led to her doctoral dissertation on anti-slavery crusader Henry Bibb and the publishing of The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal, a national bestseller that was nominated for the 2006 Governor General’s Award.

A singer/songwriter and the creative consultant of Dr. Lindo Productions, which was established in June 2011, Lindo is Wilfrid Laurier University’s diversity and equity director. Prior to assuming the new position last August, she was a senior research associate at Ryerson University for six months. In that role, she brought together varied approaches to equity, education, training and mentorship through her involvement in myriad projects and partnerships with stakeholders from diverse sectors.

Bob Marley Day Future Leader Awards were presented to 20-year-old Ryerson University student, Alyssa Sun, who aspires to be a biologist; Grade 11 student, Akeem Clarke, whose goal is to become a professional basketball player; Weston Collegiate Grade Nine student, Amanda Singh, who intends to become a teacher and aspiring paediatrician, Shaquillia Charles, who attends Father Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School.

This Is How Bob Marley's Pot Brand Is Trailblazing the Cannabis Industry

Bob Marley and cannabis are almost synonymous — in some places, "Bob Marley" is the street name for pot. So, it was almost an inevitability these two would one day be formally united. That day came in November 2014 when Marley's family and private equity firm Privateer Holdings announced the creation of Marley Natural, the world's first international cannabis brand.

Marley Natural is reinventing the cannabis industry from something informal and clandestine to professional and sleek. The brand is more than a cannabis distributor. It is developing a wide range of products derived from the plant — including lip balm, body lotion, hand cream, serum and edibles, to name a few — along with all the paraphernalia one could ever need.

The new-age dealer: At its official launch at the end of the year, Marley Natural will start selling roughly three to five strains of smokeable cannabis, along with innovative new products derived from cannabis. They will distribute these to dispensaries in states where recreational cannabis is legal. 

Some of these new products will feature infusions of CBD, THC or both, the psychoactive compounds that produce a high, while others will not include psychoactive ingredients. There will be a range of options from THC-infused cream for an epidermal high, to innocuous hemp seed oil, which will only leave the consumer feeling moisturized (and not high). 

 

One of the things that makes Marley Natural different is its accessories. Not only is the company selling cannabis in different forms to be consumed, but it's also selling the products people use to consume them, putting them in the unique position of potentially controlling both distribution and means of consumption. 

"We'll be offering an accessories collection. Not just things like vaporizers, pipes and storage containers, but ceremonial and lifestyle accessories, too," Tahira Rehmatullah, general manager of Marley Natural, told Mic. This is one of the crucial ways the company is building its brand, setting itself apart in the process.

"They'll have a modern and sleek look very much in line with the DNA of Marley Natural. The attraction will be in the design itself: We look at them as pieces of art versus just a pipe, for example. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these products out there, which are a little shady," Rehmatullah said. Marley Natural intends on destigmatizing cannabis in the process. "We want to make products that you would feel very comfortable having on your bedside table," Rehmatullah said.

While Marley Natural's accessories and smokeable cannabis will be rolled out at the time of their official launch, they will initially be more cautious and restrictive about how they sell their newer products, specifically the CBD- and THC-infused creams, oils and edibles. The law regarding the sale of these types of products is more opaque than that of cannabis in its pure form, Rehmatullah said. For legal reasons, only accessories and products that won't produce a high will be sold on their website; the rest will be distributed to be sold in brick-and-mortar stores.

Ahead of the game: Privateer Holdings were one of the first firms to really understand the cannabis market, and in preparation for Marley Natural, the founders started the legal and business legwork five years ago. 

"I think one of our competitive advantages is that Privateer set up to really understand this market and this space. We met with lawyers and activists and political campaigners and patients and growers and really built a network of people to fully understand the marketplace," Zack Hutson, public relations director at Privateer Holdings, told Mic.

Cannabis is recreationally legal in Washington, Alaska, Colorado and Washington D.C., with medicinal cannabis legalized in 20 more states. The laws vary by state, both in how it can be grown and how it can be sold, making it potentially difficult to ensure a cannabis company is always operating within the confines of the law.

"It has taken awhile to figure out but I feel like we have a good sense of how this can work and how we can build a national brand by working with local growers in different states and in different countries, but still assuring they meet our quality standards and brand standards," Hutson said. 

Privateer Holdings invested considerable resources into understanding this legal landscape in order to dominate the market and make the best decisions possible for the company. 

"We really have the benefit of being the movers in the industry, who really took the time to learn the nuances of all the markets," Rehmatullah said. "We've traveled the world, understanding how different governments function, how they're looking at this, what the forward looking opportunity is, and we continue to do that."

Marley Natural is constantly in dialogue with their growers, the country's policymakers and lobbyists, allowing itself to evolve with the laws. But Hutson and Rehmatullah also said everyone in the industry is confident the end of prohibition is imminent. Marley Natural also has the unusual advantage of pioneering a market which everyone knows there's a demand for. 

"There's no risk these products won't resonate with the market place. We believe cannabis is a mainstream product consumed by mainstream people," Hutson said.

A family affair: Marley's children are playing a hands-on role in the development of this brand. "The family has been great to work with and involved in a number of levels. They're thinking about design and really how to position the brand because they want to preserve the life and spirit of their father," Rehmatullah said.

The Marley family has met with Privateer employees in Jamaica on a number of occasions as they develop the company. Jamaican ministers are also involved in the project, in order to integrate the country into the company, through ethos and in the actual production of Marley Natural accessories. 

"My dad would be so happy to see people understanding the healing power of the herb, he's smiling right now at what's really happening," Marley's daughter, Cedella, told Caribbean Life News after her company was announced.

America must brace itself for a change. What was once the business of college students furtively showing up at one's doorstep with a backpack full of pot, is soon to be dominated by a sleek, international brand to be found in mainstream stores. Whether consumers choose to get high with THC serum and Perrier or a fancy, Marley-approved vaporizer, the world of weed is about to be shaken up like never before.