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Black History Month

Every February, Canada celebrates Black History Month, a time to reflect on the contributions, struggles, and achievements of Black individuals. While Black history is rich across all sectors, its impact on the IT industry is particularly significant. This month, we not only honor the successes of Black professionals in tech but also recognize the importance of diversity in driving innovation and progress.

Canada’s multicultural identity is a key source of creativity and innovation, especially in technology. Embracing diverse perspectives leads to fresh ideas and groundbreaking solutions. Black History Month is not only a time to look back at the past but also an opportunity to look forward—to a future shaped by continued inclusion and opportunity.

Black History Month was officially recognized in Canada in 1995, thanks to the efforts of the Honourable Jean Augustine, the first Black woman elected to the House of Commons. She championed the motion to designate February as Black History Month, which was unanimously passed. This month allows us to celebrate figures like Viola Desmond, who challenged racial segregation, and Elijah McCoy, whose inventions transformed mechanical systems. McCoy’s automatic lubrication system, which improved railway efficiency, became so widely respected that the phrase “the real McCoy” was coined, symbolizing authenticity and excellence.

Black Canadians have made profound contributions in various fields, from Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada’s first Black physician, whose work in medical research laid the groundwork for early technologies, to the growing number of Black innovators in science and technology. In the realm of computing, Dr. Philip Emeagwali’s revolutionary models have had a lasting impact on supercomputing, while Black entrepreneurs and engineers continue to shape advancements in AI, cybersecurity, and software development.

Despite facing systemic barriers, Black innovators in Canada have demonstrated resilience, continually shaping industries with their creativity and ingenuity. Their work reinforces the importance of diversity in technology, showing that a range of perspectives drives stronger, more effective solutions.

As we celebrate the achievements of Black Canadians in history, science, and technology, let’s remember that the best innovations arise from collaboration and inclusion. By ensuring everyone has a seat at the table, we can build a future where talent knows no boundaries and innovation has no limits.

Picture of Riyad Mohamed

Riyad Mohamed

Our Sales Analyst, Riyad happens to have many other skills including blog writing and keeping up with social events. She is your go-to gal for any information on the company and is always happy and enthusiastic to give support.

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The most cybersecure country in the world is Denmark, whereas the least cybersecure country is considered to be Tajikistan.

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Russia ranks #1 as the country that commits the most cybercrimes. 

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Millennials are the most vulnerable when it comes to cyberattacks, with 44% of millennials falling victim.

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Despite the rise of social media platforms, email phishing campaigns remain the world's most common cyberattack.

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Around 85% of people who post pictures of puppies for sale on the internet are trying to scam you.

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According to Databasix, cyberattacks occur at a frequency of every 39 seconds.

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The ManhattAnt is a species of Ant that is only found on a 14-block stretch of New York City. 

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It is illegal to be born or to die in Svalbard, Norway.

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Napoleon Bonaparte's greatest defeat was not to humans, but instead to a horde of bunnies.

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Bubble wrap was originally intended to be wallpaper.

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The smallest McDonald’s restaurant in the world was built for bees, and has honey instead of chicken nuggets.

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Bamboo grows so fast, it’s measured in miles per hour. It grows at about 0.00002 miles per hour, or 35 inches per day.

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Nomophobia is the fear of not having a mobile phone.

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The official bird of Redondo Beach, California, is the Goodyear Blimp.

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Squirrels cause the most power outages in the USA.

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David Bowie launched an internet provider known as BowieNet in 1998

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Humans are born with two innate fears: the fear of falling, and the fear of loud noises. All other phobias are learned.

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Ravens are empathetic creatures, and their moods can be affected by the moods of other creatures around them. 

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The Great Emu War of Australia lasted 1 month, 1 week, and 1 day, and was an attempt to curb them from destroying crops. They killed 986 emu’s, which had no impact on the emu’s general population, thus making the emu’s the winner of the Great Emu War.

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New Zealanders have more pets per household than any other country.

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Around one in every 200 men (16 million people!) are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.

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The worlds quietest room is located at the Microsoft Headquarters in Washington State.

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Some of the shortest people in the world come from Indonesia, with an average of 5 feet, 1 inches tall. On the contrary, the Netherlands boasts the tallest average height at 6 feet tall.

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The most popular name in the world is considered to be Muhammad.

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The longest place name in the world is in New Zealand, with a name that is 85 letters long. See if you can pronounce it: Taumatawhakatangihangak-koauau tamateaturipukakapikimaung-nukypokaiwhenuakitanatahu.

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There are more twins being born now than ever before.

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The best place in the world to see a rainbow is in Hawaii.

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Cocaine used to be used for various purposes including as an anesthetic, a remedy for seasickness, hay fever, and cold congestion, and it was also an ingredient used in Coca-Cola, hence the name. 

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A jiffy is an actual unit of time for 1/100ths of a second.

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Clans who wanted to get rid of citizens without killing them would set their houses on fire. This is where the term “getting fired” comes from.

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Going to work is statistically 3x more dangerous than going to war. 

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Fortune cookies were invented in America, by a man named Charles Jung in 1918.

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Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.

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A group of pugs is called a “grumble.”

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The Guiness Book of World Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries. 

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Charles Osborne suffered from chronic hiccups for 68 years, lasting from 1922 to 1990. His hiccups started while he was weighing a hog for slaughter. 

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Reed Hastings was inspired to start Netflix after accruing $40 in late fees for a VHS. 

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1 in 10 European babies are conceived in an Ikea bed.

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You are 1% shorter in the evening than you are in the morning.

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Forbes estimated that in 2011, Scrooge McDuck was worth $44.1 billion.

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The average person walks the equivalent of 3 times around the world in their lifetime. 

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The Great Maple Syrup Heist of 2012 was national news when someone stole 3000 bottles ($1.8 million dollars worth) of maple syrup in Quebec.

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Canada and Denmark have been fighting over an island in the Arctic since the 1930s. Canada will stake its claim to the island with a bottle of Canadian Rye Whiskey, whereas Denmark will place a bottle of Danish Schnapps. 

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In Canada, it is illegal to challenge someone to a duel. It is also illegal to practice witchcraft without a license.

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In Kanata, Ontario, painting your garage door purple is illegal. This is an attempt to maintain the aesthetic consistency and neighbourhood harmony.

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In Souris, PEI, it is illegal to build a snowman taller than 30 inches.

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The largest lobster ever caught was in Nova Scotia and weighed 9.3kg.

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Basketball was invented by a Canadian called Dr. James Naismith in 1891.

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Ginger beef was invented in Calgary in 1975.

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Over 200,000 pancakes are served at the Calgary Stampede breakfasts each year.

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Canadians eat more mac and cheese than anyone else in the world. The most popular cheese amongst Canadians is cheddar.

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Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada by an Ontario native in 1962.

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Moosehead Breweries Limited is Canada’s oldest independent brewery, operating since 1867 in Saint John, New Brunswick.

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Alberta is home to more natural disasters than any other province in Canada.

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During 9/11, Gander airport in Newfoundland took on 38 wide-body planes, and its population jumped by more than 50% in the span of a few minutes.

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License plates in Nunavut are in the shape of a polar bear.

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Quebec is our only officially French speaking province, whereas New Brunswick is our only officially bilingual province.

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The Calgary Stampede is known as the “Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth” and brings in over 1 million visitors per year.

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Canada has it’s own loch ness monster, known as the Ogopogo that lives in Lake Okanagan BC.

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The town of Nanaimo BC hosts the Great International World Championship Bathtub Race, and has been doing it since 1967.

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There are polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba. Residents do not lock their doors to their houses or cars in case of an attack.

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Our capital, Ottawa, is the second coldest capital in the world, with Moscow taking number one.

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The village of Alert, Nunavut, is the northernmost permanent settlement in the world.

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Canada is home to 15 million cattle, 9 million of which live on the prairies.

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Canada is the largest producer of uranium in the world. 

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There is an area in the Hudson’s Bay region that has less gravity than the rest of the planet. This is thought to be due to the Laurentide Ice Sheet compressing the Earth’s crust and the area not being fully recovered from that.

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Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world, at an impressive 243,977km. If you walked without rest, it would take you four and a half years to walk the entire length.

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Canada is so large that it has 6 time zones.

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88 percent of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error.

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97 percent of organizations have seen an increase in cyber threats since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.

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Using a single password, hackers infiltrated the Colonial Pipeline Company in 2021 with a ransomware attack that caused fuel shortages across the US.

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A 2021 LinkedIn data breach exposed the personal information of 700 million users or about 93 percent of all LinkedIn members.

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Over 560 million Ticketmaster customers had their information stolen in a 2024 breach.

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In 2023, security breaches saw a 72 percent increase from 2021, which held the previous all-time record.

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The average lifecycle of a breach is 292 days from identification to containment.

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The average time to identify a breach is 194 days.

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The average cost of a data breach was $4.88 million in 2024, the highest average on record.

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Average annual income for a Canadian Cyber Criminal top hacker is $10M per year.
Cyber Criminal Revenue in 2024 is estimated to have hit 9.2 Trillion USD worldwide.

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Criminal Gangs have started Cybersecurity Penetration Schools. Teaching penetration testing...then they convert them to the dark side.

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Crocodiles in Indonesia have learned to “wave” in water, simulating human child drowning. When a person goes to investigate, they become Croc Lunch.

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Grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts: Contain the highest protein content per unit of mass, around 61% on a dry basis

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Llama milk contains more protein than cow and goat milk. Sheep milk, however, has the highest protein.

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North America has a National UFO Reporting Center based out of WA, US.

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The very first Flat Earth International Conference was held in Edmonton, Alberta.

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Southern Alberta is tied with Southern Saskatchewan as the sunniest place in Canada, with over 2,375 hours of bright sunshine a year.

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The Guinness Book of World Records lists Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica as the windiest place on the planet. Katabatic winds are recorded at over 150 mph on a regular basis

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Lethbridge is the 2nd windiest City in Canada. The winner is Saint Johns, NFL. Calgary is the biggest large Wind City.

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90% of all Canadians live within 160 km of the US border.

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Canada is the home to 10% of the world’s forests.

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Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

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Alberta has the highest concentration of US Citizens living in Canada.

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33% of Calgarians are foreign-born.

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Calgary has the 2nd highest concentration of head offices across Canada. The first one is Toronto.

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Calgary has the highest GDP of any other city in Canada. (stats as of 2022)

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The majority of Canadian hockey players shoot left. Whereas the majority of US hockey players shoot right.

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Canada’s most played sport? GOLF! Followed by Hockey.

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Canada has the most left-handed golfers in the world (due to hockey).

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We call our Canadian Geese a different name - Cobra Chickens!

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Gravitational time dilation is a scientific theory that Gravity is produced due to time difference based on height.

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The Edmonton Oilers have won the Stanley Cup 5 times, last one being 1990.

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Heinz scientists have figured out that the optimal flow of ketchup is roughly 0.045 km per hour.

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Canada has a National Maple Syrup Reserve.

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Canada has a National Butter Reserve.

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Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1990.

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A large part of northern Canada has lower gravity than the rest of the planet.

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There’s one bear for every two people in the Yukon.

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The first thanksgiving was celebrated in Newfoundland on May 27, 1578. The meal consisted of salted beef, biscuits, and peas.

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The coldest temperature ever recorded in North America was -63c in Snag, a small village in the Yukon.

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A Canadian robot named Dextre does repairs to the international space station.

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It’s legal to have a kangaroo as a pet in Alberta.

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Saskatchewan is the world’s largest exporter of mustard. The US eats most of it.

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At the end of WW2 Canada had the third largest navy in the world and 4th largest air force.

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Yonge Street is the longest street in the world and touches the Great Lakes and Cooks Bay.

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Mount Logan is the highest mountain in Canada.

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Sweden has the most islands in the world – over 220,000!

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The whopee cushion was invented in Canada.

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Little Lake Manitou, Saskatchewan is 5 times saltier than the ocean.

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The oldest known rock, discovered in Hudson Bay, is 4 billion years old.

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Canada has more doughnut shops per person than any other country.

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Alberta is the hail capital of the world.

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It would take 33 years to walk the coastline.

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Until 1995, it was illegal for margarine to be yellow.

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Quebec produces more than 70% of the world’s supply of maple syrup.

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Winnipeg consumes the most slurpees in the world.

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