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FYI

Massari, Ali Gatie Team for UN World Food Program Initiative

Lebanese-Canadian Massari and Iraqi-Canadian Ali Gatie teamed up for a new song and video, I See The Dream (Badna Salam), promoting a global message of peace.

Massari, Ali Gatie Team for UN World Food Program Initiative

By Karen Bliss

Lebanese-Canadian Massari and Iraqi-Canadian Ali Gatie teamed up for a new song and video, I See The Dream (Badna Salam), promoting a global message of peace. The pair debuted the pop release with a pre-recorded acoustic version, as part of The United Nations World Food Programme’s pre-show for the People’s Prize Celebration during which the humanitarian organizations officially received their Nobel Peace Prize.


The two musicians are also new ambassadors for the World Food Program USA’s #ZeroHungerChampions campaign and will be donating a portion of the proceeds from I See The Dream merchandise.

Massari and Gatie both know struggle and sacrifice personally from their childhoods in war-torn countries, before their families immigrated to Canada. They met via their shared manager Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, a Lebanese-Canadian, who was just named manager of the year by Variety. -- Read Karen Bliss's Variety magazine feature in full here.

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Not By Choice on MuchOnDemand on MuchMusic in 2002.
Courtesy Photo

Not By Choice on MuchOnDemand on MuchMusic in 2002.

FYI

Obituary: Mike Bilcox of Ajax, Ontario Pop-Punk Band Not By Choice

Former drummer and now head of Round One Sports & Entertainment Liam Killeen pens this tribute to his former bandmate, with words from The Feldman Agency's Jeff Craib, Sum 41's Dave Baksh, Simple Plan's Chuck Comeau and more.

Mike Bilcox, lead singer and guitarist of Ajax, Ontario’s second most famous pop-punk band, Not By Choice, passed away on June 21, at age 48.

Mike started Not By Choice with his Ajax High School friend Glenn ‘Chico’ Dunning back in 1997. They had initially played a few shows under different names that may or may not be suitable for print, but our moniker came from Mike bothering his younger sister Chrissy at the dinner table. When she couldn’t take any more of his taunting, she promptly told her Mom, Pat, that he was annoying her – Pat yelled ‘Well, he’s your brother!’ to which Chrissy quickly replied ‘Yeah, not by choice!’. With that, a real band was born.

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