NEW FACES AT TORONTO'S CARNIVAL, AND A NEW NAME TOO?

 Ajax lawyer Jennifer Hirlehey is now chair and King and Queen star Mischka Crichton is the Festival CEO. 

 

By Stephen Weir Just as the Caribbean Camera was readying this week's paper the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (TCC) delivered a press release announcing several key management changes. The annual festival has been without a CEO and Chair since the early Fall with the departure of last year's CEO and Chair Laverne Garcia.

Ajax lawyer Jennifer Hirlehey has been appointed the Chair and last year's Fesitval Manager Mischka Crichton has been named Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  

Hirlehey is described as an established community leader who is serving in her first year as a Board member for TCC. She is quoted as saying she is “excited and proud to make a contribution to this grand tradition that has given so much to our Caribbean community and all Canadians for 56 years. I’m humbled and honoured to serve the festival’s mission in the role of Chair alongside my esteemed Board colleagues.”

Mischka Crichton. last Carnival's  Festival Manager is now the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). As a carnival participant since the age of four, Crichton is a 3-time winner of the iconic King and Queen of the Bands  Jr, Female Individual). She has 16 years of professional experience in administration, strategic planning and change management, 

In addition to Ms. Crichton's promotion. the Board also announced the promotion of long-time organizer Adrian Charles. Last year's Logistics Manager Charles is now the Festival's General Manager. He has been with the Festival for a decade

Hirlehey and Crichton  will serve alongside Toronto Caribbean Carnival Board members Keith Anatol, Anne Marie Sutton, and Angela Pierre.

What carnival watchers find interesting with yesterday's announcement, is not what has been said but rather what has been left out.  Not once in the two page release from the TCC was the name Festival Management Committee used.  The FMC has long been the rulers of the summer event.

Formed some 17 years ago at the insistence of City Hall, the FMC has held the purse strings on all government and sponsorship contracts. Is the FMC now no longer in existence or is just a new name?  If the TCC a different entity who gave the TCC the keys to their previously unannounced new offices and what are the new rules for the 2023 festival? 

In years gone by the FMC gave seats on the board to  the Toronto Mas Bands, the Organization of Calypso Performing Artistes (OCPA) and the Ontario Steelpan Association (OSA). While the TCC has promised to give representation to its stakeholders, no names were released yesterday.

We put the question to the TCC's spokesman Andre Newell but as per usual the paper has not heard back from the historically secretive carnival festival.

NEW Office Location

 

Toronto Caribbean Carnival

716 Gordon Baker Road

Suite 210

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

M2H 3B4