Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  BIG Doll | XWAT Naaniitus I Opened the Door But Where are the People? By  Stephen Weir   Visiting an art gallery’s special exhibition has always been a serious business for me. Be it the AGO, the National Gallery, or the Windsor Art Gallery, I prepare myself by mentally  reviewing the Four Ws: Who is the artist? When does the exhibition open? Where is the gallery? What’s my time line allowance for touring the show? I read up online on relevant websites, watch any posted videos, read the media reviews of the exhibition, and scour social media for public comment on the show and artist. Well, last Thursday was the day I went to tour Vanessa Dion Fletcher’s exhibition:   Big Doll | XWat Naaulitis   at the Windsor Art Gallery. I went with Canadian art scholar and former Windsor Art Galleries educational curator Chris Finn. He and I worked together at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection for decades and did work on a Marilyn Monroe retrospective art show ...

STEPHEN WEIR  says “I am using a strict lipogrammatic constraint taking out the letter “E,” deliberately removing the most frequently used vowel in English. A STORY ABOUT STEVE WEIR HOLDING HIS BREATH WHEN HE IS IN AN ELEVATOR AND RESCUING CATS FROM SUNKEN LADAS                          (No “E” No Air No Rhyming, Floor 32. Cats Can’t Swim,) Balcony drinks. Upstairs unit guy falls during our cocktail hour (  or went down with aid? )  “Air-holding kings can last 5–10 min” are scrawls in my blog’s talk-back box. “As it was, is, and shall stay, world without limit. Amnhb.”  Bad call moving into our cloud-scraping Toronto condo. I sought always to daily spy on the giant  CN Stick  in sight from our balcony! cocktails in hand. Day winds down as CN lights lit up skyward, and Whoosha Russian spy drops past us on his rapid way to ground — 40 floors straight down. A Russian Air Crash. a man had said i...

  According to recent Caribbean reports and military tracking of the U.S. naval buildup in the southern Caribbean and off   Venezuela’s coast  the US is stepping up its presence in the waters aroune Venezuela. US destroyers sail from the Gul f west to the Caribbean Sea On Wednesday morning President Trump  said the waters around Venezuela are now “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” and that the U.S. has ordered a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers as part of a major naval buildup aimed at pressuring the country over alleged criminal activities and to reclaim what he described as stolen assets. Although these ships so far  are not destined for Trinidad and Tobago waters the American military have reportedlyincreased their air traffic through the Tobago airport. STEPHEN WEIR    USN aircraft carrier Ford.

 From the Caribbean Camera November 2025  Stephen and his wife Maria                                         Photo by Rose Embrett You can reach me at  STEPHEN WEIR Stephen Weir & Associates | stephen@stephenweir.com  swear 4509@rogers.com 109 Castlefield Avenue, Toronto, ON CANADA. M4R 1G5 Tel: 416-489-5868 | cell: 416-801-3101  www.stephenweir.com  twitter:  sweirsweir 

  Today, the new Minister of Justice, Arif Virani, and his predecessor, David Lametti, announced that Tim Rees’s conviction for the 1989 murder of 10-year-old Darla Thurott was to be sent back to the Ontario Court of Appeal to be reviewed. Darla was strangled in her bed at her home in Etobicoke on March 16, 1989.  She was found by her mother in the morning.  Tim Rees, then 25 years old, who had visited Darla’s parents the evening before and stayed overnight, was convicted of the murder on September 15, 1990, and sentenced to life imprisonment.  His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed on June 16, 1994, and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case.  After 26 years in prison, he was released on parole in October 2016, and he remains on parole today.   Innocence Canada  adopted Mr. Rees’ case in 2016 and in 2018 filed an application claiming that he had been wrongly convicted with the then Minister of Justice, Jody W...

The Kamala Harris Jape That Wasn’t a Joke It started as a University of Windsor Creative Writing application. But in my mind, it was also a master plan to save the Auto Pact, fix international trade, and maybe even rejig the White House seating chart. My assignment to myself was simple: Write a story so good it saves the Windsor–Detroit auto industry from Trumpian-style tariffs. Hand Kamala Harris a shiny new PhD while I’m at it. Nothing too ambitious. Here I am, back on campus after 53 years. Most students worry about essays or midterms—I’m plotting a geopolitical coup disguised as creative writing homework. My plan? Write something that knocks the professor’s sandals clean off. Save the auto industry. Rescue Canadian–American relations. Maybe even get tenure while I’m at it. Clearly, I needed backup. So I formed a  secret committee —half Canadian writers, half bewildered classmates, and one smug ex-PMO trade policy influencer whose big idea was to form a tri-city consortium with ...

  Who Put the Dogs on Ice? By Stephen Weir In the frozen land of Iceland, there is a quirky little café where the literary-minded gather to devour train-sized breakfasts and admire a surreal display: more than a dozen dog-head masks mounted on the walls. The café, known as the White Cat, is tucked away in Reykjavík and offers a strange yet magnetic mix of books, visual art, and conversation. Has Trinidadian-Canadian playwright André Alexis—author of the acclaimed novel Fifteen Dogs—found a following in this country that seems to adore all things Canadian? “Who let the dogs out?!” sang a loud tourist in a Maple Leaf sweatshirt as he entered the café. The waiter rolled his eyes and sighed, “Oh no, another Canadian.” Then, spotting my raised eyebrow, he added, “Yes, we know all about Fifteen Dogs.” Indeed, the wall of canine heads is more than decorative oddity—it’s a conceptual art installation titled The Dog Within, created by Icelandic artist B/. Known for her surreal and humorous ...