Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Scarborough’s Shawn Allen Keeps On Keeping On! Takes Another National Mortgage Awards By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera (above) The Oscars (without the slap) for the stars of the country’s mortgage business was held in Toronto last Thursday at the Canadian Mortgage Awards (CMA) banquet. And the winner was?  Guyanese  Canadian moneyman Shawn Allen. Allen, the founder of the  Matrix Mortgage Global, was presented with the CMA Prize for Broker of the Year - Private Lending.  This award recognizes the country’s top mortgage broker who specializes in private lending and has built a solid business over the past year. Toronto based Shawn Allen was one of a number of mortgage brokers and independent brokerages that were honoured in 22 different categories. The awards range from Brokerage of the Year to the  Award for Woman of Distinction The prestigious awards evening is staged  by the Coalition of Independent Mortgage Brokers of Canada (CIMBC). This as...

  For The Caribbean Camera Everything Is Local  The Caribbean Camera Newspaper  just celebrated its 21 st  anniversary.  If there had been a party, we might have been able to get publisher  Anthony Joseph  (pictured below) to tell us how he manages to keep the Toronto Black community newspaper afloat during a time when he is unable to sell advertising; distribute his 24-page weekly newspaper; and pay journalists (including me) all since the arrival of the Covid shutdown.   The paper and its online website is considered the voice of the Caribbean community in the GTA.  The paper is written by journalists who have a connection with the Caribbean (most learned their trade in Trinidad) except me. The 65-year old publisher gives his 80 something Trinidadian born editor a small honourium, has assist with his basement digs and from time-to-time makes sure that the editor gets his  three solids . Everyone else fends for themselves.   Pre-Co...

Marc Trinidad getting ready for the day he can get back on stage Just ask Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle who the best Caribbean Canadian comic they have worked with is and the answer will be the same, Marc Trinidad.   Be it on stage, radio, or on live TV, Trinidad is our standup man! True to his sir name Marc Trinidad was indeed born and raised in Trinidad, but now Barrie is where he calls home. After working theatre and sketch comedy in T&T for a number of years he decided to come to Canada to gain some international exposure.  He has lived and worked in the “Great White North” for over 20-years and has carved out a stand-up career that has him in constant demand wherever English is spoken! With nightclubs closed and comedy festivals on hold, Trinidad, is hunkered down at home waiting out the virus shutdown. Over the weekend the standup man had a sit-down question and answer session with our Arts reporter Stephen Weir.  He also took a selfie for ...

Sophomore band plans to paint Caribana Green in 2020 Last year photographer and long-time filmmaker Jenny Baboolal was a little green behind the ears when it came to starting a new Mas Band. Now almost a year later, not only is she going green again but also plans to be bigger and better than in she was in 2019. “My belief is that Going Green is a win-win proposition for everyone” Baboolal told the Caribbean Camera. “Everyone is aware of the climate change crisis and we all want to make a difference.” In 2019, Baboolal, and Calypsonian Roger Gibbs led a mini-parade of 20 masqueraders wearing green costumes, around Nathan Phillips Square during the City Hall Launch of the annual carnival. “This year I’d love to have enough people in green to encircle the Square.” The Going Green group has a message to the world. “ We must reduce our carbon footprint!” To that end the masqueraders will be at the launch and the parade having fun and spreading the world about their environme...

By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera Louis Saldenah’s Mas-K-Club took no prisoners on Saturday night. The biggest band, with a legacy of winning that stretches back to the early days of Caribana, held a dramatic costume launch at the Chandi Banquet Hall in Scarborough in front an estimated crowd of over two thousand people. Sixteen sections with a theme of the “Wonders of Spring” entertained the audience for 90-minutes of sexy, innovative costumes for both men and women. Costumes shown on Saturday will be worn by the city’s largest band (5,500 anticipated in 2018) during the August 4th Toronto Caribbean Carnival’s Grand Parade. “Louis Saldenah’s Mas-K Club has got class,” said photographer Don Moreland. “Louis filled the place, the whole event had a great vibe at the Hall.” Moreland has covered all of the Carnival launches this season and reports that the Saldenah’s launch was one of the best he has worked .... ever. “Louis is good at what he’s into and that is Carnival,” he...

--> Carnival season in Toronto begins with Venom More fashion show than a costume launch, the 2018 carnival season kicked off on Saturday night with a big bite of   snake venom. The Venom Carnival mas band staged the first costume launch   of the 2018   season and attracted over 1,000 paying customers, most of whom were there for the entertainment of seeing what will be worn on the parade route this summer! “ Last year we held our first launch at a club that had a capacity of 750, which we maxed out by the time the show started,” said Aneil Persad , Managing Director at  Venom Carnival INC “ This year we moved to a bigger hall (Chandni Grand in Scarborough), and by the time the music started we had over 1,000 people inside.” Venom is a new band – this is year number two – and the colourful section costumes (the theme this year is Inked) and youthful design has attracted first time carnival goers to their launch in huge numbers. “ Ye...

Review By Stephen Weir Canada's Caribbean Camera Newspaper,  March 8, 2018 Staring down a terrorist gun barrel while being held hostage in the Parliament Chamber at the Red House in Port-of-Spain, Winston Dookeran introduced himself to the gunman as the Minister of Planning.  “He said to me ‘I bet you didn’t plan for this!’” It was the 1990 attempted armed government overthrow of the Trinidad and Tobago Government by over 100 insurrectionists and Dookeran was in the thick of it. Now, almost 30 years later, the politician and scholar has released a book in Canada that plans for a wave of change in the politics of the Caribbean. The 74-year old politician, turned academic (he is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto), addressed a large audience at the soft cover launch of his book Crisis and Promise in the Caribbean; Politics of Convergence . “We are going through a profound change, not just in Trinidad but across the whole Caribbean. I am ho...