Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  ONLY CARIBBEAN CANADIAN TO RECEIVE THE ORDER OF CANADA - FLOW FOUNDER DENHAM JOLLY                       Brandeis  Denham Jolly , a Toronto businessman, author and broadcaster  is one of 114 new appointments to the Order of Canada  announced by her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada. The  new appointees to the Order were announced last Friday. Created in 1967, the Order of Canada is one of our country’s highest honours. The Order spotlights people whose service shapes our society. More than 7,000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the Order of Canada. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others. Mr. Jolly’s official citation recognizes “his contributions to the promotion of equity and opportunity within the Greater Toronto Area’s Black community.” 85-year old  Brandeis Denham Jolly was born in  ...

--> Not always happy with life in Canada but always Jolly --> By Stephen Weir,  as published in the Caribbean Camera --> The standing O began before City of Toronto Librarian Vickery Bowles, could finish announcing Denham Jolly’s name! On Thursday night in the Toronto Reference Library’s Bram and Bluma Appel Salon, Jamaican Canadian businessman, radio pioneer, and now author, won the 2017 Toronto Book Award for his autobiography In the Black: My Life.  “We’re really pleased that Mr. Jolly’s book, In the Black: My Life, has been selected as the winner,” said Vickery Bowles, City Librarian. “The book gives voice to a unique kind of Canadian experience that has historically not been heard.” Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the Toronto Book Awards honour authors of books of literary or artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto. The annual awards offer $15,000 in prize money: fin...

Book Review In The Black: My Life --> By B. Denham Jolly An edited version of this review appeared in Huffington Post today In the Black, a new autobiography by activist businessman and radio pioneer Denham Jolly, is going to have members of Toronto's white community seeing red. It might have Black Lives Matter soldiers taking names and making notes. "To the white readers of this book, I have to stress that for Black people the basic and continuing infringements of our rights are not mere distractions. Canadians like to congratulate themselves over our diversity, but … " Denham Jolly told me when we talked about his early days in Toronto. Quoting from his just published book, he explains that discriminatory policing (from carding to driving while Black) "remain part of our day-to-day life and cast a long shadow over it." From time-to-time over the past four decades, Jolly and I have crossed paths. He doesn't remember m...