Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Daniella Johnson coming home for the expected Federal election call By Stephen Weir.   Any day now, long-time Guelph community activist and volunteer Daniella Johnson is expected to announce that she is seeking the Federal Liberal nomination in the contentious riding of Brampton Centre. In a lengthy Zoom interview with reporter Stephen Weir, Johnson says that she is resigning her post with the LIFT Philanthropy Partners ( a national, non-profit organization that helps vulnerable and at-risk Canadians) and moving to Brampton to pursue the nomination  in the next federal election.  Although there has been no formal announcement on when the next election will be held, political pundits say that the only question is whether the final federal vote will be sometime in late spring or in early fall this year. Brampton Centre has long been a Liberal riding and normally one would expect the sitting member to run for re-election but that will not be the case this time around. ...

Stories from Little Jamaica earn Toronto writer a place  on Kobo’s Emerging Writer Prize Short List Another week, another Caribbean Canadian author has been nominated for a top national literary prize. Zalika Reid-Benta,  a Toronto-based Jamaican Canadian novelist has made the longlist for the Sixth Annual Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. She is in the running for the $10,000 prize for literary fiction for her book  Frying Plantain  was published last year and nominated for the 2019 Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious award.    Since then it has won the 2019 Byblacks People’s Choice Awards for Best Author and has been nominated for the Ontario Library Association’s 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and The Canadian Writers’ Union Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Rakuten Kobo, the Toronto based global eBook and audiobook online seller will be announcing the winners of the Emerging Writer Prize in June. It recognizes exceptional...

New Body. New Book. And Check Out His Bamboo Fibre Underwear By Stephen Weir Jamaican Canadian fitness guru Andre Rose is holding a book launch tonight and he knows that everyone is going to want to look at his Buns of Steel.   No, not his rear end (although the former body building is in fine fine shape) it will be about his just published book, Buns of Steel: The Unstoppable Pursuit Of Fitness. The evening launch of his first book is taking place the Brunswick Bierworks in York. The 39-year old has spent the last two years working on a book that   is meant to help men get fit, healthy and age gracefully with a healthy mind and body. "This will help you break out of your mediocrity and negative mindset, and get you onto a new, exhilarating, passionate path of divine purpose and a life of freedom!" "The time to think about your health isn't once you turn 70, it is now when you can still do something!" he told the Caribbean Camera in a sit-down int...

BOOKS Children’s Literature – First Day At School In Canada For Jamaica’s Leroy By Stephen Weir Immigration and children is The hot topic button today.   The differences between Canada’s approach and the United States have never been so profound.   In the genre of Children’s Literature, Toronto author, storyteller and bookstore owner Itah Sadu’s latest book (her sixth)   – Greetings, Leroy – is suddenly germane to the discussion. Itah Sadu has written a new children’s picture book as an email to a friend back home about Roy’s first day at a Canadian school. His family has just moved to Canada from Jamaica. His new home is different from his old home – in in the North, even the sun feels cold! His nerves ease, though, as welcome reminders of home follow him through his day. It begins when his neighbour gives him a Bob Marley button as a gift to get him through that stressful first day at school. The principal tells him about the soccer team and his n...

Election over, and now it is back to work! by Stephen Weir It is back to work for TV host Nikki Clarke and that means transforming lives, one inspirational story at a time. After unsuccessfully running for office in the recent provincial election the Jamaican Canadian broadcaster is rebooting her Internet talk show in early July. “ I learned so much about my community and myself,” Nikki Clarke told the Caribbean Camera. “It was an honour to run (for the NDP) in the Mississauga Milton riding. I am so proud of what we did!” Candidate Clarke, running in her first election came close. She placed second, 2,000 votes behind Conservative candidate Deepak Anand. Amrit Mangat, the Liberal sitting member was a distant third, almost 5,000 votes behind Clarke. “ We are baaaaaaaack! Better and stronger!” she said in announcing that her show is looking for guests to appear in her kik-off show. “ This is a show that is about conversations. The people (we interview) are making a ...

Damiãn Garth Brown outfront of the Scotiabank movie theatre in Toronto By Stephen Weir  for Caribbean Camera newspaper At 6ft 2, Damiãn Garth Brown is a really big man for a very small part in a new Hollywood blockbuster. But, come to think of it, so is principal star Matt Damon, who, like Damiãn, is only five inches tall in the new Lilliputian comedy Downsizing. Damiãn  Brown on his way up Set in the near future, scientists have discovered how to shrink humans to five inches tall as a solution to overpopulation. Matt Damon and his wife Kristen Wiig decide to abandon their big world stress filled lives by   getting small and moving to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures. The 37-year Jamaican Canadian plays an orderly who helps Damon adjust when he wakes up small in Downsizing. “This was the first big budget film I have worked on – I even had (albeit briefly) a trailer on set at the Pinewood Studio in Toronto. ...