Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

RAESHA SIROIS  -- 2015’s FACE OF THE FESTIVAL The Face of the Festival Does one have to be born in the West Indies to have Carnival Fever? It certainly cannot hurt! Raesha Sirois, born in St. James, Trinidad, immigrated to Canada in 1970 and grew up in Scarborough, Ontario. Although she enjoyed a Canadian environment and learned to embrace winter out on the slopes with her snowboard, Trinidadian culture was a great part of her upbringing. This included eating her mother’s Creole cooking, listening to Soca, pan and chutney music, and regular month-long trips down to Trinidad to visit relatives in the summer. Raesha played clarinet in the Toronto parang group, La Petite Musicale in the late 80s and joined Silhouettes Steel orchestra to play steel pan in 1994.  She is the only known 9-bass player in Canada to own her own set of pans and currently plays with Pan Fantasy Steel band, led by 2015 Harry Jerome award winner, Wendy Jones. A full-time dental hygieni...

Calvin Taylor - by Stephen Weir New Man At The Head Of Parade Calvin Taylor joins Festival Management Committee (FMC) as the Parade Operations Manager for the Scotia Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2015 season.  He is a Canadian Citizen, born in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.   Calvin attended Sheridan College where he completed a course in Electronics Engineering Technician.  With these credentials and his self motivated drive for success he pursued a very lucrative career in Information Technology Sales, Earning numerous top sales awards along the way. As a former North American Federation of Musicians booking agent, he booked many Caribbean acts into Toronto for the Caribbean season over the years. Calvin is no stranger to planning big events.  In 1986 he and a group of investors held a major event at the Varsity Arena called MULTY MUSIC 86.  It featured very popular bands like FireFlight, Messenger, Pryme Tyme, Dominica Swinging Stars and ...

.  The Award for Innovation in Mas Goes to ‘The Hyper-Physical Being’   Hyper-Physical Being - photo by Anthony Berot   Toronto, ON (August 2, 3013) – With its ambiguous coils unraveling outwards and colourful wings reaching upwards, “The Hyper-Physical Being” is the winner of the Ontario Science Centre’s Award for Innovation in Mas presented last night at the King and Queen Competition at Lamport stadium. The spectacular creation was designed and built by Danzo Balroop and the team at Louis Saldenah’s Mas-K Club. The judging panel was made up of Walter Stoddard and Bernie Hillar of the Ontario Science Centre’s Science Content and Design B ranch, and Dr. Marsha Haynes, Medical Liaison for Merck Canada, who participated in many carnivals in her native Trinidad. “Tremendous research, problem-solving, experimentation and collaboration were clearly displayed at every camp we visited in the days leading up to the competition,” said Walter S...

 . CTV / CP24: COLOUR OUR   WORLD W ITH CARNIVAL Over 60 mas dancers, pan artistes, make-up people and costume carriers came to Jamaal Magloire's Mas camp to shoot two commercials with CTV/CP24.  The shoot included a lot of paint throwing ( a tradition that is carried on in all Carnival parades), squirting water and having Soca (Soak-A ?) laughs. Hosts Colin D ' Mello and Andria Case were  the only people who managed to leave the Scarborough warehouse (home of Magloire's Toronto Revellers) dry and paint free. The shoot was a lot of fun as these pictures illustrate. What follows are a few photographs from the day long event at the home of the Toronto Revellers on Ellesmere Avenue here in Toronto. PANNING THE PERFORMANCE This is one performance the critics can pan!  AFROPAN - Canada' longest performing steel pan orchestras (they celebrate their 40th anniversary this year) sent five of their musicans to appear on camera in CTV/CP24's up...

Justin Trudeau stopped by the Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival BBQ One Year Later,  One Liberal Learns To Dance To A Soca Beat It is carnival time in the city of Toronto.  Soca Music. Mas. Calypso. A million people in the hot and hot streets. More media than at the G20.  For Federal Liberals,  the world famous Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival, has always had a  huge publicity attraction.  It is sometimes their PR Waterloo. And while Martha Reeves does say that  summer is here and the time is right for dancing in the street, it doesn't mean that a politician just has to show up to be instantly seen as being one with the people. It was a year ago, that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, rented a bus and rolled into town for what was then called Scotiabank Caribana.  He had a steel pan orchestra and champion calypso singer,  Macomere Fifi in tow.  They barnstormed the festival, entertaining the crowds with long speeches, soca and...

William Doyle Marshall tours Scarborough Mas Camps in Toronto's East end. BRING A FLASHLIGHT The Empty Factories of Scarborough are ablaze for just 2 months   Costumes on display in the Blues Carnival Mas Camp, Howden Rd, Scarborough There are  mothballed factories and warehouses in Toronto's east end (Scarborough) that stand empty for most of the year. But in June and July these empty spaces are filled with colour, music and art.  There are 17 Mas Camps up and running in Toronto in preparation for the Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival ( i.e. Caribana). On Thursday night journalist William Doyle Marshall (CHYR, Indo-Caribbean Journal etc) toured three of the Mas Camps to talk to the Mas men and women running the camps. The Camps are where the costumes that dancer wear while playing mas at the street parade are constructed.  As well the camps are gathering spots where people interested in Carnival can order costumes, volunteer their help and generally Lime...