Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Two Years On - Monday's Emancipation Day This Monday marks the second federally recognised Emancipation Day in Canada, it is also the second time that Toronto will mark the event with a march along Bloor Street in downtown Toronto. Beginning at 1pm at Bathurst and Bloor Street the parade with travel west to Christie Pitts for live music and celebration in honour of Canada’s recognition of Emancipation Day. Emancipation on Bloor ends at 3pm. The event marks the actual day in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 came into effect across the British Empire. August 1st is now a day that honours the long legacy and contribution of Black Canadians and the commitment to unlearning anti-Black racism and pushing for a more just society. media covering 2021 Bloor March Emancipation on Bloor is once again organized by The Blackhurst Cultural Centre. Spokeswoman Itah Sadu says the parade will “a series of “statements” through artistic expression including the liberation from chains, m...

Slave Clothes On The Mink Mile? Only on Emancipation Day   Photos and story by Stephen Weir:  According to well-known activist, organizer and owner of Canada’s largest diversity bookstore,  Itah Sadu  what happened on Sunday on Bloor Street was neither a demonstration nor a parade.  Maybe not but the Mas models, actors in chains wearing slave clothing and children holding Black Power signs walked the  Mink Mile  on Sunday afternoon – it was an August 1 st   Emancipation Day  to remember.   “No, this was an act of love,” explained Sadu. “ We billed it as  E mancipation on Bloor  -- an animation of the  Bloor Street Cultural Corridor  from Yonge and Bloor (aka the Mink Mile) to Christie and Bloor adding to the all the terrific August First Emancipation Day activities here in Toronto.” Actors in slave clothing carry their chains  Yonge & Bloor in Toronto It started after lunch at one of the busiest intersections...

Tomorrow's Caribbean Camera Tonight! ROCHDALE – IT’S THE SIXTIES MAN. FREE LOVE AND FREE RENT COME TO TORONTO. BLACK POWER TOO By Stephen Weir Do you know what Rochdale College was? No? That probably means that you weren’t alive and living in the Toronto in the late Sixties when Rochdale was the centre of all things counter culture … including Black Power. Cast of rochdale in costume It was a large residence on Bloor Street near Spadina and housed over 800 people; most of them love bead-wearing students.  It was launched in 1968 as an experiment in a student run, free form alternative education set in a hippie run co-op.  Rochdale lasted only 8-years.  Closure came when the students stopped paying rent and the building started falling apart. At the time the police and neighbours said it had become a haven for drugs and crime. It was closed in 1975 when the authorities actually welded the front doors shut. Irony of Ironies, it is now a senior’s residence a...