Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Michelle Alfano's 'The Unfinished Dollhouse' Brings Raw Emotion of Parenting a Transgender Child By K.J. Mullins,  Newz4U   Michelle Alfano - photo by K.J. Mullins Being a mother is not an easy job. In her new book 'The Unfinished Dollhouse' Michelle Alfano details her personal struggles with raising her transgender son Frankie with a rawness that doesn't gloss over her true emotions. What happens when a child's gender identity isn't the same as the gender they were born with. Is there a way to come to terms with what a parent has dreamt of when it will never come to be? When Alfano's daughter was born weeks early her “Momma Bear” instincts came out. She protected her perfectly formed child throughout childhood, treasuring every moment. The little girl was perfect in Alfano's eyes and the author loved dressing her up in little dresses and styling her beautiful locks. The image may have been perfect but the reality was far from

BOOK SHORTLISTED FOR RBC TAYLOR PRIZE   Canadian David Halton grew up in London during WWII with a father who was rarely home. Matthew Halton was the voice of Canada, sending reports home for the Toronto Star and CBC from the front lines. His stories from the battlefields kept Canadians aware of what was happening daily but today that voice has been largely forgotten, or was until David put ink to paper. Dispatches From The Front brings this extraordinary man to a new generation. Born in Pincher Creek, Alberta Matthew may have grown up with humble means but his parents made sure that their children read the classics, cultivating a love and thirst for knowledge. David reflected how his grandmother had the writing bug reporting for the local paper where Matthew would write his first stories. When at 12 Matthew asked to write for the paper the editor sent him out to cover a local campground as a lark thinking nothing would come of it. Matthew not only covered it but wrote with s

. The Growth of the Modern World Via The League of Nations A Review of Susan Pedersen's The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire By KJ Mullins-Toronto History Today:  For historian Susan Pedersen the League of Nations was a fascinating period of restructuring the Imperial World to Nation States while attempting to maintain old school ideals of how to govern the masses. Susan Pedersen (middle) wins the Cundill Prize Nov. 2015 Pedersen was in Toronto this November as part of the shortlist for the 2015 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature.  Just hours before she took the prize we sat down to discuss her book The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire.   "I didn't write my book as a comment to current affairs, that is for the reader to draw on." Pedersen stresses that she is a true hardcore research historian and that her focus is on the world prior to 1945, not on the present day. Narrowing in on the mandate