Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Look Down The Track Senators – Wanda’s Emancipation Train Is Heading For Ottawa. By Stephen Weir Wanda Thomas Bernard at the mike Union Station Stand back  honourable members of the Senate. The Emancipation Train is heading to Ottawa and Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard is going to blow her conductor’s whistle until Canada’s Upper House listens to the voices of the Caribbean and African American communities. Dr. Bernard championed a bill proclaiming August 1 st  Emancipation Day in Canada. Even though the legislation was passed by the Liberal Government and made it through two readings in the Senate, it failed to come up for the final vote before the Senate recessed.  The bill will not be brought back for a third and final reading. At last Wednesday’s Freedom Train Ride in Toronto, the Nova Scotia senator said she is not going to give up.  Speaking to a crowd of close to 1,000 people inside TTC ‘s Union Station she told them  “I am 66 years old and I don’t have to retire (

Ride the Night Train, July 31st for August 1 Emancipation Ceremony By Stephen Weir The Honourable Wanda Thomas Bernard – Senator from Nova Scotia (East Preston) is coming back to Toronto next week to blow the whistle on Toronto’s Underground. Back for the second time to help out with the annual July 31 st train ride, this year the senator will be the conductor. As the Conductor she will welcome over one thousand people onboard Toronto’s Underground Freedom Train, leaving Union subway station in celebration of Emancipation Day on July 31 st . The riders will be riding in a special TTC subway train on a non-stop ride to the Sheppard St West subway station. Senator Wanda Bernard The Hon. Wanda Thomas Bernard – Senator from Nova Scotia (East Preston), recipient of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, and a highly regarded social worker, educator, researcher, community activist and social change advocate was a guest speaker last year at last year’s ride.  

North is Freedom – Black History Month events in Brampton all month By Stephen Weir   Tonight's Caribbean Camera newspaper The Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) in Brampton and the Ontario Black History Society soft launches this weekend North is Freedom , an evocative new photo exhibition celebrating the descendants of former American slaves who fled to Canada in the years before the American Civil War. In portraits of 24 descendants of freedom seekers– the great-great-grandchildren of once-enslaved African Americans – Toronto photographer Yuri Dojc explores Canada’s end of the “Underground Railroad,” a clandestine network of "conductors" and “stations” that helped some 30,000 men, women, and children follow the “North Star” to freedom. Yuri Dojc The Black freedom seekers settled across Canada but most of them came to places in Ontario, such as Windsor, Chatham, Buxton, the Niagara Peninsula, Owen Sound, Oakville, Mississauga and Toronto.

--> Senator pledges to make August 1st National Emancipation Day across Canada   It all happened underground late last Tuesday night while most of Toronto slept. Looking out over a sea of Caribbean Canadian faces at the start of the annual Freedom Ride; Senator Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard yelled out “You should see the beautiful view from here!” The Halifax senator, one of only a few Afro-Canadians in the Upper Chamber, was a keynote speaker at the 6th annual Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train ride. She told the huge audience that she is going to work to make August 1 st a federally proclaimed national day to honour Emancipation Day.  Senator Bernard shared the microphone with the Toronto Caribbean Carnival's Rita Cox, the honourary conductor of the 2018 Freedom Train. They stood on the steps of the Rotunda inside the TTC Union Station. The pair were surrounded by people wanting to join them on a special subway train ride to mark the August 1,1834

Last Night’s Freedom Train Fires Up Senator to Push The Feds For A National August 1 st  Emancipation Day. By Stephen Weir It all happened underground late Tuesday night while most of Toronto slept. Looking out over a sea of Caribbean Canadian faces at the start of the Freedom Ride; Senator Dr.  Wanda Thomas Bernard said “You should see the beautiful view from here!” The Halifax  senator, one of only a few Afro-Canadians currently sitting in the Upper Chamber, was a keynote speaker at last night’s 6th annual Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train ride. She told the audience of over a 1,000 that when she gets back to Ottawa she is going to continue the work that was started by Toronto Historian Rosemary Sadlier, to make August 1 st , Emancipation Day, a federally proclaimed national day.  senator bernard Senator Bernard shared the microphone with the Toronto Caribbean Carnival's Rita Cox, the honourary conductor of the 2018 Freedom Train. They stood on the steps