Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

The last  Basilian   Father This Paragraph a False Assumption?   Stephen Weir  Weir031, 4 th  year Creative Writing Assignment Assignment - write a paragraph based on my take on a Windsor University scene Submitted version The last  Basilian   Father This Paragraph A False Assumption?   An ancient priest in an over-starched cassock makes a special noise when he shuffles across Assumption Hall’s wooden floors.  I listen while I pick the basement door’s antique lock. Click. I am in.  Rotting hand-made wooden steps against the massive fieldstone wall.  Shaky. I make it safely onto the heavily pock-marked basement floor.  A string of Edison era light bulbs hangs above. Clothesline style. I am facing a moss-lined tunnel that slopes toward the Detroit River. An iron bar gate blocks the way. Sigh. Another lock to pick. I hear the priest. He is at the top of the stairs. Cough. Door slams. Lights off.   “I ...

  IT IS A DOG’S LIFE IN THE WORLD OF ANDRE ALEXIS Woof. Woof. Who let the dogs out? The Crow’s Nest Theatre in downtown Toronto is quick to answer that it is Caribbean Canadian author Andre Alexis who is to blame.   For almost two weeks the Carlaw Avenue theatre has been selling out each and every performance of their new play “Fifteen Dogs”.  The new work is based on the award winning novel  by Alexis which won the Giller Prize, the  Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and Canada Reads   back in 2015.    The book has been adapted for the stage by  Marie Farsi and has received funding in part from  The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation  and the Canadian Literature Adaptation Fund.    The play follows the book storyline which begins with two Greek Gods – Hermes and Apollo, drinking in a seedy Toronto tavern. They make a bet to what will happen when they grant 15 dogs human consciousness. They watch fro...

  Toronto dancer about to take to the big stage with Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Not only is it the first weekend for Black History Month in Toronto, it will also be two days of first for dance fans.  On February 3 rd  and 4 th  “America ‘s Cultural Ambassador to the World” the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre will kick off its 2023 North American tour with a trio of performances at the downtown Meridian Hall (formerly the Sony Centre). The 32-member dance troop will be performing for the first time in Canada a new dance —  Are You in Your Feelings   — that acclaimed  choreographer Kyle Abraham describes as a “celebration of Black culture, Black music, and the youthful spirit that perseveres in us all.” Finally and probably most importantly dance lovers in the city are finally going to see  Hannah Alissa Richardson  perform live on stage with this famed Dance Theatre. This is the Toronto native’s inaugural season with the Company and the first time fo...

  Looking at our New Year’s incoming messages   By Stephen Weir The Premier probably used a speech writer. Some, from the looks of what they wrote, had help from bartenders and/or friends lying under the tables. Letters, oh yes we did get letters, emails, and texts, and videos and phone messages last Sunday night. In fact, readers are still sending me New Years’ Greetings, but now in 2023 most of what we see arrives from the Internet.  But no matter how the messages got on our computer screen, the thoughts and prayers continue to be the same year after year after year. Hope. Love. Peace. Oh yes and “Let’s Lose Weight” and “Exercise!”  And me? 2021 and 2022 was pretty horrible time for me.   Here's wishing 2023 is going to be different! As Curwin Baptiste posted just after the big ball dropped “I say let us get back to Basics, if you want to stop smoking, smoke a half a pack, not a full pack. Liming and enjoying each other company and stop taking and m...

Governor General Announces New Order of Canada Appointments By  STEPHEN WEIR  for  the  Caribbean Camera -  What a difference a Governor General of Canada makes. The people who decide which Canadians are to receive the Order of Canada have rediscovered the Caribbean Canadian community, albeit in a modest way. Last week her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, announced 99 new appointments to the Order of Canada, including four Black members. Joining this elite group are:  Angela Ella Cooper Brathwaite,   Karina Chenelle LeBlanc, Frantz Saintellemy  and  Hamlin Washington Grange. As the Caribbean Camera has noted that while  Julie Payette  was Governor General ( 2017 to 2021)   there was a dearth of Caribbean Canadian appointees.  Reporter Stephen Weir penned an editorial that pointed out that Payette’s December 2019 list of citizens who had earned the Order of Canada had a ...

 A BUCK 'N' DOE OR NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY FIVE DECADES AGO? Found Art. Pictures from the Sixties.  These pictures were inside a large box of unclaimed family snapshots, left for development, pickup and payment at a now long gone Drouillard Avenue store in Windsor, Ontario. I recovered the box while helping clean out the store. I promptly put them away in my attic office.   According to the orange Kodak envelope for this set of pictures, they were let at the store by a man who lived on Cadillac Street a few minutes from the front gates of theFord Foundry.  All the young dudes party in a beat-up basement apartment. Holes in the ceiling, third hand furniture, 60s style greaser hairdos. In 1965 the Elvis look still was a major influence on these hard drinking Windsor Hound Dogs.  Out of focus, damaged by the heat of being in my attic for 35 years, I rediscovered their pictures while cleaning out my files!  Young dudes party while the ghost of their yout...

 GOOD AND BAD NEWS: Caribbean Travel Shorts   ANTIGUA:  The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority announced earlier this month that beginning December 23 rd  weekly direct service between Antigua’s V.C. Bird International Airport and Montreal. The Air Canada flight is already sold out for its inaugural voyage. NASSAU:  2022 Boxing Day and January 2 nd  2023 marks the return of the famous Bahamas Junkanoo national cultural festival to the streets of Nassau. This is the first time it will be held in two years!  This is a cultural festival and street parade. There will be accompanying Events on most of the islands throughout the Christmas holiday season. NEW PROVIDENCE ISLAND . Bahamas takes stretching to the next level with Flamingo Yoga! For just $60, you’re invited to stretch your limbs with the flexible-necked birds at Baha Mar on New Providence Island. The flamingos here are known to be friendly, and at times, goofy as they try to mimic humans m...

Cheaper air fares coming to the Caribbean market soon (we hope)   Stephen Weir Amazed at the cost of an airline tickets these days? If you can hold your breath for a few months or so there is relief in sight. Jetlines, a new Canadian discount airline made an inaugural flight from Toronto to Vancouver this month and has just received US approval to fly from Canada to Las Vegas and Florida. Right now, Jetlines has only one airplane in its hanger, but, promises once it takes delivery of more Airbus jets it will begin offering service to the Caribbean. Jetlines, is a Canadian ultra-low-cost airline  headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario. “We are looking forward to expand our international network, as the U.S. is a top market for Canadian travelers,” Eddy Doyle, President and Chief Executive Officer of the airline   reported  in a recent statement. “With the winter months fast approaching, we know sun destinations will be a priority for leisure travel and we int...

  Justin and Me And Trump Make Three (or is it 11?) - THE REDUX By Stephen Weir The gentle tap tap quickly birthed a knock knock followed by a kick kick at the base of my front door. Someone wanted me wide awake, like yesterday. “Hey Dream Boy, rise and shine,” barked a loud voice from the other side of my solid oak front door. Was that a faint Quebecois accent lurking in that military staccato? “ Mange la merde”, I screamed back. I wasn’t going to give up on my disturbing dream without a fight. I know this voice; this man was going to make my morning its own waking nightmare. “ It is Justin, he knows.” My unrequested wake-up service shrieked right back at me. Yes, I was correct, this wasn’t going to end well. “What does His majesty know? And why does he suddenly want to speak to me after the last time?” I turned the volume down a notch, best to find out what the hell I had done before I ended up having to buy a new door. I am a Toronto based news hound who will do anything to get...