Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Late journalist's Caribbean books come to Bathurst Street By Stephen Weir   Colin (l), Stephen Weir (m) and Craigg Slowly (r) Toronto bookstore owner Itah Sadu   is busy organizing hundreds of books that have just been donated to her Different Booklist Cultural Centre on Bathurst Street in preparation for the unveiling later this month of the Colin Rickards Collection. Rickards, a tireless reporter and columnist for the Caribbean Camera, suffered a fatal heart attack at his East York home eight years ago, just month before his 74th birthday.   “Colin was voracious reader and a book collector of all things Caribbean,” Sadu told the Caribbean Camera.   “ The oldest book in this collection dates back to 1896. He had a real interest in all aspects of the Caribbean from the Indo presence to the Chinese presence to the Afro presence.   This is probably the most complete library of the Diaspora culture in the city.” Apart from   coll

Venom's Snake Eyes - Launch attracts over 1,000 revellers By Stephen Weir More than 80 reptilian mas' models slithered, slinked and strutted onto a huge V-shaped stage in Toronto early Sunday morning. Despite a very late start, the models put on a fashion show that wowed the more than 1,000 people who crammed into the Grand Cinnamon Banquet & Convention Centre on McNicoll Avenue   in Scarborough for the Venom Mas' costume launch. Dubbed the "venomous show,"   it was a non-stop parade of models wearing the briefest of costumes.   Two human lizards stood on stage throughout show, wagging long red tongues at the crowd.   There was even a section that outfitted their male and female models with "snake eye" contact lenses.    And was the show sexy? It was bare as you dare time from 1.30 a.m. to 3 p.m.   (The show was due to start before midnight). “Extremely happy with the show. A true testament of the hard work   of our band

Breaking Borders, one gang neighbourhood at a time By Stephen Weir. 97 year-old Salena has had no formal medical training. For the past 70-years she has been the go-to woman when a street gangbanger has been shot. She lives in the Egipto neighbourhood - one of four street gang communities inside Bogota's cultural epicentre of La Candelaria. When someone gets shot in Egipto and refuses to get medical help outside of the hood, Salena steps in. " I cut them open with whatever is at hand " she told me through a translator. " I dig out the bullet and put them back together. I made a cream that keeps infection out of the wound for a week!" These days Salena doesn't haven't to work her magic. The gangstas of Egipto have laid down their weapons, stopped mugging tourists and shooting up the other gangs. Now they are allowing small tour groups in to see their vibrant secret community, meet the locals and learn about their plans for the future.

For one night only it was all about Soca, Mas costumes and Carnival F U N  By Stephen Weir  All photographs by Anthony Berot Sunlime mesmerized almost 500 fans of Carnival on Friday night in North Toronto.   It was almost a full house for the annual Sunlime Mas Band Costume launch. Using the theme of Mesmerize, over 70 male and female models took to the stage of Eglinton East’s   Latvian Cultural Centre with one mission in mind – Hypnotize the willing audience into joining the Mas Band!   Using colourful, bare-as-you dare costumes and contemporary dance moves, the 10 sections were successful in capturing the attention of the crowd.   Most of the costumes were sexy, no matter your size, while some, including a Rasta costume for men, was downright fun! “While most other bands lost masqueraders last year we continued to add for the third year in a row,” explained band spokesman Niles Koski. “We're expecting to continue to grow with more sections and more masquer