Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  One Last Time – Raising the Black, Red and White in Mississauga Photos by Horace Thorne   If people in the GTA didn’t know whose colours are  black, red, and white,  after August 31 st  they do now. The people of Trinidad and Tobago celebrated that country’s 60 th  anniversary with events, ceremonies, parties, soccer matches, Cricket games and flag-raising ceremonies. Photographer Horace Thorne who took these pictures, is also the president of the  Trinidad and Tobago Association of Ontario. He covered the Mississauga First Flag Raising ceremony to mark T&T’s Diamond Jubilee  for the Caribbean Camera . The event, was planned for the most part by the association’s vice president, Jean Turner Williams and  was held at Mississauga’s  City Hall. “The City Hall did a wonderful job,” reported Thorne. “There  was a slight shower, so we all moved inside, for the speeches, and food.” Once inside, the Mayor Designate, Councillor Dipika Dermeria spoke on behalf of the city and Consul Genera

  Exhibition closes with a bang on a steelpan d rum Stephen Weir Monday. Just an hour before the CNE gates shut for the last time this year, Wendy Jones stood on the fair’s International Stage and asked an audience how they are all feeling.  A crowd of 1,000 pan enthusiasts shouted back long and loud. “Hot. Hot. Hot!” Wendy Jones and the Pan Fantasy Steelband and responded in kind.  A rousing stripped down rendition of the Merryman’s  Feeling Hot Hot Hot closed out their one-hour performance in Enwave building at the Ex.  By the time they had packed up their kit (and posed for this picture beside the stage) the CNE had already gone into its shut-down mode for what has been a very successful festival, coming off a 1-year Covid shutdown. The CNE was held from August 19th to September 5 th . According to Darrell Brown, the boss of the festival the “ attendance was over 1 million by the middle of last week, a 10 per cent increase when compared to 2019. He says even though the last four da

Good News Travel Shortly   Stephen Weir In the last week this Caribbean Camera reporter has heard from the Bahamas, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and The Grenadines regarding travel changes that will impact Canadian visitors. As Covid-19 protection requirements are being reduced the news for travellers is all good.   The Islands of the Bahamas  has eased entry protocols, is welcoming more nonstop flights, and reopening favourite hotels. At the end of August, the Bahamas no longer requires cruise passengers entering the country to be vaccinated. However, the unvaccinated must present a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than 72 hours prior to travel to The Bahamas. In November Frontier Airlines will start nonstop flight from Atlanta to Nassau. Meanwhile Bahamasair will start new nonstop flights between Raleigh-Durham and Freeport, beginning in mid-November. Club Med Columbus Isle which was closed during the pandemic will be reopening its all-inclusive resort on San Salvador Island in late

  Rhoma Meet Dora - your time is long overdue BY STEPHEN WEIR The annual  Dora Mavor Moore Award  is the oldest and largest g rouping of prizes honouring the very best in theatre, dance, and opera in Toronto. This year, the 42 nd  for the Awards, there are 46 different award categories up for grabs! The late Dora Mavor Moore was born in Scotland in 1888 and at the age of 8 came to Toronto.  She devoted her long life to creating theatre and theatre companies in her new home.  A recipient of many awards and honours, Dora Mavor Moore was truly one of the key founders of professional theatre in Canada and a fitting namesake for Toronto’s professional theatre awards. It is a very big deal. Winning a prestigious Dora is a huge career accomplishment for those working in the theatre industry.   When the awards are handed out on  Saturday September 19 th  at the downtown  Winter Garden Theatre Centre, the eyes of the community will be on Trinidadian Canadian Actor, Play Creator, Director, and

  The Film World Agrees The Martinique Animated Movie OPAL Is Golden IF Alain Bidard makes it up to the Caribbean Tales Film Festival on September 23 rd  he probably won’t bring all his film festival trophies with him when his animated movie, Opal, is shown in Toronto.  There is not enough room in his suitcase for all the awards the Martinique producer/director has captured since the movie came out last year. He has  already won 48 awards and 73 nominations worldwide and will be in the running for some titles at the Toronto festival as well. Alain Bidard (right) is the only Caribbean animation film director who has won that many recognitions.  He  is an animation film producer/director from the French island of Martinique. Over the past 20 years, he has produced and directed animated feature and short films, animated series, and live-action films which won more than 60 awards and 250 nominations in festivals worldwide. The movie gets its Canadian debut on September 23th at the 17th ann

  Natasha Powell has a new line of Jazz Dancing Natasha Powell isn’t worried.     The Toronto choreographer, dancer, and teacher has a little over four weeks to finish     her new dance  Margarita   which gets its world premiere on September 30 th . “I am not worried” she told the Caribbean Camera. “ I am about half finished. Navigating this has been a bit of challenge but I’d rather be fresh when we go on stage than stale, which can happen with an older (work).” Margarita will be performed three times – September 30 th , October 1 st  and 2 nd  as part Toronto’s premier international dance festival Fall for Dance North (FFDN). The annual festival is back with in-person programming after a 2-year Covid break. The eighth edition of the festival runs from September 17 to October 8 th  on various stages throughout the city. Being a work in progress, Powell is a little bit short on detail of what audiences can expect when the curtain goes up. She does say that the commissioned Margarita is

LavWay is the only way to enjoy Trinidad's Carnival in the theatre During the carnival season in Toronto a day doesn’t go by without me being asked “what is it about you that you love Carnival so much?”  I haven’t had an answer as to why I consider Carnival the best live show on earth, that is until I saw the movie  Lavway: Our Story. It is a magical movie made by devotees of the Caribbean arts and released in Port-of-Spain back in February, 2021. You won’t see this on Netflix, this feature is aimed primarily at a Caribbean audience and carnival friendly North Americans.  This is an hour-long explosion of colour, music, costumes, dancing and dark mystical stories about all things Carnival.  It helps to know a little about the traditions of the annual T&T carnival before you buy your ticket for the film’s September 8 th  Canadian premier. This is a film has been made not to teach but to entertain.  “This is an experimental film based on traditions of Trinidad’s unique Carnival,”

Stephen Weir Goes To The Movies In September Stephen Weir in a theatre  lobby ub July Ms Jean Augustine, Ms Everything, is about to be crowned Canada’s Movie Queen. Earlier this week the annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) held it's 2022 Media Launch to roll out the movies that will be screened in theatres this September, and the show stopper is none other than   Steadfast – The Messenger And the Message,   a documentary about the life of  Canada’s first Black Canadian woman to serve as a Federal Minister of the Crown, Jean Augustine of course. The hour-long film  tells the amazing life story of this Grenadian Canadian Liberal politican who spent a dozen years in parliament and then become a non-stop community activist here in Toronto. The film was recently completed by Canadian director Fahim Hamid and has an amazing three-person castlist which actually includes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau! The film will be shown the evening of Friday  September 9th,(Augustine’s 85 th  b

  Have You Got Your Oscar Yet?   STEPHEN WEIR : Sometime on  Monday Canada’s Mint began issuing the brand new $1 Oscar – the first circulating Canadian coin to bear the likeness of a Black Canadian.  The $1 commemorative coin is all about celebrating the artistic legacy of the late Oscar Peterson .   Called "the man with four hands" by jazz great and admirer Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson rose to the top of the music world through more than six decades of electrifying piano performances. The coin began circulating on Monday, August 15, to coincide with his birthday. Peterson was born in Montreal in 1925 to immigrants from St. Kitts and the British Virgin Islands)  --  his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. Oscar Peterson passed away in Mississauga back in 2007. He was 82-years old.   According to the Royal Canadian Mint the Oscar Peterson commemorative circulation coin was designed by artist Valentine De Landro, an accomplished comic book artist, illustr

David Rudder joins very elite group of noteable Caribbean people STEPHEN WEIR Next time that Calypso singer David Rudder appears on stage, the audience should give him his new dues by shouting out as loud as possible Cheers  To The Honourable King David! Earlier this month the Trinidadian Canadian performer received the Order of The Caribbean Community (OCC).  The award bestows  styling  The Honourable  upon Rudder’s name! Rudder, who is often referred as King David,  was in Port of Spain on the 10 th  of August to receive the prestigious award at the Diplomatic Centre in St, Ann’s. According to an information bulletin of Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs the decision to award 69-year old Rudder the OCC was made  back in July at the annual   Caribbean Community and Common Market   (CARICOM) Heads of Government Conference in Suriname. The Honourable David Rudder was unable to attend that event and so the presentation ceremony was moved to T&T on August 1

New Book Xpresses Maxwell’s Belief In The Divine Order Of Authority Maxwell Blackwood, the Toronto based publisher of the Jamaican Xpress News will be holding court on Sunday August 14th at the Royal Canadian Legion on Irwin Rd in Etobicoke. The well-known writer will be launching a new book at the 2pm event. The new book is entitled the Divine Order of Authority: Law and Mathematics. “The entire theme of this book is to let readers realize that Law and Mathematics are part of the divine order of authority,” said Blackwell. “This book is intended to stimulate ideas and concepts and lead the readers to think for themselves objectively, on matters of importance, spiritually, academically, and mentally. It will help to foster clarity on subject matters that may not even be knowable.” Part philosophy, part autobiography and very much a social commentary on Black Culture, Blackwell tells this non-fiction title through the voice of a pastoral preacher! Although originally from Jamaica, the a