Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

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 lot of people missing – specifically the names of people of colour (zero).   We

 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 youth linger on, on this page.

 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 making yoga poses beside them on the yog

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 intend to announce our first 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 a F

The Best Carnival Film Gets Its Redux This Weekend    Stephen Weir -  It was the best movie almost no one saw at the opening night of September’s Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF).  The good news is that the Bell Fibe TV service is delivering a Christmas present to subscribers and showing the movie on December 23 rd  and the 25 th . Toronto Caribbean Carnival: Fun and Free , is  an hour-long documentary about the annual Caribana festival. When it kicked off the annual Toronto CTFF it got a long and loud standing ovation from the audience in a mostly empty Carlton Cinema theatre. Now Bell subscribers in Ontario and Quebec can catch the TV movie film premiering on their One Caribbean Channel twice over the Christmas weekend. It is showing at 8pm on Friday and again at 9pm on Sunday night. Toronto Caribbean Carnival: Fun and Free   is an hour-long documentary about the annual how Torontonians celebrate Caribana, be it as performers on as part of the million-person audience crowding the

I thought he had quit. Woulda ended the Art Bar Poetry Series record breaking 30-year run Paul Edward Costa at the Clinton House mike @sweirsweir It all began with former Mississauga Poet Laureate  Paul Edward Costa at the mike at the conclusion of last Tuesday night's Art Bar Poetry Series. Two real poets had read their work followed by an hour long Open Mike - ten cell phone readings by members of the 30+ audience. Costa was there to close the show, beg people to put away their trash/chairs, settle their tabs and pitch next week's $10 2-hr show. It was held, as always, in Toronto's Clinton House's (Clinton /Bloor Street) seedy backroom. Perfect for free form poetry; grab your own seat, serve yourself a beer from the stand-up cooler, and try not heckle or jeer the talent.   The weekly volunteer run event has been going for over 30 years. Thought I might have witnessed the last show of this impressive event run - longest in Canada. Costa, the organiser, the photogra