SECOND TIME THAT THE SCARBOROUGH FESTIVAL HAS BEEN CANCELLED. BACK IN 2023

This weekend's free Scarborough's Multicultural Festival cancelled

It has been a tough summer for the Scarborough Community Multicultural Festival. The free 3-day summer festival was planning to come back big after the Covid shutdown by bringing the annual festival to the Scarborough Town Centre in mid-August.

According to Kinron, the company that produces the annual carnival arts festival (calypso singers, mas costume routines and pan performances), they ran into permit issues with both  the city and the mall and had to not only postpone the show but change the location as well.

Shortly after announcing the changes, the festival’s website was hijacked by spammers and the festival had to come up with a new persona on social media.

The new date was to be this weekend and the location was to be Confederation Park in Scarborough.

According to Kinron’s Steven McKinnon the September 23^rd has had to be cancelled once again because their “permit wasn’t issued in time.  We are postponing it to 2023 'cause the weather is gonna be questionable going forward.”

Blink Equity regroups Intuit’s TurboTax event featuring Toronto Raptors Fred VanVleet and Derek Foil.

How Top Tech Employers are Partnering with Entrepreneurs to Create a More Diverse Talent Pipeline

More employers than ever before are partnering with entrepreneurs to drive growth for the tech talent pipeline.

From the basketball court to the boardroom, an All-Star Toronto Raptors player is helping the community by bringing people together for a shared mission.

Blink Equity regroups Intuit’s TurboTax event featuring Toronto Raptors Fred VanVleet and Derek Foil.

Toronto, ON, September 20 - Toronto has 52% diverse representation and is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Yet, if you go into many of the tech companies that are putting Toronto on the map today, multiculturalism is not always represented.

More and more, companies like Intuit Canada are leveraging brands such as Turbo Tax and Quickbooks to partner with like-minded corporations, community organizations and startups to address underrepresentation of BIPOC Talent within tech, fintech, and the financial services industries. The twist? They want to do it by increasing their support of BIPOC entrepreneurship through partnerships and collaborative industry-wide initiatives.

On September 21, 2022 Intuit Canada will be hosting an event in support of growing the Talent Pipeline in Tech through entrepreneurship. The event will be headlined by Toronto Raptors’ Fred VanVleet (pictured above) and his partner Derek Folk. The two influential entrepreneurs will gear up to announce season 2 of their “Bet on Yourself” podcast.

To make this event happen and jumpstart the initiative, the firm reached out to a former employee, Pako Tshiamala, Founder and CEO of Blink Equity who understood the challenge and exactly how to hit the ground running. Tshiamala, recently left a corporate job to solve a problem he deeply cared about; the lack of representation of BIPOC talent in the tech and related industries, and even more specifically, with senior leadership roles.

Paso Tshiamala (left)

“It was very important for us to program the event along a much larger initiative so the interaction with the BIPOC community is NOT episodic. Which is a pitfall of many well intended corporate initiatives start and drop. 

A number of community partnerships will be announced to solve the talent pipeline problem”, said Pako Tshiamala, Founder of Blink Equity.

The event will be taking over Toronto’s Rendez Views restaurant on September 21st and will transform the space into different experiences for the participants. There will be pop-up shops where team members of employers and the general public can purchase items such as jewelry, handmade soaps, and apparel from local BIPOC owned vendors from 11AM-8PM. Two open court basketball courts will be accessible for a little fun and play and will feature performances by BIPOC artists on the main stage. 

The event will also host a courtside chat on the subject of advancing the talent pipeline from an organizational perspective, as well as with the help of entrepreneurs in the community. That is, before VanVleet and Derek Folk take over the stage to drive the point home- Always bet on yourself!

About Blink Equity

Blink Equity is a one-stop shop for business equity solutions. Through their flagship programs, and initiatives Blink Equity transforms workplaces and produces equitable, success-focused opportunities for diverse candidates.
By embedding themselves in an organization, they develop customizable, comprehensive approaches to create scalable, sustainable, and replicable equity solutions

To learn more about Blink Equity: www.blinkequity.ca

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For further information / media inquiries:
Pako Tshiamala
Founder / CEO
Email: pako@blinkequity.ca
Tel: 647-802-8117

Sent by:

Craigg Slowly

Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships

Matrix Mortgage Global

Lic: ON #11108  |  BC #X300671  |  AB #6401473 

Canadian Administration of Private Lending Admin Lic # 13069

Direct: 647.572.2314  |  Fax: 1.888.833.4804

Email: Craiggs@mmgb.ca

Head Office: 100 Consilium Place, Suite 200. Toronto, ON. M1H 3E3

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STEPHEN WEIR

WEDNESDAY MORNING: STUDENTS READY FOR THE ROAD IN 2022

Ready for the Road 2022

9th Annual Walk With Excellence Celebration 

By Stephen Weir

2019  walk photograph by weir

For all the Grade 12 students in the Jane Finch corridor’s four High Schools who have successfully completed their final year it is almost, and we stress the word almost, all over. The last “No more pencils, no more books no more teachers’ dirty looks” have been sung, it is now time for 500 teenagers to end their high school days by dancing in the street.

 

Get on your walking shoes kids, a 9-year tradition is about to start a new.  Postponed for two June years in a row because of the Covid shutdown, the Walk With Excellence Celebration will once again hit Sentinel Rd the morning June 8^th to introduce the new grads to nearby York University and their next level of higher education.

 

All are welcomed to celebrate this year’s graduates from the four high schools: CW Jeffreys, Westview, Emery and Downsview High. All four institutions are within walking distance of York University (north of Finch Avenue and Sentinel Rd.),

 

“The event begins at 10 AM inside CW Jeffreys with a kick-off of student presentations on school auditorium,” organizer Itah Sadu explained to the Caribbean Camera.” Following this is the 5km graduating parade of approximately 500 students to York University where a celebratory lunch and student awards will be shared.” 

 

The Celebration March begins at 11am. The teenagers will carry school banners and signs will head up the street to York.  Making sure the graduating students arrive safely CUPE 4400 union members and volunteers from the Toronto Caribbean Carnival will act as parade marshals along Sentinel Road.

 

Once at York the students will gather in a courtyard and listen to live music and listen to brief speeches from organizer Itah Sadu and senior officials of the university.

After all the formal speeches have been given and  student friendly meals are served there will be Caribbean music in the air. “We are also pleased to welcome Pannist Earl La Pierre Jr with his vivacious musical energy to the celebrations,” said Itah Sadu.

The point of the annual parade is to mark the graduation of the students and to encourage them not to end their studies after Grade 12.  Many of the students have probably never toured York – this event will give them that opportunity.

The Walk With Excellence was started by Itah Sadu and the  Blackhurst Cultural Centre (Formerly A Different Booklist Cultural Centre). 

CLAIRE WEISSMAN WILLKS EXHIBITION OPENS TODAY HELICONIAN CLUB 1PM

Major Celebration and Retrospective
Of the Challenging Drawings and Monoprints of 
Claire Weissman Wilks, 1933–2017

 

Toronto, June 4th – The Heliconian Club is presenting this retrospective The Genius of Claire Wilks. The official opening is at 1pm in Yorkville

The  official opening will take place today. There are several poets, artists, writers, and musicians who will take part in the opening. Two well known poets Anne Michaels, and Jessica Hiemstra, will read from their works.

Hiemstra will also read briefly from one of the late Claire Wilks’ books.   Curator Christian Bernard Singer will talk briefly at the works of art on display.  Wilks’ longtime partner, writer and publisher Barry Callaghan will also speak. 

Performing through the show will be jazz composer pianist Joe Sealy and Juno Award winning guitarist Dominic Mancuso.

 

This exhibition and a second exhibition of Wilks work that opens a few days later at the Gevik Gallery are presenting a mini survey of the startling, emotional drawings, monoprints and sculptures of the celebrated Toronto artist Claire Wilks (1933-2017). 

Wilks was a figurative artist and once called women’s bodies her 'chosen landscape,' but she did not consider this a political statement: "The female form is my line, the form lives in the brain of my finger." Yet, during the 1970s her erotic images of women were rarely accepted in conservative Toronto galleries because of their intense, carnal imagery. These drawings nonetheless contributed to a new dialogue about sexual desire from a female perspective, which happened to coincide with the first major wave of Feminism.

Wilk’s devotion to the naked female form kept her largely out of most Toronto galleries in the70s and 80’s. The novelist Timothy Findley wrote: “Looking at these drawings, women are going to know what it is to be a man; men are going to know what it is to be a woman. Nothing greater can be achieved but that we enter one another’s flesh through one another’s eyes. This is the ultimate compassion.”

Poet Anne Michaels writes: “Her figures embody every kind of dispossession - through sensation, communion, solitude, loneliness, muteness, grief, banishment. Ecstatic; bereft. Every kind of love.” 

 

The Toronto Heliconian Club, a non-profit association of women involved in the arts and letters It operates out of Heliconian Hall located in Yorkville. In existence for over 110 years, the Heliconian Club remains steadfast in its commitment to women living and working in the arts. It is located at 35 Hazelton Lanes in Yorkville.

 

Gallery Gevik, is devoted to exhibitions of established artists who represent Canadian art at its best. The Gallery is located at 12 Yorkville Avenue just down the street from Heliconian Club, the exhibition opens on June 11 at 1pm. 

 

Space is limited.

 

Heliconian Club 

35 Hazelton Ave, Toronto, ON M5R 2E3

(416) 922-3618  Issued by Stephen Weir 416-801-3101

stephen@stephen weir

Innocence Canada shares the news of David Milgaard’s untimely death

 

With profound sadness, Innocence Canada shares the news of David Milgaard’s untimely death. David died yesterday, May 15^th, 2022. He was 69 years old. 

Innocence Canada and Innocence movement advocates are stunned and heart-broken by David’s death. He was a part of the Innocence Canada family and more, an honoured and respected leader in the Innocence movement.  Ron Dalton, Innocence Canada Co-President and exoneree expresses, “his death is a tragic loss to the Canadian Innocence movement and a personal blow to many of us at Innocence Canada.”

David contributed decades of time and energy advocating and lobbying for a Canadian post-conviction review commission.  David was instrumental in the recent consultation process for the development of a Miscarriages of Justice Commission in Canada. 

David was an incredibly generous and sweet man who is remembered for turning his suffering into a lifetime of helping others.  Those of us who knew and loved him best are struggling with the profound loss we feel.  We will do our best to continue the work David and his mother began. 

Innocence Canada extends our deepest and heartfelt condolences to David’s family, friends and legions of supporters across Canada and the world.

Press Release for Immediate Release

 Toronto’s A Different Booklist Cultural Centre is on the Move

Itah Sadu in the ADBCC 

Toronto Friday April 8th., 11.30 am - 12.30 pm, at 777 Bathurst Street. A Different Booklist Cultural Centre (ADBCC) will be holding a press conference to announce its progress to date in the development of a permanent home for the Cultural Centre in the new Mirvish development. 

Exciting highlights will include the announcement of the partnership and long-term lease between the ADBCC and the City of Toronto, and the release of the new name for the Centre.

Joining the event will be Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 11), community members, and Board members of the ADBCC.

A Different Booklist Cultural Centre (ADBCC) has been developing and celebrating Black literature, arts, and culture in Toronto since 2015 and is rooted in the 25-year history of A Different Booklist, an independent bookstore, and has since become a meeting place, and a space of ideas and Black artistic expression. It is unique in that it exists to capture, protect, share and celebrate the literature, art and culture of all the African and Caribbean Canadian communities.
The mission and vision of the ADBCC – The People’s Residence is to create a world-class model for preserving and building on the historic cultural identity of evolving neighbourhoods and to provide opportunities for Canadians and visitors to Canada to celebrate and engage in the rich cultural legacy and history of Canadians of African and Caribbean ancestry.
Drawing from the mission and vision, ADBCC - The People’s Residence aspires to:
o Engage in activities and initiate programs which support the intellectual, cultural, social, educational, and economic well-being of African and Caribbean Canadian communities.
o Engage in partnerships and collaborations with individuals and organizations that help to enrich the literary, cultural, intellectual, and educational fabric of Canadian society.

For More information Contact STEPHEN WEIR 416-801-3101

Toronto's 31-year long love affair with the memory of Bob Marley

Toronto marks Bob Marley’s 77th Birthday this Sunday

Eight-community leader to receive Bob Marley Day Humanitarian Awards

 

Information Bulletin  This is the 31st time that the city has honoured the late great Jamaican musician.  In previous years there have been public events held to mark the Reggae star’s birthday, this year it will be recorded at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre - The People's Residence.

 

The Award Ceremony – sponsored by Roots Canada - airs Bob Marley Day’s YouTube Channel on Sunday, February 6th at 3:00pm.

 
After the Proclamation issued by Mayor John Tory is read, we will honour this year’s recipients of the Bob Marley Humanitarian Award. 

 

Receiving awards this year will be:
 
1.Ian Allen (OBVC Board member and Director of Strategic Communications and Initiatives, Ontario Treasury Board Secretariat)
2.Steve Anderson (Deputy Mayor for the Town of Shelburne and a Regional Councillor for the County of Dufferin)
3.Deborah Cox (Award winning entertainer)
4.Gervan Fearon (President George Brown College)
5.Tiffany Ford (Entrepreneur, Former School Board Trustee and Community Advocate)
6.Siphesihle November (Principal Dancer National Ballet of Canada) 
7.Valarie Steele (Community Activist)

8.Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard (Canadian Senator from Nova Scotia)

 

The Bob Marley Day team is tweeting out the photos and bios of this year’s recipients, one at a time over the next three days. Our first tweet is below.

 

Bob Marley Day Toronto

@BobMarleyDayTO

Congratulations to Ian Allen on being named one of the 2022 Bob Marley Day award recipients. Ian is a @blackvoteCanada Board member and Director of Strategic Communications and Initiatives for the Ontario Treasury Board Secretariat #onelove

For information, interviews and photographs

Contact the Bob Marley Day committee

Bobmarleydayto@gmail.com