The official propaganda:
Every summer, Toronto blazes with the excitement of calypso, steel pan and elaborate masquerade costumes during the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) Festival.
Caribana, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2007, is the largest Caribbean festival in North America. Presented by the Festival Management Committee, the two-week Festival attracts over a million participants annually, including hundreds of thousands of American tourists.
Among the highlights is the Parade, one of the largest in North America. Thousands of brilliantly costumed masqueraders and dozens of trucks carrying live soca, calypso, steel pan, reggae and salsa artists jam the 1.5 km parade route all day, to the delight of hundreds of thousands of onlookers.
The reality parading outside our front step:
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But quite apart from the gross sexual exploitation, the applauding of a criminal subculture, there's that little problem that the black people in Toronto like to shoot each other quite a lot.
Two years ago we had from the Toronto Sun:
"Another tragic incident by one person who has upset the weekend for many, many people." (The police) pointed out Yonge St. is merely a "gathering spot," and not host to a Caribana-sanctioned event."
Oh well, that's OK then. As long as the random shootings are not officially connected to Caribana, I'm sure we will all sleep better.
"Caribana is a cultural festival for the Caribbean community to celebrate their lives, their music, their food, bringing their culture to our country. Shooting people at Yonge and Dundas doesn't fit in that culture anywhere. It has nothing to do with Caribana."
Deputy Chief Robert Molyneaux nine years earlier, talking about the execution-style murder of Elrick Christian and the shooting of three others at the 1996 Caribana parade...
"These were just trouble-making punks who would have done what they did in the middle of the Santa Claus parade." (Toronto Star, August 5, 1996)
Well, thanks for telling us that.
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