Trinidad and Tobago-born veteran journalist-author Jai Parasram is among the four Distinguished Fellows appointees to the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies. Jean Michel Montsion Director, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies recently made the announcement. They are York University President emerita Lorna Marsden and President of the Institute for 21st Century Questions Irvin Studin reappointed and they are joined by former diplomat and Director of the School for Public and International Studies at Glendon, Annie Dimerjian, and Canadian journalist Parasram.
Parasram is a journalist, author, and communications and media specialist, who worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) until his retirement in 2013. He was the Line-up Editor on the pioneering team that inaugurated the CBC’s 24-hour cable news service in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1989, and was privileged to edit the first newscast to air on the service. Parasram’s career began in his native Trinidad and Tobago in 1972 and spanned more than four decades, mostly in television, during which he worked as a reporter, editor, producer, interviewer, news anchor, news director and executive producer.
He has worked with clients in T&T, Canada and the United States in program development for radio and television, corporate communications, event management and political communication. He has also trained journalists in T&T and Canada. He has also served as a political and communication adviser to two Prime Ministers of T&T.
Parasram has won several prestigious awards for excellence in journalism. He holds a Master of Journalism degree (MJ) from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Parasram is the author of Far from the Mountain (2013), a series of notes and commentaries on the politics of Trinidad and Tobago between 2007and 2012, and Beyond Survival: Indians in Trinidad and Tobago 1845-2017 (2017), a narrative about a people who blended the best of East and West to preserve for themselves and future generations, some of India.
Prominent members of the community, Distinguished Fellows are selected based on their past contributions to the Centre, the field of Canadian Studies or Canadian society. Working closely with the Director and the Executive Committee, they will offer advice on ongoing and future initiatives and priorities for the Centre.
Montsion said the Robarts Centre team will greatly benefit from these Fellows’ insights in supporting our activities, and in finding ways to make the scholarship conducted through the Centre more visible, connected, and part of the public conversation. (Source: Trinidad Guardian, September 10, 2021)

If you missed it, you can check out the presentation to Ingrid John Baptiste

Cyril Lionel Robert James – better known as C L R James, was born Jan. 4, 1901, in Caroni, Trinidad, then a British Crown colony, the first child of Ida Elizabeth James (née Rudder) and Robert Alexander James, a schoolteacher.
In 1910 C.L.R. won a scholarship to Queen's Royal College (QRC), the island's oldest non-Catholic secondary school, in Port of Spain, where he became a club cricketer and distinguished himself as an athlete (he would hold the Trinidad high-jump record at 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) from 1918 to 1922), as well as beginning to write fiction.
After graduating in 1918 from QRC, he worked there as a teacher of English and History in the 1920s; among those he taught was the young Eric Williams, who would become the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
After graduating from Queen’s Royal College he pursued a writing career, His short story "La Divina Pastora" was published in October 1927 in the Saturday Review of Literature, and was widely reprinted.
Together with Ralph de Boissière, Albert Gomes and Alfred Mendes, James was a member of the anticolonialist "Beacon Group", a circle of writers associated with The Beaconmagazine, in which he published a series of short stories.
The family moved to Tunapuna, where James' friend Malcolm Nurse (George Padmore) lived.
James married his first wife, Juanita Young, in Trinidad in 1929, but his move three years later to Britain led to their estrangement.
At a similar time, he befriended the cricketer Learie Constantine, who moved to England in 1929.
In 1932, James left Trinidad for the small town of Nelson in Lancashire, England, at the invitation of his friend, West Indian cricketer Learie Constantine, who needed his help writing his autobiography Cricket and I (published in 1933), before moving to London in 1933.
James had brought with him to England the manuscript of his first full-length non-fiction work, partly based on his interviews with the Trinidad labour leader Arthur Andrew Cipriani, which was published with financial assistance from Constantine in 1932.
James had begun to campaign for the independence of the West Indies while in Trinidad.
An abridged version of his Life of Captain Cipriani was issued by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press in 1933 as the pamphlet The Case for West-Indian Self Government.
In October 1938, James was invited to tour the United States by the leadership of the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP), then the US section of the Fourth International, to facilitate its work among black workers.
Following several meetings in New York, which garnered "enthusiastic praise for his oratorical ability and capacity for analysis of world events," James kicked off his national speaking tour on 6 January 1939 in Philadelphia.
He gave lectures in cities including New Haven, Youngstown, Rochester, and Boston, before finishing the tour with two lectures in Los Angeles and another in Pasadena in March 1939.
He spoke on topics such as "Twilight of the British Empire" and "The Negro and World Imperialism."
He met his second wife, Constance Webb (1918–2005), an American model, actress and author, after he moved to the US in 1938; she wrote of having first heard him speak in the spring of 1939 at a meeting in Los Angeles and reflected on it in her memoir, writing: "I had already heard speeches by two great orators, Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Now I was hearing a third. The three men were masters of the English language, a skill that gave them extraordinary power."
James and Webb married in 1946 and their son, C. L. R. James Jr, familiarly known as Nobbie, was born in 1949.
In 1953, James was forced to leave the US under threat of deportation for having overstayed his visa.
In his attempt to remain in America, he wrote a study of Herman Melville, Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In, and had copies of the privately published work sent to every member of the Senate.
He wrote the book while being detained at the immigration station on Ellis Island.
His most famous work is The Black Jacobins, a history of the Haitian Revolution.
In 1958 James returned to Trinidad, where he edited The Nation newspaper for the pro-independence People's National Movement(PNM) party.
James also advocated the West Indies Federation.
It was over this issue that he fell out with the PNM leadership.
He returned to Great Britain, and spent his last years in Brixton, London.
CLR James, died on May 31, 1989, in London, England from a chest infection on 19 May 1989, aged 88,
After a long continental displacement and a minor governmental controversy, the body of Cyril Lionel Robert James—or Nello, as friends called him—his funeral was held a few weeks later and he was buried in Tunapuna Cemetery, Trinidad, on the afternoon of Monday, June 12th, 1989.
A state memorial service was held for him at the National Stadium, Port of Spain, on 28 June 1989.
On the arrival back in Trinidad of his body, his long-time comrade John La Rose read passages of Aimé Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal - the great Caribbean poem of exile and return.
In this article, Jackqueline Frost investigates the continental connections of James and Césaire, and the politics of return.
The funeral itself was divided between a “Ceremony of Return” held at the national airport, and a “Celebration of a Life” at the Trinidad Oilfield Worker’s Trade Union’s club, and included tributes by famous novelists and calypso singers.
One photo shows James’ body being brought out by a file of O.W.T.U. members under a plane’s wing.
This moment, in which James’ body arrives from London at Piarco Airport, the literal moment of arrival back into his country, seemed to James’ long-time friend and political comrade John La Rose to be the most symbolic.
On the tarmac at Piarco, La Rose and the actor Errol Jones enshrined this moment of return by reading long passages from Aimé Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal [Notebook of a Return to the Native Land] in English translation.
Neither biographical accounts nor the extensive photos of the funeral recall this moment. It is a moment that we would perhaps not know of, or not remember, had La Rose not scribbled his passage selections in the back cover of his copy of the Cahier.
Among other details, biographers note that steel drum versions of the Rite of Spring and the International were played for the over one thousand people who attended.
Photographs of the event show the hearse in slow procession, the casket flocked with bromeliads and bird-of-paradise, and the umbrellas of the funeral attendees on their way to the graveyard. (Source Darrel Lou Hing, August 19, 2021)

The first Colonial Flag of Trinidad featured a British Blue ensign , with the Union Flag on top left hand corner with a badge on right of flag depicting a ship on the ocean arriving in front of a mountain.
Our Motto during Colonial Days were
" SHE IS CONTENT TO MAKE TREATIES AND UNITE PEOPLE."
In 1962 when Trinidad became a Nation we hoisted our National Flag of T&T.

​​Rudolph Charles - Born in 1938 in Laventille, Charles gravitated towards the Gay Desperadoes in 1958 and became the band’s leader three years after. He was known to carry his hammer around and was always ready to find the perfect note. He gave Desperadoes its characteristic tone which it’s known for even today. As an innovator, he was always willing to experiment to find ways of improving the Steelpan. He was the first to chrome pans which enhanced their tonal quality, durability and appearance. He also improved the canopies by using aluminum and designing them in a new shape. Collaborating with tuners Bertie Marshall and Lincoln Noel, the Rocket pan, Nine and Twelve bass pan, Quadrophonic pan and Triple Second Pan were created. He led the Desperadoes to 6 Panorama titles and 2 Music Festival titles. He was awarded the Chaconia Medal Silver posthumously in 2014. He passed away in 1985.
Neville Jules - He began as a Tamboo Bamboo player before becoming a founding member of the Trinidad All Stars steel orchestra during the 1940s. He was captain, tuner and arranger for the All Stars and during the 1950s and 60s he initiated a rivalry where All Stars would play a classical piece to a calypso beat. Invaders led by Ellie Mannette followed and the selections of each band became known as “The Bomb”. Jules is credited with inventing the Tune Boom which later became the Bass pan, the Grundig which later became the Cello pan and the Cuatro pan which is known today as the guitar pan. He received the Humming Bird Medal Bronze in 1970 and Chaconia Medal Silver in 2018. He passed away in 2020. (Source: the Mannette Academy of Dance, August 19, 2021)

​Ray Holman - Started playing pan at the age of 13 with the Invaders Steel Orchestra. Soon after, he was arranging for the band classics such as “Etude in Ab”. In 1963 he would go on to become a member of Starlift and started arranging for them shortly afterwards. By 1969, he won the Panorama competition with “The Bull” by Lord Kitchener and again in 1970 with “Queen of the Bands” sung by Sparrow. In 1972, he became the first steelband arranger to compose and play his own music for panorama; “Pan on the Move”. Since then Ray has gone on to arrange several of his own compositions for many bands. “Life’s too short” and “Special Brew” for Invaders and Tokyo respectively, along with “Pan Woman” by Exodus, “Steelband Paradise” by Humming Bird Pan Groove, “Panic” by Phase II, “Sapna” by Skiffle. In 2006, he reunited with Starlift and took them to 3rd place with another unforgettable composition “If We Really Want”. He has also arranged and recorded with steel bands and artists in the US, Canada, Japan and Europe. In 1988 he was awarded the Humming Bird Medal Silver.
Clive Bradley - His interest in music started at high school where he taught himself to play the guitar. He later went on the learn the keyboard and play with several bands including the Clarence Curvan band. His introduction to steelband arranging came in 1968 with the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra. Two years later, he won his first Panorama with the band with his arrangement of Lord Kitchener’s “Margie”. He would go on to win 5 more titles with Desperadoes - “Pan in Harmony” “Hasley Crawford” “Rebecca” “In My House” and “Picture on my Wall”. Bradley also arranged for Pandemonium Steel Orchestra and in 1988 placed second with what is considered one of the most memorable steelband arrangements to date, “Sailing”. In 1998, he was also victorious with Nutones Steel Orchestra, arranging “High Mas”. Continuing in winners row, his arrangement of “Ordinary People” took Desperadoes to 1st place in 2005 in the Pan in the 21st Century competition. Throughout his career he arranged for the New York panorama and was victorious on 10 occasions, even winning with the same song he won with for Trinidad panorama in 1999; “In My House” was played by Pantonic Steel Orchestra. He passed away in 2005.(Source: the Mannette Academy of Music, Aug 14, 2021) 

​Anthony Williams
Before forming the North Stars around 1949, Williams was a member of the Sun Valley Steel Orchestra. In 1951 he was chosen as a member of the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) to represent the country at the Festival of Britain. As a tuner, Williams developed a note placement scheme whereby each tone was surrounded by other harmonic tones (the “fourths and fifths” tenor Pan) which enhanced the sound. This “spider web” pattern not only improved the tonal quality but is the main reason for the tenor pan becoming a major teaching tool for music theory worldwide. Additionally, he was the first person to add wheels to bass drums in 1956. As an arranger and music director he led North Stars to victories in the Music Festival in 1962 with “Voices of Spring” and again in 1966 with “Poet and Peasant” as well as the first two Panoramas in 1963 and 1964 with “Dan is the Man” and “Mama Dis is Mas.” In 1968 he once again led North Stars in shows and concerts with celebrated pianist Winnifred Atwell with performances locally, as well as the Bahamas and New York. This collaboration went on to produce the widely acclaimed recording “Ivory and Steel” which was the first of its kind. Williams was awarded the Humming Bird Medal Bronze in 1969 and the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in 2008. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies in 2016 and recently received another Doctorate from the Northern Illinois University this year.
Bertram “Bertie” Marshall
Bertie Marshall is responsible for several innovations and tuning advancements in the Steelpan world. By 1956 he revolutionized the tuning of steelpans by adding octaves and harmonics which gave pans a “brighter” sound. From Success Village, Laventille, he led the Metronomes Steel Orchestra and then the Armed Forces Steel Orchestra which became the legendary Laventille Highlanders. As an arranger, he produced several bomb classics such as “Let Every Valley be Exalted”, “Gypsy Rondo” and “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You”. He introduced the use of canopies to protect pans from the sun as well as inaugurated amplified pans during the 1965 carnival. Bertie created the Double Tenor pan and in 1970 he became the resident tuner for the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra. He collaborated with the band’s leader Rudolph Charles on the chariot pan, quadraphonic and 12 bass pan. He was awarded the Chaconia Medal Gold in 1992 and the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in 2008. He passed away in 2012 (Source: the Mannette Academy of Music, August 12, 2021)

Junior Pouchet - The Silver Stars steel orchestra was formed in the 1950s and in 1954 Junior started to arrange for them. By 1956 he was captain and arranger for the band. He went on to arrange many memorable “Bomb” tunes such as “Elizabethan Serenade” (1964), “Wonderful Land” (1966) and “The Theme from Dr. Zhivago” (1967). In 1970 he led Silver Stars to 3rd place in the National Panorama competition with his arrangement of “Simple Calypso” sung by Blakie. He went on to become one of the greatest ambassadors for the Steelpan as he led his band, Adventureland Steelband, which was made up of Silver Stars members, to perform at Epcot Center in Disney World from 1971 to 1999. He passed away in 2012.
Edwin Pouchet - In 1973, Edwin joined his older brother at Disney World, he became so versatile that in 1982, upon his return to Trinidad, he arranged for the Invaders Steel Orchestra. In 1983, he went to arrange for the Adventureland Steelband at Tokyo Disneyland. Fast forward to 2002 and Edwin arranges “Love Theme” for Silver Stars in the Pan in the 21st Century competition and is victorious. He goes on the win again in 2007 with the “Phantom of the Opera”. His Panorama success started in 2004 when Silver Stars won the medium band category playing “Pure Party”. He went on to take Silver Stars to back to back victories in the large band category in 2009 and 2010 with “First in de Line” and “Battle Zone”. Edwin also arranged for Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra in the medium band category and took them to victory in 2011 and 2012 with his compositions “Wake up” and “This is Bachannal” respectively. He passed away in 2014. (Source:  The Mannette Academy of Music Aug 7, 2021)

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​Warao teacher and fisherman Palacio Quinones, 34, sits next to Yakerin Mende Mendoza, and her one-year-old son Noe at a house in south Trinidad. - Photos by Lincoln Holder

In 2019, when a boatload of indigenous Venezuelans – Warao people – left for Trinidad, the trip became a matter of life or death.
They would have preferred to stay in their forested home community of Mariusa, away from the hustle and bustle of "civilisation." But the ongoing crisis in Venezuela has reached indigenous communities in the jungles, threatening their existence and forcing them to leave.
A Warao group spoke to Sunday Newsday, saying their people are on the brink of extinction.
The Warao were one of Venezuela's largest indigenous groups. They are found mainly in Delta Amacuro state, one of the closest points to Trinidad.
The group shared perspectives on their traditional way of life and their struggles to adapt to life in Trinidad.
The Warao, also referred to as boat or canoe people, have been chiefly self-sustaining, with little or no help from the authorities.
Father of two Palacio Quinones, 34, worked as a fisherman and a Spanish/Warao teacher in Mariusa in Delta Amacuro.
Quinones, who cannot speak English, said many people in the community have never been to other parts of the country. He, however, has visited different areas, including Bolivar State.
Speaking in Spanish, he explained that his wife was seven months pregnant in April 2019 when members of the Guardia Nacional began shooting at a boat, killing her and her seven-year-old sister.
"There were about 20 people of different ages fishing in the river where they opened fire without warning," Quinones said.
"Maybe they thought it was bandits. The (Orinoco) river has become dangerous.
"But for hundreds of years, it has always been normal to fish and to see groups of people fishing."
He spoke on behalf of the Warao.
Quinones, his two daughters Genesis and Beatriz, and other Warao made the clandestine trip in September 2019. Many people in the community had already fled to Brazil and other neighbouring countries.
The only person they knew here was a fisherman.
"There are about 45 indigenous tribes in Venezuela. They speak their own languages," he said.
August 9 was International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, as declared by the UN General Assembly in December 1994.
In 2002, then-president Hugo Chavez declared October 12 is Indigenous Resistance Day in Venezuela. This national holiday honours the contributions made by the indigenous people, highlighting their struggles. It replaced Race Day, which celebrated Christopher Columbus.
But even in their country, indigenous people, as a minority group, still face discrimination, Quinones said. Many non-indigenous countrymen still refer to them as Indians.
"We are not Indians!" Quinones and another Warao, said in unison.
Their houses, which do not have electricity, are calledpalafitos (overwater bungalows). They mainly have open-plan homes.
It is common for babies to learn to swim before they can walk, he said.
The only school in this community closed three years ago.
"The river ate the school. The building was very old. It was rotten," Quinones said.
As boat people, they use canoes to travel, and sleep in handwoven hammocks, and not beds.
Quinones said: "We depend 100 per cent on rain to get drinking water. Sometimes it is difficult to get fresh water. We cannot go out as we used to because we could get killed in the river."
To survive in Trinidad, he and other Warao beg people on the streets for money and food. They also do odd jobs. Living inland and away from the river was new to the group. They slept on mattresses for the first time. They live in cramped conditions, unable to find regular work.
"It pains me to beg. We want to work. Our living conditions are horrible here. It is cramped, and we have no money. We need help. As Warao, we live in harmony with nature. We want maybe a parcel of land to live and work freely," he said on behalf of the group.
Just when they thought things could not get any worse, they did, in 2020, owing to the restrictions imposed because of the covid pandemic.
Quinones reminisced that in the jungle. the moriche palm trees (
Mauritia flexuosa) are trees of life.
These trees provide food, shelter, medicine and have aesthetic value.
The trunk is used as the stilts of their homes and to make canoes. The fruit is eaten and used to make juices, he said. People extract soft tissues at the tree's centre to make many dishes, including the popular yuruma.
Another significant benefit of the tree is "delicious edible insects" (worms). The worms are a welcome presence inside the trees. People eat them raw or cook, roast over direct fire.
"It has a lot of protein. The insects get all the nutrients from the tree. It is used as a medicine too."
The group is registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency. The UNHCR said about 200 "Warao persons of concern" are registered with the organisation in Trinidad and Tobago.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has identified Venezuela as being second to Syria as the world's second-largest external displacement crisis. A press release from IRC on June 16 said over 5.6 million Venezuelans had left the country.
Indigenous people traditionally depend on organic materials for medicines, preventing and curing many illnesses naturally.
Several reports say indigenous languages are becoming extinct, and when natives die, they take knowledge of medicinal plants with them.
On June 8, a report from the UK Guardian referred to a study that warned that knowledge of medicinal plants is at risk, saying the loss of linguistic diversity may lead to the disappearance of age-old remedies unknown to science.
Sunday Newsday also spoke to Kape-Kape, an organisation in Venezuela dedicated to protecting the rights of their indigenous peoples.
A representative said the original Waraos of the Orinoco Delta continue to move towards neighbouring countries like Guyana, Trinidad, and Brazil.
In the Pedernales municipality and Tucupita, entire communities have also emigrated, leaving their former homes lonely.
On the migration to TT, the representative said before the pandemic restrictions, trips were usually made two or three times per week.
The official, who asked not to be named, spoke on behalf of Kape-Kape. The pandemic and tightened restrictions have reduced migration, he said.
"Clandestine travel continues today, but less frequently. A woman who asked not to be identified explained that she had to pay US$200 to travel.
"Unfortunately, she and others were arrested and imprisoned by the Trinidadian authorities, then deported after three months."
Kape-Kape also promotes the leadership and democracy of the states of Bolívar, Delta Amacuro and Amazonas.
The official quoted a Venezuelan journalist, Adaira González, who has lived in Trinidad for more than two years. She estimated the number of indigenous migrants at more than 1,000.
Contacted by phone, an official from the Venezuelan Embassy in Port of Spain asked the reporter to schedule an appointment with ambassador Carlos Amador Perez Silva for an interview. (Source:  Newsday  August 15, 2021)