March 15, 2006
Caribana Chaos
Things are getting ugly between the city and the Carribean Cultural Committee, the organizers of the huge Caribana festival. Citing the lack of a clean audit, the city is refusing to give $400,000 or so of funding and asked another group, the Toronto Mas Band Association, to take the reins of the festival.
TMBA won't be able to use the name though, the CCC owns that, and CCC organizers have vowed they'll put the fest on with or without city funding. But it doesn't end there. According to the Sun, CCC member Nkem Anizor accused councillor Mihevc, the city's Caribana liaison of being a racist.
"In our opinion, Councillor Mihevc is a racist who's convinced that black youth will sit back and continue to be exploited, jumping up and dancing, generating millions of dollars for the city," charged Anizor, "while council continues to: Number one, raise taxes to award record budgets to a police force that racially profiles black youth; two, ignores the deplorable conditions of affordable housing; and three, cuts funding from social supports that help protect black youth from murdering one another."
We'll take a page from Councillor Mihevc's book here and not dignify the comments with a response. The CCC's disarray is a well known fact around the city and while we certainly hope that recent events don't mean the death of a beloved festival, we certainly don't think smear tactics and hostile language will smooth any feathers.
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Ouch. I didn't expect the race card to be pulled this early!
The thing is Mihevc is probably one of the best councillors on all three issues that they brought up: housing, police and social programs. They should be glad they had to deal with him and not Old Man Moscoe or stick in the mud Case Ootes or Rob Ford, or Frances Nunziata. shudder.
Reread your first drafts much, Nurwisah?
Thanks for keeping me on my toes! Yikes.
you goddamn torontoist people. i've read one too many ignorant things on your blog now that i'm removing it from my rss feed. what a waste of my time.
and you're getting your news from the toronto sun? are you serious?
Actually I saw Anizor make the "racist" comment about Mihevc on Citypulse, I just couldn't find the link and wanted people to see the quote. I don't love the Sun but they reported on it and I'm quoting it.
Hey Helen, It was a quote. Your dislike of the source does not mean it wasn`t factual.
Blah blah blah. Mihevic is a racist. The Jewish lobby controls Canada's immigration decisions. Blah blah blah.
Anizor, just shut up and go away. You are the racist here and are creating an even bigger dividge between the black community and everyone else.