Serious Immigration Laugh by Playwright Devon Haughton

Toronto playwright Devon Haughton has produced another gem with Me Get Mi Landed II scheduled for a series of ten performances around the Greater Toronto Area, including Toronto, Scarborough, Brampton, Mississauga, Barrie, Oshawa, Hamilton and Ottawa. The play surrounds the life of Ruth (Judy Cox), a hardworking and mild-mannered woman who wanted only love and happiness when she foolishly falls in love with Enos, marries him, and then sponsors him to emigrate from Jamaica to Canada.

Dedicated Haughton fans packed the Jamaican Canadian Center Friday for the start of the series. Having Terri Salmon, a leading Jamaican actress as the star of the production, this Canadian-Jamaican playwright understands his audience and he offers them delightful, memorable lines along with well-known Reggae music and popular spiritual offerings. While the play’s paramount focus is about the status of a Caribbean national to remain in Canada, the literary content travels a delicate route that delves into sultry social conditions, double standards, illicit practices and of course class distinctions among family members. This is simple proof that Caribbean playwrights, film makers, novelists, poets, composers of Calypso, Soca, reggae, Cadance and Zouk music are indeed telling stories of their own people.

Enos arrives in Canada to live with his wife Ruth and her colourful wig-wearing, cantankerous sister Tatti (Salmon). Not too long after, Tatti moves out of the house and what happens subsequently is a comedic display of a litany of lies and deceit. Haughton’s Me Get Mi Landed II picks up from a terrific and successful 2009 production also titled Me Get Mi Landed staged in major Canadian cities. This play captures developments 4 years later when Ruth used her life savings to start a nursing home and a long-time family friend Pu Pam Pam arrives seeking a job. As the production unfolds, the audience sees Tatti trying to return to Canada but she has to jump through some legal immigration hurdles, having lost her landed immigrant status at the airport.

Haughton has cleverly crafted a story around a very serious issue that should normally cause affected individuals to cry but the playwright uses comedy to craftily exhibit the special Caribbean ability to laugh at your own self. Irrespective of how serious a challenge, Caribbean people are blessed with a tendency to identify something funny to evoke laughter. Another special characteristic of the community is lively and spontaneous interaction between audience and actors on stage. Theresa Baker as Coco was a natural for this phenomenon. She received the audience’s unsolicited participation from her first entry on stage shaking her tambourine and singing popular church songs. Coco is a Christian minded housekeeper at Ruth’s nursing home who needs money to save her dying daughter in Jamaica.

Barbabas (Robert Gordon) a personal support worker (psw) at Ruth’s nursing home weaves his conniving ways as he attempts to undermine and possibly take over his employer’s business. But he is stopped by her sister Tatti. Both women caught him snooping and pounce upon him like cobras, preventing the dishonest employee from realizing his sinister objective. As the play progresses we see Ruth battling mental health issues, Tatti fighting to regain her landed immigrant status.

Salmon started out as a dancer at Holy Trinity with Joy Gordon, whom she credits as the first person to discover her artistic talent. During that time, she was successful in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commissions’ Festival of The Performing Arts, earning gold and silver medals. Her stellar performances and ensuing success prompted a scholarship from the late Joyce Campbell to her dance company -- Jamaica Institute of Dance. Undoubtedly her wealth of experiences contributed marvelously to the success of opening night of Me Get Mi Landed Part II here in Toronto.

2014 Pan American Men’s Hockey Championship in Brampton

By William Doyle-Marshall

Trinidad and Tobago will be competing with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and the United States to qualify for the 2014 Men’s Hockey World Cup to be held in The Hague, Netherlands and the Pan Am Games in Toronto 2015.

  From August 10 through August 17 the teams will be meeting in competition in Brampton on the new world-class pitch at Cassie Campbell Community Centre. The championships open with a match between Argentina and Mexico, 9 o’clock in the morning. Trinidad and Tobago will meet Chile at 3 o’clock that same afternoon. According to the schedule the twin island republic clashes with Brazil August 11 also at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. On August 13 Trinidad and Tobago is down to play Canada – the final game of the day.

August 17 is considered decision day as two teams will decide the seventh place based on their performance at a game carded for 9 o’clock that morning. At 11:30 a.m. the fifth place decision will be known following this game. The bronze winner will be known following the 4:30pm game and the absolute final for gold takes place 7.00 pm.

Field Hockey officials and players with Mayor Fennell and Minister of Sport Gossal at Brampton City Hall

Scott Topper, captain of Team Canada told media practitioners at a press conference earlier this week that the “Pan American Cup is really special for his team. The British Columbia player praised the City of Brampton for providing the new facilities. he has seen what facilities can do in a city like Surrey, British Columbia. Reflecting of what transpired as a result of new facilities, Topper said field hockey has really grown like a weed and that started in 2007 when the city got its first pitch. After a second pitch was laid down three, four years later the captain noted there were incredible changes.

  “The kids that they are churning out there, they are going to be representing the junior and senior national teams. I can foresee the same things happening here in Brampton. You guys have a lot of extra space there around the current pitch so pitch two might in place sometime soon,” he emphasized.

Having the opportunity to play a qualifying game for such a big international tournament on home soil is really special for Team Canada. “We are often going to countries like Chile or Cuba or what have you and having to play on somewhat more difficult environments and to know if we make a semi-final and hopefully that final against Argentina, we are going to have a home crowd that’s supporting us and pushing us to victory,” Topper said.

  As he thanked Field Hockey Canada for hosting the championships, Derek Sanderson, Pan American Hockey Federation treasurer, confessed that it was quite an undertaking. To be able to get countries to put their hand up to be willing to host because of the amount of effort and the cost,  is a challenge for the federation, he admitted. He also thanked and congratulated the Mayor and the City of Brampton for putting together its fantastic facility that has possibly saved field hockey in Ontario because over the last several years the facilities have not been at the top level and that has been reflected somewhat in the number of players from Ontario representing the national team. Sanderson predicted there will changes. “If we look at the results of the under 16 event which was played at your facility just a week ago and Ontario came out on top so we are hoping that will start to make a more competitive Canadian team from that point on,” the federation treasurer suggested.

  The Pan American Hockey Federation is one of five continental federations that operate under the umbrella of the International Hockey Federation. Field hockey is an Olympic sport and it is very important for Canada over the years to participate at that Olympic level. Sanderson informed press conference participants that the federation faces some challenges because of distance between two of the most competitive nations – Canada and Argentina. It takes about 15 hours of flight time to get together for a competitive game. There are 26 countries in Pan American hockey, including Caribbean and Central American nations, who are members of Pan Am Hockey Federation.

The City of Brampton’s “incredible facility” will encourage players to return because they would have been privileged to play in the very best field in the country, Mayor Susan Fennell predicted. The province of Ontario contributed $200,000 to the venture and the Government of Canada’s input is $94,000. “To date in 2013, it has been a defining year for having international recognition for us here in the City of Brampton. We recently hosted the Women’s International Softball Federation world’s fast pitch championship with 15 countries on our world standard fast pitch softball field,” Mayor Fennell said.

“When we think about how we have been doing in sports and what we’ve been attracting here, it just gives me so much pleasure and pride to have the facility, the support of council to put down the welcome mat for fans, coaches and the globally renowned athletes who will compete during the 2013 Men’s Pan American Field Hockey Tournament and this will be located at our premier Cassie Campbell Community Centre,” Fennell said.

The Mayor boasted that Brampton is the only city in Ontario to host a first class international grade water-based turf. The Minister of Sport Bal Gossal said events like the Field Hockey Tournament is a reminder that the work governments do is very important. He promised that the Stephen Harper Government will continue to invest in sporting organizations to provide funding for hosting national and international competitions and support high performing athletes. Through the government of Canada’s sport hosting programme, Gosal said it supports the efforts of Canadian communities to host national championships and international sports event.