A citizenship ceremony and Black History month

It was a night that a Beurling Academy Grade 8 student won’t soon forget. Some of you might recall the annual BA Christmas concert in December was postponed to January on the account of an accidental injury to the music teacher and subsequent freezing rain conditions later in the day.

But for one student, it was a disappointing turn of events as along with postponement, Canadian rocker Sam Roberts, who was going to open the show on the original date, wasn’t available on the new date. Student Patricia Muir, amongst others, was looking forward to hearing Sam sing some a couple of his classics and also having him watch part of the show.

We hope that Sam will be available for the spring show later this year. We learnt of her disappointment, and seeing that I was slated to go to Sam’s recent Metropolis show at any rate to talk to Sam and watch his show a few Fridays ago, a few calls and emails went out to Sam’s manager to see if we could arrange a little surprise for Patricia with a few extra passes and to possibly meet Sam.

Sure enough, Sam and his manager graciously came through with tickets for the show and backstage passes to meet Sam before the show. I had the pleasure to accompany Patricia and her dad to Metropolis to see his show and with a nice 15-minute meet and greet. Sam and Patricia had the usual chat that happens with musicians like what instruments she plays and the songs her fellow band members were gonna play at concert night, followed by a nice photo op and to top it off, the whole band signed a poster that her dad bought for her. A big thank you goes out to Sam and his manager for coming through for one of BA’s superstar students.

A Citizenship Ceremony

For many years now, new Canadians becoming citizens of this great land of ours have taken the oath of citizenship generally in the cities that have become their home or in some cases, in their workplace where there were large groups of workers becoming citizens, instead of going to Ottawa.

On Monday the 13th, and fittingly enough during the same day that Beurling Academy was going to host an event to mark Black History month, the school was the host of one of those citizenship ceremonies. 31 new citizens from 19 countries were sworn in to have their official new start in their adopted country.

The event was made more special as the presiding judge, was someone very familiar to the area. Former Vice-Principal Veronica Johnson was nominated to this position last summer and part of her responsibilities is to take these events out on the road. It certainly didn’t harm the case with my suggesting to Judge Johnson back then in doing something around here and the chief judge is the Hon. George Springate, who’s native to the southwest. Judge Springate presided at a similar ceremony four or five years ago at Verdun Elementary, which, needless to say, Judge Johnson was also reminded of this fact.

The event began with a procession led by a well-known international symbol of Canada, a red-coated RCMP officer. In her remarks, Judge Johnson, reminding us all about Black History month, mentioned about the importance of the role played by black soldiers during the War of 1812, and that Canada may not be what we know today.

BA Principal David Abracen and Verdun Commissioner Doug Flook also welcomed the new citizens on behalf of the school and the LBPSB. Students Arianna Stephens and Kumaran Kanesamoorthy admirably handled the emcee duties for the day and BA’s leading vocalist Tishawna Callendar sang the mandatory national anthem, Oh Canada. After the swearing-in and the receiving of gifts as a memento of their day, all were invited to a reception in the conference room to end off a most memorable morning.

Black History month

Later in the same day, it was an event tailor made for the whole student body as former Musique Plus VJ Malik Shaheed brought his Youth Stars Foundation Roadshow to BA. Malik brings along a power point presentation with a slideshow of various personalities who have contributed immensely to the Canadian and world fabric.

Many of these names are unknown in everyday life outside of the athletes and members of showbiz. There were bios on Mathieu Da Costa, considered to be the first black person in Canada, Juanita Westmoreland first black judge to the Quebec Courts, and Rose Marie Brown, considered to be the first black politician in Canada.

There was also plenty of entertainment to go along from dance teacher Miss Jessica Mender’s Sec 1 dance class and looking like they been at it for a while. One of the many groups from the music department along Tishawna Callendar on vocals played a raucous Lenny Kravitz classic, and Malik Shaheed also brought along one of Montreal’s up and coming talents, Miss Naisha Mendoza, where one can check out her music on the web. So another Black History event has come and gone.

BA Sports

The indoor soccer season has ended. The boys’ juvenile team were in the quarter-finals this past Monday hosting Centennial and came away victorious with a 9-6 victory on the strength of a hat trick from Treyvon Grant. This put them into the semi-finals this past Wednesday at Westmount High but unfortunately lost 6-3. We would like to congratulate the whole team on the great season and for having reached the semis. Have a great week.