left- Gail Quinn,Lindsay Blackett,David Skeete-Pres. of Barbados Association of Calgary and Consul Ferdinand Gill
By Len Chan :The Barbados Canadian Association of Calgary, along with friends and supporters of the Association, celebrated the 45th Independence of Barbados Nov.19 at Our Lady Of Fatima Hall. The celebration was well attended with lots of door prizes including at trip for two, compliments of Westjet, to any scheduled Westjet destination. If Barbados was the chosen destination it also included four nights at The Bougainvillea Resort.
Special Guests included Barbados Consul Ferdinand Gill from Toronto, Calgary NW MLA Lindsay Blackett and Gail Quinn, Barbados Tourism Authority Marketing Representative.
In his speech, Consul Gill spoke about the importance of members of the Barbados Diaspora. He said many have returned to Barbados, some after many years away, bringing business and legal expertise, which has been an asset to the country. Calgary MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) Lindsay Blackett, a former Culture Minister in the Stelmach Government who was born in the UK but has Barbadian Roots, related an interesting situation that his father Carl Blackett and his friends Clinton Maynard, Gene Holder, and Erroll Barrow experienced when they were still students in the UK. He said that on the eve of Barbados being declared Independent they went up on the roof of Blackett’s home and raised the Barbados Flag.
