Sharing and Caring

With the Prime Minister hosting a summit in Toronto on maternal and child healthcare initiatives in the developing world, a charity concert (Canada Cares) took place at Yonge-Dundas Square on Thursday night. It was used to highlight the preventable deaths (6.6M/year) of women and children. Though laudably down from 13M about 20 years ago, host Cheryl Hickey and a number of speakers pointed out that the remaining toll can be eliminated with simple and cheap (per person) solutions. What was needed was more activist and political will.

I thought there were too many speakers re-iterating similar points. Though it was certainly important to emphasize repeatedly the grim statistics, it felt more like a back-scratching exercise. Each speaker needed to be given equal time to flog their particular charity or NGO. And it mostly fell on deaf ears. The majority were there for the performers, impatient with their cameras, smartphones, and even tablets to record the show. A minority were drunk indigents, alternating between stupor and belligerence. When even princess Raina of Jordan got heckled by a wizened sot as she recounted how she almost died after her 3rd childbirth, it was doubtful there was much impact achieved tonight.

The performers gave their all though. Backed by a funky band, Jully Black and her two dancers strutted, twerked, and romped all over the stage. When she wasn't exhorting the crowd to clap or sing along, she let her voice soared to the sky. Appropriate that one of her song had the refrain "sweat off my brow" because she worked non-stop during her set. Headliner Serena Ryder also gave the crowd plenty to cheer for. So many of her songs (Stompa, Circle In The Sun) had anthemic choruses that were perfect for sing-alongs. My favourite was her cover of Too Close (Alex Clare) where she unleashed her R'n'B diva.