In Loving memory of NHL Hockey Greats and brothers Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau,

I am at a loss of words on this tremendous loss due to the poor and horrible choice of a drunk driver that took their lives. Two brothers decide to take their bicycles out for a ride and then all of a sudden the actions of someone who made a horrible decision, decides to get behind the wheel to hit them. Thankfully the driver stood at the scene to be taken into custody.

Matthew and Johnny were to be groomsman and attend their sisters wedding the day after. It is absolutely heartbreaking where a celebration of love and unity turns out to be an absolute horrific tragedy to plan two funerals.

“Last night we lost two husbands, two fathers, two sons, two brothers, two sons and brothers in law, two nephews, two cousins, two family members two teammates, two friends but truly two amazing humans,” family spokesperson Jim Gaudreau said on social media.

Time and time again, It is absolutely mind boggling how people choose to be irresponsible, to make horrible choices of drinking and then choose to get behind the wheel to put people in danger in a high possibility of causing injury and or worse, it puts an end to someone’s life and then the scar that will never heal and puts an emptiness in that person’s loved ones.

Tougher penalties, revoking and banning individuals from ever driving again and who choose to make bad choices should spend a significant amount of time in prison. It is simple, you take a life, you pay for it by losing your time in life by being locked up.

Drinking and driving has increased so much and people don’t think before they act. These people who choose to drink and drive think drinking is so cool. Alcohol causes nothing but problems. Enjoy but enjoy responsibly.

You can always make the right choice by getting a designated driver, uber, taxi, or take public transit or better yet, don’t drink.

Now, Johnny and Matthew’s family, friends, and the NHL community will never be the same and their family is shattered. This also goes to all families in the world who have had to endure this pain of losing a loved ones or whole entire families.

My heart and my thoughts and prayers go out to Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau’s families and friends during this very difficult time.

By: Talin Orfali Ghazarian

On the weekend of July 8, 9, 10, 2022, The Armenian community centre of Toronto held its annual ACC Summerfest at the Armenian Youth Centre. The last 2-3 years due to the pandemic the summerfest was unfortunately on hiatus, but 2022, the biggest party of the year came back with record-breaking attendance from near and far.

Almost 8,000 people attended in the three days span. It was a successful weekend with awesome entertainment, food, and more. It was like a big family reunion where people come together after a long time of not seeing each other. Also people made new friends too.

People traveled from Los Angeles, Montreal, Detroit, Kitchener, Cambridge, Milton, St. Catharines, Armenia, Lebanon, and other parts of Canada, USA and the world.

The ACC Summerfest was visited by various dignitaries, as well as his Worship the Mayor of Toronto John Tory. We had a jam packed line-up of entertainment provided by our Master of Ceremonies all weekend long by a famous Armenian comedian all the way from Los Angeles. Her name is Mary Basmadjian that goes by the screen name of “Vartoush”. She also gave us a comedy show which we couldn’t stop laughing.

Then we had Martin Mkrtchyan, Marco Mr. Tam Tam, Serop Hagopian, Armenchik, Ararad Aharonian, Ronios, Suro, Joelle, DJ Davo, along with various vendors, a petting zoo, pony rides, magic show, entertainment zone for the kids and a lot more. Then to end off the weekend, the summerfest came to a close with Armenian Patriotic songs where we held up Armenia, Artsakh, Canadian flags to remember our Armenian heroes of Artsakh and Armenia where Hratch Jabrayan came up on stage to say a heartfelt yet touching speech.

We even received news media coverage by CP24.

We enjoyed delicious Armenian/Middle Eastern food made by Lara’s Restaurant and Mezze’s and other variety of foods by Arz Fine foods.

There was also authentic Armenian souvenirs, books, CD’s, Armenia Flag memorabilia to purchase.

It takes all year to plan a huge event like this. Hard work, determination, dedication, and hours and hours day in and day out of meetings, preparations, and carefully planning out the entertainment lineup, contacting them, the availability, equipment and so much.

It was so refreshing and wonderful to see people out and about again coming back to a normal life of seeing people’s faces, smiles, people having a great time after a hectic couple of years we have had to endure.

The purpose of the ACC Summerfest is to strengthen the Armenian community, to get together with our families, friends to gather and to create everlasting memories, to preserve our Armenian culture and heritage by listening to our music, to support our local Armenian businesses and a lot more.

It certainly is not easy to plan an event like ACC Summerfest. I would like to thank the organizing committee, volunteers, bartenders, cleaners and all those who gave a helping hand to make this a great experience for all. I appreciate you all very much. It takes a lot of energy. I observed and witnessed it and I should say that you are all heroes. It was an excellent weekend.

I say thank you a billion trillion times. That is even not enough.

I and I am sure everyone enjoyed themselves all weekend. It was such a fantastic weekend and even the weather cooperated with no rain. It was so beautiful and comfortable. Mother Nature blessed us. It was great.

I am looking forward to the 2023 Armenian Community Centre Summerfest next year and I am counting the days!

In Armenian I shall say Vartzgernit Gadar, Shad Shunoragalem. Asdvadz bahe tzez polorit!

Toronto Pearson Airport is a huge mess with a sea of baggage everywhere and huge hassle for passengers and including other Canadian Airports with canceled flights because of lack of staff. They should have hired more people when they were getting out of this so-called pandemic and they knew they were getting out of this months ago. They should have called people back for their jobs and shouldn’t have laid people off in the first place.

Passengers are waiting for hours to get through security, customs and from check in to gate. Some flights are being delayed or canceled.


That is why I always say go to Airport early. These are prime examples.

Lack of upper management and lack of professionalism. They just look for profit and are greedy not giving back. They used to give you food and freebies on flights, that is lacking too. You gotta pay for it. As if you aren’t paying enough for your flight. Even baggage fees too. It’s ridiculous. Fees for everything. It’s crazy!

The art of communication in person is lacking. People just don’t know how to handle things in a physical form anymore. Airlines and Airports want you to email your problems to them. You can’t talk to anybody on the phone instantly anymore. It’s horrible and you need to wait for hours until you get a hold of someone.
Technology is good in some senses, but it shouldn’t take over everything.

That is why people are in this mess. Don’t put down the airlines or airports, it’s the people who are managing and making the decisions that are the problem. No logic whatsoever.

I still love Toronto Pearson Airport and travel life. Nothing will deter me away. The Big kahunas are the ones we should let go of and put people in charge of those who actually care for passengers.

In the last little while, I have been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting on life and just doing a complete 360 degrees of who and what matters in my life.

In my life I have been left out a lot, used, bullied, hurt and felt like I’ve been put to the side when I’m not needed. This goes back to when I was a kid. I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed lately. So many emotions. I’ve been battling anxiety at times.

It’s been so hard to keep my smile going, and being positive, thinking happy thoughts and being in my happy places, and doing what I love. I’m at a breaking point where I feel like I have been fighting so hard to keep my feelings bottled up inside of me.

Sometimes in my mind, I think of being left out as a kid to my teenage life and into my adult life. I’ve been treated like an outsider like I don’t matter. I felt like I didn’t fit in because I am different, my thought process and my way of life. I feel in my mind that people say really bad things about me behind my back. I just know it and feel it in my gut instinct.

The problem is that when you have a soft heart, with good intentions, being thoughtful, always there for everyone and to go above and beyond, I feel like we are the ones who get trampled on and we get to be the ones where people find the opportunity to use and to walk all over.

Nowadays, you need to think with your mind and not the heart, and nowadays you need to stand up for yourself in this tough world.

Gut instincts are not wrong. I am very observant and they do not know that, but my eyes and ears are wide open and I see everything.

I’m a very sentimental person who loves, cares, appreciates and is grateful for everyone in my life.

I’m just thinking if people equally love, cares, appreciates and is grateful to have me in their life, if I matter to them, if they ever think of me or check up on me to see how I am. I feel like 99% of the time I have to chase people to check up on them.

There is just so much I still need to say. I’ll leave that for another day. I’m just hoping that nobody has to go through what I went and I’m still going through. It’s the worst. If you can relate to me, let’s talk.

Just over a year ago, I was going through YouTube for some cruise ship videos and I saw a video that got me to click to watch. It was from Celebrity Cruises Captain Kate McCue. Today, I am introducing you to the very beautiful Captain Kate McCue and what I think of her.

Captain Kate McCue is the first woman captain of a mega giant cruise ship. She is born on January 6th, 1978 from San Francisco, California. She is married to Nikola Petrovic. She began as a commanding officer of Celebrity Summit in 2015. She has also worked for Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise lines.

Since the age of 12 when her family and her went on a cruise ship, Captain Kate became so intrigued and invested into the cruises that she wanted to become a cruise director. With her love, dedication, devotion, enthusiasm, she began her journey to studying at California State University Maritime Academy and she also has a lot of training and knowledge to operate a cruise ship.

Captain Kate has witnessed shipbuilding at the cruise ship building yards, the drydock, and seeing cruise ships come to life. She gained an appreciation to the hard work and determination of the cruise builders which further solidified her love for these gigantic vessels.

Captain Kate has an iconic sphynx cat named Bug Naked which sails with her on the cruise ships that she takes command of. You may or may not have seen her YouTube, Instagram and TikTok accounts, but if you have not. It is a must see.

There is just so much about Captain Kate, I would love to talk about, but you can also search more about her.

What I think of Captain Kate McCue.

I think Captain Kate is such a beautiful, dedicated and awesome person. I see her personality, the way she treats the passengers and crew is ever so awesome, professional, so friendly and absolutely full of life. She is a humble, down-to-earth person whom I absolutely love. She is definitely someone you can talk to about anything.

Although, I have not met her yet, but through her social media, through all the articles, and all the endorsements and everything I have heard about her, I can truly say I feel like I have met her already and I feel like she has been in my life for years.

She lights up the room with her radiant and delightful smile. A true inspiration for all women and girls out there in the world who dream of doing great and big things in life. Captain Kate is someone who demonstrates a go-getter personality. Its my dream to get to meet her someday to tell her to her beautiful face on how she has made an awesome impact in my life.

Captain Kate and I are the same when it comes to love of cruise ships and cruising. We share the same passion, drive and appreciation for the cruise industry, but there is just one difference. Kate is a Captain and I am a cruise passenger who has had the pleasure of sailing 8 to 9 times on different cruise ships.

I just love that I can relate to her. It drives me crazy and bonkers when people call a cruise ship a boat. It gets me so annoyed. On Captain Kate’s name tag, her slogan says, Do not call it a boat or something like that. I just love that. It is true. It is a ship. You wouldn’t want to call a canoe a yacht now would you?

I wish Captain Kate McCue all the best in her future sailings and sending her, her officers, crew, and passengers blessings with everything. May she have safe, happy and healthy sailings wherever her ship sails.

You can connect and follow her on social media.