Ted Barris

Postcards awaiting postage stamps I couldn’t buy. The ticket (top) should have entitled me the chance to purchase those stamps, but the system in Italy doesn’t work that way.

It began innocently enough. I wanted to mail some postcards home. I’d done the hard part – composing some thoughts and finding the addresses. I’d even discovered that postage stamps were available in tobacco stores here. So I searched one out and asked for “francobollo” in my best, fractured Italian. But the tobacconist waved his hands. They didn’t sell stamps anymore. I’d have to go to the post office. There, I found what I thought I needed – wickets, line-ups and clerks – until I reached the front of the line.

“No. No,” the clerk said. He too was waving his hands at me, as if I was contagious. And he shouted at me, “You need ticket!”

“Oh, a first-come first-served system like a bakery,” I thought. “I can do this.”

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Harry Watts was honoured May 13, 2013, at a ceremony in Pachino, Italy. He served with the 1st Canadian Division liberating Sicily and Italy during the Second World War.

Outside the restaurant in Catania, Sicily, the young man and woman were listening to my conversation with Harry Watts. They overheard us talking about the liberation of their country, Italy. What made the moment rather special was that standing right in front of the young couple was one of the thousands of men who had accomplished that extraordinary feat, 70 years ago this summer. But the young couple seemed perplexed.

“We thought the Americans liberated our country,” the woman said.

“No,” Harry Watts said politely, but firmly, “this part of your country was liberated by Canadians.”

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A veteran friend of mine and I happened to be comparing notes about an upcoming overseas trip we’ll be taking together. We were itemizing some of the clothing he might need for the climate where we’ll be travelling. I reminded him about the possibility of rain at night and the likelihood of warm temperatures in the daytime. I used some reliable advice:

“Pack layers,” I suggested, “so you can add or subtract as needed.”

“Why do you think I take several days to pack?” he pointed out. “I like to plan these things.”

“So that’s the secret,” I kidded him. “You take almost as many days to pack as we will be travelling.”

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Spring flooding of the Muskoka River through Bracebridge, Ont. Photo on Twitter, Daryn Jones.

I could hear it before I could see it. It sounded a bit like a strong wind blowing through the trees. But it was a constant white-noise sound. Then I could feel it. The earth beneath our feet seemed to vibrate. Not an earthquake, but as I walked onto the wilderness bridge, I could feel it being pounded.

The force of surging water seemed to rattle the steel and stone of the structure to its core. I stood there at the centre of the bridge spanning the river where it pours over a large drop known as Victoria Falls and I marvelled at Nature.

“This is as close as I’d ever want to get to a tsunami,” I suggested to a one of my travelling partners. “What power.”

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Ontario Premier Leslie Frost, left, and Toronto Mayor Allan Lamport pull the switch to officially start Toronto Transit Commission’s subway service on March 30, 1954.

I guess because they demand the greatest attention on the world stage or occupy the most broadcast time and newspaper space, we tend to pay closest attention to national political figures when they speak.

When, for example, Sir Wilfrid Laurier said, “The 20th century belongs to Canada,” or Pierre Elliot Trudeau said, “Just watch me,” we remember the statement and the speaker. We don’t tend to remember, however, what Toronto Mayor Allan Lamport said about the way his city grew and prospered.

“No city ever became great,” he said, “without a subway.”

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press

A Canadian Sherman tanks of B Squadron, Lord Strathcona’s Horse grind a path up the bank of the Imjin River, in 1952.In his book, Deadlock in Korea, author Ted Barris chronicles the stories of the men who, after surviving the horrors and strain of war, often faced a new struggle to reintegrate into a society that was eager to forget the war. THE CANADIAN PRESS/National Archive of Canada

VANCOUVER – It was one of those aching moments of clarity, interview gold that every author and historian hopes to achieve, one that said so much about how the Korean War was perceived in its time and the wounds it left for the people who fought it.

It is a story that sticks with writer Ted Barris, but belongs to Bill Jackson, who fought with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

He returned home to Brooks, Alberta to an empty train platform in October 1952 and when his proud father later introduced him at the local legion branch a voice from the back of the room told the young soldier to sit down.

“So you were in Korea? So what?”

The 516 who died in what the Liberal government of the day called a United Nations “police action” paled in comparison to the slaughter of the two preceding World Wars.

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Gold Team rep Tommy Redford hoists the UAH trophy for the Men’s Over-40 championship.

We sealed it just after 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon. None of us expected it. Everybody figured we would be on the outside looking in. But it was just the opposite. We prevailed over all the opposition and when we gathered for a victory photograph, somebody put it facetiously, but appropriately.

“We are the champions,” one of my teammates said.

“Miracle on ice, if you ask me,” I said.

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You’d think in a room full of people over 70, there’d be somebody with a light for candles on a birthday cake for a 90-year-old. Ronnie Egan and I had to do the cake cutting without lit candles.

The event was coming to its climax. Guests were assembled. Speeches from dignitaries, family and friends were in the books. We had even sung “Happy Birthday” to the birthday girl. All we had left was to present the cake and candles to her, invite her to make a wish and watch her cut the cake. But there was a problem. Nobody had a way to light the candles. No problem, I thought, I’ll ask the audience.

“Anybody got a light?” I asked. And I looked out at a sea of faces expecting a smoker or a boy scout to come forward.

But nobody moved. Not one person had either a lighter or a book of matches to offer. If any group might be expected to have one or the other in its pockets, for sure, I thought, this one would.

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When I attended public school in the village of Agincourt (now part of Scarborough) because it was nearly a rural school the playground was sizable. Still, during recess, the boys in my class had to find the tallest maple tree – just off school grounds – to climb. The principal realized if one of us were hurt, he’d be liable. So he declared the tree “off limits.” That didn’t stop us. One day, we were blithely enjoying the tree, when out strode Principal Kilpatrick in a rage. Everybody ran for cover… except me.

“Were you playing in that tree?” Kilpatrick asked me directly.

“Yes,” I said, because I couldn’t hide the fact. [more...]

Centennial College in Toronto recently asked me to organize a roundtable discussion during several days of lectures, study and debate on human rights. I agreed and have approached several acquaintances of mine in the federal civil service to participate. I was hopeful, in one case, that an expert on federal law might join the roundtable to offer a Canadian perspective.

“I’d love to, Ted,” he said. “But I’ve been told not to speak publicly on anything.”

“Not you too,” I responded. “Not like the scientists.” [more...]