Posts with the veteran tag

Barris Beat

Remembrance from witnesses and moviemakers

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Commander Ericson (Jack Hawkins) makes life and death decision in “The Cruel Sea.”

Commander George Ericson is crouched on the bridge of his corvette warship. He’s peering through a sighting device, lining up his counterattack against an enemy he can’t see, a submerged U-boat in the Atlantic waters directly ahead of him.

“What’s it look like now, Number One?” Ericson calls to his first officer, who is on a sonar device.

“It’s the firmest contact we’ve ever had,” the sonar operator shouts back from below deck.

There’s sudden consternation on Cmdr Ericson’s face. Merchant sailors whose ship has just been torpedoed are thrashing about in the water. They’re shouting for help. “There’s men in the water just about there,” Ericson says.

“Well, there’s a U-boat just underneath them.”

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Barris Beat

Friending versus finding truth

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MP Erin O’Toole speaking in the House of Commons. Hamilton Spectator.

He almost could not speak, the response around him seemed overwhelming. But he finally raised his hands in gentle protest to the standing ovation and when the applauding stopped he offered these words:

“Today, I rise for the last time in this chamber,” MP Erin O’Toole said in the House of Commons on June 12. “It’s been the honour of a lifetime to serve Durham in Parliament.” (more…)

Barris Beat

The Order of things

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Charley Fox and I enjoying each other’s company at a regimental dinner in 2006.

The man told me my future. It happened back in the 1980s. But back then, Charley Fox, my oldest and dearest veteran friend, looked me straight in the eye and told me what I ought to be doing with the rest of my life.

“It’s your job to tell our stories,” he said. And each time we’d meet – usually every month or so at the Husky truck stop on Hwy 401 just east of London, Ont. – Charley would remind me with a “to-do list,” exactly how I was to research famous battles, conduct first-hand interviews and then write and publish the eye-witness stories of Canadian veterans’ experiences. Forty years and a dozen published books later, I realize Charley was right. History storytelling has become the centre of my life. (more…)

Barris Beat

The forgotten of the forgotten

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HMCS Shawinigan, corvette torpedoed off the East Coast in 1942.

I almost missed her. I’d finished a presentation to the Tillsonburg military historical club. In fact, I thought I’d answered all of the questions from the audience. Then, I noticed a woman in the back row with her hand raised. Even when she stood, I could only see her head and shoulders above the seated audience. Diminutive though she was, however, her voice was strong.

“My father was in the Battle of the Atlantic,” she announced. “He went down with HMCS Shawinigan. All hands were lost.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Flag Day dreaming

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Feb. 15, 1965 – Red Maple Leaf flag unveiled for the first time. Radio Canada International photo.

It was a crisp, cold winter day. The sunshine was minimal. But the group of spectators on Parliament Hill was unexpectedly large. People in Ottawa sensed if they didn’t attend they’d miss some history. Next to a flagpole specially erected outside Parliament, then prime minister Lester Pearson arrived. Indeed, he did make history. The Red Ensign, Canada’s flag for a century was lowered for the last time. And Canada’s new flag was raised in its place.

Fifty-six years ago, last Monday, the Red Maple Leaf flag flew nationally for the first time. As noted in his book I Stand For Canada: The Story of the Maple Leaf Flag, Rick Archbold quoted Globe and Mail columnist George Bain who witnessed the flag-raising that day.

“And the feelings that a flag is a flag is a flag,” Bain wrote, “were dispelled, because it looked bold and clean, and distinctively our own.” (more…)

Barris Beat

A promise to Fred Barnard

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Beny-sur-Mer cemetery, Normandy, France.

It was a critical moment. My teacher friend Tish MacDonald stood behind the tombstone collecting her thoughts. Several dozen of her students from Uxbridge Secondary School quieted down in front of the headstone with the inscription, “Rifleman, Donald McKay Barnard,” etched into it. They waited for their teacher to offer testimony. They waited for Tish to speak her truth.

“This is why we come from Canada,” she said, barely holding back tears, “to respect what was lost here and to honour what men like Fred Barnard and his brother Donald sacrificed as young men.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Tommy Banks, the star who helped others shine

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Tommy Banks, at home anywhere, but mostly at his piano.

The show always started the same way. At the top of the clock – 7 p.m. on Wednesday – there was a jazz fanfare, a flourish of trumpets and saxes and a drum roll, as the title flashed across the screen. The audience in the studio began whistling and applauding, just as the CBC voice-over announcer, Larry Langley, introduced the show.

“From Edmonton,” he called out enthusiastically, “It’s Tommy Banks Live!”

Just off-stage, out of the range of cameras and microphones, the two writers of the weekly show – Colin MacLean and I – used to stand, joining the audience’s applause in anticipation of the next hour of live-to-air television. Inevitably, as Tommy entered the studio to acknowledge the studio audience’s applause, either Colin or I anticipating the start of another show would lean to the other and say rhetorically, “Does TV get any better than this?” (more…)

Barris Beat

Rights of girls and women unmasked

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Zenura Ishaq, after winning a court case allowing her to wear her niqub, recites oath to become a Canadian citizen. Photo courtesy CBC.
Zenura Ishaq, after winning a court case allowing her to wear her niqub, recites oath to become a Canadian citizen. Photo courtesy CBC.

I have listened to it. I have read it. I have asked my friends – both women and men – what they think of it. And because I have a sister, a wife, two daughters and a granddaughter and many female friends of various ages, cultural origins, linguistic backgrounds and religious faiths, in my life, I have agonized over its message.

“Why would Canadians, contrary to our own values, embrace a practice … that is not transparent, that is not open and frankly is rooted in a culture that is anti-women?” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in Parliament earlier this year, “That is unacceptable to Canadians, unacceptable to Canadian women.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Commendation

Written by Ted Barris on . 14 Comments
Ted Barris and Jayne MacAulay, his wife, and his commendation certificate. Photo courtesy Kate Barris.
Ted Barris and Jayne MacAulay, his wife, and his commendation certificate. Photo courtesy Kate Barris.

On July 27, 2011, the Minister of Veterans Affairs for Canada awarded 19 citizens his annual commendation. Traditionally, the award is “presented to those veterans … who, in an exemplary way, have contributed either to the care and well-being of veterans or to the remembrance of the sacrifices and achievements of Canadians in armed conflict.”

Most of the 2011 recipients are veterans. Ted Barris, a civilian, also received the commendation.

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Barris Beat

Never in November

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
Grave of J. Robertson, VC, at Farm.
Grave of James Robertson, VC, who served with the 27th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He died Nov. 6, 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium. He was 35.

They tell me if things go a certain way, one day soon I’ll have this day to myself. I’ll be able to rise, take a leisurely breakfast and then do the right thing. They tell me if their plan is accepted, I’ll have all day to pay my respects to Canada’s veterans. That plan will mean I’ll have a statutory holiday on Nov. 11, on Remembrance Day. At least, that’s what the sponsor of a private member’s bill, MPP Lisa MacLeod, believes.

“There’s been an outpouring of support for Canadian soldiers, our war veterans and our war dead,” she told CBC a few days ago.

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