Barris Beat

Homes for Heroes

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Sergeant medic Alex Barris in Czechoslovakia 1945.

Late in 1945, after the Second World War, my father Alex Barris received his honourable discharge from the U.S. Army. He had survived training as a medic in Kansas in 1943, the bloodbath that had been the Battle of the Bulge in western Germany in the winter of 1945, postwar occupation service in Czechoslovakia and transatlantic passage back home to New York City in time to rejoin his family for Christmas.

Eager to return to civilian life, Dad visited his alma mater, Haaren High School, to claim his education transcripts. As the school registrar retrieved the papers, Dad strolled through the school hallways, pausing at the school’s honour roll.

Haaren High School in New York City.

“Alumni Who Gave Their Lives in World War II,” the banner announced atop the wall. There were dozens and dozens of names – 56 in all. Then, the most incredible thing happened. He saw his own name etched there in the bronze. Dead. Honoured. But it was a mistake. When he tried to explain the error to the registrar, however, she blushed and blurted out:

“Oh my! Someone will be in trouble over this.” And she dashed away. (more…)

Barris Beat

Irrefutable reason to vote

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He had little reason to believe in his community, his military commanders or even his country. At the end of the Second World War, RCAF veteran Ed Carter-Edwards was repatriated to Canada. Honourably discharged, the former wireless air-gunner sought a disability pension for having survived a Nazi concentration camp.

“The trouble with you guys who went overseas,” complained a pensions official to Carter-Edwards, “is that you come back here and you think the country owes you a living.”

“We survived the Holocaust,” explained Carter-Edwards. “We were there.”

Like so many, whose post-traumatic stress disorder was dismissed in 1945, Ed Carter-Edwards claimed an additional $3.75 per month in disability pension. (more…)

Barris Beat

Who will speak for the disappeared?

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Rumeysa Ozturk, approached on a Massachusetts street and arrested by Homeland Security agents in March 2025.

Last week, a young woman walked along a street in Medford, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston. She was about to join friends for dinner. The PhD student was suddenly surrounded by swarm of men in hooded shirts. They pulled cloth coverings over their mouths and noses and grabbed Rumeysa Ozturk; they claimed to be police officers and arrested her. The incident was caught on video and someone off-camera calls out:

“If you’re police, why are you hiding your faces?”

Ozturk shrieked as the men confiscated her phone, handcuffed her wrists, stuffed her into an SUV and drove her away. (more…)

Barris Beat

Thwarting Donald’s lust for land

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Elizabeth May offers solution to 51st state issue.

The federal election is just days old, but suddenly our attention has shifted slightly from the impact of Trump’s tariffs to the Canadian electorate deciding which federal political party is the most able to deal with the U.S. president’s territorial aspirations to make Canada the 51st state.

She hasn’t repeated this since the election writ was issued on Sunday, but Elizabeth May delivered a creative countermeasure to Trump’s insult a few months ago.

“You think we want to be the 51st state? Nah,” she said in December, offering California, Oregon and Washington the chance to become Canada’s 11th province. “Have we got a deal for you,” she suggested to Americans. “Universal free health care … safer streets, strict gun laws and free abortions … and a chance to get rid of all these states that always vote Democrat.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Steaming to meet the existential threat

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Anson Northup, an American real estate broker who posed an existential threat to Canada.

Sometimes politicians in Canada and the U.S. have described the economic struggles between our two countries as trade wars. More recently, observers on both sides of the border have recognized international tariffs as a form of economic erosion.

But if you think current trade hostilities across the 49th parallel are new, nothing could be further from the truth. A newspaper published in St. Paul, Minn., once encouraged American mercantilists to invade Canada and they were offered money as an incentive to do it.

“The St. Paul Chamber of Commerce will award a cash prize to the first enterprise to establish commerce in the British Northwest Territory,” reported the newspaper. “One thousand dollars to the first to arrive.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Tariffs and sentiment change

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I think I first recognized how serious this Trump tariff stuff was when my sister called from the southern U.S. For the past couple of winters, she and her husband have driven south to escape the toughest part of winter.

But when the president of the United States first hinted at absorbing Canada as a 51st state, almost overnight my sister and brother-in-law responded.

“We don’t like where this is going,” she emailed. “We’re coming home.” And within a couple of days, they’d crossed the border and texted, “Home, sweet home.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Repair over rhetoric

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Water everywhere, but nowhere common sense.

One day about a week ago, I’d risen early to feed the dog. Next, I’d turned on the coffee machine to help kick-start my day. Then, I’d fetched the newspaper from the latest overnight snowfall on the driveway and I’d read the headline that Trump had called Polish President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator.”

“What the…?” And I was about to sit down to find out more over that cup of java when I noticed a wet spot on a carpet in our bedroom and reacted out loud. “Did I spill something here?”

Then, I felt a drop on my head, looked up and realized the ceiling light fixture was dripping water. And based on the length and breadth of the wet spot on the carpet, I concluded this had probably been going on all night. (more…)

Barris Beat

Pay more attention to the man behind the curtain

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Like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, told to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” Ontario voters & media have little or no access to the leader of the Conservative party during this election.

It was Jan. 29, I believe, the very first day of the current provincial election campaign. The London Police Service hosted an appreciation and awards banquet. And wasn’t it convenient for the premier that he was invited to speak to what Mr. Ford considered his peeps.

I guess he decided to take the opportunity to slam federal lawmakers and judges for being soft on criminals such as home invaders. And according to the Toronto Star’s Queen’s Park Bureau, Ford went way off script.

“God forbid they kill an innocent person,” Ford mused in front of a thousand police personnel and guests at the banquet, adding that he’d prefer that judges simply send home invaders found guilty of murder to the electric chair. (more…)

Barris Beat

Cut college funding at your peril!

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Ontario Legislature shut down by winter election, in 2025

Like most, I received my “convincer cheque” from the provincial government a few days ago. It says it’s from the Ministry of Finance. But it couldn’t be plainer that its point of origin is Conservative Party HQ. It’s dated Jan. 29, 2025, exactly 24 hours after the premier visited Lt. Gov. Edith Dumont to dissolve Ontario’s 43rd Parliament for a general election Feb. 27, even though the premier doesn’t need to call an election until June 2026.

“Ontario Taxpayer Rebate,” the cheque is called.

Of greater importance to me that same week, however, I learned that Centennial College, where I instructed for 18 years, had permanently cancelled 49 programs, including 16 programs in its business school, seven at its engineering school and 14 communications courses at the Story Arts campus in East York. (more…)