Barris Beat Archives • Page 14 of 87 • Ted Barris

Free speech is not free

Written by Ted Barris on August 16th, 2022August 16th, 2022. 1 Comment

2022 municipal election candidates’ pamphlets.

I was busy at the time. Because it was the weekend, I had a long list of things to do around the house. And I was well into the first few chores when I heard the front doorbell ring. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a woman with a handful of pamphlets, and a pad and pen at the ready.

“I’m Christine McKenzie,” she said, “and I’m running for Ward 5 Councillor.”

I could have said, “Gee, I’m really busy right now,” and I’m sure she’d have responded with, “I can come back another time.” But instead, Ms. McKenzie and I got into a lively discussion about the needs of some of our neighbours in the aftermath of the May 21 tornado. (more…)

Our national game in the penalty box

Written by Ted Barris on August 10th, 2022August 10th, 2022. Leave a comment

Distinctive, pride-inspiring, the Hockey Canada logo is now tarnished.

It displays our national colours – red and white. It depicts our official winter game – the game we invented and generally dominate at both the women’s and men’s elite level of play. It has always captured a sense of nation, sport and community. And even though I’ve never had the privilege of wearing it in any official capacity, I always feel an overwhelming sense of pride whenever I see it.

“It’s as familiar a sight to Canadian hockey fans as Marie-Philip Poulin coming through in the clutch and Jonathan Toews wearing a gold medal around his neck,” says the Hockey Canada website. “A skater seemingly breaking through the maple leaf while wearing the national symbol.” (more…)

Wildfires – as close as your backdoor

Written by Ted Barris on August 2nd, 2022August 2nd, 2022. 3 Comments

Road signs do more than help travellers find their way – they can be a fire lifeline.

I escaped to a remote Ontario lake for some R&R last week. And as a guest at a wilderness property, I tuned in to what Ontarians at their cottages on holiday have on their minds. I figured they’d probably be talking about how many days it’s rained or encounters with bears at garbage dumps or the cost of gas just to get there and back. One night my hosts invited over a couple of their friends and I learned just what is top-of-mind in cottage country.

“You know the Smith’s Bay Road sign on the main highway’s been gone quite a while,” their woman guest said. “That means fire crews won’t know where to find us.”

A few seconds of silence followed as her timely concern sank in.

“I think we ought to get the ministry (of natural resources) to replace that sign quickly,” she added. (more…)

Air waves are much poorer today

Written by Ted Barris on July 26th, 2022July 24th, 2022. Leave a comment

For broadcaster Dave Fisher, the real work happened before he opened a mike..

You know that little trick radio disc jockeys use when they’re introducing a song on the air? It’s the ability to talk over the instrumental lead-in, and finish the intro just before the singer sings the first lyric. It was the trademark of all the best DJs on private Top-40 radio stations we listened to back in the 1960s and ’70s.

I learned how to do that – make a live, smooth-as-glass intro end just before the vocalist begins to sing – from a contemporary of mine in broadcasting, friend Dave Fisher. Let me tell you, it’s a lot harder to accomplish than you think. But I learned from Dave, if you prepare your program – I mean really prepare – then you can make broadcasting sound seamless, professional and natural. (more…)

How do I get to Yorkville? Practise!

Written by Ted Barris on July 21st, 2022July 19th, 2022. Leave a comment

Friday afternoons in the mid-1960s had a special rhythm for me. While most of my high-school pals gathered in the corridors to plot their party plans for the weekend, I left class early to catch the Sheppard Avenue bus west from Agincourt. With my trumpet case in hand, about 5 o’clock I caught the southbound Yonge Street bus, then the subway from Eglinton to Bloor. And then I walked west on Yorkville Avenue into what everybody called “the Village.” There, just before Avenue Road, I climbed up a back-alley fire-scape staircase to a third-floor rehearsal studio.

“Hi, Donny,” I’d call out to my trumpet teacher Don Johnson.

“Come on in and warm up that horn,” he’d tell me.

It took me a few visits in 1965 to discover I had climbed to the top of a Yorkville landmark, and an even more important music mecca. (more…)

The education of Ted Barris

Written by Ted Barris on July 14th, 2022July 11th, 2022. 1 Comment

Canada’s 10th Father of Confederation, Joseph R. Smallwood. Historica.

He was the only source I’ve ever interviewed who intimidated me. And it wasn’t his personality or his manner that scared me. In fact, he proved to be among the most gracious, easy-going people I’ve ever interviewed. We met over the telephone back in the winter of 1976, and I began our conversation very formally, addressing him as “Mister.” And he immediately broke the ice with his first response.

“Please. Call me Joey,” he said. “Everybody does.”

“Thank you, Joey,” I responded, and I began my first and only interview with a Father of Confederation, the then recently retired premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Joseph R. Smallwood. (more…)

Flying emblems for good and evil

Written by Ted Barris on June 28th, 2022June 26th, 2022. Leave a comment

A few weeks after the storm, amid our yard debris, I found the tattered remains of the Canadian flag that had hung over the entrance to our house for a number of years. The state of the cloth – shredded and torn by the fury of the storm – inspired me to buy a new Red Maple Leaf (albeit a smaller one than usual) and hang it outside our home. One of my neighbours noticed that the replacement flag looked a bit different.

“Your other one was a lot bigger,” he pointed out. “Why a smaller Maple Leaf?”

I shrugged and said, “For the moment, that was the only size I could find.” But what I didn’t say to my neighbour at the time was that these days I’m a bit conflicted about displaying national emblems, and in particular the Canadian flag in anything that looks like a grandiose statement. (more…)

Tony Mellaci – first responder for two generations

Written by Ted Barris on June 20th, 2022June 20th, 2022. Leave a comment

Sergeant medic Tony Mellaci overseas 1945.

He saved my father. Then, he saved me. In fact, he saved both of us multiple times. The first instance occurred 80 years ago this December. Just before Christmas of 1942, both Tony Mellaci and my father, Alex Barris, arrived at Camp Phillips – a U.S. Army training facility in Kansas. The army had posted them there to train as medics in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Then, something happened Christmas Eve.

“They told me to go to the headquarters barracks and pick up a soldier who was sick, and deliver him to the hospital. So, I and another ambulance driver picked up your father (although I didn’t know him at the time) and we took him to the hospital,” Mellaci told me. “But we never saw the sick soldier. We stayed in the cab while other medics loaded him into the ambulance.” (more…)

Only as strong as the weakest link

Written by Ted Barris on June 16th, 2022June 16th, 2022. Leave a comment

Tool hooks salvaged from May 21 tornado that hit Uxbridge.

In our quest for some normalcy around the house, my wife and I are still trying to sort and reorganize stuff after the windstorm on May 21. As a consequence, our back porch (whose screened-in space we normally enjoy on summer evenings) has become a repository for salvage from the garage, tool shed and dishevelled yard. The other day, for example, I came across a bunch of short 2X4s with tool holders attached. They’d bounced loose when the garage was crushed. So, I began prying the holders from the wood.

“If I salvage the tool holders now, I won’t have to track them down when we restore the garage at some point,” I thought. “Who knows whether they’ll even be available down the road?” (more…)

Steps to recovery

Written by Ted Barris on June 9th, 2022June 9th, 2022. Leave a comment

What is now wreckage was once a garage of tools, nuts and bolts and sports gear.

It’s funny what the eye never sees or what’s in plain sight, but not noticed. A week or so into the aftermath of the derecho – that’s now part of our weather history – I attempted some clean-up around our yard. A piece of chrome in the grass caught my eye. When I brushed off the dirt and shingle debris it’d been hidden under, I realized it was a tightly coiled spring. It was so clean and shiny, it could’ve come right out of a hardware store bin. Then (as I’ve found myself doing a lot the last couple of weeks) I put the spring in my pocket and asked myself:

“Where did that come from?”

I don’t think I’m alone when I suggest Uxbridge residents have experienced scenes like those we’ve watched for years on CNN of Americans in tornado alley sifting through the debris of their decimated homes after the twister went through. They were trying to salvage something of what was, a morsel of the normalcy from just hours before. (more…)