Posts in the Barris Beat category:

Barris Beat

Fix nationhood. Don’t abandon it.

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First Peoples of Canada print of Battle of Batoche, 1885.

It was the climax of the chapter, about a 19th-century military battle in western Canada. It was an important feature in my first non-fiction book, written 44 years ago. It pitted a massive force of army militia troops from eastern Canada against Métis communities defending their land rights in the Saskatchewan territory. That spring of 1885, it became known as the Battle of Batoche.

In my book, Fire Canoe, I referred to the stand that Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont made at Batoche as “the Riel rebellion.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Competence and reward? Not here!

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Promoting cafe staff, like everything else, by merit and experience. thebalancesmb.com

It was the end of our shift. The boss, the owner of the restaurant, called a staff meeting. There were waiters, waitresses, cooks and the busboy staff – about a dozen of us. For several weeks we’d known that the head busboy was leaving the diner. So, we were looking to the boss for some kind of announcement about who would become the next head busboy. His decision was not unexpected. He gave the job to Denny.

“Denny’s been with us the longest,” the boss said. “He has the most experience. He has the trust of everybody on staff and all our customers. He’s the right choice for the position.”

Nobody, not a single person on our staff, disagreed. Everybody could see that the promotion had gone to exactly the right person. Denny met all criteria. So, he got the job. That’s the way it was done at a restaurant staff meeting I attended in the summer of 1966. (more…)

Barris Beat

Notwithstanding democracy

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Justice Edward Morgan ruled restriction of third-party ads by Ont. Gov’t  unconstitutional.

The session bells were ringing Monday afternoon at Queen’s Park, calling Members of the Provincial Parliament into the chamber. The halls outside buzzed with MPPs and their minions. Suddenly, the Premier emerged. He’d seen reporters with cameras. A reporter asked if Opposition debate would delay passage of Bill 307, the one that used the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to reintroduce parts of a law overruled by a judge last week.

“No,” Doug Ford said defiantly from behind his COVID mask. “We’re fighting for democracy.”

For the record, last Tuesday (June 8) Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan reached the conclusion that it was unconstitutional for the Ontario government to double the restricted pre-election spending period for third-party advertisements to 12 months before an election call. (more…)

Barris Beat

Fairness or bust

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Statue of Ryerson toppled in Toronto, June 6, 2021. BBCNews

It started with registration and Frosh Week in September 1968. I was so eager to attend the school I even lined up at the bookstore to buy a jacket with his name “Ryerson” arched across the back. Three years later, I reached a milestone there when I received the certificate signifying that I had completed all my courses in broadcast journalism. But I returned a few years later, when Ryerson had become a degree-granting institution, completed the makeup courses, and stood in line again to receive my BA in 1976.

“By virtue of the authority granted by the province of Ontario under the Polytechnical Act, 1962, Ryerson has awarded the degree Bachelor of Applied Arts to Theodore Barris,” the document said. Next to my name, a seal with the bust of Egerton Ryerson embossed on the degree.

I thought of that seal, and that bust, Monday morning, as I learned that demonstrators in front of the main gates of Ryerson University in downtown Toronto had toppled the statue of the institution’s namesake. (more…)

Barris Beat

Charting the sound of Canadian content

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CHUM Chart from July 1963.

It was a Friday afternoon ritual. In the mid-1960s, when everybody’s definition of “hip” was knowing which rock ’n’ roll songs were the best in the land, we all raced downtown after school. We disembarked from the relatively new Yonge Street subway line at St. Clair and ran a block south to the window adjacent the front door at 1050 CHUM Radio. There, we each grabbed our own personal copy of CHUM’s Weekly Hit Parade.

“Who’s tops on the CHUM Chart this week?” was the first question blurted out. “The Beatles? Leslie Gore? Bobby Vinton? Jan and Dean?” (more…)

Barris Beat

Need for charity no greater than now

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Jonathan Wilson (red shirt) and Cagney, the black Lab, at launch of 2017 walkathon.

Jonathan Wilson will graduate in about a year. He’ll complete the Journalism and Mass Media program at Durham College. Despite having to adapt to online learning for the past year from his home in Uxbridge, he’s getting A’s in his grades, and earning praise for his portfolio of stories.

Once he graduates, Jonathan will start beating the bushes for full-time work as a professional journalist. His mom, Lisa Wilson, is proud of her son’s accomplishments. She’s also thankful for the charity of others.

“If it wasn’t for the Lions Foundation and Dog Guides Canada,” Lisa told a handful of us this week, “none of this would’ve been possible.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Strangers in the blight

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Col. Dr. Ian Anderson, though retired, continues to serve Canadians in a time of pandemic.

We met because of COVID. Having retired from a surgical practice just before the pandemic struck, Dr. Ian Anderson found that he had a bit more time on his hands. Consequently, he began to read more of the non-fiction books on his shelf, in particular writings about Canadian military medical personnel. During the Alberta lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, he found time to read my book Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire. That’s when he corresponded.

“I read history and biography,” Anderson wrote in a letter to me in 2020. “The truth is always better than the imagination.”

Thus began a correspondence that has continued through the pandemic. (more…)

Barris Beat

Wrong cause using the wrong symbol

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Rally at Vimy Memorial in Saskatoon’s Kiwanis Park. CKOM photo.

At first, I wondered why? Why would a TV news reporter in the middle of the country email me to speak about a COVID-19 question? I’m not a medical professional. When I called him back, he said he wondered if I would offer a comment on an event in Saskatoon? I lived there back in the 1970s, but what was it he needed?

“A group of anti-mask, anti-vaccine protestors staged a demonstration last Saturday,” he said.

“That’s disappointing,” I said.

“That’s not why I called,” Nate Dove of Global TV News continued. “A number of people showed up for the demo at the Vimy Memorial, here in Saskatoon. Some claimed that the location was important because it symbolized freedom of expression.”

“Not really,” I said. (more…)

Barris Beat

An injection of kindness

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Muffin mystery began at my front door.

For those of us who can afford to, the toughest part of coping with COVID is the waiting. Waiting for the wave of cases to pass. Waiting for the vaccine. Waiting for the chance to be social again. And again, because I can, I begin most mornings with a long, brisk walk around town. My timing often follows on the heels of the morning newspaper deliveries. So, along my routes, I regularly pick up some of the plastic-bag-wrapped papers and deposit them on the porches of their recipients.

“Why not save my neighbours a few steps,” I figure, “especially if the weather’s inclement?”

Anyway, one day a few months ago, I returned home from my walk. Hanging from my front-door handle was a bag containing a cardboard box with two (still warm) muffins inside. There was no note, no identification, not even a logo, just the baked goods. (more…)

Barris Beat

How to pay for paid sick days

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Premier Doug Ford isolating away from the Legislature at Etobicoke home. CPAC photo

It’s been seven days since the premier apologized to Ontarians. It’s been 13 days since he did what he apologized for – unnecessarily closing outdoor recreation facilities and giving police the power to randomly stop citizens during the stay-at-home order. And it’s been nine days since Doug Ford went into self-isolation at his mother’s home in Etobicoke, after a member of his staff tested positive for COVID-19. In other words, the premier has not physically served in his office, nor at the Ontario Legislature since a week ago Tuesday.

In other words, technically, Doug Ford has not been at work.

He continues, of course, to be paid… which means Premier Doug Ford is getting paid for sick days!

That means the premier has received nine days of his annual salary – about $5,148 of his $208,974 annual income – all against the stated policy of his own administration. (more…)