In Living and Learning in Retirement’s 50th year, Ted Barris continues his Friday lectures this winter at Glendon College’s Centre for Excellence. His series, “Missing in Action: Untold Stories of Canadians’ Participation in Historic Moments,” features famous periods of world history, in which Canadians played vital roles.

Lecture No. 6. “Not a music award, JUNO gave the world a second chance.” They postponed it twice. They kept it secret from everyone. They mobilized 7,000 ships, 10,000 aircraft, and five divisions on the south shore of Britain. They ensured that this time an invasion force would gain a permanent toehold in France. By their actions this day, the Allies made victory against Hitler’s Fortress Europe a certainty. Nearly 15,000 Canadians – at sea, in the air and on the beach – joined the D-Day invasion force on June 6, 1944. Their section of the Normandy shoreline was code-named JUNO. That day, Canadians fought their way farther inland than any other Allied troops.

Ted Barris has published 20 non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. His book, The Great Escape: A Canadian Story, won the 2014 Libris Award as Best Non-Fiction Book in Canada. His book, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany, received the 2018 NORAD Trophy from the RCAF Association. And his book, Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire, was long-listed for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada. In December 2022, Ted Barris was appointed Member of the Order of Canada.