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Barris Beat

Act of Remembrance, Dutch style

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Kees Traas began his tribute to his WWII liberators with this Canadian military helmet.

It all began with a barn loft full of relics. As a boy growing up in the Scheldt River estuary of the Netherlands, Kees Traas heard stories about the soldiers who’d liberated his country in the Second World War. But it wasn’t until the 1960s, when he was a teenager exploring his uncle’s workshop that he learned his liberators were from Canada and worth celebrating.

“The 30th of October, 1944, our community was liberated by the Canadians,” Traas (now 58) told me this Liberation Week in the Netherlands. “My uncle saved war artifacts. So, as kids we played with them, and he gave me a Canadian helmet. That was the beginning. (more…)

Barris Beat

Priceless finds in a box

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MP Sam Hughes routinely wore his military uniform in Parliament.

A staunch conservative, an outspoken nationalist, a supporter of Canadian symbols and a strong Canadian army, this part of the world came to know him as the embodiment of patriotism. And as a politician in another troubled time in Canada’s history, just before the Great War, MP Sam Hughes stated:

“Canada must ensure peace with national preparedness for war.”

Hughes put his money and his feisty attitude where his mouth was. (more…)

Barris Beat

Moderator confidential

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Full house at Cosmos candidates debate – minus one.

An acquaintance from Aurora contacted me the other day. He explained that one of the local riding associations planned a question-and-answer session with political candidates contesting in the current federal election. He knew that the Uxbridge Cosmos had just staged a forum.

“I know that the golden rule of moderating is try to be invisible,” he said. “But do you have any tips for me?”

“I think you’ve got it,” I answered. “Be firm. Be fair. But at the same time, as much as possible, stay out of the way.” (more…)

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

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment

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…)