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Barris Beat

My summer standard

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
My overnight standard transmission instructor, said, “It’s easy. You’ll get the hang of it.”

Eleven days after July 1, 1968, Canada Day, I turned 19. I had legally been driving a car in the province for three years. And either by sheer worry or good luck, I had a perfect driving record. My true baptism of fire came that July, however, when I got a summer job as a copy boy at the then Toronto Telegram daily newspaper. A few weeks into my day shifts, the head copy boy told me they were moving me to the night shift, which involved driving the Tely station wagon.

“You know how to drive a standard, right?” the guy asked rhetorically.

“Ah, sure,” I said, lying through my teeth.

I spent the next couple of days searching for a friend who could teach me how to drive anything with a three-speed standard transmission. (more…)

Barris Beat

None left behind

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Zephyr Zion Cemetery with five servicemen’s graves & one missing.

It took me two tries but I finally found him. A week ago, I fulfilled a promise made to my colleagues at the Royal Canadian Legion. In the lead up to Sunday’s Decoration Day, a day set aside (annually since 1890) to acknowledge veterans’ service, I volunteered to seek out the graves of several Canadian soldiers buried in cemeteries near Leaskdale and Zephyr.

“It’d be a big help if you could place flags at the gravesites,” Michele Viney said. “There’s one grave we’re aware of, a Pte. William L. Dempster, but we’ve never found his marker.”

“I’ll do my best,” I promised. (more…)

Barris Beat

The case for unappreciated work

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Service delays not a lack of skill, but lack of tradespeople.

We welcomed some tradesmen to our home this week. I say welcomed, because a few weeks ago we were told the earliest we could expect a service visit for our air conditioner was August. Really? We asked to have our request go to a waiting list. Someone cancelled and our appointment was moved up. While he was here with a young assistant, I asked the more senior technician, “Why such a delay?”

“Company’s having trouble hiring people,” he said. “That’s why I have an assistant with me. He’s training on the job.”

Three years ago, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) described this predicament as an economy with “underappreciated” work. A CFIB report found that small Canadian firms lost $38 billion in business opportunities because of labour shortages, particularly in the construction sector. (more…)

Barris Beat

Citations for invisible wounds

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Rear Admiral (Ret’d) Chris Sutherland reflects on addiction & depression while in service. Photo – Matt Wocks, Wounded Warriors.

There were a lot of decorations on display the other morning in Ottawa. Some of those attending an annual breakfast I attended across the street at Parliament Hill on Monday, June 9, had more ribbons and military medals than I’d ever seen before.

But when the keynote speaker stepped to the lectern to address this largely military audience, he wore a plain business suit without a single decoration. Recently retired, Chris Sutherland could have worn his ceremonial navy uniform, displaying his rank as Rear Admiral and deputy commander of the entire Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Instead, he just spoke.

“Good morning,” he said. “I’m a recovering addict, and I’ve struggled with mental illness, specifically depression.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Where underlying title has been proven

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Elmer Ghostkeeper views lands around him unlike most governments pushing development.

Back in the 1980s, when I first met him near Paddle Prairie, Alberta, about 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, Elmer Ghostkeeper had just moved onto land he’d inherited from his father. The 350-acre lot of bush and farmland was then one of eight Metis Federation Settlements of Alberta. And as precious as that place had been to his family for generations, his inheritance was never about ownership.

“The land doesn’t belong to me,” Ghostkeeper told me in an interview in 1981. “What’s more,” as he pointed out in his 1996 book Spirit Giving, “Canadians have to shift from living off the land to living with it.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Tribute to a comrade traveller

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John Imanse – farmer, traveller, gentle philosopher extraordinaire. Photo Ken Mist.

Most of you don’t know the name of the source for my story this week. But all of you know him. If you know someone who spends most of his time on the land, you know him. If that person is also self-made, a bit of a loner, not always outspoken, but remarkably prescient of people and trends, then you know him.

The first time I had a conversation with John Imanse, we were standing outside a tour bus near Amsterdam in 2005. Off to the side, he puffed on his cigarette like there was no tomorrow. Imanse, then 59, was one of over 100 people I was hosting on a tour around the Netherlands celebrating the 60th anniversary of Dutch liberation.

“What made you want to come on this tour? I asked him.

He motioned to the bus driver and said, “So I wouldn’t have to do that!” I wasn’t sure what he meant. “I’m a farmer,” he said. “I’ve always got my hands on the wheel of a tractor. But for the 10 days of this tour, I don’t even have to think about driving.” (more…)