Alex Barris – my father and mentor – had a sign over his desk to inspire him to write.
The sign always hung in my father’s office, right over the spot where he worked. That happened to be just above his typewriter (in a time before computers) where Dad pumped out many millions of words in a life-long writing career. But Dad had installed this sign over his work space for those days at his office in the basement of our house when maybe the spirit to actually put fingers on keys occasionally eluded him or when he periodically felt unmotivated.
“There’s only one way to become a writer,” the sign read, “by applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”
My father, Alex Barris, wrote probably a thousand radio, television and movie scripts, hundreds of columns for newspapers and periodicals, scores of screenplays and at least half a dozen books at that typewriter in his basement office. And I frankly doubt that he ever needed encouragement, coaxing or cajoling to put the seat of his pants on the seat of his chair. (more…)
CTV – where grey “business decisions” attempt to obliterate black and white.
First, I welcomed the opportunity. The CTV producer invited me on spec to come up with an idea for a show featuring prominent Canadians. At the time, back in the 1980s, as a freelance writer I made much of my living pitching ideas without payment on the chance if the broadcaster liked the idea, I’d win a contract to write the script. So, I massaged the prominent Canadians idea into an outline, presented it to the producer and asked for a contract to write the show.
“We’ll have to see what the budget is,” he warned.
“When will you let me know if I can write the show?” I asked.
“After we’ve budgeted for the guests and the paint for the set.” (more…)
Public health kept a lid on SARS at Scarborough Grace Hospital in 2003, despite Health Ministry incompetence. Global News.
The news nearly killed my mother. I believe that it hastened my father’s death. In February 2003, my father suffered a debilitating stroke that stole his two most precious faculties – speech and memory. Because my parents lived in Agincourt, paramedics rushed him to Scarborough Grace Hospital.
Days later SARS struck the same floor of the hospital where my father was recovering. Nevertheless, nurses told us they could isolate Dad sufficiently so that Mom could still suit up with PPE and see him. But then the Conservative provincial government, thinking it knew better than the health-care specialists, intervened.
“For his safety,” they told my mother, “we’re isolating your father in the new PPP (public-private partnership) hospital in Brampton.”
“How is my mother, living in Agincourt, going to be able to see my father in Brampton?” I asked the office of then health minister Tony Clement.
“She can communicate with him by fax,” they recommended. (more…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
In the 20th century’s greatest war, one battlefield held the key to victory or defeat – the North Atlantic. It took 2,074 days and nights to determine its outcome, but the Battle of the Atlantic proved the turning point of the Second World War.
This September, HarperCollins publishes Ted Barris’s 20th book – Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory.
Check Ted’s “Events” page to learn when and where he will bring his powerful talk/presentations to an event near you.
For five and a half years, German surface warships and submarines attempted to destroy Allied transatlantic convoys, mostly escorted by Royal Canadian Navy destroyers and corvettes, as well as aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Throwing deadly U-boat ‘wolf packs’ in the paths of Merchant Navy convoys, the German Kriegsmarine nearly strangled this vital life-line to a beleaguered Great Britain.
In 1939, Canada’s navy went to war with exactly 13 warships and about 3,500 sailors. During the desperate Atlantic crossings, the RCN grew to 400 fighting ships and over 100,000 men and women in uniform. By V-E Day in 1945, it had become the 4th largest navy in the world. The Battle of the Atlantic proved to be Canada’s longest continuous military engagement of the war. The story of Canada’s naval awakening in the bloody battle to get convoys to Britain, is a Canadian wartime saga for the ages.
Photo Sinisa Jolic / CBC Licensing
Ted Barris has published 19 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 2019 NORAD Trophy from the RCAF Association. And his book Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire was listed for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada. Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory is Ted’s 20th published non-fiction book
Advance praise for Battle of the Atlantic…
“Ted Barris has a reverence for the stories of veterans. Barris’s work is hallmarked by thorough research and respect for the people whose stories he retells. This book serves to put faces and emotions on the facts and dates of the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest campaign of the Second World War. The battle was waged for nearly six years—2,074 days. In human terms, that period represents five North Atlantic winters, thousands of bleak dawns, thousands of days and nights of vigilance despite desperate fatigue, thousands of days and nights during which death might arrive unheralded. This book effectively, reverentially, and thoroughly records and passes on that story.”— Gordon Laco, RCN (Ret’d), from the Foreword to Battleof the Atlantic
“This is not the story of a few days of battle—like Vimy or D-Day. This story lasts six years. This book covers an awful lot of what we experienced. It’s detailed. And I discovered so much. I’ve read a lot of books on the Battle of the Atlantic. This is a good one!”— Norman Goodspeed, Second World War RCN (Ret’d),HMCS Saguenay
“Ted Barris puts a human face to a Goliath of a subject. Battle of the Atlantic lures you in, paying homage to the men and women who risked their lives in this epic battle. Barris effortlessly weaves a gripping narrative that provides a multitude of historical perspectives. It brings you right into the action and keeps you on edge. Essential reading for anyone wanting to gain an understanding of the war waged in the Atlantic.”— Sean E. Livingston, RCN and author
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…)
