Barris Beat

What-ifs of Canadian warriors

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Veteran Bill Novick offering reflections on his role in D-Day operations 75 years ago.

He sat down to rest. He sighed a long, audible sigh. And he smiled with a touch of satisfaction. Around Bill Novick, sat family and some of his fellow travellers gathered, this spring day, at a museum in Normandy, France. They all sensed that Bill had a story to tell: the time, just before D-Day, when his Halifax bomber was coned.

“Enemy gunners at Cologne (Germany) put up a box barrage (concentrated anti-aircraft fire) 3,000 feet high, two miles wide by 10 miles long,” he said. “Searchlights moved all over the sky … and we were coned by the lights. That required evasive action called a corkscrew.” That meant Pilot Officer Novick put the 18-tonne bomber into a violent dive one way, then another, at speeds up to 250 miles per hour to escape the lights and the anti-aircraft fire.

“It was four minutes of sheer terror,” he concluded. “If we were scared, it never entered my mind that I wasn’t going to make it.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Fred Barnard’s gift to town and country

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Fred Barnard as member of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada in WWII.

I know this sounds like a cliché, but I remember the day as if it were yesterday. It was 16 years ago, in the summer of 2003. I was standing in line at a bank in town waiting to pay my credit card bill. Ahead of me were an older man and, at the head of the line a friend of mine. My friend asked what I was doing these days.

“I’m writing a book about Canadians on D-Day,” I said.

“Big anniversary coming up,” my friend commented.

“Yes,” I said.

Then it was my friend’s turn for service at the teller’s wicket and he turned to the counter to do his banking. That left only the older man and me in the queue. That’s when the older fellow slowly turned to me and spoke.

“I was there,” he said quietly.

“A veteran, are you?”

“I was there,” he repeated and then continued, “on D-Day.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Flights of fancy

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Barn silos on McGill University campus at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue hide Montreal tourist attraction.

At first, it didn’t look like much. From a distance the building looked, well, like a barn. It even had a silo. But on closer examination, I could see signage and some outdoor exhibits. No animals. No straw bales. In fact, when I looked up inside the silo, there was no silage, but a scale model of a vintage airplane.

“There are artefacts in here that you’ve never seen before,” said John Lawson, the chair of the Montreal Aviation Museum. “Welcome to my second home.” (more…)

Barris Beat

The art and science of getting it

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Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park. tvo.org

It took Opposition pressure at Queen’s Park, it took outspoken professional staff at libraries across the province, and it took members of a book club staging a read-in at the constituency office of MPP Sam Oosterhoff (Niagara West), but it appears as if some saner thinking has prevailed inside Doug Ford’s PC caucus. A clearly re-educated minister of tourism, culture and sport, has backed down on his planned 50 per cent cuts to Ontario Library Service-North.

“OLS-N will be reinstating their interlibrary loan program as of June 1, 2019,” Michael Tibollo said late last week. (more…)

Barris Beat

Superlatives if necessary…

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Yes, Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer-beater was great, but for legendary, how about Bill Barilko’s Cup-winning goal?

He took the pass. He moved around the arc on the floor around the basket. There were four seconds left in regulation time. And all spectators in the building were on their feet, leaping and screaming. At the corner of the offensive end, he turned, jumped and launched the ball.

“Is this the dagger?” one commentator shouted into a mike.

Then, with the ball in the air, the final buzzer blared. The ball landed on one side of the rim, then bounced to the other side, bounced a third time, dribbled a fourth, and then dropped through the hoop. “Yesssssss! Game! Series! Toronto Raptors have won!” the announcer screamed finally. (more…)

Tours

Bomber Command Country Tour – Oct. 1-12, 2019

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Facing the prospect that Hitler’s armies might cross the Channel and invade, in 1940, Britons braced for the Blitz, intense German bombing of the U.K. In this darkest hour, the Royal Air Force’s Arthur Harris said, “They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.”

Almost immediately, Commonwealth aircrews – many of them Canadian – gathered at air bases across the U.K. to fly nightly against enemy targets in Nazi-occupied Europe. Our new “Bomber Command Country Tour” takes travellers to the heart of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to explore Canadians’ role in this remarkable WWII story.

Our stops in Yorkshire include: Andrew Mynarski Memorial; Betty’s Café; guided tour of former Canadian station RAF Tholthorpe; Yorkshire Air Museum, and visit to York’s famous Railway Museum and York Minster cathedral. Then in Lincolnshire: a guided tour of RAF Scampton, home of Dam Buster 617 Squadron; International Bomber Command Centre; RAF East Kirkby, home of “Just Jane” Lancaster; RAF Coningsby, home of Battle of Britain Memorial Flight; and Lincoln cathedral, all while based at our home-away-from-home the unique Petwood Hotel, WWII quarters of the Dam Busters’ Squadron. Also, stops at IWM Duxford, RAF Hendon, Cambridge American Cemetery and full-day tour in London visiting related Bomber Command sites.

Ted Barris, recently retired professor of journalism at Centennial College, has written extensively about Canadians and the liberation of Europe. His book Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid against Nazi Germany, was a national bestseller and was awarded the RCAF Association NORAD Trophy for 2018. He and his wife Jayne MacAulay have co-hosted annual Merit tours to Europe since 2004. Our “Bomber Command Country Tour”marks their 17th trip to European wartime locations that have particular resonance for Canadians.

Follow this link: https://merittravel.com/product/bomber-command-country-tour/

For the full itinerary, accommodation, travel details and pricing, visit the Merit Travel website http://www.merittravel.com

Or call Georgia Kourakos, Senior Manager, Product Development & Groups, Merit Travel, 416-364-3775 x4259, or 1-866-341-1777.

Tours

75th Anniversary D-Day Tour – May 31-June 12, 2019

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Juno Beach Centre commemorative sculpture.

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 thisday, 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.

As the world prepares for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, historian, journalist and bestselling author Ted Barris is organizing a return to Normandy. During the first week of June 2014, Ted and his wife,  Jayne MacAulay, will attend ceremonies, visit historic sites and cemeteries, and rekindle friendships with French guides and citizens as they bring their unique brand of storytelling and remembrance to another Merit tour.

Join Ted’s 75th Anniversary of D-Day Tour for ten days in Normandy. Merit travellers will enjoy day-trips to airborne landing sites such as Pegasus Bridge, to the Canadian cemetery at Beny-sur-Mer, the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, American landing sites, and the Juno Beach Centre for the Canadian D-Day ceremony. Included is a side-trip to Dieppe site of Canadian raid there in August 1942, and a tour in vintage D-Day vehicles. This is an opportunity to join remaining veterans to honour their victory 75 years ago.

For the full itinerary, accommodation, travel details and pricing, visit the Merit Travel website http://www.merittravel.com

Or call Georgia Kourakos, Senior Manager, Product Development & Groups, Merit Travel, 416-364-3775 x4259, or 1-866-341-1777.

Barris Beat

The clarity of piles

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Back workshop of “The Artisan’s Gallery” in Muskoka.

From the highway, it looked like any other country shop. A big hand-made sign greeted us. Sculpture and other folk art dotted the grounds outside the building. Wrought-iron decorations covered the façade of the gallery. We met the proprietor at the door and he invited us in, through the showroom and into his workshop in the back.

“Be careful,” he said. “There’s stuff everywhere.” (more…)

Barris Beat

An inconvenient truth

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Uxbridge Mechanic’s Institute (Library)

It served working people. It informed the middle class. It was founded on the notion that acquiring knowledge should not have a price tag, that books and periodicals and public lectures ought to be universal. And its sister facilities functioned successfully all across Canada. But then, came an administration that did not think so highly of this public service.

“The public library has less relevance,” its then administrator seemed to be saying. “It’s an inconvenience.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Call of a fund and a friend

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Gord Kidder, at the memorial to the 50 murdered Great Escape air officers, including his uncle.

Returning home from a recent tour of European battlefields with students, I opened my phone to clear a backlog of emails. There was the usual collection of greetings, ads and enticements. Then, a subject line caught my eye.

“Bring Gord Kidder home!” it said.

Because it had an advertisement feeling to it, I got irritated. Why was my friend Gord Kidder being used in some sort of pitch?

“While Gord Kidder was in Europe recently to take part in ceremonies to honour his uncle, who was a POW in WWII,” the content continued, “he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage…” (more…)