Barris Beat

News on the fly!

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Nearly 76 years ago, Don Ferguson delivered this newspaper to Ottawa readers of the Evening Journal.

I had just finished speaking at Vintage Wings museum, near Ottawa. A man approached me with a book under his arm. It was one I’d written. At first, he had a rather determined look on his face, and I wondered whether maybe he had a bone to pick. But his determined demeanour simply reflected his intention to get past others in the group to speak to me. He smiled and opened up my Dam Busters book, not to a photo, not even a printed passage, but to the image of a newspaper front page printed on the inside cover of my book.

“I delivered this paper,” the man said with a smile.

“You were an Ottawa Evening Journal delivery guy?” I asked.

“Yes, but I delivered this very edition!” he said proudly.

“That’s 75 years ago,” I pointed out.

“Yup. I was 14 at the time.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Socialism! The devil you say?

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“Red Scare” poster of the Joe McCarthy era.

We have finally discovered something President Trump fears. “Here in the United States, we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country,” he said last week in his State of the Union address.

And his audience of Senators and House representatives booed.

“We are born free and we will stay free,” the President said. “Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Centre of our world

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Agincourt Rec Centre fire. 680 News photo.

As soon as I heard about the multi-alarm fire at the Agincourt Recreation Centre, I paid attention for a number of reasons. Like a number of us in this part of Ontario, that particular rec centre is a familiar one. But I also wondered about the loss of a community’s vital organ. I caught the reports as firefighters continued to battle the blaze, and watched some of the residents in the area reacting to the fire. One reporter talked to a young boy.

“All the things we do in there,” the boy told Global News. “Now us kids won’t have that anymore.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Deception on a winter’s night

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How could something so beautiful, be so deceptive?

We got the call on Monday. Our grandkids needed a lift. It was a “snow day.” The school board had cancelled bus transportation, but with the schools still open, we were on deck to drive three of them to school. So, when we arrived, it was the wintertime routine of organizing boots, snow jackets, snow pants, hats and gloves. If you recall, despite the snowfall, that morning dawned sunny, so we got the usual…

“We don’t need snow pants,” they said. “Look how sunny it is!”

“It’s deceiving,” I said. And I thought to myself, “Does any kid understand what ‘deceiving’ means? Not likely.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Dam Buster – a hero grounded in humility

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Fred Sutherland’s RCAF portrait.

They called him “Doc.” But Fred Sutherland told me that he didn’t know anything about medicine. Somebody who came to see Fred off at the train station, when he left to join the Air Force in 1941, decided because Fred’s dad was a family doctor in that part of Alberta, that the son ought to be nicknamed “Doc.”

“He called me ‘Doc,’” Fred told me, with some embarrassment in 2017. “So, it stuck. All through the war they called me that.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Wiser for their years

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Cinesphere at Ontario Place

I’d forgotten he was still around. I’d forgotten he was the second-longest-serving premier (14 years) in Ontario history. I’d forgotten he’d won four consecutive elections in the province. And – even though I never agreed with his party’s political philosophy – I’d also forgotten how clear-headed the man could be when it came to considering issues affecting the people. Then, the other day Bill Davis’s perspective came back to me when the Toronto Star quoted him,

“Ontario Place was conceived as a family place, with attractions, entertainment, food services, play and theatre areas all aimed at the family,” Davis told the Star.

At 89 years of age, former premier Davis (1971-1985) has nothing to prove. (more…)

Barris Beat

Time to confront the trolls

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Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois in his penalty-shot attempt.

It was one of those breathless, white-knuckle moments. At the end of regulation time, the quarter-final, elimination game at the World Junior hockey championship was tied – Canada 1, Finland 1. Then, a couple of minutes into sudden-death overtime, a Finn rushing to catch a Canadian forward on a breakaway, slashed the Canadian’s hands from behind. The referees awarded a penalty shot, and Coach Tim Hunter chose Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois to take the shot.

“I was thinking (I have) to score,” Comtois told Canadian Press later, “and I didn’t. … It hurts.” (more…)

Barris Beat

The sound of a guiding light

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Barbara Frum and Alan Maitland, co-hosts of “As It Happens” on CBC Radio in 1970s.

It was our first winter in Alberta. A few months earlier, I’d abandoned a broadcast position in Saskatoon for some writing opportunities in Edmonton. We’d tried to find a house to buy, but in Alberta, then in the middle of a boom, interest rates were north of 12 per cent. So, we rented a bungalow and settled in – my wife, our two-year-old daughter, and our second infant daughter, barely a month old.

As I remember, it was cold and (on Dec. 24, 1979) dark by 4:30 p.m. Out of habit, because we’re dedicated radio people, Jayne and I turned on CBC Radio for “The World at Six” national newscast and at 6:30 the Monday-night edition of “As It Happens.” And that night for the first time, we heard Barbara Frum’s co-host Alan Maitland launch into a Christmas reading.

“While waiting for control tower to clear me for take-off,” Maitland began, “I glanced out through the cockpit canopy at the German countryside…” (more…)

Barris Beat

NORAD Trophy ceremony

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Author with L/Col. Dean Black and the 2018 NORAD Trophy at Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Photo Matthew Wocks.

Just as I finished a presentation, last week, my cellphone rang. The readout said, “Air Force.” It’s silly, but almost instinctively I straightened by back and my tie, as if duty were calling. It turned out to be a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, Dean Black, who’s also the executive director of the Royal Canadian Air Force Association on the line. Not quite the Air Force, but, as it turned out, just as important.

“The RCAF Association has decided to recognize you and your new book with the NORAD Trophy,” Black said.

“I’m flattered,” I said, “but what’s the NORAD Trophy?” I knew that NORAD stood for North American Aerospace Defence Command and that the U.S. and Canada had formed it originally in 1957 when Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the West were at their highest, to ensure the protection of North America. (more…)

Barris Beat

Why has nationalism fallen from grace?

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Rally at Place du Canada in Montreal, Oct. 27, 1995. Edmonton Journal.

We travelled up Highway 401 eastbound that fall morning – from Uxbridge to Montreal – to make a statement to friends and strangers alike on the other side of the Ottawa River. We felt threatened by voices of separation in la belle province, but heartened by the “No” forces – both francophone and anglophone – that wanted Quebecers to give Canada one more chance. And that autumn day we car-pooled, bussed, hitchhiked, and rallied – some 100,000 of us – at Place du Canada in Montreal.

I remember one of our daughters who couldn’t travel with us to the pro-Canada rally that Oct. 27 morning, left a note on the bathroom mirror.

“I’m sorry I can’t go with you,” she wrote. “Please save my country.”

(more…)