Barris Beat

And the winner is …

Written by Ted Barris on . 2 Comments
Ruth Walker’s quest was getting “Living Underground” published. It’s just happened.

The tension in the room was palpable. It was the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Toronto. The media and a who’s who of the literary community were there. The jury sat quietly. The anxious nominees fidgeted awaiting the verdict. Tuesday night was the moment five Canadian novelists only dream about – a chance to win this country’s richest fiction prize, the Giller. Four were waiting to be told they were second-best. One learned from the envelope in (Giller founder) Jack Robinovitch’s hand that the prize was won.

“And the winner is…” the representative of ScotiaBank said, “Will Ferguson and ‘419.’”

“Wow,” Ferguson said in response. “I want to thank…” and the list went on. And yes, he thanked his mom. “Number four son did you proud.”

(more…)

Barris Beat

Sounds like discrimination

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Frank Shuster, left, and Johnny Wayne were comedy stars on CBC Radio during the golden age of radio. Women singers, dancers and comedians shared the limelight on their shows as equals. And audiences – rich and poor – could enjoy their weekly shows.

Earlier this fall, I challenged students in my college History of Broadcasting course. I asked them to find elderly residents in the GTA to talk about their memories of what is known as “the golden age of radio.” Not surprisingly, some of them went to seniors’ residences to find their sources. Others called on grandparents who had grown up in the 1930s and ’40s to recall the radio broadcasts that shaped their childhood. What I didn’t expect was a history lesson back from my own students. One group played a recording of their interview with an immigrant woman who was 90 years old.

“When I was a girl of 17 in Afghanistan,” the woman on the recording said, “I was never allowed to listen to the radio. It was something only men could hear.”

(more…)

Barris Beat

History preservers

Written by Ted Barris on . 6 Comments
Hugh Halliday, centre, poses for photo with fellow recipients of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton.

I sat elbow-to-elbow with history last Sunday. Many seated around me had piloted military aircraft in hostile skies. Others had gone aloft as Royal Canadian Air Force navigators, radio operators, gunners and flight engineers. But just as many had made history in the ranks of the volunteer association that gathers, preserves and celebrates the romance of flight in peacetime – the Air Force Association of Canada. Closest to me (and equally close to that history) sat Hugh Halliday, eminent Canadian air historian. We talked about current writing projects. It turned out he had research I needed and he offered it to me without question, without thought of compensation.

“The best way to preserve history,” Halliday said, “is to share it.”

(more…)

Barris Beat

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

Written by Ted Barris on . 4 Comments
Ted Barris, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient
Ted Barris, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient

During an awards ceremony at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on Oct. 14, 2012, Sen. Joseph Day presented Ted Barris with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. The announcement issued with the award said, in part, “the medal is a visible and tangible way to recognize outstanding Canadians … who have built and continue to build this caring society and country through their service and achievements.”

Barris was nominated for the award by the Air Force Association of Canada. In a letter, Dean Black, the AFAC executive director, explained that the association “convened a committee that screened and ranked hundreds of applications from across Canada, using the selection criteria of recent and significant service to the association’s objectives of heritage, youth and advocacy.” Barris was among about 45 individuals chosen by the AFAC to receive the medal.

Barris Beat

Harvest record

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
249 combines, 300 acres and seven minutes to a Guinness World Record. Courtesy Dennis Fisher.

We don’t very often get the chance to witness a world’s record. Oh, in the Toronto area, we used to be able to walk by the world’s tallest freestanding structure, the CN Tower, until they built one taller in Dubai a couple of years ago. I once stood within a metre of the world’s biggest gem, the Hope diamond, at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. And I’ve personally witnessed a bunch of The Great One’s goal-scoring feats, some of which are world’s records I guess (the 50 goals in 39 games, for example). But I’ve rarely associated the province of Saskatchewan (where I lived for a while) with any world’s records. Then, this week, I got a note from an old friend, Dennis Fisher, in Saskatoon.

“We watched 249 combines harvest a [half] section of land in seven minutes,” he wrote me. “It was a Guinness World Record.”

(more…)

Events

Barris joins Canadian Association of Journalists panel on Remembrance and Journalism

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Ted Barris’s book “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan” was published last year.

From Canadian war veterans to Holocaust survivors, and from victims of Canada’s Residential School system to the aftermath of sexual assaults… journalists play a key role in shedding light on the traumas of the past and present. Through interviews with the people who witnessed them first hand, journalists help bring these important experiences and stories to the public. On Tuesday, November 20, Ted Barris joins a distinguished panel of journalists, researchers, and writers for a public workshop and discussion on how to interview survivors. The other panellists include: Carol Ann Davidson, broadcast journalist, Holocaust survivor interviewer with the Azrieli Foundation; Katerie Akiwenzi-Damm, Anishnaabe writer and contributor to “Speaking My Truth” with the story of Garnet Angeconeb’s residential school experience; Andrea Litvack, Director, MSW Program, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. The moderator will be Esther Enkin, CBC News.

Where: Oakham House, Ryerson University

When: 6 p.m., Tuesday, November 20, 2012.

Contact: Ellin Bessner, 416-289-5000 X8826, ebessner@centennialcollege.ca

Events

Barris rejoins Karen Schuessler Singers for Peacekeepers Concert

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment

In 2007, Ted Barris teamed up with the full Karen Schuessler choir in London to present an evening of choral music and readings on the subject of war and peace. The event proved so successful, that Karen and Ted plan to collaborate again at 8 p.m., on Saturday, November 17, 2012, at the Wesley-Knox United Church in South London. This time the theme of music and readings will be “peacekeepers.” The evening will be filled with the moving music of the Karen Schuessler Singers and stories of visuals from some of Ted Barris’s numerous books about Canadians in wartime.

Ted Barris interviews vet in St. Thomas, Ontario, 2011.

When: 8 p.m., Saturday, November 17, 2012

Where: Wesley-Knox United Church Church, 91 Askin Street, London, Ontario

Contact: Harry MacLean 519-473-1668, macve3gro@rogers.com

Events

Barris addresses Canadian Club in Bowmanville

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Ted Barris speaking

As part of its fall 2012 program, the Bowmanville Men’s Canadian Club has invited Ted Barris to address the membership on Wednesday, November 28, 2012, at Trinity United Church. He will speak about the job of getting veterans to speak about their experiences; his talk is based on one of his recent bestselling books, “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan.” Copies of a number of Ted’s books will be on hand for sale and autographing.

When: 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012.

Where: Trinity United Church, 116 Church Street, Bowmanville, Ontario

Contact: Clayton Read, fordarby@hotmail.com

Barris Beat

Call for honesty

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Margaret Wente says she is not a serial plagiarist.

My world of words has been turned upside down this week. One of our own has been accused of the worst sin in our profession – taking the ideas of another writer and presenting them as her own. According to Carol Wainio, an Ottawa-based blogger, in 2009 Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente wrote an editorial about something called enviro-romanticism. In her column, among other things, she wrote about non-governmental organizations.

“They believe traditional farming in Africa incorporates indigenous knowledge that shouldn’t be replaced by science-based knowledge introduced from the outside,” Wente wrote.

(more…)

Barris Beat

Canadian grooves

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Saturday morning mecca for LPs, Sam the Record Man, in Toronto.

Sam Sniderman changed my Saturdays forever. Back in the 1960s, instead of sleeping in, savouring my coffee, wasting my morning, I high-tailed it downtown to Yonge and Dundas streets, to the store under the spinning-record sign to spend my money on vinyl. Yes, every Saturday morning I raced to take advantage of Sam’s door-crasher specials.

“The best music and the best prices,” Sam Sniderman used to say in his advertisements. But more than that, he also said, “Buy Canadian music because it’s the best.”

(more…)