Of fathers and sons

Jeff and Tony pass the walls of the Menin Gate in Ypres, where the "missing" Commonwealth soldiers of the Great War are remembered every night.

About three days into the tour, I saw the two of them walking and talking. Tony and Jeff Peck were pausing to look up at a wall of inscriptions. There in front of them the names of some 54,896 Commonwealth soldiers, for whom there are no known remains, lay chiselled in the stone. They are the so-called “missing” from the Great War. A couple of days later, father Tony watched son Jeff participate in the famous Last Post Ceremony under the same barrel-vaulted archway known as the Menin Gate.

“They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old,” Jeff recited to the hundreds watching in silence. “Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

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Weathering Vimy then and now

Students from Uxbridge Secondary School display their Vimy 95th anniversary banner at precisely the spot where Canadian troops made first contact with German soldiers on the morning of April 9, 1917.

It had rained all day. The sun had tried to poke some light through the low-lying clouds and mist of the ridge. But the strong westerly wind – that seemed to cut right through you – quickly erased every attempt. It was not a day to be outside. And yet, people came by the thousand. In particular, the young Canadians – about 5,000 high school students – paraded with banners, cheers and a resolve that was characteristic of their forefathers. One of their teachers summed up the scene.

“They’re wet and chilled to the bone,” she said. “But they realize it’s not right to complain. They’ll get through it.”

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Sentinel of a century

Tree cutters arrive to bring down the maple on Balsam Street.

About a week ago, a friend up the street visited my next-door neighbour on a mission. With his pickup truck empty, save for his chainsaw and a can of gas, He began a day-long project dissecting the remains of a piece of history. A maple tree that had stood near the street at the corner of Ronnie Egan’s property for nearly a century had dropped too many dead or dying upper limbs to be safe anymore. So the township decided for the benefit of all concerned that the tree should come down.

“I cried the day they took it down,” Ronnie Egan admitted to me. “It was very sad to see it go.”

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More than bookworms

TWUC authors (l-r) Greg Hollingshead and Susan Swan as well as library rep Michael Smith hold high the books they treasure at the reference library demo on Sunday.

Towards the end of last Sunday’s Books ‘n’ Brunch event, staged by Shelley Macbeth and her Blue Heron Books staff, I turned to the audience. I had been interviewing successful crime writer, Giles Blunt, author of six books featuring fictitious Canadian detective John Cardinal. Having asked all my questions, I invited some from the audience. One of the first questions came from a librarian from Sandford. The second came from a former librarian in town. It occurred to me that in a room of about hundred avid readers, a goodly number of those in attendance had served in the libraries of local schools and branches of our public library.

When author Blunt later commented on the quality of the audience’s questions, I pointed out how arts focused and well read this community is.

“We’ve got something like 25 or 30 book clubs here,” I told him. “And it’s probably no surprise that at the heart of those clubs are current or former librarians.”

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How we inspire others

Hap Harris on his Wings (Graduation) Day in August 1943. Photo courtesy Harris family.

Following a recent oldtimers’ hockey game at the arena Sunday night, my teammates and I made our way to the dressing room. The difference this night, however, was that we had won our game. For the first time in our Uxbridge Adult Hockey round-robin playoff, we had won – our first victory in four tries. We were all feeling pretty upbeat as we piled into the dressing room, where a teammate next to me suggested why we had won.

“We can thank Flying Officer Harris for this one,” he said.

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Cannot tell a book…

When I met CBC Commissionaire Don Nelson, I had no idea he had been a commando (much like these Canadian troops) during the Korean War.

The first time I went to the local chiropractor’s office, I arrived early and got caught up on some National Geographic stories. Then it was time for my session and I prepared myself with excuses. I expected a barrage of questions, such as, how long had my shoulder been bothering me, what previous treatment had I undergone, and why had I waited so long to deal with it. But that wasn’t the first thing Dr. Peter Begg asked me.

“Where did you get all your research for that Vimy book of yours?” he said.

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Barris speaks at annual HMCS York mess

The organizers of this year’s Chiefs’ and Petty Officers’ Mess at HMCS York, in Toronto, have invited Ted Barris to address the dinner on Saturday, May 12, 2012. 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.” In the course of his 40 years as a journalist and published historian, Ted draws from the experience of having interviewed nearly 4,000 veterans in Canada. Copies of a number of Ted’s books will be on hand for sale and autographing.

When: 6 p.m., Saturday, May 12, 2012.

Where: HMCS York, 659 Lakeshore Blvd. W., Toronto, Ontario.

Contact: Maggie Birtch, CPO Second Class, 416-565-1798, maggietimber@hotmail.com

Barris moderates plenary at Canadian Association of Journalists

Ted Barris opens the CAJ conference with a plenary on the state of the profession.

To open the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists, on Friday, April 27, 2012, in Toronto, Ted Barris will moderate a plenary session entitled, “News has value on any platform.” A panel of top news executives, including Jennifer McGuire, chief of English News at CBC, and Brodie Fenlon, senior news editor of Huffington Post Canada, will look at “the state of the industry.” Barris moderates the first of many sessions held over the weekend .

When: 9 a.m., Friday, April 27, 2012.

Where: Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Front Street, Toronto.

Contact: Ellin Bessner, CAJ board member, ebessner@gmail.com, Centennial College 416-289-5000 x8826.

Barris returns to speak to Lindsay Legion Vimy dinner

Ted Barris MCs a Toronto Remembrance Day event, 2011.

At last year’s Vimy Dinner, held at Branch 67 of the Royal Canadian Legion in Lindsday, Ted Barris offered a unique telling of the famous WWI battle at Vimy Ridge. This year, back by popular demand, the author of 16 bestselling, non-fiction books addresses the Vimy dinner about the job of getting veterans to do what they pathologically cannot – talk. Based on his bestselling book, “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan,” Barris offers some insights to a few of the nearly 4,000 interviews he’s done with Canadian veterans.

When: Wednesday, April 4, 2012.

Where: Branch 67, Royal Canadian Legion, Lindsay, Ont.

Contact: Harold Jessup,1st vice-president, harold.jessup@sympatico.ca

Barris brunches with Blunt

“Giles Blunt writes with uncommon grace, style and compassion and he plots like a demon,” says author Jonathan Kellerman.

In another of his regular visits to Blue Heron Books’s “Books and Brunch” series, Ted Barris interviews bestselling author Giles Blunt in front of an audience at Wyndance Golf Club, south of Uxbridge. After spending over 20 years in New York City, Giles Blunt now lives in Toronto. His past work includes writing scripts for television programs such as Law & Order, Street Legal and Night Heat. His novel “Forty Words for Sorrow,” won the British Crime Writers’ Macallan Silver Dagger. “A Delicate Storm,” was the winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel and “Blackfly Season” was one of Margaret Cannon’s Best Mysteries of the 2010 Year. Blunt’s “By the Time You Read This,” was a national bestseller; and “No Such Creature” earned a place on the Globe and Mail‘s list of Top Ten Crime Books.

When: 11 a.m. Sunday, March 25, 2012.

Where: Wyndance Golf Club, Hwy 21 west of Coppin’s Corners, Uxbridge, Ontario.

Contact: Shelley Macbeth, proprietor, Blue Heron Books, 905-852-4282, www.blueheronbooks.com