Posts with the Durham College tag

Barris Beat

Need for charity no greater than now

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
Jonathan Wilson (red shirt) and Cagney, the black Lab, at launch of 2017 walkathon.

Jonathan Wilson will graduate in about a year. He’ll complete the Journalism and Mass Media program at Durham College. Despite having to adapt to online learning for the past year from his home in Uxbridge, he’s getting A’s in his grades, and earning praise for his portfolio of stories.

Once he graduates, Jonathan will start beating the bushes for full-time work as a professional journalist. His mom, Lisa Wilson, is proud of her son’s accomplishments. She’s also thankful for the charity of others.

“If it wasn’t for the Lions Foundation and Dog Guides Canada,” Lisa told a handful of us this week, “none of this would’ve been possible.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Promises, promises

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Making political promises stick.
Making political promises stick.

It didn’t take long to determine whether Canadians would be going to the polls this spring or not. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty hadn’t even begun to introduce the 2011 federal budget in the House of Commons, Tuesday afternoon, when we knew that two of the three Opposition leaders – Gilles Duceppe and Michael Ignatieff – would not support it. Only Jack Layton kept the country in suspense until the end of the budget speech. And within minutes of Flaherty’s concluding remarks, the other shoe dropped.

“Mr. Harper had an opportunity to address the needs of hard-working, middle class Canadians and families,” Layton said to CBC microphones, “and he missed that opportunity… New Democrats will not support the budget as presented.”

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Barris Beat

Publish or perish

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment

It must have been an extraordinary moment. A 40-year-old inventor in the 15th century city of Mainz, Germany, had experimented with metal alloys, molds, a pressing machine and oil-based ink. He took handmade paper, placed it in his press and moved the letters of the alphabet into position to print a 42-line piece of writing. He repeated the process 30 times to create a book. The book was a short Bible. The inventor was Johann Gutenberg. And the invention was history’s first mass printing of the world’s first published book.

“Incomparably the greatest event in the history of the world,” Mark Twain wrote 400 years later.

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