Posts with the featured tag

Barris Beat

Building better citizens

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Sgt. Isaac Ramos credits his years in Royal Canadian Air Cadets for his outlook and attitude about life.
Sgt. Isaac Ramos credits his years in Royal Canadian Air Cadets for his outlook on life.

The young man stole the show, when it was my job to do it. I had just finished a 30-minute talk at a military dinner in Etobicoke. There were about a hundred young people in the audience, members of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets (RCAC) No. 700 Squadron. I thought my talk – about the romance of aviation and the roots of national service – had gone well. I had managed to capture and keep the attention 12- to 18-year-olds. The end of my talk brought a genuine thank-you from a young warrant officer. Then a young man with sergeant’s stripes on his sleeve rose to speak.

“Four years ago, I was an irresponsible kid. I didn’t get along with my parents. I bad-mouthed everybody,” he said. “But today in the cadets it’s just the opposite.”

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Barris Beat

Making memory permanent

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Today a tourist trap, Checkpoint Charlie between 1961 and 1989 trapped East Berliners inside the Iron Curtain.
Today a tourist trap, Checkpoint Charlie between 1961 and 1989 trapped East Berliners inside the Iron Curtain.

During a college class the other day, I wanted to give my broadcasting students a sense of the power of television as tool of influence in the 20th century. I chose something in their lifetime – the fall of the Berlin Wall – in 1989. That’s when the Western media began covering the activities of dissidents in East Germany, I said. And that sparked the popular uprising that pressured the Communist regime to open crossing points at the Wall. To make sure my students understood the context, I asked if everybody knew the basis of the Cold War.

“Was Canada involved?” one of my students asked.

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Barris Beat

How to get there

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So I looked for...
I figured I could just follow the orange detour signs.

Earlier this week, I paid a visit to Midland, Ontario. The Askennonia Senior Centre had invited me to do a keynote speech for the annual Veterans’ Luncheon there. Not a problem, except that the Bruce Peninsula is not a region of the province through which I travel often. I wasn’t familiar with the roads. To make matters slightly more challenging, travelling up Highway 400 and in search of Hwy 93 (the route to Midland) that day I suddenly faced a problem.

“Exit to Hwy 93 closed,” the sign read. “Follow detour signs.”

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Barris Beat

Occupying minds, not parks

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On Nov. 15 city officials delivered eviction notices to the Occupy Toronto protest site in St. James Park. A judge later stayed that eviction until the weekend.
On Nov. 15 city officials delivered eviction notices to the Occupy Toronto protest site in St. James Park. A judge later stayed that eviction until the weekend.

The comment was bold and brutal. The man on the other end of the phone was blunt and to the point. He pulled no punches. His voice was full of disgust.

“You’re lazy. You’re vagrants. You’re a bunch of hoodlums, drug addicts and anarchists” he said on the phone. “Get out of our park!”

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Barris Beat

Making Remembrance Day instructive

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Outside the Southwold community centre, the sign invites participants to the annual Remembrance week service.
Outside the Southwold community centre, the sign invites participants to the annual Remembrance week service.

Just before I delivered a Remembrance talk in the southwestern community of Shedden, Ont., last Sunday morning, I walked along the back wall of the Southwold Township Complex, where I was to speak. There were perhaps 500 people waiting for the township’s annual pre-Remembrance Day observance to begin.

And standing politely along that back wall, so that older citizens – principally veterans and their spouses – could have seats, were about 20 young army and air cadets. I made a point of introducing myself to them and learning who they were before I spoke.

“I’m 18 and in the Elgin Regiment,” one of them announced proudly.

“And why did you offer your part-time service?” I asked.

“I wanted to say something about my generation,” he said.

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Barris Beat

Views from a bridge

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Pete Fisher began photographing along the Highway of Heroes, before it official earned that title.
Pete Fisher began photographing along the Highway of Heroes, before it officially earned that title.

It was a Saturday in the spring of 2002. A photographer, who been born and raised and in fact had worked most of his professional life for newspapers in and around Cobourg, Ont., got a call from his father. Pete Fisher’s dad told him to keep an eye out for something happening on Highway 401. Four Canadian soldiers’ bodies had just arrived home from Afghanistan and it looked as if there would be a procession along the highway between CFB Trenton and Toronto, where the bodies would officially be released to the families.

“I didn’t know the soldiers’ names,” Fisher wrote later.

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Barris Beat

Tools of a bygone era

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Dominion Land Survey working at the turn of the 19th Century in Alberta.
Dominion Land Survey working at the turn of the 19th century in Alberta.

A surveyor friend of mine stopped by on the weekend. Actually, Reid Wilson asked if he could poke around the corner of my front yard last Saturday. I obliged, but wondered what it was all about. He said he was doing a quick unofficial survey looking for property lines, but he needed to find a key marker.

“Any idea where the corner survey stake is?” he asked me.

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Barris Beat

Why Citizenship Week?

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The Banh family fled from Vietnam in 1980, was detained on an Indonesian island, but among thousands of other Boat People was eventually given refuge in Canada.
Thirty years ago, Canada and Canadians extended a hand of welcome to thousands of Boat People fleeing Southeast Asia.

It was an act of blatant intolerance. Mia, a factory worker originally from Asia, had been warming her lunch-break meal in the microwave oven in the staff kitchen. It had been the only comfort she was allowed, since her factory job was menial and since she lived with a son who slept all day and stayed out all night. Suddenly, she faced a factory foreman, who found the aroma of her homemade food offensive and he posted a sign on the front of the microwave to point that out.

“No foul-smelling food allowed,” was all the note said.

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Barris Beat

Not online, but on the line

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In the 1933 version of the classic film, King Kong was played by Carmen Nigro, an actor hired specially for his skill mimicking apes.
I tracked down the actor who played King Kong in the 1933 classic film, with the help of a directory assistance operator in Chicago.

I opened my email on Sunday morning. I was greeted by the usual prompt for my “username.” I keyed that in. Then I got the prompt for the “password.” I entered that. But then something odd happened. The Hotmail account I’ve used for at least six or seven years, disallowed my entry.

“You’re account has been blocked,” was all it said.

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Barris Beat

Roundabout rules

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Colorado Springs, Colorado, has fallen in love with the roundabout...
Colorado Springs, Colorado, has fallen in love with the roundabout... 68 times.

Last summer, I made an interesting discovery. Not surprising, since I was conducting research. But what I found wasn’t quite what I expected. Although it was actually quite close to home. I happened to be researching in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where, I discovered, they’ve been experimenting with something relatively new in their part of the world. What’s more, they’ve made a YouTube video about it.

“All about roundabouts,” the video says. “Getting in and getting out…”

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