Posts with the featured tag

Barris Beat

Days that change us

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President Roosevelt signs declaration of war on Dec. 8, 1941.
President Roosevelt signs declaration of war on Dec. 8, 1941.

There was a day in my parents’ lives that changed everything. It happened in 1941. My father was 19 that September. My mother was a year younger. They both had grown up and gone to school in New York City. But events that day just before Christmas, meant that my mother would see her brother-in-law and her future husband, my father, go off to war. My parents were both U.S.-born and their American president described the change that day indelibly.

“December 7, 1941, is a date which will live in infamy,” Franklin D. Roosevelt said.

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Barris Beat

Three-generation learning curve

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Hallways - empty all summer - began to fill this week with students back to school.
Hallways - empty all summer - began to fill this week with students back to school.

They were a long way from our consciousness in the dying days of spring. Nobody in our family had even thought of them back then. There was too much summer holiday ahead, too many barbeques, too many long weekends, for us to ever worry about them. But about two weeks ago – I think it was the Friday the CNE opened, the same day the advertisements began ganging up on us on TV and radio – suddenly, they were back in our faces: the three most important words of September.

“Back to school.”

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Barris Beat

Trusted anchor

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CTV News anchor Lloyd Robertson speaking at Centennial College in 2006.
CTV News anchor Lloyd Robertson speaking at Centennial College in 2006.

It seems commonplace now, but for a long time those working in the media were not considered able, nor in some cases were they allowed, to do two things at the same time. Today it’s called multi-tasking. Thirty-five years ago, it was considered a violation of the working agreement between workers and managers in the media. The first person to break that barrier in Canadian news media will leave his revered spot on the air later this week.

“Unions were so powerful [when I worked] at the CBC,” Lloyd Robertson told a group of journalists a few years ago. “As an announcer there, all I was allowed to do was pick up news copy and read it on the air.”

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Barris Beat

Citizen Jack

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
Jack Layton (left) in a media scrum during the 2006 federal election.
Jack Layton (left) in a media scrum during the 2006 federal election. Toronto Observer photo.

Jack Layton gave me and my teaching colleagues a gift we shall always cherish. It was a political gift, yes. It actually took place in front of news cameras – during the 2006 federal election – so it was also a public gift. It was a gift that probably wasn’t appreciated by the mainstream media reporters present that day. That’s because, for a few moments, he ignored the big-name reporters from CTV, CBC and Global Television in Toronto in favour of the lesser known, less experienced and less jaded reporters – some of our first-year journalism students.

“I’ll take questions first from the Centennial College journalists,” Jack Layton said during the press conference that day.

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Barris Beat

Strangers in the night

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A reel-to-reel tape machine, the likes of which we used to record, playback and edit content for radio.
A reel-to-reel tape machine, the likes of which we used to record, playback and edit content for radio.

It’s always wonderful to be recognized for your work. It’s even better when people spot your work and recognize it as being yours. I mean, everybody knows what an Armani suit is. Or a Picasso painting. Most cinema buffs know what to expect from a Marilyn Monroe movie. Or a coffee at Tim Hortons. There was a time, when I produced radio shows in Saskatchewan, that my broadcasting colleagues might see me working late into the night and comment:

“Oh-oh, Barris is in the studio. I wonder who died?”

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Barris Beat

When all about you are losing their heads…

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Sturm und
Sturm und drang over pennies and dollars.

Here we go again. The past few days all I’ve been hearing is doom and gloom about the economy. Everywhere I look and listen – in the papers and on radio and TV mostly – I see and hear people running around shouting the modern equivalent of Chicken Little’s “The sky is falling. The sky is falling!” Only the 2011 version is:

“My stocks are falling! My stocks are falling!”

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Barris Beat

Honoured company

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D-Day veteran Don Kerr with Ted Barris, enjoying the reception following the presentations of the Commendation, July 27, 2011.
D-Day veteran Don Kerr with Ted Barris, enjoying the reception following the presentations of the Commendation, July 27, 2011. Photo courtesy Kate Barris.

I walked among heroes, last Wednesday morning – eighteen of them. Several had fought in the Second World War. At least one was a veteran of the Korean War. A number had helped keep the peace in the Middle East, Africa and the Asia. Several others had served Canada as reservists. Almost all were veterans from a theatre of war or world hotspot. But nearly all – after serving Canada in uniform – had accomplished something more that had caught the attention of the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

“After serving,” Minister Steven Blaney said at a recognition ceremony on July 27, “[these] veterans have continued to provide outstanding service to their country, communities and fellow veterans.”

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Barris Beat

Commendation

Written by Ted Barris on . 14 Comments
Ted Barris and Jayne MacAulay, his wife, and his commendation certificate. Photo courtesy Kate Barris.
Ted Barris and Jayne MacAulay, his wife, and his commendation certificate. Photo courtesy Kate Barris.

On July 27, 2011, the Minister of Veterans Affairs for Canada awarded 19 citizens his annual commendation. Traditionally, the award is “presented to those veterans … who, in an exemplary way, have contributed either to the care and well-being of veterans or to the remembrance of the sacrifices and achievements of Canadians in armed conflict.”

Most of the 2011 recipients are veterans. Ted Barris, a civilian, also received the commendation.

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Barris Beat

The reach to write

Written by Ted Barris on . 2 Comments
A spiritual experience for some, the Sage Hill Writing Experience takes place each year at St. Michael's monastery at Lumsden, Sask.
A spiritual experience for some, the Sage Hill Writing Experience takes place each year at St. Michael's monastery at Lumsden, Sask.

Whenever I talk with writers, there are plenty of taboos. They don’t often speak about how much money they make. Not many writers will divulge the nature of any publishing contracts they’re negotiating. And some are even superstitious about not revealing either the title or the content of a new book they’re working on. But you can always tell a group of writers is really getting into a heavy discussion when one warns:

“No, no. Don’t use the ‘M’ word!”

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Barris Beat

Unwelcoming States of America

Written by Ted Barris on . 3 Comments
I had three full hours to kill at Pearson's Terminal 1.
I had three full hours to kill at Pearson's Terminal 1.

I do a lot of travelling, but it seems over the past few years, most of my destinations have been cities in other Canadian provinces or overseas in Europe. Then, about a week ago, my freelance work took me south of the 49th parallel. My son-in-law volunteered to take me to the Toronto airport. However, one of us suggested altering my usual travel routine.

“Since it’s the States,” we both agreed, “maybe earlier is better.”

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