Posts with the GTA tag

Barris Beat

Tunnel vision

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Ontario’s premier wants to replicate Boston’s “Big Dig” under Hwy 401

Among our Thanksgiving traditions, particularly when we invite guests to our gatherings over Turkey dinner, our family usually engages in “What if?” talk. Often the Q&As reveal attitudes among family members we didn’t know. Other times, it’s a chance for guests to tell us about themselves and stimulate conversation. Over Monday’s turkey dinner, my granddaughter hit me with this question:

“Twenty years from now, what looming event do you think you’ll have difficulty explaining?”

I thought long and hard about challenges we’re all facing today – democracy threatened by the race for the presidency in the United States, global preparedness for the next pandemic, pushing back xenophobia in Canadian society, ensuring career opportunities are there for our grandchildren and their children.

But I guess, if I’m still around in 2044, I’ll probably find it difficult to rationalize how western civilization, with as much access to information as any society in modern history, didn’t recognize and rise to the challenge of slowing climate change.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to rationalize our incompetency,” I told my granddaughter “for failing to save the planet from greenhouse gases.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Dull economy without sharp trades

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Ed Casella, master hardware specialist in Stouffville, Ont.

Some time ago, I decided to repair a door handle inside our house. (This sort of thing happens when I suffer writer’s block and need a short-term distraction.) So, I went to local big box stores looking for the correct hardware.

The only replacements they offered were huge new assemblies wrapped in that impregnable plastic. And, even if I could cut open the package, there was no guarantee the new assembly would fit my door.

“Ed’s,” I suddenly remembered. “Ed’s Hardware in Stouffville. That’s where I’ll go.” I made an appointment to see Ed Casella, drove down to meet him at his farm, and it was all I could do to keep from buying every old piece of hardware in the place – antique doorknobs, padlocks, floor grates and everything else under the sun … from a bygone era. (more…)

Barris Beat

Those who followed also served

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Bill Stewart, Paul Moffatt and Al Thomas, firefighters from Toronto, prepare to pay tribute to veterans at Menin Gate on May 23, 2024.

The three of them seemed buried in preparations – arranging the wreath, adjusting their berets, straightening their blazers and ties – and they didn’t notice me approaching with my cellphone camera. Then, suddenly as they stepped to the curb beneath the Menin Gate, a shaft of sunlight caught them.

“Look here guys,” I called out.

Almost in perfect symmetry, the three men – Bill Stewart, Al Thomas and Paul Moffatt – all snapped to attention the way they’ve done thousands of times before. And I clicked the photograph of the three retired firefighters in their parade uniforms, ready to join one of the most poignant Great War commemorations in Europe. (more…)

Barris Beat

Do it locally, or lose it!

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What 10 tons of tree did to our garage and car in the derecho.

It was the worst of times for us all. The May 21, 2022, derecho struck Uxbridge, Ont., from the Sixth Concession through the west end of town, across the railway yards, devastating homes, downtown apartments, Second Wedge Brewery and Trinity United Church among many places.

Power was out for days, phone service spotty, and just the goodwill of neighbours got us through. With our garage gone and my car crushed, I turned to my insurers, who told me my car was a write-off. They offered me a cash settlement for the wreck. I agreed. Then, the agent read me the fine print of my policy over the phone.

“The car rental clause (promising six weeks of rental,)” she said, “since you’ve agreed to the sale of your (written-off) car, it ends today.”

In effect, they had terminated my coverage seven days after the storm. (more…)

Barris Beat

Where the Ford government allegiances lie

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Oath-taking – a practice for those wishing to tell the truth.

When I cross the border into the United States, it happens. When we go through security checks at international airports, it happens. When I was approached by the Ontario Court for jury duty, it happened. At those moments and others, we are asked:

“Do you swear that this is the truth?”

It’s called an oath. And when we cross an international border, Customs and Immigration officers need to know we’re being honest. Going through Pearson Airport security and onto public commercial airlines, security needs to know we’re abiding by the law. And if we’re meeting our civic duty in the Ontario court system, the judge needs to hear us say, “Yes, that’s the truth.”

So why don’t any of those protocols of oath-taking, of abiding by the rules, apply to Ford government officials around Conservative policies regarding protection of Greenbelt lands? (more…)

Barris Beat

Invisible goodness

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Veteran John Watson shares a lighter moment before my book talk in Swift Current, July 19, 2023.

I was told he was coming. John Watson arrived a few minutes before I began a presentation about a major Second World War story, last Wednesday night in Swift Current, Sask. Watson is a tall man. He wore a red jacket, a scarf, and had a twinkle in his eye as we shook hands.

“Thank you for coming, Mr. Watson,” I said. “I understand you’re a veteran, that you served overseas in the last war with the Regina Rifles.”

“Yes, I did,” he said. “But don’t forget the ‘Royal’ part.”

“The Royal Regina Rifles,” I corrected myself, then added, “No doubt ‘Royal’ because of you.”

He laughed and said, “I was just a rifleman.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Hands off our Greenbelt!

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Where development and Greenbelt collide. #ONGreenbelt

On a recent nighttime flight home from a trip out West, I looked out the passenger jet window. Our landing approach toward Pearson took the flight across terrain northeast of the GTA. In the darkness, I spotted a cluster of lights I knew to be Uxbridge. A calmness came over me. The darkness around that cluster of lights reassured me that our Greenbelt looked safe. Untouched. Protected.

Then this week, I heard the municipal affairs minister at Queen’s Park describe a land swap to reporters.

“It’s a bold action to ensure that we meet our housing target,” Steve Clark said.

Bold indeed. But in my view not in a positive way. (more…)

Barris Beat

Bed blockers are not the problem

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Public health kept a lid on SARS at Scarborough Grace Hospital in 2003, despite Health Ministry incompetence. Global News.

The news nearly killed my mother. I believe that it hastened my father’s death. In February 2003, my father suffered a debilitating stroke that stole his two most precious faculties – speech and memory. Because my parents lived in Agincourt, paramedics rushed him to Scarborough Grace Hospital.

Days later SARS struck the same floor of the hospital where my father was recovering. Nevertheless, nurses told us they could isolate Dad sufficiently so that Mom could still suit up with PPE and see him. But then the Conservative provincial government, thinking it knew better than the health-care specialists, intervened.

“For his safety,” they told my mother, “we’re isolating your father in the new PPP (public-private partnership) hospital in Brampton.”

“How is my mother, living in Agincourt, going to be able to see my father in Brampton?” I asked the office of then health minister Tony Clement.

“She can communicate with him by fax,” they recommended. (more…)

Barris Beat

For want of bats in my belfry

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Bats by the millions have died of disease, lack of habitat and thanks to human impact on their environment. Phys.com

I sat on our back porch after sunset one evening this week. I was looking for them. The light was dying fast, which was why I was there. I kept scanning the skies over our backyard and our neighbours’ yards, looking, looking. One of my grandchildren was with me and wondered what I was doing, why I was so intent.

“They should be here by now,” I said softly.

“What should be here?” he asked.

“The bats,” I said. “I haven’t seen them this year.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Bridging social distance

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Warning sign posted at Uxbridge Arena, March 16, 2020.

We hadn’t seen each other or talked for a while. I had gone outside Sunday afternoon, partly to get some air, but also to escape the assault of bad news about the coronavirus pandemic. But suddenly this friend dropped by for a visit in my backyard. The conversation was really welcome, but of course it was mostly about things closing, Canadians trying to get home or when this all might end. Eventually I asked how he and his family were doing.

“OK, mostly,” he said, and he then gingerly explained a member of his family had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment.

“I’m sorry,” I said. But what I meant was, “Sorry that I let all this global chaos get in the way of caring about you and your family first.” (more…)