Posts with the International Women’s Day tag

Barris Beat

An international day for aunts too

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Mary Kontozoglus with her grandchildren, Christmas 2020.

The family had gathered from all over the continent. Some from Maryland. Others from New York and Florida. We had travelled from Toronto to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where my mother’s “baby brother” George was getting married to his fiancée Mary. But I had a problem.

“The battery in my camera’s dead,” I moaned. “And I want to take pictures of the wedding tomorrow.”

Since we were all foreigners to Allentown, except Mary, my future aunt, none of us knew where to buy replacement batteries except for her.

“I can help,” Mary said. Remember, this is the eve of her wedding to the family’s favourite uncle. So, no doubt, she had a million things on her mind. (more…)

Barris Beat

The way she inspires

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Ruth Walker has built her career while always bringing fellow writers along.

As she spoke this week, a circle gathered around her. Everybody in the group was genuinely eager to listen, to discover, to be inspired. In fact, that’s where author Ruth Walker started her discussion with members of the Uxbridge Writers’ Circle. She asked those gathered on Tuesday afternoon:

“What inspires you?”

“Nature, the outdoors,” said one.

“My family and relationships,” suggested another.

Then, we asked Ruth the same question back. (more…)

Barris Beat

Breaking barriers and ceilings

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Lovinya Reid, left, and her mother Kervinya, enjoying Centennial College student awards night.
Lovinya Reid, left, and her mother Kervinya Driscoll, enjoying Centennial College student awards night.

Her mother told me that she was shy. Kervinya Driscoll said that when her daughter Lovinya was young, she didn’t like speaking in front of other people. She was quite content to stay at home because it was out of the limelight and safe from the rest of the world.

“As a child my daughter was painfully shy,” Kervinya Driscoll told me the other night. “But then suddenly she came out of herself … and her world got very busy.”

On Tuesday night this week, I presented an annual scholarship to Lovinya Reid for both her academic excellence as a student at Centennial College and her activity as a volunteer making a difference. The June Callwood Scholarship is the college’s way of recognizing a student’s initiative both in the classroom and in the community. (As full disclosure here, I’d point out that I am on the faculty of Centennial and while I sponsor the June Callwood Scholarship, I have no hand in choosing the student who wins it.) (more…)

Barris Beat

Their chance to lead

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Plan Canada "Because I am a girl" advertisement
Plan Canada “Because I am a girl” advertisement

You’ve seen the advertisement on TV in the past few weeks. The two swaddled infants appear lying on a multi-coloured mat. The babies seem contented and comfortable as they lie there. One is cooing; the other has a partial smile. As I looked at the ad, it never occurred to me to ask what gender the infants were. But then we’re told…

“Both of them could be head of a class… could lead a nation,” the voice-over announcer said. “Yet one of them won’t even be given a chance, simply because she’s a girl.” (more…)

Barris Beat

A day is not enough

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
The one day The Scotsman newspaper changed everything… was International Women’s Day, March 8, 1995.

It happened the year we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. To mark the occasion, my sister, my cousin and my parents had all arranged for my wife and I to travel to the U.K. for a week. And on the morning of March 8, 1995, we walked out of our hotel on Princes Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, to buy the daily newspaper, The Scotsman. We approached the newsies hawking copies of the paper. They were all women.

“Help celebrate this important day,” the women newsies shouted, “It’s International Women’s Day.”

(more…)