Posts with the Saskatchewan tag

Barris Beat

Canada’s veterans would not be amused

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Grace MacPherson put her pride of country above all else in the Great War.

Grace MacPherson had all the credentials she needed to become an ambulance driver in the Great War. The first woman in Vancouver to earn a driver’s licence. The first woman to purchase a car in that city. When war broke out in 1914, she even paid her own way to Britain offering her skills as a driver to the Red Cross ambulance corps.

When she gained an audience with Sam Hughes, Canada’s minister of militia and war in 1917, to plead her case, however, he turned her down.

“I’ll stop any woman from going to France,” Hughes blustered.

“With your help, or without it,” Miss MacPherson said, “I will serve.” (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

Freedom by any other name

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Fielding a question about freedom proved to be the toughest.

I’d just finished one of my military history talks, this particular night. I had fielded a number of specific questions about the women and men I’d featured in my presentation. And one of the younger members of the audience put up his hand and asked the toughest question of the night.

“Your books are all about people fighting for freedom,” the young man said. “What does freedom mean to you?”

I asked him if I could collect my thoughts a second. (more…)

Barris Beat

Opposites attract in a pandemic

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Gifts from my friend who’s purging during the pandemic.

For about a year now, I’ve received packages in the mail from a friend in southwestern Ontario. He’s a military-history enthusiast. So, we have much to share in telephone conversations, letters, emails and the periodic packages he posts to me. But when the pandemic hit, suddenly the packages began to increase in number and frequency.

Not just once a week, but several times, his packages (many of them two and three kilograms in weight) would arrive jammed with clippings, magazines and books. And most of his mailings include cryptic notes.

“Two light, two-pound envelopes are on the way,” he wrote last week. “Probably the last of my house cleaning.” (more…)

Barris Beat

When unity’s needed most

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Dennis Fisher with a sense of mission.

I’m going to tell you about a person who helped save Canada. And I was fortunate to witness his work.

His mission began long before this moment, but in November 1976, when the Parti Québécois won the provincial election and René Lévesque became premier of Quebec, a lot of Canadians were suddenly afraid. Lévesque’s platform called for the separation of Quebec from Canada. At that time, I worked as producer/host at CFQC AM Radio in Saskatoon. Dennis Fisher was the station’s general manager. Right after the Parti Québécois victory, he called us together.

“The nation has never been so threatened,” he said. “It’s up to us to do something.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Tell me, Prime Minister…

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RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson at a public- service event in 2020. Cdn Press photo.

On Sunday, April 19, after as excruciating a night of pursuit as any known to her force, I’m sure, RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson made the toughest decision of her life. She’d heard radio calls from a fellow constable nearby that he’d been shot by a murder suspect looking like an RCMP officer, driving what looked like an RCMP cruiser in Nova Scotia. She must have recognized the object of the all-night manhunt was taking deadly advantage of RCMP insignia to approach innocents and shoot them. She must have decided to at least try to take away that advantage. She spotted the impersonator and took drastic action.

“She rammed him,” Brian Sauvé of the National Police Federation told the Toronto Star, “and probably saved countless lives.”

Not, however, her own.

(more…)

Barris Beat

What’s a Family Day worth?

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In 1951  film A Christmas Carol, Scrooge (Alastair Sim) ridicules Cratchit (Mervyn Johns) about expecting both a day off and full-day’s pay.

In the canon of English literature, it’s not the zenith of composition. It doesn’t resonate like a Shakespearean soliloquy, or crackle like Jane Austen dialogue, or whisk you away like a magical J.K. Rowling passage. But, for my money, the exchange between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, in A Christmas Carol, says everything about our times.

“You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?” whines Scrooge, anticipating his clerk’s desire to have Christmas Day off.

“If quite convenient, sir,” pleads Cratchit.

“It’s not convenient and not fair,” snorts Scrooge, “You don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Plea for the profession!

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Prior to Remembrance Day 2019, Catherine Lang remembers her niece, journalist Michelle Lang. Vancouver Sun.

I didn’t recognize her immediately. I should have. But, back in 2013, while attending an annual general meeting of The Writers’ Union of Canada in Ottawa, a woman approached me and she asked if we could share a coffee and some conversation. Since most of the AGMs I attend are often about reflection, I naturally agreed. That’s when I realized who this woman was.

“I’m Catherine Lang,” she said, “the aunt of Michelle Lang, the Canadian journalist killed in the Afghanistan War.”

My expressions of condolence were heartfelt and Catherine was generous in her gratitude of them. But she had greater expectations from our chat than just my recognizing the loss of her adult niece. (more…)

Barris Beat

Steve Oancia’s last flight

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Bernie Wyatt nearly fit perfectly into his cousin Stefan Oancia’s WWII RCAF tunic.

He took one last look. The transaction had transferred ownership of the property. The farm legally belonged to him now. But the old farmhouse had fallen into disrepair and would have to be demolished. So, Clarence Oancia made one last circuit around the house to see if there was anything worth salvaging. Then, Clarence remembered the attic, a loft in the top of the house, and thought he’d better check it too. He climbed the stairs, opened a closet door. And there it was.

“A World War II uniform jacket,” explained Bernie Wyatt, Clarence’s nephew. “[It was] in excellent condition.” (more…)

Barris Beat

In step with the environment

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The prairie dog that suddenly appeared.

It seemed an unspoken rule by the time I got there. Every step was deliberate, unobtrusive and (I hoped) non-destructive in this place of nature. I made my way through sage and other prairie grasses, closer to a mound where a couple of prairie dogs were playing. I didn’t want to scare them down their hole; I just wanted to get close enough to take a clear photograph. Then, I looked down and suddenly there it was.

A prairie dog emerged from a hole in the ground right at my feet. And he, or she, chirped at me, as much surprised to see me lording overtop, as I was to see an animal nearly under foot.

I aimed and fired my camera and got the picture. (more…)