Posts with the Somalia tag

Barris Beat

Waging war on a virus

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Sgt. Bill Wilson on deployment in Afghanistan 2002.

I don’t think I’d ever encountered a more driven medical professional in my life. When I met Bill Wilson back in 2004, to me he epitomized the ultimate first-responder. He was young, fit, even-tempered and well-informed; in fact, when I interviewed him, he’d already served as a front-line medic in Canada’s military operations to Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Afghanistan.

Yet, there he was, a veteran from all those military hotspots, back studying at Canadian Forces Base Borden.

“I enjoy the role of responsibility,” he told me. “I love the challenge.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Making memory permanent

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
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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