Bruce Evans volunteered to restore freedoms in Europe – such as the freedom to vote.
A close veteran friend of mine died this week. Bruce Evans, winner of the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award, served in the Second World War with the 1st Hussars tank regiment. He landed in Normandy and was wounded on D-Day 1944; but he rejoined the 6th Armoured Regiment in time to help liberate Holland in 1944-45. His reason for serving was simple.
“It wasn’t patriotism that drove us,” Evans said. “Our job was to … liberate Europe,” and he was always mindful of the regiment’s motto, “today not tomorrow.”
The original “Barris Beat” my father wrote as a staff columnist for Toronto newspapers. But he preferred freelance, non-staff work most of his writing career.
The other night just before I gave a presentation to a historical group in north Toronto, a number of people with the volunteer organization were recognized for their service. In particular, the group recognized a woman who had served the Richmond Hill Historical Society as its secretary.
“Mrs. Monkman is leaving her position,” the president said, “after 26 years of service to the society.”
For every candidate in the Nov. 26 by-election in Durham there is a cost to politics.
At the height of the exchange, the subject came up. After we had addressed the economy, following our discussion on the environment and the state of farming, and even in the wake of a discussion of veterans’ compensation, a member of the audience rose to address what was at the heart of the evening’s discussion.
Ken Lardner, a veteran I encountered by accident. His service in the Royal Canadian Regiment during the Korean War has largely gone unnoticed…until this weekend.
It seemed just another typical Saturday morning at the coffee shop. Kids pointing at the donuts they wanted. Adults craving that first cup. A local by-election candidate had even set up shop at a corner table to bolster his door-to-door canvassers with coffee, donuts and a pep talk. But near the door, I spotted an older man wearing a blue baseball cap with a Royal Canadian Navy logo and the name “HMCS Toronto” emblazoned on it.
Ruth Walker’s quest was getting “Living Underground” published. It’s just happened.
The tension in the room was palpable. It was the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Toronto. The media and a who’s who of the literary community were there. The jury sat quietly. The anxious nominees fidgeted awaiting the verdict. Tuesday night was the moment five Canadian novelists only dream about – a chance to win this country’s richest fiction prize, the Giller. Four were waiting to be told they were second-best. One learned from the envelope in (Giller founder) Jack Robinovitch’s hand that the prize was won.
“And the winner is…” the representative of ScotiaBank said, “Will Ferguson and ‘419.’”
“Wow,” Ferguson said in response. “I want to thank…” and the list went on. And yes, he thanked his mom. “Number four son did you proud.”
Frank Shuster, left, and Johnny Wayne were comedy stars on CBC Radio during the golden age of radio. Women singers, dancers and comedians shared the limelight on their shows as equals. And audiences – rich and poor – could enjoy their weekly shows.
Earlier this fall, I challenged students in my college History of Broadcasting course. I asked them to find elderly residents in the GTA to talk about their memories of what is known as “the golden age of radio.” Not surprisingly, some of them went to seniors’ residences to find their sources. Others called on grandparents who had grown up in the 1930s and ’40s to recall the radio broadcasts that shaped their childhood. What I didn’t expect was a history lesson back from my own students. One group played a recording of their interview with an immigrant woman who was 90 years old.
“When I was a girl of 17 in Afghanistan,” the woman on the recording said, “I was never allowed to listen to the radio. It was something only men could hear.”
Hugh Halliday, centre, poses for photo with fellow recipients of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton.
I sat elbow-to-elbow with history last Sunday. Many seated around me had piloted military aircraft in hostile skies. Others had gone aloft as Royal Canadian Air Force navigators, radio operators, gunners and flight engineers. But just as many had made history in the ranks of the volunteer association that gathers, preserves and celebrates the romance of flight in peacetime – the Air Force Association of Canada. Closest to me (and equally close to that history) sat Hugh Halliday, eminent Canadian air historian. We talked about current writing projects. It turned out he had research I needed and he offered it to me without question, without thought of compensation.
“The best way to preserve history,” Halliday said, “is to share it.”
Ted Barris, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient
During an awards ceremony at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on Oct. 14, 2012, Sen. Joseph Day presented Ted Barris with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. The announcement issued with the award said, in part, “the medal is a visible and tangible way to recognize outstanding Canadians … who have built and continue to build this caring society and country through their service and achievements.”
Barris was nominated for the award by the Air Force Association of Canada. In a letter, Dean Black, the AFAC executive director, explained that the association “convened a committee that screened and ranked hundreds of applications from across Canada, using the selection criteria of recent and significant service to the association’s objectives of heritage, youth and advocacy.” Barris was among about 45 individuals chosen by the AFAC to receive the medal.
249 combines, 300 acres and seven minutes to a Guinness World Record. Courtesy Dennis Fisher.
We don’t very often get the chance to witness a world’s record. Oh, in the Toronto area, we used to be able to walk by the world’s tallest freestanding structure, the CN Tower, until they built one taller in Dubai a couple of years ago. I once stood within a metre of the world’s biggest gem, the Hope diamond, at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. And I’ve personally witnessed a bunch of The Great One’s goal-scoring feats, some of which are world’s records I guess (the 50 goals in 39 games, for example). But I’ve rarely associated the province of Saskatchewan (where I lived for a while) with any world’s records. Then, this week, I got a note from an old friend, Dennis Fisher, in Saskatoon.
“We watched 249 combines harvest a [half] section of land in seven minutes,” he wrote me. “It was a Guinness World Record.”
Ted Barris’s book “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan” was published last year.
From Canadian war veterans to Holocaust survivors, and from victims of Canada’s Residential School system to the aftermath of sexual assaults… journalists play a key role in shedding light on the traumas of the past and present. Through interviews with the people who witnessed them first hand, journalists help bring these important experiences and stories to the public. On Tuesday, November 20, Ted Barris joins a distinguished panel of journalists, researchers, and writers for a public workshop and discussion on how to interview survivors. The other panellists include: Carol Ann Davidson, broadcast journalist, Holocaust survivor interviewer with the Azrieli Foundation; Katerie Akiwenzi-Damm, Anishnaabe writer and contributor to “Speaking My Truth” with the story of Garnet Angeconeb’s residential school experience; Andrea Litvack, Director, MSW Program, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. The moderator will be Esther Enkin, CBC News.
