Jul - OSCA

The
O•S•C•A•R
©
The Community Voice of Old Ottawa South
Year 36 , No. 7
The Ottawa South Community Association Review
JUL/AUG 2008
Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success
Most of the OOS neighbourhood enjoyed the Festivities on June 21 at Brewer Park, reveling in the sunny weather.
By Patti Ryan
W
e’d like to take this
opportunity to thank
everyone who contributed
to our anniversary party. We couldn’t
have done it without you!
Our 30th anniversary party on
June 21 at Brewer Park wasn’t a
fundraiser—it was a fund spender! It
was OSCA’s way of celebrating three
decades of partnering with the city to
run programs at the Firehall, and we
decided to pull out all the stops and
take the usual June barbecue up a few
notches.
Firehall Fest was a family-friendly
extravaganza featuring tethered hot
air balloon rides, a moon bounce and
giant slide, a basketball challenge,
exhibits and demonstrations, a show
by The Cow Guy, gourmet food, a
beer tent, cotton candy and $1 hot
dogs, and live music in the evening
provided by Another Round and
Ottawa’s own blues legend, Tony D.
Pulling off an event like this is
quite a bit of work, so now that it’s
over we’d like to thank everyone who
was involved in helping to make it
such a success.
First of all, we are grateful
for the funding provided by area
businesses that sponsored the event.
This list includes Tracy Arnett
Realty Ltd., TD Canada Trust, Linda
Thom (sales representative of Royal
Lepage), Councillor Clive Doucet,
photographer Tom Afoldi, graphic
designer Lori Steele, The Clothes
Secret, Bridgehead, Hopewell Public
School Council, the OSCAR and
the Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Canada.
We would also like to thank
the businesses and entertainers who
provided much of our food, drink,
music and amusement for the day:
The Red Apron, Sixth Sense Catering,
Life of Pie, Piccolo Grande, Another
Round, Tony D, Beau’s All Natural
Brewing Company and The Cow
Guys.
Of course, the dedicated staff and
instructors who make the Firehall
such a vibrant hub were also integral
to the success of Firehall Fest. Deirdre
McQuillan, Dinos Dafniotis and
Cathie Buchanan played key roles in
the organization and administration
of the event, and Firehall staff and
instructors kept the crowds hopping
by organizing games and events
throughout the day and entertaining
party-goers with the talents they’ve
inspired through classes in pre-school
dance, belly dancing and pottery.
Special thanks to instructors Alex
Derry, Jun Ichino, Marie Hennessey
and Tracey Vibert.
Last but certainly not least,
we would like to express our
appreciation to the volunteers who
spent many hours orchestrating the
event behind the scenes and worked
at the event on the big day. It’s a
long list and probably incomplete,
as many volunteers brought family
members and friends to help out as
well—and this article had to be sent
to print before the event had actually
taken place. So if you volunteered
but don’t see your name here, please
know that we really are grateful
anyway. Thanks to: Lisa Drouillard,
Jenny Haysom, Valerie MacIntosh,
Patti Ryan, Kendall McQueen, Steve
Mennill, Vanessa McKenzie, Greg
Strahl, Jason Parry, Brenda Lee, Ada
Brzeski, Yves Pepin, Paul DaSilva,
Evelyn Gow, Chris Farqar, Ian Fower,
Kim Ferguson, Kathryn Owens, Anne
Marie Corbet, Paul Paquet, Laura
Byrne Paquet, Valerie Pereboom,
Quinn Hodgins, Chris Lahey, Beverly
Wright, Sheryl Hamilton, Suzanne
Charest, John Donkin, Marc Rand,
Anne Beauregard, Allan McCullough,
Carolyn Sohn, Wilder Boucaud, Rob
Cowan, Matthew Sanger, Tracey
Donaldson, Joe, Jesse, Charlie and the
many other young OOS neighbours
who pitched in to make this event
possible.
Many thanks again to all of the
business and volunteers who made
this event possible.
Photo by Tom Alfoldi - more on p.2
OSCAR
Needs
Volunteers
For Monthly
Distribution
in OOS
OSCAR needs volunteers to
deliver the OSCAR in Old Ottawa South. The volunteers, whose
names you can see on page 3,
form a network that deliver OSCAR to every home and business
in Old Ottawa South.
OSCAR has found a replacement for Craig Piche, Distribution Manager, but needs Distribution Coordinators and Deliverers.
These jobs require only an hour
or two of your time per month
and provide in invaluable service
for OSCAR.
Even volunteering as a substitute if a regular deliverer is
sick or on holiday would provide
a great service to OSCAR.
Thank you!
[email protected]
Page The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Some of the Fun at the Firehall Festival, June 21, at Brewer Park
Photos by Tom Alfoldi
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
OSCAR
The
The OTTAWA SOUTH COMMUNITY
ASSOCIATION REVIEW
260 Sunnyside Ave, Ottawa Ontario, K1S 0R7
www.OldOttawaSouth.ca/oscar
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[email protected] in either plain text or WORD format, or as a
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Page - OUR 36th YEAR
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NEXT DEADLINE: FRIDAY, August 8
The OSCAR is a community association paper paid for entirely by advertising. It is published for the Ottawa South Community Association
Inc. (OSCA). Distribution is free to all Old Ottawa South homes and
businesses and selected locations in Old Ottawa South, the Glebe and
Billings Bridge. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not
necessarily of The OSCAR or OSCA. The editor retains the right to edit
and include articles submitted for publication.
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The OSCAR thanks the following people who brought us
to your door this month:
ZONE A1: Kathy Krywicki (Coordinator), Mary Jo Lynch, Brian Eames,
Kim Barclay, Marvel Sampson, Wendy Robbins, Ron Barton, Jim and Carrol
Robb, Kevin and Stephanie Williams.
ZONE B1: Ross Imrie (Coordinator), Family Gref- Innes, the Montgomery
family, Laurie Morrison, Norma Reveler, Stephanie and Kulani de Larrinaga.
ZONE B2: Lorie Magee Mills (Coordinator), Leslie Roster, Hayley Atkinson, Caroline and Ian Calvert, Sheilagh Stronach, Matthew and Graeme
Gaetz, Kathy Krywicki.
ZONE C1: Laura Johnson (Coordinator), the James-Guevremont family, the
Williams family, Sylvie Turner, Lynne Myers, Jeff Pouw, Brendan McCoy.
ZONE C2: Craig Piche (Coordinator), Alan McCullough, Arthur Taylor,
Charles and Phillip Kijek, Sam & Avery Piche, Kit Jenkin, Michel and Christina Bridgeman.
ZONE D1: Bert Hopkins (Coordinator), the Crighton family, Emily Keys,
the Lascelles family, Gail Stewart, Bert Hopkins, Mary Jane Jones, the Sprott
family.
ZONE D2: Janet Drysdale (Coordinator), Ian Godfrey, Eric Chernushenko,
the Rand family, Aidan and Willem Ray, the Stewart family.
ZONE E1: John Calvert & family (Coordinator), Brian Tansey, Doug Stickley, Wendy Johnson, Pam Turner, David Lum, Mary O’Neill.
ZONE E2: Nicola Katz (Coordinator), Frida Kolster-Berry, Mary-Ann Kent,
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ZONE F1: Carol and Ferg O’Connor (Coordinator), Jenny O’Brien, Janet
Jancar, the Stern family, T. Liston, Ellen Bailie, Niki Devito, Dante and Bianca Ruiz, Walter and Robbie Engert.
ZONE F2: Bea Bol (Coordinator), the Tubman family, Karen Fee, Shaughnessy and Kyle Dow, Paulette Theriault, Mark McDonald, Bea Bol, Jill
Moine, Paris Dutton.
ZONE G: Jim and Angela Graves (Coordinator), Peggy and Brian Kinsley,
Shelly Lewis, Peter Murphy, Claire and Brigitt Maultsaid, the McLemaghan
Rowat family, Roger Ehrhardt, the Ostrander-Weitzman family.
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FUTURE OSCAR DEADLINES
Aug 8 (Sept issue).
The Old Firehall
Ottawa South Community Centre
[email protected]
HOURS
PHONE 247-4946
MONDAY TO THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
9 AM TO 9 PM
9 AM TO 6 PM
9 AM TO 1 PM*
CLOSED
*Open only when programs are operating, please call first.
WHAT’S THAT NUMBER?
Ottawa South Community Centre - The Old Firehall
Ottawa South Community Association (OSCA)
Ottawa Public Library - South Branch
Rob Campbell - [email protected]
Kathy Ablett, Catholic Board Trustee
Centretown Community Health Centre
CARLETON UNIVERSITY
CUSA (Carleton U Students Association)
Graduate Students Association
Community Liaison
Mediation Centre
Athletics
CITY HALL
Clive Doucet, City Councillor ([email protected])
Main Number(24 hrs) for all departments
Community Police - non-emergencies
Emergencies only
Serious Crimes
Ottawa Hydro
Streetlight Problems (burned out, always on, flickering)
Brewer Pool
Brewer Arena
City of Ottawa web site - www.city.ottawa.on.ca
247-4946
247-4872
730-1082
730-8128
526-9512
233-5430
520-6688
520-6616
520-3660
520-5765
520-4480
580-2487
3-1-1
236-1222
9-1-1
230-6211
738-6400
3-1-1
247-4938
247-4917
Page The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The OSCAR welcomes letters on subjects of interest to the community or in response to previous articles. All letters must disclose the name of the
writer, as well as the address and phone number. Lettters may be edited for length, clarity, and libelous statements. The opinions of the writers are not
necessarily those of the newspaper or its editor. Email your letters to [email protected] or leave in print at the Firehall.
Windsor Park Concerns
Letter to Mayor Larry O’Brien
W
June 17, 2008
hile reading the OSCAR this evening and particularly the Windsor
Chronicles B Part 85 (May 2008), with its mention of problems
in the Windsor Park parking lot, with young men idling in cars;
my teenaged son approached me. Out of the blue he said: “Windsor Park is
getting pretty sketchy.” I asked what he meant. The summary of which was
that today he and two other grade 9 friends were walking through the park
along the path close to the river, coming back from Dairy Queen. Another
teenaged boy who was described as being 17-18 years old and someone
they’d never seen before, approached them and told them that unless they
wanted trouble they should never come that way again because this was his
“territory”. They said they were just walking home and didn’t want any
trouble. It would be my recommendation that all parents of teenaged boys
have a conversation with their sons about alerting us to potential “territory
challenges”. They need to ask for help if they are noticing “territory
challenges” coming into our neighbourhood. We need to ask the police for
recommendations and help if this is more than an isolated incident. In the
meantime, my son will walk on Sunnyside and Riverdale, to make his way
home, for a little while.
Regards,
A concerned mother.
I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will
defend to the death, your right to say it.
Voltaire
The OSCAR is sponsored entirely by advertising.
Your worship:
A
s is my practice on behalf of
CUPE Local 503, I attended
the Mayor’s Breakfast this
morning and participated in the
question and answer portion of the
guest speaker’s presentation. As
you are aware, I asked the question:
Will the City employees be invited
to participate in the development
of the proposed project revolving
around the use of technology? The
response from the guest speaker was a
resounding YES! And when I looked
to you for confirmation, you gave me
the “thumbs up” signal.
Following the breakfast, I
provided the president of Local 503,
Brian Madden, with a verbal report
of the presentation, and confirmed
that you, as Mayor of this great
City, clearly confirmed that the
City employees were going to be
encouraged to have input into the
development of the ideas that were
put to the business community.
Your worship, can you possibly
understand my utter astonishment
when I was advised of your
presentation to the Corporate
Committee meeting a few hours later
to get rid of 500 loyal employees?
No, I don’t think you can.
Mr. Mayor, your conduct in
this matter can only be described as
a sneak attack on an unsuspecting
workforce and the citizens who will
now face new service cut backs.
Mr. Mayor, this lone unjustified
act could be described by some as
dishonourable, and may serve to
invoke mounting distrust in your
ability to work with City employees
and their unions. It is, indeed,
unfortunate that while you profess
to support the proposal that this City,
Canada’s Capital, is the greatest city
in Canada, your actions at times
portray anything but. I am extremely
disappointed.
Clarence S. Dungey
93-811 Connaught Ave.
Ottawa, ON K2B 8K3
613-227-7140
[email protected]
cc: Brian Madden, President,
CUPE Local 503
Paul Moist, National President,
CUPE
Common Front Presidents
Sean McKenny, President,
ODLC
City Council
News Media
Send your
comments to
[email protected]
or drop them off at the Firehall,
260 Sunnyside Avenue.
Calling All NATO Veterans
N
Remember our children are back at school.
Please drive carefully!
f
ATO Veterans Organization
is looking for NATO &
NORAD Veterans
The NATO Veterans Organization
is now almost 2 years old and we
have grown from 5 members in
March 2006 to close to 674 members
at present. We know that there are
300.000 veterans of the Canadian
Armed Forces that have served as part
of NATO since 1949 at sea with the
NAVY patrolling the Atlantic Ocean,
the ARMY serving in Germany,
France, the Balkans and now in
Afghanistan and the AIR FORCE in
France, Germany, Europe and many
other places
We are the second largest group
in the Canadian Military History of
Canada but are very seldom mention
up till now. The Royal Canadian
Legion now will be carrying the
NATO Flag as part of their Colour
Party.
We will also be celebrating the
60th Anniversary of NATO 1949-2009
next year on 4th April in Ottawa and
you are all invited.
We were involved in the defense
of the Allied forces to prevent World
War III or sometimes called the “Cold
War Veterans” but have never been
recognized as VETERANS or have
been honoured for the 570 Military
personnel and the 926 Dependents
that were buried in 44 Cemeteries
in Europe after WW II, yes the 1496
Canadians that were never returned to
Canada.
We would like these Veterans
to contact us by either visiting our
Web Site at http://natoveterans.org or sending an e-mail to joordens@
nbnet.nb.ca or give us a call at 506472-1931 or Toll Free at 1-888NATO-Vet.
Hope to hear from you Thom Joordens, President
Pacem et Libertas
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page OSCA PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Firehall Renovation, Pedestrian Safety,
Development at Bank and Sunnyside, and Porch Sale
By Michael Jenkin
Public Meeting on Firehall
Renovation
B
y the time you read this the June
23rd public meeting scheduled
to discuss the renovation and
expansion of the Firehall will have
been held. The meeting, jointly
sponsored by the City and OSCA, will
see the architects present three design
options that have been developed with
input from City officials and members
of the OSCA Renovation Committee.
As will be made clear at the meeting,
none of these options are likely to
be the final design, but are being
presented to get people’s views on the
best layouts and preferred trade-offs
in terms of facilities.
Within a week or so after the
meeting we will get the preliminary
cost estimates on the options and at
that point we will need to start paring
down the design to fit the available
expected funding. This is why the
input from the public meeting will
be so important as it will help City
officials and OSCA representatives
understand what features of the
design options are most important to
community members.
In working with the architects
over the course of the last several
weeks, several points have become
clear. First, it will be a real challenge
to get all the desired programming
space we identified in the tender
proposal within the likely budget
envelope.
Second, some of the
more attractive design layouts may
require additional structural work on
the existing building to maintain its
integrity and this additional work can
add significantly to the cost. Third,
the size and layout of the addition is
also limited because of its potential
impact on the heritage character of
the Firehall.
So, as you can see, there will be
a number of difficult tradeoffs to be
made over the next couple of months
as the City-OSCA working group try
to refine the design to be presented
to the next public meeting which is
tentatively scheduled for September 8.
At that meeting community members
will get to comment on a very much
more detailed design proposal which
will include the final floor plan and
proposals on how the exterior of the
addition and the new interior spaces
will look.
Pedestrian Safety on
Colonel By Drive
The National Capital Commission
held a consultation with community
associations on June 11 to discuss
pedestrian safety issues on Colonel
By Drive and the Queen Elizabeth
Driveway. Leo Doyle, John Calvert
and I attended for OSCA, along with
about 15 or so other representatives
from groups that are involved with,
or border on, the two Driveways.
The NCC is going to conduct a study
over the next year on pedestrian
Windsor Park Snowblowers
Need Storage
By Brendan McCoy
O
SCA needs a volunteer who lives ajacent to Windsor park
to store our two snowblowers which are used to clear off
the rinks in the park. If OSCA does not get a volunteer, we
will be forced to sell the machines. As they are used to clear the ice
surface, this is likely to mean longer waits after snow falls for the
ice to be cleared, and poorer ice conditions. If you live adjacent to
Windsor park and are able to store our two snowblowers, please
call the OSCA Executive Director at 613-247-4872.
crossing places and volumes along the
Driveways and will examine options
to improve the safety of those crossing
on foot. Currently there are very
few places along Colonel By Drive
that provide a permanent signalled
crossing for pedestrians (one at
Carleton University, one at Pretoria
Bridge and one at the OC Transpo
station at Ottawa University which
provides access to the pedestrian
bridge across the canal).
The first order of business was
to identify which areas along the
Driveways were places where people
commonly crossed the road and what
specific safety problems were thought
to exist. We identified the Bronson
Place, Seneca, Leonard and Rosedale
intersections as high volume crossing
places, plus the steps down from Echo
Drive on Colonel By Drive as of
primary interest to Old Ottawa South
residents. We underlined that with
the speed and high volumes of traffic
on the Driveway these days and the
rolling and curved character of that
part of Colonel By Drive that borders
our community, it is very difficult for
people, especially those with children,
to cross with any confidence. The NCC
will be getting back to community
groups shortly on how they plan to
proceed with the study.
Development at Bank and
Sunnyside
vacant lot at Bank and Sunnyside next
to the Mayfair Theatre. As you may
recall the original proposal for the site
was to build a 12,000 sq.ft., retail
pharmacy. In response to OSWATCH
comments the revised proposal now
includes a full second storey of offices
and changes to the design of the wall
along Sunnyside to provide more
windows and visual interest.
Summer Holidays – Porch
Sale on September 6
Traditionally the OSCA Board
does not meet over the summer months
and there will be no Board meetings
in July or August – we will start our
regular meetings again on September
16. That does not mean, of course,
that we won’t be active. There will
be many meetings of the renovation
committee, our summer programs will
be in full swing and planning will be
starting for the Porch Sale and another
“Savour the Flavour” community
dinner to be held in late October or
early November. Do mark Saturday,
September 6th on your calendars as
that will be the date for the Annual Old
Ottawa South Porch Sale, which runs
from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There will
be more details on the sale in the next
issue of OSCAR which will appear
in late August. In the meantime, and
on behalf of the whole OSCA Board,
have a fun filled and safe summer
holiday!
OSWATCH has met again with
the group proposing to develop the
Homes Between The Bridges
A Tour Through OOS
Sunday, May 31, 2009
“Homes Between The Bridges” is a charity fundraiser to support the
re-development of the OOS Firehall Community Centre. OOS
homes with eclectic style, innovative design, environmental
features, and historical character will be showcased to fund this
worthy cause.
The tour will highlight the talents of local community members and
businesses passionate about OOS.
We are currently in need of volunteers with skills in:
Desktop publishing
Writing/editing
Communications/marketing
Or anyone else interested in supporting
one of our landmark OOS sites.
Please contact [email protected]
The OSCAR - OUR 36th YEAR
Page JUL/AUG 2008
Brief Notes From the Firehall
After-four Programming:
More Than Meets The Eye
By Gabriel Gosselin
I
f you’ve ever walked into the
Firehall between 4pm and 6pm on
a weekday you will know of the
apparent chaos that is After-Four. I
have had the privilege to work in the
After-Four program for five years now
and can attest that there are times when
the pandemonium is breathtaking.
There are dodge balls sailing through
the air, the rolling thunder of sixty
children’s excited voices, the glitter of
thousands of sparkles wafting through
the air and the occasional smell of
burning cookies. In this mêlée of
bodies, noises, activities and programs
can seem very over-whelming. There
is however much more to be seen if
one is willing to look a little deeper.
Beneath this veneer of dodge ball and
Popsicle-house crafts there is a subtle
education going on.
Three years ago a few counsellors
took it upon themselves to raise the
bar for dodge ball games. Ian Beck
McNeil, Steve Windsor and I began
our series of games loosely themed
“Famous Battles from History”. After
reliving Agincourt and Waterloo one
of the children asked which, if any,
battle did the French win? Deciding
that “Famous French Military
Defeats” did not have as nice a ring
to it as our previous title, we promptly
set about playing out the Battle of
Hastings. During these games, we
would explain the historical context
of the battles prior to the game and
the historical outcome afterwards.
The games where inevitably designed
to mimic the real-life considerations
of the battle, often favouring one side
over the other. There were times when
the children’s ability and willingness
to play out their roles was truly
astounding. To see twenty children
march in block formation down the
length of the Mainhall while under
fire from three sides to the tune of
“Scotland the Brave” and canon fire
sound effects bordered on the surreal.
The fact that many of the children
would periodically yell out “Charge!
Forward!” was a nice touch.
There were of course times when
the children got too into the spirit of
the game, such as when the Battle of
Agincourt raged, there were taunts of
“Frog!” and “Limey” thrown around
much to everyone’s bemusement.
A more sombre note was struck
when moments into the massive reenactment of Stalingrad three-quarters
of the participants were lying on the
ground crying out “Medic”. That
moment more than the others gave
the participants something to consider
when we went over the historical
outcome of that brutal battle. The
lesson that day struck home.
One of the great joys of this job is
when you find yourself listening to a
child tell you something that you have
taught them earlier. I usually dislike
being corrected, but had to laugh
aloud when I was sharply rebuked for
failing to name King Harkonen as the
Norwegian King who fought Harold
prior to the Battle of Hastings. Thanks
Jacob.
The educational content doesn’t
stop with dodge ball though. Last
year Caitlin gave After-Four an
International Cooking Club. While
there was the obligatory stop over in
Mexico for delicious nachos, I defy
anyone reading this to try to make
sushi with ten young children and
succeed.
There is in fact a long and storied
history of counsellors shooting
for the moon (and touching down
on occasion). All of the creative
disciplines have been well represented
in After-Four; visual art, drama, dance
and literature. Tom Goodings ran a
multi-session program of Calligraphy
(covering Gothic Lettering to
Japanese kanji). This year David BH and Alexie mounted a production
of children’s theatre. Not to be outdone, Aletha and Jessica ran a Dance
(followed by Yoga) program for the
girls with consistently happy and high
attendance. There was a program of
musical appreciation and creative
response that drew a small but faithful
crowd. This is not to say that the
After-Four has a liberal arts bias.
The mechanical and scientific are
represented well enough.
Paul has routinely forced the
kids to design a functional car out
of recyclable materials. Good luck
with that one at home. I once ran an
activity where we made catapults out
of seashells, tape and a cloths-pin (to
great success). Jesse has achieved
a dedicated following of children
determined to figure out whether a
given object will “Sink or Float”.
These are just some of the
myriad activities that take place at
After-Four year in and year out. Not
mentioned here are the Boys-only Spa
days (“What have you done to our
sons?” asked a parent), the staging of
Shakespeare and recycled-art projects.
Next time you step into an activity,
take the time to ask about what’s
going on. You might be surprised.
A Retrospective Of After-four: Gabriel Gosselin Farewell
by Gabriel Gosselin
M
y earliest memories of the
Firehall stem from a PD day
I attended as a child. I was
cowering at the time in a mat-fort when
from across the dank, sweaty darkness
a plaintive voice said to me; “Gab, I
think I farted”… Thus my career at
the Firehall began with a whimper
and not a bang. I was crouched in a
small (yet nigh indestructible) fort
of mats in the Fitness Room, playing
one of the Firehall’s hallmark games.
As counsellor-thrown balls smashed
against the walls, my comrade in arms
and I tried to outlast our need for clean
oxygen. It is worth noting that ‘Pride’
as a cause of self-inflicted harm has
a very early on-set in males. At ten
years old we were determined to rely
on our grit (and well constructed fort)
to win that game. It would be many
years before I would return again to
the Firehall.
The story of how I ended up
working at the Firehall is not so
uncommon as it is instructive of the
Gosselin Farewell on the parch of the OOS Firehall Community Centre
Cont’d on next page
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page CITY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT
Dear OSCAR Readers,
Cousin
The fragrance
of a summer evening
rises to meet the night,
a bouquet of perfume and life
that if not heaven itself,
must be a cousin.
- from Canal Seasons
The Old Firehall
I
t is great that we are getting to the
point of making hard decisions
about the Old Firehall renovation.
For instance, one of the key questions
is whether the new space should be
integrated with the old building or
be a separate, adjacent building. The
integrated building would cost more
but it would offer a larger and better
courtyard space. I think this would
be a worthwhile investment and make
the whole facility more cohesive. As
we are celebrating 30 years at the Old
Firehall, it is fitting to be thinking
about the next 30 years and how we
want the Old Firehall to be bigger and
better for the community.
Good Intensification and Bad
Intensification
The City of Ottawa recently
held a series of public forums on
intensification. I hosted the first one at
City Hall. Who would have guessed
we could fill the room with people?
The city lacks a solid definition of
intensification. As a result we see a wide
range of examples of both good and
bad buildings in every neighbouhood.
We have to set rules for intensification
that ensure communities are not
harmed and that they get benefits
from the intensification. At my
session I invited some of my fellow
councillors to provide suggested
motions to ensure intensification is a
net benefit. It is reasonable to want
more community amenities like
parks, trees, community centre space,
schools and libraries if the population
density is increasing and we need a
balance of all types of housing (not
just one and two bedroom condos) to
ensure neighbourhoods are liveable
for all. New buildings should respect
the character of where they are placed
and intensification should not be used
as an excuse for spot up-zoning to
build highrises.
Pedestrian and Cycling Safety
On the morning of Clean Air Day
during Commuter Challenge Week,
my office organized an appreciation
event for commuting cyclists at City
Hall. A range of cyclists and groups
offering cycling related services
turned up. With Ottawa about to
unveil it’s new Cycling Plan it was a
good time to encourage support for
dedicated cycling lanes. The photos
of Montreal’s new cycling lanes
generated the most interest. Imagine
a two directional cycling lane on the
street separated from the car traffic by
a concrete boulevard which ensures
cars and cars doors are well away
from cyclists. Why can’t we get some
of those?
The NCC has just started a study of
pedestrian, cyclist and skater crossing
needs for the parkways along the
Rideau Canal. Getting safe access to
the Canal and its pathways is difficult.
I am glad the neighbourhoods of
Capital Ward which border the Canal
were well represented and our priority
locations along Colonel By and Queen
Elizabeth Drive made the short list
after the NCC first workshop.
The need for a pedestrian and
cycling link across the Canal has also
begun to get public attention. I want
to congratulate the folks in Old Ottawa
East, Old Ottawa South and the Glebe
who are helping build support for the
idea of a bridge.
Recycling on Bank Street
Why can’t we have small recycling
bins on city streets? We want to make
it easy for people to recycle. Our
garbage receptacles are reasonably
sized but our only recycling option at
the moment are these enormous steel
bins with billboards on the outside that
are four times the size of our regular
garbage bins. There are a few streets
in Ottawa with very wide sidewalks
but they are the exception. Most of
our sidewalks aren’t that big and these
super-sized recycling bins don’t fit in.
This has been a problem for years.
Imagine the delight when new
attractive recycling bins not much
larger than a regular garbage bin
appeared at City Hall. Everybody
who’s seen them has said: can I have
these instead? The answer is: not
on your street, yet. The on-street
recycling contract is exclusive to the
mega-bins until 2010. I’ve started
advocating for more appropriate
choices so we can get the options
sorted out ahead of time.
Coffee with Clive
Coffee with Clive will take a
break over the summer and will return
in the fall. Coffee with Clive will
return to the regular monthly schedule
in September in Old Ottawa South at
Bridgehead, 1176 Bank Street, on the
second Thursday of the month from
9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
I want to thank all the people who
have been coming out to Coffee with
Clive. The issues and suggestions
raised really help my office get
things done. I really appreciate the
contribution everybody makes.
Best,
Clive Doucet
City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Avenue West,
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J1
tel.: (613) 580-2487
fax: (613) 580-2527
[email protected]
www.clivedoucet.com
A Retrospective Of After-four: Gabriel Gosselin Farewell .... Cont’d from previous page
character of the institution. To begin,
I missed that application deadline.
I was just starting at Carleton
University and needed a part-time
job. I had some friends already at the
Firehall who threw my name in the
ring for me. It was these same friends
who assured me that I shouldn’t worry
about missing the deadline by a few
days. I turned in my résumé and was
promptly given an interview. This
introduction to the Firehall illustrated
to me a quality the institution has in
abundance: flexibility. So long as
you were willing to put in the effort
and had something to contribute, the
Firehall would accommodate you.
The interview was an intimate
affair, with two co-ordinators, Dinos
and myself. Like many interviews, it
began with some strained introductions
followed by some light-hearted
reassurances. Then it got down to the
technical know-how; “Say you have
15 six to eight year-olds, how would
you entertain them for an hour in a
room with these resources?” Needless
to say I impressed my interviewers
with my hastily planned activity to
re-enact the Battle of the Bulge using
only three pieces of chalk, a plastic
coat hanger and spool of thread. My
City of Ottawa training (budgeting)
had proved its worth.
To work in the Firehall AfterFour program is as daunting,
challenging and rewarding a job as I
have ever had (which is telling as I’ve
dodged flaming skillets in a Lebanese
Kitchen and fought off frostbite on
the Canal with Beavertails). The role
of the counsellor here is equal parts
lifeguard, referee, prison guard and
clown. In this regard I imagine it is not
unlike being a teacher (or a parent).
Some days you are forced to be more
of one of these things than the other. I
prefer to play the part of the Fool, but
we all have to take turns wearing the
different hats.
In my first year here, I was the
oldest new staff, by a few years
and only one of two who had not
attended the program as a child.
It is worth noting that the Firehall
After-Four program is an excellent
feeder program for itself, as many a
counsellor began their time there as a
program participant. In point of fact,
many of the great counsellors, whose
names live on in the games that
bear their name, are examples of the
‘participant- to-counsellor trend’.
It is this continuity that gives
the After-Four Program much of its
character. There is a very strong oral
history that exists in the After-Four
program. There is little concerted
effort to maintain this oral history, but
it persists all the same. Campers and
counsellors alike recite it. Whether it
is the tradition to try to recover the
(lost) toys from beneath the structure
at Windsor Park or nicknames given
to counsellors in years past, these
stories live on. In the same way, so too
are the hallmark games past on from
one generation to the next. “Vinny
Ball” is a game now nearly a decade
old, but played all the same, though
for a period of two years its name
was forgotten, then the game itself. It
took the return of an older staff to reinvigorate the game’s return, but here
it is again it all its glory. Vinny is now
an earlier thirty-something teacher in
Calgary.
Having completed my UnderGraduate degree at Carleton I believe
I am at the end of my open-ended
time with the Firehall After-Four
program. I intend to transition into
the next phase of my career path in
the fall. With all of that in mind, I am
sure that I will be a happy participant
in the Firehall practice of bringing
back old staff when need be. So rest
assured that I will be around from
time to time to recount “The Tale of
the Flying-Back-Handed-SpinningParry” which won the Gladiators
match… or to throw around a dodge
ball or two.
Page The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Development at 35 Brighton Avenue
Tony Campanale, President
Vince Campanale, Vice-President
Rocco Campanale, Broker
Campanale Homes
200 –1187 Bank Street
Ottawa, K1S 3X7
Re: Development at 35 Brighton Avenue
From: Residents of Old Ottawa South
cc: Clive Doucet, Councillor, Capital Ward
Larry O’Brien, Mayor of Ottawa
Michael Jenkins, OSCA
Dear Tony, Vince and Rocco
Campanale,
W
e are writing as concerned citizens
and neighbors about the proposed
development at 35 Brighton Avenue in
Old Ottawa South.
As you know, 35 Brighton is located in an
established community-oriented neighborhood
facing the Rideau River and Brighton Beach
Park. The homes on Brighton Avenue and in our
neighborhood are generally older, with welcoming
entranceways, front gardens, front porches and
with mature trees lining the street. While the yards
are small compared to suburban lots, residents
have landscaped to maximize greenspace. All of
this encourages the friendly interaction between
neighbours and makes our neighborhood so vibrant
and desirable.
However, the proposed design for 35 Brighton
is out of character with the rest of the neighborhood
in the following ways:
• Two double garages dominate the ground
level
• The asphalt parking space for four cars
eliminates virtually all of the front garden
• Apartment-style second and third story
balconies over the garage create a cold high-rise
façade
• The building materials do not resonate with
the streetscape
• The new design packs in over 6000 square feet
onto the lot. In contrast, one of the largest homes
on the street houses 3000 square feet of living space
on the same size lot.
The good news is that there is still time to
improve the design. The City of Ottawa offers helpful
guidelines and Ottawa has talented architects. Our
community would welcome the opportunity to
work with you to support design excellence that
integrates with and enriches the streetscape. We’re
sure you’ll agree our neighborhood deserves this
attention and that it is indeed critical to maximize
return on investment.
Parking design: Front yard asphalt pad for
four cars, two double garages
The proposed design for 35 Brighton provides
space for four cars to be parked in a row in the
front yard in front of two double garages. This new
parking design requires eliminating most of the
current front garden and means that the entranceway
is overshadowed by the dominant garage doors and
black asphalt.
This design would set an unwelcome precedent
for Brighton Avenue and for other neighbouring
streetscapes. According to the City of Ottawa’s
Urban Design Guidelines for Low-Medium Density
Infill Housing: “A garage should not dominate
any façade facing a street, public space or other
residential dwelling. Soft landscaping should
prevail for its aesthetic and environmental value.”
Apartment balconies and entrance design:
Discouraging interaction with the neighborhood
The wall of balconies on the second and third
floors are shield-like in appearance and are more
in keeping with high-rise apartment buildings than
residential family homes in our neighbourhood.
However, examples of existing balconies that
fit well into the neighborhood and that can be used
as models to improve on this design element of the
new structure.
The absence of a welcoming front porch or
garden entranceway effectively creates a dead
space and structurally discourages the kind of
neighbourhood interaction that make Brighton
Avenue such a pleasant place to live.
Streetscape Look and Feel
The lack of appropriate design features which
would help to integrate the new structure into the
existing neighbourhood is disappointing given
the attention paid to the
streetscape for the recent
Campanale development at
6 Grove Avenue.
We
very
much
Kristen gtathering signatures at the Firehall
Festival. June 21
appreciate the civic-minded approach to getting
rid of the blank face of the parking lot at Bank and
Grove. The streetscape was improved and the whole
community benefits from this kind of development.
Similarly, the value of 35 Brighton Avenue could be
maximized by applying the same thoughtfulness to
the streetscape and park-like setting.
According to the City of Ottawa’s White Paper
on intensification, even intensification projects in
low-density R-2 areas should take into account
community concerns and long-term impacts. “Each
of these developments is of a small scale, but
they could accumulate over time into significant
intensification of a community.” (White Paper
Residential Intensification: Building More Vibrant
Communities.)
In conclusion, we on Brighton Avenue
and surrounding streets are concerned that the
inappropriate development of 35 Brighton Avenue
could lead to a fundamentally negative change in
the character of our street and neighborhood. We
hope that Campanale Homes will work with the
community to revise the design of the new house
to address the concerns outlined above, taking into
account City of Ottawa guidelines for infill, the
existing character and scale of the streetscape and
the exceptional nature of the site given its proximity
to the Rideau River and Brighton Beach Park.
Sincerely, Kristen Ostling
The petition and photos are available at
www.35brighton.ca..
Petition Results As Of June 22
A
s of June 22, 409 residents and concerned citizens from
over 30 Old Ottawa South streets have signed the open
letter to Tony, Vince and Rocco Campanale. For updates
and to add your name to the community effort to ensure that
infill fits the character of our neighborhood streets, check out
www.35brighton.ca and get involved in OSWATCH--the planning
and development sub-committee of the Ottawa South Community
Association.
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page Local Pharmacy Top Hike
For Hospice Fundraising Team In The Country
By Joanne Steventon
O
n Sunday May 4, a crowd of
nearly 300 converged in The
Hospice at May Court’s back
garden to walk in the sixth annual
Hike for Hospice fundraising walk.
Walkers consisted of family
members of current and former
patients, Old Ottawa South neighbours,
staff, volunteers and even patients. All
worked together this year to raise over
$60,000 in sponsorships and pledges.
This money will go directly towards
the over $1 million the Hospice
must raise from the community this
year to continue operating all of its
programs.
Before the event began, special
guest M.P. Paul Dewar took to the
stage to remind everyone why they
were walking.
“When I think about this Hospice,
I think of a well spring. It brings so
many people together for really what
is an important foundation in our
community” he said. “That is reaching
out and caring for each other.”
In 2007/2008 the Hospice
provided care through its four
programs to over 600 patients and
family members. Names of current
and former patients had a special spot
reserved on the back of event t-shirts,
and on a giant window where the
names were displayed for all to see.
Helping Paul Dewar cut the
ribbon to officially begin the event
was Tracy Arnett, a great supporter
of this event and a dear friend to the
Hospice. Arnett, owner of Tracy
Arnett Realty Ltd., and her team
have raised thousands of dollars for
the Hospice through this event over
the past few years, on top of their
Platinum Sponsorship.
Also in attendance was the top
Hike for Hospice fundraising team in
the country. The Glebe Apothecary
team, lead by owner Claudia McKeen,
raised nearly $9,000 – beating all
other teams participating in this event
at different Hospices across Canada.
When everyone had completed
the 5km along the canal via Echo
Drive, they were greeted back at the
hospice by a group of drummers and
belly dancers, and treated to a gourmet
lunch care of the Red Apron. Also on
hand for entertainment was a spirited
Dixieland Band.
The Hospice would like to
thank all of its sponsors, and pledge
collectors for making the Hike the
great success that it was.
The Hospice at May Court is
a community-based organization
committed to providing care and
support to those diagnosed with a lifethreatening illness and their families.
Care is provided at no cost to anyone –
regardless of age, culture or religion.
Interested in becoming a Hospice
volunteer?
The Hospice volunteer orientation
course will be offered again this
fall beginning Tuesday September
9th. It will run for 13 Tuesday
evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM until
December 2. If you are interested
in attending the course please visit
www.hospicemaycourt.com
or
contact Coordinator of Volunteer
Services Ali Black at (613)260-2906
or [email protected] for
more information on the application
process.
Synchronized Swimming In Old Ottawa South
By Monique Sauvé
F
or most parents, June, not
December, represents the year’s
end, as this is the time when
our kids’ numerous activities wind
up. June is the hectic, chaotic month
of recitals, performances, shows and
meets; the culmination of a year’s
hard work.
This past weekend, the Ottawa
Synchronized Swim Club (Ottawa
Synchro) celebrated such an event in
their annual Spring Water Show, held
at Brewer Pool. In keeping with the
Olympic year, the girls’ chosen theme
for the show was Celebrating our
Cultural Diversity and Competitive
Spirit.
Swimmers, ranging in age from 7
to 52, performed their choreographed
routines to an enthusiastic crowd
comprised of friends, family and
synchronized swimming enthusiasts
alike, without the usual pressures
of judging and scores.
Having
just returned from Provincial
Championships in Etobicoke, the
routines were polished, graceful and
powerfully executed. Our young
athletes did us proud.
Few residents of Old Ottawa
South are aware that synchronized
swimming is alive and well in their
community. Operating out of our
very own Brewer Pool and Carleton
University Olympic Pool, the
Ottawa Synchro Club is the oldest
synchronized swimming club in the
National Capital Region, competing
at the provincial and national levels
since 1969.
Strong routine swims, coupled
with outstanding figure performances
cinched the 4th overall place for
Ottawa Synchro at the recent Ontario
Provincial Championships.
The
athletes triumphed with six golds and
one bronze medal. This is especially
meaningful given the club’s small
size. Needless to say, trophies and
medals were proudly on display at the
Water Show.
Ottawa Synchro offers an
enthusiastic
and
encouraging
environment for young swimmers
and budding athletes alike, supported
by a dedicated, experienced coaching
team. The club is fully bilingual, and
swimmers are welcomed in either
English or French. A popular favourite,
the recreational program introduces
beginner and intermediate swimmers
to the basic skills and techniques of
synchronized swimming in a fun and
enthusiastic environment. A minimum
level of Swimmer 4 (AquaQuest 7)
or equivalent is recommended. They
even offer a recreational program for
adults.
As the parent of a dedicated young
synchronized swimmer, I can attest
that this sport fosters confidence in
girls and forges strong bonds between
team members. Friendships and the
love of the sport abound.
The club offers an end of summer
camp at Carleton University Pool for
girls who wish to give synchronized
swimming a try. For more information,
visit www.ottawasynchro.ca or contact
head coach Julie Pilon at bbjulie@
videotron.ca.
The OSCAR
Page 10
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
SOUTHMINSTER HAPPENINGS
SMCC + HPS = Love
SMCC Concert To Raise Funds For Hopewell Music Programme
By Craig Piche
P
assion will be in fashion as the Southminster
Music for Charity and Community
(SMCC) presents another concert June
th
29 at Southminster United Church. A Romantic
Evening at Southminster Church will feature
Juno award-winning cellist Amanda Forsyth and
will include the music of Brahms, De Falla and
Chopin. Partial proceeds from the concert will
benefit the arts and music program at Hopewell
Avenue Public School (HPS).
Ms. Forsyth is considered one of North
America’s most dynamic cellists. From her
press kit (where you can read more at www.
amandaforsyth.com): “The intense richness
of her tone, her remarkable technique and her
exceptional musicality combine to enthrall her
audiences and critics alike.
Ms Forsyth has appeared with all the major
orchestras in Canada including the Toronto,
S
Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Nova
Scotia, Saskatoon and Okanagan Symphonies,
the Calgary and Hamilton Philharmonics and the
McGill Chamber Orchestra.”
Also appearing with Ms. Forsyth will
be SMCC artistic director and pianist Jean
Desmarais, Isabelle Lacroix (soprano), Jethro
Marks (viola), Dr. Fraser Rubens (tenor), and
Denis Lawlor (baritone).
Tickets are $20 and are available at the Ottawa
Folklore Centre at 1111 Bank St. (613-730-2887)
or the church office at Southminster (located
on Aylmer Avenue across from the Sunnyside
Library Branch – 613-730-6874). The program
begins at 7:30pm. Free parking will be available
at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons
(entrance off Sunnyside, east of Bank Street).
Amanda Forsyth
Ministry at Southminster United Church
outhminster United Church
is taking the next steps
towards having a full-time
minister. For the past two years, Rev.
Donald Wachenschwanz has been
guiding the congregation through an
Interim and Transition Ministry and
his time at Southminster is coming
to a close. For the immediate future,
Southminster will be engaging a
supply minister for the short term,
until the call for a full-time minister
has been completed.
Rev. Wachenscwanz serves on
the Montreal and Ottawa Conference
Interim Ministry Committee, the
Ottawa Presbytery Pastoral Relations
Committee, and the United Church of
Canada General Council Permanent
Committee on Finance. Southminster
has been very fortunate to have him
during this transition phase and wish
him the best of luck in his next position
at Knox St. Paul’s United Church in
Cornwall, Ontario.
A lot of blood, sweat and prayer
have gone into this process. For
more information on the Interim
Ministry and Transition, visit http://
southminster.ncf.ca/word.html.
Rev. Wachenscwanz
Summer Worship at
Southminster United Church
A reminder: worship services at Southminster will be changing for
the summer months. Starting on July 6th, Sunday services will begin an
hour earlier at 9:30am. Instead of the traditional coffee hour following the
service, lemonade will be served on the church lawn. All are welcome!
Photo Credit Omission, June 2008, page 10
This photo
accompanied the
article - (Even)
More Music at
Southminster on
page 10 of OSCAR
june 2008.
Sean Sisk is the
photographer who
took the photo for
the website www.
johnallaire.com
779 Bank Street (613) 237-1483
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 11
BACKYARD NATURALIST
Sharing Nature With Children
by Linda Burr
M
y daughter bends down
to inspect a small bug
crawling on the sidewalk.
“Mommy, look! It’s something!” At
three years old, she is increasingly
curious about nature and the world
around her. Teaching our children to
love and appreciate nature is simpler
than it might seem. Our city yards and
parks are full of nature, and children
naturally gravitate to it.
I remember the excitement and
enjoyment my parents shared with
me when we found a new bird in the
backyard. Even watching a robin in
the birdbath was great entertainment!
Growing up in suburban Toronto, I
learned to recognize the cardinal’s
bright morning song, and the mourning
dove on the roof sang me to sleep at
night. I remember wet dew-worms
in the grass, and all the delicate little
maple seedlings that sprang up in the
lawn in spring. I especially loved the
trees, the sound of the wind in their
branches, and the earthy smell of big
piles of leaves raked up under the
maples in autumn.
All these sensory experiences
contributed to my love of nature.
These “ordinary” connections with
the natural world are possible without
even leaving the city. However, our
children are increasingly suffering
from “nature deficit disorder”,
as described in Richard Louv’s
fascinating book Last Child in the
Woods. He argues that children
today rarely experience the kind of
unstructured outdoor nature play that
we adults experienced as children.
Yet, children need nature for the
healthy development of their senses,
creativity and cognitive thinking.
Where I grew up, children spent
the long summer days and evenings
after supper (until the streetlights came
on) playing on the street and in each
others’ backyards. Why don’t children
play outside anymore? “It takes time
– loose, unstructured dream-time – to
experience nature in a meaningful
way. Unless parents are vigilant,
such time becomes a scarce resource
because time is consumed by multiple
forces and because our culture places
so little value on natural play,” writes
Louv.
While it’s important that we
teach children the value of reducing,
reusing and recycling, it’s even more
crucial that we transmit our deeper
feelings about nature if we want them
to appreciate and protect it later in life.
While this may sound like a weighty
task, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Louv says: “Don’t underestimate the
importance of backyard and nearby
nature, even in small areas. Encourage
your child to get to know a 10-square-
Photo by John Calvert
metre area at the edge of a field, pond
or pesticide-free garden. Look for
the edges between habitats – life is
always at the edges. Sit at the edge of
a pond in August and watch the frogs
reappear one at a time. Use all of your
senses.”
Catch tadpoles, transfer them to an
aquarium, and watch them transform
into frogs – then return the frogs to the
wild. Plant vegetables with children.
Keep a nature basket on the front
porch to hold collected objects. Put
bugs in a jar. Follow an ant trail. Can
you remember what you liked to do
outside when you were a child?
Names of things are not always
important, but it has been said that the
first step to understanding something
is to know its name. Of course, there
is no need to get hung up on naming
with young children. Let them make
up their own names for things they
find. But if children show an interest
in names, get them a field guide. Field
guides are available for children, with
simplified text and pictures of the most
easily observed plants and animals.
My first bird guide is still a beloved
book on my shelf.
Never underestimate the value of
just poking around. Eco-camps and
organized outings are all well and
good, but children can probably benefit
most by learning how to follow their
own natural curiosity about the world
and spending some “dream-time” with
a bit of nature. Letting our children
experience and enjoy nature is one of
the greatest gifts we can give them.
Have a happy summer... outside!
Linda Burr lives in Old Ottawa
South and is a biologist and avid
backyard naturalist.
Page 12
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH
Trinity Twins Gear Up For Big Fall Sale
By Jim Robb
I
t won’t be all fun and games
this summer for the E.L.I.A.
Sisterhood.
The Trinity foursome, two sets
of twins, will spend part of their
vacation planning for their biggest
sale yet, tentatively scheduled for
October.
The sisterhood, Emma and
Lucy Clarke, 11, and Isabel
Brazeau and Anne MacFarlane,
10, answered a call. The eager to
learn entrepreneurs rallied round
when concerns were raised that
Trinity parishioners would have
to find extra money to pay for
extensive renovation work to the
aging church, built around 1950.
“We heard people talk about
the cost of renovating the church
and we wanted to do our part,”
Isabel said. “We wanted to help
get money,” she said. Selling “
stuff” seemed to be the best way.
Their first sale was held in
October 2007. It was a start, but
not great. “A lot of the stuff was
tacky,” Lucy admitted. “But later,
we got better.”
At their spring sale the
sisterhood had better “stuff” for
sale and it brought in a little more
money. Total raised to date $128.
Undaunted, they see their
work to date as a field trial while
they learned the ins and outs of
merchandising . The sale planned
for October is going to feature
more variety and high quality
crafts and handiwork.
Stay tuned for their next
venture. (And by now you should
know where E.L.I.A. derives
from.
Meet the E.L.I.A. sisters: left to right, Anne Brazeau, 10; Emma Clarke, 11; Lucy
Clarke, 11; Isabel MacFarlane, 10.
Perfect Weather Holds For Trinity Picnic
By Jim Robb
T
he threatening thunderstorm
wandered off
elsewhere,
pleasant breezes drifted across
Brewer Park, and the sun shone
brightly.
It was a perfect setting for Trinity
Anglican Church’s annual picnic in
the park on Sunday, June 8.
More than 100 adults and children
turned out for the event which got
under way at 10 am with an outdoor
eucharist performed by Father
Christopher Dunn.
Then it was time for the potluck
lunch, with more than enough food to
go around twice.
Games followed, the traditional
ones that make church picnics special:
tug-of-war, sack race, three-legged
race; plus a toothpick and LifeSaver
candy relay, and a marshmallow relay,
a truly messy innovation.
The picnic marked the start of the
summer schedule at Trinity. In place of
the 8 am and 10 am Sunday eucharists
there is one service at 9.30 am. This
schedule continues through August
24. The 8 am and 10 am Sunday
service schedule resumes August 31.
The picnic also signalled the end
of church school classes for children
and youth. But not to worry. Children
are welcome at the 9.30 am service
and there’s a special crafts program
run by volunteer Sara Gordon to keep
them occupied.
Jim Robb is communications chair
at Trinity Anglican Church, 1230 Bank
Street at Cameron Avenue.
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 13
GARDEN GLIMPSES
Perennials of the Year: Summer Stalwarts
By Ailsa Francis
T
he lazy days of summer are
now well underway and many
of our gardens are reflecting
just that: tired looking and flaccid, our
plants are really suffering through the
heat and neglect. With Saturdays and
Sundays now spent at the cottage or
on the beach, we often abandon our
backyards in July and August because
of the oppressive temperatures and
relentless bugs. Weeks past the
freshness and bounty of June, our
gardens are now sun-baked, wilted
and ragged.
As novice gardeners we are often
seduced by those classic English-style
perennials that perform best with
lots of water, fertilizer, an arsenal
of servants and flourish during the
cool dewy days of late spring and
early summer. But during the latter
half of the summer, these highmaintenance perennials succumb
to the temperatures and our lack of
attention. If I were to tell you that
there are at least a dozen perennials
that are guaranteed to perform well in
your garden with 1) minimal effort on
your part, 2) little water or nutrients, 3)
no pesticide intervention and, 4) look
good well into the autumn, would you
believe me? And especially if I told
you that the relatives of these plants
are perennials native to our region,
would you say, “Sure, but they must be
weeds”? Not only are they not weeds,
but they are some of the most stalwart
(and soon to be stalwart) performers
in the modern garden.
The Perennial Plant Association
(www.perennialplant.org)
is
a
professional organization dedicated
to providing the most up-todate information and educational
symposiums for those involved in
growing, propagating and working
with herbaceous perennials in North
America. Every year its’ members
vote to choose the perennial of the
year based on it’s performance in
the garden. The criteria include
suitability to a wide range of
environmental conditions (usually
means drought resistance), pest and
disease resistance, low maintenance
(no staking, primping, dead-heading,
supplemental feeding, etc.), long
season of ornamental interest (this
means long blooming period, great
foliage and attractive post-bloom
display) and availability to the
consumer.
Since 1990, the PPA has
championed specific perennials for
gardeners in North America and
beyond. Many of these plants have
become almost iconic in our gardens:
Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ (1998),
Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii
‘Goldstrum’ (1999) and Calamagrostis
acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ (2001) have
become almost standards in sunny
perennial borders. But other plants,
some of my favourites and perhaps
less well-known, are more than worthy
in everyone’s garden.
For a long season of bloom,
soft buttery yellow starry flowers,
highly textural fine foliage and ease
of growth, Coreopsis verticillata
‘Moonbeam’ (1992) is a useful foil
for other perennials that have bold
leaves and contrasting shapes. Hardly
an objectionable yellow, its mellow
personality allows it to combine well
with blues, purples, burgundys and
many other colours.
After years of hybridization, the
title Helleborus x hybridus (1995) is
considered accurate in describing the
many varieties of colours of the Lenten
Rose available now on the market.
This beautiful plant, although it is an
early to mid-spring bloomer, presents
a carefree and striking specimen (or in
Area Church Service Times
Sunnyside Wesleyan Chuch St Margaret Mary’s Parish
58 Grosvenor Avenue (at Sunnyside)
Sunday Worship Service at 9am &
11am
Children’s program offered during
both worship services.
7 Fairbairn (corner of Sunnyside)
Sunday Liturgies : 9:45 a.m. and
11:30 a.m.
Christian Meditation: Mondays at
7:30 p.m.
Evening Prayer: Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Trinity Anglican Church
1230 Bank Street (at Cameron
Avenue)
Sunday Services: 9.30 am -- Sung
eucharist, with children’s program,
June 15 to August 24 (8 am and 10
am services resume Sunday, Aug 31)
Thursdays
10 am – Eucharist or Morning Prayer
in Chapel
Southminster United
Church
15 Aylmer Avenue
9:30 a.m.: Worship and Sunday
School - July and August
multiples, groundcover) for shaded or
semi-shaded places all summer in the
garden. Able to adapt to well-drained,
even dry soil when established, the
hybrid hellebore is available in almost
every shade of pink, rose, purple (even
approaching dusky black) to white
and creamy yellow. Perennial plant
connoisseurs appreciate its shy downturned petals, often with freckled
faces and its nearly evergreen foliage
that is neat, glossy and pest (including
deer) resistant.
Since it was declared a perennial
plant of the year in 1991, Heuchera
micrantha ‘Palace Purple’s popularity
has spurred a huge business in foliage
perennials, showcasing the darkest
purples to the lightest lime green and
yellow, with coppery tones the latest
to be developed. Coral bells is now a
standard in many gardens, but many
have found that the dark varieties
are best used in the foreground and
partnered with contrasting coloured
perennials. In our climate, they are best
grown in partial shade so they don’t
succumb to the mid-summer heat,
but in a garden that is shaded in the
afternoon, coral bells make great long
season companions to hostas, ferns,
creeping jenny or bugleweed, and
dwarf grasses or sedges.
So what is the perennial of the
year for 2008 you ask? Well you can’t
miss it in the nurseries this spring –
it’s called Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and is
a great improvement over its closest
relative ‘Johnson’s Blue.’ Rozanne
flowers are a luminous blue and
appear continuously from summer
through fall. It grows low, not lax
and floppy like Johnson’s Blue, and
covers ground vigorously with large,
healthy pest and disease-free foliage.
A great complement to soft yellows or
pinks, it can mix well with cottage-y
annuals as well.
Of course, all perennials and
shrubs for that matter, benefit from
the addition of organic matter to the
soil. If you top-dress your beds with
compost, mushroom compost or wellrotted manure in the spring, this will
not only feed your plants through
the season but also act as a moistureconserving mulch through the dog
days of summer.
Personal Financial Planning
We will review your current financial position and
recommend a plan that is designed to achieve your goals.
Rick Sutherland, CLU, CFP, FDS, R.F.P
1276 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 3A7
Tel 613.798.2421
[email protected]
www.invested-interest.ca
Page 14
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
BOOK REVIEW
Family Problems
Book review
by stephen a. haines
Captivity
by Debbie Lee Wesselmann
John F. Blair Publishing,
2008
ISBN-10: 0895873532
B
orn to a middle-class academic
family, Dana Armstrong might
have expected to lead a sedate
life. She had loving parents, a younger
brother, Zack, and a “sister” - Annie.
Interacting with loving care toward
each other, they seemed the ideal
family. But there was a discontinuity
- Annie was a chimpanzee. The trio
was part of an experiment by Dana’s
father Reginald. Primate researchers
in the 1970s were eager to learn if
human-chimp communications could
be achieved. Living with a human
family continuously instead of in a
labatory facility seemed the best
opportunity. Wesselmann, in a finely
wrought tale of the experiment and its
consequences has provided us with a
stirring, yet sensitive tale.
She opens with Dana well along
in her life. She’s gained a PhD in
Primatology, following her father’s
path, and operates a sanctuary for
chimps that have been subjected
to a range of medical experiments,
including being given AIDS. Her
South Carolina site seems ideal,
isolated, well protected to reduce
outsider concerns, and funded by
caring donors. She’s on the local
university staff, keeping her academic
foundation firm. Yet, somebody has
gained access to the site, releasing the
chimps. In the course of recovering
them, one of the chimps is struck by
a car and killed. The facility is hardly
a secret, but the community rises in
protest. It also garners the attention
of somebody Dana had been trying
to forget - Prof. Richard Lamier.
Complicating her circumstances yet
further, a new element enters her life
in the person of Sam Wendt. Just
what she doesn’t need now is a critical
journalist writing to an already hostile
community. But Sam says magic
words about her childhood with Annie.
He’s not to be summarily dismissed.
Wesselmann builds her story
and her characters with seemingly
effortless grace. It is only as event
progress and interaction builds that the
power of her prose emerges. The pace
is swift and furious - this is not a book
easily set aside - but nothing is forced
or contrived. Dana is beset by many
foils - Lamier emerges with increasing
presence from the background, but it’s
her own brother Zack on whom much
of this story hinges. He’s a wastrel,
an emotional nomad, and a constant
pressure on her goodwill and energy.
There’s a hint that he may have had
something to do with releasing the
chimps, although motivation seems
lacking. The chimp release leads to
widespread implications with the
future of the sanctuary and Dana’s
own career hanging over an abyss.
She has little but her own resources of
strength and cunning to draw on. Can
that possibly be enough with all that’s
arrayed against her?
The author’s account goes beyond
just prose skills. Clearly this work
rests on a solid research base. It’s easy
to believe Wesselmann was at the side
of more than one primatologist, likely
in a refuge such as the one depicted
here. Chimp behaviours - including
one young one obviously brought up
among humans, who insists on clothes
and a potty, are too vividly depicted
and explained to be fabricated. Her
research points up the underlying
importance of the subjects in this
tale - can we justify what we do in
experimenting on animals. Especially
our closest living cousins
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa,
Canada]
Interview ... Cont’d from next page
expressions. Social bonds are cemented through
mutual grooming. Someone who is intimately
familiar with chimpanzee behavior stands a better
chance at peaceful interaction than someone whose
knowledge is only superficial; however, anyone who
works with chimpanzees, particularly male ones,
risks serious injury on a daily basis.
O: What’s the value of teaching chimpanzees
ASL?
DLW: Right now? None. Washoe, Nim, Lucy,
Ally, and the other chimps who learned American
Sign Language during the linguistic studies of the
1970s disproved the previously held notion that
language separated humans from all other species. We could have learned this same truth through
close observation since naturalists and biologists
have observed communication in several species
-- and ASL had nothing to do with it. I will say
that the chimpanzees’ acquisition of ASL sped up
our understanding of their emotional lives and
Debbie Lee Wesselmann
intelligence because it was the first time that we
author of Captivity
communicated back and forth with another species,
albeit in a very limited way.
O: Is it a good thing to train chimpanzees to live
astonished at the “humanness” of chimpanzees. with humans in a household?
Others have written to thank me for bringing the
DLW: It cannot be done. Chimpanzees can be
issues to public awareness. Still others are fascinated
successfully integrated in a human household until the
with the background I provided for Dana, her family,
age of five or so when their chimpanzee nature begins
and the chimp-sister she grew up with. Most want to
asserting itself in earnest. Until then, they seem like
know where the line lies between fact and fiction. cute, furry humans. However, as adolescents, they
O: How does a human learn to interact with
become extremely destructive and dangerous. They
these powerful animals?
assert themselves by hurling objects, screaming,
DLW: Ideally, humans shouldn’t interact
and biting. And they are fantastic escape artists -with them at all, but, of course, that’s not possible
much more adept than the humans who try to contain
with captive animals. Some people believe that
them. I don’t know of a single adult chimp able to
chimpanzees only understand power and dominance,
live peacefully in a human household. Even animal
which equates to cattle prods and punishment, but
trainers don’t use their chimpanzee actors past the
fortunately most people now believe that the best
age of six. Don’t get me started about what happens
way is on the chimpanzees’ own terms. A person
to chimpanzees once they outlive their usefulness as
must gain a chimpanzee’s trust through kind
entertainment animals.
interaction and by learning the use of chimpanzee
communication grunts, hoots, gestures, and facial
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 15
BOOK REVIEW INTERVIEW
Debbie Lee Wesselmann, Author of Captivity
O
SCAR senior writer stephen
a. haines caught up with
“Captivity” author Debbie
Lee Wesselmann between book
signings and reading sessions.
OSCAR: What prompted you to
take up writing?
Debbie Lee Wesselmann: I can’t
remember a time when I didn’t write
or make up stories, so I can’t point
to a specific reason. I actually tried
writing before I could read by making
tight squiggles with a crayon and
then asking my mother to read me the
story I had written. I was heartbroken
to learn that stories didn’t create
themselves out of random loops and
lines. I’ve always loved books–– not
just the words and the stories but also
the physical heft of them. My mother
read to me every day, and I loved
those quiet, intimate moments when I
became so engrossed that it seemed as
though I was living in this other world
and yet was still cuddled next to my
mother, safe at home. Literature, then,
became a huge part of my happiness. I learned about other people, other
times, other experiences. Because
I also had an active imagination,
creating my own stories, this time
with real words and ideas, seemed
like a natural extension. O: How does “Captivity” compare
with your previous writing?
DLW: I rarely create stories that
deal with the same topic, so, in this
way, Captivity is radically different
from anything else I’ve written. Although I wrote a novella, Vibrissa,
about a clash between science and
animal welfare, that story was about
finding one’s way past difficulties in
a relationship, while Captivity deals
with larger ethical and social issues
that we have to face as a society. From
a writer’s standpoint, perhaps the
biggest difference between Captivity
and my other writing is the creation of
non-human characters with complex,
individual personalities. At first, I
thought it would be difficult to imagine
believable chimpanzees characters,
but once I knew what chimpanzees
were capable of and how they
behaved, I could then translate what
was possible into new actions and
reactions that defined each chimp.
I suppose a critic or a reader of all
my fiction would be a better judge of
how this novel compares to my other
work. Certainly there is a consistency
of style, although I like to think that
my writing gets more sophisticated
with every new book. O: Why did you take up the topic
of “Captivity”?
DLW: I found a short article
in a back issue of The Smithsonian
Magazine about female primatologists
who were teaching juvenile chimps
how to better act like chimps so
they could be integrated into a larger
chimpanzee social group. I sat there
for several minutes, thinking about
how strange it was. How could a
human teach a chimp to be more like
a chimp? And why would that be
necessary? Once I started to research
these questions, I was hooked.
O: What kind of research did you
do for the subject matter?
DLW: At first I was indiscriminate. I read anything I could find about
chimpanzees, even some materials that
I found out later were questionable. Then, as my characters started to
come to life in my head, I began to
focus on the issues likely to arise out
of their circumstances. I have no idea
how many books I read. Twenty,
maybe more, and that doesn’t include
all the articles I also read. I watched
DVDs and video tapes of chimpanzees
so I could see their behavior for
myself. I visited zoos, and emailed
primatologists with my questions. I contacted the directors of a few
chimpanzee sanctuaries, including
The Fauna Foundation located outside
of Montréal.
O: What do you see as the
challenges and opportunities for
“cause promoting fiction”?
DLW: I absolutely did not want
facts and issues to bog down the pace
of the story or to make the characters
wooden and static. First, I had to tell
a good, complex, exciting story. And
since my fiction tends to be characterdriven, I had to imagine interesting
people who could bring the story alive. I’ve read issues novels before that have
ground to a halt as some character
lectures the reader, more or less telling
the reader what he should believe. I’d
rather that my readers make up their
own minds. To me, an issues novel
should promote discussion instead of
being the discussion.
Fiction personalizes the issues. For however long it takes to read a
book, readers live inside the story,
caring about the characters, making
judgments about their situations,
rooting for them. They care about the
outcome, which invests them more
fully in the ideas than if they had
attended a factual lecture. O: Have you any experience
with chimpanzees? Have you seen or
worked in any of the sort of sanctuaries
you describe?
DLW: My “experience” is purely
vicarious. I held a young chimp for
about three minutes at the Singapore
Zoo while a photographer snapped
our picture, and that’s the extent of
my interaction. I should add that I had
mixed feelings about the Singapore
experience since I was contributing to
the exploitation of chimps by paying
for the opportunity; however, I felt that
I had to know what a chimp felt like. As for visiting primate sanctuaries, the
public is generally not allowed inside
such places because those facilities
are meant to protect the animals from
people. I’m sure they also have to be
very careful about who they let on the
property.
O: What sort of people provided
models for your characters? Dana? Mary or Sam?
DLW: I don’t model my characters
after specific people; I imagine them. My friends get frustrated because
they always try to “cast” the film for
my books, and they’ll run by their
suggestions to see if I agree. I never
agree. I envision distinct faces and
characteristics that don’t match up
with anyone in the real world. That
said, my characters must come from
my own perceptions about people and
how they behave. They are probably
a collage of my interactions. For
instance, Dick Lamier is a real jerk,
which means that I probably gave him
characteristics that I find distasteful. Dana embodies more of what I admire,
although I gave her enough flaws to
humanize her. Sam has qualities that
I imagine a character like Dana would
find attractive. Mary is the type of
person to put up with someone like
Dana. And so on. O: What is your view of animal
testing generally? Why should people
be concerned about the animals
involved?
DLW: When I first started my
research, I believed that animals
should be used in limited numbers
for biomedical research so we could
cure people of horrible diseases. I
quickly changed my mind as I learned
more about non-human primates and
biomedical testing. Now I believe
that no non-human primate should be
used; they are simply too intelligent
and sensitive, too complex, to be
subjected to a life in the laboratory. I don’t care whether they are given
treats or larger cages or are now
allowed to live in groups, they still are
at the mercy of human curiosity. We
are learning daily about instances of
sentience, intelligence, and emotions
in other species, including fish, so it
reasons that we have no right to use
“lower” animals, either. Animals
feel pain; they get lonely; they
yearn for freedom. If you would
not subject your dog or cat to the
inside of a biomedical facility, then
why would it be okay to use another
animal? I know this practice won’t
stop overnight –– it’s too ingrained
in contemporary scientific practice
–– but I hope that we are moving in
that direction. Computers have the
possibility to overturn animal use,
both in science and in entertainment. People say that computers cannot
simulate the complexity of the human
body, then again, neither can rats.
As the dominant and most
intelligent species on this planet, we
must act responsibly. If we apply
the same kind of thinking that many
have recently directed toward the
environment, we have a chance of
eradicating animal testing.
O: Is there a way people can
learn to see other animals, chimps
or anything else, in a more empathic
manner? What has been the reaction
of your readers?
DLW: We cannot put ourselves
in a mental position that divides us
from the animal world. Jane Goodall
made remarkable observations about
wild chimpanzees precisely because
she did not shy from comparing their
behavior to humans. At the time,
many scientists decried her work
as sloppy and amateur because of
this, even though her contributions
to primatology are monumental. Anthropomorphizing remains close
to a cardinal sin in science, but I see
no reason why we cannot use our and
another species’ behavior as a means
of better understanding a third. I think
once a person realizes that animals
are individuals with distinctive
personalities––and again, this is not
much of a leap for pet owners––it’s
easier to empathize. For instance, I
used to think birds were all alike
within their species until I had a pet
budgie. My first budgie can be best
described as an obsessive-compulsive,
high-strung, adventurous bird. He had
a series of rituals he had to perform
before he left his cage. The one I have
now is much more laid back and more
of a homebody. He performs none of
the rituals that the previous budgie did,
but he is studious, willing to listen and
learn new words for long stretches of
time. Now that I see how different
two birds of the same species can be,
I know that the goldfinches eating at
my feeder are individuals, too.
The reaction of my readers
depends highly on their previous
interest in chimpanzees or animal
welfare. Some readers have been
Cont’d on previous page
Page 16
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
A HARD DAY’S PLAY
When You Really Think About It, Gardening Is Weird
By Mary P.
W
hy do you have a garden
on your porch, Mary?”
The children are very
impressed by the range of flowers
sheltering under the slatted chairs on
the porch. Each one has had to stop
and hunker down on their way in the
front door, check out the colours.
“Those flowers are on my porch
for a while, but soon I’m going to put
them in the garden. Will that be fun?”
“You has a garden?” Astute
kid. Knows the difference between
“garden” and “arid wasteland”.
“Well, maybe I don’t have one
just yet, sweetie, but once I fill it up
with these plants, I will!”
The children mill about as I
prepare. Spade, hose, manure (cow;
it was cheaper than sheep; is there
a difference?), little plastic pots of
flowers. Since it is a very small plot,
the tots are not allowed in. Five
toddlers would trample every bloom
in my four-to-six square metres in
about 90 seconds. Instead, I have all
sorts of kid-friendly activities planned
for them. They will fetch and carry,
toss vegetable debris into the bin for
recycling. Lucky us, here in Ottawa:
we have curbside yard waste collection
throughout spring, summer, and fall.
They will watch and comment and
question…
They will ride the ride-on cars
and cover my driveway with chalk
art. Mary’s kinda boring, after all.
She’s just digging holes. They do
that three times a week at the park.
And she doesn’t even have any sand
toys. Where are the buckets and the
tractors? Grown-ups make everything
boring…
Me, I’m having a great time,
though what with my surprisingly long
fingernails it’s clear that gardening
gloves will be my next horticultural
investment… (Where did those nails
come from, anyway? Yay for calcium
supplements!)
I dig the three trenches into which
I’m going to place the daisies at the
recommended 8-inch intervals. (I
figured three trenches were easier to
dig than 18 separate holes.)
The bag of manure lies in the drive,
where the children ride and chalk. I
give it a whack with the pointed tip of
the spade. Such unorthodox behaviour
draws the tots like flies to … manure.
(The uncomposted stuff, unlike the
dark and odour-free version in the
bag.) I am immersed in a swirling
cloud of curious tots and questions.
“Why are you hitting the bag with
the shovel?”
“Did you gots to dig a hole in the
bag, Mary?”
“What’s in the bag?”
“What is ma-nooowa?”
*blink**blink**blink*
“POO??!?!?”“EEEEEWWWW
!!!” Anna is practically falling over,
she’s laughing so hard. The other four
are merely dumbfounded.
“You gots poo in that bag?”
“Where did the poo come
from?”“You
BOUGHT
POO?
From
the
STORE???”*blink*
(Timmy)*blink*
(Nigel)*blink*
(Malli)*blink*
(Emily)BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA….
(Anna)
“Why is there poo in a bag?”
“Who put their poo in the bag?”
..“COWS?“*blink**blink**blink**b
link*BWAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAaaa…
Nigel is the first to recover from
the shock, and comments sagely.
“Milk comes from cows. And poo.
Cows make milk and poo.”
Indeed. Mary continues. The
interrogation continues.
“Why are you picking it up?”
“Is you picking up POO in your
HANDS???”
“It’s clean poo?!?!”
“Why are you putting it in the
hole?”
“PLANTS EAT POO?”
THIS is the most interesting thing
I have done in WEEKS. Mary is
playing with poo. With her bare hands.
It doesn’t look like poo, granted. It
doesn’t smell like it, either. Maybe
cows make funny poo? But Mary is
playing with POO!
We shall overlook the fact —
because the tots obviously have —
that I deal with the real, uncomposted
human variety several times a day,
also with my bare hands. Well, okay.
With at least one layer of baby wipe
between me and it, but, you know.
Mary and poo, we go way back.
But today, Mary is picking up
COW POO in her BARE HANDS
and putting in the GARDEN for the
FLOWERS TO EAT.
If that’s not really weird, what is?
Weird,
and
really,
really
interesting.
At the end of the day, the parents
are bombarded with largely incoherent
stories about Mary! COW POO! POO
IN A BAG! flowers EAT POO! POO
inna hole! POO from a store!
Oh, and we planted some flowers,
too.
POO! POO! POO!
Cosmetic Pesticides
Ban Act Passed
/CNW/ -
A
province-wide ban on the sale and use of pesticides is one step
closer with the passage of the Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act by the
Ontario legislature, on Jume 18..
Over the summer, the government will consult on the specifics of the
ban:
- The products to be banned from sale
- The ingredients to be banned from use
- The rules around exceptions for agriculture, forestry and golf
courses, with conditions.
The province will also develop rules for other exceptions, such as
fighting West Nile virus, for example, and other health or safety issues.
Once the ban is fully in place, it will take the place of existing
municipal pesticide by-laws, bringing consistency across the province and
protecting Ontarians regardless of where they live. The provincial law,
unlike municipal by-laws, bans the sale of cosmetic pesticides, not just
their use.
It also sets out the rules for the transportation, storage and disposal of
pesticides, requirements that municipal by-laws cannot control.
The ban should take effect in spring 2009.
The Ontario College of Family Physicians was delighted with the
passing of Bill 64.
The ministry received 6,940 submissions in response to a January
18 Environmental Registry posting that outlined the government’s intent
to introduce legislation that would ban the cosmetic use of pesticides.”
About 90 per cent of comments reviewed were supportive.
See additional information on the ban and green gardening
(http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/land/pesticides/index.php) on the ministry’s
website.
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
Page 17
- OUR 36th YEAR
WINDSOR CHRONICLES B– PART 86
Departure
Dear Tera,
I
’ve been saying goodbye to
my friends – or rather, they
come over to sniff goodbye
to me when we encounter one another
on the sidewalk. Some are suitably
nonchalant about it all.
Others,
like Big Frank, take their time and
commiserate.
Frank is out of his cast now. He
will recover from his encounter with
the car and I wish him well
And I’m afraid, little friend, that
I haven’t had a chance to say a proper
goodbye to you – or even to leave my
scent on the grass by the tennis court
where we used to meet. But I leave
my goodbye notes on all the lawns
between Cameron and Belmont, and
if you pass by before the next heavy
rains, you’ll know that I’ve been
there.
For awhile, it looked as though I
was not going to have much time to say
goodbye to anyone. This was several
weeks ago. Alpha picked me up in his
arms and carried me to the van. We
drove to the pup kennel on Hopewell
– a destination that was too far for my
failing strength that morning.
The Pup came out from the
building and sat with me awhile in the
back of the van. He was crying, and
I really didn’t have the strength to tell
him that everything was going to be
all right.
And then, everything was all
right. Alpha began pushing new little
pills down my throat before dinner
time. Something he called a “flannel
Barbie doll.” And even though I hate
the sensation of pills being pushed
past my tongue as much as any dog,
two things began to happen. One, I
knew that I would be fed immediately
thereafter.
Two, I started to feel better. In
fact, for awhile, Alpha and I began to
explore the park again.
Now, I refuse to become one of
those old dogs who spends most of
her time griping about health and
comparing prescriptions when there
are so many other interesting things
to discuss. One thing I would advise
all dogs: there are so many different
corners of this neighbourhood yet to
explore.
This is the 13th summer that I’ve
explored this neighbourhood. I have
been finding there are still corners
of it that I had not visited before.
Alpha gives me much more latitude to
wander off into unknown alleyways,
and I cast him an appreciative glance.
But more often, he keeps our walks
very short so that I don’t court one of
those awful spells again. Sometimes
the flannel Barbie dolls aren’t enough
to keep them away.
But over the past few days, we
haven’t had a chance to explore
further than one of my most familiar
haunts in the park, on the little rise
just on the other side of Riverdale
Avenue.
Most humanoids don’t go there.
Many have not seen the stone remains
of a foundation where people and
animals used to live, before there
was a park between the street and
the river.
But I know the spot well. I
know there was once laughter and
tears, along with the stone walls and
the glass windows on this spot. And
when I leave my own mark on these
stone remnants, I think of the packs
of humanoids and pets that grew up
there, maybe grew old there, but
inevitably moved away.
And I think of my friends who
have gone on before me. Abbey and
Zep. Boomer and Jasper. Brodie
and Windsor. Winnie and Wendell.
Obie and Dancer and Jacob. All
the dogs who once played in these
fields, and the ones who will follow
us after. These are the dogs.
Assez vu. The vision has
been seen in each of its
variations.
Assez eu. Smells of the
parks, in the evening and in
the sun and always.
Zoscha passed away at 4:10 AM on Saturday, June 14. An
obituary will appear in the next issue of OSCAR.
Assez connu. Life halts. O
scents. O visions.
Departure in the sounds
beyond the midnight traffic on the
other side of that river,
Zoscha
The OSCAR
Page 18
- OUR 36th YEAR
Lansdowne’s South Side Stands
To Be Demolished
By Leslie Fulton
T
he City of Ottawa has retained
RW Tomlinson to demolish
the lower south side stands at
Frank Clair Stadium at Lansdowne
Park. The plan is to implode the
stands at approximately 9 a.m. on
Sunday, July 20th, 2008. Although
explosives will be used to weaken
the support structure, the City does
not anticipate any major local impact
from this demolition. There will be an
initial loud sound and, depending on
weather conditions, the possibility of
a dust cloud. Unlike some Las Vegas
demolitions, there will be nothing to
really see, so please try and keep away
from the site.
The demolition contractor will
be setting up a 250 metre restriction
zone from the south side stands. The
City will control access to the site and
plans are to stop traffic and public
access on Bank Street, the parkways
and some of the adjacent streets just
prior to and for a short duration after
the implosion.
The City and contractor will work
together to contact all businesses
and residences located within the
restriction zone about the planned
demolition.
The Lansdowne Farmer’s Market
may start a little later than usual on
that day. It is planned that the mayor is
going to hit the detonation button from
the market between 8 and 9 a.m.
Landsdowne Frank Clair Stadium Stands Photo by Christine Backs
JUL/AUG 2008
Don’t Close The Doors
On Lansdowne Park Talks,
Says The GCA
Leslie Fulton
R
etreating behind closed doors to discuss the fate of Lansdowne
Park is a major step backwards for the City of Ottawa,
especially after committing to open and transparent public
consultation, says the Glebe Community Association (GCA).
The GCA is very concerned that the City has suspended a design
competition to redevelop the prime piece of public real estate and entered
into private talks with the owners of a possible new Canadian Football
League Franchise (CFL) about what to do with the crumbling Frank Clair
Stadium.
“The public has made it very clear that it wants to be fully involved
in any decisions about Lansdowne Park,” said GCA President Bob
Brocklebank. “During the public consultation process, the people of
Ottawa showed they were apprehensive about the “right to develop” model
and that redevelopment shouldn’t be contingent on professional sports. They believe public ownership and control of the entire site needs to be
maintained. If these are the findings of the City-run public consultations,
why is the City ignoring their wishes and going back to Plan A – backroom
discussions and decisions made with developers? This is not in the
public’s interest.”
Brocklebank says that Lansdowne Park is a precious public asset
– it shouldn’t be bartered for a football team. “We’ve received estimates
that place the value of this land at $160 million, or $4 million per acre. Lansdowne could be the jewel in the crown of this city. Shouldn’t the
public be a part of this renaissance of such a vitally important site? After
all, it is theirs.”
While the GCA applauds the early efforts of the City to involve
citizens via an advertising campaign and public consultation both on-site
and online, it is dismayed that this process should come to such an abrupt
halt.
“We have one chance to do this right. It would be a shame if we blew
it,” he said. “We hope the City will open those doors once more so that the
public is fully informed – and consulted – every single step of the way. It’s
the right thing to do.”
New To OOS:
arts & architecture
arts & architecture
1181 bank st., ottawa, ont.
K1s 3x7
By Sylvia Manning
A
rts & architecture is a
unique venture founded
by Ottawa architect and
photographer Len Ward. Opened
in Old Ottawa South in April, 2008,
it is the realization of Len’s longheld desire to bring together his
architectural practice, photography
studio and gallery into a single
centre of creativity. Len first became
familiar with Old Ottawa South while
attending Carleton University in the
1970’s and returned to buy a home
on Ossington Avenue in 2001. This
wonderful neighbourhood quickly
became his first choice for a new
business location.
An architect with over 25 years of
design experience, Len concentrates
on heritage building restoration,
public institutional work and custom
residential projects.
As a fine-art photographer,
his greatest interest has been the
interaction of the human form with
the natural landscape. He also does
figurative work in his studio and looks
forward to providing portraiture and
other photographic services to many
new clients.
The gallery at arts & architecture
features photo-based art from Canada
and the US with an emphasis on
the work of local artists. Frequent
receptions will celebrate new exhibits
and plans are being made to host
workshops, presentations by artists
and other special events. A list of
upcoming events will be maintained
both within the gallery and on the
web site at www.artsandarchitecture.
ca
arts & architecture is open from
11 am to 7 pm Wednesday through
Friday, and from 11am to 5 pm on
Saturday and Sunday. Monday and
Tuesday visits are by appointment
only. Ask at the gallery reception
desk for information concerning
architectural services or photographic
sittings, or call 613-737-7300. For
those who prefer by e-mail, the
address is info@artsandarchitecture.
ca
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 19
Opening Doors At Sunnyside Wesleyan Church
by Kirsten Partanen
O
pening
Doors...Building
Great Lives” was the name
of the fundraising drive on
which Sunnyside Wesleyan Church
embarked in January of 2007. Finally,
after several months of fundraising
and a year of construction (along
with the requisite bureaucratic hoops
and a construction delay or two)
Sunnyside had a chance to Open the
Doors to the community at their open
house on Sunday, May 25, 2008.
With the last pieces of construction
falling into place, Sunnyside had
both a building dedication and an
open house on May 25th. The day
began with 2 church services at 9:00
a.m. and 11:00 a.m. at which many
people were thanked for their role
in the project. Among the attenders
that morning was the architect of
the addition, Chris Tworkowski. The
District Superintendant of the Central
Canada District of the Wesleyan
Church, Rev. Don Hodgins, was
also present and spoke words of
congratulation and prayed a prayer
dedicating this new space to God.
Although the community is always
welcome at Sunnyside Wesleyan
Church, from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. on
May 25th, the Old Ottawa South
community was specifically invited to
come and see the church and our new
addition. This was an exciting time, as
several attenders of the church turned
into tour guides for the afternoon. It
was nearly as exciting for the guides as
for the visitors, as even those who had
been attending Sunnyside for years
were still discovering new features.
Many positive comments were
received about the addition. Among
these were “a wonderful blending
of the old and the new”, “what a
wonderful stained glass detail on the
cross” and “what a warm and inviting
church.” It had even been commented
to one of the pastors a while earlier
that she had walked by the corner
of Grosvenor and Sunnyside many
times and hadn’t noticed a church
there before (and now does).
It has been a thrill to those who have
been attending Sunnyside Wesleyan
Church to see the interest and the
positive response of the community.
A large part of this project had to do
with accessibility, not only in having
an elevator for the elderly or disabled,
but even in a bigger picture to be
open and accessible to the community
around us, where God has put us.
If you missed the Open House, have
no fear. Our doors are always open to
you. For the summer (June 15-Labour
Day) our church service is at 10:00
a.m. Sunday. (After Labour Day we
return to having two services at 9:00
a.m. and 11:00 a.m.)
You are also welcome to call
the church office at 613-730-9411 to
arrange a time for a tour of the building,
and of course we will once again see
you in the morning of the Old Ottawa
South Porch Sale with coffee, Timbits,
and the ever important washrooms.
On behalf of Sunnyside Wesleyan
Church, I thank you for your patience
with us in the construction process
and your celebration with us of
the opening of the new addition.
Old Ottawa South is a unique and
wonderful
neighbourhood
and
we are so glad to be a part of it.
Arts & Africa: Sunday July 6, 2008
By Sylvia Manning
R
ay Zahab, the Chelsea
adventure
runner
and
ultramarathoner, bounces on
his toes, pacing and bubbling with
infectious enthusiasm when he speaks.
He is delivering a motivational talk
to a group of award winners who are
on average a highly motivated group
already. Normally this type of talk is
somewhat formulaic, but not this time.
Ray at times is the kid in the candy
store, with all his plans for pilgrim
runs in the future, and at other times
burns with missionary zeal when he
talks about the various charities he
has aligned himself with so far in his
runs across the Sahara, in the Arctic,
and across Canada.
Ray is most fervent and persuasive
when he describes his reformation
from the pack a day smoker to the
guy who cannot stop running, or
raising money and awareness about
environmental issues. It is this,
combined with his non elitist view of
himself as a runner, which encourages
me to approach him after his April
talk in a San Francisco hotel. Ray’s
talk had connected a few dots for me.
It had given me needed inspiration
for celebrating my upcoming 50th
birthday.
The running expedition across
the Sahara began in Senegal, West
Africa, where I was born and lived for
the first eight years of my life. Some
of the causes Ray took up after that
run include anti-malarial bed nets
and clean drinking water. I have first
hand knowledge of the importance of
these causes. Despite sleeping under
a mosquito net, I contracted malaria
myself as a child. Access to relatively
good nutrition and clean drinking
water meant its effect was mainly
limited to flu like symptoms which
recurred annually even during my first
10 years in Canada.
A little more than five years ago
I experienced my own epiphany
when I realized I would outlive my
mother. She and my father died in
a car accident when I was 17 years
old, at ages 45 and 48 respectively. I
decided I would try to live a healthier,
happier lifestyle with better balance,
for each of the years my life extended
beyond theirs. And to measure this, I
have worked toward a new personal
goal each year for the past five years.
My personal reformation has included
some much less ambitious running
goals than Ray’s. This year is a
milestone, and I wanted my 2008 goal
to accomplish something that would
have been particularly meaningful to
my parents, who spent 12 years as
medical missionaries in West Africa.
Ray’s run across the Sahara desert
with two other adventure runners has
been documented in some 10,000
photographs, only a few of which we
saw during Ray’s presentation that
day. They were enough to whet the
appetite for more, so my partner and
I approached Ray with a proposition.
(My partner, Len Ward, is both an
architect and a fine-art photographer
who recently opened a combination
office, art gallery and photo studio
called “Arts & Architecture.”) Len
would host an exhibit of some of the
photographs from running the Sahara,
and we would raise funds for two of
the charities benefiting Africa which
Ray endorses. The timing would
coincide with my milestone birthday.
“Spread the Net” is the UNICEF
sponsored charity which encourages
individuals to purchase $10 insecticide
treated bed nets for African families.
Malaria is the single biggest killer of
African children under age five and
accounts for one in five childhood
deaths in Africa. Spread the Net has
attracted celebrity endorsements from
Rick Mercer and Belinda Stronach.
Ryan’s Well was founded 10 years ago
by now 17 year old North Grenville
native Ryan Hreljac whose efforts to
raise money for clean drinking water
has resulted in a total of 394 wells in
15 countries bringing clean water and
sanitation services to over 547,082
people. The Ryan’s Well Foundation
has raised millions of dollars.
Ray Zahab will likely be bouncing
on his toes and pacing again when he
speaks on July 6th, 2008 at Arts &
Architecture, 1181 Bank Street, during
the charity reception “Arts & Africa”
to raise funds for these two charities.
Photographs from the Sahara run will
be on display from July 2nd to July
13th, and donations can be made at the
gallery to either of these causes during
this exhibit. I am hoping to celebrate
my 50th birthday that day with some
gifts to a continent which still owns a
piece of my heart.
For more information please
contact Sylvia Manning at Sylvia.
[email protected] or call arts &
architecture at 613-737-7300.
Page 20
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Tasty Tidbits from Trillium Bakery
A Slice of Pie / A Slice of Life
By Jocelyn LeRoy
R
ight from day one of Trillium
Bakery’s long history, there
was a small problem that
concerned pie pastry.
During my “formative years”
preparing for the hectic and demanding
life of a bakery-type entrepreneur,
I was going to business school, as
well as art and dance schools, raising
four children, and experimenting
with recipes that used alternative
ingredients.
Back then, there were bizarre green
things such as sprouted wheat, lumpy
white bowlfuls of homemade yogurt,
beige fake cream cheese (tofu!), rusty
brown paste called miso, and blackish
bitter muffins whose only redeeming
feature was a handful of plump raisins
or dates. Such were the ‘70s!
A keen interest in health, healthy
lifestyle, “natural” foods, herbs,
organic home gardening, back-to-theroots cooking and baking – and, for
awhile – eating all raw foods: those,
too, were the hallmarks of the times.
They were indeed preparing me for
three decades of Trillium living.
I now believe that the dance
training was possibly the most
valuable and relevant – it sharpens
your brain and develops discipline,
focus and a freedom of spirit – all
necessary if you want to be successful
in business and ride the rollercoaster
of the early years. Then there was the
mindset of “Jump in and swim hard”
(or dance hard), fast, graceful, trying
not to injure your limbs or fall on your
face.
For years, before Trillium Bakery
became a living, pulsing entity, I
had collected and tried out recipes
from neighbours, restaurants, classic
cookbooks and my ancestors’ family
recipes. Because I liked making
TGIF pies, I was fascinated by these.
There were recipes using butter, lard,
oil, vinegar, lemon juice, hot water,
cold water and eggs. The only one
that stood above the rest was a farm
friend’s pig-fat pie. She used this
fat in all her delicious baking. But I
couldn’t bring myself to try it.
Every other recipe turned out soso. Of course, I didn’t know about the
light, quick, relaxed touch in creating
the pastry. “Fear of pie” did not help.
Never does.
So, every baker ever hired
at Trillium got the Number-one
Question: “Can you make good pie
dough?” They all either lied or ran
away fast.
Eventually I got fed up with being
leery of pie-dough recipes, pie-dough
bakers, and pie dough itself. Then I
had a brilliant idea.
I insisted on a hands-on lesson,
using the simplest and smallest number
of ingredients, walking through it by
baby steps – doing it myself. I had
completely overlooked an opportunity
right under my nose. My long-time
beau, a professional pastry chef whose
hands created more pie pastry than I
could imagine, who had learned his
craft first-hand from experts in every
aspect of baking, said, when I begged
him to teach me once and for all time,
“It’s so easy. What are you so worried
about?”
I replied, “All the recipes from the
past yielded humdrum results. Except
my mother’s, which was buttery and
delicious. Please, show me now!”
I thought to myself, “This will
be my final attempt.” I did not like
feeling that big lumps of flour and
water had turned me into a wimp, and
I was tired of avoiding it.
Like magic, it worked! All of it.
Especially the hands-on part. It’s true:
it’s easy. But it’s not fun for everyone,
so, if you’re one of those, let someone
else make the pastry.
My uncle from New York City
used to advise me to get into the frozen
dough business if I wanted to get rich.
Maybe he was right, but where’s the
fun in frozen dough?
The following is meant to be
enjoyed. And, perhaps by osmosis, a
few pointers will enable you to raise
the bar in your efforts with pie pastry,
wherever that bar now is. This is a
recipe for scaredy-cats, not experts;
you who are experts don’t need help.
This recipe is about the spirit of making
pies. It’s really about being creative,
loose, happy, making something
to please the senses and celebrate
anything you deem worthwhile, like
TGIF.
It’s
about
memories,
heartwarming aromas evoking longforgotten moments, and making new
ones. My father’s best memories of
dessert harkened back to his days on
a freighter crossing the Great Lakes.
Memories of sneaking back into the
kitchen for “pie ends” shared with
the ship’s chef: best pie ever until my
mother perfected her pastry.
Trillium Recipe
Pie Pastry
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
2/3 cup chilled shortening.
2 tablespoons chilled butter
4 tablespoons cold water
1. Cool the shortening for a few
hours.
2. Combine flour, salt, sugar in
bowl.
3. Add cold shortening and cut into
flour with a metal pastry cutter, using
a quick, sharp motion, cutting right
through the shortening. Do not mush
it together. You want pea-size pebbles
of fat, which pick up flour as you cut.
4. Make a well in the centre, and pour
in the ice-cold water.
5. With a strong steel fork, stir the
whole mixture with a few energetic
figure-8 motions, then a sweep around
the edge of the bowl, until the whole
mass barely clings together.
6. Resist the temptation to tidy up the
dough too much, or pat it with your
hands, or work it into a more cohesive
ball. Leave it loose.
7. Refrigerate for several hours; then
bring to room temperature.
8. Dump onto a floured wooden
table or onto a big board. Slice off a
portion for one pie crust, and quickly
shape it into a ball. Don’t be afraid to
fling around a bit of extra flour while
rolling out your crust.
9. This is the step that can utterly
ruin your results if you overwork the
dough. The real pros are known to
produce a good disc with a minimum
of rolling. It takes practice and a feel
for when to stop.
9a. Roll out pie shells from the centre
outward. Lift the roller.
9b. Roll the dough this way to 1/8inch thickness. Lightly patch any
tears rather than re-rolling.
9c. Loosen from the board, fold in
two, and lay on the pie plate. Unfold,
and press into place.
9d. Trim overlapping edges with a
slashing motion.
You can use this same method to
form the top crust, or you may use
a crumble mixture or lattice. (The
classic cookbooks detail many ways
to finish and decorate pies.)
So, please remember:
Light handling will avoid developing
the gluten, and it will incorporate air
into the mix, creating a tender, flaky
crust.
Too much flour can toughen pastry.
Too much water makes it soggy, and
too much fat makes it greasy and
crumbly.
We at Trillium believe that a little
treat now and then won’t kill you
– we’re not talking allergies here,
but rather the fear of clogging your
arteries. It takes a lot more than a
slice of pie to bring on a heart attack
for most people, so please enjoy the
accomplishment of creating an artful,
homemade pie with a flaky crust and
divinely delicious flavour. And have
fun!
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
Page 21
- OUR 36th YEAR
Tom Alfoldi - Scientist/Artist/Photographer
By Lisa Xing
Photos by Tom Alfoldi
T
om Alfoldi
came back to
Ottawa from
a nine-day excursion
to Belize in earlyApril. Not really
for the conventional
vacation, but for his
love of underwater
photography.
Tom usually
makes a few trips to
the Caribbean each
year for this. But, the
seasoned photographer since teenage years never
did this by trade—until he retired in 2004. He
started out as a scientist, working for the federal
government’s Centre for Remote Sensing—using
satellite technology for a variety of earth science
applications.
Toroise in Belize, Ambergris Caye
haven’t decided what it’ll be this year yet! But, I
usually get ideas with my wife.”
In past years, he has done a cartoon theme—
Ariel, Nemo, Dora the Explorer. He has also carved
out Harry Potter and a superhero theme.
“It feels really nice when kids come up and,
without question, call the name of the character,”
he says.
Then, there is one of his favourites—Star
Wars.
“I’m a huge Star Wars fan,” he admits, after
showing photos of Yoda and Darth Vader.
Tom has also carved out a self-portrait. “That’s
when I had a moustache!” he laughs.
It’s true. The moustache is there, as are the eyes,
nose, lips—all done to the finest detail and with exact
contours and shading. All of the pumpkin portraits
carving knife and the orange fruit. He also knows
his way around a digital SLR camera—especially
if it’s sealed in a waterproof case for his dives on
the reefs.
“I love the challenge and the novelty,” he says.
Soft Coral, Palau, Micronesia
Seahorse in Macro-mode,
Bonaire, Netherland Antillies
“I developed an algorithm for measuring
suspended sediment concentration…” he says. “It
was very successful.”
But, it’s when we start talking about two of his
niche arts that he really gets excited and pulls out his
laptop to show the photos. Not of the photography
just yet, but of his pumpkin carvings.
Anemone and Shrimp
Starfish
resemble the true likeness of their characters onscreen and off.
“I use a laptop and connect it to a digital
projector,” he says. “Then I project it onto the
pumpkin and trace it on.”
The hard part is the carving because, as he says,
“If you’re carving out a doughnut, you can’t let the
‘island’ in the middle just fall out!”
Tom is a veteran and knows his way around a
“When I have a camera in my hand, as a diver, I am
not just observing things—I am actively searching
for things and looking for angles. Without a camera
in my hands, I feel lost and out of place.”
Tom isn’t a stranger to altitudes—high or low.
One of his first gigs was in the Arctic doing aerial
photography. “I’d hang out of airplanes while taking
pictures for an engineering student in Toronto. I’d
have 160 miles an hour wind in my face and the
tears would be running down my face.
“It was fun,” he says, simply.
After reminiscing some more, five o’clock rolls
around and Tom says he has to go—a curling match
at the local club. Staying active, both physically and
mentally, is just second nature to him.
“I take things as they come and I’m interested
in things. I’ve always been the type to look things
up in the dictionary or an encyclopedia.” he says.
“But along the way, I get distracted and branch off
from that and then branch off again.”
Looks like Tom will have no trouble keeping
busy during his retirement.
Flashing before me are exquisite photos of
pumpkins Tom has carved over the years. “Every year I have a theme,” he explains. “I
Regal Angelfish, Palau, Micronesia
Tom with a grey reefshark in Turks and Caicos
Page 22
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Do You Look Like Your Dog
2nd runner up- Dillon and Cooper
Winner/First Place-Heather and Eszti
Readers who visit the Wag blog at http://wagpetshop.blogspot.com/ can
see the photos there.
3rd runner up-Leo and Charlot
Honorable Mention
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
Brewer Park Trees
OOS residents Emily and Simon Sterczyk with a new tree
beside Brewer Pool.
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 23
Page 24
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
A Tree for Every Household: The Greening of Old Ottawa South
By Amanda Sterczyk
D
id you know there’s a tree
with your family’s name on
it? Under the City of Ottawa’s
TREE program, every household is
eligible to receive a potted tree from
the city. The Trees, Reforestation and
Environmental Enhancement (TREE)
Program is a four-year initiative that
aims to enhance the City of Ottawa’s
urban and rural forests through the
planting of 100,000 trees between
2007 and 2010. The TREE Program
empowers Ottawa residents, businesses,
community groups and schools to
participate in planting trees to enhance
and maintain the city’s forest cover and
combat climate change.
Most yards in our neighbourhood
are not large enough to welcome another
tree. That’s where the community
enrichment portion of the TREE
program comes into play. Community
associations or local interest groups can
apply for grants to have trees planted
in City-owned parks and greenspaces.
While households are only eligible for
one tree during the four-year program,
the community enrichment request can
happen every year.
As a result of three separate
requests from OOS residents, 47 new
trees were planted on public space in
OOS. The requests originated from:
Brenda McCoy, as the Brewer Park
Representative for OSCA; Amanda
Sterczyk, on behalf of the Brewer Gate
Homeowners’ Association; and Glenda
Blacker & Chris Flower. The planting
took place the week of June 2nd. The
species ranged from Sugar Maple to
Colorado Spruce.
Photo By Greg Strahl
For more information on the TREE
program, visit the City of Ottawa
website:
http://ottawa.ca/residents/
healthy_lawns/forestry/tree_program/
index_en.html. To request your tree,
call the City at 311.
Trees Planted in Old
Ottawa South:
Along Brewer Pool:
3 Flowering Crabapple
1 Linden
1 Sugar Maple
Around Brewer Playground:
1 Hackberry
6 Sugar Maple
8 Silver Maple
6 Red Maple
Along Sloan Avenue:
3 Colorado Spruce
6 Potted Elm
Along Bronson Place:
3 Red Maple
2 Colorado Spruce
7 Potted Elm
New trees line the path from Bronson Place to the Bronson Avenue bus stop. Photo by Amanda Sterczyk
Our Street On View At Curves
Sue Ironside
W
omen at Curves are
amazing! It’s well known in
the Curves community, but
once again this Spring in Old Ottawa
South we were blown away amazed by
the artistry of one of our members.
Last summer when owner JoAnn
Patenaude gave the Club a makeover
one blank wall just screamed for some
artistic intervention. Early morning
Curves member, Dianne Borg, a civil
servant by day, and artist by night (or
weekend) offered to tackle our wall
and attempt her first ever wall mural.
Dianne, who lives with her husband
and 3 kids in OOS, envisioned a
streetscape of our neighbourhood as
her subject for the wall painting.
Monday mornings became an
exciting time on the circuit for our
Curves members because Dianne had
been into the Club over the weekend
and had worked wonders with her
paints on our wall. Over the period
of 5 months the 22 foot wall was
transformed from plain and boring into
a magical rendition of our amazing
neighbourhood, complete with special
OS buildings, bridges, the canal and
river. She even gave us swans. No
matter what the weather outside,
exercising became an opportunity to
visually escape into a beautiful and
magical neighbourhood. I think our
Curves’ members would be the first to
say,”Dianne, give up your day job!”
We’re willing to share Dianne’s
talent, so drop by Curves at 1185 Bank
Street to have a look at some truly
amazing local art. Thanks Dianne!
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 25
OTTAWA SOUTH HISTORY PROJECT
Bronson Avenue Canal Bridge
This month’s contribution
to the Ottawa South
History Project comes from
guest columnist Robert W.
Passfield.
O
n March 6, 1894, John G.
Haggart, the Minister of
Railways and Canals, received
a petition from the citizens of Ottawa
and residents of the Township of
Nepean, Carleton County, requesting
the erection of a bridge across the
Rideau Canal near its outlet into
Dow’s Lake, on a line with
Concession Street (Bronson
Ave.)in Ottawa. The petition stated
that there was a considerable amount
of traffic from south-western Ottawa
and the Townships of Nepean
and Gloucester traveling north on
Concession Street to the manufacturing
establishments at the Chaudiere Falls;
and that traffic was much impeded
as the closest bridge crossing was at
Bank Street, which involved a 1-1/2
mile detour. The petitioners further
stated their belief that once the canal
was bridged, the County of Carleton
intended to bridge the Rideau River
on the concession line, and to open
up and improve the roads south of
the canal to connect with Concession
Street.
In response to the petition the
Department of Railways and Canals
initiated a study of the proposed
Concession Street bridge site.
Although there were high banks on
both sides of the canal cut, it was
decided that a low-level swing bridge
would be much less costly to construct
than a high level
bridge. Ultimately, it was
decided to postpone the construction
of a swing bridge over the canal until
the County erected a bridge across
the Rideau River on the concession
line to provide access to the proposed
canal bridge site from the south.
With the change of government
in the General Election of June 1896,
other matters came to the fore. The
new Liberal government, under
Wilfred Laurier, was committed to
improving the canal lands as part
of a broader effort to make Ottawa
an attractive capital city - “the
Washington of the North”. To that
end, the new government established
the Ottawa Improvement Commission
in 1899; and engaged Frederick G.
Todd, a Montreal landscape architect,
to prepare plans for the beautification
of the city through the establishment
of public parks, broad avenues, and
scenic drives, and the cleaning up
and landscaping of the canal lands
within the city. In that endeavour the
Ottawa Improvement Commission
converted the canal lands into a linear
urban park, and constructed a scenic
driveway (Queen Elizabeth Drive)
and a walkway along the west bank
of the canal from New Edinburgh
to Dow’s Lake. Picturesque rustic
pavilions and trellised arches added to
the park setting, as did the ornamental
Minto Bridges erected over the canal
just upstream of
the Rideau Falls. In 1903 with
the new driveway approaching
completion, the Department of
Railways and Canals decided
to construct a swing bridge on
Concession Street to provide an
alternative route to the Hog’s Back
from the new driveway, and to serve
farmers from Nepean and Gloucester
townships, who were bringing
produce to market in west Ottawa
each week. The following year a steel
pony truss swing bridge, on stone
masonry piers, was erected across the
canal on Concession Street. Thomas
McLaughlin of Ottawa constructed
the masonry substructure, and the
Dominion Bridge Company of
Montreal erected the swing bridge
superstructure. It was an unusual
swing bridge in that it was built on a
skew, at an angle to the canal channel.
Sometime thereafter Concession Street
was re-named Bronson Avenue. The
original steel swing bridge
remained in service until 1938
when it was replaced by a new
electrically-powered steel plate girder
swing bridge with a wider deck to meet
increasingly heavy traffic demands.
The new bridge was erected on the
same alignment, and on widened piers,
by the Dominion Bridge Company.
In September 1958 an agreement
was made between the City of Ottawa,
the Federal District Commission
(successor to the Ottawa Improvement
Commission) and Her Majesty’s
Government, whereby the City
agreed to undertake the construction
of a high-level, fixed bridge over
the Rideau Canal on Bronson Ave.
in return for a financial contribution
from the federal government. The
new reinforced-concrete bridge
was erected in 1959 on a straight
alignment, beside the existing plate
girder swing bridge which served as a
pedestrian bridge until February 1961
when it was removed.
Robert W. Passfield is a public
historian working in the fields of
technology and industrial archaeology.
He had a 30 year career in the federal
public service. Most recently he was a
Senior Historian, Historical Services
Branch, Parks Canada. Mr. Passfield
can be reached at www.passrob.com.
In 2008 and 2009 the City
of Ottawa is undertaking a major
rehabilitation of the modern day
high-level reinforced-concrete bridge
to upgrading the structure for code
compliance and extending the service
life of the bridge (http://www.ottawa.
ca/residents/major_projects/bronson/
index_en.html).
Contact the Ottawa South
History Project at HistoryProject@
OldOttawaSouth.ca or visit us
online at www.OldOttawaSouth.ca/
HistoryProject.
LAC a009969 - Along Driveway at Bronson Ave. Bridge, ca 1911 - William James Topley, Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
Page 26
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 27
Into The Darkness: An Account of 7/7
by Peter Zimonjic
Into The Darkness:
An Account of 7/7
Published by Vintage
[Random House]
F
or those of us who know it
well Old Ottawa South is a sort
of sanctuary. The trees fill the
streets and back yards in the summer,
blanket the ground with colour in the
fall and stand as lonely sentinels in the
winter. Our sidewalks are alive with
the sound of children and cluttered
with their toys and bikes when they’re
suddenly called in for dinner. It is a
green and warm place.
In one way or another I have
considered Old Ottawa South my
home for 11 years, despite being born
in Toronto. I lived here while I studied
philosophy at Carleton, worked here
while a reporter at the Ottawa Citizen
and I dreamed of returning here during
the five years I lived in London,
England.
Old Ottawa South for me has
always been a safe place and I guess
that’s why I’ve chosen to come back
here after living through the most
destructive terrorist attack in British
history. I wanted to be back home,
safe, if such a thing is possible.
It was the summer of 2005 and I
was on London’s subway system on my
way to work for a British newspaper
called The Sunday Telegraph. I
boarded the train at Paddington
station and moments later sailed into
the darkness of a tunnel as the train
carriages rattled over the rails.
Another train approached us from
the opposite direction and just as it
began to pass there was a loud crack
and a bright flash. The train opposite us
had been bombed. I didn’t know it yet
but six people would die and dozens
more would be seriously injured.
Answering a call for help I walked
into the carriage behind and found a
man covered in blood trying to force
his way on board our train. He had
been in the bombed carriage, which
now lay opposite to where I stood, and
he had been seriously injured.
Unable to open the doors to our
train to let him in, I, and a few other
passengers, took the decision to smash
the window on our train and jump
over, into the darkness, of the bombed
carriage of the neighbouring train to
see if we could help.
Taking this decision we had no idea
we were about to enter the epicenter of
a terrorist attack. Despite the obvious
signs, we didn’t stop to consider the
simple and obvious reality that this
had been an attack. The idea, however
logical, seemed crazy. Bombs go off
in Iraq, in Afghanistan in Israel, not
near me.
When we successfully negotiated
the broken window and lowered
ourselves in to the bombed carriage
of the train on the parallel track we
found ourselves surrounded by death,
injury and fear.
It took over an hour for fire and
ambulance services to reach us and it
was during that hour we performed
first aid, comforted the injured, tried
to wake the dead and watched as the
innocent failed to hold on until help
could arrive.
When help finally came I rushed
out of the dark, leaving the people I
had been treating to the capable hands
of the paramedics. I raced to find my
wife who was eight months pregnant
and in her arms I was once again
safe.
The following day I put my
account of the attack on paper for The
Sunday Telegraph and people started
to call me. They wanted to know if I
had any contact information for those
they had helped, or who had helped
them.
It was then I realized how isolating
it was being a stranger on a train and
so I started up a web site to help
survivors network with one another
and share experiences of the day. That
web site turned into more questions
people wanted answered and so I
decided to write a book.
Into The Darkness: An Account
of 7/7 is, essentially, a non-fiction
novel which chronicles the hour from
the time the first bombs went off to
the time the fourth took the lives of 13
people on a London bus bringing the
total death count to 52, plus the four
bombers.
To research the book I tracked
down people from all four incidents,
some were very close to the bomb,
others far away. I talked to the families
of those who survived and those who,
sadly, did not.
My intention was to create a book
that read like a thriller but served the
historical purpose of preserving how
people rose to the occasion to help
Correction: June 2008, page 27
Author of The Amazing Adventures of
Rosy, The Fairy, is Mary Hawkins.
Mary Hawkins will be at Mother
Tongue Books on June 28, from 2 to
4 pm.
Author Peter Zimonjic
others, maintained calm and extended
warmth. I wanted people to know
that despite the acts of terrible cruelty
by some, the whole was strong with
honour and kindness.
My book hit bookstores in Canada
in May and has already been short
listed for two awards in England. The
Good Housekeeping award for nonfiction and the Gold Dagger Award for
Non-Fiction.
It now sits proudly on my shelf,
a memory contained in pages, a long
way from London.
I sometimes flip through it as I
watch my children play in the green
and lush back yard so typical of Old
Ottawa South. I see them and I think
how nice it is for them to be here, in
Ottawa, close to the canal, Brewers
Park and the children on their street.
It is good to be home, for them
and for me.
Peter Zimonjic works as a
parliamentary reporter for Sun
Media.
[email protected]
Page 28
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Torchlight Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
Tues July 15 Windsor Park
(Old Ottawa South)
Wed. July 16 Windsor Park
(Old Ottawa South)
All shows 7 PM start time and
Pass the hat ($10 suggested
donation)
unless
otherwise
noted.
R
omeo & Juliet is a love story
that is in our bones -- we all
know it and feel a personal
connection to it. Shakespeare’s
Romeo & Juliet is more than four
hundred years old and yet it continues
to permeate pop culture. Romeo and
Juliet is a very sad story about a very
lively and funny cast of characters to
whom fate has dealt a very bad hand.
This summer a Company of Fools
presents The Most Excellent and
Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo &
Juliet and it marks the first time a
full-on tragedy is part of the summer
Torchlight Shakespeare Series. This
isn’t to say our Torchlight production
will not be funny. There is plenty of
humour in Shakespeare’s text and
much of the play is structured as a
comedy. We aim to make the show
accessible to all ages. We realized
that some of our favourite stories
as children were ones with very sad
endings: Charlotte’s Web, Old Yeller,
Beautiful Joe... all beautiful stories
adored by children. So we aren’t
worried about losing the younger
ones with a sad ending: the challenge
is, as always, to make the story and
the characters compelling enough that
no matter what your age and attention
span, you love to watch the characters
and will follow their story, wherever it
may end up.
A Company of Fools
A Company of Fools has been
delighting audiences all across
Canada since 1990. Inspired by the
rogue Elizabethan players that once
entertained audiences outdoors and
at the Globe theatre, we have built a
reputation as a highly physical troupe
doing interactive shows indoors and
out. The Fools mount two shows a year,
plus perform at numerous festivals, in
schools, and at corporate events. Our
award winning shows have performed
all across Canada, from Halifax to
Vancouver to Yellowknife.
We
are
a
not-for-profit
incorporation and a registered charity.
A Company of Fools is Ottawa’s only
professional Shakespeare company.
The mandate of the Fools is to produce
innovative, entertaining and accessible
shows based on the works of William
Shakespeare. We produce original
works inspired by Shakespeare as
well as performing his plays.
Being Fools, we combine physical
theatre techniques such as clown,
mask and puppetry with the classical
text. This unusual mix has earned us
critical acclaim all across Canada.
As part of our mandate we create
new works based on and inspired by
Shakespeare. Although known for our
performances, the Fools are active
in the field of education. We provide
workshops and performances for
elementary and high school students.
We also program professional
development workshops for emerging
and established artists in the region.
www.fools.ca
To book an OSCAR ad
call Gayle 730-1058
[email protected]
Second-hand Smoke Law
A
new law that protects children under 16 years old from secondhand tobacco smoke in motor vehicles was passed in the Ontario
legislature on June 16.
Second-hand smoke in motor vehicles can be up to 27 times
(http://www.oma.org/Health/tobacco/IncarSHSconcentrationsBackgrounder.pdf) more concentrated than in a
smoker’s home.
Children exposed to second-hand smoke (http://www.oma.org/
phealth/smoke2004.pdf) are more likely to suffer Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome, acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more severe
asthma. Exposure to second-hand smoke among children has also been
linked to lower cognitive test scores compared with children who were
not exposed.
Ontario has one of the toughest anti-smoking laws in North
America. Since 2003, tobacco consumption in Ontario has fallen by
more than 30 per cent.
Under the law, any person - driver or passenger - in the motor
vehicle, who is smoking while someone else under the age of 16 is
present, is committing an offence. The person holding lighted tobacco
would be subject to a fine.
Every person who fails to comply with the new law is guilty of an
offence and subject to a set fine of $250.
The law applies to both moving and stationary vehicles and applies
to all motor vehicles, regardless of whether any window, sunroof,
rooftop, door, or other feature of the vehicle is open.
Learn about the health effects of second-hand smoke
(http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/english/health/smoke_free/fact_
sheets/041505-tobacco
_2hand.pdf) and smoking in motor vehicles legislation
(http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/english/health/smoke_free/smoking_in_
cars/default.as
p).
Find out where to get help to quit smoking
(http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/english/health/smoke_free/default.asp).
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
My Cabin In The Woods
By Jo Crivellaro
T
here is a great advantage to
owning your land at least a
year before you build; there
is much to be learned if you do and
possibly some nasty surprises if you
don’t. My property is actually two
rectangular parcels of land, both
the complete opposite of each other.
The first part is lowland with a large
cleared area and then 50’ of dense
bush that backs onto a small creek
and marshland. Originally I thought
the cleared half would be a good place
for a garden, that is, until I tried to dig
a shovel into the soil. The field had
been cleared two years prior with a
bush hog, to rid it of the alder brush.
What was left that couldn’t be seen,
was an alder root system that covered
the entire field. Alder isn’t something
that just goes away. At one point I
built a small decorative fence with
some of the alder I had cut to clear a
path to the creek. I poked the sticks
down into the soil and wove the sticks
around each other for a rustic effect.
A couple of weeks later the branches
started to bud, and within six weeks
the fence was in full leaf, which would
have been O.K. except I was trying to
rid that section of alder, not plant a
new crop.
Enter pigs. Pigs will loosen and
turn over the top foot of soil, fertilizing
it as they go along, considering large
roots as entertainment. Unfortunately
pigs require very strong fencing. My
pigs have walked through acres of
5’ grass in search of the neighbours’
nicely mowed lawn. Go figure!
Usually pigs can be enticed back home
with food, but on one summer’s day,
after just eating their fill, I noticed the
pigs heading down my long driveway
towards the road. Not being hungry
they had no interest in me whatsoever,
no matter how much I shook the food
bucket and with great enthusiasm
bellowed that I had a wonderful
treat for them. As they hit the road
and started up the hill I realized it
could be hours before they would be
hungry again and who knows what
unapproved landscaping they might
achieve in the meantime. I looked to
the heavens and prayed “This is out of
my hands Lord, it’s up to you, please
bring them back”. Miraculously,
all four pigs turned on the spot and
trotted straight back into their pen.
Just one of the many examples I have
witnessed of answered prayers. I
needed some permanent fencing. A
friend who was clearing a large lot of
hemlock donated the logs and I built a
huge fenced area for the pigs using all
500 logs. This was the beginning of
my garden area.
The bartering system of trading
pork for labour has over the years
enabled me to have trees cleared
and also get a roof put on my cabin.
Two pigs provided four men with ½
pig each, cut, wrapped and frozen, in
return for one day of labour each. A
good deal for all; well actually I didn’t
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 29
Part four of seven
get the pigs opinion on that one. I’m
content to know that my pigs lived a
very happy life right up to the moment
when their roles changed from rototillers to pork chops. Two tall poles
support the crossbar and hook where
the pigs were hung to be cleaned, and
my friend Joanne suggested I soften
the look by hanging a basket of flowers
from the hook when it wasn’t in use.
Instead I painted a sign, ‘till death do
us part’ which captures my heartfelt,
albeit short-term, commitment to my
pigs. “ Pass the gravy, please”.
The second piece of land is a
small, south-facing mountain, which
also revealed some surprises once
some trees were cleared. Originally
covered in a thick forest of mostly
balsam and poplar, it was difficult to
see the individual stone ridges and
water run off areas. Clearing the
lower part of this slope showed me
another great place to situate a garden.
At least 10’ higher in elevation than
the lowland, and almost always in the
sun, with good drainage, this location
would be far better for certain plants.
I finally decided where my house
should go by standing where I wanted
to be if I was facing the kitchen sink.
I wanted to be able to see who was
coming in the driveway and also be
able to enjoy the beautiful view of the
forest and marshland while standing
in the spot I would probably end up
being most of the time. I wanted to be
able to greet people from there as they
came in the door and never have my
back to company while preparing
a meal. (How feng shui of me!)
So that’s what finally decided
the location of my house, the
position of the kitchen sink.
Then I studied the sun’s pattern
on that location thus determining
the shape of the house. Once that
was decided, I worked with the
space around me, considering
travel patterns from sink to cook
stove etc., in order to come up
with a functional floor plan.
The cedar logs I had were just
enough for a 14‘ x 18’ story and a
half, timber frame which would
consist of a kitchen downstairs
and sleeping quarters upstairs.
After living for seven months
in our 9 x 9 ½ garden shed this
was ample space we couldn’t
wait to get into! Considering I
was a broke single mom flying
on a dream and a prayer it was
vital for me to be flexible in my
decisions and work with the
materials I had in order make
progress.
After cutting the mortise
and tenons myself the frame
was ready to be set up on a
6” re-enforced concrete slab.
With my friend Keith’s years of
experience, it was really just like
building with really big ‘Lego’
pieces. With the aid of a few
clamps and my grandfather’s
sledgehammer, the frame was
together in only 22 hours.
The following seasons were ones
without a vehicle and very limited
income so progress was very, very
slow and pretty much limited to
landscaping. I found it important to
concentrate on what I could do as
opposed to the many things I couldn’t.
Keeping a photo album allowed
me to see just how much progress
had already been made and at times
has played a key role in keeping me
positive and on track.
I had decided early on that my
house would not be connected to
the hydro grid. This was based on
my objection to the ugliness of steel
towers hung with endless miles
of wire, and more importantly the
dependency we have all been coerced
into by the convenience that hydro
brings. I know the unpredictability
of wind, ice and the economic system
and do not want someone else to be
responsible for whether my house is
warm and whether I can cook a meal
or not.
Although I had always planned to
get solar or wind power when I could
afford it, I am amazed at my lack of
want for electricity. I now have a
vehicle and take my laundry with
me when I go town and charge my
deep cell marine battery in my truck
while I drive there. This allows me
to operate my sons’ portable D.V.D.
player for movie nights or inflate
a tire if necessary. Our radio is a
small inexpensive unit, which can be
solar powered or charged up by hand
winding. Last summer I built a root
cellar, which is partially buried under
ground and accessed directly from the
kitchen on the north wall. Although not
completely finished (nothing is!) it did
not freeze this past winter and should
not go above 12 degrees even after a
week of really hot weather. It’s like a
big walk in fridge, can store enough
food for a year and gives me a real
sense of independence and security.
With the proper ventilation pipes in
place I hope to build a cupboard on
one wall, which will freeze when the
temperature outside drops below zero
and will provide a freezer with ample
space every winter.
My son and I have now lived
in our cabin for eight years without
electricity and in this case my slow
progress has enabled me to make
much better final decisions. Had I had
lots of money and built immediately,
I might not have chosen the best spot
for my house or a layout that is as
functional as the one I have. Although
there have been many compromises
and frustrations along the way it is a
journey of learning I wouldn’t trade
for anything.
Jo Crivellaro is a professional
knitwear designer, mosaic tile artist
and hand made card maker. Her
company ‘Jo of the woods’ can be
contacted at www.joofthewoods,ca
and her cards are available at PaperPapier and Wool-tyme.
Page 30
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
OCDSB TRUSTEE REPORT
Balanced Budget, New Director of Education,
and Looking Ahead
By Rob Campbell
T
his school year was another big
year. Not as big as the previous
one when we came within one
vote of a budget defeat and Provincial
takeover, but still big. It’s said that the
two most important matters a School
Board can deal with is the budget and
Director selection, and this year we
did both.
We passed a balanced budget
without raiding reserves and without
any amendments - a first since the
amalgamated Board formed in 1998.
Our relative ‘good fortune’ this year
has its direct antecedent, however, in
the very large cuts of the preceding
two years. This budget provides for a
10% jump in Secondary VPs, boosts
Elementary in-school special education
support and custodial support,
reinvests in targeted central admin and
provides for more occasional teachers
at schools which will indirectly help
school budgets. The system remains
stretched very tight however and
we still have too few Elementary
VPs, haven’t been able to bring back
Intermediate overlay Arts teachers,
not reversed massive special ed cuts,
have a 22% jump in split Elementary
classes, school budgets remain tight
and so on. So, not a budget with much
wiggle room and not reinvesting so
much in front-line student services but
one modestly refloating several key
‘infrastructural’ budget lines which
have been under chronic stress.
We have picked a new Director
of Education to replace Lorne Rachlis
who is retiring. The Director is the
only employee we pick and who’s
performance we review and who we
explicitly direct. Getting the right
person for the District is key. We
believe we have that person in Lyall
Thomson. We conducted a national
search, and interviewed and referenced
several crackerjack people but there
was consensus Board support for
Lyall. We have high hopes and don’t
think he will disappoint. He starts
officially August 1 but will be acting
unofficially during the summer.
It has also been a big policy year.
A lot of good work was done but there
were a couple of major highlights. At
long last, four years in the making,
we passed the new Secondary School
Framework which asserts the primacy
of the community school while
providing defined leeway and which
will mold Secondary programming
for many years. We implemented
the recommendations of the FSL ad
hoc Committee and decided to phase
out LFI, arguably eight years in the
making. Also, additional Committee
recommendations to stop the standard
practice of ordinarily streaming special
education and ESL students out of
French immersion is now the new law
of the land relayed to Principals.
We close the year with much else in
progress and a big year to look forward
to next year also. We are looking at
governance issues and the idea of
instituting performance measures.
We have been looking at special
education service models, especially
for Gifted. Next year we will have to
deal with the labour negotiations for
every bargaining group - all groups
are variously in negotiation and the
situation is in flux.
This coming December will be
the midpoint of the current Trustee
mandate. I’m going to be evaluating
what I’ve done against what I said I’d
try to do and look to maximize the next
two years as I can. If there are matters
you would like to see addressed the
next two years, please get in touch
with me.
Have a great summer!
If you have a suggestion or a
concern, or would like to be added to my
electronic newsletter list, then please
don’t hesitate to contact me. I can be
reached via any of 730-8128, rob@
ocdsbzone9.ca or “Rob Campbell,
133 Greenbank Road, Ottawa ON,
K2H 6L3”. Board meeting, budget,
document and delegation and other
info is available at www.ocdsb.ca
Ontario Summer Games Seeks
1000 Volunteers For Events
August 13-16th, 2008
By Carrie Croft
O
ttawa will host the Ontario
Summer Games for the second
consecutive time August
13-16, 2008 in the National Capital
Region. The Ontario Games are the
Province’s premiere multi-sport event
and provide sports competition for
youth between the ages of 11 and 22.
The 26 sports will involve
approximately 3,500 participants
(athletes, coaches and officials) from
across the province, as well as over
1,000 volunteers.
The organising committee is
seeking volunteers for all areas of
the games. “There are 26 sports in
the Ontario Summer Games: archery;
athletics; baseball; basketball; canoe/
kayak; cycling; field hockey; lacrosse;
lawn bowling; rowing; rugby; sailing;
shooting; soccer; softball; swimming;
tennis; triathlon; volleyball; water
polo and water skiing, so there is
something for everyone to come out
and enjoy, “ said volunteer Co-Chair
Damien Coakeley.
Pat Reid, Director General of the
Games, is appealing to companies and
businesses in the Ottawa area to get
involved with the Games by purchasing
a block of 10 or 20 all-sport admission
tickets, each worth $10.00, and have
the Games donate those tickets to
the 2008 Games official charity, the
Ottawa Big Sisters Big Brothers.
All contributing companies will
be listed in the Official Program of the
Games, and on our website.
Ottawa will benefit immensely
from holding the games again in
2008. Pat Reid, said, “The economic
impact of the Games in Ottawa in
2006 was $1.2 million. This time we
expect that figure to rise slightly to $1.4
million, with the addition to the Games
of the sports of swimming, water polo,
triathlon and lawn bowling.”
Volunteer
training
sessions
are quickly approaching and the
Ontario Summer Games Organising
Committee is welcoming all interested
parties to visit the Games website at
www.2008osg.ca sign up and support
athletics in Ontario.
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 31
LADY EVELYN SCHOOL
Fire Safety Project Wins Honourable Mention
At Canada-Wide Science Fair
By Mitchell Beer
A
gentle dare from a Grade
8 science teacher was the
catalyst for an experiment
that propelled Rideau Gardens
resident Rachel Irving-Beer, 14, to an
honourable mention at the CanadaWide Science Fair in mid-May.
In her project, Fibre on Fire,
Rachel compared the flammability
and fire safety of three common
yarns: wool, cotton, and acrylic.
After burning test swatches of each
material, she laid a fresh set of
samples over raw chicken thighs, to
test the impact on skin. She found
that:
* The wool extinguished on its
own, with little or no damage to the
chicken.
* The cotton burned long enough
that the fire could interact with the
oils in the skin, giving the chicken
thigh second-degree burns. (No live
chickens were harmed or distressed
in the conduct of this experiment.)
* The acrylic kept burning until
it melted into the skin and gave the
chicken third-degree burns.
In her research, Rachel found
that little or no work had been done
on the fire safety of different fibres,
even though acrylic and cotton are
preferred materials for baby blankets
and clothes, and for clothing and
shawls for older adults. She noted
that people in both age groups “may
lack the mobility to escape from
burning clothing or blankets.”
Accidental burns “are a major
cause of emergency room visits,
and can lead to serious injury, even
death,” she wrote. Cotton and acrylic
“are comfortable, easy to wash, and
lack the ‘itch’ sometimes associated
with wool. But for fire safety, these
fabrics may not be best for people
with impaired mobility, or impaired
judgement.”
But the concept behind the
experiment was very nearly
extinguished before it began…or so
it seemed at the time.
When Rachel first presented
her project idea to Summit science
teacher David Farley, his reaction
was decidedly lukewarm. He sent her
back to the drawing board for more
research, then told her she could go
ahead with the experiment…even
though he wasn’t sure the results
would be very interesting.
In particular, he said he couldn’t
understand why she wanted to burn
chicken thighs to test the fire safety
of fabrics.
It was just the prompt Rachel
needed to go all-out for her
hypothesis.
“She came home stomping
mad that day,” recalls Karen Irving,
Rachel’s mother and an avid knitter,
who acted as her mentor for the
project.
“You should never tell Rachel
that there’s anything she can’t do,
because she won’t stop until she’s
proven you wrong,” Irving said.
“And that’s exactly what happened
here.”
Farley quite enjoyed Rachel’s
quiet satisfaction when she was
called to the stage to accept first
prize in Summit’s Grade 8 science
fair. “I guess I was wrong about the
chicken,” he told her. When I went to
school to collect his signature on the
application for the Ottawa Regional
Science Fair – the next step after a
local school fair – he told me how
very proud he was of Rachel’s work,
making clear that he’d believed in
her every step of the way.
Pushing Rachel to justify her
concept “was really good strategy for
her,” said Jennifer Dawson, Rachel’s
Grade 4-6 teacher at Lady Evelyn
Alternative School in Old Ottawa
East. “She had an idea she believed
in, and now she had to prove it to
someone. But it came from her.”
The CWSF is an annual event
that brings together about 500
intermediate and high school
students from across Canada. This
year’s CWSF was held in Ottawa
for the first time in 46 years, but it
was a long road from the Summit
fair to the Canada-wide. To earn
her spot in the eight-day program,
Rachel entered her project in the
Ottawa regional fair, where it won
gold in the junior health sciences
division and received one of nine
invitations to the Canada-wide.
Although Rachel has had an
incredibly busy, positive two years
at Summit, she credits Dawson
with helping her discover the selfconfidence and study skills that
made her science project a success.
Dawson said her top priority during
Rachel’s years at Lady Evelyn was
to help her believe in herself and
her own abilities.
“She always had the ideas, the
aptitude, and a picture of what the
final product would look like,”
Dawson recalled.
“It was a matter of allowing her
to explore and put her own flair on
everything. No matter what project
I gave her, Rachel always had
other ideas and extensions, always
knew where she wanted to go with
something. Always. She’s highly,
highly creative. So I allowed her to
do that – why not? She was never
restricted.”
Rachel at the Canada-Wide Science Fair
Page 32
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Local Veterinarian - Dr. Emily Black
The Details Are In The Eyebrows…
Always In The Eyebrows
By Emily Black
S
ome of the best conversations I
have in a day are with my pets.
I know this sounds funny and
I realize that, for the most part, I’m
probably just talking to myself but if
this is the case then I am one of the
most interesting conversationalists
I’ve ever met. The truth is I am talking
to my pets and they are talking back the
best they can, not so much in words,
although the three legged cat generally
has something to meow about, but
more in deed and understanding. In
my mind this is one of the principle
reasons we own pets.
We had a lady come into the
hospital yesterday who had lost her
two feline companions of 14 years,
and tears came to her eyes when she
talked about them and then suddenly
she perked right up and told us that her
friend’s cat had just had kittens and
her friend said she could have two and
now she would have someone to get
excited with about the pizza delivery.
And that about sums it up; our pets
are living beings we can share things
with, including pizza.
In this article I’d like to go over
some of the ways that our animals
communicate with us, a bit of a
translation session really to help your
pet better connect. So, let us start with
Dogs. Tail wagging Happy, Tail still
Sad – Just joking, dogs are far more
deep than simply a tail wag but the old
adage that a dog wags its tail with its
heart holds true. Most of a dog’s subtle
expressions are based in their eyes.
You can have a great conversation
with a dog based on eyebrows alone.
Dog were originally pack animals,
and have developed a complicated
scheme of eyebrow movements to
convey intention and desire. If a dog
wants you to do something they will
continue facing you but will look in
the direction of the desired object
with their eyes, they then look back
to you to make sure you got it… then
repeat until you get it. By example
“there is a lovely piece of toast on
the table.. over there (eyes shift to the
table then back)… on the table (eyes
shift again)… it looks yummy (eyes
again).” This is a very effective form
of communication and of guilt which
in the end always gets you the toast.
Another interesting feature of dogs,
mostly designed I’m sure to throw their
humans off, is blinking and yawning.
Both are features of attentiveness.
Blinking, as with humans, shows they
are thinking and listening to you. This
behaviour encorporates both a reflex
and a sign of submission; the dominant
and therefore “not listening” dog tends
to try and stare you down. Yawning in
dog language is a way to break tension;
they yawn when they are taking the
time to think about something. They
also yawn when they are tired. So it’s
best not to rely on this, and to wait for
written verification.
Now Cats. My favorite cat
behaviour is the kiss. Cats kiss
with their eyes, a long languid blink
directed at their sweetheart. The
great thing about this is that you can
blink back and they get it! I use this
a lot in my exam rooms where, when
I meet a cat for the first time, things
could go either way, I could be friend
or foe. Usually I find these guys are
blinking their little hearts out trying
to tell anyone that will look that they
are friendly and love anyone, but
that they are terrified. One nice long
blink on my part and, what do you
know, we have established a clear
communication and we are fast friends
from there on in. Often times the blink
is preceded by the chin nod where a
cat will nod with its head leading with
its chin. This is an excited welcome
greeting showing you that they are
just so happy you’ve come. Another
welcoming behaviour is the stretch
and scratch… be it on the couch or on
the stairs or even the carpet. Cats will
do this when you come into a room
or into the house and it is actually a
welcome greeting. They are showing
you how lovely and long they are and
pointing out very subtly how lucky
you are to have a wonderful long cat
like them. This can be used for best
advantage by placing a scratching
post by your front door. It’s there
when they need it and they get used to
being allowed to scratch there.
Dr Emily Black is a small animal
veterinarian who grew up in Old
Ottawa South, trained at the Atlantic
Veterinary College and now lives in
the Glebe. She owns and operates
Centretown Veterinary Hospital and
is herself owned by a 13 year old dog
and two cats.
Reducing Electricity Use
/CNW/ -
W
ith the hot weather approaching and air conditioners getting
revved up, Ontario is heading towards a peak energy demand
period. But there are lots of things individual Ontarians can do
to reduce their electricity consumption during the dog days of summer.
Did You Know...
• An average Ontario household consumes around 1,000 kilowatthours each month
• On average, 60 per cent of a yearly electricity bill goes toward
heating and cooling the home.
• Home appliances make up roughly 18 per cent of household
electricity consumption.
• In a typical home, 20 per cent of household energy costs are created
by hot water, and the average household does 37 loads of laundry per
month, using 6,817 litres of water.
Ontario needs to reduce its peak demand by 6,300 megawatts by 2025
- that is the equivalent to taking one in five electricity consumers off the
grid!
One kilowatt hour is the amount of electricity required to keep a 100watt bulb lit for ten hours. The average Ontario house-hold uses about
1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month.
Every kilowatt-hour saved through conservation prevents two pounds
of carbon dioxide (CO2) from reaching the atmosphere.
A two-degree adjustment to your thermostat setting can lower heating
bills by four per cent and prevent 500 pounds of CO2 from entering the
atmosphere each year.
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Red Apron Cooks
Delicious Salad Ideas
W
e have been extremely
busy at the Red Apron
as our Retail Pantry has
become quite the bustling spot. In
our shop we are carrying a number
of food items from local producers
including Denis Gourmet Sausages,
fresh Art-is-In Bread daily and a
variety of locally produced pickles,
sauces, jams, jellies & chutneys.
Denis, a teacher at First Avenue, and
his wife Becky created this business
after a 5 month backpacking trip
through Southeast Asia.
What
originally started out as a fundraising
activity to help Tsunami victims has
blossomed into a lovely local business
that continues to ‘give back’. Even
those who don’t consider themselves Jenny Heagle with her Red Apron team at the Firehall Festival, June 21
Photo by Mary Anne Thompson
sausage fans love these sausages.
As we enter the season of
abundant fresh local greens, we are Protein: Turn your Salad into a meal juice, vinegar, shallots or scallions
presented with a good opportunity by adding grilled shrimp, grilled together with the mustard and
to maximize our intake of raw chicken or steak, canned tuna or salt. With the blender or food
vegetables, especially those beautiful salmon, grilled tofu, shredded or processor on, drizzle the oil in
baby greens that can make a salad crumbled cheese, and beautiful a small steady stream to form a
so interesting. Many people find beans like garbanzo beans or black smooth emulsion. Add in freshly
dressing their salads a challenge turtle beans. Double smoked bacon, ground pepper. Taste and correct
and eating the same old salad with or smoked fish add both protein and seasoning with salt, pepper.
the same old dressing not much intense flavour.
Yield: For about 2/3 cup, serving
fun. However making simple salad
6 to 8.
dressings is quick, easy and can turn
Crunch: Top your salad with
some simple greens into a spectacular nuts for added protein and crunch. Variations:
accompaniment to their meal. With Toasted almonds, sesame seeds,
Asian Mango: Add some chunks
the weather getting hotter by the pistachios and pine nuts are my of Mango and replace the lemon
day, a salad is a great way to enjoy a favourites but any good quality juice with lime juice. Replace the
healthy meal without heating up the nut works. Croutons, toasted pita Dijon with Chili Powder and fresh
kitchen. The secret to a great salad wedges or crumbled corn chips are Cilantro. This dressing works well
is to make it an interesting mix of
another great way to add crunch. with a salad that includes grilled
texture and flavour.
Deep fry some crispy leeks, onions asparagus, grilled chicken or Shrimp
or thinly shaved vegetables – like and topped with garbanzo beans,
Here are my suggestions for carrots or parsnips.
crispy leeks or toasted almonds.
building a great salad.
Sesame Ginger: Include a thumb
Flavour: The dressing you size piece of peeled ginger, replace
Base: Start with good quality choose will help bring all these the lemon with orange juice and zest
greens. Although Romaine and Leaf ingredients together and give your (from 1 orange) and replace ½ the
Lettuce are nice, try some Baby salad some punch. I have provided oil with Toasted Sesame Oil. Add a
Mustard greens, Mache Lettuce, a basic vinaigrette recipe along with pinch or two of sugar or honey. This
Baby Spinach, Mizuna, Baby Kale, suggestions on how to enhance your dressing works well with Grilled
Baby Beet Tops, Sorrel, Watercress, dressing with great flavours.
Tofu, Sushi Grade Tuna or a few
or Baby Arugula. If you are looking
strips of lean steak. You can top it off
for an excellent supply of organic Basic Vinaigrette:
with sesame seeds and if you want to
greens I would suggest you contact 1/2 tablespoon finely minced
give it a real boost, toss it with some
Bryson Farms and consider taking shallot, garlic and/or scallion
cooked rice noodles.
their fresh greens by the week or 1/2 tablespoon Dijon-type mustard
Sweet & Savoury: Add some
visit their stand at the Parkdale 1/4 tsp salt
Caramelized apples and Onions,
Market
(www.brysonfarms.com). 1/2 tablespoon freshly squeezed
fresh thyme and brown sugar or
There are a number of other great lemon juice
maple syrup. This dressing works
greens growers that regularly show 1/2 tablespoon wine vinegar,
very well with a salad that includes
up at the Lansdowne, Main Street balsamic or white balsamic
some dried cranberries, toasted
and Organic Farmer’s Market.
1/3 to 1/2 cup excellent olive oil, or walnuts, fresh goat cheese and some
duck confit for a truly decadent
other fine, fresh oil
dinner salad!
Variety:
Add interest by Freshly ground pepper
For more information on the Red
incorporating fresh seasonal berries
Apron
Dinner Service or our Retail
or dried blueberries or cranberries. Instructions:
Store, visit www.redapron.ca or call
Caramelized apples or pears are
You can shake all the
us at 613-321-0417. Stop by to stock
wonderful or add other fresh ingredients together in a screwup for the weekend at the cottage!
vegetables like grilled asparagus, topped, however, I like to make
avocado or shredded red cabbage to my dressings in a blender or food
really enhance a salad. Be creative! processor. Start with the lemon
Page 33
The OSCAR
Page 34
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Leaving Money to Grandchildren
by Rick Sutherland, CLU,
CFP, FDS, R.F.P.
T
he bond between a grandchild
and grandparent is very special.
Often grandparents decide to
leave a gift to their grandchildren in
their will. This extremely generous
gesture can be fraught with challenges.
Here are a few things to consider prior
to implementing this decision.
It is important to recognize the fact
that more grandchildren may arrive
following the death of grandparents.
When grandparents leave gifts to their
grandchildren who are alive at the time
of death, resentment can sometimes
arise for the grandchildren who are
born at a later date. In order to prevent
this occurrence grandparents can
leave their estate to their children who
can divide the money accordingly to
all current and future grandchildren.
In some cases grandchildren left
with an inheritance from grandparents
may end up wealthier then their
parents. In this scenario, it is often
found that the children whom inherit
their grandparent’s wealth may have a
tendency to be more difficult and tend
to take on a cavalier nature.
Problems can arise if no age is
specified in the will, specifically if
the grandchildren are under the age of
majority. In this case the province will
take control of the money until such
time as the grandchild reaches the age
of majority. The age of majority varies
among jurisdictions between 18 and
19 years of age. Here in Ontario the
age of majority is 18.
Even if the grandchildren are at
the age of majority it is sometimes
advisable to establish a testamentary
trust and appoint a trustee who will
apply conditions on how much and
when the grandchild actually receives
the money. If the grandchild is a minor
the trustee can be given instructions in
the will with directions and conditions
when minors will receive their
inheritance.
A trustee is given investment
powers over the money and other
assets until the beneficiary reaches a
certain age. Although the beneficiaries
of the trust have an interest in it,
the trustee is the legal owner of the
property held in the trust and has the
authority to control the management
of the assets. The trustee’s obligations
include making investment decisions
and preparing and filing income tax
returns on behalf of the trust.
A testamentary
trust
has
additional tax benefits. Unlike other
trusts, a testamentary trust is treated
as a separate taxpayer and enjoys
graduated tax rates on income. A
testamentary trust has non-tax related
benefits including, but not limited
to being creditor proof. This means
that beneficiaries, lenders or spouses
cannot attack the trust.
Care must be exercised when
planning gifts to grandchildren. You
want to make sure that your gift is
appreciated and achieves your desired
objectives. Your grandchildren will
appreciate it.
This is a monthly article on
financial planning. Call or write to
Rick Sutherland CLU, CFP, FDS,
R.F.P., of FundEX Investments Inc.
with your topics of interest at 7982421 or E-mail at [email protected].
Local Anti-Terrorism
Measures?
By Anna Sundin
Financial Divorce Specialist
Avoid costly mistakes with professional financial
assistance in the division of assets.
Contact: Rick Sutherland, CLU, CFP, FDS, R.F.P.
1276 Wellington Street, Ottawa ON K1Y 3A7
Phone: (613)798-2421 Email: [email protected]
Guidance, Protection
and
Peace of Mind.
Anna E. Sundin,
Barrister & Solicitor
GEnErAl PrActicE includinG:
Family Law, Wills, Real Estate, Incorporations, Litigation and Collaborative Family Law
– A Cooperative and Dignified Approach to Separation and Divorce.–
M
embers of the Eastern Ontario bar and those requiring access to
the Ottawa court house were recently advised that as a result of
the trial of the first person to be charged under Canada’s Antiterrorism Act, beginning on Monday, June 23, 2008, new security measures
will be taken at the Courthouse.
These include:
· Barricades at the circular driveway at the entrance of the courthouse
and at entrance of the parking garage. Police patrol and police vehicles will
monitor these areas.
· Parking meters on Elgin Street, from Lisgar Street to Laurier Avenue,
will be hooded, making it a non-parking and non-stopping area. Vehicles
left unattended will be immediately removed at the owner’s expense.
· Trial proceedings will be held on the third floor where there will be an
overflow court (with live video feed), if necessary. There will be screening
of everyone wishing to attend the proceedings and access will be controlled
on the third floor of the Courthouse.
As I was starting to type this, an electronic “Wizard” came on and advised
me that my use of the word-processing application had become unstable
and required me to make an electronic report to the software company. I
was not allowed to ignore the “Wizard” command and was prevented from
continuing with the writing of this article. After I sent the electronic report,
I tried to return to the article I had been typing, but it had been deleted and I
had to start over again. I wonder if this had anything to do with the content
of my article.
Has the heightened security at the Court House been successful? Is
my paranoia a result of these ‘protective’ measures? It would seem that
rather then creating an atmosphere of security, these protective measures
are intensifying fear, paranoia and hatred. Anti-terrorism measures, such as
those at Court House, in addition to the cost of the extra manpower, the
metal detectors, the SWAT teams on alert, the reduced access to our public
buildings by the public, and the delays in conducting our business, are
producing a rise in social distrust and fear.
As our social bonds are severed, our communities become dangerous,
soul-less places rather than strong networks of support. I believe that the
security that comes from strong communities is better than any monitoring.
When we know our neighbours, we learn to trust them and as we demonstrate
that trust by working together on community projects, we create a place
where everyone feels valued and included. Then there is no need to strike
out at each other with violence.
Averting violence in this way is not without a price tag; however, it has
incalculable value. It is the value of a complex, vibrant community which
provides a safe haven for human creativity, where the best of the human
spirit can soar.
Constant electronic monitoring and security measures exist in many
large cities now.
We can create more security in our neighbourhood, one relationship at a
time. Get together with your friends and neighbours this summer.
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 35
M.P.P. OTTAWA CENTRE
One Session Down…
By Yasir Naqvi,
MPP Ottawa Centre
W
ith the Spring Legislative
session wrapped up, I
thought it was timely to
reflect on the progress the Ontario
government has made since the fall.
We are moving forward with
steady progress for our families
and communities. Among the bills
that have been passed into law in
recent months are: the Healthy
Food for Healthy Schools Act,
2008 that amends the Education
Act to add provisions regulating
the trans fat content of all food and
beverages sold in a school cafeteria;
the Investing In Ontario Act, 2008
that ensures that a portion of future
provincial surpluses will be directed
to municipalities for infrastructure
needs; and Christopher’s Law (Sex
Offender Registry) Amendment Act,
2008, which changed the existing
law, to ensure that the Sex Offenders
Registry be notified quickly whenever
a sex offender is released into the
community
We also have several bills still
under consideration that I am very
excited about. These bills include;
Bill 64, Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act,
which would prohibit the use and
sale of pesticides that are used for
cosmetic purposes; Bill 69, SmokeFree Ontario Amendment Act, that
would prohibit smoking in cars with
children; Bill 48, Payday Loans Act,
2008, which would will enhance
consumer protection by licensing all
payday lending industry operators
and banning controversial lending
practices; and Bill 50, Provincial
Animal Welfare Act, which would
better protect animals, including those
in zoos.
I am working hard with my
colleagues at Queen’s Park to
ensure that we are listening to our
communities, and doing the things that
Ontarians want - and need - us to do.
Not all of us are as fortunate as some,
and that is why it is so important for us
to stick together and help one another
when we need it.
In Ottawa, we are helping by
investing $5.2 million in funding for
new and expanded addictions services
in our community.
This investment includes $2.4
million in new funding for addictions
services in Ottawa for youths aged
13 to 17. These treatment services
will include 20 beds for English and
French-speaking patients in youthspecific residential programs. We are
also providing $250,000 in funding
for school-based addictions outreach
and counseling. This provides early
intervention for students using alcohol
or drugs. Early intervention in schools
helps kids stick with addictionrecovery programs and reduces the
need for more intensive treatment
later.
For those who are not in school,
we are investing an additional
$250,000 for addictions outreach to
shelters, drop-ins and other locations.
This will help people who are difficult
to reach and have not been using the
existing addiction services. We will
also provide an additional $800,000
for the construction of 48 new
supportive housing units. Supportive
housing for people with addictions
helps them to live on their own or
in a group home setting, while still
receiving the supports and services
they need.
This summer, I look forward to the
opportunity to meet with community
groups to continue my work on my
Private Member’s bill, the Safer
Communities and Neighbourhoods
Act (SCAN), slated for first reading
this fall.
The idea of SCAN was first
presented to me last summer during
the election. At that time, I met
with several community groups and
Call to Artists:
Open to all area artists, register for the 4th annual
Old Ottawa South
Art and Music Festival.
Check our website for details: www.oosartfestival.ca
Build on the success of the past three years
and participate in this
family event on Saturday, September 20, 10. a.m. - 4 p.m.
in Windsor Park in Old Ottawa South.
Art, day-long music stage, children’s art activities,
parade and B.B.Q.
Register early to get your name and contact up on our
website and your art on our web-site slide show.
Don’t miss out on getting a space.
residents who had become concerned
about repetitive and disruptive criminal
behaviour in their neighbourhoods.
The purpose of SCAN legislation
is to improve community safety by
providing the government with civil
remedies to deal with residential and
commercial property where illegal
activities are habitually occurring.
SCAN is aimed at real property
(buildings and land) that is used
for carrying out unlawful activity,
and permits a government official
or private citizen to obtain an order
enjoining the use of the property for
certain criminal activities.
SCAN
works
under
the
presumption that civil remedies are
cheaper and more expedient than
traditional criminal law remedies
and require a lower burden of proof
on authorities seeking a remedy from
the Court, and is therefore proven
effective at dealing with problem
properties in a timely manner.
Since coming to office last fall,
I have been working closely with
the community and some colleagues
in drafting SCAN legislation that
would address the concerns I have
repeatedly heard. I anticipate that
the draft legislation will be ready for
distribution by early July. At that time,
I welcome to you review the Bill and
provide me with any feedback that
you may have.
If you are interested in obtaining
a copy of SCAN when it is released,
please contact my office at ynaqvi.
[email protected] or 613-7226414.
Please feel free to contact me
anytime to share your thoughts and
suggestions.
I love hearing from you!
Page 36
The OSCAR
JUL/AUG 2008
- OUR 36th YEAR
SURROUND CIRCLE YOGA
Joy In Movement
By Maureen Fallis,
Surround Circle Yoga
I
t’s 5:30pm and you have spent the
whole day in the office. Now it
is time for some exercise! What
to do? Go to the gym, go to a yoga
class, go out for a run? Whatever
you choose it’s all good. What might
happen, however, is that since your
muscles and joints may be a little
sluggish, blood has to fight its way
through tissue, and toxins get stuck in
the body.
Liberation approaches… and
although you know you should start
slow, warming up the muscles and
joints so they don’t feel suddenly
taken by surprise, you don’t because,
well, it just feels great to get moving.
The muscles try to create tonicity as
fast as possible leaving the production
of lubricating synovial fluid lagging
behind what is needed for the joints.
The lymph system, which has
accumulated toxins that cannot be
dealt with effectively because of lack
of movement during the day, may
now become overwhelmed. The heart
and blood vessels react to the sudden
strain, and the ligaments may suffer if
there is a lack of balance.
During the day, the focus was on
mental activity. Now it is the body’s
turn. The human body is built to
move. Human beings are not just a
sitting, lying, or standing apparatus
with a knob on the top carrying a cell
phone in one hand and a computer in
another!
After efficient exercise, one feels
loose, elastic, aired-out, refreshed and
positive. What would it be like to
have this feeling throughout the whole
day? Sudden spurts of movement
at a specific hour are not necessarily
healthy for the body. It is not what you
do from time to time for the body, but
what you do habitually that is decisive
to your level of fitness. Creating a
continuum of body awareness with
regular practice is ideal. Practicing
yoga regularly, as an example, is a
great beginning, but not the end, of
getting and staying fit. To be really
fit both physically and mentally, there
is another component ~ and that is to
experience joy in movement.
Experiencing pleasure when
moving will freshen and strengthen
the body more than purely doing goaloriented exercises. If we, as adults,
could discover the same joy as we often
see in small children when they play,
scuffle or tussle, we would naturally
be more spontaneous and creative in
the way we move our bodies.
Finding the delight in movement
by breathing in a relaxed manner,
being focused and mentally present
to your efforts will benefit your body
and mind to the maximum. Also, one
cannot put too much emphasis on the
fact that beauty and health come from
within. A superficial program to get fit
will let you down sooner or later. An
inner approach is as important as the
outer activity. Stretching body, mind
and spirit, as a life-long goal, builds
on inner and outer strength.
Surround Circle Yoga has three
exciting workshops planned for July
– each will focus on expanding the
experience of yoga in a unique way.
To find out more about summer classes
and workshops at Surround Circle
Yoga call Maureen Fallis at 613730-6649 or visit our website www.
surroundcircleyoga.com.
Advanced Asana Workshop
“The Sitting Postures”
It’s not about how far forward you
can bend or how far you can twist
your body, for wherever the point of
resistance lies is the place where you
have the greatest opportunity to learn
and change. If you have a minimum
of four months of yoga practice you
are invited to explore how coiling
inward expands your practice both on
and off the mat.
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
9:00 – 11:00am
Soul Sister Yoga Workshop
“Mandala,
Mudra
&
Mantra”
A mother or grandmother & daughter
(10-15yrs) bond is a rich resource of
nourishment & challenge. Discover
how yoga can expand your connection
with breath, movement and creativity.
In this experiential workshop you
will design your very own ‘family’
Mandala, Mudra & Mantra.
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
6:30 – 8:30pm
Yoga,
Journaling
Meditation Workshop!
“The Journey Inward”
&
In this experiential workshop you
will learn how to be more mindful,
present and compassionate. Special
Guest, Paul Karamat, Physiotherapist
and Mindfulness Meditation Leader
will teach the introductory techniques
of mindfulness meditation. Through
traditional sitting, and non-traditional
silent walking and eating meditation
you will learn how to observe and
accept your thoughts with loving
kindness.
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
8:00 – 2:00pm (gourmet picnic lunch
& hand-crafted journal are included in
fee)
Need Renovations?
Janu Sirsasana (Head-of-the-Knee Pose). Although this forward bend
Custom Designed Additions and
Major Renovations that respect the
Craftsmanship and Architectural
style of your older home.
594-8888
www.gordonmcgovern.com
will challenge most beginners, more experienced students find it interesting
as well. What makes this pose is not that you can touch your toes: it is staying
present on the way down. When bending forward you curve your awareness
back toward yourself, looking inward to find the stillness of the centre. As
you learn to surrender and release into that return, you can recuperate from
the outward actions of your busy everyday life, and take solace in selfreflection.
Photo by Tom Alfoldi
To book an OSCAR ad
call Gayle 730-1058
[email protected]
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
Page 37
- OUR 36th YEAR
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT OTTAWA CENTRE
Preserving Ottawa’s Green Spaces
O
ne of the great advantages
of Ottawa is the balance
between its vibrant urban
centre with many green fields and open
spaces. People in our communities
value our parks. Whether it’s to
exercise, walk our pets, or simply to
relax with our friends and families
parks and recreational fields play an
important role in our lives and are
integral parts of our urban landscape.
The natural environment has
always been important to me and
I am fortunate, as your Member of
Parliament, to take an active position
on its preservation. I have sought
to ensure the protection of green
space and natural areas through my
legislative efforts such as a private
members bill to protect the Gatineau
Park and a private members motion
and action plan to preserve the Ottawa
River. I have also worked with the
National Capital Commission to
change how the NCC maintains the
natural habitat along the shores of
the Ottawa River. This initiative has
won praise from the David Suzuki
Foundation and is helping to ensure
the survival of wildlife species at
risk.
Even though we are fortunate to be
so close to Gatineau Park, many of us
take advantage of the dozens of smaller
green spaces located throughout the
city. These spaces are special places
in many neighbourhoods and are used
widely by our communities. However,
with increased urban development in
Ottawa, it is important to ensure that
our green spaces are not overtaken by
residential and commercial buildings. In fact, it is necessary to establish
more parks and fields. At a recent community forum
hosted by Kitchissippi Councilor
Christine Leadman I brought forth
the idea of meeting with the National
Capital Commission and the City
of Ottawa to discuss the possibility
of transferring public lands, such as
Rochester Fields, to the City on the
condition that these lands remain
protected green spaces and exempt
from development. I have received
much positive feedback from the
community on this proposal and will
continue to move forward with it.
An additional aspect of the growth
our city is experiencing is the recent
discussion surrounding transit. Most
of us are aware that the City of Ottawa
has been developing a plan to reduce
congestion and to modernize our public
transit system. While I agree that our
city needs to have a long term plan
to address transit concerns, I believe
this must be done appropriately with
minimal impact on our natural green
spaces. Paul Dewar, MP
Ottawa Centre
613 946-8682
www.pauldewar.ca
COMPUTER TRICKS AND TIPS
A Few More of Our Favourite Websites - 3
by Malcolm and John
Harding, of Compu-Home
In this issue we conclude our series
of columns describing a few terrific
websites. Our thanks to readers
who have phoned and written with
comments and suggestions – we are
always pleased to get your feedback.
Internet Movie Database:
www.imdb.com
T
his site is a very worthwhile
suggestion from our old friend
and colleague, Paul. IMDb
claims that it is “the biggest, best, most
award-winning movie and TV site on
the planet. . . visited by over 57 million
movie and TV lovers each month” and
we don’t doubt it. You will find movie
reviews, blurbs and announcements,
as well as amazingly complete credits
for movies and television, and from
there you can progress to professional
and personal biographies of casts and
crews. Quickly now: Who played
Adam Cartright, and when did he
leave the Bonanza series?
White Pages:
www.whitepages.com
If you’re like us (well, one of us,
anyway) and you’re starting to find the
type impossibly small in the telephone
directory nowadays, you might
want to start looking up people and
businesses in whitepages.com. With a
bit of practice you start to find that it’s
just as quick as the book and there are
several extra features too. “Reverse
Lookup” solves the mysteries that are
pretty constant at our house, when we
find pieces of paper lying around with
telephone numbers but no names.
There are also listings of postal codes
and the White Pages coverage is for
all of North America.
Canada Revenue Agency:
www.cra-arc.gc.ca
As we write this, it’s that time of
year when Canadians turn to thoughts
of Income Tax. The only good
news within that grim subject is the
terrific CRA website. Information is
complete and surprisingly easy to find,
considering the massive and complex
subject. PDF versions of any of the
tax forms that you might need are
downloadable. Now if the website
could just guide you to a benefactor
who would pay those taxes. . .
Ottawa Seniors:
www.ottawaseniors.com
Not long ago a site for seniors
would have been a waste of time
because so few seniors used the web.
Now, enthusiastic surfing and email
by seniors is the fastest-growing
phenomenon on the Internet, and it is
great to have a site specifically for this
group, with information specifically
for and about Ottawa. There are
discussion forums, headline news,
classified ads and activities in the city,
all with a focus on seniors.
Food Network Canada:
http://www.foodtv.ca
Malcolm and John Harding are
the owners of Compu-Home,
Even if you never watch the Food specializing in assisting computer
Network this website can replace an users in your home and office.
entire shelf of cookbooks in your Visit www.compu-home.com for
kitchen. There are recipies, nutrition a description of our services.
information, thumbnail biographies
of the tv chefs, and detailed listings
of the broadcast schedule. Another
handy feature is that this site is
inter-connected with the American
version, which has more of the same,
and copyrights for more recipies
and information, to complement the
Canadian side.
Write to harding@compu-home.
com or phone 731-5954 to discuss
computer issues.
Page 38
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
ABBOTSFORD HOUSE
Door Were Wide Open At Abbotsford!
By Pat Goyeche
A
lexander Mutchmor built “a
mansion fair to temp the gaze”
when he built Abbotsford
House in 1872. He was a pioneer and
business man whose name remains
engrained in our community with
Mutchmor Public School. The name
Abbotsford has stuck as the use of the
house has changed over the years. It
was originally named Abbotsford after
Sir Walter Scott’s home in Scotland by
Muchmor himself. Mutchmor sold it to
the then Mayor of Ottawa only ten years
after he built it. Mr. MacIntosh lived
in it for several years and then sold it
to a group of philanthropic Protestants
who had formed a shelter in 1886 but
needed a larger location. It sold in
1889 for $9,000. In 1889 Abbotsford
became the Protestant Home for the
Aged. From 1889 to 1974 it was a
shelter for retired men who had no
means to care for themselves and no
family to help support them. Charity
changed over time and government
became involved but many of the local
churches came together again in the
early 70’s to build a retirement home
for both men and women beside the
house; this became The Glebe Centre
Inc. Abbotsford in 1974 transformed
into a Seniors Recreational Drop-inCentre. It continues in this function as
well as housing a Day Away program
and Community Outreach services for
seniors.
We celebrated the heritage of
Abbotsford House on June 7th and 8th by
opening our doors as part of Doors Open
Ottawa. The house was designated
an official heritage sight in 1984.
Volunteers donned period costumes;
we served cream scones with stewed
rhubarb and strawberries with cream
and showed off our newly decorated
dining room and lounge, which house
three of the original marble mantels.
If you missed the event, you are
welcome to drop by anytime during
regular business hours Monday to
Friday. It is a dynamic centre meeting
the needs of our 50+ community who
live independently throughout Ottawa
but come to Abbotsford for recreation,
socializing, services and just plain fun!
Abbotsford House is part of the
Glebe Centre Inc., “Rooted in the past, reaching for the future”.
Connecting With Drug Users Reduces Harm
By Jeff Morrison
I
t is mid-afternoon on a Thursday
and Sarah Brown is at her desk,
chatting with a man who appears
to be in his mid to late 50s. They
discuss his efforts to quit smoking
and then the talk turns to his drug
and alcohol use. Before he gets up to
leave he makes a joke about an old Dr.
Hook song involving throwing drugs
out the window.
At 30 Sarah probably hasn’t
heard the song—she may not
know who Dr. Hook is – but as a
harm reduction worker at with the
Centretown Community Health
Centre she is intimately familiar with
the daily struggles of people living
with addictions in Ottawa’s inner
city. Before he leaves the man hands
in a plastic container filled with used
syringes and she gives him a fresh
supply of needles, alcohol swabs,
packets of vitamin C and sterile
water.
Sarah is a veteran of this work.
For seven years she has worked with
street involved people, doing needle
exchange and addictions counseling.
For her, harm reduction is more
than just a job title. Over the years
she has come to know and respect
many of the people she serves, and
if she can help them avoid HIV or
Hepatitis C, she is happy to do it.
“I really value the connection and
the rapport that I establish with the
people I see here. People have such
Sarah Brown, (right) helps with
Bev Armstrong, a Centretown citizen
during a community needle clean up
on Saturday May 24th
false perceptions about drug users.”
And while Sarah’s first priority is to
reduce harm to the users themselves,
she is also aware that her efforts are
helping to reduce the harm that drug
use causes to society at large. Health
care for someone with HIV can
cost taxpayers millions. Most of the
people she sees bring in their used
needles or deposit them in the black
bin outside the door to the centre. In
fact between the black box and the
needles brought into the centre, more
needles are collected than are handed
out – reducing the hazard of discarded
needles in the community.
Sarah believes that there are other
advantages to her personal contact
with users. “Part of my work involves
teaching and modeling responsible
behaviour. People who are regular
users of this service do become more
responsible – particularly where safe
disposal of used needles is concerned.”
Regular contact with a respectful,
non-judgmental, sympathetic listener
can also be a powerful motivator for
people who need some encouragement
to change their behaviour.
Sarah describes one young woman
who had been using for more than
a decade. One day she announced
that she could not go on with the life
she was living. So far, with Sarah’s
encouragement and support, she has
reduced her drug use by half.
Just before closing time at 4:00
p.m. another man comes into the
needle exchange room. It is his first
visit, and he is a bit wary. This time
there is no chit-chat. Sarah moves
efficiently asking what he needs while
she assembles his package – needles,
alcohol swabs, vitamin C, five crack
pipe stems. Before he leaves she
offers him a fresh pear. He takes
two, and for the first time since he
enters the room, he cracks a smile.
Addiction carries a heavy stigma. To
be treated with respect and courtesy
is a welcome relief. Chances are he
will be back.
JUL/AUG 2008
The OSCAR
- OUR 36th YEAR
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE LIBRARIES
Sunnyside
Branchon theLibrary
Children’s Babytime
program materials.
For babies and their parents or caregiver
with stories, rhymes, songs and games.
0-18 months.
Tuesdays, 2:15 p.m. July 8-August 12
(30 min.)
Toddlertime
For toddlers and a parent or caregiver
with stories, rhymes, songs and games.
Ages 18-35 months.
Thursdays, 10:15 a.m. July 10-August
14 (30 min.) Registration Required
Storytime
Stories and rhymes for young children
~ parents and caregivers are welcome to
join. Ages 3-6.
Wednesdays, 10:15 a.m. July 9-August
13 (30 min.)
TD Summer Reading Club – Laugh
Out Loud (LOL)
Come participate in this year’s TD
Summer Reading Club. This year’s
theme Laugh Out Loud (LOL) –get
ready to have children rolling down
the book aisles. Be on the alert for fun
books, stories and poems, hilarious
jokes to tickle the funny bone, games
that result in side-splitting, rib-tickling
fun, brain teasers, tongue twisters, and
knock-knocks that will have children
roaring with laughter. There’s to be
loads of fun! Artist Patricia Storms
designed the eye-catching illustration
Come to the
Sunnyside branch to join and receive
a Club poster, stickers and an activity
booklet full of fun ideas.
This program offers families fun, free
activities to encourage children to read
and continue developing their literacy
skills throughout the summer. Research
has shown that the playful approach
of these clubs is extremely effective in
getting more children to increase their
reading skills.
Ottawa Public Library is joining
libraries from across Canada in this joint
initiative between TD Bank Financial
Group, Library and Archives Canada
and the Toronto Public Library.
TD Summer Reading Club – Special
Programs
Laugh Out Loud Party
TD Summer Reading Club Launch ~
Launch our summer reading club with
a LOL good party! Family program.
Celebrate the launch of our summer
reading club. Get your kit and start
exploring the wonderful world of
books! Everyone is welcome so bring
the whole family. Wednesday, July 2,
2:00 p.m. (45 min.)
Backwards Day...yad sdrawkcab!
Backwards stories and games. P.S. don’t
Alta Vista Branch Library
2516 Alta Vista Dr.
To register call: 613-737-2837 x3
Adult Programs
Knit 2 Together
Meet with other knitters to share
patterns and ideas and offer
assistance to each other.
Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. (1.5 hrs.)
July 5, August 2
Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. (1.5 hrs.)
July 16, August 20
Laugh it Up!
Comedy reaches new heights!
Join us for an hour of fun!
Refreshments will be served.
Wednesday, July 16, 2 p.m. (1 hr.)
Senior / Teen Wii Bowling
Our first ever Senior/Teen gaming
session! Wii bowling, followed
by refreshments.
Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m.(1.5 hrs.)
Teen Programs
Teen Scene
Chat about books and share your
favourites with other teens. Ages 12+.
Wednesday, Aug. 27, 7 p.m. (1 hr.)
PRE-SCHOOL / PRESCOLAIRE
Babytime
For babies and their parent or caregiver
with stories, rhymes, songs and
activities. Ages 0-18 months.
Thursdays, July 17-July 31, August 14,
10:30 a.m. (30 min.)
Toddlertime
For toddlers and a parent or caregiver
with stories, rhymes, songs and
activities. Ages 18-35 months.
Mondays, July 14-28, August 11, 10:30
a.m. (30 min.)
Elmvale Acres Branch Library on page 41
forget to dress backwards for ages 5-10.
Wednesday, July 9, 2:00 p.m. (45
min.) Registration Required
L’il John the Clown
Come and have some fabulous fun and
LOL with the ever-entertaining L’il
John! Everyone is welcome so bring the
whole family.
Wednesday, July 16, 2:00 p.m. (45
min.) Registration Required
TD Summer Reading Club – Special
Programs
Big Mouth Puppets
Create your own talking mouth puppet
with Artellephant Puppets for ages 8-12.
Wednesday, July 23, 2:00 p.m. (2 hours)
Registration Required
Crazy Costume
Dress up stories and crafts for ages 4-8.
Wednesday, July 20 (45 mins.)
Registration Required
Cartoon Capers
Learn how to draw your own cartoons
for ages 8-12.
Wednesday, August 6, 2:00 p.m. (1
hour) Registration Required
microphone. Ages 4-12. (Bilingual)
Thursday, July 3, 2 p.m. (1hr.)*
Les jeunes humoristes d’Ottawa
Venez raconter vos blagues les plus
drôles. Pour les 4 à 12 ans. (Bilingue)
Jeudi 3 juillet, 14h. (1h)*
You quack me up
We’re going “quackers” at the library!
Waddle over for a good time with
stories and rhymes. Family program.
Wednesday, July 16, 10:30 a.m. (45
min.)
Making music magical
A free music lesson offered by Long
McQuade. Ages 6-12.
Saturday, July 5, 2 p.m. (1hr.)*
Backwards Day
Laugh at the library from finish to start.
Dress “sdrawkcab” for stories and
rhymes for the whole family. Family
program. Wednesday, July 30, 10:30
a.m. (45 min.)
Funny bunnies
Hop on over to this storytime including
tales (tails?), songs and rabbit rhymes
for the whole family. Family program.
Wednesday, August 6, 10:30 a.m. (45
min.)
The pigeon wants a…
What does the pigeon want? Find out
when we have fun with Mo Willem’s
books. Family program. Wednesday,
August 13, 10:30 a.m. (45 min.)
SPECIAL PROGRAMS /
PROGRAMMES SPECIAUX
Ottawa’s funniest kids!
We’re looking for Ottawa’s funniest
kids to tell funny jokes on an open
mins.) Registration Required
Adult
15 minutes Computer Tutorials
Having problems with the Library
Catalogue? Accessing the web? Email
issues? Register for your own 15
minutes computer tutorial.
Tuesdays between 10 and 11:30 a.m.
July 15, 22, 29, Aug 5, 12, 19 & 26
Downloading
Learn how to download books, movies,
music, etc. plus what’s free, what’s
legal, & to protect a PC from viruses &
spyware
Friday, July 18, 10:30 a.m. (1h)
Registration Required
Laugh Out Loud (LOL) - Fun Reads
for Adults
Listen and laugh about some of the fun
and humorous books available at OPL
for adults to read.
Friday, August 8, 2:00 p.m. (45 mins)
For more information:
Sunnyside Branch,
Ottawa Public Library
613-730-1082
Munsch-a-bunch
LOL with Robert Munsch stories for
ages 4-8.
Wednesday, August 13, 2:00 p.m. (45
Family Storytime:
Monkeying around
Monkeys are loose at the library!
Come for a swinging good time with
stories and rhymes. Family program.
Wednesday, July 9, 10:30 a.m. (45 min.)
Fractured funny bone
Looking for some mixed up fun?
This program is sure to crack you up!
Stories and rhymes. Family program.
Wednesday, July 23, 10:30 a.m. (45
min.)
Page 39
Author Visit: Kalli Dakos
If you think a principal kissing a pig is
funny, come meet hilarious poet Kalli
Dakos. Ages 6-12.
Tuesday, July 8, 2 p.m. (1hr.)*
Magic with Knuckles
Knuckles the clown will thrill with his
magical skill. Ages 4-12.
Wednesday, July 9, 2 p.m. (1 hr.)*
Oh Gross!
What’s slimy and gross and makes
parents cringe? Come to the library to
find out. Ages 6-12.
Tuesday, July15, 2 p.m.(1hr.)*
Gonzo about Gaming
Come play a friendly game with other
kids on the big screen. Ages 6 to 11.
Thursday, July 17, 2 p.m. (1.5 hrs.)*
The circus is coming to town!
Stories, videos, and crafts. Ages 4 and
up. (Bilingual)
Thursday, July 24, 2 p.m. (45 min.)*
Le cirque est en ville!
Contes, vidéos et bricolage. Pour les 4
ans et plus. (Bilingue)
Jeudi 24 juillet, 14 h. (45 min.)*
A Puppeterrific good time!
Come enjoy a fun puppet show. Ages
4-9.
Tuesday, August 12, 10:30 a.m. (30
min.)*
Tuesday, August 12, 2 p.m. (30 min.)*
Puppet Idol
Bring your puppet and perform your
favourite song. Ages 4-12.
Wednesday, August 13, 2 p.m. (1hr)*
Lots of laughs!
Funny stories and videos. Ages 4 and
up. (Bilingual)
Thursday, August 14, 2 p.m. (45 min.)*
Rions en choeur!
Contes et vidéos remplis d’humour.
Pour les 4 ans et plus. (Bilingue)
Jeudi 14 août, 14 h. (45 min.)*
Laugh out loud
TD Summer Reading Club 2008 closing
ceremony. Ages 4 and up. (Bilingual)
Tuesday, August 19, 2 p.m. (45 min.)*
Lire aux larmes
Cérémonie de fermeture du Club de
lecture estivale TD 2008. Pour les 4 ans
et plus. (Bilingue) Mardi 19 août, 14 h
(45 min.)*
Tuesday Kiddie Dance Party!
Families are invited to dance to the hits
of the 70’s, 80’s, and beyond. Ages 0-5.
Tuesday, August 26, 10:30 a.m. (1 hr.)*
Senior/Teen Wii bowling
Our first ever Senior/Teen gaming
session! Wii bowling, followed by
refreshments. Adults/Teen. Wednesday,
August 27, 2 p.m. (1.5 hrs.)*
N.B. Programs followed by an *
require registration. / L’inscription est
requise pour les programmes suivis d’un
*. / Registration for summer programs
starts on June 18. / L’inscription pour
les programmes d’été commence le 18
juin.
The OSCAR
Page 40
- OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
FIREHALL YOGA
Soothing Yoga
Yoga apaisant
By Linda Déziel
Old Ottawa South
By Linda Déziel
Old Ottawa South
V
os horaires surchargés vous épuisent? Vous avez le sentiment que le temps
passe trop vite, qu’il y a trop à faire et que les moments de détente et de
repos se font de plus en plus rares? Comment faire face aux pressions
et défis du monde moderne? Sachez que vous pouvez, à deux pas de chez vous,
profiter d’un moment privilégié de ressourcement, et ce, sur tous les plans.
En effet, grâce aux cours de yoga que donne l’experte Sima, vous pourrez
refaire le « plein d’énergie ». L’apprentissage de la respiration, de la relaxation
et des exercices de renforcement du corps vous permettront de retrouver ou
d’améliorer santé et bien-être.
Les cours de Sima sont offerts au Centre communautaire d’Ottawa Sud, situé
au 260, avenue Sunnyside à Ottawa. Vous pouvez joindre le Centre communautaire
au 613-247-4946.
Inscrivez-vous aux cours de yoga de Sima Samguissi! Vous en ressentirez vite
les bienfaits!!!
A
re you stressed out? Overwhelmed? Tired of rushing all the
time with never-ending tasks? No time to relax? How can
one cope in the increasingly demanding society we live in?
Fortunately there is, nearby, a simple and easy way to regain
strength and vitality.
Yoga Expert Sima Samguissi will help you restore your energy
peacefully and harmoniously through her yoga classes. Learning to
breathe, relax, and strengthen the body is the perfect way to recover
or improve one’s health and well-being.
Sima’s yoga classes are given at the Ottawa South Community
Center, located at 260 Sunnyside Ave. in Ottawa (phone number:
613-247-4946).
Give yourself a healthy break with Sima’s yoga classes. Your
body will thank you!
Dividends: A Good Source Of Income
By Bob Jamieson
L
ooking for a way to add both
income and growth potential
to your investment portfolio?
Consider dividend-paying stocks.
When you invest in shares that
pay dividends, you get a regular
stream of income and the potential for
your investment to increase in value.
That means dividend stocks can help
meet your income requirements, and
potentially boost your wealth - as
long as you’re willing to take on more
risk.
However, an investment in
dividend stocks doesn’t mean you
have to go overboard on risk. While
stocks are inherently more risky
than conservative interest-generating
investments, sticking to dividend-
paying shares of high-quality bluechip companies can help you manage
that risk.
What are dividends? They’re the
portion of profits that companies pay
out to shareholders. Typically larger,
well established companies pay
dividends - usually quarterly, semiannually or annually.
These companies pay dividends
as a means of delivering value to their
shareholders. Paying investors to
hold shares can be an enticement
for shareholders to not only retain
the shares, but also purchase more.
Younger and smaller companies
may not pay dividends because they
prefer to reinvest all profits in the
company to further growth.
There are more advantages to
dividend-paying investments than
you might think. In addition to
producing a steady stream of income,
dividend-paying investments can be
less vulnerable to rising interest rates
than some other income investments.
Plus, dividend payments have the
potential to rise as company earnings
grow, while interest payments from
most investments remain static.
Dividend-paying stocks can also
help reduce the overall volatility of
your equity portfolio because price
moves of these stocks are typically
less than those of non-dividendpaying equities. Because of this
income potential, investors are less
likely to sell dividend-paying stocks
in turbulent markets, which tempers
price swings.
There’s also an income
tax advantage. Dividends from
Canadian corporations are eligible
for the dividend tax credit, which
reduces the tax you pay on income
from these shares. Interest income,
on the other hand, is fully taxable.
And if shares increase in value there
are also capital gains, which receive
preferential tax treatment.
How do you pick suitable dividendpaying stocks? Since a steady stream
of income is a major consideration,
invest in companies that are capable
of generating an uninterrupted
stream of dividends, perhaps with the
potential of increases down the road.
Some possibilities to consider include
large, blue chip companies with
good cash flow and profit histories,
companies that have a solid record
of paying uninterrupted dividends,
and companies that have consistently
raised their dividends. Keep in mind,
however, that dividends can be
increased, decreased or eliminated at
any point without notice.
Also be wary of extremely high
dividend yields. Unrealistic payouts
could be cut in the future - which not
only reduces income, but can sink
share prices.
When
evaluating
dividendpaying stocks and their underlying
companies, it’s helpful to compare
similar businesses. One of the
most important comparison tools is
dividend yield - the annual dividend
amount divided by the stock price,
expressed as a percentage.
Another key comparison is the
dividend payout ratio, which is the
percentage of company earnings
paid to shareholders in dividends.
Comparing these figures for different
companies in similar industries allows
you to gauge individual investment
potential.
And finally, never invest in a
company simply because it offers a
good dividend. The longevity of that
dividend, and the health of the share
price, depend on whether the business
is sound and has good prospects for
the future.
Bob Jamieson, CFP
Edward Jones, Member CIPF
The OSCAR
JUL/AUG 2008
- OUR 36th YEAR
Page 41
CLASSY ADS
CLASSY ADS
are free for Old Ottawa South residents (except for businesses or for business activity) and must be submitted in writing to: The OSCAR, at the Old Firehall,
260 Sunnyside, or sent by email to [email protected] by the deadline. Your name and contact information (phone number or email address) must be
included. Only your contact info will appear unless you specify otherwise. The editor retains the right to edit or exclude submissions. The OSCAR takes no
responsibility for items, services or accurary. For business advertising inquiries, call 730-1058.
For Sale
Zenith Colour TV, 36”. Excellent
condition $50. 613-907-0190.
--------------------------------------------Black old-fashioned wooden rocking
chair. Perfect condition with cushion.
$50. 613-907-0190.
--------------------------------------------For sale – power-driven tools, used
very seldom. Several never used at all.
If interested, phone, 613-237-1569.
--------------------------------------------Baby Shower Gifts, Handmade Baby
Quilts, and Crocheted Baby Blankets,
Reasonable Price. Startingat#30.00.
CallL 613-730-2411
--------------------------------------------Baby items for sale: Zooper “running
style” stroller. Peg Perego and Eddy
Bauer umbrella strollers. Fisher Price
highchair/baby swing. Greco Pack
n’ Play. Rear-mount child bicycle
seat (for child aged 9 mns to 3
years). Wooden rocking horse. All in
very good to excellent condition. Call
613-730-1967 --------------------------------------------Cemetary Plot: Capital Memorial
Gardens, space for 3 urns or a casket
and 2 urns; includes perpetual care.
$2000. Call 613-730-2044.
Lots of gently used children’s toys for
sale (for age 4 to 10 approx.)
Call (613)730-0643.
--------------------------------------------Concept2 Rowing Machine $300,
Workout Bench $50; call 565-0119 or
email [email protected]
--------------------------------------------Bone Chine: Hammersley; England;
Dresden Sprays pattern; 49 pieces,
8 place setting; $450. Call 613-7302044.
--------------------------------------------Good quality crib for sale. Call
(613)730-0643
Accommodation
Bungalow(1.5 storey) for sale: 80
Sunnyside Avenue.
Overlooking the Rideau River. www.
grapevine.ca id 18584
--------------------------------------------FOR RENT: Three-bedroom cottage
on Prince Edward Island for rent.
Located right on beach, close to golf
courses, lobster suppers, etc. On
north shore near South Rustico/North
Rustico. Available for rent in June,
July, August and September. Weekly,
biweekly, monthly rental possible.
Mid-season: $600 per week in June
and September. High season: $775
Around Town
Gregorian Chant and Choral Music Classes Open House Evening Monday, July 7, at 8 p.m.
Join Lawrence Harris for a lively hour of musicmaking, and find out about our summer and fall classes
and events. Admission is free, so bring all your friends! Come to room 201 of the Dominican University College,
96 Empress Avenue, just off Somerset St., two traffic lights
west of Bronson. The Summer Basics Choral Music Class takes place on
Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. beginning in July in room 201
of the Dominican University College. You can enroll at any
time, not just at the beginning of the semester. Develop
your skills and boost your confidence – and help keep
the wonderful repertoire of Gregorian chant and sacred
polyphony alive. Help us share this deeply spiritual music
with the wider community through our concerts and special
events, including the Gregorian Chants for Meditation on
Good Friday night, which over a thousand people attend
each year. For more information, call 613-567-7729
The Hospice
Course
Volunteer
Orientation
Our volunteer course will be offered in the Fall beginning
Tuesday September 9th. It will run for 13 consecutive
Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 pm until December 2,
and is required in order to work with Hospice patients and
their families. If you are interested in taking the volunteer
course, please fill out a volunteer application form, which
is available at http://www.hospicemaycourt.com or at the
Hospice’s front reception desk
per week in July and August. Call
730-5006.
Child Care
Looking for half-day a.m. child care
in OOS for the fall? Starting in
September, our family would like to
add kindergarten-aged children to
play with our son at our home in the
mornings. Both our caregiver and
son’s “Floortime”-trained educational
assistant will offer a safe and caring
environment, filled with interactive,
play-based learning and activities
for your child. Call 613.783.9698 or
613.730.4711 for information. --------------------------------------------Nanny available for September - over
20 years experience as a caregiver,
with 10 years working in the Glebe
and Old Ottawa South areas. Outgoing
personality, familiar with surrounding
children programs. CPR and First Aid
Certification. Non-smoker. French/
English. Excellent references. Please
contact Jacqueline at 613-241-2809.
--------------------------------------------Space available in elemtary school
teacher’s home daycare. Bright, busy
playroom, fully-equipped fencedin backyard. Nutritious meals, CPR
and First Aid certified. Fun and
educational. Call Stacey at 613-2391607.
--------------------------------------------Two OOS families looking to add one
child to our home-based daycare this
September. Our ECE-educated nanny
has been with us for 4 years and offers
a caring and stimulating environment.
Call 730-1967 or 730-4128 for more
information.
Looking For
Wanted - garage to rent in Old Ottawa
South/Brantwood. Call Stephen,
Jasmine or Maya: 613 233-0880
--------------------------------------------Volunteer required to edit and revise
sections of the OSCA website:
Community
Services,
Local
Businesses, and History & People.
Previous experience with editing and
basic HTML layout. Contact John
Calvert, 730-9851 or John.Calvert@
oldottawasouth.ca.
--------------------------------------------Wanted - A reliable and responsible
young person to feed my cat, water
plants, etc. for about two weeks late July or early August. Aylmer
Avenue. (613)730-3182.
Elmvale Acres Branch Library
Summer Programs Offered at
Elmvale Acres Branch
1910 St. Laurent Blvd.
Please call for more info.:
613-738-0619 ext. 3
Thursday, June 26, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.)
The Duke of Magic (ages: 4-12)*
Luc Leduc’s magic show includes a dove, a
rabbit and audience participation.
Wednesday, July 9, 2:00 p.m.(45 min.)
* Registration required
ESL – Newcomers Practice Your English
(Adults)
Drop in and practice your English thorough
conversation with
volunteers. In partnership with CESOC.
Tuesdays – 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. (1.5 hr.)
Preparation for the Driving Test – G1*
Learn more about licensing. Presented by:
Rita Attieh from LASSA. Registration: 613218-6263
Tuesday, July 22, 1:00 p.m. (1.5 hr.)
Storytime (3-6 years)*
Stories and rhymes for young children
– parents and caregivers
are welcome to join.
Monday Mornings, July 7, 14, 21, 28, Aug. 11
10:15 a.m. (40 min.)
Contes (3-6 ans)*
Contes et rimes pour les enfants. Parents et
fournisseurs de soins sont les bienvenus.
Les jeudis, 10 juillet, 7 août
10 h 15 (40 min.)
Launch of the TD Summer Reading Club
(SRC) at the Elmvale Acres Branch (children)
Get ready for summer reading! Come join us
for the Launch and pick up your SRC kit.
Yucky Gooey Foods (Ages: 6-10)*
Try your hand at guessing what you touch.
Tuesday, July 15, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.)
Circus Delights (Ages: 5-8)*
Fun all around with stories, games and crafts.
Wednesday, July 16, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.)
TD Summer Reading Club Get-together
(Ages: 5-12)*
Bring a book to share. Fun and games.
Wednesday, July 23, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.)
Face Painting with Jacqueline (Ages: 5-12)*
Artistic designs that will bring a smile to your
face.
Thursday, July 24, 2:00 p.m. (l hr.)
Hilarious Hats (Ages: 6-10)*
Decorate your own funny hat. Hats are
provided.
Wednesday, July 30, 2:00 p.m. (45 min.)
For Bird Eyes Only! (Ages: 3-6)*
Stories, crafts and movies.
Wednesday, August 6, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.)
Funny Farm (Ages: 5-8)*
Fun with barnyard stories, crafts and movies.
Wednesday, August 13, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.)
The OSCAR - OUR 36th YEAR
Page 42
Your
A
Rent
Marketplace
Wife Household Organizers
ENVIRONMENTALLYFRIENDLY CLEANING
“Every working woman needs a wife!”
Regular & Occasional cleaning
Pre & Post move cleaning and packing
Pre & Post renovation cleaning
Blitz & Spring cleaning
Organizing cupboards, basements...
Perhaps a waitress ???
rent-a-wife-ottawa.com
JUL/AUG 2008
One-time, weekly,
bi-monthly or monthly.
Seven years experience.
Insured and Bonded
Laurel 749-2249
CALL 729-2751
EXTRA MILE
RENOVATIONS
Cedar or pressure treated beautiful
custom decks and fences
Quality porches, kitchens, bathrooms
Local Renovator
Creative Solutions
Reasonable Prices
References Available
(613) 297-8079
Gibbon’s Painting and Decorating
Local House Painter - Bonded
With 17 years experience
• interior/exterior painting
Customer satisfaction
ALWAYS GUARANTEED
For a free estimate please call Rory 731-8079
Ask about my $25 referral rebate
Book now for your exterior painting needs
www.gibbonspainting.ca
cell: 613-322-0109
RELIABLE QUALITY CARE
RPN (38 years experience)
Relief for Family Caregiver
Private Duty
Palliative Care Provided
By Michael Moynahan
730-4957
Cell: 240-9394
The OSCAR - OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008
Old Ottawa South Community
Westboro Academy Year End Celebrations
Farmer’s Market
Avenue Road Bench
Photos by M.A. Thompson
Dear Craig, Thank You, Love OSCAR
Page 43
Page 44
The OSCAR - OUR 36th YEAR
JUL/AUG 2008