Rosemary Ganley, Contributing Columnist |
 |
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley, Contributing Columnist
The Peterborough Examiner
October 18, 2025
Jeff Pass finds satisfaction with his voluntary commitment.
Jeff Pass and Yukon
My life experience has not given me much familiarity with dogs. Or pets of any kind. But my neighbourhood is filled with cats, polite dogs and even one pig. And two of my three sons have dogs, who are well-loved members of their families.
Once, one family flew their three-legged mutt from Yellowknife to Edmonton when they moved from the N.W.T. to Alberta. That dog, “Charlie Brown,” had lost a leg surgically, up north, could run like the wind, and soon became a kids’ favorite, with small boys asking, “Hey mister, where do I get a dog like that?”
When we lived in Africa, dogs were not pets, but guard animals.
But I deeply appreciate the modern phenomenon of therapy dogs and the good they do, along with their masters and mistresses, bringing consolation and comfort to the old, the sick, the young and the lonely.
That led me to talk with Jeff Pass of Peterborough and to notice his remarkable generosity in bringing his golden retriever, “Yukon” to PRHC twice a week. Jeff says, with a smile, “It takes 20 minutes just to cross the lobby, so many staff and visitors want to greet Yukon."
He visits such departments as Cancer Care, Emergency, the ICU, Palliative Care and the Eating-Disorder clinic. And the pair are particularly welcome among the nurses on break. In a moving story, Jeff tells me about a local boy mauled a by a dog recently in the area. The boy’s wise parents asked for a therapy dog to visit, so that the boy could find trust again and heal.
He also tells me that at the end of a shift, Yukon often shows signs of fatigue. The dog also is investing his emotions during a visit. Dog visits were cancelled during COVID, but are a popular event now. Up to five therapy dogs can be at the hospital at different times of the week. Therapy dogs also visit retirement homes. For Jeff and Yukon, it is St Joseph’s at Fleming.
They are recruited, assessed, and placed by a volunteer-run group called East Central Therapy Dogs.
After his retirement, Jeff and his partner Cathy acquired Yukon five years ago. They had a desire to contribute more to the community, and got Yukon from a breeder company in Cavan called “As Good as Gold.”
At that time, Yukon’s mother had a litter of eight pups, and some of the local adopting families have stayed in touch and even have an annual, dogs’ birthday party. Two of Yukon’s siblings are Service dogs.
The breed is known to be gentle, up for petting, and at home with strangers. Other breeds that are successful at therapy are Labrador Retrievers, poodles, spaniels and Bernese Mountain dogs. The dogs who qualify as therapy dogs are naturally calm, friendly and well- socialized.
They must be at least one year old, and the handler must be at least 19. The dog must be vaccinated and obedient to basic commands such as “stay.” They must not be jumpers but keep “four on the floor.” They also must be comfortable in a sometimes noisy, institutional setting. After ten supervised visits a full qualification is issued, and it comes with a dog vest, a leash and a bandana.
There are many certified trainers in the Peterborough area who train dogs and issue CGC certificates (“Canine Good Citizen”).
Dogs are tested for their temperament before they are accepted to the program. The East Central Therapy Dogs operates only online (www.ectd.ca) and sets up evaluation sessions. In fact, these sessions are happening October 18 and 19 at Applewood Retirement Residence.
Jeff says his satisfaction doing the voluntary commitment is immense. “I see the simple joy and non-verbal connection that Yukon brings, with his gentle personality and his ability to absorb touch.”
What I see is more human goodness freely given in this city.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner October 18, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
Once, one family flew their three-legged mutt from Yellowknife to Edmonton when they moved from the N.W.T. to Alberta. That dog, “Charlie Brown,” had lost a leg surgically, up north, could run like the wind, and soon became a kids’ favorite, with small boys asking, “Hey mister, where do I get a dog like that?”
When we lived in Africa, dogs were not pets, but guard animals.
But I deeply appreciate the modern phenomenon of therapy dogs and the good they do, along with their masters and mistresses, bringing consolation and comfort to the old, the sick, the young and the lonely.
That led me to talk with Jeff Pass of Peterborough and to notice his remarkable generosity in bringing his golden retriever, “Yukon” to PRHC twice a week. Jeff says, with a smile, “It takes 20 minutes just to cross the lobby, so many staff and visitors want to greet Yukon."
He visits such departments as Cancer Care, Emergency, the ICU, Palliative Care and the Eating-Disorder clinic. And the pair are particularly welcome among the nurses on break. In a moving story, Jeff tells me about a local boy mauled a by a dog recently in the area. The boy’s wise parents asked for a therapy dog to visit, so that the boy could find trust again and heal.
He also tells me that at the end of a shift, Yukon often shows signs of fatigue. The dog also is investing his emotions during a visit. Dog visits were cancelled during COVID, but are a popular event now. Up to five therapy dogs can be at the hospital at different times of the week. Therapy dogs also visit retirement homes. For Jeff and Yukon, it is St Joseph’s at Fleming.
They are recruited, assessed, and placed by a volunteer-run group called East Central Therapy Dogs.
After his retirement, Jeff and his partner Cathy acquired Yukon five years ago. They had a desire to contribute more to the community, and got Yukon from a breeder company in Cavan called “As Good as Gold.”
At that time, Yukon’s mother had a litter of eight pups, and some of the local adopting families have stayed in touch and even have an annual, dogs’ birthday party. Two of Yukon’s siblings are Service dogs.
The breed is known to be gentle, up for petting, and at home with strangers. Other breeds that are successful at therapy are Labrador Retrievers, poodles, spaniels and Bernese Mountain dogs. The dogs who qualify as therapy dogs are naturally calm, friendly and well- socialized.
They must be at least one year old, and the handler must be at least 19. The dog must be vaccinated and obedient to basic commands such as “stay.” They must not be jumpers but keep “four on the floor.” They also must be comfortable in a sometimes noisy, institutional setting. After ten supervised visits a full qualification is issued, and it comes with a dog vest, a leash and a bandana.
There are many certified trainers in the Peterborough area who train dogs and issue CGC certificates (“Canine Good Citizen”).
Dogs are tested for their temperament before they are accepted to the program. The East Central Therapy Dogs operates only online (www.ectd.ca) and sets up evaluation sessions. In fact, these sessions are happening October 18 and 19 at Applewood Retirement Residence.
Jeff says his satisfaction doing the voluntary commitment is immense. “I see the simple joy and non-verbal connection that Yukon brings, with his gentle personality and his ability to absorb touch.”
What I see is more human goodness freely given in this city.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner October 18, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley, Contributing Columnist
The Peterborough Examiner
October 11, 2025
Feeling positive about the possibilities of human progress.
 |  |
Some years ago, I served for two years on the national Board of Amnesty International. It was a social justice and human rights organization I had long admired. It took up, anywhere in the world, the dilemmas of individuals, sometimes groups, who were unjustly oppressed, held in captivity, and sometimes tortured or “disappeared.”
By what method did Amnesty members protest? By the straightforward, non-violent way of writing a letter. An ordinary person could depend on the honesty and research skills of Amnesty to supply them with the indisputable facts of the case, and the address of the head of state of the country involved. We were counselled to be polite, even if we were feeling outraged.
The actions which A. I. members took were manageable, even appropriate for senior high schoolers. Amnesty collected evidence from citizen informers in the various locations, verified it carefully, and then informed its membership. It was a significant source of information and lobbying, which had been started in 1961 in the U.K. by a lawyer, Peter Benenson.
He was galvanized into action by a newspaper article reporting that two college students in Portugal had been arrested by Antonio Salazar’s police for toasting freedom. He roused others, including Quaker friends.
In 1948, on December 10 at the United Nations in New York, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been signed by the countries of the world. It was the great achievement of a world weary of war.
There is a Canadian connection that should make us proud. John Humphrey, a McGill University law professor, working with Eleanor Roosevelt, the widely-admired widow of the American president “FDR,” wrote the first draft of the document, which has 30 “articles” or statements, beginning with, “All people are born free and equal.”
Humphrey had been born in Hampton, New Brunswick. Two years ago, a bronzed statue was unveiled there in his honour. This will be a new pilgrimage site.
Alex Neve, born in Calgary and educated at Dalhousie Law School, served for 20 years as the Executive Director of Amnesty Canada (anglophone) and travelled on 40 fact-finding trips to troubled countries. Amnesty is opposed to the death penalty.
His five lectures this fall (in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Labrador City and Ottawa) have been sell-out events, laced with stories of everyday heroes and heroines, and ending with lively question and answer sessions.
The talks are also collected in a best-selling book entitled “Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World.” They will be heard on the CBC Ideas radio program, beginning on November 17. It will mark Ideas’ 60th anniversary.
Peterborough has long had its own A.I. activists. Called “Group 46,” it is led by Janet Bradley, Tina Dyck, Connie Parry and Daphne Ingram. On Human Rights Day December 10, public letter-writing sessions are held at various churches, and at Dream of Beans cafe.
Details of cases and addresses are supplied to volunteers who drop by. Other events include plant sales, guest speakers in schools, and linking with Amnesty groups in nearby communities. Amnesty Peterborough members take part in walks and demonstrations for peace and justice.
Nationally, Canada has two sections, Anglophone and Francophone, with 70,000 members. It depends on donations. In order to keep strict independence, it does not issue tax receipts and accepts no money from government or other sources. It appeals to younger and diverse Canadians, in these times of intense threat.
My own small contribution to policy came in 2002 when Amnesty globally was considering the inclusion of sexual and reproductive rights as human rights to defend and advocate for. The Catholic bishops of Canada issued a public statement advising Catholics not to donate to Amnesty. I was able to assure the A.I. board at the time, that the bishops spoke only for themselves on this matter.
The grasp and enthusiasm of the crowd of 2000 at Alex Neve’s Toronto lecture, held at the breathtaking Koerner Hall which houses the University of Toronto School of Music, left me feeling positive about the possibilities of human progress.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner October 11, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
By what method did Amnesty members protest? By the straightforward, non-violent way of writing a letter. An ordinary person could depend on the honesty and research skills of Amnesty to supply them with the indisputable facts of the case, and the address of the head of state of the country involved. We were counselled to be polite, even if we were feeling outraged.
The actions which A. I. members took were manageable, even appropriate for senior high schoolers. Amnesty collected evidence from citizen informers in the various locations, verified it carefully, and then informed its membership. It was a significant source of information and lobbying, which had been started in 1961 in the U.K. by a lawyer, Peter Benenson.
He was galvanized into action by a newspaper article reporting that two college students in Portugal had been arrested by Antonio Salazar’s police for toasting freedom. He roused others, including Quaker friends.
In 1948, on December 10 at the United Nations in New York, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been signed by the countries of the world. It was the great achievement of a world weary of war.
There is a Canadian connection that should make us proud. John Humphrey, a McGill University law professor, working with Eleanor Roosevelt, the widely-admired widow of the American president “FDR,” wrote the first draft of the document, which has 30 “articles” or statements, beginning with, “All people are born free and equal.”
Humphrey had been born in Hampton, New Brunswick. Two years ago, a bronzed statue was unveiled there in his honour. This will be a new pilgrimage site.
Alex Neve, born in Calgary and educated at Dalhousie Law School, served for 20 years as the Executive Director of Amnesty Canada (anglophone) and travelled on 40 fact-finding trips to troubled countries. Amnesty is opposed to the death penalty.
His five lectures this fall (in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Labrador City and Ottawa) have been sell-out events, laced with stories of everyday heroes and heroines, and ending with lively question and answer sessions.
The talks are also collected in a best-selling book entitled “Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World.” They will be heard on the CBC Ideas radio program, beginning on November 17. It will mark Ideas’ 60th anniversary.
Peterborough has long had its own A.I. activists. Called “Group 46,” it is led by Janet Bradley, Tina Dyck, Connie Parry and Daphne Ingram. On Human Rights Day December 10, public letter-writing sessions are held at various churches, and at Dream of Beans cafe.
Details of cases and addresses are supplied to volunteers who drop by. Other events include plant sales, guest speakers in schools, and linking with Amnesty groups in nearby communities. Amnesty Peterborough members take part in walks and demonstrations for peace and justice.
Nationally, Canada has two sections, Anglophone and Francophone, with 70,000 members. It depends on donations. In order to keep strict independence, it does not issue tax receipts and accepts no money from government or other sources. It appeals to younger and diverse Canadians, in these times of intense threat.
My own small contribution to policy came in 2002 when Amnesty globally was considering the inclusion of sexual and reproductive rights as human rights to defend and advocate for. The Catholic bishops of Canada issued a public statement advising Catholics not to donate to Amnesty. I was able to assure the A.I. board at the time, that the bishops spoke only for themselves on this matter.
The grasp and enthusiasm of the crowd of 2000 at Alex Neve’s Toronto lecture, held at the breathtaking Koerner Hall which houses the University of Toronto School of Music, left me feeling positive about the possibilities of human progress.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner October 11, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley, Contributing Columnist
The Peterborough Examiner
October 4, 2025
The U.S. is weakened by the growing gap between rich and poor.
Thirty-five years ago, Trent University had a professor, a francophone, Carole Roy, who had a wide, progressive influence on Peterborough. Centrally, she started what has become the Reframe Film Festival.
Carole was a person thoroughly engaged with the people of the city. She specialized in adult education, and was hired away by St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Now 71, retired and living in Victoria, Carole did us a favour recently by sending around a valuable essay on fascism by American journalist Chris Armitage. It shows how concerned he is with the U.S drift into authoritarianism, and even to fascism. In 7 short months, that country has flouted, and in some cases dismantled, many democratic institutions that took 200 years to build.
Democracy is under siege. Under Donald Trump and his regime, it is shrinking there before our very eyes. We are stunned. Look at today’s menacing remarks on “the enemy within.”
The U.S. exhibits all the key characteristics of fascism as defined by historical examples. Scores of other political and cultural observers are raising similar alarms. I refer to David Frum, a Canadian conservative now writing for the Atlantic Monthly; Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labour; Charlie Angus, the Canadian heading up resistance, who is speaking in Peterborough on October 15; Professor Timothy Snyder; and Andrew Coyne of CBC's "At Issue" and columnist for the Globe & Mail.
We need to talk, learn and grasp the threats. They have come on us suddenly, and our intellectual commentators have not yet got their analysis together to contribute to sound opinion. I myself would gladly sign up for a course to remediate my own ignorance. But where?
Definitions of fascism can be found on Wikipedia. As a system, it is marked by a dictatorial leader, suppression of opposition by force, a heavy emphasis on militarism, and the regimentation of society. We look at the United States and see chilling examples of all these, everyday.
Once fascists win power democratically, history shows they have never once been removed democratically. Germany and Italy have been through fascist periods. Only a world war defeated them. Now Hungary, in the very heart of Europe, leans that way. The average length of fascist rule is 31 miserable years. Mr. Orban in Hungary was elected in 2010. By 2011, he’d re-written the constitution. by 2012 he controlled the media, and by 2013 he had gutted the judiciary.
In this dreary history, only Finland in 1932 escaped fascist rule, because the military stayed loyal to democracy. Similar is the effort of six American generals last week who issued a statement that Mr Trump is demented and a threat to the country. The only thing is, they are retired.
A friend sent me a recent interview with respected Canadian historian, Margaret MacMillan at Oxford University. She is deeply worried. She says it is possible that in human history, democracy may be a mere blip.
Daily, Mr Trump initiates actions that can be described as fascist, most recently the announcement that his arch-enemy who investigated links between his election victories in 2016/2024 and Russia, FBI director James Comey would be prosecuted.
In America, weakened by the growing gap between rich and poor, and an attachment to gun ownership, the democratic dream is looking more like a nightmare. Can we differentiate ourselves?
Certain American politicians are giving hope to people. California Governor Gavin Newsom is organizing several western states to run its own health system. California is a powerhouse, with a population equal in number to the total of 20 other states. Newsom is uttering the word “secession,” which means to withdraw from a political arrangement.
The lively group Democrats Abroad in Peterborough organized an in-person session on October 2 at Take Cover Books. The short book “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder, who has just arrived to teach at the University of Toronto from Yale University, was the subject of the discussion.
Locally, the topic was opened up, responsibly. Dynamic, citizen-led learning, driven by fear and by distaste.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner October 4, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
Carole was a person thoroughly engaged with the people of the city. She specialized in adult education, and was hired away by St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Now 71, retired and living in Victoria, Carole did us a favour recently by sending around a valuable essay on fascism by American journalist Chris Armitage. It shows how concerned he is with the U.S drift into authoritarianism, and even to fascism. In 7 short months, that country has flouted, and in some cases dismantled, many democratic institutions that took 200 years to build.
Democracy is under siege. Under Donald Trump and his regime, it is shrinking there before our very eyes. We are stunned. Look at today’s menacing remarks on “the enemy within.”
The U.S. exhibits all the key characteristics of fascism as defined by historical examples. Scores of other political and cultural observers are raising similar alarms. I refer to David Frum, a Canadian conservative now writing for the Atlantic Monthly; Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labour; Charlie Angus, the Canadian heading up resistance, who is speaking in Peterborough on October 15; Professor Timothy Snyder; and Andrew Coyne of CBC's "At Issue" and columnist for the Globe & Mail.
We need to talk, learn and grasp the threats. They have come on us suddenly, and our intellectual commentators have not yet got their analysis together to contribute to sound opinion. I myself would gladly sign up for a course to remediate my own ignorance. But where?
Definitions of fascism can be found on Wikipedia. As a system, it is marked by a dictatorial leader, suppression of opposition by force, a heavy emphasis on militarism, and the regimentation of society. We look at the United States and see chilling examples of all these, everyday.
Once fascists win power democratically, history shows they have never once been removed democratically. Germany and Italy have been through fascist periods. Only a world war defeated them. Now Hungary, in the very heart of Europe, leans that way. The average length of fascist rule is 31 miserable years. Mr. Orban in Hungary was elected in 2010. By 2011, he’d re-written the constitution. by 2012 he controlled the media, and by 2013 he had gutted the judiciary.
In this dreary history, only Finland in 1932 escaped fascist rule, because the military stayed loyal to democracy. Similar is the effort of six American generals last week who issued a statement that Mr Trump is demented and a threat to the country. The only thing is, they are retired.
A friend sent me a recent interview with respected Canadian historian, Margaret MacMillan at Oxford University. She is deeply worried. She says it is possible that in human history, democracy may be a mere blip.
Daily, Mr Trump initiates actions that can be described as fascist, most recently the announcement that his arch-enemy who investigated links between his election victories in 2016/2024 and Russia, FBI director James Comey would be prosecuted.
In America, weakened by the growing gap between rich and poor, and an attachment to gun ownership, the democratic dream is looking more like a nightmare. Can we differentiate ourselves?
Certain American politicians are giving hope to people. California Governor Gavin Newsom is organizing several western states to run its own health system. California is a powerhouse, with a population equal in number to the total of 20 other states. Newsom is uttering the word “secession,” which means to withdraw from a political arrangement.
The lively group Democrats Abroad in Peterborough organized an in-person session on October 2 at Take Cover Books. The short book “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder, who has just arrived to teach at the University of Toronto from Yale University, was the subject of the discussion.
Locally, the topic was opened up, responsibly. Dynamic, citizen-led learning, driven by fear and by distaste.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner October 4, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley, Contributing Columnist
The Peterborough Examiner
September 27, 2025
Considered one of the 10 worst disasters in Canadian history.
I’m taking my own advice and peering more closely at my family’s past.
This has been aided in large part by a recent serendipitous event when I was having tea at the home of friend Gloria Macdonald, and noticed a huge glossy blue book on her table, entitled “The Great Fire of 1922.”
Gloria, who had lived her first 13 years in the northern Ontario mining town of Kirkland Lake, where I had spent my childhood and youth before her, has maintained a keen interest in the town, the whole area and its history.
The disaster, which lasted only one afternoon and took 44 lives, started in Haileybury after a hot dry summer and fall. The collected testimony of survivors compiled recently by Deborah Ranchuk, with many ominous photos, gives a grainy realism to the story that galvanized the province and indeed the country.
The Haileybury Fire was considered one of the ten worst disasters in Canadian history. It affected 18 townships in the district of Temiskaming. Towns, villages and hamlets with such names as North Cobalt, Uno Park, Charlton, Thornloe, Heaslip, New Liskeard and Engelhart, along with their farms, animals and crops, were burned out. Six hundred and fifty square miles were wracked by the huge, devastating forest fire on one afternoon on October 4, 1922.
To the everlasting credit of the Haileybury Heritage Museum, this commemorative book was published 100 years after the disaster. It collected 160 photos and scores of touching recollections, largely from children at the time, now writing from a terrified memory.
Gloria Macdonald acquired the book in 2022, and noticed that my mother Marjorie Hogg Burns, who was an eighteen-year-old schoolteacher born in New Liskeard, and having trained at North Bay Teachers College, was in charge of the all-age school in the hamlet of Whitewood Grove, and had been a heroine of the fire. She was even mentioned in dispatches in the Globe and Mail at the time.
It seems the teacher-teenager covered her pupils with wet blankets and herded them outside, dousing sparks as they landed. Many thousands, closer to the shores of Lake Temiskaming, sought refuge in the lake. Sadly, one family perished of suffocation, going down into a well.
Haileybury now has a fitting outdoor sculpture of three people, done by artist Ernie Fauvelle, showing a kneeling man handing a swaddled child into the arms of a woman standing knee-deep in the lake. She is surrounded by stones for ballast.
Six thousand people were left homeless by the fire. Hearing that, kind Torontonians sent 150 streetcars by rail which served as homes for up to three years. The day after the fire swept through, snow fell.
Winter clothing arrived too, on one of two rail lines: the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) from Toronto to Cochrane via North Bay, and the CNR, west of it, from Toronto to Sudbury.
I found it heart-stopping reading. It was a crown forest fire, the most dangerous of the three types: ground, surface and crown. The crown type has the fearsome ability when it reaches treetops, to create a vacuum so fierce that the fire jumps in great leaps, creating its own winds of 70 mph.
My mother told us that her beau at the time tried to ride a horse from New Liskeard along a country road engulfed in flames on both sides, to rescue her. He perished.
Some farms, which had been spared, housed up to 40 people for days. The values of those days shine through the book. It opens with a humble prayer “Let us grow old with gladness, peace in our hearts and tolerance for the young who take our place.”
I, for one, am thankful I have ancestors of this mettle and many like them, to have settled Canada. Their qualities of courage and connectedness, of simplicity and generosity are exactly what we need in 2025 as we face defining ourselves all over again.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 27, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
This has been aided in large part by a recent serendipitous event when I was having tea at the home of friend Gloria Macdonald, and noticed a huge glossy blue book on her table, entitled “The Great Fire of 1922.”
Gloria, who had lived her first 13 years in the northern Ontario mining town of Kirkland Lake, where I had spent my childhood and youth before her, has maintained a keen interest in the town, the whole area and its history.
The disaster, which lasted only one afternoon and took 44 lives, started in Haileybury after a hot dry summer and fall. The collected testimony of survivors compiled recently by Deborah Ranchuk, with many ominous photos, gives a grainy realism to the story that galvanized the province and indeed the country.
The Haileybury Fire was considered one of the ten worst disasters in Canadian history. It affected 18 townships in the district of Temiskaming. Towns, villages and hamlets with such names as North Cobalt, Uno Park, Charlton, Thornloe, Heaslip, New Liskeard and Engelhart, along with their farms, animals and crops, were burned out. Six hundred and fifty square miles were wracked by the huge, devastating forest fire on one afternoon on October 4, 1922.
To the everlasting credit of the Haileybury Heritage Museum, this commemorative book was published 100 years after the disaster. It collected 160 photos and scores of touching recollections, largely from children at the time, now writing from a terrified memory.
Gloria Macdonald acquired the book in 2022, and noticed that my mother Marjorie Hogg Burns, who was an eighteen-year-old schoolteacher born in New Liskeard, and having trained at North Bay Teachers College, was in charge of the all-age school in the hamlet of Whitewood Grove, and had been a heroine of the fire. She was even mentioned in dispatches in the Globe and Mail at the time.
It seems the teacher-teenager covered her pupils with wet blankets and herded them outside, dousing sparks as they landed. Many thousands, closer to the shores of Lake Temiskaming, sought refuge in the lake. Sadly, one family perished of suffocation, going down into a well.
Haileybury now has a fitting outdoor sculpture of three people, done by artist Ernie Fauvelle, showing a kneeling man handing a swaddled child into the arms of a woman standing knee-deep in the lake. She is surrounded by stones for ballast.
Six thousand people were left homeless by the fire. Hearing that, kind Torontonians sent 150 streetcars by rail which served as homes for up to three years. The day after the fire swept through, snow fell.
Winter clothing arrived too, on one of two rail lines: the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) from Toronto to Cochrane via North Bay, and the CNR, west of it, from Toronto to Sudbury.
I found it heart-stopping reading. It was a crown forest fire, the most dangerous of the three types: ground, surface and crown. The crown type has the fearsome ability when it reaches treetops, to create a vacuum so fierce that the fire jumps in great leaps, creating its own winds of 70 mph.
My mother told us that her beau at the time tried to ride a horse from New Liskeard along a country road engulfed in flames on both sides, to rescue her. He perished.
Some farms, which had been spared, housed up to 40 people for days. The values of those days shine through the book. It opens with a humble prayer “Let us grow old with gladness, peace in our hearts and tolerance for the young who take our place.”
I, for one, am thankful I have ancestors of this mettle and many like them, to have settled Canada. Their qualities of courage and connectedness, of simplicity and generosity are exactly what we need in 2025 as we face defining ourselves all over again.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 27, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley, Contributing Columnist
The Peterborough Examiner
September 20, 2025
Outspoken with the NDP, he has long championed causes he believes in.
For many years I have watched and admired the great Canadian patriot, Charlie Angus.
In the early 2000’s I commuted by the way of the late, lamented bus company Greyhound, from Peterborough to Toronto three days a week, to work as co-editor of an independent weekly newspaper, Catholic New Times.
That bus sailed down the Don Valley Parkway at a reasonable time of the morning, and onto Richmond Street. Not long after, it dropped me off at the corner of Parliament Street, where there was an old school, St Paul’s. The school had empty space for our non-profit, newspaper enterprise.
Our paper, all 16 pages, was produced by four people; dynamic editor and former teacher, Ted Schmidt, two young men, one with a flair for design, and me, the feminist voice. We were on the top floor of the school.
The office was filled with volunteers, Toronto’s left-wing Catholics who believed in reforming the church, and in the power of the press. Our adversaries, the stand-pat people in the pews, the Toronto bishops and their priests, refused to circulate our paper or even mention it in parishes. But at our best, we had 30,000 subscribers from across the country, and considerable clout.
Started in 1976 by progressives Mary Jo Leddy, and Jim Webb SJ, CNT had a cheeky newsroom with signs such as "If you won’t ordain women, stop dressing like them.”
I remember our U.S. counterpart, the National Catholic Reporter out of Kansas City, saying that we were able to print items they never could. It was for me an early indicator of the difference between our societies.
We were especially proud of our columnists. They wrote out of passion for the good, and for a pittance. The most popular was Charlie Angus, a young man who had been born in Timmins, had come to the University of Toronto, and with his wife Britt Griffin, in youthful faith and enthusiasm, founded a Catholic Worker House for street people. The CWH also played host to critical, intellectual gatherings on all topics, whether from church or state, and published a broadsheet that they sold for one cent, that affected middle-class believers who came by to donate and be influenced.
Later, Charlie and Britt with their three little daughters, moved north to Cobalt, a run- down, silver-mining town. He entered NDP politics, representing the federal riding of Timmins-James Bay for 21 years, always with his gaze on working people, the excluded and First Nations.
One has extra trust in a politician who is also an artist - in Charlie’s case, a musician and songwriter. For years, he has headed up a punk rock band with five others called The Grievous Angels. Charlie says he writes about “tragic, blue-collar outposts.” I grew up in one, not far from Cobalt. I recognize them.
He was passed over for head of the NDP, and in recent months retired from electoral politics. But in the face of the rapid American descent into fascism, a country ruled by the Republican party under the odious D. Trump, Canada has been awakening to its own goodness and value. The American bear has become a bully.
So Charlie took up a cause - crossing the country to locations everywhere he is invited by a small group of aware people, in a movement called The Resistance. He speaks strongly, with his inimitable working-class idioms, about the threats to our country and to democracy itself, coming from the southern regime. He uses social media too.
It is our good luck that Charlie Angus will speak at The Venue in Peterborough on October 15. The moderator will be writer-actor Kate Story.
Between calls to resistance, Charlie plays music at festivals with his band, most recently at our own Peterborough Folk Festival.
Justin Sutton heads up a local committee that has booked Charlie Angus for October 15 at the Venue. Such tours involve expenses, and the local union movement has stepped up, as is usual. Try not to miss this event.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 20, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
In the early 2000’s I commuted by the way of the late, lamented bus company Greyhound, from Peterborough to Toronto three days a week, to work as co-editor of an independent weekly newspaper, Catholic New Times.
That bus sailed down the Don Valley Parkway at a reasonable time of the morning, and onto Richmond Street. Not long after, it dropped me off at the corner of Parliament Street, where there was an old school, St Paul’s. The school had empty space for our non-profit, newspaper enterprise.
Our paper, all 16 pages, was produced by four people; dynamic editor and former teacher, Ted Schmidt, two young men, one with a flair for design, and me, the feminist voice. We were on the top floor of the school.
The office was filled with volunteers, Toronto’s left-wing Catholics who believed in reforming the church, and in the power of the press. Our adversaries, the stand-pat people in the pews, the Toronto bishops and their priests, refused to circulate our paper or even mention it in parishes. But at our best, we had 30,000 subscribers from across the country, and considerable clout.
Started in 1976 by progressives Mary Jo Leddy, and Jim Webb SJ, CNT had a cheeky newsroom with signs such as "If you won’t ordain women, stop dressing like them.”
I remember our U.S. counterpart, the National Catholic Reporter out of Kansas City, saying that we were able to print items they never could. It was for me an early indicator of the difference between our societies.
We were especially proud of our columnists. They wrote out of passion for the good, and for a pittance. The most popular was Charlie Angus, a young man who had been born in Timmins, had come to the University of Toronto, and with his wife Britt Griffin, in youthful faith and enthusiasm, founded a Catholic Worker House for street people. The CWH also played host to critical, intellectual gatherings on all topics, whether from church or state, and published a broadsheet that they sold for one cent, that affected middle-class believers who came by to donate and be influenced.
Later, Charlie and Britt with their three little daughters, moved north to Cobalt, a run- down, silver-mining town. He entered NDP politics, representing the federal riding of Timmins-James Bay for 21 years, always with his gaze on working people, the excluded and First Nations.
One has extra trust in a politician who is also an artist - in Charlie’s case, a musician and songwriter. For years, he has headed up a punk rock band with five others called The Grievous Angels. Charlie says he writes about “tragic, blue-collar outposts.” I grew up in one, not far from Cobalt. I recognize them.
He was passed over for head of the NDP, and in recent months retired from electoral politics. But in the face of the rapid American descent into fascism, a country ruled by the Republican party under the odious D. Trump, Canada has been awakening to its own goodness and value. The American bear has become a bully.
So Charlie took up a cause - crossing the country to locations everywhere he is invited by a small group of aware people, in a movement called The Resistance. He speaks strongly, with his inimitable working-class idioms, about the threats to our country and to democracy itself, coming from the southern regime. He uses social media too.
It is our good luck that Charlie Angus will speak at The Venue in Peterborough on October 15. The moderator will be writer-actor Kate Story.
Between calls to resistance, Charlie plays music at festivals with his band, most recently at our own Peterborough Folk Festival.
Justin Sutton heads up a local committee that has booked Charlie Angus for October 15 at the Venue. Such tours involve expenses, and the local union movement has stepped up, as is usual. Try not to miss this event.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 20, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley, Contributing Columnist
The Peterborough Examiner
September 11, 2025
Book ban proposal reminiscent of similar challenge in Peterborough 50 years ago.
Oldtimers will remember the embarrassment Peterborough endured, as well as the hit to its reputation as an enlightened place, during the time of nasty challenges to Margaret Laurence’s novel “The Diviners” back in the ’70 and ’80s.
It started in 1976, and the author was an acclaimed Canadian novelist who had chosen to live in Lakefield. Her honest and original stories were successfully taught in senior English classes of the former Peterborough Public School Board.
A few fundamentalist parents, not understanding the values of reading, and led by a woman from Apsley, objected to the teaching of “The Diviners” in local secondary schools on the basis she felt it was pornographic and “reeked of sordidness and vulgar language.”
The prospect of censorship reared its ugly head here.
In response, the school board drew up a committee of trustees, teachers and parents to examine the charges. Their report unanimously approved the teaching of the novel. I remember the eloquent testimony in support of its inclusion from my friends, teachers Bob Buchanan and Nan Williamson, and from student Claire Robertson.
Fifty years later, an unenlightened right-wing premier of Alberta presides over a similar backward attempt to control thought, through blundering moves.
It has been revealed the provincial Ministry of Education, headed by Demetrios Nicolaides, issued a list of 200 books that must not appear in schools.
Shades of the Inquisition.
(Last week, the province said it would pause the book restriction to give it two months to re-examine the list. Now the province is saying the ban would only target books containing sexual images. A final decision on the books included in the ban has yet to be determined.)
Whether some clever person in the ministry released this list to embarrass the government is not known, although hyperpartisan Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she suspects it might be “malicious compliance,” meant to embarrass the government. With phrases like that, she needs to do more reading.
The United Conservative Party is led by Smith, who, when 22, read “Atlas Shrugged” by Russian American writer Ayn Rand. She has said it shaped her political philosophy.
I describe Smith as “Trump-lite.” She flirts with the idea of an independent Alberta, seems difficult to deal with in the federation, is casual about vaccines, and appears to hold a long grudge. Among the initial order to ban the books were Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” George Orwell’s “1984,” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” Also, for good measure, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker,” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, and my all-time favourite, “The Fire-Dwellers,” also by Margaret Laurence.
And, lo and behold, “Atlas Shrugged.”
Fifty years ago, Laurence, a practising Christian and a woman of tender feelings, was deeply wounded by the controversy. She died in 1987.
In 2025, Atwood is funny and feisty and hits back with wit and learning. She has a new public tool — Substack. I didn’t know what that was, but I’m glad it is serving the cause of freedom.
Another factor amplifying the impact of freedom is that readers can access the banned books on other platforms. A major television series was made from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I had a handmaid’s outfit made for me by Cathy Ogrodnik of Peterborough, complete with winged hat and red cape, and when I wore it on the streets of Victoria during a women’s meeting, it was instantly recognized and cheered.
So good luck to the premier. Do you know teens will flock to banned anything? Atwood herself says that Alberta readers are the most numerous in Canada, and independent-minded too. Clumsy political attempts to control reading have led to the formation of PEN International to protect writers, and to strengthen publishers, sellers, and librarians seeking to defend the freedom to read.
In that sense, the government of Alberta has shown its menacing hand, and has alerted Canadians to the presence of USA-style threats here.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 11, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
It started in 1976, and the author was an acclaimed Canadian novelist who had chosen to live in Lakefield. Her honest and original stories were successfully taught in senior English classes of the former Peterborough Public School Board.
A few fundamentalist parents, not understanding the values of reading, and led by a woman from Apsley, objected to the teaching of “The Diviners” in local secondary schools on the basis she felt it was pornographic and “reeked of sordidness and vulgar language.”
The prospect of censorship reared its ugly head here.
In response, the school board drew up a committee of trustees, teachers and parents to examine the charges. Their report unanimously approved the teaching of the novel. I remember the eloquent testimony in support of its inclusion from my friends, teachers Bob Buchanan and Nan Williamson, and from student Claire Robertson.
Fifty years later, an unenlightened right-wing premier of Alberta presides over a similar backward attempt to control thought, through blundering moves.
It has been revealed the provincial Ministry of Education, headed by Demetrios Nicolaides, issued a list of 200 books that must not appear in schools.
Shades of the Inquisition.
(Last week, the province said it would pause the book restriction to give it two months to re-examine the list. Now the province is saying the ban would only target books containing sexual images. A final decision on the books included in the ban has yet to be determined.)
Whether some clever person in the ministry released this list to embarrass the government is not known, although hyperpartisan Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she suspects it might be “malicious compliance,” meant to embarrass the government. With phrases like that, she needs to do more reading.
The United Conservative Party is led by Smith, who, when 22, read “Atlas Shrugged” by Russian American writer Ayn Rand. She has said it shaped her political philosophy.
I describe Smith as “Trump-lite.” She flirts with the idea of an independent Alberta, seems difficult to deal with in the federation, is casual about vaccines, and appears to hold a long grudge. Among the initial order to ban the books were Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” George Orwell’s “1984,” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” Also, for good measure, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker,” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, and my all-time favourite, “The Fire-Dwellers,” also by Margaret Laurence.
And, lo and behold, “Atlas Shrugged.”
Fifty years ago, Laurence, a practising Christian and a woman of tender feelings, was deeply wounded by the controversy. She died in 1987.
In 2025, Atwood is funny and feisty and hits back with wit and learning. She has a new public tool — Substack. I didn’t know what that was, but I’m glad it is serving the cause of freedom.
Another factor amplifying the impact of freedom is that readers can access the banned books on other platforms. A major television series was made from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I had a handmaid’s outfit made for me by Cathy Ogrodnik of Peterborough, complete with winged hat and red cape, and when I wore it on the streets of Victoria during a women’s meeting, it was instantly recognized and cheered.
So good luck to the premier. Do you know teens will flock to banned anything? Atwood herself says that Alberta readers are the most numerous in Canada, and independent-minded too. Clumsy political attempts to control reading have led to the formation of PEN International to protect writers, and to strengthen publishers, sellers, and librarians seeking to defend the freedom to read.
In that sense, the government of Alberta has shown its menacing hand, and has alerted Canadians to the presence of USA-style threats here.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 11, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
September 6, 2025
Local Funeral Director keeps busy with his many passions.
After I spoke with John Cunningham, owner-director of the Community Alternative and Ashburnham Funeral Home at Dream of Beans (which under host Andrew’s welcome is fast becoming a community hub) I was uncertain which of John’s many interests and life experiences to highlight.
Born in Toronto of Scottish roots, and raised in London, Ontario, John had a grandfather who established a funeral home in Sarnia early on, but he showed little interest in that pursuit. He cites his slow progress in academics in a self-deprecating way, and the fact that he completed high school as a 26-year-old among teenagers. It is a story of late-blooming.
He spent two years at Trent and then enrolled in Humber College, where funeral directors in Ontario are trained. He learned to play the tuba in Grade 7, and is a member of the Peterborough Concert Band and Vintage Brass Quintet.
Deeply community-minded, he serves on the Mapleridge Centre Marketing Committee, and is a Current Board Member for Showplace. He gives leadership to the funeral industry in Ontario, serving as president of the Ontario Funeral Service Association, and is the Past Chair of Guaranteed Funeral Deposits of Canada. He has been keen to see reforms instituted, one being transparency in rates for services.
Peterborough has seven funeral homes, and John is proud of the progress his has made. His business now employs ten people. Personnel at a funeral home are partly social workers, dealing with and comforting people who are under stress and sadness.
Full disclosure here. My spouse John died 12 years ago, and my family dealt with Community Alternative to our complete satisfaction. Even more appealing now, is that the funeral business offers an alternative to the cremation of human remains (which is carbon emission intensive) in the form of aquamation, which is water used in a process to turn bones into powder.
Short of “green burials” (not available in Peterborough) in which a shroud is used instead of embalming plus a wooden or biodegradable casket, aquamation is a good choice for the environmentally conscious.
John has established an aquamation facility on Lansdowne Avenue.
He came to the area in 1999, worked at Nisbet Funeral Home, and opened the Community Alternative in 2012. The property on Armour Road has an open appearance, good parking and space for a chapel. He credits former MPP and qualified funeral director Gary Stewart for help and advice over the past 20 years.
There are two more crucial aspects to the life of John Cunningham. One is his interest in travel, and another is his remarkable recovery from an accident four years ago after he was hit by a car from behind while walking with a friend one evening. He was badly injured, and airlifted to St Michael’s Hospital where he spent many months in recovery.
I enjoyed the learning I gained from our conversation, in preparation for a workshop I hope to offer, “Planning a Good Death” at Trent Continuing Education this coming year.
Lastly, John waxes enthusiastic about travelling with the Canadian Tour Company "G Adventures" to Asia recently, primarily to Cambodia.
I interrupt him with a coincidental story. Last December at my induction into the Order of Canada, Jamaican-Canadian businessman Bruce Poon Tip was lauded for the cultural sensitivity his travel company "G Adventures" shows in all their projects-!
Bruce Poon Tip, founder of “G Adventures” is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was born in Trinidad, and named in 2023.
Cambodia, a country of 17 million people, largely Buddhist, suffered a genocide during 1975-79 by the militant group Khmer Rouge under leader Pol Pot. So brutal was the regime, the area was known as the “killing fields.” It is now, after the peace accord of 1991, a constitutional monarchy which is multi-party and agricultural.
John thrived on this trip. He says the biggest challenge was spelling and pronouncing the capital, Phnom Penh.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 6, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
Born in Toronto of Scottish roots, and raised in London, Ontario, John had a grandfather who established a funeral home in Sarnia early on, but he showed little interest in that pursuit. He cites his slow progress in academics in a self-deprecating way, and the fact that he completed high school as a 26-year-old among teenagers. It is a story of late-blooming.
He spent two years at Trent and then enrolled in Humber College, where funeral directors in Ontario are trained. He learned to play the tuba in Grade 7, and is a member of the Peterborough Concert Band and Vintage Brass Quintet.
Deeply community-minded, he serves on the Mapleridge Centre Marketing Committee, and is a Current Board Member for Showplace. He gives leadership to the funeral industry in Ontario, serving as president of the Ontario Funeral Service Association, and is the Past Chair of Guaranteed Funeral Deposits of Canada. He has been keen to see reforms instituted, one being transparency in rates for services.
Peterborough has seven funeral homes, and John is proud of the progress his has made. His business now employs ten people. Personnel at a funeral home are partly social workers, dealing with and comforting people who are under stress and sadness.
Full disclosure here. My spouse John died 12 years ago, and my family dealt with Community Alternative to our complete satisfaction. Even more appealing now, is that the funeral business offers an alternative to the cremation of human remains (which is carbon emission intensive) in the form of aquamation, which is water used in a process to turn bones into powder.
Short of “green burials” (not available in Peterborough) in which a shroud is used instead of embalming plus a wooden or biodegradable casket, aquamation is a good choice for the environmentally conscious.
John has established an aquamation facility on Lansdowne Avenue.
He came to the area in 1999, worked at Nisbet Funeral Home, and opened the Community Alternative in 2012. The property on Armour Road has an open appearance, good parking and space for a chapel. He credits former MPP and qualified funeral director Gary Stewart for help and advice over the past 20 years.
There are two more crucial aspects to the life of John Cunningham. One is his interest in travel, and another is his remarkable recovery from an accident four years ago after he was hit by a car from behind while walking with a friend one evening. He was badly injured, and airlifted to St Michael’s Hospital where he spent many months in recovery.
I enjoyed the learning I gained from our conversation, in preparation for a workshop I hope to offer, “Planning a Good Death” at Trent Continuing Education this coming year.
Lastly, John waxes enthusiastic about travelling with the Canadian Tour Company "G Adventures" to Asia recently, primarily to Cambodia.
I interrupt him with a coincidental story. Last December at my induction into the Order of Canada, Jamaican-Canadian businessman Bruce Poon Tip was lauded for the cultural sensitivity his travel company "G Adventures" shows in all their projects-!
Bruce Poon Tip, founder of “G Adventures” is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was born in Trinidad, and named in 2023.
Cambodia, a country of 17 million people, largely Buddhist, suffered a genocide during 1975-79 by the militant group Khmer Rouge under leader Pol Pot. So brutal was the regime, the area was known as the “killing fields.” It is now, after the peace accord of 1991, a constitutional monarchy which is multi-party and agricultural.
John thrived on this trip. He says the biggest challenge was spelling and pronouncing the capital, Phnom Penh.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner September 6, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
August 23, 2025
Paintings inspire us to see others as equals.
I must confess to an uneasy feeling when I am startled by an unknown person asking for help of some kind, usually “spare change.”
What makes me this way? Apart from the surprise element, which is never welcome, even from friends approaching me when my mind and attention are elsewhere, and from the pervasive feeling, mostly unjustified, of dread that is coursing all over our society for many reasons, my experience just does not justify my negative response to a stranger.
Blessedly, I have never experienced assault or threat, even while growing up in Kirkland Lake, described by many as a “tough town,” or while living for an extended time in two poor capital cities in the global south, one in the Caribbean and one in Africa. A bit of banter and teasing was the limit of these encounters.
There was occasionally a challenge in the approach, as happened on a beach in Jamaica once, when a Rasta dude asked me to go along with him. I answered with a laugh, “But I’m married.” He was quick to respond, also with laughter, “But you can always have a little Jamaican on the side.”
On the serious side, from the data collected by the Canadian women’s movement, a movement for equality and safety, which is very far from over, a lot of interactions, men over women, are neither benign nor good-natured. But they often occur in long-term relations which have become toxic, and aren’t likely to happen at random from an unknown person.
So what is the foundation of my negative feelings, and how can I remedy them?
It is well-known that we can practice real-time reactions through watching or participating in the arts. That’s where imagination comes into play. I once had an English teaching colleague at St Peter’s, Terry Collins, who said “I can teach everything through poetry.”
I replied, “Go ahead, I’ll defend you.”
I have long believed that the arts have a lot to do with shaping how we see the world. They have the power to change us. Paintings, dance, stories, poems, songs, photography: choose your favorite and allow the feeling in them to come over you. The Finns, who deliberately teach compassion in their schools, are on to something.
Pope Leo, who is given to simple and wise words, has said, “Artists give voice to what we carry in our hearts.”
In a brilliant example of the power of art locally, a series of watercolour paintings of 29 Peterborough people has caught people's attention. It is a tour de force done by Janet Lutz of Selwyn. The exhibit hung like a Stations of the Cross for 3 months on the walls of the Presbyterian place of worship located in The Mount Community Centre on Monaghan Road.
The exhibit was brought to the church by Rev Deborah Rolls, the pastor.
Janet Lutz, the artist, is a marvel; a senior woman born in Cincinnati and educated as an architect, who lived in the Nass Valley, B.C. for several years homesteading, and practicing architecture in Vancouver. She then came to Peterborough in 2013 where she took up visual art and found a community among the artists here. Now a widow, Janet has two adult daughters in the Toronto area.
Her achievement, 29 portraits in watercolour of local people whom she noticed on Peterborough streets, and invited randomly for conversations, is to be seen at the Public Library September 27 and 28, during the Kawartha Autumn Studio Tour. The hours are 10 to five, and Janet will be there.
Her goal has been to see others in appreciative ways, and communicate this appreciation in art.
Lutz concludes, “I am aware of the many ways our society labels, draws distinctions, seeks safety and presumes authority in the us-versus-other paradigm. The paintings are not for sale or for any personal financial gain. I hope this series will inspire others to see one another as equals.”
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner August 23, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
What makes me this way? Apart from the surprise element, which is never welcome, even from friends approaching me when my mind and attention are elsewhere, and from the pervasive feeling, mostly unjustified, of dread that is coursing all over our society for many reasons, my experience just does not justify my negative response to a stranger.
Blessedly, I have never experienced assault or threat, even while growing up in Kirkland Lake, described by many as a “tough town,” or while living for an extended time in two poor capital cities in the global south, one in the Caribbean and one in Africa. A bit of banter and teasing was the limit of these encounters.
There was occasionally a challenge in the approach, as happened on a beach in Jamaica once, when a Rasta dude asked me to go along with him. I answered with a laugh, “But I’m married.” He was quick to respond, also with laughter, “But you can always have a little Jamaican on the side.”
On the serious side, from the data collected by the Canadian women’s movement, a movement for equality and safety, which is very far from over, a lot of interactions, men over women, are neither benign nor good-natured. But they often occur in long-term relations which have become toxic, and aren’t likely to happen at random from an unknown person.
So what is the foundation of my negative feelings, and how can I remedy them?
It is well-known that we can practice real-time reactions through watching or participating in the arts. That’s where imagination comes into play. I once had an English teaching colleague at St Peter’s, Terry Collins, who said “I can teach everything through poetry.”
I replied, “Go ahead, I’ll defend you.”
I have long believed that the arts have a lot to do with shaping how we see the world. They have the power to change us. Paintings, dance, stories, poems, songs, photography: choose your favorite and allow the feeling in them to come over you. The Finns, who deliberately teach compassion in their schools, are on to something.
Pope Leo, who is given to simple and wise words, has said, “Artists give voice to what we carry in our hearts.”
In a brilliant example of the power of art locally, a series of watercolour paintings of 29 Peterborough people has caught people's attention. It is a tour de force done by Janet Lutz of Selwyn. The exhibit hung like a Stations of the Cross for 3 months on the walls of the Presbyterian place of worship located in The Mount Community Centre on Monaghan Road.
The exhibit was brought to the church by Rev Deborah Rolls, the pastor.
Janet Lutz, the artist, is a marvel; a senior woman born in Cincinnati and educated as an architect, who lived in the Nass Valley, B.C. for several years homesteading, and practicing architecture in Vancouver. She then came to Peterborough in 2013 where she took up visual art and found a community among the artists here. Now a widow, Janet has two adult daughters in the Toronto area.
Her achievement, 29 portraits in watercolour of local people whom she noticed on Peterborough streets, and invited randomly for conversations, is to be seen at the Public Library September 27 and 28, during the Kawartha Autumn Studio Tour. The hours are 10 to five, and Janet will be there.
Her goal has been to see others in appreciative ways, and communicate this appreciation in art.
Lutz concludes, “I am aware of the many ways our society labels, draws distinctions, seeks safety and presumes authority in the us-versus-other paradigm. The paintings are not for sale or for any personal financial gain. I hope this series will inspire others to see one another as equals.”
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner August 23, 2025 >LINK<
"Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events."
Peterborough Examiner >more details<
| Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Jamaica Journal, "Positive Community," "Gleanings," and "Wellspring." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Columns
by
Rosemary Ganley
The
Peterborough Examiner
>link<
Rosemary Ganley
