Lighting a candle for Alexei Navalny |
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
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Learning, living, and thriving in a deeply turbulent society.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
February 22, 2024
What fun it is to compose columns on the arts. Each provides me with a golden opportunity to stroll down memory lane. One column lately was on a book (Bono’s "Surrender" on February 8) and this one on a movie, "Bob Marley: One Love."
Little did we Ganleys know in 1975 when we agreed to go to Kingston, Jamaica with a Canadian aid program that we, innocents abroad, would land in a deeply turbulent society. Our new home, a small tropical island of two million people, newly independent from Britain, had two warring political parties who hired thugs to do their dirty work -- threatening, bribing, and in some cases, murdering opponents.
“Don’t you dare paint that fence green,” a neighbour told us, “That’s JLP colours.” (Jamaica Labour Party.) “And don’t paint it orange either.” That’s the PNP (Peoples National Party.)
We had been briefed for 10 days by the Canadian International Development Agency in Ottawa. That briefing was mostly about examining our attitudes — our inappropriate colonial impulses. But not much about the postcolonial realities we’d face on site.
However, after three years of learning fast, it was all positive. We thrived in Jamaica, and came home to found the agency “Jamaican Self Help,” which Peterborough adopted. Our years — 1975 to 1978 — overlapped with the rise of musical genius Bob Marley, and the toe- tapping music that is reggae.
Now in 2024 along comes a full-length movie biopic, "Bob Marley: One Love" about the phenomenon in our midst -- the composer, peace activist, nationalist and Rastafarian. He was ascending to global fame and influence.
Our students from the college liked to come over to our townhouse in the afternoons and dance to his music. The entire atmosphere in Kingston -- the rum bars, high-end hotels, taxicabs, buses, beaches and streets, all rocked to the delightful sound of reggae and its social-change lyrics. Songs such as “Jammin,” “Redemption Song “and “Three Little Birds” have made it into the world canon.
Marley was born in deep rural Jamaica in 1945 at a village called Nine Mile. He died of melanoma at age 36 and is buried there. He became a devout Rastafarian believer. We were fortunate to have a Rasta “queen” as one of our partners in development and learned a lot from her.
Rastafarianism is an affirmation of the values of Africa. It honors the late Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the “Lion of Judah,” as divine. Rastafarians believe in the God of Judeo-Christians, whom they call “Jah.” They hold that Jesus was black, that marijuana is a divine weed, and they are pacifist.
It was as a pacifist that Marley attempted to bring the warring political leaders — Michael Manley and Edward Seaga — together at concerts in 1976, and again in 1978. Neither had the desired effect. During the 1980 election, there were 889 murders. Just before the 1976 event, gunmen entered Marley’s Tuff Gong studio on Hope Road, a midtown location we visited often, and wounded three people including Marley, who was playing soccer in the yard. Blame for the assassination attempt was variously put on the CIA and both political parties.
The British actor chosen to play Bob Marley is a 35-year-old of Trinidadian heritage, Kingsley Ben-Adir. While he was laboriously learning the Jamaican patois, he was on the set of Barbie, acting as one of the Kens. His Bob Marley is an academy-award performance.
The rich language, which linguists call “Jamaican English,” has given my family some “insider” terms. “Vexed” is a word we use when mildly annoyed. “Babylon” stands for any oppressive system, sometimes including the police. “Me,” rather than “I,” starts sentences, and “irie” is of course “nice.”
I am thankful that my time in Jamaica coincided with Bob Marley, composer of the song of the century, "One Love," and album of the century, "Exodus."
So Jah seh.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner February 22, 2024 >LINK<
Little did we Ganleys know in 1975 when we agreed to go to Kingston, Jamaica with a Canadian aid program that we, innocents abroad, would land in a deeply turbulent society. Our new home, a small tropical island of two million people, newly independent from Britain, had two warring political parties who hired thugs to do their dirty work -- threatening, bribing, and in some cases, murdering opponents.
“Don’t you dare paint that fence green,” a neighbour told us, “That’s JLP colours.” (Jamaica Labour Party.) “And don’t paint it orange either.” That’s the PNP (Peoples National Party.)
We had been briefed for 10 days by the Canadian International Development Agency in Ottawa. That briefing was mostly about examining our attitudes — our inappropriate colonial impulses. But not much about the postcolonial realities we’d face on site.
However, after three years of learning fast, it was all positive. We thrived in Jamaica, and came home to found the agency “Jamaican Self Help,” which Peterborough adopted. Our years — 1975 to 1978 — overlapped with the rise of musical genius Bob Marley, and the toe- tapping music that is reggae.
Now in 2024 along comes a full-length movie biopic, "Bob Marley: One Love" about the phenomenon in our midst -- the composer, peace activist, nationalist and Rastafarian. He was ascending to global fame and influence.
Our students from the college liked to come over to our townhouse in the afternoons and dance to his music. The entire atmosphere in Kingston -- the rum bars, high-end hotels, taxicabs, buses, beaches and streets, all rocked to the delightful sound of reggae and its social-change lyrics. Songs such as “Jammin,” “Redemption Song “and “Three Little Birds” have made it into the world canon.
Marley was born in deep rural Jamaica in 1945 at a village called Nine Mile. He died of melanoma at age 36 and is buried there. He became a devout Rastafarian believer. We were fortunate to have a Rasta “queen” as one of our partners in development and learned a lot from her.
Rastafarianism is an affirmation of the values of Africa. It honors the late Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the “Lion of Judah,” as divine. Rastafarians believe in the God of Judeo-Christians, whom they call “Jah.” They hold that Jesus was black, that marijuana is a divine weed, and they are pacifist.
It was as a pacifist that Marley attempted to bring the warring political leaders — Michael Manley and Edward Seaga — together at concerts in 1976, and again in 1978. Neither had the desired effect. During the 1980 election, there were 889 murders. Just before the 1976 event, gunmen entered Marley’s Tuff Gong studio on Hope Road, a midtown location we visited often, and wounded three people including Marley, who was playing soccer in the yard. Blame for the assassination attempt was variously put on the CIA and both political parties.
The British actor chosen to play Bob Marley is a 35-year-old of Trinidadian heritage, Kingsley Ben-Adir. While he was laboriously learning the Jamaican patois, he was on the set of Barbie, acting as one of the Kens. His Bob Marley is an academy-award performance.
The rich language, which linguists call “Jamaican English,” has given my family some “insider” terms. “Vexed” is a word we use when mildly annoyed. “Babylon” stands for any oppressive system, sometimes including the police. “Me,” rather than “I,” starts sentences, and “irie” is of course “nice.”
I am thankful that my time in Jamaica coincided with Bob Marley, composer of the song of the century, "One Love," and album of the century, "Exodus."
So Jah seh.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner February 22, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
His relentless campaigning for a better world has taken him into the corridors of power and politics.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
February 8, 2024
“Those in power write the history; those who struggle, write the songs.”
It may be too late to convert me into a knowledgeable rock ‘n roll fan, but I’m greatly enjoying the 555-page memoir of Bono (Paul Hewson), lead singer and gifted songwriter for the immensely successful Irish band, U2. It is called “Surrender.”
A remarkable story well told.
My sons were fans of U2, and I always found their music listenable in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Especially The Joshua Tree. But now I have an appreciation of their creativity, the truth in their lyrics, and the durability of their friendship. Four decades of touring the world must strain the best relationships.
With no ghost writer, Bono — who is 63 — organizes his life story around 40 of his songs, from “Bad,” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” to “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”
Bono grew up in North Dublin and did not have a post-secondary education. He is a writer, philosopher, philanthropist and spiritual seeker, widely cultured. He also has a profound spirit of generosity.
Home was not easy for him. His mother died when he was 14, and he lived with his uncommunicative father and older brother. They never spoke of their loss, and Bono thinks that is at the root of his occasional difficulties with anger. He reveals his inner self on every page.
Bono ended up in Dublin’s first non-denominational high school, Mount Temple. He has a photographic memory for people and places he has met along the years of touring the world with the same bandmates. Four decades, 170 million records sold, 22 Grammys won, and a British knighthood bestowed.
He also dares to be a man of enduring Christian faith and prayer. “Songs are my prayers,” he says. He attended both Protestant and Catholic churches and even had a stint in his teens with an evangelical group called Shalom. In the unlikely milieu of rock and punk music, he says his band — three of them — pray before concerts “to be useful.” The high school buddies in the band are Larry Mullen (drums), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and David “Edge” Evans (guitar), who is Bono’s closest friend and collaborator.
Bono has an immense knowledge of history, culture, art, literature, ideas and, of course, the music industry and its personalities. His references are wide-ranging: Rumi through the Psalms, James Joyce, Keats and Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu, and Shakespearean sonnets.
He has lived through many years of sectarian violence in Ireland and has no use for “paramilitaries” on either side, Republican or Unionist, or murderous young men taking lives. He has taken criticism on all sides for his peace-building efforts, and for not taking a side.
A big book - heavy, yellow and black - the pages are illustrated with family and band pictures, and Bono’s almost illegible, handwritten scribbles. A theme running through the account is his devotion to his wife, Alison Stewart (Ali), whom he met in high school. They were 21 and 22 when they were married. They have four children and live in Dublin. His honesty is searing about himself and his life, all lightened at times by self-mockery.
His relentless campaigning for a better world has taken him into the corridors of power of politics and commerce. It is a bracing read, full of surprises. And inspiration. International charity and political work included debt relief for 37 of the world’s poorest countries during Jubilee Year, 2000. His AIDs work in Ghana and Malawi took him frequently to the White House. Amnesty International benefitted from his help, and his instinct for peacebuilding led him to Sarajevo. In every case, he and Ali had to see for themselves the local situation, and for that, they took considerable risk.
A bonus - at the end, Bono thanks his two high school English teachers.
“I am a salesman,” he says. “I sell ideas, songs and occasionally, merchandise.” Highly recommended.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner February 8, 2024 >LINK<
It may be too late to convert me into a knowledgeable rock ‘n roll fan, but I’m greatly enjoying the 555-page memoir of Bono (Paul Hewson), lead singer and gifted songwriter for the immensely successful Irish band, U2. It is called “Surrender.”
A remarkable story well told.
My sons were fans of U2, and I always found their music listenable in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Especially The Joshua Tree. But now I have an appreciation of their creativity, the truth in their lyrics, and the durability of their friendship. Four decades of touring the world must strain the best relationships.
With no ghost writer, Bono — who is 63 — organizes his life story around 40 of his songs, from “Bad,” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” to “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”
Bono grew up in North Dublin and did not have a post-secondary education. He is a writer, philosopher, philanthropist and spiritual seeker, widely cultured. He also has a profound spirit of generosity.
Home was not easy for him. His mother died when he was 14, and he lived with his uncommunicative father and older brother. They never spoke of their loss, and Bono thinks that is at the root of his occasional difficulties with anger. He reveals his inner self on every page.
Bono ended up in Dublin’s first non-denominational high school, Mount Temple. He has a photographic memory for people and places he has met along the years of touring the world with the same bandmates. Four decades, 170 million records sold, 22 Grammys won, and a British knighthood bestowed.
He also dares to be a man of enduring Christian faith and prayer. “Songs are my prayers,” he says. He attended both Protestant and Catholic churches and even had a stint in his teens with an evangelical group called Shalom. In the unlikely milieu of rock and punk music, he says his band — three of them — pray before concerts “to be useful.” The high school buddies in the band are Larry Mullen (drums), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and David “Edge” Evans (guitar), who is Bono’s closest friend and collaborator.
Bono has an immense knowledge of history, culture, art, literature, ideas and, of course, the music industry and its personalities. His references are wide-ranging: Rumi through the Psalms, James Joyce, Keats and Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu, and Shakespearean sonnets.
He has lived through many years of sectarian violence in Ireland and has no use for “paramilitaries” on either side, Republican or Unionist, or murderous young men taking lives. He has taken criticism on all sides for his peace-building efforts, and for not taking a side.
A big book - heavy, yellow and black - the pages are illustrated with family and band pictures, and Bono’s almost illegible, handwritten scribbles. A theme running through the account is his devotion to his wife, Alison Stewart (Ali), whom he met in high school. They were 21 and 22 when they were married. They have four children and live in Dublin. His honesty is searing about himself and his life, all lightened at times by self-mockery.
His relentless campaigning for a better world has taken him into the corridors of power of politics and commerce. It is a bracing read, full of surprises. And inspiration. International charity and political work included debt relief for 37 of the world’s poorest countries during Jubilee Year, 2000. His AIDs work in Ghana and Malawi took him frequently to the White House. Amnesty International benefitted from his help, and his instinct for peacebuilding led him to Sarajevo. In every case, he and Ali had to see for themselves the local situation, and for that, they took considerable risk.
A bonus - at the end, Bono thanks his two high school English teachers.
“I am a salesman,” he says. “I sell ideas, songs and occasionally, merchandise.” Highly recommended.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner February 8, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
What gives him such popularity?
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
January 31, 2024
“Make Lying Wrong Again.” That’s what a baseball cap I saw recently proclaimed.
What on Earth are we Canadians to make of this former president, a grifter of the highest order, who faces 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions, and yet keeps his popularity among a wide swath of American voters?
The same man whines incessantly about being a victim of a “witch hunt” and a “con job” and being framed by the FBI and the justice system. He makes wild declarations that he will need two days as a dictator when elected, to expel the immigrants who “poison the blood of America” and then wreak vengeance on his opponents.
Empty, ugly and not-too-bright political leaders are out there all the time, but the puzzling aspect, the frightening one here, is what gives him such popularity with a hardcore of voters?
Not the Americans I know, who are suffering greatly in this atmosphere of nihilism. My friends are experiencing fear, shame and revulsion.
I questioned two Trumpers last week. I asked them why in the face of all the evidence that Mr. Trump should never set foot in the White House again, they still support him.
They answered with variations on this: their country is being overrun by hordes of strangers, the liberal left is eroding American values, so certain books and teachings should be banned, and women rights have gone too far, so start with restrictions on abortions.
They say gas prices are so high, more oil fields have to be developed. They plan to change that. They share Trump’s grievance that they, as Trumpers, aren’t respected by the mainstream of America.
What a horror show.
A cowardly Republican Party, with men and women members who won’t speak up against him is one factor. There are waves of moral confusion sweeping the USA. What Canadians dread are the global effects of a possible re-election of the man. What of our future? Our trade pacts, our joint defenses, our climate projects? He has only contempt for Canada and our divergent values.
Right-wing media such as Fox News pollute American minds. Social media, heavy with disinformation and wild conspiracy charges, drive aggrieved people to extremes and put fear into sensible people. We saw with our own eyes on our TV screens the mob attack on the Capitol, January 6, 2020.
Many members of that mob have since been tried, convicted and sentenced. In some ways American justice is working its way to a better outcome for society. But with a Supreme Court packed with Trump appointees, nothing is guaranteed.
Mr. Trump is almost unhinged in his behavior in various courts these days, impugning judges, lawyers, witnesses and the media recklessly. The madness at his rallies continues. He boasts of having more charges than gangster Al Capone. He snarls personal attacks on opponents, i.e. in a racist way bringing up Nikki Haley’s ethnic origin, just as he brought up Barack Obama’s birth certificate. He openly admires dictators such as Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Doug Saunders, a solid analyst writing in the Globe and Mail, worries about the future of democracy itself worldwide. Margaret Atwood has just released a six-minute tutorial on dictatorship and chaos.
There are believers, a cult in red hats, in Trump’s constant stream of lies. And that indeed is the mystery of evil, as the theologians say. Tucker Carlson, disgraced Fox News host, has come to “liberate Canada” and is speaking In Edmonton and Calgary to crowds of 4,000 at $200 a pop.
Our country must immunize itself this year against Trumpism. The Conservative Party has some sympathizers to be aware of, and some similar methods of campaigning. Ottawa has appointed a team to investigate the effects of a Trump presidency on our trade, our defense our borders, the UN and NATO.
Nobody can say “I didn’t know.”
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 31, 2024 >LINK<
What on Earth are we Canadians to make of this former president, a grifter of the highest order, who faces 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions, and yet keeps his popularity among a wide swath of American voters?
The same man whines incessantly about being a victim of a “witch hunt” and a “con job” and being framed by the FBI and the justice system. He makes wild declarations that he will need two days as a dictator when elected, to expel the immigrants who “poison the blood of America” and then wreak vengeance on his opponents.
Empty, ugly and not-too-bright political leaders are out there all the time, but the puzzling aspect, the frightening one here, is what gives him such popularity with a hardcore of voters?
Not the Americans I know, who are suffering greatly in this atmosphere of nihilism. My friends are experiencing fear, shame and revulsion.
I questioned two Trumpers last week. I asked them why in the face of all the evidence that Mr. Trump should never set foot in the White House again, they still support him.
They answered with variations on this: their country is being overrun by hordes of strangers, the liberal left is eroding American values, so certain books and teachings should be banned, and women rights have gone too far, so start with restrictions on abortions.
They say gas prices are so high, more oil fields have to be developed. They plan to change that. They share Trump’s grievance that they, as Trumpers, aren’t respected by the mainstream of America.
What a horror show.
A cowardly Republican Party, with men and women members who won’t speak up against him is one factor. There are waves of moral confusion sweeping the USA. What Canadians dread are the global effects of a possible re-election of the man. What of our future? Our trade pacts, our joint defenses, our climate projects? He has only contempt for Canada and our divergent values.
Right-wing media such as Fox News pollute American minds. Social media, heavy with disinformation and wild conspiracy charges, drive aggrieved people to extremes and put fear into sensible people. We saw with our own eyes on our TV screens the mob attack on the Capitol, January 6, 2020.
Many members of that mob have since been tried, convicted and sentenced. In some ways American justice is working its way to a better outcome for society. But with a Supreme Court packed with Trump appointees, nothing is guaranteed.
Mr. Trump is almost unhinged in his behavior in various courts these days, impugning judges, lawyers, witnesses and the media recklessly. The madness at his rallies continues. He boasts of having more charges than gangster Al Capone. He snarls personal attacks on opponents, i.e. in a racist way bringing up Nikki Haley’s ethnic origin, just as he brought up Barack Obama’s birth certificate. He openly admires dictators such as Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Doug Saunders, a solid analyst writing in the Globe and Mail, worries about the future of democracy itself worldwide. Margaret Atwood has just released a six-minute tutorial on dictatorship and chaos.
There are believers, a cult in red hats, in Trump’s constant stream of lies. And that indeed is the mystery of evil, as the theologians say. Tucker Carlson, disgraced Fox News host, has come to “liberate Canada” and is speaking In Edmonton and Calgary to crowds of 4,000 at $200 a pop.
Our country must immunize itself this year against Trumpism. The Conservative Party has some sympathizers to be aware of, and some similar methods of campaigning. Ottawa has appointed a team to investigate the effects of a Trump presidency on our trade, our defense our borders, the UN and NATO.
Nobody can say “I didn’t know.”
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 31, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
An interesting pair who left a lasting mark on the Peterborough community.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
January 18, 2024
The early days of 2024 offered me two different and yet compatible commemorations of people who probably didn’t know each other in life, but were similarly motivated to do good. Each person left a lasting mark on the community.
Ted Ingram, age 83, came to Peterborough in 1975 to teach French at Lakefield College School. He was a droll, humble and cultured Irishman with great wit, especially clever with puns. He loved cricket and I can see him, in a flapping white coat and wide hat, umpiring the boys at LCS, in one of the world’s most popular games.
Ted had a quick eye for the overlooked or struggling student — and for the new teacher. When I arrived to teach English in 1981 at this all-boys school, he gave me a warm welcome and showed me the ropes of independent schooling.
He was a feminist before the word was used, and cheered on his wife, Daphne Ingram, in all the ways that secure men do. They had two daughters. Daphne worked in early childhood education and gave many dedicated hours to the human rights organization Amnesty International.
The service, conduced by Rev. John Runza, was Anglican-inspired, and featured fine old hymns such as Abide with Me and Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. A large group of the Peterborough Singers, accompanied by the brilliant Syd Birrell, sang Amazing Grace. Ted Ingram had been a member of the Singers for 30 years. The service was deepened by a beautiful soprano duet by Pamela Birrell and Catharine Mead.
Ted left an Irish blessing, “May the Grass on the Road to Hell Ever Grow Greener for the Want of Your Feet.”
A few days later at Highland Park Funeral Home, there was a moving service honoring Helen McCarthy, 73, who had been a progressive Catholic educator for many years, and then co-founded the Abraham Festival 20 years ago.
She was teaching world religions at the time, and invited Muslim leader Elizabeth Rahman to speak to her class. The problem was that it turned out to be a “snow day,” and no students attended. The two women had the time to develop the idea of increasing understanding among the three great faiths that originated with Abraham of the Hebrew scriptures.
Never have I experienced Peterborough more united in its religions and in its sorrow through multifaith prayer and respectful remembrance.
After retirement, Helen McCarthy became a school trustee, and successfully brought about recognition of LGBTQ2S people by leading the movement for PRIDE flags. The story was told about former chair of the board, Braden Leal, presenting Helen with the system’s first PRIDE flag.
Many leading Peterburians took part in remembering Helen. Poet Zizhah Von Bieberstein spoke for the Jewish community and read from the Torah. Elizabeth Rahman paid tribute to her longtime friend. Imam Habeeb Ali, a supporter of the Abraham Festival, came from Toronto, led prayers in Arabic and read a poem he had composed.
Catholic faith animator Teresa Cosentino introduced the speakers - all four of McCarthy’s sons, and her spouse, Jim. Fr. Paul Massel gave the final blessing. Danny Bronson sang “Out on the Mira” and “Peace is Flowing Like a River,” and in a duet with Massel, “I Believe in Angels.”
At this time when some incidents of hatred among so-called believers are seen in Canada, this multi-faith gathering in Peterborough, which came out of a long period of education, understanding and warm friendship, demonstrated the opposite: integration, familiarity, the valuing of difference, and the recognition of other's humanity.
An example for the country.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 18, 2024 >LINK<
Ted Ingram, age 83, came to Peterborough in 1975 to teach French at Lakefield College School. He was a droll, humble and cultured Irishman with great wit, especially clever with puns. He loved cricket and I can see him, in a flapping white coat and wide hat, umpiring the boys at LCS, in one of the world’s most popular games.
Ted had a quick eye for the overlooked or struggling student — and for the new teacher. When I arrived to teach English in 1981 at this all-boys school, he gave me a warm welcome and showed me the ropes of independent schooling.
He was a feminist before the word was used, and cheered on his wife, Daphne Ingram, in all the ways that secure men do. They had two daughters. Daphne worked in early childhood education and gave many dedicated hours to the human rights organization Amnesty International.
The service, conduced by Rev. John Runza, was Anglican-inspired, and featured fine old hymns such as Abide with Me and Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. A large group of the Peterborough Singers, accompanied by the brilliant Syd Birrell, sang Amazing Grace. Ted Ingram had been a member of the Singers for 30 years. The service was deepened by a beautiful soprano duet by Pamela Birrell and Catharine Mead.
Ted left an Irish blessing, “May the Grass on the Road to Hell Ever Grow Greener for the Want of Your Feet.”
A few days later at Highland Park Funeral Home, there was a moving service honoring Helen McCarthy, 73, who had been a progressive Catholic educator for many years, and then co-founded the Abraham Festival 20 years ago.
She was teaching world religions at the time, and invited Muslim leader Elizabeth Rahman to speak to her class. The problem was that it turned out to be a “snow day,” and no students attended. The two women had the time to develop the idea of increasing understanding among the three great faiths that originated with Abraham of the Hebrew scriptures.
Never have I experienced Peterborough more united in its religions and in its sorrow through multifaith prayer and respectful remembrance.
After retirement, Helen McCarthy became a school trustee, and successfully brought about recognition of LGBTQ2S people by leading the movement for PRIDE flags. The story was told about former chair of the board, Braden Leal, presenting Helen with the system’s first PRIDE flag.
Many leading Peterburians took part in remembering Helen. Poet Zizhah Von Bieberstein spoke for the Jewish community and read from the Torah. Elizabeth Rahman paid tribute to her longtime friend. Imam Habeeb Ali, a supporter of the Abraham Festival, came from Toronto, led prayers in Arabic and read a poem he had composed.
Catholic faith animator Teresa Cosentino introduced the speakers - all four of McCarthy’s sons, and her spouse, Jim. Fr. Paul Massel gave the final blessing. Danny Bronson sang “Out on the Mira” and “Peace is Flowing Like a River,” and in a duet with Massel, “I Believe in Angels.”
At this time when some incidents of hatred among so-called believers are seen in Canada, this multi-faith gathering in Peterborough, which came out of a long period of education, understanding and warm friendship, demonstrated the opposite: integration, familiarity, the valuing of difference, and the recognition of other's humanity.
An example for the country.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 18, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
Reframe Film Festival is back, both in person and virtually.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
January 11, 2024
Who among us is not informed or amused or scared by a good movie? The more we know about the industry and the changes it has undergone with technology, the pandemic and public tastes, the more we appreciate the art form.
Not a fan of streaming, I prefer to sit among others having a shared experience at a theatre. Then a discussion, if possible, maybe at a downtown restaurant or pub.
Now Reframe Film Festival is coming back, both in person, at Showplace, Market Hall and the Public Library from January 25 to 28, and virtually from January 25 to February 4.
For 20 years it has brightened the winter weeks here, and brought Peterburians and those from farther afield downtown. We Canadians do love our documentary films. We have local expertise in film, people such as Ferne Cristall, who generously give time to viewing and selecting the 65 films from hundreds of possible titles. The films range from 4 minutes to 110 minutes. Many are Canadian, some international.
My own film-going career started in the ‘40's at the Strand Theatre in Kirkland Lake. It was not an auspicious beginning. Although the gang of 10-year-olds I was hanging with went to Holy Name of Jesus School, we were more like urban rascals.
It was our habit to go to the Saturday matinee at 2 pm, always a “shoot-em-up” western with our favourite actors, John Wayne and Gary Cooper. We would bring our own cap pistols and strips of “bullets” to fire off. When the lawmen had a shootout at the OK Corral, we stood and whooped and fired our cap guns in glee in sync with the good guys.
At that point, owner Mr. Max Kaplan would walk out, stop the film and lecture us on not bringing our cap guns, and behaving ourselves next week.
I behave better in theatres now.
In November, Trent brought Cameron Bailey, the highly successful director of the Toronto International Film Festival for a community lecture. Mr. Bailey has a Barbadian background, and has brought TIFF to worldwide prominence, equal to the Sundance and Cannes Festivals. He was engaging and informative, pointing out that Canadians are spending over six hours a day on their devices. We need to know things like that.
This area is full of alert citizens wanting to know more about the world. I warmly remember the arrival in town of Professor Carole Roy in 2004 to teach at Trent. She had the intriguing idea that Peterborough could host a quality film festival, as they did in Courtenay, B.C. Roy moved on to St. Francis Xavier University, but not before she had interested Krista English, her neighbour, in the project. English went on to direct the Peterborough Film Festival for 14 years.
Then the pandemic hit. Now Reframe is off and running again. The office, with a staff of two, shares space with Greenup on Aylmer Street. The highly- qualified executive director is Kait Dueck, who managed Showplace for some years. Direction comes from a volunteer board, including Deborah Berrill and Melanie Buddle of Trent. Hundreds of volunteers are being recruited. They receive four-hour shifts, a T-shirt and some training in ticket-taking and keeping counts. See www.reframefilmfestival.ca.
For many people, this is their favorite volunteer gig of the year. Scores of community groups select a film to sponsor. The whole project energizes, spark dialogue, knits us together, and causes change.
Price is a bit steep for a pass to all ($100), but the experience delivers in spades.
Opening night is January 25, and the in-person festival takes place from January 25 to 28. Films will show nationally through a virtual theatre from January 29 to February 4. The film guide is now available at the website so we can plan. Count on devoting three days to this event.
See you at the movies. No cap guns.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 11, 2024 >LINK<
Not a fan of streaming, I prefer to sit among others having a shared experience at a theatre. Then a discussion, if possible, maybe at a downtown restaurant or pub.
Now Reframe Film Festival is coming back, both in person, at Showplace, Market Hall and the Public Library from January 25 to 28, and virtually from January 25 to February 4.
For 20 years it has brightened the winter weeks here, and brought Peterburians and those from farther afield downtown. We Canadians do love our documentary films. We have local expertise in film, people such as Ferne Cristall, who generously give time to viewing and selecting the 65 films from hundreds of possible titles. The films range from 4 minutes to 110 minutes. Many are Canadian, some international.
My own film-going career started in the ‘40's at the Strand Theatre in Kirkland Lake. It was not an auspicious beginning. Although the gang of 10-year-olds I was hanging with went to Holy Name of Jesus School, we were more like urban rascals.
It was our habit to go to the Saturday matinee at 2 pm, always a “shoot-em-up” western with our favourite actors, John Wayne and Gary Cooper. We would bring our own cap pistols and strips of “bullets” to fire off. When the lawmen had a shootout at the OK Corral, we stood and whooped and fired our cap guns in glee in sync with the good guys.
At that point, owner Mr. Max Kaplan would walk out, stop the film and lecture us on not bringing our cap guns, and behaving ourselves next week.
I behave better in theatres now.
In November, Trent brought Cameron Bailey, the highly successful director of the Toronto International Film Festival for a community lecture. Mr. Bailey has a Barbadian background, and has brought TIFF to worldwide prominence, equal to the Sundance and Cannes Festivals. He was engaging and informative, pointing out that Canadians are spending over six hours a day on their devices. We need to know things like that.
This area is full of alert citizens wanting to know more about the world. I warmly remember the arrival in town of Professor Carole Roy in 2004 to teach at Trent. She had the intriguing idea that Peterborough could host a quality film festival, as they did in Courtenay, B.C. Roy moved on to St. Francis Xavier University, but not before she had interested Krista English, her neighbour, in the project. English went on to direct the Peterborough Film Festival for 14 years.
Then the pandemic hit. Now Reframe is off and running again. The office, with a staff of two, shares space with Greenup on Aylmer Street. The highly- qualified executive director is Kait Dueck, who managed Showplace for some years. Direction comes from a volunteer board, including Deborah Berrill and Melanie Buddle of Trent. Hundreds of volunteers are being recruited. They receive four-hour shifts, a T-shirt and some training in ticket-taking and keeping counts. See www.reframefilmfestival.ca.
For many people, this is their favorite volunteer gig of the year. Scores of community groups select a film to sponsor. The whole project energizes, spark dialogue, knits us together, and causes change.
Price is a bit steep for a pass to all ($100), but the experience delivers in spades.
Opening night is January 25, and the in-person festival takes place from January 25 to 28. Films will show nationally through a virtual theatre from January 29 to February 4. The film guide is now available at the website so we can plan. Count on devoting three days to this event.
See you at the movies. No cap guns.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 11, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
Some 55 years later, I am a full-blown fan.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
January 4, 2024
I arrived in town from Montreal in the fall of 1969, none too happy to be here despite the political turbulence in the province I was leaving (separatism and all that). We spoke French and weren’t part of the nervous anglophone exodus from Quebec at the time.
Peterborough seemed to me rather small and parochial. But deep down it wasn’t, and it grew on me as opportunities opened up. Today, 55 years later, I am a full-blown Peterborough/Trent University fan.
I was expecting, and I found an obstetrician — the late Dr. John Butt — who was willing to deliver us, he joked, as long as it wasn’t during a Leafs hockey game on a Saturday night. That’s exactly when it was: our third son was born at Civic Hospital at 10 p.m. December 6, 1969.
Five years earlier, and almost as auspicious as that, was the creation of Trent. Peterborough had a university, thanks to the leadership of 35-year-old classical scholar and educator Thomas H.B. Symons, with the support of the workers and the managers in this city - a brand- new university focusing on the liberal arts and sciences opened with just more than 100 students.
Today, it has 12,000 students across two campuses, with 300 full time professors. Its Peterborough location has been idyllic, on two sides of the Otonabee River just to the north of the city, with the buildings designed by visionary architect Ron Thom.
Trent’s accomplishments are many. It has rated #1 in Canadian undergraduate universities for 13 years in a row. That points to effective teaching, academic support, a beautiful physical location, and community hospitality.
Financially, it contributes hundreds of good jobs and millions of dollars to the community. Trent now has 63,000 graduates all over the world. Two of our sons, who happily took liberal arts and learned to row at Trent, are among them: Canadian patriots with progressive views doing useful work.
These sons speak fondly of professors and staff: Finn Gallagher, Bob Paehlke, Gordon Johnston, Orm Mitchell, Alan Slavin and John Wadland, as well as staff Carol Love, Tony Storey and Paul Wilson.
In modern times, universities dedicated to the education of the full person have to struggle to find their place among such trends as forensics and business management and digital everything.
I hail Trent’s efforts to do just that. President Leo Groarke is a philosopher. Chancellor Stephen Stohn is an arts and entertainment lawyer. Recent community speakers have included journalist Duncan McCue on Indigenous reconciliation, and Cameron Bailey, head of the Toronto International Film Festival, on changing language in media.
Cultures don’t stand still. Trent, to its credit, continues to face, learn from, and deal with its colonialist past … without tearing down statues.
In 2022, the university set up a study committee to examine the legacy of Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer of this region, after whom Champlain College is named. A sixth college is to be named after alumnus and Curve Lake elder, Gidigaa Migizi (Doug Williams, ‘69) honoring Indigenous history. Changes in locations of historic busts and other art have also been made.
Now Trent is in the midst of a momentous fundraising drive seeking millions of dollars to be used in the direct support of students, teaching and research.
Full disclosure here — Trent honored me with an honorary degree in 2022. I give a workshop each year in feminist ideas at Trail College through the Continuing Education Program.
My donations decisions are important. I had years as a fundraiser for the international development organization Jamaican Self Help. It was also founded here. My idea is simple: underlie your beliefs with your money - modest monthly donations, so that the institution or cause can count on amounts coming in, and can plan.
I’m going to respond to this campaign in gratitude for all Trent has done, and is doing.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 4, 2024 >LINK<
Peterborough seemed to me rather small and parochial. But deep down it wasn’t, and it grew on me as opportunities opened up. Today, 55 years later, I am a full-blown Peterborough/Trent University fan.
I was expecting, and I found an obstetrician — the late Dr. John Butt — who was willing to deliver us, he joked, as long as it wasn’t during a Leafs hockey game on a Saturday night. That’s exactly when it was: our third son was born at Civic Hospital at 10 p.m. December 6, 1969.
Five years earlier, and almost as auspicious as that, was the creation of Trent. Peterborough had a university, thanks to the leadership of 35-year-old classical scholar and educator Thomas H.B. Symons, with the support of the workers and the managers in this city - a brand- new university focusing on the liberal arts and sciences opened with just more than 100 students.
Today, it has 12,000 students across two campuses, with 300 full time professors. Its Peterborough location has been idyllic, on two sides of the Otonabee River just to the north of the city, with the buildings designed by visionary architect Ron Thom.
Trent’s accomplishments are many. It has rated #1 in Canadian undergraduate universities for 13 years in a row. That points to effective teaching, academic support, a beautiful physical location, and community hospitality.
Financially, it contributes hundreds of good jobs and millions of dollars to the community. Trent now has 63,000 graduates all over the world. Two of our sons, who happily took liberal arts and learned to row at Trent, are among them: Canadian patriots with progressive views doing useful work.
These sons speak fondly of professors and staff: Finn Gallagher, Bob Paehlke, Gordon Johnston, Orm Mitchell, Alan Slavin and John Wadland, as well as staff Carol Love, Tony Storey and Paul Wilson.
In modern times, universities dedicated to the education of the full person have to struggle to find their place among such trends as forensics and business management and digital everything.
I hail Trent’s efforts to do just that. President Leo Groarke is a philosopher. Chancellor Stephen Stohn is an arts and entertainment lawyer. Recent community speakers have included journalist Duncan McCue on Indigenous reconciliation, and Cameron Bailey, head of the Toronto International Film Festival, on changing language in media.
Cultures don’t stand still. Trent, to its credit, continues to face, learn from, and deal with its colonialist past … without tearing down statues.
In 2022, the university set up a study committee to examine the legacy of Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer of this region, after whom Champlain College is named. A sixth college is to be named after alumnus and Curve Lake elder, Gidigaa Migizi (Doug Williams, ‘69) honoring Indigenous history. Changes in locations of historic busts and other art have also been made.
Now Trent is in the midst of a momentous fundraising drive seeking millions of dollars to be used in the direct support of students, teaching and research.
Full disclosure here — Trent honored me with an honorary degree in 2022. I give a workshop each year in feminist ideas at Trail College through the Continuing Education Program.
My donations decisions are important. I had years as a fundraiser for the international development organization Jamaican Self Help. It was also founded here. My idea is simple: underlie your beliefs with your money - modest monthly donations, so that the institution or cause can count on amounts coming in, and can plan.
I’m going to respond to this campaign in gratitude for all Trent has done, and is doing.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner January 4, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
We must choose our politicians carefully as we lead up to COP 29.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
December 28, 2023
We Canadians have many troubles and worries.
But globally, the most acute — because it affects everyone alive and our human future — is the climate crisis.
We in Peterborough are very lucky to have a well-informed, homegrown commentator Tricia Clarkson filing articles for the Examiner. Her December 20 story is one such piece.
Every year since 1995, the U.N. has held a huge (now at 70,000 attendees) conference on this complex problem, somewhere in the world. This December it was in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirate.
It was easy to doubt that any good could come out of this setting. The chair of the meeting was an oil magnate. The UAE is a “petrostate,” heavily invested for its prosperity on fossil fuel exports.
The impossible premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, clearly a neanderthal thinker on the causes of global warming, took 100 of her favorite provincial lobbyists to Dubai. There, her blind and strident message of “more, more” won her the Fossil Award from progressive groups. Ms. Smith possesses an unfortunately nasty way of expressing herself, at one point calling federal minister of Climate Steven Guilbealt “treacherous.”
This is the man so widely trusted by the U.N. he was charged with crafting words which were honest but would be signed onto by every country. That’s the way these conferences operate.......by consensus.
I recall being in the gallery at the U.N. in New York in 2000 when a document on women was being debated. It was projected onto a screen at the front of the hall. “Do we have a clean copy?” asked the chair.
At that point, the Vatican delegate stood to enter an objection on the basis that the use of the term “gender” was “anti-family.” We watchers could hardly stifle our shock.
In addition to Tricia Clarkson, I obtain solid climate information from the online journal out of Vancouver, the National Observer. The Observer’s Chris Hatch was in Dubai.
“Summits such as these are new arenas for geopolitics,” he wrote.
The one beam of light from COP 28 was that almost 200 countries called on “countries to contribute to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” One hundred and twenty-seven countries of these 200 wanted stronger language.
But this wording mentions, for the first time ever, fossil fuels as the villains they are. It shows progress when even oil and gas producers are headed for a fossil-free future. The Globe and Mail's Eric Reguly said, “The oil industry will never set its own suicide date. Fuel subsidies must go.”
Hence the importance of ongoing education and political action everywhere. I very much doubt the Conservative Party of Canada will provide it.
Some good news: a recent independent review of Canada’s performance in reducing emissions found that existing federal and provincial policies, plus those in the works, should result in emissions falling around 35 per cent from our levels in 2005, by the year 2030.
That would be within striking distance of the national goal of 40 per cent. Climate policy is starting to have a positive impact. Among those measures are carbon pricing, clean fuel regulations and a mandated phase-out of coal power. The review offers “qualified optimism” writes Adam Radwanski.
In the meantime, all hands on deck. COP 29 for December 2024 has been granted to the city of Baku, Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea. A Muslim-majority country, it is also a petrostate. It became independent from the USSR in 1991.
We work in hope, and we must choose our politicians carefully as we lead up to COP 29.
Rosemary Ganley is a local writer, activist and teacher.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner December 28, 2023 >LINK<
But globally, the most acute — because it affects everyone alive and our human future — is the climate crisis.
We in Peterborough are very lucky to have a well-informed, homegrown commentator Tricia Clarkson filing articles for the Examiner. Her December 20 story is one such piece.
Every year since 1995, the U.N. has held a huge (now at 70,000 attendees) conference on this complex problem, somewhere in the world. This December it was in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirate.
It was easy to doubt that any good could come out of this setting. The chair of the meeting was an oil magnate. The UAE is a “petrostate,” heavily invested for its prosperity on fossil fuel exports.
The impossible premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, clearly a neanderthal thinker on the causes of global warming, took 100 of her favorite provincial lobbyists to Dubai. There, her blind and strident message of “more, more” won her the Fossil Award from progressive groups. Ms. Smith possesses an unfortunately nasty way of expressing herself, at one point calling federal minister of Climate Steven Guilbealt “treacherous.”
This is the man so widely trusted by the U.N. he was charged with crafting words which were honest but would be signed onto by every country. That’s the way these conferences operate.......by consensus.
I recall being in the gallery at the U.N. in New York in 2000 when a document on women was being debated. It was projected onto a screen at the front of the hall. “Do we have a clean copy?” asked the chair.
At that point, the Vatican delegate stood to enter an objection on the basis that the use of the term “gender” was “anti-family.” We watchers could hardly stifle our shock.
In addition to Tricia Clarkson, I obtain solid climate information from the online journal out of Vancouver, the National Observer. The Observer’s Chris Hatch was in Dubai.
“Summits such as these are new arenas for geopolitics,” he wrote.
The one beam of light from COP 28 was that almost 200 countries called on “countries to contribute to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” One hundred and twenty-seven countries of these 200 wanted stronger language.
But this wording mentions, for the first time ever, fossil fuels as the villains they are. It shows progress when even oil and gas producers are headed for a fossil-free future. The Globe and Mail's Eric Reguly said, “The oil industry will never set its own suicide date. Fuel subsidies must go.”
Hence the importance of ongoing education and political action everywhere. I very much doubt the Conservative Party of Canada will provide it.
Some good news: a recent independent review of Canada’s performance in reducing emissions found that existing federal and provincial policies, plus those in the works, should result in emissions falling around 35 per cent from our levels in 2005, by the year 2030.
That would be within striking distance of the national goal of 40 per cent. Climate policy is starting to have a positive impact. Among those measures are carbon pricing, clean fuel regulations and a mandated phase-out of coal power. The review offers “qualified optimism” writes Adam Radwanski.
In the meantime, all hands on deck. COP 29 for December 2024 has been granted to the city of Baku, Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea. A Muslim-majority country, it is also a petrostate. It became independent from the USSR in 1991.
We work in hope, and we must choose our politicians carefully as we lead up to COP 29.
Rosemary Ganley is a local writer, activist and teacher.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner December 28, 2023 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
The Order of Canada honors those who "have desired a better country."
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
December 21, 2023
The Peterborough region has been honored by Canada, by the naming of Dr. Betsy McGregor to the Order of Canada.
Presented in November by Her Excellency Mary Simons, the Governor General, in a ceremony in Ottawa, the medal cites McGregor’s many accomplishments for the common good. The honour was recognized at a reception two weeks later at the Lakefield Legion.
The Order of Canada honours those who “have desired a better country.” It recognizes “outstanding achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the nation.”
Born in Peterborough to Doug and Stevie McGregor, Betsy was one of four accomplished children who attended PCVS. She became a veterinarian, studying at Guelph University, and earned an M.A. at McMaster. Then she took her organizing ability international, co-founding the World Women’s Veterinary Association and leading a delegation from five continents to the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
Her triple interests in science, the environment and youth leadership, have meant she is a woman of these times. She has given science camps across Canada. During a fellowship at Harvard University, she coordinated a global think tank on the ethics of transplanting organs across species. The ethics of biotechnology is a driving force for her.
No work has been more important than inspiring youth and Canadian women in general, to consider a vocation in politics.
This led to her crowning achievement, the publication of "Women on the Ballot" in 2018, a compendium of pictures and stories of 95 women who have run for office (successfully or unsuccessfully), at any level: band council, municipal, provincial or federal - for all the political parties. She is at work on edition two.
That’s when I saw Betsy at work with her phone and computer, in the coffee shop inside the Trent Athletic Centre during the winter of 2018, (after her workout), making “cold” calls to Canadian women politicians. They all cooperated enthusiastically.
The book is a treasure trove for political studies classes in high schools and at post-secondary levels. Betsy herself ran in three federal elections. She bounced back from defeats to work on other women’s campaigns, namely those of federal ministers Deb Schultz, Catherine McKenna and Maryam Monsef.
Betsy and I offered an online course on these themes during the pandemic, wherein we learned that countries headed by women had contained COVID better than countries headed by men. That is food for thought.
Never an abrasive feminist but always determined, Betsy has been widely consulted by the UN, universities, and non-governmental organizations here and overseas.
Making her home on Stoney Lake, surrounded by three supportive siblings, she has coached a soccer team in the Special Olympics, serves on the board of Camp Kawartha, teaches Sunday school at St. Peter’s Church-on-the-Rock, and cheers on her two small granddaughters playing hockey in Toronto. She tests herself at every turn, having walked the pilgrimage route “El Camino” in northern Spain, and mountain-climbed two of the world’s seven, well-known summits.
In 2022, McGregor was named alumna of honour by her alma mater, Guelph University, joining a cohort of women including Roberta Bondar. This honour coincided with her diagnosis of ovarian cancer, leading to her current work as an adviser to Guelph’s Veterinary College’s cancer research institute. It researches animal-to-human connections, starting with clinical trials.
The Order of Canada citation pleases her immensely, as it was awarded by our first Indigenous Governor General. It empowers McGregor to preside at citizenship ceremonies. She joins a select group of Order of Canada recipients, along with Lynn Zimmer of Peterborough. in 2019, Zimmer was honoured for her work in founding Canada’s first shelter for women fleeing domestic violence.
Is there something in the water here, leading to the emergence of strong women leaders who see needs in their society and set about to meet them?
Peterborough takes pride in this recognition.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner December 21, 2023 >LINK<
Presented in November by Her Excellency Mary Simons, the Governor General, in a ceremony in Ottawa, the medal cites McGregor’s many accomplishments for the common good. The honour was recognized at a reception two weeks later at the Lakefield Legion.
The Order of Canada honours those who “have desired a better country.” It recognizes “outstanding achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the nation.”
Born in Peterborough to Doug and Stevie McGregor, Betsy was one of four accomplished children who attended PCVS. She became a veterinarian, studying at Guelph University, and earned an M.A. at McMaster. Then she took her organizing ability international, co-founding the World Women’s Veterinary Association and leading a delegation from five continents to the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
Her triple interests in science, the environment and youth leadership, have meant she is a woman of these times. She has given science camps across Canada. During a fellowship at Harvard University, she coordinated a global think tank on the ethics of transplanting organs across species. The ethics of biotechnology is a driving force for her.
No work has been more important than inspiring youth and Canadian women in general, to consider a vocation in politics.
This led to her crowning achievement, the publication of "Women on the Ballot" in 2018, a compendium of pictures and stories of 95 women who have run for office (successfully or unsuccessfully), at any level: band council, municipal, provincial or federal - for all the political parties. She is at work on edition two.
That’s when I saw Betsy at work with her phone and computer, in the coffee shop inside the Trent Athletic Centre during the winter of 2018, (after her workout), making “cold” calls to Canadian women politicians. They all cooperated enthusiastically.
The book is a treasure trove for political studies classes in high schools and at post-secondary levels. Betsy herself ran in three federal elections. She bounced back from defeats to work on other women’s campaigns, namely those of federal ministers Deb Schultz, Catherine McKenna and Maryam Monsef.
Betsy and I offered an online course on these themes during the pandemic, wherein we learned that countries headed by women had contained COVID better than countries headed by men. That is food for thought.
Never an abrasive feminist but always determined, Betsy has been widely consulted by the UN, universities, and non-governmental organizations here and overseas.
Making her home on Stoney Lake, surrounded by three supportive siblings, she has coached a soccer team in the Special Olympics, serves on the board of Camp Kawartha, teaches Sunday school at St. Peter’s Church-on-the-Rock, and cheers on her two small granddaughters playing hockey in Toronto. She tests herself at every turn, having walked the pilgrimage route “El Camino” in northern Spain, and mountain-climbed two of the world’s seven, well-known summits.
In 2022, McGregor was named alumna of honour by her alma mater, Guelph University, joining a cohort of women including Roberta Bondar. This honour coincided with her diagnosis of ovarian cancer, leading to her current work as an adviser to Guelph’s Veterinary College’s cancer research institute. It researches animal-to-human connections, starting with clinical trials.
The Order of Canada citation pleases her immensely, as it was awarded by our first Indigenous Governor General. It empowers McGregor to preside at citizenship ceremonies. She joins a select group of Order of Canada recipients, along with Lynn Zimmer of Peterborough. in 2019, Zimmer was honoured for her work in founding Canada’s first shelter for women fleeing domestic violence.
Is there something in the water here, leading to the emergence of strong women leaders who see needs in their society and set about to meet them?
Peterborough takes pride in this recognition.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner December 21, 2023 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
Millbrook area theatre celebrating 32 years in 2024.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
December 7, 2023
In the early ‘90s, I was teaching English literature in the senior grades at St Peter’s High School. The students were not catching on to Hamlet: his over-thinking and his hesitation to avenge the crimes of his uncle. Something dramatic was needed.
Through good luck and a connection, it did. A fine young local actor — who went on to found the cultural powerhouse that is now 4th Line Theatre in Millbrook — came to the class. Slouching and glowering in black leather, Robert Winslow masterfully delivered Hamlet’s soliloquies. Light dawned for the students. My longtime admiration followed.
4th Line is celebrating 32 years of existence in 2024. The energetic managing artistic director Kim Blackwell, who lives in Peterborough, has been associated with the theatre for 30 years. Blackwell ferrets out or commissions plays that illuminate Canadian and regional history. This coming summer, the fare is particularly relevant.
In July, 4th Line will present “Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: the Farmerettes”, the intriguing story of a wartime effort in rural Ontario. The concern in 1942 was that with so many young men going overseas, the harvesting of crops was threatened. Imagine a shortage of food, both for the troops and for the nation.
With the specter of rotting crops in a hungry world, the government of Premier Mitchell Hepburn initiated a volunteer program in farm service. Five brigades were established; one for women; one for “Commandos,” who were men; another, the “Holiday” brigade for citizens who had time to give ; the “Cadets,” boys, aged 15 and up, and the last, a brigade for high school and college-age girls, called “the Farmerettes.”
It lasted 10 years, even into the post-war years. The motto for farm service was “Let us Help, Hoe, Hay, and Harvest for Victory!” The pay was 35 cents an hour. Twenty-three thousand Ontarians participated on 54 farms.
A play has been written by Alison Lawrence, based on a memoir published in 2019 by the same name. That year, two women, Shirleyan English and Beryl Sitter, wrote a book about the farmerettes, many of whom had responded to English’s call for recollections.
English had been been a farmerette in 1952 as a 16-year-old from North Bay. “It was the best summer of my life,” she says. In a perk that high school students loved, if they agreed to 13 weeks of farm work, the province exempted them from final examinations.
Ever-alert Kim Blackwell has directed 28 productions at 4th Line, and 15 of them have been world premieres. That record gives the word “creativity” new meaning.
Shirleyan English lived in Peterborough in the ‘70s, when her late husband Douglas English worked for the Peterborough Examiner.
In the second play of next summer which runs in August, a young Torontonian, Jean Watts posing as a man, goes to Spain to cover the brutal Spanish civil war (1937-39) for the socialist newspaper “The Daily Clarion.” She assumes a male name and enters Spain illegally to cover the Canadian contingent, the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion (the “Mac-Paps”), that was made up of 1,700 Canadian men and women who had joined an international coalition of troops in support of Spanish republicans against dictator Francisco Franco. It was democracy against fascism. Four hundred young Canadians died there.
Jean “Jim” Watts became a kind of “embedded journalist” as an ambulance driver, and sent home stories of the war, including anecdotes of the blood services offered by Dr. Norman Bethune. The play written by Beverley Cooper, is entitled “Jim Watts: Girl Reporter.”
I predict a summer of stories of youth being inspired and inspiring others, along with some nostalgia among audiences. It is a delightful way to learn. And the tickets are just in time for this year’s holiday gifts too.
As my mother said, “Always give experiences, not things.”
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner December 7, 2023 >LINK<
Through good luck and a connection, it did. A fine young local actor — who went on to found the cultural powerhouse that is now 4th Line Theatre in Millbrook — came to the class. Slouching and glowering in black leather, Robert Winslow masterfully delivered Hamlet’s soliloquies. Light dawned for the students. My longtime admiration followed.
4th Line is celebrating 32 years of existence in 2024. The energetic managing artistic director Kim Blackwell, who lives in Peterborough, has been associated with the theatre for 30 years. Blackwell ferrets out or commissions plays that illuminate Canadian and regional history. This coming summer, the fare is particularly relevant.
In July, 4th Line will present “Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: the Farmerettes”, the intriguing story of a wartime effort in rural Ontario. The concern in 1942 was that with so many young men going overseas, the harvesting of crops was threatened. Imagine a shortage of food, both for the troops and for the nation.
With the specter of rotting crops in a hungry world, the government of Premier Mitchell Hepburn initiated a volunteer program in farm service. Five brigades were established; one for women; one for “Commandos,” who were men; another, the “Holiday” brigade for citizens who had time to give ; the “Cadets,” boys, aged 15 and up, and the last, a brigade for high school and college-age girls, called “the Farmerettes.”
It lasted 10 years, even into the post-war years. The motto for farm service was “Let us Help, Hoe, Hay, and Harvest for Victory!” The pay was 35 cents an hour. Twenty-three thousand Ontarians participated on 54 farms.
A play has been written by Alison Lawrence, based on a memoir published in 2019 by the same name. That year, two women, Shirleyan English and Beryl Sitter, wrote a book about the farmerettes, many of whom had responded to English’s call for recollections.
English had been been a farmerette in 1952 as a 16-year-old from North Bay. “It was the best summer of my life,” she says. In a perk that high school students loved, if they agreed to 13 weeks of farm work, the province exempted them from final examinations.
Ever-alert Kim Blackwell has directed 28 productions at 4th Line, and 15 of them have been world premieres. That record gives the word “creativity” new meaning.
Shirleyan English lived in Peterborough in the ‘70s, when her late husband Douglas English worked for the Peterborough Examiner.
In the second play of next summer which runs in August, a young Torontonian, Jean Watts posing as a man, goes to Spain to cover the brutal Spanish civil war (1937-39) for the socialist newspaper “The Daily Clarion.” She assumes a male name and enters Spain illegally to cover the Canadian contingent, the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion (the “Mac-Paps”), that was made up of 1,700 Canadian men and women who had joined an international coalition of troops in support of Spanish republicans against dictator Francisco Franco. It was democracy against fascism. Four hundred young Canadians died there.
Jean “Jim” Watts became a kind of “embedded journalist” as an ambulance driver, and sent home stories of the war, including anecdotes of the blood services offered by Dr. Norman Bethune. The play written by Beverley Cooper, is entitled “Jim Watts: Girl Reporter.”
I predict a summer of stories of youth being inspired and inspiring others, along with some nostalgia among audiences. It is a delightful way to learn. And the tickets are just in time for this year’s holiday gifts too.
As my mother said, “Always give experiences, not things.”
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner December 7, 2023 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |