The Lindsay Advocate - November 2022

How prepared are you for the

next big disaster?

Veteran Leonard Green honoured with banner Mailbox maker delivers on unique postal boxes Kawartha Lakes’ Premier News Magazine * November 2022

Don’t lose the farm!

Divorces, by their nature, are very complex. This is especially true for hardworking farm families, as these divorces involve dispersing land, livestock, and machinery that cannot be easily divided.

You need a firm that has experience in dealing with divorces involving the division of farm land and equipment.

The Riley Divorce & Family Law Firm knows how to guide you through marriage dissolution so that you can protect your children and minimize your legal and financial risks.

Isn’t it time to move on with your life? www.therileyfirm.ca 223 Kent Street West, Lindsay 705.535.0996

Kawartha Lakes divorce lawyer, Paul Riley Get a free consult today.

The Advocate is published monthly & distributed through diverse businesses & locations throughout Kawartha Lakes, North Durham & southern Haliburton County.

We are a proud member of the Lindsay & District, Fenelon Falls & Bobcaygeon Chambers of Commerce.

Publisher: Roderick Benns

our vision

November 2022 * Vol. 5 * Issue 55

The Advocate cares about the social wellness of our community & our country. Our vision includes strong public enterprises mixed with healthy small businesses to serve our communities’ needs. We put human values ahead of economic values & many of our stories reflect the society we work to build each day.

Associate Editor: Nancy Payne Contributing Editor: Trevor Hutchinson Contributing Writers: Geoff Coleman William McGinn Ian McKechnie Ginny Colling Trevor Hutchinson Roderick Benns Art Direction + Design: Barton Creative Co. Christina Dedes Photographers: Sienna Frost Web Developer: Kimberly Durrant Published By Fireside Publishing House Printed By Cofax Printing Cover Image: Kawartha Lakes resident Mike Flannery prepares a small fire. Photo: Geoff Coleman

Please send advertising & editorial inquiries to Roderick Benns at: The Lindsay Advocate 1 Russel Street E. Lindsay ON, K9V 1Z7

kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com

(705) 341 - 1496

PRIVACY POLICY: The Lindsay Advocate is independently owned & operated. The opinions expressed herein are the views of the contributors & do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine. Photos, text & art work contained in The Lindsay Advocate are copyrighted & may not be published, broadcast or rewritten without the express permission of the Publisher. Liability for incorrectly displayed advertising is limited to publishing corrections or advertising credit for subsequent issues. The Publisher reserves the right to reject, revise, cancel, omit, discontinue or even decline to print advertising without reason or liability, & without notice. The Publisher has made every effort to ensure information contained herein was accurate at press time. The Publisher does not assume & hereby disclaims any liability to any party for damage, loss, or disruption caused by errors or omissions.

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Remembrance Day honour for local man

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Be ready when disaster strikes

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every issue Letters to the Editor 4 * UpFront 6 * Benns’ Belief 9 Lunch With 32 * Cool Tips for a Hot Planet 40 Just in Time 42 * The Affordable Kitchen 44 * Trevor’s Take 46 To advertise in the Advocate please contact us by telephone at (705) 341-1496 or by email at kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com

“Like locks of hair, letters encapsulate some essential element of the personality of whoever holds the pen.”

- Charlotte Gray

Disabilities act has not lived up to its promise Re: Just in Time column, “Disability in Kawartha Lakes” (October Advocate). The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (was) met with much optimism in 2005.

Very few of its intentions have been made realities, and while at one point the local committee had good municipal advocates, I find nothing at all in reportage in recent years. With all the massive housing developments happening, have even one of the homes been designed or marketed to accommodate persons with mobility, vision or hearing challenges? Do any of the municipal-governed social housing units have plans to upgrade in these regards?

– Karla Forgaard-Pullen, Kawartha Lakes

People with disabilities still mistreated While it’s nice to read about history, it seems as though the author is saying disabled people aren’t still mistreated, ignored (and) stigmatized. Reading this piece, it sounds like these are problems of the past and life as a disabled child or adult is now just fine.

“They were at best second-class citizens, and . . . considered a financial burden on society.” This is still true. Just ask the Conservative government. Ask anyone on ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program). “… much has been done over the years to raise awareness about the rights of those living with a disability, and to make our community more inclusive and accessible to all.”

While progress has been made, this piece completely whitewashes the reality of living with a disability in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario and Canada today.

– William Paterson, Lindsay

Noisy vehicles do not get enough police attention I was looking both on the City of Kawartha Lakes site and Lindsay police bylaws for car noise bylaws.

I came across an online Advocate article that mentions there isn’t a decibel level (that is measured) but the officer’s discretion. The noise and speed from some vehicles in Lindsay have gotten totally out of control. My wife and I were walking our dog when we heard a truck coming to the Albert and Mary Streets four-way stop.

By the time he reached us at Mary/ Adelaide he must have been going 90 to 100 kph along with the roar.

When I yelled to slow down he sped up even more, honking his horn and giving us the finger, his arm out the window. This speed and noise is an every day occurrence in this area with no control.

So sad and I’m ready to move out of Lindsay.

– Ed Hall, Lindsay

Port Perry bus should be connected to Lindsay The Port Perry-Whitby 81A GO bus should be extended to Lindsay. Direct service to a town of Lindsay’s size should be considered since smaller towns like Sunderland, Cannington and Beaverton are already serviced.

– Ray Smith, Kawartha Lakes

The Advocate welcomes your letters. We do not publish anonymous letters unless it’s a matter of public importance and/or someone risks harm by writing us. We publish under strict guidelines & only if we can verify the person’s identity. Simply email kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com. Keep your letters to 200 words or less.

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lindsayadvocate.ca

Christina Dedes

Christina Dedes is a freelance graphic designer based in Lindsay and the graphic designer for The Lindsay Advocate. She is a proud graduate of Fleming College’s Haliburton School of Art + Design – the birthplace of her design career.

Growing up in a local family business, the Olympia Restaurant, she has seen how advocacy and hard work can make a big impact in a small community.

Christina continues to create with her community in mind, collaborating with local design agency Barton Creative Co. to create brands and graphics for small businesses.

When she steps away from her computer, Christina enjoys exploring in the great outdoors, inviting friends over for game nights and dancing until her knees ache.

5

Festival of Trees continues a great community tradition

New executive director of John Howard Society

Dana Hetherton. Photo: Sienna Frost.

Dana Hetherton is the new executive director of John Howard Society of Kawartha Lakes & Haliburton.

The much-loved festive event is the key fundraiser for Kawartha Settlers’ Village.

The Kawartha Lakes Festival of Trees is back, in its original format, just in time for its 25th anniversary. That’s when Kawartha Settlers’ Village gets transformed into a Christmas wonderland, full of decorated trees, wreaths, garlands and more.

Indulge in delicious food and treats in the Cafe and Snack Shack. New this year is an on-site candy shop.

Visitors can view and bid on hundreds of decorated and donated items through at the in-person raffle and silent auction. The live auction takes place on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Murphy Barn.

Arrive early to register as a bidder.

This is the main annual fundraiser annual for Kawartha Settlers’ Village, which allows the village to continue operations and offer events.

Robyn Barton, a committee member with the festival, says attendees can also enjoy a visit with Santa, and a special appearance by his reindeer.

6

“Our general store will be open for Christmas shopping needs,” says Barton, “and don’t forget to drop off your letters to Santa.”

This year’s Festival of Trees runs from Nov. 10-14 at Kawartha Settlers’ Village. Full event details and weekend passes (on sale now) can be found at kawarthalakesfestivaloftrees.com lindsayadvocate.ca

Hetherton has spent her entire 25-year career in community justice-based organizations.

Most recently, she was the manager of justice services at John Howard Society in Peterborough, an organization she was with for 12 years.

The local organization supports the people and communities affected by the criminal justice system. Its work ranges from helping youth develop life skills and aiding families to navigate the criminal justice system, to providing job training for those leaving incarceration so they can contribute to their community.

“I am excited about sharing my skills and knowledge and continuing the work of JHS in the community,” says Hetherton.

You can reach the John Howard Society at 705-328-0472

Eclectic wine shop and espresso bar opens in downtown Lindsay

RJT, Wall It Wall Art under one roof with more offerings

Jennifer Boksman, owner of Needful Things. Photo: Sienna Frost.

About 20 years ago, Jennifer Boksman remembers walking in Paris, heading toward the Seine River for a cruise. A unique little shop caught her eye. It was a simple yurt, stocked with flowers, antiques and other sundry items. The eclecticism of the experience never left her mind.

Two decades later, Boksman has opened Needful Things in downtown Lindsay, a shop she describes as “whimsical.” It’s a wine shop, a coffee and espresso bar, and tea is also available. There’s antique furniture, decorative tea towels, Boksman’s matted photography (she’s been a photographer for decades) and wine accessories.

Parties of up to 10 can rent the space, too, excluding staff. “I wanted a place where you could come in, have a glass of wine or prosecco, or maybe a coffee or tea, have a chitchat and look at all the interesting things,” she says.

“It’s not a restaurant. It’s not a café. It’s just a weird little shop,” she says with a laugh. In fact, the name Needful Things was ripped from a 1991 horror novel

by Stephen King, a favourite of Boksman’s.

The 24 wine varieties she carries are not available at the LCBO, either. She notes it’s the kind of store where it would be possible to put together a nice host gift before heading to a party. “For me, it’s the interactions and sharing conversations about wine and food. I’m excited — it’s a dream I’ve had for a long time and it’s coming to fruition.”

Needful Things is at 15 Cambridge St. S., Lindsay Call 705-878-2001

Jeff Tompkins, owner, has plans for expansion. Photo: Sienna Frost.

RJT Solutions, the independent office essentials business run by owner Jeff Tompkins, continues to expand its operations.

Now located in Lindsay’s Cambridge Mall, the business also specializes in designing custom-made ergonomically correct office furniture. With more floor space, Tompkins says people will be able to come in and see chairs and try them out before ordering them, or to see desk colour options.

“I now have software that allows us to create 3D drawings on the spot for several of my suppliers. It will allow me to carry a larger selection of products that are needed by both businesses and home offices.”

Wall It Wall Art, Tompkins’ other business, is also ready for holiday shoppers in the Cambridge Mall. It has access to thousands of pictures to suit any style and budget for home and office alike, as well as a Christmas section.

Tompkins, who is also campaign chair for this year’s United Way fundraising efforts, says that this is one way he wanted to give back to the city that has supported him as his businesses has expanded.

Visit rjts.ca or at drop by the store at 18 Cambridge St S. in Lindsay

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The $30 billion question

By Roderick Benns Publisher

Recently, a report from Canadians for Tax Fairness said top companies paid $30 billion less in taxes last year than we would have anticipated under our existing corporate tax rates. In other words, when it comes to corporations, we’re willing to look the other way when it comes to raking in record profits.

After analyzing 123 Canadian corporations, report author D.T. Cochrane found that the actual tax rate paid by these companies was about 15 per cent. That’s much lower than the actual 26.5 per cent average of combining the national and provincial tax rates.

That does not mean that these corporations were doing anything illegal.

Their shocking amount of savings can be from valid tax deductions and from claiming their profits in lower tax jurisdictions, such as Bahamas or Barbados.

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It’s hard to grasp just how a big a billion versus a million really is.

Think about it this way. If you had a million dollars and spent $1,000 a day, you would run out of money in three years. If you had a billion dollars and spent $1,000 a day, it would last 2,740 years. Canada, to repeat, allowed $30 billion to go legally uncollected.

In the end, we allow corporations to get away with massive profiteering at the expense of the public purse due to lax tax rules. According to Visual Capitalist, which helps create understandable comparative

data, Apple’s “worth” is about the same size as Canada’s gross domestic product.

If Microsoft were a country, it would be the 10th richest in the world. These kinds of numbers underscore how powerful corporations now are. Only government has the means to wrest some control back — not to be anti-business but to help fashion a society where everyone matters. And everyone matters only when we address a range of our collective challenges.

Of course, corporations must turn a profit. But when our hospitals and long-term care homes are always one crisis away from collapsing; when our schools require much-needed structural upgrades and critical additional staff; when the people who live here can’t find a place to live because we literally haven’t built enough homes; when our municipal road budgets never seem to have enough money; then can we finally acknowledge that just maybe it’s time to rein in the breaks we give to corporations and use that money for the greater good?

The Liberals included measures to reform the tax system in their most recent budget, with the parliamentary budget officer estimating these measures will bring in an additional $5.3 billion in revenue over the next five years.

That’s a start. But we need to go much further to use more of those billions for the good of our communities.

9

New council must find unity of purpose

With the votes counted and the winners declared, it is time for the new Kawartha Lakes council to get to work.

As many of the candidates pointed out in their stump speeches, this council will have to make dozens of important and often costly decisions about infrastructure, future development and what services the city will continue to provide to make our community more livable, accessible and caring.

There are going to be difficult discussions to make about everything but road repairs, which all candidates agree will be a priority for the next four years.

Beyond roads, important questions remain unanswered and are up for debate. What is this council going to do about the cultural master plan? Or petty crime and public drug use? How will it ensure that developers pay their fair share and the city does not find itself on the hook for providing roads, water, sewers and more for the thousands of new homes the previous council approved?

The mayor and the eight councillors are going to need to bury that often harsh rhetoric they freely used about each other on the campaign trail, sit down like adults and work together for the betterment of the community.

Recently retired mayor Andy Letham worked very hard to gain council consensus on important citywide issues like the long-term financial plan, increasing levels of city debt, the repair and improvement of infrastructure and what the city will look like with development on a scale never seen before just over the horizon.

This council should take notice of Letham’s successes. Councillors also need to realize that the only way forward is for the people’s representatives to keep their eyes on the prize, which is serving their constituents as best they can, so the city will emerge stronger and more united.

Best of luck. We will be watching.

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Remembering David Murray

Re: Kawartha Lakes mourns the passing of David Murray, former Warden of Victoria County (Advocate online.)

While I didn’t actually serve on Victoria County Council, I was nevertheless privileged to have worked with Dave — who, along with Ken Logan, Jim Brasier, Wayne Teel, Tom Crowe and Sal Polito, was one of the mainstays of what has been termed “the golden age of county government” — between 1994 and 1997.

To me Dave exemplified what devotion to public service was about. Over the years I’ve frequently reflected on many of the conversations we shared, and I remain grateful for the insights and the guidance he provided (as I’m certain are those who served with him).

– Marty Stollar, former mayor, Town of Lindsay

lindsayadvocate.ca

Preventing femicide and violence against women

By Carolyn Fox Carolyn Fox is the fund development director of Women’s Resources.

November is Woman Abuse Prevention Month in Ontario and year after year, this annual observance remains as grim as ever. Between November 2021 and October 2022, 40 femicides were reported in this province, with a total of 12 deaths just in August and September.

(Femicide can be described as the intentional killing of women, children and other genderdiverse individuals by men.)

Sobering facts to say the least. What can be done?

First, more resources dedicated to intervention and prevention among these men would be an important step in working towards ending gender-based violence and ultimately preventing future deaths. Risk factors indicating who is most likely to commit lethal violence show those with a previously documented history of intimate-partner violence are at highest risk. Other factors include previous threats of bodily harm and assault as well as past involvement with the criminal justice system.

Second, we need to be especially aware of the danger facing Indigenous, Black and 2SLGBTQ+ women, girls and gender-diverse individuals; they experience much higher rates of gender-based violence and femicide, an unacceptable fact.

Third, we need more money to provide better support for women who want to escape a violent situation. COVID lockdowns brought the plight of women abuse to the forefront, showing the need for increased funding and better services to protect women and children. This still has not been achieved.

Gender-based violence is often an invisible issue, and many women and gender-diverse individuals may not be aware of the services available in their own community despite public awareness campaigns and promotions. Violence Against Women (VAW) shelters across Ontario have a key role to play when it comes to addressing gender-based violence and preventing femicide.

Women’s Resources of Kawartha Lakes provides a range of services to women and their children.

These include a 24/7 emergency shelter and crisis line, and outreach counselling services. One of the first things our counsellors do for women when they have taken the brave step to leave an abusive home is to prepare a safety plan tailored to individual needs.

It could include technology safety (blocking social media, changing passwords etc.), educating family and friends so they don’t reveal whereabouts or making sure they have a police escort if they need to retrieve personal items, known as a “stand by, keep peace.” Once a safety plan is in place, healing and recovery is possible through counselling, securing a safe place to live and daring to live a better life while still remaining vigilant when out in the community.

November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the first day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. Women’s Resources hopes to take part again this year in a flag-raising at city hall in Lindsay to signal a commitment to end gender-based violence and show survivors they are not alone. Check Women’s Resources social media in November for details.

If you need help, call our crisis line at 705-878-3662 or 1-800-565-5350.

For more information, contact Carolyn Fox at 705-324-7649 Ext. 223 or cfox@womensresources.ca 11

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Leonard Green remembers his service as a ‘store basher’

By Ian McKechnie

Some years ago, I had the opportunity to act as an interpreter for a living history exhibit about the lesser-known stories of those who served behind the front lines of the First World War. It was a tremendously educational experience for all of us involved, not least because it expanded and enriched our definition of “veteran.” When remembering those who served, we often think first of those who marched across battlefields. Yet some of the most crucial people in times of war were those who served in support and supply roles.

Air raids were frequent occurrences. “We had a piano, and whenever that happened — whenever the sirens went — our cat would jump up on the piano, face the wall, and look up, and he’d stay like that all the time the raid was on,” Green remembers.

As a teenager, Green “did his bit” for the war effort at the Royal Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich, England, before joining the Air Training Corps, where he learned to identify enemy aircraft.

Leonard Green was one of those veterans.

Born on Feb. 25, 1928, in London, England, Green came of age during the Second World War. He begins our chat by regaling me with stories about German V-1 flying bombs that regularly soared over the countryside around London, England, when he was a teen. “One day, the sirens had gone, and I knew what was going to happen. So, I went on down to the chicken shed. It was about six foot high, and I was standing on the chicken shed watching these things go by,” Green says. All of a sudden, a V-1 appeared directly over the house and began to malfunction. “It sounded like a motorcycle,” Green explains. “It was going pretty fast, and it quit.”

Without waiting for the flying bomb to fall from the sky, 15-year-old Green got off the chicken shed roof and ran. The V-1 dropped in the next street over, causing damage to neighbouring buildings. “I didn’t feel anything, (no) blast or anything like that,” Green recalls, lucky to have escaped from disaster.

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Leonard Green was recently in Lindsay to see the banner that will honour his legacy.

lindsayadvocate.ca

At 17, Green signed up with the Royal Air Force, in which his older brother had served as an airman, and was sent up to Padgate in Lancashire for a few months’ worth of basic training. He volunteered to serve overseas in 1946, when he was just 18.

The only picture known to exist of Green in uniform.

However, his adventure began in tragedy.

Green’s brother had volunteered to stay on with the RAF after the war to train radio operators and was the victim of an aircraft crash on the same day Green left for service in Egypt. Upon arriving at the base near Cairo, Green learned that his brother had died and immediately wanted to return home but wasn’t permitted to do so. “I cried,” says Green, “because I had not seen him through the war.”

When Green showed up in Egypt, RAF personnel were living in tents. “The first day there, it was 126 (degrees Fahrenheit) in the shade,” he recalls. Green was what the RAF colloquially called a “store basher.” Officially, he was an equipment assistant, responsible for the base store. Personnel looking for new boots, uniforms, tools and other supplies dealt with Green, who had to keep track of inventory. He was also responsible for overseeing local citizens and occasionally German prisoners of war who were assigned to help out at the base store. “I learned two languages there, Arabic and German,” Green tells me.

What was going on in the Middle East that required Royal Air Force personnel and other branches of the British armed forces on the ground? Tension had been brewing in Egypt, which the British had occupied since 1882. Not far away, a full-scale civil war broke out between Jewish and Arab communities after the United Nations recommended the Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947.

The British, who had occupied the region since 1920, were responsible for keeping order and would withdraw from the region by spring of 1948. During this period, Green was moved to a camp near the Suez Canal and eventually found himself stationed at warehouses just east of Tel Aviv. Green and his fellow RAF men were also regularly assigned to escort Jewish civilians to their jobs in the kibbutz (communities traditionally centred on agriculture) and Arabs to their villages. “We were among the first peacekeepers,” Green explains.

Later, Green was moved yet again — this time to Cyprus, where he carried on his responsibilities as a store basher. “My store this time was on the north side of the base, and it was a mess when I started work, but I soon got everything in ship shape,” he remembers. By the time he was transferred back to Egypt in 1948, Green had become a non-commissioned officer, attaining the rank of corporal.

By the time he was transferred back to Egypt in 1948, Green had become a non-commissioned officer, attaining the rank of corporal. From Egypt, Green returned to the U.K. via Malta. He was demobilized, and after leaving the RAF took a job with the London Fire Brigade as a firefighter. He spent seven years with what he describes as “the best fire brigade in the world” before the air force came calling again.

This time, however, it wasn’t the Royal Air Force, but rather the Royal Canadian Air Force. The RCAF was looking for trained firefighters to work at its bases in Canada, and Green signed up.

He came to Canada in 1955 and spent the next 10 years on bases in Toronto, in Manitoba and eventually in Trenton, where he oversaw fire prevention programs. After leaving the RCAF in 1965, Green worked for a time as a prison guard in Millbrook and eventually found his way to Lindsay, where he worked as a corrections officer at the Ontario Training School for Girls on Kent Street West.

Asked what remembrance means to him, Green reminds me that “for every man in the front lines there are 50 people behind him.” Whether these people be cooks, drivers, mechanics, nurses, or “the lowly store basher,” their contributions must never be forgotten.

Leonard Green is being honoured by son Steve Green and family with a banner that will be mounted in downtown Lindsay in the weeks before Remembrance Day. Since 2015, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 67 has collaborated with the Lindsay Downtown Business Improvement Association to honour local veterans with banners that make remembrance tangible for visitors and local residents alike. Lest we forget.

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When disaster strikes

How ready are you for a prolonged emergency?

By Geoff Coleman

There are many positive aspects to life in Kawartha Lakes, and you can add one more that might not typically come to mind: not a lot of emergencies.

The federal government actually keeps track of emergencies in a database with more than 1,000 entries in categories ranging from terrorist attacks to landslides. B.C. deals with wildfires, and the East Coast has to regularly endure hurricanes, but we only made the list once, thanks to a series of severe thunderstorms that knocked out power on April 25, 2009.

Many readers will remember the inconveniences and gas station lineups then but compared to the storm that went through our region in May this year, it wasn’t so bad. That storm left our harder hit neighbours over in Peterborough in worse shape than most of those in Kawartha Lakes. That includes people like Danielle Roberts, who lives in the south end of Peterborough, without power for over a week.

“About 45 minutes after the storm my power came back on for about three minutes and then it was back off again for eight days. On my street alone, every place — including my own — had at least two trees down, and the last six houses on the block each had four trees ripped out of their backyard. It was just unbelievable. My neighbour’s backyard fence was out in the middle of the road . . . one house had a tree on top of their truck and another tree on top of the garage . . . it was just unbelievable to see so much destruction. It really, really looked like a war zone.”

Similarly, Susan Oliver who calls “the Old West End” of Peterborough home, went a week without electricity. The area suffered extensive mature tree damage that hampered Hydro One’s restoration efforts. “Everything was an inconvenience — my dreams of a simpler life as a plucky pioneer were quickly dashed.

"No lights was okay as that was accommodated with flashlights and lanterns, but not having internet for work (I work from home) was problematic, and worrying about food spoilage was initially stressful. My husband is a contractor so was able to get a portable generator for the majority of the week. However, it required a lot of gas . . . of which there ended up being a short, expensive supply.”

It’s hard to deny that climate change will only mean more sudden, powerful storms, so it might be time for you to finally get together the things needed in the event of an extended power outage or other emergency. The Advocate spoke to two individuals who have taken the plunge to get themselves ready.

Both were careful to say they don’t consider themselves “preppers,” a community that, at the extreme, believes civil unrest and a full societal breakdown is always just around the corner. Rather, the people we spoke to just want to be able to provide the necessities of life for their families in the case of an extended emergency.

One, who grew up in Lindsay and now lives in the Canadian West can’t speak publicly on the record due to his position with the Canadian Armed Forces. He says being prepared is “simply the ability to be self-sustaining for as long as possible in times of need, whatever the emergency may be.”

The other, Mike Flannery, a new resident in Kawartha Lakes, previously lived on one of the Northern Gulf islands off Vancouver Island, making it critical that he and his wife Andrea be prepared for anything. “We had the threats of earthquakes, tsunamis and fires. We knew if there was a widespread power outage, our little island of 1,100 people would be one of the lowest priorities for BC Hydro.”

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With extensive army training, my friend from the Forces has learned over a lifetime what needs to be at hand when an emergency occurs, and he really is ready for anything. Mike, on the other hand, bought a kit with the basics and augmented it with items recommended by the B.C. government, and that met his family’s own specific needs. Both have similar equipment and provisions that can be broken down into these broad categories: food, water, energy/fuel, medical and communication.

Flannery’s provisions include water, two weeks of food, a tarp, tent, makeshift toilet, sleeping bags, a radio and old cell phone, and medications. He put the supplies in rodent-proof bins on a handcart and stored it all in an outbuilding close to a window and door for ease of access. He stressed that cycling through the medications is important to maintain currency, so they use them and replenish as needed. Ironically, during the five years they lived on the island, the longest they went without power was six hours. They have experienced longer outages in their 11 months here.

My old army buddy, as might be expected, has a more extensive inventory, but the basics are the same. His top priority is water during an extended emergency.

“An individual can only last three days without water (or less), so considering where and how you can access water should concern every single citizen.”

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Water stored in jerry cans or 55-gallon drums in a garage, or cases of bottled water, will get you through the initial stages, but if things get drawn out, you need the ability to filter new water you collect. Sawyer water filters are excellent resources that allow you to drink from lakes and ponds without danger of sickness.

For years, solar disinfection has been used to cleanse water. Proponents admit that it won’t remove chemicals already in the water, but when water drawn from a river or lake and stored in a pop bottle is left in full sun for six hours, any microorganisms in it are killed by the ultraviolet rays. This technique works with clear plastic PET bottles up to two litres in size.

Food preps, in the event of an emergency, come in various forms including bars, protein shakes and whatever you have in the fridge, canned goods and dry goods, and freeze-dried products. You can expect to get a five- to eight-year shelf life from preserves or canned goods, and up to 30 years for freeze-dried products like the Mountain House line, according to army guy, who has researched this extensively.

Particularly in Canada, storage and access to forms of energy is a critical concern for emergency preparedness, given the extreme nature of our climate.

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Solar, gasoline, kerosene, batteries or firewood all have a place in providing energy, so the major believes, “a varied, structured plan, is absolutely required to understand what your personal requirements are, and how you can safely use generators, lanterns, fireplaces or stored resources for cooking, heating and sustaining a family over a long-term period.”

He adds, “Personally, I invest in the preparation of firewood, store fuel for kerosene heaters, store extra gasoline for vehicles or generators, and have yet to invest in a portable solar panel which would be extremely helpful in sustaining battery-related devices.

In addition to this, the simple investment in warm clothing and sleeping bags are always overlooked.

For Canada, an effectively rated winter sleeping bag set for each member of the family could save a life if everything else fails.”

Medical requirements — from oxygen to CPAP machines to having an adequate supply of prescription medicine — present a challenge in an emergency.

At the minimum, have medical kits in your vehicle, your home or when travelling. Some pre-assembled ones are really bad, containing little more than aspirin, some kind of ointment that has dried up, and 500 bandages that are all the wrong size and won’t stick anyway, so consider making your own. Excellent books are available on basic first aid and usually include a section on compiling a kit.

Even before the Rogers service interruption this summer, we all recognized how dependent we have become on wifi and cellular service. This is an area where it makes sense to hedge your bets and have home internet and cell from different providers. And given that payment by debit and credit also requires internet, keep cash on hand.

Of all the things you need to assemble, there is one resource that is harder to attain, but might be the most valuable of all: a network of people you can rely on.

Flannery recalls a visitor to their house in B.C. shortly after they settled in. “When we first moved there, a woman came by asking what stuff we had. We didn’t know it at the time, but the island was divided into quadrants, and each sector had a ’leader,’ for lack of a better word, responsible for adding things like our chainsaws, generator and water barrels to an island-wide inventory of emergency supplies. That was an indication that we were really going to be responsible for ourselves as a community.”

Bandages, antiseptics and tourniquets should be in there, and Krazy Glue does an awesome job of sealing long, narrow cuts. And, though costly, it is now possible in Canada to buy antibiotics.

Communication and access to information are also important aspects to emergency preparedness. As the major points out, the ability to understand and react to information in an emergency can be the difference between life and death. “Investing in amateur radios (HAM), or portable radios linked to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is a critical resource that can guide you in making the right decisions for your family. Knowledge of coming storms, direction of forest fires, closures of roads, etc., will allow you to properly navigate potential threats ongoing in your region.”

Radios are inexpensive, and in some cases can operate with batteries, solar or crank functions, and will charge your phone. Satellite phones are still expensive, but the affordable Garmin inReach serves as a hand-held GPS, receives weather updates, can send an SOS signal, and lets you text other inReach users when you have a satellite subscription.

Fuel storage cans are an important aspect of being prepared.

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The May 22, 2022 windstorm resulted in a widespread power outage across the eastern and southern Kawartha Lakes. Many aspects of life were disrupted — some obvious, some you might not have predicted.

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• • • • • • • • • •

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Loss of power; no lights, no use of appliances, no ability to charge telecommunications and mobility devices, no heating and cooling systems, no elevators in high rise buildings Food spoilage due to extended power outage Medication spoilage (for prescriptions requiring refrigeration) No access to fuel for vehicles, generators, etc.

No access to cash (banks were closed; bank machines were not operational) Inability to pay at stores that were accepting cash only Most restaurants closed Trouble refilling home oxygen canisters Telecommunications outages (Bell, Rogers, etc.) as towers lost power (battery backup only lasted for several hours) Landline telephone disruption (for handsets that require power such as portable telephones) Travel affected by outages of traffic lights and street lights (traffic congestion on main corridors; challenges for pedestrians to cross busy streets safely) Widespread tree and power line damage across the city resulted in some roads being impassable; risk where power lines were charged Property damage (trees down on private property causing damage to structures, shingles/roof damage, broken windows, outdoor furniture blown around/broken, etc.)

The City of Kawartha Lakes responded in the following ways, according to the communications team: • • • • • • • 20

Local relief for residents without power at fire stations Free disposal of residential food waste in bins at select fire stations Limited bottled water to residents in need Phone/device charging at fire stations Leaf and yard waste tipping fees were waived at landfills Tipping fees were waived for expired food disposal at landfills Free shower facilities for those without power at the Lindsay Recreation Complex

Water proof matches, fire starters, and glow sticks can all be part of being prepared.

Danielle Roberts in Peterborough witnessed several instances of community-mindedness during the May power outage. “The thing I personally take the most from the experience was the community help. For example, I had found a source for ice at my work that wasn't hit by the outage. So I filled coolers with it, which I then brought home to share with a few sets of neighbours. Another neighbour was making sure everyone had propane because he had extra tanks from his cottage, and another neighbour owned a restaurant so he literally was handing out food to people who had no means to cook.

"There was one business in town that was amazing though. John Johnston Plumbing found a few families that were left with no power and no water and brought them out generators, got their water going, and did it all free of charge, so to me that was just the kindest thing in the world.”

Major Tom, who has seen some things during his foreign deployments, tempers that rosy view of humankind with some sobering observations.

“Although security is less likely to be an issue in Canada, my recent travels and living abroad caused me to realize the fragility of most systems throughout the world. Being prepared for an emergency all begins with your ability to secure whatever environment you’re going to be in for the long term. I’ve always been reminded that mankind’s morality is directly proportional to its access to resources — we are always three meals away from anarchy in true emergencies.

The city also has an Emergency Management page on its website with information on:

"Collectively, we need to lessen the burden, own the responsibility for protecting and providing for families, and plan accordingly. We could all be forced to respond to local disasters, or global conflicts, and those who have planned to develop skills and invest in resources will survive. The current generation’s dependencies on government resources is unequalled in history.” LA

An abundance of information about what to keep in your home or vehicle to make it easier to survive the next power outage exists online, particularly on a variety of YouTube channels. You can go down the rabbit hole to incredible depths and find preppers who can provide detailed information on how to start a fire with cotton balls and petroleum jelly, or provide 300 uses for paracord (a lightweight rope that originally was used on parachutes).

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flooding

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how to stay informed

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road closures/emergencies

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contact centre information

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personal emergency preparedness kits

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home emergency preparedness tips

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building a survival kit

Good battery news

There’s not much more important than batteries if you consider how important communication is.

Since you can’t assume your cell phone will always be working, a great portable radio is a must. In AA battery tests by CBC’s Marketplace simulating different energy drain levels, Energizer and Duracell batteries lasted the longest, but E-Circuit alkaline, a brand imported by and sold at Dollar Tree, held its own against the more well-known brands, lasting nearly as long and costing only $1.25 for a pack of four.

The researchers used the different drain scenarios — low, medium and high — to simulate real-life uses.

They said the low-level drain is similar to the continuous use of a computer mouse or TV remote control.

The medium drain is similar to continuous use of a remote-controlled toy or gaming controller, while high drain is like a high-powered flashlight.

It should be no surprise that Tesla has a battery solution for the homeowner. Dubbed the Powerwall, it stores solar energy in an expandable system on an outside wall that automatically sends electricity to the house when an outage is detected.

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Jackery is a player in the portable battery power game. It produces a line of battery packs that can output and be recharged from a wall, or through its own solar panels. Jackery Explorer 2000 Pro Portable Power Station produces 2.1 Kwh, and is rated for 1,000 charging cycles.

If you are looking for a lightweight system to recharge phones, the Big Blue folding solar panel is impressive. It has three ports and is very portable when packed up.

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Celebrating

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Thank you for your support!

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Local carpenter overcomes barriers to create amazing mailboxes Photos and story by William McGinn

“Fascinating” is definitely not a word that comes to mind when thinking about, of all things, mailboxes.

That is, unless Leslie Burton is making one. His latest has a working fireplace, a window with a curtain pole above it, solar powered lights on its roof, and a contraption that raises a flag up the pole when you open its door.

Burton is a local carpenter who lives in Lindsay, and what’s unique about him is he’s had to overcome barriers to the profession, being partially deaf and with limited vision. From an early age he was diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision. He wears two hearing aids and if you want to shake his hand he likely won’t see the gesture from below. When Burton was a kid and playing outside with his brother, his brother would be the one to hear the calls to come in and he’d then go and tell him.

Burton moved from his childhood home in Newfoundland to Ontario in 1979. He worked for 13 years at a furniture factory in Oshawa but his disabilities eventually forced him to leave. “It was pretty rough being let go from that job,” said Burton. “It hit me hard. But I’m still able to do all this, and my boss and his wife who was a secretary there made sure I was well supported. I was so grateful.”

It’s not just mailboxes either. Many things he could buy he instead builds for himself, like bookshelves a router table for woodworking.

He doesn’t drive, and he and his wife Andrea no longer own a car, so to get what he needs he walks a few blocks down to Lindsay’s Home Hardware, going there at least a few times a week, often towing his wagon. He also uses this wagon to take laundry to the laundromat, or bags in and out of the grocery store.

“Leslie comes in here all the time,” said Wayne Hoppenrath, manager of Home Hardware. “We’ll see him and his wife come in and he takes the effort to . . . be very polite.” He’s been told he may as well have his own red Home Hardware shirt.

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Leslie Burton with one of his mailbox creations.

He also installed a light outside his backyard shed, a shed he partially rebuilt out of the wood from skids.

This light not only turns on when you approach, but if Burton forgot to turn the light off in the shed it will flash several colours like a disco ball.

After he lived in Oshawa, he then moved on to Bowmanville, Courtice and Bancroft, settling in Lindsay in 2015. He and Andrea have two grown kids. Burton additionally is a big fan of theology and has written some published books about Biblical readings.

Even he is not sure what he will work on next.

Michele Kennedy, a neighbour of Burton’s, says he is a “kind, creative and compassionate soul” who became a friend as well as a neighbour to Kennedy and her mother. “He showed me photos of a mailbox he had made for himself years ago . . . I was flabbergasted by the design and detail he put into it,” she says.

That’s when Burton offered to make one for Kennedy’s new home and office space. Kennedy, who is an architectural designer, thought it was the perfect mailbox for her business.

“He won’t take any money for the mailbox,” said Kennedy. “He says he’s building it out of friendship.

Lucky me to have developed such a friendship with this kind and creative and compassionate soul.” LA 27

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Upcoming festivities in Downtown Lindsay BIA Advertorial

With the ho-ho-holiday season fast approaching, there are plenty of things to look forward to in our lovely downtown.

We are excited to announce that our Holiday Passport will be returning from November 18th to December 18th, with a new and improved structure! To kickoff the event on November 18th, the Lindsay Downtown BIA will be hosting a VIP Shopping Night at Milk & Honey Eatery where patrons will be able to enjoy a night filled with wine, appetizers, music, and prizes.

Join us from 5:30pm-6:00pm for the lighting of our downtown Christmas Tree!

The Lindsay Santa Claus Parade will also be making a return to the downtown Sunday, November 20th, so make sure the kids are on their BEST behaviour for Santa’s triumphant return. Join us Monday mornings during the Holiday Passport Event for weekly giveaways of Downtown Gift Certificates, starting at a prize of $250 and making its way up to a grand prize of $1500. These prizes can be used for purchases at any of our downtown businesses, just in time for Christmas! For more information on all the events happening this holiday season, visit our website at lindsaydowntown.ca.

Let’s take the time this holiday season to celebrate our amazing community and everything it carries.

From our top-notch businesses to the patrons who allow them to succeed and everyone in between, here at the Lindsay Downtown BIA we are forever grateful for your ongoing support and love throughout the year! We look forward to what’s to come in our beautiful downtown and hope that you remain a part of it for years to come!

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The chief, who has announced he will be retiring in 2024, is married with two kids. He has been in Kawartha Lakes since 1990, settling in Fenelon Falls.

Conversations with interesting people in Kawartha Lakes

Mark Mitchell on staying in your own lane, growing the community response team and policing for the future It’s a Monday at the Pie Eyed Monk when Kawartha Lakes Police Chief Mark Mitchell walks in with full uniform on. When he points me out to the server and starts walking my way, half of me still felt like I had done something wrong. (The other half knew I had asked for this interview and told me to chill.)

Mitchell, 55, is tall and comes across as affable and good natured. He’s the kind of police officer that you want as the public face of an institution (policing) that sometimes struggles for respect with the age of deference long behind us.

He grew up in Streetsville, though, the home of “Hurricane” Hazel McCallion, before that small municipality merged to become part of Mississauga. In fact, Mitchell’s first job was as a paperboy for The Booster, founded by McCallion’s husband, Sam. Our server brings soda water for the chief and Perrier for me. I order a garden salad with a chicken breast on top and the chief goes for fish and chips.

It was with the Peel police service that Mitchell got his start in policing in the late 1980s. A fellow officer and friend of his moved to Kawartha Lakes about a year and a half before Mitchell would make that same life change.

“I didn’t know this area at all,” he says. “But my friend said ‘If you’re ever thinking of moving, now’s a good time,’” referring to real estate prices and a more tranquil way of life.

Mitchell and his wife (then fiancée) had visited a few times and they liked the area. “I almost backed out at the eleventh hour — it was just such a big change from where I had grown up,” he says. “But we decided to take the chance.”

KLPS Chief Mark Mitchell says policing has changed a lot but the importance of its core functions remain. Photo: Sienna Frost.

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The chief was so unfamiliar with the area he remembers the first time he visited and was getting directions from his friend. “He said take the 401 to 115/35. I said ‘Which one is it? Is it 35 or 115?’ ‘It’s both,’ he said.” Mitchell gives a hearty laugh recounting the story.

Policing in Lindsay was a lot different from what he had experienced in Peel Region. (KLPS polices the town of Lindsay and all of Ops Township. The OPP handles the rest of the city.)

Peel Region had about 1,000 uniformed officers when he left. “And when I came here, my badge number was 29, so that should tell you the difference,” he says.

It was a better style of policing in some ways, though, says Mitchell, because he realized he could more quickly get to know the community better. And since there weren’t as many police resources in the form of specialized officers, “everyone had to be more of a generalist.” “I think that makes for a more well-rounded officer.”

“It was a life-changing experience,” Mitchell says. “I struggled with the fact that I wasn’t operational (at KLPS) and that was a big factor in my decision to do the international deployment. It was like a final kick at the can for that kind of work.”

Kawartha Lakes Police Service loaned him to the RCMP for about 18 months to make it happen. That included training beforehand and taking a bit of time off when he returned. In total, he was in Afghanistan for a 12-month deployment.

My own brother was in Kandahar, Afghanistan at the same time with the Canadian Armed Forces and we swap a few stories of what it was like there. Me, through second-hand accounts and him from memory.

While there was never a perfect time to leave his family behind to do a mission like that, he figured with both his son and daughter in high school at the time they would understand.

Randy Martin was chief when he hired Mitchell. And Mitchell’s first promotion came in 1998 when he attained the rank of sergeant.

I asked him if, these days as chief, does he still pull over a driver if he notices something illegal, or does he just call it in?

Mitchell says he goes out to certain events like the Lindsay Exhibition and he rides with other officers sometimes.

“But I joke with them I’m probably the least valuable member at a RIDE checkpoint,” he says, given the law is constantly evolving and new technology and new equipment is always getting introduced.

“So, I don’t do much in the way of arrests or vehicle stops anymore.”

That was a big switch for Mitchell to make and it started when he became inspector of operations, prior to getting the role as chief.

“I had to start reminding myself ‘It’s not your role anymore.’ There are some things (an inspector or) the chief should not get directly involved in. You have to stay in your lane to some extent.”

One of the reasons Mitchell sought to be deployed to Afghanistan with the RCMP in 2009 was his feeling it would be one of his last chances to really be involved in something active instead of bureaucratic.

Mitchell served for a year in Afghanistan.

Changing Role of Policing

Given how much policing continues to evolve, Mitchell says the greatest change is that it has grown to encompass “non-core policing functions.”

As the food arrives and we dig in, the chief points to things like mental health and substance abuse.

“Even compared to 10 years ago,” he says, “if you told me we’d be working hand in hand” with organizations that support mental health and addictions recovery, it would be difficult to believe.

“There’s some phenomenal work done in those areas now. But it’s still not a core responsibility” of the police service.

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The chief says he believes police will now “always have a role to play in those areas, but we need to be careful about getting drawn away from our core functions. It’s our role to be the support and to provide a safe environment.”

We touch on a high-profile community panel that was held at the armoury in Lindsay just over a year ago. The discussion was organized by KLPS after a few Lindsay residents wrote letters and reached out to the police and some social services agencies about their frustrations.

Among the citizens present, there was a lot of “concern and frustration with what was going on in their neighbourhood,” recalls Mitchell. “Sometimes it wasn’t even crime but that was certainly a part of it.

It was also about social disorder — things that may not have been illegal but contributed to a sense of people feeling unsafe.” The idea of holding the public meeting was “never designed to solve those issues,” says Mitchell, acknowledging that not everyone was happy during the meeting with what they heard from the panel.

The growth of the response team is in sync with the growth of KLPS itself. The force is up to 43 uniformed officers now, “small enough that we’re still like a family but big enough that it really keeps me busy,” says the chief.

He says nearly one-third of the officers are women, which he suggests is a bit higher than the provincial average. As well, KLPS has just hired its first officer from a visible minority.

“As our community grows in diversity that will become even more important” to ensure the police service reflects the community change, says the chief.

Thinking about all the racial strife affecting other police forces because of troubled pasts and unfair targeting of certain minority groups, Mitchell says KLPS has a “real opportunity.”

Given that the police service, and the community it represents, has been a largely homogenous group, there hasn’t been the historical baggage to worry about.

“We’ve got a unique opportunity to get it right.”

LA

“My purpose was to give people an opportunity to talk about their frustrations and to provide a little bit of education on some of the constraints on the justice system, for example, but also the difficulty some of the social agencies have in addressing these problems.”

In the coming months Mitchell says there will be more resources for the police service’s community response team. That unit started out with one officer travelling around with a mental health nurse from Ross Memorial Hospital, a partnership to help those who are frequently ending up in the hospital or the justice system.

“Our plan is to invest more resources in that unit and broaden our mandate so they’ll be a support to uniformed officers but also provide a more focused approach on a wide variety of community needs, whether traffic concerns, school zones, social disorder, substance abuse or mental health,” says Mitchell. “I think it will pay a lot of dividends to the community.”

Right now, there are two officers involved but the plan is to build it up to five officers. They’ve also added a representative from Fourcast, a non-profit that provides addiction treatment.

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Mitchell says the KLPS is like a family. Photo: Sienna Frost.

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In We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Gap Year by Charles Wheelan, a family including three teenagers embarks on a journey to visit six continents in nine months. This book will take you touring through countries you may have only dreamed of seeing — and enjoying the family mishaps and adventures along the way.

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The Nordic countries and Japan are among the most equal.* Perhaps not surprisingly the U.S. is the most unequal of the wealthy, industrialized countries.

Canada is consistently in the middle.

Fighting inequality makes all of society stronger

In the area of child well-being, Canada has a particularly low standing. A UNICEF report says that Canada ranked 37th on a list of 41 rich countries for children having access to enough nutritious food, and higher-than-average rates of child homicide and teen suicide. We can do better.

By Judy Paul

Like many people concerned about social justice, I read books and online resources about eliminating poverty and inequality. About five or six years ago I read The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone and I began thinking differently about how we might address poverty.

What was so compelling about the ideas presented in The Spirit Level was that there were countries in which social and health outcomes were positive and these countries happened to be highly equal (as measured by the Gini coefficient).

The authors, both epidemiologists, studied a number of health and social outcomes affected by social status. Income, education, or profession defines social status.

For example: In more equal countries, the following outcomes were strongly positive •

physical and mental health

•

social mobility

• • •

high school completion

trust and community life child well-being

In more equal countries, these outcomes were lower •

drug abuse

•

obesity

• • • 37

imprisonment violence

teenage pregnancies

Inequality studies have proliferated since The Spirit Level was published in 2009. In Canada, the Broadbent Institute, the Conference Board of Canada, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives are researching and discussing inequality. Unfortunately inequality in Canada is rising and we must be careful as to what nations we look toward for policy direction.

Also of interest is the levels of trust and community life were stronger in more equal societies. There is more mixing of people from various socio-economic groups in more equal countries and this would lead to a greater sense of solidarity. When there are vast differences in income levels I think it would be hard for people to feel that “we’re all in this together.”

What is it about inequality that erodes this important dimension often referred to as “social cohesion?”

Among other fascinating findings, this question is explored in a new book by Wilkinson and Pickett entitled The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Well-being. The authors wanted to: “get to the core of the way inequality affects us most intimately, how it gets into our heads to affect our thoughts and feelings, our ideas of success and failure, our relationships with each other, and the stress and mental illness suffered by so many of us. There is a deep psychology of inequality that we need to understand if humanity is to flourish.”

Where inequality is higher, people with lower social status tend to withdraw from society. When people compete for status, anxiety increases and struggling to keep up seems to make us less compassionate towards others.

Inequality damages social cohesion, which includes trust, solidarity, civic and cultural participation and agreeableness (being helpful, considerate and trusting).

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Since human connection and social relationships are key components of a good life, how many fellow Canadians are missing out on these experiences due to a feeling of inadequacy? Wilkinson and Pickett argue that the single most important reason why participation in community life declines with increased inequality is likely to be that people withdraw from social life as they find it more stressful.

If we think that only poor people suffer from inequality, Wilkinson and Pickett clearly demonstrate that all levels of society are affected. Poorer health, higher rates of violence, imprisonment and drug use and higher teenage pregnancies increase the burden on our health, social and justice systems.

Greater solidarity is the only way we are going to be able to tackle the urgent challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability, says Wilkinson and Pickett. We cannot afford to have people anxiously struggling to make their way in an individualistic society that tells us we need to buy to belong.

How do we create a more equal society? An unconditional basic income would certainly help. Progressive taxation and a stronger social security system could also help. Wilkinson and Pickett argue that the development of more democratic workplaces is key in this era of excessive CEO compensation and the weakening of trade unions.

It is important that we turn our attention to rising inequality in Canada. When we understand the significant cost of inequality and are open to learning from more equal countries, we will be better able to imagine and forge a better future for everyone.

*Countries in this comparison included Canada, Western Europe, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

This article originally ran in the Advocate in 2018.

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Time Flies. Should we?

When my daughter headed off to university in 2014, we promised her a family trip to Europe after graduation. In 2019, we fulfilled that promise.

We had a great time hiking and seeing the sights in northern Spain and visiting family in France. But for me, it was also a guilt trip. I’d been doing climate change presentations since 2017. Here I was flying while young climate activist Greta Thunberg was in the news for famously eschewing plane travel for train and sailboat. How could I fly when she was so right about our limited carbon budget and the need to drastically cut our emissions?

We’re seeing more and more evidence of that. Fiona ripped through the Atlantic Canada in September causing chaos and destruction. Then hurricane Ian destroyed parts of Florida and the Carolinas. In May, a major storm system cut a swath across Ontario into Quebec, killing 10 and forcing Uxbridge to declare an emergency. This summer one-third of Pakistan flooded, affecting 33 million and killing more than 1,500. Europe and China suffered record drought and heat, as did California. All this is happening with about 1.2 C of global heating since pre-industrial times. Our 2015 international climate agreement set an aspirational limit of no more than 1.5 C of warming.

We have until 2030 to cut our emissions in half if we hope to meet that limit, and the airline industry hasn’t been helping. If it were a country, it would be the fifth-biggest global emitter, according to the David Suzuki Foundation. In 2012 Canadian airlines committed to shrinking their emissions. Since then, those emissions have grown 37 per cent and continue to climb, largely because we’re flying more. This September the industry’s new emissions reduction plans were released. Analysts aren’t too hopeful that they will be much better.

So what can we do to help?

1. Fly less. One return flight from Toronto to Vancouver emits one tonne of global heating pollution per passenger. That’s enough to melt three square metres of summer Arctic sea ice, according to research published by the National Snow and Ice Center in Colorado.

2. When flying: a) Book a direct flight. A quarter of a plane’s pollution comes from takeoffs and landings. b) Buy verified carbon offsets like CHOOOSE or Gold Standard. They are intended to compensate for unavoidable emissions by funding green projects like wind farms or tree planting. Or consider supporting PlantaForest. ca, a local initiative that plants native trees on land protected by the Kawartha Land Trust.

3. Avoid short-hop flights.

Especially in the Windsor-Montreal corridor, the train is a cleaner way to get where you’re going. But the same rule does not hold true for cross-country travel. In that case flying trumps train travel.

4. Contact federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault at Steven.Guilbeault@parl.gc.ca. Tell him the new agreement with the Canadian airline industry to cut emissions needs real emissions reductions targets. Denmark has committed to fossil-fuel free domestic flights by 2030. Canadian flights are longer, but we can certainly do better than we have so far.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Air Canada recently ordered 30 hybrid-electric planes, which it expects to have in the air in 2028. Granted, these are only 30-passenger planes with ranges under 1,000 km, but it’s a start.

Maybe we could see clean longer-haul flights by 2050.

Let’s hope that’s not just pie-in-the-sky thinking.

40

In 1910, Lunan and his son were invited to play their pipes alongside a Lindsay-based brass band at a Civic Holiday parade in Fenelon Falls. “At half-past one,” the Gazette reported, “the members of the curling club lined up behind the Scotch pipers and in front of the band and marched to the park, each one armed with a broom.”

Other events at which local pipers played were not so regimented. Woodville residents, assembled for a meeting of the St. Andrew’s Society on Nov. 30, 1899, danced to the music of bagpipes and violin, while in 1908 George Sutherland, of Palestine (north of Hartley) provided pipe music at a big dance organized by John Torrey of Centre Eldon that apparently lasted well into the morning.

On occasions where a full pipe-and-drum band was required, it was typically brought in from elsewhere.

In 1913, the famous 48th Highlanders band of Toronto performed in downtown Lindsay during the annual Winter Carnival.

The Pipes & Drums of Lindsay at 50

“Many were disappointed that the band did not appear in full regimentals, including the kilts,” observed a Lindsay Post reporter on February 21. “It was pretty cold weather for this outfit.”

The skirl of the great highland bagpipe has the poignant potential to bring a lump to the throat of anyone — even those who do not claim Scottish ancestry. Others may rush to cover their ears whenever those drone pipes get going. Regardless of how we might feel about them, there can be no question that bagpipes are a unique part of our musical heritage.

While the Pipes & Drums of Lindsay marks its fiftieth anniversary this month, pipers and pipe bands have had a presence in this area for more than 125 years. An event organized by the Sons of Scotland in Glenarm on Sept. 5, 1895, was, naturally, graced by the sound of bagpipes.

“About 2 p.m three pipers left the village for the grove,” recounted the Watchman newspaper a week later. “Mr. Lunan of Bolsover, who was beautifully dressed in Highland costume, (was joined by) Mr. Frasier and Mr. Davis, both of Kirkfield. On their arrival at the grove various selections of soul-stirring Scotch music were given, which enlivened the merry hearts of Scotland’s noble sons.”

Lunan was apparently in demand as a piper, for he continued to put in appearances at a variety of functions over the first decade of the twentieth century.

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A local band was finally formed in 1972. “At that time,” explains former pipe major John Hunter, “there were only two known pipers in Lindsay: Ian Watt and Phil Cadick.” Watt began weekly practices to teach beginners and attracted people from not only Lindsay but also Cannington, Peterborough and Sunderland. As Hunter recalls, “they had no uniforms but were able to get some discarded blue RCAF jackets, and with a variety of kilts they went on parade.” (As the Pipes & Drums of Lindsay, the band eventually donned the ancient tartan of Clan Lindsay, which members wear to this day.)

Longtime piper Reid Torrey, who joined around 1974, remembers that practices took place for several years in a former factory building adjacent to the Scugog River before moving elsewhere.

Apart from Watt and Hunter, pipe majors have included Ken Grace, Al Harding, Colin Hill and Glenn McDonald. Under their leadership, the band has performed at many Robert Burns suppers, highland games events, tattoos and parades throughout this region and across the province. Highlights have included playing at the internationally famous Cowal Gathering in Dunoon, Scotland, as well as at the Juno Beach Centre in France during its inauguration almost 20 years ago.

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Taken in France in 2003, when the Pipes & Drums of Lindsay went over as part of the inauguration of the Juno Beach Centre.

Photo courtesy of John Bebbington.

Longtime band members can tell tales about going on parade in all kinds of weather. Brian Gowan, who was in the band from 1978 through 2014, remembers when the band showed up in Bobcaygeon for a parade figuring that the rain would hold off. “It was just threatening rain — just a Scotch mist,” Gowan recalls. “We started off without our rain capes, and then when we reached Bolton and King Streets the skies opened up, soaking my Glengarry bonnet and causing sweat to run down my face.”

Weather woes aside, the band has long been a source of camaraderie for its members. John Bebbington began playing the bagpipes as a teenager with the Boys’ Brigade in Scotland, more than 80 years ago.

He hadn’t played for decades when he heard the Pipes & Drums of Lindsay perform in Victoria Park in the late 1990s.

He signed up and spent 14 years in the band. Like Gowan, Bebbington has fond recollections of travelling to Europe where they performed with massed bands in France and the Netherlands. “We enjoyed each other’s company,” he reminisces. Shirley Park was inspired to take up the instrument after hearing a 14-year-old girl play bagpipes at a Girl Guide camp in 1961. “It was always something I wanted to do,” she says. Park and her late husband joined the band in 2000 and she admits that she once thought bagpipes were of interest only to elderly men.

Today, she is one of many senior band members who play alongside a new generation of trophy-winning pipers. Whether they play competitively or for sheer enjoyment, pipers young and young-at-heart are still attracted to the Pipes & Drums of Lindsay 50 years on.

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APPLE CRISP

’Tis the season for all things apple! One simple and quick dessert with apples is the classic apple crisp. Sliced apples with a hint of cinnamon are topped with a crunchy oat streusel.

Enjoy alone, or with vanilla ice cream as a special treat. Other fruits can also be used: Consider peaches, pears or berries instead of apples, or mix and match your favourites together for a unique dish!

4-6 apples 2 tsp cinnamon 2 tbsp white sugar 1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cup oats 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup butter or margarine

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 420 Eldon Road, Little Britain (705) 748-3848 4075 County Road 121, Kinmount (705) 488-9963 401 Kent Street West, Lindsay (705) 324-1978

2. Grease an 8x8 baking dish with a small cube of butter or margarine, or a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

3. Wash and core apples, peel if desired, then slice thinly.

4. Toss apples with 1 tsp cinnamon, white sugar and lemon juice.

Evenly place in a baking dish.

5. In a separate bowl, mix oats, brown sugar, flour and remaining 1 tsp of cinnamon. Mash in 1/2 cup butter or margarine and mix with a fork until it forms pea sized crumbs.

6. Evenly spread oat mixture over apples, and pat lightly with a fork.

7. Bake for about 40 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.

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Salad Days Across

1 Word on a Halloween bag 4 Horse handlers

11 Helen Reddy's "___ Woman" 14 Letter carrier: Abbr.

15 In utter confusion

by Barbara Olson © ClassiCanadian Crosswords 1

2

18 Lazy layabout with a remote 20 Craggy peaks

22 Whence T.V.'s Mork

4

14

15

17

18

20 24

30 "Fingers crossed!"

32 ___ Paulo, Brazil

33 Cat caller's stare

37 Things that require very little effort to get

7

30

9

10

12

13

35

36

51

52

23 26

27

29 32

37

38

41

42

33

39

34

40 43

44 48

11

19

31

47

8

16

28

24 Roman ruler after Julius

29 Certain cell phones

6

25

23 French door sections

28 Like May through August, letterwise

5

22

21

16 B.C. classical music grp.

17 Aberdeen affirmative

3

45

49

46

50 54

53 56

57

58

55 59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

41 Hawaiian region, or its coffee

4 Line of work: Abbr.

34 In a protective, cautious way

43 Related on Mom's side

6 Shakespeare, astrologically

36 When "les élèves" are "en vacances"

45 Fast finisher?

8 Biblical suffix with "go" and "do"

42 Sundown, to a sonneteer

5 "He ___, he scores!"

44 Course average

7 Closes a deadbolt

47 Outdoor bar at Oktoberfest

53 "Our Father who ___ heaven..."

54 It's in the range?: Abbr.

55 He might leave a big footprint on Everest 56 Mexican seed that "leaps" 60 Singer Hill or Mangan 61 King forerunner?

62 Ensure all needs are met 63 Big T-shirt size: Abbr.

64 Stag invitees

65 Less populated 66 "You rang?"

Down

1 ___ path to one's door 2 Heart hit "Crazy ___"

3 Needing to be weeded, say

9 Something to patch over

10 Susses (out)

11 She gave "The Donald" his nickname

12 Flower whose name means "star" 13 Stock replies?

19 Classroom helpers, for short 21 Antibiotic drug

25 "Don't worry, I didn't ___ thing" 26 Kiltie's kinfolk

27 Visibly awestruck 30 Kind or sort

31 ___-ha (commotion) 32 I.D. on a T-4 slip

35 Feeling no pain, so to speak

38 Close to

39 Spice Girl Ginger's real name 40 Greek cheese

44 Becomes hysterical

45 Comes onto the scene 46 Related on Dad's side

47 Burnt, in French cuisine 48 Hindu soul

49 Limo rider, often

50 Abduction alert colour 51 Building floor: Fr.

52 Numbers to dress to, with "the"?

53 In ___ (up the creek) 57 Daycare down time

58 Ontario's cap. city region 59 Neither's other

33 Curmudgeonly

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Can we reboot political discourse in Canada?

By Trevor Hutchinson Contributing Editor

Can we unplug it for 30 seconds and plug it back in? It’s worked for me with Windows™ more times than I can count. Hell, my partner even keeps our dying dryer going using this rather unsophisticated fix.

There is something very wrong with how we — with whatever differences we have — are discussing and debating some rather serious issues.

Way back in the day, when I briefly worked tech support in a call centre, my colleagues and I would often have to painfully diagnose a potentially fatal condition to the client: the dreaded ID-10-T error.

It seems a bit mean-spirited to me now, but sometimes ID-10-T, or idiot, is the only apt description for someone who seems allergic to facts or even basic science.

And sadly, we are giving idiots, or more accurately, idiotic ideas too much of our attention-shortened time. Our problems are complex.

A pessimist might say they are beyond our abilities to repair. That might be why, in some parts of the world, dumbed-down populism is working. Anyone who has read any history or even watched the History Channel knows of the historic consequences of populism. But appealing to anger instead of love and framing everything as an us-versusthem is too powerful a drug not to sell, if all you care about is power.

I mean, I get that a politician only has one real job, and that is to keep being a politician.

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The leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition knows this more than most. He qualified for the holy grail of lifetime pensions the gold-plated MP’s pension at the young age of 31.

No matter: As long as I believe that he hates the elites and ignore the fact that the dude literally graduated university and has only had one job, and that funded by the taxpayer, in his life and as long as I believe he is going to give me something unspecified that is somehow related to my anger about something, then he’s my man. He’s my crypto-bro.

But it’s not just the Conservatives making intelligent political discourse untenable, although their fringe does win the “Crazy Fringe Olympics.” The Liberals use an ingenious political strategy. They claim to only campaign or govern on positive messages. But they have well-known, clearly identified political attack dogs. That again is politics. But you can’t be both above it and not above it. That just sounds smug. And it comes across as arrogant. Because it’s arrogant.

And the NDP would criticize a great drunk-up at a brewery because it’s not a perfect drunk-up at a brewery (insert whatever simile you prefer here). They put the capital T in better than Thou.

I am a democrat and an optimist.

So I will always advocate for factbased debate (with the caveat that an opinion is not science). But we’ve got an ID-10-T here. Probably time to upgrade.

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Russell Alexander’s 5th Annual Toy Drive Russell Alexander will donate $100 worth of toys and other items for each Initial Consultation booked from November 28 until December 12, 2022.

Featured items will include toys, technology, accessories, and most-needed items specifically noted by the recipient organization. The team enjoys getting into the holiday spirit by purchasing, sorting, and delivering all the fun and useful items.

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This year, the recipient will be Anishnawbe Health Toronto.

Anishnawbe Health Toronto is a fully accredited health centre, accredited by the Canadian Centre for Accreditation (CCA).

AHT’s model of health care is based on Indigenous culture and traditions and as a result, AHT is the only facility in Toronto that cares for Indigenous clients with both western and traditional approaches to health care.

$3 Million Gift to Ross Memorial

FLATO Developments’ visionary gift of $3 million will support the digital transformation of patient care and enhancement of services at Ross Memorial Hospital to strengthen the community’s health care future. RMH will dedicate the FLATO Developments Ambulatory Care Centre in recognition of this tremendous gift.

Shakir Rehmatullah’s vision for new neighbourhoods in Kawartha Lakes includes a commitment to strengthen community services that support the health and wellness of all residents. This includes a hospital that is equipped with the latest in medical advancements and modern facilities that grow with our population.

“Supporting healthcare is close to my heart. I lost my father to cancer and it’s his legacy and example that I keep in mind when it comes to giving back to the community. I am deeply committed to supporting a healthy and thriving community in Kawartha Lakes.”