Our failure as a Society witnessed

We do live in a Society which promotes individual worth and values at the expense of the Community as a whole. When we say our Community or Community values it is a very vague concept and one which does not or must not interfere with personal individual rights and values. In fact the word community nowadays in modern Canadian Society is pretty meaningless, the same goes for Community Leaders this is a term the media loves to use when it is trying to support the idea that an initiative or a project has a wide support amongst people. That is not true, the majority are too busy pursuing personal goals to bother much with the so called community.

In Canada today there are 3 types of what could be defined loosely as a community, there is the Rural group mostly farmers and individuals who live outside cities.

Then there are suburbanites, people who live in these large bedroom communities with malls and is composed mostly of either Heterosexual White Christian groups or large single Ethnicity groups who live in a suburban ghetto, they can be Asians like in the Suburb South of Montreal or in Suburb around Toronto which use to be small towns now absorbed in larger metropolitan areas. This group usually sees the inner city as dangerous and full of crimes, despite the fact that the crime rate in Canada is as low as in 1970.

Finally you have the City Core dwellers who are either old or young, rich, middle class and the urban poor, the Natives, the disabled, comprising every ethnic background in very varied neighbourhoods. Many have always lived in the City itself and are usually more progressive socially.

So in other words the idea of a community does not really exist in a Society dominated by the pursuit of individuality, social responsibility is diluted and this may explain, only in part, why we have so much indifference towards the many poor people old and young in Canada. There is also in the last 25 years the rapidly changing economy and in Canada we are clearly creating more minimum wage jobs in the service industry and inequality in general is on a rapid rise. One million Canadians do not have enough to eat or go without food on any given day, that is what is called food insecurity, 14% of children in Canada are poor and suffer from lack of adequate food, this is the highest rate in all industrial nations. Some 40% of Canadians pay two thirds of their income in rent or mortgage, housing in Canada is expensive.  All this to say that Canada is on the fast track to economic disparity and poverty for the majority.

The economy may be rock solid for some, like the Banks and the Oil Company an image our PM Harper spins endlessly, but for your average Canadian it is very far from being rock solid, more choppy seas with much uncertainty and with record personal debt. You loose your job and all of a sudden you are tipped into poverty.

Yes the urban poor is nothing new and existed since we have had cities in Canada, it has been a difficult problem to effectively deal with. Most people prefer to think that it exist but is not that serious and could be remedied easily with a bunch of social measures. Or worse that people who are poor deserve it because they are lazy. It is also easy to look down on the poor because they fit into a category we do not understand and do not want to know about.

All this to say that like most people I had heard of poverty in our cities but in the last 16 months I have become more aware of it. First was a conversation I had with the Director of the Soupe Populaire in Gatineau, his soup kitchen feeds the urban poor in the city across the river from the National Capital, he told me that in the winter of 2013, some 12 people had frozen to death on city streets in Gatineau. In Ottawa the Nation's Capital the numbers are a little higher, unbelievable when you think that most Canadians love to tell the world how rich we are. It is a National disgrace that this should happen, we do have enough shelter beds in the City provided by Churches and other groups but some people because of mental health issues do not want to participate and fall in the cracks. The other national disgrace is the situation of the Native people in Canada, there are about 1 million natives all around Canada. Recently I was speaking with UN Officials and I was told how completely horrendous the situation of Natives has become, the effect of years of neglect by the Federal Government on top of the savage budget cuts of the Harper government and the incredible level of violence suffered by native communities is beyond what we imagine Canada to be about. As a country we are failing at several social policy levels and also in terms of responsibilities towards our Native population. But most Canadians are totally oblivious and simply do not want to hear about it, which suits Harper and Co. fine. At any rate the UN is not much liked by the current government and this has been made clear in Official speeches.

I started to volunteer at the Shepherd of Good Hope on Murray Street in Lower Town, it is the largest shelter in the Capital, very well established it provides many services to the homeless and disadvantage including those suffering from mental illness though on that level what they can do is limited.  So I go and serve lunch, the routine is fairly simple, we get there by 08:30am and you are given food preparation duties, you may be asked to peel potatoes, cut up meat, make sandwiches, etc..

This past weekend I made about 150 sandwiches in about 2:30 hours, these sandwiches are given to anyone who comes after lunch looking for food. At 11:30am lunch service starts, all the food served is fresh, the menu changes daily and the food is good and wholesome, there is always a hot dish, a stew or a pasta, a soup, salad, bread and butter, dessert and coffee or tea. There are also vegetarian meals for those who want them.

The manager asked me to go to the door to greet the lunch crowd. Some 260 men and women came in, all young or old, many were faces I recognised, you see them in the market or around town. This was a slow day, being August, a long weekend and welfare cheques had just been given out. On a busy day some 400 to 500 persons will come in. One fellow asked me if there was any food left, he said he was really hungry he had not eaten in a day or so.  I could see the pain on his face, the stress and the fear that he might have missed lunch. It is very hard to think that anyone would be in that position, shocking in fact.

The Shepherd of Good Hope buildings is in a central location in the Capital surrounded by expensive condo towers and affluence in the nearby Rideau Centre, expensive shops and National Museums. This is not an isolated part on the edge of town.

What is amazing is how polite they all are, many are very courteous, quick on the thank you and speaking softly, no one that I have seen was loud or aggressive though I can imagine this happens.  I did have one fellow who came in and said to me rather sharply that he had heard we had chili with meat again, is that all you folks can prepare he asked. I told him simply what the menu was today, he looked at me surprised and said oh well that is nice and lined up at the counter.

Some people wore the marks of a recent fights, two women had big shiners, a man had his nose freshly broken and someone had taken a knife to his face. Another women maybe she was in her forties, hard to say, had a leg that had been broken and had not healed properly so she had a pronounced limp. Many Natives in the group and Innu, they are a special case because they come from the Arctic circle and here down South they are completely out of their element, it is very sad to see. Some are manic and this is out of character given their culture but obviously under a lot of stress.

So I stand by the door and say hello to those who come in, they will ask me about the menu of the day, all insist on washing their hands, and then line up at the cafeteria with their trays, they can eat as much as they want. Eating is such a human thing, no food and you die, washing one's hand, the need to feel clean is very important also. Simple courtesies, a simple hello, a word of welcome, a smile, it makes anyone feel more human, part of society. It is so simple, but it is what we all expect without often realizing it.

I also tell them, though they know the routine, that we have sandwiches also for the afternoon. Some will ask about water for their dogs, though we do not give them food for their pets. When you see such numbers coming in for a meal, it gives you an idea of the magnitude of the problem. I also work at the slop table which is clean up after the meal, cleaning plates and trays. All the dish ware is heavy duty porcelain, same with cups.

I do not know if I could do this volunteering on a regular basis, it is psychologically hard. Your first reaction is to feel embarrassed to see this kind of poverty. We do live in a world where most people feel they are paying too many taxes and the government is too intrusive, so you hear or read the heart less comments, few want more social programs, not understanding that organizations like Shepherd of Good Hope keeps the lid on social peace and is our safety net. I know first hand the misery of poverty in the Third World where there is little or no social programs or Caritative organizations like Shepherd.  There is an urgent need to get off the mean and corrosive thinking wagon we have embarked on in the last 9 years.  I can only hope that the support Shepherd is getting in Ottawa will continue and be strengthen, their role is valuable in providing a respectful and stable place for those who have been pushed to the wall.

My favourite song

Peggy Lee (1920-2002) is one of my favourite singer, I love her voice, the tempo and her songs.

''Is that all there is'' is my favourite song. I especially love it when driving around town on a rainy day, when the rain is soft and all is green. Today is one of those days, driving back from the Museum it is softly raining.

But this song for whatever reason brings me back to Montreal 1972, why I cannot tell you, I do not know, I was 16 years old at the time. I can see the city streets around Sherbrooke West and Chemin de la Côte des Neiges as it comes down the mountain towards Guy street, passing by The Boulevard.  CJAD was a radio station then that played a lot of Peggy Lee in the afternoon, today it is a talk radio.

So many memories of that time and at the same time it is vague and foggy in my memory.  Each time this song comes on the radio I remember this moment in 1972 in Montreal vividly. Who said music does not have the power to bring you back in time and evoke strong memories. The Montreal of those years no longer exist, for better or for worse, it was another time.

Un peu de musique de 1976

1976 the year of the Olympic Games in Montreal, the year I entered University, the year I moved to Ottawa.

Gérard Lenorman, a French singer had this enormous song hit which to this day is still very popular because for so many it brings back memories of their youth. Radio-Canada was playing it this morning.

I noticed this morning looking out my window that the Rideau Canal has reached almost its Summer Season water level, meaning that soon pleasure boats will be sailing by our home. Friday the Tulip Festival starts and with it the tourist season.

Here is Les Clés, a song from 1976 by Gérard Lenorman.

25 April 1849 the Parliament of the United Province of Canada burns in Montreal

Today marks a very sad day in Canadian democracy, the burning by a mob in Montreal of the Parliament of the United Province of Canada.

Montreal was the Capital of the United Province of Canada from 1844-1849. We had achieved in 1848 the stage of Ministerial Responsibility in Government meaning that the Governor General appointed by London was no longer the Head of Government. We now had an elected Parliament and  Prime Minister in the person of Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine. However the Assembly of the United Province of Canada was bitterly divided between French and English population.

The Parliament voted a controversial law in April 1849, this law gave compensation to anyone who had lost property during the Rebellion of 1837-1838. Compensation would be given for loss of property due to the British army or Rebel action. The Montreal Gazette then and now a prominent newspaper incited the English population to revolt, claiming that since the Rebels were French no compensation should be given to criminals who defied Royal Authority for any damage they caused to property.

On April 25, 1849 Lord Elgin, then Governor General of Canada came to the Parliament on the Carré D'Youville to sign the new Law and give it Royal Assent. Within minutes a dangerous crowd gathered outside the Parliament and forced its way into the building. Setting it ablaze, the great loss of that day was the library of 25,000 books and archives which dated back to 1608 containing all the Official documents and Acts of New France up to the time of this incident, many fine paintings were also destroyed. The building was a complete loss. In November of that year, the Capital was transferred to Toronto.

Here is a short video in French about this terrible incident and how the site is now being restored so that this page of Canadian history can be remembered.





  

Elections

Several people have asked me about the results of the April 7 Election results in Quebec. I was not going to write about it but given the numerous questions, I will give my take on it.

First I have to state that my family belongs to the Anciens Canadiens arriving in 1662 in Quebec City. The new elected Liberal Premier of Québec Dr. Philippe Couillard's family arrived in 1613 so we belong to the old stock. Now for a lot of people familiar with Quebec Politics this makes us ''pure laine'' but we cannot be called séparatiste, this is not the case. The majority are attached to the concept of Canada as one Nation. The rest can be best described as sentimentality with a dose of pragmatism.

First for myself and for many other belonging to the Old Stock families, the Province of Québec as we know it today is a modern invention dating from 1949. The borders have changed a lot since 1763 when Canada was ceded to England by France under the Ancien Régime in the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Year War between England-Prussia vs France-Austria. In fact until the Treaty was signed some 4 years after the short battle (10 minutes) on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City in September 1759 it was not very clear to the troops of King George II if they were going to stay permanently or return to Europe.

France was tired of its territory in North America, too costly and did not bring anything in terms of revenue, England did not want New France, the war in North America had been nothing more than a diversion. When France offered in the peace talks to give away all of New France which was basically all of North America with the exception of the British 13 Colonies, the Prime Minister of England William Pitt Junior said NO!  In the end Pitt realized he had to accept, there was nothing else on offer. The King of England did by decree recognized and guaranteed protection for the French Language, religion RC and French Civil Code. In the Royal decree of 1791 women who owned land could also vote.

Fast forward to 1865 and all the talks about uniting the 4 Provinces against a possible American aggression. Here Quebec represented over 50% of the population of the New Canada under Confederation. The new National symbols all belong to pre-arrival in Canada of the so called English, the Feuille d'érable, the Castor, and the National Anthem O Canada,  a poem composed as a French-Canadian Nationalist Anthem for the St-Jean Baptiste Society, not exactly an English symbol.

Though to be fair, the English Elite (mostly Scots and some Brits) dominated the business sector and abused their position.  The French-Canadians, Irish,Welsh and a few Jews where not well treated at all. There was grievances and they were not always properly addressed. Though again French-Canadian Politicians dominated the political scene. One of the most famous Prime Ministers was Sir Wilfrid Laurier an icon of French Canada and a Saint of the Liberal Party.

So for me Canada or old Canada is this big land mass from l'Acadie (today's Maritime Provinces) to the Rockies out West and also a great big chunk of the USA where the Mississipi flows including many cities like Detroit, Chicago, Duluth, St-Louis all originally French settlements.

I cannot conceive of this idea that the Province of Quebec today would be my country and ignore the rest of Canada as irrelevant. I also do not buy into the long winded speeches of Politicians of the Parti Quebecois though they appeal to basic fundamental cultural heritage and language. Speech that mirror a very narrow vision of Ethnic Nationalism, remember Yugoslavia and Milosevic, very similar.

Today,

The situation in Quebec today (2014) is not that of 1968 when the Parti Québecois was created by René Lévesque. It is true that back then Quebec society was far more homogenous, so was Canada for that matter. There were some important social injustices and economic inequalities, there was none of the important financial institutions like the Caisse de dépôt or economic autonomy which exist today.

It was another world and another generation, that of my parents who were running the show. The Catholic Church which had been such a power for centuries was losing its grip. Society was becoming rapidly open and accepting of new ideas and concepts, in other words it was the era of the famous Quiet Revolution.

The PQ came to power for the first time in 1976, the year of the Olympic Games in Montreal. In their first mandate they certainly cleaned up the mess left behind by years of inept governments, they also established a framework on cultural identity and language, Bill 101. That was then and the past cannot be relived or brought back.

Today Quebec Society is diverse, multicultural and young. Quebec controls fully its Immigration something none of the other 9 provinces in Canada do, we have seen an important intake of French Speaking Africans, Haitians, Maghreb Muslim Arabs with others from Lebanon, Egypt and Syria.
The actual number of French citizens (France) coming to Quebec is fairly small and not stable since upwards of 40% leave after only a few years in Quebec.

The PQ was created in 1968 for one purpose alone Secession from Canada, its article 1 of the Party Charter. The raison d'être without it there is no reason for the PQ. The PQ lost by a slim margin the second and last referendum in 1995. Since then a long period of bitter recrimination amongst PQ loyalists has been simmering against the Federal Government in Ottawa and anyone like myself and others or 65% of the population of Quebec do not support them.

According to official PQ speak, the victory had been stolen by the Anglos and Ethnic voters in 1995. Foreigners were the problem and kept Quebec in a state of advanced Colonialism like what could be seen in Africa prior to 1960. The PQ speak is extremist and borders on known forms of extremist ethnic politics. If you do not speak French fluently you might not always understand the turn of phrases used.

Some 18 months ago in 2012, the Quebec government of Liberal Premier Jean Charest fell with the help of social unrest provoked by Pauline Marois and the PQ in their support of University students who were demanding Free Tuition for post secondary education.

The students looking at post-secondary education in some European countries where it is Free  demanded that the same standard be applied here. Premier Charest had 80% of public opinion on his side and refused to grant the request of the students claiming that there was no money for such a policy, which is quite true given that record numbers of young Quebecois going to University. However through well orchestrated public protests and riots in Montreal and elsewhere the government called an election on the question and lost and Premier Charest retired.

During this election Mme Marois promised the students that she would grant them Free Tuition, once elected she quickly forgot that promise and raised the tuition fee tying it to the inflation rate. Though her victory was far from complete, the Liberal won 31.2% of the vote the PQ won 31.95% of the vote Marois was in but had a minority government.

 Mme Marois wanted a majority government and to gain a majority she needed an issue, she found one by creating a false identity crisis based on a narrow ethnic definition of what a Quebecois is. No one was fooled, to fit the bill you have to be an Old Stock Family, White, Catholic, French. The Catholic part is bizarre since very few people are practicing Catholics.

The Quebec economy required attention and massive intervention but Marois and her PQ colleagues could not gain much traction on that topic given the PQ lack of policies and vision on investments, job creation, etc, high taxes in Quebec and the bloated Public Service and the enormous debt are a huge impediment. Not the sort of complicated issue you can win easily with when you have no plan.

Pauline Marois and her tchador (election humour)

So the issue of choice of Mme. Marois was the ''Foreigners'' in general, who undermine Quebec culture and the Muslims in particular with their Sharia, tchadors and violent ways, the Jews and religious Sikhs were also thrown in for good measure. The problem with this approach being that most if not all immigrants come either from Francophone Africa or the French Maghreb. So if the Foreigners are the problem why is Quebec Immigration concentrating on a specific region of the World?

Marois and her party orchestrated a Commission of Enquiry for the implementation of a Charter of Québecois Values to study the Muslim menace which promised to turn Quebec into an Islamic Caliphate in no time at all. The Charter had to be imposed to protect Quebec old stock identity and Christian civilisation. Again all this was extremely strange and bordered on the twilight zone of politics.

Some testimony at the commission was hilarious and downright dumb, like the one by this family who travelled to Morocco for the first time and came back with cartoonish impressions of strange Foreign practices we could not allow in Quebec.

On the other hand you had testimony by people like Jeannette Bertrand who is a retired talk show host, tv actress, public personality and an icon of 1970 Feminism ( a select club of white old women who see their values as the correct ones) Mme. Bertrand would like to correct young women today who do not understand that their brand of Feminism makes too many concessions to please those other foreign women wearing veils. Her friend Lise Payette also a former talk show host and a former PQ politician wrote articles sympathizing with her.

The whole Charter episode is a sorry one of ignorance, intolerance and prejudice, too many ugly things were said by people who should have known better given their status in Quebec Society.

The Charter debate in the media and public at large gave the impression to Mme Marois that she could easily have an electoral campaign based on cultural identity crisis and fear of the other. She firmly believed that this would be the magic trick to a majority government.

This was a false impression, the polls appeared to give her a majority government, they were wrong and her strategy backfired. She failed to understand that the Quebec population wanted to talk about the economy, jobs, the debt, investments, education and health care, not separation and not a referendum and the Charter embarrassed far too many people.

Clear polls showed that 85% of the Quebec population did not want a third referendum and did not want to hear about Sovereignty, Separation or any other items of the basic PQ platform. Mme Marois ignored those polls, it was her big mistake.

Then she allied herself with PKP or Pierre Karl Peladeau the son of Peladeau father the media baron who became rich by being tough with the little guy, a crude and unpleasant man. PKP is also known as being the enemy of the working man and for his hatred of labour unions. Suddenly this arch-conservative was a PQ star. It is important to note that the PQ has always been a leftist party closer to socialism and labour unions than capitalism. How could a party which stood for the lower classes and the blue collar workers suddenly become the Republican party? No one in the Quebec electorate understood that one, least of all staunch PQ old time leftist members, the die hard separatist branch of the party.

The debate on the Charter of Values created a malaise in Quebec society, most people think of themselves as open and socially progressive, Quebec is by far the most open and liberal society in terms of morals and attitudes in North America, if compared with any other part of Canada or the USA for that matter.

This Charter was not and is not a reflection of Quebec, Montreal a city of 4 million people is diverse, cosmopolitan and multicultural, how to impose such a backward notion of society on a city which is the economic motor of the Province.

So the result of this ill conceived campaign was a PQ defeat, the worst electoral results since its creation in 1970, gaining only 25% of the votes cast. The PQ still got 30 seats but just barely, in many cases wining by just a few hundred votes where just 18 months ago they had won by a large majority.
It was also the first time since 1921 that a sitting Premier (Marois) was defeated by a new incumbent (Couillard).

In many ways this defeat of the PQ is a third NO to the idea of a referendum and separation. Probably a final No to the basic tenet of the party. Mme Marois herself lost her seat to an unknown candidate and so did all other controversial candidates espousing narrow ethnic views like Mme Mailloux who spouted Nazi propaganda which Mme. Marois did not disavow. It was the worst campaign I had ever witnessed, showing how incompetent Mme Marois was and how detached from every day reality. It was also a vanity project, Mme. Marois saw herself as the first women to become President of a New Republic, she would succeed where men including the party founder René Levesque had failed. Born in a very poor and humble family, Marois rose to prominence and became a millionaire living in a Chateau on an island and wearing a lot of bling. How did this all happen, well that is another sorry story.

What is troubling now is how her lieutenants like Bernard Drainville and J.F. Lisée two senior PQ Ministers say they did not mean all the things they said and did not really support the Charter. Repudiating Mme Marois even before she steps down after Easter.

As for the PQ loyalist they blame again the Media, the Foreigners like the Muslims and all other Quebecois who do not support their vision for this defeat. Basically the majority 58% is wrong for not supporting the PQ. What is also sad is the continuous un-going monologue about how we as a people are in danger and how the forces of oppression (the bad anglos and the foreigners) are out to get us. The other country and its Parliament (Canada) is pure evil, we must save ourselves. Just read the chat lines and the opinion pieces in newspapers, pure lunacy. It remains as the Elected Premier Couillard said, an idea does not die, yes that is true and in Quebec the 30% die hard separatist will not let go. But the PQ as a party is in very serious trouble and may disappear all together in the coming years if it is unable to re-position itself. If the PQ abandons article 1 on separation then it has no purpose as such, if it does not then it is marginalized, other parties have taken up the space the PQ once occupied, this is how political commentators see the debate. It very much looks like the whole idea which led to the creation of the PQ was the project of one generation which is now passing. PQ support is amongst the 60 and older group.

I think it can be truthfully said that the Quebecois are Nationalist but not Separatist. Happy to remain in Canada and make the best of it as we have for the last 400 years.

When is Brunch time?

The idea of Brunch on Sunday morning is not a new one, though it is not a old one either, maybe 50 years old at best.
I remember when it started to be introduced here in Canada it was in the mid 1960's previously the idea of the Brunch was introduced by hotel operators in large American cities like New York, Las Vegas and elsewhere by simply offering a stiff drink in the morning like a Bloody Mary  to help you get over the hangover of the night before, they would also offer to extend breakfast time to 11am instead of 9am. Saturday night was devoted to going out dancing or to a show and most likely on Sunday morning people wanted to sleep in and have breakfast later than 7:30am. Also with changing attitudes people started to skip that 10am Sunday morning Church service. So you had to offer something. The Brunch came to replace the Sunday Hotel Family lunch option, to this day many hotels still offer a Brunch Buffet which is borrowed from the Scandinavian Smorgasborg idea. Restaurants in Canada and in Ottawa in particular will get into the act much later, the Brunch stayed the domaine of hotels and resorts at least until the early 1980's in Canada. Today everyone offer brunch options even Asian restaurants.

But what is Brunch? It is not a buffet and it is not breakfast in the classical sense of what a North American Breakfast is with its juice, toast, jam,cereal, fruit, pancake, waffle, bacon, sausage and egg offering. Brunch is suppose to be an offering of dishes which mixes breakfast and lunch together but you are not suppose to find any of the regular breakfast offering on the Brunch menu, at least in the classical sense of what Brunch is and it is not a Buffet offering either despite the fact that many hotels and restaurants do buffet service. One example is the Easter Sunday lunch which in Ottawa has morphed into Easter Brunch Buffet, the reason for this is to save money for Hotel management and maximize profits on liquor.

I remember the first time I had Brunch it was in an hotel in Montreal and it was in 1967, the offering was interesting, I had to get used to the idea that after 11:30am, no one offered Brunch before that time, Brunch started at 11:30 and ended at 3:30pm, it was almost lunch time and the mid-day point. The menu if my memory serves me well, had quiche and omelettes with various vegetable and cheeses, toast was replaced by French baguette served slightly warm, no jam though, other items were a chicken dish, like a pot pie or Vol au Vent, grilled or poached fish and seafood in a creamy sauce, vegetables, rice and roast potatoes. Back then only a green salad was offered, salads tended to be simple side dishes. The adults started with a Bloody Caesar or a glass of bubbly or simply a spicy tomato juice. Desserts in that era, the black Forest Cake and the New York Cheese cake were very popular, there was also French pastries, unlike what passes for pastries today, it was the old fashion European style pastries, you can still see and taste in Europe.

How the idea of brunch has changed, nowadays it's starts as early as 8:00am and no alcohol or stiff drinks are offered. It is basically a breakfast menu, no lunch items are offered and it usually ends by 2:00pm at the latest. Everything on Saturday and Sunday is geared towards the Brunch crowd and the menu concentrate on the usual tired looking Eggs Benedict with a sauce trying to masquerade as Hollandaise, Eggs Florentine has disappeared from menus due to rampant E.Coli in so many eating places or eggs any style, toast and bacon or sausage, freshly squeezed juice from a commercial box and lots of refill of acidy american coffee. It seems that the meaning of Brunch has been lost and replaced with another way to make money without imagination and poor offering.

Far too many restaurants offer Buffet Brunch, I have a personal aversion to all Buffet, especially if it says all you can eat for $ 9.95. To me a restaurant buffet rimes with botulism. If you have been raised as I have in restaurants and hotel kitchens you quickly learn that the food in the Buffet has been prepared hours before it is finally offered to the customers. Of course no customer is made aware of this fact.

This is especially true of salads often made the night before or any cold cuts or cold fish or meat dishes. Eggs are often prepared one hour before and kept warm on a hot plate or lamp, same with any sausage or bacon. Nothing is freshly made unless you accept the word fresh as meaning prepared 5 hours ago or more. As for any desserts, none is made by a pastry chef anymore and all is bought from a large industrial distributor. Buffet allows the owner to maximize profits by offering the lowest quality. Yes even 5 star hotels are guilty of this because there is no standard rules to follow.

This is not to say that you cannot find a nice Brunch menu prepared with imagination but it is becoming difficult. Here in Ottawa almost all restaurants offer a Brunch on the weekends but very few know how to do a classic brunch. Of course they offer what people will go for and buy and it is also a question of educating a palate, unfortunately in a world of fast food and Starbucks or Tim Horton, ignorance is rampant. Also from a cultural point of view having the old fashion Bloody Caesar, a Mimosa or some Champagne to start is not something people do in Ontario where drinking laws are stuck in 1910. We also as a society drink less than in the days prior to 1975.

I remember great Brunch menus in Chicago where we would go with friends back in 1994, the drinks were stiff Minoza made with Orange juice freshly squeezed at the bar, Drambuie, Champagne on crush ice in a big glass. Brunch in a way is a celebration, you meet friends and you have a lively conversation and laughter. Brunch for me remains a Sunday tradition like the Sunday lunch in Italy is a tradition. Saturday has other traditions as do days of the week when you meet friends for lunch.

dopo, après

Today is an odd day for me, the 25 march marks the date my paternal grandfather died in 1955 at 48 years old. He was a police detective and had been involved in all the big organized crime investigations in the 1940's. He died on a cold very windy winter night not so unusual back then as he walked to the Police Station just a few steps away from his home, he apparently had a serious heart condition but never mentioned it to anyone. The sad part for him was that he ended up at the City Morgue a place he dreaded. He left a widow and 5 boys.

Those were the days before social programs and pensions etc.... in Canada.

I was born a year later so I got his name Laurent in his memory.
One day is my birthday and the next his my grandfather's anniversary of his death. My mother always thought it strange that I was born so close to that anniversary. I was also baptized in my mother's family church in Ville Saint-Laurent, so I was destined to carry that name.


Here are pictures of my birthday cake from Thimblecakes in Ottawa. A wonderful place for cakes such talent.  thimblecakes.ca

Moka cake my favourite!

Winter is ending finally

We have been in snow since 24 November, first snowfall day. Today I noticed at 17:35 it was still day light and the sun had not set yet. The temperature was around 7 C so there was a big melt. But next week winter is back but it will be milder, the worst is over.

This weekend is the National Liberal Party Convention in Montreal and 3400 delegates are at the Convention Centre. The Democrats have sent people to talk and do presentation, Liberals unlike Mr. Harper and the Conservatives like Obama.
The latest poll shows that 54% of Canadians support Justin Trudeau and the values he is promoting.
The Liberal Party has 258,000 new members and millions in funds raised in the last few months.

It looks like Canadians are tired after 8 years of the nastiness of Harper and his government of right wing evangelicals modelled on the US Tea Party, Ted Cruz and assorted misfits.

What is interesting is the right wing press in Canada, CTV News, Postmedia, Maclean's who are harsh in their criticism of Justin Trudeau. Paul Wells, Colin Horgan, Don Martin have nothing good to say and I wonder why. Ottawa is well known for its Press Gallery and we also know that journalists are not as neutral as they claim they are. You do not always get the facts, you also get a lot of personal opinions and slants. Here I suspect that producers are in on it and calling the shots to get a story which they can spin for days. Even photos are not flattering and I know from my previous career how the media can fix it so, even little Red Riding Hood would look nasty.

The Conservatives have also sent spies down to the Convention in Montreal. Minister Poilievre who is trying to convince us that voting is really not necessary and is shepherding bill C-23 Election suppression voter act, is in Montreal. I personally think that he is trying to defect to the Liberal Party. Come the next election his riding has been split in two by the new re-mapping of electoral boundaries, he may find himself in difficulties, what is a 34 year old unpleasant little man to do.

The party that has been completely left out in the cold is the NDP who despite the fact that they are the Official Opposition in the House of Commons are nowhere to be seen or heard.  Their Leader Tom Mulcair has done an excellent job of showing up Harper for what he really is and has nailed him on several important issues but for all his hard work and effort it looks like Justin Trudeau has stolen his thunder.

The one I feel sorry for is Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party who is an excellent member of Parliament and does incredible work but the media ignores her all together.

Tomorrow Saturday is Justin's big speech at the Convention. Will the election really be in the fall of 2015 or sooner. Who knows, however the rumour is that if Harper continues to sink in the polls and he is pretty low as it is now, he will leave before having to face certain defeat and abandon the Party to some other person, a bit like Mulroney did years ago.

With Hope and Hard Work, you can be part of the change!

A unique, final and beautiful day in Saint-Laurent

Today was my Mom's funeral service. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, for October it felt like mid-summer.
Both families came and it was nice to see cousins, aunts and uncles and other friends gather for this remembrance of her life.

moments before the start of the Requiem Mass

My Dad had picked her favourite flowers, two big bouquets of White Roses mix in with 3 yellow roses to symbolize us, her 3 kids. I had previously made the musical arrangements for this sung Requiem Mass in the very same Chapel of the Saint-Laurent Parish Church where my parents were married 58 years ago. The old bells from the towering belfry pealed before and after the service, they had the sound of ages past.

The priest who officiated at the service Father Yvon Cousineau entire family, he told us, are from Ville Saint-Laurent. He conducted a beautiful service which I found to be inspired. Julie Berthiaume was the Soprano who sang accompanied by the organ.

The parish cemetery at the rear of the Church goes back 290 years and several generations are buried there as you can see by reading the monuments amongst the old trees. I recognized the names of several other families who married into ours. It has a feeling of a familiar place, of home, of people we once knew or had heard of.

Will said a few words in Eulogy and I am very happy he did, he was not sure at first if he wanted to do it but he certainly brought back wonderful memories and I also delivered a Eulogy to her as the person we children remembered best.

It was a very dignified and beautiful service and I am very happy that we could do this for my mother. Afterwards several of us went to the cemetery to see the old Gougeon family stone monument which has been standing on that spot since 1790 with the 3 symbols carved into it, a laurel wreath, a star of Bethlehem and two hands in reconciliation. It has been there as a marker for 220 years, difficult to understand in this age of technology. My Mom as was her wish, will be buried there in the Spring where her parents, grand-parents, other siblings and ancestors rest.

In Memoriam

Life is strange, it goes on no matter what happens, it simply goes on. Today my father and sister made arrangements for the funeral Mass for my mother. It will be in a few days at my mother's family Parish Church of Saint-Laurent in old Ville Saint-Laurent on the Chemin Sainte-Croix in what is now greater Montreal.

 Église de Saint-Laurent, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec

The Church dates from 1720 and the Gougeon family are one of the founding families of the parish. As far as anyone can remember every baptism, marriage and funeral took place in that Church. My parents were married there in June 1955. Her funeral Mass will be held in the very same chapel my parents got married.

So my mother and her siblings grew up on rue Filiatrault in a grand house and went to receive a proper education which in those days meant going to a school run by nuns. Two of my relatives where priests and travelled quite a bit around the world. Which in those days was unheard of, we always looked at them in awe.

My Mom and her siblings in front of the family home on rue Filiatrault, (1939)

My Mom was educated in the skills of what then constituted a good education for a women, sowing, cooking and keeping house. But she had also her eye on getting into a career and because she was always very good at mathematics and could do lots of calculations quickly, she decided should become a teacher. She also loved to read and loved books, she read Simone de Beauvoir, Daphne du Maurier and Khalil Gibran, she also read Dostoievski and Tolstoi to name a few. She always had big fat books on her night table. I remember how they smelled of Chanel no.5 her favourite perfume. She also love to go to Art Galleries and meet artists. She liked Canadian artists like Krieghoff and Suzor-Côté and many others.

She loved pearls, emeralds, sapphires and jade. Her favourite Champagne was Charles Heidsieck, she would drink that instead of wine or liquor but she did like a gin and tonic, as long as it was weak. Sometimes she would ask me to make her a G & T, but not too strong she would always add. She loved to eat sole simply poached with boiled potatoes and parsley or Lobster Thermidor, so you did not have to play with the shell which she found too messy for dinner.

She had a very good memory of people's faces and events, though sometimes she would confuse names but quickly corrected herself. She was very organized and a good manager of any situation. Very discreet and would often say that it is better to smile than to say something unpleasant. In fact she had this saying about people who could not keep their tongue or would gossip, ''elle a un estomac froid'', she has a cold stomach, referring to whatever this person knew, it would come out. She would often admonish me to say nothing about this or that topic to certain people, because she was afraid they would gossip. She certainly valued highly being able to keep a confidence, ''muet comme la tombe'', mute as the tomb.

She had lots of good common sense and was very practical in all things. She certainly tried hard to teach us, children, these things. Don't be so emotional, you have to be sensible, she had no time for drama in life. She also believed in the stiff upper lip approach. Can't change the past and just move on.

She taught us responsibilities at a young age and counted on us kids to help her run the house. After my father got into the Hotel business around 1961, they had many social engagements, so we children had to help out. With Expo 67 in Montreal and the Canadian Confederation Centennial, my parents were out almost every night for months on end. So we had our chores and no slacking was allowed.

Being the eldest I had to look after my younger brother and my little sister. My Mom would often tell me what to prepare for dinner from what she had arranged previously during the day. However without fail the next day my sister would insist that I had tried to poison them and would complain bitterly to my Mom.  She would laugh it off saying; obviously it could not be that bad since you are all here. With time I learned to prepare meals my brother and sister like to eat and it was fairly standard stuff and it bought peace.

What to this day I have not quite understood was how she managed to have so much time for us, listening to us tell her about our day and play with us and take an interest in our little problems or worries, give advice and find solutions to what we as children thought impossible to solve. Supervising our homework and taking an interest in what was going on in school.

She also had time to make birthday cakes and cookies and prepare meals from scratch, I still remember those meals and how good everything smelled in the kitchen. We also lived for years close enough to school so that we could actually have our lunch at home and a hot lunch waited for us every day, no instant soup or sandwich routine, there was always soup but it was always and without fail made fresh, from the broth to the ingredients. I once asked her on a hot day why did we have to have soup, she simply told me, because it is very good for you, she had this theory that hot soup cooled the stomach on a hot day, I believed her.

We also use to watch cartoons on television in black and white, my favourite was Popeye and Bugs Bunny. For a snack she would have carrots and celery sticks for us, never were we allowed chips or peanuts or chocolates or cookies because it would spoil our appetite and certainly never soft drinks with the exception of Christmas day.

Her favourite cook book was La Cuisine Raisonnée, the great classic of 1919 written by Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. The main theme of this cooking book was that cooking was a science that needs to be mastered and that you can prepare good nutritious food for your family all the while maintaining a strict family food budget. The book had strict instructions on discipline in the kitchen, hygiene was very important at all times. It is full of advice, per example do not let anything boil needlessly, even water because it dirties the walls. The emphasis was on cleanliness which is next to Godliness. The book's motto Sapiens Mulier Medificat Domum, sets the tone. Nutritious and economical meals were a virtue, do not prepare luxurious meals that excite the senses and leads to gluttony, a sin.

Soeur de la Congrégation de Notre Dame

One has to remember that this was a book written by nuns to be used in a convent and in good Catholic Homes. It remains a very good cook book from meats to poultry to fish to desserts, etc... Everything is clearly explained and easy to understand in impeccable French. My mother referred to this book constantly while cooking and I enjoy reading it too though I wonder if I would have much use for the recipes today. This is how I learned to cook from an early age.

Mom also had all these stories about different food and how good it was for your health, fish was good for memory, liver was good for the brain, beets were good for healthy blood, carrots for vision, spinach for muscles etc... So we ate lots of different foods and never complained. If we did she would point out to us that many beggars had little compared to us. If a beggar came to our door, my Mom would always offer a cup of coffee and a big sandwich. She refused to turn them away, she saw this as a duty on her part.

There was always in her life the remnants of the education she received from the nuns and the respect she had for those women who devoted their lives to education.

Mom came from a traditional background and a conservative one at that, land, family status, number of male heirs per family and social standing was very important.  Despite this conservative Catholic background my mother was intelligent enough to see the world change around her and go with the flow of new ideas and attitudes. She was not the stick in the mud type.

She had no time for people with narrow views on life. It could be that with the new role of women in society after 1960 and all the travel my parents did, she gained a new perspective on life and I remember her telling me that the old ways were often wrong and brought much unhappiness to people.
Her mother died when she was quite young, she had a weak heart and having repeated pregnancies was to much of a strain for her. My mother recognized early that women had to have a say on the size of their families. Despite the Catholic Church ban on contraceptive in 1967 when the Pill became available to all, my parents decided that they could not afford more than 3 children and contraception was the way to go.

I can say that my mother was a feminist in her time, she would state her opinions politely but firmly, you knew that you could not dismiss her, she would not stand for it. She encouraged all of us to get a good education and took special interest in my sister's education. Education was the way to a better future. Being a teacher she knew how to motivate us.

She had several careers during her lifetime, from a teacher she then became interested in entering the business world. She learned to drive a car in 1961 when women did not drive at all in Canada. She always liked smaller cars, and her first was a Vauxhall. In business she had a sense to know what the customers wanted and would cater to their taste and often influence the buying of merchandise to go with the customers demands.

She was successful in her field and it did not matter if it was Women's fashion, a florist shop, Real estate sales or at organizing events, raising funds, doing charity work, she just had a natural sense of what had to be done and how to achieve her goals. Her greatest achievement and one she was really proud of was her job in Parliament as the Social Secretary of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

She quickly learned how Parliament worked and who was who. The Speaker is responsible for the functioning of Parliament and he oversees all, from the daily work of the House, to Official receptions,
budget matters, etc...  Mom had a great deal of responsibilities, I remember once she told me that when she started her new job, she was asked to organize a dinner party for the Speaker who was receiving some important guests. She reserved a room for the dinner and then went about doing the set-up and Protocol for the dinner. She enquired about the table cloth and silverware to be used. She was shown what was on hand and to her dismay discovered that all the table cloths were badly ironed, full of holes, stained and yellowed with age. There was no procedure for buying flowers or for the catering of food, no inventory of wines and liquor, it was all pretty haphazard.  This meant that the hospitality budget was  in total disarray. She came up with a plan and convinced the Speaker that if he would let her arrange things she would balance his budget and have new linens and new procedures for purchasing flowers and food. Even the preparation of Official correspondence was not up to standards, she could not believe that letters would go out with grammatical errors in them.

Photo by Yusuf Karsh

She was successful in implementing changes and restoring discipline in the Speaker's Office and suddenly was in demand with the Speaker of the Senate and with wives of Ministers and the Prime Minister to help them out in arranging functions. She knew a lot of people in Official Ottawa and she enjoyed the work and the social life.

After Ottawa my parents went on to live in Manhattan and then in Europe, they travelled extensively in many parts of the world. It was in 1999 when they came to visit us in Warsaw where I was then posted at the Canadian Embassy that we started to notice that she was not quite well. She was distracted and easily lost. One Sunday morning she told me that she was going to attend Mass at the Church at the end of our street. We lost her for four hours, we had no idea where she was and could not find her. She suddenly appeared at the front door of our house. I was relieved and asked her where had she been.

Mom visiting us in Warsaw in 1999

She told us a fancy story about meeting all kinds of people and how everyone spoke French to her.
I knew this was not possible after all we were in Poland not France. I became seriously worried, it was only later that I would find out that this was the early stages of Alzheimer. In the years to come her health would take a dramatic turn for the worst, slowly she faded away.

We, her family, have many memories of her and of what she achieved but overall she was the best Mom anyone could have, thanks to her we had a happy, care free childhood.

Pensée,

 '' La vie signifie ce qu'elle a toujours été. Le fil n'est pas coupé. Pourquoi serais-je hors de vos pensées, simplement parce que je suis hors de votre vue? Je ne suis pas loin, juste de l'autre côté du chemin.''

Charles Péguy, d'après un texte de Saint-Augustin

Our little family

 












  

Une bien triste nouvelle, libera me domine de morte aeterna

This morning I got a phone call from my sister who is in Montreal at this time. She informed me that our Mom had died in her sleep. Mom had been ill with Alzheimer for 14 long years. We saw her decline and it was painful to see such a wonderful, intelligent women disappear before our eyes.

She really was a great Mom and she took her duties as a mother seriously. She had been raised by the nuns in Ville Saint-Laurent, then a separate city from Montreal. She went to l'Ecole Normale run by les Dames de la Congrégation and became a teacher. In time got married and had 3 kids, me being the eldest, my brother and my little sister. Education, Culture, speaking French correctly and being polite and courteous even when people could be rude was something she taught us. She use to say that you have to get along with everyone because it takes all kinds to make a world.

Rollande Gougeon-Beaulieu, Mars 1931- Septembre 2013

She was a successful Realtor in Montreal, she organized cultural events in Montreal at the time of Expo 67 and became friends with the Mayor Jean Drapeau, she worked at organizing events and raising funds for Pierre E. Trudeau, our then Prime Minister, she was also the Secretary of the Speaker of the House of Commons in Ottawa, a job she loved, she was comfortable in high society and was not phased with meeting Heads of State. She treated everyone with courtesy and kept a cool head.  With my father they travelled and lived around the world, Paris, London, New-York, Washington DC, St-Paul, Toronto, Quebec City.

I remember in 1969 she won a radio contest, the prize was a trip to Ireland. She decided that she would take us to Europe and so we travelled from Ireland to France to England.  We were kids but will never forget that first trip. We got so many wonderful things from her, her common sense, her love of beautiful things, of things well done, hard work, being responsible, of always taking the high road in life and raising above any situation, never lowering your personal standards.

She was also a good cook, I remember watching her cook, always from scratch, she never used any processed, frozen or package goods. Being a teacher by profession, she was good at explaining how to proceed and what you had to watch for. I think I got my love of cooking from her and to this day, go to the Farmer's market to get fresh farm produce.

So many wonderful memories of a beautiful life, I know that I can say without false sentimentality that
my Mom was a great lady, able to combine home and work at a time when women were just starting to enter the work place. How she did it, always having lots of time for us and being able to work and have so many commitments outside the home, amazes me.

She knew from the beginning that she was suffering from Alzheimer, she was afraid of what was going to happen, but she nonetheless remained dignified.

I feel very grateful and lucky to have had such a Mom. I am thankful for her life.

Her favourite song was Yellow Bird, whenever we would go out where they had a band or a singer, she would request it.

The pleasure of seeing her again

We went to the theatre to see a play by our great and prolific Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay, born in Montreal in 1942. Currently the Canada on stage Festival is running in Ottawa. Magnetic North is putting on a series of Canadian plays. For the pleasure of seeing her again is staged by the Western Canada Theatre Company of Kamloops, British Columbia. The actors are Lorne Cardinal and Margo Kane, both Natives of the Cree Nation.

The play is a good English translation, the original Encore une fois si vous permettez, was written in French like all 28 plays by Tremblay. It is a tribute to his mother who did not live to see his enormous success as a playwright. The plays spans 10 years in the authors life from age 10 to 20. It is a series of conversations in flashback the author has with his since deceased mother Nana. Lorne Cardinal is the narrator regaling us with tales about his mother a born storyteller with a love of exaggeration. Margo Kane is Nana, she exasperates the son she so much loves and is the inspiration for his art.

It is a very funny play and brought back memories of my own mother. The play takes place in my native Montreal on the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood and many of the stories resonate with me because they are more or less the same period I grew up in and in a neighbourhood I knew. Tremblay mother says things my own mother would say. In many ways Tremblay is saying that mothers often have a greater impact on their children than a father. Also that mothers because of the many hats they wear at home and outside have more complex, more interesting lives.

I think of my mother who is now 83 years old and confined to a long term care facility. For the last 14 years she has been suffering from Alzheimer. A well educated women, who trained to be a school teacher, who had many professions during her lifetime and was a mother to 3 children and a spouse.
Involved in numerous activities on the social scene from 1960 to 1995. She loved to read and was interested by many topics, social, political, cultural. She had a sharp mind and was very good at reading people and analyzing situations. In Ottawa she was the Social Secretary of the Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament, a job she loved. It put her in daily contact with many politicians and their spouses. She also managed the Office and because of the position of the Speaker in Parliament, she was the one to do a lot of behind the scene work on bringing people together or solving problems between parties. She could be very diplomatic in difficult situations.

She was also of that generation which took marriage vows seriously and followed a husband who changed jobs often. I do not think that she was always happy with these moves from city to city, from one continent to another. We kids followed changing schools very often, even in the middle of the school year in some cases. It was always about my father's career and Mom would always be the one explaining it all to us kids. She was the best at putting a positive look on any situation. She was always the one organising everything and making sure we would all land on our feet. Every transition was smooth thanks to her, no matter what.

I think she made a lot of sacrifices, she once told me after 30 years of marriage to my father, that looking at all her friends and acquaintances, they were the only one of their group still married, everyone else had divorced or separated. It is not easy but you do what you have to do and what is best for the children. We, the children, always came first, she did her best to give us a good education, maintain our interest in books, reading, the theatre, arts and culture. She valued a good penmanship, she wrote beautifully and she wanted us to also have a good penmanship, to her this was a sign of good education. I remember once when I was 7 years old, she took me to the ballet, she thought it would be a good experience. She was always trying to open our horizons to new experiences. Later when I was 12  she arranged for me to go to weekend theatre school, I did this until I was 16. Our teachers were well known professional actors, I did get small roles in television and in the theatre. It was certainly another world outside of regular school. My mother believed in us kids expanding our minds.

In 1969 she won a radio contest and the prize was a trip to Ireland, she thought while we are in Europe might as well go to France and England too. So we all went and I remember that trip to this day, our first ever outside of North America. During the trip she would try to maintain our interest in what we were seeing, explaining to us about cities and sights we visited.

She was also a good cook and showed me, the eldest, how to prepare simple meals. She would cook from scratch, never processed or frozen or packaged foods, no pizza boxes. Emphasis on fresh vegetables and fruits. My parents had many almost nightly social engagements tied to political events or tourism industry between 1966 and 1976 in Montreal and Toronto. I often had to look after my younger siblings and cook for them.

She was also the pillar of our family, when things did not go well, she was the one staying calm and taking charge. She knew what to do, her mind was practical and logical. Always a good head for numbers and math, she was very proud of that, luckily she was in charge of the family budget.

So many memories of a lifetime, this is why I am pained to see her now in this diminished capacity, a shadow of herself, a silent shadow.

I remember when in 1999 she came with my father to visit us in Warsaw, I was unaware that anything was wrong at the time, but already she was showing signs of confusion and distress. She would say things that did not make much sense.
She would say that she was tired or stressed.  She knew that it was the first stages of Alzheimer, the specialist had told her. I know now that she was very afraid of what would come. During their stay in Warsaw she got lost for a few hours in our neighbourhood and when she finally came home she told us a strange story of how everyone she encountered spoke to her in French, including the young Polish fellow who was a police guard across the street.  I remember asking her who she had met on the street, I was wondering how could all these Polish people speak to her in French.
It took some months for me to get the full story about her health problems.

It has been fourteen long and painful years of a sunset that does not appear to end. This play by Tremblay brought back a lot of memories of that Montreal of my childhood and of my mother's life.

What I got for Christmas

Christmas 2011 has come and gone and what did I get for Xmas? A friend of ours in Italy when asked today told us, I got to spend Christmas with my family. For him this was the best gift because he thought of all those people who have no family or are estranged from their families. We all have parents, this is true of all people including orphans, this is where we came from and then with them came our family for better or for worse. Some have large extended families others have small contained families, others still have maybe one parent and maybe a few relatives. So at Christmas time it is good to be able to spend some time with our family. In our case ( W and I) as was the case today, we have our family, we visited in Montreal. Then we have another family which are old friends, who through all these years have been with us. In Ottawa our old friends have been with us since W and I came to this City in 1976, so many memories with them and we have all grown old together. We had a Christmas pot luck luncheon with them today with a toast to their health and a few words to tell them how much we care for them. It was a real pleasure to see them all again after 7 Christmases abroad.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas day we were in Montreal, to be with my mother who is gravely ill and my father who is in relatively good health depending on the day or the weather. Both are elderly and who knows how much longer they will be with us. For my mother who is suffering from Alzheimer and is in the final stages, it is always a pleasure to get a smile, a fleeting recognition if only for an instant from her, a squeeze of the hand. We had Christmas lunch with her and it was beautiful, beautiful flowers, music, good food and the company of relatives and siblings. My cousin L. did a lot of the cooking, turkey breast and a sugared ham, tourtiere and ragout de boulettes, salads and small tarts of creamed sugar. My father also worked at organizing this get together in the fashion he wanted with the help of my brother who came to spend 2 weeks with him. Trying to recreate a normalcy which given my mother's health and that she is confined to a care facility, though a nice and quiet place, is far from normal but it is our normal now.

Today W mentioned that he wanted to visit his brother who lives in Atlantic Canada more than one thousand kilometres away. To get there we need to take a ferry to the island and this depends on the weather and the ferry schedule. I hope we go, we would take our Nicky and Nora with us. It would be quite the adventure, considering that by plane it is a 2 hour flight, we plan to drive for this family visit. Canada is a big place.

Christmas- Noël

Well we are only a few days away and we are pretty much ready. No gifts this year, it was a year for downsizing and we really don't want anything. In many ways it is better this way. We have good friends, we have family, we have our puppies and we have each other. The tree is up and my sister and brother with their spouses are coming up to Canada for Christmas. The menu, lots of goodies has been arranged by my Dad. It is all catered, so no anxious moments or getting tired trying to cook and then cleaning up.
The weather appears to be promising some snow for Christmas, it was really cold today -20C. Puppies find it really difficult, being from Rome they have never seen such weather. They will be 3 yrs old in February 2012. They have their coats and their boots.

Lights in Roppongi Tokyo

Will says it was a difficult year, in a way it was, we did spend 4 months in suitcases and leaving so many friends in Rome and a very nice apartment and the life we had in Italy, all these changes were difficult. A lot of adjustments in returning to Canada, life here is very different, values, culture, attitudes, sometimes parochial, the food, heavy and starchy or too sweet. We are adjusting piano, piano, as we say in Italy.

The old Star on our tree, the same star for the last 34 years.

We have good friends here and we have been lucky to find an apartment by the Rideau Canal, making it easy to walk to work, to shops and other venues in the Capital.

some of the decorations on our tree.

Our tree is full of memories, every decoration from the Star on top bought in a dollar store, to all the other decorations, bought in all kinds of places around the world, many hand made or part of a tradition.

Best Wishes to our friends and to all a Happy Christmas. Who knows what 2012 will bring, we can only wish for Health, Happiness, Prosperity and Peace. It does not have to be peace in the world, that is too complicated, but just peace in our lives and of those we love and care for is quite enough for me.

All the best to all of you!

Sitting at Montreal, Dorval AKA Pierre E. Trudeau airport

I remember this airport from the 1960’s when flying was an exotic adventure for a few lucky people and if you flew overseas well that was as if you were going to the moon. I had one uncle who worked for Air Canada and he and my aunt would travel to Italy, Portugal and France, they were like astronauts to us kids. No one travelled much further than somewhere in Canada and usually by train or to the USA, even then a lot of people drove to Florida in winter.

To me the airport in Montreal will always be Dorval named after a French Aristocrat who owned the land in the area during the French Regime in Canada (1534-1763). Currently it has been re-named and re-built completely as the P.E. Trudeau airport after our late Prime Minister of the 1970’s. Dorval is also the oldest city on the West Island of Montreal, founded in 1667 by les Messieurs de Saint-Sulpice, the Sulpicians and led by French Nobles, Father François Salignac de Fénelon founded a school and a mission post for the Indians. Pierre Le Gardeur de Repentigny was the owner of “La Presentation” at the time. In 1691, Jean-Baptiste Bouchard d’Orval bought the “La Présentation” land. The word “d’Orval” which was the name of a small hamlet where he was born in Aisne, France. 

The airport use to have a restaurant called the Kebec on the second floor, the specialty was roast beef with all the fixing and the décor was sumptuous with views of the runways, going to this restaurant prior to a flight was a big thing, it was exciting and glamorous. You had a huge meal with cocktails and wine and then took your flight. No security lines in those days, once you were checked-in that was it. There was also one hotel at the airport a Hilton and every Sunday night they had a radio show on CJAD live from the Jupiter Lounge with big band dance music, it was part of the marvel of air travel and the glamour that went with it, Will loves to say that in those days Gentlemen and Ladies flew on aircrafts, men wore tie and jacket and ladies had nice dresses and pearls. We are very far from this era today, the glamour is gone and people dress as if they are cleaning out the garage, many are also very self-absorbed.

Today the Hilton Dorval is gone, it has been replaced by a newly built Marriott and the airport terminal itself has been completely rebuilt, you could not say where the old terminal buildings were. It still has that Canadian homey feeling, big but not too big, it is practical, modern and has a no nonsense approach.

Went through security easily, lots of staff, well organized, helpful, they tell you what to do to speed things along. The food options are very different nowadays, mostly fast food, but I note a lot of options for vegetarians and people wanting to eat healthy, fresh fruits, etc..

Despite the number of passengers it is relatively quiet.

So onwards to Zurich a city I have not visited since 1975.

Again this time I will only see the airport terminal between 2 flights. Zurich Airport is sleek and clean as a whistle, just what you expect in Switzerland with that funny singsong low German-Swiss they speak.