Explosive testimony ...

I am having a hard time believing what I heard today when MP Jody Wilson-Raybould testified before the justice committee to reveal that there had indeed been pressure on her as Canada's Attorney General to back off on the SNC Lavalin case. Her testimony has left Ottawa in shock.  She demonstrated she is a person of truth and integrity. Hard to believe she is a Liberal.

In all the years I have been watching federal politics I don't think there has been a scandal as bad as this. It is beyond scandal. It is actually unlawful.  This is the type of thing that should bring down the government. Back in the day, the "honourable" thing for the Prime Minister would be to tender his resignation to the House of Commons.
I doubt that will happen.  Gerald Butts, Justin's chief of staff has already resigned. He knew this was going to be a shit storm. Oh well, it might be a good thing this is an election year. The election is set for the third week of October. But I fear Canadian voters have short memories. We are in for some interesting times.

What's in a name?

I have to admit I get a kick out of the names that mining companies use to describe their prospects and potential mining properties.

Back in the day, mines were named usually after the person who discovered them or the name of the company. I think of Timmins which had the world famous Hollinger and the McIntyre gold mines, named in tribute to the prospectors.

I was thinking about this last night when I met Al Coutts, (guy in the photo) the president and CEO of Noront Resources. That’s the company that owns about 90 percent of the mineral properties in the area known as the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario.

There you go. This is a world class ore zone in the middle of the Canadian muskeg, and it’s called Ring of Fire. Not named after the Johnny Cash song through. It is names for its circular shape of ore zones over a wide area of land.  It is already famous because it has so much chromite, a key ingredient in stainless steel. But there are also huge quantities of nickel, copper, zinc, palladium, diamonds, silver and gold. This is an ore zone that will last well into the next century.

Some of the ore zones have names like Black Thor, Black Horse, Eagle’s Nest, the Blackbird and Big Daddy.  Every diamond miner in Northern Ontario knows that the De Beers Victor mine is also known as Brad’s Pit – a tribute to geologist Brad Wood who discovered the diamond zone back in the 70s. Over in Hemlo, there was the Golden Giant mine, discovered by Timmins prospectors. 

East of Timmins, McEwen has the Black Fox mine. Right in Timmins is the super-rich Hoyle Pond mine, which was discovered by mistake back in the 1970s, when a tailings pond on the Texas Gulf property failed.  Crews went in to clean it up and gold was discovered.

Even Detour Gold north of Timmins gets people wondering about the name. Temagami had the Beanland and Big Dan mines. Go figure.

The things you hear ...

One of the interesting things about this job is covering court. More people should drop by their local courts to sit in for a morning or afternoon to listen in on what goes on. You would be shocked, amazed, confused and frustrated by the things you hear. 

Interestingly a lot of the testimony said in open court is not reported by the media. That's because the lawyers usually seek a ban on publication. That's an interesting part of the Criminal Code of Canada that disallows any public reporting that might endanger the chances of an accused person getting a fair trial.

If there is too much information revealed before a jury is selected, then there is a chance that no one would have an unbiased impression about the accused person.

None of the stuff can be revealed until after the trial is held, and by that time, much of the info is old news.

That's what is going on in Sudbury right now. There is a bail hearing on for a very interesting capital case, but the media cannot report the details. There is amazing testimony about DNA, about fingerprints and other details that might eventually be revealed. Then again it might not be revealed.

It is also the reason the company has decided not to allow public commenting on the story or on the company's Facebook page. Anyone who does reveal details could be held in contempt of court. And yes, that includes stuff that people might post on Facebook. Be careful what you write!

I think I've said enough.

Well I sent out another order on Amazon today, only because I was able to find what I wanted at a much reduced price. One item is a piece of photography equipment and as much as I wanted to buy it locally, the Amazon price was 20 per cent cheaper, for precisely the same product. The other item, also for photography, could not be found in any local stores. I have been looking for almost two months. I found it online, and so I will buy it online. I can see why retailers are having a rough time.

I also took Jenn's advice and signed up for Amazon Prime. I am not sure how it all works, but it means quicker and cheaper shipping.

I will keep you posted.

Life goes on ...

Things are going well now that I consider my second month in Sudbury. It's nice to be able to see Tyler, Nathan, Scott and Jenn so easily. I spent Super Bowl Sunday at their place, had a few beers and was able to stay there, without worrying about driving home after drinking. It was so relaxing and the food was outstanding! I do not miss the 300 kilometre drive from Timmins.
The work is good too. We got our first 2019 issue of the magazine completed on time and ready for the PDAC convention in Toronto.  That's where I will be two weeks from now. It will be fun to meet all the interesting mining people from around the world.
I have been focussing a lot on work, but that's because I am still learning all the different responsibilities with the job. That is working out okay. I find I am still not working as many hours as I did in the daily newsroom in Timmins, but that is because the writing is not as urgent. Still I like being part of the Northern Life newsroom. It is a good place, and best of all it is not a corporate newsroom... it is an independent business.
I also had a chance to see Jennifer at work one day recently when I covered a news event at the hospital. It was cool to see Jenn at work, being all serious and everything. But she still has that Jenn grin! I took a nice photo.

The weather so far this winter in Northern Ontario has been cold and snowy and certainly has people talking. It is the same in Timmins, North Bay and Sudbury. We had one nasty day not too long ago with icy rain. The build up of ice on the vehicle was just ridiculous. So there I was that morning banging away at the bottom of the windshield to get break the ice. Crrrack! I broke the ice and cracked the windshield! I think I also broke a record for the number of curse words I spoke that morning :) .
Life goes on.

Power ... it's everything!

It's the best one hundred bucks I've spent this year. Actually it was $112 and it was on sale. It's one of these new lithium battery booster thingies. It was super cold in Sudbury - minus 42 weather on the weekend -- and the old Nitro would not start.  I was happy to call the roadside guy that I pay for,  to come and boost the battery. It worked fine. I was wondering if I needed a new battery but the tow truck guy said I might be better off getting one of those battery boost jump starters. I decided he was right. So I headed off to Canadian Tire to buy one. There was a young guy stocking the shelves when I was there. I noticed there were two items on sale. One was the old fashioned heavy battery booster pack and the other was this little battery pack, smaller than a box of Kleenex. The kid explained that the old fashioned battery pack actually had a full lead-acid battery inside, whereas the new battery had a small but powerful lithium pack. He said he bought one for himself. I figured he might be driving one of those little four-cylinder foreign cars. He said he drove a big old Chevy Silverado 1500 and he had used the battery pack a half dozen or so times to boost his truck. That sold me. I bought the little pack. Took it home, hooked it up to my six-cylinder frozen Jeep engine and it worked just fine. The vehicle roared to life. So I was at work today when one of my co-workers said he had to go home to boost his wife's car. I jumped up and offered him to try out my new battery pack. He took it home and it worked nicely. He said he was impressed. An hour later he was back at my desk. One of the ladies at work could not start her car in the back parking lot. I gave him the battery booster again and yes, it worked perfectly. He's a hero. I'm a hero. LOL

Sudbury Saturday morning...

Settling in and unpacking at the new apartment in Sudbury. Starting the new job Monday morning. I dropped by my new office Friday afternoon and they were pleased to see me, but I was just as pleased to see the new team I will be working with.

The apartment is an older building, with a definite retro look. I like it. It has many windows and nice views of the neighborhood and plenty of trees just outside the windows. I can't wait for spring and summer. Lots of stuff to be put away in the next few days and a good time to consider what I want to keep and what I will toss out. Jennifer and the boys dropped by a couple of days ago with coffee and it was just too nice to think that we all live in the same city now.

Boxing Day

Box Day has taken on something of a real meaning for me as I am packing up all my stuff. It is the best time to de-clutter. I have to admit I have a hard time with that. I keep stuff because it means something to me. OMG why do I save Christmas cards from years ago? I have saved every Birthday card from Jenn and her boys. Oh well, I will be struggling with this in the next two days. The movers come in Thursday morning.

Had a nice quiet Christmas at home and enjoyed a fabulous Angus strip loin for Christmas dinner, along with a bottle of Ruffino Chianti. I had to re-open one of the boxes to get my salad spinner out so I could make a Caesar Salad.
I called Neil later in the evening and can't believe we yakked for more than 30 minutes. That has to be a record for us. LOL. Jenn and her family is in Cuba but they should be home Thursday night. Already getting geared up for the new job. Will keep you posted. If I don't see you, all the best for the New Year.

Going to miss good people ...

Been saying a lot of goodbyes to folks in this my final week at the newspaper here in Timmins. Was pleased today when Diane Armstrong, one of my favourite column writers, dropped by bearing a single-malt gift. We have been working together for years. Diane is a great writer and it is no mistake that her column Over The Hill is so popular. She also has authored a few books. And she has the best sense of humour and knows the punchlines to most of the best jokes. I will indeed miss working with her.

Obituaries

When I began in journalism way too many years ago, one of the first things I did was write obituaries of well-known people who had died in town. I remember tapping out a story at the North Bay Nugget for a Mr. Caswell, who had died in Sundridge. Turns out he was quite the wealthy fellow and well regarded around the North. Later that day, after the paper had gone to press, I could hear heavy shoes thumping down the stairs from the executive offices above the newsroom.  As the rookie reporter, my desk was tucked in the little slanting alcove beneath the staircase.  That’s when the esteemed Mr. Mort Feldman, the publisher, found me and spoke to me. “Nice job,” he said, among other things.

I will never forget that. A visit to the newsroom by Mr. Feldman was a rare event, but to have him speak to me was a treat.

I was thinking of that this week as I wrote another obituary for another well-known fellow. The only thing is that most of the time now, I know the people I write about. That sucks. After 45 years of writing the news, I have been fortunate to befriend so many people. That means I usually get to write their obits when they die. I know where they worked,  who they worked with and who can make comments about the deceased.  It’s one of those times I get to write many nice things about people and the editor doesn’t red pencil any of the adjectives.

The Canadian Press Stylebook, the bible for all Canadian reporters, says obits should be brief, but CP dedicated two and half pages about how to write an obit. 

There are many, many people who don’t get mentioned for all the good things they did when they were alive. They should get something written about them so their friends and family members can appreciate them a bit more. 

Still, it’s not something I look forward to.

Talking ...

I talk too much. I went to the grocery store this afternoon to grab a few things. I never use a cart, just a handbasket for grabbing milk, bread etc. Today I went to pick up some stewing beef. But as I wandered around the store, I kept running into people I hadn't seen in weeks or even months. Of course, we had to stop and chat. So much so that on a couple of occasions, we had to move to the end of the aisle so other people could keep shopping. So a 20-minute trip took nearly 90 minutes. I got the beef --- which in this case was sirloin steak which was on sale, and cheaper than stewing beef. That's a whole other conversation. Enough for today :)

Sharing ...

One of the nice things about being in the newspaper business is that it is not too difficult to get copies of photographs from other reporters, no matter what part of the country they’re in. That’s how it was when I contacted reporter/photographer Erin Haluschak at the Comox Valley Record newspaper.  She was more than happy to share this photo of Ronald from the Remembrance Day ceremonies in their town. Ron’s photo was the cover of the local paper and in a special photo feature. Have to say he looked pretty good. Thank you again Ms. Haluschak.  

Good things happen

I have to admit I wasn’t sure at first. It was about a few weeks ago I got a phone call from a fellow I remembered from several years ago. He was a reporter-editor on the mining beat.

Now in Northern Ontario you cannot get away from that. This is the heart of the Canadian Shield and the mines give up every mineral you can imagine from the gold in your jewelry, to the copper, silver and platinum in your electronics to the zinc that keeps your car from rusting too quickly.

Plus it is fun to witness the pouring a new gold bar like this one at the Bell Creek Mine in Timmins. 

So this fellow was kind enough to suggest I might want to consider applying for a job with a well-known mining journal.  I wasn’t sure. I like my work in the daily newsroom. It is challenging and there is always something urgent going on. The other thing about this job is that it is in Sudbury.

The fellow said he liked my mining stories and especially the fact I had experience as a hard rock miner.  I thanked the fellow and said I would work on it.

I think it was that night that I called Jennifer and had a chat. I told her about the offer and she was encouraging. I still wasn’t sure about the job. I think I was just getting too comfortable in the news game. Maybe I was getting too laid back and lazy.  A few days later, I got an e-mail from Sudbury asking where my resume was.  Truth is I had been working on it, but was so busy on news things I had not sent it in.

That night, I spruced up the resume, added a cover letter and dug up couple of old mining stories.

Next day I got a call from the company president. He said he liked my stories. So we had a chat and then we talked about people we both knew from back in the day; I mean wayyyy back in the day.

So he made a nice offer and said he would follow up with a letter.

So here I am now getting ready for the big move in the New Year. I am looking forward to the new gig but of course the best part will be spending more time with my family. You can’t put a price on that.

Invading their privacy ...

Private conversations are just that; private. I say that in reference to the now infamous Uber tape that appeared on YouTube showing a group of six or seven professional hockey players who were on a social outing and jumped into a van for transportation. During the ride, some of the players were talking among themselves and were bad-mouthing the coaching staff for the Ottawa Senators.

The Uber driver had an interior camera that recorded everything. The players were not aware of the camera. Some days later, the five-minute recording, complete with all the trash talk, appeared on YouTube. It caused something of a minor kerfuffle in some media circles. 

I think that’s wrong. Just because somebody said something in private that others might disagree with, it was not a serious matter that had to be reported. This wasn’t national security. This was not revealing anything important. It’s just sports for crying out loud. But still I think it was intrusive for the Uber driver to do what he did.

Thank goodness Uber agreed to have the YouTube recording removed and then apologized to the players.

Small world or what?

We were just having a chat in the newsroom with the city editor and managing editor about the different customs in different cities as Canadians celebrate Remembrance Day. The boss said he had been to so many and began rhyming off the names of different towns, when he said Portage La Prairie. Well, there you go.

Small world eh? I had to chime in about the fact that RCAF Base Portage La Prairie was Dad’s first posting when we all came back to Canada from France. It’s also the town where Debra was born, so I will avoid mentioning the year. I did however recall sitting by the CNR tracks in the north end of town near the Campbell Soup plant to watch the trains coming in – Steam trains they were!  It was a nice place with cold winters. 

Gary, and Ronald and I sure enjoyed some fun times there as kids…. Including the time we begged Mom to let us push the baby carriage over to the next block, where there was a big baseball game going on.  And then we came home. But we forgot the baby.  Hey, it was safe. It was all Air Force families. But when we got back home, mom was wild! Where’s the baby!? So we rushed back to the baseball field and sure enough we found Debra in the carriage right behind the home plate fence. No harm. No foul. LOL

Hoping for toasty toes...

I haven’t given this much thought to winter in years. I think I am beginning to “feel” it a bit more these days. For starters, I take blood pressure medication which has the effect of making my fingers and toes feel cold. Doc said that was to be expected. So I live with it.

Also, when I was visiting Jennifer last week, I had the opportunity to buy a new winter coat. I call it my fall coat, because when real winter comes, I wear my parka. But my parka is just too warm for mild winter, anything that is minus 20 and warmer. So I put the fall coat on this week and it was warm, so I took out the liner. I like it.

Then I bought a new pair of leather gloves. My old ones were about five years old and had some serious holes that only a surgeon could repair.

But the real change has come with my Sorels. These old boots have been my favourites for roughly 40 years. I remember wearing my first pair of Sorels in the Arctic in December and they were fine. These boots are also perfect with my snowshoes. 

This is my second pair of Sorels. They're the original Made-In-Canada brand. Not the new ones that are made in China. 

They’re almost 20 years old and still in good shape. But I bought new liners this week. Not the usual felt-wool liners. I caved to modernity and bought a pair of those synthetic breathable liners.

They’re rated to minus 45. I don’t know how they figure that stuff out, but I know that from living in Timmins, there will be a few days that I will get to test that. I will keep you posted.

Thankful ...

I hated the drive down on Highway 144 on Friday night. There’s always moose on the highway. But the trip was worth it to spend a couple of days with Jenn and her men in Val Caron for Thanksgiving. It’s always so relaxing there, and I go into total veggie mode with a few drinks, a bite to eat, with lots of conversation, laughter and even a few tears. My grandsons are so grown up now. Tyler is first-year university and Nathan is in his final year of high school. We used to have a tradition on Saturday mornings where we sat around in our jammies and ate chocolate cake. Well, I guess the boys are not interested in that stuff anymore, LOL. That’s okay, it was still nice to spend time with everyone, -- even if the Leafs lost on Saturday night.

The best day ...

I was pleased to get an e-mail last week from a friend informing me that CBC Radio is celebrating its 40 year anniversary in Northern Ontario.  I am happy to say I was a small part of that, having spent a few years as an associate producer and producer of the morning program, Morning North.  Then, many years later, after my stint with CTV, I was invited back to CBC as a contract producer and editor.

But let me get to the heart of the story about one of the best days we ever enjoyed with live radio. It didn’t start out very pleasantly.

It was September 7, 1990. It was the morning after the Ontario Election when a huge upset had taken place. Bob Rae had defeated Liberal premier David Peterson. Now you have to understand that elections are big things in the news business.  Whoever gets elected sets the game for your city, your province or your country for the next few years.

Okay so in the days leading up to our election results broadcast I have to say we were stunned to learn that CBC Toronto had been given approval to cover the province. This was ignoring CBC Thunder Bay, CBC Windsor, CBC Sudbury and CBC Ottawa.  

This meant our morning show would be pre-empted in favour of giving the Toronto crew the broadcast from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.  Of course, the journalists in the smaller stations such as ours were livid. We protested, but without any backing from management, we got nowhere.

Only CBC Ottawa was able to complain loud enough to get back the right to cover its own territory. Not us. We would be allowed roughly five minutes each hour to insert news from our region.

That morning we all arrived for work well before 6 a.m. Of course we were excited at the news of the political upset. But that was soon tempered by the fact we pretty well had to sit on our hands and listen to Toronto. We were told to be ready in case Toronto gave us the right to switch back to our own station. Fat chance that would happen.  There was clearly a line between broadcasters and the bureaucrats.

So there we were;  myself, host Peter Williams, newsroom staffers Bill Catalano and Sherry Drysdale, noon show host and producer Benita Hart and our technician and operator Kenny Kauffeldt.

We sat in the front office with the big window overlooking Mackenzie Street and griped and moaned about not being able to do our own broadcast.

Little did we expect how bad it would be. Just as the 6 a.m. World Report news package ended, CBC Toronto came online with a quick wrap of the election upset the night before. Part of the coverage including breaking away to a live report from London, Ontario the hometown of defeated premier Peterson.   

Imagine our surprise when the poor reporter described he was broadcasting live from a local arena in London where the Liberals had been expected to celebrate Peterson’s victory. The reporter said there was no one else there. Just him. Well Duhhhh! It was so embarassing to listen to this. 

So the hour progressed. At 6:30 we did our own regional news wrap and then a brief insert on the local election results.

I remember clearly as we sat there around 6:45 a.m. griping how bad the Toronto broadcast was. Sherry said something like I wish we could just do our own show. Kenny said, “we can”.

I looked at him with surprise. He looked back at me and said anytime you want to switch back to local just tell me and we can go to a local broadcast.  I thought, well they keep telling us to be “risk takers”. So let’s see how this works.

I quickly looked at the faces around the room and asked, do you think we could pull off a good local show?

The response was immediate. Of course, and then they began jumping in with names, phone numbers and story lines and interviews. It was exciting as hell. I looked at the clock, knowing we had about 20 minutes before going live.

One of the reporters was already on the line to Nickel Belt MPP Floyd Laughren to get Bob Rae’s private phone number.

So things were in motion. We pulled together a bunch of live interviews, including an exclusive with the new Premier BEFORE CBC Toronto got him on live. We had live chats with all the newly elected candidates.  We didn’t look back. It was a great program. For the next two hours we did seat-of-the-pants live radio and it worked.

Just before 9 a.m. our host Peter was wrapping up the show with final comments. Kenny was rolling the music to mark the end of the show. The boss came into the studio with a big smile commenting on how good the show sounded.

“When did Toronto give you the okay to cut away to local?” he asked.

“They didn’t,” I replied.

His face dropped. He was horrified.

I knew my ass was in trouble, but I have to say, it was so worth it. It was the best day.

Advice :)

Dropped in to see the doc on Thursday. He said keep an eye on your blood sugar. Dropped in to Timmies on the way back to work. I got a dark roast coffee with NO SUGAR! I deserved a reward for that I figured, so I got a SMILE cookie too! LOL

Old glass. Nice photos...

So yes I am pleased with a decision to resurrect one of my older Nikon cameras. The cam is six years old and I had to send away to Amazon to get new batteries.  I read a recent article talking about many shooters (journo-talk for photographers) bringing out older film camera lenses that seemed to have pretty nice glass and then using them on the newer digital cams. Well that sure got me thinking because I own a fabulous old Nikon 50MM 1 to 1.4 lens that is so perfect, you’d swear it came from heaven.  This is the same lens sent to the moon on Apollo 11.

 This is the same lens LIFE magazine and National Geographic shooters used all during the 60s and 70s around the world and in Viet Nam. One of the biggest differences is that it is not an auto-focus lens, so everything is manual shooting.

 I tried it out this morning on the flower garden beside my apartment building. I was pleased. Then I went out to a mining executive’s lunch and shot photos.  I also shot backup photos on a newer cam, but the city editor chose the photo shot with the older lens. The detail was amazing! You can count the guy’s whiskers. 

Covering the PM

Well I don't often get the chance to cover a PM. Mr. Trudeau came to Timmins this week and I was assigned to get photos and a story. Unfortunately, the media was told there would be no questions, just cover the speech. We were also told we had to get our photos from a riser stage located at the back of the venue. I didn't agree with that, but I didn't complain... as the speech was ending, I mentioned I would like to get up front for some better pictures. One of the interns with the PMO grabbed me and said to follow her. We scooted through the ranks of RCMP officers and other serious looking folks with stern faces. I was able to get very close to get some good shots. The speech was about 20 minutes but the PM spent twice that much time working the crowd, signing autographs and posing for selfies. Things have changed.