Sunday, October 22, 2017

Canadian News to Enlighten You

Yes, you may have heard or viewed or read the news through various media,
but in case you missed it, I send you significant data of interest.

Best Dressed: Hudson's Bay Co. Unveils Kit for Pyeongchang Olympics
(Excerpts by Toronto's Lori Ewing)
The moment Canada's athletes, clad in the iconic read and white, march into the stadium for the Olympic opening ceremonies, never fails to take Alison Coville's breath away. The president of the Hudson'Bay Co. expects nothing less when the the Pyeongchang Winter Games open February 9 in Hoenggye Olympic Park. Hudson Bay Co. unveiled its Team Canada collection on Tuesday and Colville said the kit will have Canadian athletes winning the fashion game. More than a dozen athletes modelled the collection at the morning unveiling at a downtown Toronto mall.

The patriotic apparel flaunts colour-blocks of Canadian red and white, plus black. For the opening ceremony, the parka falls to the mid-thigh and features “Canada” emblazoned across the chest in bold white letters...and a large white Maple leaf on the back. Medal podium outfits feature a puffy red coat, while the athletes march in the closing cermeonies in red and black softshell jackets.

We really looked to capture what we believe is the iconic Canadian winter style. We considered the strength of our country, the backdrops of the mountains and the white in the snow. And we looked for inspiration, what our athletes are inspired by...and we also want them to feel super confident...and beyond that, we do believe that comfort plays a big role,” stated Coville.

Introducing Canada's 29th Governor General
(Excerpts from The Canadian Press)
Former astronaut Julie Payette took the formal oaths of office Monday as she became the country's 29th Governor General in a traditional ceremony on Parliament Hill. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin administered the oaths to the 53-year old in the Senate chamber under the watchful eyes of hundreds of high-powered Canadian audience members, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his cabinet, Indigenous leaders and other dignitaries. Payette was presented with the ceremonial collars marking her as chancellor of the Order of Canada, the Order of Military Merit and the Order of Merit of the Police Forces, as well as head of the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
While much of the ceremony is dictated by protocol, Payette, herself chose music,
which included a rendition of Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah”
Trudeau spoke of Payette's flights into space as inspiring moments ~ a two-time extraterrestrial Canadian. He praised her as a mother, an athlete, a pilot, a scientist and someone who “went where very few others had dared to go.” Payette had her first audience with the Queen two weeks ago.

Families Walking Highway of Tears
(Excerpts from The Canadian Press...by Laura Kane in Smithers, B.C.)
Rhonda Lee McIsaac says she's walking the Highway of Tears for all the women who can't. She was among the dozens of family members and advocates of missing and murdered Indigenous women who walked the final stretch of an emotional 350-kilometre journey along Highway 16 on Monday.
They sang and beat drums while carrying a banner emblazoned with the faces
of those who have disappeared or been killed along the notorious
stretch of road in British Columbia's Interior.
McIsaac said, “I have lost a loved one.
I grew up in foster care and I was adopted out.This is part of my story.”
(Indigenous Women Hearings Set to Resume!)

Canada's Women's Eight Captures Silver at Worlds
News Services reports from Sarasota, Florida:
Canada's women's eight made a late push to capture silver at the rowing world championships Sunday. The Canadians were able to get past the United States and New Zealand in the last 250 metres to finish in 6 minutes and 7.09 seconds. Romania won gold in 6.06 minutes.

The Big House, In Every Way.
Kingston Penitentiary was the largest public building in Upper Canada When it Opened.
(writes Mary K. Nolan in The Hamilton Spectator)
The joint. The slammer. The clink. The institutions where miscreants and malfeasants do time for their misdeeds go by many names. But there's only one KP...Kingston Penitentiary...which as lock-ups go in Canada, was the big house in every way. When it opened for business in 1835, it occupied 80 hectares of waterfront land that included stone quarries, a prison farm and a four-hectare complex of buildings to accommodate up to 1,000 prisoners.
But more formidable than its physical presence is the roster of offenders
who served their sentences behind KP's massive limestone walls.
They were the worst of the worst ~ Black Donnelly patriarch James, serial child-killer Clifford Olsen, murderous rapist Paul Bernardo, homicidal air force colonel Russell Williams, wife slayer Helmuth Baxbaum and prolific pedophile James Cooper ~ once described by a Hamilton judge as “a lowdown, mean, despicable, evil manifestation of a human being.”
Mobsters, bank robbers, cop killers, fraudsters ~ thousands upon thousands
who failed to follow society's rules languished behind KP's iron bars
over its 178 years of operation.
On September 30, 2013, the massive wooden doors groaned open to release the last prisoner, a man who believed he was the King of England and the guards were his servants.

Trouble Sleeping?
From a Canadian novel I recently read, the author wrote about Steve, who didn't usually have trouble sleeping ~ even with the distant noise of jets on the nearby runways, but one night was different. He usually knew just what to do with worries and unsettling thoughts. They went into a compartment in his mind: walled off by themselves where they wouldn't bother him until he chose to deal with them. The navy had taught you that.
You divided yourself ...your mind...your heart...your life into compartments...
and then managed these things one by one.

Compiled by Merle Baird-Kerr...October 5, 2017

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