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CLARKE o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-06-11 published
John CLARKE VANEVERY
Clarke VANEVERY, a resident of Meldrum Bay, passed away at Mindemoya Hospital on Friday, June 6, 2003 at the age of 72 years.
He was born in Gore Bay, son of the late John Wesley VANEVERY and Ada Elizabeth Christina (CLARKE) VANEVERY. He timbered for many years as a way of supporting his lifelong passion, farming. He also enjoyed the annual family hunt, snowmobiling, and many other outdoor activities. His greatest love was spending time with his family and in particular his grandchildren. Clarke took an avid interest in all of his grandchildren. With the boys the number one passion was hockey. On any given Sunday, Clarke would be there cheering them on. With his granddaughters his relationship was of a more caring nature. Last summer he and his oldest granddaughter Elizabeth set up house together in Meldrum Bay as she experienced her first summer job. Then there is Caroline. The entertainer, speechmaker extraordinaire, figure skater and all around treasure. Last but not least is our miracle baby, Rachel, a shining light in a difficult time. His whole being would lighten up when she was with him. He was a loving and caring husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend and will be sadly missed. Many fond memories will be cherished by all who knew him. Predeceased by his beloved wife Shirley (McCAULEY) VANEVERY in 2002. Loving father of John (wife Wendy) or Gore Bay, Lyle (wife Janice) of Lively and Joan SHEPPARD (husband Willis) of Mindemoya. Loving and loved grandfather of Elizabeth, Colin, Caroline, Graham, Evan, Owen and Rachel. Dear brother of Blanche VANEVERY, Bill (wife Pauline) VANEVERY, Maude Falls (husband Matt,) Helen Clarke, Dale VANEVERY (wife Joan,) Jim VANEVERY (wife Helen,) Don VANEVERY (wife Rose.) Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Friends called the Culgin Funeral Home on Saturday June 7. The funeral service was held in the Wm. G. Turner Chapel on Sunday, June 8 with Erwin THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON officiating. Interment to follow in Meldrum Bay Cemetery.
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CLARKE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-06 published
The day the music didn't die
Beloved Toronto trumpeter credited with helping preserve a unique form of New Orleans jazz
By Sarah LAMBERT Thursday, March 6, 2003 - Page R9
Toronto -- The tightly knit world of New Orleans traditional jazz has lost one of its greats with the death, last month, of Cliff (Kid) BASTIEN, leader of Toronto's treasured Happy Pals.
The trumpeter is credited as having nothing less than single-handedly kept alive the unique, raw, New Orleans style of jazz, through his leadership and mentorship of hundreds of musicians.
Saddened fans and musicians filed into the city's Grossman's Tavern all week last month to pay tribute to Mr. BASTIEN at the long-time home of the Happy Pals, where the walls are lined with photos of his fans and musicians. It was a send-off worthy of New Orleans, birthplace of the kind of jazz Mr. BASTIEN played with his seven-piece bands, the Camelia Jazz Band and later the Happy Pals, during the 30 or so years he played at the Toronto landmark.
"He was never late. Never, never ever, said Christine LOUIE, whose family inherited Mr. BASTIEN's Saturday-afternoon gig when Al GROSSMAN sold the bar in 1975.
So it was with sinking hearts on February 8 that his loyal audience and band members watched the minute hand tick past 4 o'clock, waiting for him to arrive, brass trumpet in hand.
When he was found later that afternoon still sitting in his armchair, apparently looking up a new song in his hymn book, the Happy Pals played on and raised a glass in tribute to their leader who died as he lived, surrounded by music. He was 65 years old.
Noonie SHEARS, a long-time friend and leader of the traditional impromptu parade that would inevitably snake through Grossman's as Saturday afternoon wound down, said she thought Mr. BASTIEN was looking up I'll Fly Away, the old gospel song recently dusted off in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The band played it for the first time at Mr. BASTIEN's official memorial at Grossman's the Saturday following his death.
Born in 1937 in London's East End, Mr. BASTIEN emigrated to Canada in 1962 after a stint in New Orleans. It was there that he heard trumpeter (Kid) Thomas VALENTINE play and, experiencing a kind of epiphany, Mr. BASTIEN followed him from club to club and studied his style. It ultimately inspired a lifelong ambition to keep alive New Orleans-style traditional jazz.
A purist who drew a distinction between his chosen genre of music and the more popularized Dixieland Jazz, Mr. BASTIEN once said: "Had I never heard that music, I wouldn't have become a musician. I wouldn't play anything else."
I Like Bananas, Caledonia, All of Me and Louisiana Vie en Rose were just a few of his standards. But, as Happy Pals' trombonist Roberta TEVLIN explained, Mr. BASTIEN wasn't content to simply recycle the old chestnuts.
"Cliff kept adding songs. I've probably played 1,000 different tunes with him. He was particularly notorious for finding songs outside the standard jazz list, said Ms. TEVLIN, who joined the band 20 years ago, along with her saxophonist husband, Patrick.
Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Western Swing numbers, Nigerian folk songs and Dean Martin could all tumble out during a set, said drummer Chuck CLARKE.
Mr. BASTIEN's Friends and peers point out that he was known for three primary qualities: His love of music, his scorn for fame or publicity and his mentoring of local musicians.
During the memorial at Grossman's, Downchild Blues Band headman Donny WALSH arrived from Florida to sit in with his harmonica, as he had done regularly with Mr. BASTIEN in the 1970s. Juno-nominated bluesman Michael PICKETT was there, as well as jazz singer Laura HUBERT, formerly of the Leslie Spit Treeo, pianist Peter HILL, The Nationals and many more.
From the worldwide New Orleans jazz community, among those who came to pay their respects were saxophonist Jean-Pierre ALESSI of France, trumpeter Roger (Kid Dutch) UITHOVEN of Orlando, Florida, clarinetist Kjeld BRANDT from Denmark and Toronto's Brian TOWERS, Jan SHAW and Joe VAN ROSSEM.
"I cannot imagine the Toronto traditional jazz scene without Cliff BASTIEN and his raw, emotional New Orleans-style jazz, Mr. TOWERS wrote in a notice posted on the Internet shortly after he learned of the death of his friend.
"He was probably the most popular and influential figure on the Toronto traditional jazz scene. He taught many others to play their instruments in the style and introduced thousands to the joys of New Orleans traditional jazz.
"We went to Grossman's after our own gig and Jan and I played some hymns with the Happy Pals. A sadder and more emotional scene I have rarely seen."
Toronto musician Joanne MacKELL, leader of the Paradise Rangers, wonders how things might have been if she had not met Mr. BASTIEN when she was just starting out.
"Though I was young and inexperienced, Kid would always invite me up to sing, Ms. MacKELL said, recalling how the band took her under its wing when she discovered them in the early 1970s.
"Kid didn't care about money or popular opinion. He filled Grossman's Tavern every Saturday for some 30 years because he played great music with honesty and integrity and he inspired me to try and do the same."
Until just last year, Mr. BASTIEN, who feared flying, avoided the lure of the road, taking only an annual sojourn to New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival. Finally, in the fall of 2002, he accepted an invitation to tour Scandinavia with the Danish/Swedish band New Orleans Delight, playing with George BERRY on tenor sax. A new Compact Disk is due to be released this spring.
His official recordings are few, numbering about a dozen, as Mr. BASTIEN preferred to play to an audience. Though, as Ms. TEVLIN pointed out: "There are bootleg tapes all over the place."
His legacy, the band says, is keeping the New Orleans style of jazz alive.
"Kid Thomas VALENTINE was one of the greats, and when he was gone, Kid BASTIEN carried on. Kid BASTIEN was one of the greats, and now Kid's gone. So who's going to carry the music on now? We will, said saxophonist Mr. TEVLIN on behalf of the Happy Pals, who intend to continue the Saturday-afternoon tradition at Grossman's.
In another side to his life, Mr. BASTIEN was an accomplished commercial artist whose hand-crafted signs, woodwork and acid-etched glass can be seen in many local pubs, including Toronto's Wheat Sheaf Tavern. His work can be found across Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and California, as well as in Europe.
Mr. BASTIEN's wish was to be buried in New Orleans.

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CLARKE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-12 published
Three cheers for a funny fellow
Like his hapless Canadian hero, he often found himself in hilarious situations
By Carol COOPER Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday, June 12, 2003 - Page R9
Once in the middle of an interview at the Toronto airport, writer Donald JACK left to fetch a document from his car. Notorious for a sense of direction so poor he found it difficult to navigate through a city park, let alone the airport's massive parking lot, Mr. JACK took so long to find his vehicle that by the time he returned the interviewers had gone.
Like Bartholomew Bandy, the hapless hero of The Bandy Papers, Mr. JACK's eight-volume comic-novel series describing an Ottawa Valley boy's adventures during both world wars and between, the author often found himself in hilarious situations, made the more so by his telling.
A three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, Mr. JACK died last week at his home in England. He was Listeners were reduced to tears of laughter by his tales of construction disasters while having a villa built in Spain; a house sale falling through on closing day; and an aging bright yellow car named Buttercup, whose sun roof shattered soon after it was searched for drugs at the Spanish-French border, showering Mr. JACK with glass, insects and rust.
Once, while being toured with his daughter around the offices of his publisher, McClelland and Stewart, Mr. JACK entered the boardroom and shouted with surprise. There on the carpet lay a large amount of dog excrement left by an employee's pet. In his Bandy-like way, the writer very nearly stepped into it.
"If you could choose one author out of the entire world who during a visit to his publisher would stumble across this, it would be Donald JACK," said Douglas GIBSON, president and publisher of McClelland and Stewart, who knew the writer for more than 30 years.
"Things would go wrong for Don, very seldom caused by himself," said Munroe SCOTT, a close friend of more than 45 years. "He would narrate all this stuff either in person or in a letter and make it all hilarious, because he always saw, in retrospect at any rate, the funny side of things. You'd be doubled up with laughter."
Despite Mr. JACK's incident-prone nature, it would be a mistake to see Mr. JACK as a buffoon, said Mr. SCOTT, also a writer. "He was enormously well read, erudite and could handle the language with aplomb at many levels. He could make me feel like a Philistine."
Said author Austin CLARKE, who was Mr. JACK's neighbour for five years during the 1960s. "He was a quiet, reserved, retiring kind of man. You would never have known he was a writer."
Mr. JACK's Leacock medals came for three volumes of The Bandy Papers: Three Cheers for Me, in 1963, That's Me in the Middle, in 1974 and Me Bandy, You Cissie, in 1980. Published between 1963 and 1996, they still enjoy a loyal following, including a Web site which draws mail from around the world. Six of the eight volumes were recently reissued by McClelland and Stewart.
Drawn from Mr. JACK's fascination with the First World War, the rural people he met in the Ottawa Valley and his time in the Royal Air Force, The Bandy Papers feature the blundering Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy, who in the first volume, Three Cheers for Me, inadvertently becomes a hero, despite capturing his own colonel by mistake.
Ensuing volumes follow Mr. Bandy's adventures through to the Second World War. Although devastatingly funny, they also describe war's horrors and the realities of the home front, and lampoon war's leaders.
Mr. Bandy encounters and influences historical figures, such as then British minister of defence Winston Churchill, and generously offers him use of the altered Bandy phrase "blood, sweat, toil and tears."
While best known for The Bandy Papers, Mr. JACK wrote countless documentary film scripts, stage, television and radio plays, as well as two non-fiction books: the history of a Toronto radio station, Sinc, Betty and the Morning Man, and another about medicine in Canada, Rogues, Rebels and Geniuses.
His third play, The Canvas Barricade, won first prize in the Stratford Shakespearean Playwriting Competition in 1960. Produced in 1961, it was the first, and remains the only, original Canadian play performed on the main stage of the Stratford Festival.
Mr. JACK, however, did not see much of its opening. He left the auditorium for the lobby. "During the performance, we'd be aware of a crack of light from a door opening slightly and a white face would stare through, then vanish for a while, before another door would open a crack, and the same apparition would fleetingly appear," Mr. Scott said.
Born on December 6, 1924 in Radcliffe, Lancashire, England, Donald Lamont JACK was one of four children of a British doctor and a nurse from Prince Edward Island. After attending Bury Grammar School in Lancashire and Marr College in Scotland, he gained enough qualifications to attend London University.
While stationed in Germany with the Royal Air Force in the last year of the Second World War, Mr. JACK attempted short-story writing, but thought he lacked talent. After his mother asked him, "Isn't it about time you left home?" Mr. JACK immigrated to Canada in 1951.
Interspersed with jobs as a member of a surveying crew in Alberta and a bank teller in Toronto, Mr. JACK studied at the Canadian Theatre School in Toronto run by Sterndale BENNETT. There he wrote two plays, one of which drew praise from theatre critic Nathan COHEN and a job offer from a film Company. Mr. COHEN later wrote Mr. Scott, decrying Canadian theatre's "shameful treatment" of Mr. JACK, which largely ignored him.
A theatrical background enhanced Mr. JACK's writing, according to Mr. Gibson. "His dialogue was terrific and his scene-setting was excellent."
After leaving the school, with the encouragement of his wife, Nancy, whom he married in 1952, Mr. JACK worked in the script department of Crawley Films in Ottawa. Two years later in 1955, the company's head, Budge CRAWLEY, let him go because he thought Mr. JACK would never make a good writer.
A dry first year of freelancing followed, until in 1957 Mr. JACK sold the play version of his novelette Breakthrough, published in Maclean's, to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Television. It became the first Canadian television play to be simultaneously telecast to the United States.
He never looked back. By 1972, A Collection of Canadian Plays, Vol. 1, which included Exit Muttering by Mr. JACK, noted he had written 40 television plays, 35 documentary film scripts, several radio plays and four stage plays. The works included Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Armed Forces training films for the National Film Board and often demanded a great deal of research.
Mr. JACK wrote with military discipline, beginning at 9 a.m., taking tea at 11 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m., tea again at 3 p.m. and finishing at 5 p.m. "All my life, I swear, that routine never altered," said one of his daughters, Lulu HILTON.
Persisting in writing drafts in pen and ink long before adopting the typewriter and, much later, a word processor, Mr. JACK often developed storylines while walking. A 1959 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation press release explains Mr. JACK's dedication: "My self-discipline is to keep reminding myself of how lucky I am to be able to be the only thing I ever really wanted to be -- a writer."
During the early 1980s, Mr. JACK and his wife returned to England to be near their daughters who had emigrated there, and their grandchildren. Mr. JACK missed Canada's open spaces and its classless society, and visited often.
At the time of his death, he was working on the ninth volume of The Bandy Papers. He died on or about June 2 of a massive stroke at his home in Telford, Shropshire, England. He leaves his two daughters, Maren and Lulu, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild, a brother and a sister. His wife Nancy died in 1991.

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CLARKE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-15 published
Marguerite Ruth DOW
By Betsy CLARKE, Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - Page A22
Teacher, professor, author, daughter, sister, Christian. Born June 13, 1926, in Ottawa. Died May 13 in Ottawa, aged 76.
Marguerite DOW was a gentle, gracious, caring lady who was generous with her time and resources and who always had a happy smile. She was a teacher by profession, a loving sister to her family and a devout member of St. Matthew's Anglican Church in Ottawa.
I first met Marguerite when I began teaching English at Laurentian High School. As our department head, she was meticulous in everything she did; no document, exam or set of marks escaped her keen oversight. But she was an excellent mentor and adviser, always ready to help fledging and largely untrained new staff members in our struggle to get through the first weeks of our career.
In 1965, she become the first female professor in the faculty of education at the University of Western Ontario. It must have been a very difficult decision for her to leave Ottawa as she, her identical twin Helen, her sister and brother-in-law Dorothy and Michael WALSH, and their parents shared a home with three apartments in the Glebe, an Ottawa neighbourhood.
Marguerite flourished as a professor and an author. She retired from Althouse College in 1985 and returned to Ottawa. She began attending St. Matthew's Church, even though she had been raised a Baptist and, in 1988, she was confirmed into the Anglican faith. She loved St. Matthew's, especially the music.
Her twin sister, Helen, had also retired from her teaching position at the University of Guelph so the two sisters once again shared a home. Helen soon became ill with a "degenerative illness," but she remained at home under Marguerite's care. After Helen moved to a palliative-care facility, her twin visited every day.
Soon sister Dorothy's health deteriorated and when dementia meant that her husband, Michael, and Marguerite could no longer care for her, she was moved to a long-term care facility. Marguerite began the daily routine of taking Michael to visit his wife. However, she had an additional burden: Michael himself was not well and needed caregivers.
Marguerite sadly postponed the inevitable decision to find a facility for Michael. "He's family," she told his case worker, who referred to Marguerite as a saint. On the other hand, she recognized that she would soon not be able to manage, even with caregivers.
On May 13, Marguerite's body was found in her home. She had been bludgeoned to death. One small comfort in the face of such a violent death is that she likely didn't know what happened to her. Michael has been charged with second-degree murder; he is currently awaiting trial.
We have so many reasons to celebrate Marguerite's life. She loved teaching and her students. She was a lover of art, especially Chinese art and furniture, and both were evident in abundance in her home. She was the mainstay of her family. Only after her death did we learn that she was a philanthropist as well. She was a generous benefactor to Western and the University of Toronto, with the establishment of scholarships, bursaries and fellowships.
St. Matthew's was filled for her funeral. We sang the hymns she had chosen and heard the biblical passages she had selected. Among the prayers was one that gave thanks for her gentle and generous spirit. We all recognized we were better for having been in her circle of Friends.
Betsy CLARKE taught with Marguerite and was a fellow parishioner at St. Matthew's.

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CLARKE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-21 published
Died This Day -- Leo CLARKE, 1916
Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - Page R5
Soldier born in Hamilton, December 1, 1892; grew up on Pine Street in Winnipeg; February 15, 1915, enlisted in army; September 9, 1916, near Pozières, France, single-handedly repulsed German counterattack of 20 infantrymen led by two officers; emptied revolver into enemy and then picked up two German rifles and fired those, too; shot one officer dead and pursued remainder of Germans; shot four more and captured fifth; October 19, 1916, became seriously ill in trenches; died in hospital; October 26, 1916, awarded Victoria Cross; one of three men from same street to win Victoria Cross; street since named Valour Road.

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CLARKSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-05 published
Lawrence (Larry) C. UTECK
By Graham FRASER Thursday, June 5, 2003 - Page A24
Director of athletics at Saint Mary's University, politician, Canadian Football League all-star. Born October 9, 1952, in Toronto. Died December 25, 2002, in Halifax, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aged 50.
When Governor-General Adrienne CLARKSON pinned the Order of Canada on Larry UTECK's lapel in Halifax last October, there was a spontaneous standing ovation. The man in the wheelchair, silenced and paralyzed by disease, had won the city's heart.
Growing up in Thornhill and Willowdale, Ontario, Larry was part Tom Sawyer, part Huck Finn: mischievous, competitive, and profoundly resistant to being told what to do. He knew the joy and the pain of being adored and betrayed.
He was a talented athlete, but an injured Achilles tendon ended his hopes of playing hockey seriously. He went to the Jesuit school Brébeuf Collegiate, but his prickly resistance to authority resulted in the principal telling his mother every year to find another school for him. Every year, she prevailed and Larry stayed.
He had a continuing affection for waifs and strays, the marginal and the eccentric. He loved football, and played with reckless intensity, but hated being defined as just an athlete.
Larry went to the University of Colorado on scholarship, but insisted on taking East Asian Studies, and was furious when he was told he couldn't study Chinese because it conflicted with football practice.
He attended Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, for a year before being drafted by the Toronto Argonauts -- but after his first season, travelled through still-war-torn Vietnam and Cambodia, taking extraordinary risks, collecting amazing stories and lifelong Friends.
Larry's career in the Canadian Football League was defined by his physical courage. He was a punishing tackler -- it was unnerving to see him straighten out his helmet afterwards, as if his neck had been unhooked -- and a self-destructively determined punt returner.
He paid the price. After five years in Toronto, he was traded to Montreal (where his interception and touchdown took the Alouettes to the Grey Cup in 1978), and then, as his body deteriorated, to British Columbia and finally to Ottawa.
After his football career ended, it took him a while to acknowledge how much he loved the game. In 1982, he was hired as an assistant coach at Saint Mary's University and moved to Halifax, where he fell in love first with the city, then with Sue MALONEY (whom he married in 1989), and their two children Luke and Cain.
He became head coach in 1983, taking the team to the Vanier Cup three times. He saw a world beyond the football field; he was as proud of David Sykes winning a Rhodes Scholarship as he was of the players who went on to play professionally.
In 1994, he ran for Halifax City Council and was elected, and in 1998 became deputy mayor. He was as hardworking and candid as a politician as he was as a coach. In December 1997, Russell McLELLAN, then Liberal premier of Nova Scotia, tried hard to persuade him to be a candidate. Tempted, Larry said: "I just can't."
He was already feeling the first symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; it was the beginning of a five-year decline and an extraordinary demonstration of grace, wit and courage. As he wrote his young daughter Cain, "I had a long, active, and productive life as a caterpillar. Now I am more quiet and restful, kind of like living in a cocoon. I don't know how or when or even why, but when this stage is over I will be a butterfly. Won't that be something, your Dad the butterfly."
At his instruction, the Bob Dylan song I Shall Be Released was played at his memorial service at the Basilica in Halifax, where 1,500 people came to say goodbye.
Graham is Larry UTECK's brother-in-law.

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CLARKSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-14 published
Philanthropist extraordinaire
Francophone students were among the many beneficiaries of her generosity
By Randy RAY Special to The Globe and Mail Monday, July 14, 2003 - Page R7
Ottawa -- Before he died in February, 1993, millionaire Baxter RICARD urged his wife Alma to spend the couple's fortune wisely. ''Put it back into the community, " he told her. ''Spend it well.'' Mrs. RICARD did not let her husband down.
In the 10 years following the death of Mr. RICARD, who owned a chain of radio, television and cable stations in Northern Ontario, she earned a reputation as one of Canada's most generous philanthropists, highlighted by a $23-million donation in 1998 to a fellowship fund that promotes higher education to francophone students across the country.
Mrs. RICARD, who was born in Montreal on October 4, 1906, died at her home in Sudbury on June 2. She was 96.
To date, the Ottawa-based Fondation Baxter and Alma Ricard has given 81 students a total of $4.2-million to further their postsecondary education. Other beneficiaries of the couple's generosity have included colleges, hospitals, church groups and universities in Sudbury and Toronto.
''Mrs. RICARD is one of the biggest philanthropists in Canada," said Alain LANDRY, executive director of the foundation, which was formed in 1988 to distribute the RICARDs' money to various charitable causes. The fellowship fund was set up a decade later.
Mrs. RICARD, formerly Alma VÉZINA, moved to Sudbury in 1931 after responding to a job advertisement from a hardware store run by Félix RICARD, father of Baxter RICARD. She was trained as a secretary at the time.
''She took the train and arrived at 4 a.m.," says Mr. LANDRY. ''In those days, a young lady was not to be seen with a man going to a hotel, so she and Baxter went to a church where they sat until daylight, and she fell in love with him.'' She worked as an administrative assistant to the elder Mr. RICARD and eventually married Baxter, who in later years inherited his father's hardware store and ran it with the help of his wife.
In 1947, the RICARDs left the hardware business and began building a broadcasting empire in Northern Ontario, starting with two radio stations in Sudbury and growing to include numerous radio and television stations. Radio stations established by the couple included CHNO, the first bilingual radio station in Ontario, CFBR and CJMX-FM.
In 1974, when cable television started to expand, Baxter RICARD and some colleagues obtained a licence for cable distribution in northern and eastern Ontario and created Northern Cable Holdings Ltd., which served the greater Sudbury area and areas as far north as Hearst, Ontario In 1980, the company acquired two television stations to serve the same areas and gave it the name Mid-Canada Television. Mr. RICARD also had an interest in a Toronto cable-television company.
Alma RICARD was her husband's ''right-hand person" and took an active part in the broadcasting business and all other ventures he was involved in, including the city-planning committee in Sudbury, the board of directors at Sudbury General Hospital and the Central Canada Broadcasting Association. ''They were inseparable in all those activities," says Mr. LANDRY.
Like Felix RICARD, Baxter and Alma RICARD were strong believers in a Canadian mosaic that included French-speaking citizens. In an era when Ontario's francophones were not permitted to study in French, Felix RICARD didn't have the financial means to promote the francophone culture and lobby for French schooling, so he became an outspoken trustee on the local school board.
As a trustee, he was ''a defender of the rights of francophones in matters of French education... [who] made significant gains for the francophone population of that region. A school in Sudbury bears his name," says a document obtained from Fondation Baxter & Alma Ricard. Baxter and Alma RICARD, on the other hand, made millions in the broadcasting industry and had the financial wherewithal to further the francophone cause, including the struggle for a quality education for French-speaking Ontarians.
''Baxter had no family and the couple had no children so they had to think of who would inherit their money," says André LACROIX of Sudbury, a lawyer, business associate and long-time friend of the RICARDs. ''Fairly early in the game they realized most of their assets should be used for charitable purposes. That's when they developed the idea of a charitable foundation.'' In its initial years after Mr. RICARD's death, the foundation donated $600,000 to Cambrian College and $1-million each to Sudbury General Hospital, the University of Sudbury, and Laurentian University, all in Sudbury, and a total of more than $4-million to the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
In the early 1990s, the RICARDs and their associates sold their radio and television stations to Baton Broadcasting and their cable distribution company to CFCF Ltd. In 1998, on the strength of money reaped from the sale, the fellowship fund was started and aimed specifically at francophone Canadians living permanently in a minority situation outside of Quebec who need money to advance their studies beyond a bachelor's degree.
Based on Baxter RICARD's idea, the fund was created jointly by businessman Paul DESMARAIS Sr., now chairman of the executive committee of management and holding company Power Corporation of Canada. Mr. DESMARAIS and Mr. LACROIX, plus Paul DESMARAIS Jr., are members of the board of directors of Fondation Baxter & Alma Ricard.
It was launched with the original $23-million donation from Ms. RICARD and despite many disbursements, today sits at $25-million thanks to interest earned on the principal, says Mr. LANDRY.
Until her death, Mrs. RICARD was president of the board and until three months ago, continued to sign cheques, says Mr. LACROIX, who remembers Mrs. RICARD as a ''generous and kind person who helped people with problems.''
''Baxter's father would be proud of what Alma has accomplished since Baxter died. It is well along the way to what he had promoted for many years," says Mr. LACROIX.
In addition to donations in the millions of dollars over the years, Mrs. RICARD once helped out a person who couldn't handle her mortgage payments and was about to lose her home; she also donated to a religious group that raised money for the poor.
Mr. LACROIX remembers Mrs. RICARD as a woman who loved to have fun.
''From age 70 onward she didn't mind going on until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. She enjoyed going out at night, she loved to dance," he says. ''She was also quite religious, church attendance was sacred.'' Mrs. RICARD also loved to collect hats: ''She had hundreds of hats and they were attention-getters," says Mr. LACROIX, who knew the RICARDs for more than 30 years.
Of all the recognition she received over the years, Mrs. RICARD cherished most the Officer of the Order of Canada bestowed on her in 2000, says Mr. LACROIX. Governor-General Adrienne CLARKSON travelled to Sudbury to present the honour to Mrs. RICARD in her sick bed, at her home, in September, 2002.

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CLARKSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-22 published
J. Helen CARSCALLEN
By Margaret NORQUAY Friday, August 22, 2003 - Page A18
Social worker, professor, broadcaster, actress. Born January 12, 1916, in Chengtu, China. Died May 28, in Toronto, of natural causes, aged 87.
Helen CARSCALLEN (the J stood for Jane) was born of missionary parents in China, and came to Canada with her family when she was 10. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1938 with a B.A. in the newly established program in sociology. Graduating during the war, her early jobs included work as a social worker with the Big Sisters Association, an agency that worked with disadvantaged young girls, and three years directing recreation for the employees of a large munitions factory, most of whom were women. At the age of 30, she decided she would change her career about every 10 years -- and managed to do it. In 1945, she went to Toronto Children's Aid, where her work in public relations engendered an interest in mass media.
In 1956 she joined the public affairs department of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her previous work experience had led to a deep interest in the quality of women's lives and in 1962 she became senior program organizer for Take Thirty, a daily afternoon television show aimed at middle class, stay-at-home women. It was not a program filled with food, fashion and household décor, but one that gave women something for the mind and alerted them to issues of social concern. A weekly discussion called Fighting Words presented a debate then raging about the need to change federal divorce laws. A much admired series, Under One Roof, looked at the whole family life cycle from courtship to empty nest; for this Helen recruited emerging author June CALLWOOD to research and write several programs. Another series, unique for its time, took Helen to Japan to bring back insights from a culture then unfamiliar to most Canadians. Adrienne CLARKSON, co-opted initially to review Canadian novels, became a host of the show. Convinced women's lives were worthy of examination, Helen organized a national conference sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation called the Real World of Women -- the first of its kind in Canada. In 1966, at 49, Helen left broadcasting to pursue graduate studies in sociology, her dissertation focusing on the political machinations leading to the cancellation of This Hour Has Seven Days. Helen then became a professor at Ryerson University, teaching courses in communication. After 10 years there, it was time for another change: this time to become an actor.
Throughout each of her careers Helen maintained a passionate interest in theatre, acting in amateur groups and taking courses in acting and voice from George Luscombe, Dora Mavor Moore and others. She toured with the New Play Society and worked with Alumnae Theatre as actor, stage manager and producer. At 62, she auditioned for Robin Philips and played the nurse in the Stratford Festival's Uncle Vanya, which starred William Hutt, Martha Henry and Brian Bedford. She then moved to television and film, playing a variety of dramatic roles. At 81, she wrote that now -- visually impaired and no longer able to read scripts her ambition was to teach a series of seminars on multiple careers for women. Illness unfortunately prevented her reaching this goal.
Helen had a great capacity for Friendship. At a recent celebration of her life, colleagues, Friends and family spoke of the debt they owed her for the vision she gave them of their own unique abilities. Nieces, nephews and some grand-nieces spoke movingly about what a wonderful aunt she was -- how she never talked down, always treated them as adults, wanting to know what they were up to. Former colleagues talked about how Helen launched them in their careers, persuading them to believe in themselves and providing ongoing support. Helen gave something of herself to each of us and we were all enriched.
Margaret is a friend of Helen.

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CLARKSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-06 published
Parachute officer dies after jump over water
By Estanislao OZIEWICZ Saturday, September 6, 2003 - Page A6
The man who commanded parachutists at Canada Forces Base Trenton died yesterday morning after jumping from a helicopter over Lake Ontario's Bay of Quinte.
Lieutenant-Colonel Michel BLANCHETTE, 49, was participating in his unit's annual water-landing refresher qualifications.
The Montreal native was a 20-year veteran who had experienced more than 2,000 parachute jumps. He is survived by his wife and two children.
A Forces public affairs spokesman confirmed that witnesses: said Lt.-Col. BLANCHETTE separated from his parachute too early before hitting the water at Baker's Island. His parachute had opened.
Lt.-Col. BLANCHETTE was pronounced dead at Trenton Memorial Hospital.
Major Jean MORISSETTE said an investigation, with the results to be made public, is under way. The training exercise involving about 75 soldiers was called off.
Lt.-Col. BLANCHETTE was the first of six parachutists jumping from a helicopter at about 300 metres. Parachuting over water can be very tricky because a jumper, for example, may misjudge height coming down in clear, sunny weather over glassy water. Parachutists must separate from their parachutes upon hitting the water to avoid being tangled in their paraphenalia. "You have to separate from your parachute because if the canopy gets on your head, it could cause problems," Major MORISSETTE said. "You have to separate as soon as you touch the water. It appears he separated before, and we don't know the reason."
Governor-General Adrienne CLARKSON, commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces said in a statement that she was shocked and saddened by the fatal accident. She said Lt.-Col. BLANCHETTE was highly respected by soldiers and fellow officers.
Major MORISSETTE said such dangers are part of military life.
"It's a risky business. Even though we take all safety precautions at every turn, there is always inherent risk associated with military life," he said.
The mission of the parachute centre is to support "the generation and deployment of combat-ready forces through the conduct of parachute-related training and aerial delivery operations."

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CLARKSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-18 published
Party leaders pay tribute
Tories fondly remember Stanfield as best prime minister Canada never had
By Kim LUNMAN and Drew FAGAN, Thursday, December▼ 18, 2003 - Page A10
Ottawa -- Robert Lorne STANFIELD, the former leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives, was remembered yesterday as a Canadian icon.
Political tributes were made across the country for Mr. STANFIELD, who died Tuesday at the Montfort Hospital in Ottawa. He was 89.
He had been in poor health for several years after a stroke. A private funeral will be held in Ottawa tomorrow and a family burial in Halifax.
Mr. STANFIELD led the federal Progressive Conservatives from 1967 to 1976 against Pierre TRUDEAU and was known within the party as the greatest prime minister Canada never had. In later years, he was regarded as the conscience of the Conservatives, representing their progressive side on social issues.
"Today we mourn the passing of one of the most distinguished and committed Canadians of the past half-century," said Prime Minister Paul MARTIN. "I, like other Canadians, fondly remember Mr. STANFIELD's great warmth, humility and compassionate nature, but also his intellect and humour."
Progressive Conservative Leader Peter MacKAY said Mr. STANFIELD will be remembered as an icon.
"It's a very sad and poignant day. He had a larger-than-life persona and I think he can be accurately described as an icon in Conservative politics and Canadian politics," Mr. MacKAY said.
"Conservatives across the country, and indeed all Canadians, have lost a great leader and a great Canadian," Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen HARPER said.
In an interview yesterday, former prime minister Brian MULRONEY described Mr. STANFIELD as having brought the Progressive Conservative Party into the mainstream of modern Canadian life through his support for the Official Languages Act and his openness to ethnic minorities and diversity. Mr. MULRONEY said it was appropriate that Mr. STANFIELD had been receiving treatment at Montfort Hospital, the French-language facility in Ottawa, considering how hard he had worked as leader to make the Tories comfortable with bilingualism and how much effort he himself had made to learn French. "He was a strikingly impressive, quiet, thoughtful man, but who was very resolved and determined -- and with a generous view of Canada," Mr. MULRONEY said.
When Mr. MULRONEY was prime minister from 1984 to 1993, he would occasionally invite Mr. STANFIELD to 24 Sussex Dr. for lunch. Mr. MULRONEY revealed yesterday that, in the late 1980s, when Mr. STANFIELD was almost 75, he offered him the post of Canadian ambassador to the United Nations.
"He thought it was a great honour. He wrestled with it for a little while, but decided that, though he would love to do it, he thought it would be a bit much at that stage of his life," Mr. MULRONEY said.
"He brought compassion to politics," Nova Scotia's Premier John HAMM said yesterday.
"He brought a love of his country to his politics."
Flora MacDONALD, a former federal Tory cabinet minister, first worked with Mr. STANFIELD during the 1956 provincial campaign that made him Nova Scotia premier. "He set a very high standard for himself as a politician and expected others to do the same," she said yesterday. Mr. STANFIELD supported official bilingualism and abolition of the death penalty when his other caucus colleagues were strongly opposed, she said. "He didn't do things just because they were popular. He did things because he thought they were intrinsically right."
Governor-General Adrienne CLARKSON said Mr. STANFIELD "will be remembered for his integrity, his devotion to his country, his social conscience and especially for his wit and sense of humour."
Mr. STANFIELD was premier of Nova Scotia from 1956 to 1967. He was born in Truro into a family famous for its underwear business and became a lawyer before turning to politics, first provincially and later on the federal stage. But his awkward image contrasted sharply to that of the hip, telegenic Mr. TRUDEAU, costing the party every election it fought under his leadership. The 1972 election was Mr. STANFIELD's closest brush with federal power, when the Liberals narrowly defeated the Conservatives by 109 to 107 seats. Two years later, the Liberals regained their majority and Mr. STANFIELD announced his decision to step down. He remained as leader until Joe CLARK succeeded him in 1976.
After relinquishing his seat in the Commons in 1979, Mr. STANFIELD became Canada's special envoy to the Middle East and North Africa until 1980, and was chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation from 1987 to 1991.
He married three times. His first wife died in a car crash in 1954 and his second wife died of cancer in 1976. He married his third wife, Anne Henderson AUSTIN, in 1978. He had four children.

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CLARKSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-20 published
Ottawa bids STANFIELD goodbye
'He was a sage.... He was quite extraordinary,' Charest says at funeral
By Kim LUNMAN, Saturday, December▲ 20, 2003 - Page A9
Ottawa -- Robert STANFIELD was fondly remembered yesterday as a sage statesman.
The former Nova Scotia premier and federal Progressive Conservative leader remained one of the country's most respected politicians even years after leaving the national arena, Tory Senator Lowell MURRAY told more than 100 mourners yesterday at Mr. STANFIELD's funeral in Ottawa.
"There has survived perhaps only the kernel of something, but its essence in the Canadian consciousness -- that once, uniquely, there was STANFIELD, leader of a major party, a man of such civility, such humanity, such integrity, who adorned our national life," Mr. MURRAY said
Mr. STANFIELD, who suffered a stroke several years ago, died Tuesday in Ottawa. He was 89.
At the private ceremony at St. Bartholomew's Anglican Church, he was remembered as a respected politician with a dry wit. He will be buried today in Halifax's Camp Hill cemetery.
Politicians of all stripes attended the service to pay tribute. Outside the church, Prime Minister Paul MARTIN told reporters his father and Mr. STANFIELD were "great Friends. My father had huge admiration for Mr. STANFIELD. And I actually shudder to think what the two of them are doing up there right now, the amount of discussions that are going on."
Mr. MARTIN said he remembered Mr. STANFIELD for his "great sense of decency, integrity, and his deep, deep love of country." Progressive Conservative Leader Peter MacKAY said Canada has lost "one of its greatest statesmen, a person who raised the standard of politics and public service.... He was very much substance over style."
"He was a sage," Quebec Liberal Premier Jean Charest, the former federal Tory leader, said. Mr. STANFIELD "looked at life with a bit of a smile, I think. He was quite extraordinary."
Governor-General Adrienne CLARKSON called Mr. STANFIELD remarkable, "a man of deep conviction, a man who was decent and fair and honest and very funny." Other political colleagues at the funeral included former Tory prime ministers Kim CAMPBELL and Joe CLARK and former Tory cabinet minister Flora MacDONALD.
Mr. STANFIELD married three times. His first wife died in a crash in 1954 and his second wife died of cancer in 1976. He married his third wife, Anne Henderson AUSTIN, in 1978. He had four children.
Even as the service was going on in Ottawa, hundreds of people filed into the Nova Scotia legislature in Halifax to sign a book of condolence next to a portrait of the former premier, who led the province for 11 years, from 1956 to 1967.
Mr. STANFIELD led the federal Progressive Conservatives from 1967 to 1976 against Pierre TRUDEAU and was known within the party as the greatest prime minister Canada never had.
In his later years, he was regarded as the Conservatives' conscience, representing the party's progressive side on social issues. He supported Mr. TRUDEAU's Official Languages Act despite a revolt by his fellow Tory members of parliament and also backed abolishing the death penalty.
He was born in Truro into a family famous for its underwear business and became a lawyer before turning to politics.
Bespectacled and known for his slow-speaking style, Mr. STANFIELD conveyed an awkward image that contrasted sharply with the youthful, charismatic Mr. Trudeau, costing the party every election it fought under his leadership.
But he came within two seats of office in the 1972 election when the Liberals defeated the Conservatives by 109 to 107 seats.
Two years later, the Liberals regained their majority and Mr. STANFIELD announced his decision to step down. He was succeeded by Mr. CLARK in 1976.

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CLAXTON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-13 published
Died This Day -- Brooke CLAXTON, 1960
Friday, June 13, 2003 - Page R11
Lawyer and politician born in Montreal on August 23, 1898; 1940, elected to Parliament; served as Parliamentary Secretary then Minister of Health and Welfare; introduced Family Allowance Program 1949, helped negotiate Newfoundland's entry into Confederation served as Minister of National Defence during Korean War; 1954, retired to become head of Metropolitan Life; 1957, first Chairman of Canada Council.

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