Ottawa’s new light rail system is slated to open this spring, but some people with visual impairments feel the City is not taking their mobility seriously. In their third meeting with the City since December 2015, the Ottawa Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, expressed their concerns with the lack of digital navigation in the light rail system.

Alliance president, Peter Field believes digital navigation would allow riders to use a GPS-like function on their phones to travel independently. According to Field, the City has not committed to a digital navigation system. They did, however, say train operators could assist people who struggle to find their way on the train. “This is not universal design – where an environment is created to fit the needs of everyone,” said Field.

The light rail system will incorporate an assessable fare box and audible gates tones. While this is a good start, Field feels the City is disconnected from the needs of visually impaired people. “There is an accessible procurement policy in Ottawa which means they don’t procure anything until accessibility is taken into account,” said Field. “But I don’t know what was taken into account. They didn’t talk to the users. They decided what was assessable.”

Field has been fighting for accessibility rights for over 40 years. His experience was first documented in a 1979 Globe and Mail article titled, “He was Blind and they were Deaf.”

The article states:

“Peter Field, blind since 1977 was ejected from a Toronto restaurant the other night because “they wouldn’t let the dog in. I tried to convince them that the dog wouldn’t do any harm, but they wouldn’t listen.”

Peter, 17 turned to the police for help. It was the logical thing to do, and logically, he should have received a cordial reception, and the promise of assistance. He received neither.

The person answering the telephone at Division 52, told him there was nothing the police could do. After a quick word with The Canadian National Institute for the Blind, which assured him he had the full support of the law, Peter called Division 52 again, and said he “wanted to tell the Inspector to inform his men that there is a law.””

“I remember that clearly,” said Field. “When I started to lose my vision, I went straight to a guide dog. There wasn’t a time when I used a cane, so the dog really was my independence.”

Field remembers being asked to leave the hotel restaurant in front of his friends. “The idea of being refused felt very personal – like someone was doing something to me,” he said.

A grade eleven law teacher showed him The Blind Persons’ Rights Act, and encouraged Field to report this matter to the police. This Act which was passed in 1976, guaranteed people with visual impairments the right to be accompanied by a guide dog at all times.

Unfortunately, the police were unaware of the Act. Stories like Field’s were so common that in 1978 Attorney-General Roy McMurtry mailed over 6,000 notices to restaurants, hotels and bars reminding them of their duties to uphold the law – and of the $1,000 fine.

“Fast-forward to today, and not a lot has changed,” said Field. Just three years ago Field was denied service from a taxi driver, because of his guide dog. When Field reported the incident the police said there was nothing they could do. “So much time has passed and the police still don’t even know how to enforce this Act,” Field said.

“This happened when I was 17, and I am now coming up to 57,” he said.

In the next 40 years, Field envisions digital navigation as the primary way people with visual impairments navigate the world. He thinks Ottawa has missed a great opportunity to implement digital navigation in the light rail system — forcing people with visual impairments to remain patient for change yet again.

• This historical documentation is The Blind Persons’ Rights Act which was introduced in Ontario in 1976.
• I obtained this document through the McOdrum Library digital archive.
• This document helped me observe the original language surrounding the Act.

• This is a Globe and Mail article written on February 26, 1979, titled, “He was Blind and they were Deaf.”
• I obtained the article on the historical Globe and Mail digital archive through the Ottawa Public Library.
• This article was written three years after The Blind Persons’ Rights Act was passed, so it helped me understand how Act was applied in real life.

Alex Kurial

Fifty years ago “Trudeaumania” swept across Canada, propelling Pierre Trudeau and the Liberals to power in the 1968 election. The election was historic for many reasons, but perhaps one of the greatest revolved around what happened in the riding of Kamloops-Cariboo. Participating in its first election as an official district, the central British Columbia electoral district voted Liberal candidate Leonard Marchand as their MP. This represented the first time a Status Indian had been elected to Parliament in the country.

‘Len’ as he was often called did not want his ethnicity to be the sole defining feature of his political career however. In an interview with The Globe and Mail just weeks after the election, Marchand said he was “an MP who happens to be an Indian,” and that “I will not become the official Indian spokesman in the House of Commons.” Marchand instead preferred that his hard work would define him, and by extension paint a positive image of his people and heritage.

Marchand’s win was seen as a surprise, but not because of his ethnicity. Kamloops had emerged as a city that prided itself on its progressive racial ideals, evidenced by the election of the first mayor of Chinese background in North American history, Peter Wing, in 1966. Rather Marchand had defeated a Conservative heavyweight in David Fulton, a decorated war hero and MP for Kamloops since 1945

Following the victory, Marchand set out to make his name in Ottawa. He soon became parliamentary secretary to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and future Prime Minister, Jean Chretien. Described as an “intelligent man, whose quiet demeanor conceals sound political judgment,” Marchand did not become a major name nationally, but attracted the attention of the Prime Minister through his thorough behind the scenes work.

This culminated with a selection to Trudeau’s federal cabinet in 1976 as the new Minister of State for Small Business. Marchand became the first Indian cabinet member in Canadian history, yet again setting a new milestone for a people that had been systemically oppressed throughout the country’s history.

The news was welcome to those in Marchand’s riding back home, who felt that Trudeau had passed their MP over for a cabinet job a few years prior. The move helped to partially thaw upset Liberal members from British Columbia, who felt that the Trudeau government was ignoring western concerns.

Marchand remained as Minister of State for Small Business for a year, during which time he was able to pass regulation to alleviate small businesses of redundant operating costs, saving tens of millions of dollars. After a year in this role Marchand continued his impressive rise by being promoted to Minister of the Environment.

In the same interview with The Globe after being elected back in 1968, Marchand had pledged his dedication to the people of Kamloops. “My philosophy is Canada first, my constituency second,” Marchand had proclaimed. He routinely put this into action during his time in office, particularly in one instance as Minister of the Environment. When mining company Consolidated Rexpar Minerals and Chemicals Ltd. attempted to build a uranium mine near the small town of Clearwater, BC, Marchand personally attended a town meeting to voice his opposition to the project. It was this kind of personal attention that forever endeared Marchand to his constituents.

After the Liberal government was defeated in the 1979 election, albeit briefly, Marchand returned to politics when Pierre Trudeau retook power a year later. He appointed Marchand to the Senate, only the second Indigenous Canadian to hold a position in the upper chamber.

The 2015 Canadian election held certain parallels to the election of 1968. A new type of Trudeaumania had swept the nation, and with it another Trudeau to power. And a historic mark was reached with regards to Indigenous success, as ten candidates of Indigenous background entered the House of Commons. They, and in fact all Canadians, will forever look to Marchand for political inspiration.

Document 1: Len Marchand ‘MP who happens to be an Indian’, The Globe and Mail, July 15, 1968

I found this article through a ProQuest search “1968 Kamloops election”. I was interested to get a sense of how people in his home riding felt about Marchand, and what his thoughts were as the first Status Indian ever to be elected. This is where I found that Marchand never wanted his background to be all that people saw in him, and that he wanted his work to speak for itself. It’s also where I learned of Kamloops’ progressive history, and their forward thinking views on race for the time.

Len_Marchand_’MP_who_happens_t

Document 2: “A matter of milestones”, The Globe and Mail, Sep. 16, 1976

Again this article was found via a ProQuest search. It helps shed light on Marchand’s character while in office, a quiet figure who doesn’t seek the spotlight, but one who is always working hard to fulfill the duties of the office. I also found it very interesting that the article discusses how far Canada still has to go with regards to erasing prejudices towards Indigenous peoples in the country, and when we flash forward over 40 years we are still facing many of the same issues today.

A_matter_of_milestones

In Fall 1943, the 1^st Canadian Infantry Division was working its way up the boot of Italy alongside their British and American counterparts. It was a tough, dirty scrap – the Germans were in fighting retreat, springing ambushes and laying mines. In December, the small coastal town of Ortona became the site of a bloody clash between the Canadians and an elite unit of German paratroopers.

Alexander Railton Campbell was killed just outside that small coastal town, near the Moro River. He was 33 years old, a Major in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, and the immediate superior of Canadian writer Farley Mowat.

He is a major character in Mowat’s war memoir, And No Birds Sang. Mowat describes Campbell as “elephantine lump of man” who had “a ferocious determination to kill as many Germans as he could.” But more than the exaggerated “Titan” of Mowat’s memoir or one of the battle’s 5,836 Canadian casualties, Campbell was a real person whose sacrifice is only fully understood through the letters he left behind.

Capt. Alexander Railton Campbell  portrait, dressed in
Hastings  & Prince Edward Regiment Uniform. Date unknown.
CWM 20100088 – 10
George Metcalf Archival Collection
Canadian War Museum

Born and raised in Perth, ON, Campbell lost his father to war at the age of seven. Harry Davies Campbell was killed on July 30, 1917 and was buried in Noeux-les-Mines, France. Sarah Jane Railton Campbell had to raise Campbell, along with his two sisters and two brothers, on her own.

That early tragedy did not stop Campbell from military involvement. He joined the Militia’s Lanark and Renfrew Regiment in 1928 before switching to the “Hasty Pete’s” in 1940.

Campbell wrote to his mother regularly during his service, often apologizing for delays or complaining of the wait – he wouldn’t see “a real-life German” until mid-1943. And although Mowat quotes him saying the “only good German… was a dead one,” little of this hatred appears in his letters. But the effects of the war on children did upset Campbell.

“Whenever I see pictures of the kids in Europe I think of Bill + Jan and I get so mad I could wring Hitler’s neck,” reads one 1940 letter mentioning his niece and nephew, whom Campbell missed.

Letter from Campbell to “Bill,” dated Dec. 27, 1941.
CWM 20100088 – 27
George Metcalf Archival Collection
Canadian War Museum

“Hey there fellow you better stop growing or I won’t know you when I come home,” he writes to Bill on Dec. 27, 1941.

The holidays were difficult for Campbell, as they undoubtedly were for many soldiers. “This is the one time of the year I really would like to ship away and come home,” reads a December 1942 letter.

In an undated 1943 letter to his mother, Campbell is excited at the prospect of some future family vacation. “I think your idea of a trip over after this war is dandy,” he writes.

Telegram notification of Alexander Campbell’s death, dated Jan. 3, 1944.
CWM 20100088 – 31
George Metcalf Archival Collection
Canadian War Museum

Official records and a glib telegram to Sarah Campbell show Campbell died on Christmas Day, 1943. Mowat’s account – itself secondhand – has him, upon witnessing the devastation of a Canadian platoon, seizing a Tommy gun, giving “an inarticulate bellow” and charging straight at the enemy.

“He could have gone no more than three or four paces before he was riddled by scores of bullets,” Mowat writes.

In the July 29, 1944 edition of the Canadian Gazette, Campbell is listed as “Mentioned in Dispatches” – a recognition for bravery. A poem he wrote, “Prayer Before Battle,” is held in commemoration by the still-surviving Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

But 75 years later, the legacy of Campbell and soldiers like him is uncertain.

“I think Canadians do not have a very strong sense of the Battle of Ortona or the Italian campaign,” said historian Tim Cook over the phone last week. The campaign is often overshadowed by  D-Day and Juno beach, according to Cook.

“There are very few monuments and memorials in Canada or in fact on those battlefields that draw Canadians to those sites of memory,” he said.

Campbell’s grave is at the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery, 1600 km from his father and 6900 km from home.

Document 1: And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat
Document 2: Letter to Bill, 1940

On Jan. 25, 1924, the shadow of Mont Blanc blanketed the snowy valley of Chamonix, France. The French Alpine town was home to one of France’s oldest skiing resorts and, in 1924, the event that would challenge the world’s best in winter sports. There was the rudimentary bobsledding course with curves made from tightly packed swaths of snow, the wide ice-hockey rink in full view of the official stand, and the modest ski jumping hills that athletes skillfully threw themselves from. All of this was happening while 5 evenly-spaced rings stood over the stadium.

Since there was only 16 different events, the layout for the 1924 Winter Olympic Games was truly simple. Source: 1924 Olympic Games Official Report

This was the first year of the Olympic Winter Games.

Originally titled Semaine Internationale des Sports d’Hiver (International Winter Sports Week), the first Winter Games had only 258 athletes competing for 16 countries in 16 events, a far cry from the Games that just passed. Pyeongchang 2018 had almost 3,000 athletes, competing for 92 countries in just over 100 events.

Only around 5000 copies of the poster for the first official Olympic Winter Games were printed. Source: Wikimedia Commons

2018 marked Canada’s best showing at the Winter Games, with the country coming in third place overall behind Norway and Germany. Canada won a total of 29 medals, 11 of them gold. It was by far the most impressive Olympics to date for the country, but Canada’s history at the Winter Games, while long, was not always been so successful.

Canada in Chamonix

In 1924, the Canadian team was made up of 12 members – 11 men and one woman. Cecil Smith, was the country’s first female Olympian and competed in partnered figure skating with Melville Rogers. Alongside the duo was the nine-man ice hockey team, that won gold after a devastating victory of 6-1 over the United States. The medal would be the only hardware Canada would take home that year.

Completing the team was Canada’s only speed skater, Charles Gorman. Gorman hailed from Saint John, New Brunswick, where he got his start in the sport. He, like other young men in the town, practiced on the wind-swept Kennebecasis and Saint John Rivers in the winter. Unlike the other young men, Gorman was outstanding.

Charles Gorman is seen here crouched on the ice in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1921. Source:  Wikimedia Commons

He went onto win countless international competitions, and even after wounding his leg in World War I, he continued to dazzle audiences with his unmatched speed and power.

He was the ‘Human Dynamo’, the ‘Man with the Million Dollar Legs’.

Fall from Grace

It was on Jan. 26 of that year when the first speed skating race of the Games, the 500m, was held. The temperatures dipped just below freezing and the sky was overcast. The ice beneath the feet of the competitors was decently firm, but had a bit of yield.

As the starting gun was lifted, Gorman and his fellow athletes crouched down and primed themselves for what would amount to less than a minute of racing. The gun was fired. The skaters began propel themselves forward with forceful strokes of their legs, cutting over the ice. And not long after that it was over.

Charles Jewtraw of Lake Placid, New York, took first place with a time of 44 seconds. At 45.4 seconds, Gorman placed seventh.

Gorman’s stumbles continued when he placed 11th in the 1500m. And in the 5000m he was not able to finish.

Olympic Future

Canada placed ninth overall in 1924. A poor showing, but Canada’s time at the the first Winter Games set the tone for the nation and its athletes for future Games. Gorman and the other competitors laid the foundation for the success that was enjoyed in Pyeongchang.

And while Gorman fared poorly at the Games, the New Brunswick native went onto set seven world records by the time he retired in 1928, proving himself to be ‘The World’s Fastest Man’.

Documents

Document #1: Clipping from The Ottawa Journal

Document #2: Clipping from The News-Palladium