Frankly Speaking

On Thursday night, in the dark, wind and rain, a young friend of ours was hit by a vehicle on the 232 Street  on-ramp to Highway 1. He had exited his vehicle, which had run out of gas, and was struck while he walked back to 232 Street, on the side of the road. John Lowe, who got married this summer, is a friend of our son Andrew. They attended elementary school together. He suffered serious injuries and is in intensive care at Royal Columbian Hospital. The timing of this calamity is ironic, to say the least, coming one day after Remembrance Day. John served Canada as a soldier in Afghanistan, and while he came home unscathed physically, several of his friends died there. He has been an active member of Wounded Warriors Canada and has helped raise funds and awareness of veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. A GoFundMe campaign to help him and his wife with added expenses has been set up. It can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/4ea7fprk Here's a ...

Most people born in Canada have little firsthand contact with war. Canadians have been extraordinarily fortunate, in not having a war fought on our soil for more than 200 years. Many immigrants and new Canadians, on the other hand, have had vastly different experiences. War may not be ever-present in all parts of the world, but it is far more likely to have had more of an immediate effect on peoples’ lives in many other countries. Nowhere is this more true right now than in Syria, where millions of people have been displaced. Many of them are in neighbouring countries, with a smaller number trying to find better lives in Europe. Some of them lose their lives crossing waterways in overcrowded boats, but they are willing to take the risk. The new federal government is working hard to try and get 25,000 of them to resettle in Canada, but it’s a monumental effort that involves many layers of bureaucracy. It’s an appropriate time to think about how we as Canadians can help peopl...