Someone please figure out
whether the Ottawa shooter
was a terrorist
or merely insane.
A disturbed loner
acting on the whim of the moment
isn’t a terrorist;
we should apologize
for calling him that.
But
if his rampage was carefully planned
– rooted in ideology –
then insane he wasn’t;
just doing the things
terrorists normally do.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
In the days before Facebook, police reporters visited families that suffered sudden, tragic loss to request a photo of their loved one to print in the local newspaper. You’d think families resented the intrusion, but the opposite was more often the case. Grieving parents typically invited the reporter into their home, as if press interest validated the fact their child’s death mattered, that even strangers cared.
This same sentiment must have prompted Mr. and Mrs. Smith of 16 Geneva Avenue to deposit their lost son Charlie’s diary with the Baldwin Collection of Canadiana at the Toronto Reference Library. He was a good boy who died tragically. He mattered. And there his diary sat in a box, year after year, until it was discovered by poet Jonathan Locke Hart and transformed into this beautiful book, Unforgetting Private Charles Smith.
“Smith was not writing to express himself, to record his thoughts, his emotions, his opinions,” writes the author. “He was simply writing down what happened, in telegraphic style.”
Smith, 22, was on leave as an accountant with Webb, Read, Hogan & Callingham Co. Ltd. of Toronto when he was killed at the Battle of Mount Sorrel in Belgium in 1916. In a single surviving photograph, he appears as a skinny youth trying to grow a moustache. Charlie’s penmanship was excellent. Like many 22-year olds he liked girls, and especially food:
And on his last New Year’s, with only months to live:
Author Locke Hart documents Private Smith’s diary in poetic style, stark and sad and funny, from his departure for the Western Front to the last entry on May 31, 1916: “Back at 11 am.” Smith confided he met a girl in Dieppe, marveled at aerial dogfights over the trenches, called the Germans “Fritz”, described the moaning of artillery shells and chirping of skylarks on night patrol, and the tedium of standing at attention for VIP visits:
In April 1916 Smith took his last leave to London where the girls were “bold”, he wrote.
Weeks later Charlie cursed his luck. He was struck by shrapnel but it was “only a bruise”: “I suffered a little from shock; I felt nervous. I am sorry it was not a blighty one” – a wound just serious enough to send a soldier back to Old Blighty, the U.K., and a clean bed in a hospital ward.
In a month he was dead. No photo appeared in the local paper. Smith’s death was dismissed with a single, short paragraph in that day’s Toronto casualty list along with McAllister the mailman, and Probin the realtor, Travers the bank clerk and Private Jones of Ferndale Avenue, who used to teach Baptist Sunday School.
Unforgetting Private Charles Smith is haunting, like the smiling photo of a crime victim in the pages of a newspaper. His death mattered.
By Holly Doan
Unforgetting Private Charles Smith, by Jonathan Locke Hart; Athabasca University Press; 80 pages; ISBN 9781-77199-2534; $19.99
Cabinet aides yesterday confirmed New Democrats and Liberals held closed door meetings to rewrite the Elections Act. One revision guaranteed parliamentary pensions for dozens of MPs: “We attended a meeting where the substance of that proposal was discussed.”
Trade Minister Mary Ng yesterday said she is not a Chinese spy. “I am a loyal Canadian,” Ng told reporters, noting she had cleared all security checks as a member of cabinet: “I think my record of serving Canada stands.”
Parliament must not top up subsidies for the CBC under the guise of promoting ad-free public television, private broadcasters have told the Senate. CBC-TV management for years has proposed that it cancel advertising and have Parliament compensate for lost sales: “They see the CBC starting every year with a $1.4 billion head start.”
Catherine Tait, $497,000-a year CEO of the CBC, has been fined for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Act, the Ethics Commissioner disclosed yesterday. The penalty came only days after Tait complained nobody asked about her accomplishments as chief executive: “I really take objection to being called a liar.”
Religious charities providing pregnancy counseling would be mandated to disclose pro-choice views under cabinet amendments to the Income Tax Act. The proposal, a first of its kind, is detailed in a Notice Of Ways And Means Motion tabled in the Commons: “We’ve talked to people.”
Canadians in Privy Council focus groups do not believe claims by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault that they pay less in carbon tax than they receive in rebate cheques. Participants disputed the math even when fed misleading statistics: “Most expressed opposition.”
Former industry minister Navdeep Bains last night said he was not responsible for misconduct at a federal board cited for 186 conflicts of interest. Bains told the Commons public accounts committee his sole responsibility was to appoint directors: “Do you have any regrets?”
Green and New Democrat MPs yesterday ruled out any federal election until 2025. Green leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) said voters “deserve stability.”
The Budget Office for the second time in three months has calculated figures showing cabinet inflated claims of military spending in aspiring to meet NATO targets. Defence Minister Bill Blair dismissed the criticism as a case of “different numbers.”
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem last night dismissed worries over the falling value of the Canadian dollar. Members of the Senate banking committee expressed concern as the dollar closed at 72 cents U.S.: “Are you not concerned that will lead to inflation, a weak Canadian dollar?”
Canadians in federal focus groups now consider annual vacations a privilege of the wealthy, says in-house Privy Council research. Canadians also identified “dining in restaurants” and buying private medical treatment as desirable luxuries: “Asked how much money they felt one had to earn annually to be considered wealthy, participant responses ranged from approximately $100,000.”
MPs on the Commons government operations committee yesterday agreed to pursue the destruction of federal emails with ArriveCan contractors. One Canada Border Services Agency executive destroyed records sought under Access To Information, a jailing offence if proven deliberate: “Something happened here.”
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet yesterday pledged his 33-member caucus will join 119 Conservatives in supporting the next Commons non-confidence motion. The Bloc is “absolutely ready to go into an election tomorrow morning” after cabinet failed to meet his ultimatum to pass two bills into law, he said: “I am ready.”
