Liftoff

On a late fall day, a few hours before a snowstorm struck, this heron suddenly lifted from a ditch and soared, in its own special way, across the road, above the traffic and into the skies. OK, it was not as graceful as a Canada goose, but this bird has obvious limitations.

Lasting Salute

Everyone in the small community of Harrington, Québec turned out for a dedication of a plaque in the memory of two World War II veterans who never made it back home from the battlefields of Europe. It is a simple and fitting tribute.

During the ceremony, one of the veteran's brothers remembered the horrible pain the whole family felt when that sickening news first arrived. Harry was dead.

Many of those in the crowd were childhood friends of the two boys who were killed in Italy and Holland.

Fiddles, bagpipes and the occasional sniffle filled the crisp air.

At last

After working on this book for more than a year we finally launch it November 15.

Check out http://www.absurditescanadiennes.com/.

The Gap

I was shooting a Remembrance Day ceremony in the small town of L'Orignal, Ontario when suddenly a group of girls moved into the frame and sat on this gun while legionnaires observed a moment of silence. Innocence or bravado? There is a huge gap obviously between the generations. One of them, thankfully, is the absence of conflict. Few young Canadians can even fathom what this gun would have been used for, however, in other parts of the world violence and death are the harsh realities of everyday life.

I always tried to attend a Remembrance Day ceremony because as a reporter, who constantly reports on the free exchange of ideas and opinions, I am always reminded of the rights and freedoms that we take for granted. I started working as a reporter when I was 18, the same age many of those boys, whose names are etched on monuments, were when they bravely marched off to fight the good fight. In the same small communities of L'Orignal and Longueuil, 11 boys died in WW I and WWII.

Lest we forget.