Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success - Old Ottawa South

The 

O•S•C•A•R© 

The Community Voice of Old Ottawa South 

Year 36 , No. 7 The Ottawa South Community Association Review 

JUL/AUG 2008 

Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success 

Most of the OOS neighbourhood enjoyed the Festivities on June 21 at Brewer Park, reveling in the sunny weather. Photo by Tom Alfoldi - more on p.2 

By Patti Ryan 

We’d like to take this 

opportunity to thank 

everyone who contributed 

to our anniversary party. We couldn’t 

have done it without you! 

Our 30 th anniversary party on 

June 21 at Brewer Park wasn’t a 

fundraiser—it was a fund spender! It 

was OSCA’s way of celebrating three 

decades of partnering with the city to 

run programs at the Firehall, and we 

decided to pull out all the stops and 

take the usual June barbecue up a few 

notches. 

Firehall Fest was a family-friendly 

extravaganza featuring tethered hot 

air balloon rides, a moon bounce and 

giant slide, a basketball challenge, 

exhibits and demonstrations, a show 

by The Cow Guy, gourmet food, a 

beer tent, cotton candy and $1 hot 

dogs, and live music in the evening 

provided by Another Round and 

Ottawa’s own blues legend, Tony D. 

Pulling off an event like this is 

quite a bit of work, so now that it’s 

over we’d like to thank everyone who 

was involved in helping to make it 

such a success. 

First of all, we are grateful 

for the funding provided by area 

businesses that sponsored the event. 

This list includes Tracy Arnett 

Realty Ltd., TD Canada Trust, Linda 

Thom (sales representative of Royal 

Lepage), Councillor Clive Doucet, 

photographer Tom Afoldi, graphic 

designer Lori Steele, The Clothes 

Secret, Bridgehead, Hopewell Public 

School Council, the OSCAR and 

the Royal College of Physicians and 

Surgeons of Canada. 

We would also like to thank 

the businesses and entertainers who 

provided much of our food, drink, 

music and amusement for the day: 

The Red Apron, Sixth Sense Catering, 

Life of Pie, Piccolo Grande, Another 

Round, Tony D, Beau’s All Natural 

Brewing Company and The Cow 

Guys. 

Of course, the dedicated staff and 

instructors who make the Firehall 

such a vibrant hub were also integral 

to the success of Firehall Fest. Deirdre 

McQuillan, Dinos Dafniotis and 

Cathie Buchanan played key roles in 

the organization and administration 

of the event, and Firehall staff and 

instructors kept the crowds hopping 

by organizing games and events 

throughout the day and entertaining 

party-goers with the talents they’ve 

inspired through classes in pre-school 

dance, belly dancing and pottery. 

Special thanks to instructors Alex 

Derry, Jun Ichino, Marie Hennessey 

and Tracey Vibert. 

Last but certainly not least, 

we would like to express our 

appreciation to the volunteers who 

spent many hours orchestrating the 

event behind the scenes and worked 

at the event on the big day. It’s a 

long list and probably incomplete, 

as many volunteers brought family 

members and friends to help out as 

well—and this article had to be sent 

to print before the event had actually 

taken place. So if you volunteered 

but don’t see your name here, please 

know that we really are grateful 

anyway. Thanks to: Lisa Drouillard, 

Jenny Haysom, Valerie MacIntosh, 

Patti Ryan, Kendall McQueen, Steve 

Mennill, Vanessa McKenzie, Greg 

Strahl, Jason Parry, Brenda Lee, Ada 

Brzeski, Yves Pepin, Paul DaSilva, 

Evelyn Gow, Chris Farqar, Ian Fower, 

Kim Ferguson, Kathryn Owens, Anne 

Marie Corbet, Paul Paquet, Laura 

Byrne Paquet, Valerie Pereboom, 

Quinn Hodgins, Chris Lahey, Beverly 

Wright, Sheryl Hamilton, Suzanne 

Charest, John Donkin, Marc Rand, 

Anne Beauregard, Allan McCullough, 

Carolyn Sohn, Wilder Boucaud, Rob 

Cowan, Matthew Sanger, Tracey 

Donaldson, Joe, Jesse, Charlie and the 

many other young OOS neighbours 

who pitched in to make this event 

possible. 

Many thanks again to all of the 

business and volunteers who made 

this event possible. 

OSCAR 

Needs 

Volunteers 

For Monthly 

Distribution 

in OOS 

OSCAR needs volunteers to 

deliver the OSCAR in Old Ottawa 

South. The volunteers, whose 

names you can see on page 3, 

form a network that deliver OS- 

CAR to every home and business 

in Old Ottawa South. 

OSCAR has found a replacement 

for Craig Piche, Distribution 

Manager, but needs Distribution 

Coordinators and Deliverers. 

These jobs require only an hour 

or two of your time per month 

and provide in invaluable service 

for OSCAR. 

Even volunteering as a substitute 

if a regular deliverer is 

sick or on holiday would provide 

a great service to OSCAR. 

Thank you! 

oscar@oldottawasouth.ca

Page 2 The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR JUL/AUG 2008 

Some of the Fun at the Firehall Festival, June 21, at Brewer Park 

Photos by Tom Alfoldi

JUL/AUG 2008 

OSCAR 

The 

The OTTAWA SOUTH COMMUNITY 

ASSOCIATION REVIEW 

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The OSCAR thanks the following people who brought us 

to your door this month: 

ZONE A1: Kathy Krywicki (Coordinator), Mary Jo Lynch, Brian Eames, 

Kim Barclay, Marvel Sampson, Wendy Robbins, Ron Barton, Jim and Carrol 

Robb, Kevin and Stephanie Williams. 

ZONE B1: Ross Imrie (Coordinator), Family Gref- Innes, the Montgomery 

family, Laurie Morrison, Norma Reveler, Stephanie and Kulani de Larrinaga. 

ZONE B2: Lorie Magee Mills (Coordinator), Leslie Roster, Hayley Atkinson, 

Caroline and Ian Calvert, Sheilagh Stronach, Matthew and Graeme 

Gaetz, Kathy Krywicki. 

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Williams family, Sylvie Turner, Lynne Myers, Jeff Pouw, Brendan McCoy. 

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Bridgeman. 

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Jancar, the Stern family, T. Liston, Ellen Bailie, Niki Devito, Dante and Bianca 

Ruiz, Walter and Robbie Engert. 

ZONE F2: Bea Bol (Coordinator), the Tubman family, Karen Fee, Shaughnessy 

and Kyle Dow, Paulette Theriault, Mark McDonald, Bea Bol, Jill 

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Shelly Lewis, Peter Murphy, Claire and Brigitt Maultsaid, the McLemaghan 

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tHe old FireHall 

ottawa soutH CommuNity CeNtre 

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WHAT’S THAT NUMBER? 

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Ottawa South Community Association (OSCA) 

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Main Number(24 hrs) for all departments 

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Serious Crimes 

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Streetlight Problems (burned out, always on, flickering) 

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

The OSCAR welcomes letters on subjects of interest to the community or in response to previous articles. All letters must disclose the name of the 

writer, as well as the address and phone number. Lettters may be edited for length, clarity, and libelous statements. The opinions of the writers are not 

necessarily those of the newspaper or its editor. Email your letters to oscar@oldottawasouth.ca or leave in print at the Firehall. 

Windsor Park Concerns 

While reading the OSCAR this evening and particularly the Windsor 

Chronicles B Part 85 (May 2008), with its mention of problems 

in the Windsor Park parking lot, with young men idling in cars; 

my teenaged son approached me. Out of the blue he said: “Windsor Park is 

getting pretty sketchy.” I asked what he meant. The summary of which was 

that today he and two other grade 9 friends were walking through the park 

along the path close to the river, coming back from Dairy Queen. Another 

teenaged boy who was described as being 17-18 years old and someone 

they’d never seen before, approached them and told them that unless they 

wanted trouble they should never come that way again because this was his 

“territory”. They said they were just walking home and didn’t want any 

trouble. 

It would be my recommendation that all parents of teenaged boys 

have a conversation with their sons about alerting us to potential “territory 

challenges”. They need to ask for help if they are noticing “territory 

challenges” coming into our neighbourhood. We need to ask the police for 

recommendations and help if this is more than an isolated incident. In the 

meantime, my son will walk on Sunnyside and Riverdale, to make his way 

home, for a little while. 

Regards, 

A concerned mother. 

I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will 

defend to the death, your right to say it. 

Voltaire 

The OSCAR is sponsored entirely by advertising. 

Remember our children are back at school. 

Please drive carefully! 

f 

Letter to Mayor Larry O’Brien 

June 17, 2008 

Your worship: 

As is my practice on behalf of 

CUPE Local 503, I attended 

the Mayor’s Breakfast this 

morning and participated in the 

question and answer portion of the 

guest speaker’s presentation. As 

you are aware, I asked the question: 

Will the City employees be invited 

to participate in the development 

of the proposed project revolving 

around the use of technology? The 

response from the guest speaker was a 

resounding YES! And when I looked 

to you for confirmation, you gave me 

the “thumbs up” signal. 

Following the breakfast, I 

provided the president of Local 503, 

Brian Madden, with a verbal report 

of the presentation, and confirmed 

that you, as Mayor of this great 

City, clearly confirmed that the 

City employees were going to be 

encouraged to have input into the 

development of the ideas that were 

put to the business community. 

Your worship, can you possibly 

understand my utter astonishment 

when I was advised of your 

presentation to the Corporate 

Committee meeting a few hours later 

to get rid of 500 loyal employees? 

No, I don’t think you can. 

Mr. Mayor, your conduct in 

this matter can only be described as 

a sneak attack on an unsuspecting 

workforce and the citizens who will 

now face new service cut backs. 

Mr. Mayor, this lone unjustified 

act could be described by some as 

dishonourable, and may serve to 

invoke mounting distrust in your 

ability to work with City employees 

and their unions. It is, indeed, 

unfortunate that while you profess 

to support the proposal that this City, 

Canada’s Capital, is the greatest city 

in Canada, your actions at times 

portray anything but. I am extremely 

disappointed. 

Clarence S. Dungey 

93-811 Connaught Ave. 

Ottawa, ON K2B 8K3 

613-227-7140 

csdungey@rogers.com 

cc: Brian Madden, President, 

CUPE Local 503 

Paul Moist, National President, 

CUPE 

Common Front Presidents 

Sean McKenny, President, 

ODLC 

City Council 

News Media 

Send your 

comments to 

oscar@oldottawasouth.ca 

or drop them off at the Firehall, 

260 Sunnyside Avenue. 

Calling All NATO Veterans 

NATO Veterans Organization 

is looking for NATO & 

NORAD Veterans 

The NATO Veterans Organization 

is now almost 2 years old and we 

have grown from 5 members in 

March 2006 to close to 674 members 

at present. We know that there are 

300.000 veterans of the Canadian 

Armed Forces that have served as part 

of NATO since 1949 at sea with the 

NAVY patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, 

the ARMY serving in Germany, 

France, the Balkans and now in 

Afghanistan and the AIR FORCE in 

France, Germany, Europe and many 

other places 

We are the second largest group 

in the Canadian Military History of 

Canada but are very seldom mention 

up till now. The Royal Canadian 

Legion now will be carrying the 

NATO Flag as part of their Colour 

Party. 

We will also be celebrating the 

60 th Anniversary of NATO 1949-2009 

next year on 4 th April in Ottawa and 

you are all invited. 

We were involved in the defense 

of the Allied forces to prevent World 

War III or sometimes called the “Cold 

War Veterans” but have never been 

recognized as VETERANS or have 

been honoured for the 570 Military 

personnel and the 926 Dependents 

that were buried in 44 Cemeteries 

in Europe after WW II, yes the 1496 

Canadians that were never returned to 

Canada. 

We would like these Veterans 

to contact us by either visiting our 

Web Site at http://natoveterans.org 

or sending an e-mail to joordens@ 

nbnet.nb.ca or give us a call at 506- 

472-1931 or Toll Free at 1-888- 

NATO-Vet. 

Hope to hear from you 

Thom Joordens, President 

Pacem et Libertas

JUL/AUG 2008 

OSCA PRESIDENT’S REPORT 


Firehall Renovation, Pedestrian Safety, 

Development at Bank and Sunnyside, and Porch Sale 

By Michael Jenkin 

Public Meeting on Firehall 

Renovation 

By the time you read this the June 

23 rd public meeting scheduled 

to discuss the renovation and 

expansion of the Firehall will have 

been held. The meeting, jointly 

sponsored by the City and OSCA, will 

see the architects present three design 

options that have been developed with 

input from City officials and members 

of the OSCA Renovation Committee. 

As will be made clear at the meeting, 

none of these options are likely to 

be the final design, but are being 

presented to get people’s views on the 

best layouts and preferred trade-offs 

in terms of facilities. 

Within a week or so after the 

meeting we will get the preliminary 

cost estimates on the options and at 

that point we will need to start paring 

down the design to fit the available 

expected funding. This is why the 

input from the public meeting will 

be so important as it will help City 

officials and OSCA representatives 

understand what features of the 

design options are most important to 

community members. 

In working with the architects 

over the course of the last several 

weeks, several points have become 

clear. First, it will be a real challenge 

to get all the desired programming 

space we identified in the tender 

proposal within the likely budget 

By Brendan McCoy 

envelope. Second, some of the 

more attractive design layouts may 

require additional structural work on 

the existing building to maintain its 

integrity and this additional work can 

add significantly to the cost. Third, 

the size and layout of the addition is 

also limited because of its potential 

impact on the heritage character of 

the Firehall. 

So, as you can see, there will be 

a number of difficult tradeoffs to be 

made over the next couple of months 

as the City-OSCA working group try 

to refine the design to be presented 

to the next public meeting which is 

tentatively scheduled for September 8. 

At that meeting community members 

will get to comment on a very much 

more detailed design proposal which 

will include the final floor plan and 

proposals on how the exterior of the 

addition and the new interior spaces 

will look. 

Pedestrian Safety on 

Colonel By Drive 

The National Capital Commission 

held a consultation with community 

associations on June 11 to discuss 

pedestrian safety issues on Colonel 

By Drive and the Queen Elizabeth 

Driveway. Leo Doyle, John Calvert 

and I attended for OSCA, along with 

about 15 or so other representatives 

from groups that are involved with, 

or border on, the two Driveways. 

The NCC is going to conduct a study 

over the next year on pedestrian 

Windsor Park Snowblowers 

Need Storage 

OSCA needs a volunteer who lives ajacent to Windsor park 

to store our two snowblowers which are used to clear off 

the rinks in the park. If OSCA does not get a volunteer, we 

will be forced to sell the machines. As they are used to clear the ice 

surface, this is likely to mean longer waits after snow falls for the 

ice to be cleared, and poorer ice conditions. If you live adjacent to 

Windsor park and are able to store our two snowblowers, please 

call the OSCA Executive Director at 613-247-4872. 

crossing places and volumes along the 

Driveways and will examine options 

to improve the safety of those crossing 

on foot. Currently there are very 

few places along Colonel By Drive 

that provide a permanent signalled 

crossing for pedestrians (one at 

Carleton University, one at Pretoria 

Bridge and one at the OC Transpo 

station at Ottawa University which 

provides access to the pedestrian 

bridge across the canal). 

The first order of business was 

to identify which areas along the 

Driveways were places where people 

commonly crossed the road and what 

specific safety problems were thought 

to exist. We identified the Bronson 

Place, Seneca, Leonard and Rosedale 

intersections as high volume crossing 

places, plus the steps down from Echo 

Drive on Colonel By Drive as of 

primary interest to Old Ottawa South 

residents. We underlined that with 

the speed and high volumes of traffic 

on the Driveway these days and the 

rolling and curved character of that 

part of Colonel By Drive that borders 

our community, it is very difficult for 

people, especially those with children, 

to cross with any confidence. The NCC 

will be getting back to community 

groups shortly on how they plan to 

proceed with the study. 

Development at Bank and 

Sunnyside 

OSWATCH has met again with 

the group proposing to develop the 

Page 5 

vacant lot at Bank and Sunnyside next 

to the Mayfair Theatre. As you may 

recall the original proposal for the site 

was to build a 12,000 sq.ft., retail 

pharmacy. In response to OSWATCH 

comments the revised proposal now 

includes a full second storey of offices 

and changes to the design of the wall 

along Sunnyside to provide more 

windows and visual interest. 

Summer Holidays – Porch 

Sale on September 6 

Traditionally the OSCA Board 

does not meet over the summer months 

and there will be no Board meetings 

in July or August – we will start our 

regular meetings again on September 

16. That does not mean, of course, 

that we won’t be active. There will 

be many meetings of the renovation 

committee, our summer programs will 

be in full swing and planning will be 

starting for the Porch Sale and another 

“Savour the Flavour” community 

dinner to be held in late October or 

early November. Do mark Saturday, 

September 6 th on your calendars as 

that will be the date for the Annual Old 

Ottawa South Porch Sale, which runs 

from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There will 

be more details on the sale in the next 

issue of OSCAR which will appear 

in late August. In the meantime, and 

on behalf of the whole OSCA Board, 

have a fun filled and safe summer 

holiday! 

Homes Between The Bridges 

A Tour Through OOS 

Sunday, May 31, 2009 

“Homes Between The Bridges” is a charity fundraiser to support the 

re-development of the OOS Firehall Community Centre. OOS 

homes with eclectic style, innovative design, environmental 

features, and historical character will be showcased to fund this 

worthy cause. 

The tour will highlight the talents of local community members and 

businesses passionate about OOS. 

We are currently in need of volunteers with skills in: 

Desktop publishing 

Writing/editing 

Communications/marketing 

Or anyone else interested in supporting 

one of our landmark OOS sites. 

Please contact ooshomes2009@gmail.com


By Gabriel Gosselin 

If you’ve ever walked into the 

Firehall between 4pm and 6pm on 

a weekday you will know of the 

apparent chaos that is After-Four. I 

have had the privilege to work in the 

After-Four program for five years now 

and can attest that there are times when 

the pandemonium is breathtaking. 

There are dodge balls sailing through 

the air, the rolling thunder of sixty 

children’s excited voices, the glitter of 

thousands of sparkles wafting through 

the air and the occasional smell of 

burning cookies. In this mêlée of 

bodies, noises, activities and programs 

can seem very over-whelming. There 

is however much more to be seen if 

one is willing to look a little deeper. 

Beneath this veneer of dodge ball and 

Popsicle-house crafts there is a subtle 

education going on. 

Three years ago a few counsellors 

took it upon themselves to raise the 

bar for dodge ball games. Ian Beck 

McNeil, Steve Windsor and I began 

our series of games loosely themed 

“Famous Battles from History”. After 

reliving Agincourt and Waterloo one 

of the children asked which, if any, 

battle did the French win? Deciding 

that “Famous French Military 

Brief Notes From the Firehall 

Defeats” did not have as nice a ring 

to it as our previous title, we promptly 

set about playing out the Battle of 

Hastings. During these games, we 

would explain the historical context 

of the battles prior to the game and 

the historical outcome afterwards. 

The games where inevitably designed 

to mimic the real-life considerations 

of the battle, often favouring one side 

over the other. There were times when 

the children’s ability and willingness 

to play out their roles was truly 

astounding. To see twenty children 

march in block formation down the 

length of the Mainhall while under 

fire from three sides to the tune of 

“Scotland the Brave” and canon fire 

sound effects bordered on the surreal. 

The fact that many of the children 

would periodically yell out “Charge! 

Forward!” was a nice touch. 

There were of course times when 

the children got too into the spirit of 

the game, such as when the Battle of 

Agincourt raged, there were taunts of 

“Frog!” and “Limey” thrown around 

much to everyone’s bemusement. 

A more sombre note was struck 

when moments into the massive reenactment 

of Stalingrad three-quarters 

of the participants were lying on the 

ground crying out “Medic”. That 

After-four Programming: 

More Than Meets The Eye 

moment more than the others gave 

the participants something to consider 

when we went over the historical 

outcome of that brutal battle. The 

lesson that day struck home. 

One of the great joys of this job is 

when you find yourself listening to a 

child tell you something that you have 

taught them earlier. I usually dislike 

being corrected, but had to laugh 

aloud when I was sharply rebuked for 

failing to name King Harkonen as the 

Norwegian King who fought Harold 

prior to the Battle of Hastings. Thanks 

Jacob. 

The educational content doesn’t 

stop with dodge ball though. Last 

year Caitlin gave After-Four an 

International Cooking Club. While 

there was the obligatory stop over in 

Mexico for delicious nachos, I defy 

anyone reading this to try to make 

sushi with ten young children and 

succeed. 

There is in fact a long and storied 

history of counsellors shooting 

for the moon (and touching down 

on occasion). All of the creative 

disciplines have been well represented 

in After-Four; visual art, drama, dance 

and literature. Tom Goodings ran a 

multi-session program of Calligraphy 

(covering Gothic Lettering to 

A Retrospective Of After-four: Gabriel Gosselin Farewell 

by Gabriel Gosselin 

My earliest memories of the 

Firehall stem from a PD day 

I attended as a child. I was 

cowering at the time in a mat-fort when 

from across the dank, sweaty darkness 

a plaintive voice said to me; “Gab, I 

think I farted”… Thus my career at 

the Firehall began with a whimper 

and not a bang. I was crouched in a 

small (yet nigh indestructible) fort 

of mats in the Fitness Room, playing 

one of the Firehall’s hallmark games. 

As counsellor-thrown balls smashed 

against the walls, my comrade in arms 

and I tried to outlast our need for clean 

oxygen. It is worth noting that ‘Pride’ 

as a cause of self-inflicted harm has 

a very early on-set in males. At ten 

years old we were determined to rely 

on our grit (and well constructed fort) 

to win that game. It would be many 

years before I would return again to 

the Firehall. 

The story of how I ended up 

working at the Firehall is not so 

uncommon as it is instructive of the 

Gosselin Farewell on the parch of the OOS Firehall Community Centre 

Japanese kanji). This year David B- 

H and Alexie mounted a production 

of children’s theatre. Not to be outdone, 

Aletha and Jessica ran a Dance 

(followed by Yoga) program for the 

girls with consistently happy and high 

attendance. There was a program of 

musical appreciation and creative 

response that drew a small but faithful 

crowd. This is not to say that the 

After-Four has a liberal arts bias. 

The mechanical and scientific are 

represented well enough. 

Paul has routinely forced the 

kids to design a functional car out 

of recyclable materials. Good luck 

with that one at home. I once ran an 

activity where we made catapults out 

of seashells, tape and a cloths-pin (to 

great success). Jesse has achieved 

a dedicated following of children 

determined to figure out whether a 

given object will “Sink or Float”. 

These are just some of the 

myriad activities that take place at 

After-Four year in and year out. Not 

mentioned here are the Boys-only Spa 

days (“What have you done to our 

sons?” asked a parent), the staging of 

Shakespeare and recycled-art projects. 

Next time you step into an activity, 

take the time to ask about what’s 

going on. You might be surprised. 

Cont’d on next page

JUL/AUG 2008 

CITY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT 

Dear OSCAR Readers, 

COUSIN 

The fragrance 

of a summer evening 

rises to meet the night, 

a bouquet of perfume and life 

that if not heaven itself, 

must be a cousin. 

- from Canal Seasons 

The Old Firehall 

It is great that we are getting to the 

point of making hard decisions 

about the Old Firehall renovation. 

For instance, one of the key questions 

is whether the new space should be 

integrated with the old building or 

be a separate, adjacent building. The 

integrated building would cost more 

but it would offer a larger and better 

courtyard space. I think this would 

be a worthwhile investment and make 

the whole facility more cohesive. As 

we are celebrating 30 years at the Old 

Firehall, it is fitting to be thinking 

about the next 30 years and how we 

want the Old Firehall to be bigger and 

better for the community. 

Good Intensification and Bad 

Intensification 

The City of Ottawa recently 

held a series of public forums on 

intensification. I hosted the first one at 

City Hall. Who would have guessed 

we could fill the room with people? 

The city lacks a solid definition of 

intensification. As a result we see a wide 

range of examples of both good and 

bad buildings in every neighbouhood. 

We have to set rules for intensification 

that ensure communities are not 

harmed and that they get benefits 

from the intensification. At my 

session I invited some of my fellow 

councillors to provide suggested 

motions to ensure intensification is a 

net benefit. It is reasonable to want 

more community amenities like 

parks, trees, community centre space, 

schools and libraries if the population 

density is increasing and we need a 

balance of all types of housing (not 

just one and two bedroom condos) to 

ensure neighbourhoods are liveable 

for all. New buildings should respect 

the character of where they are placed 

and intensification should not be used 

as an excuse for spot up-zoning to 

build highrises. 

Pedestrian and Cycling Safety 

On the morning of Clean Air Day 

during Commuter Challenge Week, 

my office organized an appreciation 

event for commuting cyclists at City 

Hall. A range of cyclists and groups 

offering cycling related services 

turned up. With Ottawa about to 

unveil it’s new Cycling Plan it was a 

good time to encourage support for 

dedicated cycling lanes. The photos 

of Montreal’s new cycling lanes 

generated the most interest. Imagine 

a two directional cycling lane on the 

street separated from the car traffic by 

a concrete boulevard which ensures 


cars and cars doors are well away 

from cyclists. Why can’t we get some 

of those? 

The NCC has just started a study of 

pedestrian, cyclist and skater crossing 

needs for the parkways along the 

Rideau Canal. Getting safe access to 

the Canal and its pathways is difficult. 

I am glad the neighbourhoods of 

Capital Ward which border the Canal 

were well represented and our priority 

locations along Colonel By and Queen 

Elizabeth Drive made the short list 

after the NCC first workshop. 

The need for a pedestrian and 

cycling link across the Canal has also 

begun to get public attention. I want 

to congratulate the folks in Old Ottawa 

East, Old Ottawa South and the Glebe 

who are helping build support for the 

idea of a bridge. 

Recycling on Bank Street 

Why can’t we have small recycling 

bins on city streets? We want to make 

it easy for people to recycle. Our 

garbage receptacles are reasonably 

sized but our only recycling option at 

the moment are these enormous steel 

bins with billboards on the outside that 

are four times the size of our regular 

garbage bins. There are a few streets 

in Ottawa with very wide sidewalks 

but they are the exception. Most of 

our sidewalks aren’t that big and these 

super-sized recycling bins don’t fit in. 

This has been a problem for years. 

Imagine the delight when new 

attractive recycling bins not much 

larger than a regular garbage bin 

appeared at City Hall. Everybody 

A Retrospective Of After-four: Gabriel Gosselin Farewell .... Cont’d from previous page 

character of the institution. To begin, 

I missed that application deadline. 

I was just starting at Carleton 

University and needed a part-time 

job. I had some friends already at the 

Firehall who threw my name in the 

ring for me. It was these same friends 

who assured me that I shouldn’t worry 

about missing the deadline by a few 

days. I turned in my résumé and was 

promptly given an interview. This 

introduction to the Firehall illustrated 

to me a quality the institution has in 

abundance: flexibility. So long as 

you were willing to put in the effort 

and had something to contribute, the 

Firehall would accommodate you. 

The interview was an intimate 

affair, with two co-ordinators, Dinos 

and myself. Like many interviews, it 

began with some strained introductions 

followed by some light-hearted 

reassurances. Then it got down to the 

technical know-how; “Say you have 

15 six to eight year-olds, how would 

you entertain them for an hour in a 

room with these resources?” Needless 

to say I impressed my interviewers 

with my hastily planned activity to 

re-enact the Battle of the Bulge using 

only three pieces of chalk, a plastic 

coat hanger and spool of thread. My 

City of Ottawa training (budgeting) 

had proved its worth. 

To work in the Firehall After- 

Four program is as daunting, 

challenging and rewarding a job as I 

have ever had (which is telling as I’ve 

dodged flaming skillets in a Lebanese 

Kitchen and fought off frostbite on 

the Canal with Beavertails). The role 

of the counsellor here is equal parts 

lifeguard, referee, prison guard and 

clown. In this regard I imagine it is not 

unlike being a teacher (or a parent). 

Some days you are forced to be more 

of one of these things than the other. I 

prefer to play the part of the Fool, but 

we all have to take turns wearing the 

different hats. 

In my first year here, I was the 

oldest new staff, by a few years 

and only one of two who had not 

attended the program as a child. 

It is worth noting that the Firehall 

After-Four program is an excellent 

feeder program for itself, as many a 

counsellor began their time there as a 

program participant. In point of fact, 

many of the great counsellors, whose 

names live on in the games that 

bear their name, are examples of the 

‘participant- to-counsellor trend’. 

It is this continuity that gives 

the After-Four Program much of its 

character. There is a very strong oral 

history that exists in the After-Four 

program. There is little concerted 

effort to maintain this oral history, but 

it persists all the same. Campers and 

counsellors alike recite it. Whether it 

is the tradition to try to recover the 

(lost) toys from beneath the structure 

at Windsor Park or nicknames given 

to counsellors in years past, these 

stories live on. In the same way, so too 

are the hallmark games past on from 

one generation to the next. “Vinny 

Page 7 

who’s seen them has said: can I have 

these instead? The answer is: not 

on your street, yet. The on-street 

recycling contract is exclusive to the 

mega-bins until 2010. I’ve started 

advocating for more appropriate 

choices so we can get the options 

sorted out ahead of time. 

Coffee with Clive 

Coffee with Clive will take a 

break over the summer and will return 

in the fall. Coffee with Clive will 

return to the regular monthly schedule 

in September in Old Ottawa South at 

Bridgehead, 1176 Bank Street, on the 

second Thursday of the month from 

9:00 to 10:00 a.m. 

I want to thank all the people who 

have been coming out to Coffee with 

Clive. The issues and suggestions 

raised really help my office get 

things done. I really appreciate the 

contribution everybody makes. 

Best, 

Clive Doucet 

City of Ottawa 

110 Laurier Avenue West, 

Ottawa, ON K1P 1J1 

tel.: (613) 580-2487 

fax: (613) 580-2527 

Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca 

www.clivedoucet.com 

Ball” is a game now nearly a decade 

old, but played all the same, though 

for a period of two years its name 

was forgotten, then the game itself. It 

took the return of an older staff to reinvigorate 

the game’s return, but here 

it is again it all its glory. Vinny is now 

an earlier thirty-something teacher in 

Calgary. 

Having completed my Under- 

Graduate degree at Carleton I believe 

I am at the end of my open-ended 

time with the Firehall After-Four 

program. I intend to transition into 

the next phase of my career path in 

the fall. With all of that in mind, I am 

sure that I will be a happy participant 

in the Firehall practice of bringing 

back old staff when need be. So rest 

assured that I will be around from 

time to time to recount “The Tale of 

the Flying-Back-Handed-Spinning- 

Parry” which won the Gladiators 

match… or to throw around a dodge 

ball or two.


Tony Campanale, President 

Vince Campanale, Vice-President 

Rocco Campanale, Broker 

Campanale Homes 

200 –1187 Bank Street 

Ottawa, K1S 3X7 

Re: Development at 35 Brighton Avenue 

From: Residents of Old Ottawa South 

cc: Clive Doucet, Councillor, Capital Ward 

Larry O’Brien, Mayor of Ottawa 

Michael Jenkins, OSCA 

Dear Tony, Vince and Rocco 

Campanale, 

We are writing as concerned citizens 

and neighbors about the proposed 

development at 35 Brighton Avenue in 

Old Ottawa South. 

As you know, 35 Brighton is located in an 

established community-oriented neighborhood 

facing the Rideau River and Brighton Beach 

Park. The homes on Brighton Avenue and in our 

neighborhood are generally older, with welcoming 

entranceways, front gardens, front porches and 

with mature trees lining the street. While the yards 

are small compared to suburban lots, residents 

have landscaped to maximize greenspace. All of 

this encourages the friendly interaction between 

neighbours and makes our neighborhood so vibrant 

and desirable. 

However, the proposed design for 35 Brighton 

is out of character with the rest of the neighborhood 

in the following ways: 

Development at 35 Brighton Avenue 

• Two double garages dominate the ground 

level 

• The asphalt parking space for four cars 

eliminates virtually all of the front garden 

• Apartment-style second and third story 

balconies over the garage create a cold high-rise 

façade 

• The building materials do not resonate with 

the streetscape 

• The new design packs in over 6000 square feet 

onto the lot. In contrast, one of the largest homes 

on the street houses 3000 square feet of living space 

on the same size lot. 

The good news is that there is still time to 

improve the design. The City of Ottawa offers helpful 

guidelines and Ottawa has talented architects. Our 

community would welcome the opportunity to 

work with you to support design excellence that 

integrates with and enriches the streetscape. We’re 

sure you’ll agree our neighborhood deserves this 

attention and that it is indeed critical to maximize 

return on investment. 

Parking design: Front yard asphalt pad for 

four cars, two double garages 

The proposed design for 35 Brighton provides 

space for four cars to be parked in a row in the 

front yard in front of two double garages. This new 

parking design requires eliminating most of the 

current front garden and means that the entranceway 

is overshadowed by the dominant garage doors and 

black asphalt. 

This design would set an unwelcome precedent 

for Brighton Avenue and for other neighbouring 

streetscapes. According to the City of Ottawa’s 

Urban Design Guidelines for Low-Medium Density 

Infill Housing: “A garage should not dominate 

any façade facing a street, public space or other 

residential dwelling. Soft landscaping should 

prevail for its aesthetic and environmental value.” 

Apartment balconies and entrance design: 

Discouraging interaction with the neighborhood 

The wall of balconies on the second and third 

floors are shield-like in appearance and are more 

in keeping with high-rise apartment buildings than 

residential family homes in our neighbourhood. 

However, examples of existing balconies that 

fit well into the neighborhood and that can be used 

as models to improve on this design element of the 

new structure. 

The absence of a welcoming front porch or 

garden entranceway effectively creates a dead 

space and structurally discourages the kind of 

neighbourhood interaction that make Brighton 

Avenue such a pleasant place to live. 

Streetscape Look and Feel 

The lack of appropriate design features which 

would help to integrate the new structure into the 

existing neighbourhood is disappointing given 

the attention paid to the 

streetscape for the recent 

Campanale development at 

6 Grove Avenue. 

We very much 

Kristen gtathering signatures at the Firehall 

Festival. June 21 

appreciate the civic-minded approach to getting 

rid of the blank face of the parking lot at Bank and 

Grove. The streetscape was improved and the whole 

community benefits from this kind of development. 

Similarly, the value of 35 Brighton Avenue could be 

maximized by applying the same thoughtfulness to 

the streetscape and park-like setting. 

According to the City of Ottawa’s White Paper 

on intensification, even intensification projects in 

low-density R-2 areas should take into account 

community concerns and long-term impacts. “Each 

of these developments is of a small scale, but 

they could accumulate over time into significant 

intensification of a community.” (White Paper 

Residential Intensification: Building More Vibrant 

Communities.) 

In conclusion, we on Brighton Avenue 

and surrounding streets are concerned that the 

inappropriate development of 35 Brighton Avenue 

could lead to a fundamentally negative change in 

the character of our street and neighborhood. We 

hope that Campanale Homes will work with the 

community to revise the design of the new house 

to address the concerns outlined above, taking into 

account City of Ottawa guidelines for infill, the 

existing character and scale of the streetscape and 

the exceptional nature of the site given its proximity 

to the Rideau River and Brighton Beach Park. 

Sincerely, Kristen Ostling 

The petition and photos are available at 

www.35brighton.ca.. 

Petition Results As Of June 22 

As of June 22, 409 residents and concerned citizens from 

over 30 Old Ottawa South streets have signed the open 

letter to Tony, Vince and Rocco Campanale. For updates 

and to add your name to the community effort to ensure that 

infill fits the character of our neighborhood streets, check out 

www.35brighton.ca and get involved in OSWATCH--the planning 

and development sub-committee of the Ottawa South Community 

Association.

JUL/AUG 2008 

By Joanne Steventon 

On Sunday May 4, a crowd of 

nearly 300 converged in The 

Hospice at May Court’s back 

garden to walk in the sixth annual 

Hike for Hospice fundraising walk. 

Walkers consisted of family 

members of current and former 

patients, Old Ottawa South neighbours, 

staff, volunteers and even patients. All 

worked together this year to raise over 

$60,000 in sponsorships and pledges. 

This money will go directly towards 

the over $1 million the Hospice 

must raise from the community this 

year to continue operating all of its 

programs. 

Before the event began, special 

guest M.P. Paul Dewar took to the 

stage to remind everyone why they 

were walking. 

“When I think about this Hospice, 

I think of a well spring. It brings so 

many people together for really what 

is an important foundation in our 

community” he said. “That is reaching 

out and caring for each other.” 

In 2007/2008 the Hospice 

provided care through its four 

programs to over 600 patients and 

family members. Names of current 

and former patients had a special spot 

reserved on the back of event t-shirts, 

and on a giant window where the 

names were displayed for all to see. 

Helping Paul Dewar cut the 

ribbon to officially begin the event 

was Tracy Arnett, a great supporter 

of this event and a dear friend to the 

Hospice. Arnett, owner of Tracy 

Arnett Realty Ltd., and her team 

have raised thousands of dollars for 

the Hospice through this event over 

the past few years, on top of their 

Platinum Sponsorship. 

Also in attendance was the top 

Hike for Hospice fundraising team in 

the country. The Glebe Apothecary 

team, lead by owner Claudia McKeen, 

raised nearly $9,000 – beating all 

other teams participating in this event 

at different Hospices across Canada. 

When everyone had completed 

the 5km along the canal via Echo 

Drive, they were greeted back at the 

hospice by a group of drummers and 

belly dancers, and treated to a gourmet 

lunch care of the Red Apron. Also on 

hand for entertainment was a spirited 

Dixieland Band. 

The Hospice would like to 

thank all of its sponsors, and pledge 

collectors for making the Hike the 

great success that it was. 

The Hospice at May Court is 

a community-based organization 

committed to providing care and 

support to those diagnosed with a lifethreatening 

illness and their families. 

Care is provided at no cost to anyone – 

regardless of age, culture or religion. 


Local Pharmacy Top Hike 

For Hospice Fundraising Team In The Country 

By Monique Sauvé 

For most parents, June, not 

December, represents the year’s 

end, as this is the time when 

our kids’ numerous activities wind 

up. June is the hectic, chaotic month 

of recitals, performances, shows and 

meets; the culmination of a year’s 

hard work. 

This past weekend, the Ottawa 

Synchronized Swim Club (Ottawa 

Synchro) celebrated such an event in 

their annual Spring Water Show, held 

at Brewer Pool. In keeping with the 

Olympic year, the girls’ chosen theme 

for the show was Celebrating our 

Cultural Diversity and Competitive 

Spirit. 

Swimmers, ranging in age from 7 

to 52, performed their choreographed 

routines to an enthusiastic crowd 

comprised of friends, family and 

synchronized swimming enthusiasts 

alike, without the usual pressures 

of judging and scores. Having 

just returned from Provincial 

Championships in Etobicoke, the 

routines were polished, graceful and 

powerfully executed. Our young 

athletes did us proud. 

Few residents of Old Ottawa 

South are aware that synchronized 

swimming is alive and well in their 

Interested in becoming a Hospice 

community. Operating out of our 

very own Brewer Pool and Carleton 

University Olympic Pool, the 

Ottawa Synchro Club is the oldest 

synchronized swimming club in the 

National Capital Region, competing 

at the provincial and national levels 

since 1969. 

Strong routine swims, coupled 

with outstanding figure performances 

cinched the 4th overall place for 

Ottawa Synchro at the recent Ontario 

Provincial Championships. The 

athletes triumphed with six golds and 

one bronze medal. This is especially 

meaningful given the club’s small 

size. Needless to say, trophies and 

medals were proudly on display at the 

Water Show. 

Ottawa Synchro offers an 

enthusiastic and encouraging 

environment for young swimmers 

and budding athletes alike, supported 

by a dedicated, experienced coaching 

team. The club is fully bilingual, and 

swimmers are welcomed in either 

English or French. A popular favourite, 

the recreational program introduces 

beginner and intermediate swimmers 

to the basic skills and techniques of 

synchronized swimming in a fun and 

enthusiastic environment. A minimum 

level of Swimmer 4 (AquaQuest 7) 

or equivalent is recommended. They 

volunteer? 

The Hospice volunteer orientation 

course will be offered again this 

fall beginning Tuesday September 

9th. It will run for 13 Tuesday 

evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM until 

December 2. If you are interested 

even offer a recreational program for 

adults. 

As the parent of a dedicated young 

synchronized swimmer, I can attest 

that this sport fosters confidence in 

girls and forges strong bonds between 

team members. Friendships and the 

love of the sport abound. 

Page 9 

in attending the course please visit 

www.hospicemaycourt.com or 

contact Coordinator of Volunteer 

Services Ali Black at (613)260-2906 

or ali@hospicemaycourt.com for 

more information on the application 

process. 

Synchronized Swimming In Old Ottawa South 

The club offers an end of summer 

camp at Carleton University Pool for 

girls who wish to give synchronized 

swimming a try. For more information, 

visit www.ottawasynchro.ca or contact 

head coach Julie Pilon at bbjulie@ 

videotron.ca.


SOUTHMINSTER HAPPENINGS 

SMCC + HPS = Love 

SMCC Concert To Raise Funds For Hopewell Music Programme 

By Craig Piche 

Passion will be in fashion as the Southminster 

Music for Charity and Community 

(SMCC) presents another concert June 

29 th at Southminster United Church. A Romantic 

Evening at Southminster Church will feature 

Juno award-winning cellist Amanda Forsyth and 

will include the music of Brahms, De Falla and 

Chopin. Partial proceeds from the concert will 

benefit the arts and music program at Hopewell 

Avenue Public School (HPS). 

Ms. Forsyth is considered one of North 

America’s most dynamic cellists. From her 

press kit (where you can read more at www. 

amandaforsyth.com): “The intense richness 

of her tone, her remarkable technique and her 

exceptional musicality combine to enthrall her 

audiences and critics alike. 

Ms Forsyth has appeared with all the major 

orchestras in Canada including the Toronto, 

Southminster United Church 

is taking the next steps 

towards having a full-time 

minister. For the past two years, Rev. 

Donald Wachenschwanz has been 

guiding the congregation through an 

Interim and Transition Ministry and 

his time at Southminster is coming 

to a close. For the immediate future, 

779 Bank Street (613) 237-1483 

Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Nova 

Scotia, Saskatoon and Okanagan Symphonies, 

the Calgary and Hamilton Philharmonics and the 

McGill Chamber Orchestra.” 

Also appearing with Ms. Forsyth will 

be SMCC artistic director and pianist Jean 

Desmarais, Isabelle Lacroix (soprano), Jethro 

Marks (viola), Dr. Fraser Rubens (tenor), and 

Denis Lawlor (baritone). 

Tickets are $20 and are available at the Ottawa 

Folklore Centre at 1111 Bank St. (613-730-2887) 

or the church office at Southminster (located 

on Aylmer Avenue across from the Sunnyside 

Library Branch – 613-730-6874). The program 

begins at 7:30pm. Free parking will be available 

at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons 

(entrance off Sunnyside, east of Bank Street). 

Ministry at Southminster United Church 

Southminster will be engaging a 

supply minister for the short term, 

until the call for a full-time minister 

has been completed. 

Rev. Wachenscwanz serves on 

the Montreal and Ottawa Conference 

Interim Ministry Committee, the 

Ottawa Presbytery Pastoral Relations 

Committee, and the United Church of 

Rev. Wachenscwanz 

Amanda Forsyth 

Canada General Council Permanent 

Committee on Finance. Southminster 

has been very fortunate to have him 

during this transition phase and wish 

him the best of luck in his next position 

at Knox St. Paul’s United Church in 

Cornwall, Ontario. 

A lot of blood, sweat and prayer 

have gone into this process. For 

more information on the Interim 

Ministry and Transition, visit http:// 

southminster.ncf.ca/word.html. 

Summer Worship at 

Southminster United Church 

A reminder: worship services at Southminster will be changing for 

the summer months. Starting on July 6 th , Sunday services will begin an 

hour earlier at 9:30am. Instead of the traditional coffee hour following the 

service, lemonade will be served on the church lawn. All are welcome! 

Photo Credit Omission, June 2008, page 10 

This photo 

accompanied the 

article - (Even) 

More Music at 

Southminster on 

page 10 of OSCAR 

june 2008. 

Sean Sisk is the 

photographer who 

took the photo for 

the website www. 

johnallaire.com

JUL/AUG 2008 

BACKYARD NATURALIST 


Sharing Nature With Children 

by Linda Burr 

My daughter bends down 

to inspect a small bug 

crawling on the sidewalk. 

“Mommy, look! It’s something!” At 

three years old, she is increasingly 

curious about nature and the world 

around her. Teaching our children to 

love and appreciate nature is simpler 

than it might seem. Our city yards and 

parks are full of nature, and children 

naturally gravitate to it. 

I remember the excitement and 

enjoyment my parents shared with 

me when we found a new bird in the 

backyard. Even watching a robin in 

the birdbath was great entertainment! 

Growing up in suburban Toronto, I 

learned to recognize the cardinal’s 

bright morning song, and the mourning 

dove on the roof sang me to sleep at 

night. I remember wet dew-worms 

in the grass, and all the delicate little 

maple seedlings that sprang up in the 

lawn in spring. I especially loved the 

trees, the sound of the wind in their 

branches, and the earthy smell of big 

piles of leaves raked up under the 

maples in autumn. 

All these sensory experiences 

contributed to my love of nature. 

These “ordinary” connections with 

the natural world are possible without 

even leaving the city. However, our 

children are increasingly suffering 

from “nature deficit disorder”, 

as described in Richard Louv’s 

fascinating book Last Child in the 

Woods. He argues that children 

today rarely experience the kind of 

unstructured outdoor nature play that 

we adults experienced as children. 

Yet, children need nature for the 

healthy development of their senses, 

creativity and cognitive thinking. 

Where I grew up, children spent 

the long summer days and evenings 

after supper (until the streetlights came 

on) playing on the street and in each 

others’ backyards. Why don’t children 

play outside anymore? “It takes time 

– loose, unstructured dream-time – to 

experience nature in a meaningful 

way. Unless parents are vigilant, 

such time becomes a scarce resource 

because time is consumed by multiple 

forces and because our culture places 

so little value on natural play,” writes 

Louv. 

While it’s important that we 

teach children the value of reducing, 

reusing and recycling, it’s even more 

crucial that we transmit our deeper 

feelings about nature if we want them 

to appreciate and protect it later in life. 

While this may sound like a weighty 

task, it doesn’t have to be complicated. 

Louv says: “Don’t underestimate the 

importance of backyard and nearby 

nature, even in small areas. Encourage 

your child to get to know a 10-square- 

metre area at the edge of a field, pond 

or pesticide-free garden. Look for 

the edges between habitats – life is 

always at the edges. Sit at the edge of 

a pond in August and watch the frogs 

reappear one at a time. Use all of your 

senses.” 

Catch tadpoles, transfer them to an 

aquarium, and watch them transform 

into frogs – then return the frogs to the 

wild. Plant vegetables with children. 

Keep a nature basket on the front 

porch to hold collected objects. Put 

bugs in a jar. Follow an ant trail. Can 

you remember what you liked to do 

outside when you were a child? 

Names of things are not always 

important, but it has been said that the 

first step to understanding something 

is to know its name. Of course, there 

is no need to get hung up on naming 

with young children. Let them make 

up their own names for things they 

find. But if children show an interest 

in names, get them a field guide. Field 

guides are available for children, with 

simplified text and pictures of the most 

easily observed plants and animals. 

My first bird guide is still a beloved 

book on my shelf. 

Never underestimate the value of 

just poking around. Eco-camps and 

organized outings are all well and 

good, but children can probably benefit 

most by learning how to follow their 

own natural curiosity about the world 

and spending some “dream-time” with 

a bit of nature. Letting our children 

experience and enjoy nature is one of 

the greatest gifts we can give them. 

Have a happy summer... outside! 

Linda Burr lives in Old Ottawa 

South and is a biologist and avid 

backyard naturalist. 

Page 11 

Photo by John Calvert


TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH 

By Jim Robb 

It won’t be all fun and games 

this summer for the E.L.I.A. 

Sisterhood. 

The Trinity foursome, two sets 

of twins, will spend part of their 

vacation planning for their biggest 

sale yet, tentatively scheduled for 

October. 

The sisterhood, Emma and 

Lucy Clarke, 11, and Isabel 

Brazeau and Anne MacFarlane, 

10, answered a call. The eager to 

learn entrepreneurs rallied round 

when concerns were raised that 

Trinity parishioners would have 

to find extra money to pay for 

extensive renovation work to the 

aging church, built around 1950. 

“We heard people talk about 

the cost of renovating the church 

and we wanted to do our part,” 

Isabel said. “We wanted to help 

By Jim Robb 

The threatening thunderstorm 

wandered off elsewhere, 

pleasant breezes drifted across 

Brewer Park, and the sun shone 

brightly. 

It was a perfect setting for Trinity 

Anglican Church’s annual picnic in 

the park on Sunday, June 8. 

More than 100 adults and children 

turned out for the event which got 

Trinity Twins Gear Up For Big Fall Sale 

get money,” she said. Selling “ 

stuff” seemed to be the best way. 

Their first sale was held in 

October 2007. It was a start, but 

not great. “A lot of the stuff was 

tacky,” Lucy admitted. “But later, 

we got better.” 

At their spring sale the 

sisterhood had better “stuff” for 

sale and it brought in a little more 

money. Total raised to date $128. 

Undaunted, they see their 

work to date as a field trial while 

they learned the ins and outs of 

merchandising . The sale planned 

for October is going to feature 

more variety and high quality 

crafts and handiwork. 

Stay tuned for their next 

venture. (And by now you should 

know where E.L.I.A. derives 

from. 

under way at 10 am with an outdoor 

eucharist performed by Father 

Christopher Dunn. 

Then it was time for the potluck 

lunch, with more than enough food to 

go around twice. 

Games followed, the traditional 

ones that make church picnics special: 

tug-of-war, sack race, three-legged 

race; plus a toothpick and LifeSaver 

candy relay, and a marshmallow relay, 

a truly messy innovation. 

Meet the E.L.I.A. sisters: left to right, Anne Brazeau, 10; Emma Clarke, 11; Lucy 

Clarke, 11; Isabel MacFarlane, 10. 

Perfect Weather Holds For Trinity Picnic 

The picnic marked the start of the 

summer schedule at Trinity. In place of 

the 8 am and 10 am Sunday eucharists 

there is one service at 9.30 am. This 

schedule continues through August 

24. The 8 am and 10 am Sunday 

service schedule resumes August 31. 

The picnic also signalled the end 

of church school classes for children 

and youth. But not to worry. Children 

are welcome at the 9.30 am service 

and there’s a special crafts program 

run by volunteer Sara Gordon to keep 

them occupied. 

Jim Robb is communications chair 

at Trinity Anglican Church, 1230 Bank 

Street at Cameron Avenue.

JUL/AUG 2008 

GARDEN GLIMPSES 

Area Church Service Times 

Sunnyside Wesleyan Chuch 

58 Grosvenor Avenue (at Sunnyside) 

Sunday Worship Service at 9am & 

11am 

Children’s program offered during 

both worship services. 

Trinity Anglican Church 

1230 Bank Street (at Cameron 

Avenue) 

Sunday Services: 9.30 am -- Sung 

eucharist, with children’s program, 

June 15 to August 24 (8 am and 10 

am services resume Sunday, Aug 31) 

Thursdays 

10 am – Eucharist or Morning Prayer 

in Chapel 


Perennials of the Year: Summer Stalwarts 

By Ailsa Francis 

The lazy days of summer are 

now well underway and many 

of our gardens are reflecting 

just that: tired looking and flaccid, our 

plants are really suffering through the 

heat and neglect. With Saturdays and 

Sundays now spent at the cottage or 

on the beach, we often abandon our 

backyards in July and August because 

of the oppressive temperatures and 

relentless bugs. Weeks past the 

freshness and bounty of June, our 

gardens are now sun-baked, wilted 

and ragged. 

As novice gardeners we are often 

seduced by those classic English-style 

perennials that perform best with 

lots of water, fertilizer, an arsenal 

of servants and flourish during the 

cool dewy days of late spring and 

early summer. But during the latter 

half of the summer, these highmaintenance 

perennials succumb 

to the temperatures and our lack of 

attention. If I were to tell you that 

there are at least a dozen perennials 

that are guaranteed to perform well in 

your garden with 1) minimal effort on 

your part, 2) little water or nutrients, 3) 

no pesticide intervention and, 4) look 

good well into the autumn, would you 

believe me? And especially if I told 

you that the relatives of these plants 

are perennials native to our region, 

would you say, “Sure, but they must be 

weeds”? Not only are they not weeds, 

but they are some of the most stalwart 

(and soon to be stalwart) performers 

in the modern garden. 

The Perennial Plant Association 

(www.perennialplant.org) is a 

professional organization dedicated 

to providing the most up-todate 

information and educational 

symposiums for those involved in 

growing, propagating and working 

with herbaceous perennials in North 

America. Every year its’ members 

vote to choose the perennial of the 

year based on it’s performance in 

the garden. The criteria include 

suitability to a wide range of 

environmental conditions (usually 

means drought resistance), pest and 

disease resistance, low maintenance 

(no staking, primping, dead-heading, 

supplemental feeding, etc.), long 

season of ornamental interest (this 

means long blooming period, great 

foliage and attractive post-bloom 

display) and availability to the 

consumer. 

Since 1990, the PPA has 

championed specific perennials for 

gardeners in North America and 

beyond. Many of these plants have 

become almost iconic in our gardens: 

Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ (1998), 

Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 

‘Goldstrum’ (1999) and Calamagrostis 

acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ (2001) have 

become almost standards in sunny 

perennial borders. But other plants, 

some of my favourites and perhaps 

less well-known, are more than worthy 

in everyone’s garden. 

For a long season of bloom, 

soft buttery yellow starry flowers, 

highly textural fine foliage and ease 

of growth, Coreopsis verticillata 

‘Moonbeam’ (1992) is a useful foil 

for other perennials that have bold 

leaves and contrasting shapes. Hardly 

an objectionable yellow, its mellow 

personality allows it to combine well 

with blues, purples, burgundys and 

many other colours. 

After years of hybridization, the 

title Helleborus x hybridus (1995) is 

considered accurate in describing the 

many varieties of colours of the Lenten 

Rose available now on the market. 

This beautiful plant, although it is an 

early to mid-spring bloomer, presents 

a carefree and striking specimen (or in 

St Margaret Mary’s Parish 

7 Fairbairn (corner of Sunnyside) 

Sunday Liturgies : 9:45 a.m. and 

11:30 a.m. 

Christian Meditation: Mondays at 

7:30 p.m. 

Evening Prayer: Tuesday at 7 p.m. 

Southminster United 

Church 

15 Aylmer Avenue 

9:30 a.m.: Worship and Sunday 

School - July and August 

multiples, groundcover) for shaded or 

semi-shaded places all summer in the 

garden. Able to adapt to well-drained, 

even dry soil when established, the 

hybrid hellebore is available in almost 

every shade of pink, rose, purple (even 

approaching dusky black) to white 

and creamy yellow. Perennial plant 

connoisseurs appreciate its shy downturned 

petals, often with freckled 

faces and its nearly evergreen foliage 

that is neat, glossy and pest (including 

deer) resistant. 

Since it was declared a perennial 

plant of the year in 1991, Heuchera 

micrantha ‘Palace Purple’s popularity 

has spurred a huge business in foliage 

perennials, showcasing the darkest 

purples to the lightest lime green and 

yellow, with coppery tones the latest 

to be developed. Coral bells is now a 

standard in many gardens, but many 

have found that the dark varieties 

are best used in the foreground and 

partnered with contrasting coloured 

perennials. In our climate, they are best 

grown in partial shade so they don’t 

succumb to the mid-summer heat, 

but in a garden that is shaded in the 

Personal Financial Planning 

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Rick Sutherland, CLU, CFP, FDS, R.F.P Tel 613.798.2421 

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Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 3A7 

www.invested-interest.ca 

Page 13 

afternoon, coral bells make great long 

season companions to hostas, ferns, 

creeping jenny or bugleweed, and 

dwarf grasses or sedges. 

So what is the perennial of the 

year for 2008 you ask? Well you can’t 

miss it in the nurseries this spring – 

it’s called Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and is 

a great improvement over its closest 

relative ‘Johnson’s Blue.’ Rozanne 

flowers are a luminous blue and 

appear continuously from summer 

through fall. It grows low, not lax 

and floppy like Johnson’s Blue, and 

covers ground vigorously with large, 

healthy pest and disease-free foliage. 

A great complement to soft yellows or 

pinks, it can mix well with cottage-y 

annuals as well. 

Of course, all perennials and 

shrubs for that matter, benefit from 

the addition of organic matter to the 

soil. If you top-dress your beds with 

compost, mushroom compost or wellrotted 

manure in the spring, this will 

not only feed your plants through 

the season but also act as a moistureconserving 

mulch through the dog 

days of summer.

Page 14 

Book review 

by stephen a. haines 

BOOK REVIEW 

Captivity 

by Debbie Lee Wesselmann 

John F. Blair Publishing, 

2008 

ISBN-10: 0895873532 

Born to a middle-class academic 

family, Dana Armstrong might 

have expected to lead a sedate 

life. She had loving parents, a younger 

brother, Zack, and a “sister” - Annie. 

Interacting with loving care toward 

each other, they seemed the ideal 


Family Problems 

family. But there was a discontinuity 

- Annie was a chimpanzee. The trio 

was part of an experiment by Dana’s 

father Reginald. Primate researchers 

in the 1970s were eager to learn if 

human-chimp communications could 

be achieved. Living with a human 

family continuously instead of in a 

labatory facility seemed the best 

opportunity. Wesselmann, in a finely 

wrought tale of the experiment and its 

consequences has provided us with a 

stirring, yet sensitive tale. 

She opens with Dana well along 

in her life. She’s gained a PhD in 

Primatology, following her father’s 

path, and operates a sanctuary for 

chimps that have been subjected 

to a range of medical experiments, 

including being given AIDS. Her 

South Carolina site seems ideal, 

isolated, well protected to reduce 

outsider concerns, and funded by 

caring donors. She’s on the local 

university staff, keeping her academic 

foundation firm. Yet, somebody has 

gained access to the site, releasing the 

chimps. In the course of recovering 

them, one of the chimps is struck by 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann 

author of Captivity 

a car and killed. The facility is hardly 

a secret, but the community rises in 

protest. It also garners the attention 

of somebody Dana had been trying 

to forget - Prof. Richard Lamier. 

Complicating her circumstances yet 

further, a new element enters her life 

in the person of Sam Wendt. Just 

what she doesn’t need now is a critical 

journalist writing to an already hostile 

community. But Sam says magic 

words about her childhood with Annie. 

He’s not to be summarily dismissed. 

Wesselmann builds her story 

and her characters with seemingly 

effortless grace. It is only as event 

progress and interaction builds that the 

power of her prose emerges. The pace 

is swift and furious - this is not a book 

easily set aside - but nothing is forced 

or contrived. Dana is beset by many 

foils - Lamier emerges with increasing 

presence from the background, but it’s 

her own brother Zack on whom much 

of this story hinges. He’s a wastrel, 

an emotional nomad, and a constant 

pressure on her goodwill and energy. 

There’s a hint that he may have had 

something to do with releasing the 

astonished at the “humanness” of chimpanzees. 

Others have written to thank me for bringing the 

issues to public awareness. Still others are fascinated 

with the background I provided for Dana, her family, 

and the chimp-sister she grew up with. Most want to 

know where the line lies between fact and fiction. 

O: How does a human learn to interact with 

these powerful animals? 

DLW: Ideally, humans shouldn’t interact 

with them at all, but, of course, that’s not possible 

with captive animals. Some people believe that 

chimpanzees only understand power and dominance, 

which equates to cattle prods and punishment, but 

fortunately most people now believe that the best 

way is on the chimpanzees’ own terms. A person 

must gain a chimpanzee’s trust through kind 

interaction and by learning the use of chimpanzee 

communication grunts, hoots, gestures, and facial 

JUL/AUG 2008 

chimps, although motivation seems 

lacking. The chimp release leads to 

widespread implications with the 

future of the sanctuary and Dana’s 

own career hanging over an abyss. 

She has little but her own resources of 

strength and cunning to draw on. Can 

that possibly be enough with all that’s 

arrayed against her? 

The author’s account goes beyond 

just prose skills. Clearly this work 

rests on a solid research base. It’s easy 

to believe Wesselmann was at the side 

of more than one primatologist, likely 

in a refuge such as the one depicted 

here. Chimp behaviours - including 

one young one obviously brought up 

among humans, who insists on clothes 

and a potty, are too vividly depicted 

and explained to be fabricated. Her 

research points up the underlying 

importance of the subjects in this 

tale - can we justify what we do in 

experimenting on animals. Especially 

our closest living cousins 

[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, 

Canada] 

Interview ... Cont’d from next page 

expressions. Social bonds are cemented through 

mutual grooming. Someone who is intimately 

familiar with chimpanzee behavior stands a better 

chance at peaceful interaction than someone whose 

knowledge is only superficial; however, anyone who 

works with chimpanzees, particularly male ones, 

risks serious injury on a daily basis. 

O: What’s the value of teaching chimpanzees 

ASL? 

DLW: Right now? None. Washoe, Nim, Lucy, 

Ally, and the other chimps who learned American 

Sign Language during the linguistic studies of the 

1970s disproved the previously held notion that 

language separated humans from all other species. 

We could have learned this same truth through 

close observation since naturalists and biologists 

have observed communication in several species 

-- and ASL had nothing to do with it. I will say 

that the chimpanzees’ acquisition of ASL sped up 

our understanding of their emotional lives and 

intelligence because it was the first time that we 

communicated back and forth with another species, 

albeit in a very limited way. 

O: Is it a good thing to train chimpanzees to live 

with humans in a household? 

DLW: It cannot be done. Chimpanzees can be 

successfully integrated in a human household until the 

age of five or so when their chimpanzee nature begins 

asserting itself in earnest. Until then, they seem like 

cute, furry humans. However, as adolescents, they 

become extremely destructive and dangerous. They 

assert themselves by hurling objects, screaming, 

and biting. And they are fantastic escape artists -- 

much more adept than the humans who try to contain 

them. I don’t know of a single adult chimp able to 

live peacefully in a human household. Even animal 

trainers don’t use their chimpanzee actors past the 

age of six. Don’t get me started about what happens 

to chimpanzees once they outlive their usefulness as 

entertainment animals.

JUL/AUG 2008 

BOOK REVIEW INTERVIEW 


Debbie Lee Wesselmann, Author of Captivity 

OSCAR senior writer stephen 

a. haines caught up with 

“Captivity” author Debbie 

Lee Wesselmann between book 

signings and reading sessions. 

OSCAR: What prompted you to 

take up writing? 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann: I can’t 

remember a time when I didn’t write 

or make up stories, so I can’t point 

to a specific reason. I actually tried 

writing before I could read by making 

tight squiggles with a crayon and 

then asking my mother to read me the 

story I had written. I was heartbroken 

to learn that stories didn’t create 

themselves out of random loops and 

lines. 

I’ve always loved books–– not 

just the words and the stories but also 

the physical heft of them. My mother 

read to me every day, and I loved 

those quiet, intimate moments when I 

became so engrossed that it seemed as 

though I was living in this other world 

and yet was still cuddled next to my 

mother, safe at home. Literature, then, 

became a huge part of my happiness. 

I learned about other people, other 

times, other experiences. Because 

I also had an active imagination, 

creating my own stories, this time 

with real words and ideas, seemed 

like a natural extension. 

O: How does “Captivity” compare 

with your previous writing? 

DLW: I rarely create stories that 

deal with the same topic, so, in this 

way, Captivity is radically different 

from anything else I’ve written. 

Although I wrote a novella, Vibrissa, 

about a clash between science and 

animal welfare, that story was about 

finding one’s way past difficulties in 

a relationship, while Captivity deals 

with larger ethical and social issues 

that we have to face as a society. From 

a writer’s standpoint, perhaps the 

biggest difference between Captivity 

and my other writing is the creation of 

non-human characters with complex, 

individual personalities. At first, I 

thought it would be difficult to imagine 

believable chimpanzees characters, 

but once I knew what chimpanzees 

were capable of and how they 

behaved, I could then translate what 

was possible into new actions and 

reactions that defined each chimp. 

I suppose a critic or a reader of all 

my fiction would be a better judge of 

how this novel compares to my other 

work. Certainly there is a consistency 

of style, although I like to think that 

my writing gets more sophisticated 

with every new book. 

O: Why did you take up the topic 

of “Captivity”? 

DLW: I found a short article 

in a back issue of The Smithsonian 

Magazine about female primatologists 

who were teaching juvenile chimps 

how to better act like chimps so 

they could be integrated into a larger 

chimpanzee social group. I sat there 

for several minutes, thinking about 

how strange it was. How could a 

human teach a chimp to be more like 

a chimp? And why would that be 

necessary? Once I started to research 

these questions, I was hooked. 

O: What kind of research did you 

do for the subject matter? 

DLW: At first I was indiscriminate. 

I read anything I could find about 

chimpanzees, even some materials that 

I found out later were questionable. 

Then, as my characters started to 

come to life in my head, I began to 

focus on the issues likely to arise out 

of their circumstances. I have no idea 

how many books I read. Twenty, 

maybe more, and that doesn’t include 

all the articles I also read. I watched 

DVDs and video tapes of chimpanzees 

so I could see their behavior for 

myself. I visited zoos, and emailed 

primatologists with my questions. 

I contacted the directors of a few 

chimpanzee sanctuaries, including 

The Fauna Foundation located outside 

of Montréal. 

O: What do you see as the 

challenges and opportunities for 

“cause promoting fiction”? 

DLW: I absolutely did not want 

facts and issues to bog down the pace 

of the story or to make the characters 

wooden and static. First, I had to tell 

a good, complex, exciting story. And 

since my fiction tends to be characterdriven, 

I had to imagine interesting 

people who could bring the story alive. 

I’ve read issues novels before that have 

ground to a halt as some character 

lectures the reader, more or less telling 

the reader what he should believe. I’d 

rather that my readers make up their 

own minds. To me, an issues novel 

should promote discussion instead of 

being the discussion. 

Fiction personalizes the issues. 

For however long it takes to read a 

book, readers live inside the story, 

caring about the characters, making 

judgments about their situations, 

rooting for them. They care about the 

outcome, which invests them more 

fully in the ideas than if they had 

attended a factual lecture. 

O: Have you any experience 

with chimpanzees? Have you seen or 

worked in any of the sort of sanctuaries 

you describe? 

DLW: My “experience” is purely 

vicarious. I held a young chimp for 

about three minutes at the Singapore 

Zoo while a photographer snapped 

our picture, and that’s the extent of 

my interaction. I should add that I had 

mixed feelings about the Singapore 

experience since I was contributing to 

the exploitation of chimps by paying 

for the opportunity; however, I felt that 

I had to know what a chimp felt like. 

As for visiting primate sanctuaries, the 

public is generally not allowed inside 

such places because those facilities 

are meant to protect the animals from 

people. I’m sure they also have to be 

very careful about who they let on the 

property. 

O: What sort of people provided 

models for your characters? Dana? 

Mary or Sam? 

DLW: I don’t model my characters 

after specific people; I imagine them. 

My friends get frustrated because 

they always try to “cast” the film for 

my books, and they’ll run by their 

suggestions to see if I agree. I never 

agree. I envision distinct faces and 

characteristics that don’t match up 

with anyone in the real world. That 

said, my characters must come from 

my own perceptions about people and 

how they behave. They are probably 

a collage of my interactions. For 

instance, Dick Lamier is a real jerk, 

which means that I probably gave him 

characteristics that I find distasteful. 

Dana embodies more of what I admire, 

although I gave her enough flaws to 

humanize her. Sam has qualities that 

I imagine a character like Dana would 

find attractive. Mary is the type of 

person to put up with someone like 

Dana. And so on. 

O: What is your view of animal 

testing generally? Why should people 

be concerned about the animals 

involved? 

DLW: When I first started my 

research, I believed that animals 

should be used in limited numbers 

for biomedical research so we could 

cure people of horrible diseases. I 

quickly changed my mind as I learned 

more about non-human primates and 

biomedical testing. Now I believe 

that no non-human primate should be 

used; they are simply too intelligent 

and sensitive, too complex, to be 

subjected to a life in the laboratory. 

I don’t care whether they are given 

treats or larger cages or are now 

allowed to live in groups, they still are 

at the mercy of human curiosity. We 

are learning daily about instances of 

sentience, intelligence, and emotions 

in other species, including fish, so it 

reasons that we have no right to use 

“lower” animals, either. Animals 

feel pain; they get lonely; they 

yearn for freedom. If you would 

not subject your dog or cat to the 

inside of a biomedical facility, then 

why would it be okay to use another 

animal? I know this practice won’t 

stop overnight –– it’s too ingrained 

in contemporary scientific practice 

–– but I hope that we are moving in 

that direction. Computers have the 

possibility to overturn animal use, 

both in science and in entertainment. 

People say that computers cannot 

simulate the complexity of the human 

body, then again, neither can rats. 

As the dominant and most 

Page 15 

intelligent species on this planet, we 

must act responsibly. If we apply 

the same kind of thinking that many 

have recently directed toward the 

environment, we have a chance of 

eradicating animal testing. 

O: Is there a way people can 

learn to see other animals, chimps 

or anything else, in a more empathic 

manner? What has been the reaction 

of your readers? 

DLW: We cannot put ourselves 

in a mental position that divides us 

from the animal world. Jane Goodall 

made remarkable observations about 

wild chimpanzees precisely because 

she did not shy from comparing their 

behavior to humans. At the time, 

many scientists decried her work 

as sloppy and amateur because of 

this, even though her contributions 

to primatology are monumental. 

Anthropomorphizing remains close 

to a cardinal sin in science, but I see 

no reason why we cannot use our and 

another species’ behavior as a means 

of better understanding a third. I think 

once a person realizes that animals 

are individuals with distinctive 

personalities––and again, this is not 

much of a leap for pet owners––it’s 

easier to empathize. For instance, I 

used to think birds were all alike 

within their species until I had a pet 

budgie. My first budgie can be best 

described as an obsessive-compulsive, 

high-strung, adventurous bird. He had 

a series of rituals he had to perform 

before he left his cage. The one I have 

now is much more laid back and more 

of a homebody. He performs none of 

the rituals that the previous budgie did, 

but he is studious, willing to listen and 

learn new words for long stretches of 

time. Now that I see how different 

two birds of the same species can be, 

I know that the goldfinches eating at 

my feeder are individuals, too. 

The reaction of my readers 

depends highly on their previous 

interest in chimpanzees or animal 

welfare. Some readers have been 

Cont’d on previous page

Page 16 The th OSCAR - OUR 36 YEAR 

JUL/AUG 2008 

A HARD DAY’S PLAY 

When You Really Think About It, Gardening Is Weird 

By Mary P. 

Why do you have a garden 

on your porch, Mary?” 

The children are very 

impressed by the range of flowers 

sheltering under the slatted chairs on 

the porch. Each one has had to stop 

and hunker down on their way in the 

front door, check out the colours. 

“Those flowers are on my porch 

for a while, but soon I’m going to put 

them in the garden. Will that be fun?” 

“You has a garden?” Astute 

kid. Knows the difference between 

“garden” and “arid wasteland”. 

“Well, maybe I don’t have one 

just yet, sweetie, but once I fill it up 

with these plants, I will!” 

The children mill about as I 

prepare. Spade, hose, manure (cow; 

it was cheaper than sheep; is there 

a difference?), little plastic pots of 

flowers. Since it is a very small plot, 

the tots are not allowed in. Five 

toddlers would trample every bloom 

in my four-to-six square metres in 

about 90 seconds. Instead, I have all 

sorts of kid-friendly activities planned 

for them. They will fetch and carry, 

toss vegetable debris into the bin for 

recycling. Lucky us, here in Ottawa: 

we have curbside yard waste collection 

throughout spring, summer, and fall. 

They will watch and comment and 

question… 

They will ride the ride-on cars 

and cover my driveway with chalk 

art. Mary’s kinda boring, after all. 

She’s just digging holes. They do 

that three times a week at the park. 

And she doesn’t even have any sand 

toys. Where are the buckets and the 

tractors? Grown-ups make everything 

boring… 

Me, I’m having a great time, 

though what with my surprisingly long 

fingernails it’s clear that gardening 

gloves will be my next horticultural 

investment… (Where did those nails 

come from, anyway? Yay for calcium 

supplements!) 

I dig the three trenches into which 

I’m going to place the daisies at the 

recommended 8-inch intervals. (I 

figured three trenches were easier to 

dig than 18 separate holes.) 

The bag of manure lies in the drive, 

where the children ride and chalk. I 

give it a whack with the pointed tip of 

the spade. Such unorthodox behaviour 

draws the tots like flies to … manure. 

(The uncomposted stuff, unlike the 

dark and odour-free version in the 

bag.) I am immersed in a swirling 

cloud of curious tots and questions. 

“Why are you hitting the bag with 

the shovel?” 

“Did you gots to dig a hole in the 

bag, Mary?” 

“What’s in the bag?” 

“What is ma-nooowa?” 

*blink**blink**blink* 

“POO??!?!?”“EEEEEWWWW 

!!!” Anna is practically falling over, 

she’s laughing so hard. The other four 

are merely dumbfounded. 

“You gots poo in that bag?” 

“Where did the poo come 

from?”“You BOUGHT POO? 

From the STORE???”*blink* 

(Timmy)*blink* (Nigel)*blink* 

(Malli)*blink* (Emily)BWAH- 

A H A H A H A H A H A H A A A A … . 

(Anna) 

“Why is there poo in a bag?” 

“Who put their poo in the bag?” 

..“COWS?“*blink**blink**blink**b 

link*BWAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAH 

AHAaaa… 

Nigel is the first to recover from 

the shock, and comments sagely. 

“Milk comes from cows. And poo. 

Cows make milk and poo.” 

Indeed. Mary continues. The 

interrogation continues. 

“Why are you picking it up?” 

“Is you picking up POO in your 

HANDS???” 

“It’s clean poo?!?!” 

“Why are you putting it in the 

/CNW/ - 

hole?” 

“PLANTS EAT POO?” 

THIS is the most interesting thing 

I have done in WEEKS. Mary is 

playing with poo. With her bare hands. 

It doesn’t look like poo, granted. It 

doesn’t smell like it, either. Maybe 

cows make funny poo? But Mary is 

playing with POO! 

We shall overlook the fact — 

because the tots obviously have — 

that I deal with the real, uncomposted 

human variety several times a day, 

also with my bare hands. Well, okay. 

With at least one layer of baby wipe 

between me and it, but, you know. 

Mary and poo, we go way back. 

But today, Mary is picking up 

COW POO in her BARE HANDS 

and putting in the GARDEN for the 

FLOWERS TO EAT. 

If that’s not really weird, what is? 

Weird, and really, really 

interesting. 

At the end of the day, the parents 

are bombarded with largely incoherent 

stories about Mary! COW POO! POO 

IN A BAG! flowers EAT POO! POO 

inna hole! POO from a store! 

Oh, and we planted some flowers, 

too. 

POO! POO! POO! 

Cosmetic Pesticides 

Ban Act Passed 

A 

province-wide ban on the sale and use of pesticides is one step 

closer with the passage of the Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act by the 

Ontario legislature, on Jume 18.. 

Over the summer, the government will consult on the specifics of the 

ban: 

- The products to be banned from sale 

- The ingredients to be banned from use 

- The rules around exceptions for agriculture, forestry and golf 

courses, with conditions. 

The province will also develop rules for other exceptions, such as 

fighting West Nile virus, for example, and other health or safety issues. 

Once the ban is fully in place, it will take the place of existing 

municipal pesticide by-laws, bringing consistency across the province and 

protecting Ontarians regardless of where they live. The provincial law, 

unlike municipal by-laws, bans the sale of cosmetic pesticides, not just 

their use. 

It also sets out the rules for the transportation, storage and disposal of 

pesticides, requirements that municipal by-laws cannot control. 

The ban should take effect in spring 2009. 

The Ontario College of Family Physicians was delighted with the 

passing of Bill 64. 

The ministry received 6,940 submissions in response to a January 

18 Environmental Registry posting that outlined the government’s intent 

to introduce legislation that would ban the cosmetic use of pesticides.” 

About 90 per cent of comments reviewed were supportive. 

See additional information on the ban and green gardening 

(http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/land/pesticides/index.php) on the ministry’s 

website.

JUL/AUG 2008 

WINDSOR CHRONICLES B– PART 86 

Dear Tera, 

I’ve been saying goodbye to 

my friends – or rather, they 

come over to sniff goodbye 

to me when we encounter one another 

on the sidewalk. Some are suitably 

nonchalant about it all. Others, 

like Big Frank, take their time and 

commiserate. 

Frank is out of his cast now. He 

will recover from his encounter with 

the car and I wish him well 

And I’m afraid, little friend, that 

I haven’t had a chance to say a proper 

goodbye to you – or even to leave my 

scent on the grass by the tennis court 

where we used to meet. But I leave 

my goodbye notes on all the lawns 

between Cameron and Belmont, and 

if you pass by before the next heavy 

rains, you’ll know that I’ve been 

there. 

For awhile, it looked as though I 

was not going to have much time to say 

goodbye to anyone. This was several 

weeks ago. Alpha picked me up in his 

arms and carried me to the van. We 

drove to the pup kennel on Hopewell 

– a destination that was too far for my 

failing strength that morning. 

The Pup came out from the 

building and sat with me awhile in the 

back of the van. He was crying, and 

I really didn’t have the strength to tell 

him that everything was going to be 

all right. 

And then, everything was all 

right. Alpha began pushing new little 

pills down my throat before dinner 

time. Something he called a “flannel 

Barbie doll.” And even though I hate 

the sensation of pills being pushed 

past my tongue as much as any dog, 

two things began to happen. One, I 

knew that I would be fed immediately 

thereafter. 

Two, I started to feel better. In 

fact, for awhile, Alpha and I began to 

explore the park again. 

Now, I refuse to become one of 

those old dogs who spends most of 

her time griping about health and 

comparing prescriptions when there 

are so many other interesting things 

to discuss. One thing I would advise 

all dogs: there are so many different 

corners of this neighbourhood yet to 

explore. 

This is the 13 th summer that I’ve 

explored this neighbourhood. I have 

been finding there are still corners 

of it that I had not visited before. 

Alpha gives me much more latitude to 

wander off into unknown alleyways, 

and I cast him an appreciative glance. 

But more often, he keeps our walks 

very short so that I don’t court one of 

those awful spells again. Sometimes 

the flannel Barbie dolls aren’t enough 

to keep them away. 

But over the past few days, we 

haven’t had a chance to explore 

further than one of my most familiar 

haunts in the park, on the little rise 

just on the other side of Riverdale 

Avenue. 

Most humanoids don’t go there. 

Many have not seen the stone remains 

of a foundation where people and 

animals used to live, before there 

was a park between the street and 

the river. 

But I know the spot well. I 

know there was once laughter and 

tears, along with the stone walls and 

the glass windows on this spot. And 

when I leave my own mark on these 

stone remnants, I think of the packs 

of humanoids and pets that grew up 

there, maybe grew old there, but 

inevitably moved away. 

And I think of my friends who 

have gone on before me. Abbey and 

Zep. Boomer and Jasper. Brodie 

and Windsor. Winnie and Wendell. 

Obie and Dancer and Jacob. All 

the dogs who once played in these 

fields, and the ones who will follow 

us after. These are the dogs. 

Assez vu. The vision has 

been seen in each of its 

variations. 

Assez eu. Smells of the 

parks, in the evening and in 

the sun and always. 

The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR Page 17 

Departure 

Zoscha passed away at 4:10 AM on Saturday, June 14. An 

obituary will appear in the next issue of OSCAR. 

Assez connu. Life halts. O 

scents. O visions. 

Departure in the sounds 

beyond the midnight traffic on the 

other side of that river, 

Zoscha

Page 18 

Lansdowne’s South Side Stands 

To Be Demolished 

By Leslie Fulton 

The City of Ottawa has retained 

RW Tomlinson to demolish 

the lower south side stands at 

Frank Clair Stadium at Lansdowne 

Park. The plan is to implode the 

stands at approximately 9 a.m. on 

Sunday, July 20th, 2008. Although 

explosives will be used to weaken 

the support structure, the City does 

not anticipate any major local impact 

from this demolition. There will be an 

initial loud sound and, depending on 

weather conditions, the possibility of 

a dust cloud. Unlike some Las Vegas 

demolitions, there will be nothing to 

really see, so please try and keep away 

from the site. 

The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR JUL/AUG 2008 

The demolition contractor will 

be setting up a 250 metre restriction 

zone from the south side stands. The 

City will control access to the site and 

plans are to stop traffic and public 

access on Bank Street, the parkways 

and some of the adjacent streets just 

prior to and for a short duration after 

the implosion. 

The City and contractor will work 

together to contact all businesses 

and residences located within the 

restriction zone about the planned 

demolition. 

The Lansdowne Farmer’s Market 

may start a little later than usual on 

that day. It is planned that the mayor is 

going to hit the detonation button from 

the market between 8 and 9 a.m. 

Landsdowne Frank Clair Stadium Stands Photo by Christine Backs 

Don’t Close The Doors 

On Lansdowne Park Talks, 

Says The GCA 

Leslie Fulton 

Retreating behind closed doors to discuss the fate of Lansdowne 

Park is a major step backwards for the City of Ottawa, 

especially after committing to open and transparent public 

consultation, says the Glebe Community Association (GCA). 

The GCA is very concerned that the City has suspended a design 

competition to redevelop the prime piece of public real estate and entered 

into private talks with the owners of a possible new Canadian Football 

League Franchise (CFL) about what to do with the crumbling Frank Clair 

Stadium. 

“The public has made it very clear that it wants to be fully involved 

in any decisions about Lansdowne Park,” said GCA President Bob 

Brocklebank. “During the public consultation process, the people of 

Ottawa showed they were apprehensive about the “right to develop” model 

and that redevelopment shouldn’t be contingent on professional sports. 

They believe public ownership and control of the entire site needs to be 

maintained. If these are the findings of the City-run public consultations, 

why is the City ignoring their wishes and going back to Plan A – backroom 

discussions and decisions made with developers? This is not in the 

public’s interest.” 

Brocklebank says that Lansdowne Park is a precious public asset 

– it shouldn’t be bartered for a football team. “We’ve received estimates 

that place the value of this land at $160 million, or $4 million per acre. 

Lansdowne could be the jewel in the crown of this city. Shouldn’t the 

public be a part of this renaissance of such a vitally important site? After 

all, it is theirs.” 

While the GCA applauds the early efforts of the City to involve 

citizens via an advertising campaign and public consultation both on-site 

and online, it is dismayed that this process should come to such an abrupt 

halt. 

“We have one chance to do this right. It would be a shame if we blew 

it,” he said. “We hope the City will open those doors once more so that the 

public is fully informed – and consulted – every single step of the way. It’s 

the right thing to do.” 

arts & architecture 

1181 bank st., ottawa, ont. 

K1s 3x7 

By Sylvia Manning 

New To OOS: 

arts & architecture 

Arts & architecture is a 

unique venture founded 

by Ottawa architect and 

photographer Len Ward. Opened 

in Old Ottawa South in April, 2008, 

it is the realization of Len’s longheld 

desire to bring together his 

architectural practice, photography 

studio and gallery into a single 

centre of creativity. Len first became 

familiar with Old Ottawa South while 

attending Carleton University in the 

1970’s and returned to buy a home 

on Ossington Avenue in 2001. This 

wonderful neighbourhood quickly 

became his first choice for a new 

business location. 

An architect with over 25 years of 

design experience, Len concentrates 

on heritage building restoration, 

public institutional work and custom 

residential projects. 

As a fine-art photographer, 

his greatest interest has been the 

interaction of the human form with 

the natural landscape. He also does 

figurative work in his studio and looks 

forward to providing portraiture and 

other photographic services to many 

new clients. 

The gallery at arts & architecture 

features photo-based art from Canada 

and the US with an emphasis on 

the work of local artists. Frequent 

receptions will celebrate new exhibits 

and plans are being made to host 

workshops, presentations by artists 

and other special events. A list of 

upcoming events will be maintained 

both within the gallery and on the 

web site at www.artsandarchitecture. 

ca 

arts & architecture is open from 

11 am to 7 pm Wednesday through 

Friday, and from 11am to 5 pm on 

Saturday and Sunday. Monday and 

Tuesday visits are by appointment 

only. Ask at the gallery reception 

desk for information concerning 

architectural services or photographic 

sittings, or call 613-737-7300. For 

those who prefer by e-mail, the 

address is info@artsandarchitecture. 

ca

JUL/AUG 2008 

By Sylvia Manning 

Ray Zahab, the Chelsea 

adventure runner and 

ultramarathoner, bounces on 

his toes, pacing and bubbling with 

infectious enthusiasm when he speaks. 

He is delivering a motivational talk 

to a group of award winners who are 

on average a highly motivated group 

already. Normally this type of talk is 

somewhat formulaic, but not this time. 

Ray at times is the kid in the candy 

store, with all his plans for pilgrim 

runs in the future, and at other times 

burns with missionary zeal when he 

talks about the various charities he 

has aligned himself with so far in his 

runs across the Sahara, in the Arctic, 

and across Canada. 

Ray is most fervent and persuasive 

when he describes his reformation 

from the pack a day smoker to the 

guy who cannot stop running, or 

raising money and awareness about 

environmental issues. It is this, 

combined with his non elitist view of 

himself as a runner, which encourages 

me to approach him after his April 

talk in a San Francisco hotel. Ray’s 

talk had connected a few dots for me. 

It had given me needed inspiration 

for celebrating my upcoming 50 th 

birthday. 

The running expedition across 

the Sahara began in Senegal, West 

Africa, where I was born and lived for 

the first eight years of my life. Some 

of the causes Ray took up after that 

run include anti-malarial bed nets 

and clean drinking water. I have first 

hand knowledge of the importance of 

these causes. Despite sleeping under 

a mosquito net, I contracted malaria 

myself as a child. Access to relatively 

good nutrition and clean drinking 

water meant its effect was mainly 

limited to flu like symptoms which 

recurred annually even during my first 

10 years in Canada. 


Opening Doors At Sunnyside Wesleyan Church 

by Kirsten Partanen 

Opening Doors...Building 

Great Lives” was the name 

of the fundraising drive on 

which Sunnyside Wesleyan Church 

embarked in January of 2007. Finally, 

after several months of fundraising 

and a year of construction (along 

with the requisite bureaucratic hoops 

and a construction delay or two) 

Sunnyside had a chance to Open the 

Doors to the community at their open 

house on Sunday, May 25, 2008. 

With the last pieces of construction 

falling into place, Sunnyside had 

both a building dedication and an 

open house on May 25th. The day 

began with 2 church services at 9:00 

a.m. and 11:00 a.m. at which many 

people were thanked for their role 

in the project. Among the attenders 

that morning was the architect of 

the addition, Chris Tworkowski. The 

District Superintendant of the Central 

Canada District of the Wesleyan 

Church, Rev. Don Hodgins, was 

also present and spoke words of 

congratulation and prayed a prayer 

dedicating this new space to God. 

Although the community is always 

welcome at Sunnyside Wesleyan 

Church, from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. on 

May 25th, the Old Ottawa South 

community was specifically invited to 

come and see the church and our new 

addition. This was an exciting time, as 

several attenders of the church turned 

into tour guides for the afternoon. It 

was nearly as exciting for the guides as 

for the visitors, as even those who had 

been attending Sunnyside for years 

were still discovering new features. 

Many positive comments were 

A little more than five years ago 

I experienced my own epiphany 

when I realized I would outlive my 

mother. She and my father died in 

a car accident when I was 17 years 

old, at ages 45 and 48 respectively. I 

decided I would try to live a healthier, 

happier lifestyle with better balance, 

for each of the years my life extended 

beyond theirs. And to measure this, I 

have worked toward a new personal 

goal each year for the past five years. 

My personal reformation has included 

some much less ambitious running 

goals than Ray’s. This year is a 

milestone, and I wanted my 2008 goal 

to accomplish something that would 

have been particularly meaningful to 

my parents, who spent 12 years as 

medical missionaries in West Africa. 

Ray’s run across the Sahara desert 

with two other adventure runners has 

been documented in some 10,000 

photographs, only a few of which we 

saw during Ray’s presentation that 

day. They were enough to whet the 

appetite for more, so my partner and 

I approached Ray with a proposition. 

(My partner, Len Ward, is both an 

architect and a fine-art photographer 

who recently opened a combination 

office, art gallery and photo studio 

called “Arts & Architecture.”) Len 

would host an exhibit of some of the 

photographs from running the Sahara, 

and we would raise funds for two of 

the charities benefiting Africa which 

Ray endorses. The timing would 

coincide with my milestone birthday. 

“Spread the Net” is the UNICEF 

sponsored charity which encourages 

individuals to purchase $10 insecticide 

treated bed nets for African families. 

Malaria is the single biggest killer of 

African children under age five and 

accounts for one in five childhood 

deaths in Africa. Spread the Net has 

attracted celebrity endorsements from 

Rick Mercer and Belinda Stronach. 

Ryan’s Well was founded 10 years ago 

by now 17 year old North Grenville 

received about the addition. Among 

these were “a wonderful blending 

of the old and the new”, “what a 

wonderful stained glass detail on the 

cross” and “what a warm and inviting 

church.” It had even been commented 

to one of the pastors a while earlier 

that she had walked by the corner 

of Grosvenor and Sunnyside many 

times and hadn’t noticed a church 

there before (and now does). 

It has been a thrill to those who have 

been attending Sunnyside Wesleyan 

Church to see the interest and the 

positive response of the community. 

A large part of this project had to do 

with accessibility, not only in having 

an elevator for the elderly or disabled, 

but even in a bigger picture to be 

open and accessible to the community 

around us, where God has put us. 

If you missed the Open House, have 

Arts & Africa: Sunday July 6, 2008 

native Ryan Hreljac whose efforts to 

raise money for clean drinking water 

has resulted in a total of 394 wells in 

15 countries bringing clean water and 

sanitation services to over 547,082 

people. The Ryan’s Well Foundation 

has raised millions of dollars. 

Ray Zahab will likely be bouncing 

on his toes and pacing again when he 

speaks on July 6 th , 2008 at Arts & 

Architecture, 1181 Bank Street, during 

the charity reception “Arts & Africa” 

to raise funds for these two charities. 

no fear. Our doors are always open to 

you. For the summer (June 15-Labour 

Day) our church service is at 10:00 

a.m. Sunday. (After Labour Day we 

return to having two services at 9:00 

a.m. and 11:00 a.m.) 

You are also welcome to call 

the church office at 613-730-9411 to 

arrange a time for a tour of the building, 

and of course we will once again see 

you in the morning of the Old Ottawa 

South Porch Sale with coffee, Timbits, 

and the ever important washrooms. 

On behalf of Sunnyside Wesleyan 

Church, I thank you for your patience 

with us in the construction process 

and your celebration with us of 

the opening of the new addition. 

Old Ottawa South is a unique and 

wonderful neighbourhood and 

we are so glad to be a part of it. 

Photographs from the Sahara run will 

be on display from July 2 nd to July 

13 th , and donations can be made at the 

gallery to either of these causes during 

this exhibit. I am hoping to celebrate 

my 50 th birthday that day with some 

gifts to a continent which still owns a 

piece of my heart. 

For more information please 

contact Sylvia Manning at Sylvia. 

manning@td.com or call arts & 

architecture at 613-737-7300.

Page 20 


Tasty Tidbits from Trillium Bakery 

By Jocelyn LeRoy 

Right from day one of Trillium 

Bakery’s long history, there 

was a small problem that 

concerned pie pastry. 

During my “formative years” 

preparing for the hectic and demanding 

life of a bakery-type entrepreneur, 

I was going to business school, as 

well as art and dance schools, raising 

four children, and experimenting 

with recipes that used alternative 

ingredients. 

Back then, there were bizarre green 

things such as sprouted wheat, lumpy 

white bowlfuls of homemade yogurt, 

beige fake cream cheese (tofu!), rusty 

brown paste called miso, and blackish 

bitter muffins whose only redeeming 

feature was a handful of plump raisins 

or dates. Such were the ‘70s! 

A keen interest in health, healthy 

lifestyle, “natural” foods, herbs, 

organic home gardening, back-to-theroots 

cooking and baking – and, for 

awhile – eating all raw foods: those, 

too, were the hallmarks of the times. 

They were indeed preparing me for 

three decades of Trillium living. 

I now believe that the dance 

A Slice of Pie / A Slice of Life 

training was possibly the most 

valuable and relevant – it sharpens 

your brain and develops discipline, 

focus and a freedom of spirit – all 

necessary if you want to be successful 

in business and ride the rollercoaster 

of the early years. Then there was the 

mindset of “Jump in and swim hard” 

(or dance hard), fast, graceful, trying 

not to injure your limbs or fall on your 

face. 

For years, before Trillium Bakery 

became a living, pulsing entity, I 

had collected and tried out recipes 

from neighbours, restaurants, classic 

cookbooks and my ancestors’ family 

recipes. Because I liked making 

TGIF pies, I was fascinated by these. 

There were recipes using butter, lard, 

oil, vinegar, lemon juice, hot water, 

cold water and eggs. The only one 

that stood above the rest was a farm 

friend’s pig-fat pie. She used this 

fat in all her delicious baking. But I 

couldn’t bring myself to try it. 

Every other recipe turned out soso. 

Of course, I didn’t know about the 

light, quick, relaxed touch in creating 

the pastry. “Fear of pie” did not help. 

Never does. 

So, every baker ever hired 

at Trillium got the Number-one 

Question: “Can you make good pie 

dough?” They all either lied or ran 

away fast. 

Eventually I got fed up with being 

leery of pie-dough recipes, pie-dough 

bakers, and pie dough itself. Then I 

had a brilliant idea. 

I insisted on a hands-on lesson, 

using the simplest and smallest number 

of ingredients, walking through it by 

baby steps – doing it myself. I had 

completely overlooked an opportunity 

right under my nose. My long-time 

beau, a professional pastry chef whose 

hands created more pie pastry than I 

could imagine, who had learned his 

craft first-hand from experts in every 

aspect of baking, said, when I begged 

him to teach me once and for all time, 

“It’s so easy. What are you so worried 

about?” 

I replied, “All the recipes from the 

past yielded humdrum results. Except 

my mother’s, which was buttery and 

delicious. Please, show me now!” 

I thought to myself, “This will 

be my final attempt.” I did not like 

feeling that big lumps of flour and 

water had turned me into a wimp, and 

I was tired of avoiding it. 

Like magic, it worked! All of it. 

Especially the hands-on part. It’s true: 

Pie Pastry 

Trillium Recipe 

2 cups flour 

1 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon sugar (optional) 

2/3 cup chilled shortening. 

2 tablespoons chilled butter 

4 tablespoons cold water 

1. Cool the shortening for a few 

hours. 

2. Combine flour, salt, sugar in 

bowl. 

3. Add cold shortening and cut into 

flour with a metal pastry cutter, using 

a quick, sharp motion, cutting right 

through the shortening. Do not mush 

it together. You want pea-size pebbles 

of fat, which pick up flour as you cut. 

4. Make a well in the centre, and pour 

in the ice-cold water. 

5. With a strong steel fork, stir the 

whole mixture with a few energetic 

figure-8 motions, then a sweep around 

the edge of the bowl, until the whole 

mass barely clings together. 

6. Resist the temptation to tidy up the 

dough too much, or pat it with your 

hands, or work it into a more cohesive 

ball. Leave it loose. 

7. Refrigerate for several hours; then 

bring to room temperature. 

8. Dump onto a floured wooden 

table or onto a big board. Slice off a 

portion for one pie crust, and quickly 

shape it into a ball. Don’t be afraid to 

fling around a bit of extra flour while 

rolling out your crust. 

9. This is the step that can utterly 

ruin your results if you overwork the 

JUL/AUG 2008 

it’s easy. But it’s not fun for everyone, 

so, if you’re one of those, let someone 

else make the pastry. 

My uncle from New York City 

used to advise me to get into the frozen 

dough business if I wanted to get rich. 

Maybe he was right, but where’s the 

fun in frozen dough? 

The following is meant to be 

enjoyed. And, perhaps by osmosis, a 

few pointers will enable you to raise 

the bar in your efforts with pie pastry, 

wherever that bar now is. This is a 

recipe for scaredy-cats, not experts; 

you who are experts don’t need help. 

This recipe is about the spirit of making 

pies. It’s really about being creative, 

loose, happy, making something 

to please the senses and celebrate 

anything you deem worthwhile, like 

TGIF. 

It’s about memories, 

heartwarming aromas evoking longforgotten 

moments, and making new 

ones. My father’s best memories of 

dessert harkened back to his days on 

a freighter crossing the Great Lakes. 

Memories of sneaking back into the 

kitchen for “pie ends” shared with 

the ship’s chef: best pie ever until my 

mother perfected her pastry. 

dough. The real pros are known to 

produce a good disc with a minimum 

of rolling. It takes practice and a feel 

for when to stop. 

9a. Roll out pie shells from the centre 

outward. Lift the roller. 

9b. Roll the dough this way to 1/8inch 

thickness. Lightly patch any 

tears rather than re-rolling. 

9c. Loosen from the board, fold in 

two, and lay on the pie plate. Unfold, 

and press into place. 

9d. Trim overlapping edges with a 

slashing motion. 

You can use this same method to 

form the top crust, or you may use 

a crumble mixture or lattice. (The 

classic cookbooks detail many ways 

to finish and decorate pies.) 

So, please remember: 

Light handling will avoid developing 

the gluten, and it will incorporate air 

into the mix, creating a tender, flaky 

crust. 

Too much flour can toughen pastry. 

Too much water makes it soggy, and 

too much fat makes it greasy and 

crumbly. 

We at Trillium believe that a little 

treat now and then won’t kill you 

– we’re not talking allergies here, 

but rather the fear of clogging your 

arteries. It takes a lot more than a 

slice of pie to bring on a heart attack 

for most people, so please enjoy the 

accomplishment of creating an artful, 

homemade pie with a flaky crust and 

divinely delicious flavour. And have 

fun!

JUL/AUG 2008 

By Lisa Xing 

Photos by Tom Alfoldi 


Tom Alfoldi - Scientist/Artist/Photographer 

Tom Alfoldi 

came back to 

Ottawa from 

a nine-day excursion 

to Belize in early- 

April. Not really 

for the conventional 

vacation, but for his 

love of underwater 

photography. 

Tom usually 

makes a few trips to 

the Caribbean each 

year for this. But, the 

seasoned photographer since teenage years never 

did this by trade—until he retired in 2004. He 

started out as a scientist, working for the federal 

government’s Centre for Remote Sensing—using 

satellite technology for a variety of earth science 

applications. 

Seahorse in Macro-mode, 

Bonaire, Netherland Antillies 

“I developed an algorithm for measuring 

suspended sediment concentration…” he says. “It 

was very successful.” 

But, it’s when we start talking about two of his 

niche arts that he really gets excited and pulls out his 

laptop to show the photos. Not of the photography 

just yet, but of his pumpkin carvings. 

Starfish 

Flashing before me are exquisite photos of 

pumpkins Tom has carved over the years. 

“Every year I have a theme,” he explains. “I 

Regal Angelfish, Palau, Micronesia 

haven’t decided what it’ll be this year yet! But, I 

usually get ideas with my wife.” 

In past years, he has done a cartoon theme— 

Ariel, Nemo, Dora the Explorer. He has also carved 

out Harry Potter and a superhero theme. 

“It feels really nice when kids come up and, 

without question, call the name of the character,” 

he says. 

Then, there is one of his favourites—Star 

Wars. 

“I’m a huge Star Wars fan,” he admits, after 

showing photos of Yoda and Darth Vader. 

Tom has also carved out a self-portrait. “That’s 

when I had a moustache!” he laughs. 

It’s true. The moustache is there, as are the eyes, 

nose, lips—all done to the finest detail and with exact 

contours and shading. All of the pumpkin portraits 

Anemone and Shrimp 

resemble the true likeness of their characters onscreen 

and off. 

“I use a laptop and connect it to a digital 

projector,” he says. “Then I project it onto the 

pumpkin and trace it on.” 

The hard part is the carving because, as he says, 

“If you’re carving out a doughnut, you can’t let the 

‘island’ in the middle just fall out!” 

Tom is a veteran and knows his way around a 

Toroise in Belize, Ambergris Caye 

Tom with a grey reefshark in Turks and Caicos 

Page 21 

carving knife and the orange fruit. He also knows 

his way around a digital SLR camera—especially 

if it’s sealed in a waterproof case for his dives on 

the reefs. 

“I love the challenge and the novelty,” he says. 

Soft Coral, Palau, Micronesia 

“When I have a camera in my hand, as a diver, I am 

not just observing things—I am actively searching 

for things and looking for angles. Without a camera 

in my hands, I feel lost and out of place.” 

Tom isn’t a stranger to altitudes—high or low. 

One of his first gigs was in the Arctic doing aerial 

photography. “I’d hang out of airplanes while taking 

pictures for an engineering student in Toronto. I’d 

have 160 miles an hour wind in my face and the 

tears would be running down my face. 

“It was fun,” he says, simply. 

After reminiscing some more, five o’clock rolls 

around and Tom says he has to go—a curling match 

at the local club. Staying active, both physically and 

mentally, is just second nature to him. 

“I take things as they come and I’m interested 

in things. I’ve always been the type to look things 

up in the dictionary or an encyclopedia.” he says. 

“But along the way, I get distracted and branch off 

from that and then branch off again.” 

Looks like Tom will have no trouble keeping 

busy during his retirement.


JUL/AUG 2008 

Do You Look Like Your Dog 

Winner/First Place-Heather and Eszti 

Readers who visit the Wag blog at http://wagpetshop.blogspot.com/ can 

see the photos there. 

2nd runner up- Dillon and Cooper 

3rd runner up-Leo and Charlot 

Honorable Mention

The th JUL/AUG 2008 OSCAR - OUR 36 YEAR 

Page 23 

Brewer Park Trees 

OOS residents Emily and Simon Sterczyk with a new tree 

beside Brewer Pool.

The th Page 24 OSCAR - OUR 36 YEAR 

JUL/AUG 2008 

A Tree for Every Household: The Greening of Old Ottawa South 

By Amanda Sterczyk 

Did you know there’s a tree 

with your family’s name on 

it? Under the City of Ottawa’s 

TREE program, every household is 

eligible to receive a potted tree from 

the city. The Trees, Reforestation and 

Environmental Enhancement (TREE) 

Program is a four-year initiative that 

aims to enhance the City of Ottawa’s 

urban and rural forests through the 

planting of 100,000 trees between 

2007 and 2010. The TREE Program 

empowers Ottawa residents, businesses, 

community groups and schools to 

participate in planting trees to enhance 

and maintain the city’s forest cover and 

combat climate change. 

Most yards in our neighbourhood 

are not large enough to welcome another 

Sue Ironside 

Women at Curves are 

amazing! It’s well known in 

the Curves community, but 

once again this Spring in Old Ottawa 

South we were blown away amazed by 

the artistry of one of our members. 

Last summer when owner JoAnn 

Patenaude gave the Club a makeover 

one blank wall just screamed for some 

artistic intervention. Early morning 

Curves member, Dianne Borg, a civil 

servant by day, and artist by night (or 

weekend) offered to tackle our wall 

and attempt her first ever wall mural. 

Dianne, who lives with her husband 

and 3 kids in OOS, envisioned a 

streetscape of our neighbourhood as 

her subject for the wall painting. 

Monday mornings became an 

exciting time on the circuit for our 

Curves members because Dianne had 

been into the Club over the weekend 

and had worked wonders with her 

paints on our wall. Over the period 

of 5 months the 22 foot wall was 

tree. That’s where the community 

enrichment portion of the TREE 

program comes into play. Community 

associations or local interest groups can 

apply for grants to have trees planted 

in City-owned parks and greenspaces. 

While households are only eligible for 

one tree during the four-year program, 

the community enrichment request can 

happen every year. 

As a result of three separate 

requests from OOS residents, 47 new 

trees were planted on public space in 

OOS. The requests originated from: 

Brenda McCoy, as the Brewer Park 

Representative for OSCA; Amanda 

Sterczyk, on behalf of the Brewer Gate 

Homeowners’ Association; and Glenda 

Blacker & Chris Flower. The planting 

took place the week of June 2 nd . The 

species ranged from Sugar Maple to 

Colorado Spruce. 

transformed from plain and boring into 

a magical rendition of our amazing 

neighbourhood, complete with special 

OS buildings, bridges, the canal and 

river. She even gave us swans. No 

Photo By Greg Strahl 

New trees line the path from Bronson Place to the Bronson Avenue bus stop. Photo by Amanda Sterczyk 

Our Street On View At Curves 

matter what the weather outside, 

exercising became an opportunity to 

visually escape into a beautiful and 

magical neighbourhood. I think our 

Curves’ members would be the first to 

For more information on the TREE 

program, visit the City of Ottawa 

website: http://ottawa.ca/residents/ 

healthy_lawns/forestry/tree_program/ 

index_en.html. To request your tree, 

call the City at 311. 

Trees Planted in Old 

Ottawa South: 

Along Brewer Pool: 

3 Flowering Crabapple 

1 Linden 

1 Sugar Maple 

Around Brewer Playground: 

1 Hackberry 

6 Sugar Maple 

8 Silver Maple 

6 Red Maple 

Along Sloan Avenue: 

3 Colorado Spruce 

6 Potted Elm 

Along Bronson Place: 

3 Red Maple 

2 Colorado Spruce 

7 Potted Elm 

say,”Dianne, give up your day job!” 

We’re willing to share Dianne’s 

talent, so drop by Curves at 1185 Bank 

Street to have a look at some truly 

amazing local art. Thanks Dianne!


Page 25 

This month’s contribution 

to the Ottawa South 

History Project comes from 

guest columnist Robert W. 

Passfield. 

On March 6, 1894, John G. 

Haggart, the Minister of 

Railways and Canals, received 

a petition from the citizens of Ottawa 

and residents of the Township of 

Nepean, Carleton County, requesting 

the erection of a bridge across the 

Rideau Canal near its outlet into 

Dow’s Lake, on a line with 

Concession Street (Bronson 

Ave.)in Ottawa. The petition stated 

that there was a considerable amount 

of traffic from south-western Ottawa 

and the Townships of Nepean 

and Gloucester traveling north on 

Concession Street to the manufacturing 

establishments at the Chaudiere Falls; 

and that traffic was much impeded 

as the closest bridge crossing was at 

Bank Street, which involved a 1-1/2 

mile detour. The petitioners further 

stated their belief that once the canal 

was bridged, the County of Carleton 

intended to bridge the Rideau River 

on the concession line, and to open 

up and improve the roads south of 

the canal to connect with Concession 

Street. 

In response to the petition the 

Department of Railways and Canals 

initiated a study of the proposed 

OTTAWA SOUTH HISTORY PROJECT 

Bronson Avenue Canal Bridge 

Concession Street bridge site. 

Although there were high banks on 

both sides of the canal cut, it was 

decided that a low-level swing bridge 

would be much less costly to construct 

than a high level 

bridge. Ultimately, it was 

decided to postpone the construction 

of a swing bridge over the canal until 

the County erected a bridge across 

the Rideau River on the concession 

line to provide access to the proposed 

canal bridge site from the south. 

With the change of government 

in the General Election of June 1896, 

other matters came to the fore. The 

new Liberal government, under 

Wilfred Laurier, was committed to 

improving the canal lands as part 

of a broader effort to make Ottawa 

an attractive capital city - “the 

Washington of the North”. To that 

end, the new government established 

the Ottawa Improvement Commission 

in 1899; and engaged Frederick G. 

Todd, a Montreal landscape architect, 

to prepare plans for the beautification 

of the city through the establishment 

of public parks, broad avenues, and 

scenic drives, and the cleaning up 

and landscaping of the canal lands 

within the city. In that endeavour the 

Ottawa Improvement Commission 

converted the canal lands into a linear 

urban park, and constructed a scenic 

driveway (Queen Elizabeth Drive) 

and a walkway along the west bank 

of the canal from New Edinburgh 

to Dow’s Lake. Picturesque rustic 

pavilions and trellised arches added to 

the park setting, as did the ornamental 

Minto Bridges erected over the canal 

just upstream of 

the Rideau Falls. In 1903 with 

the new driveway approaching 

completion, the Department of 

Railways and Canals decided 

to construct a swing bridge on 

Concession Street to provide an 

alternative route to the Hog’s Back 

from the new driveway, and to serve 

farmers from Nepean and Gloucester 

townships, who were bringing 

produce to market in west Ottawa 

each week. The following year a steel 

pony truss swing bridge, on stone 

masonry piers, was erected across the 

canal on Concession Street. Thomas 

McLaughlin of Ottawa constructed 

the masonry substructure, and the 

Dominion Bridge Company of 

Montreal erected the swing bridge 

superstructure. It was an unusual 

swing bridge in that it was built on a 

skew, at an angle to the canal channel. 

Sometime thereafter Concession Street 

was re-named Bronson Avenue. The 

original steel swing bridge 

remained in service until 1938 

when it was replaced by a new 

electrically-powered steel plate girder 

swing bridge with a wider deck to meet 

increasingly heavy traffic demands. 

The new bridge was erected on the 

same alignment, and on widened piers, 

by the Dominion Bridge Company. 

In September 1958 an agreement 

was made between the City of Ottawa, 

the Federal District Commission 

(successor to the Ottawa Improvement 

Commission) and Her Majesty’s 

Government, whereby the City 

agreed to undertake the construction 

of a high-level, fixed bridge over 

the Rideau Canal on Bronson Ave. 

in return for a financial contribution 

from the federal government. The 

new reinforced-concrete bridge 

was erected in 1959 on a straight 

alignment, beside the existing plate 

girder swing bridge which served as a 

pedestrian bridge until February 1961 

when it was removed. 

Robert W. Passfield is a public 

historian working in the fields of 

technology and industrial archaeology. 

He had a 30 year career in the federal 

public service. Most recently he was a 

Senior Historian, Historical Services 

Branch, Parks Canada. Mr. Passfield 

can be reached at www.passrob.com. 

In 2008 and 2009 the City 

of Ottawa is undertaking a major 

rehabilitation of the modern day 

high-level reinforced-concrete bridge 

to upgrading the structure for code 

compliance and extending the service 

life of the bridge (http://www.ottawa. 

ca/residents/major_projects/bronson/ 

index_en.html). 

Contact the Ottawa South 

History Project at HistoryProject@ 

OldOttawaSouth.ca or visit us 

online at www.OldOttawaSouth.ca/ 

HistoryProject. 

LAC a009969 - Along Driveway at Bronson Ave. Bridge, ca 1911 - William James Topley, Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada


JUL/AUG 2008


Page 27 

by Peter Zimonjic 

Into The Darkness: 

An Account of 7/7 

Published by Vintage 

[Random House] 

For those of us who know it 

well Old Ottawa South is a sort 

of sanctuary. The trees fill the 

streets and back yards in the summer, 

blanket the ground with colour in the 

fall and stand as lonely sentinels in the 

winter. Our sidewalks are alive with 

the sound of children and cluttered 

with their toys and bikes when they’re 

suddenly called in for dinner. It is a 

green and warm place. 

In one way or another I have 

considered Old Ottawa South my 

home for 11 years, despite being born 

in Toronto. I lived here while I studied 

philosophy at Carleton, worked here 

while a reporter at the Ottawa Citizen 

and I dreamed of returning here during 

the five years I lived in London, 

England. 

Old Ottawa South for me has 

always been a safe place and I guess 

that’s why I’ve chosen to come back 

here after living through the most 

destructive terrorist attack in British 

history. I wanted to be back home, 

Into The Darkness: An Account of 7/7 

safe, if such a thing is possible. 

It was the summer of 2005 and I 

was on London’s subway system on my 

way to work for a British newspaper 

called The Sunday Telegraph. I 

boarded the train at Paddington 

station and moments later sailed into 

the darkness of a tunnel as the train 

carriages rattled over the rails. 

Another train approached us from 

the opposite direction and just as it 

began to pass there was a loud crack 

and a bright flash. The train opposite us 

had been bombed. I didn’t know it yet 

but six people would die and dozens 

more would be seriously injured. 

Answering a call for help I walked 

into the carriage behind and found a 

man covered in blood trying to force 

his way on board our train. He had 

been in the bombed carriage, which 

now lay opposite to where I stood, and 

he had been seriously injured. 

Unable to open the doors to our 

train to let him in, I, and a few other 

passengers, took the decision to smash 

the window on our train and jump 

over, into the darkness, of the bombed 

carriage of the neighbouring train to 

see if we could help. 

Taking this decision we had no idea 

we were about to enter the epicenter of 

a terrorist attack. Despite the obvious 

signs, we didn’t stop to consider the 

simple and obvious reality that this 

had been an attack. The idea, however 

logical, seemed crazy. Bombs go off 

in Iraq, in Afghanistan in Israel, not 

near me. 

When we successfully negotiated 

the broken window and lowered 

ourselves in to the bombed carriage 

of the train on the parallel track we 

found ourselves surrounded by death, 

injury and fear. 

It took over an hour for fire and 

ambulance services to reach us and it 

was during that hour we performed 

first aid, comforted the injured, tried 

to wake the dead and watched as the 

innocent failed to hold on until help 

could arrive. 

When help finally came I rushed 

out of the dark, leaving the people I 

had been treating to the capable hands 

of the paramedics. I raced to find my 

wife who was eight months pregnant 

and in her arms I was once again 

safe. 

The following day I put my 

account of the attack on paper for The 

Sunday Telegraph and people started 

to call me. They wanted to know if I 

had any contact information for those 

they had helped, or who had helped 

them. 

It was then I realized how isolating 

it was being a stranger on a train and 

so I started up a web site to help 

survivors network with one another 

and share experiences of the day. That 

web site turned into more questions 

people wanted answered and so I 

decided to write a book. 

Into The Darkness: An Account 

of 7/7 is, essentially, a non-fiction 

novel which chronicles the hour from 

the time the first bombs went off to 

the time the fourth took the lives of 13 

people on a London bus bringing the 

total death count to 52, plus the four 

bombers. 

To research the book I tracked 

down people from all four incidents, 

some were very close to the bomb, 

others far away. I talked to the families 

of those who survived and those who, 

sadly, did not. 

My intention was to create a book 

that read like a thriller but served the 

historical purpose of preserving how 

people rose to the occasion to help 

Correction: June 2008, page 27 

Author of The Amazing Adventures of 

Rosy, The Fairy, is Mary Hawkins. 

Mary Hawkins will be at Mother 

Tongue Books on June 28, from 2 to 

4 pm. 

Author Peter Zimonjic 

others, maintained calm and extended 

warmth. I wanted people to know 

that despite the acts of terrible cruelty 

by some, the whole was strong with 

honour and kindness. 

My book hit bookstores in Canada 

in May and has already been short 

listed for two awards in England. The 

Good Housekeeping award for nonfiction 

and the Gold Dagger Award for 

Non-Fiction. 

It now sits proudly on my shelf, 

a memory contained in pages, a long 

way from London. 

I sometimes flip through it as I 

watch my children play in the green 

and lush back yard so typical of Old 

Ottawa South. I see them and I think 

how nice it is for them to be here, in 

Ottawa, close to the canal, Brewers 

Park and the children on their street. 

It is good to be home, for them 

and for me. 

Peter Zimonjic works as a 

parliamentary reporter for Sun 

Media. 

peterzimonjic@yahoo.com

Page 28 


Torchlight Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet 

Tues July 15 Windsor Park 

(Old Ottawa South) 

Wed. July 16 Windsor Park 

(Old Ottawa South) 

All shows 7 PM start time and 

Pass the hat ($10 suggested 

donation) unless otherwise 

noted. 

Romeo & Juliet is a love story 

that is in our bones -- we all 

know it and feel a personal 

connection to it. Shakespeare’s 

Romeo & Juliet is more than four 

hundred years old and yet it continues 

to permeate pop culture. Romeo and 

Juliet is a very sad story about a very 

lively and funny cast of characters to 

whom fate has dealt a very bad hand. 

This summer a Company of Fools 

presents The Most Excellent and 

Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo & 

Juliet and it marks the first time a 

full-on tragedy is part of the summer 

Torchlight Shakespeare Series. This 

isn’t to say our Torchlight production 

will not be funny. There is plenty of 

humour in Shakespeare’s text and 

much of the play is structured as a 

comedy. We aim to make the show 

accessible to all ages. We realized 

that some of our favourite stories 

as children were ones with very sad 

endings: Charlotte’s Web, Old Yeller, 

Beautiful Joe... all beautiful stories 

adored by children. So we aren’t 

worried about losing the younger 

ones with a sad ending: the challenge 

is, as always, to make the story and 

the characters compelling enough that 

no matter what your age and attention 

span, you love to watch the characters 

and will follow their story, wherever it 

may end up. 

A Company of Fools 

A Company of Fools has been 

delighting audiences all across 

Canada since 1990. Inspired by the 

rogue Elizabethan players that once 

entertained audiences outdoors and 

at the Globe theatre, we have built a 

reputation as a highly physical troupe 

doing interactive shows indoors and 

out. The Fools mount two shows a year, 

plus perform at numerous festivals, in 

schools, and at corporate events. Our 

award winning shows have performed 

all across Canada, from Halifax to 

Vancouver to Yellowknife. 

We are a not-for-profit 

incorporation and a registered charity. 

A Company of Fools is Ottawa’s only 

professional Shakespeare company. 

The mandate of the Fools is to produce 

innovative, entertaining and accessible 

shows based on the works of William 

To book an OSCAR ad 

call Gayle 730-1058 

oscarads@oldottawasouth.ca 

JUL/AUG 2008 

Shakespeare. We produce original 

works inspired by Shakespeare as 

well as performing his plays. 

Being Fools, we combine physical 

theatre techniques such as clown, 

mask and puppetry with the classical 

text. This unusual mix has earned us 

critical acclaim all across Canada. 

As part of our mandate we create 

new works based on and inspired by 

Shakespeare. Although known for our 

performances, the Fools are active 

in the field of education. We provide 

workshops and performances for 

elementary and high school students. 

We also program professional 

development workshops for emerging 

and established artists in the region. 

www.fools.ca 

Second-hand Smoke Law 

A 

new law that protects children under 16 years old from secondhand 

tobacco smoke in motor vehicles was passed in the Ontario 

legislature on June 16. 

Second-hand smoke in motor vehicles can be up to 27 times 

(http://www.oma.org/Health/tobacco/IncarSHSconcentrationsBackgrounder.pdf) 

more concentrated than in a 

smoker’s home. 

Children exposed to second-hand smoke (http://www.oma.org/ 

phealth/smoke2004.pdf) are more likely to suffer Sudden Infant Death 

Syndrome, acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more severe 

asthma. Exposure to second-hand smoke among children has also been 

linked to lower cognitive test scores compared with children who were 

not exposed. 

Ontario has one of the toughest anti-smoking laws in North 

America. Since 2003, tobacco consumption in Ontario has fallen by 

more than 30 per cent. 

Under the law, any person - driver or passenger - in the motor 

vehicle, who is smoking while someone else under the age of 16 is 

present, is committing an offence. The person holding lighted tobacco 

would be subject to a fine. 

Every person who fails to comply with the new law is guilty of an 

offence and subject to a set fine of $250. 

The law applies to both moving and stationary vehicles and applies 

to all motor vehicles, regardless of whether any window, sunroof, 

rooftop, door, or other feature of the vehicle is open. 

Learn about the health effects of second-hand smoke 

(http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/english/health/smoke_free/fact_ 

sheets/041505-tobacco 

_2hand.pdf) and smoking in motor vehicles legislation 

(http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/english/health/smoke_free/smoking_in_ 

cars/default.as 

p). 

Find out where to get help to quit smoking 

(http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/english/health/smoke_free/default.asp).

JUL/AUG 2008 


My Cabin In The Woods Part four of seven 

By Jo Crivellaro 

There is a great advantage to 

owning your land at least a 

year before you build; there 

is much to be learned if you do and 

possibly some nasty surprises if you 

don’t. My property is actually two 

rectangular parcels of land, both 

the complete opposite of each other. 

The first part is lowland with a large 

cleared area and then 50’ of dense 

bush that backs onto a small creek 

and marshland. Originally I thought 

the cleared half would be a good place 

for a garden, that is, until I tried to dig 

a shovel into the soil. The field had 

been cleared two years prior with a 

bush hog, to rid it of the alder brush. 

What was left that couldn’t be seen, 

was an alder root system that covered 

the entire field. Alder isn’t something 

that just goes away. At one point I 

built a small decorative fence with 

some of the alder I had cut to clear a 

path to the creek. I poked the sticks 

down into the soil and wove the sticks 

around each other for a rustic effect. 

A couple of weeks later the branches 

started to bud, and within six weeks 

the fence was in full leaf, which would 

have been O.K. except I was trying to 

rid that section of alder, not plant a 

new crop. 

Enter pigs. Pigs will loosen and 

turn over the top foot of soil, fertilizing 

it as they go along, considering large 

roots as entertainment. Unfortunately 

pigs require very strong fencing. My 

pigs have walked through acres of 

5’ grass in search of the neighbours’ 

nicely mowed lawn. Go figure! 

Usually pigs can be enticed back home 

with food, but on one summer’s day, 

after just eating their fill, I noticed the 

pigs heading down my long driveway 

towards the road. Not being hungry 

they had no interest in me whatsoever, 

no matter how much I shook the food 

bucket and with great enthusiasm 

bellowed that I had a wonderful 

treat for them. As they hit the road 

and started up the hill I realized it 

could be hours before they would be 

hungry again and who knows what 

unapproved landscaping they might 

achieve in the meantime. I looked to 

the heavens and prayed “This is out of 

my hands Lord, it’s up to you, please 

bring them back”. Miraculously, 

all four pigs turned on the spot and 

trotted straight back into their pen. 

Just one of the many examples I have 

witnessed of answered prayers. I 

needed some permanent fencing. A 

friend who was clearing a large lot of 

hemlock donated the logs and I built a 

huge fenced area for the pigs using all 

500 logs. This was the beginning of 

my garden area. 

The bartering system of trading 

pork for labour has over the years 

enabled me to have trees cleared 

and also get a roof put on my cabin. 

Two pigs provided four men with ½ 

pig each, cut, wrapped and frozen, in 

return for one day of labour each. A 

good deal for all; well actually I didn’t 

get the pigs opinion on that one. I’m 

content to know that my pigs lived a 

very happy life right up to the moment 

when their roles changed from rototillers 

to pork chops. Two tall poles 

support the crossbar and hook where 

the pigs were hung to be cleaned, and 

my friend Joanne suggested I soften 

the look by hanging a basket of flowers 

from the hook when it wasn’t in use. 

Instead I painted a sign, ‘till death do 

us part’ which captures my heartfelt, 

albeit short-term, commitment to my 

pigs. “ Pass the gravy, please”. 

The second piece of land is a 

small, south-facing mountain, which 

also revealed some surprises once 

some trees were cleared. Originally 

covered in a thick forest of mostly 

balsam and poplar, it was difficult to 

see the individual stone ridges and 

water run off areas. Clearing the 

lower part of this slope showed me 

another great place to situate a garden. 

At least 10’ higher in elevation than 

the lowland, and almost always in the 

sun, with good drainage, this location 

would be far better for certain plants. 

I finally decided where my house 

should go by standing where I wanted 

to be if I was facing the kitchen sink. 

I wanted to be able to see who was 

coming in the driveway and also be 

able to enjoy the beautiful view of the 

forest and marshland while standing 

in the spot I would probably end up 

being most of the time. I wanted to be 

able to greet people from there as they 

came in the door and never have my 

back to company while preparing 

a meal. (How feng shui of me!) 

So that’s what finally decided 

the location of my house, the 

position of the kitchen sink. 

Then I studied the sun’s pattern 

on that location thus determining 

the shape of the house. Once that 

was decided, I worked with the 

space around me, considering 

travel patterns from sink to cook 

stove etc., in order to come up 

with a functional floor plan. 

The cedar logs I had were just 

enough for a 14‘ x 18’ story and a 

half, timber frame which would 

consist of a kitchen downstairs 

and sleeping quarters upstairs. 

After living for seven months 

in our 9 x 9 ½ garden shed this 

was ample space we couldn’t 

wait to get into! Considering I 

was a broke single mom flying 

on a dream and a prayer it was 

vital for me to be flexible in my 

decisions and work with the 

materials I had in order make 

progress. 

After cutting the mortise 

and tenons myself the frame 

was ready to be set up on a 

6” re-enforced concrete slab. 

With my friend Keith’s years of 

experience, it was really just like 

building with really big ‘Lego’ 

pieces. With the aid of a few 

clamps and my grandfather’s 

sledgehammer, the frame was 

together in only 22 hours. 

The following seasons were ones 

without a vehicle and very limited 

income so progress was very, very 

slow and pretty much limited to 

landscaping. I found it important to 

concentrate on what I could do as 

opposed to the many things I couldn’t. 

Keeping a photo album allowed 

me to see just how much progress 

had already been made and at times 

has played a key role in keeping me 

positive and on track. 

I had decided early on that my 

house would not be connected to 

the hydro grid. This was based on 

my objection to the ugliness of steel 

towers hung with endless miles 

of wire, and more importantly the 

dependency we have all been coerced 

into by the convenience that hydro 

brings. I know the unpredictability 

of wind, ice and the economic system 

and do not want someone else to be 

responsible for whether my house is 

warm and whether I can cook a meal 

or not. 

Although I had always planned to 

get solar or wind power when I could 

afford it, I am amazed at my lack of 

want for electricity. I now have a 

vehicle and take my laundry with 

me when I go town and charge my 

deep cell marine battery in my truck 

while I drive there. This allows me 

to operate my sons’ portable D.V.D. 

player for movie nights or inflate 

a tire if necessary. Our radio is a 

small inexpensive unit, which can be 

solar powered or charged up by hand 

Page 29 

winding. Last summer I built a root 

cellar, which is partially buried under 

ground and accessed directly from the 

kitchen on the north wall. Although not 

completely finished (nothing is!) it did 

not freeze this past winter and should 

not go above 12 degrees even after a 

week of really hot weather. It’s like a 

big walk in fridge, can store enough 

food for a year and gives me a real 

sense of independence and security. 

With the proper ventilation pipes in 

place I hope to build a cupboard on 

one wall, which will freeze when the 

temperature outside drops below zero 

and will provide a freezer with ample 

space every winter. 

My son and I have now lived 

in our cabin for eight years without 

electricity and in this case my slow 

progress has enabled me to make 

much better final decisions. Had I had 

lots of money and built immediately, 

I might not have chosen the best spot 

for my house or a layout that is as 

functional as the one I have. Although 

there have been many compromises 

and frustrations along the way it is a 

journey of learning I wouldn’t trade 

for anything. 

Jo Crivellaro is a professional 

knitwear designer, mosaic tile artist 

and hand made card maker. Her 

company ‘Jo of the woods’ can be 

contacted at www.joofthewoods,ca 

and her cards are available at Paper- 

Papier and Wool-tyme.


JUL/AUG 2008 

OCDSB TRUSTEE REPORT 

Balanced Budget, New Director of Education, 

and Looking Ahead 

By Rob Campbell 

This school year was another big 

year. Not as big as the previous 

one when we came within one 

vote of a budget defeat and Provincial 

takeover, but still big. It’s said that the 

two most important matters a School 

Board can deal with is the budget and 

Director selection, and this year we 

did both. 

We passed a balanced budget 

without raiding reserves and without 

any amendments - a first since the 

amalgamated Board formed in 1998. 

Our relative ‘good fortune’ this year 

has its direct antecedent, however, in 

the very large cuts of the preceding 

two years. This budget provides for a 

10% jump in Secondary VPs, boosts 

Elementary in-school special education 

support and custodial support, 

reinvests in targeted central admin and 

provides for more occasional teachers 

at schools which will indirectly help 

school budgets. The system remains 

stretched very tight however and 

we still have too few Elementary 

VPs, haven’t been able to bring back 

Intermediate overlay Arts teachers, 

not reversed massive special ed cuts, 

have a 22% jump in split Elementary 

classes, school budgets remain tight 

and so on. So, not a budget with much 

wiggle room and not reinvesting so 

much in front-line student services but 

one modestly refloating several key 

‘infrastructural’ budget lines which 

have been under chronic stress. 

We have picked a new Director 

of Education to replace Lorne Rachlis 

who is retiring. The Director is the 

only employee we pick and who’s 

performance we review and who we 

explicitly direct. Getting the right 

person for the District is key. We 

believe we have that person in Lyall 

Thomson. We conducted a national 

search, and interviewed and referenced 

several crackerjack people but there 

was consensus Board support for 

Lyall. We have high hopes and don’t 

think he will disappoint. He starts 

officially August 1 but will be acting 

unofficially during the summer. 

It has also been a big policy year. 

A lot of good work was done but there 

were a couple of major highlights. At 

long last, four years in the making, 

we passed the new Secondary School 

Framework which asserts the primacy 

of the community school while 

providing defined leeway and which 

will mold Secondary programming 

for many years. We implemented 

the recommendations of the FSL ad 

hoc Committee and decided to phase 

out LFI, arguably eight years in the 

making. Also, additional Committee 

recommendations to stop the standard 

practice of ordinarily streaming special 

education and ESL students out of 

French immersion is now the new law 

August 13-16th, 2008 

By Carrie Croft 

Ottawa will host the Ontario 

Summer Games for the second 

consecutive time August 

13-16, 2008 in the National Capital 

Region. The Ontario Games are the 

Province’s premiere multi-sport event 

and provide sports competition for 

youth between the ages of 11 and 22. 

The 26 sports will involve 

approximately 3,500 participants 

(athletes, coaches and officials) from 

across the province, as well as over 

1,000 volunteers. 

The organising committee is 

seeking volunteers for all areas of 

the games. “There are 26 sports in 

the Ontario Summer Games: archery; 

athletics; baseball; basketball; canoe/ 

kayak; cycling; field hockey; lacrosse; 

lawn bowling; rowing; rugby; sailing; 

shooting; soccer; softball; swimming; 

tennis; triathlon; volleyball; water 

polo and water skiing, so there is 

something for everyone to come out 

and enjoy, “ said volunteer Co-Chair 

Damien Coakeley. 

Pat Reid, Director General of the 

of the land relayed to Principals. 

We close the year with much else in 

progress and a big year to look forward 

to next year also. We are looking at 

governance issues and the idea of 

instituting performance measures. 

We have been looking at special 

education service models, especially 

for Gifted. Next year we will have to 

deal with the labour negotiations for 

every bargaining group - all groups 

are variously in negotiation and the 

situation is in flux. 

This coming December will be 

the midpoint of the current Trustee 

mandate. I’m going to be evaluating 

what I’ve done against what I said I’d 

try to do and look to maximize the next 

two years as I can. If there are matters 

you would like to see addressed the 

next two years, please get in touch 

with me. 

Have a great summer! 

If you have a suggestion or a 

concern, or would like to be added to my 

electronic newsletter list, then please 

don’t hesitate to contact me. I can be 

reached via any of 730-8128, rob@ 

ocdsbzone9.ca or “Rob Campbell, 

133 Greenbank Road, Ottawa ON, 

K2H 6L3”. Board meeting, budget, 

document and delegation and other 

info is available at www.ocdsb.ca 

Ontario Summer Games Seeks 

1000 Volunteers For Events 

Games, is appealing to companies and 

businesses in the Ottawa area to get 

involved with the Games by purchasing 

a block of 10 or 20 all-sport admission 

tickets, each worth $10.00, and have 

the Games donate those tickets to 

the 2008 Games official charity, the 

Ottawa Big Sisters Big Brothers. 

All contributing companies will 

be listed in the Official Program of the 

Games, and on our website. 

Ottawa will benefit immensely 

from holding the games again in 

2008. Pat Reid, said, “The economic 

impact of the Games in Ottawa in 

2006 was $1.2 million. This time we 

expect that figure to rise slightly to $1.4 

million, with the addition to the Games 

of the sports of swimming, water polo, 

triathlon and lawn bowling.” 

Volunteer training sessions 

are quickly approaching and the 

Ontario Summer Games Organising 

Committee is welcoming all interested 

parties to visit the Games website at 

www.2008osg.ca sign up and support 

athletics in Ontario.

JUL/AUG 2008 

LADY EVELYN SCHOOL 

By Mitchell Beer 

A 

gentle dare from a Grade 

8 science teacher was the 

catalyst for an experiment 

that propelled Rideau Gardens 

resident Rachel Irving-Beer, 14, to an 

honourable mention at the Canada- 

Wide Science Fair in mid-May. 

In her project, Fibre on Fire, 

Rachel compared the flammability 

and fire safety of three common 

yarns: wool, cotton, and acrylic. 

After burning test swatches of each 

material, she laid a fresh set of 

samples over raw chicken thighs, to 

test the impact on skin. She found 

that: 

* The wool extinguished on its 

own, with little or no damage to the 

chicken. 

* The cotton burned long enough 

that the fire could interact with the 

oils in the skin, giving the chicken 

thigh second-degree burns. (No live 

chickens were harmed or distressed 

in the conduct of this experiment.) 

* The acrylic kept burning until 

it melted into the skin and gave the 

chicken third-degree burns. 

In her research, Rachel found 

that little or no work had been done 

on the fire safety of different fibres, 

even though acrylic and cotton are 

preferred materials for baby blankets 

and clothes, and for clothing and 

shawls for older adults. She noted 

that people in both age groups “may 

lack the mobility to escape from 

burning clothing or blankets.” 

Accidental burns “are a major 

cause of emergency room visits, 

and can lead to serious injury, even 

death,” she wrote. Cotton and acrylic 

“are comfortable, easy to wash, and 

lack the ‘itch’ sometimes associated 

with wool. But for fire safety, these 

fabrics may not be best for people 

with impaired mobility, or impaired 

judgement.” 

But the concept behind the 

experiment was very nearly 

extinguished before it began…or so 

it seemed at the time. 

When Rachel first presented 

her project idea to Summit science 

teacher David Farley, his reaction 

was decidedly lukewarm. He sent her 

back to the drawing board for more 

research, then told her she could go 

ahead with the experiment…even 

though he wasn’t sure the results 

would be very interesting. 

In particular, he said he couldn’t 

understand why she wanted to burn 

chicken thighs to test the fire safety 

of fabrics. 

It was just the prompt Rachel 

needed to go all-out for her 

hypothesis. 

“She came home stomping 

mad that day,” recalls Karen Irving, 

Rachel’s mother and an avid knitter, 

who acted as her mentor for the 

project. 

“You should never tell Rachel 

that there’s anything she can’t do, 

because she won’t stop until she’s 

proven you wrong,” Irving said. 

“And that’s exactly what happened 

here.” 

Farley quite enjoyed Rachel’s 

quiet satisfaction when she was 

called to the stage to accept first 

prize in Summit’s Grade 8 science 

fair. “I guess I was wrong about the 

chicken,” he told her. When I went to 

school to collect his signature on the 

application for the Ottawa Regional 

Science Fair – the next step after a 

local school fair – he told me how 

very proud he was of Rachel’s work, 

making clear that he’d believed in 

her every step of the way. 

Pushing Rachel to justify her 

concept “was really good strategy for 

her,” said Jennifer Dawson, Rachel’s 

Grade 4-6 teacher at Lady Evelyn 

Alternative School in Old Ottawa 

East. “She had an idea she believed 

in, and now she had to prove it to 

someone. But it came from her.” 

The CWSF is an annual event 

that brings together about 500 

intermediate and high school 

students from across Canada. This 

year’s CWSF was held in Ottawa 

for the first time in 46 years, but it 

was a long road from the Summit 

fair to the Canada-wide. To earn 

her spot in the eight-day program, 

Rachel entered her project in the 

Ottawa regional fair, where it won 

gold in the junior health sciences 

division and received one of nine 

invitations to the Canada-wide. 

Although Rachel has had an 

incredibly busy, positive two years 

at Summit, she credits Dawson 

with helping her discover the selfconfidence 

and study skills that 

made her science project a success. 

Dawson said her top priority during 

Rachel’s years at Lady Evelyn was 

to help her believe in herself and 

her own abilities. 

“She always had the ideas, the 

aptitude, and a picture of what the 

final product would look like,” 

Dawson recalled. 

“It was a matter of allowing her 

to explore and put her own flair on 

everything. No matter what project 

I gave her, Rachel always had 

other ideas and extensions, always 

knew where she wanted to go with 

something. Always. She’s highly, 

highly creative. So I allowed her to 

do that – why not? She was never 

restricted.” 


Fire Safety Project Wins Honourable Mention 

At Canada-Wide Science Fair 

Rachel at the Canada-Wide Science Fair

Page 32 

Local Veterinarian - Dr. Emily Black 


The Details Are In The Eyebrows… 

Always In The Eyebrows 

By Emily Black 

Some of the best conversations I 

have in a day are with my pets. 

I know this sounds funny and 

I realize that, for the most part, I’m 

probably just talking to myself but if 

this is the case then I am one of the 

most interesting conversationalists 

I’ve ever met. The truth is I am talking 

to my pets and they are talking back the 

best they can, not so much in words, 

although the three legged cat generally 

has something to meow about, but 

more in deed and understanding. In 

my mind this is one of the principle 

reasons we own pets. 

We had a lady come into the 

hospital yesterday who had lost her 

two feline companions of 14 years, 

and tears came to her eyes when she 

talked about them and then suddenly 

she perked right up and told us that her 

friend’s cat had just had kittens and 

her friend said she could have two and 

now she would have someone to get 

excited with about the pizza delivery. 

And that about sums it up; our pets 

are living beings we can share things 

with, including pizza. 

In this article I’d like to go over 

some of the ways that our animals 

communicate with us, a bit of a 

translation session really to help your 

pet better connect. So, let us start with 

Dogs. Tail wagging Happy, Tail still 

Sad – Just joking, dogs are far more 

deep than simply a tail wag but the old 

adage that a dog wags its tail with its 

heart holds true. Most of a dog’s subtle 

expressions are based in their eyes. 

You can have a great conversation 

with a dog based on eyebrows alone. 

Dog were originally pack animals, 

and have developed a complicated 

scheme of eyebrow movements to 

convey intention and desire. If a dog 

wants you to do something they will 

continue facing you but will look in 

the direction of the desired object 

with their eyes, they then look back 

to you to make sure you got it… then 

repeat until you get it. By example 

“there is a lovely piece of toast on 

the table.. over there (eyes shift to the 

table then back)… on the table (eyes 

shift again)… it looks yummy (eyes 

again).” This is a very effective form 

of communication and of guilt which 

in the end always gets you the toast. 

Another interesting feature of dogs, 

mostly designed I’m sure to throw their 

humans off, is blinking and yawning. 

Both are features of attentiveness. 

Blinking, as with humans, shows they 

are thinking and listening to you. This 

behaviour encorporates both a reflex 

and a sign of submission; the dominant 

and therefore “not listening” dog tends 

to try and stare you down. Yawning in 

dog language is a way to break tension; 

they yawn when they are taking the 

time to think about something. They 

also yawn when they are tired. So it’s 

best not to rely on this, and to wait for 

written verification. 

Now Cats. My favorite cat 

behaviour is the kiss. Cats kiss 

with their eyes, a long languid blink 

directed at their sweetheart. The 

great thing about this is that you can 

blink back and they get it! I use this 

a lot in my exam rooms where, when 

I meet a cat for the first time, things 

could go either way, I could be friend 

or foe. Usually I find these guys are 

blinking their little hearts out trying 

to tell anyone that will look that they 

are friendly and love anyone, but 

that they are terrified. One nice long 

blink on my part and, what do you 

know, we have established a clear 

communication and we are fast friends 

from there on in. Often times the blink 

is preceded by the chin nod where a 

cat will nod with its head leading with 

its chin. This is an excited welcome 

greeting showing you that they are 

just so happy you’ve come. Another 

/CNW/ - 

JUL/AUG 2008 

welcoming behaviour is the stretch 

and scratch… be it on the couch or on 

the stairs or even the carpet. Cats will 

do this when you come into a room 

or into the house and it is actually a 

welcome greeting. They are showing 

you how lovely and long they are and 

pointing out very subtly how lucky 

you are to have a wonderful long cat 

like them. This can be used for best 

advantage by placing a scratching 

post by your front door. It’s there 

when they need it and they get used to 

being allowed to scratch there. 

Dr Emily Black is a small animal 

veterinarian who grew up in Old 

Ottawa South, trained at the Atlantic 

Veterinary College and now lives in 

the Glebe. She owns and operates 

Centretown Veterinary Hospital and 

is herself owned by a 13 year old dog 

and two cats. 

Reducing Electricity Use 

With the hot weather approaching and air conditioners getting 

revved up, Ontario is heading towards a peak energy demand 

period. But there are lots of things individual Ontarians can do 

to reduce their electricity consumption during the dog days of summer. 

Did You Know... 

• An average Ontario household consumes around 1,000 kilowatthours 

each month 

• On average, 60 per cent of a yearly electricity bill goes toward 

heating and cooling the home. 

• Home appliances make up roughly 18 per cent of household 

electricity consumption. 

• In a typical home, 20 per cent of household energy costs are created 

by hot water, and the average household does 37 loads of laundry per 

month, using 6,817 litres of water. 

Ontario needs to reduce its peak demand by 6,300 megawatts by 2025 

- that is the equivalent to taking one in five electricity consumers off the 

grid! 

One kilowatt hour is the amount of electricity required to keep a 100watt 

bulb lit for ten hours. The average Ontario house-hold uses about 

1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month. 

Every kilowatt-hour saved through conservation prevents two pounds 

of carbon dioxide (CO2) from reaching the atmosphere. 

A two-degree adjustment to your thermostat setting can lower heating 

bills by four per cent and prevent 500 pounds of CO2 from entering the 

atmosphere each year.

JUL/AUG 2008 

Red Apron Cooks 

We have been extremely 

busy at the Red Apron 

as our Retail Pantry has 

become quite the bustling spot. In 

our shop we are carrying a number 

of food items from local producers 

including Denis Gourmet Sausages, 

fresh Art-is-In Bread daily and a 

variety of locally produced pickles, 

sauces, jams, jellies & chutneys. 

Denis, a teacher at First Avenue, and 

his wife Becky created this business 

after a 5 month backpacking trip 

through Southeast Asia. What 

originally started out as a fundraising 

activity to help Tsunami victims has 

blossomed into a lovely local business 

that continues to ‘give back’. Even 

those who don’t consider themselves 

sausage fans love these sausages. 

As we enter the season of 

abundant fresh local greens, we are 

presented with a good opportunity 

to maximize our intake of raw 

vegetables, especially those beautiful 

baby greens that can make a salad 

so interesting. Many people find 

dressing their salads a challenge 

and eating the same old salad with 

the same old dressing not much 

fun. However making simple salad 

dressings is quick, easy and can turn 

some simple greens into a spectacular 

accompaniment to their meal. With 

the weather getting hotter by the 

day, a salad is a great way to enjoy a 

healthy meal without heating up the 

kitchen. The secret to a great salad 

is to make it an interesting mix of 

texture and flavour. 

Here are my suggestions for 

building a great salad. 

Base: Start with good quality 

greens. Although Romaine and Leaf 

Lettuce are nice, try some Baby 

Mustard greens, Mache Lettuce, 

Baby Spinach, Mizuna, Baby Kale, 

Baby Beet Tops, Sorrel, Watercress, 

or Baby Arugula. If you are looking 

for an excellent supply of organic 

greens I would suggest you contact 

Bryson Farms and consider taking 

their fresh greens by the week or 

visit their stand at the Parkdale 

Market (www.brysonfarms.com). 

There are a number of other great 

greens growers that regularly show 

up at the Lansdowne, Main Street 

and Organic Farmer’s Market. 

Variety: Add interest by 

incorporating fresh seasonal berries 

or dried blueberries or cranberries. 

Caramelized apples or pears are 

wonderful or add other fresh 

vegetables like grilled asparagus, 

avocado or shredded red cabbage to 

really enhance a salad. Be creative! 


Delicious Salad Ideas 

Jenny Heagle with her Red Apron team at the Firehall Festival, June 21 

Photo by Mary Anne Thompson 

Protein: Turn your Salad into a meal 

by adding grilled shrimp, grilled 

chicken or steak, canned tuna or 

salmon, grilled tofu, shredded or 

crumbled cheese, and beautiful 

beans like garbanzo beans or black 

turtle beans. Double smoked bacon, 

or smoked fish add both protein and 

intense flavour. 

Crunch: Top your salad with 

nuts for added protein and crunch. 

Toasted almonds, sesame seeds, 

pistachios and pine nuts are my 

favourites but any good quality 

nut works. Croutons, toasted pita 

wedges or crumbled corn chips are 

another great way to add crunch. 

Deep fry some crispy leeks, onions 

or thinly shaved vegetables – like 

carrots or parsnips. 

Flavour: The dressing you 

choose will help bring all these 

ingredients together and give your 

salad some punch. I have provided 

a basic vinaigrette recipe along with 

suggestions on how to enhance your 

dressing with great flavours. 

Basic Vinaigrette: 

1/2 tablespoon finely minced 

shallot, garlic and/or scallion 

1/2 tablespoon Dijon-type mustard 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/2 tablespoon freshly squeezed 

lemon juice 

1/2 tablespoon wine vinegar, 

balsamic or white balsamic 

1/3 to 1/2 cup excellent olive oil, or 

other fine, fresh oil 

Freshly ground pepper 

Instructions: 

You can shake all the 

ingredients together in a screwtopped, 

however, I like to make 

my dressings in a blender or food 

processor. Start with the lemon 

juice, vinegar, shallots or scallions 

together with the mustard and 

salt. With the blender or food 

processor on, drizzle the oil in 

a small steady stream to form a 

smooth emulsion. Add in freshly 

ground pepper. Taste and correct 

seasoning with salt, pepper. 

Yield: For about 2/3 cup, serving 

6 to 8. 

Variations: 

Asian Mango: Add some chunks 

of Mango and replace the lemon 

juice with lime juice. Replace the 

Dijon with Chili Powder and fresh 

Cilantro. This dressing works well 

with a salad that includes grilled 

asparagus, grilled chicken or Shrimp 

and topped with garbanzo beans, 

crispy leeks or toasted almonds. 

Sesame Ginger: Include a thumb 

size piece of peeled ginger, replace 

the lemon with orange juice and zest 

(from 1 orange) and replace ½ the 

oil with Toasted Sesame Oil. Add a 

pinch or two of sugar or honey. This 

dressing works well with Grilled 

Tofu, Sushi Grade Tuna or a few 

strips of lean steak. You can top it off 

with sesame seeds and if you want to 

give it a real boost, toss it with some 

cooked rice noodles. 

Sweet & Savoury: Add some 

Caramelized apples and Onions, 

fresh thyme and brown sugar or 

maple syrup. This dressing works 

very well with a salad that includes 

some dried cranberries, toasted 

walnuts, fresh goat cheese and some 

duck confit for a truly decadent 

dinner salad! 

For more information on the Red 

Apron Dinner Service or our Retail 

Store, visit www.redapron.ca or call 

us at 613-321-0417. Stop by to stock 

up for the weekend at the cottage!


Page 34 JUL/AUG 2008 

by Rick Sutherland, CLU, 

CFP, FDS, R.F.P. 

The bond between a grandchild 

and grandparent is very special. 

Often grandparents decide to 

leave a gift to their grandchildren in 

their will. This extremely generous 

gesture can be fraught with challenges. 

Here are a few things to consider prior 

to implementing this decision. 

It is important to recognize the fact 

that more grandchildren may arrive 

following the death of grandparents. 

When grandparents leave gifts to their 

grandchildren who are alive at the time 

of death, resentment can sometimes 

arise for the grandchildren who are 

born at a later date. In order to prevent 

this occurrence grandparents can 

leave their estate to their children who 

can divide the money accordingly to 

Leaving Money to Grandchildren 

all current and future grandchildren. 

In some cases grandchildren left 

with an inheritance from grandparents 

may end up wealthier then their 

parents. In this scenario, it is often 

found that the children whom inherit 

their grandparent’s wealth may have a 

tendency to be more difficult and tend 

to take on a cavalier nature. 

Problems can arise if no age is 

specified in the will, specifically if 

the grandchildren are under the age of 

majority. In this case the province will 

take control of the money until such 

time as the grandchild reaches the age 

of majority. The age of majority varies 

among jurisdictions between 18 and 

19 years of age. Here in Ontario the 

age of majority is 18. 

Even if the grandchildren are at 

the age of majority it is sometimes 

advisable to establish a testamentary 

Financial Divorce Specialist 

Avoid costly mistakes with professional financial 

assistance in the division of assets. 

Contact: Rick Sutherland, CLU, CFP, FDS, R.F.P. 

1276 Wellington Street, Ottawa ON K1Y 3A7 

Phone: (613)798-2421 Email: rick@invested-interest.ca 

Guidance, Protection 

and Peace of Mind. 

Anna E. Sundin, Barrister & Solicitor 

GEnErAl PrActicE includinG: 

Family Law, Wills, Real Estate, Incorporations, Litigation and Collaborative Family Law 

– A Cooperative and Dignified Approach to Separation and Divorce.– 

trust and appoint a trustee who will 

apply conditions on how much and 

when the grandchild actually receives 

the money. If the grandchild is a minor 

the trustee can be given instructions in 

the will with directions and conditions 

when minors will receive their 

inheritance. 

A trustee is given investment 

powers over the money and other 

assets until the beneficiary reaches a 

certain age. Although the beneficiaries 

of the trust have an interest in it, 

the trustee is the legal owner of the 

property held in the trust and has the 

authority to control the management 

of the assets. The trustee’s obligations 

include making investment decisions 

and preparing and filing income tax 

returns on behalf of the trust. 

A testamentary trust has 

additional tax benefits. Unlike other 

By Anna Sundin 

trusts, a testamentary trust is treated 

as a separate taxpayer and enjoys 

graduated tax rates on income. A 

testamentary trust has non-tax related 

benefits including, but not limited 

to being creditor proof. This means 

that beneficiaries, lenders or spouses 

cannot attack the trust. 

Care must be exercised when 

planning gifts to grandchildren. You 

want to make sure that your gift is 

appreciated and achieves your desired 

objectives. Your grandchildren will 

appreciate it. 

This is a monthly article on 

financial planning. Call or write to 

Rick Sutherland CLU, CFP, FDS, 

R.F.P., of FundEX Investments Inc. 

with your topics of interest at 798- 

2421 or E-mail at rick@investedinterest.ca. 

Local Anti-Terrorism 

Measures? 

Members of the Eastern Ontario bar and those requiring access to 

the Ottawa court house were recently advised that as a result of 

the trial of the first person to be charged under Canada’s Antiterrorism 

Act, beginning on Monday, June 23, 2008, new security measures 

will be taken at the Courthouse. 

These include: 

· Barricades at the circular driveway at the entrance of the courthouse 

and at entrance of the parking garage. Police patrol and police vehicles will 

monitor these areas. 

· Parking meters on Elgin Street, from Lisgar Street to Laurier Avenue, 

will be hooded, making it a non-parking and non-stopping area. Vehicles 

left unattended will be immediately removed at the owner’s expense. 

· Trial proceedings will be held on the third floor where there will be an 

overflow court (with live video feed), if necessary. There will be screening 

of everyone wishing to attend the proceedings and access will be controlled 

on the third floor of the Courthouse. 

As I was starting to type this, an electronic “Wizard” came on and advised 

me that my use of the word-processing application had become unstable 

and required me to make an electronic report to the software company. I 

was not allowed to ignore the “Wizard” command and was prevented from 

continuing with the writing of this article. After I sent the electronic report, 

I tried to return to the article I had been typing, but it had been deleted and I 

had to start over again. I wonder if this had anything to do with the content 

of my article. 

Has the heightened security at the Court House been successful? Is 

my paranoia a result of these ‘protective’ measures? It would seem that 

rather then creating an atmosphere of security, these protective measures 

are intensifying fear, paranoia and hatred. Anti-terrorism measures, such as 

those at Court House, in addition to the cost of the extra manpower, the 

metal detectors, the SWAT teams on alert, the reduced access to our public 

buildings by the public, and the delays in conducting our business, are 

producing a rise in social distrust and fear. 

As our social bonds are severed, our communities become dangerous, 

soul-less places rather than strong networks of support. I believe that the 

security that comes from strong communities is better than any monitoring. 

When we know our neighbours, we learn to trust them and as we demonstrate 

that trust by working together on community projects, we create a place 

where everyone feels valued and included. Then there is no need to strike 

out at each other with violence. 

Averting violence in this way is not without a price tag; however, it has 

incalculable value. It is the value of a complex, vibrant community which 

provides a safe haven for human creativity, where the best of the human 

spirit can soar. 

Constant electronic monitoring and security measures exist in many 

large cities now. 

We can create more security in our neighbourhood, one relationship at a 

time. Get together with your friends and neighbours this summer.

JUL/AUG 2008 

M.P.P. OTTAWA CENTRE 

By Yasir Naqvi, 

MPP Ottawa Centre 

With the Spring Legislative 

session wrapped up, I 

thought it was timely to 

reflect on the progress the Ontario 

government has made since the fall. 

We are moving forward with 

steady progress for our families 

and communities. Among the bills 

that have been passed into law in 

recent months are: the Healthy 

Food for Healthy Schools Act, 

2008 that amends the Education 

Act to add provisions regulating 

the trans fat content of all food and 

beverages sold in a school cafeteria; 

the Investing In Ontario Act, 2008 

that ensures that a portion of future 

provincial surpluses will be directed 

to municipalities for infrastructure 

needs; and Christopher’s Law (Sex 

Offender Registry) Amendment Act, 

2008, which changed the existing 

law, to ensure that the Sex Offenders 

Registry be notified quickly whenever 

a sex offender is released into the 

community 

We also have several bills still 

under consideration that I am very 

excited about. These bills include; 

Bill 64, Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act, 

which would prohibit the use and 

sale of pesticides that are used for 

cosmetic purposes; Bill 69, Smoke- 

Free Ontario Amendment Act, that 

would prohibit smoking in cars with 

children; Bill 48, Payday Loans Act, 

2008, which would will enhance 

consumer protection by licensing all 

payday lending industry operators 

and banning controversial lending 

practices; and Bill 50, Provincial 

Animal Welfare Act, which would 

better protect animals, including those 

in zoos. 

I am working hard with my 

colleagues at Queen’s Park to 

ensure that we are listening to our 

communities, and doing the things that 


Ontarians want - and need - us to do. 

Not all of us are as fortunate as some, 

and that is why it is so important for us 

to stick together and help one another 

when we need it. 

In Ottawa, we are helping by 

investing $5.2 million in funding for 

new and expanded addictions services 

in our community. 

This investment includes $2.4 

million in new funding for addictions 

services in Ottawa for youths aged 

13 to 17. These treatment services 

will include 20 beds for English and 

French-speaking patients in youthspecific 

residential programs. We are 

also providing $250,000 in funding 

for school-based addictions outreach 

and counseling. This provides early 

intervention for students using alcohol 

or drugs. Early intervention in schools 

helps kids stick with addictionrecovery 

programs and reduces the 

need for more intensive treatment 

later. 

For those who are not in school, 

we are investing an additional 

$250,000 for addictions outreach to 

shelters, drop-ins and other locations. 

This will help people who are difficult 

to reach and have not been using the 

existing addiction services. We will 

also provide an additional $800,000 

for the construction of 48 new 

supportive housing units. Supportive 

housing for people with addictions 

helps them to live on their own or 

in a group home setting, while still 

receiving the supports and services 

they need. 

This summer, I look forward to the 

opportunity to meet with community 

groups to continue my work on my 

Private Member’s bill, the Safer 

Communities and Neighbourhoods 

Act (SCAN), slated for first reading 

this fall. 

The idea of SCAN was first 

presented to me last summer during 

the election. At that time, I met 

with several community groups and 

Call to Artists: 

One Session Down… 

Open to all area artists, register for the 4th annual 

Old Ottawa South 

Art and Music Festival. 

Check our website for details: www.oosartfestival.ca 

Build on the success of the past three years 

and participate in this 

family event on Saturday, September 20, 10. a.m. - 4 p.m. 

in Windsor Park in Old Ottawa South. 

Art, day-long music stage, children’s art activities, 

parade and B.B.Q. 

Register early to get your name and contact up on our 

website and your art on our web-site slide show. 

Don’t miss out on getting a space. 

residents who had become concerned 

about repetitive and disruptive criminal 

behaviour in their neighbourhoods. 

The purpose of SCAN legislation 

is to improve community safety by 

providing the government with civil 

remedies to deal with residential and 

commercial property where illegal 

activities are habitually occurring. 

SCAN is aimed at real property 

(buildings and land) that is used 

for carrying out unlawful activity, 

and permits a government official 

or private citizen to obtain an order 

enjoining the use of the property for 

certain criminal activities. 

SCAN works under the 

presumption that civil remedies are 

cheaper and more expedient than 

traditional criminal law remedies 

and require a lower burden of proof 

on authorities seeking a remedy from 

the Court, and is therefore proven 

effective at dealing with problem 

properties in a timely manner. 

Since coming to office last fall, 

I have been working closely with 

the community and some colleagues 

in drafting SCAN legislation that 

would address the concerns I have 

repeatedly heard. I anticipate that 

the draft legislation will be ready for 

distribution by early July. At that time, 

I welcome to you review the Bill and 

provide me with any feedback that 

you may have. 

If you are interested in obtaining 

a copy of SCAN when it is released, 

please contact my office at ynaqvi. 

mpp.co@liberal.ola.org or 613-722- 

6414. 

Please feel free to contact me 

anytime to share your thoughts and 

suggestions. 

I love hearing from you!

Page 36 

SURROUND CIRCLE YOGA 

By Maureen Fallis, 

Surround Circle Yoga 

It’s 5:30pm and you have spent the 

whole day in the office. Now it 

is time for some exercise! What 

to do? Go to the gym, go to a yoga 

class, go out for a run? Whatever 

you choose it’s all good. What might 

happen, however, is that since your 

muscles and joints may be a little 

sluggish, blood has to fight its way 

through tissue, and toxins get stuck in 

the body. 

Liberation approaches… and 

although you know you should start 

slow, warming up the muscles and 

joints so they don’t feel suddenly 

taken by surprise, you don’t because, 

well, it just feels great to get moving. 

The muscles try to create tonicity as 

fast as possible leaving the production 

of lubricating synovial fluid lagging 

behind what is needed for the joints. 

The lymph system, which has 

accumulated toxins that cannot be 

dealt with effectively because of lack 

of movement during the day, may 

now become overwhelmed. The heart 

and blood vessels react to the sudden 

strain, and the ligaments may suffer if 

there is a lack of balance. 

During the day, the focus was on 

mental activity. Now it is the body’s 

turn. The human body is built to 

move. Human beings are not just a 

Need Renovations? 

Custom Designed Additions and 

Major Renovations that respect the 

Craftsmanship and Architectural 

style of your older home. 

594-8888 

www.gordonmcgovern.com 

The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR JUL/AUG 2008 

Joy In Movement 

sitting, lying, or standing apparatus 

with a knob on the top carrying a cell 

phone in one hand and a computer in 

another! 

After efficient exercise, one feels 

loose, elastic, aired-out, refreshed and 

positive. What would it be like to 

have this feeling throughout the whole 

day? Sudden spurts of movement 

at a specific hour are not necessarily 

healthy for the body. It is not what you 

do from time to time for the body, but 

what you do habitually that is decisive 

to your level of fitness. Creating a 

continuum of body awareness with 

regular practice is ideal. Practicing 

yoga regularly, as an example, is a 

great beginning, but not the end, of 

getting and staying fit. To be really 

fit both physically and mentally, there 

is another component ~ and that is to 

experience joy in movement. 

Experiencing pleasure when 

moving will freshen and strengthen 

the body more than purely doing goaloriented 

exercises. If we, as adults, 

could discover the same joy as we often 

see in small children when they play, 

scuffle or tussle, we would naturally 

be more spontaneous and creative in 

the way we move our bodies. 

Finding the delight in movement 

by breathing in a relaxed manner, 

being focused and mentally present 

to your efforts will benefit your body 

and mind to the maximum. Also, one 

cannot put too much emphasis on the 

fact that beauty and health come from 

within. A superficial program to get fit 

will let you down sooner or later. An 

inner approach is as important as the 

outer activity. Stretching body, mind 

and spirit, as a life-long goal, builds 

on inner and outer strength. 

Surround Circle Yoga has three 

exciting workshops planned for July 

– each will focus on expanding the 

experience of yoga in a unique way. 

To find out more about summer classes 

and workshops at Surround Circle 

Yoga call Maureen Fallis at 613- 

730-6649 or visit our website www. 

surroundcircleyoga.com. 

Advanced Asana Workshop 

“The Sitting Postures” 

It’s not about how far forward you 

can bend or how far you can twist 

your body, for wherever the point of 

resistance lies is the place where you 

have the greatest opportunity to learn 

and change. If you have a minimum 

of four months of yoga practice you 

are invited to explore how coiling 

inward expands your practice both on 

and off the mat. 

Saturday, July 5 th , 2008 

9:00 – 11:00am 

Soul Sister Yoga Workshop 

“Mandala, Mudra & 

Mantra” 

A mother or grandmother & daughter 

(10-15yrs) bond is a rich resource of 

nourishment & challenge. Discover 

how yoga can expand your connection 

with breath, movement and creativity. 

In this experiential workshop you 

will design your very own ‘family’ 

Mandala, Mudra & Mantra. 

Thursday, July 10 th , 2008 

6:30 – 8:30pm 

Yoga, Journaling & 

Meditation Workshop! 

“The Journey Inward” 

In this experiential workshop you 

will learn how to be more mindful, 

present and compassionate. Special 

Guest, Paul Karamat, Physiotherapist 

and Mindfulness Meditation Leader 

will teach the introductory techniques 

of mindfulness meditation. Through 

traditional sitting, and non-traditional 

silent walking and eating meditation 

you will learn how to observe and 

accept your thoughts with loving 

kindness. 

Saturday, July 19 th , 2008 

8:00 – 2:00pm (gourmet picnic lunch 

& hand-crafted journal are included in 

fee) 

Janu Sirsasana (Head-of-the-Knee Pose). Although this forward bend 

will challenge most beginners, more experienced students find it interesting 

as well. What makes this pose is not that you can touch your toes: it is staying 

present on the way down. When bending forward you curve your awareness 

back toward yourself, looking inward to find the stillness of the centre. As 

you learn to surrender and release into that return, you can recuperate from 

the outward actions of your busy everyday life, and take solace in selfreflection. 

Photo by Tom Alfoldi 

To book an OSCAR ad 

call Gayle 730-1058 

oscarads@oldottawasouth.ca

JUL/AUG 2008 

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT OTTAWA CENTRE 

Preserving Ottawa’s Green Spaces 

One of the great advantages 

of Ottawa is the balance 

between its vibrant urban 

centre with many green fields and open 

spaces. People in our communities 

value our parks. Whether it’s to 

exercise, walk our pets, or simply to 

relax with our friends and families 

parks and recreational fields play an 

important role in our lives and are 

integral parts of our urban landscape. 

The natural environment has 

always been important to me and 

I am fortunate, as your Member of 

Parliament, to take an active position 

on its preservation. I have sought 

to ensure the protection of green 

space and natural areas through my 

legislative efforts such as a private 

members bill to protect the Gatineau 

Park and a private members motion 


and action plan to preserve the Ottawa 

River. I have also worked with the 

National Capital Commission to 

change how the NCC maintains the 

natural habitat along the shores of 

the Ottawa River. This initiative has 

won praise from the David Suzuki 

Foundation and is helping to ensure 

the survival of wildlife species at 

risk. 

Even though we are fortunate to be 

so close to Gatineau Park, many of us 

take advantage of the dozens of smaller 

green spaces located throughout the 

city. These spaces are special places 

in many neighbourhoods and are used 

widely by our communities. However, 

with increased urban development in 

Ottawa, it is important to ensure that 

our green spaces are not overtaken by 

residential and commercial buildings. 

In fact, it is necessary to establish 

more parks and fields. 

At a recent community forum 

hosted by Kitchissippi Councilor 

Christine Leadman I brought forth 

the idea of meeting with the National 

Capital Commission and the City 

of Ottawa to discuss the possibility 

of transferring public lands, such as 

Rochester Fields, to the City on the 

condition that these lands remain 

protected green spaces and exempt 

from development. I have received 

much positive feedback from the 

community on this proposal and will 

continue to move forward with it. 

An additional aspect of the growth 

our city is experiencing is the recent 

discussion surrounding transit. Most 

of us are aware that the City of Ottawa 

has been developing a plan to reduce 

congestion and to modernize our public 

transit system. While I agree that our 

city needs to have a long term plan 

to address transit concerns, I believe 

this must be done appropriately with 

minimal impact on our natural green 

spaces. 

Paul Dewar, MP 

Ottawa Centre 

613 946-8682 

www.pauldewar.ca 

COMPUTER TRICKS AND TIPS 

A Few More of Our Favourite Websites - 3 

by Malcolm and John 

Harding, of Compu-Home 

In this issue we conclude our series 

of columns describing a few terrific 

websites. Our thanks to readers 

who have phoned and written with 

comments and suggestions – we are 

always pleased to get your feedback. 

Internet Movie Database: 

www.imdb.com 

This site is a very worthwhile 

suggestion from our old friend 

and colleague, Paul. IMDb 

claims that it is “the biggest, best, most 

award-winning movie and TV site on 

the planet. . . visited by over 57 million 

movie and TV lovers each month” and 

we don’t doubt it. You will find movie 

reviews, blurbs and announcements, 

as well as amazingly complete credits 

for movies and television, and from 

there you can progress to professional 

and personal biographies of casts and 

crews. Quickly now: Who played 

Adam Cartright, and when did he 

leave the Bonanza series? 

White Pages: 

www.whitepages.com 

If you’re like us (well, one of us, 

anyway) and you’re starting to find the 

type impossibly small in the telephone 

directory nowadays, you might 

want to start looking up people and 

businesses in whitepages.com. With a 

bit of practice you start to find that it’s 

just as quick as the book and there are 

several extra features too. “Reverse 

Lookup” solves the mysteries that are 

pretty constant at our house, when we 

find pieces of paper lying around with 

telephone numbers but no names. 

There are also listings of postal codes 

and the White Pages coverage is for 

all of North America. 

Canada Revenue Agency: 

www.cra-arc.gc.ca 

As we write this, it’s that time of 

year when Canadians turn to thoughts 

of Income Tax. The only good 

news within that grim subject is the 

terrific CRA website. Information is 

complete and surprisingly easy to find, 

considering the massive and complex 

subject. PDF versions of any of the 

tax forms that you might need are 

downloadable. Now if the website 

could just guide you to a benefactor 

who would pay those taxes. . . 

Ottawa Seniors: 

www.ottawaseniors.com 

Not long ago a site for seniors 

would have been a waste of time 

because so few seniors used the web. 

Now, enthusiastic surfing and email 

by seniors is the fastest-growing 

phenomenon on the Internet, and it is 

great to have a site specifically for this 

group, with information specifically 

for and about Ottawa. There are 

discussion forums, headline news, 

classified ads and activities in the city, 

all with a focus on seniors. 

Food Network Canada: 

http://www.foodtv.ca 

Even if you never watch the Food 

Network this website can replace an 

entire shelf of cookbooks in your 

kitchen. There are recipies, nutrition 

information, thumbnail biographies 

of the tv chefs, and detailed listings 

of the broadcast schedule. Another 

handy feature is that this site is 

inter-connected with the American 

version, which has more of the same, 

and copyrights for more recipies 

and information, to complement the 

Canadian side. 

Malcolm and John Harding are 

the owners of Compu-Home, 

specializing in assisting computer 

users in your home and office. 

Visit www.compu-home.com for 

a description of our services. 

Write to harding@compu-home. 

com or phone 731-5954 to discuss 

computer issues.


ABBOTSFORD HOUSE 

By Pat Goyeche 

Alexander Mutchmor built “a 

mansion fair to temp the gaze” 

when he built Abbotsford 

House in 1872. He was a pioneer and 

business man whose name remains 

engrained in our community with 

Mutchmor Public School. The name 

Abbotsford has stuck as the use of the 

house has changed over the years. It 

was originally named Abbotsford after 

Sir Walter Scott’s home in Scotland by 

Muchmor himself. Mutchmor sold it to 

the then Mayor of Ottawa only ten years 

after he built it. Mr. MacIntosh lived 

in it for several years and then sold it 

to a group of philanthropic Protestants 

who had formed a shelter in 1886 but 

needed a larger location. It sold in 

1889 for $9,000. In 1889 Abbotsford 

became the Protestant Home for the 

Aged. From 1889 to 1974 it was a 

shelter for retired men who had no 

means to care for themselves and no 

family to help support them. Charity 

changed over time and government 

became involved but many of the local 

churches came together again in the 

By Jeff Morrison 

It is mid-afternoon on a Thursday 

and Sarah Brown is at her desk, 

chatting with a man who appears 

to be in his mid to late 50s. They 

discuss his efforts to quit smoking 

and then the talk turns to his drug 

and alcohol use. Before he gets up to 

leave he makes a joke about an old Dr. 

Hook song involving throwing drugs 

out the window. 

At 30 Sarah probably hasn’t 

heard the song—she may not 

know who Dr. Hook is – but as a 

harm reduction worker at with the 

Centretown Community Health 

Centre she is intimately familiar with 

the daily struggles of people living 

Door Were Wide Open At Abbotsford! 

early 70’s to build a retirement home 

for both men and women beside the 

house; this became The Glebe Centre 

Inc. Abbotsford in 1974 transformed 

into a Seniors Recreational Drop-in- 

Centre. It continues in this function as 

well as housing a Day Away program 

and Community Outreach services for 

seniors. 

We celebrated the heritage of 

Abbotsford House on June 7 th and 8 th by 

opening our doors as part of Doors Open 

Ottawa. The house was designated 

an official heritage sight in 1984. 

Volunteers donned period costumes; 

we served cream scones with stewed 

rhubarb and strawberries with cream 

and showed off our newly decorated 

dining room and lounge, which house 

three of the original marble mantels. 

If you missed the event, you are 

welcome to drop by anytime during 

regular business hours Monday to 

Friday. It is a dynamic centre meeting 

the needs of our 50+ community who 

live independently throughout Ottawa 

but come to Abbotsford for recreation, 

socializing, services and just plain fun! 

Abbotsford House is part of the 

with addictions in Ottawa’s inner 

city. Before he leaves the man hands 

in a plastic container filled with used 

syringes and she gives him a fresh 

supply of needles, alcohol swabs, 

packets of vitamin C and sterile 

water. 

Sarah is a veteran of this work. 

For seven years she has worked with 

street involved people, doing needle 

exchange and addictions counseling. 

For her, harm reduction is more 

than just a job title. Over the years 

she has come to know and respect 

many of the people she serves, and 

if she can help them avoid HIV or 

Hepatitis C, she is happy to do it. 

“I really value the connection and 

the rapport that I establish with the 

people I see here. People have such 

Glebe Centre Inc., “Rooted in the past, reaching for the future”. 

Connecting With Drug Users Reduces Harm 

Sarah Brown, (right) helps with 

Bev Armstrong, a Centretown citizen 

during a community needle clean up 

on Saturday May 24th 

false perceptions about drug users.” 

And while Sarah’s first priority is to 

reduce harm to the users themselves, 

she is also aware that her efforts are 

helping to reduce the harm that drug 

use causes to society at large. Health 

care for someone with HIV can 

cost taxpayers millions. Most of the 

people she sees bring in their used 

needles or deposit them in the black 

bin outside the door to the centre. In 

fact between the black box and the 

needles brought into the centre, more 

needles are collected than are handed 

out – reducing the hazard of discarded 

needles in the community. 

Sarah believes that there are other 

advantages to her personal contact 

with users. “Part of my work involves 

teaching and modeling responsible 

behaviour. People who are regular 

users of this service do become more 

responsible – particularly where safe 

disposal of used needles is concerned.” 

Regular contact with a respectful, 

non-judgmental, sympathetic listener 

can also be a powerful motivator for 

people who need some encouragement 

to change their behaviour. 

Sarah describes one young woman 

who had been using for more than 

a decade. One day she announced 

that she could not go on with the life 

she was living. So far, with Sarah’s 

encouragement and support, she has 

reduced her drug use by half. 

Just before closing time at 4:00 

p.m. another man comes into the 

needle exchange room. It is his first 

visit, and he is a bit wary. This time 

there is no chit-chat. Sarah moves 

efficiently asking what he needs while 

she assembles his package – needles, 

alcohol swabs, vitamin C, five crack 

pipe stems. Before he leaves she 

offers him a fresh pear. He takes 

two, and for the first time since he 

enters the room, he cracks a smile. 

Addiction carries a heavy stigma. To 

be treated with respect and courtesy 

is a welcome relief. Chances are he 

will be back.

JUL/AUG 2008 

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE LIBRARIES 

Sunnyside Branch Library 

Children’s Babytime 

For babies and their parents or caregiver 

with stories, rhymes, songs and games. 

0-18 months. 

Tuesdays, 2:15 p.m. July 8-August 12 

(30 min.) 

Toddlertime 

For toddlers and a parent or caregiver 

with stories, rhymes, songs and games. 

Ages 18-35 months. 

Thursdays, 10:15 a.m. July 10-August 

14 (30 min.) Registration Required 

Storytime 

Stories and rhymes for young children 

~ parents and caregivers are welcome to 

join. Ages 3-6. 

Wednesdays, 10:15 a.m. July 9-August 

13 (30 min.) 

TD Summer Reading Club – Laugh 

Out Loud (LOL) 

Come participate in this year’s TD 

Summer Reading Club. This year’s 

theme Laugh Out Loud (LOL) –get 

ready to have children rolling down 

the book aisles. Be on the alert for fun 

books, stories and poems, hilarious 

jokes to tickle the funny bone, games 

that result in side-splitting, rib-tickling 

fun, brain teasers, tongue twisters, and 

knock-knocks that will have children 

roaring with laughter. There’s to be 

loads of fun! Artist Patricia Storms 

designed the eye-catching illustration 

2516 Alta Vista Dr. 

To register call: 613-737-2837 x3 

Adult Programs 

Knit 2 Together 

Meet with other knitters to share 

patterns and ideas and offer 

assistance to each other. 

Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. (1.5 hrs.) 

July 5, August 2 

Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. (1.5 hrs.) 

July 16, August 20 

Laugh it Up! 

Comedy reaches new heights! 

Join us for an hour of fun! 

Refreshments will be served. 

Wednesday, July 16, 2 p.m. (1 hr.) 

Senior / Teen Wii Bowling 

Our first ever Senior/Teen gaming 

session! Wii bowling, followed 

by refreshments. 

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m.(1.5 hrs.) 

Teen Programs 

Teen Scene 

Chat about books and share your 

favourites with other teens. Ages 12+. 

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 7 p.m. (1 hr.) 

PRE-SCHOOL / PRESCOLAIRE 

Babytime 

For babies and their parent or caregiver 

with stories, rhymes, songs and 

activities. Ages 0-18 months. 

Thursdays, July 17-July 31, August 14, 

10:30 a.m. (30 min.) 

Toddlertime 

For toddlers and a parent or caregiver 

with stories, rhymes, songs and 

activities. Ages 18-35 months. 

Mondays, July 14-28, August 11, 10:30 

a.m. (30 min.) 

on the program materials. Come to the 

Sunnyside branch to join and receive 

a Club poster, stickers and an activity 

booklet full of fun ideas. 

This program offers families fun, free 

activities to encourage children to read 

and continue developing their literacy 

skills throughout the summer. Research 

has shown that the playful approach 

of these clubs is extremely effective in 

getting more children to increase their 

reading skills. 

Ottawa Public Library is joining 

libraries from across Canada in this joint 

initiative between TD Bank Financial 

Group, Library and Archives Canada 

and the Toronto Public Library. 

TD Summer Reading Club – Special 

Programs 

Laugh Out Loud Party 

TD Summer Reading Club Launch ~ 

Launch our summer reading club with 

a LOL good party! Family program. 

Celebrate the launch of our summer 

reading club. Get your kit and start 

exploring the wonderful world of 

books! Everyone is welcome so bring 

the whole family. Wednesday, July 2, 

2:00 p.m. (45 min.) 

Backwards Day...yad sdrawkcab! 

Backwards stories and games. P.S. don’t 

Alta Vista Branch Library 

Family Storytime: 

Monkeying around 

Monkeys are loose at the library! 

Come for a swinging good time with 

stories and rhymes. Family program. 

Wednesday, July 9, 10:30 a.m. (45 min.) 

You quack me up 

We’re going “quackers” at the library! 

Waddle over for a good time with 

stories and rhymes. Family program. 

Wednesday, July 16, 10:30 a.m. (45 

min.) 

Fractured funny bone 

Looking for some mixed up fun? 

This program is sure to crack you up! 

Stories and rhymes. Family program. 

Wednesday, July 23, 10:30 a.m. (45 

min.) 

Backwards Day 

Laugh at the library from finish to start. 

Dress “sdrawkcab” for stories and 

rhymes for the whole family. Family 

program. Wednesday, July 30, 10:30 

a.m. (45 min.) 

Funny bunnies 

Hop on over to this storytime including 

tales (tails?), songs and rabbit rhymes 

for the whole family. Family program. 

Wednesday, August 6, 10:30 a.m. (45 

min.) 

The pigeon wants a… 

What does the pigeon want? Find out 

when we have fun with Mo Willem’s 

books. Family program. Wednesday, 

August 13, 10:30 a.m. (45 min.) 

SPECIAL PROGRAMS / 

PROGRAMMES SPECIAUX 

Ottawa’s funniest kids! 

We’re looking for Ottawa’s funniest 

kids to tell funny jokes on an open 


Elmvale Acres Branch Library on page 41 

forget to dress backwards for ages 5-10. 

Wednesday, July 9, 2:00 p.m. (45 

min.) Registration Required 

L’il John the Clown 

Come and have some fabulous fun and 

LOL with the ever-entertaining L’il 

John! Everyone is welcome so bring the 

whole family. 

Wednesday, July 16, 2:00 p.m. (45 

min.) Registration Required 

TD Summer Reading Club – Special 

Programs 

Big Mouth Puppets 

Create your own talking mouth puppet 

with Artellephant Puppets for ages 8-12. 

Wednesday, July 23, 2:00 p.m. (2 hours) 

Registration Required 

Crazy Costume 

Dress up stories and crafts for ages 4-8. 

Wednesday, July 20 (45 mins.) 


Cartoon Capers 

Learn how to draw your own cartoons 

for ages 8-12. 

Wednesday, August 6, 2:00 p.m. (1 

hour) Registration Required 

Munsch-a-bunch 

LOL with Robert Munsch stories for 

ages 4-8. 

Wednesday, August 13, 2:00 p.m. (45 

microphone. Ages 4-12. (Bilingual) 

Thursday, July 3, 2 p.m. (1hr.)* 

Les jeunes humoristes d’Ottawa 

Venez raconter vos blagues les plus 

drôles. Pour les 4 à 12 ans. (Bilingue) 

Jeudi 3 juillet, 14h. (1h)* 

Making music magical 

A free music lesson offered by Long 

McQuade. Ages 6-12. 

Saturday, July 5, 2 p.m. (1hr.)* 

Author Visit: Kalli Dakos 

If you think a principal kissing a pig is 

funny, come meet hilarious poet Kalli 

Dakos. Ages 6-12. 

Tuesday, July 8, 2 p.m. (1hr.)* 

Magic with Knuckles 

Knuckles the clown will thrill with his 

magical skill. Ages 4-12. 

Wednesday, July 9, 2 p.m. (1 hr.)* 

Oh Gross! 

What’s slimy and gross and makes 

parents cringe? Come to the library to 

find out. Ages 6-12. 

Tuesday, July15, 2 p.m.(1hr.)* 

Gonzo about Gaming 

Come play a friendly game with other 

kids on the big screen. Ages 6 to 11. 

Thursday, July 17, 2 p.m. (1.5 hrs.)* 

The circus is coming to town! 

Stories, videos, and crafts. Ages 4 and 

up. (Bilingual) 

Thursday, July 24, 2 p.m. (45 min.)* 

Le cirque est en ville! 

Contes, vidéos et bricolage. Pour les 4 

ans et plus. (Bilingue) 

Jeudi 24 juillet, 14 h. (45 min.)* 

A Puppeterrific good time! 

Come enjoy a fun puppet show. Ages 

4-9. 

mins.) Registration Required 

Adult 

15 minutes Computer Tutorials 

Having problems with the Library 

Catalogue? Accessing the web? Email 

issues? Register for your own 15 

minutes computer tutorial. 

Tuesdays between 10 and 11:30 a.m. 

July 15, 22, 29, Aug 5, 12, 19 & 26 

Downloading 

Learn how to download books, movies, 

music, etc. plus what’s free, what’s 

legal, & to protect a PC from viruses & 

spyware 

Friday, July 18, 10:30 a.m. (1h) 


Laugh Out Loud (LOL) - Fun Reads 

for Adults 

Listen and laugh about some of the fun 

and humorous books available at OPL 

for adults to read. 

Friday, August 8, 2:00 p.m. (45 mins) 

For more information: 

Sunnyside Branch, 

Ottawa Public Library 

613-730-1082 

Tuesday, August 12, 10:30 a.m. (30 

min.)* 

Tuesday, August 12, 2 p.m. (30 min.)* 

Puppet Idol 

Bring your puppet and perform your 

favourite song. Ages 4-12. 

Wednesday, August 13, 2 p.m. (1hr)* 

Lots of laughs! 

Funny stories and videos. Ages 4 and 

up. (Bilingual) 

Thursday, August 14, 2 p.m. (45 min.)* 

Rions en choeur! 

Contes et vidéos remplis d’humour. 

Pour les 4 ans et plus. (Bilingue) 

Jeudi 14 août, 14 h. (45 min.)* 

Laugh out loud 

TD Summer Reading Club 2008 closing 

ceremony. Ages 4 and up. (Bilingual) 

Tuesday, August 19, 2 p.m. (45 min.)* 

Lire aux larmes 

Cérémonie de fermeture du Club de 

lecture estivale TD 2008. Pour les 4 ans 

et plus. (Bilingue) Mardi 19 août, 14 h 

(45 min.)* 

Tuesday Kiddie Dance Party! 

Families are invited to dance to the hits 

of the 70’s, 80’s, and beyond. Ages 0-5. 

Tuesday, August 26, 10:30 a.m. (1 hr.)* 

Senior/Teen Wii bowling 

Our first ever Senior/Teen gaming 

session! Wii bowling, followed by 

refreshments. Adults/Teen. Wednesday, 

August 27, 2 p.m. (1.5 hrs.)* 

N.B. Programs followed by an * 

require registration. / L’inscription est 

requise pour les programmes suivis d’un 

*. / Registration for summer programs 

starts on June 18. / L’inscription pour 

les programmes d’été commence le 18 

juin.


FIREHALL YOGA 

By Linda Déziel 


By Bob Jamieson 

Yoga apaisant 

Vos horaires surchargés vous épuisent? Vous avez le sentiment que le temps 

passe trop vite, qu’il y a trop à faire et que les moments de détente et de 

repos se font de plus en plus rares? Comment faire face aux pressions 

et défis du monde moderne? Sachez que vous pouvez, à deux pas de chez vous, 

profiter d’un moment privilégié de ressourcement, et ce, sur tous les plans. 

En effet, grâce aux cours de yoga que donne l’experte Sima, vous pourrez 

refaire le « plein d’énergie ». L’apprentissage de la respiration, de la relaxation 

et des exercices de renforcement du corps vous permettront de retrouver ou 

d’améliorer santé et bien-être. 

Les cours de Sima sont offerts au Centre communautaire d’Ottawa Sud, situé 

au 260, avenue Sunnyside à Ottawa. Vous pouvez joindre le Centre communautaire 

au 613-247-4946. 

Inscrivez-vous aux cours de yoga de Sima Samguissi! Vous en ressentirez vite 

les bienfaits!!! 

Looking for a way to add both 

income and growth potential 

to your investment portfolio? 

Consider dividend-paying stocks. 

When you invest in shares that 

pay dividends, you get a regular 

stream of income and the potential for 

your investment to increase in value. 

Dividends: A Good Source Of Income 

That means dividend stocks can help 

meet your income requirements, and 

potentially boost your wealth - as 

long as you’re willing to take on more 

risk. 

However, an investment in 

dividend stocks doesn’t mean you 

have to go overboard on risk. While 

stocks are inherently more risky 

than conservative interest-generating 

investments, sticking to dividend- 

By Linda Déziel 


paying shares of high-quality bluechip 

companies can help you manage 

that risk. 

What are dividends? They’re the 

portion of profits that companies pay 

out to shareholders. Typically larger, 

well established companies pay 

dividends - usually quarterly, semiannually 

or annually. 

These companies pay dividends 

as a means of delivering value to their 

shareholders. Paying investors to 

hold shares can be an enticement 

for shareholders to not only retain 

the shares, but also purchase more. 

Younger and smaller companies 

may not pay dividends because they 

prefer to reinvest all profits in the 

company to further growth. 

There are more advantages to 

dividend-paying investments than 

you might think. In addition to 

producing a steady stream of income, 

dividend-paying investments can be 

less vulnerable to rising interest rates 

than some other income investments. 

Plus, dividend payments have the 

potential to rise as company earnings 

grow, while interest payments from 

most investments remain static. 

Dividend-paying stocks can also 

help reduce the overall volatility of 

your equity portfolio because price 

moves of these stocks are typically 

less than those of non-dividendpaying 

equities. Because of this 

income potential, investors are less 

likely to sell dividend-paying stocks 

in turbulent markets, which tempers 

price swings. 

There’s also an income 

tax advantage. Dividends from 

Canadian corporations are eligible 

for the dividend tax credit, which 

reduces the tax you pay on income 

from these shares. Interest income, 

on the other hand, is fully taxable. 

And if shares increase in value there 

are also capital gains, which receive 

Soothing Yoga 

Are you stressed out? Overwhelmed? Tired of rushing all the 

time with never-ending tasks? No time to relax? How can 

one cope in the increasingly demanding society we live in? 

Fortunately there is, nearby, a simple and easy way to regain 

strength and vitality. 

Yoga Expert Sima Samguissi will help you restore your energy 

peacefully and harmoniously through her yoga classes. Learning to 

breathe, relax, and strengthen the body is the perfect way to recover 

or improve one’s health and well-being. 

Sima’s yoga classes are given at the Ottawa South Community 

Center, located at 260 Sunnyside Ave. in Ottawa (phone number: 

613-247-4946). 

Give yourself a healthy break with Sima’s yoga classes. Your 

body will thank you! 

preferential tax treatment. 

How do you pick suitable dividendpaying 

stocks? Since a steady stream 

of income is a major consideration, 

invest in companies that are capable 

of generating an uninterrupted 

stream of dividends, perhaps with the 

potential of increases down the road. 

Some possibilities to consider include 

large, blue chip companies with 

good cash flow and profit histories, 

companies that have a solid record 

of paying uninterrupted dividends, 

and companies that have consistently 

raised their dividends. Keep in mind, 

however, that dividends can be 

increased, decreased or eliminated at 

any point without notice. 

Also be wary of extremely high 

dividend yields. Unrealistic payouts 

could be cut in the future - which not 

only reduces income, but can sink 

share prices. 

When evaluating dividendpaying 

stocks and their underlying 

companies, it’s helpful to compare 

similar businesses. One of the 

most important comparison tools is 

dividend yield - the annual dividend 

amount divided by the stock price, 

expressed as a percentage. 

Another key comparison is the 

dividend payout ratio, which is the 

percentage of company earnings 

paid to shareholders in dividends. 

Comparing these figures for different 

companies in similar industries allows 

you to gauge individual investment 

potential. 

And finally, never invest in a 

company simply because it offers a 

good dividend. The longevity of that 

dividend, and the health of the share 

price, depend on whether the business 

is sound and has good prospects for 

the future. 

Bob Jamieson, CFP 

Edward Jones, Member CIPF

JUL/AUG 2008 

CLASSY ADS 

Zenith Colour TV, 36”. Excellent 

condition $50. 613-907-0190. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Black old-fashioned wooden rocking 

chair. Perfect condition with cushion. 

$50. 613-907-0190. 

--------------------------------------------- 

For sale – power-driven tools, used 

very seldom. Several never used at all. 

If interested, phone, 613-237-1569. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Baby Shower Gifts, Handmade Baby 

Quilts, and Crocheted Baby Blankets, 

Reasonable Price. Startingat#30.00. 

CallL 613-730-2411 

--------------------------------------------- 

Baby items for sale: Zooper “running 

style” stroller. Peg Perego and Eddy 

Bauer umbrella strollers. Fisher Price 

highchair/baby swing. Greco Pack 

n’ Play. Rear-mount child bicycle 

seat (for child aged 9 mns to 3 

years). Wooden rocking horse. All in 

very good to excellent condition. Call 

613-730-1967 

--------------------------------------------- 

Cemetary Plot: Capital Memorial 

Gardens, space for 3 urns or a casket 

and 2 urns; includes perpetual care. 

$2000. Call 613-730-2044. 


CLASSY ADS 

are free for Old Ottawa South residents (except for businesses or for business activity) and must be submitted in writing to: The OSCAR, at the Old Firehall, 

260 Sunnyside, or sent by email to oscar@oldottawasouth.ca by the deadline. Your name and contact information (phone number or email address) must be 

included. Only your contact info will appear unless you specify otherwise. The editor retains the right to edit or exclude submissions. The OSCAR takes no 

responsibility for items, services or accurary. For business advertising inquiries, call 730-1058. 

For Sale 

Around Town 

Gregorian Chant and Choral Music Classes - 

Open House Evening Monday, July 7, at 8 p.m. 

Lots of gently used children’s toys for 

sale (for age 4 to 10 approx.) 

Call (613)730-0643. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Concept2 Rowing Machine $300, 

Workout Bench $50; call 565-0119 or 

email sgmf@rogers.com 

--------------------------------------------- 

Bone Chine: Hammersley; England; 

Dresden Sprays pattern; 49 pieces, 

8 place setting; $450. Call 613-730- 

2044. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Good quality crib for sale. Call 

(613)730-0643 

Bungalow(1.5 storey) for sale: 80 

Sunnyside Avenue. 

Overlooking the Rideau River. www. 

grapevine.ca id 18584 

--------------------------------------------- 

FOR RENT: Three-bedroom cottage 

on Prince Edward Island for rent. 

Located right on beach, close to golf 

courses, lobster suppers, etc. On 

north shore near South Rustico/North 

Rustico. Available for rent in June, 

July, August and September. Weekly, 

biweekly, monthly rental possible. 

Mid-season: $600 per week in June 

and September. High season: $775 

Join Lawrence Harris for a lively hour of musicmaking, 

and find out about our summer and fall classes 

and events. Admission is free, so bring all your friends! 

Come to room 201 of the Dominican University College, 

96 Empress Avenue, just off Somerset St., two traffic lights 

west of Bronson. 

The Summer Basics Choral Music Class takes place on 

Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. beginning in July in room 201 

of the Dominican University College. You can enroll at any 

time, not just at the beginning of the semester. Develop 

your skills and boost your confidence – and help keep 

the wonderful repertoire of Gregorian chant and sacred 

polyphony alive. Help us share this deeply spiritual music 

with the wider community through our concerts and special 

events, including the Gregorian Chants for Meditation on 

Good Friday night, which over a thousand people attend 

each year. For more information, call 613-567-7729 

The Hospice Volunteer Orientation 

Course 

Our volunteer course will be offered in the Fall beginning 

Tuesday September 9th. It will run for 13 consecutive 

Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 pm until December 2, 

and is required in order to work with Hospice patients and 

their families. If you are interested in taking the volunteer 

course, please fill out a volunteer application form, which 

is available at http://www.hospicemaycourt.com or at the 

Hospice’s front reception desk 

Accommodation 

per week in July and August. Call 

730-5006. 

Child Care 

Looking for half-day a.m. child care 

in OOS for the fall? Starting in 

September, our family would like to 

add kindergarten-aged children to 

play with our son at our home in the 

mornings. Both our caregiver and 

son’s “Floortime”-trained educational 

assistant will offer a safe and caring 

environment, filled with interactive, 

play-based learning and activities 

for your child. Call 613.783.9698 or 

613.730.4711 for information. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Nanny available for September - over 

20 years experience as a caregiver, 

with 10 years working in the Glebe 

and Old Ottawa South areas. Outgoing 

personality, familiar with surrounding 

children programs. CPR and First Aid 

Certification. Non-smoker. French/ 

English. Excellent references. Please 

contact Jacqueline at 613-241-2809. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Space available in elemtary school 

teacher’s home daycare. Bright, busy 

playroom, fully-equipped fencedin 

backyard. Nutritious meals, CPR 

and First Aid certified. Fun and 

educational. Call Stacey at 613-239- 

1607. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Two OOS families looking to add one 

child to our home-based daycare this 

September. Our ECE-educated nanny 

has been with us for 4 years and offers 

a caring and stimulating environment. 

Call 730-1967 or 730-4128 for more 

information. 

Looking For 

Wanted - garage to rent in Old Ottawa 

South/Brantwood. Call Stephen, 

Jasmine or Maya: 613 233-0880 

--------------------------------------------- 

Volunteer required to edit and revise 

sections of the OSCA website: 

Community Services, Local 

Businesses, and History & People. 

Previous experience with editing and 

basic HTML layout. Contact John 

Calvert, 730-9851 or John.Calvert@ 

oldottawasouth.ca. 

--------------------------------------------- 

Wanted - A reliable and responsible 

young person to feed my cat, water 

plants, etc. for about two weeks - 

late July or early August. Aylmer 

Avenue. (613)730-3182. 

Elmvale Acres Branch Library 

Summer Programs Offered at 

Elmvale Acres Branch 

1910 St. Laurent Blvd. 

Please call for more info.: 

613-738-0619 ext. 3 

* Registration required 

ESL – Newcomers Practice Your English 

(Adults) 

Drop in and practice your English thorough 

conversation with 

volunteers. In partnership with CESOC. 

Tuesdays – 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. (1.5 hr.) 

Preparation for the Driving Test – G1* 

Learn more about licensing. Presented by: 

Rita Attieh from LASSA. Registration: 613- 

218-6263 

Tuesday, July 22, 1:00 p.m. (1.5 hr.) 

Storytime (3-6 years)* 

Stories and rhymes for young children 

– parents and caregivers 

are welcome to join. 

Monday Mornings, July 7, 14, 21, 28, Aug. 11 

10:15 a.m. (40 min.) 

Contes (3-6 ans)* 

Contes et rimes pour les enfants. Parents et 

fournisseurs de soins sont les bienvenus. 

Les jeudis, 10 juillet, 7 août 

10 h 15 (40 min.) 

Launch of the TD Summer Reading Club 

(SRC) at the Elmvale Acres Branch (children) 

Get ready for summer reading! Come join us 

for the Launch and pick up your SRC kit. 

Thursday, June 26, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.) 

The Duke of Magic (ages: 4-12)* 

Luc Leduc’s magic show includes a dove, a 

rabbit and audience participation. 

Wednesday, July 9, 2:00 p.m.(45 min.) 

Yucky Gooey Foods (Ages: 6-10)* 

Try your hand at guessing what you touch. 

Tuesday, July 15, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.) 

Circus Delights (Ages: 5-8)* 

Fun all around with stories, games and crafts. 

Wednesday, July 16, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.) 

TD Summer Reading Club Get-together 

(Ages: 5-12)* 

Bring a book to share. Fun and games. 


Face Painting with Jacqueline (Ages: 5-12)* 

Artistic designs that will bring a smile to your 

face. 

Thursday, July 24, 2:00 p.m. (l hr.) 

Hilarious Hats (Ages: 6-10)* 

Decorate your own funny hat. Hats are 

provided. 


For Bird Eyes Only! (Ages: 3-6)* 

Stories, crafts and movies. 

Wednesday, August 6, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.) 

Funny Farm (Ages: 5-8)* 

Fun with barnyard stories, crafts and movies. 

Wednesday, August 13, 2:00 p.m. (40 min.)

Page 42 The OSCAR - OUR 36 JUL/AUG 2008 

th YEAR 

Your 

A 

Rent Wife Household Organizers 

“Every working woman needs a wife!” 

Regular & Occasional cleaning 

Pre & Post move cleaning and packing 

Pre & Post renovation cleaning 

Blitz & Spring cleaning 

Organizing cupboards, basements... 

Perhaps a waitress ??? 

rent-a-wife-ottawa.com 

Marketplace 

Laurel 749-2249 

Gibbon’s Painting and Decorating 

Local House Painter - Bonded 

With 17 years experience 

• interior/exterior painting 

Customer satisfaction 

ALWAYS GUARANTEED 

For a free estimate please call Rory 731-8079 

Ask about my $25 referral rebate 

Book now for your exterior painting needs 

www.gibbonspainting.ca 

cell: 613-322-0109 

EXTRA MILE 

RENOVATIONS 

Cedar or pressure treated beautiful 

custom decks and fences 

Quality porches, kitchens, bathrooms 

Local Renovator 

Creative Solutions 

Reasonable Prices 

References Available 

(613) 297-8079 

ENVIRONMENTALLY- 

FRIENDLY CLEANING 

One-time, weekly, 

bi-monthly or monthly. 

Seven years experience. 

Insured and Bonded 

CALL 729-2751 

RELIABLE QUALITY CARE 

RPN (38 years experience) 

Relief for Family Caregiver 

Private Duty 

Palliative Care Provided 

By Michael Moynahan 

730-4957 

Cell: 240-9394

JUL/AUG 2008 


Old Ottawa South Community 

Farmer’s Market 

Dear Craig, Thank You, Love OSCAR 

Westboro Academy Year End Celebrations 

Photos by M.A. Thompson 

Avenue Road Bench 

Page 43

Page 44 The OSCAR - OUR 36 JUL/AUG 2008 

th YEAR

Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success - Old Ottawa South

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