Readers Digest Canada Jun2020

the fish, but really, you might not. It is But in the lineup to pay, a fisherman

normal not to catch a fish,” he said. In reassured me this model worked best

other words, “Fishing is really closer to for trout in a deep spring-fed lake like

not fishing,” I ventured hopefully. ours. “Try trolling,” he suggested.

“It’s another world down there,” in My Rona purchase reminded me of

the fish world, Roberto said. I agreed: my first fishing rod, a simple bamboo

you have to dream your way into it. model that my father bought for me

Fishing is an imaginative act. You sit when I was no older than four. We

quietly on the surface of the water, lived half a block from the shores of

imagining where the fish might be, Lake Ontario, where we would drop

visualizing their slim grey shapes below. our lines. It is one of my earliest mem-

Then, when a fish does jump, it’s an ories of precious time alone with my

image that arrives complete, like a line father. I can’t remember if we caught

in a poem. And the sensation of a fish anything, and that wasn’t the point. As

on the line is like no other feeling— the Taoists might say, we were fishing

an ecstatic quickening, as of life kick- with a straight hook.

ing in the womb.

IT’S ANOTHER WILDLY changeable day

ONCE THE HOOK IS IN on Lac Catherine, and I’m still trying to
THE WATER, YOU CAN’T catch a fish. I cast, swinging my arm in
an arc, and my new spoon-shaped lure

HELP THINKING THAT lands clumsily on the water, then sinks.
YOU MIGHT, IN FACT, I point the rod towards the surface and
CATCH SOMETHING. slowly reel in the line. The spoon lurches
and tugs like a tiny fish as it spins

through the water. I keep thinking I have

caught something. Then the lure flashes

This is a sensation I had not yet expe- to the surface, and disappointed, I cast

rienced on Lac Catherine, even with again, in a different direction.

Roberto’s help that day. Maybe the I let my canoe drift opposite the cliffs,

problem, I thought, was my rod, a where the water is very deep. If I were

generic, borrowed one. After we fished a fish, I would hang out here. Every

together, I went into town and bought time I cast, I feel a youthful spurt of

a new one for $28 at Rona. The woman optimism, the kind you feel with the

behind the counter also recommended first sip of coffee in the morning. It’s a

a lure, a large elliptical silvery spoon. slightly sexy feeling, I realize—the sense

The lure looked makeshift and ridicu- of anticipation. Once the hook is in the

lous to me, like a cheap bottle opener. water, you can’t help thinking that you

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rd.ca 47

reader’s digest

might, in fact, catch a fish. Fishing puts find the fish. For instance, he pointed

hope in motion. out that the fish regularly jumped,

In the rest of life, we strive in the tauntingly, just where the bay opens

direction of many things at once: to be out into the body of the lake.

better people, to capture someone’s “And the canoe is better than the row-

love, to succeed at a project. The striv- boat for fishing,” he opined to me one

ing is generalized and subliminally anx- afternoon as we sat on the dock. “The

ious. But, in a boat on the surface of a rowboat is too noisy. Plus, you need to

calm lake, all one’s striving channels cast far from the canoe, so the fish don’t

down the rod like lightning. Here, the see you coming.” Ideally, we agreed, I

goal is singular: to catch a fish. And, for should go out at dusk, when the lake

an hour or two, this patiently aggressive was calm, and if a thunderstorm were

act releases me from the need to strive lurking in the wings, so much the bet-

in any other way. I can simply sit, dream ter. We began to accumulate more

and wait, with hands alert to any tug of and more of these elaborate theories,

life on the line, for luck to bite. despite having not caught a single fish.

One hypothesis was that a strong

MY HUSBAND AND wind might “churn the trout up,” so
I ACCUMULATED one breezy day I paddled into the wind
down into the bay and let the canoe

ELABORATE THEORIES drift back. There was no sense at all of
OF HOW I MIGHT CATCH fish being there. It wasn’t hopeful fish-
ing—it was desultory fishing. It was like
A FISH AT LAST. going to an interview for a job you don’t

really want. The spoon’s twirl on the

line against the fast drift of the canoe

My husband doesn’t fish himself, meant that the line always felt engaged,

but he communes deeply with the weighed down, a little promising. Then

lake. He all but sleeps with the fishes. up would come the shiny spoon, fol-

He undertakes hour-long meditative lowed by the sad bunched chignon of

swims around the point to the end of the worm on the fishless hook.

the lake, which is out of everyone’s It didn’t help that I was having

sight. He wears a GoPro camera while increasing trouble with the worms,

swimming to film schools of fish. As a something I told myself I should get

student of the water and its inhabi- over. I kept them in the fridge, in a Sty-

tants, he is at the postdoctoral level. rofoam container, and every time I took

Naturally, he had developed certain the lid off, the worms seemed fatter, lon-

theories about where and how I might ger, and thicker—almost mammalian.

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48 june 2020

They slumbered in their Styrofoam con- Thursday, August 1. Tenth day, by

tainer and sometimes on the floor of my count, in this dark, loamy place

the canoe, if I thought to take them with crowded up against Luther and

me. Once you liberated them from their Samantha, who tend to take all the

refrigerator cell, they seemed dull and dirt for themselves at night. They keep

without reflex. But when you pierced us in the Cool Place, but sometimes a

one with a hook, it awoke, writhed, blinding light comes on, followed by

protested, all but screamed aloud, “I shuffling and the smell of humans;

am a worm, but I feel things too!” then the light goes off, and suddenly,

it’s dark again. The dish of olives is to

I WAS HAVING TROUBLE our left, capers to the right. It’s the
WITH THE WORMS. unpredictability of the situation that
really gets to me. Robins are nothing

EVENTUALLY I COULD compared to this! Robins are fairly
NOT ESCAPE IMAGINING bright but heavy footed, and you can
THEIR POINT OF VIEW. hear them coming from a mile away.

Saturday, August 3. A strange day.

We were taken out of the Cool Place

I knew that, in order to fish, I had to and felt ourselves on the move, jost-

face the worm part—a rehearsal, after ling. Luther began to hyper-writhe.

all, of the death of the fish, if we Then bright lights and human fingers

intended to eat it, which we did. But roughly fumbling among us. Luther

there was nothing I could tell myself was taken, stretching out to us as he

(“It’s like killing a long thick mosquito”) left. Samantha is inconsolable. We

that made me feel any better about it. thought he might be spared because

At one point, I even resorted to little he is very, well, bulbous, and rumour

ribbons of prosciutto, wrapped worm- has it they prefer us slim. But Luther

like around the hook for bait. Spec- did not come back.

tacularly unsuccessful. The murder of

worms seemed unavoidable. Most of Sunday, August 4. I must write in haste,

us thoughtlessly kill small things all and from a most precarious spot. I have

the time in the wild, of course—ants, been harpooned, lanced in several

black flies, no-see-ums, sometimes spi- parts of my body. I found myself flying

ders, if we’re callous. But worms are a through the air only to sink into the

rung up that ladder. sunless depths of cool water, where I

Eventually, I could not escape imag- am now typing this on my handheld.

ining their point of view: A large round-eyed fish came close to

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rd.ca 49

reader’s digest

me, and I froze in terror, shrinking to I went behind the cabin and set up
half my size. But he passed me by—I’m a lounge chair to escape the elements
not sure why. I worry about Saman- and enjoy the suburban calm of the
tha. If you find this, please check on “lawn.” In the city, the wired world
her. She’s in the door of the Cool Place, becomes an environment as envelop-
beside the capers. She’s too slim; they ing as nature is in the wild. But life on
never choose her first, thank God. a lake allows the senses to dilate and
bloom. The defences we require to nav-
I must stop now. There are more fish igate life in the city soon fall away.
moving in. I am dancing for them—
why not? Thank you, and goodbye. Sitting in a canoe and casting a line
also casts a spell—a mood of suspense
And so on. Their imagined voices or anticipation. These still moments feel
persisted. Eventually, I stopped using sentient and alert, as if the lake and
worms as bait. I continued to catch everything in it share a consciousness.
nothing but felt better. This is where fishing superstitions—
fishful thinking—enter: the belief that
ON OUR LAST DAY on Lac Catherine, if you tune in to the fish, they will find
Brian and I were alone. The summer’s you. The belief that you have to fish with
zenith had passed, and small red your thoughts and imagination, not
leaves had begun to turn up on the just the rod and hook. The importance
path down to the lake. That day, it felt of courting luck in life. Fishing, as
like geological forces were still alive Roberto had reminded me, is mostly a
on the lake, grinding and clashing. matter of not fishing. At that, I excelled.
My husband claims the place has the
weather patterns and mysterious Packing up, cleaning out the fridge,
energies of a former volcanic moun- I pondered the Styrofoam container of
tain. And it’s true that the lake is not a worms. Toss them, I ordered myself.
peaceful one. The wind tends to fun- Then I stowed them in the cooler for
nel into the narrowing bay; often, the trip to Toronto. The worms on death
reading on the dock is more like row received a reprieve in our urban
standing at the prow of an ocean liner garden, where only the robins fish for
in a steady breeze. them now.

© 2019, MARNI JACKSON. FROM THE WALRUS
( JULY/AUGUST 2019), THEWALRUS.CA

Home Run

All I ever needed was the opportunity. That’s all any woman needs.

HELENE BRITTON, FIRST WOMAN TO OWN AN MLB TEAM

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50 june 2020

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reader’s digest

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52 june 2020

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

Alone on a
mountain and

pinned under a
grizzly, Colin Dowler

reached for a pocket knife
and struggled for his life.

BY Omar Mouallem

wwilluwst.rbatoionobky sryhanqg.anrceiat

reader’s digest

E Mountains in southwestern B.C., was
named after Dowler’s late grandfather.
It had always been a point of pride for
their family that Grandpa Doogie, a
prominent community member who
once owned the Heriot Bay Store and
Post Office, a Quadra Island hub, was
immortalized in nature. But none of the
Dowlers had ever climbed to its sum-
mit. Colin tried once in his 20s and
made it within a few hundred metres
of the peak before getting rained out.

Jenifer didn’t like the sound of her

husband’s latest plan. She was used

ever since he was a kid growing up on to Dowler going on solo adventures,

Quadra Island, B.C., Colin Dowler but this time he’d boat to an obscure

pushed himself to do more, go faster bay, bike an unpopulated road, hike

and scale bigger heights, despite hav- through grizzly country and camp

ing a small physique and a nagging overnight alone. There was too much

congenital knee disease. Jenifer, his room for disaster.

wife of 16 years, often found herself “If I’m not home by eight o’clock

telling him to slow down. When he Monday evening, you should start to

skied, he raced the double-black dia- worry,” he said.

mond fanatics. When he rode his Jenifer laughed. It was practically

mountain bike, it was on the bumpiest her husband’s motto.

terrain. If he wasn’t a little scared Technically, he said, she’d have to

doing something, he didn’t think he wait until the morning if she wanted

was doing it right. search and rescue to take his disap-

Last July, to celebrate his 45th birth- pearance seriously.

day, he booked off a week from his job “So,” she said, “I should just sit all

as a city facilities manager in Campbell night worrying until I can call author-

River, B.C., where he lived with Jenifer ities and say my husband is missing.”

and their two daughters. He also He shrugged. Pretty much.

planned to spend two days on his own, The night before his journey Dowler

scouting a route he’d eventually use to packed sparingly. He ditched his usual

climb Mount Doogie Dowler with his tent to experiment with a bivy sack—a

older brother, Paul. The peak, standing person-sized portable shelter. He filled

around 2,000 metres in the Coast the remaining pockets of his bag with

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54 june 2020

He recognized he couldn’t com-

pletely rule out the possibility,

though. He’d had two grizzly sight-

ings and countless black bear

encounters on Quadra Island before.

But he’d always escaped unscathed.

Dowler pulled into the Camp-

bell River port and quickly set off

in his motorboat. More than an

hour later, he arrived at Ramsay

Arm, an inlet on the mainland, and

found a spot to tie the vessel near

a logging camp.

As a former worker in the logging

The photo industry, Dowler knew it was good
Giannandrea practice to check in at the mess
took just before hall. “Is there anything you need?”

Dowler left. Vito Giannandrea, the camp cook

asked him.

“Bear spray,” said Dowler.

a handheld GPS, hiking poles, his After finding a can, Giannandrea

homemade venison pepperoni and a offered him a ride. They trucked along

few other essentials. Instead of his an overgrown logging road until the for-

usual Swiss Army knife, he took a est got too thick. As Dowler leaned his

three-inch stainless steel pocket knife mountain bike against a bush to retrieve

given to him by his dad, Norman. on the way back, Giannandrea took a

Jenifer and their daughters were still picture of him with his phone. “So we

in bed when Dowler left his home at have something to put on the milk car-

7 a.m., his bike and boat in tow. tons if you don’t come home,” he joked.

With Giannandrea’s bear mace in one

COURTESY OF COLIN DOWLER the weather that day was nice, which pocket and the knife from his dad in the

meant the parking spots at the city’s other, Dowler started hiking. After tra-

boat launch would fill up fast. Dowler versing steep terrain and thick forest for

intended to stop at a tackle shop for about an hour, he started marking his

bear spray, but as he added up the trail with blue ribbons. He made lots of

minutes, he drove past it, deciding the noise to ward off any curious creatures.

small likelihood of a bear attack wasn’t Near the end of the day, he realized the

worth not completing his mission. canister of mace was gone. It must have

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rd.ca 55

reader’s digest

slipped out of his pocket while he rested the bear away. “Hey bear,” he bellowed.
during a navigation stop. It didn’t work. The animal looked

Dowler didn’t want to risk getting from him to the bush, back and forth,
caught in the dark looking for the spray. and then began heading in his direc-
Instead, he spent an hour searching tion. Dowler flung his backpack off his
for a place to camp, eventually settling shoulders, snatched a hiking pole and
on a flat, dry surface with branches extended it in front of him. As the bear
low enough to set up his bivy sack. He approached, he started to make out its
strung his food and clothes high up features. The boar, about five years old,
in a nearby tree, and crawled into the and nine feet from tail to snout, was
bivy by 9:30 p.m., satisfied with what nearly three times his body weight—
he’d accomplished that day. and though it showed no signs of
aggression, its curiosity was piqued.
the next morning, Dowler tried with-
out luck to locate the spray on his way The bear walked along the opposite
down the mountain. He gave up by the side of the road, coming closer and
closer. The gap between them closed to

THE BEAR SHUDDERED FROM ITS PAWS
TO ITS RUMP. THEN IT CONTINUED
TO STALK NEARER.

time he recovered his bike, then car- 10 metres. Dowler carefully stepped off
ried on, pedalling and daydreaming his bike, which seemed to startle the
about getting home early to enjoy animal. It shuddered from the paws up
some family time and a beer or two. to its rump, then continued to stalk

As he passed a seven-kilometre nearer. Dowler pivoted his bike, shield-
marker for camp-bound logging trucks, ing himself with it. The bear passed by
he came around a bend and suddenly Dowler. Then, suddenly, it stopped,
clenched his brakes—a mangy grizzly turned and looked right at him.
stood in the middle of the narrow road, Dowler calmly raised a hiking pole
30 metres away. Dowler paused on his and pushed it against the bear’s big
bike, calculating his chances of turning forehead, right between the eyes. This
around for a quick escape. The bear seemed to hold the bear in place, until
could easily tackle him by the time he the rubber tip rolled off his muzzle.
picked up speed. He opted to try to scare Before Dowler could try again, the bear

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56 june 2020

chomped on the pole. “Oh, come on while it chewed Dowler’s flank. Dowler
now, we don’t need to do this,” he said, tried to gouge its eyes—grabbing at the
careful not to react aggressively with the fur on its face and poking as hard as he
animal so close. “I’m your friend.” could into the bear’s left eye. Agitated,
the bear swung him 180 degrees,
Dowler let the pole drop. He tossed hoisted itself high, and chewed into his
his backpack beside the bear, hoping upper leg. Over and over, the bear
the pepperoni scent would entice him lifted his head and bit into him.
away. One sniff, and the bear turned
back with his paw in the air, then Thoughts of leaving behind his family,
delivered a light swat that Dowler of missing every part of his daughters’
blocked with his bike. Dowler dodged a lives, raced through Dowler’s mind. He
second, heavier swat, and another and regretted that he’d put himself in such
another, each stronger than the last. a dangerous position—that he’d lost
the bear spray.
After the bear raised a threatening
paw high in the air, Dowler threw the As he tried to pry the animal’s jaws
bike at it, but the creature barely stum- open, saliva trailed off its yellow teeth.

IT RAISED A THREATENING PAW
IN THE AIR AND DOWLER THREW HIS BIKE.

THE CREATURE BARELY STUMBLED.

bled. Instead, it lunged forward and It chomped through his hand. “Stop!”
snatched Dowler up by his abdomen he screamed. “Why? Stop!” It didn’t
with one swift chomp. Dowler was flung make sense. He knew that grizzlies
sideways, draped across the bear’s typically only attack briefly, then leave
muzzle. The animal’s canines sank deep humans alone. When would this end?
as it carried him to the edge of the road. The bear moved on to taste his other
Dowler felt no pain, just warmth. He leg. As he heard the sound of his femur
didn’t resist, thinking only that if it car- grating in its teeth, he remembered his
ried him into the bush, he’d be too inca- knife in his pocket. He reached for it,
pacitated to get back to the road and just as the grizzly hit a nerve. Dowler
would die before anyone found him. arched and yelped.

The grizzly dropped him by the ditch Okay, he thought, I’ll play dead.
and lifted its head for another bite. But the bear hit another leg nerve
There was no roar, no growl, just huffing and Dowler screamed even louder.

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rd.ca 57

Paramedics (left) tending to Dowler’s
wounds on the logging camp floor, and
Dowler recovering in hospital after the
attack.

I can’t play dead while I’m screaming. I The bear stepped off him and walked

have to get the knife. slowly away, trailing blood on the

The weight of the grizzly’s chest was gravel. As it disappeared into the forest,

on his stomach, pinning his arms to his Dowler assessed the damage to his

left side, opposite the knife. Unable to body. His sides and legs were riddled

feel his right arm, Dowler wiggled his with cavities. A femoral artery wound

left hand between their bodies and drenched his lower half in blood. Dow-

into his pocket. He opened the blade ler cut his left shirt sleeve with his knife

with both hands and inadvertently and tied it around his left leg. Once it

sliced the bear’s chest as he pulled his was tightly knotted, he flopped on to his COURTESY OF COLIN DOWLER

left arm out. backside and scooted to his bike, then

Dowler stabbed the bear’s neck as pulled himself onto it and concentrated

fast and strong as he could. Blood on resting his feet on the pedals. He col-

gushed from the wound. Even the lapsed off the bike after one push.

grizzly seemed surprised. Dowler fought to remount and take

“Now you’re bleeding too, bear,” off, keeping a tight grip on his knife. He

said Dowler. felt his seat warming as blood from his

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58 june 2020

reader’s digest

wounds flowed down his back. As he Their house came into view and she
focused on his breathing, he felt his immediately noticed her brother-in-
odds improve. law’s truck in the driveway instead of
Dowler’s. She saw him pacing outside
He pushed ahead for 30 minutes on a call.
until the road sloped toward the log-
ging camp. He bounced over the He hurried over. “I don’t want you to
bumps, all the way to the mess hall panic,” he said. “He’s stable, but Colin
railing and fell on his side. was attacked by a grizzly bear.”

Dowler flung himself onto the land- At first Jenifer thought it had to be
ing, legs flopping on the stairs. “Help! a joke, and expected her husband to
Call a helicopter. I’ve been mauled by jump out from behind a tree.
a grizzly,” he yelled through a screen
door. Five men, including Giannandrea, it was too late for Jenifer to catch the
found Dowler streaked with blood and last ferry to the mainland. She finally
dirt, smelling like an animal. arrived at the hospital late Tuesday
morning, just as Dowler woke up from
They kept him talking for 40 minutes six and a half hours of surgery. They’d
until a medevac finally arrived. He had to make an eight-inch incision to
received two units of blood at the repair an artery wound, and treat more
camp, and was eventually airlifted to than 50 gashes and bite wounds. In all,
Vancouver General. His younger he needed close to 200 staples and
brother, his cousin and his sister were stitches. He was groggy, equally con-
already waiting for him at the hospital. fused by the sight of his family and all
But Jenifer, still on a camping trip, his bandaged limbs.
was unreachable.
The news was as good as it could be.
it was evening when Jenifer returned The grizzly’s teeth had mostly bounced
home. They’d gone a day without off his hips and ribs. Had Dowler been
reception and hadn’t turned their any larger, there’d have been more
phones back on. “Look, it’s almost room for the bear to sink its teeth into
eight o’clock,” said Jenifer, driving into his internal organs.
her neighbourhood. “It’s almost time
to start worrying.” In the end, the physique he’d tried
to defy all his life had saved him.

This or That

Is coral the stupidest animal or the smartest rock?

@ T H E R E A L E AT W O O D

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rd.ca 59

HEART

My father taught me
a lot about leadership—
but mostly, he taught me
how to be a good parent

P.M. DAD

BY Justin Trudeau

FROM FORTY FATHERS: MEN TALK ABOUT PARENTING

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60 june 2020

reader’s digest

Prime Minister Pierre
Elliot Trudeau with
four-year-old Justin
Trudeau in 1976.

www.bookshq.net

reader’s digest

I was angry and hurt. Once when I was

about five years old, I smacked my

father in the face. He reminded me

about it years later, and said he knew I

was trying to communicate something

I couldn’t get across any other way.

Save for the occasional outburst,

that high standard followed me into

my teen years. But living up to it became

harder as I got older. When it came

time to choose a career, my father

passed on wisdom he had received

WHAT MY BROTHERS and I got from from his own father, saying that a law

my father was the purest intent and degree could “get me anywhere.” Maybe

complete and absolute love. I’m of he was right, maybe he wasn’t. As

two minds about whether that means directionless as I may have been, all

“unconditional”: I knew that there I knew for sure was that law school just

was nothing I could do that would didn’t feel right to me or for me. For a

make him love me less, but at the same few years I struggled to find my own

time I felt the pressure to do the things path, torn—I was determined to

that I thought would make my father become my own man, yet still chased

happier, more proud, so that he would the approval of my dad.

love me more.

When my parents’ marriage was EVENTUALLY, at the top of a mountain (PREVIOUS SPREAD) CHUCK MITCHELL/THE CANADIAN PRESS

breaking up, I remember the fighting. while I was backpacking overseas, I

The differences between my parents made an important decision that would

were obvious to me: I could see when change my life: I decided to become a

my mum was in pain, but my father teacher. In that moment, it all seemed

didn’t show it, even to us. He was an to click. Becoming a teacher made

extremely sensitive, emotional man, sense to me—it reflected who I was as

but he was trying to be so together and a person, and what I believed in. I was

so reasonable. He kept it all inside. aligning myself not with my father

Like any young kid impacted by but with my maternal grandfather and

divorce, I felt helpless. While my broth- a long line of teachers before him.

ers lashed out or became more inde- Thankfully, my father was supportive

pendent, I tried to hold myself to the of my choice.

highest standard, to varying degrees of Teaching was not only the way I

success. I faltered more often than not; chose to contribute to society—it also

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62 june 2020

served as a pillar on which my own, being a father. But in my late twenties

unique identity would be built. I remem- and early thirties, it evolved into being

ber my father visited me once while I the right person to become a father;

was teaching in Vancouver, and I had an it wasn’t just about being a dad, it

opportunity to be seen for who I was became about being a good dad.

while in his company. A student caught To me, being a good dad means

up to us on the school grounds, calling shaping the world around my kids in

“Mr. Trudeau…” We both turned around whatever way I can. I owe it to them to

thinking that she wanted to get my try to make this place that they inhabit

father’s autograph, or shake his hand, better, safer and more just. This core

but it was me she was addressing. I was belief, I know for sure, I inherited from

Mr. Trudeau. The slight smile my father my parents.

gave me spoke volumes. I had finally

found my place in the world, and I

had done it on my own terms. Trudeau with

FATHERHOOD was next for me. And two-year-old
luckily, I had not one but two exam- Xavier in
ples to follow. My father’s staunch July 2010.

Catholic upbringing had left him

clearly conflicted about sexuality

and relationships. It was a hard topic

for him to get into. In conversations,

I often found myself protecting him

from his own discomfort. When

my mum remarried, my stepfather,

Fried Kemper, became a father fig-

ure to me. Happily, his way of being

and relating to us boys comple-

mented and stood in contrast to my

father’s approach. With him, con-

versations about sex and girls were

much more easily accomplished.

When it came to fatherhood, I

TESSA LLOYD remember the evolution of my

thinking as a young man. It used to

be that the most important thing

for me was having kids rather than

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reader’s digest

These days, when I come home from my dad bringing my brothers and me
work, my kids, Xavier, Ella-Grace and on work trips, not only across Canada
Hadrien, always have new tricks to show but to countries around the world. He
me—things they’ve learned at school was determined to make time for us
or with their friends. I miss out on and give us a peek into his job. We
things, no doubt about it. I’m not there were incredibly fortunate to have
with them all the time, but I’m con- lived that experience, and it’s some-
stantly asking myself, Are the things thing I’m trying to replicate now with
that I’m doing at work making a real, my own kids. Sometimes the whole
meaningful difference? family will come on one of my work
trips, and they get to learn about other
And as I navigate the complex world cultures while I’m busy in meetings.
of governing, I look to my dad as a good But oftentimes I bring just one of my
example of parenting in political life. kids along. It’s important for them to
After my parents split up and my mum

WHEN MY DAD WAS WITH US, HE GAVE US
100 PER CENT OF HIS ATTENTION. IT WAS A

BEAUTIFUL GIFT.

moved out, every single weekday even- have one-on-one time with their dad,

ing my father would come home to and for us to share experiences that

24 Sussex at 6:30 p.m. We would swim, are ours and ours alone.

read and do homework together. On

these weekday nights, “the prime min- IN THIS JOB, being fully present for my

ister of Canada was not available.” children is paramount. It’s a work in

progress, but I’m mindful of it every

NOW THAT I’M prime minister, I under- single day. When my dad was with us,

stand the hoops that he—and others— he gave us 100 per cent of his atten-

had to jump through to make this hap- tion. It was a beautiful gift. Now I’m

pen. But it was essential to us then, so trying to develop that same capacity,

I try to be as disciplined in my schedule though I admit that sometimes my

with my own kids now—in that, my work phone is too close by. I often find

wife, Sophie, is an essential partner. myself looking to my dad as an exam-

That’s not to say there’s no overlap ple of how to find balance and remain

between work and family. I remember an effective leader. I want to hold on to

www.bookshq.net

64 june 2020

all the things my father did right. He my equal and my life partner. When I
was an incredible role model for me met her, I knew pretty quickly I had
and my brothers. My dad was calm, found the right woman to be the
wise and rational—some would say to mother of my children. She’s been by
a fault. He tried to make things equal my side throughout this incredible
with his pure intent. journey, and there’s no doubt in my
mind that I couldn’t have done it
But I’m also deviating somewhat without her patience, her guidance
from his mould as I raise my own kids. and her grace.
My father once took me on a rafting
trip on the Tatshenshini River when I When my father was dying, I was at
was still a teenager. None of my broth- his side. He was 80, I was 28. It was a
ers, just me and my father and a range beautiful time. I tried in those moments
of fascinating people—scientists, envi- to return the love he’d given us, and to
ronmentalists, academics and river reassure him that we’d be okay. I miss
guides. Sometime later, he told my him like you wouldn’t believe, but I am
mother how impressed he had been to also very much at peace. Parents are
see me connecting and holding my own the centre of our solar system, even
with such a range of interesting peo- when we’re adults. Being a father—
ple. It’s that kind of comment I wish I nothing else matters as much. I get
could have heard directly from him— that now, and looking back, I see that
and that I am going to make sure my same belief in the actions of my father.
children hear from me. If I can follow his lead and strive every
day to be a good husband, friend and
I try to be more emotionally engaged father, I will proudly consider this a
than my father was. More relaxed and life well lived.
spontaneous, too. I want my children
to see me in a happy, successful rela- © 2019, TESSA LLOYD. FROM FORTY FATHERS: MEN TALK
tionship with their mum—that’s very ABOUT PARENTING, PUBLISHED BY DOUGLAS & MCINTYRE,
important to me. Sophie is my love, DOUGLAS-MCINTYRE.COM. REPRODUCED BY ARRANGE-
MENT WITH THE PUBLISHER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Sweet Sounds

The only thing better than singing
is more singing.

ELLA FITZGERALD

Words makes you think. Music makes you feel.
A song makes you feel a thought.

YIP HARBURG, SONGWRITER

www.bookshq.net

rd.ca 65

HUMOUR

Bottoms
Up!

Reviews by a big-time
connoisseur who
has definitely bought
and tasted all these
fancy wines.

BY Suzannah Showler

illustration by julia mercanti

CIN CIN! SANTÉ! Gesundheit! Glasses Domaine Huet Vouvray
up to my new subscribers! Maybe you Le Mont Demi-Sec

didn’t “sign up” for this newsletter, per
se, but lucky for you I jotted down a This wine is what’s called “half dry.” I
few email addresses from a petition to like my wines a little on the wetter side,
remake the last season of Polka Dot personally, but I make an exception for
Door (justice for Polkaroo!). Every week, this gentle mountain breeze of a Vou-
you’ll get a tipple of truth-telling reviews vray. This white wine is so white you
from me: a big wine guy who has seen practically can’t even see it—it’s like
all three Somm documentaries on Net- filling your glass with the ghost of alco-
flix. I offer this service free of charge, hol. Be careful: it might be easy to over-
straight from my taste buds to yours. fill someone’s glass. This ghost wine

www.bookshq.net

66 june 2020

reader’s digest

tickles the palate with motes of dust palate like at-home DNA test results
and static. Tastes like waking up from and dive down your gullet like a swarm
a nap and forgetting your own name. of family secrets.

San Giusto a Rentennano Favia Cabernet Sauvignon
Chianti Classico Coombsville, Napa Valley

This Chianti is a classico, which you can This wine costs $176 a bottle which

probably guess means it’s a classic, even totally makes sense because it’s a very

if you don’t speak four languages from grapey vintage. At the Superstore near

regular earth and two from Middle- my house grapes usually go for about

earth like I do. A classic is something $3.99/lb, but sometimes they’re on

that’s “remarkably typical,” and Clas- sale for $1.99/lb. Just did some quick

sics is the study of ancient Greek and math, and I figure each sip of this wine

Latin literature and philosophy. The must have at least 1.38 pounds of

first time I tried this Chianti, I really grapes in it. That’s a ridiculous amount

did remark that it had typical over- of grapes for one person! With notes of

tones and an ancient bouquet. ore and longing, this Cab-Sauv pairs

with the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky,

Château Pichon Baron but only in the original Russian.
2017, Grand Cru Classé
en 1855 Pauillac Château de Beaucastel
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
This many names might seem like over- Blanc 2018
kill, but once you spend a bit of time

savouring this breathless red, you’ll Château is French for castle, and if you

understand why it needs them. My didn’t know a lot about wine, it might

ex-great-uncle-slash-second-cousin is be kind of confusing to see château

named Paul, and while he’s not a baron there twice plus another name that

he is super fun to party with, even looks like castle spelled wrong.

though he drinks Molson Canadian But once you get a feel for the wine

mixed with Clamato juice instead of game, it’ll all make perfect sense. I

fancy wine like me. Paul calls this a don’t really have time to explain all the

red-eyed Susan, and he can take down ins and outs of it right now, but trust

like 14 of them in a night. If you’re me: this is a 2.5-castle wine that drinks

wondering how someone becomes an like a 3-castle. With a mouth-patina of

ex-uncle-slash-second-cousin, let’s lichen and moat water, this fermenta-

just say this Bordeaux will land on your tion is true to its roots.

www.bookshq.net

rd.ca 67

reader’s digest

www.bookshq.net

68 june 2020

SOCIETY

CCAOSMAAFUR(YOBRREIEOFIE)EDRR
Delivery apps that bring dinner
to our doors are convenient, fast and,
as I found out during my own five shifts,
a lousy way to earn a living

BY Jason McBride FROM TORONTO LIFE

illustration by kagan mcleod

www.bookshq.net

rd.ca 69

reader’s digest

hen Iván Ostos started as that Ostos apply for workers’ compen-

a Foodora bike courier in sation. He received $210 a week for

2016, he planned to work four-and-a-half months, until he got

for just a few months. He back on the road.

was studying music in Toronto, and As far as Foodora was concerned,

thought it would be a fun summer job. though, it didn’t really matter if he came

It was—flexible schedule, low stress. back at all. The gig economy has a

Most shifts, he made about $18 an hour. never-ending supply of workers, who’ve

But three months became six months, exchanged security for flexibility and a

which became a year. He dropped out steady paycheque for an income con-

of his university program and became tingent on hustle and luck. The jobs

a full-time Foodster, the company’s that are part of this new economy are

term for its couriers. The job became various: Uber driver, furniture mover,

less fun. Other food delivery apps had Airbnb host. Everything is available PREVIOUS PAGE: (ASPHALT) ISTOCK.COM/SONYA_ILLUSTRATION; (TIRE TRACKS) ISTOCK.COM/LEONTURA

moved in or aggressively expanded— in an instant, but the rise of these

Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, DoorDash— on-demand apps has been a source of

and couriers swarmed the streets. increasing income inequality—witness

Ostos’s wages nosedived. He started a the chasm between Jeff Bezos and the

second delivery gig, with Uber Eats. average Amazon warehouse worker.

A year ago, while on a Foodora Many are willing participants in the

delivery, Ostos T-boned another cyclist gig economy. Others are forced into

who’d swerved in front of him. Ostos’s it by declining job creation, stagnant

first thought was, “Is the other guy wages and a manufacturing sector

okay?” He was. His second thought that’s all but vanished. Ostos is 24, but

was, “Is the food okay?” It was. But some couriers are in their 60s and 70s.

Ostos wasn’t okay—he’d shattered his Some are migrant workers or interna-

elbow. As he awaited an ambulance, tional students. Others simply have

he contacted Foodora and told them limited education and skills. The work-

what had happened. Could he finish force is growing. According to Statistics

delivering the order, they asked? Ostos Canada, one in eight workers, or just

was shocked. “I told them I couldn’t,” over two million Canadians, held a

he says. “It made me pretty mad. It was temporary job in 2018. Food app com-

like I wasn’t even a person.” panies won’t reveal the number of

Ostos wound up needing surgery. At people they employ in Canada because

the time, Foodora was the only major they don’t consider their couriers to

food delivery app registered with Ontar- be employees—they think of them as

io’s Workplace Safety and Insurance independent contractors—but their

Board, and the company recommended customer base has exploded. Last year,

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70 june 2020

a study conducted by Angus Reid and lazy, cocooning, watching Netflix and

Dalhousie University found that 29 per having their favourite food at home.

cent of all Canadians had used a food Which is great, but that doesn’t do any-

delivery app at least once. For couriers thing for guys like me.”

like Ostos, this was both the future of

labour and their precarious present. last june, I decided to find out what

the life of a food delivery courier was

i’ve never been a big user of these like. My first choice of company was

apps—I like to cook, and I’m cheap. But Foodora—I look good in pink—but it

many people seem to like having their wasn’t hiring. Then I saw a DoorDash

food brought to them. “We’re spending ad during the NBA playoffs. I applied.

more time than ever at home,” says OUR TRAINING AS
Howard Migdal, a managing director at BIKE COURIERS
SkipTheDishes. “We didn’t build con- WAS PERFUNCTORY.
sumer demand, it was already there.” CAR“EJUFUSTLLTYR,”YTTHOERYIDE
TOLD US.
That consumer demand is every-
where. Restaurants Canada, the food
service industry association, said that
food delivery grew by 44 per cent in
2018, with 85 per cent of all quick-

service restaurants now using the apps.

App companies are fond of claiming “Applied” is an overstatement. All I

they’ve been a boon to restaurants. In did was download the “Dasher” app—

their view, the apps introduce new DoorDash refers to its couriers as

places to eat to people who otherwise Dashers—submit to a background

might not try them. check and show up for a one-hour ori-

Still, some restaurateurs are less entation. Two other applicants, a cou-

enthusiastic. “They’re kind of a neces- ple of guys in their 20s, attended with

sary evil,” says Max Rimaldi, co-owner me. There was no interview. On a tab-

of Toronto’s Pizzeria Libretto chain. let, I signed a contract releasing Door-

For Rimaldi, the apps mean fewer cus- Dash from any legal obligation (and

tomers in his restaurants, which affects agreeing not to participate in any class-

his bottom line. At this point, though, action lawsuit against the company).

Rimaldi feels he has no choice but to Our first thermal delivery bag was

keep using the apps or else build his free; additional ones would cost us $8.

own in-house delivery system. “They’re The enormous biker bags—the square

giving people what they want,” Rimaldi insulated backpacks now ubiquitous on

says, “which is the ability to be freaking city streets—were $40, but the company

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rd.ca 71

reader’s digest

was temporarily out of them. We were Another ping came seconds later, for
told to use our own backpacks. Our an order five minutes away. This time
training as couriers was similarly per- the food was ready, and I delivered it
functory. “Just try to ride carefully.” nearby without incident. From the first
restaurant to the second and then up
For every DoorDash order, the app to the customer took, not including the
tells couriers four things: where the time I waited for the order to be ready,
restaurant is relative to the Dasher’s about 15 minutes. I received $8.52.
current location; where the drop-off is
relative to the restaurant; how quickly Later that day, I lost a second order
the courier needs to pick the food up; (and the entire fee) when I arrived at
and how much they’ll be paid. The fee the restaurant to find it was too large
varies, depending on order size and for the basket on my bike. At 2 p.m., I
distance. For each order, DoorDash knocked off. In three hours of work I’d
takes a cut as high as 30 per cent. completed five orders and made just
under $40. As far as Dashers go, I was
My first shift was the next day. I trav- perhaps more of a Prancer.
elled to Toronto’s west end to await my
first order. Fifteen minutes in, I wan- But I was delighted at how nice
dered closer to one of the order “hot restaurant staff were. One server offered
spots” the app recommended. Then it me a glass of water as I waited, and an
finally came—ping! elderly woman at a pho place struck up
a conversation as she assembled place
OIFNWTOHRRKEEI’HDOURS settings. I felt a sense of camaraderie.
COMPLETED FIVE I was less thrilled to discover that most
of the people ordering the food were
ORDERS AND young, seemingly able-bodied and
MANAGED TO MAKE healthy. Very often I barely even saw
them, just their hands emerging from
JUST UNDER $40. doorways like the hands of a zombie
emerging from a grave.

I accepted and raced to a noodle riding a bike in downtown Toronto is

place 10 minutes away. I arrived at the treacherous. On a daily basis, you con-

restaurant soaked in sweat, quads tend with aggressive drivers, inclement

burning. The food wasn’t there. The weather and countless potholes. I was

restaurant had no record of the order. lucky: in my handful of shifts, I was only

I texted the customer. She didn’t want nearly hit by passing cars twice. But I

to re-order in case it got lost again. have a torn meniscus in my right knee,

She cancelled. and by the end of my third shift my

www.bookshq.net

72 june 2020

knee had swelled significantly enough I met Ostos in May 2019 at a Viet-

that I cut the day short. namese restaurant. He was working for

Not everyone can afford to shorten Foodora and Uber Eats, but had also

their shifts. And it’s those couriers who become a volunteer spokesperson for

are more likely to feel exploited on the the union drive. The group set up an

job. Ostos, the Foodora courier with information tent near an area couriers

the shattered elbow, recalled one shift gather and reached out to Foodsters

when he was stuck at a restaurant, wait- on Facebook. Foodora, meanwhile,

ing for food, watching the clock tick. continued to insist that couriers

A couple of other Foodsters he didn’t weren’t eligible to unionize—but they

know were also there. They started also sent emails and push notifications

grumbling about their work, the lack of directly to couriers, warning them of

labour rights, the non-existent benefits. exorbitant union dues and advising

Like just about every gig-economy com- them to vote against unionizing.

pany, Foodora’s success was built on

the backs of a desperate labour force. “I COULD TRY TO
One courier mused about starting a FIND A BETTER JOB,”
ONE COURIER SAID.
food couriers’ union, something that’s
never been successfully done in Can- “OR I COULD TRY
ada. Another courier agreed, but TO BETTER MY JOB.”
thought it was too onerous a task. How
would you even get in touch with all

the Foodsters? Food couriers have lit-

tle discernible community. Without a

community, how do you organize? The organizers needed to sign up

Some other Foodsters approached a 40 per cent of the workforce to join

bunch of unions. Only the Canadian the union, but nobody knew how big

Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) was the workforce was. There was also the

interested. It helped launch Foodsters issue of how to apply the gains that

United, a campaign site, in early May unions have traditionally fought for—

2019. The couriers’ demands were sim- minimum wages, overtime, etc.— to

ple: fair compensation, better workplace labourers who work irregular hours

safety and benefits. “The people in the and for multiple companies. It was all

Foodora offices get benefits,” Ostos says. very complicated.

“But the guys working 12 hours a day on But organizing workers has always

our bikes? The guys on the dangerous been complicated. And other indus-

side of the industry? They don’t get mas- tries, just as complex, have success-

sage therapy or psychological help?” fully unionized in the past: mining,

www.bookshq.net

rd.ca 73

reader’s digest

manufacturing, construction, profes- November, they’d raised another

sional sports. The gig economy may US$100 million.

be new, but all it really requires is an Meanwhile, the union drive had

expansion of the definition of employ- intensified. Foodsters United submit-

ment. Ostos was optimistic that they ted their application to the Ontario

could pull it off. Labour Relations Board, allowing

As supportive as I was, I felt skeptical. Foodora couriers to vote on whether

When I worked as a tree planter in my they’d join CUPW. Still, the fundamental

youth, I told Ostos, there was no union. question of what kind of workers they

We were treated terribly, but I could were hung in the air. The vote ended in

make enough money to pay for school, mid-August, and the wait began for the

and I wasn’t going to be a tree planter matter to be determined by the board.

for life. Isn’t being a Foodster similar, In February 2020, the board released

something you suffer through then their decision, ruling that Foodora

move past? Ostos smiled grimly. He’d couriers are dependent contractors

heard this before. “People get stuck in and thus able to unionize. But the

these jobs,” he said. “There are guys who results of the August vote are pending

were bike messengers in the ’80s and as a result of voter eligibility issues. If

they’re doing food now. They didn’t the couriers voted yes, the union could

move on and get a law degree. They had move to bargaining and Canada would

to keep working. I could try to find a bet- have its first gig-economy union.

ter job. Or I could try to better my job.”

on a sweltering evening last summer,

i ended up working five Dashes, nine neither my wife nor I felt like cooking.

hours in total, and made about $120, It would have been a perfect day to

which I donated to charity. After those order in. Instead, we walked to the tiny

first shifts, the bag sat for a month by my café around the corner from our house.

door. It provided a strange reassurance. Afterwards, we met up with friends

Rather than write in my stuffy home and got ice cream at the hip new shop

office, I could climb on my bike and down the street. If this all sounds a bit

make money instantly. I’d be out in the like a Portlandia episode, okay, it kind

sun, getting exercise. But I’d also be a of was. But it was also an illustration of

middle-aged guy with a bad knee barely community and commerce working

making minimum wage. Meanwhile, well, of the way a city can feel like a vil-

DoorDash’s profits would continue to lage. When I saw a lone Foodster ped-

grow—in May 2019, it raised US$600 alling by, I silently wished him well.

million from investors, and increased © 2019, JASON MCBRIDE. FROM “THE SECRET LIFE OF
its valuation to US$12.6 billion. By FOOD COURIERS,” TORONTO LIFE (SEPTEMBER 25, 2019),
TORONTOLIFE.COM

www.bookshq.net

74 june 2020

LAUGHTER for this vulnerability.
But could you consider
the Best Medicine maybe letting someone
else share?”
My wife and I were I used to be intense, but
camping in Florida and then I gave up camping. –Me, to the car alarm
came across an arma- that’s been going off
dillo. We stopped to — DAVID G. MARCOTTE, for four hours outside
observe it when a my window
camper van pulled up Toronto — JES TOM, comedian
and a small group of
Germans got out. Star- Me: I’m going to make Custom-Made
ing at the armadillo, one of those diagrams Why do baby clothes
one of their party that uses circles. have pockets? Are peo-
asked in halting Dracula: Venn? ple really going up to
English, “What is it?” Me: Probably tomorrow. babies and saying,
“Hey, can you hold
“It’s an armadillo, — @FRO_VO this for a second?”
eh,” I responded. He
turned to his friends Speaking Up — @Y2SHAF
and shared the infor- “Your story is so
mation. “Ahhh, arma- important and I’m Send us your original
dilloeh,” they nodded. grateful you’ve had the jokes! You could earn $50
— BRUCE COX, Toronto chance to be open with and be featured in the
us. I’m proud of us for magazine. See page 7 or
cultivating the space rd.ca/joke for details.

HART GORDSHIKOV THE BEST JOKE I EVER TOLD

By Inés Anaya

I used to hate going to job interviews until I realized
the perfect answer to the question “What is your
biggest weakness?” is “My interview skills.”

Inés Anaya is a comedian based in Montreal.
She hosts and co-produces the monthly
storytelling show Stand-Up Story Slam.

www.bookshq.net

rd.ca 75

EDITORS’ CHOICE

By the end of 2017, www.bookshq.net
Canadians had registered
943,785 handguns. Every
month, that number grows
by tens of thousands.

reader’s digest

After a mass shooting on a downtown
Toronto street, a former cop became
one of tchonetrliobuutidonetsypte vbyociocnetrsibuctaorllnianmegtkfor
gun control. He’s up against entrenched
lobbyists, slow-to-act politicians and

a surge in firearm owners.

BY Patrick White AND Tom Cardoso

FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL

www.bookshq.net

rd.ca 77

reader’s digest

After 32 years as a constable for the
Toronto Police Service, Patrick McLeod
was ready for a less stressful life. No more
facing down criminals. No more psychologi-
cal armour. Now that he was officially
retired, he and his wife, Jane, decided to
book a long, celebratory European vacation
for later that summer.

Then everything changed. McLeod couldn’t make out what Skye

Around 10 p.m. on July 22, 2018, was saying on the phone. (PREVIOUS SPREAD) IVELIN IVANOV/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

while the McLeods were watching tele- “What? What? Slow down. I can’t

vision, their daughter called in a panic. understand you,” he said.

Skye McLeod, who had graduated “Someone’s trying to kill us,” his

from high school a month earlier, had daughter replied.

headed downtown to celebrate a Skye painted a desperate scene:

friend’s 18th birthday. On their way she and five others had locked them-

home, a group of eight close friends— selves in the downstairs bathroom of a

including Reese Fallon, who grew up restaurant after someone had opened

directly across the street from the fire on them.

McLeods—had stopped for ice cream “Keep the door locked,” her dad told

on Toronto’s bustling Danforth Ave., her. “I’m on the way.”

then wandered over to the Alexander McLeod kept Skye on the line as he

the Great Parkette. and Jane grabbed the keys to their

www.bookshq.net

78 june 2020

Honda minivan. As they pulled out of “Yeah, there’s a bunch of people hid-
the driveway for the 10-minute trip, ing down there.”
Jane called the Fallons to tell them
they’d better hurry over to the Danforth. McLeod ran down the stairs. At the
bottom, he could see blood smears
When McLeod arrived and stepped across the door of the men’s washroom.
out of their vehicle, he observed a
crime scene unlike any he’d ever seen. “Skye, are you in there?” he yelled.
There were injured people all over the “It’s your dad. Open the door. It’s safe.”
place, and countless ambulance atten-
dants and firefighters were bent over The locked door clicked and six peo-
bloodied victims. ple tumbled from the tiny bathroom—
Skye and three friends, along with two
Police were beginning to secure the other bystanders. Many of them were
scene, putting up tape and blocking scraped and bleeding from the scram-
traffic, but no one bothered to stop ble to flee the gunshots.
McLeod. With his shaved head, stocky
Upstairs, McLeod sat everyone down
and asked restaurant staff for water and

McLEOD FOUND A POLICE OFFICER AND
GAVE A DESCRIPTION OF HIS DAUGHTER’S

MISSING FRIEND.

build and a cellphone held to one ear, napkins to treat the cuts. After a time,

he looked every bit a cop. the rest of Skye’s group floated in from

On the other end of the phone, Skye various hiding spots—all except one.

couldn’t tell him where she was hid- “Skye, where’s Reese?” asked McLeod.

ing. When the violence broke out, she

and her friends took refuge quickly and the mcleods had known Fallon since

hadn’t noted the name of the place. she was born. Just a few weeks earlier,

McLeod surveyed the scene and set- she had been sitting at their kitchen

tled on Lukumum, a dessert eatery two table with Skye, studying for final exams.

storefronts east from the parkette. One of Skye’s friends dialed Fallon’s

Once he was inside, McLeod spot- phone from Lukumum, but she wasn’t

ted someone he took to be the owner picking up. McLeod found a police offi-

hiding behind the counter. cer and gave a description of the missing

“Is there anyone in your basement?” member of the party. The officer asked

he asked. McLeod to step outside the restaurant.

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rd.ca 79

reader’s digest

Police officers patrol
the stretch of Toronto’s
Danforth Avenue where
the shooting took place.

There was a girl under a blanket at the parents, Doug Fallon and Claudine

west side of the parkette who fit that deBeaumont, so the detectives could

description, he said. She’d been killed. break the news.

There’s no way, McLeod thought to As they moved toward the bound-

himself. ary of the scene, McLeod spotted the

“Where?” he said. He’d seen his Fallons and waved. When he looked

share of bodies. It was up to him to behind him, the detectives had disap-

ensure this wasn’t Reese, to make every- peared. It was up to him.

thing right. “I’ve got news, but the news is not

The officer led him to the parkette good,” McLeod told the couple.

and pulled the blanket back. McLeod’s Later that night, the McLeod family FRANK GUNN/CANADIAN PRESS

legs buckled. He fell to his knees. Every- joined the Fallons at home. The grief

thing was spinning. The Fallons were was raw. At some point in the night,

on their way, and someone needed to Reese’s parents asked about the shooter.

tell them about their daughter. Who was he? How’d he get a gun?

McLeod gathered himself and McLeod didn’t know much. He didn’t

tracked down two detectives. Together, want to. He figured the guy had killed

they decided they would find Fallon’s himself. Case closed.

www.bookshq.net

80 june 2020

the day after the shooting, police municipalities unspecified powers to
released more details: Faisal Hussain, prohibit the weapons—an approach
a 29-year-old with a history of mental that has largely failed elsewhere since
illness, had used an unlicensed Smith no city can secure its borders against
& Wesson M&P handgun to kill two the illegal flow of guns.
people—Fallon and 10-year-old Juli-
anna Kozis—and injure 13 others before While semi-automatic rifles have
shooting himself. been used in a number of notorious
shootings in Canada—including at
The bloodshed sparked discussions École Polytechnique, Dawson College
about gun control. Toronto’s mayor, and in Moncton—the total fatalities
John Tory, asked “Why does anyone in they’ve caused is marginal compared
this city need to have a gun at all?” to handguns. In fact, according to an
Shortly after that, city councils in analysis of the RCMP’s Canadian Inte-
Toronto and Montreal voted in favour grated Ballistics Identification Network
of a handgun prohibition. A few weeks (CIBIN)—a national database of infor-
later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mation on guns, bullets and casings

“WHY DOES ANYONE IN THIS CITY
NEED TO HAVE A GUN AT ALL?” ASKED

TORONTO MAYOR JOHN TORY.

directed former Toronto police chief recovered from crime scenes across

Bill Blair, his minister of organized the country—less than one per cent of

crime reduction, to explore the idea of homicides or attempted homicides

a handgun ban at the national level. derive from assault-style rifles.

Within months, however, the con- Meanwhile, the number of gun homi-

versation shifted away from handguns cides across Canada continues to climb.

and towards military-style assault rifles. By the end of 2018, they had hit 249 for

Leading up to the federal election last the year (up 60 per cent since 2014). In

September, Trudeau pledged to ban 2019, shootings in Toronto notched a

new sales of assault-style rifles and buy record high of 492.

back existing ones from current own- Complicating the discussion around

ers on a voluntary basis. gun control is the fact that no agency

But rather than a handgun ban on a tracks on a national scale where the guns

national scale, the plan would grant used in crime come from. In the case

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rd.ca 81

reader’s digest

Former police officer
Patrick McLeod has
become an activist
for gun control.

of the Danforth shooting, an early report For Patrick McLeod, nailing down

suggested the handgun had been smug- that data seems like a distraction from

gled across the border from the United the main problem: the number of guns,

States, a detail gun enthusiasts used period. For three decades, he carried a

to argue that any response to the trag- handgun while on the job. Now, he’d

edy should leave lawful gun owners rather live without. He knows a hand-

in Canada alone. gun ban is a tough sell to gun owners.

But nearly a year after the night of “But their desire to shoot paper targets

the shooting, that rumour was dis- is not a good reason to put the rest of

pelled: law enforcement sources con- the population in peril,” he says.

firmed the gun had been stolen from a “Those people on the Danforth

gun store in Saskatchewan. weren’t shot with a gun smuggled from

Broadly speaking, we know theft or the States or a 3D-printed gun or any-

diversion of legally purchased Cana- thing else they think law enforcement

dian guns, along with cross-border should be focusing on,” says McLeod. MARK BLINCH

smuggling, are the main sources of ille- “They were shot with a Canadian gun.

gal guns, but attempts to estimate the It’s time to do something about Cana-

ratio vary wildly. dian guns.”

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82 june 2020

one significant shortfall with restric- At least two of the weapons were seized
tions meant to keep guns in the hands by police in the Edmonton area, accord-
of licensed owners and not criminals ing to Saskatchewan RCMP.
is that, sometimes, they are one and
the same. At least every few months, The exact path that brought the Dan-
police somewhere in the country bust forth gun to Toronto remains a mys-
someone for what’s called “straw pur- tery. But its starting point and destina-
chasing,” where licensed gun owners tion were hardly unusual.
divert their legally purchased firearms
to criminal markets. In general, stolen guns that are used
in Toronto crimes originate from
The RCMP can’t provide figures on beyond the city limits. A Toronto police
just how prevalent this practice is, report on gun seizures in 2018 states
prompting pro-gun groups to argue that the force recovered 61 guns used to
it would be unfair to punish Canada’s commit crimes that year that had pre-
2.2 million gun licence holders for the viously been reported stolen. Of those,
sins of a few bad apples. But the effect 58 had gone missing from somewhere
outside Toronto.

FAISAL HUSSAIN BOUGHT SEVEN
10-ROUND MAGAZINES FOR A HANDGUN,
A PURCHASE THAT REQUIRES NO PERMIT.

of a single straw purchaser can be dev- It’s hard to say when the Smith &

astating. In a 2006 B.C. case, police Wesson first fell into Hussain’s hands.

found that a single firearms business Though he had researched how to get

in Burnaby, Royal Sportsman, illegally a possession-and-acquisition licence

distributed almost 2,000 guns, some of that would allow him to buy firearms,

which are still turning up in crimes to he never went through with the appli-

this day, according to law enforcement cation process, which involves hours

sources. The lead trafficker in that case of instruction, a background check and

was arrested, convicted and handed a personal references.

four-year sentence. But on April 12, 2018, a little more

As for the gun used in the Danforth than three months before the Danforth

shooting, the burglar who stole it got shooting, he bought seven 10-round

away with at least five guns in total, magazines for a handgun, a purchase

and they travelled both east and west. that requires no permit.

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rd.ca 83

reader’s digest

according to the RCMP-maintained proceeds with the pledged ban and
Canadian Firearms Registry, Canadians voluntary buyback of them, what might
registered roughly 3,000 restricted and it look like?
prohibited (but grandfathered) fire-
arms a month in 2010. There are a few options, starting with
a recent effort in New Zealand. Follow-
By 2017, monthly registrations hit ing a massacre at two mosques in
17,000, for a total count of 943,785 March 2019 in which 51 died, the gov-
handguns and 83,100 rifles. The latter ernment of Jacinda Ardern launched a
figure seems low because the vast ban-and-buyback program for semi-
majority of rifles, including many semi- automatics. The results were mixed.
automatics, have gone untracked since
2012—the year that records of 7.1 mil- Estimates put the number of newly
lion rifles and shotguns in the long- banned semi-automatics in New Zea-
gun registry were expunged by the land as high as 175,000, for a country
Harper Conservatives. with a population of 4.9 million. But
when the buyback deadline arrived on

BILL BLAIR CALLED THE ROUGHLY
200,000 “ASSAULT-STYLE” FIREARMS IN

CANADA AN “UNACCEPTABLE RISK.”

Once a quaint hobby, the sports- December 20 last year, the government

shooting industry now employs 14,500 had collected just 56,000 weapons.

people and generates $2.5 billion in Australia is the only other country to

business, according to the Canadian pursue such an ambitious buyback pro-

Sporting Arms and Ammunition Asso- gram, collecting 650,000 guns—most

ciation. Those figures have grown of them semi-automatic rifles—after a

steadily: RCMP numbers show that the mass shooter killed 35 people in 1996.

number of restricted weapons owned The average annual number of firearm

by Canadians has increased by a stun- homicides subsequently dropped by

ning 70 per cent since 2012. 42 per cent.

When mulling a national ban in The United Kingdom banned semi-

June, Blair said that there are roughly automatic rifles in 1988, in a direct

200,000 “assault-style” firearms in the response to the Hungerford Massacre,

country that represent an “unaccept- in which a shooter used a handgun

able risk.” If the Trudeau government and two semi-automatic rifles to kill

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84 june 2020

16 people. Nearly a decade later, a March, a youth worker and founder of
man bearing four legal handguns Zero Gun Violence Movement, an advo-
killed 16 children and a teacher at cacy group aiming to end gun violence
Dunblane Primary school. Once again, in the Toronto area.
the country’s government acted swiftly
and firmly, banning handguns. March’s advocacy focuses less on gun
control and more on the root causes of
in the weeks following the Danforth violence. “There is a demand for guns
shooting, McLeod wasn’t thinking because so many people in this city
much about his position on gun control. feel left behind, and a gun represents
He had other things to worry about— quick, easy money,” says March. “A gun
namely, a traumatized daughter and ban would not change that. Instead of
close friends in deep mourning. banning guns, ban poverty.”

The McLeods had cancelled the first McLeod agreed with March, but he
half of their European vacation but wasn’t so sure gun control could be
easily dismissed. He was beginning to

“THERE IS A DEMAND FOR GUNS
BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE IN THIS CITY

FEEL LEFT BEHIND.”

managed a shortened trip to France, feel it was a vital piece of fighting gun

where he and Jane had time to take violence that also included choking off

stock of the tragedy. Upon their return, cross-border smuggling and reforming

they began talking with other victims’ bail and sentencing for gun offences.

families about what they could do. Along with Jane, Patrick McLeod

During one of those meetings, Clau- largely worked behind the scenes until

dine deBeaumont, Fallon’s mother, a February 16, 2019, town hall on gun

said she wanted to make it her life’s violence featuring Blair, his former

work to enhance the country’s gun- unit commander. On that evening,

control measures. McLeod filed into the Spring Garden

Jane ran with the request. As both a Church in Toronto without any inten-

nurse and a friend of the Fallons, she tion of speaking up. He stuck to that

knew the darkness and sorrow that plan until a gun enthusiast rose from

could come of gun violence. One of the the pews to accuse Blair of persecuting

people she befriended was Louis lawful gun owners.

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rd.ca 85

reader’s digest

“I blew my gasket,” McLeod remem- would be overly expensive and ineffec-
bers. “There was no way I was sitting tive, given the easy flow of illegal hand-
down anymore.” guns coming across the border—the
families were crestfallen. What about
McLeod stood, his face red with emo- the Danforth handgun?
tion, and recounted how he had to
speed to the Danforth, free his daugh- McLeod agrees with an assault-style
ter from a bloody bathroom, identify rifle ban but doesn’t think the govern-
the body of a girl he’d watched grow up ment’s commitment to allow munici-
and break the worst possible news to palities to ban handguns will solve any-
two dear friends. thing. And no amount of missing data
about how guns get into the hands of
“Now tell me, what kind of gun was killers can change his feelings about
she shot with,” he said, his voice qua- what needs to happen next. A bur-
vering with emotion. “A gun that was geoning Canadian hobby cannot jus-
legally brought into Canada for sale tify the lives lost.
and was stolen from a gun shop. It’s
time for Canada to get rid of handguns “When I look across the street to the
and assault rifles. We don’t need them.” Fallons, I realize we’ll never be done
with this,” says McLeod. “We’ll never
The impassioned speech made news move on. People still need our help. I
broadcasts. The following week, fami- had to get up off my couch and take
lies of the victims held a news confer- action that night. It’s time for Cana-
ence to call on the Trudeau government dians to get off their couches and do
to ban both handguns and military- something.”
style assault rifles.
FROM “WHY DOES ANY CANADIAN NEED A HANDGUN?”
When Blair rejected the possibility BY PATRICK WHITE AND TOM CARDOSO, THE GLOBE AND
of a full ban on handguns—saying it MAIL (SEPTEMBER 20, 2019). THEGLOBEANDMAIL.COM

Warm Thoughts

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been
the two most beautiful words in the English language.

HENRY JAMES

When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high,
no trouble too difficult to overcome.

WILMA RUDOLPH, OLYMPIC ATHLETE

Smell the sea and feel the sky.
Let your soul and spirit fly.

VAN MORRISON

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86 june 2020

DOWN TO BUSINESS to deliver a package
every five minutes.
Sometimes, when I was
running behind, I
would rush in carrying
a box for delivery to a
customer, who would
look up slowly from
their computer and ask,
“What’s that?” I would
answer honestly, “It’s
a box!”

— PETER BOWMAN,

Hamilton

“Nurse, could you please click OK?” Conflict Management
The next time you have
When I worked in a up and realized that it a difficult client at work,
instead of saying, “I’ve
hardware store, it was was the shirtless con- CC’d in my boss,” just
ask, “Do you wanna say
my job to help contrac- tractor—wearing a that in front of Greg?”

tors order their sup- shirt. Without thinking, — @ROOBEEKEANE

plies, and there was a I said, “Sorry, I didn’t There’s nothing like
being the first one on a
certain contractor who recognize you with conference call to show
everyone who’s not boss.
would always come your clothes on!”
— APARNA NANCHERLA,
into the store shirtless. — WENDY FREDETTE,
comedian
We had a long lineup Salmon Arm, B.C.
Are you in need of some
one day, and I was professional motivation?
Send us a work anecdote,
CONAN DE VRIES busy entering orders Literal Delivery and you could receive
$50. To submit your
when the customer at I used to work as a stories, visit rd.ca/joke.

the front of the line courier in a large city. I rd.ca 87

said, “Give me what I had a small designated

usually get.” I looked route and was expected

www.bookshq.net

reader’s digest

RIDGERUNNER
by Gil Adamson

reader’s digest ($33, HOUSE OF ANANSI)

BOOK CLUB what it’s about: Adamson’s follow-up
to her hit 2007 novel The Outlander
Every month, (and no, you don’t have to read the
first one) tracks William Moreland, a
taciturn bandit in First World War–era
Western Canada. He’s known as the
Ridgerunner for his tendency to prowl
across the Rockies, stockpiling money
and food from unsuspecting frontier
folk. As the novel begins, he’s acquired
$14,000 through nefarious means—
enough to reunite with his tweenaged
son, Jack, whom he left years earlier in
the care of a prickly, overbearing nun
named Sister Beatrice. The novel is a
rollicking adventure, tracking the two
men on their twin paths, trying to find
their way back to each other. Moreland
dodges sleazy night watchmen, loggers
and grizzly bears, while Jack steals
away from Sister Beatrice in the night,
roughs it alone in a cabin in the woods
and camps out in the mountains with
a troupe of American hunters, morph-
ing from boy to man along the way.

we recommend a new why you’ll love it: Pop culture is

must-read book. Here’s packed with stories of adventurers con-
what you need to know. quering the American West, but we’ve
rarely seen a Canadian analogue—and

where spaghetti westerns are dusty

and sun-drenched, Adamson’s world is

BY Emily Landau appropriately cold, rugged and majes-

tic, an untouched wilderness suddenly

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88 june 2020

dotted with logging camps and mining

towns. It’s so vividly described that TRUE GRIT
you’ll feel like you’re slinking through
antique versions of Banff and Leth- Ridgerunner’s William Moreland joins an
bridge right alongside the Ridgerunner illustrious gang of frontier anti-heroes.
himself. Moreland is mourning his Here, four of the most famous:
wife—and Jack’s mother—who lulled
him into a temporary state of stability Wild Bill Hickok gambled, spied, duelled
only to die and leave him forlorn. Jack and wrestled bears across the American
is forced to learn a pioneer’s self- West and into folk tales. He died in 1876
reliance in the wild, while navigating from a gunshot while playing poker in
his anger at what he perceives as his Deadwood, in present-
father’s abandonment. And the most day South Dakota.
compelling character of all turns out to
be Sister Beatrice, whose vexatious Calamity Jane gained
shell conceals bitter loneliness and fame for generously
despair about the loss of the boy she embroidered outlaw
helped raise. At its core, it’s a novel doings. She died of
about isolation and why we need other pneumonia in 1903
people—something we can all relate to and was buried beside
Hickok, with whom
she may have con-
ceived a child.

in this period of social distancing. Butch Cassidy led

IMPRINT OF C.E. FINN, LIVINGSTON, MONT./PUBLIC DOMAIN who wrote it: Adamson, who grew up the Wild Bunch, before
in Toronto, spent her early years writing allegedly meeting his end in 1908 in a
poetry and short stories, as well as an shootout in Bolivia, where he was hiding
unauthorized biography of X-Files actor from American authorities (there are
Gillian Anderson called Mulder, It’s Me. suspicions he lived until 1937). Paul
Newman played him in the 1969 movie.

She spent nearly a decade working on Bill Miner, known as the Gentleman
her first novel, The Outlander, a literary Bandit, was born in the U.S. but became
western about Mary Boulton, a 19-year- a Canadian folk hero for an early-20th-
old widow on the run from the law century series of brazen robberies of
(spoiler: she turns out to be Moreland’s CPR trains carrying gold. He was said
dead wife in Ridgerunner). The wait to be unfailingly polite and to have

paid off: the book was a Canadian best- invented the phrase “Hands up!”

seller and landed on the 2009 edition

of CBC’s Canada Reads, where it was JOIN THE CONVERSATION

championed by Da Vinci’s Inquest Visit facebook.com/readersdigestcanada

actor Nicholas Campbell. to share comments about Ridgerunner.

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rd.ca 89

reader’s digest

BRAINTEASERS

Points of View (POINTS OF VIEW) DARREN RIGBY; (IT’S A LOCK) FRASER SIMPSON; (STRONGBOX ILLUSTRATION) ISTOCK.COM/VECTORPOWER
Moderately difficult The nine pictures go into the grid in such a way that the
descriptions on the edges are true for the first picture in the corresponding row
or column in the direction of the arrow. There can’t be more than one picture per
cell. Where does each one go?

plant has often house submarine
life windows flies sits on
water

found on land found in birchbark duck
nature canoe
in animal
kingdom has wheels

is attached is human- airplane tree
by a stem made

goes stays in
underwater one place

fish bird

can have is alive made has

people of metal wings

inside leaf

It’s a Lock
Moderately difficult The lock on a strongbox
has a six-digit code. The second digit is two
more than the fifth digit. The third digit is double
the first digit. The fourth and fifth digits add up
to the sixth digit. The fourth digit is two less than
the fifth digit. If all of the digits add up to 29, can
you figure out the code of the strongbox?

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90 june 2020

(JERRY MANDER’S LAST HURRAH) RODERICK KIMBALL; (SO HAPPY TOGETHER; MEANDERING) DARREN RIGBY Jerry Mander’s Last Hurrah
Moderately difficult Your name is Jerry
Mander, and you have a history of rigging
local electoral maps. Before retiring to
enjoy your ill-gotten gains, you’ve
decided to collect one last bribe from
mayor George Cherry. Draw voting
districts so that Cherry remains mayor
instead of getting defeated by his more
popular rival, Les Indigo. This map
shows which household supports which
candidate. Divide it into five districts
of five contiguous households so that
Cherry will get the majority of the votes
(at least three households) in the
majority of the districts (at least three districts). For a district to be contiguous, each
household must share a border with at least one other, and shared corners don’t count.

So Happy Together
Easy You and a group of friends are about to be seated in random
order around a circular table, with no extra chairs. The probability
that your one best friend will be sitting next to you is equal to the
probability that she will not. How many people are in your group?

3 Meandering

Moderately difficult In each outlined region, put a
whole number into all of the cells, counting up from
1, moving in numerical order from square to square.
The count can move only horizontally or vertically
within the region, not diagonally. No number may
touch a copy of itself horizontally or vertically
between regions. One number has been given.

For answers, turn to PAGE 95

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rd.ca 91

reader’s digest

TRIVIA 12. Fujian, Taiwan and
Guangdong are all
BY Paul Paquet known for what product,
whose name means
1. While her brothers stripe, for the House “black dragon”?
were inventing the air- of Orange?
plane, Katharine kept 13. The Cervantes Prize
their bicycle shop afloat. 7. The title character in is awarded to people
What was their surname? The Life Aquatic With Steve writing in what language?
Zissou (2004) was likely
2. Which layer of the modelled on what real 14. Which country has
earth, normally found French oceanographer? been experiencing a tour-
between the crust and ism boom because of the
core, occasionally pushes 8. Since 2016, the letters Frozen movies?
up to the surface? A, B and O are sometimes
missing from various (TV) ISTOCK.COM/MGKAYA; (TENNIS BALL) ISTOCK.COM/PAVLO_K
3. Who starred in Thomas signs and company logos
Edison’s 1894 short film, around the world. Why?
The ‘Little Sure Shot’ of the
‘Wild West.’ Exhibition of 9. What rocker revealed
Rifle Shooting at Glass in January 2020 that he
Balls, etc.? has Parkinson’s?

4. In Louise Fitzhugh’s 10. Conch, helix, tragus 15. In 1972, the Inter-
classic 1964 novel, who and rook are all ways national Tennis Feder-
was the titular spy? of piercing which ation authorized what
body part? TV-friendly colour for
5. What city’s historic tennis balls?
Imperial Hotel is on its 11. What person’s last
Ringstrasse (ring road)? words, uttered on
August 31, 1997, were
6. Which country’s flag purportedly, “My God,
used to include an orange what’s happened?”

Answers: 1. Wright. 2. The mantle. 3. Annie Oakley. 4. Harriet. 5. Vienna. 6. The Netherlands.
7. Jacques Cousteau. 8. To promote blood donation. 9. Ozzy Osbourne. 10. The ear. 11. Princess
Diana. 12. Oolong. 13. Spanish. 14. Norway. 15. Yellow.

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92 june 2020

WORD POWER

Whether we seek precision, beauty or 10. contumacious—
both, much of the subtlety of language A: rounded.
B: stubbornly
comes from its adjectives. Here are disobedient.
some 10-dollar examples to add polish C: poisonous but
not lethal.
to your proclamations.
11. feckless—
BY Rob Lutes A: lacking poise.
B: ineffectual
1. stygian— B: rough in texture. and irresponsible.
A: stingy. C: obnoxiously loud. C: without skin
B: timeless. blemishes.
C: dark and gloomy. 6. frugal—
A: silly. 12. dilatory—
2. insidious— B: cold. A: rundown.
A: indoors. C: thrifty. B: chatty.
B: gradual but harmful. C: tending to cause delay.
C: strongly felt yet 7. inveterate—
unexpressed. A: habitual and unlikely 13. fastidious—
to change. A: attentive to detail.
3. whimsical— B: soft and malleable. B: dietary.
A: unpredictable. C: untested. C: recklessly rapid.
B: elegant and
inexpensive. 8. threadbare— 14. belligerent—
C: fragile. A: self-evident. A: relating to the sea.
B: shabby and barely B: exhibiting hostility.
4. vulpine— adequate. C: in a state of disrepair.
A: murderous. C: scantily clothed.
B: cunning. 15. earnest—
C: hungry. 9. salutary— A: serious and sincere.
A: beneficial. B: wealthy.
5. brumous— B: welcoming. C: overly generous.
A: foggy and wintry. C: verbal.
rd.ca 93
www.bookshq.net

reader’s digest

WORD POWER 6. frugal—C: thrifty; as, 12. dilatory—C: tending
ANSWERS Having seen that Carita to cause delay; as, It
was organized and frugal, appeared to Henry that
1. stygian—C: dark and Hélène gave her budget- the airport’s customs had
gloomy; as, Ms. Mariner ing responsibilities for been set up in the most
shuddered as she entered the entire conference. dilatory way possible.
the stygian cave.
7. inveterate— 13. fastidious—A: atten-
2. insidious—B: gradual
but harmful; as, The A: habitual and unlikely tive to detail; as, Raoul’s
insidious effects of eating
too much sugar began to change; as, An inveter- fastidious reporting won
to show themselves in
Arjun’s weight gain and ate worrier, Roone had high praise from his
lack of energy.
learned how to get by on demanding editor.
3. whimsical—
A: unpredictable; as, very little rest.
Greer’s whimsical person-
ality meant she couldn’t 14. belligerent—
necessarily be counted
upon to remain at a job 8. threadbare— B: exhibiting hostility; as,
for long.
B: shabby and barely The school principal’s bel-
4. vulpine—B: cunning;
as, Well aware of the sus- adequate; as, Despite their ligerent behaviour toward
pected drug lord’s vulpine
intelligence, the police threadbare uniforms, the parents led to her removal.
kept a close eye on all of
his activities. tiny school’s track team

5. brumous—A: foggy dominated the meet. 15. earnest—A: serious
and wintry; as, Knowing
night would bring even and sincere; as, Wei took
colder and darker
conditions, Ezekiel set 9. salutary—A: bene- an earnest approach to
out immediately to cross
the brumous valley. ficial; as, The difficult but each and every issue

94 june 2020 salutary two-week training raised by workers.

session turned Adham

into a first-rate salesman. CROSSWORD
10. contumacious— ANSWERS

B: stubbornly disobedient;

as, Portia’s contumacious FROM PAGE 96
behaviour left her day-

care workers little choice OLAV ANGS T
but to call her parents.
T AM I L V I O L A

THECANAD I AN

ORNAT E NYY

11. feckless—B: ineffec- REBA TEA

tual and irresponsible; MU S E UMF OR
as, Boonsri complained
about her feckless brother MI L FLEE
who never seemed to
ASL AL ICIA

HUMANR I GH T S

A S AM I ENA C T

get anything done. L EN I N S OHO

www.bookshq.net

BRAINTEASERS SUDOKU
ANSWERS

FROM PAGE 90 BY Jeff Widderich

Points of View 69
89 2
It’s a Lock 138
274358. 38
Jerry Mander’s
Last Hurrah 72 54
47

534
4 89

47

So Happy Together To Solve This Puzzle 743156982SOLUTION
Five, including you. 589427631
Put a number from 1 to 9 in 216398574 rd.ca 95
Meandering each empty square so that: 351974268
867235419
4567 121 ) every horizontal row and 492861357
321 543 2 vertical column contains all 928513746
1432 123 nine numbers (1-9) without 175642893
2 561 654 repeating any of them; 634789125
3 1 7 5 7 21
4 23 4 8 34 ) each of the outlined 3 x 3
654 321 5 boxes has all nine numbers,
none repeated.

www.bookshq.net

reader’s digest

CROSSWORD

On the Money 26 “Girl on Fire” singer Keys
30 See 13-Across
BY Derek Bowman 33 “Same here”
34 Pass into law
1 234 56789 35 Russian revolutionary

figure
36 London district

10 11 12 DOWN

13 14 1 The Simpsons bus driver
2 Cowardly Lion portrayer

3 “You said it!”
15 16 4 Parish officials

17 18 19 5 Hollywood star Gardner
6 Nest, in Normandy

20 21 7 Discuss, as details
22 8 Sigurd, to the dragon

23 24 Fafnir
9 Singer Tucker or Tagaq

25 26 27 28 29 11 Jazz musician Yusef
14 Pertaining to cosmic

30 31 32 clouds
18 2001 French romcom hit

33 34 20 Punctuation error,
perhaps

35 36 21 Tracey of TV and film
22 Fakes, as an injury

23 Taj ___ (Agra attraction)

27 Vietnamese rice dish

ACROSS 16 Jays’ rivals, on 28 Strong urge

1 Scandinavian royal name scoreboards 29 Concerning

5 Uneasy feeling 17 “Freedom” singer 31 Nice friend

10 Language that gave McEntire 32 Prolific journal

us “curry” 19 Steeped ___ (Tims writer Anaïs

12 Desmond on the latest offering)

$10 bill 20 See 13-Across

13 With 20- & 30-Across, 23 “Cool” sum of cash

building on the $10 bill 24 Run away from

15 Flowery 25 Future interpreter’s subj. For answers, turn to PAGE 94

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96 june 2020