Maple-Washing

      Buy Canadian - It's Not So Easy
   The term "maple-washing" appeared in a headline and it is our subject for today. It was new to me. Apparently "it has been coined in popular discourse to describe the lengths that retailers and producers have gone to make their products appear as Canadian as possible."  
   Misleading marketing is not new, but the surge in food patriotism is and that has led to some questionable labelling indicating that a product is "Canadian". To reduce the angst among those who are agitated about all of this, I will reproduce the relevant paragraph from the maple-washing article, which says the rules relating to food are clear about what constitutes "Canadian." I hope they are clear to you, but I remain confused. For example, although coffee is not grown in Canada, I know there are some Canadian coffee companies, as defined by the rules listed below, but I don't think it would be correct to say that Tim Hortons is a Canadian company.

 "According to the Food and Drugs Act, all food labels must be truthful and not misleading or likely to create a false impression. The rules are clear. 
  "Product of Canada" requires that at least 98 per cent of the ingredients and processing be Canadian. "Made in Canada" means the last substantial transformation took place here, and "Prepared in Canada" refers to food that was processed, packaged or handled domestically, regardless of where the ingredients originated." "Retailers Must Guard Against Maple-Washing," Sylvain Charlebois, London Free Press, July 29, 2025.

   To demonstrate the complexity of all of this, here is a bit from the Consumers Council of Canada, which also supplied me with the definition of maple-washing as quoted above.

   "In one typical social media feed, Canadians can see promotion that Cadbury’s Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs are “proudly made for Canada, in Canada from domestic and imported ingredients”, Breyer’s ice cream is “made in Canada with high quality ingredients and Canadian dairy”. Black Diamond cheese will also promote its Canadian origins and production, and sometimes cheekily notes it is made with 0% American cheese.
   Some consumers will appreciate this presentation and favour those products. 
   Of course, Cadbury is a British company, owned by Mondelez international. Breyers has a production facility in Simcoe, Ontario, but it’s owned by Unilever. Black Diamond has origins and production in Belleville, Ontario, but is owned by Lactalis Canada which is part of the Lactalis Group, headquartered in France."

  I suppose that the subject of whether your grocery item is "Canadian" is moot if you purchased it at either Walmart or Costco. 

Buy Ontarian

  Once again, my post is more confusing than it should have been. So, I will conclude by suggesting that you only buy things made in Ontario and supply the source where you can shop: Ontario Made: Great Things are Made Right Here.  You will even find a Canadian coffee company - Club Coffee Craft Roasters, in Etobicoke. 

Post Script:
   The recent concern about buying Canadian is largely a result of the numerous tariffs which have been levied, unlevied and which are about to be levied again. Ontario began the "Support Ontario" program back when the pandemic was the issue that made people think about reshoring and producing things locally. 
See, for example: "Labatt Promotes Ontario Made Label," Jennifer Bieman, LFP, Oct. 30, 2020:
  "Labatt Breweries of Canada signed on to a provincewide push to promote Ontario businesses forging ahead in the pandemic-battered economy. Ninety-six brands, including London-made Bud Light, Budweiser and Labatt Blue, will display an Ontario Made designation, a marketing initiative to promote local products....The province threw its support behind the program in early July, contributing $500,000. The campaign comes after many Ontario businesses retooled during the first wave of the pandemic to manufacture in-demand products, including masks and other personal protective equipment. Premier Doug Ford announced a second phase of the program Thursday, a consumer directory of participating manufacturers at Supportontariomade.ca."

Bonus Links:
  Send your kid to a Canadian Maple League University.
  Travel Locally- Grassroutes.    

   Whether a non-food item is "Canadian" can be complex as well, and that is why we have law firms. And when such firms are involved, suits follow. Take the case of a company named Moose Knuckles, which surely appears to be Canadian, even if their product was not.
   "In recent years, there has only been one enforcement action brought by the Bureau regarding a “Made in Canada” claim. In 2016, the Bureau filed an application with the Competition Tribunal (Tribunal) alleging that Moose Knuckles had marketed their winter parkas as “Made in Canada,” when they were actually imported from Asia in nearly finished form, only to be finalized with zippers, snaps, fur trims and labels in Canada. Moose Knuckles settled the action by, among other things, agreeing to donate C$750,000 over five years to charity and to clarify that some of its parkas are made with Canadian and imported components."
From: "Maple-Washing: Regulatory and Civil Liability Risks of Calling a Product Canadian," By Laura Weinrib, Jonathan Bitran, Simon Seida, Emily Hazlett and Joshua Hutchinson, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, March 13, 2025.

   It is also noted in the article above that "maple-washing" is sometimes called, "maple glazing".
   For another bonus, search for the meaning of "moose knuckles".  

Hockey News

 There's Not Much
  I figure that the title will attract thousands since there has been no hockey news since the final game of the Stanley Cup was played a few days ago. A few days from now, the quest for the Cup will begin again. Until then, here is some Canadian hockey news to get you through the lean times. It will also allow me to push the post about Stalin down the page.
  Our Prime Minister played hockey and, if you are not impressed, I will add that he played for Harvard University. He did not play much, but was a dedicated and hard-working team member who was still able to graduate magna cum laude in 1987.
   I know all of this because of an article in The Athletic, which is the company that the New York Times bought to cover sports, which, let's face it, aren't as good as they once were. Still, the subject is valued by some and a subscription to the NYT necessary if you want to access the content provided by the sweat-stained wretches at The Athletic, who are probably located in another borough. The bits below about Carney and hockey at Harvard are from the following piece and they have been edited extensively so I won't be accused of stealing the prose for which you are unwilling to pay.
   I will say that the article is better than the title: "Cheap Beer and a Suspect Blocker: Before Mark Carney Was Canada's Prime Minister, He Was Harvard's No. 3 Goalie," [I suppose that some in the U.S would say that it was a demotion], Fluto Shinzawa, New York Times, April 30. 2025.

 Mark Benning knew his job. The Harvard defenseman’s priority was to retrieve pucks and deliver them quickly and accurately to Scott Fusco, Lane MacDonald and Tim Barakett, the Crimson’s talented forwards.
   To get to pucks first, Benning required timely on-ice arrivals. It was up to Harvard’s No. 3 goalie to open the bench door at just the right moment to let his puck-moving defenseman pounce onto the ice at full speed. Mark Carney took the job seriously. He did it well. 
   It was one of many things the future politician mastered during his time at Harvard. Hockey wasn’t his professional destiny, but the Canadian prime minister has deep connections to it, from his college playing days to his Oilers fandom to a close friendship with longtime NHL executive Peter Chiarelli....
   In the fall of 1983, Chiarelli moved into Straus Hall, his freshman dorm at Harvard. He met Greg Dayton, his new roommate.
  Two doors down, Chris Sweeney, Dayton’s best friend and fellow Belmont Hill grad, was settling in with an 18-year-old from Edmonton. Dayton went to visit Sweeney. Chiarelli tagged along and was introduced to Carney. The teenager that Chiarelli met in his first hour at Harvard would become his best man.

   “We would have connected even if we weren’t living that close together with each other,” says Chiarelli, who is from Nepean, Ontario. “Because we would be at the hockey rink.”
   Chiarelli was a forward. In 1983-84, the freshman played in 27 games. It was 27 more than Carney.
   That season, Carney was behind two goalies: Grant Blair, a sixth-round pick of the Calgary Flames, and Dickie McEvoy. Blair and McEvoy were very good NCAA goalies.
   Carney, meanwhile, was listed at 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, undersized for the position. Regardless of his competitiveness and puck-handling touch, he had weaknesses his teammates could exploit.
   “I was going high blocker,” recalls Fusco when asked where he liked to shoot on Carney.
   “Low stick,” counters ex-teammate Randy Taylor.
   Carney’s situation did not change in seasons to come. John Devin entered the rotation, pushing Carney to practice part-time with the Harvard JV. 
   But on March 9, 1985, Carney got his chance. In Game 2 of the Eastern College Athletic Conference quarterfinals, Harvard was beating up on Colgate. Crimson coach Bill Cleary pulled Blair and replaced him with Devin. 
   Then in the third period, Devin got hurt. Carney came in. The sophomore stopped all five shots he saw. Harvard won 10-2.
   It was Carney’s first and final NCAA appearance.“His goals-against average is zero and his save percentage is 1.000,” Taylor says. “Let’s focus on that and not how many games he got in. For the chance that he got, he couldn’t have done any better.”
  In retrospect, Chiarelli, former general manager of the Boston Bruins and the Oilers and current vice president of hockey operations for the St. Louis Blues, believes Carney would have been good enough to be a No. 2 goalie elsewhere in the ECAC. 
  “He was realistic,” Chiarelli says. “He was good at the sport and he loved it, but he wasn’t going to change schools.”
Carney did not go to Harvard to be a hockey player.....
   After freshman year, Chiarelli, Carney and Dayton moved out of Straus. They lived together in Winthrop House. Their room became a second home for Benning. 
   The defenseman had started his college career at Notre Dame. Benning transferred to Harvard after the Fighting Irish shifted to club status in 1983. In 1984-85, his first year at Harvard, Benning lived off campus in Inman Square, a residential and commercial neighborhood in Cambridge. Instead of walking back to his apartment after practice, Benning became what he termed Carney’s adopted roommate. 
   On Saturday nights, after home games at the Bright Center, Carney and his teammates were regulars at the Piccadilly Filly. Funds were tight. Beverage quality was not the priority.
   “All of us were pretty cheap,” says Benning, now the founder of a venture capital firm called Excelsior. “The cheapest beer we could find.”
   Fusco, the founder of Edge Sports Center in Bedford, Mass., is Harvard’s all-time leading scorer with 240 points. He won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player in 1986. He had help getting there.
   Fusco, 62, remembers wind-lashed walks from the Harvard quad across the Anderson Memorial Bridge to practice at the Bright Center like they happened yesterday. He liked getting to the rink early to work on his shot. 
   As Fusco crossed the Charles River, Carney was usually at his side. The goalie with no shot at playing was happy to stand in net while Fusco ripped off pucks for 45 minutes before practice.
Carney was there to serve."

   If you are interested in Carney and college hockey and politics see: "Mark Carney: College Hockey's First Prime Minister," Adam Wodon, College Hockey News, March 12, 2025. 

The Bonus: 
  His wife, Diana Fox Carney, also played hockey and lived on a pig farm, among other, much higher endeavours. 
   If you are more interested in music than sports, note that our Prime Minister likes heavy metal: "HEADBANGER TO HEAD BANKER: Heavy Metal Fan to Run the Bank of England," Steve Hawkes, The Sun, Nov. 27, 2012.
"5 OF MARK'S FAVE TUNEs
1 Back in the Black - AC/DC
2 For Those About to Bail Out Northern Rock, We Salute You - AC/DC
3 Rates of Spades - Motorhead
4 Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
5 Cash-mir - Led Zeppelin.

Travelling From PARIS to ROME

 To Pompano Beach

   This post is provided for my neglected readers. Although the subject heading is not incorrect, it is rather misleading. We were recently in Paris, the smaller one located in Ontario. More recently we were also in Rome, the smaller one in the state of Georgia. While the former doesn't have the Seine, it does have the Grand and the Nith. The latter is not quite the Rome you assumed we were in, but it is not lacking in attractions. It is the home, for example, of the largest college campus in the world and one also finds there enough tennis courts at the hotel we stayed in to support the largest of professional or collegiate tournaments. I provided a post a while back about Berry College and I am glad we detoured off Interstate 75 to see it --- which also allowed us to avoid Atlanta. 
   That we are travelling during such a perilous period can be explained by the fact that I needed to do so for family reasons. Although you are now probably not thinking about heading for the U.S., I will report that the journey, so far, has been uneventful, politically speaking, and the political headlines are more concerning than the heavy traffic.
   There was little traffic at the border and the guard was even polite. There have been no single fingers raised or horns honked when the "Ontario" plate was spotted. When citizenship was mentioned the reaction was one of curiosity rather than condemnation and the young ladies at the pool said they had experienced no problems. They are from Steinbach, Manitoba.
    Although we Canadians are currently very agitated and concerned about such things as "tariffs", for many Americans, Canada is likely as remote as Steinbach, Manitoba and we are far more worried than they are about the relations between the countries. 

The Bonus:
   We have two TVs in our room now, but have not turned any on since we left Canada a week ago. Headlines have been noticed, however, and here is one from The Washington Post, which indicates that many Canadians are cancelling trips across the border:
"Canadian Travel to U.S. is Plummeting: ‘There’s a lot of anger’, By Ben Brasch and Hannah Sampson, April 3, 2025:
“For the nicest people on the planet, who are Canadians, the language is strong,” said Stacy Ritter, head of Visit Lauderdale in South Florida. “There’s a lot of anger out there.”...
"But the love fest may be on thin ice: Industry experts are reporting a steep decrease in Canadian visitors so far in 2025, pointing to a drop in airline and hotel bookings and scaled-back schedules by Canadian airlines for flights into the United States."....
‘Complete collapse’
    McKenzie McMillan, a Vancouver-based adviser with the Travel Group, said his company would typically be busy this time of year arranging last-minute spring break and summer trips for Canadians to such favorite spots as San Diego; Palm Springs, California; Phoenix; and Las Vegas. Instead, he said, “it’s zero.” The steep drop-off started gradually, with some clients in January saying they were thinking they might avoid the U.S. this year. “Since February, it’s been a complete collapse,” he said.McMillan said about 20 percent to 30 percent of trips that were already booked got canceled. Since then, he said, the company has seen about a 90 percent drop in new bookings for U.S. vacations compared with the previous year, as clients opt for other destinations.
   That is in line with what Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, has been expecting. His travel analytics firm predicted that 4 million fewer Canadians will visit the United States this year, a 20 percent decrease that could cost the U.S. $4.3 billion in lost revenue, he said.  PT Tours, a bus tour company based in New Brunswick, called off the eight trips on the books for the United States, including visits to Boston and Washington, along with an October shopping trip to New Hampshire that has been offered for more than 10 years."

Post Script:
   This is likely our last trip.

McGill-Queen's University Press

 More Sources For Books - University Presses
   Here is another CANADIAN source for books, provided at a time when we are paying more attention to where things are produced. My last post in this series about "University Presses"  was done just over a year ago and it was also about a CANADIAN publisher - Wilfred Laurier Press. This one is a joint venture between McGill and Queen's. For additional information see the website for MQUP. 

A Topical Tome
  As this is being typed, tariffs are being imposed on Canadian goods by our southern neighbour, so this book could provide useful background information, although the title of a new edition will need to be revised: Natural Allies: Environment, Energy, and the History of US-Canada Relations, by Daniel Macfarlane:
"No two nations have exchanged natural resources, produced transborder environmental agreements, or cooperatively altered ecosystems on the same scale as Canada and the United States. Environmental and energy diplomacy have profoundly shaped both countries’ economies, politics, and landscapes for over 150 years."

"Intoxicating Histories"

   MQUP publishes books in a series and this one could help us forget about our current concerns:
"Whether on the street, off the shelf, or over the pharmacy counter, interactions with drugs and alcohol are shaped by contested ideas about addiction, healing, pleasure, and vice and their social dimensions. Books in this series explore how people around the world have consumed, created, traded, and regulated psychoactive substances throughout history."

Local Authors
   

There are books available from MQUP that are by scholars from the London area. Here is one by Professor Emeritus, Ian K. Steele. 

    English Atlantics is dedicated to Professor Steele:

"Ian K. Steele's pioneering work in imperial and early North American history was a pivotal contribution to the establishment of Atlantic history as a field. His study of a unified English - and later British - Atlantic challenged American exceptionalism and encouraged the current wave of interest in Atlantic studies."
   

   Professor Peter Neary, who passed away last year, authored the ones above and these below:

   His wife Hilary Bates Neary has also published with MQUP and is well-known to those interested in the local history of London and Middlesex County. 

   Once again, this series about University Presses demonstrates that books produced by them often appeal to readers far beyond the campuses. A list of all the "University Presses" covered in Mulcahy's Miscellany, is found at the bottom of this post about WLU Press. 

CANADIAN Single Author Journals

  This is a bibliographical research note for those with a specific interest in single author journals. You will know who you are and what they are. Even more specifically, it is for those who are wondering if there are any Canadian single author journals. The word “Canadian” will be employed in this context to attempt to answer two questions: 1) are there any single author journals devoted to Canadians?, and 2) are there Canadians who are, or were, producing single author journals about people who are not Canadian?  The answer to both questions is “Yes." Those answers are not easily found, so this note will be useful for the very small number who are wondering what Canadian might be worthy of such a journal. It will also be of interest to the even smaller number who wonder what  non-Canadian is important enough to rate such attention from someone here in Canada.    It is very difficult to identify those individuals who have their very own periodical, unless you are willing to look up every single person you think might be important enough to have a journal, produced and printed over a period of time on their behalf. Identification of all of the single author journals was problematic before the Internet and remains so. Before the Internet, one very dedicated and diligent researcher rounded up all the single author journals she could find back in 1979. Over 1000 of them are listed and described in Margaret Patterson’s, Author Newsletter and Journals: An International Bibliography of Serial Publications Concerned With the Life and Works of Individual Authors. A few supplements were published by the author in Serials Review, but otherwise, there have been no other reference books about this subject.  Her book is well-indexed and from one of them I provide below, all of the entries that are “Canadian.” There are only a few and some relate to journals that are about Canadians, and the others about journals produced by Canadians or in Canada. Two of them are still being published, but the authors who are the subjects of these single author journals are not Canadian. The Chesterton Review was started in Saskatchewan and continues on at Seton Hall in New Jersey. Hume Studies began at the University of Western Ontario and the Humeans are still very active down the road at Brock University and elsewhere.   After the Internet one might have assumed that single author journals ceased to exist. It would seem to be far easier and less expensive to set up a website dedicated to the author, or publish an e-journal related to that individual. The two examples provided above indicate, however, that single author journals continue to exist, along with websites devoted to them. Finding them though is as difficult as it always was.  Provided below are two lists. The first one contains all of the references related to Canada that are found in Patterson’s, Author Newsletter and Journals. The second provides the search results found when attempting to identify Canadian single author journals on the Internet.

Stephen Leacock

1. CANADIAN SINGLE AUTHOR JOURNALS FOUND IN PATTERSON'S AUTHOR NEWSLETTERS AND JOURNALS Patterson’s book may not be readily available so I have included the information provided with each reference and the page number on which it is found in Author Newsletters and Journals. 

1. Bakhtin, Mikhail (1895-1975)

Bakhtin Newsletter (Le Bulletin Bakhtine)
Editor: Clive Thomson, French Department, Queen’s University
“Designed to facilitate communication among scholars interested in Bakhtin. The first issue included an analytical bibliography and news of past publications, current projects and future conferences.”
This reference is the only one not found in Author Newsletters… This one is from  the “Supplements” Patterson did in Serials Review. See this issue: Spring, 1984, p. 51.
This newsletter appears to have been published between 1983-1996. Additional information will be found at Queen’s. Western University has some issues in storage. 

2. Chesterton, G.K. (1874 -1936)

The Chesterton Review

In 2025, The Chesterton Review is still being published by the G.K.Chesterton Institute For Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University. Information about it is available at this website: https://www.shu.edu/chesterton/chesterton-review.html

   It is included on this list because it was established  in 1974 in the English Department at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan. The title was: Chesterton Review: The Journal of the Chesterton Society. Here is the information provided by Patterson, p.62.

   Chesterton Review: The Journal of the Chesterton Society. Editor: Ian Boyd, Department of English, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, 1437 College Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7NOW6, Canada. Sponsor: The Chesterton Society. Fall/Winter 1974—. 2yr. $5(Canadians); $6(non-Canadians); $7(Institutions); $8(non-Canadian Institutions); £2 (Great Britain). [50-150p.] Circulation: 1,263, including 376 outside North America. Last issue examined: vol.4, 1978.

   “Concerned with “the promotion of a critical interest in all aspects of the life and works of G.K. Chesterton.” Critical and biographical studies on sources, influences, comparisons, style; review articles; previously unpublished works; reprints of inaccessible early works; surveys of Chesterton’s popularity and influence in foreign lands; extensive news and comments concerning national and International Chesterton Society meetings and financial status, seminars in North American and foreign countries, work in progress, new publications; reminiscences; brief notes: letters to the editor; bibliographies; poems; International contributors; annual index. The Chesterton Society has branch secretaries in England, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Poland and the United States.”

Indexed by: America History and Life and Historical Abstracts.

Alternate subtitle: Newsletter of the G.K. Chesterton Society, Fall-Winter 1974.

P.62.

3. Choquette, Robert (1905 - 1991)

Cahiers Du Cercle Robert Choquette.

Sponsor and publisher:  Collège de Saint-Laurent 

1956-64 (nos.1-9). Irregular. [40-65 p.]

American-born Canadian poet, novelist, dramatist.

“Dedicated to Choquette, a graduate of the Collège de Saint-Laurent. Composed mainly of poems to Choquette’s honor, with a few essays and stories; brief introductions.” p.63

Choquette was also a diplomat. He was born in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Dantin, Louis - see Seers, Eugène below.

4.Hume, David (1711-76)

   In 2025, Hume Studies is still being published and information about it is available at this website: https://www.humesociety.org/ojs/index.php/hs/index.

  It is included on this list because it was established at the University of Western Ontario in 1975.

“Scottish philosopher, historian.”

Hume Studies. Editor: John W. Davis, Department of Philosophy, Talbot College, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A3K7, Canada. Sponsor: Faculty of Arts, University of Western Ontario, 1975—. 2/yr (April, November). $3.50 (individuals); $5.50 (institutions). [30-50 p.]. Last issue examined: vol.4, 1978.

“Devoted to historical and systematic research on David Hume. Long documented essays on Hume’s work; brief comments on his contemporaries, his influence, letters, manuscripts, and life; Hume bibliographies; notes and news on workshops of the Canadian Society of Eighteenth Studies and other research projects; notes on symposia, projected works; book reviews; announcements of books received. In English, French, German or Italian. Back issues available from Micromedia Limited, Box 34, Station 5, Toronto, Ontario, M5M4L6, Canada. 

[Note: The information immediately above is outdated. Current information and back issues are available from the Hume Society at the website provided at the top of this entry.]

Indexed by: America: History and Life and Philosopher’s Index.

P.166.

5. Leacock, Stephen (1869-1944)

Newspacket. Sponsor: Stephen Leacock Associates. P.O. Box 854, Orillia, Ontario. 

Spring 1970 –. Quarterly.

“Canadian humorist, political scientist."

P.192.

6. Seers, Eugène [Louis Dantin] (1865-1945)

Cahiers Louis Dantin. 

Louis Dantin was the pen name of Eugène Seers. Canadian poet, critic.

Publisher: Editions du  Bien public, Trois-Rivières, Québec. 

1962- (?) Irregular. [60-160 p.] Last issue examined, no.4, 1967.

“Previously unpublished letters from Dantin to his son; personal reminiscences, genealogy of the Seers family, announcements of new editions, with notes and descriptions of Dantin’s works.” 

P.278.

2. SELECTED RESULTS OF SEARCHES FOR CANADIAN SINGLE AUTHOR JOURNALS ON THE INTERNET

  I know of no way to find such things. I simply chose some Canadian authors to search. I am not a Canadianist and the list will be deemed “idiosyncratic” by those looking for an author from a particular province, or one who wrote in a language other than English, or from a specific ‘identity’. 

  A cursory search was done and the result is the Baker’s dozen provided below. A few single author journals are found and you will locate examples quickly under the entries for Margaret Atwood and Lucy Maud Montgomery, from which one can, at least conclude  that single author journals are not only for males. When there is no entry next to the name searched, that means that there was nothing much to notice beyond the basic reference sources and Wikipedia. In a few cases, I have provided some information which may be of use if you want to start your own single author journal about that person.

1. Atwood, Margaret

https://atwoodsociety.org/

   "The Margaret Atwood Society is an international association of scholars, teachers, and students who share an interest in Atwood’s work. The main goal of the Society is to promote scholarly exchange of Atwood’s works and cultural contributions by providing opportunities for scholars to exchange information. To reach this goal, we publish a journal, Margaret Atwood Studies, for which we invite submissions year round, and we host several panels each year on Atwood at various academic conferences, including at the Modern Language Association Convention (MLA), Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), and the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA)."

2. Callaghan, Morley

3. COHEN, Leonard

Official Website

https://www.leonardcohen.com/

 Produces - The Leonard Cohen Newsletter
   The Leonard Cohen Files

https://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/

"Welcome to The Leonard Cohen Files - a tribute to the music and poetry of the Canadian singer-songwriter-poet-novelist Leonard Cohen.

This website was launched in September 1995. The site is hosted by Jarkko Arjatsalo in Finland. The webmaster appreciates the continuous help and support provided by Leonard Cohen and his management."

4. DAVIES, Robertson

“Robertson Davies Collection” Queen’s University

https://web.archive.org/web/20100603151729/http://library.queensu.ca/robertsondavies

"Located on the historic campus of Queen's University in beautiful Kingston, Ontario, the W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library houses the personal library of Robertson Davies, the renowned Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist and professor.

The Collection

Comprised of more than 5000 volumes, theatre prints and ephemera, this remarkable collection reflects Davies' deep interests in literature, literary criticism, art, music, theatre, theatre criticism, theatre biography and autobiography, film, drama, history and psychology. Many of the volumes are annotated with handwritten notes inserted.  Particular strengths are in 18th, 19th and 20th century theatre books and prompt copies. Many works are signed or first editions. The items will be shelved according to room order in which they were kept at Windhover, Davies’ country home in Caledon Hills."

5. GRANT, George Parkin

6. Laurence, Margaret

7. McFarlane, Leslie

8. MacLennan, Hugh

  The Hugh MacLennan Papers Online Project McGill University Libraries

https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/maclennan/bio.htm

9. MCLUHAN, Marshall

Official website:

https://marshallmcluhan.com/

   Marshall McLuhan Bibliography at Monoskop

https://monoskop.org/Marshall_McLuhan

"Welcome to Monoskop, a wiki for arts and studies.

Monoskop is an independent web-based educational resource and research platform for arts, culture and humanities founded in 2004."

10. MITCHELL, W.O.

Website W.O.Mitchell Ltd.

https://womitchell.ca/

11. Montgomery, Lucy Maud

 Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario

https://lucymaudmontgomery.ca/

  L.M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery Literary Society

https://lmmontgomeryliterarysociety.weebly.com/

The L. M. Montgomery Literary Society is an international community of readers with a special interest in the life of Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 – 1942), her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, as well as her many other novels, 500+ short stories, poetry, letters and personal journals.

The Shining Scroll is the annual publication of the L,MMNL,S.  

 L.M. Montgomery Institute

https://lmmontgomery.ca//

 For additional information see: The L.M. Montgomery Institute, University of Prince Edward Island. https://lmmontgomery.ca/islandora/object/lmmi%3Acollection

Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies

https://journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/

   L.M. Montgomery Research Centre

https://web.archive.org/web/20090803190900/http://www.lmmrc.ca/

"The L.M. Montgomery Research Centre Web site is a scholarly resource designed to highlight the L.M. Montgomery Collection of the University of Guelph Library, making it visible and easily accessible to scholars and readers of Lucy Maud Montgomery."

12. RICHLER, Mordecai

13. Woodcock, George

Website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130822150108/http://www.georgewoodcock.com/

"George Woodcock (1912-1995) has been variously described as "quite possibly the most civilized man in Canada,"  "Canada's Tolstoy," "by far Canada's most prolific writer," "a regional, national and international treasure" and "a kind of John Stuart Mill of dedication to intellectual excellence and the cause of human liberty." His unrivaled productivity as British Columbia's foremost man of letters was achieved in concert with consistent political ideals and humanitarian actions ever since he and Ingeborg Woodcock arrived in B.C. to build a cabin in 1949.

The Bonus: 
I usually provide one, so here it is. There was a single author journal called, The Curwood Collector. Although it is not about a Canadian and was not produced in Canada, it was published close by in Michigan and the popular author spent a lot of time in Canada, which he often wrote about and referred to as "God's Country." There is a festival every June in Owosso, Michigan to honour, James Oliver Curwood.

Survival of the Weakest

  It is my impression, which I think is shared by a few others, that more young people seem to be having psychological problems and that there is also a growing cohort of them with food allergies. Some may have both. If one assumes these things are true, the major question is why there are increasing numbers in each category.
  A few minor questions, likely to be raised by a skeptic or contrarian, have to do with the attempt to ascertain which of these psychological issues and dietary ones are more important than others. Psychological disabilities can be more difficult to diagnose and confirm than physical ones and there needs to be a distinction between actual food allergies and dietary preferences, such as, for example, those required for religious reasons. 
  University settings where young people abound, yield data about such things and here are two articles from campuses about, disabilities and dining. Both indicate that there are indeed more students signing up for clinical help and complaining about the dining halls. Whereas administrators used to be employed to mainly support the faculty and those working in the physical plant, now more are needed to attend to the mental problems of students. The increasing demand is affecting universities with decreasing budgets, which would be most of them here in Ontario.
  I am in the contrarian camp when it comes to the psychological issues as you may recall from my recent related post about, "Prevalence Inflation." (See also: "The PTSD Pandemic," and "STRESS - A Contrarian View.") About the increase in allergies, I am curious, but I think that many who complain about food have too much of it and that generally most things one chews on will not result in an anaphylactic shock.
  Here are the views of others. The first article is a Canadian one and it is followed by an American example, indicating the "disability problem" is also occurring there. The dietary issues follow. (The articles are not provided in full and the bolding is mine.)

Disabilities

"As Demand for Disability Accommodations in Universities Grows, Professors Contend With How to Handle Students’ Requests," Joe Friesen, The Globe and Mail, Dec. 27, 2024 (also the source for the graph.)

   "In Thomas Abrams’s second-year sociology course at Queen’s University in Kingston last year, about one-third of students were registered with the school’s disabilities office.
That means they were eligible for academic accommodations, which can apply to classroom delivery as well as assessment, and can range from more time on assignments to a semi-private room for exams and a memory cue sheet to assist them.
One-third of a single class might sound high, but it’s also increasingly the norm. More than 6,000 of the roughly 28,000 students at Queen’s last year (22 per cent) were approved for such accommodations by the disabilities office. Five years ago, it was about 2,250 students (9 per cent).....
“We are faced with a complex pedagogical, human rights, privacy, labour and psychological issue,” he said.
What’s happening at Queen’s is part of a trend that’s apparent across Ontario and the rest of Canada. The number of students registering with disabilities at universities has rapidly increased, causing resources to become strained. The shift has also raised questions about the fairness of accommodations and triggered frustration among professors who are unsure how to handle the volume of requests...."
Often, these students’ conditions aren’t physical or visible. Three-quarters of those registered with Queen’s Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) have a disability that is not physical: 33 per cent have a mental-health disability, 29 per cent have ADHD and 14 per cent have a learning disability. Most of the growth in accommodation requests across the province over the past decade has been in those three categories...."
An independent report commissioned by Queen’s to examine the university’s accommodations policies, prompted by the rapid increase in student needs and a desire to assess the fairness and adequacy of those policies, was released in June...."
   The report’s authors said they couldn’t discern the reason for the recent increase but described a perception across campus that Queen’s has been hit by a “tsunami” of students asking for accommodations."

  This is the article talking about the situation in the United States.

"Are Colleges Getting Disability Accommodations All Wrong?"

Higher ed’s maximally inclusive approach hurts those it attempts to help," Chronicle of Higher Education, By Alan Levinovitz September 25, 2024

"Disability accommodations in American higher education are skyrocketing. In the past decade, the proportion of colleges with more than 10 percent of students registered as disabled has quintupled, and accommodation requests have followed the same pattern. Despite increased staff and resources, disability-service providers are overwhelmed, and it’s common for a single staff member to be tasked with serving 500 students. Faculty are also reporting increased workloads as they find themselves continually adjusting teaching and assessment practices.

Providing an accessible education to everyone is a crucial civil-rights issue, one that went unaddressed in this country for far too long. Discrimination against people with disabilities was standard practice until the introduction of legal protections like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act in 1973 and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. Without these protections, blind students would have no recourse if their community college failed to provide accessible versions of textbooks and library materials, and deaf students participating in online classes would not be entitled to closed-captioning. Even with robust laws in place, disabilities are frequently missed or dismissed, a problem compounded by racial and socioeconomic disparities.

Concern about the validity of surging accommodation requests may therefore seem misplaced. To a certain extent, the trend is a positive development: the product of increased awareness, better screening practices, and less institutional discrimination. We should worry about students’ rising rates of mental-health disorders, many disability advocates say, not the willingness of colleges to accommodate them.

However, a suite of acute, well-documented problems with disability accommodations demand attention. The data is clear, for instance, that a significant minority of diagnoses are fraudulent or mistaken. In many cases, there is no empirical basis for granting common accommodation requests like extended time or distraction-free testing. And there is further evidence that the current state of disability accommodation compounds inequities in student achievement, rather than alleviating them.

Students and instructors are rightfully concerned about fairness and compromised rigor. Resources are being misallocated to unproven interventions and students who don’t need them. Worst of all, the interventions may be harming some of the students they are intended to help, exacerbating their mental-health problems and setting them up for a lifetime of struggle.

Colleges have remained complacent about the status quo for a variety of reasons. Since they want to support students and avoid lawsuits, administrators are incentivized to pursue a maximally inclusive approach to accommodation. Disability advocates fear, understandably, that calling attention to these issues will result in public backlash, creating more stigma around disability and threatening hard-won rights. Outside of academe, alarmism about accommodations has been associated with ableism and culture wars. While researching this piece, multiple people refused to speak with me about their misgivings on the record. There is a chilling effect at work, resulting in a lopsided discussion that leaves educators, students, and the public poorly informed.

However understandable the reluctance to criticize disability accommodations, refusing to do so is antithetical to the mission of higher education. Inaction harms students both with and without disabilities, allows for continued misallocation of limited resources, and calls the integrity of our institutional practices into question. We have a duty to engage in even-handed, critical reflection and pursue necessary reforms — even when it makes us uncomfortable."

Dining

"The New Reality for College Dining Halls: Dozens of Dietary Restrictions:

A surge of students with allergies and special diets is challenging meal services and changing the shape of the campus cafeteria, Priya Krishna NYT - Sept. 5, 2023.

For the staff of the Michigan State University dining halls, serving roughly 27,000 students each semester has never been a picnic. But these days, the job involves an even bigger challenge: One in six of those students has an allergy or other dietary restriction. Just five years ago, it was one in eight.

Once upon a time, running a college meal service was fairly straightforward: Put out one entree, one dessert, maybe a salad bar. Today, dining halls must cater to a student body with increasingly varied and complicated needs and preferences.

Some 6.2 percent of adults in the United States have a food allergy, according to a 2021 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that number reflects only medically diagnosed allergies, and doesn’t include all the restricted diets that many younger people are adopting.

Robert Landolphi, the assistant director of culinary operations at the University of Connecticut, said that two decades ago, “you had your handful of peanut and tree-nut allergies, and back then we had maybe two people with gluten-free diets.” Today, he said, more than 10 percent of those on meal plans have some sort of dietary restriction.

Several dining hall managers and dietitians said they do their best to meet each student’s needs, but acknowledged that it can be difficult and cost-prohibitive to accommodate all of them — especially the less-common requests....

At the University of Connecticut, Mr. Landolphi recalled a student who told him that for animal protein, he ate only fish heads, organ meats and bone broth — and that the dining hall should serve a similar menu, for the sake of student health."

There were many comments about this article. Here is one that I chose:

COMMENT:

"I am a school nurse and am just APPALLED by all of this.

Toughen up people!

True, there are those with life threatening food allergies  but for the most part whatever 'sensitivities' students may have can be taken care of with avoidance or a little Benadryl.

What it says loud and clear is that the parents, and their parenting, of this college generation were hovering too closely overhead making their kids afraid of everything, keeping everything TOO clean so their immune systems now are so untested and their anxiety levels are so high that they'll breakout in a rash over anything. 

It's just a precursor to how they're going to be handling the outside real world : Badly, quivering at every new experience that may cross their path.  And then, God help us all- and save us from the spoiled generation..in other words

GROW UP."

WOE CANADA

   

In my last post I indicated that I had learned (again) that the city in which I reside is not deemed to be a particularly desirable place in which to live. Whenever I am outside of the country and am asked where I am from, I don't generally characterize London in such a negative way. I suppose I do typically locate it for the questioner by saying, "Halfway Between Toronto & Detroit." You can buy the T-shirt pictured at Museum London. 
   Nor am I negative about the country in which this London is located. I admit to even being unapologetically nationalistic and to saying that "Canada is a great country in which to live." Apparently I should now add to that sentence this disclaimer, "but a lot of Canadians don't agree."
   Perhaps it was because I live in a city that is regarded as not particularly "livable" that I noticed that many now regard Canada as an increasingly undesirable place in which to be. That sentiment is expressed in the headline atop a poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute. Here it is:
"From 'eh' to 'meh'? Pride and Attachment to Country in Canada Endure Significant Declines."
The percentage of people saying they are "very proud" to be Canadian has dropped. "Pride" is now displayed far more often in flags not related to a country. Here are the graphic details.

It is not reassuring that slightly more people are "attached to Canada but only as long as it provides a good standard of living."
  I noted in my last post that high ratings and rankings attract more attention than negative ones and if there was a poll indicating Canada rated high up there in the "World Happiness Report," you would have read about it (Finland is usually at the top.) As far as I can tell, the reaction to the Reid poll about how Canadians feel about Canada is muted. 

  I did find one attempt to answer a question related to the poll results -- "What is driving this change in mood, this massive drop in patriotism?"  Unfortunately the question was asked and answered in a publication you probably don't read (you may look at it for the 'girls', which I see are still being displayed.) It would be good to see such questions and answers in the publications you do read. There are far fewer outlets produced by the mainstream or institutional media and increasingly, it seems to me, 'countervailing' ( to use a word used often by Galbraith) views and opinions are relegated to fringe magazines or newspapers or blogs such as this one. 
   Although the author of the article places the blame at the very top, which is debatable, the points made are worth considering. The article:

"Trudeau Trash Talks Canada and National Pride Falls Quickly," Brian Lilley, Toronto Sun, Dec.13, 2024. "Who would feel pride in a systemically racist country committing genocide with no core identity? All ways Trudeau has described Canada....."
Of course fewer Canadians say they are “very proud” to be Canadian. Who wants to boast about being part of a genocidal state built on colonialism, discrimination and systemic racism with no core identity."

E pluribus unum -- not in Canada. 

Woe Canada?
   The title I used seemed familiar and I see that I have already used it in the bottom of another post of mine you will not have read. Here it is and it has some relevance. We will probably see it more often. 

WOE CANADA - Factlet (12)
   Given the focus on Identity and Indigeneity this statistic made me wonder if there will be a Canadian identity in the future, or several thousand solitudes not just two.
"There are more than 630 First Nation communities in Canada, which represent more than 50 Nations and 50 Indigenous languages."

Source: The Angus Reid Poll

The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize For Political Writing

    The bad weather continues so I will provide, for readers of non-fiction, five books which are the finalists for this prize, the winner of which will be announced in early May. Unfortunately, the London Public Libraries do not have the books by Savoie or Perrin. There are 31 "holds" on Fire Weather.

   The prize is named for Elizabeth Shaughnessy Cohen who was born here in London and who died twenty five years ago in the House of Commons. 
    The prize winner gets $25,000. I noticed that Mr. Vaillant was the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize which is a good one to win - $125,000! Click on that link if you want to find more good books and the winner of that prize for 2024 will be announced in a few days.

1. The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, Astra Taylor.
“Astra Taylor argues that while insecurity is central to the human condition, we have built a society that compounds and exacerbates that reality, and one where elites benefit from inequitable suffering. By intertwining her own story with the wisdom of poets and philosophers, Taylor encourages interconnectedness and shared vulnerability to reimagine our overwhelmed society into a more caring one. This is a helpful, hopeful book written at a time fraught with unease and negativity. The Age of Insecurity provides important perspectives on how we got here and shards of light that might just lead us out of this anxious place.”

2. Canada: Beyond Grudges, Grievances, and Disunity, Donald J. Savoie.“In this sweeping analysis of the internal divisions and identities that shape our nation’s political fabric, Donald J. Savoie lays bare the contradictions of a federal state and national political institutions that often fail to reflect Canada’s deeply entrenched regional, economic, linguistic, and cultural fault lines. The result has been politics of victimhood and grievance. Even so, those differences have created a national will to overcome them. Writing with clarity and conviction, Savoie distills the complexities of federalism into an easily accessible exploration of our nation. He captures the essence of a resilient Canadian spirit, where compromise and inclusive national social programs have forged an attachment to Canada greater than the forces that divide us.”

3. Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, John Vaillant.

“Like a blazing inferno that commands our attention and awe, we cannot look away from Fire Weather. John Vaillant brings the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire to life by introducing us, almost affectionately, to the human beings on the frontlines of the fossil fuel industry and the fire it produces that threatens us all. This is a deeply compelling, skillfully crafted story packed with information but completely free of ponderous lecturing. It is terrifying in its honest, textured description of what we have wrought in the name of progress, what we stand to lose, and where we might find the possibility of hope.”

4. Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial, Benjamin Perrin.

“Gripping and timely, Indictment delivers a powerful vision for a complete transformation of Canada’s criminal justice system. Drawing on interviews with frontline workers, survivors of crime, and repeat offenders, Benjamin Perrin masterfully weaves together vivid case studies with the latest research on how to create a safer society for all. Shared experiences from marginalized groups, such as Indigenous people and Black Canadians, shape Perrin’s trauma-informed proposals to tackle everything from the opioid crisis to the problems with current jails. This beautifully written and rigorous critique is sure to enlighten any reader and offers fresh ideas and vital information to policymakers for overdue justice.”

5. Not Here: Why American Democracy Is Eroding and How Canada Can Protect Itself, Rob Goodman.

“Not Here is both a frightening and reassuring story written with clarity and absorbing analysis. With an American perspective, Goodman explores the decline of democracy and rise of authoritarianism in the United States and what it means for Canada. Deep social and economic ties between the two nations mean Canada is not exempt from the same tyrannous forces. In fact, Canadian politics shows similar strains, some of which originate from within our own borders. But Goodman has good news: we can find comfort knowing Canada has values, history, traditions, and institutions that can withstand the autocratic threat.”

To learn more about The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize For Political Writing and a list of the past winners see, Writers' Trust Canada. 
 One of my recent posts about award winning books is "Good Book Awards" which discusses the Scotiabank Giller Prize and The Cundill History Prize.