Waterloo will pause to remember

Ordinary life pauses for a few minutes this morning as UW, and all of Canada, marks Remembrance Day, mourning the country's war dead and honouring those who, daring to die, survived, in wars past and present.

No words can add to their fame, nor so long as gratitude holds a place in men's hearts can our forgetfulness be suffered to detract from their renown. For as the war dwarfed by its magnitude all contests of the past, so the wonder of human resource, the splendour of human heroism, reached a height never witnessed before. — Arthur Meighen, prime minister of Canada, 1921

As national leaders mark the occasion in Ottawa, local dignitaries will place wreaths at the Cenotaph beside Waterloo City Hall on Regina Street, and veterans will parade, in a ceremony that starts at 10:15 a.m. A wreath will be placed by two students on behalf of the university.

Ceremonies will also be held at 10:45 at the Kitchener Cenotaph on Frederick Street and at three locations in Cambridge, including the Cenotaph on Queen’s Square a block from the UW Architecture building.

On the main UW campus, a service begins at 10:45 a.m. in the Student Life Centre great hall. The service includes the traditional two minutes’ silence and multi-faith prayers for peace, says Rev. Megan Collings-Moore of Renison University College, who is helping to organize the event along with other members of the UW chaplains’ association.

Across campus, the customary Remembrance Day service organized by the student Engineering Society will be held starting at 10:50 a.m. in the lobby of Carl Pollock Hall.

The official date of the Remembrance Day commemoration is always November 11, the anniversary of the day in 1918 when the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War. Much of the imagery of the day is connected to that war, including the poppies, worn in lapels, that are sold by the Royal Canadian Legion as a fund-raiser. They recall the wildflowers that grow in the fields of Flanders, north Belgium, as mentioned in the poem by Lt.-Col. John McCrae of Guelph that is read at many Remembrance Day commemorations.

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Historian tells Trudeau's story (volume 2)

UW's library will be the host today for a celebration of biographer John English's second instalment of a two-volume look at the life and times of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada's prime minister 1968-79 and 1980-84.

The event, hosted in collaboration with the Canadian International Council, will feature a TV-style interview in which UW president David Johnston will ask the questions and English, just retired as a UW professor of history and still director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, will give the answers. The by-invitation event will run from 4 to 6 p.m. in Federation Hall.

English (left) is the author of the newly published Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1968-2000. Three years ago, English released Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968.

"Just Watch Me and Citizen of the World are the definitive story of Pierre Trudeau, and the two volumes provide an indispensable look at the life and times of the most important and controversial leader of our time," says Mark Haslett, UW's university librarian. "We are honoured to be able to celebrate this accomplishment by one of our professors."

A former Liberal Member of Parliament for Kitchener, English (left) was given exclusive access to Trudeau's private papers and letters. He researched the entire published record of the period as well as the archival records, and interviewed hundreds of people associated with Trudeau, both publicly and privately.

English, is also author of a well-regarded two-volume biography of Lester Pearson, Trudeau's predecessor as Liberal Party leader and prime minister.

Trudeau's life is one of Canada's most engrossing stories. English reveals how for Trudeau, style was as important as substance. The title, Just Watch Me, is not only Trudeau's notorious phrase from the October Crisis of 1970, but also a motto for his performance in life. English examines how the controversial public figure intertwined with the charismatic private man and committed father. He traces Trudeau's deep friendships (with women especially, many of them talented artists, like Barbra Streisand) and bitter enmities, as well as his marriage difficulties and family tragedy.

In his book, English focuses on Trudeau's strengths and weaknesses — from the Trudeaumania that brought him to office in 1968 to political disenchantment, from his electrifying response to the kidnappings during the October Crisis, to his all-important patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982, and his evolution to influential elder statesman.

On November 25, English will give another reading of his new Trudeau biography at 7:30 p.m. in Knox Church, 50 Erb Street West. That event is sponsored by Words Worth Books.

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Poet in a cottage, and other notes today

Writers Duncan Patterson and George Bowering will be at UW’s Architecture building tonight for a launch of The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology, just issued by Harbour Publishing, and the exhibition “Room Enough Between the Trees: Al Purdy’s A-Frame”. The event takes place in the school’s Stantec Gallery at 7 Melville Street South, Cambridge, starting at 7:30. Patterson and Bowering are two of more than 20 writers who contributed reminiscences and poetry to The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology. They’ll share anecdotes of the cabin at Ameliasburgh, in Prince Edward County, where poet Purdy and his family welcomed a parade of Canadian writers from the 1950s to the 1990s. The new anthology collects memories and poems by a roll call of famous writers about inspiring days and nights spent at the A-frame, in addition to a selection of Purdy’s own writing which shows the depth of his feeling for the place where he put down his roots. The “Room Enough Between the Trees” exhibit includes photographs and drawings documenting the house, supplemented by a series of samples of Purdy’s writing. Also at tonight’s event, book sales and proceeds from an auction will help raise funds for the Al Purdy A-frame Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving the A-frame as a retreat for future generations of Canadian writers. The exhibition continues through November 20.

A message went out this week from Justin Williams, vice-president (education) of the Federation of Students, inviting UW undergraduates, “along with undergraduate students from universities across Canada, to participate in an exciting new research project: the Canadian Student Survey.The first project of its kind in Canada, the survey is designed and coordinated by students, and strives to engage the entire student body to share their opinions and experiences about post-secondary education. Your response to this survey is important and will contribute to the publication of national and institutional-level reports that may assist national, provincial and institutional student leaders, stakeholders and policymakers to improve higher education. The results of this survey will help student associations better understand issues of importance to students, which will allow them to better represent you and other students with their advocacy efforts for improving higher education in Canada. Your feedback will also allow the Feds to provide better services to you on campus.” The survey is online, and takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete, says Williams; those who enter can be eligible for cash prizes.

A graduate student seat on the UW senate is about to come open, because the current senator, Matthew Schumacher, will be graduating shortly. Hence this notice from the university secretariat: "Nominations are requested for one graduate student of the university to be elected by and from the full- and part-time graduate students of the university, term January 1, 2010 to April 30, 2010. The nomination form is online. At least five nominators are required in each case. Nominations should be sent to the Chief Returning Officer, Secretariat, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:00 p.m., Friday, November 20, 2009. A by-election will follow if necessary."

The university secretariat also provides a reminder that there's a November 18 deadline in the election of a number of members for the presidential nominating committee that will choose a successor to David Johnston as UW's leader. The current process will fill eight faculty seats and one staff seat on the committee.

From the fall issue of the Conrad Grebel University College alumni newsletter: “In September 2008, a group of students led by Julia Cherneshevich got together and decided that solar thermal technology was an efficient, cost-effective project that would reduce Grebel’s use of natural gas. Over the past year, there have been about 20 enthusiastic students contributing to ‘Solar Grebel’, all excited for Grebel to reduce its impact on the environment. Their goal is to contract, fund, and initiate the installation of a solar thermal water heating system at Conrad Grebel University College. Jonathan Van Egmond, who is currently co-leading the project, explained that ‘projects of this type require an initial investment, and then, as natural gas use is reduced, the project pays off. An estimated payback period for projects of this type is around 10-15 years.’ Solar Grebel hopes to raise $30,000 for the system and plans are underway to install the thermal array in the spring of 2010. As any student who has lived in residence over the summer knows, Grebel’s peaked roofs are ideal for collecting and storing the sun’s energy!”

CAR

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