Archive for May, 2009

It was shortly after noon on June 5, 1944, when we left the south coast of England. We didn’t know where we were heading until a couple of hours later when we opened sealed orders after clearing the boom between the mainland and the Isle of Wight. From then on we knew exactly where we were going, and while we did not know it at the time, the operation would change the course of the war. We were part of the largest combined land, air and sea forces ever assembled, and we were en route to Normandy, France. Today I sit comfortably [...]

Okill Stuart was 23 when he boarded a Landing Craft Tank on the south coast of England. It was around noon, June 5, 1944, and he had no idea where he was heading. The weather was deteriorating and he could feel the swells rising beneath the vessel as it made its way out past the Isle of Wight. Not until around 2 p.m.—when sealed orders were opened—did Stuart and the others realize they were part of an epic operation to cross the English Channel, invade Normandy and rid Northwest Europe of Nazi tyranny. All through the night men wondered and sweated [...]

Despite a mid-bonspiel spin-out, the guys from Nutana Branch in Saskatoon claimed their second consecutive dominion championship with an impressive final-draw victory at the 53rd Royal Canadian Legion Dominion Curling Championship held March 15-19 in Maple Ridge, B.C. The team of Darren Clancy, Les Kun, Rick Middleton and skip Andrew Hay managed to come out on top after a week of curling and festivities at Maple Ridge, a little community in the mountains just outside of Vancouver. By all accounts it was a great week. Not only was the curling intense, but the post-curling events at the branch quite quickly became the [...]

  What Did The Doctor Say? Did the doctor say isolate, or irrigate? And was that two tablets, two times a day? Misunderstanding what a doctor says can be confusing and dangerous—and it happens a lot. A study on health literacy released by the Canadian Public Health Association last fall revealed more than half of adult Canadians have problems understanding their doctor, and the problems worsen with age. A 2009 study by Texas A&M University in College Station of patients with osteoarthritis severe enough to warrant knee replacement showed 18 per cent of them were unclear on whether the doctor had recommended surgery. In [...]

The May/June 2009 issue of Legion Magazine includes a feature article on the lure and popularity of Canadian community theatre. Many of the amateur companies referred to in our story enter productions in yearly provincial drama competitions. Below is a listing of some of the main festivals. Theatre BC Mainstage:  The annual Mainstage festival sponsored by Theatre BC is one of the longest running community theatre traditions in Canada. The program is the culmination of winning plays from the more than 60 community theatre clubs that compete in Theatre BC’s 10 zone festivals held between March and May. www.theatrebc.org/Mainstage Dramaworks: Each July [...]

The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada touched down on Juno Beach at 8:12 a.m. on June 6, 1944, almost a half-hour late. The sea was very rough, many of the riflemen seasick, but the men, with two companies in 10 assault boats in the first wave, hit the beach in front of the seaside town of Bernières-sur-Mer running. “Ten boats stretched out over 1,500 yards is not really a whole lot of assault force,” Company Sergeant Charlie Martin wrote later. On the maps, the Queen’s Own was shown as a battalion, almost one thousand strong. But on the beach at [...]