How six celebrated Canadians are planning to unwind this summer
Editor: Idella Sturino. Interactive editor: Lucina Lo. Visuals editor: Sarah Palmer.
Headshot photographs by Mikael Theimer/Supplied, CBC/Supplied, Phillip Faraone/Supplied, Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail, Riley Smith/The Globe and Mail, Bresler PR/Supplied
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William Shatner arrives for the world premiere of "You Can Call Me Bill" during the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, in Austin, Texas, Thursday, March 16, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Invision, Jack Plunkett Captain James T. Kirk would be appalled at the rapid acceleration of climate change on Earth, says William Shatner, the Montreal-born actor who played the head of the USS Enterprise in the 'Star Trek' franchise for decades. 'I think he would probably be as appalled as I am,' Shatner said during a recent video call from his home in Los Angeles. The actor said he could imagine Kirk 'skywriting' a message to his fellow Earthlings, urging them to take action. 'Education, education, read everything,' Shatner said. 'Everybody should acquaint themselves with the problem, and make a decision.' The 94-year-old actor is in his hometown of Montreal later this week for the city's Comiccon event. The three-day fan convention begins Friday at the Palais des congrès. Shatner is scheduled to make an appearance on the second and third days of the conference. Other scheduled guests include Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' and Kane Hodder, who starred in the 'Friday the 13th' franchise as the deranged hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees. Shatner was born in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood in 1931, and he still has a deep emotional connection to the city. 'That's my whole childhood,' he said, adding that he has a 'vast' number of relatives living there, including a sister. He began acting when he was a small child, and he continued even after graduating from McGill University in 1952 with a commerce degree. The school's university centre is known to students as the Shatner Building, though the university confirmed it is not the building's official name. He first played Captain Kirk in the 'Star Trek' TV show in 1966. His last appearance in the franchise was in the 1994 film 'Star Trek Generations,' where Kirk is killed off. He also starred in the shows 'Boston Legal' and 'T.J. Hooker.' He wrote several books, including 'Star Trek' novels and a memoir about his friendship with the late actor Leonard Nimoy, who famously played Spock in the original series. And he recorded more than a dozen albums, from 1968's 'The Transformed Man,' a collection of dramatic readings of popular songs, to last year's children's album, 'Where Will the Animals Sleep? Songs for Kids and Other Living Things.' Last month, he was onstage in Seattle with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about space and life in a show they called 'The Universe Is Absurd.' He went to Antarctica last year, with deGrasse Tyson, and he went to space in 2021, aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin shuttle. Always curious and hungry for knowledge, Shatner said he is inspired and fascinated by the capabilities of artificial intelligence and applications such as ChatGPT. 'I was researching a speech I was making, and I could use ChatGPT immediately, (instead of) going down to the library, trying to find the book, read what the book says, come back home and realize I had a question I didn't ask,' he said. 'Artificial intelligence has been a revolution in mankind's acquisition of knowledge.' Even still, Shatner said he was frustrated by how little one man can ever really know. 'I'm going to die very unhappily because I don't know anything,' he said. 'There's so much glorious information out there that it's impossible to acquire. But what little bits and pieces the human brain can contain in a lifetime are fascinating.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2025. The Canadian Press
CTV News
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Toronto's 44th annual Pride Parade kicks off today. Here's where you can watch
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National Post
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They saved Jews from the Nazis. Eighty years later, two Dutch-Canadian couples named among the 'righteous'
Article content In accepting the honour on behalf of her late grandparents, Quinlan, a retired judge who lives in Barrie, Ont., noted Canada's dismal record of admitting Jewish refugees during the war era, the lowest among western countries. Article content 'The inactions of our country underscore the empathy and humanity of our grandparents, who could also have done nothing,' Quinlan told those assembled. 'A supposed civilized country could ignore the suffering around it, but Moeke and Opa could not.' Article content Her grandparents never talked about their valour. The sentiment, according to one of their daughters — Quinlan's mother — was 'it was just something we did. Anyone would have done it.' Article content That isn't so, Quinlan said. 'It was dangerous. It was an act of heroism that until now, was unrecognized.' Article content Hedrick and Frederika Veldboom, meantime, were newly married and members of the Dutch underground who turned their rural farmhouse into a hiding place for Jews and young Dutch men fleeing forced labour. Among the Jews were Lena Kropveld and her husband, Yitzchak Jedwab, a cantor. Wed secretly in 1942, they spent months in a hidden space behind a wardrobe, relying on coded warning systems. Article content Article content The dangers rose to new heights when Lena gave birth to a baby boy. She held her newborn for an hour before Hendrik Veldboom placed him in a cardboard box and bicycled in darkness to put the baby on the doorstep of the leader of the underground resistance, who took the child in despite having eight children. The baby, registered as abandoned, was reunited with his parents after liberation. Article content In 1952, the Veldbooms immigrated to Brockville, Ont., where they became farmers. What would they have said about being honoured as righteous rescuers? Article content 'I think they would be terribly surprised,' said their daughter, Jantina Veldboom Devries, who lives in Hamilton, Ont. and accepted the distinction 'I think it would be almost unthinkable for them because they didn't see themselves as heroic. They did the right thing at the right time. Doing the right and honourable thing doesn't need recognition, they would say.' Article content Idit Shamir, Israel's consul general in Toronto and western Canada, echoed that sense of humility expressed by the two couples — indeed by many other Righteous Among the Nations. Article content 'Were they heroes?' Shamir asked. 'They would laugh. They were farmers. Parents. Neighbours who kept chickens and worried about harvest. Article content 'Were they saints? They would object. They made mistakes. They felt fear. They were gloriously, beautifully human. We call them what they were: Righteous. Not perfect. Not fearless. Not superhuman. Simply people who saw clearly when the world went blind.' Article content
