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Montreal Gazette
2 days ago
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Opinion: What a family vacation taught me about Canada's strength under fire
This year, our family holidays took us to places my children had never visited before. We live in Alberta and set out to explore Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City. My youngest was especially eager to see the sites of battles from the War of 1812, particularly around Niagara, where American forces were halted. Meanwhile, my high-school-aged daughter was interested in visiting the universities in those cities. By chance, we joined a campus tour, and most of the prospective students were American. Some parents shared that they were encouraging their children to study in Canada due to growing concerns back home. I became a Canadian citizen through marriage just three years ago, and I'm constantly learning something new about my adopted country. This trip prompted me to reflect more deeply on Canada's past, its current challenges, and its future. While biking around Ottawa, we came across the locks of the Rideau Canal, where recreational boats moved gracefully between different water levels. I assumed most Canadian children learn about this in primary school, but I had never heard of the canal before. I was fascinated to learn how and why the 202-kilometre waterway was built. After the War of 1812, the British feared another American invasion and recognized that relying on the St. Lawrence River, running along the U.S. border, was too risky for transportation. The Rideau Canal was constructed as a secure inland route linking Lake Ontario to the Ottawa River, completed in 1832. Nearly 1,000 workers died during its construction, mostly from disease. Another aspect that left a strong impression on me was learning about the history of French Canadians, as recounted by a tour guide in Quebec City. She described the deep grievances that many Québécois still hold toward English Canada. The stories included examples of political, cultural, and economic repression following the British conquest. Let's just say that the complaints from some in my home province about being mistreated by the federal government seem minor by comparison. I enjoyed the surroundings of the iconic Château Frontenac. Built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) after Confederation, the Château was designed as a luxury hotel and was part of a broader strategy to promote tourism and national unity. At the time, English-speaking Canada was heavily focused on westward expansion, aiming to connect the country from coast to coast and secure British Columbia's place in Confederation amid fears of an American invasion. However, many in Quebec were skeptical of the project, raising geographical, cultural, and economic concerns. To gain support in the province, the CPR made strategic decisions, one of which involved extending the railway to Quebec City and constructing the opulent Château, which opened in 1893. The hotel became both a symbol of the railway's ambition and a political gesture to more closely integrate Quebec into the new Canada. It may have even provided a job for our guide, though she didn't mention this during the tour. The Rideau Canal and the Château Frontenac are more than just beautiful landmarks. They remind us of a time when bold decisions were made to secure Canada's future. These projects can still inspire us today to modernize our national innovation system — from infrastructure and regulation to how the public and private sectors, along with society, collaborate. We need to take a clear-eyed look at the real risks we face and act accordingly. Accelerating progress was no easy feat for early Canadians; nonetheless, they managed to set priorities and get things done. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but since the completion of the Rideau Canal and Château Frontenac, Canada has not faced a direct attack from the United States. Today, there are no muskets or cannons, but we are in a serious struggle to defend our economy and sovereignty. The challenges are different, but the need for bold, co-ordinated action is just as urgent.
Hamilton Spectator
2 days ago
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
‘A unicorn': Historic Newcastle estate home set to hit the market this month
The former home of Samuel Wilmot, a critical figure in Clarington history, may stand for another 200 years thanks to a recent restoration. Wilmot's interest in the local salmon population and subsequent experiments helped to save the salmon in the early 1900s. His family home, Belmont House, located at 145 Belmont Dr. in Newcastle, was recently restored as part of larger development surrounding it. 'This is a really important story for this community,' said Matthew Jamieson, president of Manorville Homes, which completed the renovation. 'If not for this house, a lot of that story would have been lost. That's the thing about heritage homes, every home is different, and every home has a story, and with what we've done here, this one will probably last another 200 years.' The Belmont was built by Wilmot's father, Samuel Street Wilmot, in 1815/1816, but burned down in 1896, when it was replaced with the brick structure seen today. A respected major in the War of 1812, the elder Wilmot went on to become the first deputy surveyor of Upper Canada and served as a member in the House of Assembly. Samuel Wilmot Jr., took over the home and farm after the death of his father in 1856 and rose to prominence for his work to reverse the decline of salmon stocks locally and across the province. In 1868, he constructed the first fish hatchery in Upper Canada beside the Belmont property. He later became superintendent of fish culture in Canada and went on to oversee the establishment of 15 more fish hatcheries. The Belmont project is unique for Manorville, which specializes in heritage restorations, given the size of the home and its wealth of historical value. At more than 7,000 square feet plus a three-car garage, the home is significantly larger than the average heritage home and its history required extensive research to ensure renovations and restorations were done correctly. Newcastle's historic Belmont House has been completely renovated and restored and is set to hit the market later this month. 'Just because a house is old doesn't mean it has heritage, but this house has both. This would be a unicorn because, typically, old homes don't have this much provenance,' said J.J. MacLellan, senior project manager for the rebuild, noting the team conducted extensive research into the house and family over the course of the project, which began in 2019, but stalled through COVID. 'We spent four months going backward on this project before we could even start moving forward,' MacLellan said, noting it still required several years of behind the scenes administrative work before shovels could get in the ground. 'Only then did we start developing a game plan for putting it back together. We knew what we wanted at the end, but it was about 'how do we get there?'' When physical work at the site began in 2023, some of the unique elements slated for protection, such as the front bay window and unique front door, were falling apart. Newcastle's historic Belmont House has been completely renovated and restored and is set to hit the market later this month. 'There was a lot of vandalism,' MacLellan said of the state of the house. The decline was especially bad in the back portion of the home, which was a later addition to the original structure. Crews ended up having to disassemble and rebuild that portion of the home. 'It hadn't been built to the same standard as the original house because it was an add-on, so we redid the foundation and painstakingly rebuilt it to the original specs,' MacLellan explained. 'Each brick was taken apart, cleaned and then used to rebuild it.' Throughout the home crews rebuilt using as many original materials as could be salvaged, which included sanding and refinishing the original hardwood floors. Newcastle's historic Belmont House has been completely renovated and restored and is set to hit the market later this month. The home now boasts four bedrooms plus basement bedroom, four full baths and two half baths, a finished loft and basement, wine room and more, on a 1.65 acre lot. 'The front half really didn't change a lot,' MacLellan explained. 'We rebuilt everything to the same footprint.' The project required in-depth research on the home, with very little information on the original wooden structure available aside from a hand-drawn illustration and one family photo from shortly before the home burned. MacLellan was able to learn more about the brick home that replaced the original through letters, photos and even a conversation with Wilmot's great-great-granddaughter, who connected the dots on one of the home's mysteries. Newcastle's historic Belmont House has been completely renovated and restored and is set to hit the market later this month. 'We had to add a second furnace because the house was just too big for one and it would have been absolutely freezing when it was built, very unevenly heated,' said MacLellan. 'I thought that was strange until I was talking to her and she mentioned the family didn't actually live in the home in winter — they had a home in town they moved to during the colder months.' Several unique elements of the structure were mandated for preservation under the home's heritage designation. These included a back-to-back corner fireplace, the distinctive front door, front brick facade and exterior trim facade including porches, millwork and shutters, the main staircase, kitchen pantry with original dumb waiter, brick arches in the basement and a cistern that Wilmot used for his fishery experiments, among others. 'This is where he drove the water for his early fish experiments,' MacLellan said of the concrete cistern, which is in the home's basement, along with unique brick support arches. Newcastle's historic Belmont House has been completely renovated and restored and is set to hit the market later this month. 'These were original to the 1815 construction and we have evidence the bricks used in these arches were made right here in the basement,' said MacLellan. He pointed to pieces of a possible kiln that were recovered during the project, along with a plethora of odds and ends including tools, pieces of pottery and a wealth of glass, much of which is now displayed in the home's wine room. Newcastle's historic Belmont House has been completely renovated and restored and is set to hit the market later this month. The home's distinctive basement arches were one of the elements protected for preservation within the home's heritage designation. 'The wine room originally housed a large furnace, and we thought 'what could we use this room for?'' MacLellan said of the space, which is nestled in one of the brick arches and features ceiling, cabinetry and floorboards made from reclaimed wood salvaged from the home. Now complete, the Belmont House marks a milestone for Jamieson, MacLellan and Manorville, as it gets set to hit the market July 23. 'This is huge, it's very rare that you get a 9,000 square foot heritage structure, so this is definitely a larger scale for us,' said Jamieson. 'It is kind of sad because we've been working on this for so long, I mean J.J has spent practically every day here for more than two years.' A collection of artifacts found during the restoration of Newcastle's historic Belmont House. For MacLellan, the end is bittersweet 'It's not about what we've done, to me it's about the discovery process and finding out everything about the home and its history,' he said. 'Now we move on to the next home and the next exciting story.' It may be the end of the story for Manorville, and current owners Hannu Halminen and Brian Fenton, but the story is just beginning for someone else, with the home scheduled to hit the market July 23 with an asking price of $3.5 million. Co-listing agents Theresa Gibson and Chris Owens say the house is one of a kind, offering a brand-new build inside a heritage frame, on a large lot complete with gated driveway and in a subdivision close to amenities. 'The Belmont House represents a unique opportunity to own a 200-plus year old home with all the modern amenities and conveniences of a brand new build,' said Owens. 'This goes way beyond restoration, it's essentially been rebuilt to a heritage standard. The Belmont House is a house like no other, and the lucky buyer won't just be purchasing a suite of rooms but will become the custodians of a piece of iconic history.' Owens said the home is a great value, with 23 homes currently available in the same price range across Durham. 'We think we're a terrific value in the current market,' Owens said. 'This is a wonderful house, it's one of a kind and a real icon for Newcastle.' For more information visit . Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Chicago police torture report released
Today is Saturday, July 19, the 200th day of 2025. There are 165 days left in the year. Today in History: On July 19, 2006, prosecutors reported that Chicago police beat, kicked, shocked or otherwise tortured scores of Black suspects from the 1970s to the early 1990s to try to extract confessions from them. FBI releases records from its decades-old probe of torture allegations against Chicago police Cmdr. Jon BurgeRead the FBI's records of torture allegations against Jon Burge, dating back to the early 90sAlso on this date: In 1812, during the War of 1812, the First Battle of Sackets Harbor in Lake Ontario resulted in an American victory as U.S. naval forces repelled a British attack. In 1848, the first 'Convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of Woman' convened at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, N.Y. In 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon. In 1975, the Apollo and Soyuz space capsules that were linked in orbit for two days separated. In 1979, the Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country. In 1980, the Moscow Summer Olympics began, minus dozens of nations that were boycotting the games because of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan. In 1989, 111 people were killed when United Air Lines Flight 232, a DC-10 which sustained the uncontained failure of its tail engine and the loss of hydraulic systems, crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa; 185 other people survived. In 1990, baseball's all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, was sentenced in Cincinnati to five months in prison for tax evasion. In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced a policy allowing gays to serve in the military under a compromise dubbed 'don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue.' In 2005, President George W. Bush announced his choice of federal appeals court judge John G. Roberts Jr. to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. (Roberts ended up succeeding Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in Sept. 2005; Samuel Alito followed O'Connor.) In 2013, in a rare and public reflection on race, President Barack Obama called on the nation to do some soul searching over the death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his shooter, George Zimmerman, saying the slain Black teenager 'could have been me 35 years ago.' In 2018, a duck boat packed with tourists capsized and sank in high winds on a lake in the tourist town of Branson, Missouri, killing 17 people. In 2021, Paul Allard Hodgkins, a Florida man who breached the U.S. Senate chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, carrying a Trump campaign flag, received an eight-month prison term in the first resolution of a felony case arising from the U.S. Capitol insurrection. (In 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the riot.) In 2022, Britain shattered its record for the highest temperature ever registered amid a heat wave that seared swaths of Europe. Today's Birthdays: Civil rights activist and educator Rachel Robinson, widow of baseball's Jackie Robinson, is 103. Blues singer-musician Little Freddie King is 85. Singer-musician Alan Gorrie (Average White Band) is 79. International Tennis Hall of Famer Ilie Nastase is 79. Rock musician Brian May (Queen) is 78. Rock musician Bernie Leadon is 78. Movie director Abel Ferrara is 74. Movie director Atom Egoyan is 65. Actor Campbell Scott is 64. Actor Anthony Edwards is 63. Ukrainian politician and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko is 54. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is 49. TV chef Marcela Valladolid is 47. Actor Trai Byers (TV: 'Empire') is 42.
Boston Globe
16-07-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Tests used to be hard. That was the point.
Advertisement The Massachusetts test, known as MCAS, wasn't a cakewalk; it called for a fair amount of time, study, and classroom preparation. But Yet despite those standout results, Bay State voters couldn't resist joining the flight from high standards. The Massachusetts Teachers Union — which prioritizes the interests of teachers over the interests of students — Advertisement It isn't only graduation tests that have been diluted or abolished. Across the country activists argue that standardized tests like the SAT are too stressful, too discriminatory, or simply irrelevant — and should therefore be made easier or dumped altogether. Yet when one looks at what students a century ago were expected to master in order to graduate from high school — or in some cases to get into high school — today's complaints about standardized tests seem almost comical by comparison. The historical record makes one thing clear: Today's test-takers don't know how easy they have it. Consider some questions from the Here are a dozen of the questions those Kansas teens were expected to answer: What are the following? Give examples: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals. Use the following in sentences: cite, site, sight; fane, fain, feign; vane, vain, vein; raze, raise, rays . A wagon box is 2 feet deep, 10 feet long, and 3 feet wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? Find the interest on $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. What is the cost of 40 boards, 12 inches wide and 16 feet long, at $.20 per inch? What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of do, lie, lay, and run . Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe? Name the events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1776, 1789, and 1865. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each. Too tough? Tell that to the New Jersey kids who sat down to be tested a decade earlier. In 1885, the Advertisement What is the axis of the earth and what is the equator? What is the distance from the equator to either pole in degrees and in miles? Name four principal mountain ranges in Asia, three in Europe, and three in Africa. Name the states on the west bank of the Mississippi and the capital of each. Name the capitals of the following countries: Portugal, Greece, Egypt, Persia, Japan, China, Canada, Cuba. And here are five from the history portion: Name the thirteen colonies that declared their independence in 1776. Name three events of 1777. Which was the most important and why? What caused the War of 1812? Who was president during that war? Name four Spanish explorers and state what induced them to come to America. Related : These weren't impossible questions. They weren't pitched to the smartest kids in the class. On the contrary — they covered information that most students of normal ability could reasonably be expected to master. And There is no such expectation today. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress — commonly referred to as 'the nation's report card' — the reading and comprehension skills of American kids are worse than they have ever been. 'The percentage of eighth graders who have 'below basic' reading skills according to NAEP is the largest it has been in the exam's three-decade history — 33 percent,' Given such terrible results, you might imagine that policymakers and parents would be pressing urgently to raise academic standards and insisting that teachers and school administrators meet them. But nearly all the movement is in the other direction. Especially disturbing is the way the SAT — for decades a consistent barometer of academic readiness and Advertisement To begin with, the test is now administered in a digital format that calibrates the difficulty level of the questions to the performance of the test-taker. 'If a student struggles in the first section, the test adjusts to become easier; if they excel, it becomes harder,' the Manhattan Institute's Vilda Westh Blanc and Tim Rosenberger recently There are other changes. The SAT now lasts two hours instead of three. Students are allowed to use calculators for all math questions. Passages in the The upshot is that students are no longer required to parse complex or historically significant texts. Instead, the reading assignments are being made almost childishly easy. 'Instead of engaging with the great works of literature and foundational documents that have shaped Western civilization, students are asked to interpret snippets akin to tweets or memes,' Blanc and Rosenberger observe. If students are never required to read anything more challenging than short texts, how will they ever learn to wrestle with ambiguity, to shape thoughtful arguments, or to make sense of complex sentences and difficult syntax? Advertisement Amid the current vogue for weakening tests and lowering expectations, it is worth asking: Why did educators a century (or more) ago set such high standards? Perhaps it was because they saw education not just as a means to get a job, but as a moral and civic duty — a way to form responsible citizens who understood their history, could articulate their thoughts, and would therefore be better able to contribute to society. Testing was viewed as a tool of accountability — not as the enemy of learning, but as its natural culmination. It sent the message that knowledge mattered and that everyone, regardless of background, could rise to the occasion. The cultural context then was very different. Students understood that passing the eighth-grade exam might be their only chance to prove themselves before entering the workforce. Lowering standards may feel like a kindness in the short term, but it comes at a steep cost: a diminished sense of what students are capable of achieving and a weaker intellectual foundation for society. The young Americans of 1895, often sitting in one-room schoolhouses, did not have smartphones, calculators, Google, or AI — but they rose to demanding expectations and built a thriving nation. Today's students, with far more resources at their disposal, should not be sold short. The Advertisement Are you astonished that teenagers a century ago could handle questions like the ones above? Don't be. The real shocker isn't that high school students then could meet such a challenge. It's that students today are no longer expected to. This article is adapted from the current , Jeff Jacoby's weekly newsletter. To subscribe to Arguable, visit . Jeff Jacoby can be reached at
India Today
04-07-2025
- India Today
What's open and closed on July 4, 2025: Your complete Independence Day guide
The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Although the inaugural celebration occurred a year later in Philadelphia, widespread observance didn't begin until after the War of 1812. Congress formally acknowledged Independence Day as a federal holiday on June 28, AND BAKING CLOSURESadvertisementAs with most federal holidays, several services and institutions will be closed in celebration of Independence Day. Government facilities, including post offices and courts, will not be open. Public schools will also be closed. According to the Associated Press, banks and American stock markets will be closed for the holiday. In addition, most FedEx and UPS services including pickups and deliveries will not be AND SHOPPING While some retail outlets may close, most large retailers will remain open. Costco will be closed on July 4, but stores like Walmart and Target will stay open, with many offering special holiday deals. Grocery stores will likely remain open, but shoppers are advised to check local hours, which may vary by this year's Fourth of July falling on a Friday, travel is expected to surge. According to AAA, a record 72.2 million Americans are expected to travel domestically between June 28 and July 6. That's 1.7 million more than last year, and nearly 7 million more than in travelers approximately 61.6 million will hit the road by car, while 5.8 million will travel by airplane. AAA spokesperson Adrienne Woodland urged drivers to check their car's battery, tire pressure, and fuel level before setting out to avoid Day celebrations across the country will include parades, fireworks, barbecues, and other classic traditions. In cities like Washington D.C., large public events are expected to attract thousands, as Americans mark the nation's 249th birthday with patriotic pride.(With inputs from Associated Press)- EndsMust Watch
