The Catholic Church needs to come clean with all its records pertaining to residential schools for Indigenous students in Canada. Same for the other religions involved in this shameful legacy. There’s no reconciliation without truth and knowing where they buried all...
Check your trees for hungry critters
Gypsy moth larvae, combined with extremely hot sun during a dry spring, have decimated all three of my 20-year-old red oaks. The realization prompted a close up exploration of my Corbeil property, specifically the 60-odd trees I've planted or encouraged to grow since...
Rail passenger plan might miss the boat if intra-provincial tourism potential isn’t tapped soon
There was an upswing in the long-promised and turtle-slow passenger rail service commitment by the Progressive Conservative government recently. The announcement of the Initial Business Case (IBC) for reinstating the Northlander triggered a political firestorm as the...
Summer edition deadline June 23
Back in the Bay Magazine's Summer Edition has a June 23 deadline and the print publication will begin circulation the first week of July. The inaugural Spring Edition had a successful Small Town Times Productions launch with just under 30 advertisers and sponsors...
Pandemic isolation brings back war memories
Many of our older generation have begun drawing parallels between the Covid-19 pandemic and the Second World War, including having to queue or line up for food last year. In England, during the war, we found safety in the underground train stations or the bomb shelter...
Waste knot, want knot …
I am not a hoarder. I want to make that perfectly clear, before anyone gets an image of stacks of old newspapers piled high in the basement, or a room full of dollar store impulse buys that I may someday be forced to part with after my kids get a court order. But I do...
Is it time for Ford to turtle?
At least Mike Harris knew enough to fall on his sword when it was clear the Common Sense Revolution had killed too many citizens and hamstrung the economy. Whether by OPP sniper fire, tainted municipal water or poor people falling through the shredded safety net,...
Chassie in the life-saving game now
Erin Chassie still loves playing on a team but North Bay’s first female AAA hockey goalie ended up saving hearts as a dream career instead. Chassie, who played for Butch Turcotte’s Hal’s Marine Minor Bantams in 1988-89, has been an operating room nurse at the...
‘Leave room for the Holy Ghost’
The annual prom was the social event of the year for most high schools in the 1950s and 60s. At St. Joseph’s College it was a brief and glorious respite from the strictures of convent school life and the drab brownness of the school uniform. Only seniors from Grades...
Private enterprise too fickle to deliver public priorities
Greyhound Canada’s permanent parking of its passenger service has delivered another example of how private interests are fleeting at best during fair-weather and quick to depart when dark clouds arrive. The recent closure of the bus line in Ontario and Quebec, after...










