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 HOW TO CANADA’S JUNE 2020
DEAL WITH MOST-READ
MAGAZINE
EVERYDAY
STRE8SS

REAL
PAGE

CANADIAN
HEROES
INCREDIBLE STORIES OF
KINDNESS AND BRAVERY
PAGE 26

“I KEEP TINY GUY VS.

PEOPLE
SAFE.”
GIANT
—Cynthia
Rennie-Faubert,
helping fight
GRIZZLY PAGE 52
COVID-19

The SECRET to
Learning Anything
PAGE 38

The Cop Who

Wants a Gun Ban
PAGE 76
PM40070677

Justin ♥ Pierre
PAGE 60
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 reader’s digest

CONTENTS

Features 38
perspective
52
drama in real life

26
cover story
Anybody Can
Learn Anything
Why we’re all so much
A Scream in the Wild
Alone on a mountain
and pinned under a
REAL CANADIAN smarter than we know. grizzly, Colin Dowler
HEROES BY JOHN MIGHTON
FROM ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL
reached for a pocket
Extraordinary stories of knife and struggled
MIRCEA COSTINA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

for his life.

kindness, compassion
and full-on bravery. 44 BY OMAR MOUALLEM
memoir
BY ALI AMAD, EMILY LANDAU,
SARAH LISS, ROSIE LONG In Search of Lost Fish
DECTER, MEGAN JONES, I spent my summer on
LAUREN McGILL
a Quebec lake, trying to
imagine my first catch
into existence.
on the cover: BY MARNI JACKSON
photo by richmond lam FROM THE WALRUS

44
rd.ca 1
reader’s digest
60
heart
P.M. Dad
My father taught me a
lot about leadership—
but mostly, he taught me
how to be a good parent.
BY JUSTIN TRUDEAU
FROM FORTY FATHERS: MEN TALK
ABOUT PARENTING
2 june 2020
66 68
humour society
Bottoms Up! My (Brief) Career as
Reviews by a big-time a Food Courier
connoisseur who has Delivery apps that bring
definitely bought dinner to our doors are
and tasted all these convenient, fast and, as
fancy wines. I found out during five
BY SUZANNAH SHOWLER shifts, a lousy way to
earn a living.
BY JASON McBRIDE
FROM TORONTO LIFE
76
editors’ choice
One Million Guns
After a mass shooting
on a downtown
Toronto street, a former
cop became one of the
loudest voices calling
for gun control. He’s
up against entrenched
lobbyists, slow-to-act
politicians and a surge
in firearm owners.
BY PATRICK WHITE AND
TOM CARDOSO
FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL
60
TESSA LLOYD
 Departments
4 Editor’s Letter Humour
6 Contributors
11

8
7 Letters Life’s Like That
16 Points to Ponder
big idea 36
As Kids See It
8 Talk Shop
Just when we
needed it most, a 75
Laughter, the Best
Toronto storefront Medicine
provides afford-
able, accessible 87
therapy. Down to Business
BY MALCOLM JOHNSTON

ask an expert
12 Should We Expect
More Wildfires
This Summer? 13 things
We ask Karen
14 What Nurses
Hodges, University
Want You to Know
BY ANNA-KAISA WALKER
of British Columbia
(ILLUSTRATION) CLAYTON HANMER; (PORTRAIT) TANJA TIZIANA

ecologist. health
BY COURTNEY SHEA 18 Hard Knocks reader’s digest
book club
How to spot, and
88 Ridgerunner
14 recover from, a
concussion.
Each month,
BY ANNA SHARRATT
we recommend
a new great read.
20 News From the BY EMILY LANDAU

World of Medicine 90 Brainteasers

BY SAMANTHA RIDEOUT
92 Trivia
23 What’s Wrong
With Me? 93 Word Power
A medical mystery 95 Sudoku
resolved.
BY LISA BENDALL 96 Crossword

rd.ca 3
reader’s digest

EDITOR’S LETTER

Everyday
Heroes
I
t’s early spring and I’m writing this
from home, since our office, like
everything else, is closed (not for
too long, we hope). We started work-
ing on this month’s cover story long
before Canadians began falling ill
with COVID-19. Then, as streets, malls
and arenas emptied out, the U.S. bor-
der closed, hand sanitizer became
more precious than gold and social
distancing became our new normal,
risking their own lives to help some-
one in need.
Cynthia Rennie-Faubert, who
appears on our cover, works as a nurse
in the emergency room of Ontario’s
Cornwall Community Hospital. I find
her selflessness in the face of extreme
circumstances, like that of medical
staff everywhere during this extraordi-
nary year, enormously inspiring. She’s
unflappable. “I stay calm and think

(PUPO) DANIEL EHRENWORTH; (SANITIZER) ISTOCK.COM/DNY59

stories of bravery and heroism sud- clearly by taking things one patient
denly took on special urgency. at a time,” she says. “And I couldn’t
They remind us how Canadians possibly do what I do without my
stay strong during a crisis. fearless co-workers.”
The heroes we celebrate, on
page 26, are everyday people
from across the country who
stopped a crime, saved a life P.S. You can reach
or stood for what’s good and me at mark@rd.ca.
decent. None of them woke
up that day expecting to be
a hero. Each person—and
one super dog!—acted out
of compassion and total
selflessness, in many cases

4 june 2020
 P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T M A G A Z I N E S C A N A D A L I M I T E D, M O N T R E A L , C A N A D A

Christopher Dornan chairman of the board

Brian Kennedy president and publisher
Mark Pupo editor-in-chief
deputy editor Lauren McKeon art director John Montgomery
executive editor, associate art director Danielle Sayer
digital Brett Walther graphic designer Pierre Loranger
senior editors Megan Jones,
Micah Toub content operations
manager Lisa Pigeon
assistant editor, circulation director Edward Birkett
digital Robert Liwanag
contributing editor Samantha Rideout contributors: Ali Amad, Lisa Bendall, Derek Bowman,
intern Rosie Long Decter Cindy Boyce, Tom Cardoso, Natalie Castellino, Daniel
proofreader Katie Moore Ehrenworth, Ryan Garcia, Clayton Hanmer, Marni Jackson,
senior researcher Lucy Uprichard Malcolm Johnston, Roderick Kimball, Susan Camilleri Konar,
researchers Nour Abi-Nakhoul, Ali Richmond Lam, Emily Landau, Sarah Liss, Rob Lutes, Jason
McBride, Lauren McGill, Kagan McLeod, Julia Mercanti, John
Amad, Martha Beach,
Mighton, Kevin Moran, Omar Mouallem, Christina Palassio,
Veronica Maddocks, Paul Paquet, Rebecca Philps, Darren Rigby, Julie Saindon,
Beth Shillibeer, Suzannah Anna Sharratt, Fraser Simpson, Courtney Shea, Suzannah
Showler, Leslie Sponder Showler, Lauren Tamaki, Tanja Tiziana , Justin Trudeau,
copy editors Chad Fraser, Amy Conan de Vries, Anna-Kaisa Walker, Nik West, Patrick White,
Harkness, Richard Johnson Jeff Widderich, Victor Wong

THE READER’S DIGEST ASSOCIATION (CANADA) ULC

Barbara Robins legal | Corinne Hazan financial director
Mirella Liberatore product manager, magazine marketing

national sales director James Anderson

national account executives Suzanne Farago (Montreal), 121 Bloor St. E.
Robert Shaw (Vancouver), Melissa Silverberg (Toronto) Suite 430
marketing and research director Kelly Hobson Toronto, ON
head of marketing solutions and new product development Melissa Williams M4W 3M5
production manager Lisa Snow

TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS

Bonnie Kintzer president and chief executive officer
Raimo Moysa editor-in-chief, international magazines

VOL. 196, NO. 1,170 Copyright © 2020 by Reader’s Digest Magazines
Canada Limited. Reproduction in any manner in whole or in part in
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rd.ca 5
reader’s digest
CONTRIBUTORS
CINDY BOYCE
Photographer, Montreal
“Real Canadian
Heroes”
Boyce fell in love with photography as
a kid, when she and her family would
flip through their photo albums
together. Since then, her work has
been published in La Presse and
Trois Fois Par Jour. She co-authored
Montreal L’hiver, a lifestyle and rec-
ipe book that she released last year.
Check out her photo of Montrealer
Erick Marciano on page 33.
MALCOLM JOHNSTON
Writer, Toronto
“Talk Shop”
An editor at Toronto
Life, Johnston has contributed stories
to Monocle, the National Post and the
Globe and Mail. He’s won National
Magazine Awards for his profiles of
such sports figures as Josh Donaldson
and Andre De Grasse. He also guest
lectures at journalism schools across
Canada. Read his story about the
Toronto therapy storefront Hard
Feelings on page 8.
6 june 2020
JULIA MERCANTI
Illustrator, Toronto
“Bottoms Up!”
Mercanti enjoys mak-
ing illustrations that are cheeky, relat-
able and colourful renderings of peo-
ple, flowers and animals. Last year,
she was commissioned by Toronto’s
Holt Renfrew to make a set of special
holiday murals. It was her first time
creating such large images, and teach-
ing herself a new skill gave her a
confidence boost. See her work (on
a much smaller scale) on page 66.
OMAR MOUALLEM
Writer, Edmonton
“A Scream in the Wild”
Big personalities and
big transformations make for the best
stories, Mouallem says. Several of
his feature stories have been deemed
(MOUALLEM) CURTIS COMEAU
the best: he’s a three-time National
Magazine Award winner. His work
has appeared in The New Yorker and
Rolling Stone, among other publica-
tions, and he’s writing a travel mem-
oir about Muslims in the Americas.
Find his latest big story on page 52.
 LETTERS

BEST FOOT FORWARD

“The Walking Cure” (April 2020) really
resonated with me. A few years ago, I
struggled with arthritis, high blood that the January/February 2020 edition
pressure and a dour outlook on life. My was one of my favourite issues ever. I
family talked me into joining them on really enjoyed the range of stories, and
the Great Walk on Vancouver Island. A the humour pages were priceless. I can
walkathon, it requires travelling 63.5 hardly wait for next month’s issue!
kilometres through mountains in one — RUBY MAILANDER, Calgary
day. I had to begin training many weeks
before the event to get into shape. The IT’S THE SYSTEM
daily strolls made such a difference. The article “The Broken Hearts Club”
My blood pressure went down, my (March 2020) left me disappointed. The
mood improved and even my arthritis author notes that the patient who acted
pain seemed to diminish. Best of all, I as a main source pursued medical care
was able to finish the walkathon. These twice from experts and was dismissed
days, I’m still walking. twice with inappropriate diagnoses.
— SHARON McGREGOR, Campbell Yet the article focuses on how we as
River, B.C. individuals can prevent our own health
issues, rather than critiquing the glaring
PUBLISHED LETTERS ARE EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY

BIG FAN problems within the health-care system.

I have subscribed to Reader’s Digest for The only way to address systemic issues
many years. I’ve never written to the is to critique them often and vocally.
editor before, but I wanted to tell you — LEE O’BRIEN, Toronto

CONTRIBUTE
Send us your funny jokes and anecdotes, and if we publish one in a print
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rd.ca 7
reader’s digest

BIG IDEA

Just when we needed it most, a Toronto storefront

provides affordable, accessible therapy

Talk Shop
BY Malcolm Johnston
photograph by tanja tiziana

F
ROM THE STREET, Hard Feelings
looks more like an independent
bookstore than a mental health
centre. Shelves are lined with books on
trauma, gender and sexuality, parent-
ing and more. You can buy candles,
notebooks, teas and mugs. But past the
cheery receptionist wait three rooms
reserved for counselling sessions.
Kate Scowen opened Hard Feelings
in Toronto in 2017. Therapy in Canada
can be prohibitively expensive for low-
income and gig economy workers and
anyone else without workplace bene-
fits. Scowen wanted to fill the gap by
making a difference, not a profit.
Scowen wasn’t new to helping oth-
ers. Over almost 30 years, she held var-
ious jobs assisting marginalized youth,
and taught English to community work
students at Toronto’s George Brown
College. At age 49, after a lifetime of
practical experience, she enrolled in
the graduate social work program at
University of Toronto. It was during her
studies that she landed on a plan to
open her own counselling centre.
According to recent findings from
Statistics Canada, more than five mil-
lion Canadians reported needing

8 june 2020
 Founder Kate
Scowen designed
Hard Feelings to
feel welcoming.
reader’s digest
mental health care, but nearly half of
that group said their needs were either
unmet or only partially met. Often, peo-
ple go without because they can’t afford
care or don’t know where to get it. That
is where the Hard Feelings model—a
storefront anyone can access—fits in.
“I wanted to develop something based
on my ideal of how mental health sup-
ports could be offered,” says Scowen,
“and that is with community, warmth
and innovation.”
FOR MANY
CANADIANS, THE
HIGH PRICE OF
THERAPY PUTS HELP
BEYOND REACH.
Scowen recruited almost 30 coun-
sellors who treat a wide range of men-
tal health issues, including anxiety,
depression, substance abuse and anger
management. In its first year, the clinic
served 342 clients. Last year, that num-
ber jumped to 424. Clients pay $50 to
$80 per session; the exact fee is
decided during the first meeting and
based on ability to pay. In comparison,
therapists elsewhere in Toronto often
charge up to $125 per session, putting
help beyond reach for many people.
The emphasis is on short-term coun-
selling—a max of 12 sessions. Scowen
says this guarantees more people can
10 june 2020
access their services. (If longer term
treatment is required, a client and
counsellor may agree to continue at
the counsellor’s private practice.) The
point, though, is to tear down barriers
to mental health care. Her counsel-
lors all happily accept lower hourly
rates just to be involved, and dozens
have joined a waiting list to offer ther-
apy at the centre.
While clients come from all over the
city, many live or work in the neighbour-
hood, which is one of the city’s most
economically and ethnically diverse.
Some walk in off the street, attracted
by the friendly window displays and
curious to learn more. With the spread
of COVID-19, video sessions are avail-
able for clients, who have wanted to
talk about challenges with stress,
often because of job loss. Many are
freelancers, gig workers or retail staff
who were laid off or saw their income
sources dry up during the outbreak.
Many clients also feel like they’ve
found something special. When Max
Mertens, a 29-year-old freelance jour-
nalist, was laid off in early summer
2018, he was wracked with anxiety. He
recognized he needed counselling but
also knew he was unable to afford it.
Then he discovered Hard Feelings. “It
really helped,” he says, “to have a place
to vent for an hour.” After his 12 ses-
sions were finished, Mertens contin-
ued seeing his therapist. Hard Feelings
is an amazing place, he says. He only
wishes there were more like it.
 I’m becoming the land-
LIFE’S LIKE THAT lord of my own body by
refusing to fix anything
wrong with it.
— @I_ZZZZZZ

I love seeing people

panic at karaoke when
they realize how long
and repetitive their song
is. It’s like their eyes are
“We’ve all been there.” asking, “Will I be singing
— @ELLE_HUNT ‘My Sharona’ forever?”
— @ISABELZAWTUN

First Date: Small talk, in a dark room where 9:30 Breakfast

getting to know each no one’s allowed to talk 12:30 Lunch
other. to me. 2:30-7:30 A constant,
Second Date: I explain — @CARAWEINBERGER immeasurable flow of
why I don’t think outer increasingly horrible
space is real. Injuries by Age snacks
There’s no third date, Age 5: I jumped off 8:00 Dinner
usually. a swing. — AMBER RUFFIN,
— MARY BETH BARONE, Age 21: I jumped off comedian
comedian a bar table.
Age 38: Sleeping. I hurt Him: I think we should
Family Therapy myself while I was see other people.
My therapist just sleeping. Me: I disagree. I think
referred to her therapist — @ABBYHASISSUES we should break up and
as my grand-therapist, both be alone.
which is a lot to process. It’s been six months — @GINNYHOGAN_
— @CORIETJOHNSON since I joined the gym
and no progress. I’m
Send us your original
Cinematic Experience going there in person jokes! You could earn $50
I thought I liked seeing tomorrow to see what’s and be featured in the
movies, but it turns out really going on. magazine. See page 7 or
I just like eating candy — @_CAKEBAWSE rd.ca/joke for details.

rd.ca 11
reader’s digest

ASK AN EXPERT

Should We
Expect More
Wildfires This
Summer?
We ask Karen Hodges,
University of British
Columbia ecologist

BY Courtney Shea
illustration by lauren tamaki

The 2019 fire season in Canada was,

relatively speaking, a quiet one—at
least in B.C. Might that be a good sign
for this year?
Unfortunately, no. To make predic-
tions on the coming fire season, fore-
casters look at things like available fuel
(dead wood), snowfall in the winter
and how quickly it gets hot in the
spring. These factors vary annually, so
while it’s true that last year was less
dramatic in Canada, that doesn’t mean
anything for this summer.
However, when it comes to longer-
term patterns, if you look at the last 50
years in Canada and around the world,
we’re seeing a greater number of fires,
and they’re more severe. Mega fires—
the ones that burn more than 10,000
hectares—used to be the exception,
but that is no longer the case.

12 june 2020
Why is that?
The most significant factor is climate
change. The kind of prolonged hot
weather we’re now seeing creates the
flammable conditions—dry vegetation
and soil—in which fires can thrive. Also,
the vast majority of naturally started
fires are caused by lightning storms,
which increase in higher temperatures.
What are some common causes of
blazes started by us?
The most frequent ones are sparks from
power tools, improperly discarded cig-
arette butts and leaving a campfire
burning. Then there is the fact that more
humans are living in parts of nature
where they didn’t before. The wildfires
in California are a good example of
that—new homes there are surrounded
by extremely flammable conditions.
Is that nature’s way of telling humans
to stand down?
Well, no, but it is an example of the
challenges of balancing our activity
with the will of Mother Nature. In North
America we have this misconception
that all fires need to be fought, when
in fact fires play an important role in
regeneration for most ecosystems. A
few decades of fire suppression has
fostered thicker forest growth, more
trees and, therefore, more connected
fuel. So now, if a fire starts anywhere
it’s going to burn through everything.
This is another key factor in why large
wildfires are the new norm.
How can I prepare if I’m heading out
into the bush this summer?
Carry water and a shovel so that if some-
thing does spark, you’d have a chance
of putting it out. Have an alternative exit
plan, particularly if you’re camping at
a dead end. The other thing—and this
can be hard because a lot of people seek
out nature to unplug—is that it’s a good
idea to bring a cell phone or radio so
that you have a way of learning about
any impending danger.
IN KELOWNA, SOME
WEEKS WE’VE HAD
WORSE AIR THAN NEW
DELHI AND SHANGHAI.
Any other dangers to be aware of?
Smoke is a big problem because it
carries super-fine particulates (soot
and gases) that are hard for our lungs
to clear. These days, we are witness-
ing a lot of smoke that persists in
regions for months—and travels the
planet. I live in Kelowna, and there
were weeks in 2017 and 2018 when
our air was worse than that of New
Delhi and Shanghai.
I heard smoke from the B.C. fires
made it all the way to New York City.
I believe it. In B.C. we got a bunch of
Siberian smoke. We’re talking hun-
dreds to thousands of kilometres.
rd.ca 13
reader’s digest

1 Nurses have been on

the front lines during
the COVID-19 crisis.

13 THINGS
They make up about
half of Canada’s health-
care workforce, and are
the largest group of
regulated health pro-
fessionals. In remote

What Nurses Want areas, they may be the

only health-care pro-

You to Know viders around.

BY Anna-Kaisa Walker
2 Don’t assume a
nurse is always a she.
About 10 per cent of
illustration by clayton hanmer
Canadian nurses are
men—and in the past
five years, the growth in
male nurses was triple
that of female nurses.

3 Nurses don’t just

work in hospitals.
A growing segment
are now home health
nurses, who will shoul-
der much of the care of
Canada’s aging popula-
tion. Their goal is to
keep you healthy and
safe where you live.

4 With so many
elderly Boomers,
Canada will be short an
estimated 60,000 regis-
tered nurses by 2022.

14 june 2020
The situation is espe- unintended harm—such difficult veins, stay
cially acute in Ontario, as an incorrect medica- hydrated, or ask for
where there are 20 per tion dosage. “If you have a heated blanket—
cent fewer nurses per any doubts about your warmth dilates your
100,000 people than the treatment, ask,” says veins, making them
Canadian average. Silas. “Any question is easier to poke.
worth asking.”

5 Unsafe staffing lev-

els put nurses at risk
of violence. “Sixty-six 8 Try not to talk to a
nurse while they’re
11 Ask medical staff
for medication
before your pain gets
per cent of Canadian preparing your meds— really bad—if you wait
nurses say they’ve been one Australian study until you hit a 10 out of
physically assaulted at found that with every 10, it’ll be more difficult
work,” says Linda Silas, interruption, the rate to get under control.
president of the Cana- of mistakes went up
dian Federation of
Nurses Unions (CFNU).
12 per cent.
12 Bring extra layers:
hospitals are kept
“Rates of abuse and
harassment have crept
up in the past decade.”
9 Squeamish about
needles? Speak up—
even nurses can relate.
fridge-cold. Bacteria
thrive in warm, moist
environments, and air-
“I do 20 to 50 blood conditioning naturally

6 Got a grouchy
nurse? Even the
draws and injections a
shift, but I hate having
dehumidifies the air.

most compassionate
person can suffer burn-
out. In 2016, Canadian
my own blood drawn,”
says Andrea Smith, an
Ontario ER nurse. “I’ll
13 It’s not rude to
remind staff
to clean their hands.
nurses worked an esti- tell my patients I feel Studies show hand
mated 20.1 million the same way. By the hygiene —washing or
overtime hours accord- time I’m finished my sanitizing hands before
ing to the CFNU. story, the job’s done.” and after touching a
patient—is the most

7 Medical errors are

shockingly common.
According to the Cana-
10 Even experienced
nurses can have
trouble starting an IV
effective means of pre-
venting transmission
of hospital-borne infec-
dian Institute for Health line. “Usually, we try tions, and nearly half
Information, for every twice before asking of health-care workers
18 hospitalizations, one another nurse to help,” aren’t fully compliant
patient will experience says Smith. If you have with protocols.

rd.ca 15
reader’s digest

POINTS TO PONDER
BY Christina Palassio

I KNOW A LOT OF US ARE I panicked before

PHOTOS: (LANG) KATHY HUTCHINS/SHUTTERSTOCK; (O’NEILL) J. ARTACHO; (THISTLE) LUCIE THISTLE; (MIGHTY) YUNG YEMI.
CONFUSED AND HURTING one of my first public
FROM THE TREMENDOUS
AMOUNT OF SUFFERING
readings, fearing
IN THE WORLD RIGHT that the audience
NOW. DON’T LET THE BAD might spontaneously
NEWS DISTRACT YOU quiz me on great
FROM YOUR KINDNESS works I’d never read.
AND COMPASSION. –Author Tom Rachman,
–k.d. lang, ON TWITTER IN THE GUARDIAN

I believe I’m a better scientist. I believe I’m a better administrator.

I believe I’m a better teacher. I believe I’m a better father and husband.
–Santa Ono, president and vice-chancellor of UBC, ON HIS LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION

THEY DIDN’T CALL ME I HAVE AN AUDITION FOR A ROLE

A REFUGEE WHEN I IN A MOVIE NEXT WEEK. I’M TO
ARRIVED IN TORONTO.
THEY CALLED ME A PLAY A CUTTHROAT OWNER
NEW CANADIAN. THEY OF AN ART GALLERY. TO
HAVE BEEN TELLING PREPARE FOR THE ROLE,
ME, “YOU ARE ONE I’M BRUTALLY CRITIQUING
OF US ALREADY.” ALL THE KNICK-KNACKS
–Tareq Hadhad, Syrian ON MY BOOKSHELVES.
refugee and founder
of Peace by Chocolate,
DERIVATIVE AND AMATEUR!
TO GLOBAL NEWS –Author Heather O’Neill, ON TWITTER

16 june 2020
 I learned how to read in jail, basically,
QUOTES: (LANG) JAN. 13, 2020; (RACHMAN) MARCH 1, 2019; (ONO) CBC’S IDEAS ( JAN. 14, 2020); (HADHAD) JAN. 15, 2020; (O’NEILL) JAN. 31, 2020; (THISTLE)

so I’m just going on instinct. I don’t

know any other way to write.
–Author and academic Jesse Thistle, WHO WROTE
THE MEMOIR FROM THE ASHES

THEY USED TO SAY I am concerned about the

I’M TOO LOUD, BUT growing number of reports
CBC NEWS (NOV. 27, 2019); (MIGHTY) THE GLOBE AND MAIL (SEPT. 17, 2019); (TAM) JAN. 29, 2020; (GIESE) JAN. 28, 2020.

THAT’S COOL NOW. of racism and stigmatizing

LOVE MY SKIN, comments on social media
ALWAYS BEEN directed at people of
PROUD, GUESS Chinese and Asian descent
THAT’S IN NOW. related to coronavirus. It is
–Polaris Prize–winning understandable that our fears
hip-hop artist Haviah Mighty, increase during times like this.
IN HER SONG IN WOMEN COLOUR
However, we need to remember
that cohesion in our collective
efforts is important.
–Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer
of Canada, ON TWITTER

I’m bored of straight politicians

trying to win queer votes just by
going to Pride. If they want to
prove they care about us, they
should have to mediate a fight
between a lesbian couple at an
Ikea on a Saturday and build all
the furniture after.
–Boys author Rachel Giese, ON TWITTER

rd.ca 17
reader’s digest

HEALTH

Hard Knocks
How to spot, and
recover from, a concussion

S
BY Anna Sharratt UMMER IS THE season for hiking,
bike rides and playing sports
outdoors. Unfortunately, it’s also
the season of concussions.
More than just a superficial head
wound, a concussion is an injury that
occurs when a person suffers a bump,
jolt or blow that causes the brain to
bounce around within the skull, where
it is suspended in cerebrospinal fluid.
According to a 2017 report in The Lan-
cet, 30 to 50 million people suffer from
concussions and other traumatic brain
injuries every year, and falls are the
most common cause.
The vast majority of concussions are
considered mild; these may result in a
headache and some fatigue, appearing
minutes to hours following the colli-
ISTOCK.COM/ANDRESR

sion but resolving after 24 hours. A

more serious concussion can lead to
severe symptoms, such as nausea,
issues with balance or dizzi-
ness, vision problems, sleep
disruption, irregular moods and sen-
sitivity to noise and light. Most of these
will subside in a week or two with rest,
reduced visual stimulation—avoiding
screens and reading—and a measured
return to one’s regular activities. How-
ever, some concussion symptoms can
linger for months or years, hampering
daily functioning.
35%
OF TRAUMATIC
BRAIN INJURIES ARE
CAUSED BY FALLS.
Scientists have only recently begun
to scrutinize the long-term effects of
concussions—and their findings are
troubling. A 2018 study published in
The Lancet Psychiatry found that a
severe traumatic brain injury in one’s
20s increased the risk of dementia 30
years later by 63 per cent; for people in
their 30s, that rise in risk is 37 per cent.
And, alarmingly, even a single mild
concussion raised the lifetime risk for
a person of any age by 17 per cent.
For this reason, concussions have
become a pressing topic, especially for
athletes. A 2019 New England Journal
of Medicine study of professional soc-
cer players—who routinely head the
ball and collide with other players—
showed that they have a 3.5 per cent
higher risk of dying from dementia
than the general public.
“We have a pretty good idea of what
happens to the brain in the years after
a concussion,” says Dr. Michael Grey,
a brain injury expert at the University
of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K. He
explains that a hard blow to the head
can lead to protein clumps around the
neurons that send brain signals, dis-
rupting communication between the
brain and the rest of the body. In fact,
any repeated head trauma—colliding
with opponents while playing football
or trading blows while boxing—can
damage neurons over time.
For anyone who participates in rec-
reational activities in the summer, Grey
says the benefits still outweigh the risks.
Inactivity, he says, can lead to obesity
and other health issues. He suggests
practising sports as safely as possible,
keeping an eye out for signs of a con-
cussion and seeing a doctor immedi-
ately if any are present. Failing to treat
a traumatic brain injury immediately—
particularly if it’s serious—can lead to
a life-threatening blood clot, seizure
or bleeding in the brain. In rare cases,
swelling of the brain can cause death.
Also, it’s worth noting that while hel-
mets are recommended for cycling and
many other sports, they protect users
only from fractures, not brain trauma.
When it comes to kids, “Try to put
them in clubs that take concussions
seriously,” says Grey. “If in doubt, sit
them out.”
rd.ca 19
reader’s digest

Many Seniors
News from the Overestimate How
WORLD OF Well They Can See

MEDICINE Vision decline can

sneak up on you so
gradually that you don’t
BY Samantha Rideout notice it. That probably
explains why 61.5 per
cent of the Swedish
seniors who got an eye
exam for an Acta Oph-
thalmologica study
hadn’t realized they’d
be able to see better by
starting to wear glasses
or by changing the
strength of their exist-
ing prescription. Parti-
cipants tended to know
their vision was sub-
optimal if there was a
THE PROBLEM WITH problem with their con-
HOMEMADE SUNSCREENS trast sensitivity (their
ability to distinguish
While it may sound like a fun project that’ll help you between an object and
better control what goes on your skin, making your its background) but
own sunscreen can leave you burned. American most of the seniors with
public-health researchers collected a random sam- impaired visual acuity
ple of 189 Pinterest pins promoting DIY sunscreen. (sharpness of vision)
Despite the posts’ claims, the great majority of the reported that they had
recipes would not offer adequate protection against good sight. The lesson:
ultraviolet rays. Coconut oil, their most commonly even if you don’t think
featured ingredient, has been shown to offer an your vision is deterior-
ADAM VOORHES

SPF (sun protection factor) of only 1 to 7—not nearly ating, you could still
enough to prevent skin cancer. Commercial sun- benefit from visiting the
screens, which are regulated for efficacy and safety, optometrist regularly
are a more surefire bet. as you get older.

20 june 2020
 Don’t Make Pills A Popular Muscle
an Excuse to Drop Relaxant Can Cause
Good Habits Disorientation

A healthy lifestyle is key Commonly prescribed

to managing your car- for muscle pain and
diovascular risk, even if heartburn, the drug
you’re also taking med- baclofen can build up
ication for it. As a Finn- Alarm Clock in your body and make
ish study that followed Sounds May you feel confused if
over 40,000 people for Affect Morning your kidneys aren’t effi-
four years showed, it Grogginess cient at filtering it out.
can be tempting to Roughly a fifth of
substitute one for the The drowsy, still-half- seniors live with kidney
other. The subjects who asleep feeling that can function of less than 60
started preventative last up to a few hours per cent. In a study from
prescriptions for heart after waking is known Western University in
issues were more likely medically as “sleep London, Ont., this
to cut back on exercise inertia.” Not only is it group had a 1.11 per
and gain extra pounds. unpleasant, it can cent chance of being
Obesity and physical impact your work per- hospitalized for severe
inactivity both tend to formance and put you confusion shortly after
make it so that you need in danger if you need starting a high dose of
higher doses of drugs— to drive a car. Research baclofen (20 milligrams
increasing adverse side from RMIT University per day or more). For
effects in the process. in Australia asked seniors with the lowest
What’s more, “Even whether the sound you kidney function, the
if medication helps use to awaken might odds were one in 26. If
patients decrease their influence how alert or anyone experienced
risk of cardiovascular groggy you feel. Partici- milder effects that
events,” says lead pants who used didn’t land them in the
researcher Maarit Kor- melodic alarms (for hospital, they weren’t
ISTOCK.COM/BILL OXFORD

honen, “their risk of example, the Beach recorded. Bottom line:

other health problems— Boys’ “Good Vibra- You and your physician
cancer, diabetes and so tions”) reported less should take your age
on—may still increase.” sleep inertia, compared and kidney health into
to beeping, buzzing and account when consid-
other unmusical noises. ering this drug.

rd.ca 21
reader’s digest

A New Treatment for When Summer

a Dangerous Infection Is SAD

As an ever-growing health threat, drug-resistant Seasonal affective dis-

bacteria are forcing medical scientists to look for order (depression linked
new ways of treating infections. For example, a to the time of year, the
growing proportion of people with cystic fibrosis light and the weather)
are getting an opportunistic bacterial infection is common during the
called Mycobacterium abscessus, which can speed winter months. But for
up lung-function decline and even lead to death. some people, it’s sum-
These bacteria can also be a scary problem for peo- mertime that brings
ple with other lung conditions, such as bronchiec- symptoms, which can
tasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. include low mood,
Resistant to many antibiotics, M. abscessus is very anxiety, agitation, poor
hard to eradicate. The current treatment, an appetite and insomnia.
aggressive antibiotic regimen that can bring seri- Scientists aren’t certain
ous side effects such as hearing loss, hasn’t always about the causes of
worked. However, a new combination of existing summer SAD. It could
antibiotics might just do the trick. be brought on by exces-
A team of British researchers mixed amoxicillin sive heat and long days
with imipenem-relebactam. This combination reli- that throw off your cir-
ably killed off M. abscessus in the lab, using doses cadian rhythms. A
that should be safe for patients. Their next goal is to peer-reviewed study
try it out in real life. If you’re struggling to beat this recently offered evi-
infection, “It’s worth discussing our findings with dence for an additional
your doctor,” says co-author Jonathan Cox of Aston possibility: sufferers
University in Birmingham. Bacterial samples from reported their mood
your body should be pre-screened before going worsening on days
ahead with the new with a high pollen
combination, to count, suggesting that
make sure they’re allergen exposure may
susceptible to the play a role. If you have
antibiotics. summer SAD, anti-
ISTOCK.COM/FAHRONI

depressants, talk ther-

apy, allergy treatment
or keeping a regular
sleep schedule could
all help.

22 june 2020
 HEALTH
WHAT’S WRONG
WITH ME?
BY Lisa Bendall
illustration by victor wong
THE PATIENT: Sophie*, a 10-year-old girl
THE SYMPTOMS: Intense abdominal
pain and spine curvature
THE DOCTOR: Dr. Charles G. Stewart,
pediatric emergency physician at
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital,
London, England
S
OPHIE WAS AN active 10-year-old
who enjoyed playing netball in
her southwest London neigh-
bourhood. In early November 2016,
she picked up a mild cold virus from
her older brother. Although she felt
tired and sick for a couple of days, she
appeared to bounce back.
*IDENTIFYING DETAILS HAVE BEEN CHANGED.
Two weeks later, Sophie developed
a sharp pain in her right side—one that
became more intense when she moved
or lay down. When she couldn’t get
comfortable at bedtime, her concerned
parents brought her to Chelsea and
Westminster Hospital.
Sophie’s abdomen was examined for
signs of appendicitis, but it felt normal.
She wasn’t feverish. With only one
symptom to go on, making a diagnosis
was challenging, and her doctors
thought she might have simply pulled
a muscle while she was playing sports.
Sophie was given acetaminophen—
which seemed to lessen her pain
somewhat—and then was sent home.
Her parents were told they should
rd.ca 23
reader’s digest
bring Sophie back for X-rays if she
didn’t improve.
The next few hours were wretched,
recalls her mom, Joanne. “Sophie
couldn’t sleep at all that night, and
medication couldn’t relieve the pain.”
First thing in the morning, the family
was back in the ER for more tests.
SOPHIE WAS BENDING
OVER SIDEWAYS,
AS THOUGH ONE
LEG WERE SHORTER
THAN THE OTHER.
But an abdominal ultrasound was
completely normal, and a chest X-ray
showed nothing more than a mild
scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.
That’s not uncommon in a girl who
might be having a growth spurt. “It
was not thought to be significant,”
says Dr. Charles G. Stewart, who
works in the hospital’s Department of
Paediatric Emergency.
Sophie’s breathing rate and pulse
were slightly faster than they had been
the night before, but that could simply
mean she was in more discomfort. The
surgical consultants maintained that a
musculoskeletal injury was still the most
likely cause of the pain. Sophie’s par-
ents weren’t convinced but didn’t know
what else it could be. Once again, they
were sent away with acetaminophen
24 june 2020
and instructions to come right back if
she didn’t start feeling better soon.
At home, the abdominal pain only
intensified. Sophie spent that night
curled up on the sofa, screaming in
agony. She started shivering, and vom-
ited. “It was clear there was something
seriously wrong,” says Joanne. The next
day, as the family rushed to get ready to
go back to the hospital, Joanne noticed
something odd: Sophie was bending
over sideways and limping, as though
one leg were shorter than the other.
Doctors in the ER could now see that
Sophie was quite ill. She was pale, and
her heart rate was even higher. Her
C-reactive protein count—which can
signify inflammation—had quad-
rupled in two days. And, as Joanne had
noticed, her standing posture was very
strange, with her right leg a bit bent
as she leaned on her left side. She
needed to be admitted. “We couldn’t
send the girl home again,” Stewart
says, “but we didn’t have a clear line
on what was going on.”
A range of conditions, from bone
infection to leukemia, might cause
Sophie’s spine to bend. But an ortho-
pedic team assessed Sophie and
found nothing.
Finally, the doctors decided to con-
duct a CT scan of Sophie’s abdomen
to look for the source of the pain. This
type of X-ray takes a series of detailed
images as cross-sections. Fortuitously,
one of these cross-sections caught the
lowest portion of Sophie’s right lung.
That image provided the answer:
Sophie had pneumonia.
There’s no way to know how Sophie
picked up this bacterial invasion; her
immunity could have been down from
fighting her cold. As many as one in 20
kids who see a doctor for abdominal
pain actually have pneumonia, par-
ticularly if the infection is in the lower
lobe of the lung. And in fact, pneu-
monia is the number 1 cause of child
mortality worldwide, especially in
AS MANY AS ONE IN 20
KIDS WHO COMPLAIN
ABOUT ABDOMINAL
PAIN ACTUALLY HAVE
PNEUMONIA.
regions without adequate health care.
But it’s rare for abdominal pain to be
the only complaint. Pneumonia typ-
ically causes coughing and wheezing.
It also comes with a fever, although
that can be suppressed if the patient
takes acetaminophen, as Sophie did.
Although Sophie had been given a
chest X-ray earlier, 27 per cent of these
look normal in the early stages of
pneumonia, says Stewart, because
Canine Conundrum
What do dogs do on their day off? Can’t lie around—that’s their job.
GEORGE CARLIN, COMEDIAN
lung inflammation may not show up
well in the two-dimensional images.
The scoliosis was more telling—and
that was caused simply by the way
Sophie was holding herself. “Without
realizing it, Sophie was adopting a
posture to quell the pain of the pneu-
monia,” says Stewart.
Stewart adds that pneumonia symp-
toms aren’t always predictable. “We
were tricked by this devious presenta-
tion.” Nevertheless, he has sympathy
for the frustrated parents, who watched
their child suffer without a diagnosis.
“I think a lot of people assume, in an
age of AI and cloud computing, that
medicine is easy, but it’s not.”
Doctors started Sophie on intrave-
nous antibiotics but she developed
fluid around her lungs and needed a
chest drain. She went home two weeks
later, and four months after that, she
had recovered the energy to return to
school full-time. “We were just relieved
that she was improving, without any
setbacks,” says Joanne.
Meeting Sophie has had a lasting
impact on Stewart. “I’ve referenced her
many times with my junior doctors: in
the absence of everything else, abdom-
inal pain with scoliosis should make
you think of a postural response to
pneumonia,” he says.
rd.ca 25
 COVER STORY

Real CANADIAN
HeroesExtraordinary She Helps Care for
COVID-19 Patients
stories of CYNTHIA RENNIE-FAUBERT,
kindness, 48, CORNWALL, ONT.

compassion The speed of the coronavirus outbreak

and full-on in Wuhan worried Cynthia Rennie-
Faubert. As an emergency room nurse
bravery in Cornwall, she’d seen her share of
RICHMOND LAM

outbreaks, including SARS and H1N1,

BY Ali Amad, Emily Landau,
but nothing like this. She knew it was
Sarah Liss, Rosie Long Decter, only a matter of time before this new
Megan Jones and Lauren McGill virus arrived in her community.

26 june 2020
reader’s digest

Cynthia Rennie-
Faubert screens
patients every
day for COVID-19.
reader’s digest
A month later, it did. On February
21, the federal government sent 129
Canadians from the Diamond Prin-
cess, an infected cruise ship, for a
14-day quarantine at a Cornwall hotel
and conference facility that’s often
used in emergency situations. Rennie-
Faubert, who works at Cornwall Com-
munity Hospital, would help treat any
passengers who fell ill. Some were
seniors—a population at higher risk of
heart disease, high blood pressure, and
diabetes, increasing the chance of med-
ical complications.
The hospital staff jumped into action,
increasing isolation measures and
stocking storerooms with infectious
disease supplies. Thankfully, all of the
quarantined passengers soon passed
with a clean bill of health. But the virus
proved unavoidable when, in March,
the region confirmed its first positive
case of COVID-19.
Screening potential cases was com-
plicated, not least because it’s possi-
ble for asymptomatic people to
spread the virus. “We don’t have the
luxury of getting it wrong,” Rennie-
Faubert says. “We must assume any-
one could have the virus.” On any
given day, her ER sees a wide range of
cases, from car crash victims to heart
attack patients, and if a patient is unre-
sponsive, for example, she can’t ask
about their history. She can’t know if
they’re infected.
As of mid-March, Ontario had tested
more than 23,000 people for the virus,
28 june 2020
and front-line health-care workers
remained at the greatest risk for expos-
ure. In Toronto alone, some dozen
nurses and doctors had tested positive
for COVID-19. Tension was high. But
Rennie-Faubert was confident her hos-
pital could successfully manage the
virus. After all, they’re a team. Every-
one was taking turns working extra
shifts, making sure nobody burned
out. The trick, she says, is to stay calm.
She reminds herself and others that in
most ways it’s just another day at work:
“We’re looking after sick patients in
their time of need.”
They Saved a Life
at the Curling Rink
JESSICA HOEKSTRA, 29, AND
ROY PENNER, 53, ST. ALBERT, ALTA.
Neil McKay was in the middle of his
usual Tuesday curling game in St. Albert
last December when he started to feel
light-headed. The 70-year-old retired
engineer is typically in good health, but
as he stepped off the ice, he collapsed.
Jessica Hoekstra was upstairs, working
her first shift at the curling club bar,
when she noticed him fall. A licensed
practical nurse, she bolted downstairs
and quickly recognized that McKay
was in cardiac arrest. Hoekstra began
administering CPR immediately. “The
sooner you start, the more likely you
are to have a positive outcome,” she
says. “Every second counts.”
 Firefighter Roy Penner, who was
playing on the next sheet, rushed over
to assist with compressions, while
another patron ran for the building’s
defibrillator. After McKay’s rescuers
administered a shock, he regained con-
sciousness and was taken to hospital,
where he swiftly recovered.
Today, McKay remains friends with
the people who saved him and makes
sure to stop and chat whenever he
runs into them at the club. McKay
feels fortunate that so many know-
ledgeable people were on the scene.
“They’d probably say, ‘I was just doing
my job,’” McKay says, “But boy, did they
ever do a good one.”

She Donated a Kidney to

Her Financial Adviser
KATE KIRKPATRICK,
45, SHUBENACADIE, N.S.
When Scott Giles found himself in need
of a new kidney, Kate Kirkpatrick, a
customer at his bank, knew she wanted
to give him hers.
Kirkpatrick and Giles had first met
around 2005, after she’d moved to
Shubenacadie from Scotland after
marrying a Canadian. But by the time
she walked through the doors of
Giles’s financial adviser office, her
marriage was dissolving, she had
SANDRA GILES
When Scott Giles became sick Kate
Kirkpatrick didn’t hesitate to help.
helping Kirkpatrick get set up finan-
cially, Giles offered support and advice.
“I had no family here, so I’d ask him
everything,” she says. “If I wanted to take
a vacation, I’d ask him where to go.”
When her divorce was finalized, Kirk-
patrick cried in Giles’s office; when
her kids needed bank cards, they knew
exactly where to go.
After Giles had to take a leave from
work to tend to his health, and it
became clear that he needed a kidney

five-year-old twins in tow and she transplant to survive, she offered to get
was at her wits’ end. The two simply tested. In January 2018, they found out
connected, she recalls. In addition to they were a match.

rd.ca 29
reader’s digest

Daring teenager
Sara Picard rescued a
woman from an assault.
 The donation process stretched out
over two years, during which they
both underwent a battery of tests.
Today, Giles is off dialysis. Kirkpatrick
didn’t start to process the magnitude
of what she’d done until it was over. “I
didn’t think it was any different from
paying it forward at the Tim Hortons
drive-through,” she says. “I try to live
life to the fullest, and it was a privilege
to help somebody do the same.”
She Saved a Stranger From
a Knife Attack
SARA PICARD,
17, QUALICUM BEACH, B.C.
Sara Picard is the kind of teen who likes
to do the right thing. The Grade 12 Qual-
icum Beach student volunteers at the
soup kitchen, organized a successful
coat-donation drive and plans to study
social work at Vancouver Island Uni-
versity. So when Picard spotted a man
attempting to force a woman into a van
in a downtown parking lot last Novem-
ber, she didn’t hesitate to help.
She instinctively shoved herself
between them and pushed the man—
the woman’s ex-husband—away. In
response, he pulled out a hunting knife
and waved it wildly at them. The man
then grabbed the woman, brandishing
the knife to force Picard away. That’s
when Picard called 911.
NIK WEST
While Picard was still on the phone,
the man panicked and turned the knife
on himself, plunging it into his chest.
Picard, not letting her fear show, urged
the woman to run for safety while she
stayed on the scene. The paramedics
who arrived minutes later weren’t able
to revive the man.
In the weeks after the incident,
Picard brought groceries to the wom-
an’s home, and joined the woman and
her three children for lunch. Picard
remains unfazed. “If I want to be a
social worker, I’m going to have to see
things like that,” she says. “It was a
blessing in disguise that I was there
and able to help.”
He Kept Seniors Warm
During a Cold Snap
AJAYPAL SINGH, 41, STRATHMORE, ALTA.
When temperatures plunged to -35 C
in the tiny town of Strathmore this past
January, taxi operator Ajaypal Singh
saw an opportunity to help his commu-
nity. He figured there must be elderly
people afraid or unable to leave their
homes to buy necessities because of
the extreme cold. Work was slow any-
way, so he thought, Why not pick up
their groceries for them? Singh and his
crew of five drivers encouraged patrons
to call in with their requests, like bread
and milk, then delivered them to 25
grateful locals—free of charge, minus
cost of the purchases. “One lady even
hugged me after I brought her medi-
cine she needed,” says Singh.
rd.ca 31
reader’s digest
Taxi operator Ajaypal Singh runs a free
delivery service for his elderly customers.
This isn’t the first time Singh has
helped others out. Since last summer,
he has also offered free round-trip rides
for people headed to the Strathmore
food bank. “The world is full of people
doing nice things like me,” he says. “This
is just how I play my part.”
He Stopped a Speeding
Car From Plowing Into
Pedestrians
ERICK MARCIANO, 49, MONTREAL
Last November, Montreal contractor
Erick Marciano was on his way to get
an Italian sub when he noticed the
speeding Honda. Stopped at a bus-
tling downtown intersection in his
own SUV, he watched as the car
zoomed through a red light, police
32 june 2020
close behind, sirens blaring. “There’s
something you don’t see every day,”
he thought.
As the speeding driver slowed in the
swirling snow, police closed the gap.
Marciano saw officers exit their cars,
guns drawn—exactly as the Honda
driver revved backwards and pulled a
swift U-turn, accelerating toward Mar-
ciano and a busy crosswalk. Marciano
immediately thought of recent terrorist
attacks on pedestrians in other cities
and made a split-second decision. “I
didn’t want that to happen here,” he
says. “I had to stop him.”
Skidding into the opposite lane, Mar-
ciano laid on his horn, warning pedes-
trians. Then he angled his SUV directly
into the Honda’s path. As the other car
raced toward his, Marciano pitched
himself out the door, narrowly escaping
the crash. Both vehicles screeched into
the intersection, but his heroic manoeu-
vre allowed a dozen passersby to flee.
The Honda driver was apprehended
(SINGH) ROLFE JOHANNSON; (MARCIANO) CINDY BOYCE
and, miraculously, there were no major
injuries. “I did what I had to do,” Mar-
ciano says, and he would do it again—
even if he never did get that sandwich.
She Rescued Her Lost
Best Friend
CHILI, 3, ABBOTSFORD, B.C.
Mordy, a white labradoodle, was once
afraid of every knock on the door, says
Jared Palfrey, an IT consultant who lives
 Erick Marciano used
his SUV to block the
path of a reckless driver.
reader’s digest
with his wife, Angie, and their six kids
in Abbotsford. If someone came over,
Mordy would hide under the piano.
The only creature he’s never been shy
around is Chili, a slobbery Cane Corso
who belongs to Palfrey’s brother. The
two dogs were fast friends.
The Palfreys panicked last August
when Mordy bolted on a road trip
nearly three hours away from their
home—and refused to answer desper-
ate calls. Unwilling to give up on find-
ing their dog, they camped out several
times near the forest where Mordy ran
away. They even paid $5,000 to a pet
Chili helped find a missing pup
and bring him home.
34 june 2020
detective. Nothing worked. That is,
until Chili became head of Operation
Rescue Mordy.
Three weeks later, following reports of
Mordy sightings, the Palfreys returned
to the woods with Chili in tow. When
unclipped from her leash, Chili bar-
relled into the forest. In seconds, she
trotted back out with Mordy at her
heels. “We hugged and hugged and
hugged this brave pup,” Palfrey says of
Chili. They also feted her with pres-
ents, including her favourite bones.
As for Mordy: “He’s developed a cour-
ageous streak.”
He Defended a Family of
Campers From a Wolf
RUSS FEE, 37, CALGARY
Over 30 years of camping vacations,
Russ Fee had never experienced or
heard of a wolf attack. That changed
last August while he was camping
with his wife and two sons at Banff
National Park. At around midnight, Fee
woke to the sound of panicked voices
calling for help. He knew there was
another family with two sons, ages
five and seven, at the next campsite
over, and went to investigate.
As Fee approached, he caught sight
of an animal’s rear legs protruding
from a collapsing tent—legs too large
JARED PALFREY
to belong to a dog. Fee ran up and
kicked the animal. Startled, it backed
out of the tent. Suddenly, Fee was
standing face-to-face with a wolf. “That
was a terrifying moment,” he recalls.
Matt Rispoli, the neighbouring dad,
jumped out of the collapsed tent cov-
ered in blood. Moments earlier, the
wolf had bitten through the tent, punc-
turing his arm and tearing the material.
Both men shouted and threw rocks at
the wolf to scare it away.
The wolf backed off long enough for
the Rispolis to pile into the Fees’ van.
Since there was no cell service, Fee drove
the family to a nearby hotel, where staff
called 911. Rispoli, who only needed
stitches, was grateful for Fee coming to
his family’s rescue. Park personnel euth-
anized the wolf later that night—the
rare attack was likely because the wolf
was near starvation.
The Fees still keep in touch with
the Rispolis over Facebook and even
exchanged Christmas gifts last year. “It
easily could have been my family who
got attacked,” says Fee. “We were all
fortunate in the end.”
They Helped Rehabilitate
Their Attacker
JONNY MEIKLE, 30, AND MATTHEW
SHORTING, 29, WINNIPEG
Best pals Jonny Meikle and Matthew
Shorting were in a great mood when
they boarded a Winnipeg city bus in
November 2018. Meikle, a military
veteran who served in Afghanistan,
was nearing a year of sobriety; the
friends had just celebrated with dinner
at The Keg.
But within a few stops, two intoxi-
cated men boarded the bus. One sat
down across from Meikle and tried to
get a rise out of him. Meikle refused
to take the bait, but noticed the man
had a knife. The antagonizer then began
hurling racist threats at another man,
who, in turn, got up to exit the bus. The
antagonizer followed.
Concerned that he might use his
knife, Meikle delivered a kick to the
man’s solar plexus. A tussle ensued,
during which Meikle and Shorting were
able to wrestle him off the bus. Out-
side, Meikle sustained a stab wound to
the leg. Police arrived minutes later
and their attacker’s rough arrest shook
both Meikle and Shorting. The man
was Indigenous, and as Indigenous men
themselves, the pair couldn’t ignore
how this fit a pattern of police abuse
against their community.
“Not long after this,” says Meikle, “I
started thinking about what his story
was.” Later, when his assailant appeared
in court, Meikle petitioned for a restor-
ative justice process—an approach
that prioritizes reconciliation and heal-
ing. Although the man received jail
time, the court agreed to use a restor-
ative sentencing circle. Meikle later
helped the man find housing.
“It doesn’t take something bad hap-
pening to be a hero,” says Meikle. “The
hero is the person who helps someone
when they need it.”
rd.ca 35
reader’s digest
“You think I’m scary? Have you seen the size of the dust bunnies under here?”
There’s going to be a
point in my life when
my son looks up at me
and thinks, “Gee, my
mom knows every-
thing!” Then he’ll get
to sixth grade math
class, and I’ll say, “Well,
kid, this is where we
part ways.”
— @HANNAHEINBINDER
36 june 2020
AS KIDS SEE IT
My seven-year-old will be bigger and I’ll
daughter, Kelsie, was be able to hear my
snuggling up in a warm favourite music better.”
blanket on a snowy — SARAH TIESSEN, London
winter day in London.
SUSAN CAMILLERI KONAR
One of her favourite My three-year-old
CDs was playing, and grandson, David, was
she thoughtfully visiting in March and
announced, “I can’t wanted to go skating
wait to grow up. When on the rink in the
I’m an adult, my ears backyard. As it had
been warm the last few Sorry, I can’t come down for real dinner yet.
days, I said I didn’t I have to finish the fake meal my toddler is
know what shape the
rink was in. “I think it’s slowly cooking for me.
square, Oma,” he said. — @WALKINGOUTSIDE
— MARILYN BRUZZESE,
Bradford, Ont. he’s allergic to it. I My five-year-old
explained to her that wrapped a sausage
My sister was driving it’s weird because he’s around my finger
by the ocean with not allergic to cheese, and called it a Band-
her five-year-old, but Cheez Whiz gives Aid. Needless to say,
Charleigh. She said to him a rash. He added, he’sbecome my per-
her, “Look at how high “Maybe I’m allergic to sonal physician.
the tide is.” My niece the Whiz.” — @DAD_ON_MY_FEET
replied, “Wow, I guess — EMILIE GOSTEAU,
a lot of fish had to Saint-Jérôme, Que. My kid: Can you make
pee today!” me some tea?
— TRACY MUNDELL, I was cutting my three- Me: I think you’re old
Surrey, B.C. year-old’s fingernails, enough to make it.
and one was particu- Me, ten minutes later,
The little girl I’m larly hard to cut. “The cleaning honey off
babysitting just asked nail wants to stay with every kitchen surface:
me if I have a boyfriend. me,” he reasoned. Ok, you were right.
I said, “Not anymore,” — JULALUCK PHONGSA-NGA, — @RODLACROIX
and she said, “Boy- Calgary
friends are a waste of Eight-year-old: Mom, I
time.” Then she turned Our church was having want to study pastrami.
to her brother and told a bake sale, and I baked Me: Why, honey?
him, “You’re gonna be cookies. I arrived late, Eight-year-old: I’m just
a waste of time.” so I gave them directly super interested in
— @ITSMADIMAY to the priest. My three- the stars.
year-old son was with — @PRO_WORRIER_
On Boxing Day morn- me, and as we walked
ing, my seven-year-old away he asked, “Why
Send us your original
son noticed my aunt did you give my cookies jokes! You could earn $50
putting Cheez Whiz on to God?” and be featured in the
her toast. He asked her — VIRGINIA RONAN, magazine. See page 7 or
to be careful because St. Cloud, FLA. rd.ca/joke for details.

rd.ca 37
 PERSPECTIVE

Why we’re all

so much smarter
than we know

Anybody
Can Learn
Anything
BY John Mighton FROM ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL
illustration by kevin moran

rd.ca 39
 N
reader’s digest
nothing comes easily to me.
I’m a mathematician, but I didn’t
show much aptitude for math until I
was 30. I had no idea, in high school,
why I had to turn a fraction upside
down when I wanted to divide by it, or
why, when I wrote a square root sign
over a negative number, the number
suddenly became “imaginary” (espe-
cially when I could see the number
was still there). At university, I almost
failed my first calculus course. Fortun-
ately I was saved by the bell curve,
which brought my original mark up to
a C minus.
I often wish I was more like my sci-
entific heroes, who seemingly could
solve intractable problems in a blinding
flash of inspiration. Now that I teach
math at university and publish books
and papers on the discipline, I console
myself with the thought that my strug-
gles to educate myself produced an
intense curiosity about how we achieve
our potential.
In 2000, during the final year of my
doctoral program at the University of
Toronto, I persuaded some of my friends
to start a free, after-school tutoring
40 june 2020
program called JUMP Math (Junior
Undiscovered Math Prodigies) in my
apartment. The program’s methods,
which can be used by people of any
age, are easy to understand and apply,
and they reinforce confidence in your
abilities rather than assigning you to a
particular skill level.
Twenty years later, 200,000 students
and educators in North America use
JUMP Math as their main math instruc-
tion resource, and the program is
spreading into Europe and South Amer-
ica. And after teaching math and other
subjects to thousands of students of all
ages, I am convinced that our society
vastly underestimates the intellectual
potential of children and adults.
over the past two decades, cognitive-
science researchers have discovered
that our brains are plastic and can
learn and develop at any stage of life.
A variety of psychological studies—in
which people have been trained to
develop musical abilities that were
once considered to be innate (like per-
fect pitch) or to significantly improve
their SAT scores (by becoming better
at seeing analogies)—indicate that
experts are made, not born.
I remember seeing newspaper arti-
cles and books about the remarkable
intellectual potential of children and
the surprising plasticity of older brains
as long ago as the 1990s. It strikes
me  as odd, then, that although the
research has long been publicized, its
existence has done very little to change
the way that people think about their
own intellectual abilities or how they
are taught.
When people complain about prob-
lems in North American education, they
often speak as if those problems would
be solved if students in the United States
and Canada were able to perform as
well on international tests as students
from countries that achieve the highest
scores. For instance, Singapore is some-
times singled out in the media as having
a superior educational system because
their students do better on standardized
math tests—like the Programme for
International Student Assessment
(PISA) test written by 15-year-old stu-
dents in 80 countries every three years.
STUDENTS NEED TO
LOVE LEARNING FOR
ITS OWN SAKE, NOT
BECAUSE THEY’RE
AFRAID OF FAILING.
It’s worth looking at the results of
these tests, but more for what they
reveal about our beliefs about children
and their potential than for what they
prove about education. In 2015, only
nine per cent of American students and
15 per cent of Canadian students scored
at PISA’s highest levels, compared with
35 per cent in Singapore. However, in
that country almost 40 per cent of stu-
dents scored average or below.
So while it would be a good idea for
North American educators to find out
how math is taught in top-performing
countries—as many people consis-
tently have suggested—we might also
want to find out how countries that
produce such strong students still
manage to teach so little to almost half
their populations.
wide differences in mathematical
achievement among students appear
to be natural. In the many schools I
have visited, on several continents,
I have always seen a significant number
of students who are two or three grade
levels behind by the end of elementary
school. In my home province of Ontario,
where children do rather well on inter-
national tests, fewer than 50 per cent of
Grade 6 students met grade-level stan-
dards on the 2018 provincial exams.
However, in my work with children
and adults, I have seen a great deal of
evidence that mathematical ability is
extremely fluid and that teachers can
produce dramatic improvements with
very simple interventions. One example
from Toronto is a Grade 5 class in which
the teacher, Mary Jane Moreau, incor-
porated strategies from JUMP Math.
This meant teaching concepts and skills
in steps that were much smaller than
the ones she normally followed, con-
stantly asking questions and assigning
exercises and activities to assess what
rd.ca 41
reader’s digest
her students knew, giving frequent prac-
tice and review, and most importantly,
building excitement by giving students
incrementally harder challenges where
one idea builds on the next.
Before beginning the program, the
average mark for Moreau’s students
on a standardized test was in the 54th
percentile, with the lowest mark in the
ninth percentile and the highest in
the 75th. After a year of JUMP, Moreau
retested her students. The average score
rose to the 98th percentile with the low-
est mark in the 95th percentile.
This teacher was able to shift the bell
curve in her class so dramatically
because she made all of her students
feel like they could accomplish roughly
the same things. In her classroom,
students worked to compete against
the problem, not each other. They got
caught up in the excitement of their
peers, and this excitement helped them
to engage more deeply, remember what
they learned and persevere in the face
of challenges. They were encouraged to
learn and to love learning for its own
sake, not because they were afraid of
failing or wanted to be ranked higher
than other students.
inequitable learning environments are
extraordinarily unfair and inherently
inefficient, too. They’re not good for any
learners—including the ones at the top
of the academic hierarchy—because
they train people to give up too easily
or to exert themselves for the wrong
42 june 2020
reasons. They destroy our natural sense
of curiosity and create negative mind-
sets and anxiety in learners—making
our brains function in the most ineffi-
cient ways possible.
Nurturing curiosity has impacts out-
side of school, too. In “The Business
Case for Curiosity,” Harvard Business
School professor Francesca Gino pres-
ents evidence that curiosity produces
a wide range of benefits for organiza-
tions, leaders and employees. For
example, in a state of curiosity, we are
less susceptible to confirmation biases
(looking for information that confirms
our beliefs rather than evidence sug-
gesting we are wrong) and to making
generalizations about people based on
their race or gender. As well, a culture
of curiosity creates more open commu-
nication and better team performance,
since curious people will readily share
information and listen more carefully.
Many people believe, based on their
experience of learning math at school,
that it is a rigid and sterile subject that
stifles curiosity and leaves no room for
creativity. But progress in mathematics
has actually been driven by remark-
able flights of imagination. And I’ve
found, since I started JUMP 20 years
ago, that when math is taught the right
way, it is the subject in which learners
of all ages can most easily unlock their
true intellectual potential.
EXCERPTED FROM ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL BY JOHN MIGH-
TON. COPYRIGHT © 2020 JOHN MIGHTON. PUBLISHED BY
ALFRED A. KNOPF CANADA, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RAN-
DOM HOUSE CANADA LIMITED. REPRODUCED BY ARRANGE-
MENT WITH THE PUBLISHER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 MEMOIR

In Search of Lost Fish

I spent my summer on a
Quebec lake, trying to imagine
my first catch into existence.
BY Marni Jackson FROM THE WALRUS
reader’s digest

rd.ca 45
reader’s digest

I don’t normally fish, but for the past two years I have been
trying my hand at it on a small lake in Quebec. Around this
privately owned body of water are a deep band of forest and
only three habitable structures, including the two-room cabin
that my husband, Brian, and I rent for a month each summer.
I’ve seen local fishermen drop their lines in Lac Catherine and
leave with one, two or even three small trout. I knew that,
technically, there were fish in the lake—fish that other people
caught. So I was happy when a friend of our son, an experi-
enced angler, showed up at our cabin one day. I would learn
his secrets, I schemed, and catch a fish at last.
Roberto was in his early 30s, a life- He talked about growing up in Bra-
long fisherman from Brazil, where, he zil and fishing with his father for dorado
tells me, they sometimes fish with and peacock bass, called tucunaré in
worms called minhocuçu that are three Portuguese. “One of the things I like
feet long. He arrived at our cabin with about fishing is how you don’t see the
his partner, Madeleine, their three- fish right away when you catch it,”
month-old baby, Celeste, and a large, Roberto told me. “You never know what
heavy tackle box that appeared to come you have on the line.” We also discussed

(PREVIOUS SPREAD) MIRCEA COSTINA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

a very close second to the baby in its
significance for Roberto.
That day, the sky was doing its usual
fandango, swinging between scowling
grey and abrupt sunshine. The weather
had been dynamic for days, with great
piles of creamy cumulus clouds chased
by angry dark thunderclouds. It rained
often, and the rains came suddenly,
tropically, as if a trap door had opened
in the sky. Then the sun would reappear
and shine with single-minded intensity.
During one calm interlude, Roberto
and I took our chances in the canoe.
bait. Or rather, I asked the question,
“Why worms?” Worms are universal,
he said, used around the world. “Fish
that are carnivorous taste better than
other fish,” Roberto explained. “Trout
and salmon.”
The rain fell again, and the tempera-
ture dropped. The wind was whipping
up a latte froth on the lake. When I
cast, the line danced before it dropped
into the water. “You can’t be thinking
about other things when you fish,” said
Roberto. “But, at the same time, it’s
relaxing. You have to be ready to catch

46 june 2020
the fish, but really, you might not. It is
normal not to catch a fish,” he said. In
other words, “Fishing is really closer to
not fishing,” I ventured hopefully.
“It’s another world down there,” in
the fish world, Roberto said. I agreed:
you have to dream your way into it.
Fishing is an imaginative act. You sit
quietly on the surface of the water,
imagining where the fish might be,
visualizing their slim grey shapes below.
Then, when a fish does jump, it’s an
image that arrives complete, like a line
in a poem. And the sensation of a fish
on the line is like no other feeling—
an ecstatic quickening, as of life kick-
ing in the womb.
ONCE THE HOOK IS IN
THE WATER, YOU CAN’T
HELP THINKING THAT
YOU MIGHT, IN FACT,
CATCH SOMETHING.
This is a sensation I had not yet expe-
rienced on Lac Catherine, even with
Roberto’s help that day. Maybe the
problem, I thought, was my rod, a
generic, borrowed one. After we fished
together, I went into town and bought
a new one for $28 at Rona. The woman
behind the counter also recommended
a lure, a large elliptical silvery spoon.
The lure looked makeshift and ridicu-
lous to me, like a cheap bottle opener.
But in the lineup to pay, a fisherman
reassured me this model worked best
for trout in a deep spring-fed lake like
ours. “Try trolling,” he suggested.
My Rona purchase reminded me of
my first fishing rod, a simple bamboo
model that my father bought for me
when I was no older than four. We
lived half a block from the shores of
Lake Ontario, where we would drop
our lines. It is one of my earliest mem-
ories of precious time alone with my
father. I can’t remember if we caught
anything, and that wasn’t the point. As
the Taoists might say, we were fishing
with a straight hook.
IT’S ANOTHER WILDLY changeable day
on Lac Catherine, and I’m still trying to
catch a fish. I cast, swinging my arm in
an arc, and my new spoon-shaped lure
lands clumsily on the water, then sinks.
I point the rod towards the surface and
slowly reel in the line. The spoon lurches
and tugs like a tiny fish as it spins
through the water. I keep thinking I have
caught something. Then the lure flashes
to the surface, and disappointed, I cast
again, in a different direction.
I let my canoe drift opposite the cliffs,
where the water is very deep. If I were
a fish, I would hang out here. Every
time I cast, I feel a youthful spurt of
optimism, the kind you feel with the
first sip of coffee in the morning. It’s a
slightly sexy feeling, I realize—the sense
of anticipation. Once the hook is in the
water, you can’t help thinking that you
rd.ca 47
reader’s digest
might, in fact, catch a fish. Fishing puts
hope in motion.
In the rest of life, we strive in the
direction of many things at once: to be
better people, to capture someone’s
love, to succeed at a project. The striv-
ing is generalized and subliminally anx-
ious. But, in a boat on the surface of a
calm lake, all one’s striving channels
down the rod like lightning. Here, the
goal is singular: to catch a fish. And, for
an hour or two, this patiently aggressive
act releases me from the need to strive
in any other way. I can simply sit, dream
and wait, with hands alert to any tug of
life on the line, for luck to bite.
MY HUSBAND AND
I ACCUMULATED
ELABORATE THEORIES
OF HOW I MIGHT CATCH
A FISH AT LAST.
My husband doesn’t fish himself,
but he communes deeply with the
lake. He all but sleeps with the fishes.
He undertakes hour-long meditative
swims around the point to the end of
the lake, which is out of everyone’s
sight. He wears a GoPro camera while
swimming to film schools of fish. As a
student of the water and its inhabi-
tants, he is at the postdoctoral level.
Naturally, he had developed certain
theories about where and how I might
48 june 2020
find the fish. For instance, he pointed
out that the fish regularly jumped,
tauntingly, just where the bay opens
out into the body of the lake.
“And the canoe is better than the row-
boat for fishing,” he opined to me one
afternoon as we sat on the dock. “The
rowboat is too noisy. Plus, you need to
cast far from the canoe, so the fish don’t
see you coming.” Ideally, we agreed, I
should go out at dusk, when the lake
was calm, and if a thunderstorm were
lurking in the wings, so much the bet-
ter. We began to accumulate more
and more of these elaborate theories,
despite having not caught a single fish.
One hypothesis was that a strong
wind might “churn the trout up,” so
one breezy day I paddled into the wind
down into the bay and let the canoe
drift back. There was no sense at all of
fish being there. It wasn’t hopeful fish-
ing—it was desultory fishing. It was like
going to an interview for a job you don’t
really want. The spoon’s twirl on the
line against the fast drift of the canoe
meant that the line always felt engaged,
weighed down, a little promising. Then
up would come the shiny spoon, fol-
lowed by the sad bunched chignon of
the worm on the fishless hook.
It didn’t help that I was having
increasing trouble with the worms,
something I told myself I should get
over. I kept them in the fridge, in a Sty-
rofoam container, and every time I took
the lid off, the worms seemed fatter, lon-
ger, and thicker—almost mammalian.
They slumbered in their Styrofoam con-
tainer and sometimes on the floor of
the canoe, if I thought to take them with
me. Once you liberated them from their
refrigerator cell, they seemed dull and
without reflex. But when you pierced
one with a hook, it awoke, writhed,
protested, all but screamed aloud, “I
am a worm, but I feel things too!”
I WAS HAVING TROUBLE
WITH THE WORMS.
EVENTUALLY I COULD
NOT ESCAPE IMAGINING
THEIR POINT OF VIEW.
I knew that, in order to fish, I had to
face the worm part—a rehearsal, after
all, of the death of the fish, if we
intended to eat it, which we did. But
there was nothing I could tell myself
(“It’s like killing a long thick mosquito”)
that made me feel any better about it.
At one point, I even resorted to little
ribbons of prosciutto, wrapped worm-
like around the hook for bait. Spec-
tacularly unsuccessful. The murder of
worms seemed unavoidable. Most of
us thoughtlessly kill small things all
the time in the wild, of course—ants,
black flies, no-see-ums, sometimes spi-
ders, if we’re callous. But worms are a
rung up that ladder.
Eventually, I could not escape imag-
ining their point of view:
Thursday, August 1. Tenth day, by
my count, in this dark, loamy place
crowded up against Luther and
Samantha, who tend to take all the
dirt for themselves at night. They keep
us in the Cool Place, but sometimes a
blinding light comes on, followed by
shuffling and the smell of humans;
then the light goes off, and suddenly,
it’s dark again. The dish of olives is to
our left, capers to the right. It’s the
unpredictability of the situation that
really gets to me. Robins are nothing
compared to this! Robins are fairly
bright but heavy footed, and you can
hear them coming from a mile away.
Saturday, August 3. A strange day.
We were taken out of the Cool Place
and felt ourselves on the move, jost-
ling. Luther began to hyper-writhe.
Then bright lights and human fingers
roughly fumbling among us. Luther
was taken, stretching out to us as he
left. Samantha is inconsolable. We
thought he might be spared because
he is very, well, bulbous, and rumour
has it they prefer us slim. But Luther
did not come back.
Sunday, August 4. I must write in haste,
and from a most precarious spot. I have
been harpooned, lanced in several
parts of my body. I found myself flying
through the air only to sink into the
sunless depths of cool water, where I
am now typing this on my handheld.
A large round-eyed fish came close to
rd.ca 49
reader’s digest
me, and I froze in terror, shrinking to
half my size. But he passed me by—I’m
not sure why. I worry about Saman-
tha. If you find this, please check on
her. She’s in the door of the Cool Place,
beside the capers. She’s too slim; they
never choose her first, thank God.
I must stop now. There are more fish
moving in. I am dancing for them—
why not? Thank you, and goodbye.
And so on. Their imagined voices
persisted. Eventually, I stopped using
worms as bait. I continued to catch
nothing but felt better.
ON OUR LAST DAY on Lac Catherine,
Brian and I were alone. The summer’s
zenith had passed, and small red
leaves had begun to turn up on the
path down to the lake. That day, it felt
like geological forces were still alive
on the lake, grinding and clashing.
My husband claims the place has the
weather patterns and mysterious
energies of a former volcanic moun-
tain. And it’s true that the lake is not a
peaceful one. The wind tends to fun-
nel into the narrowing bay; often,
reading on the dock is more like
standing at the prow of an ocean liner
in a steady breeze.
Home Run
All I ever needed was the opportunity. That’s all any woman needs.
HELENE BRITTON, FIRST WOMAN TO OWN AN MLB TEAM
50 june 2020
I went behind the cabin and set up
a lounge chair to escape the elements
and enjoy the suburban calm of the
“lawn.” In the city, the wired world
becomes an environment as envelop-
ing as nature is in the wild. But life on
a lake allows the senses to dilate and
bloom. The defences we require to nav-
igate life in the city soon fall away.
Sitting in a canoe and casting a line
also casts a spell—a mood of suspense
or anticipation. These still moments feel
sentient and alert, as if the lake and
everything in it share a consciousness.
This is where fishing superstitions—
fishful thinking—enter: the belief that
if you tune in to the fish, they will find
you. The belief that you have to fish with
your thoughts and imagination, not
just the rod and hook. The importance
of courting luck in life. Fishing, as
Roberto had reminded me, is mostly a
matter of not fishing. At that, I excelled.
Packing up, cleaning out the fridge,
I pondered the Styrofoam container of
worms. Toss them, I ordered myself.
Then I stowed them in the cooler for
the trip to Toronto. The worms on death
row received a reprieve in our urban
garden, where only the robins fish for
them now.
© 2019, MARNI JACKSON. FROM THE WALRUS
( JULY/AUGUST 2019), THEWALRUS.CA
“The Kicker” “The Flamingo” “The Irish Stepdance”

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reader’s digest

52 june 2020
 DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

Alone on a
mountain and
pinned under a
grizzly, Colin Dowler
reached for a pocket knife
and struggled for his life.

BY Omar Mouallem
illustration by ryan garcia
 E
reader’s digest
ever since he was a kid growing up on
Quadra Island, B.C., Colin Dowler
pushed himself to do more, go faster
and scale bigger heights, despite hav-
ing a small physique and a nagging
congenital knee disease. Jenifer, his
wife of 16 years, often found herself
telling him to slow down. When he
skied, he raced the double-black dia-
mond fanatics. When he rode his
mountain bike, it was on the bumpiest
terrain. If he wasn’t a little scared
doing something, he didn’t think he
was doing it right.
Last July, to celebrate his 45th birth-
day, he booked off a week from his job
as a city facilities manager in Campbell
River, B.C., where he lived with Jenifer
and their two daughters. He also
planned to spend two days on his own,
scouting a route he’d eventually use to
climb Mount Doogie Dowler with his
older brother, Paul. The peak, standing
around 2,000 metres in the Coast
54 june 2020
Mountains in southwestern B.C., was
named after Dowler’s late grandfather.
It had always been a point of pride for
their family that Grandpa Doogie, a
prominent community member who
once owned the Heriot Bay Store and
Post Office, a Quadra Island hub, was
immortalized in nature. But none of the
Dowlers had ever climbed to its sum-
mit. Colin tried once in his 20s and
made it within a few hundred metres
of the peak before getting rained out.
Jenifer didn’t like the sound of her
husband’s latest plan. She was used
to Dowler going on solo adventures,
but this time he’d boat to an obscure
bay, bike an unpopulated road, hike
through grizzly country and camp
overnight alone. There was too much
room for disaster.
“If I’m not home by eight o’clock
Monday evening, you should start to
worry,” he said.
Jenifer laughed. It was practically
her husband’s motto.
Technically, he said, she’d have to
wait until the morning if she wanted
search and rescue to take his disap-
pearance seriously.
“So,” she said, “I should just sit all
night worrying until I can call author-
ities and say my husband is missing.”
He shrugged. Pretty much.
The night before his journey Dowler
packed sparingly. He ditched his usual
tent to experiment with a bivy sack—a
person-sized portable shelter. He filled
the remaining pockets of his bag with

The photo
Giannandrea
took just before
Dowler left.
a handheld GPS, hiking poles, his
homemade venison pepperoni and a
few other essentials. Instead of his
usual Swiss Army knife, he took a
three-inch stainless steel pocket knife
given to him by his dad, Norman.
Jenifer and their daughters were still
in bed when Dowler left his home at
7 a.m., his bike and boat in tow.
the weather that day was nice, which
COURTESY OF COLIN DOWLER
meant the parking spots at the city’s
boat launch would fill up fast. Dowler
intended to stop at a tackle shop for
bear spray, but as he added up the
minutes, he drove past it, deciding the
small likelihood of a bear attack wasn’t
worth not completing his mission.
He recognized he couldn’t com-
pletely rule out the possibility,
though. He’d had two grizzly sight-
ings and countless black bear
encounters on Quadra Island before.
But he’d always escaped unscathed.
Dowler pulled into the Camp-
bell River port and quickly set off
in his motorboat. More than an
hour later, he arrived at Ramsay
Arm, an inlet on the mainland, and
found a spot to tie the vessel near
a logging camp.
As a former worker in the logging
industry, Dowler knew it was good
practice to check in at the mess
hall. “Is there anything you need?”
Vito Giannandrea, the camp cook
asked him.
“Bear spray,” said Dowler.
After finding a can, Giannandrea
offered him a ride. They trucked along
an overgrown logging road until the for-
est got too thick. As Dowler leaned his
mountain bike against a bush to retrieve
on the way back, Giannandrea took a
picture of him with his phone. “So we
have something to put on the milk car-
tons if you don’t come home,” he joked.
With Giannandrea’s bear mace in one
pocket and the knife from his dad in the
other, Dowler started hiking. After tra-
versing steep terrain and thick forest for
about an hour, he started marking his
trail with blue ribbons. He made lots of
noise to ward off any curious creatures.
Near the end of the day, he realized the
canister of mace was gone. It must have
rd.ca 55
reader’s digest
slipped out of his pocket while he rested
during a navigation stop.
Dowler didn’t want to risk getting
caught in the dark looking for the spray.
Instead, he spent an hour searching
for a place to camp, eventually settling
on a flat, dry surface with branches
low enough to set up his bivy sack. He
strung his food and clothes high up
in a nearby tree, and crawled into the
bivy by 9:30 p.m., satisfied with what
he’d accomplished that day.
the next morning, Dowler tried with-
out luck to locate the spray on his way
down the mountain. He gave up by the
THE BEAR SHUDDERED FROM ITS PAWS
TO ITS RUMP. THEN IT CONTINUED
TO STALK NEARER.
time he recovered his bike, then car-
ried on, pedalling and daydreaming
about getting home early to enjoy
some family time and a beer or two.
As he passed a seven-kilometre
marker for camp-bound logging trucks,
he came around a bend and suddenly
clenched his brakes—a mangy grizzly
stood in the middle of the narrow road,
30 metres away. Dowler paused on his
bike, calculating his chances of turning
around for a quick escape. The bear
could easily tackle him by the time he
picked up speed. He opted to try to scare
56 june 2020
the bear away. “Hey bear,” he bellowed.
It didn’t work. The animal looked
from him to the bush, back and forth,
and then began heading in his direc-
tion. Dowler flung his backpack off his
shoulders, snatched a hiking pole and
extended it in front of him. As the bear
approached, he started to make out its
features. The boar, about five years old,
and nine feet from tail to snout, was
nearly three times his body weight—
and though it showed no signs of
aggression, its curiosity was piqued.
The bear walked along the opposite
side of the road, coming closer and
closer. The gap between them closed to
10 metres. Dowler carefully stepped off
his bike, which seemed to startle the
animal. It shuddered from the paws up
to its rump, then continued to stalk
nearer. Dowler pivoted his bike, shield-
ing himself with it. The bear passed by
Dowler. Then, suddenly, it stopped,
turned and looked right at him.
Dowler calmly raised a hiking pole
and pushed it against the bear’s big
forehead, right between the eyes. This
seemed to hold the bear in place, until
the rubber tip rolled off his muzzle.
Before Dowler could try again, the bear
chomped on the pole. “Oh, come on
now, we don’t need to do this,” he said,
careful not to react aggressively with the
animal so close. “I’m your friend.”
Dowler let the pole drop. He tossed
his backpack beside the bear, hoping
the pepperoni scent would entice him
away. One sniff, and the bear turned
back with his paw in the air, then
delivered a light swat that Dowler
blocked with his bike. Dowler dodged a
second, heavier swat, and another and
another, each stronger than the last.
After the bear raised a threatening
paw high in the air, Dowler threw the
bike at it, but the creature barely stum-
IT RAISED A THREATENING PAW
IN THE AIR AND DOWLER THREW HIS BIKE.
THE CREATURE BARELY STUMBLED.
bled. Instead, it lunged forward and
snatched Dowler up by his abdomen
with one swift chomp. Dowler was flung
sideways, draped across the bear’s
muzzle. The animal’s canines sank deep
as it carried him to the edge of the road.
Dowler felt no pain, just warmth. He
didn’t resist, thinking only that if it car-
ried him into the bush, he’d be too inca-
pacitated to get back to the road and
would die before anyone found him.
The grizzly dropped him by the ditch
and lifted its head for another bite.
There was no roar, no growl, just huffing
while it chewed Dowler’s flank. Dowler
tried to gouge its eyes—grabbing at the
fur on its face and poking as hard as he
could into the bear’s left eye. Agitated,
the bear swung him 180 degrees,
hoisted itself high, and chewed into his
upper leg. Over and over, the bear
lifted his head and bit into him.
Thoughts of leaving behind his family,
of missing every part of his daughters’
lives, raced through Dowler’s mind. He
regretted that he’d put himself in such
a dangerous position—that he’d lost
the bear spray.
As he tried to pry the animal’s jaws
open, saliva trailed off its yellow teeth.
It chomped through his hand. “Stop!”
he screamed. “Why? Stop!” It didn’t
make sense. He knew that grizzlies
typically only attack briefly, then leave
humans alone. When would this end?
The bear moved on to taste his other
leg. As he heard the sound of his femur
grating in its teeth, he remembered his
knife in his pocket. He reached for it,
just as the grizzly hit a nerve. Dowler
arched and yelped.
Okay, he thought, I’ll play dead.
But the bear hit another leg nerve
and Dowler screamed even louder.
rd.ca 57

I can’t play dead while I’m screaming. I
have to get the knife.
The weight of the grizzly’s chest was
on his stomach, pinning his arms to his
left side, opposite the knife. Unable to
feel his right arm, Dowler wiggled his
left hand between their bodies and
into his pocket. He opened the blade
with both hands and inadvertently
sliced the bear’s chest as he pulled his
left arm out.
Dowler stabbed the bear’s neck as
fast and strong as he could. Blood
gushed from the wound. Even the
grizzly seemed surprised.
“Now you’re bleeding too, bear,”
said Dowler.
58 june 2020
Paramedics (left) tending to Dowler’s
wounds on the logging camp floor, and
Dowler recovering in hospital after the
attack.
The bear stepped off him and walked
slowly away, trailing blood on the
gravel. As it disappeared into the forest,
Dowler assessed the damage to his
body. His sides and legs were riddled
with cavities. A femoral artery wound
drenched his lower half in blood. Dow-
ler cut his left shirt sleeve with his knife
and tied it around his left leg. Once it
was tightly knotted, he flopped on to his
COURTESY OF COLIN DOWLER
backside and scooted to his bike, then
pulled himself onto it and concentrated
on resting his feet on the pedals. He col-
lapsed off the bike after one push.
Dowler fought to remount and take
off, keeping a tight grip on his knife. He
felt his seat warming as blood from his

wounds flowed down his back. As he
focused on his breathing, he felt his
odds improve.
He pushed ahead for 30 minutes
until the road sloped toward the log-
ging camp. He bounced over the
bumps, all the way to the mess hall
railing and fell on his side.
Dowler flung himself onto the land-
ing, legs flopping on the stairs. “Help!
Call a helicopter. I’ve been mauled by
a grizzly,” he yelled through a screen
door. Five men, including Giannandrea,
found Dowler streaked with blood and
dirt, smelling like an animal.
They kept him talking for 40 minutes
until a medevac finally arrived. He
received two units of blood at the
camp, and was eventually airlifted to
Vancouver General. His younger
brother, his cousin and his sister were
already waiting for him at the hospital.
But Jenifer, still on a camping trip,
was unreachable.
it was evening when Jenifer returned
home. They’d gone a day without
reception and hadn’t turned their
phones back on. “Look, it’s almost
eight o’clock,” said Jenifer, driving into
her neighbourhood. “It’s almost time
to start worrying.”
This or That
Is coral the stupidest animal or the smartest rock?
@ THEREALEATWOOD
reader’s digest
Their house came into view and she
immediately noticed her brother-in-
law’s truck in the driveway instead of
Dowler’s. She saw him pacing outside
on a call.
He hurried over. “I don’t want you to
panic,” he said. “He’s stable, but Colin
was attacked by a grizzly bear.”
At first Jenifer thought it had to be
a joke, and expected her husband to
jump out from behind a tree.
it was too late for Jenifer to catch the
last ferry to the mainland. She finally
arrived at the hospital late Tuesday
morning, just as Dowler woke up from
six and a half hours of surgery. They’d
had to make an eight-inch incision to
repair an artery wound, and treat more
than 50 gashes and bite wounds. In all,
he needed close to 200 staples and
stitches. He was groggy, equally con-
fused by the sight of his family and all
his bandaged limbs.
The news was as good as it could be.
The grizzly’s teeth had mostly bounced
off his hips and ribs. Had Dowler been
any larger, there’d have been more
room for the bear to sink its teeth into
his internal organs.
In the end, the physique he’d tried
to defy all his life had saved him.
rd.ca 59
 HEART

My father taught me
a lot about leadership—
but mostly, he taught me
how to be a good parent

P.M. DADBY Justin Trudeau

FROM FORT Y FATHERS: MEN TALK ABOU T PARENTING

60 june 2020
 reader’s digest

Prime Minister Pierre

Elliot Trudeau with
four-year-old Justin
Trudeau in 1976.
reader’s digest
WHAT MY BROTHERS and I got from
my father was the purest intent and
complete and absolute love. I’m of
two minds about whether that means
“unconditional”: I knew that there
was nothing I could do that would
make him love me less, but at the same
time I felt the pressure to do the things
that I thought would make my father
happier, more proud, so that he would
love me more.
When my parents’ marriage was
breaking up, I remember the fighting.
The differences between my parents
were obvious to me: I could see when
my mum was in pain, but my father
didn’t show it, even to us. He was an
extremely sensitive, emotional man,
but he was trying to be so together and
so reasonable. He kept it all inside.
Like any young kid impacted by
divorce, I felt helpless. While my broth-
ers lashed out or became more inde-
pendent, I tried to hold myself to the
highest standard, to varying degrees of
success. I faltered more often than not;
62 june 2020
I was angry and hurt. Once when I was
about five years old, I smacked my
father in the face. He reminded me
about it years later, and said he knew I
was trying to communicate something
I couldn’t get across any other way.
Save for the occasional outburst,
that high standard followed me into
my teen years. But living up to it became
harder as I got older. When it came
time to choose a career, my father
passed on wisdom he had received
from his own father, saying that a law
degree could “get me anywhere.” Maybe
he was right, maybe he wasn’t. As
directionless as I may have been, all
I knew for sure was that law school just
didn’t feel right to me or for me. For a
few years I struggled to find my own
path, torn—I was determined to
become my own man, yet still chased
the approval of my dad.
EVENTUALLY, at the top of a mountain
(PREVIOUS SPREAD) CHUCK MITCHELL/THE CANADIAN PRESS
while I was backpacking overseas, I
made an important decision that would
change my life: I decided to become a
teacher. In that moment, it all seemed
to click. Becoming a teacher made
sense to me—it reflected who I was as
a person, and what I believed in. I was
aligning myself not with my father
but with my maternal grandfather and
a long line of teachers before him.
Thankfully, my father was supportive
of my choice.
Teaching was not only the way I
chose to contribute to society—it also
 served as a pillar on which my own, being a father. But in my late twenties
unique identity would be built. I remem- and early thirties, it evolved into being
ber my father visited me once while I the right person to become a father;
was teaching in Vancouver, and I had an it wasn’t just about being a dad, it
opportunity to be seen for who I was became about being a good dad.
while in his company. A student caught To me, being a good dad means
up to us on the school grounds, calling shaping the world around my kids in
“Mr. Trudeau…” We both turned around whatever way I can. I owe it to them to
thinking that she wanted to get my try to make this place that they inhabit
father’s autograph, or shake his hand, better, safer and more just. This core
but it was me she was addressing. I was belief, I know for sure, I inherited from
Mr. Trudeau. The slight smile my father my parents.
gave me spoke volumes. I had finally
found my place in the world, and I
had done it on my own terms.
Trudeau with
two-year-old
FATHERHOOD was next for me. And
Xavier in
luckily, I had not one but two exam- July 2010.
ples to follow. My father’s staunch
Catholic upbringing had left him
clearly conflicted about sexuality
and relationships. It was a hard topic
for him to get into. In conversations,
I often found myself protecting him
from his own discomfort. When
my mum remarried, my stepfather,
Fried Kemper, became a father fig-
ure to me. Happily, his way of being
and relating to us boys comple-
mented and stood in contrast to my
father’s approach. With him, con-
versations about sex and girls were
much more easily accomplished.
When it came to fatherhood, I
remember the evolution of my
TESSA LLOYD

thinking as a young man. It used to

be that the most important thing
for me was having kids rather than

rd.ca 63
reader’s digest
These days, when I come home from
work, my kids, Xavier, Ella-Grace and
Hadrien, always have new tricks to show
me—things they’ve learned at school
or with their friends. I miss out on
things, no doubt about it. I’m not there
with them all the time, but I’m con-
stantly asking myself, Are the things
that I’m doing at work making a real,
meaningful difference?
And as I navigate the complex world
of governing, I look to my dad as a good
example of parenting in political life.
After my parents split up and my mum
WHEN MY DAD WAS WITH US, HE GAVE US
100 PER CENT OF HIS ATTENTION. IT WAS A
BEAUTIFUL GIFT.
moved out, every single weekday even-
ing my father would come home to
24 Sussex at 6:30 p.m. We would swim,
read and do homework together. On
these weekday nights, “the prime min-
ister of Canada was not available.”
NOW THAT I’M prime minister, I under-
stand the hoops that he—and others—
had to jump through to make this hap-
pen. But it was essential to us then, so
I try to be as disciplined in my schedule
with my own kids now—in that, my
wife, Sophie, is an essential partner.
That’s not to say there’s no overlap
between work and family. I remember
64 june 2020
my dad bringing my brothers and me
on work trips, not only across Canada
but to countries around the world. He
was determined to make time for us
and give us a peek into his job. We
were incredibly fortunate to have
lived that experience, and it’s some-
thing I’m trying to replicate now with
my own kids. Sometimes the whole
family will come on one of my work
trips, and they get to learn about other
cultures while I’m busy in meetings.
But oftentimes I bring just one of my
kids along. It’s important for them to
have one-on-one time with their dad,
and for us to share experiences that
are ours and ours alone.
IN THIS JOB, being fully present for my
children is paramount. It’s a work in
progress, but I’m mindful of it every
single day. When my dad was with us,
he gave us 100 per cent of his atten-
tion. It was a beautiful gift. Now I’m
trying to develop that same capacity,
though I admit that sometimes my
work phone is too close by. I often find
myself looking to my dad as an exam-
ple of how to find balance and remain
an effective leader. I want to hold on to
all the things my father did right. He
was an incredible role model for me
and my brothers. My dad was calm,
wise and rational—some would say to
a fault. He tried to make things equal
with his pure intent.
But I’m also deviating somewhat
from his mould as I raise my own kids.
My father once took me on a rafting
trip on the Tatshenshini River when I
was still a teenager. None of my broth-
ers, just me and my father and a range
of fascinating people—scientists, envi-
ronmentalists, academics and river
guides. Sometime later, he told my
mother how impressed he had been to
see me connecting and holding my own
with such a range of interesting peo-
ple. It’s that kind of comment I wish I
could have heard directly from him—
and that I am going to make sure my
children hear from me.
I try to be more emotionally engaged
than my father was. More relaxed and
spontaneous, too. I want my children
to see me in a happy, successful rela-
tionship with their mum—that’s very
important to me. Sophie is my love,
my equal and my life partner. When I
met her, I knew pretty quickly I had
found the right woman to be the
mother of my children. She’s been by
my side throughout this incredible
journey, and there’s no doubt in my
mind that I couldn’t have done it
without her patience, her guidance
and her grace.
When my father was dying, I was at
his side. He was 80, I was 28. It was a
beautiful time. I tried in those moments
to return the love he’d given us, and to
reassure him that we’d be okay. I miss
him like you wouldn’t believe, but I am
also very much at peace. Parents are
the centre of our solar system, even
when we’re adults. Being a father—
nothing else matters as much. I get
that now, and looking back, I see that
same belief in the actions of my father.
If I can follow his lead and strive every
day to be a good husband, friend and
father, I will proudly consider this a
life well lived.
© 2019, TESSA LLOYD. FROM FORTY FATHERS: MEN TALK
ABOUT PARENTING, PUBLISHED BY DOUGLAS & M C INTYRE,
DOUGLAS-MCINTYRE.COM. REPRODUCED BY ARRANGE-
MENT WITH THE PUBLISHER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Sweet Sounds
The only thing better than singing
is more singing.
ELLA FITZGERALD

Words makes you think. Music makes you feel.

A song makes you feel a thought.
YIP HARBURG, SONGWRITER

rd.ca 65
 HUMOUR

Bottoms
Up!
Reviews by a big-time
connoisseur who
has definitely bought
and tasted all these
fancy wines.

BY Suzannah Showler
illustration by julia mercanti

CIN CIN! SANTÉ! Gesundheit! Glasses

up to my new subscribers! Maybe you
didn’t “sign up” for this newsletter, per
se, but lucky for you I jotted down a
few email addresses from a petition to
remake the last season of Polka Dot
Door (justice for Polkaroo!). Every week,
you’ll get a tipple of truth-telling reviews
from me: a big wine guy who has seen
all three Somm documentaries on Net-
flix. I offer this service free of charge,
straight from my taste buds to yours.
Domaine Huet Vouvray
Le Mont Demi-Sec
This wine is what’s called “half dry.” I
like my wines a little on the wetter side,
personally, but I make an exception for
this gentle mountain breeze of a Vou-
vray. This white wine is so white you
practically can’t even see it—it’s like
filling your glass with the ghost of alco-
hol. Be careful: it might be easy to over-
fill someone’s glass. This ghost wine

66 june 2020

tickles the palate with motes of dust
and static. Tastes like waking up from
a nap and forgetting your own name.
San Giusto a Rentennano
Chianti Classico
This Chianti is a classico, which you can
probably guess means it’s a classic, even
if you don’t speak four languages from
regular earth and two from Middle-
earth like I do. A classic is something
that’s “remarkably typical,” and Clas-
sics is the study of ancient Greek and
Latin literature and philosophy. The
first time I tried this Chianti, I really
did remark that it had typical over-
tones and an ancient bouquet.
Château Pichon Baron
2017, Grand Cru Classé
en 1855 Pauillac
This many names might seem like over-
kill, but once you spend a bit of time
savouring this breathless red, you’ll
understand why it needs them. My
ex-great-uncle-slash-second-cousin is
named Paul, and while he’s not a baron
he is super fun to party with, even
though he drinks Molson Canadian
mixed with Clamato juice instead of
fancy wine like me. Paul calls this a
red-eyed Susan, and he can take down
like 14 of them in a night. If you’re
wondering how someone becomes an
ex-uncle-slash-second-cousin, let’s
just say this Bordeaux will land on your
reader’s digest
palate like at-home DNA test results
and dive down your gullet like a swarm
of family secrets.
Favia Cabernet Sauvignon
Coombsville, Napa Valley
This wine costs $176 a bottle which
totally makes sense because it’s a very
grapey vintage. At the Superstore near
my house grapes usually go for about
$3.99/lb, but sometimes they’re on
sale for $1.99/lb. Just did some quick
math, and I figure each sip of this wine
must have at least 1.38 pounds of
grapes in it. That’s a ridiculous amount
of grapes for one person! With notes of
ore and longing, this Cab-Sauv pairs
with the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky,
but only in the original Russian.
Château de Beaucastel
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Blanc 2018
Château is French for castle, and if you
didn’t know a lot about wine, it might
be kind of confusing to see château
there twice plus another name that
looks like castle spelled wrong.
But once you get a feel for the wine
game, it’ll all make perfect sense. I
don’t really have time to explain all the
ins and outs of it right now, but trust
me: this is a 2.5-castle wine that drinks
like a 3-castle. With a mouth-patina of
lichen and moat water, this fermenta-
tion is true to its roots.
rd.ca 67
reader’s digest

68 june 2020
 SOCIETY

Y
M(BRIEF)
CASAA REER
F O O D
COURIER Delivery apps that bring dinner
to our doors are convenient, fast and,
as I found out during my own five shifts,
a lousy way to earn a living

BY Jason McBride FROM TORONTO LIFE

illustration by kagan m c leod

rd.ca 69
reader’s digest
hen Iván Ostos started as
a Foodora bike courier in
2016, he planned to work
for just a few months. He
was studying music in Toronto, and
thought it would be a fun summer job.
It was—flexible schedule, low stress.
Most shifts, he made about $18 an hour.
But three months became six months,
which became a year. He dropped out
of his university program and became
a full-time Foodster, the company’s
term for its couriers. The job became
less fun. Other food delivery apps had
moved in or aggressively expanded—
Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, DoorDash—
and couriers swarmed the streets.
Ostos’s wages nosedived. He started a
second delivery gig, with Uber Eats.
A year ago, while on a Foodora
delivery, Ostos T-boned another cyclist
who’d swerved in front of him. Ostos’s
first thought was, “Is the other guy
okay?” He was. His second thought
was, “Is the food okay?” It was. But
Ostos wasn’t okay—he’d shattered his
elbow. As he awaited an ambulance,
he contacted Foodora and told them
what had happened. Could he finish
delivering the order, they asked? Ostos
was shocked. “I told them I couldn’t,”
he says. “It made me pretty mad. It was
like I wasn’t even a person.”
Ostos wound up needing surgery. At
the time, Foodora was the only major
food delivery app registered with Ontar-
io’s Workplace Safety and Insurance
Board, and the company recommended
70 june 2020
that Ostos apply for workers’ compen-
sation. He received $210 a week for
four-and-a-half months, until he got
back on the road.
As far as Foodora was concerned,
though, it didn’t really matter if he came
back at all. The gig economy has a
never-ending supply of workers, who’ve
exchanged security for flexibility and a
steady paycheque for an income con-
tingent on hustle and luck. The jobs
that are part of this new economy are
various: Uber driver, furniture mover,
Airbnb host. Everything is available
PREVIOUS PAGE: (ASPHALT) ISTOCK.COM/SONYA_ILLUSTRATION; (TIRE TRACKS) ISTOCK.COM/LEONTURA
in an instant, but the rise of these
on-demand apps has been a source of
increasing income inequality—witness
the chasm between Jeff Bezos and the
average Amazon warehouse worker.
Many are willing participants in the
gig economy. Others are forced into
it by declining job creation, stagnant
wages and a manufacturing sector
that’s all but vanished. Ostos is 24, but
some couriers are in their 60s and 70s.
Some are migrant workers or interna-
tional students. Others simply have
limited education and skills. The work-
force is growing. According to Statistics
Canada, one in eight workers, or just
over two million Canadians, held a
temporary job in 2018. Food app com-
panies won’t reveal the number of
people they employ in Canada because
they don’t consider their couriers to
be employees—they think of them as
independent contractors—but their
customer base has exploded. Last year,
a study conducted by Angus Reid and
Dalhousie University found that 29 per
cent of all Canadians had used a food
delivery app at least once. For couriers
like Ostos, this was both the future of
labour and their precarious present.
i’ve never been a big user of these
apps—I like to cook, and I’m cheap. But
many people seem to like having their
food brought to them. “We’re spending
more time than ever at home,” says
Howard Migdal, a managing director at
SkipTheDishes. “We didn’t build con-
sumer demand, it was already there.”
That consumer demand is every-
where. Restaurants Canada, the food
service industry association, said that
food delivery grew by 44 per cent in
2018, with 85 per cent of all quick-
service restaurants now using the apps.
App companies are fond of claiming
they’ve been a boon to restaurants. In
their view, the apps introduce new
places to eat to people who otherwise
might not try them.
Still, some restaurateurs are less
enthusiastic. “They’re kind of a neces-
sary evil,” says Max Rimaldi, co-owner
of Toronto’s Pizzeria Libretto chain.
For Rimaldi, the apps mean fewer cus-
tomers in his restaurants, which affects
his bottom line. At this point, though,
Rimaldi feels he has no choice but to
keep using the apps or else build his
own in-house delivery system. “They’re
giving people what they want,” Rimaldi
says, “which is the ability to be freaking
lazy, cocooning, watching Netflix and
having their favourite food at home.
Which is great, but that doesn’t do any-
thing for guys like me.”
last june, I decided to find out what
the life of a food delivery courier was
like. My first choice of company was
Foodora—I look good in pink—but it
wasn’t hiring. Then I saw a DoorDash
ad during the NBA playoffs. I applied.
OUR TRAINING AS
BIKE COURIERS
WAS PERFUNCTORY.
“JUST TRY TO RIDE
CAREFULLY,” THEY
TOLD US.
“Applied” is an overstatement. All I
did was download the “Dasher” app—
DoorDash refers to its couriers as
Dashers—submit to a background
check and show up for a one-hour ori-
entation. Two other applicants, a cou-
ple of guys in their 20s, attended with
me. There was no interview. On a tab-
let, I signed a contract releasing Door-
Dash from any legal obligation (and
agreeing not to participate in any class-
action lawsuit against the company).
Our first thermal delivery bag was
free; additional ones would cost us $8.
The enormous biker bags—the square
insulated backpacks now ubiquitous on
city streets—were $40, but the company
rd.ca 71
reader’s digest
was temporarily out of them. We were
told to use our own backpacks. Our
training as couriers was similarly per-
functory. “Just try to ride carefully.”
For every DoorDash order, the app
tells couriers four things: where the
restaurant is relative to the Dasher’s
current location; where the drop-off is
relative to the restaurant; how quickly
the courier needs to pick the food up;
and how much they’ll be paid. The fee
varies, depending on order size and
distance. For each order, DoorDash
takes a cut as high as 30 per cent.
My first shift was the next day. I trav-
elled to Toronto’s west end to await my
first order. Fifteen minutes in, I wan-
dered closer to one of the order “hot
spots” the app recommended. Then it
finally came—ping!
S
IN THREE HOUR
OF WORK I’D
COMPLETED FIVE
ORDERS AND
MANAGED TO MAKE
JUST UNDER $40.
I accepted and raced to a noodle
place 10 minutes away. I arrived at the
restaurant soaked in sweat, quads
burning. The food wasn’t there. The
restaurant had no record of the order.
I texted the customer. She didn’t want
to re-order in case it got lost again.
She cancelled.
72 june 2020
Another ping came seconds later, for
an order five minutes away. This time
the food was ready, and I delivered it
nearby without incident. From the first
restaurant to the second and then up
to the customer took, not including the
time I waited for the order to be ready,
about 15 minutes. I received $8.52.
Later that day, I lost a second order
(and the entire fee) when I arrived at
the restaurant to find it was too large
for the basket on my bike. At 2 p.m., I
knocked off. In three hours of work I’d
completed five orders and made just
under $40. As far as Dashers go, I was
perhaps more of a Prancer.
But I was delighted at how nice
restaurant staff were. One server offered
me a glass of water as I waited, and an
elderly woman at a pho place struck up
a conversation as she assembled place
settings. I felt a sense of camaraderie.
I was less thrilled to discover that most
of the people ordering the food were
young, seemingly able-bodied and
healthy. Very often I barely even saw
them, just their hands emerging from
doorways like the hands of a zombie
emerging from a grave.
riding a bike in downtown Toronto is
treacherous. On a daily basis, you con-
tend with aggressive drivers, inclement
weather and countless potholes. I was
lucky: in my handful of shifts, I was only
nearly hit by passing cars twice. But I
have a torn meniscus in my right knee,
and by the end of my third shift my
knee had swelled significantly enough
that I cut the day short.
Not everyone can afford to shorten
their shifts. And it’s those couriers who
are more likely to feel exploited on the
job. Ostos, the Foodora courier with
the shattered elbow, recalled one shift
when he was stuck at a restaurant, wait-
ing for food, watching the clock tick.
A couple of other Foodsters he didn’t
know were also there. They started
grumbling about their work, the lack of
labour rights, the non-existent benefits.
Like just about every gig-economy com-
pany, Foodora’s success was built on
the backs of a desperate labour force.
One courier mused about starting a
food couriers’ union, something that’s
never been successfully done in Can-
ada. Another courier agreed, but
thought it was too onerous a task. How
would you even get in touch with all
the Foodsters? Food couriers have lit-
tle discernible community. Without a
community, how do you organize?
Some other Foodsters approached a
bunch of unions. Only the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) was
interested. It helped launch Foodsters
United, a campaign site, in early May
2019. The couriers’ demands were sim-
ple: fair compensation, better workplace
safety and benefits. “The people in the
Foodora offices get benefits,” Ostos says.
“But the guys working 12 hours a day on
our bikes? The guys on the dangerous
side of the industry? They don’t get mas-
sage therapy or psychological help?”
I met Ostos in May 2019 at a Viet-
namese restaurant. He was working for
Foodora and Uber Eats, but had also
become a volunteer spokesperson for
the union drive. The group set up an
information tent near an area couriers
gather and reached out to Foodsters
on Facebook. Foodora, meanwhile,
continued to insist that couriers
weren’t eligible to unionize—but they
also sent emails and push notifications
directly to couriers, warning them of
exorbitant union dues and advising
them to vote against unionizing.
“I COULD TRY TO
FIND A BETTER JOB,”
ONE COURIER SAID.
“OR I COULD TRY
TO BETTER MY JOB.”
The organizers needed to sign up
40 per cent of the workforce to join
the union, but nobody knew how big
the workforce was. There was also the
issue of how to apply the gains that
unions have traditionally fought for—
minimum wages, overtime, etc.— to
labourers who work irregular hours
and for multiple companies. It was all
very complicated.
But organizing workers has always
been complicated. And other indus-
tries, just as complex, have success-
fully unionized in the past: mining,
rd.ca 73
reader’s digest
manufacturing, construction, profes-
sional sports. The gig economy may
be new, but all it really requires is an
expansion of the definition of employ-
ment. Ostos was optimistic that they
could pull it off.
As supportive as I was, I felt skeptical.
When I worked as a tree planter in my
youth, I told Ostos, there was no union.
We were treated terribly, but I could
make enough money to pay for school,
and I wasn’t going to be a tree planter
for life. Isn’t being a Foodster similar,
something you suffer through then
move past? Ostos smiled grimly. He’d
heard this before. “People get stuck in
these jobs,” he said. “There are guys who
were bike messengers in the ’80s and
they’re doing food now. They didn’t
move on and get a law degree. They had
to keep working. I could try to find a bet-
ter job. Or I could try to better my job.”
i ended up working five Dashes, nine
hours in total, and made about $120,
which I donated to charity. After those
first shifts, the bag sat for a month by my
door. It provided a strange reassurance.
Rather than write in my stuffy home
office, I could climb on my bike and
make money instantly. I’d be out in the
sun, getting exercise. But I’d also be a
middle-aged guy with a bad knee barely
making minimum wage. Meanwhile,
DoorDash’s profits would continue to
grow—in May 2019, it raised US$600
million from investors, and increased
its valuation to US$12.6 billion. By
74 june 2020
November, they’d raised another
US$100 million.
Meanwhile, the union drive had
intensified. Foodsters United submit-
ted their application to the Ontario
Labour Relations Board, allowing
Foodora couriers to vote on whether
they’d join CUPW. Still, the fundamental
question of what kind of workers they
were hung in the air. The vote ended in
mid-August, and the wait began for the
matter to be determined by the board.
In February 2020, the board released
their decision, ruling that Foodora
couriers are dependent contractors
and thus able to unionize. But the
results of the August vote are pending
as a result of voter eligibility issues. If
the couriers voted yes, the union could
move to bargaining and Canada would
have its first gig-economy union.
on a sweltering evening last summer,
neither my wife nor I felt like cooking.
It would have been a perfect day to
order in. Instead, we walked to the tiny
café around the corner from our house.
Afterwards, we met up with friends
and got ice cream at the hip new shop
down the street. If this all sounds a bit
like a Portlandia episode, okay, it kind
of was. But it was also an illustration of
community and commerce working
well, of the way a city can feel like a vil-
lage. When I saw a lone Foodster ped-
alling by, I silently wished him well.
© 2019, JASON M C BRIDE. FROM “THE SECRET LIFE OF
FOOD COURIERS,” TORONTO LIFE (SEPTEMBER 25, 2019),
TORONTOLIFE.COM
 for this vulnerability.
LAUGHTER But could you consider
the Best Medicine maybe letting someone
else share?”
–Me, to the car alarm
My wife and I were I used to be intense, but that’s been going off
camping in Florida and then I gave up camping. for four hours outside
came across an arma- — DAVID G. MARCOTTE, my window
dillo. We stopped to Toronto — JES TOM, comedian
observe it when a
camper van pulled up Me: I’m going to make Custom-Made
and a small group of one of those diagrams Why do baby clothes
Germans got out. Star- that uses circles. have pockets? Are peo-
ing at the armadillo, Dracula: Venn? ple really going up to
one of their party Me: Probably tomorrow. babies and saying,
asked in halting — @FRO_VO “Hey, can you hold
English, “What is it?” this for a second?”
“It’s an armadillo, Speaking Up — @Y2SHAF
eh,” I responded. He “Your story is so
turned to his friends important and I’m
Send us your original
and shared the infor- grateful you’ve had the jokes! You could earn $50
mation. “Ahhh, arma- chance to be open with and be featured in the
dilloeh,” they nodded. us. I’m proud of us for magazine. See page 7 or
— BRUCE COX, Toronto cultivating the space rd.ca/joke for details.

THE BEST JOKE I EVER TOLD

By Inés Anaya

I used to hate going to job interviews until I realized

the perfect answer to the question “What is your
biggest weakness?” is “My interview skills.”
HART GORDSHIKOV

Inés Anaya is a comedian based in Montreal.

She hosts and co-produces the monthly
storytelling show Stand-Up Story Slam.

rd.ca 75
 EDITORS’ CHOICE

By the end of 2017,

Canadians had registered
943,785 handguns. Every
month, that number grows
by tens of thousands.
 reader’s digest

After a mass shooting on a downtown

Toronto street, a former cop became
one of the loudest voices calling for
contribution type by contributor name tk

gun control. He’s up against entrenched

lobbyists, slow-to-act politicians and
a surge in firearm owners.

BY Patrick White AND Tom Cardoso

FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL

rd.ca 77
reader’s digest
After 32 years as a constable for the
Toronto Police Service, Patrick McLeod
was ready for a less stressful life. No more
facing down criminals. No more psychologi-
cal armour. Now that he was officially
retired, he and his wife, Jane, decided to
book a long, celebratory European vacation
for later that summer.
Then everything changed.
Around 10 p.m. on July 22, 2018,
while the McLeods were watching tele-
vision, their daughter called in a panic.
Skye McLeod, who had graduated
from high school a month earlier, had
headed downtown to celebrate a
friend’s 18th birthday. On their way
home, a group of eight close friends—
including Reese Fallon, who grew up
directly across the street from the
McLeods—had stopped for ice cream
on Toronto’s bustling Danforth Ave.,
then wandered over to the Alexander
the Great Parkette.
78 june 2020
McLeod couldn’t make out what Skye
was saying on the phone.
(PREVIOUS SPREAD) IVELIN IVANOV/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
“What? What? Slow down. I can’t
understand you,” he said.
“Someone’s trying to kill us,” his
daughter replied.
Skye painted a desperate scene:
she and five others had locked them-
selves in the downstairs bathroom of a
restaurant after someone had opened
fire on them.
“Keep the door locked,” her dad told
her. “I’m on the way.”
McLeod kept Skye on the line as he
and Jane grabbed the keys to their
Honda minivan. As they pulled out of
the driveway for the 10-minute trip,
Jane called the Fallons to tell them
they’d better hurry over to the Danforth.
When McLeod arrived and stepped
out of their vehicle, he observed a
crime scene unlike any he’d ever seen.
There were injured people all over the
place, and countless ambulance atten-
dants and firefighters were bent over
bloodied victims.
Police were beginning to secure the
scene, putting up tape and blocking
traffic, but no one bothered to stop
McLeod. With his shaved head, stocky
McLEOD FOUND A POLICE OFFICER AND
GAVE A DESCRIPTION OF HIS DAUGHTER’S
MISSING FRIEND.
build and a cellphone held to one ear,
he looked every bit a cop.
On the other end of the phone, Skye
couldn’t tell him where she was hid-
ing. When the violence broke out, she
and her friends took refuge quickly and
hadn’t noted the name of the place.
McLeod surveyed the scene and set-
tled on Lukumum, a dessert eatery two
storefronts east from the parkette.
Once he was inside, McLeod spot-
ted someone he took to be the owner
hiding behind the counter.
“Is there anyone in your basement?”
he asked.
“Yeah, there’s a bunch of people hid-
ing down there.”
McLeod ran down the stairs. At the
bottom, he could see blood smears
across the door of the men’s washroom.
“Skye, are you in there?” he yelled.
“It’s your dad. Open the door. It’s safe.”
The locked door clicked and six peo-
ple tumbled from the tiny bathroom—
Skye and three friends, along with two
other bystanders. Many of them were
scraped and bleeding from the scram-
ble to flee the gunshots.
Upstairs, McLeod sat everyone down
and asked restaurant staff for water and
napkins to treat the cuts. After a time,
the rest of Skye’s group floated in from
various hiding spots—all except one.
“Skye, where’s Reese?” asked McLeod.
the mcleods had known Fallon since
she was born. Just a few weeks earlier,
she had been sitting at their kitchen
table with Skye, studying for final exams.
One of Skye’s friends dialed Fallon’s
phone from Lukumum, but she wasn’t
picking up. McLeod found a police offi-
cer and gave a description of the missing
member of the party. The officer asked
McLeod to step outside the restaurant.
rd.ca 79
reader’s digest
There was a girl under a blanket at the
west side of the parkette who fit that
description, he said. She’d been killed.
There’s no way, McLeod thought to
himself.
“Where?” he said. He’d seen his
share of bodies. It was up to him to
ensure this wasn’t Reese, to make every-
thing right.
The officer led him to the parkette
and pulled the blanket back. McLeod’s
legs buckled. He fell to his knees. Every-
thing was spinning. The Fallons were
on their way, and someone needed to
tell them about their daughter.
McLeod gathered himself and
tracked down two detectives. Together,
they decided they would find Fallon’s
80 june 2020
Police officers patrol
the stretch of Toronto’s
Danforth Avenue where
the shooting took place.
parents, Doug Fallon and Claudine
deBeaumont, so the detectives could
break the news.
As they moved toward the bound-
ary of the scene, McLeod spotted the
Fallons and waved. When he looked
behind him, the detectives had disap-
peared. It was up to him.
“I’ve got news, but the news is not
good,” McLeod told the couple.
Later that night, the McLeod family
FRANK GUNN/CANADIAN PRESS
joined the Fallons at home. The grief
was raw. At some point in the night,
Reese’s parents asked about the shooter.
Who was he? How’d he get a gun?
McLeod didn’t know much. He didn’t
want to. He figured the guy had killed
himself. Case closed.
the day after the shooting, police
released more details: Faisal Hussain,
a 29-year-old with a history of mental
illness, had used an unlicensed Smith
& Wesson M&P handgun to kill two
people—Fallon and 10-year-old Juli-
anna Kozis—and injure 13 others before
shooting himself.
The bloodshed sparked discussions
about gun control. Toronto’s mayor,
John Tory, asked “Why does anyone in
this city need to have a gun at all?”
Shortly after that, city councils in
Toronto and Montreal voted in favour
of a handgun prohibition. A few weeks
later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
“WHY DOES ANYONE IN THIS CITY
NEED TO HAVE A GUN AT ALL?” ASKED
TORONTO MAYOR JOHN TORY.
directed former Toronto police chief
Bill Blair, his minister of organized
crime reduction, to explore the idea of
a handgun ban at the national level.
Within months, however, the con-
versation shifted away from handguns
and towards military-style assault rifles.
Leading up to the federal election last
September, Trudeau pledged to ban
new sales of assault-style rifles and buy
back existing ones from current own-
ers on a voluntary basis.
But rather than a handgun ban on a
national scale, the plan would grant
municipalities unspecified powers to
prohibit the weapons—an approach
that has largely failed elsewhere since
no city can secure its borders against
the illegal flow of guns.
While semi-automatic rifles have
been used in a number of notorious
shootings in Canada—including at
École Polytechnique, Dawson College
and in Moncton—the total fatalities
they’ve caused is marginal compared
to handguns. In fact, according to an
analysis of the RCMP’s Canadian Inte-
grated Ballistics Identification Network
(CIBIN)—a national database of infor-
mation on guns, bullets and casings
recovered from crime scenes across
the country—less than one per cent of
homicides or attempted homicides
derive from assault-style rifles.
Meanwhile, the number of gun homi-
cides across Canada continues to climb.
By the end of 2018, they had hit 249 for
the year (up 60 per cent since 2014). In
2019, shootings in Toronto notched a
record high of 492.
Complicating the discussion around
gun control is the fact that no agency
tracks on a national scale where the guns
used in crime come from. In the case
rd.ca 81
reader’s digest
of the Danforth shooting, an early report
suggested the handgun had been smug-
gled across the border from the United
States, a detail gun enthusiasts used
to argue that any response to the trag-
edy should leave lawful gun owners
in Canada alone.
But nearly a year after the night of
the shooting, that rumour was dis-
pelled: law enforcement sources con-
firmed the gun had been stolen from a
gun store in Saskatchewan.
Broadly speaking, we know theft or
diversion of legally purchased Cana-
dian guns, along with cross-border
smuggling, are the main sources of ille-
gal guns, but attempts to estimate the
ratio vary wildly.
82 june 2020
Former police officer
Patrick McLeod has
become an activist
for gun control.
For Patrick McLeod, nailing down
that data seems like a distraction from
the main problem: the number of guns,
period. For three decades, he carried a
handgun while on the job. Now, he’d
rather live without. He knows a hand-
gun ban is a tough sell to gun owners.
“But their desire to shoot paper targets
is not a good reason to put the rest of
the population in peril,” he says.
“Those people on the Danforth
weren’t shot with a gun smuggled from
the States or a 3D-printed gun or any-
thing else they think law enforcement
should be focusing on,” says McLeod.
MARK BLINCH
“They were shot with a Canadian gun.
It’s time to do something about Cana-
dian guns.”
one significant shortfall with restric-
tions meant to keep guns in the hands
of licensed owners and not criminals
is that, sometimes, they are one and
the same. At least every few months,
police somewhere in the country bust
someone for what’s called “straw pur-
chasing,” where licensed gun owners
divert their legally purchased firearms
to criminal markets.
The RCMP can’t provide figures on
just how prevalent this practice is,
prompting pro-gun groups to argue that
it would be unfair to punish Canada’s
2.2 million gun licence holders for the
sins of a few bad apples. But the effect
FAISAL HUSSAIN BOUGHT SEVEN
10-ROUND MAGAZINES FOR A HANDGUN,
A PURCHASE THAT REQUIRES NO PERMIT.
of a single straw purchaser can be dev-
astating. In a 2006 B.C. case, police
found that a single firearms business
in Burnaby, Royal Sportsman, illegally
distributed almost 2,000 guns, some of
which are still turning up in crimes to
this day, according to law enforcement
sources. The lead trafficker in that case
was arrested, convicted and handed a
four-year sentence.
As for the gun used in the Danforth
shooting, the burglar who stole it got
away with at least five guns in total,
and they travelled both east and west.
At least two of the weapons were seized
by police in the Edmonton area, accord-
ing to Saskatchewan RCMP.
The exact path that brought the Dan-
forth gun to Toronto remains a mys-
tery. But its starting point and destina-
tion were hardly unusual.
In general, stolen guns that are used
in Toronto crimes originate from
beyond the city limits. A Toronto police
report on gun seizures in 2018 states
the force recovered 61 guns used to
commit crimes that year that had pre-
viously been reported stolen. Of those,
58 had gone missing from somewhere
outside Toronto.
It’s hard to say when the Smith &
Wesson first fell into Hussain’s hands.
Though he had researched how to get
a possession-and-acquisition licence
that would allow him to buy firearms,
he never went through with the appli-
cation process, which involves hours
of instruction, a background check and
personal references.
But on April 12, 2018, a little more
than three months before the Danforth
shooting, he bought seven 10-round
magazines for a handgun, a purchase
that requires no permit.
rd.ca 83
reader’s digest
according to the RCMP-maintained
Canadian Firearms Registry, Canadians
registered roughly 3,000 restricted and
prohibited (but grandfathered) fire-
arms a month in 2010.
By 2017, monthly registrations hit
17,000, for a total count of 943,785
handguns and 83,100 rifles. The latter
figure seems low because the vast
majority of rifles, including many semi-
automatics, have gone untracked since
2012—the year that records of 7.1 mil-
lion rifles and shotguns in the long-
gun registry were expunged by the
Harper Conservatives.
BILL BLAIR CALLED THE ROUGHLY
200,000 “ASSAULT-STYLE” FIREARMS IN
CANADA AN “UNACCEPTABLE RISK.”
Once a quaint hobby, the sports-
shooting industry now employs 14,500
people and generates $2.5 billion in
business, according to the Canadian
Sporting Arms and Ammunition Asso-
ciation. Those figures have grown
steadily: RCMP numbers show that the
number of restricted weapons owned
by Canadians has increased by a stun-
ning 70 per cent since 2012.
When mulling a national ban in
June, Blair said that there are roughly
200,000 “assault-style” firearms in the
country that represent an “unaccept-
able risk.” If the Trudeau government
84 june 2020
proceeds with the pledged ban and
voluntary buyback of them, what might
it look like?
There are a few options, starting with
a recent effort in New Zealand. Follow-
ing a massacre at two mosques in
March 2019 in which 51 died, the gov-
ernment of Jacinda Ardern launched a
ban-and-buyback program for semi-
automatics. The results were mixed.
Estimates put the number of newly
banned semi-automatics in New Zea-
land as high as 175,000, for a country
with a population of 4.9 million. But
when the buyback deadline arrived on
December 20 last year, the government
had collected just 56,000 weapons.
Australia is the only other country to
pursue such an ambitious buyback pro-
gram, collecting 650,000 guns—most
of them semi-automatic rifles—after a
mass shooter killed 35 people in 1996.
The average annual number of firearm
homicides subsequently dropped by
42 per cent.
The United Kingdom banned semi-
automatic rifles in 1988, in a direct
response to the Hungerford Massacre,
in which a shooter used a handgun
and two semi-automatic rifles to kill
16 people. Nearly a decade later, a
man bearing four legal handguns
killed 16 children and a teacher at
Dunblane Primary school. Once again,
the country’s government acted swiftly
and firmly, banning handguns.
in the weeks following the Danforth
shooting, McLeod wasn’t thinking
much about his position on gun control.
He had other things to worry about—
namely, a traumatized daughter and
close friends in deep mourning.
The McLeods had cancelled the first
half of their European vacation but
“THERE IS A DEMAND FOR GUNS
BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE IN THIS CITY
FEEL LEFT BEHIND.”
managed a shortened trip to France,
where he and Jane had time to take
stock of the tragedy. Upon their return,
they began talking with other victims’
families about what they could do.
During one of those meetings, Clau-
dine deBeaumont, Fallon’s mother,
said she wanted to make it her life’s
work to enhance the country’s gun-
control measures.
Jane ran with the request. As both a
nurse and a friend of the Fallons, she
knew the darkness and sorrow that
could come of gun violence. One of the
people she befriended was Louis
March, a youth worker and founder of
Zero Gun Violence Movement, an advo-
cacy group aiming to end gun violence
in the Toronto area.
March’s advocacy focuses less on gun
control and more on the root causes of
violence. “There is a demand for guns
because so many people in this city
feel left behind, and a gun represents
quick, easy money,” says March. “A gun
ban would not change that. Instead of
banning guns, ban poverty.”
McLeod agreed with March, but he
wasn’t so sure gun control could be
easily dismissed. He was beginning to
feel it was a vital piece of fighting gun
violence that also included choking off
cross-border smuggling and reforming
bail and sentencing for gun offences.
Along with Jane, Patrick McLeod
largely worked behind the scenes until
a February 16, 2019, town hall on gun
violence featuring Blair, his former
unit commander. On that evening,
McLeod filed into the Spring Garden
Church in Toronto without any inten-
tion of speaking up. He stuck to that
plan until a gun enthusiast rose from
the pews to accuse Blair of persecuting
lawful gun owners.
rd.ca 85
reader’s digest

“I blew my gasket,” McLeod remem- would be overly expensive and ineffec-

bers. “There was no way I was sitting
down anymore.”
McLeod stood, his face red with emo-
tion, and recounted how he had to
speed to the Danforth, free his daugh-
ter from a bloody bathroom, identify
the body of a girl he’d watched grow up
and break the worst possible news to
two dear friends.
“Now tell me, what kind of gun was
she shot with,” he said, his voice qua-
vering with emotion. “A gun that was
legally brought into Canada for sale
and was stolen from a gun shop. It’s
time for Canada to get rid of handguns
and assault rifles. We don’t need them.”
The impassioned speech made news
broadcasts. The following week, fami-
lies of the victims held a news confer-
ence to call on the Trudeau government
to ban both handguns and military-
style assault rifles.
When Blair rejected the possibility
of a full ban on handguns—saying it
tive, given the easy flow of illegal hand-
guns coming across the border—the
families were crestfallen. What about
the Danforth handgun?
McLeod agrees with an assault-style
rifle ban but doesn’t think the govern-
ment’s commitment to allow munici-
palities to ban handguns will solve any-
thing. And no amount of missing data
about how guns get into the hands of
killers can change his feelings about
what needs to happen next. A bur-
geoning Canadian hobby cannot jus-
tify the lives lost.
“When I look across the street to the
Fallons, I realize we’ll never be done
with this,” says McLeod. “We’ll never
move on. People still need our help. I
had to get up off my couch and take
action that night. It’s time for Cana-
dians to get off their couches and do
something.”
FROM “WHY DOES ANY CANADIAN NEED A HANDGUN?”
BY PATRICK WHITE AND TOM CARDOSO, THE GLOBE AND
MAIL (SEPTEMBER 20, 2019). THEGLOBEANDMAIL.COM

Warm Thoughts
Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been
the two most beautiful words in the English language.
HENRY JAMES

When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high,

no trouble too difficult to overcome.
WILMA RUDOLPH, OLYMPIC ATHLETE

Smell the sea and feel the sky.

Let your soul and spirit fly.
VAN MORRISON

86 june 2020
 to deliver a package
DOWN TO BUSINESS every five minutes.
Sometimes, when I was
running behind, I
would rush in carrying
a box for delivery to a
customer, who would
look up slowly from
their computer and ask,
“What’s that?” I would
answer honestly, “It’s
a box!”
— PETER BOWMAN,
Hamilton

Conflict Management
The next time you have
a difficult client at work,
instead of saying, “I’ve
“Nurse, could you please click OK?” CC’d in my boss,” just
ask, “Do you wanna say
that in front of Greg?”
When I worked in a up and realized that it — @ROOBEEKEANE
hardware store, it was was the shirtless con-
my job to help contrac- tractor—wearing a There’s nothing like
tors order their sup- shirt. Without thinking, being the first one on a
plies, and there was a I said, “Sorry, I didn’t conference call to show
certain contractor who recognize you with everyone who’s not boss.
would always come your clothes on!” — APARNA NANCHERLA,
into the store shirtless. — WENDY FREDETTE, comedian
We had a long lineup Salmon Arm, B.C.
one day, and I was
Are you in need of some
busy entering orders Literal Delivery
professional motivation?
CONAN DE VRIES

when the customer at I used to work as a Send us a work anecdote,

the front of the line courier in a large city. I and you could receive
said, “Give me what I had a small designated $50. To submit your
usually get.” I looked route and was expected stories, visit rd.ca/joke.

rd.ca 87
reader’s digest

RIDGERUNNER
by Gil Adamson
reader’s digest ($33, HOUSE OF ANANSI)

BOOK CLUB what it’s about: Adamson’s follow-up

to her hit 2007 novel The Outlander
(and no, you don’t have to read the
first one) tracks William Moreland, a
taciturn bandit in First World War–era
Western Canada. He’s known as the
Ridgerunner for his tendency to prowl
across the Rockies, stockpiling money
and food from unsuspecting frontier
folk. As the novel begins, he’s acquired
$14,000 through nefarious means—
enough to reunite with his tweenaged
son, Jack, whom he left years earlier in
the care of a prickly, overbearing nun
named Sister Beatrice. The novel is a
rollicking adventure, tracking the two
men on their twin paths, trying to find
their way back to each other. Moreland
dodges sleazy night watchmen, loggers
and grizzly bears, while Jack steals
away from Sister Beatrice in the night,
roughs it alone in a cabin in the woods
and camps out in the mountains with
a troupe of American hunters, morph-
ing from boy to man along the way.
Every month,
we recommend a new why you’ll love it: Pop culture is
packed with stories of adventurers con-
must-read book. Here’s quering the American West, but we’ve
what you need to know. rarely seen a Canadian analogue—and
where spaghetti westerns are dusty
and sun-drenched, Adamson’s world is
BY Emily Landau appropriately cold, rugged and majes-
tic, an untouched wilderness suddenly

88 june 2020
 dotted with logging camps and mining
towns. It’s so vividly described that
you’ll feel like you’re slinking through
antique versions of Banff and Leth-
bridge right alongside the Ridgerunner
himself. Moreland is mourning his
wife—and Jack’s mother—who lulled
him into a temporary state of stability
only to die and leave him forlorn. Jack
is forced to learn a pioneer’s self-
reliance in the wild, while navigating
his anger at what he perceives as his
father’s abandonment. And the most
compelling character of all turns out to
be Sister Beatrice, whose vexatious
shell conceals bitter loneliness and
despair about the loss of the boy she
helped raise. At its core, it’s a novel
about isolation and why we need other
people—something we can all relate to
in this period of social distancing.
who wrote it: Adamson, who grew up
in Toronto, spent her early years writing
IMPRINT OF C.E. FINN, LIVINGSTON, MONT./PUBLIC DOMAIN
poetry and short stories, as well as an
unauthorized biography of X-Files actor
Gillian Anderson called Mulder, It’s Me.
She spent nearly a decade working on
her first novel, The Outlander, a literary
western about Mary Boulton, a 19-year-
old widow on the run from the law
(spoiler: she turns out to be Moreland’s
dead wife in Ridgerunner). The wait
paid off: the book was a Canadian best-
seller and landed on the 2009 edition
of CBC’s Canada Reads, where it was
championed by Da Vinci’s Inquest
actor Nicholas Campbell.
TRUE GRIT
Ridgerunner’s William Moreland joins an
illustrious gang of frontier anti-heroes.
Here, four of the most famous:
Wild Bill Hickok gambled, spied, duelled
and wrestled bears across the American
West and into folk tales. He died in 1876
from a gunshot while playing poker in
Deadwood, in present-
day South Dakota.
Calamity Jane gained
fame for generously
embroidered outlaw
doings. She died of
pneumonia in 1903
and was buried beside
Hickok, with whom
she may have con-
ceived a child.
Butch Cassidy led
the Wild Bunch, before
allegedly meeting his end in 1908 in a
shootout in Bolivia, where he was hiding
from American authorities (there are
suspicions he lived until 1937). Paul
Newman played him in the 1969 movie.
Bill Miner, known as the Gentleman
Bandit, was born in the U.S. but became
a Canadian folk hero for an early-20th-
century series of brazen robberies of
CPR trains carrying gold. He was said
to be unfailingly polite and to have
invented the phrase “Hands up!”
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Visit facebook.com/readersdigestcanada
to share comments about Ridgerunner.
rd.ca 89
reader’s digest

BRAINTEASERS

Points of View
Moderately difficult The nine pictures go into the grid in such a way that the
descriptions on the edges are true for the first picture in the corresponding row

(POINTS OF VIEW) DARREN RIGBY; (IT’S A LOCK) FRASER SIMPSON; (STRONGBOX ILLUSTRATION) ISTOCK.COM/ VECTORPOWER
or column in the direction of the arrow. There can’t be more than one picture per
cell. Where does each one go?
often
plant has sits on house submarine
life windows flies water

found in
found on land birchbark
nature
canoe duck

in animal
has wheels
kingdom

is attached is human-
by a stem made airplane tree

goes stays in
underwater one place
fish bird

can have is alive made has

people of metal wings
inside leaf

It’s a Lock
Moderately difficult The lock on a strongbox
has a six-digit code. The second digit is two
more than the fifth digit. The third digit is double
the first digit. The fourth and fifth digits add up
to the sixth digit. The fourth digit is two less than
the fifth digit. If all of the digits add up to 29, can
you figure out the code of the strongbox?

90 june 2020
 Jerry Mander’s Last Hurrah
Moderately difficult Your name is Jerry
Mander, and you have a history of rigging
local electoral maps. Before retiring to
enjoy your ill-gotten gains, you’ve
decided to collect one last bribe from
mayor George Cherry. Draw voting
districts so that Cherry remains mayor
instead of getting defeated by his more
popular rival, Les Indigo. This map
shows which household supports which
candidate. Divide it into five districts
of five contiguous households so that
Cherry will get the majority of the votes
( JERRY MANDER’S LAST HURRAH) RODERICK KIMBALL; (SO HAPPY TOGETHER; MEANDERING) DARREN RIGBY

(at least three households) in the

majority of the districts (at least three districts). For a district to be contiguous, each
household must share a border with at least one other, and shared corners don’t count.

So Happy Together
Easy You and a group of friends are about to be seated in random
order around a circular table, with no extra chairs. The probability
that your one best friend will be sitting next to you is equal to the
probability that she will not. How many people are in your group?

3 Meandering
Moderately difficult In each outlined region, put a
whole number into all of the cells, counting up from
1, moving in numerical order from square to square.
The count can move only horizontally or vertically
within the region, not diagonally. No number may
touch a copy of itself horizontally or vertically
between regions. One number has been given.

For answers, turn to PAGE 95

rd.ca 91
reader’s digest

12. Fujian, Taiwan and

TRIVIA Guangdong are all
known for what product,
whose name means
BY Paul Paquet “black dragon”?

13. The Cervantes Prize

1. While her brothers
were inventing the air-
plane, Katharine kept
their bicycle shop afloat.
What was their surname?
2. Which layer of the
earth, normally found
between the crust and
core, occasionally pushes
up to the surface?
3. Who starred in Thomas
Edison’s 1894 short film,
The ‘Little Sure Shot’ of the
‘Wild West.’ Exhibition of
Rifle Shooting at Glass
stripe, for the House is awarded to people
of Orange? writing in what language?
7. The title character in 14. Which country has
The Life Aquatic With Steve been experiencing a tour-
Zissou (2004) was likely ism boom because of the
modelled on what real Frozen movies?
French oceanographer?
8. Since 2016, the letters
A, B and O are sometimes
missing from various
signs and company logos
around the world. Why?
9. What rocker revealed
in January 2020 that he

(TV) ISTOCK.COM/MGKAYA; (TENNIS BALL) ISTOCK.COM/PAVLO_K

Balls, etc.? has Parkinson’s?

4. In Louise Fitzhugh’s 10. Conch, helix, tragus

classic 1964 novel, who
was the titular spy?
5. What city’s historic
Imperial Hotel is on its
Ringstrasse (ring road)?
6. Which country’s flag
used to include an orange
and rook are all ways
of piercing which
body part?
11. What person’s last
words, uttered on
August 31, 1997, were
purportedly, “My God,
what’s happened?”
15. In 1972, the Inter-
national Tennis Feder-
ation authorized what
TV-friendly colour for
tennis balls?

Diana. 12. Oolong. 13. Spanish. 14. Norway. 15. Yellow.

7. Jacques Cousteau. 8. To promote blood donation. 9. Ozzy Osbourne. 10. The ear. 11. Princess
Answers: 1. Wright. 2. The mantle. 3. Annie Oakley. 4. Harriet. 5. Vienna. 6. The Netherlands.

92 june 2020
 WORD POWER

Whether we seek precision, beauty or

both, much of the subtlety of language
10. contumacious—
comes from its adjectives. Here are A: rounded.
some 10-dollar examples to add polish B: stubbornly
to your proclamations. disobedient.
C: poisonous but
not lethal.
BY Rob Lutes
11. feckless—
A: lacking poise.
1. stygian— B: rough in texture. B: ineffectual
A: stingy. C: obnoxiously loud. and irresponsible.
B: timeless. C: without skin
C: dark and gloomy. 6. frugal— blemishes.
A: silly.
2. insidious— B: cold. 12. dilatory—
A: indoors. C: thrifty. A: rundown.
B: gradual but harmful. B: chatty.
C: strongly felt yet 7. inveterate— C: tending to cause delay.
unexpressed. A: habitual and unlikely
to change. 13. fastidious—
3. whimsical— B: soft and malleable. A: attentive to detail.
A: unpredictable. C: untested. B: dietary.
B: elegant and C: recklessly rapid.
inexpensive. 8. threadbare—
C: fragile. A: self-evident. 14. belligerent—
B: shabby and barely A: relating to the sea.
4. vulpine— adequate. B: exhibiting hostility.
A: murderous. C: scantily clothed. C: in a state of disrepair.
B: cunning.
C: hungry. 9. salutary— 15. earnest—
A: beneficial. A: serious and sincere.
5. brumous— B: welcoming. B: wealthy.
A: foggy and wintry. C: verbal. C: overly generous.

rd.ca 93
reader’s digest
WORD POWER
ANSWERS
1. stygian—C: dark and
gloomy; as, Ms. Mariner
shuddered as she entered
the stygian cave.
2. insidious—B: gradual
but harmful; as, The
insidious effects of eating
too much sugar began
to show themselves in
Arjun’s weight gain and
lack of energy.
3. whimsical—
A: unpredictable; as,
Greer’s whimsical person-
ality meant she couldn’t
necessarily be counted
upon to remain at a job
for long.
4. vulpine—B: cunning;
as, Well aware of the sus-
pected drug lord’s vulpine
intelligence, the police
kept a close eye on all of
his activities.
5. brumous—A: foggy
and wintry; as, Knowing
night would bring even
colder and darker
conditions, Ezekiel set
out immediately to cross
the brumous valley.
94 june 2020
6. frugal—C: thrifty; as, 12. dilatory—C: tending
Having seen that Carita
was organized and frugal,
to cause delay; as, It
appeared to Henry that
Hélène gave her budget- the airport’s customs had
ing responsibilities for been set up in the most
the entire conference. dilatory way possible.
7. inveterate— 13. fastidious—A: atten-
A: habitual and unlikely tive to detail; as, Raoul’s
to change; as, An inveter- fastidious reporting won
ate worrier, Roone had high praise from his
learned how to get by on demanding editor.
very little rest.
14. belligerent—
8. threadbare— B: exhibiting hostility; as,
B: shabby and barely The school principal’s bel-
adequate; as, Despite their ligerent behaviour toward
threadbare uniforms, the parents led to her removal.
tiny school’s track team
dominated the meet. 15. earnest—A: serious
and sincere; as, Wei took
9. salutary—A: bene- an earnest approach to
ficial; as, The difficult but each and every issue
salutary two-week training raised by workers.
session turned Adham
into a first-rate salesman.
CROSSWORD
10. contumacious— ANSWERS
B: stubbornly disobedient;
as, Portia’s contumacious FROM PAGE 96
behaviour left her day-
O L A V A N G S T
care workers little choice
T A M I L V I O L A
but to call her parents. T H E C A N A D I A N
O R N A T E N Y Y
11. feckless—B: ineffec- R E B A T E A
tual and irresponsible; M U S E U M F O R
M I L F L E E
as, Boonsri complained A S L A L I C I A
about her feckless brother H U M A N R I G H T S
who never seemed to A S A M I E N A C T
get anything done. L E N I N S O H O
 BRAINTEASERS
ANSWERS SUDOKU

FROM PAGE 90 BY Jeff Widderich

Points of View
6 9
8 9 2
1 3 8
3 8
It’s a Lock
274358. 7 2 5 4
Jerry Mander’s 4 7
Last Hurrah
5 3 4
4 8 9
4 7
To Solve This Puzzle

Put a number from 1 to 9 in

So Happy Together
Five, including you.
each empty square so that: SOLUTION
5 2 1 9 8 7 4 3 6
)every horizontal row and 3 9 8 2 4 6 5 7 1
Meandering vertical column contains all 6 4 7 3 1 5 8 2 9
4 5 6 7 1 2 1 nine numbers (1-9) without 7 5 3 1 6 8 2 9 4
3 2 1 5 4 3 2
repeating any of them; 9 1 4 5 3 2 7 6 8
1 4 3 2 1 2 3 8 6 2 4 7 9 1 5 3
2 5 6 1 6 5 4
)each of the outlined 3 x 3
4 7 5 8 9 3 6 1 2
3 1 7 5 7 2 1 1 3 6 7 2 4 9 8 5
4 2 3 4 8 3 4 boxes has all nine numbers, 2 8 9 6 5 1 3 4 7
6 5 4 3 2 1 5 none repeated.

rd.ca 95
reader’s digest

CROSSWORD

On the Money 26
30
“Girl on Fire” singer Keys
See 13-Across
33 “Same here”
34 Pass into law
BY Derek Bowman 35 Russian revolutionary
figure
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 36 London district

10 11 12 DOWN
1 The Simpsons bus driver
13 14 2 Cowardly Lion portrayer
3 “You said it!”
15 16 4 Parish officials
5 Hollywood star Gardner
17 18 19 6 Nest, in Normandy
7 Discuss, as details
20 21 22 8 Sigurd, to the dragon
Fafnir
23 24
9 Singer Tucker or Tagaq
11 Jazz musician Yusef
25 26 27 28 29
14 Pertaining to cosmic
30 31 32 clouds
18 2001 French romcom hit
33 34 20 Punctuation error,
perhaps
35 36 21 Tracey of TV and film
22 Fakes, as an injury
23 Taj ___ (Agra attraction)
27 Vietnamese rice dish
ACROSS 16 Jays’ rivals, on 28 Strong urge
1 Scandinavian royal name scoreboards 29 Concerning
5 Uneasy feeling 17 “Freedom” singer 31 Nice friend
10 Language that gave McEntire 32 Prolific journal
us “curry” 19 Steeped ___ (Tims writer Anaïs
12 Desmond on the latest offering)
$10 bill 20 See 13-Across
13 With 20- & 30-Across, 23 “Cool” sum of cash
building on the $10 bill 24 Run away from
15 Flowery 25 Future interpreter’s subj. For answers, turn to PAGE 94

96 june 2020
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