Articles
Journalism
I worked as a journalist for a small-town newspaper from August 2003 to January 2004. Here’s a sample of what I wrote during that time.
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- Onslow kids send kits to Mozambique
The Equity, Dec. 17, 2003
QUYON — Mozambique may be a far-off country in southern Africa, but that hasn’t stopped the kids at Onslow Elementary School from reaching out to help.
In only eight days, they raised enough money to buy and send 150 kits of school supplies to children in the northern Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique.
“They’re not as fortunate as us,” said Grade 6 student Bailey Anderson, who is one of four student organizers. “We felt that we could do something, so we did.”
The Onslow students did it as part of Project Love, an initiative of CODE, an Ottawa-based organization that promotes literacy and education in developing countries.
Through Project Love, which was begun 17 years ago in London, Ont., CODE expects to distribute 70,000 school kits from 483 Canadian schools this year.
- Stand-up comedians find their way to Shawville RA hall
The Equity, Dec. 3, 2003
SHAWVILLE — The good news is that three Yuk Yuk’s stand-up comedians were in town Saturday night to perform at a fundraiser for the Shawville RA.
The bad news? They had to come in on Hwy. 148 to do it.
“Is that a paved-over roller-coaster or what?” quipped headliner Pete Zedlacher. “And the curves — is that a highway or a luge run?”
And then there were the road signs.
“There aren’t any,” said opener and master of ceremonies, Ottawa-based comic Mike Beatty, who claimed that the fundraiser was “so you can buy a sign to the RA centre.”
There was an element of truth in this — Jason Laurans, another Ottawa-based comedian and the middle act in the program, did in fact get lost trying to find the RA hall.
- Opponents protest MoP landfill site proposal at public meeting
The Equity, Dec. 3, 2003
QUYON — An engineered landfill site proposed for North Onslow was the subject of heated debate between residents opposed to the plan and the mayor and council supporting it at a public consultation meeting held last week.
While supporters maintained that the project would eliminate a potential health hazard at the current landfill and be a financial benefit to the community, opponents argued that any benefits would be outweighed by the sheer size of the project, and worried that residents would lose control once the contract had been signed.
About 120 people attended the public consultation held at the Quyon Lions Hall Nov. 25, where the mayor and councillors of the Municipality of Pontiac and the contractor, Denis Rouleau, president of LDC Gestion et Services environnementeaux, tried to make their case and answer audience questions.
MoP Mayor Bruce Campbell opened the meeting by making his case for the engineered landfill.
- High schools score low
The Equity, Nov. 19, 2003
Pontiac’s high schools have not fared well in the latest annual report on Quebec high school performance.
The report, titled Report Card on Quebec’s Secondary Schools: 2003 Edition, was jointly produced by the Montreal Economic Institute and the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute. This is the fourth year that the institutes have produced this report.
École secondaire Sieur de Coulonge finished 219th, St. Alphonsus High School (now Dr. Wilbert Keon School) finished 309th, John Paul II High School finished 416th and Pontiac High School finished 435th.
The study graded 455 schools across the province on a number of factors, such as examination marks and the percentage of students who graduate on time.
The report was based on publicly available data for the 2001-2002 school year. The report’s researchers performed a statistical analysis and assigned a score from one to 10 to each school.
But the report is not without its critics.
- Letters tell the story of Sheenboro airman’s death
The Equity, Nov. 5, 2003
Francis Kempton Morris’s family first heard the news by telegram.
“Kemp,” a native of Sheenboro, was a gunnery sergeant in the Royal Canadian Air Force. On the night of Nov. 18, 1943, his plane went on a bombing raid over Mannheim, Germany.
The plane never returned.
He had just turned 21 years old on the 15th.
“They sent word — we got a telegram at the end of November that he was presumed missing,” says Grace Bryson, Kemp’s younger sister.
She remembers feeling “just shock” when her family heard the news.
“We never thought that this would happen,” she said.
- Shawville-Clarendon library gets more funds, work begins
The Equity, Oct. 29, 2003
SHAWVILLE — With additional funds coming at almost the last possible minute, the Shawville-Clarendon Library is set to begin construction immediately.
Clarendon Mayor Jack Lang and Shawville Mayor Albert Armstrong received word from Pontiac MNA Charlotte L’Écuyer Thursday evening that their application for an increased Resource Region grant had been accepted.
“I was speechless for five or 10 seconds with Charlotte,” said Armstrong.
The new grant increases the provincial funding for the library to $508,231 from $276,484. Each municipality will also kick in an additional $44,000, bringing the total contribution from each to about $150,000.
It has not yet been determined how the municipalities will come up with the extra money. Multi-year budgeting and borrowing are two options.
- Tanker truck gets refurbished at 25
The Equity, Oct. 29, 2003
SHAWVILLE — A 25-year-old fire truck came back to the Shawville-Clarendon Fire Department Oct. 10 with a brand new tank and better equipment.
The truck, a tanker that can bring 1,300 gallons to the site of a fire, was purchased by the Municipality of Clarendon in December 1978. It was that municipality’s first fire truck.
Its tank has been completely replaced.
“The tank had been leaking,” said Clarendon Mayor Jack Lang.
And, thanks to the elimination of several 90-degree angles in the piping, the pumps can now deliver 420 gallons per minute at 150 psi, instead of 225 gallons per minute.
- T’ai chi classes enter third year
The Equity, Oct. 29, 2003
SHAWVILLE — T’ai chi classes have started up again at the Shawville Lions Hall.
This is the third year that the slow-moving Chinese martial art, which is popular as a form of low-impact exercise, has been taught in Shawville.
Classes began Tuesday evening, Oct. 7 and continue weekly. They cost $50 for a set of eight classes, which are offered several times a year.
About 25 to 30 students normally take the class, says Louise Ahern, who handles the organization and registration.
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I also have blog entries about journalism (also on my old personal blog).