Carrousel of Nations to celebrate 50th year in Windsor-Essex
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Globe and Mail
30 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Engineering professor Eric Burnett was demanding and supportive both at home and in class
Eric Frederick Peter Burnett: Dad. Engineer. Opera lover. Teacher. Born Jan. 7, 1937, in Roodepoort, South Africa; died March 13, 2025, in Richmond, B.C., of dementia, aged 88. Eric Burnett could never quite believe he'd reached the age of 88, but he liked that he had as many years as there are keys on a piano. He was born to Eileen and Peter Burnett, the eldest of three boys. The family lived on an acreage on the outskirts of Bulawayo (then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe), a rail hub from which Peter worked as a train conductor. Eric and his brothers, Basil and Hylton, had a series of pets, including fox terriers and duikers, small antelopes whose babies they'd find abandoned in the bush. At 11, Eric was sent away to Grey High School – a three-day journey by train. Boarding school meant sudden independence. Eric developed a hard-nosed self-sufficiency, taking up boxing (permanently deviating his septum) and for the first time getting high marks. His teachers broadened his horizons, he said, introducing him to literature and art, and sparking an interest in travel and higher education. He was the first in his family to attend university, taking the gold medal in civil engineering with his BSc at the University of Cape Town. A full-ride Shell scholarship enabled his MSc (engineering) and Diploma of Imperial College, and he eventually earned his PhD from the University of London. While there, friends introduced him to Angela Towert, a vivacious, whip-smart librarian who'd grown up in South Africa. In 1964 he moved to Canada for a teaching post at the University of Waterloo, and soon wrote to invite Angela to join him on his transatlantic adventure. In February, 1965, they were married in Toronto. On their wedding day, with his lifelong talent for understatement, he told his bride, 'You look quite nice.' Their marriage of 58 years survived – and by many measures thrived – because his praise was as sincere as it was precious. Eric's humour was mostly wry, and he shared his love of British comedy with his children, Alastair and Gillian. He laughed hardest and longest at his son's jokes, especially when they were at his own expense. And they often were. An avid photographer, Eric's pictures of buildings outnumbered those of family. His kids would jokingly point and yell, 'Salt damage!' to get his attention. As a parent, he was both supportive and demanding. He celebrated his children's successes and left no doubt of their failures. His talent for math skipped a generation, and Gillian would sometimes find a handwritten note on her report cards: 'Inadequate.' He brought the same high standards to his work. Over his distinguished 25-year career teaching civil engineering at Waterloo, students would occasionally call him at home to request extensions. If his children answered, they'd advise them not to ask. Eric was proud of his industry partnerships and advocated strongly for women in his male-dominated profession. He was the founder and director of the Building Engineering Group until 1996 and a senior consultant and technical director with Trow Consulting Engineers Ltd. In his career's second act, the couple moved to the U.S., where Eric held the Hankin Chair in Residential Construction at Penn State from 1996 to 2005 and was director for the Pennsylvania Housing Research/Resource Center. Upon retirement, his team threw a party featuring a life-size cardboard cut-out of him asleep at his desk. His humility and sense of humour pervaded everything he did. In retirement, they moved to Richmond, B.C., where Eric co-authored an engineering textbook and worked as a consultant at RDH Building Sciences. At 69, a stroke forced him to spend more time on his many hobbies. He was a serious collector of stamps (specializing in southern Africa), wooden boxes and hippo figurines. He surrounded himself with Folio Society hardcover classics, paperback murder mysteries and classical music. You could tell he was home by the strains of Puccini wafting through his office door. He adored his grandkids, Jasper and Alice, whose childhoods he helped shape. Eric's world got much smaller when Angela died in 2023. While he wasn't a naturally demonstrative man, his last chapter was distinguished by an easy and moving affection for those he loved. His continued laughter at Alastair's jokes – and an occasional zinger of his own – was a gift right up until a few days before his death. Gillian Burnett is Eric Burnett's daughter. To submit a Lives Lived: lives@ Lives Lived celebrates the everyday, extraordinary, unheralded lives of Canadians who have recently passed. To learn how to share the story of a family member or friend, go online to
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Halifax homeless encampment near new seniors' facility ordered to close
Steve Falshaw woke up to an eviction notice on his grey tent in Cogswell Park in Halifax on Wednesday morning. The municipality has closed the designated encampment in the small green space that runs along Windsor Street near Quinpool Road, giving the roughly nine people living there about a month to leave. Halifax said the site must be cleared out because it's too close to a new seniors' facility that has opened. "It's a pretty lousy thing to do, actually. They've got nowhere to put us," said Falshaw, who added he is dealing with cancer and other health conditions. The site was designated in July 2024 as a homeless encampment managed by the city with portable toilets and garbage pickup. It had an original capacity of eight tents, but that grew to about 16 tents at some points. Max Chauvin, Halifax's director of housing and homelessness, said municipal policy states that designated encampments cannot be within 50 metres of the entrance to a seniors' care facility. He said the new Shannex building, called Parkland on the Common, has a door that is about 20 metres from the site. Chauvin said outreach workers will now meet with everyone at Cogswell Park to find them a place to go next, and help them move if needed. He said there are open spaces in multiple indoor shelters, or temporary housing options run by the province. "People do have some choice, which is something that didn't happen in some previous incidences — the options were more limited," Chauvin said Wednesday. Falshaw said he's been sleeping rough for the past three years and has tried a few of the temporary housing options, but they were not a good fit and he was usually asked to leave. Resorting to living in a public park in a rich country like Canada "is an absolute heartbreaking shame," he said. "Why are we even outside? Why do we even have to do this?" said Falshaw, who doesn't know where he'll go next. Virginia Hinch, councillor for the area, had asked for staff to explore the process of closing the Cogswell Park site in early July following ongoing safety concerns from nearby residents. Karla Nicholson, executive director of Quinpool Road Mainstreet District Association, said residents and businesses have told her about an increase in thefts since the site was designated. She said there have been reports of fires and violence at the site. "I think the residents have suffered enough in this area, and it is very close proximity to their homes," Nicholson said Wednesday. While the site was officially designated last year, Nicholson said people have sheltered in tents there since about 2020. The Quinpool business association has put "a lot of work" into the park, including new lights and a raised wooden boardwalk, said Nicholson. "We're hoping to take back the park, and make it a place where everyone can enjoy," she said. The three remaining designated encampment sites around Halifax and Dartmouth are over capacity, but Chauvin said there are a few spots at those sites where people could fit tents if necessary. "Considering the breadth of options and the different supports that are available … I'm really hoping that everybody can find an indoor option," Chauvin said. Chauvin said there are fewer than 100 people sleeping rough in Halifax. The city counted about 75 tents and four trailers in the municipality's designated locations as of last week. The by-name list tracking people dealing with homelessness in Halifax showed 972 people or families in need of housing as of Aug. 13. The list, maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, said 642 of those people were experiencing "chronic" homelessness. That term refers to people seeing persistent or long-term homelessness, which brings "greater risks of harm and difficulty accessing stable housing" according to the federal government.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
N.L.'s volunteer firefighters are going above and beyond. So how should they be compensated?
As Newfoundland and Labrador experiences an unprecedented wildfire season, firefighters from across the province are volunteering to help. Now they're waiting for information about the provincial government's promise to provide compensation. Torbay Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rodney Gaudet said the department's 44 firefighters have been going above and beyond what was expected when they signed up. "When they became a member of the volunteer fire department, the expectation was for them to respond to calls here within Torbay and Flatrock," said Gaudet. "They never would have imagined that they'd be responding to fires … as far [away] as C.B.N" Still, Gaudet said members stepped up to help with other wildfires on the Avalon Peninsula, including the Holyrood, Kingston and Paddy's Pond fires. With a summer of hot temperatures and high winds, Gaudet said they also responded to more local calls than usual. He said some volunteer firefighters took time off work, or used their annual leave to help fight the wildfires. "We drop what we're doing at an instant and leave the house to respond to these calls, and not sure exactly when we'll be coming back," he said. Compensation coming On Aug. 12, Premier John Hogan said volunteer firefighters would be compensated, but he did not provide any further details. Meanwhile, NDP Leader Jim Dinn pushed the province to cover the cost of annual leave used by volunteer firefighters, and provide compensation to employers with volunteer firefighters on staff. Gaudet said volunteers aren't looking for compensation when they respond to emergency calls. Still, he said any conversation about compensating them is beneficial considering the toll of the wildfires. Gaudet said there also needs to be more mental health support for volunteer firefighters. Number of volunteers declining Out of the 124,000 firefighters in Canada, 87,000 are volunteers. That's according to Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Federation of Fire Chiefs. With more than 720 wildfires burning across the country this month, McMullen said there is a lot more pressure on volunteers to get involved in wildland firefighting. Still, the number of people signing up to volunteer is declining. "There are not enough firefighters to put out all of the fires that are going on in Canada," said McMullen. "We have to better utilize the men and women that we do have."
