Honouring Jesse's Journey
John Davidson is planning to walk from St. Thomas to London in honour of the 30th anniversary of Jesse's Journey. CTV's Lauren Stallone reports.
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CTV News
40 minutes ago
- CTV News
Halifax Mooseheads anthem singer grateful for support following brain cancer diagnosis.
Peter Baylis has done a lot in his life, but what many people may know him for now is his work as the Halifax Mooseheads' anthem singer. 'I wish everybody could feel the way I feel at that moment,' said Baylis. Before he took on that role 15 years ago, Baylis fronted 'Steps Around the House' in the '80s and was a member of the 'Hopping Penguins' in the '90s. He was also closely involved in the Halifax restaurant scene. 'I can feel comfortable that I left my mark in Halifax through entertainment, through hospitality, and I'm proud of my city. I love my country, hence the singing of the anthems,' he said. The 62-year-old has now been forced to take on a new challenge. Last month, Baylis learned he had glioblastoma – a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. 'They took me in for a CT scan and saw this mass on my brain, something that the doctor said at that point, 'I wasn't expecting to have to come and tell you this.'' Before his diagnosis, his symptoms came on fairly quickly. 'I had a little bit of light-headedness at work, more so than, you know, we can all get a little dizzy once in a while,' he said. 'I was walking in circles fixing something and that merry-go-round effect came and wouldn't go away.' He said his eyesight changed to something referred to as 'kaleidoscope vision,' he had a persistent headache, and also fell that day, which was out of the ordinary. That's when he called his wife. 'My wife is a saint. She should be a saint. Having her beside me through this, the support and compassion, it's unbelievable,' he said. Baylis has been with his wife for more than 30 years and the two share a daughter, who is back home to support her dad. 'Slap in the head' Baylis is facing his diagnosis head-on, but it's been challenging. 'Shocking. Slap in the head, but when you're faced with that news, what can you do? You just have to accept. You have to accept it,' he said. While there's never a good time to be diagnosed with cancer, it could not have come at a worse time for Baylis. His life insurance expired just a month before he learned the news. 'Because of our age, my wife and I, it had to transfer over. The premiums were cost prohibitive based on our income, so we just couldn't do anything about it.' Despite that added challenge in an already difficult situation, Baylis is just thankful for how his family, friends and community are rallying around him. 'The support and feedback, I'm trying not to get choked up, the love and compassion that's coming my way is so valuable and not going unnoticed. I couldn't be more grateful,' said Baylis. Eyes on the ice When the Halifax Mooseheads hit the ice this fall at Scotiabank Centre, Baylis plans to be there singing the anthem as he has done for more than a decade. 'Peter is a part of our Mooseheads' family. We will be there to support him each step of the way on his challenge that lies ahead,' said Halifax Mooseheads' President Brian Urquhart in a statement to CTV News. 'He is one of the many people that helps make the Mooseheads' gameday and fan experience among the best in the CHL.' As Baylis prepares to begin treatment, he is staying positive. 'I'm seeing sunshine, blue sky, and my brother walking the dog in the neighbourhood, and I'm going, 'Hey man, you know what? This is joy.' So, I'm going to choose to embrace that instead of thinking about the heavy. This is what we got. We only have what we have right now,' said Baylis. He has started a GoFundMe to help with any costs while he's unable to work and undergoes treatment. Peter Baylis Peter Baylis is the Halifax Mooseheads' anthem singer. (CTV Atlantic/Steph Tsicos) For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Meet us at the London Multicultural Festival and tell us your origin story
Social Sharing Newcomers to London contribute immensely to the rich tapestry that makes this city a vibrant place to live and work. CBC London is always looking for ways to tell their stories. Below you'll find some of the articles that we've done so far. Does your family have an interesting origin story? How do you incorporate your culture into your life in London? We're interested in hearing about it. Join the CBC London team at the London Multicultural Festival on July 13 for a family-friendly event showcasing our community's diversity. We're setting up an interactive storytelling booth and we'd love to meet you there. We've also got exclusive CBC items (while supplies last, so come early). Check out this collection of stories to get a glimpse into the journeys of those who now call London home. Every day, the number on the sign outside Alireza Azizi's London, Ont., home goes up by one digit. The number represents the number of days he says he's been waiting for his Iranian parents' visitor visa applications to trudge their way through Canada's backlogged immigration system. London's Cross Cultural Learner Centre (CCLC) is hoping to start work this summer on a new apartment building in Old East Village that will be geared to newcomers. The 247-unit complex is earmarked to be built on the current site at 763-773 Dundas St., between Hewitt and Rectory streets, next to the Aeolian Hall. How a circle of London women are finding healing through this traditional Palestinian art Stitch by stitch, a woman carefully sews a deep magenta thread onto a tapestry, slowly revealing an intricate geometric design. There is chatting, and there is mint tea. But at the centre, a circle of women are gathering together to learn the traditional Palestinian art of tatreez. With affordability falling, is it time to rethink home ownership? Owning his own home is a key part of Vishal Joshi's Canadian dream. But despite his efforts to pursue higher education, save up a down payment and work hard at his career, the economics keep moving the goalposts farther away. Newly married and 31, Joshi considers London, Ont., home but had to move to Brampton to get a job as a quality control manager for a manufacturer of sinks and faucets. London's immigrants are more self-made than in other Ontario cities, report says. Meet two of them. In 2018, Ozgun Papan Kasik and her husband left behind their stable jobs, sold almost all their belongings, and embarked on an over 8,000 kilometre journey from their home country of Turkey. Now, in 2024, Kasik is one of many immigrant entrepreneurs who have earned London the distinction of having the highest proportion of self-employed immigrants of any major Ontario city. When some Canadian newcomers arrive in London, they seek out a piece of home from community groups and cultural clubs. But one newcomer family of 15 already has a sense of community by living under the same roof in their new Pond Mills home. As newcomers to London region increase, so does demand for ESL classes As Canada continues to accept thousands of newcomers every year and many make their way to the London region, the demand for English-language classes is also increasing, with a waitlist for some classes as educators struggle to keep up with demand. "I want to learn English to improve my skills, to communicate with people," said Sabna Altahir Osman Yousif, who is from Sudan and currently taking classes at the G.A. Wheable Centre. "I learn reading, writing, listening and speaking. I want to go to university to complete my studies." He came to London, Ont., as a refugee. 38 years later, he's an Order of Canada appointee A household name in London's music scene and the founder of the city's annual Sunfest music festival is among 78 recipients who have been given an appointment to the Order of Canada by Gov. General Mary Simon. Alfredo Caxaj, 64, is being recognized for his contributions to arts and culture, and for promoting and celebrating diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism in Canada. When the last drop of paint hits the bricks, David Strauzz's mural will depict a young couple side by side as they look ahead to a life together in a new country filled with hope and uncertainty. The portraits in spray paint are inspired by Strauzz's parents, who had to flee an oppressive communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1973. At the time, David wasn't yet born and his mother was pregnant with his sister. Some businesses owners and customers are referring to London Ont.'s Argyle neighbourhood as the city's "Little India." Surrounding Fanshawe College, the east London community has become a one-stop shop for new immigrant families, along with international students.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
How the Edmonton Oilers fandom became a kind of religion
Social Sharing For the second year in a row, the Edmonton Oilers are facing off against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals — and the culture of the Oilers fanbase has reached a new kind of fever pitch. Today on Commotion, CBC Edmonton reporter Min Dhariwal and professor Judith Ellen Brunton discuss how the intensity of Oilers fandom in Edmonton transcends mere hometown boosterism to resemble something more like a religion. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Min, I'll start by maybe offering my condolences over game three. I hope things get a little bit better. But we're not here to talk about what is happening on the ice…. Give me a sense of the vibe, of what happens when the Oilers are in the finals. Min: Yeah, well, after a game like game three, the vibe kind of gets knocked down a couple of notches. But I mean, this run has been as good if not better than last year's, and the city is just alive, right? It doesn't matter if you go into a store, you jump into a cab, the driver might be wearing an Oilers jersey, or might have a flag on the car. You go downtown, you see flags and Oilers paraphernalia in the windows, up in the towers. On game days, the downtown just becomes a zoo … and people are wearing their jerseys all day long. So it has certainly made spring and summertime in Edmonton the last couple of years very different from how it used to be for many, many years. Elamin: Judith, the premise of this conversation is, it's not just that a city gets excited when their team is in the finals. It's that there is something different about this fandom. You're a professor of religious studies. Your particular area is Alberta and the way that religious ideology intertwines with the province's culture of oil, oil production, prosperity and also hockey. You recently wrote about this for The Conversation, about how the history kind of amplifies the intensity of this fandom. Can you unpack that idea of where this fandom maybe meets religion? Judith: For sure. I mean, you said it: when there's something weird going on, that's a good moment for a scholar of religion to appear, so here I am. I think that whenever we talk about shared values or zeal, or identity or commitment, that's a good moment to think about religion, because one way to describe religion is just kind of a technology of shared values, or a way people organize their values together. And scholars of religion and sport, which include my co-author for that piece, Cody Musselman, have studied a lot about how team sports act really religionally…. They have lots of rituals. They have prayers and superstitions. Folks wear special clothing, they have certain ideas of how to preserve purity. So a lot of that is already going on with sports. And then of course we can add oil to this, because Oilers evoke another aspect of Canadian society that I think for some people has almost religious importance, which is resource extraction. And in Canadian culture, oil has always been kind of entangled with religion — both religion as we would recognize it institutionally, but also kind of this idea that it's a blessing from God, or it's tied up in ideas of what a good life is and how to live it. So for lots of people in resource extraction communities like Alberta, the possibility of success and the good life that that promises really gets valued over and above other possible risks, including environmental. And the Edmonton Oilers showcase this worldview for sure, in which there's this idea of triumph and luck and rugged work pays off. This is a belief that functions on the ice and in the oil field. So luck is really central to both oil worldviews and hockey worldviews. Historically, this is essential for perseverance within fossil fuel extraction. Striking it rich in the oil fields is really entangled with the idea of divine providence. And sports, similarly, is thrilling, right? You can put all this work in, you can have all the great plans, you have all the right players, but it really takes luck to strike it rich. So oil culture is definitely, in the case of the Oilers, pairing this idea of divine favour with an insistence on rough-and-tumble endurance, which is definitely what's happening on the ice.
