66 Hours
A cell phone was nearby. He was in sight of a road.
And in an age of instant communication, and higher population bases you’d think something like this couldn’t happen.
But it does. All the time. More than we realize.
After 66 hours he had to make some hard choices.
Bruce Osiowy of Saskachewan lived, and wants to use his experience to help others.

Montreal
It’s a quiet residental neighbourhood.
What happened is something you see on TV, not next door.
The horror of this will haunt the witnesses the rest of their lives.
Odd things at unbidden moments will bring the reality back.
A smell. A fireplace. A colour.
They won’t see the debriefing with the fire department. They won’t see the tears and frustration and guilt. Hopefully they will see the changes in procedure so no one else has to die this way.

So we don’t forget
This year younger people will go to Canada’s cenitaphs for Remembrance Day. We lost soldiers in Afghanistan. They will mingle with those who are living memorials, and whose numbers are dwindling. The Royal Canadian Legion is reaching out to the young on the web so we don’t forget.

“The Net is a huge library. Some of the things that have been missing are starting to come into it . . . including veteran stories,” said Bob Butt, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Legion in Ottawa.

Butt, who helped launch the legion’s website four years ago at www.legion.ca, said he’s noticed a greater number of veterans jumping on-line.

About one in eight people over age 60 was on-line in 2000, according to Statistics Canada figures. But the numbers dropped with age. Fewer than one in 10 people in their early 70s was surfing, and only one in 20 of those over 75 was connected to the web.

But lots has happened in three years, Butt says.

“A lot of older people are using the Internet as the basis for communication,” he said. “They’re learning how to use computers and e-mail. It’s an amazing thing.”

Thank you for what you have done for us. Thank you for telling your story.

Canada eh?
In a bitter hard world what do travel advisories to Canada say?
All the cliches. But oddly enough they are mostly true when you get away from our world class urbanized areas. I doubt most Canadians have ever seen a moose or a rabid racoon. This country is pretty tame. We are rather laid back in some regions.
It’s the road kill and ice that will get you.

With international travel advisories being issued on a variety of countries almost daily, Canada is also making its way onto travel warnings issued by foreign governments.

And we should be living in fear — of drivers running red lights, of dangerous roads in winter, of rabies-carrying raccoons, of encounters with wildlife, and even the closing of some bridges in winter.

The travel advisories from the UK, US and Australia are er, interesting.