“I write to entertain, I don’t write to preach,” said Eric Rill on a recent visit to Toronto, during a publicity tour (2004) for his latest book, The Innocent Traitor (Georgetown Publications). A former top executive in the hotel industry originally from Montreal, Rill’s first novel, Pinnacle of Deceit, a political thriller, was a surprise…
Tag: canada
Obit: Anthony Adamson (1906-2002)
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Anthony Adamson, the architect who designed Upper Canada Village and oversaw the restoration of Hamilton’s Dundurn Castle, has died in Toronto (May 2002) at the age of 95. Descended from some of the most wealthy and historic families in Upper Canada, Adamson used to joke that he had been “relatively successful in the inheritance business.”…
Obit: Isabel LeBourdais (1909-2003)
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When Isabel LeBourdais first heard that an Ontario court had condemned a 14-year-old boy to death for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, she was appalled that the criminal justice system showed no interest in giving a deeply maladjusted teenager the psychological therapy he so obviously required. But her opinion quickly changed once…
Blurb about Two-Gun Cohen
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Published by St. Martin’s Press, Two-Gun Cohen is an intriguing biography by Daniel S. Levy (distributed in Canada by McClelland & Stewart). The son of orthodox Jewish parents, the title character was a con man, card sharp and pickpocket from east-end London who was arrested, sent to reform school, then shipped to western Canada. Hustling and…
Writer explores her brother’s mysterious death
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The last time Nomi Berger saw her brother Peter, he was 19 years old and submerged in Montreal’s pot-smoking and acid-dropping hippie counter-culture. The year was 1968. Peter, who lived in a house with several others, had recently been arrested for drug possession and had fought bitterly with his parents. “Help me,” he had beseeched…
Rabbi Schild’s ‘World Through My Window’
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Rabbi Erwin Schild, rabbi emeritus of Adath Israel Synagogue in Toronto and author of World Through My Window, an anthology of sermons published in 1992, arrives in Germany this week (1996) to attend the launch of the German-language edition of his book and to initiate a six-week speaking tour in German. The book was translated…
Obit: Eugene Fairweather (1920-2002)
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Rev. Canon Eugene Fairweather, an Anglican priest who taught for decades at Toronto’s Trinity College, helped introduce major liturgical reforms to the Anglican Church of Canada and played a leading role in promoting ecumenical dialogue around the world, has died in hospital in Kentville, N.S. at the age of 81. Known as an outstanding scholar…
Obit: Julia Ching (1934-2001), professor of Chinese
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Julia Ching, a University of Toronto professor widely respected for her versatile command of Chinese culture and her ability to interpret it to the West, has died in Toronto of complications from breast cancer. She was 67. A former Catholic Ursuline nun who left the order after 20 years, she went on to become an…
Obit: film worker Bill Brodie (1931-2002)
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Bill Brodie, a film production designer and art director who won a Genie for the Canadian film The Grey Fox and worked on Barry Lyndon, Superman and other acclaimed international features, has died in Cobourg, Ont. at the age of 70. Known for his exacting vision and relentless professional energy, Brodie scouted for locations, designed…
More genealogical adventures (Jassem, McCartney)
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Peter Jassem’s surname was always a puzzle to him as he grew up in a Polish home in Krakow. Jassem certainly wasn’t a Polish name; neither was it Belarussian, Latvian or Ukrainian. His father said it may have come from the town of Jassy (Iasi) Romania but Peter wasn’t convinced and suspected the truth even…
