Robert Fife adds to investigative journalism awards 'storytelling at its best'

Robert Fife has added to his awards as one of the top investigative  journalists in Canada.

In 2014 he had already won the Don McGillivray Prize from the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) for investigative journalism for his work on uncovering the Senate expenses scandal.

On June 7, he picked up two more awards on behalf of CTV News from RTDNA the Association of Electronic Journalists, for his coverage of the Senate expenses scandal.

Twitter comments about Bob after the awards at the RTDNA conference were announced included, "Storytelling at its finest" and "tremendous and groundbreaking work on Senate scandal".

Born and raised in Chapleau, Ontario, Bob is the son of the late Margaret and Clyde Fife.  He attended Chapleau Public and Chapleau High schools, then graduated from the University of Toronto before launching his career in journalism He is currently the Ottawa Bureau Chief for CTV News and host of CTV News 'Question Period'.

In 2013, with Philip Ling, the CTV Ottawa news producer, Bob won the CAJ Open Television Under Five Minutes category on the XL Foods tainted meat scandal.  

CTV said that the story which aired in Ocober 2012 uncovered repeated citations for deficient safety standards for XL Foods, adding that the canadian meat packing company came under fire in 2012 after E.coli was detected in some of their products. The CTV report found that U.S. officials had warned XL Foods for years about safety issues at their plants.

At the Chapleau High School 90th anniversary reunion festival in 2012, Bob participated in the ecumenical service.

In the 1980s, Maclean's magazine named Bob as the best investigative reporter in Canada. He has also won other awards.
A PERSONAL NOTE FROM MJM
I extend my personal congratulations to Bob on his continued success. I taught Bob when he was a student at Chapleau High School; acted in a play with him and directed him in others; coached him when he played Midget hockey, and answered his questions about being a reporter. As most know, I was a daily newspaper reporter and editor before I taught at Chapleau High School

Chapleau has produced many great citizens and Bob is certainly among them. He has done his parents,(my friends the late Margaret and Clyde Fife); Chapleau and Canada proud!. His grandfather George Fife was reeve of Chapleau from 1938 to 1942.

Bob, despite his success never forgets that we are all "citizens of the village".

MJ

Swimming at Pig Pen, Mulligan's Bay, Lake Windermere, Florida to Cranbrook Aquatic Centre

Lifeguards Dane, Jessica, Zach

The swimming pool in Cranbrook, now called an aquatic centre is a long way from the cold waters of the Kebsquasheshing River and Lake Windermere where I learned to swim in the  1940s.

I have no recollection of swimming at the 'Pig Pen' which was located behind the old curling rink on Pine Street, but someone, likely one of my cousins, Betty, Anne or Joan Zufelt took a photo of me there when I was maybe three or so. However, I do recall swimming at the beach, created by Dr. G.E. Young, complete with bath houses, wading pools, dock and diving boards, with fresh sand dumped on it yearly, and the adjacent band stand, canteen, swings and other play things.

The beach was the place to be in the summer months when I was a kid, unless of course, we were down the lake at Mulligan's Bay or environs, which was reached by boat going down either the "front" or "back" river to reach the bay. It has always intrigued me that we went "down the lake" by rivers. Coming home though, we went "up" one of the rivers to town, or simply "up to town".

Chapleau beach Bob Lewis collection

My earliest memory of a trip to Mulligan's Bay was shortly after the end of World War II in 1945. One morning while playing in the back yard at our house on Grey Street, I heard loud voices coming from somewhere "up the lane", which meant along Birch Street.

Me at the Pig Pen

Although I was supposed to get permission to leave the yard, I could not resist the temptation to find out what was happening so off I went. On the front porch of the Crichton home the big brick house at Birch and Aberdeen, a group of folks were chatting, laughing and singing.

I joined them --- Joe, Charlie, Rita, and Edith (Babe) Crichton; Doug and Don Jardine, and Alcide Small for sure -- all veterans and just home from serving in Canada's forces in World War II and they were heading to Mulligan's Bay to the Crichton camp.

They invited me to join them, and off we went, stopping along the way to ask Edith Hunt, my grandmother, if I could go with them.  Nanny agreed, after all she was the aunt of the Crichton's. Their mother Helen and my grandmother were sisters.

We travelled down the back river by canoe and out of the mothballs of memory I had a wonderful time.

Over the years, I had super times down the lake with Harry 'Butch' Pellow, and even helped with the construction of the first of Pellow's cottages after I was taught to hammer a nail properly -- really ending any career thoughts of being a carpenter at a young age.  I also had great fun at the Goldstein camp with Anne Marie, Dawn and Merrick, and with Betty. Anne and Joan Zufelt at their camp. Of course, the Old Fort was a popular spot.

In my teenage years, there were parties at many different camps which are a story for another day.
In my teens, I was able to swim across the river from the town dock to Dr. Young's boathouse and return as well as from the dock to the Forestry point.
Chapleau's most famous swimmer may well have been Dr. Young who swam from town to his family's camp at Mulligan's Bay. When I asked him about it, he simply shrugged and said it really wasn't such a big deal to him. "I just started swimming and ended up at the camp".

My grandfather Harry Morris, with my mother's help built a camp at Healy, 17 CPR miles west of Chapleau, on Lake Windermere, where I really improved my swimming. During the summers we spent time there with the Wedge, Green, Hands, and Evans families, and friends and family members from Chapleau and elsewhere.

Bessie (Woodard) Charette, Mom, Dawn Goldstein, June-Marie, Me and Rex, Healy

Back in the day, Mulligan's Bay was only reachable by boat and Healy by train, and they were "camps" in the real sense of the word.

Anyway, I got all growed up and as so often happens, swimming wasn't really part of my life for many years.The swimming pool in Cranbrook became part of my life three years ago now . It really all started when I was in Orlando, Florida, visiting my friend Michael Pelzer, and going to the pool every day. 

As I was leaving Orlando, Michael asked me if there was a swimming pool in Cranbrook, and when I said there was, he suggested I start using it.  So, immediately  upon my return, I threw my swim trunks and towel in a bag and off I went. After proving I lived in Cranbrook, I paid for a month, and as I headed to the pool entrance, the lady at the leisure desk asked, "Are you going to start right now?"

When I replied yes, she said, "Okay but I should tell you there are 175 elementary school children in there." 

I knew there was no turning back even though I had never seen 175 people at one time swimming at the Chapleau beach or anywhere else for that matter in my life. On my first day I started in the wave pool, had never been in one of those before, and for an hour, I managed to dodge and avoid crashing into the kids.

The lifeguards are exceptional people and I have felt safe and secure since day one.

I graduated to the main pool and now, three years later it is also a social experience. I particularly enjoy seeing parents and children there, and sometimes grandparents too.

Lifeguards at Cranbrook Aquatic Centre

One night I watched two young fellows about 12 on the diving board. One was a pretty good diver, but his buddy not so. The better diver spent an hour patiently working with his friend -- and at the end, high fives!  I also really enjoy watching good divers. I never was one. I don't think I ever dove off the high board at the Chapleau beach.

 Perhaps my favourite activity to watch, and way down deep I would like to try it, is the rope swing into the pool. It brings back memories of swinging out over the Humber River in Toronto on a rope tied to a tree and dropping into the muddy water, as a kid, a la Tom Sawyer!. At the pool when they are rope swinging, I hold contests, picking the male and female winner -- of course nobody knows until now that I do it.

I have spoken to some lifeguards about swinging into the pool, but so far no definite plan has been made.

Last year to mark my two years at the pool, the lifeguards, who are truly great people, presented me with a certificate of congratulations on my two years of swimming, "Thank you for your cheerful spirit. We enjoy seeing you every day. The Lifeguards".

I mentioned doing a column on swimming and my friends the lifeguards agreed to photos to share with you to mark my three years of swimming almost every day.

Meet my friends Dane, Jessica and Zach who have guided me from Day One along with all the other lifeguards at the Cranbrook Aquatic Centre, They say "HELLO" to Chapleau.

Dane, Jessica and Zach seem to have been on duty when I was making moves from wave pool to main pool and to lanes. But all the lifeguards are super.

Special thanks to Louis for providing lifeguard photo.

Thanks to all of you and to Michael my friend in Orlando, and all my friends and family who shared great moments at Healy and/or "down the lake".

I should mention in the interests of full disclosure -- I use a "noodle" now for safety reasons while swimming. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

'Heady stuff for youngsters' as Chapleau cadets parade around Niagara-on-the-Lake after end of World War II in 1945

Art Bromhead, Mike Mione, Arnold Moore, Bill Ritchie - see note below

Although world events were moving quickly and there were growing signs that World War II would end soon, its end on May 8, 1945, started out as any other regular day for students at Chapleau High School, according to George Tremblay, in his wonderful book, 'Break at Nine!'

Mr. Tremblay wrote that it was the time of year that students prepared for final exams and the annual inspection of 1181 Chapleau High School Cadet  Corps.

However, it was the day that the boys would be fitted with their new uniforms replacing the "archaic World War I uniforms with tight tunics and high military collars with badges, big leather belts, flappy breeches finished off with puttees" around their legs.

The boys were well into the fitting process which started immediately after the usual school morning assembly, when John 'Mac' McClellan, the school principal and World War I veteran burst into the room and announced, "It's all over... Germany has surrendered... the war's over!"

John 'Mac' McClellan

Mr. Tremblay relates that surprisingly at first there was "no great reaction" from the boys, but gradually the uniform selection process sped up "as the full impact of the momentous news began to sink in.

"We all rushed to the wide open windows when we heard a commotion coming from the grounds around the school ands stared in astonishment at the sight of the girls doing an impromptu snake dance below".

After one of the boys yelled, "Let's go" they made a dash for the doors to join the girls as they weaved around the school in their snake dance. Classes were cancelled for the day.

At the time, Mr. Tremblay was also working as an apprentice projectionist at the local Regent Theatre, owned by Cecil Smith, and he was preparing for final exams to become a projectionist as well as those to complete his Grade 12. He had not planned to take Grade 13 as he expected to join the Armed Forces as soon as he came of age. His brother Noel was in the forces and returned home safely.

Mr. Tremblay mentions Jack Rose, the other apprentice projectionist, who was killed on active service in the Royal Canadian Air Force shortly before the end of the war.

However, Mr. Tremblay did get a taste of military life in the summer of 1945, joining other "school chums"  at cadet camp at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

He wrote that "dressed in our smart new cadet uniforms" they assembled at the CPR station and boarded a train for Sudbury. From there, cadets from other communities joined them and they then boarded a special "cadet troop train" for Toronto, including an entire coach for the Chapleau contingent.

Each cadet had his own double seat "in what appeared to be an old converted sleeper. It was in a good state of repair, spotlessly clean and we were comfortable with plenty of room."

From Toronto, they took the steamship Cayuga on Lake Ontario to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

A highlight was a grand parade around Niagara-on-the-Lake..

 

"We were going to show off and we did! Flags flapping in the breeze, hundreds of cadets from all over Ontario marched smartly behind their bands, encouraged by the enthusiastic applause of the town's people lining both side of the street."

 

"Heady stuff for youngsters!" Mr. Tremblay admitted, "But we represented the whole generation of younger brothers of the older brothers who had just whipped Hitler.

 

"Fortunately the war ended before we were needed but if it had continued we would have gone over to help them. There was no question about that. We were getting ready and we were determined to follow in our older brother's footsteps."

 

 I appreciate that George Tremblay kindly sent me a copy of 'Break at Nine!. On a very personal note,  I was deeply touched by his comments about the parade, and the feeling of the cadets as I read them 79 years after World War II ended. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

 

NOTE.. Art, Mike, Arnold and Bill all attended Cadet camp at Niagara-on-the-Lake and are wearing the new cadet uniforms but don't know if it was 1945. Anyone recall?