Mourning the passing of educator and Explorations founder Bertha Dawang

As a parent of a child who attended Explorations, probably one of the  most rewarding day-camp format summer experiences a youngster can have  in this city, I got to know Bertha Dawang quite well. She was a co-founder of the program for boys and girls aged four  to 18. Up until last summer, she oversaw every aspect of the operation, with some key collaborators and a solid staff including skilled teachers from the public and private school systems and the university level.

“Do not call them counsellors,” she would frequently say. “They are teachers.”

And that they were, teaching classes such as music, art,  photography, dance, cooking, debating, fencing, build your own computer from scratch, exploring Montreal,  designing clothing  and a panorama of sciences.

The program was originally a designed as a summer school for gifted youngsters, but has broadened its mandate since then.  "This is now an enrichment program for all kids, because we feel that everyone is gifted in different ways,” Bertha would say. “We want to give everyone a chance to explore areas of learning which are not part of their regular curriculum.” 

When I first connected with Explorations as a parent eight years ago, Bertha told me she was almost ready to step down. “One more year,” she said.

 

Bertha Dawang

I would hear that line repeatedly. Explorations was too much part of this retired public school principal and teacher's life. I could see her enthusiasm from the moment the annual open house took place each June to the first day of activities when she could manage multiple conversations at a time. By the end of each day she stood guard at the door, making sure no parent or guardian she was unfamiliar with passed by.

It was only last April, when she got the horrible diagnosis of ovarian cancer, that Bertha reluctantly had to step aside. She lost her battle on January 11, leaving behind her devoted husband of 56 years Elie, two children, four grandchildren, a sister and an endless array of friends and admirers.

“Bertha is about the only person I would take a day off work for  to attend a funeral,” said a shaken Ian Hanchet, a gifted music teacher at the English Montreal School Board who runs the wildly popular School of Rock program at Explorations. “She was a true mentor to me.”

 
Bertha and Elie both retired together some 20 years ago. Elie was not only her partner in life, but he too could be found in the Explorations office each morning for the four  week summer experiences dealing with parents and staff. During the winter they would travel to foreign countries, such as Cambodia and the Czech Republic and often teach. In all they criss-crossed the globe and made about 50 different stops.

While Bertha was known for her tough exterior, I could always see her soft spot. She was an incredibly special person who always loved a cause to fight for. In recent years she could even be seen participating regularly in public question period at Westmount City Council meetings  over traffic concerns on a residential street.

During funeral  services, Rabbi Lisa Grushcow shared the story about Bertha attending a meeting of the former Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal head office. She went to the washroom, only to find they had two-ply toilet paper. It seemed the schools only had one-ply. “She would not stand for that kind of inequality,” said the rabbi.

Her son Stephen, who lives in Toronto, last saw her over the December holidays. “I had a full life,” she told him in what would be their last face to face.

Bertha was only 76 years young and there is no doubt that she would have maintained her active lifestyle for many years to come. We were told that even in her poor health, she still hosted an Explorations board meeting at her home in November.

Explorations, a partnership between McGill University and the EMSB, is sold out every summer with very little publicity. A few years ago Bertha brought noted educator Cliff Buckland to serve as her co-director and successor. He will steer the ship well. But there is no replacing Bertha. She was one in a million!

Dark new TV series Bitten to launch on SPACE TV January 11

Last year the publicity crew from Bell Media’s Space TV sent me some advance copies of their new drama Orphan Black. It was highly addictive and I became immediately hooked to what is already considered a critically acclaimed series.

Well, they did it again to me with the brand new action-packed, original thriller called Bitten. It premieres on Saturday, January 11 (9 p.m.). Based on the New York Times best-selling novels by Canadian author Kelley Armstrong, Bitten is set in a world where werewolves live undetected amongst humans. Drop dead gorgeous actress Laura Vandervoort (Smallville, Ted) sinks her claws into the role as the world’s only female werewolf, Elena Michaels, in this   one-hour series.

The series is eerily similar to the Montreal-filmed Being Human, which begins its fourth season on Space on Monday, January 13 (9 p.m.). This show deals with werewolves, vampires and a ghost.  The scenes of one of the main characters repeatedly transforming himself into a werewolf were frightening to say the least and this is no different on Bitten.

Shot on location in Toronto, Hamilton, and Hespeler, Ontario, the series follows Elena’s (Laura Vandervoort) dangerous struggle between the new life she’s created in Toronto and her loyalty to   The Pack (as in wolf pack), a.k.a her family. In the premiere episode entitled “Summons,” we first met Elena making love to her boyfriend Philip (Paul Greene). Suddenly she stops, tells him she has to leave and dashes towards an elevator. With another woman next to her texting away, Elena successfully controls her transformation to a werewolf until she gets into an alley.

The main cast of Bitten.

While Elena has left New York for a successful career as a photographer in Toronto, having left The Pack a year earlier, she is drawn back to her former life after the mauled body of a girl shows up on the outskirts of Bear Valley in upstate New York. Suddenly Elena is forced to choose between her new “human” life in Toronto with   Philip   and her past at Pack Headquarters, Stonehaven.  

At Stonehaven we meet Jeremy Danvers (Greg Bryk) , the head of the Pack and Clayton Danvers (Greyston Holt). He is also Elena’s former love. There is a bad blood between them, yet the reason for this is not shown in the first two episodes. Only at the start of episode two do we see a flashback set four years earlier with them as a seemingly happy couple. Did Clayton “bite” Elena and turn her into a werewolf?

The term “Mutt” is used often in this series. While The Pack swear not to kill nor let anyone see them transform, “Mutts” live by no rules and their aim is to destroy.

Bitten also stars  Joel Keller as Pete, Paulino Nunes as Antonio, Steve Lund as Nick and Michael Xavier as Logan.

Here is the trailer.

Gurman twins promote MK status at Yeh! Yogurt and Café on Radio Shalom's Money and Business Program

Appearing on Radio Shalom 1650 AM, Canada's only all-Jewish radio station, brothers Jon and Marvin Gurman spoke about their decision to have their Quartier Cavendish Yeh! Yogurt and Café location go under rabbinic supervision. They were guests on the Money and Business Show, co-hosted by Samuel Ezerzer, Adam Eidelmann  and Bryan Wolofsky.

Robert Levy, Marvin Gurman, Samuel Ezerzer and Jon Gurman.

It was an entertaining one hour of radio on a station that really has been inappropriately ignored by the organized Jewish community.  Kudos to founder Robert Levy for his efforts and patience in this endeavor. Besides Ezerzer's excellent program, folks like Howie Silbiger, Stan Asher,  Sidney Dworkin,  Dan "Schmelvis" Hartal and  Avi Kimchi are well worth listening to.

You can hear the entire show by clicking here. It is  in a clever YouTube format developed by Ezerzer.

From the time the   Yeh! store opened last May at Quartier Cavendish, all of the products were kosher. However, the Gurmans decided to take the extra step and seek certification of MK-Canada’s Kosher Certifier and have Cavendish serve as the “flagship store” for kosher franchises. 

The Gurmans respond to a question from Eidelmann.

On the Money and Business Show, the Gurmans offered free yogurt for a year to the first family that decides to have a brith at the Quartier Cavendish location. The brit milah is a Jewish religious male circumcision ceremony performed on eight-day-old male infants (actually on the eighth day of the infant's life).

As for the MK status, Marvin Gurman stated: “It’s a natural merger of two great brands, MK and Yeh!. Our goal is to get MK hashgacha in all nine locations currently in Montreal, and we hope it will lead to kosher franchises in other cities as well.”

In addition to frozen yogurt, Yeh!  also serves dessert crepes, and are working on lunch crepes for the kosher crowd as well.  The stores rotate through several flavours, some of which are pareve. “You will always find pareve chocolate, as well as at least one of mango, grapefruit, or lime sorbets,” says Jon Gurman. “The standard dairy flavours are plain, chocolate, and Greek honey, with five additional rotating flavours that included cheesecake, peanut butter, strawberry, blueberry, and pina colada. Eventually no-sugar-added flavours will be added as well.”

Of course self-serve yogurt is nothing without toppings. In addition to several kinds of fresh fruit, there are other healthy options such as flax, granola, and kashi. Patrons looking for something sweeter can choose sprinkles, cookie dough, Hershey’s chocolate, and Reese’s Pieces.  In addition to the toppings, Yeh! provides Ghirardelli syrup in three flavours, as well as hot toppings such as hot fudge. The yogurts and toppings are all cholov stam (milk or dairy products that have been under constant rabbinic supervision from the time of milking the cows until the completion of production and packaging the product).

With the advent of certification through the MK, Yeh! hopes to add catering to their services. “This would involve pre-packaged portions,” says Marvin Gurman. “We will even be introducing  pink kippot!”

The store at Cavendish has seating for almost 20, and an outdoor patio for summer. The décor, featuring mostly pink, is bright and cheerful. According to Mitchell Simon, who is in charge of store development for the company, the MK certification will be in place for a grand Chanukah celebration.  

For more information log on to www.yehyogurt.com. If you are interested in a Yeh! franchise,  contact Mark Segall at 514-887 2077.

American Idiot the Musical lights up the Place des Arts

The 2009 Tony Award-winning musical American Idiot, featuring the incredible music from GreenDay’s 2004 Grammy Award-winning album of the same name, has stopped in Montreal for a brief two day stay at the  Placedes Arts. A pair of shows took place on Saturday, January 4, with the finale set for Sunday, January 5 at 4 p.m.

This is essentially a show based on the lives of three male best friends: Johnny, Will and Tunny whose lives go in complete different directions. An  energetic young cast of 16 is backed up by a band and a pretty effective set featuring 25 television monitors. The musical begins with a series of news flashes, including the voice of former American President George W. Bush. This all takes place after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The show itself gets off to a very energetic start, with the actual song “American Idiot” being played out. 

The virtually sold out Salle Wilfred Pelletier audience at my showing ate it all up. There were clearly loads of Green Day fans in the crowd. Keep in mind that the subject matter is for mature audiences, there is a lot of profanity and the music is very very loud. While the actual dialogue was sometime difficult to hear clearly, I took advance of the two large simultaneous translation screens on each side of the stage.

As the storyline goes, Will stays behind because his girlfriend is pregnant; Tunny goes to war; and Will moves to the big city.   There are 21 songs in all and this is a 90-minute production straight through without any intermission. Besides “American Idiot,”  the audience seemed to really appreciate some other popular hits such as “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “21 Guns,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,  “21^st Century Breakdown,” and an unreleased love song, “When It’s Time.”

 It is a great show and with the very few Broadway productions which roll through Montreal, one worth trying to get tickets for on Sunday. For more information go to www.pda.qc.ca or www.evenko.ca.

Déjà vu for Montrealers? Toronto's ice storm and how Les Mis and Rob Ford warmed folks up

Driving through Toronto over the Christmas holidays brought back memories of the ice storm Montrealers survived in 1998. Over 300,000 customers were without power, some for as long as nine days, making this the longest in Toronto Hydro’s history.  

 

For six days in 1998, more than  three million people were without power in Quebec and 1.5 million in Eastern Ontario. About 100,000 people went into shelters, hotels or private homes. I remember it only too well.

 The Rob Ford Factor

Perhaps the only person in Toronto to come out as a partial winner from this experience was controversial mayor Rob Ford. Each day he met the media, saying all of the right things and showcasing his recent weight loss.

Rob Ford

Residents who lost a significant amount of food to spoilage due to prolonged power outages were able to collect grocery store gift cards at one of 15 Ontario Works offices in Toronto. The gift cards were jointly funded by the provincial government and grocery retailers. Over the years I have lost a significant amount of money from power outages and there were no such gift cards to speak of.

Hotels Get Busy

Places like  The Grand Hotel and Suites  in downtown Toronto, where my family likes to stay, saw an  unexpected spike in occupancy. “The week of Christmas is usually a slower time for us due to businesses being closed and corporate clients not travelling,” said reservations manager Laura Lee Marrin. “When the Ice storm hit there were approximately 300,000 Toronto Hydro customers without power. However we never lost power at the hotel.  Starting on Sunday December 22 we had a large number of guests calling and checking in for same day reservations. We were sold out for the next four nights. Guests were extending day by day based on if their power had been restored at home or not. We called in extra staff for all departments.”

The Grand Hotel and Suites, by the way, is perfectly located at Jarvis and Yonge, very close to the huge Eaton Centre. It has all of the comforts of home, especially junior two bedroom suites which come with all the bells and whistles and a big buffet breakfast included in your daily room rate. Weekdays, a shuttle will bring you anywhere in the area you need to go. 

My friend Rob Singer, a former Montrealer, and his wife Philippa, reside in the suburb of Thornhill. They lost power for 36 hours. Fortunately they were able to stay with family and an extra freezer there enabled them to keep most of their perishables. “I left Montreal before your ice storm in 1998,” said Rob. “Now we know what it feels like. One lady on our street, whom we never met, did not lose power and she came door to door with fresh coffee. We heard of people using their propane barbeques inside their homes, despite warnings of how dangerous this was. I am sure glad it is over.”

Les Miserables

One place that did not go dark was the magnificent Prince of Wales Theatre on King Street, where a new presentation of Les Miserables has been playing before capacity crowds since October. Despite the ice storm, shows continued each night and the people kept coming. In fact, Les Mis has been extended  a number of times, now until February 2. That will be about it because the show moves to previews on Broadway in March, with the superb Ramin Karimloo continuing in the lead role of Jean Valjean. Born in Iran and raised in Ontario,  he also played the lead  in The Phantom of the Opera and  Love Never Dies  in London's West End.

 

Ramin Karimloo

This is a brand new staging of Les Mis and quite spectacular at that. It is well worth a trip from Montreal just to see this show alone as the only thing to compare it to will be...well the soon to mounted Broadway version. With last year’s motion picture version starring Hugh Jackman still fresh in many of our memories, the restaging of the musical was well planned. It, of course, follows the plight of Valjean, imprisoned for 19 years after stealing a loaf of bread  in order to feed his sister’s starving child. Upon his release he becomes a successful man with a new identity, only to be hounded by mean spirited Inspector Javert. He adopts Cosette, orphaned by the death of her mother and the story follows their attempt at a normal life. Canadian Idol fans may recall the name of Melissa O’Neil. She was the 2005 season three winner and has gone on to a musical career on stage. She plays the role of  Éponine, the daughter of the trouble-making Thénadiers who originally have custody of Cosette until Valjean steps in.  Two other Canadian Idol grads, Aaron Walpole and Elena Juatco, are also in the show. Walpole is the understudy to Karimloo while Juatco is in the ensemble. Montreal native Lisa Horner plays Mrs. Thénadier.

Melissa O'Neil

Bravo to Mirvish Productions for providing Canada with yet another first class production.

And a final note on Toronto. As we got set to depart, Mayor Ford filed his papers to declare he is in fact a candidate to be re-elected next November. “Bring him home!” I say.

A well deserved honour: Dick Irvin now a Member of the Order of Canada

I was absolutely delighted to learn that legendary broadcaster Dick Irvin has been named a Member of the Order of Canada.

More than a year ago I got a call from Don McGowan, for years the ever so entertaining weather forecaster on the old Pulse News and the host of a variety of local TV shows. Don asked if I would contribute a letter as part of his push to have Dick named to the Order. I happily complied, indicating to Don (now a resident of Brockville, Ontario) that there could not be a better choice.

Dick Irvin

Dick, now 81, remains a resident of West Island Pointe Claire. He can still be seen at many community events, often sharing his golden voice and encyclopedic knowledge of professional sports with adoring audiences. For decades Dick was the sports director for CFCF Radio and TV. He handled play-by-play duties for Canadiens hockey games on radio and worked as well on Hockey Night in Canada. In 1988 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. His late father, Dick Irvin Sr., was a legendary coach for the Canadiens.

I will forever be appreciative of Dick for how he treated me as a young teenager in the very intimidating Canadiens press box. I started off there working for the old Sunday Express and not all of the veteran media there welcomed me warmly. But not Dick. He would take a seat with me in the press room, treating me like one of the boys and always had time to share his thoughts.

Dick was also the author of several books and for many years managed the very successful Sports Celebrity Dinner, benefitting the two local children's hospitals.

Way to go Dick!

Next Call with Sol: Boxenbaum rocks his way back to the airways via online station

The new look Boxenbaum

Former CJAD talk show host Sol Boxenbaum will make a return to  radio  via internet station www.rock-fm.ca. He starts on January 6, 2014   Monday through Fridays from midnight to 2 a.m.

“I will be playing music from the 1960s, give or take, plus lots of Quebec artists both on CD and in studio,” he says, noting that he still hopes to catch on with AM600 when it goes on the air next fall.    

For a number of years Sol developed a cult following overnight on CJAD. For the insomniacs, he was a constant companion. As a professional dealing with  gambling addiction, Last Call with Sol became a place to call for people in trouble. On air they received free counselling. But the show turned out to be just about anything people had on their minds. The lines were constantly ablaze. While the program has been off the air since 2010, Sol had one brief foray on an internet radio station. Now he will do so again.

For anyone with internet access, this is no different than listening to the radio. Just log on to the website and listen. It should be fun if you are up at that time.