Trip to Canada, August 6-24, 2012

Day	Miles (km) Driven	Cities Visited	Peace Monuments & Museums Visited	Other Activities
Days 1-2		Click here for 12 photos of Indiana (USA)	Carnegie Libr Manchester Univ	Janet & Dick Whitesville
Day 1 Monday August 6	375 (604)	Knoxville, TN Lexington, KY Cincinnati, OH Knightstown, IN	Gaar Mansion in Richmond, IN [no time to visit]	Depart home in Knoxville, TN Buy new automotive battery in Cincinnati, OH Visit cousins Janet & Dick Davidson near Knightstown, IN
Day 2 Tuesday August 7	196 (315)	Greenfield, IN Indianapolis, IN Crawfordsville, IN Logansport, IN	Carnegie Library (1913) in Roachdale, IN - has original circulation desk Carnegie [Library] Museum of Montgomery Cty (1901) in Crawfordsville Peace Statue at Montgomery County Courthouse in Crawfordsville, IN	Drive around farm in Hancock County, IN Try visit Bruce & Linda Muegge near Carthage, IN [not home] Visit family graves at cemetery in Roachdale, IN Meeting with Terry Nichols in Whitesville, IN Visit Montgomery Cty Assessor's Office. Meet with Joyce ____. Obtain names of assessor Kelly Ewoldt & deputy Sherri Bentley Obtain names of Karen __ & Jennifer __ at Cty Mapping Dept. County Mapping Department [closed until Thursday]
Days 3-6		Click here for 16 photos of Windsor, Toronto & Kingston, Ontario (Canada)	Inukshuk Wall of Peace	Randy Campbell Kingston
Day 3 Wednesday August 8	300 (482)	North Manchester, IN Toledo, OH Detroit, MI Windsor, ON 1	Seated Lincoln Monument in Wabash, IN [no time to visit] Peace House & Peace Garden at Manchester University Kiwanis Peace Plaque on Ambassador Bridge [no chance to search] 5 "Gateway to Freedom" (2001) in Detroit, MI [no time to visit] "Tower of [African-American] Freedom" (2001) in Windsor, ON 3 Inukshuk (2000) at Windsor City Hall Square 10 Rotary International Peace Monument (2003) in Clark Square Peace Beacon (2007) at The Bistro on the River in Windsor, ON Knights of Columbus Peace Monument (1967) in Dieppe Park Charlie Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain (1992) in Detroit River Bangladesh Peace Clock (2010) in Ouellette Avenue [no time to visit] Distant view of Peace Carillion (1940) on Belle Isle in Detroit, MI	Use Ohio Turnpike (I-80/I-90) from Indiana line to Toledo Tour of Detroit led by Clay Jackson [not available] Try to use Ambassdor Bridge [approach jammed] Use Detroit River Tunnel to enter Canada See Hiram Walker distillery in Windsor, ON
Day 4 Thursday August 9	223 (359)	Blenheim, ON Morpeth, ON Ridgetown, ON Guelph, ON	John Freeman Walls Hist Site & Ugrnd RR Museum, Lakeshore [closed]	Buy Canadian phone card [since US cell phone won't work] See many wind turbines Visit cousin Randy Campbell on Trillium Alpaca & Goat Farm Receive gift of goat ice cream & cheese from ____ See wild turkeys on Randy's farm Visit Campbell family graves in Morpeth Cemetery Meet ___ at Talbot Antiques in Morpeth, ON Dinner at beer restaurant in Guelph, ON
Day 5 Friday August 10	189 (304)	Toronto, ON 2 Cobourg, ON Belleville, ON	Vishnu Mandir & Canadian Museum of Hindu Civilization (2004) Statue of Mahatma Gandhi Fountain from Peace Palace in The Hague (1929) [no time to visit] Angel of Peace, Shrine Peace Memorial (1930) [no time to visit] Peace Garden, Nathan Phillips Square (1984) [no time to visit] "Cairn of Peace & Golden Plough" (1955) in Cobourg, ON 9	See many Toronto expressways & power lines Drive to Belleville waterfront Dinner at "Bull & Boar" restaurant
Day 6 Saturday August 11	199 (320)	Kingston, ON Gananoque, ON Ottawa, ON Gatineau, QC 12	Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, ON Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, ON Rush-Bagnot Peace Treaty marker (Date?) at Royal Military College Canadian Museum of Civilization (1856/1989) in Gatineau, QC 4	See power boat race in Kingston, ON Use 1000 Islands Parkway from Gananoque to Brockville See 1000 Islands Bridge. Photograph Lions Club arch. Buy inukshuk figurine & earrings at Museum of Civilization Dinner at Thai & Lebanese restaurant See fireworks over park in Gatineau, QC
Day 7		Click here for 20 photos of Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)	Jamais la Guerre Reconciliation	At Peace Tower Guard
Day 7 Sunday August 12	155 (249)	Hull, QC Ottawa, ON Cornwall, ON Montréal, QC	"Plus Jamais la Guerre" (1992) in Hull, QC Statues of Peace & Freedom on National War Memorial (1939) in Ottawa Peace Tower (1927), Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, ON Statue of Lester Pearson (1989) on Parliament Hill [too far to walk] "The Famous Five [Women]" (2000) on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, ON "Reconciliation"/National Peacekeeping Monument (1992) in Ottawa, ON Sri Chinmoy Peace Plaque (1992) at Ottawa City Hall [forgot to search] World Peace Bell (1996) from Japan at Ottawa City Hall 8 "Canadian Tribute to Human Rights" (1990) near Ottawa City Hall Kiwanis Peace Plaque (1936) in Cornwall, ON [not found] Inukshuk (2010) in Lamoureux Park, Cornwall, ON [not found] Peace sculptor Shaukat Chaney in Lamoureux Park [not found]	See daily "Guard Mount" by Ceremonial Gurd on Parliament Hill See veterans ceremony with UN flags at Reconciliation monument Meet Jim Sherman at Perfect Books on Elgin Street in Ottawa Moses-Sanders Power Dam Visitors Centre [closed on Sunday] Dinner in all-you-can-eat Asian restaurant (Kanda)
Days 8-9		Click here for 16 photos of Montréal & Québec City, Québec (Canada)	Biosphère Montréal	Québec Montmorency
Day 8 Monday August 13	132 (212)	Montréal, QC Trois Rivières, QC	"Reparation Monument to the Victims of Genocide" (1998) Place de la Grande-Paix-de-Montréal (Date?) in Old City [not found] Place de la Paix (1994) in Old City Montréal Biosphère (US pavillion in 1967 World's Fair) Cloche de la Paix (1998), Montréal Botanical Gardens [paid admission] Caesura Sculpture (1991) in Jarry Park [no time to visit] "Give Peace a Chance" (2009) in Mount Royal Park [no time to visit] Jardin Roerich (2009) in St-Viateur [no time to visit]	Try to meet John MacLeod (Univ of Montréal) [not available] See Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal in Old City See Habitat 67 (from 1967 World's Fair) See Stadium Tower (from 1976 Olympics) Dinner at Greek restaurant near Trois Rivières, QC Watch ship in St. Lawrence Seaway pass under bridge
Day 9 Tuesday August 14	195 (314)	Port de Neuville, QC Ville de Québec, QC Charlesbourg, QC Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré La Malbaie, QC	Monument des Jeunes pour le Paix & Desarmement [no time to visit] Parc de la Paix de St.-Laurent (1992) [no time to visit] Parc de la Paix (1994) in Charlesbourg, QC [highway exit closed]	Donate two 1935 travel scrapbooks to QC Office du tourisme Meet Francine Beaupré, Chef d'équipe, QC Office du tourisme Visit Old City of Québec. See Chateau de Frontenac (1893). See Wolfe-Montcalm Monument (1827) in Parc des Gouverneurs See Montmorency Falls Buy Iroquois Baton de la Paix fm Scott Kingsland at Atelier Paré See Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré
Days 10-12		Click here for 20 photos of Québec North Shore (Canada)	Beaupré Sept-Îles	Agara/Uashat Zodiacs
Day 10 Wednesday August 15	332 (534)	Tadoussac, QC Baie-Comeau, QC Godbout, QC Sept-Îles, QC		Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park See 5 Zodiacs depart from Essipit Reserve to watch whales Cap-du-Bon-Désir whale watching site [cost admission] See numerous sand dunes from Forestville to Moise Attempt have lunch at Manor Hotel [dining room closed] [Learn ferry reservation possible only on Friday night]
Day 11 Thursday August 16	63 (101)	Maliotenam Reserve Moise, QC Uashat Reserve, QC Sept-Îles, QC		Drive around Maliotenam [Innu Aboriginal] Reserve 11 Tour of Rio Tinto IOC iron ore operation [ended for 2012] Tour of Aluminerie Alouette smelter [conflict with IOC tour] Lunch at seafood restaurant in Sept-Îles, QC Vieux Quai & board walk. See cormorants & terns. Vieux-Poste (Old Trading Post) in Uashat [under renovation] Agara [Innu Art Place] in Uashat, QC. Meet Melina Vassiliou.
Not Visited	466 (750)	Havre-Saint-Pierre Natashquan, QC Pointe-Parent, QC		[Ferry reservation prevents driving East as intended.] Mingan Archipeligo Marine Park Reserve End of highway 138 (no bridge over Rivière Natashquan).
Day 12 Friday August 17	191 (307)	Sept-Îles, QC Baie-Comeau, QC Matane, QC	North Shore Regional Museum in Sept-Îles, QC	Meet conserver & resercher Steve Dubreuil Meet Luc-Maxime Charbonneau-Lefebre (Univ. of Montréal). Dubreuil suggests "Cain's Legacy" by Richard Geren (1990) Sail 2.5-hrs on MV Camille-Marcoux across St. Lawrence at night
Days 13-15		Click here for 16 photos of Gaspé Peninsula, Québec (Canada)	Cloridorme Drummondsville	River Ferry Percé Rock
Day 13 Saturday August 18	194 (312)	Ste.-Anne-des-Monts Gaspé, QC	Exploramer museum in Ste.-Anne-des-Monts, QC	Lunch at Poissonerie Restaurant du Quai in Ste.-Anne-des-Monts Photograph quartz veins in stratified cliffs Photograph war memorial in front of a church in Cloridorme, QC Barely miss hitting black bear running across the road
Day 14 Sunday August 19	329 (529)	Percé, QC Campbellton, NB Edmondston, NB		See Percé Rock from both sides Observe Triassic-like redbed sediments south of Percé, QC Dinner in Campbellton (during concert by Jehovah's Witnesses)
Day 15 Monday August 20	287 (462)	Rivière-du-Loup, QC Lévis, QC Drummondsville, QC	Grosse Ile & Irish Memorial National Hist. Site (1974) [no time to visit] Parc de la Paix at old Canadian AF Base in Lévis, QC [no time to visit]	Visit Noël au Château & store in Rivière-du-Loup, QC Buy cheeses at Fromagerie Lemaire in St-Cyrille-de-Wendover Buy poulet roti in Loblaw's grocery store. Spend all Canadian cash.
Days 16-19		Click here for 12 photos of New York, etc. (USA)	Trout River Batavia	Bruce Carter Knoxville
Day 16 Tuesday August 21	241 (388)	Drummondsville, QC Lacolle, QC Trout River, NY Massena, NY Ogdensburg, NY	Parc de la Paix [by John MacLeod] in Drummondsville, QC Centre d'Interprétation de la Guerre de 1812 in Lacolle, QC 6 Kiwanis Peace Plaque (1937) in Lacolle, QC [not found] Kiwanis Peace Plaque (1937) in Trout River, NY [found by EWL!]	Visit Blockhaus de la Rivière-Lacolle (c1781) Obtain name of local historian Gilles Pèlerin Stop at 3 apple orchards/cider producers [all 3 closed] See large fox loping alone on St Lawrence Seaway lawn Visit Eisenhower Lock (1959) on Seaway near Massena, NY See Amish vendors along road & in shopping center parking lot Dinner in Chinese restaurant
Day 17 Wednesday August 22	300 (483)	Alexandria Bay, NY Syracuse, NY Batavia, NY Buffalo, NY Hamburg, NY	Kiwanis Peace Plaque in Alexandria Bay, NY [found by DeYoung!] Honorary International Peace Garden in Batavia, NY (2012) 7 Holland Land Office Museum in Batavia, NY	Meet Gary DeYoung, director 1000 Islands Intl Tourism Council Obtain "The War of 1812 Bicentennial Peace Garden Trail" Use New York Thruway (I-90) from Syracuse to Buffalo Obtain name of peace garden chair Barbara A. Toal in Batavia Meet Jeff Donahue, director Holland Land Office Museum Buy 1812-2012 peace brick at Holland Land Office Museum Intl Peace Garden Found pres Paula Savage [neglect to contact]
Day 18 Thursday August 23	302 (485)	Erie, PA Grove City, PA Washington, PA Morgantown,WV		Use New York Thruway (I-90) from Hamburg to PA line Buy wine at Courtyard Wineries in North East, PA Visit Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA (in Lake Erie) Buy Lion & Lamb coaster at Wendell August Forge, Grove City Buy olive CND peace pins fm West Bank at Slovak Folk Crafts Visit shopping center on mountain tops in Morgantown, WV
Day 19 Friday August 24	555 (893)	Charleston, WV Wytheville, VA Knoxville, TN		Visit cousins Bruce & Annette Carter in Big Chimney, WV Use West Virginia Turnpike (I-64/I-77) Arrive home in Knoxville, TN
Totals 19 days	4,757 mi (7,656 km)	9 states 3 provinces (NB,ON,QC)	30 monuments, 8 museums, 108 photographs 4 peace souvenirs (inukshuk, lion & lamb, peace stick & peace brick)	5 cousins, 16 new contacts, 5 wildlife encounters (bear, cormorants, fox, terns & wild turkeys - but no deer, moose or whale)

Endnotes (as emailed on September 5, 2012)

¹ Windsor, Ontario. Windsor (metro population 210,891) was our gateway into Canada from the USA, and it is very impressive. Six peace monuments are distributed with other monuments in a string of parks alongside the Detroit River, and two additional peace monuments are found nearby. These monuments and parks help create a very attractive cityscape. Only 23,361 residents per monument puts Windsor in the peace monument big leagues -- not too far behind "peace" cities such as Geneva, The Hague, and Hiroshima. Windsor is immediately adjacent to troubled Detroit (city population 713,777). Does Windsor deliberately maintain peace monuments in order to contrast with violence-prone Detroit and with US policies antithetical to peace (e.g. guns and war)? But Windsor's eight monuments stem from different sources, and I doubt if a common definition of "peace" is shared by the monuments' sponsors and "friends." return

² Other Cities. Ottawa has a set of monuments befitting a national capital, and its monuments pay far more deference to peace than those in Washington, DC. "Reconciliation" (about UN peacekeeping) and "The Famous Five" (about the five instigators of the Canadian women’s rights movement in the 1920's) are world-class monuments. Montreal and Toronto also have a number of peace monuments, but these cities are far larger, and their monuments are scattered. Quebec City has unique attractions (walls, old buildings, Chateau Frontenac, and battlefield) but few peace monuments. return

³ Underground Railroad sites. Southern Ontario was the ultimate destination of many American slaves, and there is a growing number of historic sites and museums to tell their stories. We drove several kilometers out of our way to visit one site -- the John Freeman Walls Underground Railroad Museum in Lake Shore (former Puce) -- but it was closed. There are other underground railroad sites and/or museums in Amherstburg, Ancaster, Chatham, Dresden, Niagara Falls, North Buxton, Oakville, and St. Catherine's. Detroit and Windsor share a most impressive pair of peace monuments. On the US side of the Detroit River, seven African-American fugitives face the final obstacle of their flight to Canada. A mile away in Windsor, a smaller group exults in having found freedom. On the back of the latter monument, a child holding a rag doll looks forlornly back at the only country she had ever known. return

⁴ Other Museums for Peace. We visited two museums which should be on anyone's list of "museums for peace." The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Québec (across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill) is world class. Its most spectacular exhibit crams the entire history of Canada into a sinuous path of full-size recreations. Less crowded halls highlight famous Canadians and aboriginal cultures. The Canadian Museum of Hindu Civilization in Toronto, Ontario, is an on-going product of the local Hindu community. It very much emphasizes peace with multiple exhibits presenting Hinduism alongside other world religions and displaying Gandhi alongside Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Aung San Suu Kyi, and other notable peacemakers. return

⁵ Kiwanis Peace Plaques. I've worried for some time why the more than thirty Kiwanis peace plaques placed all along US-Canadian border in the 1930's to celebrate the "unfortified boundary" aren't better known (or even accurately cataloged). We tried to find Kiwanis plaques in five different places -- and scored 40 percent. (1) The Ambassador Bridge was built in 1929 and is the busiest of all US-Canadian border crossings. We encountered a back up of trucks miles before we reached the bridge and therefore used the less crowded (and more restricted) tunnel, thus missing our only chance to spot the plaque on or near the bridge. In (2) Cromwell, Ontario, and (3) Lacolle, Québec, we interviewed a total of seven residents, none of whom had ever seen or heard of the Kiwanis plaques said to be (or to have been) in their towns. (4) At the very rural border crossing north of Trout River, New York, a Canadian Customs officer cooperatively pointed to the plaque in no-man's-land between his station and the nearby American station but warned me to return to my vehicle before proceeding to cross the border. As I walked to and photographed the monument, I attracted attention from the US side of the border, and three Border Patrol officers started walking toward me -- making this the most uneasy peace monument visit I've ever conducted. But they were polite (and seemingly satisfied) when we drove through their check point and showed our passports (and when Schera told them I was an eccentric collector of peace monuments). (5) The next day, we stopped at the tourist information office at the US end of the 1000 Islands Bridge, and I happened to see a man working inside an office labeled "Manager." Although responsible for tourist promotion on both sides of the border, Gary DeYoung had never heard of the Kiwanis plaques but said he'd stop to check a couple of monuments half way across the three-span Bridge (dedicated in 1938). Two days later, he emailed me a photo of the a Kiwanis peace plaque of which I previously had no record. return

⁶ War of 1812. This bicentennial year is going virtually unobserved by US national media, and I've wondered how it's being observed in New York, Ontario, and Québec where some of the action took place 200 years ago -- and where residents are more acutely aware of having international neighbors. On this trip, we found multiple evidence of 1812 sites' advertising themselves for visits by tourists and of some over-and-done early summer commemorations. But most of this activity seemed to emphasize "feats of arms" (to quote the brochure for the War of 1812 museum in Lacolle, Québec). Only one or two brochures even noted the subsequent 200 years of international peace, and none that I saw went so far as to note any of the many important achievements which international peace has allowed our two countries to accomplish together. On the Canadian side, the significance of the war was often described as "staving off an American invasion of Canada" (to quote the brochure of the St. Lawrence War of 1812 Bicentennial Alliance), "the Americans finally got the message and signed a peace treaty" (from a City of Lacolle brochure), and "ultimately leading to independence for both the U.S. and Canada" (from the IPGF brochure). I saw no mention of the facts that there were two Canadas in 1812 (Lower and Upper) and that they did not become united and independent until 1867. return

⁷ Bicentennial & International Peace Gardens. At the 1000 Islands tourist information office, I found a 28-panel brochure -- "The War of 1812 Bicentennial Peace Garden Trail" -- describing eleven "Bicentennial Peace Gardens" and five "Honorary International Peace Gardens" in New York state. The brochure's map contains the symbols and city names of three additional gardens in Ontario and has inconsistent names of gardens in New York -- with no explanation. By this part of our trip, we were in a hurry to get home, but we nevertheless stopped to visit the "honorary" peace garden in Batavia, NY. It was very well tended and surprisingly impressive. The garden contains five duplicatory plaques (one of which features an Indian with bow and arrow facing a soldier with musket and bayonet), 20 large flag poles (flying flags of the Peace Garden Trail, the IPGF, and 18 different nations), a kiosk, the insignia of four US armed services, a sculpted globe, and a polished stone bench on which "Who plants a seed / beneath the sod / and waits to see / believes in God" is newly engraved. The multiplicity of symbols caused me to wonder exactly what kind of "peace" is being celebrated -- the long-ago defeat of the "American" army, subsequent US-Canadian friendship, world peace, American patriotism, meditative serenity, the miracle of nature, or all of the above. At the adjacent museum, I paid $25.00 for a brick labeled with the trail logo and inscribed "1812-2012 1812 Peace." The brochure and all five plaques in the Batavia garden contain the logo and URL (http://1812.ipgf.org) of the International Peace Garden Foundation (IPGF). I already had twenty-one IPGF gardens in as many different countries on my peace monuments website (http://peace.maripo.com/p_gardens.htm), but I forgot -- and it's nowhere noted in the brochure or on the five plaques -- that IPGF is located in Batavia, Ottawa, and Colomelles (France). I therefore missed the opportunity to look for IPGF president Paula Savage (who is also director of tourism for the Visit Rochester Association) and learn more about the bicentennial project. I would particularly like to know the difference between a Bicentennial Peace Garden and an Honorary [sic] International Peace Garden. return

⁸ World Peace Bell. In 2008, Schera and I visited Tomijiro Yoshida in the Ikebukuro District of Tokyo (Japan). For many years, he made replicas of the famous Japanese Peace Bell which has been at United Nations headquarters since 1954, and he promoted world peace by donating one replica to each of two dozen countries in all parts of the world. The US bell is in a garden next to the public library in Los Angeles, California. The Mexican Bell hangs outdoors in Mexico City's Parque Lira. Then there is Canada. We knew that Canada's bell used to hang outdoors from a beam of Ottawa's modern City Hall, but we couldn't find it until a passerby coaxed us inside with the promise that the building is open even on Sunday. That's how I came to present myself to the information kiosk in the central atrium of City Hall. When I inquired about the bell, the info person merely pointed up, and there it was -- sitting at the railing of the floor above. I climbed a flight of steps to pay my respects. Poor thing. Bells are made to hang and to be rung. This one is robbed of its dignity and forced to sit on the floor in front of a sculpted semi-nude circus performer and her full sized horse. No plaque reveals its origin or importance. Well, at least the bell is safe for now, and maybe someday it will receive the respect it deserves. return

⁹ Two unusual peace monuments. Two of the monuments we saw in small towns stand out as unusual. In 1953, Cobourg, Ontario, hosted the first "World Ploughing Championship," after which a "Cairn of Peace & Golden Plough" was erected on a prominent street corner and labeled "A symbol of peace & unity for world peace." In Drummondsville, Québec, a local man told me where to find the so-called "Parc de la Paix de Drummondsville," but, when we got there, I found no words of any kind -- just an aluminum obelisk surrounded by a ring of apple trees and some exercise equipment surrounded by a ring of maple trees. There's nothing to show that the park, the obelisk, or the trees represent peace (or anything else). return

¹⁰ Inuksuit. According to Wikipedia, "an inuksuk (plural inuksuit), alternatively inukshuk in English, is a stone landmark or cairn [originally] built [and] used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Artic region of North America." Modern inuksuit are virtually unknown in the United States, but I'd read on the Internet that they are beginning to be constructed as a (peaceful) symbol of Canada (e.g. for the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics), and last November I visited an inukshuk at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. A huge inukshuk greeted us immediately after we emerged from the Detroit River tunnel in Windsor. Throughout Ontario and Québec, we found homemade inuksuit in private gardens and souvenir inuksuit on sale in shops. (Some were made in China, and some were made of glass or polished slabs, which seemed to me to spoil their authenticity.) I bought one of the better looking examples at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. return

¹¹ Aboriginal Canadians. In 1955, I was embarrassed to sit next to an "Indian" in a Sept-Îles theatre during a "Western" movie (cowboys slaying Indians). This year, we had the honor to meet a Sept-Îles "Aboriginal" who had just returned from attending a Sun Dance in South Dakota. I've been visiting Canada off and on since childhood, and something's new every time. This time, the term "aboriginal" (autochtone in French) sneaked up on me. To my ears, it seems too Australian to be used in North America, but the autochtones we met in Sept-Iles find the term to be perfectly natural. Anyway, I'm happy that Canadian aboriginals seem to have more opportunities and better housing than ever before. Artic inuksuit are noted above, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization contains many aboriginal "monuments" from British Columbia. Otherwise, we saw no aboriginal art in public spaces, but maybe we just didn't know where or how to look. return

¹² French vs. English. This is another feature of Canada which seems to change every time I visit. Québec stop signs used to say "Stop." But no longer. Now they all say "Arret." In fact, Québec seems to be going out of its way to exclude English from all public notices, whereas Ontario universally employs both languages. In a way, this makes me feel at home. I grew up in "La Nouvelle France" where the only French I ever encountered was historic place names (e.g. Illinois, Des Plaines, Fond du Lac, and Terre Haute) left behind by Francophones. That's just like Québec today where the only visible English is historic place names (e.g. Black Lake, Forestville, Iron Ore Company of Canada, and Thetford Mines) left behind by Anglophones. A provincial election campaign was in full swing while we were in Québec, but we didn't learn very much about it. Most of our news came from the English language service of CBC radio, and election rhetoric seemed to use code words for language issues which I did not understand. Last minute note (lead sentence in The Guardian newspaper of September 5, 2012): "Reports that the gunman at a Parti Québécois victory rally muttered 'the English are waking up' in accented French while being escorted to a police cruiser will send a chill through Canada." return