"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do l," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Well…2025…it seems like we’ve been on the edge of our seats all year long. It’s hard to know even where to start. As the year proceeds through its final month (as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “December is the time for remembering the past and reaching towards the future”), it provides an opportunity to reflect on those events and moments that touched and impacted us over the last year….and quite the year it has been.
Each December, we have written, mailed or emailed out a Christmas newsletter to family and friends, which we title ‘View From The Lighthouse’…that lighthouse at the water’s edge on our property (that’s it in the picture above) is a place that I do spend a fair amount of time at…reading, writing, thinking, relaxing…very peaceful. Great Lakes freighters can be seen going back and forth but these are not the treacherous waters of the northwest coastline of British Columbia, which I’ll reference below. Over the years, the letter expanded as we decided to share our perspectives on more and more topics of conversation that interested us, influenced us and attracted our attention, it became somewhat unwieldly to add it to everyone’s busy Christmas season, so I’ve decided to include segments of it in our Canoe Foundation blogs and hopefully find some analogies to issues that we are focused on, related to our overall goal of seeking peace with nature and each other and for a climate safe future.
At this time of year, music is an important element of the season and so I wanted to look back over the past year and highlight those musicians who over many years brought great joy to my life, but during these past 12 months have departed our blue planet.
In January, Peter Yarrow, song writer, guitar player and singer of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary passed away. They performed songs by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver and others as well as their own compositions…they mixed music with political and social activism, participating in countless anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and marching with Martin Luther King Jr. I will always fondly remember singing many of their songs at the camp fires at Camp Hurontario, including Lemon Tree, 500 Miles, If I Had A Hammer, Puff The Magic Dragon, Where Have All The Flowers Gone?, Blowin’ In The Wind, Early Mornin’ Rain and Leaving On A Jet Plane among many others. Those Saturday evening camp fires, where everyone at the camp, including counsellors, campers, the dining hall ladies attended…about 150 people all singing with a million stars shining down and the sparks from the fire rising up to meet them was mesmerizing. There were about 6 or 7 senior staffers (a few were from TCS) all playing guitars and they were really magical events…those songs have all impacted my philosophies, my perspectives, my beliefs and are deep within my soul…many still bring a tear to my eye.
Also in January, Garth Hudson, Canadian multi-instrumentalist, virtuoso organist passed away in Woodstock, NY. The last surviving member of the Band, he was a key architect of the unique roots-rock sound of one of the most influential musical groups of all time. “He could’ve been playing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra or with Miles Davis, but he was with us, and we were lucky to have him.” – Robbie Robertson. Tracing their origins to backing up Ronnie Hawkins as the Hawks beginning on Yonge St. in Toronto in the late 50’s, to helping Bob Dylan on his electrical journey in 1966 to emerging as simply the Band with the release of their ground breaking first album, Music From Big Pink, named after their house and its rehearsal basement in Woodstock. They then accompanied Dylan back on the road in 1974 (after a hiatus of 8 years after his motorcycle accident) for a limited tour that many consider the greatest ever (I was in attendance at their Maple Leaf Gardens concert). The Band’s final concert in 1976, was filmed by Martin Scorsese and titled The Last Waltz and is still considered the greatest ever filmed musical concert…worth another look. The end of a musical era.
Also in January, Marianne Faithful, British singer and actress who was widely known as the ethereal icon and crown princess of Swinging Sixties London, died. Seen as a unique blend of innocence and rebellion, she rose to fame by recording the Jagger/Richards song “As Tears Go By” before the Rolling Stones themselves. Her relationship with Mick Jagger catapulted the pair to “It Couple” status. Marianne Faithful is believed to be the inspiration behind Stones’ classics “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Wild Horses”, among others. While her life included a number of ups and downs she showed a remarkable resilience with a number of comebacks. Some have said that ``she captured everything we want to remember about why the 60’s were so special``.
In late May, the legendary New York singer-songwriter Paul Simon played three evenings at Toronto’s historic Massey Hall, and in a comment about his own country, said, “Today…we have millions and millions of people looking for the America that they believe is the real America. And I’m happy to report that I found it – it’s here in Canada. You remind us of who we are when we were at our best.”
In early June, Sly Stone passed away at the age of 82…the visionary behind Sly and the Family Stone, he was a true pioneer…Stone helped revolutionize American music by blending funk, soul, R&B, rock, and psychedelia into a sound that was bold and innovative…who pushed the boundaries of music by having a racially and gender integrated band…referred to as the founder of ‘progressive soul’. The band’s performance at Woodstock, including ‘Everyday People’, ‘Dance to the Music’ and ‘I Want to Take You Higher’, were highlights of the festival.
Days later, Brian Wilson passed away, interestingly at that same age of 82…American singer, songwriter and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys…acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. An incredibly successful songwriter who was elevated and burdened by the label of genius, he transcended the breezy surf genre to create complex and intricate soundscapes in the studio. The Beach Boys 11th studio album Pet Sounds, released in 1966, is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential albums in music history. His nervous breakdown in 1964 was attributed in some degree to a combination of the abuse he had continually endured from his Father, the threat he felt from the wave of Beatlemania and how it could displace the Beach Boys as the predominant band of the era, as well as the stress of touring. He felt most comfortable in the recording studio and was replaced on tour, initially by Glen Campbell (whose final personal concert tour we caught at the Canadian National Exhibition about a decade ago). Brian Wilson embarked upon a path in search of aural perfection, the one true sound, and departed while still on that path…the poet laureate of summer…good vibrations, indeed.
Several years ago, we headed over to Toledo, the one in Ohio, to visit my cousin and her husband. They took us to the National Museum of the Great Lakes which included a tour of the freighter Colonel James M. Schoonmaker. It so happens that that ship is of a similar design and vintage of a ship that went down in Lake Superior 50 years ago on November 10th 1975…perhaps the most famous of American shipwrecks…of course we all remember the Edmund Fitzgerald from Gordon Lightfoot`s classic song which he wrote about a month later after reading the story…naturally, the album found its way onto the turntable and it seemed appropriate to listen to that story in song on that evening.
In late November, Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican reggae pioneer died at the age of 81. As Yusuf/Cat Stevens said, “…his songs always had some message of peace”.
In early December, Steve Cropper, the guitar virtuoso passed away at the age of 84…he was the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, as well as Sam & Dave. He also acted as the producer of many of these records. He was later a member of the Blues Brothers band. Along with influential work with Booker T & The MG's, Cropper co-wrote "Knock on Wood" with Eddie Floyd, "In the Midnight Hour" with Wilson Pickett and "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" with Otis Redding. On the latter, he was also the producer and when Redding was killed in a plane crash, Cropper finished the song, which went on to be #1 on both the R & B as well as the pop charts…first time that ever happened posthumously. Steve Cropper’s legacy is firmly in place as he is highly regarded as one of the greatest guitarist of all time.
It is a reality that so many of those who influenced us early on and had a significant impact on us growing up are one by one slipping away…while it is sad, we take solace in the fact that we are thankful for having experienced whatever it was that they shared with us…that will always be here…it can never fade away.
Which brings me back to those three announcements from earlier this month that I referred to in my previous blog ‘Imagine Light’, where I stated:
The first was the announcement from the Canadian federal government that as part of Canada's National Building Projects, in response to Trump's threats, real and imagined, they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Alberta provincial government in support of their proposal for a bitumen pipeline running from the tar sands through northern British Columbia to the west coast, one of the most ecologically sensitive coast lines in the country, where a major tanker ban is in existence. As well, elements of Canada's environmental portfolio are being simultaneously dismantled.
This looks to me like pipeline deja vu…how short are our memories? Have we forgotten the battles fought over the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which was cancelled (this MOU sounds like it is being reproposed), the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which was illegally pushed across unceeded Wet’suwet’en yintah (land), and the flooding of the Peace River valley to build the site ‘C’ dam to provide power to the LNG Canada plant (wholly foreign built and owned) in Kitimat, BC.
As Environmental Defence stated: “In 2018, the federal government made a ‘grand bargain’ with the oil and gas industry…all of us would buy the TMX pipeline (opened in 1953) carrying primarily bitumen from Alberta to Vancouver and twin it at a cost of $34 Billion…in exchange, Alberta and the oil industry would support carbon pricing and a cap on pollution. Since then, pollution from the oil sands has increased dramatically and the oil and gas industry and Alberta continued to push back against any and all restrictions on oil production and on any form of carbon tax.”
So Alberta and the oil and gas industry are again agreeing to something similar, in exchange for this new pipeline a promise to build the Pathways carbon capture project, which is a $16.5-billion megaproject that serves as the linchpin to the “grand bargain” MOU between Ottawa and Alberta last month — the Pathways carbon capture project — could swallow as much as 5.9 billion litres of water from the Beaver River basin system annually by 2050.
That’s a problem in what is already a water-stressed region of the province. The Beaver River basin’s water reserve level has been falling rapidly due to climate change-driven drought and communities in the area are concerned of worsening water shortages resulting from the Pathways project’s completion. “Our rivers aren’t flowing the way they used to,” Cold Lake Chief Kelsey Jacko told Canada’s National Observer. “And still they push forward.”
This new (re)proposed pipeline across significant unceeded Indigenous territories will lead to a terminal on the northwest coast of BC where a large tanker ban is in effect due to the extremely treacherous waters that exist along that pristine part of our country. An oil spill (let’s not forget the Exxon Valdez), particularly the heavy bitumen from the oil sands would be devastating and Indigenous nations have made it very clear that removing the tanker ban is a non-starter.
A couple of observations and questions: The TMX pipeline is currently operating significantly below capacity, so why build another bitumen pipeline? Is this MOU an attempt to appease the Alberta government and the lunatic fringe that thinks Alberta would be better off separate from Canada and does the federal government have any intention of actually proceeding with having it built? Alberta has proven that they are never satisfied, no matter how far the rest of the country bends over backwards. What happens if Trump in his usual delusional state, actually invades Venezuela and takes over the oil reserves (much of it is oil sands like Alberta, but cheaper and closer to the Texas refineries)? Ultimately, the Alberta oil reserves then become ‘stranded assets’ as the extraction industries would say.
So, here we are….Trump threatens Canada’s economy and sovereignty…how do we respond? What gets sacrificed? I’ll chat about that in the next blog. Looking for some Good Vibrations through all this.
For many, this is Christmas Eve…the message of peace is a good one.
Please check out our fundraising initiative the Paddle Project which allows us to continue our advocacy for Indigenous climate action: Our Paddles - Canoe Foundation
