J.D.M Stewart, history teacher in Toronto, has a nice essay in today's Globe & Mail, exploring all the ways 1917 was Canada's worst year. It's only online for subscribers: if that's you, go to the Globe and search "1917." The piece is published for the anniversary of the Halifax explosion, one of the bad things of that year.
This is also the 18th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique murders in Montreal. I was giving a university exam the morning after, and the visceral moan or growl or something that arose from the class when I raised the subject remains with me. Then I had a 3 month old daughter. This week she sits in a university building doing exams herself.
