Articles: 2002

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Jul 24, 2002. pg. 6
News (Simcoe I.)
After almost 40 years, the rates for the Simcoe Island ferry are going up.
The cable ferry has undergone a $200,000 refit, which was approved by Transport Canada.
A new $200 annual levy gives property owners on Simcoe Island unlimited access to the ferry, but non-residents will have to pay $1.50 per car for a one-way trip.
The fares hadn't gone up since 1964 and have been adjusted to 2002 levels, said Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek.
"The levy will be pro-rated and adjusted for 2002, because it's already July," he said.
"There are seasonal people and the people who use the ferry every day to get to work.
"We wanted to accommodate everyone."

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Jun 8, 2002. pg. 8
Editorial (Simcoe I.)
Everyone has a favourite summertime memory. For me, it is my grandparents' cottage. Each year, my parents would load my brother, James, and me into the car and head to Nanny and Poppy's cottage for a weekend - or even longer if they could take the time off. This was the highlight of our summer away from school. It was also a highlight of my parents' summer, for different reasons.
For one thing, my brother and I got along at the cottage. My parents were overjoyed at this rare occurrence. For almost 20 years, we could be warring all year long, but when that weekend came, everything was perfect. There were too many trails, animals and hiding places not to have someone to share them with.
At the cottage, there were stones so huge you had to climb to get over them. We had forts in these rocks and we were the king and queen of our own domains. Even if our parents could find us, they would never dare to come near our fortresses.
My Nanny had chipmunks that were so tame they would come up on the front step to eat from a basket on your lap. My mother has photos of me, grinning from ear to ear, with a chipmunk perched in a basket, cheeks full.
While Nanny was making her famous spaghetti sauce, Poppy would take my brother and me fishing. We could sit in that boat all day and never catch anything but sunfish; it didn't matter. We were at the cottage. Sometimes at night, everyone from the summer homes around the lake would pull up in their boats, carrying their lawn chairs and coolers, and head to the cottage for the evening. Some people even brought tents because they knew better than to drive a boat home. I still remember Freddy with his guitar, Al with his keyboard, and so many others gathered around a campfire singing old songs that I didn't know the words to but that made me feel happy. I would watch from behind a tree, long after my bedtime, as everyone chatted and told stories that happened years before. Many times I fell asleep in the old camper in the backyard listening to the strum of an acoustic guitar and the raspy laughter of long-time smokers. Even though I am married now, I try to get back to Poppy's cottage. Those summer gatherings don't happen anymore, but I can still hear that old guitar strumming King of the Road when I sit at the end of the dock. It is a memory that I never want to forget.
- Lindsay Eves lives on Simcoe Island and is studying to be a photographer. She is a member of The Whig-Standard's Community Editorial Board.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Apr 2, 2002. pg. 5
Editorial (Simcoe I.)
I live on Simcoe Island, the small island off the northwest side of Wolfe Island.
This winter, the Township of Frontenac Islands thought it would be wise to remove the ferry for long-awaited repairs for the months of January, February and March.
Because of my hours of work, my husband has been forced to take me across the frigid waters of the St. Lawrence River in a flat- bottomed Jon boat every day for three months.
Using our inboard/outboard is not an option as it cannot be pulled up on shore, and the docks were covered with ice.
While the lake ice was good enough to walk on for about two weeks, it didn't last long. There was a newspaper report about how a helicopter would ferry Simcoe Island residents to Wolfe Island and home again. This was, well, funny. This preposterous helicopter service, which council supposedly bent over backwards to get, didn't last long. There were 12 trips for the children to get to school on Wolfe Island. After that, I guess the budget was gone because the helicopter certainly was. Before anyone says, "hey, you moved to Simcoe Island of your own accord," I want to state that, yes, I did make that choice - not that it hasn't been thrown in my face quite a bit. I also cast one of 17 unanimous votes at a council meeting, a vote that was counted and recorded, pleading with our council to remove the ferry in the spring rather than the dangerous winter months.
I received a letter in the mail recently from council concerning the Ontario Public Service Employees Union strike and the disruption to the Wolfe Islander III ferry service. These were distributed to homes on Wolfe and Simcoe islands for our reading pleasure. I would like to share some of the comments in the letter:
- "Scheduled clinic/hospital treatments are only possible with hardship and fatigue.... This is in addition to the great difficulty of travelling back and forth to work, and getting groceries and other supplies...."
I would like to know how it is easy to get to work every morning, home every night, and haul groceries from Wolfe Island to Simcoe Island, in an aluminum boat because there is no ferry service. I would also like to know how anyone would feel watching Mary, a two- year-old who had no choice where she lives, cross the Bateau Channel while bundled in a lifejacket, clutching her mother as her father guides their 14-foot aluminum boat to Wolfe Island so they can get to Kingston.
- "This ferry service is our only connecting link to the mainland; it's an extension of the highway and should be treated as such."
Guess what? Our ferry is our only way to Wolfe Island. How disappointing that we can be forgotten so easily by people we voted in because we thought they understood how we felt.
- "The level of service is not adequate and forms a health and safety risk to the residents of Wolfe Island."
This is true. Our council is certainly worried that people will put their aluminum boats in the water and cross to Kingston every day. Hmm. I don't think I need to say much about that.
It seems like every day I read, on The Whig's editorial pages, a letter that contains the words "I'm sick of..." in it. I'd like to say what I'm sick of.
I'm sick of people who have never lived on Wolfe Island, and haven't the first clue as to what life consists of over here, telling residents to "stop whining."
I am sick, in an envious way, of hearing fellow residents complain about a reduced ferry schedule when I would give my eye teeth to have even three trips a day.
I feel sick every time I get worried looks from the mothers of two friends I lost not so many years ago to the cold waters of the St. Lawrence River. That was a terrible accident and this is a cruel injustice forced upon us by our council.
I'm sick with worry every time I climb into that boat and cross the icy water just to get groceries. Those who don't understand are lucky. - Lindsay Eves lives on Simcoe Island and is studying to be a photographer. She is a member of The Whig-Standard Community Editorial Board.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Mar 23, 2002. pg. 1.FRONT
"Strike schedule"(Wolfe and Simcoe Islands)
Province, union strike deal to add two daily ferry trips to slimmed-down schedule.
Wolfe Islanders got a minor boost yesterday when two boats a day were added to the strike-shortened ferry schedule.
Islanders say nine runs a day during the week are still not enough to ensure the health and safety of the people who live there. Before public servants went on strike on March 13, the ferry was running 19 times a day.
"We've taken a step and we're happy about that, but we are going to continue working on both sides on this issue," Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek said yesterday.
With the consent of both the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and the government, the essential services agreement respecting the ferry was amended to add the two trips.
Another amendment instructs the ferry crew to ensure the inside of the vessel is clean and the sewage holding tanks are emptied weekly. In addition to the previous schedule, the ferry will leave the island at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday and leave the Kingston dock at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. There has been no change to the Saturday schedule, but on Sundays, the boat will leave the island for additional trips at 9 a.m. and noon and depart Kingston a half-hour later. The union says medical emergencies will also get a special trip, but Vanden Hoek, who wants the service restored to the 1996 strike level of 14 trips per day and eight on weekends, said more needs to be done. The next crisis could be overflowing septic systems, primarily in the village of Marysville, which is home to 250 of the island's 1,300 people. There are about 40 homes and businesses on septic tanks there and disposal trucks haven't been travelling to the island to pump them out because of lengthy waits for a return ferry. The island's sewage lagoon was shut down last year, and Vanden Hoek warns there is possibility of serious environmental damage if the tanks overflow.
Despite the inconvenience and disruptions caused by the strike, Vanden Hoek said he has no regrets that the island fought a plan by the provincial government to download the ferry service. The government abruptly reversed itself in 1999 and announced it would keep the service. "Just the operating cost would be three times the islands' budget, and that's just the cost to operate it, not for any capital costs," he said. "We don't have the tax base in the municipality to afford to run it, we don't even come close."
As bad as things are for Wolfe Islanders, they are worse for the handful of residents of Simcoe Island, 300 metres north of Wolfe. Residents there have been without their cable ferry since it was pulled Jan. 23 to undergo $200,000 of work it needs to be certified by Transport Canada next month.
The Bateau Channel never froze during the winter, so the 20 or so permanent residents have had to cross in fishing boats or airboats, dodging chunks of ice on their way. A helicopter was provided to ferry school children.
Vanden Hoek said he has visited the boatyard in Prescott that is doing the overhaul, and he said the ferry should be back in service by the end of March.
"The work is on schedule, I'm happy to say, and we should see it back by the end of this month."
STRIKE SCHEDULE
What: Two ferry runs, six days a week, were added to the Wolfe Islander III schedule yesterday, bringing the number of trips to and from Kingston to nine on weekdays, three on Saturday and five on Sunday. Below is the updated schedule.
Note: The boat leaves Kingston a half-hour after each island departure Monday-Friday: Depart Wolfe Island 6:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and midnight Saturday: 7:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday: 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Click on photo for larger version
Submitted by Sharon Compeau:
From: The Kingston Whig Standard
Date: Sat Jan 19 2002
Retired Ferry Captain an Ambassador for island
By Ann Lukits
A retired Amherst Island ferry captain who was affectionately know as “the mayor of Stella Point” was remembered this week for his passionate interest in yard sales, flea markets and anything to do with water.
D.Eldon Willard died recently following a brief illness. He was 71.
Retired since 1989, Mr. Willard joined the Amherst Island ferry at the age of 16 and worked his way through the ranks, serving as deck hand, mate, captain and senior captain. At the age of 59, he left his cherished position on the ferry because of a chronic back pain.
Whether he was on the job or away from it, Mr. Willard had an abiding love for large bodies of water. His widow, Elsie Willard, said the last photograph of her husband was taken during the Tall Ships visit to Kingston in July, shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer.
During the first few year after his retirement, the couple traveled widely, on one occasion taking a memorable boat trip up the Pacific coast to Alaska.
“It seemed tome that wherever we went we ended up looking for a boat,” said Mrs. Willard.
The son of an Amherst Island farmer and school teacher, Mr. Willard came by his nautical interests naturally. Two oh his uncles served as captains on lake boats and a third worked as a first mate. His grandfather had been a commercial fisherman.
In his early days with the ferry, there was only one crew member (today there are four) and Mr. Willard was often required to work seven days a week. Treacherous weather conditions could wreck havoc with winter crossings, especially in the days before the bubble system was installed to maintain an open channel between the island and the mainland.
Mrs. Willard recalled one “marathon trip” when the ferry got stuck in the ice. ON that occasion, the one-way trip took 34 hours.
The ferry’s communication system wasn’t very sophisticated in those days and Mrs. Willard said she often worried about her husband. He loved the job, however, and relished the daily contact with members of the public.
“Everybody loved him,” she said.
Raymond Wemp, who works as a mate on the ferry, knew Mr. Willard all his life and described him as a jolly person and a “very good captain to work for.”
“He was a guy that I think could work with anybody. It was just the way he was.”
Diane Pearce, chief administrative officer for Loyalist Township, knew Mr. Willard for more than 40 years. He was senior captain when she served as clerk-treasurer for the former Amherst Island Township.
“I saw him as a bit of an institution,” she said. “The ferry is a lifeline to the island and Eldon kind of supervised that lifeline, not only in his capacity as a captain but he also had a good finger on the pulse of the island.
“He knew the comings and goings. He knew everyone. He had an interest in everything. It’s fair to say he was an effective ambassador for the island.”
Mr. Willard earned the nickname “mayor of Stella Point” for a job he created for himself after retirement. He helped to open, close and maintain cottages for the island’s many summer residents.
He also had a passion for yard sales and flea markets. Every Saturday, he took the first ferry to the mainland and drove into Kingston so he could attend as many garage sales as he could squeeze into one day, Mrs. Willard said.
He brought his treasures back to the island where he meticulously cleaned and repaired them. In the summer months, the Willards teamed up to sell the refurbished goods at the Sunday morning flea market in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Bath Road.
“We did everything together,” said Mrs. Willard. “I guess being a stay-home mom and raising two children, you do everything together. You’ve raised your children together, we gardened together, we cut grass together-we were a team.
“I think living in a smaller community, too, you have a bond with not only each other but also with everybody around you.”
Mr. Willard was buried in Glenwood Cemetery following a funeral service at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on Amherst Island.

Thanks to Wilf Garrah
From: a Kingston paper
Date:2002
A flood of things, mostly water’ brought Island couple together
by Murray Hogben

Photo of plane crash and one of Jack and Joan Kane.

Howe Islander Jack Kane met Wolfe Islander Joan Sexsmith at a dance on Wolfe Island and after 50 years of marriage they still seem to be having fun on Howe Island, watching the boats go by.
For example, when I pulled into their driveway off Howe Island Drive Jack came up and said something about their barking black Labrador’s bite not being as bad as his wife’s. From that moment on it was just plain fun and reminisces of their lives and times.
“My mother was a school music teacher, and my father was a cheesemaker,” Joan says, adding that he had the Head Cheese Factory at the head, or upstream end, of Wolfe Island.
Joan recalls that one day in July 1944, she aged, 14, and her sister Barbara where outside with their mother, Marion Sexsmith.
“We heard this loud crash in the air and then the plane (a Harvard trainer from Kingston or Trenton) came in very low and landed in the field, not that far from the house.
“We all ran,” Joan says, “because it crashed and bounced and we knew that wasn’t normal. When we got there the pilot was very upset, yelling “It’s going to catch fire, it’s going to catch fire,’ and the student pilot was badly hurt with a head injury.”
Joan remembers helping the pilot get the big tall student out of the crash.
There were no men around and ‘he couldn’t have gotten him out alone,’ she says.
Then somehow they got the injured man onto the pilot’s back and he carried him to a neighbouring house.
“I don’t know how he ever did it,” she added, because this student (Hugh) Honsburger (later a Toronto judge) was a big guy.”
But that wasn’t the only crash in the islands, adds Jack.
He recalls that when he was a boy on Howe Island there were often planes coming down there or in the river. “There were quite a few of them that got picked up in body bags,” he recalled of these crashes and “the poor lads who were in them.”
On the other hand, the student pilots often played nasty tricks on the islanders, Jack says.
“One dove on a group when Jack was out haying.
“I thought he was going to hit us,” he said.
On other occasions, they would fly between trees that were close together or shut off their engines, dive and turn them on again with a great roar and “scare the hell out of the horses.”
But the pilots were young and it was all a long time ago.
Asked how they met, Jack quips that ‘it was a flood of things, mostly water,” because it was at a Wolfe Island benefit dance in 1950 for victims of a Winnipeg flood.
Their fathers used to hunt together, he says, so it wasn’t quite their first sighting of each other, but “I was probably more interested in foxes,” he adds.
At any rate Joan, who was a nursing assistant at Hotel Dieu Hospital, and Jack, who was finishing his tool and die-making apprenticeship at the old Kingston Locomotive Works- now Block D- were married on July 14, almost exactly half a century ago.
They went off to Oshawa where he worked for General Motors, later moving into customer relations and quality control.
Meanwhile, while not a farm boy himself- Jack’s father was a ship’s carpenter in Kingston and a fur-cutter and buyer for Gourdier’s Furs on Brock Street-the Kanes of Oshawa also bought a farm on an island in Scugog Lake.
“We thought it was a good place to raise kids,” he says. All five of them.
After 37 years with GM, Jack retired in 1988 and he and Joan took over his parent’s island home.
“We hadn’t thought of coming back,” she recalls, “but when they died so close together it changed our minds.”
Located on the south shore of Howe Island, the house has a great view of part of Joan’s Wolfe Island and the hazier American shore, and they can see the ocean-going freighters in the distance.
Since retirement, Joan says, they’ve traveled to Britain and Europe, Oregon and Florida, to the East Coast of Canada and to the west-her sister Barbara lives in Elkford, B.C., and one son is in Red Deer; Alta.
Much closer to home, their youngest son has two small children a little further west on Howe Island which keep their grandparents busy.
“It’s nice that they’re close,” she adds.
A belated happy 50th anniversary to you both and many more.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Nov 18, 2002. pg. 3 news Wolfe Island
HUNTERS RESCUED ON WOLFE ISLAND
Two stranded hunters were rescued yesterday by the Canadian Coast Guard's search and rescue team. The hunters had taken a boat out on Saturday to hunt on Wolfe Island. They were prevented from returning yesterday after weather conditions worsened. The coast guard received a phone call from the hunters just before their cellphone lost connection, said Capt. Ray Stockernans. When their families called in with their location, the coast guard went out and brought them back. The hunters were in a cabin on the east end of the island.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Aug 24, 2002. pg. 1.FRONT Author Wolfe Island
Local writers and historians say they have tracked down the birthplace of the first Canadian detective writer.
This weekend, Wolfe Island is being celebrated as the place where Grant Allen was born and where Canadian crime writing originated. Born in 1848, Grant Allen was the first prominent Canadian crime writer. "He's the first to do classic detective stories, in the mold of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle," said David Skene-Melvin, a crime-writing historian and the author of Canadian Crime Fiction, 1817-1996.
Now famous mainly as the close friend and neighbour of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - the creator of Sherlock Holmes - in his day Allen was a celebrated crime writer in his own right. "He would have been one of the top popular novelists at the time. You're talking about someone who would have been the equivalent of Danielle Steele," Skene-Melvin said. Grant Allen lived at Alwington House, his family home on Wolfe Island, for the first 13 years of his life. His father, Joseph Antisell Allen, was the first minister on Wolfe Island. His mother, Catherine Ann Allen, was part of the Grant family, an eminent French- Canadian family. After leaving Wolfe Island, Allen moved briefly to Newhaven, Conn., and then to England, where he attended Oxford University. Initially, he tried to make a name for himself writing on scientific and philosophical topics. In 1880, at the age of 32, he began writing fiction professionally, with much greater success.
Allen became notorious after the publication of his sociological novel, The Woman Who Did. "It is about a woman who strikes out for sexual freedom," Skene- Melvin said. "It was considered absolutely sensational at the time." His most famous novel is probably An African Millionaire, published in 1897. The work is credited as the first detective story to make the criminal the central character. "He is the first person to think of making the central person in the novel the crook," Skene-Melvin said.
Although Allen never returned to Canada, his childhood on Wolfe Island continued to influence his writing. Allen set several of his short stories in southern Ontario. The Foundering of the Fortuna, which is about a man who deliberately sinks his ship and its crew for the insurance money, is set near Sarnia on Lake Erie. Jerry Stokes, a short story about a local hangman who is worried he is going to hang an innocent person, is set in Napanee. Violette Malan, a local crime writer, says that Allen's childhood in Canada made a deep impact on him and may have influenced the topics that he wrote about. "He often spoke of his childhood in Canada and living out in the respective wilderness," Malan said.
In an essay called Among the Thousand Islands, Allen remarked on his own "rustic boyhood on Wolfe Island among raccoons and sunfish." "Most of his fiction was adventure stories. He wasn't writing the kind of sophisticated urban story than Conan Doyle was writing," Malan said. "That sense of rough and readiness had to have come from somewhere. I would venture to say it came from his childhood living on a frontier of some kind."
Unfortunately, posterity has not been nearly as kind to Allen as it has been to his friend Conan Doyle. "I think some of his stories deserve to be resuscitated," Skene- Melvin said. "They move along quite well, they've got good characterization. He's a very good storyteller. "The unfortunate thing with Allen is he dies just at the point when there was a change in taste in fiction. He was at the peak of his career. He could have kept on writing for several more years and his style could have changed."
Allen is still well-respected within certain academic circles. There are Web pages dedicated to his life and works, courses focusing on his writing and, in 1999, the University of the West of England held the Grant Allen Conference.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Jul 30, 2002. pg. 3 news Wolfe Island
Old soldiers never die. They just float away - across the river. At least one of them did that yesterday afternoon. Retired colonel Donald Strong swam across the St. Lawrence River from Wolfe Island to CFB Kingston - a distance of 2.5 kilometres. "That's my way of keeping in shape. I did that to honour my 75th birthday," he laughed. It's the fourth time he has done it. He first swam across the river when he was 60 years old. He has been doing it every five years - at the ages of 65, 70 and now, at 75.
Strong is a longtime Kingstonian. His first came here to attend the Royal Military College of Canada. "I was in the army for 38 years - 13 of them in Kingston. I retired here in 1981 because I got to love Kingston. I went back to RMC and ran the RMC club until 1991," he said. He was born in Brantford and joined the Army in 1945. Since the Second World War was over by then, he was sent to the Royal Military College to finish his education. Then he was sent to Korea. A successful military career followed. He trained before yesterday's swim.
He lives on Wolfe Island - by the river - and he can see the mainland from his house. "I've been swimming along the shore on the island every day for about 40 minutes."
The actual crossing took just over an hour. He started at 2 p.m. from the Wolfe Islander ferry's winter dock and landed at about 3:10 near the Vimy Officers' Mess on the base. Two friends - Dennis Mosier and Al Klassen - accompanied him in a small motorboat."Dennis is a Wolfe Island buddy of mine and Al is an army friend," he said. He hopes he has set an example for other seniors.
"I can't let myself get older. I'd like to tell my friends that I have done that. I'd like to encourage them to stay in good condition. "I'll send a note through the RMC newsletter to tell all my classmates that I've done that again. My message is: Keep in shape."
Even marathon swimmer Vicki Keith, who did a double crossing of Lake Ontario, was impressed when she was told of Strong's feat. "It's really cool. I love hearing that people do things like that," she said. Strong said yesterday's river crossing wouldn't be his last. "I'll do that again in five years - when I'm 80. I'm not kidding."

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Jul 17, 2002. pg. 5 Story Wolfe Island
It was with great interest that I read Brian Johnson's column about two young Wolfe Island ladies, Agnes Greenwood and Carmel Cosgrove ("Life and times of a shipyard nurse," Dec. 31, 2001).
Although I did not know these ladies personally, I did know their family names very well. My mother, along with four sisters and two brothers, were born in Marysville, Wolfe lsland, in the late 1800s. They were raised there by my grandfather William and grandmother Marion Allinson, who lived on top of the hill near the United Church.
My father was a coal and lumber merchant as well as a notary public, and my grandmother ran a room-and- board service for company representatives visiting the island. My father, working for Sheathy Brothers, General Contractors, in Lindsay, Ont., built the Catholic cathedral and, while staying at the Allinson home, met and married the youngest daughter - my mother, Florence.
In the postcard picture of the Kingston shipyard printed with this column, there is a building in the lower right-hand corner with a sign reading "Pyke Salvage." That was a business owned by my uncle, Grant Pyke, who married the daughter Emma, whom he met as he barged coal and wood from the Anglin dock in Kingston to my grandfather's warehouse dock in Marysville. In the postcard, along side of the Pyke Salvage building are Grant Pyke's two tugboats, the Salvage Queen and the Salvage Prince, which he had custom-built in England and sailed over to Canada himself. He also established a very large pig farm and strawberry operation on the foot of Wolfe Island.
I knew "Trickey McDermott," who is mentioned in the column, as well as the Wolfe Islander's crew - Purser Dickey Spoor, 1st Mate William Armstrong, Engineer Wally Mullins and captains Feelex and George Bates. The "Old Wolfe Islander" used to take our Cookes United Church Sunday School classes down to Brophy's Point at least once every summer. They were the good old days.
I won a Mickey Mouse doll in about 1929 or 1930. I entered a contest, which I recollect was run by the Kingston Whig-Standard, asking readers to write about the worst experience they ever had. I believe that I was six years old at that time and I wrote: "I ate a red pepper when I was 5 years old." I won.
I still have that doll. It is one of the originals made in Germany. Edwin A. Henry, Baltimore, Ont.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
May 20, 2002. pg. 62 story Wolfe Island
Wolfe Island is a countryside treasure that perfectly complements a distinctive and charming town centre. For some reason, Kingston had always been for me an elusive destination. Some strange ironic twist of fate kept me from ever stepping foot in Kingston until my 36th year.
I was born and raised in Toronto. As a boy, I spent two weeks each year for three summers staying at a farmhouse in Northport and traveling around Prince Edward County looking for Chelsea buns, horses and country auctions.
My family bought farmland near Sharbot Lake and I spent many weekends traipsing around the woods, fields and a corner of the Kingston-Pembroke Railway line, long abandoned to snowmobiles and cross-country skiers. I worked for a summer in Montreal and travelled back and forth to Toronto on a number of occasions. I visited Quebec City several times and drove out to the east coast. Years later I went to university in Ottawa, and again passed Kingston many times on Highway 401 or stopped briefly at its train station.
I spent numerous weekends with a girlfriend travelling around Prince Edward County going to B&Bs, buying china plates and popping in and out of local galleries and studios. As a photographer I had pulled into many small towns and villages around Ontario to photograph quaint antique sites of interest.
Though I had been past, and around Kingston umpteen times, I had never been to Kingston itself. The city eluded me for the longest time. Then I met and fell in love with a woman who was bent on becoming a doctor. She threw her future into the university lottery and Queen's and was the winner. I finally made my long-overdue pilgrimage to Kingston to visit her. I was pretty excited about finally discovering K-town. I began to believe that fate had kept me from it for so long, knowing that I would end up here anyway.
Small, carpeted, with a an exposed brick wall, ceiling fan, third- floor fire escape balcony, and glow-in-the-dark stars on the bedroom ceiling, my girlfriend's apartment nestled comfortably between Queen's and downtown Princess Street.
I fondly remember my first weekend in Kingston. On Saturday morning we clambered out of bed and walked over to the Epicure Cafe, wolfed down a $3 breakfast, and sat there for three hours reading the paper, doing crosswords, and drinking oodles of coffee. Then we wandered up and down Princess Street and popped in and out of shops, accidentally bumping into some of her classmates, and eventually made our way to Market Square.
We struck up conversations with nearly everyone standing behind produce or goods. We learned about jam making, antique collecting, outlying towns and farms, and last but certainly not least, we were told about Wolfe Island. I had never heard of Wolfe Island. It seemed like another elusive paradise, by the sounds of it. The man we talked to worked at the Wolfe Island bakery, and after tasting the fruit of his labours, we promised we would make the trip to the island.
Sunday turned out to be another beautiful fall day and we collected our gear for the day, including water, snacks, camera, map and extra clothes, climbed on our bicycles with our day packs and headed out to the magical island.
I took photos of my beloved against the backdrop of Kingston's downtown with the name of the ferry above her head. We noticed some U.S. licence plates, then more. I was astounded by my lack of Kingston knowledge. I had no idea we were so close to a U.S. border crossing.
When we arrived on Wolfe Island we slowly and deliberately walked our bikes up the little hill to Marysville, soaking in all the scenes and aura around us. At the general store we picked up real estate newspapers and began the search for an island house - after buying a lottery ticket. At the bakery we loaded up on butter tarts, not because we needed more snacks or more sugar, but because they looked so good, smelled so good, and carried a delicious reputation. At the town hall we collected brochures on local events and businesses. The church was unfortunately closed, but we encircled and photographed it nonetheless. At the General Wolfe Hotel we struck up a very warm conversation with the girl working the tables and the bar. She gave us some local tips and a bit of history of the hotel.
In a field at the end of a road in the town, my girlfriend lay on top of a bale of hay. I anxiously awaited the howl of chasing dogs. But no dogs or angry farmers came.
All the people we met were friendly, which we expected. We felt welcome. We sped along the road to the west on our bicycles, up the gentle hill, and around the bend, and then down the long slope toward the tip of the island. On our way we stopped to say hello to a horse. On our way back we stopped at a little alcove by the water and had our lunch on a large flat rock. Our picnic area was completely hidden from the road, and was shaded from the water by some trees. We lay back and let our minds wander. It was almost as if we were a million miles from everywhere, and yet connected to everything.
During the next 18 months we visited Wolfe Island many times, taking in more of the local colour, festivities, people and sights. We have journeyed by bicycle, roller-blade, car, on foot and almost on a hay ride.
We love going there.
Wolfe Island is a local countryside treasure that perfectly complements a distinctive and charming town centre. My wife and I look forward to exploring more of Kingston and Wolfe Island in the years to come, and hope it doesn't change too much.
I am glad to have finally come to Kingston. It was well worth the wait.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Canada NewsWire. Ottawa
Apr 30, 2002. pg. 1 news Wolfe Island
KINGSTON, ON, April 30 /CNW/ - Two Wolfe Island residents were convicted yesterday of charges laid under the federal Migratory Birds Regulations for illegally depositing bait to attract migratory birds for the purpose of hunting.
William Joy, age 37, and Daniel Hulton, age 38, appeared in the Ontario Court of Justice, Provincial Division, and pleaded guilty to unlawfully depositing bait for the purposes of hunting at Bayfield Bay, Wolfe Island. Mr. Joy and Hulton were each fined a total of $938, including a victim's surcharge, and were ordered prohibited from applying for or holding a migratory game bird permit for a period of one year. The offences were detected on October 26, 2001 during a joint forces enforcement blitz conducted by Federal Game Officers from Environment Canada's Wildlife Enforcement Division and Provincial Conservation Officers from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough District.
Enforcement Division (905) 319-6964/ ST: OntarioSU:

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Mar 19, 2002. pg. 1.FRONT ferry strike Wolfe Island
The weeklong strike by provincial public servants is having a dire effect on some Wolfe Island commuters, forcing at least one resident to quit his job.
Barry Woodman relies on an income from driving Wolfe Island teenagers to school in Kingston, but he says he had no choice but to quit when ferry service was reduced because of the strike.
With no boat running between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., it meant he had to wait in Kingston all day to pick up students after school and drive them home. Woodman, who is also a commercial fisherman, couldn't afford to do that because he has to return home during the day to check his nets, which are anchored off Wolfe Island.
"While I really could use the income, I had to find another driver," he said.
"I live four blocks from the ferry dock [on Wolfe Island] and I can watch the boat sitting there doing nothing."
The decision will financially hurt him and his wife, Colleen, who works at a downtown bank.
In addition to her husband having to quit his job, she said they stand to lose other income because the reduction in ferry service also makes it difficult for him to get his fish to market.
If the strike continues, she expects the couple will have trouble paying their mortgage every month.
"We live in a place we love, but I really feel as if we're being penalized," she said. "I'm really upset at the government ... they should do something to expand the service."
Since the strike, Woodman has been able to transport his catch - which includes perch, bullheads, sunfish and occasionally eel - only every second day to Kingston, where it's picked up by a Trenton company that takes it to market.
"We could be in real trouble if the strike continues," she said, adding that they might lose up to $20,000 in lost wages and fish profits if ferry service isn't expanded.
She also said she would have had to move into a Kingston hotel room if co-workers hadn't switched shifts with her.
"I mean, there are some people who have had to move into the city into a hotel room because they do shift work," she said.
The Woodmans say they are two of about 500 frustrated Wolfe Island commuters who've been working around the reduced ferry service and resulting lineups.
Woodman would like to see the government and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union agree on a new essential services agreement to increase the number of trips between Wolfe Island and Kingston.
Kingston and the Islands Liberal MPP John Gerretsen has publicly called for such a move.
"It's an essential service, so shouldn't the schedule be the same?" Barry Woodman asked.
The province wide civil service strike has reduced ferry service from nearly 20 runs a day to only seven trips between 7 a.m. and midnight. The boat doesn't operate at all between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
On weekends, the boat makes only one run in the morning, one in mid- afternoon and a final trip from Kingston at 8 p.m.
The Amherst Island ferry workers are unaffected by the strike because the operators work for the municipality.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Mar 19, 2002. pg. 1.FRONT strike funeral Wolfe Island
There will be an extra run of the Wolfe Island ferry today. The funeral of Rita Mary Grant will take place at 11 a.m. on the island, and to allow mourners to attend, the provincial government and the union representing striking workers have modified their essential services agreement to allow a boat to depart Wolfe Island at 2 p.m. Although arranged for funeral-goers, the run is public, says a transportation ministry representative. Special runs to allow islanders to attend visitation at a Kingston funeral home sailed Sunday and yesterday. Tomorrow, the ferry will be back to its regular strike-shortened schedule of seven daily runs during the week and three on the weekend.

Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.
Mar 18, 2002. pg. 6 story Wolfe Island
O K, I was wrong.
Every year, from early December through the end of January, someone says to me: "Look at the open water in the harbour. Is there going to be any ice this year?"
"Yes," I would answer, "absolutely."
"Well, there isn't any yet."
"Just wait. It'll come. It always does, honest."
Yeah, always. And it usually did. Except this year.
The balmy temperature throughout December, combined with the high winds that blew every three days or so, were working against me. And January followed the same pattern.
Was I worried? Not at all. Conditions were a little unusual for the middle of winter, but all it takes is a good cold snap, a few days of no wind, and we have the right conditions for freezing One night about mid-January, the wind finally blew itself out. The temperature dropped and the harbour actually skimmed over. There, I thought, the natural order of things just like always, see? Then the wind came back - with a vengeance. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upon your point of view), this unfamiliar pattern repeated itself all winter.
At one point, in about mid- February, the Wolfe Island ferry did have a track established in an area of compressed slush that, when fused together, actually looked like ice and could have become ice. But within two days it, too, was gone. Result? Open water, no ice.
What gives with this? Could it be the onset of global warming and the greenhouse effect? Are the polar regions and their glaciers starting to melt? No, that would bring the water level of the Great Lakes up, and that certainly isn't happening. Maybe it's a new trend in the seasons where autumn falls into spring, leaving winter out entirely.
But again, I don't think so. Checking old records of Kingston harbour dating back to the mid-1800s, there were times even then when there was very little ice. The ferry to Wolfe Island ran almost year-round. In 1877, and again in 1881, the harbour was closed for only 42 days. In 1936 it was closed for 29 days, and in 1931 for nine days. The record (until recently) was in 1952, when the ferry was down for only two days. I don't think we need fear global warming yet. It's just one of those winters when Mother Nature decides to take a holiday.
But watch out for next year.
- Brian Johnson is captain of the Wolfe Islander III. He is a member of The Whig-Standard's Community Editorial Board.

The Islands: Articles: 2002