Roses and Thorns: Of screenplays, hiring and sex-ed

ROSE: To Stratford-based friends, producer Craig Thompson and playwright Rick Whelan, who are bringing Richard Wright’s acclaimed novel “Clara Callan” to life on the small screen. Wright, the St. Catharines author who died in 2017, won the Governor General’s Award in English fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Trillium Book Award for the novel, his ninth, which was published in 2001. Set in Ontario in the 1930s, the book tells the story of two sisters, Clara and Nora, who after the death of their father, venture off on two separate paths. One goes to New York City to pursue a career as a radio soap opera star while the other remains behind and struggles to survive as an independent woman in a conservative rural community. Transforming Wright’s compelling tale about women’s struggle to have their voices heard is still a work in progress but we look forward to the day when this still-relevant story makes it to television.

THORN: To the Huberman report on the process about hiring Niagara Region CAO Carmen D’Angelo. The report, written by Marvin Huberman of Toronto legal firm ADR Chambers, leaves too many unanswered questions about the hiring process, which was the subject of a Standard investigation earlier this year. The latest problem deals with the hiring process for Niagara-on-the-Lake’s CAO, which D’Angelo withdrew from when he turned his attention to the Region’s position. The report said D’Angelo couldn’t recall if he received the memo at the heart of the controversy which laid out details about other applicants for the Region job, because he “received a lot of documents including … biographies of candidates” for the NOTL job. D’Angelo told The Standard last week he never had the names and bios of NOTL job applicants. This, along with many other discrepancies and questions about methodology, essentially make the Huberman report worthless.

ROSE: To Scott Klassen, who is rowing across Lake Ontario in a single-man shell this summer to raise funds for a non-profit church organization which helps build homes in El Salvador. Klassen, 24, will be making his second trip to the poverty-stricken country in November. While the crossing in the shell is a bit risky, Klassen will be followed by a friend in a boat.

THORN: To the Doug Ford government, for sending mixed messages and sparking confusion on its plans on sex education in Ontario’s schools. Last Wednesday, the Tory government’s Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced the province was scrapping the new 2015 syllabus, which has been bitterly opposed by social conservatives, and reverting to the 1998 syllabus. This week, Thompson said issues of consent, gender, same-sex relationships and cyber safety would still be taught this fall, indicating they were taught in 2014. However, those topics were not in the 2014 curriculum, which was based on the 1998 syllabus.To teach these topics, at least parts of the 2015 syllabus will be needed. ROSE: To the late Marie Henry, a longtime advocate for local history, who was also a member of the Willoughby Historical Museum. Henry, who died in 2016 at the age of 73, left a $93,645.84 unsolicited bequest to the museum, the largest such gift in its history. “Within my 20 years in museums, I’ve never received a bequeathment of this stature and this size,” said Clark Bernat, culture and museums manager for the City of Niagara Falls. Henry specified the money is to be used for improvement of the Willoughby museum, which is located on the Niagara Parkway. “We want to take our time and make sure we do the right thing as to what Marie’s wishes were for the funds,” said Bernat. Until a plan for the money is determined, it will be placed in a reserve fund, but Henry’s devotion to preserving the past should be an inspiration to others.