A happy ending and hopes of hockey glory

With an assortment of thoughts simmering — a virtual smorgasbord of ideas — it’s time for a visit to the column buffet. And, yes, this one is always calorie-free:

It was heartwarming this week to see a Saskatchewan Pakistani family’s triumph over a lengthy immigration ordeal. Equally gratifying was the good that can be done when great people get behind a cause.

Five years ago, Waheeda Afridi left Saskatoon for Pakistan, unaware how her life would change.

Waheeda’s sister — a widow living in the violent Peshawar area of Pakistan — had suggested that Waheeda and her husband, unable to have children, adopt the sister’s soon-to-be-born baby boy.

The adoption was completed after the child was born in September 2010, but soon it became clear that the Canadian government — concerned about international child trafficking — was going to erect enough hurdles to prevent Waheeda from bringing back the little boy named Ajjab to Canada.

A person of lesser tenacity and determination than Waheeda would have folded years earlier, as she lived in a basement in Pakistan with the baby, faced precarious religious and cultural threats as a westernized Pakistani woman and even ended up in hospital as her wait for a visa for the baby turned into years.

She was helped immeasurably by immigration lawyer Haida Amirzadeh, who took the case pro bono and showed the best side of what being a lawyer entails.

Help came, too, from listeners to our radio show who regularly bombarded MPs with emails and letters in response to a regular radio segment we called “Grow a Heart Chris Alexander”, where I would challenge the minister of immigration to defend his department’s inaction.

Through it all, Alexander hid behind press releases issued from his office in Ottawa.

Although we had emailed and phoned over the years, I had never met Waheeda Afridi until now.

As this petite, composed and ironwilled young woman sat down for a visit with the wriggling four-yearold Ajjab, it felt good — very good to know that patience, perseverance and the support of fine people can change lives.

Even among those who know plenty of jokes with the punchline “Toronto Maple Leafs”, the signing of coach Mike Babcock by the Leafs is a stroke of genius.

As popular as he is accomplished, most recently at the helm of the Detroit Red Wings, Saskatoon’s Babcock — who still spends summers at Saskatchewan’s Emma Lake — is a no-nonsense motivator and perfectionist who expects as much excellence and accountability from his players as he does himself.

And how can Babcock lose with the Leafs deal? He loves a challenge.

The worst that can happen is that Toronto is somehow truly genetically incapable of winning hockey games so Babcock — $50 million US dollars richer — goes down as yet another high-hopes coach dashed on the rocks of mediocrity and moves on.

But that’s unlikely. This guy gets results. And if he does engineer a Toronto turnaround, they’ll be erecting his statue and naming streets after him.

Time for the annual two magic words of summer construction driving: zipper merge.

Except for higher-speed lane narrowing, when it’s a good idea to move over to one lane, the most efficient way to move traffic on roads leading to construction road narrowing is to stay in your own lane until you reach the choke-point, then merge one for one, like the teeth of a zipper. And, no, people who use the empty lane aren’t butting in; they’re smart. They’re not the chumps sitting with you in the long congested lane.

With the third summer of Saskatchewan’s modified highway construction rules upon us , it is important to reinforce the importance of 60 km/h construction area speed zones, enforced with tripled fines and heightened signage and awareness.

Instead of the old crapshoot where 60 km/h was the speed only when passing construction workers or occupied equipment, now the white and black regulatory signs mean that when the signs are up, the speed is 60 km/h day or night.

But the temporary 60 km/h signs are supposed to be covered or taken down when construction is not occurring, except if the temporary road conditions warrant slower speeds.

Some drivers are reporting seeing 60 km/h signs being left up on highways long after the crews have gone home. This wasn’t the deal.