In their words: Jennifer Roggemann’s Soo Jae Bi

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Jennifer Roggemann was 16 years old when she and her family immigrated to Canada, on a cold, grey December day in 1987. She arrived with very little knowledge of her new home and with little English. Today, she is an immigration lawyer and draws upon her first-hand experience to help […] Read more…

Queen’s Bush: We marched right into the wilderness

About 25 years after Pennsylvania Mennonites arrived, another group of US emigrants started a new life in what would be Waterloo Region. They—freemen and runaway slaves—founded settlements on undeveloped lands in Colbornesburg and later in Queen’s Bush. By the 1840s, the Queen’s Bush Settlement’s population was approximately 2000, of whom approximately 1500 were black. This […] Read more…

Call for stories: A Region That Really Schmecks

In my last post, I launched A Region That Really Schmecks to celebrate Waterloo Region’s diverse cultures and foods. Your response to my Edna story and the series was great—thank you. Now, I need your help. I want to celebrate our multicultural table—from starters to sweets (and those midnight snacks). Of course, this includes dishes […] Read more…

Onion bhajis and my dinner with Edna Staebler

Edna Staebler and I met and bonded over Indian food. It was her request. She was 100 years old and living in a nursing home; the food—although probably good for her—was bland and boring. She wanted something tasty and flavourful, but not too spicy. It was a request I was happy to grant. During that […] Read more…

27 October – 02 November 1916: Hospitals, holy ground and Halloween

The 118th get spots; Colonel Lochead gets spotted Ten soldiers came down with measles and moved to hospital. The outbreak wasn’t serious, but if more men came down with spots, the Battalion could be quarantined. A few days before Halloween, Huronto, The News Record’s source in the 118th Battalion, reported on Lt. Col. Lochead’s promotion […] Read more…

20-26 October 1916: The saga of John Sugar Beet Jones

The chief magistrate’s sugar beeting gave Kitchener’s two newspapers ample fodder. “Just how the boys of the [118th] Battalion came to the belief that Mayor Hett was opposed to their wintering in Kitchener is difficult to establish,” said The Daily Telegraph. Previously, Hett didn’t want other cities’ battalions here, and called out local shopkeepers who […] Read more…

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