Serving the Glebe community since 1973 www.glebereport.ca BABIES OF THE GLEBE PHOTO featURE INSIDE ISSN 0702-7796 January 12, 2018 Vol. 46 No. 1 Issue no. 499 FREE PHOTO: COURTESY OF CITY OF OTTAWA OF CITY COURTESY PHOTO: Artist’s rendering of Minto’s proposal to redevelop Fifth Avenue Court as an eight-storey residential building behind the retained two-storey commercial building along Bank Street. View looking north from Fifth Avenue Minto proposes 8-storey condos at Fifth Avenue Court by Carolyn Mackenzie storeys of underground parking and The city is inviting comments about [email protected], david.chernus- additional ground-level parking for a this proposal. Please have a look at the [email protected], and jim.watson@ Fifth Avenue Court at 99 Fifth Avenue total of 122 parking spaces. It is pro- detailed proposal on the City of Ottawa ottawa.ca, with a copy to planning@ is slated for redevelopment. The pro- posed that the two-storey Bank Street website (development # D02-02-17- glebe.ca. posal, prepared by Fotenn Consultants façade be retained. 0113), which can be found by following for the building’s owner, Minto, is for Minto requires a number of planning the links at www.glebeca.ca. Carolyn Mackenzie is Chair of the an eight-storey residential building permissions through a zoning bylaw What do you think? Send your Glebe Community Association Plan- with 124 condos, and includes two amendment. comments by January 26 to: karen. ning Committee. MARK YOUR CALENDARS WHAT’S INSIDE Jan. 16–Feb. 4 What a Young Wife Ought to Know, GCTC Jan. 18 ............ Taste in the Glebe, GCC, 6–8:30 p.m. Jan. 20 ............ Great Canadian Kilt Skate Lansdowne Pk Rink, 11:15 a.m. Jan. 23 ............ GCA meeting, GCC, 7 p.m. Jan. 25 ............ Carleton Speaker Series, GCC, 7–9 p.m. Jan. 27 ............ Councillor’s Cup hockey, Brantwood Pk, Old Ottawa East, ......................... 9:30 a.m. Feb. 1 .............. Glebe Report 500th Edition Essay Contest Deadline Feb. 2–19 ........ Winterlude Feb. 11 ............ Princess and Superhero Dance Party, GCC, 1–4 p.m. Feb. 12 ............ Dying, Death and Loss presentation, GCC, 7:30–9:30 p.m. Babies of the Glebe Ian Charlebois & Associates for real estate pages 20 and 21 Page 14 NEXT ISSUE: Friday, February 9, 2018 glebe report EDITORIAL DEADLINE: Friday, January 19, 2018 ADVERTISING artworK DEADLINE*: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 GMS Banner AdRFinal.pdf 1 2017-12-12 11:43 AM C issue 500 next month! *Book ads well in advance to ensure space availability. M Y CM MY CY CMY K 2 Glebe Report January 12, 2018 PROFILE Chalkboy leaves a lasting mark by Martha Bowers that my work is not too twisted or mor- bid!” On the contrary, his pictures are I am sure you have noticed beautiful humorous, playful and creative, suited to coloured chalk menus and drawings on each particular business. Some of his cli- blackboards in many restaurants and ents are regulars and he does new boards pubs around town. But have you ever for them every week, while others engage wondered who does them? Chalkboy, him occasionally or seasonally. Unlike a.k.a. Andy Brown, is the talented artist paintings, chalk doesn’t last and he uses and calligrapher behind those original no preservative, so he has managed to works of art that attract the attention of ensure that he will have jobs in the future. customers and are much more interest- He used to get government contracts to ing than the mass-produced, electronic do illustrations for training manuals, etc., signs that we see in most places. but now the government doesn’t seem to Brown was born in Manitoba but have money for those projects, so Brown now lives in Burritt’s Rapids and is well relies on his chalk art. known in Ottawa for his chalk art. His He has developed a niche for him- grandfather was an artist and taught self among small businesses. Those him oil painting. He always loved draw- in the Glebe include Irene’s, Mor- ing but instead of drawing what his art ala Café, Rosie’s Southern Kitchen teachers wanted, he developed his own and Raw Bar, Purrdy Paws, Compact style and learned to use acrylic, pen Music and Jack Astor’s. We can also and ink, pastels and, of course, chalk. see his work at the Elgin Street Diner He also likes woodcarving for fun and and, of course, the Royal Oak. In addi- has donated works for various fundrais- tion, thousands of music fans check ers. His positive attitude toward life is out his chalkboard listings of per- reflected in his artwork. “I get by doing formers on the various stages at both what I like doing,” he says. Bluesfest and Cityfolk. Brown was living in Centretown in the Brown says that he has no freedom mid 1980s and was a regular patron of the 55 so he will keep doing his chalk art Royal Oak on Bank Street at Gilmour. until he can’t climb on a ladder any He offered to do a blackboard menu for longer. Let’s hope that will not be for the bar in exchange for free beer, and the a long time yet! rest, as they say, is history. Through word If you are interested in having of mouth he began to receive requests Chalkboy do a board for you, you can from other businesses. He has a unique contact him through any of the busi- technique, loves to play with chalk, is nesses listed above. detail oriented and demonstrates great BOWERS MARTHA PHOTO: skill with fonts and lettering. His cus- Martha Bowers is a Glebe resident, Andy Brown, a.k.a. “Chalkboy,” is the artist behind the chalk art you find at Morala tomers give him ideas for the drawings art lover and organizer of Art in Our Café and other venues. but he has quite a bit of freedom. “I try Gardens, who can often be found to please my clients but censor myself so helping out at Morala Café. Still space to register today! SUMMER CAMPS BROWN ANDY PHOTO: One of Chalkboy’s tongue-in-cheek creations OPEN AT NOON ONLINE AND IN-PERSON ...and MORE! PROFILE OF A mystery Glebe Report January 12, 2018 3 Is Fred Rose, MP, alive and well and living on Regent Street? by John Smart The December issue of the Glebe Report carried a letter on page 5 headed “Development needed” and signed “Fred Rose, Glebe resident and former MP for Cartier, 1943-1947.” The author provided a telephone number (which does not work) and an address on Regent Street. Fred Rose doesn’t live at that address and never did. He died in Poland in 1983. I live on Regent Street, in fact next door, and I’ve checked the records. Fred Rose was, however, a real and an interesting person and an actual Member of Parliament from 1943 to 1947 (elected twice for Montréal-Car- tier as a Labour Progressive candidate – the renamed Communist Party of Fred Rose, Communist Member of Par- Canada). Might’s Ottawa Street Dir- liament for Cartier from 1943 to 1947, ectories for the 1940s, though, show unfortunately never lived in the Glebe. him living at 30 Beechwood Avenue while he was a Member of Parliament and it was there, while he was talk- until after they had been found guilty. ing on the phone to a Canadian Press The evidence of their wrongdoing reporter, that the RCMP came and was in most cases slight and the ones arrested him on March 14, 1946. He who got into the worst trouble were was among the 21 individuals arrested those who argued with the police and after Igor Gouzenko defected from incriminated themselves in the pro- the Russian Embassy in Ottawa with cess. The 10 individuals who got off a cache of incriminating documents. were largely those who refused to talk So Fred is notorious in Canadian par- to the police at all except to say they liamentary history for being expelled wanted a lawyer; a lesson for us all. from Parliament in 1947 after he was For the record, the house on Regent found guilty of sharing secrets with Street was owned by at least three the Soviet Union during the war. He successive generations of the Brown 722 BANK ST. 613.230.5333 GOLDART.CA was tried and convicted of conspiracy family until it was sold to a holding to violate the Official Secrets Act and company in June 2017. I remember the sentenced to six years in prison. After senior Browns as staunch Conserva- his release from prison he was unable tives; one son ran unsuccessfully for to find work in Canada and moved to the Conservatives in a federal election. Poland. His Canadian citizenship was The Glebe Report editor is still inter- revoked in 1957. ested in knowing who actually sent Rose had a hard life but seems to me the original letter which the Glebe to have had some good qualities as a Report was glad to publish but which IT’S ALREADY person so I don’t think I would mind espoused pro-business views Rose him as a neighbour. Rose was born never held. So, if you wrote it, own up. Fred Rosenberg at Lublin, Poland on December 7, 1907, and moved with John Smart is a retired archivist living his parents to Montreal as a child. In on Regent Street. He says the neigh- the 1920s, he became a member of the bours he knows on the street already SPRING Young Communist League (YCL) and include two daycare workers, four law- organized unions of unemployed and yers, a doctor, an urban planner, two re- unskilled workers.