My brother and I have been working on a retrospect art exhibition for my late father Erik Dzenis. In that regard I ran across one of Erik's early paintings (I'm still verifying) it has been 60 years since I have seen the painting. It is a life size oil portrait of Clarence Decatur "C. D." Howe. Briefly CD Howe was the chief bean counter for WWII, when Britain or the USA wanted some war toys, they needed CD's signature on it; he was the bookkeeper. In short he paid for all the bombs and bullets that rained down on the artist painting his portraits many years later. Erik was a teenager, a struggling artist in the Latvian Academy of Art. when WWII broke out. He was trapped, first it was the Russians who invaded then it was the Germans, enslaving the country basically. While all this was going down, the Allies rained bombs on the entire theatre. I recall Erik said jokingly during a sitting , "so you were the guy". CD said "yes it was me". Both men paused to reflect on the irony of the moment as well as the enormity of what they both lived through. It was a positive outcome back on 1958. Erik went on to become a successful international artist, but he always carried his war scars with him; silently. We call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder now, we just called it normal back in the 60's.

Clarence Decatur "C. D." Howe, PC (15 January 1886 – 31 December 1960) was a powerful Canadian Cabinet minister, representing the Liberal Party. Howe served in the governments of Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent continuously from 1935 to 1957. He is credited with transforming the Canadian economy from agriculture-based to industrial. During the Second World War, his involvement in the war effort was so extensive that he was nicknamed the "Minister of Everything."

With all the excitement of Bornholm on the horizon and our products surging in Scandinavia, many of our new Viking friends are curious about Suzanne's Danish connection. Suzanne's late father Frode was a Danish patriot, this is his story.


http://www.thecommunitypaper.com/archive/2009/12_17/index.php

Trailing the Lund up to Big Bay today to try our luck; faster than over water. That is the Sutherland family farm on the shores of Georgian Bay. When we first moved up here 24 years ago, right next to Ed Sutherlands farm. I hauled a special 300 pound rock up here with us from Toronto, a special crytalline honeycomb, Ed took one look at it and his eyes lit up, his family was in the rock business. I gave it him on the spot. We became great friends, our kids worked a couple of summers on that farm. The hill in the distance is the Meaford Tank Range, the windows in the entire county rattle when the big guns go off.

Andrew Wyborn built this house with his bare hands 150 years ago, it is my responsibility to make sure it is here 150 years from now. Years ago we had a minor earthquake, over time the ice got in and started pushing out a corner stone. Fixed that up pretty quick with some help from a friend, then it was time for a real Latvian sauna; wood burner, oak leaves, the gargoyle came with the place. He's always back by morning. 

Just one little corner stone, the foundation is solid. I have been feeling a lot better lately, an hour of hard labour; not too bad for 70.

 Nicely done with a little help from a friend. Repointed the entire corner while we were at it. I could not find any old brick to match the patina, time will take care of that.

This used to be the kids hockey rink, it was re-purposed as a sauna.

Oak leaves have been an integral part of the sauna tradition since ancient times.

 A real Finnish Sempo wood burner. Nothing comes close to a real sauna at the end of a hard day of work.

Grendle, he's always back by morning

By contrast to where I lived in the 60's.

The Colonnade 131 Bloor St. W
A sports car, waterbed and a stereo; it was the sixties
I was the Manager of the Colonnade Camera Centre, it was a short trip to work everyday; I lived in the building.

I love the country, but I do appreciate the action in the city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmMQJ386Jv4

Along the way our son Alex taught himself how to use state of the art animation software; this was his project. An insight to explain the success of our products; ten years ago. Alex went on to learn CAD programs and designed some of the top products on the market today. We are very proud of Alex, we are very proud of the accomplishments of all our kids.

Suzanne and I are very proud of our kids and their company Shark Trolling Products. We attended the King of Kings pro tournament at Bluffer's Park in Toronto to meet with The Shark Pro Staff Teams from Canada and the USA, and to officially launch a new product. It was a huge success, we met old friends and made many new one's. Shark products have dominated world class pro tournaments for the past 15 years, but this new product has gone viral on social media and is on the skyrocketing on the water with our customers. With over 40 pro teams competing in Canada's biggest pro tournament, most of the fleet was equipped with Shark products. It's been a tough road over the past 15 years, plenty of blood sweat and tears, and I'm sure there is plenty more ahead. We would like to thank all our friends from around the world for supporting us along the way; we could not have done it without you. Sadly the main event was cancelled due to weather, but everybody had an amazing time and got out on Lake Ontario for the pre-fish day.

40 years later

I spoke up about this tragedy 40 years ago at great personal cost, 40 years later I am still pounding this topic: mercury contamination in Ontario. Oct. 26, 1974, the day Suzanne and I got married, the same day the students at the Art Gallery of Ontario staged a protest  on the front steps of the AGO. They dumped a load of dead fish on the steps to protest Reid Paper sponsoring an art exhibition. At the time Reid Paper was dumping raw mercury from their paper plant into the Wabagoon River system in northern Ontario; right next door to our family cottage.  40 years later the paper mill/Ontario government is still dumping poison with impunity.

There was an awkward moment at the reception at Suzanne's parents home in Toronto, we were meeting all the guests having a wonderful time. The neighbor and close friend of the family approaches us to wish us well; Thank you Howard I replied. Howard was a high ranking executive at the paper plant, he was just being kind and generous when he offered to let Suzanne and I stay at his villa in the Bahamas for a honeymoon retreat. I thanked him and declined his offer, explaining we intended to go up north to spend our honeymoon to do some hunting and fishing, near the Wabagoon River system.

The awkward moment: I said to him; “Howard, that protest at the AGO today, your company is pouring so much mercury into the river we are having to send our native people to Japan to get treated for Minimata Disease (mercury poisoning) because we don't know enough about it to treat them over here. I told him I would be grateful if he would just stop poisoning the lakes in Ontario. His face went beet red, by this time a number of other guest started to pick up on the incident. It was ugly to say the least. I spoke up when it counted, I'm still speaking up about it now. Most of my friends know all about this story, I could have kept my big mouth shut and gone on to benefit from the family business connections; I just couldn't stomach it. Nothing has changed, big business always wins, and the poor pay the price.