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[Page last updated 13 Jun 2009.]
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Harold MacNaughton Sinclair
Clan Sinclair Association (Canada) regrets to announce the passing, on
Saturday 6 June 2009, of founding member Harold MacNaughton Sinclair of Goshen,
Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, at the age of 88.
When the International Gathering of the Clans was held in Nova Scotia in 1979,
it was Harold Sinclair who organized the first international Clan Sinclair Gathering, and
he delivered the message from the Chief. He was one of the organizers and host of the
international gatherings held in the Maritimes every four years since then —
it was only at the most recent in Prince Edward Island in 2007 that the sure hand
of Harold Sinclair was finally absent. He was also a founding member and director
of the Clan Sinclair Society of Nova Scotia.
Born on 4 June 1921 at Goshen, Harold served overseas in the Royal Canadian
Air Force during World War II. After working as a Commercial Sales representative with
Citadel Motors, Halifax, he owned and operated Sinclair Refrigeration and Heating Ltd.
On 31 July 1948, Harold Sinclair married Mina Hudson in Country Harbour, Nova Scotia.
Following retirement, they returned to live in Guysborough County, and celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary there in 2008.
Harold Sinclair will be missed by his wife Mina, their children Barb Barnard, Andy Sinclair,
Jane Borden and Jim Sinclair, his brothers Bill and Jack, the members of the Clan Sinclair Society
of Nova Scotia and Clan Sinclair Association (Canada), and many other family members
and friends.
"I was fortunate to have met Harold —
one of the three great Nova Scotia Sinclair brothers — on my visits
to you. He was such a great person and such fun to talk to. Long before
I took any interest in the Clan, Harold was doing great things. Thirty years ago
he was organising clan events when your Association was in its infancy and
he played a major role in building it up to what it is today. Since then
he has continued to be an inspiration to many. we are all very grateful
for the time and effort he gave. My thoughts are with you all at this
very sad time."
— The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Caithness, Chief of Clan Sinclair
Memorial donations may be made to Kings United Church, Loch Katrine, Nova Scotia.
Online condolences may be sent from here.
[Updated 13 Jun 2009.]
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13 June 2009
Analog to Digital TV Switchover
Today is the first day of digital television in the USA. That is, after 80 years
of analog signal broadcasting, most television stations in the USA are now required to
broadcast only digital signals over the air. (The exception is LPTV stations, low power
broadcasting.)
Although Canada is not converting to digital TV until 2011, many Canadians are affected.
More than 75% of Canadian residents live within 100 miles of our border with the
mainland USA, and Canadians are accustomed to watching American television.
Subscribers to cable or satellite television are not affected. Owners of televisions
that have digital tuners will have to reprogram their channel selection if they use rabbit
ears or roof antennas to watch American television. Also, if they can't receive UHF signals,
they may have to upgrade their antennas.
A digital to analog converter box costs about $100, and you need it to watch
a digital television broadcast, but only if you used rabbit ears or a roof antenna and
your television doesn't have a digital tuner. You also need a converter box with analog
pass–through. For a list of approved converter boxes, press here.
In the USA, there is a coupon program: each household may (until
31 July 2009) apply for coupons,
worth $40 each, to be used toward the purchase of up to two digital–to&ndashanalog
converter boxes.
For further information about the analog to digital conversion in the USA,
visit DTV2009.gov. The transition is in progress
in other countries as well, including the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
For Canadian information,
click here.
Photo of rabbit ears dipole antenna with UHF loop: Wikimedia Commons
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10 June 2009
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Honorable Justice Murray Sinclair, who is from the Selkirk area of
Manitoba, has been named as the new Chair of Canada's
Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Beginning 01 July 2009, Justice Sinclair and two commissioners will gather the stories
of some of the 80,000 survivors of the church-run residential schools across Canada.
According to an article in the Globe and Mail,
Sinclair, who is a respected aboriginal judge from Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench,
is very experienced with delicate public proceedings and has substantial
credibility among native people.
For further information, see the website of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
Photo of Justice Sinclair: Manitoba Historical Society, 2002
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8 June 2009
Cirque du Soleil 25th
Canadian acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil celebrated
its 25th anniversary with the launch of its 25th show,
Ovo which is about insects.
Cirque du Soleil, is a circus with
no ring and no animals. It was started in 1984
in Baie–Saint–Paul Quebec by
two street performers, fire–eater Guy Laliberte and
stilt walker Gilles Ste–Croix,
when they produced a travelling show called Le Grand Tour
du Cirque du Soleil with 20 street performers,
as part of 450th anniversary celebrations of the French explorer Jacques Cartier's
discovery of Canada.
Laliberte, who bought out Ste–Croix in 2000, is now
a multi–billionaire.
He recently paid an estimated $35 million dollars to the Russian space agency
and is preparing to be Canada's first space tourist in September,
which is also the month he turns 50. Also the founder of the One Drop Foundation,
he plans to use his trip to raise awareness about the need for safe clean water
around the world.
Cirque du Soleil, which is headquartered in Montreal, presently
has 19 traveling and permanent shows, and sold 11 million tickets in 2008.
It has played to almost 90 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents
and has more than 4,000 employees from over 40 different countries.
For more information, visit CirqueduSoleil.com.
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01 June 2009
Visiting the USA
As proof of identity, travellers entering the USA by land or water from Canada
are now required to present a passport, an enhanced driver's license or
provincial identification card, a NEXUS card, a FAST card or a Certificate
of Indian Status.
For further information, visit the Canadian
Border Services Agency website (www.cbsa.gc.ca) or call the Border
Information Service toll-free line at 1-800-461-9999.
Photo of Canadian passport: Wikimedia Commons
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21 April 2009
Environmental Hero
A series of articles this week in The Scotsman profiles
green pioneers in Scotland, as listed by the Scottish Sustainable Development
Forum. One of those "Seen to be Green", number 29 on the list,
is Barry Sinclair, chair of the Fair Isle Electricity Committee.
Fair Isle in Shetland is Britain's most remote inhabited
island. When residents set up the world's first community–run, standalone,
wind–turbine project in 1982, electricity charges went down from 13p to
4p per kilowatt hour. Sinclair, who is an engineer, was responsible for keeping
the engines running.
Fair Isle now has two turbines, and wind power generates about 85% of their
winter energy requirements, 50% of summer, according to www.FairIsle.org.uk. The remainder
is supplied by diesel generators. Since 2005, the island has even had high speed
Internet (broadband).
To read about the Scottish Green List, click here (Barry Sinclair is listed in the 21–30 article).
Photo of Dave Wheeler with lambs and laptop: M. Macleod,
2005, posted here
Update: as of 8 May 2009, both of Fair Isle's wind turbines are down
for refurbishing, according to an online article at The Shetland Times. Power provided
by diesel generators is off between 11:30pm and 7:30am to conserve fuel.
The turbines will be back online by the end of summer, and, though they require
constant maintenance, they are expected to last another 10 years. Meanwhile,
Fair Isle residents are considering a system that will allow power to be stored,
such as the solar power scheme implemented on Foula, which is another outlying island in Shetland. To read
the Shetland Times article on Foula's power system, click here.
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Spring Gathering in Richmond BC
The eighth annual gathering of Clan Sinclair Western Canada was held in Richmond BC on
Sunday 05 April 2009. The guest of honour was CSAC President Rory Sinclair from Toronto ON (right),
and members attended from as far away as Kaslo BC and Lynden WA.
To see photos of the occasion, click here.
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01 January 2009
Happy New Year 2009
Welcome to 2009 (MMIX)! This is the 250th anniversary of the birth
of Scotland's national poet Robbie Burns (1759–1796);
for descendants of the Scots diaspora, 2009 is also a year of Homecoming with
celebrations of Scotland’s heritage.
In Canada, this is the 50th anniversary of the St Lawrence Seaway. It is also
the centenary of the Grey Cup
(la Coupe Grey), the football trophy donated in 1909 by the
Governor General of Canada. And from June 1st of this year, travellers
from Canada to the USA will be required to present a valid passport or
other secure document.
On 21 Jun 2009, the North American Arctic island of Greenland —
Kalaallit Nunaat in Greenlandic — will become a separate
country within the Kingdom of Denmark. The Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II,
will remain Greenland's Head of State, and Denmark will continue to handle
Greenland's foreign affairs in consultation with Greenland's government. Read
more about Greenland at the official government website, http://nanoq.gl.
Internationally, this is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first recorded
astronomical observations by telescope, and the United Nations has declared
2009 an International Year of Astronomy — for updates,
check Astronomy2009.org.
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To go back and read the News from 2008, click
here.
News 2009 Table of Contents
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