to this week's meeting ofThe Rotary E-Club of Canada One
For the week beginning October 12, 2026
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Complete the form for a make-up!
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to this week's meeting of
The Rotary E-Club of Canada One
For the week beginning
October 12, 2026
Scroll down to enjoy the content!
Complete the form for a make-up!
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Greeter this week
Rotarian Lois Hannam
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Inspirational moment
Are Women Persons?
Today, the question sounds almost absurd.
But in Canada in 1927, five Alberta women asked a question that would eventually change Canadian history:
Did the word “persons” in the law include women?
Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby — later known as the Famous Five — wanted women to be eligible for appointment to the Canadian Senate.
They took their question to the Supreme Court of Canada.
And they lost.
The Court ruled that women were not included as “persons” for the purpose of appointment to the Senate.
But the five women did not stop there. They took their case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain, then Canada’s highest court of appeal.
On October 18, 1929, the earlier decision was overturned. Women were indeed “persons” under the law and could be appointed to the Senate.
Today, October 18 is celebrated in Canada as Persons Day.
The victory did not end inequality in Canada, nor did all Canadian women immediately enjoy equal rights. There was still a very long road ahead.
But perhaps that makes the story even more important.
Five women challenged something that had long been accepted simply because that was the way it had always been. They lost their first battle — and continued anyway.
Sometimes progress begins with a remarkably simple question:
Why not?
Canadiana
Barry “Hawk” Tabobondung — The Hockey Player
But Wasauksing has another remarkable story to tell.
This one begins with a little boy who would become known simply as “Hawk.”
A Hockey Family
Barry Tabobondung was born in Parry Sound on April 3, 1961, and grew up at Wasauksing First Nation on Parry Island.
Hockey was part of the family.
His father, Les, was an accomplished local hockey player, and Barry’s grandfather gave the young boy the nickname that would stay with him for the rest of his life:
There was leadership in this family, too.
Barry’s grandmother was Florence “Flora” Tabobondung, a remarkable woman who served for many years as Chief of Wasauksing First Nation and was later appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
But young Hawk’s ambitions were taking him toward the hockey rink.
And he could play.
The Oshawa Generals
After playing junior hockey in Newmarket, Hawk joined one of the most storied teams in Canadian junior hockey—the Oshawa Generals.
During the 1980–81 season, he scored 18 goals and added 59 assists for 77 points in 61 games.
Hawk could score, set up his teammates, and play a very physical game.
NHL scouts noticed.
And in 1981, Barry “Hawk” Tabobondung travelled to Montreal for the NHL Entry Draft.
The Philadelphia Flyers selected him 47th overall, in the third round.
For a young Anishinaabe hockey player from Wasauksing First Nation, the National Hockey League suddenly seemed very close indeed.
And then came one of those wonderful little stories that statistics could never tell us.
A Memorable Draft-Day Entrance
When Hawk’s name was announced at the Montreal Forum, he was sitting high in the stands.
Excited, he began making his way down.
Apparently, the stairs seemed unnecessarily slow.
So Hawk started climbing over the seats.
And got his leg stuck.
Not slightly stuck.
Really stuck.
According to the story that became part of Hawk’s hockey lore, arena workers eventually had to remove an entire row of seats to free the Philadelphia Flyers’ newest draft pick.
Of all the ways a young player might make his entrance into professional hockey, Hawk had certainly found one nobody was likely to forget.
Becoming a Professional
Hawk never ultimately appeared in an NHL regular-season game.
But that should not obscure what he did accomplish.
Barry Tabobondung became a professional hockey player.
He spent two seasons with the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League and continued playing professionally with other teams.
Then came his outstanding 1984–85 season with the Erie Golden Blades of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League.
Hawk scored 22 goals and added 57 assists—79 points in 64 games.
He was named the league’s Most Valuable Player and selected as a First-Team All-Star.
The boy from Parry Island had made his mark.
Going Home
Eventually, however, Hawk’s professional playing days came to an end.
He had travelled far from the small Georgian Bay community where his story had begun.
He had played major junior hockey.
He had heard his name called at the NHL Entry Draft.
He had become a professional hockey player.
And he had become a league MVP.
Eventually, Barry “Hawk” Tabobondung came home to Parry Sound and Wasauksing.
And, as it turned out, some of the most important things he would accomplish had nothing to do with professional hockey.
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Source for Part One
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OUR SOCIAL CORNER -
Input from our guests and members
Send us your news - what's happening that's important in your corner of the world?
- What has Rotary contributed to your life?
- What have YOU contributed to Rotary recently to make your community a better place?
- Is there a Rotary project or experience you'd like to share?
A comment from Rotarian Cynthia (October 7)
Re the program the week of October 5.
The tablet-based learning program in Africa is very interesting. I love that the speaker says that Western programs aren’t working.
I think that all too often we in the Western world think we can parachute in, in small groups, and solve problems using Western ideas. This tablet-based program is far-reaching. It’s fantastic.
Thanks, Cynthia!
 Vaccination — A Gift We Pass On to the World We don't remember -
That is one of the remarkable things about vaccination - its greatest successes are often invisible.  Polio gives us one of the most extraordinary examples. When Rotary began its commitment to polio eradication, hundreds of thousands of children were being paralysed by the disease each year. Today, because of vaccination and the persistence of millions of people around the world, wild poliovirus remains endemic in only two countries. But the work is not finished. World Polio Day — October 24 — reminds us that vaccination is more than protection for one person. It is something we do for one another. Each vaccinated child makes it harder for disease to travel to the next child, the next family, and the next community. Perhaps that is why vaccination fits so naturally with Rotary. It is
Sometimes the greatest evidence of what we have accomplished is what no longer happens. |
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What's a factorial?
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ROTARIAN CODE OF CONDUCT
As a Rotarian, I will:
***1. Act with integrity and high ethical standards in my personal and professional life
2. Deal fairly with others and treat them and their occupations with respect
3. Use my professional skills through Rotary to mentor young people, help those with special needs, and improve people’s quality of life in my community and in the world
4. Avoid behaviour that reflects adversely on Rotary or other Rotarians
5. Help maintain a harassment-free environment in Rotary meetings, events, and activities; report any suspected harassment; and help ensure non-retaliation to those individuals that report harassment
Rotary’s Code of Conduct provides a simple but powerful guide for ethical behaviour, emphasizing honesty, accountability, and respect for others. Along with the Four-Way Test, it encourages thoughtful reflection on how we live and interact, helping us become better citizens and better human beings.
A Rotary Look Back
Dare to Dream — But What Was the Dream?
We know the words: End Polio Now.
But perhaps we have heard them so often that we have forgotten just how extraordinary the original dream was.
But perhaps we have heard them so often that we have forgotten just how extraordinary the original dream was.
Then RI President Clem Renouf dared to think differently.
Smallpox was being eradicated from the world. If humanity could eliminate one terrible disease, Renouf wondered, could Rotary help do the same with another?
It was an audacious question.
In 1978, Rotary introduced its new Health, Hunger and Humanity — 3-H — programme, allowing Rotarians to combine their resources for humanitarian projects far beyond the capacity of any individual club or district. Rotary itself says those grants helped set the stage for today's Global Grants.
And in 1979, one of those projects took Rotary into the Philippines, where Rotary and the government undertook a multiyear programme to immunize approximately six million children against polio. It cost about US$760,000.
But the dream grew.
It was no longer simply to vaccinate children in one country, nor merely to reduce the number of children paralysed by polio.
The dream became to eradicate polio from the world.
Think about the enormity of that decision.
Rotarians were committing themselves to reaching children they would never meet, in countries many would never visit, for a goal they could not know they would accomplish within their own lifetimes.
And many did not.
Yet the promise survived them.
In 1985, Rotary launched PolioPlus. In 1988, Rotary became a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. At that time, polio paralysed an estimated 350,000 children every year in 125 countries. Today, wild poliovirus remains endemic in only two.
That is what Dare to Dream means.
It is the story of what can happen when Rotarians look beyond the boundaries of their own clubs and ask not simply, “What can we do?” but “What could all of us, together, accomplish?”
Those early Rotarians could not possibly have known how long or difficult the journey would be. But they started.
And we are going to finish.
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Material Suggestions and Greeter Messages Always Needed!
Please feel free to forward an approx. 150 - 200 word message or any material suggestions in an e-mail, or in a Word document, along with a JPeg picture or two, to E-Club Administration Chair, Kitty Bucsko.
We'd love to hear from you!
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Just so you're aware -
Our Club's Ongoing Projects -
We provide ongoing support for the following projects:
Click the links below to find out more about each project!
And we're doing great!
Ask for more information if you'd like to be involved!
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Real-time meetings
Once a month - Fellowship Assembly. Each 3rd Thursday of the month is our Fellowship Assembly, and we often invite interesting speakers or Rotary Leaders for this entertaining, educational fun event. Plan to join us.
The time is 9:00 a.m. (Mountain Time) in lieu of the weekly Coffee Chat except for July and August when there are no FA’s. Here is the zoom link:
Everyone is welcome to attend and we encourage your participation.
Please click our Event Calendar for details and access Link.
For further inquiries or suggestions please contact: info@rotaryeclubcanada.ca
All our videos can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
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How do you support our club?
- The Paypal button on our ClubRunner Home Page
- The donation button on the attendance form, or
- Make an Interac transfer to rotaryeclubcanada1@gmail.com
- Send a cheque to:
The Rotary E-Club of Canada One
14008 101 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5N 0K3
(780) 267 4547
Environment
Humour
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Rotary minute
The Accident of Birth
None of us chose where we were born.
Yet consider how profoundly that one fact - the accident of birth - has shaped our lives.
For many of us--
- Clean water comes from a tap.
- We attended school.
- Medical help was available when we needed it.
- We grew up believing that if we worked hard, there were possibilities ahead.
But somewhere else, a child equally intelligent, equally curious, and equally deserving may begin life without any of those advantages.
October is Rotary’s Community and Economic Development Month.
It reminds us that economic development isn't simply about money. It is about opportunity — the opportunity to
October is Rotary’s Community and Economic Development Month.
It reminds us that economic development isn't simply about money. It is about opportunity — the opportunity to
- learn
- work
- provide for a family
- live with dignity, and ultimately
- pursue happiness
We cannot make everyone's circumstances equal.
But through Rotary, we can help make opportunity a little less dependent on the accident of where a person happened to be born.
And when that opportunity allows a child to learn, a parent to earn a living, or a community to build a more secure future, we do more than help for today.
We Create Lasting Impact.
But through Rotary, we can help make opportunity a little less dependent on the accident of where a person happened to be born.
And when that opportunity allows a child to learn, a parent to earn a living, or a community to build a more secure future, we do more than help for today.
We Create Lasting Impact.
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Rotary Members' Inspiration
The Geography of Opportunity
That accident of geography — where we were born and where we live — determines so much — whether we have clean water, an education, medical care, a safe place to live, an opportunity to earn a living, and the freedom to imagine a better future.
Those of us fortunate enough to live in Canada and other prosperous parts of the Western Hemisphere can easily take these things for granted. Our communities are not perfect, and hardship certainly exists here, but we live with opportunities that millions of people around the world can only hope for.
October is Rotary’s Community and Economic Development Month, and perhaps it invites us to think about development in a very human way.
A parent anywhere in the world wants much the same things we do:
- safety for the family
- food on the table
- education for the children
- meaningful work
- dignity
- security, and
- some happiness along the way
Shouldn't every human being have the opportunity to hope for those things?
Rotary cannot change where someone was born. But through education, clean water, health initiatives, microcredit, vocational training, local enterprise, and sustainable community projects, Rotary can help change what that accident of birth means.
Rotary cannot change where someone was born. But through education, clean water, health initiatives, microcredit, vocational training, local enterprise, and sustainable community projects, Rotary can help change what that accident of birth means.
We may not be able to give everyone the same life.
But perhaps we can help give more people the same chance.
Rotary Jukebox
For a small donation, your favorite musician will be featured on one of our next e-meetings for everyone to enjoy.
Click Here to send your request.
THIS WEEK - Here You Come Again
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The Four-way Test
To close the meeting, Rotarian Angel recites the Four-Way Test of the things that Rotarians think, say, or do.
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Invite friends to Like our page and enjoy our posts. Also, please take the time to Share our posts on your Facebook Page.
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Archived Meetings
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Donate For the Meeting You Have Attended.
Please consider making a small donation in lieu of a meal
to help us help those in need.
As you have not had to buy lunch or travel to attend this program, please consider a donation of a minimum of $10.00 in appreciation for the experience you have enjoyed.
We thank you very much!
Program Donations
Our E-Club is a dynamic club comprised of ordinary working and retired people who acknowledge that Rotarians are people who are generous with their time and their resources.
Our club and the program you have just enjoyed, either as a member or a visitor, is funded only by donations.
We are developing ideas for fundraising with our members who are scattered across Canada, USA, Central America, and Europe, but we do need your help.
As you have not had to buy lunch or travel to attend this program, please make a donation of a minimum of $10.00, considering you're saving in time and cost in appreciation for the experience you have enjoyed.
Interested in providing Rotary Service? Unable to attend terra club meetings?
Contact our membership chair for information or
or HERE to learn about Associate Membership
