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Battle of the Atlantic: A U-boat hunter remembers

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

The best part of my job without a doubt is meeting veterans. The vanishing generation of men and women who served in the Second World War and Korea holds a special place in my heart. They’ll soon be gone, and every opportunity to sit down with a soldier, sailor or air force veteran of those wars—of any war, to be sure—is to be cherished. Many, like Elmer Auld, are in their late-90s; some are 100 or more. For a surprising number, their wartime memories remain vivid. Such was the case with Auld, a sonar operator aboard a corvette on the notorious North Atlantic Run—a U-boat hunter, a terrific interview and my favourite column of 2022.

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Love bombing: the story of the last woman executed in Canada

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

Marguerite Pitre became a footnote in history on Jan. 9, 1953, when she was thirteenth—and last—woman executed in Canada.

She might well have faded into history, as most working-class people do, were it not for an ill-fated friendship and a history-making murder half a world away.

That friendship was with Joseph-Albert Guay, a jewelry salesman in Quebec City. Guay was also a friend of Pitre’s brother, Générux Ruest.

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