SaltWire Selects July 27: East Coast stories worth your time today

Let us introduce you to Atlantic Canadians and their communities

Baris Bayraktar and his wife Imane Boussag got married in Morocco in March 2019. Bayraktar visits his wife in Morroco every so often because he can't bear to be apart from her for long periods at a time. - Contributed

Waiting on reunion

“I can no longer tell her it’s going to be this much time. At least before, when she said ‘I miss you,’ I would say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to be three months, two months, another two months it’s going to be finished,’” Baris Bayraktar told The Chronicle Herald's Noushin Ziafati about living with pandemic delays in bringing his wife to Canada.

“It’s really difficult. It’s something we live with everyday.”

According to Ziafati, thousands of Canadians are like Bayraktar — waiting to be able to sponsor their spouses so they can immigrate to Canada.

July 24, 2020—Baris Bayraktar shows a photo of his new wife and her family in Morocco after they were married in 2019. Bayraktar has been trying to sponsor his wife to come to Canada, but has been caught up in government red tape aggravated by delays due to COVID-19. - Eric Wynne

Farm families

Amy VanderHeide and Katie Keddy of Maritime Agriculture Women’s Network are speaking out about what women in agriculture have faced during the pandemic and ongoing issues with gender discrimination in the industry.

"They want interventions to improve work and life balance, through programs or financial help with childcare so farm families can continue to produce food efficiently and safely for Canadian families," Desiree Anstey reports for SaltWire.

“It is expected women will figure it out with childcare, and the government doesn’t need to step in and help farm families because it’s all happening organically in our communities. But we have no other choice. I know a few families where the mother is the breadwinner, but now, 95 per cent of women are staying home,” Keddy told Anstey.

As tasks for the family farm piled up around her, Amy VanderHeide had to simply watch as she cared for her children during COVID-19 school closures this spring. Lack of childcare and gender bias is a big issue for female farmers, she says. - Contributed

Soaring song

Newfoundland-born Terry Kelly, an Honorary Colonel at 14 Wing Greenwood in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, has helped pen a song specifically for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

A newly-released video to go with the song is especially poignant after the deaths of Forces' members in plane and helicopter crashes this spring.

“Every now and again, if you open that portal, all of a sudden, things fall through, and you say, ‘Where did that come from?’” Kelly told The Telegram's Andrew Waterman. “And "No Sky Too High" came from that portal.”

Watch the video for "No Sky Too High" and read more about the creative process.

Terry Kelly’s new song No Sky Too High is a collaboration with members of the 14 Wing Greenwood Band. - Contributed — Terry Kelly’s new song No Sky Too High is a collaboration with members of the 14 Wing Greenwood Band. — Contributed

Double talent

Michael Liu, a research and teacher of chemical kinetics at the University of Prince Edward Island, had a side hustle that won him world acclaim.

After shooting for the National Film Board while studing in Ottawa, Liu brought his talents in both chemistry and photography to Charlottetown.

Recently he sat down with The Guardian's Jim Day to discuss a piece of his work chosen to be exhibited at the 1970 World Fair.

“It was quite an excitement for me to get the VIP treatment,’’ Liu told Day of his memories of the event 50 years ago.

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