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They looked, for all intents and purposes, like prize fighters circling one another in the boxing ring.  And when the metaphorical gloves came off, they went at each other, hammer and tong.  A right jab here, a left hook there, followed by an upper cut to the torso. Until they collapsed into a massive furry heap on the Arctic snow.  The combatants we were observing were two enormous young adult polar bears, weighing approximately 400 and 700 pounds, respectively. And as it turned out, they were not combatants at all. Rather these two male bears were displaying a form of skills training. Sparring and honing their skills as they prepared…

Virtually every city in the world has a problem with car theft. Not just with stealing cars but also breaking into vehicles. But there is one exception. Churchill, Manitoba. Population 995. There, citizens are encouraged to leave their car doors unlocked. Also, the front doors of their homes and offices.  Why? Because Churchill has a problem with polar bears who walk through the town in mid-fall. The bears, the largest land mammals in the world, weigh up to 500 pounds and are potentially dangerous. As a result residents frequently need last minute escape routes 24 hours a day. Hence if a bear threatens, someone can run for cover to the…

Visitors from all over the world — China, Morocco, Mexico, Europe, including, of course, Canadians and Americans — had front row seats this month to one of the most extraordinary concerts on our planet. A choir made up of dozens and dozens of gentle giants: beluga whales.  It is one of nature’s greatest gifts and perhaps one of Northern Canada’s best kept secrets.  The belugas are frequently known as “sea canaries” because of the unique and varied sounds they make — they squeak, chirp, squeal, make clicking sounds, whistle, clang and mew in an aquatic symphony that played out for over an hour during our recent visit.  The sounds the…

“Jackson, get yourself to Rotterdam in 48 hours and there is a cargo ship that will take you to Canada,” said the heavily accented voice on the end of the phone. It was the summer of 1967 and I was bored out of my mind, half way through the summer semester at my boarding school in the English countryside. I had seen a program that spring on the flagship BBC news show Panorama about the opening of the World’s Fair in Montreal, Canada. It became my obsession – I wanted to see it. Actually I HAD to see it. But I had no money! I was 16 and it was…

Muhammad Ali was arguably the greatest athlete of the twentieth century. Certainly the most charismatic. I had to see him fight. Live. Actually, I knew very little about boxing – until Ali, or Cassius Clay as he was then known, burst onto the scene winning a gold medal in Rome at the 1960 Olympic Games. As a teenager I kept up with his fights: usually by listening to a transistor radio, with poor reception, under my bed sheets in the middle of the night because of the time difference. Often in a dormitory of 20 or so other lads at boarding school. I had to keep the sound down so…

It IS murder on the Orient Express. That was one of my favourite lines from 50 years in journalism. I had just reached Istanbul after a three day journey on the Orient Express from Paris. And I had writer’s block. The journey was certainly not the romantic adventure of yesteryear. In fact it was hell. The cramped rail coaches were hot, steamy and uncomfortable. Then the line came to me and the story flowed from there. I was working on the Daily Mail in London’s Fleet Street and was assigned to travel on the famous train for a feature to coincide with the opening of the Agatha Christie film, Murder…

by Clive and Carol-Ann Jackson Guns drawn, four intimidating soldiers surrounded me as a seemingly straightforward dispute escalated out of control at a hotel in Asuncion, Paraguay. It was over my refusal to pay a hotel bill because I believed I was being ripped off. My wife stood helplessly nearby. Tension mounted. As the impasse escalated the only way I was able to resolve the deadlock was to demand a call to the British Consulate where a diplomat was able to negotiate a settlement between the hotel manager and me. We had arrived late the previous evening in Asuncion, the capital of a country known at that time as a…