A secret family photo collection

Aaron T. Francis is a student working on a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Waterloo. A few years ago, when his grandfather moved into a long-term care facility, Aaron discovered a treasure trove in the family garage: thousands of wonderful, vivid, surprising, artistic photographs of life in the Black community in Kitchener-Waterloo. Aaron’s grandfather, Roy Francis, was a welder who worked for an aerospace company. It turns out he was also a superb amateur photographer.

Roy carried his camera everywhere and captured the everyday nuances of Black Canadian life for six decades, documenting idyllic suburban scenarios and mundane moments of joy. After Roy died at 85, Aaron started the Instagram account @vintageblackcanada, where he posts pictures from his grandfather’s collection.

“I knew he was a photographer,” says Aaron. “Then I found the photographs, and I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t seen them before.” For Maclean’s, Aaron selected a sample of the gallery-quality photographs and described what his grandfather had masterfully captured.

“This photo, taken in 1969 at my grandparents’ home in Waterloo, Ontario, was most likely staged,” says Aaron. “My grandfather went out of his way to create photographic moments, and he would often take the same photo three or four times.”

Kate Inglis and Nick Bakker bought this Victorian home in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, in 2016. It was originally owned by master mariner Captain Edwin Backman, and Inglis and Bakker made it their mission to preserve the home’s historical character. “We know we’re only borrowing these houses from history—from the fishermen, the lobstermen, the rich merchants and humble carpenters who built them. We’re shepherding them along,” says Inglis.

The Saker women were the model of rural ingenuity, running a successful restaurant and several gourmet food businesses on Cape Breton Island. What they were mostly cooking? The books. For Maclean’s, Sarah Treleaven reveals the unbelievable story of how the Sakers almost got away with bilking the government out of millions. That is, until their file passed across the desk of CRA auditor Carol Power.

After lying low for two decades, iconic folk heroine Joni Mitchell took the stage at last summer’s Newport Folk Festival for a surprise appearance, heralding a major comeback. Hosted by Grammy-winner Brandi Carlile, and with friends Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford and Lucius on hand, the so-called “Joni Jam” was such a hit that it’s being released as a live album with 11 songs plus an intro by Carlile—but not on Spotify, from which Mitchell famously removed her music in protest. The album, to be released tomorrow, includes crowd favourite “Big Yellow Taxi” and a slowed-down take on “Both Sides Now,” accompanied by cello and clarinet. (Good luck not breaking into tears when you hear it.) The detailed liner notes are written by director and writer Cameron Crowe, who is currently at work on a biopic of Mitchell.

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