One sunny morning in 1983, we were going up to nearby Mount Baker (USA) for a hike. I turned on CBC Radio just as we drove into the deep forest near the Ranger Station . . . the last verse of “The Mary Ellen Carter” was playing. How perfect, I thought, this song in this place. A wonderful start to a beautiful day. Then the black news, unknown to me . . . we sat under the 400-year-old trees, and I wept.

—Brian Williams