“Sow the wind,” says the Good Book, “and reap the whirlwind.” For four years, Donald Trump lied, cheated, sucked up to tyrants, played golf, lied some more, cheated some more, deconstructed environmental and social protections, played more golf, watched TV, incited violence, sucked up to more tyrants, and just generally acted as one would expect…
Most of us are a little vain about our appearance– pretty rare the individual who, before an important meeting or zoom call, doesn’t spend at least a minute in front of the mirror. Yet few of us give much thought to our vocal presentation. The truth is that our voices say much more about us…
Canadian French is such a lovely, lively language, free from the stuffiness of Continental French, and attached at the hip with Canadian English, itself also a work in progress. And there is no better example of the creativity of the language than boss des bécosses. Bécosse in Canadian French is literally a backhouse, or outhouse,…
Afghanistan is descending all the way back into hell, somewhere between the Middle Ages and Jonestown, and we’re all quite rightly horrified. It’s heartwrenching to watch, and it will only get worse. Meanwhile, left wing and right wing journalists have finally agreed on one thing: Joe Biden blew it. Well, Joe didn’t blow it– he…
A goodly part of the northern boundary between New Brunswick and Maine, as established by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, follows the centre line of a river called Kelly Rapids. Or, at least it used to follow the centre line– time has not been kind to this boundary. You see, rivers, especially those in alluvial…
I knew that would get some attention. Political literature, particularly that emanating from the US, is currently in a white hot frenzy about the dastardly Socialist Democrats or the Evil Republican Capitalists, as the case may be. Well, a pox on both their houses. The frenzied arguments make no more sense than a battle to…
We had our own Donald Trump, an authoritarian braggart with a taste for fascism, an admiration for despots, and little regard for the truth. Like Trump, he was a womanizer, and like Trump, luck broke his way more often than not. Maurice Duplessis was Premier of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and from 1944 to…
With Canada sleepwalking into the election that nobody wanted except the one who called it, perhaps the last thing you want to hear about is a tree. But it’s a very important tree. You see, not only Canada, but the whole world is in the early stages of ecological and climate disaster, and it ain’t…
There’s a little triangle of land in South Ottawa surrounded by roads and housing, with enough grass and trees to attract an occasional errant deer. A small, green oasis. But, as in the old Joni Mitchell song “Big Yellow Taxi”, they’re going to cut down all the trees, bulldoze the grass, and build more houses….
Two days before Valentines Day, 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both ten years old, played hooky. They went to a shopping mall, found a two year old boy whose mother had taken her eyes off him for just a moment, led him away, tortured him and killed him. Those who remember the story remain…