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…
(Spoiler alert: being a princess is not all it’s cracked up to be!) Nearly every little girl dreams of being a princess, and there are very few daddies who don’t play along. Living in a castle, wooed by dragon-slaying charming princes, eating what you want when you want, and having sleepovers with all the other…
It’s hard to read the news these days without finding at least one story in which Donald Trump or one of his pure-hearted freedom fighters isn’t claiming privilege in order to avoid testifying. One would think that rather than hiding behind a technicality, they would be racing to lay out their evidence of innocence, but…
This isn’t what you’re expecting. You know that I adore border collies, and you know that they are probably the brightest dogs in the world, and all that. I’ll admit to a bit of bias. But the truth is that once a border collie gets too excited, all bets are off. Any trainer understands that…
A great idea, right? The notion that every ballot in an election be electronically tagged in such a way that each voter can later follow up to ensure that their ballot was properly counted. How very democratic. How very reassuring. The good folks who brought you fake news, stolen elections, Italian spy satellites and Jewish…
You know what drives me wild? Legalese. And I’m a lawyer. Let me be clear– carefully used legal language is not only necessary, but in good hands can be an art form. But in the hands of legal hacks and wannabe lawyers, an awkward pidgin called legalese passes for communication when in fact all it…
You know the feeling: you have a critical delivery and you have to strut your stuff. It may be a long-wished-for and hard-earned sales presentation, your first time at the Court of Appeal, or your first big job for the city. But no matter what, you just can’t get it together, and the closer the…