Pióro

When 500 ducks landed in a tailings pond near Fort McMurray, Ed Stelmach was on a tour of the United States.
The Stelmach government—which was selling itself in Washington as environmentally responsible when the incident occurred—is facing accusations of a coverup for refusing to release photos of the ducks.
The provincial government is also being skewered for [...]

Polish journalist Ryszard KapuÅ›ciÅ„ski, who died in January at the age of 74, is the latest public figure to be “outed” as a communist-area spy. The Polish version of Newsweek ran a cover story this week on the late writer revealing that his ability to travel to Africa, Asia and Central America throughout the ’60s [...]

Today, our own Naomi Klein writes on the Guardian website about Shawn Brant and the Mohawks who blockaded the Kingston/Toronto CN line two weeks ago. In an act that seems designed to suppress the growing militancy of native groups, the OPP arrested Brant despite an agreement between police and demonstrators that gave the latter immunity [...]

The American Food and Drug Administration approved a pill that minnows may find worrisome.
On Tuesday, the FDA passed a drug called Lybrel, which stops a woman from menstruating. The Washington Post reported that it is designed “for women who find their periods too painful, unpleasant or inconvenient and want to be free of them.” While [...]

Rudy Wiebe received the $25 000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction for his work Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest in a ceremony at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto today. The three member jury chose Wiebe’s memoir of growing up in rural Saskatchewan from a set of three finalists, [...]

It seems I’ve set a dangerous precedent on my blog: mixing sarcasm and environmental issues. Some Canadian environmental activists in Nairobi tried to use sarcasm to critique Rona Ambrose’s horrible performance as Environment Minister, but they’ve been accused of being “sexist and gratuitous.” The offensive comment—a dig involving Ms. Ambrose’s hair—came out of a newsletter [...]

Globe and Mail columnists seem as receptive to environmental concerns as Republicans (Arnold Schwarzenegger excluded). A few weeks back, Margaret Wente wrote a feature about how her week-long use of the TTC had reaffirmed her love for her SUV, which she holds dear not only because her vehicle gets her around town, but because it [...]

Sir Nicholas Stern’s stern warning about climate change will probably have a greater effect than over thirty years of campaigning by various environmental groups. Stern says pollution will hurt our pocket books, which is much less abstract—and probably more frightening—than our grandchildren living on a toxic planet. Fine. Whatever works.

Pierre Berton passed away earlier today.
A few weeks ago, I and my house-mates found ourselves in the odd position of trying to explain Pierre Berton to a German grad-student. I don’t remember what we said about Berton, whose works are on our parents’ books shelves and maybe some of our own, even if we haven’t [...]

My ESL students are just average Canadians when it comes to the US election. The students have a knee-jerk support for Kerry even if they have never heard of him.
I started my conversation class with the question, “Who do you think will win the election today?” My students looked at me as if I was [...]