When Toronto City Council’s executive committee meets on Thursday to start making decisions about the future of the Toronto Public Library, you can help defend Toronto Public Library. And if you can’t make it, you can surely make a phone call.The com…
Continue readingAuthor: laura k
wmtc: moby duck: "that’s the difference. there are things afloat now that will never sink."
I’ve re-started reading Moby Duck. I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but sometimes if I pick up a book at a particularly busy time when I don’t have enough uninterrupted time and concentration, I end up reading in tiny dribs and drabs, a page h…
Continue readingwmtc: today in new york: joy, normalcy, equality
Today in New York City, some families will celebrate their love and commitment, because the law has finally caught up with reality. 2 Dads, 2 Daughters, 1 Big Dayby Frank BruniEven in a city as diverse as New York and a neighborhood as progressive as t…
Continue readingwmtc: we like lists: list # 10: six things going on with me
Remember we like lists?? It’s been a long time! This list will answer the burning question: What’s up? What’s happening in your life? Doing anything interesting? Enjoying doing something mundane? Reading a good book? Working in your garden? Suffering f…
Continue readingwmtc: to anyone trying to use the massacre in norway as a justification for abolishing gun control
Regarding the horrific massacre in Norway, some people are apparently making statements like this: “If that had happened in Texas, the shooter would have lasted 30 seconds before dozens of regular folks with guns took him out.”Texas has a rate of death…
Continue readingwmtc: mississauga has arrived: sexy suburban buildings make real estate splash
These sexy buildings are right down the street from us. Allan and I both like them a lot, and have watched their progress in the Mississauga skyline with interest. Apparently many people have been doing the same. From the New York Times real estate pag…
Continue readingwmtc: toronto’s ford brothers: does a true word ever leave their mouths?
James posted this in comments yesterday, but it deserves its own thread: Top Five Ford Lies. If you haven’t seen it yet, please go read.Of course, politicians with a privatization agenda never let the facts get in the way of their profit-driven ideolog…
Continue readingwmtc: toronto has more donut shops than libraries. fight to keep the libraries open.
Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford thinks his city has more libraries than donut shops. In fact:When the Urban Affairs branch closes, Toronto will have 3.9 libraries per 100,000 people, which is what Vancouver has. Halifax has 4.3 libraries per 100,000 …
Continue readingwmtc: canada moving backwards on youth crime plans that are proven failures
Further to my last post, how can we build a world without hate when the people in power are moving in the opposite direction?Last year I stumbled on a CPAC broadcast of hearings being held in the Canadian Senate. A former head of “corrections” (read: p…
Continue readingwmtc: survivor of hate crime fighting to save assailant’s life: join his mission for a world without hate
In Texas, the survivor of a vicious hate crime is campaigning to spare the life of his assailant, who murdered two other people and is scheduled to be executed today.I collect these kinds of stories, and one day I’d like to write more about why I find …
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: "moby duck" and the permanence of plastic
I’ve just started reading a remarkable book, one that can’t wait until I finish to share it with you: Moby Duck: The True Story of 28,000 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools, including the Author, …
Continue readingwmtc: help protect tpl from ford’s privatization rampage
Mayor Rob Ford is out to privatize the living daylights out of Toronto. Privatization is a great deal for the corporations that pick up lucrative contracts, and a very bad deal for everyone else. As privatization grows, quality of life erodes.Next on F…
Continue readingwmtc: walkom: we sent our soldiers to die to impress our largest trading partner
This is probably the strongest truth-telling about Canada’s experience in Afghanistan – and the revolting response to it at home – that I have seen in the mainstream media. Thank you, Thomas Walkom! On Tuesday, Canada officially ended its combat missio…
Continue readingwmtc: pupdate: mississauga squirrels continue to rejoice
We’ve just returned from our consult with an orthopedic specialist at the OVC in Guelph. Tal has been doing so well, she seems so improved, that I think many people would have cancelled the appointment. But remembering the kind of pain she was in two w…
Continue readingwmtc: trials of a student librarian: in which i confess to practicing my alphabet
In addition to writing a large portion of the final report for the “Private Eyes” research project, I’ve been stressing over something else – something I decided not to share, until today. I finally have an interview for a page position at the Mississa…
Continue readingwmtc: boycott mlb all star game to protest arizona’s racist anti-brown-people law
Many good reasons to boycott tonight’s Major League All Star Game: Arizona, The All-Star Game, And Speaking Up For Human Rights at Joy of Sox.
Continue readingwmtc: at the break
As we baseball fans say, we are “at the break”. The All Star Break begins today: three days without real baseball, plus this year an extra day off for our Red Sox. Although the actual halfway point of the season came last week, the All Star Break is a …
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: cradle of gold, story of re-discovery of machu picchu
One hundred years ago, this week – July 7, 1911, to be exact – an American man named Hiram Bingham found the ruins of an ancient ceremonial city, mostly overgrown with Peruvian jungle. Some indigenous families were living on the site, tending small sub…
Continue readingwmtc: stop the mega-quarry: deadline for comments is midnight tonight
The deadline to submit comments to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, voicing your opposition to the Melancthon mega-quarry, is midnight tonight. Please:1. Sign the Avaaz petition: here.2. Submit your comment to the Ministry: here.3. Share thes…
Continue readingwmtc: help stop u.s. company’s mega-quarry from poisoning ontario’s farms and water
Avaaz, the Council of Canadians, and other concerned groups are alerting Canadians to a threat to Ontario’s farmland and fresh water supply. Please read, sign the petition and circulate it in any way you can.From Avaaz:An American hedge fund is about t…
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