The Horde In Our Back Yard
Remember Marlon Perkins’ “Wild Kingdom”? We’ve got something like that on our doorstep only it’s not hyenas or lions on the hunt. It’s something far bigger, transient orcas. Here is…
2021
If You Wonder If You Got the Right Vaccine
Canada has pledged to donate 100 million doses of Covid vaccine but notice what is conspicuous by their absence. The specific breakdown of the pledge was finally released Sunday by…
Bibi is Toast
Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership has gone the way of the Norwegian Blue parrot. He’s out on the street where Israeli prosecutors can finally hold him to account on corruption charges. Palestinians…
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tom Parkin calls out Jason Kenney’s defence of genocide and its architects in an attempt to keep his party’s white supremacist base…
Snips and Cuts of 1939 (2021 remix)
While rummaging through my junk recently (and by junk, I mean scraps of paper, etc., not, well, my junk) I came across something I didn’t know I had. A yearbook.…
Green Troubles
The Green Party is in trouble. Party leader Annamie Paul is not Elizabeth May. And the first elected member from the Maritimes, Janet Atwin, has joined the Liberal Party. Janet…
happy birthday to me: in which i arrive at a milestone
I have been alive on this planet for 60 years. I don’t know how that happened. It doesn’t seem even remotely possible. Yet here it is. I am 60. I…
The Trump of the West.
It is a long way from Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Springs, Florida to roof-top dining in Calgary, Alberta. Nor is former president Donald Trump likely to be confused with Alberta…
Great. We’re Burying a Family of Murdered Muslims. What to Do, What to Do? Oh, I know, Let’s Hold a Summit on Anti-Semitism!
The optics may not be great but the Trudeau government is staging an emergency summit on antisemitism. WTF? The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has been calling for an…
Canada’s Mining Industry Bullies
Canadian mining companies dominate the sector in many parts of the world. Largely unregulated, they are able to profit from weak protection for the environment, workers, indigenous peoples and human…
Saturday Photo: Mangroves, the Key to Sea Rise Control?
Firsts installment of the photos some friends in Jakarta took for me, as I try to research what’s happening there for my new project, Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ed Yong discusses the preventable dangers created by a shift in COVID-19 messaging from one of public protection to one of individual choice.…
Are The Cons Trying To Provoke An Election?
He left Canada on an official government plane the other day to attend the G7 and NATO summits. Today he is meeting with the G7 leaders and dealing with all…
The death and rebirth of Pelagius, and the (still unfolding) history of Christianity: A New Renaissance, or Hell On Earth?
Pelagius: it’s a soft g, as in germane, not a hard g, as in gorilla, but otherwise the discussion here in this podcast below is good. Here are a few…
It’s now confirmed: Doug Ford has a fetish about using the Notwithstanding Clause to override your rights…
The Notwithstanding Clause in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms was supposed to be used sparingly such in cases where human safety could be endangered if governments didn’t act in…
When Politics Become Religion
I’ve been gloomy of late about the prospects for the republic to the south of us. Molly Worthen — an historian at the University of North Carolina — offers some…
Unpopular Opinions: On Failing Credits, Teaching Hybrid, and Grading Student Work!
Riding on my high that a post-covid education system could be different, I joined a committee. It quickly killed by buzz with a reminder that bureaucracy will only allow choices…
Doug Dares Deny Us.
The Ontario legislature is in session this beautiful weekend. Doug Ford and his conservative henchmen are attacking our right to free speech. They want to use the ‘Notwithstanding Clause’ of…
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good is Alberta Independent Bookshops’ fiction bestseller for week ended June 6
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, June 6, 2021. The lists are compiled…