Saturday Photo: Springtime in the Andes
Just a year ago I was on a plane on my way to my excellent South American adventure. That’s the view as we neared the crest of a 4200 meter…
Mary Soderstrom
Red Poppies: Wars Are Eternal
Today is Remembrance Day, but I’ll not be wearing a red poppy. It’s fine to honour the dead, but not to glorify war. So I’m posting here a picture I…
Saturday Photo: Champlain’s Asters
After much back and forth, it looks like the new bridge across the St. Lawrence is not going to be named after a hockey hero. There’s even a chance that…
School Boards: Do They Respond to Educational Reality?
Voter turn-out for school board elections in Quebec yesterday was abysmal, particularly in Francophone boards. While about 20 per cent of English school board electors voted, province-wide it appears that…
Saturday (or Friday) Photo: Smashing Pumpkins, Eh? (In the British Sense of Smashing)!
Sophie took this photo Sunday night just after Jeanne, Thomas and their mothers, plus Grandma had spent a great hour making pumpkins. The gang will be Jeanne’s house tonight. They’ll…
Recession Has Increased Child Poverty, Unicef Report Says
The statistics are dire: The eight years since things went belly-up in 2008 have been terrible on children in many, many countries. But it’s clear that many people are going…
Pure Laine Terrorists, Or Why a Little Religious Education Never Hurts
I have no way of knowing if the two troubled young men who took down Canadian soldiers this week had any kind of religious education as children. Given their age,…
Saturday Photo: What the Champs des possibles Was Like Before CP Trashed It
This picture was taken a couple of years ago in early summer when a former industrial site was beginning to bloom. These are the Champs des possibles, acquired by the…
Saturday (or Thanksgiving Weekend) Photo: Time for a Walk
Been cold, will get warmer, but nowhere near as warm as a good Thanksgiving supper! We did our annual number with a bunch of friends and family (23 adults and…
Imagining the Cities of Tomorrow: A Conversation
What can we do to make our cities more liveable? Here’s a conversation between yours truly, transit expert Taras Gresco and architect and urban ist Avi Friedman. I do a…
Saturday Photo: Emeral Ash Borer on a Sunny Sunday
Lee and I took Thomas out to the Parc du Cité-du-Havre today. It’s one of the unknown gems of Montreal, open space in the middle of the St. Lawrence, where…
The Reason Why We Need Local Government Boards and Why Governments Want to Cut Them
The Liberal government of Philippe Couillard is anything but “liberal” in the sense of progressive or englightened. It is slashing government spendings, endorsing austerity while denying that is its aim,…
Make Refuges, Not Refuse: The Fate of the Seas
A very upsetting story about oceanic pollution in The New York Times today, “Swimming through Garbage” by Lewis Pugh. He spent a good part of his summer swimming in the…
Saturday Photo: Making Honey While the Sun Shines
This weekend has been an absolute gift. After several days of cold, the temperature rose last week, and this weekend we had some of the nicest days of the summer,…
First ERDC Claim Comes In!
It’s always nice to see something take off, particularly when it’s been forever since the preparations began. But on Friday morning the very first claim arrived in the ERDC’s post…
Electronic Rights Defence Committee: Payout Starts
I consider this something of a personal victory. After more than 17 years of work and worry, the Electronic Rights Defence Committee (ERDC) has received the green light from Quebec…
Saturday Photo; The Ducks on the Pond
For several years ducks have nested in parks around here, but this year I didn’t see any early in the summer. However, for the last week or so a little…
Want to Know Who Will Win? Ask a Bookie
This is the day when the world (or at least a part of it) is mulling over the 55.3 per cent rejection of Scottish independence on Thursday. Lots of talk…
Eleven Years Later: Who’s Remembering the Iraq Protests Today?
Tell me, everyone, where are the people in the streets protesting the Canadian government’s slip into conflict in Iraq? Remember the massive protests in 2003, including 200,000 in Montreal on…
Saturday Photo: Not Much of This Left…
Actually this photo was taken some time ago, but I couldn’t resist since it was so cold this weekend. Risk of frost in the suburbs they say, definitely a time…