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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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 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,…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Like the song says, “The rich get rich and the poor get children.” Le Devoir has a story this morning about how the current austerity wave is requiring that Quebec…
Had your caffeine fix yet this morning? I look forward to my cup of coffee after breakfast mightily. The taste is not that great (as I tell my grandkids who…
As I’ve mentioned here before, one of the summer’s highlights was our trip to the Roman town of Coninbriga, not far from Coimbra in Portugal. The site was a going…
Are the guys in power in Canada and the US listening to voice of economic reason? The answer is “No!” of course. As Paul Krugman charges again today, austerity measures…
