Mary Soderstrom
What’s Wrong with this Picture: Rio Tinto Locks out Workers and Hydro Quebec Must Buy the Electricity That Isn’t Being Used
Aluminum is made from electricity and bauxite. The former ingredient is by far the most important, aud since bauxite is more easily transported than electricity, big aluminum foundries are built…
Remembering Lea Roback on International Women’s Day
One of my heros has always been Lea Roback, a Quebec feminist and union militant, who died at 97 in 2000. A film was made about her life which is…
Great Weekend Coming up in Toronto March 22-24: NDP and Making Waves (Or Should It Be, the NDP Makes Waves?)
For those of you in Toronto Thursday March 22, please come to a presentation of Making Waves: The Continuing Portuguese Adventure at the Centro de Lingua Portuguesa Camões at 5:30…
C’est la neige qui fonde: The Waters of March in the Northern Hemisphere
This is one of my favourites songs, one I always turn to this time of year. It was written for the Brazilian March, which is the season of rain that…
Saturday Photo: Snow People with a Short Life Expectancy
We’ve had a nice snowfalls in the last week, and it actually looks invitingly winterish outside. But we’re scheduled to have some quite warm weather over the last next few…
Don’t Answer that Call: A Robocall Poster
This would be hilarious, if it weren’t so sad. The poster’s by Matthew Cope: good work!
Why Girls Are Important: Films, Sex Ratios, and Unrest
One of the things that struck me when I was in Shanghai five years ago was the number of adolescent boys on school outings. I knew, of course, that there…
Making Waves–the View from Where the Portuguese Began Their Voyages
Thursday I’m going to be talking about oing to be talking about Making Waves: The Continuing Portuguese Adventure as part of the Atwater Library’s Lunchtime series. There will be music…
Memo to Political Parties: No Robocalls, Ever
We always knew the Conservatives were comtemptuous of democracy, and now we have even more proof with the robocall dirty tricks of May 2. Somebody up high had to okay…
Because I’m Writing the Love Story Part of River Music: "Some Enchanted Evening"
This week I’m going over the latest version of my next novel River Music. “Some Enchanted Evening” the Rogers and Hammerstein song from South Pacific, has insinuated its way into…
Saturday Photo: Scary Plants and the Reptilian Brain
Happy little girl that she is, Jeanne has faced the world with a smile since she was tiny. She has not been phased or frightened by much…until she started to…
Another Defeat in the Information Wars? Alain Saulnier Gets the Ax at Radio Canada
This story is not likely to get much play in English Canada, but it ought to. Alain Saulnier, the head of information services (radio, TV, internet) at Radio Canada, was…
Extra Billing: Thousands of Dollars Paid by Patients at Montreal Private Clinic
Extra-billing and kick-backs to doctors in Quebec have been in the news these last couple of days. First the Quebec College of Physicians charged that at least two cardiologists have…
Identikits and Imagination: How Do You Imagine Emma Bovary and Mr. Rochester?
The Atlantic has an interesting feature about using Identikits, those visual aids used by police to figure out who might have done it, to draw portraits of characters from fiction.…
Let’s Not Do a Europe: Krugman’s Lessons for Ontario
As usual, Paul Krugman is worth reading to day. He once again points out just how counter-productive austerity measures have been in keeping Europe afloat. What he says should be…
Saturday Photo: The Way to Recover from What Ails You
Gastroenteritis has attacked, and a number of family members are writhing away. Won’t last, of course, but it would be a lot nicer to rest in the sun in a…
Gastroenteritis and Other Trials…
Jeanne had a stomach flu earlier in the week, but seems to be better. Her mother, however, came down with it shortly after the two of them arrived to spend…