Saturday Photo: Tom Mulcair in 24 Sussex Drive, Not Stornoway
It was quite a weekend. After the delays in voting due to a cyberattack, our man Thomas Mulcair was elected to the NDP leadership. But the ever-creative youth team spent…
Mary Soderstrom
Signing Off for Few Days: Going to Politic and Promote in Toronto
Thursday morning very early I’m taking the train to Toronto for several very good reasons. 1. I’m giving a presentation on Making Waves: The Continuing Portoguese Adventure at 5:30 pm.…
ERDC Annual General Meeting: Maybe the Last One?
All right, boys and girls of the print media: next Tuesday the Electronic Rights Defence Committee will holds its annual general meeting to elect officers and to review progress in…
Spring Will Not Be A Little Late This Year, and Hasn’t Been For Some Time
Snow drops again! They’re out in front, which is in contrast to the date the ones in the photo appeared. The pix was taken April 22, 2008, and the snow…
Reading Solar When the Weather’s Gone Wacky
The weather is exceptional, spookily so. Ian McEwean’s novel Solar is excellent reading for such a time. The hero (and I use the term advisedly) is a physicist Michael Beard…
The Country Needs Mulcair, and Ed Broadbent Once Realized That
Manon Corneiller in today’s Le Devoir is excellent on Ed Broadbent and Tom Mulcair. The NDP’s grand old man was one of those (along with Brian Topp) who wanted to…
Saturday Photo: Sunny Day in a Spring That Is Coming on Fast
This is a weekend of demonstrations and parades. Not only is it St. Patrick’s weekend--and Montreal is the home to the second oldest St. Pat’s parade in North America and…
Halal and Running around Like a Chicken with Its Head Cut off
A mini-controversy is brewing in Quebec over the fact that a number of chicken processing plants are now killing poultry in a way that conforms with Muslim strictures of halal…
When Religion Permeates Life, It’s the Devil to Pay, or Why Thinking about Destiny Can Get You in Trouble
Sadly, we seem to be seeing more and more religion in public life these days. I don’t mean references to a moral code such as “do under to others as…
Snowdrops, Because We’re Getting There
No, they’re not open yet, but the shoots are definitely above ground. Makes me feel good to see them.
A Visit to Egypt Via The Mistress of Nothing: This Is Book Talk Week.
I’m still on a bit of a high from the great discussion we had last night at the Pierrefons Libraray about Kate Pullinger’s Mistress of Nothing. The novel won the…
Another Great Woman Passes: Madeleine Parent Dies at 93
A week ago in the run up to International Women’s Day, I mentioned Lea Roback as a great example. Today I’d like to mark the passing of her great friend…
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!