Against hatred
My column for the Ottawa Citizen this week discusses the recent spike in anti-semitic incidents and how we should at the very least let our Jewish neighbours know we’re there and we care.
In my legal writing for National Magazine I have a piece on the impact of the recent Federal Court of Appeal ruling CAE Inc. v. Canada, which is causing significant concern within the tax community. Kind of a niche thing but if taxes are your jam you won’t want to miss it.
A report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that private surgeries and private diagnostic services like MRIs cause wait times to worsen. This reminds me very much of a column someone wrote not that long ago about how bringing in more private-sector care into health care would indeed make things worse. Some days I hate being right.
Local news
We had a light dusting of snow Monday morning so of course that killed the LRT, however briefly. Unless it was just a hangover? Or, perhaps, something of a curse? The brand-new REM in Montreal, about which this active transportation enthusiast has been drooling with something dangerously approaching envy, has also been unreliableof late. Maybe Canada doesn’t like trains.
A new study finds that Ottawa has many rats. My tongue is bleeding from biting down on it in order to avoid blurting out all the bad political jokes I’ve amassed in over two decades of living in this town.
Last weekend at the Ottawa International Writers’ Festival I had the immense pleasure of meeting my favourite wine witch, best-selling author and super taster Natalie MacLean whose latest book, Wine Witch on Fire, is a rollicking literary ride through divorce, professional catastrophe and over-drinking that not only ends well but gives us a fantastic opportunity to learn more about what wine best pairs with osso buco, how we can get away with being just knowledgeable enough at our next fancy dinner by knowing whatever the fuck it is we’re doing when we do the twirly thing with the glass and sniff elegantly. But mostly Natalie’s book is a great read that includes a few disturbing surprises about the wine industry. Highly recommend.
