Urbanism
A lighter roundup this week as I am taking some much-needed personal time to recharge. In my Ottawa Citizen column I highlight the latest pedestrian plan unveiled by the city of Paris last month and ask why on earth we can’t do something like that here. We even have
Politics
My, oh my is there a lot of activity suddenly on housing. About time, of course. But at the same time, shame that it’s all upside-down. I guess when you’re dealing with politicians politicking in political ways, that’s to be expected. Momentum got going in October when
Politics
I get it. It’s been a busy week, and there’s the holidays around the corner and those damn sugar cookies sure ain’t gonna bake themselves. But I need to ask anyway: Did we have to deal with Pierre the Grinch? As you know, the Conservative leader made
Gender
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I discuss the role we’re asking public libraries to play when we cut services elsewhere and generally privatize everything. This was prompted by a news item about the OPL requesting a $3M security upgrade in light of an uptick in incidents where
Français
English will follow French and be different because whenever we speak of solitudes in this country we have to talk differently depending on the audience. Since many of my readers understand both Canada's official languages, I also enjoy giving them a little something extra. Vous avez entendu parler
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column I discuss a successful public-private partnership I discovered when I took up ultimate. Domes in Ottawa are a rare example of something useful that was done right and that enjoys a great deal of success and no criticism that I can see. What lessons does
Gender
There are few areas of law where victims get revictimized so routinely as those that involve sexual abuse or intimate partner violence. Or both. Where else do we make victims relive, repeatedly and in painful detail, all aspects of what happened to them and question them until they get some
Politics
Many long moons ago I was employed as a talking head (“personality,” we used to say) on talk radio. My job was to report on, analyze and comment on the news, mostly political since that’s what our audience wanted to obsess about. In February 2005 then-finance minister Ralph Goodale
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I answered the question asked by the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa about what the Rideau Canal means to me. It is quintessentially Ottawa-esque in that it can be beautiful but is mostly under-utilized, and not in a good way.
Gender
** Content warning ** This article discusses sexual violence and its long-term impacts. ** Avertissement ** Cet article discute de la violence sexuelle et de ses effets à long terme. This is a topic that is very close to my heart. It is also deeply personal. What is below are my stories (in the
Urbanism
I’m not much of a bible reader but I do enjoy a great horror story so the one about the plagues of Egypt was always kind of attractive that way. I wondered this week what, in modern-day Ottawa, could count as plagues and I found a few things. Since
Travel
I had not seen a truck with the full Confederate flag treatment in this town before, I thought as I jogged past the jacked-up white Dodge wearing the gayest rainbow-pride Apple Watch and nothing but virtue-signalling Lululemon high-performance running attire. I was naive enough to hope that the displeasure of