Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I allow myself a little bit of mild woot-wootingon housing. No, we’re nowhere near getting close to attempting to solve the crisis. But it’s important to acknowledge small crumbs of good news. In my legal writing for National Magazine I have
Politics
Jean Chrétien is famous for having won three consecutive majority elections. That was in 1993, 1997 and 2000. He is the first prime minister to do that since Wilfrid Laurier, who started winning in the 19th century. Actually Laurier won four consecutive elections, as Macdonald had done before him. After
Politics
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
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I blow a gasket at the extreme speeding and general lack of driving skills found on too many streets in Ottawa. In my legal writing for National Magazine I have a review of Ben Perrin’s most excellent book, Indictment: The Criminal Justice
Gender
This morning my almost-17-year-old came downstairs, iPhone in hand and glee in heart, to show me that she’d added pronouns to my contact info. It turns out that after a long time of people requesting support for pronouns, Apple finally introduced it with iOS 17: iOS 17 introduces a
Français
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I tried to shed light, instead of just blasting heat, on the tuition hike that you may have heard about. The short version: It’s perfectly defensible for Quebec to have a policy that favours Quebec students in post-secondary education. Provided it works.
Culture
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I natter on the concept of circular economy and the right to repair, which earns me some points in the dorkiest scribe category. But seriously, in an economic climate where everything is getting more expensive quicker than incomes can keep up with, there
Culture
Once in your life you find someone, sings Bryan Adams in Heaven, who will turn your world around. Finding your soulmate can be the work of a lifetime. But you know what’s even harder to find than the kind of love people write songs about? A movie so fucking
Politics
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I tear a strip off anyone who thinks paying people fairly and humanely for their work is a “cost” to be kept down. When a Texas-based chain of loud and garish gas stations treats its people better than you do, you know you’
Politics
Tomorrow is the third National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and in the Ottawa Citizen I offered some reflections on the ways non-Indigenous people should approach this work so that we can get to a place of healing and trust. In my legal writing for National Magazine you’ll find
Urbanism
My column in the Ottawa Citizen this week took the mayor to task for acting surprised at OC Transpo’s financial situation. Transit is a public service, not a business. It’s not meant to turn a profit. Oh, and there are other, more important things the mayor clearly doesn’
Gender
I had a couple of columns in the Ottawa Citizen this week. The first one was about the definition of mass shooting and whether we should have one. There was a Q&A with the extraordinary Sgt Maria Keen, and another column on the fact that schools have become