That time I went to a book club meeting and a community showed up
Monday night, along with my good friend the awesome architect Toon Dreessen, I went to the urbanism book club and was very surprised, A), that so many people showed up to discuss somewhat nerdy things and B), that the people who did show up came from all over the city and were extremely keen to engage on ways to make Ottawa the best it can be, or at least better.
It made me think of Alexis de Tocqueville and his famous 19th-century observation about American society that it didn't wait for governments to do things, it organized in loose associations and got shit done. I say we can take a page from that old French book and write ourselves a new civic chapter in which we, too, figure things out and solve problems without having to wait for someone else first. That's the subject of this week's Ottawa Citizen column.
In my legal writing for National Magazine you’ll find another piece I wrote about granting legal personhood to natural phenomena that’s more focused on the legal aspects of the question. I also wrote something about Bill C-35 that you may find interesting if you’re into child care and early learning, as well as a longer piece on C-56, otherwise known as the Groceries Bill.
