Urbanism
My personal big news this week is my departure from Substack, for reasons I explained here. I had first heard about the moderation issues in early December and didn’t really want them to be true because damn, migrating from one platform to another is not the most fun in
Politics
The magic happens approximately two minutes into this video that Pierre Poilievre tweeted earlier today and man, the fun we’ve been having deconstructing that. Here's to the (extra)ordinary Canadians. pic.twitter.com/s9G56XMdE4 — Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 2, 2024 It’s an aggressively anti-elitist screed, and
Culture
On Saturday afternoon I invited one of my personal social justice warriors (aka Middle Child) to the Cineplex for a testosterone shower. I’d read somewhere that The Iron Claw was useful to debunk toxic masculinity, or something equally woke. We simply had to see for ourselves whether it was
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I express gratitude for the privilege I have of engaging with readers in the paper, online, and on jogging and bike paths throughout the city. Columnizing is my absolute favourite thing to do, because a) it’s cheaper than therapy to get most
Politics
It’s difficult to be festive these days, what with so much nonsense happening everywhere and a dramatic rise in hate crimes right in this town. In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I express hope that with more talking to one another and better listening to each other that
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