Politics
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I talk about an idea whose time, finally, is coming: Giving legal personhood to natural phenomena worth protecting. Like the Magpie River in Quebec – the subject of a documentary that premieres Thursday on The Nature of Things by award-winning filmmaker and all-around awesome
Culture
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I enthuse, loudly, about the new heritage building program at Algonquin College that combines building, construction and other craft stuff, including practical business skills and significant elements from the humanities. What wags whom, and for what? Fascinating story in The Atlantic (behind the
Politics
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I enlisted the help of BeePBot, my own personal imaginary AI writing assistant, to create a short sci-fi story about how cool Ottawa would be if we started making all the right decisions. No legal writing to share this week and if I
Politics
A follow-up piece on that recent video from Pierre Poilievre in which he discussed extraordinary Canadians like electricians who wield lightning, farmers who master all kinds of science and waitresses who, technically, should be dead from exhaustion. English will follow and be different than the French; as usual I encourage
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
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
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