By Alison@Creekside The most interesting and innovative idea to come out of the first meeting of the all-party Special Committee on Electoral Reform, or ERRE, was Nathan Cullen's suggestion, seconded by Elizabeth May, to allow members of the public access to question the expert witnesses before the committee in real time via email or twitter hashtag. Cullen (paraphrased @mark 18:00; see video at link above): As MPs we will have the privilege and advantage of engagement with experts from around the world, and with televised meetings … [Read More...]
Politics
Hatred on an Alberta golf course
By Montreal Simon For years I have been warning that hatred kills. Like it did in Orlando last Sunday. Or like it did in Britain last Thursday. When the gentle, decent Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by another cowardly bigot. And I've also warned that the same poison was spreading in Canada. Where progressive leaders like Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley have been attacked by packs of rabid haters, and bombarded with death threats. But it seems some people never learn. Like Ken Fleury who sent out that idiot tweet. Or Ernest Bothi, the … [Read More...]
Culture
My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade
By Frank Moher On this dreadful day, I don't want to write about the shootings in Orlando. I want to write about my friend, Rick. Rick lives just outside of Nanaimo, a city of about 80,000, across the water from the island I live on. He's been a celebrity there for a long time, first as the city's most prominent drag performer, and more recently as an actor with various of its theatre companies, and President of the Pride Society. That's him to the left, walking in today's Pride parade. Rick grew up in Nanaimo, and experienced all the crap you'd … [Read More...]
Features
From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon
Originally published on Our Rape Blog, the author's account of the aftermath of a violent sexual assault. By Mary Fraughton Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, the important part is this: Every card in the heart suit is worth points, and (just like golf) players want to avoid those points. I played a lot of Hearts as a kid, and I was awful at it. As the tricks trickled by, my pile of points would grow more and more daunting. I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around the normal strategies, but there was a last-ditch thing that I really liked. If things start to go bad in this game, if you’ve gotten to the stage where, no matter how you proceed, you’re probably sunk, you can Shoot for the Moon. What this means is that you embrace the situation. Instead of avoiding the points, you turn around and chase them. If you succeed, if you collect every single card in the Hearts suit, you Shoot the Moon. The penalties don’t stick to you. Instead the other players in the game get 26 points apiece and you come out clean. I think I thought I could do that here. The week after I reported, my neighbour stopped me in the street to ask why the cops had … [Read More...]
Living
The fish hotel
By Nicholas Heather One time, me and the kids had a fish hotel. It was my idea. My original idea. For some reason we'd acquired a 20-gallon fish tank. Of course, the kids wanted to get fish. "I don't think that's a good idea, you guys," I said, as we were discussing what I was sure was going to be a bad idea at the dinner table one evening. "I can barely keep all of you from floating belly up, and I'm pretty invested in you, but I'd probably forget about the fish, and they'd die." "But we'd help!" they all said in close to unison. They were pretty cute back then. Maybe six, eight, 10 and 14, they were. Aquila was keeping quiet, and kept giving me this look like "what's your next move, old man?" "Remember when we came home from being in Victoria that weekend, and all the baby mice died, one by one, right in front of us? Do you remember how upset you all were?" I was hoping they'd see the light, and realize how sad dead animals made them. Anya lowered her eyes, glared at me, and said, "That's because you POISONED their mother, Dad." Jude and Ezra always took their cues from Anya back then, and so they lowered their eyes and glowered at me too. Aquila grabbed … [Read More...]
Living
Our selective sympathy
By Brady Tighe It is a powerful thing to see the destroyed homes of the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Fort McMurray — husks of buildings that once contained a family, their possessions, their memories, their keepsakes, their records, and their favourite throw pillows; everything minor and major, wiped out by an implacable force. The destruction […]
Features
The Water Bomber, The Frogman and The Great Canadian Novelist
By Allan Eastman The photographs of water bombers fighting the horrendous Ft. McMurray conflagration of 2016 invoked a sudden wash of memories having to do with two of the great Canadian cultural institutions that I had the good fortune to be involved with and a bizarre set of circumstances that led from a burned out […]
