By Rod Mickleburgh One of the early things I did after ending my daily journalism career of 119 years, besides endless Googling of past Montreal Expo games, was take in the Vancouver public hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in September, 2013. The experience was overwhelming. It’s one thing to read about the unspeakable […]
Think the Quebec student strikes aren’t about you?
By Alison@Creekside A one minute time lapse of the start, last week, of the student strike against austerity in Montreal: Austerity — that’s when your government impoverishes its citizens by decimating public services like education and health in order to balance its lining of corporate pockets with tax breaks. “Our services are worth more than your profits” is the slogan […]
B’s first day
By Frank Manfredi Today, my youngest started a junior disability program at Queen Victoria public school at Dufferin and King streets in downtown Toronto. I met him at the schoolbus drop off point to support him as he starts at a new school, unfamiliar teachers, and new kids to get to know, befriend, be wary […]
United we watch
By Rod Mickleburgh My mother hated Labour Day. For her, a high school English teacher, it was not only a day to pay tribute to workers and unions, but a signal that the lazy, hazy days of summer were over, and it was time to go back to work. Every year, the prospect of facing […]
Harper needs to ask himself: What would Frank Glenfield say?
By Frank Moher A lot of Canadian teachers are rightfully angry at the Conservatives these days — none more so than drama teachers. Barely hours after Justin Trudeau was elected leader of the Liberal Party, the Cons unleashed an attack ad deriding his work experience: as a camp counsellor, white water rafting instructor, and most […]
A Modest Opinion – The Art of Getting By
By Nathaniel Moher I’m sure most of you have heard about the madman Lynden Dorval, an Edmonton schoolteacher who thought it was okay to give students a zero on assignments they failed to turn in. Don’t bother checking your eyes, you read that right! These poor students received a zero out of 100 on assignments […]
Supreme Court copyright ruling is (amazingly) sensible
By John Klein (aka Saskboy) Today’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling on copyright and fair dealing contains some not-so-small victories. In fact, there is so much common sense in it that I can’t help but feel the justices have taken leave of their old-people senses! Copyright expert Michael Geist has this summary: “[…] The clear […]
Edmonton prof schools Omar Khadr
A BoB short Former child soldier Omar Khadr has been receiving more than a lesson in international politics while jailed at Guantanamo Prison, awaiting his return to Canada. He has also been studying a curriculum devised by 15 Edmonton academics, led by King’s University College English professor Arlette Zinck. Now 25, Khadr receives lessons in […]
Teacher fired for showing class grisly video
A BoB short: A high school teacher at Montreal’s Cavelier-de LaSalle High School has been fired for showing the video “1 Lunatic, 1 Ice Pick” to his grade 10 history class. The grisly video, which is available online, is believed to show alleged killer Luka Rocco Magnotta butchering Concordia University student Jun Lin. Students report that […]
Bill 13 and the victory of the bullied children
By Montreal Simon It seems like it took forever. But tonight bullied children in Ontario are finally a little bit safer. And gay kids have the right to call themselves gay, and form Gay-Straight Alliances. No matter what some Catholic School Boards have to say, or what grotesque homophobes like Charles McVety spew out of every […]
