Despite a comparatively small population, Canada has one of the world’s largest Gross Domestic Products (a key indicator of overall economic health). Yet over 1.2 million of our children across the country live in poverty. The problem is the federal budget, says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Rather than reflecting the needs of most […] More »
Stephane Dion is much taller in person. He still looks like a mouse but only in the cute sense. In fact, he’s so unintimidating up close, it’s hard to imagine him being anything more than maybe your second favourite uncle. Not the one who gets drunk at Thanksgiving and offends your mom (he’d be the […] More »
When Big Pharma doesn’t get its way, it takes its toys and goes home. When the “toys” in question are life-saving medications, the results can be grim. People with HIV in Thailand are finding this out first hand. Most medications are protected by 20-year patents that allow a drugmaker the exclusive right to produce them […] More »
NY Times columnist Nick Kristof wants to take you to Africa. No this won’t be some cushy first-class vacation. Kristof wants to show you, first-hand, the devastation that international ignorance, war, disease and famine has wracked on parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. This is apparently the second time in a row that he’s done this. This […] More »
(image courtesy Rocks on Fire) Heading for a bar on Queen Street two nights ago, my friend and I caught sight of a streaking ball of flame flashing across the southwest sky. Lots of shouting and pointing later, we settled on the idea that we had just seen a meteorite of some kind. Very cool. […] More »
God, this feel like so-20-years ago. Censorship is rearing its ugly head in Ottawa once again, after a father complained to the Hunt-Club Riverside Community Centre, after his son picked up a copy of Capital Xtra, Ottawa’s gay and lesbian newspaper. He is, of course, objecting to an ad for a gay chat line, which […] More »
The latest dead Russian journalist, Ivan Safronov, fell from the fifth floor of his apartment building on March second. Authorities claimed it was a suicide but nobody believes this. He was, at the time, working on an article about Russian arms sales to the Middle East, making him the twenty second working journalist to die […] More »
Over the past month, I got into the habit of reading Richard Dawkins‘ book The God Delusion on the bus and streetcar most mornings. I try to walk to work as much as I can but it’s been just too cold! It’s proven to be a very controversial book, and with its shiny cover with […] More »
(image courtesy Frank Magazine, apparently) The pro-Conrad Black website www.supportlordblack.com is a truly brilliant Frank Magazine hoax, proving once again that if it seems too funny to be true… D.B. Scott’s magazine blog reveals the saddest detail, which is that it appears Lord Black himself sent the site a note of thanks and a t-shirt […] More »
Getting the word out about a free hospital for pregnant Haitian women (photo by Isabelle Jeanson for Médecins sans Frontières) The poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Haiti has suffered as a result of international intervention for over five hundred years. The damage continues to this day, in the form of desperate poverty and extreme […] More »