As I climbed out of bed this morning, a host of monkeys flew out of my butt. I traipsed over and flicked on the radio, where the CBC was reporting on a snowball fight in hell. Huh, I thought. That’s weird. What happened — did Quebec sign the Constitution? Close: We were wrong about free […] More »

This afternoon I stumbled into the Quebec book chain Renaud-Bray, juggling my fancy coffee and overstuffed knapsack, trying to make my way to the magazine rack to pick up a copy of the Economist. As I cut by the cash, I was brought by the lee by a gorgeous, lemon-yellow little book, glowing shyly amid […] More »

Came across this comment the other day: I’ve learned something interesting: if you give away ice cream, eventually a lot of people will complain about the flavours, and others will complain that you aren’t also giving away syrup and whipped cream and nuts. I was reminded of this as I read in my morning paper […] More »

The Globe is reporting today about how certain parts of rural Quebec are seeing a rise in conspicuous teenage wealth due to the extremely profitable business of farming marijuana for organized crime. While the students seem happy with all the cool stuff their drug money can buy, local economies suffer: “Lured by quick cash, the […] More »

The Guardian has a cool news blog here. Play around with it amongst yourselves. I’m going to retreat to my hovel with a copy of Hogg’s Constitutional Law of Canada and try to figure out just how badly Paul Martin has screwed Canada with this appalling Health Care deal. Long rant will follow. More »

Think you know your countries? Take this quiz. I scored a pathetic 40%, though I think I deserve half marks for getting Haiti/Dominican Republic backward. More »

I know in Andrew’s absence, I should pick up the baton and say something witty and wise about the new health care agreement in this country, but I’ve simply lost the battle to stay interested in it. I’m glad everyone seems to be in agreement. I have as much faith in all parties staying uncomplainingly […] More »

In a bizarre op-ed in today’s New York Times, Paul Wolfowitz, the widely discredited court advisor to King George II, makes an impassioned plea to Presidential candidates in Indonesia to respect the rule of law and freedom of the press. Read it yourself. The ironies are too many and too deep to pick just one. […] More »

Edited because who knows how deep the libel chill goes? So Lord Tubby of Fleece is suing St. Joseph Media, owners of Toronto Life, because of an article that appeared in that magazine in July, called “A toast to Lord Black on his arrival in hell.” He wants $2.1 million. Haven’t seen the piece, but […] More »

So Kalle Lasn has managed to persuade Clayton Ruby to sue CBC, CTV, Canwest, CHUM, and the Canadian Government. Why? Because Adbusters magazine can’t persuade any of these media outlets to run their dorky “anti-advertisements.” According to today’s Globe, Lasn is outraged by “the idea of a TV executive lording it over me and telling […] More »

We’ve had a lot of response to our inaugural media column by Arthur Johnson, Wage Slaves, which entreats the large, profit-driven magazines to abolish their unpaid internships. It touched a nerve for young journalists who are expected to ‘pay their dues’ by working for free to enter the magazine workforce. And the righteous clucking amongst […] More »