Amtrak vs. Duane – 02/02/09 from swatspyder on Vimeo. Via the excellent Canadian law blog Slaw comes this hilarious/appalling story of the ineptitude of so-called security officials, especially when it comes to treating everyone with a camera as if they were a potential terrorist. A recent example is where a photographer was detained and arrested […] More »

On Saturday night in any major city the world over, it’s not uncommon to see long line ups outside local kebab restaurants. With a belly full of beer, urbanites head bleary eyed to the nearest falafel shop in search of delicious ethnic cuisine. This practice is more than a tradition – it’s an institution, with […] More »

As I rushed to Union Station on Friday to join the throngs of commuters brushing by each other to get a seat on the gotrain, thousands of Sri Lankan protesters were just ending off their successful protest in downtown Toronto. The crowd hoped to draw attention to what is being called the genocide in Sri […] More »

Earlier today the Obama camp revealed a new plan to increase funding to the highway and transport sector in the U.S. as part of a national economic recovery plan. The details are still under debate in the senate, but at present $25 billion has been set aside for infrastructure projects, namely building new roads. This […] More »

If you read ThisAbility #8: Condo Conundrum, you’ll know that I recently moved into a one bedroom condo. Since my former place was a one room bachelor apartment, it was time to fill my condo with some furniture. I wanted a one-stop shop, so I went to everyone’s favorite Swedish furniture self-serve community,IKEA, and suddenly […] More »

Sitting on green grass with my back resting on a tree, I pat the earth and look out at the calm world on a sunny day. The Sea Shepherd campaign I had been documenting for over a month, a campaign to save whales in the Antarctic waters, returned to land in mid-January to restock and […] More »

pic courtesy of SHAGGY ISAAC It was a combination of two striking stories in the Toronto Star today that got me thinking about Red Thread. The first was Maher Arar’s public critique — he asks, if journalists aren’t looking out for the marginalized, who is? The second story was the gut-wrenching reports of gang rape […] More »

If you haven’t heard at least whisperings of octuplets born in California this past week, you might want to get your hearing checked, or at least pick up a paper. Any paper. Any blog. Any radio station. The story is everywhere. The new octet is only the second set of living octuplets. The first, the […] More »

As an aspiring organic gardener/farmer, and a lover of good eats, I’m always taken in by news about food. I just want to explore three things here: biodiesel, peanuts, and corn syrup. This morning it was reported that Calgary is thinking about manufacturing biodiesel for city busses out of beef tallow. The idea is that […] More »

It’s not just the feds who are releasing their budget this week. It seems that both coffee dealers and buyers are doing an analysis of their pocketbooks and retro snappy purses, including the infamous Seattle-based Starbucks. Because of overexpansion that caused what is referred to as “cannibalization” (starbucks eating starbucks, or competing with itself) as […] More »

This Magazine has been around since 1966, and it’s worn a lot of different looks since then. Magazines are fashion-conscious things, always changing outfits, checking themselves in the mirror, and trying again. This last refreshed its design in 2004, and so we thought it was time to do it again. Just to preserve the suspense […] More »