Violence as 10,000 winegrowers protest at French overproduction A group of 50 young wine producers hurled molotov cocktails, cobble stones, bottles and flares at riot police at the end of a turbulent but mostly peaceful demonstration by 10,000 growers from the French deep south. Ok, that’s it. I’m moving to France. If anyone reading this […] More »

So Paul Martin is going to talk directly to the people tonight. Great. But what could he have to say that could not — indeed, should not — be told in, and to, Parliament? More »

We just got the May/June 2005 issue of Utne in the office and there’s a great story in it about Toronto’s indie magazine scene and why it’s so gosh darn hot. Anyways, the article singles out This as one of the great Toronto-based mags, calling us a feisty independent. Also, mentioned are Spacing, Brick, Kiss […] More »

Well, if Potter is going to get all poetic on us, I’ll join in. This is from Jonathan Bennett’s 2004 collection of the same name—from ECW Press: Here is my street, this tree I planted for Raghavan, among others You still take yourself as you used to, the village’s red dust in a dry mouth, […] More »

Is poetry the perfect literary form for the digital age? Are we in for a golden age of clerihews and couplets, blank verse and sonnets? Why not? Yesterday was all F.R. Scott, but this evening was spent with John Degen’s Killing Things. Then I check my email, and there’s a note from my friend Brad […] More »

I was in Ottawa last Friday, attending a daylong session of the Canadian Conference of the Arts designed to get arts and culture types better access to government. Ed Broadbent sat on a panel with three other MPs, discussing ways we ordinary plebes can get to government and maybe even influence policy on issues near […] More »

Well, The Corporation is out on DVD. How do I know this? Well, largely thanks to the full-page ads that have been running nonstop in local and national print media for the past few weeks. The ads have been inescapable. But of course, as Joel Bakan writes in the book version of The Corporation: Advertising […] More »

More pesky media attention for the seal hunt and bigger trouble still for the lying liars employed at big American newspapers. Seems a graphic and controversial first person account of a brutal seal hunt published this week by the Boston Globe was, you guessed it, a fabrication. Writer Fabricated Boston Globe Story on Seal Hunt […] More »

Ethics chief admits doing a poor job OTTAWA – Calling it “a nightmare,” the Ethics Commissioner of the House of Commons yesterday acknowledged his office’s unacceptable and poor performance in the past year. … He also indicated he is unwilling to crack down on two unidentified members of Parliament before a possible June election, even […] More »

Today the Canadian Association of Journalists announced the nominees for its awards for outstanding investigative journalism. I sincerely wish I had read or watched more of these stories, if for no other reason than to write more informed off-the-cuff blog posts. Is it the case that much of this work flew under most Canadians’ radars? […] More »

While federal polticians waste time and attract attention over a possible election, the citizens of British Columbia have a real fight on their hands: trying out oust an irresponsible (neo)Liberal government. Unfortunately, progressives in B.C. are up against some serious obstacles. After four years of a privatization, slash-and-burn agenda that has gutted public services, filled […] More »