I feel like I’ve been re-reading the same article all week. Politicians quoted in The Globe and Mail, National Post and others talk about this weekend’s Le Moulin à Paroles like it’s the last nail in Confederation’s coffin. “There was the death of a man. These were tragic events,” Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, Josée Verner told […] More »

Alan Turing, pioneer of the digital computer, codebreaking war hero, and godfather of geeks everywhere, got a posthumous apology yesterday — many years overdue — from the British government. Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a statement acknowledging the government’s “appalling” treatment of Turing when it tried and convicted him of “gross indecency” based on his […] More »

In Salmon Arm, B.C., there’s been a long-standing fight over plans to build an enormous shopping centre directly on the floodplain of the Salmon River. Last fall, the city voted not to allow mall developer SmartCentres to build big box stores on this ecologically sensitive tract of land. Well, now we receive a report that […] More »

Today marks the first day of school. Millions of children in Ontario and Canada are going back to class, back to their teachers and subjects, back to their school routine. This is the first fall, ever, that I haven’t gone back to skool. Reflecting on the whole experience I feel a big nostalgic, even a […] More »

With the death early this week of Toronto cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard, tensions between cyclists and motorists, always common, seem to have reached a boiling point. A spontaneous demonstration and  memorial last Tuesday on Toronto’s Bloor Street attracted thousands of cyclists who blocked traffic and held a moment of silence for Sheppard. The incident has […] More »

The chain of events late Monday night that ended in the death of Toronto cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard—during an altercation with former Ontario MPP Michael Bryant’s car—are terrible and sad to behold. The news spread like wildfire yesterday and the local and national media descended en masse to report every detail. One such detail (among […] More »

Above we’ve embedded the live stream of today’s Citizen Media Rendezvous taking place in Montreal, sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada’s Citizenshift initiative. The segment above features four speakers: Véronique Marino (INIS) Geraldine Cahill (The Real News Network) David Beers (The Tyee) Laurent Mauriac (Rue 89) The second panel of speakers, above, featured […] More »

John Mathenke was once arrested for being gay but, after failing to pay the customary bribe, was forced to have sex with the policeman. He had an orgy with a priest who publicly excoriates homosexuality, along with five other Masaai boys. And his Arab trader clients curse him during the day, but come back looking […] More »

[Editor’s note: Every month, EcoChamber profiles an environmental activist from Canada or abroad in a series called “Eco-Warriors.” These profiles are part of a collection of stories Emily is working on for a book called The Next Eco-Warriors.] [This post has been updated yet again, see below] Imagine being afraid of the air your daughter […] More »

If, as a disabled person, you think you’re still getting the shaft out in the real world, then you better thank the Lord you didn’t land in prison. Though twenty-five-to-life can be utterly soul-destroying for anyone, no one has it worse than the disabled inmates around the world.  For them, even basic human rights are […] More »

[Editor’s note: this series of blog posts on the bombings of natural gas wells in Northern B.C. is running over three days; part one was posted on Monday. Part two ran yesterday. This is the final part of the series.] The RCMP’s recent decision to raise the temperature in this region by officially describing the […] More »