This past week, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper defeated an NDP motion to help Canada’s veterans during what is sure to be a slash-and-burn budget process this spring. As part of the Conservative government’s spending review and desire to cut its massive budget deficit, each department has been asked […]
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In the past six weeks I’ve written about outing the “elephant” (suicide), how joy is medicine, how books take me places, my black cape, a roller-coaster ride, and my desperate need for tweezers and for advocates who will listen and not give advice. The latter are worth their weight in […]
I originally thought of Bill Fontana as being irascible. The first time I learned of him was in the office of the Fort Frances Times that then was located on Church Street; he was in meeting with Carl Schubring, the newspaper’s editor at the time. Bill was loud. He seemed […]
In recent months and years, a great deal of attention has been paid to the impacts of bullying in our schools. A lot of this attention has been focused on high-profile suicides that have been caused by bullying. As a result, the government introduced Bill 13, better known as anti-bullying […]
In military conflicts throughout the world, leaders often are encouraged to cut off the head of the snake. The action clearly calls for assassination. In Afghanistan and into Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, drone strikes have been used to eliminate many Al-Qaeda leaders. Over the past few days, football fans have […]
The way you get sideswiped is by going back. When you get sideswiped and stay there too long, you forget to do some very important things, like have fun or pluck facial hair. Seven weeks and counting. My apologies to anyone out there in the world who was standing face-to-face […]
Last week I gave an overview of the Drummond Report. This week, I would like to take the opportunity to look more closely at a few of his recommendations. While there are some recommendations that many consider to be bad, such as scrapping full-day kindergarten, limiting spending growth in health […]
Watching the Oscars on Sunday night, it was refreshing to see Ellen DeGeneres spoofing the current hassle of returning products to stores and a time when shopping was done differently. If only politicians could return to a time when they focused on their abilities and ideas. The Oscars seemed to […]
First of all, let me begin with the most important lesson I’ve learned in the last week—courtesy of my first session in grief recovery at Riverside Counselling Services. My brain isn’t broken; my heart is broken. This means I cannot fix my heart with my head. This means my grief […]
We finally are getting closer to that part of the winter that we all look forward to: the end. Don’t get me wrong, I love to ice fish. I just like to fish out of a boat even more. With the arrival of March, the end is in sight–the days […]
I had homework to do this week that included reading three chapters of a book on grief and how to move beyond loss. I’m not supposed to go further in the book until I’m instructed to do so, nor am I supposed to use it to teach anyone else—and I […]
Last Wednesday (Feb. 15), the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, popularly known as the Drummond Report, was released. The report outlines 362 recommendations that are intended to help the provincial government streamline spending. While the report is considered controversial by many, we have to keep in mind […]
