Tweets are brief. I get that. But Robyn Doolittle's response to my earlier blog post is telling. She failed to address the widespread concerns about her reportage, and opted instead for a straw man strategy starring yours truly. It's a familiar defense aimed at ending debate. Call someone a sexist, a racist, a homophobe. I've heard them all. But I've never used them.
It has only been a couple weeks since the surgery, a double mastectomy, and my body is still in recovery mode. On some mornings, I can hear Nate playing downstairs with his dad and I feel my heart swell with happiness. "How lucky I am to be a part of this family," I think. On other mornings, on those when the pain is bad, I think how sad it is that I am in this bed and missing out on the cuteness that is surely happening downstairs. My chest is sore, but mostly it is numb. Watching Nate run and play and laugh reminds me that the surgery may have (temporarily) broken my body, but it certainly did not touch my heart, nor my capacity to feel love.
Angelo and Simone need a new home as their owner has recently lost a loved one in her life, and now needs to relocate and cannot take her pets with her to her new shared space. Angelo is approximately four and half, and Simone is approximately five years old.
Acadia Solomon just wanted to swim with her friends. Unfortunately the signs posted last year at her favourite swimming spot were clear: it was not safe to swim in or drink the water. So when she heard about a group of First Nations youth walking from Winnipeg to Ottawa to speak out about the "killing" of our nation's lakes and rivers, no power in the world was going to stop her from joining them.
Salah Bachir is a shining example of what one person can do. He started humbly, with a commitment to social justice causes. Although it might appear that money is at the root of successful giving, I'd suggest that each of us has many ways we can give.
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Trudeau needs to attack Harper's strongest point: the economy. While he has been doing that in the House of Commons, only avid politicos will be aware of it. He needs to bring those criticism on a larger scale and reach more Canadians via advertisements.
We failed. Active Healthy Kids Canada put out their annual report card, and as a nation, we failed. We need to accept that we have failed. Once we accept it, we now need to decide to get back to living a life built on a desire to be healthy.
It may not be "classy" to pay $200,000 for video that allegedly shows the mayor inhaling from a crack pipe, but it's not unethical to do so. The press buys photos and videos all the time. We live in a society where people are legally allowed to sell things that they own which have some sort of market value.
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We would wager citizens of every country think health care could be improved. However, we would also bet a plane ticket to someone's favourite summer getaway that Canadians will find countries with universal health care, such as Australia, Japan, or favourite tourist destinations in Europe, have far better health care than we do. That's because their citizens and their governments have no hang-ups about the three boogeymen of upfront fees, "private" insurance, and private delivery. They are also nations with progressive, sensible health care practices that could help improve Canada's health care system.
All bongs, pipes and vaporizers have been banned in Canada by the Conservative government. Selling these items is punishable with jail terms and some of the highest fines in the Criminal Code.Books that describe how to grow marijuana are also banned, as is any other written or video material used to "promote, encourage or advocate, the production, preparation or consumption of illicit drugs." Surprised about this harsh law? Don't be, it's 25 years old.
Do you sometimes lay awake at night, or daydream on the job, about what to do and say to a co-worker about a recurring sticky situation? Here is a cheat sheet, of the right things to do and say, for when your colleague does the wrong thing.
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In the modern world we live in, almost everything we use includes chemicals and artificial ingredients. Understandably, many pregnant women are wary of exposing their unborn baby to harsh, unnatural substances. Here are a few simple changes I made during my pregnancy to avoid exposing my baby to harmful substances.
Far too many children do work in mines in developing countries around the world. I'm not talking about adult children, as my dad was, but boys and girls as young as six. In a report released today, World Vision explores the harsh reality of children mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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Todd asks: My parents are getting older and recently, mom has become afraid of falling. She often talks about friends who have taken a spill, and whenever they come over she tells me we should have a railing for our front steps. She's even avoiding rooms where our kids' toys are on the floor. Neither one of them have had a fall -- how worried should we be about this?
On Thursday May 9, I was one of 10 speakers who was given the opportunity to grace the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre. This was the "Top Ten Event," in support of Autism Ontario. Each speaker had 10 minutes to offer words of wisdom on the "one thing you should know before you die!" Read on for my five survival tips.
The protection of at-risk species, once maintained so well by our government, has taken a backseat to business development. Now when habitat needs to be protected to ensure the survival of a species, government and industry often balk and backpedal. This signals a failure to understand that we depend on nature for our well-being and survival.
The first thing we eye in the program is a conversation with Jane Campion, my absolute favourite director. Campion addresses the audience, specifically female directors, with some advice: "If you're a female director in this room, put all your energy into making a good piece of work."
It's hard to have a conversation about gentrification, with all the baggage around the word. As long as many argue that any level of gentrification is to be absolutely avoided, positive and responsible change remains virtually impossible. Recently urbanist Richard Florida joined others in suggesting we need a new word to replace gentrification, asking "if all economic development and neighbourhood revitalization is gentrification, how do we grow and improve our urban areas?"
Housework rarely ranks highly on the top ten list of things folks like to do. Spring cleaning, however, is often greeted -- at least in theory -- with some enthusiasm, if only because it means the end of another long, dark winter.
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Culture, simply, is your life. So what's "national" culture? Culture is all around you. From bilingual cereal boxes to "Canadian Tire" money. I love American pop culture, but I champion the idea of Canadians recognizing they have a place at the table, too.
