It may not constitute criminal behaviour to apply for bogus housing allowances. But three people crossed over a moral line that a hundred other senators didn't. Doesn't that call for censure on the part of the institution that they hoodwinked? You can't just sweep things like this under the rug and pretend its business as usual. Wrong is wrong, and without formal censure, the Senate becomes part of the wrong. In dealing with this situation, the government has turned the concept of punishment upside down. No punishment for the housing allowance transgressors. But sweeping new rules to stymie senators involved in legitimate Senate business.
The most telling bit of it all is that thing that can't be put into words. It's the thing that happens when they look at each other: countless unexplainable emotions expressed within one electric connection of the eyes.
I was 33 years old and working the local news beat with the CBC's supper hour news cast when the universe hurled a wicked curve ball my way. On the Tuesday morning after the Canada Day holiday, I tripped and fell in the newsroom, scraping my knee. Forty-eight hours later I was admitted to Emergency in a Toronto hospital. And I learned that something was terribly wrong with my health.
Zendaya ended the night with an inspiring freestyle that combined elements of cha cha, contemporary and hip-hop, and even brought in an entourage of young hip-hop dancers.
Living in Vancouver, I'm no Rob Ford fan. I'm not even sure what that is. Media outlets across Canada and around the world reported on what the Star published while their reporter Robyn Doolittle has gone Hollywood. Drug dealers, no video proof, there's nothing right about this whole thing. Folks, prepare yourself for the new normal.
I travel a lot for work and often find myself in airports and in unfamiliar cities wondering where and what I can eat that will fill me up, not out. Since eating out makes it harder to keep your daily calories in check, you have to learn how to dodge the calorie minefields in restaurant menus.
Quebec comedians have a strange affliction. It sporadically resurfaces time and again and it's proven almost impossible to cure. The affliction in question is the Quebec comedy scene's' sick, inexplicable obsession with blackface. Last Sunday it exposed itself yet again.
I am an unrepentant news junkie. If I'm not getting the latest stories online, I 'm hearing them blaring from the TV in the next room. And have I introduced you to my husband, Phil? He makes me look uninformed. So, between the two of us, we're practically a 24-hour cable news station.
Quebec's political leaders seem to have fallen for the Great Green Dream of economic prosperity without energy or natural resource production. It's a magical vision of a world powered by unicorns and rainbows, where consumer goods are somehow conjured out of thin air. But experience in Europe shows that chasing the green dream is a path to financial ruin, not utopia.
In my nightmares, I can't get to my children. The parents of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma are living that nightmare.
When it comes to net-zero homes it too is an idea that seems more science fiction than anything, especially in the cold climes of Edmonton, Alberta. A home that produces as much energy as it consumes -- well that's just crazy.
We call on Facebook to make the only responsible decision and take swift, clear action on this issue, to bring your policy on rape and domestic violence into line with your own moderation goals and guidelines.
In Mexico City, they showcased their fashionable best on the ramps of their Fall/Winter 2013-14. Check out the ones that caught our eye!
Tornadoes. For me and my fellow Okies, it's probably one of the first words we hear as children. We play "tornado" with our friends. But this. This is something that no amount of experience, no ingrained, Okie-native understanding of the weather or geography can ever prepare you for.
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.
Guys see the low bar set for dads on commercials and TV shows and will only rise high enough to meet it. And when their wives dress the baby in a shirt that basically calls them idiots, they'll soon learn they're expected to be know-nothing dolts, so there's no need to improve.
This is how the entire situation boils down: You are giving your money to a website so they can give your money to a member of a gang which wreaks violence on your city so that they, the website, can make money for themselves. Does this make any sense to you whatsoever? If you don't like Rob Ford, fine, don't vote for him. Smear him all you want. Insult him at every party. Call him a fascist Michelin Man. Frankly, I don't give a damn. But for the love of God, please don't give money to drug dealers.
Even if you're nervous, smile anyway. Think about how lucky you are to be marrying your soul mate. Looking scared makes people wonder if you're confident about your decision -- and makes them second-guess why they came out to support you in the first place.
I find myself wondering what it will take to win in this Third Industrial Revolution, and I keep coming back to our youth, these students whose brilliant minds know no limits. Are we doing enough to encourage and inspire them?
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.
Some of our best friends, you see, are straight. And some of them, we should report, are very stylish. The following epistle, therefore, is simply a quick fix master class for those who feel their style gene is somewhat compromised. Think of us as wing men. Fabulous -- if often fey -- fixers.
As a child I was raised on white sugar and feel that it had a significant part in many of my health problems which took me decades to overcome. It was indeed a different time back then. I was not as aware of health or nutrition as I am now.
What's troubling is that the homophobic and racially slanted comments allegedly made by Rob Ford have received little or no scrutiny. The biggest stain this scandal brings isn't the possible addictions of a well-known politician. It is the fetid stench of acceptance and normalization of blatant bigotry that stinks to high heavens. Have we become collectively complacent in the face of bigotry?
Diana Herrington, 2013.21.05
Colin & Justin, 2013.21.05