32nd Ave., Lachine Now night, and off the curving yellow arches, the light, usually so harsh, glows dull in summer's haze. Moths leave it alone, cavort with brighter street lights. Cars move slowly, their noise softened. Songs drift by […]
If the commercials are to be believed, there is nothing more Canadian then a Tim Horton’s donut shop where coffee is served to hockey moms and seniors on cross-country road trips. On the Tim Horton’s on the corner of […]
Montreal is a special city. Some would say that it has a European charm that is rare in North America while others would swear that no other place has as many cool bars and clubs or let’s be […]
Ten years ago, after the 9/11 attacks, many commentators in Europe and USA expressed dismay at the way some Palestinians were seen celebrating the planes crashing into skyscrapers. Today, when Americans are shown dancing in front of the […]
The CBC report on 6 December 2010 left no room for doubt: “Taser killed Ontario man: Ontario Special Investigations Unit” (1). The SIU, an independent body, had just issued its report on the death of Aron Firman in Collingwood, Ontario.
The new student came to consult with his advisor in order to establish his curriculum. The professor tried to point out to him the nobility of culture and while doing so was attempting to discover the freshman’s tendencies, […]
I have a recurrent dream in which I am flying over a large body of turquoise water. The air is balmy, the water is deep, transparent, welcoming. Just as I am about to plunge, I wake up. I have […]
*** Editors note: Gabrielle Mathews has just won the junior category prize for this poem in the "Act NOW! International Performance Writing Festival". Tabloids surround me in shades of black and outbursts of red Screaming at me to pick them […]
Does Canada need bigger prisons, as proposed by the now newly elected Conservative government and at what cost? At a time when violent crime is decreasing and costs to sustain prisons are astronomical, when half the inmates in prisons […]
The Art and Science of Healing Since Antiquity. By Daya Ram Varma, MD, PhD. www.Xlibris.com, 2011. *** Why should a book on the history of medicine be reviewed in a magazine mainly dealing with the arts, culture and politics? Because […]
Welcome to the Hotel Chanson de Geste, for once again it is pillow mint in Paris time, where the Frosty Jacques and Tom Peepers crowd the Sunday street like savages to supper, and sing how they’ll stand tippy-toes on […]
I have never been involved in politics, I had made up my mind on the whole thing a long time ago: we are a nation that has known nothing but the rule of absolute pharaohs, be they called Cheops or […]
The above words, from our prime minister’s mouth, on April 4 2011, are supposed to spread fear in our souls, as Canadians. Fear of insanity. Fear of devastation. Here is Stephen Harper’s full quote: “It just emphasizes how crazy we […]
If you observe a mappemonde carefully you will notice a large body of blue water surrounded by land on all sides. Well, almost all sides, except for some straits that allow whales in, vessels out and the back-and-forth of water […]
There is a tendency amongst a lot of liberal-minded people to go ape about Wikileaks, beyond and above what are its obvious and spectacular contributions. After all, revelations of gory illegal acts, diplomatic about turns and faux pas and sickening […]
You’ll recall Marshall McLuhan, the “medium is the message” man. He knew. He knew what the computer could do… this extension of ourselves. Like so many fruits hanging on vines… unpicked…disconnected in our connection. Could he have foreseen what we […]
This is how it all started. As Tunisia and Egypt were followed by Yemen and Bahrain and as I remained glued to Al Jazeera, Facebook,Twitter (notice I do not state the CBC, BBC or CNN or mainstream TV) and as […]
The anomaly that is Italy– where a media mogul can have total control of the private and public television, print media and have friends filling in the abyss– is something that the rest of the world cannot fathom. What if […]
The original saying went, ‘Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.” Well, the perception seems to be changing. One of the stalwarts of communication of our times, Arthur C Clarke wrote about the phenomenon of Citizen Journalism […]
A few months ago, fearing terminal unemployment, I emailed some of my coder friends a query: “So, things were a no-go with writing, law, medicine. Hell I even looked into joining the army. I’m considering computers. Where should I start?” […]
The world isn’t what it was ten or even five years ago. Technology has taken our planet and transformed it from an immense collection of cultures and peoples into one tiny blue ball more interconnected than ever before in its […]
An Introduction To Visual Culture, Nicholas Mirzoeff. Routledge, New York, 1999. Visual culture can be described as the mix of different modes of media. In today’s world, a person is not left with a choice and is greeted by a […]
My sister, all of four years older than me, kindly informed me very early on that Santa Claus didn’t exist, thereby converting me into a life-long skeptic. She also let me know in no uncertain terms that I had been […]
The text below is from a collection in progress of yet unpublished short stories, entitled “Fragments”. Les rayons du soleil sont diffus en cette matinée fraîche. Ils dissipent l’humidité du printemps naissant et jettent leur lustre sur l’angle de ce […]
These days I can’t but remember Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Arab people are now finding unity in demands, hopes and aspirations, real unity from the bottom up not from the top down. Was this his vision? Even if it wasn’t, […]
The Journey I marched through thick snow until leaves began to reappear on deciduous trees, pine needles protruding from toes Dragons scuttled across walls dented free forms, shapes through cloud patterns against the canvass of azure Before it was all […]
Jeff Barnaby was born on a Mi’gmaq reserve in Listujug, Quebec. He has worked as an artist, poet, author and filmmaker who was recently nominated at the Genie awards for best short film – File Under Miscellaneous (2010). His work […]
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