Technology and Ethics

As various contributors point out in this issue of Montreal Serai, we are obviously now living in an era of immense technical change, most of it centered on digitalization, computers, and nano-technology. At the same time, a large […]

Quebec’s health records are going digital. Recently, I along with other Montrealers received a letter in French describing the process, the timeline, and the implications. The digitization of patient records will have an impact on the quality of our […]

Note de l’auteur: Le texte qui suit est un texte d’opinion et non un essai. Il ne fait pas une revue exhaustive des études en cours sur les sujets abordés et puise ses arguments de façon libre à […]

Hypothetically, a child asks “Mama and Papa who is my real daddy?” In the old days, before the advent of new reproductive technologies, the answer would have been straight forward “your daddy was ____,  but he left me, […]

Dad gets home from work and goes down into the basement to watch television and  go on the internet. Mom gets home from work, orders a pizza on her Blackberry, and then goes to the living room […]

The insistent electronic beeping of my alarm clock jolts me from sleep.  Beep beep.  I see 4:30 in crimson digits.  Damn, it’s way too early.  I bang down the alarm button and soon the beep beep reawakens me.  […]

Ganesh,  also known as Ganapati,  was the son of Siva and Parvati, two high-ranking deities in the Hindu pantheon. It is said that Parvati, while bathing, fashioned her son out of the dust on her body and then asked […]

One hundred years ago H.G. Wells grappled with the affliction of war.  He saw the ebb and flow of civilization, the rise and fall of empire, and the efforts of historians to put things in order; that is, to […]

A recent picture, amongst others, of Mark Zuckerberg doing the rounds in cyberspace was a source of some irritation to animal rights activists because it showed the Facebook founder dangling two chickens by their legs. The picture was […]

1956  was the year that marked  a sea change in my life. I had to leave a private grade school to attend a public  high-school that was so poor that our classroom only had three walls, the fourth being […]

Reproductive Technology and Ethics Until the development of reliable contraception methods in the 20th century, control of the means of reproduction belonged to those who exercised brute force or financial coercion. Sex led to pregnancy, abortions were difficult […]

Tous les quelques jours, en marchand sur Quattro Venti, je croise un vendeur de bricoles itinérant. Ils sont pour la plupart Nigérian dans mon quartier. Je traverse via Raffaelo Giovagnoli, quand à ma droite au haut de […]

In 1984, my good friend Maurice Lemaître, a noted French intellectual and artist who is prominent in the Letterist movement, invited me to produce an avant-garde film to be shown in Paris at the French Cinémathèque in a program  […]

They met at an art college in London, England, not at the posh Slade or arty Goldsmiths, but at what was actually listed as a charity, near Covent Garden. It was 1969. The college had one communal lavatory […]

“I’m not Christian” “you mean you don’t believe in God? …then, what are you?” “I have a lot to say about that.” but at this time I’ll be anything. all religions are the same. all rituals are the […]

He creeps through shadows, robed in dark colors to blend with his surroundings. Every breath he takes is measured, his feet tiptoeing along the edges of buildings and through royal courtyards. Henri Denjean is a stealthy man, overly cautious […]

“Humanity’s ascent is often measured in terms of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards towards collapse?” – IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462014/plotsummary March 1st, 2012 – Montreal Filmmaker Mathieu Roy has directed and former Montrealer Harold Crooks, […]

Susanna Moodie, pioneer author, Anne Cimon, XYZ Publishing, 2006. Of the many immigrant groups that streamed into Canada, none is so curious and interesting, as the Victorian gentry emigrating here. Susanna Moodie arrived in 1832. Educated, impecunious, idealistic, her […]

******** March 24, 2012 Elle s’appelait Simone Signoret. France. 2010. French with English subtitles. The American public will remember Simone Signoret as  the first French actress to win a Hollywood Oscar. French filmgoers will, more often than not, think […]

Ars Poetica At Bain St-Michel, 5300 St-Dominique, Montreal, from January 17-February 12, 2012. Infinite Theatre Production An Anglo Montreal Theatre company when it chooses to explore the local Anglo Arts Angst (AAA!) scene in a spectacular manner, and for […]