Animals: can they bounce back?
When the slaughter stops, they often thrive The hand-drawn map of Lake Massawippi shows all its fishing-spot locations and quirky place names. I bought a copy years ago in Ayer’s Cliff and, while it is colourful, it tells a sadly familiar story. Among the notations scrawled along the edges of this country fishing chart, one…
Tale of two Trudeaus
After 8 years in power, the exit looms for Justin In the late 1960s, Pierre Elliott Trudeau became my favourite political leader. Like a great athlete, he could bring a full house to its feet. He was charismatic, refreshingly brash, unconventional. A new star in the political sky. I still recall each successive ballot of…
Spanish surge in Townships?
Hispanic newcomers change Sherbrooke In recent years I have done business with a Peruvian-born pharmacist in Magog, a furnace repairman from Buenos Aires in North Hatley, an Ecuadorian veterinarian in Rock Forest, and a short-order cook from Mexico serving breakfast near Katevale. This sprinkling of Hispanic residents in the Townships has scarcely been noticed in…
Humpty Dumpty, Quebec-style
Opposition parties must piece together a winning alternative vs. a populist government. Defaced CAQ poster, above, reflects views of some in Montreal. Volatile. Yes, that’s politics in Quebec. Parties rise and fall, leaders come and go. Political movements look dynamic, even unbeatable, then get levelled. Remember the Union Nationale? The ADQ? The NDP’s run as…
Hatley High — Back to school with a bang
Quebec’s Eastern Townships have a nice little history of filmmaking. Today, with Amazon getting involved, maybe it will get a second wind. Amazon Prime will soon produce a new series based on Brome Lake author Louise Penny’s detective Gamache mysteries, set in fictional Three Pines. Maybe this will stimulate filmmaking in the Townships, which has…
Northrop Frye — critic and Townshipper
Painting of Frye at E.J. Pratt library at Victoria College: a college in-joke, repeated by Frye, was that he appeared to be living “without visible means of support”. The renowned U of T and world literary figure grew up a reader in a devout family rooted in the smaller cities of eastern Canada At a…
A top doctor dissents: lockdowns not the answer
“Lockdown will have at best a short-term impact on Covid cases”: One public-health expert challenges the Canadian media’s consensus. _________________________________ INTERVIEW Dr Richard Schabas, former Chief Medical Officer of Ontario and the country’s best-recognized lockdown critic, granted the following interview to davidwinch.website. Q. Dr Schabas, first a bit of background: you served as Chief Medical…
What is WHO?
Things I learned from being around the Geneva world-health behemoth What is WHO, where and why? Such questions abound these days regarding the UN health-expert body, and have flown around the Internet since the Covid pandemic was officially announced in March 2020. I have no medical expertise, but some personal and anecdotal knowledge of its…