TORONTO – Hundreds of fires, many of them out of control, and smoke everywhere. Canada is in full emergency and the alarm does not spare the GTA, where air quality will not improve at least until tomorrow. →
TORONTO – One listens to radio, I imagine, for background [sometimes relaxing] noise. Occasionally, the radio personality and the production team behind the program on air strike a chord. Recently, on my drive in to work, the host of Radio 1010 expressed incredulity at the system’s response to the Oakville teacher who made gigantic prosthetic mammary glands famous by wearing them to a shop class.
TORONTO – In the 1960s, frequently referred to as the golden age of popular music in Western societies, there was no shortage of songs whose lyrics aimed at having the listeners reflect of the ‘human condition’ and the wistful failure of ideologies to produce the Utopia they espoused. It was not all grim.
TORONTO – New federal crackdown on mandatory vaccination. Starting from October 30, all civil servants and those traveling by plane, train or ship aged 12 and over will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The turning point was announced today by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Christya Freeland, following a measure that had already been presented during the electoral campaign that preceded the vote on September 20. →
KABUL – They are back, but they say they have changed. After twenty years, the Taliban regained power in Kabul and with them the terror they had left behind returned: violence, summary executions, repression of all freedom, women forced to wear the burqa and women’s schools closed, sports and music bandits. But “now we are different”, they say. And they try to prove it. →
