He stood out among the line of desperate people. It was the baby in his arms that drew me across the street. Was it alive? I couldn’t tell. The flies crawling over its lifeless face might be a sign. Then again, flies were crawling over everyone, everything. I spent my first few weeks in India, […]
Two very controversial and emotional words in Canada today: Truth and Reconciliation. Canadians have not suffered the same trauma over the word ‘racist’ as our southern friends, possibly because systemic racism never took hold as deeply in our past. However, reconciliation with Native Canadians has endured with the same emotional charge and unresolved issues […]
I promise to be cogent. Photo by Tom Barrett unsplash Consider a few mental processes: counting, adding, multiplying. We use the mental process of counting to calculate a sum. Is the process and the sum as ‘objectively real’ as the items being counted? If several people have counted their set of objects, is not addition […]
Photo by Maxime Dore unsplash Ownership is one of the basic concepts that societies are built on. It’s hard to imagine anything more than a small, isolated, communal tribe without some rules and customs for ownership rights. The native people of Canada shared most of the items in their tribe but still exercised ownership over […]
It was a normal day, like many others. I was stumbling home after having a few with the guys and what do I see? A big, steaming pile; I can’t believe my luck! People are walking around it, cursing its position on their path. Turning their nose up at some perceived slight. Ranting on about […]
Photo by David Code unsplash I woke up early before the first light. The worms and other night critters were still out. Delicious. Now I’m sitting on this branch chirp, chirp, chirping away! I chirp a happy tune. Poop will be here soon. Poop, poop, poop away! It happens every day. No need to sweat […]
Photo by Jennifer Lim-Tamkican Unsplash During my research for the historical fantasy book XNOR, I came across several colourful eighteen-century characters and unusual events. One item that certainly made me go hmmm, was George Washington’s three-seated outhouse. Today’s trend is to vilify leaders from the past for actions or words they made in a setting […]
Canada has always been a mixed bag of people, beliefs and customs. Lately, it seems to be veering far from the ideals I imagined in my youth. We started out well as a country and a people. While our American friends were shouting Liberty, Freedom and Equality under the Law, we quietly spoke of the […]
1759 was a defining year for the colonies that became Canada. It was also the year the British Empire rose to preeminence over other European nations and empires. All that changes when technology deployed in 2047 to shield Canadians from an escalating world conflict inadvertently teleports a group of scientists, engineers, teachers and medical people […]