Animal Rights Group Fights Hard for Endangered Species Bill When the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) opened its Ottawa office three years ago, it was a homecoming for the organization — the largest of its kind in the world. Born out of opposition to the commercial seal hunt off […]

“ALL THE RESEARCH SHOWS THAT SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS FOR NEW CANADIANS IS MAINLY DETERMINED BY THE NUMBER OF YEARS THEY’VE BEEN SPEAKING ENGLISH, SO WE TRY TO EQUALIZE THAT FACTOR.” — TAMBA DHAR SAGE YOUTH provides a service to immigrant children like no other, one that is sorely needed. Canada’s immigration […]

PETER FABIAN LIKES TO BEAT ON A PLATE OF GLASS NOW AND THEN WITH A BASEBALL BAT TO SEE IF HE CAN SHATTER IT. SOMETIMES, HE’LL EVEN FIRE A BULLET INTO IT. THE GLASS MAY CRACK, BUT IT HOLDS FIRM. FABIAN IS OUT TO PROVE A SMASHING POINT. Fabian is […]

It is mid-January of 1940 in “an East Canadian port.” Canada is at war. The recruiting offices are open. You see a poster of a soldier in a tin hat. You recall the slaughter of the trenches in Flanders in World War I and mutter: “No thanks.” Two blocks further, […]

Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs) have recently become a hot topic. RESPs are investment plans in which contributors accumulate money to help finance a beneficiary’s post-secondary education. With escalating education costs and the reduction in student employment opportunities, parents welcome a helping hand to finance their child’s post-secondary education. Historically, […]

Around the turn of the last century, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier made the bold statement that the 20th Century would belong to Canada. While there are others with greater economic or military assets, in many ways we have achieved Laurier’s vision, and become a model for the world for the […]

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one” John Lennon The new millennium is upon us, and our political and business rulers will predictably rise, in the words of Chicago’s Mayor Daley, to “higher and higher platitudes.” They will trumpet and bray and claim all past […]

“In the past, we have seen trade pitted against the goals of human rights and the alleviation of human suffering. I look forward to a 21st century where trade is instrumental in furthering these goals; where our exports of products and services contribute to improving the human condition.” As Canada’s […]

With the 20th Century coming to a close, we map out our vision for the next millennium and anchor it in an important reality: Canadians live in an interdependent world. As Minister for International Cooperation and Minister responsible for La Francophonie, I am proud to look back on the past […]

The first week of December 1997 will be looked back upon as Prime Minister lean Chretien’s “virage” in the war against the Quebec secessionists. Until then, Stephane Dion, his professorial constitu-tional side-quick, sowed paranoia in the ranks of the secessionists by smiting them with his brilliant articles denouncing the illegality […]

Let’s hope the answer to that question is: ‘Certainly not!’ Unfortunately, you’ll get that answer only from those who believe that the year 2000 (Y2K) problem is a figment of someone’s imagination. If you look around, you’ll soon realize that this is not a hoax or money-making scheme for consultants […]

In the mid-1800s, Parisian architects redesigned the entire city, replacing the twisty medieval streets with long, wide boulevards. Given the many violent uprisings of that era, the military favored the new roads, for they provided a much better view down the gun barrel at the angry mobs storming towards them. […]

Its deja vu all over again! Presto Manning, oblivious to the stark reality that Canadians are suffering from the worst symptoms of constitutional fatigue, is plead-ing for a renewal of these selfsame negotiations. In the tradition of all true prophets, he believes that if he builds his “Field of Dreams,” […]

Canada is selling more food to the world than ever before. Cynthia Currie, the hard-working chair of the National Farm Products Council, wants to see this trend continue. Her main mission is to help the Canadian poultry and egg industries move forward and cater to growing international markets. Currie is […]

The once proud Progressive Conservative Party of Diefenbaker, Stanfield and Mulroney is facing a bleak future. The best candidates it can muster for its leadership slugfest are Joe Clark, a recycled, short-term Prime Minister, and Hugh Segal, a former political guru to Brian Mulroney. Both consider themselves and their party […]

Are Canada’s “Supremes” like the Pope, infallible? Our nine Supreme Justices have closeted themselves away to consider their responses to the three legal questions put to them by the Chretien government in the Quebec Secession Reference case. Will the “Supremes” confirm their 1981 “fatal tilt” toward defining Canada as a […]

This month’s column is something different because it does not deal with quotations about Ottawa or questions about the National Capital Region. Instead, it offers a short discourse on numerology… numerology as it relates to Ottawa. Numerology is the study of the relationship between numbers and letters and their significances. […]