The list
Ontario’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure List is a rather crude measuring stick. As a friend and faithful reader is quick to point out when the Sunshine List is mentioned in these pages and elsewhere, it offers a narrow, and somewhat voyeuristic, view into the business of our public institutions. His chief complaint is that the […]
Fence line
Judging by the long lineups of folks waiting for the sweet taste of freshly boiled maple syrup at many Prince Edward County venues over the weekend, Maple in the County was another brilliant success in 2013. Rarely do the woodlots and farm lanes host so many folks young and old as they do when the […]
Arbitrary power
We cannot be happy, without being free, that we cannot be free, without being secure in our property, that we cannot be secure in our property, if without our consent, other may, as by right, take it away… JOHN DICKINSON, LETTERS FROM A FARMER IN PENNSYLVANNIA Wandering through a museum last week I came across […]
Alien species
Sylvia Davis has a peculiar job. She is paid by the Ministry of Environment to argue that there is nothing particularly valuable, salvageable or even worthwhile about the environment. Or, at least, not so much that the animals and plants who live there, or their genetic descendants, won’t recover after decades of abuse and industrialization. […]
Late night caller
The phone rings. It’s late. Your son is calling. The connection to his cell phone is poor. It is hard to make out what he is saying. Something’s wrong. There has been an accident—he is away from home and he needs money. Right away. Has this happened to you yet? It will. It is only […]
Hospital-eating disease
Where is the explanation? Where is the justification? Before one more scalpel or tongue depressor is removed from the Picton hospital QHC must explain why it has chosen yet again to cut disproportionately from this hospital. And how it arrived at this conclusion. These answers they owe to this community. But they must also answer […]
Indifference kills
My good friend and sparring partner Ralph Margetson called the other day. He was rather anxious. More than usual. At 95 years of age he has both time to worry and a life of experience to know there is plenty to worry about. He worries about the lack of worry in the community. He fears […]
Who is served?
The attorney for the director of the Ministry of Environment was displeased. Sylvia Davis had come to Prince Edward County to ensure her boss’s decision remained untouched. Unfettered. Undiminished by the bleatings of locals concerned not about the noble green energy goals of her director and political masters, but rather the more pedestrian risks to […]
A parable
Opinion A Shire Hall story The simple farmer couldn’t keep livestock on his land. Year after year he suffered losses as the animals simply wandered off, or were eaten by predators. The farmer didn’t think much about it. It was just the way things had always been on this rather sad and dilapidated farm. Then […]
Still no answers
They were horrific crimes—vulnerable children victimized and abused by the people entrusted to care for them. Put in harm’s way by a government agency and its officials whose job it was to protect them—to look after them. Two foster parents are already in jail; another has been sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence pending appeal. […]