A couple years after my dad completed an M.Ed. at Syracuse University, a colleague of his enrolled in the same program and, like my dad, uprooted his wife and children for the duration. I remember going to visit them over the winter holidays, driving past the jerry-built townhouses where we had lived, then on to…
Tag: Military
Yours, for probably always: Martha Gellhorn’s Letters
This is a curated collection of letters both from Martha Gellhorn and addressed to her from a variety of correspondents, most notably H. G. Wells and Eleanor Roosevelt, interpolated with Janet Somerville’s contextual notes. The overall effect is much like a tragic epistolary novel of grand dimensions.
Toronto G20 Summit Ten Years Later
Ten years ago to the day, I left the safety of Toronto’s suburbs and rode downtown to poke around the billion dollar militarized zone that former PM Stephen Harper authorized to secure the 2010 G20 summit.
Russell Williams and the Reputation of the Canadian Military
Russell Williams, graduate of Upper Canada College, decorated pilot, military academic and strategist, commander of a secretive base in Saudi Arabia providing support to troops in Afghanistan, commander of CFB Trenton, fetishist, cross-dresser, serial rapist and murderer.
Poppies and the Enslaving Rhetoric of Freedom
Last week, 85 year old poppy-selling veteran, Alan Lawrence, was told to leave the premises of The Bay office tower in Toronto. He was selling poppies to raise money for the Poppy Trust Fund which then makes distributions to vets who have suffered from bad retirement planning advice.
Highway of Heroes
Today, we hear from the Toronto area that a new idea is being floated. With a provincial election coming in October, Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, is seriously considering the proposal that we rename the 172 kilometre stretch of Highway 401 from Trenton to Toronto. We should call it Highway of Heroes.
DOD Unveils the Heat-Beam
Yesterday, at the Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, the U.S. Department of Defence revealed a prototype of a heat–beam weapon which it plans to place in the hands of troops by 2010.