Mayor Mark Goetz and his councillors must be breathing a sigh of relief, but under their breath are grinning from ear to ear. Why? The Municipality of South Bruce voted “yes” by only a 2.4 per cent margin indicating South Bruce is “willing” to carry on with the DGR (deep geological repository). The 69 per cent voter turnout meant that the council did not have to make the decision. The mayor’s comment following the referendum results, “I wasn’t expecting it to be that close,” should wake up the council to really think. But will they? Read More
The whole world is holding its breath. Ballot counts haunt our dreams. Our nerves are barely holding, while tension south of the border falls somewhere between pressure cooker and powder keg. Still, democracy continues apace. Read More
It’s more like a courtship ritual between exotic birds than a 21st-century war. First the Israelis assassinate Revolutionary Guard generals in an Iranian embassy on foreign soil. Tag. You’re it. Read More
I have lived in three distinct farming communities in Ontario over five decades, and always there have been local rumours about secretive background investors in farms and farmland. But I have never seen any direct proof. Read More
It was 62 years ago this month when I looked out our kitchen window in Calgary to see our neighbour operating a backhoe, digging a hole in his backyard. He had just watched the standoff between Russia and America in the Cuban missile crisis and was certain that atomic war was about to start. That deep hole eventually became a homemade bomb shelter. Read More
It’s a shattering indictment: 16 years after then-prime minister Stephen Harper formally apologized for Canada’s residential school system – time enough for a generation to reach driving age – there are more Indigenous children and youth in foster care than there were in residential schools at any given time. Read More
More than two weeks ago Iran, in response to Israel’s assassinations of the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, its most important allies in the Arab world, fired 181 ballistic missiles at Israel. A big and prompt Israeli counterattack was expected, but at the time of writing it has still not happened. Read More
Teeswater in South Bruce is in the running for the high-level nuclear waste burial site for all of Canada. Our council has already signed the hosting agreement and the big prize will be $418 million over 138 years, if South Bruce residents and council agree to accept this waste for short-term population growth and job opportunities. Read More
The DGR (deep geological repository) hosting agreement puts the NWMO (Nuclear Waste Management Organization) in charge of South Bruce’s future. Read More
"No one can stop the wheel of history," said China's President Xi Jinping on the 75th anniversary of the day when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic of China. And the wheel is indeed still turning, but that may not be good news for the fourth-generation heirs of that revolution. Read More