In Canada, we have an interesting (and often confusing) blend of funding and service in our health care system. Is it public? Is it private? Who pays for it? Who delivers the services? Those questions, and the prickly debates they can lead to, are characterized by a couple of recent rows over health services. Specifically,… Read more »

On October 10, the Governor of California signed a bill that bans adults from smoking in a vehicle carrying passengers under 18 years old. The law is scheduled to take effect January 1. The Ontario Medical Association applauds the decision, and says that the province’s doctors will push for a similar ruling. For the sake… Read more »

When Sir Francis Bacon wrote that ?Knowledge is power,? odds are good he wasn’t thinking of George W. Bush. The president who would be king, however, seems to have taken Sir Francis’s words to heart. In the latest move to monitor (and potentially control) the movements of anyone even tangentially connected to the United States,… Read more »

On September 28, the Alberta government announced it is investing $30 million in Athabasca University’s new Academic and Research Centre. This is wonderful news. Construction on the new centre is scheduled to start next summer, and this funding will help AU provide capacity for as many as 15,000 more course registrations in distance learning each… Read more »

This seems to be a week for sharing financial good news (check out the exciting announcement in the AUSU This Month column!) and council’s Special General Meeting on September 24 did just that. After a thorough search, council approved the appointment of the firm of Kingston Ross Pasnak as the AUSU auditors for the 2007/08… Read more »

In the race to dash headlong into the spectacular future of the digital age, there are those who say that technology is destroying traditional relationships and the stability of society. In some ways, they’re right. People will spend countless hours on social networking sites or chat rooms, posting messages to hundreds of ?friends? they’ll never… Read more »

In some ways, surfing the Internet is the equivalent of overhearing a conversation between strangers in a public place. When it comes to blogs, readers? responses to articles, and personal websites, It’s the same context: the information You’re hearing (or reading) is someone’s opinion?no more, no less. Even if one of those strangers claimed to… Read more »

Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that Rosie O?Donnell has broken a lot of barriers on the road to success, both personal and professional. She succeeded as a woman in the male-dominated stand-up comedy world. She went on to host a successful Emmy-winning daytime talk show. She has also faced–and overcome–the obstacles presented… Read more »

Viewed in the broadest strokes, the problem of the ongoing toy recalls is simple–Chinese manufacturers are making shoddy (even dangerous) goods that are being sold to unsuspecting North American consumers. But this simplistic big-picture view of a complex issue is tied to the smaller picture; in particular, to a recent conversation I had with a… Read more »

Hero. The word gets used a lot. There are sports heroes and action heroes, hero sandwiches and superheroes. And now, apparently, there are UFC heroes–but a recent commercial for them only highlighted how far removed they are from what a real hero is. The UFC is the Ultimate Fighting Championship, an entity that, according to… Read more »