BRIAN BRENNAN: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS June, 2015 At age 18, Debbie Lori Kaye became the youngest performer in history to have her own variety special on CBC TV. A tiny singer with a big voice, her star had been rising steadily
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by Deborah JonesVANCOUVER, Canada, July 2011 A Canadian court cleared the way for China’s most-wanted fugitive Lai Changxing to be sent home to face expected criminal charges. “The life of the applicant is in the Chinese Government’s hands,” ruled Judge Michel M.J.
by Deborah JonesVANCOUVER, Canada, October 2011 Protests against corporate power in the United States began in the basement of an old house in Vancouver, behind massive trees, down wooden stairs, past a box of soup cans for recycling, at the world headquarters
By Jonathan Manthorpe November 22, 2013. When aid arrived this week in the Philippines’ Capiz region devastated by typhoon Haiyan, some of it came in tasteful blue bags decorated in prominent white letters with the name of Vice-President Jejomar Binay and adorned
By Charles MandelCHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Canada. April, 2005 Visitors to Prince Edward Island who return after being away for a while may be in for a shock. Some of the scenic spots on the tiny province’s coastline are changing beyond recognition.
By CHARLES MANDEL A Friend of the EarthBy T.C. BoylePenguin Canada, 271 pages Half-way through T. Coraghessan Boyle’s A Friend of the Earth, a dark comedy about environmental failure set in 2025, one of the planet’s few remaining hyenas escapes from a rock star’s
By CHARLES MANDEL AUBURNDALE, Nova Scotia, Canada Thursday night in Auburndale, Nova Scotia, and what’s the big entertainment? A drive-in movie, perhaps? Maybe dinner out? How about staring at a big field of hay? That doesn’t sound terribly promising, but over four balmy nights
By CHARLES MANDEL Hooking UpBy Tom WolfePicador, 2001. 293 pages Tom Wolfe has talent to burn. That much is clear from his new collection of essays, Hooking Up. But his greatest talent may be for self-promotion. One thing becomes increasingly evident as you
By CHARLES MANDEL Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime WalkBy Ben FountainEcco, 307 pp., $28.99 It takes a particular kind of genius to set an entire novel around a football game’s halftime show. Sure, the halftime extravaganzas at the large NFL games offers lots
DEBORAH JONES: FREE RANGE Published November 13, 2013 Canada is consumed with the antics of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. OK, the fact Ford remains in office in the country’s biggest city is grave. He earlier admitted to smoking crack, and today publicly said in city council
CHRIS WOOD: NATURAL SECURITYPublished November 12, 2013 I’ve spent a good deal of the last few days glued to the computer screen, sifting theinternet for news from the Philippines. Not from any motive of disaster voyeurism (the armchair version of a new