It’s standing room only at the October meeting of the Ottawa Independent Writers. The monthly gathering of local novelists, poets and freelancers awaits the man whom Conrad Black selected a year earlier to transform the Ottawa Citizen into a smart and provacative newspaper worthy of the nation’s capital. With his scowl and dated clothes, 57-year-old… Continue reading Capital Offensive

ON LAND, THE INDUSTRIOUS BEAVER TENDS TO BE SOMEWHAT SLOW and clumsy. It prefers to stick close to home and constantly sniffs the air for signs of danger. When cutting down the trees it uses to construct its lodge, a place of shelter and protection, the beaver cannot predict which way the trunk will fall.… Continue reading They’re History?

It’s a dull autumn morning and Suzanne Boyd totters into her seventh-floor office in the Maclean Hunter building in Toronto, on a pair of Karl Lagerfeld stilettos. The office is in its usual state-her desk is covered with papers, her conference table is not much better. On one bulletin board in the room hang her… Continue reading Stylin’ Substance

It’s the Matinée Fashion Ready-To-Wear spring ’98 extravaganza at The Docks. The event has attracted most of the local fashion reporters, who have been assigned seats in the front row; they wear sunglasses because of the bright lights. Alicia Kay, host of CFTO’s By Design, sits next to Stephanie Black, host of Global Television Network’s… Continue reading I’m Your Puppet

“Getting Away with Murder-Of children” and “Missed Clues-Lost Lives” read the headlines in The Toronto Star a few weekends last spring. Inside the paper pictures of doe-eyed children stared up at readers, as if pleading for help. These children had been killed by those who were supposed to nurture them, and failed by the system… Continue reading Blanket Statements