Rose's Cantina

If Katrina Blagdon inexplicably walked off to end her life, only she would know why. Friends and family might have mentioned to the police that she was depressed or in despair. But those haven't been the words that have been used to describe her. She was looking forward to returning home to Nova Scotia. She had just spent time with her boys. She had been chirpy and happy -- her usual demeanour -- on her posts on Facebook. Katrina was an open book, according to all who knew her. She wasn't a drug addict or mentally ill. She was a seasoned soldier who had seen it all on a tour of Afghanistan. She settled in St. Catharines to start her civilian life as a homeowner with savings and was the proud owner of a lime green Jeep. No. Katrina did not off herself. She did not accidentally fall into Martindale Pond during a brisk midnight walk around her neighbour. And it seems unlikely that if she were planning her own demise that she would be having a submarine sandwich with her boyfriend ...

Embed from Getty Images I wanted to share the observations of a Facebook friend who lives near the downtown core. It pretty accurately describes the scene, and offers some insight on what's to come.   As someone living near downtown, I’d like to share some firsthand observations about the “Freedom Convoy” that is occupying the city, as some people continue to believe it is a peaceful protest for truckers: • There are some semi trucks, but the vast majority are pickup trucks. 95% of them have Ontario or Quebec plates: they did not drive across the country, they largely came from nearby. • The occupiers are 99% white and 90% male. I’m told that 90% of Canada’s truckers are vaccinated. The occupiers don’t represent truckers or the broad population of Canada. • The signs and rhetoric do talk about “dropping the mandates”, but many of them also believe COVID or the vaccines to be some kind of conspiracy or hoax. These people do not seem to believe that the pandemic is real. • The h...

  I'm sure Ron James would cringe at being called A National Treasure.  He'd probably say his body has not yet been discovered in the Tundra or fossilized after his family jewels were eaten by bears. It's true, he hasn't had a cabin in the woods named after him like Pierre Berton where starving comics can go, suck on a pickled toe and try their material out on otters. He doesn't have an Order of Canada or a Governor's General Award, either.  But a National God Damned Treasure he certainly is.  He's had his own television show, and a comedy special that ran so many times on New Year's Eve that the CBC smoked the videotape. He failed as an actor in Hollywood so he came home to make the best of it in Canada -- and what's more Canadian than that! He does have some hardware including a Gemini and a Genie, and two Canadian Comedy Awards. But he'll even admit that he is a B List celebrity who gets airline upgrades not because he's famous but because...