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The current COVID-19 Code Red situation in Montreal has caused an interesting conundrum, one that has received many hours of radio talk and newspaper ink. The number of people allowed to convene in one’s house is limited. The government radio advertisement states that ‘Indoor gatherings of family and friends are prohibited’. Not ‘not suggested’, not

Charles Manson Dies

Sludge: noun 1. mud, mire, or ooze; slush. 2. a deposit of ooze at the bottom of a body of water. 3. any of various more or less mudlike deposits or mixtures. 4. the sediment in a steam boiler or water tank. 5. broken ice, as on the sea. 6. a mixture of some finely

Time to Amend the Second Amendment

I’m not a constitutional expert by any stretch of the imagination. As a lover of words I am fully aware that they can be squeezed, massaged and twisted to mean different things to different people. As the Led Zeppelin classic goes.”’Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.”  But sometimes that process can become downright

Charlottesville: Blood On The President’s Hands

Had the video been poorer in quality, a bit grainy, maybe even black and white, you might have assumed you were watching a history documentary on CNN last Saturday afternoon. Something about civil rights marches in the sixties. But no, the scenes of mayhem in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia were live. It was enough

Karla Homolka’s Children Are Innocent

There has been a very heated debate in Montreal over the last few days. To get an idea of just how emotional this has become requires a bit of background. The person at the eye of the storm is one Karla Homolka, a convicted sex murderer. Well, sort of convicted. When she was married to

Live PD, Field Sobriety Tests, David Brenner and ET

From time to time I like to watch the occasional police program on television. I don’t mean works of fiction, but the alleged ‘real’ thing. Shows like The First 48 are what I enjoy, although that has become very repetitive with time. The new kid on the block in the genre is a show called

Quebec City Shooting: Spurred By Trump’s Anti-Muslim Rhetoric?

Two armed masked men armed stormed into a mosque on Sunday evening just as prayers were ending. They opened fire killing six men and injuring 19 others, five of whom remain in hospital in critical condition.   A nasty divisive debate has gripped the US regarding the nature of the bans. Are they religion-specific?  Is

Montreal’s Blue Bird Cafe Fire Forty-Four Years Ago

Welcome to September. Forty-four years ago on September 1,1972, also a Friday, Montrealers, in fact Canadians across the country, were eagerly anticipating the much ballyhooed Summit Series between a team of Canada’s best NHL hockey players and what we erroneously thought would be a ragtag group from the Soviet Union. What more could a barroom

Quebec Rules Landlord Can Change Locks on Airbnb Unit

Time was if you were nosy and wanted to get a peek inside your neighbors’ homes you had to resort to some kind of trickery. Collecting for charity, or distributing election bumf afforded snoops an opportunity to have a scan of the premises and furnishing. Now all you have to do is look up Airbnb

Johnny Cash and Cheering Convicts

In the mid-fifties Johnny Cash released what would become a classic: Folsom Prison Blues. Although the original studio version has since been overshadowed by a live recording. On January 13, 1968 Cash performed the song during a concert at Folsom Prison. This live version is the most popular and familiar.  A hearty round of appreciation