Follow backofthebook, filter it, and define how you want to receive the news (via Email, RSS, Telegram, WhatsApp etc.) https://follow.it/backofthebook Sun, 24 Sep 2023 11:04:58 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jep6UR8NZVhLKw By Brady Tighe We’re now officially in the aftermath phase of the northern Alberta wildfire crisis. The fire is long gone, and everyone with a home to return to is back in its cozy confines. The money has been raised, the relief cheques have been sent out, the insurance claims are in, the liquor stores are operational, and […]]]> Sat, 09 Jul 2016 00:49:38 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jep6UR8NZVhLKw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeq1v6477dS9kA [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="324"] From ‘The Red Tree’ by Shaun Tan[/caption] Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, the important part is this: every card in the heart suit is worth points, and (just like golf) players want to avoid those points. I played a lot of Hearts as a [...]]]> Thu, 30 Jun 2016 06:41:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeq1v6477dS9kA https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jepiCmt6X7TJDA First meeting of Electoral Reform Committee The most interesting and innovative idea to come out of the first meeting of the all-party Special Committee on Electoral Reform, or ERRE, was Nathan Cullen's suggestion, seconded by Elizabeth May, to allow members of the public access to question the expert witnesses before the committee in real time via email or twitter [...]]]> Sat, 25 Jun 2016 02:19:54 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jepiCmt6X7TJDA https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jepq1eNPcgfnOQ By Nicholas Heather One time, me and the kids had a fish hotel. It was my idea. My original idea. For some reason we’d acquired a 20-gallon fish tank. Of course, the kids wanted to get fish. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, you guys,” I said, as we were discussing what I was […]]]> Thu, 23 Jun 2016 10:52:20 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jepq1eNPcgfnOQ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jer_GOI5hwllxw For years I have been warning that hatred kills. Like it did in Orlando last Sunday. Or like it did in Britain last Thursday. When the gentle, decent Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by a another cowardly bigot. And I've also warned that the same poison was spreading in Canada. Where [...]]]> Mon, 20 Jun 2016 10:05:05 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jer_GOI5hwllxw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeqOkywHhxohfQ From Creekside: The B.C. provincial government is trying to green light the construction of a massive LNG terminal on Lelu Island in the Skeena Estuary — Pacific Northwest LNG, backed by Malaysian energy giant Petronas — without the consent of the people who rejected a $1.15 billion dollar deal from Petronas to gain that consent. […]]]> Mon, 20 Jun 2016 09:14:09 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeqOkywHhxohfQ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoX2ln2XmQRCw By Frank Moher On this dreadful day, I don’t want to write about the shootings in Orlando. I want to write about my friend Rick. Rick lives just outside of Nanaimo, a city of about 80,000, across the water from the island I live on. He’s been a celebrity there for a long time, first as the city’s […]]]> Mon, 13 Jun 2016 12:59:23 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoX2ln2XmQRCw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jerRrdLB3WaBNQ By Brady Tighe It is a powerful thing to see the destroyed homes of the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Fort McMurray — husks of buildings that once contained a family, their possessions, their memories, their keepsakes, their records, and their favourite throw pillows; everything minor and major, wiped out by an implacable force. The destruction […]]]> Mon, 13 Jun 2016 00:46:40 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jerRrdLB3WaBNQ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoiKKrHMSe38g By Allan Eastman The photographs of water bombers fighting the horrendous Ft. McMurray conflagration of 2016 invoked a sudden wash of memories having to do with two of the great Canadian cultural institutions that I had the good fortune to be involved with and a bizarre set of circumstances that led from a burned out […]]]> Sat, 04 Jun 2016 01:53:48 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoiKKrHMSe38g https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoXn4v9dspGVA By Rod Mickleburgh At long last, a formal apology has been delivered in the House of Commons for Canada’s racist behaviour in its shameful treatment of Sikh passengers aboard the Komagata Maru, who had the effrontery to seek immigration to the West Coast more than a hundred years ago. Not only were they denied entry, they [...]]]> Fri, 20 May 2016 17:16:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoXn4v9dspGVA https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoVjXLzv2wy4A By Frank Moher Yeah, that was a dirty check Trudeau threw at Ruth Ellen Brosseau. It doesn’t look inadvertent to me. Trudeau wades into the gaggle of NDPers blocking Tory whip Gord Brown as he tries to get back to his seat. He reaches for Brown, has a few words with Mulcair, one of the linebackers, then […]]]> Fri, 20 May 2016 08:35:12 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jeoVjXLzv2wy4A https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jer-_kXC1qcBSQ By Brady Tighe When I fly up to Fort McMurray for a seven-day shift in camp, there are some things I expect: Bad coffee, salty food, miserable weather that ranges from vicious heat to teeth-shattering cold, profanity, talk about sports teams that suck, bugs the size of Buicks, country music that makes me want to […]]]> Tue, 17 May 2016 10:45:54 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/S6b5ayG5jer-_kXC1qcBSQ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJA0KW1Ps7Rl6A There have been several bewildered as well as angry accounts coming out of the USA lately about how little media time has been spent covering the Democratic Presidential Primary campaign of Bernie Sanders. Despite winning a string of primaries and attracting overflow crowds to his speeches, Sanders can't seem to inspire any mainstream journalists to [...]]]> Mon, 18 Apr 2016 16:42:49 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJA0KW1Ps7Rl6A https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJCnSp4ZrbIiVQ By Frank Moher The NDP’s cashiering of Tom Mulcair as leader is both deeply unfair and plainly essential, at least for anyone who wants to see the Party remain able to influence public policy, and maybe one day win an election. As has been widely remarked, Mulcair was for four years one of the best opposition leaders Parliament […]]]> Mon, 11 Apr 2016 17:34:32 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJCnSp4ZrbIiVQ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBALchPesVMPA By Frank Moher The CBC has been given its money back. That is to say, the immediate infusion of $75 million announced in the Liberals’ budget last month, plus the promise of a $150 million increase each year through 2021, more than makes up for the money leached from it by the Conservatives. Various ideas have […]]]> Mon, 11 Apr 2016 04:16:30 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBALchPesVMPA https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBGLnegZAmioQ Lazy Sunday # 408: Write This Down Once upon a time, there were people known as Public Letter Writers. They sat in market places, had a storefront in frontier boom towns, operated out of the back booth of a coffee shop where their clients would not be embarrassed to meet with them. Public letter writers [...]]]> Sat, 09 Apr 2016 04:25:31 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBGLnegZAmioQ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBbdvhR2IipUQ By Montreal Simon Well as you all know, Tom Mulcair is perched precariously on a narrow plank, over the deep blue sea. With the big question being, will he be standing or swimming on Monday?  But even as he marches or limps towards his destiny, some of the old guard are hobbling out to defend him. And this has [...]]]> Sat, 09 Apr 2016 04:25:31 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBbdvhR2IipUQ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJAS3uPmjAf2UA By Montreal Simon I haven't written anything about the NDP leadership review, because I know some of my NDP friends are still hurting from their disastrous election result. And I didn't want to re-open any wounds. And also because I think Justin Trudeau is the best prime minister I have ever known, so it's not [...]]]> Sat, 09 Apr 2016 04:25:31 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJAS3uPmjAf2UA https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJCXdm2RLomSQg By Alison@Creekside "They're stealing all our best shit," wailed CPC MP Remplestiltskin from her parliamentary selfie twitter account, rattling off all the HarperGov ideas embraced by the Liberals since they formed a majority government in October: Saudi arms deal - check TPP signed - check Return of the F35 bid - check Keystone XL pipeline [...]]]> Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:26:39 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJCXdm2RLomSQg https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBvDP6arUjfZw By Frank Moher I first noticed the dog in August of last year. Apparently it had been posted after an incident earlier that summer at the small ferry terminal that I pass through in order to get home to the small island I live on, Gabriola, one of the Gulf Islands in BC. Apparently it […]]]> Sun, 07 Feb 2016 12:27:13 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/9iTNcUfwaJBvDP6arUjfZw