Ottawa Citizen
`SECRET' MEETING LED TO HOWE BRIDGE DEAL
The key piece of the puzzle that saw Canada pay the entire bill for the Gordie Howe International Bridge — thus allowing the massive project to proceed — came at a secret meeting. At least, it was supposed to be secret. In an interview with Postmedia...
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GOING FOR GOLD
It turns out Canada's game-winning goal on Friday in the semifinal of men's hockey at Milan Cortina 2026 was a year in the making. The goal, which proved to be a release-valve on a mounting overload of tension for Canadian fans, was the finale of a...
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Equine centre in Greely harnesses healing power of therapeutic riding
When 13-year-old Keira Reaney was asked what image she'd like printed on her customized ankle and foot orthotics, she chose a photo of the first horse she rode during therapeutic riding lessons. The photo reflects the profoundly positive impact riding...
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Safety agency found 'non-conformities' at Vorlage after fatal chairlift accident
The Quebec agency tasked with ensuring safety at ski areas ordered Centre Vorlage to shut down all of its aerial lifts after an accident that resulted in the death of a 13-yearold Ottawa girl. The ski area is gradually reopening its operations this...
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Organizers laud banner Winterlude
It was a banner year for Winterlude, according to organizers, tourism industry insiders, visitors and locals alike, with a stretch of cold but sunny days creating ideal conditions for the festivities. The 48th edition of Winterlude came to a close on...
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Guerrilla theatre artist skewers Trump on canal
Velvet Leclair's papier mâché likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump drew a lot of attention from skaters on the Rideau Canal on Sunday. She donned the mask and danced along the Rideau Canal from the Lisgar Street entrance to the Corktown Bridge,...
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SECOND CHANCE FOR LOVE
When Marc Marier moved into a supportive housing residence in Kanata a handful of years ago, he didn't expect to fall in love. And when Joanne Higgs tentatively approached Marier on one of his first days at the Hope Living residence — the reaction she...
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Professor dives into riddle of what's killing the turtles
Carleton University's Grégory Bulté has been studying the northern map turtles of Opinicon Lake since 2003. Every fall, the turtles do something unusual, even for turtles. Hundreds of them gather or “aggregate” on the shores of an island in the middle...
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TRAGEDY IN TUMBLER RIDGE
Tuesday “started as any other” for Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mom Cia Edmonds, but within hours she was sitting in the Vancouver children's hospital with her daughter, Maya, 12, who was “fighting for her life” with gunshot injuries to her head and neck. The...
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Kanata community edges closer to heritage status
When prolific Ottawa developer Bill Teron broke ground on a new self-contained “satellite city” that would become Kanata in the 1960s, he envisioned a community from the viewpoint of a child pedalling a tricycle. Clusters of homes with similar...
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In-office mandate `insulting': PSAC
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the largest federal public service union in the country, said the government's new changes to the number of days public servants will spend in the office a week are “grounds for legal action.” On Feb. 5,...
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CANADA'S RACE TO BUILD NEW WARSHIPS
As U.S. President Donald Trump was lecturing Prime Minister Mark Carney and other Western leaders in Davos last month, Vice-admiral Angus Topshee was speaking to his officers about the new navy Canada is building to protect its sovereignty. In the...
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SAFETY 'NET WANTED
Josephine Maharaj, 17, was one of the youths who testified at the House of Commons Heritage Committee earlier this week about internet safety, and how a lack of regulations is harming young people,
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GAMES ON IN ITALY
Canada's Trinity Ellis takes part in luge women's singles training on Thursday in Cortina. The Milan-cortina Winter Olympics officially begin Friday with the opening ceremony. online at ottawacitizen.com
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Restaurateur transforms Ottawa Hospital's meals
His name is synonymous with fine dining in Ottawa, so it might surprise some to learn where Stephen Beckta's latest project has taken him. For the past several years the acclaimed restaurateur who has helped change the way people think about food in...
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As OPS cracks down on grocery theft, criminologist urges focus on root causes
As the Ottawa Police Service continues to crack down on retail and grocery theft, one criminologist is calling for restorative justice and community-based solutions to tackle the root cause of the issue. Twelve people are facing charges after they...
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MARKET BOOSTER
Eight years ago, Victoria Williston arrived in Ottawa for a morning anchor job with Citynews Radio. She was a Humber Polytechnic grad with a diploma in journalism who discovered she had a voice for radio. But, when Rogers Media closed the Citynews...
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CANADA HAS PLEDGED EV SECTOR $50B IN SUBSIDIES. IS IT WORTH IT?
If you want to play, you have to pay. But when that payment is in the Canadian automotive industry, it in turn pays off in building businesses across several sectors that grow a national economy and generate thousands of jobs, industry experts...
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A FLAWLESS MEAL
Finding chef Briana Kim's new Chinatown restaurant is a bit like a treasure hunt, but Antheia is all about discoveries — delicious and otherwise.
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Algonquin urged not to wave `white flag' on journalism
Jon Willing was on his way to teach a journalism class at Algonquin College on Jan. 22 when he got the bad news via email. For the second year in a row, Algonquin is contemplating deep cuts. Last year, 37 programs were cut. This year, 30 more programs...
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Runners love the Rideau Canal, too
Embarking on the Rideau Canal Skateway defines a quintessential Ottawa winter, but for Anthony Balatti it doesn't involve skates. Venturing onto the Skateway in running shoes, a light athletic top and sometimes shorts, he says the frozen surface has...
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`Unconventional spaces' a new normal in hospitals
It is commonly known as the Garage, but, when Marnie Potter began to groggily take in her surroundings during a recent hospital stay there, she thought she was in an airplane hangar. She arrived at the at the General campus of The Ottawa Hospital with...
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'TIL DEATH DO US PART
A case playing out in an Ottawa courtroom presents not just the heavy burden of caring for an ailing loved one, but also the moral and legal considerations when love leads to homicide.
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Wheel assembly woes dog LRT system again
The number of trains operating on the O -Train Line 1 was to be temporarily reduced starting on Wednesday evening after a new issue was identified with their wheel assemblies, OC Transpo announced. While frequency of service and hours of operation...
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Long-awaited realignment of Greenbank Road nears
Rows upon rows of houses blanket Barrhaven's Half Moon Bay community, now among the fastest growing subdivisions in Ottawa. It's a far cry from the vast land and local roads that defined its rural past. Before its rapid expansion, Half Moon Bay was...
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Line 2 transforms Riverside South
Gio Petti says he grew up in an area of the city commonly known as the “middle of nowhere.” But in reality the Riverside South suburb he calls home is actually less than 20 kilometres south of downtown Ottawa. For years, an unreliable and disjointed...
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Social media probe cost city $11K
The City of Ottawa spent $11,131.07 on an external report into the social media conduct of Rideau-vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante, though the city's integrity commissioner did not track the full expense of the investigation. Last August, Integrity...
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XI WELCOMES STEADY STREAM OF LEADERS SHAKEN BY TRUMP'S NEW WORLD ORDER
Donald Trump's tariff war occupied U.S. allies for much of last year. Now, Chinese President Xi Jinping is welcoming a procession of leaders looking to mend fences with the world's other major economy. South Korea's Lee Jae Myung kicked off the trend...
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RE-READING MATTERS
Ray Tropiano is the owner of Re-read Used Books in Stittsville, a donation-driven store where inventory changes constantly. As the cost of living rises, there has been a growing interest in used book stores in Ottawa. Sofia Misenheimer reports.
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Zoning bylaw overhaul could reshape Ottawa
With Ottawa's population projected to grow by more than half a million people over the next 20 years, city councillors are poised to pass a sweeping overhaul of outdated zoning bylaws that could reshape the look and feel of the city's...
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Government's planned AI redaction system called a `tool of repression'
At least three federal government departments are developing artificial intelligence tools to help redact sensitive information from documents before they're released to the public, and observers warn it could damage transparency in an already...
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ART OF LAMBSCAPING
As is the case for many things in farming, solar grazing started as an experiment for Chris Moore and Lyndsey Smith. Solar grazing, sometimes called “lambscaping,” is the practice of using sheep grazing to manage vegetation under and around solar...
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Chronically ill girl denied coverage for prescription
A public servant whose chronically ill daughter was denied coverage for a prescription is calling out the government's health-care plan as “discriminatory against kids.” Julie Jewett, who works at Employment and Social Development Canada, said the...
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Ottawa's `inclusive' dog park policy drives owners of small pups away
Has wokeness gone to the dogs? You might think so based on the city's reply to one resident's inquiry about off-leash dog park areas specifically for small canines. Shelley Creaser is the owner of Meka, a four-year-old Morkie, a Maltese/yorkshire...
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Bylaw won't protect tree canopy from development, advocates say
Ottawa's plan to grow its tree canopy has failed to take root, and local environmental advocates fear a new zoning bylaw won't help. In the last municipal election, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe promised to plant one million trees during his first mandate and...
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WILL TOP U.S. COURT END THE TARIFF TURMOIL?
'Tis the season for renaming — everything from a cultural hub dedicated to a beloved slain president to new destroyers to 2025 itself. No, U.S. President Donald Trump hasn't labelled the year with his name, but his trade representative, in a new op-ed,...
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COOL START TO 2026
A stoic Cédric Raffa breathes through his New Year's Day cold-water plunge at Britannia Beach. The temperature was -15C when Raffa and another approximately 250 hardy souls braved the freezing temperatures and icy Ottawa River waters.
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Same old outage story for Nepean
Just minutes after the power goes out in the Manordale neighbourhood, the sounds of gas-powered generators begin their mechanical symphony through the area. Resident Brittany Lauzon, who lives in a farmhouse that's more than 100 years old, says power...
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A special ride for this Uber driver
When Dave Nguyen started chatting with his Uber driver days before Christmas, he discovered that he had never been tobogganing in his life, so something had to change. It was a snowy night downtown, and Nguyen had just finished his company Christmas...
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Gut molecule fuelled by healthy foods helps protect against Type 2 diabetes
Eating your broccoli, along with other beneficial foods, can help protect against Type 2 diabetes, researchers at the Ottawa Heart Institute, along with partners in France and the U.K., have discovered. The researchers have found that a natural...
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DID TRUMP SAVE CANADA FROM BAD POLICY?
Prime Minister Mark Carney rescinded Canada's digital services tax (DST), a threeper-cent levy on digital services revenue from large domestic and foreign businesses, in June after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to halt trade talks if the tax...
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PHILANTHROPY IS HIS THING
Bruce Mckean describes it as his coming out party. A year ago, the retired public servant stepped out of the shadows to reveal himself as the face behind hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to support mental-health research in Ottawa, Toronto...
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WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO OTTAWA, EVEN THOSE WHO DON'T CELEBRATE
We don't all celebrate Christmas, but we all move through it. In that regard, Christmas is less like a ticketed event that one signs up for than it is, say, a kind of weather front: It blows though town, disrupting routines and rattling windows,...
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Riders left in the cold as OC Transpo misses targets
Carleton University student Brooke Anderson relies on OC Transpo for her long commutes to campus from Kanata but is often stuck waiting in the cold waiting for her bus to show up. “I was recently waiting for a bus that didn't arrive and my fingers...
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BOOM & GLOOM
In one southwestern Ontario city, forever linked by history to all things jumbo, one of the world's largest automakers is building Canada's biggest factory — a $7-billion colossus expected to employ about 3,000 people. Only 50 kilometres away, in...
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UNSOLVED SHOOTINGS
Ottawa Police Service Sgt. Derek Wereley has investigated the shooting that left two men dead and six people injured at a wedding in 2023. New details have emerged, but no charges have been laid. Nicholas Kohler reports
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SMALL TOWN UNCERTAINTY
A rainbow crosswalk, Uber Eats, Starbucks, a biryani restaurant and a French elementary school. These are five things Arnprior has now that weren't there a decade ago. Ottawa-area towns like Arnprior, Carleton Place and Kemptville were among Canada's...
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Cloutier takes centre stage at NAC
Under the watchful eye of nuns, Annabelle Cloutier learned to play piano in a convent in the Eastern Townships. She started playing at the age of five — and never stopped. She's currently working on the second movement of the Ravel Concerto in G....
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Rideau Canal Skateway prep begins
Crews have taken to the Rideau Canal to begin flooding operations ahead of the famed Skateway's hoped-for opening later this winter, though when lace-up season starts exactly is still anyone's guess. Looking very Oompa Loompa-like in their full-body...
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Carney reaffirms commitment to fight antisemitism
As Ottawa's Jewish community mourned the lives lost at a mass shooting in Sydney, Australia, Prime Minister Mark Carney reaffirmed his commitment to fighting antisemitism across the country at a menorah lighting event at Ottawa City Hall on Sunday...
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HOW KUSHNER BECAME TRUMP'S INDISPENSABLE SECOND PEACE ENVOY
As soon as he finished negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza in early October, Jared Kushner said he was returning to his family and day job in Miami, where he heads a multibillion-dollar private equity firm. His involvement in high-stakes peacemaking was...
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IMMIGRATION LIMBO
Five years ago, Sa'id Altawalbeh packed his life into a few suitcases and touched down in Canada with a dream of kick-starting a bright future for himself, his wife and three kids. But, with his permanent residency status in limbo and his work permit...
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Ottawa council OK'S 3.75% tax hike
Ottawa city council passed its $5.2-billion operating budget and its $1.92-billion budget for capital projects after a full day of debate Wednesday with a vote that came after weeks of committee meetings and public delegations and with numerous motions...
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Inuit artifacts repatriated from Rome
Darrel Nasogaluak, elder and chair of the Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation, builds kayaks and also teaches students to construct them. But this is the first time he has been able to touch a century-old kayak that has just returned from Rome as part...
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CHEER AT THE CHEO
Nine-year-old Charlie Dow clutched a packet of Swedish Berries as she waited to surprise her favourite Ottawa Senator, Jake Sanderson, during the team's annual holiday visit to CHEO. “When I met him once, he said he likes Swedish Fish, and when we...
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Ottawa, feds join forces on affordable housing
Build Canada Homes and the City of Ottawa have partnered to accelerate the construction of up to 3,000 affordable housing units, with the goal of breaking ground next year. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the partnership at Mayor Mark Sutcliffe's...
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ONTARIO CITY A CENTRAL SPOT IN FENTANYL FIGHT
In an underworld of criminals, guns and deadly fentanyl, Windsor, Ont., is a national nexus. Windsor's place in the country's booming fentanyl trade was recently highlighted with a record-shattering 46-kilogram drug bust. The $6.5-million fentanyl...
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THE ART OF GIVING
When Bill Staubi learned two years ago that he had Stage-4 liver cancer and about 18 months to live, he accepted the prognosis directly and methodically. He began immunotherapy. He made funeral arrangements. He notified friends. He applied for...
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TALE OF THE TALLEST
In the ongoing rivalry between Lansdowne Park and the Byward Market, the Market has edged ahead with the installation of a Christmas tree billed as the tallest in Ottawa-gatineau. At 48 feet, the artificial tree on the George Street Plaza in front of...
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A SHOPPER'S RESPITE
A man takes a break from shopping amid a Christmas display inside St. Laurent Shopping Centre on Tuesday. Flurries are in the forecast for Friday and more snow is expected on the weekend to add some holiday sparkle. Weather map on
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Success after psychosis: Ottawa clinic provides hope
Inside a nondescript office building near Billings Bridge, health professionals, social workers, therapists and more are helping young Ottawa-area residents find their lives again after sometimes terrifying episodes of mental illness. The Ottawa...
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Judicial delays in Ottawa at crisis point: lawyer
Five years after COVID-19 public health measures created backlogs in the justice system, one Ottawa lawyer says judicial delays have reached a crisis point in the city. Mark Ertel, a local criminal defence lawyer who has been practising for 33 years,...
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WHY CHINESE EVS KEEP HAUNTING LIBERAL PRIME MINISTERS
Mark Carney has inherited Justin Trudeau's nightmare. In his decade as prime minister, one of the policy decisions that haunted Trudeau was the unavoidable question about whether to allow Chinese electric vehicles (EVS) into the Canadian market. It...
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OTTAWA'S DOCTOR OF LETTERS
Simply defined, “diopters” is the pluralized form of a measure of reflective power in an optical lens. It's not a word in everyone's mental lexicon, but if you play your tiles right, it can earn you 149 points on the world's biggest Scrabble...
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SPECIAL SPOT FOR VANIER
On the afternoon of Nov. 20, in the heart of diversity-rich Vanier, the community came together to launch the reimagined Hub — a vibrant outdoor space coming to life in what was once a parking lot. They celebrated — cotton candy and all — on National...
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Parking enforcement gets `ruthless'
Ottawa musician Shawn Tavenier has collected several parking tickets this year while trying to make a living as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter. It stings every time, especially when the fine eats most of his wage, but the one that felt most unfair...
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How I found the drones flying through downtown
The pigeon flock was acting strangely when I arrived at Sparks Street early Monday afternoon. On a normal day, they usually stroll at my feet, moving only once my foot enters their personal space, gobbling up whatever crumbs public servants and...
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City urged to bid on east-end landfill
The City of Ottawa's finance and corporate services committee has given the thumbs-up to exploring a bid on a 450-acre private landfill near Carlsbad Springs. If city council agrees with that decision on Wednesday, staff will start the process of...
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IS YOUR DOCTOR GETTING PAYMENTS FROM A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY?
In Canada, when a doctor hands you a prescription, you trust that what's been recommended is the best drug for your health. What you can't know is whether your physician has benefited financially from a relationship with the company that made the drug...
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On Remembrance Day, War Museum retells stories of valour, camaraderie
Lucie Brosseau stood alone in a darkened room at the Canadian War Museum, on Tuesday, lit by a single light directly overhead as she listened to recordings of veterans talking about what they missed most when they came home from war. “They were...
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THOSE WE HAVE LOST
June Mitton, 87, and her daughter Kelly brush freshly fallen snow from the gravestone of their husband and father Kenneth Mitton at The National Military Cemetery at Beechwood. The pair paid their respects to Kenneth, who served with the Royal Canadian...
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`EVERYONE IS AGREED THAT IT'S AWFUL'
You're a Canadian farm kid, sitting in a European trench in 1915. A man you've never met is dying across a stretch of open land, 100 yards away, as you pen a letter home. Death is everywhere. You've shot moving bodies, you've huddled against incoming...
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DON'T BLAME THE GEESE
Former Carleton University professor Mike Runtz doesn't have to go far to find a few Branta canadensis maxima, or giant Canada geese. We may have been free of their comings and leavings if not for a fateful discovery in 1962,
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