In Brief

Is a second American Civil War now just inevitable?

Mar 20th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

SPECIAL FROM CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. 19 MARCH 2023. Yesterday’s announcement by Donald Trump that he expects to be arrested shortly (this coming Tuesday, March 21?), especially as followed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s feisty reaction in vigorous support of Trump (and then something similar from former Vice President Mike Pence), has got me thinking […]



Manir Singh on “Time to Rethink the Idea of the ‘Indigenous’” (and how this relates to Southern Ontario and “Canada” today)?

Mar 13th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2023. This weekend we’ve been hearing that several more days of serious rainstorms are expected in the county exurbs “approximately 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Sacramento,” capital city of the Golden State of California. (While in the heights around Lake Tahoe residents are […]



Remembering the London Declaration of 1949 in 2023 : it really shouldn’t be that hard to end the monarchy in Canada?

Mar 1st, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. MARCH 1, 2023. This morning’s editorial meeting tabled a two-page pdf file headlined “London Declaration, United Kingdom, 1949.” The suggestion was that this is a document not much remembered in the 2020s. But it is nonetheless of serious interest in the current post-Elizabeth II debate on practical alternatives to the increasingly […]



Ave atque vale Mayor John Tory — last of a long line in Toronto history?

Feb 15th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. FEBRUARY 15, 2023. [UPDATED FEBRUARY 16]. To start with belated Happy Valentine’s Day 2023, wherever you may be and whatever your circumstances in real life. Here in Toronto it was something of a twisted Valentine’s Day, in the wake of the sudden and altogether unexpected resignation of Mayor John Tory […]



Evolution of alternative to monarchy in Canada has been in progress since 1947

Feb 2nd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

ONTARIO TONITE. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2023. It appeared almost a month ago now. But I am still remembering Sasha Akhavi’s January 7, 2023 piece in the Toronto Star on his new legal status as a Canadian citizen. As matters stand he is also a subject of King Charles III of […]



Serious reform of the RCMP (in its 150th year) should begin by dropping “Royal” from the name (or just restoring the original “North West Mounted Police”)?

Jan 30th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

SPECIAL FROM CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. 30 JANUARY 2023. Yesterday CTV News writer Natasha O’Neill posted a piece headlined “As Canada’s RCMP marks 150th anniversary, a look at what it says needs to change.” The piece began with : “As the RCMP marks a major milestone, questions linger over the legacy of Canada’s paramilitary police […]



Just how desperate is Toronto the desperate city? (with a footnote on “the truth is discoverable only through the clash of different opinions”)

Jan 20th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. JANUARY 20, 2023. We’re still digesting a January 7, 2023 tweet from an admittedly very progressive voice : “Toronto is a desperate city. More police funds won’t fix it … Star https etc.” The recommended link here leads to an equally arresting (and longer) Shawn Micallef piece in the Saturday Toronto […]



Remembering Ian Tyson at Mariposa 1963

Jan 11th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

ONTARIO TONITE. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2023. When Ian Tyson’s sad death at 89 was announced a few weeks ago, during the last days of 2022, my thoughts rushed back almost 60 years, to the summer of 1963. I found an article online that caught the moment : “Where the boys […]



What Quebec National Assembly got right when it made traditional oath to British monarch optional

Jan 2nd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

SPECIAL FROM ASHOK CHARLES, TORONTO/THUNDER BAY. JANUARY 2, 2023. In its November 7, 2022 article, “The empty fight over a symbolic oath in Quebec,” the Globe and Mail’s editorial board argued that the ultimately legislated proposal for Quebec’s National Assembly to dispense with the compulsory oath of allegiance to King Charles III for its members […]



Looking back at 4Q 2022 (+ energy storage, Paulette Steeves on “Indigenous Paleolithic”, and RIP Bruno Latour)

Dec 28th, 2022 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. DECEMBER 28, 2022. We’re prefacing our final Top 4 counterweights stories in the fourth (and final) quarter of 2022 with three other issues in the news from these parts right now : First, on energy storage : See Allison Jones’s December 26, 2022 Canadian Press piece on “Ontario plunging into energy […]