Archive for the 'life' Category

05
Aug

Local news

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: Ottawa and life

I thought I’d take a minute to write about how much I like local news.

That’s right, national and international politics-loving me has gotten right into the local news scene over the last couple of months. There’s something to be said about knowing something about the place where you live.

Every day, I talk to someone or see something that makes me really appreciate the city. I’ve discovered whole neighbourhoods that I never visited before. So many people in the city are working on these amazing projects, and it’s really something to be able to meet them, or at least talk to them over the phone.

Sure, there are fluff stories, but there are also highly meaningful stories. Unlike many national politics stories, these can affect people immediately and every day.

Of course, I write this as I scour the web for story ideas to present in that all-important story meeting tomorrow. In case you didn’t know, local news is hard.

18
Jun

Ribfest ahoy!

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: Ottawa and life

Also…

Ribfest!

The smell coming past the Ceeb is to die for. To find Ribfest, start at Parliament Hill and follow your nose.

Or, go to Sparks Street. Ribfest runs from Wednesday, June 18th to Sunday the 22nd. A full rack of ribs (a huuuge portion) is about $20, a half $12 or $15 and a third $9. Some places sell pulled pork sandwiches and chicken, which under normal circumstances are both solid choices, but it is called RIBfest after all.

The line of bureaucrats at every booth at lunch today was astounding.

25
Apr

OC Transpo and other musings

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: Ottawa and life

I’ve arrived back in Ottawa for the summer and I can’t help but notice some of the differences between Ottawa and Vancouver’s public transportation. Sadly, Ottawa does not measure up too well. Having a car is much more necessary in Ottawa than in Vancouver. This is not the way to make a greener city, like everyone wants to do these days.

For example, my local bus route, the 164, stops running at about 7:30 PM on Saturdays. This is pretty ridiculous - one would assume that they would run it LATER on Saturdays than any other day of the week, if anything. Then again, bus service to Kanata has never been great. It’s actually slightly better now than a year ago, since they decided that the 161 shouldn’t be the only bus for about 75% of the area.

The thing I liked about Vancouver’s bus system was that I could get almost anywhere I wanted to go within an hour. This included some further-away places like Surrey, just a quick ride on the Skytrain.

I know everyone says this, but Ottawa could really use some kind of light-rail or subway. I’m always blown away by these things when I visit a city that has one. The O-Train doesn’t really cut it. Unless you go to Carleton University (and I did at one point) you’re not going to be taking that train. Expand that O-Train!

05
Apr

UBC student protesters arrested

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: Vancouver, life and news

Several UBC students were arrested last night, April 4th, at a protest on campus.

I walked by the protest earlier in the evening, when it consisted basically of a couple of bands and an enthusiastic crowd of maybe 20-30 students. This was not unusual in any way for that area.

Later last night, apparently, the protesters lit a bonfire. This is more unusual. When police arrived to put it out, it seems one student stood in front of the hose. That person was arrested, as were more students who then objected to the arrest. According to CP, at least 25 students were arrested. This seems more than a little ridiculous to me.

CBC has some actual footage of the arrests, and a little story too. I really recommend you watch the movie clip. It’s pretty harsh.

For some background:

Since September at least, there has been an ongoing protest in the parking lot next to the Student Union Building, where students set up an impromptu park, complete with grass, a sandbox, chalk drawings on the concrete, and more recently, a couple of free-standing tentlike structures made out of plastic and cloth. The area, called “Trek Park” by the various students who set it up, occasionally falls into disrepair but is generally well-maintained and has at least a couple of students at it during the day. Sometimes they have little concerts and rallies there. I thought that was all last night’s protest was.

Students have been protesting the planned conversion of the area into an underground bus loop, and the apparent lack of student consultation when the decision was made. At least one group also wants there to be more space available for free public use on campus.

This all happened about a block from my home, and also about two blocks from the campus RCMP station. Just so you know.

06
Feb

UBC threats continue

By Leslie 1 Comment
Categories: Vancouver, life and news

Exactly one week ago, the Biological Sciences building at UBC was in lockdown. No one was hurt, and the explanation received from the university and RCMP is that there was an “unspecified threat.”

By piecing together various quotes from the RCMP, we can speculate that there was at least a suspect, that the threat was specific to the building, and that the police thought that the suspect might have been in the building. Clearly something was wrong if they had SWAT teams sweeping the building and were giving people secret words and such.

Today we’ve had another unspecified threat, even less specific than the last - this time it didn’t mention a building. They still closed down the bioscience building, because of last week’s incident, but classes were still being held elsewhere and students were urged to be vigilant.

An email forwarded from UBC president Stephen Toope yesterday afternoon says,

What can we all do when faced with such a threat? We are taking the advice of the RCMP to treat the non-specific nature of the threat with a higher level of community vigilance but to otherwise continue our normal activities.

He’s right, I think, but I hope this sort of event doesn’t start happening every week.

 

02
Feb

Blogging at the Thunderbird

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: life

For the last couple of weeks, all my blogging energy has been concentrated in a school assignment, hence the lack of updates here.

At the Thunderbird, our online student publication, I’m writing a blog about 21st century state-building twice a week. It’s not actually that different from what I do here.

So, if you like what you’ve seen, take a look at my Thunderbird blog.

I may even cross-post it someday, who knows.

23
Aug

Bowling alone

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: Politics and life

Richard Handler’s “Ideas Guy” column on CBC.ca this week touches on a very visible issue: the fading of community organizations in American (and I would add Canadian) society. I have lived a good portion of my life in the suburbs, where very few people know their neighbours’ names, often barely even what they look like. There is very little sense of community, with neighbours often only joining together to protest poor city management when the sewer backs up, or some similar issue. I find this very unfortunate.

I recently attended a Kiwanis club meeting and I was struck by the way that all these very old men managed to get together every week to discuss and donate to charities, listen to presentations from guest speakers to inform themselves on important issues of the day,  participate in meaningful debates, and generally enjoy themselves and being with their friends. Oh, and they all knew everybody’s name, even mine by the end. I think these meetings and this club gave participants a sense of belonging and a concrete way to contribute to their society. All in all, it was quaint, but very sweet.

I wish there was more of that around. People are just too busy these days to meet each other, I guess.

20
Aug

I would just like to say

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: life and news

I am SO sick of hearing about Conrad Black. He’s everywhere, even now that the trial is over. Can we let it drop? I know summer is a slow time for news, but seriously, even the Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Smith inundations were more bearable.

Actually, I take that back. Still, please please stop talking about Conrad.

18
Jul

Girls Gone Mild

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: Politics, feminism and life

“Traditional feminism has been utterly incapable of dealing with problems that girls are facing. They are so committed to the idea that that we have to be like men and that any differences between the sexes are socially constructed the result has been extremely unhealthy for girls. Let’s be clear: A lot of men are wonderful, but it’s the adolescent male that the third-wave feminists are now imitating.”

This quote comes from an article in today’s Toronto Star that profiles Wendy Shalit, author of a new and somewhat controversial book, Girls Gone Mild. This book seems to be getting a lot of attention (and marketing!) with several articles, a website, and even a blogged debate featuring Shalit and sex columnist Dan Savage, among others.

In her books, Shalit encourages young women to embrace modesty and expresses doubts with what she thinks is the feminist belief that being overtly sexual empowers women.

Okay, I haven’t read the book. I have taken a look at the various websites. I don’t think I agree with her overall message, but she probably makes a few good points. I do think girls are over-sexualized these days and, as she says, it is very likely that a few of them aren’t comfortable with it. I’m sure too though that there are those who are quite comfortable, and also that there are those who find their own happy medium and don’t buy in to either extreme: extreme modesty or extreme sexuality.

Anyway, in the interest of exposing people to various viewpoints, I’m writing this blog entry and providing all the links above. Take a look if you’re so inclined. I promise, if I find a really good sex-positive story in the news I’ll feature it in the blog too. Help is always appreciated, as I don’t see many in the mainstream media. I am an avid reader of Dan Savage’s weekly column though, so that blog linked above (and here too, why not) was pretty interesting to me.

22
Jun

Apartment Hunting

By Leslie 0 Comments
Categories: funny and life

By the way, I’m looking for an apartment right now, and this sums up my feelings pretty well, expressed so  well by the guys at Penny Arcade.

About

This is the personal and professional homepage of journalist Leslie Young. Read my blog or learn more about me and my work.

Contact

leslie.young1[at]gmail.com

 

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