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The agony of BlackBerry Thumb

The thumb on my left hand has been rendered practically useless for days now, sitting there lifeless as I suffer the pain and agony of BlackBerry Thumb. The solution, apparently, is to pound out only the shortest of messages. As a professor at Cornell who specializes in ergonomics points out, "If you're trying to type 'War and Peace' with your thumbs, then you're going to have a problem."

• More on my BlackBerry Woes

Posted by Sebastian / Technology / October 31, 2005 /

A place for gay seamen

No other American city boasts a military history as a haven for gay servicemembers as rich as that of San Francisco. So it is fitting that the mothballed battleship Iowa, which is moored near the city, is poised for a new life as a museum that pays tribute to the military contributions of minorities of all sorts. If only the Navy agrees.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors initially voted down the placement of the ship on the city's waterfront as a simple tourist attraction, as a "signal to the Bush administration that both the war in Iraq and the Pentagon's stance against openly gay service members were wrong," and a move many called unpatriotic. But the idea of a museum -- "celebrating the service of patriotic Americans who chose to volunteer service to the military despite the hostility within the organization" -- may fly in so-socially-conscious San Francisco.

"People have this misconception that it will be people putting on tutus and dancing in pink leotards," said one honorably discharged servicemember. "We need to plant the seeds in people's minds that these are the same kinds of arguments used in the past with African-Americans, women and other minorities. A museum would do that."

Posted by Sebastian / San Francisco / October 31, 2005 /

O.J. buying in Buffalo

I can't even imagine the jokes flowing in Buffalo, known as the City of Good Neighbors, now that it has been revealed that accused murderer O.J. Simpson is scouting locations for a home in the area with his Buffalo-bred girlfriend. He has set his sights on a three-story $239,000 in Lockport, but "the agent showing the house said Friday she was told to deny Simpson has any interest in Niagara County real estate", according to the Buffalo News. Instead, the agent regurgitated to the press what she was instructed to say by O.J.'s handlers: "He is not buying a house here. He is not buying in the area. He wants me to go on record that it was not O.J." Likely story.

Posted by Sebastian / Buffalo / October 31, 2005 /

Tension from the treetops

Those who know me well know my connection with a certain elaborate treehouse. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I can't really tell you anything else or I might have to kill you. The L.A. Times has a great piece on the strains one can cause on one's neighbors when a simple treehouse-building project turns into a full-fledged mansion-in-the treetops. It seems an ever-expanding treehouse  -- which boasts stained glass windows from Buenos Aires -- in L.A.'s tony Brentwood section (once home to Nicole and O.J. Simpson) has raised the ire of one plastic surgeon-neighbor, who recently realized that the little girl who plays in the treehouse can peer right into his pool and hot tub area and see what ever people do in their hot tubs in L.A. when they think no one can see them. The expansive and expensive treehouse has been found to violate city codes, and last week work on it was order halted.  

Posted by Sebastian / Los Angeles / October 31, 2005 /

A bachelorette party - and a bit of sexism

This weekend I ended up attending, rather unexpectedly, a bachelorette party in the beautiful, exotic Massachusetts city of Saugus. Exotic, perhaps, since this was a bachelorette party, and so of course we had to see exotic dancers. I do not frequent strip joints, but I will admit I have seen them before, as has anyone who has ever been to Montreal or Edmonton (tourism tagline: Edmonton: Great Strip Clubs!).

I'll cut to the chase: the men were attractive and I was enjoying watching my friend relish in her last Saturday night as a single gal, but after two hours of watching the dancers' gyrations, the manager of the Male Encounter tapped me on the shoulder and crisply asked me to leave. It seems the strip show is a ladies-only affair, but somehow the bouncer and bartender who had been cheerfully serving us cocktails all night didn't seem to mind. So me and my ten ladies promptly left and took our liquor money -- and our unused wads of ones -- elsewhere.  

Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / October 31, 2005 /

Oh, how quickly things change

Boston got its first snowfall of the season today. I hung my head in agony until I looked at the Weather Channel, which informs me it will be 65 degrees and sunny tomorrow.



Posted by Sebastian / Boston / October 29, 2005 /

Thank you for pointing out the obvious

Today's Thank You For Pointing Out the Obvious prize goes to the Toronto Police Department, which is calling the discovery of a 12-year-old's dead body in a garbage can in his family's basement 'suspicious.'

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / October 29, 2005 /

Ten years since the referendum

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the Quebec referendum that by a razor-thin margin nearly led to the province's secession from Canada. The vote drew a never-before-seen 94 percent voter turnout but separatists failed in their bid for independence by a margin of 49.42 percent to 50.58 percent, thanks largely to the influence of English speakers and immigrants in Montreal.

While the failure of the "Oui!" side was a victory for the federal government, which was faced with the potential for a gaping hole in their map had the measure passed, many of those in the Parti Quebecois leadership race say they are ready to put the matter to another referendum in the next year or two. A poll out this week also shows support for provincial sovereignty at 52 percent.

While tens of thousands of Canadians rallied in Montreal a decade ago to voice support for the "Non!" side, a pitiful dozen people turned out Thursday to relive the rally. One person there said of the 1995 vote, "It was scary...I thought Canada was going down the drain." Another person looked to the poor turnout and noted, "the levels of passion probably are not at the same level as they were in 1995, a few days before the referendum."  

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 28, 2005 /

Signs of the times

The young founders of Arm Advertising, a small ad shop in Boston, are providing homeless people in the city with Kenneth Cole-esque signs intended to make passersby stop and think. The pro-bono campaign includes signs with such lines as "Give $$$ because I'm money," and "I breathe. That deserves a tip." 

''This isn't meant to be self-serving," one of the ad gurus said. ''We're trying to use the signs to get people to see these people as individuals rather than as just another homeless person. Good advertising is always about the unexpected. That's what we're trying to do with this. Just because we're an ad agency doesn't mean we can't do something that's nonprofit."



Posted by Sebastian / Boston / October 28, 2005 /

Bye bye Song!

It was nice knowing you, but barely 2 1/2 years after Delta launched its discount wing, Song, the bankrupt airline today announced plan to shutter the carrier in the spring. Delta says they will add first class seats into the previously single-class Song 757s, expand in-flight entertainment, and redeploy the jets on routes nationwide.  

Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / October 28, 2005 /

Camilla and Charles told to stay away

On their first official trip to North America as a couple, Charles and Camilla have been urged to avoid Canada. The worry is that could face a snap election in the coming weeks as the results of the AdScam inquiry are revealed, potentially leading to the collapse of the Liberal government. Royal visits are discouraged during federal election seasons so as to avoid the appearance of interference with the democratic process. 

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 28, 2005 /

Brad in trouble

Brad Pitt, filming a movie in Alberta, has been reprimanded by forest rangers after breaking wilderness rules about keeping doors and windows locked at all times. He returned home one day to find brown bears in his rented cabin. Apparently, bears had been attracted to the smell of food coming from the place. 

Posted by Sebastian / Calgary / October 28, 2005 /

Vancouver's drug woes

New York's Gay City News tackles Vancouver's drug challenges, the squalor of the city's Downtown Eastside, and the starkly contrasting difference between U.S. and Canadian drug policy.

"While U.S. officialdom focuses on pot, Vancouver has aimed to confront more difficult substance abuse problems. Its downtown is an epicenter for drug use, alcoholism in public view on the streets, and homelessness. HIV infection is common in the homeless population, and throughout the ë90s, overdose deaths reached 600 a year."

"The cityís skid row scene became a potent issue in municipal politics, with real estate developers eager to move derelicts out and transform cheap properties into expensive ones. Drug reformers objected, arguing that the mix of poverty, dependency, depression, and addiction is a public health problem. They wanted to keep this population concentrated and visible so that resources could easily be targeted toward those persons in need."

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / October 28, 2005 /

Canada vows action on Kashechewan

Facing a firestorm of criticism over its response to the Kashechewan crisis, Ottawa has vowed to act immediately to save the town from complete abandonment now that half its population is in the process of being airlifted south to Sudbury and Timmins. The federal government has agreed to build 50 new homes per year for the native Cree on a site to be chosen near the old town, off the flood plain where it lies today and away from the sewage treatment plant that has caused so much trouble for the community's public health. The price tag: at least $300 million. 

The northern Ontario community's water supply is downstream from its sewage filtration facilities, meaning the native reserve has faced unstable chlorine levels, high uranium levels, and E. coli contamination. The government has been sending 700 bottles of water per day to the town, which people must use for drinking, cooking, and bathing. As one resident told the Star, the bottled-water fix is not adequate for a group that has been continually marginalized and ignored in Canadian society: "That's not good enough. Would you accept that in your community? Why has this community had to live with this for the past couple of years?"



Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 28, 2005 /

Mexicans head north for a better life. Way north.

Canada is a hot spot for Mexican immigrants thanks to U.S. laws which make immigration infuriatingly difficult. The Christian Science Monitor says that "while the US is fortifying its borders and tightening entry requirements, Canada is putting out the welcome mat." The number of immigrants is tiny compared to those headed for the U.S., but that is changing. In 1995, just 482 Mexicans became permanent residents of Canada, but by 2004, that had tripled to 1,648. The U.S. gave 173,664 immigrant visas to Mexicans last year.

"The climate is terrible," one immigrant to Canada told the paper, "But we are happy."

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 28, 2005 /

Northern exodus begins

An unprecedented evacuation of a native community in northern Ontario has begun, with the first of several charter flights that will relocate nearly 1000 people arriving in Timmins (Shania Twain's hometown!) and Sudbury. The Kashechewan reserve on the shores of James Bay has been rendered uninhabitable following a tainted-water crisis that has gone on for years and only worsened with provincial and federal inaction.

Both governments are laying blame on the other as the crisis came to a head this week with massive reports of sickness including eczema, impetigo and scabies in a place with "conditions comparable to those of some developing nations." Boil-water orders have been in effect for over five years. "The community's decade-old water treatment plant intake pipe is downstream from its sewage lagoon and has been plagued with problems for years," CBC reports. "Two weeks ago, people found out their drinking water was contaminated with E. coli bacteria." 

One person who lived in Kashechewan told the Star, "I'm not saying I am glad to see E. coli, but what does it take for the government to see what the native people are going through here and across Canada?" The crisis is being called a modern-day "disaster of Canadian colonialism."

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 27, 2005 /

Luring the gays

Boston is spending $100,000 to attract gay travelers to the Hub, joining cities like Philadelphia and even Bloomington, Ind., that are attempting to capitalize on the spending power of gay men and lesbians by marketing themselves as uber-gay places.

Posted by Sebastian / Boston / October 27, 2005 /

Toronto, under siege, considers curfew

Every day, it seems, the press is Toronto is forced to report on more and more shootings. The city, long considered one of the safest in Canada and far safer than most U.S. big cities, has had more than 40 shootings in public places since July 1. And of the city's 64 homicide victims so far this year, 43 have been killed by handguns. By contrast, Boston, which is four times smaller than Toronto, has had 59 murders this year.   

"A sharp rise in gun and gang violence this year has triggered such concern among Torontonians that 66% support an 11 p.m. curfew banning children from the city's streets and one in five have considered buying a gun, a new poll says." One police officer told the Globe that when he joined the force 16 years ago, "we used to recover a gun once or twice a year. Now officers are seizing guns on a daily basis, it's a normal occurrence."

When Condi Rice visited Ottawa on Tuesday, prime minister Paul Martin had strong words for her, alleging that guns from the U.S. are largely to blame for the escalating violence. Martin says that up to half of all gun crimes in his country stem from U.S. guns, but Condi says she has no official figures. And the U.S. ambassador says that Canadian officials told him there was no basis for that claim, saying "that that figure was just grabbed out of thin air."

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / October 27, 2005 /

Maine gay rights fight nears end

The good fight continues in the Pine Tree State where Maine Won't Discriminate has launched a series of television ads in anticipation of the statewide referendum in two weeks in which voters will decide whether to repeal the state's new anti-discrimination statute that protects gay and lesbian citizens from homophobic violence. At a forum in Portland this week, three gay men told their stories of victimization, with one man saying he was fired from his job and another threatened that he might be found "floating in the river."

According to a Press Herald piece, many in Maine say they don't believe discrimination exists, which is one of the biggest challenges the anti-discrimination camp faces.

Posted by Sebastian / Maine / October 27, 2005 /

Ferry flop

The relaunched fast ferry across Lake Ontario to Toronto that has been heralded as the saviour of Rochester's beleaguered economy lost $4.2 million in it first two months back in service. The problem-plagued ferry's staggering losses are surely a blow to boosters who see the city as anchoring the eastern end of a vast, international metropolitan area stretching from Rochester to Buffalo and on to Toronto.

Posted by Sebastian / Rochester / Toronto / October 27, 2005 /

2000 and counting

The Times has an eerie feature on the 2,000 soldiers killed in Iraq: The Roster of the Dead. President Bush said the best way to honour the dead troops was to "complete the mission and lay the foundation of peace by spreading freedom...This war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve." An Ipsos/AP poll found that public support for George W. is at an all-time low of 39 percent for two straight months.

Posted by Sebastian / Politics / October 26, 2005 /

Searching for Jesus?

It turns out he is on tree bark in Rochester.
"Call it a cry for peace, a test of faith or a random act of nature, a tree growing on Rochester's North Clinton Avenue so far has attracted several dozen believers who say they see the image of Jesus Christ on the tree's trunk."

"I see it clearly," said Yomaira Otero of Rochester, who stood in the pouring rain Tuesday with six members of her family to see the tree. She spoke in Spanish to her relatives and pointed out the facial features, including the beard of bark she saw. "He looks like he's sleeping."

Doug Mandelaro, a spokesman for Rochester's Roman Catholic Diocese, said he "wouldn't dare to comment on someone else's moment of inspiration or religious experience. Religious experience is and always has been a mystery and very personal."

Posted by Sebastian / Religion / Rochester / October 26, 2005 /

H & M heading to Back Bay

All sorts of changes and additions are on Boston's retail horizon. Club Monaco opened their first location a few months ago, Zara is thinking of moving in, and now H & M has announced plans to occupy 20,000 square feet in the Newbry building (aka New England Mutual) at Boylston, Clarendon, and Newbury.

While Back Bay may have an upscale image, some people are sniffing at the prospect of a cheap chic retailer moving in. But as one woman told the Globe, ''Everybody stuck their noses up at Marshalls, which was far more pedestrian than H&M," referring to the discount retailer which sits across Boylston Street from the new H & M, "and the first people at Marshalls' door were the people who didn't want it."

Posted by Sebastian / Boston / October 26, 2005 /

Anti-bullying law stands

Canada's Supreme Court has upheld a British Columbia court ruling that school boards are responsible for preventing homophobic bullying. The original suit stemmed from a student in North Vancouver who "had a variety of objects thrown at him and was kicked and spat upon. Students threatened to drop him in acid and to rape him with a broom. During a school camping trip his tent was urinated on."  

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 26, 2005 /

Hot music

I'm always being made fun of for compulsively downloading the weekly free track from iTunes Music Store, but I have really found some great music this way. Below are links to the web sites of six of my favourites, as well as the links to the albums on iTunes.

The Perishers: Let there be morning
The Fray: How to save a life
Gaelle: Transient
Blue Merle: Burning in the Sun
Embrace: Out of nothing
Acceptance: Phantoms



Posted by Sebastian / Music / October 26, 2005 /

Condi goes to Canada

Thank God Ottawa is only an hour away from Washington, because it makes it much easier for Condi Rice to slip in and promptly slip away. Yesterday the secretary of state visited prime minister Paul Martin to talk trade (especially softwood lumber), with Condi telling her audience, "Itís extremely important not to speak in apocalyptic language about this issue," warning that protracted debate on the issue could harm U.S.-Canada relations.

According to the Star, "Sources said it was a bare-knuckle exchange, with Martin aggressively pressing Canadaís softwood case and Rice pushing right back...Riceís unmistakable diplomatic message: Washington is staying the course, so chill out, Canada."

Earlier, the PM told the press, "Good relations with United States does not mean the Canadian government should not look to the broader horizon when it looks to Canada's interests. That's not an anti-American position."

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / Politics / October 26, 2005 /

The road to Calgary is paved with gold

Times they are a changin' in Calgary, flush with oil cash. Holt Renfrew now has three personal shoppers instead of just one. "You can hear the money sloshing around," one luxury car salesman told the Globe. At one gourmet store, "customers don't balk at paying $6,000 a kilogram for white truffles."

"Calgary is enjoying its moment in the sun, although the memories of the gloom of previous crashes is always lurking in the background. That worry is no hindrance to the era of excess -- if anything, it is just one more reason to load up on luxury." One man said, "People are just saying, 'Well, just screw it. While I can buy this thing, I'll buy it. And if I have to sell it, I'll sell it'."

Posted by Sebastian / Calgary / October 25, 2005 /

Priest comes out, pigs not flying yet

A Roman Catholic priest in Ontario has come out on national television, and is promptly out of work. Coincidence? I think not. "I'm a Roman Catholic priest. And I'm gay," Rev. Ed Cachia said last week on Vision TV. He is being called the first Canadian priest to come out of the closet.

The Globe and Mail reports, "Father Clemens administers to the homosexual and HIV-AIDS communities in downtown Toronto and lives with a man, a terminal AIDS sufferer, for whom he says he is caring. He also says he has maintained his celibacy, although he says his church superiors have indicated on more than one occasion that they don't believe him."

At issue, a church spokesman said, is whether a priest's statements or lifestyle cause scandal for the church by "sowing confusion in the public's minds." The spokesman said priests are held to a different level of moral conduct than laypersons. "Here is this fellow who has retired to the gay subculture, and people are going to wonder why he's there. Is he reaching out [to the AIDS community] or is it something else? People constantly feel free to speculate about our [priests'] sex lives, and it's a hard thing for a priest to realize he's a public person."

Posted by Sebastian / Religion / October 25, 2005 /

Falls brawl

In the battle for tourist dollars, Niagara Falls, N.Y., has always played second fiddle to Niagara Falls, Ont. The Washington Post compares the two in a recent piece, and in reviewing the travel piece in a column today, the best the Buffalo News can say about their side of the border is, "We don't sound too bad."

I am not a huge fan of either side of the Falls -- too many tacky tourist shops and drunk 19-year olds -- but as one Canadian tourist correctly points out, "Who has the better view? Unless you cross over, you Americans can't see your own falls, can you?"

Posted by Sebastian / Buffalo / October 25, 2005 /

The many things I love: the California Coast

In case you haven't noticed, I am beginning a regular feature: The Many Things I Love (Yes, I stole the name from the MFA's infamous show). This week it's fitting that I begin with the California coast, because I just returned yesterday from Los Angeles, which bookended a spectacular trip that began 1,000 miles north six days ago. And on another level, it reinforced that California is my most popular domestic spot: this was my 25th trip or so to the state in the past five years (which only means that I have figured out how to while away all those hours spent screaming through the air in a tin can without pills or anxiety attacks).

A few recommendations: Parker Guest House in San Francisco, a beautiful hotel in the Castro whose web site does not do it an ounce of justice; and tasty Linn's Restaurant in Cambria, a few miles south of Hearst Castle, which is famous for its absolutely delish olallieberry. If you're in California's Central Coast, you have to stop in at Linn's. I just about died when my lips hit the olallieberry, so I bought a case of jam for presents (supporters of this site will now get the goods as a thank you).

Pictured below, and going clockwise: me on the beach in tiny San Simeon, Calif.; the foggy headlands of Big Sur from a turnout along Highway 1; on Cannery Row in Monterey; an abandoned relic of the past in San Simeon village with the rolling, muted brown hills of the Hearst ranch in the background.




Posted by Sebastian / Things I Love / October 25, 2005 /

Campaign Rule 1: Be No More Virtuous Than the Voters

The New York Times is talking about the PQ race today! "Quebec voters are a famously tolerant lot. They elect many gay and lesbian politicians, and they seem to think that political leaders who don't admit to having smoked marijuana are lacking in joie de vivre. One premier in the 1970's ran over and killed a homeless man and then was re-elected. So nobody was particularly surprised when Andre Boisclair, a 39-year-old gay man who banters about his sexuality on television talk shows, became the instant front-runner in the leadership race to head the separatist Parti Quebecois."

"The real test of Quebecers' broad-mindedness began last month, however, with a published report about Mr. Boisclair's lively night life in Quebec City - complete with excessive drinking and cocaine use - while serving in the provincial cabinet in the 1990's. The article described "wild weekends at the end of which you can't recall where you left your rented car."

Andre Boisclair's admission of cocaine use has prompted an interesting new poll. According to it, "Canadians appeared to be fairly relaxed about any vices their politicians may have indulged in - but only up to a point...only 26 per cent of Canadians would have refused to vote for a politician who had smoked marijuana...But a large majority, 75 per cent, would have withheld their vote from a politician who had taken hard drugs like cocaine or heroin."

Posted by Sebastian / PQ Race / October 25, 2005 /

The new de Young

I'm not sure what to make of San Francisco's new de Young Museum, which opened last weekend. But I know I'm not in love. The building's exterior is rather bland, an uninspired large metal box with a hunk of a tower placed at one end (tower pictured below). That tower, with its unobstructed vistas of the city and the bay, is certainly the most appealing part of the new museum. But unfortunately, on the day I visited, San Francisco was socked in by fog (surprise). The inside of the museum is awkwardly chopped up, though it does boast fine details including some pretty amazing wood flooring, a hint of which is pictured in the photo below.



Posted by Sebastian / San Francisco / Style / October 24, 2005 /

Hearst Castle

A view of the spectacular Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle in San Simeon.



Posted by Sebastian / October 22, 2005 /

The many things I love: Angela Adams goods

I serendipitously ran into Angela Adams yesterday in San Francisco. If you don't know her stuff, you should, and you should buy lots of it. Her rugs and handbags turn heads, and her glassware, which fills the shelves of many fine homes (and many of ill repute, such as mine), are absolutely beautiful!



Posted by Sebastian / Style / Things I Love / October 21, 2005 /

Laying tracks on the coast



Posted by Sebastian / October 21, 2005 /

Andre got lucky

The former leader of the Parti Quebecois has said that if he had known about Andre Boisclair's problem with cocaine, said he would have cut short Boisclair's political career. "It would have been an extremely serious matter," Bernard Landry told reporters yesterday. "I would have asked for an investigation. I would have had to be informed of the facts and I would have made a decision based on the facts."

Posted by Sebastian / PQ Race / October 20, 2005 /

SFO

I love San Francisco's new international terminal, one of the biggest on Earth.



Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / San Francisco / October 20, 2005 /

McGill cancels football season after 'probe'

The Gazette reports that Montreal's McGill University has cancelled its football season following "sexual probing of a rookie with a broomstick by veterans of the team."

Posted by Sebastian / Montreal / October 20, 2005 /

Cops say, 'screw it'

Toronto cops, in the middle of a labour dispute, have decided to park their cruisers and respond only to 911 calls.

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / October 20, 2005 /

Here we go again

Another distinction to add to Vancouver's slew of bests this year: For the second year in a row, readers of Conde Nast Traveler have voted Vancouver the best city in the Americas. And Vancouver Island was named the best island.

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / October 20, 2005 /

Quotable

Michael Heath, head of the Christian Civic League of Maine: "I am taking this opportunity to warn all the people of Maine about the true nature of the ‘homosexual rights movement’... they will use coercion and intimidation to achieve their ends... the homosexual rights movement is a danger to society."

Pastor Sandy Williams, another steadfast opponent of Maine's new equal rights law: "If Maine won't discriminate, Maine will degenerate...there is no end to the sexual disorientation and lunacy we will see."

Posted by Sebastian / Gay Marriage / Maine / October 20, 2005 /



Westward Ho!

Slow postings for the next couple days. I'm hopping around the West a bit. Watch my moblog for instant updates from the road. I'll do my best to keep up, so be sure to keep sending me news tips. 



Especially for the person miffed that I did not originally have my Great Circle Map posted, here goes:



Posted by Sebastian / October 18, 2005 /



Vancouver crime tops in Canada

Shown here is clothing Tony Robertson was wearing when he was murdered in Vancouver 10 days ago. The gay man's murder was just one of a string of homicides that have hit the city this year and earned it the dubious distinction of being Canada's crime capital (tied for first place with Winnipeg), according to a new report. Up to 90 percent of property crimes in Vancouver are committed by drug addicts.

"The quality of life in this city has gone down over the years, and a lot of it has to do with criminal activity and the disorder on the streets," said an official at the Vancouver Board of Trade, which issued the crime analysis.

As for Robertson, who was last seen leaving the kinda-seedy bar at the Dufferin Hotel, police are looking for two people they believe wtinessed the fatal sidewalk assault on Robertson. But they still don't believe this was a hate crime. "If we had any any indication at any point it was a gay bashing, we would be proactive in ensuring the gay community is aware," a spokesman said. 

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / October 18, 2005 /

Where will all that trash go?

The U.S. Congress could decide this week to seal off the American border to imported trash from Canada. Perhaps you remember the stink, and the unsightly mess that was the 2002 garbage worker strike in the searing heat of the Toronto summer? Get ready for a possible repeat performance -- only this time the culprit will not be striking workers, but no place to send all the trash that gets created in the huge city.

Michigan already passed a ban on imported trash last month but needs federal permission to halt daily deliveries of trash from Toronto. As one piece today says, city politicians are "asking Torontonians to get very good at recycling." Uh huh.

The Star offers up this scenario if the city and province don't clean up their act and figure out where to send all that trash:



Posted by Sebastian / Politics / Toronto / October 18, 2005 /

Politician could lose seat over gay marriage vote

The only Canadian member of parliament in the left-leaning New Democratic Party to vote against legalizing same-sex marriage in Canada has failed to win her party's nomination for the next federal election.

Bev Desjarlais, who represents northern Manitoba in Ottawa and has done so since 1997, says there's no question that her stand against same-sex marriage cost her the nomination. She plans to still run for her seat, but will do so as an independent.

She was edged out of the NDP nomination by Niki Ashton, the 24-year-old daughter of provincial cabinet minister.  

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / Gay Marriage / October 18, 2005 /

Geography 101

I don't know if he was just doing it to rile me up, but my friend Michael called last night after stepping off an Air Canada jet in Hogtown and declared, "I'm in downtown Toronto. There are people on the streets! And there is a skyline -- more than one of them!"

I have to forgive him. It was his first time in Canada.

So in honour of Mike, who was positively dazzled to see people in Toronto, I present today's simple geography lesson: Toronto is Canada's largest city, and 2.5 million people live there! And more than 5 million live in the metro area! In North America, only four cities are bigger: Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Ye olde Boston pales by comparison!

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / October 18, 2005 /

Marois admits she used drugs, too

I'm palpitating. Andre Boisclair's rival Pauline Marois has admitted that she has also used drugs in her past. OK, so maybe it's not that exciting: she said she tried marijuana once, when she was 19. She inhaled, but she didn't like it. While Andre's popularity soared after he admitted using cocaine when he was younger, the same probably won't happen for the more matronly 56-year old Marois, who is trailing in the polls. "Political cartoonists have made fun of the situation, portraying her as suddenly turning into a drug addict in a bid to save her campaign," the Gazette reports today.

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / PQ Race / October 17, 2005 /

Where the hell is the border?

Can you correctly identify the Vermont-Quebec border in this bit of satellite imagery? Don't worry, neither can members of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, who have taken it upon themselves to patrol the border for illegals entering the U.S. But as the Globe reports, "It's hard to save the United States from illegal immigrants when you can't find the border."



After first getting run out of Derby, Vt., by protestors who said the Minutemen were using illegal immigration as a front for racism ("The border patrol does an ample job. I don't think we need a bunch of yahoos enforcing the law," one local said), the group headed for more remote territory outside of town, where they got lost.

"The border in this part of Vermont is nothing like the mostly flat and open one that separates Arizona from Mexico, where the Minutemen staged a high-profile border watch that brought them to national prominence in April. This northern border is a slash through thick forest or a tree line a few yards from a road in the town of Holland, Vt.

"In Derby Line, it is narrow Lee Street, dotted with pretty Victorian houses, or the building at 209 Main St., where apartment 2A is in Canada and 2B is in the United States. It is the thin, black line that runs along the floor of the Haskell Free Library. It is a small obelisk in a field or in the backyard of a run-down house high on a hill. It is Canusa Avenue in the town of Beebe Plain, where residents on one side of the street are Canadians and those on the other are in the United States, and crossing the road to borrow a cup of sugar means passing through a checkpoint at the end of the street."

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 17, 2005 /

Cute houses

I've never gotten very excited at the topic of real estate, because that generally involves having to deal with real estate agents. But I like houses. I appreciate architecture. And here are a few gems I've come across in recent days. The first two are from New York: the first, a country estate in suburban Buffalo, is listed at $3.25 million; the second is a beautiful shingle style Tudor on Long Island's North Shore, yours for just $2.6 million.



This very cute Queen Anne is available in St. John's, Nfld., for a mere $400,000 USD. To the right is a lovely Tudor in Vancouver's Shaughnessy section, which is often considered the wealthiest part of town. It is available for about $4 million USD.



Buffalo boasts some pretty grand homes, and here are two good ones. The first, a brick Victorian, overlooks the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Symphony Circle, and is only $389,000. The second home, an 1890s Tudor, has its own swimming pool and carriage house on an Olmsted-designed Parkway and is listed at $650,000. Both are at the high end of Buffalo's market, which is notoriously rock-bottom priced.



Posted by Sebastian / Real Estate / October 17, 2005 /

Mayor: meth problem 'overblown'

Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell: "This idea that there's this huge crystal meth thing raging across Canada ... there is no basis for it ... There's absolutely no statistical information that can back it up. The reason we're so horrified is that the results are so visual, and so awful."

Gordon Robson, who has been fighting drug abuse in B.C. for years: "We've got 13-year-olds that can't dress themselves anymore. People as young as eight have come in addicted to this drug ... If Larry Campbell doesn't think this is an epidemic he should get down to the streets of Vancouver and see."

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / October 17, 2005 /

Pastor accused of anti-gay hatred

Alberta pastor Stephen Boisson will face a human rights tribunal in Calgary over accusations that he exposed the gay community to hatred. Three years ago he argued in a local newspaper that gay rights activists and the "homosexual machine" are as immoral as pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps.

"This case will be precedent setting for Albertans, and if forced to go before the Supreme Court of Canada, for Canadians at large," says a web site operated by Concerned Christians Canada. "This is not just a battle against free speech by the militant and well-funded homosexual radicals, but this is even more importantly an attack on clergy and religious organizations."

Boisson operates a youth outreach program and has accused the public school system of subjecting kids to psychologically damaging pro-gay materials to foster equal rights. "My banner has now been raised and war has been declared so as to defend the precious sanctity of our innocent children and youth, that you so eagerly toil, day and night, to consume."

Posted by Sebastian / Calgary / October 17, 2005 /

Squeamish pundit says he'll go to a gay wedding

Pundit Charles Adler says he doesn't oppose gay marriage, but he does say that displays of gay affection "get this middle-aged Eastern European heart of mine to ask,'Do we really need to see this?'"

"The truth is we do need to see it," he writes in the Winnipeg Free Press. "It's easy taking intellectually defensible positions on a variety of issues. Once the consequences of those positions are in one's face, one can squirm, cough, gag, or channel-surf. One is forced to confront reality."

His latest column focuses on Scott Brison, the Canadian cabinet minister who is openly gay and who just days ago announced he is engaged. He says, "Scott, I will dance at your wedding if you choose to invite me." What a challenge! My guess is that an invitation will find its way to Adler's doorstep as soon as a date is set.

Adler writes, "Marriage is not a right, it's an institution that is at the heart of family life. It's about children, etc. But at some point in my life I chose to accept
the fact that Liberal cabinet minister Scott Brison puts on his pants the same
way I do. Why is it any of my business what stimulates his passions? That's
private. And so, when he says that he is marrying a man and it is a private
matter, I think one ought to respect that, and not ask the hand of government
to mug him."

"But what happens if Brison, or another gay person invites you to his wedding?
What do you do? My guess is most people reading the Winnipeg Free Press today have never been invited to a gay wedding and aren't excited about the
possibilities. But if you are willing to say Yes to gay marriage, at some
point, do you not have to just suck up your discomfort and participate."

Posted by Sebastian / Scott Brison / Gay Marriage / October 15, 2005 /

What an ugly city!

My heart is in Toronto, but not everyone seems to feel the same way. Toronto is "a beige city with a branch-plant economy that suffers from a lack of identity," one designer said yesterday in a panel on the city's future.

"People want to live in a city where their distant relatives from abroad will visit them and be jealous," added Will Alsop, the British architect celebrated in Toronto for his distinctly risky and non-utilitarian Ontario College of Art and Design campus.

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / October 14, 2005 /



Architecture craze hits Edmonton

Edmonton is pinning its downtown renaissance on a new art museum -- stop me if you've heard this one before -- created in the style of Frank Gehry, by one the controversial architect's proteges. The Edmonton Art Gallery, which is changing its name to the Art Gallery of Alberta, yesterday unveiled its expensive heap of twisted metal and wavy glass that looks strikingly similar to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago,  -- again, stop me if you've heard this story before --  the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.  

Opponents of the project are already lining up for a fight. Letters to a local newspaper have called the new gallery everything from a "half-peeled potato" to a "poor man's Gehry." L.A.-based architect Randall Stout said of his building, "I think you can certainly look at this and think about the notion of the river running through Edmonton. And you can look at this and think of the northern lights." Or something like that.

A member of the selection panel balked at criticisms and told the press, "We have produced an iconic piece of architecture, which will help put Edmonton on the map, culturally, architecturally, and as a place to visit." (Let's hope so -- they call it "Dedmonton" for a reason.)

Posted by Sebastian / Edmonton / October 14, 2005 /



Vancouver on edge after murder

365gay.com reports that Vancouver's gay community is "on edge" after last Saturday's murder of a gay man in the city's gritty Downtown Eastside. The attack is reminding many of the murder of Aaron Webster, another gay man, in Stanley Park four years ago. "At the time police also said it appeared that Webster had not been killed because he was gay," the site reports. "The city's LGBT community was highly critical of the investigation. For a year there were no breaks in the case."

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / October 14, 2005 /

Cosmo men

Cosmo has released its "Bachelor Blowout: The Hunkiest Hunks in America," featuring 50 (whatever happened to Mr. Guam? or Mr. "Virgin" Islands?) rather attractive men. While I dispute some of the choices, I would not throw Connecticut (below, left), Massachusetts, Ohio (below, right), or Wyoming out of bed for eating crackers.



Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / October 14, 2005 /



Free college for Albertans

Oil money flows like water in Alberta, and provincial leaders have had a hard time figuring out what to do with all their riches. Not only will every man, woman, and child in the province be getting a strings-free cheque for $400 at the end of this year, but leaders in Edmonton are now discussing the idea of spending some of their oil revenue surplus to provide a free college education to residents.

Under the plan, the first two years of postsecondary education would be free to Albertans. A year's university tuition in province costs $5,100 per year, the second-highest in Canada.

Posted by Sebastian / Edmonton / October 13, 2005 /



Tricks on Massachusetts marriage petition

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports this morning that many signatures acquired in the latest effort to amend Massachusetts' Constitution to ban same-sex marriage (and not allow civil unions, either) may have been obtained fraudulently.

"A 21-year-old Florida college student who spent more than two weeks in Massachusetts collecting signatures for initiative petitions at stores and shopping malls said in an interview that she quit the job because of what she described as 'sleazy' tactics used to obtain signatures."

"While employed by the firm, Ms. McElroy said, she saw one of her co-workers forge signatures from one petition to the other at the Square One Mall in Saugus, re-creating the original signer’s handwriting and address. She said she questioned the co-worker about what he was doing and was told that he was boosting his earnings by transferring signatures from petition A, which would allow wine sales in grocery stories, to petition K, which would put a ban on same-sex marriages on the ballot."

For more information, check out Know thy Neighbor, the web site devoted to posting the names of every signatory of the petition on the internet.

Posted by Sebastian / Gay Marriage / October 13, 2005 /

Sex, drugs, and raking over coals

Andre Boisclair may have it bad after admitting to using cocaine, but for a study in contrasts, check out revelations from the mayor's race in Vancouver, which is being called "dirtiest, nastiest and most lowdown campaigns this city has ever seen."

Recent reports that candidate "Sam Sullivan once gave an acquaintance money to buy crack cocaine, and then allowed him to smoke it in the back of his van, and that he also paid for a prostitute's $40-a-day heroin habit in an effort to rescue her from the sex trade have barely registered on the scandal meter," the Globe reports.

"It really is mind-boggling," said Jim Green, the man running against Mr. Sullivan for mayor of western Canada's biggest city. "If it was me who'd been accused of doing that the media would be all over it. It would be a huge story. Yet no one's making an issue of it with Sam. I don't understand why."

Sullivan has attempted to justify his actions by saying he gave the money to the cocaine addict so he could see just how a drug deal went down in the gritty Downtown Eastside. As for the prostitute, all he was trying to do was show some compassion, he insists.

"I was just trying to help so she didn't have to degrade herself. Same with the other guy and the cocaine. He was going to be taking the drugs regardless. The question was what lengths he would go to in order to get the money. That's what I was trying to stop."

"Vancouver is light years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to addiction," Sullivan said. "We don't think of it as criminal; we think of it as a sickness. We think of it as people who need our compassion and help."

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / October 13, 2005 /

No sucking for Saint John

Unless you've spent much time in Maine or the Maritimes, you may not know who the Irvings are. The wealthy industrial family that owns a gas station chain, huge swaths of New Brunswick, and all of the province's major newspapers, has never been lacking criticism.

The latest furor comes as the Irving newspaper group, which detractors say has cut off competition and monopolized the media in Atlantic Canada, pulled this photo of a breastfeeding mother off the cover of its alternative paper, here, and fired the editor that placed the photo there. (Full disclosure: I have, in the past, written for the Irving paper in Moncton.)

The photo accompanied a story on World Breastfeeding Week and noted New Brunswick's low rate of breastfeeding. The paper's owners ordered the photo pulled and replaced it with a cartoon of a mother and baby instead. Not only was the editor let go, but the writer of the story said he won't work for the Irvings again. Pulling the photo, he said, "really didn't do any justice to the story, or the real issue here, that mothers in New Brunswick aren't breastfeeding their babies and babies are being shortchanged."

Posted by Sebastian / Media / New Brunswick / October 13, 2005 /

Shuttle shakeup

The Hub has been abuzz over the last 48 hours. The reason? News that the busy Boston to New York corridor is going to change forever on November 8 when JetBlue begins its new low-fare shuttle. The airline is going right for the jugular of now-bankrupt Delta Airlines and recently-bankrupt US Airways and beginning service on the two carriers' prestigious shuttle route.

Delta and American are both matching JetBlue's rock-bottom $25 fares -- on some flights -- but stubborn US Airways has held out so far. Ultimately, they will be forced to relent because, as airline analyst Terry Trippler from cheapseats.com says, "The shuttle fare between Boston and New York will be whatever JetBlue wants it to be. Wherever JetBlue goes, they set the price."

For travel on November 8, the day flights to JFK from Boston begin, you can purchase a roundtrip ticket for $68 on JetBlue or opt for a Delta Shuttle flight to LaGuardia for just $557. Amtrak's Acela Express, by contrast, is $212 roundtrip while Fung Wah's occasionally fiery bus service will set you back just $30.

Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / October 13, 2005 /

Pro-gay campaign war chest grows bigger

In Maine, the Bangor Daily News is reporting that those who support state's new anti-discrimination law that protects gays and lesbians hold a significant financial advantage over those trying to repeal it.

The pro-gay camp has $265,000 in the bank, compared to the mere $20,000 its  opponents have. The head of Maine Won't Discriminate said the outpouring of cash to his advocacy organization makes it clear than Mainers are done with discrimination: "This is all about the people of Maine making a financial contribution to end discrimination once and for all," he said.

Meanwhile, Paul Madore of the Maine Grassroots Coalition noted that the disparity "concerns me, but what concerns me more is where this money is coming from," speculating that many donors were from outside the state. "These laws are going to affect people who live in Maine."

Posted by Sebastian / Maine / October 12, 2005 /

Haiti gives cash to U.S.

The poorest country in the Americas has offered up $36,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. "Despite our meager means, we want to be counted among those who showed solidarity toward you (the American people)," the Haitian finance minister said.

Posted by Sebastian / New Orleans / October 12, 2005 /

Canadian oil could go to China, not U.S.

"Canadians are mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more," the Star says this morning. Ottawa is warning that continued tariffs on the country's lumber exports to the U.S. could risk American access to Canadian oil. *GASP* The Times reports today, "In recent days Canada has begun playing a newly minted China card, suggesting in a series of subtle threats that it was willing to satisfy China's growing appetite for Canadian oil and wood that would otherwise go south to the United States. The trade conflict has been growing worse ever since August, when the Bush administration refused to obey a direction from a special North American Free Trade Agreement panel to refund $5 billion in tariffs collected from Canadian softwood lumber exporters."



The U.S. has repeatedly made moves to back off from the promises it made when it signed the NAFTA deal, even refusing to return tariffs imposed on Canadian goods when an independent tribunal ruled they were taken illegally. "Forgive my departure from the safe language of diplomacy, but this is nonsense," prime minister Paul Martin said last week in New York. "Countries must live up to their agreements." 

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 12, 2005 /

Adrienne Clarkson shoots back at the government

When she was governor general of Canada up until a few weeks ago, nobody ever accused Adrienne Clarkson of being simple or understated. In fact, her opponents badgered her until the day she left office for being too flamboyant and for spending lavishly on her largely ceremonial post as the Queen's representative in Canada (even cleverly calling her a "royal" pain).

Almost as soon as her replacement, fellow CBC journalist Michaelle Jean, was sworn into office just two weeks ago, Adrienne Clarkson opened up to the press about her displeasure with the standing Liberal government and, well, she hasn't shut up since.

In a sentence, she is not happy that the Liberal government did not defend her when she came under attack from Conservatives for spending generously on trips and largely unnecessary ceremony. She was hissed and booed at on a trip to Vancouver in 2004 and accused of being out of touch with average Canadians. But her most public gaffe came in 2003 when she undertook a 19-day "circum-polar" trip to Russia, Finland, and Iceland with 50 prominent Canadians that cost taxpayers millions. During her tenure, the office of the governor general saw its budget balloon 200 percent.

On canada.com, readers soundoff: "Personally, Ms. Clarkson is a lady who has lived a life high on the hog most of her adult life, so it should surprise no one that she has no feelings of guilt or remorse for fleecing the taxpayers of their hard earned tax money for her jaunts all over the world."

"Even after she's gone, we the people of Canada have to listen to her arrogance." 

"Lets see, if Karla Homolka gets a job at the CBC will she have a shot at the next GG job."

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 12, 2005 /

Arctic importance

In case you missed the Times' impressive front-page story on the increasing importance of the Arctic North and Churchill, Manitoba, in particular, here it is. You're not alone if you have no idea where Churchill is or why you should even care.

On the shores of Hudson Bay, Churchill is poised to become perhaps the most important port in the north as the polar ice cap melts -- this summer it reached its smallest recorded size ever -- and circumpolar shipping through the Northwest Passage becomes a reality.

Consider this: "The advantage of maritime shortcuts across the top of the world can be startling. For example, shipments from Murmansk to midcontinental North America by the well-worn route through the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes to Thunder Bay, in western Ontario, typically take 17 days. The voyage from Murmansk to Churchill is only 8 days under good conditions, and from Churchill, rail links snake down through Manitoba, the American Midwest and points south all the way to Monterrey, Mexico."

Now if only the countries that ring the North Pole could decide who owns what land. Russia, the U.S., Denmark, Canada, and other nations are quickly laying claim to the Arctic Ocean and the vast riches the region holds. 

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / October 12, 2005 /

More on Fort McMurray

There must have been a good press-op in Fort McMurray, Alta., last week since the the Times joined the Globe in devoting a chunk of space to the region's booming economy and the impact on the environment that oil extraction has and will cause.

"Just north of this boomtown of saloons and strip malls, a moonscape is expanding along with the price of oil. Deep craters wider than football fields are being dug out of the pine and spruce forests and muskeg swamps by many of the largest multinational oil companies. Huge refineries that burn natural gas to refine the excavated gooey sands into synthetic oil are spreading where wolves and coyotes once roamed."

"Beside the mining pits, propane cannons and scarecrows installed by the companies shoo away migrating birds from giant toxic lakes filled with water that was used in the process that separates oil sands from clay and dirt. About 82,000 acres of forest and wetlands have been cleared or otherwise disturbed since development of oil sands began in earnest here in the late 1960's, and that is just the start. "

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / Edmonton / October 12, 2005 /



Marois gaining on Boisclair

She's trailing Andre Boisclair in public opinion polls even after he admitted to having used cocaine, but PQ leadership candidate Pauline Marois got a much-needed boost when 100 prominent Quebec women endorsed her recently. Most of the women who back the second-place candidate are over 50, but as Montreal's Le Devoir points out, that may be all she needs to win the sovereigntist party's leadership race. You see, 60% of the PQ members are over 50, and the average age is 54. Andre Boisclair, on the other hand, is a ripe 38.

One supporter said of the woman who might become the province's first female premier, "Do we have to change sex to get votes in Quebec? When it's a man who pushes the (political) machine we say he has ambition and we're behind him because he has charisma."

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / PQ Race / October 12, 2005 /

Yes, he's getting married

My best friend in Toronto and I have had a good natured competition running for the past year. We were trying to see which one of us could be the first to get engaged to Scott Brison, Canada's first openly gay cabinet member. We worked parties in notoriously incestuous Ottawa, spent countless hours on the phone, and sent out frenzied BlackBerry'd messages to everyone and their mother trying to get a date with Brison, all to no avail.

This weekend, Brison, who is a member of parliament from Nova Scotia, announced he is getting married to his new boyfriend of six-months. It's not to my friend Joe and it's to not me. But I'm not against starting a betting pool to wager how long this fairy tale engagement actually lasts.

Over the weekend while he was waiting in vain for Martha Stewart to show in his hometown to row a giant pumpkin across a lake, Brison said, "I'm looking forward to the day when the idea of ... a gay or lesbian politician getting married is not a story at all." He also noted that prime minister Paul Martin told him soon after Canada legalized same-sex marriage that, "Well, after all I've been through on this Brison, you'd better get married."

Posted by Sebastian / Canada / Gay Marriage / October 11, 2005 /

JetBlue to fly Boston to New York shuttle for $25

At a press conference later today, JetBlue will formally announce the launch of their new Boston to New York shuttle service, which will fly 10 roundtrips a day and cost as low as $25 each way. The new flights undercut t