This summer, admission to all Parks Canada sites is free. It’s one of many federal initiatives to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, an anniversary shortened (for flag and hashtag purposes) to “Canada 150.” Never mind that Confederation is only one of numerous treaties and agreements that gradually brought our country together; never mind that…
The first scene in my yet-to-be-written novel is based on an actual rendezvous between Mary Godwin and her future husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary, 16 years old and altogether smitten with the larger-than-life poet, had been forbidden from having any contact with Percy by her father, so they were obliged to meet in secret to…
[Your blood pressure just went up.] The public perception of consulates and embassies comes from Hollywood. In films of political intrigue, or docu-dramas depicting world-shaking events, these sites become flashpoints for action and conflict. Bombs go off, hostages are taken, and we hear the oft-repeated bit of magical thinking, that the Slobovian consulate is “on…
