Porch Views, editorials and more
OPINION Earlier in my career, I ran a hardware store in Barry’s Bay in the Ottawa Valley — a community of 1,200 people founded as a lumber town more than a century ago. My family has lived there for more than 150 years. Good jobs in forestry have kept …
OPINION As the last long weekend of the summer approaches, many of us will flock to a lakeside retreat to embrace the best of what the remaining days of summer offers. COVID-19 has created an especially difficult and challenging year for us all to find enjoyment within the restrictions of …
Opinion Mediation has been used as a method of dispute resolution in a variety of different cultures for more than 3,000 years. “Blessed are the peacemakers” — this scripture inspired me to become a mediator as a child. Now a Chartered Mediator in Canada with well over one thousand …
Editorial Regular readers know that The Current operates on a not-for-profit basis relying on the support of volunteers and local advertisers to cover costs of production. As such, we are part of a growing movement collectively known as “Nonprofit News.” This has resulted in the formation of an organization, the …
Editor’s note: Welcome back, Mark Woermke! We’re grateful that Mark found time for this Porch Views during his summer “holiday” as we know that between gardening and historical research there aren’t any real holidays at his house. His views on eye care in the province – particularly in rural Ontario – …
Opinion Editor’s Note: Barry’s Bay lawyer Robert Howe provides this analysis of the implications stemming from the County’s new Official Plan. Renfrew County mayors were united in their anger at the County Council meeting on May 27. The reason was the contents of Ontario’s amendment to the County’s Official …
Opinion Yesterday the international media had a field day with yet another Trudeau/Trump video “moment” that has gone viral. This follows two notorious instances of our Prime Minister filmed acting in ways that were interpreted as ridiculing the American president. The first was in August 2019 when he was filmed …
Editorial For the benefit of readers who missed it at the time, last August Mayor Kim Love led an attack on The Current, its owners and one of its reporters. It arose because earlier on August 27, the day of a Council meeting, the Mayor was provided with ammunition she …
Primum non nocere is Latin for “first, do no harm” Another equivalent phrase is found in Epidemics, Book I, of the Hippocratic school: “Practice two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient.” The exact phrase is believed to have originated with the 19th-century …
Ontario’s COVID-19 model projections were sobering. The most surprising thing to me wasn’t that Ontarians have already managed to avert a staggering number of needless deaths through physical distancing and conscientious hand washing, nor that we must continue these measures to ensure that we and others don’t become ill and …
Editorial This weekend’s weather is as mixed as the feelings many of us experience on a holiday weekend like none we have ever seen before. Whether you celebrate Easter, Passover or just like to enjoy an extra day off work, everything is different these days. The usual trips and family …
Editor’s note: The Current agrees with regular contributor James Di Fiore that this opinion he wrote for BlackballMedia.ca will resonate with many of our readers. There are a slew of adjustments one must make when they transition from urban dweller to country bumpkin. Personally, my first seemingly insurmountable issue …
The last time you heard from me, I explained that in my pre-retirement planning, I had decided to make Renfrew County German research my chief focus. I came to that after observing a number of retirees in action, sampling a number of activities, and evaluating my interests and my willingness …
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. Fred Rogers When my family moved to Killaloe almost four years ago, I was warned that locals would …
“As eerie and strange as it feels to be hunkering down in my house, watching society shut its doors and lock itself down around me, there is some part of me that feels warm and affectionate and so very proud of my fellow human beings. Social distancing isn’t easy, but …
