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Food allergies: exaggeration?

The following is an excerpt from an article called “Everyone’s Gone Nuts: The exaggerated threat of food allergies,” by Meredith Broussard (subscription required). It appears in the most recent issues of Harper’s Magazine: There is no question that food allergies are real. Yet instead of creating the healthy, happy children shown here [a photo from [...]

A nation of SINners

This article got me thinking about what Social Insurance Numbers in Canada are used for. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has a good little fact sheet on SIN use, and who can ask you for it. Your SIN is a confidential number that is restricted to income reporting purposes. There are a select and limited [...]

Calgary Catholic School Board misses the mark

The Calgary Catholic School Board has, in this blogger’s opinion, completely overreacted to the notion that The Golden Compass books are anti-religious. In typically overzealous style, they’ve pulled the books from their library shelves pending a review: “Given the controversy related to the book, the district will not promote and/or use it to support instructional [...]

Coming of age?

An email from my mother this morning gave me pause. My grade one teacher, Mme. Johnson, passed away. She was two years younger than my mum. Mme. Johnson died after a hard-fought battle with breast cancer. It is with sadness that we acknowledge the death of Evelyn Johnson. Evelyn began with Edmonton Catholic Schools in [...]