True story about marijuana grow-op yields an old-fashioned love story

The true costs of your pet — for everyone

Pets are a problem, but few will discuss the downsides of pet ownership.

Israel: the new political divide?

Abdul won and Avi is thrilled.

Federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis emerged from electoral hiding to tell us how it is “exhilarating to witness” a “wave of progressive populism” in the United States. He was referring to the upset winner of Tuesday’s heavily-watched Michigan Senate primary race, Abdul El-Sayed, who barely prevailed over his establishment opponent for the Democratic nomination.

Premier Wab Kinew’s favourite New Democrat (after himself) steadfastly hesitates to take a risk and run for a House of Commons seat in a byelection to kickstart Canada’s version of progressive populism. No hesitation, though, in Lewis immediately basking in the reflected glory of those international comrades and fellow travellers who do.

Writing about the state of Canada’s New Democrats feels like a hate crime — you hate wasting your time — and this is no exception. A better story is what’s driving this modest but undeniable political movement in U.S. politics and whether it might gain traction here in Canada.

Watching while we work

For many employees, the idea that their employer might be tracking how long they spend at their keyboard, how often they move their mouse, or whether they are actively working throughout the day feels unsettling. For many employers, however, workplace surveillance is increasingly viewed as another management tool, particularly as hybrid and remote work become more common. The recent news that TD plans to monitor certain employees’ activity during the workday has reignited a conversation that has been quietly growing for several years: where is the line between legitimate oversight and excessive monitoring?

The reality is that workplace surveillance is nothing new. Employers have long monitored attendance, reviewed security camera footage, tracked company vehicles using GPS, audited expense reports, and reviewed internet usage on company-owned devices. What has changed is the sophistication of the technology. Today’s software can record login times, monitor application usage, track keystrokes, capture screenshots, analyze email activity, and even generate reports ranking employees based on their perceived productivity.

This naturally raises an important question. Does increased surveillance actually make people work harder?

The answer is not nearly as straightforward as many organizations hope.

Play goes to pot

When Calgary playwright Ken Cameron got the call from his distraught parents that the tenant of the family farm house had used it as a marijuana grow-op, he felt conflicting reactions.

His first reaction was dismay, he says about being alerted that his beloved home near London, Ont., had gone to pot. "My second thought was that the story would make a great play."

Cameron chronicled his mom and dad's experience down to the smallest detail in Harvest, a comedy that has been produced over 16 times in theatres between Vancouver Island and Sackville, N.B., since its 2008 debut at the Blyth Festival in southern Ontario. Prairie Theatre Exchange will present it to close its 2013-14 season.

"Everything that is outlined in the play, except for two things, is exactly what happened," says the 44-year-old Cameron, reached in Calgary.

The view from here: Phyllis Green. Boob Tree, 1975

Staycation: The Art of Being Here feautres more than 100 Manitoba-related artworks from the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq collection, spanning the past 50 years. These pieces reveal how the places around us are layered with memory, story and lived experience. Over the coming weeks, the Free Press will spotlight works from this eclectic exhibition, each one offering a new way of seeing home. Experience it in person and enjoy some staycation time at the gallery, on view until December.

Phyllis Green. Boob Tree, 1975

(Yarn, wood. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with funds from the Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Naylor, funds administered by The Winnipeg Foundation, 2014-128. Photo: Ernest Mayer.)

The year 1975 was designated International Women’s Year by the United Nations, and in celebration, the WAG staged the show Images of Women, which explored how women had historically been depicted, an impressive selection but by mostly male artists. Amid pushback from the community, Sharron Zenith Corne and Marian Yeo organized a second exhibition, Woman as Viewer, which challenged those portrayals by only featuring works by women. It was called the first Canadian exhibition of feminist art. American artist Phyllis Green’s Boob Tree, a four-foot-tall crochet sculpture of a cluster of breasts, adorned the exhibit posters, which were so popular they were snatched by passersby! The sculpture is playful and unsettling, re-appropriating the objectification of women’s bodies.

New lab a win for Winnipeg’s long game

It would be easy to overlook the announcement this week that the federal government was green-lighting a quarter-billion-dollar expansion of the National Microbiology Laboratory’s Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health on Arlington Street.

Easy to overlook, in part, because it will take a decade to build the new 140,000-square-foot laboratory specializing in medical countermeasures.

But make no mistake, this latest investment from Ottawa galvanizes Winnipeg’s reputation as a global leader in the research of the world’s most infectious diseases. It also confirms that a wager made by Manitoba political leaders nearly 40 years ago is paying off in spades.

The existing NML was, to be frank, hastily conceived compensation for one of the most egregious examples of political pork-barrelling ever seen in Canada.