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It's important that all citizens understand the role that libraries and librarians play. Their importance transcends their roles as gatekeepers to books and journals. They are genuinely both the memory vault of scholarship and learned guides that help us navigate the increasingly expansive morass of data, information, copyright, and information technology.

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The first electrons of power flowed across the seabed in Nova Scotia's Minas Basin recently delivering electricity to homes, from a giant instream tidal device. I want to be excited about it. Happy even. Instead, it's tainted by the dismissive attitude of Nova Scotia's government towards indigenous people and fishers, or really anyone in the province who raises concerns about the potential impact on their lives from these experiments.

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Studies show that children who are grateful sleep better, are happier, measurably healthier, have better relationships, live longer and are less stressed out. Grateful teens are even 10 times less likely to start smoking, their grades tend to be 20 percent higher and they have 13 percent fewer fights.

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Housing costs continue to soar in Canada's priciest real estate markets -- in spite of provincial and federal action to slow housing activity in Toronto and Vancouver. This has left many hopeful home buyers priced out of the average detached home market. Even larger condo units are picking up speed in price.

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When medical students don their white coats for the first time, they take an oath to devote themselves to the care of their future patients. My oath carried a commitment to 'ensure patient well-being as my main focus and my primary obligation.' Although I wholeheartedly appreciate the notion of caring for my patients with all my energy, to state that one's health aside from my own is my primary obligation speaks to the dangerous sacrifices expected of medical students.

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Whether help comes in the form of artillery fire, jet fighters, or helicopter gunships, no expense is spared to support and protect our troops when the bullets start flying. But is the federal government willing to continue to fork out $85 a day to keep each of our veterans with PTSD out of harm's way? Apparently not!

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Even a few minutes of putting oneself in another person's shoes (or wheelchair) could make a big difference. Accessibility is a right. Just by being born we all have human rights. We don't need to do or be anything special. Equality is - or should be - ours, just because we exist.

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In Nunavut, 60 per cent of children are living in food-insecure households while in Manitoba, 76 per cent of First Nations children on reserves live in poverty. Vulnerable populations, such as women, seniors, recent immigrants, indigenous populations and racialized individuals experience the effects of poverty disproportionately demonstrating that even within the realm of social inadequacy the playing field isn't level.

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Seven years ago, I emigrated from England and headed for the Great White North with nothing but two suitcases, a dream in my heart and a fire in my belly. Tomorrow, I'll return to England exactly as I came. Oh, Canada - thank you for the beautiful experience.

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We will often negotiate and even fight over food, oil, land, and water, but we treat time like it will, well, last forever. But if we were to value and use time truly like a resource, meaning effectively and efficiently, we need to set priorities. Enter the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Our society has come to a fork in the road: we must decide the core values that will drive social policy in the future. Ontarians have big ideas and want bold approaches to address persistent human rights problems, and we agree. Our work has the most impact when we amplify the voices of the most marginalized people, and when the public echoes our human rights message and demands action.

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Much as the manual transmission has all but disappeared in the 21st Century, the idea of driving a car in the manner of a Steve McQueen may soon also be a thing of the past. Autonomous features will almost assuredly become mandatory -- and switching them off could become a too-expensive option.

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Growing up, food was always a challenging subject in my house. My mother was hospitalized in her 20s with anorexia. As a result of this influence, my diet history -- especially in my teenage years -- included a variety of low-fat, low-calorie and fad diet plans.

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But the biggest barrier to ending poverty is the political orthodoxy we have lived by for the past 40 or more years, grounded in austerity: That good government is small government, that social programs must shrink and that taxes are evil. It is over this period that we have seen the most dramatic rise in poverty rates and income inequality, with a concentration of wealth in the top 1 per cent. It's time for a rethink.

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As the temperature continues to plunge this winter, many Canadians will turn to scarves -- and more recently necktubes -- to keep their necks and faces warm. These swatches of fabric ensure those areas left open by jackets and coats are kept safe from the prevailing winds and wayward flakes of snow. Yet, they may serve another purpose as protectors of our health.

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Activists take pride in the fact that their movements are inclusive, but it appears that unless women and girls with disabilities and deaf women and girls make our way to the table then, over and over again, our needs are forgotten. There are but a handful of women with disabilities and Deaf women in Canada who are fortunate enough to be at those tables, and I am one of them.

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As gift cards become more popular with consumers and merchants, criminals also want a piece of the holiday pie. As criminals get savvier, they are finding new loopholes to exploit, and e-gift cards are increasingly becoming a lucrative way to commit fraud and to launder money.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently expressed frustration around the current cannabis landscape, explaining, "Until we have brought in the proposed system... the current prohibition stands," and encouraging police to enforce the law, particularly as it pertains to the continued expansion of medical cannabis dispensaries in major cities across Canada. The response has been one of uniform frustration from many angles, but I don't believe Justin Trudeau actually lied about the Liberal party's intentions on the cannabis file.

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Let's get set for a steady diet of false equivalencies like "trading barbs" and wishful thinking. We'll have to pretend, in the face of the evidence, that all sorts of horrible people haven't been empowered by this.

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Threats like these can never be justified in terms of freedom of speech or "anti-political correctness." The self-indulgence, the underlying menace, and the thinly veiled barbarism of this chant are an attempt at intimidation, and undermine the democratic process and the civil discourse that guides our way of life.

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That's right, Hamilton, Ont. - or, specifically, the Hamilton-Burlington real estate district - not Vancouver or Toronto. Regional markets in proximity to Canada's highest-price cities continue to experience steady interest from local move-up buyers and buyers who are looking to find a balance between affordability and square footage.