Now that the federal government has banned TikTok from government issued phones, it seems the momentum has begun for other jurisdictions to do the same.

After the feds decided on their course of action, provinces appear to be lining up to do the same.  And where provinces and their agencies go, municipalities will follow.  And now, at least in Ontario, maybe even schools.

Bar room brawls have been around for as long as bar rooms and people have been around, so no big surprise to hear of another in the news.  Unless one of the people involved happens to be one of the nine justices on the Supreme Court of Canada.

I know every Canadian has a bit of hockey in their blood, so when the benches clear, even the judges are going over the boards.

According to the Vancouver Sun, Russell Brown, appointed by Stephen Harper back in 2015, was the justice involved in the dust-up at an Arizona Spa in late January.  According to the complainant, one Jonathan Crump of Philadelphia, Brown was “drunk and obnoxious” and harassing a group of patrons at the high-end resort’s bar and lounge.  Brown was in town to attend a tribute to former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour.

Brown has called the allegations “demonstrably false,” which in judge-speak means that they’re not true.

Brown had left the Arbour function he was attending and decided to pop into the resort bar for a bit of a night-cap.  While there, he was invited to join a party sitting nearby, one that included Philadelphia’s Mr. Crump.  Both sides agree that Crump left his party for a time while Brown remained, but then returned as the group was departing for another location.  Apparently Mr. Brown was invited to go along, something Mr. Crump objected to.  Crump says the drunken Brown shoved him. Everyone agrees that Crump punched Brown at least twice in the face, punches the justice did not return.

Of course, there are many types of truth, so we’re going to have to go with eight filled chairs on the nine-person Supreme Court until this gets resolved.

Queen’s Park is in for a major facelift. 

The home of Ontario’s legislative assembly will be undergoing a $1 billion reconstruction that will have the legislature sitting elsewhere in the interim. And that interim will be several years at least. 

The building has been the democratic seat of Ontario’s government since 1893, and was long overdue for a reckoning. 

It’s old, the wiring is long past safe, the pipes are shot, and there’s lead and asbestos hanging about. It’s going to be a big job. 

For Ontario, though, it represents the provincial and jurisdictional seat, at least symbolically. So the deconstruction process will be carefully done to ensure the history and heritage of the place are respected and retained. 

The federal government is currently mid-stream in their timeline of the completion of the Parliament Buildings. Parliament, too, must sit off-site until work is completed. 

It’s ROLL UP THE RIM time again at Tim Hortons, and the excitement is palpable.

Some people wait all year for this promotion at Canada’s iconic coffee shop, and I wouldn’t doubt if people took time off work for it.  It’s as Canadian as bowling night on Tuesdays, not that such a thing is a thing.

These days, you don’t have to go through that maddening ritual of peeling back the top of a used take-out cup to determine whether you’ve won a donut.  Now you can play more seamlessly with the Timmy’s app available at your local app store.

Seamlessly except for that glitch in the app that keeps telling customers they’ve won $10,000 in a daily jackpot when, in fact, they haven’t.  It’s all quite embarrassing for Tim’s.

The plan was for a single jackpot prize of ten grand every day.  Unfortunately, the app is showing much greater largesse, informing what Tim’s calls a “sub-set” of customers that they’ve all won on the same day.  Ooops!

People checked their phones, jumped up and down, cried, jumped up and down some more, called family and friends, and made terrific plans for their new-found wealth.  Only to have the coffee chain tell them it was a “glitch” and that they hadn’t won jack.  But how about a $50 gift certificate for your trouble?

The “winners” aren’t impressed, some saying that they’ll swear off Tim’s coffee, even though that would be right up there with quitting smoking or quitting bowling on a Tuesday night.  They’re not jumping up and down anymore with the gift certificate, but some are still crying after going through the whirlwind of being a winner then a loser in short order.

Some made plans.  Then cancelled plans.  It’s hard to fly out west to visit family on a $50 gift card for coffee and donuts.  

This isn’t the first time something’s happened with the Tims app.  A short while ago, there was a privacy breach connected with it, and the restaurant responded by giving everyone impacted a voucher for, you guessed it, a coffee and a donut.

Since when has the Renfrew Mercury become a shill for the local real estate industry?

March 3rd saw an article in the online version of the paper talking about how there are homes available in Renfrew that won’t break the bank with prices under $400,000.  The article then went on to describe three such homes, with descriptions that one would see on the website of a real estate company.  That shouldn’t be a big surprise since the primary source was a website, realtor.ca.

Why is Pierre Polievre so mad all the time?

Was he born that way, angry upon delivery?  Did he ferret out cabal-induced conspiracy theories while he was a whip of a lad, a mere pup?  Did somebody push him off his scooter?  Do they purposely keep him under-fed so that he projects as perpetually hangry?

With a news release on March 6, the Renfrew County and District Health Unit has announced, with the Town of Renfrew, negotiations for the relocation of a RCDHU Service Hub to vacant space once occupied by the OPP at the Town Hall municipal building.  The relocation is scheduled to be complete by the end of June 2023.

The hub is intended for in-person client services, including routine immunization, parent-child wellness, and the Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program.

Renfrew mayor Tom Sidney is excited by the prospect of working with the health unit.

“The Town of Renfrew is excited to work with Renfrew County and District Health Unit as tenant within the former police detachment space at Town Hall. The health unit is an important partner given the importance and impact of their programs and services on Renfrew and surrounding area residents. We look forward to exploring other potential synergies and partnerships to support health and well-being.”

RCDHU Board of Health Chair Ann Aikens is similarly looking forward to the move.

“On behalf of the board and our dedicated team at RCDHU, I am delighted about our new partnership with the Town of Renfrew,” says Aikens.  “Our municipal partners provided so much support to us during the pandemic. This is an excellent example of how we can continue to work together collaboratively to meet the public health needs of the community.”

RCDHU plans to be out of its current O’Brien Road location by the end of June with the aim of no service disruptions during the transition period.

Look, I know it snows in March.  I’ve been a Canadian for long enough to know that snow can land in May if it feels it has to, and I can recall a mid-April dump of 30 cm back in the days when I had no snowblower.

But still, c’mon already.

Environment Canada has just issued another weather advisory regarding a storm that’s tripping its way across the U.S. mid-west and seriously thinking of popping up to Canada to smack us around with another good ol’ snow bomb, just to keep us on our toes.  It’s definitely got its eye on Southern Ontario, but the way things go around these parts, we tend to be along the same track as most of these storms heading for Toronto and area.

A decision has been made in Ottawa and, predictably, the political actors are playing the same cards they always do.

I’m talking about allegations involving foreign interference in Canadian elections, and more to the point, about how the Chinese insert themselves into this kind of stuff any time they get a chance. 

By the way, when I refer to the Chinese, I’m speaking about the Communist Party of China, or CPC.  Not the Chinese people.

Justin Trudeau announced today that that a parliamentary committee, one with access to top-secret intelligence, will look into this affair.  

Cue the music. Play the parts.

With all the talk of the Highway 417 extension, and with visible evidence of this project getting closer to Renfrew, attention must be paid to what happens when people follow this new road to Renfrew, experience it, then decide to live here.

Driving by Arnprior reveals all kinds of residential construction, completed or in progress, as that town absorbs more and more people into its soon-to-be city limits. 

As it happens there, it will happen here in Renfrew, perhaps to a lesser degree, but nonetheless it’s going to happen. So one of the key questions to be asked has to do with where these new people are going to live if they choose to reside within the town boundaries.

So where will these new housing developments be located?