Moose truce, food funding, draconian libraries
Welcome to the first edition of ‘The Local’
Originally published March 11, 2019 on the Local newsletter. Subscribe now.
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This is my basic idea for how this will go: I will write a couple lines of introduction, and then I will give you links to interesting things happening in Canadian communities that aren’t necessarily at the top of the news run. Short, sweet and simple.
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Here are this week’s stories:
Edmonton food incubation hub gets $600,000 in city funding
The best write-up I found on this initiative comes from Elise Stolte in the Edmonton Journal, who explains the Public’s position as an attempt to re-surface agriculture as an economic driver in Alberta by providing industrial kitchen space to food start-ups — including recent immigrants who may have a background in the food industry in their home countries but find the Canadian system difficult to navigate.
Winnipeg library’s new security approach creates ‘draconian and humiliating barrier’
Earlier this year, Winnipeg’s Millennium Library adapted airport-style security checks: people need to go through metal detectors, guards and bag checks in order to get in.
Officials say the changes are needed to crack down on drug use and violence, but there’s a growing backlash from people who say the checks are antithetical to the library as a public space — or, as the New Yorker had it recently, the last bastion of civil society. Anyways, from Winnipeg we have this essay from a longtime library patron who says she never felt unsafe at Millennium until the security measures took place, as well as an editorial in the Winnipeg Free Press arguing that as it currently stands, the Millennium Public Library does not deserve to have “public” in its name.
‘Beggars in our own land’: Canada’s First Nation housing crisis
“There are a lot of Cat Lakes in the north,” said Mamakwa, a member of the Kingfisher First Nation. “When you see these conditions on a daily basis, you start to accept it as normal. What we see as status quo here would never be accepted in other parts of Canada.”
Civil liberties association threatens legal action to block Sidewalk Labs smart city project
If you’ve yet to read up on this Toronto neighbourhood that’s either at the forefront of a digital utopia or a dystopian surveillance neighbourhood run by an American conglomerate, The Star’s reporting is a good place to start or, if you are an aural learner, this episode of Frontburner.
‘Moosarandum of understanding’ settles dispute between Canada and Norway
The showdown between Moosejaw, Sask. and the Norwegian town of Stor-Elvdal over who has the bigger moose has come to an amicable end:
“It has been agreed that Mac will reclaim the title as world’s tallest moose with alterations that will be paid for with a $25,000 donation from Moosehead Breweries. Meanwhile, the four-year-old statue named Storelgen in Stor-Elvdal, will “forevermore be known as the shiniest and most attractive moose in the world.”
My favourite part of this was the Maclean’s Magazine interview with the man who created Moosejaw’s moose who continuously agreed that Norway’sis much nicer: “They had no aesthetic concerns whatsoever,” he said of the group that commissioned him. “They wanted big and cheap.”
Oh, and — speaking of Canadian communities’ love of big roadside attractions: hundreds of people are putting forward offers to house Vancouver Island’s World Tallest Gnome, who frankly isn’t going to win any aesthetic awards himself.
That’s it for the first edition of the Local, a newsletter from the frontlines of Canada. If you think it was worth reading, please forward it to a friend or share it on social media. And if you have any feedback or tips, feel free to hit reply or hit me up on Twitter.
’Til next time,
