It’s no wonder women are afraid to age

After 35 years, Lisa Laflamme was “retired” from her role as CTV National News anchor. The award-winning news anchor was 58. A couple of years back, she stopped dying her hair and went grey, and she continued to do her job expertly and continued to look sensational. Why am I linking these two topics and even writing about this? Simply put, …

Elephants and women have long memories

Elephants and women don’t forget. In mid-June, Reuters reported that Happy the elephant would remain confined at the Bronx Zoo. The “New York State’s highest court on Tuesday ruled against an animal rights group that said she deserved some of the same rights as humans and should be freed.” Nine days later, Mississippi’s abortion ban was upheld 6-3, and Roe …

Something stinks about Algoma board’s lack of women

Back in 2015, Prime Minister Trudeau validated women when he presented a cabinet with gender parity, explaining his rationale unapologetically: “Because it’s 2015.” Yet, in July 2021, he offered Algoma Steel $420 million toward environmental improvements. Why is this a problem? According to its website, Algoma Steel has no women executives, and no women on the board. Perhaps it’s time …

Keep protesting fashion policies

Telling women (and men) what they can and can’t wear has to stop. It has to stop in our classrooms, it has to stop in our workplaces, and as it has to stop with our athletes. I remember my daughter avoiding wearing a beautiful long sundress to school, concerned that she would be criticized for violating the dress code because …

Fitting dudes for denim much more seamless

Some people might think that it would be impossible to write a column about jeans, but that person would likely be a man. For women, there’s lots to talk about, including: everchanging styles, pockets (or the lack thereof), vanity sizing, and jean gender GAP differences. Why my new interest in opining about denim wear? I’ve been looking for a pair …

Men in speedos reveal plenty

“How many industries would totally collapse if women stopped feeling ashamed about our bodies?” was the random musing that a friend posed to me in a recent email. She went on to say: “Why can’t we all have the confidence of the middle-aged men shopping for Speedos at my work yesterday?” Considering that she works in downtown Toronto, and there …

Happy hunting ladies

One in four new hunters in Ontario is female, according to the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. This was one of the interesting statistics presented during the Hunter Education course that I took in September at Sault College from Jane and Reg Perry. Looking around my classroom, where women outnumbered the men, the numbers would actually show that 2.56 …

More women take aim

When I walked into the firearms safety course last weekend, imagine my surprise when I saw that the women in the room outnumbered the men. Like the Aerosmith song says: “Janie’s got a gun” or at least she wants to get one, or else she wouldn’t be in this room. Why were so many women interested in the ability to …

Remembering missing, murdered women

It’s been just over two weeks since more than 300 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped and some were forced into “marriage” with their abductors. Their families and advocates around the world are trying to get the word out and apply political pressure with the social media campaign BringBackOurGirls. Closer to home, hashtag #MMIW represents an important conversation regarding over 800 …

Ontario government needs to follow through on its promises

The Ontario Throne speech presented last week has me thinking a lot, but my worry is that not as much thought went into it. I put on my cynic’s cap and found a few choice excerpts: “We carved our province out of a harsh northern land.” And then “we” promptly moved south and forgot about the North. “They began to …