Written by Jeff Green

There was a point, during the heat of the summer, when new COVID-19 infections were as rare as snowflakes in July, and life under the ‘new normal’ was indeed pretty normal for many of us. The opportunity to gather in backyards, parks and beaches and cottage docks and lawns, to… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

I prepared an editorial about the second wave of COVID19 and the challenge it will bring to our communities in the coming months, for this week’s edition. But after witnessing the ceremony at Granite Ridge Education Centre earlier today, I decided that the pandemic will still be here next week… READ MORE

Written by Hazel Taylor-Quick

"Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly,” says Dr. Tedros Adhanom, the Director-General World Health Organization. He is right. I am a grade 8 student at Module Vanier, and have started this school year in a full-blown pandemic. I must wear a mask from the moment I… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

  The Chanukah holiday traditions are pretty well known in the larger community, mainly because the holiday takes place during the pre Christmas season. However, the most important Jewish holidays, the High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, usually occur in September. With the Rosh Hashana getting underway this weekend,… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

The return to school is complicated, and the true character of the experience will vary for every family, every classroom, and every school. Schools are publicly funded, bureaucratic institutions. They are administered by employees of school boards, which approve every penny they spend, and all of the protocols they follow.… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

Kingston City Council was relatively calm, resigned, dissappointed, and a tad, ok more than a tad, self righteous on Tuesday Night when, following the lead of Mayor Paterson, they agreed to turn the other cheek and abandon any attempts to reason with Frontenac County over how much City ratepayers will… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

A teacher from Los Angeles by the name of Tom Rademacher summed up the dilemma around schools reopening this September, back on June 7, in a pithy tweet: “Going back to school in the fall is a bad idea. Doing distance learning in the fall is a bad idea. Some… READ MORE

MPP Randy Hillier has been active on social media in recent weeks. He has been critical of the Ford government, charging it with using the COVID-19 state of emergency as a pretext for a series of omnibus bills which bypass democratic checks on its power, in order to promote initiatives… READ MORE

A couple of weeks ago there was a bit of an apocalyptic feeling in the air. The oak tree that drops acorns, that sound like gunshots, onto my office roof in the fall most years, was shedding dried, half chewed leaves on the ground at the front door.  This was… READ MORE

Written by Jan Miler

I grew up near Palmerston, a small Ontario town with a population of 1,800. A monochrome kind of town, so I was pretty sure I didn’t have any prejudices or systemic bias. How could I? We were farm kids, so I didn’t even know about white privilege. My father, who… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

It has been more than sobering for many of us. After a steady, but slow trend towards opening up our lives over a couple of months, during which time COVID-19 cases completely dried up in our region and restaurant patios re-opened, as did most of the retailers who were shuttered… READ MORE

Written by Bill Bowick

What’s in a name? A great deal. That’s what! It’s the sound which captures your attention when someone calls out to you in a crowd. It’s the thing that distinguishes you from all the others in the crowd. It’s the mark you put on important papers as a pledge. It’s… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

note – Depending on your feelings about zoom and the people you zoom with, the following are interchangeably do's or don'ts   Wear a clown mask Wear nothing Never speak Speak constantly and emphatically and never unmute interrupt incessantly line up zoom meetings for an entire day and then forget… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

I don't know about the rest of you, but it seems to me that we are just now hitting the most difficult stretch of time that we will likely face in this year of the COVID. It's been over two months since the shutdown. We sheltered in place, watched Netflix,… READ MORE

Written by Jeff Green

As I write this on Tuesday, we have reached a milestone in our KFL&A region. Public Health's daily update on the spread of COVID-19 says that we have not had a confirmed case of the virus anywhere in the City of Kingston, Frontenac or Lennox and Addington Counties, for 14… READ MORE

Written by Bernie Dertinger

The latest message from FOCA repeats the recommendation of all the pundits from premier Ford to the mayor of Perth for cottagers to stay at home and not to go the cottage. Frontenac council issued a similar message. Agreed, social distancing is the most important and most effective tool to… READ MORE