National Post

Oldest water on Earth found bubbling up from ancient Ontario oasis — 2.6 billion years old
Miners drilling deep underground in northern Ontario have long known about the sparkling salty water.

It’s been bubbling out of the rocks beneath their feet since the 1880s, but no one really appreciated the significance — until now.

An international research team reported Wednesday that miners near Timmins are tapping into an ancient underground oasis that may harbour prehistoric microbes. The water flowing out of fractures and bore holes in one mine near Timmins dates back more than a billion years, perhaps 2.6 billion, making it the oldest water known to exist on Earth, says the team that details the discovery in the journal Nature.

“This is the oldest [water] anybody has been able to pull out, and quite frankly, it changes the playing field,” says geologist Barbara Sherwood Lollar, at the University of Toronto, who co-led the team. (Barbara Sherwood Lollar)

npostlife:

What’s the taste of spring beer? In Canada this year, it’s maple syrup Whether in a porter, a Belgian ale or a smoked beechwood malt beer, maple syrup is finding its way out of the sugar shack and into the mash tun this spring. Jason Rehel examines the trend in the latest instalment of The Beer Frontier.
[Photo credit: Jason Rehel]

Ontario schoolgirl uses secret code word to outwit potential abductor in ‘textbook example’ of street proofing
A 10-year-old girl who outwitted two potential abductors by asking them for a secret code word has been praised by police for her quick thinking.

The girl was approached on Monday outside Applecroft Public School in Ajax, Ont., by a strange man trying to lure her into his car. The man, who was accompanied by a woman sitting in the passenger seat, claimed the girl’s mother had sent him to pick her up.

The girl and her family had established a secret password to be used as proof a person was really sent by her parents.

“She asked this person what the code word was and obviously they got it wrong,” Dave Mason of Durham Regional Police told CTV. “She told them ‘You got the code word wrong’ and that person left.”

Ontario imposing new contracts on tens of thousands of teachers and education workers in public schools across the province
Ontario’s governing Liberals are imposing new contracts on tens of thousands of teachers and education workers in public schools across the province.

Education Minister Laurel Broten says she’s using Bill 115 to impose the new collective agreements on elementary and high school teachers, to freeze wages and stop strikes as the government battles a $14.4-billion deficit.

However, Broten says once the contracts are imposed, the government will move to repeal the controversial law. (Dave Chidley/CP)

Queen’s Park for a day: Steve Murray gets a behind-the-scenes look at the prorogued Ontario legislature
The Ontario legislature won’t sit again until at least January, and yet, people still go there. So Steve Murray went to see what it is they do.

‘We cannot childproof the whole world’: Mother criticized over fight to banish acorns from schoolyard
One parent’s bid to remove four oak trees from a park straddling her acorn-allergic daughter’s elementary schoolyard has generated fresh debate over what lengths authorities should go to eliminate childhood risks, and when the line between reasonable accommodation and overreaction is crossed.

Donna Giustizia told Vaughan, Ont., city council that the saplings dropping tree nuts onto school property pose a threat to young students with anaphylaxis-inducing allergies and are infringing on their right to a nut-free space.

But the request is being met with broad skepticism, as city councillors are forced to mull the tricky business of altogether removing something that might be a risk for a small segment of the population.

Quebec student leader takes protest on road as group looks to create Ontario ‘strike movement’
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, known for his telegenic looks and refusal to condemn violence, has been recruited to teach Ontario student leaders about Quebec’s paralyzing student strikes, as Ontario students appear to be setting the stage for their own season of discontent.

The Canadian Federation of Students has organized and funded Mr. Nadeau-Dubois and other Quebec organizers to tour 10 Ontario universities for its Quebec-Ontario Student Solidarity Tour.

“We are optimistic that a general student strike in Ontario can and will succeed, given the right ingredients,” an open letter from Quebec activists to the CFS said, adding the letter “represents a first step towards creating a radical, democratic strike movement in Ontario and beyond.” (Photo: Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Sex worker Nikki Thomas talks about normalizing her profession in the light of Ontario’s court ruling
Nikki Thomas has a distinctly rosy view of her job, even though she needs elaborate safety protocols at the Toronto apartment where she works with a fellow prostitute. This week’s Ontario appeal court ruling legalizing brothels left many sex workers feeling empowered and triumphant, Ms. Thomas among them. As the executive director of the Sex Professionals of Canada, the case thrust her into the spotlight as the modern voice and face of the sex trade — as she experiences it. The loquacious and well-educated woman might be seen as Canada’s Happy Hooker and she says we had better get used to it. In the glow of the court victory, she chatted with the National Post’s Adrian Humphreys about prostitution moving out of the shadows. Here is some of that conversation:

“Legal reform is just the first step and it would be incredibly wonderful to get rid of the laws that put us in danger, but that is not going to do much about the social stigma sex workers face. We do absolutely believe it is a legitimate profession and, in a lot of ways, no different from any other legal profession that provides a service to a client.

In order for that part of the battle to be won we have to stress the fact that we are pretty much just like any other Canadian — we work regular hours, we have families and just try to get by and pay the bills like anybody else.” (Photo: Farley Tarn/www.farleytarn.com)

Related:
Ontario Court of Appeal greenlights brothels, sweeps aside many of Canada’s anti-prostitution laws
Marni Soupcoff: When they legalized brothels, Ontario judges should have okayed street solicitations too
Prostitution laws around the world: Canada ‘in about the middle’ of G8 countries
Father Raymond J. de Souza: If prostitution is a tragedy, why make it easier?
Jonathan Kay: A worthy, measured blow for prostitution-law reform
Barbara Kay: Prostitution is an affliction, not a profession

Ontario Court of Appeal greenlights brothels, sweeps aside many of Canada’s anti-prostitution laws
The Court of Appeal for Ontario has swept aside some of the country’s anti-prostitution laws saying they place unconstitutional restrictions on prostitutes’ ability to protect themselves.

The landmark decision means sex workers will be able to hire drivers, bodyguards and support staff and work indoors in organized brothels or “bawdy houses,” while “exploitation” by pimps remains illegal.

However, openly soliciting customers on the street remains prohibited with the judges deeming that “a reasonable limit on the right to freedom of expression.” (Photo: ANOEK DE GROOT/AFP/Getty Images/Files)

Infographic: Where Ontario’s money goes now
A report to be released Wednesday by economist Don Drummond will contain hundreds of proposals for Ontario to rein in its $16-billion deficit that could be an example to other jurisdictions struggling to control spending. Read complete coverage here; below, where Ontario’s money goes now. Click through to view a larger version. (Illustration by Richard Johnson/National Post)

Anti-bullying bill subverts Catholic curriculum: group
A private group of Catholic parents is worried Ontario’s proposed anti-bullying legislation, Bill 13, will force the religious schools their children attend to change fundamental Church teachings on homosexual behaviour.

“Our concern is that this anti-bullying legislation is meant to bring a change in the Catholic curriculum,” said Teresa Pierre, director of Ontario Catholic Parent Advocates, which wants to see Bill 13 dropped. “We are concerned about the potential erosion of Catholic principles.

“The province’s goal is to change Catholic social teaching in our schools under the cause of ending homophobia. I think they’re following the momentum of a social agenda that has been at work for the past 10 years.”

“We would not tolerate negative speech toward anyone based on his or her sexual orientation in our schools,” she said. “Nevertheless, we don’t want society telling the Church what is proper behaviour and what it should teach.”  (Photo: Peter J. Thompson/National Post)

Ryerson student takes veganism discrimination dispute to Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario is to decide whether ethical veganism is a creed, as protected by anti-discrimination laws, in the case of a Ryerson University master’s student in social work who claims senior faculty “sabotaged” her career because of her moral equivalence of animals and humans.

Sinem Ketenci, 37, who immigrated from Turkey as a young woman and studied at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay before doing a master’s at Ryerson, alleges a senior professor disagreed with her comparison of maltreated animals with marginalized people, said the connection was “very inhuman and racist,” and pressured Ms. Ketenci’s untenured supervisor into withdrawing his recommendation of her PhD candidacy at other schools, which she called an academic “kiss of death.”

In an interview Monday, Ms. Ketenci said the fallout has extended to her personal life, costing her friends among fellow students, and left her “traumatized.”

“This systemic discrimination and harassment that silences marginalized minority peoples’ voices, such as me as a Racialized Ethical Vegan, is a serious threat towards freedom of speech and freedom of belief,” Ms. Ketenci writes in her complaint to the tribunal.

“I entered the [master’s] program with good intentions, and instead, I was attacked and treated unfairly because of my belief in ethical veganism and because I am a member of a marginalized community, vegan animal rights activists.” (Photo: Peter J. Thompson/National Post)

Illustration by Steve Murray. Rob Ford has had a very bad few days, leaving us all with the question What the #!%* did Rob Ford say to the 911 operator?