Have a Little Faith

When asked where you were on 9-11, your answer will be ready on the tip of your tongue. The memory, no doubt, still swims in your mind, pulsing and stubbornly vivid. But what if you’re asked where God was on the day the Twin Towers fell? Where was goodness? Where was peace? Where was he on the battlegrounds of the world wars, or in the concentration camps of 70 years ago? Is he there in the ghettos that line the dirt roads of Third World countries, or in the home of an abused child? Few know the answers to these questions. The concept of God, of a Higher Power – a symbol of eternal peace, happiness, and fulfillment – contrasts so strikingly with the broken world in which we live in that it’s becoming a terrible challenge to keep faith in our grasp. For many, the idea of having faith seems pointless if you’re serving a faceless God, a God who never seems to appear when he’s needed most. Confronted by the differing faces of religion, many become overwhelmed and surrender to the seemingly [Read more]

Fears and Phobias – In Fear and Trembling

Sprawled out on a lakeside dock, you revel in the sun as it warms your body. A tall glass of lemonade with crackling ice cubes sits next to you, beckoning another refreshing sip. With a page-turning book in hand, you absorb the words found beyond the lines of everyday life in a faraway land called cottage country. Slightly sensationalized perhaps, but we can all relate to that idyllic sense of escapism that can’t possibly be marred by anything. Right?

For most, this is true, but for some, this seemingly perfect scenario can be curtailed by one itsy bitsy encounter. For the latter group, an eight-legged creature can creep through the cracks and kill the entire experience. In fact, it can go further than that, preventing you from ever putting yourself in situations where the presence of spiders is probable.
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The Hatsquerade

Hats On For Awareness, a non-profit organization, hosts an annual fundraiser, The Hatsquerade, to support the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in its efforts to create widespread awareness of this disease. The organization has committed to raise $250,000 for the CAMH Volunteer Lounge at the hospital, which will provide a hub for client-focused activities and a Telephone Support Line, providing referrals to essential services. [Read more]

Reasons to Love Vaughan

We’ve scoured the city, chatted with prominent people and examined the evidence, all in our attempt to unearth the source of Vaughan’s allure. This is what we found.

Mayor Linda Jackson

Green Initiatives
With numerous green initiatives in place such as the Greening Vaughan program and an impressive 740 hectares of parks and acres of land ensured by the Woodlot Protection Strategy, Vaughan is committed to painting the city green. “The woodlots that you see that are speckled through our subdivisions are going to be there through perpetuity. Vaughan is one of the first municipalities in the province of Ontario to do this,” says Vaughan Mayor Linda Jackson. [Read more]