Paralympic Super Athlete – Golden Moments

The buzzer sounds and for three and a half minutes Victoria Nolan pulls on her paddles with all her might, feeling the tension of the water through her arms. A year of intense training has led up to this crucial moment, and soon she’ll have her victory.

“To come out and win gold, you realize that this is what it takes, and it was all worth it,” she says of her and her team’s triumph in the adaptive rowing event at the 2010 World Rowing Championships in New Zealand. She has maintained this philosophy of hard work while training for this year’s adaptive rowing event at the London Paralympics. Dedication and perseverance are common words in Nolan’s vocabulary. Diagnosed with an eye disease at 18, she discovered that she had been gradually losing her eyesight for years. With the birth of her two children accelerating her condition, Nolan was left with three per cent of her vision. As a result, she became Read more

Pedestrian Deaths in the GTA

Thousands of thoughts scatter through our minds as we scurry from one place to the next – from the bank to the bus stop, from the parking meter to a meeting, from the curb to the cab across the street. We carelessly cascade from work to play with a ticking clock beating in the back of our heads, perhaps forgetting to remember that one tiny slip in a driver’s judgement or a pedestrian’s alertness can lead to a catastrophe. We jeer at the concept of a nine-to-five life, wishing that minimalist expression actually rang some slight tone of truth. Wondering where the time went, the pedestrian puts an extra hop in her step as the driver gently steps on the gas. What’s an extra 10 kilometres, anyway? With every motion that we make, we guide our own fate. It takes just one second for lives to be turned upside down. Does the thought of safely crossing the street even cross your mind? What role does right-of-way really play? Read more