"Veterans Share Trauma"

Finally, after months of work, the Montreal Gazette has published my article on Veterans helping each other with PTSD and other psychological trauma. All 1,500 words of it is on page B3 of today's Gazette, in the Saturday Extra Section.

The photo was taken by Gazette photographer Pierre Obendrauf Tuesday at Acceuil Bonneau, a mission in Old Montreal where luckily, three of my four main characters were volunteering and looking for homeless veterans.

This story started as a project for my online journalism course at Concordia, which is where I conducted interviews with Beaudin, Lacoste, and Veterans Affairs Canada clinicians. You can see the project, which includes YouTube videos and soundslides, by going to my course blog.

Once I got the green light from the Gazette in late April, I finally got interviews with Trépanier and Jean, which I had been trying to get since I started the project in February.

Moving forward, Trépanier and a friend of his are working on launching a website for social support for people with PTSD. I have been asked to contribute to the site, which should be launched in the fall.

Tweeting the Google Street View car (update)

MAY 30 UPDATE: My Twitter-Google story is in today's Gazette, page B2. The online version links to the map below of Google Street View car sightings.

View Tweets of Google Street View Car Sightings In Montreal in a larger map

These photos were taken by Redmond Shannon of where the car parks at night:

From each according to his ability, to each...

Yesterday basically being the closest thing communists have to a holiday, I published an article in the Montreal Gazette about our small but vocal extreme-left community here.

They marched downtown yesterday (took the shots below outside Concordia). But protests downtown is what Montreal looks like pretty much every day, so I doubt it turned too many heads. According to the Montreal Police, there are over 1500 demonstrations a year here. Why is this city so angry?

Anyway, my European friends don't understand why North Americans find communists so exotic, but if any of this has made you curious about communism, here's an edited transcript of my conversation with two communist activists.