(Dr) James Fraser

Can we have a word about the rule of law, Prime Minister? It's how we ascertain that all the malarkey about "I'm not breaking into your house and assaulting you, dummy, I'm defending myself" is NOT malarkey. Do you expect us to accept the say-so of a war criminal and a serial liar?

I'll say this for the FIFA Peace Prize: it takes a surprisingly large number of illegal airstrikes to earn one.

Is that you in the dragon?

Yes! How can people wail about immigrants' ability to speak English if you teach them English? Pull that funding and let the wailing commence!

Terrible news that Sydney rugby league historian Terry Williams has died. A great bloke, a good friend, and a man who brought the history of the game to life. He was a huge help when I wrote my Roy Francis bio. He’s a massive loss for us all - the game is poorer for his passing.

It's amazing how strong a virus's effects can be when you pick it up from your kids. It's like it's been genetically programmed.

To paraphrase myself, knowledge is useless without the courage to use it.

Well, we have spent a generation allowing a degree to be belittled as a commodity with no other value than can be procured in dollars from the job that had better damn well be there at the end.

They can't draft and develop anybody, in any position, because the media and fanbase have no patience. It's been that way for 50 years. The Argos had the same difficulty when developing players was a CFL thing. Toronto wants big names now.

QED

Is there anything more dystopian than watching a roomful of university graduates give a standing ovation to a person who claims to have lowered the price of drugs by 500%?

I have boundless admiration and sympathies for Prof. Cogliano and everyone else professionally obligated to listen to the unhinged drivel of Melania’s crooked husband for 8 minutes, much less 108 minutes.

Absolutely. To be radical, how about Civic Stadium, which was its name for 30 years?

And there are TD Places, Arenas, Fields, Parks, and whatever else all over. Who can keep track?

Neil Peart called it something like "Popular American Beer Stage" in his memoirs, and likewise with other venues.

Kinda amazing that Trump shits on Canada and Mexico every day, and there's the Mexican-American captain of Canada's Toronto Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews, standing behind him as he defiles an Olympic Gold Medal

He hates your mother and your fans Auston Matthews but - you do you: be a collaborator

Hmmmm

There is literally no amount of money, even donated to my favourite charities, that could induce me to listen to this.

I love that the Ireland men's rugby team keep calling the England ground Twickenham rather than the Mini Cooper Amphitheatre or whatever dumb name it's been given. I wish everybody would always do this until the disease of corporate branding of stadia is cured. Starting with SkyDome in Toronto.

Neo-Citron* : I shudder to think what horrors it contains, but it's been a mainstay of my life since childhood and nothing is more comforting on a cold winter's night with a witch of a cold/flu.

(*if you're British, think Lemsip, but better)

The last of my three Substack articles for Black History Month is now live. The subject is an incident of racial abuse that occurred on the field in a Toronto Argonauts game in 1950 and how it was reported.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesefr...

All of which contributes to the outcome of the game being so damaging. Not because "hockey defines Canada", etc., but because of the grist it has supplied to Trump's various mills. It's just sports; except it isn't, because key public figures are ensuring it isn't (something as old as sport itself).

A keeper for my HIST1050 students to chew over.

This ⤵️

All I want from my AI plugin is for it to uninstall itself.

Wow. That was not a name I was expecting. Many congratulations to Alvin Jackson, a colleague with whom I worked very closely at Edinburgh, where he held the chair of British history (ah, 19th-century Ireland).

2026 is the 100th anniversary of the opening of Maple Leaf Stadium, as well as the Toronto Maple Leafs International and Little World Series championships.
It’s unfortunate the Jays don’t seem to have an interest in honouring that.

Once a president has stolen another country's oil and made it his own personal possession, what would really help him cash in would be to send oil prices through the roof by illegally attacking another oil country.

There have been other tacks taken in critiquing Ford's ignorant remarks; but I've particularly enjoyed how basket weavers have come out swinging.

Celebrating 100th anniversary of #BlackHistoryMonth, we're excited to launch Walk With Web's 2026 project: Teaching African Canadian History by @nhenrydixon.bsky.social.

This website offers comprehensive resources on Black history in Canada and the African Diaspora. Visit: tach.natashahenrydixon.ca

Hard not to like the look of that defence, even with McManis's name missing. If a coach can't make something special with that group, something is wrong.