By Jason Menard,
Vancouver’s legacy won’t be one of shattered glass and the residual stench of long-died-out flames; instead, the post-Stanley Cup riots will be a defining event in using social media to combat mob behaviour.
Unfortunately, what’s started as a good story of an on-line community rallying around its city to bring a group of cowards to justice is rapidly becoming a cautionary tale about the lure of anonymity both online and off. Continue reading
By Jason Menard,
The riots in Vancouver were not perpetrated by fans; instead, this ugly blight on a beautiful city was caused by cowards who used a hockey game to fan the flames of violence and stupidity.
All over Facebook, Twitter, and traditional media, people are criticizing Vancouverites for the horrendous actions that followed the Canucks’ game-seven loss to the Boston Bruins. And while the criticism is warranted, it’s also misdirected. Continue reading
By Jason Menard,
In trying to hush the teachers of St. Thomas Aquinas, the London District Catholic School Board may have inadvertently drawing much-needed attention to a long-running story.
Administrators across the city should be quaking in their boots as it’s not just at the Catholic high school where the student inmates are running the asylum. And it’s time for school boards to support their front-line workers – the teachers who are increasingly fighting a battle against their students with their hands bound by administrative lunacy. Continue reading
By Jason Menard,
An allegedly plagiarised speech delivered at a recent University of Alberta banquet had some calling for the dean’s head on a platter. But whether it should ultimately be served up should depend solely on how the school would handle a student who did the same thing.
The key to success when it comes to discipline and fairness is the same key to success for restaurants — consistency. If the university maintains its stance on their dean’s plagiarism, then they have to ensure they have the stomach to deal with future students who serve up the same recipe. Continue reading
By Jason Menard
You know the old adage about what you should call a spade? Well, run that tool through a marketing department and it’ll be time to call a spade an efficiency-increasing earth adjusting implement.
And in the case of a Toronto Star article that ran today discussing the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, the fog created by biz speak can run the risk of creating a tool that ends up doing the wrong job for its users. Continue reading
The M-Dash by Jason Menard 