The Wild Hunt, a first feature for Canadian director Alexandre Franchi, deals with a contemporary community of live-action role players who meet to battle in medieval reproduction armour. Shot over the summer of 2008 on half a million dollars, The Wild Hunt won the best Canadian first feature prize at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and the best film award at Slamdance in January. While the film is fictional, it was inspired by an actual community that meets each summer in rural Quebec. The movie throws us into a world where fantasy and reality bleed into one another to alarming effect: think Lord of the Rings meets Lord of the Flies. Check out www.wildhuntfilm. com for further details.

Thanks to $1M funding from the Assaly Financial Group the Ottawa Catholic School Board has opened its doors to the Sparrows Children’s Choir Program. The Program will bring 1700 additional singing children into the nest. Maestro and Director Uwe Lieflander has worked with over 10,000 children through the Sparrows program across Ontario and in Quebec. Thanks to generous donations, parents pay a minimal fee for child-centred classical music education provided by professional instructors — each student receives up to ten hours a week. Subsidy programs are available and children from outside the OCSB may participate. Maestro Lieflander recounts sitting across the desk of Thomas G. Assaly, and lamenting the slowness of a bureaucratic city and the challenge of securing funding in order to establish a Sparrows program in Ottawa. Assaly asked the Maestro whether a Plan B was in place should securing funding prove an obstacle. Lieflander replied that if no resources for the Sparrows were available...

Looking for a simple way to keep your company’s papers and books in order? There’s a new internet-based way to do it, thanks to Ledgerpal, a hot new web company based in Kemptville. President Rob Lunan explains how it works. “For a very low monthly fee, Ledgerpal offers its users a simple way to bill customers and keep records straight no matter where they are – all they need is a web connection via computer, iPad or smart phone (like blackberry or iPhone).” It is as secure as a bank, hosted on bank servers, and because it is on the web, can be shared with anyone you like. This lets your bookkeeper make updates directly from the office. It also lets the owner keep tabs on things while away. Check inventory and generate invoices or estimates on the fly. To find out more or register for a 30 day free trial go to www.ledgerpal.com.

On January 2001, OLM published its first Top People of the Capital Issue. Over the past decade, OLM has compiled a selection of the best and brightest honourees from all corners of the City. Choosing the TOP 50 is always a challenge — the National Capital Region is rich with likely candidates. Each year, our goal is to produce a list of individuals that is as thought provoking as it is diverse. Our TOP 50 reflects only a small swath of the citizens who lead and inspire the community. While honourees differ greatly in vocation and social circumstance, they share a commonality of making Canada’s capital city a better place… some of our selections are simply inspirational. We sift though all nominations and determine collectively who should be included. While we have a numbered list of TOP 10, the rest are considered first among equals, a rule that we maintain each year. This year Gentleman Jim Watson earns the top spot. Kim Lochhead’s cover story profiles Jim’s long...

SUMMER Cover, the ’A-Team‘ - Our cover story features profiles of five prominent Canadian journalists who have significant influence regarding how Canadians view politics and our politicians. CBC’s Power & Politics host Evan Solomon, CBC’s The House, host Kathleen Petty CTV’s Power Play host Tom Clark, CPAC’s Primetime Politics host Peter Van Dusen, and the Toronto Star’s Parliamentary Correspondent Tonda MacCharles report on the top political stories of the day and more often than not are the national media personalities who hold public officials accountable for their actions. The Greens Need to Move to the Centre The Liberal Party of Canada under Michael Ignatieff is rudderless. No surprise really. Many Liberals feel they have not abandoned the Liberal Party, but rather, it has abandoned them. Most Canadians live in the centre politically-speaking. They are somewhat fiscally conservative yet progressive on social issues. They do not vote for or believe in the politics...

The Easy Target Public servants are part of the solution to Canada’s economic challenges, not part of the problem. This issue begins an eight part series on Public Servants in Canada and will include profiles on some of the exceptional people who work to deliver a myriad of important services to Canadians. The best word to describe the federal Conservative government’s decision to slay the deficit by targeting Canada’s public servants by cutting jobs, salaries and pensions in the coming year is nasty. The looming cuts are said to be more severe than those implemented by Paul Martin in 1995 under former Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien. The OECD reports that Canada is coming out of the current recession in a stronger fiscal position than any other G-20 country. Our debt and deficit are low and manageable when compared to those of the United States and all European countries. The Harper and McGuinty governments correctly initiated a stimulus package last year, spending billions of dollars...

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CBC News Top Stories — Jobs report suggests weakness, economists say    (Friday, 10 September 2010 11:29) The number of people employed and the unemployment rate both increased in August, Statistics Canada reports. — BCE to spend $1.3B to buy CTV    (Friday, 10 September 2010 11:19) Montreal-based BCE Inc. says it will spend $1.3 billion to buy the CTV television network, which would make it one of North America's biggest communications conglomerates. — Bishop's College settles sex abuse suit    (Friday, 10 September 2010 11:17) A Quebec judge has approved an out-of-court settlement worth $1.15 million for former students of Bishop's College School for sexual abuse they allegedly endured...

Globe and Mail Headlines — Residents in Listowel, Ont. warned to stay inside as police search for man with gun    (Friday, 10 September 2010 10:53) Police say incident involving firearm occured in community north of Stratford — Nearly three-quarters of Ontario adults are obese or overweight    (Thursday, 09 September 2010 15:58) High blood pressure affects one-third of both obese men and women, research indicates — Ontario to gets its space in Canada’s embassy in Washington    (Wednesday, 08 September 2010 14:46) Province will follow Alberta’s lead and open its own office to ‘ensure that Ontario's interests are represented’ — New...

 "Stupid is as Stupid Does" ~ Forrest Gump .... Or, “The Past lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body”.  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne... It’s funny to see all the media jumping on the Jacques Martin bandwagon. “He is brilliant”, they say. “To witness how his coaching has changed and adapted for the new era is remarkable”, I’ve heard numerous times. Yeah, Jacques Martin has the Canadiens playing tight, disciplined hockey with a reliance on opportunistic counterattacks for offence. When the Habs do get it deep they execute an up-tempo, remorseless cycle that has lead to frequent quality scoring chances. So, what’s new? That was the same formula used by the Senators when Martin was coaching them. Year in and year out, under Martin, the Senators were one of the top defensive teams while finishing consistently near the top in goals scored. The Senators were extremely disciplined and moved the puck so rapidly out of their own end they were always a step ahead of the other...

With the 2010 Paralympic Games underway in Vancouver, we can support our athletes in two ways.   Firstly, you can watch them. For the first time in history, CTV will be covering 57 hours of live Paralympic Games events (30 in French, 27 in English). See the following ways in which you can stay updated: ·         TV schedule for events ·         Online Paralympic Games coverage ·         VANOC Paralympic schedule and results ·         Paralympic sport, sledge hockey & up-to-date 2010 Games content: join the CPC on Facebook  ,Twitter  ·         CPC website: www.paralympic.ca   Secondly, Pfizer is showing its Paralympic and community spirit with a new, fundraising viral film and the Canadian Paralympic Committee is hoping you’ll spread the news.   Every time someone views the film at morethanmedication.ca and sends it to a friend, Pfizer will donate $5 to the Canadian Paralympic team. Share this with...

Is it just me or did the Canada-U.S. game start late? For the Canadians it did. I finally saw a glimmer of the famous Canadian heart at about the ten minute mark of the third period. To be fair, our boys looked awesome from that point on. Even so, the Americans were in control from the opening faceoff. The U.S. played an excellent up-tempo game with some jam and a sense of urgency. They attacked, took risks and played with a kind of “damn your eyes” attitude the rest of the world always attributed to Canadian hockey players.  It is sickening to hear Canadian commentators hide behind the superlative goaltending of Ryan Miller. The U.S. earned this victory and won as a team. Canada did not look like a team. I must admit, I was concerned in the days leading up to the game when Coach Mike Babcock said the Canadians had been playing without passion. Are you kidding me? This is not the NHL All-Star Game. This is the Olympics..., the biggest stage in the world. Show your heart! Rise to...