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By Gary Roberts, November 26, 2009

Keep your eye on Uganda. There’s something stirring in the halls of parliament over there. Something ugly, evil and hateful and it’s getting ready to uncoil its oily, scaly body and bare its venom-filled fangs at a minority segment of Ugandan society.

The potential passing of a new Anti-Homosexuality Bill which seeks to legislate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people is a serious issue and, for some, a very real threat to their existence. If passed, this bill will put people to death if they enter into a sexual relationship with a member of the same sex.

According to Wambi Michael, a blogger at rabble.ca:

The Ugandan government will put to death gay citizens repeatedly caught having sex and throw into jail those who touch each other in a “gay” way, if a new proposed bill becomes law.

David Bahati, Ndorwa County West minister of parliament, tabled the bill saying Uganda needed comprehensive legislation to prohibit any form of sexual relations between people of the same sex.

The bill, according to Bahati, seeks to plug gaps in the Ugandan constitution, and stipulate that marriage is between a man and a woman only. Other unions will not be recognized. And if same sex couples are married abroad, they face life imprisonment.

Even friends and family of LGBT people won’t be safe from this bill—it will give authorities the power to imprison these people for up to three years if they fail to report that they know a gay person.

The bill would even seek to punish Ugandan citizens who enter into a homosexual relationship while traveling abroad.

Blithely unaware of the irony associated with his job title, Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo says he is happy the bill is causing a lot of debate globally:

It is with joy we see that everyone is interested in what Uganda is doing, and it is an opportunity for Uganda to provide leadership where it matters most. So we are here to see a piece of legislation that will not only define what the country stands for, but actually provide leadership around the world.

Whoa, careful now, people—this slope to the Middle Ages is becoming more and more slippery!

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By Gary Roberts, November 15, 2009

Coffee at the Luna Cafe

There was a young 20-some-year-old girl sat opposite me yesterday, as I stopped for a coffee at the Luna Café at Argyle & Dovercourt. She was listening to her iPod while reading a magazine. Her eyes never remained still for long, though, on whatever article she was supposedly reading. She kept glancing furtively at what few patrons were in the coffee shop, including myself. It was a bit disconcerting to feel like I was being watched continuously, as I sat and read at my own table not too far from hers. It made me nervous to the extent that I found myself copying her by peeking in her direction a few times. Once or twice our gazes clashed and we looked away quickly, as if caught in an illegal act of some sort. It was beginning to irritate me and I had to make a conscious effort to focus on my reading and not look over at her table.

I wonder what she was thinking at the time? I wonder if she’s now writing a blog entry about the strange guy in the café who kept looking in her direction?

Whatever. It was all very weird.

Our visual fencing didn’t stop me from enjoying the last rays of the sun, however, as it streamed through the windows of the café. I’d discovered this place while on a bike ride a few months ago and had promised myself I’d return to sample the coffee. I was also looking for a bite to eat, but the waitress told me they’d sold out of pastries and the kitchen was closed (it was around 3:30 p.m.). My only option was a packet of small, soft cookies. Meh! I settled for the coffee only, which was very good; thick, dark, strong. It packed a punch!

I read for a while—revising for a class I’m taking—before making my way home after an hour-long stroll around the west end of the city. The day was glorious, for November, but I could feel a chill in the air whenever I was out of the sun’s rays.

As I left the café, I couldn’t help but risk one more glance at the gadfly by the window, whose eyes quickly darted away from mine as she pretended to go back to reading her magazine.

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By Gary Roberts, October 21, 2009

Getting ready for the next exhibit in the Toronto Sculpture Garden

On my way to work today, I noticed what appear to be the beginnings of a fresh installment in the Toronto Sculpture Garden.

Nestled on the east side of La Maquette restaurant at Church and King Streets, just opposite the St. James Cathedral, this little al fresco gallery has served as home over the years to a number of artistic displays; such as an artist’s studio in the shape of a giant mushroom and, more recently, a 1970s-inspired Disco Fallout Shelter.

These structures have, over the last 12 months or so, both delighted and intrigued passers-by, as they make their way to the office or stroll around the city in hopes of discovering such gems in their role as tourists.

There’s a waterfall that flows down the side of the wall just through and to the left of the main entrance to the Sculpture Garden. It looks as if the way is being paved here (or boarded, to be more precise) for yet another sculpture; right now, there’s a wooden platform currently under construction directly beneath the waterfall.

According to the Sculpture Garden website, the soon-to-be-revealed piece of art is to be named Bear Hunt, a work by Dean Drever, a Haida artist who was born in Edmonton but who now lives in Toronto.

Drever’s piece will depict four orange bear figures as they move towards the wall, passing through the water, into the stonework, and whatever world lies beyond.

October 28 is the launch date for this new exhibit.

Update: And here are the bears!

Bear Hunt

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By Gary Roberts, October 1, 2009

Did you know that yesterday was International Blasphemy Day? For those of you who don’t know, IBD is a campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a day to promote free speech. By raising awareness, the campaign hopes to get people to show solidarity for the freedom to challenge, criticize, and satirize religion without fear of murder, litigation, or reprisal.

The event was created in reaction against those who would seek to take away the right to satirize and criticize a particular set of beliefs that have been given a privileged status over other beliefs. It is itself part of an ongoing campaign organized by the Center for Inquiry in its Campaign for Freedom of Expression, which began as a response to various United Nations bodies—including the UN’s Human Rights Council—having “…recently adopted resolutions condemning so-called ‘defamation’ of religion.”

According to the CFI:

These resolutions lend credibility to efforts to suppress dissent and criticism, especially in Islamic countries, but Western European countries are also debating laws that would criminalize religiously offensive statements. For example, Ireland recently enacted a new blasphemy law that prohibits publication of material “insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion.”

I find the whole idea of beliefs needing protection and rights abhorrent. Belief in your own particular version of a religion is a personal thing and shouldn’t intrude upon the human rights of others. If faith can’t stand firm in the face of criticism, then maybe one should be questioning the basis of that faith. Don’t put the onus (and the crime) on the people who don’t share those views.

Free speech is a right others have died for so that future generations could express themselves without fear of retribution. It is human beings—people, individuals who are locked away in cells, far from family and friends—who need rights, not ideologies based on dogma and revelation.

Richard Dawkins was in Toronto this week (the night before Blasphemy Day in fact) to give a reading from his latest book The Greatest Show on Earth. I attended the event with a couple of friends. At the Q&A at the end of the reading he was asked by a member of the audience as to his opinion on the recent Irish blasphemy law, to which he concluded after a longer reply; “blasphemy is a victimless crime.”

While I agree with him in principle on this, it’s unfortunate that the true victims of this “victimless crime” are the real flesh-and-blood people who find themselves on the receiving end of such archaic laws.

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By Gary Roberts, August 24, 2009

I hadn’t been out on my own on my bicycle for quite a while, so it was with with pleasure that I set off from home on two wheels yesterday afternoon, to wander the streets and weave my way through the west of the city in search of hidden gems.

It doesn’t always happen that I come across places of interest, but as I was speeding down Dovercourt at Argyle—trying to catch the lights before they turned red on me—I spotted a funky little café on my left and hit the brakes immediately to turn back and go take a look-see.

What I discovered was this beautiful little corner café with a definite European feel to it: small bistro tables outside; a big old gorgeous leaded window with black painted wood frames; a glass-brick-floored entrance way (with big plants reaching up to press their leaves onto the bottom of the glass from the basement below!), which then opened onto a cozy, intimate, sun-drenched, exposed-brick space inside.

The name of the venue was the Luna Café and it was a wonderfully charming little place.

I asked the waitress if I could take a look at the menu, which was fairly standard with its sandwiches, wraps, salads, roast potatoes and vegetables; as well as your usual weekend brunch fare of bacon & eggs, omelets, Eggs Benedict and its many variations.

It was around 5 p.m. when I stumbled (or rode?) upon the Luna Café and its staff was getting ready to close shop, but I’m really looking forward to venturing out to 181 Dovercourt Rd. again sometime soon, so I can sample the coffee (which still smelled great at that time!) and food there.

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By Gary Roberts, August 19, 2009

Fruit and vegetable stalls in the St. Lawrence Market

It’s nice having guests stay with us. It’s like having your own little family there, ready and waiting when you arrive home from work and shout: “Hi, kids - I’m home!” Of course, our current guests aren’t exactly kids; they’re two friends of mine, Marie & Tony, from way-back-when in the U.K. I got to know Marie at work, when I still lived in England, and she and I hit it off and became friends over a long period of time. Her husband, Tony, also worked for the same company as us, although he arrived there much later. They’re both very well traveled and have lived in a number of countries over a period of 10 years or so, including such places as China, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore and Dubai.

What makes such guests even more welcome is when they happen to be good cooks! I met Marie at lunchtime yesterday and we grabbed a bite to eat at the historic St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto. After we ate, I left her as she went on her merry way and did some food shopping for later on that evening, when she and Tony had promised to cook us a meal. So by the time El Franco and I got home yesterday, everything was prepared for a delicious dinner of:

• Freshly-made bruschettas for the appetizer
• Some melt-in-your-mouth risotto with leek, sage and plenty of parmesan
• Fresh strawberries cooked in a reduction of balsamic vinegar and basil, with dollops of soy ice cream

Hmm, mmm! Tony and Marie, if ever you read this: there will always be a place for you in our home, our hearts, and more importantly, our kitchen!

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By Gary Roberts, May 15, 2009

The Disco Fallout Shelter in Toronto's Sculpture Garden

…there goes the neighbourhood!

In actual fact, it’s the latest installment for Toronto’s Sculpture Garden in downtown King East. This particular artistic iteration—by Toronto/Vancouver-based artist collective Instant Coffee—is named the Disco Fallout Shelter (DFS) and is meant to represent “a glitzed-up and powder coated re-articulation of these prolific and often makeshift mid-twentieth century places built from fear.”

As you approach the shelter, you see a video screen showing images of the (supposed) people inside, doing whatever they would normally do should the world fall under the thrall of a nuclear winter. Walking towards the DSF along the bright yellow path, you hear the deep bass sound of dance music emanating from the two sparkling doors to the shelter.

It’s really quite conspicuous as I walk by the garden on the way to work, which it’s supposed to be, I guess. It is art after all.

I wonder if I’ll see Frodo emerge one day, dressed in ’80s disco spandex?

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By Gary Roberts, May 7, 2009

Robert & Liz on the Maid of the Mist, at Niagara Falls

The Niagara region is a beautiful area with its wineries, vineyards, and gently rolling hills. There are many creeks that meander through this fecund landscape, and hotels and restaurants (such as the Inn on the Twenty) can be found in abundance. One of the jewels in the crown of the Niagara region is a small village called Jordan, home to the inn above. It’s a gorgeous area, smack dab in the middle of wine country and not far from the well known Cave Springs winery. Niagara-on-the-Lake is a bigger, more commercial town, which still manages to maintain a sleepy, peaceful feel, with lots of bike paths and walkways following the shoreline of Lake Ontario and the Niagara River.

If you were to follow the Niagara River upstream, you’d soon arrive at the world famous Niagara Falls, which is now home to a number of casinos, hotels and tacky motels. The town of Niagara Falls is completely geared towards tourism and is nothing like some of the more prestigious destinations in this region. With the United States on one side of the river and Canada on the other, the hotels and casinos stand like sentinals on both sides of the Falls, staring across the water at their counterparts on the opposing shores.

The Falls themselves are impressive at any time of the year. The volume of water tumbling over the falls is truly staggering, yet hardly surprising when one considers the fact that this is actually an overspill from one Great Lake into another (Lake Erie into Lake Ontario).

This is where we found ourselves yesterday, after driving the two hours or so from Toronto. It was one of the destinations Robert and Liz (my nephew and his girlfriend) had requested we make on their visit from the U.K. Of course, once here, we just had to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist boats that travel to and from (and into) the spray from the waterfalls. It’s one of the major tourist attractions when visiting this natural wonder of the world. That, and a journey into the tunnels beneath the falls, which open out onto the sheet of water and awesome volume pouring out from above!

We only spent a few hours here and drove back to Toronto later that evening. The trip was a huge success as far as Robert and Liz were concerned, however, and they both seemed suitably impressed with the natural wonder of the Falls, if not the tackiness of the town itself.

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By Gary Roberts, May 6, 2009

A gigantic Robert & Liz on either side of the CN Tower

Ah, the CN Tower. How many times have I scaled its lofty heights? A few too many, I would say! Still, another visit was on the cards, this time with our British guests. The CN Tower is such a Toronto icon that we couldn’t possibly miss out on the opportunity of showing them the length, breadth and height of the city as seen from the Observation Deck and the ridiculously mind-numbing Glass Floor. Poor Liz. The best she could do was to muster up the courage to place her big toe on the Glass Floor, and that was only because she was being egged on by some other British visitors to the tower (most of whom had already faced their fear by stepping onto the glass).

After taking in the amazing views from the Observation Deck, we decided it was time to celebrate Liz’ feat of bravery by drinking a few beers at the regular restaurant on the lower level of the Deck. This place used to serve unassuming, cafe-style food, but I guess they recently revamped their mena and went fancy on us, which included a steep hike in prices. It was a bit disappointing to have to fork out such exorbitant prices, when really all you want is a snack like sandwiches and fries. Needless to say, we felt a bit cheated. Knowing that the management was taking advantage of a captive clientele, we decided to just grab a couple of beers before taking the elevator down, where we were summarily ejected into the middle of the souvenir/gift shop at the base of the tower.

Ah, well – onwards and upwards (or downwards, in this case) as they say. The Boy & Girl certainly had an iconic Toronto experience. Next stop, Niagara Falls!

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By Gary Roberts, April 17, 2009

How about a video from Antwerp, Belgium, featuring the dulcet tones of Miss Julie Andrews to lift your spirits on this Friday morning?