About Me

I was born and grew up in Cornwall, a smelly and rusting industrial town in beautiful, rural Eastern Ontario, Canada. When I was 8, my family followed my mom's job and moved to Brampton, a veritably hideous and pestilential suburb on the fringe of Canada's largest city, Toronto. When I moved out, I gravitated to an urban life in nearby downtown Toronto. I love T.O. It's a great place to live.

I have two younger siblings.

My brother Stuart once wanted to join the Canadian military and be a peacekeeper or, barring that, perhaps an obnoxious radio-show host. Today, he's after a career in computer technology something-or-other.

My sister Meagan has a beautiful little baby daughter who I adore, my wonderful 2-year-old niece Ayla, and reports say there's another on the way. They live in the industrial steel-town city of Hamilton, Ontario, at the western edge of the lake. Ayla's so cute and wonderful it should be criminal.

My mother grew up on a farm in rural Eastern Ontario, in town called Mille Roches. It was obliterated when the St. Lawrence Seaway ploughed through the area and flooded much of the surrounding region. The former residents of the many flooded towns remember the land with longing and some resentment that it was so callously taken away. Her family moved to Cornwall. Like most rural families in Canada, hers was very poor and socially troubled. Endowed with great resourcefulness, ingenuity and immense perseverance, her family managed with effort to escape from grinding poverty.

My father grew up in poverty-stricken rural Eastern Ontario as well, in the Old Ontario Scottish village of Maxville. His grandmother spoke Gaelic. He worked as a surveyor for most of his life, and took to contracting work later on. He was a genius with handiwork, from carpentry and home repair to mechanical work, and was about as pragmatic a person as it's possible to find (maybe too much so). He made wine and was a skilled beekeeper, and both he and my mother were avid gardeners.

His childhood was brutal and nasty, typical of the "golden age of family values". His was a troubled soul.

On the night of Saturday, March 28th, 1998, at 8:00, after a two-day coma, my father died of terminal brain cancer in the company of my mother and in the comfort of his own home. He was 56 years old. He had three children, all grown, and one beautiful grandaughter. He went peacefully, after saying goodbye to his family and friends.

• An Obituary
• Father and Son: A lament, and perhaps part confession, from a distanced son.

I went to the University of Toronto and have a B.A. in archaeology and linguistics. I work as a writer, writing some cool things (restaurant, movie and book reviews, travel and political writing, creative stuff) for fun and way too little money, and boring but apparently corporately useful things (such as technical and marketing writing) when I need real income. I write all sorts of fiction and non-fiction. You'll find a small selection of my older writing in these pages.

I read obsessively. I'm hopelessly addicted to ancient history, politics, biology and a vast host of other subjects.

In truth, I'm captivated by everything about the human story, from all aspects of history to psychology and social trends to biology and general science. It all forms for me a quest for meaning and understanding, a search we all share.

I love classical and ancient literature. One of my favourite authors is Tacitus. He wrote fantastic histories, some of the first ethnographies and gripping political criticism. Much of what he wrote sounds strikingly modern in its style and tone. Plutarch is another favourite of mine, as are Pliny and Cicero. Probably my favourite piece of writing is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It's perhaps one of the greatest literary works ever, especially considering that it's the oldest piece of human literature of which we're aware.

Evolutionary biology is one of my more obsessive interests. Form, pattern, method, contingency, theory, structure, the patterns of life's history never cease to amaze me.

Ancient North American history fascinates me. The native peoples of North and South America were brilliant. They built fantastic civilizations throughout the Americas, but were savagely attacked, enslaved and butchered by the barbarian European ancestors of those who now claim the hemishpere. Even Canada, my own cold northern country, was home to several great societies, both tradional "civilizations" and some less sedentary but still remarkable cultures. Their descendants live here to this day. Possibly one of the most remarkable human societies ever, the Inuit peoples of the north, represent a major component of the Canadian cultural mosaic, while only representing a tiny fraction of the country's total population.

Local history is also one my passions. Toronto and Canada have gripping, fascinating pasts, filled with fantastic characters and people and victories and hopes and dreams and defeats and tragedies and lessons for everyone.

Political issues are very important to me. I've come to realize that apathy is downright dangerous. As Aristotle said, "The man (person?) who is not political is worse than useless". We allow those who are ambitious, callous or apparently qualified to wield far too much authority over our lives. In the West today, people live in relative freedom, but this only obscures the real chains that make us subjects to subtler tyrranies and the barely concealed ambitions of the rich and powerful.

I'm not ideological, as a rule, and I try to keep an open mind on most subjects. But if you wanted to categorize my philosophical system, the description that best describes me is probably "anarcho-syndicalist", or more appropriately "Libertarian anarchist with communal sensibilities". In lieu of an anarcho-syndicalist free-market civil-libertarian non-state establishing itself in the near future, I'm a social democrat. You could safely say that I'm pretty liberal on every subject, meaning that I'm generally open-minded, and think that people should be left to do whatever they do as long as they don't hurt others, assume personal power over others or flagrantly abuse the resources required by all.

I like cold weather. I really do. Especially windy days, they're so elemental and powerful and frightening and inspiring. When it's not minus 30 degrees outside, or sometimes when it is, I enjoy cycling, rowing and photography. I go to a lot of movies, and I love theatre. Find me at any one of Toronto's festivals.

During the summer, I love to spend time on Toronto's dream-like Islands, cycling on the many beautiful and wild bike paths throughout the city, and partaking of other such quintessentially Torontonian past-times. I love dragon-boat racing and the feel of rushing water splashing over your face as the drums peal out the call for every blood-pounding stroke of the paddle. For more information on dragon-boating in Toronto, visit these websites:
The Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival, the Great White North dragon boat race, at Ontario Place, and the Greater Tornto Dragon Boat Club.

I'm absolutely addicted to camping, hiking, and anything even remotely having to do with the outdoors, with the possible exception of rock climbing, which is fun but crazy. Some bad experiences, there. I can see how rock climbing is a very useful skill, but why anyone would willingly do something so patently dangerous boggles me.

I keep lots of plants, which I adore and love, and like to spend time with friends, who I also try to appreciate. I've come to understand, so far, that people are the most important elements of life you'll ever discover, and that you can find the source of real inspiration in their faces, joys, sufferings and companionship. Sharing your life and the lives of others can be the most rewarding thing a person can do.

I don't know what experience I could share. Lessons can come hard and painful in life, though I have relatively little cause for complaint, and as such I can't lay claim to any special wisdom. But here are some thoughts.

As a rule, I've found that it's probably good to tell and show people you appreciate them while they're with you, whenever you can. I haven't always done this, and the price has been far too high.

I've tried to affect change for the better when I could, but not nearly often enough. I think it's important not just to live for yourself, and live well, but to find some way to make the world a better place for everyone. I once thought the prevention of suffering in others was one of the most important things a person could do; I've since learned that even this has to be done with great care. The world is a very complex and beguiling place, and solutions to difficulties are rarely simple or straightforward. Simply avoiding pain and suffering can often cause more trouble than would otherwise have occurred, but doing nothing is tantamount to being destructive yourself.

Emotions are confusing and frequently conflict with each other. But above all else, I've found throughout my life that fear, pain and guilt are very poor motivators. They're complex traps that confine and damage everyone involved, and though sometimes it takes real nerve to step outside your situation long enough to find a way out, it often must be done. If you can learn to appreciate it, others can help lend a hand when necessary. We are frequently the cause of our own internal isolation and exile.

One thing I think it's important to remember at all times: life should be revered. Life is a beautiful thing, whether it's a slug you discover, a funky looking bug crawling across your table, a starfish inching its way across an rocky ocean tidal zone, a forest brimming with chaotic life, a small child learning to speak or an elderly couple gently holding hands and exchanging knowing glances. I think we should treat life with a great sense of awe and wonder, at all times, because it's wonderful by nature. Why damage something when you can appreciate and help, instead? It's easy to destroy. To create and to honour are much more demanding, challenging and worthwhile tasks.