I did it. It was unintentional, but I did it. It was stupid and shoddy.

My last column contained questions for the Pope that quoted passages mostly from Leviticus.

The slight acknowledgement I gave for the source of the column was not enough: some readers have believed that I wrote the questions myself when I did not. Some readers knew that I had not written them and some have accused me of plagiarism.

I had no idea the questions had been floating around the Internet for months or years; I saw them only once, in an email that gave no source, no Internet address for them.

Governments which choose to actively consult the public on issues ranging from budget to policy decisions need to realize a few things. The first is that if you ask ordinary citizens for their opinion, they're going to give it to you, loud and clear. The second is that you may get more feedback than you bargained for. The third is this: restrict the discussion to your peril.

These were the messages I heard at the first Ontario Citizens' Dialogue, designed to provide the provincial government with direction on the budget and its projected $5.6 billion deficit.

On 26 January, 2002, Lisa Ndejuru and two other activists from Montreal/Ottawa communities left Montreal for Iraq. They were going to Iraq to join the Iraq Peace Team, an international solidarity effort organized by Voices in the Wilderness. Voices in the Wilderness has been actively opposing the sanctions and ongoing bombing of Iraq since 1996.

Teach-ins, movie showings, marches and other events at Montreal's recent fourth annual anarchist book-fair, represented one of North America's largest festivals of anarchy, second only to San Francisco's.

“There are probably one thousand different people here throughout the course of the day,” said Stefan Christoff, one of ten members of the book-fair's organizing collective. “It shows the growth of our movement and the growth of struggle,” he said.

In grade 11, I transferred from the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT) to Northern Secondary School, a public school also in Toronto. My decision was primarily because I could no longer stand to be in the untenable situation at CHAT where anyone who strayed from the party line —that of an “Israel is always right” mentality — was branded an anti-Semite and a traitor.

Byung-hee (Chris) Han, English language studentat ILAC.

In Korea, now most kids learn English early. Istarted in Middle School. I didn’t like English.I got a D. I would have gotten an F, but my professorwas generous toward me.

Many foreigners think Koreans are unfriendly.They don’t understand. When we meet somebody ourfaces are impassive. But inside we’re friendly.We have a word for it — “jeong.”

Before I came to Canada to study, I worked in ahotel. So I understand how foreigners feel —Americans, Canadians, others. They want people tosmile.

On Tuesday, October 28, the State's second attempt to convict me as thesupposed architect of a “planned riot” at Queen's Park on June 15, 2000,went off the rails. As one of a series of pre-trial motions that we putbefore the Court, my lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, had argued that my constitutional rights had been violated because the matter had not beenbrought to trial within a reasonable time. The judge in the case accepted this and ordered the charges against me stayed.

Back home, the alert goes: If you’re not outraged,you’re not paying attention.

In Bagdhad, at Al Kindi Hospital Emergency, Fatima Abdullah is screaming in outrage: “Why do you do this to us??!”

Her eight-year-old, Fatehah, is dead; two other daughters are on stretchers, wounded by a missile that crushed their uncle’s home where they were staying outside Baghdad,near the Diala Bridge.

There is a view, shared by continentalists and Canadian nationalists alike, that holds that the viability and even legitimacy of Canada as a sovereign country depends on us remaining distinct from the United States in several important ways.

This is usually framed in terms of “culture” and “values” — thus we have a department of Heritage dedicated to preserving and promoting Canadian culture, while the Prime Minister often frames his agenda in terms of promoting and defending Canadian values.

This sort of Canadian nationalism got an unexpected boost recently, wit

I've crossed many borders in my life: I've been heldup for 12 hours at the Bulgarian-Turkish borderwhile my travelling companions, home-coming Turks, negotiated the size of the bribe to be paid to theborder officials; I've had my car inspected atCheckpoint Charlie in Berlin by suspicious East Germanpolice; and once, when I'd lost my passport and had togo to Germany from Italy to get it replaced, I drovearound Switzerland because that non-European Communitymember would have required the missing document,whereas member state Austria didn't.