In journalism school, you’re taught to write at a Grade 8 level.

That’s not to say journalists are incapable of using or understanding academic language. In fact, many, and I’d even go so far as to say most, journalists are highly educated people. 

In the past, I’ve used this space to complain about cyclists who don’t respect the rules of the road. Today, I’m going to use it to complain about motorists both in town and on Jasper’s surrounding highways, because boy are they crazy.

There are people who drive the wrong way down Patricia Street, or even Connaught Drive (I’ve seen both of those things happen in the not-so-distant past), people who stop where there isn’t a stop sign, people who run clearly marked stop signs and then there are the people who ignore pedestrians and cyclists.

It was fitting that the federal government backtracked – at least partially – on its plan to revoke certain health-care benefits from refugees on the Friday before Canada Day. The initial plan was mean-spirited, unjustified and profoundly un-Canadian.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney first announced the changes in April, saying the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) was in need of reform.