Editorials - May 22, 2026
Avoidable waste
As our weekly grocery bills climb ever higher, Canadian households are still wasting between $150 and $300 annually by throwing away perfectly good food because of arbitrary best before dates. The food rescue organization Second Harvest found that $12.3 billion worth of food in Canada doesn’t make it to store shelves or is pulled too soon.
Best before dates are about peak quality, not food safety. Prepackaged foods with a shelf life of less than 90 days are required by law to have a best before date, but the use of the code has expanded in Canada to include most food and beverage products. Expiration dates are only required on a handful of products (including baby formula, meal replacements, nutritional supplements), and those products should not be consumed after expiry. The confusion around best before dates is aggravated by grocery stores that insist on multi-buy deals to drive consumers to purchase more than they can use before those dates.
Several countries have begun to address food waste by switching coding to a “use by” date with a truer indication of shelf life.
Canada’s Food Security Strategy needs to have a waste reduction plan; addressing best before dates and multi-buy promotions would go a long way in helping Canadians have more sustainable kitchens. – DS
Sign of the times
Last week in Red Deer, Alberta, two 14-year-olds are alleged to have assaulted fellow 14-year-old Rylin Brinston in a park area near Hunting Hills High School. They are both charged with assault causing bodily harm, while one has been additionally charged with assault by choking. Video of the assault has spread far and wide, a GoFundMe has seen great success and hundreds attended a public rally for the victim. The assault is said to be unprovoked and it left Brinston with possible permanent eye damage, internal bleeding and a concussion.
If all of this sounds somewhat familiar, it’s because it is. Any local who has seen this story surely had flashbacks to the recent incident that saw one student suffer life-threatening injuries as a result of fire. The two incidents aren’t identical twins, but there are many similar elements that can’t help but stir up that sickening feeling once again. Furthermore, the video follows a well-worn path of late; once the assault is initiated, everyone just backs away, allowing it to play out “naturally” with a number of other teens taking video with their phone.
Bullying in schools is not new, it’s a tale as old as time. However, what has changed is the smartphone/social media aspect. We now live in a world in which these videos can be shared around the world in a matter of seconds. To what end? Older generations are left scratching their heads, but it has changed life in schools - that is beyond debate.
The hope is that these are two isolated incidents, on opposite ends of the country and not a sign of things to come. A more cruel, violent schooling experience with a heavy dose of public humiliation and shame benefits no one but those who find some form of dark pleasure in watching such videos online. Our schools must be safe. – SL
A new way of thinking
A place reveals itself not only by the monuments it builds, but by the conversations surrounding them. That is why Cork, Ireland’s proposal for what may become the world’s smallest statue, a tiny mosquito commemorating the insect said (in local legend) to have contributed to the death of Oliver Cromwell, deserves to be taken seriously, even if the idea itself carries a wink and a grin.
Public monuments are statements about memory. They tell future generations which stories matter and how a community wishes to frame its past. In Ireland, Cromwell remains associated with violence, conquest and dispossession. For some, commemorating the mosquito is less about celebrating death than expressing centuries-old resentment through humour and folklore. Others will understandably question whether painful history should be transformed into a punchline, particularly when the mosquito story itself sits somewhere between fact and legend.
But perhaps Cork’s discussion points toward a healthier approach to public memory. For generations, monuments tended to glorify military figures and political leaders in stern bronze permanence. Increasingly, communities are asking whether civic spaces can also reflect irony, local folklore and competing interpretations of history.
A tiny mosquito may seem trivial beside towering statues of generals and statesmen. Yet there is something refreshingly modern about a monument that does not demand reverence so much as reflection. It suggests a city confident enough to approach history not as sacred marble, but as an ongoing conversation. If the statue proceeds, context will matter. The goal should not be cheap mockery or tourist gimmickry. The best monuments provoke thought as much as photographs.
Cork’s mosquito debate is not about insects. It is about how communities balance humour, pain, history and identity in public spaces. Even the smallest monument can carry a surprisingly loud buzz. – SBS