Shut Your Pie Hole and Go Home

Canada has two official languages. Two. Period. English or French - take your pick. Not Mandarin or Cantonese, not Punjab, or German, or Spanish, or Russian. If you want to live here for any length of time, please learn and develop a working knowledge of at least one of our languages. And if you've chosen to live in western Canada, that language would be English. Today, a young family came into my place of business to ask for directions. No one in this family could speak enough English to make themselves understood, and it was only through catching the odd word and figuring out some gestures that I finally got what they were trying to say. These people were not tourists (if they had been, I would have sympathized with their plight). They were asking for the auto insurance business that used to occupy the space where my business now resides. This means they've been in Canada long enough to have a driver's license and an insured vehicle. And since they were carrying the tel...

More Businesses Test Olympic Trademark Rules Wouldn't want to get sued by VANOC for unauthorized use of a trademark.... Now, I haven't really paid all that much attention to other host countries, but I have a difficult time imagining that their Olympic (I hope I don't get in trouble for using that word) committees have come down so hard on so many businesses.  Apparently no one else on the planet is allowed to reference the 2010 games in Vancouver, except official sponsors and those with authorisation from VANOC. Poor Olympia Pizza in Vancouver.  They've been around for more than 20 years and VANOC has not been making things easy for them, claiming unauthorised use of the Olympic trademark.  It apparently doesn't matter that the pizza joint began serving locals years before the city even hatched the idea of being an Olympic host city. Of course local businesses are going to do everything that they can to make bank during the games! And so they should!  They de...