The resilience of Fort McMurray; Prison ombudsman; Leaving Halifax; Dead Mom Talking; The Existentialist Café

The Fort McMurray fire will not defeat its people - Michael's essay: Here's an excerpt: "Fort McMurray will come back. Its people are too tough, too resilient, to let it die. They have a prehensile grip on survival and they will rebuild." Canada's prison ombudsman says "tough on crime" is just a meaningless slogan: As this country's Correctional Investigator, Howard Sapers keeps a watchful eye on conditions inside Canadian prisons. He warns they are over-crowded, they provide little access to programs, and they rely too much on solitary confinement. Why I'm Leaving Halifax: Allison Sparling explains why young people like herself are forced to leave in search of work, despite their love for the city. Dead Mom Talking - a Rachel Matlow documentary: Don't let the title scare you. "Dead Mom Talking" is a tender and loving tale of a mother and daughter who re-connect through the magic of radio. Cocktails at The Existentialist Café: Existentialism coalesced out of the fog of smoke in a bar on the Rue du Montparnasse. In The Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails, British writer Sarah Bakewell profiles many of the movement's stars, including Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. A farewell to Wadhams: Yes, Steve's leaving, and here's why that matters to us all.