Weekend Posted: Pronatalists, parliamentarians, and Zellers food trucks

Weekend Posted: Pronatalists, parliamentarians, and Zellers food trucks

Plus, more stories you may have missed

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Here’s your Weekend Posted, where we promise not to assault you with envy-inducing images of vacationing friends and relatives frolicking in Saint Lucia or Costa Rica or Maui or Barbados or wherever there’s the potential for a heat warning in late January. Consider this a safe space for frostbitten Canadians who prefer not to be reminded that we haven’t got sun-drenched getaways planned. Bundle up and read on.

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Ron Wadden, filling in for the weekend Posted correspondent Tyler Dawson

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MEET THE PRONATALISTS

We’ve shared stories recently about the decline in population in China and elsewhere, trends that might have been welcomed back when everyone was more concerned about Earth’s ballooning population. Environmentalists still share that concern, but there’s a new generation of “pro-birth” activists and anxious governments that are spooked by declining birth rates. With fewer working-age bodies to support social programs and growing populations of pensioners, innovation will suffer, and economies and living standards will stagnate or collapse, say pronatalists such as Elon Musk. (You might have heard of him.) Sharon Kirkey takes a closer look at the pro-natalist movement as well as those who are not convinced that’s a warranted strategy.

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HE SAID, HE SAID

If you’ve missed the cut and thrust of politics on the Hill, rest up this weekend because parliamentarians will be back at the office next week to do whatever it is they do. For a taste of the verbal warfare to come, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre lobbed several bombs back and forth during separate caucus speeches Friday. Trudeau said Poilievre “twists the facts” and “makes things up for political gain,” while the Conservative leader said if the prime minister isn’t responsible for the various ways in which Canada feels broken, he should “get out of the way and let someone lead who can.”

NATIONAL POST NEWS QUIZ

Here are a few of the topics you’ll need to be familiar with to ace this week’s National Post news quiz: Jordan Peterson’s Ottawa critics, classified documents, M&Ms, Leopards, the Olympics and Beyoncé. Don’t worry, we won’t be asking which of the latter’s albums features Daddy Lessons. (It’s Lemonade.)

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ET CETERA

This time last year, trucks and demonstrators were gathering in various locations, preparing for their journey to Ottawa, where the Freedom Convoy set up camp for three weeks. The Ottawa Citizen looks back on 14 of the key figures from that drama, from Tamara Lich to former police chief Peter Sloly, to see where they are now. The City of Ottawa is busy looking to collect thousands of unpaid fines related to the protest. Meanwhile, Catherine Lévesque examines how the convoy changed the Conservative movement in Canada.

Terramation. It’s the eco-friendly alternative to cremation and burial — in which human remains are transformed naturally into soil — and if you’re wondering where in Canada that’s happening, the answer is nowhere, since it’s not approved here, despite being legal in California, Vermont, Colorado, Oregon and New York. Denise Ryan of the Vancouver Sun takes a long look at human composting and the Canadian soil scientist behind it.

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with the imminent return of Zellers, customers can expect another flash from the past: meals that were popular at the retail outlets’ family restaurants back in the day, although they will be delivered a little differently this time around. Bianca Bharti has a story on food trucks that will be situated at Zellers’ locations when they open across the country later this year.

Authorities in Memphis, Tenn., are bracing for potential backlash with the release Friday of video depicting the beating death of a black motorist after being pulled over by police. Five officers are charged with murder in the case, which a civil rights lawyer has compared to the Rodney King incident in 1991, although King survived. Tire Nichols, a 29-year-old Memphis father, did not.

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On a far lighter note, there was controversy in the professional golf world this week when serial malcontent Patrick Reed allegedly threw a tee at Rory McIlroy. That’s right, a tee. McIlroy did not need to be treated for injuries, but the existence of the LIV golf tour, funded by Saudi Arabia, may have played a role in the confrontation. Scott Stinson can explain that angle, as well as the continuing enigma that is LIV golf, the purported rival to the PGA Tour that appears to be doing its best to be ignored by golf fans.

DEAR DIARY

“Can you provide anti-aircraft capability for our Latvian deployment?” “Can you tow one of our frigates back to base?” “Can we use your aerial refueling plane to gas up one of our CF-18s?” “Can you send a Marine unit to help us move a marble coffee table to the second floor?” — Tristin Hopper reflects on our reliance on the US military as he imagines the thoughts of a Leopard 2 tank, shocked to be deployed to Ukraine after decades of slowly corroding in a Canadian Forces storage facility.

SKETCHBOOK

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