Animals

Those behind the Toronto Humane Society’s winter shelter-building workshops — which transform everyday materials such as Rubbermaid storage bins, Styrofoam insulation, some tape and straw into li

Barbara Parkes is the kind of person you pray is your seat-mate on a long-haul flight. Engaging, accessible and armed with heart-warming true stories about animals given a second chance, Parkes is a walking example of the chestnut ‘choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.’

Few things combat the holiday season’s crass commercialism as effectively as charity. Ironically, few holidays offer such a smorgasbord of altruistic choices for the forward-thinking.

You don’t really want to buy apples with a waxy film on them or eat a tomato drenched in pesticides. And that chemical-laden laundry detergent residue can’t really be good next to your skin nor the dish soap making your drinking glasses sparkling clean, but, alas, it’s so darn expensive to go green.