Homelessness In Prescott-Russell Is At Crisis Levels Due To A Lack Of Provincial Funding

Posted on October 24, 2026 by Gabriel


…this is an unedited version of an article I wrote for The Review.


There are more than 1,500 people across the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR) searching for a place to live because the counties lack the critical provincial and federal funding to properly address the twin crises of homelessness and a lack of low-income housing.

“These people are couch surfing, staying with friends and family, they’re in residences temporarily, we have some on the streets, or sleeping in their cars or campers,” says Nadia Séguin, the housing stability coordinator for the UCPR. Someone is considered homeless in Ontario if they are couch surfing or staying in a room in a larger home because someone does not want to live outside, “this counts as homelessness,” she says.

Affordable, subsidized housing is simply not available in the UCPR, according to Séguin. “We have a waiting list for subsidized housing of five to ten years.”

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Posted in Eastern Ontario, Hawkesbury, Journalism, News, poverty, The Review, Vankleek Hill, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Restaurant Proves Hawkesbury Has Its Own Food Culture And Chuck’s Roadhouse Does Not Understand It

Posted on May 31, 2026 by Gabriel


For a small city, Hawkesbury has a lot of restaurants to choose from… most of the fast-food franchises have this market covered — there are two Tim Horton’s, a McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Subway, KFC, A&W, St. Hubert, Amir’s, Thai Express, Dairy Queen, Salvatore’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, as well as a Pizza Pizza. Then there are aboot ten Family owned restaurants as well, as well as a couple of Chip Stands.

Fast food culture is the same all over the world, and it’s no different in Hawkesbury… except, maybe, the fully bilingual nature of the little city, where 67% of people speak French as their first language.

The latest chain restaurant to enter the market is Chuck’s Roadhouse Bar & Grill, which is owned by Obsidian Group Inc. — “a management company formed in 1996 to develop, market, and manage hospitality and real estate interests”. Obsidian is Canadian owned and operated, and also owns Crabby Joe’s, and Coffee Culture Café. Chuck’s moved into, and totally renovated, the same building that Hawkesbury’s Burger King used to occupy on Main Street.

…buying and operating a Chuck’s franchise is not cheap. According to ‘The Franchise Directory’, someone who wants to open a Chuck’s would be asked to pay CDN$50,000 for the franchise fee and an initial investment of $400,000 to $750,000. Boston Pizza, another Canadian-owned restaurant, costs $60,000 for a franchise fee, while Pizza Pizza would be $30,000 — Pizza Pizza is also Canadian owned.

The Hawkesbury version of Chuck’s opened in mid-April, and there have been lineups to get in ever since. Which makes sense, it being shiny and new and all, and considering the amazing amount of free publicity the restaurant received after the closing of the Burger King it has replaced… including in the Carillon, the Tribune-Express, The Review, and BigFM 107.7.

My kids and I are always open to trying new restaurants, and had been trying to get into Chuck’s for supper for a few weeks, until we finally decided that 4pm might give us a better chance of trying out the Roadhouse food selection… and it worked, we avoided the lineup, and had our selection of tables.

The three of us were guided to our seats, handed our oversized menu’s, and that’s when everything pretty much went wrong.

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Posted in Baby Quintin, Family, Hawkesbury, Journalism, Victor, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Looking For Part-Time Work To Supplement My ODSP, It Should Be Easy… Right?

Posted on May 8, 2026 by Gabriel


It has been a long long long time coming, but I believe now is the moment to start looking for a job. Nothing major, at least not to start with. Part-time, maybe 15-hours a week, doing something that requires a desk and maybe a couple of assistants, and… lets say, eight weeks vacation.

The last time I pulled down a full-time salary was in 2001, after Telus bought Clearnet Communications for $6.6B. They called me a “Communications Coordinator”, but mostly I played video games at a restaurant near the Scarborough Town Centre, across the highway from the new Telus Mobility HQ. I lasted just over a year, spending most of my $48k/year in quarters playing virtual NASCAR before I left, right after signing a book deal to write about my family and their playful hijinks during the 70’s.

As I walked out the door of the newly minted Telus Mobility, they handed me a Nokia 5180 — which is still packed away somewhere in my basement, two month’s salary, plus my vacation pay, which I then mostly spent on hockey tickets, fresh bagels, rent, cigarettes and a whole lot of alcohol (mostly White Russians and Labatt’s Blue).

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Posted in CSN:AFU Aboot Me, Health, Parenthood, Photography, The Review, Vankleek Hill, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Health Update Thirteen Years In The Making & How Canada’s Healthcare System Helped Me Survive It All

Posted on May 2, 2026 by Gabriel


I have no idea how I survived the past decade… I mean, look at those photos. Thirteen-years of health issues all put together like that, it’s remarkable I’m still able to perform day-to-day activities like a mostly functional human being. And those are just the ones I could find photos of… damn.

Despite its myriad of shortcomings, I’m alive thanks to the modern miracle that is the Canadian health care system — I know, there’s really no such thing, it’s all Provincial systems patchworked together, but they’re all Canadian provinces so we’ll go with that.

And I’m not broke or in debt because of any of it… well, no more than I would have been. That would be the miracle part of the System. Basically the last thirteen-years of health issues all started with a completely unintentional prescription drug overdose waaaaaay back in the first six-months of 2013 that eventually killed off almost all my kidney functions.

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Posted in Baby Quintin, CSN:AFU Aboot Me, Health, Little Victor, Medical, Parenthood, Photography, Self Portraits, The Review, Vankleek Hill, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hawkesbury buries it’s only remaining waterfront in tonnes of sharp rocks because the Little City just can’t have nice things

Posted on April 30, 2026 by Gabriel


…just found out the best chip-stand in the region is finally open — actually, Grenville’s ‘Jos Patate’ has been open since March 26, but I just crossed the bridge into Quebec on Tuesday to check the chip stand situation out.

Over the past few years, one of the most relaxing times of my week has been to head over to Jos, grab a #1 (two steamed hotdogs, all dressed, in a box, with a bottle of water), and drive down to the Ottawa River on the Hawkesbury side for a late supper and listen to ‘As It Happens’ on CBC Radio One as the water flows by, the seagulls fly overhead waiting for handouts, and the ducks float by.

But I’ve been going down to Hawkesbury’s Chenail Island to take my two sons down to the little patch of green so they can run in the park, dip their toes and feet into the water of the Ottawa River, and just cool off in general while watching the geese, ducks, and other birds raise their kids as well for almost sixteen years now.

Unfortunately, someone on Hawkesbury’s local Council has recently decided to put down a foot-high, eight-foot wide barrier of six-inch stone between the water and the parking and play areas all the way around the Island. So now the Geese have to waddle across near-razor sharp stone to get to the grass, one of their food sources, and the ducks have completely lost a place to wander.

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Posted in Eastern Ontario, Family, Hawkesbury, Parenting, Photography, The Review, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Photos From Vankleek Hill’s 2018 ‘Festival of Flavours’

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Gabriel

Copyright ImageVankleek Hill's Festival of Flavours

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Photos from Vankleek Hill’s ‘2018 Festival of Flavours‘

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Posted in Arbor Gallery, Champlain Township, Eastern Ontario, Photography, Photos, The Review, Vankleek Hill, Vankleek Hill Photos | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment