Northern Routes

Welcome to the New Year! 2022, here we come!

I would like to say welcome back to school, but the latest on Omicron and COVID-19 restrictions feel more like welcome back to 2021! Effective Wednesday, January 5, for at least 21 days—until January 26, 2022—subject to trends in public health and health system indicators, Ontario is reducing social gathering limits to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors, and limiting capacity at organized public events to five people indoors. We are back to working from home, which requires businesses and organizations to ensure employees work remotely unless the nature of their work requires them to be on-site. Capacity restrictions,...

Season’s Greetings

What a year it has been! We’ve all experienced another long stint with the pandemic having to persevere in our professional and personal lives. I’m reminded by staff, faculty, and learners daily that our responsibilities extend well beyond the walls of our institution. In 2021, through it all, we’ve seen some of the best in ourselves. I think many of us have experienced a resiliency and a renewed level of care for each other that we didn’t know we had. Keep it up –that caring spirit is what sets NOSM apart. Although the effects of the pandemic are bound to linger for a long time—impacting the way we work, the way our kids ...

Winter is coming. Are we ready?

With snow, wind, and all the challenges associated with it now here, I have to ask: Are you ready for winter? The ten-foot snowbanks, the blizzards, the -38 oC with wind chill, the bad roads, and all the other elements of winter that we would rather not even think about. What is your state of readiness for winter? Like it or not, winter is coming! Are your winter clothes in good shape? Check. The furnace is in good working order? Check. Got the winter tires on? Check. Personally, I’ve always been comforted by winter and welcomed it. There’s nothing quite like the beauty and stillness after the first snowfall when the landscap...