The Canadian Press (CP) reported this week that Parks Canada has hired a Toronto-based marketing firm at a cost of nearly $400,000 to help promote the federal agency to Canadians.

How did the newswire service find out about this? Through an Access to Information request, of course.

A happy new year it isn’t for friends and family of Canadians who were killed suddenly in the waning days of 2011. A couple of high-profile avalanche deaths in British Columbia on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30, in particular, grabbed national headlines, as these types of fatalities tend to do. There were, however, many more families whose lives were forever altered by the unexpected death of a loved one, including the family of the 43-year-old man from Edmonton who was killed in a car crash just east of Jasper on Dec. 30.

Children’s Christmas wishes are usually pretty light and fluffy in nature. Toys and candy tend to top their lists, and understandably so. The whole holiday, despite its religious roots, has become quite a commercial affair. “Getting ready for Christmas” usually tends to be dominated by the whole business of gift buying, gift making, gift wrapping, and gift exchanging.