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CTV News
14-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Paradigm shift: A former Parliament Hill journalist on her transition to vintage shop owner
A former Parliament Hill journalist is sharing her story of changing careers, moving from the hustle and bustle of the halls of power to a vintage consignment store in Hintonburg. Chelsea Nash was a reporter with the Hill Times but recently opened Curious Times Collective on Somerset Street West. Curious Times Collective Curious Times Collective is located at 1106 Somerset St. W. in Ottawa. (Chelsea Nash/supplied) Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal, Nash says she became interested in vintage collecting during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'I was living in Barrie at the time, with my folks there, and we all had a lot of extra time on our hands,' she said. 'Once stores opened up, I had a lot of fun going out to the thrift store to see what I could find. And it just sort of grew from there.' Nash said after moving back to Ottawa to work on Parliament Hill, reselling vintage and antique items became a weekend hobby. 'It became sort of a creative outlet for me that was a way for me to completely switch my brain off from the politics of the day that consumed Monday to Friday. It was a good mental break, but I found it really hard sometimes and really jarring to switch between those two. I started to feel like Jekyll and Hyde—okay, I'm a vintage seller, I'm having so much fun chatting with everyday people at the market, and then the next day I have to turn up at a committee that's talking about foreign interference or I'm asking questions of Galen Weston.' On social media, Nash said she's worked to make sure the store is a welcoming environment for all walks of life. Curious Times Collective The interior of Curious Times Collective on Somerset Street West. (Chelsea Nash/supplied) 'It's my belief that one important way to fight rising fascism is to look after your neighbours and foster community. I'm excited and proud to say that our little shop has already proven to be a safe and joyful space for all kinds of folks, from autistic teens to elder trans folks,' she said on Bluesky. 'It might just be a vintage shop, but to me everything is always political, and so this next project has been created with a lot of intention and care.' The store came to her when the owner of another vintage shop reached out. 'The way we got into that spot was actually through Jaime (McLeod), who owns Darling Vintage, which is in the ByWard Market. She had tried that location out for a little bit. It didn't feel like home for her… She was looking for someone to take it over and reached out and it just seemed like a really good fit,' Nash said. 'I live in the Hintonburg neighbourhood, my business partner does as well, so both of us jumped at the chance. Because of the work that Jaime already did, she did a lot to make it retail ready for us, so it was kind of a unique opportunity to get a spot that was a little bit turnkey ready for us and dive in right away.' Nash told CFRA the store seeks out special pieces that represent bygone eras of design. 'We have some pieces from Canadian ceramicist Maurice Chalvignac. We have a giant, five-foot tall floor lamp from one of his production studios that looks like a table lamp, but the scale of it is quite massive, so it's quite an impressive floor lamp,' she said. Maurice Chalvignac lamp A vintage floor lamp by Canadian ceramicist Maurice Chalvignac at Curious Times Collective. (Chelsea Nash/supplied) Nash said it took a lot to make the leap and change careers, but there are parallels between journalism and the vintage world. 'You end up meeting so many people; you end up talking to them about their memories, or their lives, or their parents' lives, or their histories,' she said. 'It's a much smaller scale, it's that individual connection, but the stories there are endless and that's what I love.' Nash says she's still actively writing, but her focus is shifting to themes of memory, grief, collections and the objects that represent people. 'I'm a storyteller, still, so that's what I get to do, and I get to pass those stories on. A lot of times, people are hesitant to give up their collections or the collections of their parents that they don't have a place for but that were so important to them,' she said. 'We get to kind of promise them that we're going to take care of this, we're going to steward it into a new home for someone else that's going to love it just as much. There's some beauty to that.'
Montreal Gazette
04-06-2025
- General
- Montreal Gazette
Can a city councillor call people ‘idiots' on Facebook? A judge will decide
By Can a municipal councillor insult others on social media — calling them 'idiots,' 'morons' and much worse — if the exchange has nothing to do with their official duties? That question was put to Quebec administrative judge Sandra Bilodeau on Wednesday during an ethics hearing involving Andrew Caddell, an anglophone rights advocate and town councillor in Kamouraska. At the heart of the case is a long, heated Facebook exchange about anglophones, conducted in French on New Year's Eve, in which Caddell commented. Topics included Bill 96, Quebec's language law reform, which Caddell described as 'discriminatory.' After investigating a complaint, the Quebec Municipal Commission determined Caddell likely contravened Kamouraska's ethics rules 13 times, citing conduct that was 'disrespectful or uncivil' and lacking in 'honour.' He could be fined up to $4,000 or suspended from his elected duties for up to 90 days. At the hearing, Laurie Beaulieu, a lawyer for the commission, noted that Caddell's Facebook profile mentions that he is a Kamouraska councillor, and he mentioned it on 10 occasions during the Facebook discussion. Beaulieu said Caddell told some individuals to 'go f--- themselves' and called others morons, idiots, bigots and losers. He also used the abbreviation 'TDC,' which, in context, clearly was shorthand for the French word for 'a--hole,' she said. She said the words used breached Kamouraska's ethics code, which forbids councillors from engaging in 'offensive, disparaging, or intimidating actions, or any form of incivility of a vexatious nature.' Elected officials are entitled to express their opinions freely, Beaulieu said. But their position requires them to do so with restraint, and Caddell's behaviour was 'objectively contrary to the honour and dignity of the office.' Beaulieu added: 'Mr. Caddell has the right to express his views on the Charter of the French Language — that is not under debate today. However, he must do so while respecting the rules of ethics and professional conduct.' Caddell is president of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, which has raised more than $200,000 to finance a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Bill 96. He's also a columnist with the Hill Times, an Ottawa political publication. Michael Bergman, a lawyer representing Caddell, argued that the comments, which he described as 'hard, difficult, strong, emotional, and passionate,' were made outside of Caddell's duties as a councillor. 'They had nothing to do with the needs, policies, affairs, or operations of the municipality of Kamouraska,' Bergman said. 'It was an exchange — a difficult one with intense words, without a doubt — between people regarding linguistic and minority questions across Quebec and Canada.' Elected municipal officials must be able to exercise their freedom of expression, he said, adding there is no precedent of a municipal councillor being subject to an ethics complaint for social media activity unrelated to their municipal role. Bergman described Caddell's French as 'exemplary,' noting that in the online discussion, he simply used 'street language — the kind of everyday talk Quebecers don't take issue with.' One should also consider the context of the Facebook discussion, he said. He pointed out that Caddell was under intense attack from others. Among other things, he was called a racist, a 'Rhodesian' and a 'supremacist' and told to 'take the 401 and screw off.' Bergman argued Caddell should be cleared in part because of a discrepancy between the English and French versions of Kamouraska's ethics code. In French, it refers to councillors being respectful toward 'citizens,' while the English one says 'citizens of the municipality.' Bergman said there's no proof anyone in the Facebook discussion — on the page operated by political commentator and former politician Nic Payne — was a resident of Kamouraska. For her part, Beaulieu cited the French version of the code. She said it's clear from the context that 'the notion of citizen must be interpreted broadly and liberally. (The code) in no way establishes that the term 'citizen' is limited to residents of the same municipality as the elected official.' The judge gave the two sides two weeks to submit briefs regarding the discrepancy between the French and English versions of the ethics code. A ruling is expected within three months. Caddell was elected as a councillor in Kamouraska, a municipality (population 607) in the Bas-St-Laurent region, in 2021. Caddell is a former Montreal West town commissioner who ran for the federal Liberals in 2011.
RTÉ News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Liberal Party Retains Power In Canadian Election
Stuart Benson, Press Gallery Reporter for the Hill Times newspaper in Ottawa, discusses the result of the Canadian federal election.
