Angel >> Canadian teachers Despite chronic cutbacks in funding and general lack of respect from provincial bureaucrats, teachers across Canada are still managing to teach 15 year olds a thing or two. A study released this week showed Canadian kids rank among the highest in the industrialized world in reading, math and science, with teens from Alberta and Quebec leading the pack. While François Legault, the Quebec education minister, seems pleased as punch with the provincial education system, the real credit most likely goes to the classroom teacher for doing more with less and less. So quit with the spitballs, you kids.

Insect >> Confused taxocrats Two auditor-general reports were released this week--one for Canada and one for Quebec--and neither were flattering in their assessment of government management. One particular area of slipshod practice, at both the federal and provincial level, was taxation (there were many others). The Quebec auditor-general pointed out that only 60 per cent of calls to Revenue Québec were answered, and of those, one-third received wrong answers to questions asked. At the federal level, unpaid taxes by wealthy non-residents cost the government $10-million, and the $1.4-billion fuel rebate scheme was badly mismanaged, sending 7,500 dead people cheques.