Meslin’s first-ever book a condemnation of and prescription for all that ails modern Canadian politics
Author and activist Dave Meslin doesn’t mince his words in describing what he sees as an ailing political system in Canada, calling it a “childish circus” and a “demoralizing farce,” plagued by toxic discourse, and populated by unrepresentative party “cartels.” His prescription, as laid out in his new book: tear it all down, and rebuild […]
Bob Joseph’s new book, Indigenous Relations, a traveller’s guide for the long road to reconciliation
Canada is at the beginning of a long road to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, but getting there requires commitment and a willingness to learn, says author Bob Joseph, who offers up a useful guide to help along the way with his new book, Indigenous Relations: Insights, Tips & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality. “It […]
There’s an app for that: Conservative MP Rempel gets an app
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel may be the first Canadian politician with their own app. The high-profile former Harper cabinet minister has cultivated a large following on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, with over 126,000, 92,000, and 35,000, followers and subscribers respectively. Ms. Rempel’s office told The Hill Times that the app has yet to be finished, […]
‘We need to understand how the rules and norms of masculinity affect how boys and young men feel and behave’
When I began my research on Boys in 2015, gender progress seemed to be marching, slowly, forward. A 2014 Pew Research Center survey of American millennials, the generation just ahead of my son and his peers, found that this generation is optimistic and open to change, less attached to political and religious institutions than older […]
Wait, wait, little one: learning to connect through a story of survival
When I turned 10 on March 12, 2011, we had been living in Homs for about four months. The atmosphere was shifting in Syria. It seemed that just as we began settling into our new life, everything else around us was stirring up. News reports were filled with words like revolution, Egypt, oust, Arab Spring, […]
Quebec’s relationship with the oil industry: it’s complicated
The Lac-Mégantic disaster remained seared in Quebec’s consciousness. The train that exploded in July 2013—one example of the fiftyfold increase in oil-by-rail between 2009 and 2013—had come through the American Midwest, crossed into Canada at Windsor, then passed through Montreal before heading toward the Maine border to cut across the northern part of the state, […]
Stursberg issues rallying cry to protect Canadian media amid encroaching U.S. tech giants
Canadians are increasingly at risk of checking out of the national conversation with the decline of the news industry and the arrival of American streaming services, argues Richard Stursberg, a former CBC executive, in his new book. In The Tangled Garden: A Canadian Cultural Manifesto for the Digital Age, Richard Stursberg, the former head of […]
Force is not just what comes out of the barrel of a police officer’s gun
Force is not just what comes out of the barrel of a police officer’s gun. It certainly is that, but it also takes many other forms: intimidation; arbitrary actions that criminalize or harass ordinary people, especially if they are Black, brown, Indigenous or poor; use of the collective power of unions and professional associations to […]
‘I was instantly struck by the power that this one image held and how much emotion was wrapped up in this picture of a single giant tree alone in a clear cut’
A calm wind ruffled the branches of some of the largest trees in the world. It twisted and turned through the forest, picking up scents of cedar and spruce—even a faint tinge of salt, this close to the Pacific Ocean. Late afternoon sun had burned off any lingering mist, leaving a clear blue sky. Nearly […]
Elliott takes a raw, fierce deep-dive into the lasting legacy of colonialism in Canada
OTTAWA—A couple of years ago, my young son asked me if there was a difference between Ottawa and the settlements in the occupied territories. Aren’t both, he asked, communities built on stolen land? I didn’t have a good answer then, and still don’t. Here in “progressive” Canada, we are rarely asked to consider what it […]
