The rules for dating haven’t changed much in the last 60 years, according to the U.S. government. Dating, when done properly, leads to marriage and babies. The website Two Of Us promotes marriage as “a viable option to 18 to 30-year-olds” and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the […] More »
The University of Toronto has come under fire by students, community activists, and even former minister of education Zanana Akande over proposed changes to its Transitional Year Program, a specialized academic program that helps students without the usual educational credentials make the leap to university. The 38-year-old program has been particularly successful at recruiting high […] More »
Toronto’s Nuit Blanche is an all-night arts festival with “a mandate to make contemporary art accessible to large audiences, while inspiring dialogue and engaging the public to examine its significance and impact on public space.” However, despite these admirable intentions, Nuit Blanche’s corporate presence is simply too great. After all, Nuit Blanche, as the countless […] More »
Further to Siena Anstis’s post last week about technology startups that are changing the landscape of African development, Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing has reviewed The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind today for Good Magazine. Above, I’ve embedded a short film from YouTube about the subject of that book, William Kamkwamba, the 20-year-old Malawian man who—with […] More »
I was pretty sure I knew what the Canadian flag, held upside down, was supposed to represent. But I had to ask anyway. Last Monday afternoon, standing outside the Houses of Parliament in London in Parliament square, I held my cell phone aloft with a hundred other protesters, taking part in a “climate flash mob,” […] More »
In early fall of 1950, Len Dobbin stepped out of a listening booth on Rue Ste-Catherine in Montreal to find himself confronted by five New York jazz enthusiasts seeking potential founders for a satellite jazz appreciation society. Only 15 years old at the time, Dobbin had never met enough fans to think the project would […] More »
While most Torontonians know about TIFF—the hugely publicized Toronto International Film Festival—very few have heard about TPFF, the Toronto Palestine Film Festival. Unlike TIFF, the TPFF isn’t attended by Hollywood stars, doesn’t receive much mainstream media coverage and has no paid staff. Despite these challenges, TPFF is an ambitious film fest that features over 40 […] More »
Blended into the colourful storefronts of Nairobi’s River Road area is the Sex Workers Outreach Program (SWOP), a discreet but accessible clinic offering HIV and STD testing and treatment to the estimated 7,000 prostitutes who work in the central business sector of Kenya’s capital city. While the clinic was created in close consultation with Nairobi’s […] More »
Make way, Homer Simpson—there’s a new Donut King in town: Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Choosing donuts over climate change deserves the title of King. King not only of donuts (as one critic called Harper) but the King of climate deniers. Last week, our Prime Minister skipped a day at the UN Climate Summit in New […] More »
We’re setting up our booth right now for Word On The Street in Toronto, and looking forward to meeting lots of current and future readers of This Magazine. We’ll be offering special deals on back issues and subscriptions today, so please come and say hello! We’re at Booth #235, at the corner of Queen’s Park […] More »
When the news came out yesterday that the largest-ever HIV-AIDS vaccine drug study had concluded with modestly positive results, there was certainly reason to be glad. There was not, of course, any reason to call the damn thing a “miracle vaccine,” as the Dallas Fort-Worth NBC affiliate did. The actual announcement from the U.S. National […] More »