Stand up for women’s rights: don’t ban the burka
We must protect women from religious coercion… Two Afghan women wear burkas in Northern Afghanistan. Creative Commons photo by Steve Evans. Banning burkas has long been a popular idea among immigration hardliners on the European right, who claim that the head-to-toe woman’s garment is a matter of national security. Canadians may scoff at such paranoia, but the idea is gaining some momentum here, and the push is coming from an unexpectedly liberal source. Last October, the Muslim Canadian Congress asked Ottawa to introduce legislation outlawing both the burka and niqab, calling them “political symbols of Saudi-inspired Islamic extremism.” While MCC senior vice president Salma Siddiqui argues the ban is needed to address possible security risks posed by citizens who can’t be easily... [More >>]
E-books may be efficient, but they have no sex appeal
In the documentary Helvetica, incensed graphic designer Michael Bierut hilariously critiques ads from old copies of Life Magazine. He attacks the verbosity and shrill insistence of early 1950s Coke ads... [More >>]
Fiction: “What I Would Say” by Jessica Westhead
I haven’t been to a party before where they served pie, have you? But I guess that’s a silly question because of course you’d know the hosts, so you’ve probably— Anyway, it’s very good pie.... [More >>]
Review: The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill
In The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book, Vancouver-based writer Gord Hill blends his visual and literary talents to tell the story of aboriginal life since the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere... [More >>]
Counting the Vancouver 2010 Olympics’ broken promises
One of Pivot Legal Society's Red Tents on the streets of Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Photo by The Blackbird. The five-ring circus has rolled out of Vancouver, but the tents are still... [More >>]
This Magazine’s podcast: March 8, 2010
Listen to This #007: Liz Worth, author of Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond
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