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March-April 2022

Cop out

Winnipeg group advocates against police

Stacha Penner

Picture this: you’re ready for a good night’s rest. You crawl into bed around midnight, and just as you are about to fall asleep, thunderous juddering and whirring erupt above your house. You sit awake, startled as the Winnipeg Police helicopter circles around your neighbourhood, its bright spotlight creeping and surveying. This disruption is a […] More »
January-February 2021

Reality bites

Edmonton podcast investigates anti-Black racism and policing

Sofia Osborne

When George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were murdered by police in the United States, sparking protests across the world, Avnish Nanda, an Edmonton lawyer, approached Bashir Mohamed and Oumar Salifou with an idea for a podcast investigating anti-Black racism and policing in Edmonton. Within a week of launching in June, Is This For Real? had […] More »
May-June 2018

“Each death is a preventable tragedy”

Transgender women have long been subjected to violence in major cities. In Toronto, the reality is no different—and police have done little to stop it. These are their stories

Alex V. Green

I: Cassandra Do On August 25, 2003, a transgender woman named Cassandra Do was found dead in her apartment on Gloucester Street in Toronto’s LGBTQ Village. I don’t know much about Cassandra aside from some essential facts: She was 32, she did sex work, she was once in nursing school, she was Vietnamese. In one of […] More »

Inside the startling violence that takes place in police homes

Excerpt of Alex Roslin's new book, Police Wife

Alex Roslin

Domestic violence takes place in up to a staggering 40 percent of law enforcement families. But police forces mostly ignore the problem, writes investigative journalist Alex Roslin in his award-winning book, Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence. The excerpt below is adapted from the book. His 2004 article in This about an RCMP […] More »
July-August 2017

Why are Ontarians still battling anti-Black police violence?

The deaths of Black Ontarians at the hands of police cannot be overlooked or forgotten

Rodney Diverlus@rodneydiverlus

This year, Canada celebrates its 150th birthday. Ours is a country of rich history—but not all Canadian stories are told equally. In this special report, This tackles 13 issues—one per province and territory—that have yet to be addressed and resolved by our country in a century and a half Last year, Black Lives Matter Toronto concluded #BLMTOtentcity, […] More »
March-April 2014

March/April cover story: Cop out

Anna BowenWebsite@AnnaMRBowen

How Ontario’s failed police accountability system lets our authorities get away with systemic abuse of society’s most vulnerable populations When Greg Spoon accepted a beer from a friend on Monday, May 3, 2010, he can’t have imagined what would happen. The 40-year-old Lakota Sioux man, known as “Iggy,” is soft-spoken, personable, and articulate according to […] More »

A brief history of Canadian nudity laws

Lauren McKeon

In Canada, public nudity is allowed so long as you don’t “offend against public decency or order.” In fact, nudity is considered a political crime, one of the few offences that requires the Attorney General’s approval to lay charges. So, letting it all hang out among thousands of like-minded souls at the Pride Parade? You’re […] More »
September-October 2011

Does an RCMP-CSIS snitch line threaten our civil rights?

Jason TushinskiWebsite@chimcham49

Dear Progressive Detective: I heard police arrested a man at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto after receiving a tip from Canada’s Suspicious Incident Reporting System, which alleged the man intended to join a Somali terrorist group. I’m concerned: what is SIRS, and how might the Government’s security efforts affect my civil liberties and right […] More »
September-October 2011

Why mandatory minimum sentences cost billions—and don’t reduce crime

Graham F. Scott

“We do not use statistics as an excuse not to get tough on criminals.” That was federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson’s astonishing response to Statistics Canada’s finding in July that crime rates in Canada now stand at the same level they did in 1973. Don’t bother us with the facts, was Nicholson’s meaning, our minds […] More »

After Vancouver’s riots, how to tame social media mob justice

Navneet AlangWebsite@navalang

After the sheer surprise of Vancouver’s Stanley Cup riots had dissipated, Canadian commentators tried to figure out what it all meant. Most beat their usual political drums—months later we’re blaming the pinko anarchists, capitalist pigs, and beer companies for making their products so darn tasty and portable. But this being 2011, many who broke windows […] More »

Friday (comparatively) FTW: Think this Toronto mayoral race is bad? In 1980 it was Nazis, homophobic cops, and the KKK

simon wallace

A friend of mine from Vancouver was talking to me about the Toronto election: “How is it that the anti-bike guy is in the lead?  I mean, to us in British Columbia, that just… it just doesn’t make sense.”  Indeed.  This Toronto municipal election is both absurd and frightening. Progressives around the city — dare […] More »