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Progressive politics, ideas & culture

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May-June 2017

Inside the fight between free speech and hate speech on Canadian campuses

At universities across the country, contempt among right wingers is brewing—and lefties are swinging back

Jacob Lorinc

Between the hours of 1 and 2 p.m. on Thursdays, Jordan Peterson briefly assumes the guise of an ordinary, tenured professor at the University of Toronto. His psychology classes, in a dimly lit auditorium on the second floor of midtown Toronto’s Sidney Smith Hall, are of the usual academic breed: a PowerPoint slideshow, a series […] More »
May-June 2017

Meet the woman combatting sexism in Canada’s STEM fields

Eden Hennessey’s #DistractinglyHonest exhibit explores the realities for women in STEM fields

Sohini Bhattacharya

When Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt said, at a science conference in 2015, that the trouble with women in labs is they cry and fall in love, the scientific community reacted with a barrage of vituperations from both sides. For doctoral candidate Eden Hennessey, one hashtag became a call to action. Under the banner #DistractinglySexy, female scientists […] More »
May-June 2017

The curse of nostalgia on millennial television

Shows for millennial audiences rely on sentimentality to reel in its viewers. In the case of Riverdale, it’s a detrimental move

Richard Kelly Kemick@richardkemick

The camera pans the much-anticipated pep rally, tasked with cheering-up the students of Riverdale High after their classmate’s recent murder. The cheerleading squad performs a dance to a mash-up of “Sugar, Sugar” (aptly, by The Archies), and even though the choreography is composed mainly of coquettish shrugging, the performance is so emotionally damaging to Cheryl Blossom—twin […] More »
May-June 2017

The terrible, awful, no-good internet

The web was supposed to improve our lives. The best of it has yet to come

Tyler Hellard@poploser

Two years ago, some friends and I started our own private chat room on a service called Slack to talk about baseball. We did it because our non-baseball-loving friends on Twitter were tired of us yammering about bat flips and Moneyball and Troy Tulowitzki. I can’t overstate how well used this chat room is. We are […] More »
May-June 2017

Inside the search from hell Canadian millennials must undergo for affordable housing

Nadine Bachan—like many young Canadians—spent months trying to find an apartment she could afford in Vancouver's market

Nadine Bachan

Four strangers are congregating by my doorway. I cautiously step outside and the most well-dressed of them extends his hand and makes introductions. He’s the real-estate agent and the others are his team. I say hello then retreat back inside, listening to the muffled voices outside my window. I live in the garden suite—an elegant synonym for […] More »

The grunge music scene has a serious problem with sexism

While Kurt Cobain steals the media spotlight this April, the month of his death anniversary, you'd be hard pressed to find any news about comparable female acts

Lisa Whittington-Hill

The “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses” exhibit at Seattle’s EMP Museum should have been heaven. For a fan of Nirvana, Mudhoney, and a bunch of other bands from the Pacific Northwest like me, a room filled with rare artifacts, such as the sweater Kurt Cobain wore for the MTV Unplugged appearance or the drum […] More »

Want to be part of Toronto’s art scene? New monthly event encourages emerging artists to join in

The Slackline Creative Arts Series creates a welcoming environment for newbies

Allyson Aritcheta@ariCheddar

The seating area of the Burdock music hall is cast in a faint glow by the string lights above. A spotlight creates a faint hue behind a microphone. Tonight’s artist line up is taped on the microphone stand. The Slackline Creative Arts Series is ready for another show. The volunteer-run arts series started in July […] More »

This Magazine nominated for three National Magazine Awards

Erica Lenti

While we’re still hard at work putting together a magazine that holds powers to account, makes you think, and introduces you to some amazing Canadians, we thought we’d take a brief moment to toot our own horn and celebrate our amazing contributors. We are incredibly thrilled to let you know that This has been nominated for three […] More »
March-April 2017

Why aren’t there more changing tables in men’s public washrooms across Canada?

Our country is even lagging behind the U.S.

Blair Mlotek@blairmlo

Single dad Kyle Bachmann was tired of having to change his son on a blanket next to a urinal on a dirty bathroom floor. It’s a situation all too common for dads stranded in public without access to a baby changing table. Fed up, Bachmann started a local campaign in his home of Penticton, B.C., […] More »

Halifax exhibit explores the politics of sound

Sound Etiquette is open until April 24

Madi Haslam@madihaslam

The sound of biting lips softly. The sound of bones cracking. The sound of a light that never flickers. What we hear depends on who we are. These personal politics of sound are the focus of a challenging art exhibition in Halifax. Sound Etiquette explores the social conventions around sonic communication the hearing community might […] More »
March-April 2017

REVIEW: New CanLit is “an ode to books”

Inside Dominique Fortier's The Island of Books

Jemicah Colleen Marasigan

The Island of Books By Dominique Fortier (translated by Rhonda Mullins) Coach House Books, $19.95 An ode to books, Rhonda Mullins’s translation of Dominique Fortier’s The Island of Books captures the emotions of two struggling individuals hoping to find strength in writing. Told from the perspectives of an illiterate, grieving artist from the 15th century […] More »