July 1 is about cottages, fireworks, beer, and the long weekend. As a white person born and raised in Canada, I was taught to believe that Canada Day was a nice summer tradition. Of course, as a kid growing up in the early ’90s, there was no obvious reason to think otherwise. By and large, […] More »

On June 11 Marineland released a statement saying Baker the sea lion died. The first three sentences of the four-paragraph document talk about the animal friend. He died of natural causes at 29 years old; he may have been the world’s oldest sea lion. The rest reads a little passive aggressively, perhaps against the protesters […] More »

Last month a photo depicting a dead woman, head destroyed, body surrounded by her own blood with the caption “I like her for her brains,” would be A-OK with Facebook.   Women, Action and the Media (WAM) published Facebook’s response to a user who reported the image, which was pretty much along the lines of: the […] More »

Cleaning commercials have always been crystal clear on whose job it is to keep the family home sparkling. It is a pretty standard formula to show women on the brink of orgasm, dancing over their whites getting their whitest, high on the fumes of the chemicals responsible for their Martha Stewart castles. It’s been a […] More »

When I was nine years old I was reading The Baby-sitters Club and eating, what some would say to be, way too much lasagna. This nine-year-old girl, however, left her home in Kelowna, B.C. to attend the 2013 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting for McDonald’s Corporation in Chicago on May 23—and it wasn’t for a sneak peek at the […] More »

The Victoria Day sun beckoned my five-year-old daughter and I to the park. While playing near the slide she was pushed over by a tongue-waging canine; looks like Bella was beckoned too. The kiddo laughed it off and the six-month-old puppy kept running with her owners, a family of three. The mother told me how […] More »

If you didn’t hear, the Toronto Maple Leafs made the playoffs, a first since 2004. The last time they won the Stanley Cup was in 1967. This is all newsworthy stuff, history made with the youngest team in the playoffs. But it was a look between two women that made the news for days. “DRAMA! […] More »

The separation of families and deportation make good television according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister Vic Toews. The “de facto executive producers” approved a series that follows the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) in action. A lot of what is caught on film shows people foreign to Canada being detained, confused and intimidated. […] More »

He could be the one, soul mate, husband, loving father to your children. But first, you’ve got to get him to say hello. These are actual words from an actual Crest 3D White Arctic Fresh Toothpaste commercial that started airing last November (and is still on air). Naturally, the commercial suggests the only way to […] More »

Earlier this month Disney stores pulled sexist Avengers girls’ T-shirts with slogans like “I need a hero” and “I only kiss heroes” off the shelves. The boys’ shirts reading, “Be a hero” remained. These old clichés were quickly called out on the internet. The message to boys that they need to be tough, the notion that […] More »

Three days after his daughter’s suicide, Rehtaeh Parsons’ father and professional writer, Glen Canning, published a post on his blog. “[Rehtaeh was] disappointed to death,” he wrote. “Disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school, and the police.” The post begins with 17 years worth of good things—Parsons love of animals, a box he planned […] More »