Sandra Wiens stepped into the role of government relations representative for the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) two years ago. Upon joining the Quaker group focused on peace and justice, she was one of the members who noticed a pattern. It seemed like unhoused people who were previously incarcerated were asking to go back to […] More »

Illustration by Arson Vremea Dear Unemployment, I met you over two years ago, in October, 2023, when I lost my job after two years. I felt suffocated by the heavy-handedness of the new manager, things came to a head, we parted ways. I was looking to take a breather, but just a few days in, […] More »

Photo courtesy of Black Theatre Workshop On stage, Jerk Pork Castle’s neon lights shine bright, inviting. Inside, Neisha and Andrea anxiously sweep the floor, waiting for hungry customers. It’s another day of checking in on each other, of discussing their citizenship status in the country, of hoping. In our place, set in a fictionalized Caribbean […] More »

Photo by Celia Mendez If Quique Escamilla could summarize his musical journey in one word, it would be “grateful.” Born and raised in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the Juno Award–winning musician grew up with a limited idea of how far music could take him. Now based in Toronto as an established and touring […] More »

Mingzhe Zhang via Pexels Sarah Dawson, a renter living in Toronto’s east end, was told that her rent was going to go up again for the second time in three years, and she wanted to know why. “Every year, the rent goes up, but the problems in the building never seem to get fixed. I […] More »

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels I was struggling in school: distracted, restless, and falling behind. I was an undiagnosed ADHDer and autistic kid, but it was the ’80s, so my fidgeting was treated as misbehaviour rather than a learning difference. I was rescued by the unstoppable hero known as creativity. My mom, a teacher […] More »

Illustration by Teddy Kang Ben wandered past the bedroom. Inside, he could hear, his mother was helping the boy get dressed. Snaking his ankle down through the cuff of the jeans she’d pooled on the floor, cajoling him to raise his arms and draping the sweater from his own closet over that other boy’s chest. […] More »

Photo by Alexander Arvelo McQuaig When Broken Pencil magazine abruptly shut down in 2024, it left a gap in the Canadian zine community. Broken Pencil launched in 1995 with a distinct focus on zines and independent culture. It also hosted Canzine, one of the country’s biggest zine fairs. Running for nearly 30 years, Canzine gave […] More »

Wikimedia Commons / James Lee via Pexels / Corrie Maurik Like many, the first time I heard the term “Wasian” was through social media. The Gen Z term for East Asian–white mixed people was passed to me through a white friend who had come across it on TikTok in the summer of 2021. Recently, the […] More »

Photo courtesy of Explore Edmonton Urban Farm On the north side of Edmonton, at the corner of 113 Avenue and 79 Street, several lots laid vacant for years. That was until Northlands, an agricultural society, took over management of the land. An employee of the society worked to establish an urban farm on the site. […] More »

Photo by K via Pexels Wildfires play an integral role in forest regeneration by clearing underbrush, recycling nutrients, and triggering seed release. But with climate change, their severity and scale have increased sharply, often surpassing the natural range in which they provide ecological benefits. Reliable data on deaths and property loss is limited, since most […] More »