I suppose I should first set-up the idea behind what will be a reoccurring column for This on stories that should be covered in the media but for a host of reasons aren’t. Sometimes I’ll offer why it is I think a given story hasn’t been taken up, while other times I’ll simply identify a […] More »

About 200 protesters gathered on King Street today as Enbridge held their annual general meeting inside the King Edward Hotel. The mass of protesters had congregated on the street to voice their opinions on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would stretch 1,172 kilometres from Bruderheim, Alta., to the port of Kitimat, B.C. The proposed […] More »

My Occupy thesis: In my quest to follow the Occupy movement this summer, I realized it’s imperative to first understand what Occupy is and who it represents. We have all seen the signs and heard the slogans about the 99 percent, but is everyone involved and do they even care? Given, it’s rather a complicated […] More »

The student strike in Quebec does not look to be ending anytime soon. While a tentative agreement was struck on May 6, following a 22-hour negotiation between the students and the Quebec government, it will likely be annulled after the 150,000 students around the province vote this week. If the agreement is passed, it would […] More »

More than 1,500 people gathered at Nathan Phillips Square yesterday to rally and march down Queen Street for May Day—and to rejuvenate the Occupy movement . The co-event was organized as part of International Workers’ Day, in a joint effort between No One Is Illegal, Occupy Toronto and the May 1 movement, which is a […] More »

I’m the new intern at This Magazine and throughout the summer I will be following the potential resurgence of the Occupy movement in Toronto. You can expect to find weekly updates surrounding different protests, individuals and ideas in our blog section every Wednesday. I guess this is the point when I should let you know […] More »

In 2001, when Earth Rangers was planning for its new facility, the mandate its members gave to the engineers and architects was that they wanted a building with the lowest environmental impact possible, a building on the cutting edge of eco-friendliness. Ten years later, the Earth Rangers Centre is one of the most energy efficient […] More »

Weighing in with 57,184 votes, the most popular definition of the word “slut” on Urban Dictionary is “a woman with the morals of a man.” If we strip away the male punchline, hasn’t “slut” always meant that? A woman who pursues her own pleasure in spite of a pervasive double standard? The SlutWalks are challenging that […] More »

In the search for underlying causes of the Middle-Eastern revolts, food, technology, Twitter, and social media have been identified as possible suspects. Last week, Dylan Robertson argued here that these are in fact food revolutions—that drastically increasing food prices had worn away at citizens (commenter Jen Hassum said that “bread determinism” wasn’t entirely true either; […] More »

In Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, even Italy, citizens are rising up, risking their lives to protest their corrupt governments. Egyptians, in a historical event, have proven they can be successful in overthrowing years of dictatorial leadership. Canadians were mostly cheering along (though our government wasn’t), but’s hard to put ourselves in their place—Canada, flawed though it […] More »

Almost five months to the day and I’m just now realizing that I didn’t learn my lesson from the G20. Sure, I found out first had the power and importance of community organization and activism; and I was forced to come to terms with the tragic ease with which our government could abuse our fundamental […] More »