No joy is more fulfilling for me than shattering the expectations someone has of me. To be unpredictable is to be individualistic. And in my skin, standing alone as an individual gives me the chance to take solace in myself. Because I am an unambiguous Black woman in a predominantly white community, escaping the stereotypes […] More »

I am a non-binary Black queer femme survivor of sexual violence who has never gone to the police or engaged in a court process in order to seek justice and accountability. Every time that I have disclosed that I am indeed a survivor, I am seldom believed. Why would anyone do that to someone who […] More »

Michelle Kosak comes from a long line of artistic talent. Growing up, she remembers how her father inspired her and her brother to follow in his creative footsteps. Despite her artsy flair, she remembers kids at school bullying her about her appearance throughout her childhood. She eventually developed an eating disorder that stayed with her […] More »

When Zawadi Bunzigiye was assigned to create a project with some sort of community impact as part of their creative writing program at OCAD University, they were stumped. It wasn’t until a conversation with a friend that Bunzigiye decided to start a podcast. What began as an academic assignment has blossomed into a “passion project” […] More »

When Julia Horel presented a report at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the non-profit where she worked, she had a secret. Less than 24 hours prior, she received gut-wrenching news. Sometime between the first ultrasound at eight weeks into her pregnancy and the follow-up two weeks later, she experienced a miscarriage. The embryo she […] More »

“Sometimes people’s … personal life becomes bigger than their work,” says pop star Britney Spears at one point during Framing Britney Spears, the New York Times-produced documentary released in February 2021. Though the complaint backgrounds a montage of Spears being chased around by paparazzi in the late 2000s, it may as well have been issued […] More »

In its 15 years on television, here is a mere sample of the delicious moments Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise has come to be known for: New York housewife Aviva Drescher pulling off her prosthetic leg and throwing it across a room while shouting, “The only thing that is artificial or fake about me is this!”; […] More »

“Where are you from?” It’s a grating question for many racialized individuals, one that podcaster Mifrah Abid wants to turn on its head. “I was not born here, so I don’t mind it so much, but I understand the implications of that question,” says the former English lecturer from India. “‘Where are you from?’ as […] More »

Dear Canadian employers, I come to you with a plea from menstruators across the country: please implement period policies at your place of business. Actually, let me rephrase that—we need period policies in the workplace now. Periods are an incredible phenomenon in which a person bleeds from their nether regions every 21 to 35 days […] More »

In 2021, New Brunswick remains the only province in Canada that refuses to fund out-of-hospital abortions. Currently, only three hospitals in the province can perform abortions—one in Bathurst and two in Moncton. While the province is finally being taken to court by a civil liberties association for this lack of funding support, which violates the […] More »

When recent university graduate Michelle Martins returned to her hometown of Kitimat, a town in northern B.C. with a population reported to be about 9,000 people, she didn’t plan to stay for long. “I came back to Kitimat. I gave myself a year. And I feel like Kitimat is kind of like the Bermuda Triangle […] More »