In New Brunswick, cancer clusters. One unlucky town has ovarian cancer rates 200 percent higher than the national average. In another region, you’re more likely to get brain cancer. Each cluster has one thing in common: heavy industry. Inside the radical fight to kill the economy and save lives With a small plastic tote in […] More »

In a stunning display of common sense over corporate interest, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 13 that human genes can’t be patented. The case centred on controversial Myriad Genetics, the (now former) patent-holder of the gene mutation responsible for hereditary breast cancer. Perhaps, like many others, you first heard about the gene mutation after […] 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 DSM-5 is the newest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual—the book of mental illnesses. The tome has been around since the ’50s, and updated editions have reflected changing social norms— homosexuality was taken out in 1973. Over its five editions, names have changed, symptoms have changed, and new illnesses […] More »

Behind closed doors in nursing homes across the country, thousands of seniors are denied sex—and some are even chastised for holding hands. Lesbian, gay, and transgender seniors face ridicule and hostility. Why advocates, residents, and staff are mad as hell and fighting for change   “How can somebody be like that?” The words wafted down […] More »

Yesterday, I learned that Kyle Scanlon, a well-loved and respected member of the trans* activist scene in Toronto, had died. Kyle committed suicide last week in his Toronto home. He’s not someone I knew well, but I’d reported on a couple events featuring Kyle’s presence in the past. It was a shock to think that […] More »

Over 30 years ago, the pro-choice movement in Canada was at its peak. In 1970 the Vancouver Women’s Caucus travelled across the country as part of the Abortion Caravan. Stopping in various cities and towns on their way to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the women spent their evenings hearing the stories of other women so […] More »

On May 10, the annual anti-abortion rally was held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. This year’s event has come at a very interesting time in the Canadian abortion debate. Only weeks earlier, Stephen Harper denounced fellow Tory Stephen Woodworth’s bid to reopen the debate in the House of Commons. Woodworth, a Conservative backbencher, recently proposed […] More »

Imagine 60,000 Band-Aids stuck together in small wagon-wheel patterns, draped over a mannequin in an art gallery. Now, imagine a person wearing this cloak in the middle of a downtown street, who if feeling confrontational, sticks Band-Aids on passersby. Hamilton-based artist Andrew McPhail’s installation and performance all my little failures explores obsession, humour and disease. […] More »

The hockey world was shocked this summer when three tough guys (one just retired) died unexpectedly, one from an overdose of alcohol and pills and two others by suicide. When Wade Belak, a popular, seemingly happy former Toronto Maple Leaf hanged himself while in Toronto for the taping of CBC’s The Battle of the Blades, […] More »

When the first Canadian case of Mad Cow disease was discovered near Wanham, Alberta in 2003, sensationalist news coverage sparked widespread fear over the safety of Canadian beef. Forty-one countries closed their borders to our beef, and in the following 18 months producers suffered $5 billion in losses. To date, only 19 cases of mad […] More »