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September-October 2022

Lecturers on the line

The post-secondary strike wave was unlike anything seen before. With many issues unresolved, what comes next?

Liam Devitt

In Lethbridge, Alberta, a college town of just over 100,000, the professors are on strike. They walk the picket line, buffeted by the harsh winter winds the city is known for. University of Lethbridge-hired private security guards are patrolling the perimeter of the university and setting up surveillance cameras, ostensibly to keep everyone safe, perhaps […] More »
September-October 2022

Counsellors, caretakers, and cops

They're barely older than the peers they support, and they’re always on the clock. Resident assistants in Canadian universities speak up about a crushing emotional toll

Carly Penrose

The phone rings. It’s the call Alanna Stewart has been waiting for. One of her residents passed out at a party across campus. Stewart saw them down six shots of absinthe earlier in the night, so she isn’t exactly surprised. She ventures out to find the student, who is dangerously drunk, and then escorts them […] More »
September-October 2022

Cops out

Winnipeg group advocates to expel police from schools

Misha Falk

Photo courtesy Police Free Schools Winnipeg In the summer of 2020, the group Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg (J4BLW) sparked a wave of abolitionist organizing in the city after collecting over 120,000 signatures on a petition calling for the defunding and eventual end to the Winnipeg Police Service. Inspired and called to action by the […] More »
March-April 2020

Whose stories get archived?

Toronto's Little Jamaica neighbourhood deserves to be part of public memory

Sharine Taylor

Living in Toronto means I’m not too far from Jamaica. Not because geography affords proximity, but because the presence of the diaspora has made itself known. Over 200,330 people of Jamaican descent reside in Toronto alone, and that’s evident by the countless restaurants, small businesses, specialty shops, and grocery stores that populate the city. Though […] More »
January-February 2020

Spotlight on The Alberta Advantage podcast

Podcast gives a left-wing perspective on local politics

Ben Cohen

The Premier of Alberta is a Conservative. Every single seat in the province bar one went blue in the last federal election. Despite the severe lack of representation in government, those with leftward ideologies still exist in Alberta. Where can they turn to hear friendly voices? The Alberta Advantage podcast. The bi-monthly podcast was born […] More »
March-April 2019

Will Our Data Lead Us To The Virtual Afterlife?

As Canadians live longer and amass more personal data than ever, we could be getting closer to living forever in bot form

Stacey McLeod

Hayley Atwell as Martha in Black Mirror James Vlahos can no longer sit across from his father, hold his hand or give him a hug. But he can ask him for advice when he’s feeling blue and let his children ask questions about his family’s life in Greece or listen to him sing “Me and […] More »
November-December 2018

Dear Future Great-Grandchild… Forgive Us

The world we'll leave behind won't be a pretty one

Michael Polanyi

DEAR FUTURE GREAT-GRANDCHILD, I will likely never meet you. I will never know the mid-21st-century world in which you will live. I hope you will be blessed with the opportunities and joys that I have experienced: the magic of visiting a pristine lake, the friendliness and generosity of neighbours, an array of vocational opportunities, and […] More »
January-February 2019

We need to stop pretending there’s no Islamophobia crisis in Canada

How do Canadians view themselves through the lens of national massacres?

Brigitte Pawliw-Fry

  ON A COLD NIGHT IN DECEMBER 1989, Rachel, a first-year student at McGill University, was sitting in the emergency room with a friend suffering from a migraine. About an hour after they first arrived, paramedics began rushing women on stretchers through the ER. Rachel’s first response was confusion: She couldn’t understand why so many […] More »
January-February 2019

We’re here. We’re queer. Now what?

For LGBTQ refugees, Canada is no land of unicorns and rainbows

Amy van den Berg@vandenba

Driving back and forth along Wellesley Street in Toronto, Iris looks for a sign that she belongs. It’s late at night and raining, and she’s been blown off by a date. The woman she met on the dating website Plenty of Fish lives in Niagara Falls, and Iris rented a car for the weekend to […] More »
January-February 2019

Gene machine

I spit in a tube and uncovered secrets about my family long held under wraps by the government. My case for consumer DNA kits

Adam Elliott Segal

Illustration by CSA Images IN THE WINTER OF 2018, like millions of others across the world, I ordered a DNA test. For $99, Ancestry.com promised me a look into my family roots, using just my saliva. The kit arrived in Toronto late last winter from Utah, Ancestry’s home base. I took the collection tube out […] More »
September-October 2018

Online dating apps have a major problem with sexual harassment—but solutions must start offline

There’s no doubt dating apps have a role to play in promoting safe romantic interactions. But sexual harassment and assault are social problems—and a culture shift is required if things are ever going to get better

Teodora Pasca

Amy was sexually assaulted three years ago, and we matched on Tinder in June. Even though I’m a journalist and a stranger she met online, I’m one of the only people she’s ever told her story to. It started when Amy, who lives in Yellowknife, agreed to go for coffee with a man named Paul. […] More »