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 »

A pharmaceutical company reportedly linked to tax evasion to the tune of over $4 million through offshore Cyprian accounts gathers for a lunch and cocktail at Montreal’s Old Port. Initiation into the event is coat check, where a cascade of rented racks too janky for winter coats topples over to the sound of a shrieking […] More »

In the middle of the 2023 fire season, A Critical Incident Stress Management counsellor came to our fire base. The season had been unprecedentedly busy, even with wildfires ramping up in recent years, and my crew in southern British Columbia had racked up more than 70 days on the fireline with no sign of it […] More »

When Sarah MacLeod started working for a software company in Charlottetown, P.E.I., they weren’t sure if they wanted to come out to their colleagues. As a member of a small team, they mostly worked independently, and felt comfortable keeping their queerness relatively private. At that point, about 10 years ago, the company wasn’t focused on […] More »

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 »

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 »

For years, Ontario’s long-haul truck drivers have decried their unsafe labour conditions, among them the inadequate number of rest stops off of Southern Ontario highways. A petition for more truck parking in Ontario created by private policy group SPR Associates of Toronto aims to improve working environments and safety for the long-haul drivers on the […] 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 »

I love sci-fi. I have since I was a kid, and I especially love weird cyberpunk movies. Lately, though, the main thing I notice in sci-fi is creators’ inability to envision a world without violence against sex workers. This really hit me watching both the 1982 film Blade Runner and the 2018 Netflix original Altered […] 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 »

  My first grown-up job paid $33 an hour, in 1987. It didn’t truly pay $33 an hour, because it was a teaching job, and the rate didn’t include lesson planning. It was also very part-time. But fresh out of university, I thought this was astonishingly generous compensation. I got the job through the (former) […] More »