DOWNTOWN TORONTO–Today begins the 15th Hot Docs, “Canada’s international documentary festival”. This is my first time blogging a festival–I’m excited. First off, as I’m not a documentary “expert”, I’ll spare you a long introductory rumination on the documentary form. For the moment. But I am a narcissist. So I’ll kick things off with a quick […] More »

For the next 10 days, Blog This will be alive with reviews and news from Hot Docs, a documentary film festival taking over the screens of Toronto. All this thanks to our special Hot Docs correspondent, Daniel Cohen. Daniel lives in Toronto and has written about politics and culture in Canada and South America for […] More »

We do love a good bookstore and Holland’s Selexyz Dominicanen is our kind of store. The store is housed in a 13th century Dominican monastery. It kind of reminds us a bit of that Umberto Eco novel The Name of the Rose. Foreign relations expert Mark Leonard raises an interesting point about rising power China. […] More »

Today in Nepal, voting began for a new constituent assembly that may well chart a radically different course for the Himalayan country. The election comes after more than 10 years of warfare waged by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The main parties squaring off are the Maoists, the Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leninist […] More »

National Geographic looks at China’s ‘instant cities.’ All over China’s coastal regions huge cities are popping up seemingly overnight to make room for factories and the thousands of workers flocking from the countryside to fill them. The writer, Peter Hessler, is one of my favourites working in China at the moment. France is fighting the […] More »

Mexican emos are being targeted for attacks. We’re not talking about light-hearted jabs or mockery but full-on assault. There’s even a dark homophobic element underneath the whole thing. From the article: Most of all, however, the assailants target the emos for dressing effeminately, still a provocative act for many in a macho Mexico. “At the […] More »

The Guardian gives a list of the 50 most powerful blogs in the world. These blogs are SO powerful they can overthrow nations (probably not), change the economy (highly unlikely) and uhm, kill lots of your free time (yep). 40 years ago Robert Kennedy gave a speech which outlined flaws with the idea of the […] More »

Every year a gaggle of Chicagoans run the Chiditarod, a shopping cart race around downtown Chicago geared at raising money and collecting goods for the food bank. The ACLU reports that there are almost a million names on the U.S. terror watch list. That’s one terrorist for every 300 Americans. The group also points some […] More »

To continue with Derek’s theme of Afghanistan this week, here is a statement by Malalai Joya, an Afghan MP currently appealing her suspension from parliament. “After 9/11, unfortunately the United States and its allies like Canada pushed us from the frying pan into the fire,” she states, calling on Canada to act independently from the […] More »

I’m extremely jealous at anyone who got to attend the TED conference in California this week. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference started in the 1980s that brings some heavy-hitting thinkers into the same building and lets them chat. Think the Nobel prize with fewer Swedes (not that there’s anything wrong with Swedes). This […] More »

Bob Lovelace, an ex-chief and negotiator for Ardoch Algonquin First Nations, is facing six months in prison and was fined $25,000 for participating in an ongoing protest over uranium exploration on Algonquin land, in and around Sharbot Lake, Ontario. He was charged with contempt of court. The protest was in response to a license the […] More »