Kathmandu is at a standstill today as pro-democracy protesters rise up against King Gyanendra and his absolute rule of Nepal, gained when he seized control of the government last February. General strikes have paralyzed parts of Nepal, high-ranking government officials were arrested for the first time today and five protesters have been shot dead by […] More »

We knew it was going to happen but we’re still surprised by just how quickly Stephen Harper’s government are attacking Canada’s meagre commitments to preventing climate change. First it was cancelling the One Tonne Challenge, next came the cuts to programs related to climate change (research and outreach programs first). Now comes news that Environment […] More »

Everyone please join me in welcoming Ron Nurwisah to the Blog This family! Ron is a frequent This Magazine contributor and is an editor of the popular, award-winning blog Torontoist. Blog This will give Ron a chance to point out the things he finds interesting from outside the Centre of the Universe. Ron will be […] More »

After spending countless hours over the last few months watching Much Music pick a new VJ (don’t be judgin!), I’m now going thru a bit of reality show/job interview withdrawal. Then I saw this… MTV is picking up another magazine-themed reality show that will give its winner a writing job with Rolling Stone magazine. According […] More »

A small update to the urban binning (or recyclables collecting) story from the last issue of This comes to us from the CBC. Nice to see a good idea has some legs, or in this case, wheels! More »

Saskatoon’s arts community has been snubbed by a federal government initiative in favour of a major trade centre that operates a lucrative casino. On March 24, Western Economic Diversification announced that four capital projects in Saskatoon would get more than $10-million in federal funding under the Canada Celebrates Saskatchewan program. Among the projects funded were […] More »

Some stunning radio this morning on THE CURRENT (CBC Radio One), when host Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed a former interrogator for the US military. Sorry, didn’t catch his name (driving and listening), but he worked at Abu Ghraib immediately after the scandal broke, and later left the military, disturbed and seemingly defeated by what he […] More »

This past Sunday, the Toronto Star ran Alison Wolf’s controversial essay “Working Girls, Broken Society,” which originally ran in the great British mag Prospect. Wolf argues that feminism is eroding what was once a common bond shared by all women, regardless of social stature; “the death of sisterhood,” as she calls it. While women could […] More »

The big news from This headquarters this week is that the magazine’s new editor, Jessica Johnston, has officially started. Jessica is an ideas woman with the attention to detail required to turn plans into action. She has served as This & That editor and copy editor for This, and also has plenty of experience in […] More »

Stuart Neatby, Christian Heyne and John Dimond Gibson, a group of Canadian reporters sponsored by the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, have been blogging in recent months from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Their important work — which seeks to hold Canadian authorities to task for their involvement in perpetuating a democratic deficit in that country — […] More »

So nice to see our new federal government taking the lead on a policy of conditional democracy. As in, “Democracy around the world is our aim, unless we don’t like the results of the free and fair elections that are held.” The proof of this policy, of course, is the decision to cut off all […] More »