David Ahenakew’s trial has come to a close. Ahenakew said all kinds of nasty things about Jews to a reporter, but now says he was feeling disoriented from new medication for diabetes when he made the controversial comments. Except, as Alex Roslin found out, this member of the order of Canada had been saying this […] More »
The great, universal complaint of our era is overwork. We’re all harried, exhausted, enslaved by the Man, and working too hard to enjoy our lives. But is it possible that the culprit isn’t our work ethic after all, but our leisure ethic? That’s from my latest piece in the new, wonderful, Toronto Sunday Star. From […] More »
So the National Post’s Don Martin believes Adscam is Canada’s Watergate. Insomuch as it represents the extreme level of corruption within the governing party, I suppose he’s right. But I can’t help but note one significant difference: Watergate was uncovered by investigative journalists, while Adscam was busted open by the Auditor-General, and the recent damning […] More »
The largest and most well attended funeral in living memory took place in Rome today, and the central image throughout was the plainest of wooden boxes, made of cypress wood and featuring some fine dovetail work on the joinery. Simple, unpretentious and, I’m guessing, not nearly as expensive as the polished mahogany and brass caskets […] More »
As we put the May/June issue of This Magazine to bed, I’m sure our art director wishes he had a staff of 45, but such is not the case. So I was amused to find this masthead for The New Yorker, cobbled together by The New York Observer (click the link at the end of […] More »
Today’s Edmonton Journal reports that plans are well underway to create the position of poet laureate for the city. My pointing out of this matter in the lunch room begged the following questions: What does a poet laureate do? And, Why does Edmonton need one? I had to confess to not knowing what the specific […] More »
Looks like I’m taking requests now. JC sent me this link, via which you can order trucker hats that read “Papist”. Order one, order a dozen. It might help calm those of you down who emailed me to complain that the Pope had ordered all his worldly possessions to be burned. No, I don’t know […] More »
Here’s the headline in the Globe today, re: a serious health concern: Obesity a Big Deal, Statscan Says Wait, I’ve got one for them—Suicide Rate Jumps. How about—Cancer Growing Out of Control. Endless hilarity. More »
While this is sure to enrage This Magazine publishers past and present, I am obliged to draw your attention to the goings-on over at The Walrus Online. Yesterday, an online chat took place live from Oxford University, on the question of the future of multiculturalism. It was moderated by the Walrus’s Ken Alexander. A major […] More »
My new penpal Nic from U Michigan has taken time out from peppering me with questions about the Rebel Sell, to make a cartoon based on our account of cool. It’s pretty excellent. Check it out here (and dig the shout out to Montreal’s hottest, The Arcade Fire). More »
Mackenzie River This river belongs wholly to itself obeying its own laws Its wide brown eye softens what it reflects from sky and shore The top water calm moves purposely to a cold sea … A river so Canadian it turns its back on America The arctic shore receives the vast flow a maze of […] More »