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July-August 2017

Creating a safe space for queer and trans Muslims to celebrate their identities

Inside Salaam Canada

Roshelle Hill

Growing up in an Ismaili Muslim community in Toronto, there was no explicit acceptance of queer folks, says Thawer. “I simply did not know where to look to find other people like myself.” At the age of 23, Thawer finally found his people at Salaam Canada, a social network and support group for those who […]

Our Mapless Season

New poetry by Canisia Lubrin

Canisia Lubrin

I too am redacted, unsuitable reptilian, shell of speech I have forgotten, unless ravines can drown each sound they cup from my throat. Exposed against this anemone August is a way of unlearning the untaken graft of leeching questions, a mischief starved in whys. Why-because too much is the way of knowing the chrysalis before […]

Yellowknife performance group blends song and spoken word into storytelling

Meet Quantum Tangle

Madi Haslam@madihaslam

There’s a running joke in the Northwest Territories that you need to travel outside the Arctic to hang out with your neighbours. That was the case for Yellowknife artists Greyson Gritt and Tiffany Ayalik, who first met a few years ago at the Northern Scene festival in Ottawa. Their spontaneous partnership soon became Quantum Tangle—a […]

Inside the strange but educational world of unschooling

Proponents of a new education movement say kids can learn outside of structured classrooms. Traditional educators can learn from it, too

Tyler Hein

When most kids in his age are in a classroom learning angles, Ben Hewitt’s son is making a bow. He’s testing the string and the flex of the wood. He shoots an arrow and figures out which angle makes the arrow fly the farthest, flinging them around the Vermont acreage the Hewitts call home. He’s been […]

In defence of e-readers

It's okay to go digital, writes tech columnist Tyler Hellard

Tyler Hellard@poploser

Confession: The first thing I do when I start reading a book is crack the spine. It’s satisfying. I’ve never understood people who keep their books in pristine condition. They are meant to be lived in—dog-eared and coffee stained and marked up all to hell. The pages should be wrinkled from that time you dropped it […]

REVIEW: New book expertly deconstructs 1990s film

Inside Gentlemen of the Shade: My Own Private Idaho by Jen Sookfong Lee

Lisa Whittington-Hill@nerdygirly

Gentlemen of the Shade: My Own Private Idaho By Jen Sookfong Lee  ECW, $12.95 Jen Sookfong Lee’s Gentlemen of the Shade, the latest volume in ECW’s entertaining Pop Classics series, thoughtfully examines writer and director Gus Van Sant’s 1991 critically-acclaimed indie film My Own Private Idaho. Lee was a Doc Martens-wearing 15-year-old when she first […]

Should Canadians live on former industrial sites?

Public officials say sites along Montreal's Lachine Canal are safe for residents to live on—but pollution remains a problem

Patrick Maynard

The Lachine Canal is emblematic of Montreal’s revival. Tourists write about it. Modern condos sprout up next to it. A bike path running along the waterway is rated among the world’s best rides. But alongside the canal’s booming recreational offerings are the remnants of its industrial history. A review of a national database of federal industrial […]

Death to the personal brand

In today’s hot job market, professionals are encouraged to sell themselves. But what happens to our sense of worth when we’re commodified?

Marcia Walker

A few years ago, at a freelancing workshop, I participated in an exercise about the power of personal branding. I had my doubts but was not quick enough to duck out, like other attendees. It was the dreaded “get to know you” session of the workshop. We moved our chairs to the centre of the […]

My Landlord is a Spider

Fiction by Jordan Moffatt

Jordan Moffatt@jordanmoffatt

A life-hack I read on the internet told me to avoid landlords who are late for the first meeting. If I had followed the life-hack, I wouldn’t be living where I live now, which is in the sewer. So that’s another lesson I had to learn the hard way. I was waiting for a potential […]

Notes on Stones and Flowers

Poetry by Basia Gilas

Basia Gilas

I’ve made a note and stuck it to my desk: Don’t be less of a flower but, could you be more of a stone at the same time? —Mary Ruefle  The first philosopher rubbed fur against amber, which then drew feathers and hair to it like a magnet. This was evidence of the stone’s soul […]

A history Pride’s biggest activist milestones

From the decriminalization of homosexuality to Canada's first on-reserve celebration

Allison Baker@allybake

MAY 1969 “There’s no place for the State in the bedrooms of the Nation.” Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s Bill C-150 is passed, amending the Criminal Code to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults (but only in private, mind you). AUGUST 1, 1971 Toronto holds its first Pride celebration with a picnic on the Toronto Islands. The […]