As a lifelong, driver’s licenceless Winnipegger, I’ve become privy to the ways that car culture is deeply embedded in the fabric of our city. In the years I’ve been reading novels, making conversation with strangers, and thanking bus drivers for getting me from points A to B, I’ve encountered a slew of folks who’d rather […]

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 […]

I was 14 years old when I first kissed a girl—and there were more after that—but it took a global pandemic and months of self-reflection to get to a place where I felt comfortable calling myself bisexual. I’m far from alone. The pandemic presented an opportunity for many closeted queer people to look inwards and […]

Over a decade out of art school, Vancouver-based artist Ami Sangha has found her niche. Sangha is the owner of Ami Like Miami, an online shop where she sells handmade ceramic dishes, painted with funky patterns and bright colours. During her undergraduate degree, Sangha studied printmaking. In her late twenties, she fell into a deep […]

In These Lifeless Things, by Edmonton writer Premee Mohamed, a character looks at her partner in a post-apocalyptic landscape. “We could make love right here!” she thinks. “Who, in this dead city, would stop us?” Amid pandemics, rising fascism and climate disaster, science fiction writers are imagining new futures in new ways. Mohamed is a […]

Before March of 2020, I found myself on a video conference once or twice a week. Back then, it still had something special to it, helping me connect to colleagues all over the world. Then, the world turned upside down because of COVID-19, and I found myself spending several hours per day on video calls […]

Back in April, a friend and I had met up to grab smoothies at a café before going on a lockdown walk. We each ordered, and I pulled out my debit card to pay. “Sorry, cash only,” said the woman behind the counter. I stared blankly at her, then my friend. “I don’t have any […]

“We started this because it’s a need,” says Omar Kinnarath. Kinnarath is the founder and one of the organizers of Mutual Aid Society Winnipeg (MAS Winnipeg). The group started in March of 2020, immediately in the wake of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Stores across the city faced severe shortages of necessities: diapers, baby formula, […]

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered some of the many disparities affecting Canadian society today. One of the most outstanding examples of this are the deficiencies exposed in senior care facilities and the subsequent calls for aging in place from experts and seniors alike. (Quebec, Manitoba, and Alberta observed the highest rate of seniors who perished as […]

At the University of Toronto (U of T), most PhD students are expected to spend at least four years working demanding and often thankless jobs, all while living below the poverty line. “It’s a very long tradition,” says June Li, finance commissioner at the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU). “You’re a PhD, you’re […]

In Julie Kim’s family, it’s customary to say, “Go safely” to your loved ones when they leave the house, and, “They came back safe!” once they’ve returned. Hearing about three anti-Asian attacks on the Toronto subway in the span of three days in April 2021, this family custom, and similar initiatives in the United States, […]