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January-February 2021

Just the essentials

Winnipeg group advocates for quality affordable childcare

Tina Knezevic

  A few years ago, Kisa MacIsaac, an early childhood educator (ECE) and mother of three in Winnipeg, tried to calculate the feasibility of putting three children in childcare for the summer. At 70 dollars per day, she “would have been working for nothing, anyways,” she says. She ended up taking the summer off while […] More »
July-August 2018

New Ottawa exhibit offers a peek into Canadian children’s pasts

Inside A Little History, at the Canadian Museum of History

Allyson Aritcheta

A freestanding wall decorated with blue motifs frames a glass case. Inside the case sits a brooch inscribed with a person’s name and dates of birth and death. On the other side of the wall, the front of the brooch is exposed: a portrait of a little girl, Alice Walker, the daughter of Canadian artist […] More »

Postcard from Sudan: Rebirth of a nation

Heather StilwellWebsite

In many ways, this tiny classroom was just like any other: rows of young students looking up at their teacher, the day’s lesson displayed on the dusty chalkboard overhead. But this day was not about grammar or arithmetic. It was about the long fight for freedom. In South Sudan, it is rarely about anything else. […] More »
July-August 2011

In the fight for better literacy, comic books are teachers’ secret weapon

Lindsay Mar

Long regarded as the enemy of literacy, comic books and graphic novels are increasingly useful as a way of improving reading skills among otherwise reluctant students, young and old On a cold mid-February afternoon under overcast skies, a school bell rings. The halls of Toronto’s Agnes Macphail Public School flood with children dressed in puffy […] More »
March-April 2011

This45: Gerald Hannon on trans rights activist Syrus Marcus Ware

Gerald Hannon

For the last two years, anyone weary of the increasingly commercialized and blissfully apoliticized nature of Pride in Toronto has made a beeline for the back-to-the-future experience that is the Trans March. It’s small, friendly, community-based, unendorsed by any corporate interest. It’s also politicized, giddy, and endearingly disorganized, the way many of us remember Prides […] More »
November-December 2010

After decades of research, why is there still no contraceptive pill for men?

Kelli KorduckiWebsite

The birth control pill has been a major game changer in the arena of women’s reproductive rights, opening up new doors in society and the workplace. But, in the wake of the birth control pill’s 50th anniversary on the market in the United States and its 40th in Canada, a major question remains: will there […] More »

Due Date: Five reasons not to induce labour and one reason to have more sex

Jenn HardyWebsite

[This Magazine contributor Jenn Hardy is pregnant and due in a few weeks. In this Due Date series, we’re running some of her thoughts on pregnancy, health, and her experience trying to de-medicalize her childbirth.] I’m not afraid of labour. I’m not afraid of the intense pressure of my uterus contracting, tightening, pushing… My cervix slowly dilating… Once open […] More »
January-February 2011

Why the Tories’ $100-a-month child-care plan isn’t enough

Kevin Philipupillai

Advocates have long argued that a publicly funded universal daycare system would support low-income families, single parents, and working mothers. Support for variants of universal child care was a hallmark of the Mulroney, Chrétien, and Martin election platforms—but none of them made it happen. Instead, in 2006, the then new Harper government made the Universal […] More »
January-February 2011

Shut out of international adoption, aspiring queer parents face hard choices

Meghan Davidson Ladly

Some LGBT would-be parents find ways to thwart foreign bigotry—while others simply walk away The test kitchen of the Bayview Village Loblaws grocery store in North Toronto is packed. Around 30 women and men sit clustered in pairs in a horseshoe, framed by the cupboards and counters lining the room. They are almost all white, […] More »
January-February 2011

Why Sally Rhoads risked her life 10 times to be a surrogate

Paul McLaughlinWebsite

Sally Rhoads is passionate about surrogacy. The 32-year-old mother of three (ages 12, seven and 10 months) lives near Stratford, Ontario. She has been a successful surrogate once and an unsuccessful one nine times. Although her commitment to surrogacy almost killed her, she remains an advocate for a practice that is highly restricted in Canada […] More »

Follow along with This Magazine contributor Jenn Hardy's baby-to-be!

Graham F. Scott

If you’ve picked up the latest issue of This Magazine, you might have noticed Jenn Hardy’s article on Canada’s midwife shortage. (Jenn is a former This intern and now a Montreal-based freelance writer. She has written for us recently on sustainable agriculture, Montreal musician Vanessa Rodrigues, and investigated the environmental claims of the DivaCup.) You […] More »