In our new issue, we examine how 10 key Canadian issues have fared after nearly a decade of Conservative leadership. First up: Hana Shafi on how Islamophobia has festered in the past nine years under Stephen Harper
Hana Shafi
SIX YEARS AGO, then 16-year-old Urooba Jamal was walking home from school in Surrey, B.C. with her two friends, one of whom was wearing hijab. Suddenly, she felt something hit her leg. It was a rock. Then came another and another—more whizzed past her. The culprits were a group of boys, likely no older than […] More »
On newsstands now: Our Sept/Oct 2015 issue! Introducing our Tories in Review issue
This Magazine Staff
With the upcoming election, Canada is set to take a different path—if we want it to. But to what new direction? To answer that question, we first decided to look back over the past nine years of Conservative Canada. While we didn’t have space to examine every aspect of policy (which could, in itself, fill […] More »
This Thursday Ontario voters are heading to the polls for the province’s 41st General Election. Of the three major parties, two are lead by women. At first glance, this looks like progress—women pushing their way into the old boys club that is politics. A closer look, however, reveals a less promising fact. “More than 87 […] More »
Toronto city councillor Doug Ford believes that people with autism, when integrated, can ruin a community. It’s as simple as that. He shared this opinion with the staff of an Etobicoke home for teens with autism, owned by the Griffin Centre, a non-profit mental health agency. The Etobicoke Guardian reports that Ford held a public […] More »
In early February, Canadians were introduced to Bill C-23. It proposed to be “fair” but many, many critics argue it is something completely different. Much, if not all, of the act grants the conservative government more power. If passed, it would allow government officials to turn away those who do not have “adequate” identification (even […] More »
The proposed Fair Election Act, first announced February 4, is set to cause controversy for quite a while yet. A petition was presented yesterday on Parliament Hill that had garnered over 50,000 signatures in opposition to the proposed act, with members from the NDP, the Liberal party of Canada, and the Green Party also there […] More »
American politics have always been of serious interest for Canadians. Not only does the American President affect Canadian politics and procedures, but American elections are also just a heck of a lot more interesting to watch than our own. There’s something incredibly exciting about sitting around with your friends and watching the votes come in, […] More »
By now, the media has turned Ruth Ellen Brosseau’s name into a punch line. Brosseau is, of course, the Ottawa-pub-managing, Las Vegas-visiting, limited-French-speaking 27-year-old single mom who rode the NDP’s wave through Quebec into an MP job in Ottawa, despite having never visited her primarily francophone riding. But Brosseau isn’t the only NDP rookie surprised […] More »
At Marv’s Classic Soda Shop, Marvin Garriott, known for his oiled handlebar moustache, is often asked to speak of politics. He’s the local prophet on the subject; all small towns have one. A two-term councillor sitting for the 1,900-person Southern Alberta town of Black Diamond, Garriott poses for tourists and reporters, mugging in a bowling-alley […] More »
Canadians are giving up on their political system. Voting participation is at historic lows; the number of people who vote for the winning party is now routinely outpaced by the number who don’t vote at all. Most young people don’t vote—63 percent of people under age 24 didn’t cast a ballot in 2008—and that bodes […] More »
From the Second World War until the end of the 20th century, roughly 75 percent of eligible voters consistently cast ballots in federal elections. During the Jean Chrétien era, however, that number began to drop and has been declining ever since. There are many theories as to why this is the case: the increased frequency […] More »