Sometimes, when I think of theatre, I’m tempted to imagine aristocrat types wasting time and money to watch something more than a little pretentious. (And, sometimes, I’m right).  And certainly, there’s a nagging impression of theatre nowadays that it’s for an older generation, and that the problems are no longer relevant. Which is why I […] More »

Lost in the revelations that are coming out about Canada allowing a foreign spy agency access to world leaders (and who else?) is the knowledge that we’re finally getting more information about what actually happened during the G20. A fuller picture is emerging that adds embarrassing details to the already long list of offences committed […] More »

Inequality, thy name is doorknob! Recently, here at the offices of This Magazine, where the magic of journalism comes alive, and even the chairs have a political opinion, we’ve installed a doorknob. We retired our door lever, and got a doorknob. Folks, let me tell you, I do not like it. The first morning after […] More »

In spite of the recent trend toward political scandal in Canada, Samara a non-partisan charitable organization, is doing its best to recognize the everyday people who are contributing positively to politics in Canada. They’ve announced the Everyday Political Citizen jury, which will select two winners to receive the award for 2013. The Jury will include Preston Manning, Kirstine […] More »

“I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends.” -Virginia Woolf There’s a hoary old cliché about male nerds that they’re perennially afraid of women, clamming up whenever one begins to talk, scoffing through their retainer at the thought of one intellectually matching them on […] More »

It’s a rare thing when a video surfaces surrounding a Keystone XL pipeline when all sides come out looking good. Such is the case in the video above at an event in Boston regarding Obama’s Health Care plan. The protesters bring some much needed publicity to their cause and with his usual glib charm, Obama […] More »

When I returned from China over the summer, having worked there for a year and a half, people would ask me, “What was it like?” And I, like a child trying to verbalize their first lofty idea, was sort of tongue-tied. There are over a billion individual perspectives in the country, yet only one autocratic […] More »

An aging man in a green turtleneck loudly plunks at the keys on his dusty keyboard. He finishes writing and the corners of his mouth curl upward involuntarily as he reads it. For he is a “media critic” in Canada and he has just written an assortment of banal criticisms that now give way to […] More »

“The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work – they are the beginning, not the end. Their basic message is: the taboo is broken; we do not live in the best possible world; we are allowed, obliged even, to think about alternatives.” -Slavoj Zizek As we all move slowly into the second […] More »

Smug Brits the world over will have to find a new spokesman. Sources say CNN head Jeff Zucker is “actively looking for a replacement for Piers Morgan.”  Generally, conducting interviews with the disposition of a snooty butler is not something people like to watch. But if you like your issues served up with a side of […] More »

I eat meat. I like the taste of it, and each day I witness my belly’s lust for the stuff dupe my mind into concordance. It’s simple. I look at a cluster of cooked chicken strands in a shawarma sandwich and it has none of the paradigmatic signs of life or pain or loss that […] More »