In an unprecedented move France has actually banned something that wasn’t strictly for the purposes of race-baiting. (Sorry Tom Tucker.) Earlier this week, the country’s senate announced children’s beauty contests will be banned, pending adoption by France’s National Assembly—a move that’s sure to send the glitter and baby-thong markets reeling in France. Thong market aside, […] More »

The Workers’ Action Centre (WAC) is calling for a raise in the Ontario minimum wage, and has been organizing demonstrations and events since early March. On Tuesday, the Toronto Star published a piece from Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage members Navjeet Sidhu and Yvonne Kelly, in which the activists outline the myriad reasons an increase […] More »

You’ve probably heard the tune, though you may not even know it—it’s definitely a candidate for 2013’s song of the summer, alongside Miley Cyrus’ also contentious We Can’t Stop. It’s floating in the air on every patio, blasting from cruising cars, oozing along the sidewalks in the club districts. “#BLURREDLINES” billboards loom over this city. […] More »

It’s Pride Week in Vancouver, and to kick off celebrations July 29 the city unveiled an addition to the Davie Street Village streetscape. City workers painted all four crosswalks at the intersection of Davie and Bute in the rainbow flag late on Sunday night, and the big reveal happened early Monday morning hosted by Canada’s […] More »

Here at This Magazine we’re hard at work on our Corporate Hall of Shame issue (coming in September!), an annual roundup of shady company dealings, corruption, lies, and a lot more. It can be pretty depressing around the office – in addition to all of the above, we’re also researching stories on environmental degradation, animal […] More »

Canada now has a working group dedicated to figuring out bee mortality. On July 9, environmental group Sierra Club Canada shared a press release announcing the group’s formation, which is made up of beekeepers, farmers, scientists and others in agri-business. The press release mentions the recent loss of 27 million bees near Elwood, Ont. In […] More »

The “Hey girl…” feminist Ryan Gosling meme was huge—and the author, Danielle Henderson, even landed a book deal. We’ve been following some other feminist Tumblrs and Twitters. Here are some posts from our favourites: *Warning: working knowledge of Taylor Swift lyrics required* We are never ever ever ever / Asking for it — FeministTaylorSwift (@feministtswift) […] More »

In a stunning display of common sense over corporate interest, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 13 that human genes can’t be patented. The case centred on controversial Myriad Genetics, the (now former) patent-holder of the gene mutation responsible for hereditary breast cancer. Perhaps, like many others, you first heard about the gene mutation after […] More »

Last month a photo depicting a dead woman, head destroyed, body surrounded by her own blood with the caption “I like her for her brains,” would be A-OK with Facebook.   Women, Action and the Media (WAM) published Facebook’s response to a user who reported the image, which was pretty much along the lines of: the […] More »

GMO-giant Monsanto made headlines this week when genetically modified wheat was found in an Oregon crop. Genetically modified (GM) wheat is not approved for production or consumption, even in the U.S., though the company tested the strain in 10 states in the ’90s. Scientists speculate the plants found in Oregon may be the result of […] More »

When I was nine years old I was reading The Baby-sitters Club and eating, what some would say to be, way too much lasagna. This nine-year-old girl, however, left her home in Kelowna, B.C. to attend the 2013 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting for McDonald’s Corporation in Chicago on May 23—and it wasn’t for a sneak peek at the […] More »