Those who still support Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan should read Malalai Joya’s new book, A Woman Among Warlords. Joya was suspended in 2007 from the Afghan Parliament for denouncing the presence of warlords in government. However, Joya doesn’t just stop at opposing the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai or the Islamic Fundamentalism of the […] More »

I love the idea of willing a new subculture into existence, and that’s the story of Taqwacore, a documentary that opens in Toronto and Montreal this weekend about the birth of “Punk Islam.” Kick-started by Michael Muhammad Knight’s book of the same name (actually, “The Taqwacores”), the new documentary chronicles the fledgling scene. It seems kind […] More »

A provision governing hate speech in Canada is under the microscope this week, after a tribunal of the Canadian Human Rights Commission concluded that it violates the right to freedom of expression guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This body doesn’t have the power to strike down Section 13(1) of the Human Rights […] More »

With the death early this week of Toronto cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard, tensions between cyclists and motorists, always common, seem to have reached a boiling point. A spontaneous demonstration and  memorial last Tuesday on Toronto’s Bloor Street attracted thousands of cyclists who blocked traffic and held a moment of silence for Sheppard. The incident has […] More »

According to last week’s edition of the Hill Times, Darrel Reid, former director of Focus on the Family Canada, is now the deputy director of policy and research in the Prime Minister’s Office. Reid was most recently chief of staff to Rona Ambrose (when she was Environment Minister). Just FYI, FOTF maintains that homosexual people […] More »

The CounterCulture lecture series is organized by the Simon Fraser University School of Communication. Last thursday the speakers were Donald Gutstein and Jamie Peck, two leading researchers of neo-liberal think tanks. While I already knew how evil the Fraser Institute was before, it’s never been put to me in such an urgent way. These think […] More »

In the queer community, we have a lot of discussions about the intersection between sexuality and gender. I’ve been party to many dinner parties where we natter on about what really defines “us” — is it our sexual orientation or our gender identity? We talk a lot about how as “the movement” is broadening its […] More »

Given that all it took Ted Haggard was 21 days to declare that he’s now “completely heterosexual” you have to wonder why the fundies are so worried about all the things that can make you gay … all it took Ted was 3 weeks and a press release to get his straight mojo back, but […] More »