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I’ve lived with Borderline Personality Disorder for years. Why I’m finally talking about my diagnosis

Erica Ruth Kelly was diagnosed in her teens, but stigma has kept her quiet—even amid calls for more acceptance of mental health challenges

Erica Ruth Kelly

Current photo of the author. Trigger warning: self-injury, suicide When I was 18, a psychiatrist kicked me out of her office in my hometown of Montreal. A framed Sigmund Freud witnessed my humiliation. I’d raised my voice, confessing that I’d scratched up my arm again because I was “fucking sad.” My psychiatrist told me to […] More »
March-April 2017

Inside the struggle queer, Indigenous couples must overcome to start a family

There are only 20 Canadian anonymous sperm donors. None of them are Indigenous. What are LGBTQ families to do?

Steph Wechsler@steph_wechsler

Amanda Thompson remembers meeting the other participant in her months-long game of tap-tap. She would tap on her partner’s belly, and someone would tap back from inside. After an eventful day, the result of careful deliberations and a planned C-section, Thompson met her daughter, feeling instantly familiar. As soon as she was born, “it was […] More »
March-April 2017

What are Canadian politicians saying about supervised injection sites?

A look throughout the country, city by city

This Magazine

Vancouver’s Insite facility. Photo courtesy of Vancouver Coastal Health. Ottawa: The feds “I’ve made it very clear to my department that there should be no unnecessary barriers for communities who want to open supervised consumption sites.”—Jane Philpott, federal health minister Progress report Bill C-37 was tabled in December 2016 to simplify the process of opening […] More »
March-April 2017

Medical users are wary about Canada’s impending legalization of cannabis

It could affect affordability and accessibility, critics say

Larkin Schmiedl@LarkinSchmiedl

Photo by The Canadian Press Images/Lars Hagberg After decades of court battles that won chronically ill patients the right to use cannabis as medicine, many wonder whether the impending legalization of recreational pot will trample over the progress they’ve made. A government group tasked with creating a framework for legalizing and regulating cannabis published its […] More »
March-April 2017

REVIEW: Anthology explores the underreported topic of menopause

Inside Jane Cawthorne and E.D. Morin's Writing Menopause

Courtney Dickson@dicksoncourtney

Writing Menopause By Jane Cawthorne and E.D. Morin Inanna Publications, $25.95 Writing Menopause is a revolutionary collection of work passionately and bravely confronting menopause, a topic society tends to avoid. Featuring several types of writing, editors Jane Cawthorne and E.D. Morin expertly assemble a meaningful collection written from a diverse cross-section of North Americans. Though […] More »
March-April 2017

Canadian university students aren’t getting the mental health care they need after graduation

Universities offer students mental health care to deal with the challenges of post-secondary education. But what happens when they graduate? On the tricky navigation of counselling after school

Carine Abouseif@carineabouseif

Illustration by Matt Daley “Open or closed?” “Closed, please.” I click the wooden door shut. I walk past the poster-lined office, climb the stairs out of the building, and emerge onto the sunny Ryerson University campus in downtown Toronto. I trudge to the subway, shuffling onto a northbound train just as the door closes. I […] More »
March-April 2017

From hearing to hard-of-hearing to deaf: A journey through sound

Sarah Vermette

There are many videos online of people hearing for the first time through a cochlear implant. The adult recipient typically cries tears of joy. This was not my experience. When the sound was turned on at age 24, it caused physical and emotional discomfort. It shook my world. I spent the next few days sleeping […] More »
January-February 2017

These reusable pads are changing women’s periods across the world

Lunapads tackle the ongoing cost and environment waste of traditional menstrual products

Courtney Dickson@dicksoncourtney

Photo courtesy of Afripads Madeleine Shaw had been making reuasable cloth menstrual pads for six years when she met Suzanne Siemens at a community leadership course in 1999. The women instantly clicked over their shared goals around business and social change, and together, they decided to take Shaw’s pad project to the next level. “When I […] More »
January-February 2017

2017 Kick-Ass Activists: Geoff Wilson and Tim McConnell

LGBTQ substance users had few places to turn for support before Geoff Wilson and Tim McConnell created a safe space for them in Toronto

Al Donato@gollydrat

Geoff Wilson and Tim McConnell are close friends—the kind who don’t mind spending nearly every day for the past two years together. Sometimes it was to check out punk shows, go biking, or play pool. Most days, they were hard at work envisioning and building Pieces to Pathways (P2P), a drug addiction support initiative unlike any other in […] More »
January-February 2017

2017 Kick-Ass Activist: Dexter Nyuurnibe

In 2012, Dexter Nyuurnibe tried to take his life. Now, he’s a leader for greater mental health awareness among Canadian youth

Emily Rivas@RivasEmily

Dexter Nyuurnibe has the ability to command attention in any room. The 24-year-old is well-spoken, well-dressed, and charming. He’s a self-proclaimed lover of people, pugs, poutine, and unicorns. He’s that guy at the bar who ensures everyone is having a good time. He’s also probably the last person you would think would be struggling with mental […] More »
January-February 2017

A company headed for New Brunswick wants to pay Canadians to donate blood

After the 1980s tainted blood scandal, recommendations called for voluntary blood donation in the country. But that could change.

Emily Baron Cadloff@EmilyBat

In 1992, Michael McCarthy visited his doctor hoping for answers. McCarthy had been feeling sick for years—fatigued, with aching joints and pain in his abdomen. “They said, ‘By the way, you have hepatitis C,’” McCarthy recalls. “I said, ‘What’s that?’ And they said, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll take years to kill you.’” McCarthy is among thousands of hemophiliacs who used […] More »