[This editorial appears in the November-December 2009 issue of This Magazine, in subscribers’ mailboxes, and available on newsstands, the first week of November. We preview it here today to mark the eighth anniversary of the Nato invasion on October 7, 2001] The unhappy nation of Afghanistan had a bad year in 2009. For a country […] More »

Until 1999, Nigeria was a land of military rule, repression, and instability. Helon Habila’s novel, Waiting for an Angel, evokes the mental and social climate of the country during the military’s last few years of power in the late 90s. Matching the chaos that rapid changes of power — mainly by military coups — must […] More »

Most tax payers in Canada don’t know where their tax money goes and don’t have any direct control over what their money is spent on. While many of us hope that the majority of our taxes are invested in social programs, healthcare, infrastructure, education etc., the stark reality is that our taxes also go to […] More »

In March 2008, when the invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush’s “coalition of the willing” marked its fifth anniversary, Canadian media outlets were in a self-congratulatory mood: “Canada isn’t involved” there, one reporter wrote. “The further we get away from the actual date, the better Canada’s decision to not get involved with the U.S. […] More »

A war broke out this month. A war not to the east but to the south, that has been little covered by the media. It comes complete with human rights violations, murder, and corruption caused by the exploitation of the Amazon. The blood of this war is on Canada’s hands. On Friday, June 5, an […] More »

Long before June’s federal election results were in, the outcome seemed inevitable: despite Paul Martin’s best attempts at dragging his heels in calling an election to try and garner more support among voters, he would convene Canada’s first minority government in 25 years. Clearly, it was not what Martin had hoped for. But for the […] More »