That Gideon Forman is an activist should come as no surprise. The child of New York peace activists, he spent his 1960s childhood handing out leaflets around his Greenwich Village home. What is surprising is that this wiry man in his 40s has become one of Canada’s best environmental strategists and led a group of […] More »
Dear Progressive Detective: I’m an HIV-positive Canadian, and I’ve heard troubling stories about people being criminally charged for transmitting the disease. Can that happen here? What are my rights and responsibilities under Canadian law? Under Canadian law, criminal charges can be laid if an individual does not disclose his or her HIV-positive status prior to […] More »
Nina Arsenault has spent a fortune changing her appearance from male to female. The 37-year-old used to work in the sex trade, but now supports herself as a playwright, performer, and motivational speaker to queer youth. Her one-woman show, The Silicone Diaries, recently had a second highly successful run in Toronto, was later performed in […] More »
On March 18, 2000, Terence Young was at home catching up on the weekend paper when his 15-year-old daughter, Vanessa, came to ask his permission to go out with some friends that evening. Exhausted and not relishing the idea of another conversation about Vanessa’s curfew time, Young asked her to wait until after dinner. There […] More »
[This Magazine contributor Jenn Hardy is pregnant and due in a few weeks. In this Due Date series, we’re running some of her thoughts on pregnancy, health, and her experience trying to de-medicalize her childbirth.] I’m not afraid of labour. I’m not afraid of the intense pressure of my uterus contracting, tightening, pushing… My cervix slowly dilating… Once open […] More »
[This Magazine contributor Jenn Hardy is pregnant and due in a few weeks. In thisDue Date series, we’re running some of her thoughts on pregnancy, health, and her experience trying to de-medicalize her childbirth.] When to cut? Going into the delivery room, you might have decided who was going to cut the umbilical cord. Will the doc do […] More »
[This Magazine contributor Jenn Hardy is pregnant and due in a few weeks. In this Due Date series, we’re running some of her thoughts on pregnancy, health, and her experience trying to de-medicalize her childbirth.] Congratulations! You’re pregnant! First thing’s first: would you consider an abortion? If your pregnancy was planned or the surprise was […] More »
Sally Rhoads is passionate about surrogacy. The 32-year-old mother of three (ages 12, seven and 10 months) lives near Stratford, Ontario. She has been a successful surrogate once and an unsuccessful one nine times. Although her commitment to surrogacy almost killed her, she remains an advocate for a practice that is highly restricted in Canada […] More »
It wasn’t until the early 1900s that it became “normal” to have a baby under the watch of an obstetrician in a hospital. But over the last few decades, childbirth has become an increasingly complicated, medicalized affair, with more inductions, surgeries, and drugs than ever before. The advancements have saved many otherwise dangerous deliveries, but […] More »
Infertile couples suffer in silence in a baby-crazed culture. Treatments are lightly regulated and cost a fortune. Why public funding could ease the burden and improve care It’s just another September day in Nova Scotia—sun shining, birds chirping, a late summer breeze playing in the treetops. Only one thing is different today for Shawna Young: […] More »
“This is about the complete failure of democracy,” Alan Young says, munching on his strawberry-jam toast at Sunnybrook Restaurant in Toronto. Young, a criminal lawyer, has been Canada’s forerunning pot reformist since he got a judge to declare that “marijuana is relatively harmless compared to the so-called hard drugs, and including tobacco and alcohol” during […] More »