Election day is October 19 and women’s issues are being discussed, sort of. Like, one of the discussions is about how major party leaders aren’t actually into the idea of having these discussions. Here’s a glimpse so far: Up for Debate Wouldn’t it be handy if there were a debate specifically about women’s issues? There […] More »

THE SUN HITS the back of my neck as I kneel over my poster board. It’s a hot summer afternoon in June and I’m colouring with markers, shared with the hands of girls decades my junior, helping with childcare at a sex worker solidarity rally. We’re at Toronto’s Allan Gardens, the day’s setting for lunch, […] More »

No matter what she does, anti-violence activist Farrah Khan is all about collaboration and women’s empowerment ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY IN 2008 there was a massive blizzard. Thinking the self-defense workshop she was scheduled to facilitate would be cancelled, Farrah Khan curled up in a blanket, hoping to pass the snowy night with some cartoon […] More »

On May 10, the annual anti-abortion rally was held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. This year’s event has come at a very interesting time in the Canadian abortion debate. Only weeks earlier, Stephen Harper denounced fellow Tory Stephen Woodworth’s bid to reopen the debate in the House of Commons. Woodworth, a Conservative backbencher, recently proposed […] More »

Tara-Michelle Ziniuk, Toronto author, performer, and activist, and sometime This Magazine contributor, yesterday emailed to announce that she’s editing an anthology of writing about the Toronto Women’s Bookstore, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year (depending on when you start counting). The TWB has had a difficult few years from a financial perspective, but the […] More »

If you live in a major Canadian city, you may have seen Plan Canada’s “Because I am a Girl” ads plastered on buses and billboards. In the season of giving, the campaign attempts to sell the virtues of female empowerment. Ads state that girls around the world are three times more likely to be malnourished […] More »

1. Mental health, depression, and suicide are rampant We all know that prisons are too often warehouses for those amongst us suffering addictions or mental health problems. The actual numbers, however, are harrowing.  In federal penitentiaries 11% of prisoners have some sort of mental health diagnosis and 21.3% take prescription anti-psychotics on admission.  Almost 15% […] More »

Another new entry today in the Verbatim series, the transcripts we provide of our Listen to This podcast. (Just a reminder that you can catch new, original interviews every other Monday—you can subscribe with any podcast listening program by grabbing the podcast rss feed, or easily subscribing through iTunes.) In today’s interview, associate editor Natalie Samson talked with Eternia, […] More »

The more things change, the more they stay the same. This certainly rings true in the world of health policy: there’s a lot of talk, and the idea of change or reform is nice to think about, regardless of whether it ever happens. Recently, it seems that absolutely nothing is changing at all. Because for […] More »

In all the hoopla following the New Orleans Saints’ momentous victory over the Indianapolis Colts in last week’s Super Bowl, an important piece of the biggest day in North American sports seemed to disappear all-too-quickly from the collective consciousness. With the pervasive and nauseating hyperbole around the significance of the Saints’ win in Hurricane Katrina’s […] More »

Twenty-years ago, Marc Lépine strolled into the Université de Montréal’s engineering school, L’École Polytechnique, armed with a 223-calibre Sturm-Ruger rifle and murdered fourteen young women. Lépine’s callous rampage was motivated by his hatred for women, whom he held responsible for ruining his life. Opening fire in one classroom, Lépine, only twenty-five at the time, shouted […] More »