January 31 2016: Over $600 was raised for the Silence is Violence Legal Defense Fund; I met the group’s founder Mandi Gray in person for the first time; it was the one-year anniversary since Gray says she was raped; the night before the first day of her ongoing trial; and my 30th birthday. Like many women, […] More »

Over 1,000 people walked from Nathan Phillips Square to Queen’s park this past Saturday. Some identified as feminists, some identified as sluts and others called themselves allies. SlutWalk Toronto 2014 was the third for the city since it began in 2011. Now, SlutWalk has become an annual event in 200 cities world over. The first […] More »

Dear Progressive Detective: I’ve heard of a new birth control pill, Seasonale, that reduces your period to four times a year instead of 12. I see the appeal, but messing with my cycle just seems like a bad idea. How safe are these kinds of contraceptives? Extended-use hormonal contraceptives like Seasonale boost estrogen to levels […] More »

One group’s feeble witch-hunt won’t deter legitimate criticism of Israel’s actions It started out on a hopeful note. To kick off the second hearing of the Canadian Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, director of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, flew to Ottawa at the committee’s request to testify [PDF]that Canada is a […] More »

Long before communities existed on Facebook, there were tangible places in a city where people with common interests converged. In a place like Toronto, where communities of different cultural groups and ideas form in often isolated pockets, the struggle to define a common identity among them is as old as the city itself. But part […] More »

York University economist Peter Victor says it’s time to shrink the economy, not grow it How can we escape our current economic mess while simultaneously avoiding the looming triple threats of peak oil, climate change, and species extinction? York University ecological economist Peter Victor has the answer: significantly slow the nation’s economic growth. According to […] More »

This June, York University student Fred Metallic hopes to make a bit of Canadian university history. That’s when he plans to complete the first draft of his PhD dissertation, tentatively titled “Mi’gmawei Mawio’mi: Goqwei Wejguaqamultigw?” (The English working title is “Reclaiming Mi’kmaq History and Politics: Living our Responsibilities.”) Written entirely in Mi’kmaq, it will be […] More »