After a Sunday service in December, about 70 people from the Bloor Street United Church congregation gather in McClure Hall for their monthly luncheon. Barb Janes, Pat Janes, Bev Peters and two other churchgoers sit at a table, munching from plates piled with vegetarian lasagna, salad and dessert treats. Their conversation swerves from the federal… Continue reading The Mission
Category: Spring 2009
Rookie of the Year
Sarah Fulford had too much to drink last night. Or so she says. Though she claims she’s a little hungover from her “celebration and debauchery,” she shows her usual poise. It’s early evening, November 5, less than 24 hours since Barack Obama made history and Toronto is still abuzz with excitement. But on the second… Continue reading Rookie of the Year
What about Bob?
Stéphane Dion, looking tired in his stiff charcoal suit, and Steve Murphy, six-o’clock-news anchor for atv Halifax, sit in upholstered chairs in a downtown hotel room as the light on the camera clicks red and the tape begins to record. After an exchange of pleasantries, Murphy asks the then Liberal leader, “The economy is now… Continue reading What about Bob?
The Man Who Flipped Off Trudeau
It was an interminable sermon, everyone agreed. And then a scream. It’s 1988 and Pierre Trudeau has returned to Parliament Hill to dissuade a Senate committee from backing the Meech Lake Accord. He speaks ever deliberately, ever persuasively-and almost entirely in English. But a cry cuts short the spiel in the high-ceilinged room. Michel Vastel… Continue reading The Man Who Flipped Off Trudeau
Barbed Relations
On an eerily quiet May 2008 afternoon, a Canadian soldier shows us around the deserted, boxy homes of this Kandahar terrain. Dressed in Afghan garb and military wear-a purplish-brown tunic and pants, contrasted by a sand-camouflage vest and black reflective sunglasses-he directs our attention to an open field where an old car sits. A Taliban… Continue reading Barbed Relations