Category: The Magazine

t seems peculiar to be in McDonald’s. How ironic to be sitting with Irshad Manji, an East African immigrant-feminist-lesbian, in a burger empire that doesn’t celebrate diversity but instead sets out to make the whole world appreciate a Big Mac. In this homogenous environment, it’s refreshing to think of the diverse views she presents in… Continue reading Back of the Rack

On the outskirts of Winnipeg, stalks of golden prarie wheat rustle in the summer breeze, and dust blows between the stubble in the fields where fresh-cut sheaves stand like miniature teepees. Dozens of grain elevators along the horizon cast long, skinny shadows as the sun lowers in the western sky. In the city, a disturbance… Continue reading The Dying Art of Talking Crop

“I’m not really a magazine editor,” Stevie Cameron announces firmly over the lectern. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I have to pattern myself after you guys.” The audience laughs. It’s September 1996, and a hundred-odd members of the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors are sitting over the remains of a buffet lunch. Many know… Continue reading Out on a Limb

It’s just about 7:30 on the night before Halloween, and the 30th anniversary gala of Homemaker’s magazine (now known as HM is beginning to roll at Guvernment, a trendy club in downtown Toronto. Sally Armstrong, editor-in-chief of Homemaker’s, for the past eight years, is working the room wearing an iridescent-green wrap-around blouse, a short black… Continue reading When Homemaker’s met Sally

Last summer’s Eden MusicFest, held just northeast of Toronto, was the largest music festival in North America since the original Woodstock. It spanned three days and featured more than 60 bands. Perry Farrell’s Porno for Pyros was one of the most popular groups appearing. So it’s no surprise that The New Music, Canada’s 18-year-old rock-journalism… Continue reading I’m With the Band