Prue Hemelrijk sits at her desk on her first day at The Canadian, a national general interest magazine. She’s unsure what’s in store for her as editor Harry Bruce, carrying a manuscript, makes his way toward her. He sets it on her desk and says, “We need to do something called fact-checking. Do you know… Continue reading Off the Rails
Category: The Magazine
The Mission
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
Helter Shelter
The cover of the December 2008 issue of Style at Home, the 12-year-old shelter title published by Transcontinental, features an elegant white-on-white tableau tastefully accented by what a coverline deems “glamourous greenery”-a 30-inch wreath of salal and camellia leaves accented with silver apple ornaments-all set off by a pair of lamps with gold shades and, for… Continue reading Helter Shelter
Cold War
It seemed like a good idea at the time. On a mid-September day in 2007, Toronto Star reporter Kevin McGran walked into the Toronto Maple Leafs’ dressing room to file his daily story, but, along with a notebook, he carried a hand-held video camera. The paper, as part of its push into the digital marketplace, had recently… Continue reading Cold War
Play Ballsy
In 1979, Alison Gordon went on her first road trip as a journalist covering the Blue Jays for the Toronto Star. The Jays had been good to her, the first woman to follow and report on the baseball team, but she wasn’t sure how other teams would react. At Arlington Stadium, during a game against the… Continue reading Play Ballsy