Early in the morning of September 11, 2001, the phone rang in Stan Honda’s 94th Street apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. On the line was the French wire service, Agence France-Presse, telling him a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Instantly, the 43-year-old photojournalist picked up his camera, rushed to… Continue reading Camera Ready

On an overcast Friday morning last April, Toronto Sun readers discovered something curious on page three of their newspaper-news. Gone was the scantily clad Sunshine Girl, a fixture of the tabloid since it was founded over 30 years ago. Instead, dominating page three that day was an earnest feature report examining a disturbing pattern of disappearing elderly… Continue reading Under the Weather

On a clear Thursday morning in mid-January, Young People’s Press acting executive director Michael Hoechsmann carries a box of old newspapers across his office in midtown Toronto. Despite limping with his left leg, from which a cast has just been removed, he wants to show me some previously published YPP articles. “In many cases, people… Continue reading Growing Pains

Blender, Vibe, Spin, Rockgrl, Circus, Mojo, Jockey Slut. At major newsstands and bookstores across the country, a variety of pop music magazines are available to Canadians, covering a wide range of genres, from hip-hop to metal to electronica. It seems as if there’s a magazine suited to every music lover out there, but look again. While there are national specialty music… Continue reading Critical Miss

Roden Public School Junior sits in the middle of a quiet residential neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. Weekdays from 8:45 a.m. till 3:15 p.m. the three-storey, concrete building houses over 500 kids from junior kindergarten to Grade 6. Up on the third floor, 26 Grade 2 students are following a character education program called “Roots of… Continue reading The Daily Dunce