It was Toronto’s civic event of the season. Last fall’s mayoralty race saw the two front-runners crash head-on, flinging bits of cant and rhetoric, and the city’s three dailies hustling to cover the carnage. To no one’s surprise, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Sun supported June Rowlands, the conservative candidate promising business booms… Continue reading On the Blink
The Earth According to Suzuki
“This used to be a forest,” says David Suzuki, standing in a wasteland of tangled roots and jagged stumps near Tofino Creek on Vancouver Island. Walking towards the camera, he continues: “It’s a typical example of clear-cut logging, that accounts for well over 90 percent of all trees cut in British Columbia. It’s crude and… Continue reading The Earth According to Suzuki
The True North
A: Toronto B: Calgary C: Baker Lake, NWT. You’d be right only about the centre of Canadian insularity if you chose A. But we are trying to pinpoint the geographical centre-the exact heart of our nation. If you guessed Baker Lake, NWT, you win this round. And if you already knew that Baker Lake is… Continue reading The True North
Paved with good intentions
When I first meet Peter Armstrong, he’s sitting at his desk eating chocolate-chip cookies. “I’ve got about 10 extra pounds of chocolate on me,” he says, laughing. “Do you want one?” As a recovering alcoholic, Armstrong is all too familiar with how one addiction can replace another. In fact, this idea is central to the… Continue reading Paved with good intentions
No Free Lunch Hour
Windsor Star editor Carl Morgan and reporter Alan Abrams were two blocks apart when they spotted each other that lunch hour in March 1989. Abrams, walking a CBC radio picket line, knew he’d been caught in the act. It was an act that would have potentially profound consequences for Canadian journalists. “Oh shit. Here’s Carl,… Continue reading No Free Lunch Hour
