Series: Spring 1989

The clincher was the suicide of a St. Catharines, Ontario man who was arrested for gross indecency in January 1985. A 42-year-old sales manager, he was videotaped engaging in homosexual acts in a public washroom. When his victimless crime was publicly unmasked by the press, the man drove down a country road and doused himself… Continue reading The Long Arm of the Media: A Critical Cause and Effect

On a Thursday night in November, Craig MacInnis sits in a dark corner of the Horseshoe Tavern, a downtown Toronto rock club, smoking a Winston and sipping a Coke. He watches impassively as Go Four 3, a promising young quartet that has recently moved east from Vancouver, crashes into its opening song. MacInnis, who writes… Continue reading Growing Up on the Rock Beat

Last September 27, in the dark hours of the morning, a sleepy press village in Seoul, South Korea, awakened to the sniff of scandal. Lights flickered on across the compound as word of what was later called “the smelliest scandal in the history of the Olympics” spread to reporters from around the world. Ben Johnson,… Continue reading From Hero to Villain to National Shame