Series: Summer 1991

Inside a converted stable in Toronto’s west end, three women huddle over an old wooden table. This is the office where the Women’s Healthsharing collective produces its quarterly feminist health magazine. Susan Elliott, a collective member since 1985, sits with two volunteers, engrossed in a discussion of the design and placement of two appeals that… Continue reading Fate of a Feminist Press

Two hundred kilometres northwest of Toronto, the century old farms of Grey County are tucked into the lovely rolling hills overlooking Queen’s Valley. This gentle landscape is the view Michael Valpy sees from his farmhouse. For 20 years Valpy, The Globe and Mail’s urban affairs columnist, has fled to this tranquil place as often as… Continue reading The True Grit of Michael Valpy

One thing that has eased my transition from newspaper work to television is the fact that nobody knows I’ve done it. For instance, last fall I was sitting on a bench at the Toronto island ferry dock, waiting to embark for Hanlan’s Point, when the captain of the good ship Thomas Rennie strode over. He… Continue reading A Star Was Born But Nobody Noticed

In CBC newsrooms, February 1, the day the new Broadcasting Act finally lumbered through the Senate, was just another hectic day of keeping up with news from the Middle East. In the end, the controversy over Bill C-40 fizzled out like a wet firecracker, virtually unnoticed amidst the thundering of weapons in the Gulf. It… Continue reading A Tough Act To Follow

Leafing through Harper’s one day last year, I was struck by one stunning photograph called “The General’s Wife.” In the harsh light of what appeared to be an official assembly room, a grotesque, heavyset woman in a bright blue dress shot through with gold threads sat amid a group of Honduran military officers and glared… Continue reading Call of the Wild