John Cruickshank,The Vancouver Sun‘s editor of three and a half years, would like to forget the legacy of the paper he came to in 1995. He is sitting at a small conference table in his office, which is decorated more for function than form. Copies of The New York Times and The Globe and Mail… Continue reading Johnny-Come-Lately
Series: Spring 1999
Print-À-Porter
It was a quiet, narrow, downtown side street with stacked houses and the most typical old brick church. The people in the neighbourhood stood on their porches watching, intrigued, as fashion journalists made their way down the road. Outside the church, a stylish crowd dressed exclusively in black and gradations of grey was growing. As… Continue reading Print-À-Porter
60 Degrees of Separation
If you try to communicate with someone on the other side of a busy street, you can shout all you want, but something gets lost in the translation. This is what it?s like covering the Arctic from a southern city, but it?s the way most major Canadian news organizations do the job. The sometimes-strained nature… Continue reading 60 Degrees of Separation
Manufacturing Concern
The story was vintage Toronto Star. Under the October 1, 1998 headline “Computer glitch keeps cash from needy” ran a story detailing a techno debacle that had left a single mother unable to cash her social assistance cheque. Accompanying the 13-column-inch piece was a photo captioned “Scary situation” showing the 43-year-old woman, illuminated by a… Continue reading Manufacturing Concern
Whine and Cheese
One afternoon in Italy, part way through yet another day crammed with too many winery visits, my fellow wine writers and I went on strike. We had tanker loads of wine coursing through our veins, stomachs that bulged from five-hour-long meals and eyes that drooped from lack of sleep. We had warned our hosts that… Continue reading Whine and Cheese