This Magazine articles from July 2005

This Magazine archives from July 2005

Rascally rodents.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... In his attempt to whitewash the den of iniquity that is Disney Enterprises Inc., Richard Poplak has reassigned their "cohabiting male chipmunks," Chip 'n' Dale, to Warner Bros. ("Fear and loathing in toontown," May/June). Chip 'n' Dale are as...

Signs of the times.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I've become an avid reader of This Magazine. Thank you for publishing a quality, Canadian magazine with all the art, poetry, politics, debate and kick that I need to keep strong and engaged. But I have to point out an error in "Hear no...

War of words.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... It is unfortunate that the author of "War torn," (April/May) did not care to include more than one embittered opinion on the matter of David Pratt's record in Sierra Leone. The author leaves out of his analysis the fact that, as a member of...

Seeing the light.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I just read "Booby prize" (January/ February) and it's ridiculous to compare smoking with exposing one's self to UV light via tanning beds. Cigarette smoke is a carcinogen whereas UV light is responsible for all life on Earth. I suppose...

Slings and errors.(LETTERS)(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2005... Our apologies to Ellison T.O. Richmond of Edmonton, whose photography in "Mall makeover" (May/June) we neglected to credit.

So long, not long enough.(THIS & THAT: INFORMATION, INSIGHT & INNOVATION)(Patricia D'Souza leaves This Magazine editor's position)
July 1, 2005... We received our first letter in response to last issue's cover story, "Feminism for sale: the real reason the feminist movement is losing momentum," just one day after subscriber copies were mailed--and a full week before the issue hit...

Green, mean and out of control: screaming environmentalist Tre Arrow walks the talk, but some would like him to get off his pedestal.(THIS & THAT: INFORMATION, INSIGHT & INNOVATION)
July 1, 2005... IT'S NOT EVERY DAY YOU MEET SOMEONE ON THE FBI'S MOST-wanted list, but the day I met Tre Arrow, America's most-wanted domestic eco-terrorist, was much like any other. He was new in Halifax and showed up at a bohemian cafe in March 2003 for an...

The two faces of foreign policy.(THIS & THAT: INFORMATION, INSIGHT & INNOVATION)
July 1, 2005... Canada has often been widely praised for its commitment to extending the rule of international law. But looking at some of the major initiatives of the past 50 years presents a very mixed picture. What you find is that Canadian businesses, and...

Sick and tired: residents of Deloraine, Manitoba, are taking action against long hospital waits.(THIS & THAT: INFORMATION, INSIGHT & INNOVATION)(Be a Med Friend campaign)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... According to Keith Dickie, residents of Deloraine, Manitoba (population 1,000) have to wait up to four months to see a doctor for routine medical problems. The 53-year-old financial advisor recalls an incident a year and a half ago when he had...

A taste of things to come: two Toronto chefs are taking fast-food junkies back to basics.(THIS & THAT: INFORMATION, INSIGHT & INNOVATION)(Sam Higgs' Grub-a-Dub)(Maria Solakofski's Guerrilla Gourmet)
July 1, 2005... TORONTO'S TRANZAC CLUB, LIKE MOST BARS, ISN'T KNOWN for its food. But tonight, chef Sam Higgs and a couple of assistants work feverishly in the cramped kitchen trying to feed the 50 people who have come for Grub-a-Dub, Higgs's monthly food...

Tipping the scales: how waiter wages measure up across the country.(THIS & THAT: INFORMATION, INSIGHT & INNOVATION)
July 1, 2005... While unions have made great strides in improving pay and working conditions, servers and bartenders still endure some of the worst working conditions in the country and are often paid an even lower "minimum wage." As a service to the students,...

Pod people: what the Shuffle can teach media consumers about the meaning of life.(MEDIA)
July 1, 2005... WHEN STEVE JOBS AND HIS DESIGN TEAM AT APPLE DREAMT up the iPod, I wonder if they knew their innovation would be as key to 21st-century metaphysics as it is to the dissemination of digital music files. I'm guessing no. I'm sure they figured on...

Numbers game: are the top 10 percent of Canadians overtaxed? Not if you look at who's really anteing up.(ECONOMICS)
July 1, 2005... WANT TO PUSH A DUBIOUS POLITICAL INITIATIVE? TRY USING statistics taken out of context. Everyone else is doing it. For example, in an April front-page story, The Globe and Mail reported that the top 10 percent of Canadians pay 52 percent of the...

Organized religion: how a drive to unionize the United Church of Canada is dividing ministers like never before.
July 1, 2005... IN PRAYER, AS IN LIFE, JIM EVANS AND KAREN PATON-EVANS believe in the power of collective bargaining. At the start of each day, they go straight to the top with their perennial joint offer: Use us, God, in whatever way you see fit. "We're...

Betting the farm: the Lanark Landowners Association has staked the future of rural Ontario on the fall of big government.
July 1, 2005... THIS LAND IS OUR LAND. BACK OFF government." The big red and white signs have been sprouting up in fields and on roadsides in my little corner of the country for two years now but, this past winter, when the tractor convoys began launching...

Alive and kicking: why living with AIDS is every bit as complicated as dying from it.
July 1, 2005... EVEN WHEN WE WERE LITTLE KIDS, I OFTEN JOKED TO MY older brother that he could pass for a chemotherapy patient. By the time he was 30, his skeletal six-foot-two, 130-pound frame crowned by an expanding bald patch, he had the look down pat. So...

Three very grimm fairy tales.(Sylvia's Dream)(The Boy with Too Many Teeth)(The Three Brothers)(Interview)(Short Story)
July 1, 2005... Sylvia's Dream Sylvia had always wanted to fly. She loved to watch the birds soaring in the air. Sylvia had dreams. She'd be standing at the edge of a cliff, staring down at the ground far below. Then she would jump. And as she fell,...

The rapture is upon us.(POETRY)(Poem)
July 1, 2005... the rapture is upon us today i saw a crow pry a windshield wiper off a car in the wal-mart parking lot, and fly away with it over the power lines, past the scowling sun. later on, walking down...

Universal soldier: Bob Topping is on the vanguard of a design frontier - making products and environments accessible to everyone.(ARTS & IDEAS: THIS IS INDEPENDENT CULTURE)
July 1, 2005... ONE OF YOUR FIRST PROJECTS AS A student in Bob Topping's universal design course is to explore the Sheridan College campus in suburban Toronto either in a wheelchair or wearing goggles that impair your vision. To find yourself stuck at the...

Copy that: Cory Doctorow knows the future. And he is it.(ARTS ARGUMENT)(electronic publishing)
July 1, 2005... IT'S HARD TO OVERESTIMATE CORY DOCTOROW'S SIGNIFICANCE. Particularly if you're Cory Doctorow. "I don't know if there's anyone else who has distributed half a million copies of a book electronically," he says. "If we're talking in terms of...

An honest women: Velma Demerson's sadly compelling book uncovers the dark side of Canada's human-rights record.(BOOKS)(Incorrigible)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... THE YEAR WAS 1939, AND VELMA DEMERSON WAS 18 AND IN love. It could very well have been the basis for the plot of an eve-of-war romance novel. But this love story took a shameful and sinister turn. Because Demerson's then-fiance, Harry Yip, was...

Art as activism: it's brushes vs. bombs for Artists Against War.(MUSIC)(Week Without War festival)
July 1, 2005... In December 1973, when Chrysanthi Michaelides was eight years old, her family fled Cyprus for Canada. She didn't know that Turkey was about to invade the island, and didn't understand the move was permanent. "I thought we were going on...

The beat goes on: re-issues put funk back on top.(MUSIC)(Canada's Message to the Meters)(Wayne McGhie and the Sounds of Joy)(Sound Recording Review)
July 1, 2005... In 1967, the same year Canada opened its immigration policy to a host of new countries, an intoxicating mix of syncopated drums, percussive guitar and penetrating saxophone began bubbling up from basement studios and cramped nightclubs across...

Man overboard: Rex Weyler discusses Greenpeace's legacy and the future of environmentalism.(QUESTION AUTHORITY)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... THEY SAY A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, BUT Rex Weyler might say it is more powerful still--that it can even change a thousand minds. Weyler came to Canada from the US as a Vietnam-era draft-dodger and found work as a photojournalist in...