This Magazine articles from September 2007

This Magazine archives from September 2007

Thought costs.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Bill Reynolds knows better ("Straight to the blue box," July/August). He's a journalism prof; he has an excellent reputation. Yet he tells us that newspapers should have more news, more thoughtful analysis, but much, much less advertising,...

Everyone's a winner.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While I enjoyed the stories about Canada's underrated rebellions ("Rising up," July/August), I hate this competitive format. If one of the rebellions wins your contest, does that mean the other ones lose? The...

The secret's out.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I work for the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) on Brock's campus, in St. Catharines. We subscribe to your magazine and we recently received the latest edition with the cover regarding the SPP ("Top secret," July/ August). ...

Why no ladies in da house.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... By focusing so much on the individual, I am afraid Egle Procuta ("The accidental symbol," March/April) continues the myth that it is women's lack of confidence that results in there being only one female MP for every four men. The long...

But city folk need farm folk.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Thank you, This Magazine, for your issue exploring critical rural issues. I must take issue with your contrarian, however ("Exurban myths," March/April). Anna Bowness is correct in one thing: most Canadians these days have never worked the...

What indie media is for.(EDITORIAL)
September 1, 2007... WHEN WE RECEIVED Sue Ferguson's pitch for a feature on the growing international campaign to boycott Israel, we were excited. The story is timely and crucial, and Ferguson--a former senior writer at Maclean's and current journalism instructor...

Walking the talk: Adrian Bradbury's annual hike brings the desperate plight of Uganda to the world.(PROFILE)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN THE RECEPTION ROOM of a posh condominium in downtown Toronto, Adrian Bradbury, the 37-year-old co-founder of GuluWalk, is introducing a special guest. Rwot Acana, the paramount chief of the Acholi--an ethnic group...

A toxic drop in the bucket: DIY environmentalists won't wait for others to clear the air.(NEWS)
September 1, 2007... FOR YEARS, Ada Lockridge smelled the sweet stench of chemicals billowing out of the surrounding industries. And for years, the Ministry of the Environment reassured her and the Aamjiwnaang First Nations that the air was fine. But Lockridge...

Feed on the poor.(WTF?)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT WAS HARD TO IMAGINE any financial instrument sleazier than the "viatical arrangement," which involves the cash-strapped terminally ill (in the 1990s, often AIDs patients) selling their life insurance policies for...

Slush fun.(WTF?)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... WHEN MAC'S STARTED selling a new slush drink this summer called "WTF?" (a common short form of "what the luck?"), residents of Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins, Ontario, threatened to boycott the convenience store's parent company over the...

Harper watch.(WTF?)(Stephen Harper )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... IN EARLY JULY, Stephen Harper declared, "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic.... Either we use it or lose it." During the 2006 election, Harper promised to secure a fleet to patrol the Arctic to...

Frightening farming.(WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ... GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS?)
September 1, 2007... REMEMBER "FRANKENFOODS"? Canadian public concern about genetically modified foods peaked with the Percy Schmeiser case in the late '90s. GM giant Monsanto--which specializes in seed generation--claimed the farmer had breached patent rights by...

Do you Facebook?(GRAPHIC)
September 1, 2007... YOU KNOW an internet fad has become something more when you get a friend request from your mom. With two million profiles, Canada sports the second-highest per capita Facebook membership in the world and accounts for lo percent of its users....

Here's the beef: livestock is a huge source of GHGs--so where are the ads telling us to eat less meat?(ARGUMENT)
September 1, 2007... WITH GLOBALWARMING now a household phrase, politicians and environmentalists are putting forward a cascade of strategies to deal with the crisis, but one message is conspicuously absent from the call to action: the recommendation to consume...

4 cancer causers in your bathroom.(LIST)(List)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1 Coal-tar dyes Where would the hair-dye industry be without coal-tar dyes? Probably under a lot less scrutiny. Recognized by the American Cancer Society as carcinogens and banned from certain cosmetic products in...

Elizabeth May's wild ride: Green Party leader dashes high hopes.(POLITICS)
September 1, 2007... When Elizabeth May was elected leader of the Green Party of Canada a year ago, I was actually quite pleased. As a committed New Democrat, I've always thought that an ideal federal government (under an ideal electoral system) would be an NDP...

Labour pains: why the workers' holiday should be more than just a day off work.(ECONOMICS)(worker's benefits)
September 1, 2007... "Well Done, Labor! To You We Owe Prosperity." Don't get recognition like that much these days, do you? This is a quote from an ad in the Halifax Herald, published just before Labour Day in 1929. You'll find it reprinted in Craig Heron and Steve...

Be careful what you wish for: why we should support Palestinians without endorsing Hamas.(CONTRARIAN)(Palestinian's rights )
September 1, 2007... In June, Hamas fighters forced the Fatah militias of Mahmoud Abbas out of the Gaza Strip. Hamas claims it was a pre-emptive strike, aimed at preventing the Fatah militias--which are armed and funded by the U.S. and Israel--from using those...

A dramatic revival: amidst the rubble of a West Bank refugee camp, creativity and self-expression take centre stage at the Freedom Theatre, a place where Palestinian kids experience something they see little of: hope.(Jenin, West Bank)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sign above the door reads al-Masrah al-Hurriyya--the Freedom Theatre. Inside, a tall, powerfully built man dressed in all black is shepherding an excited throng of at least 50 children, aged nine to 13, onto the...

"Tear down that wall!" Activists demanding a better fate for Palestinians have chosen a potent accusation--the new apartheid--to rally support for the growing anti-Israel boycott. Their belief: what forced change in South Africa can provoke change in the Middle East. But it may not be that easy--or that simple.(Cover story)
September 1, 2007... IMAGINATION. CREATIVITY. INSPIRATION. Three words to stir the soul crown the towering windows of Toronto's flagship Indigo bookstore. At ground level, shoppers pass in and out of wood-framed glass doors, navigating planters and benches intended...

Encounters in Jerusalem: portraits of a city at prayer.(social conditions of Jerusalem, Israel)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FOR 2000 YEARS JERUSALEM has existed for the world more as an idea than a physical place. The idea of the holy city, special the in eyes of God, has attracted pilgrims, crusaders and conquerors of all three of the...

Friends 'til the end: the Christian right's support for Israel can not be taken as support for Jews. In reality, anti-Semitism lies at the heart of Christian Zionism and more Jewish leaders should loudly denounce it.
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At the core of the Christian right ideology in North America, nestled in with anti-queer and anti-choice politics, there is an unequivocal support for continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Self-described...

Birthrights (and wrongs): "within hours of arriving, our blood connection to Israel was firmly established. It was impossible to not feel patriotic, but the feeling was artificial, almost sickly sweet." Personal revelations on the road in Israel.(educational tour on Jewish identity)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From the world's lowest point, the Dead Sea, we work our way up the cliff, toward the lookout where we had been promised an incredible view. Forty-odd Hebrews trudging through the Judean desert, just like old times....

Haiku.(Fiction & poetry)(Poem)
September 1, 2007... Haiku [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] 2 i am killing you i would rather die myself so why don't i die? 10 let me rant about ignorance and oppression then let's have a drink. 11 i am...

I know it's serious.(Fiction & poetry)(Short story)
September 1, 2007... The girl with the boyfriend out of a coma had gotten used to sacrifice. She redesigned her life based on the fact that she had a boyfriend in a coma, then adjusted when he woke up not being able to speak or walk or tell the difference between...

Bell.(Fiction & poetry)(Short story)
September 1, 2007... Bell is a boy. That is his name, Bell. It gets him into trouble. The queen will never let him date her daughter. He thinks maybe he should change his name to w. He thinks that would be cool. He imagines how he'd tell people: ...

Capturing conflict: Montreal photographer brings the Middle East home.(ARTS & IDEAS)(Stefan Christoff's Lebanon: Open Skies of Struggle)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WE'RE LOOKING AT PHOTOS on Stefan Christoff's laptop. They show a tangle of overhead wires that bring electricity to crumbling concrete buildings in the Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp, Lebanon's largest, home to some...

Make no mistake ...(MEDIA)(Craig Silverman's Regret the Error Blog)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... MONTREAL-BASED journalist Craig Silverman is a special kind of perfectionist. The founder of correction-cataloguing blog, Regret the Error, has written hundreds of articles for papers such as The Globe and Mail and The New York Times, and has...

Too cool for school.(LEARNING)(Students, Writers and Teachers (SWAT) program)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... NOW HEAR THIS! offers the kind of creative writing instruction most people would've died for in high school. The outreach program, founded by Descant literary magazine about a year and a half ago, promotes literacy by bringing writers into...

I, Tania.(READ THIS)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I, TANIA is a scattershot fictional history of kidnapping victim and heiress Patty Hearst, told in memoir form--and the writing is Brian Joseph Davis at his madcap best. After being kidnapped by the Symbionese...

Girl superpower.(MUSIC)(role of female musicians in Chinese music)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] CANADIAN INDEPENDENT ARTIST Ember Swift always dreamed of going to China, but a successful music career got in the way--until this year. Swift, who took Asian studies at the University of Toronto, and wrote her...

Have mosque, will travel: can Saskatchewan Muslims make it south of the border?(TELEVISION)(Little Mosque on the Prairie)
September 1, 2007... Standing in line at the airport, a young Muslim man chats away on his cell phone. After casually uttering the words "suicide" and "Allah" in the same sentence, police appear and drag the man away for questioning. What could easily be a...

Pick me! Pick me! Is a little first-novel recognition too much to ask?(BOOKS)
September 1, 2007... Publishing a first novel in Canada can be a lot like tossing a note-laden bottle into Lake Superior. First of all, you're littering, so there's that to feel guilty about. And who needs another book, wonder the trees. Then, you have to ponder...

You should have said so before we left the house: bathrooms through the ages.(THEN & NOW)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1836 Thomas Crapper is born, and eventually becomes a plumber in Victorian England. More than a century later, Wallace Reyburn publishes Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper, accelerating one of the most...