Gerald Butts: The BFF in the PMO

“But the story Mr. Butts is trying to craft with Mr. Trudeau is more ambitious, abstract and romantic. Maybe Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Butts cooked it up back when they first became friends, as some suspect; probably it evolved over time. These are people who love the idea of big national projects, and who want to leverage Mr. Trudeau’s charisma to build a new global image and self-identity for the country.”

Adam Radwanski – The Globe and Mail – September 2016

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Know Your History, Know Your Greatness

“In the back corner of Sandwich First Baptist Church, 70-year-old Lana Talbot lifts up a loose piece of burgundy-stained wood, exposing a four-foot drop to the dirt floor basement. It’s a trap door, built for slaves who escaped from across the border and onto free Canadian soil. In the past, the church’s bells would ring to warn those inside that U.S. bounty hunters were about to storm the service and drag escaped slaves back to their masters. The targeted slaves would lift open the piece of wood and jump into a tunnel leading to the river’s edge.”

Eternity Martis – Hazlitt – July 2016

A Journey to the Medical Netherworld

“One day in early December, not so many years ago, my nine-year-old daughter caught sight of herself in the mirror at daycare, and noticed her face was bright red. All the kids had red faces, because they’d just come indoors after playing in the snow. But everyone agreed that hers seemed particularly bright. She felt hot, too, but a thermometer revealed she had no fever. She sat by an open window to cool down, and when I picked her up an hour later, she still felt hot and looked red, but she said it was going away. By the time we’d finished dinner, it was gone.”

Alison Motluk – Hazlitt – March 2016

The secret lives of Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies

“Those who leave bottles out often find little rewards on the step, sometimes signed ‘June’ with a marker. One neighbour has received everything from tomatoes to chicken stock to a cheap electric kettle. Another used to get bushels of an onion-like vegetable from June’s garden. Others get a kind of peanut candy that June makes herself. A woman around the corner was getting so much food – including, just the other day, a slice of melon – that she begged June to stop. June left her two bottles of beer instead.”

 

Marcus Gee – The Globe and Mail – December 2016

How I fell out of love with the Canadian justice system (especially judges)

“My loss of faith was incremental, and came over years, so there’s no one case that turned the tide, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. If I search my memory now, the best I can do is pinpoint a few instances where a particular penny or two may have dropped. For instance, in 1993, when I was working for the Toronto Sun, I got a taste of how ferociously judges and lawyers can turn on one another, and over which subjects, and what astonishing creatures of convention many of them are and what prisoners — despite all the high-minded protestations to the contrary — of the dominant political orthodoxy.”

Christie Blatchford – National Post – September 2016

The Tragic Story Behind Canada’s Iconic “Stay Alert… Stay Safe” PSAs

“Thirty years after Alison’s murder, the campaign — particularly the ’90s-era PSAs — remains iconic for a generation of Canadian children. Though many programs were spearheaded by self-anointed experts, ‘Stay Alert… Stay Safe’ was the brainchild of a talented team of advertisers, helmed by a parent with a mission. ‘It gave meaning to Alison’s life,’ Parrott says today of this work. ‘It’s the way I’ve continued to be her mother.'”

 

Rob Csernyik – BuzzFeed Canada – August 2016

Little Girl Lost

“Because there are so few, we know them. In Edmonton, there is Tania Murrell, six when she vanished while walking home from school for lunch in January 1983. In Toronto, Nicole Morin, eight when she disappeared from a condominium building in July 1985. Michael Dunahee was four years old when he went missing from a playground in Victoria in 1991. In Regina, there is only Tamra Keepness.”

 

Jana G. Pruden – The Walrus – June 2016

Welcome to Canlandia

“Thanks to a favourable combination of the runaway US election, pop-culture successes, sports triumphs, and some form of ineffable goodwill from the rest of the world, the country has entered a new era of popularity that is being referred to—by those able to remember the time of Pierre Elliott Trudeau—as a golden age. Our new self-confidence, though, may call into question what it means to be Canadian: If Canada becomes cool, can it still be . . . Canadian?”

Jessica Johnson – The Walrus – November 2016

I Went To A Summer Camp For Adults And It Was Weird

“I briefly considered bringing a rolling suitcase so I could accommodate the entire packing list: running shoes, sandals, bug spray, sunscreen, multiple hot-weather tank tops plus a few fleece sweaters for cold nights, a Wonder Woman costume, a Woodstock costume, heart-shaped sunglasses. I stopped short at one of the suggested items — ‘tribal tattoos’ — because I’m not a fucking idiot. It felt like a lot to carry in a backpack, but I was more concerned about being teased for bringing luggage into the woods. I was heading to Camp No Counselors, a three-day summer camp for adults with locations across North America, complete with activities, dance parties, and open bars.”

 

Scaachi Koul – BuzzFeed Canada – August 2016

Whatever happened to the Canrock revolution?

“Two decades on, we can track the change that occurred that summer. Though it’s still fair to say Canada’s greatest cultural shackle is its inability to view itself equal to either the U.S. or U.K., some 20 years ago a movement swelled that, for the first time in our musical history, ran antithetical to that long-held belief. From 1995 through to the turn of the millennium, young Canadians championed a group of artists that reflected their own tastes, without the caveat of lyrical geotagging.”

 

Jon Dekel – CBC Music – April 2016