O Critic, Where Art Thou?
When Jay Scott died in 1993, the art of thoughtful film reviewing in Canadian papers didn't die with him. The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, and The Toronto Star carry on the tradition, but too many others do not
FADE IN-int. movie theatre Amid a cluster of teenaged contest winners sits a group of middle-aged men with pens in hand. They are lined up along the aisle so as not to elbow anyone while they scratch away at notepads. ZOOM IN-on right side of room Blue light flickers across the men’s faces in a strobe-like effect […]
Standing on Guard for THIS
A salute to 35 years of independent thought
The small staff at This magazine have kicked it into high gear, as usual, but it’s not really evident from the noise level. Other than the rapid hammering of computer keys, an occasional sneeze, and a random phone call, the staff-editor Julie Crysler, associate publisher Joyce Byrne and an intern are quietly plugging away on an issue […]
Reviewer du Jour
Most restaurant critics love to dish the dirt. Not James Chatto. He serves up nothing but praise—and some of the best food writing around
Tucked into the corner of a green-and-yellow-walled Mexican restaurant, James Chatto, Toronto Life‘s multi-award nominated food columnist, is the picture of grey England: black pants, black shirt, black-and-white tweed blazer, salt-and-pepper hair. His small black notebook is concealed under a rather large menu and he furiously scribbles, recording every ingredient in the three appetizers, three mains, […]
Fuck Corporate Media. We Want the Truth
Is Indymedia, a global network of journalist-protesters, really an independent voice? Or simply a mouthpiece for the activist community?
Kevin Smith stays close to the action. He hovers unobtrusively near the black-clad activists and watches intently while one anarchist shatters a McDonald’s window and another is tackled by riot police. It’s a chilly Friday in mid-November, and more than 500 protesters have gathered in downtown Ottawa for the first day of demonstrations against the […]
Hack of all Trades, Master of None
Convergence may be good news for business. So far it's bad news for journalists
David Akin works in what was once The Globe and Mail‘s composing room. In another, less high-tech era, this was the place where compositors laid out the paper before it went to print. Now, illuminated by the glow of monitors, it’s home to Toronto’s CTV News bureau. And since Akin works for both the paper and […]
Stations of the Cross
Most Canadians believe in a higher being. When it comes to dealing with issues of faith, though, too many broadcast-news executives are committing sins of omission
During her first week as a reporter at CTV, Anne-Marie Mediwake has had five story ideas approved. Which is good. This afternoon, she’s sitting at her desk scouring through information on the Internet about several “cool and creative stories.” There’s “a church for people who are not into church,” and then she plans to do […]
The Dissident
Rick Salutin has made it into the mainstream. After heart surgery, first-time fatherhood, and 30 years of critical commentary, you might think he'd have mellowed. He hasn't
Rick Salutin was recovering at home after bypass surgery in 1999. The veteran dissident had missed his weekly Globe and Mail column, and he was bound to miss some more. That was until he read a column by Marcus Gee, one of the Globe‘s neoconservative voices, calling communism a “crackpot theory.” In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of […]
Out of Print
So many books, so little space: Why are newspapers ditching so many reviews?
Martin Levin, carrying an armload of books in padded envelopes, edges through a throttle of desks on the second floor of The Globe and Mail building. The new arrivals will join the dozen stacks of books that reach from the carpet to the underside of his desk. More books on top of a filing cabinet rise past […]
The X-ed Files
It could be any reporters desk. Cluttered and cramped, strewn with tools of the trade-tapes and clippings, notes and papers piled in tumbling stacks near the computer or in leaning towers on the floor. Amid the organized chaos sits a sheaf of paper a foot high-documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, easily the […]
….Sinking
How newspaper travel sections have set journalistic credibility adrift
“From my breakfast table in the Hotel Hesselet’s dining room, I watch a lone canoeist glide across the still Baltic Sea just steps away. A seagull, perched on the end of the swimming pier, also observes his progress. I marvel at the serenity of the scene as mist slowly lifts off the water. The breakfast […]
