The Usual Suspects
"Middle Eastern Terrorists," "Islamic fundamentalists," "Muslim militants." These are the hurtful and dangerous cliches of a press that insists on linking violence to a faith rooted in peace
Faysal Hussain lies sleeping in his home in Oakville, Ontario, oblivious to the eruptions in the night. Hours later, he is woken by his radio alarm clock: Good morning, Oakville…d’you hear about that bomb explosion last night…? Faysal, dark-skinned with cropped black hair and a goatee, pleads with the announcer, “Let it be the Serbs, […]
The Lush Life of Paul Rimstead
Take one dropout, add a tumbler of scotch and a shot of Hemingway. This would hardly work today, but for the Rimmer, it was the recipe for a celebrated career as a master storyteller
THE RIMMER HATED COGNAC. RUM AND Coke, stingers, gin and tonics, whiskey; now those were drinks. But as a reporter on assignment in Paris in 1967 at a sidewalk cafe; on the Champs-Elysees, Rimstead dutifully followed in the path of his idol Ernest Hemingway and ordered cognac. In fact, Rimstead often found himself doing things […]
La Belle Chaos
One city. Four alternative weeklies. Forget the linguistic squabbles. The real fight to watch in Montreal is a good, old-fashioned newspaper war
It’s lunch time in Montreal, but the day’s just getting started for the editors at the alternative newsweekly Hour. Six staffers have gathered for a meeting around an egg-shaped boardroom table strewn with notepads, ashtrays, latte bowls and candy wrappers. At the moment, they’re puzzling over an ad that a local theatre company has placed […]
”The Personal Is Political, Honey”
Canada's most widely read columnist, Michele Landsberg celebrates 20 years of hanging The Man
It is 1978. Women’s lib is a hot topic. Women are busy getting in touch with their ovaries and men are busy getting in touch with the dishes. Marty Goodman, editor of The Toronto Star, is in his office with his newly hired women’s columnist. “Do you understand,” he asks her, “what we mean by […]
Lost In Space
On a chilly December day in 1997, more than 2,000 metres below the surface of the earth, a story was taking shape in Stephen Strauss' mind
The Globe and Mail‘s veteran science reporter–a tall, burly, balding man with green/grey eyes and greying hair that stands straight off his head was at the bottom of Inco’s Creighton Mine near Sudbury, Ontario. His mind was filled with the day’s experiences: the four_minute, ear_popping elevator ride straight down (a distance equivalent to five stacked […]
Video Killed the TV News Star
Our lead tonight: A revolution in TV news as 50 years of talking heads give way to the twitchy visual energy of music videos. From Big Life to Media Television, current affairs reporting has never been so hip
We were acting like rave DJs, who are the hottest shit in music right now,” says Stephen Marshall, ex-frontman of the now defunct Channel Zero “video-news company.” “DJs take tracks and they assemble them into collages that keep people dancing for eight to 10 hours. I think that’s what we were doing. It wasn’t that […]
Capital Offensive
A year after his aggressive makeover of the Ottawa Citizen, Neil Reynolds has pumped up the numbers and created a buzz. Tits and analysis seems to be working
It’s standing room only at the October meeting of the Ottawa Independent Writers. The monthly gathering of local novelists, poets and freelancers awaits the man whom Conrad Black selected a year earlier to transform the Ottawa Citizen into a smart and provacative newspaper worthy of the nation’s capital. With his scowl and dated clothes, 57-year-old […]
They’re History?
Former editor Christopher Dafoe thought he was leading The Beaver in the right direction. Now publisher Laird Rankin is charting his own new course. But is there any future for a magazine literally stuck in the past?
ON LAND, THE INDUSTRIOUS BEAVER TENDS TO BE SOMEWHAT SLOW and clumsy. It prefers to stick close to home and constantly sniffs the air for signs of danger. When cutting down the trees it uses to construct its lodge, a place of shelter and protection, the beaver cannot predict which way the trunk will fall. […]
Stylin’ Substance
As editor of Flare, former club kid Suzanne Boyd has energized Canada's leading fashion magazine with street savvy and serious smarts
It’s a dull autumn morning and Suzanne Boyd totters into her seventh-floor office in the Maclean Hunter building in Toronto, on a pair of Karl Lagerfeld stilettos. The office is in its usual state-her desk is covered with papers, her conference table is not much better. On one bulletin board in the room hang her […]
I’m Your Puppet
Caught up in the glamourous world of catwalks and couture, the typical TV fashion reporter is a designer's dream: all schmooze, no news
It’s the Matinée Fashion Ready-To-Wear spring ’98 extravaganza at The Docks. The event has attracted most of the local fashion reporters, who have been assigned seats in the front row; they wear sunglasses because of the bright lights. Alicia Kay, host of CFTO’s By Design, sits next to Stephanie Black, host of Global Television Network’s […]
