Right or Wong?
When Jan Wong blamed Kimveer Gill's Dawson College rampage partly on Quebec's pure laine distinction, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Jean Charest fired off letters of protest to The Globe and Mail. Buried in the rubble of the battle was the reporter's right to call it as she saw it
On Wednesday, September 13, the calm of a rainy early afternoon at Montreal’s Dawson College was broken by gunfire. Kimveer Gill entered the campus carrying a semi-automatic Beretta and began shooting like a child at a midway game. He fired 60 shots, wounding 20 people and killing one before turning the gun on himself. Three […]
Canadian Forces 101
I'm dirty, wet and trapped inside 42 tons of armour
I’m dirty, wet and trapped inside 42 tons of armour. A 105-millimetre gun leads the way. Leaning forward, with my camouflage helmet bumping against the gunner’s sight, I watch the horizon rock up and down as my Leopard tank rumbles down a central Alberta dirt road. Canadian Leopards rolled into Afghanistan recently, the first time […]
The Fabulous Girl’s Guide to Editing
Fashion magazine editor-in-chief Ceri Marsh shows that good manners still go a long way
You know Ceri Marsh, the Fabulous Girl, don’t you? She’s smart, funny and well mannered. She’s also incredibly stylish, of course – definitely the one you’d invite over to help spice up your wardrobe. If she’s otherwise occupied, you can always flip through the magazine she edits to decide what to wear on that all-important […]
Lucky Dube
CBC.ca editorial director Jonathan Dube prepares to overhaul the mother ship's website for its tenth anniversary
Large printouts of proposed site changes sit on CBC.ca editorial director Jonathan Dube’s desk at CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto. Just prior to its tenth birthday on July 4, the award-winning website will receive a makeover. Dube says the new design will be modern, lively and put more emphasis on exclusive features. A new “Canada […]
Satellite wars
Last year the Calgary Herald threw its readers a curveball called Swerve, aiming its Friday magazine insert at a demographic too old for alternative weeklies yet too young to stay inside all week. Now rival daily the Calgary Sun rotates the battle with an advertising department-driven product called Orb
Eleven copies of the March 3, 2006 issue of Calgary’s Swerve magazine are currently selling on eBay. At last check, the highest bid is just over $36. That’s pretty good considering Swerve is a freebie magazine tucked inside the city’s main daily newspaper, the Calgary Herald, every Friday. The March 3 edition holds great appeal […]
This Magazine Is About Chaos
New editor Jessica Johnston brings passion to the job, but she may offer something even more important to the current affairs publication on its 40th anniversary—stability.
As we sit down to lunch at Tequila Bookworm, a funky, laptop-friendly coffee shop on Queen Street West, Jessica Johnston and I both notice a familiar problem. Our table is wobbling on its uneven base. While I whine about our poor luck, Johnston chooses to address the issue head-on. She grabs a handful of napkins […]
Once Were Warriors
When it comes to professional sport, the game has changed a lot—but so has the reporting
As the Toronto Blue Jays start their 2006 baseball season, many sportswriters say the team will be a serious contender. For the first time in thirteen years – since Toronto last won the World Series – fans might have something to get excited about. “Touch ’em all, Joe [Carter],” said radio voice of the Jays […]
What Makes Clive Run?
Clive Thompson talks fast, works fast, sleeps little and makes a flying leap from editing This Magazine in Toronto to writing cover stories for The New York Times Magazine
Sitting in an Internet café in the Czech Republic, Clive Thompson is frantically searching for lawyers in Spain who specialize in Internet law. A week prior, in Britain, Thompson received news that a virus writer had been arrested in Spain. The only information he could find about the arrest was on a website written in […]
