Lost in The Grid
Torstar and Laas Turnbull have a bold vision: create a new style of weekly that captures the pulse of Toronto's communities. But eight months in, The Grid is still searching for its own editorial heart and soul
It all started with a lighter. In the dog days of August, one of The Grid’s senior editors sparked an ironic hashtag in the twittersphere: #UnfriendlyToronto. Edward Keenan was on a city beach with his wife and two children when a six-year-old boy came over to borrow a lighter for the candles on his brother’s […]
Home Alone
For the Toronto Star's David Olive, one of Canada's most respected business journalists, writing isn't what he does for a living. It's his life's work. But at what personal cost?
It’s near midnight in October on Bloor west near Keele in Toronto’s west end. All is quiet except for whirring winds and the thunder of late-night transports, but the neighbourhood coffee shop-reminiscent of a garage-turned-game show set-is still open for business. Under the pulsating glow of the flashing bulbs bordering the Galaxy Donuts sign, a […]
Bad Boys, Booze and Bylines
The rise and demise of the Toronto Press Club
The press club door had a buzzer in those days. You had to ring the buzzer and then wait for the door to open. On this night, someone is leaning on the buzzer. Inside, as the door opens, turned heads watch with surprise-and no surprise-as Duncan Macpherson falls through to the floor. He’s drunk, with […]
Rex Appeal
How many Newfies does it take to host a national call-in show, inflame the nation with small-screen soliloquies, produce incisive documentaries and still read six hours a day? Just one
Among the posters that adorn the walls at CBC radio’s Morningside studio in Toronto hands one that depicts dozens of colourful pairs of woollen mittens. They’ve formally displayed on an old wooden rod, but there’s something distinctively homemade about the way they hang. The muted shades of red, blue and grey blend together as the […]
No experience necessary
Amateur video is transforming television news
ROLL TAPE: On March 7, 1991, George Holliday, general manager of a plumbing supply company, videotaped police savagely beating black motorist Rodney King. Though the videotape was fuzzy, the image was unmistakably clear: two minutes of brutality. REWIND: Seven years ago, in 1986, ABC and NBC “‘ broadcast what they thought was footage of the […]
Back Where he Belongs
Forced from the Globe four years ago, Norman Webster says he's happy at the Gazette
This is a story of cliches. An interview with Norman Webster sounds like a journalism 101 class, or an introduction to journalistic ethics. Norman Webster is fair to the extreme and adamant in his belief that every point of view has a right to be heard. If there is a “Queen’s scout” of Canadian journalism, […]
Xtra! Xtra!
Read all about the newspaper that works for Toronto's gay community
When the intellectual and controversial gay magazine, The Body Politic, folded in 1987, a part of it would not give up. Xtra!, the magazine’s gay entertainment supplement, has grown into Toronto’s most popular gay newspaper. Its readership and revenue have far surpassed TBP’s, and Xtra! is now the largest gay publication in the country. When […]
Taking on Toronto
Notoriously unpredictable Star columnist Rosie DiManno pushes the city's limits
It is going to be a hard night for Jack Layton. Pre-election polls have forecast defeat of Toronto’s NDP mayoralty candidate at the hands of his Tory opponent, and at 7 p.m. on election day, time is ticking away. And here is Layton, sweating in his overcoat and red scarf, rushing from door to door […]
Scribble Scramble
The life and times of an unregenerate freelancer
The first piece I published in Toronto Life appeared in October, 1973. Actually, it was the first piece I’d published anywhere, except for a precious little effort in Performing Arts in Canada, which examined wrestling as a clue to society’s ills, and another that wound up hacked to bits in Maclean’s, one of whose editors […]
News on a Platter
A Toronto Agency is getting fat on clipbook journalism
“A special cleanser, such as Olay beauty bar, will gently cleanse and soften your skin, leaving it looking healthy and radiant.” “Generally speaking, all-season tires, such as the Michelin XA4, are so good that they meet the needs of 90 per cent of Canadian motorists, says Michelin.” These sentences are taken from a file of […]
