BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: April 2007 Archives

May highlights include Sarah Polley's directorial debut with Away From Her, based on an Alice Munro short story and starring Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie.

Civic Duty also opens next month. It's about a man who becomes paranoid about terrorism after watching too much -- gasp! -- cable news.

May will be a busy month for film festivals, including the Toronto Jewish Film Festival; Inside Out Toronto Lesbian & Gay Film and Video Festival; and the Yorkton Short Film Festival. The latter takes place in scenic Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

More entries on: Film

April 28, 2007

Friday Saturday Links: lifetime supplies, Spadina bus, public radio idol

Posted by ron at 05:07 PM ET | Comments (0)

Apologies for the lateness of this week's Friday links. Sometimes 24-hours in a day just aren't enough. So without further ado.

We've always been curious what a lifetime supply of carrots looked like and thanks to a UK documentary we know. Nick Watts, a British documentary maker, compiled basic statistics and tried to represent them physically. We're kinda worried about the girl in this photo. That carrot-jenga sculpture doesn't look too stable.

If you lived in Toronto during the 1980s you might remember the Shuffle Demons' song "Spadina Bus". Well relive the saxophone goodness in all its glory. A perfect addition to that "commuting" playlist on your iPod.

We were intrigued when we read about taqwacore, or "Muslim punk." Apparently the term was coined by novelist Michael Muhammad Knight in a book and somehow sprung to life. One taqwacore band are the Kominas from Boston (or Bostonstan). Say what you want about the music, you gotta have some affection for a band whose slogan is "Keeping it sunni side up since 2005"

Finally a reality show for A/V nerds. Public Radio Talent Quest! "Do you have what it takes to be public radio's next great host? Do you have that most elusive of qualities - hostiness?" says their website. Oh they're also giving away US$70,000. Sadly it's only open to Americans. CBC are you taking notes....

Oh, finally, it's Workers Memorial Day everyone. Have a great weekend.

More entries on: Weekend Links

April 26, 2007

Google with care

Posted by mason at 11:56 AM ET | Comments (3)

This week I received an e-mail from a This contributor kindly asking me to remove something incriminating from his contributor’s bio on the website. He pointed me to an article that outlines the plight of Vancouver psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar, who was barred from ever again entering the United States because he discussed his use of LSD in an academic article that was easily found via search engines. There’s no happy ending for Feldmar—applying for a waiver that would allow him entry to the U.S. is a costly, demeaning process, and having the U.S. government’s decision overturned through the courts is near impossible.

So this is just a friendly reminder for those of you who wish to visit the U.S.: Don’t post on the internet anything that might jeopardize your freedom to travel.

More entries on: Interweb

April 25, 2007

Gay newspaper to stay in Ottawa city buildings

Posted by Ariel Troster at 10:43 AM ET | Comments (3)

I thought I'd post a quick update, because I mentioned this a few weeks ago. Happily, the City of Ottawa has come to its senses, and remembered that it has no authority to censor community newspapers. Hooray for small victories. You can read about it here.

More entries on: LGBT

April 24, 2007

NMA nomination news

Posted by mason at 01:37 PM ET | Comments (0)

The 2007 National Magazine Awards nominees were announced today, and This was recognized with two nominations: Zoe Cormier's Playing Dirty in the Science, Technology and the Environment category and Evelyn Lau's poem Quayside in the Poetry category!

As well, Blog This's own John Degen was nominated in the Service: Lifestyle category for his Cottage Life article The Holy Grape.

Congratulations, folks!

More entries on: THIS matters

April 23, 2007

The Canwest Museum of Human Rights?

Posted by aaron at 01:43 PM ET | Comments (2)

Philip Gourevitch, in his essential We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, describes the ridiculousness of reading a newspaper article on Rwandan atrocities while waiting in line at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington.

During a speech at the museum's opening ceremonies, Bill Clinton called it "an investment in a secure future against whatever insanity lurks ahead." Gourevitch writes, "Apparently all he meant was that the victims of future exterminations could die knowing that a shrine already existed in Washington where their suffering might be commemorated..."

Gourevitch goes on to chronicle not only the horrors of the Rwandan genocide (a word the Clinton administration was loath to use) but the west's complicity in the act. Not only for acting too late, and acting incorrectly but for a creating the historical circumstances that lead up to it and ultimately for supplying the resources with which to carry out mass murder.

This week we've been hearing a lot (especially if you live in a Canwest owned town) about Gail Asper's coup in securing federal status for the Human Rights Museum to be built in Winnipeg. Stephen Harper, always the intellectual, described the partnership as such, "never before has there been a collaboration of this scale to develop a national museum, but if ever there were a Canadian cultural institution suited for a public-private partnership, it is this one, because human rights can never be the exclusive preserve of the state."

According to Canwest News Services, "It's unclear how much say the Asper family, whose private foundation is putting $20 million into the museum, will have in the running of the museum. However, Harper said major contributors will serve on its board."

Call me an alarmist, but somehow "the Canadian state," in partnership with a right-wing media behemoth, defining human rights in my community doesn't sit right. Even worse, this is all happening in a structure expected to tower over Winnipeg in the form of an ancient Babylonian Ziggurat. Why such an obscure--and ugly--architectural reference, if we're giving homage to the great slave-labour empires of antiquity why no go with something a little more pleasing to the eye, a Pharaonic Pyramid perhaps, or maybe a couple Kremlinesque domes.

Last summer I visited the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. The memorial to one of America's greatest heroes is a small National Park Service red-brick building across the street from his childhood home. The once thriving middle-class black neighbourhoood is now depressed. Only blocks away, I saw hundreds of people encamped underneath massive highway overpasses, many laying on bare concrete, amidst posters that said re-elect Ray Nagin as mayor.

The exhibit chronicling MLK Jr's life and the history of the civil rights movement was moving as was the video presentation that acknowledged the radical path he was on right before his death. In the section of the centre aimed at children I found a booth admonishing us to make ethical purchases. The exhibit gave an overview of sweatshops around the world and listed some organizations fighting child labour. "Great," I thought, but turning around I noticed a large plaque with the words "this exhibit is proudly sponsored by the Coca Cola corporation."

Coca Cola is one of Atlanta's biggest companies and they have a budget with which to sponsor culture, but this is the same brand that many student groups have been trying to kick of campuses world wide for human rights abuses in Colombia, India and other countries. The month before, I had watched a Colombian bottling-plant labour organizer weep as he recounted being tortured at the hands of the paramilitaries hired by Coke to imprison him and harass his family.

I'm not sure if it was the same feeling Gourevitch experienced outside the Holocaust memorial, a combination of shame and frustration, but my visit had been ruined and one of my heroes dirtied.

Cornell West talks about the Santa Clausification of Martin Luther King Jr, the rebranding of a political radical into someone cuddly and safe. I'm not sure if he knows that, like Santa Claus, MLK is now a shill for an authoritarian beverage company. And pretty soon, Canadian school children will have the privilege of learning about "Human Rights" from the number one purveyor of anti-labour, anti-muslim, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-women sentiment in this nation.

More entries on: Human rights

April 20, 2007

Happy Earth Day, what Stephen is reading and a salute to the student journalists of Virginia Tech

Posted by ron at 12:27 AM ET | Comments (0)

Some of us here at This think that everyday is Earth Day, the rest of us try to act a little more green around April 22nd. There are events all over the country, and if you can't make it, there are tons of things you can do at home or at work.

Cities everywhere are in love with Richard Florida's "Creative Class" friendly ideas. Vancouver is no exception. But with rising costs and gentrification is there anything Vancouver can do to actually be supportive of artists and other creative types? The city wants your input.

The greenest places in Canada are our small towns. First it was Leaf Rapids, Man.'s garbage bag ban. Now it's Wolfville, N.S.'s support of fair trade and local agriculture. Way to go. Big cities are you taking notes?

Author Yann Martel decides to go all Oprah on Stephen Harper and send him a book to read that "has been known to expand stillness" every two weeks. His first title is Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych.

Finally, I was stunned to hear of the events at Virginia Tech. But as a former student journalist, I want to send a special salute to the writers, editors and photographers at Virginia Tech's student paper, The Collegiate Times. Student journalists often get derided for being amateur, or irrelevant, in your case the very opposite is true. May the coming days be full of peace and happier memories.

More entries on: Weekend Links

April 19, 2007

A Little Matter of Consent

Posted by Ariel Troster at 04:38 PM ET | Comments (8)

Well, it looks like the federal justice committee has just cleared the way for the passage of Bill C-22, which will raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16. The Conservatives are calling it the "age of protection," and are falling all over themselves, claiming to be protecting children from exploitation.

I've made my opinions on this issue known in Capital Xtra, and for a short while, I was Egale Canada's spokesperson on the issue.

In a nutshell, this law is bad news because it will only serve to repress young people's sexuality, put them in more danger of contracting STIs while also giving a nod to the religious right who would prefer if parents could keep their teenagers locked up until they turn 21. The law is also as superfluous as it is dangerous. Canada already has strict laws that criminalize any sexual relationship with a young person when there is any evidence of a power imbalance or any form of abuse or exploitation.

To add icing to the cake, the justice committee has also held up one of the last vestiges of Canada's anti-sodomy laws, by refusing to strike down section 159 of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes anal sex unless it's being performed by two people over the age of 18 (unless they're married).

Yep, you heard me right. There is a separate age of consent for anal sex. And it's still on the books.

So in tribute to to all of the young people from the Age of Consent coalition that faced insurmountable odds when they presented in front of the justice committee, I offer you this video from Vancouver's The Wet Spots (WARNING: not suitable for work):

Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper

More entries on: Sexual Health

April 18, 2007

joy sighting in hogtown

Posted by john_d at 01:14 PM ET | Comments (0)

I hope everyone read R.M. Vaughn's hilarious piece in the weekend Globe about how you all hate Toronto only because our shiny surfaces reflect back your own inadequacies. It warmed my heart. Brilliant writer, Vaughn. You should go buy his books. If it makes it easier, think of him as a Maritime author like that other Torontonian David Adams Richards.

Anyhoo, one of my least favorite Toronto slights is the suggestion that we are an unhappy people -- that we cannot experience joy like they somehow do on the prairies, or beside an ocean. Being mostly joyless myself, I've always had trouble defending Toronto on this point, but now a bunch of local blogs and papers have come to my rescue. Below you see the remnants of the Joy Oil & Gas Station (thank you BlogTO for the photo), built in the 1930's and a longtime landmark on Toronto's western shoreline (corner of Lakeshore and Windermere).

The gas is all gone from that corner, but the joy remains, or did anyway, until recently when the City of Toronto officially moved its joy across the street to serve as an ice cream stand. So there. Toronto's joy will now pump out ice cream to little kids and old people walking by the lake. Stick that in your latte, Vancouver.

p.s. I'm very pleased they're doing something with this structure. It's been covered with white tarps for two years at least, and my kids now love it, screaming out "Ghost House!" when we pass it every day.

More entries on: Toronto

April 17, 2007

prime green

Posted by john_d at 02:25 PM ET | Comments (2)

(image courtesy Citizens Bank of Canada)

At my office today, I stumbled upon the press conference launching Citizens Bank of Canada's new Green Mortgage product. They have partnered with the Conservation Council of Ontario (who are co-tenants of mine at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto) and Green$aver to create a mortgage that combines a competitive lending rate with enviro-feel-goodness.

Take out a Green Mortgage with Citizens Bank and you also get a rebate on a Green$aver Home Energy Audit, and a new lidded curbside blue box filled with enviro-products, coupons and gift certificates worth almost $900. As well, they offer a low-rate $10,000 line of credit to help home owners follow energy audit renovation suggestions.

While they don't do this just yet, questions at the conference today suggest Citizens Bank may take the Green Mortgage further and look at discounted rates for already efficient homes, and location discounts for folks choosing to lower their nasty emissions by living close to transit and dense urban cores.

Most importantly, IMO, Citizens Bank gives a $100 donation to the Conservation Council of Ontario for every Green Mortgage sold -- all part of their "Ethical Policy."

Now, I'm as cynical as the next person, but when was the last time you heard of a bank with an "Ethical Policy?"

More entries on: Economics

the answer, my friend

Posted by john_d at 09:44 AM ET | Comments (3)

(image courtesy Cape Cod Today)

We all know what happens when good and evil collide over issues that affect us all. When developers look to gentrify a run-down community with no plan in place for the displaced former residents, it's not hard for a committed lefty to pick out the good guys and the bad guys. Sean Condon writes about just such a scenario in the current issue of THIS Magazine.

But what happens when both sides in a fight can make a significant lefty-sounding claim? I wrote a while back about Sarah Harmer's campaign to block some aggregate mining on the ecologically sensitive Niagara Escarpment, and noted that the company in question was advancing environmental arguments of its own. The mere mention of NIMBYism in the discussion brought out the tried and true accusations of environmental ignorance. "Have you ever heard of a butternut tree?," I was asked, as if that had any significance in a discussion of whose backyard gets ravaged to build the roads we all use and will continue to use for the foreseeable future. Someone's backyard will be ravaged, but if NOW Magazine doesn't aim its awesome hippy-journalism power at it, we won't have to worry about whose home was ruined while we drive to the cottage in our friend's new hybrid.

Residents of Wolfe Island (near Kingston, Ontario) are dealing with just this kind of lefty YIYBYism (Yes, In Your Back Yard), as a growing environmentalism and concern for our sustainable and green energy future is pushing a windfarm project at them and tearing the community apart. Check out this article from the Kingston Whig-Standard, which shows longtime neighbours locked in an emotional debate about appropriate land use, natural sightlines and property values. "This is Hatfield and McCoy stuff," one resident says.

I am excited about the potential for wind energy. My roots are in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany, a gusty farming lowland on the North Sea (used to belong to Denmark before that hyper-ambitious Bismarck came along) that is now home to elegant and picturesque windfarms. These modern developments blend in with the traditional humanscape very appropriately (no shortage of creaky old wooden windmills in northern Europe), and feed an awful lot of power back to the rest of Germany. I love the sight of Toronto's one wind turbine. It makes a perfect companion to the skyline and acts as a handy landmark for local sailors looking for the eastern edge of Humber Bay.

But just because I think wind power is great, and I happen to like the sight of windfarms in the distance, do I have the right to impose my chosen energy source on someone else? As much as I love my one turbine, would I be as enthusiastic if there were ten in my backyard? Robert Kennedy Jr. has some big lefty-enviro credentials, and he has worked against a windfarm project slated for his beloved Nantucket Sound.

Used to be someone had to live next to the coal-plant so the rest of us could read our books at night. If we were reading Marx & Engels, it all seemed somehow justified.

It's probably a whole lot nicer living near the turbines. Still, who's lining up to pick the short straw on this one?

More entries on: Planet Earth

April 15, 2007

Martel on Harper's reading habits

Posted by mason at 02:15 PM ET | Comments (0)

Best-selling author Yann Martel was so unimpressed with the reception he and other artists received in the House of Commons recently that he's come up with a web-based response:

For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website.

The site includes a story of Martel's experience being invited to help mark the 50th anniversary of the Canada Council for the Arts. It's a bit of a rambling note, but the point is clear enough: the Harper government is not acting like a friend to artists. Harper's lack of attention to the 50 artists invited to mark the occasion, and the poor showing of MPs at a reception the night before, are especially irksome to Martel.

Will his gifts of books to Harper's office help expand the Prime Minister's horizons? I'm not holding my breath, but it's something to keep an eye on.

More entries on: Lit | On the Hill

April 13, 2007

The changing nature of the word "friend"

Posted by Ariel Troster at 11:44 AM ET | Comments (12)

I've been thinking a lot about the changing nature of the word "friend" in the MySpace/Facebook era. For those of you who haven't become addicted yet, Facebook is a piece of highly sophisticated social networking software that instantly connects you with everyone you already know, and people that you had long forgotten.

The way to expand your social network on Facebook is to add people as "Friends" -- which means you get to see their full profiles, and receive up-to-the-minute updates on how they're feeling, what they're wearing, if they are in a relationship (Facebook sends you these crazy newsflashes when people announce that they are now in a relationship. Creepy).

Anyway, I have been receiving Friend requests from the oddest assortment of people in the last few weeks, as have many of my friends (as in real, live friends, not just interweb friends).

For example, I just received a Friend Request from this guy named Darryl that I used to hang out with when I was 15, simply because he had a car. Can you blame me? I was stuck in Unionville, Ontario. He lived in Newmarket. He used to throw parties where they would actually serve beer. His house was so big, it was like a mansion at Disneyland. Mysteriously, his parents were never home. Once we tried to make out, but it fell flat. He was about half my size, and his closet was full of Metallica and Rush t-shirts.

According to Facebook, he is now a technical writer, living -- guess where -- in Newmarket. His favourite band is -- guess who -- Rush.

I have also recently heard from a girl was was a camp counsellor with me at posh Jewish summer camp when I was 17. She was always a bit aggressive. I figured she was a proto-dyke. But apparently she's straight and into "all forms of full-contact fighting." Her boyfriend looks like he's in the Israeli Army (his Facebook photo features a very large Uzi semi-automatic weapon). She's part of a Facebook group called "Palestine is Not a Real Country." 'Nuff said. I have rejected her Friend request repeatedly.

My friend Rachel is experiencing a rash of Friend Requests from former childhood bullies.

"I don't get it," she writes. "I mean, I've had two childhood bullies friend me, and polite person that I am, friended them back, and then promptly ignored them. And now I have this one completely random guy who mostly ignored me in grade school inviting me to join America's Next Top Model groups. Which is about as opposite from my interests as one can get. And I like to think that I'm at least partially scary! I mean, I have a picture of myself as a zombie. Grrr!"

I have also been "friended" by some gay scenesters that have ignored me at every party I've ever been at, a couple of politicians that I've tried to ignore at every party I've ever been at, oh and my 14-year old cousin who is way more adept in the world of Facebook than I could ever be.

So here's what I wanna know: Is the internet the great bully eraser? Is having a lot of internet "friends" the new social economy? Is it a popularity game just like high school? Is it a way to erase the high school experience, or to extend it into our 20s and 30s and beyond?

Thoughts?

More entries on: Interweb

April 12, 2007

Radioactive Shortstops, Goodbye Coke and more Typewriter Geekery

Posted by ron at 11:20 PM ET | Comments (0)

It seems that everyone these days is carbon offsetting; paying a third party to neutralize the carbon emissions that a certain activity would create (ie. by planting trees).

The Cincinnati Reds just recently announced that they went carbon-neutral for their opening day game against the Chicago Cubs.

On the flip side are the Toronto Blue Jays who are carbon neutral but very very nuclear. We say rename them the Isotopes and be done with it!

The University of Guelph becomes the first university in Canada to boot out Coca Cola when their beverage contract expires later this year! The students criticized the company for its environmental abuses in India.

If you weren't in Toronto to see the last Rheostatics show CBC Radio 3 is streaming the ENTIRE SHOW here.

Streetcars in Montreal, yes please.

Finally, excuse us while we geek out on typewriters.

More entries on: Weekend Links

Help "Save the Internet" win a Webby

Posted by mason at 12:49 PM ET | Comments (0)

We’ve mentioned Save the Internet before, and no doubt our blogging was a big factor (yeah, right) in getting the video about the importance of Net Neutrality nominated for a Webby award.

Why am I highlighting this nominee over the others? Because a friend of the magazine, Matt Thompson, is the creator of the video.

Anyone can vote for their favourite nominee, and the one with the most votes gets the People’s Voice Award. You have until April 27 to vote, and here are the steps (after the jump):

How to vote for SavetheInternet.com:

1) Register to vote here:

http://peoplesvoice.webbyawards.com/account/login

2) Vote for our Video

Click on "Online Film & Video" —> "News/Documentary/Public Service" —> SavetheInternet.com

3) Vote for our Website

Click on "Website" —> "Society" —> "Activism" —> SavetheInternet.com

That’s it. The Webbys are a big deal, so while you’re voting for SavetheInternet.com, don’t be alarmed if you get distracted by all the great stuff out there. God bless the Internet.

More entries on: Interweb

April 11, 2007

Greeks, Sex and Alanis

Posted by aaron at 08:33 PM ET | Comments (4)

Some things have been bugging me a lot lately. I worked a sorority ball the other night and it was by far the most embarassing thing I've ever witnessed. My university didn't allow greek associations and so until now I never quite understood what my friends meant when they admitted to hating these people.

I'm not one to rail against debauchery, I have no problems with people doing silly things and getting wasted, partying, having meaningless sex or whatever, but these people, the "sisters" and their fratboy dates, really bothered me. On the way in, girls already had to be helped into the washrooms to puke, they could barely stand up. The conversation ranged from meaningless to insecure. "There's this brand, kinda edgier than American Eagle, but not, like Abercrombie or anything like that..."

The drunk organizer couldn't understand how to speak into the microphone and even the seniors were basically illiterate. Their "roasts" of the graduating class were the saddest excuses for rhyming couplets I've ever heard, and, even in this hyper-sexual day and age, genuinely shocking, but more for the sheer magnitude of mainstream sex acts described rather than anything subversive.

On the other hand, I saw Alanis Morissette's parody of The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" video which everyone is talking about. It's brilliant, but wasn't the original song satire to begin with? That's the only way I can explain lyrics that bad. My question, if the original song is a commentary on the commodifying nature of mainstream culture then what is Alanis' version?

More entries on: Sexual Health

corporate copyright complications complete complexity coefficient

Posted by john_d at 02:37 PM ET | Comments (8)

(image courtesy Urban Counterfeiters blog)

Okay, let's see if I can follow the thread here:

Boing Boing, famous for championing the copyleft reaction to corporate cultural lockdowns such as the well-documented Disney protectionism over the Mickey Mouse image (draw Mickey without pants; enjoy expensive philosophical discussions with Disney lawyers), has recently taken up the cause of independent artists who have their images used "without permission or payment" by corporations.

Boing Boing links to Urban Counterfeiters, a blog seemingly dedicated to outing the retail company Urban Outfitters for unlicensed commercial use of artists' work. The t-shirt logo shown above has apparently been remade by Urban Outfitters and is being sold without the permission of the original artist, Michael Leon.

Checking out the Michael Leon link provided by Boing Boing, we see the following image of some of his t-shirt designs.

(image courtesy commonwealthstacks.com)

Note the Mountain Dew (TM) logo "homage" in the bottom right corner. The Urban Counterfeiters blog also shows a t-shirt design utilizing the famous John Deere deer logo (with the deer producing a musical note fart) on a t-shirt intended to criticize the tractor company for tractors "polluting nature with their toxic farts." UC criticizes a company called Esprit Sport for using the same concept (moose farts this time).

So, am I getting this right? It's not cool for a retail corporation to use an image or concept created by someone else for commercial gain, especially if the image or concept uses an image or concept created and owned by a corporation AND is being used by an individual artist for commercial gain?

If only Walt Disney were around to create a simple line drawing of this based on someone else's simple line drawing. It would probably look like a goofy Arabian genie escaping from a bottle.

More entries on: Copyright/left

AFSCME: The f---ing union that works for you

Posted by mason at 02:04 AM ET | Comments (1)

If you believe Internet lore, this clip is the result of a voice-over outtake done when the original commercial was shot, produced and aired more than 25 years ago. Today, it’s receiving all kinds of online plaudits from younger labour-conscious folks who say it embodies the kind of approach the labour movement should be taking now to attract new members.

One thing is for sure: it’s really funny.

More entries on: Labour days

April 09, 2007

continental sport

Posted by john_d at 03:21 PM ET | Comments (0)

(image, courtesy Toronto FC)

This is the third in what I hope will become a long-running series of lame attempts to turn my latest sporting obsession into something resembling a Canadian political discussion. So, with that it mind, please choose the angle you wish to use to discuss Toronto FC's historic first game ever played -- a loss (2-0) to Chivas USA in Carson, California (we were robbed, but that's a discussion for another day...):

1) Sportsnet play-by-play guy Gerry Dobson couldn't quite get his head around the idea that this was a Toronto soccer team, and kept referring to them as "Canada." Now, being a Toronto boy, I hardly even noticed. Toronto, Canada, what's the difference?

Discuss.

2) Toronto lost to Club Deportivo Chivas USA, sister team to Mexico's most popular futbol club Club Deportivo Guadalajara. Chivas entered the all-American MLS league three years ago with the express purpose of appealing to the game's many Mexican and Latin American fans in the USA. From their website:

Chivas USA proudly celebrates its Mexican tradition, bringing a new language, culture and approach to the world of professional sport in the United States. The team is a diverse mix of stars of the future from Mexico and the United States, as well as veteran players with experience on the world's greatest stage.

Chivas USA set an MLS record in their first year for jersey sales. That record will almost certainly be challenged this season by Toronto. Toronto already is the MLS leader in season ticket sales for 2007, and their entry into the MLS made the league the ONLY professional soccer league in the world with teams in more than one country -- so, is soccer the glue that holds all of North America together? When Chivas comes to Toronto later this summer to get a taste of their own medicine, it will almost be like that large swath of geography between here and the Mexican border doesn't even exist. Add to that the official international friendlies the club will play this year, and we may be witnessing a Canadian introduction to world culture unseen since 1972.

Discuss.

3) Along the same lines, no professional sports team in Canada can claim a greater cultural diversity of players, not even the Euro-heavy Raptors. Toronto FC, living the Canadian ideal?

Discuss.

Finally, the Toronto Maple Leafs eliminated the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night in a pointless play-off drive of their own. The result, both of these Canadian teams are now polishing their golf clubs when, really, Montreal should be taking another of their vaunted Cup runs. This has nothing to do with soccer, but I'm writing it on the off-chance Andrew Potter has read this far. Feel the burn, Potter.

More entries on: Sport

Vancouver journalists to give presentation on Afghanistan

Posted by mason at 01:16 PM ET | Comments (6)

A feature in the current issue of the magazine, entitled "Staying the course: Why Canada shouldn't pull its troops out of Afghanistan," has generated its fair share of discussion, as our next issue's Letters pages will attest. The discussion continues to evolve as Canada's involvement in the NATO mission in Afghanistan carries on -- and obviously yesterday's loss of six soldiers makes it a very emotional discussion.

On Wednesday, the writer of our feature article, Jared Ferrie, will participate in a presentation on Afghanistan in Vancouver, with proceeds from the event going toward educational initiatives for Afghan children.

Details on the event after the jump...

PHOTO: JARED FERRIE

When: Wednesday, April 11th - 7:30 p.m.
Where: H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Auditorium, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

This presentation will feature frontline photos of Canadian troops in combat, and behind-the-scenes images of an imperiled people. Vancouver photojournalists Leslie Knott, Jared Ferrie, and Ethan Baron will provide a window into a land where beauty and hope struggle against violence and injustice, and where Canada is embarked on a controversial military effort to bring stability to a country shattered by three decades of war.

Tickets are $15 at the door, and all money raised will go directly to CW4WA (Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan) and will be used to fund educational projects and schoolteachers' salaries in Afghanistan.

More entries on: Happenings | War and peace

April 08, 2007

Let's choose not to be pitied

Posted by Ariel Troster at 09:37 PM ET | Comments (2)

Okay, take a look at the image for yourself:

This is the photo that Fondation Emergence has chosen to illustrate this year's National Day Against Homophobia on May 17th. In my latest column for Capital Xtra, I argue that this kind of imagery elicits pity rather than celebration, and treats the queer community like we're something that should be tolerated, rather than celebrated. It also denies the reality of most queer and trans people's experiences, in an attempt to gain mainstream acceptance. It takes the sex out of homosexuality, and it harkens back to the days when gayness was considered to be a medical condition that could be cured.

What do you think?

(Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper)

More entries on: LGBT

April 06, 2007

Friday Links: A rapper, creepy pencils and a whole lot of poets

Posted by ron at 09:29 AM ET | Comments (4)

Hi I'm Ron Nurwisah, This Magazine's Arts Editor. This is the debut of Friday Links, where I pick a handful of links that have piqued my interest this week. Without further ado.

Toronto rapper K'naan has the best life story of any Canadian artist, hands down. He left Somalia in the early '90s, didn't speak a word of English and learnt how to rap. Well he got good at it, really good. So good in fact that the BBC's Radio3 awarded him a world music prize.

Back in 2005, we interviewed Canadian poet, professor and typewriter historian Darren Wershler-Henry about his new book the Iron Whim. Well it seems that a little magazine reviewed his book quite favourably this week.

Hey Keith, snort this! Artist Nadine Jarvis has created a very creepy project. She'll turn someone's cremated remains into 240 pencils, enough for a lifetime of morbid writing.

Finally, this year's Griffin Poetry Prize gets announced. I feel guilty about this because I don't read enough poetry. Maybe it's time I started.

Until next week, happy browsing. If you have a neat link please send it along to arts[at]thismagazine.ca.

More entries on: Weekend Links

April 04, 2007

Visit Iran -- get a free suit

Posted by john_d at 02:27 PM ET | Comments (2)

I know all this is just deadly serious, and I don't want to downplay any of the anguish of the familes of the British sailors, nor in fact the concerns of Iranians regarding sovereign waters, etc., but the stories out of Iran today are just flat-out strange.

From The Guardian:

In a surprise announcement during a news conference at the presidential palace in Tehran, Mr Ahmadinejad said the 14 men and one woman would be "going back home" in a move marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad last Saturday and acknowledging Easter.

The story goes on to describe some lighthearted kibitzing between the President and the captive sailors on the steps of the palace, and includes the details of what the sailors were wearing:

Dressed in grey suits, apart from the sole female captive, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, who was wearing a striped top and a headscarf, they appeared delighted.

Do they get to keep the suits, because presumably they weren't wearing them when their ship was boarded?

More entries on: Happenings

April 02, 2007

100-mile diet? What about the 100-mile suit?

Posted by ron at 12:24 PM ET | Comments (16)

100mile suit.JPG This magazine has talked about the 100-mile diet before. Ok, well, what about the 100-mile suit? If you look at the labels on your clothing you'll quickly realize that a lot of oil was burnt to ship those items to you. Factor in the cost of growing, processing and shipping the materials and it gets worse.

A team in Philadelphia did a little experiment and came up with the 100-mile suit. This man's outfit is made (almost completely) of materials grown, processed and then tailored in the 100-mile radius around Philly.

More entries on: Planet Earth

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Next month: May 2007

THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Please note that all writers hold the copyright for their pieces and it is illegal for any portion of them to be copied or distributed without their expressed permission. So please don't steal.

THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

April 29, 2007

Sarah Polley, paranoia and festivals galore

April 28, 2007

Friday Saturday Links: lifetime supplies, Spadina bus, public radio idol

April 26, 2007

Google with care

April 25, 2007

Gay newspaper to stay in Ottawa city buildings

April 24, 2007

NMA nomination news

April 23, 2007

The Canwest Museum of Human Rights?

April 20, 2007

Happy Earth Day, what Stephen is reading and a salute to the student journalists of Virginia Tech

April 19, 2007

A Little Matter of Consent

April 18, 2007

joy sighting in hogtown

April 17, 2007

prime green

the answer, my friend

April 15, 2007

Martel on Harper's reading habits

April 13, 2007

The changing nature of the word "friend"

April 12, 2007

Radioactive Shortstops, Goodbye Coke and more Typewriter Geekery

Help "Save the Internet" win a Webby

April 11, 2007

Greeks, Sex and Alanis

corporate copyright complications complete complexity coefficient

AFSCME: The f---ing union that works for you

April 09, 2007

continental sport

Vancouver journalists to give presentation on Afghanistan

April 08, 2007

Let's choose not to be pitied

April 06, 2007

Friday Links: A rapper, creepy pencils and a whole lot of poets

April 04, 2007

Visit Iran -- get a free suit

April 02, 2007

100-mile diet? What about the 100-mile suit?