That time Colby Cosh called Stephen Marche a cunt: casual misogyny among Canadian journalists
In which Colby Cosh calls Stephen Marche a cunt, and then Jonathan Kay and Stephen Marche and Andrew Coyne totally miss the point …
Why Queen’s Park Today might not be journalism (yet)
Some thoughts regarding what counts as journalism particularly as it relates to Queen’s Park Today, and subscription news that arrives by email…
Who is local?
Using visa status to determine residency, and providing no sensible exceptions for locals with alternative paper work is lazy and thoughtless policy making
Toronto Star still getting the facts wrong about Pulitzer Prize winning Canadians
The Toronto Star continues to be wrong about “Canada’s only Pulitzer-prize winning journalist”. Yes, Paul Watson won a Pulitzer. But Barbara Davidson has two…
Imprints
Reflections on safety and ways of being…
“Today in Three Panels” with Dean Mang-Wooley
In which I talk to Dean, an illustrator, and the creator of Today in Three Panels, and we discuss the thin membrane between private and public moments…
Buying ourselves out of homes
Renting and buying homes, for BC residents, is becoming less and less affordable. We’re experiencing the result of decades of deregulation and rabid speculation…
Pitting the haves against the have-nots hurts everyone
Reading “Christ Church Cathedral wants tent city shut down”, about tent city in Victoria, left me disappointed in the leadership and community of Christ Church Cathedral…
Retire the beg button
It’s time for us to walk without pushing buttons, and our community plans prioritize people walking, so, #DontMakeMeBeg…
Coffee Roasting and popcorn lung
Turns out, coffee roasters are vulnerable to lung harming diacetyl exposure, and worker exposure to toxics is under-reported…
Art and the politics machine: Imagine Our Parks
In which Sherwin reflects on how artists allow us to question what is politics, what is shared space, and what is community…
The Evil Woman trope
In which the Evil Women trope is discussed. Women are over-represented as evil villains, murderers and criminal masterminds …
The failure of “Movements in Art Since 1945”
Stories of history, and art history, are too important to be left to the colonial, white, patriarchal views of of a few…
Aphantasia
I’ve known for a few years that my ability to “visualize” in my mind, that is, to consciously or voluntarily pull up images of people, objects, places is fairly limited.
Harper, Mulcair, Trudeau all members of anti-gay churches
The leaders of the three major parties in our federal election are all members of anti-gay churches. That is to say, simply, that they officially and explicitly believe that gay behaviour is sinful…
Reframe: nobody has a right to be served by journalism
When critically considering a given piece of journalism, we might ask ourselves, was it informative? was it engaging? was it helpful? So it’s rather sad that others, when faced with criticism, are inclined to ask simply, was it legal?
Cognitive bias and the backwards bicycle test
The backwards bicycle is a hilarious and damning insight into the challenges of understanding and resisting deeply ingrained ways of thinking and doing…
“She’s my Rushmore, Max!”: masculinity and vulnerability in Rushmore
Rushmore is from 1998, and it’s very white, but Sabrina and Sherwin think it has some redeeming features. It’s an interesting meditation on class and masculinity…
Yes, journalists are* responsible for their headlines
Unfortunately, headlines are, often enough, hyperbolic, clickbaity, misleading, having secondary content, racist, priming, inappropriate or ill-judged. Engaged readers will complain to the author. The author, enraged with righteous indignation, will bark, “I didn’t write the headline…
The GI Joe Fallacy: knowing is not half the battle
When it comes to the cognitive biases that shape human and nonhuman animal behaviour, knowing about the fallacy is not always enough …
Sports socialism for all
I would love for professional sports to be a test bed for innovative cooperative/socialist models. The features that keep professional sport sustainable and competitive should make it out into the greater …
What are your priors?
Maybe Bayes theorem can help right wing commentators better understand, and respect, the language of privilege …
Literary Lowdown: A Beginning
Introduction to a new type of post that will feature book recommendations and reviews…
Cop show Blue Bloods makes me cringe
Blue Bloods is a story of a cop family, the Reagans, in New York. And it’s a reasonably well written family drama that suffers from deeply racist, and sexist, narratives…
