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The Drummond Commission and First Nations Education
On February 15, 2012 the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services released the long awaited “Drummond Report.” Don Drummond, the former Chief Economist for TD Bank, was asked to lead the Commission and help balance Ontario’s budget by 2017-18. Drummond claims that in order to meet this target, the government must restrict the…
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Creating a New Food Paradigm: A Review of Food Sovereignty in Canada
Reviewed in this essay: Food Sovereignty in Canada: Creating Just and Sustainable Food Systems, edited by Hannah Wittman, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe. Fernwood Publishing, 2011. Food issues abound these days, from northern communities that lack access to affordable food, to foodborne illnesses initiated by poor industrial hygiene practices, to community-driven initiatives connecting rural…
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Toronto’s first “Kula”: a Review of Vanguard of the New Age: The Toronto Theosophical Society, 1891-1945
Reviewed in this essay: Vanguard of the New Age: The Toronto Theosophical Society, 1891-1945, by Gillian McCann. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012. On 26 March 1891, some of Canada’s early avant-garde artists, labour activists, and feminists sat in the parlour of an esteemed Spadina Avenue home to discuss “The Key to Theosophy on Karma.” Spurred by…
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Bookishness: Week of March 19, 2012
Strike Toronto Public Library workers are on strike as of 5 p.m. last night. I am currently deep in horrifying imaginings of a library-less world. Hoping a resolution is swift, for everyone’s sake. What your favourite author had for lunch The power of the Internet to answer the big questions: Megan Fishmann on life as an author-groupie, then and…
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CanLit Canon Review #5: Mazo de la Roche’s Jalna
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. No one talks about Mazo de la Roche anymore, but her 16-part series, which chronicled the doings of the Whiteoak family, was popular in its time. So popular, in fact, that a neighbourhood and…
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Toronto, January 2012: a Poem
For JP Here is a curbed and censored winter— its skies are blank as paper. So instead we read the sidewalks sanded bone-white by a wind made fast and loose on northern highways. They draw chalk lines over crabgrass relapsed since November. “Never mind,” they say, “This is no bardsung city of love, just the…
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The World in Microcosm in a Basement Under Toronto Street: On Open Air Books and Maps
In this essay, John Zada visits Open Air Books and Maps, located at 25 Toronto St, Toronto, ON M5C 2R1. For decades a small indie bookstore has been operating, virtually in secret, beneath the corporate hustle of Toronto’s downtown core. Open Air Books and Maps, a quirky and somewhat clandestine establishment is located in a…
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Bookishness: Week of March 12, 2012
Keep calm and watch this video You’ve seen it everywhere: mugs, notebooks, and, of course, posters. Keep Calm and Carry On. But where did it come from? Sure – England, the war, but there’s more – including one of the most charming book shops I’ve ever seen. The story of Keep Calm and Carry On. (And…
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Bookishness: Week of March 5, 2012
A fantastic flying film I’m sure I wasn’t the only one cheering last week’s Academy Award winner for short animated film despite knowing nothing more than its title: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Having now watched the film (available on YouTube), I can confirm that the content lives up to any expectations generated…
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TRB Podcast: Diana Taylor on “Taking to the Streets: Mass Mobilization Online and Off”
On January 18th, the Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by the TransCanada Institute / School of English and Theatre Studies (University of Guelph), presented Dr. Diana Taylor’s lecture entitled “Taking to the Streets: Mass Mobilization Online and Off.” Listen here:[audio:taylor.mp3] As Taylor asks in the abstract for her talk, “What options for political and economic justice…
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CanLit Canon Review #4: Louis Hémon’s Maria Chapdelaine
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. Maria Chapdelaine, written by Louis Hémon and translated from French by W. H. Blake, is the book we all should have read in high school instead of Pride and Prejudice. While both novels deal…
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Highway 401 Revisited: On the Jack Chambers Retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Reviewed in this essay: Jack Chambers: Light, Spirit, Time, Place and Life. Curated by Dennis Reid, with Sarah Milroy. Until May 13, 2012 at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. http://www.ago.net/jack-chambers-light-spirit-time-place-and-life. I live in Toronto but hometown is still Windsor and though I’ve taken the train many times, flown the ridiculously short distance, and on one ill-advised…