Essays

Last Day in Cheyenne

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:03:00 GMT

Remembering her father's last days in a hospital in Wyoming, Connie Kuhns struggles with questions of mortality, memory and how to fulfill her father's dying wish.

New World Publisher

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:23:00 GMT

Randy Fred thought that life after residential school would be drinking, watching TV and dying. Instead, he became the "greatest blind Indian publisher in the world."

Lives of the House

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:17:00 GMT

A basement shrine in her 1920s home inspires Caroline Adderson to discover the past lives of her house and its inhabitants.

Third World Canada

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:15:54 GMT

Stephen Henighan compares the chaotic sprawl of "Third World" societies to the degradation of Canada's political, social and physical landscape

Cri de Coeur

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:34:01 GMT

Alberto Manguel explains how Ned Kelly's Jerilderie letter, written as a personal account of the murders for which he stood accused, became a depiction of the world that surrounded him, with its fears, violent acts, petty vices and helplessness

Double Life

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:17:22 GMT

Daniel Francis discovers that Montreal-born author John Glassco did not spend the 1920s hobnobbing with Paris' literary elite, but actually hid a secret inner life behind a veneer of social respectability

The Great Wall of Montreal

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:10:52 GMT

The fence that divides the wealthy from the poor on Montreal's boulevard de l'Acadie was the last stop for Marcello Di Cintio on his tour of communities that live in the shadows of walls and barriers. Read his latest essay here.

Life in Language

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:26:00 GMT

For four decades, Jay Powell and Vickie Jensen helped to revive forgotten languages for many Aboriginal groups along the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Read their story here.

One Night at the Oceanview

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:41:12 GMT

Did that really happen? J. Jill Robinson initiates a midnight stand-off between the police and two drunk brothers in an RV Park in White Rock, B.C.

Launching Greenpeace

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:07:00 GMT

A first-hand account of Greenpeace's first expedition to stop U.S. underwater nuclear testing on September 15, 1971.

The Life and Death of Zadie Avrohom Krolik

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:30:00 GMT

Hal Niedzviecki commemorates his Jewish grandfather—a heavy drinker, a bad driver and a Polish refugee.

Red Scare

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:02:00 GMT

The Bolshevists are coming! The Bolshevists are coming! Daniel Francis recounts Canada's close call with a revolution.

Eye for Detail

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:45:00 GMT

What is at the heart of this Edith Iglauer profile by Giller nominee Annabel Lyon? Hint: Ice Road Truckers.

Happy Hearts

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMT

A series of lucky events seemed to conspire to bring me to Stettler, Alberta, one day in June 1998. Jennifer, the woman who was in between being my roommate and my girlfriend, was at the Banff Centre and I was on my way there from Saskatoon, where we lived. She had left me fifty dollars for gas so I could pick her up after her workshop, and I had accepted, hoping that when the time came I wouldn’t need it and I could give it back. I did need it, of course. I had been waiting for a cheque to come from the Globe and Mail for one of a series of drawings I was doing for them, and when it was time to leave, the cheque still hadn’t arrived. So I set out from Saskatoon with just a tank of gas and the fifty dollars.

How I (Finally) Met Leonard Cohen

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:00:00 GMT

On a rainy night in October 1970, I crossed paths with Canada's most elusive poet.