Remember Brexit?That time a Conservative Party directed widespread voter frustration at a single easy scapegoat, smothered the public with misinformation, and were rewarded with their biggest electoral victory in decades? Something similar is happening today in Canada. The scapegoat this time is the “carbon tax.” That’s actually just one part of a complex carbon-pricing policy that imposes a fuel charge on consumers and industry alike while delivering a rebate directly to most Canadians. The principle is simple: raise the cost of something and people find ways to use less of it. But it’s also ..read more

This article is also available in Dari, translated by Said Najib Asil. Hamed Latifee launched the YouTube channel Afghanistan Streets in 2023 to portray daily life in the country under Taliban rule. His videos often featured tours of construction sites, shops, or trips to Afghanistan’s provinces, where locals would showcase traditional foods or handicrafts. A frequent guest on his show was Rafiullah Ahmadzai, then a Kabul municipal officer; in one video posted last December, Latifee and Ahmadzai deliver bundles of wood for heating to an orphanage and an educational centre. They pat the childr ..read more

This article is also available in English. حامد لطیفی کانال یوتیوب “Afghanistan Streets”را در سال 2023 ..read more

This story was originally published as “From International Student to Popstar” by our friends at The Local. It has been reprinted here with permission. The drive from Hamilton to New York City takes about eight hours, depending on the traffic. Harkirat Sangha has travelled this stretch of highway numerous times, transporting produce and other freight across the Canada–US border in a semi-trailer truck. Always driving solo, he would spend the journey listening to music and observing the changing landscape. Often, he’d compose lyrics and toy with ideas for songs of his own. Music was somethin ..read more

The MacLellans can pinpoint the moment their farm in Kensington, Prince Edward Island, underwent a significant change: spring 2009. That’s when the family tractors were outfitted with GPS. “You can take someone with less experience, throw them in the tractor, and the tractor drives itself,” says Bevin MacLellan. At twenty-four, Bevin is the youngest son of the family and works on the property with his older brother, Rylan. Together, the men will eventually inherit the farm, the ninth generation of the MacLellans to do so. They farm potatoes, barley, and wheat on a three-year crop rotation and ..read more

A s the CEO of the Secwépemcúl’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society (SRSS), Angela Kane has heard many stories from community members about living through south-central BC’s devastating 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire. But one in particular sticks with her. In the fire’s early days, a grandfather stood in his kitchen watching his granddaughter play in the pool outside; when a wall of fire appeared on the horizon, all he could do was throw his granddaughter in the car and drive away as his house burned. Although the pair were safe, the memory has kept him from returning home. “As a mother mysel ..read more

It’s rare that a week goes by without a new book finding its way onto my overcrowded shelves. This is partly an occupational hazard, as someone who reads and reviews books professionally; they often come to me unbidden, mailed by publicists and publishers. But I’ll admit that it’s also a personal vice. Plucking a book from a little free library or buying one (or two) at my neighbourhood bookstore is a reliable pick-me-up, and like everyone else enduring the present, I am in perpetual need of a little treat to get through the week. Books have always occupied a special status among my possessio ..read more

April 27, 2013. A team of Sherpas was fixing ropes between Camps 2 and 3 on Mount Everest for clients who planned to use them the following day. In a meeting at Camp 2 the previous evening, the clients and Sherpas agreed that nobody would climb near the fixing team. “Fixing ropes is a sensitive and huge task,” Tashi Sherpa, one of the fixers, later told journalist Deepak Adhikari. “So we strictly alerted everyone not to go high up.” At 6,700 metres, they noticed three people climbing toward them. They turned out to be Swiss alpinist Ueli Steck, Italian climber Simone Moro, and British climber ..read more

In the early ’70s, Leonard Cohen was in crisis. His life felt meaningless, although, in theory, it shouldn’t have. He’d spent the past decade doing all the things people were supposed to do in the ’60s. He’d joined shadowy religious orders and dabbled in Eastern mysticism. He’d written a sexy experimental novel that thrilled the young and enraged the establishment. He’d reinvented himself as a singer-songwriter and played to crowds of ecstatic flower children. He’d taken all the drugs, smoked all the cigarettes, slept in all the iconic hotels—the King Edward, the Chelsea, the Chateau Marmont ..read more

When Lateef Johar arrived in Canada nine years ago, he had only a basic command of English and spoke no French. Now thirty-five and based in Toronto, Johar has built up a small community of friends in whose company he can feel at ease. But his social media accounts are frequently subject to trolling. There have been periods over the past nine years when he hasn’t felt safe sleeping in his own bed. Johar grew up in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. His village, a few hours’ drive from Karachi, had a population of a few hundred, and most families engaged in subsistence farming. There was n ..read more