Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
I suspect it’s typical of most people that when they hear of an emerging conflict in the news, they pass over the headlines and move on to something else unless the conflict personally affects them. My suspicion comes from personal experience. For example, in 2011, when civil war broke out in Syria, I told myself…
Earlier this month, CNN White House correspondent, John Harwood, called Donald Trump a “dishonest demagogue” while on the air. In short order, his employer showed him the door, citing a need for the press to maintain political neutrality in its reportage. A day later, the CBC reported that Adrian Monck, an official from the World Economic…
As an intrepid street photographer, I make a point of documenting urban life in my little corner of this pale blue dot we call home. I make an annual habit of culling my observations to the best 100 or so photographs and printing them in a large hard-cover glossy format so that I have a…
I celebrated Canada’s 155th birthday a week early. At the beginning of the year, I got my fill of people wrapped in Canadian flags and shouting at me about their freedoms. “God keep our land glorious and free” they sang, and I witnessed first hand just how close is the ground that marks out religious and…
A couple years after my dad completed an M.Ed. at Syracuse University, a colleague of his enrolled in the same program and, like my dad, uprooted his wife and children for the duration. I remember going to visit them over the winter holidays, driving past the jerry-built townhouses where we had lived, then on to…
Toronto’s weekly anti-vax rabble were out in force again this Saturday. I stumbled upon them by accident. My wife and I had run out to get a few groceries. When we reached the corner of Church & Bloor, we could see flashing lights in the distance and realized that it was police blocking an intersection…
I went out at 11:30 am, starting my adventure at the intersection of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road. I had thought I would walk south through Queen’s Park Crescent and the tractors I’d seen the night before, then on to the Medical Arts Building where health care workers were planning a counter protest. However,…
He had the impression the three drivers were in communication, waving to one another through their frosted windows. Then followed a succession of clicks as each unlocked his door; a sound of rushing air…
[T]he function of a statue is only marginally tied to history; its primary function is to serve as an object of reverence. Statuary (of historical figures) is an expression of idolatry that serves the universal religion of our age: the dominance of capital over everything.
It was odd to travel through a red state at that particular moment in history. In fact, the western shore of Florida was experiencing a red tide and people with respiratory issues complained that it was difficult to breathe. No kidding.
Although The Great Reset has become the flashpoint for conspiracy lunatics, it is important to ignore the noise they produce. Push through. Read the book in its intended spirit: as the start of a wide-ranging conversation about our collective future.
There is a temptation to treat Arendt like the American Psychiatric Association’s DSMV: if an authoritarian leader meets enough of the documented criteria, then we can diagnose him with the political disease called totalitarianism.
When we reached the Ontario/Québec border, we had to wait to pass through a blockade where soldiers stopped each car and questioned the driver. It was the first time I had ever seen soldiers walking around with guns. I had no idea what to make of it.
The latest instalment in my pandemic reading list speaks to all arts organization who find themselves in a state of limbo: Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel.
The more someone like Trump points at China and Wuhan and wet markets, the more inclined I am to suspect that he’s trying to play us. It’s more of the same: sow confusion, ratchet public discourse into screaming matches, distract us from his acts of personal enrichment.