Illustration by Chanelle Nibbelink
We recently published a piece by
It was this byzantine system that [Justin] Trudeau pledged to fix—a system that takes the information that underpins what our government does, how it thinks, and how it operates, and places it firmly behind a wall, protecting it from prying eyes. The access-to-information system was created to thwart governments’ basest instincts to hide and obfuscate; instead it has become the embodiment of exactly that desire. [Read more]
Kent Monkman, a.k.a. Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, and co-writer Gisèle Gordon are behind two new books that combine fiction and memoir with Cree traditions and the history of Turtle Island. Daniel Baird profiled the artist in the 2017 story “The Alternative Realism of Kent Monkman”:
Monkman has always made use of simple, jarring juxtapositions in his art. Daniel Boone leaning back and enjoying a view of a Kentucky valley while being penetrated by a long-haired warrior; a beefcake cowboy with an erection leaning against a tree, his naked body pierced with arrows; or a band of young Indigenous men pushing and pulling a stone Trojan horse down a set of train tracks against the dramatic backdrop of a canyon. Having derived his virtuoso realistic style from the light-filled pastoral landscapes of eighteenth and nineteenth century European and North American Romanticism—a big influence was Canadian painter Paul Kane who, like Catlin, trafficked in stylized images of the “disappearing Indian”—Monkman likes to create familiar historical scenes using elements that run counter to the way such scenes are typically understood. When it comes to Canada’s history with its Indigenous people, and its denial about its colonial past, Monkman seeks to educate through counter-narratives. [Read more]
In the US, the Food and Drug Administration just okayed a groundbreaking new treatment for sickle-cell anemia, the first to involve the gene editing tool CRISPR. In 2016, in “This CRISPR Moment,” Françoise Baylis and Janet Rossant predicted that scientists would soon be able to treat hemophilia, muscular dystrophy, and sickle-cell anemia using these new therapies. They also explored the darker possibilities:
Using CRISPR/Cas9, scientists can make precise genetic alterations to early-stage embryos that are precursors of all the cells contained in a human body. Crucially, this includes the eggs and sperm. Alterations to these “germ cells” are heritable, meaning they will carry over into succeeding generations. …This is where the conversation among scientists and bioethicists turns toward new frontiers that involve human enhancement. How about human babies who are genetically programmed to resist diseases such as HIV? This could probably be done with CRISPR by editing out the receptor for the AIDS virus. Or how about reducing the risk of heart attack? This might be possible by editing out a gene called PCSK9. You can see how we get to a slippery slope. How about muscle mass? Intelligence? Hair colour? [Read more]
The Christmas movie industrial complex is coming to town! In ‘“We Are Fake America”: Why So Many Christmas Movies Are Filmed in Canada,” published in 2022, Sadaf Ahsan explored why so many Hallmark and Hallmark-style holiday romances are filmed outside Hollywood:
This year alone, sixteen Christmas movies were shot in Ottawa (where the tourism office has a map of Hallmark destinations), marking a local record. In other words, one of the most successful networks on television today may be selling American family values, but the movies wouldn’t be what they are without their quintessentially Canadian settings, crews, and creatives. [Read more]