French the martyr, French the soldier
A French-Canadian case against an independent Quebec (for now)
French the martyr, French the soldier Read More »
Breaking the Silence
My Grandmother, or Why I write My grandmother is at once a beloved and mysterious figure in my life. She’s the sort of person who can keep a secret for a lifetime or share it at the right moment, to everyone’s surprise. Given that she is a Métis woman and was born in 1950, this
Breaking the Silence Read More »
What’s the deal with the romanticization of the 80s?
Who gets a spot in the collective unconscious? /Content Warning: Discussions of racism and homophobia./ Thanks to a series of events involving a broken button maker and my coworker being late, I managed to score myself a free ticket to Vancouver’s outdoor Shakespeare festival, Bard on the Beach. As I settled into my seat for
What’s the deal with the romanticization of the 80s? Read More »
Is consent possible?
Lessons in Guilt from MacKinnon and Foucault Content Warnings: Mentions of Sexual Assault. Before I begin, I must confess to a handful of biases because to do otherwise would be irresponsible. I am a survivor of a sexual assault perpetrated by a young hockey-playing man from southwestern Ontario and am therefore anything but an unbiased
Is consent possible? Read More »
Subject, Verb, Object
What are the consequences of what we know? “Can rocks die?” This is the question proposed in the title of an essay by anthropologist Dr. Elizabeth Povinelli of Columbia University. More than one person will have snickered in reading that sentence. If you can conclusively prove otherwise, five Canadian dollars are yours. After all, death
Subject, Verb, Object Read More »
Twink culture
Desire, gender, and the hetero masculine gaze Content Warning: this article discusses eating disorders and racism, which may be triggering for some readers. It is with a reddened face that I confess that my first (fictional) gay crush was Anatole Kuragin from a manga adaptation of Tolstoi’s War and Peace. Those with conservative upbringings who
Leap of faith
A conversation surrounding Yann Martel Content warning: allusions to self-harm and suicide The family I was born into are fixtures among the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, colloquially known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their peculiar faith which they call “the truth,” includes anti-2SLGBTQ+ views, the primacy of church doctrine, and the illusion of political neutrality.
I have no place
On Métis identity, temporality, and (de)territorialisation Where am I from? What a tricky question. There are four answers I typically give depending on the context. The first simply answers the question of my permanent address: I am from Pitt Meadows, British Columbia. The second answers the question of my origins: I am from a small
“L’enfer, c’est les autres”
When surveillance shapes behaviour, we live in Hell We live in a world of cameras and cookies. Everywhere we go, everything we do, want, or think, is tracked. Most of the time, this is to maximise the effectiveness of marketing tactics that push us towards buying the latest unneeded thing. Yet, whether or not we
“L’enfer, c’est les autres” Read More »