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Our Tar-Sands Man in Washington

by Eric Andrew-Gee Gary Doer was hailed as one of Canada’s greenest leaders. Then he became ambassador to the US—and started shilling for Alberta oil.

Illustration by Anthony Tremmaglia.

In early October 2009, Manitoba premier Gary Doer flew to Los Angeles and wound up talking about polar bears. He was attending the Governor’s Global Climate Summit, an environmental forum hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger and other American politicians, where, at one point, a group of young activists approached him for a video interview about global …

Against the Memory Industry

by Christopher Szabla Is the cult of remembrance holding us back? In an era of Google archives and tragedy tourism, we need to relearn how to forget.

Illustration by Karsten Petrat.

They thought closure had already come. Years ago, they had fought petty lawsuits or administrative orders in Spanish courts. Their cases were settled or dismissed, and the regrettable episodes were forgotten, consigned to the yellowing pages of newspapers and dusty government records. But as those archives moved online, some Spaniards discovered that these distant chapters of …

Going It Alone

by Andrew Stobo Sniderman Five years ago, Justin Ferbey helped his Yukon community become one of Canada’s few self-governing First Nations. That was the easy part.

“We became the masters of our own destiny,” says Justin Ferbey of Carcross-Tagish’s self-government treaty, “but we inherited major challenges.” Photograph by Mark Prins.

On January 4, 2011, in a small Yukon town called Carcross, a man blockaded a government office with a lock and chain. He had recently refused a transitional job offer from the Carcross-Tagish First Nation …

Interview With Lone Frank

by Eric Mutrie The author talks about her new book, genome profiling and why we’re all more different from each other than we think.

After the death of her father, Danish author and neurobiologist Lone Frank turned to genome profiling for insight into herself and her family. Today’s gene tests scan a person’s DNA sequence for various single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or “snips”—basically, specific markers associated with certain conditions. For around $1,000, established tests can, for example, identify a person’s genetic …

Muammar Gaddafi Died Special

by Christopher Watt We were used to laughing at him. But there was something pitiable and human in Gaddafi’s final, bloody moments.

MUAMMAR GADDAFI died special. He died unlike any other dictator in the history of the world has, so far, in part because a prelude to his execution appeared online, in which unidentified Libyans beat him bloody on some shitty desert street, in the bright sunshine, in front of what became a global audience. In March, a premature obituary indulged the …

Should Occupy Wall Street Take Up Arms?

by Christopher Watt American history is full of revolutionary violence. Will the Occupy movement follow John Brown’s example?

SOME PEOPLE call John Brown the first terrorist in American history. He was a religious fanatic. He attacked homesteaders in Missouri and liberated quite a few slaves in the process, bringing some of them to Canada. He murdered slaveowners in defiance of their right to pursue happiness. He attacked an armoury at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, a crime for which …

Winter

ISSUE 42 Winter 2011

online content:

also in this issue:

  • Getting Plowed

    by Selena Ross In this exclusive investigative report from Montreal, Maisonneuve exposes the bid-rigging, violence and sabotage at the heart of an unlikely racket: snow removal.

  • In the House of the Lord

    by Andrea Bennett The Jackson Avenue Housing Co-operative and the religious battle raging in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.

  • After Jack

    by Nick Taylor-Vaisey Last May, Jack Layton led the NDP to the greatest victory in party history. Now that he's gone, will the party be able to maintain its momentum?
  • [see full issue contents]