Last year 4,000 Canadians died as a result of drug overdoses. Behind the staggering numbers are the people – sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, siblings, friends – who, for one reason or another, use drugs. Last fall my Dad died from an overdose. Over the past 10 years or so his alcoholism had become so bad that there wasn’t a time,…
Last summer I abandoned the comfort of clothing for 10 days to bare it all at the Bare Oaks Naturist Park, a naturist community in East Gwillimbury north of Toronto. Readers who are new to nude may benefit from a short history of naturism: the idea was first conceived in 18th century Germany, making its way to pre World War II…
Nicaragua’s popular uprising: Calls for president to resign mount following death of 28 people during anti-government protests Nicaragua’s embattled president is facing pressure to resign after 28 people were killed and more than 120 protestors were jailed in anti-government protests. The hostility began on April 18 when Nicaraguan President and former Sandinista revolutionary leader Daniel Ortega enacted reforms to the…
Hakapik: (Noun) From the Norwegian hakepigg (Hake : Hook / Pigg :Spike). An instrument used in seal hunting. Canada’s seal hunt has long received a bad rap from outsiders who are disconnected from the North and its culture. Between 2011 to 2016, I followed the lives of Canadian seal hunters in the Magdalen Islands, Quebec, where I reside – as well…
My paternal grandmother lived with diabetes, failing eyesight and decreasing mobility before passing away at the age of 84 in early 2018. In her final years, my parents opted to move her in and become full-time caregivers—an exemplary commitment that they did not hesitate to make. I carried my family’s story with me while on assignment for Photographers Without Borders…
In 2012 Canadian documentary photographer Donald Weber set out to find a new approach to visual storytelling that strayed from the traditional photojournalistic style of his work. What started out as a plan to make just a few images ended up turning into a sprawling work about the legacy of World War II, which was published as War Sand in…
Most days in Aamjiwnaang go by quietly. Workers head to their jobs while kids go to school. Teenagers record songs, letting their younger siblings rule the playground. Meals are cooked and shared. Football championships are lost, baseball games won. Stories are told. Lights go out and dreams takeover until the next day. Years pass. A grandfather turns fifty as his…
A twenty-minute subway trip out of Manhattan lies a neighborhood you won’t find circled on any tourist map. Abandoned buildings dot the landscape and the smog from idling industrial trucks choke out the sun. Floods are frequent here, as the area is thirty feet below sea level and is not connected to the New York sewage system. To its residents,…
At most Oilers’ home games, as people scurry into Rogers Place past chill winds in Edmonton’s downtown core, you can find Blair Gladue as “Mr. Magoo” sporting head to toe custom costumes, face-paint and, always, a drum. Singing, cheering, high-fiving, and posing for the occasional photo, he looks like he could be an employee but Gladue does it strictly for…