Edge of the Edge
You wake up. You’ve received a phone call. Disoriented, you fight sleep and attempt to make sense of what the voice on the other end of the line is telling you. You discover that your [...]
By Clem Martini
Mental Health
Mental Health
The Turquoise Sea
As though nostalgic for his Manitoba boyhood, my father points to his beloved hunting rifle. Transforming his fingers into a silent trigger, he touches his temple and says, “Sometimes I want to [...]
The Possibility of Hope
Before she died, Anna Kessler was a promising scholar of Kant. She left Cornell University in 2004 to complete her doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of Alberta. Charming, talented [...]
By Jay Smith
Pushed to the Edge
There are two things you never want to have happen to you. One of them is to suffer a mental illness. The other is to suffer a mental illness and try to get admitted to a hospital. The problem is [...]
By Clem Martini
The Healing of Angela Bischoff
For the past few months, activist Angela Bischoff has been parked in front of her laptop, working around the clock in a small room at a house she shares in Toronto—checking e- mails, confirming [...]
Conundrum of Kites
You suicides are all alike: too strong an imagination. You did what you did, now shut up. — Samuel Beckett My 13, 1987. Six weeks left of high school, six more weeks until we were free. That day, [...]
By Sophie Lees
Tryin’ to get to Heaven
Sometimes you need to be in the hospital. Sometimes no other place—not even your own place—feels safe. In the hospital you can find that secure holding environment that protects you from your [...]
By Larry Pratt
MOST READ
MOST READ
The Nenshi Years
I find it easy to forget what Calgary was like when it all began—before what I’ll call the Nenshi Years. It feels like a lifetime ago, several political epochs back. Before the pandemic, before the Olympic bid, before the flood. Before the boom—and whole boom–bust cycle—ended. Before the PC collapse ...
Sidewalks to Nowhere
On a cool November evening in 2012, a crowd of more than 100 invited guests, primarily land developers, gathered at a private venue in downtown Calgary. The host was Cal Wenzel, head of Shane Homes. From a stage in front of a big screen he proceeded to review each Calgary ...
Should Post-Secondary Education be Free?
Hugh Mackenzie
The economist and research associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says yes.
Free tuition would redress a massive intergenerational inequity created over the past 30 years. In 1990–91, average university tuition in Canada was $1,464; adjusted for inflation, that would be $2,541 in 2019–20. Today the actual average ...