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Dec 18, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
Cait Alexander, an actor from Toronto, has never met Barrett Jordan, a resident of Surrey, BC, but their lives are forever linked. In 2008, Jordan was arrested and charged with selling cocaine and heroin. Four years later, his case finally went to trial, and he was found guilty. His lawyers argued that the time it took to reach the courts constituted a violation of Jordan’s Charter-protected right to a reasonably speedy trial, and they brought his case all the way to the Supreme Court.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
Last year, PWHL games were the hottest ticket in town. Now, the stars of the Toronto Sceptres are at the head of a global movement in professional sportsLast year, PWHL games were the hottest ticket in town. Toronto’s team sold out its home arena 12 times, and the league overall had 40 million views on YouTube from people in 88 countries.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
The ballparks of Cactus League baseball are spread out across the Arizona desert, and Uber is the most efficient way to get around. I was there last March with two friends, and our conversations with those drivers made it apparent that, aside from Drake and politeness, Canada is best known for its “free” health care. “Must be nice,” I heard more than once. I’d nod and change the subject, unwilling to burst their shimmering bubble. The truth would have taken too long to explain.
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Aug 15, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
How do you know if someone has run a marathon? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. It’s an old chestnut but a good one. And today, it applies to far more than running: humble-bragging seems like a by-product of the entire wellness movement. Just try to navigate social media without encountering some guy boasting about his 4 a.m. wake-up or complex ice-bath regimen. While it’s tempting to dismiss the trend as self-indulgent twaddle, doing so ignores something much bigger going on.
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Jul 23, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
Three cedar trees partially obscure my front porch from the view of passing pedestrians, which makes it a cozy, cloistered place to watch the world go by. It was there I sat recently, starting to compose this very editor’s letter, when a man I’d never seen before led his dog, a shih tzu with a high-concept haircut, to the corner of my lawn where the ankle-high fence stops. And it was there, in the penetrating light of day, that this godless libertine encouraged his animal to defecate on the grass.
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Jun 20, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
“Ooh, juicy! Can’t wait to read it but will respectfully decline.” We got a lot of that in our outreach for this month’s cover story, “Who Earns What.” It wasn’t surprising. And by “it,” I mean the three-act play of ripe intrigue, cheerful encouragement and door-slamming no. When it comes to salaries in this city, the sentiment is consistent: everyone wants to know and no one wants to say. In that sense, consider our nine-page compendium of eye-popping earnings something of a public service.
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May 14, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
Our search for the best new restaurants doesn’t really begin inasmuch as it never really stops. All year, we crank out stories on every possible platform about the best openings, the most gifted chefs, the most sonically superior listening bars and more. The entire effort is led by Rebecca Fleming, our food and drink editor, who is, in short, on it. Whenever I get a tip about a new opening and send it her way, she invariably responds, “Yep—I’ve already got someone covering it.” Well, fine.
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Apr 18, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
Conestoga College’s pamphlet for foreign students is a master class in seduction. The Viewbook, as it’s called, is lush with eye-popping numbers and images of cheerful transplants from China, India, Tanzania and beyond. The Waterloo region is presented as a wonderland of higher education, one that teems, as we learn on page two, with “bustling nightlife, affordable housing and public transit.” Were I a prospective student in, say, Delhi, Changsha or Manila, I’d be on the first plane out.
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Mar 14, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
No one’s yearning for a reminder of the disquieting days of March 2020, when the world stopped, so I’ll be quick to the point. After the worst of the crisis passed—after we flattened the curve and hunted the vaccines and “virtual school” came and went—we all moved on as fast as we could. And for good reason: why revisit all that trauma and discomfort? Here’s why. Canada was caught flat-footed by the pandemic, and we shouldn’t have been. Nor should we be surprised by the next one. What next one?
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Feb 15, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Malcolm Johnston
In 1930, a nine-toed, whiskey-pickled, adulterous Scot named Archibald Belaney hopped in a canoe and started calling himself Grey Owl. As a writer, conservationist and public speaker, he soon gained international acclaim and received visits from awestruck dignitaries. Belaney may not have been the first pretendian—a pejorative for someone falsely claiming Indigeneity—but he remains the best-known. Since his day, a long list of imposters has carried on his shameful legacy.
