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The best of writing, photography, art, and argument – on everything from film to foreign policy.

“Ever dreamed of subscribing to a cultural magazine that doesn’t seem to be eating out of the hand of half a dozen media magnates? Something pluricultural and unassuming but nonetheless covering everything worth seeing, reading, doing or listening to for a season? Well, it exists, and in Canada to boot!”

“There is no on-line version or web site, which either makes John a dinosaur or a man of character. (I opt for the second, since the editorial team occasionally has a kind word for me.)”

John Howe — Canadian artist and co-conceptual designer on all three “The Lord of the Rings” motion pictures.

* Editor’s Note: The age of the dinosaurs has at last come to an end — with the arrival of this website!

The Big Lie that is Globalization: When a political and economic system benefits the very few at the grievous expense of the many

On February 23, 2016

Vaclav Havel said, “Systems are there to serve people, not the other way around.” Well, the truth is that our political and economic systems no longer serve the interest of ‘the 99 percent.’ For years now, we’ve heard the mantra of the system’s new idols: Out-sourcing, down-sizing, […]

Ice Blue Castles at the Top of the World

On November 9, 2015

Sometimes a few words, or a single photograph, can create a visceral

sense of a place we’ve never been – and bestir a powerful desire to take flight and wing our way to the very place that has conjured […]

A School for Scandal: Duffygate & the PMO are only the tip of Canada’s Senatorial iceberg

On August 12, 2015

The dysfunction that permeates Canada’s Senate is far more pervasive than the revelations of unethical expense claims of recent months and the pernicious attempt by the Prime Minister’s Office to cover them up – however squalid those events are. Mike Duffy had no business claiming housing or […]

‘Qui est Charlie?’ The Contagion of Terrorism

On January 19, 2015

In the aftermath of recent murderous events in Paris, one can only feel profound revulsion. What can possibly be in a human being’s mind to prompt him to take other lives with such casual, cold-blooded brutality? And how can anyone professing to be religious, commit such horrors […]

Fight the Future

On January 19, 2015

As they used to say in “The X Files,” fight the future, by signing this online petition to stop Canada Post’s addle-brained plan to end home mail delivery:

https://www.change.org/p/don-t-let-canada-post-end-door-to-door-delivery

The online petition was started by a concerned Canadian, Susan Dixon. To date, it has attracted over 210,000 signatures, to no apparent […]

Artsforum in the Eyes of Others

We happened to come across this nice assessment of Artsforum in the online magazine Offscreen:

Offscreen Notes: Artsforum Magazine — July 6, 2014

“Recently discovered this Canadian wide-ranging cultural issues online journal [Artsforum Magazine] which reminds me in its scope and literary bent of the excellent print magazine, The Believer Magazine, perhaps with a more […]