Don't know, at your peril; Canadian Art publishes "Dirty Words" issue

Artist: Divya Mehra

Canadian Art magazine has published an unusual "Dirty Words" issue for spring. Poking fun at art-world taboos, the idea for the issue keys off a low-budget, Ottawa kids TV program called "You Can't Do That on Television", later syndicated on YTV in Canada and Nickleodeon in the U.S. The program was notorious, among other things, for dumping green slime on hosts whenever they said "I don't know.". 

” Our “Dirty Words” issue is about the many, complicated concerns that inform the production of art. Much of the art reproduced here is text-based; some words in these works are traditionally profane." [says editor in chief David Balzer] "This is also an issue about what words can, and can’t, do. Words tend to be inadequate, as artist Jenny Holzer asserted in a well-known work—so why not use them to open dialogue and express uncertainty?"

Weight, sex, work figure in Chatelaine's survey

52 per cent of women feel they need to lose at least 20 pounds; about the same (51%) of women who compare their bodies to the bodies of women they know. These, among many other revelations, are included in the report on Chatelaine's This is 40ish survey. 

The 2nd annual survey was conducted online with 1,029 women between 35 and 45 in Canada and asked some fairly nosy questions about sex and love, work and home, body and health and everything from pimples to cheating. Among some other answers the survey found:

• 49% of the respondents are married and 56% working full time
• 42% live in a city, 36% in the suburbs
• 41% suspect other couples have more sex than they do
• 60% of partnered (married, common law) fantazsize about being single again
• 25% say they've cheated on a partner (76% kept the information to themselves)
• 54% of women fantasize about quitting their jobs at least once a month
• 73% say they do the majority of cleaning
• 44% occasionally or often think about whether other couples are happier than they are

Atlantic Business Magazine's women's issue gets a negative earful

A special issue of Atlantic Business Magazine highlighting women in business has provoked a surprising number of negative response. Dawn Chafe, the executive editor said she was shocked to receive the online comments. 

"People coming online and telling us that we needed to build a wall around businesswomen, that a lot of Canadian men are out of work because there's too many women in the workforce," she told the CBC in an interview from St. John's, N.L. "And that was some of the more polite comments."

There are more than 40 women featured on the January-February cover including designer Lisa Drader-Murphy, former federal NDP leader Alexa McDonough and Emera Energy CEO Judy Steele.

"Frankly, if you had asked me a year ago did I think we even need this kind of issue, I would have said, 'No, hardly, not in Canada and not in Atlantic Canada. We're far too smart. We're far too advanced for anything like that,'" she said.

Now Chafe said she sees this cover as an apology to businesswomen who have been overlooked and she said the magazine will push to have more women in the magazine in future issues as well. 

"I guess after 28 years of producing magazines that have been almost exclusively about men in business, we finally woke up and realized we really needed to pay tribute to the amazing and intelligent and talented businesswomen that are out there in Atlantic Canada," she said.

TIME magazine names Donald Trump as its "Person of the Year"

It's proof, we suppose, that Time's "Person of the Year" is not necessarily someone to admire: the December 19 issue of the magazine features Donald Trump. 

“This is the 90th time we have named the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year. So which is it this year: better or worse?,” wrote Time Editor-in-Chief Nancy Gibbs, explaining: “The challenge for Donald Trump is how profoundly the country disagrees about the answer.... 2016 was the year of his rise; 2017 will be the year of his rule, and like all newly elected leaders, he has a chance to fulfill promises and defy expectations.... For reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrow’s political culture by demolishing yesterday’s, Donald Trump is Time’s 2016 Person of the Year.""

Precedent magazine cover story explores whatever happened to Michael Bryant

In what is something of a departure (in length, rather than its serious intent) the current (Winter) issue of Precedent magazine carries an excellent cover story by senior editor Daniel Fish about Michael Bryant. The coverline asks the apt question: Whatever happened to Michael Bryant? The former attorney general of Ontario who was caught up in a controversial prosecution after a confrontation with a cyclist on Bloor Street in Toronto, a confrontation that turned into a tragedy. And after a considerable and complicated aftermath how he is in the process of rebuilding his life built on empathy for the less fortunate, spending long hours as duty counsel in bail court in Brampton.

I asked him if there is anything he now finds toxic about the justice system that didn’t bother him as attorney general. “Start with this: everyone I represent today is in cuffs. And they’re innocent. That’s wrong.” To cuff everyone, he says, strips them of their presumption of innocence. “And if you treat people like they’re guilty, they start to believe they’re guilty. That’s when they start thinking, Well, you know what, I’m sitting in cuffs. I’m in jail. I must have done something wrong. Then they plead guilty.”

The personal transformation of Bryant into a criminal lawyer for an underclass who badly need one, ..well, you can read about it yourself online. And you'll know, at least in part, the answer to the cover question. 

Will Halifax ever be the same when the developers get through with it?

Halifax will never be the same once the developers get through with it; or at least that's the gist of the cover story in Halifax magazine. Kim Hart Macneill, associate editor at Metro Guide Publishing, has done a very thorough overview of various big developments and lamentable demolitions that have gone into the growing pains of the Halifax Regional Municipality. 

The central focus or the story is how the plan -- the "old plan" -- hasn't been updated since 1978 and is so out of date that developers are successfully dictating the rules. And there is a significant impact on small businesses.

Seven of Canada's iconic trees featured in Canadian Geographic

Canadian Geographic magazine, in its December issue, features seven iconic Canadian trees. Writer Hans Tammemagi visits them all in different regions of Canada and tells their stories. 

The feature is illustrated by Mary Sanche. 

Alberta Views magazine gets ahead of a good story about day care in the province

Good timing is always to be wished and the editors at Alberta Views magazine must be pleased for having published the case for universal day care in its October issue. Because Alberta's government today announced it is introducing a $25-a-day daycare pilot program in 18 centres in the province, creating up to 1,000 new child care spaces. 

The prescient magazine article was written by Tom Langford, a sociology professor at the University of Calgary and the author of Alberta's Day Care Controversy. Premier Rachel Notley said the $10 million pilot project will be a step towards a province-wide system. 

Adbusters presents Donald Trump as a precursor of fascism

The current issue of Vancouver-based Adbusters magazine, on the newsstands today, features Donald Trump as a poster boy for the rise of global fascism. The startling image uses the magazine's barcode as a Hitlerian moustache. The magazine says:

"Everywhere you look, fascist tendencies are creeping into view as each day our world falls further and further into chaos. Have we forgotten the lessons of the past? Will we bury our heads into the comforts of virtual reality while egomaniacs capture the imagination of the masses? Cool Fascismo is an unprecedented exploration into a world where a culture of cool becomes a culture of fear."

Canadian Medical Association Journal editor fired, again

What goes around, comes around it seems, at the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which went through a major crisis in 2006 when the publisher of the journal fired its editor and second-in-command as part of a move to privatize it. A large part of the magazine's editorial board quit as a result, as did several members of the board, moving their support to an online journal, Open Medicine. 

Now, 10 years on, the editor in chief, John Fletcher, has been fired and the publication's oversight committee has been disbanded. The magazine's editor will now report to the board of directors on editorial matters. (The matter of editorial integrity and independence were among the key issues in the 2006 crisis.) The president of the CMA, Cindy Forbes, is quoted in the Globe and Mail saying changes to the journal were the result of falling revenue and declining submissions.  

On Monday, the remaining editors at the CMAJ published an editorial criticizing the CMA for the changes and for suggesting that the journal's reputation is in decline. CMAJ's interim editor-in-chief is Dr. Diane Kelsall.

ELLE Canada has its first Alberta fashion shoot

ELLE Canada goes back to the paleo age in its first fashion editorial shoot done in Alberta, with the dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller as the setting. Ironically, the issue theme is "looking toward the future".



The cover story is an interview with the controversial Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. The cover image was chosen by the readers.

"By the time you read this, I will be dead"-- John Hofsess

Photo: John Hofsess

Timely as can be, given the current controversies over legislation governing assisted death,Toronto Life carries a first-person feature by John Hofsess about his own; after helping 8 people end their lives as part of his work as an activist in the Right to Die Society of Canada, among them the poet Al Purdy. (Purdy gave permission to detail his story) he reports on ending his own life.

Hofsess was, among other things, an arts writer, a magazine editor,author and the film critic for Maclean's. At the age of 78, he had been diagnosed with two terminal illnesses, including pulmonary fibrosis and prostate cancer, as well as a unstable heart. 

In addition to detailing how he came to be a crusader for law reform around assisted dying, Hofsess's story said

On February 23, I will fly to Switzerland to die. The latitude of Swiss law appeals to me—laypersons are permitted to assist voluntary deaths—and I wish to end my life in the company of good people. By the time this story is published, I will be dead.

Good as his word, he died at 4:45 p.m. EST February 29.

When do they get any work done? Canada's top party schools according to Maclean's

2015 frosh week at St. F of X ( Devon Chisholm)

Maclean's magazine has published its list of the top party schools in Canada, with number one being St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, NS. There, according to a post, a typical weekend starts on Wednesday and the party (really a series of parties) carries on through Sunday. 

The ranking (Maclean's loves rankings, particularly when it comes to universities) resulted from a survey of more than 10,000 students at 100 universities across the country last fall. Responses about how many hours a week are spent partying ranged from 0 to over 40 hours a week. Interesting that U of T students reported they party the least. 

Top 20 party schools

Student magazine editors at BCIT suspended for leaking email telling them not to publish a story

Two student editors at the magazine of the BC Institute of Technology were suspended from their duties for leaking an email asking them not to publish a report about an alleged voyeurism case. According to a story from the Canadian Press, Lindsay Howe and Jessica Fedigan say they were suspended by publishing manager Dan Post on behalf of the student association. He said an accusation of a man accused of filming students in a campus washroom was a "non-news story". The email was then published on the BCIT broadcast news website. 

CTV Vancouver reported that a 23-year-old man was accused of using a cellphone to record fellow students at the school's main campus in Burnaby last November. 

Celebrating the Cripple Punk movement

Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture, is next week publishing an issue that features the Cripple Punk movement. The cover story is by Sidney Drmay, the coordinator of RyeACCESS at Ryerson University in Toronto. The cover shows (click to enlarge) rad disabled punk Kate Mokus. The movement speaks out for and represents the disabled in terms that we rarely see in mainstream magazines. 

Rapper Drake is the poster boy for Toronto Life's "most influential" issue

Toronto Life magazine last night held a sprontzy launch for its December issue, featuring the 2015 ranking of Toronto's 50 most influential people. (Rapper Drake, chosen #6, is the cover subject because of his music (his most recent album won a Juno for rap recording of the year), but also because of his front row sway with the Toronto Raptors.) The issue is on newsstands November 19. By the way, Toronto's mayor John Tory was #1.

Chatelaine tracks down all four federal leaders for Q & As

In what seems like both a journalistic coup and playing an important part in bringing issues to the fore, Chatelaine magazine has managed to bag and publish interviews with all four federal leaders. Its particularly useful especially in light of the recent cancellation of the "women's debate".

"Plenty of ink has been spilled over what exactly the term “women’s issues” means," the editors said "and whether it should be used at all. Women comprise more than half the population and are also more likely than men to cast ballots, so there is something a tad reductionist about corralling us all into a special-interest group. Yes, we care about reproductive health and gender parity in leadership — but so do men. And yes, men worry about national security and the economy — but women aren’t exempt from those concerns....

In fact, the focus of the interviews -- conducted over 13 days in August and September -- was fairly wide-ranging and the questions that were asked were quite hard-hitting. You can be the judge about whether the answers came up to the standards of the questions.

Nouveau Projet magazine of the year at the National Magazine Awards

Nouveau Projet, a French-language literary and arts magazine published by Atelier 10 in Montreal was named Magazine of the Year tonight at the National Magazine Awards in Toronto. It also won gold for art direction of a single issue (“Automne/Hiver 2014”) and the words and pictures category (“La pointe des utopies”) as well a silver for editorial package (“Régénérescences”). The jury which made the gold award said

“Nouveau Projet is a near-perfect symbiosis of subject matter, expert writing and exceptionally original design. It sets itself apart thanks to inspiring themes and bold covers. The magazine offers a fresh take on the genre and dares to cover topics that are virtually absent in other media. The energy of the editorial team is tangible page after page. Nouveau Projet embodies the spirit of print magazines.”

The top magazine in terms of awards was once again The Walrus, with 9 awards including 4 golds and 5 silvers. (It is the 9th time in 10 years that The Walrus has received the most awards.) Report on Business won 6 awards, including 5 gold. Today’s Parent magazine won 4 awards, all of them gold and L’actualité won 8 awards, including 3 golds. (With its 2 golds and 3 silver, Toronto Life has won 235 awards since they began to be offered in 1977 and has now overtaken Saturday Night (231).)

Maisonneuve magazine distinguished itself by winning a gold for essays, 2 silvers and the awards for best new illustrator and best new magazine writer. 

The following won 1 Gold: Azure, Châtelaine, Cornerstone, Cottage Life, Fashion Magazine, New Trail, Precedent, The Grid, The New Quarterly, Vancouver Magazine, Western Living. (It was the first NMA for Precedent.)

Winning 1 silver award were: Arc, Canadian Business, ELLE Canada, enRoute, Flare, MoneySense, NOW Magazine, PRISM International, Swerve, Sub-Terrain.
The leading winners in the awards were [click to enlarge]

As previously announced, the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, the industry's highest honour, went to publisher and circulator Michael Fox (Maclean-Hunter, Rogers Publishing, Inspiring Media, Inc.)

New this year, the gold award for best magazine brand went to Cottage Life magazine, for demonstrating innovation in delivering on its mandate on at least three platforms. 

Among other highlights:

• Tablet magazine of the year:  
  Today’s Parent (“Books Issue” August 2014)
• Magazine website of the year: Hazlittmag.com (Hazlitt)
• Best new magazine writer: Genna Buck, “Finding a Place” (Maisonneuve) 
• Best new illustrator or photographer:  Hudson Christie, “A Portrait of the Artist with Testicles in Hand” (Maisonneuve)

This year more than 200 magazine submitted work by more than 3,000 writers, editors, photographers, illustrators and other contributors. 326 were nominated and awards were made in 43 written, visual and integrated categories, with more than $53,000 in cash prizes awarded. 

Complete list of winners in all categories.

Read more »

Wedding Bells/MARIAGE survey says engaged in December, married in August is the trend

The average Canadian wedding costs $30,717, including the honeymoon, according to 2015 reader survey results published jointly by Weddingbells and MARIAGE Québec magazines. The survey says one-fifth of engagements occur in December, 23% of weddings in August, and that 29% of brides had already picked out their engagement ring before receiving a marriage proposal. The average age of responding brides is 30.

Weddingbells and MARIAGE Québec are published twice annually by St. Joseph Communications

[Click infographic to enlarge]

The survey was conducted between July 2014 and March 2015 with more than 2,000 brides and brides-to-be. 

CSME gets to grips with multi-platform display copy

Display writing is a pleasurable and demanding trade, more particularly because what works in print doesn't necessarily work online or on social media. 

The Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME) is holding one of its periodical events  on Thursday, April 16 exploring how to manage multi-platform display copy. 

The panel for the evening includes

• Patrick Walsh, editor-in-chief of Outdoor Canada, who will share his tips for writing award-winning display. 
• David Topping, the executive online editor of TorontoLife.com, who will explain how to use social media to drive traffic to your site. 
• Simone Castello, the life and relationships web editor at CanadianLiving.com, who will discuss best practices for print-to-web display writing and online tools you can use to optimize content based on keywords and trends.

It's from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Stealth Lounge (second floor) of the Pilot, 22 Cumberland Street (near Yonge and Bloor). $15 for members, $20 for non-members (or $20 and $25 at the door) Buy tickets or RSVP to csmeadmin at canadianeditors dot com.