As of July 19, 2024, I have moved to Substack, where you can find all my new blog items, along with other content. Reviews and other published work will continue to be posted in “Articles.” Please visit my Substack here.

Anti-racism: Yes, Canada, this IS a test
Okay, hands up: how many of you have ever heard an Indigenous person describe Canada as “non-racist”? Or a person of Chinese descent? Or a South Asian? Or a Latino? Or a black person? You get the idea. The fact is, you haven’t: these folks and other people of colour have more than enough experience to prove the contrary. The only Canadians who describe our country as “non-racist” are white ...

Still sitting pretty in Chilliwack?
Check out that stare: behold its ruggedly confident, make-my-day machismo. Yes, Barry Neufeld’s got a good thing going—or at least he thinks he does. Hence the self-satisfied grin. But perhaps he can’t afford to be so smug. You see, Barry Neufeld has just had his card marked. Those of you who subscribe to my blog but don’t live in Canada won’t have a clue who or what I’m talking about. So allow ...

Letter to an Icon
Dear Bryan, I see you’ve stepped in the doo-doo. In the last 24 hours, your brand as Order of Canada-holding, All-Canadian-Guy-Next-Door rock star has taken a beating because of something you said on social media. And your attempt to walk it back has landed with a big thud. As your friendly neighbourhood crisis communications professional, I’d like to assist you in unpacking your offence while offering some free advice on ...

The New Normal
All of last week’s grievances are First World Problems now
The nuisances of yesterday more trivial by the hour.
But Corona's also First World, and its impact plain to see
Infecting all who cross its path, from Wuhan to Tuscany. How we stumbled in the gap of what was then and what is now
Missing all the signs there were this plague was ours somehow
All the jokes on social media ...
The nuisances of yesterday more trivial by the hour.
But Corona's also First World, and its impact plain to see
Infecting all who cross its path, from Wuhan to Tuscany. How we stumbled in the gap of what was then and what is now
Missing all the signs there were this plague was ours somehow
All the jokes on social media ...

Reconciliation: What’s next?
Since the issue of Wet’suwet’en land rights and title has landed where it truly belongs—in a discussion amongst the Wet’suwet’en people themselves, the only ones who ought to be determining the relationship between hereditary and elected leadership—I’ve done some more reflecting on the meaning of “reconciliation,” a word that’s been thrown around a lot during the ongoing Coastal GasLink pipeline dispute. Last month, I was in Ottawa on business when I happened to ...

Indigenous lives, white agendas: A lesson
Twenty-one years ago, when I was far less cynical about the potential of journalism to wake people up about climate change, I wrote a book called Vanishing Halo: Saving the Boreal Forest (Greystone/Douglas & McIntyre, 1999). Commissioned by the David Suzuki Foundation, the book’s purpose was to raise awareness about the coniferous crown that serves as the earth’s northern lungs: the array of plants, wildlife and people that inhabit the boreal region, ...

Reading 2019: A catholicity of interests
NEW WESTMINSTER—The last time I posted a blog about my previous year’s reading (2016), the list was comprised of eleven books written by men. All but four of the authors were white, and the top two have since been “cancelled.” (The first, already in hot water for profiting from dubious claims to Indigenous ancestry, was Joseph Boyden; the second, two years before publishing a self-exculpatory essay by serial sex abuser Jian ...

So long, Grapes
It should have happened a long time ago, this cancelling of Don Cherry, the Seventh-Greatest-Canadian-who-happens-to-be-an-unreconstructed-racist-in-loud-suits. But it seems fitting that his long-awaited sacking from Hockey Night in Canada’s “Coach’s Corner” would occur on Remembrance Day weekend, of all occasions. Sour for “Grapes,” definitely, given his oft-stated dedication to veterans, but surely opportune for many of the immigrants he insulted: since his remarks aired on Saturday, the news cycle has featured a ...

The perils of nostalgia
Five or six years ago, around the time I was turning fifty, I joked with some friends that if I ever wrote a memoir (apart from The Rice Queen Diaries, that is) I would call it When We Were Twinks. Reflecting with mock wistfulness on the good old salad days, this breathless tell-all would cast a nostalgic eye on the glories of early adult gay consciousness: on the bountiful harvest ...

Dear Jason Kenney…
Dear Jason Kenney, Two years ago today, kd lang asked you rather bluntly on Twitter: “You’re gay, aren’t you?” She wasn’t the only person who wanted to know. I suspect that millions of other Canadians—including plenty of the celebrated singer/songwriter’s fellow Albertans—were curious, too. One reason for the question was that, on March 28, 2017, you told the Calgary Herald’s editorial board that you thought schools should inform parents when ...

A close call in Bali
Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth. —Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights UBUD, INDONESIA—Near-death experience is not something most travellers would consider an essential part of any successful vacation. But after my own close shave during a late winter getaway to this renowned Southeast Asian Arcadia, ...

What if we’re ALL alcoholics?
Dear Alcohol, We need to talk. With the holiday season now in full swing, you and I have been seeing more of each other lately—but I feel our relationship needs re-examining. You see, now that marijuana is legal in Canada, I can’t help noting how easy a ride you’ve been getting in the court of public opinion compared to other mood-altering substances, including cannabis. Since the end of prohibition, really, ...