On Slutwalks and the Sight of Female Flesh

 Here's Your Local News, This Is Why The World Sucks
Oct 182011
 

Let’s say I was a man. Being a man, if I walked out of my house tonight wearing boxers, most people would think it was funny. Sure, some people would be confused. Others would laugh, maybe give me some high-fives. In comedy movies, men in underpants is a punchline. But I’m not a man, and the sight of female flesh is almost never a punchline — at least, not so long as it fits our culture’s definition of what is sexually desirable. So if I were to walk outside my house in underpants and a bra, people wouldn’t think it [...click for more...]

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Safe Births and Sad Stories

 Here's Your Local News
Sep 192011
 

Today, CBC Manitoba highlighted concerns about the new Birth Centre from a woman who lost her newborn son in 1996, due to medical complications. I don’t know Ms. Dorber, but my heart goes out to her: it appears hers was a very sad story. Still, I’m disappointed over how this dialogue emerged. The CBC article highlights that “some are questioning” the Birth Centre’s “safety.” To support that, they present Ms. Dorber’s concerns: it’s clear those fears stem from her own experience of tragedy. But while living through tragedy can indeed impart a certain kind of wisdom, it doesn’t make someone [...click for more...]

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The Terrible Silence on Substance

 Here's Your Local News
Sep 152011
 

As James Turner wrote, the first step is admitting there’s a problem. Here’s a problem for you: when the tests come back, the news is bad as can be. That dark mass they found, it’s cancer. It’s eating at your insides. “What do I do now?” you ask the doctor. “I’m in pain, I’m sick, I can’t eat.” The doctor pulls out his prescripton pad. “In that case,” he says, “Here’s a script for some painkillers. Take them every day. I’ll see you in four years.” If that was it — if that was all he did — you would [...click for more...]

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Listening to Each Other

 Here's Your Local News
Aug 282011
 

Today, a quick blog post to give some props. On Friday, CBC Radio and AYO Antigang hosted a fresh little event on the radio and across social media. The format was simple: you could post questions for aboriginal youth on Facebook or Twitter, and they were answered live by the crew from AYO*.  You can read some of the questions and answers on CBC Manitoba’s Facebook wall if you scroll down a bit here. I loved it. Loved reading it, loved the set-up of it, loved the fact that the answers were unfiltered. The major news media in Manitoba (other than APTN) needs to do [...click for more...]

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Tangled Thoughts on Race, Crime and Reporting

 Here's Your Local News, Musings
Aug 152011
 

In the wake of a recent shooting, CBC TV reporter Wab Kinew mentioned that he is “always apprehensive about race based labels in crime reporting, because the leap to racial profiling is a short one.” Well said. This is a conundrum that countless reporters dread. The risks of screwing up are considerable, and the consequences of promoting this bias are readily apparent in a city where a photo of a missing young aboriginal man was received with website comments calling him a “gang member” with apparently no supporting information whatsoever. So when does race become a legitimate issue to report, [...click for more...]

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Building a Better Media

 Here's Your Local News, This Is My Job
Aug 132011
 

Recently, I asked my Tweeter crew to share their ideas for what type of journalism they’d like to see more of in Manitoba. Some people wanted to see more positive news stories coming out of Winnipeg. Luc Lewandoski (if that is his real name*) suggested more in-depth profiles of our local powerbrokers — which tweaked my interest. It sort of reminded me of About Face, a really cute mag they publish in Portland (have I mentioned yet that everything good comes from Portland?) featuring interviews with cultural, culinary and community leaders. I perused it last time I was there and liked the idea — and I [...click for more...]

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Love Letter to the Village

 Here's Your Local News, Odes to Winnipeg
Aug 102011
 

“My retort to you,” he said, “Is, ‘so go blog about it.’” Yeah, maybe I will. On the night it happened I heard the cracks. A sharp triplet of shocks and a rat-tat-tat echo, enough to make me flinch. Firecrackers, probably, but these sounded different: there’s always firecrackers somewhere outside my window, somewhere in the ragged back lane that steeps the hidden Osborne Village life. I know firecrackers. This was something else. I heard the yelling too, a muffled angry din and a single female shout. I shrugged, and straightened myself on the couch. Another bar brawl. I am familiar [...click for more...]

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Giving Birth to a Better System

 Here's Your Local News, Musings
Jul 312011
 

After months of anticipation, Winnipeg’s new Birth Centre is hiring staff. This is an incredibly exciting thing, and a tribute to the many women in the community and at the Women’s Health Clinic who have long lobbied government to create such a space. Hats off to them — not just as a woman who believes strongly in diversifying birth options, but as a citizen who really likes finding new ideas to improve our public health system. Some months ago I wrote about one of my small fixations on the subject: seniors and weight-training.* But I have other favourite projects in [...click for more...]

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Can We Not Winnipeg, Ep. 1 in a Series: Detroit

 Here's Your Local News
Jul 292011
 

Dear Winnipeggers: Can we not keep comparing Winnipeg to Detroit in the equal, or even (as recently spotted in a comment section) in the negative? I’ve seen and heard this a lot lately, especially since the 2010 crime statistics came out,* and every time I think – have people who made that comparison ever been to Detroit? Or at least, have they been there since, say, the1960s? Do they have any concept of what Detroit is like, what it has become, and the scope of the issues it’s dealing with? Have they seen it? I have a certain emotional attachment [...click for more...]

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I Have Thoughts on the New Jets Logo

 Here's Your Local News
Jul 232011
 

The new Jets logo: it’s crisp, quiet, and maybe even a little boring on the stage. The lines are clean, the colours subdued. It doesn’t jump out at you, and certainly doesn’t scream that it’s going to crush you against the boards. But it gets the job done. Come to think about it, it’s a lot like Mark Chipman. Think about it a little more, and it’s also a lot like the culture True North has repeatedly said it wants to build with Winnipeg’s new NHL franchise — and the culture it’s already started to build, in its actions. Ask around, [...click for more...]

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