By March of 2022, Canada’s benchmark home price was $861,000—54 per cent more than two years prior, and 130 per cent more than a decade prior

Year after year, I watched friends leave for smaller towns, where they could afford a dog, a yard, a baby. They were lucky there was still somewhere else to go.

As the promise of homeownership is denied to more and more of us, new fractures will grow, between generations, neighbours, regions and political factions

During the pandemic, prices soared, and Canadians in cheaper cities saw their long-standing expectations for homeownership vanish nearly overnight

First Person

Economy

Real Estate

By 2018, I owed $49,000 to my bookie and $26,000 on credit cards. We had to refinance our house to cover the debt.

Sports betting is more accessible than ever, seamlessly connected to phones and credit cards. Gamblers can lose their life savings without even getting out of bed.

Society

“There’s a patriotism wrapped up in oil and gas,” says environmental activist Kerri Neil. “The idea that if you don’t support it, then you don’t support Newfoundland.”

Bay du Nord is part of a tradition older than Canada itself, one the country was built on: step
far into nature, fell this timber, fish these waters, extract this oil and there will be prosperity 

economy

Longforms

Work was the centre of my life, and everything else too often slipped into a distant orbit: friends, family, a love life, hobbies, health

What Gen Z want from work is intimately tied to what we want for our lives. If we don’t have the opportunities that generations before us had, why should we work the way they did?

As Gen Z pushes, some employers are pushing back. Flexible work arrangements, generous benefits and work-life balance don’t always go over well in the C-suite.

work-life balance

The international student explosion of the past decade has created fertile ground for shoddy schools and fraud artists. “Money drives these schools, not education,” says immigration lawyer Ho Sung Kim.

 “What happened with the students in India is a tragedy. I spoke with one girl who tried to end her life twice in January of 2022,” says Alain Tardif of the law firm McCarthy Tétrault.

 “The headlines in Punjab right now are discouraging people from applying to Canada, because they’re going to be defrauded. That’s very, very bad publicity.”

International Students

Dozens of motorcycles roared by, their riders brandishing an arsenal of guns and medieval-looking weapons: stakes, machetes, chains, blunt objects. They wove into the traffic jam and took over the square.

The boy’s back was covered in blood, his shirt riddled with bullet holes. I felt my muscles tighten. “What happened?” I asked. But I already knew.

The IRGC have been to my parents’ house. They know I’ve left, and I expect they’ll keep harassing my family. I’m afraid for them and for my country. But I’m hopeful as well.

iran

After his arrest, Dave Brubaker wrote an apology letter to his wife and the complainants. “I am guilty of crossing the line,” he stated. “But I want you to know that my intentions weren’t sexual
or premeditated.”

Brubaker’s defence team argued that the complainant was “bitter” she wasn’t named to the Olympics team. Brubaker said she initiated the kissing out of “habit”: “It’s just part of gymnast culture. It’s not something I need as a man.”

The Brubakers told me they were scapegoats—the first Canadian coaches to fall on the wrong side of #MeToo. They insist they never heard any accusations of mistreatment until Dave’s criminal trial. But how could 11 women get it wrong?

To date, more than 100 athletes have signed onto a class action suit against Gymnastics Canada and several provincial federations, saying they contributed to their abuse by creating a toxic culture and failing to protect them

Abuse allegations

There wasn’t a single free bed, but patients kept coming. On days like that, there’s no privacy, no confidentiality, no dignity.

The nurses who quit didn't disappear into some cosmic black hole. But we're going to have to work very hard to regain their trust.

nursing shortage

Health

The scene made Baig sad, angry, horny, amazed: “I didn’t realize writing could make you feel, like, five different things at once. That was such a queer kind of feeling.”

Television hadn’t occurred to Baig, but they had a twisted attraction to things that terrified them. What could be more terrifying than a show about their life?

Big Stories

Culture

Veltman’s alleged crime and victims fit a terrible pattern that has occurred over and over, in killings in Norway, New Zealand, Quebec City and Buffalo.

“You need a reservoir of hate,” says one of the Afzaals’ relatives. “You need to have a mode of transmission, and most times now it’s the internet. And you need to have a vulnerable individual. You need all three to exist before someone actually commits a crime.”

A friend recalls that one night he was “slamming drinks,” before disappearing from the
pub. Veltman had gone down to the trails along the Sydenham River. “He said he went in there and was fighting demons.”

Big Stories

The End of Homeownership

I placed my first wager when I was 10. I’ve gambled more than $1 million since.

Bay du Nord: The $16-billion oil project that could make or break Newfoundland

You’re Wrong About Gen Z

How fraud artists are exploiting Canada’s international education boom

My Escape From Iran

The Harder They Fall: Inside Canada’s gymnastics abuse scandal

State of Emergency: Inside Canada’s ER Crisis

The Uncertain Stardom of Bilal Baig

An Act of Evil

THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE

Why Gen Z Will Never Leave Home

How To Fix Canada’s Housing Crisis

Schools vs. Screens