Photographed by Michael CullenBdr. Karl Manning
Photographed by Michael CullenMCpl. Francis RoyYesterday evening on QR77 AM radio’s The Rob Breakenridge Show, guest host Whitney Deane interviewed author Michael Harris about “Life After Death,” his cover story for the current issue of The Walrus. Use the embedded player to hear them discuss HIV/AIDS at age thirty.
What was supposed to be less than three hours of testimony from News Corporation executives Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, and Rebekah Brooks, in response to allegations of phone hacking and other serious wrongdoings at News of the World, the recently folded London tabloid belonging to News Corp.’s News International, instead stretched out to nearly five hours today. However, very little new information was gleaned from the executives. All three stuck to a strategy that the committee of British MPs found difficult to penetrate. The Murdochs and Brooks each claimed ignorance about many of the goings-on at News of the World, apologized for the damage that had been done (particularly in the case of Milly Dowler), and expressed their commitment to journalistic integrity. Read our play-by-play account and analysis of the events of the day, which reached an early climax when Murdoch Sr. took a shaving-foam pie to the face two-and-a-half hours into the proceedings.
9:40 am EST: Rupert and James Murdoch are before the British Commons’ culture, media, and sport committee. Rupert interrupts his son’s opening apology: “This is the most humble day in my life.”
9:49 am EST: James claims no knowledge that Brooks, former editor of News of the World, or other resigned executives had prior knowledge of the hacking allegations. “There is no evidence today, that I have seen, that there was any impropriety by them.”
9:51 am EST: Rupert Murdoch is called on. Seems a bit shaken and skirts questions to remind the committee of his tens of thousands of dignified employees. News of the World only 1 percent of his company’s operations.
9:54 am EST: Rupert claims no knowledge of much of News of the World‘s wrongdoing and blackmail allegations, despite international press coverage — deflects to son James but MP Tom Watson holds the spotlight on Rupert. James eager to jump in. (more…)
Simon PulsiferStornowayWith another month begun, many Canadians are once again practicing the common ritual of settling into new rental and temporary homes. One notable Canuck, however, is biding his time to make a move that seemed unlikely, if not impossible, only a few years — and several federal elections — ago.
Jack Layton has already moved on up in Canadian politics, becoming the Leader of the Official Opposition during last month’s Conservative landslide. Sometime after Parliament breaks for the summer, he will become the first NDP boss to take up residence in Stornoway, the thirty-four-room mansion that serves as the opposition leader’s official residence. (First, though, he’ll need to figure out where it is: as recently as May 23, Layton denied knowing the house’s exact location.)
Built for a grocer in 1913, Stornoway sits on nearly one acre at 541 Acacia Avenue, in Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood. Early on, the house switched hands a few times before being loaned to Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, who lived there in exile during World War II. In 1946, a private trust fund was set up to purchase Stornoway and house the leader of the opposition in style and dignity. When that money ran out in 1970, the government bought the property for the excellent price of $1. (more…)
The Walrus Foundation is proud to announce that for the fifth straight year The Walrus magazine has received the highest number of National Magazine Award nominations. The thirty-five nominations in 2010’s National Magazine Awards represents an increase from its country-leading total of thirty-three nominations at the 2009 awards. Our contributors were nominated for twenty-eight written, five visual, two online, and one special award. The winners will be announced at the thirty-fourth annual National Magazine Awards gala on June 10, 2011 in Toronto.
“We are delighted to again receive the most nominations, and are proud of the writers, journalists and artists who have been nominated,” said co-publishers John Macfarlane and Shelley Ambrose. “Our contributors are key to our mandate to create public debate on matters vital to Canadians and to continue to provide a forum for the Canadian conversation.”
Since its inception in 2003, The Walrus has won more National Magazine Awards than any other publication, including the 2006 award for Magazine of the Year. During that time, The Walrus has won forty-seven golds, twenty-three silvers, and one hundred sixty-one honourable mentions. (more…)
Hi, my name is Sally, and I’ll be leading our Political Pilates class today.
I know you’re all busy drumming up those last-minute votes this weekend, so I appreciate all the party leaders showing up today. Is anyone here new to Pilates? Mr. Harper? Welcome! You might want to take off your hat, though. Oh, sorry, I thought you were wearing a hat. Mr. Ignatieff, we’re going to start in a sitting position. Yes, rise up, please. Mr. Duceppe, I can see you need to work on your core strength. And Mr. Layton, I know you’re recovering from surgery, so please respect your limits. Yes, that’s a very impressive handstand, but the others need to work up to that level, okay? And you might find that hockey jerseys aren’t ideal for Pilates.
Before we begin, make sure you have your styrofoam noodle, your rubber exercise band, and some light weights. Mr. Ignatieff, please stop hitting Mr. Harper with your noodle. The Parliamentary Pilates class is down the hall. The rubber bands are for streeetching the truth… Mr. Harper, you might want to use two… and the weights are for bulking up the military, especially our fighter planes. Everybody set? Mr. Layton, please, no harmonica playing in class.
First, let’s cover some basics. Political Pilates focuses on developing the core values of your party, without sacrificing flexibility. We’ll also be paying close attention to how you breathe — and in Mr. Harper’s case, to whether you breathe. Just kidding! Hey, you’re giving me those icy eyes now. Everyone, look at Mr. Harper’s eyes — see the focus there? I want that kind of focus in your lower abdominals. (more…)
As an expansion of last week’s federal politics quiz, here are the complete answers along with links to the archived Walrus articles. Read on to expand your political knowledge — after, of course, taking the quiz.
All last winter, controversy dogged Paul Martin almost daily in the headlines. Conflict-of-interest allegations, both past and potential, were being hurled at him across the House of Commons floor. But, for nearly three months, he clung fiercely to his Canada Steamship Lines empire as if to a life raft. In one indignant outburst to journalist Susan Delacourt, then writing in the National Post, he declared that he’d never have entered politics if he thought it would mean he’d have to sell his beloved boats. “I’ve had this love affair with ships since I was five years old,” he told her. “I just love ships. I love harbours. I love ports. When I was in the business, I’d go down to the ships and crawl through the engine rooms.” (more…)
Here at The Walrus Foundation HQ, we like to challenge our meaty brains. Fresh off the excitement of discovering and zipping through The Canadian Experience’s series of comprehensive, thoughtful quizzes about all things historically Canuck, we had a clever idea: build our own quiz based on The Walrus’s eight-year archive of award-winning journalism. With a national election looming, the ideal topic — federal politics — seemed obvious.
We now invite you, dear reader, to test your knowledge of all things parliamentary with these fifteen questions culled from fifteen back issues of The Walrus. A short answer sheet will load upon completion; watch this space again early next week, when we’ll post more complete answers with links to every relevant source article. (more…)
This event is scheduled to begin at 12:00 pm Mountain Standard Time. Visit TEDxYYC.com for more information.
Mathieu LavoieIn April of 2010, Walrus editor John Macfarlane and I received an email from Ken Klonsky, a BC playwright and author who works with wrongfully convicted prisoners. Klonsky wrote:
“I have a remarkable piece of writing from Atif Rafay, a man who is serving life without parole in Washington State for a crime of which he is unquestionably innocent. I advocate for Mr. Rafay on behalf of Rubin Carter at Innocence International. The piece in question is, on the one hand, an academic essay, but it is also a penetrating analysis of the American prison system by a Canadian whose story is the most tragic imaginable.”
This wasn’t the first time Klonsky and I had corresponded. Two years earlier, he’d emailed me to pitch a story on Rafay’s case. It was a non-starter — the proposed piece was too closely linked with advocacy efforts to free Rafay, and no new evidence had come up to exonerate him since his conviction in 2004. This second email, though, promised something else entirely. We were intrigued.
The details of Rafay’s case, briefly, were this: Police arrived at the Rafay family home in Bellevue, just outside Seattle, the night of July 13, 1994. Outside, they found Rafay and his friend Sebastian Burns, who had called 911; inside were the dead bodies of Rafay’s mother, Sultana; his father, Tariq; and his autistic older sister, Basma. All three had been bludgeoned to death. Rafay, eighteen, and Burns, nineteen, told police they had been out that night for dinner and a movie. Rafay had just completed his freshman year at Cornell in upstate New York, Burns his first year at Capilano College in North Vancouver. (more…)
Desktop wallpaper made from our archive of decorative drop caps
Matthew McKinnonTo download the artwork, right click your preferred size and choose “save as” from the pop-up menu:Drop cap: “An uppercase character set in a type size larger than the text and ‘dropped,’ or nested, into lines of text, usually as the first character in the opening paragraph of a chapter or other section of text.” — The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition
The Walrus has been using decorative drop caps for almost a year now, since our April 2010 issue. They replaced spot illustrations, which we had long used to break up sections of text in the magazine. These were very beautiful, and lots of fun, but many readers commented that they found the images, which had nothing to do with the stories they were embedded in, somewhat confusing. We chose drop caps because they give us an interesting typographic challenge to solve every production cycle, and because, as they are completely rooted in the text, their presence is entirely logical.
At the beginning, we called upon the considerable taste and skill of Jean François Porchez, the exceptional hand behind both The Walrus’s logo and several typefaces that we have used over the years. (Long-time readers might recognize Ambroise, a type we have used both on our covers and inside the magazine). We have also used drop caps designed by Canadian typographer Ian Brignell, who is responsible for, among other notable accomplishments, Bell’s recently updated logo — and letterpress wood type drawn from the collection of Ross MacDonald, who created our January/February 2011 cover. And of course we have called upon the talents of the members of our art department: Paul Kim, Jennifer Spinner, and former intern Aprile Elcich have each contributed some of the drop caps included in this desktop wallpaper.
As a result of this mishmash, the origins of these letters are complex. Some come from commercially produced typefaces; others were designed from the ground up. But all of the letters seen here (save the Z, because we have yet to need one) appear in stories that The Walrus has published within the past year. — Brian Morgan, art director
Download for your desktop: holiday wallpaper made exclusively for walrusmagazine.com
Illustration by Graham Roumieu, a frequent contributor to The Walrus.
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