Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Maclean's

When Maclean’s creative director Christine Dewairy showed me her design for this month’s cover, featuring a group of protesters on a rent strike, I thought she’d used an archival image. The rally looked like something out of a PBS documentary about 20th-century American or British history. Like most Canadians, I was only familiar with the idea of rent strikes from history books. In the 1930s and ’40s, labour leaders used rent strikes to advocate for rent control, public housing and building-code enforcements. Then, by the 1960s and early ’70s, many of the public housing units built earlier in the century had fallen into disrepair. Tenants with-held rent to protest landlords who were neglecting their buildings. But the photograph on the cover isn’t archival. It’s from a protest that happened this…

AS THE WEATHER COOLS and the seasons change, we’re perpetually on the hunt for ways to stay healthy and strengthen our immunity. With kids back in school and daycare, and with many adults returning to the office, our immune systems have a lot to contend with. According to researchers, 70 per cent of the immune system is located in the gut. And studies are showing that taking care of your gut microbiota improves your immunity—particularly important during the winter season when we’re prone to more exposure to germs and viruses. Supporting your gut health helps your overall health Beyond digestion, the gut does so much more than we give it credit for. Gut health affects the functioning of our body, our mind and, as mentioned, our immune system. The immune…

Infectious diseases impact us all, from longstanding challenges from waterborne and foodborne illnesses, to emerging global outbreaks like the global Mpox or the Zika virus, to completely new highly communicable diseases like COVID-19. Pathogens including viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi are continually spreading around the world, wreaking havoc on human health. Many Canadians may be shocked to learn that infectious diseases remain a leading cause of death worldwide. “We continue to see infectious diseases taking a forefront on a global level,” says Dr. Larissa Matukas, President of the Canadian Foundation for Infectious Diseases (CFID). “We need to continue to be vigilant around understanding disease transmission, how to prevent it, how to diagnose it, and how to treat it.” This is the mission of the CFID, a charitable organization aimed at…

It’s respiratory infection season, and you have every intention of getting the vaccinations you need to keep you safe. But, between updated COVID-19 vaccines, flu shots, the pneumonia vaccine, and now a brand-new vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), it’s easy to get overwhelmed about which vaccines are recommended, who they’re recommended for, when they’re available, and where to get them. The best thing to do is to speak to your family doctor, nurse practitioner, or pharmacist. You can find a helpful tool on the Canadian Lung Association website to bring with you to record which vaccines are recommended for you and when you receive them. If you have lung disease or live with someone who does, it’s especially important to get vaccinated. Underlying conditions can increase the risk of…

THE BEAVERBROOK ART GALLERY in Fredericton houses its share of intimidatingly beautiful works (roughly 6,000) by artists like Cornelius Krieghoff, Emily Carr and Salvador Dalí. But in August of 2019, when the Beaverbrook’s board tapped Toronto’s KPMB Architects to design its new expansion—a reception area and social hub—the goal was to create a warm and inviting space. A living room for the city. Late in 2020, the team broke ground on the Harrison McCain Pavilion (as it’s now named), a 9,000-square-foot extension off of the mid-century modern main gallery. The exterior was meant to fit in with the linear architectural vibe of Fredericton, which includes plenty of clapboard-covered homes formerly occupied by United Empire Loyalists. (The team at KPMB also took some international inspiration from the neoclassical colonnade of Berlin’s…

HIV (the Human Immunodeficiency Virus) attacks the body’s immune system and, if untreated, can lead to AIDS, a life-threatening condition. While incredible progress has been made in the fight against HIV, there were still 485 new cases in Ontario in 2021, concentrated in a few populations. “Where it once was a death sentence, HIV has become a chronic, manageable condition,” says Dr. Kevin Woodward, Executive and Medical Director of HQ, a sexual and mental health clinic in Toronto. “Today, most people living with HIV in Canada are diagnosed, virally suppressed — meaning they cannot pass on the virus to others — and on a treatment plan of one pill a day, with minimal side effects. But there are still people we are not reaching in time.” In spring of 2023,…

Salah Bachir’s First To Leave The Party: My life with Ordinary People… Who Happen to be Famous is One of the Most Acclaimed Books of the Year. “Salah Bachir has the biggest Lebanese heart of anyone I know”—Norman Jewison “Sweetly and directly, Salah recounts his amazing life, entwined with so many amazing lives. I’m honoured to be included! (And happy that #marlonbrando comes out of it well!)”—Margaret Atwood (on Twitter) “Salah Bachir is the biggest hearted philanthropist, with a rock star life”—David Furnish and Sir Elton John “Salah Bachir’s encounters with stars over the years opens on a backyard garden barbecue with Marlon Brando, and bread continues to be broken with icons as fascinating and seemingly disparate as Muhammad Ali and Liberace, Margaret Atwood and Cesar Chavez, Andy Warhol and…

ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY IN 2016, Dean Lerat and his wife, Julie, went for dinner at Piper’s Pub in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Amid the greenhued beer and slightly over-festive revellers—many celebrating their Irish roots—the Lerats found themselves chatting about their own family histories. Lerat, who’s tall with sandy-brown hair, exudes the do-gooder energy of a Boy Scout while maintaining the enviable posture of someone who’s spent decades perfecting a rigid salute. For 25 years, he’s donned the red regalia and stiff-brimmed hat of an RCMP officer. He’s also a Saulteaux member of Cowessess First Nation in southern Saskatchewan. Dean and Julie both had some Irish heritage, but he knew little about his. That night, the couple made a good-natured bet about whose blood ran greener. Keen on a victory, Lerat…

Canada’s complex regulatory and reimbursement pathway means that patients must wait two years (732 days), on average, for access to approved new medicines through public drug plans — which puts us far behind peer countries including the U.S. and Germany (zero days), France (six days), Japan (22 days), Italy (128 days), and many others. While the median time for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to reimburse a drug after Health Canada approval is 368 days, in Canada it takes 710 days. This negatively impacts patient outcomes, strains our health systems, and makes Canada less attractive for future life sciences investments. Mediaplanet spoke with endocrinologist Dr. Akshay Jain to learn how this failure to prioritize innovation affects patients. How are new and innovative approaches to diabetes medicines changing the…

PREMIER LEAGUE Luc Rinaldi’s October cover profile of Alberta premier Danielle Smith left readers polarized—just like Smith does herself. Some people were unsettled by her extreme populist positions: Luc Rinaldi’s essay on Danielle Smith is telling. Despite Premier Smith’s privileged education and professional background, we face a naive leader unable to think critically. I watched as Smith stood beside Caroline Cochrane, the premier of the Northwest Territories, who desperately pleaded for support as forests burned. Even though the fires are the result of burning fossil fuel, Smith decided to halt the development of new wind and solar projects. Time is up—we demand leaders who accept this existential threat and who understand grandstanding to appease wayward political factions is of no consequence against the tragedy we face. Catherine Hammill Kincardine, Ontario…

MOST KIDS GO THROUGH a space phase. But mine kept going after I watched NASA launch its Gemini and Mercury spacecraft on TV. And it kept going after I joined my high school’s UFO club in Winnipeg. When I enrolled at the University of Manitoba, I opted for a science degree; I wanted to be an astronomer. I would have been happy to spend all of my days looking up. At the time, my professors were receiving tons of calls from civilians about UFO sightings. Convinced they were nonsense, they stopped picking up. I asked if they’d pass the calls along to me. All through my freshman year, I fielded reports from UFO spotters and sometimes even visited them at their homes. Their sightings were mostly things like stars and…

As the weather cools, Canadians are planning their winter escapes to warmer southern climes like the Caribbean and Latin America. But travellers beware! “These areas also have high levels of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) bacteria, one of the most common causes of traveller’s diarrhea,” says Dr. Vivien Brown, Family Doctor, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Prevention starts with what you drink and eat People contract ETEC mostly from contaminated water and food. ETEC is estimated to cause 200 million diarrheal episodes annually and approximately 380, 000 deaths worldwide. Common symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, cramping, and loss of appetite. “Most cases will go away without treatment in three to five days, but it can disrupt a trip. In severe cases…

Arthritis Research Canada Gout is a common type of arthritis that causes sudden, intense pain known as "flares” that are followed by pain-free periods. Gout can damage joints and lead to other health issues like high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, heart attacks, and strokes. Reducing flares is essential for managing the disease — however, typical gout medications aren't always effective. A recent study from Arthritis Research Canada found that a newer type 2 diabetes medication might help reduce gout flares. Over seven years, this study followed people in British Columbia who had both gout and type 2 diabetes. It checked how often they had gout flares after they started taking one of two diabetes medicines: SGLT2i or DPP-4i. The results showed that those on SGLT2i had fewer gout…

ARTIST EVE GORDON will never forget the grandiose European designs she saw during her summer in France in the 1970s. Her parents had sent her to do a French course in Montpellier; while on a biking tour around the countryside, she was amazed by the hand-painted walls and carved wooden mouldings in local churches, homes and gardens. “I felt like I belonged there,” she says. During university, Gordon began painting flowers. In 1976, she moved to Paris and displayed her whimsical oil paintings in several shows. On a visit back home in 1983, she went on a blind date and met her husband, the late investment dealer Crawford Gordon. Though she hated to leave Paris, she agreed to move to Toronto to be with him. They were married within six…

I WAS BORN IN HONG KONG IN 1994, back when it was still a British colony. When I was three years old, Britain returned the region to China; the countries agreed that Hong Kong would govern itself and operate as China’s special administrative region for 50 years. And yet, over the past decade, Hong Kong’s independence has waned. In 2014, China started unrolling rules that declared only candidates nominated by Beijing’s central government could run in legislative and district council elections. This meant our elections would be just for show—and it was unacceptable to me and many other Hong Kongers. I joined hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who held a mostly peaceful occupation in the streets. It gave me a sense of purpose: our protest was a meaningful way to…