Innehållsförteckning för February 2023 från Maclean's

Over the last few months, I have watched the events unfolding in Iran with awe and admiration. The protests, sparked by the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the country’s morality police, have been led largely by women, many of them young, who are demanding freedom for themselves and their fellow citizens. The bravery on display is breathtaking. Under a regime that reacts violently to the slightest hint of dissent, any act of resistance is supremely risky. Yet people are flooding streets by the thousands, shouting, “Women, life, freedom.” Well-known female actors and sports figures have posted images on social media without head coverings, brazenly defying a law that requires them to wear a hijab. The images have captured the attention of the world and garnered widespread…

AS A TEENAGER IN THE ’80S, long before anyone cared much about climate change, I did a science project that showed the tremendous amount of power that could be produced from just a tiny amount of uranium. Even then, I knew fossil fuels were finite and that we would one day need an alternative source of energy. Renewables like hydro, wind and solar are great, but we shouldn’t forget the reliable, low-emissions standby that is nuclear power. People have plenty of reservations about nuclear: it’s scary, it’s costly and what to do with all that waste? And yet there’s no path to net zero by 2050 without it. Excitement is building around one model of reactor in particular. It just might require Canadians to think smaller. Small modular reactors, also…

AT 107 YEARS OLD, Winnipeg’s Cornish Library has changed with the times—over and over again. Its basement, which once hosted rousing lectures by Canadian activist Nellie McClung, now shelves Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists. The heritage building bridges the gap between two very different Winnipegs. It’s located just inside the ornamental iron-and-stone gates of Armstrong’s Point, a placid residential neighbourhood complete with million-dollar, manor-style homes. And just north, unhoused people sleep rough under the Maryland Bridge, a major commuter route along the Assiniboine River. In 2015, hoping to make the Cornish more inviting, the city of Winnipeg commissioned Public City Architecture, a local firm, to reimagine it. “We decided to make the project about opening the library to the communities around it,” says Peter Sampson, Public City’s…

CRISIS POINT In his December cover story, the Ontario ER doctor Alan Drummond wrote about the overcrowding and underfunding in Canadian emergency departments. His candour and clarity earned a swell of admiration from readers, including his colleagues and patients: A beautifully written story about the heroism of small-town medicine. Our friends are fortunate to have people like Dr. Drummond working for them. Don Farwell, Stratford, Ontario After reading Alan Drummond’s article, I have even more respect for this well-known man. He has been a voice for the health-care system for many decades. It’s a shame the government wasn’t enlightened by his advice years ago. For many decades I have witnessed his compassion while I was attending to my own mother at the Great War Memorial hospital in Perth. Dr. Drummond…

ABBY SPADAFORA WAS two years old when she joined the Bluewater Gymnastics Club in Sarnia, Ontario. Her mother thought the sport would make a good outlet for her daughter’s abundant energy. Spadafora loved everything about the gym, especially flipping her little body into the foam training pit. By the time she was seven, in 1990, Spadafora was accepted into Bluewater’s competitive program and began training with the gym’s esteemed husband-and-wife coaching team, Dave and Elizabeth Brubaker. Most days, she would wake up at six so she could practise for two hours before school, then leave class early so she could train for several hours more. The Brubakers told her she was on the path to a gymnastics career—and maybe, one day, the Olympics. Spadafora craved the Brubakers’ approval, but it…

JJ LEVINE WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD when his mother bought him his first 35-millimetre camera. Levine was interested in photography, but at first only shot still lifes of dance shoes and tchotchkes. His mom suggested he try snapping people, too. At the time, his four siblings were in the process of establishing their own identities as young adults. Some of them identify as queer, and Levine studied their lives with great interest. “I had this unique opportunity to see my siblings have unconventional friendships and relationships,” says Levine, who is trans. “When I came of age, living in Montreal, I had them, too—and then I documented them.” The series started as a term project for Levine’s fine arts degree at Concordia University, documenting his siblings, friends and lovers. Now, at…

ASHLEIGH TRAHAN AND Elyse Wellhauser met on Hinge in December of 2020. At the time, Wellhauser was working in oncology research and lived with her cat, Neema, in a 1,500-square-foot Kitchener apartment. Trahan, an HR rep, owned a four-bedroom house in Kincardine, Ontario, which she’d previously shared with an ex. She was ready to downsize, but thanks to pandemic price surges, she knew she’d have to pay more for a rental condo than her current mortgage. She soon fell down a rabbit hole of tiny-home videos on YouTube. “It seemed like an interesting way to live,” Trahan says. She ran the idea past Wellhauser, whom she’d only been seeing for a few weeks. “I said, ‘That sounds like a great idea for you!’” Wellhauser recalls. Neither had any idea that,…

IN 2008, THE BORDER TOWN OF CIUDAD JUÁREZ, where I lived with my wife and three children, was the epicentre of Mexico’s war on drugs. Each month, people were slaughtered by the hundreds. At the time, I worked as a senior correspondent for Grupo Reforma, an influential media company. In August of 2008, a reliable source warned me that I was on a cartel’s hit list in retaliation for exposing the corrupt relationships between government officials and criminal organizations. I’d spent many years as a reporter in a dangerous region; these threats were common. Things escalated one September afternoon. I heard the front door slam and my wife yell for me to come downstairs quickly. I found her pale and shaking, pointing toward the street. She told me she’d been…