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Mean Streets

by ELAINE O'CONNOR Sex tourism destroys the lives of millions of children every year, but activists are getting better at stopping Canadian predators in their tracks.


Painting by Antony Micallef.

WHEN THE SUN SETS on the neon-lit strip of Thailand’s famous beach resort, Pattaya’s vast bars become warehouses of women. Hundreds of Thai girls sit cross-legged on stools sipping drinks while sunburnt men stroke their legs. Others stand duty outside in heavy makeup, calling softly to customers: Sawatdee kaa. Welcome.

Crowds stream by: Western …

G20 Protests for the Medium-Brave

by DAVID KER THOMSON One juggler’s lonely stand against the Toronto police state.

Toronto, Friday, June 25, backlit in the light cast from Saturday, June 26. What can I tell you that doesn’t bring tears to my eyes? I’ve seen everything by now. This is about Friday, but Saturday unfurled—the children attacked in safe zones, the dark riders hunting families—as destiny figured it would precisely because of Friday.

Photo …

True Gender

by PAUL GALLANT When the Ontario government stopped funding Sex Reassignment Surgery, transsexuals panicked—then embraced the opportunity.

IN THE SUMMER OF 2008, Christina Strang arrived at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for her first appointment in a decade. During the late 1990s, after a battery of interviews and tests, the Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) diagnosed her with “gender identity disorder.” Strang, a male-to-female transsexual, wasn’t crazy about the label, but needed the prize …

Interview With Ninotchka Rosca

by BRADEN GOYETTE The legendary Filipino novelist and women’s-rights activist discusses the uneasy relationship between literature and activism.

As the founder of GABRIELA Network (GabNet), a Filipino solidarity and women’s empowerment group in the United States, Ninotchka Rosca has been at the forefront of advocating for women’s rights in the age of globalization. She is the author of 11 books and has won numerous awards, including the American Book Award for excellence in literature.

Recently, while …

Behind the Firewall

by JON EVANS The internet’s power to take down tyranny lies beyond Twitter. Jon Evans on the high-tech programs every despot should fear.

REMEMBER IRAN? That disputed election seemed like a big deal for a few days, didn’t it? For two weeks my Twitter feed was full of green icons and locations set to Tehran, as if a posse of faraway microbloggers might help take down a totalitarian government. Chairman Mao, who once said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of …

Russia’s Black Widows

by GABRIELLE GIRODAY Have female suicide bombers become terrorism’s political pin-ups?

IT’S INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY in Moscow, and Tverskaya Street is festooned with banners. Hyacinths, chrysanthemums and primroses—a Russian favourite—have been pouring into the city in preparation for this March 2005 holiday. On a nearby corner, a government poster shows an elderly woman weighed under with military medals, arms full of tulips. My destination, an upscale eatery …

Summer

ISSUE 36 Summer 2010

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