Archives: Articles, Features and Investigations
‘Guys who killed him are our heroes’
April 07, 2010
Toronto Star
VENTERSDORP, South Africa
Tensions flared as the two farm workers accused of killing South African white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche were charged with four crimes, including murder and robbery.
Chris Mahlangu, 28, and a 15-year-old boy appeared in court Tuesday, and were then whisked into a van and away from the courthouse, all to the cheers of dozens of local black residents. They chanted "Hero! Hero!" as the police van sped away.
Challenges as World Cup Approaches
March 2, 2010
cbc.ca
DURBAN
"Here, ladies and gentlemen, the dream is now reality."
With these words, FIFA president Sepp Blatter did his best Tuesday in Durban, South Africa, to set the tone for the 100-day countdown to the World Cup opener in June.
But this is South Africa, where the drama is invariably unscripted.
Cutting the Death Toll of City Birds
November 15, 2009
Toronto Star
TORONTO
Michael Mesure has lobbied proper
ty owners, rallied activists, and teamed up with the City to find ways to stop birds from crashing into Toronto's buildings. Now, in the latest in a series of campaigns that have spanned 20 years, the executive director of Fatal Light Awareness Program has released the Field Guide to Common Birds of Toronto.
Far from being a pastoral picture of birds perched on tree branches, the 10 species depicted are dead, on their backs, beak-up.
Brain Injuries: An Invisible Epidemic
June 18, 2009
Toronto Star
TORONTO
Kim Johnson was driving on the wide roads of Mississauga with her 14-year-old daughter when a sports car coming from the opposite direction drove over the median, hit her Honda Civic, and spun it off the road and into a nearby parking lot.
At first she was aware of only the obvious physical injuries, including whiplash and a cervical spine disk herniation. (Her daughter suffered mild bruising from the seat belt.)
But it wasn’t long before she realized her injuries were more extensive.
A Fight to the Death: Concusssions in Wrestling
February 4, 2008
CBC News: the fifth estate
Doctors point to "tangible evidence" that ex-wrestler Chris Benoit suffered from a dementia that so impaired his judgement, as to compel him to kill his wife and son before taking his own life.
The hunt for clues linking damage Benoit had done to his brain in the ring, and his last, ghastly acts, began with a phone call from the former wrestler and Harvard graduate, Chris Nowinski.
He had a bizarre request for Mike Benoit: he wanted the brain of his dead son.
Pro Wrestling: Pain. Drugs. Abuse.
February 4, 2008
CBC News: the fifth estate
THE Dynamite Kid
Anyone who saw Tom Billington's very humble origins would have thought his nickname a cruel joke.
Born in a room without heat in Wigan, a small mining town in Northern England, he was, nevertheless, likely to become a fighter. His father and uncle were professional boxers. He came from a tough family where a minor misdemeanor earned him a punch in the head.
Threat Posed to Groovy Colony
Sep 02, 2007
Toronto Star
COPENHAGEN
The only vehicle in sight on this quiet morning is a small garbage truck easing its way over the cobblestone paths. An unharried Dirg Schwartz is employed by the self-governing "colony" of Christiania. Throwing rubbish from the truck into a compressor, he stops to explain the philosophy behind the community as he sees it, after 25 years here.
"We can take care of ourself," he says with a pronounced accent. "You know, based on the thought that everyone knows best what is good for his life, if that sets an example for the rest of the world, I would say the politicians would get unemployed ... you, me, anyone, we don't need anyone else to tell us what is good and bad. This is kind of built in."
Crusading Mom
January 6, 2007
Toronto Star
A shrill alarm wakes Roxie Malone-Richards every day around 4 a.m., indicating the machine that feeds her daughter is out of food.
The machine pumps a mixture of milk and formula through a tube that runs into 7-month-old Jessie's nostril, down her throat and into her stomach.
Until recently, she had tubes in both nostrils: the second was attached to a ventilator, which helped her breathe for the first five months of her life.
Now her mother, having spent most of her maternity leave in hospital with Jessie, is fighting for benefits for parents of premature babies.
When the Canadian Dream Dies
November 4, 2006
Toronto Star
CALGARY, ALBERTA
Two gangly men
in their early 20s walk Calgary's suburban streets carrying large plastic bags. Luis shakes a Coke can empty before chucking it in, then looks for another.
It's not what he and his cousin Pedro planned to do when they left Saltillo, a city of 600,000 in northeastern Mexico. They were told they would be able to send plenty of money home to their families.
But after the remittances, they have so little left that they eat the most basic and cheapest of food. The money they make from empty cans and bottles supplements their salary from roofing, and often makes the difference between sending home a little money, or nothing at all.