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Paul Kocher is a man who doesn’t like to use his disability as a crutch. In fact, when he lost five of his toes to necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as flesh-eating disease, he preferred not to use a crutch at all. To be fair, the 46-year-old father of three briefly walked with a cane upon leaving the hospital, but considering … [Read more...]
For North York actor Melinda Shankar, it was an easy decision to move to Toronto from Ottawa to kick-start her career at the age of 16. The star of shows such as MuchMusic’s Degrassi: The Next Generation and YTV’s How To Be Indie knew she had to move to the big smoke to realize her dreams. “Moving out of home when you’re in grade … [Read more...]
In the summer of 2006, seemingly healthy mother of four Margaret Robertson found herself waiting for a new heart. She had never thought that at age 52, while exercising four days a week, a heart attack would put her life on the line. “When I look back, I still can’t believe that I had a heart attack,” she said. “I was probably the … [Read more...]
He’s performed in three continents in one year, visiting countries such as Japan, Colombia and the Bahamas. But for jazz musician Steve Koven, there’s nowhere quite like home sweet home. The pianist and composer has proudly lived in East Toronto most of his life, formerly in Leaside and now residing in East York near Donlands Avenue and … [Read more...]
On an unseasonably warm January day, street nurse Cathy Crowe gazes up at an abandoned Victorian-era building on Sherbourne Street. As more than 80,000 requests for a subsidized home languish on Toronto Community Housing’s waiting list, the suggestions “Should be housing” and “Should be demolished” are scrawled on the red-bricked … [Read more...]
Sitting in a quaint Jamaican restaurant on Broadview Avenue called the Caribbean Dutchpot, affable singer, songwriter and actor Arlene Duncan doesn’t stand out at all. But if she’s walking along Danforth Avenue, there’s a good chance someone will pick her out of a crowd. “I find that if I put anything around my head, people recognize … [Read more...]
When author Sandra Joyce first learned that her grandmother had effectively orphaned her father and sent him to live in Canada from Britain because she “lost interest”, she was profoundly disturbed. But when she did more research into the story of home children, who were sent to Commonwealth countries from Britain to alleviate a labour … [Read more...]
Nina Maslej is proof that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover — or its accent. When people ask the Toronto resident where she’s from, she says High Park. That answer is usually met with a look of skepticism, bewilderment or laughter, but the unspoken words are always the same: ‘Yeah, but where are you really from?’ Maslej has … [Read more...]
In 2005, Brato Bhabok crossed the finish line at the Terry Fox Run with tears in his eyes. It’s not that it was the first time he accomplished the feat. In fact, he has run the race every year previously, dating all the way back to the first Terry Fox Run in Toronto in 1981. But this time was different. A year earlier, Bhabok’s wife of … [Read more...]
After 23 years of making music, sound editor and electronic musician Karl Mohr decided to get serious. That is, as serious as one would expect from someone whose spectrum of musical output ranges from "epic, ballad, goth, electro-type stuff" to "video game music". Mohr stopped recording under his name and now juggles three vastly different … [Read more...]
ugh. this would be a good time for me to make one of those passive-aggressive teenage girl statuses about relationships but I will refrain.lol @ hair tattoos"All of these memories will be gone, like tears in the rain." BladerunnerRT @marcusbgee: One of the delights of journalism is coming to work in the morning and having NO idea what is going to happen. #lifeunderfo…"...but also because of the mindset it betrays; that technology is king and there is no room or need for human creative talent."
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