Allison Martell

Pride Toronto releases financial statement

Allison — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:44:25 +0000

Pride Toronto’s financial statements from the fiscal year 2009 — which ended last July — have finally been released, and they reveal a year of growth, change and controversy. In fiscal year 2008, Pride commanded a budget of close to $2 million, but in 2009 its budget was more than $3 million.

It also posted a deficit — after a modest profit of $41,972 in 2008, in 2009 the organization took a loss of $138,605.

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Poz couple wins immigration case

Allison — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:42:12 +0000

An American couple has won a federal court case that could change the way Canada treats would-be immigrants who are HIV-positive.

Justice Sean Harrington’s December 31 decision could be appealed before the end of January, but if it stands, it will make it easier for applicants who can afford to cover their own prescription costs to immigrate.

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Idea #1: Tax Ads to Fund Public Art

Allison — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:33:17 +0000

On Dec. 7, Toronto’s city council delivered the rarest of political creatures — a new tax with broad public support. The tax on billboards was proposed to help enforce the bylaws governing signs, and also fund public art to offset the blight of outdoor advertising.

Even as it was passed, the reform package is a victory for the public space activists, community groups and artists who pushed it through council. Toronto’s 13 separate sets of bylaws have been harmonized, and for once may be enforced, thanks to new fines. Changes to the zoning variance process will make approving new signs more difficult. The tax will generate an estimated $10.4 million each year.

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Margin of Error: Why charter schools may not be as good as you think

Allison — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:27:03 +0000

The charter school movement is enjoying something of a renaissance in the United States. Charter schools—which receive public funding but are privately run, thus removing some features of normal public schools, notably established teachers’ unions—are one of President Obama’s priorities. They are also the cause du jour for New York City’s hedge fund managers. Education policy wonks are understandably interested in whether charter schools really help students failed by the public system.

I am sceptical about the benefits of private sector involvement in public schools, but I’ve still been watching the debates with some interest. There has not been much research on Canada’s only charters, in Alberta, so most of what I read is from the States. That’s why I came across this post on Eduwonk.

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Queer women need paps too

Allison — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:33:53 +0000

To get my first pap test, I had to pretend I was sleeping with men. Several years ago, I was leaving the country and wanted to make sure I was up to date with routine health care. My GP said that it wasn’t within “the guidelines” to give paps to women who sleep exclusively with women.

From my own research, I was pretty sure she was wrong. I also knew that I wouldn’t have time to get an appointment somewhere else. So I lied. She told me if I wasn’t interested in following her advice, I should get another doctor. After a supremely awkward pelvic exam, I left and never went back. Apparently, I’m not alone.

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Double Threat: Two new hockey recruits use their “twin telepathy” on the ice

Allison — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:49:48 +0000

September, U of T’s Varsity Blues women’s hockey team played an exhibition game against Team China at Varsity Arena, which ended in a loss of 4-3. The two teams also staged a shootout, with two Varsity players and three Team China players scoring. One of these scorers was rookie Courtney Brind’Amour-McClure. Courtney and her sister, Alie, are identical twin forwards and first-year students, both recruited by the Blues this fall.

At the age of seven, the twins from Waterdown, Ontario, found their game: they switched from soccer to hockey, and have been on the ice together ever since. Courtney and Alie now play on the same line, left and right wing respectively. Like identical twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks, their connection is an advantage. “A lot of people think we have the twin telepathy,” says Courtney. “We have a good sense of each other on the ice.”

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Raining Polar Bears

Allison — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:44:22 +0000

From a distance, I assume the limp figures falling from the sky are people. Then the camera draws closer, and I see that they are polar bears, hurtling towards a generic metropolis, bouncing off buildings and leaving behind stomach-turning splashes of blood. They land, by the dozen, and lie still.

“An average European flight produces over 400kg of greenhouse gases for every passenger,” I read. “That’s the weight of an adult polar bear.”

Only then do I realize that I’ve been watching an ad about climate change, from U.K. anti-aviation campaigners Plane Stupid. The spot has been developed for cinemas. But in the slick streets of the Internet, it’s hard to say whether the gore will land where it is supposed to.

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Xtra shuffles editorial deck

Allison — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:11:46 +0000

In Marcus McCann’s office at Xtra, the hammer is out. One painting is already up on the wall and a new whiteboard is being mounted.

McCann is Xtra’s new managing editor, and though he arrived from Ottawa early in November, he is still settling into both his office and his home nearby. McCann is joining Xtra from Ottawa’s sister paper, Capital Xtra, taking over some of the work of previous managing editor Matt Mills. Now working from Toronto, McCann will also continue to serve as Capital Xtra’s managing editor and associate publisher.

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Book review: When Gay People Get Married

Allison — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:31:28 +0000

Marriage is changing & it might be changing us too

Most academics write with careful detachment. But in her new book, When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage, MV Lee Badgett opens on an unusually personal note, recounting her own decision to marry. Then again, Badgett is an unusual scholar. A professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she is well outside the mainstream of academia’s most relentlessly right-wing discipline. Interested in the economics of labour and sexual orientation, her last book was Money, Myths and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men.

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Margin of Error: How much is a university degree really worth?

Allison — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:24:41 +0000

Welcome to Margin of Error. Each month, I will be picking apart some number or statistical problem in the news or on my mind. I will draw on my own modest knowledge of econometrics — the statistics of economics, lately being applied to all kinds of problems — and interview the occasional expert. If you spot a questionable number that you’d like me to pick apart, send a tip to marginoferror (at) this (dot) org.

Thanks to midterms, university students across the country are too busy to read this. That’s probably just as well, because I’m here to share a story that might upset them — the degrees they are cramming for probably aren’t worth as much as they think.

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