http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs Fearless. Thoughtful. Witty. Canadian. And Opinionated. Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:28:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en “It’s the biggest usable cavity in the field right now," said Graham Sadtler, designer of the kitchen appliance we are admiring. We are at the launch of a new oven on what may be the hottest day of the summer so far in Toronto. Sadtler, who wears a suit-friendly faux-hawk and ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/07/03/jackson/ A self-confessed double agent for Saddam Hussein’s notorious intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, and Israel’s Mossad, has returned to Canada. How he engineered his escape, whether Canada delivered a man into torture, and whether Hussein Ali Sumaida has finally found sanctuary, are all part of a haunting, on-going, and disturbing tale. Click ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/07/01/exclusive-the-very-strange-case-of-hussein-ali-sumaida/ I'm thrilled that my own personal Palme D'or pick - the Roumanian film "Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days" by Cristian Mungiu - ended up winning the top prize at Cannes this year. For me it was between this film, and the Coen Brothers' "No Country ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/06/01/from-cannes-with-love/ There's something unseemly and just a little ridiculous about politicians worming their way into pop culture, and something equally unseemly and ridiculous when they attempt to exploit pop culture for political ends. Small wonder, then, that hockey commentators are readjusting their toupees over the decision by Jack Layton, Stéphane Dion, ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/05/03/the-state-has-no-place-in-the-hockey-rinks-of-the-nation/ I am sitting in a panel discussion in a tiered hall at the University of Toronto whose theme is Pico Iyer's ecstatic tribute to multicultural Toronto in The Global Soul. At one end of the long table, with its microphones, its demoralizingly polite allotment of bottled water, is Pico ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/04/20/the-global-soul/