Abstract art collage of model walking runway surrounded by reporters.

Out of the Spotlight

It’s a chilly weekend in November 2024, but outside T3 Bayside, the crisp air is charged with excitement. Crowd control bollards funnel guests—hundreds of homegrown designers, models, photographers, artists, and fashion lovers—into the runway room, where they await the chance to see the new collections and mingle among art and clothing. Bursts of colour, texture, and personality transform this east downtown Toronto space on the waterfront. T3 Bayside, which boasts the title of tallest timber office building in North America, is hosting 8,000 attendees and participants at Fashion Art Toronto, a four-day annual celebration of Canadian fashion. This weekend, the event is debuting fall and winter fashions, showcasing more than 40 Canadian designers.
Collage of headlines: "1200 killed by mental patients!"

Don’t Call Me Dangerous

On a rainy evening in November 2024, the Black Sheep pub in Toronto’s Liberty Village was alive with a warm energy. The space buzzed with laughter and chatter as guests showed up to attend the launch party for the sixteenth issue of Queer Toronto Literary Magazine (QT). The issue, “Dream State,” was dedicated to celebrating trans and non-binary voices.
A man and a woman facing away from a painting of a black woman at an art gallery

Not Talked About

On a cold evening late last fall, the crisp air urges guests to pull their coats tighter. When guests step inside capsul Studio in Toronto’s Liberty Village neighbourhood, the space radiates coziness, not just from the heating but from the energy of attendees. Conversations mix with the soft hum of background music.
Christian Allaire poses for a picture.

From Nipissing to New York

On the first Monday in May, Christian Allaire, a senior fashion and style writer at Vogue, is up at seven in the morning writing stories in preparation for fashion’s biggest event. By the early afternoon, he is ready and ravishing on Fifth Avenue for the Met Gala’s 2024 red carpet, themed “The Garden of Time.” Allaire, descending from Italian-French and Ojibwe lineage, wears a black suit and blazer detailed with purple lupines and scarlet red Indian paintbrushes—the flowers from back home. His designer, Jamie Okuma, added a traditional black-and-white Ojibwe breechcloth to the pants, mixing the tailored, modern suit with traditional, cultural attire. To top it off, Allaire carries an antique, multicoloured shoulder bag with floral beadwork to represent his heritage and home.

Alarmist, Inaccurate, Transphobic

On a rainy evening in November 2024, the Black Sheep pub in Toronto’s Liberty Village was alive with a warm energy. The space buzzed with laughter and chatter as guests showed up to attend the launch party for the sixteenth issue of Queer Toronto Literary Magazine (QT). The issue, “Dream State,” was dedicated to celebrating trans and non-binary voices.
Blurry image of a police officer looking into the camera.

Barred from the Story

If Brandi Morin had to place a bet on where she might get arrested, her home Treaty Six territories in Edmonton, Alberta, wouldn’t even make her shortlist. The moment the Indigenous journalist later described as “one of the darkest chapters” of her career began while Morin was covering an Indigenous-led homeless encampment on a cold, harsh winter night.
Gabby McMann (right) and Carrie Davis (left) are hip-hip. McMann wears a white tank top and a floral satin skirt. The colors are pink, magenta, black, blue, orange and green. The skirt has embroidered flowers and leaves with green and pink, and larger blue tulip petals with a pink flower bud. To the left, Davis wears an orange Saagajiwe Indigenous Studio orange t-shirt that has a blue, green, orange, logo shaped symmetrically in an embroidered stitched pattern in the centre.

Journalists: Report Indigenous Joy

A CBC News article recently caught the attention of Gabrielle McMann, an Ojibwe journalist, advisor and lecturer on Indigenous reporting, and a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation—but not for the right reason.
Nadia Stewart

Nadia Stewart is Creating Space for Black Journalists in Canada—Here’s How

“I always lean on the side of optimism.”