Good morning, and welcome to the weekend.
Grab your cup of coffee or tea and sit down with a selection of this week’s great reads from The Globe and Mail.
In this issue, with the war in Ukraine at a stalemate and now entering its second year, The Globe turned to writers, thinkers and artists from around the world to envision what must happen for the carnage to end. Such an exercise would have been unthinkable a year ago, when it was widely predicted by analysts Kyiv would easily fall to Moscow. But more than a year in, Ukraine has held its ground in Kyiv and is preparing to counter Russia’s anticipated spring offensive to break the gridlock on the battlefield.
Rob Carrick, meanwhile, dives into debt carried by each generation of Canadians. His goal with this story was to give Canadians perspective. “If you’re in your twenties, there’s no point in comparing yourself to the broader population or people in their forties, who have already got a house and other debts,” he says. With so many Canadians concerned about their level of debt, he said, he hoped this story could help them understand how they were doing financially in comparison to their peers in their same age group, rather than a broader population, and help them feel less alone.
And Barry Hertz profiles writer-director Matt Johnson, whose film, BlackBerry, captured the bright spotlight of Berlinale and could be the breakthrough the filmmaker has been agitating for in his quest to challenge the Canadian industry’s status quo.
If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for Great Reads and more than 20 other Globe newsletters on our newsletter sign-up page. If you have questions or feedback, drop us a line at greatreads@globeandmail.com.
How does the war in Ukraine end? Differing views on the path to peace
A Ukrainian soldier helps a wounded comrade last September on a road through liberated territory in Kharkiv, Ukraine.Kostiantyn Liberov/The Associated Press
A negotiated settlement, victory for Ukraine, or stalemate? After a year of bloodshed in Ukraine, many are preoccupied with the question of how the war will end. For Michael Ignatieff, “how to end the war” is not the question we should be asking. When Western leaders pose the question, he argues, they’re really saying they want the war to end before Ukraine wins because of the threat of a nuclear showdown. Russian-American writer Anna Arutunyan sees an end to war when there’s an incentive for either side or both to stop. And Roman Waschuk, Canada’s former ambassador to Ukraine, says as unpredictable as war is, present trends suggest Russia has mustered the best it has to offer – a series of unfocused attacks on the eastern front – and Ukraine may surprise us with a counteroffensive as winter thaws.
Read more:
- How the anniversary of war in Ukraine was marked around the world
- Opinion: Vladimir Putin is winning on at least one battleground: Russian hearts and minds
How much debt is each generation of Canadians carrying, and how do you compare?
Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Canadians’ debts have soared over the past decades, with households owing an average $1.83 for every $1 taken in as after-tax income. We’re borrowing at a higher rate than the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan – and at a time when interest rates are at multidecade highs. For most individuals, averages such as the debt-to-disposable-income ratio mean little. That’s why The Globe’s Rob Carrick set out to figure out how much people, at varying stages of their lives, owe. Here’s what he learned.
Read more: How does your debt compare to Canadians your age? Find out with this calculator
Opinion: With mass layoffs, Big Tech drops the good-guy act
Drew Shannon/The Globe and Mail
At Big Tech companies that have only ever known good times, the façade of high-minded missions has been abandoned. Startups that began intent on disrupting a stultified, bottom-line-driven economy have become integral parts of that stultified, bottom-line-driven economy, argues Noam Cohen. With the wave of calculated layoffs, we’ve gone from claims of “making the world a better place” to “making the business more profitable.”
The opioids crisis comes to Ottawa
People stand outside a homeless shelter, Shepherds of Good Hope, in Ottawa in February, 2023. Ottawa’s opioids problem is most visible on 'the block,' a stretch of Murray Street in Lowertown that draws people to visit shelters and use the injection site.Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail
Even Canada’s capital is not immune to the opioids epidemic tearing through the country. Drug overdoses are a regular occurrence in the city’s historic core. Overdose rates have hit record levels in the past few years. According to figures from Ottawa Public Health, more than 300 people have died by unintentional overdose this decade – and the figure will rise once pending numbers from all of last year come in. Marcus Gee reports as Ottawa reacts to a city overwhelmed.
Meet the Indigenous designers shaking up Milan Fashion Week
Toronto-based Dene designer Sage Paul has championed Indigenous fashion in Canada for more than a decade.Nadya Kwandibens/Red Works/The Globe and Mail
Six Indigenous designers from across Canada will take a proverbial bow when their collections hit Milan Fashion Week, bringing their work to a global audience. The journey to get there has been a labour of love for Sage Paul, who has long championed Indigenous fashion in the country. For many Indigenous designers, Paul says, the barriers to entering an industry that’s been “gate-kept by aristocrats, socialites and financially wealthy people,” go beyond the financial.
BlackBerry or bust: Inside Canadian cinema’s Berlinale breakthrough
Writer-director Matt Johnson at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin, on Feb. 17.The Globe and Mail
BlackBerry may spark the Canadian cinema revolution that writer-director Matt Johnson has been trying to start since he launched an incendiary campaign to shake up the domestic film industry a decade ago. The fictionalized account of the rise and fall of the company behind the tech sensation is Canadian through and through – it embraces, adores and shouts its Canadianness at every opportunity. It’s also, Barry Hertz says, unlike any other Canadian movie that you have ever seen.
Canada hopes to double the number of players on golf’s biggest stages. Here’s how
Corey Conners plays his shot from the fourth tee during the third round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club in Lahaina, Hawaii, on on Jan. 7.Andy Lyons/Getty Images
If it seems as though Canada is on a golfing roll, it’s because it is. In fact, 2022 was one of the most successful years in history for Canadian professional golfers, with five players inside the top 100 of world golf rankings. Now, Golf Canada wants more and has come up with a plan to double the number of top Canadian players. Many of the countries ahead of Canada in developing highly rated pros spend more in the early stages of the players’ development. Golf Australia, for instance, has a budget that exceeds $4.5-million annually for player development. Canada usually spends about half of that. As Gary Mason reports, that’s about to change.