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.
In this issue, Nancy Macdonald travels to the hometown of celebrated Canadian author Miriam Toews in her Mennonite community of Steinbach, Man. Macdonald, an admitted fan of Toews’s work, says she “geeked out” during her three-day stay, paying a visit to the author’s childhood home and speaking to the current owners, reading through her old yearbooks and even visiting an old graveyard where her mother’s relatives are buried. Macdonald said what she found most profound was just how many supporters of Toews still exist within the community, after the author’s novel, A Complicated Kindness, sparked outrage among locals who saw the depictions of Mennonite life as an attack on them. Still, many of those Macdonald spoke with would only show their support for Toews off the record. Having immersed herself in Toews’s world, Macdonald says at least one thing is clear: Toews, who she said broke down several times during the interview, still loves Steinbach, and has only ever wanted it to be better.
Nathan VanderKlippe, meanwhile, reports on the US$1.6-billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News brought by Canadian company Dominion Voting Systems, an unlikely combatant in a pitched fight to define reality and shape power in American society.
And Patrick White looks at the impact that rumours of extensive forgeries have had on the market for Woodland art, characterized by vibrant colours and dark outlines, one of the three main schools of Indigenous art.
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Miriam Toews’s Oscars moment exposes a complicated relationship with her Mennonite hometown
East of Winnipeg, a billboard on the Trans Canada Highway marks the turnoff to Steinbach, Man., hometown of author Miriam Toews.Shannon VanRaes/Clobe and Mail
Beloved Canadian author Miriam Toews is constantly returning to her hometown of Steinbach, Man., in her imagination. Her novels, Women Talking and A Complicated Kindness, have tested the perception of her Mennonite community, while shining a spotlight on the painful legacy of religious fundamentalism. As Women Talking, a film adaptation of her novel, draws nominations at this year’s Oscars, Nancy Macdonald goes to Steinbach to see if the Mennonite community has finally forgiven Toews for speaking out.
Dominion and Goliath: Inside the Canadian voting-tech company’s fight with Fox News
Dominion Voting Systems has accused Fox of seeking a 'licence to knowingly spread lies.'Michael M Santiago/Getty Images/Getty Images
It’s a David-and-Goliath situation as the defamation case against Fox News pits the modestly sized Dominion Voting Systems against one of the most powerful media organizations on Earth. The stakes? The future of a Canadian company whose ballot-counting technology undergirds elections across the continent, US$1.6-billion and a ruling that legal experts say could mark a turning of the tide in the misinformation of the social-media age.
At a virtual long-COVID clinic, patients across Ontario find support
Dr. Ashley Verduyn, chief and vice-president of medical affairs at Providence Healthcare, which is part of Unity Health Toronto, in her Scarborough office on March 9.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are living with long COVID, a complex disease that clinicians and researchers are only beginning to understand – or even accept as a reality. For some, it can have a devastating impact on their ability to carry out basic tasks. With access to care limited, some in Ontario are turning to a virtual clinic run by Toronto’s Providence Healthcare, which connects a growing number of patients with strategies to manage what can often be debilitating symptoms. Carly Weeks sits in on a session.
- In the cities hardest hit, care for Canadians with long COVID is scarce
- What Globe readers want you to know about living with long COVID
Sex traffickers are using shell companies to launder illicit profits in Canada
Illustration by Celeste Colborne
Sex trafficking in Canada is on the rise, and a widely predicted recession is about to give criminal enterprises a boost. Some 700 illicit massage businesses located across Canada appear to be engaged in sex trafficking, according to a data analysis by Thomson Reuters Special Services, LLC. Rita Trichur reports on the downturn threatening to put more women and girls in Canada at risk of sexual exploitation.
In Norway, Couche-Tard vies to re-engineer service stations for the electric age
Lindy Haukedal, manager of the Circle K Bamble station, charges a car on Feb. 6, 2023.Nathan Vanderklippe/The Globe and Mail
Norway, with its peerless enthusiasm for energy-powered cars, is a testing ground for Couche-Tard’s attempt to reimagine the gas stations of the future. With the push to embrace electric cars threatening to make gas stations – cornerstones of modern life – obsolete in the years ahead, the Quebec-based giant is hoping it can learn from Norway. So far, it’s found electrifying its business has brought it into a maze of new opportunities and pitfalls, reports Nathan VanderKlippe.
The loss of a father-and-son duo hangs over a small curling club on Brier’s championship weekend
The Capital Winter Club logo on the wall amongst many champion banners in Fredericton, N.B., on Feb. 14.John Morris/John Morris/JohnMorrisPhoto.ca
In September, Jamie Brannen of New Brunswick, one of the country’s top curlers and a seven-time participant at the Brier, died suddenly of a heart attack at 47. Hours later, his father, Bob, a world champion masters curler, died suddenly at age 73. In less than 24 hours, the Brannen family was left to mourn the loss of a father and son, and their deaths sent shockwaves through the local and national curling community. They were seen by people close to the game as ambassadors. Marty Klinkenberg spends four days at their home club in Fredericton speaking with the loved ones who knew them best.
Woodland art market took a hit over forgery rumours. Can it recover after a police crackdown?
A woman surveys the painting 'Copper Thunderbird' by Norval Morrisseau on display during a media tour of a National Gallery of Canada show in 2017.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
For three decades, rumours of extensive forgeries have suppressed the market for Woodland art. Gallerists say that Woodland artists earning $5,000 a painting could fetch 10 times that in a clean market. Now, as police dismantle three fraud rings they say are responsible for producing thousands of forged Norval Morrisseau paintings, there’s hope that a measure of prosperity will return to this Indigenous school of art.
Opinion: Fear itself: Learning to let the light back in while still in the dark
The Globe and Mail
Fear seems to be creeping into many aspects of our lives, novelist Elisabeth de Mariaffi says. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to inflation to the never-ending pandemic, 2022 has felt like a year of death by a thousand cuts. It’s no wonder that, de Mariaffi notes, a Leger poll found that most Canadians thought 2022 was worse than the year before. It may be difficult to let go of that fear. But by understanding the roots of what terrorizes us, we may be able to let hope in.
Drawn from the Headlines
“Tennessee Law Limiting ‘Cabaret’ Shows Raises Uncertainty About Drag Events” — New York Times, Mar. 5, 2023 as drawn by Derek Evernden
Illustration by Derek Evernden