Great Reads: The rise of PWHL’s Sarah Nurse; why Iran is provoking Jordan; Trans Mountain’s future

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, Rachel Brady profiles the prolific hockey star Sarah Nurse.

Speaking to The Globe, Brady said she was shocked by how much hockey was played during the inaugural PWHL season. Other athletes – like professional soccer players – get a break for international play. But Nurse navigated training camp, 24 regular-season games for PWHL Toronto, played a rivalry series with Team Canada against the U.S., spanning seven North American cities, and played in the world championships in Utica, New York. Even more surprising, said Brady, was how much detail and thought goes into Nurse’s outfits for walk-ins before each game, which are among the PWHL’s most popular content on social media.

Mark MacKinnon reports on Iran’s efforts to stir up tensions in Jordan, where between a quarter and half of the country’s population of 11 million is of Palestinian descent. And Emma Graney, Wendy Stueck, Jeffrey Jones and Brent Jang detail what happens now that every Canadian owns a small piece of the beleaguered Trans Mountain pipeline.

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Sarah Nurse, hockey’s most marketable star, is booked, busy and basking in it

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Sarah Nurse is, in many ways, the first of her kind as the face of a professional league and bonafide hockey star. She has earned four world medals and two Olympic medals. In 2022, during Canada’s Gold medal run in Beijing, she set records for most points (18) and most assists (13) in a single Olympic tournament. She works with Adidas, CCM, RBC, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, and Chevrolet. She’s blazed into non-traditional categories too – the first woman on an EA Sports NHL video game cover, a Barbie Doll in her likeness, and a deal with Dyson. Rachel Brady chronicles her rise to fame.

Jordan fears Iran is trying to create a new front against Israel

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When Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel on April 12, many people in Jordan were angry that their military shot down the projectiles flying over the country’s air space. That anger, many in Jordan believe, is exactly what Iran was trying to provoke by firing the weapons via Jordanian skies, rather than sending them over Syria, an Iranian ally that would not have intercepted them. The country’s pro-Western monarchy, writes Mark MacKinnon from Amman, has managed to maintain stability through a series of wars and crises on its borders over the past 76 years. But experts say the current unrest poses a unique danger because it risks splitting the country along Jordanian-Palestinian lines.

After 12 years, the $34-billion Trans Mountain pipeline is finally finished. But what happens next?

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Canada’s $34-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is about to go into service. Now comes the hard part – choosing when to sell it, who gets to buy it, and for how much. It’s the most expensive infrastructure project in Canadian history. Canadians own Trans Mountain, so each one has a stake in its future. But as Emma Graney, Wendy Stueck, Jeffrey Jones and Brent Jang report, with the oil already flowing along the newly expanded 1,150-kilometre route, due to arrive in Burnaby mid-May, there are still many tough questions that need answers.

Canadian youth questioning their identity are owed a careful review of best practices. Politicians and activists are both getting in the way

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Canada is increasingly becoming an outlier among its peer nations, many of which have begun to rethink a blanket affirmative approach to care for trans youth. Many countries that once routinely offered medical interventions for children are now placing age-related restrictions on the use of hormones and surgery. But over the past six months or so, the issue has entered the Canadian political arena. Robyn Urback writes that Canadian kids are owed the same careful review of the evidence that medical experts have undertaken elsewhere. But that can only happen if and when the noisiest actors – the political opportunists, the dogmatic activists – get out of the way.

Salman Rushdie on the attack that nearly killed him and the vulnerability of writing new memoir, Knife

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When faced with the clear possibility of death, some people may experience a spiritual revelation. Unsurprisingly for someone whose public identity is linked to atheism, this was not the case for Salman Rushdie. The author recounts his brush with mortality in a new memoir, Knife, which begins by focusing on the 2023 knife attack in upstate New York that left him blinded in one eye and physically scarred. But as he explains in an interview with U.S. correspondent Adrian Morrow, the rest of the book about his recovery also presented an opportunity to tell the story of his relationship with his wife, the poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths, whom he married in 2021.

Studying abroad: Why students in Sri Lanka are applying to Canadian, U.S. and U.K. universities

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When University of Toronto professor Randy Boyagoda visited campuses in Sri Lanka this winter, he set out to view the experience through a topical lens: With Western institutions trying to lure students from Asia and elsewhere, ripple effects are being felt across Canada – but if you’re Sri Lankan, what’s different about the post-secondary education experience abroad? Boyagoda’s trip reveals both the encouraging and depressing: things like free tuition for Sri Lankan nationals versus high costs in Canada, but also stark differences in employment opportunities depending on where you attend. It adds up to an uncertainty that entices students to rush into a critical decision about their education without knowing which way future winds will blow.

In Venice, art world’s insiders consider outsider artists

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As the Venice Biennale threatens to collapse under its own contradictions, the art world elite gathers to consider migration, cultural decolonization and the status of the outsider. Kate Taylor reviews Foreigners Everywhere, Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa’s theme for this year’s massive group show, which will focus on overturning the narratives of Western art. Taylor reports that his choice to include a lot of 20th-century South American art doesn’t always convince, but at an event that can turn into an unseemly jostle to discover the hottest new thing, his stress on the predecessor, the outsider and even the anonymous is welcome.

Discovering South Africa’s treasures beyond Cape Town

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As South Africa celebrates the 30th anniversary of its first democratic election after its liberation from apartheid, the country is increasingly recognizing the importance of tourism, which supports nearly 10 per cent of its work force. Cape Town, the legislative capital, remains the hub, drawing record numbers of inbound passengers at its airport this year and regularly topping global lists of favourite cities, with its spectacular new museums and waterfront shops. But for a glimpse of the true South Africa, Geoffrey York suggests going beyond that city’s limits.

Take our arts and culture quiz

Fast-food giant Tim Hortons announced it will stage a musical production at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto this June. What is the name of the production?

a. My Double’s Double

b. The Last Timbit

c. The Great Roast

d. A Donut Named Desire