In case you missed them, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite long-form stories published this year by our top feature writers and correspondents around the globe.
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Mental Health
The secret struggle of a Calgary titan
He was the exemplar of a new generation of Alberta entrepreneurs. He built an investment bank from nothing – earning huge wealth, acclaim and the ear of Justin Trudeau. But beneath the veneer of business success, there was another side to George Gosbee – one of mental illness and alcoholism. The family he left behind tells their story.
Relationships
A dad’s discovery: Raising a child is thankless work
Over 10 months of paternity leave, Tim Kiladze discovered that being a primary caregiver is an onerous task. It is the bedrock of our society, allowing the world as we know it to function, but the job's value, and its complexity, is largely invisible to those who haven't been immersed in it.
Ruedi Habegger, Basel
Act of love: The life and death of Donna Mae Hill
At 90 years old, Lawrence Hill’s mother was ready to end it all on her own terms – but Canada’s assisted-dying law was too strict to allow that. Her son reflects on their final journey together to Switzerland, and the life that brought them there.
Crime
Matt Rota/The Globe and Mail
After the fire: Murder, lies and a missing deer head
On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013, the house off the highway was quiet and dark. A light snow was falling and it was bitterly cold, sound waves bending and refracting in the air, seeming to amplify every noise. The crunch and pop of truck tires on a frozen road. A dog barking. A gunshot.
LIAM RICHARDS/The Canadian Press
How Colten Boushie’s death became recast as the story of a knight protecting his castle
During his opening statements in the trial of Gerald Stanley, the Saskatchewan farmer who on Friday was found not guilty in the murder of young Cree man Colten Boushie, defence lawyer Scott Spencer told the jury that, “For farm people, your yard is your castle. That’s part of the story here.” Yet missing from the coverage, and absent in much of the discussion surrounding the trial, are the ways in which this sequence of events is intimately tied to the histories and present-day settlement of Canada.
World
Andre Penner/The Associated Press
Highway of riches, road to ruin: Inside the Amazon’s deforestation crisis
Highway BR-163 cuts a brutal path through Brazil’s conflicting ambitions: to transform itself into an economic powerhouse and to preserve the Amazon as a bulwark against climate change. Stephanie Nolen travelled 2,000 kilometres along the dusty, dangerous corridor, and found a range of realistic — and often counterintuitive — ways that the forest could work for everyone.
PAUL WALDIE/The Globe and Mail
What happened to Poland? How Poles drifted from Europe into populist authoritarianism
In a once-progressive corner of Europe, a far-right ruling party is tightening its grip, risking the nation's suspension from the EU for anti-democratic policies. Paul Waldie looks at how Poles ended up here, and why some want to go even further.
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE/The Globe and Mail
With vivid vehicles, China’s colour kids buck conformity – and point to lingering inequality
For a new generation of wealthy Chinese motorists, changing their cars' hue is as easy as changing clothes. Nathan VanderKlippe looks under the hood of a social phenomenon.
Photos by MIKE HUTCHINGS
Cape Town residents ‘guinea pigs for the world’ with water-conservation campaign
After months of relentless effort – from using paper plates to taking 60-second showers – the city defeated Day Zero, the moment taps would run dry.
Technology
Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
Your smartphone is making you stupid, antisocial and unhealthy. So why can’t you put it down?
A decade ago, smart devices promised to change the way we think and interact, and they have – but not by making us smarter. Eric Andrew-Gee explores the growing body of scientific evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds.
Dario Ayala/For The Globe and Mail
The long road ahead for the electric-vehicle revolution
While politicians and industry leaders worldwide have created the impression that EVs are on the verge of replacing the internal combustion engine, Greg Keenan and Shawn McCarthy explain why it is not going to happen overnight.
Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
Cracks in the code: Why mapping your DNA may be less reliable than you think
The Personal Genome Project was supposed to revolutionize medicine, but the results reveal how much we still have to learn. Carolyn Abraham looks at the risk of misleading results as DNA testing enters mainstream medicine.
