Toronto Life’s most popular Q&As of 2023
Including a conversation with Shania Twain, the North York man behind Ontario’s best butter tarts, and a teenager who took on Shakespeare and won
There was plenty to talk about in 2023, and a city as diverse as Toronto has a knack for generating all manner of news: grocery-store CEOs price gouging with impunity, a music icon who came up shopping at Honest Ed’s, Drake fans going to war with Ticketmaster—that sort of thing. We like Q&As at Toronto Life because they get right to the root of an issue, giving voices to the intelligent, incendiary, ambitious, caring and infuriating people who make up our always-exciting hometown.
Here are Toronto Life’s most read Q&As of the year.
No. 10 “Galen Weston is the poster boy for excess”: This economist blames supermarkets for astronomical food prices
Since the start of the pandemic, major supermarkets have faced significant public backlash over the ever-rising price of groceries. The sense of resentment reached a fever pitch after Loblaws engaged in a Twitter spat defending itself against critics’ accusations of price gouging. The social media storm caught the attention of economist Jim Stanford, who runs a think tank called the Centre for Future Work. Here, he explains who he thinks is really responsible for astronomical food prices and what it will take for our grocery bills to come down. | By Mathew Silver | February 13
No. 9 “These technologies are brilliant, but we need safeguards against them”: Meet the Etobicoke-born inventor of the ChatGPT detector
After ChatGPT exploded in popularity, Edward Tian spent three days building an app of his own in an Etobicoke Second Cup. The 22-year-old Princeton student designed GPTZero, a tool that detects AI-generated text. It crashed the day after it went online, in early January, due to overwhelming traffic. Since then, Tian has been fielding calls from venture capitalists, media outlets and educators. His very human response to the situation? “It’s been wild.” By Caitlin Walsh Miller | February 16
No. 8 “This law has destroyed families”: Why foreign-born Canadians are suing the federal government over its citizenship policy
In 2009, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government made an amendment to the Citizenship Act. Known as the second-generation cut-off rule, it means that the children of foreign-born Canadians—that is, those born abroad to Canadian parents—who are also born abroad aren’t automatically eligible for citizenship. Emma Kenyon is a foreign-born Canadian whose son was born in Hong Kong. She and her husband, along with six other families, are taking the federal government to court, arguing that the rule is discriminatory. “We’ve all lived in Canada for decades,” says Kenyon. “We’ve done all our schooling here, we’ve worked here, our families are here. We’re Canadians through and through.” We spoke to Kenyon about how the rule has affected her family. | By Caitlin Walsh Miller | May 1
No. 7 “They squeeze the die-hard fans for as much as possible”: Why one lawyer is leading a class-action lawsuit against Ticketmaster
A legal motion filed in March accused Ticketmaster of “intentionally misleading consumers for financial gain,” and if the suit is successful, it could mean tens of millions in damages. Here, Joey Zukran, founder of LPC Avocats and lead counsel on the case, explains the legal grounds for the landmark suit and why Drake may want to take a lesson from Taylor Swift. | By Courtney Shea | April 14
No. 6 “I’ve had friends say Shakespeare is irrelevant”: Meet the Grade 12 student who changed the TDSB’s English curriculum
In February, the TDSB voted to replace the standard Grade 11 English curriculum—which typically features classics by Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare—with a course focused on the work of contemporary Indigenous authors. The decision has a lot of critics clutching their dog-eared copies of The Great Gatsby. But Isaiah Shafqat, the 12th grader and student trustee who advocated for the new class, says it’s the perfect time to study Indigenous culture, history and politics. | By Mathew Silver | February 3
No. 5 “I was appalled to see the prime minister making those comments”: A U of T epidemiologist on the myth of immunity debt and the real reason everyone’s getting sick
If you’ve have a kid at home recently, there’s a good chance it was because of RSV, influenza or Covid—and you’ve probably heard that “immunity debt” is to blame. Even Justin Trudeau has parroted this popular theory that our immune systems have become weak after more than two years of coddling behind masks. There’s just one problem: “It is totally, totally wrong,” says Colin Furness, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information who believes that past Covid infections, not public health measures, are to blame for weakened immunity. | By Courtney Shea | January 16
No. 4 “People think we’re reducing the fun in their lives”: Meet the researcher suggesting that Canadians stick to two drinks per week
Earlier this year, updates to Canada’s low-risk drinking guidelines left many Torontonians shaken and stirred as the recommended consumption limit went from two drinks a day to two drinks a week. Catherine Paradis is the interim associate director of research at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, the non-governmental agency that spent two and a half years combing some 6,000 studies to design the new recommendations. Here, she discusses the latest research on alcohol, how it feels to be the bearer of bad news, and Canadians’ emotional connection to cocktail hour. | By Courtney Shea | February 27
No. 3 “We’re selling fifteen times more than normal”: This North York bakery makes the province’s best butter tarts
Circles and Squares Bakery and Café is considered to have the best butter tarts in all of Ontario. “It’s an extremely stressful process, so it feels really great to get the recognition,” says David Baxter, the bakery’s owner and one of the masterminds behind the winning tart recipe. Here, he tells us why Toronto bakeries rarely get their butter-tart props and shares his take on the great raisin-or-no-raisin debate. | By Courtney Shea | June 16
No. 2 “We lived in a shelter downtown, and Honest Ed’s was the only store I knew”: A Q&A with Shania Twain
Before she became a global phenomenon, Shania Twain was dreaming big in Toronto while flipping burgers, hawking jeans and fronting cover bands. Today, the queen of country pop is touring the world with a new album—but she’s still nostalgic about the city that made her. | By Stéphanie Verge | June 19
No. 1 “Not everyone can pay millions for lakefront property”: This man’s floating home is at the centre of a cottage country feud
Three years ago, amateur engineer Joe Nimen got to work building his dream home: a collection of four shipping containers fashioned into a floating cottage. In Nimen’s eyes, the four-season structure is a feat of ingenuity and environmental stewardship. For his many critics in the Port Severn area, however, it’s an unsafe eyesore with no business being on the water. Here, he tells us how he built a seaworthy home, why he isn’t bothered by the haters and what he sees as the real issues in cottage country. | By Courtney Shea | July 13
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