Opinion
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Against caution
Recently, I took one of my procrastination plunges into YouTube and watched the latest video from my favourite channel, Oh Stephco!
In it, Stephanie, a Black woman in her late 30s, gives frank and funny anecdotes about navigating a world that does not always value her.
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Award-losing
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards this past weekend, but I don’t want to talk about that.
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‘Gay’ isn’t a bad word
Not much has changed about my high school in the decade since I graduated. The halls may be painted a slightly different colour, and I now walk them as an educator, but they still echo with students casually dropping “that’s so gay” or “no homo” into conversation.
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Letting the community down
On March 6, the loved ones of people who died of overdoses placed black balloons accompanied by memorials around the city. Black Balloon Day is an international event to honour those who have died of overdoses and to raise awareness about the opioid crisis.
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Spring has sprung a leak
Spring has finally sprung in Winnipeg, although if you look at the sidewalks, you might think that Winnipeg has sprung a leak.
This past week, I was able to take my first springtime walk with a friend who was a frequent walking partner this same time last year.
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Sheegl’s shame
This week, news broke about one of the biggest political scandals in Winnipeg’s history. A judge ruled that Phil Sheegl, Winnipeg’s former chief administrative officer, accepted a $327,000 bribe from Armik Babakhanians in order to award Babakhanians’ company, Caspian Construction, the contract to build the new Winnipeg Police Service headquarters.
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Support in seven pages
I sat, hunched, in the emergency room for six hours before being shuttled down the corridor to yet another crammed, industrial space. I don’t remember the colour of the curtains hung around my bed (likely beige) or the precise antiseptic scent in the air.
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Carbon’s ugly cousin: methane
Most Winnipeggers likely think the only options for their waste are “recycling” or “garbage.” Even a lot of environmentalists who try to avoid plastic packaging likely toss their organic matter in the trash without wringing their hands over it too much. But when those potato peels, eggshells and old leftovers decompose in the landfill, they produce methane.
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Searching for Solace
I think if you ask anyone in the UkrainianCanadian diaspora how they’re doing, most of us will tell you that the last two weeks have been among the worst, most stressful periods of our lives. That’s certainly been the case for me.
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‘Just doing something shameful’
Amid the flags, signs and trailers that greeted me when I stepped outside my front door last month, one cluster of people caught my attention. It was the morning of Feb. 4, and a journalist stood at the crosswalk connecting Broadway and Memorial, interviewing unmasked protestors.
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To be held
Let’s call him Jack. We matched on Tinder in early 2019, when I had just turned 20. He was nine years older than me.
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Sorrow in Ukraine
Last week, on Feb. 24, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It’s an event many of us in the diaspora have spent much of the last decade warning could happen, while hoping that it never would.
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Verdict on a Winnipeg urban legend
Longtime readers of The Uniter may know that I have a fascination with odd bits of Winnipeg past and its many urban legends. Over the years, I’ve written stories about the histories of various Winnipeg things, including vaudeville, movie theatres, funeral homes and prohibition.
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How strap-on sex helped me find myself
I like to put my fake suction-cup cock in my jeans sometimes, sticking out through the open zipper, buttoned at the top to hold it in place. I admire my hard cock in the mirror, poking through my jeans.
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That is a tasty burger!
I know, I know. If you live on Broadway and can’t walk to your bus stop without being harassed by anti-vaxxers, a cheeseburger isn’t going to solve that problem. But we all need to find joy in the little things wherever we can, especially these days. And dagnabbit, there’s fewer things more joyful than a tasty burger.
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Burning like it’s 1999
Anyone who’s been outside this week knows that we are deep in the difficult throes of Winnipeg’s winter. But this week has been difficult for another reason: fires.
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What is expected
It was during childhood that a line appeared before me, and I stepped back and found myself in the category of “girl.”
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Breaker breaker
Watching the evolving press coverage and online discourse around the antivaccine-mandate trucker convoy for the past week has been fascinating. It’s also been extremely frustrating.
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Travelling was necessary for me
This autumn, with COVID-19 cases at a steady low and a permanent residency card in hand, I decided to visit family members and my long-time boyfriend in São Paulo, Brazil. The holiday break seemed like an incredible opportunity to book a trip to my home country.
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Right here, right now
As most things, exhibitionism exists on a spectrum. Not everyone who gets titillated at the thought of possibly being caught in the act receives sexual gratification specifically from “indecent exposure of one’s genitals.”