Letters to the Editor: December 2023 - On artifacts, CanCon, and chemicals
- What Does “Defence” Really Mean? - The United Nations prohibits the use of force except in the case of self-defence—but that can too easily be moulded into a euphemism for retaliation, revenge, and punishment
- The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket - I don’t want to be told what’s going to happen and I definitely don’t want to be told what the book is “about”
- Why the Opioid Crisis Is Rooted in the Housing Crisis - A prevalent narrative asserts that the tents, the despair, the not waking up are about mental illness and addiction. That narrative crumbles after the first questions
- Body and Soul - Dan was the most physical person I knew. Then he broke his neck
- Why Is It So Hard for People of Colour to Get Good Tattoos? - My first tattoo looked fine at first, then started to blur. It should be easier to find artists who can work on melanated skin
Amazon Canada and The Walrus are pleased to announce that this year’s winner of the Amazon Canada First Novel Award is Jasmine Sealy for The Island of Forgetting.
Learn more about the winning novel and the entire shortlist.
Inside the Dec issue of The Walrus
➔ How a sexual assault case in St. John’s exposed a police force’s predatory culture
➔ When it comes to kids, many adults need to grow up
➔ Why would India assassinate a Sikh leader on Canadian soil?
➔ The end of retirement
➔ The science of late-blooming lesbians
In 2023, more than 15 million hectares of forest burned in fire in Canada. The world has become combustible in scary ways. Climate change accounts for many of the new and novel ways that humans are confronting fire. Author and journalist John Vaillant talks about his recent book “Fire Weather”, oil and the role it plays in the very different fires of today, changes in the atmosphere, Indigenous fire traditions that serve as really effective solutions and how we can each be “good husbands and wives of the earth.”
What is intelligence? Does it require ethical research, group think, or just a well-programmed code? Today, intelligence has an added layer of data and computing power, and AI, a still-emerging technology, poses both opportunities and risks. Toronto Star tech journalist, Navneet Alang, talks about AI’s narrative of progress, its limits, and the need for humans—not just technology—to change in this bonus episode, originally featured on AI For Social Good, a new podcast, presented by Google.
How can AI transform your organization? And where do you even begin? Craig Alleva is the director of customer engineering for Google Cloud in Canada. He has experienced first-hand the unprecedented shift that’s underway thanks to generative AI, and has unique insight into how it will change the way businesses operate and engage with their consumers. Here, he talks about the impact of AI on Canadian organizations and how they’re applying it today.
- The Great Canadian Identity Crisis - Zed or Zee? Our democracy could depend on the answer
- How Much Further Can Mining Go? - Unless business as usual can change, companies will venture into ever deeper, darker, and riskier places—with potentially catastrophic consequences
- Why the Opioid Crisis Is Rooted in the Housing Crisis - A prevalent narrative asserts that the tents, the despair, the not waking up are about mental illness and addiction. That narrative crumbles after the first questions
- Sonnet - Things detached from names can be seen, witnessed, / but naming things sates the hunger God’s absence leaves
- Care and Feeding of the Amish - They had snuck from their tents this fine morning, before the spring dew dried on the grass, and come back with their prize
