{"id":10191,"date":"2022-02-05T19:55:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T19:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022"},"modified":"2022-02-05T20:15:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T20:15:46","slug":"13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022","title":{"rendered":"13 of the week\u2019s best long reads from the Star, Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>From the truckers\u2019 convoy to nineties nostalgia, we\u2019ve selected some of the best long reads of the week on thestar.com.<\/p>\n

Want to dive into more long features? Sign up for the Weekend Long Reads newsletter to get them delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

1. Mississauga councillor resigned after a fellow councillor allegedly vandalized her SUV in the city hall parking garage<\/p>\n

When Karen Ras resigned her seat from Mississauga\u2019s city council, she thanked her family, colleagues and voters, but said little about why she was leaving before her term was up.<\/p>\n

A farewell letter she posted online in mid-January referenced \u201cworkplace issues\u201d faced by Mississauga councillors that she says aren\u2019t effectively handled by the city\u2019s code of conduct for politicians.<\/p>\n

What Ras did not say at the time, was that for much of this term her vehicle had been repeatedly vandalized in the city parking garage.<\/p>\n

And, she alleges to Torstar, it was another councillor who did it \u2014 Ron Starr, who has served on council for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

2. The inside story of the plot to topple Erin O\u2019Toole: \u2018It\u2019s about character\u2019<\/p>\n

For some Conservatives, it became clear more than a year ago that Erin O\u2019Toole wasn\u2019t going to survive as leader of their party.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Toole himself didn\u2019t realize it until hours before he was ousted.<\/p>\n

In that chasm between O\u2019Toole and many members of his party \u2014 and the breakdown of good will and communication that created it \u2014 lie the reasons that 73 of 119 Conservative MPs voted on Wednesday to kick him out.<\/p>\n

Some say it was O\u2019Toole\u2019s flip-flops that did him in, others his attempt to move the party to the centre. Some say it was his stance on conversion therapy, others his failure to consult and communicate. Some say his leadership was a casualty of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

3. This family spent a lifetime perfecting self-isolation. They still caught COVID-19<\/p>\n

The Vanstone family has spent a lifetime perfecting self-isolation, but when COVID-19 infiltrated their Simcoe County home, the entire household got sick.<\/p>\n

Since Madison Vanstone\u2019s cystic fibrosis diagnosis 20 years ago, her family has never had a virus sweep through the entire home the way COVID-19 did. Cystic fibrosis is a chronic disease that affects the lungs and other organs. The common cold or flu could wreak havoc on her body.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lived with this scenario and this worry forever. However, [this] one just seemed to be so contagious that despite our best efforts, it went through everybody,\u201d said Beth Vanstone, 59, who fell ill along with her husband and two daughters.<\/p>\n

4. Toronto scientists are trying to crack one of COVID\u2019s biggest mysteries: Its impact on the brain<\/p>\n

For Susie Goulding the term \u201cbrain fog\u201d doesn\u2019t begin to cover it.<\/p>\n

That makes it seem like she\u2019s missed her morning coffee.<\/p>\n

But she compares the intense and often debilitating memory, focus and concentration issues she\u2019s faced over the past nearly two years to living with dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely flipped my life upside down,\u201d said the 54-year-old Oakville resident.<\/p>\n

5. The \u2018Meh\u2019 Decade: Slouchy flannel, shows about nothing, pre-internet bliss. The \u201990s we romanticize \u2014 and the one we forget<\/p>\n

When I was growing up in the \u201980s and \u201990s, my hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta, was not especially notable for its cultural abundance. Yet in a single year, when I happened to be in grade 12, I saw the following at our local multiplex: \u201cBeing John Malkovich,\u201d \u201cEyes Wide Shut,\u201d \u201cMagnolia,\u201d \u201cFight Club,\u201d \u201cBringing Out the Dead,\u201d \u201cThe Matrix,\u201d \u201cBoys Don\u2019t Cry,\u201d \u201cThe Thin Red Line,\u201d \u201cNotting Hill,\u201d \u201cThe Blair Witch Project,\u201d \u201cElection,\u201d \u201cPrincess Mononoke,\u201d \u201cThe Insider,\u201d \u201cCider House Rules,\u201d and \u201cThe Sixth Sense.\u201d It did not occur to us, in 1999, that this was an unusually rich crop of movies\u2014nor did it seem weird that you would experience cinematic landmarks by Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick and David Fincher down the hall from Suzy Shier, Randy River, and Orange Julius.<\/p>\n

Cinephiles everywhere remember 1999 as a banner year at the movies. Even the teen crap of that year\u2014\u201cAmerican Pie,\u201d \u201cCruel Intentions,\u201d \u201c10 Things I Hate About You\u201d\u2014was somehow genre-defining teen crap. As awards season ramped up, it became clear that one film was rising above the competitive field. \u201cAmerican Beauty\u201d topped many \u201cbest of\u201d lists, nabbing Oscars for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Picture. As \u201cVariety\u201d put it at the time, \u201cno other 1999 movie has benefited from such universal raves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, as Chuck Klosterman observes in \u201cThe Nineties: A Book,\u201d \u201cAmerican Beauty\u201d is widely considered not only bad, but also odious and morally reprehensible. In 1999, Roger Ebert had praised \u201cAmerican Beauty\u201d for its poignant portrayal of \u201ca man who is unloved by his wife, not respected by his daughter, and not needed at work,\u201d which is exactly why (qua Klosterman) we now hate the film: \u201cIt examines the interior problems of upper-middle-class white people living in the late twentieth century\u2026it was, in all probability, the last time in history such problems would be considered worthy of contemplation.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Why the \u2018Freedom convoy\u2019 protest on Parliament Hill may just be the beginning<\/p>\n

For days, the roads surrounding Parliament Hill have been choked, and the air of the nation\u2019s capital has been thick with the incessant honking of truck horns.<\/p>\n

As protesters continued to rally, a question hung in the air above the din.<\/p>\n

What happens when all the trucks leave?<\/p>\n

Initially, this was a protest against vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the Canada-U.S. border. But, as drivers from both coasts converged on Ottawa, the scope of their complaints has broadened. Now protesters have called for the elimination of all vaccine mandates, the removal of COVID-19-prevention restrictions and, at least according to a memorandum of understanding circulated by one organizer, the dissolution of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

None of those things are likely to happen, most agree. But if nothing else, the convoy has succeeded in organizing and mobilizing a large number of people. And that means the movement likely will not end once the trucks pull out of the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

7. How Canada\u2019s \u2018Freedom Convoy\u2019 is inspiring protests in other countries<\/p>\n

An anti-vaccine-mandate protest that began with Canadian truckers and their supporters travelling to Ottawa in a convoy may be forming the template for an international populist movement against COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n

As protesters in Ottawa were promising they wouldn\u2019t put an end to their nearly weeklong occupation, as some have called it, of the capital until all COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, organizers in other countries were using the Canadian example to advance their own campaigns.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Facebook and Telegram groups inspired by the Canadian truckers have sprouted up across the world, from Cyprus to Argentina to New Zealand, with members expressing solidarity and shared frustration, and in some cases, even organizing convoys to their own local capitals.<\/p>\n

8. Rubens Mukja was gone for 42 days before his family found his body. Police returned a copy of his suicide note with a breakfast order on the back<\/p>\n

On a Saturday night in early October, Rubens Mukja, 33, walked out of the Mississauga home he shared with his parents and never came back.<\/p>\n

For more than a month, the software developer\u2019s whereabouts were unknown, but his family feared the worst. He\u2019d left a suicide note in his bedroom and, alarmingly, the gun owner appeared to have left with several of his handguns he\u2019d removed from his safe, his family said.<\/p>\n

Although Peel Regional Police initially launched an extensive missing persons probe that drew media coverage, the weeks dragged on with no news until, the family says, they were told that searching would cease unless new information came to light \u2014 and that Rubens didn\u2019t want to be found.<\/p>\n

Adding to their pain, the family say they were devastated when police returned to them a copy of Rubens\u2019 note, with food orders scrawled on the back \u2014 handwritten notes for donuts and breakfast sandwiches \u2014 raising concerns about the officers\u2019 credibility, said Eros Mukja, Rubens\u2019 older brother.<\/p>\n

9. This Toronto gym owner got $250,000 in aid and says he needs more. But are subsidies just keeping \u2018zombie\u2019 businesses alive?<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, Hugo Croft-Levesque was staring down imminent bankruptcy for his once-thriving Toronto kick-boxing gyms.<\/p>\n

Even with $250,000 in government subsidies since COVID-19 restrictions began crushing his business, Croft-Levesque was more than $80,000 in debt.<\/p>\n

For the first time since the pandemic began, he couldn\u2019t pay rent.<\/p>\n

On the verge of collapse, he managed to buy himself more time \u2014 his landlords agreed to wait until the next round of subsidies hit his bank account.<\/p>\n

Just how much time he\u2019s got, it\u2019s not clear, with federal programs designed to give businesses a fighting chance during waves of lockdowns and restrictions set to phase out in the coming months.<\/p>\n

10. I am Toufah: The Toronto woman who stood up to a dictator and launched a West African MeToo movement<\/p>\n

Toufah Jallow lives in two worlds that are about to collide. In the North Toronto neighbourhood she has come to call home, she is an anonymous college student, \u201ca simple girl,\u201d she said, \u201ctrying to go to school and take the TTC.\u201d But in The Gambia, the small West African nation she used to call home, \u201csimple\u201d is a distant memory. There she is a well-known activist and former beauty pageant winner who accused a dictator of rape. She is not simply a face of the nation\u2019s \u201cMe Too\u201d movement. She bears its name, writes Star columnist Emma Teitel.<\/p>\n

\u201c#I am Toufah\u201d is the hashtag that flooded Gambian social media amid Jallow\u2019s heart-rending revelation at a televised press conference, and her subsequent testimony before the country\u2019s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) in 2019. Just four years earlier, at age 18, she had entered and won the Gambian version of America\u2019s Got Talent, a state-sponsored televised beauty pageant. That distinction gained her the attention of a country and a personal audience with its president.<\/p>\n

Later she would find herself detailing to the TRRC her charge of what happened next: in 2015, shortly after she was named pageant victor, she told them, Yahya Jammeh, the country\u2019s then-president of more than 20 years, proposed marriage to her and then, when spurned, brutally raped her.<\/p>\n

11. \u2018Even in your death, they squeeze you out\u2019: How cemeteries have also become out-of-reach Toronto real estate<\/p>\n

At a cemetery in Oshawa, on a recent afternoon, a handful of people stood vigil as a woman in her early 30s was lowered into a grave \u2014 an hour\u2019s drive away from her funeral in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Toronto had been the young woman\u2019s home for years, said Zo\u00eb Dodd, one of the few mourners gathered around the burial plot. She had family and friends in the city. But with social services covering her funeral costs \u2014 an arrangement available if someone dies in the city without enough money in their estate to cover basic end-of-life rituals \u2014 her final resting place was relegated to another city. They just couldn\u2019t find a place to bury her in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city squeezes out poor and working-class people,\u201d Dodd said, noting that many of the woman\u2019s friends couldn\u2019t make the burial service in time \u2014 without cars, they\u2019d be left relying on long transit commutes. \u201cThen, even in your death, they squeeze you out to somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

12. A drunk driver killed her children. Now she wants Ottawa to strengthen victims\u2019 rights<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s criminal justice system does little to help victims of crime despite the existence of a national victims\u2019 bill of rights, says Jennifer Neville-Lake, whose three children were killed by a drunk driver.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s now pushing for Parliament to strengthen those rights.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an \u201cincredibly traumatic experience\u201d to be a victim in the criminal justice system, Neville-Lake said in a recent interview with the Star. \u201cYou\u2019re just carried along, you\u2019re just there.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of Neville-Lake\u2019s children, Daniel, 9, Harrison, 5, and Milagros (Milly), 2, along with her father, 65-year-old Gary Neville, were killed by drunk driver Marco Muzzo in 2015 in Vaughan, Ont., a case that shocked the country.<\/p>\n

13. \u2018How long can we keep doing this?\u2019 CFIB president Dan Kelly on mental health, butting heads with Doug Ford, and wooing customers back during the Omicron wave<\/p>\n

Dan Kelly is everywhere.<\/p>\n

Between the first day of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly two years ago and late January, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business president estimates the CFIB has fielded 3,000 media interviews. He cranks out Twitter quips, talks with business reporters on live TV and appears in national newspapers (including this one). Over the holidays, he even took calls with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland about the plight of the CFIB\u2019s 110,000 or so members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate business subsidies,\u201d Kelly remarks. \u201cNobody will be happier than me to see all of these subsidy programs eliminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, for the last two years the CFIB have pleaded with Ottawa to keep billions in relief money flowing to small business owners facing flatlining revenue and hiring woes.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. From the truckers\u2019 convoy to nineties nostalgia, we\u2019ve selected some of the best long reads of the week on thestar.com. Want to dive into more long features? Sign up for the Weekend Long Reads newsletter to get them delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. 1. Mississauga councillor resigned after a fellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9],"tags":[2355,2361,4371,260,4495],"class_list":["post-10191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-best","tag-gambia","tag-star"],"yoast_head":"\n13 of the week\u2019s best long reads from the Star, Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 2022 - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the truckers\u2019 convoy to nineties nostalgia, we\u2019ve selected some of the best long reads of the week on thestar.com. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"13 of the week\u2019s best long reads from the Star, Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 2022\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the truckers\u2019 convoy to nineties nostalgia, we\u2019ve selected some of the best long reads of the week on thestar.com. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T19:55:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T20:15:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/02\/img-61fedad692e66.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"476\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"13 of the week\u2019s best long reads from the Star, Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 2022\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-05T19:55:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T20:15:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022\"},\"wordCount\":2206,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/02\/img-61fedad692e66.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"best\",\"Gambia\",\"Star\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/13-of-the-weeks-best-long-reads-from-the-star-jan-29-to-feb-4-2022\",\"name\":\"13 of the week\u2019s best long reads from the Star, Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 2022 - 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