Jessica Johnson

Security guard charged following Dollarama altercation in Winnipeg A security guard was charged Monday after using brass knuckles during an altercation at a Winnipeg Dollarama on Saturday.

The Retail Council of Canada says a “cause for action” is needed after an altercation between an Indigenous man and a security guard at a Dollarama in Winnipeg, which ended in the security guard beating the man with brass knuckles.

Opinion | You Can’t Shame People Into Vaccinating Their Kids. I Should Know.

“When I hear stories about children getting sick from measles, I feel angry. But not at the parents. I’m frustrated at those knowingly spreading false and misleading claims, and profiting from it.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/o...

i'm a big fan of magazines, investigative reporting, and longform, all of which requires staff and institutions, but the really really dire thing that indie media can't replace? the fucking wire services

I want to be 16 again! Watching Harold and Maude when death was an abstract concept and still funny.

I thought about this for a day and came back for more: I like how they are anti-establishment. They haven’t had to compromise their principles (they haven’t yet actually done anything in life, but let’s set that aside for a moment.) They’re a reflection of what real human values should be.

This is on Monday and all are welcome!

I feel like they perfectly understand the meaning of life. If only they didn’t break so many phone screens.

It’s really good to have a 13-16yo in your life.

The Half-Life of Writing Rule Why do some projects take forever?

I wrote about why magazine writers file late, why so many book manuscripts need extensions, and why we all basically feel like we're taking too long to do stuff that should be easy. open.substack.com/pub/peoplewh...

The AI is not guaranteed to pick the best angle of the story for its human audience. But a human reporter’s expertise is grounded in that ability.

‘Full of emotional wisdom’: Guardian writers on the best movie romances you might not have seen For Valentine’s Day, writers picked their favourite lesser-known film love stories – from a dom-sub chamberpiece to a magical teen comedy

‘Full of emotional wisdom’: Guardian writers on the best movie romances you might not have seen

When Your Dermatologist Becomes a Salesperson | The Local Getting a mole checked can takes months, but Botox appointments are readily available. Why dermatologists say their practice is the canary in the coal mine for privatized care.

For @thelocal.to i wrote about dermatologists upselling their patients. It’s a trend that critics warn is creating a two-tier system for dermatological care, and may foreshadow what’s to come in Ontario’s health care system more broadly: thelocal.to/dermatology-...

YouTube video by APTN News Homeless shelter organization celebrates with biggest fundraiser of the year | APTN News

Mustard Seed in Saskatchewan is an organization that helps the unhoused by providing shelter and support.

They are marking their one-year anniversary this month by holding their biggest fundraiser of the year.

“Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?” Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

And then we wonder why many Canadians find the CBC to be scanty in meeting their needs. Most countries with beloved public media services see the connection between how much you spend and what you get back in services and coverage.

In the late 1990s, the annual budget for the @cbcradiocanada.bsky.social went through a huge cut of 30%. Before that, its base funding was even higher. Without indexing to inflation, we base funding for Canadian public media on a number that’s worth less and less every year.

Tying funding for public media to inflation is a no-brainer, but for some reason we don’t do this in Canada. My very rough napkin math shows that the @cbcradiocanada.bsky.social annual budget would be closer to CDN $2 billion, not $1.4 billion if it had been indexed to inflation since the 1990s.

Former Whitney Chief Resigns From Art School After Epstein Email Release

“Mr. Ross responded supportively when Mr. Epstein told him he was contemplating funding an art exhibition, tentatively titled “Statutory,” that would showcase underage models dressed to look older than they were.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/n...

Next level.

Watching the UK press and UK political parties putting their whole selves into aping the current American shitshow is mystifying. What on earth is good about that to be copied? What was wrong with having a homegrown British shitshow?

Real-Time Audio Deepfakes Are Now a Reality Real-time audio deepfakes are here, making voice phishing more convincing than ever.

Been reading up on ‘real time AI deep fakes’ today. it’s astounding to me that these companies making the software haven’t been able to find a way to minimize harm to the public caused by their products. They should, at least, be age-gated with a subscription.

spectrum.ieee.org/real-time-au...

Here's a line from "Shit Kickers" I don't think a fact-checker could have supplied: "On the feet of all the members of this cluster are boots, not quite Timberland. The girls, some wearing black panty hose or black kneesocks, have on chic black laceups, all with Vibram soles, all with steel tips."

Ross was 77 when she wrote "Shit-Kickers." Ever spry, she had to have known so much about youth culture to describe clothes and slang the way she did.

The Shit-Kickers of Madison Avenue In 1995, Lillian Ross observed, with an anthropologist’s eye, the rituals of private-school teens on the Upper East Side.

In these 90s-forward times I put this on the syllabus of my Literary Journalism class @utoronto.ca this year. It has been so much fun to read it again. www.newyorker.com/magazine/199...

Just finished Heated Rivalry. It’s so good. I cried and cried.
The season itself has an arc. I found the first 1-3 episodes noncommittal and by the end was totally hooked.

Also we form attachments to these strangers (influencers), and they come to feel like peers and community. So it’s like checking in on them. I think this phase is about to come to end, for me at least.

There’s something about social media that has become a routine part of being a person (for me, Instagram, and I’m even more embarrassed about that).

Response to a Google search for the email address of an employee at Canada's Ministry of Artificial Intelligence showing there is no Ministry of AI

Cleaning out old screenshots and I found this — one of my favourite AI Overview search results

A balloon with a scary face rises from the ground floor of a house to the second floor, where a child prepares for sleep.

This is the cornerstone of my sense of humor.

It’s great to read about a writer’s process and that you read every Knausgaard!