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Plus, international students lose hope for their future in Canada
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The Walrus | Canada's Conversation
Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Michelle Shephard, once the Toronto Star’s national security correspondent, covered the infamous Toronto 18 case, chronicling how Zakaria Amara helped lead a group plotting large‐scale terrorism. Years later, Amara reached out to her, seeking redemption after serving seventeen years in prison. Shephard’s role in writing our March/April cover story isn’t just that of a journalist reporting a story—it’s more intimate. She’s revisiting the central figure of a case she helped bring to national attention, confronting not just Amara’s transformation but her own legacy in shaping his public image. This story is as much about Amara’s search for forgiveness as it is about the uncomfortable tension between the roles of storyteller and subject, observer and participant, in shaping narratives of extremism and redemption.

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The Trudeau government frequently talks up its willingness to consult with citizens, a commitment that guided their approach to protecting Pacific salmon stocks. At the start of their second term in office, the government pledged to ban which practice by 2025 as a key solution to this crisis?

In 1924, the Canadian Copyright Act set the stage for protecting creativity. A century later, can it keep pace with innovations like AI? This episode explores its history, evolution, and modern challenges, with author Heather O’Neill on AI’s impact on art, and copyright expert Myra Tawfik on what’s ahead for creators.

This week on What Happened Next, host Nathan Whitlock is joined by author and publisher Leigh Nash. Her most recent book is also her debut: the collection Goodbye, Ukulele, published by Mansfield Press in 2010. They talk about the founding of Assembly Press (the new independent literary publishing house where Leigh is co‐publisher), about her ongoing love for her debut collection, and about how the world of books has changed since its publication.

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Canada is feeling the squeeze. Rents are soaring, grocery bills keep climbing, and for too many families, the math of daily life just doesn’t add up. These aren’t isolated struggles—they’re systemic challenges tied to policy decisions and political choices. And they’re exactly what’s at stake in the 2025 federal election.

But here’s the thing: understanding these issues, and the solutions being proposed, isn’t easy in a world awash with misinformation and partisan spin. That’s where The Walrus comes in. Our mission is to cut through the noise, to connect the dots between the policies debated in Parliament and the realities playing out in your neighbourhood.

To do that—to keep reporting with depth, rigour, and clarity—we need your support. This election is about more than picking a leader. It’s about charting a future for Canada. Help us keep telling the stories that matter. Donate today.

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Carmine Starnino
Editor‐in‐Chief, The Walrus

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